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Accomplished careers and future of work journalist with a proven track record of writing…
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Rebecca M. Knight posted thisIn an era of layoffs, geopolitical unrest, and AI-fueled uncertainty, the pressure to deliver leaves little room for anything else. Asking people to think about their career development on top of everything feels impossible. But supporting your team’s growth is an essential part of your job as a leader. So, how do you help people think beyond the week in front of them? How do you make career development feel relevant rather than tone-deaf? And where do you find the time for these conversations when your own plate is just as full? My latest in Harvard Business Review with great insights from Helen Tupper and The Wharton School's Matthew Bidwell. Link in comments.
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Rebecca M. Knight posted thisMy latest in Harvard Business Review is about what happens when the ambition that once energized you exhausts you. It’s common among top performers, Mary Anderson, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist, told me. In her practice, she sees it again and again: ambitious, accomplished people at the peak of their careers who’ve checked every box and feel hollow. “They’re not enjoying their excellence,” she says. “Instead, they’re overwhelmed, exhausted, and marinating in cortisol.” For many people, it's when the crisis hits, said Amy Wrzesniewski of The Wharton School. “If your success has always depended on enormous effort and energy, and suddenly you can’t sustain that anymore, it’s terrifying,” she says. “But instead of beating yourself up about what used to work, put that energy toward understanding why things have changed.” Start by asking yourself these five questions. Link in comments
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Rebecca M. Knight shared thisI’m excited to be moderating a panel tomorrow (April 1) at From Day One’s conference at the JFK Presidential Library and Museum in Boston. The panel, Future Forward Benefits: Rethinking Benefits for a Constantly Changing Workforce, will dig into what it takes to design benefits that manage costs while meeting employees' needs. I’ll be in great company, alongside Elizabeth McClure, PHR, Marjory Lake, MBA, C(k)PF, Jordan Close Dhillon, Cindy De Bruin, and Kathleen Harris, MPH.
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Rebecca M. Knight posted thisThere’s a strange paradox to senior leadership: You finally have the experience and credibility to know what needs to happen, but being right isn’t always enough to move people. Part of the problem might be your lack of confidence, Vanessa Bohns, professor of organizational behavior at Cornell University, told me. “Even highly successful people in leadership positions underestimate their influence over their peers.” Compounding this, many executives also still operate the way they did earlier in their careers, Eric Anicich, professor of management and organization at USC Marshall School of Business. Back then, being competent got you noticed. “But at senior levels, no one is questioning whether you’re smart enough,” he says. Everyone is smart. So getting your peers to act on your ideas means understanding what they care about and what drives their decisions. “And that requires a different approach where persuasion is mediated through relationships, coalitions, and exchanges of value,” not only by the strength of your case. Here’s what they recommend. My latest in Harvard Business Review. Link in comments.
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Rebecca M. Knight posted thisMaking an internal hire should be straightforward. It’s good for the employee, who builds new skills and broadens their experience. It’s good for the organization, which keeps talent it might otherwise lose. And it’s good for you, the hiring manager, who fills a critical role with a known quantity. But the other manager losing that top performer may see it differently, Matthew Bidwell of The Wharton School told me. They’re likely worried about their team’s capacity, and other employees may question why they weren’t considered. Handled clumsily, making an internal hire can look like poaching. But hat doesn’t mean it shouldn’t happen, JR Keller of Cornell University told me. “You need to approach the situation thoughtfully and find a solution that works for everyone." Here’s how to do that. My latest in Harvard Business Review. Link in comments.
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Rebecca M. Knight posted thisThree years after the launch of ChatGPT, adoption has reached 54.6%, compared with 19.7% for personal computers and 30.1% for the internet at the same point in their lifecycles, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Meanwhile, about 21% of U.S. workers say that at least some of their job is now done with AI. That’s an increase from 16% roughly a year ago, according to the Pew Research Center. AI is transforming everything about work, from the kinds of jobs people do to how they do them to how they’re measured. And organizations are racing to prepare their people for what comes next and figure out how to make their investments in AI pay off. While the long-term impact remains uncertain, early patterns are emerging about what's working and what isn't. My latest in Business Insider with insights from Jacqui Canney of ServiceNow, Molly Roenna of Weber Shandwick, Dan Schawbel of Workplace Intelligence, Alicia Pittman of Boston Consulting Group (BCG), and Ari Lehavi of Moody's Corporation. Link in comments
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Rebecca M. Knight posted thisThey’re one of your best people—a director who’s been instrumental to your success. They’re seasoned, strategic, and ready for a promotion. It feels inevitable, the rightful reward for their effort. The problem is you can’t deliver it. Managing the gap between their expectations and reality is one of the hardest parts of leadership, and it’s becoming more common, Dan Schawbel of Workplace Intelligence told me. “We’re in a job-hugging job market. There’s less mobility and fewer spots to grow into.” But career growth doesn’t necessarily require a title change. Your job is to drive that growth through expanded responsibilities, new skills, and greater visibility, Anthony Klotz at UCL told me. “People tend to stay committed to organizations that invest in them, and investment is defined broadly,” he says. “They need to feel like their career is moving forward, not standing still.” Here’s how to make that happen. My latest in Harvard Business Review. Link in comments.
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Rebecca M. Knight posted thisAI is changing how companies hire, train, and lead, and in the process, the chief human resources officer's role is getting a whole lot bigger. "The old model of HR was employees over here, technology over there," Thomas Hutzschenreuter, a professor at the Technical University of Munich, told me. "But the new model of work is human-AI collaboration." AI is a coworker now, he says, and that means that "HR has a bigger mandate. They need to understand not just people and culture, but go deeper into the strategy, the business, and the technology itself." For Business Insider, I recently spoke with people leaders including Susan LaMonica at Citizens, Alicia Pittman at Boston Consulting Group (BCG), and Agnes Garaba at UiPath to learn more. Link in comments.
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Rebecca M. Knight posted thisIt is the AI paradox facing companies today: even as corporate leaders invest billions in the technology and race to deploy it across their operations, many frontline workers remain deeply skeptical. A Pew Research Center survey found that nearly a third of workers believe it will lead to fewer job opportunities for them in the long run. Meanwhile, a survey by the University of Melbourne and KPMG found that only 46% of respondents are willing to trust AI systems. “When organizations don't set people up to use AI reliably, employees won't trust it and won't adopt it,” says Ted TSCHANG, an associate professor at Singapore Management University. Bridging this gap—getting workers to both trust and adopt AI— has become one of HR's most urgent challenges. My latest in Business Insider. Link in comments. Thank you to Heather Conklin and Dexter Bachelder for their insights.
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Yes on adaptability, Laurie Hillis!
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Jeff Frick This looks so cool! I wish I were in town for it!
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Rebecca M. Knight liked thisRebecca M. Knight liked thisAmbition can take you far. But what happens when the drive that once fueled you starts wearing you down? ⚠️ This thoughtful Harvard Business Review piece by Rebecca M. Knight explores a reality many high achievers quietly face: The goals, pressure, and pace that once felt motivating can eventually become exhausting. One of the most powerful ideas in the article is the difference between an “engine problem” and a “fuel problem.” ⚙️ Is your energy depleted? ⛽ Or has what motivates you fundamentally changed? It also challenges readers to rethink: ✨ Whose definition of success they’re chasing ✨ Whether their work still feels meaningful ✨ What parts of work actually energize them now A strong reminder that career growth is not just about pushing harder. Sometimes it’s about redefining what success looks like in this season of life. Read more: https://lnkd.in/gpkxKw28
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Rebecca M. Knight liked thisRebecca M. Knight liked thisCareer development conversations are getting harder. Why? Likely you know - people are overwhelmed, AI is reshaping the work and the pace of work is not slowing down, people are just trying keep up with the day in front of them. Looking out five years ahead seems pointless. Author Rebecca M. Knight offers a practical reframe for leaders "supporting growth in uncertain times: 1- Focus on learning, not ladders ~ Career paths are rarely linear anymore; continuous learning, adapting, and building transferable skills should be emphasized. 2- Start with the near term ~ Long-range career planning can feel impossible right now. Coach to the next role, next capability, or next meaningful stretch/burst opportunity. 3- Help them stay wide ~ specialization can become risky in rapidly changing environments. Encourage broader perspectives and build adaptable skills. 4- Make it personal ~ Development conversations shouldn’t feel generic or performative. Dig into the uniqueness of what people want/need to grow toward 5- Build learning into the week, not onto it ~ People don’t need “more” added to already overflowing plates. Some of the best development opportunities are already present in meetings, projects, client conversations, and stretch moments that happen daily." The real secret sauce? Adaptability!! It's one of the reasons I use the #AQme assessment with my clients. #leadership #leadershipdevelopment #careerdevelopment #learninganddevelopment #futureofwork #coaching #adaptability #ai #organizationaldevelopment #AQi https://lnkd.in/geUEfh_rSupporting Your Employees’ Career Growth When Everyone Is OverwhelmedSupporting Your Employees’ Career Growth When Everyone Is Overwhelmed
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Rebecca M. Knight liked thisRebecca M. Knight liked thisAmazon Web Services (AWS) is "rethinking every single part of the financial industry" — and it's not just about replacing technology. In this #AWS Financial Services Symposium exclusive, #theCUBE speaks with Scott Mullins, Managing Director of Financial Services at AWS Worldwide Financial Services, about the electric energy around AI and why this moment is different from past technology shifts. "We're not talking about replacing technology components anymore. We're actually talking about the ability to change business process, to change the way that work works, and I think that's what people are really excited about," Mullins shares. 💡 Get more insights! https://lnkd.in/dD49eKRA #FinancialServices #EnterpriseAI #CloudTransformation #AIinFinance Rebecca M. Knight
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Rebecca M. Knight liked thisThank you SiliconANGLE & theCUBE !Rebecca M. Knight liked thisAmazon Web Services (AWS) introduces Amazon Bedrock AgentCore payments to empower agents that transact. 💳 Join #theCUBE’s Rebecca M. Knight at #AWS Financial Services Symposium, as she speaks with Preethi CN, Director of AgentCore at AWS, about how AWS solves the “paywalls challenge” with Amazon Bedrock AgentCore payments, enabling agents to securely access paid APIs and services with just a few lines of code. “Agents are becoming very capable to execute complex workflows and select the tools they need to accomplish the task. Many of the MCP servers, APIs, which offer capabilities are paid, and they were just getting designed for the paper use consumption model, which works great for agentic consumption. At the same time, we also saw Coinbase introducing the X402 protocol, which enables agents to leverage the native HTTP status code for determining what the payment required and how to make that payment,” CN shares. “We saw a lot of these changes in the industry. It felt that now is the moment to unlock the next evolution of agentic AI, and make them capable of having payments autonomously with the same principles that we built in AgentCore. Where developers can make their agents capable of payments with just a few lines of code was very exciting for us. We just announced the launch of AgentCore Payments,” she adds. 💡 Get more insights! https://lnkd.in/dD49eKRA #Agents #AgentCorePayments #Paywall #EnterpriseAI
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Rebecca M. Knight liked thisRebecca M. Knight liked thisRed Hat brings trust in the open source communities 🛡️ In this #RHSummit exclusive, #theCUBE’s Rob Strechay and Rebecca M. Knight speak with Chris Wright, CTO and SVP of Global Engineering at Red Hat, about how enterprises shouldn’t treat trust as a soft concept, considering AI agents taking real actions. “Trust is a very human thing, so we start in communities. Communities are built from people and people develop trust relationships, and that's how the open source communities work. In a business, trust is critical. Trust is part of being reliable and safe for your business. Trust has an aspect of guard-railing that you have the inputs and outputs of what you're asking the model to do as feeling safe for your business,” Wright shares. “But all the way into as you're building agents that can write code and do things, make real actions within your real business, how do you trust that? You got to give it the right sandboxing. You have to put protections around the agent, give it least privileges so it reads data. But being able to write back to it or delete it could be a real problem. How do you manage that in scale with potentially thousands of agents? So, building trust is critical,” he adds. 💡 Get more insights! https://lnkd.in/dwcxRjAv #OpenSource #Community #AI #Trust #EnterpriseAI
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Rebecca M. Knight liked thisRebecca M. Knight liked this“No one can teach you how to lead; you need to be willing and able to learn how to lead. Mostly we learn from our experiences and facing adversity. Stepping outside of the spaces where we feel safe—is a powerful teacher.” https://s.hbr.org/3PUWlpQ
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Rebecca M. Knight liked thisRebecca M. Knight liked thisHumans of Wesleyan 🎬3️⃣2️⃣ "A couple weeks ago, my friend told me this story. It was his last day in French class, and the professor was conjugating the final tense on the board. “There,” he said. “That’s it. You’ve done it all. You’ve learned French.” I love that conclusion. That you can finish an unfinishable task. That at some point, in some classroom, on some stage, someone shakes your hand and says, “Good work here. You’ve done all you could do—go home now.” Decades ago, when I was a freshman, I imagined that culmination. I was looking for someone to just tell me the answer—to say, “Kid, this is it!” But instead of any single discovery, I hung around here for years and read lots of books, threw parties, fell in love with my friends, and stayed up late, woke up early. I got many answers—long and slow. We all did. Editing The Argus taught me how to work with sentences and their people. Discrete math taught me how to prove something. Jazz workshops taught me to arrive prepared and to be surprising. Friendships taught me to linger in conversations, to dance wildly, to hug. We got answers at dinner parties and dance parties and kitchens and theaters and classrooms and libraries. We became aware of these answers, really, when we stopped consuming ourselves with the questioning. Because you never really finish, I don’t think. Yes, at some point you finish a book. A major. You graduate. Yes, at some point, this point, on some stage, this one, someone shakes your hand and says, “Go home now.” And then you wake up the next morning, and you take down your posters and put them into boxes, and all of your plates, and all of your bowls—and you leave this place. But still. Four years from now, a Wesleyan-away, how we’ve chosen to live will continue to shape us. We can keep playing in bands. We can keep learning French. This summer, I’m driving west to work as a raft guide on Idaho’s Salmon River. From there, I plan to move to the San Francisco Bay Area, where I worked as a local reporter last summer. I’m leaving Middletown, but I will continue to seek community, truth, joy, and September employment." - Thomas Lyons '26, Commencement Student Speaker
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Rebecca M. Knight liked thisRebecca M. Knight liked thisOn June 2nd from 7-9pm at Democracy Brewing in Boston, our founder Bobbi Wegner, Psy.D. is joining 'Binge Thinking' for a conversation on the hidden dynamics shaping groups, leadership, and connection. If you’re curious about psychology, communication, and human behavior in real time, come join us! Tickets for these events usually sell out quickly, so grab yours now: https://lnkd.in/e9qaSjRv
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