Written by Milla Zaenker
The morning of October 26 was beautiful, the sun was shining, and the air was crisp and clear. I was very excited to be going to the Art of Leadership conference for the first time. This is what I learned from each leader and would like to share with you:
Welby Altidor on Creativity and Collaboration
- A leader’s role is to create the most fertile soil where people can grow
- Successful leaders set one “beautiful and impossible” objective per quarter and strive to achieve it
- Great leaders map out people’s ‘superpowers’ before engaging in a project
- Don’t confuse authority and influence
- To practice creative courage – face the unknown and accept that you don’t know
- Seven stages to transforming our work:
- Care first
- Secure safety
- Foster trust
- Play with danger and limitations
- Dream
- Discover breakthrough
- Grow
Vince Molinaro on Engagement and Accountability
- Leadership is a decision – You must rise to new standards of behaviour, and be the role model
- If you want to be liked you need to rethink what it means to be a true leader
- Don’t be a bystander and wait for things to improve, do what is necessary for your organization to succeed
- The culture of a company is stronger than any individual and it’s hard to change
- Build a sense of community with your colleague leaders
Dr. Tasha Eurich on Self-Awareness and Performance
- Understand internal and external self-awareness
- Internal – seeing yourself clearly
- External – knowing how others see you
- Ask What, not Why: Instead of “why can’t I get along with my boss?” ask “what can I do differently to have a productive, healthy working relationship with my boss?”
- Make a daily commitment to receive feedback from your “loving critics”: those who will give you honest and objective feedback, and have your best interests at heart
- Ask two powerful questions:
- What am I doing that makes me successful/respectful in your eyes?
- What are the most annoying things that I am doing?
- Don’t defend, but listen and ask questions to understand
Amanda Lang on Innovation and Change
- An environment for innovation answers the questions “why” and “why not”
- Something has to change for it to be innovative; otherwise, it’s a good idea that dies
- How you think is who you are
- When brainstorming, find people who are slightly irritating – it will lead to great ideas
- Practice gratitude, share one good thing that happened to you today. If we focus on the good we won’t notice the bad
- You cannot buy passion, creativity, and trust – we do it only when we are engaged
Joe Biden on Leadership
- Leadership is about putting yourself in other’s shoes, thinking about what their challenges and barriers could be, sharing loses and not just successes
- Surround yourself with people who are smarter then you are, use their strengths and talents.
- Never confuse academic credentials with sound judgement
- Leaders don’t always have all the facts, but they use good judgement, experience, and understand the risks when making a decision
- Leaders attribute success to their team when things go well and own the blame for the not so successful consequences
- Leadership means putting principles before career
- Real leaders are happy and successful — For Joe Biden happiness means three things:
- Having something to do
- Having someone to love
- Having something to look forward to