3 Business Leadership Skills to be Thankful for in 2017 and Beyond

    

As hundreds of millions of fortunate American workers take a break from work and other meaningful thanks-giving-business-leadership.jpgpursuits to give thanks for our families, jobs, and opportunities it’s important to pause and reflect deeper on what got us here and where we are going in the future from a business leadership perspective.

The changing role of business leadership has never been more volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous than it is at Thanksgiving, 2018.  We are at a pivot point in American and global business unlike anything anyone has ever seen and in my opinion, is barely prepared for.  In addition to the global economy, geopolitical issues, domestic political issues and the increased unraveling of basic moral standards, business leaders are going to be faced with two converging disruptions they are overpowering; Artificial Intelligence and Millennials moving into more advanced leadership roles.

Artificial intelligence changes everything and machines will continue to create more operational efficiencies, drive down costs, create higher quality products, provide the world with more food, and will support limitless advances in healthcare.  Millennials become advanced leaders will be interesting.  In my opinion, I think we are going to see two distinct and divergent paths of skills, styles, and outputs.  One path is going to be smart, confident, disruptive innovators who will challenge the status quo and much like the robots, will push us into breathtaking new accomplishments.  The other path will be an “entitled group” who will lack the skills, patients, and grit needed to overcome challenges and will wait until someone tells them everything is going to be alright and give them a badge or trophy for trying.

The good news is no matter what paths anyone takes, there will always be business leadership skills available to waiting for all those who want to get better at their craft.  This Thanksgiving, here are three of the most important business leadership skills to be thankful for:

Understanding and driving business strategy

As I like to say at the start of my Business Acumen and Business Leadership learning journeys, “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.”  Today’s business leaders must be experts in understanding, defining, and driving business strategy.  They must be able to understand business ecosystems from the strategic and financial perspectives, and they must be able to set and execute a winning and differentiated value proposition to the customers who buy their products and services.

Understanding how to lead and create alignment

It’s one thing to understand and set a strategy, it’s another thing to successfully execute it.  In our newly released Leading Strategic Execution business simulation we teach the skills of creating alignment through coaching, giving, feedback, and setting the right goals and objectives that are supporting the successful delivery of the value proposition.

Creating a culture of innovation

The third and final business leadership skill to be thankful for this Thanksgiving is the ability to create a culture of innovation.  Too many people think that innovation is all about developing the next new shiny product; it’s not.  It’s about challenging the status quo, identifying and understanding how new trends can impact your business, utilizing resources most effectively, deeply understanding the needs of your customers, and having a mindset for continuous improvement.

As we head toward the end of another great year and as the trends of the world continue to evolve, it’s up to every business leader to take a moment to say thanks and embrace a few new tools such as understanding business strategy, understanding how to create alignment, and how to create a culture of innovation so that this time next year we can be even more thankful.

Enjoy a happy, healthy, and safe weekend everyone!

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Robert Brodo

About The Author

Robert Brodo is co-founder of Advantexe. He has more than 20 years of training and business simulation experience.