Leadership Book Shows How to Prevent Startup Failures
📘 Refuel your knowledge: My favorite leadership read this week. What’s on your list? 💡 Most startups fail. But many of those failures are preventable. Helpful resource: 🔗 https://t.co/mNk9tZMdgd https://t.co/SHnD0AK9Rz
Embrace Boring: Consistency Beats Novelty Every Time
The biggest mistake is abandoning what’s working because it feels boring. Boring is beautiful. Boring compounds.
Future CIOs Will Emerge From Diverse Tech & Business Paths
#CIOChat Q4: Looking ahead, where will the next great CIOs come from? Traditional infrastructure and ops paths, product organizations, data/AI teams, management consulting, cybersecurity, or somewhere entirely new? What should ambitious future CIOs be doing right now to prepare? https://t.co/m7f93f81cO
Schwab Calls for Non‑Corporate Leader of WEF
The WEF should be led by someone who doesn’t have a corporate background, according to its founder and former chairman Klaus Schwab, in an apparent dig at the organization’s current leadership https://t.co/sdEi0CGAS1 via @bbenrath https://t.co/e29lgrxnPo
Future CIOs Must Blend Tech, Strategy, and Leadership
#CIOChat Q1: The CIO role has evolving considerably in recent years, from operator to transformation leader, AI strategist, growth partner, and board advisor. Given how much the job has changed, what skills and experiences now matter most in identifying the next...
Tim Cook Departs Apple, Leaving Legacy of Measured Leadership
Tim Cook will be stepping down as CEO of Apple on Sept 1, 2026, after fifteen years atop the company. He has been critiqued for being too cautious, but I celebrate his restraint in my post on his tenure. https://t.co/Pe8zJ6pvOm
Hire for Your Company’s Growth Stage, Not Just Culture
"You're not just hiring for culture and aptitude, you're hiring for stage." Maven CEO @_KateRyder on the overlooked hiring framework that changes how you build a team through every phase of growth. https://t.co/fHMbs1kXRe
Dick Costolo’s Raw Lessons From Twitter IPO for AI Founders
🚨NEW PODCAST EPISODE🚨 Dick Costolo: the man who IPO'ed Twitter. I’ve heard every Twitter war story….but never from the CEO who actually had to take the "drama queen of hypergrowth companies" to IPO. This episode with @dickc is simply perfect. ...
Climbing Higher Limits Honest Dialogue—Join AI Business Lab
The higher you climb, the fewer people you can talk to honestly. Your team wants certainty. Your spouse wants you present. Your competitors aren’t sharing notes. That’s why I built the AI Business Lab Mastermind. A few spots remain. https://t.co/B3ac1JrQNc
Spotting the 'Faux Real' Leaders Who Fake Authenticity
RT @JoeContrera We have all experienced leaders who feel they have to pretend to be something or someone else. These types of leaders are what I refer to as being…faux real. Here are 10 truths about faux real leaders: https://t.co/WODAjVysia #leadership #authenticity https://t.co/KQNIqi8yu6
Spotting Outlier Talent Early Fuels 10x Success
New @ThePeelPod with @apartovi We talk spotting outlier talent early, how he first got @neo off the ground, investing in Cursor and Kalshi's seed rounds, Neo's multiple 10x funds, and why computer science is the best business education. Thanks to @numeral, @flexsuperapp,...
Inside Xbox's Return: Asha Sharma's All‑Hands Reveal Changes
it's time to go inside the return of Xbox. In my Notepad 📒 newsletter this week I dig into Asha Sharma's first internal Xbox all-hands, with more detail on the changes going on at Xbox. Live now for subscribers 👇...
Critics Call Becerra's HHS Tenure a Disaster
Yup. Whispering and eyerolling now about how Becerra was a disaster at HHS is bad. He should have been fired.
Managers Must Get Hands‑On to Lead AI Transformation
"Therefore, one cannot drive AI transformation without being an active AI practitioner. But what does being an active AI practitioner look like for a manager?" - @dblockdotorg https://t.co/0qeplV10G6 < go hands on as managers. You might rediscover your passion for...
Hire Leaders Who Prioritize Goals Over Tasks
Give me someone who can be responsible for an entire area--someone who can design, hire, and sort to achieve the goal--and I can be comfortable things will go well. These are the most important people to choose and manage well....
Speak Execs' Language: Frame UX as Retention, Cost, Risk
Executives don't care about users. That sounds harsh, but it's just accurate. They care about retention, acquisition, cost reduction, and compliance risk. Those are the things they're measured on. 'Users' is an abstraction that doesn't map to any of those. The...
Simplifying Culture: How I Explain It to Executives
When execs ask me what culture actually is, this is how I explain it. 👋🏻 Need help explaining this to your leadership team? That's literally what I do. DM me!
McDonald's CEO Acknowledges Profit Pressure on Franchisees
"There's certainly a lot of pressure that we're trying to navigate with franchisees around their profitability." McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinski. $MCD
Mediocre B Players Are the Real Threat to Success
I recently stumbled upon this quote from Frank Slootman (CEO of Snowflake), and I can’t stop thinking about it: “Mediocrity is the silent killer. Organizations are not getting killed by their C players. Everybody knows who they are, and performance eventually is...
Quality of Thought Matters More than Results
Most people judge decisions by outcomes. That’s the mistake. Good results can come from bad decisions, and bad results can come from good ones. Focus on the quality of your thinking, not the luck of the result.
Name Owners, Deadlines, and Outcomes—Then Step Back
Everyone owns everything. Which means no one owns anything. Agreement without accountability is just a meeting. Name who owns it. Name the deadline. Name what done looks like. Then get out of the way. @askdrbrown
Flattening Hierarchy Won’t Fix Misaligned Decision Rights
Every reorg announcement I've read this year sounds the same: 'We're flattening structure to move faster.' Translation: 'We never defined our decision rights, so we're hoping fewer layers will hide that.' Flat structures don't solve alignment. They expose it.
Small Issues Stack Up Into Major Crises
A former HP CIO revealed how small, individual problems can combine into a 'perfect storm,' leading to significant failures. Often, it's not one big issue, but a series of manageable ones that create the crisis. #BusinessLessons #Leadership https://t.co/exbcQ8QaB2
Raise Issues, Build Solutions: Ownership Over Complaining
Raising issues isn’t complaining. Complainers talk about problems while standing aloof. Builders point out concerns to understand. They seek improvement. They get dirty making things better. Build a culture where ownership wins. https://t.co/Yu0nnN8QFQ
Executives Favor AI Tools Over Employee Upskilling
Executives are nearly twice as likely to invest in new AI tools than in upskilling their people for the AI era. The technology gap is narrowing. The human gap is widening. #CIO #FutureOfWork #AtlassianTeam26 https://t.co/X27BnHM7xc
Shift to Experience‑First Culture to Rebuild Trust and Profit
Employee engagement 101: Rethinking EX in the age of declining trust https://t.co/xdbYxFC31N @CX_Network #EmployeeEngagement & #trust have stagnated, even declined. This 3-pillar framework helps reorg operations, shift from profit-first #culture to experience-first & drive profit https://t.co/5FFfnOqlCA
Flutter CEO Thanks Amy Howe, Refocuses US Sportsbook Strategy
Flutter CEO Peter Jackson statement on Amy Howe's departure as FanDuel head: "I would like to thank Amy for her contribution to Flutter and FanDuel, and recognize the impact she has had on the business since joining in 2021. We...
Pronoun Politics Cost a Team Member’s Tenure
Had someone at one of my companies using pronouns in their communications, and I was like, "dude, you know this looks immature and silly to 90% of our partners." He quit a couple of months later.
Flutter Confirms FanDuel Leadership Shuffle: Taylor Named President
Flutter reaffirms FanDuel management shake up in earnings release: • Dan Taylor, CEO of International, appointed President of Flutter Entertainment • Christian Genetski, President of FanDuel, will now lead the US business
Running Prince’s Estate Reveals Challenges of Legendary Artist Management
Managing estates for legendary artists is a tough business. Troy Carter shares his experience running Prince’s estate for 5 years.
Team Success Starts with Personal Growth, Not Just Work
I tell my team to work harder on themselves than on their jobs. Because the best version of the team comes from the best version of YOU.
CEO's AI Knowledge Determines Your Future at Company
There are always challenges that apply to every business and its employees. 1. Is your company growing ? 2. As an employee, what is it that you do and can do in the future, to better contribute to those...
Musk Masters Scaling, Struggles with Frontier AI Breakthroughs
I don’t think I’ve seen this take before but I like it. Musk has been world-leading at compressing money, resources, and time to make “known/hard” things at scale—make an electric car, make batteries, make a cheaper bigger rocket, all...
Great Bosses Empower, Protect, and Lead by Example
The bosses we will aways remember: 1 told us our work mattered 2 opened career doors 3 defended us when we needed it 4 recognized and rewarded us 5 developed us as leaders 6 inspired us to stretch higher 7 led by example 8 provided us a safe...
Sam's Firing Was About Trust, Not AI Safety
Mira Murati’s testimony is gripping – and what it makes absolutely clear is how utterly wrong most of Twitter was about why Sam was fired. – It had nothing per se to do with AI safety - It had nothing do with...
Media CEOs Earn Billions While Employees Need Centuries
Our survey of media CEO pay: It would take the avg. WBD employee 1,378 years to make what David Zaslav earned in one, David Ellison's comp hit $63.2 mil. & he stuck Paramount w/ a $648 life insurance tab, and...
Sam Altman's Wild, Unpredictable Leadership Tactics
How Sam ("You parachute him onto a cannibal island, and he comes back five years later as king”) Altman operates:
Sam Is No Longer the Right CEO for OpenAI
And how many times have I told you that Sam is no longer the right CEO for OpenAI?
Leadership Must Adopt Digital Mindset to Modernize
You can’t modernize the experience while holding onto legacy thinking. If leadership hasn’t embraced digital transformation at its core, even the best solutions will fall short. https://t.co/seawvdGwoN
Leadership Sets the Pace: Values Start at the Top
The Bottleneck is Always at the Top of the Bottle - CX Journey™ https://t.co/c0dwtu2RwQ If leaders don’t model the values they preach, the organization won’t either. Full stop. https://t.co/9LMUcvSodl
Align Incentives, Not Identities, to Build Collaborative Teams
Most teams don’t fail because people are “bad collaborators.” They fail because incentives and competing identities sort them into silos. My new @HarvardBiz piece explains how to create successful teams in a special issue on "How to Collaborate Better" Along with @LauraKriska...
Founders' Real Issue: Lack of Clarity, Not Growth
Most founders don't have a growth problem. They have a clarity problem they keep funding.
Media CEOs Rake in Record Pay Amid Hollywood Slump
Media CEO Pay 2025: How David Zaslav, Bob Iger, Ted Sarandos and Other Moguls Made Bank as Hollywood Struggled https://t.co/tjc7yQfprC via @variety
Empathy Enhances Direct Communication, Not Weakness
Can you be direct without being a jerk? Is being "strategic" just code for being soft or manipulative? No. Having empathy doesn't make you weak. It gives you a better chance of actually landing your (direct) message with the recipient. Good...
Delegate Authority, Let Employees Drive Productivity
Empower Employees to Increase Productivity - CX Journey™ https://t.co/Qpgwd8jN2U The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they...
Navigating Constant Change: Bachynski’s New Leadership Playbook
With longtime CIO Marianne Bachynski whose new book on leadership in today's constantly changing world I review on my website today. (With a cameo by Tony Soprano surveilling us... 😂)
From Near-Death to $180B: Razorpay’s Founder Lessons
.@Razorpay is India's largest payments platform, processing over $180 billion annually. They were also the first Indian company YC ever invested in, and went through the W15 batch. In this fireside at Startup School India, co-founder and CEO @harshilmathur sat down...
Ego Blocks Growth: Delegate to Unlock Success
Delegation is fighting the ego. "I can do this job better so get out of my way and I'll do it." It is the natural tendency of so many owners. But it holds them back from growth because they become the bottleneck inside...
AVXL CEO Chris Missling Fired for Cause
$AVXL CEO Chris Missling - fired. The 8K spells it out. Terminated for cause. https://t.co/HzBCPfX0gV One of biotech's worst peddlers of bullshit is gone. I might actually miss him. https://t.co/ZbDslD7jGj
Leaders Win by Acting Like the Least Useful Person
I told an agency owner to act like the least useful person in the room. He’s a super smart, experienced practitioner, running a team of 20. Every sales call he joins, they close. Every call he skips, they don’t. He thought the...