Inspired by Claude Silver's CultureCon keynote, we're putting growth mindset into practice. Real growth happens through small, consistent moves: speaking up, owning mistakes cleanly, adapting in real-time, and learning out loud together. Discomfort means you're doing it right. We just got back from CultureCon West, and we're still buzzing. Claude Silver of Vayner Media was the big keynote, and she came ready after just releasing her new book, Be Yourself at Work: The Groundbreaking Power of Showing Up, Standing Out, and Leading from the Heart . Listening to her speak about growth mindset, authenticity, and the courage to be in a constant state of evolution hit differently. Not because these were brand new concepts, but because they reinforced everything we already believe about how culture is built. The core message? Being in a growth area at work means you're not going to be the same person throughout the role. Change isn't something to resist—it's an invitation to evolve, to learn, to step into the unknown with curiosity rather than fear. That resonated deeply because it's exactly what we've been working toward: creating an environment where people don't just do  work, they grow through  work. But here's the thing about inspiration—it has a shelf life. The real magic happens when we move from knowing  to doing . This week, we're asking ourselves: How do we take these principles off the stage (and the page) and into practice? The Gap Between Learning and Living It's easy to nod along when someone talks about embracing change or practicing radical transparency. It's another thing entirely when you're in the middle of a project pivot, a tough conversation with a teammate, or a moment where vulnerability feels risky. That gap—between what we know we should  do and what we actually  do—is where growth either happens or stalls. Putting Principles into Practice Here's what we're learning by turning the concepts we've been focusing on into actual daily practices. Growth Mindset in Action - Instead of treating challenges as problems to hide or fix alone, we're reframing them as opportunities to learn and improve together. When we hit a roadblock on a client deliverable, rather than scrambling privately to fix it, we approach it with curiosity: "What can we learn here? Who might see this differently?" The result? Team members jump in with perspectives no one has considered, and the problem was solved faster, together . A growth mindset isn't just about staying positive—it's about believing that obstacles are invitations to get better, and that your team's collective learning beats individual perfection every time. Accountability Without Defensiveness - We missed a deadline. It happens. But instead of the usual dance of excuses or finger-pointing, we tried something different: owning it cleanly and moving straight to "here's how we prevent this next time." No drama, no defensiveness, just responsibility. Turns out, accountability feels lighter when you stop making it personal. Adaptability as a Daily Practice - Adaptability isn't just for big, dramatic pivots. It could and should be practiced in small ways: adjusting meeting agendas on the fly when priorities shif, reworking a strategy mid-week based on new data, saying "let's try a different approach" without attachment to the original plan. Each small adaptation builds the muscle for the bigger ones. The Team Element: Growing Together, Not Just Side-by-Side Growth doesn't happen in isolation. Your team isn't just a collection of individuals working in parallel; you're a system, and when one person grows, it creates space for everyone else to level up too. For example, when one team member starts asking better questions in meetings—suddenly, everyone's contributions get sharper. When one person practices vulnerability by admitting they don’t understand a concept, it gives permission for others to do the same. Growth is contagious, but only if you're doing it out loud, together . When Change Feels More Like Chaos Than An Opportunity Let's be honest, embracing change as opportunity sounds great in theory. But sometimes, change can show up messy. A key strategy gets disrupted by external factors. A team member has to step back unexpectedly. Plans shift. Here's what we're learning though, it’s that change doesn't always feel  like opportunity in the moment. Sometimes it just feels like chaos. The practice isn't about forcing yourself to feel positive about every curveball—it's about staying steady enough to respond thoughtfully instead of reactively. It's about asking "what's possible here?" even when you'd rather just complain. Small Moves, Big Momentum You don't overhaul your entire way of working in a week. Growth happens in the small, consistent choices: Choosing to speak up in a meeting instead of staying silent Asking "how can I help?" instead of waiting to be asked Admitting what you don't know instead of pretending Adjusting course without making it a whole thing Celebrating someone else's win as genuinely as your own This week, focus on making one or two of these moves each day. Not perfectly, not dramatically—just consistently. And the cumulative effect? Things will feel different. Lighter. More collaborative. More honest. The Real Truth About Growth Here's something that keeps coming back to us: growth isn't comfortable and that’s how you know you’re doing it right. Being in a culture where you're encouraged to grow means accepting that you won't be the same person throughout your role—and that's exactly the point. If you're comfortable, you're probably not growing—you're maintaining. And maintenance is fine for certain seasons, but it's not where innovation lives, where breakthroughs happen, or where you build the kind of culture that actually attracts and keeps great people. Claude Silver’s book reminds us that showing up authentically means showing up in your uncertainty, your learning, your evolution. It means leading from the heart even when—especially when—you don't have all the answers. Every work environment has uncomfortable moments. Conversations that feel risky. Decisions that feel uncertain. Admissions that feel exposing. But on the other side of each uncomfortable moment? A little more trust, a little more clarity, a little more connection. What We're Carrying Forward As we close out this week, we're not claiming we've mastered anything. But we have created some new patterns: Trust the team first.  When challenges arise, bring them to the table immediately. Your team's collective intelligence beats your solo scrambling every time. Own it and move on.  Accountability doesn't require a performance. State it, solve it, prevent it. Next. Adapt in real-time.  Don't wait for permission or perfection. Make the adjustment, communicate it, keep moving. Grow out loud.  Your learning creates space for everyone else's learning. Be the one who asks the "dumb" question, admits the mistake, tries the new thing. Your Turn We're curious: What's one small move you could make this week to close the gap between knowing and doing? Maybe it's speaking up about something that's bothering you. Maybe it's admitting you need help. Maybe it's trying a different approach to something you've been doing the same way for months. Growth doesn't require grand gestures. It requires showing up a little braver, a little more honest, a little more adaptable than you did yesterday. And if you're building a team or a culture, remember: the best thing you can do is model the behavior you want to see. Don't just talk about transparency—be transparent. Don't just value accountability—demonstrate it. Don't just celebrate adaptability—practice it. From insight to impact. That's the move.

Insights from SKOR's Q3 2025 State of Teams Report We just gained an "extra hour" from daylight savings this past weekend. For most of us, it felt like a gift—a chance to finally catch up on sleep, tackle one more thing on that endless to-do list, or maybe (just maybe) get ahead on work. But here's the uncomfortable truth that nearly 700 companies across North America just helped us uncover: The problem isn't that we need more hours. It's that we're using the hours we have all wrong. The Manager Crisis Hiding in Plain Sight Imagine a world where you could actually give every person on your team an extra hour each week. Game-changing, right? Here's the reality check: 70% of a team's performance is directly tied to their manager. And 3 in 5 managers have received zero management training. That's not speculation—that's Gallup's research, validated by what we're seeing across industries in our Q3 State of Teams Report. And it gets more interesting: when we looked at team performance data, People Leaders and Individual Contributors had the same SKOR (76 out of 100), but for completely different reasons. Here's where it gets really interesting: individual contributors and managers are often living in two completely different realities. A team member might feel genuinely appreciated because their manager acknowledged their work in last week's standup. Meanwhile, that same manager is beating themselves up for not doing "enough" recognition—convinced they're falling short because they haven't implemented a formal rewards program yet. Or consider clarity: a manager thinks they've been crystal clear about priorities because they mentioned them in the quarterly kickoff. But three months later, their team is still guessing which projects actually matter most because those priorities were never reinforced, never connected to daily work. The perception gap isn't about who's right or wrong—it's about leaders being their own harshest critics while their teams are operating with incomplete information.  Managers hold themselves to impossible standards while simultaneously struggling to translate what's in their heads into actionable direction on the front lines. The truth?  An extra hour won't fix a cracked foundation. But investing in the people who lead your teams? That's a different story. What High-Performing Teams Actually Do Differently After watching companies navigate Q3, one thing became crystal clear: the best teams aren't working more —they're working smarter with the hours they have.  And they're strengthening three specific "muscles" that transform how they operate: 1. Transparency: The Trust Accelerator High-performing teams don't hoard information—they share it liberally. Remote teams, for instance, outscored hybrid teams by 5 points in Q3 (78 vs. 73), largely because they had to build transparent communication systems from day one. When everyone can see what's happening, why decisions are being made, and where priorities lie, something magical happens: trust accelerates. Employees stop second-guessing and start executing. The teams that struggled in Q3? They kept information and strategy locked in the C-suite while expecting frontline employees to "figure it out." 2. Accountability: Ownership Over Oversight Here's a pattern we saw repeatedly: companies under 100 employees had the highest SKOR overall . Why? Close relationships and direct access to leadership created natural accountability loops. But here's the problem: as companies grew to 250-1,000 employees, scores dropped across the board.  Bureaucracy replaced ownership. People stopped feeling responsible for outcomes because... well, who really owns anything when there are seventeen approval layers? The companies that bounced back after 1,000+ employees? They invested in intentional systems and processes that recreated ownership at scale—giving teams autonomy while maintaining alignment. 3. Healthy Conflict: The Innovation Engine The industries that dominated Q3's rankings—Environment & Recycling (74), Agriculture & Agribusiness (74), and Consulting & Business Services (69)—share a common thread: they've normalized productive disagreement. Meanwhile, the industries that saw the biggest declines? Manufacturing (-6%) and Entertainment & Media (-2%) both showed signs of what we call "conflict avoidance" culture. When teams are afraid to disagree, they stop innovating. When layoffs and transformation fatigue set in, people play it safe instead of speaking up. Healthy conflict isn't about being combative—it's about caring enough to challenge assumptions and push for better solutions. The Wake-Up Call Here's the stat that should send shivers down every employers spine: employee engagement just hit a 10-year low. According to Gallup, 68% of employees are drowning in work pace and volume, while 56% don't even know what's expected of them. The price tag? $438 billion in lost performance and profits. An extra hour won't fix that. But here's what will: building teams that strengthen muscles that actually matter, including transparency, accountability, and healthy conflict. Don't Chase the Extra Hour As we head into the final push of 2025, with holiday pressures mounting and year-end goals looming, here's the question worth asking: Would an extra hour per week actually help your team—or do you need to fundamentally change how you're using the hours you already have? The Q3 data tells us something important: the best teams aren't the busiest teams. They're the teams that have: Strong managers  equipped with actual training, not just good intentions Transparent systems  where information flows freely and trust builds naturally Healthy conflict  that pushes ideas forward instead of sweeping problems under the rug Real accountability  where people own outcomes, not just tasks This November, don't give your team another hour. Give them what they actually need to perform at their best. Because the truth is, we all have the same 24 hours. The difference between thriving and surviving isn't about having more time—it's about making the time we have actually matter.

Welcome to Week 4 of October's "Tricks and Treats" series. This week, we're unveiling the data that leaders need to see before planning 2026. The headlines have been relentless. Gallup's latest engagement statistics read like a workforce horror story: employee engagement at an 11-year low, quiet quitting haunting every corridor, and disconnection spreading through organizations like a contagion no one knows how to cure. The call is coming from inside the house. While industry leaders have been frantically searching for solutions in the graveyard of failed initiatives, we've been quietly collecting something different: actual data on what's really happening inside teams. Beyond the Doom and Gloom Our most recent State of Teams Report revealed something the doomsday prophets weren't telling you—that beneath the surface-level despair, there were pockets of teams thriving in ways that defied the narrative. Teams that had cracked the code on cohesion, found clarity in the chaos, and built the courage to fail forward. But that was just the beginning of the story. What's Lurking in Q3? In this most recent State of Teams, we went deeper. We examined teams across industries, sectors, and organizational structures to uncover the patterns no one else is tracking. And what we found? Let's just say some industries are absolutely crushing it while others are... well, let's save that reveal for the report. The Q3 State of Teams Report doesn't just rehash the grim statistics you've already seen. It shows you: Which industries are thriving (and which ones took an unexpected tumble) The hidden dynamics separating high-performing teams from those barely surviving The specific dimensions where teams are losing ground—and where they're gaining it Benchmark data that finally gives you a fighting chance to measure what actually matters The Truths No One Else Is Measuring While everyone else is measuring engagement and eNPS, we're measuring the three dimensions that actually predict team performance: Cohesion, Clarity, and Courage. Because here's the haunting truth: you can't fix what you can't see. And most leaders? They're operating in the dark, throwing solutions at symptoms while the real problems remain buried in data no one is collecting. Until now. Don't Get Left in the Dark The workforce isn't doomed. But it is transforming—and the teams that understand these shifts will thrive while others scramble to explain why their initiatives keep failing. Join us for an exclusive 45-minute webinar where we'll unveil the findings from the Q3 State of Teams Report . You'll get: A sneak peek at which industries are excelling in cohesion, clarity, and courage The surprising sectors that declined—and the patterns that explain why Quick wins leaders can implement immediately to raise their SKOR Benchmark data you can use to position yourself as the expert in every strategic conversation No matter your department, whether you're advising executives, leading a team, or supporting organizational development in HR, this insider intelligence will give you the strategic edge you've been missing. This isn't another doom-and-gloom report about what's broken. This is your flashlight in the dark—showing you exactly where to look, what to measure, and how to move forward. Don't let your teams become another cautionary tale.

Welcome to Week 3 of October's "Tricks and Treats" series. This week, we're confronting the silent killer of execution: the clarity crisis. The $ 3 Million Meeting Imagine a leadership offsite. Eight executives, three hours, one strategic planning session. The energy was high. Everyone contributed. The CEO wrapped up feeling energized about the path forward. Two weeks later, the team members who were supposed to execute the strategy can't articulate what they were actually supposed to do differently. This is the clarity crisis—and it's costing you more than you think. What Is the Clarity Crisis? The clarity crisis is the gap between leaders believing they've communicated clearly and teams understanding what's actually expected of them. It shows up as teams working hard on the wrong priorities, strategy documents that collect digital dust, goals that sound inspiring but provide zero direction, and high performers who are disengaged because they don't see how their work matters. Here's what makes it particularly insidious: everyone is busy. Calendars are full. Deadlines are met. Activity is constant. But progress? That's another story. You Can't See It From the Top The leadership blind spot is that executives typically have the most clarity. They were in the room where strategy was debated. They understand the trade-offs. They know the "why" behind every decision. But by the time that message cascades down three levels and reaches the people doing the actual work, it's been translated, diluted, and often completely transformed. The clarity you feel as a leader is not the clarity your teams experience. The challenge with the clarity crisis is that it's nearly impossible to diagnose from leadership's perspective. People don't know what they don't know. When team members are confused about priorities, they rarely recognize it as a clarity problem—they simply make their best guess and move forward. This invisibility is what makes the issue so insidious. This specificity matters because you can't fix "low clarity" as a general concept. But you can fix "the sales team doesn't understand how the new product roadmap affects their Q1 targets." The Five Symptoms of a Clarity Crisis 1. Everyone's Working, Nothing's Progressing: High activity masks low achievement. 2. Strategy Sounds Like Poetry: "Be the best" and "customer-centric excellence" sound great but mean nothing without specificity. 3. The Same Decisions Get Revisited: What felt like closure in one meeting becomes a debate in the next. 4. People Wait for Permission: Your high performers become hesitant. Your organization becomes slow. 5. Alignment Is Theater: Everyone says "yes" in meetings, then leaves and does something different. Sound familiar? What Clarity Actually Looks Like High-clarity organizations have: clear priorities (three, maybe five—not 12), defined success in measurable terms, decision-making frameworks that empower action, connected work where everyone can draw a line from their tasks to strategic goals, and consistent language across the entire organization. The Hidden Leverage Point Clarity multiplies the impact of everything else you're doing. When clarity is high, transparency becomes actionable, courage becomes directional, accountability becomes simple, and recognition becomes motivating. Clarity is the foundation that makes every other cultural investment pay off. Without it, you're building on sand. The Clarity Tax Every day your organization operates without clarity, you're paying a tax: projects that shouldn't have started consume resources, talented people spend energy on the wrong things, and strategic initiatives die in translation. The question is whether you can afford to keep paying the clarity tax. Moving Forward The clarity crisis won't resolve itself with another all-hands meeting or a new strategy deck. What's required is visibility into where clarity actually exists and where it's missing—measured objectively, not assumed optimistically. If you're sensing that strategy isn't translating to execution, that teams are working hard without moving forward, or that your best people seem disconnected—those may be symptoms of a clarity crisis that's costing you more than you realize. SKOR's team performance assessment provides the foundation for seeing these gaps clearly. Because you can't create clarity until you know precisely where confusion lives. Coming Next Week: Week 4: Q3 State of Culture - Haunting Truths Hidden in the Workforce – The data that leaders need to see before planning 2026.

In volleyball, when a player shanks a shot or serve, their teammates don’t roll their eyes or walk away. Instead, they walk over, slap hands, and move on. In the NBA, when someone clangs a free throw, their teammates still line up to give them a high-five. Why is this important? Because recognition isn’t just about celebrating the wins . It’s about reinforcing belonging, effort, and resilience—especially when someone misses. Now let’s flip to the workplace. How often do leaders give a figurative high-five when their people stumble? How often do they acknowledge the effort, the risk-taking, or even just the courage to try? Too often, silence wins. Mistakes are ignored, or worse, punished. Slowly, people stop raising their hands, stop taking shots, and stop swinging big. Recognition Is a Muscle Recognition isn’t a once-a-year celebratory dinner or even an employee of the month award. It’s a muscle—always on, always in motion. In sports, that muscle memory is built into every play. Teammates celebrate good execution and reinforce effort after mistakes. In business, we tend to only recognize outcomes. We forget the behaviors that lead to growth: Taking initiative and being proactive Speaking up with a hard truth Experimenting with a new idea Owning a failure and learning from it Every one of those deserves a “high-five moment.” Without it, you don’t just lose morale—you lose momentum. Why Recognition Matters More Than You Think Data tells us this clearly: recognition is a profit lever. Teams that consistently recognize effort and impact see higher engagement, lower turnover, and stronger performance. It’s not soft stuff—it’s measurable. At SKOR, recognition is one of the 7 Critical Indicators of High-Performing Teams. When we measure teams, we don’t just ask whether leaders celebrate wins. We ask if recognition flows peer-to-peer, manager-to-team, and team-to-leader. Because here’s the truth: recognition isn’t just top-down. It’s cultural. It’s a habit shared across the locker room. The Hidden Profit in a Simple High-Five Think about the cost of silence: The missed innovation because someone was afraid to pitch a “dumb” idea. The disengaged employee who left because no one ever noticed their effort. The wasted hours fixing mistakes that could’ve been learning moments. Now think about the upside of recognition: faster recovery, higher trust, and stronger bonds. In sports, it’s the difference between a team that crumbles after a mistake and one that comes back stronger on the next play. In business, it’s the difference between a stagnant culture and one that keeps improving. Building a Recognition Culture Creating a culture of recognition requires intentionality. Here are some strategies to foster this environment: 1. Lead by Example As a leader, your actions set the tone. Acknowledge your team’s efforts openly. Share stories of both successes and failures, and highlight the lessons learned. This transparency encourages others to do the same. 2. Encourage Peer Recognition Create opportunities for team members to recognize each other. This can be through shout-outs in meetings, a dedicated recognition board, or a digital platform where employees can share kudos. Peer recognition can be incredibly powerful. 3. Make It Regular Recognition should not be a once-in-a-while event. Incorporate it into your daily or weekly routines. Regular check-ins can provide a platform for acknowledging effort and progress. 4. Celebrate Small Wins Don’t wait for major milestones to celebrate. Acknowledge small victories along the way. This keeps morale high and encourages continued effort. 5. Provide Constructive Feedback Recognition doesn’t mean ignoring mistakes. Instead, pair recognition with constructive feedback. This helps individuals learn and grow while still feeling valued. Final Take Leaders—your job isn’t just to high-five when your team nails the big win. Your job is to build a culture where recognition is constant, and people high-five each other daily—where effort, courage, and learning get reinforced just as much as success. Because performance isn’t perfect execution. It’s a game of misses, makes, and momentum. And recognition is the muscle that keeps the team moving forward. 👉 Curious how your teams score on recognition? Take the SKOR Preview and find out.

This is the second in our four-week October series e xploring the hidden forces that undermine team cohesion and organizational performance. Three months into her role as VP of Operations, Sarah had a sinking realization: her team was too good. Not actually too good—too careful .  Projects delivered exactly on spec, never over or under. Meetings ran like clockwork, with polished presentations and zero surprises. Every question had a prepared answer. Every risk had been mitigated into a non-issue. On the surface, it looked like excellence. But Sarah knew better. She'd seen this pattern before at her last company, right before they got blindsided by a competitor who  moved faster, experimented bolder,  and wasn't afraid to learn from spectacular failures . Her team wasn't performing— they were performing safely . And it was costing them everything they couldn't see. The Perfection Trap The teams that never stumble are rarely the ones pushing boundaries. They've found the comfortable groove where success is predictable, risk is minimized, and no one has to explain why something didn't work out as planned. But predictable success has a ceiling. And that ceiling is exactly where your organization plateaus while nimbler competitors discover what's possible on the other side of failure. Breakthrough innovation doesn't come from playing it safe. It comes from the willingness to be wrong in pursuit of being spectacularly right. When your leadership punishes missteps more than it rewards bold attempts, people stop attempting. Ideas stay safely tucked away. The intellectual capacity you're paying for goes unused. Psychological Safety Isn't Just a Buzzword You've heard the term thrown around in leadership books, keynote speeches, and HR initiatives. Psychological safety has become one of those phrases that gets nodded at in meetings and then promptly ignored in practice. But dismissing it as corporate jargon is a costly mistake. Psychological safety isn't about feelings or being nice. It's about whether your organization can access the full intellectual capacity of the people you're paying to think. And when it's missing, the tax on your business is real, measurable, and growing. Here's what it's actually costing you: The Innovation Drain : That manufacturing supervisor who sees a better workflow but stays quiet. The nurse with a patient safety improvement who doesn't speak up in rounds. The engineer who spots a critical flaw but waits for someone senior to notice it first. Every day, valuable insights hide in people's minds because speaking up feels riskier than staying silent. These lost ideas compound into not just missed opportunities, but accelerating gaps between where you are and where you could be. The Speed Tax : When people fear mistakes more than they value progress, everything slows down. Decisions multiply through unnecessary approval chains. Proposals get buried in justification documents. Problems get escalated instead of solved. Your organization isn't slow because people aren't capable, it's slow because they're spending more energy on self-protection than on forward motion. The Talent Hemorrhage : Exit interviews will tell you people are leaving for better opportunities or career growth. What they won't tell you is that they're exhausted from constantly holding back. High performers don't want to work at half-speed. They don't want to spend meetings reading the room instead of contributing ideas. They don't want to watch mediocre-but-safe options win over better-but-uncertain ones. So they leave. And you lose exactly the people who could have driven transformation. The Escalation Problem : When raising concerns feels dangerous, small problems metastasize into crises. By the time issues reach leadership, they're no longer preventable, they're damage control exercises. Meanwhile, competitors whose teams sound alarms early are solving problems while you're still discovering them.  Organizations that treat challenges as normal conversation topics rather than career risks catch warning signs when they're still whispers, not sirens. The Failure Fallacy Here's the critical distinction most organizations miss: psychological safety isn't permission for carelessness.  It's not about lowering the bar or celebrating every mistake with participation trophies. Real courage to fail means: Holding high standards while treating mistakes as data rather than character flaws Encouraging calculated risks while addressing reckless decisions Creating space for intelligent experiments while maintaining accountability for learning from them Evaluating people on their growth trajectory,  not just their perfect track record The difference is visible in how organizations respond to setbacks. In fear-based cultures, a surgical complication triggers blame. In psychologically safe ones, it triggers a debrief that makes the next procedure safer. Fear-based sales teams hide lost deals. Healthy ones dissect them to sharpen the next pitch. Toxic engineering cultures punish anyone who raises technical debt. Mature ones reward early warnings that prevent disasters. The Leadership Test Want to know if your organization actually has psychological safety? Don't look at the posters on the wall. Look at leader behavior. Do your executives acknowledge mistakes or rationalize them? Do they change direction when someone junior spots a better path, or do they defend the original plan? When someone takes a smart risk that doesn't pan out, do they get recognized for the attempt or quietly sidelined from future opportunities? When leaders don't have an answer, do they say so, or just ignore the question? Your team is watching. And they're learning not from what leaders say about innovation and risk-taking, but from what happens to people who actually do it. If your leaders only demonstrate courage in retrospectives about past successes, your organization doesn't have psychological safety. It has theater. Making It Real Gut feelings about your culture won't build psychological safety. Neither will aspirational core values statements or mandatory trust-building exercises. Organizations that genuinely cultivate courage do it through systems, not slogans. They track whether people believe they can raise concerns safely. They monitor how leaders respond to failures versus cover-ups. They measure whether learning happens after mistakes or whether the same problems keep recurring. They check if innovation is distributed throughout the organization or confined to special projects with permission to fail. They examine whether recognition systems reward growth and intelligent risk-taking, not just flawless execution. This data reveals the actual operating culture, not the intended one. And it provides specific leverage points for change rather than vague encouragement to "be more innovative." The Market Won't Wait Maybe you operate in a stable industry where moving cautiously still works. But look around. Stability is increasingly rare. Technology is rewriting business models (hello, AI). Customer expectations are evolving faster than strategic plans. Competitors you've never heard of are solving problems you haven’t even anticipated in ways you wouldn’t have ever imagined. The organizations winning aren't the ones avoiding mistakes. They're the ones learning faster than everyone else. And you can't learn fast when failure is career-limiting, when experiments need executive blessing, and when new ideas require ironclad business cases before anyone will touch them. What's Really at Stake Struggling with innovation? Watching decisions crawl through your organization? Losing good people to "better opportunities"? Before you blame strategy or talent, check whether courage is the missing ingredient. The capability is already there—in your people, in their unrealized ideas, in the insights they're keeping to themselves. The question is whether your culture gives them permission to use it. SKOR cuts through the assumptions and fluff to show you where courage actually exists in your organization and where fear is running the show. Because building psychological safety isn't about motivation—it's about measurement, visibility, and targeted action based on what's really happening, not what you hope is happening. Find out where your organization really stands. A SKORcard report reveals the gap between the culture you're building and the one your people are experiencing. Coming Next Week: Trick Week 3: The Clarity Crisis – When everyone's working hard but no one knows if they're working on the right things.

This is the first in our four-week October series e xploring the hidden forces that undermine team cohesion and organizational performance. The Disconnect Between Intention and Reality Think about the last time you were a passenger in a car navigating an unfamiliar city. The driver knows exactly where they're going— they understand the route, they're making deliberate choices at every turn. But from the passenger seat, without access to that same information, every unexpected turn feels arbitrary. You start questioning the route. Second-guessing decisions. Building a narrative that may have nothing to do with reality. That's exactly what happens in organizations when transparency breaks down. The challenge is you can't close a gap you can't see.   There's a fundamental problem that plagues even well-intentioned leadership teams: the disconnect between how transparent leaders believe they're managing and what their employees actually experience.  This isn't about bad leadership or poor communication skills—it's about the inherent difficulty of seeing your organization from the inside out. These transparency gaps don't just create frustration—they actively erode cohesion . When people don't understand the "why" behind decisions, when your mission or next steps feel unclear, or when information seems selectively shared,  trust deteriorates . Teams become siloed. Decisions get second-guessed. Energy that should go toward progress gets redirected into filling in the blanks or navigating uncertainty.   Why Objective Measurement Matters You’re likely asking yourself how to identify and measure  something as seemingly intangible as transparency. Gut feelings and assumptions won't cut it. Relying on intuition to gauge organizational transparency is like trying to navigate by the stars when you're inside a building—you simply don't have the visibility you need. Leadership often operates with the best intentions, but without systematic measurement, you're building on a foundation of guesswork rather than facts. This approach doesn't set anyone up for success, and it certainly doesn't create something repeatable or scalable. Consider companies known for their strong cultural north stars. Patagonia's commitment to environmental responsibility isn't just a feeling—it's measured through specific supply chain audits, carbon footprint tracking, and transparent reporting. Netflix's famous "freedom and responsibility" culture is supported by clearly defined expectations, regular calibration conversations, and specific decision-making frameworks that everyone can reference. These organizations don't guess at whether their values are being lived; they create systems to know. The difference between hoping your organization is transparent and knowing where transparency exists (or doesn't) is the difference between reactive firefighting and strategic improvement. Without measurement, you're perpetually addressing symptoms rather than root causes. Connecting Performance to Outcomes But here’s the thing. Understanding where transparency breaks down is only valuable if you can connect those breakdowns to tangible business impact. The gap between leadership's perception and employee reality doesn't just affect morale—it shows up in slower decision-making, duplicated efforts, missed opportunities, and employee turnover. Organizations that successfully address transparency gaps do so by establishing clear baselines, identifying specific problem areas, and then tracking how improvements in trust and alignment translate to measurable outcomes. This means moving beyond engagement scores that tell you people are frustrated, to understanding exactly which communication channels are failing, which teams lack goal clarity, and what the actual cost of these gaps is to your business. Moving Forward The transparency gap won't resolve itself, and good intentions alone won't close it. What's required is clear visibility into where these gaps actually exist in your specific organization , followed by targeted action based on that insight. This October, if you're sensing that information isn't flowing the way it should, that teams are working at cross-purposes, or that trust feels fragile—those may be symptoms of transparency gaps that are costing you more than you realize. If you're ready to get a clearer picture of where your organization stands, SKOR can provide that foundation. Because you can't fix what you can't see—but once you can see it, the path forward becomes much clearer. Find out how you can close the gap, check out a SKORcard report. Coming Next Week:   Week 2: The Courage to Fail  – Why psychological safety isn't just a buzzword, and what it's really costing you.

Visiting my son at college over the weekend, I had the chance to observe him in action as president of his fraternity. What I noticed was telling. He carries a lot of responsibility, balancing relationships, decisions, and the day-to-day realities of leading a house full of young men. But beneath some of his leadership, there’s a shadow from the past. In prior years, the fraternity presidents leaned heavily on scare tactics, threats, and embarrassment  to keep things in line. That kind of leadership sticks. It sets a tone that lingers. And here’s the problem: when people are led through fear, they often replicate it when it’s their turn. The outcome? You don’t get accountability. You get compliance. And compliance only lasts until pressure mounts or conditions change. As Elis Wilkins so powerfully wrote: “People don’t grow where they’re judged. They grow where they’re safe to be wrong. Be the leader who makes that possible.” That’s the real challenge — creating environments where people can stretch, stumble, and get back up again without fear of humiliation. Because that’s where learning and growth actually happen. Why This Matters Beyond a Fraternity House It’s easy to dismiss college leadership as “practice” for the real world, but the truth is this dynamic shows up everywhere — in businesses, teams, and even families. How people are led is how they tend to lead.  If their leaders relied on judgment, fear, or control, they’ll carry that forward. Unless someone breaks the cycle. Great leaders don’t just manage tasks — they shape how others will lead tomorrow. The question is whether you want to pass on fear or growth. Three Ways to Turn Things Around Quickly Normalize Mistakes  – Mistakes are not failures, they’re feedback. When leaders frame errors as data, teams stop hiding problems and start solving them. Replace Fear with Clarity  – Fear thrives in uncertainty. When roles, goals, and expectations are clear, people can focus on execution instead of self-preservation. Model the Behavior You Want  – Leaders set the cultural thermostat. If you want humility, collaboration, and respect, you have to demonstrate those traits every day. Three Ways to Help Leaders Shift Their Style Hold Up the Mirror  – Use feedback and data to show leaders the impact of their approach on trust, performance, and retention. Awareness is the first step. Coach, Don’t Criticize  – Give leaders tools to succeed differently. Training in recognition, structured feedback, and coaching can replace old habits. Reinforce Progress  – Celebrate when leaders make positive changes, even small ones. Recognition accelerates their growth just as it does for team members. The Leadership Legacy At its core, leadership isn’t about position or title — it’s about influence . The most enduring test of leadership is what people take away from you when it’s their turn to lead. Do they pass along fear? Or do they pass along safety, learning, and growth? Your team doesn’t need perfect leaders. They need leaders who make it safe to be wrong — and safe to grow. How courageous is YOUR leadership? Take the SKOR Preview to find out.

It's not the size of the team, it's the size of the fight in the team. Yesterday, I was watching my son’s basketball team. At one point, they were up by 10. By the end? They’d lost by 15. In another game, the same story — this time losing by 20. When my son walked off the court, he said something that hit me hard:  “There just wasn’t enough fight in the team.” And he was right. You could see it. The energy dropped, heads went down, and no one rallied the group. The coach didn’t step in to spark them either. But here’s the truth: they didn’t need to wait for the coach. Leadership Can Come from Anywhere We tend to think leadership is the coach’s job. Or the captains. Or the managers. But in reality, leadership is not a title — it’s a behavior. In that moment, any one of those players could have stepped up. They could have huddled the team, shouted encouragement, demanded more fight, or simply lifted the energy with a big play or words of belief. That’s the thing about leadership: it doesn’t require permission. It doesn’t wait for hierarchy. It’s within anyone, at any level, in any moment. The Same Is True in Business In organizations, we see the same pattern. Teams hit a setback, the energy drops, and everyone waits for the manager to “fix it.” But what if leadership showed up from anywhere in the team? Imagine if: A junior analyst rallied the group after a missed target. A team member spoke up in a tough meeting when everyone else went quiet. An individual contributor reignited momentum on a stalled project by reminding everyone of the goal. That’s what healthy, resilient cultures look like. Everyone carries the responsibility for fight, energy, and belief. Leadership as a Muscle The best teams, in sports or business, don’t just rely on one person to rally them. They build a culture where leadership is distributed. Where anyone can step in, take the reins for a moment, and bring the group back into the game. It’s not about hierarchy. It’s about courage. The courage to speak up, to push forward, to inject energy when it’s needed most. Final Take Watching my son’s team reminded me of this simple but powerful truth: Leadership is internal. It’s already in you. You don’t need the title. You don’t need the permission. You don’t need to wait for someone else to rally the team. Whether you’re on the court, in a locker room, or in a boardroom — leadership is a choice. And the moment you step into it, you change the game.

In the NFL, Dan Campbell has become synonymous with grit, resilience, and culture  in Detroit. His “culture guy” identity is legendary—winning hearts, building unity, and fostering a tough, unbreakable mindset in the Lions’ locker room which has translated to the field and to the fandom. But this offseason, Campbell faced a paradox every culture-driven leader must. His high-performing coordinators on both sides of the ball earned head coaching roles elsewhere. Ben Johnson leads the Chicago Bears, while Aaron Glenn watches over the New York Jets. Their success didn’t just come from alignment with and buying into Campbell’s culture, it came from outright mastery of their craft . And that distinction has profound leadership implications. Elevating the Assistants: Stronger Schemes Matter In Detroit, Johnson’s offense ranked among the league’s best last year: top five in scoring and second in passing yards. Similarly, Glenn’s defense finished seventh in points allowed. Yet, what caught attention wasn’t just the culture—they were coaches making systems hum  and making success look easy. Johnson’s Bears debut on Monday Night Football against the Vikings brings optimism to Chicago despite the crushing 4th quarter defeat. Meanwhile, Glenn, despite a Jets loss to the Steelers, set a tone of accountability and refusal to accept moral victories with this quote already making the round: “You will not be on the field if you are going to cause us to lose games.” Great culture draws attention, but great performance transforms careers . The Hidden Leadership Lesson If your culture signals “only alignment matters,” you risk underestimating the brilliance of specialized coaching. A culture can't scale if people believe identity trumps performance excellence. Real talent breaks out, and that’s good leadership in action, not a failure of culture. Here’s what leaders must consider: Invite specialization within cohesion.  Great coaches fit the culture, but they’re recognized for their vision, too. Ensure succession doesn’t feel like a cultural void.  When key leaders leave, what remains in place must be resilient. Support growth across tiers.  Your culture should create space for both thinkers and doers. What’s Next for These Teams? Lions: Despite the early loss to the Packers, Campbell is navigating the gap with confidence, noting the team’s correctable issues and readiness to improve. Bears: Ben Johnson’s arrival has sparked off-season optimism, especially around developing QB Caleb Williams. His offensive credentials promise potential, though challenges loom in a tough division as illustrated last night when, after a strong start and a 17-6 lead heading into the 4th quarter, Johnson’s Bears gave up 21 points to the rival Minnesota and handed the Vikings’ rookie quarterback his first win on Monday Night. Jets: Aaron Glenn’s Jets may have lost a close game, but his message—“close isn’t good enough”—signals a shift to results-first culture. It’s clear he’s building something different with a firm foundation, something long overdue for the New Jets and their fanbase. The perennial AFC East division winner comes to town in the Buffalo Bills next weekend and if inputs don’t change during this week’s practice, the outcome may look similar again.  Final Take Culture creates identity, but performance defines and sustains momentum. Dan Campbell built a powerful culture; now, it's time to nurture new coaches who excel within it—and make sure structures and performance remain strong when they move on. Whether you are on the field or in an office, success in leadership means building teams that thrive, and systems that endure long after your tenure is over. That balance is what turns culture into performance. Food for Thought : If you were to move on tomorrow, what are you leaving your team with?

Data always tells a story. The challenge for leaders is whether we’re listening. One of our recent SKOR assessments revealed two interesting dynamics worth unpacking: Individual Contributors (ICs) scored 69, while People Leaders scored 77 In-person employees scored 72, while remote employees scored 77 On the surface, these are “good” numbers. But dig deeper, and they highlight both blind spots  and hidden opportunities. The Leadership Gap: 8 points The difference between how managers see themselves (77) and how their team members experience them (69) is telling. Leaders generally think they’re creating more clarity, cohesion, and courage than their teams actually feel. This gap suggests: Blind spots in leadership behavior.  Managers may believe they’re clear on team priorities, but ICs don’t experience the same level of clarity. Breakdowns in communication.  What feels transparent to a leader may feel like limited visibility to the team. Leaders not delegating.  Perhaps the managers are taking on too much themselves and not delegating enough to their team members. In sports terms, it’s like a coach thinking the play was communicated well, but half the players ran the wrong route. Intent doesn’t equal impact. The Workplace Divide: 5 points The second finding — remote employees SKORing higher (77) than in-person (72) — flips the traditional narrative. For years, we’ve heard that remote work erodes culture. But this data suggests the opposite: in-person employees may feel more overlooked, less flexible, or more constrained by old systems. It raises big questions: Are in-person teams bogged down by outdated processes? Do remote employees benefit from clearer communication, since everything must be written or explicit? Are managers unintentionally favoring flexibility for remote staff while assuming proximity equals connection in the office? The lesson here is simple: proximity doesn’t guarantee alignment.  Remote structures may actually force better practices — written clarity, deliberate check-ins, explicit expectations. What SKOR Measures For those new to SKOR: it’s a 35 and 50-question assessment designed to measure team performance through leadership. People Leaders  are asked how they lead — around cohesion, clarity and courage. Individual Contributors  are asked how they experience that leadership. This dual lens provides a 360° view of culture at the team level. The scores themselves reflect how well teams are performing against three cultural ingredients — Cohesion, Clarity, and Courage  — and seven supporting indicators, including accountability, transparency, and recognition. By comparing leaders’ intent to team experience, SKOR highlights the gaps where hidden profit is lost and where small tweaks can unlock better execution. From Insight to Action Together, these findings underline the importance of measuring leadership at the team experience level.  Leaders’ intent often differs from their teams’ reality, and workplace assumptions (remote vs. in-person) don’t always hold true. Key takeaway:  Performance is a game of inches. Small tweaks in clarity, accountability, and communication can unlock big outcomes. But you can’t fix what you don’t see — and most companies aren’t measuring the gap between leadership intent and team experience . 🔵 Curious where your leadership gaps are? Start with the SKOR Preview and see what story your data is telling.

As I listened to David Senra's podcast on Steve Jobs , I couldn't help it but connect with this statement. "Great can come from anywhere" Steve Jobs’s legacy wasn’t just innovation—it was recognizing that greatness doesn’t have a specific origin.  It’s an actionable leadership mandate. In Make Something Wonderful , a curated anthology of Jobs’s speeches, notes, and letters, we glimpse how this mindset shaped his leadership philosophy. As edited by Leslie Berlin and unveiled by the Steve Jobs Archive, the book makes abundantly clear: rooting for ideas over pedigrees, openness over hierarchy, and curiosity over convention is the foundation of breakthroughs. Here’s why “Great can come from anywhere” matters for leaders today. 1. Unlock Hidden Potential Too often, organizations wait for greatness to show up dressed a certain way. They recruit from top schools, prize conventional resumes, and filter innovation out of existence. Meanwhile, brilliant insights emerge from unexpected places—your production team, your interns, your lost-in-the-middle-of-nowhere offices. Jobs built Apple by valuing creativity over credentials, giving space for surprising ideas to flourish. 2. Build Openness into Your Culture Make Something Wonderful  emphasizes the power of shared context—speaking directly, making ideas visible, and acting as the architect of collective ambition. When teammates feel their ideas matter, they experiment more boldly. When leadership listens beyond titles, innovation becomes distributed, not isolated. 3. Design Invitation Over Gatekeeping Steve Jobs didn’t wait for ideas to come to him; he invited  them. In the book, speeches and personal notes show him asking simple questions: “What feels missing?” “Where are we off track?” Questions that prompted game-changing contributions. Leaders don’t just evaluate ideas—they design conditions for them to surface. 4. Grow the Ecosystem of Ideas When diversity of thought is welcomed, the ecosystem expands. A warehouse team member questions a process and sparks an efficiency breakthrough. A quiet engineer shares a bold idea on a whiteboard and ignites a product pivot. That’s the hidden profit of broad-sourced creativity. And leading teams that cultivate that energy is how you scale strategic advantage. "Make Something Wonderful", isn’t nostalgia—it’s a playbook. Make Something Wonderful  reminds us: greatness is everywhere. Our job as leaders is to make sure we have the ears—and the context—to hear it. Want to exchange leadership strategies that unearth hidden talent? Let’s chat — and yes, I’ve got books to swap.