Arthur C. Brooks on How Leaders Can Be Happier

It isn't always easy to feel like you can have it all: career, family, hobbies and inner peace. Harvard professor Arthur C. Brooks studies happiness and says it is a direction, not a destination. Brooks believes happiness is especially important for leaders, as the higher you climb the more stressful the job can get - and the wider impact you can have on others. Live in conversation at Harvard Business School's Klarman Hall, he speaks with IdeaCast host and HBR editor at large Adi Ignatius about the importance of empathy and having a greater purpose in your life, not just in your career. Brooks is author of the book The Happiness Files: Insights on Work and Life.

When Wikipedia was founded in 2001, the idea that people around the world could come together to create an accurate online encyclopedia covering virtually any topic seemed far-fetched. But today many people see the website as a trusted source of well-curated and -cited information. That's because of careful decisions that its leaders made about how to operate. Cofounder Jimmy Wales explains how introducing a simple purpose, insisting on certain rules of engagement, and other strategies helped the organization to build trust with contributors and users -- and maintain it even in a world bombarded by misinformation. Wales is the author of The Seven Rules of Trust: A Blueprint for Building Things That Last.

When you hit a roadblock in your career, it's easy to blame external factors like the economy, the organization, or your boss. But leaders are just as often stymied by their own beliefs about how they need to show up and operate at work, shares executive coach Muriel Wilkins. Through decades of work counseling high-powered executives, she's uncovered the seven main ways that people limit their own success and has advice on how to overcome those mental blocks. Wilkins is author of the HBR article "The Hidden Beliefs That Hold Leaders Back" and the book Leadership Unblocked: Break Through the Beliefs That Limit Your Potential.

When it first came out in 2005, Freakonomics unearthed the hidden side to everything, helping bring behavioral economics to the forefront of popular culture. But it also has had lasting impacts on how leaders understand problems, how advertisers understand consumers, and how we all understand the workplace. Coauthor Stephen Dubner explains the difficulty of bringing complex economic concepts to the masses, what's surprised him about the hidden side of everything, and what he sees as the impact of his work. Dubner is coauthor of Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explains the Hidden Side of Everything and host of the Freakonomics podcast.

In a crowded media and marketing environment, it can be hard to catch the attention and imagination of consumers. Two people paying close attention to what's working now are Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon and seasoned marketing executive Bozoma Saint John, and they've just launched a reality show called "On Brand" to showcase the work that creatives and companies do to sell their ideas, products, and services. Fallon and Saint John share what their different career paths have taught them about personal branding, working collaboratively, managing teams, and how to navigate the changing media landscape.

Cory Doctorow, author and digital rights advocate, argues that big tech companies from Facebook to Google and beyond have evolved - or devolved - in a disappointing way. He says that many large tech companies begin with a good product, but that over time they prioritize first business customers, and then ultimately shareholders and profits over end users. That creates a decline in service quality, and Doctorow explains why that's bad for customers, companies, and the broader economy and society. Doctorow wrote the new book Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It.

Courage involves taking bold action despite uncertainty and fear. In a volatile business environment, it's hard to be brave. But Ranjay Gulati, a professor at Harvard Business School, says that there are strategies any of us can use to get improve our ability to make smart bets on the future. He's studied dozens of leaders across industries and explains how they embolden themselves and their organizations by building a positive narrative around the mission, cultivating self-confidence, stepping their way into a better understanding of the situation, finding connection, and staying calm. Gulati wrote the HBR article "Now is the Time for Courage" and the book How To Be Bold: The Surprising Science of Everyday Courage.

As a leader, psychology is fundamental to your success - whether that means understanding consumer behavior, team dynamics, or even your own biases and blind spots. Harvard professor Steven Pinker says that an important phenomena to understand is that of common knowledge and its downstream effects. It's the idea that there is power in knowledge, but also power in knowing what other people know - and that when a large group of people know what others around them know, and vice versa, that's when major change can happen. He explains how common knowledge underlies meme stocks, the rise of crypto, meeting etiquette and the success of Super Bowl ads. Pinker wrote the new book When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows . . .: Common Knowledge and the Mysteries of Money, Power, and Everyday Life.

Across industries, organizations are struggling to move as quickly as they need to on key priorities and new initiatives. The solution for many, says Stanford's Melissa Valentine, might be "flash teams" -- project groups that can be instantly, efficiently, and cost-effectively brought together and organized via online labor markets and AI and other digital tools to solve any problem. She explains why companies and leaders should embrace this new type of collaboration, how flash teams work in practice, and the pitfalls to look out for. Valentine is coauthor along with Michael Bernstein of the book Flash Teams: Leading the Future of AI-Enhanced, On-Demand Work.

A fast-moving lie can do more damage to a company’s reputation than a slow, careful truth can fix. Executives who think fake news is just a political problem are underestimating its reach and cost. Patrick Haack, professor of strategy and responsible management at HEC Lausanne, explains why traditional responses like silence or fact-checking aren’t enough. He outlines what companies should be doing instead: building credibility in advance, monitoring for signs of virality, and enlisting outside allies to push back. It’s a playbook designed not just to correct the record but to protect trust before it erodes. Haack is coauthor of the HBR article “How to Counter Fake News.”