Topic

Leadership & management

Why WeWork Didn’t Work as Planned: 4 Lessons on Corporate Governance

Hype vs. discipline. Charisma vs. responsibility. The buzz around Adam Neumann’s WeWork went from enthusiasm for a unicorn with billions in venture capital to backlash for a company with a plummeted valuation and scrapped IPO. Yet with new leadership and governance structures, long-term profit may be in sight. What might we learn from WeWork?

Storytelling in Business: How to Create Engaging Stories

Storytelling is a crucial skill that leaders use for many purposes: improving interpersonal relationships, strategy communication, culture building, engaging external stakeholders, raising capital and communicating with the media, for example. So how does one create an engaging story? Here are tips from a Darden expert.

Voice and Class: Speaking Up and Challenges to Social Mobility

Social mobility in the U.S. is increasingly rare. How does that play out in the workplace? Contrary to the arguments past studies posed about workers coming from lower social class positions, the upwardly mobile are just as likely as their high-class counterparts to speak up and share ideas at work. So what could be the barriers to advancement?

The ‘Equal-Opportunity Jerk Defense’: When Rudeness Protects Prejudice

Sexism and rudeness: not mutually exclusive. New research shows that rudeness can hide sexism, as observers may dismiss perpetrators as “equal-opportunity jerks.” Darden professors explain how the phenomenon not only turns bad behavior into plausible deniability, it can also serve as a barrier to addressing sexism in the workplace.

Can Venture Capital Attract Human Capital? The Role of Investors’ Reputations

One of the key challenges facing fledgling ventures is recruiting talent. Darden Professor Ting Xu shares findings from his recent study on how investors’ reputations can attract in-demand employees to their portfolio companies.

Go Time: How Leaders Can Learn to Manage Crises and Uncertainty

Leading in the face of crisis and uncertainty is a different practice from daily management and decision-making. But good managers can learn to anticipate and manage through such high-stress experiences and embed lessons learned in the enterprise. A Darden expert shares best practices — do’s as well as don’ts — for successful crisis management.

USA Track & Field: To Field Challenges, You Need the Board on Track

Issues of governance: It’s easy to focus on issues as they arise, rather than long-term vision and getting ahead of problems. A case that shows the importance of focusing on mission, strategy and communication with stakeholders: USA Track & Field, a nonprofit that oversees sports, training and events for professionals, coaches and students.

Work the Conversation — by Talking Less About ‘Work’

First impressions matter to relationships and to productivity. Companies want their people to mingle and have the sort of “creative collisions” that lead to innovation. But how do the things we talk about when meeting new colleagues relate to staying in touch after that first meeting? The conversational topic — and language it inspires — matter.

Finding a New Normal for the Future of Work

Darden experts say thoughts on the new normal and the future of work.

What’s the State of Women in Leadership?

The state of women at work has been at the forefront of discussions about unexpected consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. But data sets and stories during the pandemic often highlighted trends seemingly in opposition: women’s leadership roles were growing, women in the workforce were declining. Darden experts weigh in.