Leading Off
Each Monday, let McKinsey’s editors help you get ready to take on the leadership challenges of the coming week, through revealing research, inspiring interviews, and insightful quotations to empower you and those you lead. Get it in your inbox weekly.
A leader’s guide to creating value through geopolitical change
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In a world of seemingly constant geopolitical tensions, it’s natural for leaders to view these issues as a challenge for their business. This week, we examine how companies can seize the growth opportunities that geopolitical shifts present.
A leader’s guide to the future of tech management
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Around the world, leaders of organizations are working to realize the massive potential value of generative AI (gen AI). This...
Banking update 2024: What leaders need to know
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Financial institutions have performed relatively well in the past few years, but the good times may not last. In an uncertain...
How to transform your organization: A leader’s guide
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Given the breakneck pace of change in the business world, many leaders are wrestling with how to transform their organizations...
How to tackle 21st-century challenges: A leader’s guide
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The challenges of leading in today’s business environment are evolving quickly in their scope and complexity: technology is redefining...
Is your organization productive? A leader’s guide
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An individual may feel “productive” after finishing a difficult task at work. But evaluating the productivity of...
Nurturing employees’ mental health: A leader’s guide
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Mental health is a key element of well-being in the workplace and an increasingly important area of focus for business leaders....
What matters most for motivating employees? A leader’s guide
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Keeping employees motivated is an everlasting challenge for leaders. Today, though, it’s more complex than ever as companies...
Stay ambitious and committed: A leader’s guide to supporting women at work
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A decade ago, we conducted our first wave of research with LeanIn.Org on the state of women in corporate America and what women’s...
Is your organization poised for hypergrowth? A leader’s guide
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In business, hypergrowth typically means maintaining a rapid rate of growth over time. Start-ups often have the agility to do...
Cybersecurity update: A leader’s guide
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Your organization may never have been the target of cybercrime—but all it takes is one data breach to damage its reputation and...
Achieving superhero status: A leader’s guide to institutional capabilities
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Time was when superpowers were the stuff of comic books, action films, and the furthest corners of our own imaginations. But...
Look inward to move forward: A leadership journey
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“What changes are you going to make?” That’s typically the first question a new CEO will hear from their employees,...
You’re only human: To lead others, lead yourself first
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The path to becoming a successful leader is not straight and narrow. While many leaders make it to the top by gaining expertise...
India in the spotlight: A leader’s guide
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Few global companies can afford to ignore the growing importance of India. As the world’s fifth-largest economy, with a...
The tech trends that matter most: A leader’s guide
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Life moves pretty fast, especially if you’re trying to make sense of today’s technology landscape. The case for tech’s business...
Gearing up for small-business success: A leader’s guide
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Definitions of what constitutes a small business vary across countries and regions—for example, some microenterprises may employ...
Hiring for tomorrow’s jobs, today: A leader’s guide
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In this current labor market and business environment, how can companies find people with the right skills, technical and otherwise,...
Winning the consumer of the future: A leader’s guide
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More than four years ago, the pandemic threw everyone’s habits and routines into a tailspin—and consumer behavior...
Where have you been? A leader’s guide to the state of travel
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As one of the largest industries in the world, the travel and hospitality sector accounts for more than 9 percent of global GDP—and...
Can AI feel? A leader’s guide to affective computing
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Even as organizations worldwide adapt to generative AI technologies, researchers and scientists are pursuing new AI ventures...
Embracing the space economy: A leader’s guide
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Few areas of the economy are as dynamic or pervasive in our day-to-day lives as outer space. Space-based technology is improving...
Who’s the boss? A leader’s guide to toxic work environments
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Horrible Bosses. The Devil Wears Prada. Tyrannical managers are often the subject of office comedies. But behind the...
Six paths to sustainable growth: A leader’s guide
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When it comes to goal setting, achieving company growth that’s sustainable over time sounds like a no-brainer for every organization....
Invest in growth and well-being
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With only so many hours in a day to juggle work, life, and everything in between, we’re always seeking ways to be more productive:...
A leader’s guide to understanding quantum technologies
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Back in 2020, McKinsey senior partners Alexandre Ménard and Mark Patel and colleagues suggested that given quantum computing’s...
Becoming an effective CFO: A leader’s guide
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Like almost every other leadership role, the job of CFO has undergone profound changes in the past few years. Our research shows...
Are you making the most of the cloud? A leader’s guide
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The tale of cloud computing follows a familiar plotline. As with many other new technologies, there’s lots of excitement about...
Are you sure? A leader’s guide to strategizing during uncertainty
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The ancient Stoic philosophers believed that it was essential to be prepared for downturns—whether contemplating war, shipwrecks,...
Here’s to your (organization’s) health: A leader’s guide
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After more than two decades of research on organizational health—based on a company’s culture, behavior, and management practices—we...
Get real: A leader’s guide to virtual innovation
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“You stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes,” says the character Morpheus in the classic...
Feeling good: A guide to empathetic leadership
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An “empath” is defined as a person who is highly attuned to the feelings of others, often to the point of experiencing those...
Represent: A leader’s guide to women’s experiences at work
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As the sun sets on the month of March—also known as Women’s History Month—it’s an opportune time to reflect on women’s contributions...
Generative AI: A leader’s guide to capturing value fast
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By now, the potential economic payoff of generative AI (gen AI) is almost undisputed: our research shows that the technology...
More than a feeling: A leader’s guide to design thinking
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When business leaders look to generate revenue growth, design may not be the first thing that comes to mind. But design is no...
Our mindsets, ourselves: A leader’s guide
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For a long while, self-awareness and mindfulness were popular notions in new-age circles—though in the corporate world, not so...
Will 2024 be the year of M&A? A leader’s guide
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Mergers and acquisitions, when executed well, are one of the most critical tools companies can use to create value. But they’re...
What do they expect? A leader’s guide to leading-edge customer care
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Customer service blunders may be entertaining when they are lampooned in the media. In real life, however, shoppers who have...
Feel better: A leader’s guide to the wellness market
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The concept of “wellness” may have become a cornerstone of workplace management strategies today: many organizations now consider...
The industry outlook for 2024: A leader’s guide
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Another year, another set of opportunities and challenges for leaders in all sectors of the globe. It seems that uncertainty...
So you want to be a board director: A leader’s guide
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Serving on a board of directors is an unequivocal opportunity for leaders to develop new skills, hone their business acumen,...
A leader’s guide to operations in 2024
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Operations was rarely a high-profile organizational function until the COVID-19 pandemic thrust it—and the role of chief operating...
Davos 2024: What leaders need to know
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The World Economic Forum’s annual meeting, which took place last week in Davos, Switzerland, brought together the world’s...
Preparing for the future of work: A leader’s guide
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As we return to in-person, hybrid, or remote work in the new year, we can’t help but wonder: What might 2024 hold for how we...
Has your organization set priorities for this year? A leader’s guide
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Many of us make personal New Year’s resolutions that we may not always keep. Organizations, however, don’t have the luxury of...
Cultivating connection in a fragmented world: A leader’s guide
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In a time of near-constant disruption and tension, the urge to disconnect seems tempting. But people, companies, and societies...
What it takes to make tech work in practice: A leader’s guide
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In the early days of the dot-com boom, many online businesses were unaware of the practical aspects of order fulfillment—and...
Is your organization addressing holistic health? A leader’s guide
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For many organizations, managing employee health may no longer be just about providing adequate compensation and benefits. As...
Is your organization’s growth consistent? A leader’s guide
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Tried-and-true methods may not yield the returns they once did, and new ventures may not necessarily create value year after...
The supporting cast: The key to an effective leadership team
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The saying goes that it’s lonely at the top. Many successful executives often feel isolated. But throughout history, leaders...
They’re not buying it: A leader’s guide to better marketing tactics
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The vagaries of consumer sentiment are keeping marketers on their toes. Our recent research shows that in response to the US...
Say what? A leader’s guide to communicating clearly
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Leaders are often overwhelmed by information, whether it comes through torrents of emails or during seemingly endless meetings....
Trends in the spotlight: A leader’s guide
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Generative AI may be the hottest tech trend right now. But while it has immense potential to transform businesses, many other...
The future of career development: A leader’s guide
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The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way people think about work. Worldwide, many employees are quitting or changing jobs, seeking...
Are employees performing effectively? How leaders can tell
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It’s annual performance review season at many companies—a ritual often fraught with uncertainty, controversy, and discontent...
Reskilling the workforce for gen AI: A practical guide for leaders
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Generative AI (gen AI) has caught the public’s fancy, but not everyone may be comfortable using the technology in the workplace....
More than half of employees are disengaged. What’s a leader to do?
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Ever since employee burnout and attrition came to the forefront during the COVID-19 pandemic, many employers have responded with...
Workforce mental health: A leader’s guide
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The COVID-19 pandemic brought workforce behavioral health (mental health and substance use) into the spotlight for employers—and...
Is your organization’s cybersecurity up to date? A leader’s guide
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Cyber Awareness Month begins on October 1 in the United States, but it’s never too early for leaders anywhere to think about...
Go for bold: A leader’s guide to transformative change
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It’s not unusual if your company’s business transformation is slow or even stalled. Organizations continually try to reinvent...
It’s a stretch: A leader’s guide to flexible strategic planning
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More than 20 years ago, an executive told us that the annual strategic planning process at his organization resembled an exotic...
What to do about generative AI right now: A leader’s guide
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The sheer speed with which generative AI (gen AI) has entered organizations has taken leaders by surprise. It took years for...
Taking the pulse of social media marketing: A leader’s guide
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Social media platforms seem to be everywhere all at once, to borrow from the title of a popular movie. With an estimated 4.9...
What’s age got to do with it? A leader’s guide to the changing workforce
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As the world’s population ages and many people work past retirement age, more young people are entering the working world. The...
How established companies can build new businesses: A leader’s guide
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Despite the economic uncertainty of the past three years—and the lingering aftereffects of the pandemic—building new businesses...
Are your organization’s tech plans on track? A leader’s guide
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“Resolutions in technology are essential for companies looking to navigate the uncertainties of 2023,” we observed at the beginning...
What makes a CEO exceptional: A leader’s guide
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Almost no one would dispute that the CEO’s role has always been exceptional in the breadth and depth of the skills that it calls...
Sharpening your organization’s competitive edge: A leader’s guide
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Companies can distinguish themselves in many ways. Besides such classic differentiators as cost or products, today’s competitive...
What’s new in innovation: A leader’s guide
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When the COVID-19 pandemic triggered business shutdowns, you’d have expected innovation to shut down too—but quite the...
Creating a balanced workplace flexibility strategy: A leader’s guide
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Three years after the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, many organizations have embraced the idea of long-term flexible work arrangements....
Get a move on productivity: A leader’s guide
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Productivity plays a critical role in history—most human progress wouldn’t have been possible without this basic measure of output...
Is your organization built for speed? A leader’s guide
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Leading organizations have always known that they need to act fast to outpace competitors. But the COVID-19 pandemic forced businesses...
Where is everybody? A leader’s guide to the office of the future
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The COVID-19 pandemic sparked debate about the role of the traditional office, but the workplace transformation that it triggered...
The shifting shape of organizations: A leader’s guide
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Organizations have been evolving continually since the first modern corporations arose centuries ago. In the past few years,...
What’s in store for HR? A leader’s guide
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The COVID-19 pandemic brought about a profound awareness of mental- and physical-health challenges in the workplace—and effected...
Twists and turns: A leader’s guide to agile thinking
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Most leaders are familiar with agile operating models, which originated in manufacturing plants after World War II and were later...
On their best behavior: A leader’s guide to change management
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Your organization is lavishing time and money on ambitious corporate transformation programs. Yet none of them have made a dent...
Building a new business: A leader’s guide
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There’s no way around it: starting a new business is risky, whether it’s a solo venture or a large corporate spin-off. An estimated...
Are you for real? A leader’s guide to being authentic
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Many of today’s leaders will at some point need to consider the growing demands for authenticity in the workplace.
Ready, set, go: A leader’s guide to action in 2023
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Leaders are used to deciding what should happen when. Yet sometimes the goal may be clear but the path murky on the way there....
Is your organization designed to succeed? A leader’s guide
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Most of us celebrate and enjoy creativity of any kind, whether it’s in the form of a tastefully designed product or a striking...
Will your workforce be healthy in the long term? A leader’s guide
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It isn’t hard to make the connection between health and productivity—after all, common sense dictates that healthier people tend...
A fine balance: A leader’s guide to ambition
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In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, “vaulting ambition” takes the protagonist down a dangerous path and ultimately...
Are you thinking about the unthinkable? A leader’s guide to creating scenarios
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The Titanic was deemed ‘unsinkable’ before it hit an iceberg. Technology and forecasting techniques have advanced...
Breaking with tradition: A guide to new leadership styles
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Theories of what constitutes good leadership evolve every few years as new research, ideas, and experiences take root in organizations....
Agree to disagree: A leader’s guide to supporting healthy dissent
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Few leaders would dispute the importance of collaboration, consensus, or teamwork in an organization. But the complexity and...
A leader’s guide to managing the new ethics of AI
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If a chatbot had written this edition of Leading Off, would you have known the difference? While these powerful technologies...
The people business: A leader’s guide to developing human capital
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Investing in people is a good strategy. By improving people’s health, skills, experience, and knowledge—their human...
Do you know your customers as well as you think? A leader’s guide
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The strong consumer spending of the past two years may have lulled companies into taking their customers for granted. But now,...
From planning to practice: A leader’s guide to building resilience
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We last published an issue on the topic of resilience in January 2022, and we have to say: what a difference a year makes. Back...
Creating value from sustainability: A leader’s guide
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It wasn’t so long ago that sustainability programs were just “nice to haves.” They have rapidly become critical...
Taking a principled approach to inclusion: A leader’s guide
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As the US remembers Martin Luther King Jr. today, the urgency of working toward social equality comes even more to the forefront....
Best fit: A leader’s guide to matching jobs to skills
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Economists generally define a job mismatch as a disconnect between open jobs and people looking for work. This is usually because...
A leader’s guide to practicing deliberate calm in times of transition
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The end of one year and beginning of another is often a time of transition and renewal—a time for looking ahead, setting...
What in the world is going on? A leader’s guide to global flows
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The world has been ‘flattening’ for many years as technology narrows the competitive gap between industrial and emerging...
Fight or flight? A leader’s guide to managing conflict
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Not all conflict is bad. Good conflict can lead to positive outcomes, often pushing us to be our best selves, to understand others...
What motivates employees to stay? A leader’s guide
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As chronic labor shortages and high attrition hit organizations around the world, both private- and public-sector leaders are...
Who cares? A leader’s guide to strengthening purpose
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It may be tempting to dismiss corporate purpose as a ‘soft’ concern in a world teeming with political and social...
Can this strategy be saved? A leader’s guide
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Strategy is a venerable discipline in management, and leaders have access to a wealth of guidance on the topic if they need it....
A leader’s guide to strengthening workplace connections
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Office friendships, a staple of TV sitcoms, may not be as intense in real life as they are onscreen. But there’s little...
Are you ready? A leader’s guide to anticipating change
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When 19th-century pioneers set out for the American West, they made extreme preparations. They not only planned for obvious needs,...
Room to grow: A leader’s guide to the space economy
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Most of us are unlikely to travel to space any time soon. But with the space economy lifting off in spectacular fashion—estimates...
Is your organization digitally trustworthy? A leader’s guide
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World events today may not give much cause for optimism, but businesses can take comfort in at least one thing: research shows...
Managing in an uncertain economy: A leader’s guide
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It’s a leader’s job to be prepared for anything, but today’s economic uncertainty contains shocks for which...
How tech-savvy are you? A leader’s guide
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It’s been decades since technology was the sole province of the ‘IT department,’ but even today’s more...
Is your courage strategic? A leader’s guide
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It’s probably a given that leaders need to be courageous, but that can take many forms—and these days, courage is...
Are you socially responsible? A leader’s guide to ESG
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In the past few decades, the question of whether businesses should be socially responsible as well as profitable has been addressed...
Are you enabling growth? A leader’s guide
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Growth is good—and an imperative for the C-suite. In addition to boosting profits, it enables companies to achieve their...
Are you supporting employee health? A leader’s guide
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The global health crisis wrought by COVID-19 has highlighted concerns about the long-term well-being of the workforce. As employees...
A leader’s guide to personal influence
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Influence is a tried-and-true skill of effective leaders. Aristotle’s Rhetoric first outlined the art of persuasion...
New and improved: A leader’s guide to innovation
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It is the best of times and the worst of times for innovation. You’d think that remote work would stifle creative collaboration,...
Who do you think they are? A leader’s guide
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If you were marketing a brand, you’d spend considerable time and money on identifying and segmenting your customers and...
Manage attention, not time: A leader’s guide
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Leaders are expected to be productive. And by the yardstick of conventional time management, they are: they attend meetings,...
What really motivates people to grow and change? A leader’s guide
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The theory of self-determination holds that people are motivated to grow and change when three innate psychological needs—autonomy,...
The transparency paradox: A leader’s guide
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Organizations know that external stakeholders demand transparency and that it’s good strategy to provide it. Companies...
Who should be the workplace boss? A leader’s guide
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As the US celebrates its independence on July 4, references to freedom are everywhere. It might be worthwhile to reflect that...
A leader’s guide to managing in the metaverse
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Most of us know that the metaverse is a virtual world, but we may not have imagined the extent of its possibilities. As tech...
A leader’s guide to managing anxiety and fear
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Anxiety and fear are universal experiences, and there’s plenty to be fearful and anxious about these days. The pandemic....
A leader’s guide to successful digital transformation
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According to a popular meme, it isn’t the CEO or the CTO who is leading digital transformation at most companies—it’s...
A leader’s guide to effective leadership development
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Leadership development programs are a thriving business. Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, the market was estimated to be worth...
A leader’s guide to better brainstorming
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The concept of brainstorming has been around for decades. Originally introduced in the marketing world more than 80 years ago,...
A leader’s guide to new and improved talent strategies
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At about this time in 2021, when Leading Off last covered talent management, the great exodus of employees from the...
A leader’s guide to changing behaviors for the long term
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This week, let’s focus on what you can do to build the behaviors and capabilities needed to effect lasting change.
Honing your decision-making skills: A leader’s guide
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Business lore is rife with high-profile examples of bad decisions, some of which sank entire companies. But questionable decisions...
Communicating more effectively: A leader’s guide
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There was no communication playbook when COVID-19 broke out. Beset by the pandemic and overwhelmed by information pouring in...
Revisiting the future of work: A leader’s guide
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This week, let’s explore how the major trends—including the growth of the ever-evolving metaverse—are likely...
A leader’s guide to enhanced team development
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This week, let’s explore ways to ensure that your team is up to the task. Read on to learn the strategies of top executives—as...
A leader’s guide to collaborating better
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This week, let’s explore ways to collaborate better, as well as some habits of collaboration that may undermine performance....
Tackling complex problems: A leader’s guide
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This week, let’s explore some structured approaches that can improve your problem-solving aptitude.
Investing in self-improvement: A leader’s guide
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This week, let’s explore some self-improvement techniques that may take you closer to the top.
Effective succession planning: A leader’s guide
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This week, let’s explore some strategies that make it easier to prepare for both planned and unplanned leadership departures....
Creating an enduring vision: A leader’s guide
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This week, let’s explore some strategies to develop an enduring vision that offers both stability and the flexibility to...
Is your organization future-proof? A leader’s guide
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This week, let’s explore how you can future-proof your organization and flex the skills that are crucial in a world of...
Managing performance: A leader’s guide
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How can leaders manage performance effectively when they can’t physically observe work hours and inputs? This week, let’s...
Wellness at work: A leader’s guide
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The pressures of a high-octane job may be unrelenting, but this week, let’s put them on hold and explore how to improve...
On the Davos Agenda: Economic rebalancing, net-zero transition, and more
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Maybe you didn’t receive an invitation to attend the World Economic Forum’s annual Davos meeting this year. Lucky...
How leaders think about diversity: A guide
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What should leaders do to offer a level playing field for advancement and opportunity? This week, let’s look at how to...
The optimist’s advantage: A leader’s guide
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Research reveals that people tend to pay more attention to messages that are framed in a positive way. But does maintaining an...
The resilient organization: A leader’s guide
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Developing resilience not only helps optimize functions in key business areas but also strengthens the organization holistically...
Building a new business: A leader’s guide
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Beyond his commitment to civil and human rights, one of the defining personal qualities of Martin Luther King Jr., whose life...
Are employees your newest customers? A leader’s guide
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Organizations that personalize rather than mass-market what they’re able to offer their employees can expect improved engagement...
A leader’s guide to 2022
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What does a leader’s year-end outlook look like when the year feels never-ending? The calendar will turn, of course, but...
Can AI make you a better leader? A guide
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With automation spreading into so many different aspects of our lives, some fret about robots taking over our jobs and eventually...
Giving generously: A leader’s guide
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Studies point to children’s innate predisposition to help others, as well as the evolutionary reasons many species exhibit...
What it takes to cultivate creativity in yourself and those you lead
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In a rapidly changing environment, creativity—the ability to generate new ideas, products, and solutions—is more...
A leader’s guide to sustainable, inclusive growth
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Is it possible to achieve growth that is sustainable and inclusive, and what might that look like? Let’s explore...
Being there: A leader’s guide to the hybrid future
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As we manage COVID-19’s transition from pandemic to endemic, it’s time to face the fact that hybrid work isn’t...
Relearning learning: A leader’s guide.
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Skill building is a hot topic in the C-suite, with executives paying substantially more attention to it—and its payoffs...
Managing sustainability: A leader’s guide
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As world leaders gather in Glasgow, Scotland, at the 26th meeting of the UN-sponsored climate conference dedicated to reining...
Persuasive you: A leader’s guide
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Leading effectively requires persuasion—always a tricky business for leaders when dealing with human beings and their convictions...
The short-term need for long-term thinking: A leader’s guide
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Leaders can be forgiven if they’ve been fixated on one short-term crisis after another, but they shouldn’t abandon...
The CEO’s moment: Leading in the next normal
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During the pandemic, many top bosses toughed it out, leading their companies to successfully adapt to the dramatic changes brought...
The leader’s guide to failing successfully
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We all fail, of course, and as much as we might like to dwell on our successes, it’s also healthy to take stock of where...
Why empathy matters when giving tough feedback
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Delivering thoughtful feedback is a critical tool for developing those you manage, and for developing yourself, but the process...
Innovation is about more than just creativity. Leaders develop their company’s innovation muscle.
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By and large, well-established companies tend to excel at executing but not always at innovating. A focus on essentials can help....
Welcome back? A leader's guide to the great postponement
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This week, let's try (humbly) to navigate some of the tricky crosscurrents of the great postponement to help you lead effectively...
Dream teams: A leader’s guide
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“Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships,” says basketball legend Michael Jordan, who...
What’s next for the middle manager? A leader’s guide
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The pandemic applied unprecedented urgency and exposed the need for greater operational speed. The insular hierarchies that middle...
A leader’s guide to transformation
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Transformation. Sounds awe-inspiring, right? Yet for something billed as spectacular and rare, chances are there’s one...
Better leading through self-reflection: a special interview issue
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Openness, curiosity, empathy, balance. Such “soft” character traits are often the trademarks of the best leaders;...
A leader’s guide to making better decisions
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In a complex and rapidly changing business environment, making the right decisions in a timely manner becomes increasingly important....
A leader’s guide to cybersecurity
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The proliferation of ransomware attacks this year and efforts to prevent them should hold the attention of anyone with access...
Is your ego getting the better of you? To lead better, tap your humility.
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The ability to be “other oriented” in your leadership and acknowledge your abilities—and your limitations—can...
Time is fleeting. Here’s how leaders can reclaim it.
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Time, the clichés tell us and the pandemic has again proven, is fleeting, precious, elusive, and tight. Managing it is...
An inconvenient briefing: The leader’s guide to climate change
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Whether in winter, summer, or in between, climate change is a topic that is subject to extremes because it touches everyone and...
Maybe you’re a good boss—that doesn’t make you a good leader
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Consider this paradox: employee relationships with their bosses are by far the most important determinant of job satisfaction....
The leader’s next big challenge: Managing talent after the pandemic
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The safety of those you lead will always come first, but as the worst ravages of COVID-19 come under control and more and more...
Leading better with lessons from the military
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Bosses ranging from CEOs to Tony Soprano turn to Sun Tzu’s The Art of War for direction and counsel. Still, in...
A leader’s guide to artificial intelligence
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AI has gotten to the point where every leader, in activities ranging from mining to education to human social development, needs...
A leader’s guide to the rules of a new social contract
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Even as the global battle against the COVID-19 pandemic continues, the application of vaccines and new therapies offers a soothing...
How leading with agility delivers better bottom lines and employee satisfaction
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Agile process management has evolved from an approach used to develop software more quickly to a way of managing work that applies...
A leader’s guide to building a better you
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It’s impossible to know exactly how much has changed in little more than a year of a pandemic that seems to have blurred...
You’re burned out and grieving. Here’s how to help yourself and those you lead get back up.
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Leaders can define burnout and treat it, and they would be wise to start doing both as a potential catastrophe in public mental...
A leader’s guide to getting serious about humor at work
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Too many leaders underplay the value of humor in working with teams and their broad organizations, and they miss the punch line:...
Why mentoring matters for leaders and those they lead
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Odysseus had one, to whom he entrusted the safeguarding of his son while the hero went on his peripatetic way. Oprah is one,...
Every leader’s guide to understanding value
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Value creation is the foundation of business. Whether for shareholders, workers, families and communities, or myriad other stakeholders,...
Leading Off presents: The old-school guide to leadership
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New insights on psychological, behavioral, and organizational ideas flow from the leadership industry in a torrent, but many...
The postpandemic future beckons: What leaders should know
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As global efforts pave the way for the transition toward normalcy, organizations are starting to think about the postpandemic...
Won’t you be my neighbor? What community leadership means
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With the help of a food bank leader, LGBTQ+ experts, and Nextdoor CEO Sarah Friar, we reflect on the ways you intersect with...
A leader’s guide to the art and science of well-being at work
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We know the virtues of eating well and exercise as antidotes to stress and grief but let’s explore the contours of well-being...
The need to feel safe is human. Here’s why it’s also important at work.
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Explore how leaders can foster a psychologically safe work environment with the same focus and commitment that they dedicate...
Every leader’s briefing book for 2021 and beyond
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Saving lives during the COVID-19 crisis, rebuilding the US economy, advancing racial equity, and mitigating climate change are...
Leading Off presents four “profiles in leadership”
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Let’s consider four leaders—a mold-breaking entrepreneur, a hard-driving CEO, a healthcare administrator, and a passionate...
Heigh-ho, heigh-ho! A leader’s guide to building your workers’ capabilities now
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The holidays now feel like a distant memory, COVID-19 vaccines are circulating, and it’s time to consider how you’ll...
Communication is key, especially during a crisis. Make your words count
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Communication—or lack thereof—can make or break a company’s success. This week, we explore how to center people...
A leader’s guide to recovery in 2021
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While the global pandemic made last year a bleak descent into existential risk, loss, and grief, this year begins with at least...
MLK's enduring message for today's leaders: "What are you doing for others?"
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As the world celebrates Martin Luther King’s birthday today and the United States inaugurates Joe Biden as its 46th president...
Loss and mourning are hard to navigate—here’s how to lead your people forward
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Grief and loss have become all the more palpable during COVID-19—and it’s affecting personal and work lives. This...
Ponder your purpose
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Not much room for self-reflection these days, is there? But there should be. It’s healthy to reflect on your own purpose...
Are you an empathic leader?
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How are you feeling … about empathy? We can tell you how your people feel: they want to see more of it from their leaders....
Re-onboard yourself and others
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Organizations are materially different than they were just a few months ago, and unplanned experiments are everywhere. Take advantage...