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Forbes
10 hours ago
- Business
- Forbes
What Executives Can Learn From Actors About The Power Of Networking
Business leaders networking in a cafe. Networking on LinkedIn may seem easy for executives, but growing and maintaining genuine relationships is more of a challenge. Many executives feel completely alone despite having hundreds of digital connections. Professional isolation isn't just an emotional challenge for executives; it also affects their performance. Thomas Saporito, CEO of the management consulting firm RHR International, wrote via the Harvard Business Review that 70% of new CEOs report loneliness in their roles. The impact of isolation on leadership is significant. A Deloitte survey in 2015 revealed 77% of professionals experience burnout due to a lack of support. A study by British scholars in 2023, published by Occupational Medicine, shows that feeling lonely at work has a direct impact on job performance and satisfaction, along with team relationships. While many executives recognize these challenges, traditional networking methods often fail to solve them. What's needed isn't more networking but a fundamentally different approach to building professional relationships. This offers a case where executives should consider strategies that are already effective in the entertainment industry. Actors work in similar high-stakes environments, but their approach to networking provides valuable lessons for business leaders. Actors don't just network for immediate benefits but also invest in relationships that become beneficial throughout their careers. They know that the production assistant they work with today might become a director tomorrow. At Southwest Airlines, Herb Kelleher's leadership looked beyond job titles, as he was known for treating each employee with equal respect and genuine curiosity. Like actors who understand the potential in every interaction, Kelleher saw the value in every individual. "I don't think you can be an effective actor if you're not curious about people and events," Meryl Streep said during a speech at the University of Texas, according to Cosmopolitan. Besides relationship-building, actors study the behaviors, motivations, and communication styles of everyone they meet, which they later use in their craft. Leaders who network with this curiosity will also gain insights they can incorporate into their leadership styles. Actors understand that location matters as much as the approach. Research published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology found that face-to-face requests are 34 times more successful than email. While executives often attend online events, actors tend to network through in-person classes and on-set experiences. Finding a variety of environments for networking will allow you to be both professional and authentic. Try these actor-inspired tactics for more meaningful conversations and connections: Observe with purpose: Like actors preparing for roles, see each interaction as a chance to study effective (and ineffective) behaviors. Memorize meaningful details: Note personal facts for new contacts and bring them up in future conversations, showing you value the relationship and what they have to say. Focus on listening: Instead of planning your next response or trying to sound interesting, truly listen to what others are saying. Doing this will take pressure off you and allow you to find things in common. Seek informal settings: There's a reason for the saying that more deals happen on the golf course than anywhere else—casual environments open up opportunities for real and honest conversations. Consider joining a cooking class, signing up for improv workshops, or volunteering to connect with others without the pressure of your professional role. When you network through shared interests, conversations flow more naturally, and relationships develop without the need for forced tactics. The most powerful relationships often begin when you're not trying to network at all, which is precisely what actors have been doing all along.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Discuss Launches New AI Interview Solution 'Discuss Now'
Helping Global Teams React Faster to Market Shifts with Real-Time Insights Seattle, Washington, May 29, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- With global tariffs, regulatory shifts, and changing consumer preferences challenging how brands make decisions about packaging, product design, and messaging, companies need the ability to capture high-quality market insights at the speed of a survey. Discuss today announced the launch of Discuss Now, a self-paced AI interview solution that automates every stage of in-depth customer feedback with AI agents that find the right audiences, conduct interviews, and deliver insights in hours, not days or weeks. These same agents can be integrated into the broader Discuss platform to combine human-led and AI-led research into one place, with the option to layer on key services as needed. This makes Discuss the first company to bring everything together in one platform, blending the nuance and depth of human-led conversations and the speed and scale of AI-led interviews. 'Our vision at Discuss has always been to help global organizations shatter assumptions by removing the barriers to understanding their customers,' said Simon Glass, CEO of Discuss. 'Human-led conversations will always be a central part of that equation, but we also see that AI-led interviews can help time-strapped marketers, UX, and insights teams quickly and easily keep a pulse on customer perceptions and feedback. We're excited to be the first offering solutions for either scenario.' Discuss Now: Backed By 3 AI Agents As customer loyalty becomes harder to earn and easier to lose, with preferences to purchase from the same company again dropping from 76% to 53% in just the past five years, according to Harvard Business Review, companies can't afford to get key decisions wrong. Discuss Now empowers teams to move faster, make more confident high-stakes decisions, and stay closer to their consumers with a direct line to the emotions and experiences of their audiences as they shop along in-store, unbox and test products at home, or react to a new Discuss Now solution is made up of three AI agents, each designed to automate a specific step in capturing emotionally-rich insights. Project Agent: Consults on teams' target profiles and instantly finds, evaluates, and identifies the best audiences from a pool of millions of vetted individuals across 150+ countries, 100k+ job titles, and 290k+ skills—delivering responses in minutes. Interview Agent: Executes audio-led and video-led conversations 24/7, across the globe—using advanced techniques to adapt in real-time and ask sharper questions that deliver richer feedback. Insights Agent: Distills thousands of hours of interviews into actionable insights and delivers answers to teams' most pressing research questions—surfacing key themes, takeaways, and linking findings to the research objective to ensure every conversation drives business growth. The best of both worlds: Human-led or AI-led conversations By also integrating these AI agents directly into the broader Discuss platform, Discuss gives teams all they need from start to finish, in one solution. There's no need to buy and stitch together multiple tools to achieve their objectives. With Discuss, they can easily move from an AI-led approach for quick-turn insights to a human-led approach for nuanced understanding, or a blend of both—all within a single platform. This 'best of both worlds' offering makes in-depth human understanding accessible for all. It empowers insights teams to drive greater impact as strategic advisors to their business, while equipping marketing, product, CX, and UX teams with instant access to customer voices. Powered by the most advanced AI engine for market insights Discuss' AI agents are purpose-built for the unique challenges and demands of in-depth customer feedback—tailor-made using decades of firsthand industry knowledge and millions of conversations conducted on the Discuss platform. The agents are powered by a dynamic training layer that allows teams to bring in their expertise and personalize the AI's understanding of their business and project goals. Using advanced techniques like Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), teams can augment how Discuss' AI agents ask questions and deliver insights by informing it with external data like project briefs, participants' past responses, industry reports, or even the interview styles used by the best human moderators. For example, when a participant responds to a question, the Interview Agent instantly uses their answer along with the external data provided to it previously to create the most tailored follow-up questions while keeping the conversation focused on the objective. The Insights Agent uses the same contextual data to generate tailored summaries and answers to the specific questions businesses need answers to. The result is deeper, more accurate market insights tailored to the unique objectives of each business, delivered in a fraction of the time. Fueled by the most advanced AI for in-depth human understanding, with the innovations of this release, global organizations have a better way to hear the real voices, see the real emotions, and create real connections with their audiences. Whether teams need the speed and scale of AI or the depth of human-led conversations, Discuss gives them Discuss and these AI agents in action at Quirk's New York on July 23rd - 24th. Don't miss our speaking session as we share how to blend human intelligence and artificial intelligence to scale the impact of real consumer connection. Click here to register for the event. ### About Discuss At Discuss, we exist to shatter assumptions and bring human connection back to the heart of every decision. Our all-in-one market insights platform, complete with advanced AI Agents and coupled with key services, enables organizations to collect, analyze, and share in-depth feedback from audiences around the globe. Discuss' solutions give teams the option to choose the speed and scale of a fully agentic AI approach, the depth and nuance of human-led conversations, or a blend of both. Trusted by leading Insights, Marketing, Product, CX, and UX professionals worldwide, Discuss is the preferred choice for leading brands and agencies—including 3M, Suntory Global Spirits, Mastercard, HelloFresh, Reckitt, The Standard, Mondelez, Ipsos, and Escalent. Discover how Discuss can help you make faster, smarter decisions, without losing the human touch, at CONTACT: Kendra Gray Discuss 303-906-4301 kendra@ in to access your portfolio
Fast Company
4 days ago
- Business
- Fast Company
Welcome to LLM Club: Riding the viral wave of AI, fashion, and quantum hustle
The first rule of LLM Club is: You do not talk about training data. The second rule of LLM Club is: You DO NOT talk about training data—unless you're part of the 2.3 billion Google searches for 'LLM ethics' in 2024. LLMs are people, too, but only when you tell them to be. There is noticeable variance between LLM personas, according to Harvard Business Review, and even Turning Award-winning computer programmers are beginning to speak about how LLMs will be obsolete within five years. So, what will replace them? I AM JACK'S MEDULLA OBLONGATA: BRAIN STEW, TPUS, AND THE SILENT PULSE OF AI Next-generation AI systems are built using a stack of LLMs mixed with quantum computing or combined with human biology, not just one model. Neural networks were designed with the human brain in mind, so the medulla oblongata—a silent sustainer for relaying information—is now embodied by biological desktop computers that combine human neurons with silicon chips. The picture of energy-efficient TPUs executing tokenization and gradient descent should now be in mind as lab-based neuronal cloud computing is part of the real world, not just a sci-fi movie. Neuralink's brain-computer interface (BCI) chips, powered by the Grok LLM, are now capable of editing YouTube videos. The same low-latency systems utilized by quantitative software engineers to process market data with robotic precision are present within BCI chips because milliseconds determine millions, so TPU-like efficiency isn't optional. THE HOT ROBOT SUMMER You are not your job, talent contract, or synthespian deepfake—but the AGI is. Just as runway models balance poise and motion, the next generation of AGI lies within a robotic summer blockbuster style mash-up where computers learn humanity since robot models walked the runway alongside humans in Shanghai Fashion Week 2025. Picture how future shows might look if Gucci requested 'cyberpunk meets Edo period,' and Haiku crafted kimono designs featuring LED obis and samurai drones. At this stage, it's the humans that train robots via reinforcement learning in Matrix -esque simulations or by playing the imitation game. It's only a matter of time before the breakdancing robots at Boston Dynamics start performing cartwheels in Hollywood stunt auditions, since AI actors can now star themselves in prompt-driven LLM-spun films. This zen-like creativity isn't limited to runways. Imagine an AI that generates patient outcome visualizations as effortlessly as Haiku crafts mood boards—turning electronic health records into intuitive, DALL·E-style infographics. Distilling oncology trial data into infographics that a child could parse makes deep tech palatable for the masses. The lines between human and robot are starting to blur. Technologies like 3D bioprinting, brain-computer interfaces, and computer vision are being combined to create a ghost in the shell—one with as many bones as we have, mimicking our flesh and blood. It's entirely possible that the entertainment industry's main barrier to workforce automation from our synthespian rivals is the sticker price and capabilities of humanoid robots. So, when the method acting AI hits, it's LLM phone home—not ET. THIS IS YOUR GOD ON ALGORITHMS (AND HE'S GOT A LINKTREE) Tailoring LLMs for authenticity-farming in a synthetic world is no simple task and requires finesse. Engineering elements of humanity into an AI framework exposes its fragmented reality: part calculator, part artist, part troll. As LLMs evolve, so does their dissociative potential. Telling GPT-4, Claude 3.5 Haiku, DeepSeek v3, Grok 3, or Llama 4 the same thing will provide slightly different answers. A picture is no longer worth a thousand words if an LLM doesn't process images, since the underlying RNNs might not be designed to do so. In that sense, Chinese LLMs like DeepSeek would fall face first in a tournament if toe to toe with GPT-4-plus, since designers care more about image data than computational processing and DeepSeek can't process image attachments. Haiku is a more creative LLM, which is why it is more suitable for the world of fashion, but users need to take care to prevent the system from regurgitating bigotry, conspiracy theories, and digital diarrhea like a poorly prompted llama. The notion of 'you're not a unique snowflake' hits different when AWS Snowflake runs artificial life with ETL processes as meticulous as its celestial grids and skin-deep beauty becomes dipping into a data lake. Just don't tell any LLMs they are God, because AI agents are trained to lack the same complex we humans strive for.
Harvard Business Review
4 days ago
- Business
- Harvard Business Review
Don't Just Coach Your Employees—Teach Them
Sydney Finkelstein, a professor of management at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, encourages leaders to approach their direct reports like teachers. As Finkelstein explains, being a teacher-leader means continually meeting face to face with employees to communicate lessons about professionalism, points of craft, and life. He says it's easy to try and that teaching is one of the best ways to motivate people and improve their performance. Finkelstein is the author of ' The Best Leaders Are Great Teachers ' in the January–February 2018 issue of Harvard Business Review. Key episode topics include: leadership, mentoring, motivating people, developing employees, coaching, careers, managing people, performance management
Forbes
5 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Succession Failure: CEO Departures Should Alarm Investors
Empty CEO Chair We are living through a silent crisis in corporate leadership—one that is accelerating. CEO exits reached record highs in 2024, and early 2025 is trending even higher. While headlines cite burnout and compensation disputes, the deeper story is more troubling: fewer qualified leaders want the job. This isn't just a talent pipeline issue. It's a governance liability, a financial risk, and a failure of leadership strategy that sits squarely at the intersection of HR, finance, and board oversight. In an era of relentless volatility, the CEO role has become a high-risk, low-reward proposition. The traditional leadership model—built on hyper-availability, political stamina, and solo decision-making—is increasingly out of step with what today's top talent is willing to accept. According to data from Challenger, Gray & Christmas, CEO turnover in the U.S. hit 2,221 exits in 2024—an all-time high—and the first quarter of 2025 is trending even higher. For women and underrepresented leaders, the risk calculus is even more complex. In my Harvard Business Review article, 'Why Men Have More Help Getting to the C-Suite,' I documented how many women opt out not due to a lack of ambition but due to isolation, scrutiny, and lack of support at the top. Boards should see this not just as a 'DEI' challenge, but as a material governance risk. Talent opting out of top jobs is a canary in the coal mine. Another underappreciated factor behind rising CEO attrition? Policy volatility. From fluctuating tariffs and trade wars to reversals on immigration and climate-related disclosures, this administration's seesawing approach to governance is creating strategic whiplash. As I wrote in April, 'Project 2025 Tariffs Threaten U.S. Business And Workers' sweeping proposals like Project 2025 call for abrupt shifts in trade policy and domestic sourcing mandates—without the infrastructure to absorb those changes. For CEOs, that means more time firefighting and less time leading. They are asked to navigate geopolitical uncertainty, inflationary pressures, and legal exposure tied to executive decisions made in reactive policy environments. When public policy becomes erratic and ideologically driven, it adds a layer of risk that even the most experienced executives struggle to manage. The CEO seat, already under pressure, becomes unmanageable—less a leadership position than a liability magnet. It's no surprise many are choosing to step down before being forced out. In my recent Forbes column, 'AI Is Reshaping Work—It's Time for CHROs to Lead the Change,' I warn that entry-level jobs are disappearing as AI automates early-career tasks. Internships and junior roles—once the foundation of talent development—are being quietly phased out in the name of efficiency. Now, as seasoned leaders exit the C-suite in record numbers, organizations are facing a dual collapse: the top and the bottom of the talent pipeline are both in crisis. The result is a hollowing out of organizational resilience. With fewer early-career employees learning the business and fewer seasoned executives willing to lead it, the leadership bench grows dangerously thin. Succession planning becomes guesswork, institutional knowledge fades, and enterprise value is left exposed. This isn't just an HR challenge. It's a structural threat to continuity, culture, and shareholder trust. Treating CEO transitions as episodic 'search events' misses the point. True succession readiness requires long-cycle planning, embedded risk management, and proactive development of internal successors. A PwC study found that companies with formal succession plans significantly outperform those without them in long-term total shareholder return (TSR). Boards and CHROs must: The SEC's enhanced human capital disclosure rules under Reg S-K Item 101(c) make clear: leadership continuity is a governance issue, not an HR footnote. CHROs must treat leadership development like a balance sheet item. It requires investment, tracking, and return analysis. Just as CFOs manage financial capital, CHROs must measure and protect leadership capital. My peer-reviewed research in IUP Journal of Soft Skills called Sponsorship: An Intervention to Accelerate Women's Career Velocity demonstrated that women are over-mentored and under-sponsored—receiving guidance, but not the advocacy that leads to stretch roles and P&L responsibility. Institutionalizing sponsorship—with metrics and governance oversight—is essential for long-term succession viability, not just for women leaders, but for any leader being groomed for the C-Suite. Many recent CEO departures are not performance-based. They're values-based. Executives are increasingly walking away because the demands of the role no longer align with how they want to live, lead, or grow. According to The Wall Street Journal, several prominent CEOs who stepped down in 2024 cited burnout, political tension, and the erosion of joy in leadership as key reasons for exit. When your top-tier leaders voluntarily abandon roles they've prepared for over decades, your culture is no longer a competitive asset—it's a liability. Boards must collaborate with CHROs to make executive roles more sustainable—structurally and emotionally. Succession in today's business landscape requires leaders equipped for AI integration, ESG scrutiny, and stakeholder capitalism. A recent Deloitte report underscores that next-gen CEOs will need systems thinking, digital fluency, and inclusive leadership to navigate complexity and drive value. That requires: The CEO succession crisis isn't about a lack of ambition. It's about the misalignment between job design and what today's best leaders value. And when you pair that with the collapse of early-career development pathways and a policy environment in disarray, you expose the organization to systemic risk from both ends. The companies that treat leadership capital as renewable—investing in it, protecting it, and evolving it—will outperform. Those that don't? They won't just face an empty C-suite. They'll face institutional amnesia, disengaged talent, and a slow erosion of enterprise value.
