Advice From CEOs
Over the years I have interviewed hundreds of America’s top leaders and a question I love asking is: “What are your three best tips applicable to entrepreneurs, executives and civic leaders?” Here are the answers I received to that question from ten CEOs of successful organizations - across of a wide of industries - who I interviewed in my Lessons in Leadership series:
John Hewko, CEO of Rotary International: In addition to stressing that all leaders reflect on their personal and organizational core values, I would simply suggest that those in the for-profit sector take a critical look at how social value is part of their firm’s mission. Broadly, if the 19th century for-profit sector valued “reward,” and the 20th century benchmark was risk and reward, then the 21st century will be defined by risk, reward and impact. For many years, it was difficult to answer the inevitable question: How do you blend and measure social and financial returns? This is no longer the case, but it requires some bold collaboration between the private sector and non-profits to act on this insight. Finally, I firmly believe that trailblazing leaders are made, not born. Rotary’s founder Paul Harris wasn’t blessed with once-in-a-lifetime talents, but he was able to articulate a vision that inspired others. He was able to act on his vision to form a new social network well before anyone ever heard of Facebook or LinkedIn.
Jeff Sinelli, CEO of Which Wich: 1. Gather a Winning Team: This is applicable to both professional and personal life. My family at home is my support structure and my motivation each and every day. My wonderful wife, Courtney, and my two daughters, are the team that keeps me sane and keeps me striving to be a better man every day. Similarly, your business is only going to be as good as the people who are in the trenches with you every day. It’s been important to me that we take care of those who are taking care of the brand. Take care of those who take care of you and you will be rich in both spirit and your bottom line. 2. Be Loud and Proud: I’ve long been a proponent that the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Be proud of your product, service, brand, business. I literally wear my brands on my sleeve. My typically attire is branded. Don’t be afraid to inject some personality into the world. Project your pride and passion. 3. Be Obsessed: Start forcing yourself into winning habits now and don’t stray from them even if you taste a little success. Stay hungry. I strongly subscribe to the 15-minute rule – always show up 15 minutes early and always leave 15 minutes later than required. That’s part of being obsessed, but when you strive to be your own boss – it’s even more important to embody the type of employees that you want to join you in your mission to build something great.
John McAuliffe, CEO of Sylvan Learning: The first tip I have is to know your space, be educated on the landscape in which your business operates as it will make you a better decision maker. The second tip is to be a positive leader. People feed off the energy and attitude that you have. The third, is to communicate often with your people and make that communication two way so you know what is happening on the front lines.
Debi Lane, CEO of LunchboxWax: 1. Have a plan and run that plan by people that won’t feed you what you want to hear. Find your trusted critics and listen to their feedback. 2. Trust your intuition. This took time for me to realize what my intuition was. I have cultivated a process now where I reflect on times where I went right and should have gone left. Where were the signs. Did I feel them in my body as a sensation? They are there if you look for them. I have to get quiet and watch for cues. Sometimes they are big and other times super subtle. 3. Find your passion – what really lights you up on the inside. That is your truth. Let the truth of who you are be the foundation for your work. Don’t be afraid to be disruptive!
Adnan Durrani, CEO of Saffron Road: 1. Never give up—follow your passion. 2. Empower passionate teams and create a meritocracy. 3. Be intelligently disruptive and innovative –don’t follow the herd.
Bill Walshe, CEO of Viceroy Hotels & Resorts: 1. Never be too proud to say “please” and “thank you” when engaging with your stakeholders, both external and internal. 2. Have a vision of success and your business plan works backward from that to the point where you are at. 3. Make sure that you are managing to an evident and highly activated ideology.
Dawn Russell, CEO of 8Greens: 1. All you have is your people. Whatever organization you are in, it and you will achieve nothing if the other people who work in do not feel valued, have a clear sense of that the larger goals, a clear understanding of how their role supports those goals and are clearly appreciated when they do. If your team is happy and motivated it will achieve things you haven’t even had time to know are out there. 2. You’re not going to change. By the time you are reading this article you have been around long enough to know what you are good at. Do not choose a company, role or challenge that depends on you suddenly getting good at something you know is not a strength. Find someone who is better at it and you focus on what you are good at. 3. Small problems are infinite. Whatever situation you’re in there are probably less than 5 things that actually matter this year to your organization, but the day to day issues and problems never stop. Focus on the important things and don’t get bottled down by the small stuff.
David Graham, CEO of Code Ninjas: 1. Stop ad hoc communications from your franchisees to your employees ASAP. Designate a single person to schedule outgoing announcements and a team with a single point of access to handle all franchisee requests and inquiries to streamline the process and create a sense of leadership and accountability. 2. Step aside and trust your qualified employees to take your ideas and put them into action. This will allow you to have time to think about and focus on growing your business, while the work is being taken care of. This way, I am able give my employees the opportunity to step up and help drive the brand forward with their ideas. 3. To ensure that team members and franchises don’t defer to you for everything, hire smart individuals to take over. You should give up your right to make the final decision. If you’ve hired smart, your staff who works in your company each day is qualified to make final decisions.
Jo Kirchner, CEO of Primrose Schools: Build trusted relationships, empower collective engagement and embrace continual learning and change.
Jeff Platt, CEO of Sky Zone: 1. Utilize and understand consumer insights and sales data to drive buy-in and make key business decisions. 2. Being liked comes second to getting results and demanding the best out of your people. 3. Give people stretch goals and the latitude they need to achieve them. Let them fail, build them back up, be a resource to them when needed. When you empower your employees, your business will succeed.
For the full interviews with all ten of the CEOs, visit my Lessons in Leadership series in Thrive Global. For my podcast interviews with Fortune 500 CEOs, founders and CEOs of household name companies, celebrities, athletes, generals, admirals, etc., visit Thirty Minute Mentors.