No one can be you the way that you can be you,” said Carla Harris during her keynote speech at the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) conference in January.
Over her many years of learning about success in the public and professional world, she has perfected what she believes to be the eight most promising components of “powerful, impactful, and influential” leadership: authenticity, trust, clarity, creating other leaders, diversity, innovation, inclusivity, and voice.
At the IDFA conference, she implored dairy managers to consider these eight “pearls” in their day-to-day operations.
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1. Authenticity
Harris cited our individualities to be of a distinct competitive advantage in the way we learn to relate to those around us as leaders.
What’s the best way to connect with someone? Probably by tapping into what the two of you have in common. Harris shared that early on in her career on Wall Street, she was reluctant to share about her accolades as a gospel musician with clients and colleagues for fear of her artistic identity making her seem less serious as a businesswoman.
On the contrary, when people learned of her talent, she became all the more reachable: Clients asked for her advice about their children’s musical ambitions, co-workers showed admiration for her unique talent, and Harris felt more relaxed and wholly herself at work.
The financial analyst said that bringing your most authentic self to the table — in all of its capacities — is a superpower, not a weakness.
“People will grow to trust you, and trust is at the heart of any successful relationship,” Harris said. “Seeing someone being their full confident self is motivating and inspiring. Others will aspire to do the same.”
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2. Trust
Authenticity in leadership is the gateway to earning trust and fostering relatability among employees and colleagues. But it doesn’t stop there.
“We are all working in an environment where innovation is the dominant competitive parameter, which means as a leader, you’re going into unknown territories. You cannot do it alone,” Harris said.
Harris referred to industry innovation at large, but dairy is a prime example. There is always something on the brink of change on a dairy.
This is why, according to Harris, you need people in your corner who are as invested in the success of the business as you are. This starts at the ground floor with hiring the right people, but it continues on into embodying a kind of a leadership that defines what it means to deliver, to be reliable, and to be unafraid of the next horizon.
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3. Creating clarity
“When you fail to create clarity, you’ve created frustration,” said Harris. “If you sit in that leadership chair, it’s your job to define what success looks like, even if you yourself can’t see it yet.”
We can apply this to dairies when thinking of the team of employees. There’s little more confounding to an employee than a lack of clarity. Muddled expectations, goals, or values can create dire uncertainty.
Your team might do okay for awhile under these conditions, but odds are there will be a lack of coherence between roles, tasks, and departments, and this can have rippling effects.
Perhaps start by defining what success for your operation means to you personally, then communicate that vision to trusted members of your team. Your employees and colleagues will thank you for it in the long run.
4. Creating other leaders
Harris’ fourth point is to build leaders. As a dairy manager, you can be as authentic, trustworthy, and as clear as possible, but if you’re alone in your holding of responsibility, nearly all of it is at risk of failure.
“You must be maniacal and intentional about passing the baton because if all roads lead back to you, it will cap your success and the organization’s success,” Harris said. “Distribute the things that make a leader a leader to other members of your team.”
If you’re a leader, odds are you got that position because you earned it by being a natural executive. That, or you were born into it; either way you’ve grown used to shouldering anything and everything. Once you know your own capacities and capabilities, it can be hard to then delegate and learn to share the burden.
However, “There is no monopoly on intelligence,” Harris said. “Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.”
Consider identifying tasks you genuinely have to do as manager — things others can’t do, either for legal or other operation-specific reasons. Then, make a list of things you could do but can be done just as well by someone else.
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5. Diversity
“Innovation is born from ideas; ideas are born from perspectives; perspectives are born from experiences; experiences are born from people,” said Harris.
“You owe it to yourself to have the very best talent available to you,” Harris said. “Talent is equally distributive. But opportunity is not. Diversity is a commercial imperative. Diversity is critical in the workplace.”
Harris encouraged leaders to keep in mind that your room for longevity and growth is only as big as your room for goals and ideas, and if that space is lacking in voices and perspectives, you might run into limited pools from which to draw inspiration, and it’s possible growth and longevity will suffer.
6. Innovation
To continue moving forward into every new decade that comes, any operation must adapt, adopt, and innovate. But how to do this?
According to Harris, you must teach people how to fail.
“If people are afraid of failing, they never reach far enough to innovate,” she said. “When someone dares to take a risk and it doesn’t work out, be careful not to have an adverse reaction. Be constructive and productive.”
On dairies, when your employees know that you won’t shoot the messenger, they will try, fail, try, fail, and try and fail some more. Eventually, this may lead to innovation. Even if cold hard “innovation” of a way to upend and improve the industry isn’t in the cards (or even realistic), at least your team will feel comfortable and confident to be their authentic selves, do their absolute best, and be curious about what’s before them.
Harris emphasized, “Make sure they know you value them.”
7. Inclusivity
In the same way that you must be intentional about creating other leaders and nurturing diverse voices, you must also invite employees and colleagues directly into the decision- and solution-making processes.
“Solicit other people. Let them know ‘I see you.’ Everybody will then be equally invested in the business and its ups and downs,” Harris said.
Regardless of what this looks like on your operation, ensure it fits into your overall goals — and be clear about what people can expect.
8. Voice
Harris emphasized when it comes down to it, your leadership is your own. Mentoring other leaders, building trust, teaching others to embrace failure, and all the rest of it are a product of, first and foremost, your voice. “You have to be transparent, or you undermine trust and authenticity,” Harris said.
Everything involved in being a leader takes courage. It takes self-confidence; it takes inviting risk; it takes resilience; and it takes believing above all else that what you have to offer is worthy of a following.
Voice is about belief — belief in yourself, in your operation, and in your team. You have what it takes to lead and succeed, Harris insisted. “You wouldn’t be in the position you’re in if you didn’t.”
Now, take that belief and run with it.