Leadership
Last week, I had the pleasure of attending a virtual networking event hosted by the North San Diego Business Chamber that featured guest speaker, Garry Ridge. A native of Australia, Ridge is President and CEO of WD-40 Company, where he has worked since 1987. If you’ve had the pleasure of hearing him speak, you’ll know that Ridge leads with humor, humility, and humanity.
When he was tapped to take the role of CEO at WD-40, Ridge enrolled in the Master of Science in Executive Leadership program at the University of San Diego, a joint venture between the university and The Ken Blanchard Companies. The program inspired him to codify and clarify the organizational culture that Ridge wanted to build, and the leadership traits that would help that culture to thrive. Those leadership traits are now embedded in WD-40’s DNA, and have served the organization well as it steers through the turbulence of 2020.
Ridge’s 10 Traits of Leadership are listed below. They are both practical and inspirational.
1. Leaders involve their people. Give people the freedom to make autonomous decisions, yet act for the good of the whole.
2. Leaders are always in servant leadership mode. Use your position and power to help others win.
3. Leaders are expected to be competent. Establish a track record of delivering results (without leaving bodies in the hall).
4. Leaders are connected with a high emotional intelligence. If you deliver results without reading the room, success will not be sustainable.
5. Leaders exercise good judgement. Superb leadership is often a matter of superb instinct.
6. Leaders need to have a strong sense of self worth. Accept failures and welcome feedback.
7. Leaders value the gift of contrarians. Good leaders don’t surround themselves with sycophants.
8. Leaders move forward. If one approach doesn’t work, learn from it and find another.
9. Leaders do what they say they are going to do. Don’t over promise and under deliver.
10. Leaders are champions of hope. If you believe and have prepared your followers, your followers will believe.
Garry Ridge’s list of leadership traits are short but powerful. Use them as a reminder to manage your emotions, model the behavior you want from others, and lead your team through adversity.
Question: Which of the 10 traits have you mastered? Which one can you work on today?
Driven by the premise that excellence is the result of aligning people, purpose and performance, Center for Executive Excellence facilitates training in leading self, leading teams and leading organizations. To learn more, subscribe to receive CEE News!
Leadership
Feedback is the breakfast of champions.
That’s a statement that author Ken Blanchard explains in sports terms. “Can you imagine,” asks Blanchard, “training for the Olympics with no one telling you how fast you ran or how high you jumped?”
The leadership application, of course, is that without feedback we cannot accurately assess reality. If we don’t know what we’re doing wrong, or what’s going wrong, we can’t fix it. This makes sense intellectually, but in reality, feedback can go down like a bowl of cold, lumpy oatmeal.
Today’s leaders face increasingly complex problems. No one person can have all of the answers. That’s why leaders of the 21st century must have the humility to encourage feedback. To step back and create space for others to show you your blind spots and help you make improvements that count.
Harvard Business Review contributors John Dame and Jeffrey Gedmin called this intellectual humility. “Without humility,” the authors argue, “you’re not able to learn.” Here are three principles of humility that will help put you in a feedback frame of mind:
1. Know what you don’t know. The higher you climb up the proverbial corporate ladder, the greater the temptation it is to believe that you are the smartest person in the room. But deep down, you know that you don’t have all of the answers. You may not even have all of the questions. Know when to defer and be open to learning from others.
2. Resist falling for your own publicity. Part of the leadership role is to maintain a positive outlook. Your confidence boosts that of your team and your customers. While it’s important to have a positive outlook, it’s just as important to correctly assess reality. Keep your spirits high, but your judgment at an even keel.
3. Never underestimate the competition. No matter how smart you are, how many hours you are willing to put in, or how creative you get, do not allow a residue of hubris to set into your culture. There is always competition for your customer’s attention.
The first task of any leader is to assess reality correctly. You can’t do that without having the feedback you need to make the necessary adjustments. Open yourself to feedback by having the humility to know your own limits, keep your ego in check, and resist the false comfort of complacency.
Question: What specific actions are you taking to remain humble as a leader?
Driven by the premise that excellence is the result of aligning people, purpose and performance, Center for Executive Excellence facilitates training in leading self, leading teams and leading organizations. To learn more, subscribe to receive CEE News!
Leadership
If you’ve not had a chance to attend our company’s annual Re:Imagine Leadership Summit, I’m inviting you to make an exception this year. (And, if you’ve already registered, you know that you’re in for an amazing experience that extends far beyond the typical day of “talking head” lectures.) It’s virtual, affordable, and packed with choose-your-own-adventure options to give you the flexibility to participate in the content that matters to you most.
We’re starting with a session on the afternoon of September 23rd called, The Bottom Line on Bias in the Workplace. I will lay a foundation with a short TED-style talk about the neuroscience of bias. The talk is based on the fascinating childhood experience of a Stanford professor and her work to uncover the hidden prejudice that shapes what we see, think, and do.
We’ll then turn our platform over to a panel of thought leaders in the Diversity & Inclusion space to learn about the breakthroughs and barriers to architecting a more inclusive and equitable future of work. Both the lecture and panel discussion are free, as part of our commitment to continue to shed light on racial justice and equity.
On September 24th, you’ll hear from Dr. Tony Baron, CEE’s Co-Founder and Scholar-in-Residence, on Leading in the Age of Rage. Dr. Baron will address the impact of trying to lead during a time of offendicitus, information overload, and outragification. You’ll have a chance to join a facilitated breakout room to share your experiences of Leading in the Age of Rage, then collab with Dr. Baron to collect thoughts and insight on the subject.
Next, you’ll have the opportunity to join a Track on Disconnection Syndrome (led by me), or a Track on How to Build Team Trust in a Remote World (led by Danielle Aguas, our VP of Client Engagement). You can switch Tracks in the next hour to get the benefit of experiencing both talks with a smaller cohort of participants.
Dr. Baron will deliver the featured keynote of the day to share The 7 Key Practices of Transformative Leadership, a model for navigating leadership in the Age of Rage. This year, Dr. Baron will follow the Summit with 7 weekly one-hour group sessions online that you can follow along with an accompanying journal on each practice. If you can’t attend the Summit, you can still choose to participate in the 7 weekly sessions with Dr. Baron.
We feel especially honored to partner with you during a time when many of you and your team members are fighting mental fog and COVID fatigue. Although most of your in-person events are canceled this year, your leadership journey is not. We hope you’ll join us to refresh your leadership skills in a fun and interactive virtual experience with like-minded leaders who continue to invest in their growth.
Question: What are you doing to invest in yourself as a leader in 2020?
Invest in yourself. Because leadership and learning are inextricably linked. Learn more and register here
Letter from the Founder
Welcome to the sixtieth issue of CEE News!
If you’ve not had a chance to attend our company’s annual Re:Imagine Leadership Summit, I’m inviting you to make an exception this year. (And, if you’ve already registered, you know that you’re in for an amazing experience that extends far beyond the typical day of “talking head” lectures.) It’s virtual, affordable, and packed with choose-your-own-adventure options to give you the flexibility to participate in the content that matters to you most.
We’re starting with a session on the afternoon of September 23rd called, The Bottom Line on Bias in the Workplace. I will lay a foundation with a short TED-style talk about the neuroscience of bias. The talk is based on the fascinating childhood experience of a Stanford professor and her work to uncover the hidden prejudice that shapes what we see, think, and do.
(more…)
![Business in Focus: Allbirds]()
Business In Focus
A closer look at companies executing leadership excellence
.
If you’ve worn out a pair of walking shoes to break out of your Covid orbit, you might consider ordering your next pair from Allbirds. Founder Tim Brown, a native of New Zealand, was well versed in the qualities of merino wool. Inherently curious, Brown began asking himself why such a remarkable, sustainable resource was virtually absent in the footwear industry. And with that spirit of wonder, the Allbirds journey began. After years of researching and tinkering, Brown teamed up with Joey Zwillinger, an engineer and renewables expert. Together, they crafted a revolutionary wool fabric made specifically for footwear. The outcome? An entirely new category of shoes inspired by natural materials, and an ongoing mantra to create better things in a better way.
(more…)
