09/12/2024

To Lead Better, Look Beyond Personal Interests

Anne Chow knows what it takes to lead bigger (and better)

Sometimes, the best way to define something is to describe what it is not. That approach is exactly what Anne Chow took when describing a form of management she defines as "small." Included are habits such as being penny-wise and pound-foolish, using a narrow lens, micromanaging, missing the big picture and being too self-focused. These descriptors set up what it means to — as she says in the title of her new book — Lead Bigger!

"Leading small is almost literally not having a broad perspective, not thinking about the consequences of what you're doing," Chow told me in a recent interview. It's "being incredibly transactional in your nature, and quite frankly being very self-oriented, perhaps not intentionally, but being very self-oriented as opposed to being selfless in a way."

Former CEO of AT&T Business — and the first woman and woman of color to hold that title — Chow advocates that to lead truly bigger, you need to "widen your perspective to have greater performance and impact." This concept is not new to Chow. "What struck me was that we are always told to think bigger, especially if we're in a rut, if there's a disruption that's happened in the marketplace, a new technology, a challenge in the workforce, a challenge on a geopolitical basis, think bigger since we were young since we were little kids."

Please select this link to read the complete article from SmartBrief.