What's on Your Mind?

When leaders think about burnout, they often imagine visible distress, absence, emotional overwhelm or resignation. However, burnout does not always look like struggle. Often, it looks like competence. It looks like the person who always delivers. The one who volunteers to pick up the slack. The one answering work emails while watching their son’s nativity play, so they do not let anybody down. The one who says, “It’s fine, I’ll sort it.” The one who absorbs tension in the room so others do not have to. These people are not on a performance plan or raising red flags. They are not the ones asking for help. They are functioning. And those around them may not see…

Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! I’m Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning. In today’s business environment, uncertainty is the new norm: 70% of current CEOs surveyed by management consulting firm AlixPartners say their companies face high levels of disruption. To lead through such terrain, boards and recruiters searching for future CEOs need to focus less on a can…

You know Graza—or, at least, you’ve probably seen its squeeze bottles of extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO) on grocery store shelves. They’re green, opaque to protect the contents, and sold in two variations: Sizzle, for cooking, and Drizzle, for finishing. Since the brand launched its direct-to-consumer site in 2021, it’s become a staple of the olive oil aisle. With national distribution across stores like Whole Foods, Kroger, and Costco, its squeeze bottles (sometimes accompanied by its beer-can refills) are sold in more than 28,000 stores. It has also been making small excursions into other parts of the store, with Ithaca using Graza oil for a co-branded hummus. B…

In the past few years, while navigating the streets of San Francisco, bus and trolley operators have documented a growing presence on the city’s streets: Waymo robotaxis, often devoid of any front-seat human driver, causing problems. Sometimes, they report the cars for signs of an illegal maneuver, like when in September, a driver operating the city’s 45 electric bus noticed a Waymo trying to pass on double solid yellow lines at Stockton and Columbus, an intersection along its route. Or for a near miss—like, when, last December, a Waymo was caught by a city light rail train’s video camera making a dangerous left turn at “high speed.” Very often, transit operators flag a s…

Issey Miyake’s latest design is a pair of sunglasses inspired by the art of pottery. The glasses, called “Uroko,” are part of Miyake‘s Spring Summer 2026 collection, Dancing Texture. Rather than the typical two-lens structure, they feature eight separate lenses that curve around the temples like a trippy optical illusion. While the design itself reads futuristic, the texture of the frames is almost organic—like a relic of an ancient advanced society. They’re set to debut on Miyake’s website in mid-March for $680. Each piece of the Dancing Texture collection, which includes structured garments alongside billowing, patterned textiles, pulls inspiration from the …

Silicon Valley is rallying around a new extinction narrative. Agentic AI, autonomous systems capable of executing workflows on their own, could make traditional software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications obsolete. Big Tech investors worldwide argue that if artificial intelligence agents can update customer relationship management (CRM) records, create project tickets, and resolve support requests autonomously, companies may soon question whether to continue to pay per-seat subscription fees for software designed primarily for human operators. Public markets have reacted as if that future is already underway. Since early 2026 (January to February), the S&P 500 Softw…

Walt Disney Imagineering has revealed the inner workings of its latest creation: a real-life 3D version of Olaf, the funny snowman from Frozen, complete with a detachable carrot nose that kids can steal. According to Disney Parks, creating the snowman was a far greater challenge than standard bipedal humanoids, which rely on symmetrical weight distribution to stay upright. Olaf is a physical anomaly: He has a massive, heavy head perched on a remarkably slim neck, with two floating snowballs for feet and arms as thin as literal tree branches. This introduced equilibrium, mechanical, and thermal problems that the team had to solve. Adding to these design and techno…

A recent Wall Street Journal survey found a 38-point gap between how executives and employees experience AI at work. C-suite leaders report saving eight or more hours weekly. Two-thirds of front-line workers say the tools save them less than two hours—or nothing at all. Most leaders read that as a rollout problem. A training problem. A communication problem. It’s none of those things. This month, a National Bureau of Economic Research study of 6,000 executives confirmed what the WSJ data was already pointing to: the vast majority are seeing no measurable productivity gains from AI. Not a small shortfall. A near-total disconnect between investment and results. …

It sounds like an obvious business decision: cut headcount, reduce costs, and signal efficiency to the market. When Block CEO Jack Dorsey eliminated more than 4,000 jobs—nearly half the company’s workforce—citing AI-driven efficiency gains, the company’s stock rose more than 20% within hours. Citigroup is executing CEO Jane Fraser’s plan to cut 20,000 roles by the end of 2026. Morgan Stanley recently reduced its workforce by 2,500 positions across its major business divisions, despite posting record revenues in 2025. The announcements are framed as strategic resets. The market often rewards them. But the real consequences rarely show up in the stock price. They sh…

Tomorrow is the quarterly staff meeting, and project director Ann knows she needs to be ready. The agenda is familiar. At 3 p.m. she opens PowerPoint, pulls up the last deck, swaps in tomorrow’s date, and starts updating the numbers. By 5:30 pm, the slides are done. But is she ready? She has a deck, not a message. She has data, not direction. Communicating like a leader isn’t about updating presentations—it’s about shaping moments. And those moments are won or lost long before you step to the front of the room. Here are seven ways managers can ensure they’re making the most of their moment. 1. Know your plan Ann’s preparation went sideways the moment she o…

A layoff doesn’t just remove your role. It disrupts your sense of professional stability. I’ve led workforce reductions at Amazon, Microsoft, and inside private equity-backed companies. I’ve sat in decision meetings where headcount decisions were debated alongside budgets and operating models. I’ve helped leaders understand how layoffs affect company culture. I’ve also supported leaders and executives who lost their jobs. The emotions usually follow a pattern: shock, self-doubt, and then a period of adjustment. But here’s what I’ve learned from those coaching conversations: top performers don’t lose confidence because they lack skills or ability. They lose it beca…

This article is republished with permission from Wonder Tools, a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps. I recently talked with Lance Eaton, Senior Associate Director of AI and Teaching & Learning at Northeastern University and writer of AI + Education = Simplified. We traded ideas about what’s actually working. We came up with 10 specific, practical ways anyone who teaches, coaches, or leads can put AI to work. 1. Spark Richer Student Reflection Lance: Ask students to reflect through a conversation with AI rather than staring at a blank page. A well-prompted AI will keep asking follow-up questions, pushing students past “I didn’t…

Scotch powerhouse Johnnie Walker recently launched the first permanent addition to its main range in 15 years—and it’s aimed at bourbon drinkers. Called Johnnie Walker Black Cask, the new blended Scotch whisky is aged entirely in American white oak barrels that once held bourbon, a choice meant to make the whisky feel more familiar and approachable, especially for U.S. drinkers who may be new to scotch. (If it’s from Ireland and the U.S., it’s spelled “whiskey.” If it’s from Scotland and most other countries, it’s “whisky” without the “e.”) The launch arrives as parent company Diageo looks to strengthen its position in the U.S. at a time when spirits sales have s…

There are 365 teams in Division I men’s college basketball; 363 in women’s college basketball. Only 68 qualify for the NCAA Tournament on each side, and many of those 68 teams in each bracket have already conquered the madness of March. America is enthralled by the NCAA Tournament each year, picking brackets, slacking off during work hours to watch the games, wrapped up in the high-stakes, single-elimination basketball where every loss means the end of seasons and careers, and every win is a magical tale to be told for years to come. There’s more where that came from. Having begun on March 2 and running all the way up to the Selection Show on the 15th, there i…

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. When assessing home price momentum, ResiClub believes it’s important to monitor active listings and months of supply. If active listings start to rapidly increase as homes remain on the market for longer periods, it may indicate pricing softness or weakness. Conversely, a rapid decline in active listings beyond seasonality could suggest a market that is heating up. Since the pandemic housing boom fizzled out in 2022, the national power dynamic has slowly been shifting directionally from sellers to buyers. Of course, across the country, that shift has…

As clocks march ahead and daylight saving time begins, there can be anxiety around losing an hour of sleep and how to adjust to this change. Usually, an hour seems like an insignificant amount of time, but even this minimal loss can cause problems. There can be significant health repercussions of this forcible shift in the body clock. Springing forward is usually harder than falling backward. Why? The natural internal body clock rhythm in people tends to be slightly longer than 24 hours, which means that every day we tend to delay our sleep schedules. Thus, “springing forward” goes against the body’s natural rhythm. It is similar to a mild case of jet lag caus…

Meetings in corporate America are broken—and only breaking down more. Globally, people sit in three times as many meetings as they did before the pandemic, 60% of meetings are ad hoc, rather than scheduled, and 71% of people regularly multitask through them. When poorly-run meetings become the norm, people begin to see them as a time with little value. But meetings are an opportunity to shape organizational culture, and not enough leaders are taking advantage of it. Most high-performing teams build strong relationships, show care for the whole person, have open and honest communications, listen to each other, clarify processes, and collaborate. These are all beha…

If I had a nickel for every time over the past two decades that I’ve heard someone say, “Apple is many things, but affordable isn’t one of them,” I’d probably have enough to buy the latest 16-inch M5 MacBook Pro, introduced this week at an eye-watering $2,699. And if I had another nickel for every time someone shot back, “What do you expect? Apple is a luxury brand—like Ferrari, after all,” I could probably pick up the $3,299 Studio Display XDR the company unveiled this week, too. The thing is, despite the high prices of the devices I’ve mentioned, these arguments were never entirely accurate. That became especially true after this week, when, along with those pricey …

Have you found that you now struggle to get through a book? If so, I have good and bad news for you. The bad news is that losing your ability to read books may be common at the moment, but neuroscience says it is a very bad sign for how our brains are doing. The better news is that science also offers a simple plan to recover your ability to read deeply again. Can’t read books anymore? You’re not alone “Several people have told me lately that they’ve stopped being able to read, echoing my own experience,” author Katherine May confessed in her newsletter recently. Statistics suggest May and her reading-challenged correspondents are far from alone. These days,…

When leaders lose credibility, the explanation usually sounds simple: · “I should have phrased that better.” · “I didn’t say the right thing.” It is easy to point to a sentence or word choice and assume that is where things went pear-shaped. But what most leaders label as a content problem is actually a presence problem. This is the core misunderstanding I see repeatedly in my executive coaching work. Leaders often assume credibility rises and falls based on wording alone. In reality, credibility is shaped by executive presence, which reflects the signals leaders send about confidence, clarity, and authority before their ideas are fully heard. W…

Often when we talk about work-life balance, we focus on ways that work impinges on personal life. Are you taking the time to take care of your physical and mental health? Are you nurturing your personal relationships? Are you giving yourself a chance to engage in hobbies and activities that add meaning to your days? But, sometimes your personal life takes over everything. A family member’s illness or the death of a loved one can throw a wrench into the workings of your life. The dissolution of a marriage can shatter your world. A calamity like a fire can disrupt every aspect of your daily existence. When that happens, work may suddenly take a backseat as you address t…

Americans are seeking financial relief and, in some cases, are even desperate enough to go against conventional financial wisdom. A record number of Americans are turning to their retirement funds to cover emergency expenses. According to newly released data from Vanguard, 6% of 401(k) holders took hardship withdrawals last year. The number is up from 4.8% in 2024, and well above prepandemic levels of about 2%. Taking funds out early is not recommended because early withdrawals from 401(k) plans are taxed. In addition, the funds incur a 10% penalty if the person withdrawing them is under the age of 59½. (The IRS does allow some exceptions to the penalty, includin…

Get ready to pay more to fly. The war in Iran has sent fuel prices surging. On Friday, spot prices for jet fuel were nearly $4 per gallon, up roughly 80% from a month ago, when they were hovering around $2.25. The price increases are a result of the just-begun war in Iran, which has caused shipping and production stoppages and delays. At the same time, airlines are seeing higher demand than they were a year ago. Data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) shows that during January, the number of airline passengers was up almost 4% year-over-year, while demand for air cargo was up 5.6%. On top of that, the war itself is causing some airlines to ca…

Groceries are a little harder to come by in dozens of neighborhoods this year in the wake of an ongoing retreat from The Kroger Co. The Cincinnati-based supermarket company has been shuttering locations since June of last year, when it announced a footprint optimization plan that would result in the closure of about 60 stores. According to a Fast Company review of local media reports and online review platforms like Yelp, Kroger could be more than halfway through that process. Some 33 stores have already closed, with at least three more confirmed so far this year. Closures in the months since the announcement largely impact stores under the flagship Kroger ba…

By now, anyone who follows major brands has seen it or heard of it: The small bite that went ‘round the world. McDonald’s CEO and chairman Chris Kempczinski recently posted a video of himself on Instagram trying the brand’s newly launched Big Arch burger. It was basically the golden arches version of a dorky corporate unboxing. When he got the Big Arch into his grips, he took a reasonable, if small, bite and said, “I love this product. It is so good.” Cue the online mockfest. Kempczinski didn’t deliver the news like an amphetamine-laced nano-influencer. No, here he was eating like some quarter-zip normie on a first date. On a scale of 1-10 in exec…