How to Lead in 2025

1. Ten?Resolution Alternatives
2. The?End of Brands?
3. The?Warm Body?Reality
4. Eating?the World, 2.0
5. Auld Lang Syne?Revisited
6. Econ Recon

Ten Resolution Alternatives

In a day or so, many of us will be making New Year’s resolutions, but according to one study “Unfortunately, most people fail to achieve their New Year’s resolutions. It’s long been reported that a whopping 80% of resolutions are unsuccessful by mid-February." According to a study by researchers at Scranton University, only 19 percent of people keep their resolutions. And, most people abandon them by mid-January.

It may be that our resolutions are not too ambitious, but demand a different strategy.?Perhaps a more thoughtful start to the process might help us attain the objects of our resolve.?This short article offers?”10 Achievable Alternatives to New? Year’s Resolutions.”

The End of Brands?

NYU Marketing professor Scott Galloway is often featured in this newsletter. This week, while Galloway is on vacation, his 25-year-old podcast co-host Ed Elson, penned a post that I find as thought-provoking as it is revelatory.

Elson suggests that while his boss (Galloway) “?believes digitally enabled products and services have replaced brands, I (Elson) believe people have“ This riveting article makes a compelling (and alarming) case for his thesis with?examples from media, consumer products and presidential elections.???

The scary part?is his thesis as to how, and why, this has come to be:?widespread loneliness and a need for connection not found elsewhere.?

If you don’t read anything else in this week’s edition, read Elson’s missive,?“People Are The New Brands. ”?He just may be describing our new realty?not only in terms of a new brand strategy for your products, but how the ways we received information is changing. This is relevant for ultimately how we make decisions.

The Warm Body Reality

Have you ever put off a termination because a little voice inside you said we have too much work to get done so ?“a warm body is better than no body?“

When you hear that voice, Vistage Speaker and Employment law specialist Hunter Lott says you should immediately ask yourself if?“Knowing what you know now, would you enthusiastically re-hire him or her?”??

Take 5 minutes with Lott to explore the trap of?“The Warm Body Reality.”? And some very interesting stats about turnover and preventing it. ?This article from LinkedIn?offers some additional insights.?

The War for Talent goes on.

?Eating the World, 2.0

In 2011, Marc Andreesen, the co-founder of Netscape (the first commercially successful web browser) commented that “Software is eating the world.” Andreesen subsequently has become a successful venture capitalist as co-founder of VC firm Andreesen-Horowitz. One of his partners, Benedict Evans has become a well-known technology commentator and?recently shared a presentation in which he builds on Andreesen’s comment for the title of his talk.

If you want a 50,000 foot C-Level, non-technical presentation on how far AI has come in the past two years…and how it will manifest in our future, check out Evans’ fast paced presentation?“AI Eats the World”.??(You’ll see the deck first, scroll down to the first video or? watch just the video and deck on YouTube.)

An insightful observation from the talk:? “AI is whatever doesn’t work yet.? When it works, it’s just software.”

Note:??For a deeper dive, Evans presented this at the recent, content rich,?Slush Conference for “the single most relevant crowd in the global startup system." If you’re building a technology company, the presentations looks very interesting.

Auld Lang Syne Revisited

The song most associated with New Year’s is, of course, “Auld Land Syne.“ The lyrics come from verses penned by Scottish poet Robert Burns (1759-1796), and many musicians have created their own arrangements over the centuries.

An arrangement worth listening to is from Kate Taylor on her album “Beautiful Road” accompanied by her brother, James Taylor.?Taylor creates a hauntingly beautiful arrangement and includes verses from Robert Burns’ original poem that we don’t normally hear in the various musical renditions.

Take 3 minutes to reflect on the past year and contemplate the new one, with Ms. Taylor’s version of?“Auld Lang Syne.“

Econ Recon

In recent years, much economic discourse has focused on inflation, interest rates, unemployment rates and GDP. As important as they are, each is the cumulative result of billions of individual decisions by consumers, businesspeople, lawmakers, and others.?Perhaps the most important element of each of those decisions is the mindset of those making them;?in short, their collective confidence in the future.

If you’re still making up your mind about the year ahead, look at this graphic of?Global Economic Confidence in 2025, by Country.

It's a wrap for 2024. I will be back in 2025. Wishing you a wonderful start to 2025!

Sue Tinnish, PhD,?Vistage Chair, Facilitator, & Executive Coach

Find me easily at: 847.404.7325, [email protected], Twitter:?@STinnish, LinkedIn: www.dhirubhai.net/in/suetinnish, Website: https://vistage.com/chairs/sue.tinnish