When looking to fill a position above entry level, companies have two choices: transfer/promote an internal candidate, or hire from the outside. Anecdote and research alike show that external hires are usually offered a higher starting salary than internal candidates.

Employee disengagement is rampant in the workplace. We've all experienced it as customers encountering unhelpful retail clerks and as colleagues dealing with apathetic teammates. But what happens when you yourself feel dead at work? This article describes what you as an individual can do to sustain your motivation or recover it, even in the most stultifying of jobs. After synthesizing research on this challenge and experimenting with various strategies, the authors have developed a process for recharging yourself called DEAR. The first step is to detach and objectively analyze your situation so that you can make wise choices about it, instead of reacting in a fight-or-flight way. At day's end, review what went well at your job and then mentally disconnect from it to give yourself a break. Meditation and exercise can help you do that and will improve your mood and cognitive function. Next, show empathy. Practice self-care, make friends, recognize the accomplishments of others, seek their views, and help them. Research shows that this combats burnout. Third, take action: achieve small wins, invest in rewarding outside activities, redefine your responsibilities, and turn uninteresting tasks into games. Ask yourself how someone you admire would behave in your situation, and dress in a way that projects confidence. Last, reframe your thinking: Focus on the informal roles you enjoy at work, your job's higher-order purpose, and how others benefit from your work. All these techniques will improve your mental health and increase the energy you bring to your job-even if it is not what you'd like it to be.

This paper will provide an overview of the nature of anxiety and depression, the particular vulnerabilities and stresses of CEOs, and suggestions for managing mental health in the workplace.

Executive Chris Ernst uses a unique personal strategy to define his six life roles (spiritual explorer, natural being, development pioneer, global/local citizen, thriving family, true friend) and achieve harmony among them.

For Siba Mtongana, South African celebrity chef, the year 2020 was fraught with challenges and unknowns. Her brand was strong and she was certain it would survive. But as she fine-tuned her growth and innovation strategy in a shaky, unpredictable economy in the midst of the COVID-19 global pandemic, how should she plan for the future, in both the short-term and long-term?

Dennis L. Via, was a retired four-star U.S. Army general and one of the world's foremost experts on logistics, crisis management, supply chains, and maintaining a state of readiness at all times. As he reflected back on his career and leadership experience during the COVID-19 pandemic, he considered: What are the most important leadership qualities in responding to a global pandemic? Beyond a grasp of science and logistics, how important were character traits such as empathy and integrity in the task of leading frightened populations through uncertain and dangerous times? And how could leaders-of nations, armies, businesses, families-prepare for inevitable, yet unpredictable, crises?

Rachael Ray built a remarkable career and brand, first as a cooking personality, and then as a lifestyle maven. This case explores her early career, decisions taken along the way, and the successes she achieved in publishing, television and as a spokesperson. As her career matured, the case follows the choices she made and charts the opportunities a brand personality such as Ray faces in reinventing themselves authentically over time. It provides students with insights into managing a career over the span of life events; the ways a narrative arc helps anchor an individual's story, and may need to be actively managed over time; and the tradeoffs at play in managing such a narrative.

In a career that spanned over 30 years, Maggie Wilderotter served as CEO of two publicly traded companies and served on 32 corporate and nine association and non-profit boards of directors. As CEO of Frontier Communications, a U.S. telecom company with over $25 billion in assets, Wilderotter executed three major acquisitions, transforming the company's business mix and more than doubling its size. This case explores Wilderotter's career, examining the personal characteristics that made her such a successful executive and board member. The case also looks at the turning points in Wilderotter's career; the decisions she made and the way in which she built her skills.

Executives with scandal-tainted companies on their resumes pay a penalty on the job market, even if they clearly had nothing to do with the trouble. Because the scandal effect is lasting, a company you left long ago could have an impact on your current and future job mobility, not to mention your compensation. Overall, executives who suffer from the effect are paid nearly 4% less than their peers. You can't control this risk, the authors write, but you can and should plan for it. They offer three steps to help you survive a corporate scandal. (1) Be forthright. Transparency and full disclosure are key to overcoming the stigma. Executive recruiters, who do due diligence on candidates, can help you create a full, clear, and succinct narrative for hiring managers. (2) "Borrow" reputation and legitimacy from others in your network, establishing innocence by association. Executive search firms can also act as references and sponsors. (3) Take a "rehab job," one at which you so clearly excel that it creates a persuasive story to compete with the scandal narrative.

Supplement to case 116059. Alexi has been hired as CFO for a medical start-up, despite the controversy over his former company. The (B) cases focuses on how to introduce new, high-profile leaders to stakeholders inside and outside the organization.

Financial executive Alexi is considering a job change. Will his long-ago association with a company currently embroiled in a scandal hurt his chances in the job market? In the (A) case, Alexi and executive search consultant Marguerite strategize about career opportunities.

Performance feedback is crucial to a career in the information-rich global economy. However, feedback is psychologically stressful to both give, and hear. This teaching note explains why feedback is both valuable and difficult, and goes on to summarize research on effective feedback scenarios. What are the different kinds of feedback? What are the ideal qualities of the feedback giver, and recipient? How do corporate and national culture affect feedback practices? The note ends with a step-by-step "script" for formal feedback situations or performance reviews, with recommendations for both the giver and recipient of the feedback.

Senior executives have discovered through hard experience that prospering at their level is a matter of carefully combining work and home so as not to lose themselves, their loved ones, or their foothold on success. To learn how they reconcile their professional and personal lives, the authors drew on five years' worth of interviews with almost 4,000 executives worldwide, conducted by students at Harvard Business School, and a survey of 82 executives in an HBS leadership course. Their stories and advice reflect five main themes: defining success for yourself, managing technology, building support networks at work and at home, traveling or relocating selectively, and collaborating with your partner. Some intriguing gender differences emerged in the survey data. For example, men still think of their family responsibilities in terms of breadwinning, whereas women often see theirs as role modeling for their children. And male executives tend to praise their partners for making positive contributions to their careers, whereas women praise theirs for not interfering. Executives of both sexes consider the tension between work and family to be primarily a women's problem, and most of them believe that one can't compete in the global marketplace while leading a "balanced" life. "Earnestly trying to focus," the authors conclude, "is what will see them through."

Cherie Blair was famous, or infamous, in the United Kingdom as first lady from 1997 to 2007. Her marriage to Tony Blair, however, was the result of her own groundbreaking career in law--a career she fought to keep during the 10 years of her husband's tenure as Prime Minister, even though it meant bringing suit against his government at times. Blair balanced multiple roles and expectations.

The average baby boomer switches jobs 10 times in his or her career. Though such moves are just about inevitable, they're seldom easy-and they often lead to a noticeable decline in both short- and long-term performance. That's because people make them for the wrong reasons. Drawing on an extensive survey of executive search consultants, as well as surveys of HR heads and interviews with C-level executives around the world, the authors have identified senior managers' five most common career missteps: not doing enough research, leaving for money, going "from" rather than "to," overestimating yourself, and thinking short term. These mistakes follow predictable patterns and persist throughout the course of a career; they're often a direct result of psychological, social, and time pressures. What if you do take the wrong job? The authors' research indicates that you should cut your losses and leave. But fleeing to another bad situation is not the answer. Make your next move strategically-and wherever you are in the search process, don't hesitate to go down another road when it becomes evident that a certain kind of change wouldn't be right.

This note contains instructions for an exercise in which students interview C-level executives on how they have managed their careers.

Teena Lerner, the CEO of Rx Capital, had a problem. Her three-year-old hedge fund was highly profitable, but in 2004, one of her four equities analysts lost a lot of money for the firm. If Lerner followed her existing compensation system, designed to reward teamwork, he would wind up significantly underpaying her other analysts, all of whom had performed well. Should she follow the compensation system or not? And what should be done about the underperforming analyst?