A few weeks back I had an opportunity to hear Jim Collins, author of books like Built to Last, Good to Great and more recently, How the Mighty Fall, speak on the topic of marks of great leaders.
In his talk, Jim made the following statement: "The signature of the greatest executives is humility".
You may ask, what's Andrew doing talking about executives on a blog about marketing and communications. Well, if you haven't picked up on it yet from following along with us, we here believe that your marketing and branding flow out of all aspects of your company, and leadership is a key part of that.
It's vitally important to have leaders that live, act and work in a way that is consistent with the brand of the company. In a time when authenticity, openness and humility are the hallmarks of good branding and marketing, then it follows that the leaders of those organizations need to have a consistent attitude, lending validity to Jim's statement above.
We need leaders who are able to put aside their personal agendas, who aren't afraid to say that they got it wrong and who are able to look at their team around them and say the best part of leading this group of people is this group of people...the ideas, passion and energy that they bring to the the table that enable the organization as a whole to fulfill its objectives.
Find that kind of a leader and you've got the kind of person that will enable your organization to do great things.
