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Two different lines of research into how investors react to the appointment of Black CEOs finds that while there are often short-term negative reactions, some types of shareholders, such as institutional investors, react more positively. Research finds that there is no difference in the actual financial performance of Black CEOs and their peer CEOs. The article suggests ways to mitigate bias in CEO hiring.

Culture happens in big and small ways in organizations. Leaders at any level can be culture builders by finding ways to link their company’s “big-C” culture â€" its official set of values â€" with the “small-c” culture that plays out in daily patterns of interaction. In a study of one Fortune 100 company, managers who were attentive to both the culture of the entire organization and the more narrow culture within their span of influence saw better retention numbers and team performance.

Why building an innovative corporate culture requires focusing on people rather than technology.

As workforce demographics skew older, managers must attend to the well-being and job performance of workers age 60 and over. Age-related cognitive changes and complex technology, in particular, can hinder older workers’ job performance, but managers can take a number of actions to better support a multigenerational workforce.

Why building an innovative corporate culture requires focusing on people rather than technology.

Two organizations that focus on tech-based health innovation have partnered to improve the mental health of young adults. In this "tech for good" project, Hopelab and Grit Digital Health worked together to create an app using human-centered product design. With the core needs of users at the forefront, the team developed an app both with and for college students to combat loneliness, a prevalent issue that can lead to other problems such as depression, anxiety, and even dropping out of college. The team also applied systems thinking to address the root causes of this "wicked problem," resulting in their Nod app, which has improved outcomes for college students. This article is based on the author's award-winning case study.

Sharing deep values with customers is a competitive advantage and a powerful creator of business value that leaders too often fail to recognize. Companies that do are likely to find that shared values can enhance customer acquisition and life cycles and experience all of the benefits that brings.

Past research into enterprise collaboration tools suggests they suffer because not enough people contribute. The authors point to the opposite problem: Too many people mimic consumer social media and post mainly to enhance their reputation, while too few are willing to engage with the contributions of others. The authors identify four types of participants and propose strategies for encouraging more social interaction and less self-promotion.

Even well-meaning organizations too often come up short in investigating sexual harassment complaints, implementing preventive measures, and imposing penalties against harassers. The result? Companies leave themselves vulnerable to liability for harassers’ actions and losing valuable talent. What’s essential are a credible training program, a solid process for investigating complaints and looking for patterns, and a uniformly applied disciplinary policy for violators.

Research shows the benefits of good work friendships on personal well-being, productivity, and engagement â€" but our close relationships at work can also create a minefield for leaders if they fracture teams into cliques. Here’s how to build healthy work friendships that enhance collaboration and performance and humanize the workplace.

New sustainability reporting mandates in the European Union will affect many U.S. companies that do business in Europe and will require them to come to grips with a new concept: double materiality. Rather than reporting solely on the financial materiality of sustainability issues, companies will need to develop new processes for identifying and assessing impact materiality â€" that is, how their actions affect external stakeholders.

Should you deploy that machine learning model â€" or will it fail? Most leaders making these decisions are focusing on the wrong metrics â€" which dooms many projects. In this article, adapted from the book The AI Playbook: Mastering the Rare Art of Machine Learning Deployment, learn how and why to use business metrics rather than technical ones to evaluate how well an ML model will perform â€" and how much business value it will deliver.

Why the need to proactively counter the impact of hubris on organizational leadership has never been greater.

In this article, the authors argue that too much risk capital supporting innovation goes to apps, gadgets, and digital conveniences, as funders increasingly look for easy, low-risk returns and often lack the know-how to evaluate ventures with more ambitious scientific and technical goals. This needs to change if technology is going to fulfill its promise of a better world for all. Corporate venture capitalists are well positioned to do more to help innovators survive the challenges of scaling.

Digital transformation can be particularly complex in manufacturing because it requires the multistaged integration of physical assets with digital technologies. The authors’ research finds that manufacturers that succeed in adopting transformative tech take a three-stage approach â€" making efficiency gains, leveling up digital capabilities, and then growing via innovation â€" and that they apply the right metrics during each stage.

Choosing to deliberately lose a customer might violate prevailing wisdom, but not all customers are good for your business. The authors suggest that business leaders should focus on customer needs, behavior, and value when deciding which customers to cull in order to improve profitability and better serve other customers. They also describe the pros and cons of different approaches to ending customer relationships.

Today’s fad-driven retail environment is volatile, making it challenging for companies to accurately predict product demand. The authors provide a framework that considers both product life cycle and demand volatility that can help organizations fine-tune their product demand forecasting, with human and AI agents working in concert.

The phenomenon of speaking on behalf of another individual or entity in an organizational setting is known as managerial ventriloquism. When managers engage in this behavior to excess, it can undermine their credibility and authority with their colleagues. The authors of this article conducted an ethnographic study on managerial ventriloquism and use the results to explain how this behavior works and suggest strategies to employ it more effectively.

Many CEOs dutifully check the boxes when it comes to their own annual feedback process â€" and that's it. These CEOs don't see value in it, so follow-up is spotty and organizations don't gain much from it. But there is a better way. Based on the author's real-world experiments with CEOs and senior leaders, this article shares three suggestions for dramatically increasing the impact of the annual CEO feedback process.

During VMware's 10-year DEI effort, leaders had to learn about making diversity gains last. VMware successfully increased the percentage of women employees globally and underrepresented employees in the U.S., at rates that stand out in the tech industry. Its journey has lessons on how to prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts that move the needle in sustainable ways for the long term. Learn from VMware's three best practices for culture change, including an expansive reverse-mentoring program.