How Achieving Balance Makes You A More Successful Leader

In his highly authentic, sincere and personal book, Balancing Act, author Dr. Andrew Temte, CFA, shares candid insights and timely lessons about the balance needed to succeed as a leader.

“I wrote this book in the hope that others will learn from my triumphs and failures. Those who can recover more rapidly from periods of imbalance will have an advantage over those cannot,” says Temte.

He firmly believes that leaders who strive toward balance can more readily identify and curtail organizational entropy, facilitate a culture of trust, and foster diverse organizations and cultures that inspire everyone to bring their “whole sell” to work.

“Success without balance is often more disastrous than failure with balance,” explains Temte. “When the unbalanced achieve victory, it often serves to further destructive habits. When the balanced suffer defeat, resilience and perseverance grow.”

Tempte further explains that leaders today often struggle for balance between:

Strength and vulnerability
Confidence and selflessness
Passion and measure
Single-mindedness and inclusivity
Determination and curiosity
Leadership and followership

As you read Temte’s personal journey in finding his balance, you’ll discover how to apply his lessons learned to find your proper balance to lead effectively, Temte also shows you how to teach, coach, mentor and inspire in your leadership role.

Some of the key takeaways for me from the book are:

Tempe’s four key competencies he believes everyone needs in order to work effectively across departments, understand how their individual contributions fit into the bigger picture, and ultimately thrive in a future of increasingly advanced technology are:

Financial acumen
Data literacy
Commercial acumen
Human skills

When in doubt, pick up the phone.
Businesses are made up of people, and the success of businesses relies on how those people interact, communicate, and collaborate with each other.
Moving forward, one of the most difficult tasks of a leader will be to embrace the personalities of individual team members and to provide the space necessary for free expression and creativity.

Successful leaders:

Teach, coach, mentor, and inspire.
Set and execute strategy (level appropriate).
Create and communicate clarity.
Establish and monitor relevant key performance indicators.
Fight entropy.
Remove obstacles and help teams focus.
Act as a brand ambassador.

Dr. Andrew Temte, CFA

Temte shares these additional insights:

Question: Your book is very personal and candid. Why did you choose this writing approach for Balancing Act?

Temte: A main theme of the book is to stress the importance of constructive vulnerability (as opposed to dramatic vulnerability) as a leadership trait. Leadership pundits are talking a lot about vulnerability but seldom reflect on what that means in practice. I felt it was important for readers to see directly that leaders are not exempt from life's challenges and that learning from one's missteps is how we discover and build that next best version of ourselves. We need to lead by example for our teams to show them that it's ok to fail and fall down, because we've done it ourselves. Leadership bookshelves are stacked with books that provide formulas for success where the author is talking at the reader, claiming that by following a particular rubric, success will follow. I believe life is much more nuanced and that success can only come by looking hard at the whole self - not just through the evaluation of the work self.

Question: If a leader's bandwidth allows excelling in only one of these three -- teacher, coach, mentor -- which one do you recommend they choose to emphasize?

Temte: I would say that coaching is the most important. True mentorship relationships are rare and can seldom be forced. Teaching should be used judiciously to ensure it's done in the right moments, supports the goals of the business, and is grounded in fact. Coaching, if done well, helps lead team members to a decision or conclusion and is deployed much more frequently. Coaching is fundamental to the skill set of all leaders and is foundational to the manager/employee relationship. Managers who find themselves routinely "telling and yelling" are really holding their people back from growth opportunities.

Thank you to the book's publisher for sending me an advance copy of the book.

Comments

A Playbook For Authentic Human Leadership

Julie Averill , the CIO behind lululemon’s rapid growth from $2 billion to $10 billion shares in her new book, Chief Impact Officer , a roadmap for executives and technology leaders navigating today's AI revolution and reveals why authentic human leadership is your competitive advantage. Prior to lululemon, she led omni-channel and digital transformations at Nordstrom and REI, navigating system failures, crises, and the complicated work of integrating technology with business strategy at scale. “Technology doesn’t transform companies. People do,” says Averill. “AI will amplify whatever leadership exists, strong or weak. The goal isn’t to build better workers. It’s to develop better humans who happen to do extraordinary work because you helped them become more capable, more confident, more fully themselves. That’s what this book is about.” In the highly personal Chief Impact Officer , Averill pulls back the curtain on what happens when you try to transform a compan...

How To Work With Difficult Coworkers

Nearly everyone I know has shared a story about a difficult person they’ve encountered in their workplace. Experiencing difficult individuals in the workplace is common. So common that author Amy Gallo identifies eight archetypes , each representing a common type of “difficult” person likely found in most workplaces. “We might lie awake at night worrying, withdraw from work, or react in ways we later regret—rolling our eyes in a meeting, snapping at colleagues, or staying silent when we should speak up,” says Gallo. "Too often we grin and bear it as if we have no choice. Or throw up our hands because one-size-fits-all solutions haven't worked. But you can only endure so much thoughtless, irrational, or malicious behavior—there's your sanity to consider, and your career,” adds Gallo. Fortunately, Gallo shares in her book, Getting Along , practical insights, tools, and techniques for how to get along with each type of difficult co-worker you’ll likely encounter....

The Fundamentals Of Market Engineering

“Most companies don’t fail because their product is substandard. They fail because the market doesn’t understand, care, or believe in what they’re selling,” explains Bruce Cleveland , author of the new book, Market Engineering . He adds that this dilemma is “because somewhere between the product development and the customer, the story got lost, the positioning drifted, or their category was defined by somebody else and the market went to another company.” That means, every year, startups and enterprises pour millions into building world-class products--only to watch them disappear into obscurity. In the book, Silicon Valley veteran Cleveland reveals the discipline behind market-dominating companies like Salesforce, Marketo, and C3 AI. Drawing on decades of experience as an operator, investor, and board member, Cleveland demonstrates how leaders can apply the same rigor to markets that they bring to products. You'll discover how to: Compel markets to come to you instead of c...

How To Do Great Work In A Fast-Changing World

Today brings the new book, Effective: How To Do Great Work In A Fast-Changing World , by Melissa Swift . “Effectiveness is where employer and employee interests come together—you want to be great at accomplishing the goals of your job, and your employer wants that too,” explains Swift. “It’s also a place where we can bring together different organizational and developmental thinking to help move people to action.” In the book, Swift, founder of Anthrome Insight , draws on current research and provocative interviews with business and academic leaders to help readers understand how to be amazing in a working world seemingly designed to make us feel incompetent. Each chapter in Effective delivers actionable approaches, enabling readers to improve their daily work life immediately with a paradigm-shifting framework for thriving rather than merely coping in modern professional environments. The book serves professionals at every level of seniority, from e...

How To Harness Your Experiential Intelligence

“Experiential Intelligence provides a new lens from which to view what makes you, you—and what makes your team and organization unique,” says Soren Kaplan , author of the book, Experiential Intelligence . Kaplan explains that over 100 years ago, we established IQ (Intelligence Quotient) to predict success. Then we explored Emotional Intelligence (EQ), the theory of multiple intelligences, and mindsets that broaden the definition of smarts. “Today, Experiential Intelligence ( XQ ) expands our understanding of what's needed to thrive in a disruptive world. While you can't change the past, your unique experiences and stories contain hidden strengths and untapped potential for the future,” explains Kaplan. Experiential Intelligence is the combination of mindsets, abilities, and know-how gained from your unique life experiences that empowers you to achieve your goals. It allows you to get in touch with the accumulated wisdom and talents you have gained over time through your ...

Critical Questions To Ask New Hires

In Paul Falcone ’s book, 75 Ways For Managers To Hire, Develop And Keep Great Employees , he recommends asking new employees the following questions 30, 60 and 90 days after they were hired: 30-Day One-on-One Follow-Up Questions Why do you think we selected you as an employee? What do you like about the job and the organization so far? What’s been going well? What are the highlights of your experiences so far? Why? Tell me what you don’t understand about your job and about our organization now that you’ve had a month to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty. Have you faced any unforeseen surprises since joining us that you weren’t expecting? 60-Day One-on-One Follow-Up Questions Do you have enough, too much or too little time to do your work? Do you have access to the appropriate tools and resources? Do you feel you have been sufficiently trained in all aspects of your job to perform at a high level? How do you see your job relating to the organization’...

How to Be a Leader – 9 Principles from Dale Carnegie

Today, I welcome thought-leader Nathan Magnuson as guest blogger... Nathan writes : This is it, your first day in a formal leadership role. You’ve worked hard as an individual contributor at one or possibly several organizations. Now management has finally seen fit to promote you into a position as one of their own: a supervisor. You don’t care if your new team is only one person or ten, you’re just excited that now – finally – you will be in charge! Unfortunately the euphoria is short-lived. Almost immediately, you are not only overwhelmed with the responsibilities of a team, but you quickly find that your team members are not as experienced or adroit as you. Some aren’t even as committed. You find yourself having to repeat yourself, send their work back for corrections, and staying late to fill the gap. If something doesn’t change soon, you might just run yourself into the ground. How did something that looked so easy ...

The Science Of Dream Teams

Why do some teams succeed while others stumble? Because hiring, developing and engaging talent requires careful decisions that are too easy to get wrong without data. In The Science of Dream Teams: How Talent Optimization Can Drive Engagement, Productivity, and Happiness , author Mike Zani introduces the science of “ talent optimization ,” a new discipline that’s a far more reliable way to manage your employees than your gut instincts. “ Proper talent optimization lifts morale, builds teams, and turbocharges productivity ,” explains Zani. With simple steps, Zani (a former US Olympic sailing team coach) shows how companies of any size can collect and analyze voluntary data about their employees to purposefully align a company’s business and talent strategies. The book explores how CEOs and management teams can collect and use data to: Build effective teams of highly sought-after professionals while optimizing costs. Create a company culture based on coaching versus ...

Five Essential Principles For Sustaining Growth Through Innovation

Even though many companies strive for innovation, most struggle to achieve meaningful change. The largest reason for this disconnect? Playing it safe. Leaders and organizations want to implement new ideas, but too often they are held back by the fear of failure, even though setbacks are intrinsic to the innovation process. In the new book, No Fear, No Failure , by Lorraine H. Marchand (with John Hanc), readers will learn how to overcome the status quo that stifles creative thinking and how to create a culture that encourages innovation. Marchand provides a framework for sustained growth built on the “ 5 Cs ”: Customer First Culture Collaboration Change Chance She draws on more than 120 interviews with leaders across industries, real-world case studies, and her firsthand experience and shares step-by-step, field-tested strategies, tactics, and tools that practitioners can use to embed creativity within organizational cultures. Marchand is a former Big Tech and Big Pharma ex...

How To Uncover Your Blindspots To Become A Better Leader

What you don't see about yourself can hold you back as a leader. That's typical for many leaders. What we don't see is what we can't see: we have blindspots . Your blindspots prevent you from achieving your greatest success. “It turns out that we're often not great judges of ourselves, even when we think we are. Sometimes we're simply unaware of a behavior or trait that's causing problems,” explains Martin Dubin , author of the new book, Blindspotting: How To See What’s Holding You Back As A Leader . “Bottom line: until we uncover these blindspots, we can't move forward. The good news is that you can learn to do your own blindspotting .” “Most of us understand the idea of blindspots in a general sense—areas we can’t see, to take the term most literally, or places we have gaps that we may not even realize, to be a little more abstract,” says Dubin. “But in the context of this book, I’m defining blindspots quite specifically: They are...

Eric Jacobson On Management And Leadership

Search This Blog