Impactful Element: Leadership
Impactful "Leadership": direction, nurturing, enabling, guidance, talent cultivation, and motivation for success.
Welcome to The Impactful Executive!
Read time: 3 min
The Impactful Executive newsletter uses the Impactful Framework as a loosely structured sequence of nine elements, each with evidence-based practices and tactics for executives, managers, advisors, and their teams.
See the reference article below, if needed, before this Element deep dive.
The Impactful Framework
Evidence-based practices for executive teams.
“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy are the noise before defeat.”
Sun Tzu
Impactful Element Defined: Leadership
"Leadership produces change. That is its primary function."
John Kotter
"Management is about arranging and telling. Leadership is about nurturing and enhancing."
Tom Peters
The “Leadership” element is defined as:
Leadership is about strategic thinking: envisioning the future, setting clear goals, and plotting a course for the whole organization.
Leadership means developing talent: recognizing the potential in others and providing the opportunities and support for them to grow.
Leadership involves being charismatic: using personal qualities to inspire, motivate, and build rapport with team members.
Leadership is about upholding ethics: setting high standards of integrity and championing ethical behavior within the organization.
Leadership requires transformational qualities: going beyond managing teams to empowering employees, fostering innovation, and inspiring them to exceed their performance goals.
"A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of others."
Douglas MacArthur
"A good leader takes a little more than his share of the blame, a little less than his share of the credit.”
Arnold H. Glasow
Impactful Element Practices: Leadership
The following is a sample selection of Impactful Leadership Practices:
Be a Servant Leader: Servant leaders focus on the growth and well-being of their team, enhancing organizational effectiveness and job satisfaction. Google's CEO, Sundar Pichai, is known for his coaching leadership style, which fosters innovation within the organization. Similarly, Intel's mentorship program promotes knowledge sharing and a culture of continuous learning.
Promote Shared Leadership: Shared leadership encourages collaboration and shared decision-making, improving team effectiveness. Video game developer Valve operates on a shared leadership model where employees autonomously select their projects, fostering creativity and innovation.
Be a Performance-Based Leader: Emphasizing results can enhance business profitability. During the early days of Microsoft, Bill Gates focused on strict rules and targets to drive performance. Similarly, Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, encourages a high performance and accountability culture, arguably playing a pivotal role in the company's growth.
Be a Transformational Leader: Transformational leaders set high expectations, fostering a supportive and stimulating environment that improves performance. Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, inspires employees with his ambitious vision. Leading by example sets a positive behavioral standard that fosters accountability, while charismatic leaders inspire and motivate through persuasive communication, increasing work performance.
Practice Situational Leadership: Adapting leadership style based on the situation enhances team performance. Sir Alex Ferguson, the former manager of Manchester United, demonstrated this by adapting his management style to different players and situations. Similarly, Jeff Bezos's leadership at Amazon is characterized by adaptability and encouraging experimentation.
Practice Ethical Leadership: Leaders who act with integrity build trust and increase productivity. The Body Shop, renowned for its ethical sourcing and cruelty-free products, has seen success due to its commitment to ethical practices.
Be an Authentic Leader: Authentic leaders build trust and respect, increasing job satisfaction and performance. Research professor Brené Brown champions authentic leadership, highlighting the power of vulnerability in effective leadership. Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, prioritizes emotional intelligence in his leadership approach, fostering a cultural shift at Microsoft.
Practice Succession Planning: Identifying potential leaders ensures continuity of leadership and strategic direction, improving business outcomes. The transition from Steve Jobs to Tim Cook at Apple is an excellent example of effective succession planning.
"Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things."
Peter Drucker
"True leadership stems from individuality that is honestly and sometimes imperfectly expressed... Leaders should strive for authenticity over perfection."
Sheryl Sandberg
In subsequent newsletters, we will deep-dive into many specific practices outlined above.
The Impactful Executive’s Purpose
Reminder: this newsletter pursues high-impact practices and tactics across each element to share fact-based, usable, and (hopefully) surprising insights.
It takes deliberate and sustained effort to drive organizational greatness. The Impactful Executive aims to make this greatness far more reachable.
In Jim Collins’ words, "Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice and discipline."
Impactfully yours,
The Impactful Executive Team
This post is public. Feel free to subscribe to and share the newsletter below.