Confidence: How Winning Streaks and Losing Streaks Begin and End

Confidence examines how success and failure cycles develop in organizations, sports teams, and other groups. Through extensive research and case studies, Harvard Business School professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter analyzes the factors that create winning and losing streaks. The book presents evidence from organizations like Continental Airlines, the BBC, and various sports teams to demonstrate how leadership and culture impact performance outcomes. Kanter outlines the key elements that enable groups to maintain high performance and recover from setbacks. Real-world examples illustrate how confidence - or lack thereof - spreads through organizations and becomes self-reinforcing. The narrative tracks multiple organizations over time to reveal patterns in how their fortunes rose or declined. The work goes beyond simple success formulas to explore deeper questions about organizational psychology and human behavior under pressure. Its insights apply broadly to any group seeking to build sustainable success and resilience.

Readers found the book provided practical frameworks for building organizational confidence but felt it was repetitive and could have been shorter. Many noted the sports team examples resonated more than the corporate cases. Liked: - Clear "CATS" framework (Collaboration, Accountability, Trust, Support) - Real-world examples from sports and business - Focus on actionable leadership behaviors Disliked: - Same points made multiple times - Too many case studies that belabor similar messages - Corporate examples dated (Gillette, Continental Airlines) - Writing style described as "dry" and "academic" One reader noted: "The sports analogies worked better than the business ones - could have cut 100 pages of corporate examples." Ratings: Goodreads: 3.8/5 (374 ratings) Amazon: 4.1/5 (92 ratings) Google Books: 3.5/5 (28 ratings) Most common feedback suggests the book's core ideas are valuable but could have been delivered more concisely.

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🏆 Author Rosabeth Moss Kanter was named among the "50 most powerful women in the world" by The Times of London, and has served as editor of the Harvard Business Review. 📈 The book draws from extensive research across multiple sectors, including sports teams, businesses, and schools, analyzing more than 300 organizations to understand success patterns. 🧠 Kanter discovered that confidence isn't just a state of mind - it has three distinct cornerstones: accountability, collaboration, and initiative, which she calls the "cornerstones of confidence." 🏢 One of the book's notable case studies features Continental Airlines' remarkable turnaround from worst to first in industry rankings during the 1990s, illustrating how confidence can transform an entire organization. 🔄 The research shows that success and failure often operate in cycles or streaks, with initial small wins or losses creating momentum that can significantly impact future performance - a phenomenon seen across various fields from corporate boardrooms to sports arenas.