Success – and how to deal with it

It takes a lot of hard work to become an effective leader. Business Insider runs the podcast “Success! How I did it” with input from current and former leaders. Now, the online publication pulled the best tips for how to be a great leader in any industry. Here is a brief selection:

baranq / fotolia

Dropbox founder Drew Houston: "At first you have to be systematic about training yourself. Make sure that your growth curve stays ahead of the company's growth curve. And so that means figuring out what you don't know and learning it, and no one is going to do that for you. The challenge, especially as a company that is scaling, is that your job as a CEO changes every 12 to 18 months – it's just that no one taps you on the shoulder and tells you that.”

Former CIA director John Brennan: "The most important thing for anybody who's going to be taking on that responsibility, is use your first period of time, whether it be six, nine, 12 months, to learn as much as you can about the organisation that you're running. And there is a distinction between knowledge and wisdom in my mind. Wisdom is using that knowledge and having the ability then to see opportunities, risks, challenges, things that you need to do."

Early Uber investor and Behance founder Scott Belsky: “I believe that as an entrepreneur one of the greatest costs is the constant processing of uncertainty that your brain is managing. It's almost like dedicating 20 per cent of your RAM to one task that is always running. And you're never as present with your family, or your friends, and you're always just processing. And that's really, really hard, but it's part of the cognitive costs you pay."

Read more on UK Businessinsider.com

Barbara Bierach