Herminia Ibarra is the Charles Handy Professor of Organizational Behaviour at London Business School (LBS). Prior to joining LBS, she served on the INSEAD and Harvard Business School faculties. An authority on Leadership and Career Development, Thinkers 50 ranks Ibarra among the top management thinkers in the world. She is the author of the best selling, Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader and Working Identity: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing your Career. She writes for HBR and business publications such as Financial Times, Wall Street Journal and New York Times. 

In our conversation, we unpack the nuance behind Herminia’s belief “Adults are more likely to act their way into a new way of thinking than think their way into a new way of acting”. We talk about how leaders in transition could experiment with different pathways and think about a portfolio versus a full-time role. We also get to the bottom of the catch-22 that a several professionals encounter especially in identity consuming time greedy careers such as Management Consulting, Investment Banking, Private Equity, Law and related professions. We also speak about avoiding the risk of foreclosure while evaluating options and discuss the role of the near and dear around us in helping us get to a new orbit. 

This conversation is likely to be of value to people who are at cross roads or people who are in successful careers but feel an increasing dissonance grow inside them.

Published in August 2019.