KEYS TO SUCCESS

16 Leadership Experts Share Advice To Help

Emerging Leaders Unlock Their Potential

WITH
Dorie Clark | Angela Maiers | John Spence | John Carroll | Rabison Shumba
Ben Lichtenwalner | Jon Baldoni | Marshall Goldsmith | Kevin Monroe
Ellen McDargh | Twan van de Kerkhof | Neel Raman
Ron Edmondson | Chris Widner | Dana Theus | & Patrick Malone

EDITED BY PIERRE QUINN

Hey,

We’ve all been there.

New place. New job. New responsibilities. New people. Sometimes the newness of it
all can be a bit overwhelming.

It is in those moments that the right advice can make all the difference. I decided to
reach out to some leadership experts for you. These are authors, coaches, consultants,
and leaders of influence who know what it’s like to navigate newness and help others
along the way.

Some have offered short notes and others longer messages. Either way I’m sure in
their words you’ll find at least one piece of advice that you can put into practice right
now. Think about their story, jot down what they’ve said and see what connections
emerge.

All the best on your journey. My hope is that these few pages of advice will help you
along the way.

Regards,

Pierre Quinn
For nearly a decade Pierre taught college students the fundamental principles of communication,
interpersonal relationships, team building, and leadership. His classroom experience created
opportunities to train leaders across the country.

Pierre is the author of Leading While Green: How Emerging Leaders Can Ripen Into Effective Leaders and
Leading While Scared: How To Find The Courage To Keep Going. He is the CEO of The Cardell Group, LLC,
a consulting firm which focuses on growing leaders and empowering teams of all sizes.
@pierrequinn | www.pierrecquinn.com
 QUESTION:
What piece of advice
would you give to
individuals who are
currently serving in a
new leadership role?

DORIE
CLARK
@dorieclark
www.dorieclark.com
Dorie Clark is a marketing
strategy consultant, professional
speaker, and frequent contributor
to the Harvard Business Review,
TIME, Entrepreneur, and the
World Economic Forum blog.
Recognized as a “branding
expert” by the Associated Press,
Fortune, and Inc. magazine, she is
the author of Reinventing You
(Harvard Business Review Press,
2013), which has been translated
into Russian, Chinese, Arabic,
French, Polish, and Thai.
KEYS TO SUCCESS
One counterintuitive piece of advice that
I'd share, taken from a Forbes interview I
did with top HR executive Peter Wright, is
for leaders to refrain from making any
major changes right when they enter a
new job. There's often a desire to "make
your mark" quickly by launching new
initiatives or making personnel shifts or
otherwise precipitating drastic changes -
all things that, if done poorly, can
damage morale irreparably. Some urgent
changes may indeed be necessary. But
it's often better to wait and watch, and
learn from the people around you. If you
listen, you may learn that your initial
diagnosis is not correct, and that there
are wiser ways you can improve
performance and outcomes. 
 Make a point of reaching out widely
DORIE inside your organization and getting
to know people in different
CLARK departments. You might be inclined
@dorieclark
www.dorieclark.com to hunker down and only spend time
with your colleagues, boss, and direct
reports, but that's a mistake. As I
discuss in my book Reinventing You,
it's essential to build ties across the
company. It doesn't have to be
anything more complicated than
inviting people out to lunch or coffee
periodically. That exposes you to new
ideas and best practices, and ensures
that you're seen as a well-connected,
team player - a brand that can help
you in anything you're trying to
accomplish. 

KEYS TO SUCCESS
ANGELA
MAIERS
@angelamaiers
www.angelamaiers.com
No one is serving in their "first year"
Leader. Visionary. Entrepreneur. of a leadership role, unless they're
Disruptor. Change Maker. Angela
embodies each of these less than one years old. We are all
d e s c r i p t o r s w i t h p a ss i o n ,
c o m m i t m e n t a n d fi e r c e leaders from the day we're born.
determination. She has been
creating and leading change in Everything we say and do, and more
education and enterprise for 31
years, teaching every level of
important who we choose to be,
school from grade school to
graduate school and consulting
determines the kind of leader we are.
with companies around the Leadership is not a "to do" list, it is a
world. 
"to be" list.

KEYS TO SUCCESS
ANGELA
Successful leadership and in the
MAIERS world is not only attributed to what
@angelamaiers
www.angelamaiers.com you do; it is dependent on who you
are and why you do.  Who you are
comes across more strongly than what
you sell or say. We set young leaders
up for a fall if we encourage them to
envision what they can do before first
considering the kind of kind of leader
they want to be. In supporting the
kind of leader they must be, we
enable and elevate their ability to
influence, catalyze, and transform the
future in a way we have not yet seen.

KEYS TO SUCCESS
 For someone who is just new in a
leadership position I would suggest three
key things:
JOHN
SPENCE 1. Ask for help. 
Do not be afraid to ask other leaders in the
@awesomelysimple
www.johnspence.com organization for help, ideas and
John Spence is recognized as one
suggestions. I would also strongly
of the Top 100 Business Thought recommend that you find one or two
Leaders in America, one of the
To p 1 0 0 S m a l l B u s i n e s s mentors, senior leaders who are well
Influencers in America, and one
of the Top 500 Leadership respected and will help guide you as you
Development Experts in the
World. John is also one of the grow and improve as a leader.
American Management
Association’s Leaders to Watch
along with Sergey Brin, Larry 2. Be a serious student of leadership.
Page, and Jeff Bezos. He is an
international keynote speaker Set aside time every day to study and learn
and management consultant who
has written five books on more about effective leadership. If you are
business and life success and has
made a career out of “Making the serious, you should be reading a minimum
Very Complex… Awesomely
Simple”.
of one leadership book per month and
reading articles, blogs and watching videos
in an effort to consistently increase your
knowledge about leadership.

KEYS TO SUCCESS
 3. Listen to your employees. 
Remember that without followers it is
impossible to be a leader, so seek feedback
JOHN and suggestions from your team. This does

SPENCE not mean you have to do everything they

tell you, but at least you have let them voice
@awesomelysimple
www.johnspence.com their opinions and there is a good chance
you will get some very helpful information
and ideas.
 
With leadership comes great responsibility.
Remember that nothing is small; they see
everything you do, they hear everything
you say, so you must constantly strive for
excellence, demonstrate accountability and
pursue the success of the organization with
a strong sense of urgency. To me, after 20
years of leading companies, this is what I
would tell any young leader is a good
starting place to becoming strong
respected leader.

KEYS TO SUCCESS
JOHN
CARROLL
@TresCoach
www.trescoach.com

John Carroll is the founder and

CEO of Tres Coaching Services
and consulting firm with Over 35
years of sales, marketing and
operations leadership expertise
with Fortune 1000, mid-size and
start-up companies in a variety of
vertical industries.
Don't sweat the small stuff.
Focus on people and get comfortable
with the 10% that doesn’t go as
planned. It will make the 90% that
does go well much more enjoyable
for everyone.

KEYS TO SUCCESS

RABISON
SHUMBA
@rabisonshumba
www.rabisonshumba.com
Rabison Shumba is a professional
speaker who has graced many
international conference
platforms. He is a master trainer/
facilitator and seasoned strategist
with over 24 years of experience
in multinational corporations that
span many sectors including
mobile telecommunications,
mining and non-profits.
KEYS TO SUCCESS
To succeed in your leadership, you must have
an insatiable appetite for learning. You should
not truncate how far you can go as a leader by a
false sense of arrival which detests learning
new things daily. You should ride on the base
of those you lead by taking time to ask relevant
questions which get you to settle in quickly.
You should not lead by impulse, take time to
learn the new environment before prescribing
changes. Learn from the mistakes of those who
have gone before you so that you don’t repeat
the same. Leadership is essentially about
people; understand the culture that is inherent
in the organisation and then come up with a
plan in terms of how you want to change if at
all you find it to be necessary and value
adding. You need the buy-in and loyalty of
those you lead as your success hinges on all of
them bringing their “A” Game to work every
day and doing everything with a high degree
of excellence. 
 As you settle in, start examining people that
you require around you, people who
RABISON complement you in areas of weakness or
deficiency. Put the right people in their
SHUMBA rightful places based on their levels of
@rshumba expertise or potential for high achievement.
www.rabisonshumba.com
Do not over-commit to your key stakeholders
that you are “the answer” to whatever
challenges they have faced over the years.
However, commit to yourself that you are out
to make a difference that will be tangible and
felt. For that to happen realise that as a leader
you are called to make decisions. Not every
decision will come out right; learn from the
bad decisions and make more decisions and
avoid being stuck in the immediate, pressing
and urgent forgetting that there is an end
goal you are driving your department or
organisation towards. Keep your eye on the
end game which then affects what you do
now to get there.

KEYS TO SUCCESS

BEN
LICHTENWALNER
@BLichtenwalner
www.modernservantleader.com
Ben is the author of Paradigm
Flip: Leading People, Teams, and
Organizations Beyond the Social
Media Revolution. He blogs at
ModernServantLeader.com and is
found on Twitter at
@BLichtenwalner. Ben’s mission
is to advocate servant leadership
awareness, adoption and action.
He has a unique perspective on
social media as a tool for greater
leadership influence and writes
often on the topic.
KEYS TO SUCCESS
Serve first. Servant-leadership is authentic
leadership. However, we need the term
"servant" to remind people that
leadership is not an achievement to
reach, but a commitment to serve. After a
decade of research and interviews, we
consolidated the many different views of
servant-leadership into a unified model
for leadership students. SERVANT-
leadership is for leaders who are:
• Selfless
• Empathetic
• Resolute
• Virtuous
• Authentic
• Nonpartisan and
• Thorough
BEN
LICHTENWALNER
@BLichtenwalner
www.modernservantleader.com
As you evolve your own, specific
leadership style, you may find any of
the dozens of attributes within these
principles are more, or less important
to you. However, at the core of your
being, if you are to be an authentic
leader, I pray you will find your
priority is to serve first.

KEYS TO SUCCESS
JOHN
BALDONI
@JohnBaldoni
www.johnbaldoni.com

John Baldoni is an Inc Top 50 Listen, listen, listen. Partner with

Leadership Expert & Speaker. He
is a recognized executive coach,
people who know more than yourself
educator, and author of 12
leadership books.
and learn from them. Never be afraid
to ask questions. What you learn will
enable you to become a more
effective manager and leader.

KEYS TO SUCCESS
MARSHALL
GOLDSMITH
@coachgoldsmith
www.MarshallGoldsmith.com
I would suggest that new leaders
Marshall Goldsmith was
recognized as the World’s #1 reach out to each of their key
Leadership Thinker at the
Thinkers 50ceremony in London. 
stakeholders, get advice for the future
His book Triggers, is a #1 New
York Times and Wall Street
(not feedback about the past) about
Journal bestseller. how they can do a great job.  Pick one
or two key challenges, then develop a
regular follow-up process to get
ongoing input on progress!

KEYS TO SUCCESS
KEVIN Congratulations on your new role.
MONROE This will be an exciting year and while
some days will seem as though they
@kevin_monroe
www.kevindmonroe.com
will never end, the year will pass
before you know it. My counsel to
new leaders is to invest time in
Kevin Monroe is a leadership developing quality relationships with
c o n s u l t a n t , s p e a k e r, a n d
executive coach. His mission is to the people on your team. You see,
help high achievers connect with
their higher purpose.
relationships are primary, all else is
derivative. Get to know each member
as an individual. Discover their hopes
and dreams. In time, if you establish a
foundation of trust and compassion,
they will open up and tell you their
fears and insecurities.

KEYS TO SUCCESS
KEVIN
MONROE Coupled with this, is the imperative to
@kevin_monroe
www.kevindmonroe.com
listen more than you talk. That’s one
of the greatest challenges for all
leaders, not just new ones. Become a
student of great questions. Ask them
out of your desire to learn. Listen,
really listen. You’ll be amazed at how
people open up when their leader
listens. Oh yeah, find time to journal
so you can chronicle your journey and
process your experiences.

KEYS TO SUCCESS
EILEEN
New leaders have all eyes on them.
McDARGH People will wonder if a new direction
@macdarling
www.eileenmcdargh.com will occur?  How much does she really
know? What kind of political games will
Eileen McDargh is an be played. To counter those things, I
internationally recognized
keynote speaker, master would suggest the following:
facilitator, and award-winning
author with expertise in resiliency
and leadership.  Her articles have
appeared in countless Practice Naive Listening
publications and two of her six
books have been awarded
People are curious about you. But you
national recognition, including
the Ben Franklin Gold Award.
must also be curious about them
1. Ask questions that encourage
people to open up.
2. Practice naïve listening to the
answers you receive.

KEYS TO SUCCESS
EILEEN
The latter is probably the most important.
McDARGH Naïve listening means to listen as if you
@macdarling
www.eileenmcdargh.com are hearing something for the first time—
even if you are not. It means to withhold
judgment while the person is speaking.
 “Seek first to understand rather than to
be understood” is as true now as it was
when St. Francis of Assisi wrote his
peace prayer and when author Stephen
Covey popularized it in Seven Habits of
Highly Effective People. The practice of
astute questioning followed by naïve
and non-defensive listening results in
understanding.

KEYS TO SUCCESS
 Here are some probing questions
EILEEN that require naïve/non-defensive
listening:
McDARGH
@macdarling
www.eileenmcdargh.com • What might be something I do that
gets in the way of your optimum
performance?
• If you could change anything about
this department, organization, process,
etc. what would that be and why?
• Please tell me what you understand
are the most important aspects of your
work?
• What talent do you have that we have
either not tapped or have not used to
its full potential?
• What matters most to you about your
work?

KEYS TO SUCCESS
EILEEN
Then..DO something with the information
McDARGH you have learned.  And if you can’t— let that
@macdarling
www.eileenmcdargh.com person know why. In this age of text and
email, the leader who takes time to ask and
LISTEN is a treasure beyond price.

Share about yourself.

•What is the biggest mistake you ever
made and what did you learn from it?
•What are your expectations of the folks
you lead and where do you need their
help?
•What makes you crazy?  What gives you
delight?

KEYS TO SUCCESS
TWAN
van de KERKHOF
@twanvdk
www.elplatform.com
My advice to first-year leaders would
Twan van de Kerkhof founded be to connect simultaneously to their
European Leadership Platform in
2003. Twan found that leaders inner wisdom and to the fast-
encountered three major pitfalls:
1. being caught in the changing world outside. Connect
delusions of the day;
2. a lack of reflection; inside to know what your purpose in
3. and countervailing power.
To address these issues, he life is and act on that; connect to co-
decided to organize Roundtables
in which leaders could reflect on workers, direct reports, clients,
their own dilemmas and
behaviour and share their
suppliers, investors to know how you
insights with peers. Before
founding ELP, Twan was a
can serve them.
journalist for 15 years, a
profession in which he sharpened
his skill of asking penetrating
questions.

KEYS TO SUCCESS
NEEL
RAMAN Neel Raman is a business trainer,
coach and professional speaker who
@neelraman
www.neelraman.com
inspire busy, overwhelmed
Neel Raman is a business trainer,
coach and professional speaker
professionals clarify their priorities,
who inspire busy, overwhelmed grow their confidence so that they
professionals clarify their
priorities, grow their confidence can do what they love and live their
so that they can do what they love
and live their greatness. greatness.

I believe it comes down to self-

awareness. Leadership begins with
self first. Unless you can lead yourself
effectively, it is unlikely you will be
able to lead others effective.

KEYS TO SUCCESS
 Self-awareness comes down to knowing:
• Your values
NEEL • Your visions
RAMAN • Your purpose (whether it is your
overall life purpose or purpose for
@neelraman
www.neelraman.com doing something e.g. a project or
goal)
• Your goals
• Your passions

The more aware a leader is, the better
they can lead others.

Leaders need to understand who they

are, what their internal blockages are,
what their fears are, and if they can
overcome them, then they can bring
forward what is emerging so that
everybody’s needs are met.

KEYS TO SUCCESS
RON
EDMONDSON
@RonEdmondson
www.ronedmondson.com

Ron Edmondson is passionate

about planting churches, but also
helping established churches
Spend the year intentionally learning
thrive. He loves assisting pastors the culture, the people, and the
and those in ministry think
through leadership, strategy and history of the organization you are
life. His specialty is organizational
leadership, so in addition to his tasked with leading. Make few
role as a pastor, as he has time,
he consults with church and changes - and only those which will
ministry leaders.
already have inertia behind them.

KEYS TO SUCCESS
CHRIS
WIDENER
@ChrisWidener
www.ChrisWidener.com
I would say a first year leader should
Chris is the author of twelve
books and over 450 articles on do a number of things. First would be
success, leadership, sales and
motivation. He has been a
to not go too fast. They have to build
personal and professional
development coach since 1988,
trust and rapport with their followers.
helping people lead successful Secondly, they should get a mentor
lives. Chris is widely recognized
as one of the top speakers in the who can teach them leadership. This
world today. His clients are a
“who’s who” of American should be someone who has at least
businesses and organizations.
Chris considers it a privilege to be 10 years of strong leadership
able to speak to people and help
them lead successful lives, and to background.
become extraordinary leaders
and masterful salespeople.

KEYS TO SUCCESS

DANA
THEUS
@danatheus
www.inpowercoaching.com
Dana has spent her entire 25-year
career helping individuals and
organizations succeed as they
venture into new territory,
working inside and alongside
fortune 100 companies,
entrepreneurial startups and non-
profits. Her experience spans
international government affairs,
marketing, branding,
communications, product
development, product
management, strategic planning,
change management, leadership
development, consulting,
entrepreneurship and coaching.
KEYS TO SUCCESS
Congratulations! You've been
recognized for your good work and
promoted into supervising others!
Remember when you graduated one
school and started all over at another
one? Back at the bottom of the pile?
It's a little like that with your new
position. You DO know a lot, but you
DON'T know everything you need to
succeed. Trust the technical
knowledge that got you here and
open your mind and heart to learning
how to manage the people on your
team. The #1 thing you can do to
encourage them to deliver their best
work is to believe in them, tell
them you believe in them and
mean it.
 People who believe that you believe in
them will will work harder and smarter;
DANA they'll be more open to your
suggestions and they'll allow you to lead
THEUS them farther than you could ever
@danatheus imagine. If they drop the ball, help them
www.inpowercoaching.com
pick it up, tell them you still believe in
them and have them try again. Sure,
sometimes you'll have to step in, do it
yourself or micromanage a little here
and there, but make that the exception,
not the rule. Keep believing in your
people and they'll learn to believe in
themselves. Don't forget to believe in
yourself, too. If that's tough, find a
mentor who believes in you and learn
how good it feels to be believed in. I
believe you can do this because the
opportunity to lead wouldn't have come
to you if you weren't ready for it.

KEYS TO SUCCESS
PATRICK Be Interested instead of trying to
MALONE be Interesting.
@PARpat
www.thepargroup.com
New leaders often feel the need to be
Patrick T. Malone, with over thirty
five years of experience in the one with all the ideas when the
operations and sales
management, is a Senior Partner
people that are closest to the work at
at PAR. Before joining the
company in 1989 as Senior
hand often have the best ideas. So be
Consultant, Patrick worked in a interested in what your people have
variety of positions from
Customer Service to National to say. When you are interested in
Sales Manager with the American
Greetings Corporation and The others they find you interesting.
Scott Companies. At The PAR
Group, he has worked with a When in conversation make them feel
number of Fortune 500 clients.
Patrick is a frequent speaker at like they are the only person in the
industry and management
conferences.
room and respect their right to a
different point of view than your own
at any moment in the conversation.

KEYS TO SUCCESS
PATRICK  
Amateurs practice until they get
MALONE it right. Professionals practice
@PARpat
www.thepargroup.com until they cannot get it wrong.
Patrick T. Malone, with over thirty
five years of experience in
operations and sales
Encourage open and honest
management, is a Senior Partner
at PAR. Before joining the
feedback. That is the only way to
company in 1989 as Senior understand where you can improve
Consultant, Patrick worked in a
variety of positions from and grow as a leader. Be an example
Customer Service to National
Sales Manager with the American of what you would like to see from
Greetings Corporation and The
Scott Companies. At The PAR your team. Work on being a better
Group, he has worked with a
number of Fortune 500 clients. leader every day including
Patrick is a frequent speaker at
industry and management developing new leaders from your
conferences.
team. Your commitment to continual
personal improvement will set the bar
for each of your team members.

KEYS TO SUCCESS
READY
TO APPLY?
Which piece of advice most resonates
with you?

What are some of the ways that you

can apply that advice this week?

KEYS TO SUCCESS