CEO Daily Brief with Dr. Jessica Kriegel

In today's episode: Entrepreneur and endurance athlete Greg Schaefer discusses how his Parkinson's diagnosis has affected his leadership thinking. Greg says he leads today with more calmness, clarity, and compassion than in years past--and the result is a tight-knit team with low turnover. It's important to consider what people feel and think--but not necessarily to agonize over what they think ab...

In today’s episode: The data is clear that we're in a K-shaped economy: there's a wealthy class that's getting richer, while lower-income Americans are struggling more and more. The loss of a middle class is coming from the push to drive profitability and reducing head count--and it's being accelerated by the rise of AI. This is an inflection point for the economy; something needs to be done. CEO...

In today’s episode: Jessica predicts that 2026 will be the year that a company annouces an AI CEO. We're seeing examples of AI getting integrated into leadership--one of SHRM's executives created an AI clone of CEO Johnny C. Taylor in order to workshop ideas before pitching them for real. AI CEOs have some compelling arguments, like a lack of politics and ego, making it easier to speak truth to po...

In today's episode: Jessica and Culture Partners CEO Joe Terry discuss the origins of ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Surrender to Lead⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, the book they co-authored that's coming out next year. It should be freeing to know that you can't control your circumstances; unfortunately, we use control as a defense mechanism. The action trap doesn't work. What does work is creating clarity for why you exist, how you're going t...

In today's episode: In the face of AI, AirBnB's CEO warns that it's important to continue hiring Gen Z--arguing that they're necessary for leadership in the years down the line. The job market is hard for everyone, but it's especially bad for young workers. It's a generational collapse in the training pipeline. This is a cultural story, not just an AI story. As companies lose the "learning layer,"...

In today's episode: New data shows that the average CEO's tenure is down more than a year in just the last two years. The leash is short for CEOs, and scrutiny is high. Boards seem to be betting on fresh eyes rather than familiar hands; we're entering an era of precision leadership, rather than a focus on longtime company stewards. This is likely to slow down with time. While investors have been r...

In today’s episode: A new study shows many frontline employees find middle managers to provide a crucial role--translating the jargon from the executive team. There's a clear correlation between "management that effectively communicates" and the sense that the company cares for employees. Leaders often think that employees just want a secure job, but employees want to feel seen and like they're do...

In today’s episode: With a lack of trust in the federal jobs report, the private sector has come up with their own analysis: the unemployment rate is 5.0%. The jobs report is, more than anything, a directional metric. It doesn't seem like companies are feeling the loss of the federal jobs number. Did we ever really need it? CEO Daily Brief is a daily, five-minute podcast for CEOs where we dissect...

In today's episode: Jessica and Culture Partners CEO Joe Terry discuss ⁠⁠⁠⁠Surrender to Lead⁠⁠⁠⁠, the book they co-authored that's coming out next year. If you want something to scale, you need to operationalize it. That requires constant repetition. When you've "run the play" enough times, it becomes second nature and then naturally flows. Repeat yourself to the point that it feels silly. The ins...

In today’s episode: Is Elon Musk's recent trillion-dollar Tesla pay package fair? It's part of a larger argument about the fundamental function of capitalism, taxation, and philanthropy. John argues it's a part of a larger system incentivizes innovation to bring change. CEO Daily Brief is a daily, five-minute podcast for CEOs where we dissect the week's biggest news, unpack hot-button workplace tr...

In today's episode: Lenovo's Chief Inclusion Officer, Calvin Crosslin, explains the key role of diversity in a global organization, even with all the pushback against DEI in the last year. Inclusion involves a diversity of culture, language, and thought, which can vary wildly around the world and in different areas of a company. Core company culture often outweighs the impact of cultures across ge...

In today’s episode: The government shutdown has had a huge impact on airport delays and cancellations, creating havoc for millions of Americans. That dissatisfaction with government likely impacted last week's election results nationwide. A lot of us are wondering who's to blame. But real accountability comes from the question: what can we do that's within our control? CEO Daily Brief is a daily,...

In today's episode: Jessica breaks down SHRM Blueprint conference -- which wasn't necessarily positive about DEI. Officials from the Trump administration were invited, and there was definitely tension between their messaging and the audience. Fundamentally, disageements over the meaning of "equity" reinforced SHRM's decision to move toward the label "I &D." CEO Daily Brief is a daily, five-minute...

In today's episode: Jessica and Culture Partners CEO Joe Terry discuss the origins of ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Surrender to Lead⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, the book they co-authored that's coming out next year. The real source of change resistance in the modern age is change fatigue. People are tired of making big swings in strategy and tactics. The companies that are facing the least resistance are the ones that embrace adaptability as...

In today's episode: Jessica breaks down the recent panel at the SHRM Blueprint conference, where Van Jones and Robby Starbuck took live questions and debated all things DEI. The conversation proved civil and informative, with tough questions from the audience and some middle ground found between both panelists. You can watch the full livestreamed panel on LinkedIn. CEO Daily Brief is a daily, five...

In today’s episode: AI is a tool that can let people become exceptionally innovative or exceptionally lazy. Previous technological revolutions allowed us to produce more--this one is about efficiency, which is likely to reduce jobs and damage the economy. People need to remember that AI tools are only as good as the data they're based on; to use it effectively, we'll still need to be creative and...

In today’s episode: Amazon recently laid off 30,000 white-collar workers--and they're not the only big company that just did major layoffs. There's going to be a cascading effect across the workforce as companies use this for cover. This is part of a broader story about a weakened labor market nationwide, and it's just a warm-up for what's to come. There are macro-level consequences to this overal...

In today’s episode: Large investment banks are partnering with OpenAI to permanently replace junior investment banking jobs with AI. This is where we're going to see the biggest AI-related impacts in the workforce going forward. The big question: in the absence of junior professionals, where are leaders going to come from? How will capitalism adjust to this new model? CEO Daily Brief is a daily, f...

In today's episode: Jessica and Culture Partners CEO Joe Terry discuss the origins of ⁠⁠⁠⁠Surrender to Lead⁠⁠⁠⁠, the book they co-authored that's coming out next year. Employee disengagement is often a reaction to fear-based leadership. When leaders are obsessed with control, apathy becomes one of the few ways that employees retake agency. People want to work. It's on leaders to create the connect...

In today’s episode: Zoom's CEO has begun using an AI avatar to deliver information on earnings calls. Human authenticity is important for culture and relationships, but the CEO's relationship to employees isn't the same as the relationship with shareholders. With earnings calls being so impersonal and heavily-scripted by design, John argues the use of the avatar is a perfect use of AI. CEO Daily B...

In today's episode: Adobe's Stacy Martinet explains how the company is adopting AI internally. We're still in the early days of AI in the workplace; it's about collaborative learning across disciplines and levels of the corporate ladder. The first step for leaders is giving people permission to try things with AI. The companies and people that embrace change are the ones who handle it the best. CE...

In today’s episode: The new inflation numbers are lower than expected...but it's still going up. To an extent, all financial numbers are spin. There's also a growing distrust about national financial economic health numbers. CEO Daily Brief is a daily, five-minute podcast for CEOs where we dissect the week's biggest news, unpack hot-button workplace trends, and bring you exclusive interviews with...

In today’s episode: Political labels have always been a danger zone for corporate leaders. Recently, we've seen leaders who have been liberal-leaning in the past turn friendlier to the Trump administration. There are a lot of complicated political and economic calculations that go into those decisions, and nobody has a crystal ball to be able to tell the long-term future of tariffs and other admin...

In today's episode: Jessica and Culture Partners CEO Joe Terry discuss the origins of ⁠⁠⁠Surrender to Lead⁠⁠⁠, the book they co-authored that's coming out next year. Control feels good for leaders--it can get you an initial boost in productivity, but it doesn't have legs. In the Stanford research, companies that focused on control saw 10% growth; but when they switched to focus on culture, they sa...

In today’s episode: A new study shows that most people are willing to take up to a 25% pay cut if they're able to work from home. More flexibility creates more options for employees; they're more likely to stick around. This works especially well for working mothers. Return-to-office mandates to "save" a company's culture is a result of mistrust or bad management. It's an antiquated view of work,...