Lili Powell

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.

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.

Much about 2021 looked like 2020. But as the world adapted to ongoing pandemic life, we also had to stay nimble in the face of uncertainty. We tried to roll with the punches. 2021 saw new developments and challenges, as well as existing issues that evolved. Here, we look at themes and observations Darden experts explored over the course of 2021.

Darden Professor Lili Powell shares her insights on leadership kindness and the important opportunity for leading mindfully.

As we close Women’s History Month, some of Darden’s many female faculty experts share wisdom on leadership and business. Here they offer guidance in advancing to leadership positions, creating trust, race in the workplace, leading mindfully through crisis and supporting female entrepreneurs in emerging economies.

The social unrest of 2020 brought new attention to long-simmering issues of diversity, equity and inclusion in the U.S. and around the globe, and prompted many to seek to learn more about longstanding societal inequities — and potential paths forward. Six Darden professors deliver their thoughts and share additional thought leadership.

If the COVID-19 crisis triggered health, economic, social and psychological changes that mean we will be living and working through destabilizing moments now and for the foreseeable future, all the more reason now to adopt and practice essential skills of Leading Mindfully. How should we start thinking in new ways that better represent reality?

In times of crisis, leaders need to watch out for at least two leadership blind spots: One involves overreacting, one denial — a “suck it up” approach can be valorized in certain work cultures. Here are practical actions to tame such impulses and bring greater clarity, calm and goodwill in a moment when how you show up as a leader really counts.

What’s novel about COVID-19 isn’t just the coronavirus. It’s the sheer scale and depth of The Big Human Pivot that this tiny infectious particle has triggered. In unprecedented times, what can you do to lead mindfully through it? In this series, Lili Powell introduces a Leading Mindfully strategy: “see it, name it, tame it and reclaim it.”

Darden Ideas to Action offers words of wisdom from six experts for graduates (and anyone else) on how real people with a real sense of purpose can make the workplace more productive, responsible and, well, happy.