Success in business starts with trust.

Trust is the basis for all that we do as leaders and as organizations. Employees who trust their employers are more productive and creative. Businesses who engender trust maintain better relationships with their customers and reap better results. And public breaches of trust are becoming more perilous—and more costly.

If you read nothing else on trust, read these 10 articles. We've combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Review articles and selected the most important ones to help you build, maintain, and repair trust as a company and as a leader.

This book will inspire you to:

  • Earn trust with all of your stakeholders
  • See your company through the eyes of your customers
  • Develop trust through competence, legitimacy, and impact
  • Move negotiations forward positively
  • Understand the neuroscience of trust
  • Rebuild relationships after a breach

HBR's 10 Must Reads paperback series is the definitive collection of books for new and experienced leaders alike. Leaders looking for the inspiration that big ideas provide, both to accelerate their own growth and that of their companies, should look no further. HBR's 10 Must Reads series focuses on the core topics that every ambitious manager needs to know: leadership, strategy, change, managing people, and managing yourself. Harvard Business Review has sorted through hundreds of articles and selected only the most essential reading on each topic. Each title includes timeless advice that will be relevant regardless of an ever‐changing business environment.


Performance management is changing. Adapt your approach along with it.

For decades, performance management has been seen as an annual chore by managers and HR departments alike. But this process is changing, and there are ways to make it more effective at all levels of your organization.

If you read nothing else on performance management in your organization, read these 10 articles. We've combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Review articles and selected the most important ones to help you make your process more adaptable, conduct better feedback conversations, and encourage the growth of your employees.

This book will inspire you to:

  • Learn where current performance management processes are falling short
  • Overcome organizational bias to evaluate performance fairly
  • Sculpt employees' jobs to meet their skill sets and interests
  • Boost collaboration by aligning goals across functions
  • Use people analytics ethically and transparently
  • Help your people identify and use their strengths

This collection of articles includes "The Performance Management Revolution," by Peter Cappelli and Anna Tavis; "Reinventing Performance Management," by Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall; "Getting 360-Degree Feedback Right," by Maury A. Peiperl; "The Set-Up-to-Fail Syndrome," by Jean-François Manzoni and Jean-Louis Barsoux; "Job Sculpting: The Art of Retaining Your Best People," by Timothy Butler and James Waldroop; "Performance Management Shouldn't Kill Collaboration," by Heidi K. Gardner and Ivan Matviak; "The Happy Tracked Employee," by Ben Waber; "Don't Let Metrics Undermine Your Business," by Michael Harris and Bill Tayler; "Numbers Take Us Only So Far," by Maxine Williams; "Managers Can't Do It All," by Diane Gherson and Lynda Gratton; and "Creating Sustainable Performance," by Gretchen Spreitzer and Christine Porath.

HBR's 10 Must Reads paperback series is the definitive collection of books for new and experienced leaders alike. Leaders looking for the inspiration that big ideas provide, both to accelerate their own growth and that of their companies, should look no further. HBR's 10 Must Reads series focuses on the core topics that every ambitious manager needs to know: leadership, strategy, change, managing people, and managing yourself. Harvard Business Review has sorted through hundreds of articles and selected only the most essential reading on each topic. Each title includes timeless advice that will be relevant regardless of an ever‐changing business environment.