For “The Second Half,” Mitch Barns draws from his learning and experience from his career’s first half, living and working in a variety of business leadership roles in the USA, Europe, and Asia. For 5 years, Mitch was the CEO of Nielsen, a global data and analytics company operating in 100+ countries with over $6 billion in annual revenues. He currently serves as an advisor, board member, and contributor to a variety of businesses and organizations. A native of Cincinnati and a graduate of Miami University in Ohio, he and his wife now live in the Greater New York City area.
Resilience
The day before I had flown from Brussels, connecting through Newark, on to Cincinnati for a meeting the next day. My morning was free, so I went to get a haircut. The TV was on and suddenly there was breaking news. It broke our hearts and changed our lives. It was September 11. In the…
“Wartime CEO” and The J-Curve
A 2011 blog post by Ben Horowitz helped to popularize the concept of the “peacetime CEO/wartime CEO”. In times of crisis, this concept is sometimes cited as a rationale for the “wartime CEO” approach, meaning a more hard-core, command-and-control, higher intensity style of leadership. The 2011 blog post says, among other things, a wartime CEO…
3 Things I Learned as CEO
Recently, I was interviewed by Business Day, a leading publication in Nigeria, when I was in Lagos to speak at the West Africa Business Leaders Summit. The full article (no paywall) can be found here. An excerpt is below. They asked me the following question: “As a former CEO of a multinational organisation with operations…
Leadership Paradoxes: Clear, Consistent, Steadfast AND Open, Ready to Change
Recently, Business Day, a leading publication in Nigeria, interviewed me when I was in Lagos to speak at the West Africa Business Leaders Summit. The full article (no paywall) can be found here. An excerpt is below. Business Day: “What one piece of advice would you offer individuals in critical leadership positions of businesses in…
Romania
When a large group of business leaders shows up on a Friday evening (without drinks being served), highly engaged and ready to invest in their growth as leaders, it’s inspiring. That’s exactly what happened recently in Romania’s city of Cluj-Napoca. It is a city to invest in, with its large and growing IT sector, excellent…
The Biggest Need? “Good Leadership”
In October 2019, I traveled to Johannesburg in South Africa, where I met Joe Mabuela, who took me to Soweto, the large township southwest of Johannesburg (this is where Soweto gets its name…South west township). Soweto is a densely populated township with 5-7 million people living in challenging conditions. Joe grew up in Soweto and…
Despite, not Because
Our circumstances often make progress and success difficult. If we fall short, the temptation is to point to our circumstances as reasons why (“We fell short because…”). But good leadership is about “despite”, not “because”. The reality is that bad things happen. Even if the bad things are unknown when we begin the effort, we…
Leadership Paradoxes: Confidence and Humility
Confidence is inspiring. Humility is endearing. Confidence helps others believe in us in the absence of certainty. In fact, confidence also helps us to believe in ourselves in the absence of certainty. Humility helps us to see how and when to put the team’s interests ahead of our own self interest. An Aussie named John…
The Best Question for a Leader to Ask
Good leaders ask good questions. Questions (as opposed to statements) signal a willingness to listen. They convey values and reinforce desired behaviors. They foster learning. But what is the best question for a leader to ask? It’s a question that we ask ourselves (not others) when we are faced with an especially difficult challenge or…
Highlights from the 2019 Global Leadership Summit
The Global Leadership Summit took place on August 8-9, 2019, attended by over 100,000 people at over 100 sites all across North America. In the coming months, another 250,000+ people will attend rebroadcasts of the Summit at hundreds of sites in 130+ countries around the world. 2019 is the 25th year of the Summit (and…
The Value of Diversity to an Organization’s Results
Diversity is crucial to an organization’s growth, strength, and ability to innovate. There are other very good arguments for diversity (social justice, for instance), too, but let’s focus for the moment just on business outcomes. Diverse teams and organizations outperform teams with less diversity. During my time as the CEO of Nielsen, we set out…
Grit, Resourcefulness, Self-Sacrifice
The fundamentals of leadership are well-known: Vision, willingness to step to the front, and integrity, to name a few. Here are a few other leadership qualities that don’t get talked about as much. These are incredibly important leadership qualities. In fact, these are often the qualities that separate the best from the rest. 1. Grit.…
Innovation
More than 500 years ago, in the year 1513, Niccolò Machiavelli wrote this in the classic book called The Prince: “And it ought to be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of…
Keys to Career Success
Several years ago, I spoke at the Wharton Asia Business Conference, sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Business School. One of the other speakers was Donald Tang, who was, among many other things, the former Chairman & CEO of Bear Stearns Asia. After each speaker’s talk, there was a Q&A session. At the end…
What Governs?
Every well-run business or team requires governance. Governance comes in two main forms: formal controls and social norms. If a business is well-governed, then some combination of these two will provide the governance required. Let’s take a look at each. Formal controls: These are the rules, policies, and procedures established to ensure control and order. These…
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The Second Half 