Fortune magazine once published an article
entitled "The Best Advice I Ever Got". It was a great article that offered wit
and wisdom about achieving business success. I liked it so much, that it
motivated me to produce my book, Leadership: Best Advice I Ever Got, which
describes the best advice 136 successful CEOs, coaches, consultants, professors,
managers, executives, presidents, politicians, and religious leaders received
that most helped them become effective and successful business
leaders.
Here is their best advice.
1. A leader makes things
happen.
If you want to make something happen with your life - in school,
in your profession or in your community, do it. Perceived obstacles crumble
against persistent desire.
John Baldoni, Author, Leadership Communication
Consultant and Founder of Baldoni Consulting LLC, shared this advice that had
come from his father, a physician. He taught him the value of persistence. At
the same time, his mother taught him compassion for others. Therefore,
persistence for your cause should not be gained at the expense of others.
Another bit of leadership wisdom!
2. Listen and understand the issue,
then lead.
Time and time again we have all been told, "God gave us two
ears and one mouth for a reason"... or as Stephen Covey said, "Seek to
understand, rather than be understood." As a business leader, listening first to
the issue, then trying to coach, has been the most valuable advice that Cordia
Harrington, President and CEO of Tennessee Bun Company has been given.
3.
A successful business leader can answer the three questions everyone within his
or her organization wants answers to.
What the people of an organization
want from their leader are answers to the following: "Where are we going?" "How
are we going to get there?" "What is my role?" Kevin Nolan, President &
Chief Executive Officer of Affinity Health Systems, Inc. believes the more
clarity that can be added to the answers to each of the three questions, the
better the result.
4. Successful business leaders need to master the
skills that will allow them to work anywhere in today's dynamic business
world.
Debbe Kennedy, President, CEO and Founder of Global Dialogue
Center and Leadership Solutions Companies, and author of Action Dialogues and
Breakthrough once shared this piece of advice that was instrumental in shaping
her direction, future and achievements.
She was a young manager at IBM
just promoted to her first staff assignment in a regional marketing office. For
reasons she can't explain, one of her colleagues named Bookie called her into
his office while she was visiting his location. He then began to offer
unsolicited advice, advice that now stays fresh in her mind. He mentioned that
jobs, missions, titles and organizations would come and go as business is
dynamic - meaning it is always changing. He advised her not to focus your goals
toward any of these, but instead learn to master the skills that will allow you
to work anywhere.
He was talking about four skills:
The
ability to develop an idea;
Effectively plan for its
implementation;
Execute second-to-none;
Achieve superior results
time after time.
With this in mind, Kennedy's best advice is to seek jobs
and opportunities with this in mind. Forget what others do. Work to be known for
delivering excellence. It speaks for itself and it opens doors.
Paul B.
Thornton presents more of the best advice for being a successful business leader
that seven top leaders ever received on the next page. Click to continue reading
about effective leadership.Here's more of the best advice on how to be an
effective leader from seven top business leaders.
5. An effective
business leader has to be curious.
Curiosity is a prerequisite to
continuous improvement and even excellence. The person who gave Mary Jean
Thornton, Former Executive Vice President & CIO, The Travelers, this advice
urged her to study people, processes, and structures. He inspired her to be
intellectually curious. He often reminded Thornton that making progress, in
part, was based upon thinking.
She has learned to apply this notion of
intellectual curiosity by thinking about her organization's future,
understanding the present, and knowing and challenging herself to creatively
move the people and the organization closer to its vision.
6. An
effective business leader has to listen to both sides of the
argument.
The best advice Brian P. Lees, Massachusetts State Senator and
Senate Minority Leader, ever received came from his mentor, United States
Senator Edward W. Brooke III. He told him to listen to all different kinds of
people and ideas.
Listening only to those who share your background and
opinions can be imprudent. It is important to respect your neighbors' rights to
their own views. Listening to and talking with a variety of people, from
professors to police officers, from senior citizens to school children, is
essential not only to be a good business leader, but to also be a valuable
member within your community.
7. Prepare, prepare, prepare.
If you
fail to prepare, you are preparing to fail. If one has truly prepared and
something goes wrong the strength of the rest of what you've prepared for
usually makes this something easier to handle without crisis and panic. One of
the best pieces of advice Dave Hixson, Men’s Varsity Basketball Coach at Amherst
College has ever received and continues to use and pass on is this anonymous
quote - "Preparation is the science of winning."
Along with this are two
expressions from Rick Pitino's book Success is a Choice, which speaks to
preparation. Hixson asks his teams every year: "Do you deserve to win?" and
"Have you done the work?" This speaks to the importance of preparation toward
achieving your final goal. If you haven't done the work (the preparation) the
answer to the second question is an easy "no!"
One Last Piece of Best
Advice
Great advice on being an effective business leader comes from many
sources - parents, other relatives, consultants, bosses, co-workers, mentors,
teachers, coaches, and friends. The important point to remember is to stay open,
listen to everyone, but also develop your own leadership style.
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