Uncommon Knowledge

This week in crisis, what crisis?

Not exactly from this week, but we live in interesting times, and HBR had a good piece a few years ago on leadership in times of crisis. People often want their leaders to be visionary, but vision alone isn’t much help when a pandemic or other major disruption hits.

What you need instead is something called “holding,” the way a person contains?and?interprets?what’s happening in times of uncertainty. For an executive, that might mean think clearly, offer reassurance, orient people and help them stick together.

“That work is as important as inspiring others. In fact, it is a precondition for doing so.”

This week in management burnout

Speaking of leadership, there’s a looming management crisis, per Fast Company, as managers face mounting burnout and Gen Z shuns management roles. Years of workplace disruptions, layoffs, and insufficient organizational support have left managers stretched thin, while 72% of Gen Z employees prefer individual career paths over leadership positions. This reluctance, combined with widespread middle-management cuts, intensifies pressure on remaining managers. To address this crisis, organizations must strengthen manager support systems and develop essential leadership capabilities in younger employees, focusing on stress management, engagement, and emotional intelligence.

Or, in short poetic form:

Management, behold:

For thy must hold, and

Gen Z be held, and led,

To hold, too!

This week in leadership transition

Also on the theme of leadership: TED , the host of the famous TED Talks that have likely done more to shape the conventions of public speaking than any corporate training program in the world, is looking for someone to take over the nonprofit as founder Chris Anderson steps down. They need a new leader to oversee 200+ employees and a $20M endowment. Check out the JD, job requirements and interview guide here.

A bit of a non-sequitur, but this reminds us of the slogan in an old (or maybe still running?) Economist ad for an exec search firm: “Has your corporate ladder run out of rungs?” The most delightful existential recruitment pitch. We always wondered what kind of dreadful calls they got.?

This week in Big Tech-Over

Speaking of finding the right fit, there’s a new generation of AI-powered dating apps that help humans do everything from putting together their profiles to optimizing and short-listing potential romantic matches.

This week in divine intervention

Preferably unrelated to any of the above, Aeon argues that, contrary to popular belief, what we think of as scientific naturalism, the idea that the natural world runs on fixed laws with no supernatural interference, wasn’t a direct product of the Scientific Revolution. Instead, it was a 19th-century invention, largely driven by scientists and thinkers like Thomas Henry Huxley and John Tyndall who, wanting to ?“wrest control of science from the religious establishment”, reframed history to position science and religion as being in constant conflict. It is not the timeless and universal idea we have made it to be.?

Related: contrary to some popular historical narratives, folks in Medieval times did not actually believe the earth was flat (unlike some middle aged folks on the internet).

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