Article by Raju Shreewastava
Being an engineer teaches us to be tactical, but leadership is about soft skills. Different roles throughout one’s career span calls for different skills. So when it comes to managing your own career, how do you prepare yourself to move up? What skills should working executives hone as they strive to reach the next level? What do leaders need to become a C-suite executive? This “masterclass” with a leading CEO Coach Asha Saxena provided the opportunity for engineering managers and executives to have in-depth conversations about how they can maximize their own individual leadership skills and build high performing teams.
In this Leadership Masterclass Asha simplified the key things any aspiring C-Suite should keep in mind.
Top 10 Ten things to keep in mind:
- Vision
- Alignment
- Delegate
- Customer Focus
- Know your Numbers
- Measure what Matters – Weekly 1-3 things to measure
- Be a Good Communicatir
- Clarity and Consistency
- Power V/s Influence
- Culture – Core Values
My personal favorite quote by her was “Leaders are lifelong learners”.
Q &A session:
Her experience coaching CEOs of Startups to Fortune 500 companies was very evident during the Q & A session. A varied range of questions were dealt with in a concise but impactful way with examples making it a true masterclass.
Here are notes from some of the very insight responses:
Question : What would be the top few things to keep in mind for the first 30 days of becoming a leader?
Answer: Depending on the size of the organization it would be vary but the high level would look something like below :
- 30 days – Listening
- 60 days – Design and strategy
- 90 days – Executing
Question : What would be your suggestion on how to have tough conversations with non-performing or challenged employees/managers reporting to you?
Answer: It is important to deliver a tough message but the approach taken would determine the chance of success. Mixing the response with positive appreciation in the success area would be helpful to get the message delivered across. This would need one to be very observant to catching people doing the right thing while ensuring the appreciation is authentic.
The event was moderated by Vatsala Upadhay , Piyush Malik ( ASEI president) and Aina Aliieva and streamed live on YouTube and Clubhouse
If you missed the session , the YouTube recording is a must watch for anyone aspiring C-suite.
About the Speaker
Asha Saxena is a strategic, innovative leader with a proven track record of building successful tech businesses for the last 25 years. With a strong academic background, creative problem-solving skills, and an effective management style. She has been instrumental in building business models for success.
Asha Saxena is a CEO Coach with CEOCI, the leading coaching firm for growth-focused CEOs and entrepreneurs, where we follow a practical and proven methodology to help CEOs and their teams perform at their very best and achieve their business goals.
