Why a simple act from a team captain embodied what it means to be a leader; The Athletic, January 10, 2026

Elise Devlin, The Athletic; Why a simple act from a team captain embodied what it means to be a leader

"I came across Hischier’s interview by accident while checking Instagram but stuck around to watch the full clip. I was curious how an expert might diagnose the situation and Hischier’s reaction, so I reached out to Dr. Brad Kirkman, a professor at North Carolina State, the next day. Most sports fans would probably recognize Hischier’s moment after Sunday’s game as an example of leadership — for Kirkman, it was textbook.

Kirkman has spent decades studying what leaders should do when things go wrong. He boils it down to four components every strong leader should embody when navigating unexpected adversity:

• Team confidence: Does your team collectively believe it can overcome obstacles that get in the way? Does it have confidence in itself, but also in every member of the team?

• Teamwork roadmap: If adversity strikes, does everybody know what they’re supposed to do, and do they know what their other team members are supposed to do in the situation?

Capacity to improvise: When things go wrong, is the team creative enough, and flexible enough, to improvise and find a solution with what’s in front of it?

• Psychological safety: How safe do members of the team feel to talk openly and honestly about their mistakes, their failures and constructive criticism of other team members?

Kirkman said Hischier’s leadership in that moment was effective for three reasons: He addressed the situation quickly, vocalized his confidence in Hughes to bounce back and balanced his support with a call for Hughes’ improvement. (Hughes also took accountability for his play with reporters after the game: “I made a couple of mistakes tonight and I got to be better.”)

To Kirkman, timing matters most after failure. Waiting a day or two to publicly support Hughes could have left him stuck in the moment, especially as younger, less experienced players can sometimes feel overwhelmed, Kirkman said.

Care and concern from a leader — an idea Kirkman notes was rarely discussed years ago — has become central to building strong teams."

Kinds of Intelligence | LJ Directors’ Summit 2025; Library Journal, December 2, 2025

 Lisa Peet, Library Journal; Kinds of Intelligence | LJ Directors’ Summit 2025

"LJ’s 2025 Directors’ Summit looked at artificial—and very real—intelligence from multiple angles

If there was any doubt about what issues are on the minds of today’s library leaders, Library Journal’s 2025 Directors’ Summit, held October 16 and 17 at Denver Public Library (DPL), had some ready answers: AI and people.

Nick Tanzi hit both notes handily in his keynote, “Getting Your Public Library AI-Ready.” Tanzi, assistant director of South Huntington Public Library (SHPL), NY, and technology consultant at The-Digital-Librarian.com (and a 2025 LJ Mover & Shaker), began with a reminder of other at-the-time “disruptive” technologies, starting with a 1994 clip of Today Show anchors first encountering “@” and “.com.”

During most of this digital change, he noted, libraries had the technologies before many patrons and could lead the way. Now everyone has access to some form of AI, but it’s poorly understood. And access without understanding is a staff problem as well as a patron problem.

So, what does it mean for a library to be AI-ready? Start with policy and training, said Tanzi, and then translate that to public services, rather than the other way around. Library policies need to be AI-proofed, beginning by looking at what’s already in place and where it might be stressed by AI: policies governing collection development, reconsideration of materials, tool use, access control, the library’s editorial process, and confidential data. Staff are already using some form of AI at work—do they have organizational guidance?

Tanzi advised fostering AI literacy across the library. At SHPL, he formed an AI user group; it has no prerequisite for participation and staff are paid for their time. Members explore new tools, discuss best practices, complete “homework,” and share feedback, which also allows Tanzi to stress-test policies. It’s not a replacement for formal training, but helps him discover which tools work best in various departments and speeds up learning.

We need to demystify AI tools for staff and patrons, Tanzi noted, and teach ethics around them. Your ultimate goal is to create informed citizens; libraries can build community around AI education, partnering with the local school district, colleges, and government."

With Dreadlocks and Yoga, Oslo’s Bishop Practices an Atypical Evangelism; The New York Times, December 12, 2025

 Lynsey Chutel, The New York Times ; With Dreadlocks and Yoga, Oslo’s Bishop Practices an Atypical Evangelism

"“When Putin and Trump, in their different ways, are using Christianity, my religion, in a very politicized, destructive way, it’s really important for me that we, as a church, lift up our voices for justice, for solidarity, for welcoming the stranger among us, for less differences between poor and rich.” Bishop Gylver told journalists in the days before her ordination.

Since formally assuming her new role, her public utterances have become a little more circumspect.

“As a bishop, I should not point to specific people or parties to say, ‘This, and not this; that and not that,’” she said during an interview in September. “I don’t even have to name them, but we have quite a few world leaders that are practicing and articulating Christian faith in a way that is very foreign to me...

As part of her emphasis on inclusion, she raised the Rainbow flag over the Oslo cathedral to celebrate Pride Week in June. It was a precursor to the church’s formal apology to Norway’s L.G.B.T.Q. community this October for decades of discrimination."

Barnes, Calzada Seek 2027–2028 ALA Presidency; American Libraries, November 6, 2025

 American Libraries ; Barnes, Calzada Seek 2027–2028 ALA Presidency

"The American Library Association (ALA) announced on November 6 the candidates running for ALA president for the 2027–2028 term. They are Tamika Barnes, associate dean of Perimeter College Library Services at Georgia State University in Atlanta, and Becky Calzada, district library coordinator at Leander (Tex.) Independent School District."

A Light in Very Dark Days: Nancy Pelosi and AIDS; The New York Times, November 7, 2025

Adam Nagourney, Heather Knight, Kellen Browning and Laurel Rosenhall, The New York Times ; A Light in Very Dark Days: Nancy Pelosi and AIDS

"Ms. Pelosi, the new member of Congress representing San Francisco at the time, asked the nurses if they had what they needed and if any patients were up for a bedside visit. Then she would slip into their rooms alone.

“Early on, it was not seen as a wise or popular thing to do, to champion people with AIDS, of all things,” Mr. Wolf, 74, recalled. “You didn’t want to align yourself too closely, but she didn’t care. We were her constituents, and she went to bat for us over and over and over again.”...

Ms. Pelosi, who announced on Thursday her plans to retire from Congress, is known nationally as a Washington leader praised by Democrats for standing up to President Trump and derided by Republicans as a symbol of the radical excesses of the left. But back home, her reputation was shaped by how she stepped forward at the earliest and most terrifying moment of a local crisis and how she fought to help her constituents deal with the AIDS epidemic and fight for L.G.B.T.Q. rights.

The public side of this is by now well-known: How over decades spent in Congress she fought for money for AIDS research and treatment or invited prominent AIDS and gay rights activists to be at her side at the State of the Union address and other events. But much of it took place away from the public eye. It’s those moments many of her gay constituents in San Francisco talk about as she approaches the end of her congressional career."

First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury; The New York Times, October 3, 2025

 Mark Landler , The New York Times; First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury

"The Church of England announced on Friday that Sarah Mullally, the bishop of London, will become the 106th archbishop of Canterbury, making her the spiritual leader of 85 million Anglicans worldwide and the first woman to lead a church whose roots date back more than 1,400 years.

Bishop Mullally will succeed Justin Welby, who resigned from the post last November after the publication of a report that said he had failed to pursue a proper investigation into claims of widespread abuse of boys and young men decades ago at Christian summer camps.

A former cancer nurse who served as the chief nursing officer for England, Bishop Mullally, 63, is a vocal exponent of the rights of women in the Church of England. She has served as the first female bishop of London since 2018."

‘Foundation’ Creator David S. Goyer on Those Season 3 Finale Twists and Why He’s Leaving the Show; The Wrap, September 12, 2025

Adam Chitwood, The Wrap ; ‘Foundation’ Creator David S. Goyer on Those Season 3 Finale Twists and Why He’s Leaving the Show

"Note: The following contains spoilers from the “Foundation” Season 3 finale...

"Then you have Dusk – or Darkness – who is behaving entirely out of spite.

I don’t think he has any clue or even interest in solving the problem or being a good steward of the galaxy. I think it’s truly a guy who, the center obviously cannot hold and he knows he can’t fix things, but he can burn everything down. And I would argue that there are people like that operating in power on Earth today that have personality disorders, and Dusk clearly has a personality disorder – it’s all personal for him. A switch has been flipped, and that’s a bad person to have in charge of a weapon like that.

So heading into Season 4 he’s all alone with what little power Empire has left.

He doesn’t have a Day or a Dawn or a Demerzel to counsel him. He just has yes men and yes women who are all terrified of him, and no one to give him any sort of counterbalancing advice.

I’m sure that’ll end well.

Even as I say that I’m like, “Huh, is there anyone else like that right now in today’s society that’s operating like that?”"