Learn, Share, Grow – Most Important Leadership Advice

Below is a lesson from LinkedIn where author and leadership speaker Mark Crowley shares the top 10 leadership advice he discussed with his noteworthy podcast guests, as well as our key learning.

The Blue Courage team is dedicated to continual learning and growth.  We have adopted a concept from Simon Sinek’s Start With Why team called “Learn, Share, Grow”.  We are constantly finding great articles, videos, and readings that have so much learning.  As we learn new and great things, this new knowledge should be shared for everyone to then grow from.

10 of the World’s Great Sages Share Their Most Important Leadership Advice

By Mark Crowley

Over the past year, I’ve had the wonderful honor of interviewing thirty of the world’s most remarkable leadership authors, researchers, and professors – and have published these discussions on my “Lead From The Heart” podcast.

And for this post, I wanted to share what I personally believe are the ten most cutting-edge insights these noteworthy guests have shared so far.

As you read these, you’ll notice all ten ideas are direct quotes. They stand alone and can really be read in any order.  And while I’ve intentionally included podcast links in case any guest’s comments piques your interest, my goal here is to simply share the most profound leadership wisdom I took from all my conversations so far.

It’s my hope that you’ll find these gems of leadership thinking as striking and valuable as I do.

Continue reading here.

Key Learnings:

• TOM PETERS: “With the technological disruption that’s coming – and which could potentially eliminate millions of jobs – business has a moral obligation beyond anything it’s ever had before to support and develop and train the people who come to work for you.”
• AMY EDMONDSON: “One of the most common and unwise management practices in our workplaces today is the reliance (whether consciously or not) on fear and intimidation as a strategy for getting results. The neuro-psychology and other research on this is pretty clear; it doesn’t work.”
• DR. JAMES DOTY: Our common workplace leadership practices are entirely misaligned to the preponderance of recent scientific discoveries which prove human beings perform best when they work for caring and supportive bosses.
• ASHLEY GOODALL: “The frequency of interaction with people is the glue, and it requires leaders to make an unbreakable commitment to speaking with every direct report no less than once a week.” The secret sauce of highly effective teams is that employees feel connected, valued, seen and heard by their boss.
• LIZ WISEMAN: “A ‘multiplier’ leader is someone who uses their own intelligence, capabilities, and talents in a way that amplifies the talents and intelligence of others. They’re leaders who we’re best around.”
• TOMAS CHAMORRO-PREMUZIC: “We can see the effects of hyper-masculine leadership; what we need today are managers who are more self-effacing, empathetic and altruistic – other-focused people who are good coaches and mentors.”
• JIM HARTER: Past generations “kind of accepted that work was just a job. But new generations really expect something different. They’re more aware of what work can and should be which creates greater expectations upon leaders and organizations.“
• KIM POWELL: Only highly decisive people ever make it to the C-Suite. “…we saw this play out in two ways. One is about priorities and the other is about people decisions. These tend to be the places where many managers struggle to make high velocity choices. And if you’re not decisive like this, it’s like a virus that affects everyone around you.”
• DANIEL COYLE: “We’ve always thought that trust had to come before vulnerability — and we’ve got it backwards. It’s by being vulnerable that we create trust. Vulnerability sparks trust and triggers trust.”
• FRANCESCA GINO: Too many managers are conformists, and need to adapt a “rebel nature” by displaying far more curiosity and courage. “If you were to ask most corporate leaders what kind of employees they really want in their organizations, you will get the same answers from everybody.  They want creative workers, innovative people who think out-of-the-box – who speak truth to power and who are always looking for better ways to get things done.  But this is what they say. When you look at their actions, they’re actually quite different.”