Category Archive for "Leadership"

Once upon a time all CEOs were tough task-masters. Bluntly put, they were expected to be more respected and feared than loved.

Then gradually the paradigm of executive leadership shifted to one in which the CEOs were expected to be affable team builders, and friendly “co-expediters”.

Business schools started to warm up to the general view that a “gentler and kindler” CEO accomplished more than her driven, goal-obsessed, performance-crazy counterpart.

The validity of this “soft skills paradigm” has not been questioned for at least two decades.

All that may be changing now, if a new study by three University of Chicago Business School professors is to be taken as the new gospel of CEO performance.

Prof. Steven Kaplan and his colleagues have shown that hard-charging bosses may actually do more good for the health of their businesses than bosses who emphasize “team work” over “performance” and “enthusiasm” over “profits.”

Here are the five CEO traits that correlated with business success at the Kaplan study and five that didn’t.

CEO traits that matter for business sucess…

> Persistence
> Attention to detail
> Efficiency
> Analytical skills
> Setting high standards

… And those that don’t:

> Strong oral communication
> Teamwork
> Flexibility/adaptability
> Enthusiasm
> Listening skills

(Source: The Wall Street Journal, Nov 19, 2007)

A good business leader leads by example. That much is for sure. You have to reflect all the good qualities like timeliness, fairness, hard-work etc. that you’d like to see in your employees, colleagues and partners.

But that’s only the minimum necessary condition of leadership.

Another important condition is the ability to solve problems, if temporarily.

“There are no absolute solutions, just temporary ones” is a good mantra for any business leader.

What does it take to come up with solutions in every situation?

“Resourcefulness” is a top trait that all leaders should have. You should find new resources or marshal old ones that were not implemented before.

That brings us to “creativity” as a must condition for superior leadership.

Remember the way Picasso created an ox head from a bicycle seat and steering handles? You can similarly put together “existing parts” (ideas, practices, modules, etc.) to create something totally new and appropriate to solve the issue at hand.

For example, let’s say you are losing productivity because most of your staffers are single parents who have to rush back home when their children are sick.

Can you commission the work to their homes? Can you open a kindergarden on premises? Can you stagger the work so that those with little children can take any shift they want? Perhaps some of the staffers might agree to taking care of each other’s children in return for longer solo shifts in the office?

Here is a story I’ve heard years ago…

Once upon a time a significant portion of the individually-packaged cube sugar that airlines used were going stale inside their air-tight wrappings. The airlines were upset because of all the packaged cube-sugar that had to be thrown out for waiting too long in the warehouse.

After trying hundreds of different wrappers with no result, someone came up with the idea that perhaps they needed to OPEN the packaging somehow and allow air to get in, instead of maintaining an air-tight design.

One executive came up with the idea of actually piercing each package with a pin and the problem was solved instantly!

Thanks to that simple “ventilation hole,” individually packaged cube-sugar gained a lot longer shelf-life, saving airlines money in the long run.

A leader must have the courage to “open up” things when everybody else is recommending “closing down,” or vice versa.

That’s why “courage” is yet another trait that a good leader must have to buck the common trends and take risks in order to arrive at satisfactory solutions.

To manage your business well, you first need to manage yourself better. Here are 10 useful tips for successful business leaders:

1. Don’t try to boil the ocean. Know the difference between difficult and impossible projects. Don’t waste a single second on the latter.

2. Learn how to praise in public but criticize in private.

3. You’ve got one mouth but two ears. Learn how to listen and listen well before you open your mouth.

4. Clean and dress the wound to cure the fever. Do not to punish people but solve the problems expressed by the people.

5. Serve first before you can lead. Be a good passenger before you drive others.

6. Learn constantly and once in a while, brush up on things that are not directly related to your field as well. If you run a gasket factory, go to an opera once a year and learn about the lives of famous composers to deepen your background. That depth will serve you well in many unexpected ways in different contexts.

7. You can lift ten pounds, and perhaps a hundred pounds, but you need a crane to lift a ton. Get qualified help and learn how to delegate to grow your business.

8. Have a clean conscience. Your should be able to look into your own eyes in the mirror comfortably before you can look into the eyes of the others and lead.

9. Don’t give up too soon. Remember, if you can’t get it right the first few times you try, you’re running just about average.

10. Don’t feel too self-conscious in whatever you do. Don’t cripple yourself with the anxiety of social criticism and judgment. People are usually too busy and self-occupied to notice what you are doing anyhow.