THE BENCH: The perfect executive and leader

So over the past year and a half writing the BENCH, many have reached out and asked for advice and insights as to how they can become the perfect leader and they have read articles with checklists, saying the perfect leader has all these skills and traits. They get depressed they have only 70% or they just never seem to check all the boxes even after years of trying and learning.

The insights and the news is, THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS THE PERFECT LEADER NOR THE PERFECT EXECUTIVE. There are traits that certainly tie to being in the top leadership tier, honesty, integrity, decision making skills, self confidence, willing to learn, willing to make mistakes to grow. But I will tell you that super stars in one company or one role do NOT always translate to the same in other company's thus we all need to be very careful with assumptions. If we went back to the hey day of GE, Jack Welch built one of the most storied organizations. As time went on his senior leadership team was sought out for CEO roles by many companies. The reason? If they were trained by Welch and they were division leaders at GE, they must be almost a guaranteed success at any company they run or go to. BAD NEWS NOT TRUE. Look back at what happened when one became the CEO of Home Depot. These stories litter the industry and the reason is , we all are hoping there is a way to just check the boxes and hire that great leader or we check the boxes and become a great leader. In the end it just does not work that way.

Culture, the right team around you, the family support, the mentors old and new you gather around you, DUMB LUCK , and many more factors play into these success stories. Timing does as well. So what is my advice here?

Just be you. Recognize who you are as a person, what are your own core values and strengths. Know what you jump out of bed for in the morning that excites and delights you, beyond a paycheck. Once you have a mindset on this now work to improve, to learn and to grow. Get as many solid team members around you to offset your weaknesses and find real mentors, those that really care about you but educate, support you not just beat you up rather help you grow at every turn. YOU ARE A WORK IN PROGRESS AND I HOPE YOU ALWAYS WILL BE! I AM.