Insights from the CHROs, CEOs and other industry leaders featured in recent episodes of the monthly People + Strategy podcast.
Discover How to Wield Your ‘Good Power’
"A lot of times when I ask people, they’re like ‘No, no, I don’t want to be powerful. I just want to work on big problems.' “But the irony is that to solve big problems, you’ve got to have some power. And I believe that good power means it’s done with respect, not fear. It unites people, it doesn’t divide them.
“You’ve got to build belief in whatever it is you’re trying to solve. But it’s how you build belief. It’s this idea of talking to someone’s head and heart at the same time. … There are a lot of people who analytically lead, but it’s important to be vulnerable and authentic enough to do both of those at the same time.”
IBM
Ask Managerial Candidates: Do You Really Want to Be a Leader?
What happens in a lot of organizations is that there’s this momentum, this inertia, that just carries people along almost like a river. ‘You’re a high-performer, so of course you want to be a manager. Of course you want to be a leader.’ ” “But I don’t think people on either side, whether it’s the company or the individual, say, ‘Wait a minute, do I really want to do this? Do you really want to do this?’
“I always encourage people to be very honest with themselves about why they want to lead. Because if you’re clear about your personal ‘why,’ it will help you navigate the tough parts.”
and author of the book, The Leap to Leader
In Praise of the Lateral Move
One of the great pieces of advice I got early on was, ‘Don’t think about your career as being linear. Think about it more as a lattice.’ Be open to building new skills and getting new experiences throughout your career. In fact, seek those out to be able to learn and grow.
“In that career lattice, yes, there will be promotions. But there’ll also be lateral moves, and sometimes you grow and develop the best in those lateral moves where you’re really stretching your comfort zone. Think about gathering different sets of experiences so that when other opportunities come by, you’ll have the right tool set to be able to jump into those.”
Edward Jones
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