Trends
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Mastering Hybrid Work: A Manager’s Guide to Flexibility, Culture, and Performance
Managers face a pivotal moment as the boundaries between office and home continue to blur. In this guide, you’ll discover how to craft hybrid work models that balance flexibility with fairness, nurture a cohesive team culture across any distance, and lead with empathy and outcome-focused performance strategies. Dive in to learn actionable steps for turning hybrid work into your organization’s competitive advantage.
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Leadership Links #8
This week’s digest spotlights five executive moves that reflect shifting priorities across automotive, advertising, consumer goods, financial services, and manufacturing sectors. You’ll discover why Renault opted for an internal promotion to guide its new strategic plan, how WPP is breaking barriers with its first female CEO, and what P&G’s choice of a global brand veteran signals for its future. We also cover S&P Global’s mission-driven leadership appointment and Harley-Davidson’s next step toward innovation under a new chief.
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The Power of Proximity: Why Smart Leaders Curate Their Circle
Leadership is rarely a solo act. Every decision, reaction, and insight is influenced by the people closest to you. Your inner circle shapes how you think, how you lead, and how you show up. Proximity has power, and smart leaders know that the people they spend time with can either fuel growth or slowly drain it. This applies to peer groups, direct reports, mentors, and even professional contacts. Leadership is not only about who you lead. It is also about who surrounds you while you lead. Curating that circle with intention is one of the most underrated strategies for long-term effectiveness.
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Diageo’s Leadership Shift Marks a Pivotal Turn in Crisis Management
Diageo, the world’s largest spirits maker known for icons such as Johnnie Walker and Guinness, announced on July 16, 2025, that CEO Debra Crew has stepped down after two challenging years in the top role. Crew’s departure comes by mutual agreement and follows a 44 percent drop in Diageo’s share price during her tenure. Stepping into the breach on an interim basis is CFO Nik Jhangiani, a seasoned finance executive with more than three decades of global experience.
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Leadership Links #7
This week’s roundup covers five major leadership changes shaping strategy across global consumer goods, technology, energy, insurance, and quick-service restaurants. You’ll read why Diageo’s CEO departure signals a push for cost discipline, how Snowflake is aligning its growth roadmap around AI and efficiency, and what Tamboran’s leadership shake-up means for stakeholder oversight. We also explore Munich Re’s carefully managed CEO succession and Subway’s choice of a franchise veteran to drive its modernization efforts.
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Evolve Away: When High-Performers Must Rethink the Roles They Outgrew
For many high-performing managers, success becomes part of their identity. It creates a sense of stability, earns recognition, and builds trust with others. Over time, though, the role that once […]
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AIG Appoints John Neal as President to Drive Integration and Digital Innovation
AIG has appointed John Neal as President to unite its reinsurance and property-casualty operations under a single leader and drive synergies across underwriting, claims, and distribution. Neal’s background at Lloyd’s of London and his focus on AI-driven risk assessment and claims automation aim to boost operational efficiency and enhance profitability. His leadership will accelerate AIG’s digital transformation and position the company for sustainable growth.
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Leadership Links #6
Discover five CEO appointments reshaping strategy across key industries from life sciences to automotive and get insights to guide your boardroom decisions.
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Swallow the Minnow: Start Small to Spark Big Change
Managers often believe progress starts with tackling their biggest, most complex task. But in reality, the fastest path to momentum often begins with the smallest possible action. The phrase “swallow the minnow” captures this idea by encouraging leaders to begin their day or initiative with something quick, clear, and manageable. It may not be impressive at first glance, but it creates a fast psychological shift. By finishing a task early, you engage your focus and send a message to yourself that progress is already happening. That momentum can carry you into larger challenges with renewed energy and clarity. When small wins come first, they prepare the mind to handle bigger work more effectively.
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Should Apple Replace Tim Cook as CEO? Analysts Call for a Product-Focused Leader
Apple’s board faces pressure to find a CEO with a stronger product focus as analysts warn that Tim Cook’s operational strengths may not drive the rapid AI and innovation needed for Apple’s next growth phase.
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Leadership Links #5
Discover five essential corporate governance updates including rising board-CEO conflicts, Tesla shareholder actions, and leadership shifts at X and BP. Gain strategic insights to strengthen board oversight and drive long-term value. Stay ahead of investor-driven boardroom trends and governance best practices.
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Forget Perfection: Why Managers Should Prioritize Consistency Over Clean Wins
When asked about the key to his performance during a record-breaking basketball season, one athlete gave an answer that holds surprising power for leaders: “My whole life is consistent.” He didn’t focus on raw talent or ambition. Instead, he emphasized rhythm and discipline. That same sense of rhythm can become a defining quality in leadership. In many professional settings, managers are expected to perform flawlessly, juggling tasks and decisions with the appearance of control. The reality, however, is that perfection is rare, fleeting, and often unsustainable. It demands too much, too often, and leaves little room for learning or resilience
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Mid-Year touchbase on Leadership Articles from MIT Sloan Management Review in 2025
Discover the five most popular leadership articles from MIT Sloan Management Review in 2025. Learn key insights on AI change management, strategic resilience, culture leadership, and more to guide your organization through uncertainty.
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Leadership Links #4
Explore Boeing’s new Defense leader, Kering’s fresh CEO pick, Intel’s strategic realignments, Barclays’ co-COO model, and Hibernian FC’s commercial CEO hire.
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Health Isn’t a Luxury: How Managers Can Build Microwins Into Everyday Wellness
For many managers, health becomes the first thing to sacrifice when pressure builds. Skipped meals, reduced sleep, back-to-back meetings, and endless screen time become the norm. There is an unspoken assumption that success requires personal depletion. But in reality, sustainable leadership depends on personal well-being. When your health suffers, your decision-making, patience, and resilience suffer too. You may still get things done, but you are not leading at your best.
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UnitedHealth Names Patrick Conway CEO of Optum Health: Steering the Division Through Change
UnitedHealth Group appoints Patrick Conway as CEO of Optum Health to restore growth, advance value-based care models, strengthen compliance, and drive digital innovation amid regulatory challenges.
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Leadership Links – #3
Leadership Links #3 brings you five essential insights on boardroom culture clashes, authentic DEI strategies, phased leadership transitions, sustainability as resilience, and broader talent oversight.
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Rewriting the Story of Work: Finding Meaning Whether You’re Lit Up or Burned Out
When most people think of work, they picture the thing that pays the bills. It is often reduced to a job description, a department, or a performance review. For some, work brings energy and purpose. For others, it becomes a source of pressure, routine, or quiet dissatisfaction. No matter where you land, your relationship with work has a powerful influence on your overall well-being. It shapes your identity, controls your schedule, and defines your sense of accomplishment. Yet at some point, many professionals stop asking themselves a simple question: does this still feel meaningful?
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Regis Corporation Announces CEO Transition: Ensuring Continuity and Strategic Renewal
Regis Corporation names veteran executive Jim Lain as interim CEO following Matthew Doctor’s departure, ensuring seamless leadership and ongoing digital innovation.
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Leadership Links – #2
Discover five essential insights on shareholder activism in Japan, AI-focused restructuring at Accenture, record S&P 500 CEO turnover, leaner management layers, and Alphabet’s AGM outcomes to guide your leadership strategy.
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The Invisible Balancing Act: Managing Work, Family, and Health Without Losing Yourself
The idea of work-life balance shows up everywhere. It appears in leadership seminars, corporate values, and wellness programs. Yet for many professionals, it feels like a phrase that belongs more in theory than in reality. Life does not move in clean, evenly divided segments. Work often flows into the evenings, family needs interrupt structured plans, and personal health is quietly set aside until it demands attention. Trying to balance everything equally can leave you feeling like you are always behind. No matter how carefully you manage your schedule, the scales never seem to settle evenly.
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CEO Succession in 2025: Urgency and Opportunity
In early 2025, chief executive turnover among S&P 500 companies reached 14.8 percent, with 646 departures in the first quarter, marking the highest quarterly total on record since 2001. This surge reflects several factors happening at once, including aggressive cost-cutting initiatives that eliminated layers of middle management, changing career expectations among younger professionals and a persistent underinvestment in deliberate leadership development.
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Leadership Links – #1
In a business landscape increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence, workforce evolution, and global uncertainty, today’s leaders must stay informed and adaptable. This edition of Leadership Links brings together essential articles and resources that explore the future of work, the rise of agentic AI, and the tools needed to shape high-performance teams. Whether you’re refining your HR strategy or navigating workforce transformation, each link below offers timely insights that can help you lead with clarity and foresight. Use these resources to challenge your assumptions, realign your priorities, and make smarter, people-centered decisions.
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From Burnout to Breakthrough: Building BAWDY Goals That Actually Motivate You
Many managers are excellent at setting goals. They are taught to tie objectives to key performance indicators, align targets with strategic plans, and monitor progress through data. On the surface, this seems like a recipe for success. But the truth is, many professionals continue to feel directionless or disengaged even when those goals are met. The reason isn’t a lack of effort or commitment. It’s that most traditional goals are built for systems, not for people. They keep the machine running, but they rarely speak to personal growth or purpose.
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Shut Down the Inner Critic: Rewriting the Mental Playlist of Self-Defeating Managers
Some of the harshest criticism leaders ever hear comes from within. The internal voice that says you’re not ready, not smart enough, or not the right person for the job […]