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Leadership is not a title or a job description. It is the daily practice of turning authority into trust and presence into influence, according to renowned psychologist, University of Exeter Professor and former NBA player John Amaechi, OBE. Amaechi argues that leadership lives in ordinary moments: how you listen, the precision of your words, and the discipline of reflection. Being a great leader is not magic, Amaechi explains to me, but rather the consistent choice to act with clarity and intention that helps others feel enabled, not stifled. Too often, people think of leadership as something to perform when the spotlight is on them. Amaechi says, In reality, the leaders who endure are those who embody their practice in every interaction. They understand that credibility is not claimed but conferred by others who watch, listen and feel the texture of their leadership every day. In his new book, Its Not Magic: The Ordinary Skills of Exceptional Leaders, Amaechi outlines the following five practices to make leadership tangible and consistent. Refine your observation practice Each observation is a chance to deepen your understanding, not to catch others out. Leaders who take observation seriously learn to notice patterns that others miss, from the subtle signals of disengagement to the small acts of initiative that deserve recognition, says Amaechi. This practice requires discipline: to watch without rushing to judgment, to gather data rather than pounce on mistakes, and to cultivate patience until the fuller picture becomes clear. Observation done well creates the foundation for trust and insight. Normalize, affirm, and reframe with precision Confidence grows strongest where people feel seen clearly and encouraged thoughtfully. It is easy to offer vague praise, but genuine affirmation demands precision, Amaechi explains. Leaders who normalize challenges and setbacks remind people they are not alone in facing difficulties. Those who affirm effort and skill help individuals recognize their own capability. Reframing, when done carefully, shifts perspective from limitation to possibility without sugar-coating reality. Together, these practices build confidence that is both resilient and realistic. Sharpen language to sharpen thinking Sharper language builds sharper self-awareness and better decisions. Amaechi shared that leaders who are careless with language often leave confusion and unintended consequences in their wake. He said that precision in words is not pedantry but a discipline that shapes thought. Clear language, he told me, clarifies intent, defines boundaries, and sharpens focus. It reduces the margin for misinterpretation and models intellectual rigor. In teams, this practice can elevate debate, reduce wasted effort, and make strategy actionable rather than aspirational. One action he recommended: Replace vague verbs with clear commitments and define success before you speak. Model reflection openly Leaders who model reflection permit others to think more deeply, not just perform better. Reflection is often treated as a private act, done in isolation. Yet when leaders show how they revisit their decisions, acknowledge their blind spots, and adjust their approach, they legitimize learning as a shared practice. This openness dismantles the myth that leaders must be infallible, shared Amaechi. It signals that growth is valued more than perfection and that courage lies not in pretending to know everything, but in being willing to rethink. Heres an action to try this week: Share one decision you would make differently and why. Manage your physical presence Physical presence speaks loudly. Use it to invite growth, not inhibit it. From posture to tone of voice, from where you sit in a meeting to how you enter a room, your physicality shapes the atmosphere others inhabit. A leaders presence can constrict dialogue if it conveys impatience, intimidation or distraction, shared Amaechi. Equally, it can create space for others to step forward when it conveys openness, attentiveness, and calm. Presence is not performance but alignment: What you project outwardly should be consistent with the respect and curiosity you hold inwardly. Action: Adopt a default stance with an open posture, slower tempo, and eyes on the speaker. As Amaechi says in Its Not Magic, leadership is revealed in what people see you do, not what you say you value. For deeper tools and team diagnostics, Its Not Magic expands each practice and shows how to implement them at scale. Marcel Shwantes This article originally appeared on Fast Company’s sister publication, Inc. Inc. is the voice of the American entrepreneur. We inspire, inform, and document the most fascinating people in business: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters that represent the most dynamic force in the American economy.
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E-Commerce
Within my family, I’m known as the “AI Guy” so naturally, my sister-in-law excitedly told me how she took a photo of her living room, uploaded it to ChatGPT, and saw a photorealistic rendering of her room with specific couches from Kohl’s and Wayfair that she could buy. While many businesses are encouraging employees to use AI more, they are forgetting that AI doesnt just affect productivity; its also changing how we shop. Had my sister-in-law searched for mocha leather couch, she would have seen a laundry list of options in a Google search; however, she only saw two options through ChatGPT, and this new way of shopping is having a widespread impact on businesses. According to Adobe research, AI-driven referrals to U.S. retail websites increased more than tenfold from July 2024 to February 2025. Walmart is already feeling this impact, with ChatGPT now its single largest referrer, accounting for 20% of total referral traffic. How Does AI Know What to Recommend to You? Like a chef in a new kitchen, I’ve been testing how different AI platforms make recommendations since the release of ChatGPT in 2022. What I’ve found is that each chatbot has its quirks. Perplexity loves authoritative sources like Wikipedia and CNBC. ChatGPT draws from its training data first, then performs web searches when you ask for something time-sensitive, and Gemini leverages Google’s massive search capabilities. But despite their different approaches, they all follow the same core principle. When you ask for the best portable speaker under $100, they’re essentially doing what your audiophile friend would do: spending 30 minutes combing through Reddit threads, YouTube reviews, and product blogs, then distilling it into a recommendation. However, they do it in seconds instead of the hours it takes your friend to text back. Unlike Google search results influenced by SEO and paid ads, these recommendations are purely organic. If a brand appears in an AI search, you know that referral was earned, not bought. What Does This Mean For Your Business? This AI-powered convenience marks a turning point in online shopping. In my 10+ years as a software engineer, I’ve watched companies obsess over SEO, but AI use is now giving rise to Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). With GEO, chatbots don’t care how good your website is; they care how good your reputation is. Product results are selected independently and are not influenced by ads or partnerships; instead, chatbots like ChatGPT consider price, reviews, and ease of use, pulling real user feedback from public websites. GEO is still emerging, which means early movers have an advantage, so now is the time to act. How Can You Set Your Business Up For Success? Measure Your Current AI Referral Rankings Before investing time into improving your business’s GEO standing, its important to know where you stand in the first place. AI Visibility checkers like HubSpots AI Search Grader, ALLMO.ai, and Trackerly.ai can help. A more cost-effective option would be to run your own tests and search for your product and/or brand across multiple chatbots, tracking the results. For accurate results, I recommend performing each search in a new chat, similar to using an incognito browser tab. Pay attention to whether you’re mentioned at all, how you’re positioned relative to competitors, and what specific attributes the AI highlights about your business. Integrate Directly With Chatbots While experimenting with ChatGPT recently, I noticed OpenAI is capitalizing on the AI referral wave with their new “Instant Checkout” feature, enabling users to purchase recommended items directly within the chat from platforms like Etsy and Shopify. Perplexity offers a similar feature, and both allow businesses to integrate their product feeds into the AI models with updated pricing, inventory, and checkout options. This direct integration does more than streamline purchasing; it signals to AI models that your business is established and trustworthy. A customer can go from asking “What’s a good gift for a gardener?” to completing checkout without ever leaving the conversation. If you sell on Etsy or Shopify, setting up these integrations should be a priority. Keep Your Warm Leads Warm Building my AI company taught me one thing: past customers drive future sales. In real estate, 82% of transactions come from referrals, yet most agents struggle to sustain manual follow-up, so I developed Compai to do it for them. Follow-up is key because when AI chatbots evaluate which businesses to recommend, they look for consistent engagement, positive reviews, and evidence that past customers come back. The businesses that nurture existing relationships through marketing newsletters, requesting product reviews, or automated follow-up tools naturally surface in AI recommendations. It’s not about gaming the algorithm; it’s about doing what good businesses have always done, just at a scale that’s actually sustainable. What Leaders Are Missing When business leaders ask me about AI, they’re usually motivated to increase productivity. But here’s what they’re missing: AI isn’t just changing how we work; it’s fundamentally changing how customers find businesses. My sister-in-law didn’t Google mocha leather couch and scroll through pages of results. She asked ChatGPT, saw two options, and made a choice. That’s the future of commerce. GEO is in its infancy, which means businesses focusing on genuine customer relationships have a real shot at becoming the default recommendation in their field. The brands that will win aren’t the ones spending the most on ads; they’re the ones earning authentic advocacy from customers.
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E-Commerce
Not content with having hundreds of millions of users peppering ChatGPT with queries and conversations every day, OpenAI wants to further embed itself in our digital lives. This week the company released Atlas, an AI-laden web browser it hopes will challenge incumbents and be adopted at scale. Atlas is one of a raft of AI-powered browsers that have been unleashed on the market in recent months. Perplexity, the AI answer engine, has Comet. Opera, a smaller European competitor to the likes of Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and Microsoft Edge, released Neon, which has its own AI functionalities. OpenAI stands a better chance than most of dislodging Google Chrome, which is used by around 70 percent of all web users, according to web analytics company Statcounter. But it’s still hard to see how Atlas will eat into Chromes supremacy. Its hard to get people to change browsers, says Johnny Ryan, a senior fellow at the Open Markets Institute who has investigated how users choose different digital services. Of course, OpenAI has good reason to feel confident. ChatGPT became a success within a matter of weeks, thanks to its novel interactivity. OpenAI followed it up earlier this year with its controversial Sora 2 video generator, which gained a million users in five days. But for the average person, web browsers are decidedly less sexy. Unless youre extremely techy, the reality is that a web browser is a utilitarian piece of software, designed to get you from point A to point Bfrom one website to another. Provided it does that without destroying your device in the process, most people are content with how it works. Over Statcounter’s 15-year history of recording web-browser market share, two browsers have dominated the market. Until 2012, that browser was Internet Explorer, as it had been since around the millennium, when it held a market share of 80% to 95%. But as competitors began offering better features and higher service quality, Internet Explorer’s global dominance began to fade. In Europe, demand for Internet Explorer took a hit following a 2009 agreement with the European Commission requiring Microsoft to offer a “browser choice” screen to users, letting them know that there were alternatives to Internet Explorer. While the company did not immediately comply, around the time it began implementing the change, in 2011 and 2012, Internet Explorer was supplanted by Google Chrome. Those who do deviate from the mean when it comes to browser choice often do so for moral reasonspreferring, for instance, DuckDuckGos browser because of opposition to what they see as Googles overly draconian data collection on its usersor a personal preference for a different type of browser. The web browser market consists of the three big browsers that ship as the default on their respective operating systems. Beyond that, there is a vivid market of people who seek a different and better web experience, says Jan Standal, vice president at Opera. But, barring egregious performance issues, most people stick with whatever theyre given. I personally hopped around various browsers between 15 and 20 years ago because they offered then-revolutionary tools like tabbed browsing, better multimedia support, or the ability to customize how they worked with extensions. But todays crop of browsers is much of a muchness: Even the vaunted AI integration that OpenAI puts at the core of its marketing for Atlas is common now in many browsers. If a web browser works well enough, then people tend to stick with it. Thats been true for decades. Internet Explorer was the market leader for years up until the early 2010s because it was bundled into the Windows operating system as the default browser, with no immediate indication to users that there were alternatives. Ryan points out that Atlas has one thing going for itthe perceived increasing unreliability of Chrome. Many users complain about its CPU-draining draw on processing power, and the way its tabs can quickly use up a devices memory. As Chrome gets worse, the incentive goes up, Ryan says. But he points out that as the general worries around AIs environmental impact mount, users may think twice about adopting a browser so reliant on AI. As unease about AI data centers causing blackouts and water shortages grows, is this really the browser people will choose to move to? he asks.
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E-Commerce
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