When organizations go through transformation, leaders often focus on structure and process but overlook how team strengths shape collaboration. During an Agile transition I led, the CliftonStrengths assessment became one of the most effective tools for building trust and cohesion across newly formed teams. Unlike traditional skills mapping, CliftonStrengths highlights how people think, relate, and execute. We shared results openly during team onboarding, using them to guide p

Across two decades in technology and engineering, I’ve seen many leadership approaches succeed or fail depending on how well leaders connect with their teams. Over time, it became clear that empathy is not a soft skill but a core driver of collaboration, trust, and sustained performance. In one program, a high-performing engineering team struggled to meet delivery goals despite having strong technical expertise. The challenge was not execution; it was communication. Decisions