Podcast · 52 episodes
HBR On Leadership, page 2
by Harvard Business Review · English
Leadership isn’t just a personality trait, it’s a set of skills that you can build. Whether you’re managing up or motivating a team, HBR On Leadership is your destination for insights and inspiration from the world’s top leadership practitioners and experts. Every Wednesday, the editors at the Harvard Business Review hand-picked case studies and conversations with global business leaders, management experts, academics, from across HBR to help you unlock the best in those around you.
All episodes, page 2
How to Strengthen Your Focus When Demands Never Let UpWhy people feel distracted under unending demands, how attention works (orienting “flashlight,” alerting “floodlight,” executive control “juggler”), and how mindfulness meditation can stabilize focus…7 Jan 2026 · 27 min · 11 chapters
What Actually Works to Change Someone’s MindHow to change someone’s mind by easing resistance instead of pushing harder, using Jonah Berger’s framework of five barriers and matching tactics (reactance, endowment, distance, corroborating…31 Dec 2025 · 23 min · 9 chapters
How the Best Leaders Develop and Spend “Innovation Capital”How leaders turn unproven ideas into reality by building “innovation capital” (credibility and influence), and how to spend it wisely to win backing across teams and without formal authority.24 Dec 2025 · 21 min · 17 chapters
What Jargon Says About Your Company CultureHow workplace jargon spreads and what it signals about company culture; how leaders can choose clearer, more inclusive language; and how English functions as a global business language.17 Dec 2025 · 27 min · 9 chapters
Setting Goals for Your Team When the Path Isn’t ClearCoaching a first-time “manager of managers” on setting and pacing multi-year team goals amid ambiguity, leadership transitions, and collaborator-dependent timelines.10 Dec 2025 · 58 min · 21 chapters
Bring More Discipline to Your Decision-MakingHow to improve decision-making on complex problems by avoiding cognitive biases and using a structured method (the “4S” process: state the problem, structure it, generate solutions, then sell/test…3 Dec 2025 · 20 min · 9 chapters
Communicating Clearly When You’re Under StressHow to communicate clearly and persuasively when you’re stressed, overtired, burned out, or emotionally reactive—covering listening, calming yourself, deciding “go/no-go,” handling tough messages,…26 Nov 2025 · 35 min · 16 chapters
How to Scale What’s Working at Your CompanyHow leaders scale “what’s working” without losing quality—spreading excellence across locations, teams, and time while avoiding complexity, bureaucracy, and culture drift.19 Nov 2025 · 15 min · 8 chapters
The “Hidden Blockers” That Are Limiting Your Leadership PotentialWomen at Work episode on Muriel Wilkins’ idea of “hidden blockers”—internal beliefs that limit leadership potential.12 Nov 2025 · 33 min · 16 chapters
Why Purpose Is Foundational in LeadershipOrganizational and personal purpose as the foundation of leadership, motivation, culture, and profit; how to align “why” with “what,” avoid performative CSR, and help people find their “life’s work.”5 Nov 2025 · 24 min · 12 chapters
How Design Thinking Unlocks CreativityThe episode narrates Jean Litka’s HBR article “Why Design Thinking Works,” arguing design thinking is a “social technology” that enables innovation by creating a flow from customer research to…29 Oct 2025 · 26 min · 9 chapters
How Business Leaders Can Help Solve the World’s Toughest ProblemsRosabeth Moss Kanter argues that business leaders should actively help solve global problems (climate change, inequality, political division) by using organizational power and building coalitions…22 Oct 2025 · 24 min · 8 chapters
How Better Contracts Can Strengthen Strategic PartnershipsHow relational contracts (a “playbook” of guiding principles plus governance) can strengthen long-term strategic partnerships versus traditional “bulletproof” contracts that try to cover every…15 Oct 2025 · 22 min · 7 chapters
Leading a Team When the Strategy Keeps ChangingHow to lead an internal consulting team when leadership strategy keeps changing, creating ambiguity about priorities, motivation, and direction.8 Oct 2025 · 51 min · 21 chapters
Cultivating an Experimental Mindset in Your OrganizationHow leaders can cultivate an experimental mindset by designing rigorous experiments, empowering people to run them, and using results to make decisions rather than relying on intuition or “highest…1 Oct 2025 · 25 min · 12 chapters
Moving Beyond Either-Or Decision-MakingHow leaders move beyond either-or trade-offs using integrative thinking to create “better choices” rather than compromises.24 Sep 2025 · 20 min · 6 chapters
The Types of Questions Every Leader Should AskHow leaders can strengthen trust, information exchange, and persuasion by asking better questions—especially follow-up questions—and how to tailor question style for cooperative vs competitive…17 Sep 2025 · 22 min · 15 chapters
What It Takes to Join Your First BoardHow women land their first board seat and succeed once onboard—covering preparation, speaking up, navigating board culture, committee roles, time/risks, and how recruitment really works (networking,…10 Sep 2025 · 48 min · 23 chapters
Change How Your Colleagues See YouHow to “rebrand” professionally without losing strengths—changing colleagues’ perceptions of leadership, expertise, and ambition.3 Sep 2025 · 32 min · 17 chapters
The Risks of Putting People on Too Many Project TeamsThe episode explains risks of multi-teaming—staffing the same people across many project teams.27 Aug 2025 · 25 min · 10 chapters
Make a Mid-Career Industry Change with ConfidenceStrategies for making a mid-career switch from one industry to another with confidence, especially when you can’t afford missteps.20 Aug 2025 · 55 min · 25 chapters
How to Make Fractional Leadership WorkFractional leadership—senior executives (e.g., C-suite roles) work for multiple organizations in limited time to replace or complement full-time hires; how it’s working, why it’s growing, risks, and…13 Aug 2025 · 30 min · 16 chapters
Step Up from Middle Management to Senior LeadershipHow mid-level managers—especially women and women of color—can move from middle management to senior leadership, despite “stuck” dynamics like promotion bottlenecks, bias, and unclear sponsorship.6 Aug 2025 · 52 min · 21 chapters
3 Types of Executive Team DysfunctionHow executive leadership teams fail, and what CEOs can do to fix three recurring dysfunction patterns identified from interviews with 100+ CEOs/senior executives over a ~10-year research program.30 Jul 2025 · 23 min · 8 chapters