ReportWire

Tag: Leadership

  • Prioritizing Daily Self-Care Just Might Be the Key to Greater Impact in Business

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    If you want to create more impact as an entrepreneur, start with yourself. Self-care is a crucial component of your business’s success. As a productivity coach, I work with clients to help them overcome feelings of guilt and embarrassment when it comes to taking time off. If you view self-care as something that happens only when the workday is over, you’re missing out. 

    Effectively managing your time and energy can mean the difference between being energized and being exhausted. Regular lunch breaks, coffee breaks, and vacations aside, there are ways to take care of yourself while in the office. Here are three key areas you’ll want to pay close attention to on a regular basis for self-care success.

    Make mornings work for you. 

    Do you tend to reach for your cell phone the moment you wake up? Give yourself time every morning without being connected to your smartphone. Doing so will allow you to warm up to the day and prepare for what’s ahead.  

    To that end, try using an alarm clock or watch instead of your phone. Keep your phone outside of the bedroom or on the other side of the room so that you must get out of bed to retrieve it. Once you’re up, follow your existing self-care routine. That might be exercising, walking the dog, getting children ready, bathing, dressing, or having breakfast and your favorite hot beverage of choice.  

    Now, this isn’t to say you can’t consult your phone during the morning. There may be times when it is necessary, but at least give yourself a reprieve from your phone when you wake from your nightly slumber.  

    Protect your time at all costs. 

    There are tasks in your business that only you can work on. You’ll need every bit of your full attention and concentration for this work. So, if you’ve been freely giving up your scheduled work time to others, be it staff or vendors, you’ll need to pull back. You can consider this a long-overdue calendar reset for yourself. 

    Start right at the source: Schedule a few hours of non-negotiable work time for yourself directly into your digital calendar or paper planner. Ask your assistant not to schedule any events or meetings during this time. Remind key staff and employees as to when you’ll be unavailable throughout the week.  

    The next step is to show up and work with purpose. Choose a handful of small tasks or a larger task to tackle during this time. Do whatever you need to stay focused. Temporarily silence your phone, log out of unnecessary apps, and remove physical clutter. When you dedicate time to work on what matters, the work will get done.  

    Avoid working on more things.

    Entrepreneurship can be exciting, but it can also be draining. That’s why it’s important to pace yourself at the end of the workday and practice self-care. Remember, this is about your long-term business success, not how fast you can burn out.  

    Instead of jumping on to the next task at the end of your day, take a few moments to complete a thoughtful daily review of your work. Aim to finish up the bulk of your main work at least half an hour in advance. Turn your focus to the bigger picture. Given your daily goals, where does your work currently stand?  

    For starters, you can try asking yourself these three questions:  

    • Which tasks did I complete today?  
    • What is the status of my remaining tasks? 
    • Which tasks need to be rescheduled for tomorrow or the day after?  

    Closing your day with this exercise might seem completely unnecessary. However, the proof is in the pudding. In time, you’ll begin to see how this exercise can set the next day’s work up for success. Not only will you gain a better understanding of your work, but you’ll have a clearer mind as you transition to your evening routine at home. 

    The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

    The final deadline for the 2026 Inc. Regionals Awards is Friday, December 12, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply now.

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    Rashelle Isip

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  • The 3-Question Formula for Better Team Meetings

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    Most leaders don’t need more meetings, they need better ones. Yet, leaders and teams tolerate the same symptoms week after week—updates no one listens to, conversations that drift, and a mysterious ability for an hour-long meeting to end with no meaningful decision made. The problem isn’t the people. It’s the prompts. 

    Meetings shape how a team thinks, behaves, and prioritizes. However, most agendas unintentionally reinforce the wrong things. Status updates over insights, activity over outcomes, and safety over candor. If you want meetings that actually improve performance, alignment, and momentum, you don’t need a new methodology. You just need three questions. These questions cut through the noise, get past politeness, and help teams think critically about where they’re heading and what’s getting in the way. 

    1. What’s something stupid that you need to stop doing? 

    Yes, stupid. Not inefficient, suboptimal, or in need of improvement. By using the blunt term, it does something powerful. It liberates honesty. 

    Organizations accumulate bad habits the way garages accumulate junk. No one remembers why something was put there. It’s just been there forever. This question gives permission to challenge legacy processes, outdated rules, pointless tasks, and the silent “we’ve always done it this way” mentality. 

    It reframes improvement from a critique to a shared pursuit. When a team identifies behaviors to stop doing, two things happen: They reclaim time and energy. They also signal that challenging the status quo is not only safe but expected. 

    Stopping something is often more productive than starting something. 

    2. What’s one thing you need to overcome your current challenge? 

    Most teams talk about challenges in vague, surface-level terms. However, rarely do they articulate one thing that would unlock progress. This question forces people to move from explanation to action. It also gives leaders valuable insight: 

    • Do people lack clarity? 
    • Do they need resources? 
    • Is there a skill gap? 
    • Is the real obstacle structural, cultural, or interpersonal? 

    Individuals get clarity on what they need, and leaders get clarity on how to support them without guessing. The question turns challenges into solvable problems and reduces the mental load that comes from carrying unspoken obstacles. 

    3. What’s one thing you need to keep doing and double down on? 

    Teams rarely take time to identify what is working. They fixate on problems, and in the process, they unintentionally abandon their strengths. This question ensures you don’t throw out the good while trying to fix the bad. It shines a light on behaviors, processes, and strategies that are delivering a return-on-investment — so you can amplify them. 

    When teams double down on their strengths, engagement increases, focus sharpens, and high-value behaviors become part of the culture instead of accidental wins. 

    Why these three questions lead to better team meetings

    Because they accomplish three things most meetings fail to do: eliminate waste, remove obstacles, and focus on what drives value. These questions are simple, but they’re not simplistic. They work because they’re designed for candor, clarity, and forward momentum. They reshape meeting culture from passive updates to meaningful dialogue. 

    How to use them  

    You can integrate these questions into: 

    • Weekly team meetings 
    • One-on-ones 
    • Project kickoffs 
    • Retrospectives 
    • Leadership roundtables 

    The key is consistency. When teams expect these questions, they start paying attention differently. Instead of hoarding frustrations, they come prepared with solutions and become more strategic by default. Perhaps most importantly, they build trust. Because when people feel empowered to speak honestly, ask for help, and celebrate wins, the team gets better—not incrementally but exponentially. 

    The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

    The final deadline for the 2026 Inc. Regionals Awards is Friday, December 12, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply now.

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    Andrea Olson

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  • What You Don’t Know About Your Business Could Cost You

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    You can only manage what you can see. Yet, many business owners are flying blind making decisions based on gut instinct rather than clear, reliable data. At first, it works. In the early stages, your intuition and hustle drive results. However, as your company grows, complexity increases, and the lack of visibility becomes more expensive. You start to notice surprises— missed deadlines, shrinking margins, cash flow issues, or client problems that reach you too late. The problem is not bad leadership. It is an information gap. If you do not close it, it can quietly stall your company’s growth. 

    Here is how to gain the clarity you need to make smarter, faster, and calmer decisions. 

    1. Identify your blind spots.  

    Start by asking yourself one simple question: “Where am I guessing?” If you find yourself saying things like “I think our sales are up,” “I think that project is on track,” or “I think our marketing is working,” that is an information gap. 

    Make a list of areas where you are relying on assumptions instead of verified data. Common blind spots include: 

    • Profitability by product or client 
    • Cost of customer acquisition 
    • Employee productivity or utilization 
    • Cash flow forecasting 
    • Customer satisfaction trends 

    Once you see the gaps clearly, you can start closing them one by one. 

    2. Build dashboards that matter. 

    Not every metric deserves your attention. Many owners get lost in spreadsheets filled with data that looks impressive but offers little insight. Choose a handful of key metrics that give you a real-time view of your business. Focus on one or two leading indicators for each core function: sales, marketing, finance, operations, and customer experience. 

    Leading indicators predict outcomes. Lagging indicators only confirm what has already happened. For example, “number of qualified leads” is a leading indicator of future sales, while “revenue” is lagging. Build simple dashboards that show these metrics updated weekly or monthly. Review them consistently. 

    3. Measure the right things. 

    It is tempting to measure what is easy instead of what is important. The number of social media followers or raw website visits might look encouraging, but they may not connect to revenue or profit.  

    Focus on metrics that tie directly to business performance. Measure conversion rates instead of clicks, customer lifetime value instead of one-time purchases, and gross margin instead of total sales. The right data tells a story. The wrong data distracts you from what actually drives success. 

    4. Share data transparently. 

    Information loses value when it stays siloed. When your team has access to the same numbers you do, alignment improves. People understand how their work connects to outcomes. 

    Share your dashboards in team meetings. Discuss what the data means, where you are ahead, and where you need to adjust. This creates ownership at every level and turns metrics into motivation. 

    Transparency also builds trust. When people see that you make decisions based on facts not favoritism or guesswork, accountability becomes part of your culture. The companies that win in the long term are not always the biggest or flashiest. They are the ones that can see clearly, adapt quickly, and decide confidently. 

    Closing your information gap will not just protect your business. It will transform how you lead. Because the more you know, the less you have to guess and the faster you can grow. 

    The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

    The final deadline for the 2026 Inc. Regionals Awards is Friday, December 12, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply now.

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    David Finkel

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  • 3 Questions Every Great Leader Must Ask

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    One of the most overlooked tools of great leadership is the ability to ask powerful questions—not to others, but to yourself. The quality of these questions shapes your awareness, your awareness shapes your choices, and your choices shape your leadership outcomes.  

    It’s an internal cascade of effects that defines how you lead, especially when nobody’s watching. 

    Here are three simple questions that will consistently sharpen leadership clarity and effectiveness. 

    1. What would I do if I were not afraid? 

    Fear doesn’t show up wearing a name tag. It usually presents as “being rational,” or “waiting for more data,” or “moving forward later.” However, neuroscience research confirms what you probably feel intuitively: fear compresses your perception. It limits what you notice and how boldly you act. 

    “What would I do if I were not afraid?” This question interrupts that pattern. It doesn’t ask you to be reckless. It invites you to step outside fear’s frame and see what your wiser, less-contracted self knows. You don’t have to act on it immediately, or at all. Sometimes, just seeing the answer is the breakthrough. 

    2. How can I act without clinging to the outcome? 

    Self-awareness includes knowing when you’ve hitched your identity to an external result. Attachment to outcomes activates stress responses that reduce creativity, distort risk perception, and push you toward playing small. Research on goal fixation shows that when you over-attach to a specific outcome, your cognitive flexibility decreases. 

    When you practice gentle “unattachment,” you make clearer choices. You stay present, stay open to possibilities that rigid outcome-gripping would block, and stay human.  Unattachment is not apathy. It is the ease that comes when you act from healthy aspiration, not clingy desperation. 

    3. What is enough? 

    This is the quiet question that changes everything. Modern leadership culture runs on “more.” More productivity, more metrics, more proving yourself, and more burnout. Research shows that the absence of “enough” boundaries leads to chronic overextension, distorted priorities, and diminishing returns. 

    When you are tuned in and self-aware, you see “enough” as alignment with your values and purpose—not as a limitation. Enough creates focus and sustainability. It protects the energy that allows you to lead with love, clarity, and purpose. 

    “What is enough?” Most leaders have never paused long enough to answer this question honestly. Try it. You may be surprised by how much space it opens within you. 

    Self-reflection questions 

    • What fear-based patterns show up most often in your leadership? 
    • Where are you holding on too tightly to a specific outcome? 
    • What would “enough” look like for you this week — in effort and impact? 

    3 questions that can change how you do everything 

    • Name your fear honestly.
      Pause several times today and ask the fear question. Don’t fix anything—just notice. 
    • Loosen your grip of the outcome slightly.
      Choose one current decision and reduce your attachment to the outcome by a few degrees. Watch clarity rise. 
    • Define your “enough.” 
      Write one sentence describing what “enough” looks like in your most important project. Let that guide, not confine, you. 

    Team talk 

    Try a simple experiment: invite each team member to choose one of the three questions and apply it silently to a current challenge. Share insights, not solutions. This builds trust and collaboration. It also helps everyone lead more clearly. 

    Your inspirational challenge 

    This week, treat these three questions as a tuning fork for your own self-awareness. Ask them lightly, honestly, regularly. They’ll bring you home to your values, your courage, and your deepest clarity—the place where great leadership quietly lives. 

    The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

    The final deadline for the 2026 Inc. Regionals Awards is Friday, December 12, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply now.

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    Moshe Engelberg

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  • How Great Leaders Transform Fear Into Power

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    The CEO of an enterprise software startup, walked into my office looking visibly distraught. His voice shaking, he said, “The company that tried to buy us last year just launched a competing product. I turned down their offer, and now we might lose everything.” His fear was palpable—tight chest and shallow breath. In this state, he couldn’t think straight. All he wanted to do was hide.  

    Fear provides fuel

    As a psychotherapist and CEO coach specializing in spiritual intelligence, I always encourage my clients to feel the full extent of their emotions, even the so-called “negative” ones. Time after time, I’ve seen that these unpleasant sensations usually have a thing or two to teach us.   

    I asked my client to take a deep breath and simply notice what was happening inside him, to allow it while feeling the support of his legs and feet on the floor below him. “You don’t have to enjoy it but try treating your fear with respect by just allowing it all to be there,” I explained to him. 

    As he tuned in, his posture softened. His breath deepened. The tension in his body loosened. After a few minutes, he said, “The fear’s still there, but it’s not controlling me.” Then I asked, “If your fear could speak, what would it say?” 

    He thought for a moment, then began to list ideas: 

    • Stay vigilant 
    • Accelerate team innovation 
    • Strengthen customer support
    • Build new partnerships 

    After just a few quiet moments of reflection, the fear that paralyzed him had transformed into a call to action instead.  

    Every leader faces fear 

    My client’s story isn’t rare. I’ve seen it in CEOs, founders, and executives across industries. The leaders who thrive aren’t the ones who feel no fear, but rather those who have learned to be present with it. From there, they can discern the right course of action: courage (the capacity to move forward despite the fear), or caution (the capacity to minimize unnecessary danger by shifting course).   

    As Martin Luther King Jr. said, “First, we must unflinchingly face our fears and honestly ask ourselves why we are afraid.  This confrontation will, to some measure, grant us power.  We shall never be cured of fear by escapism or repression, for the more we attempt to ignore and repress our fears, the more we multiply our inner conflicts.” 

    Within a week of that session, my client gathered his team and reframed the challenge. They doubled down on innovation and launched a series of improvements that ultimately helped the company outpace its competitors. 

    What the research says 

    Though it is generally acknowledged that anxiety in the workplace is detrimental, some levels have been found to contribute to self-regulation and motivation for teams.i One study found that people with higher trait anxiety achieved better outcomes such as greater academic success, persistence, and job satisfaction when their anxiety translated into motivation rather than avoidance. 

    Another study discovered that anxiety had a positive impact on language learning. Through my research interviewing leaders deemed spiritually intelligent by their colleagues, many spoke of the power of staying present with emotions like fear, anger, and nervousness. By facing discomfort with openness, these leaders affirmed their resilience, turning tension into strength.  

    Allowing and including your full experience 

    To help my clients cultivate this grounded awareness, I often will lead them in a practice I call “Allow and Include.” Here are the steps:  

    1. Notice what is present.
      Pause and acknowledge whatever you’re feeling without judgment. 
    2. Allow it.
      Let the experience be as it is—no fixing, no resisting. 
    3. Include the body and the support of Mother Earth underneath you.
      Bring awareness to your breathing, spine, legs, feet, and the ground below. 
    4. Expand awareness.
      Widen your focus to include both the emotion and the space around it. 
    5. Return to center. 
      Feel yourself become grounded, open, clear-minded, and reconnected to calm presence. 

    The next time you feel fear—a ball of tension in the pit of your stomach, a tightening of your chest, or your breath becoming shallow—pause, use the “Allow and Include” method. Ask yourself the below questions and journal your responses. Then, sit back, and thank your fear for the focus it has provided you with.  

    • What actions am I being advised to take? 
    • What quality is this challenge calling forth in me? 
    • What am I being asked to release or learn? 
    • How might this obstacle be shaping me into a more conscious leader?  

    The bottom line 

    Every great leader has been forged in fire. What separates those who crumble from those who rise is not the absence of fear, but the ability to parse it for meaning and learn from its messages. When you meet fear with curiosity, courage, and compassion, it becomes rocket fuel for growth. That’s how truly powerful leaders thrive in the face of adversity. 

    The final deadline for the 2026 Inc. Regionals Awards is Friday, December 12, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply now.

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    Dr. Yosi Amram

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  • 12 Leadership Lessons From Lorne Michaels 

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    As the producer of Saturday Night Live, Lorne Michaels brings serious leadership skills to a deeply unserious business. It’s how he’s kept SNL running for 50 years, through countless competitive threats, technological and cultural shifts, and bodily injuries.  

    As the CEO of a successful software development and consulting firm, I’ve spent my career building creative, high-performing teams, not unlike the ones Lorne assembles every season. His philosophies have helped shape how I lead at Sketch Development: balancing structure and spontaneity, nurturing talent, and finding the funny (or at least the human) in the chaos of business.

    Here are 12 Lorneisms you can take from him to help your business survive your greatest challenge, whether it’s AI, looming tariffs, or the next unknown concern. 

    1. “We don’t go on because it’s perfect. We go on because it’s 11:30.” 

    Over each season, SNL releases a brand-new hour of never-before-seen television every single week. You can achieve something similar at your business. We prefer two-week iterations. 

    Ship regularly, without waiting until it’s polished. Don’t build your processes around achieving perfection, or even around efficiency. Build workflows that prioritize regular checkpoints for value inspection. 

    2. “Organize loosely. You never know what will come up.” 

    Any time you document something so thoroughly that you create rigidity around it, you’re boxing yourself into a corner. Look at what’s protected in your organization, especially if it’s limiting you. Slaughter any sacred cows that are standing in the way of opportunity or productivity. 

    3. “Do it in sunshine.” 

    When Lorne catches a whiff of negativity or hatred in a writer’s sketch, he tells the writer to imagine they’re working in perfect sunshine. 

    The same goes for your team. Operating from a place of joy and enthusiasm will shine through in your service quality. Instead of assuming your users are idiots, assume the best of your customers, and choose to make things easier for them anyway. 

    4. “Sunshine is the best disinfectant.” 

    The second sunshine-related lesson from the Tao of Lorne is all about transparency. To solve a problem, expose it to the light of day and get a proper look at it. You won’t fix it in secret. 

    5. “The dress rehearsal has to be bad before the show can be good.” 

    As crazy as it sounds, give your people room not to shine. People need permission to be bad before they can become good. Having room to experience failure, to learn what it feels like and to learn from it, helps people understand what they need to change. 

    The same goes for your products. Launch fast, then iterate often. 

    6. Avoid “premise overload.” 

    The writers at SNL are talented, creative people. They have big ideas, but sometimes they try to disguise a saga as a comedy sketch. But you can’t cram 18 different things into a single sketch. 

    Learn to slice vertically, make small releases, and maximize the amount of work not done. Releasing 18 simple product enhancements is easier, faster, and better than trying to do them all at once. 

    7. “Listen for when the music changes.” 

    This is one of Lorne’s pet expressions. He’s constantly attuned to the voice of his customers and the cultural zeitgeist. In late night comedy, David Letterman’s Midwestern, “aw shucks” charm changed the music after the counterculture mentality that prevailed in the ‘70s. It changed again in the ‘00s with the proliferation of social networking platforms, and in the ‘10s and ‘20s as social justice movements took the spotlight. 

    If you’re guiding a product or a business, you have to keep your finger on the pulse, too. When the music changes, don’t keep pulling the same dance moves. For example, our music changed when AI started solving productivity problems and the Agile Manifesto fell out of vogue.  

    8. “If I have to read It, the answer Is no.” 

    One of Lorne’s colleagues asked him to read a script for a movie he was planning to direct. Lorne refused, repeatedly. If the writer couldn’t make his case without Lorne diving into the full script, the idea wasn’t ready for the big screen.  

    As a leader, don’t get mired in the details too early in the process. The case should be obvious when an idea is good. 

    9. “Producers should be invisible.” 

    As Harry S. Truman said, “It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.” 

    Lorne lives by this axiom. Tina Fey tells a story about Lorne pulling an Inception-level mind trick on her when she had the Weekend Update desk to herself after Jimmy Fallon left the show. Lorne didn’t mandate another co-anchor, he simply suggested that Amy Poehler would be an interesting choice, then reassured Fey that the decision was all hers. The rest is SNL history. 

    10. “You’re not given the job. You take the job.” 

    It’s not a leader’s place to lay everything out for their employees. The leader sets an intention or a desired outcome, but isn’t necessarily responsible for defining how to get there.  

    Get the right people involved, give them the support they need, and remove obstacles from their path. Then trust them to get the job done as they see fit, and don’t punish them for veering outside of their lanes along the way. 

    11. “Remember Podunk!” 

    Celebrities can become so deeply entrenched in the cultures of New York and Los Angeles that they forget their shows air in all 50 states. When they do, Lorne reminds them to remember Podunk. It’s a backhanded way to point out there’s a broad range of tastes – and audience needs – across the whole country. The same goes for your customer base. 

    This curse of knowledge can plague leaders and product managers in any industry. You might become so insulated in the community around you that you forget about the broader ecosystem. Don’t lose your connection to the diverse array of experiences and responsibilities for which you’re responsible. 

    12 – Overproduce to be ready.

    Come up with more ideas than you need. At SNL, this means pitching 100 fresh ideas every week, even though only 10 might make it to air. Ideas are tested, and more get weeded out at various stages throughout the week. 

    Overproduction and an experimental mindset will always yield better outcomes than assuming you know exactly which ideas are best. This means reframing how we think about waste. It’s not a bad thing to be avoided. It’s a byproduct you can mine for value. 

    Leading Like Lorne 

    Under Lorne’s guidance, SNL has survived cable, the internet, and streaming services, not to mention Mad TV, SCTV, and In Living Color. If you take a page from his book, your business can become just as nimble and resilient. 

    The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

    The final deadline for the 2026 Inc. Regionals Awards is Friday, December 12, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply now.

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    John Krewson

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  • Ethics: New Cars Have Been Put on Hold by the Auto Maker. My Manager Says to Sell Them Anyway

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    A reader writes: I am the business manager in an automobile dealership when we received a notice from the manufacturer: several vehicles had been placed on the hold list. That meant one thing–those cars were not allowed to be delivered. Whether the issue was safety, software, or pending approval, the directive was clear: no delivery, no exceptions.

    The sales manager came to me and told me to push the deliveries through anyway. He wanted the units delivered so the dealership could hit its monthly numbers. He told me things like: “Just print the paperwork.” “The factory is slow, nobody will know.” “We need these cars out today.”

    I knew exactly what he was asking me to do: ignore the manufacturer’s restriction, bypass protocol, and put the dealership–and the customers–at risk. Delivering a hold-listed vehicle is not only unethical; it’s potentially illegal. I refused.

    That refusal has sparked a full-blown conflict. What should I do now?

    Minda Zetlin responds:

    Your sales manager is being foolish and self-destructive. Does he not see how he’s put himself completely in your power? You could report him to the manufacturer and to your state’s attorney general. You could tell could tell customers or the local media, or post it to social media. His actions, if exposed would cause no end of trouble for both the sales manager and the dealership.

    That’s especially true if he has already sold any of these cars without your agreement. If that’s happened, you have an ethical obligation to alert the purchasers. If you didn’t, and something bad happened, that would be very hard for you to live with. But it sounds like, in your role, you are able to prevent the sale of these cars.

    Your next move depends on your relationship with the sales manager, and with the dealership as a whole. If you have a good relationship and generally trust him, you can gently let him know that if he doesn’t back down, you will expose him. You can try to make him understand the huge risk he’s taking. But from what you say, it doesn’t sound like you have a good relationship.

    That being the case, if I were you I would document as much of this as possible. Has he put any of these instructions in writing? Make sure to keep copies. Has he given these same instructions to anyone else? I might try to find out.

    I’m guessing you will have to report this to someone in your organization sooner or later. It might be the only way to get out of this difficult relationship. Ideally, you’ll have solid documentation in hand when you do that. Based on their response, you can decide what to do next.

    Update:

    The reader decided to quit. “I walked away,” they write. “I chose to protect the customer, the dealership’s legal exposure, and my own integrity–even if it meant losing my job.”

    It turned out to be a good thing. For a long time, this reader had wanted to go back to school and pursue a law degree. But they’d hesitated, fearing they were too old to start a new career. Leaving the dealership was the push they needed to start on a path that would ultimately make them happier.

    “The dealership owner asked me to come back.”

    Before they left, they informed the dealership’s owner of what had happened. Because customers’ safety was potentially at risk, they also informed the auto maker. “After a few days, my representative from the auto maker, as well as the dealership’s owner called me, by conference call, to tell me they had fired the sales manager. The dealership owner asked me to come back, but I had already enrolled in university.”

    The reader’s last paycheck from the dealership included pay for an extra two weeks of vacation time, they say. “I know I could have asked for more but, I just wanted to end that saga.”

    Today’s ethics question came from a member of my text community, a growing audience of Inc.com readers who receive a daily text from me. Interested in joining us? Here’s some information about the texts and a special invitation to a two-month free trial.

    The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

    The final deadline for the 2026 Inc. Regionals Awards is Friday, December 12, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply now.

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    Minda Zetlin

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  • AI Is the New Employee and Colleague. Leaders Must Be Ready for the Change

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    Someone recently asked what I thought about the future held for CX leaders. My answer was simple. For any leader, the biggest change will be managing and working with AI employees. As work is evolving at an unprecedented pace, leadership will look different as a result. In 2026 and beyond, leaders must be ready to navigate a world with AI, generational changes, and accelerated expectations for growth. 

    AI as an integral part of the team

    I recently tried some new AI tools as “employees” in my consulting firm. They did some fast work, but also went rogue, and as soon as I got nervous, I hit pause. I did not manage at this moment. Instead, I retreated. However, this was a lesson in itself. The integration of AI employees is perhaps the single greatest factor, redefining modern leadership.  

    In 2025, people still view AI as a cost-cutting tool or a threat to one’s work. In the future, the most successful leaders will treat AI as a part of the team. 

    • Shift from overseer to integrator
      Leaders will not simply manage human teams. Instead, they will manage integrated Human-AI workflows. This requires an understanding of where AI excels, such as data analysis, repetition, and prediction. Also, they must understand where human teams are indispensable, such as empathy, ethical judgment, and complex negotiation. 
    • Ethical oversight
      The leader’s role becomes the ultimate guardian of ethical AI use. This includes ensuring fairness, transparency, and accountability in AI-driven decisions. They will be critical for maintaining employee and customer trust. 
    • Focus on honing AI
      • As AI automates routine cognitive tasks, leaders must learn how to manage and hone their AI counterparts, just like they would a human. This may prove challenging in a world where one is used to reasoning with a human. 

    Generational harmony: Leading a multi-aged workforce  

    For the first time for many companies, five generations may coexist in the workplace. Each has distinct expectations regarding communication, work structure, and purpose. Effective leadership in 2026 must be inherently inclusive and adaptable. 

    • Distributed communication
      Leaders must move beyond a one-size-fits-all communication strategy. Gen Z, for example, may prefer instantaneous, direct feedback, while older generations may value structured, formal reviews. 
    • Defining purpose
      Younger generations often prioritize work that aligns with their personal values and a clear sense of purpose. The modern leader must be an eloquent storyteller, connecting daily tasks to the organization’s overarching mission and societal impact  
    • Flexible work models
      The hybrid work model is here to stay. Leaders are responsible for ensuring equity between remote and in-office staff, managing “proximity bias,” and cultivating a cohesive culture regardless of physical location. 

    Accelerated expectations for growth: Leading through change 

    In a recent keynote I heard during the ChurnZero ZERO IN conference, I overheard the CEO of G2 speak about their board’s expectations for 20% growth with no additional overhead. Leaders are directly responsible for optimizing this flow.  

    Below are some examples of how leadership may change in the face of : 

    Focus area: Tool adoption 
    Traditional leadership approach: Mandating new tools; focusing on ROI. 
    Future-ready leadership in 2026 and beyond: Championing tool fluency; focusing on seamless integration with workflow. 

    Focus area: Pace of change 
    Traditional leadership approach: Incremental, planned change. 
    Future-ready leadership in 2026 and beyond: Continuous reinvention; leading with agility and psychological safety for rapid pivoting. 

    Focus area: Value metric 
    Traditional leadership approach: Activity and effort (hours worked). 
    Future-Ready Leadership in 2026 and beyond: Outcomes and Time-to-Value (speed of impact). 

    Focus area: Data use 
    Traditional leadership approach: Reviewing data after decisions are made. 
    Future-ready leadership in 2026 and beyond: Fostering data literacy across all teams; using predictive analytics for proactive decision-making. 

    The leader as a learning officer 

    In a world where knowledge has a half-life measured in months, not years, the primary function of leadership is shifting from “knowing all the answers” to “fostering relentless learning.” They must: 

    1. Model curiosity.
      Demonstrate a commitment to continuous upskilling, especially concerning AI and emerging technologies. 
    2. Invest in agility.
      Create environments where failure is treated as a high-value data point, encouraging experimentation and rapid iteration. 
    3. Prioritize reskilling.
      Proactively identify skills gaps created by automation and invest heavily in reskilling programs to transition human talent into higher-value roles. 

    The future of leadership is not about maintaining the status quo. It is about embracing complexity, fostering human potential alongside technological power, and leading with radical empathy and clarity of purpose. The challenge is immense, but the opportunity for profound impact is even greater. 

    The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

    The final deadline for the 2026 Inc. Regionals Awards is Friday, December 12, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply now.

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    Parul Bhandari

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  • 7 Effective Ways to Level Up Your Leadership

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    If you’re reading this, then you’re probably already a good leader. You’ve been tasked with leading teams, hitting your targets, and delivering tangible results, and have been successful at it. You’re a good manager. However, in a world of constant change and disruption, business as usual just won’t cut it. 

    Real leadership greatness is different. It means rethinking who you are as a leader and digging into a transformation deeper than the numbers alone. Here are seven proven ways to take your leadership from good to great. 

    1. Lead yourself first: Discover your core story. 

    Before you can be the leader everyone is waiting for, you must find your voice, your identity, and your confidence. Leadership, at its core, begins with self-leadership. The heart of the storyteller is the heart of the story. When you personally invest in the ideas and dreams you are putting forth, your audience subconsciously interprets that emotional investment as motivation and grit. 

    2. Narrate the future. 

    OKRs alone are not the stuff that soul-stirring speeches are made of. If you want to be a next-level leader, you must learn to narrate the future by presenting your vision and strategy in undeniable terms. First, put context on the change—showing how change can lead to opportunity. Second, create emotion by painting a picture of the gap between where your people are today and where they want to be tomorrow. Third, present evidence in the form of supporting data and rational reasoning. This approach allows you to reframe radical ideas into a reasonable leap of faith for your audience. 

    3. Invest in soft skills and earn trust. 

    It’s no secret that managers must be invested in soft skills such as empathy, trust, and communication to find success. The human brain is hardwired for narrative. By being willing to let our guard down and be vulnerable, you connect with people on a deeper level. The next-level leader gets this. These leaders know that to get people to move, they must show people that they care about them as human beings and not just as performers. 

    4. Lead by example and model the behavior you expect. 

    It’s often said that leadership is a verb, not a noun. The culture you set is in the actions you take each day. Sure, you can slap a couple of posters on the wall, but in the end, it’s not about what the office walls say. It’s what you as a leader do and say every day that makes all the difference. Are you modeling the behavior you expect others to follow? If you aren’t willing to model the behavior that you want to see from others, why should they follow you when the going gets tough? 

    5. Embrace change and be willing to take risks. 

    Change is hard. Most people aren’t wired for it. It often means uncertainty and additional work to see things through. Innovation can be especially challenging, as it flies in the face of your preconceived notions and threatens the status quo and the normal way things are done.  

    Leadership, at its core, is risky business. You don’t have to be a great leader to take a risk—you just have to risk being great. If you stick to your guns in the face of uncertainty, you build confidence in your own ability to move the needle and move your team forward in the process. 

    6. Delegate responsibility and scale leadership. 

    Great leadership is not about doing everything on your own. The best leaders delegate both responsibility and authority to the people around them and hold their employees accountable. This practice of psychological ownership and accountability in your employees frees up your time to focus on strategic outcomes instead of the weeds of execution. The more you empower and develop people around you, the more impact you as a leader can have. 

    7. Focus on outcomes, not outputs. 

    If you want to drive your team and organization to next-level performance, you must reframe your thinking from a focus on outputs to a focus on outcomes. Outputs are about what you make or do. Outcomes are about the result or effect of some behavior change or innovation.  

    Get crystal clear on the business outcomes that you expect. Overcommunicate those expectations with your team. Remind them of what matters most on a regular basis. Leadership is the ability to positively change people’s behavior, change people’s circumstances, and change people’s competence. 

    The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

    The final deadline for the 2026 Inc. Regionals Awards is Friday, December 12, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply now.

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    Peter Economy

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  • Forgiveness, redemption and leadership define Team USA wheelchair curler Steve Emt

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    Forgiveness, redemption, and leadership. Those three principles define Team USA curler Steve Hempt. Here’s how Steve Hemp describes growing up in Hebron, Connecticut All American childhood, most popular kid in my high school, great student, and that 6 ft 5, *** great athlete, one who earned an appointment to the United States Military Academy and then transferred to play basketball for the powerful UConn Huskies. But in 1995, his life changed forever. I was *** drunk driver and fortunately I’m lucky to be alive and sitting here with you all great people today. I was left for dead on the side of the road. I woke up from my coma and I was told I was never gonna walk again at 25 years old. He passed out behind the wheel, flipping his pickup truck, and he was ejected. After the crash, Steve spent months lying to people, telling them *** deer caused his accident. Then he accepted responsibility. We’re human, we’re gonna mess up. Forgive yourself, accept what happened, and move on. Steve’s new direction becoming *** high school teacher and basketball coach and finding the sport wheelchair curling. I’m an 11 time national champion, two time Paralympic, going on 3, world championships, and my life slogan, I live by this and I. Every day it’s not what happens to you it’s what you decide to do with what happens. What’s happening now for Emp is historic. He just qualified with Laura Dwyer for the first ever mixed doubles curling event at the Paralympics, and he’s excited to travel to Italy for the first time. I’m looking forward to eating pizza. I don’t know, is it different than what we have in New York or Chicago? I don’t know, um, but just the landscape, the people, just being out there, and again, the opportunity to. Represent Team USA and the grant it’s the stages. It’s goosebumps. On top of being *** teacher, coach, and Paralympian, Empt is also *** motivational speaker who’s written *** self-help book. On the road to Milan Cortina, I’m Fletcher Mackel.

    Forgiveness, redemption and leadership define Team USA wheelchair curler Steve Emt

    Forgiveness, redemption and leadership define Team USA wheelchair curler Steve Emt

    Updated: 3:00 AM PST Nov 28, 2025

    Editorial Standards ⓘ

    Forgiveness, redemption, and leadership: Those three principles define Team USA wheelchair curler Steve Emt. Here’s how Emt describes growing up in Hebron, Connecticut: “All American childhood, most popular kid in my high school, great student.”Standing 6-foot-5, Emt was a great prep athlete who earned an appointment to the United States Military Academy and then transferred to play basketball for the powerful University of Connecticut Huskies.But life changed in 1995.”I was a drunk driver; fortunately, I’m lucky to be sitting here with you, great people, today. I was left for dead on the side of the road, and when I woke up from a coma two weeks later, I was told I’d never walk again, at 25 years old,” said Emt. He passed out behind the wheel, flipping his pickup truck, and was ejected. After the crash, Steve spent months lying to people, telling them a deer caused his accident, then he accepted responsibility. “We’re human. We’re gonna mess up, forgive yourself, accept what happened, and move on,” Emt said.Steve’s new direction, becoming a high school teacher and basketball coach, and finding the sport of wheelchair curling. “I’m an 11-time national champion. two-time Paralympian going on three, world championships, too. My life’s slogan, I live by this, and I say it every day, ‘it’s not what happens to you, it’s what you decide to do with what happens,’” said Emt. What’s happening now is historic. He qualified with Laura Dwyer for the first-ever mixed doubles curling event at the Paralympics, and he’s excited to travel to Italy for the first time. “I’m looking forward to eating pizza. I don’t know, is a different than what we have in New York or Chicago? I don’t know, but just the landscape, the people just being out there. And again, the opportunity to represent Team USA on the grandest stage, I get goosebumps,” said Emt. On top of being a teacher, coach and Paralympian, Emt is also a motivational speaker who’s written a self-help book.

    Forgiveness, redemption, and leadership: Those three principles define Team USA wheelchair curler Steve Emt.

    Here’s how Emt describes growing up in Hebron, Connecticut: “All American childhood, most popular kid in my high school, great student.”

    Standing 6-foot-5, Emt was a great prep athlete who earned an appointment to the United States Military Academy and then transferred to play basketball for the powerful University of Connecticut Huskies.

    But life changed in 1995.

    “I was a drunk driver; fortunately, I’m lucky to be sitting here with you, great people, today. I was left for dead on the side of the road, and when I woke up from a coma two weeks later, I was told I’d never walk again, at 25 years old,” said Emt.

    He passed out behind the wheel, flipping his pickup truck, and was ejected. After the crash, Steve spent months lying to people, telling them a deer caused his accident, then he accepted responsibility.

    “We’re human. We’re gonna mess up, forgive yourself, accept what happened, and move on,” Emt said.

    Steve’s new direction, becoming a high school teacher and basketball coach, and finding the sport of wheelchair curling.

    Steve Emt poses for a portrait during the Team USA Media Summit ahead of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games on Oct. 28, 2025, in New York City.

    Mike Coppola/Getty Images

    Steve Emt poses for a portrait during the Team USA Media Summit ahead of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games on Oct. 28, 2025, in New York City.

    “I’m an 11-time national champion. two-time Paralympian going on three, world championships, too. My life’s slogan, I live by this, and I say it every day, ‘it’s not what happens to you, it’s what you decide to do with what happens,’” said Emt.

    What’s happening now is historic. He qualified with Laura Dwyer for the first-ever mixed doubles curling event at the Paralympics, and he’s excited to travel to Italy for the first time.

    “I’m looking forward to eating pizza. I don’t know, is a different than what we have in New York or Chicago? I don’t know, but just the landscape, the people just being out there. And again, the opportunity to represent Team USA on the grandest stage, I get goosebumps,” said Emt.

    On top of being a teacher, coach and Paralympian, Emt is also a motivational speaker who’s written a self-help book.

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  • Rethinking icebreakers in professional learning

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    Key points:

    I was once asked during an icebreaker in a professional learning session to share a story about my last name. What I thought would be a light moment quickly became emotional. My grandfather borrowed another name to come to America, but his attempt was not successful, and yet our family remained with it. Being asked to share that story on the spot caught me off guard. It was personal, it was heavy, and it was rushed into the open by an activity intended to be lighthearted.

    That highlights the problem with many icebreakers. Facilitators often ask for vulnerability without context, pushing people into performances disconnected from the session’s purpose. For some educators, especially those from historically marginalized backgrounds, being asked to disclose personal details without trust can feel unsafe. I have both delivered and received professional learning where icebreakers were the first order of business, and they often felt irrelevant. I have had to supply “fun facts” I had not thought about in years or invent something just to move the activity along.

    And inevitably, somewhere later in the day, the facilitator says, “We are running out of time” or “We do not have time to discuss this in depth.” The irony is sharp: Meaningful discussion gets cut short while minutes were spent on activities that added little value.

    Why icebreakers persist

    Why do icebreakers persist despite their limitations? Part of it is tradition. They are familiar, and many facilitators replicate what they have experienced in their own professional learning. Another reason is belief in their power to foster collaboration or energize a room. Research suggests there is some basis for this. Chlup and Collins (2010) found that icebreakers and “re-energizers” can, when used thoughtfully, improve motivation, encourage interaction, and create a sense of safety for adult learners. These potential benefits help explain why facilitators continue to use them.

    But the promise is rarely matched by practice. Too often, icebreakers are poorly designed fillers, disconnected from learning goals, or stretched too long, leaving participants disengaged rather than energized.

    The costs of misuse

    Even outside education, icebreakers have a negative reputation. As Kirsch (2025) noted in The New York Times, many professionals “hate them,” questioning their relevance and treating them with suspicion. Leaders in other fields rarely tolerate activities that feel disconnected from their core work, and teachers should not be expected to, either.

    Research on professional development supports this skepticism. Guskey (2003) found that professional learning only matters when it is carefully structured and purposefully directed. Simply gathering people together does not guarantee effectiveness. The most valued feature of professional development is deepening educators’ content and pedagogical knowledge in ways that improve student learning–something icebreakers rarely achieve.

    School leaders are also raising the same concerns. Jared Lamb, head of BASIS Baton Rouge Mattera Charter School in Louisiana and known for his viral leadership videos on social media, argues that principals and teachers have better uses of their time. “We do not ask surgeons to play two truths and a lie before surgery,” he remarked, “so why subject our educators to the same?” His critique may sound extreme, but it reflects a broader frustration with how professional learning time is spent.

    I would not go that far. While I agree with Lamb that educators’ time must be honored, the solution is not to eliminate icebreakers entirely, but to plan them with intention. When designed thoughtfully, they can help establish norms, foster trust, and build connection. The key is ensuring they are tied to the goals of the session and respect the professionalism of participants.

    Toward more authentic connection

    The most effective way to build community in professional learning is through purposeful engagement. Facilitators can co-create norms, clarify shared goals, or invite participants to reflect on meaningful moments from their teaching or leadership journeys. Aguilar (2022), in Arise, reminds us that authentic connections and peer groups sustain teachers far more effectively than manufactured activities. Professional trust grows not from gimmicks but from structures that honor educators’ humanity and expertise.

    Practical alternatives to icebreakers include:

    • Norm setting with purpose: Co-create group norms or commitments that establish shared expectations and respect.
    • Instructional entry points: Use a short analysis of student work, a case study, or a data snapshot to ground the session in instructional practice immediately.
    • Structured reflection: Invite participants to share a meaningful moment from their teaching or leadership journey using protocols like the Four A’s. These provide choice and safety while deepening professional dialogue.
    • Collaborative problem-solving: Begin with a design challenge or pressing instructional issue that requires participants to work together immediately.

    These approaches avoid the pitfalls of forced vulnerability. They also account for equity by ensuring participation is based on professional engagement, not personal disclosures.

    Closing reflections

    Professional learning should honor educators’ time and expertise. Under the right conditions, icebreakers can enhance learning, but more often, they create discomfort, waste minutes, and fail to build trust.

    I still remember being asked to tell my last name story. What emerged was a family history rooted in migration, struggle, and survival, not a “fun fact.” That moment reminds me: when we ask educators to share, we must do so with care, with planning, and with purpose.

    If we model superficial activities for teachers, we risk signaling that superficial activities are acceptable for students. School leaders and facilitators must design professional learning that is purposeful, respectful, and relevant. When every activity ties to practice and trust, participants leave not only connected but also better equipped to serve their students. That is the kind of professional learning worth everyone’s time.

    References

    Aguilar, E. (2022). Arise: The art of transformative leadership in schools. Jossey-Bass.

    Chlup, D. T., & Collins, T. E. (2010). Breaking the ice: Using ice-breakers and re-energizers with adult learners. Adult Learning, 21(3–4), 34–39. https://doi.org/10.1177/104515951002100305

    Guskey, T. R. (2003). What makes professional development effective? Phi Delta Kappan, 48(10), 748–750.

    Kirsch, M. (2025, March 29). Breaking through. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/29/briefing/breaking-through.html

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    Andy Szeto, Ed.D, Professor and District Administrator

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  • Kim Jong Un says mega farm project chiefly about cultivating patriotic youth | NK News

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    North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspected the construction of a mega greenhouse farm on the border with China for the sixth time on Wednesday, where he said a chief purpose of the project has been cultivating loyalty to his leadership among the young citizens he sent to build it.

    According to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Thursday, the Sinuiju Combined Greenhouse Farm is now “nearing completion,” nine months after “day-and-night” construction started on islands in the Yalu River (Amnok River) that suffered severe flooding last year.

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  • How to Show Your Staff Gratitude This Season and Beyond

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    Everybody, surely, loves a quick “Thanks, nice work!” comment from their boss, and few workers would balk at the promise of some kind of meaningful reward, like a bonus, for a job well done. But a new survey suggests that the vast majority of employers in the U.S. are failing to recognize their staff’s achievements properly, even though they know that it can be a big driver for success in the long term, as well as keeping employessvengaged and happy. 

    The data should, at the very least, prompt you to set aside that tedious financial report for five minutes, reach inside yourself to dredge up a bit of holiday season cheeriness, and go out and thank your staff.

    The data, from Utah-based staffing company Express Employment Professionals, along with Harris Poll, is profound. Fully 99 percent of U.S. hiring managers surveyed said that they know that recognizing workers is important, and 53 percent admit it’s “absolutely essential.” But 45 percent say that there are no resources available for them to actually effectively show this recognition to their staff. In other words, nearly half of the 1,000 hiring managers surveyed feel they can’t properly thank their workers.

    Employers think that a reputation for showing gratitude gives them a competitive advantage, as 93 percent say it boosts loyalty and 85 percent say it lowers staff turnover levels. And 82 percent of employers are willing to “invest in recognition for long-term success,” the report says. When they dole out gratitude and recognition, employers feel it makes workers feel valued, boosts morale, lifts productivity and engagement and strengthens loyalty. Many employers say that recognition is a frequent and ongoing situation (71 percent said this), with 70 percent saying they practice private praise, 65 percent praising workers in meetings, and 59 percent use company communications. 

    But among job seekers, only 54 percent say they’ve seen regular recognition by their employer, and 46 percent say praise and other rewards are often kept merely for “big wins.” Monthly recognition is very uncommon, the data show, with 27 percent experiencing private praise, 24 percent shoutouts, and 20 percent having been publicly praised. 

    From this you may conclude that many company leaders are paying lip service to the notion of expressing gratitude to their workers, but are coming up short on the actual delivery — either doling out infrequent or insubstantial rewards, only rewarding the highest achievers, or forgetting to thank their workforce altogether. 

    The report quotes a Forbes article that shows how meaningful rewards can boost worker morale, with recognition reportedly leading to a 366 percent increase in “fulfillment” among staff and a 208 percent increase in community. Though these big numbers imply that gratitude has positive benefits that extend beyond the holiday season, you might be wary of them: they quantify ephemeral feelings and emotions. 

    Nevertheless, it’s clear that U.S. employers could do better at expressing gratitude, from simple praise in private or public, to non-monetary perks and maybe even bonuses. 

    In several discussions on Reddit that touch on this topic, workers revealed many different ways companies either did or did not show praise properly. One commenter, with a particularly bad example of employer gratitude failure, noted that “The company I work for sent out a memo saying ‘it is a privilege to come to work’. Who the f*** do they think they are? Its my privilege to make them 1000’s of dollars every week? Okay, sure thing boss man.” Another user in the same thread pointed out that when it comes to showing gratitude “good employers do. Wish there were more of those, tho.” 

    A much more positive experience was related in a different thread by a user who noted “I’ve got birthday gifts from my current job, too. Boss and his sister give big hugs, kisses and even sing. This year I had mentioned needing new prescription glasses so they got me a ~ $200 voucher for the local optician.” This last quote has “family feeling,” and “small business employer” written all over it.

    The final word for your company and your staff? Say thanks, and say it more often — not just at this time of year.

    The final deadline for the 2026 Inc. Regionals Awards is Friday, December 12, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply now.

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    Kit Eaton

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  • Young people reaching ‘New Heights’ on and off basketball court

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    BROOKLYN — New Heights is creating lifelong change in New York’s youth through their very own passion for sports. Using basketball as a tool for growth, the organization empowers kids to be successful both on and off the court.

    “New Heights was founded because every young person deserves an opportunity .. .our goal is to help create that,” said New Heights executive director Ted Smith. “Whether that’s on the court or in the classroom, we want to help kids succeed in life.”

    The organization combines basketball with personal and professional development services to support their students in any track of life they find themselves walking. Their signature program, College Bound, is a prime example of using the kids’ passion to prepare them for the rest of their lives. Through tutoring, test prep, application support, campus visits, and so much more, New Heights follows through on their promise to give often underserved kids a leg up in an otherwise difficult landscape.

    Thanks to the organizations emphasis on basketball, the students find more than just an education here; they find a second home. Dayo Olowokere, a student athlete, remarked: “I can’t imagine what my life would be without New Heights. That’s why I am who I am today.”

    “We’re always looking to grow our family,” Smith said. “If you love basketball, it’s a great tool…use it to better your life.”

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    CCG

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  • General Motors Just Lost Its Chief AI Officer After Only 8 Months

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    GM’s first ever AI chief has left the company after only eight months. Barak Turovsky, GM’s former Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer, announced on his LinkedIn over the weekend that he was leaving the newly created position.

    “Friends, I just wanted to share that as of today I am no longer with GM. Physical AI is just as exciting as LLMs and it was a genuine pleasure to work again with brilliant folks,” he wrote, listing some of his colleagues. “I will be taking a little sabbatical to work on some exciting new ideas.”

    Prior to joining GM in March 2025, Turovsky served as a VP of AI at Cisco for two years and as head of product at Google, focusing on languages AI, for seven. Nvidia defines “physical AI,” which Turovsky referenced in his statement, as that which enables autonomous technology like self-driving cars to reason and perform complicated tasks in the real world. 

    Turovsky had reported to Dave Richardson, Google’s SVP of software and services engineering, who joined the company in 2023. Richardson left at the close of October, shortly after GM outlined a series of updates meant to reposition the company as a tech-heavy mobility company in which software, AI and autonomy are expected to play a major role. These updates were announced a the GM Forward event in October, at which Richardson, alongside other leaders, teased the launch of GM’s next-generation electrical architecture for so-called “software defined vehicles.” Both Richardson and Turovsky chose to leave the company, the Detroit Free Press reported. CNBC reported on Tuesday that Baris Cetinok, GM’s SVP of software and services product and design, will leave on Dec. 12 as part of a restructuring. A veteran of Apple, Amazon and Microsoft, Cetinok joined GM in September 2023.

    “We are strategically integrating AI capabilities directly into our business and product organizations, enabling faster innovation and more targeted solutions,” a GM spokesperson said in a statement.

    PR professional Eric Starkman noted in a post on LinkedIn that Turovsky’s is one in a wave of high-profile departures from GM, and emphasized that it should spark concern. Starkman’s post preceded news of Cetinok’s departure.

    “Losing someone with Turovsky’s pedigree should set off alarm bells among investors,” Starkman wrote, noting Turovsky’s focus on physical AI. “China’s EV makers already excel at this discipline, applying Physical AI across both their factories and their vehicles.”

    Alongside Richardson, Starkman wrote that JP Clausen, a former Tesla and Google executive who joined in April 2024 to oversee manufacturing, had left of his own accord. Eric Savitz, a former Barron’s editor and the one-time San Francisco bureau chief at Forbes, also left after just a year at GM News, stating on LinkedIn that he had been “Sacked. Canned. Axed. Downsized. Dismissed. Pink-slipped,” among other colorful ways of describing is departure.

    The final deadline for the 2026 Inc. Regionals Awards is Friday, December 12, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply now.

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    Chloe Aiello

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  • Want People to Work Harder? Be Generous

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    Generosity is a funny thing. Most of us want to be labeled “generous.” It’s a sign of being a good person. I think of the character in A Christmas Carol, Fezziwig, Scrooge’s first boss and original mentor. While the young Scrooge furiously works away on Christmas Eve, Fezziwig insists he stop work and enjoy the holiday celebration with his colleagues. Fezziwig is this gregarious, generous character—a benevolent boss, if you will. 
     
    When you run a company or a department, it is easy to view people and situations solely in terms of dollars and cents. Everyone is a number that needs to be multiplied by X revenue to help the company achieve Y in the bottom line. As someone who has run an agency for close to a decade now, it’s so easy for me to fall into this trap. Every hire needs to be something that adds more value to our organization. While this sentiment is literally true—a company that consistently loses money fails to be a company for very long unless investors continue to prop it up—it is missing an even greater truth in business and in life. The way to get the most value from a new hire is to empower them to be the best version of themselves. It is to consider every new hire or new decision to invest time and resources as an act of generosity that aims to further the other.  
     
    The data—and, let’s be honest, your heart—tells you generosity is a needed skill for good leaders. Now, here are three practical ways to enhance your generous nature. 

    1. Go beyond the basics 

    Prominent American sociologist Randy Hodson coined the term “management citizenship behavior” (MCB) in a 2002 article and it still rings true today. His research concluded that MCB reduces conflict between employees and managers and has a strong positive effect on organizational citizenship behavior. Generous citizen managers consistently drive higher employee performance, with studies showing their behavior leads to better engagement, retention, productivity, and profitability in organizations.   

    Researcher Martha Crowley, in a massive study, combed through survey research and a meta-analysis of 263 studies involving nearly 1.4 million employees, showing that managerial citizenship behaviors improve growth, profitability, earnings, and productivity. It also decreases absenteeism, turnover, theft, product defects, and accidents.

    But how do you MCB? Here are a few tips: 

    • Support employees individually: Coach and mentor your employees. Be empathetic. They have lives that go beyond the physical or virtual walls of your organization. Listen. Be generous with your time. 
    • Facilitate teamwork and morale: Address conflict head-on and work quickly to resolve situations. Encourage collaboration and recognize when the team succeeds. 
    • Champion organizational values: Model ethical behavior along with a growth mindset.  

    2. Be an ethical and resilient leader

    Look, we all have examples of icky leaders. From political leaders to CEOs to coaches, we have seen unethical behavior modeled, often very openly, in the public eye. 
     
    But doing the right thing—beyond it being the right thing to do—is rewarded more often than not in business. 
     
    Ethical companies outperform their peers. LRN Corporation has years of consistent data that illustrate this fact. Companies with strong ethical cultures are found to outperform those that are weaker by 50 percent. Companies with strong ethical cultures have a 2.6 times higher likelihood of being adaptable, which is an important factor in company resilience.  
     
    Ethics company-wide starts with company leadership. Leaders decide to act in a manner that promotes a sense of morality and to amplify an organization’s positive mission. “The time is always right to do what is right,” said Martin Luther King Jr. That’s true in life, and it’s true in business. 
     
    One way to fine-tune your moral compass as a business leader is to take a quick 30-second ethics check before a tough decision or conversation. Ask yourself: 
     
    Is it fair? 

    Would I be proud to explain it publicly? 

    Does it align with our stated values? 

    A little bit of discernment goes a long way and can save you headaches, or worse, in the long run. 

    3. Polish your transparency muscle 

    I’ve been told more than once that I wear my heart on my sleeve. When I hear that phrase, I think of vulnerability. It is incredibly important to be vulnerable to be a generous manager. You have a certain responsibility to be there for your people and to show up. When it is appropriate to do so, managers should illustrate the human side of who they are.  

    Transparency can do powerful things within an organization. Earlier this year, I took the risk of telling our team our ambitious growth plans—sharing where we wanted to be as an organization, from revenue to new clients and other critical KPIs. I realized, as so many other leaders have, that being transparent, authentic, and open motivates the people you want on your team.  

    Transparency anchors you as a leader and instills trust, as long as you take it seriously and follow through.  
     
    If you take anything from this article, consider this: Generosity needs to come from the heart and a place of truth. Be a generous manager, not because you have an ulterior motive or an extra KPI to hit, but because that is just who you are.

    The final deadline for the 2026 Inc. Regionals Awards is Friday, December 12, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply now.

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    Bob Spoerl

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  • The Most Undervalued Leadership Skill: Listening

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    When I first began leading teams, I thought leadership was about having the right answers. Over time, I discovered something far more powerful: The best leaders aren’t the ones who talk the most—they’re the ones who listen the best. This reflection sparked a recent discussion on my LinkedIn Culture Lab post on that topic, a reminder that leadership isn’t about being heard, but about hearing others.

    Too often, we mistake leadership for certainty. We celebrate confidence, decisiveness, and vision—all valuable traits—but we rarely celebrate curiosity. In a world that rewards quick answers, slowing down to learn can feel like weakness. Yet the inability to learn quietly erodes leadership from within. The moment we believe we’ve “arrived,” that we have nothing left to learn, we start leading from ego instead of growth.

    The turning point

    My perspective changed when I realized that real learning doesn’t happen in isolation, it happens through listening. Early in my career, I believed my value as a leader came from providing direction and answers. But over time, I noticed something interesting: Our teams made the most meaningful progress when I stopped talking and started listening.

    When I led with curiosity instead of certainty, asking questions like “What do you think?” or “What am I missing?” collaboration deepened, innovation grew, and trust flourished. That’s when I learned that leadership isn’t about being the smartest person in the room. It’s about being the most curious.

    How to lead through listening

    Learning as a leader starts with humility—the willingness to admit you don’t have all the answers. That humility creates space for others to bring their best ideas forward.

    Here’s what that looks like in practice:

    • Start with humility. Admit when you don’t know something. It invites others to teach you.

    • Ask more than you answer. Curiosity fuels better thinking and more inclusive dialogue.

    • Listen before you decide. Pause long enough to truly understand before taking action.

    • Model the behavior. When leaders listen, others follow suit.

    Listening isn’t just an instinct, it’s a skill. It can be taught, practiced, and strengthened. Over time, it transforms the way we communicate and collaborate. It becomes not just something we do, but something we are.

    How we practice it

    At HealthView, our core values—kindness, unity, humility, and patience—guide how we lead every day. Listening is an act of kindness; it shows respect for others’ perspectives. It builds unity by creating shared understanding. It demands humility to admit we don’t know everything, and patience to truly hear what’s being said.

    Whether it’s in a strategy meeting, a patient care discussion, or a hallway conversation, I approach each moment as a chance to learn something new. Those small choices, repeated over time, shape culture. When people see their leader learning in public—asking, listening, adjusting—it gives them permission to do the same.

    That’s how organizations evolve, not through grand gestures, but through a shared commitment to continuous learning.

    The ripple effect

    When leaders choose to learn openly, it sets a tone that ripples across the organization. People begin to mirror what they see. Teams become more curious, more collaborative, and more comfortable challenging the status quo.

    At HealthView, I’ve seen this shift firsthand. When I ask, “What can we learn from this?” it signals that growth matters more than ego. It turns mistakes into opportunities and feedback into fuel.

    When our actions align with kindness, unity, humility, and patience, learning becomes cultural. Listening becomes connection, and connection builds trust. Over time, that mindset doesn’t just improve outcomes. It strengthens relationships and reinforces who we are. Because when leaders are learners, they remind everyone that growth isn’t a phase; it’s a way of being.

    The bottom line

    Leadership today demands more than strategy or skill — it demands self-awareness. The ability to stay curious is what keeps us relevant, grounded, and human.

    Every conversation, every challenge, every failure carries a lesson if we’re willing to hear it.

    So here’s my challenge to every leader reading this: Never stop learning. Ask more questions. Listen without agenda. Let curiosity guide your decisions. And let kindness, unity, humility, and patience guide your actions.

    Because in a world that continuously changes, listening isn’t a soft skill. It’s a survival skill.

    The final deadline for the 2026 Inc. Regionals Awards is Friday, December 12, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply now.

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    Steven Gonzalez

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  • Lessons From Poppi’s Exit: Not Every Founder Is a CEO

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    What is the difference between a founder and a CEO?  

    Is it tenure? Skill? Is it about proximity to an exit?  

    At October’s Inc. 5000 Conference, I had the pleasure of meeting Allison and Stephen Ellsworth, cofounders of Poppi. They were fresh off their whopping $2 billion exit. This husband-and-wife duo successfully launched a small company and grew it into an enterprise.  

    Hearing them move effortlessly from stories about kitchen-counter flavor tests to navigating billion-dollar acquisition talks made me realize something had fundamentally shifted along the way.  

    I later realized that the shift from founder to CEO has a lot less to do with a formal title or externals and a lot more to do with a personal choice every founder has to make: Do I want my business to be a solo act or do I want my business to be an orchestra?  

    Or put more simply: Is my business playing in the arena of winning Wimbledons or Super Bowls?  

    If entrepreneurship is about rallying followers behind you, then leadership is about building better leaders around you. That’s the shift.  

    Founders “play” singles tennis; CEOs play 5-on-5 basketball.  

    What got you here won’t get you there 

    Most founders never planned on leading a company. They saw a problem and solved it. But the skills that launch the company into infancy are not the same skills that build an enduring business.  

    Despite her supreme athleticism, Serena Williams probably wouldn’t be as successful if she jumped into a WNBA team with the same training approach she had in tennis.  

    The same principle applies to business. The habits and behaviors that get a company off the ground are not the same ones needed in leading a growing and thriving company. 

    That’s why Allison and Stephen’s success really struck me; it was clear they changed their approach somewhere along the way. 

    The way they spoke of their experience highlighted to me that being a founder is a calling.  

    Being a CEO is a choice.  

    And by the way, if you love playing singles tennis, that’s a perfectly valid choice—just know what you’re choosing.  

    As founders, we all eventually need to make that choice. We need to choose which game we’re going to play. So how do founders make that shift?  

    My favorite way to make the CEO shift  

    At the same conference, Jay Shetty shared a moment that became my favorite definition of what a CEO does. Jay retold a moment from the movie about Steve Jobs. Jobs is asked: “What do you even do here? You’re not an engineer. You’re not a designer. What even is your job?”  

    Jobs responds: “Musicians play instruments, I play the orchestra.”  

    This is the shift.  

    If a founder desires to grow beyond their own personal limits to become a CEO, they can’t keep doing what they’ve always done. They will inevitably have to put down the instrument they have become so good at playing and take up the conductor role.  

    Stephen shared his rule for when to let go: the moment someone can do your job 60 percent as well as you can. 

    Not 80 percent. Not when it feels safe. At 60 percent. 

    My takeaway is that a company benefits more from momentum than from perfection. 

    Or watch the business plateau at the ceiling of the founder’s personal limits.  

    This is the choice every founder eventually faces.  

    Not on stage. Not in a boardroom. In a quiet moment, they decide: Do I want to keep playing every note, or do I start conducting something bigger than me? 

    Allison and ​​Stephen chose the symphony.  

    You don’t have to stop being a founder to become a CEO. But you do have to shift what you do. 

    Final thoughts 

    In the game of business, don’t be the player trying to score every point. Be the leader who can build a team that can win without you. 

    If you are hungry for your answer, close this browser and find a quiet place to ask: Am I the type of founder that plays to win Wimbledon or am I the type of founder that plays to win the Super Bowl?“ 

    If you want to win the latter, here’s your first step: Write down everything you did this week. Circle the one task that, if you handed it off tomorrow at 60 percent quality, would free you to focus on what only you can do.  

    That’s your first instrument to put down. 

    Solo acts rarely exit for billions. Orchestras do. 

    The final deadline for the 2026 Inc. Regionals Awards is Friday, December 12, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply now.

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    Alan Badia

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  • Stop Managing AI From 30,000 Feet

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    In the C-suite, the air is thin. Decisions become conceptual, feedback is filtered, and the systems around you are designed to shield you from problems. 

    As an organizational psychologist and executive coach, I call this phenomenon “altitude sickness”—a leadership blind spot that warps your perception just when clarity is most critical. Power doesn’t just change what others see in you; it changes how you see everyone else. 

    Nowhere is this gap more dangerous than in our rush to adopt AI. 

    From the top, AI adoption feels existential. You’re consuming research and envisioning a future that is faster, more profitable, and more innovative. A fall 2023 Deloitte survey found that 79 percent of leaders believe AI will lead to major organizational transformation within three years. AI investments are massive.  

    Meanwhile, employees are operating in a different reality. They’re working under the shadow of layoffs and near-daily headlines about AI-driven headcount reductions. Research from my firm, Fractional Insights, confirms this: We found one in three U.S. workers report “AI angst,” the fear that AI will eliminate their role or make their skills obsolete. 

    If you can’t imagine why your team feels this way, you may have altitude sickness. 

    The real problem isn’t AI—it’s trust 

    This disconnect isn’t a technical problem; it’s a psychological one. The success of your AI strategy hinges on one thing: trust. Our research found that workers in low-transparency organizations were up to 70 percent more likely to experience high AI angst. 

    The data shows a massive trust gap. Qualtrics reveals that while about 73 percent of executives trust their leaders to implement AI effectively, only 53 percent of employees feel the same way. 

    This isn’t just an emotional divide; it’s a performance drag. Data shows that 31 percent of employees fail to embrace AI, risking the failure of your entire transformation. 

    Overcome altitude sickness with structural empathy 

    The solution isn’t just for leaders to be more empathetic. It’s to build better systems. You must intentionally design mechanisms that reconnect you to the ground-level reality. This approach is called structural empathy, and here’s how to embed it. 

    Reconnect with ground-level reality. Stop prescreening questions for your “ask me anything” forums and accept anonymous submissions if needed. Conduct listening tours facilitated by neutral third parties. Shadow a frontline team for a day. Take support calls. Use reverse mentoring to learn from your junior colleagues. These aren’t symbolic gestures; they restore the unfiltered signal you’ve lost from altitude. The goal is simple: Experience what your teams experience daily. 

    Align AI strategy with career pathways. Stop talking about replacement and start talking about augmentation. Enable people managers to show employees exactly how AI will enhance their roles and provide the upskilling to get them there. Trust grows when people can see themselves in the future you’re designing. 

    Measure what matters: trust. Track employee sentiment and trust as a core KPI for your AI transformation. If you ignore the human experience, your adoption will stall, no matter how sophisticated your technology. 

    Communicate uncertainty with confidence. Many leaders hesitate to discuss AI’s future because they don’t have all the answers. The technology is advancing too quickly, and organizations are too complex to make guarantees. But pretending you have clarity or promising job security you can’t deliver erodes trust faster than admitting uncertainty. 

    Here’s what you can do: Be honest that you don’t know exactly what’s coming, but commit to regular, transparent updates. Invite employees into the conversation. Invest in upskilling so that whatever the future holds, your people are prepared to thrive in it. Uncertainty doesn’t undermine trust. Dishonesty does. 

    Strategies fail not because they’re bad ideas, but because they ignore the reality of others’ experiences. The view from the top might seem clearer, but the real insights are always found by getting curious at the ground level. 

    The final deadline for the 2026 Inc. Regionals Awards is Friday, December 12, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply now.

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    Shonna Waters

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  • 5 New Books to Help Leaders Strengthen Mindset and Growth

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    Every business founder has a dream, but staying focused helps them maintain a growth mindset as the initial rush of excitement fades. 

    However, I’ve learned that growth doesn’t happen in isolation. It comes from the ideas you surround yourself with. At times, we all could use a source of inspiration to remind us why we took the initial leap and continue to bet on our vision. For me, that’s always started with great books.

    In fact, I’ve always believed that the best leaders are readers.

    These standout October titles deliver practical lessons that help leaders grow in every direction. They can help you enhance your focus while improving company culture and building stronger customer relationships.

    1. Mindmasters: The Data-Driven Science of Predicting and Changing Human Behavior by Sandra Matz

    Every scroll, search, and click leaves a trail, and according to Columbia Business School’s Sandra Matz, that trail says more about you than you think. Mindmasters breaks down how algorithms can decode those patterns to predict what we’ll buy, believe, or even feel next.

    It’s fascinating and a little unnerving. But Matz argues that leaders can flip that insight into a competitive edge. By understanding how data shapes behavior, you can build more personalized marketing, stronger customer trust, and smarter teams without crossing ethical lines.

    Rethink how you use customer data. Transparency isn’t just good ethics. It’s good business.

    2. The Systems Leader: Mastering the Cross-Pressures That Make or Break Today’s Companies by Robert E. Siegel

    The book The Systems Leader by Robert Siegel examines how executives at the top level manage the competing forces of organizational growth and stability, as well as innovation and control.

    His findings show that true leadership excellence comes from striking a middle ground, not from chasing extremes.

    The first step of Siegel’s method requires you to identify two opposing business priorities: growth and tight quality control. The exercise helps you see the spot that prevents you from moving in either direction.

    Design meetings that reward listening as much as speaking. Trust builds when everyone feels heard.

    3. Exceptional Experiences: Five Luxury Levers to Elevate Every Aspect of Your Business by Neen James

    I was drawn to Exceptional Experiences because it pushes the boundaries of how we think about customer care.

    Neen James reframes luxury not as a price point but as focused attention, the kind that makes people feel valued.

    Her five “luxury levers”—Entice, Invite, Excite, Delight, and Ignite—show how small, intentional acts of care can transform an ordinary interaction into something memorable. 

    The key, James explains, is to run an “attention audit” to find the moment in your customer journey where people feel ignored, rushed, or unseen. Then, fix it with a simple, genuine touchpoint, like a personal note or early access invite.

    Luxury lives in the details. When leaders treat attention as their most valuable currency, loyalty and growth naturally follow.

    4. Team Intelligence: How Brilliant Leaders Unlock Collective Genius by Jon Levy

    In Team Intelligence, Jon Levy demonstrates how to create communication systems and team practices that extract innovation and creativity from team members. 

    According to Levy, the most successful businesses consist of employees with strong trust bonds and who work in perfect unison.

    The “disagree better” principle, which Levy calls the hidden-voice tactic, functions as an essential method for creating a positive organizational culture. 

    Design meetings that reward listening as much as speaking. Trust builds when everyone feels heard.

    5. Headamentals: How Leaders Can Crack Negative Self‑Talk by Suzy Burke PhD, Ryan Berman, and Rhett Power

    Today’s leaders are navigating a level of uncertainty and complexity unlike anything before: AI disruption, shifting workplace expectations, and widespread team burnout. Headamentals meet that moment head-on.

    This isn’t about lacking skill or strategy. It’s about the spin inside our own heads; the self-doubt and inner chatter that quietly undermine leadership. Suzy Burke PhD, Ryan Berman, and Rhett Power explore how to identify and reframe those thought loops using neuroscience and practical exercises.

    Their core idea is simple but powerful: culture doesn’t start in the boardroom; it starts in the mind of the leader. When we learn to lead our self-talk, we strengthen every conversation that follows.

    Titles to Help Leaders Reset and Reinvision

    When setbacks hit, pause and reframe. The story you tell yourself determines how fast you recover and how your team follows your lead.

    There’s no one formula for leadership growth. Every business has its own learning curve, and every leader has to find the rhythm that keeps them moving forward. 

    What these authors offer are tools to make that process less chaotic and more intentional. You’ll still face the twists and turns that come with building something meaningful, but with sharper focus and steadier habits, progress starts to feel more deliberate and less like a stroke of luck.

    The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

    The final deadline for the 2026 Inc. Regionals Awards is Friday, December 12, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply now.

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    John Hall

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