From The Heart(beat): Some of my favorite advice from 4 leaders

I share a few of my favorite latest leadership tips from CEOs, founders, and executives featured in our Heartbeat interviews.

Every few weeks, I have the opportunity to sit down with CEOs, founders, and leaders who inspire me. I’m continually surprised by the lessons they share — as well as the humility and introspection required to share their stories and their struggles with me for The Heartbeat.

Here’s some of my favorite advice from our recent guests…

Daniel Houghton, CEO of Lonely Planet, the world’s largest travel guide book publisher, took over as CEO when he was 24 years old. Yes, you read that right: 24 years old. This meant he had to learn on the job fast. To get up to speed and tackle the steep learning curb as a new leader, he said: “I do love to read and I read a lot of books. Also, if you hire the right people, you don’t have to know how to do everything, but you do need to be able to learn from those people. That, and a whole laundry list of mentors.”
Laura Roeder, founder and CEO of MeetEdgar, a social media scheduling tool with more than 7,000 customers. She bootstrapped her company to $4 million in annual recurring revenue in 2.5 years. The one thing Laura wished she had learned earlier in her career? “Really letting go and letting the people you work with have ownership and make decisions without you. I feel like for me that’s been the constant process of leadership that I’m still definitely working on and still learning.”
Dan Mall is the founder of SuperFriendly, a design collaborative with clients like Apple, ESPN and Time Magazine. He is also the CEO of SuperBooked, and the author of Pricing Design. Dan’s take on leaders: “They’re the ones leading the charge, but actually generals are the ones in the back. They need to have purview. They need to be able to see everything. They need to be able to support people. They need to be able to orchestrate.”
Amy Gallo, contributing editor at Harvard Business Review, is the author of the HBR Guide to Dealing with Conflict. As a prominent expert on workplace dynamics, Amy offers this advice: “I think I wish knew earlier the importance that co-workers as friends in your life, both from just making you feel supported and making work feel fun and exciting, but also from a performance perspective. These networks that we build, these genuine relationships we build, are incredibly important to our performance and how we get work done.”