Most of us were raised to think that smart people always know the right answer. From gold stars in grade school to performance reviews in the office, we're rewarded for certainty. Yet as Bidhan ("Bobby") Parmar, professor at the UVA Darden School of Business, argues in his new book, Radical Doubt, clinging to certainty is precisely what derails us when the stakes are highest. "The only thing that spoon-feeding teaches us," he quips, "is the shape of a spoon".
Welcome to HBR On Leadership. These episodes are case studies and conversations with the world's top business and management experts, hand-selected to help you unlock the best in those around you. I'm HBR senior editor and producer Amanda Kersey. As a leader, noticing where your attention goes is a skill that affects your judgment, learning, listening-basically every aspect of how you think and show up.
"It just felt like falling off a cliff," Graham, now the founder of Glue Club, said in a recent interview on Lenny Rachitsky's podcast. "Taking risks, accepting the terrible fall and that experience of falling has been more than worth it." Graham described the experience as part of what she calls the "J-curve" - a career trajectory where a risky move leads to an initial drop before eventually producing outsized gains. Visually, she describes it as standing on a ledge, stepping off, sinking briefly, and then rising far higher than where you started - just like the shape of the letter J.
La Placita in East San Jose's Mayfair neighborhood was one of those projects. When we acquired the long-neglected, 28,000-square-foot building three years ago, it stood as a symbol of disinvestment along the Alum Rock corridor. What we saw instead was possibility - a future cultural anchor that could hold space for arts and culture, a community health clinic and opportunities for local businesses to grow and thrive.
In his recent New Year's Day message, the PM promised to "defeat the decline and division offered by others" and insisted 2026 would see people feel "positive change" in their lives. Speaking to the BBC, Sir Keir said: "I was elected in 2024 with a five-year mandate to change the country, and that's what I intend to do, to be faithful to that mandate."
At this year's Web Summit in Lisbon, Hayden Brown, president and CEO of Upwork, was asked which leadership skills are most in demand today. Her answer was immediate: The demand for soft skills is rising. As AI algorithms increasingly take over routine tasks, the qualities that can't be automated-communication clarity, the ability to work effectively with people, and conflict-resolution skills-are becoming essential for career growth.
In making an idea together, you are trying to build a shared reality. We are both building a non-existent thing. Because improvisers are creating something out of nothing, they are forced to listen to each other, to pay attention, in a deeper way than in their ordinary lives. People can make assumptions and skim over details in their day-to-day lives, but while improvising, they have to catch every word and even catch details that go beyond their partner's words.
Your tarot card for New Year's Day is the Queen of Wands, which represents sparkly, positive qualities like confidence, passion, charisma, optimism, and determination. This one's for everyone who celebrated exactly how they wanted to last night. Did you dance 'til dawn? Kiss your date at midnight? Go to bed by nine? Queen energy means following your own path.
On December 25, 1914, British and German soldiers stopped fighting and met in the middle of "no man's land" to socialize, exchange gifts, and play soccer. In what has become known as theChristmas Truce of World War I, the men, for a moment, returned to being normal people. Perhaps the holiday made them nostalgic for their families and the joy of the season. From inside the cold, wet, snow-filled trenches, one side started singing Christmas carols, and then the other side joined in.
Gerstner ran IBM from 1993 to 2002, arriving at a time when the company was under severe pressure, and its future was in doubt. IBM was losing money, the tech industry was shifting rapidly, and there was widespread expectation that the company would be broken up. Instead, Gerstner chose to keep IBM together. He pushed the company to organize around customer needs rather than internal divisions, helping reposition IBM as a provider of integrated technology and services for large enterprises. That decision became central to IBM's recovery and renewed relevance.
Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison were great both great inventors of their time. Tesla was brilliant. He even felt sorry for how long it took Edison to come up with his inventions. But Tesla was eventually forced out of his company and he died penniless. Edison on the other hand racked up commercial success. He managed to motivate employees, woo investors, and win consumers. His inventions broke through to the mass market.
One day, I decided I needed to call everybody. It was during COVID. Maybe it was just because I was sitting at home going, "I wonder what they're up to, what they're thinking, what they're worried about." It turned into this really interesting collection of perspectives because we have employees in 27 countries. You get a view of how they're seeing the economy, their work - what's working for them, what's not working.
He has served as acting public defender since December 2024. "Damon has served the county Office of the Public Defender for nearly three decades, and his longstanding commitment to public service clearly demonstrates that he is exceptionally well-suited for this role," said Board President Otto Lee. "We are proud to see a leader with such deep institutional knowledge and community partnership rise to lead the Public Defender's Office."
Every leader must recognize that we lead people, not job titles. The people who make up our organizations carry responsibilities far beyond their job descriptions, such as caring for children, managing health needs, supporting aging parents, handling school schedules and navigating everyday challenges. When CEOs understand that we are leading human beings, flexibility becomes one of the most powerful tools we have.
As executives rise to higher levels of leadership, they often report increased feelings of loneliness. One Harvard Business Review survey found that 55% of CEOs acknowledge experiencing moderate but significant bouts of loneliness, while 25% report frequent feelings of loneliness. As your expertise becomes more specialized, it can be harder to find other leaders who understand the unique challenges of the corporate environment, with whom you can connect, learn from, and grow alongside.
Leadership today demands more than vision and decisiveness. It requires staying emotionally steady, mentally flexible, and grounded-often while navigating constant pressure and competing demands. Yet many leaders operate in a near-constant state of stress without realizing how much it influences their reactions, decisions, and overall health. Burnout, irritability, poor sleep, and decision fatigue are often chalked up to time management or mindset issues.
Visa group president Oliver Jenkyn told Business Insider he thinks about his schedule like a Mason jar filled with big rocks, small pebbles, and sand. In his analogy, the big rocks represent the complex problems that Visa needs to solve, such as rolling out anew global program. The pebbles are the less complicated tasks, he said, such as pricing approvals. The sand is the "small stuff," like replying to emails, Jenkyn said.
Across history, women have fought for the simple freedom to move through the world without restriction. Women conquering wild spaces is not a new story. For 150 years or longer, women across the globe have led expeditions, first ascents, and feats of endurance-often quietly, often in the shadow of a male companion, frequently unrecorded or misrepresented in their own stories.
