Microsoft and Meta are pulling back on AI spending. Anthropic investors are now talking $1.5T for the IPO - not $2T. Apple is being called an AI winner for never entering the LLM race. Something is happening.

Everything about how we build and scale businesses seems to be changing at an unprecedented pace. Long-held assumptions are being challenged, and many of the old playbooks are being thrown out. But the more things change, the more they stay the same. Technology changes, business models evolve, but the fundamentals of great leadership don't. I shared this advice with our company's senior leaders today. Three of the worst things a leader can do are refuse to hear bad news, avoid conflict, and try to please everyone. Why is this the case? If you don’t want to hear bad news, you can’t solve problems. And solving problems is one of a leader’s most important responsibilities. Ignoring problems doesn’t make them go away. Avoiding conflict only creates more conflict. Unresolved issues fester, frustrations build, and relationships deteriorate. Trying to please everyone ultimately pleases no one. People quickly recognize when you say different things to different people, creating a false sense of alignment that erodes trust. The litmus test of any team, especially a leadership team, is its ability to have hard conversations about real problems and come together to resolve them. That requires trust, candor, humility, and above all, courage. The courage to hear uncomfortable truths, confront difficult issues, put the team’s success ahead of individual egos, and tell people what they need to hear, not just what they want to hear. This sounds like common sense, but as we know, common sense isn't very common because it requires emotional fortitude. Looking back on my career, the toughest leadership decisions never tested my intelligence. They tested my courage.