I don’t know about you but I need people to emulate, inspire and learn from to push me forward and to grow in the area of leadership. There are many and varied forms of leadership but this month I wish to focus on commercial or business leadership, and those who inspire us.
I believe good leadership is imperative to our world, and lends itself to more peaceful, enjoyable and productive environments. It is sometimes hard though, to define Good or Bad leadership, but when you are introduced to it you soon realise which one you are under!
Here below are some great business leaders with ‘words of wisdom’. People who have grown businesses exponentially, who have that talent and personality mix to lead others very successfully:
Sir Martin Sorrell, ‘the creative leader’ Founder and CEO of WPP and now S44 Capital, 3 takeaways from an interview: (1) Edit the noise down to what really matters. (2) Act with intention. Be in a hurry. (3) Develop an interest in what other people have to say.
Sir Richard Branson CEO and Founder of Virgin, “Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don’t want to.”
Steve Jobs CEO and Co-founder of Apple, “My job is not to be easy on people. My job is to make them better.” And “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future“.
Mary Barra CEO of General Motors, “If we win the hearts and minds of employees, we’re going to have better business success.”
Warren Buffett – Berkshire Hathaway Chairperson and CEO, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.” “I insist on a lot of time being spent, almost every day, to just sit and think. That is very uncommon in American business. I read and think. So I do more reading and thinking, and make less impulse decisions than most people in business. I do it because I like this kind of life.”
Satya Nadella – Microsoft CEO, “The one thing that I would say defines me is I love to learn. I get excited about new things. I buy more books than I read or finish.”
Jeff Bezos Founder, Chairman & CEO of Amazon, “A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well.”
Mark Zuckerburg Co-Founder & CEO of Facebook, “A simple rule of business is, if you do the things that are easier first, then you can actually make a lot of progress.”
Sir John Timpson, CEO and Chairman of Timpson, “The best way to run a business is to trust your colleagues with the freedom to do their job in the way they know best.”
Hope this has been inspiring, and that you have a good month
All the best
Mike
