(Welcome to the newest section at The Point of Impact, “Executive Experience.” From time to time, I’m blessed with opportunities to sit down with big wigs. This is what they tell me.)

While I may not be interested in becoming a corporate America CEO anymore, I believe there is still plenty to be learned from those who are running the show at companies.  Last night, I had the chance to attend a session with Dan Squiller, CEO of PowerGenix, a company in California that produces green rechargeable batteries.

It’s intriguing to hear about how people have navigated through life to get to where they are today.  Dan graduated with degrees in electrical engineering and organizational communication from OU, and now he’s a CEO.  He’s worked and lived all over the world, but it was no walk through the park. He struggled to find balance in his work and home life, but his realization that money doesn’t bring happiness allowed him to correct his course.

The following are my top takeaways from Dan’s session. This is mostly paraphrasing with my input dashed in, so if you don’t like what he said, I’ll take the blame.

  1. Accept responsibility. The easiest way to lose the trust of your coworkers is to refuse to take the blame when you’ve made a mistake. Accept responsibility when you make a poor decision, admit you were wrong, and learn from your mistakes. Your credibility and level of respect are guaranteed to increase.
  2. Take risks. Don’t be afraid to leap without seeing where you’re going to land. Risks will take you further than you thought you were able to go.
  3. Eliminate excessive behaviors. Just about anything in excess is a bad thing. Rid your life of those behaviors if you want to stay focused.
  4. Emotion obscures feedback. Don’t let your pride, sensitivity, or lack of confidence inhibit your ability to hear criticism. Don’t be on the defensive when others are offering advice you need to hear.
  5. If a company depends on heroes, it doesn’t depend on processes. Companies that leave things up to chance and heroic acts to get things done are either in trouble or headed for it.
  6. Success is a terrible thing. Dan’s success early in his career went straight to his head. His ego ballooned, his arrogance affected his work, and those things cost him his job. Success breeds pride, and that’s not something you want to deal with.
  7. There are no shortcuts to respect. When you’re trying to gain respect with your coworkers, there’s no way to MapQuest the shortest distance from no respect to high respect. You’ve got to earn it by working hard, doing your job, and proving your abilities.
  8. Don’t put an upper limit on yourself. In an interview for a VP of Sales role, the interviewer asked Dan, “What’s the biggest role you could play in a company?” Dan said, “Maybe being the general manager of a 100 million dollar company.” His lack of confidence almost cost him the job, so never sell yourself short.
  9. Pain and failure are the greatest catalysts for growth. When you get knocked down, it’s what you do once you get back up that decides where you’re going.  When you can reflect on the mistakes you’ve made and failure you’ve seen and learn from them, the mistakes and failures were just what you needed.
  10. Don’t accept either/or situations. Leaders are expected to find a way out of those scenarios. Saying you’re stuck between a rock and a hard place is a cop out.
  11. Temperament and motivations determine where you’ll end up. If you have the right attitude and the right motivations, your path might not wind exactly how you anticipated, but there’s a great chance you’ll arrive where you originally set off to go.