I’m a perpetual student of business, leadership and my peer network. The ONE gift I’ve been thankful for since the beginning of (my) time – a passion for learning. Pursuing unique & challenging experiences with steep learning curves is the hallmark of my career. Each role & venture in my career began on a road less travelled – the one with hard lessons and the longest distance between success & failure. They stretched me in ways that broadened my skill sets, knowledge and network. And this is what I instill in the businesses & teams that I lead – those who learn together, grow together. It’s also why I’m part of a CEO peer group and have a performance excellence coach – to surround myself with multi-generational talent that synthesizes the skills sets, diverse thinking and experience required for sustainable success.
Follow through on commitments and build trust through strong execution at all levels of the organization. Manage customer, employee, & board expectations to ensure promises = delivery. Encourages autonomy + accountability.
An amazing thing happens when you simply hire & partner with the best & most talented people you meet – diversity. We don’t “add diversity” to our workforce; it’s a natural byproduct of sound recruiting & management practices.
Led distributed organizations for over 10 years resulting in low turnover, high productivity, and workforce satisfaction. However, exceptional communication, strategic face-to-face (F2F) & workforce enablement tools are critical success factors.
Focused
Aligned
Streamlined
Tech-Enabled
….and fast!
Understanding the customer’s growth objectives, competitive differentiation and business challenges are key factors in identifying greenfield opportunities.
To quote a leader of leaders, John Wilson (Founder of CEO Global Network) – “when the learning stops, the looking starts.”
A-players are life learners.
Be the change you want to see in the world (and organization)
Every rejection is a learning opportunity to make it better
You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.
Act like the person you already believe yourself to be
Selling is the transfer of trust
The most overlooked & under-appreciated growth strategy is patience
You are the CEO of your life - hire, fire and demote the people around you.
Throw me to the wolves and I will return leading the pack
When you skip the pain, you skip the lessons
Head & heart need to be aligned & can be the greatest distance in the world
Anything new is accomplished by unqualified people
Ride the horse in the direction it is going!
The best way to predict the future is to create it
My personal interests & goals are essentially driven by achieving a sense of balance & center in my life. Kind of like a wine pairing – what goes well with my career? It reminds me of a story of a boy & his father that I read in The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari:
The little boy pesters his father to play but he’s too busy reading the newspaper. So the father rips up a page of the newspaper and throws the pieces on the floor & tells his son to put them back together. It was a picture of the world. The little boy puts it back together very quickly to the father’s surprise. So he asks his son how he did it so quickly. The son replied, “on the other side of the paper was a person. Once I completed the person, then the whole world came together!!”
This is a short list of business books that I often like to recommend, among others, to fellow colleagues, CEO’s and team members…
“I think books are like people, in the sense that they’ll turn up in your life when you most need them.” – Emma Thompson