Leadership
Olympic Lessons: Leadership and Fun
In advance of the Paris 2024 Olympics, we asked Yale SOM faculty for their take on this global sporting event. Are there lessons they draw from the Games, or do they watch just for fun?
The Breathing Technique that Can Make You a Better Leader
Yale SOM’s Emma Seppälä found that a weeklong training in the SKY Breath technique provides a lasting reduction in anxiety and greater resilience to stress, even for those who don’t continue to practice it.
What Went Wrong at OpenAI?
Days after he was suddenly fired, CEO Sam Altman returned to OpenAI on November 21, and the board that removed him was overhauled. We asked leadership expert Jeffrey Sonnenfeld how the company’s structure and the performance of the board contributed to the chaos.
The Budget Deal Is a Tragedy for Ukraine
With hours to go before a government shutdown, Congress passed a short-term spending bill—but the deal came at the cost of aid for Ukraine. Yale SOM’s Jeffrey Sonnenfeld writes that even if a separate funding bill eventually passes, the move weakens the coalition against Russia.
What I Learned Debating Vivek Ramaswamy
Yale SOM’s Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, who has tangled on cable news with the entrepreneur turned GOP candidate, says the key is to avoid following him down diversionary rabbit holes.
Reinventing the Way We Work—Again
The pandemic changed where we work and how we work, how we think about the place of work in our lives and vice versa—all against a backdrop of rapid technological change, economic upheaval, and a reckoning with racism. We talked with Yale SOM's Heidi Brooks about how to have necessary conversations about a new experience of work.
Horatio Alger Is a Hoax, But We Can Still Celebrate the American Dream
Horatio Alger, the 19th-century writer whose name became shorthand for self-improvement, is in the news because of Justice Clarence Thomas’s connection to the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans. But Yale SOM’s Jeffrey Sonnenfeld says that Alger’s story says more about mythmaking than it does about the American dream.
We Put Aside the Hype and Asked CEOs What They’re Actually Planning for AI
The headlines are full of grand and sometimes terrifying speculation about the potential of artificial intelligence. At Yale SOM’s CEO Summit recently, Prof. Jeffrey Sonnenfeld asked business leaders for some real talk about how their companies are using the technology.
Is It Smart to Be a ‘Stupid Genius’ Like Elon Musk?
Yale SOM leadership expert Jeffrey Sonnenfeld asks if the CEO’s eccentricities and forgotten promises are undermining his leadership of Twitter, Tesla, and SpaceX.
Remembering Oz Nelson, Who Reinvented UPS
In the 1990s, Nelson modernized the shipping company and gave it a new focus on the customer. Yale SOM’s Jeffrey Sonnenfeld remembers the former CEO, who died on April 6.
How Disney’s Bob Iger Outmaneuvered Ron DeSantis
Yale SOM’s Jeffrey Sonnenfeld writes that Iger offered a master class in standing up to bullies when he undercut the Florida governor’s attempt to impose new oversight on Walt Disney World.
