Key Traits of Top Performers in Transformations

How to spot a true A player. Not just high performers. The game changers. Here's what to watch for: 1. They make your team meetings better → Come with solutions, not just problems → Ask questions that move discussions forward → Share insights others might miss 2. They say "we" instead of "I" → Celebrate team victories → Share success naturally → Think collective impact 3. They quietly mentor others → Guide without spotlight → Share knowledge freely → Invest in others' growth 4. They don't chase credit → Focus on results, not recognition → Highlight team contributions → Let work speak for itself 5. They're proactive and prepared → Think three steps ahead → Anticipate roadblocks → Come with options ready 6. They read between the lines → Spot underlying issues → Understand unspoken needs → Connect seemingly unrelated dots 7. They represent and align with company values → Live the mission daily → Lead by example → Make values actionable 8. They make complex things simple for others → Break down barriers → Clarify confusion → Create practical solutions 9. They never play the blame game → Focus on solutions → Take responsibility → Move forward constructively 10. They hold themselves accountable → Set high personal standards → Deliver on promises → Own their mistakes 11. They spot inefficiencies and define a plan → See system improvements → Create actionable roadmaps → Drive meaningful change 12. They don't wait to be told what to do → Take initiative → Fill gaps automatically → Create opportunities 13. They show resilience → Bounce back stronger → Learn from setbacks → Maintain perspective 14. They know when to push back → Challenge thoughtfully → Protect team resources → Stand firm on principles The real test? These aren't occasional behaviors. They're consistent patterns. Look at your team. Who embodies these traits daily? ___________________________ ♻️ Share to help others spot top talent + Follow Jennelle McGrath for more leadership insights

Look beyond someone’s resume. Stop getting caught up in years of experience, fancy degrees, and big company names. The most valuable people I've worked with had something far more important: 💡 They knew how to get things done. Experience matters, but the right mindset is transformative. I've coached over 300 professionals.  Here's what actually separates the top 1% from everyone else: ↳ Initiative is rare and valuable. The people who dive in without being asked are worth their weight in gold. ↳ Adaptability beats expertise when conditions change (and they always do). Those who can pivot quickly keep projects moving forward. ↳ Critical thinking can't be taught from a textbook. People who question assumptions and offer solutions rather than just problems are essential. ↳ Team-first attitudes create environments where everyone wins. Those who elevate others around them multiply your organization's capabilities. ↳ Ownership of mistakes shows maturity and integrity. The fastest learners are those who can admit when they're wrong. ↳ Positive energy is contagious. One person with the right attitude can transform an entire team's culture. When you find people with these qualities, your team doesn't just perform better - it inspires everyone to level up. What qualities would you add to this list? What are the traits that stand out most in your best teammates? —— Share ♻️ if this resonates. And follow me for more posts like this.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve had several conversations with talent and learning leaders to better understand their priorities and perspective on the future. A recurring theme has been the work of those leading enterprise-wide transformation. These aren’t small, isolated projects, but bold efforts to fundamentally reshape how their organizations operate. Whether it’s rethinking company culture, driving skills-based initiatives, expanding career mobility, adopting AI, managing large-scale transformation, or implementing new leadership frameworks. These leaders are operating at the intersection of business strategy, people development, and organizational change. A question I often hear is: “What separates the most successful efforts from the rest?” After these conversations and dozens of guests on The Edge of Work, a few powerful patterns have emerged. Here are four that consistently show up: 🔶 Systems Thinking: They don’t approach these initiatives as standalone projects. Instead, they embed them into the full talent system, connecting culture, skills, mobility, leadership, and strategy into one cohesive ecosystem. Silos are broken. Work aligns to enterprise goals. 🔶 Coalition Building: While they’re accountable for outcomes, they don’t go it alone. These leaders act less like the “sage on the stage” and more like the “guide on the side,” bringing others along, building ownership across functions, and fostering collective success. 🔶 Change as a Practice: Change isn’t a task list; it’s a muscle. These leaders treat change management as an ongoing practice, embedding it into daily work, meeting people where they are (not just what the spreadsheet says) and continually reinforcing new behaviors to sustain momentum. 🔶 Business First Orientation: They lead as business strategists first. While deeply skilled in talent, they speak first in the native language of their business stakeholders, (then their own) connect initiatives to enterprise outcomes, and position people strategies as drivers of organizational performance. These are just a few of the themes I’ve observed. If you're leading enterprise-wide talent, skills, career, or AI initiatives, what resonates? What would you add? I’d love to hear your perspective. #talent #futureofwork #leadership

11 traits that set top performers apart, And how you can master them too: 1) Act First ↳Most people: Wait for instructions or permission ↳Top performers: Anticipate needs and move first ↳How: "I went ahead and drafted a version we can review" 2) Work Smart ↳Most people: Stay busy, doing things the long or wrong way ↳Top performers: Focus on doing things the best way, not just the first way ↳How: "Is this the best way to do this? Or can we rethink it?" 3) Own Results ↳Most people: Point fingers when things go wrong ↳Top performers: Take responsibility and focus on solutions ↳How: "That didn't land like I hoped - here's how I'll fix it" 4) Say No ↳Most people: Say yes to everything, fearing conflict ↳Top performers: Protect priorities by saying no when needed ↳How: "I'm at capacity right now - can we revisit this later?" 5) Early Feedback ↳Most people: Avoid feedback until it's too late ↳Top performers: Ask for it early and apply it quickly ↳How: "Anything I can improve on this before I continue?" 6) Lift Others ↳Most people: Focus only on personal wins ↳Top performers: Share knowledge, build trust, and elevate the team ↳How: "Here's a shortcut I learned - thought it might help you too" 7) Limit Responses ↳Most people: Reply instantly and mistake activity for productivity ↳Top performers: Protect focus and respond intentionally ↳How: "I'll review this and get back to you by 3 p.m." 8) Avoid Drama ↳Most people: Get pulled into gossip and emotional noise ↳Top performers: Stay above it, focusing on outcomes ↳How: "I'm not sure I have enough context - I'll stay out of this" 9) Take Risks ↳Most people: Stay safe to avoid judgment or failure ↳Top performers: Push into discomfort and learn quickly ↳How: "I've never done this before, but I'm open to trying" 10) Stay Balanced ↳Most people: Push until depleted, equating effort with results ↳Top performers: Prioritize recovery for long-term performance ↳How: "I'm going to sign off early tonight to stay sharp tomorrow" 11) Reflect Often ↳Most people: Move task to task without learning ↳Top performers: Pause to extract lessons from wins and failures ↳How: "What worked? What would I do differently next time?" Top performers work differently. Not by magic. Not by putting in 100-hour weeks. But by making smarter moves every day. Which of these are you currently working on? --- ♻️ Repost to help someone in your network reach their full potential. And follow me George Stern for more professional growth content.

A sense of accountability, ownership, and high-agency mindset separates high performers from the rest. In every organization, there are two types of people. 1️⃣ Those who wait for permission. 2️⃣ Those who make things happen. This is not about competence. Even highly competent people can fall in the first category. High-agency individuals don’t just see constraints—they challenge them, find solutions, and create opportunities. My own experience and learning has shown several perspectives on this ownership mindset. The most recent insight came from a Workiva workshop on Impact Players, reinforcing the power of this mindset. A few of these are.. 🔹 Proactivity – Taking initiative isn’t just about stepping forward; it’s about owning outcomes. Stephen M. R. Covey emphasized in "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People", proactive individuals believe that "we are responsible for our own lives. Our behavior is a function of our decisions, not our conditions" 🔹 Impact Players – As Liz Wiseman explains in her book "Impact Players", top performers go beyond their job descriptions. They identify the most important work that needs to be done and step up to do it—elevating their teams in the process. 🔹 Architects of Their Own Destiny – High-agency thinkers don’t wait for ideal conditions or external validation. They create momentum through action, shaping their own opportunities rather than waiting for them to appear. Some reads if you want to dig into this 📖 The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen M. R. Covey (on proactivity) 📖 Impact Players by Liz Wiseman (on stepping beyond job roles) 📖 High Agency by Shreyas Doshi https://lnkd.in/gv7UFfRE 📖 Agency: The Highest Level of Personal Competence (Psychology Today) https://lnkd.in/gR-Azm-b Loved this levels of agency from this article image attributed to Dick Close

If you’re serious about building a high-performing team; the kind that actually delivers in volatile, stretched, multi-market environments, you need to stop defaulting to hard skills or soft skills. What you need are power skills. These are the capabilities I see separating the high performers from the high-maintenance. I’m talking about the real difference-makers: → Strategic judgment in messy, fast-moving situations → Stakeholder alignment across functions, markets, and egos → The ability to lead transformation when there’s no template → And enough resilience to stay steady when things get hard (because they will) Most teams fail at the top not because the leaders weren’t experienced…but because they lacked the range to operate in today’s complexity. You can’t “hard skill” your way through cultural misalignment. And you can’t “soft skill” your way into transformation. According to McKinsey, companies led by “adaptive” leadership teams are 4.2x more likely to outperform peers on revenue growth. But, you can’t teach power skills at onboarding. You hire them. One of my clients, a global food brand navigating its third pricing strategy in 18 months, said it best: “We’ve hired plenty of smart people. We now need the ones who can handle chaos with clarity.” They didn’t need another commercial director with 20 years of category experience. They needed someone who could align markets, fix the margin gap, and rally teams behind a new direction, all without waiting for perfect data or full control. That’s a power skill. So if you’re hiring into your top team, here’s what I’ll ask you: Are you hiring for performance in stable conditions… Or for resilience, reinvention, and reality? Because soft skills sound nice on paper. But they won’t carry you through a pricing crisis, a culture reset, or a global expansion sprint. Power skills will. Follow me for more on building high-performing leadership teams in FMCG. #ExecutiveSearch #PowerSkills #HighPerformingTeams #FMCGLeadership #CPG #CEO #CCO #CMO #TalentStrategy

5 Subtle Traits of Top Executives (that drive real results): When I moved from senior leader to Executive, I realized one important thing: The world doesn’t need your genius. It needs your ability to orchestrate the genius around you. Here's what great executives do differently: 𝟭/ 𝗠𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗖𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗗𝗲𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 Waiting for all the perfect info is the perfect way to fail. The best executives know something others miss: ↳ Speed beats perfection & clear beats right. 🔥 Tip: Use a 3 part check when deciding: ↳ Does it fit our goals? ↳ Do we have resources? ↳ Can we do it well? 𝟮/ 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗦𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗦𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺𝘀 Here's the truth about breakthrough results: ↳ They don't always come from star players. ↳ They come from systems that make success repeatable. Individual talent helps you win today. ↳ Systems help you win forever. 🔥 Tip: Look at your reward system. Ask yourself: Does it reward working together more than going solo? 𝟯/ 𝗦𝗲𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗨𝘀𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗴𝘁𝗵𝘀 Most leaders try to fix weaknesses. Top executives amplify strengths. ↳ They build entire systems around what people do best. 🔥 Tip: Map the best skill of your top 5 leaders and assign your biggest projects based on alignment with those strengths. 𝟰/ 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗢𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 Stop looking for opportunities. ↳ Start creating them. The market doesn't give you advantages. ↳ You build them from problems others avoid. 🔥 Tip: Meet monthly with your team to spot trends and turn them into wins. 𝟱/ 𝗠𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲 Your calendar isn't a to-do list. ↳ It's your most powerful prioritization tool. ↳ When you protect your thinking time, you give others permission to do the same. ↳ Suddenly, innovation isn't a goal...it's inevitable. 🔥 Tip: Block 90 minutes for thinking and planning every day. Make this time non-negotiable. Simple shifts. Massive impact. Pick one trait today to hone and join the top tier. ♻️ Repost to help others lead better. 🔔 Follow me (Nadeem Ahmad) for more.