Thoughts on Leadership

The most important role of a CEO and leadership team is to steer their organisation so it stands out in an ever more competitive world.

The Leadership team must set the vision and direction of their organisation and then pursue the chosen strategy in a disciplined way with brilliant execution.

Effective leaders make choices – what to do and where to invest for growth. They also decide what not to do, where to deprioritise and divest – a vital and often challenging task.

Leaders inspire passion and belief; they energise and foster an optimistic and creative work environment that encourages innovation and creativity. Leaders carry the can for failures and dish out the praise to the team for successes.

Leaders know that market leadership is very different to market followership. They know that to become and remain a market leader they must continuously create competitive advantage and deliver solutions that create clear blue water from the competition.

Enduring leaders are paranoid about complacency – they know that complacency is the disease of the successful.

Great leaders and leadership teams know that they have a responsibility, not just for their customers and the financial performance of their business, but for the health, well being and livelihoods of their team. They also know that their role is to serve the organisation and customers – not the organisation to serve them.

Leaders inspire passion and belief; they energise and foster an optimistic and creative work environment that encourages innovation and creativity. They celebrate when an idea for a product, service or promotion, that has nothing to do with them, is rolled out. It shows that the team is moving up the gears.