Here's how you can learn key leadership lessons from successful Private Equity professionals.

Embrace curiosity. In the realm of PE, there are always new trends and innovations to stay on top of Adopt a growth mindset and continue learning Learning can be formal via continuing education or informal via networks of like minded peers

Private Equity Companies move very quickly, especially in their early stages. As a leader in an PE-backed company, you'll be called on to make decisions quickly and decisively and for that reason, you'll need to have many different arrows in your intellectual quiver. A technologist will have to have a keen sense of finance, accounting, operations and other domains in order to the right decisions for their company. Constant learning, both in one's domain as well as outside of it will be required to keep up the pace of development, and align with the expectations of the PE company backing you. Whether it's in a classroom, or in a meeting room, continuous learning is the only way to maintain the pace at which you'll be expected to run.

Risk assessment is critical in any decision, but especially so in the PE world as the entire investment thesis is essentially one big risk assessment. It's a study of what is financially possible and the risks along the way. Therefore it is imperative that risk be evaluated for all large decisions (and when it becomes second nature, for ALL decisions). Assessing Risk from as many angles as you can imagine will give you the perspective of not only what may tank your results, but also what the art of the possible. Avoiding large risks and sidestepping smaller ones may give you the path forward to new opportunities for success that you hadn't considered before.

The PE world is surprisingly small and relationship building is the cornerstone for success in this world. Relationships are forged in the heat of battle and the PE world certainly could be described as a battle in many ways. Carve Outs, Acquisitions, Mergers and Separations are all difficult "out of band" business activities that require teams to work harder than "business as usual" activities. Friendships, trust and cooperation are critical to success across all of these PE activities and in working in tightly knit teams, relationships should be fostered and grow.

Results driven organizations will always be successful in the PE space because it is largely driven by metrics that all relate to the bottom line financials. PE companies rarely spend a dollar on something unless they think it will give them a dollar plus something in return. And being able to demonstrate that you can add to the value of the company will drive personal success in a PE Portco. The only caveat I'd offer is that the overhead of metrics and reporting is not insignificant, so one needs to be mindful of the work it takes to generate the metrics that demonstrate success. If the reporting of a metrics takes more than 10% of the time it takes to GENERATE the result of the metric, it may not be worth the effort.

Change is constant in the PE space as it is the premise for the industry. If change doesn't happen, then the investment hypothesis doesn't work; the investment hypothesis is literally the plan to "change the company" to be more profitable. So one needs to be very comfortable with change. One needs to be almost stoic when it comes to changed, unattached to the present and embrace the possible futures of whatever organization you find yourself in. You also need to make you team comfortable with change and the possibility that as the organization evolves under the guidance of the PE firm, that they will be called on to change with it.

Decisive leadership should always be INFORMED leadership. Looking at multiple aspects of a problem and potential solutions is part and parcel for most leaders, but one shouldn't confuse "decisive" with "quick". Decisive leadership also takes into account downstream and future impacts to the business and its people. As leaders, the decisions that we make have large impacts. "You don't make big money, to make small decisions", is the old saying so thoughtful contemplation and looking at a problem from multiple angles is always expected.