The business leader of this millennium and even more precise, this decade, is one that focuses on nurturing the very best out of everyone. S/he is facilitative, determined and disciplined. Yes, hardworking and yes, focused.
But the focus has changed from even 10-years ago. Today’s business leader is one that focuses more on taking care of their team than they did, as in the past, of the customer. Today’s leader knows that if you take care of your team, they will nurture happy, loyal customers. Today’s leader spends less time behind a screen doing email and more time out on the ‘floor’ with their people. In fact, if you are not with your people a good 75% of your day, you will not be successful.
Today’s Business Leader Is:
- Values based. They understand what their highest priority values are and they look to ‘belong’ to organizations that align with that. Organizations that disregard the values of their people and the subsequent culture will be punished. You only need to look as far as Volkswagen for evidence of that. Values violations will erase years of trust.
- Vulnerable. Business leaders of the past worked extra hard to hide their imperfections and weaknesses. Today’s business environment demands leadership with a heart. And everyone knows that if you have a heart, you are human, and humans have faults. When you share your weaknesses, your team will line up behind you to support you.
- Comfortable hiring better people. ‘A’ players want to be around other ‘A’ players. ‘B’ players will generally hire ‘C’ players. If you are comfortable in your own skin, you will recognize your weaknesses and hire people that mitigate those weaknesses.
- Focused on simplicity. Managers that are suffering from a lack of confidence in their abilities and intelligence, will go out of their way to make everything complicated. They will use language that no one understands. And they will throw others ‘under the bus’ in order stroke their inferiority complex. Simple is the new approach to strategy, execution and communication.
Robert Murray is a Vancouver, BC based Business Strategy Consultant, #1 Best Selling Author, and International Keynote Speaker. For further advice, insight and inspiration on how to unlock your inner leader, follow Robert on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
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Tags:
Business Culture,
Leadership,
Success,
Team,
Values
