During our CEOtoCEO breakfast this past week we had the opportunity to have a larger than normal crowd – all focused on learning some insights and tidbits from some of the many well-known and respected leaders in the room. The event didn’t disappoint – we heard some great insights and thoughts. We will be sharing these over the next month or two with you on a regular basis on our site and also asking some key questions on our CEOtoCEO Discussion Group on LinkedIn – be sure to join if you haven’t already.

Starting out the breakfast John Hartman asked a table of leaders to share in one (or sometimes more) words what they thought it takes to be a great leader - we got some very interesting and sometimes unexpected responses.

Mary Jesse, Founder and CEO of Ivycorp  started by saying “To Care about your customers and employees deeply.” This is a key to their success and if you don’t care with true passion, they won’t follow and you can’t lead.

Bryan Mistele, President and CEO of INRIX, a mobile communications company, said, “Integrity…you have your network and your reputation – one you continually build and one you maintain.”

Mike Komola, President and CEO of HRnovations, simply said, “Humility” – I think he was living this and being humble.

Bill Swint, President of High 5 Sportswear, said he got a lot of his inspiration from Warren Bennis, well known author and consultant in the area of leadership. Bill said, “It’s the ability to make great decisions flying blind – applying knowledge and wisdom.”

Shelley Rotondo, Executive Director of Northwest Harvest, was called out by John since she is his wife – boy did he get lucky! She said, “A leader has to have a vision and a passion about whatever they are leading. They also have to have Integrity, good judgement, good communication skills, and the ability to execute – and of course, kicking down doors.”

What great wisdom in a nutshell from some very successful and accomplished leaders. No wonder their organizations are the leaders in their respective industries. Thank you everyone for sharing some of your quick insights to what makes a successful leader. Next up, some exciting comments and video of some of the other well-known leaders who shared their thoughts and insights…stay tuned!

The word “STRATEGY” is bantered and thrown around in many of the conversations today among top executives, especially CEOs. But what does it really mean? And are they actually talking about the same thing? I don’t think so…

Years ago when I first started doing “Strategic Planning” as part of my consulting role at Arthur Andersen, it was pretty straight forward and I feel for the most part executives were on the same page when you talked about Strategy. Today the lines have gotten fuzzier and less clear for many – primarily due to the “speed of business” that is happening to virtually every industry. So why the confusion?

There was a great article/post written in Stanford Social Innovation Review, called, “The Strategic Plan is Dead. Long Live Strategy.” I feel they did a good job of discussing the differences and sharing some compelling arguments around why companies should be thinking “Strategy” instead of a “Strategic Plan”. In the article, they had a great summary that helps put this in perspective, “Instead of the old approach of “making a plan and sticking to it,” which led to centralized strategic planning around fixed time horizons, we believe in “setting a direction and testing to it,” treating the whole organization as a team that is experimenting its way to success.”

The essence is that Strategy still rules and in fact may be even more important today than ever before. But what they want to emphasize, and I personally agree with 100%, is the flexibility that is required today and the ability to “adapt” your plan to the rapidly changing market and competitive conditions has never been more important that the world we live in right now. Maybe the name should be changed from “Strategic Plan” to “Adaptability Plan” to further emphasize the need for flexibility.

What do you think? Do you and your leadership team still generate the traditional 3 or 5 year strategic plan? Does it work for you and your organization? Share your thoughts either here or in our LinkedIn CEOtoCEO Discussion Group. We would love to get your thoughts on this very important area of planning.