Never stop learning because life never stops teaching.

 

We recently asked our LLR portfolio company leaders—via our in-person Collaborates and virtual LLR Community forums—to reveal the best advice that helped make them better leaders. In this season of giving, we share their wise words to help others find greater personal and professional success in the new year. Perhaps you will even be moved to gift their advice to a friend of teammate this holiday season.

We hope you have enjoyed this year’s GrowthBits and enter 2023 healthy, inspired and ready for anything that comes your way.

Leadership Advice for 2023

1. People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.

2. Communication is both talking and listening. We have two ears and one mouth – listen twice as much as you speak.

3. You’re not hired to be an expert in everything. You’re hired to be an expert in your space. Collaborate and lean on others’ expertise to bring the most value to your company.

4. Be curious. Don’t be afraid to ask “why.”

5. Grow yourself. Many people think that you should take on more work and keep overloading yourself. But to grow as a leader, teach others to do things you were previously responsible for is how you open yourself up for more opportunity. Put the team first and investing time to teach them is the best way to grow as a leader.

6. Focus on your integrity first and allow for feedback and critiques of your competence… and never confuse the two when giving feedback to others.

7. Our talents – and by extension our lives – are about our choices. It’s not enough to just have an ability, a qualification or a talent, it’s about utilizing those things in the best possible way.

8. Establish a sounding board. You will have better success if you establish a group of trusted peers that you can go to for a sounding board when you have tough decisions to make. When I look back on the most challenging roles I’ve had, I recognize that I was successful because I established a group of peers that gave me perspective.

9. Perfect is the enemy of good. Insistence on perfection often prevents implementation of good improvements.

10. Hire smarter people than you. Surround yourself with talented individuals and then let them do their job.

11. If you wait until the last minute, it only takes a minute. There’s no pressure like a deadline to just get something done or decided. Sometimes you need to timebox certain tasks or decisions, and not drag things out.

12. Live by the golden rule: Treat others the way you want to be treated and always be kind no matter what the circumstances may be.

13. Take the big risk opportunity when it presents itself.

14. Be mindful of imposed artificial limitations. Take this example of flies in a jar: Flies can normally jump out of a jar. Once a jar is lidded for 3 days and removed, no longer can the flies jump high enough to escape the jar. More so, the flies’ offspring are unable to jump high enough either. Be courageous and humble to challenge what is possible.

15. Don’t stress over the things you cannot control. Instead, focus on what you can control and change.

16. Never stop learning because life never stops teaching.

Sales and Marketing leaders from LLR portfolio companies engage in an LLR Collaborate value proposition workshop, helping each other raise the bar on their competitive differentiation.
“Understand what the people you work with every day are afraid of and how they can be successful. Do everything in your power to work with your teams from a place of love instead of fear. That is when your own personal success and fulfillment will appear, and it will be amplified in the success of your company and the satisfaction of your customers.” – Carla Piñeyro Sublett, former CMO of IBM and LLR Collaborate Keynote Speaker

This GrowthBit is featured in LLR’s 2023 Growth Guide, along with other exclusive insights from our portfolio company leaders and Value Creation Team. Download the eBook here.