Harvard Business Review - HBRs 10 Must Reads 2021: The Definitive Management Ideas of the Year from Harvard Business Review (with bonus article The Feedback Fallacy by Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall)

HBRs 10 Must Reads series is the definitive collection of ideas and best practices for aspiring and experienced leaders alike. These books offer essential reading selected from the pages of Harvard Business Review on topics critical to the success of every manager.

Titles include:

HBRs 10 Must Reads 2015

HBRs 10 Must Reads 2016

HBRs 10 Must Reads 2017

HBRs 10 Must Reads 2018

HBRs 10 Must Reads 2019

HBRs 10 Must Reads 2020

HBRs 10 Must Reads for CEOs

HBRs 10 Must Reads for New Managers

HBRs 10 Must Reads on AI, Analytics, and the New Machine Age

HBRs 10 Must Reads on Boards

HBRs 10 Must Reads on Building a Great Culture

HBRs 10 Must Reads on Business Model Innovation

HBRs 10 Must Reads on Change Management

HBRs 10 Must Reads on Collaboration

HBRs 10 Must Reads on Communication

HBRs 10 Must Reads on Design Thinking

HBRs 10 Must Reads on Diversity

HBRs 10 Must Reads on Emotional Intelligence

HBRs 10 Must Reads on Entrepreneurship and Startups

HBRs 10 Must Reads on Innovation

HBRs 10 Must Reads on Leadership

HBRs 10 Must Reads on Leadership (Vol. 2)

HBRs 10 Must Reads on Leadership for Healthcare

HBRs 10 Must Reads on Leadership Lessons from Sports

HBRs 10 Must Reads on Making Smart Decisions

HBRs 10 Must Reads on Managing Across Cultures

HBRs 10 Must Reads on Managing in a Downturn

HBRs 10 Must Reads on Managing People

HBRs 10 Must Reads on Managing People (Vol. 2)

HBRs 10 Must Reads on Managing Risk

HBRs 10 Must Reads on Managing Yourself

HBRs 10 Must Reads on Mental Toughness

HBRs 10 Must Reads on Negotiation

HBRs 10 Must Reads on Nonprofits and the Social Sectors

HBRs 10 Must Reads on Public Speaking and Presenting

HBRs 10 Must Reads on Reinventing HR

HBRs 10 Must Reads on Sales

HBRs 10 Must Reads on Strategic Marketing

HBRs 10 Must Reads on Strategy

HBRs 10 Must Reads on Strategy (Vol. 2)

HBRs 10 Must Reads on Strategy for Healthcare

HBRs 10 Must Reads on Teams

HBRs 10 Must Reads on Women and Leadership

HBRs 10 Must Reads: The Essentials

Copyright 2020 Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation

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No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior permission of the publisher. Requests for permission should be directed to , or mailed to Permissions, Harvard Business School Publishing, 60 Harvard Way, Boston, Massachusetts 02163.

First eBook Edition: June 2020

ISBN: 978-1-64782-003-9
eISBN: 978-1-64782-004-6

Editors Note

Every year when our editorial group meets to assemble this collection, a few notable themes emerge. As we made our final selections, late last winter, the most prominent was the strange pace of change. Companies are adapting now to climate changea threat that is both new and decades in the making, a danger to business and society that is already having direct consequences but whose ultimate effects have barely been felt. Similarly, the emergence of AI in business has been dizzyingbut the changes it has wrought over the past half-decade may turn out to be minor compared with the tsunami of automation on the horizon. Inclusivity in the workplace has made great steps forwardcompanies are now considering how to provide a supportive environment for transgender people at workeven as the advancement of African-American leaders remains painfully slow. How are we to make sense of these swirling, contradictory changes? Is the practice of management improving faster than ever, or is it stuck in neutral?

A few weeks after we met, the coronavirus went worldwide. In what felt like an instant, all our notions about the pace of change and our predictions for the year 2021 were obliterated.

As of this writing, the world is many weeks into the first global pandemic lockdown. Its uncertain how much of this newly remote way of life is a passing moment and how much is the beginning of a new normal. Today parts of China, Europe, and the United States are beginning to ease restrictions, and were looking ahead to the coming days with a mix of hope and fear.

Throughout, HBRs role has held steady. Our mission, to improve the practice of management in a changing world, remains urgent. In recent weeks some forward-looking companies have shifted away from immediate crisis management and begun to reorganize for resilience and innovation in a time dominated by a desolate economic outlook, new habits, and employees who are hurting deeply. Effective management is needed more than ever to balance the existential imperatives of today with leadership for the long term.

Many pieces in this collection take on new meaning when seen through the lens of the pandemic. Cross-silo collaboration will be necessary not just to reinvent your own company but to lead the promising and innovative projects that will help the world rebound. Effective feedback and coaching become more challenging when workers are remote, lonely, and on the verge of burnout. Diversity and inclusion, along with fair hiring practices, are all the more pressing when so many jobs are at risk. The challenges faced by dual-career couples and working parents become clearer every time a video meeting is interrupted by a Zoom-bombing toddler.

Meanwhile, the other starkly urgent issue of our timeclimate changelooms larger than ever. If the pandemic has one positive outcome, its the growth of our capacity to imagine what a collective disaster looks like. The veneer of invincibility on industry and humanity has dissolved. Covid-19 has put the consequences of inaction in plain sight and demonstrated that preventable yet irreparable damage can occur in days. We hope that business will be inspired to take brave action now on climate.

This book, our final selection of articles from the prepandemic era, points to a world ready for great change yet stuck in old habits and paradigms. The best HBR articles are enduring; as you read through them, look for practices that will help your business survive the crisis and reach new heights tomorrow.

For years managers have been encouraged to give candid feedback on just about everything workers do. But, as Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall argue in that doesnt actually help employees thrive, because identifying failure and telling people how to correct it will never produce great performance. Instead, when managers see a great outcome, they should acknowledge the person who created it and share their impression of why it was a success. That fosters learning by showing what were doing well. This was one of HBRs most popularand widely debatedarticles in many years.

Promising innovation and business opportunities require collaboration among functions, offices, and organizations. To realize them, companies must get people working together across boundaries, but thats a challenge for many leaders. in their companies and help employees connect with and learn from people who think very differently from them.