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The debate about the best way to lead has been raging for years: Should you empower your people and get out of their way, or take charge and push them to do great work? The answer, say the authors, is to do both. Their research shows that effective leaders routinely shift between these two seemingly opposing modes-and build teams whose members are good at switching back and forth too. Sometimes teams need diver­gent thinking (during idea generation, for instance); at others, they need convergent thinking (to, say, make a decision and map out next steps). Leaders must be crystal clear about which mode is appropriate when. They have to make it psychologically safe for people to speak up, contribute, and argue, and when it's time to end the discussion and act, signal that they're taking charge again. There are four ways to increase the ability to shift modes: Question your assumptions about power and fixed hierarchies. Study your habits and your team's to see if you're stuck in one mode or the other. Set clear expectations with meeting agendas and rituals that mark transitions. And reinforce shifts with your own words, deeds, and body language.

China's companies have long been acclaimed for their manufacturing prowess and, more recently, for their pragmatic approach to innovation. Now it's time to recognize how they are reinventing the role of management through an approach the authors call "digitally enhanced directed autonomy," or DEDA. These companies use digital platforms to give frontline employees direct access to shared corporate resources and capabilities, making it possible for them to organize themselves around specific business opportunities. Autonomy is not complete, nor is it given to everyone. It is directed exactly where it is needed, and what employees do with their autonomy is carefully tracked. The approach contrasts with the Western model of empowerment, which gives employees broad autonomy through reduced supervision. This article describes the three core features of the DEDA approach: granting employees autonomy at scale, supporting them with digital platforms, and setting clear, bounded business objectives. It offers examples of how companies are using those features and draws lessons for Western companies.

Teams under pressure often fall back on dysfunctional coping mechanisms that are deeply rooted in human evolutionary psychology. The group works like a pack, instinctively looking for ways to alleviate its members' collective anxiety. It might unconsciously ascribe an unwanted role, such as scapegoat or savior, to one or more members and lapse into skewed interactions-for example, directing its energy toward fighting a common enemy, whether real or perceived, rather than advancing its actual mission. The authors discuss how to spot these harmful patterns and break their hold. They describe a powerful tool deployed in their work with top teams: sociograms, or pictorial representations of team members, their connections, and their interactions. By understanding the unconscious forces that influence them in times of stress, teams can become less captive to such forces and more engaged with improving performance.

A surprising number of extremely successful people are often wracked by anxiety, the author writes. They suffer from what psychologists call thought traps and others might refer to as cognitive distortion or thinking errors: negatively biased and untrue patterns of thought that arrive automatically and often ensnare us, preventing us from seeing clearly, communicating effectively, or making good reality-based decisions. To combat thought traps, some anxious achievers turn to overwork, others to coping mechanisms such as substance use, avoidance, or passive-aggressiveness. Aarons-Mele explains the 11 most common thought traps-all-or-nothing thinking, labeling, jumping to conclusions, catastrophizing, filtering, discounting the positive, "should" statements, social comparison, personalization and blaming, ruminating, and emotional reasoning-and recommends strategies for overcoming all of them.

Discount retailer Dollar Bill's has been struggling to maintain its margins over the past two years because of inflationary pressures, delays on imported goods, and decreased foot traffic. Now the board has asked CEO William Fisher Jr. to develop a strategy for raising prices. William worries that raising prices will hurt the company's reputation and alienate customers, but he recognizes that something has to change. Should Dollar Bill's maintain the dollar price point by reducing product quantity, such as repackaging five-packs of chewing gum into four-packs for the same price? Or should it abandon the dollar price point and begin offering an array of more-expensive goods? This fictional case study features expert commentary by Greg Besner, the CEO of Sunflow, and Barrie Carmel, the vice president of pricing at Michaels Stores.

There are plenty of good reasons to quit a job. Maybe you want better pay, need to get away from a toxic boss, or are ready to pursue a different career. But quitting can be scary, because it also highlights what you stand to lose: the relationships you've cultivated with colleagues, the comfort of a familiar boss and organization, financial stability, sometimes even your sense of yourself as a gritty, resilient, loyal person. This article reviews several new books-Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away; Two Weeks Notice: Find the Courage to Quit Your Job, Make More Money, Work Where You Want, and Change the World; and My What If Year: A Memoir-that offer advice for weighing the benefits and the costs of quitting.

The '70s icon looks back on her career in rock and roll and writing, describing her unintended rise to fame, why she took a break from music, and how she became an award-winning author.

Discount retailer Dollar Bill's has been struggling to maintain its margins over the past two years because of inflationary pressures, delays on imported goods, and decreased foot traffic. Now the board has asked CEO William Fisher Jr. to develop a strategy for raising prices. William worries that raising prices will hurt the company's reputation and alienate customers, but he recognizes that something has to change. Should Dollar Bill's maintain the dollar price point by reducing product quantity, such as repackaging five-packs of chewing gum into four-packs for the same price? Or should it abandon the dollar price point and begin offering an array of more-expensive goods? This fictional case study features expert commentary by Greg Besner, the CEO of Sunflow, and Barrie Carmel, the vice president of pricing at Michaels Stores.

Discount retailer Dollar Bill's has been struggling to maintain its margins over the past two years because of inflationary pressures, delays on imported goods, and decreased foot traffic. Now the board has asked CEO William Fisher Jr. to develop a strategy for raising prices. William worries that raising prices will hurt the company's reputation and alienate customers, but he recognizes that something has to change. Should Dollar Bill's maintain the dollar price point by reducing product quantity, such as repackaging five-packs of chewing gum into four-packs for the same price? Or should it abandon the dollar price point and begin offering an array of more-expensive goods? This fictional case study features expert commentary by Greg Besner, the CEO of Sunflow, and Barrie Carmel, the vice president of pricing at Michaels Stores.

When two software engineers decided, in 2013, to launch an enterprise software-as-a-service business around GitLab-the open-source collaborative software-development application that they'd been working on-they didn't intend to turn it into the world's largest all-remote organization. But they lived 2,000 kilometers apart-one in Ukraine and the other in the Netherlands-and their first hire was in Serbia. None of them wanted to move, so GitLab began its corporate life with a small, distributed workforce. As the founders began hiring more people, they made it official: The company would have no offices; employees could work from anywhere. Today GitLab's 2,000 team members are spread across some 60 countries and regions around the world. The company neither owns nor rents any corporate office space. Well before the Covid-19 pandemic hastened such a shift for other organizations, GitLab's leaders embraced and developed best practices around virtual collaboration. They learned that success depends on measuring output, not input; aligning people on norms and values; ensuring that policies and processes are continually and openly documented; and reinforcing key self-management and people-management skills.

Once upon a time, leisure was a sign of prestige. Today that idea has been turned on its head, and busyness is the new status symbol. Busy people are considered important and impressive, and employees are rewarded for showing how "hard" they're working. Such thinking is misguided. It can cause organizations to overload their employees, base their incentives on the amount of time they put in, and excessively monitor their activities, all of which undermine productivity and efficiency, research shows. Meanwhile, reducing work to manageable levels can actually enhance them. This article explores both the downsides of busyness (employee turnover, reduced engagement, absenteeism, and impaired health) and the reasons for our obsession with it. It's partly human nature: The harder we work to achieve something, the more we value it; most of us hate being idle; and we think customers like to see us busy. The authors also present strategies for breaking away from this fixation: Reward output, not activity. Eliminate low-value work to make time for "deep work." Force people off the clock, and allow time for their minds to wander creatively. Model the right behavior, and build slack into your systems. Activity is not achievement, and the sooner companies recognize that, the better off they and their employees will be.

Many of us assumed that by now, years into the pandemic, we'd have settled on new structures, practices, and processes for hybrid work. But we haven't. Instead most companies are stuck in a transitional phase, where little is resolved. Why is it taking us so long to work this out? Because, the author writes, the new world of hybrid work isn't simply about determining whether everybody should come back full-time to the office. It's also forcing us to test long-held assumptions about how work should be done and what it even is. The changes to workplace practices and norms that we're contemplating could be more significant than anything that's happened in generations, Gratton writes, and we may need years to fully sort things out. So it's time for leaders to start thinking differently about the problem and approach it just as they would any other major change in how they do business-by asking tough questions and learning deeply. Gratton surveys recent research on the pros and cons of hybrid work and offers leaders some fundamental questions they can use to guide their organizations into this new phase of redesigning how we work.

NET ZERO TO NET HERO - CAN WE GROSS IT? is a two-part case that highlights the pressing need for businesses to move towards sustainable practices. This is particularly relevant in today's Climate Crisis environment, where governments and businesses need to work together at COP summits to lay out policy roadmaps. Paving the way for sustainability in a firm, is a multipronged approach with interlinkages to local as well as global policy directives and understanding this, through the context of what CII does, gives the bigger picture for any small, medium or large firm to strategically plan and communicate their approach to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as well as to be seen as clearly "walking the talk" when it comes to showcasing themselves as being oriented towards truly caring for the planet.

Supplement to cases IMB951 and IMB953. Transcript from the interview of IIMB Case Writer Ms. Jacqueline Gomes in conversation with Ms. Seema Arora, Deputy Director General, CII.

The chief technology officer of a leading pharmaceutical distributor in the US is facing a crossroads. Driven by the company’s mission of “reimagining healthcare,” his team has just conducted a pilot of blockchain. Having designed the blockchain and tested it in real-world conditions, the team is now keen to use it in the company’s supply chain. As the team leader, the CTO is grappling with how to move forward. How can he ensure he chooses the right business partners for incubating blockchain technology at Cardinal? And how can he ensure he chooses the right business processes for implementing blockchain technology?

The chief technology officer of a leading pharmaceutical distributor in the US is facing a crossroads. Driven by the company's mission of "reimagining healthcare," his team has just conducted a pilot of blockchain. Having designed the blockchain and tested it in real-world conditions, the team is now keen to use it in the company's supply chain. As the team leader, the CTO is grappling with how to move forward. How can he ensure he chooses the right business partners for incubating blockchain technology at Cardinal? And how can he ensure he chooses the right business processes for implementing blockchain technology?

The case is set in June 2021, 15 months into the COVID-19 pandemic. It begins with the CEO of a boutique hotel in Singapore battling mental burnout as he struggled to keep his hard-hit hotel business afloat. He then sought advice from a friend working with the Mindfulness Initiative@SMU and was recommended the Mindfulness-Based Strategic Awareness Training (MBSAT). MBSAT is a course designed specifically for executives who wish to improve their decision-making through a heightened sense of strategic awareness to derive good outcomes. It is particularly suitable for organisation leaders and individuals who aspire to acquire skilful decision-making abilities. Through an eight-session program that teaches formal and informal mindfulness techniques to enhance mental clarity, the key objective of MBSAT is to increase personal well-being, thus resulting in a flourishing life. The case proceeds with five participants of the previous course runs sharing their experiences, their interpretation of mindfulness, and the MBSAT interventions they found useful. It also details how they managed workplace stress, navigated the decision-making process, and coped with COVID-19-related challenges. The case ends with the protagonist feeling excited about the potential benefits mindfulness training could bring to the workplace. He then mulled over the possibility of introducing mindfulness to his organisation.

This case examines the challenges and opportunities of doing business in Finland. It highlights Finland's economic transformation in the decades leading up to 2023 in the context of its history, culture, and politics. The case gives an overview of some of the main obstacles faced by businesses operating in the country, such as labor shortages, inflexibility in employment regulations, Russia's war in Ukraine, and slowing growth, contrasting these with the efforts undertaken by the government to improve the country's business climate. This is illustrated through the discussion of a business dilemma in which the confectionary company Fazer needs to manage its exit from the Russian market while continuing its sustainability efforts in a changing industry environment.

This case examines the challenges and opportunities of doing business in Turkey. It highlights Turkey's economic transformation in the decades leading up to 2023 in the context of its history, culture, and politics. The case gives an overview of some of the main obstacles faced by businesses operating in the country, such as complexity of doing business, slow legal proceedings and a large informal sector and changing regulatory environment, contrasting these with the efforts undertaken by the government to improve the country's business climate. This is illustrated through the discussion of a business dilemma in which Setur is contemplating its business strategy in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic and changing consumer tastes and preferences.

This case examines the challenges and opportunities of doing business in Morocco. It highlights Morocco's unique economy where cash remains a dominant player in the market despite global advancements in digitalization. The case also explores the various cultural and social factors that impact the business environment. This is illustrated through Chari, a Moroccan based inventory procurement app, which hopes to navigate Morocco's fintech landscape by utilizing the country's dense network of small mom and pop shops.