Josh Kaufman investigates several lists of skills that make an “educated person.”

In his new book, Flying without a Net: Turn Fear of Change into Fuel for Success, HBS professor Thomas J. DeLong explores the world of "high-need-for-achievement professionals" or HNAPs—those for whom the constant, insatiable need to achieve can lead to anxiety and dysfunction. Plus: book excerpt.

How do we draw the best out of people when so many of the rules and practices in life have changed? How in today’s new world can people reach their best at their best, given the speed of life and the torrent of information and obligation? Is there a coherent, evidence-based plan that every person can use to bring the best out of themselves or the people they manage? With the help of Dr. Shine, I offer a theory here of how to do just that. It includes 5 steps. I call it the Cycle of Excellence.

Where reputation comes from—and how to change yours.

Discussions about startups often focus on founders or investors, but most people in the startup game are regular employees. So how do you find a startup job?

Striking the right balance between good management and good leadership is a daunting but necessary challenge for anyone endeavoring to be a good boss. In Being the Boss: The 3 Imperatives for Becoming a Great Leader, Harvard Business School professor Linda A. Hill and former executive Kent Lineback discuss the steps to take and the roadblocks to avoid in order to meet that challenge. Q&A with Hill, plus book excerpt.

Jeffrey Pfeffer discusses the difference between treating certain career building activities as tasks versus skills.

MBA graduates with an overall optimistic outlook spend less time and effort searching for jobs and receive offers more quickly, research shows

The four components of that certain something that tells the world: "I'm a winner"

In my role as an executive coach, I am asked to work with extremely successful people who want to get even better. They are usually key executives in major corporations. They are almost always very intelligent, dedicated and persistent. They are committed to the success of their companies. They have high personal integrity. Many are financially independent. They are not working because they have to. They are working because they want to. Intellectually, they realize that the leadership behavior that was associated with yesterday’s results may not be the behavior that is needed to achieve tomorrow’s innovation.

Most of us can easily see the need to change the behavior of others. This is one of our great challenges in leadership. We wonder why it is so difficult for them to change. Yet, we often have difficulty in changing even small aspects of our own behavior! As we become more successful, it seems even harder to change. As Charles Handy has pointed out, the “paradox of success” occurs because we need to change before we have to change. However, “when things are going well we feel no reason to change.”

I have recently completed a review of research related to the topic of helping successful people change their behavior. Most research on behavioral change has focused on dysfunctional behavior with clear physiological consequences (e.g. alcoholism, drug addiction, eating disorders or smoking). A substantial amount has been written on why successful people succeed. Not surprisingly, very little has been written on the unique challenges involved in helping successful people change.

Success is no longer defined as simply reaching income goals and achieving a leadership position at any cost. We also want to be happy, to feel that our life has meaning and that the work we are doing taps into our greatest talents. It’s easy enough to evaluate a job based on salary, title and perks, but judging other elements that often lead to true satisfaction can be tricky. A Career Compass can help you find those career intangibles. It points you toward your “sweet spot,” the point where three critical variables intersect: your strengths, your interests and the environment where you will flourish.

Generalists, men and women who have amassed experience with a broad spectrum of management areas, stand a better chance of making it to top management positions than those with more specialized resumes.

Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, has met very few people who have a plan for their lives. Most are passive spectators, watching their lives unfold a day at a time. They may plan their careers, the building of a new home, or even a vacation. But it never occurs to them to plan their life. As a result, many end up discouraged and disillusioned, wondering where they went wrong.

But, he says, it doesn’t have to be this way. You can live your life on purpose. It begins by creating a “Life Plan.” This won’t insulate you from life’s many adversities and unexpected twists and turns, but it will help you become an active participant in your life, intentionally shaping your own future.

In a blog post, Hyatt shares with you how to create such a plan for your life. It consists of three sections:
* Outcomes
* Priorities
* Action Plans

When you walk into your first job as an MBA, whether it’s as a seasonal associate or a full-time employee, all eyes will be on you. Here, corner-office types reveal a portfolio of secrets for brandishing the confidence, wisdom, and polish of someone who has worked at the company for three years—even when you’ve only been there three weeks. Secret number one: The thing nobody tells you about the honeymoon period is that there is no honeymoon period.

Congratulations: You’ve made the high-potentials list. As a HiPo, you’re now a prominent blip on HR’s radar. More importantly, you are about to be sucked into the machinery of the company’s accelerated-development system, the centerpiece of which is probably some kind of rotation: a “better than random walk” through a series of assignments designed to test your mettle, provide you with a “macro view” of the firm, and prepare you for top management positions.

But before you commence your meteoric ascent, here’s a warning: The fast-track system contains four inherent traps that HR may not have mentioned when you signed on—traps that can derail the most promising career.

Every day the market you work in—regardless of the industry—asks ‘Are you invaluable?’ Did you answer the question satisfactorily today? Well done. Get ready to answer it again tomorrow.

As the speed of innovation and information ever quickens, so does the need for you to have clear answers for this ‘invaluable question.’ It is no longer enough to simply have a job. It is no longer enough to simply advertise and attract customers to work with you. Loyalty to employees, to brands, to personalities and to media disappears the instant one’s attention is switched to new, shinier options.

Serial entrepreneur Steve Blank usually hears the “Should I get my MBA?” question at least once a month. Here's his answer for those interested in entrepreneurship.

Groups like MBAs Without Borders give B-school graduates experience in the developing world, and just maybe a new career.

As I age, I gain perspective on the illusion of wealth and status as forms of fulfillment. I don't want my life to be measured by dollars and cents, or the number of books I've authored. Rather, I want to be remembered by the lives that I've touched. I want live a life that counts.

A story from Keith Yost, an MIT grad, about his relatively short experience working at BCG in Dubai as a management consultant. [Hat tip to Brad Feld]

Anybody can become a consultant. But not everybody does it well. Here's what you need to know to thrive.

Everyone wants to make it to the top in their chosen career, but not everybody achieves that goal. This article takes an in-depth look at the different stages an executive must go through to become a CEO or to earn whatever other job title is used to describe the person at the apex of a business organization.

This 
paper looks 
at 
the 
small 
group 
of 
investors 
that 
nurture 
the 
entrepreneurial
 elite
 by 
taking 
big 
risks
 and 
writing 
big 
checks. 
More 
specifically 
it 
focuses
 on 
just
 who
 these 
VCs 
are
 and 
how 
they 
earned
 their 
stripes. 
It 
attempts 
to 
identify
 attributes
 that 
successful
 VCs 
share
 and 
provide 
some 
insight 
that 
you 
can 
share with 
your 
son 
or 
daughter 
if 
they 
tell 
you 
they 
want 
to 
be 
a
 VC 
when
 they 
grow 
up.

The founder of Silicon Alley Reporter and Mahalo.com offers advice to employers trying to make the right hire and candidates struggling to land a job.

In today's diverse workplace, your actions and motives are constantly under scrutiny. Time to manage your own professional image before others do it for you. An interview with professor Laura Morgan Roberts.