How to Act as a Leader

Hello! I’m so glad to have you join me for the newest edition of my LinkedIn newsletter! If you are looking for leadership advice, you’ve picked an excellent week as this newsletter features advice from Alisa Cohn, the author of From Start-up to Grown-up: Grow Your Leadership to Grow Your Business. And, if you are around later on today, make sure to join me for my weekly Newsweek interview series, Better, at 12 pm EDT / 9 am PT/5 pm GMT. This week’s guest is Bruce Turkel, author of Is That All There Is?? Bruce and I will talk about how to find purpose in our lives and careers. Check in here and join in on our conversation as we take questions live from the audience!

As a friendly reminder, if you aren’t part of my email list, which has completely different content than this newsletter, sign up here - it has advice on personal branding, how to reach your long-term goals, and ways that you can lead a more fulfilling life.

Many companies start from a great idea that someone has, but being a leader that can bring that idea to life is an entirely different journey. For over twenty years, Alisa Cohn has coached founders of companies into bona fide CEOs, working with companies such as Etsy, Mack Weldon, Augury, Draft Kings, and many more. Here are just a couple of strategies from last week that Alisa shared about gaining confidence as a leader. If you’d like to hear everything she said in our interview, you can watch that replay here.

Why acting as a leader isn’t intuitive:

“Leadership is an unnatural act. The truth is that we are not born knowing how to have difficult conversations or give difficult feedback - certainly to our friends. Also, when you're a leader, sometimes what you have to do is continue to praise and encourage someone even when they are screwing up, because that is what's going to take to have them be confident. When you're a leader, you have to learn how to manage things structured around the business. None of this is something we are born with, all of this is something we have to learn.”

The importance of vulnerability:

“Leadership has changed. In the past, we might have been in a workspace, but we've gotten used to the intimacy of being inside of people's homes. That has let the guard down in a very helpful way. I think then the leader of the moment is allowed to be more vulnerable and show chinks in the armor. And even a little more, the word I don't love, but authenticity, which I really think is just about humanity. I want to ask leaders to continue to be a little bit vulnerable and have that genuineness come out. But don't forget that you are the leader and people still want certainty now more than ever. Your ability to also convey certainty and clarity is essential at this time.”

Encouraging independence to team members:

“We teach people how to treat us, and we teach people what they can expect from us. When people come to you with their problems and their concerns and expect you to solve them, do you say, ‘Here's what you do…’ or do you put it back on them: ‘What do you think you should do?’ Or, ‘How would you approach things as if I weren't here?’ You don't have to do it in an accusing way, but you can do it in a very comfortable way because that is helping them think for themselves and teaching them to fish proverbially. When they bring you a question, thoughtfully unpack it together, and then invite them to think about how they can use what you’ve just discussed to solve problems like this in the future. That will create the culture of them figuring things out for themselves more often.”

Thank you again for reading this week’s newsletter, and please join me today for my talk with Bruce Turkel!

On a final note, if you’re looking to keep tabs on my side project of mastering latte art, follow my instagram page, which also features my two feline confidantes, Phillip and Heath.

Wishing you health and success -?

Dorie