Maxing Your Leadership Level

Leadership is about taking charge of your own destiny and succeeding where many fail.

But we live in turbulent times and becoming a great business leader is no cakewalk.

That’s why we decided to sponsor Platform Exo’s Exponential Leadership Conference.

Aimed at business owners committed to self-mastery, outstanding pioneers in their industry gathered in Manchester to share what they’ve learnt about successful leadership.

What Does It Take to Be the Best?

The main speaker of the day was Daniel Priestley. He’s a respected serial entrepreneur who co-founded Dent Global, an internationally-renowned business accelerator.

He brought to light how uncertain times in the world are affecting our businesses and explained how there are four major trends of uncertainty:

Baby boomers turn 70: Baby boomers are financing the money invested in property and assets to pay for later life. They are no longer pillars of the economy.

Millennials take over: Generation Z favour access over ownership, such as Spotify to stream music rather than own it. This shift in mindset combined with student debt means they can’t purchase what baby boomers are now selling.

Tech creates unemployment: Tech is decimating the job market and increasing competition via the online world. However, it’s also helping people grow out of poverty through easy access to things like education.

The austerity policy hinders progress: Bureaucrats are preventing politicians from delivering on their promises through systematic policies that constrain what can be achieved. People can no longer look up to the government to resolve the big issues – businesses need to fill that void.

Be the Brains Behind Progress

All of these factors are creating a more challenging political, economic and social landscape.

If business owners want to prosper they need to embrace opportunities through an entrepreneurial mindset. Daniel advised that we can start by relying less on technology:

“Get out onto the street and interview people around specific topics. Extract real information from people and find solutions that truly help.”

Defeat Obstacles in Your Way

Daniel also spoke of the key stages of business growth and how to move past major roadblocks.

For example, at 13-people the lines of communication get dramatically complex slowing the business down. To overcome this you can:

• Look at the ways you can use technology to simplify and automate processes
• Improve your company culture to eliminate communication barriers

To become a behemoth business with over 50 staff, Daniel told how leaders should focus on:

• Funding

• Intellectual property

• Branding

• Systems

• Culture

Daniel’s session was incredibly insightful, especially regarding turbulent times ahead and what we can do to not just survive but thrive.

Extraordinary Leadership Takeaways

Here are some of the key learnings from the conference’s other incredible speakers on leading and succeeding.

Innovation in Leadership

Dena Marshall, CEO of Manchester Children’s Hospital, offered insights into fulfilling leadership potential:

• It’s about how you respond when things go wrong
• By leveraging your wealth of experience you can support your team properly and give them a voice to help them shape your organisation’s future

Jane Valente, medical director at the hospital, also shared her thoughts on the subject:

• Spend time listening to your team to get a handle on what’s important
• Keeping hold of your intellectual property will allow you to stay in control of what you build and   maintain influence
• Allow staff to take risks in a staged way so they have the stability to turn brilliant ideas into reality

Taking Control

Martin Murphy, an ELITE leadership coach and former special forces soldier, used his unique background to teach us how to deal the big issues:

• You need to act straight away when facing a problem, run away and you’re likely to be cut down in the crossfire
• By getting insights from every department affected by a decision, you can move forward in the best way for the entire workforce

Do Good By Your People

“To be successful, you need to do brilliant work and treat people properly.  Then the money will follow.” – Sandy Lindsay, speaker and MD at Tangerine Communications

In addition to Sandy Lindsay’s wonderful session on business growth, Roger Longden, CEO of strategy and planning company There Be Giants, spoke about how performance management is key to exceptional leadership:

• Motivation isn’t always driven by money. Today, people want more out of their roles
• Give staff purpose and autonomy to help them make decisions and progress in their careers

Hungry for More?

The event surpassed our expectations. We are incredibly grateful for all the speakers who offered their humour, candidness and unparalleled knowledge.

And massive thanks to Platform Exo for organising the event: with over 120 business owners attending, it was truly a wonderful day to meet like-minded people and spark fruitful discussions surrounding leadership.

We’ve only scratched the surface in this blog – if you want full details of each session and the subjects covered by the phenomenal speakers, download our slides. You’ll gain rare insights to help you level up your leadership skills exponentially!