The corner office can be a lonely place. With decreasing tenures and increasing demands, today's CEOs face unprecedented challenges in leading their organizations. While McKinsey's groundbreaking research in "CEO Excellence" reveals six fundamental mindsets for success, what truly stands out are the counterintuitive lessons beneath the surface.
In the dynamic and demanding landscape of modern leadership, the power of connections is often overlooked. Yet, it's the threads of relationships that weave together the fabric of our success. Your network isn't just a collection of names; it's a reservoir of knowledge, support, and opportunity. By strategically building and nurturing your leadership network, you can unlock doors, amplify your impact, and drive your career forward.
In the dynamic and competitive landscape of modern business, the success of an organization is inextricably linked to the capabilities of its leadership. While external factors such as market trends and technological advancements play a significant role, the quality and development of leaders are the driving forces behind long-term sustainability. Let’s explore the critical importance of leadership development in fostering company growth and resilience.
Leaders are often cast as the architects of their own destinies, expected to build empires while maintaining an idyllic personal life. The concept of work-life balance, a term laden with equal parts aspiration and unattainable perfection, has become a modern-day myth. Yet, thriving in this high-stakes world is not about achieving equilibrium, but rather, about cultivating a dynamic harmony.
As a strategic business coach, I work with leadership teams daily. We focus on crafting winning strategies, building high-performing teams, and achieving ambitious goals. But what separates the truly exceptional teams (and leaders) from the merely good ones? Often, it comes down to a skill set that goes beyond traditional business acumen: emotional intelligence (EQ).
I hear it constantly: “There aren’t enough hours in the day.”
Do you find it hard to concentrate and stay focused because there’s just too much to do? Do you wake up in the middle of the night thinking about how you’re going to manage everything? Is your calendar booked solid every day?
What if I told you that the #1 roadblock to growing your business is something YOU can control? The answer is simple… DELEGATE!! There is no way you can scale the business if everything depends on YOU.
As business leaders, we want to recruit and retain the best and brightest team members to execute on our strategic vision. But are we looking at the right factors when building our executive leadership team? Do we really know what makes great leaders in today’s environment?
I’ve worked with leadership teams throughout my career — from building great, highly effective teams at Shelter Mortgage to all the companies I work with in my current role as a Strategic Business Coach. I’ve noticed five common traits in the most successful executive teams, and I share them below as the “Secrets of a Genuine Leader.”
Could your team make it to the Final Four?
It’s March Madness, and I can’t help but draw parallels between the teams on the basketball floor and the executive teams I see in the business world. They both operate off the same set of basic principles:
1. Get the basics right. Know your core values and stay true to them. Stay positive and work together on shared goals instead of personal, isolated goals. You can’t win the game alone.
Apple, REI, Walt Disney, Nordstrom, Starbucks…
When you walk into any of these businesses you immediately feel their company culture. It hits you the moment you step inside. It’s in the way their team members greet you, their level of service and the subtle behaviors you might not even notice.
All of these companies take their cultures seriously. They make trust, transparency, respect and pride all non-negotiable, and these qualities get mirrored in their customer-facing interactions.
As we enter 2018 and all the promise a fresh year brings, it’s the perfect time for leaders to develop their company’s Vivid Vision.
What’s a Vivid Vision? Cameron Herold, the former COO of 1-800-Got-Junk who increased revenues from $2 million to $105 million in 6 years, describes it in his book Double Double. It’s painting a picture of what your business will look, feel and act like three years down the road. It’s not about how you will get there with defined goals and metrics — we’ll save that for the strategic planning sessions with your leadership team. It’s imagining where you want your company to be in three years. To communicate this picture, you’ll need to envision success and provide ample details, using expressive language.
