Over my 20 years as an Executive leader and Coach, I have had the distinct privilege and honor to work with some passionate and successful CEO’s (a few Harvard MBA’s) along the way. In an effort to add value amidst the noise, I will share in a small capsule/minimum effective dose some inherited wisdom. This is what I have learned coaching industry leaders.
Every leader has a significant blind spot, and it’s how they manage it that determines their ultimate success. That’s every leader!- A leaders connection level with their BOD and their inner circle is the single most important factor to their influence/effectiveness/sustainability. Intellectual capital (IQ) and even results will only take you so far, before your own team during the perfect storm attempts a mutiny. Yes, every CEO has to survive the inevitable scandals their team’s or BOD’s create, if they are not liked.
- Truly great leaders (level 4-5) understand that developing their people by serving their unmet Needs (think Maslow) for Purpose > Mastery > Autonomy is not only great corporate citizenship, it’s also a profitable retention strategy and a wonderful antidote against inside scandals. This was proven in a joint study by MIT, University of Chicago and Carnegie Mellon…..and cited by Dan Pink’s-The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.
- Recently the Harvard Business School started teaching CEO’s a next level leadership paradigm/model, known as Shared Value. My most successful clients have aligned with these principles and it’s helped them energize their team’s, shape culture and lead in their marketplace.
I hope you found this interesting/helpful!