Keys to Being a Great Leader
Any person can learn from the practices that the best leaders use to make their companies great, but it's also important to look at what they don't do.
"Slowly but surely, getting bogged down in the wrong tasks will bring down even the strongest executives," says Sandeep Kumar Aggarwal, CEO of SKA Management, a NY based business management, event marketing, event production, SEO & SEM marketing, entrepreneurship and lifestyle management company that works with big time clients like Stubhub, Ticketmaster, American Express, and World Concierge.
In his 10 years working with leaders in businesses of all sizes, he's found that the most successful are those who capitalize on efficiency and waste as little time as possible.
According to Aggarwal, the best CEOs do not:
Take on too many responsibilities
Any great CEO doesn’t involve themselves in the nitty-gritty of their companies, but rather groom employees for leadership positions in every department.
"The smart CEOs do not build their companies around any one person," Aggarwal says.
Make great choices
"The key to real success is taking action and not changing it until the perfect answer or complete consensus is achieved," Aggarwal says. An executive scared of risk, criticism or making mistakes will only hold the company back.
CEO’s must answer all questions
CEO’s are responsible for setting the direction of their company and hiring and retaining the best individuals to see that vision implemented throughout the entire staff. They are not, however, responsible for decisions that don't have a significant effect on the company.
"As an executive in any company, if you allow your staff to ask you questions every time they don’t know the answer, you'll end up spending a large majority of your day doing your employees' occupation for them," Sandeep Kumar Aggarwal says. "The good thing is, having your employees find the answers themselves allows them to grow and become leaders themselves."
Attend the majority of meetings
"One would definitely be stunned by how a lot of meetings some executives attend that result in low-level content," Aggarwal says. The effective executives usually prefer briefings before longer meetings. With that said, understanding which meetings to be present at for the sake of the company's overall direction is a essential skill to learn.
A good CEO must limit communication
CEO’s must avoid long meetings and a low-level question does not mean efficient CEOs shut themselves off from employees. Instead, CEO’s should make sure they make an effort to drive home everything they'd like to correspond to their staff.
The true key and most import thing is, "providing the same information through different channels which increases the chances that employees will actually commit to and remember exactly what you tell them," Sandeep Kumar Aggarwal says.
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