HBR On Leadership

Setting Goals for Your Team When the Path Isn’t Clear

In this Coaching Real Leaders session, a leader who has worked in the higher education sector for decades seeks guidance on how to set direction and maintain momentum for her team when so much of their long-term work depends on shifting priorities and partners outside of her control. As she steps into her first role managing managers, she’s unsure how fast to push, how to divide her time, and how to judge progress when the path ahead isn’t fully defined. Host Muriel Wilkins helps her sort through those questions, identify what she can move forward now, and build confidence in her ability to lead with clarity even when the future is still taking shape. Key episode topics include: career coaching, career planning, strategy execution, leading teams ● Listen to the original Coaching Real Leaders episode: How Do I Set the Right Pace To Meet Our Strategic Goals? ● Find more episodes of Coaching Real Leaders ● Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org

Bring More Discipline to Your Decision-Making

Corey Phelps, the dean of Penn State’s Smeal College of Business, says great problem solvers are hard to find. Even seasoned professionals at the highest levels of organizations regularly fail to identify the real problem and instead jump to exploring solutions. Phelps identifies the common traps and outlines a research-proven method to solve problems effectively. He’s the coauthor of the book Cracked It! How to Solve Big Problems and Sell Solutions Like Top Strategy Consultants. Key episode topics include: leadership, decision making and problem solving, strategy ● Listen to the original HBR IdeaCast episode: The Right Way to Solve Complex Business Problems ● Find more episodes of the HBR IdeaCast ● Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org

Communicating Clearly When You’re Under Stress

Communicating clearly and persuasively sets you up to have the impact and influence you’re after. But what if you’re running on empty or under a lot of stress? Expressing your ideas and giving direction when you’re time-strapped, overwhelmed, or exhausted can feel nearly impossible. Add to that, having to deliver a message you don’t agree with. So, what then? Leadership development coach Muriel Wilkins talks us through communication techniques that meet you where you’re at mentally and emotionally so that you can rise to the moment (even when you’re worried you can’t). Key episode topics include: leadership, interpersonal communication, difficult conversations, management communication * Listen to the original Women at Work episode: Communicating Effectively When You’re Running on Empty [https://hbr.org/podcast/2023/07/communicating-effectively-when-youre-running-on-empty] * Find more episodes of Women at Work [https://hbr.org/2018/01/podcast-women-at-work] * Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more atorg [https://hbr.org/]

How to Scale What’s Working at Your Company

If you’re thinking about scaling an initiative, an innovation, a strategy, or even a successful part of your company culture, Bob Sutton has advice for how to face this difficult leadership challenge. He’s an organizational psychologist who’s taught management science at Stanford for more than 40 years. Along with his colleague Huggy Rao, he’s studied leaders who’ve scaled something successfully, as well as those who’ve failed at it. In doing so, they identified the habits that help spread what works and the patterns that keep early wins from catching on. In this 2014 conversation with former HBR editor-at-large Julia Kirby, Sutton shares insights from Scaling Up Excellence, the book he co-wrote with Rao. Together, they explain how to expand what’s working at your company without letting growth dilute your success. Key episode topics include: leadership, entrepreneurial business strategy, change management, organizational culture * Listen to the original HBR IdeaCast episode: Getting Excellence to Spread [https://hbr.org/podcast/2014/01/getting-excellence-to-spread] * Find more episodes of the HBR IdeaCast [https://hbr.org/2018/01/podcast-ideacast] * Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at hbr.org [https://hbr.org/]

The “Hidden Blockers” That Are Limiting Your Leadership Potential

Many of us have internal beliefs—I need it done now, I know I’m right, I need to be involved—that feel like truth but actually hold us back as leaders. Executive coach Muriel Wilkins calls these counterproductive beliefs “hidden blockers,” and she talks Women at Work hosts Amy Gallo and Amy Bernstein through the process of identifying theirs and then reframing them. They also look at how blockers show up in team and organizational behavior, like when lack of trust results in too many meetings, and discuss how leaders can shift culture by first examining and adjusting their own assumptions.