News & Updates
The latest industry insights, company announcements, and updates from Prodo Club.
The "hot shot rule" to help you become a better leader — Kat Cole, TED (1.47M views)
Confidence doesn't come before action — it comes from taking action, says Kat Cole, who rose from waitress to CEO of AG1. Her "hot shot rule" is a simple weekly practice: envision someone you admire in your role, ask what one thing they would do differently, act on it within 24 hours, then tell your team. Over a year, that's 52 actions you wouldn't otherwise have taken — building a reputation for vulnerability and a bias for action that cuts through complacency. Cole learned the principle from her mother, who left a difficult marriage with no resources, no playbook, and no coach — just action. The harder muscle isn't acting when times are tough (that's almost easy); it's coaching yourself to be greater even when things are going well. For senior professionals who've built successful careers and risk settling into comfort, this is the self-coaching practice that keeps you sharp. A Prodoclub mentor can be the outside-in perspective you envision in your seat — and help you identify and act on what they'd do differently.
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How to Build a Career You Love — Bill Gurley, TED (92K views)
After studying 100+ biographies of high achievers, venture capitalist Bill Gurley found one trait that stood out above all others: continuous, obsessive learning. But learning is the effect, not the cause. The real engine is fascination. Drawing on chess champion Magnus Carlsen and Jerry Seinfeld Duke commencement advice, Gurley argues that following your fascination (not your passion) is what drives a lifetime of mastery and career fulfillment.
Read moreEx-Google recruiter: Ask this insightful question in an interview and I will want to hire you on the spot — CNBC Make It
Farah Sharghi, who recruited for Google, Uber, and The New York Times, says the best candidates do not play it safe at the end of an interview. Instead of predictable questions about culture or growth, they ask What is broken — showing they are already thinking about the problem the company needs solved. She shares four ways to frame this question, each revealing different qualities about how you think.
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Great leadership is a network, not a hierarchy — Gitte Frederiksen, TED (222K views)
Gitte Frederiksen challenges the traditional view of leadership as a role for the few. She argues that complex problems need distributed leadership — where everyone leans in, information flows freely, and power isn't consolidated at the top. Labels and hierarchies, she says, hide information and stifle creativity. When leadership becomes a network instead of a pyramid, we get better outcomes and happier people. A compelling call to rethink who's 'in charge' and why it matters.
Read moreYou can't sit out office politics — Niven Postma, HBR
Executive coach Niven Postma debunks the myth that staying out of office politics keeps you clean — opting out doesn't protect you, it just means others set the agenda without your input. Her reframe: politics is simply the interplay of relationships, agendas, and influence capital — informal conversations aren't 'lobbying', they're 'doing important homework'. The practical path: map your organization's political environment (who really holds influence, how decisions actually get made), and build relationship and influence capital before you need it, so you engage from awareness rather than discomfort. For senior professionals who built careers on pure results, this is the skill that separates the technically brilliant from the genuinely powerful. Prodoclub mentors have spent decades reading these rooms — and can teach you to play the game without losing yourself.
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The problem with being "too nice" at work — Tessa West, TED (3.2M views)
Social psychologist Tessa West has spent 20 years studying uncomfortable social interactions — negotiations, upward feedback with your boss, conversations where you need to break in and say 'I have no idea what you were talking about.' Her core finding from lab research: when we feel the most anxious, uncomfortable, and socially awkward, we become the most 'nice' and generic to the people around us. This 'anxious niceness' — over-complimenting, avoiding eye contact, fidgeting, giving gracious but empty feedback — creates distance rather than connection, and worse, it masks the real conversations that workplaces need. Her antidote is concrete: replace the 'culture of niceness' with a 'culture of feedback' by being specific, direct, and yes, a little uncomfortable. She shares a personal example of a colleague who told her she spent half a TED talk staring at the ceiling instead of making eye contact — feedback framed honestly, not buried in politeness. For anyone navigating office politics, this is the key: the person who can be direct without being cruel is the person who gets heard. Prodoclub mentors have spent decades having exactly these kinds of hard conversations — and can teach you to have them too.
Read moreZillow CEO: Even senior-level job candidates make this interview mistake — CNBC Make It
Zillow CEO Jeremy Wacksman interviews executive hires regularly, and one mistake still surprises him: candidates who haven't done their homework. 'I'll talk to folks coming in for senior roles, and they're asking pretty basic questions that you could answer in 10 minutes on Google or 30 seconds in Gemini,' he says. The best interviewees come prepared with intellectual curiosity — bespoke questions about the role that show they understand it deeply. Career expert Erin McGoff advises asking about competitors, organizational structure, and challenges the company faces. Suzy Welch, NYU Stern professor and bestselling author, says when you're being interviewed by a C-suite executive, use your time to talk about markets, competitors, ideas you have for making the company better. Dan Porter, CEO of Overtime, agrees: 'Bad interviewers ask me about a dental plan or how I started Overtime when there's like 100 podcasts about it.' The takeaway for senior professionals re-entering the interview hot seat: you've been on the other side of the table — now show the curiosity you used to demand from candidates. A Prodoclub mentor can pressure-test your questions and mock the C-suite interview before the real one.
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165,000+ jobs cut to AI in 2026 — the layoff list, and the skills that make you immune
The numbers behind the AI jobs disruption: over 165,000 roles were cut in AI-related layoffs in the first seven months of 2026 — already ~65% above 2025's full-year total and 8x the 2024 figure. 55+ CEOs have publicly named AI efficiency as the reason, and 11 companies (Accenture, Amazon, Citigroup, Dell, HSBC, Intel, Microsoft, Meta, Oracle, TCS, UPS) have each cut 10,000+. More than 60% of the cuts are at 100,000+ employee corporations — the ones that have consultants to help them restructure smart; SMEs and their people face exactly the same wave with nobody in their corner. The most telling detail: Atlassian spared employees with 'transferable skills' — precisely the human capabilities (leading people, reading organizations, repairing relationships, performing under pressure) that AI cannot replicate. The data proves the case Prodoclub was built on: frictional, human skills are the layoff-proof skills. If your role feels exposed, the answer is not to hide from AI — it is to double down on what it cannot replace.
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Your body language may shape who you are — Amy Cuddy, TED (20M+ views)
Social psychologist Amy Cuddy's landmark TED talk (20M+ views): two minutes of 'power posing' — standing tall and expansive — measurably changes your hormones (testosterone up, cortisol down) and how you perform under evaluation. Her deeper message is for anyone who's ever felt like a fraud in a high-stakes room: don't fake it till you make it, fake it till you become it. Interviews, board presentations, and promotion panels are judged as much on presence as on content. A Prodoclub mentor can pressure-test your delivery before the real thing — so the room meets the confident version of you.
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The science behind dramatically better conversations — Charles Duhigg, TEDxManchester (3.7M views)
Pulitzer-winning 'Power of Habit' author Charles Duhigg shares the research behind his book Supercommunicators: every difficult conversation is actually three conversations — practical (What's this really about?), emotional (How do we feel?), and social (Who are we?) — and mismatches happen when two people are in different ones. His techniques, like the 'matching principle' (ask questions, prove you're listening, then respond) and looping for understanding, turn landmine conversations — a disagreement with your boss, a tense negotiation, a team conflict — into genuine dialogue. Few skills move a career faster than being the person who can navigate hard conversations; Prodoclub mentors have spent decades in boardrooms doing exactly that.
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Everyday leadership — Drew Dudley, TED
Drew Dudley's funny, disarming TED talk on 'lollipop moments': the times you fundamentally changed someone's life without even realizing it — like handing a nervous freshman a lollipop and changing the course of two families. His point hits at the heart of mentorship: we've made leadership into something bigger than us, about changing the world, and in doing so we've defined ourselves out of it. Leadership — and mentorship — is about the everyday act of improving each other's lives, and celebrating those moments instead of taking them for granted. It's exactly the philosophy behind Prodoclub: one conversation can redirect a career.
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Think fast, talk smart — Matt Abrahams, Stanford Graduate School of Business (53M views)
Stanford GSB lecturer Matt Abrahams' legendary lecture (53M views) on speaking spontaneously — job interviews, Q&A, being put on the spot in a meeting, the elevator pitch to a decision-maker. His toolkit: structured spontaneity (worry about what you want to convey, not the perfect words), reframing every high-stakes situation as an opportunity rather than a threat, and conversational recipes like What–So What–Now What and Problem–Solution–Benefit that keep you coherent under pressure. Spontaneous speaking is a skill, not a gift — and one that Prodoclub mentors drill with you until the interview feels like a conversation, not an interrogation.
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How to make stress your friend — Kelly McGonigal, TED (17M views)
Stanford psychologist Kelly McGonigal's TED talk (17M views) flips everything we believe about pressure: people who experience a lot of stress but don't view it as harmful have the lowest mortality risk of anyone in the study — even lower than people with little stress. Reframing a pounding heart as your body energizing you, and reaching out to others under stress (oxytocin is literally a stress hormone that strengthens the heart), changes the biology from 'threat' to 'challenge'. Every executive career is built on pressure — reorganizations, impossible targets, critical presentations. A Prodoclub mentor helps you convert that pressure into fuel instead of burnout.
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Grit: the power of passion and perseverance — Angela Duckworth, TED (18M views)
Psychologist Angela Duckworth left a high-flying consulting career to teach, and what she found in classrooms became her life's research: grit — passion and perseverance for long-term goals — predicts success better than talent, IQ, or social intelligence, from West Point cadets to salespeople to spelling bee champions. Talent matters, but effort counts twice. The catch: grit is hard to build alone, and it's exactly what plateaus careers — sustaining effort through the boring middle years when progress feels invisible. This is where mentorship earns its keep: Prodoclub mentors have already run the decades-long marathon and know how to keep you in the race.
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Inside the mind of a master procrastinator — Tim Urban, TED (70M+ views)
Tim Urban's hilarious TED talk (70M+ views) on the 'instant gratification monkey' and the 'panic monster' that only shows up when a deadline is close. His sharpest point: the scariest kind of procrastination isn't deadline-driven — it's the long-term kind, where the project has no deadline: your career growth, your development, your pivot to a new role. Years can slip by in 'the dark playground' without the panic monster ever arriving. External accountability is the known antidote — a Prodoclub mentor gives your long-game goals the deadlines, structure, and honest check-ins they never get on their own.
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The puzzle of motivation — Dan Pink, TED (25M+ views)
Dan Pink's famous TED talk (25M+ views) uses the candle problem experiment to show that 'carrots and sticks' don't just fail for creative, conceptual work — they actively damage performance. His answer for 21st-century motivation: autonomy, mastery, and purpose. If you're leading knowledge workers with 20th-century incentive tools, you're leaving engagement and results on the table. Rethinking how you motivate a team is one of the hardest transitions new executives make — and exactly the territory where a seasoned Prodoclub mentor's experience shortens your learning curve.
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How to speak so that people want to listen — Julian Treasure, TED (51M views)
Sound consultant Julian Treasure's hugely popular TED talk (51M views) on why people don't listen — and how to fix it. He identifies the 'seven deadly sins' of speaking (gossip, judging, negativity, complaining, excuses, embroidery, dogmatism) and the four cornerstones of powerful speech (honesty, authenticity, integrity, love), then works through a practical vocal toolbox: register, timbre, prosody, pace, pitch, and volume. It's the mechanics of executive presence in under ten minutes — and it's exactly the kind of communication polish a Prodoclub mentor can help you rehearse and internalize.
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How great leaders inspire action — Simon Sinek, TEDx (60M+ views)
One of the most-watched TED talks of all time (60M+ views), Simon Sinek's 'Start with why' introduces the Golden Circle: every inspiring leader and organization thinks, acts, and communicates from the inside out — starting with why, then how, then what. People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it. The same principle applies to your own career: executives who can articulate their purpose get followed, funded, and promoted; those who only describe what they do blend into the noise. Prodoclub mentors help you find and articulate your 'why' — the difference between managing tasks and leading people.
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Why mentoring matters more in the AI era — Harvard Business Review
AI is quietly automating the routine work that once trained young professionals — spotting weak arguments in a memo, interpreting ambiguous data, anticipating stakeholder concerns. Harvard Business Review argues those repetitive tasks were the very training ground where judgment and intuition were built. As AI strips away that layer, mentorship becomes the critical channel for developing professional judgment. The research already backs it: mentored employees are promoted 5 times more often and show dramatically higher retention (72% vs 49%). In the AI era, finding the right mentor is no longer a nice-to-have — it's how you stay ahead. This is the exact gap Prodoclub exists to fill.
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Why good leaders make you feel safe — Simon Sinek, TED (10.9M views)
In one of the most-watched TED talks of all time (10.9M views), Simon Sinek asks why anyone would sacrifice for a colleague they don't trust. His answer: great leaders make their people feel safe. When conditions are right — when people don't fear their own leaders — they naturally combine talents and strengths to face the dangers outside the organization. Real leadership, Sinek argues, is like being a parent: you provide opportunity, education, discipline, and self-confidence so your team can achieve more than you ever imagined. Exactly the leadership acumen Prodoclub mentors help you build.
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How falling behind can get you ahead — David Epstein, TEDxManchester (3.3M views)
Feeling stuck or behind in your career? In this TEDxManchester talk (3.3M views), David Epstein dismantles the 10,000-hour early-specialization myth (the Tiger Woods story) and explains the difference between 'kind' and 'wicked' learning environments. In wicked environments — like most modern careers, where rules change and feedback is unclear — people who start late, range widely, and collect diverse experience often end up far ahead of the early specialists. If you're at a plateau, this is the evidence that switching paths or broadening your skills isn't falling behind — it's your competitive edge.
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The best way to play office politics — Harvard Business Review (715K views)
Harvard Business Review's ideacast (715K views) with Linda Hill and Kent Lineback, authors of Being the Boss, on the leadership skill nobody escapes: managing your network — which is, in practice, organizational politics. The biggest mistake new managers make is ignoring it. Hill and Lineback draw the line between influence and manipulation, and show how most of us build networks only with people we have to deal with or people we like — while the people we don't like, the ones we avoid, are exactly the relationships that stall careers. Their advice: invest in those relationships before you need them. Prodoclub mentors have spent decades playing this game — and can teach you to play it clean.
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Stand out in a job interview — the Harvard Business Review guide (430K views)
Harvard Business Review's guide (430K views) to standing out when it matters. Interview advice is famously contradictory — be yourself, don't be yourself; take charge, let them take charge. HBR's Amy Gallo cuts through the noise with expert-culled strategy for preparation, execution, and follow-through. Her core reframe: stop performing as someone desperate to get the job, and perform as someone who wants a great conversation — genuine curiosity and open-ended questions turn the interview from an interrogation into a dialogue. A 30-minute session with a Prodoclub mentor is the best place to rehearse exactly this.
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Growth mindset vs. fixed mindset: what's the difference? — Harvard Business School Online
Harvard Business School Online breaks down psychologist Carol Dweck's foundational concept: people with a fixed mindset believe abilities are static talents you either have or don't, while those with a growth mindset believe skills can be developed through effort and learning. The difference shows up directly at work — how you handle criticism, setbacks, and challenges determines whether you plateau or keep advancing. A growth mindset is the engine behind breaking career plateaus: instead of reading a stalled career as a verdict on your talent, you treat it as a signal to learn, stretch, and seek guidance. The fastest way to shift mindset is working with someone who already models it — which is exactly what a Prodoclub mentor provides.
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To future-proof your career in the age of AI, do 3 simple things — CNBC Make It
As AI reshapes careers, half of employees admit they rely on it too much — and 39% say it's actually making them less intelligent, according to a survey of 2,500 employees by GoTo and Workplace Intelligence. Future-of-work expert Dan Schawbel's answer on CNBC Make It: use AI as a partner, not a crutch, with three habits — audit your AI use weekly, do the hard tasks yourself first before letting AI refine them, and invest the time AI frees up in the skills it can't replicate: creative thinking, emotional intelligence, and judgment. His warning cuts to the heart of career plateaus: these are the skills that will separate workers who thrive from those who plateau. Prodoclub mentors deliver exactly this — the human judgment, candor, and emotional intelligence no chatbot can imitate.
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Life after the game: how WTA players are preparing for second careers through executive mentoring
The WTA's Player Business Mentoring Programme, now in its second year, pairs professional tennis players with seasoned business executives — including a former Managing Director of Coca-Cola Ireland and Pfizer's Chief Client Officer — through structured one-on-one mentoring that prepares them for life after sport. The programme's founders stress that the relationship is reciprocal: high-performing athletes and high-performing executives learn from each other. It's the same two-way exchange of wisdom and ambition that Prodoclub brings to professionals at every stage of their career.
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How to find a mentor who can accelerate your career — Harvard Business Review
Harvard Business Review's Christine Liu tackles the mental blocks that stop professionals from finding a mentor — "they're too busy for me", "am I too old for this?" — and shares practical steps to find a mentor who can genuinely accelerate your career. Essential viewing for every Prodoclub mentee: the right mentor isn't a grand favour you have to ask for, it's a relationship you build with intention.
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Why you need a mentor — Robert Greene, author of Mastery
Bestselling author Robert Greene (Mastery, The 48 Laws of Power) makes the timeless case for finding a mentor. Mentorship is the modern version of the apprenticeship that once trained every great craftsman — you work alongside a master not to extract favours, but to absorb their judgment. His advice for mentees: chase skills instead of money or connections, expect no shortcuts (the 10,000-hour principle holds), and drop your ego — a mentor who can criticize you honestly is the most valuable teacher you will ever have. This is exactly the mentee mindset Prodoclub looks for.
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