   
CEO Picks - The most popular editorials that have stood the test of time!
Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders?
 There are three popular explanations for the clear under-representation of women in management, namely: (1) they are not capable; (2) they are not interested; (3) they are both interested and capable but unable to break the glass-ceiling: an invisible career barrier, based on prejudiced stereotypes, that prevents women from accessing the ranks of power. Conservatives and chauvinists tend to endorse the first; liberals and feminists prefer the third; and those somewhere in the middle are usually drawn to the second. But what if they all missed the big picture?
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What Great Listeners Actually Do
 Chances are you think you're a good listener. People's appraisal of their listening ability is much like their assessment of their driving skills, in that the great bulk of adults think they're above average.
In our experience, most people think good listening comes down to doing three things:
- Not talking when others are speaking
- Letting others know you're listening through facial expressions and verbal sounds ("Mmm-hmm")
- Being able to repeat what others have said, practically word-for-word
In fact, much management advice on listening suggests doing these very things - encouraging listeners to remain quiet, nod and "mm-hmm" encouragingly, and then repeat back to the talker something like, "So, let me make sure I understand. What you're saying is..." However, recent research that we conducted suggests that these behaviors fall far short of describing good listening skills.
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How to Work with a Manipulative Person
 Almost everyone who's ever gone to work has had to deal with an office manipulator. Unfortunately, most employees hesitate to go public with their concerns. And with good reason: Even if they do, typical corporate responses range from wary or dismissive to actually retaliating against the victim, rather than the wrongdoer.
Unfortunately, many workplaces promote manipulators because they appear to be effective at getting things done, despite the significant costs their abuse can inflict on productivity and people over time. Particularly when you can't get the hierarchy or other authorities to intervene on your behalf, it helps to have your own approaches for coping, short of legal action.
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I teach a course on happiness at Yale: this is how to make the most of your resolutions
 Forget tough love. Adopting a positive mindset and being kind to yourself is a more effective way to make a change
To say that 2020 wasn't the best year is an understatement. For many of us, it felt like a giant global dumpster fire. Not surprisingly, the stresses of living through a pandemic have had a terrible impact on our collective mental health, with rates of depression and anxiety skyrocketing. Many of us feel we can't say goodbye to last year fast enough.
And that means we're entering 2021 with high expectations. With the promise of a vaccine and the potential for a return to normality, the start of this year has given us something we've been missing for a long time: hope. Starting over after the year we've just had feels more exciting than usual. It's a brand new chapter in our lives, in which lots of positive changes are possible.
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� | � |  | 'Bond. James Bond': Video reveals shockingly simple trick behind most famous movie quotes
 What: The first entry in a series looking at what makes classic movie lines so classic.
Who: Etymology expert Mark Forsyth and YouTube's Little White Lies.
Why we care: Nothing extends a movie's shelf life like quotability. If a line from a movie still shows up 20 years after its release, be it in conversations between friends or as a reference in Jeopardy! answers, then that movie has etched itself into the cultural fabric of history. But what makes a movie line quotable? This is a question that etymologist Mark Forsyth has thought about more than most.
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We've Known How to Combat Dementia For Years -- We're Just Not Listening
 We're still waiting for that shiny pill to cure us. What if we never find it?
When I started working in my first lab researching Alzheimer's Disease, I was idealistic, determined the field would find a cure for the insidious disease in my lifetime. And I still hope we do. Alzheimer's runs in my family like it does in many families. But my time working in the field has forced me to realize that we already know how to fend off the debilitating effects of dementia. It's just not the answer we were looking for.
For years, I researched in and out of the lab. I took classes about the brain and dementia. I read neuroscience books in my leisure time. I consumed every bit of information the field offered on cognitive decline, dementia, Alzheimer's, and similar diseases. From the vagus nerve to cytokines gone wrong to demyelination, I scoured every potential source of memory loss.
And everything I read, in one way or another, pointed back to the same perpetrator: stress.
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The CEO moment: Leadership for a new era
 We have spoken with and counseled hundreds of CEOs since the pandemic first hit. It is clear to us that they sense an opportunity to lead in a new, more positive and impactful way. If a critical mass of CEOs embraces and extends what they have learned during the pandemic, this CEO moment could become a CEO movement - one that is profoundly positive for the achievement of corporate, human, and societal potential. As Rajnish Kumar, chairman of the State Bank of India, reflects, "This will be a true inflection point. I think that this pandemic, in terms of implications, will be as big an event as World War II. And whatever we learn through this process, it must not go to waste."
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Fighting Against Dictatorship
 Dictatorial types gain and maintain power through a number of social processes and psychological dynamics.
From our Palaeolithic roots onwards, dictators - whether they led tribes, fiefdoms, countries, religions or organisations - have always been with us. We have always been attracted to individuals who appear strong. Some people are easily persuaded to give up their freedoms for an imaginary sense of stability and protection, not to mention an illusion of restored greatness.
Generally speaking, times of social unrest have always been the feeding ground for dictators. Periods of economic depression, political or social chaos give dictators the opportunity to appear as saviour and, when conditions allow it, seize power by coup d'etat or other means. Their populist demagoguery can seduce broad swathes of the population. However, most of their inflated promises turn out to be no more than hot air. So how is it that they're able to gain and maintain power? They succeed by taking full advantage of known social processes and dynamics.
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A Framework for Leaders Facing Difficult Decisions
 Many decision-making frameworks aim to help leaders use objective information to mitigate bias, operate under time pressure, or leverage data. But these frameworks tend to fall short when it comes to decisions based on subjective information sources that suggest conflicting courses of action. And most complex decisions fall into this category.
Specifically, every complex leadership decision must balance three subjective dimensions:
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Building a Startup That Will Last
 For the past decade, growth rates have defined success for most technology companies. Moore's Law enabled unprecedented computing power, setting off a sprint in winner-take-all marketplaces with increasing returns to scale. Growth-hacking became the entrepreneurial mantra of the early 21st century, resulting in the creation of new tech giants, entirely new industries, and an era in which online community, content, and commerce have redefined how we live, learn, and work.
In a marathon, pacing and perseverance are paramount. Few companies from the tech boom of the mid-2000s had the foresight to temper their pace in anticipation of the long journey that lay ahead. Our collective obsession with disruption made us look at decades-old companies as something to dismantle rather than admire. The potential for career-defining gains got the best of many investors and advisors, and we failed to coach founders on the fundamentals of sustainability. We are only now recognizing how untenable the "move fast and break things" attitude was to become.
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50 years of tax cuts for the rich failed to trickle down, economics study says
 Tax cuts for the wealthy have long drawn support from conservative lawmakers and economists who argue that such measures will "trickle down" and eventually boost jobs and incomes for everyone else. But a new study from the London School of Economics says 50 years of such tax cuts have only helped one group - the rich.
The new paper, by David Hope of the London School of Economics and Julian Limberg of King's College London, examines 18 developed countries - from Australia to the United States - over a 50-year period from 1965 to 2015. The study compared countries that passed tax cuts in a specific year, such as the U.S. in 1982 when President Ronald Reagan slashed taxes on the wealthy, with those that didn't, and then examined their economic outcomes.
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Why You Should Create a "Shadow Board" of Younger Employees
 A lot of companies struggle with two apparently unrelated problems: disengaged younger workers and a weak response to changing market conditions. A few companies have tackled both problems at the same time by creating a "shadow board" - a group of non-executive employees that works with senior executives on strategic initiatives. The purpose? To leverage the younger groups' insights and to diversify the perspectives that executives are exposed to.
They seem to work. Consider Prada and Gucci, two fashion companies with a good track record of keeping up with - or shaping - consumer tastes. Until recently, Prada enjoyed high margins, a legendary creative director, and good growth opportunities. But since 2014, it has witnessed declining sales. In 2017, the company finally admitted that it had been "slow in realizing the importance of digital channels and the blogging online 'influencers' which are disrupting the industry." Co-CEO Patrizio Bertelli said, "We made a mistake."
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| � | | When You Know Layoffs Are Coming...
 William recalls the excruciatingly uncertain months before he finally lost his job. He had worked in the real estate sector, where his work dried up. Piece by piece his responsibilities were taken away. His companyÂÂ was not doing well, that much was evident. It was letting people go in small batches. If you didn't get tapped on a Friday, you were safe for the next week.
"We were just kind of sitting there staring at each other, waiting for the axe to fall," William says. And this waiting period was agonizing. "You ever watch like a documentary with a herd of zebra and there's a lion? The lion catches one zebra and all the other zebras are a little way off, just kind of watching." William says that's what it was like for all the other employees. "And then they're just kind of wondering when it's their turn."
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When Should You Collaborate with the Competition?
 Why don't Australians drink much whiskey? They're hardly known for being abstemious. Part of the answer is that they tend to drink beer and wine. But another part of the answer is that whiskey brands haven't made a concerted effort to get them to really try whiskey. Perhaps they should, because Australians have been lured into changing their drinking habits in the past.
Rewind to the 1960s and Australian wine consumption was way down on today's level. So, wine producers got together and educated the public on the nuances of fine wine. Now Australians are drinking four times the amount of wine they drank in 1961 and are among the largest consumers of wine on a per capita basis in the world.
This is not a one-off. Back in 1998 real men didn't eat avocados.
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Build a Family Business That Lasts
 Companies that endure do these five things right.
Given their portrayals in the media, it might be easy to dismiss family businesses as hotbeds of power playing, favor currying, and back-stabbing - preoccupations that can hurt the company, the family, or both. Think of the Murdochs and NewsCorp, or the Redstones and National Amusements, to name just two. But despite the headline-grabbing tales, many family businesses have enjoyed success for decades, even centuries. For instance, the Italian winemaker Marchesi Antinori, established in 1385, has thrived as a family business for more than 600 years. Similar examples can be found across the globe just within the alcohol business; they include Gekkeikan in Japan (founded in 1637), Berry Bros & Rudd in the United Kingdom (1698), and Jose Cuervo in Mexico (1795).
So which is it? Are family businesses prone to dramatic implosions, or are they some of the most enduring companies in existence? The answer is both. They can be much more fragile or much more resilient than their peers. Given that family businesses - companies in which two or more family members exercise control, concurrently or sequentially - represent an estimated 85% of the world's companies, ensuring their longevity is essential.
To explain the difference between those two fates, we'll delve into an area rarely explored in business schools or the media: the impact of ownership on a company's long-term success. Ownership of any asset confers the power to fundamentally shape it.
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From crop to cup: How coffee travels through its supply chain
 View a more detailed version of the above graphic by clicking here
There's a good chance your day started with a cappuccino, or a cold brew, and you aren't alone. In fact, coffee is one of the most consumed drinks on the planet, and it's also one of the most traded commodities.
According to the National Coffee Association, more than 150 million people drink coffee on a daily basis in the U.S. alone. Globally, consumption is estimated at over 2.25 billion cups per day.
But before it gets to your morning cup, coffee beans travel through a complex global supply chain. Today's illustration from Dan Zettwoch breaks down this journey into 10 distinct steps.
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| � | | The Stickiest, Most Addictive, Most Engaging, and Fastest-Growing Social Apps -- and How to Measure Them
 When a social app is working, it's often clear in the data: how many people are using the app on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis and how is the network growth trending over time? But evaluating the success - or, in our case, the potential - of a social app is not as straightforward as it seems. What does "good" look like, anyway? How do various categories of social apps stack up in terms of engagement, stickiness, and retention (and which KPIs are most important to track)? Can upstarts compete with the reigning social giants?
To answer these pressing questions, we took a deep dive into the top social apps across a dozen categories, in partnership with the app intelligence software company Apptopia.
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Why employee surveys, like political polls, are misleading
 It’s time to stop relying on old ways of gauging how people feel.
When results of the 2020 elections began to come in, a familiar question resurfaced: Why did so many polls get their predictions so wrong? The question has sparked all sorts of analysis, with Stephen Engelberg, editor-in-chief of the nonprofit news agency ProPublica, describing a "big failing."
It isn't just news media and political groups that need to take note of the mismatch between polled behavior and actual behavior. This moment should also serve as a wake-up call to businesses. The systems our society uses to measure how people feel simply aren't, at some level, working. That includes the surveys organizations use to try to gauge the sentiment of their workforces.
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How Will You Measure Your Life?
 On the last day of class, I ask my students to turn those theoretical lenses on themselves, to find cogent answers to three questions: First, how can I be sure that I'll be happy in my career? Second, how can I be sure that my relationships with my spouse and my family become an enduring source of happiness? Third, how can I be sure I'll stay out of jail? Though the last question sounds lighthearted, it's not. Two of the 32 people in my Rhodes scholar class spent time in jail. Jeff Skilling of Enron fame was a classmate of mine at HBS. These were good guys - but something in their lives sent them off in the wrong direction.
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The 15-Minute City -- No Cars Required -- Is Urban Planning's New Utopia
 From Paris to Portland, cities are attempting to give residents everything they need within a few minutes of their front doors. Can it work - without leaving anyone out?
The Minimes barracks in Paris don't look like the future of cities. A staid brick-and-limestone complex established in 1925 along a backstreet in the Marais district, it's the sort of structure you pass without a second glance in a place as photogenic as Paris.
A closer look at its courtyard, however, reveals a striking transformation. The barracks' former parking lot has become a public garden planted with saplings. The surrounding buildings have been converted to 70 unusually attractive public housing apartments, at a cost of €12.3 million ($14.5 million). Elsewhere in the revamped complex are offices, a day-care facility, artisan workshops, a clinic, and a cafe staffed by people with autism.
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| � | | The commas that cost companies millions
 For most people, a stray comma isn't the end of the world. But in some cases, the exact placement of a punctuation mark can cost huge sums of money.
How much can a misplaced comma cost you?
If you're texting a loved one or dashing off an email to a colleague, the cost of misplacing a piece of punctuation will be "at worst" a red face and a minor mix-up.
But for some, contentious commas can be a path to the poor house.
A dairy company in the US city of Portland, Maine settled a court case for $5m earlier this year because of a missing comma.
Three lorry drivers for Oakhurst Dairy claimed that they were owed years of unpaid overtime wages, all because of the way commas were used in legislation governing overtime payments.
The state\'s laws declared that overtime wasn\'t due for workers involved in "the canning, processing, preserving, freezing, drying, marketing, storing, packing for shipment or distribution of: 1) agricultural produce; 2) meat and fish products; and 3) perishable foods".
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How can we keep the 'human' in human resources?
 Workflows and processes are obvious features when searching for the right HR tech. But what about the people on the receiving end?
With COVID-19 flipping our world upside down, the need to connect with employees has never been greater. In many organizations, HR departments have been forced to morph into digital communications experts almost overnight, and have been challenged to connect employees with the resources they need while maintaining a personal connection. There are many resources, systems and applications that can help - that's both the good and bad news.
So, how do you pick the best way to connect? Do you choose the system that simplifies employee workflows because IT invested in it heavily? Or do you choose the human capital management system that links employees to the processes (you may also know these as "journeys") they need to follow to make life easier for back-room HR departments? Or do you focus on the people who drive your business and find methods to improve their employee experience in a way that will stand the test of time?
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Room-Temperature Superconductivity Achieved for the First Time
 Physicists have reached a long-sought goal. The catch is that their room-temperature superconductor requires crushing pressures to keep from falling apart.
A team of physicists in New York has discovered a material that conducts electricity with perfect efficiency at room temperature - a long-sought scientific milestone. The hydrogen, carbon and sulfur compound operates as a superconductor at up to 59 degrees Fahrenheit, the team reported today in Nature. That's more than 50 degrees hotter than the previous high-temperature superconductivity record set last year.
"This is the first time we can really claim that room-temperature superconductivity has been found," said Ion Errea, a condensed matter theorist at the University of the Basque Country in Spain who was not involved in the work.
"It's clearly a landmark," said Chris Pickard, a materials scientist at the University of Cambridge. "That's a chilly room, maybe a British Victorian cottage," he said of the 59-degree temperature.
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| � | | Want to Be More Productive? Try Doing Less.
 We've been taught that if we want more - money, achievement, vitality, joy, peace of mind - we need to do more, to add more to our ever-growing to-do list. But what if we've been taught wrong? What if the answer to getting more of what we want isn't addition at all, but subtraction?
As it turns out, evidence supports that if we want to ramp up our productivity and happiness, we should actually be doing less. David Rock, author of Your Brain at Work, found that we're truly focused on our work a mere six hours per week, which starkly contrasts our collective buy-in to the 40-hour workweek. When you stop doing the things that make you feel busy but aren't getting you results (and are draining you of energy), then you end up with more than enough time for what matters and a sense of peace and spaciousness that constant activity has kept outside your reach.
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