A new edition of the bestseller that has helped aspiring leaders worldwide advance their careers and step up to larger leadership roles. You aspire to lead with greater impact. The problem is you're busy executing on today's demands. You know you have to carve out time from your "day job" to build your leadership skills, but it’s easy to let immediate problems and old mindsets get in the way. Herminia Ibarra—one of the world's foremost experts on leadership—shows how individuals at all levels can step up to leadership by making small but crucial changes in their jobs, their networks, and themselves. In Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader, Ibarra offers advice to: Redefine your job in order to make more strategic contributions Diversify your network so that you connect to, and learn from, a wider range of stakeholders Become more playful with your self-concept, allowing your familiar—and possibly outdated—leadership style to evolve Ibarra turns the usual leadership advice—generate insight about yourself through reflection and analysis of your strengths and weaknesses—on its head by arguing that you must first act and experiment your way into trying new things. The valuable external perspective you gain from direct experiences and experimentation—which Ibarra calls outsight—provides new and critical information on what kind of work is important to you, how you should invest your time, why and which relationships matter, and, ultimately, who you want to become. Updated with new examples and self-assessments, this book gives you the tools to start acting like a leader and advancing your career to the next level.

Strategies that successful career changers use—and how to make them work for you. Nearly all of us have entertained the notion of changing careers. Feeling burned out at work, unfulfilled, or just plain unhappy with whatever we're doing, we long to reinvent ourselves on a new and different career path. But how do we make this transition successfully? In this update of the much-loved classic, bestselling author Herminia Ibarra presents a model for career reinvention that flies in the face of everything we've learned from "career experts"—and is tailor-made for changing careers in today's uncertain world. Career transition is not a linear path toward some predetermined identity, according to Ibarra, but a crooked journey along which we try on a host of "possible selves" we might become. Successful reinvention comes not from deciphering and analyzing our past, but from inventing and testing our possible futures. Using new examples of people in different stages of a career transition, Ibarra identifies the three critical strategies—experiment with new professional activities and identities, interact in new networks of people, and make sense of what is happening to us in light of emerging possibilities—that all successful career changers use. She shows how you can use these strategies to: Explore your possible selves Craft and execute "identity experiments" Create "small wins" that keep momentum going Connect with role models and mentors who can ease the transition Arrange new learnings into a coherent story Now with action-oriented exercises to help you work successfully through your own career transition, this updated edition gives you the tools to discover a new path and find success in your new career.

Collaborator. Communicator. Connector. Coach. As a mid-level manager, you're being tasked with more than ever before. You're expected to lead innovation, develop talent, execute on strategy, create an inclusive culture, and help your people adapt to constant change. How can you do it all and be successful? If you read nothing else on being an effective mid-level manager, read these 10 articles. We've combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Review articles and selected the best ones to help you build buy-in up and down your organization, secure time and resources for key projects, and lead change—all while getting the most important work done. This book will inspire you to: Build winning teams and develop talent Transform your role from intermediary to innovator Foster a culture of psychological safety Balance being a leader with being an individual contributor Form partnerships and leverage internal networks Lead your organization from the middle This collection of articles includes "Managers Can't Do It All," by Diane Gherson and Lynda Gratton; "The Real Value of Middle Managers," by Zahira Jaser; "In Praise of Middle Managers," by Quy Nguyen Huy; "Managing Your Boss," by John J. Gabarro and John P. Kotter; "Get the Boss to Buy In," by Susan J. Ashford and James Detert; "The Secrets of Great Teamwork," by Martine Haas and Mark Mortensen; "How the Best Bosses Interrupt Bias on Their Teams," by Joan C. Williams and Sky Mihaylo; "Making the Hybrid Workplace Fair," by Mark Mortensen and Martine Haas; "Why Strategy Execution Unravels—and What to Do About It," by Donald Sull, Rebecca Homkes, and Charles Sull; "The Leader as Coach," by Herminia Ibarra and Anne Scoular; "Make the Most of Your One-on-One Meetings," by Steven G. Rogelberg; "Learn When to Say No," by Bruce Tulgan; and "Begin with Trust," by Frances Frei and Anne Morriss.

Building a successful career starts with you.

It's easy to get caught up in the day-to-day demands of your current job and lose sight of the big picture, but with a typical career spanning 50 years or more, you do so at your own peril. It's up to you to chart your own course to professional success.

If you read nothing else on effectively managing your career, read these 10 articles by experts in the field. We've combed through hundreds of articles in the Harvard Business Review archive and selected the most important ones to help you develop yourself, make the right career moves, navigate inevitable detours and disruptions, and turn your professional dreams into reality.

This book will inspire you to:

• Identify and leverage your strengths
• Cultivate the curiosity, skills, and knowledge you need to maintain your professional relevance far into the future
• Navigate messy job transitions gracefully
• Build and sustain a network that supports and encourages your growth
• Restore meaning and passion to your work
• Bounce back from career setbacks big and small
• Reinvent yourself, even in tough times

This collection of articles includes "Managing Oneself," by Peter F. Drucker; "How to Play to Your Strengths," by Laura Morgan Roberts, Gretchen Spreitzer, Jane Dutton, Robert Quinn, Emily Heaphy, and Brianna Barker Caza; "How to Stay Stuck in the Wrong Career," by Herminia Ibarra; "Five Ways to Bungle a Job Change," by Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams; "Learning to Learn," by Erika Andersen; "The Strategic Side Gig," by Ken Banta and Orlan Boston; "How Leaders Create and Use Networks," by Herminia Ibarra and Mark Lee Hunter; "How to Bounce Back from Adversity," by Joshua D. Margolis and Paul G. Stoltz; "Rebounding from Career Setbacks," by Mitchell Lee Marks, Philip Mirvis, and Ron Ashkenas; "Reawakening Your Passion for Work," by Richard Boyatzis, Annie McKee, and Daniel Goleman; and "Next-Gen Retirement," by Heather C. Vough, Christine D. Bataille, Leisa Sargent, and Mary Dean Lee.

What does it mean to be yourself at work? As a leader, how do you strike the right balance between vulnerability and authority? This book explains the role of authenticity in emotionally intelligent leadership. You'll learn how to discover your authentic self, when emotional responses are appropriate, how conforming to specific standards can hurt you, and when you need to feel like a fake. This volume includes the work of: Bill GeorgeHerminia IbarraRob GoffeeGareth Jones This collection of articles includes: "Discovering Your Authentic Leadership" by Bill George, Peter Sims, Andrew N. McLean, and Diana Mayer; "The Authenticity Paradox" by Herminia Ibarra; "What Bosses Gain by Being Vulnerable" by Emma Seppala; "Practice Tough Empathy" by Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones; "Cracking the Code That Stalls People of Color" by Sylvia Ann Hewitt; "For a Corporate Apology to Work, the CEO Should Look Sad" by Sarah Green Carmichael; and "Are Leaders Getting Too Emotional?" an interview with Gautam Mukunda and Gianpiero Petriglieri by Adi Ignatius and Sarah Green Carmichael. How to be human at work. The HBR Emotional Intelligence Series features smart, essential reading on the human side of professional life from the pages of Harvard Business Review. Each book in the series offers proven research showing how our emotions impact our work lives, practical advice for managing difficult people and situations, and inspiring essays on what it means to tend to our emotional well-being at work. Uplifting and practical, these books describe the social skills that are critical for ambitious professionals to master.

Develop the mindset and presence to successfully manage others for the first time. If you read nothing else on becoming a new manager, read these 10 articles. We've combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Review articles and selected the most important ones to help you transition from being an outstanding individual contributor to a great manager of others. This book will inspire you to: * develop your emotional intelligence * influence your colleagues with the science of persuasion * assess your team and enhance its performance * network effectively to achieve business goals and for personal advancement * navigate relationships with employees, bosses, and peers * get support from above * view the big picture in your decision-making * balance your team's work and personal life in a high-intensity workplace

Command the room--whether you're speaking to an audience of one or one hundred. If you read nothing else on public speaking and presenting, read these 10 articles. We've combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Review articles and selected the most important ones to help you find your voice, persuade your listeners, and connect with audiences of any size. This book will inspire you to: Win hearts and minds--and approval for your ideas Conquer your nerves and speak with confidence Focus your message so that people really listen Establish trust with your audience by being your authentic self Use data and visuals to persuade more effectively Master the art of storytelling This collection of articles includes "How to Give a Killer Presentation," by Chris Anderson; "How to Become an Authentic Speaker," by Nick Morgan; "Storytelling That Moves People: A Conversation with Screenwriting Coach Robert McKee," by Bronwyn Fryer; "Connect, Then Lead," by Amy J.C. Cuddy, Matthew Kohut, and John Neffinger; "The Necessary Art of Persuasion," by Jay A. Conger; "The Science of Pep Talks," by Daniel McGinn; "Get the Boss to Buy In," by Susan J. Ashford and James R. Detert; "The Organizational Apology," by Maurice E. Schweitzer, Alison Wood Brooks, and Adam D. Galinsky; "What's Your Story?" by Herminia Ibarra and Kent Lineback; "Visualizations That Really Work," by Scott Berinato; and "Structure Your Presentation Like a Story," by Nancy Duarte. HBR's 10 Must Reads paperback series is the definitive collection of books for new and experienced leaders alike. Leaders looking for the inspiration that big ideas provide, both to accelerate their own growth and that of their companies, should look no further. HBR's 10 Must Reads series focuses on the core topics that every ambitious manager needs to know: leadership, strategy, change, managing people, and managing yourself. Harvard Business Review has sorted through hundreds of articles and selected only the most essential reading on each topic. Each title includes timeless advice that will be relevant regardless of an ever-changing business environment.

Stay on top of your leadership game. Leadership isn't something you're born with or gifted as a reward for an abundance of charisma; true leadership stems from core skills that can be learned. Get more of the leadership ideas you want, from the authors you trust, with HBR's 10 Must Reads on Leadership (Vol. 2). We've combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Review articles and selected the most important ones to help you maximize your own and your organization's performance. With insights from leading experts including Michael D. Watkins, Herminia Ibarra, and Michael E. Porter, this book will inspire you to: Identify areas for personal growth Build trust with and among your employees Develop a more dynamic and sophisticated communication style Try out different leadership styles and behaviors to find the right approach for you--and your organization Transform yourself from a problem solver to an agenda setter Harness the power of connections Become an adaptive and strategic leader This collection of articles includes "Leadership Is a Conversation," by Boris Groysberg and Michael Slind; "How Managers Become Leaders: The Seven Seismic Shifts of Perspective and Responsibility," by Michael D. Watkins; "Strategic Leadership: The Essential Skills," by Paul J.H. Schoemaker, Steve Krupp, and Samantha Howland; "The Authenticity Paradox," by Herminia Ibarra; "'Both/And' Leadership," by Wendy K. Smith, Marianne W. Lewis, and Michael L. Tushman; "Are You a Collaborative Leader?" by Herminia Ibarra and Morten T. Hansen; "Cross-Silo Leadership," by Tiziana Casciaro, Amy C. Edmondson, and Sujin Jang; "How CEOs Manage Time," by Michael E. Porter and Nitin Nohria; "The Best Leaders Are Great Teachers," by Sydney Finkelstein; "Nimble Leadership," by Deborah Ancona, Elaine Backman, and Kate Isaacs; and "The Focused Leader," by Daniel Goleman.

You aspire to lead with greater impact. The problem is you're busy executing on today's demands. You know you have to carve out time from your day job to build your leadership skills, but it's easy to let immediate problems and old mind-sets get in the way. Herminia Ibarra--an expert on professional leadership and development and a renowned professor at INSEAD, a leading international business school--shows how managers and executives at all levels can step up to leadership by making small but crucial changes in their jobs, their networks, and themselves. In Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader, she offers advice to help you: * Redefine your job in order to make more strategic contributions * Diversify your network so that you connect to, and learn from, a bigger range of stakeholders * Become more playful with your self-concept, allowing your familiar--and possibly outdated--leadership style to evolve Ibarra turns the usual "think first and then act" philosophy on its head by arguing that doing these three things will help you learn through action and will increase what she calls your outsight--the valuable external perspective you gain from direct experiences and experimentation. As opposed to insight, outsight will then help change the way you think as a leader: about what kind of work is important; how you should invest your time; why and which relationships matter in informing and supporting your leadership; and, ultimately, who you want to become. Packed with self-assessments and practical advice to help define your most pressing leadership challenges, this book will help you devise a plan of action to become a better leader and move your career to the next level. It's time to learn by doing.

How to be human at work. HBR's Emotional Intelligence Series features smart, essential reading on the human side of professional life from the pages of Harvard Business Review. Each book in the series offers proven research showing how our emotions impact our work lives, practical advice for managing difficult people and situations, and inspiring essays on what it means to tend to our emotional well-being at work. Uplifting and practical, these books describe the social skills that are critical for ambitious professionals to master. The specially priced six-volume set includes, Mindfulness, Resilience, Influence and Persuasion, Authentic Leadership, Happiness, and Empathy.

How Successful Career Changers Turn Fantasy into Reality Whether as a daydream or a spoken desire, nearly all of us have entertained the notion of reinventing ourselves. Feeling unfulfilled, burned out, or just plain unhappy with what we're doing, we long to make that leap into the unknown. But we also hold on, white-knuckled, to the years of time and effort we've invested in our current profession. In this powerful book, Herminia Ibarra presents a new model for career reinvention that flies in the face of everything we've learned from "career experts." While common wisdom holds that we must first know what we want to do before we can act, Ibarra argues that this advice is backward. Knowing, she says, is the result of doing and experimenting. Career transition is not a straight path toward some predetermined identity, but a crooked journey along which we try on a host of "possible selves" we might become. Based on her in-depth research on professionals and managers in transition, Ibarra outlines an active process of career reinvention that leverages three ways of "working identity": experimenting with new professional activities, interacting in new networks of people, and making sense of what is happening to us in light of emerging possibilities. Through engrossing stories--from a literature professor turned stockbroker to an investment banker turned novelist--Ibarra reveals a set of guidelines that all successful reinventions share. She explores specific ways that hopeful career changers of any background can: Explore possible selves Craft and execute "identity experiments" Create "small wins" that keep momentum going Survive the rocky period between career identities Connect with role models and mentors who can ease the transition Make time for reflection--without missing out on windows of opportunity Decide when to abandon the old path in order to follow the new Arrange new events into a coherent story of who we are becoming. A call to the dreamer in each of us, Working Identity explores the process for crafting a more fulfilling future. Where we end up may surprise us.

What will it take to create a more gender-balanced workplace? If you read nothing else on leadership and gender at work, read these 10 articles by experts in the field. We've combed through hundreds of articles in the Harvard Business Review archive and selected the most important ones to help you understand where gender equality is today--and how far we still have to go. This book will inspire you to: Better understand the path women must take to leadership Learn the root causes of the barriers that exist for women in the workplace Check your own gender biases and distinguish between confidence and competence in your colleagues Manage a more effective gender-diversity program Recognize the issues women face when speaking up about bias or harassment Help women reenter the workforce after taking time off--and create opportunities for them to reach their ambitions. This collection of articles includes "Women and the Labyrinth of Leadership," by Alice H. Eagly and Linda L. Carli; "Do Women Lack Ambition?" by Anna Fels; "Women Rising: The Unseen Barriers," by Herminia Ibarra, Robin Ely, and Deborah Kolb; "Women and the Vision Thing," by Herminia Ibarra and Otilia Obodaru; "The Power of Talk: Who Gets Heard and Why," by Deborah Tannen; "The Memo Every Woman Keeps in Her Desk," by Kathleen Reardon; "Why Diversity Programs Fail," by Frank Dobbin and Alexandra Kalev; "Now What?" by Joan C. Williams and Suzanne Lebsock; "The Battle for Female Talent in Emerging Markets," by Sylvia Ann Hewlett and Ripa Rashid; "Off-Ramps and On-Ramps: Keeping Talented Women on the Road to Success," by Sylvia Ann Hewlett and Carolyn Buck Luce; and "Sheryl Sandberg: The HBR Interview," by Sheryl Sandberg and Adi Ignatius.

What will it take to create a more gender-balanced workplace? If you read nothing else on leadership and gender at work, read these 10 articles by experts in the field. We've combed through hundreds of articles in the Harvard Business Review archive and selected the most important ones to help you understand where gender equality is today--and how far we still have to go. This book will inspire you to: Better understand the path women must take to leadership Learn the root causes of the barriers that exist for women in the workplace Check your own gender biases and distinguish between confidence and competence in your colleagues Manage a more effective gender-diversity program Recognize the issues women face when speaking up about bias or harassment Help women reenter the workforce after taking time off--and create opportunities for them to reach their ambitions. This collection of articles includes "Women and the Labyrinth of Leadership," by Alice H. Eagly and Linda L. Carli; "Do Women Lack Ambition?" by Anna Fels; "Women Rising: The Unseen Barriers," by Herminia Ibarra, Robin Ely, and Deborah Kolb; "Women and the Vision Thing," by Herminia Ibarra and Otilia Obodaru; "The Power of Talk: Who Gets Heard and Why," by Deborah Tannen; "The Memo Every Woman Keeps in Her Desk," by Kathleen Reardon; "Why Diversity Programs Fail," by Frank Dobbin and Alexandra Kalev; "Now What?" by Joan C. Williams and Suzanne Lebsock; "The Battle for Female Talent in Emerging Markets," by Sylvia Ann Hewlett and Ripa Rashid; "Off-Ramps and On-Ramps: Keeping Talented Women on the Road to Success," by Sylvia Ann Hewlett and Carolyn Buck Luce; and "Sheryl Sandberg: The HBR Interview," by Sheryl Sandberg and Adi Ignatius.

Develop the mindset and presence to successfully manage others for the first time. If you read nothing else on becoming a new manager, read these 10 articles. We've combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Review articles and selected the most important ones to help you transition from being an outstanding individual contributor to becoming a great manager of others. This book will inspire you to: Develop your emotional intelligenceInfluence your colleagues through the science of persuasionAssess your team and enhance its performanceNetwork effectively to achieve business goals and for personal advancementNavigate relationships with employees, bosses, and peersGet support from aboveView the big picture in your decision makingBalance your team's work and personal life in a high-intensity workplace This collection of articles includes "Becoming the Boss," by Linda A. Hill; "Leading the Team You Inherit," by Michael D. Watkins; "Saving Your Rookie Managers from Themselves," by Carol A. Walker; "Managing the High-Intensity Workplace," by Erin Reid and Lakshmi Ramarajan; "Harnessing the Science of Persuasion," Robert B. Cialdini; "What Makes a Leader?" by Daniel Goleman; "The Authenticity Paradox," by Herminia Ibarra; "Managing Your Boss," by John J. Gabarro and John P. Kotter; "How Leaders Create and Use Networks," by Herminia Ibarra and Mark Lee Hunter; "Management Time: Who's Got the Monkey?" by William Oncken, Jr., and Donald L. Wass; and BONUS ARTICLE: "How Managers Become Leaders," by Michael D. Watkins.

A year’s worth of management wisdom, all in one place. We’ve examined the ideas, insights, and best practices from the past year of Harvard Business Review to bring you the latest, most significant thinking driving business today. With authors from Marcus Buckingham to Herminia Ibarra and company examples from Google to Deloitte, this volume brings the most current and important management conversations to your fingertips. This book will inspire you to: Tap into the new technologies that are changing the way businesses competeFuel performance by redesigning your organization’s practices around feedbackLearn techniques to move beyond intuition for better decision makingUnderstand why your strategy execution isn’t working—and how to fix itLead with authenticity by moving beyond your comfort zoneTransform your physical office space to promote creativity and productivity This collection of best-selling articles includes: “Reinventing Performance Management,� by Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall“The Transparency Trap,� by Ethan Bernstein“Profits Without Prosperity,� by William Lazonick“Outsmart Your Own Biases,� by Jack B. Soll, Katherine L. Milkman, and John W. Payne“The 3-D Printing Revolution,� by Richard D’Aveni“Why Strategy Execution Unravels—and What to Do About It,� by Donald Sull, Rebecca Homkes, and Charles Sull“The Authenticity Paradox,� by Herminia Ibarra“The Discipline of Business Experimentation,� by Stefan Thomke and Jim Manzi“When Senior Managers Won’t Collaborate,� by Heidi K. Gardner“Workspaces That Move People,� by Ben Waber, Jennifer Magnolfi, and Greg Lindsay“Digital Ubiquity: How Connections, Sensors, and Data Are Revolutionizing Business,� by Marco Iansiti and Karim R. Lakhani

What does it mean to be yourself at work? As a leader, how do you strike the right balance between vulnerability and authority? This book explains the role of authenticity in emotionally intelligent leadership. You'll learn how to discover your authentic self, when emotional responses are appropriate, how conforming to specific standards can hurt you, and when you need to feel like a fake. This volume includes the work of: Bill GeorgeHerminia IbarraRob GoffeeGareth Jones This collection of articles includes: "Discovering Your Authentic Leadership" by Bill George, Peter Sims, Andrew N. McLean, and Diana Mayer; "The Authenticity Paradox" by Herminia Ibarra; "What Bosses Gain by Being Vulnerable" by Emma Seppala; "Practice Tough Empathy" by Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones; "Cracking the Code That Stalls People of Color" by Sylvia Ann Hewitt; "For a Corporate Apology to Work, the CEO Should Look Sad" by Sarah Green Carmichael; and "Are Leaders Getting Too Emotional?" an interview with Gautam Mukunda and Gianpiero Petriglieri by Adi Ignatius and Sarah Green Carmichael. How to be human at work. The HBR Emotional Intelligence Series features smart, essential reading on the human side of professional life from the pages of Harvard Business Review. Each book in the series offers proven research showing how our emotions impact our work lives, practical advice for managing difficult people and situations, and inspiring essays on what it means to tend to our emotional well-being at work. Uplifting and practical, these books describe the social skills that are critical for ambitious professionals to master.

A year's worth of management wisdom, all in one place. We've examined the ideas, insights, and best practices from the past year of Harvard Business Review to bring you the latest, most significant thinking driving business today. With authors from Marcus Buckingham to Herminia Ibarra and company examples from Google to Deloitte, this volume brings the most current and important management conversations to your fingertips. This book will inspire you to: * Tap into the new technologies that are changing the way businesses compete * Fuel performance by redesigning your organization's practices around feedback * Learn techniques to move beyond intuition for better decision making * Understand why your strategy execution isn't working--and how to fix it * Lead with authenticity by moving beyond your comfort zone * Transform your physical office space to promote creativity and productivity This collection of best-selling articles includes: * "Reinventing Performance Management," by Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall * "The Transparency Trap," by Ethan Bernstein * "Profits Without Prosperity," by William Lazonick * "Outsmart Your Own Biases," by Jack B. Soll, Katherine L. Milkman, and John W. Payne * "The 3-D Printing Revolution," by Richard D'Aveni * "Why Strategy Execution Unravels--and What to Do About It," by Donald Sull, Rebecca Homkes, and Charles Sull * "The Authenticity Paradox," by Herminia Ibarra * "The Discipline of Business Experimentation," by Stefan Thomke and Jim Manzi * "When Senior Managers Won't Collaborate," by Heidi K. Gardner * "Workspaces That Move People," by Ben Waber, Jennifer Magnolfi, and Greg Lindsay * "Digital Ubiquity: How Connections, Sensors, and Data Are Revolutionizing Business," by Marco Iansiti and Karim R. Lakhani