The last three years have posed serious challenges for leadership. The inability of many leaders to rise to the occasion revealed that the talent crisis organizations thought they had before the pandemic is worse than they imagined. Research we conducted in the early stages of the Covid outbreak showed that leaders with a limited range of […]

Almost everything we do involves words. From emails and power points to phone calls and pitch meetings, words are how we persuade, communicate, and connect. But certain words are more impactful than others.  They’re better at changing minds, captivating audiences, and driving action. What are these magic words, and how can we take advantage of […]

Carving out time for learning and development is critical for anyone who wants to improve their leadership competencies and performance outcomes. Yet finding the time for it is hard for many managers. With looming deadlines, daily tasks, and urgent meetings, learning to lead can often take the back burner. But advancing yourself doesn’t have to […]

There are unwritten rules about the emotions you’re expected to show at work. These implicit “feeling rules” are so embedded in an organization’s social fabric that we rarely notice them. However, there are times when there’s a conflict between how you feel and the emotions you’re expected to display. So how do you decide when to express […]

George, head of the Asia Pacific region for a global industry leader, was running the annual meeting of his group’s 300 executives and managers. After reviewing the year to date and addressing the changing context for the coming year, he was heading for the usual wrap up. This time, however, he had a key decision […]

Over the years, a variety of terms has been used to describe people’s difficulties grasping and controlling the world around them. There was dynamic, high-velocity, disruptive, turbulent and so on. Until recently, this has culminated in the notion of VUCA—Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous. But, since a year or two, there’s a new kid on the […]

The need for boardroom diversity is well-established. Many European countries have mandated that at least 40% of directors of publicly listed companies must be women, and similar laws have been passed in several U.S. states establishing gender- or race-based quotas. And to be sure, these policies have led to substantial progress: For example, one report found that representation of women on FTSE […]

Company purpose has mainstreamed its way into management vernacular, and with plenty of good reason. Evidence from across industry sectors has proven that genuinely purpose-driven organizations outperform their non-purpose-driven competitors on critical metrics. For example, brands that have a clear commitment to improving their customers’ quality of life outperform the stock market by 120%, and over the last decade, purpose-driven […]

Nathan Green, known to many as Uncle Nearest, was an enslaved man in the 1850s in Lynchburg, Tennessee. He was known to make whiskey using a special technique he learned when cleaning water back home in West Africa. His method of filtering whiskey through sugar maple tree charcoal became known as the famous “Lincoln method.” […]

For a long time, whenever companies wanted to hire a CEO or another key executive, they knew what to look for: somebody with technical expertise, superior administrative skills, and a track record of successfully managing financial resources. When courting outside candidates to fill those roles, they often favored executives from companies such as GE, IBM, and P&G […]