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The Insightful Leader
A Weekly Newsletter
Leadership lessons from the conclave
Sent to subscribers on May 7, 2025
Today, the Catholic Church begins a tradition that dates back over eight centuries: the papal conclave. Inside the Sistine Chapel, 133 cardinals will deliberate on who will serve as the 267th Pope.
The Church’s process for selecting its new leader is mysterious, contentious, and highly ritualized.... more
Keeping chaos at bay
Sent to subscribers on April 30, 2025
In a time of heightened economic uncertainty, many of us feel tempted to start thinking and acting with near-term goals in mind. But being a good leader means staying attuned to the chaos while thinking beyond the horizon.
It can be tricky to keep this balance—and to keep calibrating as new... more
Elevate others to elevate yourself
Sent to subscribers on April 23, 2025
I’ll never forget when mom asked me—a mere teen at the time—why I wasn’t more confident. As if confidence were something you could conjure up from thin air.
It would take me several years to figure out that confidence was a byproduct of liking yourself. And when you like yourself, you signal to... more
Let data be your guide
Sent to subscribers on April 16, 2025
Data is one of the engines that drives modern society. Companies track our clicks to inform their next move, sports teams use data analytics to devise game plans, and scientists feed streams of data to their AI algorithms.
So, where do leaders fit into this burgeoning trend?
Joel Shapiro, a... more
Boss, mute thyself
Sent to subscribers on April 9, 2025
Ever been in a meeting that feels more like a “talk shop” where senior leaders speak first and often, eclipsing everyone else?
You’re not alone. And Kellogg’s Sanjay Khosla, an executive coach, suggests this phenomenon happens quite often. Senior leaders convene strategic-planning sessions with... more
Tips for first-time leaders
Sent to subscribers on April 2, 2025
The transition from individual contributor to first-time manager is a notoriously bumpy ride that requires you to use a muscle you (probably) weren’t trained to flex: helping others grow.
This week, Harry Kraemer, a clinical professor of management and organizations at Kellogg and former chairman... more
How to welcome feedback
Sent to subscribers on March 26, 2025
Any leader worth their salt is always looking for ways to improve. One way to understand where you can improve as a leader—and where your blind spots are—is to ask your team for feedback. This may seem straightforward, but getting good, actionable information requires an environment where your team... more
A new fear index
Sent to subscribers on March 19, 2025
When it comes to the stock market, many of us adhere to the mantra “set it and forget it.” We prefer a simple and easy approach to investing so that we can focus our attention on our careers and family.
But the market’s recent volatility has made it hard to ignore. This may be especially true for... more
The science of failure (and success)
Sent to subscribers on March 12, 2025
Behind every great success story lie even greater tales of failure. Steven Spielberg was rejected from film school three times. Oprah Winfrey was fired from her first anchor job. There’s a good reason this has become something of a valuable cliché.
Setbacks can be a crucial part of young... more
Encouraging authenticity at work
Sent to subscribers on March 5, 2025
We all bring a version of ourselves to work. And we tend to fare—and feel—better when the version we bring is our most authentic self.
People from marginalized social groups might still fear the consequences of revealing too much about themselves. But certain conditions can make them feel more... more
How “artifacts” can define your legacy
Sent to subscribers on February 26, 2025
This week, we look at how family-enterprise leaders can identify “artifacts,” or objects and stories that convey meaning, to transmit the firm’s values across generations.
We also have advice for startup founders on how to find funders who share their company’s vision.From framed dollar bills to... more
Is meritocracy a myth?
Sent to subscribers on February 19, 2025
In the U.S., there’s an ethos that we get our jobs—and the status that accompanies them—as a result of our own hard work and intelligence. There’s a sense that meritocracy is the norm and that we earn our economic and social positions, rather than inherit them.
But in taking a closer look at... more
Torn between two offers?
Sent to subscribers on February 12, 2025
We’re told to be bold and ask for what we want in interviews—but is there a line?
Kellogg’s Leigh Thompson, an expert negotiator, addresses the question in the context of a student who had a dilemma: Should they leverage one job offer against another they had already accepted?
We’ll get into that... more
Growing pains for growing teams
Sent to subscribers on February 5, 2025
It’s Super Bowl week, so we here at Kellogg Insight are thinking about teams. Specifically, we’re thinking about one consequence often faced by growing teams: as they expand, it may get tougher for team members to talk to each other. New research from Jillian Chown, an associate professor of... more
The workplace scapegoat
Sent to subscribers on January 29, 2025
When things go wrong at work, it’s often the middle managers who are scapegoated. They tend to bear the brunt of the criticism, both from the team they manage and their higher ups. And they’re often characterized as bureaucratic or ineffective.
But Brooke Vuckovic, a clinical professor of... more
Delegation dos and don’ts
Sent to subscribers on January 22, 2025
At the risk of being the millionth person to tell you this: you should delegate. It can simultaneously save you time and develop your ranks.
Of course, I’d need about ten hands to count the amount of times I’ve tried and failed to do that myself, so I’ve long thought the advice grossly... more
New year. New sense of self.
Sent to subscribers on January 15, 2025
Biopics about bad behavior have been on a roll in recent years: The Dropout, on the Theranos scandal; Inventing Anna, about how a young socialite scammed New York’s high society out of millions; and two shows (Dopesick and Painkillers) about Purdue Pharma’s role in the opioid crisis. These are just... more
Indra Nooyi gets tough
Sent to subscribers on January 8, 2025
It’s great to be back.
I imagine we’re all still in the throes of our resolutions for 2025 (unless you aren’t, in which case, congratulations on knowing when to quit), so today I’m sharing a few lightly edited motivational excerpts from a conversation between Kellogg’s Ellen Taaffe and Indra Nooyi,... more
4 steps to a strong CEO–board relationship
Sent to subscribers on December 18, 2024
Becoming CEO: for many career-climbers, that’s the dream, right?
But having made it to the top, many new CEOs find themselves unprepared to deal with their new bosses, aka the board of directors, which may include as many as 15 people, some of whom know very little about the company or even the... more
AI … hardly an overnight success
Sent to subscribers on December 11, 2024
Given the outsized attention paid to ChatGPT and its brethren, one could be forgiven for thinking the technology behind generative AI sprung out of nowhere, fully formed. Not so, says Kellogg’s Sergio Rebelo. This week: a brief history of the long history of AI.
Plus, AI-generated misinformation,... more
