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Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! Im Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning. As a new crop of summer interns arrive at your company, its worth considering: Will one of them rise to CEO? Deanna Strable, who became CEO of Principal Financial Group in January, interned at the company during college. After graduating from Northwestern University, she joined Principal as an actuarial assistant, the start of a 35-year journey that included a stint abroad and senior roles including chief financial officer (CFO) and president and chief operating officer (COO). (Disclosure: Principal is a longtime Inc. advertising and sponsorship partner.) People love to ask, Whyd you originally come to Principal? but I think a fundamental question is, Why did you stay here for 35 years? Strable says of the insurance and benefits company, which last year reported $16.2 billion in revenue, up 18% from 2023. It ultimately comes back to the work, the company, and the people. From entry-level to executive The intern-to-CEO path isnt unheard of, especially at family-led companies. Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts, whose father founded the cable company, first interned at its Storecast marketing unit in 1974. J. Patrick Gallagher Jr., CEO of Arthur J. Gallagher and Co., a global insurance brokerage founded by his grandfather, interned at the business in 1972. Some prominent CEOs are lifers, having spent their whole careers at one company. Tricia Griffith, CEO of the insurer Progressive, started as an entry-level claims representative, and Mary Barra, CEO of GM, started at the carmaker as a co-op student. And while research suggests that CEOs hired from within an organization slightly outperformed external hires during the pandemic, and performed on par with one another before the pandemic, more boards are turning to outsiders to run companies. Spencer Stuarts 2024 CEO Transitions report found that 44% of all new S&P 1500 CEO appointments last year were external hires, up from 32% in 2023 and the highest rate since 2000, when the executive search firm started tracking the data. The CEO role has never been harder or more complex, and I do believe that you really need multiple experiences to be an effective leader in todays world, says Janice Ellig, CEO of executive search firm Ellig Group. I dont want to predict that the intern-to-CEO [trend] is going to decrease, but Im not sure its going to increase. Many roles, one vision Ellig says boards and investors want their chief executives to bring a range of relevant experiences to the role. Insiders who get the top job have typically led different departments and excelled in areas that are important to the company. GMs Barra, for example, led manufacturing engineering, global human resources, and global product developmentcritical divisions at a major automaker with 90,000 employees in the U.S. alone. Principals Strable helped build and lead the companys benefits and protection business, which encompasses employee benefits, business owner solutions (life insurance and disability insurance), and nonqualified deferred compensation. As CFO, she worked alongside previous CEO Daniel Houston to develop a growth strategy that included discontinuing the sale of consumer life insurance products and focusing on higher-growth businesses such as retirement and global asset management. As a result, Strable says, she was able to hit the ground running, adding: You know the people, you know the products, you know the business, you know the strategy. The insiders double-edge sword Strable, who retains the president title at Principal, counts the familiarity and support of longtime colleagues as a plus of being an internal candidate. But where it can be hard is there are times that people just expect that youre comfortable with things the way they are today, she says. Strable says she encourages the company to lean into its strengths but also evaluate the areas where Principal has not been effective. She strives to find ways to learn from people outside the company. I reinforce that with a lot of our leaders, too, she says. You need to have a network of peers outside of the organization, both within and outside the industry. At a lunch meeting in New York shortly after she became CEO, Strable reflected on the corporate milestones shes observed throughout her three-decades-plus at Principal. Of note: Some of the first graduates of Principals on-site daycare center at its Des Moines headquarters, which opened 17 years ago, will soon be eligible for internships at the company. Perhaps one of them might even become CEO someday. Are you an insider CEO? Are you a company lifer who has ascended to the CEO role? What unique insights do you possess that outsiders or newcomers dont have? Please send your experiences to me at stephaniemehta@mansueto.com. And while I have your attention, please spread the word that Fast Companys annual Brands That Matter program is extending its deadline to June 6. If your brand excels in making emotional connections, communicating purpose, and maintaining cultural relevance, consider applying via this link. Read more: inside track How Mary Barra remade GM and its culture Should your board consider an outsider for CEO succession? Former Nike intern Elliott Hill is ex-employees top CEO pick
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As a manager, its easy to get caught up in the day-to-day grind of fixing processes, eliminating bottlenecks, and streamlining workflows. We focus on reducing frictionthe things that get in the way of people doing their best work. And sure, thats important. But heres the thing: Reducing fear is just as, if not more, important. A comprehensive two-year study by Google identified psychological safety as the most important factor in high-performing teams. This environment allows team members to take risks and be vulnerable without fear of negative consequences. Harvard Business School professor Amy C. Edmondson emphasizes that psychological safety enables employees to speak up, make mistakes, and learn from them, which is essential for innovation and growth. Lets face it. The best processes in the world wont help much if your team is afraid to speak up, take risks, or challenge the status quo. Fear can stunt creativity, shut down communication, and make people avoid the very risks that lead to growth. So, as leaders, we need to think beyond just fixing processes. We need to also focus on creating an environment where people feel safe and confident enough to acteven if it means making a mistake along the way. Why Fear Matters More Than You Think Fear is a powerful force. It can make people double-check their work, avoid taking risks, and be extra cautious. But when fear becomes the driving force behind decisions, it also leads to silence. When people are afraid to speak up, they hold back good ideas, overlook problems, and avoid making necessary changes. Neuroscience backs this up. When we experience fear, our brains go into fight or flight mode, which limits our ability to think clearly and make rational decisions. When were scared, we become reactive instead of proactive. This is why a culture of fear isnt just uncomfortableits downright unproductive. As a leader, its your job to create a culture where people feel safe to speak up, ask questions, and challenge the status quo. Thats why reducing fear should go hand in hand with reducing friction. Fixing Processes Doesnt Fix Everything Lets look at a real-world example: the United States Postal Service. In the early 2000s, the USPS faced a significant drop in productivity, rising operational costs, and declining employee morale. To address these issues, management introduced new technology, upgraded processes, and streamlined workflows to improve efficiency and reduce errors. They invested in automated sorting systems and revamped scheduling to make operations run more smoothly. However, despite these process improvements, the results werent as dramatic as expected. Productivity wasnt increasing, and employees still seemed disengaged. The reason? Fear was still very much present in the workplace. Employees were afraid to speak up or share concerns about the new processes. If workers noticed something wrong with the new systems or had ideas to improve efficiency, they didnt feel comfortable offering suggestions or challenging the way things were done. This is a perfect example of how reducing frictionby fixing processesdidnt have the full impact it could have had because fear was still holding back the team. How could USPS have tackled both issues at once? They could have started by actively working to reduce fear within the organization. Management needed to create an environment where employees felt safe to make mistakes, raise issues, and offer constructive feedback. Employees who feel safe and supported are more likely to speak up when somethings not working and more likely to suggest creative solutions. They become partners in progress rather than passive participants. Balancing Both: Reducing Friction and Fear SEB, a Nordic financial services group, implemented a five-month training program focusing on psychological safety and perspective-taking for its investment banking leadership team. This initiative aimed to overcome transformation challenges and foster open communication. As a result, the team achieved revenues 25% above their annual targets in a strategically important market segment. A multi-industry case study followed businesses whose team members were hesitant to voice concerns. All participants implemented psychological safety workshops emphasizing active listening and constructive feedback. This initiative led to improved conflict resolution, enhanced communication, and increased productivity, positively impacting the company’s bottom line. To be an effective leader, you cant just focus on fixing processes. Thats a quick fix, but it doesnt address the deeper issues that impact team dynamics. Reducing friction is important, yes. But reducing fear is essential if you want to create a truly high-performing, innovative, and engaged team. Simon Brown, global learning and development leader at EY, has spent years building critical skills and behaviors in high-performing teams. He shares: You cant automate courage. While systems help things run smoothly, its the culture that inspires people to run toward challenges instead of away from them. Real-world application So, what does this balance look like in practice? Reduce friction: Simplify workflows, cut out unnecessary steps, and ensure your team has the tools and resources they need to do their jobs efficiently. Reduce fear: Foster a culture of psychological safety, where mistakes are treated as learning opportunities, where feedback is welcomed (not feared), and where team members feel confident enough to take risks and innovate. You/me/we: Adopt a decision-making framework that defines what decisions employees can make on their own without fear or reprisal. This cuts down on back-and-forth decision-making bottlenecks and helps people feel more empowered in their roles. Model a hands-off approach: Is your leadership decreasing the number of mandatory meetings but still attending themselves? Making outdated rules optional instead of obsolete? Without buy-in from the top, team members will be too afraid to take action on simplification initiatives that can free up time and decrease unnecessary mental distress.Leadership isnt just about improving processesits about improving peoples ability to act within those processes. If you want your team to truly thrive, youve got to focus on both reducing friction and reducing fear. When you do, youll create an environment where people feel empowered to make decisions, try new things, and speak up when somethings not working. Thats when the real magic happens.
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Drones are increasingly part of modern warfare. The aircraft, often equipped with explosives, have been deployed by both sides in Russia’s war on Ukraine. They’ve been part of recent skirmishes between India and Pakistan. And they’ve been used by Haitian government forces in the ongoing conflict with gangs around Port-au-Prince. And to take down drones before they do damage, armed forces around the world and their military contractors have developed technologies to jam or hack drone control signals, zap them with lasers, or fry them with microwaves. But in this literal arms race, where combat drone developers will inevitably try to come up with ways to make their devices impervious to each new attack, an Austin-based startup called Allen Control Systems argues that the best defense might be one that relies on basic ballistics. “We had the idea that we would use a cheap bullet to basically shoot these drones out of the sky,” says ACS President Steve Simoni, because “the drones of the future would be impervious to these [other] attacks.” ACS has developed a robotic gun system called Bullfrog that uses AI and computer vision to detect drones and precisely fire at them. It’s inspired by the human-controlled Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station (CROWS) guns that the U.S. military already mounts on vehicles and ships. The Bullfrog is based around existing gun technology and uses ordinary bullets, like the standard NATO 7.62x51mm round, which makes it easy and cost-effective to load. But while the existing guns have troops use a joystick to aim the gun and fire at targets, humans often aren’t fast enough to take down a quick-moving drone, let alone a swarm of them. [Photo: Courtesy of Allen Control Systems] “A human using a joystick isn’t good enough to do that,” says Simoni, who started his career as a naval officer before cofounding Bbot, a restaurant software and robotics startup acquired by Doordash. “So we basically redesigned that existing system from the ground up using a bunch of novel techniques in AI.” The Bullfrog uses a set of cameras to detect and precisely locate drones, letting it fire what Simoni calls “a very precise sniper shot” at the fast-moving aircraft. Traditionally, attack drones have generally emphasized speed, flying quickly at targets like truck convoys to attackgenerally moving predictably enough for the AI to easily target. But even if attackers adapt to have drones move more erratically, Simoni says ACS should still be able to fire more quickly than they can evade. “Bullets travel very fast,” he says. “From the time we see it to [the time we] shoot, there’s not many places a drone can really move in that time period.” [Photo: Courtesy of Allen Control Systems] The system, which ACS successfully demonstrated in a U.S. Army test earlier this year, where it took down all of seven target drones, still typically relies on a human in the loop. That is, when a vehicle is being attacked by drones, someone will look at a screen showing the incoming aircraft and select specific targets. But the AI and its cameras do the actual tracking and ballistics calculations necessary to accurately fire the gun and eliminate the drones. Variants may also be able to handle scenarios where there’s a bigger swarm of drones than humans can practically target, but humans would still set the “rules of engagement,” like defining a field of view where the AI is allowed to target oncoming drones or specific safety requirements, Simoni says. In general, ACS’s software also lets users define areas where they don’t want bullets to be aimed for safety’s sake. In demonstrations and tests, the company often fires at off-the-shelf drones from normal retail stores, or specific target drones provided by the military, which naturally restricts outside drones on its bases. As new drones evolve, ACS can also make virtual models of them, giving the AI practice recognizing and firing at them in a simulated environment. Using technology like Unreal Engine, the video game development tool, the company can create renderings of the drones in a variety of weather conditions and scenery, all without needing to fire any actual bullets or destroy any physical drones. The same approach can also teach the AI to distinguish other types of flying things, like birds and planes. And while Russian and Ukrainian forces have already begun to circumvent drone jamming technoogy by replacing radio communications with long, thin fiber optic cables, and microwave attacks can be disrupted by adding conductive material to the right places on the drone, Simoni believes it’s just not physically feasible to build a drone that can reliably withstand bullets and still be light enough to nimbly fly. “There’s not enough armor you could put on a drone to stop a bullet like that,” he says. An effectively armored drone would simply be too heavy. The gun systems, on the other hand, are designed to be lightweight at about 200 pounds, and easy to bolt onto existing military vehicles and connect to vehicle power sources. Simoni says he envisions the system will be practical for both the U.S. and allies with smaller vehicles, where the guns can be mounted on a truck bed. [Photo: Courtesy of Allen Control Systems] And while they can be used as “last lines of defense” for stationary targets like bases or power stations, Simoni says the Bullfrog is currently most practical for vehicles, thanks to its current range of about a kilometer. “That’s a little too close for comfort for a base,” he says. “They want to probably engage the drones further out if they could.” The technology also isn’t ideal for civilian use cases like protecting stadiums and events, where bullets aren’t the safest technology to stop errant drones, Simoni says. Alternatives like net guns might be a better solution there, he suggests. ACS’s systems are slated for more military testing this year, demonstrating compatibility with a variety of military vehicles, with an eye toward battlefield deployment in early 2026. The company in March announced a $30 million Series A led by Craft Ventures along with existing investors Inspired Capital and Rally Ventures. Without revealing exact potential pricing, the company predicts its technology can lower the “cost per kill” to just a few dollars per drone. Simoni says the company aims to help the military prepare for a future where machines, not humans, do the bulk of fighting. “The future of conventional warfare is mostly going to be robots shooting at other robots,” he says. “It is far too dangerous to be out there, so I don’t think there’s going to be a lot of human engagement.”
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After a years-long renovation, The Metropolitan Museum of Art has just reopened its 40,000-square-foot Michael C. Rockefeller Wing. At the heart of the project is a stunning feature thats gone largely unrecognized since the 80s. The wing redesign was spearheaded by architect Kulapat Yantrasast and his team at the firm WHY architecture, whose clients include the Musée du Louvre, The Getty, and Harvard Libraries. The Met tasked WHY with fully reimagining a wing that contains three gallery collections focusing on the arts of Africa, the ancient Americas, and Oceaniaaround 1,800 total works of art. The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing was originally built in 1982 and is home to an architectural feature thats a piece of art in itself: an approximately 200-foot-long, 80-foot-tall sloped glass wall with expansive views into Central Park. But for more than 20 years, the shades on the wall have been drawn to protect artwork from light damage, leaving the space shrouded in darkness. Through WHYs redesign, the glass wall has been uncovered and the three collections have a brand new layout, showcasing the buildings beauty and flooding its galleries with natural light. [Photo: Bridgit Beyer/courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art] ‘No architect today would put a giant glass facade on the south side of a museum’ According to Brian Butterfield, design director at WHY, the gigantic sloped glass wall is especially striking because its a feature that no architect today would ever put on the south side of a museum. When dealing with valuable artwork, anything thats rendered with pigment, made of wood, or fashioned from another delicate material can be photosensitive, meaning sun exposure can lead to damage over time. Whats worse, the former layout of the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing placed wooden and pigmented works from the Oceania collection close to the glass wall, making it potentially even more hazardous to raise the walls shades. Still, when WHY took on the project, nearly everyone involved ultimately agreed that the glass wall was an essential part of the space. The Met sits in Central Park, and the Landmarks Preservation Commission as well as the Central Park Conservancy were in agreement that the sloped glass wall should be replaced, if not directly in kind, then in a way that didn’t change the architectural expression too much, Butterfield says. [Photo: Bridgit Beyer/courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art] Pulling back the shades Alongside the design and engineering firm Arup Group, WHY set about experimenting with ways to not only preserve the wall, but also make it a truly functional feature of the wing. One advantage that todays designers have over those of the 80s, Butterfield says, is advances in glass technology. The glass of 40 years ago is not the glass of today, Butterfield says. Today, you can have double or triple glazing, and you can have inner layers with different films and frits and gas fills, all of which protect art by reducing visible daylight, eliminating all infrared light, and eliminating all ultraviolet light. Glazing, films, frits (a kind of glass powder), and gas fills are all various ways to alter the properties of glass to give a more filtering effectand all of them have been employed on the new custom sloped wall. To maximize the spaces natural light while keeping its artwork safe, the wall is now formatted in a gradient thats not apparent to the naked eye. At floor level, where no art is displayed, the glass is fully translucent. As the panels move upward, though, they become increasingly filtered to block any harsh rays. The wall is designed to keep the window fully exposed throughout the day; shades only deploy if light levels exceed a safe maximum. [Photo: Bridgit Beyer/courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art] Instead of them just being 100% down for the last 20 years, maybe they’ll only be deployed 20% of the time throughout the calendar year, so that the majority of time visitors are in the gallery, they can experience that connection to Central Park, Butterfield says. To further safeguard the wings art, the WHY team reconfigured its layout so that light-sensitive works, like those in the Oceania collection, are arranged in carefully placed alcoves hidden from the sun, while hardier metal and stone pieces are closer to the glass wall. This shift is just one of several changes that the designers made to transform the gallery space from a cramped, easy-to-miss area of the Met into a bright, well-paced wing that would encourage viewers to slow down and appreciate its works. [Photo: Bridgit Beyer/courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art] From drab to ‘airy and light’ The Michael C. Rockefeller Wings three galleries include the Arts of Africa, which surveys visual traditions across sub-Saharan Africa; the Arts of Oceania, which includes monumental works from New Guinea and surrounding island archipelagoes; and the Arts of the Ancient Americas, which focuses on arts of Latin American prior to American invasions after 1492. The rightful ownership of some works in the wing, including several Indigenous works donated to the American gallery, remains a subject of debate. Several elements of the wings former design were due for an update. In its previous configuration, the three galleries were arranged in distinct parallel bars, making each feel separate from the others. Walkways that cut directly through the African and Oceanic spaces allowed viewers to walk straight through the wing without taking a closer look at its work. Combined with the relative lack of natural light from the shaded glass wall, Butterfield says there was a bit of a dated 80s feel to some of the galleries. It felt dark, it felt drab, Butterfield says. The African galleries were designated in yellows and browns, the Oceania galleries were in bluesit felt very reductive in its presentation. To address those concerns, WHY completely shifted the flow of the space. Now, a central walkway moves diagonally through the wing, taking viewers on a path that brings them in close contact with each of the three gallery spaces. The walkway itself is the Oceanic collection, imagined as a kind of connective ocean between the adjacent Africa and the Ancient Americas collections. Each of the three sections has a toned-down color story, with warm white and plaster accents in the African collection, limestone in the Americas, and frosted glass in the Oceanic area. It was both a poetic move to have the diagonal cut through, to separate the three galleries, but to also allow for meaningful overlap and cross-cultural dialogue between them, Butterfield says. There’s a lot of visual transparency between the three collections, but the diagonal allows us to really control the actual pedestrian connections between the three collections. Overhead, a series of arched baffles give the wing a striking vault shape. Everywhere viewers look, theres a sightline into Central Park. Butterfield says the details, taken together, give an airy, light, contemporary feel. We were doing everything we could to really push forward the practice of lighting in a museum, so these objects really sing, Butterfield says.
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In our fast, interconnected world, the success of organizations depends not only on sound strategy and technical ability, but on the strength of the human dynamics behind everything. Humans need emotional intelligence to work together successfully. Its the social lubricant that helps individuals operate more effectively in adverse situations and also helps members of teams understand each other better and work more cohesively as a unit. The key components of emotional intelligence are self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills. These all factor into helping individuals overcome and navigate social complexities and build strong relationships with diverse groups of people, which facilitates stronger collaboration in the workplace. Emotional intelligence complements and supports cognitive intelligence, enabling team members to work together more smoothly and cooperatively. Its what allows team members to build trust and cohesion, without which even the smartest, most skilled teams will struggle to be effective. I delve into this in Emotional Intelligence Game Changers: 101 Simple Ways to Win at Work + Life. Here are five emotional intelligence game changers that influence a teams performance. Enhanced communication Without effective communication, all teams will struggle to build and maintain momentum. Emotional intelligence helps teams build clarity, openness, and the ability to work with varying ideas from individual team members without divisiveness and conflict. By building two-way open communication, team members can focus on their tasks without getting bogged down in misunderstandings and one-upmanship. Team members can freely share their ideas without fear of being judged or misunderstood. Emotional intelligence is the catalyst for psychological safety in teams, according to Debbie Muno, who is the managing director of Genos North America. Building trust and camaraderie Teams work best when members feel a sense of deep connection with each other. It makes them identify and feel pride for being part of the group. Instead of competing with one another, members support and help strengthen each others skills and abilities. This leads to mutual respect and feelings. Emotional intelligence breaks down barriers and supports team members in reaching a place where they feel this way. Expressing feelings in the right place and time and encouraging others to express themselves leads to authentic, trusted communications and team cohesion, Muno says. Increased engagement and motivation Emotional intelligence is crucial in helping team members build enthusiasm and interdependence with each other. When team members feel a sense of pride for what they achieve, they have the drive to achieve beyond their present level, building increasing momentum. This builds a strong understanding of and belief in the ability of the team to rise above and overcome challenges. Preventing and resolving conflict Differences and conflict are inevitable in any group setting where there are diverse viewpoints and personalities. But if members of the team possess a high level of emotional intelligence, theyre better equipped to navigate past all the ego-driven issues and look for solutions. This requires transparency, open dialogue, and a focus on solutions instead of getting hung up on personal power struggles. If everyone on the team knows how to actively listen, theyre more likely to have empathy and respect for viewpoints that differ from their own. They also know how to make other team members feel heard and respected, even if they dont end up implementing their ideas. Emotionally intelligent teams are also more likely to move past issues at hand; as they do so, their respect for each other increases, solidifying the belief that they can resolve disagreements positively. Improved resilience and adaptability In a rapidly changing workplace environment, being adaptable and flexible is crucial for success. Responding effectively in stressful situations enables team members to engage and communicate with each other productively, Muno says. Teams that are highly emotionally intelligent are confident in their ability to adapt and change rapidly to new situations and environments that arise. Theyve proven their ability to overcome personality issues and bruised egos that are damaging to a teams effectiveness, so they can focus their attention and energy on the task at hand. And rather than engaging in one-upmanship that occurs in a dysfunctional team, they know how to get the best out of one another to maximize support and collaboration.
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