The most promising candidates in your company may not be where you expect.

Digitization may be necessary for many businesses'' continued success, but in our increasingly complex world, what companies really need to do is build new forms of competitive advantage and transform themselves for the future. And that requires fundamental changes in their top leaders--not just in individuals'' capabilities but in the way they collectively steer the ship. Drawing on their research at 12 prominent global firms, the .....more

Professional growth can get stymied for all sorts of reasons. But one of the most important is rarely discussed: You''re contending with ghosts from your past. Early in life, family dynamics give rise to many fundamental behaviors and attitudes toward authority, mastery, and identity. When similar dynamics emerge at work, people often revert to childhood patterns. To enable change in the personal realm, psychologists often encourage clients .....more

As people develop competence in a new domain of expertise, they move along an S Curve: Growth is slow and effortful at the outset, or launch point. It then progresses rapidly as people acquire new skills in a stretch known as the sweet spot. At the peak is mastery, when work becomes easier but the curve flattens. Understanding where your employees are on this S Curve of Learning will help you coach them appropriately, craft thoughtful succession plans, .....more

You have a great idea--a product tweak that will save your company money, a process change to increase your team''s productivity, or a plan for heading off a looming crisis. There''s just one snag: You''re not sure how to approach your boss about it, or worse, you''ve tried and failed to get the attention of higher-ups. According to the author''s research, two factors are key to a successful pitch: having the .....more

The actor, director, and entrepreneur on making choices and taking risks.

In January 2011, China-based Joyson Automotive Group (Joyson) acquired Preh GmbH (Preh), a German manufacturer of high-end automotive components. While Joyson had lower capabilities in areas such as management and engineering, it was able to ensure a successful acquisition of the more competent firm Preh after years of careful planning and relationship building. Joyson had grown over 14 years to become a US$10 billion manufacturing company by continuously .....more

Niccol was the CEO of Taco Bell before he became the chief executive of Chipotle, in 2018. He had watched Chipotle''s launch and rise with fascination and had enjoyed its burritos and bowls. But now he saw that it needed to get its business back on track fast. Customer lines were moving slowly. Some workers didn''t seem properly trained. The marketing was unmemorable. Niccol and his team focused on strengthening the company''s .....more

A role transition, whether it''s a promotion, a move to a new organization, or a fresh challenge in an existing job, can be a huge boost to one''s career. But in today''s hyper-collaborative and dynamic workplaces, successful moves aren''t as easy as they once were, even for the most qualified, hardworking people. After analyzing employee relationships and communication patterns across more than 100 diverse companies, .....more

Despite their embrace of agile methods, many firms striving to innovate are struggling to produce breakthrough ideas. A key culprit, according to the authors, is an outdated, inefficient approach to decision-making. Today''s discovery-driven innovation processes involve an unprecedented number of choices, from which ideas to pursue to countless decisions about how to conduct experiments, what data to collect, and so on. But these choices are .....more