The Best Articles in Leadership
The most useful articles and videos in Leadership from around the web—beginners to advanced—curated by thought leaders and our community. We focus on timeless pieces and update the list whenever we discover new, must-read articles or videos—make sure to bookmark and revisit this page.
Top 5 Leadership Articles
At a glance: these are the articles that have been most read, shared, and saved in Leadership by Refind users.
Videos
Watch a video to get a quick overview.
Managing Remote Teams: How to Manage Outcomes Instead of Outputs
In this episode of Grow and Convert Deep Dives, we discuss a philosophy we have about managing remote workers (or workers in general): How to manage by outco...
Ana Maria Vallerino on how leaders can build trust
At the 2021 Resnick Action Forum, Ana Maria Vallerino spoke about how leaders can build trust in their communities. Vallerino is executive director of Todo P...
How to fire people with grace, work through fear, and nurture innovation
Matt Mochary, CEO of Mochary Method, is a full-time executive coach who has worked with some of the biggest names in tech and finance, including investor Nav...
Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action
Simon Sinek has a simple but powerful model for inspirational leadership -- starting with a golden circle and the question "Why?" His examples include Apple, Martin Luther King, and the Wright brothers ...
What is ...?
New to Leadership? These articles make an excellent introduction.
What is the Best Piece of Advice You Received?
The words that transformed the lives of women leaders
What Is Conscious Leadership? A Quick Guide to Conscious Leadership Concepts — Sunderland Coaching
The concept of "above the line" vs. "below the line," the 15 commitments, alignment, and other conscious leadership concepts explained in this introductory guide to conscious leadership.
What is mindful leadership?
Mindful leadership requires consciously cultivating your ability to be present, open-minded, and compassionate when interacting with team members.
«When a new team member starts, Taylor sets up a meeting to get to know the person as an individual and a professional.»
What Is Decision Fatigue And How To Combat It
Are you struggling to make good decisions? Adopt these strategies to overcome decision fatigue and start making the right choices.
«block scheduling is the practice of allocating large chunks of time to related tasks. For example, you might designate Mondays for meetings and Tuesdays for strategy.»
How to ...?
How to Be a Mentor: 4 Ways to Change Someone’s Life
Discover what a mentor does, why different types of mentors exist, why mentoring is important, and four ways to be a transformative mentor yourself.
«mentors have three things in common. They motivate, inspire, and support.»
How to Become a Better Listener
Sharpen these seven skills.
«REPEAT PEOPLE’S LAST FEW WORDS BACK TO THEM. If you remember nothing else, remember this simple practice that does so much. It makes the other person feel listened to, keeps you on track during the conversation, and provides a pause for both of you to gather thoughts or recover from an emotional reaction»
How to train your brain to be more present
This temptation to multitask has only gotten worse in the work-from-home era. But there are ways to fight it.
How to Avoid Making Bad Decisions
Avoiding bad decisions is just as important as making good ones. Knowing the warning signs and having a set of rules for your decision-making process limits the amount of luck you need to get good…
«They don’t have twenty years of experience—they have one year of experience repeated twenty times. If you can’t learn, you can’t get better.»
How to Avoid Being Busy. Be Focused and Increase Your Leadership Impact.
The leadership refrain for 2022:
Trending
These links are currently making the rounds in Leadership on Refind.
How to regain your confidence when it falters
Two reflective strategies can help you manage dips in self-assurance and be a more effective leader. See also “How to be confident when you’re not.”
Evaluating Managers: 5 heuristics to measure managerial impact
Measuring a manager’s impact is hard since outcomes take time. The manager takes full responsibility for the team – be it stagnation, execution woes, poor collaboration, churn, or a lac…
«five measures: execution, strategic vision, people management, team growth, and organizational influence»
Managing Your Team’s Emotional Dynamic
Collective emotion, when a group of people shares an emotion, is often stronger than a single individual feeling that same emotion alone. So, how can leaders manage emotions, particularly negative…
Good leaders are good listeners. Here’s how to be one of them
These three skills are critical to become an effective leader.
How to build your culture like a product — Lessons from Anna Binder, Asana’s Head of People
Anna Binder joined Asana back in 2016 as its first HR executive. She shares her advice from helping weave the cultural fabric, from getting comfortable with feedback to maintaining a healthy exec…
Short Articles
Short on time? Check out these useful short articles in Leadership—all under 10 minutes.
3 rules to express your thoughts so that everyone will understand you
It can be challenging to express your thoughts clearly. Alan Alda recommends three rules of three for effective and empathic communication.
«Maybe this sounds familiar: You’re expressing a difficult idea, thought, or feeling, and at the moment, it seems to be going well. Your audience is nodding at the appropriate beats. Your cadence has an uncharacteristic flow and eloquence. You even snuck in the world profligate and are 90% sure you used it properly. (Well, 80% sure. Definitely going to look it up later.)»
OKRs vs KPIs: what's the difference
OKRs and KPIs may sometimes use the same metrics, but they have a different purpose.
«KPIs do not have targets, but there should be thresholds that trigger alerts. For instance, a sudden drop in the volume of leads should probably trigger a meeting to address that issue, and redirect resources if needed.»
How Great Leaders Communicate
Transformational leaders are exceptional communicators. In this piece, the author outlines four communication strategies to help motivate and inspire your team: 1) Use short words to talk about hard…
37 Years Ago, Steve Jobs Said the Best Managers Never Actually Want to Be a Manager. Science…
According to the Apple co-founder, the best leaders are great individual contributors, not 'professional managers.'
Leading without Being the Boss: Tips for Product People
Trust is crucial to lead people when you are not the boss. This article explains how to earn trust as the person in charge of the product.
Long Articles
These are some of the most-read long-form articles in Leadership.
5 Leadership Styles That Can Derail Companies—And End Careers
Most, if not all, leadership failures of the past 50 years can be traced back to one of these five archetypes. Here's how to tell if you are at risk for one of them.
The Hierarchy Is Bullshit (And Bad For Business)
My friend Molly has had an impressive career. She got a job as a software engineer after graduating from college, and after kicking ass for a year or so she was offered a promotion to management &#…
A Manager’s Guide to Helping Teams Face Down Uncertainty, Burnout and Perfectionism
Uncertainty, burnout and perfectionism are holding teams back — Liz Fosslien is here to share tactical advice (and her signature witty illustrations) on how managers can help.
«How does your workload feel right now? Is there anything I can take off your plate, help you delegate, or help you deprioritize?»
How to be an Exceptional Chief of Staff: Advice for Scaling Impact at Startups
10 tactical tips and guiding principles for a new Chief of Staff to lean on as they scale their impact at a startup — from building better systems, not just booking more meetings and finding an…
147 Logical Fallacies: A Master List With Examples
A logical fallacy is an irrational argument made through faulty reasoning common enough to be named for its respective logical failure.
«A logical fallacy is an irrational argument made through faulty reasoning common enough to be named for the nature of its respective logical failure.»
Thought Leaders
We monitor hundreds of thought leaders, influencers, and newsletters in Leadership, including:
Jason Fried
Founder & CEO at 37signals (makers of Basecamp and HEY). Non-serial entrepreneur, serial author. No DMs, email me at jason@hey.com.

Sheryl Sandberg
Meta COO, founder of Lean In and Option B, mother of 5, friend to many great women

Caterina Fake
Host, ShouldthisExist? Investor, @YesVC. Cofounder @Flickr, Hunch, Sesat School. Boards of @Etsy Sundance @McSweeneys Homeschooling, film, books. Dogs.

Michael Hyatt
NYT Bestselling Author | Lead to Win Podcast | Speaker | Top Leadership Expert | Business Coach | Creator of Full Focus Planner | Not associated w/ Hyatt Hotels
Harvard Business Review
The best ideas in business and management to help people, organizations, and economies work better.
Publications
We monitor hundreds of publications, blogs, newsletters, and news sources in Leadership, including:
MIT Sloan Management Review
Transforming how people lead and innovate.
Harvard Business Review
The best ideas in business and management to help people, organizations, and economies work better.
Corporate Rebels
On a mission to make work more fun | Travelling the world to learn from the most inspiring workplaces | Join the movement: http://corporate-rebels.com
MIT Sloan School of Management
Ideas made to matter.
Ed Batista
Executive Coach. Dog Walker. Created The Art of Self-Coaching @StanfordGSB. Take it for free here: https://bit.ly/Self-Coaching-Public-Course
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Who are the thought leaders in Leadership?
We follow dozens of thought leaders in Leadership, including Jason Fried, Sheryl Sandberg, Caterina Fake, Michael Hyatt, Harvard Business Review.
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