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Hulu's May lineup brings viewers back into the world of Mormon "MomTok" with the second season of cult reality show The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives (May 15). The series centers on eight Utah-based, Mormon TikTok influencers navigating ongoing relationship drama. Also back for a second season is reality series Vanderpump Villa (May 8), which follows the staff at Real Housewives and Vanderpump Rules star Lisa Vanderpump's French estate. Nine Perfect Strangers (May 21), originally produced as a miniseries, is returning with another installment as an anthology series starring Nicole Kidman and ensemble cast that includes Annie Murphy, Christine Baransky, and Murray Bartlett, among others. The second season brings nine strangers together at a wellness retreat in the Austrian Alps, with Kidman reprising her role as the Russian founder and guru. At the end of the month, Hulu will get the first season of FX's Adults (May 29), an ensemble comedy series from The Tonight Show's Ben Kronengold and Rebecca Shaw about a group of 20-somethings in New York City. Finally, there's a new standup hour from Matteo Lane—The Al Dente Special, a Hulu original, will drop on May 16. Here’s everything else coming to (and leaving) Hulu in May. What’s coming to Hulu in May 2025Arriving May 1Alone Australia: Complete Season 1 The Chicano Squad: Complete Season 1 History's Greatest Escapes with Morgan Freeman: Complete Season 2 Inmate to Roommate: Complete Season 2 James Brown: Say it Loud: Complete Season 1 Jeopardy! Masters: Season 3 Premiere Mormon Mom Gone Wrong: The Ruby Franke Story Naruto Shippuden: Complete Season 9 (Dubbed) Pawn Stars: Complete Season 22 Alienoid (2022) Alienoid 2 (2024) Anaconda (1997) Anaconda En Espanol (1997) Attack The Block (2011) Attack the Block En Espanol (2011) Austenland (2013) Austenland En Espanol (2013) Babylon A.D. (2008) Bad Teacher (2011) Bad Teacher En Espanol (2011) Basic (2003) Basic En Espanol (2003) Battle of the Year (2013) Battle Of The Year En Espanol (2013) The Childe (2023) Con Air (1997) Courage Under Fire (1996) Deliver Us From Evil (2020) Enemy Of The State (1998) Far From the Madding Crowd (2015) The 5th Wave (2016) The 5th Wave En Espanol (2016) The Guardian (2006) Georgia Rule (2007) The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil (2019) Hacksaw Ridge (2016) Horrible Bosses (2011) Horrible Bosses 2 (2014) The Infiltrator (2016) The Insider (1999) Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa (2013) Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa En Espanol (2013) Joy (2015) The King's Man (2021) Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017) Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014) Kung Fu Panda (2008) Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011) Little Fockers (2010) The Negotiator (1998) The Power Of One (1992) Maid in Manhattan (2002) Maid in Manhattan En Espanol (2002) Man on Fire (2004) The Marine (2006) Meet the Fockers (2004) Meet the Parents (2000) Meet the Spartans (2008) Mission: Impossible (1996) Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011) Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol En Espanol (2011) Mission: Impossible II (2000) Mission: Impossible II En Espanol (2000) Mission: Impossible III (2006) Mission: Impossible III En Espanol (2006) Once (2007) Once Upon a Time in America (1984) Prospect (2018) Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty (2013) Sex Tape (2014) Sex Tape En Espanol (2014) Shadow (2018) Spy (2015) Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983) Street Kings (2008) Stuber (2019) Super Troopers 2 (2018) Take Me Home Tonight (2011) Tears of the Sun (2003) That's My Boy (2012) The Villainess (2017) The Wailing (2016) The Witch: Subversion (2018) The Witch 2: The Other One (2022) Tropic Thunder (2008) Waitress (2007) Wedding Crashers (2005) Arriving May 2Pita Hall: Film Premiere Decision to Leave (2022) Harbin (2024) The Last Word (2017) 72 Hours (2024) Arriving May 3Evil Lives Here: Complete Season 13 Naked and Afraid: Complete Season 10 Naked and Afraid XL: Complete Season 3 Unsellable Houses: Complete Season 2 Escape (2024) Jimmy O. Yang: Guess How Much (2023) Arriving May 4Insidious: The Red Door (2023) Insidious: The Red Door En Espanol (2023) Arriving May 7Kun by Agüero: Complete Limited Series (Subbed) Arriving May 8Vanderpump Villa: Complete Season 2 Alone Australia: Complete Season 2 Find My Country House: Australia: Complete Season 1 New House No Debt: Complete Season 1 60 Days In: Complete Season 9 Pil's Adventures (2021) Arriving May 9The UnXplained: Complete Season 7 Summer of 69: Film Premiere Behind Enemy Lines (2001) Commando (1985) The Damned (2024) Hitman (2007) Hitman: Agent 47 (2015) Men Of Honor (2000) The Thin Red Line (1998) The Transporter (2002) Transporter 2 (2005) Arriving May 10Expedition Unknown: Complete Season 6 How It's Made: Complete Season 21 My 600-lb Life: Complete Season 2 My 600-lb Life: Where Are They Now?: Complete Season 1 Robert Durst: An ID Murder Mystery: Complete Season 1 Scorned: Love Kills: Complete Season 2 Blonde and Blonder (2008) Strangerland (2015) Trust (2010) Vengeance: A Love Story (2017) War Inc. (2008) Arriving May 12I'm the Villainess, So I'm Taming the Final Boss: Complete Season 1 (Subbed & Dubbed) My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!: Complete Season 1 (Subbed & Dubbed) Hells Paradise: Complete Season 1 (Subbed & Dubbed) SHANGRILA FRONTIER: Complete Season 1 (Subbed & Dubbed) Arriving May 13Not Others: Complete Season 1 (Subbed) Good Bad Things (2023) Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015) Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation En Espanol (2015) Not Others (2023) Arriving May 15The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives: Season 2 Premiere Beach Hunters: Complete Season 7 Cake Boss: Complete Season 15 Container Homes: Complete Season 1 Curb Appeal: Complete Season 25 Cutthroat Kitchen: Complete Season 4-5 Dr. Pimple Popper: Complete Season 5 Extreme Homes: Complete Season 5 Flea Market Flip: Complete Seasons 10 and 14 Island Life: Complete Seasons 19 and 20 My 600-lb Life: Complete Season 3 My Strange Addiction: Complte Season 5 and 6 Naked and Afraid: Complete Season 9 Say Yes to the Dress: Atlanta Complete Season 7 Tanked: Complete Seasons 13-15 The Last Alaskans: Complete Season 4 Undercover Billionaire: Complete Season 2 Unusual Suspects: Complete Season 7 Worst Cooks in America: Complete Season 24 Arriving May 16Matteo Lane: The Al Dente Special (2025) Welcome to Wrexham: Season 4 Premiere Crossroads (2002) The Last Breath (2025) Arriving May 17Death by Fame: Complete Season 1 Destinations of the Damned With Zak Bagans: Complete Season 1 Expedition X: Complete Season 6-7 Spring Baking Championship: Complete Season 1-3 Jim Gaffigan: Noble Ape (2018) Jim Gaffigan: Quality Time (2019) Jimmy O. Yang: Good Deal (2020) Zarna Garg: One in a Billion (2023) Arriving May 20American Underdog: The Kurt Warner Story (2021) Night Call (2024) Arriving May 21Nine Perfect Strangers: Season 2 Premiere Nine Puzzles: Series Premiere Arriving May 22Ancient Aliens: Complete Season 20 Intervention: Complete Season 25 Jump!: Complete Season 1 Outrageous Love with Nene Leakes: Complete Season 1 Taken in Plain Sight (2024) Arriving May 23The Last Showgirl (2024) Arriving May 24BBQ Brawl: Flay V. Anderson V. Burrell: Complete Season 4 Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern: Complete Season 3 Fixer Upper: Welcome Home: Complete Season 1 Gold Rush: Complete Season 1 Homestead Rescue: Complete Season 12 Arriving May 25How to Please a Woman (2022) Arriving May 27Tsukimichi: Moonlit Fantasy: Complete Season 1 Re: Zero: Complete Season 1 Tower of God: Complete Season 1 The Seed of the Sacred Fig (2024) Arriving May 29Adults: Complete Season 1 The Silencing (2020) Arriving May 30Into the Deep (2024) Rickey Smiley: Untitled (2025) Arriving May 31House Hunters: Complete Season 253 House Hunters International: Complete Season 18 Mysteries at the Museum: Complete Season 24 Tournament of Champions: Complete Season 1 Vanished in New Canaan: An ID Mystery: Complete Season 1 Leanne Morgan: So Yummy (2018) What’s leaving Hulu in May 2025Leaving May 3Both Sides of the Blade (2022) Leaving May 4Last Survivors (2022) Leaving May 8The Last Warrior (2022) Leaving May 10Bar Fight! (2022) Murder at Yellowstone City (2022) Leaving May 11A Cops and Robbers Story (2020) Italian Studies (2021) Leaving May 12Not Going Quietly (2021) Leaving May 13The Capote Tapes (2019) Leaving May 14All the Streets Are Silent: The Convergence of Hip Hop and Skateboarding (1987-1997) (2021) Leaving May 16Kandahar (2023) Sundown (2021) The Immaculate Room (2022) Leaving May 17Slash/Back (2022) Leaving May 19President (2021) Leaving May 25A Taste of Hunger (2021) Leaving May 27The Requin (2022) Leaving May 28Intrigo: Death Of An Author (2018) Leaving May 31Gamestop: Rise of the Players (2022) Mob Land (2023) The Last Tourist (2021) Try Harder! (2021) View the full article

A federal judge says some nonprofits awarded billions for a so-called green bank to finance clean energy and climate-friendly projects cannot have their contracts scrapped and must have access to some of the frozen money. The ruling is a defeat for President Donald The President’s Environmental Protection Agency, which argues the program is rife with financial mismanagement. The order late Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan “gives us a chance to breathe after the EPA unlawfully — and without due process — terminated our awards and blocked access to funds that were appropriated by Congress and legally obligated,” said Climate United CEO Beth Bafford. The lawsuit by Climate United Fund and other groups contends that the EPA, Administrator Lee Zeldin and Citibank, which held the grant money, illegally blocked the funds awarded last year and had jeopardized the organizations’ operations. Chutkan said Citibank must provide the money that was due to the nonprofits before the EPA had frozen their accounts in mid-February. The EPA immediately appealed. The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, commonly referred to as a “green bank,” was authorized by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act under Democratic President Joe Biden. Its goals run counter to the The President administration’s opposition to climate-friendly policies and its embrace of fossil fuels. Zeldin quickly made the bank a target, characterizing the $20 billion in grants as a “gold bar” scheme marred by conflicts of interest and potential fraud. A federal prosecutor resigned after being asked to open a criminal investigation, saying there was not enough evidence to move ahead. The FBI and Treasury Department, in coordination with the EPA, pressured Citibank to freeze the grants, which it did, according to the nonprofits. Last month, Zeldin announced the termination of the grants, saying “well documented incidents of misconduct, conflicts of interest, and potential fraud raise significant concerns and pose unacceptable risk.” Chutkan paused that move, saying the government provided no significant evidence of wrongdoing. But the Republican administration, in a recent filing, asserted it was allowed to end the contracts based on oversight concerns and shifting priorities. “EPA’s new admission that it ‘did not terminate for Plaintiffs’ noncompliance’ … confirms that EPA’s invocation of ‘waste, fraud, and abuse’ was arbitrary and pretextual” the nonprofits said in a court filing. Molly Vaseliou, the EPA’s associate administrator for public affairs, contended that the court lacked the power to reinstate the money. She did not provide any new evidence and repeated unsubstantiated allegations of program abuse and conflicts of interest. “We couldn’t be more confident in the merits of our appeal,” she said in a statement. The government has told the court the case is “just a run-of-the-mill (albeit large) contract dispute.” That argument is important because it could move the case to a different court that can only award a lump sum and not force the government to keep the grants in place. The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment —Michael Phillis, Associated Press View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The Samsung Galaxy Buds FE are down to $47.99 on Woot right now—their lowest price to date, according to price trackers. That’s a solid $22 cheaper than Amazon’s current listing at $69.99. This deal is live for two weeks or until it sells out, and it comes with a 90-day Woot limited warranty. If you're a Prime member, you’ll get free shipping—otherwise, there’s a $6 shipping charge. Samsung Galaxy Buds FE $47.99 at Woot $99.99 Save $52.00 Get Deal Get Deal $47.99 at Woot $99.99 Save $52.00 At this price, these are a decent entry point into Samsung’s audio ecosystem, especially if you’re already using Galaxy devices. You’ll get decent active noise cancellation that holds up surprisingly well in everyday environments like cafes or public transit, enough to cut out most low-level hums and chatter. That said, it doesn’t completely block the outside world, but it muffles it enough to focus on music or a call. The touch controls are responsive—maybe too responsive at times; accidental skips and pauses are common until you get used to the layout. As for battery life, Samsung claims up to six hours of playback with ANC on, and the case adds another 21 hours. That’s more than enough to get through a day or two of regular use. There’s no wireless charging here, though—just USB-C. These days, that feels like a cut corner. And while the EQ presets are decent, there’s no manual tuning option, so if you’re picky about your sound profile, that might feel limiting, notes this PCMag review. There’s also the Galaxy-only interpreter feature that sounds cool on paper but won’t work if you’re using anything other than a Samsung phone. Cross-device sync works great within the ecosystem, though, and the Find My Earbuds tool is genuinely helpful for the forgetful. Still, these aren't ideal for everything. If you’re planning to use them at the gym or on runs, the IPX2 rating won’t cut it—it barely holds up against sweat. And if you’re not a Samsung user, the app experience feels half-baked. For something more flexible and water-resistant, the Soundcore Liberty 4 NC at $69.99 (down from $99.99) might offer better value. View the full article

The skies over New York City may soon get even more crowded as electric air taxi company Archer Aviation is planning to launch a network that connects the city’s major and regional airports with vertiports in Manhattan. The company, which is teaming up with United Airlines for the effort, announced the plans on Thursday. It hopes to connect Manhattan with six airports in the area—LaGuardia, JFK, Newark, and regional airports, Republic, Teterboro, and Westchester—with flights as short as five minutes. Archer’s “Midnight” aircraft could save passengers hours when trying to get between those airports or the three vertiports in Manhattan, according to the company. And the partnership with United Airlines would allow travelers to book those flights as a sort of “add-on” to their traditional inbound or outbound flight from one of the participating airports. For example, if you live in Manhattan and are booking a United flight out of JFK, you can book a flight from the Downtown Skyport to JFK as part of the booking process. The New York City air taxi network is the third such network in the U.S. that Archer has announced so far, with the other two being in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Archer Aviation CCO Nikhil Goel says that the company is currently working out the final details of getting those networks online with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). “There aren’t too many steps left,” Goel says, adding that Midnight air taxis could be flying people around New York, Los Angeles, and the Bay Area “as soon as next year.” Looking up If and when regulatory all the regulatory hurdles will be cleared is anyone’s guess, but should that day come, Archer may not be the only player soaring above the Big Apple. Its competitor Joby Aviation is also planning to launch service in New York City, even showing off its aircraft at an event in Grand Central Terminal late last year. There’s also the potential that the networks could expand. “We’ll start with nine nodes in the New York area,” Goel says. “That’s the three vertiports in Manhattan, the three major airports, and the three regionals—that covers a very large percentage of the people who live and work in the metropolitan area.” When Archer gets a better sense of where more demand for its flights lies, it could expand to other “nodes” in the area, and the same goes for other cities, too. As for pricing, Goel says that the goal is to get to a place where air taxi flights are priced similarly to an Uber ride. For now, the goal is to open and speed up transit options, according to Adam Goldstein, Archer’s founder and CEO. “[The] drive from Manhattan to any of these airports can be painful, taking one, sometimes two hours,” Goldstein said in a statement. “We want to change that by giving residents and visitors the option to complete trips in mere minutes.” View the full article

Growth and inflation set to slow as central bankers prepare for tariff impactView the full article

PPC pricing isn’t one-size-fits-all. Compare models and costs to ensure you’re getting the best return on investment. The post Ask A PPC: How Much Should PPC Management Cost? appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

Heart rate zones are a way to describe how hard you're working during a cardio workout, like running or cycling. The faster your heart beats, the harder you're working. So an easy jog might have you in zone 2 for a whole workout, while a HIIT workout might have you bouncing between zones 1 and 5. Read on for a breakdown of what heart rate zones are, how to use them, and some of the caveats you should know when you're training this way. One quick thing before we dive in: heart rate zones are for cardio. Cardio means exercise that involves doing the same rhythmic movement over and over, like running or swimming or stair climbing. Heart rate zones mean nothing for strength training, even if you have an app or watch that reports them to you as if they matter. Don't worry too much about zones as a beginnerI'm going to start with a huge caveat. You may hear everybody talking about zone this and zone that, but if you're new to exercise or new to heart rate tracking, you're actually better off ignoring zones for a while. Pay more attention to how you feel. A workout that's meant to be easy should feel easy, regardless of what number is on your heart rate monitor. A workout that's meant to be hard should feel hard. Over time, if you watch your heart rate during exercise, you'll start to notice which numbers go with which feelings. Knowing that you see (for example) 140 on your watch when you're in the middle of an easy workout means a lot more than knowing that your device considers it to be "zone 2." Zone workouts are hard for beginners to follow, for a few reasons: Your zones may be hard to stay in, especially the lower zones like zone 2. If your heart rate skyrockets into zone 4 as soon as you start to jog, a zone 2 jog may just not be possible right now. Your zones may not be properly calibrated. You need an accurate max heart rate to set your zones properly (more on that below), and an age-based formula is not guaranteed to be correct. You have more important things to do than stick to zones! Your body needs to learn technique, pacing, and all kinds of physical and psychological skills. Every brain cell you spend on obsessing over zones is a brain cell that's not available for the more important tasks before you. Remember, the reason your watch tells you your heart rate is because that's something that is easy for the watch to measure and display—not because it's the most important thing for you to pay attention to. Know that zones are different from app to appThere isn't just one heart rate zone system! There are dozens, if not hundreds. Some have three zones, some four, some five, and some even more. Even when two apps or wearables use a five-zone system, they don't necessarily set the boundaries of the zones in the same places. For example, some systems will set "zone 2" at 60% to 70% of your max heart rate, while others will use 65% to 75%. The different systems also don't agree on what those percentages are of. Sometimes it's maximum heart rate, which we'll discuss below; sometimes it's heart rate reserve, which also takes your resting heart rate into account. Less commonly, you might find zones based around other metrics like lactate threshold. The most common five-zone systemI know you're not going to be happy until you see me set out a chart of numbers, so here goes. This is not the only zone system out there, but it's one that works decently well for most purposes, and you'll find it in several different apps and wearables. It's not the best, but it is perhaps the simplest. You'll need to know your maximum heart rate (MHR), and then you can take percentages of that to know your zones: Zone 1: 50% to 60% of your maximum heart rate (MHR), though some systems will go up to 65% Zone 2: 61% to 70% of MHR; some systems will go up to 75% Zone 3: 71% to 80%, or it might be more like 76% to 85% Zone 4: 80% to 90%, or sometimes 85% to 95% Zone 5: All the way up to 100% In these systems, zone 1 is for warmups or very easy recovery between intervals. Zone 2 is for easy aerobic training, like a light jog—something you could keep up for hours if you're reasonably fit. Zone 3 is for stuff that feels like a medium intensity, like a faster jog, something that would tire you out to do for more than an hour, but you can keep it up pretty steadily. Zone 4 is when things get intense, usually for just a few minutes at a time, and you’ll only bump in zone 5 for a few seconds during your hardest intervals. You can’t sustain work in zone 5 for much longer than that. If it’s a four-zone systemFour-zone systems cover the same general territory, but break it down into fewer, bigger chunks. Usually they do this by combining the first two zones, to give you something like this: Zone 1: anything below 70% (or 75%) Zone 2: 71% to 80% (or sometimes 76% to 85%) Zone 3: 81% to 90% (or 86% to 95%) Zone 4: Everything on up to 100% In these systems, easy-effort endurance work is generally done in zone 1 (instead of warming up in zone 1 and considering the workout itself to be zone 2). Zone 2 is for medium efforts, zone 3 for hard efforts, and zone 4 for absolutely killer, short intervals. How to find your maximum heart rateNow that you know the zones, you’re only missing one thing: your maximum heart rate, which forms the basis for them all. Commonly, these systems will recommend you subtract your age from the number 220 to find your max heart rate. Occasionally they’ll use another formula. But these formulas are often wrong, since they give a single number for everybody at the same age. We're supposed to believe all 43-year-olds have a max heart rate of 177, but in reality there are plenty of 43-year-olds with a max heart rate over 200, and it's not rare to find some 43-year-olds with a max heart rate in the 150s. (Similar caveats apply to any age.) The person with the 200 max will wonder why they're always in "zone 4" when they feel like they're in zone 2, and the person with the 150 max will wonder why they feel like they're dying when they're in "zone 3." So don't rely on a formula, especially if you're seeing zones that don't make sense for how a workout felt. Ideally you’ll do a max heart rate test as I described here, or make an educated guess by looking up the highest heart rate that your device recorded during one of your hardest workouts. What each heart rate zone should feel likeYou can do a little reality check on your zones by making sure they feel right. Here's what they should feel like: Zone 1 will feel very easy, barely like you’re exercising at all. In zone 2, you’ll start to feel hot and sweaty, but you can still easily carry on a conversation. In zone 3, your breathing will get a bit heavier. The lower end of zone 3 is still conversational, but toward the top of this zone you’ll only be able to say a few words at a time. In zone 4, you’re working hard and not in the mood to talk, but you probably feel like you could keep this effort up for a while—or a few more minutes at least. Zone 5 is your absolute top speed, and you can only stand it for a few grueling seconds. If you aren’t sure of your max heart rate, try using this effort-level guide for a while. When you actually do get to a workout that calls for zone 5, give it your all—then check your heart rate monitor to see what number it gave you. How do I stay in zone 2? I have more on zone 2 here, including what it is, how to do it, and why it might be just a teensy bit overrated. Zone 2 refers to an easy effort that you can carry on basically forever. If you're a beginner, walking might be a zone 2 workout. For an athlete, zone 2 might be a brisk jog that they could keep up for a few hours. The best marker of a zone 2 workout is that you stop because time is up, not because you're too tired to continue. There's nothing special about staying in zone 2, except that it's low-fatigue and so you can do a lot of it. If you find your heart rate inching up into zone 3, that's honestly totally fine for probably 99% of people. The more exercise you do, the more you have to pay attention to the intensity of it. Athletes who are exercising 10 hours every week need to make sure that some of those workouts are easy ones. But if you're getting in a few 30-minute jogs or exercises classes, any intensity is fine so long as you end most workouts feeling good and not totally exhausted. View the full article

I founded my company nearly two decades ago. As a bootstrapper, it was initially just me, but soon enough we grew to a dozen people, then a few dozen, then a hundred, and so on. In the early days, I remember feeling confident in my hard skills, like product development and growth strategy. But soft skills were uncharted territory. So I did what you do: practiced the tough conversations and speeches in front of the mirror. It helped—preparation is half the battle—but sometimes I imagine how much faster my leadership skills would have developed if I had real-time feedback. That’s one of the features of AI-powered leadership platforms. For today’s businesses, leadership training is more important than ever. Cornell Tech lecturer Keith Cowing recently noted that simply completing tasks will hold less value in an AI-driven future, while judgment and leadership will become increasingly critical. He added that those with strong judgment will be significantly more rewarded than those who rely solely on task execution. It’s no wonder that tech giants and startups alike are tossing their hats into this burgeoning AI industry, from ​LinkedIn Learning’s AI-powered coaching to newer arrivals like CodeSignal and Tenor. As CEO of Jotform, I’m leveraging these training tools myself, but I’m even more excited to see how they will help executives and employees at all levels to advance in their careers. Here’s a closer look at the power of AI-powered leadership training. A more effective way to develop essential skills For enterprises across the globe, soft skills are more important than ever. According to the World Economic Forum’s The Future of Jobs Report 2025, leadership and social influence are among the top three core skills required by employers, highlighting the rising importance of human-centric abilities in the rapidly evolving job market. While out-of-the-box training solutions often fall short (and can be less than stimulating), AI-powered leadership training offers tailored, hands-on learning experiences. You can work on the skills and address the challenges unique to your position and organization. CodeSignal’s AI-powered Conversation Simulation solution, for example, leverages generative AI and voice models to create realistic conversational partners. Users engage in dynamic conversations with AI partners and simulate potential situations. They can practice invaluable skills like delivering feedback, active listening, and conflict resolution. It’s the next best thing to real-world practice. While the AI-powered leadership development platform Tenor offers training in common scenarios, users can also work with the company to develop organization-specific situations and incorporate their company’s distinctive leadership philosophies. Traditional leadership training modules often feel more like staged performances than genuine learning experiences. Imagine standing in front of your peers, tasked with role-playing a difficult conversation. For some, it’s an engaging exercise. For others, it’s an exercise in self-consciousness. (Like that time I had the brilliant idea of enrolling in an improv comedy class—not my most comfortable experience.) The beauty of AI-powered leadership training is that it removes this pressure. Instead of performing for an audience, you’re practicing with an AI partner—free from judgment, free to focus on developing real skills. At Jotform, we take an automation-first approach: If a process can be automated, we do it. If a solution scales, even better. AI-powered leadership training embodies both principles. It’s accessible to employees at every level—from top executives and middle managers to ambitious entry-level employees. And because it’s scalable, as your company grows, more employees can tap into these resources, building a steady pipeline of future leaders. Best of all, AI-driven programs are often more cost-effective than traditional leadership workshops, making high-quality training available without breaking the bank. AI is transforming leadership training by making it more adaptive, personalized, and scalable. These platforms don’t just offer cookie-cutter lessons. They analyze individual strengths and weaknesses, consider your company’s unique circumstances, and provide tailored simulations and real-time feedback. Today’s most successful leaders aren’t just keeping up with the latest AI advancements—they’re using it to boost their decision-making, innovation, and learning. By combining AI-driven tools and traditional training methods, companies can develop stronger, more prepared leaders who are ready to navigate as fast-changing business landscape. View the full article

Google is sending some of its advertisers personalized emails about how they can boost their ads performance by following a few steps. The email is titled, "Your step-by-step guide to boost ads performance."View the full article

Google has released version 19.1 of the Google Ads API, v19.1 added 11 new features, removed 0 features and changed 23 different features. This goes across assets, campaigns, Demand Gen, conversions, LSAs, and more.View the full article

As I covered yesterday, Google is going to redirect its ccTLDs to Google.com. And as I reported yesterday, Google also said "it won't affect the way Search works." Despite Google saying that, there are tons of people in our industry thinking that international SEO has changed with this announcement - it has not.View the full article

More than 60,000 federal workers were dismissed during the first two months of the The President administration with more staff reductions expected in the coming months. Many are mid-career employees who have worked for the government for a decade or more, making it more challenging for them to make the case that their skills are transferrable to the private sector. “It’s an identity shift,” says Arianny Mercedes, founder of Revamped, a New York City-based career consultancy. For many of these professionals, their roles weren’t just jobs; they were commitments to public service, she says. “When someone’s identity is deeply tied to government service, being laid off or pivoting into a new industry can feel like losing a part of themselves,” she adds. However, experts agree that mid-career, federal employees who suddenly find themselves looking for new roles have much to offer the private sector, including institutional knowledge and emotional maturity. Here are five ways they can position themselves for private sector jobs. Related: 3 tips for federal workers who are scrambling to find new jobs Translate the jargon Many federal employees have robust leadership, policy, operations, and compliance experience, but most need help translating what they do into private sector language, says Carol Kaemmerer, president and principal at Kaemmerer Group LLC, an executive branding and coaching firm in Minneapolis. Federal employees have valuable skills, but they are often hidden behind their bureaucratic titles and government jargon, Mercedes says. For instance, federal employees with titles like procurement officer, program manager and policy analyst possess valuable skills like critical thinking, risk mitigation and stakeholder navigation. When writing a resumé, it’s essential to replace bureaucratic jargon with business-friendly terms. For instance, talk about your experience with “strategic operations” instead of “policy execution,” or refer to your “cross-functional leadership” or instead of “inter-agency collaboration,” says Caroline Geraghty, a client account manager at 110 North, The Creative Agency in Charlotte, N.C. Business-friendly terms will help hiring managers and recruiter connect the dots between your experience and their hiring needs, she says. Leverage your unique skill set Spend some time identifying the types of problems you’re highly skilled at solving and then research which private sector company roles seek to solve the same types of problems, says Becca Carnahan, founder of Next Chapter Career, LLC in Boston. For example, if in your federal job, you created processes to improve efficiency then you might want to look at operation manager roles. If you were known for building unexpected partnerships, then perhaps look at business development roles. Identify and then leverage your unique skill set, Kaemmerer says. As a former federal employee, your superpower might be helping companies to navigate federal regulations and government relations, she says. “Clarify the one thing you do better than 95% of people—and articulate how that fills a pressing need in the team or project you’re targeting,” says Sylvana Rochet, an executive and transition coach at Elan Vital. For instance, federal employees often excel at building consensus among stakeholders with conflicting agendas. That mix of diplomacy and influence is highly valued by the private sector, she says. Focus on outcomes Rather than listing job duties and tasks on your resumé, emphasize the outcomes you achieved at your federal agency. “Private employers don’t understand the skill-coding system that is pervasive in the federal workforce, but they do understand outcomes,” says Jason Leverant, president and COO of staffing firm AtWork Group. State your key accomplishments in plain language and highlight the impact those achievements had on your organization’s success, he says. For instance, instead of saying you updated 70 Standard Operating Procedures, explain how you helped to improve operational efficiency or saved the agency time and money. Many mid-career federal employees manage multi-million-dollar budgets, lead teams and navigate complex compliance issues. “All of these skills are highly transferable when framed properly,” says Tristan Layfield, principal career coach at Career Clarity Solutions in Detroit. Talk about the size of your team, the dollar value of your budget and the number of strategic partners you worked with, he says. Become a better storyteller In the private sector, storytelling is strategic currency, Mercedes says. Practice telling hiring managers your story by creating narratives around your impact and adaptability, she advises. Private sector hiring managers often assume federal candidates can’t keep up in faster-paced environments, when the reality is most government professionals have been doing more with less for years but they haven’t had to tell that story, according to Mercedes. Layfield agrees that one of the biggest challenges facing federal workers is combating the perception that they are too siloed or inflexible. Position yourself as an adaptable, data-driven problem solvers with a unique understanding of policy and systems thinking, he says. Leverage your professional networks Networking is essential when seeking private-sector jobs. About 70% of jobs are found through social and professional networks, so it’s important to engage with industry groups, be active on LinkedIn, and attend networking events. Connect with former government colleagues who may have already transitioned into the private sector to ask for guidance and referrals, Geraghty suggests. “With the right guidance and strategic positioning, federal professionals can make powerful transitions,” Kaemmerer says. View the full article

Google launched its shopping / e-commerce card in the search results as a test several months ago. Since then, the card has undergone various tweaks. Now, Google is testing showing an animated/playable video in the shopping card block.View the full article

While you can access Google AI Mode directly at google.com/aimode, there is currently no way to go direclty to something like google.com/aimode?q=QUERYGOESHERE. But that might come, said Robby Stein, VP, Product at Google Search.View the full article

We analyzed 300,000 keywords and found that the presence of an AI Overview in the search results correlated with a 34.5% lower average clickthrough rate (CTR) for the top-ranking page, compared to similar informational keywords without an AI Overview. Thanks…Read more ›View the full article

See sitemap examples like openai.com/sitemap.xml. And learn how XML and HTML types differ. View the full article

A new watchdog report uncovers Facebook groups quietly fueling a black market for operational Uber and DoorDash accounts, posing serious safety concerns for riders and customers. The Tech Transparency Project (TTP), a research initiative run by the nonprofit the Campaign for Accountability, found more than 80 black market groups through searches for terms such as “uber account for rent.” Sporting a combined membership of more than 800,000 users and named things like “Uber Delivery Drivers Account For Rent” or “UBER ACCOUNT FOR RENT WORLDWIDE,” these groups make no secret of their intent. Through these online groups, users can acquire delivery or rideshare accounts without going through the required screening process, allowing those without licenses or insurance to drive for these companies. By bypassing the screening procedure, buyers can also skip the required background checks for drivers. “For women or people who may be vulnerable, if the person making a delivery or picking somebody up via Uber has a criminal history, there is an increased risk to those users,” TTP Director Katie Paul says. Paul says that this concern is only the latest content moderation issue in a broader pattern with Facebook and Meta. Past TTP reports have documented a thriving black market for Facebook business accounts, revealing how the platform—which has over three billion active users worldwide, according to recent financial filings—is being exploited for scams and potential election interference. This latest TTP report comes as Meta already faces fresh criticism for scaling back third-party fact-checking in January and shifting more responsibility to users to flag harmful content. That decision coincided with Meta’s launch of the Community Notes feature, which essentially relies on Facebook users to moderate content and flag posts that violate community guidelines. The move was met with widespread backlash, particularly given that it was announced mere weeks before President Donald The President’s inauguration. According to Paul, though, the change in moderation guidelines made little difference when it came to scams that are at the center of the latest TTP report. Paul says this recurring issue is especially prevalent on Facebook, largely because of its “Group” functionality. The platform relies on community moderators and administrators to police content—but that system breaks down when the groups themselves are designed to enable scams and fraud. “These have essentially become insulated communities for all kinds of nefarious activity,” Paul says. “They’re not just groups where people are trying to keep their plants alive.” In October 2024—prior to Meta’s content moderation policy shift—TTP published a report on a pro-The President scam ad network, uncovering more than 100 Facebook groups dedicated to selling business manager accounts capable of running multiple pages and ad campaigns. A similar trend was noted in a 2019 report by Talos, Cisco’s cybersecurity research division, which found Facebook groups selling cyber fraud services. Some of these groups had been active for nearly eight years, their reach amplified by Facebook’s content algorithm. A Meta spokesperson says the company is reviewing the report and removing content that violates guidelines. The spokesperson adds that Meta does not allow content that offers to buy, sell, or trade any personal identifiable information. The TTP report arrives as Meta stands trial for allegedly violating antitrust laws, with the Federal Trade Commission accusing the company of using a “buy-or-bury” strategy to eliminate competition. The case marks a major push to redefine how antitrust rules apply to tech giants, with the FTC targeting Meta’s high-profile acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp—each now boasting nearly two billion monthly active users. “Meta is facing an FTC trial today about whether the platform has monopolized because it’s gotten so big,” Paul says. “If the company is not able to control its product because of its scale, it raises a lot of other questions that policymakers really should be looking into.” View the full article

Progress in ‘tariff diplomacy’ will determine level of danger for economy, says Jonathan GrayView the full article

Becoming a manager for the first time can feel exciting, gratifying, nerve-wracking, and even overwhelming. But being a good boss is not about following a checklist of what makes a perfect manager, as there’s no such thing, argues Sabina Nawaz in her book You’re the Boss: Become the Manager You Want to Be (and Others Need). A former HR leader at Microsoft and executive coach for Fortune 500 decision-makers, Nawaz offers actionable frameworks in her book on how to become a better manager, backed by lessons from her clients and personal career wins and losses. Here are some top takeaways from the book on how new managers can best make the transition. Being a good manager is a journey It’s a common misconception that there are “bad” bosses and “good” ones, but according to Nawaz, we all have the capacity to teeter between good and bad boss behaviors. “Just as no person is all good or all bad, the measure of a boss is neither binary nor fixed,” writes Nawaz. “‘Bad’ bosses are rarely bad people. In fact, most of them are good people with the best of intentions who unwittingly cross a tenuous dividing line between good intentions and bad behaviors.” Acknowledging this can help you realize it’s an active practice to deliver skilled management—and quite common for negative habits to emerge if left unchecked. This mental shift of making continual progress towards productive behaviors and minimizing the emergence of lackluster ones often starts with reframing how you attain success. Your path to becoming a manager was likely the result of being an ambitious professional delivering beyond expectations, but that’s no longer the case. “Showcasing your output may be what got you where you are, but now you need to rewire who gets showcased and what ‘output’ means,” writes Nawaz. “Recalibrating to focus on driving your team’s success is the critical distinction between being a standout employee and a standout boss.” It’s a continual effort as a manager to reorient how you were incentivized to perform before, and do your best to avoid the slow slip into “bad boss” behaviors, writes Nawaz. Communicate with greater precision Now that you’re a manager, the power dynamics have shifted when it comes to how you’re perceived by your colleagues. What you say, write, and do can carry more weight. Poor communication is the second most common perceived weakness of managers, according to Nawaz’s research. One of the most common mistakes is when managers give imprecise feedback or advice, resulting in a lack of clarity on appropriate next steps. This can lead to an overreaction like a colleague redesigning the entire pitch deck, when only one slide needed a revamp. Or too restrained of a response altogether. When you’re a manager, the team often pays close attention to your every word, so Nawaz suggests using what she dubs “the scaling tool” to offset this pitfall and communicate with the intended level of impact and urgency. She suggests saying something like: “On a scale of one to 10, I’d rate the importance of this task at a . . .” Or, “in terms of a rough sketch vs. polished, this can be a . . .” Or, “On a scale of one to 10, how confident do you feel about your ability to deliver in the timeline given?” Any professional could benefit from being a more calculated communicator by using the scaling tool, but it matters more when your team puts more weight to your message. Another common mistake among managers is giving “uneven feedback” or only offering corrective feedback about what’s wrong and needs to be improved upon. Solely delivering negative feedback is demoralizing and harmful to a team member’s productivity when they’re not getting motivating insights into what is working. “As human beings, we are wired to listen for the dangers, for the negatives, and don’t take in the positive until it’s repeated endlessly like this week’s top song,” writes Nawaz. She recommends managers offset this by offering five positive comments for every piece of corrective feedback, keeping the positive stuff more feedback than praise, and making the delivery of positive feedback a frequent habit. This is important: A Gallup survey found that employees rank the “most meaningful and memorable recognition” comes from their managers. Delegate effectively Now that you’re a manager, you can’t continue to do everything yourself like you did when you were an individual contributor. You have to delegate. What’s not obvious about delegating is how to do it successfully. You can’t simply pass off tasks with a set of instructions and hope for results. According to Nawaz, delegation starts with identifying your direct report’s level of knowledge on a given subject or task. The next step is adjusting your coaching so employees are given the right level of support and independence. Depending on how much support is needed, you could approach that in a number of ways. For instance, you could do the task and have them observe you, teach them the step-by-step process, ask what they need from you as they complete the task without your instruction, or make it clear you’re a resource as they finalize the task on their own. These actions go in order of providing more coaching from you and less self-sufficiency initially to eventually scaling back your involvement and increasing their own autonomy to complete the task. Delegation is critical for not only empowering your team to grow and contribute to the organization’s goals, but it also provides you with more blank space on your schedule for other tasks. Recognize your triggers that lead to bad boss behavior You’ll be exposed to different sources of stress and pressure as a manager. Some is avoidable, but a lot of it is not. The buildup of these forces is typically what leads a well-intentioned manager to delegate poorly, communicate haphazardly, or come across as cold. To do your best to prevent a downward shift toward the bad boss lane, aim to control how you react to these strains by spotting the triggers that set you off. Nawaz refers to these as your “pressure pitfalls,” and the ability to identify them as they’re emerging can help you deescalate and change how you react in the moment. She suggests managers ask themselves these types of questions and keep note of the scenarios when these moments bubble up. “What types of people tend to put me on high alert?” “What tends to get under my skin the most?” “What days of the week or cyclical or seasonal times are particularly pressure-filled for me?” “What do I experience physically when I get triggered?” “When are the moments I am not at my best? (When you’re sleep-deprived? Hungry? In the mornings before you’ve had your coffee or late afternoons when your energy dips?)” The answers you come up with can help you map your pressure-induced triggers and begin to adjust how you react through following a series of grounding exercises. Once a trigger is activated, Nawaz recommends doing complex math or thinking through a familiar memory to help direct the brain out of a flight or fight moment and back to executive functioning. To put this into practice—or any of these suggestions—Nawaz advocates for creating a “micro habit” where you practice the skill daily and keep it small, so “they’re tiny enough to sneak past our defense systems and start to inoculate us against change resistance.” By small, she suggests so tiny that this habit takes two minutes or less a day, and may even feel absurdly minuscule on the surface, which means you’re off to a strong start. Keep these management frameworks and recommendations in mind as you begin your journey of working to become a better boss for your team. View the full article

The world’s first commercial “direct air capture” plant opened in Iceland in 2021, with the capacity to remove around 4,000 tons of CO2 from the atmosphere each year and turn it into stone deep underground. Four years later, a new DAC plant planned in Louisiana, called Project Cypress, is designed to be 250 times larger—capturing 1 million tons of CO2 a year. But supporters are now scrambling to save the project, and up to $550 million in Department of Energy funding on which its future relies. Under the Biden administration, the DOE planned to create four large new American DAC hubs, with two selected so far. In Louisiana, the project was designed to scale up two different technologies: one from Climeworks, the company behind the first plant in Iceland, and the other from Heirloom, a Silicon Valley startup that operates a plant in California’s Central Valley. Another DAC hub, in Texas, secured up to $500 million in funding from the agency. The government sent the first tranche of $50 million to both last year. Now there’s a chance that neither project will happen. Last month, a leaked DOE memo suggested that the planned DAC hubs in Louisiana and Texas would lose their funding. If that happens, it will be a major challenge for either project to survive. “The whole point of the [DOE funding] is to step in when it’s too risky for the private sector to do so,” says Jessie Stolark, executive director of the Carbon Capture Coalition, a nonpartisan group of companies, unions, and environmental organizations that advocates for so-called carbon management tech. “You’ve got to wonder who’s going to take that risk on.” Stolark sees a very real risk that the U.S. is ceding its leadership in the energy space. She says that it’s a story that’s been played out so many times in tech advancement: “The U.S. spends the money on the research and development for a technology, and then we don’t end up manufacturing or deploying the technology. It’s deployed elsewhere.” Experts say DAC technology could be a meaningful part of the fight against climate change, though it’s still at an early stage of development. It will only ever supplement the main solution: radically curtailing greenhouse emissions across every sector of the economy, from transportation to manufacturing to housing. But the science suggests that to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, we must also remove at least some of the billions of tons of CO2 that we’ve pumped into the atmosphere since the start of the Industrial Revolution. Congress has recognized the potential for DAC technology, and earmarked $3.5 billion in 2021’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to fund the DOE’s hubs program, which is administered by the department’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations. The new office launched in order to run the program and support other early-stage climate tech in the private sector. Yet on his first day in office, The President halted the payout of funds granted under both the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act. (He later clarified that the 90-day pause applied only to projects that are part of what the president derisively calls the “Green New Scam.”) He also tasked agencies with reviewing federal grants to assess whether they were “consistent” with his administration’s policy priorities—even though the government already had signed legally binding contracts to disburse the funds. Compounding the issue, these policy U-turns have put other sources of money at risk. Corporations that had planned to buy carbon removal credits from the DAC plants to help meet their own climate goals, including Microsoft, Amazon, and AT&T, now don’t know when or even if those credits will become available. Investors have to worry that a make-or-break chunk of funding will disappear. Banks financing the projects could get cold feet. “The uncertainty itself is damaging,” says Noah Deich, cofounder of the nonprofit Carbon180, who served as deputy assistant secretary for carbon management at the Department of Energy under Biden. “Everyone just needs clarity as quickly as possible.” Climeworks and Heirloom both declined to comment for this story. Batelle, which is overseeing the implementation of the project, didn’t respond to a request for an interview. It’s not yet a foregone conclusion that the projects are dead. After the memo leaked, a coalition of Louisiana business associations sent a letter to their D.C. representatives urging support for policies that boost carbon management. Signees included groups not known for their support of environmentalism or progressive ideals, such as the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association and the Louisiana Chemical Association. (Such support has made DAC tech controversial in some climate circles, since some industries appear to view DAC credits as an excuse to keep polluting. But help from the oil sector could also be the technology’s fastest means of scaling up.) Louisiana Economic Development Secretary Susan Bourgeois sent another letter to Congress specifically advocating for Project Cypress. “Beyond the direct economic benefits—thousands of jobs and billions of dollars added to the state’s GDP—the project will have immense downstream impacts,” she wrote. “Investing in DAC will generate demand for American-made steel, concrete, and advanced equipment, revitalizing U.S. manufacturing and ensuring that innovation and jobs remain here at home.” The project is estimated to bring around 2,300 jobs and a total investment of up to $1.7 billion to Louisiana. A report from the Rhodium Group estimates that the DAC industry as a whole has the potential to employ 55,000 people in the state, creating jobs that often appeal to people transitioning out of oil and gas. (In Texas, the planned DAC hub would bring 2,000 jobs, and the industry could attract more than 200,000 jobs.) “What we’re seeing is that all of these projects are in really conservative districts,” says Deich. “These are the exact types of industrial and manufacturing jobs that so many of these communities have been asking for and are being delivered.” At the same time, “We’ve already seen this administration say very clearly that they don’t think climate change is a problem. And if you don’t think climate change is a problem, efforts to clean up carbon pollution from the atmosphere are not useful. That’s what’s so concerning to me.” Following lobbying efforts, a revised version of the memo leaked again. Project Cypress was no longer marked as “terminate,” sources say, but the list noted that DOE wanted more time to evaluate the project. (Funding for the Texas project was still slated for termination.) A final decision might come in the next couple of weeks, when The President’s 90-day pause on funding disbursements expires. But even if the money survives, the projects will still face challenges—including the fact that swaths of DOE staff have lost their jobs or accepted buyout offers, and it’s not clear who will be left at the agency to do the work. Meanwhile, some DAC projects that don’t rely on massive federal grants are still moving forward, including a different large facility in Texas that’s slated to open later this year and will capture half a million tons annually. But it’s critical to launch more large projects, says Deich. The industry is aiming for a cost of $100 per ton of CO2 captured. “Everyone knows that you won’t get to that price point until you start building it at scale,” he says. “That creates the type of deployment-led innovations that you’ve seen from solar and wind—places where breakthroughs happened in the lab, initially, but then 90% of the cost reduction happened because the people who manufactured stuff figured out how to do it better.” If large projects are delayed, that means it will take longer to get down the cost curve—and could make it harder to get more investments from the policy side in the future. Deich worries now that if the new hubs aren’t built now, people will think the projects didn’t move forward because the tech doesn’t work. That’s not the case. “It’s the political decisions that [could cause] the projects to fail at this point,” he says. “Not something inherent to the projects.” View the full article

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Sometimes, being a leader means making tough calls—ones that aren’t popular, and sometimes even get misunderstood. You’ve probably heard the saying, “If everyone likes you, you’re not really leading.” Fair enough. But what do you do when you hear that no one wants to work with you? Maybe it comes up in passing from a colleague, or maybe it hits harder in a 360 review. Either way, that kind of feedback can sting. It’s that gut-punch moment where you think, Wait . . . what? You’ve been putting in the work, prioritizing the team (at least in your mind), but somehow people aren’t seeing it. They don’t get the pressure you’re under, the decisions you’ve had to make, or why things played out the way they did. Here’s the hard truth: Perception is reality. You might feel like you’re doing everything right, but if your team feels disconnected or frustrated, their experience is what matters most. It’s time to pause, reflect, and figure out how things veered off course. No, it’s not fair. And no, you can’t fix it overnight. But you can make a plan to rebuild trust, reconnect with your team, and start turning things around—one step at a time. Get the data Yeah, this part’s going to be uncomfortable—but if you’ve heard that no one wants to work with you, it’s time to figure out why. You’ve got a couple of options. If you haven’t already done a 360 review, that’s a good place to start. Or you can reach out to a trusted advisor or mentor and ask for some honest feedback. One thing you don’t want to do? March straight over to your team and start digging for answers. That’ll likely come off as defensive—or worse, accusatory—and it won’t help your case. Instead, talk to someone outside the situation. Ideally, someone who knows you well but isn’t directly impacted by your leadership style. You want perspective, not more tension. I worked with one client who’s a strong, passionate leader—but sometimes that passion got the best of him. For instance, when his team would present him with ideas, my client would shout them down if he thought those ideas wouldn’t work. His team felt overwhelmed, and eventually no one wanted to work with him. My client wasn’t aware of the pattern and had no idea his team felt so discouraged. His 360 revealed to him how much his reactions were demoralizing his team; my client learned to soften his delivery, slow down, and listen more. Say sorry Before you can really move forward, you’ve got to clean up some of the mess behind you. That means taking a hard look at the feedback you got and asking yourself: To whom do I owe an apology? You don’t need to deliver a grand speech or make it weird—just keep it simple and sincere. Something like: “Eric, I’m sorry for how I’ve handled things in the past. I lost my cool and yelled, and I know that wasn’t okay. I hope we can move forward and focus on doing great work together.” That’s it. One apology, no over-explaining, no revisiting it later. Say it, mean it, and then move on. The goal isn’t to dwell—it’s to rebuild. Create a plan for moving forward After you’ve gathered data and said sorry to folks, it’s time to develop a structured, daily plan for how you’ll treat your teammates. Here are some ideas for elements to include in that plan, which you can refine based on your specific needs: Say “good morning” every day. On Mondays, ask how your team members’ weekends were. Ahead of difficult conversations, set aside planning time. Practice the interaction so you aren’t left winging it (that’s a recipe for saying something you’ll later regret). “Good is good enough”—remind yourself of this maxim. Rather than shoot for perfect, identify what is 80%, or “good enough.” Write down what this looks like for your particular projects, as well as how you’ll reward your team for a job well done. If you have an upcoming meeting with peers who trigger you to yell and be disrespectful, create a plan for how you’ll mitigate that impulse (for example, “I will take three deep breaths before responding to Alex”). Plan to share a “thank you” and “good job” to someone at least two times a week. Don’t be afraid to write down the details of the plan, no matter how trivial they may seem. Getting a plan in writing means you’re more likely to follow through. Be consistent If you’re trying to turn over a new leaf as a manager, just know—your team is going to be cautious at first. They’ll be watching to see if this is the real deal or just a phase. One offhand comment or outburst and they’ll be thinking, “Yep, there it is. Knew it wouldn’t last.” It’s not because they’re rooting against you—it’s because they’ve been burned before. That’s why it’s so important to make sure your actions match your words. If you say you’re changing but then fall back into old habits, it creates confusion and makes people feel unsafe. So take the time to prepare—especially for tough moments. Got a difficult conversation coming up? Map it out first. Think through what you want to say and how you want to say it. Yes, it’s more work upfront. But it helps lay the groundwork for real trust—and that’s what will make your new leadership style stick. Just remember: This is a long game, not a quick fix. Playing the long game is difficult when you want a quick win. I worked with one client who wanted things with her team to turn around right away. However, changing a behavior is never easy; this client had to continually focus on and practice a new way of speaking to her team. My client was frustrated with the amount of effort she had to put toward this new communication style. When she had slipups and reverted back to her old style, she felt as if she were starting from square one each time. I continually reminded this client that change takes time. She had many conversations with her manager in which she shared her management plan and the results she was getting. The manager served as a support system to my client as she implemented the changes. It’s hard to hear that no one wants to work with you, but you can turn the ship around. Remember that your team members are people first. Say “sorry” where you need to, treat people with respect, and make a concrete plan to be less reactive moving forward. View the full article

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