Welcome to For Leaders, your go-to source for essential leadership insights and perspectives shaping today's world.

In this week’s newsletter:

• Strategic Summaries: Key insights and takeaways on the importance of communication in leadership

• The For Leaders Podcast: LogicMark CEO Chia-Lin Simmons

• Words of Wisdom: A powerful leadership quote to inspire

• Leaders’ Library: What we’re reading this week

• Why Tho? essay: Permission to care again

A curated community of leaders.

Strategic Summaries

A weekly roundup of the most interesting, useful and thought-provoking articles to help you be a better leader.

Inspiring: Having a visionary outlook led Joey Gonzalez from taking workout classes to becoming CEO of Barry’s fitness studios (formerly Barry’s Bootcamp).   

Our take: Gonzalez was juggling multiple jobs in LA while trying to break into the entertainment industry in 2003 when he took a fitness class at Barry’s. He loved it immediately, mostly because of the welcoming community.

The founder soon asked him to become an instructor and he worked his way to senior management and eventually to CEO. He could see the potential of the business as more than a single fitness studio and asked leadership to bring him on as a partner.

Gonzalez’s inspiring vision and passion for the classes that ignited his career has spearheaded Barry’s to open locations all over the world. His innovative approach carried the company through the pandemic, elevating sales from zero during the first lockdown to over $100 million in 2022.     

Key takeaway: One leader’s vision to see, not only the business potential, but the unique contribution a company can make to its community, can inspire a business to immense growth.

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Attracting talent: CEO Aman Bhutani’s strategic vision for GoDaddy attracted 21-year PwC veteran, Mark McCaffrey.

Our take: When Mark McCaffrey decided to leave PwC after 21 years to pursue a new career direction, he expected to have to wait for the right opportunity to come along.

Almost immediately, Aman Bhutani approached him with the offer to be the CFO of GoDaddy. He had also been told by a former Adobe CFO, “I have your next gig.” Now McCaffrey had to make a big decision.

He went with Bhutani because he felt a connection to Bhutani’s strategic vision. GoDaddy was more than domains and website hosting – Bhutani’s ambitious vision to be a one-stop-shop for entrepreneurs in the digital age won McCaffrey over.

Key takeaway: Beyond a company’s reputation and success, a CEO’s visionary outlook can attract key staff who align with the larger organizational goals.   

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Losing support: Conversely, when a leader’s vision is uninspiring, investors can lose hope that real change can be made.   

Our take: Unilever has a new boss, Hein Schumacher, who is struggling to impress his investors. During a tough retail period, when the cost of living crisis is eating into consumers’ spending, it was hoped Schumacher would reveal a plan to win back shoppers.

Instead, he said they would focus on their top performing brands, improve their gross margin and not make any major acquisitions. Underwhelming, to say the least. Shares fell 2.5% after his announcement.

Key takeaway: When a company is struggling, not having an inspiring vision from leadership can lead to reduced support from investors.

🎧 For Leaders: LogicMark CEO Chia-Lin Simmons 

LogicMark CEO Chia-Lin Simmons is a leader in the technology sector, having worked for Wired Magazine, Audible and Google.  

Her leadership style fuses self-leadership and empathy, with a philosophy of doing “one kindness a day” in life and in the workplace. 

In this episode, Simmons shares key insights on:

• Blending AI and machine learning with empathetic and user-centric design

• The potential and risks of AI in healthcare

• Work-life balance

• Her lesson in learning to invest in what you love

Words of Wisdom

One weekly, impactful quote for leaders.

Leaders' Library

Every week, we share an interesting long-form piece of content to contemplate.

Today, we’re reading The Eleven Laws of Showrunning by Javier Grillo-Marxuach. This 25-page PDF was written for the entertainment industry but applies to those who lead any team.

He articulates the importance of having a strong and clear vision, supported by your team. This requires “intellectual and creative rigor, a measure of non-solipsistic introspection, and that you make a discipline out of talking to other people and being on message at all times.”

The first rule in particular caught our eye: It’s All About You So Stop Making It All About You. The showrunner of a TV program needs their team to believe in their creative vision, just as a business leader needs their team to believe in their strategic vision.

How do you get your team invested in your vision, then? By giving them the opportunity to express themselves within the framework you give them, thereby fostering their creativity. 

Having your team supporting your vision allows you to execute it with more innovation than you would ever be able to do alone.    

Our featured essay this week is Permission to care again by Clint Betts.

With a loneliness epidemic in the US that is undeniable, what can we do to build community and a sense of belonging? Betts takes us through the problems but also offers solutions. And permission for everyone to care. 

Thanks for reading! We’ll see you next week with more powerful leadership insights and inspiration.