Leadership Insights from the Greats

I recently had the privilege of attending the Simmons Leadership Conference in Geneva with other #Zoetis women leaders from around the world. It was a fabulously inspiring and engaging amalgam of speakers in diverse business arenas from all parts of the globe. I was particularly proud to have some Australian women leading the agenda with Former Prime Minister Julia Gillard as well as Former Young Australian of the Year Tan Le giving powerful and engaging insights on the theme of leading with purpose. Go Aussie Go! Economist Dr Dambisa Moyo, Kennedy Odede and Jessica Posner from Shining Hope for Communities, Former President of Ireland Mary Robinson, and classical pianist and entrepreneur Jade Simmons were some of the many other incredible women (and a few men!) who spoke with passion and energy to the audience of lucky attendees.

Reflecting on the all of the great content, I’ve challenged myself to distil some key themes - intending that they become my leadership framework going forward. Maybe they might be of use to you too.

A word of warning - these are insights that are shamelessly cut, pasted, edited, merged, split apart and patched together from all the fabulous speakers I was privileged to hear speak. I apologise to anyone offended by my distillation…

1. Find your passion – when are you your best self? Make sure your career allows you the opportunity to fulfil that passion. Rather than selecting what pieces of yourself you bring to the table, look for the opportunity to bring ALL of yourself to EVERY table. How great is that thought?!
2. Understand your purpose – it’s pivotal to good leadership. When you think about it, purpose is what we look for in all our leaders. It's important to note that purpose in this context is both a noun and a verb. It’s not the thing you do, but what happens in others when you do what you do. Nail your purpose, and you have a locus from which you can pivot but remain authentic. Pretty profound!
3. Create a vision, AND a compelling story, and carve out the piece you can control and influence. Leaders must act as catalysts for change, but they need to build and nurture teams to realise the vision. Equally, leaders need to embrace death – what can you kill off in order to free yourself to move into your biggest possibility.
4. Nurture your sense of self. Be open to constructive criticism from people you trust, by creating your own “board of directors” but ensure you take time to self-reflect. Know your strengths and ensure you allocate your capital resources to developing them. On this, Nicolai Moresco of Dell coined the phrase "I'm not different from you, I'm different like you". Diversity (of gender, experience, ad infinitum) is the key to success. Powerful stuff.
5. Rejoice in rejection. In fact, the more successful you are, the bigger the risks you should take and the more rejection you will inevitably accrue. Force yourself out of your comfort zone and take the setbacks as opportunities to reposition, continuously improve and innovate.
6. Team and culture are critical to achieving ambitious goals. Equally important however, is as a leader giving space to others. Take yourself out of the equation and give your team the chance to tackle challenges. It's where the magic happens.
7. Always be reinventing - you have no end and you are never finished. In order to do this, you need to re-prioritise that which is urgent, and that which is important. The urgent is privelged for our time (think of the ever "pinging" inbox), but it crowds out the important... which is where you can make sustainable, truly defining impacts.

Lots to reflect upon, lots to absorb. It was an inspiring group of women to be around, and even more so to hear from. I'm very proud that #Zoetis were sponsors of the Leadership Circle at this pre-eminent event and that our company supported my and my colleagues' attendance. We're constantly building our leadership capabilities day by day...

The point is that none of this is extraordinary in the statement or even in the individual insights, but becomes as much in the action.

Now to put this in to action...