Products

Communication is key.

Effective communication is essential to standing out at work and excelling in your career. But when it comes to making a convincing point in a meeting, crafting the perfect email, or nailing a presentation, there's a lot to navigate. What kind of language do you use with a varied audience? Which channel is best for which message? How much do body language and Zoom backgrounds matter? And what should you not say?

Writing, Presenting, and Communicating with Confidence is filled with practical advice from HBR experts that can help you answer questions such as:

• How can I prepare for the most difficult conversations?
• What can I do to improve my writing?
• What strategies can I use to overcome my anxiety about public speaking?
• How can I boost my presence and influence through persuasive communication?

Writing, speaking, and communicating with confidence can be intimidating. This book gives you the tools to stand out and deliver your message more successfully.

Rise faster with quick reads, real-life stories, and expert advice. The HBR Work Smart Series features the topics that matter to you most in your early career, including being yourself at work, collaborating with (sometimes difficult) colleagues and bosses, managing your mental health, and weighing major job decisions. Each title includes chapter recaps and links to video, audio, and more. The HBR Work Smart Series books are your practical guides to stepping into your professional life and moving forward with confidence.

An essential work on teams—now updated with new research and tools and a new preface—X-Teams shows how an externally focused team model is the key to fueling innovation and your organization's success.

You build a team around top-notch talent. The team members work well together; they're committed to the mission and are highly motivated to perform. Yet the results are disappointing. You're not seeing creativity and flexibility. You're not getting breakthrough ideas.

"Good" teams build camaraderie, confidence in their abilities, and a solid process for working together. But these internal dynamics—while positive in themselves—can create a wall between the team and the outside world. And that wall can prevent the team from adapting to change and delivering value to the organization.

In this updated, streamlined edition, with a new preface and practical tools, Deborah Ancona and Henrik Bresman describe an externally focused team model—the x-team—that is even more relevant today than when it was first introduced. With their distinctively flexible membership and leadership structure, x-teams continuously reach outward to fuel the innovation process.

With new examples and research from organizations such as Microsoft, Takeda, and the Museum of Modern Art, Ancona and Bresman show you how to build x-teams that:

• Keep pace with shifts in markets, technologies, cultures, and your competition
• Innovate by moving quickly from generating ideas to executing and diffusing them throughout your organization
• Employ "distributed leadership" to unlock crucial information, expertise, and new ways of working together—wherever these qualities reside, whether within or outside your company

In an increasingly complex and ever-changing world, where adaptability and creativity are paramount to an enterprise's success—and even its survival—X-Teams is your handbook for winning.

An essential work on teams—now updated with new research and tools and a new preface—X-Teams shows how an externally focused team model is the key to fueling innovation and your organization's success.

You build a team around top-notch talent. The team members work well together; they're committed to the mission and are highly motivated to perform. Yet the results are disappointing. You're not seeing creativity and flexibility. You're not getting breakthrough ideas.

"Good" teams build camaraderie, confidence in their abilities, and a solid process for working together. But these internal dynamics—while positive in themselves—can create a wall between the team and the outside world. And that wall can prevent the team from adapting to change and delivering value to the organization.

In this updated, streamlined edition, with a new preface and practical tools, Deborah Ancona and Henrik Bresman describe an externally focused team model—the x-team—that is even more relevant today than when it was first introduced. With their distinctively flexible membership and leadership structure, x-teams continuously reach outward to fuel the innovation process.

With new examples and research from organizations such as Microsoft, Takeda, and the Museum of Modern Art, Ancona and Bresman show you how to build x-teams that:

• Keep pace with shifts in markets, technologies, cultures, and your competition
• Innovate by moving quickly from generating ideas to executing and diffusing them throughout your organization
• Employ "distributed leadership" to unlock crucial information, expertise, and new ways of working together—wherever these qualities reside, whether within or outside your company

In an increasingly complex and ever-changing world, where adaptability and creativity are paramount to an enterprise's success—and even its survival—X-Teams is your handbook for winning.

HBR's Antidote to the Logan Roy School of Toxic Leadership

For four unforgettable seasons, Succession has riveted viewers inside and outside the business world. Too absurd to be true, too real to truly be fiction, corporate patriarch Logan Roy, his feuding children, and the executives of Waystar Royco have kept us rapt. Every week the show has dominated office chatter and flooded Slack channels with expletive-laden memes, quotes, and insults.

But does the series offer any insights of real-world value to leaders or organizations? Can the psychological power dynamics, nine-figure negotiation tactics, and intricate M&A maneuvers actually teach us something about succeeding in business? Definitely: whatever the Roys do, do the exact opposite.

"You Can't Make a Tomelette without Breaking Some Greggs": Toxic Management Lessons from Succession (and What to Do Instead) pairs advice from HBR experts and researchers with some of the most unforgettable, hilarious, and cringey moments from the show. Featuring an introduction by workplace relationship expert Amy Gallo, author of Getting Along and the HBR Guide to Dealing with Conflict, you'll learn about:

• Giving pep talks that inspire (no f-bombs needed)
• Holding offsites that work (tip: don't play Boar on the Floor)
• Avoiding jargon and bizspeak (when the boss asks you to just feed him metadata)
• Leading with trust (what's Kendall's "wobble"?)
• And even improving succession planning (beyond never relinquishing control)

Succession has served up a billion-dollar buffet of bad business examples we can't look away from. Whether you're a superfan; you're dealing with a Kendall, Shiv, Roman, or Tom in your own life; or you're just curious about the buzz, "You Can't Make a Tomelette without Breaking Some Greggs" is HBR's spoiler-filled, occasionally profane final watch party for an iconic series.

HBR's Antidote to the Logan Roy School of Toxic Leadership

For four unforgettable seasons, Succession has riveted viewers inside and outside the business world. Too absurd to be true, too real to truly be fiction, corporate patriarch Logan Roy, his feuding children, and the executives of Waystar Royco have kept us rapt. Every week the show has dominated office chatter and flooded Slack channels with expletive-laden memes, quotes, and insults.

But does the series offer any insights of real-world value to leaders or organizations? Can the psychological power dynamics, nine-figure negotiation tactics, and intricate M&A maneuvers actually teach us something about succeeding in business? Definitely: whatever the Roys do, do the exact opposite.

"You Can't Make a Tomelette without Breaking Some Greggs": Toxic Management Lessons from Succession (and What to Do Instead) pairs advice from HBR experts and researchers with some of the most unforgettable, hilarious, and cringey moments from the show. Featuring an introduction by workplace relationship expert Amy Gallo, author of Getting Along and the HBR Guide to Dealing with Conflict, you'll learn about:

• Giving pep talks that inspire (no f-bombs needed)
• Holding offsites that work (tip: don't play Boar on the Floor)
• Avoiding jargon and bizspeak (when the boss asks you to just feed him metadata)
• Leading with trust (what's Kendall's "wobble"?)
• And even improving succession planning (beyond never relinquishing control)

Succession has served up a billion-dollar buffet of bad business examples we can't look away from. Whether you're a superfan; you're dealing with a Kendall, Shiv, Roman, or Tom in your own life; or you're just curious about the buzz, "You Can't Make a Tomelette without Breaking Some Greggs" is HBR's spoiler-filled, occasionally profane final watch party for an iconic series.

Five invaluable lessons for doing sustainability right, doing it profitably, and getting the credit you deserve.

Did the title of this book get your attention? Good. Because as silly as it is, the idea behind it is serious, earnest, and authentic: you can't become a sustainable operation if you're doing the right things in the wrong place or at the wrong time.

Many businesses are in the dark about how to actually do better for the planet and the people in their company and their supply chain while also growing their margin. Some believe it can't be done. But it can. Maisie Ganzler has done it, and now she's going to show you how to build sustainability into your business, too. Her five big lessons come from three decades of successes and failures leading a $1.7 billion corporation toward a more sustainable future. Join Ganzler as she takes you to pig farms and boardrooms, factories and farmers' markets, teaching you not only how to operate more sustainably but also how to get the credit you deserve for doing it.

No matter what industry you're in, Ganzler's stories from the front lines in the food business will inspire and educate you on what it takes to get sustainability right.

Five invaluable lessons for doing sustainability right, doing it profitably, and getting the credit you deserve.

Did the title of this book get your attention? Good. Because as silly as it is, the idea behind it is serious, earnest, and authentic: you can't become a sustainable operation if you're doing the right things in the wrong place or at the wrong time.

Many businesses are in the dark about how to actually do better for the planet and the people in their company and their supply chain while also growing their margin. Some believe it can't be done. But it can. Maisie Ganzler has done it, and now she's going to show you how to build sustainability into your business, too. Her five big lessons come from three decades of successes and failures leading a $1.7 billion corporation toward a more sustainable future. Join Ganzler as she takes you to pig farms and boardrooms, factories and farmers' markets, teaching you not only how to operate more sustainably but also how to get the credit you deserve for doing it.

No matter what industry you're in, Ganzler's stories from the front lines in the food business will inspire and educate you on what it takes to get sustainability right.

It's time for female leaders to stand out.

Women often aren't seen for their leadership potential. We face a double bind, forced to choose whether to be liked or respected, while neither one alone is enough to secure a seat at the table. It's up to organizations to change, but until then, what's an aspiring female leader to do?

You, the Leader tackles the obstacles you face as you chart your path to the top, from not getting credit for your work to feeling unseen to being subjected to unfair biases and expectations. Filled with advice, tips, and relatable conversations, this book will help you better understand how you can remain authentic while showing yourself as a valued leader in your organization.

This book will inspire you to:

• See yourself as a leader
• Develop an executive voice
• Advocate for yourself and your work
• Support the women around you

The HBR Women at Work series spotlights the real challenges and opportunities women experience throughout their careers. With interviews from the popular podcast of the same name and related articles, stories, and research, these books provide inspiration and advice for taking on topics at work like inequity, advancement, and building community. Featuring detailed discussion guides, this series will help you spark important conversations about where we're at and how to move forward.

It's time for female leaders to stand out.

Women often aren't seen for their leadership potential. We face a double bind, forced to choose whether to be liked or respected, while neither one alone is enough to secure a seat at the table. It's up to organizations to change, but until then, what's an aspiring female leader to do?

You, the Leader tackles the obstacles you face as you chart your path to the top, from not getting credit for your work to feeling unseen to being subjected to unfair biases and expectations. Filled with advice, tips, and relatable conversations, this book will help you better understand how you can remain authentic while showing yourself as a valued leader in your organization.

This book will inspire you to:

• See yourself as a leader
• Develop an executive voice
• Advocate for yourself and your work
• Support the women around you

The HBR Women at Work series spotlights the real challenges and opportunities women experience throughout their careers. With interviews from the popular podcast of the same name and related articles, stories, and research, these books provide inspiration and advice for taking on topics at work like inequity, advancement, and building community. Featuring detailed discussion guides, this series will help you spark important conversations about where we're at and how to move forward.

It's time for female leaders to stand out.

Women often aren't seen for their leadership potential. We face a double bind, forced to choose whether to be liked or respected, while neither one alone is enough to secure a seat at the table. It's up to organizations to change, but until then, what's an aspiring female leader to do?

You, the Leader tackles the obstacles you face as you chart your path to the top, from not getting credit for your work to feeling unseen to being subjected to unfair biases and expectations. Filled with advice, tips, and relatable conversations, this book will help you better understand how you can remain authentic while showing yourself as a valued leader in your organization.

This book will inspire you to:

• See yourself as a leader
• Develop an executive voice
• Advocate for yourself and your work
• Support the women around you

The HBR Women at Work series spotlights the real challenges and opportunities women experience throughout their careers. With interviews from the popular podcast of the same name and related articles, stories, and research, these books provide inspiration and advice for taking on topics at work like inequity, advancement, and building community. Featuring detailed discussion guides, this series will help you spark important conversations about where we're at and how to move forward.

"Whether you're going for that promotion, looking to jump ship, or change careers entirely, Michael Watkins' Your Next Move is a book you'll want to read." So starts the positive review of Your Next Move on the influential 800 CEO Read website. It's true that all leaders--no matter how seasoned--need guidance through the professional changes that define a career. In fact, transitions into new roles are the crucibles in which leaders get their toughest tests, and they're the defining factor in professional careers today. Yet far too often, leaders fail to transition effectively into new roles. The resulting costs are high, for individual careers and for organizations. In Your Next Move, leadership-transition guru Watkins shows how you can survive and thrive in all the major transitions you will face during your career-including promotions, leading former peers, on-boarding into a new organization, making an international move, or turning around or realigning an organization. With real-life examples and case studies, Watkins illustrates the defining hurdles associated with each type of transition. He then provides the insights, strategies, and tools you'll need to accelerate through these crucial turning points and continue moving up in your career. The necessary complement to the author's bestselling guide The First 90 Days, which has been translated in more than 20 languages worldwide, Your Next Move offers the keen observations, tried-and-true management wisdom, and practical good sense Watkins is renowned for. It's a vital resource for any manager or executive seeking to maintain career momentum. To quote the reviewer from above: "It's not just about "moving" but about what happens when those actions are taken. Success or failure are the two options, and which option you emerge with will determine what happens going forward. Watkins' book definitely has the research and insight to equip you for the better of the two paths."

"Whether you're going for that promotion, looking to jump ship, or change careers entirely, Michael Watkins' Your Next Move is a book you'll want to read." So starts the positive review of Your Next Move on the influential 800 CEO Read website. It's true that all leaders--no matter how seasoned--need guidance through the professional changes that define a career. In fact, transitions into new roles are the crucibles in which leaders get their toughest tests, and they're the defining factor in professional careers today. Yet far too often, leaders fail to transition effectively into new roles. The resulting costs are high, for individual careers and for organizations. In Your Next Move, leadership-transition guru Watkins shows how you can survive and thrive in all the major transitions you will face during your career-including promotions, leading former peers, on-boarding into a new organization, making an international move, or turning around or realigning an organization. With real-life examples and case studies, Watkins illustrates the defining hurdles associated with each type of transition. He then provides the insights, strategies, and tools you'll need to accelerate through these crucial turning points and continue moving up in your career. The necessary complement to the author's bestselling guide The First 90 Days, which has been translated in more than 20 languages worldwide, Your Next Move offers the keen observations, tried-and-true management wisdom, and practical good sense Watkins is renowned for. It's a vital resource for any manager or executive seeking to maintain career momentum. To quote the reviewer from above: "It's not just about "moving" but about what happens when those actions are taken. Success or failure are the two options, and which option you emerge with will determine what happens going forward. Watkins' book definitely has the research and insight to equip you for the better of the two paths."

You think you have a winning strategy. But do you?

Executives are bombarded with bestselling ideas and best practices for achieving competitive advantage, but many of these ideas and practices contradict each other. Should you aim to be big or fast? Should you create a blue ocean, be adaptive, play to win—or forget about a sustainable competitive advantage altogether? In a business environment that is changing faster and becoming more uncertain and complex almost by the day, it’s never been more important—or more difficult—to choose the right approach to strategy.

In this book, The Boston Consulting Group’s Martin Reeves, Knut Haanæs, and Janmejaya Sinha offer a proven method to determine the strategy approach that is best for your company. They start by helping you assess your business environment—how unpredictable it is, how much power you have to change it, and how harsh it is—a critical component of getting strategy right. They show how existing strategy approaches sort into five categories—Be Big, Be Fast, Be First, Be the Orchestrator, or simply Be Viable—depending on the extent of predictability, malleability, and harshness. In-depth explanations of each of these approaches will provide critical insight to help you match your approach to strategy to your environment, determine when and how to execute each one, and avoid a potentially fatal mismatch.

Addressing your most pressing strategic challenges, you’ll be able to answer questions such as:

• What replaces planning when the annual cycle is obsolete?
• When can we—and when should we—shape the game to our advantage?
• How do we simultaneously implement different strategic approaches for different business units?
• How do we manage the inherent contradictions in formulating and executing different strategies across multiple businesses and geographies?

Until now, no book brings it all together and offers a practical tool for understanding which strategic approach to apply. Get started today.

You think you have a winning strategy. But do you?

Executives are bombarded with bestselling ideas and best practices for achieving competitive advantage, but many of these ideas and practices contradict each other. Should you aim to be big or fast? Should you create a blue ocean, be adaptive, play to win—or forget about a sustainable competitive advantage altogether? In a business environment that is changing faster and becoming more uncertain and complex almost by the day, it’s never been more important—or more difficult—to choose the right approach to strategy.

In this book, The Boston Consulting Group’s Martin Reeves, Knut Haanæs, and Janmejaya Sinha offer a proven method to determine the strategy approach that is best for your company. They start by helping you assess your business environment—how unpredictable it is, how much power you have to change it, and how harsh it is—a critical component of getting strategy right. They show how existing strategy approaches sort into five categories—Be Big, Be Fast, Be First, Be the Orchestrator, or simply Be Viable—depending on the extent of predictability, malleability, and harshness. In-depth explanations of each of these approaches will provide critical insight to help you match your approach to strategy to your environment, determine when and how to execute each one, and avoid a potentially fatal mismatch.

Addressing your most pressing strategic challenges, you’ll be able to answer questions such as:

• What replaces planning when the annual cycle is obsolete?
• When can we—and when should we—shape the game to our advantage?
• How do we simultaneously implement different strategic approaches for different business units?
• How do we manage the inherent contradictions in formulating and executing different strategies across multiple businesses and geographies?

Until now, no book brings it all together and offers a practical tool for understanding which strategic approach to apply. Get started today.