7 traits of successful leaders (learned from ‘Shark Tank’)

Strong leadership is critical to organizational performance. Yet, not all managers are effective leaders, and not all effective leaders are managers.

Despite tens of thousands of books (and blogs!) on leadership in print, half of all US employees report that they have left their job to get away from a bad manager at some point in their career.

Poor leaders have less engaged, less loyal, and less productive employees. Gallup estimates that poor leadership costs the US $1 trillion annually and nearly $7 trillion globally. With the number of management positions projected to grow 5% from 2019 to 2029, this trend could spell trouble.

So what do we know about successful leaders that can help us level up our own skills? Let’s take a lesson from the entrepreneurs and sharks who found success on ABC’s “Shark Tank.”

1. Leaders are fluent in the data underpinning their success

The amount of data available across your business today is unparalleled. Yet many leaders lack the data fluency required to capture, mine, or interpret it. Data-fluent leaders are able to speak clearly, credibly and honestly about their market opportunity and team performance—whether the data tells a positive or negative story. They can thread the needle between observed trends and business results to deliver broader context and extract learnings that may lead to a competitive advantage.

Leaders who lack data fluency may misunderstand, misinterpret, or misuse data to the detriment of their business, investors, and team.

2. Leaders are creative, innovative thinkers

Innovative thinking is the ability to come up with new ideas and/or novel approaches to problems that improve results, resiliency, and/or customer value. As technology accelerates the pace of innovation, leaders who also develop and encourage innovative thinking within their team will outpace their competitors and thrive.

3. Leaders are courageously bold

Bold, courageous leaders not only create new and novel ideas, but they pursue them without hesitation. They are unafraid to act despite (measured) risk, and accept that mistakes are a natural consequence of innovation. When mistakes do happen, they make necessary adjustments and try again.

4. Leaders quickly triage & solve problems as they arise

Success is never a straight line. In business, problems and challenges will always arise. The Notorious B.I.G. got it right when he famously rapped, “the more money we come across, the more problems we see.” The ability and speed in which you are able to address critical problems determine whether you will succeed or fail.

5. Leaders use stories to influence & inspire those around them

Leaders influence and inspire, while managers dictate and direct. An influential leader understands the power of their words and has mastered the creative art of storytelling. They use storytelling strategically to inspire employees to act and customers to buy. While charts and slideshows numb an audience, stories effectively distribute knowledge, help us make sense of what is happening, transmit values, and energize us to pursue a shared mission.

6. Leaders seek out new perspectives & diverse opinions

Perspective is the unique way you see the world, and is shaped by the circumstances of your upbringing, values, prejudices, and state of mind. Leaders that prioritize diverse opinions and seek out differing perspectives are able to understand and combine a range of insights, experiences, and expertise to draw on.

Multiple studies have proven that businesses that increase diversity, from the line worker to the C-suite, are better able to innovate, improve financial performance, and recover from failures. Consider these statistics:

• Businesses with the most gender diversity in executive leadership roles performed 21% better in earnings, 27% better in long-term value, and were 15% more likely to generate “above-average profitability” (McKinsey)
• Businesses with the highest variety or mix of ethnicities were 33% more likely to outperform their peers on profitability (McKinsey)
• Analysis of the 500 largest, public companies found that age and gender diversity among board directors correlated with better financial performance during the Covid-19 pandemic (BoardReady)

7. Leaders have an intense commitment to the mission

In the best-selling book, “Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t,” author Jim Collins revealed the findings of a five-year research project that sought to understand how once good-to-mediocre companies triumphed over time to achieve enduring greatness.

The research revealed a rare, transformative executive, labeled “Level 5 Leaders,” possessed intense professional will uniquely coupled with personal humility. It is this iron will that compelled these leaders to never give up despite overwhelming obstacles resulting in stellar, record-breaking success.