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School of Hard Knocks
Sam Cece Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
August 18, 2008
Turn It Upside Down
I’m going to try a little experiment and would like your help.
I’ve often looked at successful leaders and have tried to pinpoint what sets them apart. What things do they (or in some cases, don’t do) that make them so successful? Is it management style? Leadership skills? Unique abilities? What do they do differently than the rest of the pack?
What's the secret behind Steve Jobs' incredible accomplishments? Or how about Carol Bartz? John Chambers? Dianne Green? What do each one of these successful leaders do that is so unique? Why have they been able to rise to the top?
I had an interesting thought last week while thumbing through the book Simplexity, Why Simple Things Become Complex (and How Complex Things Can be Made Simple), by Jeffrey Kluger. The book is thought-provoking and intellectually stimulating. When I first put the book down, I sat there for a moment and tried to apply what I’d read to my leadership role at StrongMail. And then, BAM! I realized that maybe I was looking at this all wrong. Instead of trying to identify unique traits, I'm going to reverse my approach and start looking at the commonalities of successful leaders for insight.
One clear common attribute of successful leaders is their team. Every successful leader has a great team—they’re leaders in their own right. Steve Job of Apple has a great team. Carol Bartz of Autodesk had a great team. John Chambers of Cisco, again, has a great team. A great team attracts great people. Great people execute.
Over the next month or so, I’m going to take note of more commonalities during my interaction with people: internal meetings, prospect and customer meetings, reading the business press and my news sources. I’d like for you to do the same.
Let’s try to assemble the top 10 common attributes of successful leaders to share with this audience.
I look forward to hearing your thoughts, observations and personal experience on this topic.
Posted by: Sam Cece at 9:17 AM
Categories: Business , Feedback , Silicon Valley
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My ideas - -
Commonalities - 1. Driven, 2. Willing to be creative and try new approaches no matter the risk, 3. Good leader of teams, 4. Has a vision and dream of the future and keeps everyone on task with that vision
Comment by Shawna – November 7, 2008 5:30 AM