 |
|
|
|||||
Even in an age when it is rather common to invite people, including leaders, to bring their whole self to work, what is actually rewarded at work is being our best self, in the sense of trying to be at the best of our behaviors, and fulfill as much of our potential as we can, as often as possible. Importantly, many if not most people still compartmentalize their personal self as something separate from their work persona or professional self, even if both can co-exist as salient, albeit different, dimensions of their self-concept. Indeed, this aligns with the science of self-complexity, which basically shows that we inhabit multiple selves, in the sense that our identity is composed of different roles, habits, and adaptations which are activated as the situation demands, in response of each pertinent or particular environmental requirements. So for instance, even if you adore your boss, it would be unwise to mistake them for your spouse: just because they give you feedback doesnt mean they want to hear about your weekend argument over who forgot to buy toilet paper, nor should you expect them to give you a gold star for behaving like a functioning adult for eight consecutive hours. Likewise, no matter how warm, empathetic, or inclusive your team may be, your colleagues are unlikely to respond well if you treat a project review like bedtime routine: for example, nobody wants to be tucked in after a PowerPoint or be asked whether they brushed their teeth before updating the CRM. {"blockType":"mv-promo-block","data":{"imageDesktopUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/10\/tcp-photo-syndey-16X9.jpg","imageMobileUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/10\/tcp-photo-syndey-1x1-2.jpg","eyebrow":"","headline":"Get more insights from Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic","dek":"Dr. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic is a professor of organizational psychology at UCL and Columbia University, and the co-founder of DeeperSignals. He has authored 15 books and over 250 scientific articles on the psychology of talent, leadership, AI, and entrepreneurship. ","subhed":"","description":"","ctaText":"Learn More","ctaUrl":"https:\/\/drtomas.com\/intro\/","theme":{"bg":"#2b2d30","text":"#ffffff","eyebrow":"#9aa2aa","subhed":"#ffffff","buttonBg":"#3b3f46","buttonHoverBg":"#3b3f46","buttonText":"#ffffff"},"imageDesktopId":91424798,"imageMobileId":91424800,"shareable":false,"slug":""}} The science of transilience And yet, there are actually some pretty clear benefits in applying certain skills or dispositions from one of your identity dimensions to others, and that includes the surprising potential for transferring parent skills to both management and leadership skills. In fact, there is a powerful but largely unknown science of transilience, the process of extrapolating aspects of one of your roles or self-concept dimensions to others. Recent empirical research validates this intuition with hard data. A study found that leaders who are supportive parents produce measurably better outcomes in their teams: higher employee performance, more voice behavior (employees voluntarily sharing ideas), and greater willingness to cooperate. The mechanism? Experiences of care and emotional support inherently developed in parenting roles transfer directly to leadership effectiveness. Parenting skills, translated Here are five ways in which parenting skills may come in handy to boost your leadership effectiveness: 1. Patience as a performance multiplier: Parenting teaches you very quickly that progress rarely unfolds on your preferred timeline. Toddlers dont walk when you want them to, teenagers dont reply to messages when you need them to, and nobody in between ever hurries because you said please. Good leaders internalize the same logic. Teams learn at different speeds, projects require repetition, and people need space to make mistakes before they improve. In both domains, impatience is the illusion that reality will adjust to your mood; patience is the skill of adjusting your expectations to reality. Developmental psychology introduces the concept of “scaffolding”: building temporary support structures that help someone achieve just beyond their current level[1]. Good parents instinctively identify their child’s “zone of proximal development” and provide calibrated support. Transformational leaders do the same: they identify where each person is ready to grow, provide coaching without doing the work for them, and gradually step back as competence develops. This requires the same calibrated attunement that parenting demands. 2. Clear boundaries create psychological safety: Parents know that children thrive with consistent expectations and predictable guardrails; ambiguity breeds anxiety and chaos. The same is true at work. Teams feel safer when the rules of engagement are clear, when no really means no, and when leaders enforce boundaries reliably rather than arbitrarily. A boundary at home might be a bedtime; a boundary at work might be a deadline. In both settings, structure reduces stress, and consistency builds trust. Our own research in attachment theory predicts that both parents and transformational leaders fulfill two critical functions: they provide a “secure base” from which people can explore confidently, and a “safe haven” to return to when difficulties arise. This isn’t about creating dependency. Studies show that when people feel psychologically secure – knowing support is available if needed – they actually become more autonomous, creative, and willing to take risks. The leader’s availability enables independence, not dependence. 3. Listening beats lecturing: Every parent has learned the hard way that lecturing a child rarely produces enlightenment; it mostly produces eye rolls, resistance, or creative reinterpretations of your instructions. Leadership isnt much different. People follow more readily when they feel heard, understood, and included in the problem-solving process. Just as a good parent listens to what a child is trying to say, a good leader listens to the concerns behind employees objections – because you cant influence what you havent first understood. 4. Modeling behavior is more powerful than mandating it: Children copy what you do, not what you say; telling them to share nicely while you shout at traffic sends a very different message. Adults are not immune to this principle. Teams take behavioral cues from leaders: if you stay curious under pressure, they will too; if you treat others with dignity, so will they; if you panic, micromanage, or blame, the contagion spreads instantly. Parenting teaches you that you are always on stage; leadership simply gives you a bigger audience. 5. Encouragement fuels growth more than criticism: Parents quickly discover that reinforcing effort not just outcomes keeps children motivated and resilient. The same dynamic applies to adults: people double down on behaviors that are noticed and valued. A leader who acknowledges small wins, progress, and perseverance cultivates a culture where people want to stretch themselves. Think of encouragement as the organizational equivalent of the proud look what you built! moment with a child – a small gesture that accelerates confidence, capability, and engagement. The bad parenting connection Perhaps more obviously, there are some clear parallels between bad leadership and bad parenting. Here are some rather striking similarities: 1. The Because I said so manager: Just as authoritarian parents shut down questions with rigid commands, authoritarian leaders mistake obedience for alignment. They confuse compliance with commitment and then wonder why nobody shows initiative. 2. The inconsistent rule-setter: Parents who punish a behavior one day and ignore it the next produce anxious, confused children. Leaders who do the same create cultures where people waste more energy interpreting the bosss mood than doing their actual job. 3. The distracted, phone-addicted caregiver: A parent who nods absentmindedly while scrolling sends a clear message: Im here, but not really. Leaders who multitask through meetings, check emails while someone speaks, or listen with one AirPod in convey the same emotional absenteeism. 4. The praise-inflation expert: Some parents shower children with empty praise to avoid conflict; the workplace equivalent is the leader who never gives honest feedback, inflating performance reviews until they become meaningless. In both scenarios, reality eventually delivers the correction the adult avoided giving. 5. The helicopter micromanager: Just as hovering parents undermine a childs autonomy and problem-solving skills, micromanaging leaders suffocate initiative. Both end up producing dependency, resentment, and a deep fear of making mistakes, which ironically reinforces the very behavior they complain about. A rich laboratory In the end, parenting offers an unusually rich laboratory for understanding human behavior, motivation, and development, precisely the same ingredients that make leadership effective. What parents learn through necessity, leaders can apply with intention: patience, boundaries, attentive listening, behavioral modeling, and encouragement are not soft skills but core mechanisms for eliciting growth in others. And the darker sides of parenting (inconsistency, distraction, micromanagement, avoidance) map almost perfectly onto the classic derailers of bad leadership. The parallels arent coincidental; they reflect universal principles of how humans respond to authority, structure, and care. Multiple streams of research now converge on this point. Studies demonstrate that parenting and transformational leadership share core psychological processes: both develop through creating secure bases for exploration, both transfer caregiving orientations across domains, and both produce similar developmental outcomes in their “followers”, whether children or employees. The science is clear: this isn’t metaphor, it’s measured mechanism. This is why transilience matters: the ability to draw on one dimension of the self to enrich another is a feature, not a flaw, of our complex identities. Rather than pretending our roles exist in sealed compartments, we are better off asking what each role teaches us about being more effective, more humane, and more self-aware in the others. Parenting doesnt make you a leader, but it can make you a better one if youre willing to notice the patterns, learn from the mistakes, and apply the lessons where they matter most: not just at home, and not just at work, but across the full constellation of selves that make you who you are. That doesnt mean, of course, that the next time you interview for a leadership role you should brag about being a parent, or showcase the number of children you have as evidence of managerial brilliance. Most people are still unaware of transilience and the value of transferring skills from one identity domain to another, so the connection will likely be lost on them. Still, the real advantage lies not in announcing your parental status but in internalizing the lessons it quietly teaches: managing emotions under pressure, nurturing growth, setting boundaries, and modeling the behavior you hope to inspire. These are not résumé lines; they are capabilities that, when consciously activated, enhance your effectiveness as a leader far more than any abstract leadership competency model ever could. {"blockType":"mv-promo-block","data":{"imageDesktopUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/10\/tcp-photo-syndey-16X9.jpg","imageMobileUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/10\/tcp-photo-syndey-1x1-2.jpg","eyebrow":"","headline":"Get more insights from Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic","dek":"Dr. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic is a professor of organizational psychology at UCL and Columbia University, and the co-founder of DeeperSignals. He has authored 15 books and over 250 scientific articles on the psychology of talent, leadership, AI, and entrepreneurship. ","subhed":"","description":"","ctaText":"Learn More","ctaUrl":"https:\/\/drtomas.com\/intro\/","theme":{"bg":"#2b2d30","text":"#ffffff","eyebrow":"#9aa2aa","subhed":"#ffffff","buttonBg":"#3b3f46","buttonHoverBg":"#3b3f46","buttonText":"#ffffff"},"imageDesktopId":91424798,"imageMobileId":91424800,"shareable":false,"slug":""}}
Category:
E-Commerce
Rejoice, New Year’s dieters: Oreos are getting a sugar-free option.Mondelez said Tuesday that Oreo Zero Sugar and Oreo Double Stuf Zero Sugar will go on sale in the U.S. in January. They’re a permanent addition to the company’s Oreo lineup.It’s the first time Mondelez has sold sugar-free Oreos in the U.S. They’re already sold in Europe and China, the company said.Mondelez said consumers are increasingly seeking what it calls “mindful indulgence,” and the new Oreos will fill an existing gap in the market for sugar-free sandwich cookies. [Image: Mondelz International] Others have also noted the trend toward healthier snacks. In a report earlier this year, the market research company Circana found that a majority of Americans are seeking out snacks they consider “good for them.” Conagra Brands, which makes popcorn and Slim Jim meat snacks, said in a recent snacking report that Millennials and Generation Z consumers, in particular, are seeking portion-controlled and wellness-focused snacks.Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, which was introduced in 2017, saw sales jump 9% last year, while original Coke sales grew just 2%. Mondelez is also facing competition from Hershey, which sells zero sugar versions of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and other candies, and Voortman, a sugar-free wafer cookie brand.Mondelez said it spent four years developing no-sugar Oreos so it could ensure the cookies still tasted like the originals. For sweetening, the Oreos contain maltitol, a type of sugar alcohol that’s also found in some fruits and vegetables; polydextrose, a soluble fiber; sucralose, a sweetener derived from sugar; and acesulfame potassium, a synthetic sweetener.Comparing the nutrition data on Zero Sugar and regular Oreos is tricky, since the serving sizes differ.A serving of Oreo Zero Sugar cookies, which is defined as 22.6 grams, has 90 calories, 4.5 grams of fat and 16 grams of carbohydrates. A serving of regular Oreos, which is defined as three cookies or 34 grams, has 160 calories, 7 grams of fat and 25 grams of carbohydrates.The biggest difference: a serving of regular Oreos contains 13 grams of added sugars, or 26% of the recommended daily amount. Zero Sugar Oreos contain none. Dee-Ann Durbin, AP Business Writer
Category:
E-Commerce
Cracker Barrel posted lower-than-expected sales in its fiscal first quarter and trimmed its revenue forecast for the year as it continued to feel the fallout from a botched plan to revamp its logo and restaurants.The Lebanon, Tennessee-based restaurant chain said Tuesday its revenue fell 5.7% to $797.2 million in the three months ending Oct. 31. That was lower than the $800 million Wall Street anticipated, according to analysts polled by FactSet.Cracker Barrel said its same-store restaurant sales dropped 4.7% while sales in its retail shops dropped 8.5%. Those declines were also slightly higher than analysts forecast.Cracker Barrel said it now expects total revenue of $3.2 billion to $3.3 billion in its 2026 fiscal year. That’s down from $3.35 billion to $3.45 billion previously. The company also said it expects adjusted pre-tax earnings of $70 million to $110 million, down from $150 million to $190 million previously.Cracker Barrel shares fell more than 10% in after-hours trading Tuesday.Cracker Barrel announced in August that it was simplifying the chain’s logo as part of a larger plan to modernize the chain’s dark, antique-filled restaurants.But the move had disastrous consequences. Fans didn’t like that the new logo didn’t include Cracker Barrel’s longtime mascot, an overall-clad man leaning on a barrel, or the words “Old Country Store.” They also rebelled against the store redesigns.Cracker Barrel backtracked a week later, saying it would keep the logo. In September, the company also suspended its plans to remodel stores. The chain operates around 650 restaurants nationwide, with many in Texas, Florida and Tennessee.Cracker Barrel shareholders voted late last month to keep company CEO Julie Felss Masino in place despite the logo debacle.But one of the company’s directors, Gilbert Davila, resigned from Cracker Barrel’s board Thursday after preliminary results indicated that shareholders rejected his reelection. Davila, who joined Cracker Barrel’s board in 2020, is the president and CEO of DMI Consulting, a multicultural marketing firm. He reviewed Cracker Barrel’s advertising as part of his role on the board. Dee-Ann Durbin, AP Business Writer
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||