Many leaders mistake being "nice" for being effective, avoiding hard conversations and decisions in ways that ultimately undermine organizational performance....

Organizations with a culture of "niceness" can undermine performance when leaders prioritize harmony and comfort over candor, accountability, and results....

Three questions to help you decide when and how to correct the course.

Too often, organizations bring in outside firms to develop their growth strategies-resulting in a smart plan without the motivation, skills, and resources...

Crafting a powerful vision is often considered the sine qua non of great leadership, but it's only the first step. How can leaders translate that vision...

Editor’s Note: After reading the case, please join Ron Ashkenas in the comments section below for an online conversation about the leadership lessons that might be applied to your and others’ culture change efforts. All change in organizations is challenging, but perhaps the most daunting is changing culture. There are at least two reasons for […]

Editor’s Note: This blog post is a sneak-peek to the upcoming article, “The Merger Dividend,” by Ron Ashkenas and his colleagues Suzanne Francis and Rick Heinick, which will appear in the July-August issue of HBR. Over the last ten years, I’ve talked with hundreds of managers who have been deeply involved in the post-merger/acquisition integration […]

Here’s a completely different perspective on the pending passage of a health care reform bill: If the U.S. government were a corporation, the new healthcare “division” would represent a major acquisition. This division would have an operating budget of approximately $100 billion per year and could have as many as six million “customers” to whom […]