In a recent video, Simon Sinek brilliantly captured a sentiment many leaders intuitively feel but often struggle to express clearly: our metrics aren’t necessarily wrong, they’re just incomplete. His analogy of choosing a life partner highlights this perfectly—physical attraction is important, but what about character, support during stress, and fundamental goodness?

My calendar this week: 34 meetings across five days. Sound familiar?

The most powerful tool in a leader’s arsenal isn’t the ability to provide all the answers—it’s knowing how to ask the right questions.

A few years ago, I helped a friend update their resume. As we listed their experience, they joked: “Should I include the five years I spent managing a 40-person raid team across ten time zones?”

In a world obsessed with hard metrics—conversion rates, churn percentages, and quarterly profits—some companies have discovered the unmistakable power of something far less tangible: kindness. Not as a vague corporate value buried in an employee handbook, but as an actual measured key performance indicator driving strategic decisions and brand identity.

When software behaves unexpectedly, developers don’t throw up their hands and declare the code “just difficult.” They debug—systematically identifying and fixing the problem. Yet when our leadership runs into similar issues—team conflicts, missed deliverables, communication breakdowns—we often attribute these to personalities or circumstances beyond our control.

Feedback is the lifeblood of product development—when delivered effectively. Too often feedback sessions devolve into unfocused discussions, personal criticism, or ambiguous suggestions that leave everyone confused about next steps.

The art of product management has fundamentally shifted in recent years. While technical expertise and analytical abilities remain table stakes, the differentiating factor for exceptional product leaders is mastery of the human element.

The gap between what’s possible and what’s actually achieved often comes down to one critical factor: mindset.

I’ve spent the last two decades working with technical teams across various organizations—from startups to enterprises, from co-located to fully distributed. Throughout this journey, I’ve observed a consistent pattern: the highest-performing teams aren’t necessarily those with the most talented individuals, but rather those where team members feel safe to take risks, speak up, and be vulnerable.