How to Win As a Leader

Pioneer: Your strength is your optimism. There are so many more ways in which things can go wrong than right. You inspire us to bet against this law of averages.

• You always have your head up, and this helps us focus. Why? Because we don’t fear being blindsided (by customers, competition, the economy). Keep us informed of what you see coming next and how you plan to capitalize on it or circumvent it.

• We love that you are an adventurer, that you take risks. It’s exciting for all of us to be swept along on the discovery. Paint as vivid a picture as you can of the “land of milk and honey.” Help us smell the milk and taste the honey. Tell us the stories. Show us the heroes of this New World. Use as much detail and dialogue as you can when telling your stories.

• You create momentum. Put some structure around that energy. Have a daily ritual of connecting with each department for a stand-up huddle before you get caught up in the day’s events. We love the opportunity to interact with you daily. The positivity you bring to these meetings, though they’re brief, sets us up for the day ahead.

• Bring your sense of play to work. You have boundless creativity and imagination. Bring new games or activities to your team meetings and we’ll never tire of attending. Your lighthearted playfulness is contagious and frees our own imaginations, spilling over into our interactions with our clients.

• While we love the adventurer in you, it’s not always exciting to be on the expedition. Sometimes it is just plain scary. You may have undying optimism that things will work out for the best, but we need reassurance. We need to feel secure. So always share your contingency plans with us. Play out a couple of what-if scenarios.

• You are sometimes so far ahead of us that we can’t even see you. Now and then stop, please. And let us catch up.