Leadership Checklist

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Kylie Wright-Ford and I researched what good leaders are like for our book, The Leadership Mind Switch (McGraw-Hill, 2017).  Through observing hundreds of outstanding leaders, we learned that they generally tend to be more:

  • »  Personally accountable
  • »  Informed and curious about the wider world
  • »  Committed to both their job and the job of the whole organization
  • »  Emotionally stable
  • »  Positive in a negative situation

They also have:

  • »  A combo of competencies, traits, experiences, roles, personality inclinations, and values that ts the needs of their organization
  • »  An understanding that they must maintain morale, engage stakeholders, and remain trusted
  • »  The ability to get a group of high-powered individuals to cooperatively interact with one mind, one heart, and one voice.
  • »  A willingness to engage
  • »  A comfort with ambiguity
  • »  An ethno-cultural empathy
  • »  The capability to easily relate across generations
  • »  Cognitive flexibility and openness
  • »  Varied interests beyond the office
  • »  Willingness to show their true self when the environment allows for it
  • »  Solid relationships with their work partners, especially their executive assistants
  • »  A mindset where success is considered a derivative of not only their own efforts, but also the efforts of those around them

That’s a pretty good checklist to reflect on your own leadership style.

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Debra Benton

D.A. (Debra) Benton has been helping great individuals and organizations get even better for over 20 years. Just as exceptional athletes rely on excellent coaching to hone their skills, Debra's clients rely on her advice to advance their careers. She focuses on what is truly important to convert what you and your organization want to be from a vision into a reality. TopCEOCoaches.com ranks her in the World's Top 10 CEO Coaches noting she is the top female. And as conference keynote speaker she is routinely rated in the top 2%. Her client list reads like a “Who's Who” of executives in companies ranging from Microsoft, McDonald's, Kraft, American Express, Merrill Lynch, United Airlines, and PricewaterhouseCoopers to the Washington Beltway and U.S.Border Patrol. *She is the author of ten award-winning and best-selling business books including The Virtual Executive and CEO Material. She has written for the Harvard Business Review, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Businessweek, and Fast Company. She has been featured in USA Today, Fortune, The New York Times, and Time; she has appeared on Today Show, Good Morning America, CNN, and CBS with Diane Sawyer. To learn more Debra advising leaders, coaching, facilitating a workshop, or speaking: www.debrabenton.com

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