Many organizations are aware that they are suffering from project overload, slowing execution and obscuring strategic priorities. Yet even with this knowledge they struggle to kill projects to release resources and energy to focus on their most important…

In this week’s edition of The HBR Executive Agenda, editor at large Adi Ignatius talks to Nitin Nohria, professor and former dean of Harvard Business School, about his framework to help leaders understand their priorities in an era where everything feels…

Corporate boards have a critical role to play in addressing climate change, not only by overseeing risk and compliance but also by guiding strategy and innovation. As climate-related challenges intensify, boards must move beyond traditional governance models…

Strategic initiatives often land as abstract ideas that feel disconnected from (or irrelevant to) the reality on the ground. As the bridge between the boardroom and day-to-day operations, you need to help employees connect the dots. Here are seven steps leaders…

Strategic plans and budgets are often misaligned because they’re built on incompatible frameworks: Strategy focuses on stakeholders and long-term goals, while budgets are structured around income and expense categories. This disconnect creates confusion,…

Like giving employees access to a searchable database of every meeting and decision.

A conversation with designer and author Nick Foster about how to face the unknown.

In today’s volatile and uncertain world, leadership skills have become more crucial than ever, yet many organizations struggle to train their managers to lead effectively. But experiential learning and failure-based training, as practiced by U.S. Army Special…

Senior leaders often have to make unpopular choices that are necessary for the organization, but aren’t ones everyone agrees with. Many find themselves needing to balance bringing people along without letting others’ emotions derail necessary changes. Here’s…

Learn how to own your decisions, expand your network, and position yourself for success.

Jamil Zaki, a psychologist and longtime student of empathy, responds to questions about a variety of topics: his previous writing for HBR on empathy; changing professional attitudes toward empathy in the workplace; the discrepancy between how leaders and…

While quitting a job is sometimes the right answer, circumstances—such as financial obligations, location constraints, or a challenging job market—often make staying the better (or only) option. Here are practical steps to take if you feel like you’re stuck…

While traditional change management emphasizes gradual tactics like pursuing small wins and building coalitions, in turbulent times these gradual tactics aren’t necessary—and they can hold leaders back from taking advantage of bigger opportunities. Research…

The best leaders don’t hide their emotions or overlook others’. They notice, name, get curious, and normalize them. The more you value and explore emotions, the healthier, more resilient, and effective you will become. There are simple practices you can use…

Our Management Tip of the Day newsletter continues to be one of HBR’s most popular newsletters. In this article, we’ve compiled seven of our favorite Tips on leading effective meetings, from how to boost participation to how to stay grounded and guide high…

An analysis of Twitter data from 2020 to 2022, including 100 brands across 20 product categories, found that referencing a rival competitor in marketing messages can boost consumer engagement and purchasing intent—but not all competition is made equal. To…

C-suite leaders are facing unprecedented levels of uncertainty and disruption due to the rise of AI, the fall of the postwar order, and economic fluctuation. Vikram Malhotra, McKinsey’s former managing partner of the Americas, and a team of senior partners…

Many leaders treat culture as a communication strategy. They believe it lives in messaging—in the articulation of purpose, the rollout of values, the tone of internal campaigns. But culture doesn’t shift because a new narrative is introduced. It shifts when…

Boards select CEOs for their vision and abilities. But once you step into the top job, your task is to turn the directors’ belief in you into operational reality. This starts with building better alignment with your chair. You can do so in eight ways: establish…

In today’s high-stakes, fast-moving, and ambiguous environment, leaders hold onto decision-making for a number of reasons. They want to protect quality, avoid mistakes, or keep things moving. However, not delegating decision-making creates a hidden cost:…