1. Focus
“It’s been said that leadership is making
important but unpopular decisions. That’s certainly a partial truth, but I
think it underscores the importance of focus. To be a good leader, you cannot
major in minor things, and you must be less distracted than your
competition. To get the few critical things done, you must develop
incredible selective ignorance. Otherwise, the trivial will drown you.”
—Tim Ferriss, bestselling author, host
of The Tim Ferriss Show
2. Confidence
“A leader instills confidence and
‘followership’ by having a clear vision, showing empathy and being a strong
coach. As a female leader, to be recognized I feel I have to show up with
swagger and assertiveness, yet always try to maintain my Southern upbringing,
which underscores kindness and generosity. The two work well together in
gaining respect.”
—Barri Rafferty, CEO, Ketchum North America
3. Transparency
“I’ve never bought into the concept of
‘wearing the mask.’ As a leader, the only way I know how to engender trust and
buy-in from my team and with my colleagues is to be 100 percent authentically
me—open, sometimes flawed, but always passionate about our work. It has allowed
me the freedom to be fully present and consistent. They know what they’re
getting at all times. No surprises.”
—Keri Potts, senior director of public
relations, ESPN
4. Integrity
“Our employees are a direct reflection of the
values we embody as leaders. If we’re playing from a reactive and obsolete
playbook of needing to be right instead of doing what’s right, then we limit
the full potential of our business and lose quality talent. If you focus on
becoming authentic in all your interactions, that will rub off on your business
and your culture, and the rest takes care of itself.”
—Gunnar Lovelace, co-CEO and cofounder,
Thrive Market
5. Inspiration
“People always say I’m a self-made man. But
there is no such thing. Leaders aren’t self-made; they are driven. I arrived in
America with no money or any belongings besides my gym bag, but I can’t
say I came with nothing: Others gave me great inspiration and fantastic advice,
and I was fueled by my beliefs and an internal drive and passion. That’s why
I’m always willing to offer motivation—to friends or strangers on Reddit. I
know the power of inspiration, and if someone can stand on my shoulders to
achieve greatness, I’m more than willing to help them up.”
—Arnold Schwarzenegger, former governor
of California
6. Passion
“You must love what you do. In order
to be truly successful at something, you must obsess over it and let it
consume you. No matter how successful your business might become, you are never
satisfied and constantly push to do something bigger, better and
greater. You lead by example not because you feel like it’s what you
should do, but because it is your way of life.”
—Joe Perez, cofounder, Tastemade
7. Innovation
“In any system with finite resources and
infinite expansion of population—like your business, or like all of
humanity—innovation is essential for not only success but also
survival. The innovators are our leaders. You cannot separate the
two. Whether it is by thought, technology or organization, innovation is our
only hope to solve our challenges.”
—Aubrey Marcus, founder, Onnit
8. Patience
“Patience is really courage that’s meant to
test your commitment to your cause. The path to great things is always
tough, but the best leaders understand when to abandon the cause and when
to stay the course. If your vision is bold enough, there will be hundreds of
reasons why it ‘can’t be done’ and plenty of doubters. A lot of things have to
come together—external markets, competition, financing, consumer demand and
always a little luck—to pull off something big.”
—Dan Brian, COO, WhipClip
9. Stoicism
“It’s inevitable: We’re going to find
ourselves in some real shit situations, whether they’re costly mistakes,
unexpected failures or unscrupulous enemies. Stoicism is, at its core,
accepting and anticipating this in advance, so that you don’t freak out, react
emotionally and aggravate things further. Train our minds, consider the
worst-case scenarios and regulate our unhelpful instinctual responses—that’s
how we make sure shit situations don’t turn into fatal resolutions.”
—Ryan Holiday, author of The
Obstacle is the Way and former director of marketing, American
Apparel
10. Wonkiness
“Understanding the underlying numbers is the
best thing I’ve done for my business. As we have a subscription-based service,
the biggest impact on our bottom line was to decrease our churn
rate. Being able to nudge that number from 6 percent to 4 Percent
meant a 50 percent increase in the average customer’s lifetime value.
We would not have known to focus on this
metric without being able to accurately analyze our data.”
—Sol Orwell, cofounder, Examine.com
11. Authenticity
“It’s true that imitation is one of the
greatest forms of flattery, but not when it comes to leadership—and every great
leader in my life, from Mike Tomlin to Olympic ski coach Scott Rawles, led from
a place of authenticity. Learn from others, read autobiographies of your
favorite leaders, pick up skills along the way... but never lose your
authentic voice, opinions and, ultimately, how you make decisions.”
—Jeremy Bloom, cofounder and CEO, Integrate
12. Open-mindedness
“One of the biggest myths is that good
business leaders are great visionaries with dogged determination
to stick to their goals no matter what. It’s nonsense. The truth
is, leaders need to keep an open mind while being flexible, and
adjust if necessary. When in the startup phase of a company,
planning is highly overrated and goals are not static. Your
commitment should be to invest, develop and maintain
great relationships.”
—Daymond John, CEO, Shark Branding and FUBU
13. Decisiveness
“In high school and college, to pick up extra
cash I would often referee recreational basketball games. The mentor who taught
me how to officiate gave his refs one important piece of advice that translates
well into the professional world: ‘Make the call fast, make the call loud and
don’t look back.’ In marginal situations, a decisively made wrong call will
often lead to better long-term results and a stronger team than a wishy-washy
decision that turns out to be right.”
—Scott Hoffman, owner, Folio Literary
Management
14. Personableness
“We all provide something unique to this
world, and we can all smell when someone isn’t being real. The more you
focus on genuine connections with people, and look for ways to help them—rather
than just focus on what they can do for you—the more likable and personable you
become. This isn’t required to be a great leader, but it is to be a
respected leader, which can make all the difference in your business.”
—Lewis Howes, New York Times
bestselling author of The School of Greatness
15. Empowerment
“Many of my leadership philosophies were
learned as an athlete. My most successful teams didn’t always have the most
talent but did have teammates with the right combination of skills, strengths
and a common trust in each other. To build an ‘overachieving’ team, you need to
delegate responsibility and authority. Giving away responsibilities isn’t
always easy. It can actually be harder to do than completing the task yourself,
but with the right project selection and support, delegating can pay off in
dividends. It is how you truly find people’s capabilities and get the most out
of them.”
—Shannon Pappas, senior vice president,
Beachbody LIVE
16. Positivity
“In order to achieve greatness, you must
create a culture of optimism. There will be many ups and downs, but the
prevalence of positivity will keep the company going. But be warned: This
requires fearlessness. You have to truly believe in making the impossible
possible.”
—Jason Harris, CEO,
Mekanism
17. Generosity
“My main goal has always been to offer the
best of myself. We all grow—as a collective whole—when I’m able to build up
others and help them grow as individuals.”
—Christopher Perilli, CEO, Pixel Mobb
18. Persistence
“A great leader once told me, ‘persistence
beats resistance.’ And after working at Facebook, Intel and Microsoft and
starting my own company, I’ve learned two major lessons: All great things
take time, and you must persist no matter what. That’s what it takes to be a
leader: willingness to go beyond where others will stop.”
—Noah Kagan, Chief Sumo, appsumo
19. Insightfulness
“It takes insight every day to be able to
separate that which is really important from all the incoming fire. It’s like
wisdom—it can be improved with time, if you’re paying attention, but it has to
exist in your character. It’s inherent. When your insight is right, you look
like a genius. And when your insight is wrong, you look like an idiot.”
—Raj Bhakta, founder, WhistlePig Whiskey
20. Communication
“If people aren’t aware of your expectations,
and they fall short, it’s really your fault for not expressing it to them. The
people I work with are in constant communication, probably to a fault. But
communication is a balancing act. You might have a specific want or need, but
it’s superimportant to treat work as a collaboration. We always want
people to tell us their thoughts and ideas—that’s why we have all
these very talented people working with us.”
—Kim Kurlanchik Russen, partner, TAO Group
21. Accountability
“It’s a lot easier to assign blame than to
hold yourself accountable. But if you want to know how to do it right, learn
from financial expert Larry Robbins. He wrote a genuinely humble letter to his
investors about his bad judgment that caused their investments to falter. He
then opened up a new fund without management and performance fees—unheard of in
the hedge fund world. This is character. This is accountability. It’s not
only taking responsibility; it’s taking the next step to make it right.”
—Sandra Carreon-John, senior vice president,
M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment
22. Restlessness
“It takes real leadership
to find the strengths within each person on your team and then be willing to
look outside to plug the gaps. It’s best to believe that your team alone does
not have all the answers— because if you believe that, it usually means you’re
not asking all the right questions.”
Written by: Adam and Jodan Bornstein
Credit: Entrepreneur.com
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