HBR On Leadership

When you think of "office politics," you might picture someone hoarding information or taking credit for others' work. While negative stereotypes persist, learning to navigate office politics is crucial for leadership — and you can do it without sacrificing your principles or authenticity.

In this episode, organizational psychologist Madeleine Wyatt, along with a guest from the management consulting field, discusses how to become more politically savvy at work by mastering four essential skills: apparent sincerity, networking, and interpersonal influence.

Key episode topics include: leadership, office politics, power and influence, business services sector.

HBR On Leadership curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock the best in those around you. New episodes every week.

· Listen to the original Women at Work episode: The Essentials: Playing Office Politics (2023)

· Find more episodes of Women at Work.

· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org.

Being the most knowledgeable and experienced person on your team can seem advantageous. However, Sydney Finkelstein, an expert in leadership and talent development, warns that expertise can lead you astray in two significant ways: it may stifle your curiosity about new developments and foster overconfidence in your problem-solving abilities.

In this episode, Finkelstein explores these pitfalls and proposes a crucial supplement to expertise: the importance of becoming more humble and open-minded. He also offers research-backed advice on how to cultivate these qualities as a leader.

Finkelstein is a professor at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business and the author of the book Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent.

Key episode topics include: leadership, leadership qualities, emotional intelligence, ambition, humility, listening skills, learning, Steve Jobs.

HBR On Leadership curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock the best in those around you. New episodes every week.

· Listen to the original HBR IdeaCast episode: Avoiding the Expertise Trap (2019)

· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast.

· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org.

Generational differences may get laughs online. (Remember “OK boomer”?) But in the workplace, productivity can suffer when older and younger workers struggle to communicate and find common ground.

Mimi Nicklin, a business coach and advertising executive, argues that older managers should spend less time forcing their Millennial and Gen Z employees to conform to company culture and more time listening.

But Nicklin says listening isn’t enough. Practicing empathy across generational divides is key to improving team collaboration and creating better business and individual outcomes – and that can go both ways.

“What empathy in a leader, or from a leadership point of view, really asks of us is to understand, to ask opinions, to listen,” she tells IdeaCast host Curt Nickisch. “Empathy for me is about perspective taking -- seeing the world through the eyes of someone else, seeing their context.”

In this episode, Nicklin explains how to build common ground and tackle generational tensions on your team – with plenty of real-world examples from companies that prioritize empathy. Nicklin wrote the book Softening the Edge: Empathy: How Humanity's Oldest Leadership Trait is Changing the World.

Key episode topics include: leadership, leading teams, psychology, age and generational issues, conflict, growth, differences, millennials, organizational culture, communication, talent management, GenZ, empathy.

HBR On Leadership curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock the best in those around you. New episodes every week.

· Listen to the original HBR IdeaCast episode: How Empathy Helps Bridge Generational Differences (2021)

· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast.

· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org.

Popular stereotypes of successful CEOs as charismatic white men with Ivy League degrees who never falter under pressure are often misleading.

“[T]he CEOs I get to know up close and personal really look nothing like this image of perfection. And so we decided to dig into this with the data,” says Elena Botelho, who co-leads the CEO Genome Project and advises top leaders.

Botelho tells IdeaCast host Sarah Green Carmichael that actual success in the C-suite has more to do with being decisive, staying adaptable, and delivering reliable results.

Key topics include: leadership development, leadership transitions, decisiveness, adaptability, and results.

HBR On Leadership curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock the best in those around you. New episodes every week.

Listen to the original HBR IdeaCast episode: 4 Behaviors of Top-Performing CEOs (May 2017)

Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hbr-ideacast/id152022135?mt=2

Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more: https://hbr.org/

Do you have an employee who just gets on your nerves?

In this episode, Dear HBR cohosts Alison Beard and Dan McGinn answer listener questions with the help of Art Markman, former professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin and now the school’s Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs.

They talk through how to manage someone who is difficult, overly polite, or passive aggressive. Markman also offers advice for how to give your initial feedback and then follow up. He also has tips for coaching an employee who needs to improve their communication skills.

Key episode topics include: leadership, managing people, managing conflicts, difficult conversations.

HBR On Leadership curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock the best in those around you. New episodes every week.

· Listen to the original Dear HBR episode: Annoying Subordinates (2018)

· Find more episodes of Dear HBR.

· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org.