Category: Articles

People Don’t Come With Instructions. Maybe We Should Learn to Read Them Anyway.

Tara August 18, 2026

LinkedIn.com, August 2026-I Wish People Came With Instructions

One of my clients shared an operating manual about how to work with him most effectively when we first started working together. It was the first time I’ve ever experienced that and it was brilliant. The details were spot on as I’ve reviewed and reflected on the document over time; it’s actually been extremely helpful.

Wouldn’t life be easier if more people came with instructions?

Not a résumé. Not a LinkedIn profile. Not a Myers-Briggs type, an Enneagram number, or a list of strengths generated during an executive offsite.

I mean actual instructions that are unique to them.

Here’s what makes me feel valued. Here’s what shuts me down. Here’s how I make decisions. Here’s what I need when I’m overwhelmed. Here’s how I behave when I’m scared. Here’s the best way to challenge me. Here’s what silence means when it comes from me. And here’s the thing I probably won’t tell you unless you ask.

Read the complete article at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/people-dont-come-instructions-maybe-we-should-learn-read-richards-9tnuc

The AI Conversation We’re Not Having Yet: Leadership in an Era of Perpetual Adaptation

Tara August 4, 2026

LinkedIn.com, August 2026-I’ve spent my career at the intersection of technology, innovation, and human potential, leading and observing one wave of disruption after another reshape how we work and live.

The personal computer changed the nature of office work. The internet transformed communication and commerce on a global scale. Mobile technology untethered us from our desks and gave us freedom to roam. Cloud computing rewrote the economics of software. Each innovation has brought uncertainty, excitement, skepticism, and no shortage of disruption.

Yet there was always a rhythm to these transitions.

Organizations experimented. Employees learned. New practices emerged. Eventually, what once felt revolutionary became familiar. People developed confidence. Businesses established a new cadence. We settled into a new normal. The technology matured, and so did our relationship with it.

Artificial intelligence feels fundamentally different.

Read the complete article at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ai-conversation-were-having-yet-leadership-era-kelli-richards-nwh2c

Leadership Resonance: A Powerful Leadership Skill That Virtually Nobody Talks About

Kelli Richards July 20, 2026

LinkedIn.com, July 2026-After spending decades advising founders, CEOs, innovators, artists, and global leaders, I’ve become convinced that one of the most powerful forces in leadership is also one of the most overlooked and the least discussed.

Every leader creates an invisible field of impact around them.

Some leaders expand the intelligence, confidence, creativity, and courage of everyone they encounter.

Others—often with the very best intentions—unknowingly diminish those same qualities.

Read the complete article at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/leadership-resonance-powerful-skill-virtually-nobody-talks-richards-zbmjc/

Video Is AI’s Last Unstructured Frontier: Why the Next Infrastructure Battle Has Already Begun

Kelli Richards July 6, 2026

LinkedIn.com, July 2026- One lesson I’ve learned throughout my career bridging Silicon Valley and Hollywood is that history rarely rewards the company that arrives first.

It rewards the company that arrives when the market is finally ready. And that can take time – sometimes year, sometimes decades.

When I helped launch Apple’s early digital music initiatives, many believed the industry wasn’t prepared. They were right—until (some 15 years later) suddenly they weren’t. The convergence of technology, infrastructure, consumer behavior and business models had caught up, and subsequently transformed what once seemed premature into one of the defining platform shifts of a generation.

 

Read the entire article at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/video-ais-last-unstructured-frontier-why-next-battle-has-richards-gp3pc/

The Hidden Cost of Compartmentalization: When Your Greatest Strength Becomes Your Greatest Limitation

Kelli Richards June 21, 2026

LinkedIn.com, June 2026-Many of the most successful people I’ve worked with share a common trait:

They’re masters of compartmentalization. They can walk out of a difficult conversation with a family member and into a board meeting without missing a beat. They can absorb setbacks, disappointments, and uncertainty while continuing to lead, create, perform, and execute at the highest levels.

In many cases, this ability has helped to create their success. But what happens when the skill that got you here starts preventing you from getting where you’re meant to go next? And what happens when it interferes with your relationships?

Read the entire article at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/hidden-cost-compartmentalization-when-your-greatest-becomes-richards-k0qnc/

Is an Apple Smart Ring the Next Big Thing?

Kelli Richards June 7, 2026

LinkedIn.com, June 2026-Every few years, Apple faces a version of the same question: what’s the next form factor? The iPod gave way to the iPhone. The iPhone gave rise to the Watch. And now, as the wearables category matures and health becomes the company’s most visible long-term bet, a new question is surfacing in product circles and on enthusiast forums alike — could a smart ring be Apple’s next meaningful hardware move?

Having spent years inside Apple’s product culture, and many more since then tracking where consumer technology is headed, I find this question more interesting than most “what will Apple do next” speculation. That’s because it isn’t really about a new gadget. It’s about a strategic fork in the road: does Apple expand its health platform by adding a new form factor, by deepening the one it already owns, or by doing both at once?

Read the entire article at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/apple-smart-ring-next-big-thing-kelli-richards-fot5c/

The Artist, the Symbol, and the Digital Revolution: What Working with Prince Taught Me About Artist Sovereignty

Kelli Richards May 18, 2026

LinkedIn.com, May 2026 Ten years after his passing, I find myself thinking about what made Prince not just a genius, but a true visionary innovator.

The Symbol Was Never About Eccentricity

To understand Prince’s thinking in the years I worked with him, you have to understand why he became “The Artist Formerly Known as Prince” in the first place.

In 1993, Prince changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol — a combination of the male and female signs, merged into something entirely his own. The mainstream press treated it as the act of an eccentric megastar gone too far. But it was nothing of the sort. It was a deliberate, radical act of protest.

Read the entire article at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/artist-symbol-digital-revolution-what-working-prince-taught-richards-4ioze/

From Beyond the Grave: How Technology Is Resurrecting Talent from the Great Beyond

Kelli Richards April 25, 2026

LinkedIn.com, April 25, 2026

In April 2012, 90,000 people at the Coachella music festival watched Tupac Shakur take the stage alongside Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg. The crowd went insane. The hashtag #tupachologram trended for three weeks. There was just one problem: Tupac had been dead for sixteen years.

What happened that night in the California desert was a signal flare — a glimpse of a future where talent, creativity, and legacy no longer end with death. Over the decade plus since then, the technology has only accelerated. Today, we are firmly in an era where the barrier between the living and the departed is being dissolved by artificial intelligence, machine learning, and digital production techniques that would have seemed miraculous (if not impossible) just a generation ago.

Read the entire article at From Beyond the Grave: How Technology Is Resurrecting Talent from the Great Beyond

When Past Glory Becomes Present Pressure: The Quiet Self-Sabotage of High Achievers

Kelli Richards April 10, 2026

LinkedIn.com, April 10, 2026

There’s a pattern I’ve observed—both in others and, at moments, in myself—that doesn’t get talked about enough.

It’s not failure in the traditional sense. It’s something more subtle. More disorienting.

It’s what happens when someone who has been exceptional finds themselves no longer operating from that same level of momentum, relevance, or external validation… but is still being perceived through the lens of their past success.

From the outside, they’re still “the one who did X.” On the inside, something has shifted.

And that gap—between past identity and present reality—can quietly become one of the most destabilizing forces that a high achiever will ever face.

Read the entire article at When Past Glory Becomes Present Pressure: The Quiet Self-Sabotage of High Achievers

Apple at 50: What Most People Still Don’t Get About Its Greatest Innovation and Legacy

Kelli Richards March 23, 2026

LinkedIn.com, March 2026 -On April 1st, Apple Inc. turns 50.

Half a century since two Steves—and a vision that seemed almost implausible at the time—set something in motion that would go on to reshape not just an industry, but culture itself.

The timing feels especially poignant with the release of “Apple: The First 50 Years“ by journalist David Pogue, which captures the arc of that journey. I published my own book on Apple 15 years ago – “The Magic and Moxie of Apple: An Insider’s View”. There’s no shortage of retrospectives celebrating the products, the milestones, and the mythology.

But anniversaries like this aren’t just about looking back. They’re also about understanding what actually mattered—and what still does.

Read the entire article at Apple at 50: What Most People Still Don’t Get About Its Greatest Innovation and Legacy

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