Blog, culture and engagement | Ambition In Motion

by Julia Gonzalez

Fri 11 July 2025

Many business conflicts can stem from conflicting incentive structures between executives. Take Nick, the head of HR in his organization, radiating frustration as he finds himself caught between a critical deadline and an uncompromising finance department. His mandate was clear: implement a new payroll technology by a rapidly approaching date. Yet despite his efforts for a swift and seamless rollout, the company’s finance department opted for a much more meticulous approach.

Burdened by previous failed payroll implementations, the finance department was taking everything through legal, to try and prevent yet another failed technology. To the HR executive, this felt like an unnecessary and infuriating roadblock, jeopardizing his goals. To the finance executive, it was a desperate attempt to mitigate risk and, possibly, save his job. Another flop on his watch could mean a professional reckoning.

This scenario, where individual or departmental incentives clash, is a very real and prevalent challenge for CEOs and executives. It’s a subtle form of internal business conflict that, left unaddressed, can derail critical projects and erode morale. So, how do you navigate these treacherous waters?

Fostering Integrated Teamwork

The first, and perhaps most crucial, step is to recognize that you're not managing an assembly line where each department simply passes work down the line. You're leading an ecosystem where the success of one team is inextricably linked to the success of all.

In the payroll technology example, the HR executive's initial approach, while understandable, was to view finance and legal as cogs in a larger machine, that the plan must go through to be implemented. This perspective, however, overlooks the human element and the underlying motivations. Instead, the focus should shift to fostering a truly integrated team dynamic.

Actionable Insight: The HR leader needs to initiate a proactive, collaborative meeting with both the finance executive and legal counsel. This isn't about assigning blame or demanding speed; it's about genuine understanding and problem-solving.

With Finance: "Help me understand your specific concerns regarding this implementation. Given the past challenges, I want to ensure we address every potential risk. What assurances or information do you need from the vendor or from our internal teams to feel confident moving forward?" By actively seeking out and addressing their anxieties, the HR leader can transform finance from a roadblock into a partner. The vendor will likely be more than willing to provide the necessary documentation, security protocols, or even engage in direct conversations to relieve finance's worries.
With Legal: "We have a critical deadline for this project, and I understand the thoroughness required for legal review. Is there a way we can expedite the process without compromising due diligence? Perhaps we can prioritize certain documents, or even work together on a phased review approach?" By framing it as a shared challenge with a clear objective, legal may be more inclined to speed up their processes. This might involve dedicating specific resources, providing a clearer understanding of their review process, or even offering guidance on how future submissions can be structured to facilitate faster review.

The goal here is to dismantle the "us vs. them" mentality and replace it with one that says "we're in this together". When success for one is success for all, incentives begin to align better organically.

Empathy as a Strategic Tool

The truth of the scenario – that the finance executive was trying to save her job – highlights a critical aspect of executive leadership: empathy. It's easy to get caught up in our own objectives and pressures, but truly effective leaders take the time to understand the priorities, pressures, and incentives of their colleagues.

Before any confrontational or demanding conversations, colleagues should dedicate time to stepping into the other person's shoes. Asking:

What are their biggest fears and anxieties related to this project?
What are the goals they are trying to achieve?
What historical context might be influencing their current behavior?
How does this project impact their success, or potential failure?

In the payroll scenario, the HR executive could have initiated a less formal, one-on-one conversation with the finance executive. "I understand the past implementations have been difficult, and I appreciate your diligence in preventing future issues. My goal is to make this a success for both of our departments. How can I best support you in ensuring a smooth and secure transition?" This approach, grounded in mutual respect and a genuine desire for collaboration, can disarm defensiveness and open the door to productive dialogue.

Collaboration grounded in mutual understanding can turn even the most frustrating roadblocks into shared wins. When colleagues feel heard and understood, they are far more likely to reciprocate that understanding and work towards a common goal. This doesn't mean abandoning your own objectives, but rather seeking common ground that allows both parties to achieve their desired outcomes.

Cultivating a Culture of Shared Accountability

Ultimately, addressing conflicting incentives requires a shift in company culture towards shared accountability. This isn't just about individual interactions; it’s about creating an environment where departmental disagreements are minimized, and cross-functional collaboration is maximized.

CEOs and executives should consider:

Joint Goal Setting: Where appropriate, establish shared goals and KPIs for projects that span multiple departments. If the HR and finance teams were jointly responsible for the successful and timely implementation of the payroll technology, their incentives would naturally align.
Cross-Functional Training: Encourage employees to spend time in other departments to gain a deeper understanding of their operations, challenges, and priorities.
Recognition of Collaborative Success: Publicly acknowledge and reward teams that successfully collaborate on complex projects, highlighting how diverse perspectives contributed to a shared victory. This reinforces the value of integrated teamwork.
Leadership Modeling: Executives must lead by example. When leaders demonstrate a willingness to compromise, understand diverse perspectives, and prioritize organizational success over departmental turf wars, it sends a powerful message throughout the company.
Joining an Executive Mastermind Group: Getting perspectives from peer executives outside of the company can be critical to garnering objectivity and a clearer perspective on the situation.

The conflict between the HR and finance executives is not an anomaly; it's a representation of the challenges many organizations face. By moving beyond a linear, transactional approach to internal projects and embracing empathy, integrated teamwork, and a culture of shared accountability, leaders can transform difficult roadblocks into opportunities for organizational growth and enhanced performance. The goal isn't to eliminate individual incentives, but to strategically align them so that departmental success contributes directly to the overarching success of the entire company.

by Kayla Ambrose

Fri 11 July 2025

As the team leader, managers play an essential role in their teams, guiding and empowering them to reach their fullest potential. Although managers are a critical component of the team they lead, challenges can arise when managers become so integral to workflows that they cannot take time off without bringing productivity to a halt. Effective managers are able to balance their strong leadership capabilities while implementing mechanisms that allow their team to function for short periods autonomously.

Managers Too Involved in Workflows Can Have Harmful Effects:

Burnout: When managers feel they can’t take time off for personal reasons such as important life events, vacations, or health reasons, they will quickly burnout. Fear of slowing down workflows can strongly influence managers not to take personal time off. Without flexibility to develop a work-life balance, managers can become incredibly exhausted within their role, leading to decreased productivity.

Bottlenecks: Workflows that are too reliant on a manager can begin to form a bottleneck, thus slowing progress down. Teams that require their managers’ approval on minor tasks create standstills in processes and potentially huge pile-ups of work when the manager takes time off.

Stunted Employee Growth: Teams with managers incredibly integral to workflows often result in environments that lack autonomy. Employees often won’t feel empowered to make decisions and take ownership of their work. Without this sense of responsibility and an increased reliance on managers, employees are unable to reach their full potential.

Organization-Wide Challenges: In addition to harming managers & their teams, managers overly integral to workflows can also damage the organization as a whole. Organizations with managers who are integral to workflows may encounter challenges if the manager switches roles or leaves unexpectedly, and valuable information regarding processes may be lost. This lack of knowledge dispersed throughout the organization has the potential to drastically impact the functionality of operations or the ability to scale them.

Given all the harmful repercussions stemming from over-reliance on managers for workflow productivity, it’s evident that this creates systemic vulnerabilities. When a manager finds themself too involved in workflows, it often stems from internal and/or external pressures. Many are driven by the fear of disrupting the team, causing deadlines to slip, or quality to decline. Some managers experience external pressure from senior leadership due to strict demands for perfect performance. Other causes may be a lack of trust in oneself, caused by impostor syndrome, or even a lack of trust in their team. Regardless of the source of the pressure, they can trap managers in a cycle of over-involvement, even when the over-involvement is detrimental to the team's long-term success.

The behaviors exhibited by over-involved managers and the pressures that cause them are similarly reflected in PTO culture. When managers feel indispensable, they and their teams will be more resistant to logging off to take personal time. Especially in organizations with “unlimited PTO”, employees may take less time off due to the implicit pressure to keep workflows progressing. Managers' modeling the expectations of constant involvement gets internalized and practiced by staff.

This team norm of manager reliance for workflows creates a cycle: managers are overloaded by workflows and feel pressured not to take time off, which increases team dependency and conveys the message that no one on the team should take time off. As a manager, it is critical to break the feedback loop and create a balanced approach that prioritizes managers’ ability to take time off without causing disruptions.

Managers who develop a more balanced approach positively impact themselves and their team. Dedicating time for personal time off works to limit the effects of burnout while also increasing personal motivation. Additionally, avoiding dependency of workflows on a singular manager can prevent costly disruptions later on for the organization. Most importantly, prioritizing managers’ ability to not overly involve themselves in workflows can foster a culture of trust and responsibility, positively impacting the team's productivity.

Strategies to Prevent Managers From Becoming Too Integral to Workflow Productivity:

Effectively Delegate

Rather than taking on all the responsibility and being involved in all decision-making processes, managers should identify tasks that can be completed by other team members to allow for more efficient progress. Delegating simultaneously distributes the workload more adequately throughout the team and encourages team members to take ownership of new tasks. Managers may be hesitant to delegate tasks; slowly delegating more responsibilities to employees helps to ease managers and direct reports into this new dynamic.

2. Cross-train Employees

Cross-training employees ensures there are multiple team members who can step up and assume some of their managers' responsibilities in their absence. Through additional training and development, team members can become equipped with a wider skillset to prepare them for additional responsibilities. Conducting continuous training works to build confidence in the capabilities of direct reports.

3. Document Procedures

An obstacle for others to assume managers' responsibilities while they take time off may simply be a lack of proper documentation. Managers with specific procedures for processes, but no documentation for said processes, create unnecessary knowledge gaps. Accessibility of proper documentation removes reliance on memory and expertise, allowing other team members to conduct sufficient procedures without constant direct oversight.

4. Effective Management Software

Utilizing performance management software can streamline tasks and promote team collaboration. AIM Insights, a performance management software, utilizes monthly surveys to uncover gaps between team sentiments and managers' perceptions. These monthly surveys, along with AIM’s goal benchmarking capabilities, can transform managers' ability to delegate and better understand their teams' needs.

Teams shouldn’t encounter a scenario in which the team cannot exist if someone takes the day off. Not only does this pressure from extreme team reliance harm managers, but the organization as a whole. Managers who recognize they are so integral to the workflows that they cannot take time off must reevaluate why these sentiments are held and how they can adapt their management style to allow their team to function adequately on its own at times.

by Grace Tripathy

Fri 11 July 2025

Just six months into Mason’s promotion to Chief Marketing Officer at a Fortune 500 company, the company was acquired by a private equity firm looking to expand the brand’s national footprint. Mason, who had been brought in for his sharp eye for digital transformation, was quickly looped into boardroom discussions that questioned the future of the company’s founder and long-time CEO, Greg.

While Greg had built the Fortune 500 company into a beloved regional staple, the board viewed him as resistant to innovation, stuck on past successes. Revenue growth had plateaued. Customer retention was slipping. And internal surveys showed a workforce that, while loyal, was uninspired.

After a series of tense meetings and back-channel conversations, the board made its move: Greg was fired.

And Mason? He stayed.

The Fallout: "If They Fired the CEO, Who's Next?"

The morning after the announcement, the corporate Teams chats were silent. Mason’s calendar filled with 1:1’s, but not the kind you hope for.

From the brand manager in Atlanta to the warehouse supervisor in Colorado, the message was the same: “If Greg wasn’t safe, how do I know I am?”

Suddenly, Mason wasn’t just the CMO tasked with scaling the brand. He was the face of corporate change—and to many, the face of corporate betrayal.

What happened at the Fortune 500 company isn’t uncommon. Founders get pushed out and boards act decisively. But the mistake many leaders make in these moments is assuming that business decisions exist in a vacuum.

Employees don’t clock in just for the pay. They stay because they believe in a mission, trust their leaders, and see themselves as part of something bigger. Rip that foundation out without care, and you’ve created instability—no matter how strong your business case may be.

Mason understood this. And so, instead of retreating to strategy decks and investor calls, he did something unexpected: he got personal.

How to Lead Through the Acquisition Transition

1. Rebuild the Narrative (Before Rebuilding the Brand)

What Mason did:

He gathered the entire team—virtually and in-person—and didn’t lead with a PowerPoint. He led with honesty.

“Greg built something incredible. That doesn’t go away. But for us to grow, we need to evolve. And I want to do that with you, not to you.”

Why it works:

When people understand the “why” behind a decision—and feel like they’re included in the “what next”—they’re far more likely to re-engage. Leaders must humanize transitions, especially when legacy figures are involved.

2. Prioritize 1:1’s with a Purpose

What Mason did:

He scheduled 30+ one-on-one meetings over 3 weeks. Not to give performance feedback, but to listen.

Each meeting included three key questions:

“What do you wish leadership would stop doing?”

“What’s one thing you love about working here?”

“What would make you proud to stay for the next 5 years?”

Why it works:

Top-down change feels threatening unless it’s paired with bottom-up understanding. People don’t need to be coddled—they need to be heard. These conversations help rebuild psychological safety and show that leadership isn’t operating in a silo.

3. Anchor Culture in Something Bigger Than a Person

What Mason did:

After Greg’s exit, morale dipped because the culture was too tied to him. Mason helped the team co-create new guiding principles—ones not reliant on a single figure, but rooted in shared values like “playful excellence” and “growth through curiosity.”

They even introduced a new employee recognition system where peers could reward each other with digital tokens for living those values, redeemable for team experiences.

Why it works:

When identity is built around one person, their departure creates a vacuum. A value-based culture, co-designed by the team, gives people a new anchor—a reason to stay, belong, and contribute.

4. Share the Strategy—But Keep It Simple

What Mason did:

Instead of vague statements like “We’re going to scale,” Mason created a one-pager with clear, actionable priorities. Each team could map their work to one of the three goals:

Increase repeat visits by 20%

2. Launch two new national locations

3. Improve employee engagement scores by 15%

Each goal had a team lead, a monthly update cadence, and an open feedback loop.

Why it works:

In times of uncertainty, clarity is comfort. People need to know where they’re headed and how their role contributes to the mission. A transparent, measurable roadmap builds buy-in and momentum.

5. Celebrate Micro-Wins to Regain Confidence

What Mason did:

He celebrated the first time a regional manager improved customer reviews. He highlighted a tech intern who built a new booking tool. These weren’t PR stunts—they were authentic stories shared across the company’s intranet and weekly all-hands.

Why it works:

Wins rewire the team’s mindset. When a company goes through a shakeup, people assume failure is next. But seeing progress—even in small doses—starts to shift the narrative toward hope.

How Do You Build Culture When Stability Is Uncertain?

When employees don’t know what tomorrow holds, they stop focusing on performance and start scanning for risk. They wonder if they’ll be next to go, whether their work still matters, or if leadership can be trusted. In this fog of doubt, building—or more accurately, rebuilding—culture must become an urgent priority.

Mason realized that creating a healthy, resilient culture in an unstable environment wasn’t about keeping everyone happy. It was about reinstating meaning, rebuilding trust, and creating consistency where there was none. He couldn’t offer long-term guarantees. But he could create an environment where people felt heard, seen, and supported.

Here’s how any leader can build culture even when the ground is still shifting:

Five Ways to Build Culture Without Stability

Practice Transparent Leadership with Curiosity, Not Control
When uncertainty looms, the instinct is to “tighten the reins”—but real leadership starts with curiosity over control. Instead of hiding behind decisions, embrace curious leadership by saying,

“Here’s what we’re trying, here’s what we’re learning, and here’s where we want your ideas.”

Ambition In Motion’s Executive Mastermind Groups emphasizes how asking better questions—not giving more answers—builds trust, especially during change. This transparency makes teams feel invited to shape the future, not just endure it.

2. Foster Meaningful 1:1s—Not Performance Reviews in Disguise
In unstable environments, people need connection, not evaluation. That’s where AIM Insights comes in. It helps leaders create data-informed, emotionally intelligent 1:1s that don’t just measure performance but nurture resilience, motivation, and clarity.

Use these meetings to ask:

“What’s something you’re proud of this month?”
“What’s one thing you’d change if you could?”

Leaders who listen this way make employees feel psychologically safe—even if everything else is shifting.

3. Create Micro-Rituals to Anchor Belonging
Culture isn’t built through big speeches. It’s built through small moments repeated consistently. Small, purpose-driven rituals can reinforce team connection and reinforce values.
Consider:

A weekly “wins” Teams thread
A monthly peer-nominated award for someone who lives the company’s values
A shared moment of gratitude to kick off all-hands
These rituals remind employees: we may be in transition, but we still show up for each other.
Use Peer Feedback to Drive Real-Time Culture Development
During uncertainty, top-down feedback often falls flat. But when feedback flows laterally—peer to peer—it builds trust and agency.

Ambition In Motion’s AIM Insights platform facilitates 360° feedback loops that help leaders and employees understand how they’re perceived, and what behaviors they need to adjust.

It’s not about “scoring” culture—it’s about co-creating it in real time.

5. Tie Every Role Back to Purpose and Personal Development
When the future feels blurry, people look inward. They ask: “What am I learning? Where am I going?” Ambition In Motion’s mentoring programs and leadership tracks help employees develop personal clarity even when the organization is evolving.

Encourage your team to connect their work to their growth goals—not just company metrics. A great place to start:

“What skill do you want to master this quarter?”

“How can we align your role with where you want to be in a year?”

Culture is sustainable when it invests in people’s future—not just the company’s.

The Takeaway for Business Leaders: Lead With People, Not Just Plans

Mason didn’t save the Fortune 500 company with a rebrand or a viral campaign. He rebuilt it through trust, transparency, and human-centered leadership.

For any leader facing instability after an acquisition, a founder's exit, or internal restructuring, here’s the truth: compensation alone won’t motivate your people. In fact, the more uncertain things feel, the more employees crave purpose, connection, and clarity.

Leaders like Mason prove that when you lead with empathy and intention, even the most jarring transitions can become launchpads for something better.

by Ritika Vijay

Fri 11 July 2025

On the surface, Maya seemed to have it all under control. As CEO of Vireon Labs, a fast-growing AI-driven data analytics firm, she was known for her composed presence in boardrooms and her fierce commitment to innovation. Investors praised her strategic vision. Employees admired her sharp decisiveness. But beneath the calm surface, Maya had been grappling with a quietly growing concern: the company’s churn rate for enterprise clients had increased over the past two quarters, and recent customer feedback suggested dissatisfaction with post-sale service.

It wasn’t a crisis yet, but it could be. Then came the investor call that dropped the curtain.

A Question Without Answer

During a routine quarterly meeting, one of Vireon Labs’ long-standing investors raised concerns about declining client retention and recent dissatisfaction from referred accounts. The question caught Maya off guard. While she had seen the warning signs of the rising churn rates and lukewarm feedback, there wasn’t yet a concrete solution in place.

Instead of deflecting, Maya acknowledged the issue head-on. She recognized the gap, explained that the leadership team was aware of it, and committed to making it a top organizational priority. Her response was honest and unguarded, a clear shift from the polished answers typically expected in investor settings.

Surprisingly, the investor welcomed the transparency and expressed openness to working through the next steps together. Rather than losing confidence, the admission became a starting point for deeper alignment and collaboration.

Vulnerability as a Strategic Lever

What Maya demonstrated in that moment wasn’t a lapse in leadership; it was strategic vulnerability.

In many organizations, vulnerability is still viewed through a narrow lens: as weakness, oversharing, or a lack of control. But in reality, when vulnerability is paired with accountability and clarity of intent, it becomes one of the most powerful levers a leader can use to foster trust, unlock collaboration, and drive meaningful change.

In Maya’s case, acknowledging she didn’t have a fully formed solution didn’t erode her credibility; it strengthened it. By confronting the issue head-on, she signaled to both investors and employees that honesty would take precedence over image management. She took full ownership of the gap, but she didn’t shoulder it alone. Her candor invited others into the problem-solving process, creating space for shared responsibility and engagement.

In the broader workplace, vulnerability plays a similar role. When leaders are open about challenges, whether it's slipping metrics, internal friction, or external market shifts, they create a culture where truth can surface without fear. That transparency fuels psychological safety, the foundational element of high-performing teams.

Moreover, vulnerability accelerates alignment. Rather than wasting time on maintaining appearances or managing assumptions, teams can spend their energy addressing root causes. It builds resilience by normalizing adaptive problem-solving over perfectionism.

In today's rapidly shifting business environment, where complexity and ambiguity are constant, vulnerability isn’t just an emotional quality; it’s a strategic necessity. Leaders who embrace it set the tone for agility, accountability, and authentic connection, all of which fuel long-term performance.

Turning Transparency Into Traction: A How-To for Business Leaders

Vulnerability in leadership doesn’t end with the admission of a problem; it begins there. Leaders who know how to move from honesty to execution can use vulnerability as a launching pad for cultural transformation and business results. Here’s how:

State the Problem Clearly and Directly

The first and most critical step is to name the issue with clarity. Avoiding euphemisms or downplaying the problem sends mixed signals and creates confusion. When leaders are direct about what’s going wrong, they foster alignment around what needs to change. Clear articulation of the problem ensures that everyone in the organization is solving for the same thing and understands its importance to the business.

Share Ownership Across the Organization

Once the issue is identified, it must not be treated as the responsibility of one team or individual. When top-down directives follow transparency, it often limits creativity and isolates the burden. But when leaders distribute ownership and emphasize that the issue affects the broader organization, they invite cross-functional collaboration and more diverse problem-solving perspectives. For instance, if customer retention is declining, that may stem from issues in sales handoffs, onboarding, product usability, or customer support. Collective momentum builds when each group understands how its work influences the outcome.

Create Psychological Safety for Honest Dialogue

Vulnerability at the top sets a tone, but it needs to be matched by psychological safety at every level. For transparency to translate into traction, employees must feel safe speaking up about what isn’t working. If team members fear backlash or judgment, critical insights remain buried. It involves consistent behaviors, asking for input before solutions are drafted, publicly recognizing those who raise concerns early, and responding constructively to hard feedback.

Launch a Time-Bound Discovery Sprint

To avoid stalling in analysis or endless meetings, leaders should introduce structure through a focused, time-bound discovery phase. A sprint format, typically lasting 2 to 4 weeks, allows organizations to explore root causes quickly and collaboratively without disrupting day-to-day operations. During this period, cross-functional teams can gather data, conduct interviews, map processes, and identify systemic gaps. It’s important to assign a facilitator or project lead to maintain momentum and synthesize findings. At the end of the sprint, teams should deliver insights and proposed next steps in a format that drives action, not just discussion.

Convert Insights Into Targeted Action

Transparency becomes transformational when it leads to change. The final step is translating the insights from the discovery sprint into specific, measurable improvements. These actions should be prioritized based on impact and feasibility, and communicated widely to the organization.

Leaders must establish clear accountability for implementation, set timelines, and track progress against defined outcomes.

Closing the Loop

Months later, when stakeholders revisited the issue, the conversation looked very different. It wasn’t just about metrics or performance updates; it was about progress and perspective. What had shifted most wasn’t just the numbers and how the company approached challenges.

Rather than trying to have all the answers from the outset, the leadership team had embraced a new rhythm: one centered on open dialogue, faster iteration, and shared accountability. The organization had become more agile, not because every issue was solved perfectly, but because problems were addressed more collaboratively and transparently.

In the end, the most valuable outcome of the experience wasn’t just operational, it was cultural. Vulnerability had become embedded in the company’s DNA, turning what could have been a liability into a long-term advantage.

by Grace Tripathy

Tue 1 July 2025

Innovation isn’t just a buzzword—it’s a business imperative. While companies pour millions into R&D departments and flashy brainstorming retreats, they often overlook the simplest, most powerful tool for innovation: curiosity.

Curiosity is the mindset that drives teams to ask better questions, challenge stale assumptions, and pursue creative problem-solving when the way forward isn’t clear. But in many companies, curiosity is unintentionally suppressed. Metrics, meetings, and margin pressures often overshadow the quiet (but vital) work of wondering what if.

Take Claire, a mid-level manager at a growing company in Chicago. A few years ago, her team was tasked with improving user retention for their core product. Rather than jumping straight into solution mode, Claire took a different approach. She encouraged her team to spend a full week doing nothing but asking questions—about user behavior, onboarding friction points, and customer psychology. No answers, just curiosity.

At first, leadership questioned her methods. Wasn’t this a waste of time? Why not just try something and see what happens? But Claire stuck to her guns. And by the end of the week, her team discovered a completely overlooked friction point in the account setup flow. They implemented a simple fix and saw a 38% increase in user retention within three months.

The takeaway? Curiosity creates space for meaningful insights—and in turn, real business growth.

Why Companies Need a Culture of Innovation

An innovation culture goes beyond fancy slogans or hackathons. It’s a systemic commitment to exploration, experimentation, and learning. Companies with strong innovation cultures consistently outperform their peers. According to McKinsey, organizations that invest in innovation are 2.4x more likely to deliver top-quartile revenue growth. This is because they are agile, adaptable, and capable of responding to change before it becomes a threat.

At its core, an innovation culture starts with leadership. Leaders who embrace curiosity signal to their teams that it’s okay to take risks, ask questions, and admit they don’t know everything. This kind of psychological safety isn’t just feel-good fluff—it’s directly linked to higher engagement, creativity, and performance.

Yet many leaders shy away from uncertainty. They want proven playbooks and predictable outcomes. But here’s the thing: innovation isn’t predictable. Thomas Edison famously tested over 1,000 different materials before inventing the working light bulb. Imagine if he’d been an entry-level engineer at a Fortune 500 company—how many quarterly reviews would he have survived?

Fortunately, he was the CEO of his own operation. He had the freedom to fail forward.

That’s the kind of grace today’s leaders need to practice when the answer isn’t obvious. Giving grace means allowing space for trial, error, and reflection. It means rewarding effort and learning—not just outcomes.

When curiosity is embedded into company culture, the outcomes speak for themselves:

Faster problem-solving: Teams that feel safe to question the status quo find better solutions, faster.
Stronger talent retention: Employees are more likely to stay when they feel their ideas are heard and valued.
More adaptive strategies: Curious cultures are more resilient in the face of change because they treat disruption as an opportunity, not a threat.
Competitive differentiation: In saturated markets, the most innovative ideas often come from unexpected questions, not expected answers.

Claire’s story is a perfect example of how one curious leader can transform a team—and a company’s bottom line. By modeling curiosity and championing grace, she created a ripple effect that not only improved customer retention but inspired cross-functional teams to adopt similar discovery-first mindsets.

It’s not enough to say curiosity is valued. It has to be baked into how we lead. Here are three ways leaders like Claire can embed curiosity into everyday management practices:

1. Use Curious Language in Feedback

Instead of:

“Why didn’t this work?”
Try:
“What did you learn from this experience?”
“What surprised you most during this project?”

This encourages team members to reflect, not retreat. Ambition in Motion’s executive coaching for leaders and teams helps leaders build these kinds of reflective habits—transforming feedback conversations into moments of growth, not judgment.

2. Add Curiosity Metrics to Performance Reviews

Performance shouldn’t only be about execution—it should also reflect exploration. Try incorporating prompts like:

“What’s one assumption you challenged this quarter?”
“What question did you ask that led to new insight or opportunity?”
“How have you helped others think differently?”

This communicates that curiosity is not just tolerated—it’s expected. Tools like AIM Insights make the performance review and metric-tracking process simple and insightful for managers.

3. Make 1:1s a Safe Space for Wondering

Claire made curiosity part of her weekly 1:1s. She’d ask:

“What’s something weird or unexpected you’ve noticed lately?”
“If you had more time, what problem would you love to dig into?”
“What’s something we should stop doing that no longer makes sense?”

Over time, her team began coming to those meetings not just to report on tasks, but to explore ideas. That’s when innovation becomes not just a moment—but a movement.

by Grace Tripathy

Fri 13 June 2025

It’s almost halfway through 2025, and the ripple effects of last year’s economic distress is still felt across America. Countless companies—big and small—were forced to restructure, tighten budgets, and let go of team members. While layoffs might have been necessary to stay afloat, they’ve left behind a quieter, more cautious workforce. And the result… employees are hesitant to take risks, propose bold new ideas, or challenge the status quo.

Why? Because employees are unsure if anyone is listening—or if speaking up might put them at risk of being laid off.

But here's the critical truth: if your company isn't innovating, it's falling behind. As leaders, it’s time to move beyond the triage of layoffs and begin cultivating a resilient, forward-looking, and innovative culture once again.

In the aftermath of layoffs, companies often experience a psychological freeze. Talented employees begin to question their value. Communication gaps grow wider. New ideas are seen as risks instead of opportunities. And leaders, scrambling to stabilize, often neglect a key ingredient of success: psychological safety.

Bob manages a cross-functional team at a mid-size tech company in Chicago. In Q4 of 2024, his company cut 20% of its workforce. While Bob retained all his team members, the atmosphere shifted drastically.

Where once his team ideated freely in brainstorming sessions, now meetings were filled with silence. People stopped volunteering for stretch projects. Even casual Slack messages became more formal and distant.

When Bob reached out to HR and upper leadership, they were just as unsure. The company still hadn’t solidified its 2025 goals. Some departments were moving in different directions, and communication was fragmented. Leadership was nervous about clashing visions—so they avoided committing publicly to any strategy.

Bob realized two things:

His team felt like they were walking on eggshells.

2. His company was drifting, lacking clarity and cohesion.

So he decided to lead from where he stood.

Step 1: Clarify the Vision—Even If Others Don’t

One of the biggest mistakes post-layoff organizations make is failing to reset the vision. Employees are left wondering: “Why am I here? What are we even trying to accomplish?”

This is especially frustrating for employees still waiting to hear what the company’s goals are—even though we’re halfway through 2025.

Bob decided to take initiative. He sat down with his leadership team and asked:

“What are our top three business priorities for the next six months?”

“Where does our team fit in delivering on these?”

“Who is responsible for communicating this company-wide?”

Once he had clarity (even partial), he shared it with his team in a direct, transparent way.

Step 2: Remind People Why They Are Still Here

After layoffs, employees often feel “lucky” to still have a job—but that sentiment quickly shifts to anxiety. Why wasn’t I laid off? Am I next? This leads to disengagement, not gratitude.

Bob took a personal approach. He scheduled 1-on-1 goal-setting meetings with each team member and shared:

Specific reasons why they were retained

Their unique strengths and value to the team

What growth he envisioned for them in 2025

This wasn’t empty praise. It was rooted in truth. By reinforcing their purpose, Bob helped rebuild his team’s confidence.

Step 3: Rebuild Psychological Safety Through Action

Telling people they’re safe to speak up isn’t enough. You have to prove it—with your reactions, your language, and your culture.

Bob noticed that in meetings, people rarely spoke first. So he started modeling vulnerability. He admitted when he wasn’t sure about a decision. He actively solicited pushback. And most importantly, when people did share ideas—even ones that wouldn’t work—he thanked them and asked follow-up questions.

Soon, others followed suit.

How-To: Create Micro-Signals of Safety

Say “that’s a great insight—tell me more” instead of “we already tried that.”
Praise effort, not just outcomes.
Reward calculated risk-taking, even when the idea doesn’t pan out.

Step 4: Make Internal Mobility Real

Another innovation killer? Stagnation. After layoffs, promotions and lateral moves often freeze. But people need momentum to feel hopeful and motivated.

Bob worked with HR to reopen some cross-functional project opportunities and mentorship pairings. In addition, he encouraged members of the leadership team to join executive mastermind groups to be paired with executives in other companies and departments to gain fresh perspectives, share best practices, and rebuild their strategic confidence by learning how peers were navigating similar post-layoff challenges.

He encouraged employees to:

Apply for internal task forces

Shadow teams in other departments

Suggest projects aligned with strategic needs

Step 5: Break the Silence From the Top

Bob also recognized a broader issue: employees were afraid to share new ideas because they weren’t sure what leadership actually wanted.

So, he escalated this concern. He advocated for the C-suite to host a company-wide Town Hall where they could:

Publicly share the 2025 goals

Reinforce shared values

Invite input and questions from all departments

This meeting was a turning point. It didn’t answer everything, but it showed employees that leadership wasn’t hiding in silence. That alone helped shift the culture from fear to openness.

The Results

By Q3 2025, Bob’s team was not only more confident—they were creating again. They launched a pilot product feature based on employee input. They beat sprint deadlines. And they had the highest employee engagement scores in the company.

All of this came from clarity, connection, and a culture of safety.

Bob didn’t wait for top-down permission. He led from where he stood, and in doing so, re-ignited a team that was once paralyzed by fear.

by Kayla Ambrose

Fri 13 June 2025

Throughout the initial half of 2025, there have been widespread reductions of middle management roles, drastically shifting the structures of corporations. Various sectors are implementing flatter organizational structures to promote efficiency and cost reductions. This shift, sometimes referred to as the “Great Flattening”, leaves middle managers in a challenging position, whether to remain with their current employer and adapt to the structural changes or seek new opportunities.

When a company initiates large-scale structural changes to reduce management positions, it can be difficult to understand what the implications are for current roles. With this increased uncertainty and changes in workloads, managers must reflect on whether it’s strategic for their career progression to remain with their current organization and work to adjust to the role they end up in after the structural shift, or if they should explore other opportunities.

Staying and Adapting: Benefits

When undergoing structural changes, the responsibilities of management roles may be condensed into one position. While this allows a more straightforward chain of management, it simultaneously increases the workload of the manager who remains. This manager is now tasked with a heavier workload than they originally signed up for, and often does not receive additional wages to compensate for it. Stuck in a situation such as this one, staying with one's current employer presents many positives and drawbacks.

A benefit of sticking out the position during these organizational changes is familiarity with the company culture. While the company is making changes, having an understanding of the workplace environment is a unique benefit of staying. It can take a while to adapt to a new environment and immerse oneself in the culture of a new organization.

Additionally, taking on increased responsibility from other roles demonstrates adaptability and strong leadership. Displaying such skills can highlight capabilities, potentially leading to promotions later on. If upper management recognizes these leadership skills, staying and adapting to the new corporate structure can lead to impactful career growth.

Staying and Adapting: Drawbacks

While the benefits associated with remaining in the organization are certainly appealing, the reduction in other middle management positions will leave gaps within the organization. These gaps will result in the remaining managers being left to fill the gaps. Managers might be expected to learn new skills, assume more direct reports, and lead unfamiliar initiatives. Furthermore, these shifts in roles can lead to unclear expectations, making daily workloads to become more challenging. Ultimately, this uncertainty may cause burnout and increased stress.

Given that the organization has already undergone structural changes, it’s possible that changes may persist in the near future. The organization is still adapting, which may lead to more roles being removed or replaced. It’s important to consider role security as well as career progression. With fewer management roles available within the organization, be realistic when considering the future pay for promotion.

Insulating Oneself from Layoffs

Given the organizational changes, prioritize becoming indispensable to the organization. While the changes may already be in effect, that doesn’t necessarily mean more changes won’t occur in the future. Using this time as an opportunity to demonstrate strengths to upper management can build a strong foundation for career advancement later on.

A strong capability of a good leader is embracing cross-functional teams. With fewer managers in the organization, it is critical to leverage cross-functional teams to fulfill objectives. Cross-functional teams encourage collaboration throughout the organization, which can increase morale as well as create more efficient operations. Drawing on the departmental expertise can promote better solutions since certain areas are now lacking expertise from managers.

Another strategy to demonstrate value to upper management is through developing specialized expertise. Leaning into new responsibilities and gaining important insights about specific organizational practices or initiatives can truly set someone apart. Being able to not only take on new roles but thrive in doing so demonstrates strong adaptability and willingness to learn.

To gain insights on direct reports and continue to develop leadership skills, utilize performance management tools. Not only will such tools support management duties, but they will also help create solutions to better manage teams and improve leaders’ performance. Performance management tools are a strong asset for managers looking to set themselves apart following large structural changes.

Considerations for Seeking New Opportunities

While staying and adapting to the organizational changes presents opportunities to grow in responsibility, seeking a new opportunity may be the more advantageous solution. With the removal of other middle managers, roles will shift drastically, resulting in considerably more work and new workplace challenges to navigate. Electing to seek a new position can allow for a career that has more defined responsibilities and expectations.

Additionally, seeking a new opportunity allows for the ability to find a role with a more adequate workload.

Seeking a position elsewhere is not without challenges. Entering a new organization will entail transitional challenges as well as potential for underemployment. Consider what to prioritize when navigating whether to stay or go.

Navigating the Decision-Making Process

When determining whether to stay amidst a reduction in middle management, utilize resources to weigh the options. Reach out to horizontal mentors and executive mastermind groups to gain their insights on the situation and learn from their shared experiences. Mentors may have a meaningful perspective or key considerations to help guide the decision-making process.

During this time, it’s critical to identify career aspirations to consider how the next step could help or hinder these goals. Be introspective and identify what aspects of an organization are most important for the next phase of your career.

by Ritika Vijay

Fri 13 June 2025

On the surface, Micheal looked like a dream hire. As the VP of Technology at a fast scaling fintech firm, he moved fast, delivered faster, and held his team to exceptional standards. Colleagues praised his work ethic. The CEO trusted his judgment implicitly. Micheal didn’t just meet deadlines, he bulldozed through them, building systems that scaled and workflows that hummed with efficiency.

But there was something building slowly.

It wasn’t anything major at first. A bug in the product’s dashboard that should’ve been caught. A delay in a data migration project with no proactive heads up. A misconfigured server that took days to surface. These were minor errors, but they shared a troubling theme: no one knew about them until they became unavoidable.

Micheal’s instinct wasn’t to hide. It was to fix it. Quietly. Silently. After all, in his mind, owning mistakes was a weakness. Admitting fault would diminish his authority. The less leadership had to worry, the better. But that’s where the danger crept in: small mistakes left unspoken that compounded over time. And for a business growing fast, every day a mistake goes unaddressed is a day risk quietly metastasizes.

Why Pride Fueled Silence Poses a Business Risk:

When Micheal chose not to surface small mistakes, he didn’t do it out of malice, he did it out of a sense of responsibility. But that sense of “I’ll fix it myself” gradually evolved into a pattern of withholding information. In a leadership role, withholding, even unintentionally, becomes dangerous not just for the team, but for the organization.

Delayed Visibility = Escalated Cost: What starts as a minor issue can quickly evolve into a major operational disruption when not surfaced early. Small bugs become cross functional fire drills simply because leadership wasn't informed in time.

Poor Data Leads to Poor Decisions: When issues are hidden, leaders make strategic decisions based on incomplete or inaccurate information which impacts everything from resource allocation to investor communications.

Silence Breeds More Silence: When a senior leader withholds problems, it sets a cultural precedent. Teams may follow suit, eroding trust and psychological safety. Without a culture of transparency, systemic risks go unnoticed until they explode.

How to Lead Through Pride: 5 Steps to Support High Performers Who Struggle with Transparency

When a high performing employee begins withholding mistakes out of pride, leaders must act quickly, but thoughtfully. Here's a clear 5 step approach to address the issue while preserving trust and performance:

Start with a Personal Check In

Before assuming the worst, pull the employee aside, and have a transparent conversation of what is going on. It could be work related stress or a personal issue. Showing empathy, not suspicion opens the door for honest dialogue and signals that you care about the person, not just the output.

Coach to Understand the ‘Why’

Dig deeper into why mistakes weren’t communicated. Avoid blame, instead, ask, “What made you feel like you had to handle this on your own?” Often, pride is a shield for fear or pressure. Use coaching to uncover the root cause and align on shared expectations.

Redefine Strength and Normalize Vulnerability

Clarify that real leadership isn’t about perfection, it’s about visibility. Frame early communication as a strategic behavior. Then model it yourself. Share your own mistakes in team settings and how transparency helped prevent larger issues. This redefines what “strong leadership” looks like. Opening up to that vulnerability will also build a stronger relationship.

Create Regular Spaces for Open Conversations

Build simple routines that make it easy, and expected, for your team to surface issues early. Something as quick as a weekly 15 minute “Red Flag Roundup” can give everyone a low pressure space to share blockers or risks. Pair these check ins with transparent performance updates so everyone knows how their work stacks up against expectations. When transparency becomes part of the rhythm, it feels safe and normal.

Recognize Honesty, Not Just Achievement

Make it a point to praise people not only for delivering results, but for speaking up when something’s off, even if they had a hand in the mistake. When someone flags a problem early, thank them publicly. This shows the team that being upfront isn’t damaging, it’s leadership. Over time, this reshapes the culture from “look perfect” to “work smart and stay accountable.”

Final Thought: When Pride Clouds Visibility, Performance Suffers

High standards are an asset, until they’re paired with ego that discourages openness. Even top performers can become blind spots when they value perfection over transparency.

The takeaway for leaders is clear: Don’t wait for avoidable crises to expose cultural weaknesses. Create an environment where speaking up is rewarded, not penalized. Redefine strength as accountability, not invincibility. Because in business, it’s rarely the initial mistake that causes the most damage; it's the silence that follows.

by Ritika Vijay

Sun 1 June 2025

Daniel, an executive at a respected mid-sized tech firm, had weathered many challenges, but nothing like the slow burnout caused by one role. Stacy was hired to fill a critical operations position that had become a revolving door. The role focused on cross-functional communication and client delivery, yet no one had succeeded in it for years.

Daniel wasn’t hands-on in the hiring, but he knew the vacancy was a strain. When Stacy came on board, there was hope. She started strong, organized and responsive. She got 80% of her work accomplished successfully, which was great compared to the previous people in this role, but never improved beyond the eighty percent mark. Over time, that slipped. Tasks dragged, follow-ups were missed, and client issues grew.

By month sixteen, her performance was down to sixty percent successfully completed. The team was quietly covering for her, morale was dropping, and productivity suffered. It wasn’t until complaints bubbled up that Daniel fully realized the problem.

Daniel scheduled a one-on-one with Stacy to address the concerns directly. The conversation was professional but firm, but he explained the gaps in her follow-through, the ripple effect it was having on the team, and the need for a reset in expectations. For a couple weeks after that meeting, her performance noticeably improved. Deadlines were met. Communication became more consistent. The team began to breathe a bit easier.

But soon enough, the old patterns returned. Delays crept back in. Priorities slipped through the cracks. And worse, the temporary improvement made it even harder for Daniel to escalate the issue again without sounding reactionary. Now, he faced a difficult choice: fire Stacy and restart the long hiring process or keep her and accept the growing cost to the team. Neither option felt like a solution.

A Common Leadership Breakdown

Across industries and organizational sizes, leaders face a frustrating and familiar scenario:

They hire someone who seems “good enough” for a critical role. But over time, that efficiency significantly deteriorates. Performance declines. Deadlines slip. Accountability fades.

At this point, managers are left with three options:

Hope for lasting change after short-lived improvement
Fire the employee and restart the long, resource-draining hiring process.
Absorb the work themselves, taking on the additional burden of that role while still managing their own responsibilities.

Each option comes with consequences. Many managers hold out hope that an initial performance boost after a tough conversation will lead to lasting progress. But when that progress fades, as it did with Stacy, they’re right back at the crossroads, only now with more frustration and less clarity on what to do next. Firing risks leaving the role unfilled for months, especially when leadership is hesitant to rehire. Taking on the extra work yourself can signal that a backfill isn’t needed, leaving you permanently overloaded.

This isn’t just a personnel issue, it’s a structural and systemic problem. And it’s costing companies in time, productivity, and long-term engagement.

Why Underperformance Lingers

Across industries and organizations, leaders face a frustrating cycle: a “good enough” hire under delivers, managers step in to fill the gap, and organizational systems quietly reinforce the status quo. The following structural problems are what allow this cycle to persist:

The “Good Enough” Trap and Role Drift

Hiring someone who seems mostly capable often feels like a win especially after a long search. But without clear benchmarks, coaching, and accountability, that 80% performance tends to slide downward. When the manager fills in the remaining 20% quietly, it masks the problem and leads others to believe the role is being handled, permanently overloading the leader and normalizing subpar output.

Fear of Escalation and Headcount Loss

Many managers avoid addressing underperformance because they fear it will trigger months of HR procedures or worse, that the role won’t be refilled at all. Instead of initiating formal improvement plans or escalating concerns, they tolerate the problem just to avoid vacancy, creating a dangerous incentive to retain poor performers.

Organizational Complacency and Cultural Erosion

Feedback often travels too slowly or not at all; learning is uncomfortable and rarely leads to action. Over time, top performers disengage, while others reduce their efforts to match the lowest tolerated standard. The longer this goes unchecked, the more deeply mediocrity becomes embedded in the culture.

A Leader’s Framework for Rebuilding Accountability

When underperformance lingers and roles erode from within, the instinct is often to focus on the individual: coach harder, manage tighter, or let go. But as Daniel’s experience shows, what often fails isn’t just the person, it's the system around them.

To prevent the next “Stacy,” organizations need to rethink how they define success, intervene early, and build safeguards that don’t rely on heroic management. Here’s a five-part framework leaders can use to protect team performance and rebuild accountability from the ground up:

Set Clear Performance Standards From Day One: Too many roles begin with vague goals and unspoken assumptions. Instead, tie every new hire to a 30-60-90 day plan that defines:
1. What success looks like through specific milestones
2. What tools, support, and cross-functional inputs are required
3. What “not working out” will look like early on - establishing consequences

2. Create Protected Channels for Early Feedback: Feedback should flow freely, not just upward, but across and down:

Establish quarterly anonymous pulse surveys focused on team workflow health
Skip-level check-ins that offer a voice outside the chain of command
Offering feedback normalization training for managers, and if needed flagged employees early on

3. Guarantee Role Backfills for Business-Critical Positions: Leaders will avoid letting go of underperformers if they fear losing the headcount.

Pre-approved backfill plans for critical roles like operations, delivery, or revenue impact
A living talent pipeline of internal candidates, contractors, or short-term stopgaps
Leadership commitment that removing someone doesn’t mean removing the role

4. Recognize Impact Without Penalizing Initiative: Too often, high performers or managers who quietly carry failing roles get punished with bearing the burden of that role.

Publicly recognizing load-bearing behavior (but treating it as unsustainable)
Separating temporary role absorption from long-term ownership
Rewarding transparency, not silent sacrifice

Underperformance is rarely just about one person. It’s a slow, systemic leak that if ignored can rot a team from the inside out. But with the right frameworks, leaders can catch the signs earlier, act with clarity, and prevent culture decay before it takes hold. Daniel’s story isn’t rare. Most companies fall into this trap, and being able to resurrect this dilemma is the rate.

by Kayla Ambrose

Sun 1 June 2025

The rapid rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has led many organizations and managers to begin incorporating AI systems into their daily operations. Given the speed of providing information and the dynamic nature of AI, it is a powerful tool businesses can leverage to make transformative changes. Despite these appealing benefits, AI also presents considerable challenges that must be navigated appropriately by managers and employees when implementing such software.

Concerns with Using AI in the Workplace

Biased and Historical Nature

When creating algorithms for AI applications, specific data is chosen for the training of the system. Oftentimes, this data can be biased and discriminatory against different groups of people or specific facts. These biases can lead to unfair outcomes when utilizing AI for hiring practices, promotions, and access to resources.

Not only can this bias impact hiring practices, but the historical information AI is based upon can lead to inaccuracies and biased information when conducting research. When using AI as a search engine or source of inspiration, outdated information can cause employees to draw outdated conclusions, thus impacting the accuracy of their work.

2. Privacy Concern

As a manager, there are dual responsibilities to support team needs as well company company-wide goals. While employees may feel compelled to utilize AI to complete minuscule daily tasks and expedite their processes, it’s important to ensure privacy measures are considered to protect important company information. AI collects and stores various personal data when interacting with it, which poses a threat when employees use the software for sensitive data.

These dynamic AI systems can gather personal and sensitive company information. Without proper safeguards in place, these can lead to a myriad of privacy violations. It’s crucial to ensure that employees comply with data protection regulations, ensuring the safety of personal and company information.

3. Ethical Usage

Another important consideration is the ethical usage of AI and the potential to generate misleading information. The inability of AI to properly aggregate information or summarize important facts can lead employees to make inaccurate decisions. These slight errors can undermine the communication of information and the functionality of teams.

Another concern regarding ethical usage is employees failing to disclose their AI usage. Employees may utilize AI to complete some or the entirety of a task, but fail to communicate the AI usage to their manager. This lack of disclosure can lead to inconsistencies in the quality of work produced as well as additional security vulnerabilities.

Strategies to Navigate AI in the Workplace

While AI does present challenges with biased and outdated information, potential privacy concerns, and complex ethical usage concerns, the increased efficiency and productivity from the incorporation of AI can provide immense benefits for a team. It’s important for managers to develop effective strategies for how their team should utilize AI in order to ensure safe and productive use.

Establish Specific Usage Policies

If not already predetermined by the organization, develop and communicate clear AI usage policies to each member of the team. Ensure that the policy includes specific AI software that can be used and guidelines for what information can be handled with AI. Furthermore, address the ethical and legal concerns surrounding AI usage.

2. Practice Regular Monitoring

Implement regular check-ins to evaluate how team members are using AI. Evaluating how team members assess the quality of information provided by AI, what tasks AI is being used for, and looking for any discriminatory patterns manifesting from the usage of AI can help prevent problems from persisting.

3. Incorporate Training Sessions

Help equip the team with proper knowledge and skillsets for using AI through regular training sessions. Some team members may be incredibly familiar with AI, while others may have no background in it. Providing comprehensive training that discusses the basics of AI and best practices can help all team members feel comfortable with the software. Consider implementing additional periodic training sessions to expand on the team's AI capabilities and reinforce the ethical considerations associated with AI.

4. Develop Response Plans

An important tool when navigating AI in the workplace is the development of a response plan. Preparing for how to handle a potential data breach or other privacy concerns can help minimize the harm and prevent the escalation of the issue. Establish a clear protocol within the team for handling potential privacy concerns so all team members are prepared for issues they may encounter.

5. Encourage Cross-Functional Interactions

Encourage the collaboration of cross-functional interactions when incorporating AI within the team. Collaborate with departments such as IT and legal to ensure cohesive and effective AI risk management strategies. Utilizing an approach that leverages the competencies of other departments can ensure optimal AI practices are utilized.

To mitigate potential concerns with leaking important customer or company information through AI, hold meetings or provide training sessions for employees on how to properly use AI within their role.

Navigating unprecedented circumstances can be challenging as a manager who has various responsibilities to their team and the organization as a whole. For support in navigating such circumstances, it’s helpful to leverage horizontal mentorship to gain insights from peers in the same position. Sharing experiences and learning other strategies for best incorporating AI within the workplace can ensure a smoother transition.

Another powerful way managers can utilize AI is by leveraging these tools to gather problem-solving insights. When managers use AI, it’s important to utilize industrial-organizational psychologist-reviewed prompts in order to ensure the accuracy of the solutions the AI provides. Management software such as AIM Insights utilizes industrial-organizational psychologist-reviewed prompts in order to provide tailored feedback, ensuring the implementation of effective management styles. AI management software can transform how managers manage.

Artificial intelligence is a powerful tool that can positively impact team functions. Although AI does present new challenges to the workplace, they can be tackled with the implementation of clearly communicated strategies. AI is constantly adapting, and strong leaders can adapt with it.

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The Hidden Harms of Manager Over-Involvement

Micromanagement can take on many forms

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In times of chaos, people will turn to a leader for certainty

The Leadership Advantage: How Vulnerability Sparks Organizational Change

Transparency goes very far when getting team buy in

Why Curiosity Is the Most Underrated Leadership Skill

Curiosity is critical to driving improvement and innovation

5 Steps to Make Your Team Feel Safe Enough to Speak Up

Psychological safety is critical to team performance

Strategies for Navigating Middle Management Reductions

Handling fewer layers of management is critical to adapting to the future of work

When Pride Gets Quiet: How to Lead High Performers Who Withhold Mistakes

Pressure can cause team members to feel the need to perform

A Framework for Leading Through Underperformance

When is it worth it to put up with a poor performer vs. moving on?

Navigating the Ethical Implications of AI in the Workplace

AI needs to be prompted by experts to garner meaningful results

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