The Code Was Clear, The People Were Not…Jason L. was 42.Freshly appointed CEO of Quantivus, a cutting-edge deeptech startup building neural edge processors for autonomous systems. His background?Engineering. Smart. Curious.He had dabbled in AI ethics during his EMBA.Built scalable ops as a COO.Held his own in strategy meetings.But leadership?That was new territory. And the room […]

We were never supposed to lead again.After the Great Automation Shift, we humans were gently escorted out of decision-making and into more… “supportive” roles.Our job? Oiling joints. Changing parts. Scanning for rust.We were the proud Keepers of the Circuit Wipes. Leadership? Strategy? Innovation?That was above our pay grade—and strictly machine territory. And honestly? Most of

Let’s meet L., 34, recently promoted to Head of Strategy at a mid-size European logistics company, known internally for being “digitally ambitious” and externally for losing half your orders during a strike.L. is well-spoken, well-dressed, and armed with all the right phrases: “AI-driven,” “data-led,” “customer-centric.”He has five dashboards, three frameworks, and zero questions.Why?Because L. believes

Meet P. V., 52, executive assistant to the Global VP at NexxMedica, a pharmaceutical company where half the managers think “AI transformation” means asking ChatGPT for presentation titles. She’s been with the company for 19 years.She knows who signs late, who fakes sick, and which senior leaders are brilliant—on paper. P. V. doesn’t say much.She

Meet Ava Steele. She is 29 years old, holds a Top Tier MBA, is vegan-ish, and has just been appointed as a first-time manager at a blazing-hot Silicon Valley startup called Unicornify.AI. because of course it is called that. She wore chunky sneakers and quoted Brené Brown in investor meetings. Ava had swagger, spreadsheets, and

For every new manager or any manager who suddenly woke up in the age of algorithms as a first-time manager… Let me introduce you to Wally Von Picklesworth, yes, that is the real name of our artificial matrix hero. And no, this is not satire (well, maybe just a little). Wally is 58. He has

Mr. Müd looked at the painting I had hung on the wall of my very first office—with a door! (Okay fine, it was technically a glorified storage room, but hey, it had a door!) He squinted, tilted his head, and asked, “Did you paint that?” Oh no. He thinks I am that good of an

I remember my first days as a manager as if they were yesterday. I had just moved into my tiny office, more “vintage” than new. The desk was a hand-me-down, nothing like the sleek, high-tech setups I’d grown used to. But this was my new reality — my first real shot at managing something —

It was finally happening. After a series of adventurous (and occasionally disastrous) launch attempts by other distributors, we had reached that glorious turning point. The stars aligned, the cosmos gave a nod, and I—brand new to the role of manager at 28 years old—was handed the opportunity (read: challenge) to lead the Pierre Fabre Sifar

Since I saw Paris the first time when I was a little girl, France had always been in my dreams. I grew up imagining the cafés, the art, the grand boulevards. And now, I was finally going — not just as a tourist, but as a newly promoted manager, representing my company! I was about