emerges from coming through many difficult
experiences.
3) Simple mindset – This is the ability
to take a lot of complicated information
and really boil it down to the one, two or
three things that really matter. It is not
helpful to a company for a leader to stand
up at the beginning of the year and say
that these are the 15 priorities we are going
to be focusing on for the rest of the
year. It takes a really smart leader to say
these are the three things we will focus
on and these are the three metrics we will
use to measure our performance. It also
really builds a sense of teamwork because
when you have three clear metrics for
performance, everyone can say that they
know how their job contributes to these
objectives.
Some CEOs have also told me that
their in-house rule for emails is that if I
cannot read your message on my iPhone
screen without having to scroll down,
then don’t send it.
I am often struck by CEOs when they
are discussing the eight values of their
company and when I ask them what they
are, many of them cannot recall them all
themselves. It is a powerful message that
if a CEO cannot remember the company
values, how can they expect everyone else
to remember them?
What I find fascinating is that with
those CEOs who have two or three values,
even I remember some of them,
sometimes over a year or two later. One
person I interviewed, Brad Garlinghouse,
who took over YouSendIt (which they
renamed Hightail), said that the company’s
values are “Be In,” “Be Real” and
“Be Bold,” but for a company with eight
values, I cannot remember any of them.
When CEOs do this effectively, they
really earn their pay.
4) Team smarts – This is the organizational
equivalent of ‘street smarts.’ It is
an understanding of where the soft levers
of power are. Although there may be an
official org chart, there is also an unofficial
one. Essentially, it is about knowing
where and/or who to go to get things
done. I think this skill is increasingly
important in today’s world where a lot
of work is done through ad hoc projects
and teams. One CEO really crystallized
this point for me when she said, “The real
test of leadership is to mobilize a team of
people that does not report to you.” Team
smarts also plays out in the context of
meetings, such as having a really good antenna
for body language, how to get people
to contribute and reading the room.
5) Fearlessness – The final piece represents
a bias towards action. I have heard
from so many CEOs almost a reverence
in their voice for employees who look at
a situation and say, “Yes, this is working
fine right now, but it can be made to work
better so let’s disrupt things to improve
it.” Fearlessness does not mean recklessness;
it just means a bias towards action.
I have also heard a lot of CEOs who, as
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