The best CEOs of today are very different to the best ones of thirty or forty years ago.
Those leaders developed their careers in times of relative calm and certainty, where what was expected of them wasn’t that different to what was expected of their predecessors.
That that has changed was the main takeaway from Lisa Smosarski’s chat with former Smash Hits editor, IPC board member and currently one of Lord Sugar’s star interviewers on The Apprentice, Mike Soutar, who, as luck would have it, had just written a book which he was happy to talk about at last month’s PPA Festival.
His book – Next Gen CEO: 60 Lessons for Leaders in an Uncertain World – is an analysis of what it takes to be a great leader in today’s fast-changing world.
Great CEOs today, in a world where rapid transformational change is a constant, Mike said, display three non-negotiable characteristics. They have:
- Self-belief: They must be able to look themselves in the mirror each morning and believe, “I am the best man / woman to lead this team”. If they don’t believe it, no one else will. Such self-belief means that they are willing to take risks, occasionally fail, but, and this is critically important, bounce back after them.
- Relentless optimism: It is their job as a leader to take people and lead them into uncertainty, and no one follows a pessimist! This is not naivety or blind optimism. We don’t need CEOs who stand on the cliff edge hoping they’ll sprout wings. This is about having a plan.
- Appetite for hard work: Great CEOs have the capacity to work harder than anyone else! They are not workaholics and this is not about creating a toxic see-who-leaves-first work culture, nor is it about being just “too busy” to make time for employees who need ten minutes of their time occasionally.
And the key tool the modern CEO needs? Curiosity.
In times of head-spinning uncertainty, no one has all the answers. That degree of certainty which CEOs of the 80s and 90s possessed is not possible anymore. In those days, bosses were expected to have all the answers. The best ones nowadays, said Mike Soutar, are the ones who know which questions to ask.
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