HBR on building power skills

Harvard Business Review said leaders can build “power skills” with three concrete habits: listening tours, empathy shadowing, and reverse mentoring. (hbr.org) The April 15, 2026 article by Ruth Gotian argued that technical expertise no longer covers the full job of leading teams, especially when managers are expected to build trust, engagement, and innovation. (hbr.org) Gotian’s examples were specific: meet employees in small groups and one-on-one conversations, visit people where the work happens, and ask junior staff to share how decisions land in practice. (store.hbr.org) Harvard Business Review has been pushing the same direction across recent leadership coverage. A December 2024 piece said strong listening is tied to employees feeling heard, valued, and engaged. (hbr.org) A May–June 2025 HBR article said leaders who are “truly listening” strengthen work relationships, raise engagement, and improve performance, and it listed listening tours among the tools bosses already use. (hbr.org) The mentoring piece fits another recurring HBR theme: formal programs are common, but results are uneven. HBR reported in January 2025 that 98% of Fortune 500 companies have mentoring programs, while only 37% of professionals say they actually benefit from them. (hbr.org) That gap helps explain the article’s emphasis on structure rather than slogans. The recommendation was not to “be more empathetic” in the abstract, but to set up repeated exposure to frontline work and regular feedback loops. (store.hbr.org) The language also reflects a broader shift in management writing away from “soft skills” as a secondary category. HBR’s April 2026 article explicitly framed these behaviors as “power skills,” tying them to sustained leadership success rather than personality. (hbr.org) The through line is simple: leaders are being told to spend less time assuming they understand the work and more time watching it, hearing about it, and getting corrected by the people closest to it. (hbr.org)