Leadership & management

Early in 2019, who knew that a novel coronavirus would shut down businesses, communities, industries and economies in just weeks? A good business strategist understands that the future unfolds in ways that are unforeseeable as frequently as they’re predictable. But there are analytical frameworks you can use to yield insights for your organization.

Getting diversity, equity and inclusion right in any organization is a function of change, which is hard. Here Darden experts provide practical insights on leveraging deviance in ways that empower individuals, the benefits of unconscious-bias training, mentorship and sponsorship, and how to have constructive (if potentially tense) conversations.

Getting diversity and inclusion right in any organization is a function of change. It’s about overcoming barriers, getting people out of dominant paradigms about diversity, and empowering people to understand diversity and inclusion as part of the overall livelihood of their organizations. That means providing models and templates that get results.

Since the pandemic hit, there is more of an imperative than ever to build real organizational and personal resilience. The tools that prove most useful in doing so include purpose, engagement and leadership behaviors — like modeling interpersonal human relatedness and personal growth after adversity.

The most successful companies are those that create strategies that align their plans for positioning in the market with the capabilities that they have. Here’s a step-by-step framework to determine if you have what you need to execute your strategy now or if you need to enhance your organizational capabilities moving forward.

The argument in favor of diversity and inclusion is robust. The benefits are clear. As our populations change, diverse groups of talent are emerging, and they are emerging fast. However, corporations and businesses are still lagging hard behind the pace of this change. So what’s holding us back?

Research shows that, compared to men, positive feedback for women often conforms to gender stereotypes and is more generic. Without the same constructive encouragement, women may not only fail to see their contributions as equal in value, but also miss out on the opportunity to learn. How can we redress the praise deficit?

Your firm’s value can be affected by trends that should affect your strategic outlook. Those factors may be technological, regulatory, institutional, cultural or societal changes. Analyzing these risks and opportunities—and thinking about how they may evolve—is critical to the long-term success of your business strategy.

How do you spread your influence across an organization? How do you ensure that the right systems or processes are in place to hire the outstanding talent you need? And what if you’re not in the C-suite — what can you do to improve the structures, procedures or design mechanisms within your organization if you’re a midlevel leader?

Innovation is essential for a business to thrive, and behind all innovation is creativity. While there are many definitions of creativity, the one that is most agreed upon is that it produces something that is both novel and meaningful. Creativity is not something that people have or don’t; rather, it is a skill that anyone can perfect and grow.