Delegating tasks is part of the routine of executives in high leadership positions. It is a stance that contributes to improving the team's competence and even helps keep employees motivated. However, for many, assigning tasks and responsibilities to others is still a great challenge. A 2023 Gallup State of the Global Workplace study, conducted with over 1,400 executives in the United States, identified that three-quarters of respondents have difficulty delegating.

For Rodrigo Magalhães, partner at EXEC, many CEOs end up getting involved in operational issues due to reasons that may include a lack of confidence, courage, and a good dose of perfectionism. Trust is an important element when delegating tasks and has a strong connection with courage. To trust others, they need to have the audacity to transfer some decisions and actions to their direct and indirect team.

For Magalhães, delegating does not necessarily mean that the activity will not be supervised. "Even if the CEO requests a task, function, or activity, it will need to be monitored so that he can stay informed about what is happening."

Furthermore, according to him, the difficulty in delegating can also be linked to the professional's own personal characteristics, such as being centralizing and perfectionist.

The difficulty in delegating can cause some negative impacts not only for the professional but also for the company. Among the points highlighted by Rodrigo in this regard are the lack of long-term vision, lack of attention to what is happening in the market, and the absence of focus on macro objectives. The CEO who is too focused on the day-to-day ends up having less time to think about innovation, transformation, and the future. He misses a lot by not looking outside the company, missing what is happening in the market, in addition to not paying attention to the broader goals of the organization, which involve the major transformational actions that help move the company's needle.

Can AI hurt a CEO's ability to delegate?

The advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has brought some concerns in the market that the technology may replace certain positions and, for some, it may further reinforce the fear of delegating tasks or functions. According to a survey conducted by ADN Digital in several countries, CEOs are hesitant about being replaced by machines – 43% of respondents confirmed feeling this insecurity. "I recently participated in a forum in London that brought this topic to discussion. Some elements in this regard have not yet evolved, mainly concerning the judgment of value, that is, AI still does not clearly know what is right and wrong," emphasizes Rodrigo.

The EXEC partner reassures and informs that AI should not replace a CEO, as it is not capable of bringing an important attribute for decision-making, intuition.For decision-making, the final word still belongs to a human, who commits to an information, action, diagnosis, or solution, and uses AI as support for the decision.

Magalhães also points out that AI can assist the CEO in various areas, whether in decision-making, providing market insights and analyses, or helping to formulate business strategies based on trends and up-to-date data. "Additionally, it can improve business communication by assisting in the writing and editing of corporate documents such as reports, important emails, speeches, and press releases, and contribute to time management," he emphasizes. According to ADN's research, 45% of executives stated that they make decisions based on data and information using ChatGPT.

The EXEC partner also highlights that AI can assist in generating creative ideas for the development of new products, services, or marketing strategies, as well as create educational materials and provide personalized content for team training or individual professional development. "ChatGPT, for example, has a lot of information and a broad database, which is important to understand what the market is doing, as well as to facilitate the creation of content for training and employee development," he emphasizes.

According to the EXEC partner, the CEO who does not yield to AI may lose market share.

How to delegate more and become more strategic?

At a time of major transformations in the market, Rodrigo chose five tips to help CEOs let go of the operational routine and become more strategic.

1. Have a good "N1". It is important that he is surrounded by good leaders below him, such as vice presidents, directors, and managers who can handle operational issues. They need to be very competent so that the CEO can trust them.
2. Create routines to monitor the broader goals. This also involves establishing some management rituals so that the CEO does not feel too distant from the day-to-day activities.
3. Use technology to keep track of what is happening. "But that doesn't mean the leader needs to be copied on all emails, messages, or be in all WhatsApp groups," he warns.
4. Practice delegating every day and question yourself at all times. It is a behavior exercise, allowing people to make decisions and avoiding management decentralization.

For Magalhães, the CEO's role is to lead the team, define strategies, and make decisions that require creativity, business vision, and empathy. "It is through delegation that the leader can bring out the best in their teams and exercise strategic people management," he concludes.

Many people already know what Alexa is for, a virtual assistant that, based on voice commands and social networks,wifiorbluetooth, communicates with other devices, allowing us to ask it to turn on the light, activate an alarm clock, or ask it to play a song. However, its functionalities go beyond that: Alexa can assist in the learning process, even during leisure moments, whether for convenience or entertainment.  

How does Alexa work? 

Alexa's activity execution process is based onmachine learning(machine learning), that is, it "learns" according to the commands it receives. Additionally, it creates adaptations and functionalities according to users' personal needs, such as telling jokes and even making the grocery list.

For this, the tool has an online database that performs its searches. Like any machine that can be trained, over time it becomes increasingly more efficient in its responses, according to the user's commands.

“In addition to being an excellent personal assistant, Alexa brings a series of specific benefits to the teaching-learning process for both children and adults,” explains Victor Haony Ribeiro de Oliveira, pedagogical advisor at Mind Makers.

Benefits of Alexa for teaching and learning 

The use of this tool helps make the interaction process with technology more organic in daily life, which can be useful even for those who tend to fear technological tools. After all, when interacting with Alexa, the process becomes familiar to those who do it, incorporating it into their daily activities.

In addition, it has many educational and fun resources, such as games, interactive stories and challenges that can help you learn different concepts in a fun way.

“Alexa can also help develop cognitive skills, such as problem-solving, logical reasoning and vocabulary expansion, especially in environments where the assistant is used to assist with educational tasks,” explains Haony.

Thinking about these facilities and benefits, the specialist selected5 Alexa activations that combine practicality and funto create amazing moments during holidays, breaks, and weekends. Check it out!

1. Weather and traffic information- very useful for preparing for car trips or trips to the beach.

2. Playing music– nothing like reproducing thatplaylistthat energizes any Sunday barbecue using only a voice command. The same goes for that unmissable podcast, which is usually listened to during moments of rest on the sofa at home.  

3. Reading books- Reading a book is, for many people, a common habit. How about gathering friends in the living room and asking Alexa to read a suspense book? Creating a setting for this activity can make it even more immersive, such as choosing dimmer lights and preparing that popcorn.

4. Question and answer games– By enabling the optionDaily QuizAlexa asks three questions of different levels (easy, medium, and hard), and you can only access the next question after answering the previous one correctly. Another similar option is theMillion Dollar Showa quiz game based on Silvio Santos's show, featuring general knowledge questions worth points.  

5. Guessing game –Another fun activity to do with family and friends using Alexa is to enable the skillAkinatorHere, the virtual assistant will serve as a "genie in a lamp" that will try to discover which character, fictional or real, you imagined, based on a sequence of questions.  

Mind Makers –Born in Belo Horizonte, Mind Makers is an educational solution from the Somos Educação group that aims to improve the quality of education through innovative subjects, created using an exclusive methodology. Combining techniques of hybrid teaching, active learning, socio-emotional, and socio-interactionist approaches, it is a pioneer in Computational Thinking and Creative Entrepreneurship in Brazil, curricular subjects that aim to encourage its over 95,000 students to get hands-on and bring their ideas to life, taking the lead in their learning process. Currently, Mind Makers is the only Brazilian company to have its programming environments approved for the globally promoted campaign Hour of Code by the NGO Code.org.

The secret to boosting your company's revenue lies in early planning for the new year ahead. This is because holidays such as Mother's Day, Black Friday, and Christmas represent valuable opportunities to boost sales, both in physical stores and online. And in 2025, which will be marked by many long holidays, shopping mall stores and e-commerce sites establish themselves as essential alternatives to ensure profitability. Because in 2023, e-commerce in Brazil generated R$ 196.1 billion according to the National Electronic Commerce Observatory of the Ministry of Development, Industry, Commerce and Services (MDIC), while shopping centers reached R$ 194.7 billion, as disclosed by Abrasce (Brazilian Shopping Centers Association).The sector has been on a growth trajectory since 2016, remaining a solid and promising option.

Planning in advance allows for the best alignment between organization and execution. Additionally, developing relevant campaigns and emotional connections, and aligning them across all sales channels, whether physical or digital, is essential for promising results. Here we follow a schedule planned months in advance, and with this, we expect a 10% increase during Carnival, the first festive and highly profitable moment of 2025, when people seek makeup for their costumes and skin care due to sun exposure, explains Cândido Espinheira, CEO of Yes! Cosmetics, vegan cosmetics network.

A planned calendar should include ongoing investment in training to ensure that operations can deliver the best experience to each customer according to their profile and needs.

At Yes! Cosmetics, the preparation strategy begins at least six months in advance. We plan new products focusing on launches and reformulation of part of the portfolio, always aiming to improve the quality of formulas and packaging. As a result, throughout 2024, we had more than 30 strategically planned launches in April, May, June, July, September, November, and December. The announcements of each new product are made 10 to 15 days before the official date to create anticipation, engage the audience, and prepare the sales channels, says Espinheira.

Keeping an eye on trends

For the next year, the demand for sustainable and quality products is expected to remain one of consumers' main priorities. The natural and vegan cosmetics market continues to grow rapidly, with projections to surpass $21 billion by 2027, according to MarketGlass. "This sector requires increasingly focused innovation strategies, as well as a deep connection with consumers' desires and values, who seek not only effectiveness but also environmental and social responsibility in the brands they choose," comments the businessman.