Michael Ardelean’s Post

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Placing creative leaders at superior brands

There's no skill called Leadership. John Paik recently said: “Leadership is not a one-stop-shop of treating everyone the same.” Poignant. Before we can stick our “5 principles of leadership” to the wall, we have to read the room. The most hated leaders are hated because they’re tone deaf. They learned 3 things worked once, then applied them like a blanket to the rest of their career. (That’s OK. There are a lot of ways to lead. I’m just here to talk about my favorites.) The most effective leaders I’ve met were effective not because of any formula they followed, but because they espoused a highly complex mix of human qualities that would be difficult to enumerate, let alone replicate. Naval Ravikant talks about how “there’s no skill called business”, calling attention to the fact that you can’t just go to school and “learn business”. You’ve got to use your curiosity and inherent strengths to accumulate a stack of skills that differentiate you, thus entering the business world in a unique way. The same could be true of leadership, and maybe that’s why it’s hard to do it well. People with taste, judgment, empathy and understanding can identify with people at an individual level, and then lead each of them uniquely. Taste, judgment, empathy and understanding. These are not hard skills. If you don’t inherently have them, they’re difficult to get. Great leadership can’t be forced, it can only be attracted. Because if nobody’s following you, are you really a leader?

Reece Burnett

Customer Training Specialist at Plant Assessor - ⚙️Helping businesses keep their people safe. 🦺

2mo

A great point. Leaders are definded by the people who choose to follow.

John Paik

Experienced Global Marketing Leader | Driving Innovation, Growth and Authenticity | Formerly SVP of Global Marketing @MiiR | Global Marketing Lead at Nike | Positive & Empathetic Leader | CMO

2mo

Great perspective and statement Michael Ardelean 💪🏽🙌🏽

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