By Preston Fore
Publication Date: 2026-02-16 08:02:00
The pace of change in Silicon Valley is relentless. New AI tools and large language models seem to drop every week, and many workers are feeling the pressure to constantly reskill just to avoid falling behind.
But according to Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins, the people who rise to the top aren’t the ones who are obsessing over every new release. Instead, they tend to share three traits that focus more on getting back to basics.
“The people who are wildly successful have this incredible combination: they understand the technology, have high EQ [emotional intelligence], and really care about the mission of the team,” he said on the TBPN podcast earlier this month.
As competition intensifies in the AI era, Robbins believes collaboration—not individual heroics—is what separates standout employees in particular from everyone else.
“Anybody that says they don’t care about their own success is lying to you. But [you need to] figure out that when the team succeeds, I’m…
