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While there are different styles of management as there are different types of managers, great managers are set apart. What makes them different is that they often discover the unique abilities of every person and capitalize this. They know that every employee is different and moves differently. They use this to the team’s advantage and coordinate them for a better plan of attack.

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Much has been written about the qualities that make a great manager, but most of the literature overlooks a fundamental question: What does a great manager actually do? While there are countless management styles, one thing underpins the behavior of all great managers. Above all, an exceptional manager comes to know and value the particular quirks and abilities of her employees. She figures out how to capitalize on her staffers' strengths and tweaks her environment to meet her larger goals.

Such a specialized approach may seem like a lot of work. But in fact, capitalizing on each person's uniqueness can save time. Rather than encourage employees to conform to strict job descriptions that may include tasks they don't enjoy and aren't good at, a manager who develops positions for his staff members based on their unique abilities will be rewarded with behaviors that are far more efficient and effective than they would be otherwise.

This focus on individuals also makes employees more accountable. Because staffers are evaluated on their particular strengths and weaknesses, they are challenged to take responsibility for their abilities and to hone them.

Capitalizing on a person's uniqueness also builds a stronger sense of team. By taking the time to understand what makes each employee tick, a great manager shows that he sees his people for who they are. This personal investment not only motivates individuals but also galvanizes the entire team.

Finally, this approach shakes up existing hierarchies, which leads to more creative thinking.

To take great managing from theory to practice, the author says, you must know three things about a person: her strengths, the triggers that activate those strengths, and how she learns. By asking the right questions, squeezing the right triggers, and becoming aware of your employees' learning styles, you will discover what motivates each person to excel.

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Much has been written about the qualities that make a great manager, but most of the literature overlooks a fundamental question: What does a great manager actually do? While there are countless management styles, one thing underpins the behavior of all great managers.

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When you're a leader - no matter how long you've been in your role or how hard the journey was to get there - you are merely overhead unless you're bringing out the best in your employees. Unfortunately, many leaders lose sight of this.

Power, as my colleague Ena Inesi has studied, can cause leaders to become overly obsessed with outcomes and control, and, therefore, treat their employees as means to an end. As I've discovered in my own research, this ramps up people's fear - fear of not hitting targets, fear of losing bonuses, fear of failing - and as a consequence people stop feeling positive emotions and their drive to experiment and learn is stifled.

Take for example a UK food delivery service that I've studied. The engagement of its drivers, who deliver milk and bread to millions of customers each day, was dipping while management was becoming increasingly metric-driven in an effort to reduce costs and improve delivery times. Each week, managers held weekly performance debriefs with drivers and went through a list of problems, complaints, and errors with a clipboard and pen. This was not inspiring on any level, to either party. And, eventually, the drivers, many of whom had worked for the company for decades, became resentful.

This type of top-down leadership is outdated, and, more importantly, counterproductive. By focusing too much on control and end goals, and not enough on their people, leaders are making it more difficult to achieve their own desired outcomes.

The key, then, is to help people feel purposeful, motivated, and energized so they can bring their best selves to work.

There are a number of ways to do this, as I outline in my new book Alive at Work. But one of the best ways is to adopt the humble mind-set of a servant leader. Servant leaders view their key role as serving employees as they explore and grow, providing tangible and emotional support as they do so.

To put it bluntly, servant-leaders have the humility, courage, and insight to admit that they can benefit from the expertise of others who have less power than them. They actively seek the ideas and unique contributions of the employees that they serve. This is how servant leaders create a culture of learning, and an atmosphere that encourages followers to become the very best they can.

Humility and servant leadership do not imply that leaders have low self-esteem, or take on an attitude of servility. Instead, servant leadership emphasizes that the responsibility of a leader is to increase the ownership, autonomy, and responsibility of followers - to encourage them to think for themselves and try out their own ideas.

Here's how to do it.

Ask how you can help employees do their own jobs better - then listen

It sounds deceivingly simple: Rather than telling employees how to do their jobs better, start by asking them how you can help them do their jobs better. But the effects of this approach can be powerful.

Consider the food-delivery business I previously mentioned. Once its traditional model was disrupted by newer delivery companies, the management team decided that things needed to change. The company needed to compete on great customer service, but, in order to do so, they needed the support of their employees who provided the service. And, they needed ideas that could make the company more competitive.

After meeting with consultants at PricewaterhouseCoopers and some training, the management team tried a new format for its weekly performance meetings with the drivers.

The new approach? Instead of nit-picking problems, each manager was trained to simply ask their drivers, "How can I help you deliver excellent service?" As shown in the research of Bradley Owens and David Heckman, leaders need to model these types of servant-minded behaviors to employees so that employees will better serve customers.

There was huge scepticism at the beginning, as you can imagine. Drivers' dislike of managers was high, and trust was low. But as depot managers kept asking "How can I help you deliver excellent service?" some drivers started to offer suggestions. For example, one driver suggested new products like Gogurts and fun string cheese that parents could get delivered early and pop into their kids' lunches before school. Another driver thought of a way to report stock shortages more quickly so that customers were not left without the groceries they ordered.

Small changes created a virtuous cycle. As the drivers got credit for their ideas and saw them put into place, they grew more willing to offer more ideas, which made the depot managers more impressed and more respectful, which increased the delivery people's willingness to give ideas, and so on. And, depot managers learned that some of the so-called "mistakes" that drivers were making were actually innovations they had created to streamline processes and still deliver everything on time. These innovations helped the company deliver better customer service.

What it comes down to is this: employees who do the actual work of your organization often know better than you how to do a great job. Respecting their ideas, and encouraging them to try new approaches to improve work, encourages employees to bring more of themselves to work.

As one area manager summarized: "We really thought that we knew our delivery people inside out, but we've realized that there was a lot we were missing. Our weekly customer conversation meetings are now more interactive and the conversations are more honest and adult in their approach. It's hard to put into words the changes we are seeing."

Create low-risk spaces for employees to think of new ideas

Sometimes the best way for leaders to serve employees - and their organization - is to create a low-risk space for employees to experiment with their ideas. By doing so, leaders encourage employees to push on the boundaries of what they already know.

For example, when Jungkiu Choi moved from Singapore to China to start his gig as head of Consumer Banking at Standard Chartered, he learned that one of the cultural expectations of his new job was to visit the branches and put pressure on branch managers to cut costs. Branch staff would spend weeks anxiously preparing for the visit.

Jungkiu changed the nature of these visits. Instead of emphasizing his formal power, he started showing up at branches unannounced, starting his visit by serving breakfast to the branch employees. Then, Jungkiu would hold "huddles" and ask how he could help employees improve their branches. Many branch employees were very surprised and initially did not know how to react. But Jungkiu's approach tamped down employees' anxiety and encouraged ideation and innovative ideas.

Over the course of one year, Jungkiu visited over eighty branches in twenty-five cities. His consistency and willingness to help convinced employees who were sceptical at first. The huddles exposed many simple "pain points" that he could easily help solve (for example, training for the new bank systems, or making upgrades to computer memory so that the old computers could handle the new software).

Other employee innovation ideas were larger. For example, one of the Shanghai branches was inside of a shopping mall. In the huddle, employees asked Jungkiu if they could open and close the same times as the mall's operating hours (rather than the typical branch operating hours). The team wanted to experiment with working on the weekends. Within a few months, this branch's weekend income generation surpassed its entire weekday income. This was not an idea that Jungkiu had even imagined.

These experiments paid off in terms of company performance. Customer satisfaction increased by 54 percent during the two-year period of Jungkiu's humble leadership. Complaints from customers were reduced by 29 percent during the same period. The employee attrition ratio, which had been the highest among all of the foreign banks in China, was reduced to the lowest among all foreign banks in China.

Be humble

Leaders often do not see the true value of their charges, especially "lower-level" workers. But when leaders are humble, show respect, and ask how they can serve employees as they improve the organization, the outcomes can be outstanding. And perhaps even more important than better company results, servant leaders get to act like better human beings.

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When you're a leader - no matter how long you've been in your role or how hard the journey was to get there - you are merely overhead unless you're bringing out the best in your employees. Unfortunately, many leaders lose sight of this.

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Stanford University President Marc Tessier-Lavigne tells students that life is long and lived in chapters. Some of his include being a pioneering neuroscientist, head of research at Genentech, a co-founder of two startups, and president of two leading research universities. He shares what he's learned about how to lead organizations that turn discovery into real-world impact.

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Elements of Effective Leadership | Stanford eCorner

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Stanford University President Marc Tessier-Lavigne tells students that life is long and lived in chapters. Some of his include being a pioneering neuroscientist, head of research at Genentech, a co-founder of two startups, and president of two leading research universities. He shares what he's learned about how to lead organizations that turn discovery into real-world ...

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"I think the more a person is comfortable with themselves, and comfortable with what they know-or in a lot of cases for me in this job, every day is what I don't know...makes it easier to see what's really important and what's not."

-Senior legal counsel for a leading healthcare product manufacturer

Developing emotional self-awareness is a crucial first step in effective leadership because it lays the foundation upon which emotional and social intelligence is built. We can't develop skills like emotional self-control, empathy, or teamwork unless we are aware of our own feelings and how they influence our thoughts and behaviors. Emotional self-awareness also helps leaders link their emotions to the effectiveness of their interactions with others.

I examined the relationship between emotional self-awareness and leader effectiveness as part of a University of Pennsylvania leader mindfulness study involving 42 participants from 11 countries. The study included the use of the Emotional and Social Competency Inventory (ESCI) model developed by Daniel Goleman and Richard Boyatzis to identify the presence of emotional and social intelligence competencies that have been empirically linked to increased leadership performance. Study participants linked improved emotional self-awareness to a number of positive changes, including:

100 percent reported a significant improvement in workplace effectiveness.

79 percent mentioned more effective workplace relationships.

86 percent described an improved ability to identify and manage their emotions.

81 percent linked improved emotional self-awareness to a reduction in stress.

The results of this study also align with other research indicating that improvements to leadership effectiveness may be achieved more quickly and with a higher rate of success through the incorporation of formal mindfulness training. This is partially due to the role of mindfulness in enhancing emotional self-awareness, and its relationship to other emotional and social intelligence competencies. This complementary relationship helps leaders to identify what types of behaviors are required for specific situations, and strengthens their ability to determine whether or not those behaviors are effective.

The scientific basis for these improvements is believed to be the repeated activation of neural networks through training focused on developing self-observation capabilities. Researchers also indicate that these changes may contribute to an improved capacity for activation of regions of the brain associated with more effective situational stress response and adaptability via neuroplasticity. Many of the same regions of the brain have also been linked to strength in specific emotional intelligence competencies.

Mindfulness aimed at developing emotional self-awareness can be practiced by actively observing yourself when communicating with others. This includes your reactions to verbal and nonverbal forms of communication, and the way those reactions influence your responses. This type of awareness also contributes to emotional self-control, as summarized by a leader who heads strategy and business development for a major global company: "I can really compact the quality of awareness, look at the emotions coming and going just in front of me, and not be swept away by them." In this context, improved emotional self-awareness will help you learn to recognize and better understand emotions as they arise, which reduces the chances of counterproductive reactions. In addition to committing to a mindfulness program led by a qualified instructor, you may also cultivate emotional self-awareness with the help of a coach trained to guide this type of development, as well as using regular 360 feedback to guide your efforts.

You can find more details about Dr. Lippincott's research in a recent Harvard Business Review article, as well as a series of articles at Key Step Media.

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Effective Leadership Starts with Self-Awareness

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"I think the more a person is comfortable with themselves, and comfortable with what they know-or in a lot of cases for me in this job, every day is what I don't know...makes it easier to see what's really important and what's not."-Senior legal counsel for a leading healthcare product manufacturerDeveloping emotional self-awareness is a crucial first step in effective leadership because it lays the foundation upon which emotional and social intelligence is built.

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In any senior manager's career, the transition from manager to leader can be a tricky one.

In any manager's career, the transition to leader can be tricky. How do you lift yourself up from the operational to the strategic? What are the secrets to providing visionary leadership? How can you inspire and lead change in your organisation? One practical answer is Kouzes and Pozner's Leadership Practices. This article explains the model and how it can help you transform your own impact as a leader.

Management vs Leadership

Managers at all levels are now expected to be able to step up to be leaders in a range of circumstances. It's not simply something expected of CEOs or the most senior managers.

There are a host of definitions of management and leadership - and certainly too many to mention in this article. At =mc we often use two of the simplest definitions offered by management guru Peter Drucker:

Leadership: from an ancient Greek word meaning pathmaker

Management: from an ancient Greek word meaning pathfollower

Drucker also speaks about managers doing things right, and leaders doing the right thing.

At =mc we've translated Drucker's ideas onto some key activities shared by managers and leaders, such as planning, resources, and people management.

The implication of the pathmaker/pathfollower distinction is that as managers we have to be concerned with organising stable systems, ensuring quality, and identifying and implementing best practice. Whereas as leaders we need to be concerned about creativity and innovation, making positive changes and seeking to challenge and push boundaries.

And with the 'do the right thing' distinction we can see the importance of choice and vision. At the same time once a choice is made it's essential that 'things are done well' - that is, the choice is executed well, and that others are engaged in delivery.

However, even this approach doesn't necessary help us to indetify what exactly we have to do. And that's where Leadership Practices comes in.

Five practices of effective leaders

If you think there are a lot of definitions of leadership then you might be very concerned by the number of models there are to explain what leaders actually do.

However, there is a practical model that works effectively within a range of public bodies and charities we've worked with. The model is Leadership Practices, developed by two researchers, Kouzes and Posner, from original work by Tom Peters.

Kouzes and Posner's research was carried out over an initial five year period with over 1,000 high performing leaders - and importantly with their 'followers' too - establishing what made them successful.

Combining the two perspectives, the research project involved asking leaders and followers questions around:

what qualities individual leaders believed they needed when they were at their most successful

what qualities those who were being led believed were important when they felt themselves being well led

The research team's analysis of the data revealed a pattern of agreement between leaders and those being led about the behaviours that underpinned action when people were accomplishing extraordinary things in organisations. These were then codified as the five practices of leadership. The specific practices needed and their characteristics can vary according to the challenges you face, but at some point you'll have to access them all.

When working at their best, leaders and followers said leaders challenged, inspired, enabled, modelled and encouraged. And they did this through committing themselves to particular sets of behaviour and values. In the 20 years since the model was first developed, Kouzes and Posner have clearly established that these behaviours were an observable and learnable set of practices. They developed training that ensured anyone prepared to spend time developing the practices could become excellent at them. =mc has built on this training and we now use the model extensively in our in-house and open work.

Kouzes and Posner also developed a 360 º Inventory to help establish individuals':

current level of competence - as perceived by them and others - in each practice

where they need to develop to empower their team and deliver for the organisation

Note that Kouzes and Posner call them practices - that is, these qualities only manifest themselves when people actually do them.

The Five Practices

Here in more detail are the five practices and their implications for leaders.

Challenge the process

Kouzes and Posner's research found that leaders thrive on and learn from adversity and difficult situations. They are risk takers who regard failure - where not caused by poor performance - as a useful chance to learn and innovate. They are also early adopters. They seek out things that appear to work and then insist that they are improved. They challenge 24/7.

This practice suggests that we shouldn't be content to do 'business as usual'. As a leader you need to:

Seek challenging opportunities to change, grow, innovate, and improve at a personal and organisational level

Experiment, take risks, and encourage others to do so. Create a culture in which people feel able to learn from the accompanying mistakes

Consider what part of your organisation's work you need to challenge - even those parts that seem to work. Do you drive ideas you want to implement and allow others to share theirs? Are you prepared to take risks and allow others to do so?

Inspire a shared vision

Kouzes and Posner found in their research that people are motivated most not by fear or reward, but by ideas that capture their imagination. This is not so much about having a vision, but communicating it effectively so that others take it on board. Great leaders are future-orientated and seek to energise others by passion, enthusiasm and emotion. They want to bring people on board with this sense of shared purpose.

They will:

Create a vision of an uplifting and ennobling future where individuals feel energised by the orgaisational or team vision

Enlist others in this common vision by appealing to their values, interests, hopes and dreams

It's easy to concentrate too much on crafting the perfect words for a vision and mission, and not spend enough time on communicating it. Can you repeat your organisation's mission? How hard do you try to share it with others?

Enable others to act

Leaders don't seek to achieve it all themselves - they achieve results through others. But they do this not by simply repeating the vision mantra - encouragement and exhortation isn't enough. People must feel able to act and then must be supported to put their ideas into action. Collaboration and relationship-based work is central to success.

As a leader you will need to:

Foster collaboration by promoting co-operative goals and building trust between leaders and team members, and between teams

Strengthen others by sharing information and power and by increasing their discretion and visibility

Who in your team or organisation needs help and encouragement to act? What would help them to act? Do you have a systematic process for developing people and helping them grow in confidence and competence?

Model the way

Modelling means being prepared to go first, living the behaviours you want others to adopt before asking them to adopt them. People will believe not what they hear leaders say, but what they see their leaders consistently do. Great leaders should, demonstrate the desired approach, and specifically:

Set an example for others by behaving in ways that are consistent with your values and those of your organisation

Plan small wins that promote progress in individuals and teams, then build on these to maintain momentum

Do you tighten your own budget belt before asking others to cut back on expenditure? If you're in fundraising, do you donate to your own cause as an example of modelling the way?

Encourage the heart

Finally Kouzes and Posner established that people act best of all when they are passionate about what they're doing. Leaders unleash the enthusiasm of their followers with stories and passions of their own. They enjoy celebrating successes - even small ones. They tackle difficult projects recognising others' contributions. They:

seek out and recognise individual and team contributions to the success of every project.

celebrate team and individual accomplishments regularly - and look for engaging and novel ways to do so.

Have a think about your last staff newsletter or conference - did it meet this encouragement criterion? Was it exciting - or dull and safe? What could you do to encourage the heart at an organisational level?

By identifying your strengths and weaknesses across the five leadership practices, it's possible to spot a relatively small number of areas you need to work on. Through awareness, coaching, practice and feedback, you can quickly make the transition from effective manager to outstanding leader.

What's Next?

Kouzes and Posner also developed a 360° assessment questionnaire - the Leadership Practices Inventory. This tool scores leadership behaviour against the five practices. This powerful tool forms an important part of =mc's Strategic Leadership Programme. The course will help you to explore your strengths and weaknesses as a leader, and introduce tools, techniques and approaches to develop and communicate strategy and change. View all training programmes.

If you've found this article helpful and you would like more information, please call +44 (0)20 7978 1516 and speak to one of our senior learning and development consultants.

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Effective Leadership: the 5 practices of effective leaders

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In any manager's career, the transition to leader can be tricky. How do you lift yourself up from the operational to the strategic? What are the secrets to providing visionary leadership? How can you inspire and lead change in your organisation? One practical answer is Kouzes and Pozner's Leadership Practices.

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An efficient leadership style must include setting a vision, defining the goals the company wants to achieve, motivating the workforce to implement and execute the plans, and responding to market forces and other changes. While the goals of every company may be ultimately the same - to do exceedingly well as a business, there are a lot of differences in the leadership styles in a startup company and a traditional company to achieve these goals. Let's find out how.

Leadership Traits At Startups v/s Traditional Companies

1. Attitude: The leaders in traditional companies believe that they have the ultimate authority over everyone. The longer the tenure of these leaders, the higher up the ladder they get to climb. Most of the traditional companies only have one leader in a community. Whereas in a startup, there is collaborative leadership. Everyone in the team takes a collective decision and comes up with the best ideas to tackle a situation. This helps in team building and equal participation fosters better results.

2. Information Retention: When you are a part of a startup company you are at the apex of something amazing and more transparent as compared to a traditional company set up. Since everyone works on the same project, open information sharing is considered critical to the functioning of the business. Of course, some confidential details are not to be shared. In a traditional company, information is retained mainly by the leader and released only on a 'need to know' basis.

3. Primary Role: The primary role of the leaders in larger and more traditional corporations is sometimes only confined to delegating authorities and supervising the work of the subordinates. In many such cases, the subordinates develop a resistance or disliking to their leaders when they feel the leaders are not aware of the processes in detail to get the work done and are not involved much. As far as a startup is concerned, a leader is expected to work closely with his subordinates and colleagues to collectively achieve the goals of the company. This way, not only does the leader get to keep a tab on all the activities of the teammates, but also gets to analyze the growth of all his employees.

4. Calling the Shots: A leader in traditional corporations often takes decisions without taking any inputs from the teammates or subordinates working on the project. In a startup company, a leader is compassionate and considers the opinions of all the stakeholders and investors involved in taking any decisions. This may not be always possible in the case of a larger organization because of the number of people involved.

5. Growth: For a leader in a traditional company to come at par with the top heads of the company, it may take many years. But the career growth is a lot faster for leaders in a startup company. Take the example of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. He could not have become the CEO of a company straight out of college, could he? Startups provide that acceleration to a leader to excel along with their team by working in close co-operation.

6. A difference in Focus: Leaders in a traditional company focus on the organizational performance and expect positive results from their workforce. Apart from this, leaders in a startup also focus on developing the knowledge of their staff and train them so they can better support the project of the company. The leaders at startup companies can't afford to go wrong with the choices they make and so their commitment levels to training and providing support to their team members is very impressive in comparison with already established corporations that may miss this enthusiasm.

Conclusion

The landscape of the modern workplace is now evolving at a fast pace and the leaders need to adapt themselves accordingly so as to continue to remain the guiding force and inspiration for their team members. The need of the hour is to focus on the enhancement of the skills of the team members so they can perform to their best levels and stay motivated. Encouraging participation instils a sense of belonging and self-respect in the individuals and lets them know their opinions are valued. They can thrive best in such a positive work environment and give their best in every project they are a part of. Leaders of today need to become more expansive so they can also develop internally as well as externally and push the organization in the right direction at the same time. Charismatic, transformational and transactional leadership models exhibit the traits of a good leader that can effectively manage its subordinates as well as handle all the challenges with their teams by their side. Effective leadership must bridge the boundaries of people with different perspectives and cultures.

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How Is Leadership Different At Startup Companies Than With Larger, More Traditional Corporations? - JustScience

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An efficient leadership style must include setting a vision, defining the goals the company wants to achieve, motivating the workforce to implement and execute the plans, and responding to market forces and other changes.

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Leadership has become the center of attention for organizations after the global financial crisis in late 2007, highlighting the need for better leaders. However, choosing the right people to lead is not an easy process, even though there are lots of candidates with impressive credentials. Leaders possess significant impact on both their followers and the organizational outcomes. A successful leader will help his followers improve their skills and performance levels and therefore enhance productivity inside the company.

There is not a unique recipe for success when leadership is concerned. Different circumstances create different needs and therefore require different styles of leadership, a phenomenon called situational leadership. For instance, a company will require a different kind of leader on a period of growth, when it is hiring stuff, than a crisis period, when it is cutting down budgets and laying people off . Moreover, different cultures may show a preference to specific leadership characteristics. For example, people in the UK prefer leaders who seek to inspire them around a vision, care about their well-being and value their input. On the other hand, Islamic nations like Turkey and Qatar want their leaders to focus on procedures, status and safety of individuals and groups.

A very intriguing question regarding the concept of leadership is whether all those traits that distinguish leaders from other people are gentically inherited or can they be cultivated through experience and hard work. In other words: Leaders are born leaders or they become in the process? Recent studies indicate that only 30% of what makes a good leader depends on genetics, while the rest depends on skills which can be learned and improved through training and experience. Furthermore, according to Andersen's observations, there is a 10-15% of the population that does not have what it takes to become leaders, no matter how hard they try and how well they train themselves. The remaining 85-90% can improve their leadership skills and become good leaders. Marshall Goldsmith and Howard Morgan conducted a research, in which 88,000 managers who attended a leadership development training were closely observed. Findings of the study suggested that those managers who reflected on their experience of the training program and tried to implement what they learned became more effective leaders. Therefore, leadership is not only a matter of good genes but it also requires a significant amount of training and hard work for potential leaders to exploit their full potential. The purpose of this article is to explore those characteristics a leader should have in order to be considered succesful.

Traits and attributes of a good leader

A significant aspect of a leader's character is his personal values. To begin with, integrity can be viewed as the cornerstone of leadership, building strong relationships between leaders and employees which are based on mutual trust and collaboration. Leaders who possess integrity treat their followers with honesty and justice, by following up on their promises and not making discriminations in their judgments. Moreover, they are consistent on their core values, demonstrating them through their everyday actions. They also possess a strong ethical code, which helps them distinguish right from wrong on a moral perspective. A strong negative example is Jeff Skilling, the CEO of Enron, whose lack of integrity resulted in the collapse of his company and his imprisonment for mass fraud.

Another important characteristic of great leaders is humility. Leadership is an ongoing process of learning and experimenting. Therefore, leaders should be open-minded to reflect on their mistakes and learn from others in order to improve. They need to put their egos aside to admit their flaws and work on them. To achieve that, they should seek for feedback from their followers and fellow leaders. As Narayana Murthy, co-founder and executive chairman at Infosys, stated, in order for sustainable corporate success to be achieved leaders should recognize that there are smarter people who do things better, both within and outside the company and learn from them.

When it comes to leadership empathy can prove to be a significant asset. It is very important for a leader to understand what his followers are experiencing and share their feelings and emotions, especially when bad news is concerned. However, just being able to understand how someone is feeling may not be enough. Good leaders should act in a compassionate way to try to comfort their followers and reduce the pain they might be experiencing. Taking time to listen to their fears and concerns is a good step towards that direction. Being empathetic will make followers more loyal and trusting to you, since they will feel that you care for them and their interests.

As Ronald Reagan once stated, ''To grasp and hold a vision that is the very essence of successful leadership''. Leaders should possess a vision, a destination which will give meaning to other people's hard work and sacrifices. Everyone wants to have a purpose in their lives, which will keep them in line and motivate them. Equally important with having a vision, is the leader's ability to communicate it effectively to his followers. An effective leader carefully explains the vision to his people and convince them for its importance, so that they become committed to it and work hard to reach it.

All successful leaders are passionate about achieving their personal and team goals. Passion relates to a person's drives, motivating him to exert the necessary effort in order to be successful in his field. Without passion, a leader will not only fail to perform under the expected personal standards, but he will also fail to contribute to his team's goals. How can a leader persuade his followers about a vision if he does not feel passionate about it in the first place?

For leaders to reach their vision they should be effective decision makers. Good judgment is the compass for leaders to reach their goals. They should assess different situations and decide the best course of action, while being under constant pressure and sometimes having to face tough decisions, especially in periods of crisis. It is crucial to be able to control their emotions and not let them interfere in the decision-making process. As far as decisions are concerned, stereotypes may be a dangerous trap, clouding the leader's judgment and therefore need to be dealt with. Good judgment is often the difference between success and failure for a company.

Leaders will probably need to make tough decisions at some point in their careers, which may result in conflicts. They also need to take risks with a certain amount of personal cost and to stand up for their opinions even if everyone is trying to shut them down. This attitude of a leader standing up for what he belived is right, even though the vast majority is against him and his ideas can be seen in the ''12 Angry Men'' movie, where a jury tries to prevent a miscarriage of justice by persuading his colleagues to reconsider the evidence and change their preliminay guilty vote. Making difficult decisions demand courage from the leader, as the case of Judith Mackay, world's leading voice in the anti-smoking initiative, illustrates. Judith fought for what she believed and managed to create a generation of anti-smokers, even if she had to deal with death threats, friends turning their back on her, public humiliation and countries in the midst of civil war.

In addition, it is very important for leaders to demonstrate exceptional communication skills, which will help them build connections with their followers. Given that we spend around 80% of our work day involved in some form of communication, it would not make sense if we did not try to achieve the best outcomes from this. To do so, we need to start listening carefully to what other people are saying and try to open productive dialogue with them.

Leaders should lead by example. As role models for other people, leaders should jump into action, understand what is expected of them and live up to those expectations. Through this, not only they will inspire other people to participate actively in the process, but they will also show them the way to be successful. As John Furlong said: ''People will do anything for you if they see a good example to follow''. A very strong example of leadership by example can be found in ''Endurance'', a documentary movie about Sir Ernest Shackleton, the polar explorer who led three British expeditions to the Antarctic. In this move, we witness Shackleton's struggle to lead his 28-man crew to safety, after his ship ''Endurance'' was crushed in the park ice.

Leaders in start-ups and other innovative companies

First of all, the most crucial attribute a leader should possess in modern enterprises is the ability to think outside the box. Leaders often face situations which are not part of their standard routine and demand an alternative course of action. In cases like this, they will have a whole team waiting for them to take quick and effective decisions to solve the problem in hand. It is vital for them to be creative and come up with innovative ideas, since according to Aubrey Marcus founder of Onnit, innovation is our only chance to solve the challenges modern companies are facing.

An effective leader will also need to be patient to achieve his goals and reach his vision. '' If your vision is bold enough, there will be hundreds of reasons why it 'can't be done' and plenty of doubters '' stated Dan Brian, COO of Whip Clip. That is especially true with start-ups, which usually do not generate profits in their first years of operation and may also need a substantial funding from investors. Leaders should not be discouraged in case their companies demonstrate losses in the first years and should instead continue to work hard to turn things around. Moreover, they should be prepared to get refused by a lot of investors when they try to secure funding for their company. They should not give up and continue to pursue their goal. Patience also extends to their followers. It is common for leaders to get overwhelmed by their passion and expect immediate and top quality results from their team and, thus get frustrated when they realize that people in their team cannot live up to their expectations. Instead, they should take the necessary time to explain to their followers what is expected of them and provide them with the necessary guidance.

Furthermore, leaders create their followers and there is always a danger for them to become too focused on the presented task in expense of their team and individuals. As John Adair's Action Centered Leadership Model states, equal attention should be given to the three circles (task, team, individual), although sometimes one of them may require our focus. Thus, in order to create exemplary followers, who will be ready to take initiatives and solve corporate problems, leaders should encourage them to express their opinions and show them that they value their input, even if it sometimes challenges them. Leaders should respect the contributions of their people and make them feel significant members of the organization. Exemplary followers are important assets for start-ups and innovative companies, as innovation is a democratic process and every member on a team should be able to contribute to it.

In challenging periods, when things are not going according to plan and the future of the company looks clouded, people tend to lose their faith in the vision and start to panic. It is a leader's job to have confidence in his vision and his ability to turn things around and pass this confidence to other members of the team. As the captain of the ship, a leader should maintain the team's morale and calmness and convince them that things are going to get better if they keep working hard. However, doing these things, he must first be confident himself that his plan will eventually work and that he has what it takes to succeed.

Finally, in start-ups and innovative companies there is a strong need of servant leadership, where leaders operate more as supporters instead of supervisors. Leaders should be ready to delegate responsibilities and give control to their followers, while at the same time providing them with help and guidance whenever needed. For this to happen, there should be a change in the traditional hierarchical way many leaders are thinking.

To sum up, being a leader is a tough challenge, as it bears increased responsibilities and expectations. Leaders are supposed to make a difference in business environments, facing periods of crisis, inspiring their people to embrace their vision and helping them to achieve their potential. Their success is now measured not by how they perform individually, but mostly by how their people perform due to their presence. As Dennis Peer stated: "One measure of leadership is the caliber of the people who choose to follow you".

For leaders to make a difference to their companies, they should first realize their own strengths and weaknesses and be ready to work hard to improve. Keeping an open mind to admit possbile mistakes, realizing that you are not the smartest person in the room and asking for feedback are necessary steps in the path of self-awareness, a path all leaders should cross. Since in leadership there is not a guaranteed recipe for success, a try and error process is required for leaders to find out which style is suitable in which occasion and they often need to change their leadership views in the process.

Finally, it is very important for leaders to discover their core values, as they are the driving forces which shape their behavior. Bearing in mind that their values are going to be tested and they may face decisions challenging them at some point in their career, they should decide if they are ready to make compromises on them. If that is not the case, then they should choose to join companies whose corporate values are on the same side with their own personal ones.

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What makes a good leader? - Startup Pulse

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Leadership has become the center of attention for organizations after the global financial crisis in late 2007, highlighting the need for better leaders. However, choosing the right people to lead is not an easy process, even though there are lots of candidates with impressive credentials.

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Startups either have that "it" factor or they don't, and some founders spend so much time trying to figure out exactly what that "it" factor actually is. They want to be successful, but when they follow the money they end up losing sight of their original mission. They want to be able to grow and scale quickly while creating an inclusive culture.

After working with hundreds of startups, I noticed something.

There are two kinds of CEOs: ones who leave their job because they're sick of it and envision starting something new, and those with an MBA degree who want to build their own startup straight after that. Therefore, many startup CEOs struggle with people-centricity and what it really takes to orchestrate a team. Leadership is not taught in these areas, and many times the chemistry just doesn't exist within the team itself. This can cause a business to fold.

It's not easy to manage a team and ensure everyone is happy, but there are ways to help your company grow outside of the "hustle" and "task over humanity" approach. Here are some tips for startup founders to make an impact within their organization and ultimately become memorable leaders.
Focus On Value
Providing value to your customers and your audience will take your company much further than trying to get them to check out your company through promotion. Most people don't want to be bombarded with promos. Instead, they want something that is insightful or changes their perspective. They want something that will bring more awareness to them and what they're doing. Money likes those who like what they do.

When I first started my business, I didn't do it for the money. I had a hunger to help businesses turn their target audience into passionate buyers and believers. I had already built a strong track record of helping companies achieve their goals, including my own. After a while, I decided it was time to venture out and focus on being the best provider. For me, it's never about getting new clients. It's about providing value in ways that make them want to come back. These companies usually refer me to other clients as well. As a leader, your end goal is to be the best provider and bring value to everything you put your hands on.
Get Your Team To Think Outside The Box
We all have to get a lot of different tasks done, but what are you doing to help your team think better? It requires letting go of control, trusting your team and basically getting out of their way. When I was working in my first startup, my boss would follow me around like an ex who won't let the relationship go. It made me feel nervous and I would drop everything to make him happy, which meant I wasn't getting my actual work done. I realized this environment wasn't for me. I felt like I was stuck in this box that didn't allow me to spark my creativity and spread my wings. We could have done amazing things, but limited thinking got in the way. I eventually left and gained greater perspective. I wanted to work in a place that encouraged more freedom. Those are the kinds of places that spark the most creativity. Thus, I decided to advise startups that had a more flexible policy and watch them succeed.
Listen And Actively Ask Questions
Throughout my experience with startups, I've run into many entrepreneurs who just simply want to give their two cents on everything. Unfortunately, this creates a roadblock for effective communication among a team because employees are not able to provide their opinions and feedback. Ultimately, the team could not even be listening to the speaker at all.

Listening is essential to effective communication. The art of listening is magical. It gives people a sense that you actually care about what they are saying. One of my mentors used to always tell me that, "If someone is nodding their head while you speak, they are not listening to you." Everything is going in one ear and coming out the other. If you want to be an effective communicator, then you have to learn how to listen and ask first. I used to have a habit of being accusatory and jumping to conclusions without listening. It didn't work for me, so I had to change my mentality to support my goals. I had to focus on the end result and whatever it would take to get to that point. This resulted in a happy team environment instead of the hostile-feeling team environment I was working in previously.
Encourage An Entrepreneurial Spirit
Think of an entrepreneurial spirit as the water that makes a plant grow. When I transitioned into the startup world, I left being CEO behind but I never lost my entrepreneurial spirit. I love pouring my whole heart and soul into my endeavors, so that came easily for me. And besides, the companies I worked with that came from an entrepreneurial background had more success than those that didn't.

Adopting an entrepreneurial spirit means that you constantly keep the business's best interests in mind. You act with confidence, knowing that if the company succeeds, so do you. We all want to be a part of something greater than ourselves; that's why we are all entrepreneurs at heart. Companies that nurture this spirit will have a better chance at succeeding because they are developing a fully invested team that is committed to propelling the business forward.

Whether you've worked your up to a CEO position and are venturing out to create your own startup or you're a recent graduate with an MBA eager to start your own company, juggling an entire team, fostering good company culture and being a lucrative leader is difficult but worth it.

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Four Leadership Skills That Drive Startup Growth

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Startups either have that "it" factor or they don't, and some founders spend so much time trying to figure out exactly what that "it" factor actually is. They want to be successful, but when they follow the money they end up losing sight of their original mission.

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Google's Project Aristotle studied the characteristics that create effective teams at Google and offered tips for helping teams take action to increase team effectiveness:

Psychological safety: Team members feel safe to take risks and be vulnerable. (Actions: Solicit input and opinions, and share personal and work style preferences.)

Dependability: Members reliably complete quality work on time. (Actions: Clarify roles and responsibilities, and develop concrete project plans to provide transparency into every individual's work.)

Structure and clarity: Members have clear roles, plans and goals. (Actions: Regularly communicate team goals, ensure team members understand the plan for achieving them, and ensure team meetings have a clear agenda and designated leader.)

Meaning: There's a sense of purpose in the work or the output. (Actions: Give team members positive feedback on something outstanding they are doing, offer to help them with something they struggle with and publicly express your gratitude for someone who helped you.)

Impact: Work is making a difference. (Actions: Co-create a clear vision that reinforces how each team member's work directly contributes to team and organization goals, reflect personally on how work impacts users or clients and the organization, and adopt a user-centered evaluation method.)

In other words, the best teams communicate effectively. And it starts with leadership. In a Quantum Leadership Group survey of 195 leaders in 15 countries over 30 global organizations, communication was involved in six of the top 10 leadership competencies. Unfortunately, in a recent study by Clear Company, 86 percent of employees and executives cited a "lack of collaboration" or "ineffective communication" as the source of most workplace failures.

Communication is critical for leadership success, but most leaders don't communicate or collaborate well. Communication is "a process by which information is exchanged between individuals through a common system of symbols, signs, or behavior," according to Merriam-Webster. The key word is "exchange."

One reason why communication is ineffective is because we rely too much on email, which is often misinterpreted. Humans are much better at communicating and interpreting tone in vocal messages than in text-based ones, and face-to-face requests are 34 times more effective than emailed requests.

What can leaders do to be more effective communicators? Here are three tips.
Have More Exchanges.
"Great leadership is practiced one conversation at a time," wrote Tacy M. Byham and Richard S. Wellins in a CLO article. Great conversations impact the bottom line. In fact, a DDI and The Conference Board study found "that organizations that value interactions are 3½ times more likely to have a strong leadership bench and twice as likely to be among the top financially performing companies."
Seek Mutuality.
Mutuality is seeking mutual purpose and an understanding that leaders and employees are working toward a common goal. Both parties must care about the interests of the other person, not just their own. Communication often fails because people jump to the worst possible conclusion about another person without considering the other person's circumstances or point of view.

According to psychologist Judith V. Jordan, the main channel for mutuality is empathic attunement, the ability to understand another person's momentary psychological state . "It is a process during which one's self-boundaries undergo momentary alteration," says Jordan, "which in itself allows the possibility for change in the self. Empathy ... always contains the opportunity for mutual growth and impact."
Communicate With Intention.
Communicating with intention penetrates both sides of a listener's brain. According to neuroscientist Sophie Scott, we divide a person's message into sections and store (remember) each part in a different part of the brain. The words are stored and processed in the left temporal lobe. The vocal dynamics - how the words are delivered - are stored in the right side of the brain, the area also associated with music and images. The words alone are not enough. Lack of vocal intention will cloud your message and leave your audience confused at best and unmoved at worst.

As management guru Peter Drucker said, "Communication always makes demands. It always demands that the recipient become somebody, do something, believe something. It always appeals to motivation." We all communicate every day of our lives, whether we choose to or not, and we all want something as a result of the messages we communicate.

Effective leaders must motivate a team, facilitate change, define a culture or overcome adversity. Great leaders must be great communicators. They have to create a vision that others will follow. Their words must be supported by strong and active intentions, and their objectives must be clearly defined, appealing to the aspirations and emotions of their team members. Without intention, employees will not understand a leader's ideas and will not champion their proposals. And teams will remain ineffective.
David Lewis

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Effective Leadership Communication Creates Effective Teams - Training Industry

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Google's Project Aristotle studied the characteristics that create effective teams at Google and offered tips for helping teams take action to increase team effectiveness: Psychological safety: Team members feel safe to take risks and be vulnerable. (Actions: Solicit input and opinions, and share personal and work style preferences.)

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From 8 people who've done it

Being a leader is about so much more than being in charge of people. It's a whole new level of responsibility that not everyone is cut out for.

We wanted to see if there were any common threads shared by leaders from different startups in the UK, so we sent out a questionnaire to some of our friends at Accelerate Places.

Here's what they had to say.

What one quality do you feel is most important to be an effective leader?

"Probably listening. Part of being a leader is assimilating inputs from all sorts of sources and distilling the patterns and insight from it. Your team are inevitably closer to customers, delivery, billing, in fact pretty much any aspect of the businesses. Unless you're properly open to listening to what they are reporting to you, both directly and indirectly, you will struggle to help them effectively navigate the business." -  Adam Bird, Cronofy CEO and co-founder

"Humility. You need to defer to your team as much as possible whilst providing a strong vision for them to get behind.

You can't, and shouldn't, know every little detail of everything but you need to know enough to create a cohesive team. You have to realise that you are as dependent on your team as they are on you, if not more so." - Garry Shutler, Cronofy CTO and co-founder

"There are a lot of qualities that are important when you want to lead. And there are many different types of leaders. Some lead by example, others excel at delegating and using the strength of their team. As a leader you want to be honest, approachable and inspire your team. But I believe that it all start with being a good communicator. In a professional environment you meet and work with people from varied backgrounds who have different motivations and skills. As a leader of people it's a critical part your role to to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the individuals who work with you in order for them to achieve their full potential. It is also your job to motivate your team by understanding what matters to each of your subordinate. I have found that being able to explain how specific projects fit into the company's wider strategy isn't always as straightforward as it seems. I don't think there is such thing as too much communication but never forget to listen more than you talk and ask your employees for their opinion!" - Jérémy Bourhis, Cronofy Marketing Manager

What one trait do you feel is the most detrimental to a leader?

"Dogmatic self-belief. Part of being an entrepreneur is harnessing your ability to see the world differently and navigate a contrarian approach to success. Being repeatedly told your wrong by customers, investors, journalists can make you put up barriers. It's crucial these barriers are down when leading your team. You have to be able to listen and be humble to properly guide them." - Adam Bird, Cronofy CEO and co-founder

"People managers need to understand that they have hired employees for their expertise in a specific area. I think some managers feel like they can only lead successfully if they are involved with every project or task that their team works on. In my experience this is a recipe for disaster. You want your team members to feel empowered and show that you trust them by giving them responsibilities. Micro-management doesn't help subordinates feel like they are being valued. It can also lead to burnout as there are not enough hours in the day for one person to do the job of three or four." - Jérémy Bourhis, Cronofy Marketing Manager

What's the best piece of leadership advice you've ever been given?

"Everyone is making it up. The only way to train for leadership is to attempt leadership. No matter how confident and adept other people appear, they're all just making up as they go along. Each challenge is different. Only by jumping in feet first will you start to acquire the necessary skills and become more able to cope with the challenges of leadership." - Adam Bird, Cronofy CEO and co-founder

"Consensus is preferable but not required. I try to encourage the principle of "disagree and commit".

"A level of conflict is healthy, it means you've avoided complete groupthink which helps generate more diverse ideas. However, once a decision is made, everyone should commit to it regardless of which side of the fence they were on. And no "I told you so"s allowed down the line, they aren't helpful and are generally negativity bias in action." - Garry Shutler, Cronofy CTO and co-founder

"When I was promoted as a people manager I was told that I had to understand that leading people is really a full-time job, not an add-on to my existing one. This is especially true if you have been promoted from another position within the company. There can be a temptation to continue doing what you are comfortable with and just add the people management part on top of it. That simply doesn't work. You are no longer a Digital Marketing Executive, you are the manager of a marketing team. Let go on some of the day-to-day task and delegate these tasks to your team. Your team will rely on you for advice and guidance and you need to be there to help them make the decision that will help the business achieve its objectives. Leaders can't lose sight of what really matters, the people they work with." - Jérémy Bourhis, Cronofy Marketing Manager

What alternative(s) would you suggest to someone who wants to progress in their career without becoming a traditional people manager?

"Project leadership is where I've seen many people flourish. Especially those that have come through a more technical career path. There are many moving parts to projects and leading a team to a clearly measurable deliverable is a different set of skills to that required to take people on a longer journey." - Adam Bird, Cronofy CEO and co-founder

"Figure out what you're really good at and develop that skill (assuming it creates value)!" - Mark Sanders, Accelerate Places

"A leader doesn't have to be managing people to be recognized as such. And there is no shame in not wanting to manage people. That's not something that everyone want to do but I believe that businesses need to be better at providing alternative career paths so employees can continue to progress in the organization. You can hold a leadership position in a company through your expertise in a specific areas that are critical to the business' mission and be someone the rest of your team or the business as a whole looks up to and listen to." - Jérémy Bourhis, Cronofy Marketing Manager

What advice would you give to someone looking to pursue a leadership role?

"Find a coach. Someone who you respect as a leader. It can be a very lonely position and being able to discuss and share, in confidence, the inevitable challenges will give you important support." - Adam Bird, Cronofy CEO and co-founder

For more insights on what makes a great leader, check out our guest post for TechDay.

This story is published in The Startup, where 266,600+ people come together to read Medium's leading stories on entrepreneurship.

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How to Be a Great Leader in a Startup - The Startup - Medium

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From 8 people who've done it Being a leader is about so much more than being in charge of people. It's a whole new level of responsibility that not everyone is cut out for.

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Image credit: Thomas Barwick | Getty Images

5 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Over the past several years as a coach of high-level, male entrepreneurs, I've watched men subconsciously setting themselves up for failure. Unaware of the behavioral patterns sabotaging their growth, they head down paths of misguided thinking and flawed execution.

Those in leadership positions are especially susceptible to these patterns. Once they head down a path, they can sometimes feel isolated, making feedback from others hard to obtain. While not everyone is called to lead, those who do lead need to become aware of their subconscious patterns so they can avoid the pitfalls that could lead to huge personal and financial losses.

Through my work, I have discovered nearly 80 percent of these patterns are related to mindset. When the leader of an organization isn't operating at his peak, the company culture will feel the impact. This will eventually trickle down to the company's clients, affecting their trust in the organization and its capacity to deliver.

A leader's mindset goes beyond telling people what to do. It's exuding confidence so the team knows they will win regardless of the circumstances. Sometimes those wins come as learning experiences. Here are four of the most common harmful patterns I've seen among the leaders I've worked with.

Pattern 1: Hiding doubt and fear.

Everyone experiences doubt and fear, but leaders process it differently. While a leader may be confident and fearless most of the time, it can sneak up on him when he is trying to hide his weaknesses. Even if he has led the team to victory in the past, he may begin to doubt his capacity to do it again. Once doubt sets in, he will put up a front hoping no one notices, but in the end, they always do.
Related: These Artists, Authors and Leaders Battled Self-Doubt Before They Made History
Leaders don't hide. I teach my clients to break the pattern through authenticity. Share your doubts and fears with your high-level team members. Frame the conversation so as to avoid building fear among your peers. Ask them questions to get useful feedback you can use to implement new strategies for growth. You can turn doubt and fear around, but only if you expose it and gain support for your vision.

Pattern 2: Harboring guilt and shame.

A big lie we tell ourselves is that to lead we must be perfect. Perfection is the lowest standard because it creates an impossible game to win. Sometimes the guilt of being less than perfect can creep in from past failures and affect current success.

One of my clients didn't realize he was carrying the guilt and shame of a past failure into his new and thriving business. Once he realized his past didn't define his future, he began to grow, using the knowledge he gained from the past to propel himself forward. As a result, his team saw an immediate shift in his leadership style. His newfound style energized them, causing them to generate increased revenues for the company.
Related: 5 Different Leadership Styles Every Good Boss Needs to Have
There are no perfect leaders. Letting go of guilt and shame for your failures is the key to breaking this pattern. Define the future you envision and focus on progress and the impact you are making. Are you a better person in spite of your mistakes?

Pattern 3: Playing the comparison game.

This is probably the main pattern that sabotages great leaders. Comparing yourself to others only serves to squash your creativity and momentum. This pattern has stopped me in my tracks many times.

As a coach and leader, I want to provide useful content, books and videos for my followers and clients. I used to believe looking at what others in my industry were doing would give me great ideas, but I learned I needed to forge my own way. I broke the pattern by focusing on myself and the leader within, using that inspiration to create some of my best work.
Related: To Become a Leader Stop Schmoozing Others and Focus on Yourself
There will always be haters. Remember, focus on you and your company. Keep one eye on what makes you unique and the other eye on the market. Comparison will lead you to failure, but when you decide to lead you can't let criticism knock you down. Use the pain of criticism as fire for growth. Criticism is the price you pay to be a leader.

Pattern 4: Needing to be in control.

Some leaders believe they need to be in control of every aspect of their business. They believe being in control will help them avoid mistakes. Unfortunately, this may be true as long as you want your company to remain small. You can't carry the weight of the world and row the boat at the same time if you want to sail around the world successfully.

There will be no time for innovation and growth. The key to breaking this pattern is trust. Others may not do things the way you do, but empowering others to work your business is a sure way to create progress. Others on your team might even do things better than you and that is when you will truly reap the rewards of letting go.

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Let Go and Lead: The Patterns That Sabotage Effective Leadership

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5 min read Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Over the past several years as a coach of high-level, male entrepreneurs, I've watched men subconsciously setting themselves up for failure. Unaware of the behavioral patterns sabotaging their growth, they head down paths of misguided thinking and flawed execution.

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The Valley's ecosystem changes and evolves constantly. I started my career back in the early days of Sun Microsystems when the Valley giants were Intel and Hewlett-Packard. Today, I run a software startup and the giants of yesteryear have given way to Facebook and Google. Nearly 25 years ago, we were just being introduced to the World Wide Web and software was delivered to the masses via CD-ROMs and floppy disks. Today, we see the widespread adoption of technologies such as big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning.

With ever-increasing pressure on CEOs to move quickly, keeping up is mandatory. The startup world has, for decades, moved fast. But now in our always-on, constantly connected world, it's moving even faster. Whether you are starting a brand new venture or you are a seasoned CEO with many startups under your belt, here are some insights and tips for startup leaders in 2018:
1. Don't Become Global -- Start Global
The global economy is not going away. Our economies, supply chains and workforces are only becoming more intertwined with little respect to borders. As such, CEOs can and should create a global business at a company's inception rather than focusing most, if not all, efforts on the United States. There are promising markets in Europe, Asia, Latin America and other regions. Be coordinated and diligent in going global at the outset. With such a large concentration of companies in Silicon Valley, it's important to spread tech companies out beyond the Valley so as not to limit startup momentum and potential growth. Startups should explore the possibilities of other innovation clusters such as Tech City UK, Paris-Saclay, Israel, Bangalore and Beijing. Sales are often easier to close away from the hyper-competitive tech centers in the U.S.
2. Experience Is Back In Vogue In Silicon Valley
Don't discount being an experienced CEO or bringing one on to lead your company. In an industry all-too-frequently stereotyped by the hoodie-wearing tech CEO, there is a resurgence of the experienced leader throughout Silicon Valley. While innovation will always come from all types of backgrounds, companies and VCs are recognizing the value of having leadership teams in place with proven track records in the industry -- both from a technical and a business perspective -- and that can make consistently measured decisions based on that experience.
3. Make Integrity A Central Talking Point
2017 may well have been the watershed startups needed to realize that running a company is about far more than providing employees with great snacks, gourmet cafeterias, posh gym memberships and flexible work hours. Amid the ongoing fallout from the scandals at companies such as Uber, CEOs and other executives must place integrity and honesty at the forefront of their companies' ethos, creating and supporting more initiatives to inculcate and sharpen these qualities and (hopefully) turn the tide of the perceived ( negative) culture of Silicon Valley. If everyone at the top becomes more aware and makes the behaviors of integrity and honesty a priority for both internal and external communications, 2018 could well be a turning point for the tech industry in restoring its reputation.
4. Don't Be Afraid To Be Fiscally Conservative
In recent years, there has been an explosion of VC financing in Silicon Valley. It seemed that every startup was being funded in rounds of eight or even nine figures. What was already a highly selective process (securing VC funding) is becoming even more selective. What we're starting to see now is still more money being put into startups but fewer overall VC funding deals . What this means is that it's time to focus more on running the businesses and creating solid products than on offering the coolest, craziest, headline-grabbing perks. Close your deals now, conserve your cash and keep your runway long. This is what will lead to a strong, stable company in the long run.

Experience, a global mindset, honesty, integrity and a bit of fiscal conservatism when running a company never go out of style, regardless of the era you're in. But even more so today, with such a focus on "growth at all costs" and our connected world, by following these tips and tricks, you'll be on a steadier, more stable path in building and growing your startup.

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From CEO To CEO: Top Tips For Startup Leaders In 2018

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The Valley's ecosystem changes and evolves constantly. I started my career back in the early days of Sun Microsystems when the Valley giants were Intel and Hewlett-Packard. Today, I run a software startup and the giants of yesteryear have given way to Facebook and Google.

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In chess and in business, every move counts. Here's what startup CEOs can learn from this game of logic.

I have loved chess since I was a child. My grandfather used to play with these beautiful wooden carved boards and pieces. I can't remember any single day when I wasn't playing the game.

Even now, before starting my day, chess has to be my wake-up coffee. When I need focus, chess comes to my aid as a shield. This game is more like a therapy and strategy planner for me.

However, if you look at it theoretically, chess is all about strategy planning in the field. When I first thought about being an entrepreneur, the game held my objectives. The meetings, contracts and competitors are all like any game of chess.

Let me tell you the six most basic chess tips that helped me when I started my own business.

1. You Need Purpose

Purpose is a small word, with a lot of theory in it. In chess, every move counts. Each piece has its own place and importance. You can't run a company without careful planning and approach. There are people better than you, some are the big sharks in your field and successful too.

Thus, every move, innovation and setup is going to count. You can't own a million dollar company without having an insight and purpose. Planning with your resources to build a strong force is going to need a purpose. So, see what your purpose is, and how you can effectively use it.

2. Make Plan A, Plan B and Plan C

Now, here is something interesting. Every problem has a solution, and every solution has a problem. At the start, your business will face a lot of problems, mainly with cash and target audiences. Your competitors are doing everything that they can to reach your customers. If you aren't doing anything different then you are already losing the game. In chess, players always have a plan A, plan B and a plan C. Therefore, your business moves also need to be redefined with plans.

You might be a very good player, but in the end, it's not about playing well, but winning on your terms. So, counterplan every new idea or policy or even a product.

3. Every Piece Is Important

Your king, queen and knight are valued pieces, but what about the pawns? Or is the rook there for decoration? When it comes to chess, not a single piece is out of line. Each of them has their own value and game-changing ability, just like the idea of your business approach. Every employee and customer is important. Your competitors are essential, but so are your employees and customers.

Most people who consult with me are worried and focused on their opponents. But that's not the way to deal, either in chess or business. Playing safe is not an idle line. It has meaning, to go with the theme of being overly-cautious. Look out for assets in your employees and life-long customers in every sale.

4. Learn From Your Mistakes

You made a mistake. So what? Everyone does that. One fail move doesn't imply that in the end, you will lose the game. Every mistake teaches you something. If you lose a piece on the chess board that means that you have to be careful with the rest. The actionable-item here is additional strategic forecasting.

Samsung had a disaster with Note 7 last year. Did the company close? No, they emerged with Note 8 and more gadgets to win their customers. So, if you face failure, emerge-out with more options, and learn from your mistakes. Nothing is permanent, not even a missed business bid.

5. Consider The Whole Board

You have a board full of chess pieces. Maybe you get to do the opening and make the first move. Are you planning to just go about it without thinking? No, that is a wild mistake. You have to settle down, think about your options, and then make the first move. Every opening is a blessing in your business, but again, you have to play safe.

Consider your options, finances and the ability to meet deadlines. Seizing every opportunity without a backup is not healthy. The learning curve works best by seizing the right opportunity and then making a well-planned move. Analyze the situation, see the pros and cons - and then bid. Use your business tools effectively. Calculate the loss of sales, and then see if you can offer any deals or promotions to cover for them.

6. Don't Stall After Temptations

When I first started playing chess, I was very tempted with moving the queen and king. This usually led me to either lose all the pieces or sometimes the whole game. My king used to be snatched, and boy, that did hit hard. I learned from that the need to gain focus. The ins-and-outs of my game needed to be reformed. And only then was I able to protect my king.

It's the same with any startup business. You have to look for ways that can engage the entire board. Usually, competition magnifies the playing ground, but if you lose focus, you won't win. Your ability needs to be reformed to seize extra chances for beating your opponents. Use resources effectively to get to your customers. Try SEO, social media, word-of-mouth and content marketing to reach your customers. Be available where they are. That's how your business will grow to the next level.

6. Apply Chess Techniques, But Know Your Business Too!

Real-life business isn't just a game of chess. Not all your competitors will play nicely. They will attack whenever they want and will ruin your reputation at any cost. But chess teaches you how to focus, play defense, and plan your moves.

Every game of chess starts with a new strategy. Each of your pieces plays their part to let you win. The more focused you get, the more you learn. Similarly, you get to apply these tactics in your new startup or a fresh campaign. You see your rivals and study their playing pattern. Your thoughts get organized with a purpose to win. And, even if you lose, you will do that with a grace.

See, not all the games are about winning, but also about learning from your mistakes or your opponents mistakes.

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What Startup Leaders Can Learn From Chess

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In chess and in business, every move counts. Here's what startup CEOs can learn from this game of logic. I have loved chess since I was a child. My grandfather used to play with these beautiful wooden carved boards and pieces. I can't remember any single day when I wasn't playing the game.

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Study examines best leadership styles for entrepreneurial startups

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Leadership determines a company's success and employee satisfaction. But which style of leadership is most effective for entrepreneurial startups?