Leading Your Business with Cadence

The American Mold Builders Association’s (AMBA) Chicago Chapter held its second annual Supplier Night Fundraiser for education on April 20. The event was a tremendous success, and I’ll report on just how successful in my next blog. What I want to focus on today is the message AMBA President Troy Nix put out there as the evening’s keynote speaker: The Cadence of Your Leadership.

What is the cadence of your leadership within your company? Nix asked that question, and he discussed how leadership is always more effective, more inspiring, when its tempo, or rhythm, is in step with those you lead. When it’s raising your team up versus pulling them down. When it shows the team that you see each member as an important component to the success of your company.

Now it’s easier to say this than to do it, right? Everyone is always so busy just working that there is not time to really know if your leadership is truly making a positive impact on others in your company. But Nix challenged attendees to try. He said: “Good Leaders, Know Thyself!” Well, it was a slide in his presentation, but he basically said it’s important to look within and find one’s cadence. Work to make it one that your team will want to follow and grow on and be proud of.

To help everyone find their cadence, he asked them to answer these five questions:

Are you present as a leader?
Are you focused on leadership skills?
Are your people in step with your cadence?
Do you have an employee engagement strategy? (Nix shared a snippet of the Global Employee Engagement Report that AON Hewitt Company recently issued and one of the findings states that “employee engagement will be the business challenge of the next decade and beyond.” Something to think about.)
Do you know thyself?

Some attendees commented later that Nix’s presentation seemed to only focus on business owners, so employees who also attended the AMBA Chicago Supplier Night probably didn’t get much out of it. But I disagree. For one, many of those employees will probably own their own companies someday, so it’s important for them to hear Nix’s message. Even if they do not establish their own businesses, leadership with a strong cadence on all levels of a company makes an indelible impact on everyone. And as Nix’s slide says in the photo above this blog, “Why leadership? Because fractional improvements in leadership dramatically impact company performance as a whole!”

Find your cadence, leaders, and send it out to your teams so that they hear it loud and clear.