The needle is moving upward for the age of the nation's CEOs. I've found certain attributes build endurance to stay relevant in whatever capacity you lead.
I like your points Gwendolyn, but I’d add another. Maybe it’s wrapped up in one of the three points you made.
My career has spanned military to civilian, entry-level to CEO and everything in between. A key measure of success for the CEOs and all levels of management (I prefer the term leadership - you manage things and lead people) is caring for your people, to include supporting their education and careers. Too many people in senior management are only focused on themselves and never realize their true or best success lies in the success of the people they work with.
+1. For me this requires both "perspective" - knowing you can't do it alone and knowing you should be training employees for the future when you aren't there — and "adaptability" — knowing that you can only flex with changing conditions if you've readied your team and people to adapt with you. But the training needs to be real, tactical and tied to advancement. Too much workplace training right now is the equivalent of box-checking, which helps no one.
Wendy, on your advice I read Attributes” by Rich D. It was quite fascinating. I followed up on his company’s website and ended up taking a test to identify where I stood on 42 (I believe) attributes. While I am still digesting the results, my plan is to share the report with my leadership team and treat it as a more engaging development opportunity. For the other members of this group, a minimum, the book is well worth a read.
Good stuff. I love how you are incorporating this back with your team at work — and beyond just digesting the results yourself. I think about attributes vs skills a lot now in many facets of my daily life.
I love this article! This topic is not discussed enough at all and I needed to read this as I am 58 years old. And I def need to check out that book “the attributes”.
Gwen, how do we balance this with elevating younger generations into leadership? Fostering their strengths and offering opportunities that can’t be carried forth when the older generation doesn’t step out of full leadership? I am seeing this in government, non-profits, politics, private sectors, and more. It’s demoralizing for the younger generations who for decades have been pressured away from training and mentoring. The training and mentoring hasn’t been there.
It's the right question. We need both. In the most effective organizations I've worked with, you've got a blend of seasoned executives with the attributes noted in this article working hand-in-hand with younger leaders — and the mentorship flows both ways. The worst case scenarios are organizations filled with inflexible older leaders who don't make room for youth (or worse, fear them), or conversely, startup organizations run by younger leaders who don't have the skills/attributes to continue leading once the company scales and needs someone more seasoned to guide the next phase of growth. I'm starting to see a resurgence toward training and mentoring in the private sector, which is heartening. The public sector still has a way to go.
I like your points Gwendolyn, but I’d add another. Maybe it’s wrapped up in one of the three points you made.
My career has spanned military to civilian, entry-level to CEO and everything in between. A key measure of success for the CEOs and all levels of management (I prefer the term leadership - you manage things and lead people) is caring for your people, to include supporting their education and careers. Too many people in senior management are only focused on themselves and never realize their true or best success lies in the success of the people they work with.
+1. For me this requires both "perspective" - knowing you can't do it alone and knowing you should be training employees for the future when you aren't there — and "adaptability" — knowing that you can only flex with changing conditions if you've readied your team and people to adapt with you. But the training needs to be real, tactical and tied to advancement. Too much workplace training right now is the equivalent of box-checking, which helps no one.
Wendy, on your advice I read Attributes” by Rich D. It was quite fascinating. I followed up on his company’s website and ended up taking a test to identify where I stood on 42 (I believe) attributes. While I am still digesting the results, my plan is to share the report with my leadership team and treat it as a more engaging development opportunity. For the other members of this group, a minimum, the book is well worth a read.
Good stuff. I love how you are incorporating this back with your team at work — and beyond just digesting the results yourself. I think about attributes vs skills a lot now in many facets of my daily life.
I love this article! This topic is not discussed enough at all and I needed to read this as I am 58 years old. And I def need to check out that book “the attributes”.
Thanks! I agree. We need to double down on this as a culture. Let me know what you think of "the attributes."
The cognitive aspect is crucial- I am guessing none of those CEOs are dealing with dementia.
And btw, I REALLY want to do a hyrox event- I used to do CrossFit but recently quit, need to try something else to keep my competitive edge going.
Fantastic article and I also loved the book The Attributes 👊🏻
I'm going to check out his new workbook. Let me know if you have and what you thought.
I didn’t know he had a new workbook! Read the attributes probably 2-3 years ago now. This post reminded me how much I enjoyed it
https://theattributes.com/buy/book-masters-of-uncertainty
Appreciate you
Gwen, how do we balance this with elevating younger generations into leadership? Fostering their strengths and offering opportunities that can’t be carried forth when the older generation doesn’t step out of full leadership? I am seeing this in government, non-profits, politics, private sectors, and more. It’s demoralizing for the younger generations who for decades have been pressured away from training and mentoring. The training and mentoring hasn’t been there.
It's the right question. We need both. In the most effective organizations I've worked with, you've got a blend of seasoned executives with the attributes noted in this article working hand-in-hand with younger leaders — and the mentorship flows both ways. The worst case scenarios are organizations filled with inflexible older leaders who don't make room for youth (or worse, fear them), or conversely, startup organizations run by younger leaders who don't have the skills/attributes to continue leading once the company scales and needs someone more seasoned to guide the next phase of growth. I'm starting to see a resurgence toward training and mentoring in the private sector, which is heartening. The public sector still has a way to go.