The dangerous work of leading change--somebody has to do it. Will you put yourself on the line?To lead is to live dangerously. It's romantic and exciting to think of leadership as all inspiration, decisive action, and rich rewards, but leading requires taking risks that can jeopardize your career and your personal life.

It requires putting yourself on the line, disrupting the status quo, and surfacing hidden conflict. And when people resist and push back, there's a strong temptation to play i...

Contrived. Disingenuous. Phony.

Inauthentic. Do your customers use any of these words to describe what you sell--or how you sell it? If so, welcome to the club. Inundated by fakes and sophisticated counterfeits, people increasingly see the world in terms of real or fake.

They would rather buy something real from someone genuine rather than something fake from some phony. When deciding to buy, consumers judge an offering's (and a company's) authenticity as much as--if not more than--price, qua...

We live in an age of unprecedented opportunity: with ambition, drive, and talent, you can rise to the top of your chosen profession regardless of where you started out. But with opportunity comes responsibility. Companies today aren't managing their knowledge workers careers.

Instead, you must be your own chief executive officer. That means it's up to you to carve out your place in the world and know when to change course. And it's up to you to keep yourself engaged and productive during a ca...

How to assign the right tasks and empower people to tackle them. About the series: Get up to speed "fast" on essential business skills. Whether you're looking for a crash course or a brief refresher, you'll find just what you need in HBR's 20-Minute Manager series. Advice you can quickly read and apply, from the most trusted source in business.

What it takes to make your meetings productive, not painful. About the series: Get up to speed "fast" on essential business skills. Whether you're looking for a crash course or a brief refresher, you'll find just what you need in HBR's 20-Minute Manager series. Advice you can quickly read and apply, from the most trusted source in business.

In his defining work on emotional intelligence, Dan Goleman has found that it is twice as important as other competencies in determining outstanding leadership.