Nancy Koehn

Nancy Koehn

Author, ‘Forged In Crisis’

Nancy Koehn is a historian at the Harvard Business School where she holds the James E. Robison chair of Business Administration. Koehn's research focuses on how leaders, past and present, craft lives of purpose, worth, and impact.

Her new book, Forged in Crisis: The Power of Courageous Leadership in Turbulent Times is an enthralling historical narrative filled with critical leadership insights that will be of interest to a wide range of readers—including those in government, business, education, and the arts—Forged in Crisis spotlights five masters of crisis: polar explorer Ernest Shackleton; President Abraham Lincoln; legendary abolitionist Frederick Douglass; Nazi-resisting clergyman Dietrich Bonhoeffer; and environmental crusader Rachel Carson.

Koehn is the author of numerous books, articles, and Harvard Business School cases. She writes frequently for the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Harvard Business Review Online. She is also a weekly commentator on National Public Radio and has appeared on many national television programs. She has spoken at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the Aspen Ideas Festival, and in many other venues.

A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Stanford University, Koehn earned a Master of Public Policy from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government before taking her MA and PhD in History from Harvard. She lives outside Boston and is a dedicated equestrian.

 

 

 

 

 

Large shards of broken glass lie on the floor in front of a window with cracked glass; red curtains frame the scene.
11mins
"Resilience" is being able to withstand hardship; "antifragility" goes one step further.
A cluster of yellow flowers with green leaves grows from cracked soil, with visible roots, on a solid blue background.
6mins
History’s most remarkable leaders had this one trait in common. We can harness it too.
6mins
Grit is something you can't learn in schools, but can only learn in the real world. Or, by watching this video. From Harvard historian Nancy Koehn, here's what great leaders throughout history can tell you about resilience.
6mins
Digital disruptions have never been more intrusive, making concentration and focus more important than ever. Learning to say "no" to distractions has a good historical track record.
6mins
It wasn't until after President Lincoln's death that we would discover one of his most important lessons, hidden in his desk drawer.
Lincoln's emotional awareness, that kind of explicit, reflective, conversation with himself is how he used all the adverse classrooms, from his mother’s death when he was nine to all those lost elections, to suicidal depressions. 
The first thing I’ve learned about leading an extraordinary life is you don’t ride the jumps in your path, you ride the path itself. 
I think the more transparent that the world gets, enabled largely by technology, the more important it is that you are what you appear to be. 
4mins
Big companies start off with verve and energy and aspiration and incredible values outside the marketplace that fuel their growth, the grow to the point that they’re no longer in […]
Shakespeare’s Henry V is a play full of great motivational speeches and inspiring leadership. Based on actual historical events of the 15th century, the play centers around the climactic Battle […]
1mins
How does a leader decide whether to be lenient or to set an example? Nancy Koehn presents this question by drawing from a harrowing scene in Shakespeare’s Henry V.
7mins
Nancy Koehn, historian at Harvard Business School, thinks it’s a generation that, before this recession, had not experienced failure.
2mins
The amount of time Americans devote to their communities is decreasing, says Koehn.
2mins
The world needs to breathe.
2mins
We should be talking about inequality, says Nancy Koehn.
3mins
Koehn marvels at the new possibilities for business.
1mins
The U.S. is not picking up the gauntlet of leadership.