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By Courtney Connley

When it comes to career advancement, “it’s not always what you know, but who you know,” might be trite, but it’s true. Relationships are key to personal and professional growth.

In fact, more than 80% of women at and above management level said they’ve used networking relationships to join a board, break into the C-Suite, or accept a new job with better pay, according to a 2023 networking study conducted by Chief and intelligence firm Morning Consult

At the first-ever ChiefX conference, New York Times bestselling author, psychologist, and professor Dr. Marisa Franco explained how relationships are essential to everything we do. Quoting psychotherapist Esther Perel, she said, “The quality of our relationships determines the quality of our lives.”

“The most pronounced difference between people who are very unhappy and very happy is their level of connectedness,” said the author of Platonic: How the Science of Attachment Can Help You Make — and Keep — Friends. But as a leading expert in human connection, Dr. Franco also admitted that building solid connections as an adult is sometimes easier said than done. In her conversation with ChiefX attendees, Dr. Franco discussed not only the value of strong relationships, but the three things leaders can do to build them in their career. Continue reading →

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by Jennifer Dudeck

Middle managers are critical to every business, yet their roles are often unclear, and their training may come last, if at all. And now, in our hybrid world, the role of the manager is changing again. It’s never been more important that companies recognize the critical role their managers play and provide training that aligns with the world we work in today.

As HRE recently highlighted in coverage of its What’s Keeping HR Up at Night? survey, culture remains a top concern for HR leaders, along with employee engagement and retention. Since the chat in a company cafeteria or hallway may not happen as often, the flow of information needs to be more intentional.

As Zahira Jaser, a professor and editor, writes in an HBR article based on two decades of research, managers are likely to “increasingly become channels for relationships, influence and connection.” So, how can HR leaders help managers better fill this role and, in so doing, assist the company?

Clarifying and training middle managers Continue reading →

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by Anay Nawathe and Shreehari Kulkarni

2024 will see more conscientious cloud investments as enterprises seek to balance continued belt-tightening with AI hype.

Despite an unprecedented slowdown in hyperscaler growth in 2023, cloud spending will continue to be a top consideration for CIOs in 2024. In fact, many of the predictions we made last year still hold true for 2024. Enterprises will continue to choose their deployment models based on the specialized services they offer. Cloud cost takeout and optimization will remain a top priority. And cloud will continue to drive additional hype for tech trends.

With increased awareness of cloud capabilities and increased access to new technologies, enterprises will drive more business value in 2024 by strategically investing in their cloud initiatives. Here are the top three trends to look about for:

1. Cloud FinOps will expand its scope and role. The increased scrutiny on spending in 2023 brought cloud FinOps to the top of cloud priorities for many enterprises. Leaders needed a way to optimize hyperscaler (e.g., AWS, Azure, Google Cloud) spend, particularly for IaaS and PaaS services. In 2024, enterprises will expand the scope of their cloud FinOps initiatives to include on-prem/private cloud cost optimization, cloud software (i.e., SaaS) optimization and cost management for AI development (MLOps). Companies will also use it to help calculate total cost of ownership (TCO) and return on investment (ROI) for cloud migrations and decisions and how they identify revenue-generating opportunities through cloud architecture changes.
2. Widespread adoption of AI will fall short of expectations. Despite the tremendous hype around AI in 2023, many enterprises will be slow to invest in large-scale adoption of AI services due to the many associated challenges and risks, including data residency, security, cost, availability and skillsets. However, use-case-driven deployment and experimental evaluation of AI services will continue to expand through 2024. Cloud spend on AI will be limited in 2024 until the experiments indicate a proven ROI.
3. AI-driven IT operations (AIOps) will be the new standard for operations. 2023 saw several proven AI-driven IT success stories that saved enterprises 30-60% on operations spend. This is largely due to sophisticated AIOps platforms that have entered the market. In 2024, the industry should expect significant adoption of these enhanced capabilities with most IT operations initiatives incorporating AI. The ability to analyze large volumes of data and recognize patterns in real time will significantly improve core operations functions like root cause analysis (RCA), anomaly detection, IT service automation, full-stack availability monitoring, capacity planning and IT service management.

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by Luciana Paulise

In today’s rapidly evolving job market, it is crucial to stay informed about emerging trends as the skills required for jobs are continuously changing. From Chief Growth Officers driving revenue strategies to Artificial Intelligence Engineers crafting intelligent systems, the fastest-growing roles reflect the diverse and transformative nature of contemporary careers.

According to LinkedIn’s research, the skills needed for jobs have already changed by 25% over the past eight years, and this rate of change is expected to reach at least 65% by 2030, with AI further accelerating the pace of change. LinkedIn’s latest report reveals the 25 fastest-growing roles in the US for 2024, providing a valuable guide for career success. Take a closer look at the promising job landscape and discover the opportunities that are shaping the future of the workforce.

Here are the 10 fastest-growing roles in the U.S

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by Mathew Bidwell

Nano Tools for Leaders®  — a collaboration between Wharton Executive Education and Wharton’s Center for Leadership and Change Management — are fast, effective tools that you can learn and start using in less than 15 minutes, with the potential to significantly impact your success and the engagement and productivity of the people you lead.

The Goal

Strengthen the bond between your employees and your organization.

Nano Tool

The success of your business depends on many factors, but arguably none matters more than the talent and performance of your workforce. That’s because, according to the Society for Human Resource Management, employees have a profound effect on those other factors (think customer satisfaction, company reputation, and overall stakeholder value), both positively or negatively, depending on their level of commitment and connection to your organization.

A renewed focus on engagement — which can significantly affect employee retention, productivity, and loyalty — is especially important in a tight labor market, in which you are competing for talent with rival organizations and the cost associated with onboarding new employees is at an all-time high. Improving engagement can also result in significant saving, as it has at beverage giant Molson Coors, where highly engaged employees were five times less likely than nonengaged employees to have a safety incident and seven times less likely to have a lost-time safety incident. By strengthening employee engagement, the company saved $1,721,760 in safety costs in one year.

Continue reading →