Shut-up & Listen
By Mike Myatt, Chief Strategy Officer, N2growth
Great leaders are great listeners, and therefore my message today is a simple one…talk less and listen more. The best leaders are proactive, strategic listeners. They recognize that knowledge and wisdom are not gained by talking, but by listening. Take a moment and reflect back on any great leader that comes to mind…you’ll find that they are very adept at reading between the lines. They have the uncanny ability to understand what is not said, witnessed, or heard. In today’s post I’ll quickly examine the merits of developing your listening skills. Warning: this post isn’t going to coddle you and leave you feeling warm and fuzzy – it is rather blunt and to the point.
Even though few would dispute the value of being an engaged leader, many still do not practice what they preach. The harsh reality is that great numbers of leaders continue to operate in a vacuum by sequestering themselves away in the corner office and attempting to lead from afar. Trust me when I tell you that being out of touch is never a good position to find yourself in as the CEO. I rarely come across leaders who couldn’t benefit from being more meaningfully engaged on both a broader and deeper basis, and hope that today’ post will encourage you to do just that…ENGAGE.
My question is this: Is your intellect an asset or liability? All one has to do is watch a very bright person defend their position to understand what I’m driving at with today’s post. Observing intelligent people lecture, spin, posture, position, cajole, argue, rationalize, or justify their beliefs in order to “get the win” is often times entertaining, but it can also be exceedingly frustrating. I’ve come across more than a few self-proclaimed “intelligent” people who believe that their intellectual acuity is far superior to the discernment ability of their peers and co-workers. Not only are these intellectual giants wrong, but sadly, by the time they awaken to a state of reality it is already too late. In today’s post I’ll share the keys to leveraging your intellectual assets as opposed to having your intelligence serve as a barrier to your success… 
Those of you familiar with my work know how much I detest politically correct sound-bites. Even worse is when those sound-bites are used in an attempt to make statements which embolden a corporate position that doesn’t really even exist to begin with. Just because something is written in a vision or mission statement, placed on a website, included in company collateral material, or frequently espoused by corporate leadership as a competitive value proposition doesn’t necessarily mean its true. In today’s post I’ll examine one of the most frequent offenders; “Talent is our biggest asset.”
I read an interesting post last night by Dan Rockwell (
“But my business is different!” Well actually, no it’s not. I cannot even begin to count the number of times I’ve had a CEO tell me that certain immutable business principles just don’t apply to his/her business because, “this business is different.” I don’t dispute that all businesses have certain unique characteristics or contextual differences - I don’t even dispute that recognizing and leveraging said differences are important. What I do vehemently dispute is the assertion that a particular nuance is reasonable justification for flawed business logic to prevail. In today’s post I’ll share why most businesses have far more in common than most executives and entrepreneurs care to admit…
Politically Correct Leader? OXYMORON…Great leaders are not politically correct, but they are politically savvy – there is a difference. Putting political agendas and peer pressure aside (as great leaders do), leaders should not make their choices based upon public opinion. Rather they should benchmark their decisions against the question of “is it the right thing to do?” If recent economic, political, and financial circumstances in this country haven’t convinced you that truth and candor matter, then you may want to stop reading here…be forewarned that there are few things in business, and in life in general, that I loathe more than those who adopt a politically correct stance. That said, buckle-up and join me for a ride as we journey into the politically incorrect mind of Mike Myatt…
What if “Leadership” was more than a buzzword? What If…What if leadership was more than just another contentious term bantered around in meaningless conversations? What if leadership was truly understood, modeled, and actually experienced as the rule and not the exception? In the text that follows I’ll answer these questions and hopefully encourage you to reevaluate how you view the practice of leadership…
As much as some people won’t want to hear this, “help” is not a dirty word. Rather asking for help is a sign of maturity as a leader. So my question is this: Are you easy to help? Think about it…do you make it easy for others to want to help you, or is your demeanor such that most people won’t lift a finger to assist you in a time of need? How many times during the course of your career have you witnessed executives and entrepreneurs who desperately need help, but either don’t recognize it, or worse yet, make it virtually impossible for someone to help them? In today’s post I’ll address the importance of positioning yourself to be helped…
I have read some interesting articles and blog posts of late on the subject of CEO term limits, and felt this topic worthy of discussion. You should know from the outset that I fundamentally disagree with the concept of CEO term limits, and quite frankly I cannot really come up with a valid reason for supporting such a regressive concept. Any such argument in my opinion is rooted either in flawed business logic or politically correct rhetoric (usually one in the same). I would encourage you to read my arguments in opposition to CEO term limits, as well as to think through the ramifications on the corporate landscape if such thinking were to ever take hold…