Two Executive Personality Traits To Focus On As An Effective Leader

"Self Awareness" Does Your Potential Executive Hire Have It? Each year I debrief leadership assessment results with hundreds of C-Suite candidates as an Executive Coach & Consultant at N2Growth. Assessments are an excellent tool for understanding a candidate's self-awareness regarding their personality traits and help identify how one is "naturally inclined" to act, based on five inherent…

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Leadership Interview: Go Beyond The Obvious with Anil Joshi

I sat down with Anil Joshi, an International Leadership Expert, to discuss all things leadership. Anil has a reputation of having a "global plug-and-play" mindset.  He grew up in diplomatic circles so his cultural awareness, sensitivity, and experience started from birth and gave Anil an additional advantage as an adaptive business-driven inter-culturalist. Born in China in 1962, he has lived in…

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CEO Marketing Priorities

COVID-19 has made CEO marketing priorities synonymous with survival. CEOs who have a focused, crisp, creative, and clear message, and who understand how to best communicate that message, will navigate the pandemic better than their less-skilled peers. The following are five tips to help CEOs refine and distribute their message during the coronavirus pandemic. Embrace Distance: Virtual is your…

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Help – It’s Not a Dirty Word!

With a new year staring us right in the face, I thought I'd dust off an old post as a useful reminder for leaders planning the year ahead -  "help" is not a dirty word. I have always believed asking for help is a sign of maturity as a leader. I think John Lennon said it best: "I get by with a little help from my friends." So my question is this - are you easy to help? Think about it...do you…

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6 Defining Values of a Leadership Culture

Twelve years after launching culture change consulting services, I am finally sitting down to write about six defining values of a leadership culture. These are factors I’ve learned that define whether an organization can improve their Culture or not. No surprise that all six values rise and fall on leadership. Before I unpack the six values, let me paint the backdrop of how it all began. In…

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Stop Negotiating – It Doesn’t Work

Negotiation isn't all it's cracked up to be. In fact, I believe this to be an inherently flawed business practice. Negotiation is not an art to be mastered, rather it's a sloppy approach to be avoided. While many consultants, authors, and trainers have made personal fortunes teaching the finer points of negotiation, it is my belief they have accomplished little more than to create legions of…

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Leadership & The Expectation Gap

When it comes to leadership, I can share the issues of creating and delivering on expectations are no small matter. In fact, understanding how to come out on the right side of the expectation curve can often be the difference between being viewed as an average leader and one held in high regard. Let me make this as simple as I can; managing expectations is gamesmanship - aligning them is…

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Managing The Board | 10 Things Every CEO Should Know

I've yet to meet a CEO who at some point in time hasn't been frustrated by their board - it goes with the territory. That said, it should be the exception and not the rule. Ultimately, chief executives deserve the board relationships they develop. As a CEO, your board can be one of your greatest allies. Conversely, and just as easily, they can be a significant contributor to your undoing…

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First Impressions

Do first impressions really matter? While they shouldn't, the reality is that they most certainly do. As the old saying goes "you only get one chance to make a first impression," and often times it is the perception of appearance that determines whether or not you are even afforded the opportunity to get up to bat. The truth is most people when first meeting someone will quickly attempt to size…

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Personal Branding Done Right

So what's the big deal about personal branding? The mere mention of this topic sparks intense emotions and frothy debate. The legions of personal branding advocates believe it's the great brand equalizer, and the growing constituency of disgruntled adversaries see it as little more than the latest form of snake-oil. So which is it? The answer is for you to decide...I'll frame both sides of the…

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Is Your Message Relevant?

When was the last time you bothered to read, watch, or listen to a message that wasn't relevant to your needs? Great leaders understand the power, influence, and leverage created by relevant messaging. Put simply, relevant messages are engaging because they connect - they add value. Great (relevant) messages usually contain one or more of the following aspects: they are timely, informative,…

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What’s Your Time Worth? Why Pricing Matters

Are you shooting yourself in the foot with your pricing strategy? How much is your time worth? What does your pricing say about your personal or corporate brand? Do you have a pricing strategy, or do you set your prices by some ethereal or arbitrary method? Even though I believe issues surrounding pricing decisions are root level drivers to a successful business strategy, I never cease to be…

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Social Media for CEOs

Nary a week passes where I don't hear from a CEO who's grappling with this social media conundrum: should I, or shouldn't I? The inquiry usually goes something like this: "I'm interested in learning more about social media, but my board thinks it's a bad idea, I don't have any additional bandwidth, and I'm not even sure where to start...is social media really effective for CEOs?"  The discussion…

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The Lost Art of Brevity

Do you ever grow weary of listening to the verbose, or reading the work of those that have issues with clear articulation? I certainly do...but fear not; the lost art of brevity is making a comeback. Those of you that know me have come to understand that I prefer to cut to the chase. I like to get to the root of an issue as quickly as possible. While I appreciate the great oratory skills of those…

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Entrepreneur, CEO or Both?

Entrepreneur, CEO, or Both? Which hat or hats do you wear? CEO...that title sounds good doesn't it? Okay, so you founded the company, but does that mean you should also be the chief executive? Did you bestow the title upon yourself simply because you had the authority to do so, or are you the right person for the job? Perhaps you were the right person for the job initially, but has the company…

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Vision vs. Mission

Today's Myatt on Monday's question was posed by a CEO who asked: "Can you define the difference between vision and mission?" What a great question...it's always refreshing to me when an executive checks their ego and asks a clarifying question (a characteristic of great leaders by the way) rather than pretend they know the answer. The reason this is such a great question is that I've witnessed…

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