22 Qualities That Make a Great Leader

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

You Might Be Guilty of This Workplace Habit and Creativity Killer

Turns out, there's a business need for the office rebel.

On good days, being a team player means cooperating and collaborating. On tough days, it can mean going along with a decision you disagree with for the greater good.

But most days, being a team player can mean something else entirely -- something you haven’t considered. It can mean doing the same old work --  the same old way of thinking and doing -- because it just hasn’t occurred to you or your colleagues to do anything differently.

That’s the dark side of conformity and one that has big impacts for careers and businesses. According to research published in the Harvard Business Review, this inclination to conform at work -- a conformity you often don’t even notice -- is making you less creative and engaged.

Francesca Gino, a professor of business administration at Harvard Business School laid out the findings of a series of recent surveys she conducted to explore conformity in the workplace.

In a survey of 2,000 employees, almost half of participants said that they feel the need to conform, and more than half said that their workforce does not question the status quo. In a second survey, less than 10 percent of the more than 1,000 people polled said they work for companies that encourage nonconformity.

Gino explains that conformity in the workplace can manifest itself in different ways, whether it's dressing like your colleagues or always agreeing with your supervisor as a matter of course – but she cautions that while actions like these can make us comfortable, before long, always going with the flow makes it that much tougher to come up with really innovative and disruptive ideas.

"Borders, BlackBerry, Polaroid, and Myspace are but a few of the many companies that once had winning formulas but didn’t update their strategies until it was too late," writes Gino. "Overly comfortable with the status quo, their leaders fell back on tradition and avoided the type of nonconformist behavior that could have spurred continued success."

So how can managers create an environment that helps their employees be their authentic selves? And how can employees take responsibility for their own creativity? 

Focus on what, not how

For bosses: Managers can start by hiring people with differing and distinctive points of view and be clear about what they want. She reminds companies to focus on what jobs need to be done, not how they should be done.

For workers: Staffers can do their part by thinking about how their own jobs could be done more efficiently or what would make them more interesting. Few bosses would balk at a solution that’s faster and better and makes a team more engaged.

Change the conversation

For bosses: One way to avoid stagnant, status quo thinking is to open up lines of communication and encourage your employees to ask questions. "Leaders shouldn’t ask, 'Who agrees with this course of action?' or 'What information supports this view?' Instead they should ask, “What information suggests this might not be the right path to take,'" explains Gino.  

For workers: Assume change is possible -- anything less is just status quo bias in action. While not mentioned in the report, it stands to reason that staffers should weigh in with ideas and offer their bird’s eye view on how new changes or ideas might impact them. Remember: Bosses assume you’ll tell them when something isn’t working -- especially when they’ve asked -- and most are open to new processes and perspectives.

Lead with your strengths

For bosses: Gino suggests encouraging employees to think about what makes them unique, and what strengths they bring to the table. Asking “how you can bring your authentic self to work?” led workers at one IT company freedom to adjust scripts when needed and made those staffers feel more engaged.

For workers: Take responsibility for your own creativity. When was the last time you asked yourself about your strengths and how you could put them to work for your own job or career? Get to work proposing ways you can showcase your talents in ways that keep you and your company competitive. You might be able to create a one-of-a-kind niche for self -- winning creative freedom in the process.

Written By: Nina Zipkin

Credit: Entrepreneur.com 

When You're Just Getting Started, Turn Up The Volume.

If you get enough done, some of it is going to be great.

Try doing things faster. Much faster.

Yes, quality trumps speed. But speed trumps inaction.

(Most of us aren’t at a place where we should be obsessing about quality. Yet.)

Sometimes it’s better to get something done quickly with a few errors, and literally just “push” it out, than to wait for it to appear in your lap fully formed. Getting things done more quickly is an insurance plan against inaction.

I have a morning routine that I faithfully execute with very rare exceptions.

With so much time before the day officially starts, sometimes I abuse all that free space.

I’m up at 4:45 a.m.. I go to the bathroom. I’m on the phone. Scroll, scroll, scroll.

I walk into the kitchen and make myself a coffee. Extra black. Sip, sip, sip.

Now it’s time to read. Usually I pick something meaty. Scan, scan, scan.

Writing is next. Sometimes I’ll sit there just staring at the screen. Think, think, think.

There’s nothing wrong with going at your own pace, but it’s nice to purposely pick up the pace sometimes. Try switching things up and see how you perform when things are double speed.

Turn. Up. The. Volume.

Cut out all the leisurely pauses. Get to business. Focus on purpose.

Ever seen Ronda Rousey enter the ring? Her eyes are narrowed, shoulders squared and pulled back, fists clenched. Stomp, stomp, stomp. She marches into the ring. Now that’s a woman with purpose.

When you inject more purpose into your activities, it naturally narrows your focus. The distractions on the periphery just fade into the background.

Try thinking of your work like that.

This is the manner of thought I’m adopting to get a lot more work done. Like, a lot more work.

Last weekend, I shot 15 videos for YouTube. I just set the camera up in my house and started talking. Didn’t script it. Didn’t care. The goal was production, not perfection. It was easy to do this. So easy. I’m mad that I didn’t do it earlier. I’ve had this awesome camera for almost two years.

Yesterday, I went in the studio to make the first #Rich20Something mixtape. I came in there with the beats and a few ideas for what I wanted to do. I didn’t obsess about the “does this sound good” thing. I just asked myself “can I get five tracks done today?” I banged 'em out. We’ll mix them later.

Watch my video regarding Tupac and The Urgency of Creation, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.

This morning, I rose from the dead and stomped to the kitchen. I sat down at the computer and, before the coffee was ready, immediately started writing this post you’re now reading. I don’t care if it gets shared as much as I just care that it gets done.

Volume is a powerful force for creating hits in any industry. Especially when you’re getting started.

Volume is a better formula for making something go viral than any algorithm or any tactic.

Stuff the ballot box in your favor.

Think Lil’ Wayne circa 2004-2008. He had a studio on the bus and he was just ripping mixtapes out at a sickening pace. A lot of the songs were good. A lot of them were trash. But from every 100 songs, five solid hits would appear. Did people obsess over the underwhelming tracks? Nah. Everybody forgot about the 95 and focused on the five.

Five hits is a lot of hits.

Pretend that there’s a studio on your bus. Bring whatever you need to get your work done with you and do your thing on the road.

Turn up the volume.

Kanye said, “Lock yourself in a room doing five beats a day for three summers.”

Try that.

You’ll probably surprise yourself with your own brilliance.

Written By: Daniel Dipiazza

Credit: Entrepreneur.com

4 Ways to Reward Employees and Gain a Return on Investment

Everyone likes to feel appreciated. Many companies try to harness that feeling -- especially now, during the run-up to the end of the year and the holiday season. That's why so many companies use gifts to incentivize their teams.

In reality, though, such reward programs actually demotivate workers. In fact, a Harvard study proves it.

4 Hallmarks of Leadership in a Time of Crisis

There was an earthquake in California. Your facility and team were impacted.

News of your imminent merger was just leaked by a young, ambitious journalist who caught your CFO off guard at a networking event.

Your CEO is being led out of your building in handcuffs.