Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote that “a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” Despite the popular image of a strong leader as one who makes bold decisions and sticks with them, great leadership actually requires adapting to changing ci…
When Paige DeSorbo was applying to colleges, her mom suggested broadcast journalism school. “You would be a great news anchor,” she said. DeSorbo agreed; she always loved reading off a teleprompter and ended up attending journalism school in upstate N…
Lawrence Cappello is an award-winning professor of U.S. legal & constitutional history at the University of Alabama and a graduate of New York City Public Schools. He is the author of None of Your Damn Business: Privacy in the United States f…
You’re mid-sentence in a meeting, sharing an idea or outlining a strategy you’ve been thinking through for weeks—then it happens. Someone jumps in, cuts you off, and shifts the conversation. You fade out while they take the spotlight.
It’s frustrat…
I have lost count of the number of accomplished professionals who’ve said to me, “I don’t want to seem silly on video” or, “I am awkward when I’m on camera.” I have trained hundreds of people, ranging from members of Congress to supermodels to everyda…
“Who am I to tell them how to make decisions?”
This anxiety-induced thought played like a broken record in my head as my first leadership training event approached in my new role as a training director. Talking in front of 40 leaders, most of whom …
Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! I’m Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pa…
Thinking back to childhood, what role did you play in your family dynamic? Maybe you were the straight-A student? Maybe you flew under the radar, not causing trouble? Or perhaps you were charged with taking care of siblings?
The person you were in…
Bobby sat at his desk, rewriting the same email to his manager over and over. His boss had just announced a major reorganization without acknowledging how it would impact several critical projects Bobby led. Bobby knew he needed to address the issue, …
We often celebrate courage in its most dramatic forms: the whistleblower who risks everything, the bold innovator who disrupts an industry, or the leader who stands alone in a moment of crisis. These stories inspire us—but they can also feel out of re…
