What Nike's CEO swap can teach leaders about succession

Nike's recent CEO transitions from John Donahoe to Elliott Hill holds many leadership succession lessons, including taking stakeholder concerns seriously, realizing leadership may have its seasons as market conditions change and revisiting old strategies that worked, writes licensed mental health therapist Topsie VandenBosch. Nike's smooth transition, VandenBosch notes, illustrates the need for companies to be agile, innovative and adaptable.

Put it into practice: Instead of abruptly replacing Donahoe with Hill, Nike smoothed the transition by putting Donahoe on its advisory board until January 2025, writes VandenBosch. "This transition minimized disruption and demonstrated respect for all the parties involved."

Ditch the training manuals and boring seminars for gamification to keep workers in the skilled trades engaged during training, writes Sam Zheng, CEO and co-founder of DeepHow. "Gamification, grounded in principles of educational psychology, offers a modern solution that resonates with the current and future generations of workers," Zheng writes.

Put it into practice: Gamification borrows elements from video games with simulations, leaderboards and visual journeys, among other tools. "Gamification isn’t just a buzzword -- it’s a powerful strategy to boost employee engagement, enhance learning outcomes and foster a culture of continuous improvement," Zheng writes.

Subordinates can fudge the truth for many reasons, but managers should address any falsehoods with clear communication, writes Amy Cooper Hakim, a psychologist and author of "Working with Difficult People." Cooper Hakim recommends that managers clarify instructions, increase the frequency of feedback and boost morale to address subordinate subterfuge.

Put it into practice: The best way to ensure subordinates understand their assignment is to have them repeat it back to you. "You can eliminate a lot of the bluffing and stalling by asking workers to restate assignments in their own words, to be sure you are both on the same page," Cooper Hakim writes.

As a leader, Sherrie Westin, CEO of Sesame Workshop -- the nonprofit behind "Sesame Street," says her "irrepressible sense of humor" and a tendency to be facetious can get her into trouble, so she's learned to be patient, even though she likes to follow her gut instincts. "And there may be other inputs that help form a decision, so I think it's so important to have the data to support your gut," says Weston, who added that if she were a muppet, she'd be Grover "because of his irreverence and sense of humor."

American Cinematheque's Los Feliz Theatre is presenting a film series, "Silents Synced," which will present movies like the 102-year-old "Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror," but with modern soundtracks filled with tracks by Radiohead, R.E.M. and more, giving a new vibe to old flicks. "I'm targeting music fans because it's part of my theory that movie-loving people are already coming so let's try expanding our audience and get other people to experience cinema," says the film's creator Josh Frank.

With Climate Week in full swing, Battery Council International President and Executive Director Roger Miksad explains how batteries of various chemistries are advancing to power things like data centers, EVs, microgrids and more. Miksad also provides an update on the circular economy for batteries and highlights how policies like the Inflation Reduction Act and the proposed USA Batteries Act are shaping the future of the battery industry.

Hurricane Helene made landfall on Florida's Big Bend early this morning. Many are awakening to devastation in those areas, so please keep them all in your hearts this morning.

For those of us, like me, who live in the path of this storm, it has brought a morning without power, so I'm getting this brief to you all by candlelight, battery power and a cellphone hotspot. Thank goodness for technology! 

It's going to be a long recovery for those hit hardest by this storm. Please support the Red Cross and all the other disaster cleanup organizations, if you can.

Stay safe and enjoy the weekend! 

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