Last week I had the opportunity to moderate a panel of powerhouse CEOs in my hometown (Omaha, NE). In preparation for this panel, I met with the leaders of the organization (Association for Corporate Growth) that sponsored the event. In our conversations, we wanted to honor both the unique talents and insights that these leaders brought to their organizations and also could teach the audience.
On stage we had the CEO of a major jewelry store (her boss is Warren Buffet!), the CEO of a 120-year old auto parts manufacturer, and the CEO of the largest women-owned law firm in the midwest.
Here's a list of questions we didn't ask:
How do you have work/life balance?
How do you overcome imposter syndrome?
How do you handle being called bossy, assertive, etc?
Why didn't we ask these? Indeed they are common and important questions that address very real feelings and challenges that women experience. We didn't ask them because we don't ask men these questions.
When men are put on stage for their leadership expertise they get questions about strategy, vision, teams, achievement, culture, etc. Women should get the opportunity to share their expertise on these same topics and not have to continuously explain how they handle themselves.
And that's exactly what we did. We put them on stage to demonstrate how they scale their businesses, lead teams, maximize their leadership community, build legacies through succession planning, address technology and AI, and so many more business leadership topics that arose.
What these powerhouse leaders demonstrated was that, in each of their successful endeavors as CEO, there is no one right way to be a leader, but instead, that showing up and leading by trusting yourself and using your unique talents and approaches was their key to success. Keep reading to see three key lessons you can implement in your own leadership, in your own unique way.
PUT THIS IDEA INTO ACTION
In allowing their expertise to shine as CEOs, these leaders showed the audience and me that there is no one right way to be a leader, but that you can drive success by embracing what is unique about your talents and skills and investing in yourself.
Here are three common themes they demonstrated in all of their responses:
Learning: Each CEO mentioned that learning was critical to their success as a CEO and for their organization in three distinct ways:
Fostering a growth mindset in themselves first - especially during challenges, as they can't foster a growth mindset organization if they don't go first.
Investing in themselves whether it be through leadership continued education, coaching, learning new skills, reading, current trends. Then, encouraging their team to do the same.
Investing in well being both personally and organizationally by promoting movement, healthy habits and mental health. Each of them admitted they couldn't be an effective leader without caring for their well-being via sleep, healthy habits, movement, etc.
Culture: Creating an organization that people want to stick around for, and doing this by recognizing:
Culture is sales - it's recognizing that your employees are your customer. So are you creating a team, a workplace and benefits that your employees value? It's also critical to promote you culture to potential employees who want to join.
Your culture is what your employees say it is and this means you must have a pulse on your team to ensure that your intentions and actions are aligned with the cultural feeling you intend to create.
Community: Tapping into your network outside of your organization to have continuous support as the nature of challenges increases, and doing this by:
Reaching out to others who “know things” - even if they aren't in your industry. In fact, reaching outside of your industry can provide much needed diversity of perspective.
Tapping your network of other leaders outside your organization who can challenge and uplift you in different ways than insiders can.
Hiring leaders who will both support and challenge you inside your organization that will tell you the truth and fill in gaps in your expertise.
TRY THIS NEXT: Assess your leadership (remember, you are a leader in any place you influence others!) on these three dimensions: Investing in yourself, building culture and leveraging community - which area needs more love? What's one small action you can take today to improve your fluency in this area?
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