Inc.
These Are the 8 Best Pieces of Leadership Advice You'll Read This Week
By: Kevin J. Ryan
Held in NYC, this year's Fast Company Innovation Festival brought together business leaders. From Jessica Alba to new Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson, here's some of the best bits of leadership advice these entrepreneurs had to offer.
1. A little respect: "Get to know the people you're leading,” says baseball great Derek Jeter, founder of the Players’ Tribune. “Don't treat everyone the same--treat everyone fairly. Earn everyone's respect, and find out what works for them."
2. Worker empowerment: Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson sees the company’s responsibility to its workers as more than that of an employer. “Our job is to empower our [employees],” he says, “and make them proud to work for our brand."
3. Go above and beyond: Jen Rubio, co-founder of luggage brand Away, believes in giving customers more than just a product. "Resonate with people in an unexpected way,” she advises.
4. Dig deep: How do you find your breakthrough startup idea? Tristan Walker, founder of Walker and Company, suggests asking yourself a simple yet powerful question: "What problem do you feel like you’re the best person in the world to solve?"
5. Getting to yes: "I developed thick skin," actor and Honest Company founder Jessica Alba says of her career. "As good as you ever are, there are a thousand noes before you get your one yes."
6. Total transparency: Sweetgreen listed the sources of its ingredients before it was common practice. Co-founder Nicolas Jammet says it was “kind of crazy at the time. You have to push the customer to where they're going."
7. Different metrics: BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti encourages trying different ways of examining whether people like your product. "It's about being skeptical of data," he says, "and looking for other ways to see if people enjoy it."
8. Eye-opening: Actor and Emmy-winner Lena Waithe sees a higher calling in making works like Netflix's Master of None. "If you can get people to meet different, diverse characters they'd never meet in real life," she says, "you can change their experiences."
