A Good Chin

This morning, I randomly met an undefeated Welterweight boxer named Karim “Hard Hitta” Mayfield at a yoga class in San Francisco. Karim is 15-0-1 with 9 knock outs. We started talking, and I asked him whether the key to winning bouts was skill, strength or endurance. He said endurance wins over skill and strength, but the other factor that really matters is “a good chin.” Read the rest of this entry »

Six Questions Every Startup Must Answer

I just finished reading one of the most pragmatic and thoughtful books I’ve ever read about building companies (and I’ve read quite a few). It’s called The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business. In it, author Patrick Lencioni describes an organization as healthy “when it’s whole, consistent and complete; when its management, operations, strategy and culture fit together and make sense.” Healthy organizations have “minimal politics and confusion, high degrees of morale and productivity, and very low turnover among good employees.” He points out that most organizations are way too focused on being smart, and not nearly focused enough on being healthy. In his words, Organizational Health is “more than a side dish or flavor enhancer for the real meat and potatoes of business, it is the very plate on which the meat and potatoes sit.” Read the rest of this entry »

The Discipline Illusion

My clients are some of the most accomplished, ambitious, driven people I’ve ever met – founders and CEOs of some of the most successful, fast-growing startups in the world. And yet, too often they fail to adopt routines and habits that they know would help them succeed. If some of the most driven people in the world fail to follow through on their commitments, how can the average person do so? Read the rest of this entry »

An Inside Look at Building Netflix’s Culture

Much has been talked about Netflix’s famous culture deck and their unique culture.  Check out this candid and insightful talk by Patty McCord, Chief of Talent for Netflix, on the ins and outs of building Netflix’s culture since the beginning. Read the rest of this entry »

Great Discussion on Building Startup Culture

Check out this insightful panel discussion on building startup culture with some of the most-forward thinking startup executives and founders from the Unleashed Culture conference. The panel was moderated by Steve Blank, and featured Lori Goler (Facebook), James Currier (Tickle, Oooga Labs, Wonderhill), Dave Selinger (RichRelevance), Rashmi Singh (Slideshare), and Tim Wenzel (Chegg). Read the rest of this entry »

Highlights and Inspiration from Startup Oakland

I had the chance to attend a fantastic event tonight called Startup Oakland, which was put on by DBL Investors. In addition to learning how many extraordinary startups were born and built in and around Oakland, I walked away with some pretty powerful insights and renewed inspiration for the amazing things passionate, driven entrepreneurs can achieve when they set out to change the world.

The central part of the evening was a panel discussion of Oakland-based company CEOs including Joe Kennedy (Pandora), Kristin Groos Richmond (Revolution Foods), John Woolard (BrightSource Energy), Jim Margraff (Livescribe) and Julie Corbett (Ecologic).  Here are some of the highlights from the evening: Read the rest of this entry »

Use the Pygmalion Effect to Create a High Performing Team

“High expectations are the key to everything.”
- Sam Walton

The Pygmalion Effect Study

In the 1960s, Harvard psychology professor Robert Rosenthal teamed up with South San Francisco elementary school principal Lenore Jacobson to conduct what later became known as the Pygmalion Effect study.  In the study, 20% of the students within each of 18 elementary school classrooms were randomly assigned to a ‘high achiever’ group, with the remaining 80% serving as the control group. Read the rest of this entry »

Awesome Culture-Building Tip from WordPress Founder Matt Mullenweg

I had the privilege of presenting at True Venture’s Founder Camp last Wednesday on building a Values-driven Startup and Scaling Culture.  (As a quick aside, I should mention that everything that happens and is discussed at Founder Camp is confidential by default, and I’ve received explicit permission from Matt and True Ventures to share this.) In one of the discussions that followed, Automattic (and WordPress) founder Matt Mullenweg shared a brilliant, simple tactic that he’s used to help strengthen and scale Automattic’s culture: Read the rest of this entry »

The Science of a Happy Startup

I’ve been a student and devotee of the Positive Psychology movement for as long as I can remember.  I did my undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania, where the movement took root, and took psychology classes there from some of the professors who have helped to fuel it. Since then, I’ve read just about every book and article written by positive psychology researchers.

I’m often stunned at how much has been scientifically proven about helping people be at their best (in gold-standard randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled studies) that is still not known amongst the general population, and particularly the population of leaders and entrepreneurs who are best positioned to use the knowledge for good. Read the rest of this entry »

The Real Reason Dieting Is So Hard, and Why It Matters for CEOs

What does dieting have to do with running a business?  Apparently, quite a bit.

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