Janice Molloy, Author at Harvard Business Publishing

Smarter Hiring Decisions Start with Skills

Janice Molloy — Thu, 19 May 2022 12:00:08 +0000

To build a successful team and make smarter hiring decisions, you obviously need to attract skilled candidates for open positions. It may be tempting to assemble a laundry list of qualifications, such as degrees and years of experience, to find the right applicants. But as the competition for talent continues at a blistering pace, including too many requirements could needlessly shrink your talent pool and prevent you from finding strong candidates for the position. Automated hiring platforms screen out more than 27 million “hidden” workers—applicants with unconventional backgrounds, such as caregivers, veterans, and immigrants—in the US alone. Harvard […]

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It’s All in the Numbers: Financial Acumen

Janice Molloy — Mon, 28 Mar 2022 08:00:50 +0000

Along with strategic thinking and market orientation, financial savvy is a key aspect of business acumen. Yet as Rebecca Knight wrote in How to Improve Your Finance Skills (Even if You Hate Numbers), “If you’re not a numbers person, finance is daunting.” Even those who are good with numbers, like the friend whom everyone relies on to divvy up the restaurant bill, may not find their organization’s finances all that interesting or relevant to their work. However, they’d be mistaken. Why financial acumen matters When Knight asked several experts why financial savvy matters to professionals throughout an organization, they […]

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Teams are Changing: Are Team Leaders and Members Keeping Up?

Janice Molloy — Wed, 29 Sep 2021 12:30:59 +0000

One of the hallmarks of the 21st-century work environment is how profoundly the nature of teams and teamwork has changed. Organizations have become flatter and less hierarchical. In our fast-moving world, a good deal of decision making has moved to the frontlines. Team leaders and members who once waited for “orders from headquarters” now need to be prepared to respond quickly as new changes and opportunities emerge, and to make bold decisions without gaining multiple levels of approval. Teams aren’t as static as they once were. They are often formed—and formed again—to tackle emerging problems. Moving up the ladder by […]

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Strong Leadership Skills Make All the Difference

Janice Molloy — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 14:00:15 +0000

If there’s ever been a question about the value of effective leadership, the past year put all doubt to rest. We’ve seen leaders across industries and sectors rise to the dual challenges of Covid-19 and the economic crisis in impressive fashion. Consider New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who skillfully guided her country’s efforts to confront the pandemic head-on. Likewise, in the corporate sphere, many CEOs led their organizations to quickly pivot in response to changing needs, for example, by retooling to produce suddenly in-demand items like hand sanitizer and Personal Protective Equipment. And we’ve witnessed leaders in organization after […]

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Five Steps to Implementing Innovation

Janice Molloy — Mon, 17 Jun 2019 15:13:27 +0000

We’re all familiar with stories about breakthrough products, services, and processes—the disruptors that grab the headlines and garner eye-popping valuations. And then there are the entrepreneurs who end up on the cover of Bloomberg Businessweek and write best-selling books about the keys to their success. The message seems to be that, through good timing or genius, innovation is the purview of a select few. But at its core, innovation is simply a way to solve problems and create value in new ways. Overhauling an inefficient process, using customer feedback to breathe new life into a stale product—innovations don’t have to […]

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Innovating on Innovation

Janice Molloy — Mon, 13 May 2019 13:08:40 +0000

As you may know, we regularly update Harvard ManageMentor® topics to provide learners with the latest and greatest in leadership development. During this process, we challenge ourselves to incorporate the most current, most relevant thinking and practices, and to make the content available in ways that continue to meet the needs of today’s learners. Last fall, when we began our review of the two innovation-related topics, we decided to challenge ourselves even further: Why not innovate on our approach to innovation? Early, often, and ongoing collaboration As we always do during topic refreshes, we researched trends, sought input from clients, […]

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Everyone Plays a Role in Change

Janice Molloy — Tue, 18 Dec 2018 21:51:30 +0000

I recently went through a major life change: after working as a contractor for six years, I’ve rejoined the ranks of full-time employees. As I’ve rejiggered my daily routines—no more lingering over a cup of coffee if I want to beat the traffic—I’ve been reminded of a line in our recently updated Change Management topic in Harvard ManageMentor: “Change requires adopting new practices and behaviors and letting go of those that no longer serve their purpose.” For my transition to succeed, everyone in my family—including the dogs—had to shift their behavior to some degree. And that’s what organizational change, large and […]

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Strategic Thinking: Because Good Ideas Can Come From Anywhere

Janice Molloy — Tue, 07 Nov 2017 19:32:19 +0000

As part of our update to the Harvard ManageMentor Strategic Thinking topic, we asked Mason Weintraub, Director of Digital Engagement at Oxfam America, about the importance of strategic thinking. Here’s what Mason had to say: I often think I’m expected to have all the answers about what to do with digital strategy. But the reality is that I lead a very talented team, and one of the ideas that we have tried to engender on the team is that good ideas can come from anywhere. “Good ideas can come from anywhere.” Most of us recognize the wisdom embedded in that statement, […]

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When Good Working Relationships Go Bad … And How To Fix Them

Janice Molloy — Mon, 15 May 2017 19:17:11 +0000

The email arrived out of the blue – a long-time collaborator was accusing me of conspiring to cut her out of an upcoming project. How had our collegiality dissolved, seemingly overnight? Despite my impulse to dash off a harsh retort, I decided to walk my dogs before crafting a reply. The time I took to calm myself down was well spent – I was able to address my colleague’s concerns without responding defensively or launching my own accusations. She, in turn, recognized that she had jumped to some unfounded conclusions and apologized for doubting my integrity. Several years later, our working […]

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Building A Mutually Beneficial Relationship With Your Manager … Or Managers

Janice Molloy — Mon, 14 Nov 2016 17:44:22 +0000

Remember “Office Space”? The cult classic 90s movie that united its fans around the world in their shared disillusionment with the monotony of day-to-day work? Among the litany of complaints that protagonist Peter shares with the consultants at Initech is the fact that he has eight bosses: “That means when I screw up, I have eight people coming to tell me about it.” That was in the 90s. The business world was a different place then, but the concept of having multiple stakeholders – many of whom have a say in your career progression and daily responsibilities – is still […]

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