Ingram's April 2024

Kansas City’s Next Leaders Last year was a major milestone for Ingram’s 40 Under Forty program: In its 25th iteration, the number of promising young executives from the Kansas City region reached an even 1,000. Since 1998, a nearly unbroken line of 40 Under Forty classes has pro duced an inordinately high number of executives who today lead some of the region’s biggest, most influential, and most innovative companies. From their ranks are the chief executives of banks, commercial real estate firms, fintech and wealth-management firms, digital marketing powerhouses, IT giants, hospitals, schools, accounting and law firms, construction compa nies and engineering/design firms, non-profit and charitable organiza tions, entrepreneurial startups and many other strands of the Kansas City area’s business infrastructure. They—all of them—were select ed not merely for their business achievement but for stepping outside the bounds of their careers to serve as members of various corporate and charitable boards, as fund-rais ing committee chairs for non-profit events, as school, church, and neigh borhood association volunteers, as youth sports coaches, and as advo cates for business associations. In short, they led not through their work alone, but through the example of their lives. Keep in mind: For most of its 26 years, 40 Under Forty has lasered in on the region’s thirtysomethings. These have been people who already had their hands full at the office yet devoted off-hours to the betterment of the community—and, at the same time, were in their peak child-bearing and family-rearing years. The mind boggles at how they do that. But they do, and we as a region are the richer for their contributions. Now, we’re on the path to the next 1,000 honorees, starting with the Class of 2024. We can’t wait to see who will be stepping forward in the years to come.

Don’t stop learning—even at the top.

You have to demonstrate to your leadership team and staff that you don’t know everything. If they believe you think you do, you’ve dug yourself a talent-retention hole, and that’s only going to compound the challenge of finding that committed cohort of potential leaders.

Apply lessons learned—but don’t stop.

Especially among small enterprises, human nature often leads us to be lieve that when one organizational goal is achieved, things are “fixed.” Plot spoiler: Things are never fixed. The level of improvement you reach today may be the baseline for failure tomorrow. Continue to refine, in novate and learn what it takes to produce the next level in products or services.

Collaborate.

This isn’t Vegas, so what happens with leadership development shouldn’t stay with the leadership team. There are other stakeholders. Rank-and file employees, for starters. You need to understand the traits they need in leaders if they’re to be effective in their own jobs. And if what your leadership team does touches customers, you might want to find out what they need from your lieutenants.

A Team-First Approach.

So you want Dave in production to improve his time-management skills and Sally in HR to hit her targets for delivering annual performance reviews. But if you’re teaching to the test, so to speak, your reliance on individual development may come at the cost of better team and orga nizational development. Dave and Sally may come out of your training motivated to improve specific aspects of their own performance, but it can’t stop there. They must be able to inspire better performance in their own reports down the line.

Cross-Training Isn’t Just for Jocks.

Do you want your leadership team to be in sync with strategic goals? Then get them in sync on operational goals: Cross-functional training can help them see how their performance, and that of their teams, im pacts other operational silos in your workplace.

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I ngr am ’ s

Kansas City’s Business Media

April 2024