Last week I participated in a conversation on leadership at the 64th Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

Everybody loves a top 100 list. It could be the best dog breeds, best cities to live in, or in this case, the highest rated CEOs. I love Glassdoor's annual list of the top 100 highest rated CEOs because it's based on how the employees of major corporations value their most senior leader.

I was fortunate enough to have Bill Gurley in our boardroom for 10 years. Bill led Zillow’s Series A funding round way back in 2006 when we were just a PowerPoint deck and a couple of Expedia alums trying to revolutionize real estate. Dubbed theworld’s top venture capitalist, Bill’s backed some of today’s most transformative companies, from Twitter and Snapchat to OpenTable, TripAdvisor, Yelp, Uber and Glassdoor.

Time and money. The drive to lower costs and outpace the competition is bigger than ever. No matter what industry you’re in, you feel it. Amazon is doing to retail what Henry Ford did to the buggy industry 120 years ago.

Any investor or venture capitalist quickly learns what to look for as he or she considers making an investment. After one sees a batch of deals, pattern recognition takes over. Investors are looking for big returns and want to hear about ideas but also want to know that the entrepreneur is not naive when it comes to what it will take for success.

“An average man loves what he does, a great man loves what destiny throws at him.” A guy once said this to me. At that time I believed that I must choose things I love. But now I know that I have little choice and have to make the best of what is being offered.

I am often engaged to speak about innovation and strategy… not in an academic sort of way, people want to know how I took an idea and turned it into reality. One thing (unfortunately) that we do know is that most start-up businesses never reach the heights that match the dreams of the founders…yet others are a run-away successes. I’m not yet putting my enterprises in the category of ‘runaway’ successes – but we are managing to serve many customers, grow, and have a good time while we are doing it. So, we are getting something right.

When I first became an executive at a large academic health system, the focus was on maximizing local market share — that is, providing care to as much of the local population as possible.

Think back to the leaders in your life that you liked. They were also the ones who were most successful, right? According to an article in Harvard Business School’s Working Knowledge, “Fool vs. Jerk: Whom Would You Hire?” research shows that no matter the organization or industry, everyone wants to work with a “loveable star” who combines competence and likeability. Leaders with a high emotional intelligence are also those that significantly outperform those who aren’t able to manage emotions—their own and others—according to research data from TalentSmart.