When Christopher Pratt’s father passed away suddenly, he was left scrambling to find an opportunity that would help him learn more about the business world while still allowing him time to be with his family and grieve.
Leadership
When it comes to leading a company, there are a lot of moving parts. But leadership isn’t just about being a nice guy. It’s also about making sure your employees have everything they need to do their jobs well and keep your customers happy.
As such, there are many skills that make up good leadership, including creativity, vision, charisma and integrity. These abilities will help you win over team members and encourage them to follow you wherever you go.
If you’re interested in starting your own company or want to learn how to lead more effectively within an existing organization, try enrolling in an online business or management course now!
Business Skills
At an early age, Pratt realized that he was passionate about business, and studied accounting and finance at University. While in college, he worked part-time at a family business owned by his father, a furniture retail store.
Over time, he ascended to financial planning manager of 3 stores in Georgia. After graduation, he helped his father with new business ventures while consulting for small businesses on accounting services.
With over $500M in sales across 45 locations nationwide, Pratts has grown into one of Americas largest home goods dealerships today. He uses his financial background along with innovative problem solving skills to create solutions that benefit all parties involved from customers to staff.
Creative Competence
While it might be easy to make fun of a man who took world domination as his ultimate career goal, it’s important to remember that creativity is extremely important in leadership.
In fact, according to a study from psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, creativity is directly related to satisfaction in every area of life—from work to love. A leader can help foster creative thinking in employees through innovative initiatives or mentorship opportunities.
Technical Know-How
Christopher Pratt combines his expertise in architecture and engineering to become a natural leader. He explains that every project has a lot of moving parts and draws on his experience as an engineer to create organization and efficiency around them.
He does not just oversee projects, but carefully plans for communication across departments so that everyone is working together toward one unified goal. With Pratt at its helm, Leeds is one company that has staying power in a changing industry.
Problem Solving Skills
Having specific industry expertise is helpful, but in order to be an innovative leader in that space, you also need to understand how your efforts impact a business as a whole. In order to be a business innovator, you have to understand what makes businesses tick and what it takes for them to make money.
Having strong problem-solving skills will allow you to clearly see potential issues and come up with solutions—which is key when executing innovation. It's no secret that one of today's most effective methodologies is continual testing and iteration; building off past successes or refining previous mistakes through new experiences are keys towards staying ahead of competitors.
Management Experience
While he was always driven to succeed, Christopher Pratt didn’t begin his management career until he left college in 1996. While earning a Bachelor’s degree in International Business and Politics from Ohio State University, Mr.
Pratt began as an intern for a congressman and later became a junior staffer for another. After graduating, he joined a start-up consulting firm called Total Management Solutions (TMS) with just five employees.
He was put in charge of accounts receivable due to his attention to detail and passion for financial records. Under his leadership, TMS saw significant growth—going from $1 million in revenue to $100 million in seven years—and then went public before being purchased by PeopleFund GmbH five years later for $2 billion.