HBR’s Most Popular Blog Posts of 2011

Katherine Bell

Here is an excerpt from an article written by Katherine Bell for the Harvard Business Review blog. To read the complete article, check out the wealth of free resources, and sign up for a subscription to HBR email alerts, please click here.

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As 2011 comes to a close, the editors of HBR.org are taking a look back at the most popular blog posts of the year to find out what most preoccupied you, our readers. These 11 posts all hit a common nerve and went viral; it’s no surprise that most of them contain advice about how to succeed and be happy at work. We can’t resist including another 11 posts, a hard-to-agree-upon sampling of the ideas we were proudest to publish and discussions we most enjoyed hosting this year. If you have some free time during the holidays to catch up on your reading, we hope you’ll find this list a good place to start.

[Here are four of the 11. To read the complete article, please click here.]

1. Nine Things Successful People Do Differently
by Heidi Grant Halvorson

Talent plays only a tiny role in your success; what really matters is what you do. This post has stayed on our most popular list for months.

2. I Don’t Understand What Anyone Is Saying Anymore
by Dan Pallotta

We all hate business jargon, but we can’t stop using it. More people commented on this post than on any other in HBR.org’s history.

3. The Best Cover Letter I Ever Received
by David Silverman

Silverman’s basic philosophy on cover letters? Don’t bother. This was originally posted in 2009, and it remains one of our most popular posts.

4. Four Destructive Myths Most Companies Still Live By
by Tony Schwartz

Do you perpetuate these productivity-destroying falsehoods at your company?

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And, in No Particular Order, [three of] Our Editor’s Picks

Was Marx Right?
by Umair Haque

His diagnosis is looking pretty good, even if his prescription was wrong.

Great People Are Overrated
by Bill Taylor

Would you rather hire one genius or 100 pretty good people?

Groupon Doomed by Too Much of a Good Thing
by Rob Wheeler

Businesses should become profitable before they become big.

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To read the complete article, please click here.

Katherine Bell is Deputy Editor of HBR Group. To check out her other blog posts, please click here.

The Top 10 HBR Blog Posts of 2010

Jimmy Guterman

Here is an article written by Jimmy Guterman for the Harvard Business Review blog. To read the complete article, check out other articles and resources, and/or sign up for a free subscription to Harvard Business Review’s Daily Alerts, please click here.

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We think more about quality than quantity here on the HBR blog network, but we do pay close attention to what our readers are paying attention to. In that spirit, we offer our 10 most popular posts of 2010, as measured by that most inarguable of website metrics, pageviews:
12 Things Good Bosses Believe
Robert Sutton, author of Good Boss, Bad Boss, ponders what makes some bosses great.

Six Keys to Being Excellent at Anything
Tony Schwartz of the Energy Project reports on what he’s learned about top performance.

How (and Why) to Stop Multitasking
Peter Bregman learns how to do one thing at a time.

Why I Returned My iPad
Here, Bregman finds a novel way to treat a device that’s “too good.”

The Best Cover Letter I Ever Received
Although David Silverman published this with us in 2009, it remained extremely timely this year.

How to Give Your Boss Feedback
Amy Gallo reports on the best ways to help your boss and improve your working relationship.

You’ve Made a Mistake. Now What?
We all screw up at work. Gallo explains what to do next.

Define Your Personal Leadership Brand
Norm Smallwood of the RBL Group gives tips on how to convey your identity and distinctiveness as a leader.

Why Companies Should Insist that Employees Take Naps
Tony Schwartz makes the case for naps as competitive advantage.


Six Social Media Trends for 2011
David Armano of Edelman Digital ends the year by predicting our social media future.

That’s what you’ve told us. In my next roundup, I’ll share a few of the more-than-1000 posts we published this year that our editors have selected as unmissable — or worth a second read.

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Jimmy Guterman is a senior editor at Harvard Business Review. Previously, he was executive editor at MIT Sloan Management Review, editorial director of the Radar group, editor of Release 2.0 at O’Reilly Media. He is a graduate of the Universoity of Pennsylvania.