HBR IdeaCast

How do you lead through a crisis, build an innovative company, and prepare an organization for long-term success? For Kenneth Chenault, former CEO of American Express and current chairman at General Catalyst, effective leadership starts with two responsibilities: defining reality and giving people hope. Chenault, who led Amex from 2001 to 2018, navigated the company through 9/11 and the 2008 financial crisis and shares the leadership principles and practices that helped him steer the company through uncertainty, foster innovation, and build a culture of accountability. Chenault explains how leaders can establish clear priorities when the stakes are high, encourage employees to speak up about problems, and challenge the status quo. He also shares lessons from his own leadership development, including how he learned to become a better listener, how outgoing leaders can set their successors up for success, and why diversity remains a core business commitment. Chenault is author of the new book Equal to the Task: A Life Forged Between America’s Promise and Its Truth.

What makes a great team? It might have less to do with whether colleagues like one another and more to do with whether they’re aligned on a shared purpose. Organizational psychologist and Wharton professor Adam Grant says leaders can build stronger connections at work, foster productive conflict, and create cultures where people feel empowered to speak up. He explains why task cohesion matters more than social cohesion, how to turn differences into a competitive advantage, and why leaders should reward people who challenge the status quo; and also shares practical ways to rethink onboarding, encourage candid feedback, and help employees connect their work to a meaningful mission. Grant is the author of the new book Vibe: The Secrets of Strong Connection in a Lonely World.

Optimism isn’t about ignoring problems or pretending everything will work out. It’s about acknowledging challenges while believing that your actions can still make a difference. Psychologist and researcher Michelle Gielan says leaders can cultivate that mindset in themselves and their teams and argues that, when they do, it creates a powerful performance advantage. Drawing on an 11-year dataset of more than 25,000 business professionals, she shares research linking optimism to higher productivity, sales, engagement, and lower burnout. She explains how leaders can use techniques like “power leads" to help teams focus on progress and possibility without losing sight of difficult realities. Gielan wrote the book Resilient Optimism: The Science of Sustaining a Positive Mindset in Tough Times and the HBR article "How Leaders Counter Pessimism in Trying Times."

How do you know when to trust your previous experience in a transformation environment, and how do you know when to listen, observe, and adapt? Ron Johnson helped create the Apple Store and transform Target into a design-forward retailer. But when he brought his approach to JCPenney, his transformation failed. He explains why leaders shouldn't rely too heavily on data when they're trying to create something that hasn't been done before, how Steve Jobs used patience and diverse perspectives to drive innovation, and why great customer experiences depend on empowering employees to solve problems one customer at a time. Johnson also reflects on his experience at JCPenney, where he moved too quickly and underestimated how deeply employees and other stakeholders were invested in the company's existing way of doing business. He shares what he would do differently today—and why listening may be one of the most important skills a leader can develop. Johnson is the author of Shop Different: How Retail Revealed Apple's Genius.

Becoming CEO can look like the culmination of a career. But the skills that help someone rise to the top job aren't necessarily the ones that make them successful once they get there. Nitin Nohria, former dean of Harvard Business School, has spent three decades studying CEOs and working with new leaders as they adjust to the demands of the role. He says one of the biggest surprises for new CEOs is realizing that they can't—and shouldn't—run the company themselves. Instead, their job is to create the conditions for their leadership team to run it well. He also explains how CEOs can stay connected to their organizations, build the right leadership team, manage their boards, focus their time, and decide which emerging issues—including AI—actually deserve their attention. Nohria is author of The CEO: The Role, the Reality, the Responsibility.

When the future feels increasingly out of our control, how can leaders and organizations make progress? University of Pennsylvania psychologist Martin Seligman, a pioneer in the study of optimism, resilience, and human flourishing, argues that the answer is agency: the belief that we can influence outcomes and create positive change. He defines agency as a combination of three capabilities: efficacy—the belief that you can achieve a goal now; optimism—the belief that you can achieve it in the future; and imagination—the ability to envision possibilities that don't yet exist. And he explains how leaders can cultivate these qualities in themselves and their organizations, how managers can help employees overcome catastrophizing, and what AI can—and can't—do when it comes to one of the most important human capabilities: imagination. Seligman is the author of Agency: The Psychological History of Human Progress.