Tired of needless, unproductive meetings? Take a new approach that leverages the power of design thinking
CIO Research
CIO Research
Generalists versus specialists: How to balance your team
There’s a place for both generalists and specialists on your team – but it’s not always clear where they each fit best. When it comes to hiring new employees, a strong case can be made for both generalists and specialists. In fact, researchers Florenta Teodoridis, Michael Bikard, and Keyvan Vakili dove into numerous studies on this topic and found them split on the best approach to take. So they conducted their own research to determine the circumstances best suited for generalists and others where specialists shine. In this Harvard Business Review article, they share their findings, which can help leaders find the perfect balance on their teams.
How to control your emotions during a difficult conversation
If just the thought of initiating a tough conversation with a colleague or family member makes your palms sweat, try taking a new approach. In this article, Amy Gallo, a contributing editor at Harvard Business Review, explains why difficult conversations trigger our natural fight or flight response – and offers five simple tips that can help you keep your cool. These strategies not only benefit the person employing them, but also can make the conversation a little easier and more productive. From practicing mindfulness, to reciting a helpful mantra, to the importance of taking a break when conversations get heated, these practical tips are essential tools in building your emotional intelligence.
Collaboration without burnout
As much as 85 percent of leaders’ work time is spent collaborating via email, meetings, and phone calls with customers and colleagues – leaving precious little time for focused individual work. This imbalance can quickly lead to burnout, suggest Rob Cross, Scott Taylor, and Deb Zehner in this Harvard Business Review article. By acknowledging the reasons leaders take on more collaborative work than they can handle, they can start to take steps to collaborate more efficiently and preserve personal work time when necessary, the authors say. In this article, Cross, Taylor, and Zehner provide practical advice to minimize collaborative overload and scenarios that show how these tips can work in practice.
Plan a better meeting with design thinking
Consider these statistics outlined by Maya Bernstein and Rae Ringel in this Harvard Business Review article: Executives spend 40-50 percent of their working hours in meetings; 73 percent acknowledge they do other work during meetings; 25 percent of meetings are spent discussing irrelevant issues; and despite these numbers, organizations on average hold more than 3 billion meetings each year. If meetings are inevitable, how can leaders ensure they are as productive as possible? The answer is design thinking, argue Bernstein and Ringel. In this article, they present a four-step plan to help leaders re-think meetings – from who they invite, to how they craft the agenda, to how they continuously improve their approach to meetings.
Why great success brings out the worst of our personalities
Have you ever wondered why some of the most successful entrepreneurs throughout history – from Elon Musk to Howard Hughes – are also known for their difficult personality quirks? There’s a reason for this, suggest Darko Lovric and Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic in this Harvard Business Review article. “Success often strengthens the undesirable side of people’s personalities, perhaps because power lowers their motivation to positively manage their reputation,” they write. “The more power and influence you have, the less interested you will be in pleasing other people and in keeping your dark side in check.” In this article, they present four psychological factors that can help propel leaders to the top – but then take them down once they find success.
The ultimate DevOps hiring guide
Not all IT leaders like the term DevOps: Some prefer to just call it the agile way of working. But however you describe it, this style of working – which prizes speed, experimentation, and collaboration, all happening on nimble, cross-functional teams – has taken the enterprise by storm. It has demanded new IT leadership strategies. Above all, it has demanded culture change, as teams ditch old processes, rip down rules between groups, and accept “failures” as quick lessons on how to iterate their way to better products and services. For this kind of change, you need the right people.
Whether you're a DevOps job seeker or you're hiring DevOps experts, this guide delivers peer-to-peer advice from IT leaders and DevOps practitioners, who know the challenges all too well, as well as insights from related experts such as recruiters.
Download the guide for practical advice, analysis, and statistics on the state of the DevOps hiring market.
The new rules of CIO leadership
Are you leading by an outdated rulebook? The future is being built on new technologies, data, and digitization. To transform and compete in the face of disruption, top chief information and digital officers – true transformation masters – are rewriting the rules of CIO leadership.
This new research from Harvard Business Review Analytic Services identifies seven new rules of leadership based on interviews with leading technology executives, including CIOs from Adobe, AT&T, Cardinal Health, Toyota, Vanguard, and Walmart.
Download this report to learn their secrets for breaking down walls, resetting expectations, and leading in a completely new model.
Fast Start Guide: Creating a sense of urgency, with John Kotter
John Kotter, organizational change guru and author of "Leading Change" and "A Sense of Urgency," shares five tips to help leaders infuse a sense of urgency within teams. Get our fast start guide (.PDF):
Hybrid cloud security: 5 questions skeptics will ask
Get advice from your peers on how to get people to buy into your architectural vision and build a strong hybrid cloud security posture. Download our concise guide (PDF).
15 top CIOs share wisdom on creating revenue
How do you please the CEO? Generate new revenue streams for the business. Abbie Lundberg interviews CIOs from organizations including CVS Health, GE, and Liberty Mutual, and explores their proven strategies. Get our Harvard Business Review Analytic Services study.
Download the full report: "Revenue-Generating CIOs: Smart Strategies to Grow the Business"