Leadership & Organisations | INSEAD Knowledge

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Leadership & Organisations

Solving the Problem of Remote Work

Mark Mortensen

A framework to help leaders approach the topic more holistically and effectively.

Strategy

A First Step Towards Resilient Organisations

Ekin Ilseven

Cultivating resilience in the face of organisational crises hinges on the foundation of a clear strategy, heightened awareness and robust reserves.

Marketing

INSEAD Insights: September 2023 Research Picks

Lily Fang

Recent findings on online marketplace dynamics, new market creation, trust in AI, diversity in corporate boards and consumer choices.

Family Business

The Power of Distinct Owners as Value Catalysts

M. Massa, L. Van der Heyden, K. Taraporevala

Uncovering the unique elements owners need to achieve business success and resilience.

Managing the Black Box Crucial to Megaproject Success

Strategy

Inside the Black Box Crucial to Megaproject Success

S. Shekshnia, V. Vyas

Despite their importance to the global economy, most megaprojects fail to be delivered on budget or schedule. Here’s how managers could improve on that dismal record.

Leadership & Organisations

Letting Go of the Urge to Rescue

Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries

Exploring the motivations behind our need to help others and embracing a balanced approach to offering assistance.

Leadership & Organisations

Stop Going It Alone

Michael Jarrett

Negotiating radical organisational change needs to be a collective effort.

Career

A Holistic Approach to Navigating the New Workplace

Mark Mortensen

How to foster a thriving and sustainable workplace culture to contend with the realities of the new office.

Leadership & Organisations

Governance in the Age of Technological Innovation

Geraldine Ee

With new technologies redefining the global business ecosystem, how can boards navigate these changes and reinvent their business models?

Entrepreneurship

What All Tech Start-Ups Need to Succeed

T. Evgeniou, L. Van der Heyden, Y. Lechelle

Governance exists to help tech entrepreneurs prevent value destruction from day one.

Career

Retirement and Beyond: The Last Days of Executives

Jose-Luis Alvarez

How to plan for the end of the professional life and a smooth transition to retirement.

Leadership & Organisations

How Women Leaders Benefit From Using Humour

Ella Miron-Spektor

New research suggests that being funny helps leaders gain influence, and that women benefit more than men from using humour in public speaking.

Career

Breaking the Cycle of Self-Sabotage

Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries

A roadmap for identifying and overcoming the self-defeating habits that hold you back.

Strategy

Intellectual Honesty Is Critical for Innovation

Nathan Furr

Here’s how to balance psychological safety and intellectual honesty for better team performance.

Leadership & Organisations

How Corporate Thought Leadership Drives Business Success

Pawel Korzynski

What makes an organisation an opinion leader and how it affects business revenue.

Two flocks of birds in two different directions

Leadership & Organisations

Joint Strategic Decisions: Do We All Need to Agree?

H. Piezunka, O. Schilke

How organisations’ decision-making rules affect the way individual managers vote.

Leadership & Organisations

Why the World Needs Ambidextrous Leaders

Charles Galunic

What the launch of ChatGPT can teach executives about leading in disruptive times.

Leadership & Organisations

How to Rapidly Test New Organisation Designs

Phanish Puranam

Instead of blindly adopting industry best practice, companies can use gamified randomised control trials to pilot new organisation designs.

Leadership & Organisations

It Doesn't Have to Be Lonely at the Top

Narayan Pant

Tips for leaders to gain valuable, actionable and informed feedback from their peers.

Strategy

Demystifying China’s Internet Giants

Guoli Chen

A behind-the-scenes look at what makes or breaks China’s Big Tech flagbearers and their foreign exploits.

Entrepreneurship

China’s Internet Giants: The Nuts and Bolts of Going Global

G. Chen, J. Li

The lowdown on how ByteDance, Shein and Xiaomi succeeded outside of China while WeChat failed.

Leadership & Organisations

ChatGPT and the Future of Business Education

P. Puranam, P. Dutt, P. Wibbens, A. Ovchinnikov, V. Sevcenko, T. Evgeniou, P. Parker

How ChatGPT can help – and hinder – research and learning at business schools.

Magical story by Getty/Vitalii Bashkatov

Leadership & Organisations

How Storytelling Makes You a Better Leader

Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries

Purposeful storytelling isn’t show business, it’s good business.

Entrepreneurship

Solving Grand Societal Challenges Through Creative Organisation Design

A. Szerb, I. Kivleniece, V. A. Aggarwal

Combining for-profit entrepreneurship with a non-profit social mission through novel organisation design can achieve scale and impact.

Leadership & Organisations

Why Hierarchies in Organisations Aren’t All Bad

P. Puranam, Ö. Koçak, D. A. Levinthal

Hierarchical structures can be useful even for teams that need to be agile.

Leadership & Organisations

Leading Change in Turbulence: Case of Discovery Inc.

J. Petriglieri, G. Petriglieri, M. Soldi

In this video, Marinella Soldi shares ways to navigate the turbulent waters of digital transformation and why it is important to tackle both the strategic and cultural facets of change.

Leadership & Organisations

When Two Isn’t Always Better Than One

M. Bikard, K. Vakili, F. Teodoridis

Receiving outsized credit can encourage individuals to work together even when it results in lower-quality output.

Responsibility

In Times of Chaos, Know Yourself

Marc Le Menestrel

Self-aware leaders see the beauty in chaos and look within to find meaningful solutions.

Operations

Twitter's Remarkable Mission in a Divided World

T. Evgeniou, L. Van der Heyden

Good governance is key to ensure that exceptional people, organisations and countries realise their full potential.

Leadership & Organisations

Our Best of 2022: Making Sense of an Uncertain World

INSEAD Knowledge

This year’s trending articles offer insights ranging from how to work and manage better to what the economy might hold in 2023.

Herd of sheep by MriyaWildlife/Getty Images

Leadership & Organisations

How to Break Free From Herd Mentality

Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries

Nurturing independent thought can help us overcome dangerous sheeple behaviour and groupthink.

Strategy

Managing in an Unimaginable World

José Santos

Business leaders can leverage serendipity to help their companies deal with far-reaching market shocks.

Business card exchange. Photo by Getty/PeopleImages

Career

Collaborations That Are Bad for Business but Benefit Employees

H. Piezunka, T. Grohsjean

Sharing a partner with competing companies hinders the success of firms but helps employees’ careers.

Leadership & Organisations

Live Abroad to Excel in the Language of Leadership

INSEAD Knowledge

Leaders with broad multicultural experiences are better communicators and lead more effectively, particularly in multinational teams.

Leadership & Organisations

How to Change Someone’s Mind

Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries

Powerful storytelling can awaken curiosity and challenge people to shift their outlook.

Leadership & Organisations

The Really Simple Steps to Creating an Innovation Engine

Lee Seok Hwai

All companies need to do is give employees permission to generate ideas and nudge them in the right direction – then get out of the way, said Ben Bensaou in a Thinkers50 webinar.

Responsibility

GHG Emissions Reduction: Scientific Rigour and Stakeholder Engagement

A. Atasu, A. Cselotei

How a step-by-step approach to sustainability helped INSEAD ensure meaningful results.

Leadership & Organisations

Navigating the New World of Work

Rachel Eva Lim

Firms need to focus on building an inclusive environment and a culture of trust to overcome the challenges of remote or hybrid work.

Career

The Power of Networking in the New Economy

F. Godart, A. Mears

In today’s gig economy, fleeting ties can be valuable to the career of the gig worker.

Leadership & Organisations

Embracing Diversity With a Growth Mindset

K. Kuwabara, J. Cao

Getting along with others is about more than just having things in common.

Leadership & Organisations

Why Communication Breaks Down

P. Puranam, Ö. Koçak

As workplaces become more diverse and work becomes more distributed, it is more important than ever to converge on a common code for effective communication.

Leadership & Organisations

Why The World is Attracted to Neo-Authoritarian Leaders

Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries

Leaders like Donald Trump do not rise in a vacuum. But what draws people to authoritarian rulers?

Leadership & Organisations

How to Show Compassion Without Compromising on Performance

M. Mortensen, H. K. Gardner

Many leaders think they have to choose between delivering results and supporting employees’ needs. They don’t – but doing both sustainably requires careful navigation.

Leadership & Organisations

Could Living Near the Office Make You a Better CEO?

M. Bennedsen, M. D. Amore, B. Larsen

Besides enjoying a shorter commute, living close to the office may allow CEOs to boost ties with employees and the firm’s bottom line.

Leadership & Organisations

What Religion Teaches Us About Great Leadership

Elizabeth Florent Treacy

What can guiding figures and best practices in Judaism, Islam and Catholicism tell us about leadership?

Leadership & Organisations

The Special Bond Behind Every Brilliant Idea

M. Lazar, E. Miron-Spektor, J. Mueller

The way we view ourselves shapes the way we develop and connect with our own ideas.

Leadership & Organisations

Paradox Mindset: The Source of Remarkable Creativity in Teams

E. Miron-Spektor, K. Emich, L. Argote, W. Smith

Teams are more successful if they embrace internal differences and explore conflicting ideas instead of glossing over them.

Leadership & Organisations

The X Factor in Crafting New CXO Roles Successfully

J. L. Alvarez, S. Svejenova

CXO roles have proliferated in recent decades, making it difficult for some title holders to find their footing in an ever-changing C-suite landscape.

Leadership & Organisations

Why Leaders Won’t Stop Waging Wars

Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries

War brings out the worst in people and destroys the very foundations of humanity.

Leadership & Organisations

Finding Meaning in Life

Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries

Create a compelling self-narrative based on the five pillars that influence the way we experience meaning.

Leadership & Organisations

Organising in the Metaverse: Five FAQs for Managers

V. F. He, P. Puranam

An explainer on how social interaction in all its forms might take place in the virtual universe.

Leadership & Organisations

What the World Can Learn From Nordic Boards

S. Shekshnia, S. B. Jensen, L. Engstam

Proactive, engaged and democratic, corporate boards in Nordic countries are well-placed to deal with today’s increasingly complex operating environments.

Leadership & Organisations

Has Hybridity Killed Teamwork?

C. N. Hadley, M. Mortensen

The time has come to check whether the benefits of teamwork still outweigh the costs.

Leadership & Organisations

What It Means to Lead in a Multipolar World

H. Falcão, M. Le Menestrel

By overcoming our fears and creating a brave space for dialogue, we can relate and lead better in the new multipolar world.

Leadership & Organisations

Psychological Safety Unlocks the Potential of Diverse Teams

H. Bresman, A. C. Edmondson

The dissimilar backgrounds of diverse team members often result in clashes unless care is taken to create a psychologically safe environment.

Leadership & Organisations

Taming Your Inner Critic

Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries

Eight concrete ways to lead a more contented life.

Career

How Family-Work Conflict Keeps Us Glued to Our Mobile Phones

C. Trombini, M. Magni, M. Ahuja

Torn between family obligations and work, many people can’t resist working on their phones after hours, creating a downward spiral for their well-being and home life.

Leadership & Organisations

Creating People-Centric International Organisations With AI

R. McLachlin, K. Tatarinov, T. Ambos, P. Puranam

The United Nations is both a fascinating playground for artificial intelligence applications and a showcase of AI implementation problems and solutions.

Strategy

ENGIE: Powering the Energy Transition With Data

P. Boza, T. Evgeniou, M. Sarkar

What does it take for a utility company to develop a data- and AI-driven software business?

Family Business

When Two Leaders Collide, the Result Can Be Less Fraud

Y. Guo, X. R. Luo, D. Li

When the head of a family firm ranks lower in the family hierarchy than another leader at that firm, the misalignment can help prevent fraud in the emerging market context.

Leadership & Organisations

Rethinking the Role of Leaders in the Creative Process

S. Harrison, E. Rouse

A strong vision and a more disciplined approach can actually equal more creative results.

Leadership & Organisations

In Praise of Dictators: A Satire

Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries

Liberal democracies are on the decline.

Entrepreneurship

The Start-Up Blind Spot That Trips New Ventures

Phanish Puranam

Having a great business plan is not enough. Start-ups also need good organisation design.

Leadership & Organisations

How Conversations About Work Affect Closeness

Spencer Harrison

'The 36 Questions That Lead to Love’ can teach us something about fostering connectedness and trust in the organisation.

Leadership & Organisations

Into the Mind of White-Collar Criminals

Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries

What society and business schools can do to stop corporate crimes.

Leadership & Organisations

Gratitude Is More Powerful Than You Think

C. Trombini, P. M. Tang, R. Ilies

Regular appreciation and thanks from service users can make a huge difference in the lives of burnt out essential workers.

Senior Leaders Are the Catalyst for Innovation

Leadership & Organisations

Senior Leaders As Chief Reframing Officers

Ben M. Bensaou

The important role of leaders in giving their employees the space and permission to get creative.

Leadership & Organisations

Making Sure That Everyone Knows Their Place

A. Yap, N. Madan, P. Puranam

Why formal structures and greater diversity create status disagreements and how to fix the issue.

Responsibility

Lessons in Sustainable Change Management: #deCOALonize Kenya

W. Mungai, L. White, Z. Kinias

The campaign to prevent the construction of a coal power plant on an idyllic island in the Indian Ocean.

Leadership & Organisations

Should Employees Be Allowed to Choose What They Want to Do?

P. Puranam, M. Raveendran

The degree of specialisation is the deciding factor.

Responsibility

Six Global Trends in Business and Society

I. Mihov, K. Le Goulven, M. Stabile

A stark look at the risks business education must address in 2022.

Leadership & Organisations

Meditating Away a Guilty Conscience

A. C. Hafenbrack, M. LaPalme, I. Solal

Mindfulness meditation can make one feel less bad about moral violations as well as lessen the desire to make amends.

Leadership & Organisations

Carpe Diem: Don’t Postpone Your Dreams

Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries

Far from a hedonistic cry, carpe diem instructs us to live a life of meaning.

Leadership & Organisations

AI: A World of New Opportunity and Risk

T. Evgeniou, K. Firth-Butterfield, A. Sarkar, C. Zimmerman

A new toolkit for C-suite execs on how to responsibly adopt artificial intelligence.

Leadership & Organisations

Middle Managers: The Forgotten Heroes of Innovation

Ben M. Bensaou

The importance of building a support network to implement promising ideas.

Leadership & Organisations

How Nasdaq’s Board Diversity Rule Creates Potential for Real Change

F. Henderson, Z. Kinias, C. Zeisberger

The new rules requiring qualitative and quantitative disclosure about board diversity will better inform investors and (hopefully) spur further progress.

Leadership & Organisations

Seven Ways to Put Procrastination Behind You

Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries

Don’t chalk it up to a lack of motivation.

Leadership & Organisations

The Pursuit of Purpose May Be Harming Your Organisation

Winnie Jiang

People who see their work as a calling tend to be regarded as better employees, with unintended consequences for co-workers as well as their organisation.

Leadership & Organisations

Post-Pandemic, Firms Need Chief Social Connectivity Officers

Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries

In this new hybrid working environment, people shouldn’t go to the office to stare at their computer, but to connect.

Leadership & Organisations

Innovation Is Everyone’s Business

Ben M. Bensaou

Offering employees the tools and motivation to create ideas is the key to an innovative organisation.

Leadership & Organisations

Aligning Individual and Organisational Values

M. Guadalupe, Z. Kinias, F. Schloderer

How employees’ personal values fit within their organisation.

Leadership & Organisations

Covid Has Accentuated Our Every Vice

Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries

Of all seven deadly sins, leaders need to guard against pride.

Leadership & Organisations

The Politics of Influence in Top Management Team Meetings

M. Jarrett, F. Liu, S. Maitlis

Interactions between the chief executive and other members of the top management team appear to follow distinct scripts. Managers who take note can boost their standing or stay out of harm’s way.

Leadership & Organisations

Is Stargazing Your Preferred Management Style?

Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries

For too many leaders, astrology acts as a crutch that gives them a false sense of control in an uncertain world.

Leadership & Organisations

Three Steps to Optimising Your Firm’s Hybrid Work Strategy

Mark Mortensen

You need a strong process to reconcile the needs and wants of your various stakeholders.

Leadership & Organisations

When Authenticity Means Conflict: Towards a Truly Inclusive Organisation

Natalia Karelaia

Rightfully celebrated, authenticity in the workplace may have some limitations.

Leadership & Organisations

What Distinguishes the Super Rich From the Rest of Us

Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries

Peeking into the inner theatre of the seriously wealthy.

Leadership & Organisations

Cancelled by Association: How Stigma Spreads in Different Cultures

Tianyu He

The tendency to stigmatise others for misdeeds committed by family members appears to extend to even acquaintances and is stronger in close-knit cultures.

the essence of agility and resilience.jpg

Leadership & Organisations

The Essence of Agility and Resilience After Covid

P. Zemsky, S. Hasija

Navigating unprecedented levels of uncertainty takes a careful combination of technology and talent.

Leadership & Organisations

How “Mind-Body Dissonance” Leads to Creative Thinking

Li Huang

Hacking human evolution to unlock innovative potential in our brains.

Leadership & Organisations

How the Afterglow of Victory Boosts Future Performance

Miguel Sousa Lobo

When we perform well together, we feel less tense with each other, and when we feel less tense with each other, we perform better.

Leadership & Organisations

Six Steps to Overcome Shame

Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries

As old as time and very much universal, feelings of shame can lead to self-destructive behaviour in even the best of leaders.

Leadership & Organisations

Three Dimensions of Leadership Agility

Renita Kalhorn

There is one certainty in a VUCA world: The solution that works today may not work tomorrow.

Leadership & Organisations

Marked for Disruption, Deep in Denial: Law Firms at a Crossroads

A. Fruehmann, R. Lehman

The greatest threat to the survival of law firms isn’t technological, but psychological.

Leadership & Organisations

Mixing Business and Pleasure for Competitive Advantage

E. Miron-Spektor, M. Lazar

A recent study shows how entrepreneurial team formation can be improved by combining two established strategies.

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Leadership & Organisations

The Complex Psychology of Covid-19 Compliance

Wilson Cyrus Lai

Three main psychological factors helped determine whether people responded to first-wave Covid restrictions with deference or defiance.

Leadership & Organisations

Two CEOs, No Drama: Ground Rules for Co-Leadership

Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries

The co-CEO model can actually work. Here’s how.

Strategy

The Relationships That Create Successful Acquisitions

Laurence Capron

A study of start-up acquisitions shows important patterns on both sides lead to a successful integration.

Leadership & Organisations

Your Leadership Toolbox: A Coaching Approach

Iffet Türken

How you can use tips from coaches to adapt to a world in flux.

Leadership & Organisations

Without Psychological Safety, Hybrid Work Won’t Work

M. Mortensen, A. C. Edmondson

People managers have their work cut out for them.

Leadership & Organisations

Our Addiction to Charismatic Leaders Needs to Stop

Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries

The antidote to narcissistic leaders who coast on their charisma is a paradigm shift in education.

Leadership & Organisations

Make the Internet Moderate Again

Nadav Klein

Extremist opinion looms larger when the moderate majority stays silent online. But there’s a simple and cost-free way to balance out the discourse.

Leadership & Organisations

Four Steps to Securing Your Leadership Mandate

Michele L. Gorgodian

Stop hiding your leadership light under a bushel. Achieving the legitimacy you deserve in your organisation entails a sequential process.

Leadership & Organisations

The Competencies and Constraints That Determine Leadership Success

Pawel Korzynski

A novel management theory looks past individual leaders to constraints that might limit their effectiveness.

Leadership & Organisations

Four Ways Today’s Teams Are Making Us Lonely

M. Mortensen, C. Hadley

They say it’s lonely at the top. But in the workplace, even team members are feeling lonely.

Leadership & Organisations

A Seven-Step Choreography for Thriving Teams

V. Dominé, F. Coluccia

Changes at team level will never take hold unless individuals’ objectives and behaviours are synchronised with those of the group.

Leadership & Organisations

Keeping Meaning Alive as Your Workload Surges

Winnie Jiang

These days, we’re all expected to do more. But that doesn’t mean the psychological fulfilment we get from our work has to suffer.

Leadership & Organisations

Why Some Employees Improve Their Creativity and Others Don’t

Ella Miron-Spektor

How our beliefs about creativity explain our ability to improve and sustain it over time.

Leadership & Organisations

Can Managers Who Wear Many Hats Be Trusted?

Henrich Greve

The more diverse your goals are, the greater the temptation to muddy the waters on performance.

Leadership & Organisations

Bluebeard Revisited: Knowledge Is Power

Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries

Long seen as a cautionary tale about women’s curiosity, it should be reinterpreted as the story of a woman’s emancipation.

Leadership & Organisations

From Fear to Enlightenment: Building Resilience During Covid Year One

Lionel Frankfort

The four tools and strategies top leaders used most to convert stress and anxiety into positive energy.

Operations

Putting People at the Centre of Operations

Guillaume Roels

The field of operations management has deep roots in developing effective processes for people. How can we encourage further growth in this area?

Leadership & Organisations

The Darker Side of Organisational Life

Cultural change is not for the faint-hearted or the politically correct.

Leadership & Organisations

How to Tame a Belligerent Colleague

Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries

Antagonistic behaviour is usually rooted in low self-esteem.

Leadership & Organisations

Strategy and Leadership Lessons From the ‘Notorious RBG’

C. Lin, F. A. Henderson, Z. Kinias

As the business world increasingly strives to be a catalyst for social justice and societal progress, Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s work provides many valuable lessons for leaders.

Leadership & Organisations

Cooking Up a Creative Community

Li Huang & Spencer Harrison

A recipe based on INSEAD research.

Leadership & Organisations

The Next Decade Will Be a Leadership Game Changer

Stanislav Shekshnia

Success begins with a clear-eyed understanding of the trends that will define the years to come.

Leadership & Organisations

The Group Dynamics That Define Well-Functioning Boards

Vincent H. Dominé

There is an intangible aspect to successful boards that cannot be captured by curating the right CVs.

Career

Social Media Helps Global “Dream Teams” Come Together

P. Korzynski and G. Mazurek

Academic international collaboration is now evolving beyond conferences or formal networks as constantly improving social media connects more researchers.

Leadership & Organisations

Prospects and Pitfalls for the Post-Pandemic Organisation

Phanish Puranam

Big changes are coming for organisations and organisation designs. Whether they will be for good or ill depends on how leaders confront three key possibilities uncovered by the pandemic.

Leadership & Organisations

What It Means to Embark on a Journey of Change

Isabelle Laporte

Many executives have a nagging sense that something is amiss in their lives. But not all of them find the courage – or the tools – to tackle what needs fixing.

Leadership & Organisations

What’s Style Got to Do With Strategy?

Frédéric Godart

Careful calibration of aesthetics and style can elevate companies and individuals above the competition.

Leadership & Organisations

What Ails Corporate Executive Committees?

Jose-Luis Alvarez

Fragmentation among top leadership teams is widespread. CEOs should pay heed – and sharpen their most important strategy execution tool.

Leadership & Organisations

How the Discomfort of Paradox Can Unlock Creativity

Rachael Noyes

The transformative power of holding the tension of opposites and learning to live with contradiction.

Leadership & Organisations

Teams in Evolution – and Revolution – After the Pandemic

H. Bresman, M. Mortensen

How sensemaking can help you cope with unplanned, constant changes in your team.

Leadership & Organisations

What Servant Leadership Is Not

There’s no magic formula for servant leadership, but there are a few common misconceptions about what it means to put your team’s needs first.

Leadership & Organisations

Our Best of 2020: Leadership Between Two Worlds

INSEAD Knowledge

This year's top articles take stock of the Covid-19 crisis, its future impact and the way forward.

Leadership & Organisations

How Technology Threatens Mental Health – Especially if You’re Inauthentic

P. Korzynski, C. Rook, E. Florent Treacy, M. F. R. Kets de Vries

When the personality you show the world doesn’t match your true self, it can sap the energy you would otherwise need to deal with technostress.

Leadership & Organisations

Workplace Mental Health Is a Business Asset. Treat It That Way

Enoch Li

The most successful initiatives deliver employee well-being programmes as a strategic “product”, with four fundamental planning considerations.

Leadership & Organisations

Goals Just Before Halftime Mean More – in Football and Business

Henrich Greve

Examining why 45th-minute goals have outsized importance reveals how timing can affect the outcome of virtually all sorts of competitions.

Leadership & Organisations

“Too Elevated”: Raf Simons’s Troubled Stint at Calvin Klein

Frédéric Godart

A short-lived partnership between the sprawling American brand and the celebrated Belgian designer highlights the importance of fit in all its forms.

Leadership & Organisations

Calmer Waters: President Biden’s Prospective Foreign Policy

The new president’s foreign policy will differ from Trump’s in style, language and tone more than in substance.

Leadership & Organisations

Organisational Data: The Silver Lining in the Covid-19 Cloud

Phanish Puranam & Julien Clément

The shift to virtual working has produced a data boom that could revolutionise organisations – if they know what to do with it.

Leadership & Organisations

How Ready Are You for the Work-from-Anywhere Era?

Benjamin Kessler

Advice from academics and practitioners who are well-versed in the remote working paradigm.

Leadership & Organisations

The Great Covid-Driven Teamwork Divide

M. Lee, K. Veltman

For most teams, the pandemic either brought colleagues closer or drove them increasingly apart. There are three key reasons why.

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Leadership & Organisations

How to Build a C-Suite in Less Than Two Years

B Aubrey, J Davis, T Mannarelli

Indonesian state-owned giant Pertamina had a problem: Its top leaders were all retiring at once. The solution? A new kind of leadership accelerator.

Leadership & Organisations

Leadership in Wicked Times

N. Karalaia, L. Van der Heyden

We face extraordinary problems calling for new leadership approaches.

Leadership & Organisations

The Music Industry’s Best-Kept Secret? A Gender Creativity Gap

Female solo artists are more likely to put out more creative songs than their male counterparts. The key question is why. Gender inequality and representation in the industry may hold the answer.

Leadership & Organisations

Recognising the Red Flags of Workplace Mental Health

Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries

Organisations have a responsibility towards their staff.

Leadership & Organisations

How Netflix Finds Innovation on the Edge of Chaos

Benjamin Kessler

How did a DVD-by-mail company transform itself into a leading global entertainment brand? By rejecting mediocrity, embracing negative feedback and turning hierarchy on its head.

Leadership & Organisations

A Checklist for Boards in the New Normal

S. Shekshnia, V. Zagieva, M. Nazarova

Covid-19 has spurred corporate boards to improvise new practices while keeping those that have served them well. Here’s a run-down.

Leadership & Organisations

Better Networking Begins With Your Beliefs

Ko Kuwabara

It doesn’t take very much to bridge the “knowing-doing” gap in networking – even during a pandemic.

Leadership & Organisations

What to Do When Stress Puts You in “Survival Mode”

Do you believe that constant stress is unavoidable? Good for performance? Actually, neither is true.

Leadership & Organisations

How to Listen and Ask Questions for Effective Teamwork

Good ideas and solutions often arise when we ask open-ended questions.

Leadership & Organisations

Deconstructing Learning, Reconstructing Education

Ilian Mihov

Covid-19 will change higher education for good – and, ultimately, for the better.

Leadership & Organisations

Pandemic or No, It’s Business as Usual for Boards

S. Shekshnia, V. Zagieva, M. Nazarova

For now, corporate boards prefer to keep the status quo – and the long view – in the face of Covid-19 upheaval.

Leadership & Organisations

How I Taught the ‘Team from Hell’ to Trust Each Other

Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries

Virtual team coaching can help turn around dysfunctional teams.

Leadership & Organisations

Power, Politics and Crisis Response on the Board

It’s not the individual directors – it’s the competing coalitions they form that determine what boards will do.

Leadership & Organisations

Why the World Needs Self-Reflective Leaders

Isabelle Laporte

The coronavirus crisis facilitates the rise of autocratic and narcissistic leaders just when we least need them.

Leadership & Organisations

How Boards Are Coping With Covid-19

Enrico Diecidue & Timothy Rowley

A new survey provides a snapshot of corporate boards’ resilience to challenges and risks posed by the pandemic.

Leadership & Organisations

Three CEO Strategies to Guide Companies Through Crises

S. Shekshnia, M. Nazarova

We distil top executives’ experience for the ideas that work.

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Leadership & Organisations

The Advantages of Being (Seen as) Authentic

Feeling authentic, acting authentically and coming across as authentic are very different things, but are equally important.

Operations

When Several Queues Are Better Than One

G. Roels, H. Song & M. Armony

One reliable method of queueing is less effective in knowledge industries. Here’s why.

Leadership & Organisations

Networking in the New Reality

Lee Seok Hwai

Curiosity and reciprocity, plus some ingenuity, will help you build relationships in the age of Zoom.

Leadership & Organisations

The Two Faces of Leadership

Benjamin Kessler

It’s not only what leaders do in the spotlight that counts. Great leaders also know how to manage the organisational machinery behind the scenes.

Leadership & Organisations

How Resilient Leaders Think

Rachael Noyes

Can you encounter adverse circumstances and emerge stronger from them?

Leadership & Organisations

Battling ‘Covid-19 Brain’

H. Plassmann, B. Kessler

Here’s the science on how stressful events like Covid-19 take a toll on the best of us.

Leadership & Organisations

In the Current Crisis, Less Hierarchical Companies Show Special Resilience

Lional Frankfort & Noah Askin

How can more traditional organisations leverage the cultural and behavioural aspects of self-management imposed by the Covid-19 crisis?

Leadership & Organisations

How Leaders Can Cultivate Patience in an Impatient World

Nine ways to develop this important “muscle” and reap its mental health benefits.

Strategy

Creating, Fast and Slow

Michaël Bikard

Instead of bickering about the superiority of specialists or generalists, why not recognise that creative strategies involve trade-offs?

Leadership & Organisations

Covid-Era CEOs Are ‘Keen, Tough or Edgy’

S. Shekshnia, M. Nazarova

Not all CEOs are created equal, but everyone can come out of this crisis stronger.

Leadership & Organisations

The Nuts and Bolts of Working for an All-Remote Company

Benjamin Kessler

Conventional companies new to remote working can learn from the successful start-up GitLab, which has never had an office since its inception in 2014.