HBR's 10 Must Reads 2022

1. Trust is the foundation of empowerment leadership

"Trust is also one of the most essential forms of capital a leader has."

Trust has three core drivers: authenticity, logic, and empathy. Leaders build trust when people believe they are interacting with the real person, have faith in their judgment and competence, and feel cared for. To identify your "trust wobble," reflect on recent moments when you weren't trusted as much as desired. Analyze patterns across multiple incidents to determine if you struggle with authenticity, logic, or empathy.

Overcoming trust wobbles requires targeted strategies:

• For empathy: Focus on others' needs in meetings, put away your phone
• For logic: Root arguments in sound evidence, learn from others
• For authenticity: Reveal your full humanity, take care of those different from you

2. Cultural innovation transforms category value propositions

"Cultural innovations are embodied in distinctive products or services, to be sure, but also in founders' speeches, packaging, ingredients, retail design, media coverage, and even philanthropy."

Cultural innovation redefines value: Unlike better-mousetraps innovation focused on outperforming competitors on existing metrics, cultural innovation changes the understanding of what is considered valuable. This approach allowed Ford's Explorer to reinvent the family car category and Blue Buffalo to transform dog food culture.

Steps for cultural innovation:

1. Deconstruct the category's culture
2. Identify the Achilles' heel
3. Mine the cultural vanguard
4. Create an ideology challenging the weakness
5. Showcase symbols dramatizing the ideology

3. Co-opetition: Balancing competition and cooperation strategically

"Co-opetition requires teams to think both competitively and cooperatively—at the same time."

Analyze alternatives: Before cooperating with a competitor, consider what each party will do if the opportunity isn't taken. Evaluate potential alternative agreements and how industry dynamics might change. Sometimes cooperation is clearly beneficial, while in other cases it may still be preferable to non-cooperation even if not ideal.

Key considerations for co-opetition:

• Will cooperation give away your competitive advantage?
• How to structure the agreement (scope, control, unwinding options)?
• How to divide costs and benefits fairly?
• Address potential antitrust issues

4. Career negotiations require a holistic, long-term approach

"Your job as a leader is to create the conditions for your people to fully realize their own capacity and power."

Start with career goals: Instead of focusing solely on immediate opportunities, map backward from long-term professional and personal objectives to define next steps. Consider quality-of-life factors alongside career progression.

Understand negotiation types:

• Asking: Propose standard arrangements
• Bending: Request personal exceptions
• Shaping: Propose organizational changes

Enhance negotiations through relationships: Seek advice, social support, and potential advocates. Use "shuttle diplomacy" to explore stakeholders' interests privately before formal proposals. Explain how your request aligns with counterparts' interests to generate goodwill and motivate agreement.

5. Leading through anxiety demands self-awareness and empathy

"Anxiety isn't always counterproductive. It can prompt you to react quickly to threats, and in a crisis it can spur you to make your team more resourceful and productive."

Acknowledge and accept emotions: Label what you're feeling and investigate your anxiety triggers and "tells." Distinguish between possible worst-case scenarios and probable outcomes to avoid getting stuck in negative thought loops.

Manage anxiety strategically:

• Control what you can: Structure time, take small meaningful actions
• Use mindfulness techniques for acute anxiety
• Make connections with others to break negative thought patterns
• Schedule worry time to compartmentalize concerns

Build a support system: Develop a "safe team" for confiding fears, practice self-care, and create an infrastructure to manage anxiety long-term.

6. Machine learning risks require proactive management

"Products and services that rely on machine learning don't always lead to ethical or accurate choices."

Understand key risk categories:

• Inaccurate decisions: Due to probability-based choices, environmental changes, or system complexity
• Agency risks: Difficulty attributing responsibility for errors
• Moral risks: Ethical dilemmas in autonomous decision-making

Management strategies:

• Treat ML like a living entity: Test in real-world conditions
• Think like a regulator: Develop certification processes
• Monitor continuously: Set up ongoing checks
• Ask the right questions about accuracy, biases, environment, and agency
• Develop tailored ethical principles

7. Diversity efforts must focus on systemic change, not just numbers

"Increasing the numbers of traditionally underrepresented people in your workforce does not automatically produce benefits."

Adopt a learning orientation: Create conditions for employees to fully realize their capacity and power. This involves building trust, actively combating discrimination, embracing diverse styles, and making cultural differences a resource for learning and improving organizational effectiveness.

Key actions for leaders:

1. Build trust through vulnerability and honest discourse
2. Actively work against discrimination and subordination
3. Embrace a wide range of styles and voices
4. Make cultural differences a resource for learning

8. Racial equity in the workplace demands intentional action

"Intractable as it may seem, the problem of racism in the workplace can be effectively addressed with the right information, incentives, and investment."

Follow the PRESS model:

1. Problem awareness
2. Root-cause analysis
3. Empathy
4. Strategies for addressing the problem
5. Sacrifice (willingness to invest resources)

Implement targeted strategies:

• Address personal attitudes, informal cultural norms, and formal institutional policies simultaneously
• Integrate diversity and inclusion into performance evaluations and promotion criteria
• Host open conversations about how the organization is progressing through the PRESS stages

9. Work-from-anywhere policies offer benefits and challenges

"The Covid-19 lockdowns proved that it is not only possible but perhaps preferable for knowledge workers to do their jobs from anywhere."

Benefits of WFA:

• For individuals: Geographic flexibility, better work-life balance
• For organizations: Reduced real estate costs, global talent access, potential productivity gains
• For society: Reverse brain drain, environmental benefits

Address key challenges:

• Communication and problem-solving: Embrace asynchronous methods
• Knowledge sharing: Create transparent, accessible documentation
• Socialization and mentoring: Use virtual tools and temporary colocation events
• Performance evaluation: Focus on work output and quality of interactions
• Data security: Implement transaction-based security measures

10. Sustainable supply chains require multi-tier engagement

"MNCs, too, are handicapped by ignorance. They frequently don't even know who their lower-tier suppliers are, let alone where they're located or what capabilities they have (or don't have)."

Implement multi-pronged approaches:

1. Direct: Set and monitor targets for first-tier suppliers regarding second-tier suppliers
2. Indirect: Delegate sustainability management to first-tier suppliers with support and incentives
3. Collective: Collaborate with competitors on industry-wide standards
4. Global: Partner with international organizations and NGOs

Address key shortcomings:

• Align sustainability goals across all functions interacting with suppliers
• Provide sustainability training and incentives for procurement officers
• Engage directly with first-tier suppliers' procurement personnel

11. Apple's functional organization drives innovation through expertise

"Apple's commitment to a functional organization does not mean that its structure has remained static."

Key principles of Apple's structure:

• Functional expertise aligns with decision rights
• Experts lead experts at all levels
• Leaders immerse themselves in details three levels down
• Cross-functional collaboration through collaborative debate

Leadership characteristics:

1. Deep expertise in their area
2. Immersion in details
3. Willingness to collaboratively debate

Benefits of functional organization:

• Enables rapid innovation in fast-changing markets
• Insulates product decisions from short-term financial pressures
• Creates deep benches of specialized talent

Last updated: October 8, 2024