15 Jan Successful Leaders Must Develop an Agile and Adaptive Management Style
Most successful CEOs know the basics. They know the right decisions that need to be made, and they usually know the key people who need to be involved. The best leaders however, always have a proactive style of thinking and taking in information that benefits their company and themselves as they make decisions. Here’s a clip from a recent conversation I had with Patrick Henry, CEO of QuestFusion about this topic:
Patrick: I believe that if you remain teachable and coachable, then you can continue to learn new things throughout your life.
Leland: The more common thing that I’ve run into in the last five years is what I’m going to call agility. It’s not agility to just a situation, although you’re right. For example, in a situation where a client and I all of a sudden find out that a competitor is about to launch a product, and we have to react to it.
We’re going to react one way or another, and if we react more assertively, it will benefit the organization in the end. We are action oriented and have a sense of emergency. Whereas as you’re saying, if we’re developing our culture and trying to build the company, then we may be acting a different way.
What I’ve seen in the last five years is agility in the moment. During any meeting, at any moment in time, can you turn on a dime? What I mean by that is, can you be in a mode when you hear something that you don’t like or doesn’t quite make sense to you, and as opposed to reacting to it, can you stand back and understand it? Can you ask questions about it? Can you see what’s really behind it and then step right back into the proactive mode and say, “Yes that’s a great idea,” or, “No. Let’s move over here.”
That’s what I call agility. That’s what I call elegance. That’s the next step up I would say for most of my CEO coaches right now.
If you’re looking to take the next step in your business and learn the small differences in how successful leaders process information effectively, please do not hesitate to call us.