A Crash Course in Leadership For 20-Something CEO's

A CRASH COURSE IN LEADERSHIP FOR 20-SOMETHING CEOS, FIVE ESSENTIAL LESSONS FOR TODAY'S CROP OF YOUNG LEADERS.

Traditionally, leaders spent 20 or more years rising through the ranks before they made it to the corner office. But we’re seeing a rise in CEOs in their 20s and 30s, who either founded their own company or rose quickly through the ranks of an established organization.

Discussions on the topic of 20- and 30- something CEOs usually focus on the creativity of youth, versus experience gained through decades on the job. But these attributes aren’t mutually exclusive.

As a father of two sons, I approach giving advice to any young person with some trepidation. But after four decades at Deloitte, I have unique insight into the factors that determine whether a senior leader of any age sinks or swims.

1. LISTEN TO THE RIGHT PEOPLE. IGNORE THE REST.

Younger CEOs need a whole lot of confidence in themselves and their mission. You likely have very few resources. And there’s a good chance you’re going to fail.

It’s a fact; some people won’t understand your vision. Some people will think they’re being helpful by telling you to give up. At the same time, mentors will never be more important in your career than they are right now. Mentors help us look at problems differently, and see things in us that we can’t see ourselves.

One of my most important mentors was instrumental in pushing me out of my comfort zone and opening my eyes to the possibilities for my career. Every young leader needs someone like that.

2. BE TOUGH ON PROBLEMS, NOT ON PEOPLE.

CEOs need to be resilient and have the courage to make difficult decisions. But some leaders can make the mistake of being “tough” not just on the problems facing their business, but also their people.

To foster long term respect––with their people, their clients, and their management team––20- and 30-something CEOs need to inspire, rather than terrify. This isn’t being “soft.” The tone you set will reverberate through the culture of your organization. I remember a time when a client was upset with how a particular situation had been handled. Losing my cool or raising my voice with the team responsible wasn’t going to do anything to help the issue at hand.

Instead, I worked side-by-side with the leaders on both teams to work through the problem, to repair the client relationship, and to get things back on track.

3. CONTINUE TO TAKE MEASURED RISKS, EVEN WHEN THE STAKES GET HIGHER.

One thing I love about startups is how their leaders have the courage to take risks, knowing these are essential to drive the company forward.

My son Matt Salzberg (a young CEO in his own right, he leads Brooklyn-based startup Blue Apron), shared a concept with me that sums it up. He said “An entrepreneur is someone who jumps from a plane without a parachute, and figures out how to build one on the way down.”

But as organizations grow, they have more to lose, they can become more cautious, and they can become slower to innovate.

Not many businesses stay at the top for more than 100 years, or even 50. The reason Deloitte continues to succeed is because we’re continually anticipating the big challenges and opportunities that our clients will be facing in the future. This fuels the development of more innovative services and delivery models.

4. EVOLVE AS A LEADER WHILE YOU SWING FOR THE FENCES.

Be ready to adapt your approach, style and strategy throughout your company’s lifecycle.

One of the biggest challenges cited by younger CEOs is managing large teams of people. So start focusing on getting better at this right now, before you experience growing pains.

All CEOs must continue to evolve their style and approach throughout their career.

5. PLAN IN QUARTERS, BUT THINK IN YEARS.

Launching a startup requires a long-term dream or vision, but is mostly measured in small increments. Funding rounds, product launches, perhaps looking ahead to the buyout, or IPO.

Younger CEOs need a plan to take their organization well into the future, not just as far as an IPO.

When I was U.S. CEO, I managed the business quite closely between each internal reporting period, but I was (and remain!) just as passionate about building on our global strategy and vision for the future.

I can’t fully understand how our organization will need to adapt in the next 50 or 100 years. But five or 10 years is a great place to start.

I’m really inspired to watch the careers of younger CEOs unfold. I think in the past, younger and older CEOs have viewed each other almost as different species. Moving forward, I hope we can create closer connections where we can learn from each other and become more effective, inspirational, and innovative leaders as a result.

--Barry Salzberg is global CEO of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited and proud to have recently started writing for the LinkedIn Influencers blog. You can follow his posts on LinkedIn.

By Barry Salzberg

Source: Fast Company

9 Things People Just Don't Get About Entrepreneurs

9 Things People Just Don't Get About Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurship is hard, both physically and emotionally. Doubt, anxiety, despair--along the way, every entrepreneur struggles with those feelings.

So why are entrepreneurs willing to face the vulnerability, the emotional ups and downs, and the risk of public and private failure?

Easy. They have no choice. For entrepreneurs:

1. The voice in their heads is louder than every other voice they hear. Others may doubt. Others may criticize. Others may judge and disparage and disapprove.

You don't care. You see all those opinions for what they are: not right, not wrong, just data. So you sift through that data for the actual nuggets you can use. The rest you ignore.

Why? You may respect the opinions of others but you believe in your ideas, your abilities, your will and perseverance and dedication. You believe in yourself. And that makes you want to live your life your way and not anyone else's way.

2. They believe that how they play the game truly is more important than whether they win or lose. If you're an entrepreneur, you'd rather fail on your own terms than succeed on someone else's. You'd rather reach for your own future than have your future lie in someone else's hands. You feel it's better to burn out than to fade away.

Sure, you want to win. You're driven to win. But you want to change the rules, create your own playing field, and win the game you want to play--because winning a game in a way you're forced to play would still feel like losing.

3. They don't make choices--they create choices. Most people simply choose from Column A or Column B. Entrepreneurs glance at A and B and then often create their own Column C.

As Jon Burgstone says:

Every time you want to make any important decision, there are two possible courses of action. You can look at the array of choices that present themselves, pick the best available option, and try to make it fit.

Or, you can do what the true entrepreneur does: Figure out the best conceivable option and then make it available.

And that's why they often accomplish the inconceivable--because to entrepreneurs, that word truly doesn't mean what everyone else thinks it means.

4. They enjoy succeeding through others. Talent is obviously important, but the ability to work together, check egos at the door, and make individual sacrifices when necessary is the only way any team succeeds.

That spirit can only exist when it comes from the top.

And that's why entrepreneurs focus on the individual rather than the position, the team rather than the hierarchy, and most important, from gaining happiness and success from the happiness and success of others.

5. They don't need to be disciplined, because they can't wait to do all the things that bring them closer to achieving their goals. Discipline often boils down to finding a way to do the things you need to do. Entrepreneurs can't wait to do the things they need to do. They have goals and dreams, and they know every task they complete takes them one step closer to achieving those goals and dreams.

That's why entrepreneurs can have fun performing even the most mundane tasks. When there's a clear line of sight between what you do and where you want to go, work is no longer just work.

Work is exciting. Work is fulfilling. Work, when it's meaningful and fulfilling, is living. And that's why.

6. They don't want to simply gain a skill and then live a routine. Some people work to gain a skill or achieve a position so they can relax, comfortable in their abilities and knowledge. They've worked hard and are content. (That's not a bad thing; everyone's definition of success should be different.)

Entrepreneurs hate the contentment an acquired skill brings. Entrepreneurs hate the comfort an achievement affords. Entrepreneurs see acquired skills as a foundation for acquiring more skills. Entrepreneurs see achievements as platforms for further achievement.

Entrepreneurs pay their dues, and they want to keep paying more dues. They look at themselves in the mirror and think, "OK...but what have you done for me lately?"

And then they go out and do more.

7. They're fans of other entrepreneurs. Working for a corporation is often a zero-sum game, because personal success usually comes at the expense of others. If you get promoted, someone else does not. If you get an opportunity, someone else does not.

That's why, in a corporate setting, it's really hard not to begrudge the success of others--it's hard to be genuinely happy for a co-worker when you're really disappointed.

Entrepreneurs, on the other hand, love when others succeed. They know the pie is big enough for everyone. (Forget the current pie; they're out there trying to make new pies.)

Entrepreneurs see the success of other entrepreneurs as exciting and inspirational and as validation that creativity and hard work do pay off.

8. They're willing to start a movement of one. We all like to belong, to feel we're kindred spirits, and that's why some ideas quickly gain a following and why great ideas can become movements.

Joining a crowd is awesome. But every movement starts with one person who dares to stand up, alone, unprotected, and vulnerable, and be different: to say what others aren't saying, to do what others aren't doing--to take a chance and accept the consequences.

What makes entrepreneurs willing to take that risk?

9. They think, Why not me? Regardless of the pursuit, success is difficult to achieve. That's why we all fail sometimes. And when we do, it's easy to decide events were outside our control. It's easy to feel depressed and wonder, Why don't I ever get the opportunities other people get? or Why aren't my friends more supportive? or Why can't I catch a break?

In short, it's easy to think: Why me?

Entrepreneurs ask a different question: Why not me?

That's why entrepreneurs will open a restaurant in the same location where other restaurants have failed: They didn't succeed, but why not me? Entrepreneurs will start a software company with nothing but an idea: They may have deeper pockets and a major market share, but why not me?

Entrepreneurs don't assume successful people possess special talents or a gift from the startup gods. They see successful people and think, That's awesome, and if she can do that, why not me?

Good question: Why not you?

If you think about it, there is no real answer, because when you're truly willing to not just dream big but also to try incredibly hard, there are no reasons you can't succeed--at least none that matter to you.

By Jeff Haden

Source: Inc.

5 Secrets To Being A Great Mentor

5 Secrets To Being A Great Mentor- By Someone Who Was Mentored By The Best

The Encyclopedia of American Business History notes that Peter Drucker was not only “the most important managerial theorist of the 20thcentury” but also “a mentor to several generations” of executives.

The book recalls the friendship forged between Drucker, known as the “man who invented management,” and Buford, a cable television pioneer from Tyler, Texas, who later dedicated his considerable intellect and energy to social entrepreneurship and the building of America’s megachurch movement. (Royalties are being donated to the Drucker Institute, which I run.)

Buford’s narrative begins at the end of Drucker’s life, shortly before he died in 2005, at age 95, when Buford realizes that he has come to visit his friend for the last time. From there, after a short introduction to the significance and impact of Drucker’s work, Buford retraces the extraordinary connection that they built over 23 years.

It started with a letter that Buford wrote to Drucker, seeking his counsel on how to improve the performance of a business that was already growing fast. The next thing Buford knew, he was on his way to Drucker’s modest ranch house in Claremont, Calif., for a one-on-one meeting. Things blossomed quickly from there.

“In terms of friendship, we were an unlikely pairing,” Buford writes. “A generation apart in age. One of us spoke English with a heavy Austrian accent. The other spoke Texan. I owned a cable television company. Peter didn’t even own a television. . . . I followed the Dallas Cowboys. He followed Japanese art.”

Yet for all of these differences, the two clicked. Their sensibilities and worldview were totally in sync. “In Peter,” Buford explains, “I found a soul mate.”

In addition to being a charming read, Drucker & Me conveys many management lessons—on relentlessly providing what the customer values, on engaging in “planned abandonment,” on aligning people’s strengths with the work that they’re asked to undertake. But above all, the book is a wonderful guide on how to be a mentor, filled with useful takeaways. Here are five:

First, a model mentor doesn’t just give answers. In Drucker’s case, he had Buford write him a long letter before each of their sessions, ensuring that Buford had carefully thought through the challenges with which he was grappling. When they finally sat down together, Drucker would pepper Buford with questions.

“He wanted Bob to think for himself,” Jim Collins, for whom Drucker was also a mentor, observes in the foreword to Drucker & Me. “The greatest teachers begin with humility, a belief that only by first learning from their students can they be of greatest service to them.”

Second, a model mentor is always fully present, recognizing the tremendous trust he or she has been handed. “Whenever I was with him,” Buford recalls of Drucker, “he was focused. If the minister of Japan called, the minister would have to wait until my meeting ended.”

Third, a model mentor doesn’t shy away when the professional blends with the personal, understanding that someone’s career and the rest of his or her life are often intimately linked. On this score,Drucker & Me contains several dramatic turning points, including the drowning death of Buford’s 24-year-old son, Ross.

As soon as Drucker heard the terrible news, he phoned. “For the next several minutes, we had a very affectionate, compassionate, intensely personal conversation, and his sadness for my losing Ross almost seemed to match my own,” Buford writes. “And then he said something that was remarkable in its candor even as it echoed my own thoughts. ‘Isn’t it a shame that it takes this kind of moment for you and me to have the kind of conversation we just had?’”

Fourth, by truly listening, a model mentor can help introduce a level of clarity that would likely be unattainable otherwise. “Your mission, Bob, is to transform the latent energy of American Christianity into active energy,” Drucker told Buford eight years into their relationship. Writes Buford: “Just like that, he nailed it. He took my meandering thoughts . . . and articulated exactly what I wanted to do.” Indeed, this single insight from Drucker was the spark that Buford needed to create Leadership Network, a highly effective nonprofit that teaches church pastors how to multiply their own impact in the community.

Finally, a model mentor gives permission, encouragement and applause—but also demands accountability. “After a while,” Buford says, that “long rambling letter” he sent before each consulting session with Drucker “became my performance report. I’m not sure he would have allowed me access, at least in the early going, if I had no results.”

In his 1990 book Managing the Nonprofit Organization, Drucker credits two of his first bosses—one at a financial firm, the other at a newspaper—with being ideal mentors in their own right. “They were totally un-permissive and demanding. And they did not hesitate to chastise me,” Drucker recounted. “But they were willing to listen to me. They were sparing with praise, but always willing to encourage.”

Obviously, he learned well, exhibiting these very same traits with Buford. But so, in turn, did Buford learn well.

I know this firsthand. Although we, too, are from different worlds—I’m a Jewish guy from Baltimore, a generation younger than Buford, and much more a basketball than a football fan—we share many core values. And while I would never claim to be as close to Buford as he was with Drucker, his guidance and friendship have been indispensable. He has urged me, along with my staff, to sharpen the Drucker Institute’s mission, leading us to where we are today: “strengthening organizations to strengthen society.” He has pushed us to think bigger and aim higher.

Inc. magazine once called Peter Drucker “the North Star of mentors.” Bob Buford, I can attest, shines awfully bright himself.

By Rick Wartzman

Source: Time