Tag Archive for: leadership

The Upside of Being Replaceable

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Kristin Muhlner is the chief executive of New Brand Analytics , a social-media-monitoring company used to improve brand loyalty and acquire new customers. Adam Bryant from the New York Times recently sat down with Muhlner and discussed what she learned from being a C.E.O, what to look for when hiring employees, and what culture means to her. Here are some great points from the article:

  • Developing personal connections with your employees can be emotionally draining: “You always want to be one of those leaders who care deeply about their staff and look after them, but at some point you have to make the shift and say you’re going to do the right thing for the business
  • Don’t always assume that people know everything: “But people just have this incredible thirst to be connected, and they need multiple reinforcing points of communication. I have to remind myself over and over not to assume that everyone knows something.”
  • Seek out a meritocracy: “If you find a meritocracy and you’re highly ambitious and you want to drive your career forward, then nothing’s going to get in your way”
  • Don’t wear “busy” as a badge of honor: “We’ve become crazy about being crazy, and I’m stunned at how many people are absolutely exhausting themselves. It’s important to figure out how to be ruthlessly efficient and disciplined with your time, and do only those hings that matter”

To read the article in it’s entirely, click here.

Respect the Opportunities You Are Given

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19-CORNER-master495Michelle Munson is the C.E.O of Aspera, a unit of IBM that provides software for high-speed file transfer. In a recent interview with Adam Bryant of the New York Times, Munson opened up about her leadership style, what it’s like to work for her, and advice on how to achieve success:

  • Forgiveness is the sincerest form of progression: “I’ve made my share of mistakes. But the most important lesson I learned is that there is a degree of forgiveness from people you work with if your intentions are right and you follow through. Because I’ve been sincere, the team has forgiven my mistakes along the way. That’s given me peace of mind and confidence to keep evolving.
  • People WILL have different values: “Not everyone values the same things I do. Some things are universal, like the gratification of achievement, but other things are not, like work styles. I have backed off and allowed people to work the way they do best.
  • Respect what you have: “My biggest pet peeve is people who don’t respect the opportunity they have. To me, respecting an opportunity means embracing it and dedicating yourself to making the most of it.”
  • Go beyond being a critic; learn to solve the issue: “You can’t create unless you have some ability to discern what is lacking or needed or doesn’t exist, and that goes beyond being a critic. It’s very easy to criticize. The real challenge is, how are you going to solve it? How are you going to make it better, with whatever resources you have?”
  • Be a critical thinker: “When talking about career advice “The second thing is critical thinking, which leads to independent thinking, and that comes from a diverse education and stretching yourself with independent-study internships and outside projects and activities. It can come in many forms, but it is paramount to have that in combination with skill and competence in your field, because that’s what allows you to create.”

Click here to view the full article from the New York Times.

It’s Not Always About You When It Comes To Success

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Deborah Bial is the President and Founder of the Posse Foundation. Posse trains students from public high schools with extraordinary academic and leadership potential to help them succeed in college. In a recent interview with Adam Bryant of the New York Times, Bial spoke about what inspired her to start the Posse Foundation and what leadership means to her. Here are some of the key points from the interview:

  • Success isn’t about you: “I didn’t pick Posse; it just happened. My philosophy is that leaders should always remember that it’s not because of them that things are successful.” Sometimes it comes down to the luck of the draw.
  • Being in charge allows for forming a great team: “The advantage of being in charge is that you get to hire people you really like. It’s my philosophy that as president or C.E.O. of a company, you are in this privileged position where you get the accolades for the successes of the organization, and you get to make decisions and people have to listen to you.”
  • You don’t have to be liked by everyone to be a great leader: “I used to care a lot that people liked me. That’s no longer as much the case. Of course, nobody wants not to be liked, but I don’t care as much. I remember feeling liberated when it no longer influenced my decision-making.”
  • Questions are key when hiring students: “In terms of questions, I’ll ask sometimes: “If you get this job, what are you most excited about, in terms of your personal growth? And where will you be challenged the most?” Then I’ll want to get into a discussion about something. What’s in the newspaper that day? I want to know what they think, how they think, how they express what it is they’re thinking, how they ask questions and how they listen.”
  • Students who reach out are the ones who are likely to succeed: “In a crisis, they reach out versus reach in. We look for the person who reaches out, because they will give themselves more options to succeed.”

Click here to view the full article from the New York Times.

If you don’t know the answer, just say so!

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Steven Mollenkopf is the C.E.O. of Qualcomm, a mobile-phone technology company based out of San Diego. In a recent interview with Adam Bryant of the New York Times, Mollenkopf opened up about his approach to leadership, hiring process and pet peeves in the workplace. Here are some highlights from the interview:

  • “You should make mistakes by throwing the ball away, not by holding the ball.” In the context of work this means “making mistakes by action, not thinking about something or being timid.” You should encourage yourself to take risks. If you make a mistake trying to do something, you can fix it later.
  • Workplace “perfection” is like a mathematical limit. “You need to make sure that you’re moving toward perfection, but you’re never going to get there.”
  • “Jerks don’t get promoted.” As with many aspects of life , you have to be able to get along with people. “Companies run on smart people who can also get other smart people to move generally in the same direction.”
  • “If you don’t know, just say so.” The more senior you get, the less concerned you are with saying, “I don’t know the answer here.” You realize you’re not supposed to now ALL the answers. As a boss, your job is to surround yourself with people who can help you find the answers.
  • 100% effort is key: “People who don’t work hard are a problem.”
  • “Treat people well.” Happy staff are more productive and efficient than unhappy staff.
  • When you leave college: “Don’t have a plan, because you can underestimate what your abilities are, and you might limit yourself in some cases.”

Click here to view the full interview in the New York Times.

“Is it the cards, or how you play them?”

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Narinder Singh is the president of “Topcoder,” a company that administers computer-programming competitions. In a recent interview with Adam Bryant of the New York Times, Singh spoke about his early management experiences, leadership lessons, and hiring processes.

Here are some points we took away from the interview:

  • Don’t underestimate the power of stereotypes: Try to understand when you could use stereotypes and when it’s important to break and challenge them. “I started looking hard at the assumptions I was making about people, and what assumptions they were making about me.”
  • Ask “Was it the hand, or how you played it?”: If you stumble because of the cards you’re dealt, “you should get better cards… But if you played them badly, you need to think about how to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”
  • Admire leaders that aren’t afraid to be challenged: People have to feel that the best idea wins. “If I have somebody working for me who’s really good, I should lose 80% of the arguments I have with them because they should know their area better than I do.”
  • Ask how a candidate travels: “Are you a get-there-early-for-the-flight person, or a barely-make-it-in-time person?” Then find out WHY! You want to understand how a candidate looks at the world.
  • Everyone has a unique perspective: “When you meet somebody, pull every piece of insight you can out of them.” You never know what you’ll learn!

Click here to view the full article in The New York Times.

When Titles Get in the Way

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RYAN CARSON | Chief Executive of "Treehouse" an online education platform.

RYAN CARSON | Chief Executive of “Treehouse” – an online education platform.

 

I have often thought that titles get in the way when growing a small business.

What do you think?

Click here to view the entire article from the New York Times.