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Built for leaders at every level
As a physical “giant,” John Amaechi has long understood how powerfully our actions can affect others. Yet, as an organizational psychologist, he emphasizes that we are all “giants” in our own way. We each leave an impact, even through actions that may feel small to us. In fact, Amaechi suggests it is often those very small gestures that carry the greatest meaning for others — like ripples on the surface of a lake, spreading farther than we ever realize.
Strategic thinking — the ability to envision a better future and chart a course to achieve it — is essential for modern leadership. And with his “Six Disciplines of Strategic Thinking” framework, Michael Watkins brings clarity to this multifaceted skill. Yet even with a solid framework, strategy remains difficult. Our brains have limits, and without a full view of the landscape, we risk overlooking key insights or falling prey to bias. That’s where AI can help. Join Watkins as he shows how AI can serve as a powerful thought partner across all six disciplines.
A world shaped by non-human intelligence is quickly becoming our reality. AI isn’t just a tool — it’s a force transforming what’s possible, uncovering strategies beyond human imagination, and altering how we engage with information. As many rush ahead, Professor Yuval Noah Harari urges us to slow down and ask critical questions: What will coexisting with a new creative entity mean? How can we lead responsibly in an AI-driven world? And what must we do to harness AI’s power while safeguarding what makes us human? Our answers to such questions will profoundly affect the contours of humanity’s future.
If your job involves selling something for a living, you already know the importance of making customers feel listened to and cared for. So why up the ante and engage in what restaurateur Will Guidara calls “unreasonable hospitality”? Because being relentless in making others feel valued might be your best competitive advantage – especially in a business landscape stuffed with competitors constantly offering the latest and greatest version of your product or service. Luckily, being “unreasonable” doesn’t have to be draining; it can be creative, generative, and even systematizable.
You know it when you feel it … that sensation of being “at your best.” Tasks flow. To-do lists are crushed. And the sense of accomplishment that follows spurs even more energy. Psychologist Daniel Goleman calls this the “optimal state.” And he says you don’t have to wait for it to appear magically; you can conjure it yourself by invoking mindfulness, focus, and emotional intelligence – as an individual, a team, and an organization.
What is “strategic thinking”? In a nutshell, Michael Watkins’ research suggests that “it means looking beyond the present situation and thinking critically and creatively about the many potential futures.” Sounds great in theory. But how do you actually do it? Watkins has an answer for that, too. He breaks his overarching, forward-looking mindset into six specific disciplines you can practice to build your strategic thinking intentionally and holistically.
Hospitality is often viewed as something to extend to customers or guests. But restaurateur Will Guidara doesn’t want you to stop there. By extending hospitality to your employees as well, you make them feel seen and heard, enabling them to bring their best selves to work. His approach to building such a culture centers on embracing shared values, purposeful communication, and prioritizing everyone’s well-being.
Big things can still happen in big cities. But author Nathalie Molina Niño says you can also grow your business by seeking out underserved markets in smaller locales. And you can improve your organization from within by adopting an entrepreneur’s scrappy approach to locating low-cost resources and forging partnerships that position you to succeed at scale.
Ethnographer and leadership expert Simon Sinek says that successful people and businesses are driven by a sense of purpose. For the individual on a career path, starting with this “why” is an ongoing process of seeking that sense of purpose and being honest about where it does and doesn’t exist for them. For organizations, starting with why means creating a purpose-driven environment that nurtures each employee’s individual quest.
Change is a constant, in business as well as life. Professor Rita McGrath says the trick is spotting the big changes before they pass you by.
Many a successful company has tried to do business in China and failed. Author Weijian Shan says it’s not a foregone conclusion, though, especially if you do your homework and find a well-connected local partner.
Key performance indicators (KPIs) were originally designed as a narrow “command and control” mechanism to help chief financial officers track financial metrics and keep other departments in line. But MIT’s Michael Schrage says KPIs have evolved into dynamic tools for inspiring an entire organization to steer toward precise future targets.
Fostering business relationships is an important part of leadership, and Emil Michael suggests that expanding our emotional intelligence is a key component to nurturing those relationships effectively. By cultivating qualities such as forthrightness, self-awareness, empathy, and cultural competence, we can build teams and forge connections that help everyone, including ourselves, feel more known, heard, and ready to spark innovation.
Ginni Rometty, the former president and CEO of IBM, believes that power should be wielded in a way that enables respect, unity, and progress. After years of seeing power used to create a culture of fear or selfishness, she established five principles for leading in a way that has a positive impact on people, organizations, and the world — or as she calls it, leading with “good power.”
Every management decision is built on assumptions or models about what works in business. What if our models are wrong? In this class, strategy consultant and author Roger Martin challenges dominant management models and proposes alternatives.
Making the transition into a new leadership role can require precarious maneuvering. To make sure you thrive and succeed at achieving your objectives, Michael Watkins recommends cultivating a deep understanding of the organization’s culture. Additionally, assessing the organization’s circumstances and needs will help you evolve your team and your leadership style accordingly. By following Watkins’ advice, you can gain the support of superiors and reports while navigating this process.
Traditionally, risk assessment emphasizes anticipating threats so you can prepare to prevent or mitigate them. But while we can forecast the future in any number of ways, it’s not obligated to conform to our projections (and rarely does). Retired general Stanley McChrystal recommends a different approach: Focus on minimizing your vulnerabilities by strengthening your organization’s “risk immune system,” specifically its ability to detect, assess, respond to, and learn from emerging threats — whether you knew they were coming or not.
It’s easy to take credit when everything is running smoothly, but when times get tough, only true leaders shoulder the responsibility, assume command, and proclaim, “I’ve got this!” As CEO of ServiceNow Bill McDermott notes, that level of accountability is mandatory. The right to win isn’t given; it’s earned.
Humans are hardwired for hierarchy, but we want a leader we can respect, not just someone to follow. To earn that respect, leaders must be clear about why they want to lead. They also have to be human. If they demonstrate compassion and loyalty to their team, says leadership consultant Simon Sinek, their team will return that commitment in spades.
People used to think a leader is strong, the most intelligent person in the room, and driven by the pursuit of money, fame, or power. Today, we are renovating this cultural antique. And Bill George, former chairman and CEO of Medtronic, says the key is to explore an overlooked essence of leadership: authenticity.
Complexity. This one word sums up the core challenge every organization faces today. To overcome it, people need training to cultivate equanimity, flexibility, and clear thinking. According to Harvard psychologist Susan David, this kind of training, more than any other, will unlock you and your team’s true potential.
Meet Dan Pontefract, “Chief Envisioner” at TELUS, a $12 billion communications firm with one of the highest employee engagement rates in the industry. At TELUS, good leadership is a core part of company culture, distributed throughout the organization. In this masterclass, Pontefract explores why and how to engage your talent with a sense of common purpose, and he empowers the individual to take the lead in finding purpose in her work. He also introduces you to his Collaborative Leader Action Model. It’s a 6-step process for humane and connected leadership on any project, and it begins, appropriately enough, with human connection. Click the following links to download discussion guides for Individual Contributors, Team Managers, and Senior Leaders.
Aristotle once called man a political animal by nature. In the 21st-century, this means negotiating a complex network of relationships while managing the increasingly difficult challenges of a fast-changing environment. Your career success, argues Harvard Business School professor Linda Hill, will be determined by how well you manage the social and political dynamics associated with organizational life.
How do you recognize power gaps within your organization and adjust your leadership style accordingly? How do you engage a rapidly changing workforce? Answering these questions is essential for leaders navigating today’s fast-paced and globalized world. Jane Hyun, founder and president of Hyun & Associates, will help you discover how.
Intelligence isn’t enough in a complex marketplace. Leading organizations must harness their human potential through creative problem-solving. But for many, mind sharing with those who think differently is a serious challenge—one Angie McArthur says you can overcome through collaborative intelligence.
Modern business and modern warfare have more than a few things in common. In both settings, you have to adapt to unpredictable tactics and changing conditions. Retired General Stanley McChrystal and his former right-hand officer Chris Fussell suggest the best way to do so is to deemphasize traditional hierarchy and adopt a “team of teams” approach.
So, you’re ready to lead your team. But where? Robert Kaplan, former President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, says the destination is up to you. If you’re not intentional about choosing it, though, you’re likely to lose your way — and get everyone else off-track, too.
Trust is an invaluable resource that fuels collaboration, creativity, and productivity while bonding employees, leadership, and the mission into a whole greater than the sum of its parts. And this doesn’t come about by accident. According to Joel Peterson, former chairman of JetBlue, you have to actively nurture a “high-trust organization.”
There’s always a new management trend on the horizon, a so-called silver bullet promising to boost productivity or make collaboration effortless. HR expert Josh Bersin has seen them all. But his research tells a different story: lasting impact doesn’t come from chasing trends. It comes from strengthening the foundational ways people work together. In this expert class, you’ll uncover the “secrets” that set great organizations apart and how to lead the way in putting them into practice.
A glaring irony in many professions and organizations is that the skills it takes to get noticed and promoted aren’t necessarily the ones needed to succeed once you’ve landed a leadership role. And as the one “in charge,” it can feel difficult to ask for support. Luckily, Adam Bryant has spent decades picking the brains of hundreds of CEOs, and he’s learned what it takes. His extensive research into the qualities that make senior leaders effective offers valuable insight to anyone wanting to make the leadership “leap.”
In the high-stakes world of espionage, operatives rely on a blend of strategy and psychology to navigate complex situations and achieve their objectives — principles that have the potential to transform your approach to business and leadership. Join former CIA officer Andrew Bustamante to explore how to leverage intelligence, motivate others, safeguard secrets, and cultivate high-performing teams. You might even awaken your inner secret agent along the way!
We often picture the surgeon at the center of the operating room. But Atul Gawande knows firsthand that the success of any procedure depends on the coordinated work of many people. In this class, he distills the lessons he’s learned about building systems that enable teams to perform better together.
If you’ve ever watched the end credits of a film, you know how many people it takes to create a compelling product. Having lived this, filmmaker Kevin Smith emphasizes that success — in any kind of leadership role — requires inspiring collective effort. His advice for doing so? Always prioritize the people who turn your visions into reality.
Unnecessary meetings, micromanagement, overly complex procedures — these are a few common examples of the phenomenon Bob Sutton calls workplace “friction.” And while friction can feel inevitable, regularly slowing us down and causing frustration, he argues that it doesn’t have to be that way. By eliminating pointless barriers, we can streamline work, sharpen decision-making, and fuel creativity.
Leadership is an unnatural act, one that can engender feelings of self-doubt, insecurity, or indecision. In this expert class, executive coach Alisa Cohn offers a series of principles and practices to help you become a more natural leader for your team.
Leadership isn’t for the faint of heart. While it can come with lofty highs, the lows often include a relentless cycle of high-stakes decisions and tough calls (complete with a few sleepless nights). Throw in shifting market conditions or unexpected disruptions, and the challenges only intensify, testing your judgment and nerve. So how do you forge ahead? Venture capitalist Ben Horowitz suggests running toward the hard problems, not away from them.
No one is perfect at a task or skill the first time they attempt it, but luckily where someone starts doesn’t determine how far they can go with solid guidance and practice. According to organizational psychologist Adam Grant, we all have more potential than we realize. In this class, he discusses how leaders can (and should!) identify potential in their team members and then help them achieve it.
Managers often get a bad rap, dismissed as bureaucratic cogs while leaders are celebrated as bold visionaries. Yet both roles are essential to making an organization function effectively. So why does this unbalanced narrative persist? Suzy Welch argues it comes from an overemphasis on separating leadership and management, rather than recognizing how they intersect. The most effective team leaders, she notes, break through this false divide — knowing when to inspire broadly and when to dig into the details. The blend is so crucial, Welch even coined a term for it: “lanaging.”
Like many, acclaimed actor and director Jesse Eisenberg knows what it’s like to feel anxious and panicked on the job. He’s learned that — for him — the most effective way to handle these emotions is not to push them aside but to channel them in the direction of his desired outcome. The methods he shares, hard-earned through his experience wearing different hats in the film industry, can help us all do the tough work of managing fear and self-doubt, creating community when we’re new to leadership, and forging a flexible and unabashedly human path toward reaching our goals.