It’s one thing to declare, “We care about our people.” It’s entirely different to prove it in messy, unscripted moments, especially when no one is watching. 

Too often, corporate messaging about empathy and respect falters under pressure. We proclaim well-being, then demand overtime. We champion inclusion, then maintain biased systems. We insist on dignity, then terminate employees over Zoom. This disconnect, which I call corporate message incongruency, erodes trust, corrodes culture, and ultimately undermines everyone’s performance.

The Cost of Incongruency

When organizations fail to live up to their own rhetoric, employees notice, and they don’t stay quiet about it. A 2024 study found that perceiving corporate hypocrisy (characterized by gaps between stated values and actual behavior) is strongly linked to increased employee cynicism, disengagement, and a higher risk of turnover. Meanwhile, only 23% of workers worldwide are engaged in their work, according to Gallup—meaning the vast majority are either emotionally detached or actively disengaged.

Executives often overestimate their impact. In its 2024 Well-Being at Work Survey conducted in the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Australia, Deloitte found that 90% of executives believe working for their company “has a positive effect on worker well-being, skills development, career advancement, inclusion and belonging, and [employees’] sense of purpose and meaning.” At the same time, just 60% (or fewer) of workers agree, according to the survey.

That gap isn’t just a miscommunication; it’s a structural signal. And when leaders default to convenience over care in high-stakes moments, the message reverberates far beyond a single event.

Consider the now-infamous 2021 Zoom layoffs at Better.com, where 900 employees were let go in a terse three-minute video. The backlash was swift and severe, spotlighting a painful truth: When corporate actions contradict their stated values, their reputation takes a hit. 

There Doesn’t Have to Be a Disconnect

Most misalignment stems from good intentions, not malice. But business values must be lived in practice, not just in glossy branding. And regardless of your role—whether you’re a CEO, director, manager, or individual contributor—you have the power to bridge the gap.

1. Audit intent versus impact. Start with brutal honesty. Map your organization’s stated values against real moments where behaviors diverge—vacation policies that go unused, diversity statements that don’t reflect candidate slates. In my leadership sessions, consistently mapping these dissonances reveals opportunities to realign, rather than rebrand. Invite feedback from across levels and treat misalignment not as a failure, but as data.

2. Lead with ritual integrity. Values don’t stick—they ritualize. Meaningful, small-scale rituals reinforce intent: a weekly check-in circle to honor well-being, “no-meeting” afternoons to protect focus, transparent sharing of equity data even when it stings. Culture is less magic and more habit. These rituals become touchpoints for trust and vehicles for transformation.

3. Embed accountability. Accountability is the bridge from talk to trust. Expand success metrics to include psychological safety, sense of belonging, and alignment of personal narratives, a practice I call story audits. Nearly 85% of large U.S. employers offer workplace wellness programs; despite this, anticipated improvements in well-being are not being realized, indicating a mismatch between investment and outcomes. Measuring the invisible matters because it makes visible what is valued. This grassroots approach doesn’t just uncover pain points; it creates buy-in and shared ownership for change.

4. Empower action at all levels. Aligned culture isn’t a top-down decree; it’s a distributed commitment. Empower “alignment champions” across departments. At one biotech firm I advised, peer-led story circles uncovered voice imbalances more effectively than any digital survey and enabled real-time corrections.

5. Normalize vulnerability and repair. Inevitably, we slip. The question isn’t whether it happens, but what happens next. Acknowledge missteps publicly. Leaders who say “I was wrong” often deepen trust more than those who avoid the subject. Vulnerability is strength, not weakness. Repair strengthens culture when it’s visible and sincere.

Cultural congruence isn’t a quarterly campaign; it’s a daily practice. Every decision, conversation, and interaction carries a message. 

When we treat values as design principles rather than billboards, we build systems that reinforce them. Words shape our intentions, but actions shape our outcomes. Try this in your next meeting: Ask, “Where are we out of sync, and what might it take to realign?” It’s a simple question, but it signals a profound commitment. When organizations align their words with their actions, they do more than retain loyalty. They earn trust.

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Companies are struggling with the rise of  AI, high levels of employee burnout, and managing hybrid teams. Now, there’s a new challenge: no one wants to be a leader. 

According to DDI’s 2025 HR Insights report, based on a survey of 2,185 HR professionals and 10,796 leaders, 75% of companies prioritize promoting employees to leadership roles from within. However, less than 20% of Chief Human Resource Officers say they actually have employees who are ready to fill critical leadership roles. On average, there are only enough internal candidates to fill less than half (49%) of open leadership positions.

Going forward, it looks like the leadership vacuum is likely to get worse. According to the report, Gen Z is 1.4 times more likely than other generations to reject a leadership role. At the same time, Gen Z is also 2.8 times more likely to quit a job because of subpar leadership.

However, as Fast Company contributor Tracey Brower points out, the dearth of qualified candidates creates an opportunity for anyone who wants to be a leader.

What can companies do to create more leaders?

Historically, leadership roles have been desirable but as navigating the business landscape becomes more complicated, leadership roles have become less attractive. “Leadership is becoming a tougher job every day,” said Tacy M. Byham, Ph.D., CEO of DDI, in a press release. “While organizations can’t control the deluge of external challenges they face this year, strategic HR executives can build resilience by using trusted people analytics to forecast needs, build their bench, and reinvigorate the next generation of leaders.”

Essentially, companies need to create a strong leadership pipeline. Promotions are six times more likely when employees receive adequate coaching from managers. Likewise, companies should always be thinking about their strongest employees’ potential, even before leadership positions become available. 

Tara Rasmussen, a hiring manager for Hapi, a hospitality tech company, points out that employee expectations have evolved. While she says older professionals cling to habits like “micromanagement” and “habits of overworking,” young employees are pushing back—even those who want to be leaders are setting firm boundaries around their personal time. “Elder millennials and Gen Z employees are more inclined to say ‘No thanks’ to giving up personal time even with decent salary increases,” she explains. In the past while future leaders stood out by working long hours, today selection committees need to understand that even leaders want time off. 

What can employees looking for leadership roles do to stand out?

• Cultivate soft skills

Strong leadership is built on a solid foundation of soft skills. Rasmussen, notes that when it comes to new leadership, “soft skills,” like communication and interpersonal skills, are more important than ever before. She notes that soft skills are the ability to navigate nuance while communicating with others and doing work. It’s not a one way lane,” Rasmussen explains. “Leaders in the current climate cannot expect to step into a role and communicate one way to all team members and be successful because everyone is different.”

• Humility

Given the current environment where leaders face all kinds of challenges from technological changes to a turbulent economy, Rasmussen also points out “humility” is a key attribute modern leaders must have. “The ability to say, ‘I don’t know but I’ll find out,’ is absolutely critical,” she explains. “Leaders we look for now are not just ‘bosses’ that micromanage and order employees around. They must be able to be, well, human. Admit when wrong and grow alongside their teams.”

• Embracing AI and adaptability

Jeffrey Pole, CEO and cofounder of Warden AI, tells Fast Company that, in 2025, leaders have to be innovative, adaptable, and knowledgeable about how to work alongside AI. 

“There is much fear in the workforce today, with economic uncertainty, technology disruption, and a constant need for new skills and new career paths,” Pole explains. “The best leaders of this generation will be the ones who can adapt to change, embrace new opportunities, and motivate people to explore and experiment with the technologies and markets that are opening up.” 

In 2022, the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic gave rise the Great Resignation. This trend saw employees around the world leaving their places of work in droves. As a result, employee turnover surged to unprecedented levels.

While resignation rates have gradually decreased from their 2022 peak over the past few years, turnover continues to be a major challenge for businesses. Recent research from PwC revealed that a fifth (20%) of employees had considered leaving their role in the past year, rising to a quarter (25%) of employees aged 18–24.

Retention is no longer about salary alone. It’s about purpose, progression, and organizations seeing them as more than just a job title. Employees want to be at workplaces that offer growth and feedback, and a culture that reflects their values.

The good news is that acting now can turn this challenge into a competitive advantage. Here are three actions that leaders can take to improve their retention, building workplaces that people do not want to leave, but rather stay at, grow, and thrive.

Listen to your team (and do so more often)

To understand and address the cultural challenges that might be causing team members to leave, start by gathering insights through surveys at key moments. That means onboarding, ongoing performance conversations, and exit interviews. These touchpoints offer a window into your employees’ experiences. It also reveals their joys and struggles throughout their journey.

Leaders need to prioritize consistent, open feedback to show their teams that they value their evolving needs. Annual surveys alone are potentially missing key growth opportunities. Instead, embrace frequent “pulse” surveys and platforms for ongoing dialogue, creating a space where employees can feel truly heard. Perhaps most importantly, there’s no quicker way to find out how team members are really feeling. They need to know that the company hears and accepts them for who they are

Additionally, consider moving away from anonymous feedback. While anonymity may feel protective, it can suggest a lack of trust or safety. Building a culture of psychological safety, where team members feel secure sharing openly fosters trust and strengthens bonds. By nurturing this environment, leaders empower honest, heartfelt conversations that uplift their teams and open up the space to heal any existing rifts.

Redefine success with people-centric KPIs

Performance and adherence to a company’s wider purpose matter—but not at the cost of people. To create healthy, thriving workplace cultures, organizations need to strike a fine balance between People, Purpose, and Performance. Organizations that achieve this foster a powerful state where productivity, team efficiency, and incredible engagement come together to create teams that produce and support one another as never before.

When KPIs focus exclusively on delivery and deadlines, pressured managers may fall into the trap of neglecting employee well-being and development. Therefore, by prioritizing KPIs that serve the people, rather than solely focusing on the system, leaders demonstrate a commitment to their team’s well-being and growth.

Smart leaders shift the balance by daring to care for their people and introducing people-first KPIs alongside traditional business metrics. For example, what percentage of employees are in roles that align with their strengths and aspirations? How frequently are managers recognizing and rewarding their team’s contributions? Even a simple “good job” from a manager, delivered with sincerity, goes a long way. Are managers actively developing high-potential individuals so that they’re ready for leadership roles? How often are you opening team meetings by checking in with team members and reminding them of why they matter to the project and wider organization?

Even simple acts, like regular, sincere recognition, drive engagement. By embedding these behaviors into people-led leadership KPIs, organizations reinforce that organizations don’t see people as a cost to manage, but as an asset they need to cultivate.

By emphasizing people-centered KPIs, leaders ultimately contribute to the success and performance of the organization, while also creating a shared sense of purpose that inspires team members at all levels, ensuring that everybody wins.  

What the head office can learn from the shop floor  

I truly believe that leaders everywhere can learn a lot about people management from taking a step away from the traditional corporate environment and spending more time with their “on the ground” teams.

The best leadership insights often come not from the boardroom but the shop floor. In customer-facing roles—like retail or hospitality—the true health of your culture becomes clear. These environments offer an unfiltered view of how companies really treat, support, and motivate employees. My turning point in this regard came in my years in retail management, when I realized that I needed to break the circle of performance above all else in favor of cultures that allow team members to bring their full selves to work.

Leaders who step into these spaces gain firsthand insight into what really drives their people: psychological safety, empathy, development opportunities, and being heard. The fundamentals don’t change between corporate and customer-facing roles, but they’re often far more visible at the coalface.

Spending time with frontline teams also exposes leaders to a more diverse cross-section of their workforce, building empathy and understanding that can shape smarter, more inclusive strategies.

People leave cultures rather than companies

While some employee attrition is inevitable in business, the truth is that much of it is preventable. When people walk away, it’s often from a lack of growth, recognition, or leadership that genuinely cares. Leaders who act with intention have a tremendous opportunity to build powerful, purpose-led workplaces that attract and retain top talent for the long haul.

While remote work offers several benefits such as flexibility, working from home can also be lonely. In one survey almost a quarter (23%) of remote workers reported feeling lonely. Loneliness at work can result in decreased productivity, and feelings of dissatisfaction. 

Emotional intelligence can help us understand what to do to feel more connected at work. Here are four steps to take:

Develop Self-Awareness

Most of us experience periods of loneliness. Being self-aware allows us to better recognize when we are feeling lonely, link it to what is going on at the time, and come up with solutions. Even being able to express what we are feeling can help alleviate loneliness, as naming what we’re feeling helps us to gain more control over our emotions. Consider journaling when you feel lonely to understand what you’re feeling, as well as what situations cause these feelings. Discovering the circumstances that cause loneliness may help you avoid or alleviate loneliness in the future. 

Manage Emotions

There are various methods for regulating and coping with our emotions, and one size does not fit all. Some methods that are known to work are deep breathing, mindfulness, walking in nature, or simply getting away momentarily from the setting we are in. I have found taking a short break from whatever is stressing me out and imagining a relaxed pleasurable experience helps me regulate my emotions. Experiment with different practices to learn what works for you.

Increase Empathy

If we are high in empathy, we will be more likely to reach out to others if we are experiencing feelings of loneliness. One way to increase empathy is to identify the emotions you hear someone bring up in conversations. For example: “I hear you are feeling angry, sad, or afraid.” Chances are others share our feelings, and may be hesitant to reach out, unaware that others are struggling with the same problem. By increasing our empathy and reaching out, we form bonds, increase vulnerability, openness, and connection. Knowing that we are not alone in our situation and having people we can reach out to for support can go a long way in making us feel more connected.

Build connections

As humans we are hardwired to connect with others. This becomes even more important for remote workers. Creating opportunities to build connections is something that everyone needs to take ownership of, from leaders on down.

Set aside some social time where everyone can share what is going on in their lives apart from work. If you have regular online meetings, take a few minutes to share something personal, such as challenges, struggles, and joys. If you have colleagues in the same city, try to get together in person on occasion. Encourage and support each other to come up with ideas on how to connect. Leadership could also host office lunches, where the company covers the cost of lunch and provides space for an informal online get-together. One of the ongoing topics could be how other people experience loneliness and what tools they use to work through it. 

Leaders can use their emotional intelligence to combat the loneliness associated with remote work. In my book Bigger Hearted: a Retired Pediatrician’s Prescriptions for Living a Happier Life, I describe how the head of a local mental health center worked to alleviate loneliness on his team. He called each of them during their work hours, staying up late for several nights so he could talk to those who covered late-night emergencies. 

It may also help to seek value and connection outside of work, whether through time with family and friends, hobbies, or volunteer work. Having something where you know you will be seen, heard, and supported can help alleviate loneliness and offer a bright spot in the day to look forward to.

Understanding how your body works can be the key to reducing stress. For example, you’re probably aware of your fight-or-flight response—the body’s way of preparing itself when it believes it’s being threatened. What happens is your sympathetic nervous system is activated, pumping adrenaline and glucocorticoid steroids into your system that give you hyper focus, energy, and strength to handle the situation. 

Fight-or-flight was a survival mechanism during hunter-gatherer times, when the threat of wild animals was real. Today, however, it’s often triggered by non-life-or-death events, such as the evening news, tight deadlines, or traffic. 

On the flipside of fight-or-flight is rest-and-digest. It’s the body’s way of rebalancing itself after the danger has passed. In this case, your parasympathetic nervous system is in charge, decreasing your heart rate and blood pressure and providing a sense of calm. 

Sometimes, though, the body has a hard time getting back into rest-and-digest. It stays in a state of stress and anxiety. When this happens, it’s often due to your vagal tone, which is the activity in your vagus nerve, says Kevin Tracey, MD, author of The Great Nerve: The New Science of the Vagus Nerve and How to Harness Its Healing.

“[The vagus nerve] is the information superhighway,” explains Tracey, a neurosurgeon and scientist in the field of vagus nerve stimulation. “It’s the conduit between the brain and the organs in your body that are functioning all day long. The vagus nerve carries information that allows your brain to assess the current status of every organ and to adjust the current output of every organ. And the result of that is balance.” 

The vagus nerve is the main driver of the parasympathetic nervous system, or rest-and-digest. Made up of 200,000 fibers, it originates at the brain stem, then runs down each side of your neck before it branches out to the organs in your chest and abdomen. High vagal tone is associated with a relaxed, calm state, while low vagal tone corresponds to chronic stress and anxiety. 

How to Stimulate Your Vagus Nerve to Calm Your Body

Instead of simply being a passenger in your body, it’s possible to intentionally stimulate your vagus nerve to return to a state of calm. One of the most accessible methods is your breath. 

Deep breathing is the conscious deepening of your breath, engaging the diaphragm, which is the muscle at the base of your lungs. When you take a deep breath, it signals your vagus nerve to activate a parasympathetic response. The vagus nerve sends a “slow down” signal to the heart, lengthening the time between heartbeats and producing a body that can more efficiently shift from stress to relaxation. 

“Prolonging the time to the next heartbeat is the basis of heart rate variability,” says Tracey. ”The reason that’s important in physiology is you want to time your heartbeat to your breathing. When you inspire, you maximize the filling of your heart with unoxygenated blood. And when you expire, you accelerate the emptying of your heart with oxygenated blood.”

Tracey says different kinds of breathing modalities can impact heart rate variability. He suggests breathing in through your nose to a count of three and breathing out through pursed lips on a count of seven, similar to how you would blow out a candle. 

“It’s breathing on the order of about six breaths per minute,” says Tracey. “That has been shown to optimize the filling and emptying function of the heart.”

Another breathwork method is Navy SEAL box breathing. Breathe in on a count of four, hold for count of four, breathe out on count of four, and hold for a count of four. 

“I encourage my friends and family to try different methods and follow their heart rate and see the methods that efficiently slow the heartbeat,” says Tracey.

While studies vary on its effectiveness, Tracey also recommends meditation. While a direct link to vagal tone isn’t proven, meditation is associated with a lower resting heart rate and improved heart rate variability. 

“I call it my Pascal’s Wager,” says Tracey. “I exercise regularly, get enough sleep, and eat a balanced diet. I try to stay socially engaged with purpose. If I live a long healthy life because I’m doing these things that I don’t mind doing, that’s great. And if they don’t work, I may never know. These things may all increase health span, which in some ways is as important or more important than lifespan.”  

By understanding how your body works, you won’t always need to feel like a victim to its instinctual responses. Armed with knowledge and tools, you can take the steering wheel and feel like you’re more in control. 

James wanted to reach the senior VP or CTO level, but feedback was clear: He was viewed as a working manager, not a leader of leaders. His identity as the expert got him only so far. Now it was the very thing limiting his advancement.

James was a recognized expert at his medical tech firm: one of its first employees and instrumental in building its core software platform. Over 16 years, his deep expertise and calm problem-solving skills earned him the role of vice president of technology. Known for his composure in crisis and passion for learning, James was admired for his reliability, humility, and ability to “sit with messy problems” until real solutions emerged.

He always “showed up” and could be counted on to fix what was broken. But this exact reputation was beginning to hold him back. Because he was so competent and quick to step in, James stayed in the weeds, solving issues rather than shaping future vision. Despite his VP title, his role remained execution-heavy. 

James’s story is a familiar one. High-performing employees are often burdened with additional work without corresponding recognition or advancement opportunities, which is also known as a “quiet promotion.”

I’ve seen it with many of my clients. Being too good at your job can trap you in it—so much so that you end up asking the same frustrating question: “If I’m so good at my job, why am I not getting promoted?”

Here are four ways to rebrand yourself from dependable doer to strategic leader:

THE SHIFT FROM EXPERTISE TO INFLUENCE

The shift starts with delegation. Many years ago, my boss gave me an opportunity to present to the company’s leadership team. When the CEO and leadership team asked questions I couldn’t answer, my boss didn’t jump in to save me as many would. Later, I learned that she had informed them that I was on a stretch assignment and she would be sitting in as an observer. This is a creative example of delegating a low-stakes task. Oftentimes, people make high-impact mistakes because leaders delegate when the stakes are too high. So, the key to breaking this cycle is to start delegating with low-stakes tasks.

Instead of being the one solving every problem, start empowering others to take ownership, and resist the urge to jump in and fix things when they struggle. Invest time in setting direction, shaping strategy, and influencing outcomes. When colleagues come to you for answers, redirect them: “This is something my direct report now handles. I’ll connect you.” It’s important that you are no longer the only one with the answers; you’re building a team that owns the answers. That’s what leaders do.

AVOID THE “HIDDEN GEM” TRAP

Many “hidden gems” are bright, diligent, and high-performing leaders. They are frequently a leadership team’s go-to problem solver. They deliver consistently, yet may watch less-competent colleagues get promoted. Avoiding self-promotion for fear they will come across as “braggy,” they believe their hard work and results should speak for themselves. Unfortunately, those efforts often don’t get noticed because their boss is too busy to connect the dots. Doing excellent work isn’t enough if no one sees or understands its strategic impact.

Proactively align and advocate your work results to company goals and talk about impact in strategic terms. Say things like “This initiative helps us reduce risk in X,” or “This supports the CEO’s Q3 priority on customer retention.” This approach positions you as a leader who is visible and valuable, making it less about you specifically and more about linking your efforts to how they help the organization.

ADVOCATE FOR YOURSELF

I coach many high-performing leaders who are brilliant at mentoring others, cheering on peers, and celebrating team wins. However, they rarely apply that same energy to their own advancement.

If you’d write a glowing email to recommend a mentee for a project, write one for yourself. If you’d encourage someone to take a stretch role, say yes to your own. Schedule check-ins to talk about your growth, not just your deliverables. Think of self-advocacy not as a performance, but as a responsibility. Your future team needs a seat at the table, and you can’t secure it by staying silent.

Speak in Future Tense

Here’s a subtle but powerful shift: Stop talking only about what you’ve done, and start talking about what you’re building.

Many professionals unintentionally brand themselves as “reliable and steady,” but not as “innovative, visionary, or future-ready.” As organizations endure immense pressure to grow, adapt, or change due to economic or competitive pressures, how are you helping identify and navigate these challenges?

Shift your language from past-tense accomplishments to future-focused initiatives. Instead of “I’ve always done X,” say “I’m currently focused on growing our capability in Y,” or “I’m exploring ways to help our team do Z more efficiently.” This frames you as someone evolving and aligned with what’s next, and shows that you’re not just proud of what you’ve done but you’re also paying attention to what’s next. That’s the kind of mindset that makes you promotable.

It’s important to remember that rebranding yourself at work doesn’t happen overnight. It takes intentional effort to stop being seen as the person who always comes through and start being seen as the person who creates the conditions for others to come through. You don’t get promoted for being reliable. You get promoted for being visionary, influential, and growth-minded.

So ask yourself: How am I teaching others to see me? And, more importantly: Who am I becoming next?

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If we took everything at face value, today’s media headlines, studies, and overall assumptions about the next generation currently entering the workforce could be considered true. Unreliable. Entitled. Difficult to work with. Zero work ethic. Screen-obsessed, except on Zoom calls because their cameras are always off. Unwilling to work in the office or collaborate with others.

These are just a few of the stereotypes overshadowing Gen Z, the youngest generation in the workforce and, apparently, the bane of business leaders around the world.

Personal Experience

They also remind me of what I personally experienced when I started my professional career in the late 2000s.

My first professional opportunities were often marked by generational biases and unintentional leaders who made it more difficult to grow my skills and gain the experiences necessary to mature as a leader. I was told I didn’t “look like a leader” and that I looked “more like a celebrity or influencer than a traditional businessperson,” which is both inappropriate and unhelpful.

It’s also a bad reason to decline to provide the proper coaching or professional development opportunities that would have helped young professionals like me thrive.

As a millennial and the leader of a New York City-based public relations agency, I also have my own unique experience breaking out as a young founder. I often navigated client meetings, partner negotiations, and overall business operations. I had to be the most strategically minded person in the room while simultaneously being the youngest person there.

Collectively, these experiences prompted me to cultivate a different culture for the next generation. They shaped my approach to leadership and mentorship.

More Than a Stereotype 

As a leader always looking for new PR talent, I often received comments about how mature and advanced my leadership abilities were for someone my age, especially as a young senior leader.

People were surprised that someone from my generation could be at the advanced stage at which I found myself in my career. I have since taken that learning and applied it to the young professionals who I manage today.

In other words, I infuse in them the expectation—versus the surprise or doubt—that they can advance as quickly as they can put their mind in action to do so.

No assumptions

As Gen Z navigates the complicated professional world following the 2020 pandemic disruption to their educational and personal lives that no other generation since the early 1900s flu epidemic had to navigate, I take any and all assumptions about this generation with a grain of salt. I’m placing a deep investment in helping them realize their dreams.

I’m not surprised that leaders in today’s business world, almost like incumbents, are raising red flags about the new arrivals, mistaking differences for deterrents. That’s been true of every new generation to enter the workforce.

These leaders undermine not only their industries but also the broader business landscape and, ultimately, the very companies they claim to serve, forgetting that today’s entry-level employees are tomorrow’s breakthrough innovators, mid- or senior-level managers, and changemakers.

An opportunity and obligation

Amid all the negative buzz on the state of Gen Z workers, so many overlook that Gen Z brings real value to the table right now.

As leaders, we have the opportunity and the obligation to seek out aspirational talent, treat them like who they could become, and meet them where they are as the ultimate support approach to help them get to where they ultimately could be.

If leaders aren’t flexible enough to connect with and bridge differences in the workplace, collaborate more effectively, and help raise the next generation of talent to the highest level, they have lost the most important aspect of cutting-edge leadership: the ability to adapt to a continuously changing environment while continuing to lead effectively.

That means inducting the next generation into America’s workforce with open arms, open hearts, and a teachable mindset.

But How?

Today’s leaders must stop focusing on Gen Z’s divisive stereotypes. They need to start focusing on the individuals they meet—who may be from any generation, but especially this generation—to unlock their unmistakable talent and innovative potential.

Here’s how.

1. Start Early

Focus on cultivating talent at the internship level.

For burgeoning professionals, the word is out: Internships matter, and they are clamoring for hands-on learning opportunities.

At my agency, we receive a deluge of applications every season, selecting just a handful for an interview. Only a few will receive an internship offer.

This selectivity allows us to best invest our time and attention in every intern. We spend a lot of time ensuring each intern fully understands the task at hand, so they can work for us and with us, not just complete low-level tasks without guidance or growth-minded intention.

We value our interns in the same way we value all our team members.

While some will find that PR isn’t their thing (and you will find that some of your interns are not the right fit for your company or industry), others will become rock stars who we want to cultivate into full-time team members.

Ultimately, we want our interns to know exactly what it’s like to work at a PR agency so that whether we hire them or they move on to the next opportunity, they are in a position to succeed.

Everyone benefits when we take this approach.

2. Mentor at Each Phase

Mentorship is for everyone. Whether seasoned executives or fresh faces out of college, we all have room to grow.

Even as the owner of the company, there’s still work to do.

This isn’t diminutive. It’s empowering.

Mentoring gives the right guidance to the right people at the right time so they feel successful at work, value their position, and want to stay longer. It’s a win-win-win.

Practically, effective mentoring empowers executive decision-making by stepping back and being available but at the same time making Gen Z-age professionals accountable for making decisions.

3. Invest in Connection

As a busy leader, connecting with people often feels like the last thing I can smash into my schedule. It’s also the most important.

With my team, daily personal engagement consists of team touch bases at 9:30 a.m. Eastern time (10:30 a.m. on Fridays) and 4 p.m. Eastern time Monday through Thursday, with an additional casual 12:15 p.m. meeting for water cooler discussions.

The team operates virtually with set hours from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Eastern time, balancing structured connection points that typically last 20 to 30 minutes, with flexibility for personal appointments and family needs.  

4. Prioritize Recreation and Celebration

Regardless of generation, people want to be seen. That’s why we prioritize recreation and celebration.

Notably, for every birthday and work anniversary, we send flowers to employees and make birthdays special with social media shout-outs and advance planning to ensure proper recognition.

Our team also holds two major annual celebrations—a summer retreat and family party—and we invest our time and money to give employees time away from work to feel celebrated and acknowledged for their hard work throughout the year.

All these celebrations are deliberately planned to make employees feel special and valued, with an emphasis on ensuring these are genuine breaks from work responsibilities.

5. Live by Example

At the end of the day, teaching is only as effective as your practice. Even as Gen Zers develop their own opinions, perspectives, and preferences, they are looking at leaders and taking notes.

For my staff, this means that on vacation time, we prioritize true disconnection, requiring employees to set up out-of-office documents and making it a team effort to avoid contacting vacationing colleagues unless the situation is urgent, which I demonstrate by being unavailable during my own vacations.

Outside of business hours, I don’t contact employees unless it’s urgent, believing people need downtime to feel fresh for the next day, and we actively avoid blurring lines between personal and work life to prevent frustration.

What we do is more valuable than what we say, so we should take care to practice what we preach.

Ready or Not

Gen Z workers aren’t on their way. They are here. Now.

We can continue to accentuate their most sensational characteristics, or we can get to work, recognizing that every new generation brings unique values, perspectives, and competencies to the workforce.

We can cultivate these through intentional mentorship, structured support, and genuine investment in their growth. As a business leader, I’ve discovered that Gen Z brings fresh perspectives, digital fluency, and innovative thinking to our organization.

Their approach to work-life integration, commitment to purpose-driven careers, and ability to adapt to rapid change aren’t weaknesses. As the older range of the Gen Z generation approaches their mid-twenties in 2025, they need to be recognized as assets that we should all embrace and integrate now because, ready or not, Gen Z is part of today’s workforce, and only moving upward from here.

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A recent survey by online résumé builder ResumeHelp found that 60% of millennials and 58% of Gen Z employees say they “sometimes” or “frequently” talk about politics at work. In contrast, only 41% of Gen X and 40% of boomers do the same. In short, the generational divide is stark.

But this isn’t just about politics—it’s about identity, inclusion, and the evolving role of work in people’s lives. For many in Gen Z, work isn’t just about a paycheck; it’s a platform. It’s where they spend the majority of their waking hours. They want to be seen, heard, and valued—not just for their productivity, but for their principles.

I asked my 29-year-old son, Ryan, and a few of his friends why political conversations feel so natural at work. Here’s what I heard:

• They’ve grown up in a world where expressing opinions online is second nature.
• They’re passionate about climate change, racial justice, reproductive rights, LGBTQ+ equality, and economic fairness.
• They are deeply concerned about increasing war and violence (including political violence).
• They feel disappointed by political leaders on both sides—and want meaningful dialogue.
• They believe that silence can be dangerous, and dialogue is the way forward.
• And most critically, they’re anxious about their future and want to feel empowered in it.

Why political talk feels so risky—and so necessary

The workplace reality, of course, is more complicated. In MIT Sloan Management Review, Michael Platt and Morela Hernandez explain that political discussions become polarizing for three key reasons:

1. Politics feel moral, not just rational. Political views are often experienced as moral truths, processed through emotion rather than logic.
2. Political beliefs become identity markers. Once moralized, political stances become deeply tied to one’s sense of self-worth and moral character.
3. People form “moral tribes” at work. Individuals tend to seek validation by clustering with like-minded colleagues—creating ideological silos that fuel tension and division.

These dynamics contribute to an increasingly hostile work environment. What should be a well-tuned chorus has descended into a discordant melee, often incivil or toxic. Besides making the workday an unpleasant source of stress and even violence, this fracturing can negatively impact a firm’s productivity and culture.

For example, a SHRM survey reports that it takes up to 30 minutes for an employee to resume productive activity following a workplace conflict. Now consider that reported “uncivil acts” in U.S. workplaces increased to more than 200 million per day following a presidential debate in 2024, per SHRM, and the magnitude of the problem becomes clear.

Incivility also has a negative effect on corporate culture and morale. If ignored or handled clumsily, internal conflict can erode a company’s identity—and even damage its reputation—from within.

These dangers can’t be laid at the feet of Gen Z alone: it’s a problem decades in the making. Today, nearly every human action appears to have been politicized, and we all have a responsibility to address this issue. 

Many wear their political sympathies on their sleeves, supporting certain politicians and policies in an attempt to capture market share among their target demographic. Atop that, the outcome of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the 2010 Supreme Court ruling that endowed businesses with the rights of people, now enables campaign contributions to be considered a protected form of speech. Knowing all this, it would be strange if the workplace—where people spend most of their time—wasn’t also drawn into the day’s political conflicts and culture wars.

Not surprisingly, a recent survey by Indeed found that 60%of workers overall would favor working for companies with politically sympathetic leadership. Already,  42% of respondents were working for companies aligned with a single party. These numbers may be more stark among recent college graduates, but it’s clear that the blurred role of politics in the office is already well-established.

A teachable moment for leadership

Many leaders worry that political conversations will fracture teams or harm productivity. And yes, boundaries matter. But what if this moment isn’t just a challenge, but a profound opportunity?

The truth is that empathy is not a soft virtue—it’s a strategic one. Empathy, when practiced with consistency and courage, builds trust. And trust is the foundation of any thriving workplace.

This is our chance to cultivate the next generation of leaders. Those who will:

• Understand that disagreement is not a threat to unity, but a path toward it.
• Learn to listen across ideological and experiential divides.
• Develop the skills to speak with curiosity, clarity, and respect.
• Embrace dialogue as a tool for problem-solving—not conflict.

This is how we grow, not just as professionals, but as citizens.

And we don’t have to do it alone. Grassroots organizations like Braver Angels, Listen First Project, US United, Stand Together, More in Common, Convergence,  Living Room Conversations, and Starts With Us offer free, practical tools for fostering civil discourse. 

As efforts to create multicultural workplaces that leverage rather than suppress diversity have demonstrated, proactive leadership and pragmatic processes are an essential combination.

How leaders can respond to politics in the workplace—with grace

This isn’t about encouraging political debate, it’s about not silencing it out of fear. Leaders don’t have to take sides. In fact, they should avoid taking sides. But they do have an obligation to set the tone. Here’s how:

Affirm respect as a ground rule. Accept that employees will have differences, but make it clear that political discussions must remain respectful. No personal attacks. No shaming. No exclusion.

Offer dialogue training. Provide employees with tools and workshops that teach active listening, civil disagreement, and conflict navigation.

Model thoughtful engagement. Leaders don’t need to be apolitical—but they should be intentional. Share your views with humility, and create space for others to do the same.

Create safe spaces—not echo chambers. Welcome diverse viewpoints across the spectrum. Curiosity is contagious.

Remember the bigger picture. Helping employees engage across differences doesn’t just protect morale—it strengthens democracy.

We may live in divided times. But our workplaces don’t have to mirror that division. Instead, they can model something better. Political conversations, when approached with care, can be the crucible in which better citizens—and better leaders—are forged.

Let’s not waste this moment. Let’s teach the next generation not just how to work—but how to listen, engage, and lead.

One of medicine’s harder lessons about burnout and mental health might be the most urgently needed by every industry right now. 

As an emergency physician who also did four years of surgical residency training, I witnessed firsthand how the grueling training that medical residents face, coupled with a tough-it-out attitude, can cause silent suffering—and sometimes with deadly consequences. 

Often it is the institutional stigma that prevents doctors from seeking help. Physician burnout is a systemic, not individual, failure, and its prevalence has been growing. According to the American Medical Association (AMA), the pandemic increased physician burnout to an all-time high, due to the grief, isolation, and psychological pressures. 

Physician Suicide: The Tip of the Iceberg

Studies show physician suicides are among the highest of any profession. For men, it’s 40% higher than the general population, and for women, it’s up to 130% higher. 

Seeking mental health support is still seen as a risk—not to our well-being, but to our careers. Often there are fears of career consequences if we speak candidly about our mental health. Plus, issues related to licensing and credentialing processes often exacerbate this silence. Inside the industry, there’s the subtle implication that physicians with any mental health issue might not be fit to practice. And it’s a tragic irony, as we spend our careers advocating for our patients’ mental health but often are too afraid to address our own.

ER Violence: Another Burnout Contributor

Burnout isn’t only due to emotional exhaustion and stress. It can also be fueled by daily threats and obstacles that can strip away our dignity. 

Violence against healthcare staff, especially in emergency departments, is escalating. A 2024 poll from the American College of Emergency physicians (ACEP) found more than 90% of emergency physicians report being threatened or attacked in the past year. These incidents carry more than physical harm: 85% of physicians cite emotional trauma and anxiety, and 89% say their productivity has been impacted by it.  

Every assault is another blow to the emotional well-being of physicians, as well as affecting the quality of care for patients, too. And it shows up beyond medicine, too: in industries where plenty physical labor is involved—say, service, hospitality, or event execution—a lack of safety protocols can knock down emotional well-being for workers.

Insurance Battles: An Administrative Avalanche

Healthcare professionals spend up to two hours on clerical work for every clinical hour, driven largely by paperwork, billing, and prior authorizations, which has increased steadily over time. According to an AMA survey, this added burden of prior authorization is contributing to physician burnout. But additionally, we also worry about pre-authorization and its often-associated denials. About 94% of medical professionals surveyed reported it negatively impacts patient care. 

Excessive administrative work and burden is strongly correlated with burnout, but also stress-related health problems.  And it’s not only in healthcare: it’s also seen in plenty of other industries, from finance to business to tech.

Resilience Culture: Shifting Leadership from Stoic to Supportive

In healthcare “resilience” is seen as a badge of honor, entailed by pushing through grueling shifts, making life-or-death decisions, and walking out with a composed face. But true resilience is built on having support, empowerment, and trust. Resilience does not mean invulnerability. 

But medicine’s history has taught us that psychological safety matters more than invulnerability. Creating a psychologically safe environment—where people feel safe to speak up, take risks, and be vulnerable without fear of negative consequences—is more important than maintaining a facade of control. In healthcare, psychological safety is crucial for open communication, error reporting, and team collaboration, ultimately benefiting patient care. And it applies to every industry. Credibility in leadership cannot be built on denial of stress; teams led by emotionally intelligent, vulnerable leaders perform better. 

Trauma-informed care is a model that originated in medicine and mental health but has profound implications for any workplace. It prioritizes trust, empathy, and empowerment, thereby improving outcomes for patients and providers alike. It influences how individuals interact, communicate, and respond to challenges at work. Adopting trauma-informed principles of safety, empowerment, and collaboration can benefit any workplace, replacing isolation with solidarity.

Small Shifts with Big Impact

Corporations, law firms, schools, and more could learn from emergency departments. It’s important to acknowledge risks, measure physical and emotional safety, empower employees to help shape the system, and make sure your leaders are connected to their people. 

Burnout is not a character flaw. It’s an organizational and occupational hazard. When violence, paperwork, and isolation compound high-stakes fields, emotional safety can be the difference between thriving or breaking.

Medicine is slowly proving it’s possible to change through systemic redesign. We don’t need more heroes who suffer in silence. We need systems that listen, leaders who care, and cultures that heal instead of harm. If medicine, one of the most tradition-bound professions, can begin to change, so can everyone else.

Rumor has it that gossip can be a positive force in workplace cultures, under the right circumstances.

While talking smack behind a colleague’s back likely won’t produce any personal or organizational benefits, research suggests sharing neutral or positive information outside of official workplace communication channels will.

According to a study published in the journal Group and Organizational Management, those who feel like they’re in the know tend to stick around for longer. The study of 338 nurses found the ones that shared work-related intel felt a sense of social power and ultimately had lower rates of voluntary turnover.

“When you positively gossip about your workplace, that tends to make people associate you with ‘expert power perceptions’—that you have some expertise—and that makes you less likely to quit,” says Allison Gabriel, a professor of management at Purdue University, the director of the Purdue Center for Working Well, and one of the study’s coauthors. “Why would I leave this organization if people think I’m in the know, and think I have good things to say?”

Those benefits, however, did not extend to those who complained or spoke negatively of others behind their backs.

“Interestingly, we didn’t find any of those effects for negative workplace gossip, which is probably the kind that people engage in more of,” Gabriel says. “There are some personal benefits to gossip for the person engaging in it, as long as they’re positive.”

Whether positive or negative, Gabriel says gossip is inevitable whenever a group of people work closely together, and the nature of that gossip can play an outsized role in dictating culture.

“If everybody’s sharing positive stories, that can really boost morale,” she says. “If everybody’s complaining, talking about how anxious they are, that’s going to create problems, and people are more likely to believe bad things are happening.”

This is how rumors get started

That rumor mill, says Gabriel, tends to spin up when there is an informational void in the workplace. When workers feel like management isn’t being sincere or is withholding information, workers instinctively look to each other to fill the gap.

“Gossip really serves as a mechanism for people to make sense of the world around them,” says Allison Howell, the vice president of market innovation for workplace personality insights provider Hogan Assessments. “When there’s challenges with trust around the organizational leadership, gossip is a way for people to keep a finger on the pulse.”

Howell says gossip has been used throughout history to push beyond the official narratives shared by those in power in search of some greater truth. She explains that it was a vital survival instinct in some of the darker periods in human history, when information really was a matter of life or death.

“There’s been a whole lot of [efforts to] control how people are allowed to communicate and share information, especially women, and punishments throughout history for sharing whispers and alerting others to potential dangers or risks,” she says.

Gossip continues to provide that unofficial communication channel in the workplace, which Howell says can be vital in a world where people are constantly bombarded with “official” messaging.

“There’s a natural tendency to be a little bit skeptical of any sort of messaging that’s coming from official channels,” she explains, suggesting that instinct is adopted from our ancestors. “One of the best mechanisms for bringing people around to a certain idea is to have unofficial communication.”

Can negative gossip have a positive impact?

The line between helpful and hurtful gossip, however, can get blurry, and that’s where things tend to get messy.

While Howell says anything that would get you in trouble with HR—such as outright harassment, abuse, or inappropriate conversations—are a clear violation, she suggests there could be some value in venting behind a colleague’s or manager’s back.

“There’s a bonding mechanism: teams tend to bond when they share frustrations,” she says. “It’s a mechanism to have a little bit of catharsis, a little bit of bonding, and building a little bit of trust.”

Joseph Grenny, however, is trash-talking the idea that gossip helps build trust amongst colleagues.

The social scientist for business performance, cofounder of Crucial Learning, and author of Crucial Conversations says the hush-hush nature of gossip frees the smack-talker from taking responsibility for their disparaging comments, which doesn’t exactly build credibility.

“It creates a feeling of connection without real trust,” he says. “The fact that I’m gossiping with you is evidence to you that I’ll also gossip about you—if I’ll do it with you, I’ll do it to you—so there’s actually an erosion of trust.”

Managing gossip

Grenny believes gossip serves as an indicator of organizational health, and suggests rumors tend to fly more frequently in less positive work cultures.

“The problem with gossip is that it reinforces the sickness that generates it,” he says. “The more I value gossip and receive informal communication access in an organization, the more it reinforces mistrust in the formal channels.”

Breaking that cycle, Grenny says, requires leaders to be more forthcoming and transparent with information. That, he suggests, shuts down rumors before they circulate and establishes more trust in official communications.

“The two options for leaders aren’t sharing or not sharing, but sharing or gossip,” he says. “They need to understand that by not being quick to disclose information they’re choosing for the gossip channel to prevail.”

Though leadership can’t put a lid on gossip entirely Grenny says they can help promote some of the more positive side talk by filling information gaps proactively.  

Specifically, Grenny recommends giving some of the organization’s opinion leaders an open forum for asking difficult questions from leadership, and receiving candid answers.

“When they feed the correct information to that opinion leader group, those opinion leaders start to have confidence that this is a trustworthy channel, and the need for gossip channels decreases,” he says. “You’ve got to create and nurture those alternative channels to push all the demand to the healthier ones.”

James Kimmel, Jr., is a lecturer of psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine, a lawyer, and the founder and co-director of the Yale Collaborative for Motive Control Studies. He is the creator of The Nonjustice System, the Mircale Court app, and Saving Cain—breakthrough tools for recovering from grievances and revenge desires and preventing mass violence.

What’s the big idea?

Revenge is more than an emotion—it’s an addictive behavior. We get hyped about an epic revenge story to watch on the big screen, or cheer for the politician that will “get even” with our societal oppressors. We ruminate about that person who cut us off on the highway and daydream about how good it would feel to teach their bumper a lesson. Whether real or imagined, the satisfaction of payback is a dangerous craving. The first victim of any revenge story is the mind thinking about it.

Even if you never dole out a sentence in the real world based on the trials held in the courtroom of your mind, those fantasies harm you. By learning the healing power of forgiveness, using established addiction treatment methods, and rewiring our mental machinery, we can free ourselves from the self-inflicted damages of revenge and protect society from cycles of hate.

Below, James shares five key insights from his new book, The Science of Revenge: Understanding the World’s Deadliest Addiction–and How to Overcome It. Listen to the audio version—read by James himself—below, or in the Next Big Idea App.

1. Revenge is addictive.

There is a hidden addiction plaguing humanity: revenge. Neuroscientists have identified retaliation as the root cause of most human aggression, from social media outrage and road rage to school shootings, gang violence, domestic abuse, and terrorism. The common thread? The perpetrator nearly always sees themselves as a victim seeking justice. When we’re hurt or humiliated, the brain’s pain-processing center—the anterior insula—activates. In response, we crave relief. When we fantasize about or act on revenge, dopamine floods the brain, lighting up the same neural pathways triggered by opioids or cocaine. But instead of intoxication, we crave payback.

Like any addictive behavior, the high is short-lived and followed by more pain. And the more we ruminate on a grievance, the stronger the cravings become. Most of us can control our urges for revenge, but for some, the dopamine surge can make the desire to “get even” feel irresistible. That’s how otherwise ordinary, peaceable individuals can end up committing extraordinary acts of violence. The key to prevention is recognizing revenge for what it is—not just an emotion, but an addictive behavior that demands a public health response.

2. Violence is a public health issue.

Understanding revenge as an addiction changes everything we thought we knew about why people become violent and how to stop it. For decades, we’ve treated violence as a social or moral problem. But if revenge-seeking follows the same neurobiological pathways as substance use, then violence isn’t just an emotion or moral failing—it’s the behavioral outcome of an unrecognized and untreated addiction.

When scientists embraced the brain disease model of addiction in the late 1990s, it sparked a revolution in research, treatment innovation, funding, and public understanding. We now have the opportunity to apply the same science-based framework to violence prevention.

“Understanding revenge as an addiction changes everything we thought we knew about why people become violent and how to stop it.”

Revenge-seeking is a behavioral addiction. And like other addictions, it can be interrupted and treated. Viewing revenge through the lens of addiction expands our toolbox for treatment. Cognitive behavioral therapy, motivational interviewing, peer support, psychosocial approaches, and even anti-craving medications can be repurposed to help people manage revenge cravings.

3. America has a revenge addiction problem.

From political polarization to courtroom dramas, and from superhero blockbusters to viral Twitter feuds, American society runs on revenge. Our legal system is a billion-dollar industry for selling revenge, packaged as justice. Our politics are fueled by grievance, with political leaders using the language of payback to rally supporters. Public calls to “fight back” and punish enemies reflect not just rhetoric but a deeper pathology: the weaponization of revenge cravings on a national scale.

Even our entertainment is saturated with revenge narratives. Movies from The Lion King to The Avengers celebrate vengeance and create a cultural script that glorifies payback. Meanwhile, social media platforms serve as digital revenge machines, propagating grievances, cueing outrage, and rewarding public shaming with dopamine hits. When these cycles of grievance and retaliation become cultural norms, the result is a society trapped in a feedback loop of addictive violence. To recover, we need to tell new stories that center on healing, not harm.

4. How to unlock the superpower of forgiveness.

Forgiveness often gets framed as a moral virtue—something good people do when they’re feeling generous. But now, modern neuroscience is confirming what spiritual wisdom has taught for centuries, that forgiveness is not just spiritually liberating, but neurologically healing.

Brain scan studies show that simply imagining forgiving a grievance deactivates the brain’s pain network, deactivates the pleasure and craving circuitry of revenge craving, and activates the prefrontal cortex of executive function and self-control. Research also shows that forgiveness reduces symptoms of stress, anxiety, PTSD, and even physical conditions like high blood pressure, pain, and insomnia.

“Refusing to forgive—under the belief that you’re somehow denying a gift to the person who hurt you—achieves little more than denying yourself the healing you need.”

A common misconception is that forgiveness means “giving” something to the person who hurt you. It doesn’t. Forgiveness is part of your brain’s biological pain management and revenge control system. The person who receives the benefits from forgiveness is you, the person who was hurt, not the person who caused the harm. You don’t even have to tell the person who hurt you that you’ve forgiven them to receive these benefits. And you certainly don’t have to overlook or condone their behavior.

Forgiveness is a process that happens inside your brain. Refusing to forgive—under the belief that you’re somehow denying a gift to the person who hurt you—achieves little more than denying yourself the healing you need. That’s a self-inflicted tragedy. Within the biology of the human brain, the person who receives the greatest gift from forgiving is you, the forgiver.

5. The courtroom of the mind.

Before we take revenge in the real world, we often rehearse it in private—inside what I call the courtroom of the mind. This is where we hold imagined trials of the people who hurt us. We play every role: victim, prosecutor, judge, jury, even executioner. We summon evidence, hand down a sentence, and fantasize about carrying it out. Most of us—good, normal people—are routinely putting the people who offend and mistreat us on trial inside the busy courtrooms of our minds. But these internal trials can have real life-and-death consequences. At their conclusion, we will choose whether to carry out our sentences in the real world. If we hope to secure personal and communal peace, harmony, and prosperity—and reduce rage, violence, and aggression in all forms—we must learn how to win the trials taking place inside our minds.

That’s why I developed a 12-step program for revenge addiction recovery called The Nonjustice System (NJS). The NJS is a science-based intervention that utilizes the courtroom of the mind as a tool for healing rather than harm. In this guided role-play (which is also available as a free app called the Miracle Court app), you can imagine putting anybody who has ever wronged you on trial while playing all the roles yourself. This creates space to safely process pain, let go of destructive cravings, and explore forgiveness.

The Nonjustice System and Miracle Court app have been used by people to heal from trauma, overcome intrusive revenge urges and rumination, and set themselves free from the wrongs of the past. Unlike the traditional justice system, the NJS and Miracle Court app aren’t about getting even; they’re about setting yourself free. By harnessing imagination and neuroscience, we can transform the mental machinery of revenge into a path toward wellbeing and recovery.

This article originally appeared in Next Big Idea Club magazine and is reprinted with permission.

By the time most leaders sit down at their desks, they’ve already spent a chunk of their best energy. They’ve triaged emails, squeezed in early meetings, and handled “just one quick thing” that ballooned into an hour. It’s barely 10 a.m. and their attention is already diluted, their decision-making fatigued.

In my work as an executive leadership coach, I see every day what the studies have been showing us for years. Our brain’s capacity to make good decisions depletes as the day progresses.The sheer volume of decisions we have to make each day is leaving us diminished. And our days get hijacked by email—with us losing almost a full day’s worth every week.

The compounding effect of this is that leaders are less sharp, more reactive, and prone to default decisions rather than breakthroughs. So what if, instead of reacting, we reserved that early window for something more valuable?

The first two hours of your workday aren’t just another block on the calendar. They’re your cognitive prime. The time when your brain is sharpest and your energy most aligned with creative, focused work. They’re also the time most leaders give away too easily. Reclaiming it is about making a deliberate leadership move that pays off in clarity, influence, and impact.

The cost of default mornings

Most of us don’t design our mornings: we inherit them. Calendars fill with recurring meetings, habitual inbox checks, and requests from others. We hit the ground running, but often in the wrong direction.

This default mode comes at a price. While research shows we have peak cognitive capacity in the morning, that prime time is too often squandered on low-impact tasks. It’s like hiring a Michelin-star chef to butter toast.

In the end, leaders end up firefighting all day, making decisions from a place of fatigue, and pushing their most strategic thinking to a time when their brain is already checked out.

The first two hours as a leadership lever

Reclaiming your first two hours isn’t about working harder or even smarter, it’s about working sharper.

Working smarter is about efficiency. It’s finding faster ways to do familiar things, streamlining systems, and ticking more off your list in less time. That’s helpful, but it still treats all hours of the day as equal.

Working sharper is different. It respects the natural rhythm of your body and brain. It’s not just about what you’re doing, but when you’re doing it.

Your cognitive capacity peaks in the first few hours after waking. This is when your brain is most alert, creative, and capable of solving complex problems. Sharper work means aligning your most important thinking with your highest mental performance.

Leaders who intentionally front-load their day with deep, high-impact work don’t just get more done; they make better decisions, model smarter working habits, and lead with more clarity. They create time to think, not just to respond—and that’s the game changer.

When your first hours are spent solving complex problems, crafting strategy, or preparing for high-stakes conversations, you’re not just ticking off tasks, but setting the tone for how your team operates and how your business grows.

Small changes, outsized impact

When leaders begin to guard their early hours, the ripple effect is striking. Teams notice, the culture shifts, and people get braver about protecting their own energy.

I’ve worked with senior leaders who transformed their team’s operating rhythm just by removing early meetings and declaring the first two hours as thinking time. It signalled a new standard: that considered work matters more than constant busyness. That energy is a finite resource worth protecting.

And yes, it requires a shift. You may need to renegotiate habits with your team, push back on automatic scheduling tools, or educate others about your new working rhythm. But leadership is, in part, about setting boundaries that enable your best work and empower others to do the same.

Rethinking what belongs in the morning

To make the most of your best energy, you need to protect it. Here’s how:

• Block, don’t hope. Set a recurring two-hour block in the morning for proactive work. Don’t leave it to chance.
• Start with friction. Tackle the task you’re most likely to procrastinate; your brain is most equipped to handle it now.
• Email can wait. Unless you’re in customer service, few emails need a response at 8 a.m. Turn off notifications and don’t open your inbox until after your deep work is done.
• Delay the meetings. Push back recurring stand-ups or updates to later in the day where possible. Mornings should be reserved for creation, not coordination.

Even reclaiming just one morning a week can create meaningful shifts in how you lead and perform.

What your calendar says about your leadership

There’s a simple way to tell what you value most as a leader. Look at your calendar.

If the first two hours of each day are filled with admin and reactivity, it’s worth asking: what are you giving away? And what would change if you claimed that space instead?

Reclaiming this time is a move toward leading with more foresight and less fatigue. It’s a signal to your team that thoughtfulness trumps frenzy.

And it starts tomorrow morning. Just two hours for your clearest thinking, and the work that truly matters.

In 2014, I left a secure job at Goldman Sachs to start a nonprofit. On paper, it looked like a reckless move: no funding, no team, barely any experience. But it was the best decision I ever made because it taught me that adaptability matters more than certainty.

While you can’t control President Trump’s second term, you can control how you respond to it by learning to work with uncertainty. As his policies rock supply chains, jobs, and lives, the best career plan is the one that can bend and flex.

Transformation

But let’s be clear: It’s not just Trump driving this uncertainty. AI and automation are transforming entire industries. Generational shifts are changing how people work and what they value in their careers. No matter who’s in the White House, uncertainty is constant. The message couldn’t be more explicit: Nothing is guaranteed except the importance of adaptability.

This is what I call “Trump-proofing” your career, and it’s not about being anti-Trump. Whether you support him or not, his leadership brings unpredictability, and your career plan can’t hinge on any one leader or policy. It must be built to flex and shift with the world around you.

The old idea of climbing a single career ladder no longer holds up. In today’s job market, staying in the same role for too long can hold you back. According to HRreview, workers who change jobs regularly earn, on average, 31% more than those who stick around in the same job for years.

The best plan isn’t a perfect five-year road map. It’s about treating your career like an ongoing experiment, in which trying new roles, taking smart risks, and building transferable skills is more important than following a linear path. This mindset keeps you adaptable and engaged in a world that’s changing faster than any one job can keep up with.

The ripple effects of this new reality are already apparent. More than 120,000 U.S. federal workers have lost their jobs or been targeted for layoffs in 2025, a stark reminder that even government work, once considered the gold standard for stability, isn’t immune to sudden change.

THE PLANNING FALLACY

According to psychologists, the “planning fallacy” is how we fool ourselves into thinking the future will follow our plans. I’ve seen this firsthand.

At 22, I thought I wanted to work in finance. I had spent years pursuing that path, convinced it was the surest way to build a successful career. But once I got there, I realized that the skills I wanted to develop and the goals I cared about didn’t match what I was doing.

The daily work didn’t challenge me in the ways I needed, and it didn’t lead me in a meaningful direction. I realized that sticking with a path that didn’t fit was actually riskier than stepping into the unknown.

So I did it. I moved back to Canada to build something that felt real and important, which pushed me to grow in the right ways. This led me to founding my nonprofit, Venture for Canada, which raised $80 million and empowered more than 10,000 young professionals to launch their careers. Most people thought I was out of my mind. But I learned that real progress in your career and life happens when you’re willing to adapt your skills and goals to match what you and the world at large need most.

Not everyone can walk away from a steady paycheck. My story is just one example. But adaptability isn’t about giant leaps. It’s about small experiments that keep you aligned with what matters most.

FOCUS ON OBJECTIVES AND KEY RESULTS

One tool that’s made a real difference for me is using objectives and key results. OKRs are a great way to break down overwhelming goals into small, measurable steps. Instead of mapping out the next 10 years, focus on the next three months. Pick one meaningful short-term objective, like exploring mission-driven work or building skills in a new sector. Then set two or three key results—small, specific actions you can track. At the end of three months, look back. What worked? What didn’t? Where do you need to pivot?

Here’s how I explain this in my upcoming book, The Uncertainty Advantage: First, identify your top three personal values. For example, if you’re in marketing, your values might be creativity, collaboration, and growth, which inspire you when the world is unpredictable.

Second, set one short-term objective that aligns with those values. Don’t worry about the next decade. Focus on what you can start today—something specific and achievable, like launching a new marketing campaign that pushes your creative skills and brings your team together.

Third, define two or three key results to measure your progress. In this marketing example, your key results might be testing three campaign concepts, meeting with two colleagues to brainstorm fresh ideas, and sharing early results with your manager within the month. They’re small steps that build momentum, keep you learning, and help you stay adaptable.

TREAT YOUR CAREER LIKE AN EXPERIMENT

For some, adaptability might mean staying the course in a stable job. For others, it might mean pivoting into something entirely new. The key is to treat your career like an experiment. If you treat your next move as a chance to test what you care about and what you can build, you can shift from panic to purpose.

I think of a friend who shifted from teaching to technical program management and now wants to work in AI. He didn’t have a 10-year plan. He focused on what sparked his curiosity and where he wanted to grow. It wasn’t about having all the answers. It was about testing, learning, and staying true to his values.

So here’s my challenge to you: Treat your career like the most crucial experiment of your life. Stay curious. Stay connected to what matters. Keep testing new ideas. Because in a world that can shift overnight—and it will—the only plan that keeps working is the one you’re willing to adapt.

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For centuries, we’ve believed that the act of thinking defines us.

In what is widely considered a major philosophical turning point, marking the beginning of modern philosophy, secular humanism, and the epistemological shift from divine to human authority, the French philosopher and mathematician René Descartes (1596–1650) famously concluded that everything is questionable except the fact that we think, “Cogito, ergo sum”(I think, therefore I am).

Fast-forward a few hundred years, however, and in an age where generative AI can produce emails, vacation plans, mathematical theorems, business strategies, and software code on demand, at a level that is generally undistinguishable from or superior to most human output, perhaps it’s time for an update of the Cartesian mantra: “I don’t think . . . but I still am.”

Indeed, the more intelligent our machines become, the less we are required to think. Not in the tedious, bureaucratic sense of checking boxes and memorizing facts, but in the meaningful, creative, cognitively demanding way that once separated us from the rest of the animal kingdom. The irony, of course, is that only humans could have been smart enough to build a machine capable of eliminating the need to think, which is perhaps not a very clever thing.

Thinking as Optional

Large segments of the workforce, especially knowledge workers who were once paid to think, now spend their days delegating that very function to AI. In theory, this is the triumph of augmentation. In practice, it’s the outsourcing of cognition. And it raises an uncomfortable question: if we no longer need to think in order to work, relate to others, and carry out so-called “knowledge work,” what is the value we actually provide, and will we forget how to think?

We already know that humans aren’t particularly good at rationality. Nobel laureates Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky showed that we mostly operate on heuristics (fast, automatic, and error-prone judgments). This is our default “System 1” mode: intuitive, unconscious, lazy. Occasionally, we summon the energy for “System 2”(slow, effortful, logical, proper reasoning). But it’s rare. Thinking is metabolically expensive. The brain consumes 20% of our energy, and like most animals, we try to conserve it. In that sense, as neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett noted, “the brain is not for thinking”; it’s for making economic, fast, and cheap predictions about the world, to guide our actions in autopilot or low energy consumption mode.

So what happens when we create, courtesy of our analytical and rather brilliant “System 2,” a machine that allows us to never use our brain again? A technology designed not just to think better than us, but instead of us?

It’s like designing a treadmill so advanced you never need to walk again. Or like hiring a stunt double to do the hard parts of life, until one day, they’re doing all of it, and no one notices you’ve left the set.

The Hunter-Gatherer Brain in a High-Tech World

Consider a parallel in physical evolution: our ancestors didn’t need personal trainers, diet fads, or intermittent fasting protocols. Life was a workout. Food was scarce. Movement was survival. The bodies (and brains) we’ve inherited are optimized to hoard calories, avoid unnecessary exertion, and repeat familiar patterns. Our operating model and software is made for hungry cavemen chasing a mammoth, not digital nomads editing their PowerPoint slides.

Enter modernity: the land of abundance. As Yuval Noah Harari notes, more people today die from overeating than from starvation. So we invented Ozempic to mimic a lack of appetite and Pilates to simulate the movement we no longer require.

AI poses a similar threat to our minds. In my last book I, Human, I called generative AI the intellectual equivalent of fast food. It’s immediate, hyper-palatable, low effort, and designed for mass consumption. Tools like ChatGPT function as the microwave of ideas: convenient, quick, and dangerously satisfying, even when they lack depth or nutrition. Indeed, just like you wouldn’t choose to impress your dinner guests by telling them that it took you just two minutes to cook that microwaved lasagna, you shouldn’t send your boss a deck with your three-year strategy or competitor analysis if you created with genAI in two minutes.

So don’t be surprised when future professionals sign up for “thinking retreats”: cognitive Pilates sessions for their flabby minds. After all, if our daily lives no longer require us to think, deliberate thought might soon become an elective activity. Like chess. Or poetry.

The Productivity Paradox: Augment Me Until I’m Obsolete

There’s another wrinkle: a recent study on the productivity paradox of AI shows that while the more we use AI, the more productive we are, the flip side is equally true: the more we use it, the more we risk automating ourselves out of relevance.

This isn’t augmentation versus automation. It’s a spectrum where extreme augmentation becomes automation. The assistant becomes the agent; the agent becomes the actor; and the human is reduced to a bystander . . . or worse, an API. Note for the two decades preceding the recent launch of contemporary large language models and gen AI, most of us knowledge workers spent most of their time training AI on how to predict us better: like the microworkers who teach AI sensors to code objects as trees or traffic lights, or the hired drivers that teach autonomous vehicles how to drive around the city, much of what we call knowledge work involves coding, labelling, and teaching AI how to predict us to the point that we are not needed.

To be sure, the best case for using AI is that other people use it, so we are at a disadvantage if we don’t. This produces the typical paradox we have seen with other, more basic technologies: they make our decisions and actions smarter, but generate a dependency that erodes our adaptational capabilities to the point that if we are detached from our tech our incompetence is exposed. Ever had to spend an entire day without your smartphone? Not sure what you could do. Other than talk to people (but they are probably on their smartphones). We’ve seen this before. GPS has eroded our spatial memory. Calculators have hollowed out basic math. Wi-Fi has made knowledge omnipresent and effort irrelevant. AI will do the same to reasoning, synthesis, and yes, actual thinking.

Are We Doomed? Only If We Stop Trying

It’s worth noting that no invention in human history was designed to make us work harder. Not the wheel, not fire, not the microwave, and certainly not the dishwasher. Technology exists to make life easier, not to improve us. Self-improvement is our job.

So, when we invent something that makes us mentally idle, the onus is on us to resist that temptation.

Because here’s the philosophical horror: AI can explain everything without understanding anything. It can summarize Foucault or Freud without knowing (let alone feeling) pain or repression. It can write love letters without love, and write code without ever being bored.

In that sense, it’s the perfect mirror for a culture that increasingly confuses confidence with competence: something that, as I’ve argued elsewhere, never seems to stop certain men from rising to the top.

What Can We Do?

If we want to avoid becoming cognitively obsolete in a world that flatters our laziness and rewards our dependence on machines, we’ll need to treat thinking as a discipline. Not an obligation, but a choice. Not a means to an end, but a form of resistance.

Here are a few ideas:

1. Be deliberately cognitively inefficient
   Read long-form essays. Write by hand. Make outlines from scratch. Let your brain feel the friction of thought.
2. Interrupt the autopilot
   Ask yourself whether what you’re doing needs AI, or whether it’s simply easier with it. If it’s the latter, try doing it the hard way once in a while.
3. Reclaim randomness
   AI is great at predicting what comes next. But true creativity often comes from stumbling, wandering, and not knowing. Protect your mental serendipity. Use genAI to know what not to do, since it’s mostly aggregating or crowdsourcing the “wisdom of the crowds,” which is generally quite different from actual wisdom (by definition, most people cannot be creative or original).
4. Teach thinking, not just prompting
   Prompt engineering may be useful, but critical reasoning, logic, and philosophical depth matter more. Otherwise, we’re just clever parrots.
5. Remember what it feels like to not know
   Curiosity starts with confusion. Embrace it. Lean into uncertainty instead of filling the gap with autocomplete. As Tom Peters noted, “if you are not confused, you are not paying attention.”

Thinking Is Not Yet Extinct, But It May Be Endangered

AI won’t kill thinking. But it might convince us to stop doing it. And that would be far worse.

Because while machines can mimic intelligence, only humans can choose to be curious. Only we can cultivate understanding. And only we can decide that, in an age of mindless efficiency, the act of thinking is still worth the effort, even when it’s messy, slow, and gloriously inefficient.

After all, “I think, therefore I am” was never meant as a productivity hack. It was a reminder that being human starts in the mind, even if it doesn’t actually end there.

Enterprises are on track to pour $307 billion into AI in 2025—more than $35 million dollars every hour. Yet most of that cash will never see daylight: an S&P Global survey found that 42 percent of companies scrapped most of their AI projects this year. The problem isn’t funding or ambition; it is a failure to see that the moonshots need to be balanced by sure things, the stretch goals by easy wins.

AI’s true transformative power emerges not from any single initiative but when leaders orchestrate a portfolio of projects that runs the gamut from the revolutionary to the routine. The organizations that will thrive in this new era are those that pursue both the audacious bets that can redefine their industry and the mundane victories that provide the resources to fund the journey. These modern alchemists understand that transformation requires both vision and groundwork, both aspiration and application. And they know that going all in on a single idea offers an almost guaranteed path to failure.

The Innovation Portfolio

Just as financial portfolios balance risk and return across diverse investments, organizations approaching AI need to develop what we call an “innovation portfolio”—a carefully curated collection of AI initiatives that offer multiple paths to transformation while effectively managing risk. This portfolio approach responds to a fundamental truth about innovation: long-term success requires a pipeline of projects that vary in their size, scope, risk, and transformative power.

The portfolio and financial management approach allows organizations to maintain a comprehensive view of potential AI projects and to systematically manage their development. Think of it as the difference between a chess grandmaster who sees the entire board versus a novice fixated on individual pieces.

The portfolio approach enables leaders to understand how different AI initiatives interact, where synergies might emerge, and how risks in one area might be balanced by stability in another. Crucially, it also lets leaders orchestrate a combination of big and small bets, long- and short-term plans, that fit the business’s needs and resources. Some projects will deliver value immediately while others represent longer-term bets on emerging capabilities that might fundamentally reshape entire industries. By maintaining a portfolio that encompasses both time horizons and risk profiles, organizations create the conditions for sustainable innovation rather than sporadic breakthroughs.

The CEO as Chief AI Orchestrator

The transformative power of AI is so great that it demands a fundamental change in the role of the CEO. In this new landscape, AI strategy cannot be delegated to the CTO alone. The CEO must become the chief orchestrator of the AI portfolio, balancing competing priorities while maintaining strategic coherence.

While a foundational AI tech literacy is essential for making informed decisions, this doesn’t mean that CEOs need to understand the technical minutiae at a highly granular level. Instead, they must excel in three critical areas:

Vision Setting: The CEO must articulate how AI aligns with organizational purpose. When employees grasp AI’s significance beyond its ability to deliver financial gains, adoption accelerates and resistance diminishes.

Resource Allocation: Making tough decisions about which AI initiatives receive funding and attention is vital. This demands the courage and authority to discontinue promising projects that don’t align with strategic priorities.

Cultural Transformation: Most critically, CEOs must embody the shift in mindset that AI requires—embracing uncertainty, celebrating intelligent failures, and demonstrating continuous learning. When the CEO publicly shares their AI learning journey, including their mistakes, it empowers organizational experimentation.

The Macro-Micro Balance

A successful AI portfolio should operate on two levels simultaneously. At the macro level, you’re asking profound questions: How might artificial general intelligence reshape entire industries? What happens when AI agents take over most knowledge work? How should a company be reconfigured to make the most of a hybrid human-AI workforce. These aren’t philosophical musings—they’re strategic imperatives that guide long-term positioning.

But here’s where organizations often stumble: they become so intoxicated by grand visions that they neglect the micro-level victories that are necessary to fuel the journey. At the same time as planning for whole-of-organization transformation, you also need to ask what your company can do this quarter. Can you use an algorithm to optimize delivery routes? Is there a commercially available chatbot you can use to process customer inquiries? The mundane funds the miraculous.

Strategic Priority Mapping

Not all AI initiatives deserve equal resources. Comprehensive frameworks for harnessing AI’s potential and managing its risks, such as the OPEN and CARE frameworks, provide systematic tools for evaluating capacities and needs. For instance, the OPEN framework’s FIRST assessment provides a tool for rapid viability screening

Feasibility: Can current technology deliver your vision? Don’t confuse science fiction with strategic planning.

Investment: What’s the true cost—not just dollars, but organizational attention and cultural capital?

Risk/Reward: Map the potential downside as well as the upside. Remember, though, that the biggest risk might be doing nothing.

Strategic Priority: How closely does this idea align with our core purpose? An AI initiative that is at odds with your organization’s identity and goals is doomed regardless of its technical merit.

Time Frame: Can you sustain investment long enough to see returns? Many AI projects fail not because they were wrong, but because they are too early.

The Continuous Evolution Model

Static strategies die in dynamic environments. Your AI portfolio needs built-in adaptation mechanisms:

Regular Rebalancing: Quarterly reviews of project mix. Are you maintaining appropriate risk levels? Have new capabilities opened fresh opportunities?

Learning Loops: Every experiment feeds strategic understanding. Failed projects often teach more than successful ones.

Cultural Evolution: Organizations must embrace perpetual beta. Yesterday’s mindset won’t create tomorrow’s success.

From Theory to Practice

A financial services firm might simultaneously pursue:

• A moonshot project using AI to predict market movements with unprecedented accuracy

• A medium-risk initiative automating compliance reporting

• Several low-risk projects improving customer service chatbots

Each initiative serves distinct portfolio purposes. The moonshot could transform the business model entirely. Compliance automation delivers clear ROI within 18 months. Chatbot improvements show immediate returns while building AI capabilities.

The CEO’s role is to ensure that each initiative receives appropriate resources while maintaining portfolio balance—not picking favorites, but orchestrating the symphony.

The Transcendence Factor

Ultimately, successful AI portfolios recognize a profound truth: AI isn’t just about efficiency or cost reduction—it’s about transcending current limitations entirely. But transcendence requires groundwork.

Like alchemists purifying base materials before transformation, your AI journey begins with the mundane—cleaning data, upskilling teams, running small experiments. These pedestrian activities build toward something greater: a point at which AI doesn’t just improve existing business operations but enables entirely new possibilities that were previously unimaginable.

Who will win?

The organizations that will thrive in the age of AI won’t be those that bet everything on a single strategy. The winners will be those who build diversified portfolios that balance transformational ambitions with incremental improvements, macro visions with micro victories, human wisdom with machine capabilities.

For CEOs, this balancing act isn’t optional. Leaders who treat AI as just another type of new technology have already lost. Those who recognize its power to fundamentally transform both companies and markets are the ones who will write the next chapter in business history.

Each generation of employees is shaped by its times. In today’s era of “perma-change,” Generation Z is exhibiting distinct professional traits. 

Having come of age during a period of economic instability and a global crisis, they’re less likely to hang their hats on a single career identity. They’re less focused on salary and more drawn to balance, but they’re also highly pragmatic. The latest Gen Z workplace trend, adopting a standard work uniform, is just one example of that pragmatism. It also shows that while they value work-life balance, they’re also open to clever ways for achieving it.

Leaders stand to gain—or lose—a lot by making the effort to understand Gen Z. Because if they’re not satisfied, they’ll move on. According to the a 2024 workplace survey by EY, 38% of respondents said they were likely to quit their jobs in the next year—a rise largely driven by Gen Z. Understanding their work habits and expectations is essential to retaining top talent.

As the CEO of a company with over 750 employees and a growing percentage of Gen Zers, I’ve had the opportunity to observe generational differences firsthand. Here are the strategies I use to address the habits and expectations of our youngest cohort.

Promote an automation-first mindset

I’ve written before about the virtues of lazy employees. While that adjective is usually pejorative, I use it to describe something powerful: a professional who looks for the easiest, most efficient way to get something done. In my experience, Gen Z tends to share this superpower. These days, that often entails using the latest tools and apps on the market. Indeed, Gen Z expects tech tools at work to match the ease of use of social media apps they use in their personal lives. If there’s a new project management platform that matches the intuitiveness of TikTok, chances are they’ll be proficient in hours. 

Promoting an automation-first approach in your organization empowers Gen Z employees to tap into their digital fluency and find the most efficient ways to complete tasks. At my company, for example, we encourage employees to set aside time to stay informed about the latest tech releases relevant to their job functions (with the help of sites like G2) and share their favorites with the team. Crucially, leaders should emphasize that tools like AI are meant to enhance, not replace, human work.

This approach naturally fosters multigenerational collaboration. While older generations might impart important lessons in leadership and management, younger employees can bring their innate tech literacy to the table. This not only breaks down unnecessarily rigid hierarchies, but it also helps to engage Gen Zers and boosts their feelings of investment in the company. 

Offer personalized training and development

In the past, employee training was fairly linear. For professionals in a given role, the progression from entry-level skills to management typically followed a similar path. Today’s requisite skill sets look different on a conceptual level. Deloitte has called it the return of the Renaissance figure—someone with multidimensional talents, interests, and knowledge. That means building skills in tools and technology, data and analytics, as well as in management, creativity, and people leadership. The onus is on leaders to ensure employees receive the training they need. Don’t assume they already have the necessary skills, especially since younger employees may sometimes overestimate their abilities.

In addition to traditional (and irreplaceable) person-to-person training and mentoring, I’m a big proponent of AI platforms to offer employees personalized, scalable training, including both “hard” and “soft” skills. Companies like BetterUp, for example, offer employees actionable professional development skills, like how to handle a sensitive work conversation. What’s more, as your company grows, AI tools are a cost-efficient solution for continuing to offer employees at all levels the training they need. 

To bring it all together, create a training pipeline that gives younger employees hands-on opportunities to apply the skills they’re learning and build the ones they aspire to develop.

Present flexibility on your terms

It’s no secret that Gen Z is more accustomed to flexibility than any other generation. Many of them entered the workforce when working from home was the norm. For younger professionals, a flexible workplace is a priority. According to ZipRecruiter’s 2025 Annual Grad Report, 82% of college students hope to work remotely at least one day a week. However, just 33% (of the class of 2023) want fully remote workplaces.

Some companies are already on board with offering hybrid work arrangements. I happen to believe that working in the office is important for collaboration, training, and doing our best work. Striking a balance can be tricky. 

To address the needs of Gen Z without overthrowing your organization’s goals and values, leaders can offer flexibility in intentional ways. For example, a structured hybrid schedule—like a few days of their choice each month to work remotely—can give young professionals the breathing room they need. You could also offer work-from-anywhere weeks once a quarter, allowing employees to work where they feel best able to focus in that moment. 

Even if the norm is to work within the office, leaders should make it explicit that employees can request time away if a personal need arises—whether it’s a mental health day, a family obligation, or just space to recharge. You can also reinforce the idea that your organization values its employees’ rich, full lives outside of work. Gen Z employees who feel free to share their full selves, including their unique interests and hobbies, are more likely to feel engaged and committed to their organization.

The thought of one day retiring and no longer having to punch a clock, answer required emails, work long hours, and the other responsibilities of employment is a dream that can get you through the hard moments of work.

While retirement typically occurs, after completing a career and saving and investing for it, a new trend is emerging among Gen Z career professionals called “micro-retirement.” Micro-retirements involve taking a one to two-week break from work every 12 to 18 months.

Gen Z is using micro-retirement to avoid burnout, find greater fulfillment in their work, and enhance their overall well-being. However, it’s not just Gen-Z: according to a survey from Side Hustles, 10% of workers are considering taking a micro-retirement and 75% thought employers should offer micro-retirement policies such as unpaid sabbaticals.

However, taking a micro-retirement may have long term impacts on your finances and career advancement. Here’s what you need to know.

How ‘Micro-Retirement’ Works 

The idea is to take frequent and longer breaks from work during your career. These breaks are not your standard PTO—they’re intentional, unpaid time to rest and recharge.

Micro-retirements can look like:

• Quitting a job, and finding a new job when you’re ready to work again.
• Setting up a plan with your employer that allows you to take unpaid frequent work breaks.
• Taking breaks from your business if you’re a business owner. 

Joshua Charles is a Gen Z business owner. His consultancy helps institutional investors, pension funds, and insurance companies invest in projects in Africa. Charles currently takes work breaks every six months for two weeks at a time, and said he heard about micro-retirements from a friend. “I reward myself by traveling to different countries. Whether it’s Europe during the summer or other destinations, and so that’s a way that I incentivize myself to reach certain KPIs,” says Charles. 

Charles considers his micro-retirement a full-time break. He doesn’t work: any crisis or issue has to wait until he’s back. He notes the breaks have been helpful for his mental health. Charles says there has been no negative impact on his business or career because he communicates with his clients and team that he’ll be unavailable for his micro-retirements, and a portion of his income is passive. 

The Pros and Cons of Micro-Retirements

Micro-retirement may sound appealing, but with the cost of living in the U.S. rising, a growing unemployment rate due to mass layoffs, Gen Z’s struggle with debt, and uncertainty, micro-retirement comes with pros and cons.

Micro-retirements offer an opportunity to recharge. Gabrielle Siegel, a wealth management advisor at Northwestern Mutual, notes that this is valuable. “It’s taking time to focus on what’s bringing you the most happiness, recharging, mentally avoiding burnout, and realigning with your personal goals. Gen Z is looking at the workplace a bit differently, and happiness is an important factor,” she says.

However, stepping away from work without pay can impact someone’s financial future. Taking time away from work can affect your earnings, investments, and funding your retirement, particularly if your company offers a match. Siegel points out having a plan in place is important. “If you’re taking this micro-retirement with no game plan, that can be detrimental to your long-term retirement strategy,” she says. “You need planning and realistic goals. If they continuously take time off and don’t realign their financial goals, it can disrupt retirement contributions.”

Meanwhile, taking frequent breaks can also impact career growth. Kenyetta Nesbitt-Simmons, a senior partner at HR consultancy firm Simmons HR & Talent Advisory, points out it can be difficult to rejoin the job market. “Some Gen Zers are forced to pivot into other career fields due to the competitiveness of the field they left to take a micro-retirement,” she says. “You could also be seen as a job hopper to some decision-makers within the labor market.” She warns that frequent micro-retirements could also be a red flag when you’re up for promotion.

How to Set Up Your Life and Finances for Micro-Retirement

If micro-retirement sounds like a rest and workplace strategy you’d like to pursue, here are a few tips to help you get started.

• Save enough money to afford not working. Your micro-retirement will be unpaid unless you have a side hustle, so you’ll need enough money to pay your bills during the breaks.

• Understand your options. Your employer may offer flexibility or the option to take a sabbatical. If not, you may need to decide to quit and find a new job when you’re ready to return to work. 

• Consider your next step. If your employer gives you the time off, make sure you understand the implications for your paycheck and benefits such as your retirement match. If you’re leaving your job, what’s your plan for reentering the job market? Make sure you have funds for basic expenses if you don’t get hired immediately. If your industry is going through a hiring lull, think about what other skills you have in case you need to make a career-pivot. 

Benjamin Fields is a public school teacher and PhD student at the University of California, Berkeley. He uses his salary and his side hustle selling perfume to afford micro-retirements once a month where he attends events such as festivals or travels internationally. Each micro-retirement is one to two weeks, depending on whether he is traveling. Fields says he’s not worried about micro-retirement affecting his job advancement prospects now or in the future—he’s confident he’ll always be able to find work. He says that taking time off and having a mental health break are more important than worrying about making money.

Fields accepts that his long-term savings might take a hit and says it’s worth it. “Money is just a tool. If you consider the way estate planning works, as long as I’m saving and investing enough money to retire in the manner I want, then I should be able to spend freely,” he said. “All I’m gonna do is just hand it off to my kids, and they’re probably going to squander the money anyway. So I might as well enjoy the money.” Fields plans to continue micro-retirements until he retires permanently. 

As a manager, you’re constantly navigating the many individual differences within your team that affect performance. Some people are more analytical, others more creative. Some thrive in structured environments, while others excel when given more autonomy. But one area that dramatically impacts performance that isn’t talked about enough is chronotype—the natural biological rhythm of an individual that determines when they feel most alert, focused, and productive throughout the day.

People have different chronotypes—some are more focused in the morning, while others do their best work later in the day (researchers have mapped more than 80 genes that regulate circadian rhythms). But many workplaces still stick to a 9-to-5 schedule that doesn’t fit everyone. According to recent research, this circadian misalignment can lead to decreased productivity, increased stress, and even health problems. Workers who don’t fit the norm may face challenges in the workplace—yet it’s imperative for organizations to tap into their full contributions.

As a researcher studying work-life balance and applied chronobiology, I’ve discovered how chronoinclusive work cultures can improve both performance and well-being. In my work with multiple Fortune 500 companies in 17 countries, I’ve discovered three key ways that leaders can introduce the conversation around circadian rhythms and chronobiology, and ensure they’re positively—not negatively—impacting your team’s performance.

1. Challenge stereotypes about late risers

In our culture, we venerate early risers—from Benjamin Franklin’s “early to bed and early to rise” to bestselling books like The 5AM Club (which has sold over 15 million copies worldwide). We think they’re the serious, industrious workers. And yet: There are more late chronotypes than early chronotypes in the population.

According to research, only about 30% of people are “early chronotypes,” while the remainder are either night owls (40%) or fall somewhere in between (30%). That means a significant portion of your team may be biologically wired to perform better later in the day—and may be disadvantaged by the early start. This early riser bias equates early arrival with traits like conscientiousness, motivation, and reliability.

As a manager, it’s important to notice these common stereotypes—and take steps to challenge them. You might ask yourself:

• ‘Have I inadvertently favored early starters on my team, perhaps through access to me or when important decisions are made?
• Does our organization equate prompt morning attendance with being “leadership material”?
• Am I less patient with team members who message me in the afternoon or evening?

2. Map chronotypes in your team

Teams can improve both performance and well-being by learning when each person works best. Understanding these differences can help you plan smarter and lead more effectively.

You can use a validated tool like the Morningness–Eveningness Questionnaire (a 19-question self-assessment). Or, you can simply ask team members a few basic questions:

• If you had no meetings or responsibilities, when would you naturally start your day?
• When would you go to bed if you could set your own schedule?
• What time of day do you usually feel most focused and productive?

Once you know more about your team’s chronotypes, you can use this information to:

• Assign deep-focus tasks when each person has the most energy.
• Schedule collaboration during times when energy levels overlap.

For example, my client Julia, the head of HR at a media organization, is a strong morning type. She wakes up naturally at 4 a.m., does her most focused work in the early hours, and starts winding down by early evening. In contrast, David, a leader in a legal association, is a late chronotype. He finds early mornings exhausting and prefers quiet, flexible starts. His peak performance happens in the afternoon and evening, when he’s most alert and focused.

By recognizing and working with these patterns—not against them—teams can become both more productive and more balanced.

3. Foster chronoinclusive work cultures

Many workplaces are unintentionally designed around early risers, who often claim prime resources. If you want to support both early risers and late chronotypes—and unlock greater performance across your team:

• Offer flexible start times and meeting hours: Allow team members to begin their workday in alignment with their natural energy peaks. This supports better focus, fewer mistakes, and improved well-being for both morning and evening types. When teams include a mix of early birds and night owls, the best meeting time is often between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.—a middle zone where most chronotypes have relatively good energy and focus.
• Ensure fair access to workplace resources: Be mindful that early arrivals often get first access to perks like premium desks, food options, or parking spaces. Design systems that don’t unintentionally reward one chronotype over another. For example, assign desks and parking spaces, and make sure food prep and service hours match peak demand times.
• Lead by example: Share how you plan your own day based on when you’re most alert—and make it okay for others to do the same. A culture of openness starts with you.

Chronotype is a critical, yet often overlooked factor in how teams perform. By recognizing biological differences in how and when people work best—and making room for that diversity—leaders can reduce hidden bias, unlock untapped potential, and build more productive and inclusive teams.

As organizations embed artificial intelligence into business operations, the demands on leaders are changing. Today’s teams aren’t made up of people alone—they’re increasingly hybrid, with humans and AI working side by side. This shift has profound implications on how decisions are made, how roles are defined, and how trust is built.

Simply put, as the world changes, leaders need to change, too—and fast. To succeed, leaders must adapt their approach—rethinking how they structure teams, develop talent, communicate change, and build cultures of continuous learning. Those who do will unlock new levels of agility and innovation. And those who don’t will pay a steep price.

Unsure where to start? Here are five essential leadership shifts to make now in order to lead effectively in an era when yesterday’s playbook no longer applies.

1. STRUCTURE FOR SHARED INTELLIGENCE, NOT JUST SHARED TASKS

Leadership today isn’t about control—it’s about enabling collaboration between people and intelligent systems. As AI agents become more capable and autonomous, leaders must influence human behavior and how AI operates within the team.

That means defining when AI leads and when people intervene, ensuring AI decisions are understandable, and creating clear escalation paths. The goal isn’t to micromanage AI—it’s to design environments where humans and machines both contribute.

By investing in the core operating processes and relational dynamics of team performance, you’ll turn your AI players into an all-star team.

Ask yourself: How can I lead effectively when I’m not the only—or even the smartest—“agent” in the room?

2. RECALIBRATE HOW YOU LEAD WHEN AI JOINS THE TEAM

If you want people to engage with AI, you need to treat it as an active tool, not a passive teammate. Start by understanding where agents can add value. Assign AI agents clear roles and embed them into workflows where their strengths—speed, scale, and pattern recognition—amplify human capability.

The real challenge isn’t humanizing technology—it’s humanizing the experience of those working alongside it. That requires that people feel trusted and included—not sidelined or replaced. It means involving them in shaping AI deployment, providing hands-on, practical training, and recognizing their uniquely human strengths—like empathy and creativity—as vital to success.

AI raises the bar for human critical thinking, decision-making, and accountability—and that’s where true value emerges. Done right, AI becomes a catalyst for confidence, collaboration, and culture.

Ask yourself: Am I fully leveraging the complementary strengths of humans and machines—while keeping the human experience at the center of it all?

3. BUILD YOUR LEADERSHIP MUSCLE

The roles and responsibilities of leaders that made their organization successful in the past are different than what’s required going forward. Leaders must demonstrate the courage to author an ambition that is less about protecting the past and more about creating the new.

With generative AI expected to impact over 40% of working hours, leaders must unleash the confidence of their employees while enabling their accountability, connection, and judgment. Develop employees with self-awareness and relevant experiences to grow into the future leaders you need.

Ask yourself: Am I embracing the nature of change as a moment to accelerate my ambition, foster greater connection, and ensure that my people fluency matches my tech fluency?

4. LEAD WITH LISTENING, NOT ASSUMPTIONS

AI adoption isn’t being held back by fear—but rather by misaligned perceptions between leaders and employees.

Accenture research shows that 94% of employees believe they can learn the skills needed to work with AI, yet only 5% of organizations are reskilling their workforce at scale. At the same time, C-suite executives say lack of skills is a large barrier to scaling AI. This isn’t just a resourcing gap—it’s a disconnect in how each group perceives the problem.

To close the gap, leaders must start with active listening. Explain why AI matters. Offer training that’s practical and ongoing. And create space for experimentation, feedback, and learning—especially when it doesn’t go perfectly the first time.

Ask yourself: Are you investing the time truly required to shape AI strategy through listening and conversation with the people expected to drive it?

5. BECOME AN ARCHITECT OF CONTINUOUS CHANGE

AI is accelerating. Your culture needs to evolve just as quickly. Yet, Accenture research shows only 25% of leaders believe their teams are prepared to embrace change. Just 42% of employees feel confident in their ability to keep up.

This is not a workforce gap—it’s a leadership opportunity. Start with a narrative that excites others about the possibilities while acknowledging the uncertainties. Embed co-learning into daily work. Encourage safe experimentation. And model the behavior you want to see: When leaders are curious, open to feedback, and transparent about their own journeys, others follow.

Ask yourself: Am I creating the right conditions for, and to work with, emergent and iterative transformation?

LEAD THE FUTURE BEFORE IT LEADS YOU

Leadership in the age of AI isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about showing up differently—listening harder, adapting faster, and being brave enough to rewire the workplace. The tools are changing. The core principles are not.

Empathy. Trust. Vision. These are still the anchors of great leadership. What’s different now is where—and with whom—you practice them.

The future of impactful leadership isn’t human or AI. It’s human and AI—working better together.

Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! I’m Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning.

In the summer of 2000, moviegoers flocked to see Gladiator and Mission: Impossible II, Finland’s Nokia was the leading maker of cellphones, and American telephone companies Bell Atlantic and GTE completed their $52 billion merger. They changed the entity’s name to Verizon Communications.

I’m not big on writing about company anniversaries—to me they seem like the corporate equivalent of Hallmark holidays. However, as a business journalist in the late 1990s and early 2000s, a big part of my job was to chronicle the regulatory and technological changes that led to the formation of Verizon 25 years ago. I’ve interviewed all of Verizon’s chief executives, going back to its original co-CEOs, Chuck Lee and Ivan Seidenberg. And I wanted to speak to current CEO Hans Vestberg about the state of telecom today and how he’s positioning the company for its next 25 years.

Making a big request

For Vestberg, who became CEO in 2018 and led the company’s launch of its fast, low-latency 5G wireless technology, that means future-proofing the business by investing in its network. In 2021, Verizon pledged more than $52 billion to acquire wireless airwaves auctioned by the U.S. government. (For context, Verizon’s annual operating revenue last year was about $135 billion.) Vestberg says the purchase sets the company up to deliver products and services well into the next decades. “I promise you, 25 years from now, we are going to be the leading telecom company in this country,” he says. To do that, he says, “you need spectrum,” or radio frequencies for wireless communications.

Vestberg says the board of directors supported his massive spending request. “Our board is committed to think long-term,” he says. Investors have been less enthusiastic. The company’s stock price is about $42 a share, roughly where it was trading in early 2021, when it agreed to buy the spectrum—and the company underperformed the broader market in that time frame.

An investment in the future

Vestberg notes that today, phone calls and text messages—the main applications for wireless phones when Verizon was born 25 years ago—represent about 3% of the network’s total usage. Nearly half of the usage is for streaming movies, games, and other digital fare. He says he believes the capacity and design of Verizon’s network will allow the company to accommodate new technologies that will flow over its airwaves and fiber. “I’m here to manage the legacy of my predecessors and see that this company continues to be the number one in everything we’re doing in this market,” he says.

Future-proofing your business

How are you future-proofing your company for the next 25 years, and how do you get your board, investors, employees, and others to support your plans? Send me examples of your strategies—I’d love to share your stories in a future newsletter.

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