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The most dangerous people in a company are stressed leaders. I say that with full self-awareness. Ive worked for a few and came uncomfortably close to becoming one myself. Ive always had an impulsive temperament. On good days, it made me decisive. On bad days, reactive. Add long hours and the pressure of scaling a startup, and my emotional state began to spill onto the team. Focusing on mental health, rest, and mindfulness fundamentally changed how I build my company and how I see my role today. Im still a CEO, but Ive also become something elsethe chief energy officer. What follows is everything I wish Id known earlier about leading with emotional regulation and grounded energy. WHY EVERY CEO MUST ALSO BE A CHIEF ENERGY OFFICER We must stop seeing ourselves only through an operational lens. Gantt charts and product roadmaps matter, but not if you walk into a room as an emotional thunderstorm. Once you understand that, you start to see the full scope of the CEO role, including taking responsibility for the emotional climate of our workplace. The Workforce Institute at UKG found that 69% of employees feel their manager impacts their mental health as much as their spouses. Stress spreads in a domino effect, and the leader is the domino that knocks all the others over. Domino 1: Stressed leader. Research in organizational psychology shows that under stress, leaders are rated as less inspiring, less supportive, and less able to provide intellectual stimulation. Domino 2: Psychological safety. Teams sense tension and stop bringing ideas, feedback, or early warnings. They dont want to add to your load or trigger a reaction. Domino 3: Innovation and creativity. Managing your emotional state drains the resources your team needs to experiment. Domino 4: Proactivity. When employees dont feel safe, they avoid ownership and only wait for direction. HOW I LEARNED TO LEAD WITHOUT BRINGING STRESS WITH ME Culture is shaped by what leaders practice, not what they preach. Small, daily actions help you stay regulated and create a team environment that feels safe and energized. These habits made the biggest difference for me, specifically the Mind Heart Body method. I rely on this three-pillar system, which I call the religion of awakening, to reset before and after stressful moments. 1. Mind Notice the tension I pause and look for micro-signals of stress: a tight jaw, shallow breathing, a sudden urge to move faster without any real reason. 2. Heart Understand the emotion behind it I ask: What am I actually feelingirritation, fear, fatigue? What is this reaction trying to tell me? Is this about the situation or about me? 3. Body Move to reset your state Our nervous systems respond to movement faster than they respond to logic. A 10-minute walk or a few stretches can pull me out of fight-or-flight mode. DEVELOP MICRO-HABITS TO RESET YOUR ENERGY Micro-habits are simple, require no major cultural shifts, and have an almost immediate impact. These three have been a game-changer for me. 1. Set aside time to pause throughout the day Start meetings with one minute of breathing or quiet reflection. It helps everyone disconnect from whatever they were doing before and step into the conversation with a clear mind. Take regular two-minute reset pauses to notice your breath or posture. This calms your nervous system and prevents stress from building throughout the day. Pick one time block a day to step back from multitasking. Constant context switching keeps you in a low-level state of stress. Close your laptop for 30 seconds between tasks to reset your focus. 2. Set an energy baseline for the week Every Monday, I map out my energy like my schedule. This helps me spot red flags before they become stress triggers and make space for recovery. Whats likely to drain me this week? Which meetings require my best energy, and which ones can be lighter? Where do I need to build in recovery time? 3. Model healthy urgency Every Monday I label tasks by priority: what needs attention today, what must happen this week, and optional things that can easily roll into next week. This simple system forces me to prioritize intentionally instead of throwing everything into one important bucket. For the team, it removes unnecessary pressure and gives them the mental space to concentrate on what actually matters. WHAT A PEOPLE- AND ENERGY-FIRST WORKPLACE CAN LOOK LIKE When something helps me show up better, I bring it into the organization so everyone can benefit. As a CEO, I try to model the energy I want my team to feel. I lead Pilates sessions, share mindfulness tools and meditation techniques, and talk openly about moments when I need to reset. But to make well-being work at scale, weve also built structure around it. We rely on the same methods that underpin our BetterMe Business solution, a platform that supports practical wellness habits in the workplace, to make things like emotional training, mindful breaks, and movement part of our day-to-day routines. Heres how that looks for our team: Office spaces for movement, like walking paths for meetings Training access, with in-office and online options Running clubs, tennis meetups, and outdoor activities instead of bar events for team-building Regular check-ins that create space for feedback and honest dialogue Access to a corporate wellness platform that provides stress management tools I believe that the future of work isnt about squeezing more out of people. Its about taking care of the energy that keeps them going. Victoria Repa is the CEO and founder of BetterMe.
Category:
E-Commerce
Ikea’s new store is in the metaverse. The company announced Wednesday that it’s piloting a limited-edition pop-up shop in Roblox’s Welcome to Bloxburg game offering players Ikea products they can use to decorate virtual homes. This is the first time that the Swedish furniture retailer has entered gaming in a meaningful way, since an earlier Roblox game in 2024, according to the company. It comes after noticing for years how young adults and teens were building and designing homes in games and wondering why Ikea wasn’t a part of it. [Photo: Ikea] “Ikea wanted to better understand how Gen Z and Gen Alpha think about furnishing and self-expression, recognizing the need to meet them on platforms they already use and learn from how they interact with products and spaces in a digital environment,” Ikea’s chief digital officer Parag Parekh tells Fast Company. “At Ikea we are always curious and eager to develop and connect with people where they are. Today many people are online, and many people are gaming,” he says. “This is an area where we want to see if there is an appetite for Ikea as a brand and our products also in the gaming world.” [Image: Ikea] Ikea’s goal: better understand Gen Z and Gen Alpha The pilot is intentionally small, as its primary goal is to gather learnings for the company. For now it will be available only for people in Australia and Sweden from January 22 to February 5. Located inside the virtual Bloxburg Fancy Furniture Store, which players can access in the the game’s town center, people can choose from items like the Stockholm sofa, the Brännboll inflatable gaming chair, and Ikea’s stuffed toy shark named Blhaj. The company says it chose its selection of products based on items that are less common in the game, are classic Ikea designs, or are items that the Bloxburg team suggested players might like. “Overall, the aim is less about ‘selling’ a catalog and more about understanding how customers express home furnishing ideas and how Ikea products can support that in a digital world,” Parekh says. [Photo: Ikea] Unboxing Ikea’s tech moves Ikea’s entry into gaming comes on the heels of other tech-forward moves. Last year the company relaunched its smart home line and opened branded kiosks selling Ikea products in select U.S. Best Buy locations. But it’s also late to the metaverse party. Brands including Gucci, Nike, and Walmart opened their own Roblox experiences in 2022but the trend never caught on in a big way. Today, the dream of a widely used virtual metaverse has been declared effectively dead, and Meta laid off hundreds in its own virtual reality division on Tuesday. There are signs of a possible resurgence, though, with examples like Ikea’s foray into the space and Coach’s collection on Sims 4 this week proving that brands aren’t abandoning virtual worlds as spaces to show off their products completely. [Photo: Ikea] For Ikea, the challenge in translating its physical home furnishings for a virtual world was balancing recognizability and simplicity, since items needed to feel instantly like they had Ikea proportions, colors, and silhouettes while also working smoothly in a gaming context. Luckily, Ikea already has all its products created in 3D, and Bloxburg modified those same models with Ikea’s approval to turn them into gamified objects. “We are very pleased with the outcome,” Parekh says. There will also be an in-person component for Ikea’s Roblox experience, with hidden QR codes set to go up at Ikea locations in the two pilot countries that vistors can scan to unlock extra items. And an Ikea in the metaverse could one day come to other countries, too. The company says its virtual shop pilot is just a starting point, and it believes we’ll see more of its home furnishings in games going forward.
Category:
E-Commerce
The State Department says it will suspend the processing of immigrant visas for citizens of 75 countries whose nationals are deemed likely to require public assistance while living in the United States. The State Department, led by Secretary Marco Rubio, said Wednesday it had instructed consular officers to halt immigrant visa applications from the countries affected in accordance with a broader order issued in November that tightened rules around potential immigrants who might become public charges in the U.S. The suspension will not apply to applicants seeking non-immigrant, or temporary tourist or business visas. The Trump administration is bringing an end to the abuse of Americas immigration system by those who would extract wealth from the American people, the department said in a statement. Immigrant visa processing from these 75 countries will be paused while the State Department reassess immigration processing procedures to prevent the entry of foreign nationals who would take welfare and public benefits. The statement did not identify which countries would be affected by the pause, but President Donald Trump’s administration has already severely restricted immigrant and non-immigrant visa processing for citizens of dozens of countries, many of them in Africa. The suspension will begin on Jan. 21. Matthew Lee, AP diplomatic writer
Category:
E-Commerce
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