Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld

Keep shareholders happy and manage for the long term. Earning a board seat is a rite of passage. But directors must juggle many responsibilities, from steering company strategy, managing risk, and appointing leaders to setting the right incentives, meeting shareholder expectations, and dealing with activist investors. How do you balance it all? If you read nothing else on boards, read these 10 articles by experts in the field. We've combed through hundreds of articles in the Harvard Business Review archive and selected the most important ones to help you set your board up for success. This book will inspire you to:Ensure you have directors who can meet company goalsEstablish a robust succession-planning processEncourage the risk-taking that will generate breakthrough innovationPrioritize the health of the enterprise without neglecting shareholdersProvide the critical support a new CEO needs to succeedIgnite nonprofit board members by engaging them in work that mattersTake on the world's toughest economic, social, and environmental problemsThis collection of articles includes "What Makes Great Boards Great," by Je?rey A. Sonnenfeld; "Building Better Boards," by David A. Nadler; "The Error at the Heart of Corporate Leadership," by Joseph L. Bower and Lynn S. Paine; "The New Work of the Nonprofit Board," by Barbara E. Taylor, Richard P. Chait, and Thomas P. Holland; "Dysfunction in the Boardroom," by Boris Groysberg and Deborah Bell; "The Board's New Innovation Imperative," by Linda A. Hill and George Davis; "Managing Risks: A New Framework," by Robert S. Kaplan and Anette Mikes; "Ending the CEO Succession Crisis," by Ram Charan; "Comp Targets That Work," by Radhakrishnan Gopalan, John Horn, and Todd Milbourn; and "Sustainability in the Boardroom," by Lynn S. Paine. HBR's 10 Must Reads paperback series is the definitive collection of books for new and experienced leaders alike. Leaders looking for the inspiration that big ideas provide, both to accelerate their own growth and that of their companies, should look no further. HBR's 10 Must Reads series focuses on the core topics that every ambitious manager needs to know: leadership, strategy, change, managing people, and managing yourself. Harvard Business Review has sorted through hundreds of articles and selected only the most essential reading on each topic. Each title includes timeless advice that will be relevant regardless of an ever-changing business environment.

How to be resilient in a professional setting. How do some people bounce back with vigor from daily setbacks, professional crises, or even intense personal trauma? This book reveals the key traits of those who emerge stronger from challenges, helps you train your brain to withstand the stresses of daily life, and presents an approach to an effective career reboot. This volume includes the work of:Daniel GolemanJeffrey A. SonnenfeldShawn AchorThis collection of articles includes “How Resilience Works,” by Diane Coutu; “Resilience for the Rest of Us,” by Daniel Goleman; “How to Evaluate, Manage, and Strengthen Your Resilience,” by David Kopans; “Find the Coaching in Criticism,” by Sheila Heen and Douglas Stone; “Firing Back: How Great Leaders Rebound After Career Disasters,” by Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld and Andrew J. Ward; and “Resilience Is About How You Recharge, Not How You Endure,” by Shawn Achor and Michelle Gielan. How to be human at work. The HBR Emotional Intelligence Series features smart, essential reading on the human side of professional life from the pages of Harvard Business Review. Each book in the series offers proven research showing how our emotions impact our work lives, practical advice for managing difficult people and situations, and inspiring essays on what it means to tend to our emotional well-being at work. Uplifting and practical, these books describe the social skills that are critical for ambitious professionals to master.

How do some people bounce back with strength from daily setbacks, professional crises, or even intense personal trauma? This book reveals the key traits of those who emerge stronger from challenges, helps you train your brain to withstand the stresses of daily life, and presents an approach to an effective career reboot. This volume includes the work of; Daniel Goleman. Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld. Shawn Achor. How to be human at work. HBR's Emotional Intelligence Series features smart, essential reading on the human side of professional life from the pages of Harvard Business Review. Each book in the series offers proven research showing how our emotions impact our work lives, practical advice for managing difficult people and situations, and inspiring essays on what it means to tend to our emotional well-being at work. Uplifting and practical, these books describe the social skills that are critical for ambitious professionals to master.

Is it possible to rescue your career and restore your reputation after a major professional setback? In an age when we're bombarded with press accounts of disgraced CEOs, politicians, and celebrities, this question is more important than ever. In Firing Back, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and Andrew Ward lay out a novel five-step recovery process: "Fight, not flight" (face the difficult situation), "Recruit others into battle" (enlist the right assistance), "Rebuild heroic stature" (spread the true nature of the adversity), "Prove your mettle" (regain trust and credibility), and "Rediscover the heroic mission" (clear the past and chart the future). Anchored in original research and decades of scholarly studies across fields, this book is packed with engrossing stories and first-hand accounts from humbled CEOs and executives from firms as esteemed as GE, The Home Depot, Morgan Stanley, Apple, Staples, and Hewlett-Packard. Firing Back offers a clear plan for any businessperson who needs to recover from career setbacks and reclaim lost prestige and reputation. The authors also identify common barriers to recovery that even seasoned executives can fall prey to, and explain how to surmount them.