What's on Your Mind?

You came, you ate, you sat through Uncle Bob’s crass jokes. You’ve earned yourself some alone time. If the holidays prompt you to research “solitary retreats near me,” or if you find yourself utterly bored with dinner table conversation—how are we still talking about Wicked?!—here are four games you can play on your phone or computer. Heads-up: The last one requires a minimum of two people, so save it for when you’ve recharged your social batteries. The New York Times 1. For those who are sick of Wordle Domino fan? Sudoku fan? If you like either or both of those games, you’ll love Pips, a new logic puzzle game from The New York Times. The rules are simpl…

When I looked ahead to 2026, one issue jumped out in every conversation I had with business leaders: Resilience is buckling under pressure. The pace of change is no longer just fast—it is accelerating beyond the reach of traditional playbooks. We are entering an era of complexity risk, where the greatest threats stem not only from malicious actors, but from the sheer entanglement of our own systems. Below are the four shifts business leaders must prepare for to navigate 2026. 1. Recovery will become the most important metric For years, companies have focused their investments on prevention. But AI changed the economics of cyber risk. Offensive AI makes it fast …

Online applications usually include an optional field where you can upload a cover letter. Think “optional” means you don’t have to include one? Think again. According to a recent survey of recruiters from the career services platform Zety, 89% expect a cover letter, and 87% say it’s a key factor when deciding whom to interview. “Job applications are super complicated today,” says Jasmine Escalera, Zety’s career expert. “You have to tailor your résumé to the job, and there are often so many moving parts to just submit one application. I understand when job seekers think, Does the cover letter actually add any value? Sometimes it can be equally as important as résumés …

As the Class of 2025 graduates into an uncertain and fast-changing working world, they face a crucial question: What does it mean to be successful? Is it better to take a job that pays more, or one that’s more prestigious? Should you prioritize advancement, relationship building, community impact or even the opportunity to live somewhere new? Sorting through these questions can feel overwhelming. I am a business school professor who spends a lot of time mentoring students and alumni in Generation Z — those born between 1997 and 2012. As part of this effort, I’ve surveyed about 300 former undergraduate students and spoken at length with about 50 of them. Throug…

Have you ever worked under someone you just couldn’t wait to get away from—maybe to the point where you’d daydream about finding a new job (or hoping they’d leave instead)? That’s what we call an “Extinguisher.” These leaders sap energy from their teams and throw up roadblocks that stand in the way of success. On the flip side, “Generators” are those leaders who inspire and empower people to reach their full potential—and they’re the ones everyone wants to work for. Most of us want to steer clear of Extinguishers (and make sure we never become one ourselves). The trouble is, it’s not always obvious when you’re dealing with one—at least not until you’re already burned …

The climate crisis demands that we rethink how we construct the built environment. Buildings account for more than 33% of global energy consumption and nearly 40% of greenhouse gas emissions. Traditional building materials like concrete, steel, and glass are energy-intensive to produce, meaning truly sustainable buildings are difficult to achieve when we rely on the status quo. Mass timber—engineered wood products that deliver immense structural strength while reducing environmental impact—has emerged as a compelling alternative. Swapping concrete for timber reduces embodied carbon by up to 26.5% per square foot. And the benefits go well beyond carbon metrics: Mass ti…

This week, Apple’s newest laptop, the MacBook Neo, went on sale. Reviews of the device have been almost universally positive, with many praising the laptop’s starting cost of just $599—a price point few expected Apple would ever reach for a notebook computer. Apple is clearly positioning the affordable machine as a productivity device for use in two main areas: education and the workplace. Indeed, imagery on the MacBook Neo’s product page features many of the most essential productivity apps used by students and workers, including Microsoft Word and Excel, Slack, Canva, Box, Keynote, and more. Yet if you’ve picked up a Neo for use in work or school, you should kno…

Artificial intelligence isn’t just a technical challenge. It’s a relationship challenge. Every time you give a task to AI, whether it’s approving a loan or driving a car, you’re shaping the relationship between humans and AI. These relationships aren’t always static. AI that begins as a simple tool can morph into something far more complicated: a challenger, a companion, a leader, a teammate, or some combination thereof. Movies have long been a testing ground for imagining how these relationships might evolve. From 1980s sci-fi films to today’s blockbusters, filmmakers have wrestled with questions about what happens when humans rely on intelligent machines. These …

A few years ago, I started noticing a pattern. Every time a major publication or LinkedIn thread took on AI in hiring, the framing was almost always the same: hype on one side, existential alarm on the other. The talent leaders I actually talk to have more nuanced opinions than that, but those narratives still shape the conversation in ways that hold organizations back from building the hiring processes their people and candidates actually deserve. After spending the last decade building AI-powered hiring tools and working alongside the talent teams implementing them, I’ve had a front-row seat to the gap between what people assume about AI in hiring and what actua…

According to the World Economic Forum, 40% of employers expect to reduce their workforce where AI can automate tasks by 2030. Thanks to artificial intelligence, leaders are under pressure to raise the bar on what they will deliver to their stakeholders—with the expectation that thanks to AI, companies can (and must) achieve more. That matters for job hunters, who need to get clear on the value they can provide to organizations if they want to get hired. And while we can be reactive—relying on the AI screeners, which many recruiters use, to select us out of the pile of submitted résumés—we should get proactive, smartly deploying our networks to get our feet in the door…

Decades of research show the benefits of women in leadership are invaluable. Females embody a more transformational leadership style fostering mission-driven cultures. Female presence also improves team dynamics, with better collaboration and collective intelligence; the greater the ratio of women, the greater equality is seen in conversations, thus capitalizing on the team’s full knowledge and skillsets. All this translates into measurable results: meta-analyses link female leadership with improved sales, and their representation on the board of directors is also directly associated with financial performance. The largest study of women in corporate America marked i…

Below, Richard Davidson and Cortland Dahl share five key insights from their new book, Born to Flourish: How New Science and Ancient Wisdom Reveal a Simple Path to Thriving. Davidson is a professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as well as the founder and director of its Center for Healthy Minds. He also founded a nonprofit, Humin, which translates science into tools that cultivate and measure well-being. Dahl serves as a contemplative scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for Healthy Minds and as chief contemplative officer at the center’s affiliated nonprofit, Humin. What’s the big idea? Feeling ha…

In a 2014 commencement address at her alma mater Dartmouth College, TV writer and producer Shonda Rhimes told students, “Whenever you see me somewhere succeeding in one area of my life, that almost certainly means I am failing in another area of my life. If I am killing it on a Scandal script for work, I am probably missing bath- and storytime at home.” Her comments are true reflections of what work-life balance is, says Janna Koretz, clinical psychologist and founder of Azimuth, a Boston-based provider of therapy services. “When people think about balance, they think about it feeling good and being the right amount of everything,” she says. “I think—especially m…

One of the more frustrating classes I took in college in the 1980s was a computer science course on data structures and algorithms. In that class, we learned about a variety of approaches to solving key problems in programming. For example, we learned several different ways to take a list of numbers given in an arbitrary order and to sort that list from smallest to largest. These approaches differed in their efficiency. What frustrated me about the class wasn’t the algorithms themselves—they were interesting. But we were never taught how anyone ever came up with those different approaches. What in the world would have gotten someone to even think of those things? …

You can feel everything—the frustration, irritation, and fear—and still choose your response from a place of calm. That’s what the Stoics (thinkers from ancient Greece and Rome) have taught me. Stoicism is staying calm when life isn’t, focusing on what you can control, and not wasting energy on what you can’t. I’ve been studying Stoic philosophers for years, and the wisdom of Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, and Epictetus has transformed my relationship with myself and how I work. I now practice the art of making the most of the gap between feeling and action. These four Stoic teachings can help you become your best self at work. 1. You control the response The many e…

I’m a classic satisficer: I’m usually quick about making decisions and often fall back on the tried-and-true. Some people are optimizers, carefully analyzing almost every choice, whether it’s a new sofa or a cup of coffee. If you want to make decent, “good enough” choices about your financial plan and portfolio and get onto other things, what strategies should you employ? And what should you stop doing? Here are some strategies to embrace. Eliminate ‘onesies’ and embrace simple building blocks Step away from those individual stocks. Forget I bonds and laddered portfolios of individual Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities. If you’re a satisficer, they’re not for…

Most of us know that job loss is emotionally difficult, but what’s less talked about is the experience of knowing you will be terminated without knowing when. This process can be drawn out and draining—a form of anticipatory grief—an emotional response to a loss before it occurs. Often experienced by the loved ones of terminally ill patients, a version applies in the workplace when job loss is on the horizon. In today’s volatile landscape, this kind of professional uncertainty is increasingly common, prompting leaders—in limbo due to mergers, acquisitions, funding losses, or downsizing—to feel a loss of self-identity, irritability and helplessness at not being in control.…

Have you ever felt like your brain was one of those viral egg experiments, cracked open and sizzling on a bare sidewalk that was truly, much too hot? You may have been experiencing signs of burnout (and dehydration). As an introverted professional, I’ve been there as well, many times in my career. Over the years, I’ve developed healthy reflective coping methods to recharge my batteries and prevent (or at least combat) that intense feeling of overwhelm. As a LinkedIn Top Voice and a very public keynote speaker who’s learned to grow in the spotlight on my own terms, I’m not the best at pretending to be an extrovert for any extended period of time—it’s too tiring! Inste…

Entrepreneurial couples and co-founding duos share a unique bond – whether they’re bound by marriage or business. Their synergy often stems from shared passions, complementary skills, and the drive to build something meaningful. But the reality is that co-founding a business with someone – romantic partner or not – isn’t always easy. From aligning strategic visions to juggling multiple responsibilities, the pressures of scaling a company can wear on even the strongest partnerships. Yet, entrepreneurial couples offer a blueprint for success precisely because their personal and professional lives are deeply intertwined. As such, they have to adapt, compromise, and communica…

Sometimes it’s a fall that brings a broken hip and a loss of mobility. Or memory problems that bubble into danger. Or the death of the partner who was relied upon for care. The need to move to a nursing home, assisted living facility or another type of care setting often comes suddenly, setting off an abrupt, daunting search. It’s likely something no one ever wanted, but knowing what to look for and what to ask can make a big difference. What to do when looking for a long-term care facility: Start with government ratings Regulation of assisted living facilities varies greatly from state to state, meaning there’s no centralized standards or source for information.…

For some, Microsoft Teams is a necessary evil: the modern day equivalent of an ever-ringing desk phone. But the fact is that in many organizations, it’s become an essential tool for communication and collaboration. And as long as you’re using it, you might as well transform your Microsoft Teams experience from simply functional to truly powerful. Here are some quick tricks you should be using to get the most out of Microsoft Teams. Slash your way around the interface Slash commands save you time by providing quick access to frequently used features. Simply type a forward slash (/) in the search box at the top of the screen and a list of available co…

I saw my first holiday-themed ad on TV before Halloween. I was startled, yet not surprised. Kind of a funny feeling, really. Yes, the annual holiday shopping sprint is upon us. For years, the process has been defined by frantic comparison searches and endless product review scrolling. But this year, you can finally delegate the busywork to an army of digital assistants. AI is no longer just a party trick: it’s a legitimate, price-savvy, personal shopping engine. Want to skip the agonizing research and focus on finding that perfect gift without blowing your budget? Here are four essential AI tools you should be using right now. Gift Idea Generator You ne…

For digital nomads, logging on to work from a cafe, co-working space, hotel lobby or airport lounge is a way of life. Remote working has been made possible by reliable high speed internet and turbocharged by the pandemic. For some remote workers, that includes working from somewhere other than their home, perhaps because their company doesn’t have a physical location in their area, or because they don’t have an ideal home office setup. Working in public, however, doesn’t come without privacy and security risks. Here’s a quick reminder of precautions to take: Read the rulebook Hybrid or fully remote working is the norm for many jobs, so it’s a good idea to check f…