Leadership profile

Think kindness is only soft and fluffy, or that you don’t need to practice kindness when you’re in charge? Think again. The talent market is the most competitive that it’s been in decades, and candidates have a choice of where to work. Now, more than ever, your leadership style, company values, and culture can make or break an organization. Kindness is key to an engaged team, retention, and a strong corporate culture.Now, before you start thinking that all you have to do is chit-chat with folks around the water cooler, and you can call it kindness.

Often, we spend many months and even years, feeling stuck in the routines of everyday life. Life can become a blur of expectation as slowly, each day rolls into the next.I have been around enough leaders to know and feel when they are simply surviving day to day in their roles and jobs instead of thriving. Although it’s easy to slip in to survival mode, it doesn’t have to be that way and my encouragement is that you will take the time to be intentional to create moments where you can thrive in your daily life, rather than choosing to simply survive.

According to a recent study 1) of global CEOs by The Conference Board there are 3 themes that constantly rise to the top of their concerns in order: Recession Risk, More intense competition, Tight labor market. Every day CEOs are faced with increasing pressures of how to stay ahead, stay cost competitive and continue to innovate new products and solutions. You may ask yourself: How do I stay ahead of the pack? How do I continue to innovate? How do I reduce my costs exponentially? While these questions may seem overwhelming to you as a CEO, there are key strategies you can implement to create certainty, and a workable plan around all of these areas.

Knowing how to lead in a given situation and time frame is the defining factor for adaptable and capable modern business leaders. In my work over the last fifteen years helping thousands of passionate, hard-working CEOs, entrepreneurs and business leaders develop and implement their SLAP! (Strategic Living Action Plan), I’ve concluded that superlative business leadership consists of the following four essential Business Leadership Master Roles. Passionate Visionaries Passionate Visionaries set and clearly communicate the purpose and vision of the organization. They see the big picture of where the organization is going and its place in their specific industry and community.

Whenever my kids were facing a challenge, be it a school exam or a competition, we’d send them off with our favorite line from the movie An American Tail, about Fievel the mouse. “Release the secret weapon” we’d bellow (best said with a lazy “R”). In this animated show it was the mice against the cats, and at the show’s climax the mice turn the tide of battle by releasing the Giant Mouse of Minsk – a huge mechanical mouse that chased the cats down the pier and into the bay. This quote always brought a smile and a reminder to our kids that they were a secret weapon.As a team coach, I continually work with organizational leadership using the same mantra “Release the secret weapon.”

Being a leader is the perfect way to ensure that you face your own imperfections on a daily, if not hourly, basis. Being the top leader is utterly thankless. If things go well, people assume you are lucky. If things are go poorly, it’s all your fault. So how do CEOs deal with the discomfort of knowing they are constantly being judged and found wanting? Most find ways to be right even when they’re not. And many surround themselves with people who shore up their insecurities—which is the worst possible thing they can do.It can be really addictive to be the smartest person in the room and the one with the most power.

 When I launched The Jinks Perspective as a coaching company, I knew from the beginning that I wanted to help leaders and their teams achieve 3 things to help advance their personal and organizational missions: Clarity, simplicity, and alignment. As I have coached thousands of leaders over the past two decades, I have realized that there is critical 4th element as well: Inspiration. CLARITY Leaders are competing for the very attention of the teams. Our digital worlds and ongoing media bombardments cloud workers’ view more each day. Additionally, leaders who struggle to communicate effectively are challenged by team members who underperform simply because they are not crystal clear on what the expectations are.