John C Maxwell, wrote about 5 levels of leadership, teeing off from
Position and reaching Pinnacle
status. The most critical part of leadership is to make tough decisions and
then owing the consequences. Ultimately, good leaders know when to
zoom-in, when to zoom-out, and when to get completely out of the way. Ben
Horowitz wrote on this matter in "Hard Things About Hard Things."
From INC's 250 Best-led companies, here are 3 CEO's who made the tough
calls and shared insights about their decisions or approach to
leadership.
Patrick Spence - CEO, Sonos:
Would anyone take on Google - especially if they are also a partner of the
firm? Early January in 2020, Patrick Spence, CEO of speaker maker Sonos,
sued Google for patent infringement. A United States International Trade
Commission judge issued an initial ruling in Sonos's favor in August 2021.
Google says it disagrees with the judgment, which will be reviewed by the
ITC in December.
About making the tough call, Spence said, "I felt, on behalf of all the people and inventors at Sonos, a real responsibility to step up and say, 'This isn't right, Google. You need to either stop copying what we're doing or pay us.' "
Jen Rubio, Co-founder and CEO, Away:
Jen's co-founder Steph Korey, came under fire for a leadership style
that reportedly led to a toxic workplace culture at Away. As a result, Jen
took over as CEO in April of 2021. Jen knew tough decisions had to be
made, so her mindset, in her own words:
"Mistakes are a critical part of building," says Rubio. "It's not necessarily the mistakes themselves that become mission critical, but more so how you handle them as a leader." shared Rubio. "I try to enter every meeting with an open mind. I listen to the insights of those around me, candidly share when I'm unsure of a course of action, and remain willing to have my opinions challenged and mind changed."
Anne Wojcicki - Co-founder and CEO, 23andMe
Since its inception in 2017, 23andMe has genotyped about 12 million
customers since 2007, which co-founder and CEO Anne Wojcicki credits to
viewing failures as learning opportunities.
"You should be a constant learning machine," said Wojcicki. "Totally embrace when something doesn't go right. It's not something to be embarrassed about. Most things in life don't work, and if you don't learn from them, how are you ever going to figure out what does work?"
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