Harvard Business Review Manager's Handbook

What does it take to reach success in business - the kind of success that lasts? How do you set yourself apart from competitors or venture out into different markets? What does it take to develop streamlined processes, become a stronger team leader, and work your way up the corporate ladder?

In his defining work on emotional intelligence, best-selling author Daniel Goleman found that it is twice as important as other competencies in determining outstanding leadership. If you listen to nothing else on emotional intelligence, listen to 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 boost your emotional skills - and your professional success.

Every organization has its share of political drama: Personalities clash. Agendas compete. Turf wars erupt. But you need to work productively with your colleagues - even difficult ones - for the good of your organization and your career. How can you do that without compromising your personal values? By acknowledging that power dynamics and unwritten rules exist - and navigating them constructively.

The path to your professional success starts with a critical look in the mirror. If you listen to nothing else on managing yourself, you should at least hear these 10 articles (plus the bonus article "How Will You Measure Your Life?" by Clayton M. Christensen). We've combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Review articles to select the most important ones to help you maximize yourself.

The best leaders know how to communicate clearly and persuasively. How do you stack up? Leading experts such as Deborah Tannen, Jay Conger, and Nick Morgan provide the insights and advice you need.

In Nightingale-Conant’s nearly 60 years in existence, publishing some of the most well-known personal development authors in the world, there is probably none that is more prolific and popular than Brian Tracy. In this all-encompassing audio library, which contains some of the most popular segments from Brian Tracy’s many Nightingale-Conant programs, you’ll hear Brian’s thoughts on nearly every important personal development topic imaginable - from setting goals, to creative thinking, to succeeding in your career, to developing highly satisfying personal and professional relationships.  

Learn to approach the critical decisions in your life with a more seasoned, educated eye with this fascinating 24-lecture series that explores how individuals, groups, and organizations make effective decisions. The heart of this accessible series is a thorough examination of decision making at three key levels. First, you'll look at decisions made at the individual level, where, among the many things you'll learn is that intuition is more than just a gut instinct and, in fact, represents a powerful pattern recognition capability.

Whether you're managing your first project or just tired of improvising, this guide will give you the tools and confidence you need to define smart goals, meet them, and capture lessons learned so future projects go even more smoothly.

Warren Buffett remains one of the most sought-after and watched figures in business today. He has become a billionaire and investment sage by buying chunks of companies and holding onto them, managing them as businesses, and eventually reaping huge profits for himself and investors in Berkshire Hathaway. The first two editions of The Warren Buffett Way gave investors their first in-depth look at the innovative investment and business strategies behind the spectacular success of living legend Warren E. Buffett.

Managing people is fraught with challenges - even if you're a seasoned manager. Here's how to handle them. If you listen to nothing else on managing people, you should at least hear these 10 articles.

In The Power of Habit, award-winning New York Times business reporter Charles Duhigg takes us to the thrilling edge of scientific discoveries that explain why habits exist and how they can be changed. With penetrating intelligence and an ability to distil vast amounts of information into engrossing narratives, Duhigg brings to life a whole new understanding of human nature and its potential for transformation.

There just isn't enough time for everything on our to-do list - and there never will be. Successful people don't try to do everything. They learn to focus on the most important tasks and make sure those get done. They eat their frogs. There's an old saying that if the first thing you do each morning is eat a live frog, you'll have the satisfaction of knowing you're done with the worst thing you'll have to do all day. For Tracy, eating a frog is a metaphor for tackling your most challenging task - but also the one that can have the greatest positive impact on your life. 

Is your company spending too much time on strategy development - with too little to show for it? you listen to nothing else on strategy, you should at least hear these 10 articles.

Daniel Kahneman, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his seminal work in psychology challenging the rational model of judgment and decision making, is one of the world's most important thinkers. His ideas have had a profound impact on many fields - including business, medicine, and politics - but until now, he has never brought together his many years of research in one book.

Measure What Matters is a revolutionary approach to business that has been adopted by some of Silicon Valley's most successful start-ups. It is a movement that is behind the explosive growth of Intel, Google, Amazon and Uber and many more. Measure What Matters is about using Objectives and Key Results (or OKRs) to make tough choices on business priorities. It's about communicating these objectives throughout the company from entry level to CEO, and it's about collecting timely, relevant data to track progress - to measure what matters.