Over the past few years I was able to interview over 140 CEOs around the world from companies like Oracle, Unilever, Kaiser, MasterCard, Best Buy, Verizon, Audi, KPMG, and many others.
From all of the questions I asked them there was one that they had trouble answering, and that was…
Are you ready to jump into becoming an entrepreneur and go off on your own?
There’s one important question you need to ask yourself: “What am I going to sell?”
In other words, how are you going to make money? Without a product or service to sell, you can’t have a profitable business.
It may sound simple, but so many people think they can make the switch to being an entrepreneur without putting real thought into what they will sell.
When it comes to the future of leadership, some of the most important skills to have are actually the ones that have been around the longest.
Great leaders stand out because they avoid falling into common bad habits. They push themselves to be uncomfortable and improve and have the self-control to step away from things most other people usually do.
Have a person you want to interview, a product you want to sell, or a connection you want to make? You’ll likely send that person an email.
But chances are you’re not the only one who wants to target a person, and they might get dozens of similar messages every day. And they probably delete 95% of them.
There’s no denying that our world is becoming increasingly technology-driven. What’s the best thing you can do to prepare? Focus on being human.
Knowledge, communication, humility, and other skills are important for future leaders, but it really all comes down to one mindset: optimism.
That’s according to Bill McDermott, CEO of Service Now. He believes relentless optimism is one of the best attributes a leader can have.
If you want to succeed in anything in life, from being an entrepreneur to playing competitive chess, you have to learn how to think positively.
So often, our default language to ourselves is negative. With every little mistake, we start to beat ourselves up and think negative thoughts.
But the best mindset you can create shifts that negative self-talk to positive self-talk.
Where do leaders sit in your organization—on the top or at the bottom?
Up until the last five or ten years, many organizations followed a traditional hierarchy with the leader on the top of the pyramid telling everyone what to do.
But now we’re seeing an inversion where the leader is at the bottom propping everyone else up.
Just like each employee and company is different, each leader is unique. Employees don’t want to work for a leader who is a carbon copy of every other leader—they want someone who is uniquely themselves and true to their beliefs. To be successful, leaders must be authentic.
The key to authenticity for future leaders comes down to one idea: be true to yourself.
