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2025-10-20 10:00:00| Fast Company

Layoffs might make headlines, but the real measure is how leaders support the remaining employees. Layoffs are undeniably challenging for good reason. However, its what leaders do in the aftermath that determines whether a culture fractures or recovers. Ive led workforce complex reductions at Amazon, Microsoft, startups, and PE-backed firms. While every situation was unique, the same pattern appeared each time. It wasnt necessarily the layoff that broke the culture. It was the leadership response. Layoffs disrupt the culture and impact more than just headcount. Ive watched talented, engaged employees turn quiet and withdrawn after layoffs. Not because they stopped caring, but because they stopped feeling safe. The aftermath of layoffs can be unsettling for those who remain. Organizations expect survivors to absorb heavier workloads while they navigate shaken trust and mixed emotions. Layoff survivors often experience relief, guilt, grief, and anxiety about whats next. This is the leadership moment too few prepare for. Post-layoff culture recovery isnt automaticits intentional. In these moments, they need to communicate. Its a make-or-break opportunity to rebuild confidence, reinforce values, and heal a companys culture. Culture recovery hinges on many factors. Leadership must step up to manage the aftermath. Heres how to approach it: Lead with candor, not corporate speak Layoffs are typically a financial decision, but culture recovery is a leadership decision. Dont miss your moment. Layoffs dont kill culture. Neglect does. Leaders who avoid the hard conversations, hide behind jargon, and pretend its business as usual are the ones who lose the trust of their employees. After all, silence creates speculation. Thats why its important that leaders directly address and over-communicate early. I’ve introduced pulse checks, frequent town halls, and open forums. You cant rebuild morale through Slack updates or pizza parties. You need to do this in an authentic way. When my company had to conduct layoffs several years ago, it was a stressful experience. As the HR leader, I carried a significant emotional burden in conversations with employees who were impacted as well as those with those who remained. Our executive team met with staff to answer tough questions and provide updates. The first few sessions were a bit tense for both me and our leaders, as we faced some tough questions. We stumbled at first with too much corporate speak, and employees saw right through it. The room was tense. But eventually, that discomfort became a turning point when leaders stopped with the jargon and started showing real vulnerability. After that, the dynamic shifted. Acknowledging the emotional climate is important because it helps us reclaim performance and commitment. If we wanted to show our support for employees, we needed to address these issues head-on. Many companies carefully plan their layoff process, including announcements and severance packages. However, they often neglect what comes next. People don’t remember the slide decks or talking pointsthey remember how you showed up at this moment. Empty buzzwords do more harm than good. Speak to people on a human level and create space for honest conversations about what is certain and whats unknown. Be open about changes involving the business, team structure, available headcount resources, or ongoing uncertainties. Reaffirm what hasnt changed. At the same time, you also need to be clear about the path forward. Create safe spaces for emotion After layoffs, the workplace feels different, and pretending otherwise only deepens the sense of unease that employees feel. Leaders who acknowledge this reality set the stage for recovery. To help teams reengage, you need to take the time to listen to your employees. When you give people this kind of face, theyre more likely to adapt more quickly and regain momentum. Validating emotions doesnt weaken performanceit accelerates it. Employees who feel like youve heard them are far more likely to reengage, contribute, and collaborate. Weekly check-ins become vital for building connections. These conversations are not always easy, but theyre necessary for healing. Over time, that openness strengthens collaboration and restores trust. Rebuild culture from within Rebuilding from within starts with clarity. Employees need contextwhy you made certain decisions, and what resources are available moving forward. People want details that help them understand whats ahead and how their work fits the bigger picture. This is also the moment to reenergize the team. Reaffirm the mission and values so employees can reconnect to a shared purpose. Even in uncertainty, knowing the why behind the work helps people stay motivated. Leaders need to act. Retaining key talent, ensuring workloads are sustainable, and recognizing the additional effort required of those who remain all demonstrate that leadership is paying attention. A common mistake leaders make is assuming that the remaining team members will just pick up the slack. This assumption can lead to increased burnout or, even worse, the loss of valuable talent. A better approach is prioritizing tasks, eliminating low-value work, and having an honest conversation about the short-term trade-offs that are involved. Recognize that this is a cultural moment Layoffs test culture. They dont automatically destroy itwhat damages culture is indifference, silence, or meaningless lip service. When leaders respond with honesty and care, disruption can become a catalyst for renewal. You shape culture through daily choices: the courage to answer tough questions, the discipline to maintain consistent communication, and the humility to admit when youve compromised trust. Employees notice whether leadership avoids the hard truths or embraces them. Moments of disruption invite reflection. Leaders can use this time to reassess values, address blind spots, and strengthen practices that they might have overlooked. Openness about what needs to change prevents damaging back-channeling and reinforces inclusivity. Culture is the foundation on which every company rests. If it fractures, performance and morale follow. But a stronger culture can emerge when leaders step into this moment with honesty and courage.


Category: E-Commerce

 

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2025-10-20 09:30:00| Fast Company

OpenAI has announced that starting in December, ChatGPT will allow the generation of erotic content for verified adult users. At the same time, Elon Musks xAI has launched Grok Imagine, an image-generation system that already includes an NSFW mode for producing explicit imagery.  None of this should surprise anyone. Desire, fantasy, and pornography have always been powerful engines of technological adoption. Photography, video, the internet, and even online payments all grew, in part, because of it. The interesting question is not about sex: its about what these decisions reveal about the kind of humanity Big Tech companies are shaping.  Desire as a managed service  This is not about prudishness or panic. Sexuality will, of course, find its digital expressions. Whats unsettling is not the presence of eroticism in technology, but its industrialized management.  The difference between eroticism and algorithmic consumption is the same as that between experience and dopamine: one is built through relationship; the other is dosed from the outside. By integrating sexuality into large language models and visual generators, platforms are not liberating desire: they are administering it.  They decide which fantasies are acceptable, which bodies exist and which dont, what limits imagination deserves, and which ones are preemptively censored. The promise is freedom; the result is regulation of pleasure.  From exploration to domestication  When excitement, tenderness, and curiosity are mediated through an interface, our relationship with our bodies and with others changes. This isnt moralism. Its behavioral architecture.  Algorithms learn what attracts us, replicate it, reinforce it, and turn it into dependence. Users stop exploring desire; they repeat it. And repetition, safe, comfortable, and risk-free, becomes a form of domestication.  Theres no need to manipulate people with ideology when you can condition them with pleasure. Constant stimulation is a far more effective form of control than censorship ever was.  A new vector of capture  Its no coincidence that this expansion arrives just as large language models mature and corporations compete to keep users inside their closed ecosystems.  Sex, in this context, becomes just another vector of attention capture, a way to deepen the emotional bond between humans and machines.  The goal is no longer for AI to respond, but to accompany, excite, soothe, and replace. The fantasy isnt companionship: its containment. An artificial partner designed never to challenge, never to refuse, never to feel.  This is not technological liberation. Its the automation of comfort.  From entertainment to managed desire  As I said a couple of weeks ago, weve been here before. From social networks to gaming, digital entertainment has followed the same logic of permanent stimulation. What changes now is the terrain: its no longer about free time: its about desire itself, that core where emotion and biology meet.  Turning desire into a managed service run by algorithms is the final step toward a docile humanity, one in which even intimacy becomes a subscription.  Digital sex vs. algorithmic sex  The point is not to moralize about pornography: its to understand what it means to hand over control of erotic imagination, one of humanitys most powerful creative forces, to closed systems that do not explain how they learn, what they filter, or whom they serve.  The problem is not digital sex. Its algorithmic sex. Not pleasure, but control.  Once these systems learn to measure, adjust, and stimulate desire, free will becomes just another optimization parameter.  The new anesthesia  Behind this apparent liberalization of content lies a simpler, more effective strategy: keep us busy, satisfied, and distracted.  Not indoctrinated: anesthetized.  A form of emotional livestock, fed by impulses engineered on distant servers. Algorithmic sheep: artificially happy, productive, and unable to tell the difference between genuine desire and manufactured stimulus.


Category: E-Commerce

 

2025-10-20 09:00:00| Fast Company

People are fascinated with leadership, and rightly so. After all, most of the big things that happen in the world (both good and bad) can be directly traced to decisions, behaviors, or choices of those who are in charge: presidents, prime ministers, CEOs, executives, and anyone tasked with turning a group of people into a high-performing unit, coordinating human activity, and shaping the impact institutions have on society, all the way down to individuals. In line, scientific research shows that up to 40% of the variability in team and organizational performance can be accounted for by the leaderin other words, who we put in charge, or who emerges as leaders, drastically influences the fate of others. This begs the obvious question of how and why some people become leaders in the first place. Furthermore, few psychological questions have intrigued the general public more than the question of whether nature or nurture is responsible for shaping and creating leaders: so, are leaders born or made? {"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. ","ctaText":"Learn More","ctaUrl":"https:\/\/drtomas.com\/intro\/","theme":{"bg":"#2b2d30","text":"#ffffff","eyebrow":"#9aa2aa","buttonBg":"#3b3f46","buttonText":"#ffffff"},"imageDesktopId":91424798,"imageMobileId":91424800}} If you want the quick and short answer, it is YES. Or if you prefer, a bit of both (which is generally the case in psychology). Lets start with the nurture part, which is the one more likely to resonate with popular or laypeoples views . . . (1) Environment shapes character and competenceOur early environments (especially during childhood) play a profound role in molding the attitudes, motivations, and habits that underpin leadership. Supportive parents, good schooling, early exposure to responsibility, access to a stimulating wider community, and opportunities to practice decision-making all nurture proto-leadership skills such as conscientiousness, self-control, curiosity, assertiveness, and empathy. On the flip side, adversity can also build resilience, independence, and determination. In other words, leadership potential often germinates in the soil of early experiences, but its impossible to accurately predict the direction of the development, which is what makes life interesting and fun. At the same time, things arent random, and science-based predictions will work more often than not (on average, for most people, we can improve from a 50% guesswork to around 80% hit rate). (2) Expertise legitimizes leadershipNo one wants to follow a leader who doesnt know what theyre talking about. Thats why domain-specific knowledge is essential for legitimacy. You cant lead a tech team without understanding technology, or a marketing department without grasping customers and branding. Expertise breeds credibility, and credibility breeds followership in turn. This is why great football coaches will probably fail as corporate CEOs, and why even the best military leaders may not be adequate startup founders. While charisma or confidence may get you noticed, sustained leadership requires demonstrable competence. This is learned, not inherited, because its about harnessing the social proof that makes you a credible expert in the eyes of others (and I mean other experts not novices!). (3) Personality evolves through life experienceTraits like curiosity, openness, emotional stability, and conscientiousness (all strong predictors of leadership effectiveness) are partly malleable. They evolve in response to life experiences, feedback, and learning. The so-called bright side of personality (ambition, sociability, diligence) and the dark side (narcissism, impulsivity, arrogance) both reflect a mix of innate dispositions and environmental reinforcement. The first decade of life is particularly critical, but development continues throughout adulthood. So while personality sets the stage, experience writes the script. Now for the less popular, but equally important nature side of the debate. (4) Leadership is partly heritableBehavioral genetics (especially twin studies) show that leadership is not purely learned. Roughly 30 to 60% of the variance in who becomes a leader can be attributed to genetic factors. Rich Arvey and colleagues at the National University of Singapore found that identical twins, even when raised apart, are significantly more likely to occupy leadership roles than fraternal twins. This doesnt mean leadership is predetermined, but it suggests some individuals are born with psychological and biological predispositions, like higher energy, extraversion, or risk tolerance, that increase their odds of taking charge. (5) Intelligence and personality are strongly geneticTwo of the most powerful predictors of leadership (cognitive ability and personality) are themselves highly heritable. Robert Plomins decades of research suggest that around 50% of the variance in both IQ and personality traits can be traced to genetics. Since these traits strongly predict who emerges as a leader and how effective they are, we can reasonably infer that part of leadership is literally in our DNA. Brains, not just behavior, matter: smarter, more emotionally stable individuals tend to make better decisions, handle stress, and inspire confidence; all qualities that attract followers. (6) The unfair advantages of birthFinally, theres the uncomfortable truth that social class, privilege, and demographic factors like gender, race, and attractiveness (each partly determined by who you are born to) also shape leadership opportunities. Tall, good-looking, well-spoken individuals from higher socioeconomic backgrounds are more likely to be perceived as leadership material, regardless of actual competence. These advantages arent earned, yet they strongly affect leadrship trajectories. Nature determines the lottery ticket; society decides how valuable it is, even if this is arbitrary and unfair. To be sure, societies that dislike this fact (including most Western democracies) are seeing big decreases in upward social mobility. For instance, in the U.S., approximately 50% of a fathers income position is inherited by his son (in Norway and Canada, the figure is less than 20%). With wealth and money come advantages and access to leadership positions, so while nature isnt destiny, it certainly inhibits or amplifies opportunities. In sum, the science of leadership suggests that it is both born and made. Genetics endows us with certain predispositions (intelligence, temperament, even physical appearance) that make leadership more or less likely. And our socioeconomic status and parental resources at birth shape the nature of whats possible, or at least likely. But environment, learning, and experience are the catalysts that turn those predispositions into performance. Leadership, in other words, is a potential meeting opportunity. And while we cant control our genetic hand, we can absolutely learn to play it better. {"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. ","ctaText":"Learn More","ctaUrl":"https:\/\/drtomas.com\/intro\/","theme":{"bg":"#2b2d30","text":"#ffffff","eyebrow":"#9aa2aa","buttonBg":"#3b3f46","buttonText":"#ffffff"},"imageDesktopId":91424798,"imageMobileId":91424800}}


Category: E-Commerce

 

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