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Most leaders don't have the luxury of building their teams from scratch. Instead they're put in charge of an existing group, and they need guidance on the best way to take over and improve performance. Watkins, an expert on transitions, suggests a three-step approach: Assess. Act quickly to size up the personnel you've inherited, systematically gathering data from one-on-one chats, team meetings, and other sources. Reflect, too, on the business challenges you face, the kinds of people you want in various roles, and the degree to which they need to collaborate. Reshape. Adjust the makeup of the team by moving people to new positions, shifting their responsibilities, or replacing them. Make sure that everyone is aligned on goals and how to achieve them-you may need to change the team's stated direction. Consider also making changes in the way the team operates (reducing the frequency of meetings, for example, or creating new subteams). Then establish ground rules and processes to sustain desired behaviors, and revisit those periodically. Accelerate team development. Set your people up for some early wins. Initial successes will boost everyone's confidence and reinforce the value of your new operating model, thus paving the way for ongoing growth.

Over the years, as teams have grown more diverse, dispersed, digital, and dynamic, collaboration has become more complex. But though teams face new challenges, their success still depends on a core set of fundamentals. As J. Richard Hackman, who began researching teams in the 1970s, discovered, what matters most isn't the personalities or behavior of the team members; it's whether a team has a compelling direction, a strong structure, and a supportive context. In their own research, Haas and Mortensen have found that teams need those three "enabling conditions" now more than ever. But their work also revealed that today's teams are especially prone to two corrosive problems: "us versus them" thinking and incomplete information. Overcoming those pitfalls requires a new enabling condition: a shared mindset. This article details what team leaders should do to establish the four foundations for success. For instance, to promote a shared mindset, leaders should foster a common identity and common understanding among team members, with techniques such as "structured unstructured time." The authors also describe how to evaluate a team's effectiveness, providing an assessment leaders can take to see what's working and where there's room for improvement.

Too often, teams struggle to collaborate effectively because of destructive conflict within the group. While respectful differences of opinion can yield positive change, a perceived incompatibility between how different people think or act can have a serious impact on productivity and work culture. Based on team dynamics research as well as their personal experience working with executive teams, the authors propose a new approach for leaders to proactively address conflict in the workplace and lay the foundation for effective collaboration. Before tackling any specific work issue, they suggest that team leaders facilitate conversations about how people look, act, speak, think, and feel, in order to build a shared understanding of the process - rather than the content - of the team's work.

People today are under intense pressure to be "ideal workers"-totally committed to their jobs and always on call. But after interviewing hundreds of professionals in many fields, the authors have concluded that selfless dedication to work is often unnecessary and harmful. It has dysfunctional consequences not only for individuals but also for their organizations. The authors discuss three typical strategies for coping with demanding workplaces, and the risks associated with each: Accepting involves prioritizing the job above all else and remaining available 24/7. Because accepters fail to cultivate outside interests, they're often slow to recover from professional setbacks. And they may be too focused on their own responsibilities to mentor others-a drawback for their organizations. Passing involves portraying oneself as an ideal worker while quietly pursuing a life beyond the office. But passers may feel isolated from their colleagues because they are hiding parts of themselves, and their perpetuation of the ideal-worker myth keeps the pressure on everyone. Revealing involves openly embracing nonwork commitments. Revealers may unwittingly put their careers at risk, however, and bosses who penalize them may drive away talent. So how can organizations build a healthier-and more productive-culture? Managers can act as role models by leading multifaceted lives themselves. They can reward employees for the quality and results of their work rather than the time put into it. And they can enforce reasonable work hours, require vacations, and take other steps to protect employees' personal lives.

Not long ago, the ability to create smart data visualizations (or dataviz) was a nice-to-have skill for design- and data-minded managers. But now it's a must-have skill for all managers, because it's often the only way to make sense of the work they do. Decision making increasingly relies on data, which arrives with such overwhelming velocity, and in such volume, that some level of abstraction is crucial. Thanks to the internet and a growing number of affordable tools, visualization is accessible for everyone--but that convenience can lead to charts that are merely adequate or even ineffective. By answering just two questions, Berinato writes, you can set yourself up to succeed: "Is the information conceptual or data-driven?" and "Am I declaring something or exploring something?" He leads readers through a simple process of identifying which of the four types of visualization they might use to achieve their goals most effectively: idea illustration, idea generation, visual discovery, or everyday dataviz. This article is adapted from the author's just-published book, "Good Charts: The HBR Guide to Making Smarter, More Persuasive Data Visualizations."

With longevity increasing and thousands of Baby Boomers turning 65 every day, the face of retirement is changing. Interviews with executives and managers conducted by the authors show that very few people now follow the tradition of ditching the job and embracing a life of leisure in their midsixties. This article describes the different paths being taken and offers four principles that will help you navigate your late-career journey: (1) Prepare to go off-script. Careers end in many ways--often unpredictably. Most of us will have little control over our exit, so we must be ready to adapt. (2) Find your metaphor. Do you see retirement as liberation from the grind, the loss of your professional identity, or a chance for transformation? The language that resonates most with you can signal your best way forward. (3) Create a new deal. Many are stepping back gradually or staying on at their firms with redesigned schedules and responsibilities or as contractors. Explore the possibilities. (4) Make a difference. Shelving your expertise at retirement no longer makes sense. The new model is to apply your talents to improve your community and the world.

The renowned cellist on collaboration, risk taking, and childhood fame.

It is easy to blame corporate fraud and financial-sector misconduct on a lack of morals. But framing the issue of businesses behaving badly strictly as a morality problem is problematic because it leads to solutions — ranging from expanded compliance programs and codes of conduct to compensation claw-back clauses — that aim to install and strengthen moral sensibilities for the purpose of positive behaviour modification. And these have proved largely ineffective. Ivey research has shown that it would be far more productive to interpret misconduct and misbehaviour in the business sphere as a failure of judgment caused by weaknesses in dimensions of character. This is because while most leaders aspire to have better judgment, many resist suggestions that they are morally flawed and see solutions that teach ethics and morals as condescending. The development of the Ivey Leader Character model, a framework currently being deployed across a wide variety of organizations, has opened the door to reframing misconduct and misbehaviour in business as a judgment issue. The dimensions in the Leader Character Framework are habits of behaviour that can change over time, for better or for worse. Leader character must be present wherever there is a competitive/strategic requirement for strong competency. Ultimately, strengthening leader character will positively influence and change an organization’s culture and (potentially) industry context.

Too many people fall into the trap of accepting that it is appropriate to use technicalities and loopholes to break the principles behind rules when they think they can get away with it. According to Andrew Fastow, this is a problem approaching endemic proportions as seen in business deals, political fundraising, and tax avoidance. And as the former chief financial officer of Enron, he knows what he’s talking about. In 1999, Fastow’s unique financing techniques were being called ground-breaking. He felt like a creative corporate hero, not a criminal. That changed in 2002, when he was indicted on multiple counts of fraud, money laundering and conspiracy. Fastow, of course, went to jail for bending accounting rules. As he recently told Ivey Business Journal, “The fact that I did not see what I was doing as fraud, and the fact that I was not thinking that what I was doing could hurt people, doesn’t mitigate what I did…. When I was in business school, there was only one word — shareholder. And I thought what I was doing was good for shareholders and employees, so I thought I was doing my fiduciary duty.” Fastow had a good upbringing and education, and still inadvertently ended up a participant in one of the largest corporate frauds in U.S. history. Although business education has come a long way since Fastow got his MBA, students may eventually be tempted to cross the line and make ethically challenged decisions under intense pressure to perform from bosses, peers and stakeholders/shareholders. It is imperative that they develop an awareness of the need to internalize a core set of principles by which to live and lead.

Andrew Fastow, chief financial officer at Enron during one of the largest corporate frauds in U.S. history, knows how easy it is for businesses to misbehave when faced with grey-area decision-making. He sees principle-breaking everywhere today — in business deals, political fundraising, and tax avoidance. There can be a contradiction between “doing what’s right” and “doing what the rules permit.” It is important for managers to understand where judgment needs to be applied in financial reporting, keeping in mind that the use of differing accounting estimates and policies can result in significant variation within financial results. Leaders must also consider the alignment between an organization’s long-term strategy and its incentive systems. <br><br> When it comes to misleading numbers in the marketplace, it is important not to confuse “accounting” with “reporting.” An analysis last year of results from 500 major companies warned that the gap between the so-called “adjusted” profits that analysts often cite when advising investors and actual bottom-line earnings, which companies are legally obliged to report, has widened dramatically in recent years. A more recent study found that 90 per cent of the companies listed in the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index used non-GAAP results when reporting results to the market last year, a significant increase since 2009. Ultimately, board members should ask tough questions whenever official result figures vary significantly from the numbers used to entice investment. Or as Fastow puts it, it is time for directors of companies to “Stop worrying about personal liability and start worrying about shareholders and other stakeholders by looking at the real risks and dealing with them, instead of looking the other way and being happy not knowing what is really going on.”

Data breaches are becoming more frequent and more damaging to the bottom line of many businesses. The Target data breach marked the beginning of increased scrutiny of cybersecurity practices. In the past, data breaches were seen as a cost of doing business, but Target's negligence and the scale of the data loss forced businesses and the courts to reevaluate current practices and regulatory frameworks. Businesses must make strategic use of their chief information officers, adopt cybersecurity best practices, and effectively train their employees to respond to growing security threats. They must also shape the cybersecurity narrative to influence regulatory responses to these threats.

In a 2013 Business Horizons article, we described the serious legal problems that can arise when companies develop corporate wellness programs, and outlined ways in which companies can minimize their financial risk. Recently, the landscape changed: For the first time, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission asserted that several wellness programs violate the Americans with Disabilities Act. In this installment of Organizational Performance, we explain the battles that are taking place along this new legal front and suggest steps companies can take to best ensure that their financial positions are not undermined by their wellness programs. In particular, we recommend (1) ensuring that wellness programs actually improve employee health; (2) revisiting whether programs are truly voluntary; (3) being cautious about including dependents in wellness programs; (4) collaborating with disabled employees to meet their needs; (5) providing clear, written explanations when asking for medical information; and (6) taking extra precautions to ensure that medical information is confidential.

Integrated reporting, a new development in the reporting landscape, seeks to concisely communicate a firm's value through a more holistic picture that integrates financial and non-financial information. This practice is in its infancy in the United States and Europe, with many firms unsure of what integrated reporting is, what its benefits are, and even how to set it up. Drawing upon transcripts from 19 unstructured panel interviews at a global symposium on the subject, we discuss the business case for integrated reporting, as well as the multitude of challenges a firm faces when beginning its integrated reporting journey. We also summarize experiences and tips from interviewees on the need for integrated thinking, the most effective use of the International Integrated Reporting Council's framework, the best way to obtain high-quality data, the ideal audience of such reports, and the options for report assurance.

Faith-based marketing, or addressing consumers' religious sensibilities with faith-friendly offerings, represents a new wave of growth for companies. While kosher goods and Christian movies are well-known examples of this trend, companies continue to overlook opportunities for growing faith-based segments. Representing the fastest-growing faith-based consumer group in the world, Muslims, in particular, are a largely untapped segment. Forward-looking companies such as Nestlé, Walmart, and McDonald's consider this segment as the next 'one-billion' market, after China and India, and are developing strategies to appeal to the Muslim consumer. We focus on the key to tapping into the sizable Muslim spending power: halal marketing. Contrary to common belief, halal marketing is not confined to dietary goods. Rather, it pertains to a diverse range of offerings from cosmetics to tourism that represents a global market worth $2.1 trillion annually. Modern interpretations of halal echo the claims of organic and fair-trade industries, broadening the appeal of halal to mainstream consumers. Despite the vast opportunities in halal marketing, winning the pocketbooks of Muslim consumers involves cultural, operational, and geopolitical challenges. We provide an overview of this emerging market and offer five lessons for successful halal marketing.

With the rise and rapid proliferation of digital and online marketing, increased cord-cutting by consumers, and new content being created online, Internet-based advertising is the single fastest-growing ad expenditure category, outstripping TV, radio, and other more traditional media formats. With the rise of new media and the increased content creation, the ability of content creators to manage and guide their brand has become more important than ever. This article investigates one such mechanism for managing the new media phenomenon, the Multi-Channel Network (MCN) model. An MCN is any entity or organization which either partners with content creators or directly produces a variety of distinctive content and works to perform business and marketing functions on the platform in which said content is released. This article investigates the MCN phenomena as it specifically addresses the needs of content creators in the new prosumptive consumer culture that helps inform and create new media content. It highlights strategies for managing and navigating the new media and MCN domain.

From razors and blades to printers and ink cartridges to smartphones and monthly usage charges to media devices and content, razor-and-blades pricing is commonplace. The argument for such a business model is compelling: entice consumers to adopt with a low initial price for the 'razor,' build up an installed base, and more than make up for the initial subsidy by charging a high price for replacement 'blades.' The problem is, many consumer enticement, customer lock-in, and competitive lock-out mechanisms look less and less tenable given modern-day developments such as the Internet, Google searches, social media, the hacker revolution, the 'maker movement,' rapidly improving technology, leaky supply chains, and global markets. This article characterizes the what, why, and how of razor-and-blades pricing; then examines the present-day tenability of such a pricing practice; and concludes with an impetus and a call for innovation-innovation in, perhaps, the pricing of and the purchasing arrangement for the initial razor; the value proposition from the razor and the razor-and-blades system; the architecture of the razor-and-blades system; and the delivery, especially in terms of customer experience, of value from the razor-and-blades system.

Like several other nonprofit and for-profit industries, the higher education sector has been subject to a series of fundamental challenges in the past decade. Education used to be considered a public good, provided by nonprofit organizations that were unexposed to market pressure and had clear societal missions. Now, education is becoming a global service delivered by quasi-companies in an ever-more complex and competitive knowledge marketplace. To cope with these challenges, higher education institutions need an appropriate strategy, a necessity reflected in numerous calls for research on strategy in the higher education sector. This article's purpose is to contribute to this discussion by providing prescriptive guidance to higher education managers and policy makers. To this end, it proposes a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis illustrating eight key trends that will impact higher education and academia in the short-to-medium term. Drawing from these trends, three core challenges are identified that higher education institutions will face and that have fundamental implications for research and practice: (1) the need to enhance prestige and market share; (2) the need to embrace an entrepreneurial mindset; and (3) the need to expand interactions and value co-creation with key stakeholders.

Employee volunteerism as a practice of corporate social responsibility aids corporations by strengthening employee satisfaction and retention internally and by strengthening corporate reputations and connections with stakeholders externally. Of particular interest are the specific practices and procedures used by companies to encourage and support volunteer activities of their employees. We reviewed publicly available documents of Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For ranking to gain insight into how these best companies practice employee volunteerism and whether they link employee volunteerism to their corporate social responsibility strategy. We propose a connection of the position and importance of employee volunteerism in the corporate practices of social responsibility. Our findings suggest that many highly regarded companies specifically link employee volunteerism to their corporate social responsibility strategy. These companies also utilize similar practices to encourage and support employee volunteerism. We highlight the practices that managers could consider to support their corporate social responsibility efforts and offer several suggestions for future consideration.

When company executives take a stand on social issues, the repercussions can be significant. Not only does the company run the risk of alienating employees, but taking a stand on a controversial issue can impact the company's image and ultimately consumer purchasing behaviors. However, research on corporate social responsibility generally supports the notion that when companies get involved in societal issues, it can positively influence bottom-line financial performance. This article evaluates the advantages and disadvantages of taking a corporate stand on sensitive social issues and suggests guidelines that leaders should consider to increase the probability of success. Specifically, we found that oftentimes it is not the stand a leader takes but rather how that leader takes that stand. Moreover, we encourage business leaders to consider the delicate balance between fiduciary responsibility and social activism, to use a strategic approach, and to understand the legal repercussions before taking a stand on a social issue.

The emergence of new technologies has revolutionized the way companies interact and build relationships with customers. The channel-customer relationship has traditionally been managed via a push approach in communication ("What can we sell customers?") with the hope of cultivating customer loyalty. However, emotional understandings of customers and how they feel about a product, service, or business can drastically alter consumers' engagement, behavior, and purchasing preferences. This rapidly evolving landscape has left managers at a loss, and what they are experiencing is likely the beginning of a tectonic shift in the way digital channels are designed, monitored, and managed. In this article, digital channel relationships are examined, and useful concepts for clarifying and refining the emotional meaning behind company strategy and their relationship to corresponding digital channels are detailed. Using three case study examples, we discuss the process and impact of such emotionally aware digital channel designs. Recommendations are made regarding how companies can select, design, and maintain digital engagements based on their strategy and industry needs.