How Disinformation Shapes Your World

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Welcome to the Innovative Leadership Newsletter, brought to you by the Innovative Leadership Institute, where we bring you thought leaders and innovative ideas on leadership topics each week. This interview is part of the International Leadership Association Series.  This series features guests from the International Leadership Association 2022 Global Conference held in Washington, D.C., in October 2022.

This week’s article is written by Tara McGowan, founder and Publisher of Courier Newsroom and CEO of Good Information Inc, a civic incubator that invests in immediate solutions to counter disinformation online. It is a companion piece to her interview on Innovating Leadership, Co-Creating Our Future titled Reality Lost – How Disinformation Shapes Your World which aired on March 21, 2023. 

Short clip from the interview:

 Link to the entire interview:

I often say that mis- and disinformation only succeed in a vacuum. When people cannot access good, quality information, they turn to what is available – and in today’s media environment, what is most available are lies and conspiracy theories.

In the world of 50, 40, even 30 years ago, the media ecosystem was highly centralized. Information sprung from one location and was disseminated by trusted sources. Legacy media like national and local newspapers and trusted cable news programs provided an authoritative source for factual information. These outlets served as trusted gatekeepers. They determined what was newsworthy information and what would make it into the collective consciousness of the audience at large.

Today’s reality is much different. The current media and information ecosystem is increasingly decentralized and Americans are more and more getting their news and information from social media. These platforms operate on algorithms that reward emotional and salacious content and exploit personal biases. On top of that, legacy media is shifting. Local newspapers are dying at an alarming rate and national publications put their content behind paywalls and target elite audiences, leaving the average American consumer behind. 

This dangerous perfect storm has allowed for the rise of those information vacuums in which disinformation thrives in the form of online echo chambers. 

People do not live in news deserts – information and news is readily available all over the internet. Rather they are trapped in these echo chambers that feed and are fueled by social media algorithms. Social media is adapting to our changing news consumption behaviors and traditional media outlets are not. Algorithms that are set to feed off of people’s biases create a streamlined flow of bad information into echo chambers, aided by the attention economy—the more you engage, the longer you stay, the more ads that can be sold to the consumer. On top of this, social media users are being served salacious and emotional content because reactivity leads to better performance of posts.

The solution to this is to shatter these echo chambers and fill the vacuums on social media with good, quality, and factual information. In the absence of algorithmic reform and increased regulation of the big social media platforms, we need solutions that play their game to increase the volume and quantity of this good information online.

We can get more people engaged in their local communities and civic responsibilities by giving this information a fighting chance on social media. Let’s make local news and information compete in the algorithm, and use engagement to drive the trusted news that traditional media outlets and trusted journalists are producing in front of the average citizen. 

Good information and quality reporting needs to be packaged in a way that works with algorithms and will engage audiences. Graphics with topline information and skimmable yet informative headlines and informative video clips are easily shareable and effective content pieces. They are also more accessible for the average citizen who may find themselves trapped in an information echo chamber. They are not placed behind a paywall and aren’t boring long-form articles that are written for the pundit and academic classes.

We can adjust how news is distributed so that it’s easily readable in someone’s newsfeed, or as they’re scrolling through Instagram, or checking their emails in the morning. It’s also important to innovate and adapt these strategies to changing trends on social media platforms. For example, with the rise of vertical videos on platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels, reporting should adapt to match demand from social media users and younger audiences.

Not only are legacy media outlets not adapting to this new reality and media ecosystem, our leaders are also slow to adapt. In order to communicate effectively with constituents and get ahead of dis- and misinformation, leaders need to meet constituents where they are getting their information. They too can break through the echo chambers and get good information into the algorithms.

This idea that the best way to break echo chambers and fight disinformation is by getting more good info in circulation online allows for individual agency as well. We all have the power to share more good, factual content which we interact with on our social channels. 

Fighting the information war in the new and evolving media ecosystem is a systemic effort. It’s going to require adaptation and evolution from media, government, and individuals. But a world with more good info is possible.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Tara McGowan is the founder and Publisher of Courier Newsroom and CEO of Good Information Inc, a civic incubator that invests in immediate solutions to counter disinformation online. A former political strategist with an early career in journalism, Tara has seen firsthand how America’s information crisis has contributed to the rising threat of authoritarianism and the deterioration of social trust.

 

RESOURCES:

Ready to measure your leadership skills? Complete your complimentary assessment through the Innovative Leadership Institute. Learn the 7 leadership skills required to succeed during disruption and innovation.

  1. Take the next step with this 30-minute course on Leading During Disruption
  2. Review our Comprehensive Leadership Development programs and find your perfect fit!

To-do list:

Check out the companion interview and past episodes of Innovating Leadership, Co-Creating Our Future via Apple Podcasts, TuneIn, Stitcher, Spotify,  Amazon Music,  Audible, iHeartRADIO, and NPR One. Also, stay up-to-date on new shows airing by following the Innovative Leadership Institute on LinkedIn.

Sink-or-Swim is Not a Strategy for Onboarding New Leaders

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Welcome to the Innovative Leadership Newsletter brought to you by the Innovative Leadership Institute, where we bring you thought leaders and innovative ideas on leadership topics each week.

This week’s article is written by Brenda Hampel and Erika Lamont, founding partners of Connect the Dots Consulting, a boutique management consulting firm with deep expertise in leadership onboarding, coaching, and team effectiveness. It is a companion piece to their interview on Innovating Leadership, Co-Creating Our Future titled Onboard with Care: Welcoming a New Leader which aired on March 18, 2023. 

 

Short clip from the interview:

 Link to the entire interview:

Listen to the companion interview and past episodes of Innovating Leadership, Co-Creating Our Future via Apple Podcasts, TuneIn, Stitcher, Spotify,  Amazon Music,  Audible, iHeartRADIO, and NPR One.

Ainsley was excited and nervous.  She was starting her new role as senior leader of a sales team for a large, prominent medical device supplier. It was her “dream job” with its scope of responsibilities, opportunities for advancement and being a leader in a purpose-led organization. She had completed all her pre-hire requirements and was ready to get started, but hadn’t heard from her new manager, Richard, since she accepted the job. She tried reaching out a few times but got no response; her HR contact assured her that “everything was fine” and she would have time with Richard in her first week to talk about getting her up to speed.

On her first day, Ainsley shows up at the office and is greeted by the front-deck receptionist who leads her into a conference room. Then a series of HR folks come in and out of the room with additional paperwork and some company information. The last person shows her to her office and politely leaves after a brief tour of the department. Richard is not around and who she thinks are some of her team members are looking at her curiously.

What happened?

Some call it new leader onboarding, or executive transition, others may refer to it as leader “integration” or  executive “assimilation”, but what we know from our more than 20 years’ experience, is that the “Sink or Swim” approach to leadership transition is NOT a successful strategy.

The data still report that between 40 and 60% of leaders who are either entering a new organization or are internally promoted will fail. The most shocking thing about this statistic is that it hasn’t changed much in the last ten years! Organizations are not getting better at onboarding new leaders and teams and business results are taking the hit for this lack of attention to an important part of an organization’s talent life cycle.

What we do know is that companies who onboard their leaders with purpose have a 90% likelihood that their teams will meet their 3-year performance goals, and experience 13% less attrition than if the leaders received no onboarding support.

The model we have adopted and leverage begins with Pre-start, the time during which the new leader has accepted the job, but not yet officially started through about the first six months. This timeframe can be longer or shorter depending on the organizational culture – in larger, more mature companies, leaders are “new” longer than in smaller, start-up cultures.

We know from our work that new leaders need:

  1. Knowledge – about the company, its culture, their roles
  2. Relationships – strong trust built with the manager, team members, peers, and other stakeholders
  3. Feedback – actionable data about how they are integrating into the organization

But, so many organizations, like Ainsley’s, don’t have a formal process for onboarding their new leaders creating a huge missed opportunity for the leader, team, and broader organization.

What can organizations do to start to address this gap that causes millions of dollars in turnover, disengagement, and misalignment?

Start with these 5 steps to up your leadership onboarding game:

 

One: Get Real about Objectives

Consider the big picture when forming your onboarding objectives for your leaders. What are the “pain points” that new leaders typically encounter? Turning those into measurable objectives can help turn-around your onboarding experience. For example, structure in Ainsley’s pre-start phase would have eliminated some of her anxiety and stress. It may have also offered the opportunity to build relationships with her boss, her peers or team members.

 

Two: Make a Plan

Even if your organization doesn’t yet have a structured process, you can create a plan for your individual new leaders. If you are the HR partner, you can have a conversation with the boss to determine the things that the new leader should focus on in their first 90 days, and with whom they need to build relationships. Help the new leader understand why she was hired and what the organization’s expectations are for her. With everyone on the same page there is less room for ambiguity, and it increases both accountability to and transparency of what is expected.

 

Three: Prepare the Team

When a leader’s role has been vacant for a while or there is an interim manager, the transition for the team to a new leader can be tough. As soon as it’s appropriate, let the team know who has been selected, what the leader will bring, and allow for questions or concerns to be shared. If someone on the team applied for the role and didn’t get it, then a separate conversation is critical. Facilitating a version of a New Leader Integration exercise is also helpful.

 

Four: Give Actionable Feedback

Often new leaders are not given feedback and are left to guess how they are fitting in. We created a 360- tool that is launched at about the 45–60-day mark to capture this early feedback and help leaders course correct. Many leaders with whom we worked, have said that this feedback “literally saved them”.  The report shares perceptions of key stakeholders to provide a snapshot of that leader’s onboarding.  The conversations that happen after the data is shared has helped hundreds of leaders see gaps and make changes to address them before the organization decides that they “are not a good fit”. It’s important to note that onboarding feedback is different than performance or development feedback.

 

Five: Leverage Professional Coaching

Most new leaders are hesitant to ask for onboarding coaching out of concern they will be viewed as less competent or needy. This mindset is starting to shift, however, and leaders can—and should—advocate for themselves, especially if it has been awhile since they changed roles or if the role is high-risk/high reward for the organization. Other factors to consider are how long the role was open, if any current team members wanted the role, and if significant changes must be implemented. All these conditions can be potential showstoppers for even the most seasoned executives, and cause churn for the leader, her team, and the organization. A coach will bring process and structure to the onboarding experience while supporting both the new leader as well as his boss in managing the transition successfully.

 

Transitioning into a new role doesn’t have to be painful or costly. Organizations that are intentional about leadership onboarding will reap the benefits many times. Leaders will be able to make the impact they were hired to, teams will thrive and grow, and company goals will be realized faster, potentially exceeding expectations.

Ainsley had to experience the “hard side” of leadership onboarding and won’t have the springboard for success that she could have if her new company had provided more thoughtful planning for her entry. Unfortunately, she is in the sink-or-swim lane now.

 

ABOUT THE GUESTS:

Erika Lamont is an executive coach, author, speaker and founding partner of Connect the Dots Consulting. Connect the Dots is a boutique management consulting firm providing deep expertise in leadership onboarding, coaching, and team effectiveness. Erika brings a distinctive blend of operational experience and leadership development skills to her client base. Erika has held leadership roles inside large organizations such as Riverside Methodist Hospital, part of the OhioHealth Corporation, and Bath & Body Works, a division of The Limited, Inc.—experience that has been advantageous to her coaching practice.

Erika is a Master Certified Executive Coach (MCEC) and an active member of the Association of Corporate Executive Coaches. She is also a certified coach for Marshall Goldsmith’s Stakeholder Centered Coaching and blends her own leadership experiences with the proven methods of best-practice coaching. Erika graduated from Miami University with a BA in Political Science, has two adult daughters, and currently lives with her husband in a suburb of Columbus, Ohio.

 

Brenda Hampel – Strategic thinker. Trusted Advisor. Business leader. Nationally recognized leadership author, speaker and senior executive coach. Brenda Hampel brings these accomplishments and skills to provide senior leaders with the tools, insights and customized solutions that empower their leadership capabilities and strengthen their organization.

Prior to co-founding Connect The Dots Consulting over sixteen years ago, Brenda had already earned industry-wide respect as a premier senior level coach. Today, she continues to help corporate leaders, and academic medical center senior level executives develop and apply strategies to navigate the complex challenges leaders face in their real-world environments.

Having co-authored three well-received books — all published by McGraw-Hill — on topics ranging from onboarding to talent assessment, Brenda remains an influential thought leader in the industry. But her most fulfilling work remains helping senior level management improve their organization through highly effective leadership skills gained from customized solutions that are the hallmark of her impressive approach to coaching.

Brenda, a proud graduate of The Ohio State University, is certified as a Marshall Goldsmith’s Stakeholder-Centered Coaching methodology, and is further certified in multiple assessment tools. When not helping corporate and academic leaders strengthen and expand their leadership skills, Brenda relishes time with her family, often in challenging outdoor activities.

 

RESOURCES:

Ready to measure your leadership skills? Complete your complimentary assessment through the Innovative Leadership Institute. Learn the 7 leadership skills required to succeed during disruption and innovation.

  1. Take the next step with this 30-minute course on Leading During Disruption
  2. Review our Comprehensive Leadership Development programs and find your perfect fit!

To-do list:

Check out the companion interview and past episodes of Innovating Leadership, Co-Creating Our Future via Apple Podcasts, TuneIn, Stitcher, Spotify,  Amazon Music,  Audible, iHeartRADIO, and NPR One. Also, stay up-to-date on new shows airing by following the Innovative Leadership Institute on LinkedIn.

Leadership & Feelings

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Welcome to the Innovative Leadership Newsletter, brought to you by the Innovative Leadership Institute, where we bring you thought leaders and innovative ideas on leadership topics each week. This interview is part of the International Leadership Association Series.  This series features guests from the International Leadership Association 2022 Global Conference held in Washington, D.C., in October 2022.

This week’s article is written by Betsy Myers, a renowned expert on emerging leadership trends and women’s leadership and is the author of Take the Lead: Motivate, Inspire, and Bring Out the Best in Yourself and Everyone Around You. It is a companion piece to her interview on Innovating Leadership, Co-Creating Our Future titled You Are Enough, You Are Worthy: Leadership Lessons for Women which aired on March 14, 2023. 

Short clip from the interview:

 Link to the entire interview:

Our guest, Betsy Meyers, shares her insights about two key leadership questions:

 

1. Why is it that some leaders challenge and motivate us to be our best selves, while others drain our spirit?  What are the key ingredients of leadership necessary for getting results with the modern workforce and customer? 

Becoming an effective leader—someone who is able to rally others around a cause, who inspires others to collaborate towards a common goal, who can bring people together to make a powerfully positive difference in the world—starts with leading ourselves. The bedrock of leadership is honest self-reflection and a personal commitment to the lifelong pursuit of unblinking self-knowledge.

Being an effective leader often has less to do with knowing the answers, and far more to do with being willing to ask the important questions— and listening to the input, experiences, and perspectives of those around you. The answers are most often right in our midst, just waiting for a leader to recognize, articulate, and act on them.

And finally, good leadership at its core is about the positive feelings it creates. Imagine a world where people felt valued, appreciated, and understood, both at work and at home. It’s a beautiful thought and a leader can truly make a difference when they connect to their hearts and embrace our shared humanity.

 

2. As we elaborate on the topic of feelings, let’s clarify what that really means. How is leadership about feelings? This statement sounds a bit soft. How can leadership relating to feelings drive results?  

Advanced degrees, years of experience, an important title, or access to power do not guarantee that you will be a successful leader. Leadership is about how you make people feel—about you, about the project or work you’re doing together, and especially about themselves. 

Why? Because people do their best work when they feel good about themselves and what they’re doing. When people feel valued, appreciated, heard, supported, acknowledged, and included, they are motivated to bring their best selves forward. This is how initiatives get launched, profits are made, and the work gets done. It’s not just about being nice, it is about being effective.

Most of us don’t think of feelings as being the key to leadership success. It seems almost counterintuitive. But think for a moment about the times in your life when you have been most productive: were those also the times when you felt most valued, supported, and appreciated?

 

The ILI team wanted to elaborate on Betsy’s comments because they strongly support the idea that how people feel at work drives performance, improves customer experience, and ultimately contributes to profitability.

There are several frameworks ranging from the Gallup Engagement framework to Jim Ritchie-Dunham’s Harmonic Vibrancy framework that prove statistically that people who feel good about themselves while at work and feel good about the people with whom they work, are more engaged in the mission and deliver tangibly better results.

Here are a few examples of research studies that support this:

  1. A study published in the Harvard Business Review found that happy employees are 31% more productive than their unhappy peers. The study also found that happy employees take fewer sick days, have lower turnover rates, and are more likely to provide excellent customer service.
  2. Research conducted by Gallup found a 23% difference in profitability between companies with highly engaged employees and those with low employee engagement.
  3. A study by the University of Warwick found that happy employees were 12% more productive than their unhappy counterparts.
  4. A report by the World Economic Forum found that companies that prioritize employee well-being outperform their peers in terms of financial performance.
  5. According to a study by the University of California, Riverside, happy employees are more creative and innovative, leading to higher levels of innovation and a better ability to adapt to changing circumstances.

How employees feel impacts the bottom line – it is part of a path to profitability! By creating a supportive and positive work environment, companies can increase productivity, reduce turnover, and improve customer service, leading to increased profits and long-term success.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Betsy Myers is on a mission to improve leadership by developing leaders and teams who infuse passion and purpose into their organizations by leading from both the head and the heart. Betsy’s insightful keynotes and workshops have inspired and offered practical guidance to executives and managers around the world who want to level up their leadership, retain top talent, and achieve results in the modern workplace.

Betsy is a renowned expert on emerging leadership trends and women’s leadership and is the author of Take the Lead: Motivate, Inspire, and Bring Out the Best in Yourself and Everyone Around You. She currently serves on the Council on Advancing Women in Business for the Export-Import Bank of the United States and has extensive experience in the corporate world, government settings, and in higher education.

Previously, she was founding director of the Center for Women and Business at Bentley University and executive director of the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard’s Kennedy School. A senior adviser to two U.S. presidents, Betsy served as President Clinton’s Advisor on Women’s Issues and was Chief Operating Officer of President Obama’s 2008 National Presidential Campaign. She also held leadership roles in the U.S. Small Business Administration.

 

RESOURCES:

Ready to measure your leadership skills? Complete your complimentary assessment through the Innovative Leadership Institute. Learn the 7 leadership skills required to succeed during disruption and innovation.

  1. Take the next step with this 30-minute course on Leading During Disruption
  2. Review our Comprehensive Leadership Development programs and find your perfect fit!

To-do list:

Check out the companion interview and past episodes of Innovating Leadership, Co-Creating Our Future via Apple Podcasts, TuneIn, Stitcher, Spotify,  Amazon Music,  Audible, iHeartRADIO, and NPR One. Also, stay up-to-date on new shows airing by following the Innovative Leadership Institute on LinkedIn.

Three Steps to Help Healthcare Leaders Solve Today’s Challenges

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Welcome to the Innovative Leadership Newsletter brought to you by the Innovative Leadership Institute, where we bring you thought leaders and innovative ideas on leadership topics each week.

This week’s article is written by Maureen Metcalf, founder and CEO of the Innovative Leadership Institute. It is a companion piece to her interview with Dr. Anne Klibanski, President and CEO of Mass General Brigham, a Boston-based integrated healthcare system, on Innovating Leadership, Co-Creating Our Future titled Bringing Healing Home – Healthcare Leadership which aired on March 7, 2023. 

 

Short clip from the interview:

 Link to the entire interview:

Listen to the companion interview and past episodes of Innovating Leadership, Co-Creating Our Future via Apple Podcasts, TuneIn, Stitcher, Spotify,  Amazon Music,  Audible, iHeartRADIO, and NPR One.

The healthcare industry is one of the most challenged industries in the world. Particularly in the wake of COVID, healthcare leaders face a multitude of hurdles: medical staff burnout, insufficient patient rooms in hospitals to meet demand, less access to healthcare for many people, rising operating costs, and so much more.

They may feel insurmountable, but Mass General Brigham — a Boston-based integrated healthcare system — uses three core steps to meet those challenges, and create a more effective, efficient, and equitable system of care in the process.

Step 1. Gather leaders together to create a common vision

Forging a common vision pulls a team’s perspective away from their own silos. By understanding the larger mission and goals of the organization, every department has a “north star” to point their actions to the overall healthcare system’s success. That generates consensus, and every employee, from custodial service to the O.R.’s most elite surgical team, can see how their work contributes to this shared vision of the future.

To ensure the success of the vision, include all stakeholders in the process. Bring together different perspectives from across the organization. Communicate the vision across your entire organization. It’s up to leaders to create a culture of accountability and support for the vision, too. This can include setting up clear performance metrics, providing resources and incentives for achieving goals, and recognizing those who contribute to the success of the vision.

Step 2. Begin with the end in mind: think, design and act from the patient back

The core mission for any healthcare leader centers on one goal: the best possible outcome for every patient. Key to that is challenging the narrative of “we’ve always done it this way,” and finding new approaches to solving both new and enduring problems.

The COVID-19 pandemic turned out to be an unexpected accelerator for such change. It forced people to work remotely, think differently, and suspend what they thought was required in order to provide the best patient care. At Mass General Brigham, for example, virtual care visits went from a few thousand to over two million in just one year. Working back from patients’ need to continue seeing doctors despite quarantine, Mass General took existing technology, innovated with it, and implemented today’s more robust virtual visit system.

Step 3. Accelerate the implementation and use of existing technology to deliver care

This flows directly from Step 2’s COVID lesson. Seeing existing systems and technologies in a new light can have tremendous benefit for patients. Focusing on the common goal helps your team envision ways to reshape treatments, procedures, and delivery of care through both research and innovation.

An added bonus: if your healthcare team is already thinking in new and innovative ways, they’ll be more prepared to continue serving patients well in the next crisis.

 

Dr. Anne Klibanski has proven the value of these steps as President and CEO of Mass General Brigham. Through her leadership, and her team’s dedication, they have created an integrated healthcare system that has the patient at the center, and are constantly working to shape a better future for their patients.

 

ABOUT THE GUEST:

Dr. Anne Klibanski is President and CEO of Mass General Brigham, a Boston-based integrated healthcare system that includes internationally known Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital, nationally recognized specialty hospitals, seven community hospitals, a health insurance company, physician networks, community health centers, home-based care, and long-term care services.

Dr. Klibanski’s vision for Mass General Brigham is to build the integrated academic health care system of the future with patients at the center, by transforming care, improving outcomes, and expanding impact locally, nationally, and globally. She has led clinical integration of services across the system, spearheaded the development of new digital platforms to achieve digital care, and overseen the increased investment in leading-edge research since assuming the role in 2019.

 

RESOURCES:

Ready to measure your leadership skills? Complete your complimentary assessment through the Innovative Leadership Institute. Learn the 7 leadership skills required to succeed during disruption and innovation.

  1. Take the next step with this 30-minute course on Leading During Disruption
  2. Review our Comprehensive Leadership Development programs and find your perfect fit!

To-do list:

Check out the companion interview and past episodes of Innovating Leadership, Co-Creating Our Future via Apple Podcasts, TuneIn, Stitcher, Spotify,  Amazon Music,  Audible, iHeartRADIO, and NPR One. Also, stay up-to-date on new shows airing by following the Innovative Leadership Institute on LinkedIn.

The Leadership Life Cycle: Transforming Organizations To Thrive During Difficult Economic Times

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Welcome to the Innovative Leadership Newsletter brought to you by the Innovative Leadership Institute, where we bring you thought leaders and innovative ideas on leadership topics each week.

This week’s article is written by Maureen Metcalf, founder and CEO of the Innovative Leadership Institute. It is a companion piece to her interview with Mark Palmer and Edmund (Eddie) Moore on Innovating Leadership, Co-Creating Our Future titled Is Your Organization Designed for the Future? which aired on February 28, 2023. 

Mark Palmer is a thought leader, author, consultant, and entrepreneur specializing in organization change management, leadership development, strategic performance, and workforce solutions innovation. 

Edmund (Eddie) Moore is a strategist, organizational architect and facilitator of change.  Eddie works with executives and leadership teams to harness their wisdom, envision what’s possible, and develop practical solutions for successful transformation.  

Short clip from the interview:

 Link to the entire interview:

Listen to the companion interview and past episodes of Innovating Leadership, Co-Creating Our Future via Apple Podcasts, TuneIn, Stitcher, Spotify,  Amazon Music,  Audible, iHeartRADIO, and NPR One.

As we navigate the VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity) world, the pace of leadership development must change. We have heard the phrase “lifelong learner” for years, maybe even decades, and it means different things to different people. Therefore, I want to explore how leadership development and company goals align during rapidly changing times.

How we prepare our leaders is a strategic differentiator for organizations. Outdated and ineffective leaders damage the organization, employee engagement and longevity, culture, client satisfaction and, ultimately, economic impact. As we face an economic downturn across most industries and geographies, we also face significant change across most industries. According to the World Economic Forum Global Risks Report 2023, “the world is facing a set of risks that feel both wholly new and eerily familiar. We have seen a return of ‘older’ risks—inflation, cost-of-living crises, trade wars, capital outflows from emerging markets, widespread social unrest, geopolitical confrontation and the spectre of nuclear warfare—which few of this generation’s business leaders and public policy-makers have experienced.” With this volume of change, organizations must continually refine their definition of future-ready leaders and a future-ready organization and invest in those changes.

Successful leaders and organizations must regularly elevate their leadership to accomplish their missions and thrive. They must solve problems and create paths forward to lead in their fields. This means they are elevating themselves and enabling their organizations.

With workforce changes such as significant turnover, retirements and older employees returning, we need to recalibrate how we look at leadership. For example, we see younger employees getting leadership opportunities sooner because of COVID, and they’re often leading more-seasoned employees, some working part-time or with adjusted schedules.

We have discussed the leadership life cycle as the path leaders take over their careers. In this article, we are expanding that definition to include how companies need to look at leadership development in the future, especially in complex times. Previously, progressive organizations built performance management systems that included leaders. Those systems were updated on occasion. However, many prior structures and processes are breaking down, and companies need to rethink them and create adaptable systems that can evolve as needs change.

How do you evolve the leadership life cycle?

The leadership life cycle includes organizations attending to the following elements:

  1. The definition of future-ready leaders. Refine the mindsets, behaviors and training to support leaders in building those mindsets. This means integrating topics such as anti-fragile resilience and teaching leaders to build a more substantial capacity to bounce back from disruption. How are you sensing the environmental changes and updating your leadership models?
  2. The vision of a future-ready organization. How we structure, govern, plan, and run our organizations has changed since the advent of tools like the internet, cloud computing, and remote work. With advances in robotic process automation, artificial intelligence, and other technological advances, we need to evolve how we run our organizations. Leading and running are intertwined. How are you reevaluating your mission and vision in a changing landscape? What is your strategic advantage in 2023 and beyond? What does an organization that is successful at this vision look like?
  3. Organizational structure. Many companies are accomplishing work differently now than in the past. In addition to the work task composition changing, companies need to realign much quicker to meet market changes. As evidence of this, the tech industry let go of nearly 100,000 people so far this year. For most of these companies, the cuts result from reduced revenue and don’t necessarily equal reduced work volume. Companies must be agile in realigning the work, which can mean realigning the organizational structure. Do our traditional reporting ratios still work? How do we account for contract labor, outsourced teams and flexible project teams in our organizational structures?
  4. Measurement. Leverage existing tools and processes to identify emerging leaders. As the criteria change, we need to continue to evolve our tools. The tools must consider operational characteristics, not just experience or personality type. While experience is an important measure, companies can quickly and reliably determine fit-for-role when combined with operational DNA. This means roles are assessed to create profiles. I assert that the missing link measures operational DNA as a critical fit indicator. This is a new approach.
  5. Succession planning. As leadership changes, we need to identify the criteria for future leader success and build a pipeline that reflects future-ready leader criteria. This means we must intensify our training efforts—even when facing recessionary pressures. Companies that invest in training consistently outperform those whose leadership investment ebbs and flows with profitability.
  6. Alignment. Each component needs to be continually aligned to ensure success. Culture is a significant part of this alignment. What culture are we creating? Are we deliberate about the unwritten rules and the messages we send to our people about what we value, who we are and how we operate?

These elements work in harmony to form the leadership life cycle. First, companies must evolve to meet and optimally respond to client expectations. Leaders need to evolve to meet company goals. Finally, these elements must be considered together to optimize results significantly as change accelerates and companies face economic headwinds.

Where do you start?

While doing a full-scale evaluation is generally the most effective approach, for many organizations, this is too much to take on in the short term. Instead, I strongly recommend a comprehensive review of organizational strategy, values, operating principles and alignment for companies with resources and appetites. Determining where realignment is needed in the organization can better enable it to accomplish its mission. You can then map changes over time.

For organizations that need to take immediate action, we recommend mapping key roles and testing both current and emerging leaders. This process can help you identify gaps for current leaders and build your bench of future-ready leaders. This is where we look at fit-for-role using operational DNA. As a note, the criteria for future-ready leaders will continue to evolve as the world evolves, so this is a living process.

 

ABOUT THE GUESTS:

Mark Palmer is a thought leader, author, consultant, and entrepreneur specializing in organization change management, leadership development, strategic performance, and workforce solutions innovation. He is a co-founder and managing partner for Hire Direction, a data-driven organization solutions consultancy and 2022 recipient of Forbes America’s Best Management Consulting Firms. Mark was co-founder and Chief Product Officer for LaborGenome, and lead innovator for talent alignment modeling technologies. He is co-creator of the Position Success Indicator (PSI) and DEV:Q (Development Quotient) organizational performance metrics. Mark is also an advisor and consultant with the Innovative Leadership Institute (ILI), focusing on leadership coaching, team building, and organizational effectiveness. He was a founding member and facilitator for Integral Institute, an international think-tank created to combine progressive organizational research with practical applications in both the public and private sector. Mark has over 25 years of experience working with clients to optimize strategic alignment, team effectiveness, and organization systems.

 

Edmund (Eddie) Moore is a strategist, organizational architect and facilitator of change.  Eddie works with executives and leadership teams to harness their wisdom, envision what’s possible, and develop practical solutions for successful transformation. His point of view for improving organization performance and leading change is holistic and centers on engaging those most impacted and accountable for results.  He uses proven practical approaches for:  assessing culture, visioning, refining strategy and metrics, setting priorities, clarifying leadership behaviors, mapping value added work processes, optimizing organizing structures, aligning management practices, reward mechanisms and developing implementation roadmaps. Eddie works with high energy and commitment for achieving sustainable change, so the organization’s efforts have an impact and make a difference.

 

RESOURCES:

Ready to measure your leadership skills? Complete your complimentary assessment through the Innovative Leadership Institute. Learn the 7 leadership skills required to succeed during disruption and innovation.

  1. Take the next step with this 30-minute course on Leading during Disruption
  2. Review our Comprehensive Leadership Development programs and find your perfect fit!

To-do list:

Check out the companion interview and past episodes of Innovating Leadership, Co-Creating Our Future via Apple Podcasts, TuneIn, Stitcher, Spotify,  Amazon Music,  Audible, iHeartRADIO, and NPR One. Also, stay up-to-date on new shows airing by following the Innovative Leadership Institute on LinkedIn.

3 Mistakes That Interfere with Your Leadership Power

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Welcome to the Innovative Leadership Newsletter brought to you by the Innovative Leadership Institute, where we bring you thought leaders and innovative ideas on leadership topics each week.

This week’s article is written by Sharon Melnick, PhD, the leading expert on guiding leaders to be in their power and author of a best selling new book In Your Power: React Less, Regain Control, Raise Others. It is a companion piece to her interview on Innovating Leadership, Co-Creating Our Future titled In Your Power which aired on February 21, 2023. 

Short clip from the interview:

 Link to the entire interview:

Listen to the companion interview and past episodes of Innovating Leadership, Co-Creating Our Future via Apple Podcasts, TuneIn, Stitcher, Spotify,  Amazon Music,  Audible, iHeartRADIO, and NPR One.

Facing overwhelmed calendars, ‘quiet quitting’ team members, and competing agendas with colleagues, many leaders can feel like their day is a battle to be heard, accomplish important work, and feel valued.

When this is the case, the leader’s experience is like a ‘thermometer’ – their mental and emotional state goes up and down according to circumstances and other people’s actions.  Being the thermometer makes you feel powerless, causing burnout or resignation.

Leaders always have more power than they think they do, and can access this power by shifting from being the thermometer to being the ‘thermostat’. When you are the thermostat, you set the tone, you have a vision and bring people along toward it.

The word power comes from the Latin root posse, which means “to be able”.

Being in your power is the ability to ‘stay good in you’ and then to make it better for everyone around you.

Being in your power transforms your leadership from reactive to transformational.

Here are 3 mistakes that keep a leader from being in their power and using their power as a force for good:

 

1. You leak your power.

As humans, we are biologically wired to focus on what we can’t control so we can track threats and respond to them promptly. When we act from this factory setting, it keeps you as the thermometer.

For example, Keisha was a leader in a finance function which had a lot of holes in its system. Her SVP and business partners would reach out to her from 7am to 11pm. She was overwhelmed and spent her days ‘fighting fires’.  She got to the point where she was ready to leave.

Where was her power? We sorted out the aspects of the situation she could control, her 50%, and distinguished those from the aspects of the situation she couldn’t control, the other 50%. She became impeccable for her 50%, maximizing what she could control.

She started to approach the situation as the thermostat: she gathered the involved parties into a series of meetings, presented her vision of a root cause fix, and systematically got buy-in for her vision from her peers and the CEO.  She stopped reacting to every request because of her need to please and pressure to prove herself.  She elevated the contribution of her team members, freeing her up to lead strategically.

Keisha started maximizing what she could control, and led all parties in the cross-functional problem to a company-wide solution.  The CEO put her on the fast track to be the CTO successor, and she now has dinner each evening with her husband.

 

2. You give away your power.

Many leaders source their self-confidence from the feedback they get from others in their job.  It’s important for every leader to be responsive to feedback on how they can be more effective in their role. However, this is different than the inner feeling of confidence you have about yourself as a person. When a leader tries to derive their inner self-confidence from their job, it drives them to act with behaviors intended to get validation or prevent negative feedback, rather than make their best contribution.

I coached a Chief Human Resources Officer who felt pressure to transform her company’s culture to be more inclusive, and also to make a final call on return to work decisions. She had brought up her point of view to her executive peers a few times and couldn’t get heard. She believed that they were looking to her to have all the answers, and was concerned she would be judged for not being able to make the impact expected of her.

For her upcoming executive team meeting, she planned to put together another PowerPoint about the corporate scorecard to try to get buy-in for her ideas. In our coaching we strategized a different approach. Instead of playing her small game (worrying whether her peers thought she was living up to expectations) she played her big game.

This time she made a safe space for a conversation about why the leadership team was not acting on decisions that reflected their stated values. She took responsibility for her own contribution to this and invited her peers to reflect on how they were leading as well. This courageous act sparked a series of authentic conversations that led to a transformation that became part of the DNA of the organization.

She didn’t give away her power worrying what others thought about her. Instead, she thought about the contribution she was there to make and her legacy. She was the thermostat, setting a new temperature and standard for communication and role modeling on the executive team.

 

3. You overlook the power you already have.

Your power goes beyond the tasks written in your job description. As the leader, you create the weather on the team – you can set the tone, shape the vision, and use your attention and social capital to support people and initiatives. You also have relational power.

Kathy was a leader in an engineering firm and noticed attrition of top talent and especially women engineers who as a group were the highest revenue producers. She raised the good solutions to the 2 owners of the firm who had not acted on them. She felt powerless. She was the thermometer: second-guessing whether her vision was right, resenting the owners, and questioning whether to stay at the firm or leave.

She came to see she had so much more power than she thought. She led an initiative to improve the culture at the partner level and started to stem the tide of resignations.

She had the power of persuasion, aligning her ideas with the vision of the board and the owners so she could unlock their energies in the service of a vision that was in the best interest of the future of the firm.

3 months later they agreed to reduce their ownership by 30% and distribute it amongst the highest revenue producers – and they put Kathy into the CEO position.

She was the thermostat – bringing everyone along toward a culture where more people could thrive, and toward a vision in which the firm’s reputation and valuation would increase, along with the share of ownership for their high performers.

As I share in my book In Your Power, a leader in their power raises everyone around them!

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Sharon Melnick, PhD is the leading expert on guiding leaders to be in their power.  Informed by 10 years of research Harvard Medical School.   battle tested with over 40,000 professionals at  Fortune 500 fast growing companies.   She is the author of a best selling new book In Your Power: React Less, Regain Control, Raise Others.

 

RESOURCES:

Ready to measure your leadership skills? Complete your complimentary assessment through the Innovative Leadership Institute. Learn the 7 leadership skills required to succeed during disruption and innovation.

  1. Take the next step with this 30-minute course on Leading during Disruption
  2. Review our Comprehensive Leadership Development programs and find your perfect fit!

To-do list:

Check out the companion interview and past episodes of Innovating Leadership, Co-Creating Our Future via Apple Podcasts, TuneIn, Stitcher, Spotify,  Amazon Music,  Audible, iHeartRADIO, and NPR One. Also, stay up-to-date on new shows airing by following the Innovative Leadership Institute on LinkedIn.

Name and Master These 5 Pillars of Your Life

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Welcome to the Innovative Leadership Newsletter brought to you by the Innovative Leadership Institute, where we bring you thought leaders and innovative ideas on leadership topics each week.

This week’s article is written by Carolyn Buck Luce, a strategist, executive coach, and author of the recently published EPIC! The Women’s Power Play Book. It is a companion piece to her interview on Innovating Leadership, Co-Creating Our Future titled Epic! The Women’s Power Play Book which aired on February 14, 2023. 

Short clip from the interview:

 Link to the entire interview:

Listen to the companion interview and past episodes of Innovating Leadership, Co-Creating Our Future via Apple Podcasts, TuneIn, Stitcher, Spotify,  Amazon Music,  Audible, iHeartRADIO, and NPR One.

Do you want the next ten years of your life to be epic? 

That’s the question at the heart of the Decade Game, a framework I’ve invented to help women discover a deeper and more powerful version of themselves that’s truer to their life’s purpose. 

At its core, the Decade Game is simple. It’s a continual practice of make-believe. You are both the designer and player of a game with an epic quest. The magic of your design is that it continues to evolve as life unfolds, integrating all parts of your life. 

The secret sauce of the Decade Game is that there are 87,600 hours in a decade. Even if you sleep eight hours a night, it leaves over 50,000 hours of awake time. Malcolm Gladwell’s 2008 bestseller Outliers popularized the “10,000-hours rule,” originally coined by the Swedish psychologist K. Anders Ericsson. This rule posits that it takes about 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert in any field. 

So, let’s do the math. In the Decade Game, you can become a world expert in five distinct yet related domains of mastery in ten years and still sleep eight hours a night. These domains of mastery are the heart of the game and cover the five main areas of your life: Self, Others, Craft, Learning, and Contribution. They are the games within the Game. Below, I’ll explain why each pillar is important and how you can begin your journey toward mastering each. 

1. Self

The heart of the model is YOU, the Self pillar. Your job is to do your psychological, physical, emotional, spiritual, and self-care work to construct your rehabilitation and remembrance of your best self. What is my internal journey of transformation over the next ten years? What do I need to learn and experience to be in the right relationship and integrity with myself and my faith? What is the transformation work of my heart, body, and soul that I am committed to practice and master? How would I feel if I was not afraid?

Remember when you would go into a toy store looking for a great new game? The name of the game gave you an idea of the type of adventure you would be on. Each pillar needs a customized name, a title, for the way you would describe what the transformational shift would look and feel like if you were able to win in that game of your choosing. 

The name you give your Self pillar describes the seismic shift in the quality of your own presence at the end of a decade if you finally let go of the negative core beliefs that no longer serve you.  You are answering the “Who Am I?” question, “For me, I am…”.  And the title should be a delicious, juicy, and inspiring You. One player of the Decade Game, a software designer named Priya, rose to the challenge with the title “I Adore Myself.” What a declaration of sufficiency and power!

2. Others

When you show up as your best self, then you are able to be in “right” relationship with the people you love. This is the second pillar of Others. Ironically, it is hardest to be your best, most evolved self with the people you love the most. That is where our deepest wounds lie. 

For many, this is the hardest pillar of all. This is the place to put into practice your own internal work of self-forgiveness, compassion, unconditional love, healthy boundaries, and emotional intelligence.

This pillar requires you to answer tough questions. What is my transformation work with my family, friends, and colleagues? What is the repair work? What is the forgiveness work? Where am I doing their work instead of letting them do their own work? What are my healthy boundaries? How can I create conditions in the way I relate that invites them to be their best selves?”

Your Others pillar should be named for how you want to show up in a way that invites the ones you love to respond accordingly. You are answering the “Who Am I?” question, “For you, I am…”. The name will reflect the enhanced and transformed quality of your presence for them that is the result of your intentional work.  A Decade Gamer with a large extended family after 3 marriages named her pillar, “I am Oasis”.

3. Craft

While your Craft may relate to your job, it cannot be reduced to it. Instead, your Craft represents how you choose to offer and package your unique skills, talents, techniques, knowledge, and gifts as your signature “work” in the world. It reflects your commitment to be a master craftsman in your field of interest—a master that can inspire others and can be counted on to bring “a thing of beauty” into the world. 

Ask yourself, what is your unique offering that reflects both the genius of what you do and how you do it in a way that brings forth goodness into the world? How are you a master craftsman amidst other colleagues who have similar technical skills or training, e.g., how do you differentiate? What is game-changing about what you want to “do” in the world? The objective of this pillar is to be fully equipped to grow in mastery in your career and/or your community.

Naming this pillar should be fun and illuminate a game-changing capability or capacity that isn’t mainstream today but will be an important agent of transformation. Maybe your Craft is to help build a capability that doesn’t exist today but will be essential to transform the current state of technology, or healthcare, or education, or communities. After all, many of the cool job descriptions today did not exist a decade ago. Name this pillar for the coolest job title you can think of for your decade business card.  One entrepreneur who loved leading leadership teams into the unknown entitled this pillar “I am an Expedition Guide”.

4. Learning

The fourth pillar is the domain of Learning. Although the act of learning is a key component in Self, Others, and Craft, it takes on a different meaning here. This is where you place all the experiences you want to have purely for the love of adventure, curiosity, pleasure, and erudition, like travel, art, hobbies, and reading. 

This is also the domain of unlearning, unknowing, and decolonizing your understanding of the world as you knew it so as to relearn from a deeper place of wisdom. This pillar guides you in an open inquiry. What gets my creative juices flowing? What hobbies have I ignored or experiences have I foregone because I was too busy?” What would I love to learn if only I had the time? This domain expands your horizons by being curious about what the world can teach you.

To name your pillar, start by listing all the “elective courses” of the experiences you would love to have and the people/places you want to learn from in your imagined curriculum and fieldwork. Then name this pillar the title of your imagined PhD program or dissertation that describes your newfound mastery. Examples have included PhD in Compromise Through Gardening and Dr. of Shamanic Wisdom

5. Contribution

Contribution is the last pillar of mastery. In your first four pillars, you are building your own mastery. Here you are scanning for other masters in the form of leaders and/or organizations that are building their mastery in service of a purpose that is complementary to yours. And they need your masterful gifts, talents, and wisdom to be complete. 

Who are the impactful leaders and organizations that are doing great work in…? How can I focus my philanthropic approach over the next decade? Where can I contribute my superpowers to other master change-makers who need them? In this domain, you are contributing your best self to society-at-large.  Where am I willing to be “all in” with my “4W’s – my wealth, wisdom, work and worldly connections”?

This domain of mastery is most easily named by giving it the title of your imagined granting foundation or nonprofit that would reflect and telegraph to “grantees” the areas you are committed to invest in.   Past examples include, a) What Would Greta Do.org, b) Olive Branch.org, and c) CommunityTable.org.

Fit the Pieces Together

These five domains of mastery are distinct yet connected. Mastery in each influences the journey of mastery in the other pillars. They each pave the way to your decade destination. 

To increase your chances of experiencing an epic decade, you need to devote an equivalent amount of effort to name and pursue excellence in each of these domains instead of over-privileging one at the expense of others. For you overachievers, don’t get anxious. You don’t have to be working on each domain at the same time. You have all the time in the world—50,000 hours—to fit the puzzle pieces together in a masterful way.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Carolyn Buck Luce is one of America’s most respected and accomplished voices on Women’s Leadership and their relationship with power. She is the author of the recently published EPIC! The Women’s Power Play Book.  A gifted strategist and executive coach, Carolyn has spent the last five decades of her career building highly effective cultures, businesses, teams, and leaders in both the public and private sectors. From a diplomat in the USSR, to a Wall Street Banker, to healthcare futurist and management consultant, throughout her career, Carolyn has focused on helping courageous leaders make the difference they dream of.

 

RESOURCES:

Ready to measure your leadership skills? Complete your complimentary assessment through the Innovative Leadership Institute. Learn the 7 leadership skills required to succeed during disruption and innovation.

  1. Take the next step with this 30-minute course on Leading during Disruption
  2. Review our Comprehensive Leadership Development programs and find your perfect fit!

To-do list:

Check out the companion interview and past episodes of Innovating Leadership, Co-Creating Our Future via Apple Podcasts, TuneIn, Stitcher, Spotify,  Amazon Music,  Audible, iHeartRADIO, and NPR One. Also, stay up-to-date on new shows airing by following the Innovative Leadership Institute on LinkedIn.

Unlock Your Potential: 6 Strategies for Women Leaders to Overcome Gender Bias

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Welcome to the Innovative Leadership Newsletter, brought to you by the Innovative Leadership Institute, where we bring you thought leaders and innovative ideas on leadership topics each week. This interview is part of the International Leadership Association Series.  This series features guests from the International Leadership Association 2022 Global Conference held in Washington, D.C., in October 2022.

This week’s article is written by Maureen Metcalf, founder and CEO of the Innovative Leadership Institute. It is a companion piece to her interview with Reta Jo Lewis, President and Chair of the Board of Directors of EXIM (Export-Import Bank of the United States), on Innovating Leadership, Co-creating Our Future titled Women on the Rise: A Leadership Journey which aired on February 7, 2023.

Short clip from the interview:

 Link to the entire interview:

Listen to the companion interview and past episodes of Innovating Leadership, Co-Creating Our Future via Apple Podcasts, TuneIn, Stitcher, Spotify,  Amazon Music,  Audible, iHeartRADIO, and NPR One.

The leadership journey is fraught with obstacles and pitfalls. Despite so many gains over the last century, this remains especially true for women. But there are paths to success – and Reta Jo Lewis provides an excellent example.

Studying the role models in her family, as well as the political leaders she championed, Reta Jo forged her own leadership success as the first African American female president and chair of the Export-Import Bank of the United States. She distilled her experience into six critical steps you can follow to help on your own leadership path.

1. Have a strong foundation of education and knowledge.

From skilled trades to C-suite, this step is important for any career. Education is an investment. Start broad to build a strong base, then hone in on your chosen career field. And never stop learning; every single profession is evolving and changing, so keep your mind fresh. Formal education is great, but there’s lots to be learned by reading books, attending conferences, and networking with others. And seek out mentors! They’d love to share the experience and wisdom no textbook can duplicate.

2. Develop a mission and goal-oriented mentality.

This really boils down to working for something bigger than yourself. Reta Jo learned this as a child, growing up in a family of entrepreneurs who taught her the importance of giving back to the community. She took that attitude to her work in the White House, serving the nation, and now, serving the world through the Export Import Bank. That sense of mission, of setting high goals, gives you extra motivation to take on your leadership career’s inevitable challenge.

3. Look for guidance and role models who have been successful before.

This relates to having a mentor. A mentor is a role model you work with directly, but you can also study someone whose leadership style you admire from afar.

Either way, look for people who have achieved success in your particular field—though advice from a great leader usually works in any field. By building relationships with successful people, you can learn from their experiences, and steer clear of avoidable obstacles.

4. Build a strong professional network and collaborate with others.

Networking can be daunting, especially for introverts. But the rewards are well worth the effort: your network of friends, family, and professional peers is a rich pool of advice, wisdom, and support. It’s a great information conduit, too; you’ll often get leads on jobs and other opportunities through your network long before they become public knowledge.

We list collaboration here because it’s an easy and natural way to build a network. Each person you collaborate with gets to know you; working on assignments together builds your professional relationships one project at a time.

5. Remain persistent and focused on your goals.

You’re going to stumble on your path. There’s no path to success that doesn’t include failure. The key is to “fail forward,” to learn from that failure and use the knowledge gained to get closer to your goal. Persistence helps you get back up; focus helps you keep looking ahead.

Reflect on what went wrong and how to improve. Tap into your professional network or mentor for advice. Read about your role model for inspiration: they failed plenty, too! And don’t forget your network of friends and family; they’re at the ready to provide emotional support.

6. Have confidence in your abilities.

Believe in yourself…and believe in the skills and knowledge you have acquired.

There’s a big gender divide on this step. Several studies reveal that men are more willing to take a risk applying for a career-advancing job for which they don’t meet all of the qualifications. Women tend to apply only when they have all (or very nearly all) the qualifying traits.  If you followed the first five steps, you’re sure to have the knowledge needed to grow into any job. Hold on to that confidence so you take advantage of opportunities as they arise!

Even the best of us can lose confidence under heavy criticism, biases, and other obstacles. But networks, relationships, role models, and mentors can all help us see the strengths we lose sight of in those moments.

 

Taken together, these steps helped Reta Jo Lewis climb high in her leadership journey. Where will they take you?

 

ABOUT THE INTERVIEW GUEST:

On February 9, 2022, the U.S. Senate confirmed Reta Jo Lewis as EXIM’s President and Chair of the Board of Directors. Chair Lewis was sworn in by Vice President of the United States Kamala Harris on February 16, 2022. Ms. Lewis is a senior executive with over 25 years of leadership experience in international affairs, legal, public policy, business and regulatory affairs, and subnational diplomacy.

Ms. Lewis was most recently a Senior Fellow and Director of Congressional Affairs at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. At GMF, Ms. Lewis led and oversaw initiatives, programs, and bipartisan exchanges for members of the U.S. Congress and their European counterparts, focusing on leadership development and subnational diplomacy efforts. Prior to her time at GMF, she served as the first-ever Special Representative for Global Intergovernmental Affairs under Secretary Hillary Clinton at the U.S. Department of State during the Obama-Biden Administration. As Special Representative, Lewis was the chief diplomat in charge of the international efforts to build and support strategic relationships between the federal government, state and local leaders, and their foreign counterparts. In 2013, she was awarded the Secretary’s Distinguished Service Award.

Ms. Lewis was the first Black woman to serve as Vice President and Counselor to the President at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. She led the Chamber’s initiatives focused on fostering strategic alliances between small businesses, especially women- and minority-owned businesses, entrepreneurs, and executives. She is a Life Member of the Council on Foreign Relations and former Member of the Board of the Leadership Council for Women in National Security. Ms. Lewis received a J.D. from Emory University School of Law, an M.S.A.J. from American University, and a B.A. from the University of Georgia. She is a native of Statesboro, Georgia.

 

RESOURCES:

Ready to measure your leadership skills? Complete your complimentary assessment through the Innovative Leadership Institute. Learn the 7 leadership skills required to succeed during disruption and innovation.

  1. Take the next step with this 30-minute course on Leading during Disruption
  2. Review our Comprehensive Leadership Development programs and find your perfect fit!

To-do list:

Check out the companion interview and past episodes of Innovating Leadership, Co-Creating Our Future via Apple Podcasts, TuneIn, Stitcher, Spotify,  Amazon Music,  Audible, iHeartRADIO, and NPR One. Also, stay up-to-date on new shows airing by following the Innovative Leadership Institute on LinkedIn.

Leading With Care and Purpose

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Welcome to the Innovative Leadership Newsletter, brought to you by the Innovative Leadership Institute, where we bring you thought leaders and innovative ideas on leadership topics each week. This interview is part of the International Leadership Association Series.  This series features guests from the International Leadership Association 2022 Global Conference held in Washington, D.C., in October 2022.

This week’s article is written by Maureen Metcalf, founder and CEO of the Innovative Leadership Institute. It is a companion piece to her interview with Sudhanshu Palsule and Raj Sisodia on Innovating Leadership, Co-creating Our Future titled Leading With Care and Purpose which aired on January 31, 2023.

Sudhanshu Palsule is an award-winning educator, leadership philosopher, CEO advisor, author, and speaker. He is regarded as one of the leading thinkers in the fields of Transformative Leadership and Leading in Complexity. Raj Sisodia is FEMSA Distinguished University Professor of Conscious Enterprise and Chairman of the Conscious Enterprise Center at Tecnologico de Monterrey in Mexico and Co-Founder and Chairman Emeritus of Conscious Capitalism Inc. 

Short clip from the interview:

 Link to the entire interview:

Listen to the companion interview and past episodes of Innovating Leadership, Co-Creating Our Future via Apple Podcasts, TuneIn, Stitcher, Spotify,  Amazon Music,  Audible, iHeartRADIO, and NPR One.

We are living in a transformative time, where people are increasingly aware of the need to shift away from a profit-driven model to one based on purpose and caring. Sudhanshu Palsule is an expert in Transformative Leadership and Raj Sisodia is a leading voice in growing movement of Conscious Capitalism, which seeks to create a new story for business. But what does this new story look like? We can bridge the gap between the current system and the new paradigm by following these steps to achieve conscious awakening:

 

1. Recognize the four pillars of conscious capitalism: a higher purpose, a stakeholder mindset, conscious leadership, and a caring and trusting culture.

All four pillars are key to creating a more meaningful, purpose-driven business, but higher purpose is at the very core of conscious capitalism. It reflects the values and beliefs of your business and provides a clear and compelling reason for why the business exists. It becomes the north star for you and your team.

A stakeholder mindset looks beyond just shareholders to the well-being of all stakeholders, including employees, customers, suppliers, and the community. You view everyone your business affects – and who, in turn, affect your company.

Conscious leadership is about leading with empathy, care, and awareness. That care extends to yourself; the healthier and more whole you are, the better you can lead!

Finally, a culture of caring and trust creates a safe and productive environment for employees, customers, and other stakeholders. It’s an inevitable byproduct when you’re practicing conscious leadership.

Raj Sisodia’s research shows that, working together, these four pillars help business thrive and create real value for stakeholders.

2. Understanding the human need for purpose.

A sense of purpose is a fundamental need for people across cultures. Indeed, it’s been shown as a vital element in talent acquisition and retention: high-performing employees and leaders require a sense of working for something bigger than themselves to feel fully engaged (and productive) at work.

On the Innovating Leadership podcast, Raj Sisodia and Sudhanshu Palsule discussed the importance of businesses setting a purpose beyond simply making money. Even Adam Smith, the formal founder of capitalism itself, firmly believed businesses have a higher purpose, a social responsibility to their employees and communities.

Raj and Sudhanshu also explored how understanding the need to care is a fundamental part of leadership. It allows a leader to look beyond simply maximizing profits and consider the human cost of doing business.

3. Help our culture grow a higher mindset to bring mainstream leadership out of its archaic Industrial Era practices and into a 21st Century model.

To reach this more relevant mindset, we must awaken to our individual purpose and potential, and recognize our connection and dependence on our coworkers, our communities, and the rest of the world. No person, no company, is fully local: we’ve been tied to a global economy from the very outset of civilization 5,000+ years ago.

Strive to create your new narrative to match the new, post-Industrial, and post-COVID world around you. Along with purpose, focus on creating value rather than simple profit.

It will be a difficult journey: even now, we see the old system fighting it, trying to make everyone stay with the old, outmoded but comfortably familiar mindsets. But the rewards are unparalleled: you’ll help create a more inclusive, conscious, purposeful, and higher-valued business world.

 

No matter what level of business you are in, you can make a difference. Believe in yourself, trust in your vision and values, and always remember that you can achieve great things.

 

ABOUT THE INTERVIEW GUESTS:

Raj Sisodia is FEMSA Distinguished University Professor of Conscious Enterprise and Chairman of the Conscious Enterprise Center at Tecnologico de Monterrey in Mexico. He is also Co-Founder and Chairman Emeritus of Conscious Capitalism Inc. Raj has a Ph. D. in Business from Columbia University. His fifteen books include Conscious Capitalism (2013), Everybody Matters (2015), Firms of Endearment and The Healing Organization. Raj has worked with numerous companies, including AT&T, Verizon, LG, BorgWarner, Kraft Foods, Whole Foods Market, Tata, Siemens, Sprint, Volvo, IBM, Walmart and McDonalds. Raj received an honorary doctorate from Johnson & Wales University and has served on the boards of Mastek and The Container Store.

Sudhanshu Palsule is an award-winning educator, leadership philosopher, CEO advisor, author, and speaker. He is regarded as one of the leading thinkers in the fields of Transformative Leadership and Leading in Complexity. Author of several books, his latest book, “Rehumanizing Leadership” was published in 2020. Sudhanshu is a fellow at Cambridge University’s Institute for Sustainability Leadership. He is also an Educator and Academic Director at Duke CE (part of Duke University, USA). He has written several books including The Social Leader, Managing in Four Worlds, The Ecology of Organizations, Personal Growth, and Science, Technology, and Social Change.

 

RESOURCES:

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Check out the companion interview and past episodes of Innovating Leadership, Co-Creating Our Future via Apple Podcasts, TuneIn, Stitcher, Spotify,  Amazon Music,  Audible, iHeartRADIO, and NPR One. Also, stay up-to-date on new shows airing by following the Innovative Leadership Institute on LinkedIn.

Intentionality: The Secret to Leading Remotely

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This week we continue the Connex Executive Insights Series, produced in collaboration with Connex Partners, an invitation-only executive network that brings industry leaders together from the worlds of HR and Healthcare.

Connex Members are part of a cutting-edge community, finding actionable solutions to their most pressing business challenges via high-value peer exchanges and curated resources including tools, platforms, partners and c-suite networking opportunities.

Executive Insights Series features highly respected and engaging guests who share novel ideas and practices related to the latest leadership topics.

This week’s article is written by Monique Jefferson, Chief People Officer of Community Preservation Corporation (CPC) (a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) within the multi family affordable housing sector).  It is a companion piece to her interview on Innovating Leadership, Co-creating Our Future titled Intentional Leadership in a New Work World that aired on January 24, 2023. 

 

Short clip from the interview:

 Link to the entire interview:

Listen to the companion interview and past episodes of Innovating Leadership, Co-Creating Our Future via Apple Podcasts, TuneIn, Stitcher, Spotify,  Amazon Music,  Audible, iHeartRADIO, and NPR One.

It feels as if the world of business has been abuzz since the early days of the pandemic with talk of hybrid and remote work: what those terms mean; what their optimal strategies and best practices are; how organizations can maintain a single, cohesive corporate culture without being inflexible about the unique needs of each distinct employee group. One question that comes up rather frequently in leadership roundtables is, how must managers change their skillsets to meet the new challenges and realities created by these alternative employment models?

Monique Jefferson, Chief People Officer for The Community Preservation Corporation (CPC), has a very practical answer to that: “This isn’t rocket science. I fundamentally believe that what made a strong manager or leader before the pandemic hasn’t changed, and that good leaders are still operating the same way.”

Jefferson is an HR professional with more than two decades of experience in understanding human capital management, HR business strategy, and leadership – experience she’s now leveraging at CPC to develop and implement their long-term strategic HCM vision with a focus on talent advancement, a growth-centric culture, and meaningful DEI action. These are all critical to CPC and their mission as the largest CDFI solely committed to investing in affordable multifamily housing. They work hard to foster a sense of community and inclusivity within the workplace, which comes about as a direct consequence of not just HR strategy, but how their leaders engage with their teams on a daily basis.

“What has changed,” Jefferson clarified, “is that leaders need to be more intentional in how they lead, manage, and keep the employee front-of-mind. The same core principles apply, but the details of their implementation have changed.”

The Importance of Intentionality

Jefferson followed with an example: Pre-pandemic, a manager may have regularly met with their team members every day. They saw them at watercoolers, at their desk, and it wasn’t hard to strike up a conversation. But now, those conversations need to be scheduled and kept consistent lest they fall out of sight and out of mind. “You’d be surprised how many leaders, to this day, still aren’t having regularly scheduled one-on-ones with their employees,” Jefferson explained before reiterating just how far such a seemingly simple act goes.

Regular, individuals facetime is critical, but Jefferson also stressed the importance of finding better ways to engage groups of employees, such as during team meetings. “Not only should participants be visible, but they should be invited into the conversation and feel welcomed to do so. Which you can enhance through small, meaningful gestures: make sure closed captioning is available so people can see what’s said if the signal gets weak; have individuals new to the team introduce themselves and make a habit of sharing their pronouns; and if you know that your team has several parents on it, don’t schedule the conversation around the time when kids will be getting out of school.”

“Leaders need to be mindful of who is on their team,” she continued, “and intentionally make time and space to connect with them – together and individually – in a way that fits their reality.”

Leading with Empathy

Underpinning Jefferson’s recommendations are the principles of meeting employees where they’re at and leading with empathy, both of which have emerged as clear best practices for any organization. The stress of the last few years has pushed many to their breaking point, and attempting to keep that individual and emotional toll somehow separate and compartmentalized from work is no longer feasible in a world where “home” and “office” have become so entangled.

In fact, as indicated by Forbes Contributor Tracy Brower, we see the need for empathy bear out very clearly in the data: nearly two-thirds of employees have experienced an increase in stress, which not only compromises sleep and personal wellness, but spills over negatively into personal lives and parenting. Their job performance has suffered, collaboration has become increasingly difficult to maintain, and the weight of it all has contributed in so many ways to the labor market’s sharp increase in turnover. But, as found in the Catalyst study cited by Brower, much of that can be remedied by empathetic leadership: 61% of employees under empathetic leaders feel they can innovate; 76% of those experiencing empathy feel more engaged; and nearly 3 times as many employees feel their workplace can be and is inclusive under empathetic leadership versus those teams where empathy was not prioritized.

Despite the more touchy-feely reputation empathy has, it’s able to drive organizational culture, strong managerial relationships, and even business results in a way that other leadership competencies simply cannot. It’s part of who we are as humans, as evidenced by this Evolutionary Biology study into how the introduction of empathy into our decision-making corresponded with a clear increase in cooperation and performance. Or, how research at the University of Virginia indicated that our brains are hardwired to experience the same threats and emotions we perceive our friends and teammates experiencing. By tapping into that innate potential, leaders can more easily, effectively, and compassionately achieve their team objectives.

Empathy Versus Sympathy

However, Jefferson cautions that there is a distinct difference between empathy and sympathy, with the latter leading to disastrous consequences.

“These two things look very similar, but they are not. Here’s an analogy: say an employee is in crisis, down in a ditch. Their manager is above them, and wants to help them out of the hole. Empathy is listening to that employee, understanding their plight, connecting it to your own experience, and using that to find a way out, helping hand outstretched. Sympathy, however, is connecting too strongly and deeply with that employee, and choosing to jump in with them so you can wallow together. It prevents the situation from moving forward, and results in the core problem going unaddressed.”

“An effective, empathetic leader creates space for the employee to get their frustrations out,” she continued, “before using a series of probing and leading questions to help direct, influence, and counsel the employee into the solution phase.” Jefferson stresses that those leading questions are more important than they may sound, as trying to fix the problem for them, or forcing a solution onto them does the employee a disservice. By helping them create the solution instead, employees are empowered, come away feeling more accomplished, and have more time to adjust and sustain the changes they need to make.

The Intentional Leader

“All of that – being mindful of employee realities, creating inclusive spaces, leading with empathy – starts with listening to employees and being open to really hearing them. What other people need is often different than what you’d need in that same situation,” Jefferson clarified, “and it may even be different than what you want to give. By asking employees how they can best be supported, what they value, what success looks like to them, and what they need to feel safe bringing their authentic selves to work, leaders put themselves in a position to lead with intentionality.”

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Monique Jefferson is an expert in human capital management with an instinct for determining the impact of organizational change, particularly on marginalized groups. She is a results-oriented, proven human resources executive with over 20 years of global experience in the financial services, legal, Insurance, media, non-profit and professional services industries. She provides strategic input and guidance to leadership teams to drive growth, ensuring alignment of organizational objectives with human capital considerations while maintaining a strong focus on diversity, equity and inclusion. Monique has led regional and global teams to deliver value-add human capital solutions to c-suite executives. Her primary areas of expertise include talent and performance management, compensation, leadership development, diversity, equity, inclusion & belonging, talent acquisition, executive coaching, cultural change, employee engagement, training, employee and labor relations.

Monique currently serves as Chief People Officer of Community Preservation Corporation (CPC) (a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) within the multi family affordable housing sector) where she develops the human resources strategic plan and builds a culture that will enable CPC to attract, engage, grow and retain a high performing, diverse workforce. Monique previously served as the Chief Human Resources Officer of New York Public Radio, the second largest public media company in the U.S., where she led a culture transformation and implemented the first Race Equity Action plan for the organization. She has also served as the Head of HR for Business Services across the Americas region and head of the global HR business partner function for Hogan Lovells, an AmLaw 25 international law firm. Additionally, Monique was Vice President of Human Resources and senior HR business partner at New York Life Insurance Company. As a Senior HR Business Partner, she led a team that provided HR client support to all corporate functions and was the strategic HR advisor to 5 executive management committee members including the enterprise CFO, General Counsel, Chief Risk officer, Chief Compliance Officer and Chief Actuary.

Prior to joining New York Life Insurance in 2009, Ms. Jefferson spent over seven years with Merrill Lynch in the Global Markets & Investment Banking division. In 2008, Ms. Jefferson was promoted to Director of human resources where she was the senior HR relationship manager for Investment Banking covering the domestic offices, Latin America, Canada and the Financial Institutions group globally.

Before going to Merrill Lynch, Monique worked at Bristol Myers Squibb pharmaceuticals as a sales staffing specialist and manager of leadership development. In 1998, Ms. Jefferson also worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers as a resource manager where she handled the internal mobility and career development of associates and interns within the assurance practice. Ms. Jefferson began her career as a financial auditor in the New York office of Ernst & Young LLP.

Ms. Jefferson is a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR & SHRM-SCP) and was an instructor at the New York Institute of Technology, where she taught the SHRM learning system course for the PHR/SPHR exam. She is also an executive coach and is certified in The Leadership Circle Profile.

Ms. Jefferson graduated from Bentley University with a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and holds a Master of Science in Human Resources Management from the New School University. Ms. Jefferson is a recipient of the Harlem YMCA Black Achievers in Industry recognition, The Network Journal’s 40 under 40 and 25 Influential Black Women in Business awards, Get5 HR Hero award for outstanding volunteerism, EMpower Ethnic Minority top 100 executives, and Crain’s New York HR Notable. She is an active member of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), the Brooklyn chapter of The Links, Incorporated, board member and past President of the CALIBR Global Leadership Network, past board member of the National Association of African Americans in Human Resources (NAAAHR) greater NY chapter and is a member of the New School alumni advisory council. Additionally, Ms. Jefferson has served on the board of trustees for the Lefferts Gardens Charter School, where she was board chair from 2011 – 2013.

 

RESOURCES:

Ready to measure your leadership skills? Complete your complimentary assessment through the Innovative Leadership Institute. Learn the 7 leadership skills required to succeed during disruption and innovation.

  1. Take the next step with this 30-minute course on Leading during Disruption
  2. Review our Comprehensive Leadership Development programs and find your perfect fit!

To-do list:

Check out the companion interview and past episodes of Innovating Leadership, Co-Creating Our Future via Apple Podcasts, TuneIn, Stitcher, Spotify,  Amazon Music,  Audible, iHeartRADIO, and NPR One. Also, stay up-to-date on new shows airing by following the Innovative Leadership Institute on LinkedIn.