Think Like a Leader

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Think Like a Leader

• Gresham College Symposium 29 October

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The Competencies Business

• Integrity
• Energy
• Effective communication
• Financial literacy
• Ability to deal with ambiguity, uncertainty and
  paradox
• EQ
• Take the team with you
• Empower others
• Do what you say
• Inspire and motivate
• Passion
• Risk taker
• Demonstrate ethics
• Intellectual awareness
• Multiple technical skills
• Grow and develop others
• Create added value
• Seize opportunities
• Sponsor talent

• A global view
• Decision making and make the right decisions
• Strategic thinking
• Change management
• Stakeholder orientation
• Future direction
• Flexibility and adaptability
• Think out of the box
• Trust
• Social skills
• Understand others values
• Transmit confidence
• Vision
• Persistence
• Facilitate a virtual environment
• Make things simple
• Cultural awareness
• Team work
• Role model

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Authenticity

• Seeing and trusting the person inside the role

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But How Do Leaders Think?
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No Safety Net

• Do you understand that you are alone? Are you
  willing to be the one to stand up, take the
  difficult decisions and the big risks?
• Do you realize that nothing will happen until you
  move? Can you take the first step without
  thought for your personal consequences?
• Can you take people with you and ensure you wont
  get so far ahead that you look like the enemy?
• Can you keep a good healthy dose of self doubt?
  Can you keep listening despite the tumult you
  create by making change happen?
• Are you brave enough to fail? Are you resilient
  enough to try again?

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Comfortable in Discomfort

• Can you live with grey, rather than the immediate
  certainty of a black and white answer and take a
  decision without data?
• Can you learn to love ambiguity and not become
  frozen by uncertainty or driven to repeat earlier
  routines?
• Can you resist the temptation to close down the
  debate and decide? Can you create and hold the
  tension to reach a better answer?
• Can you retain the power of surprise? Can you
  hold your mind open to new ideas and change
  direction in a way that creates more value?
• Can you hold up and speak to an exciting future
  vision, even if the way forward isnt crystal
  clear?

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Solid Core

• Do you have an inner compass? Do you live your
  life according to clear personal values,
  including integrity?
• Do people know what these values are and can they
  see how these values guide your decisions and
  actions?
• Do you have an internal sense of the right thing
  to do? Can you rise above the politics?
• Are you authentic? Do you know that this is not
  just the same as being yourself?
• Do you show humility? At the same time, can you
  retain a strong ego? Do you have the courage not
  to surround yourself with cronies? Can you keep
  open to others real opinion of you?

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On My Watch

• Do you respect the history of the organization?
• Can you deal with the tyranny of the present,
  without being enslaved to it? Can you avoid
  getting trapped into constant crisis management?
• Do you spend enough time thinking about the
  future? Can you delay gratification and
  sacrifice instant reward so that you can build
  the future?
• Can you juggle living in three time zones and
  integrate the stories without getting jetlag?
• Can you accept and pass the baton of leadership
  seamlessly, from and to the former and next
  generation of leaders? Do you worry less about
  your legacy and more about your stewardship?

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I am the Enterprise

• Do you have the energy it takes for sustained
  self management? Are you always on?
• Can you selflessly bring what the enterprise
  needs? Do you love the place? Can you become
  the place?
• Do you understand that you can represent the
  enterprise and shape it, but only at the edges?
  Can you accept the responsibility of the I in
  leadership?
• If you are coming into the organization from
  outside, can you land well, so that it doesnt
  reject you as a foreign body?
• If something goes wrong, are you prepared to take
  it on the chin? Can you step forward and accept
  the responsibility?

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