Management & Leadership

Capture Your Audience Right Away

By Harvard Business ReviewSept. 27, 20120

A successful presentation relies on an engaged audience, which you need to hook from the start. Open with a comment, question, relevant story, statement, or example that will get your audience’s attention. Then use the rest of the opening to define the purpose of the presentation and briefly preview your main points. You also need to

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6 Habits of Extraordinary Bosses

By Geoffrey JamesSept. 27, 20120

For the past two decades, I’ve been interviewing and observing successful C-level executives to discover the secrets of their success.

In a previous post, I documented the core beliefs of extraordinary bosses. Now it’s time …

Bring Out Quieter Voices on Your Team

By Harvard Business ReviewSept. 26, 20120

In groups it’s often the non-expert, the outlier, or the person who isn’t in charge who has the most interesting idea. You need to structure ways to hear that person or you will always drown him out.

Get Feedback, Even If You’re the Boss

By Harvard Business ReviewSept. 25, 20120

The higher up in the organization you get, the less likely you are to receive constructive feedback on your ideas, performance, or strategy. But you need input from others to get better.

Out of Time? Give Some Away

By Harvard Business ReviewSept. 24, 20120

It’s counterintuitive but true: Spending time helping others leaves you feeling as if you have more time, not less. Research shows that giving to others can make you feel more “time affluent” and less time-constrained than if you choose to waste your extra time or spend it on yourself.

Give Employees Freedom, Within Limits

By Harvard Business ReviewSept. 21, 20120

All managers need to decide how much latitude to give their employees. On one hand, micromanagement is demeaning and frustrating to capable employees. On the other, your job as a supervisor is to give your direct reports the support they need.

Start Your New Client Relationship Right

By Harvard Business ReviewSept. 20, 20120

A client often decides whether to trust you, rely on you — and ultimately give you more business — based on your first few days or weeks of working together. Here are three ways to set up the relationship for success:

Match Your Presentation to Your Audience

By Harvard Business ReviewSept. 19, 20120

Every public speaking expert will tell you to get to know your audience ahead of time. But what do you do with that information? You need to adjust your presentation to meet their needs in several ways:

Make Decisions Simpler for Your Customers

By Harvard Business ReviewSept. 18, 20120

When asked, consumers almost always say they want more options. But their purchasing behavior often indicates otherwise.

Manage a Diverse and Dispersed Team

By Harvard Business ReviewSept. 12, 20120

Teams that come together across different units and time zones to do project-based work rarely have time to build the trust that has long been considered the foundation of good teamwork. Here’s how to manage a team working on the fly:

That’s Some Quirky Marketing Strategy: CEO Calls His Customers ‘Idiots’

By Brad TuttleSept. 11, 20120

Michael O’Leary, the CEO of the fee-happy European airline Ryanair, isn’t scared of a little controversy. In fact, he seems to actively welcome it, periodically making outrageous statements (“The best thing you can do with environmentalists is shoot them”) and announcing possible new money-makers for the airline such as in-flight porn …

Why Projects Work Better than Interviews

By Harvard Business ReviewSept. 11, 20120

Can you really find out what you need to know about a job candidate in an hour-long interview? Probably not. No amount of interviewing, reference checking, and psychological testing is a substitute for actually working with a candidate on a real project. Next time you’re hiring, consider giving your top candidates a constrained project …