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Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! Im 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 pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning. When Brian Doubles became CEO of Synchrony in 2021, a global pandemic had upended the way companies thought about work. Remote options became ubiquitous, and many employees, when possible, were given the tools they needed to do their jobs from anywhere. Now, even as other financial services companies and banks have issued return-to-office mandates, Doubles is making a different bet: Stamford, Connecticutbased Synchrony allows its more than 20,000 employees to work from home or in a company facility (or a mix of both) with in-person gatherings for training, leadership meetings, innovation sessions, and culture-building events. The decision appears to be paying off. Turnover is down, job applications are up 30%, and this year Synchrony climbed to No. 2 on the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For list, up from No. 37 in 2021. The recognition caps four years of key gains for the company, which is the nations largest issuer of private-label credit cards. In June, Synchrony announced it would power a new credit card program with Walmart, winning back business the company lost to rival Capital One in 2018, and adding to a roster of clients that includes Lowes, Verizon, and Amazon. Last year, the company reported net interest income of $18 billion, an increase of 26% from 2021. Since Doubles became CEO, the stock has risen more than 60%, outperforming the S&P 500. (Disclosure: Synchrony was a sponsor of the recent Fast Company Innovation Festival.) Synchronys growth comes despite some headwinds in the world of consumer credit, which former Synchrony parent General Electric helped popularize when it started financing appliance purchases in the 1930s. (GE completed the spin-off of its credit business in 2015.) Store-branded cards once dominated credit card issuance. Now, as big brick-and-mortar retailers such as JCPenney and Macys have contracted, store credit cards account for just 4% of purchase volume in the U.S. Well-heeled consumers, meanwhile, are opting for rewards cards such as American Express Platinum or Chase Sapphire Reserve, while more cash-conscious Gen Z consumers finance purchases using buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) products. Productive paranoia Synchrony is well placed to respond to changes in the business and economic landscape thanks to a reorganization Doubles executed upon becoming CEO. Though the company was posting strong financial results as consumers returned to pre-pandemic spending, Doubles restructured the business to expand and diversify its customer base; he also created a growth organization and combined the technology and operations to accelerate new product development. I have a productive paranoia, and I think the best time to embark on a big change like that is from a position of strength, he says. The intent of the reorganization was to bring innovation to market fasterto anticipate what our partners need from us before theyre asking us for it. For example, rather than creating a dedicated solution for every enterprise customer (Synchrony calls them partners), the company now develops a standardized product and scales it across hundreds of customers, making customized tweaks in the later stages. Leaders say bringing teams together has given different departments fluency in their counterparts work, leading to faster digital tool development. When I go inside our P.I. [program increment] sessions, which is how agile teams operate, I cant tell whos from technology and whos from credit, Max Axler, chief credit officer, says of the cross-departmental group that works on PRISM, a proprietary system that makes underwriting and credit decisions. PRISM is a case study in harnessing Doubless productive paranoia. Synchrony changed a process that was working just fineSynchrony has always been expert at underwritingand took it to new levels. Today, PRISM can assess an applicants creditworthiness in a six-second window while theyre checking out at a store, using 9,000 data points, up from about 100 in 2018. It was a big message to the organization that we were going to completely redesign the credit platform, Doubles says, adding: It gave other teams permission to rethink everything they were doing as well. Even if its working, rethink it. Because PRISM looks at more variables to make credit decisions, Synchrony says it has been able to extend cards to people who previously might have been rejected because of their credit scores alone. And many of those consumers become especially loyal customers: Synchrony says these customers use their cards as top-of-wallet payment methods, driving repeat purchases. (Synchrony makes money when consumers borrow and pay interest on credit cards it has issued.) Winning back Walmart Even as Synchrony has been seeking new sources of revenue, including its own buy-now-pay-later offering, investors and analysts are cautiously optimistic about the financial impact of returning customer Walmart. (Before the companies parted ways in 2018, Walmart accounted for about $10 billion, or 19%, of Synchronys retail card balances, according to a story in The Wall Street Journal.) Doubles didnt offer much detail about the renewed relationship other than touting the benefits of the new card, especially for Walmart+ subscribers, who pay a membership fee for perks like free delivery and shipping, among others. In a September report recapping a meeting with Synchrony executives, Bank of America Securities senior payments analyst Mihir Bhatia noted that management expects the partnership to be accretive to growth and profit margins, and characterized company leaders as palpably more excited about a deeper collaboration with Walmart, including store displays and online promotion of the card. If Walmart is invested in the partnership and pushes the product and creates an interesting value proposition, customers will respond to that and get the card, says Bhatia, who has a buy rating on Synchrony stock. If more people get the card, more people spend money on the card, more people borrow on the card, and thats good for Synchrony. (The report also paraphrased management saying pure-play BNPL competitors are having a limited impact on Synchronys growth, and noted that Synchrony has introduced its own BNPL offering.) RTO outlier For all its technological and operational gains, Synchrony is still best known in some circles for its flexible work arrangements. But it wasnt always a remote-work champion. Pre-pandemic, we were a 99% in-office culture, says DJ Casto, chief human resources officer at Synchrony. This was a big fundamental change and a big trust exercise with our workforce. A company survey showed that moe than 85% of employees wanted a remote option, prompting the company to permanently adopt a policy that lets everyone work from home or in the office, or for many, a combination of the two, provided they live within commuting distance of a Synchrony office and come in from time to time. In contrast, many Wall Street investment banks and competitors such as JPMorganChase have mandated in-office days. It is worth noting that because Synchrony doesnt have any physical bank branches, which arent needed in the credit card business, the company is able to offer hybrid work to hourly and salaried workers alike. Were trusting our employees to still give 110% even though were not monitoring how much time theyre spending in the office, Doubles adds. I remind our team all the time that the hybrid work model is a privilege, and we have to earn it every day. We have to earn it by running a successful business thats growing. To ensure accountability and employee engagement in a hybrid workforce, Casto says the company emphasizes the importance of ongoing one-on-one meetings between employees and managers with significant focus on coaching versus managing. Indeed, the company has embedded coaching throughout the organization. All of Doubless executive leadership team members have coaches, and Casto is working to make coaching available to a wider group of employees, including high-potential folks or people trying to work through complicated problems. The company also offers wellness coaches to all employees. Listening to employees drove Synchronys approach to work. Doubles says he also leans on active listening to help him run the business. You have to listen to your employees, he says. Theyre going to tell you whats working and whats not working. And if theyre telling you whats not working, you have got to act on it fast, and they have to feel you acting on it. Is your team remote or back in office? What is your companys remote-work policy, and has it improved employee engagement? Send your experiences to me at stephaniemehta@mansueto.com. Id like to share some of your insights in a future newsletter. Read more: winning workplaces Fast Companys 100 Best Workplaces for Innovators in 2025 Inc.s 2025 Best Workplaces recognizes the top small and midsize employers Adam Grant on how to build a winning workplace
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E-Commerce
Over the past three decades, a wealth of research has shown that psychological safetythe perception that it is safe to speak up and take risks without fear of embarrassment, rejection, or retributionis one of the most consistent and important predictors of leadership competence and team effectiveness. As one of us (Amy Edmondson) has illustrated in The Fearless Organization, when team members trust that their voice will be heard and valued, they are more willing to take the kinds of interpersonal risks that innovation requires. Unsurprisingly, this matters enormously in todays organizations. Whether the challenge is developing a new product, responding to a shifting market, or solving a stubborn customer problem, innovation rarely emerges only from top-down decree. Instead, it tends to bubble up from people on the ground, with people feeling the freedom to test ideas, share half-formed thoughts and, especially, point out problems others would prefer to ignore (just consider the impact of an employee highlighting a deficient company process to their boss, versus pretending everything is fine, just in order to avoid being reprimanded). Without psychological safety, those behaviors are stifled, and teams end up playing it safe; choosing caution over candor, and conformity over creativity. The leaders role in creating safety Decades of evidence also highlight that leaders play an outsized role in creating the conditions for psychological safety. Simply put, a managers behavior sets the tone for what is acceptable, expected, rewarded, and sanctioned in a team. Leaders who foster safety tend to do several things. First, they model curiosity and openness, asking questions, inviting ideas, and showing genuine interest in different perspectives. Second, they are also good at sanctioning bad behaviors, making it clear for everyone that dismissiveness, ridicule, or hostility have no place in the team. Third, they tend to build trust by admitting their own fallibility. That is, when leaders acknowledge that they dont have all the answers, they encourage others to contribute, which is a critical enabler of team and organizational performance in an age in which knowledge and expertise are likely shared among employees rather than concentrated in those who are in charge. Finally, these leaders encourage smart risk-taking: allowing room for small experiments, tolerating failures, and helping the team learn from them. In short, leaders create safety when they challenge themselves and others to confront reality and engage with each other in honest, respectful ways. As these behaviors imply, psychological safety is not about comfort. Rather, it is a platform for productive discomfort: the kind of discomfort that fuels innovation, learning, and growth. And leaders are the architects and engineers of this climate. Why ‘just being yourself’ threatens safety As one of us (Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic) illustrates in a forthcoming book, Dont Be Yourself: Why Authenticity is Overrated and What to Do Instead, it has become fashionable to tell leadersand othersto just be yourself or to bring your whole self to work. The idea is seductive: after all, who wouldnt want to work in a place where they can express themselves freely, without external pressures or obligation to align their behavior to a corporate norm, and perhaps even celebrated for expressing their unedited and unfiltered self? But here lies a dangerous misconception. In fact, your authentic or whole self also includes the undesirable, unprofessional, and dark side dimensions of your character. As a comprehensive review of this topic highlights, self-expressions may be experienced and perceived as authentic, and yet reduce ones influence if they irritate, anger, or overwhelm others. In that sense, you are better off bringing your best self to work; save the rest for your family, with whom we sympathize for having no escape! Psychological safety is not built through unfiltered self-expression; instead, it tends to require the opposite. Leaders who want to build safe environments for learning and innovation must resist the temptation to bring their whole self to work. Rather, they must make an effort to cultivate and express the best possible version of their professional self, namely the self that is devoted to the greater good, to developing others, and to working hard to achieve meaningful goals. In any of these cases, bringing your whole self may feel liberating for the leader, but it comes at the expense of the teams ability to contribute without fear. Psychological safety demands that leaders filter, regulate, and elevate their behavior: an aspiration that is quite distinct from unedited authenticity. Consider four ways in which whole self leadership can obstruct safety: Unfiltered emotions: A leader who vents every frustration, irritation, or passing mood risks creating a volatile climate. Teams end up tiptoeing around the leaders emotions instead of focusing on the work. Biases and prejudices: Everyone harbors biases, but airing them under the guise of authenticity is toxic. Expressing stereotypes or discriminatory views (however sincerely held) undermines trust and risks excluding essential voices. Radical candor taken too far: Brutal honesty about every thought or judgment may feel authentic, but it can humiliate others. Safety requires candor, yes, but also tact, empathy, and timing. Even Ray Dalio, one of the most famous champions of radical transparency, acknowledges there must be some limits to unfiltered honesty. He says, “if someone shows you a picture of their newborn child, you dont tell them ‘thats an ugly baby.’ Self-centeredness: Leaders who insist on prioritizing their own needs, quirks, or values above the teams mission confuse the purpose of leadership. Leadership is about enabling others, not indulging oneself. Indeed, with power comes responsibility, and with great power comes great responsibility. The only people who want absolute power without any responsibility are narcissistic or psychopathic megalomaniacs who end up being toxic or destructive leaders. Why others, too, should bring their best, not their whole, selves The same principle applies to employees who are not formal leaders. While leaders carry the heavier responsibility, every team member contributes to the climate. A workplace cannot function if being yourself means failing to consider how ones actions affect others. Imagine a software engineer who insists on interrupting colleagues because thats just how I am. Or a salesperson who justifies aggressive, competitive behavior as authentic. Or someone who loves cracking jokes that make some people laugh but are offensive or hurtful to others. At some point, the right to be fully oneself collides with the obligation to create space for others. Teams thrive not because everyone is indulging their idiosyncrasies, but because members align around a shared mission and adapt their behavior to make collective work possible. The goal is thus not to suppress individuality but to channel it productively. The healthiest teams encourage employees to bring their best selves: the part that is curious, constructive, and committed to learning. Our best selves make an effort to understand others and to collaborate effectively even with those who dont think like us. This professional version of yourself can still come across as authentic, because it is an authentic part of who you are, but it requires developing adequate social skills and an empathetic mindset to strengthen safety rather than undermine it. This is not always easy, but its important for helping to advance the mission of the organization. So, by all means, seem authenticby being a positive influence on others and harnessing a reputation for adding value to the team. Embrace the aspiration to have an authentic self that is admirable and worthy of followers. Authenticity and safety: a nuanced relationship As we have tried to illustrate, the relationship between authenticity and psychological safety is not simple. At their best, they reinforce each other: when people feel safe, they are more likely to be authentic, and when leaders model thoughtful authenticity, they reinforce safety. But without boundaries, both concepts can be distorted into their opposite. Authenticity without self-awareness becomes selfishness. Safety without accountability for impact becomes permissiveness. The real challenge for leaders is to hold the tension between the two, to create an environment where people can speak up candidly yet still regulate themselves in service of the teams goals. This requires negotiation, experimentation, and repair. Teams must talk openly about what behaviors support or undermine safety. Missteps will happen; what matters is how they are handledsuch as, with humility, apology, and renewed commitment. Karl Poppers famous paradox of tolerance is instructive here: if you want a tolerant society, you must be intolerant of intolerance. The same logic applies in organizations. If you want psychological safety, you must be unwilling to tolerate behaviors that erode it. The leadership imperative In the end, creating psychological safety is less about leaders revealing their whole selves and more about leaders taking responsibility for the selves they bring. The leaders task is not self-expression but stewardship: creating the conditions where others can do their best thinking, experimenting, and learning. That is the paradox of safety and authenticity at work. To build trust, leaders must be human, vulnerable, and real. But to sustain safety, they must also regulate, filter, and discipline their impulses. The same is true for peers. Authenticity is valuable only when it is paired with accountability to others. Leaders who grasp this nuance will build workplaces where people feel free to speak up and take risks, but not free to disregard the collective mission. That balance, between authenticity and responsibility, between freedom and accountability, is the real foundation of psychological safety.
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E-Commerce
While most museums have some kind of storea place to buy a postcard or mug and help their respective institutions squeeze a few more bucks from its visitorsfew are actually outstanding places to shop. The notable exception is MoMA. The MoMA Store has become a brand in and of itself to the point where there are shoppers who know the acronym and logo but not necessarily the history behind them. And while retail has helped MoMA gain name recognition, the museum wants it to become a more effective ambassador for the flagship art institution. The recent renovation of MoMA’s SoHo design store, which recently reopened after months of renovations, exemplifies this new approach. We’ve been thinking beyond revenue and contemplating our reach and how our retail business can connect people to the larger institution and to its mission of connecting people around the world to the art of our times, says Jesse Goldstine, the general manager of MoMAs retail operations, who joined the museum in 2015. This rolls up into the biggest pivot in the business since Ive been managing retail at MoMA, which is the shift in strategy from the typical exit-through-the-store model to retail as a point of entry for the institution. [Photo: MoMA] Between online sales, brick-and-mortar shops, and licensing, MoMAs retail endeavors generate more than three million transactions annually (MoMA declined to share sales figures). To put that figure into context, the museum welcomed 2.7 visitors during between 2023 and 2024. MoMA says at least 7% of museum visitors learn about the institution through merchandise. Recently, MoMA has been ramping up its licensing partnerships with brands like Lego, New Era (for cobranded Yankees and Mets hats), and Nike (for cobranded tube socks). Additionally, more than half of MoMA Stores revenue is driven by brick-and-mortar stores. Because the shop might be the first time someone engages with MoMA, the institution saw an opportunity to strengthen a connection to the museum itself. See an Aalto vase in the shop, then head to Midtown to see an archival example. Part of his shift has to do with the nature of SoHo and how the design store, which opened in 2001, relates to the neighborhoods visitors. When people come to 53rd Street, they know what MoMA is, they understand the brand, Goldstine says. They likely are walking out of the museum and into one of our retail locations. In SoHo, not necessarily. They may have grabbed a cup of coffee and saw a cool thing in the window. They may be excited about the MoMA hoodie that they’ve seen on TikTok or Instagram and want to go purchase it, but they don’t understand who we are as a business. [Photo: MoMA] A store that channels a museum To strengthen the connection, MoMA Design Store now looks a bit more like a museum. Working closely with Peterson Rich Officethe Brooklyn-based architecture firm behind Galerie Perrotins downtown outpost and the Mets forthcoming retail and dining renovationthe shop reconfigured its layout to accommodate the strategy. First off, its much easier to see inside the store. Before, MoMA Design Store used its storefront for vitrine-like displays in each window. They looked attractive, but blocked longer interior views. Now, the windows are unobstructed and instead look into a spacious, gallery-like space in the front of the store, which will feature products from the museums collection plus exclusives and special pop-ups. (Its also a flexible area that can be emptied out for events and talks to seat 50 people.) They also installed deep, built-in cabinets along the storefront at window height, which offers a space where furniture is displayed sparingly, like sculpture. Perforated metal shelving acts as a back wall for the storefront gallery as well as a secondary threshold into the shop. [Photo: MoMA] A more controlled entry sequence into the store is another shift for the experience. Instead of two doors at the corner of Spring and Crosby, theres now one entrance on Spring. The architects shifted the door over a few feet so that its on a central axis and offers a sightline to the back wall, which is the site of a new rotating mural commission from a contemporary artist. The first is by Nina Chanel Abney and will be up for a couple of years. Overall, PRO emphasized whats necessary for function but kept its interventions minimal. Sustainability concerns (why use more material than you need to or rebuild something thats perfectly sound?) alongside architectural philosophy influenced the renovation. The stores original design by 1100 Architects was celebrated when it debuted in 2001 and involved covering p the 19th-century buildings industrial detailsthink mirrored panels over cast-iron columns and an illuminated drop ceiling over pipes and air ductsbut didnt serve the new business strategy. It was the spirit of the time, says Miriam Peterson, who founded PRO with Nathan Rich. There was almost a fight against history and old things or this attitude that in order to have a point of view about what it means to be contemporary, you have to erase or obliterate whatever it is that was there before. PRO removed most of the aughts-era interventions (the only feature they kept was the concrete stair leading to the basement, where home goods and children’s departments are). They wanted to make the shop feel spacious and heighten the feeling of being in SoHo, playing up the features that are distinct to the building. You cant squander the history of New York, Rich says. [Photo: MoMA] Refreshingly, the redesign is not intended to be an Instagrammable experience, which has influenced so many SoHo flagships as of late. Its still, at its heart, a very good place to shop. Youll still be able to find exclusive products that MoMA Stores merchandisers and buyers source from all around the world and that have all been curator approvedincluding Kermit-green expandable suitcases from the Korean brand Rawrow, painterly tumblers from the century-old European glassware company Ichendorf, and retro-style Bodum coffee makers plus perennial bestsellers like perpetual calendars, ceramic Anthora cups, and prismatic acrylic side tables. However, there are 30% fewer SKUs on the floor, a strategy that gives merchandisers more space for storytellingthis includes iPads with video demonstrations of electronics, like projectorsplus breathing room for each product. (Anyone whos braved the crowds on weekends or around the holidays will likely appreciate more space to move around.) The redesigned store and strategy behind it also speaks to shifts in how people want to shop. Consumers are interested in spending money at places that align with their values. Its easier than ever to find attractive, stylish products online and there are countless outlets now with aesthetics similar to MoMA Store. However, none of them have the same history and connection to art. In the past, it might have been that the museum lent credibility to the store’s inventory, but the relationship is more reciprocal now. On their way out of the store, visitors will notice a screen near the door that advertises the current exhibitions in the museum. The train uptown to see them is just two blocks away.
Category:
E-Commerce
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