HBR On Leadership

Latest Episodes:

Why Founders Need to Focus More on Sales and Marketing Oct 02, 2024

Show notes

Harvard Business School senior lecturer Mark Roberge argues that every aspect of being an early-stage founder involves sales. But many founders lack an understanding of how to incorporates sales into their ventures.

Which sales candidate is a startup’s ideal first hire? What marketing channels are worth investing in? How aggressively should you align sales with customer success?

In this episode, you’ll learn how to hire for early sales roles, design compensation, and lay a strong foundation for a growing sales team.

Key episode topics include: leadership, entrepreneurship, sales, marketing, startups, entrepreneurial business strategy, pricing strategy, talent management.

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 Cold Call episode: What Founders Get Wrong about Sales and Marketing (2023)
Find more episodes of Cold Call
Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org

What It Really Takes to Be a Manager Sep 25, 2024

Show notes

Are you ready to be a manager?

In this episode, Ellen Van Oosten answers questions from listeners who are struggling to move into management. She offers advice for what to do when you’ve been tapped for a managerial role, but you don’t want the job. She also discusses how to respond if your supervisor is blocking you from earning a promotion into management, and how you can make the move to manager even if you only have informal management experience.

Van Oosten is a professor at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve. She’s also a coauthor of the book, Helping People Change: Coaching with Compassion for Lifelong Learning and Growth.

Key episode topics include: leadership, careers, career transitions, managing people, coaching, growth.

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: Management Material (2020)
Find more episodes of Dear HBR.
Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org.

Former MA Governor Charlie Baker on Solving Complex Problems Sep 18, 2024

Show notes

If you think your organization is difficult to maneuver, consider the unique challenges of government leadership.

Former Massachusetts governor Charlie Baker and his former chief of staff Steve Kadish faced many challenges during Baker’s time in office—perhaps most notably: the Covid-19 pandemic.

Looking back, they argue that running a government is often much harder than leading a private-sector company. For one thing, Baker says, there’s rightly more public scrutiny of every decision you make as a leader. And, Kadish adds, decision-making is far more dispersed.

In this episode, they share their four-part framework for breaking down complicated problems with many stakeholders to get results. If you’re struggling with bureaucracy and politics in your organization, this episode is for you.

Key episode topics include: leadership, strategy execution, government, stakeholder management, decision making, problem solving, negotiation.

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: Leadership Lessons from a Republican Governor in a Blue State (2022)
Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast.
Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org.

How to Manage Breakthrough Innovation Sep 11, 2024

Show notes

How do you guide a team working on innovative projects—when there is no existing playbook?

Astro Teller says he uses a vetted approach to decision-making for the innovative projects that he and his teams undertake at X, Alphabet’s R&D engine.

Teller is the Captain of Moonshots at X, which he helped launch at Google in 2010. His mission there is to invent and launch new technologies that address serious problems in the world. But those technologies must also create the foundations for substantial new businesses for Google’s parent company, Alphabet. They’ve worked on a pill that detects cancer, cars that drive themselves, and mega-kites that work as turbines to collect wind energy, to name just a few examples.

In this episode, Teller offers key lessons for managing the process that delivers breakthrough innovations. You’ll learn how he decides to keep investing in a project, and how he knows when it’s time to pull the plug. You’ll also learn how he assembles teams and what qualities he looks for in potential new hires.

Key episode topics include: leadership, innovation, technology and analytics, leadership and managing people, experimentation, creativity, breakthrough, Alphabet, Google.

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: X’s Astro Teller on Managing Moonshot Innovation
Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast.
Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org.

Chobani’s Founder on Mission-Driven Entrepreneurship Sep 04, 2024

Show notes

Chobani is a leader in the global yogurt market, with more than 20 percent share of the U.S. market alone. It all started with one man, an abandoned yogurt factory in upstate New York, and a mission to make quality yogurt accessible to more people.

In this episode, Harvard Business Review editor in chief Adi Ignatius and Chobani founder and CEO Hamdi Ulukaya discuss mission-driven entrepreneurship.

You’ll learn how Ulukaya kept Chobani true to its original values, even as it scaled and began competing in new sectors. You’ll also learn why he adapted Chobani’s mission to center his employees.

Key episode topics include: leadership, entrepreneurship, entrepreneurs and founders, entrepreneurial management, food and beverage sector, Chobani, yogurt.

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.

View to the original New World of Work episode: Chobani Founder Hamdi Ulukaya on the Journey from Abandoned Factory to Yogurt Powerhouse (2022)
Find more episodes of the New World of Work
Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org

Are You Ready to Be a Leader? Aug 28, 2024

Show notes

What distinguishes a leader? How do you know if you’re ready to lead? And how do you make the transition into a leadership role?

The shift from being part of a team to leading one isn’t like flipping a switch. It’s a process, and it can be awkward. It can be especially difficult your identity differs from other leaders in your organization — for example, if you’re a young leader in an organization dominated by older leaders, or a woman in a male-dominated organization.

In this episode, two leadership coaches, Amy Su and Muriel Wilkins of Paravis Partners, explain how to develop a leadership presence that’s both authentic to you and resonates with others. You’ll also learn some deeper questions to ask yourself during your transition into leadership.

Key episode topics include: leadership, gender, authenticity, leadership presence, transitions, influencing others, leadership style, leadership journey.

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: Seeing Ourselves as Leaders (2019)
Find more episodes of Women at Work.
Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org.

Leadership Lessons from a NASA Tragedy Aug 21, 2024

Show notes

In early 2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated as it re-entered the earth’s atmosphere. All seven astronauts on board were killed.

This was not the first NASA mission to end in disaster, and it inspired Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson to write a business case about what went wrong.

Edmondson studies psychological safety and organizational learning. Her most recent book is Right Kind of Wrong: The Science of Failing Well.

In this episode, she breaks down the organizational challenges within NASA that contributed to the Columbia tragedy, offering a window into the organization’s leadership. Edmondson also shares lessons for all leaders about the dangers of unyielding hierarchy and of failing to listen to dissenting voices.

Key episode topics include: leadership, managing people, organizational culture, operations and supply chain management, NASA, hierarchy, science.

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 Cold Call episode: The Space Shuttle Columbia’s Final Mission (2016)
Find more episodes of Cold Call
Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org.

The Key to Abraham Lincoln’s Leadership Aug 14, 2024

Show notes

In 1863, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln wrote a scathing letter to his top Union general, who had squandered an opportunity to end the American Civil War. Then Lincoln folded it up and tucked it away in his desk.

The letter was never signed and sent—just one example of how Lincoln’s legendary emotional discipline enabled him to rise above mundane arguments and focus on a larger mission.

In this episode, Harvard Business School professor and historian Nancy Koehn analyzes Lincoln’s leadership both before and during America’s greatest crisis.

You’ll learn how emotional self-control can impact your day-to-day leadership as well as your long-term legacy.

Key episode topics include: leadership, crisis management, decision making and problem solving, government, American history, emotional discipline, communication.

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: Real Leaders: Abraham Lincoln and the Power of Emotional Discipline (2020)
Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast
Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org.

Lessons from Maggie Lena Walker’s Entrepreneurial Leadership Aug 07, 2024

Show notes

Growing up in the heart of the Confederacy, Maggie Lena Walker started work as a laundress at age nine. At the urging of her mother and mentors, she turned to education, and used it to propel her life forward — graduating high school at 16, working as a teacher, and learning accounting.

Those experiences, coupled with her strong work ethic, culminated in Walker rising to lead the Independent Order of St. Luke and found several other businesses, all of which created jobs and opportunities for many women and Blacks people where there had been none before.

In this episode, Harvard Business School senior lecturer Tony Mayo traces Walker’s approach to leadership on her journey to becoming the first female bank president in America.

You’ll learn how she led the turnaround of the Order of St. Luke starting in 1899 by cutting costs, increasing membership, and launching new businesses that catered to unmet needs in Richmond’s Black community. You’ll also learn how Walker relied on her personal networks and deep local roots to overcome challenges rooted in systemic racism throughout her career.

Key episode topics include: leadership, managing people, entrepreneurship, race, gender, Independent Order of St. Luke.

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 Cold Call episode: Black Business Leaders Series: A Remarkable Legacy of Firsts, Maggie Lena Walker (2017)
Find more episodes of Cold Call
Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org

NBA Star Chris Paul on Communicating as a Leader Jul 31, 2024

Show notes

Most of us can point to a few key people who have made a real difference in our lives and careers—the coach who pushed you to outperform, the teacher whose passion for a subject inspired your own, or the boss who showed you what it is to be a leader at work.

In this episode, NBA star Chris Paul shares how his own mentors guided him through the early years of his professional basketball career and helped him develop his leadership skills on and off the court.

Paul is regarded as one of the best point guards of all time and led the National Basketball Players Association from 2013 to 2021. He shares what he’s learned about mentorship and leadership—and the important role communication skills play in enabling both. He also explains how to communicate with colleagues in a high-pressure situation and why it’s so important to listen to the people you lead.

Key episode topics include: leadership, teams, power and influence, leading teams, organizational culture, basketball, sports.

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: NBA Star Chris Paul on Mentorship and Taking a Stand (2023)
Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast
Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org.

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