Why Visionary Leadership Fails

Why Visionary Leadership Fails

Summary.   Visionary leadership is widely seen as key to strategic change. That’s because visionary leadership does not just set the strategic direction — it tells a story about why the change is worth pursuing and inspires people to embrace the change. But research finds that the positive impact of visionary leadership breaks down when middle managers…

Bias busters: When good intentions get derailed

Bias busters: When good intentions get derailed

Motivated reasoning can lead people to believe everything’s fine despite evidence to the contrary. Here’s how to counter emotions with facts. Despite their best intentions, executives fall prey to cognitive and organizational biases that get in the way of good decision making. In this series, we highlight some of them and offer a few effective ways…

Every Leader Needs to Navigate These 7 Tensions

Every Leader Needs to Navigate These 7 Tensions

Summary: In decades past, executives were usually taught to practice command-and-control leadership. Today they’re often advised to be more nimble, more adaptive, and less controlling. The truth is that most executives need to be able to move back and forth between those two leadership styles. This article looks at seven tensions that executives need to…

As the World Shifts, So Should Leaders

As the World Shifts, So Should Leaders

Research shows that different eras call for different approaches. Summary: Two decades ago, extensive research led Nohria, the former dean of Harvard Business School, to conclude that the hallmark of great leadership is the ability to adapt to the times. Today, he says, we’re in a period of significant change, thanks to global events, governmental…