Jorg Greuel/Getty Images IN BRIEF When left unchallenged, our rapid conclusions about others become entrenched beliefs that feel like facts, creating a self-reinforcing cycle in which we notice only evidence that confirms our existing stories. Breaking the cycle requires intentional curiosity—noticing when emotions arise, identifying the “story” driving those feelings, and deliberately climbing back down your ladder to consider alternative explanations. Leaders who master this skill build stronger relationships, make better decisions, and collaborate more effectively by avoiding the trap of faulty assumptions and snap judgments. “The human mind rarely operates in a rational fashion, and our judgments are seldom […] The post Leading with Empathy: How Understanding Your Ladder of Inference Strengthens Your Leadership appeared first on Harvard Business Publishing.

Jorg Greuel/Getty Images IN BRIEF Effective leadership requires balancing strategic agility (adapting swiftly to change) and strategic consistency (upholding core principles). Leaders can achieve this balance by leveraging emerging technologies and cultivating a culture of continuous learning. Mastering this equilibrium enables organizations to navigate volatility, ensuring sustainable growth and long-term resilience. Whats out of date is the idea that a leader should adopt a fixed leadership style thats agnostic to the specific context in which he or she is operating. A single approach to leadership, whether traditional or emerging, is not going to meet the myriad of challenges that todays []The post Architecting the Future: Why Leaders Must Balance Strategic Agility and Consistency appeared first on Harvard Business Publishing.

As we celebrate International Womens Day, were shining a spotlight on influential women who are inspiring change and shaping the future. Lorna Tangirala is one of the general managers of Amazon Customer Service, Stores (ACSS). She is also the DEI lead for ACSS for India. Her approach to leadership centers on relationships, authenticity, and finding the right kind of confidence for herself. In this exclusive interview, Tangirala reflects on her leadership journey, sharing the defining moments that shaped her, the challenges shes overcome, and the values that guide her. She describes the importance of mentors in her own career and []The post Women Who Lead: An Interview with Lorna Tangirala, General Manager at Amazon, on Developing Confident Leaders appeared first on Harvard Business Publishing.

DNY59/Getty Images Successful leaders evolve and adapt their management strategy over time. Nearly two-thirds of the 1,134 learning and development and human resources professionals who participated in Harvard Business Publishing Corporate Learnings 2024 Global Leadership Development Study said its important that leaders become more willing to adapt their behaviors to meet business needs. And more than half said its important that leaders improve their ability to drive business results in an environment of rapid change and uncertainty. In honor of International Womens Day, we asked five seasoned women executives across the talent industryall of whom have engaged with Harvard []The post 7 Leadership Lessons from Women Leading Change in Learning and Development appeared first on Harvard Business Publishing.

Qi Yang/Getty Images Across industries and geographies, women leaders are challenging conventional ideas about leadershipwhat strength looks like, the best ways to help people understand each other, and how to get team members excited about the work theyre doing. Below are five women executives in talent and learning development who have played a key role in leadership development programs co-created by Harvard Business Publishing Corporate Learning (HBPCL) and their organizationswhether as participants, sponsors, or champions of these initiatives: Takiyah Gross-Foote, VP, Talent Management, Kimberly-Clark Ashwini Kapoor, HEAD FUNCTION Learning & Development, Wipro Limited Seanna McGough, EVP, Head of Learning []The post 5 Women Leaders Who Are Shaping the Future of Learning and Development appeared first on Harvard Business Publishing.

SvetaZi/Getty Images IN BRIEF: AI-First Leadership: Leaders must reimagine how humans and AI collaborate to harness AIs potential and bridge the gap between technological capabilities and strategic goals. Role of Midlevel Leaders: Midlevel leaders are crucial in driving strategy execution and enabling transformational change by embedding AI into personal practices, team workflows, and cross-functional processes. Developing AI-First Capabilities: Organizations need to invest in a structured developmental journey for leaders, focusing on building foundational AI knowledge, cultivating an AI-first mindset, honing AI-specific skills, and leading with confidence. In the era of generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI), leaders across industries are realizing []The post AI-First Leadership: Embracing the Future of Work appeared first on Harvard Business Publishing.

twomeows/Getty Images IN BRIEF In previous posts on transforming leadership development, we addressed the challenge of enabling leaders to grow beyond merely enhancing their skills. This post is the sixth in a series on our findings. Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything. George Bernard Shaw Over the past several months, we have been speaking with leaders at all levels of organizations about change and transformation. One challenge is common to all of them, regardless of their level, their organization, or even their industry: leading through an ongoing evolution. []The post Transforming Leadership Development: Building Leadership Capacity to Change Paradigms and Patterns appeared first on Harvard Business Publishing.

IN BRIEF Our report on Leadership Fitness described four key underlying capacities that are necessary for leaders to thrive in todays leadership environment. And in our 2024 Global Leadership Development Study, we outlined a process for building leadership capacityan approach that goes deeper than traditional management development sessions commonly used to impart new skills and capabilities to leaders. In previous posts, we described the challenge of helping leaders grow beyond just building their skills.This post is the fifth in a series on our findings. Change at a Deeper Level As weve seen, great ideas and fresh thinking alone []The post Transforming Leadership Development: Building Leadership Capacity to Manage Polarities and Paradoxes appeared first on Harvard Business Publishing.

IN BRIEF Potentializing people is one of four key objectives for leadership development we identified in our recent study of more than 1,000 leadership development professionals on the forces, trends, and emerging approaches for equipping leaders to meet the demands they face today. This post is the fourth in a series on our findings. In July, the International Monetary Fund released a report showing that global growth is facing some serious headwinds.[i] The impact of demographic trends on the workforce and supply chain health continues to weigh on economies around the world. People feel replaceable and perceive greater instability in []The post Time to Transform Leadership Development: Why Potentializing People Is the New Employee Engagement appeared first on Harvard Business Publishing.

IN BRIEF Managing polarities and paradoxes is one of four key objectives for leadership development we identified in our recent study of more than 1,000 leadership development professionals on the forces, trends, and emerging approaches for equipping leaders to meet the demands they face today. This post is the third in a series on our findings. Whats more important to your organization: maintaining stability or driving transformation? How about cost containment vs. investment for growth? Or centralization for scale and efficiency vs. decentralization to stay close to the customer? Improving short-term results vs. achieving long-term goals? And what about fostering []The post Transforming Leadership Development: How to Manage Polarities and Paradoxes appeared first on Harvard Business Publishing.

IN BRIEF: Research shows that organizations with leaders who achieve high character scores have an average return on assets five times higher than those with low character scores. Leadership character extends beyond just ethics and includes traits like compassion, willingness to serve others, and forgiveness. Character plays a significant role in decision making and performance, and its important for leaders at all levels, not just those in senior roles. When we think of leaders who possess character, we typically envision ethical behaviors such as telling the truth, standing up for whats right, and treating others fairly. The notion of ethics []The post The Case for Leadership Character appeared first on Harvard Business Publishing.

IN BRIEF: Leadership development initiatives are most effective when they focus on performance outcomes that support a key business priority, like revenue increase. Leadership development program content and design should be tailored to different leadership levels for maximum relevance and engagement. Data should be collected before, during, and after the program to measure progress and optimize for impact. As organizations evolve in response to technological advancement, external events, and generational paradigm shifts, it can feel like the only constant for leaders is change. If so, there is no greater leadership asset than the drive to keep learning. And there []The post How to Create a Successful Leadership Development Program appeared first on Harvard Business Publishing.

IN BRIEF: Choose one key business priority to drive your learning initiative and use it as a filter for determining targetedleadership development goals. For maximum impact, focus on a limited number of highly impactful behaviors and outcomes. Choose specific and measurable success indicators to track before, during, and after the program. When organizations come to Harvard Business Publishing Corporate Learning, they are usually in the process of transformation. They know that although transformation sounds lofty, its success is largely determined by day-to-day actions. A recent McKinsey study concurs: Organizations with successful transformations are more likely than others to embed transformation []The post How to Define Impactful Leadership Development Goals appeared first on Harvard Business Publishing.

IN BRIEF: The most significant barrier to human-centered leadershipand to effective leadership in generalis that leaders may lack certain underlying capacities required to operate in this new environment. We identified four capacities leaders must developwhat we call the four dimensions of Leadership Fitness: Balance, Strength, Flexibility, and Endurance. Each dimension has an aspect of seeing differently, making sense of what is happening all around, as well as leading differently, and taking purposeful action. Even those of us who dont watch much (or any) college basketball have probably heard of Caitlin Clark. She recently broke the all-time NCAA basketball scoring record []The post Leadership Fitness: Four Capacities Leaders Must Develop appeared first on Harvard Business Publishing.

IN BRIEF: When designing a leadership development program, your audience should feel seen and heard in the assessment process. Their insights and feedback improve program relevance, engagement, and trust. Assessment isnt just for learners. Examining the organizational capacity for change can help remove obstacles to individual success. Mid-program assessment during a pilot allows L&D teams to course correct and monitor the path to realizing goals and impact. Employers predict that 44% of workplace skills will be disrupted in the next five years, and the rapid rise of AI this year alone might make that a conservative estimate. What we know []The post How to Assess Leadership Skills for a Leadership Development Program appeared first on Harvard Business Publishing.

IN BRIEF: Research shows that the four dimensions of leadership fitness: Balance, Strength, Flexibility, and Endurance, can be cultivated over time. The learning cycle for leadership fitness development: Challenge Thinking, Develop Strategies, and Test Approaches, differs from traditional skill building. The importance of ongoing intentional development of leadership fitness at both individual and organizational levels, aiming for leaders to thrive in the dynamic landscape of modern leadership. In the previous post, we introduced you to the four dimensions of leadership fitness that were uncovered in our recent researchBalance, Strength, Flexibility and Endurance.[i] We referred to these dimensions as capacitiesunderlying qualities []The post How to Develop Leadership Fitness in Your Organization appeared first on Harvard Business Publishing.

IN BRIEF: Human-centered leadership requires self-awareness, which can be difficult to teach. The Ladder of Inference provides a model for raising leaders self-awareness and has several additional practical applications. The Ladder of Inference supports leadership fitness by developing balance and flexibility. Contrary to popular belief, studies have shown that people do not always learn from experience, that expertise does not help people root out false information, and that seeing ourselves as highly experienced can keep us from doing our homework, seeking disconfirming evidence, and questioning our assumptions.[i] Boost Self-awareness with the Ladder of Inference A recent study by Harvard []The post The Ladder of Inference: Building Self-Awareness to Be A Better Human-Centered Leader appeared first on Harvard Business Publishing.

IN BRIEF: Helping Gen Z workers find fulfillment at work to attract and retain this generation involves creating a positive company culture and taking a human-centered approach. Asking questions about how to best support Gen Z early-career professionals and encouraging them to define what success looks like to them are key. In the end, Gen Z workers should take responsibility for their personal and professional growth and understand that they are in the drivers seat when it comes to managing their career. Who Are the Early-Career Professionals? Early career typically refers to the initial stage of a persons professional journey []The post How to Help Gen Z Early-Career Professionals Navigate Their Careers appeared first on Harvard Business Publishing.

IN BRIEF Widening leadership skill sets is one of four key objectives for leadership development we identified in our recent study across more than 1,000 leadership development professionals on the forces, trends, and emerging approaches for equipping leaders to meet the demands they face today. This post is the first of a series on our findings. In the world of music, jazz artists are revered as a special type of musician. To effectively improvise, a jazz soloist leverages a broad and complex skill setdeep knowledge of music theory and modes, excellent technique and execution on the instrument, a repertoire of []The post Transforming Leadership Development: Why Widening Skill Sets is Crucial for Todays Leaders appeared first on Harvard Business Publishing.

IN BRIEF Challenging patterns and paradigms is one of four key objectives for leadership development we identified in our recent study across more than 1,100 leadership development professionals regarding the forces, trends, and emerging approaches for equipping leaders to meet the demands they face today. This post is the second in a series on our findings. Like many of you, Ive recently spent many hours watching Olympic coverage. Im struck by how many of these athletes have faced challenges and obstacles in the years leading up to these Paris games. But were also watching them overcome obstacles right in front []The post Time to Transform Leadership Development: Why Leaders Must Challenge Their Patterns and Paradigms appeared first on Harvard Business Publishing.