How to act like a leader

When faced with new roles, old patterns of thinking and behaving can hang around.

But in order to become a great leader, you must change your mindset by acting a different way, according to Herminia Ibarra. 29.06.15

However, you may feel about management acronyms, the concept of VUCA (that’s volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) should resonate with most business leaders. The world is changing so fast that keeping up can seem a rather Sisyphean task.

To deal with this change, received wisdom dictates thinking should come before acting – think through your options, reflect, then make your move. But INSEAD professor and HR Most Influential International Thinker Herminia Ibarra doesn’t have much time for received wisdom.

In her provocative and essential new book, Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader, Ibarra flips the status quo on its head. The only way to become a leader, she states, is to start acting like one.

 HR magazine was lucky enough to catch up with Ibarra over lunch, after she’d presented her ideas to alumni of our HR in the Boardroom programme. Read on for some of the highlights of the conversation… 

Download How to act like a leader