"Guide Yourself By The Stars And Not The Passing Ships"
What would it be like to get some career advice from someone who has mentored over 30 CEO’s of billion dollar companies?
David Kenny has had a four decade long career beginning as a consultant at Bain to co-founding and leading Digitas which he sold to the Publicis Groupe where he was part of the Directoire+ . David then went on to leadership roles at Akamai, The Weather Company, IBM Watson and Nielsen. Today David is a director at Nielsen and Best Buy (he was a former Chairman of both) as well as Flutter. David recently stepped down as the Chairman of the Board for Teach for America due to term limits.
David joined Drew Ianni and myself on the latest Unbossing Podcast and in just 30 minutes provided a master class of how to lead and thrive in changing times by not just learning but unlearning and not just leading but unbossing.
The links to the show are below but here are some highlights:
1. It is important to remember what has not changed.
Much is shifting in a world of uncertainty. The big changes are not just AI, but also shifting consumer behavior, new employee expectations, and the changing perception of the US globally.
In a world of change it important to keep in mind what has not changed which include that we all have limited time and resources. We are all limited in how much we have. We can be more productive but we cannot create more time.
Another thing that has not changed is most humans are kind and decent and want to do the right thing.
2. Guide ourselves and our companies by the stars and not passing ships.
Too many companies are focusing on the next shiny object including launching dozens of AI pilots to show that they are doing things to mollify financial markets or Boards of Directors.
This is the equivalent of guiding companies by vibe or news release. Technology should be subservient to the goals and values of a company.
3. Expertise will matter less while curiosity and particularly resilience will matter more.
Expertise will matter less in an AI age. Knowledge is becoming free and expertise is often easily accessible in many areas. What will matter more is the ability to ask questions and learn.
David reminds us that even the best talent will make a lot of mistakes and suffer set backs. It is those who learn to overcome mistakes that thrive. The ability to practice resurrection will be key.
4. Diversity is a competitive advantage and it is about meritocracy.
Inclusion is the best way to unleash all the talent in an organization. It allows a company to get the most out of people.
It is critical that inclusion is aligned with business outcomes and meaningful results and not for just the sake of inclusion.
DEI creates much more of a meritocracy by providing an opportunity for all talent to compete and the lack of it is what is non meritocratic!
5. Two Things to Unlearn
Among the many things we need to unlearn are the following beliefs:
a) That Humans are better than Machines: Increasingly this is not true and in many areas machines will do much better job than humans. We should be outcome focused versus input obsessed.
b) Hierarchical Organizations : Increasingly defunct. AI is changing organizational design and the reality is that those those on the front lines with connection and relationships with customers have more real time information and ability to solve problems and leverage opportunities.
6. Speed without direction can kill a company.
Velocity is speed with direction. Today so many AI pilots are about speed without any connection to the direction of the company. It is not how fast but how aligned the direction of travel is with the north star of a company.
7. A little fear is good but managing by fear should be eliminated.
A little fear is motivating. Especially the fear of a person or a company becoming irrelevant.
To manage our own fear swe should ask what we fear and what is the worst that can happen? Often trial and error overcomes fear versus being frozen because of fear.
On the other hand, managing through fear demotivates a company and can be very corrosive. Managers who leverage fear hurt a culture much more than the supposed success they may deliver.
Companies must weed the garden by removing those who manage by fear.
8. Companies are making a mistake by not hiring youth because of AI.
Generation Alpha today uses AI as an operating system while Gen-Z uses it as search and the rest of us are figuring it out.
The young can teach us a lot about how to run things in an AI age and it is a mistake not hiring them if a company truly wants to become AI first.
9. Management is very different than being on a Board.
Boards are keeper of values of a company. To ensure that the company does not lose its true north.
Boards are a team sport and the Chair of a Board is like a coach.
Boards should never manage but be a back stop and gut check for management.
Much much more on the podcast:
Unbossing guests have included Reed Hastings the co-founder of Netflix, Tariq Hassan the former CMO of McDonalds, and Jim Lesser the Chief Brand Officer of Service Now. Future guests include Janet Foutty the decade long CEO of Deloitte Consulting, Ann Mukherjee the former CEO of Pernod Ricard and a leader at SC Johnson and Pepsi, Jim McCann the founder and CEO of 1-800 Flowers, Sarah Personette the CEO of Puck and leader at Twitter and Meta among many others.
Listen to Reed, David and others on Unbossing wherever you listen to Podcasts. Here are Apple, Spotify and YouTube links:
Apple:
Spotify:
YouTube:
One Single Thing
Last week one Pulitzer Prize winners was a story titled: He’s Dying. She’s Pregnant. It won for feature photography and is a must read.
Here is the link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/interactive/2025/tanner-shay-martin-baby-colon-cancer-end-of-life-planning/