Humble teams innovate more predictably and sustain performance longer. Teams that don’t share gratitude, may perform well in the short term, but these teams often become dysfunctional and unsupportable in the long run. …

Humility directly impacts leadership and has a downstream impact on an organization’s innovation. I’ve led software innovation teams for three decades and a recurring pattern I have seen in successful teams is the level of gratitude they have for each other and the humility that they display each and every…

We’ve all been exposed to good and bad leaders and we know what it looks like. I’ve been collecting and studying lists of leadership traits from different academics, authors, and successful business leaders and have been refining this list of how they handle different distinctions in business. Obviously, there are…

More diverse teams produce more innovations. The larger the problems you are trying to solve, the more of a profound impact diversity can have in helping to solve them. In the Diversity Bonus, Scott Page lays out some compelling arguments that prove the case for diversity. The innovation argument, all…

Measuring Relationships With Granularity Supports Positive Psychology Many successful organizations promote customer-centricity in their strategy by talking about “Raving Fans,” being “Customer Obsessed,” or achieving “Net Promoters.” This is good. Organizations exist to serve people in all cases and those who only exist to serve their shareholders don’t seem to maintain their margins for very long.

I was recently given some amazing feedback on a talk that I gave to a group of CEOs in Oklahoma. I took too long and added too many details to my opening story before I explained the context and reason for the story. The CEO who provided the feedback was…

Set objective, behavior-based, metrics for both individual and team competence to keep everyone growing. One day, I had a good friend call my cell and say, “I need a team that can pick up the pieces from another vendor. I need help getting these small features out the door in…

On the island of Oahu in Hawai’i is a beautiful, dormant volcanic mountain with a huge crater called Koko Head. On the South slope of the mountain is a challenging hike called the “Stairs of Doom.” The trail is made up of a series of railroad ties from the base…

There is a “Second Mountain” that manifests for many business leaders. This phenomenon has been described by a repeating pattern throughout the history of capitalism where highly successful entrepreneurs, given enough time, convert much of their personal investments of intellectual energy and capital into philanthropic activities. It is not an…