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Before a wildfire ravaged their street in northwest Altadena, Louise Hamlin and Chris Wilson lived next door to each other in nearly identical houses. “I chose an old home in an old neighborhood because it has soul,” said Hamlin, a 51-year-old single mom with a teenage boy, who bought her 1,500-square-foot home 10 years ago. Today, gone are their charming English-style cottages built in 1925 with the welcoming porches and Palladian windows. Amid the rubble and ash, little is left of their historic neighborhood. In the weeks since the Eaton wildfire took their homes, Hamlin and Wilson have been stumbling through the layers of business, bureaucracy and emotional trauma o…

We’ve all got an inner critic in our heads. You know its voice: it’s the one who berates you when you make a mistake, who peers over your shoulder and critiques your work unfavorably, or who tells you you’re useless and worthless when things don’t go to plan. Inner critics can thrive in work environments—especially fast-paced environments where there is little room for error, or where you’re responsible for people on your team. The question is how you interact and deal with your inner critic. Obeying them without question is neither sustainable nor healthy. But silencing or completely ignoring them isn’t recommended either, as this can easily lead to reckless or e…

Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! I’m Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning. I recently celebrated my 56th birthday, and I’m feeling my age. Not because I’m slowing down (which I am), but because I feel increasingly removed from the passions, peeves, and predilections of Gen Z and Generation Alpha. This matters, as young people shape popular and workplace cultures, and…

It can be tempting for business leaders to overly rely on data to drive their decision-making. But so often that approach can sacrifice the human connection that’s needed between leaders and their employees and customers. At Fast Company’s annual Impact Council meeting last week, Elyse Cohen, chief impact officer of the Selena Gomez-founded beauty brand Rare Beauty; and David Ko, CEO of mental health and sleep assistance platform Calm, took to the stage to discuss why leading like a human is so important, particularly at a time of striking technological advancement. Data-driven human connection Although Calm leverages AI, the company predominantly uses those capabilit…

Leaders learn to say things with confidence. You may assume that people will be more prone to listen to you when you speak forcefully and with a sense of belief. Despite your best efforts, though, you’re going to say something incorrect every now and again. You might get out ahead of a story only to find out that things were not as they seemed initially. You might just have your facts wrong. Regardless of why you erred, you still have to be willing to admit that you were wrong. Happily, there is an easy way to do this, though you may find it hard to do at first. You have to admit you were wrong. Yup. That’s right. You just have to come out and say it. There is…

“I didn’t know what to say, so I avoided him.” That’s what a leader confessed to me during a coaching session, his voice low with shame. One of his team members had just lost a child, and instead of reaching out, he kept his distance. “What could I possibly say to make it better?” he asked me. “I was terrified I’d make things worse.” It’s a moment many leaders face but few talk about. When employees are dealing with loss, crisis, or personal hardship, the instinct to avoid, to stay in the safe zone of tasks and deadlines, can be overwhelming. But leadership during hard times isn’t about having the perfect words—it’s about having the courage to show up. The Emotional We…

In today’s corporate landscape, optics often precede outcomes, especially in technology-led transformations. Announcements of new platforms, AI-powered strategies, or “digital-first” pledges frequently come long before the underlying infrastructure to support them. That was Ted’s reality as the chief growth officer at a global bank when his CEO unveiled a high-profile “AI-Powered Growth Strategy” positioned as a bold leap forward. The announcement made headlines and thrilled investors, but behind the scenes, the organization wasn’t prepared. Ted was given a skeletal team of two direct reports, a patchwork of third-party tools, and the mandate to partner with five global…

Americans largely agree that women have made significant gains in the workplace over the past two decades. But what about men? While many Americans believe women are thriving, over half believe men’s progress has stalled or even reversed. To make matters more complex, recent research has revealed a massive divide along gender and partisan lines. The majority of Republican men think full gender equity in America has been achieved, while the majority of Democratic women think there’s still work to be done. As researchers at the Rutgers Center for Women in Business, we think this divide matters a lot. And for business leaders, this gap isn’t just a social or politica…

Patricia Grabarek and Katina Sawyer are cofounders of Workr Beeing, where they help clients create thriving workplace environments. They are both industrial/organizational psychologists. Patricia has a background in consulting and internal roles, having led people analytics and talent management initiatives for more than 60 companies. Katina is also an associate professor of management and organizations at the University of Arizona, where she focuses her research on workplace wellbeing. What’s the big idea? Achieving a culture of wellness at work goes way beyond a steps challenge or mindfulness program. Leaders need to demonstrate vulnerability about their own struggles …

Information is a commodity. The real challenge is establishing trust in today’s world of content overload and automated answers. How can you tell who, among an array of self-proclaimed experts, really understands a topic? And more importantly, how can you instill that trust in others? It starts at the top. According to the 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer, 75% of respondents said CEOs are obligated to help bridge trust divides, but just 44% do so well. That’s a huge gap that highlights a leadership credibility challenge, playing out externally with customersand inside the workplace. 3 TRUST-BUILDING STRATEGIES These are three core principles I lean on to establ…

Most business leaders view themselves primarily as “productive” rather than “creative.” Productivity is often associated with measurable outcomes, such as efficiency, consistency, and task completion. Creativity, by contrast, is frequently perceived as spontaneous, unpredictable, and elusive. Yet, productivity and creativity are not at odds. In fact, they reinforce each other powerfully. Leaders who successfully integrate productive habits with creative practices can unlock new levels of innovation, effectiveness, and personal fulfillment. A global Adobe survey found that 75% of professionals report growing pressure to be productive rather than creative at work, while o…

We live in a time when our expectations for ethical business practices are no longer predictable. Global regulation, along with ideas around standards like ESG, are in flux—and building debate around what the standards should be for leaders and managers. “Some governments are tightening oversight, while others are relaxing enforcement,” write ethics leaders at the World Economic Forum. Companies may focus on strictly following the law, thinking that it doesn’t make sense to go beyond regulatory expectations. But being compliant doesn’t mean you’re being ethical. There are three common signals that your company is headed towards a flawed business practice—decision…

Severance is the hit sci-fi show about office workers who “sever” their consciousness—slipping into another mode the moment they arrive at the office, then forgetting everything about their 9-to-5 as soon as they leave. The concept was inspired by the creator’s own monotonous desk job before he found success in television. Part of the show’s appeal lies in how familiar the premise feels: a dull, repetitive workday that people can’t wait to escape. In the real world, employees don’t have a mental switch to flip, but they’ve found subtler, and potentially more insidious, ways to disengage. The latest trend, dubbed “task-masking,” has taken over Instagram and TikTok. It’s a…

The holiday season always reminds me that there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. My kids start winter break thrilled—new toys to play with, days at home, permission to veg out. But by the time the new year rolls around, they’re itching to go back to school, eager to show off their favorite holiday gifts and dive back into their routine. It got me thinking: why don’t we, as adults, approach returning to work after a vacation with that same positive energy? More often than not, coming back from time off stirs up feelings of anxiety. For some, it reaches the point of canceling out any lingering benefits of the break. Others overcompensate by overworking upon th…

For years, leaders have been told that ”being true to themselves” and “ignoring what others think” represent the gold standard of effective leadership, a kind of moral and emotional north star. But in practice, this type of advice often gets leaders into trouble. For a vivid illustration, consider how two famous fictional (yet hyper-realistic) characters, namely Don Draper (Madmen) and Michael Scott (The Office) embody these two mantras. Draper clings to a rigid, unchanging identity, using “this is who I am” as armor to avoid confronting his insecurities, while Scott approaches management with unfiltered candor, oversharing, and acting on impulse. Both believe they ar…

Bootstrapping a company from a startup in Croatia to a global platform is not an easy task. When my cofounder Izabel Jelenić and I created Infobip, my parents gave us a modest loan of about $28,000, and we had to find ways to use that investment strategically until we could raise external funding. Over the past 20+ years, we have learned valuable lessons along the way as our company evolved. We have developed newer versions to keep pace with the fast-moving digital world where businesses need to connect with customers quickly and in ways that feel personal. And what we’ve found is that these four strategies worked during the startup phase of our company and are still …

There are so many ways to die. You could fall off a cliff. A monk could light you on fire. A bat the size of a yacht could kick your head in. You’ve only just begun the game, and yet here you are, stranded on some strange mountaintop, surrounded by ruins. If you’re a newcomer, you’ll be dead within moments. If you’re a hardcore gamer, you’ll probably be dead a few moments later. But death isn’t the end. Death is the beginning. You’ll respawn in a graveyard, and that graveyard will lead you to a vast chasm—a pitchblack pit of certain doom. Taking the plunge down into that pit will surely lead you to more death. If the fall doesn’t kill you, it’s reasonable to assume that …

We’re in an age where AI-fueled rapid prototyping and sleek direct-to-consumer startups seem to capture all the attention. But some of the most profound design disruptions didn’t start in a founder’s garage or in the algorithms of artificial intelligence; they were born in the aisles of mainstream consumer stores like Target. In the late 1990s, my company, Michael Graves Design changed the conversation around design with a teakettle that was joyful, affordable, and elegant. It didn’t just sit on a stove, it stood for a new idea: Good design was not a luxury, but a right. Target’s Design for All programs went on to define America’s expectation that great design should be …

While the Lego Group has dipped its toes into tech waters before, the company hasn’t strayed far from its analog roots. But on Monday, the 94-year-old company unveiled a new product line that embraces the digital age, without abandoning its core business. At CES, Lego announced the upcoming launch of the Lego Smart Play system, an interactive technology that lets users’ Lego creations respond to player actions with tailored sounds, lights, behavior, and more. The company says it’s a way to further engage digital native kids without having them stare at yet another screen. While the toy market has struggled for the past few years, sales at the Lego Group have remained st…

When Levi’s CEO Michelle Gass was in Japan last summer, she and chief product officer Karyn Hillman wandered down the street from the brand’s store in Tokyo’s trendy Harajuku neighborhood to a small, unassuming vintage shop called BerBerJin. They took the stairs down into its cavernous basement, where it keeps racks and racks of its best denim finds, and began the slow, laborious task of searching for treasure. A couple of hours later, Gass walked out with a pair of 1947 vintage 501s and an even rarer 1952 trucker jacket. “We tried on so many, many pairs of jeans,” Gass tells me over coffee in her San Francisco office in September. “You appreciate the nuances and beauty …

In an era dominated by artificial intelligence and smartphones, one of the most overlooked engines of economic growth sits quietly at the heart of every neighborhood: the public library. Gone are the days when libraries were sanctuaries reserved for only reading and research. Today, they are being reimagined as dynamic hubs for workforce development, creative sector support, and cultural exchange. Across the country, these reservoirs of knowledge are evolving into digital and physical beacons of community resilience. Local access, global reach: A case study in artist empowerment In Huntsville, where I serve as the city’s first music officer, we’ve partnered …

If you look at a map of lightning near the Port of Singapore, you’ll notice an odd streak of intense lightning activity right over the busiest shipping lane in the world. As it turns out, the lightning really is responding to the ships, or rather the tiny particles they emit. Using data from a global lightning detection network, my colleagues and I have been studying how exhaust plumes from ships are associated with an increase in the frequency of lightning. For decades, ship emissions steadily rose as increasing global trade drove higher ship traffic. Then, in 2020, new international regulations cut ships’ sulfur emissions by 77%. Our newly published research sho…

For those of us not born tall and strong, using a shared electric bike can sometimes be cumbersome—they’re often big, heavy, and hard to maneuver. Bike-share giant Lime has taken note, releasing a new generation of bikes tailored for riders who could benefit from more accessible design. One of the first dockless micromobility companies, Lime launched in 2017, eventually filling the streets of major cities across the U.S., Europe, Australia, and the Middle East with its bright-green two-wheelers. Now the company has introduced an alternative model to its standard Gen4, designed to reach riders—particularly women and older adults—who may have found its original model ch…

As Fashion Week takes over New York, London, and Milan, designers aren’t just showcasing their collections on the runway—they’re taking over LinkedIn. The job-seeking platform reports a fivefold increase in live fashion show broadcasts over the past three years, with 85% of luxury brands turning to the professional social network to reach those with money to spend. LVMH and Louis Vuitton set the trend in 2019, making live fashion shows on LinkedIn the core of their engagement strategy. The move quickly paid off. After unveiling a new men’s collection in Shanghai, the brand drew nearly a million potential luxury buyers in just three days. Soon fashion powerhouses like …