What will determine who gets the next promotion, and the one after that? Which of them, when the time comes, will show the necessary 'grit' to lead for success? In other words, what does it take to lead a business or organisation — whether it’s a sports team, a not for profit, a small start-up or a multinational corporation?
Interviews conducted with more than 70 chief executives and other leaders point to five essentials for success — qualities that most of those C.E.O.’s share and look for in people they hire.
The good news: these traits are not genetic.
It’s not as if you have to be tall or left-handed. These qualities are developed through attitude, habit and discipline — factors that are within your control.
They will make you stand out. They will make you a better employee, manager, business owner and leader. They will lift the trajectory of your business or career and speed your progress.
What follows are excerpts from chapters taken from “The Corner Office: Indispensable and Unexpected Lessons From CEOs on How to Lead and Succeed,” by Adam Bryant on these five leadership qualities:
Many successful chief executives are passionately curious people. They ask big-picture questions. They wonder why things work the way they do and whether those things can be improved upon. It’s this relentless questioning that leads entrepreneurs to spot new opportunities and helps managers understand the people who work for them, and how to get them to work together effectively.
2. Battle-Hardened Confidence
There’s an energy from people who have it. Other qualities are tougher to discern, especially the ability to handle adversity. Some people embrace adversity, even relish it, and they have a track record of overcoming it. They have battle-hardened confidence.
But people, and companies, reveal how they deal with adversity only when they are faced with potential or real failure, and the status quo is not an option. The best predictor of behaviour is past performance, and that’s why so many chief executives interview job candidates about how they dealt with failure in the past.
3. Team Smarts
The most effective business owners or executives are more than team players. They understand how teams work and how to get the most out of the group. Team smarts is also about having good “peripheral vision” for sensing how people react to one another, not just how they act.
Companies increasingly operate through ad hoc teams. Team smarts refers to the ability to recognise the players the team needs and how to bring them together around a common goal.
4. A Simple Mind-Set
Most business owners and senior executives want the same thing from people who present to them: be concise, get to the point, make it simple. Yet, few people can deliver the simplicity that many bosses want.
If so many business owners and executives in positions of authority are clear about what they want, why can’t they get the people who report to them to lose the “Power” part of their presentations and simply get to the “Point”?
5. Fearlessness
Are you comfortable being uncomfortable? Do you like situations where there’s no road map or compass? Do you start twitching when things are operating smoothly, and want to shake things up? Are you willing to make surprising business or career moves to learn new skills? Is discomfort your comfort zone?
In other words, are you fearless?
With the business world in seemingly endless turmoil, maintaining the status quo — even when things appear to be working well — is only going to put you behind the competition. So when chief executives talk about executives on their staffs who are fearless, there is a reverence in their voices.
Like the other four keys to success, fearlessness is an attitude, and because attitude is one of the few things over which everyone has complete control, it is a character trait that can be developed. It can be fostered with a simple approach to taking more risks.
Reference: Adam Bryant: The Corner Office: Indispensable and Unexpected Lessons from CEOs on How to Lead and Succeed.
