Effective Leadership

With record low unemployment, aging baby boomers entering retirement years, and the fast-paced deployment of new technologies leaving many with obsolete skills, the war for talent continues to intensify amidst one of the hottest job markets in decades. In fact, The Conference Board reports that 62% of CEOs – 3 out of every 5 – cite attraction and retention of top talent among their top 3 internal concerns. There are many actions leaders and businesses can take to have a greater impact on attracting, retaining and developing their talent pool. In my experience, it boils down to three key principles.

In today’s complex and rapidly changing business environment, the challenge is no longer to simply sell a product or service, but to deliver a memorable and desired experience – for customers, partners, and clients. In creating or improving the customer experience, the goal is to create an intimacy with customers by delivering a remarkable, differentiated, total experience that will endear customers to the product, brand, company. Such a transformation requires visionary innovation - solutions to needs or problems that may currently not exist. And such visionary innovation requires intention.

In today’s fast-paced, fast-changing world of business disruptors (think AI, digital transformation, and regulatory compliance to name a few), many businesses find they must transform dramatically – and sometimes urgently -- to remain competitive or even stay alive. New products and services may be needed, significant changes in business practices required, and/or shifts in corporate culture to support new business models. When the stakes are high and the pressure is on, there’s a tendency to fall into reactive mode – and that’s a dangerous spiral. This is the moment when leadership matters most.

Many of us believe we are good listeners so we never really think about developing our listening skills. However, effective listening is a disciplined behavior that takes awareness and dedicated focus. And in the business world, effective listening is even harder to achieve as conversations and interactions move particularly fast amidst a sea of projects, meetings, deadlines, and business challenges.

Business today operates in a VUCA world – a military term for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity. To be successful, business leaders must be highly effective not only in delivering results, but also in creating growth cultures that will drive sustainable, high-performance organizations to perform well into the future. Bob Anderson and Bill Adams (The Leadership Circle founders) have identified 5 core Creative Competencies that contribute to a leader’s effectiveness.