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Harvard Business Review | The Management Tip of the Day   Today’s Tip 4 Ways to Become a More Inspirational Leader Inspiring leaders are able to see the big picture, model desired behaviors, and challenge others to be the best version of themselves. This ability to inspire isn’t an innate skill—it’s one you can cultivate. Here are four key behaviors to focus on to become a more inspirational leader. Reflect on your leadership regularly. When did you communicate a clear vision in the past month? When did you stay calm under pressure or lift others up? Equally important: When did you fall short? Identifying patterns helps you develop self-awareness and improve. Emulate the leaders who have inspired you. What made them inspiring? Was it their clarity, confidence, or empathy? Identify those traits and find ways to incorporate them into your own leadership. Intend to take action. Choose one specific behavior to improve over the next month, whether it’s speaking more clearly, mentoring a team member, or staying composed under stress. Small, deliberate intentions create lasting change. Practice daily inspiration. Set small inspiration goals every day. For example, consider sending one quick note of praise or gratitude each morning. Small inspirational gestures like these will brighten not only your teammate’s day but also your own. This tip is adapted from “What Sets Inspirational Leaders Apart,” by Adam D. Galinsky.

Today’s Tip Don’t Let Your Poor Time Management Impact Your Team You don’t wake up intending to overwhelm your team, but poor time management can do just that. When you don’t have a handle on your schedule, the chaos trickles down, creating unnecessary emergencies and eroding morale on your team. Here are five common time management mistakes—and how to avoid them. Ignoring capacity. Track your team’s workload with shared task lists or project tools. Regularly review these in one-on-ones to ensure no one’s stretched too thin. Last-minute delegation. The moment you know about a task, ask yourself if you should delegate it. For bigger projects, use roadmaps to track deadlines and milestones in advance. This will help you delegate commitments before they become emergencies. Lack of boundaries. Don’t say yes to every new project or initiative that comes your way. Instead, clarify priorities with leadership to protect your team’s bandwidth. Being inaccessible. Schedule consistent one-on-ones and office hours—and show up. Your team should never feel like they don't have access to you. Withholding feedback. Don't assume your employees know that you appreciate their work. A quick “Great job!” or public acknowledgment can boost engagement and morale more than you think. This tip is adapted from “Don’t Let Bad Time Management Undermine Your Leadership,” by Elizabeth Grace Saunders. #leadership

Ascending to leadership is only the first step in building legacy. The type of leadership you exemplify is what makes you impactful. Here’s a thoughtful example: Today’s Tip The Power of Humble Leadership Humble leadership is more than a personal virtue; it helps foster teamwork, build trust, and enhance employee well-being. It’s also an effective way to unlock employees’ leadership potential. By redefining humility as a strength, you can inspire your employees to grow, innovate, and lead. Here’s where to start. Develop self-awareness. Humility starts with reflection. Do you invite feedback, or just tolerate it? Do you highlight your team’s successes, or take credit for it? Small actions, like admitting mistakes and expressing gratitude, shape how your team perceives your leadership and their own potential. Build a culture of humility. Encourage open dialogue where ideas flow freely. Recognize and reward humble leaders through mentorship programs or internal awards, reinforcing the idea that leadership is about collaboration and selflessness—not dominance. Guard against corruption. Safeguards are essential to prevent humility from turning into arrogance or self-interest. Regular feedback, like 360-degree evaluations, keeps everyone accountable, ensuring they remain grounded and self-aware. Celebrate humility as a strength. Acknowledge and appreciate other leaders and employees who show humility, and emphasize it as an essential leadership quality that contributes to the success of the organization as a whole. This tip is adapted from “Research: Humble Leaders Inspire Others to Step Up,” by Xiaoshuang Lin and Herman Tse.

Today’s Tip How to Recognize and Avoid Toxic Positivity Optimism is valuable in leadership. But when positivity minimizes real concerns or starts to feel like a performance, it can make people feel frustrated and unheard. Here are some signs that your positive outlook has turned into toxic positivity—and what to do instead. Downplaying problems. When a colleague shares a challenge, responding with “It’ll be fine” or “Don’t overthink it” may seem supportive, but it can feel dismissive. Instead, listen and acknowledge their concerns. Labeling skeptics as difficult. Viewing those who raise concerns as negative or overly critical can discourage honest discussion. Constructive feedback is essential for problem-solving and team growth. Always looking for the silver lining. Clichés like “everything happens for a reason” often come across as insincere, even patronizing, and can shut down meaningful conversations. People need to feel heard, not redirected. Jumping to fix-it mode. Offering solutions before fully understanding a colleague’s emotions can make them feel unheard. Sometimes, people just need space to express frustration before seeking solutions. Performing positivity on social media. Constantly presenting an idealized, upbeat image online, particularly in professional spaces, can create unrealistic expectations and pressure. Instead, seek out real-world connections that allow you to be fully authentic. This tip is adapted from “5 Signs Your Optimism Is Hurting Your Team,” by Rebecca Knight.

Today’s Tip Set Your Change Initiative Up for Success Leaders often launch change initiatives with the best of intentions but then struggle to achieve their goals. Many fall into a common trap: rushing into one-size-fits-all transformations without understanding who they’re asking to change and why. Here’s how you can set your change initiative up for success. Diagnose your change type. Departments within your organization have differing needs. Those that face digital disruption likely need a strategy of exploration focused on innovating and taking risks, whereas others would benefit more from an exploitation strategy focused on optimizing existing processes. Map motivational styles. Understand how team members approach tasks and challenges. Do they focus on potential gains, moving quickly toward solutions? Or do they prioritize avoiding mistakes, taking a more cautious, methodical approach? Match motivations to initiatives. With a clear understanding of both your change type and the motivational styles of the employees on your teams, strategically assign employees to projects that align with their natural tendencies. Tailor your change messaging. Keep an eye on employee stress levels, which can reveal when there’s misalignment between your change narrative and employees’ understanding. Encourage a paradox mindset. You’ll inevitably face situations that call for pursuing contradictory goals simultaneously. Helping employees get comfortable in that zone of contradiction is critical for sustaining change. This tip is adapted from “3 Reasons Change Initiatives Fail—and How to Ensure Yours Succeeds,” by Nicolas T. Deuschel et al.

Today’s Tip 5 Ways to Supercharge Your Career in 2025 Your career is a journey, not a destination. As we enter a new year, a few enduring insights can help you navigate the twists and turns of your work life. Build a purposeful career. Let your values guide not just how you work, but what work you choose. Purpose fuels both productivity and happiness. Have difficult conversations at work. Tough conversations are inevitable, but you can have them without upsetting people. Clarity is key, so avoid sugarcoating or being vague, as it can lead to misunderstandings and mistrust. You can be yourself without oversharing. Showing vulnerability builds trust, but oversharing can be counterproductive. Know when to self-disclose and when not to, sharing only when it serves the task, not to seek approval or validation. Want to get better at making decisions? Regularly review your past decisions to identify ways to improve. Self-assessment over time leads to meaningful growth. The middle of your career is not a point of diminishing returns. It’s an opportunity. Embrace change and redefine success by letting go of outdated roles. Use your mid-career phase as a chance to put the experience and wisdom you’ve gained to work and explore new paths and priorities. This tip is adapted from “10 Ways to Supercharge Your Career,” by Alison Beard and Curt Nickisch.

Today’s Tip 8 Leadership Skills to Develop In the run-up to the new year, we’re sharing some of our favorite tips from 2024. Leadership isn’t a quality you either innately possess or lack; it’s the sum of eight skills you can develop over time. Here are the characteristics that will help you become recognized as a leader. Authenticity. Work to build self-awareness and put yourself in positions to highlight your strengths and improve on your weaknesses. Curiosity. Ask questions about what you don’t know. Think expansively and ambitiously. Present as someone who constantly wants to learn, explore, and innovate. Analytical thinking. Leadership requires the ability to break down complex problems, identify their root causes, and come up with fresh solutions. Develop your analytical skills by focusing on cause-and-effect relationships and being attentive to patterns and trends. Adaptability. Take on assignments and seek out experiences that demand flexibility. Push yourself to work in new environments with different kinds of people. Creativity. You don’t necessarily need to come up with every great idea on your own. Sometimes it’s about establishing an environment that nurtures creativity in others. Comfort with ambiguity. Managing ambiguity is about holding conflicting ideas in your head and dealing with competing priorities that feel equally important. Ask a lot of “what ifs” and “so whats,” and scrutinize matters from different perspectives. Resilience. When things get tough, exhibit the resilience to recalibrate, regroup, and get input from others by asking, “Is there another path?” Empathy. Developing your emotional intelligence gives you a deeper appreciation of the complex challenges others are working through—and helps you foster a more supportive and nurturing environment. This tip is adapted from “8 Essential Qualities of Successful Leaders,” by Rebecca Knight.

Best wishes for a joyful & prosperous 2025

Today’s Tip Encourage More Experimentation in Your Organization Experimentation is critical to innovation, and scaling experimentation is essential to staying competitive. As a leader, how can you empower everyone to run more experiments? Here’s a road map to encourage more experimentation in your organization. Democratize testing. Equip all teams—including product, marketing, engineering, and operations—with tools to independently test and analyze ideas. Use a platform with a user-friendly interface, default settings, and AI-powered insights. Embrace hypothesis-driven innovation. Drive customer-centric product development by using feedback from one experiment to inform the next. Understand the mechanisms behind outcomes to unlock smarter decision-making—and continuous improvement. Build experimentation programs. Don’t analyze tests in isolation. Group related experiments together to identify broader patterns and opportunities. Compare outcomes across programs and teams to determine where to allocate resources for the biggest impact. Centralize knowledge. Create a repository to track and organize experiment results. Include metrics, hypotheses, and insights to ensure learning spreads across teams. Use dashboards and AI tools for easy access, so everyone can learn from and build on past experiments. This tip is adapted from “Want Your Company to Get Better at Experimentation?,” by Iavor Bojinov et al.

Today’s Tip When You Have Two Bosses—And They’re Not on the Same Page Handling multiple bosses can feel overwhelming—especially when they don’t communicate well with each other. But this tricky dual-reporting situation is also an opportunity to sharpen skills like communication and prioritization. Here’s how to navigate the challenges and get everyone on the same page. Spot the sneaky signs of disconnection. Notice subtle misalignments, like conflicting updates or inconsistent project names. These early warning signs can help you prevent minor misunderstandings from turning into major issues down the road. Get ahead of conflicts. Proactively ask your bosses how they’d prefer to handle competing priorities or conflicting directions. Questions like “When I’m getting different directions, would you prefer I flag that in our one-on-ones first, or should I suggest a three-way conversation right away?” can set expectations up front. Bring visibility to decision-making. Document priorities in a shared location to track tasks and decisions. Review it in one-on-ones to highlight conflicts—for example, “Should I adjust this deliverable to accommodate the new task?” Be the bridge. Schedule monthly or quarterly check-ins to align your bosses. Frame them as time-savers by saying something like, “Let’s reduce back-and-forth by touching base quickly.” When conflicts arise, take the lead in organizing a joint discussion. Highlight the impact. Explain how misalignment affects outcomes, like delays or rework: “We spent hours redoing tasks last week. Clearer coordination up front could prevent this.” Keep the tone constructive and solution-focused. This tip is adapted from “When You Have Two Bosses—and They Don’t Talk to Each Other,” by Melody Wilding. #Coaching #EI #ManagingUp