HBR's 10 Must Reads on Managing People

by Harvard Business Publishing

Managing people is fraught with challenges—even if you're a seasoned manager. Here's how to handle them.

If you read nothing else on managing people, read these 10 articles (featuring “Leadership That Gets Results,” by Daniel Goleman). We've combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Review articles and selected the most important ones to help you maximize your employees' performance.

HBR's 10 Must Reads on Managing People will inspire you

Tailor your management styles to fit your peopleMotivate with more responsibility, not more moneySupport first-time managersBuild trust by soliciting inputTeach smart people how to learn from failureBuild high-performing teamsManage your boss

This collection of best-selling articles featured article "Leadership That Gets Results" by Daniel Goleman, "One More How Do You Motivate Employees?" "The Set-Up-to-Fail Syndrome," "Saving Your Rookie Managers from Themselves," "What Great Managers Do," "Fair Managing in the Knowledge Economy," "Teaching Smart People How to Learn," "How (Un)ethical Are You?" "The Discipline of Teams," and "Managing Your Boss."

Genres: Business, Leadership, Management, Nonfiction, Self Help, Professional Development, Personal Development

235 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 23, 2010

About the author

Harvard Business Publishing (HBP) is a publisher founded in 1994 as a not-for-profit, independent corporation and an affiliate of Harvard Business School (distinct from Harvard University Press), with a focus on improving business management practices. The company offers articles, books, case studies, simulations, videos, learning programs, and digital tools to organizations and subscribers.
HBP consists of three market units: Education, Corporate Learning, and Harvard Business Review Group. Their offering consists of print and digital media (Harvard Business Review, Harvard Business Review Press books, Harvard Business School cases), events, digital learning (Harvard ManageMentor, HMM Spark), blended learning, and campus experiences.

Reviews

[Sattar Shayesteh Far · Rating 3 out of 5]

مجموع ۱۰ مقاله از هاروارد
ولی قدیمی و تاریخ گذشته
دهه۸۰،۹۰و اوایل هزاره سوم
در کل مفید برای مدیریت افراد از کارمند تا رییس

[Mohammad · Rating 4 out of 5]

ده مقاله عالی و کاربردی برای افرادی که در هر نوع سازمانی و با هر سطح کاری ای مشغول به کارند

[Ioana Lily Balas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Does what it says on the tin - "If you read nothing else on managing people, read these definitive articles". I would say that these are especially catered towards newer managers, since they are on topics that more experienced managers would have already come across, such as how people learn, how to work together with your boss or overcoming biases. My favourite one was "Leadership that Gets Results", the one that the book actually opens with, which categorises the different approaches a manager may use, and when each of these approaches will generate positive or negative results. I have found that I do have 3 predominant styles, and the article recommends having 4 in your repertoire. For me, one that I would like to make better use of would be the authoritative one, which refers to inspiring your team towards a goal. I also found the article on "What Great Leaders Do" very useful, underlining how to bring the best out of people, as well as the article "Fair Process", which sheds light on why even a successful outcome may be deemed as unsatisfactory when people weren't included in the decision-making process.

[Mara Vava · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone with a corporate job should read (yes, even if you don’t want to manage).

[Faezeh Sharifian · Rating 5 out of 5]

ااگر تاکنون هیچ مطالعه‌ای در زمینه‌ی مدیریت افراد نداشته‌اید، این 10 مقاله‌ی بی بدیل هاروارد را از دست ندهید.

[Aksena · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing book with basic know-hows for managers. I do use it as a handbook and try to refresh the knowledge and ideas frequently.

[Daniel Ottenwalder · Rating 4 out of 5]

1. Leadership That Gets Results
Stop treating leadership as a one-size-fits-all tool. You need the emotional intelligence to dynamically shift between six distinct styles—from coercive in a turnaround to affiliative for morale—based entirely on the immediate operational context. Relying on just one approach inhibits organizational flexibility; the ability to read the room and pivot your style is your actual leverage here.
2. One More Time: How Do You Motivate Employees?
Extrinsic rewards like bonuses only buy temporary compliance until the next pay cycle. Real, sustainable motivation is intrinsic and requires deliberate job enrichment. You generate this by removing unnecessary managerial controls, granting direct access to information, and giving people end-to-end accountability for a complete process so they can grow into genuine experts.
3. The Set-Up-to-Fail Syndrome
Managers frequently manufacture their own underperformers. You spot a perceived weakness, start micromanaging, and instantly destroy the employee's confidence, causing them to disengage and validate your initial negative bias. To break this doom loop, you have to address the dynamic directly, rely on objective facts rather than feelings, and relentlessly challenge your own assumptions about your team's capabilities.
4. Saving Your Rookie Managers from Themselves
New managers fail because they hoard execution instead of scaling themselves. Refusal to delegate bottlenecks the entire pipeline and builds resentment among staff. To survive the transition, rookies must stop acting like individual contributors and learn to manage expectations both up and down the chain, project confidence, and deliver the critical, constructive feedback necessary for their team's growth.
5. What Great Managers Do
Average managers play checkers; great managers play chess. Instead of trying to standardize your team or fix their inherent weaknesses, you must map out their unique strengths, learning styles, and triggers. Reconfigure their workflows to minimize time spent on low-leverage activities, and pair them with complementary talent to maximize overall output rather than trying to force them to change who they are.
6. Fair Process
Execution dies without buy-in, especially in a knowledge economy. People care as much about how a decision is made as they do about the final outcome. If you want active participation rather than malicious compliance, you must engage the team during the ideation phase, clearly explain the logic behind the final call, and explicitly set the new rules and expectations moving forward.
7. Teaching Smart People How to Learn
High performers are often trapped in "single-loop learning," blindly repeating tactics that worked in the past (the man-with-a-hammer syndrome) and acting defensively when challenged. To build a truly adaptive organization, you have to force "double-loop learning" by aggressively questioning the underlying goals. You must apply the same ruthless, objective data analysis to your own internal behaviors as you do to external corporate strategy.
8. How (Un)ethical Are You?
Your operational decision-making is constantly compromised by unconscious biases, implicit prejudice toward your in-group, and the standard human tendency to over-claim your own contributions. You cannot trust your gut on this. You must actively counteract these blind spots by regularly auditing your decisions and deliberately exposing yourself to counterintuitive options and non-stereotypical environments.
9. The Discipline of Teams
A working group is not a team. A real team requires a heavily internalized common purpose, crystal-clear performance goals, a deliberate mix of complementary skills, and strict mutual accountability. You cannot coerce trust or commitment; you build it by locking everyone into shared goals where responsibilities are clear and no one gets a free ride.
10. Managing Your Boss
Upward management is a strategic necessity, not office politics. You cannot secure the resources your team needs to execute without deeply understanding your boss's goals, pressures, and preferred intake styles (e.g., determining whether they are a reader or a listener). Maintain this critical pipeline by offering radical honesty, avoiding trivial escalations, and consistently delivering on mutual expectations.
Appendix: Raw Notes
1 leadership that gets results
* the best leaders understand that different situations call for different styles of leadership
* * The coercive style (do what I say) effective in turnaround situation or when working with problem employees but in most situation actually inhibits organization flexibility and dampens employees motivation
* * The authoritative style (come with me) state the overall goal and leave people to achieve it by their own means this works when a business business is adrift - less effective when the leader is working with a team of experts more experienced then them
* * The affiliative style (people come first) useful for building team harmony or increasing morale but its exclusive focus on praise can allow poor performance to go uncorrected
* * The democratic style (give worker a voice) build flexibility and responsibility for generating new ideas but can lead to the organization feeling leaderless
* * The pacesetting style (sets the example) positive effect to people who are self motivated and competent but others may feel overwhelmed by the performance standard and grow to resent their tendency to take over a situation
* * The coaching style (personal development) good when people want to improve but repulsive when resistant to change
* To flip flop between styles requires high EQ of self awarnesss, self management, social awareness and social skills
2 one more time how do you motivate employees?
* Extrinsic motivation only works so well til the next pay raise or promotion this is why intrinsic motivation matters more providing people interesting challenging work and the opportunity to achieve and grow into greater responsibility
* How do you enrich peoples jobs apply these principles
* * increase accountability by removing control
* * make information available directly
* * enable people to take on new more difficult task
* * assign individuals speciaalized task that allow them to become experts
* * give people responsibility for a complete process or unit of work
3 set up to fail syndrome
* sometimes it’s actually the manager that creates the poor performance in an individual contributor
* Start positive then something happens that makes you question their performance and you start micromanaging them now they feel you don’t trust them making them doubt themselves and shutting down because they feel it’s too late to change your mind on them and this justifies the managers assessment that they are poor performer
* Managers and people have a tendency to think of things in groups we all have our people and when this happens the manager will seek for confirming proof of their assessment this leads to different treatment
* The cost of this syndrome is losing talent because now the thought of poor performer will disengage
* Ways to reverse set up clear expectations, regularly challenge your own assumptions? Convey openness let people challenge your opinions so you can improve.
* If you already in the myst of the syndrome - you need to discuss this dynamic with the employee (let’s discuss our relationship and roles), agree on the true facts of the situations not feelings, unearth the root causes of the weakness (how does my own behaviour contribute to making things worse), identify ways to boost performance and agree to communicate more openly about expectations and goals
4 saving your rookie manager from themselves
* essential management skills for all managers
* * Delegating: a lot of time managers that are newly promoted will just want to do it themselves for fear of losing control or overburdening others - failure to delegate blocks staff advacement, creates resentment and disengagement (lead by example break down complex projects into manageable chunks with clear milestones, developing staff is as essential as financial metrics)
* * Managing expectations from above and below: form partnership with both sides ask for help
* * Projecting confidence: you need to convey energy to the rest of the team so they follow suit
* * Focus on the big picture: think about the long term effects of what his team is working on not just the fires at hand
* * Constructive feedback this can be dreadful for most people but think of the diservice you do to your staff if you don’t help them grow
5 what great managers do
* They discover what is unique about each person and capitalize on it
* Average manager play checkers treat each piece the same great managers play chess understanding each person is a different piece that has different strengths and weaknesses this is the opposite of what great leaders do which is discover what is universal and capitalize on it by rallying everyone on a same vision
* Instead of trying to change people tailor their strengths to the task at hand
* * Tweak roles to capitalize on individual strengths understand what their strengths are and put them in a place to use them
* * Pull the triggers that activate employees strengths - ie what do they care about
* * Tailor coaching to unique learning styles - analyzers need more info, doers need progression, watchers need to see before they perform
* Identify strength & weaknesses by seeing their reaction to different work task
* Find the employee a partner with complementary talents so they can grow together
* Reconfigure their work to minimize their time on weak activities
* Understand motivation - recognition in the venue they care about
* Best question to ask to identify strength and weaknesses what was the best/worst day you had at work recently? And dig into these open ended questions
* Overcoming weakness provide relevant training if that doesn’t fix the problem might just be talent defici in that case you pair them with someone complementary
6 fair process
* Every person in this world wants to be treated fairly it’s not about the outcome but the treatment in the process
* The three principles that make up fair process includes:
* * Engagement involving individuals in the decision by getting their input and encouraging them to challenge one another’s ideas
* * Explanation clarifying the thinking behind a final decision this helps foster trust by being transparent
* * Expectation clarity stating the new rules of the game including performance standards penalties for failure and new responsibility
* It’s basically getting involvement and not making workers feel compulsed into doing something especially in knowledge work economy it becomes imperative to have active participation
7 teaching smart people how to learn
* author of this article argues successful career people have challenges to learning because they are caught up in single loop learning I do y and get x so I keep doing y when I encounter z because it usually gets me x. It’s like Charlie munger said man with a hammer syndrome.
* To learn you have to think in double loops like okay why is this the goal and is there any better way to reach x
* The issue really boils down to problem solving which is usually a single loop learning vs learning which is a double loop system
* People say they are open to learning but seem to be governed more by the desire to be in control; the goal of maximizing winning while minimizing losing; the belief that negative feelings should be suppressed; the desire to appear as rational as possible - ie defensiviness
* Two suggestions for improving this behaviour
* * Apply the same kind of tough reasoning you use to conduct strategic analysis (collect data, make inferences, test them constantly, submit your conclusions to the toughest test of all are they self serving or impossible to verify)
* * Senior managers must model the desired changes first leadership holds the narrative
8 how unethical are you?
* We harbor so many unconscious and unethical biases in har derail our decisions
* Implicit forms of prejudice bias that favors one owns group
* Conflict of interest
* Tendency to over claim credit of your contribution
* Ways to counteract regularly audit your decisions, expose yourself to non-stereotypical environments and consider counterintuitive options
9 the discipline of teams
* A teams essential discipline is compromised of these 5 characteristics:
* * Common purpose that the team helped shape - the team is typically responding to a mandate from outside the team but to be success the team must own this purpose
* * Specific performance goals that flow from the common purpose. Compelling goals inspire and challenge a team while giving a sense of urgency
* * A mix of complementary skills. The team needs to be made up of different disciplines (technical, functional expertise, problem solving, decision making, interpersonal skills)
* * A strong commitment to how the work gets done (clear separation of responsibilities and schedules on how to achieve them) no one gets to just lie flat
* * Mutual accountability: trust and commitment cannot be coerced. Goals become the commitment to hold everyone accountable.
* Once you have these 5 characteristics you need to concentrate on the challenge the team is facing
* * If team is making recommendations need to have clean handoff on who will implement those recommendations
* * If team makes or executes things then sharp focus comes from specific performance goals
* * If team is managing a process the primary task is distinguishing the challenges that require a real team approach from those that don’t
10 managing your boss
* to get the best resources we need to do our best job within an organization, we need to pursue healthy and productive work relationships with our boss
* To achieve healthy productive relationships we need to understand our own and our bosses strengths, weaknesses, goals, work styles, and needs.
* Understanding if they are listeners (prefer in person briefing) or readers (prefer briefs beforehand)
* Decision making styles also vary. Some bosses are highly involved and others prefer to delegate so this is much about mutual expectations. Having them understand your expectations and accept the most important ones.
* Information flow - keep bosses informed on good and bad news
* Dependability and honesty - trustworthy subordinates only make promises they can keep and don’t shade the truth or play down difficult issues
* Good use of time and resources - don’t waste your boss’s time with trivial issues. Be selective on the most important things to push the ball forward
* Checklist for managing your boss
* Make sure you understand your boss and his or her context, including:
* * goals and objectives
* * pressures
* * strength, weaknesses, blind spots
* * preferred work styles
* Assess yourself and your needs, including:
* * strength and weaknesses
* * personal style
* * predisposition toward dependence on authority figures
* Develop and maintain a relationship that:
* * fits both your needs and style
* * is characterized by mutual expectations
* * keep your boss informed
* * is based on dependability and honesty
* * selectively uses your bosses time and resources

[Cagdas Ilter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Avarage

[Donna · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was okay - one of the articles resonated with me to the point I wanted to find the digital copy and find email it to Human Resources and an old Manager, but that's probably a story for another time. Some of the articles didn't apply (but that's a me thing) and I didn't quite find them helpful. One or two were REALLY outdated, even for a 2011 book and honestly it feels like the book needs to be updated because of it, but it is what it is.

[Barry Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent collection of HBR articles by business leaders.
Goleman, Daniel - Leadership that Gets Results
Herzberg, Frederick - One More Time: How Do You Motivate Employees?
Manzoni, Jean-Francois and Barsoux, Jean-Louis - The Set-Up-To-Fail Syndrome
Walker, Carol A. - Saving Your Rookie Managers from Themselves
Buckingham, Marcus - What Great Managers Do
Kim, W. Chan and Mauborgne, Renee - Fair Process: Managing in the Knowledge Economy
Argyris, Chris - Teaching Smart People to Learn
Banaji, Mahzarin R., Bazerman, Max H., and Chugh, Dolly - How (Un)Ethical are You?
Katzenbach, Jon R. and Smith, Douglas K. - The Discipline of Teams
Gabarro, John J. and Kotter, John P. - Managing Your Boss

[Time Traveler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although I would imagine the book is useful for everyone working in a corporation, its full value would not be appreciated unless the readers have years of experience in a management role. The insights capture the blind spots of our day to day management work and some of them are mind opening. For example, it is known that intentionality can reflect the maturity of a manager. The book shows how professionals become defensive on examining their own behaviors without such self auditing. Another example is that the pacesetting leadership style is valued by many managers, but the book shows that the style actually hurts the team in the long term. I would highly recommend a seasoned manager read through most articles in this book.

[Charles Hall III · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good compilation of articles over managing people in a corporate setting. The writing and topics covered seem to be geared toward management neophytes like myself, and having very little knowledge on the subject, I found the ideas enlightening. I particularly appreciated the article on the hygiene-motivation theory, as well as those by Goleman, and Gabarro and Kotter. The rest were skim-worthy and a bit redundant but still helpful if the goal is to familiarize oneself with the culture of the business world. I'll be reading a few more from HBR's series.

[Iqbal Preet]

To be honest,

before reading this book, I felt that I am invincible and I am an amazing manager...
However, after reading this book, I found out that I am lacking a lot of things which are needed to be an amazing manager.
I am a new manager and I have a lot of things that I need to learn and communication is one of the key areas I need to learn to be an effective manager.
I consider myself an affiliative manager with tendency of being authoritative in some instances. I am more on the affiliative side though.

[Snehil Arora · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great collection of management articles. Does what it advertises on the cover, and provides simple tools to achieve what’s coveted. Although some could argue on few ideas being outdated.
I found the “Idea in brief” zone a particularly interesting pre-read, which can further be used as a refresher.
I must also acknowledge that some of these articles, however lengthy, at times did expose my own blind spots as a manager, helping “consciously” overcome unconscious bias too. At the end of the day, it’s all about application of these principles.

[Stephen Heiner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whether you're new to management or have been doing it for a number of years, there are going to be some great ideas and case studies for you to consider in these pages.

"[E]ffective leadership eludes many people and organizations." (p. 1)

"When an employee fails — or even just performs poorly — managers typically do not blame themselves." (p. 51)

"Defensive reasoning encourages individuals to keep private the premises, inferences, and conclusions that shape their behavior and to avoid testing them in a truly independent, objective fashion." (p. 143)

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a solid little management handbook with lots of good tips, lessons, and vignettes. The book lives up to its "Must Read" moniker, and I dare say should be read by all new managers. Some of these articles were written decades ago but are still relevant today, which speaks to the timeless nature of management principles. Even the most seasoned managers have room to improve, and so I thank HBR for curating the best essays for inclusion in this small, but really good book.

[Andrea Tripp · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book touched upon many important concepts in organizational behavior including motivation, conflict, culture, group development and performance, innovation, and leadership. I believe this book has provided a few helpful tools that I may need to use in the future. The book was enjoyable to me because the authors often challenged my existing assumptions and allowed me to reflect upon my own proficiency at managing others.

[iTZKooPA · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some good reads in here if you're a coach and leader type or aspiring to be. There some blah as well. Find what's relevant and focus on those topics.

I am always pining for more articles on leading and coaching remote colleagues as someone in consulting space. Furthermore, there is also a dearth of content for leading and coaching those that aren't working on the same thing you are. We work for different clients often in completely different industry sectors. Book idea?

[BookCupid · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's not my favorite HBR book, but only due to the lack of models and techniques. The collection did discuss the In & Out group that leads to employee favoritism as well as how to manage your boss. The problem with many of these articles is the need for depth. Managing your boss, for instance, is important, but there are so many different styles of leadership that I found Managing Up more complete on that end.

[Vipul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the articles are too long and repetitive. I found that reading the 'Idea In Brief' and 'Idea In Practice' boxes first is a good way to get the gist of the full article. Lessons contained within this book are worthy of the reader's attention, even if you don't manage people in a professional capacity.

[Lorraine · Rating 2 out of 5]

I recommend reading this book while taking refresher managing classes. Even though it comprises essays written quite a while ago, they stand the test of time, regarding business skills people managing others (or have this as a goal) should be aware of, developing, and brushing up on as they go through their careers.

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

The articles within are interesting and helpful. Not all have the same quality or usability (at least for me). I believe this book is a touch base since managing people can have subtleties, but at its core it remains the same (some of the articles are over 30 years but are still valid nowadays).
Overall I recommend this book.

[Teresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first article is from book "What Makes a Leader - Why Emotional Intelligence Matters ".Fair Process is from book "Blue Ocean Strategy". Leadership styles, how to motivate, set-up-to-fail Syndrome, Rookie managers, the game of chess, fair process, how to learn, bias (https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/), discipline of teams, managing your boss.

[George · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this straight through because someone loaned it to me; this isn't the kind of book you read that way and I found it tedious. As a result, I look back and realize I didn't really take much away from it. These books are best for a library -- "I need to learn about X, oh here is an article on it...great!"

[Brooke · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars, rounding up. I found the principles in this book to be really helpful. The first story seemed to drag on, but for the most part each one after that I was able to get into and apply to current work situations. I couldn’t believe that many of the articles were so old but still relevant. Can’t wait to read more HBR books.

[Firat Fidan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okuduğum kaçıncı HBR yayınım bilmiyorum ama bir bu kadarını daha okuyacağıma eminim. Yöneticilik üzerine yazılan güzel bir makale serisi. İş hayatındaki çatışmalar, motive etme yöntemleri, performans yönetimi, grup çalışmaları, liderlik ve insan kaynağı hakkında yine özet ve güzel bilgiler alabileceğiniz bir kitap 👍🏾

[Austin Reed · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some good nuggets in here. Mostly business school and corporate lingo but certainly useful materia all in all. While the subject matter was interesting, I could have used more practical techniques to use every day from each of the sections.

I hope they continue to release updates to this as the workplace changes and evolves.

4/5 stars.

[David Goetz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super helpful. The best articles, in my judgment, were four: "Leadership that Gets Results," "Saving your Rookie Managers from Themselves," "Fair Process: Managing in the Knowledge Economy," and "Teaching Smart People How to Learn." I wish I'd read these a long time ago.

[Vanessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

New insights and discoveries on how to manage people. I read this book after reading Dale Carnegie's and it gave me broader knowledge about the subject. Useful to HR professionals and people managers.

[Abdurrahman Turk · Rating 4 out of 5]

İşyerinde ast-üst ilişkileriniz için güzel bir kaynak. Bazı makaleler size uygun olmayabilir, sıkılabilirsiniz okurken. Bazıları ise sizin durumunuza çok uygundur ve pratik fikirler verebilir. Okumanızı öneririm. Hatta her 2-3 yılda bir bu tarz kitapları tekrar okumak gerekiyor...