Latest news with #leaders
Fast Company
2 hours ago
- Business
- Fast Company
Why your brain matters more than ever in the AI age
It can be enthralling to watch artificial intelligence models progress toward a mastery of deep learning. But are we as equally invested in our own abilities to think and learn? The human capacity to think deeply, find meaning, and apply wisdom is what makes us unique. Yet, it is increasingly tempting and easy to rely on the fast, accessible answers that AI provides. In a recent McKinsey study of organizations that use generative AI, only 27% said that employees review all content created by gen AI before it is used. One-third of respondents said that only 20% or less of gen-AI-produced content is checked before use. The antidote in this moment is critical thinking. Critical thinking is sometimes called 'careful thinking,' as it involves questioning, interpretation, and discernment. Critical thinking is not always our default mode, and it's already under siege from frequent AI usage. However, critical thinking skills can be taught. Moreover, according to our latest research, leaders with strong critical thinking skills have better outcomes, such as confidence in their ability to lead and lower burnout. Thinking Slow or Not at All Whether it's a matter of being lazy or economical, humans don't think a lot if we don't have to. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. Researchers estimate that our conscious brains process information at a rate of 10 bits per second. (AI models process data at trillions of bits per second.) So, we conserve our limited mental horsepower for complex tasks rather than 'wasting' it on simple or repetitive tasks. This is why we go into autopilot mode when we drive familiar routes or rely on mental shortcuts to make decisions. (For example, we are prone to judging a person's trustworthiness based on appearance instead of interactions.) Our slow brains have a new, fast friend called AI. That's a good thing, right? It can be. AI can rapidly process vast amounts of information, recognize patterns that lie beyond human reach, and provoke us to consider new angles. AI-based tools will expand our understanding of business performance, team dynamics, market trends, and customer sentiment. But our new friend can also exacerbate our tendency for cognitive laziness. Remember those mental shortcuts we take? In one shortcut, we overtrust answers from automated systems and don't pay attention to contradictory information, even if it's correct. As AI tools become even smarter and slicker—and answers are delivered in highly confident tones—this automation bias can grow. The downside to all of this is the risk of losing one's own capacity for thinking, learning, and reasoning. Guillaume Delacour, global head of people development at ABB, a technology leader in electrification and automation, spoke to us about the importance of critical thinking for leaders in the age of AI. 'One of the big benefits of AI is that it always has an answer—but this is also a major challenge,' he noted. 'It can be too easy to accept the outcomes it generates. Good leaders have always needed critical thinking, but in our AI-enabled workplace, where every question has an instant answer, this skill is even more important.' Are You a Strong Thinker? Critical thinking is the ability to evaluate situations objectively and make informed, well-reasoned decisions. It requires us to consider biases, question assumptions, and incorporate multiple perspectives. With critical thinking, it's like your brain is doing a workout rather than just lounging on the couch. And, like a physical workout, critical thinking requires discipline, self-awareness, and effort. But the payoff is pretty significant. We recently assessed 227 leaders on their level of critical thinking and divided the group into high and low critical thinkers. We assessed how well each group is likely to operate in the new world of AI, as well as their overall experience as a leader. The differences are striking. Leaders Who Don't Think Will Struggle In a world in which answers can come fast and easily, leaders who score low on critical thinking are at greater risk of letting machines do the thinking for them and becoming increasingly less sharp. · Low critical thinkers are 18% more likely to have confirmation bias than high critical thinkers. Confirmation bias is the tendency to look for or favor information that confirms our existing beliefs. · Low critical thinkers are 32% more likely to over-rely on gen AI for answers. · Low critical thinkers are 36% more likely to demonstrate cognitive failures. Cognitive failures are everyday lapses in memory or functioning during situations we normally are on top of, such as forgetting where you put the car keys. Leaders Who Think Will Thrive Strong critical thinkers have a protective shield against the threats of AI. Critical thinking balances the pull toward cognitive laziness and guards against our natural tendencies to accept and rely on what AI tells us. Moreover, these thinkers have a better experience as a leader. · High critical thinkers rate themselves 14% higher than low critical thinkers on their ability to perform well in their roles. · High critical thinkers rate themselves 13% higher than low critical thinkers on their ability to lead others effectively. · High critical thinkers rate themselves 10% higher than low critical thinkers on their ability to lead confidently into the future. Additionally, high critical thinkers report 21% less burnout in their roles and 16% higher job satisfaction. In important ways, thinking can be a secret weapon for leaders, enabling them to be better at and happier in their jobs. Strengthening Your Thinking Muscle The encouraging news for leaders is that critical thinking is not a 'you have it, or you don't' proposition. Each of us can be a critical thinker, but we need to intentionally rewire our relationship to thinking in order to cultivate this vital leadership skill. Here are a few things to try. Think about your thinking. In the course of a day or week, try taking a mental step back to observe how you think. You could ask yourself questions such as: · What is a belief or assumption that I questioned? · Did I change my mind about something important? · Did I avoid any information because it challenged me? · Did I feel uncomfortable in any ambiguous situations? The underlying skill you are practicing here is the ability to observe how you think and to discern what may be influencing your thoughts. Is there a past experience or possible bias that is playing a role? How much does stress or the need for speed factor in? Practice 'why' questions. When looking at a situation, ask yourself why it happened, why it matters, and/or why a particular conclusion was reached. This habit encourages 'second looks' and slows us down to uncover underlying assumptions, potential biases, and hidden logic. This approach not only deepens our understanding but also stretches our ability to evaluate information from multiple perspectives. Make AI your thinking partner. If we are not careful, our predisposition to cognitive laziness will drive us to pick the fast answers that come from AI models versus the deeper mental workout that comes from wrestling with complex ideas or considering underlying assumptions. But that doesn't mean AI can't play a role. When used well, AI tools can be very effective critical thinking coaches, nudging us to consider new angles or refine our arguments. Always make sure you challenge AI by asking questions such as: How did you come up with that result? Why should I believe that what you are suggesting is correct? What questions should I ask to improve my critical thinking? Bigger Comprehension Thinking has always set humans apart—something to be taught, mastered, and celebrated. In 1914, IBM founder Thomas J. Watson declared 'THINK' as the mantra for the struggling machine organization, saying ''I don't think' has cost the world millions of dollars.' We have arrived now at an incredible point when machines can think and learn in ways far surpassing human abilities. There are benefits to this—ways in which AI can make us all smarter. The key is to stay alert and grounded in what is uniquely human: the ability to examine an answer with clarity, to grasp what's around and underneath it, and to connect it to a bigger comprehension of the world around us.
Forbes
10 hours ago
- Business
- Forbes
What's Holding Back Sustainable Business? The Challenges That Matter Most
The race to a sustainable future is on In the next five years, an entire generation of 2030 sustainability goals will finally come due. ESG reports and shareholder letters alike are soon going to face their biggest reckoning yet: will all the lofty promises translate into real progress? Early signs suggest the answer will be sobering. While ambition has soared, actual outcomes have continued to lag stubbornly behind. The reality is not that business leaders lack the will, rather, it's that the pathways to sustainability are far murkier, slower, and more difficult than anyone knew, or perhaps wanted to admit. For many organizations, the past few years have revealed a brutal truth: good intentions alone are not enough. Across industries, leaders are confronting the growing reality that sustainable business challenges run deeper than public promises and ESG reports might suggest. Without the right goals, infrastructure, and incentives, sustainability efforts either stall or end up serving more as marketing than meaning. The subtle forces working against sustainability are often invisible at first: misaligned incentives, fragile infrastructure, and underpriced risk. It's time we look at them more clearly if we want to build companies that can genuinely claim to have moved the world forward. The Importance of Aligning Goals With Real-World Sustainability Execution At the heart of any real change is leadership that understands both the limits of today and the possibilities of tomorrow. Kenn Ricci, founder of Flexjet, is an executive who strives to embody both while also running a business in one of the more challenging industries to be sustainable in, aviation. As he explains it, Ricci's sustainability philosophy doesn't fall into the trap of setting goals that look good but collapse under operational scrutiny. Instead, he focuses on what could become possible with enough pressure and patience, and then works to build the conditions to achieve it, whether it is to further sustainability across his fleet of jets or simply managing the day-to-day operations at the back office. 'When you lead people, you can't just say, 'This is where we're going,'' Ricci explains. 'You have to build a path under their feet, step by step, that makes it believable and doable. Otherwise, it's just a dream. Worse yet, it might be just your dream, and never become theirs.' At Flexjet, Ricci has consistently pursued operational improvements that align with larger sustainability aims, but without forcing the business to lurch into goals it cannot yet support. He argues that trust, not slogans, is what sustains long-term change. 'Sustainability isn't a checkbox even if some still treat it as such,' Ricci continues. 'It's an ongoing negotiation between ambition and reality. The leaders who win are the ones who never let go of either side.' His pragmatic optimism stands in stark contrast to much of the corporate world, where sustainability targets are often designed by communications departments rather than operational leaders. And herein lies the first reason why we haven't seen as much progress on ESG goals as we would have wanted. For far too many companies, sustainability has not been a metric that they have actively led with themselves. Ricci puts it bluntly: 'Sustainability has to be a steering wheel, not a rearview mirror. If you're just reporting it, you're already too late. And the leaders have to be the ones with both hands on it, not just the sustainability or comms team.' He's also keenly aware that true leadership requires putting real capital behind sustainable change, not just political or reputational capital, but operational resources that can withstand market cycles. 'Anyone can make promises when the sun is shining,' Ricci says. 'The question is what you stick to when the headwinds come. That's where real commitment shows.' Why Sustainability Depends on Infrastructure: Lessons From Aviation and Energy If setting the right goals is the first battle, building the right infrastructure is the war. Kennedy Ricci, CEO of 4AIR and son of Kenn Ricci, has spent his career focusing precisely on this frontier. His company offers a certification program for aviation's environmental impact, not by promising zero emissions tomorrow, but by helping aviation stakeholders take verifiable, incremental steps today. 'A lot of people get paralyzed because they think the only good goal is net-zero tomorrow,' Kennedy Ricci explains. 'But if you can measure, track, and improve a little bit every day, that's how you actually get there.' 4AIR's approach doesn't pretend aviation can become clean overnight. Instead, it recognizes that building credibility today through offset programs, sustainable aviation fuels, and transparent reporting lays the groundwork for deeper decarbonization later. The company's rise is testament to the power of pragmatic ambition anchored by real-world execution. Kenn Ricci reflects on his son's growing success: 'Building an empire is one thing. Building a legacy that adapts to the future is something else entirely. I'm proud that Kennedy's taking on the harder challenge.' He continues, "We've always believed that real leadership isn't about announcing goals, it's about laying bricks, patiently, and getting others to walk the road with you. 4AIR is doing just that." Meanwhile, infrastructure challenges aren't limited to aviation. The broader energy ecosystem faces its own existential bottlenecks that a handful of companies are doing their best to break open for the rest of us. Deóis Ua Cearnaigh, CTO at Aeon Blue, a company specializing in energy transition technologies and sustainable fuel, emphasizes that sustainability isn't about simply adding more renewables into the grid. It's about fundamentally rethinking how the grid operates. 'It's wonderful that we have more wind and solar now,' says Cearnaigh. 'But you still need a spinning reserve for when the wind dies and the sun sets. If that reserve is fossil-powered, your emissions story isn't as clean as it looks.' Their bigger point is this: you can't just add renewables on top of a fragile or misaligned system and expect magic. Without reengineering grid storage, reserve capacity, and distribution models, the true sustainability gains remain elusive. Cearnaigh believes that while renewables will dominate the next twenty years, nuclear energy will inevitably rise as the long-term backbone for sustainable baseload power. 'The zeitgeist today is wind, solar, and geothermal,' he reflects. 'But it does also seem that nuclear is one inevitable destination as well.' Without grappling with these infrastructural realities, sustainability risks becoming a story we tell ourselves, not a future we actually live. This mindset mirrors the thinking of Brett Bouchy, CEO of Freedom Forever, a company deadset on revolutionizing residential solar. 'The solar revolution doesn't happen because people feel good about the environment,' Bouchy points out. 'It happens when saving money on your electricity bill is cheaper and easier than sticking to the grid.' Bouchy's laser focus on efficiency is another reminder that for sustainability to scale, it must compete not just morally, but economically. As Bouchy frames it, "We don't succeed by selling dreams. We succeed by selling better economics. And better economics drive real environmental change." He's blunt about the reality check the green economy still needs: "Nobody switches to solar because you guilt them into it. They switch because it's cheaper, easier, and works better. That's how you win hearts, wallets, and the future. And for that, you need the infrastructure to be in place, management to know what goals to drive towards, and an audience that is ready to trust what you are selling." Bouchy also sees a deeper, long-term opportunity that transcends energy bills: "Every home we upgrade is a client win, sure. But it's another node in a smarter, decentralized energy system. Sustainability isn't a utopian idea. It's the byproduct of millions of small, self-interested decisions that add up to a revolution." If only revolutions were easy, which is exactly why stories like the above are worthy of retelling. Companies that rise up to the challenge of sustainability cannot be taken for granted, simply because of how rare they still remain. That is particularly true for investments, which is the third missing pillar that is making 2030 feel further away than it should. Why Long-Term Investment Is the Missing Piece in Sustainability Strategy If setting the right goals is the first battle, and building the right infrastructure is the war, then making the right investments is the long campaign, often fought without fanfare, headlines, or even immediate returns. And it's here where sustainable business faces one of its most persistent barriers: the cruel mismatch between moral urgency and financial immediacy. Capital, by its nature, seeks returns. It rewards speed, liquidity, and demonstrable gains. But sustainability often demands patience, long arcs of investment, and a willingness to fund seeds that may only bear fruit decades from now. It asks us to invest in forests we may never personally walk through. Doing good, it turns out, is relatively easy. But doing good money, investments that compete at par with traditional, short-horizon opportunities, remains the real Everest to climb. This doesn't mean that the private sector is full of villains twirling their overgrown mustaches. It's simply important to recognize the system we've built and how it operates. Until the returns of sustainability become structurally competitive, whether through market shifts, regulatory frameworks, or pure innovation, capital will continue to flow where it always has: toward the short, the sure, the profitable and the now. The uncomfortable truth is that economics, not ethics, will be the final arbiter of the transition's speed, even if ethics gets to set the goal. And yet, there are signs of things shifting. Signs that smart leaders know: a world where customers demand sustainable products is fast approaching. A world where supply chains simply cannot function without green tech is not far behind. Companies who wait until the economics are easy will find that the customers, the talent, and the licenses to operate have already gone elsewhere. Which brings us to the handful of players quietly laying the groundwork. ENEOS, Japan's largest energy group, offers one instructive case. They are investing heavily in hydrogen transportation, synthetic fuels, battery recycling, and carbon capture, not because it makes perfect financial sense today, but because they know what survival will require tomorrow. 'There's no question the world needs cleaner energy,' an ENEOS representative explained in an interview. 'But if you exit fossil fuels too quickly, you leave markets in chaos, and ironically, you can make the transition slower, not faster.' The trick, as they frame it, is not to burn the bridges while crossing the river. Real transition demands continuity, not collapse. "You can't dismantle today's infrastructure before tomorrow's infrastructure is ready," added another ENEOS representative noted. 'The world is too interconnected for idealism alone. You need to build pathways people can actually walk.' This recognition, that reality, not rhetoric, is the substrate upon which change must be built, permeates the thinking of those who are keen to see sustainability truly take root today. Brett Bouchy, CEO of Freedom Forever, who is busy scaling residential solar across America, frames it in plain terms: 'You don't win by selling dreams. You win by selling better economics. If going solar isn't easier and cheaper than sticking with the grid, the revolution doesn't happen. Period.' It's a bracing, necessary reminder that narratives alone don't move markets. Incentives do. And this brings us full circle to the real challenge ahead: building an economy where sustainability isn't a premium add-on for the wealthy or the virtuous, it's the baseline expectation for everyone. In that future, "green" won't be a differentiator. Instead, it will simply be the cost of doing business. Those who invest today with that reality in mind, patient, practical, sometimes lonely, will be the ones best positioned when the forest finally blooms. And those who don't may find themselves, too late, standing outside the gates of a new economy that has no room left for yesterday's math.
Bloomberg
20 hours ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
EU, US Confident They'll Reach Tariff Deal by July Deadline
By and Jorge Valero Updated on Save The European Union and the US believe they can clinch some form of a trade agreement before a July 9 deadline, when Washington is set to impose a 50% tariff on nearly all EU products and the bloc plans to unleash its own series of countermeasures. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told EU leaders behind closed doors at a Thursday summit that she was confident a deal could be reached before the deadline to avoid an economically damaging escalation, according to people familiar with the matter.
Forbes
a day ago
- Business
- Forbes
The Psychological Cost Of Scaling A Company Too Quickly Is Huge
In a fast-growing company, roles shift overnight. Rapid growth looks impressive from the outside. New hires, new markets and fresh rounds of funding signal momentum. Inside, though, the experience can feel very different. For the people doing the work, the ones building the plane while it's flying, growth often brings chaos, confusion and exhaustion. Firms often talk about scale as if it's purely a numbers game. Double the revenue, double the team, double the opportunity. What's rarely discussed is the cognitive and emotional weight that kind of pace puts on employees. Behind every milestone are people trying to keep up, working through ambiguity, managing constant change and still somehow expected to perform at their best. When Growth Moves Faster Than Structure In a fast-growing company, roles shift overnight. Systems don't catch up. One day you're leading a team of five, the next you're managing twenty with no training, no processes and no time to pause. Everyone is moving fast but few know where things are going. And that takes a toll. You end up with people making decisions without clarity, bouncing between meetings and firefighting instead of building. It's not just the hours that exhaust them. It's the mental load. Every day becomes a series of judgment calls in grey areas. I've seen leaders try to fix this by encouraging people to embrace the mess or figure it out later. That works until it doesn't. Eventually, the lack of structure turns into friction. Teams burn out. Trust erodes. And the thing that was meant to accelerate progress starts slowing everything down. If you're leading through this, your job isn't to pretend the uncertainty isn't there. It's to put some scaffolding around it. That might mean setting up a temporary governance layer, giving teams clear swim lanes or simply saying what decisions are still up in the air. Clarity doesn't need to be perfect. It just needs to be good enough to anchor people. The Mental Cost of Constant Change One thing you notice in high-growth companies is how often the priorities shift. This quarter it's user growth, next quarter it's margin. Teams get halfway through a project only to be told the focus has moved. And the cycle repeats. At first, people roll with it. They're flexible, they hustle. But over time the message becomes nothing sticks. That's when disengagement creeps in. Why invest energy if the target will move again next week? This isn't just frustrating. It's psychologically draining. People crave some predictability. They want to know their work has a shelf life longer than a sprint cycle. If that's missing, you'll start seeing signs like lower initiative, vague responses in meetings, an uptick in sick days and good people quietly opting out. What helps here is being deliberate about what's stable and what's fluid. Not everything has to be locked down but some things do. Your values, your long-term goals and your decision principles. Say those things often. And when something changes, don't just announce the new plan. Explain what you're letting go of. People can handle change but not when it comes without context. Culture Gets Tested as You Scale When a company is small, culture is something you feel. It lives in how people talk, how decisions get made and how you show up for one another. But when headcount doubles in six months, that shared rhythm disappears unless you work hard to protect it. The early team starts feeling stretched, carrying legacy knowledge no one has time to document. New joiners get dropped into the middle of a fast-moving train with little onboarding. Misunderstandings rise. Tensions too. And the camaraderie that once held everything together starts to fray. This is when culture stops being a vibe and starts becoming a job. If you're a founder or senior leader, you now have to teach it. Not through posters or all-hands slogans but through lived practice. How you run meetings, how you reward people and how you handle feedback. The simplest thing you can do is talk to your people. Not just in performance reviews or town halls but in real conversations. Ask what's unclear. Ask what's changed. And listen. You'll learn more in a 20-minute conversation with a frontline employee than from any metrics dashboard. The Quiet Pressure to Keep Up In fast-growing companies, the tempo creates its own hierarchy. Those who move quickest, stay latest or say yes to everything get noticed. Everyone else wonders if they're doing enough. It happens quietly. Someone skips their holiday. Another answers messages at midnight. Before long it becomes the norm. Not because anyone said so but because no one said otherwise. That's how overwork becomes culture. And once it sets in, it's hard to roll back. The message becomes if you slow down, you get left behind. Leaders set the pace here, whether they mean to or not. If you reply to emails at 3am, your team sees it. If you praise someone for pulling an all-nighter but ignore the one who delivers consistently over time, that sends a message too. So be mindful of the signals you give. Celebrate consistency, not just heroics. Make it safe for people to say no when bandwidth is low. And take your own time off then tell people you did. Your team will follow what you model more than what you mandate. What You Can Do Right Now If you're leading in a company that's scaling quickly, start by checking how your team is really doing. Not in a survey. In a conversation. Ask them what's unclear. What's become harder. What would make their work easier tomorrow. Then look at where people are stretched too thin. Are managers managing or just executing? Are systems lagging behind team growth? Are people making decisions without enough guidance? Those are the pressure points. Next, find one or two simple things you can lock down. A cadence. A shared tool. A weekly ritual. Something that gives people a bit of rhythm in the noise. And finally, remind yourself growth is exciting but it isn't free. There's a cost. That cost often shows up first in the minds and bodies of your people. Recognising that is not a weakness. It is leadership.
Malay Mail
a day ago
- Politics
- Malay Mail
‘Daddy's home': Love-bombed in The Hague, Trump basks in Nato flattery
WASHINGTON, June 27 — It will go down as the summit where US President Donald Trump learned to stop worrying and love Nato. Trump revelled in gushing praise from leaders in The Hague — including being called 'daddy' by alliance chief Mark Rutte — and a pledge to boost defence spending as he had demanded. But it went further than just lapping up flattery. Trump also spoke of what sounded like an almost religious conversion to Nato, after years of bashing other members as freeloaders and threatening to leave. 'I came here because it was something I'm supposed to be doing, but I left here a little bit differently,' Trump said at his closing press conference on Wednesday. 'I watched the heads of these countries get up, and the love and the passion that they showed for their country was unbelievable. I've never seen quite anything like it. 'It was really moving to see it.' A day after returning to the White House, Trump still sounded uncharacteristically touchy-feely about his time with his 31 Nato counterparts. 'A wonderful day with incredible and caring Leaders,' he posted on his Truth Social platform yesterday. Turnaround It was a remarkable turnaround from the US president's first term. Trump repeatedly berated allies as not paying up and threatened to pull the United States out of Nato as part of his wider disdain for international institutions and alliances. At his first summit in 2017 in Brussels, Trump memorably shoved aside Montenegro's prime minister Dusko Markovic as he made his way to the front of the stage. A year later Trump publicly lambasted Germany and privately talked about wanting to quit. But this time Nato leaders had carefully choreographed the trip. They massaged the numbers to give Trump the defence spending deal he craved. And while Trump headed to the summit dropping F-bombs in frustration at a shaky Iran-Israel ceasefire, Nato leaders love-bombed him from the moment he arrived. The Netherlands put him up overnight in the Dutch king's royal palace and gave him a royal dinner and breakfast — 'beautiful,' according to Trump — while Nato organisers kept the summit deliberately short. Frederick Kempe, the chief executive officer of the Atlantic Council, said Trump had 'waxed poetic' about Nato in a way he had never done before. 'Trump — the vilifier of European deadbeats on defence and crusader against allies for what he sees as unfair trade practices — sounded like an altered man,' he said in a commentary. 'Daddy's Home' The question now is what it means for Nato when the alliance's priorities end up guided by one man. The final summit statement's language on Russia's invasion of Ukraine was watered down from previous years. It also made no mention of Ukraine's push to join Nato. Reporters were not allowed into Trump's meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The move was partly because of their Oval Office bust-up in February, but it also deprived Zelensky of the set-piece he had craved. 'The biggest loser was Ukraine,' said Ed Arnold of the Royal United Services Institute in London. Trump also hinted at what lies in store for any backsliders on the defence spending pledge, threatening to make Spain 'pay' on trade over its resistance to commit to the new target. As with any relationship, the pressure will now be on Nato to keep up the first flush of love over the three summits that are due to take place over the rest of Trump's second term. 'The real worry is that Nato will be unable to keep up the hype,' said Arnold. For now, though, Trump and his administration seem to be content. As he arrived back in Washington, the White House posted a video of summit highlights, with the caption: 'Daddy's Home.' — AFP
