This is advertiser content from The Institute of Managers and Leaders
If you asked someone what the most important part of a CEO’s job is, they might respond with answers like satisfying stakeholder expectations or increasing profit margins.
Elaine Jobson, CEO of Australian fitness brand Jetts, thinks differently.
“The role of a leader requires you to keep learning so you can constantly teach new skills to your team,” Jobson says.
“Your people are responsible for the happiness of your customers. They can’t give what they don’t have. If they don’t feel valued, safe and happy themselves you can hardly expect them to pass this on to the customers they serve.”
Jobson is one of many high-profile leaders featured in Leadership Matters: 7 skills of very successful leaders, a new book from The Institute of Managers and Leaders released by Major Street Publishing.
Leadership Matters includes insights from dozens of leaders who have navigated their way to the top and lived to tell the tale, including Qantas CEO Alan Joyce AC, Nobel Prize reciepient Kailash Satyarthi and Hewlett-Packard India Managing Director Neelam Dhawan.
Jobson recalls her early career experiences working beneath an ‘intense and difficult’ leader whose high expectations left staff striving to deliver perfection.
“He became one of the richest young entrepreneurs in the country,” she says.
“[But] the story doesn’t end here. Even though on the surface the company looked successful, this leader eventually lost it all.”
She discusses how jealousy and competitiveness eventually came to erode staff morale, while creativity became scarce in the face of intense pressure. The company eventually came close to bankruptcy after staff abandoned the fallen leader ‘in droves’.
“Never abuse the position of power that comes with leadership,” she concludes.
“Teams can’t function long term under pressure and creativity is killed when a team is stressed and micromanaged.”
David Pich, Chief Executive of The Institute of Managers and Leaders, says it is the business strategy that defines the workforce.
“The role of the leader is to align business strategy and organisational culture,” he says.
“While successful leadership begins with strategy, that strategy must be in lockstep with the corporate culture that the leader both defines and epitomises.
This is advertiser content from The Institute of Managers and Leaders
