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Cory Edwards, a Starbucks manager who coaches Little League in Henderson, Nevada, gave his team an unscripted pep talk while trailing 11-2 in the World Series final, telling them to hold their heads high and get tougher under pressure. ESPN's clip of the moment spread widely online, and Edwards later told The New York Times the message was really about character, not the scoreboard.
An Entrepreneur opinion piece argues that most franchise growth plans falter due to weak structure, misaligned leadership and inconsistent execution rather than bad ideas. The author, comparing franchise recruitment to precisely timing a V-8 engine, says franchisors often keep tweaking their candidate-sourcing process without ever achieving a clear sense of success. The piece urges leaders to replace guesswork with standardized, repeatable systems for evaluating franchisee quality.
Joe Drygas, Vice President of AT&T's Global Enterprise Business, describes how he rose through the company over 25 years by treating each new role as requiring a reinvented version of himself, comparing the approach to how elite athletes adapt their training as their roles evolve. He also credits deliberate scheduling of personal routines, like workouts and sleep, with reducing uncertainty and improving his leadership clarity.
An Entrepreneur contributor argues that franchise brands often struggle with recruiting new franchisees not because of weak marketing, but because senior leaders fail to stay engaged as 'Executive Sponsors' of the effort. The role involves clearing obstacles, allocating resources, managing risk, and communicating the purpose behind recruitment goals rather than simply delegating the task to a team.
Intel told employees last week it is eliminating its 'Fellow' and 'Senior Fellow' titles, dating back to 1980, in favor of 'Distinguished Engineer' and 'Senior Distinguished Engineer.' CTO Pushkar Ranade said the change reflects a new leadership standard requiring technical staff to pair deep expertise with strategic vision and measurable business outcomes, though compensation is unaffected.
The article revisits Steve Jobs' view that effective leaders push people to improve by setting demanding standards and giving honest feedback rather than shielding them from discomfort. It challenges the common workplace notion that caring for employees means avoiding friction or difficult conversations.
A workplace advice piece outlines four steps leaders can take when their organization's decisions or mission clash with their personal values. It builds on prior discussion of how values conflicts affect job satisfaction generally, but focuses on the distinct pressures leaders face when they must both represent and object to company direction.
At a G20 gathering, leaders from OpenAI, Anthropic, Nvidia and Palantir urged world leaders to embrace rapid AI development and avoid heavy regulatory constraints. The executives framed AI adoption as essential and non-negotiable, echoing the deregulatory stance favored by the Trump administration.
A Walmart Business survey of over 500 decision-makers at companies with 10 to 500 employees found that 37% spend four to seven hours per week on routine purchasing tasks like comparing prices, placing orders and reconciling invoices. The survey also revealed that 87% of businesses juggle two to five suppliers just for everyday supplies, from office goods to breakroom snacks to tech accessories.
At the G20 Innovation Ministerial in Chapel Hill, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick argued alongside Anthropic's Tom Brown that AI growth requires more data centers, launching a US effort to persuade global leaders to support them. The pitch comes even as roughly 3,400 data centers already operate in the US with 2,000 more planned, drawing bipartisan opposition over energy demands, water use and rising utility costs. The summit itself drew about 100 protesters objecting to appearances by Sam Altman, Elon Musk and Lutnick.
A veteran entrepreneur reflects on more than two decades of running a business by personally handling every crisis, from vendor problems to client calls, believing that constant involvement equaled strong leadership. He describes realizing that this reliance on him personally was actually a sign of poor systems and an inability to delegate, rather than a badge of competence.
An analysis explores why so few executives display genuine courage in their roles, pointing to a pattern where leaders default to cautious, low-risk behavior rather than taking bold stances. It draws on the example of a senior leader who became skilled at avoiding risk rather than confronting it.