Christopher O'Donnell on Networking and Cultivating Culture

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When there’s a failure, what do great leaders do? They take responsibility and avoid placing blame on others. Wins, however, they give away.

We recently sat down with Christopher O’Donnell, chief product officer at HubSpot, to ask him about fostering his team’s HEART, an acronym that stands for humble, empathetic, adaptable, remarkable and transparent.

One of the ways Christopher excels at leading his team is by giving away wins and taking losses. He also embodies the H in HEART. As a leader, you can’t be the most talented person in the room; your team members should be the ones with the expertise. What you are best at should be attracting talented team members and helping them collaborate.

In the episode, Christopher provides a quick word on diversity and inclusion, too. Behavioral science is really clear on what makes a stellar high-performance team. It isn’t homogeneity. Diversity is having a team built from people with different behaviors, backgrounds, communication styles, worldviews and even senses of humor.

Inclusion is making sure that they all feel safe to participate, that sharing their ideas won’t mean a failure rebounds onto them. As a leader, you should be humble enough to let it fall onto you!

Listen to our whole conversation with Christopher below, or through your favorite podcast player listed at the top of this page.

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Connect with Christopher O’Donnell on Twitter or LinkedIn.

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