Loading summary
Transcript1 lines
- [00:11]
A
Welcome to Leading Organizations that Matter, a show about leadership and how we find impact, meaning, and joy in our work and lives. I'm Ray Spadoni and today's topic is they Wanted to Know about the How. I've had similar experiences in the past, but more recently, something happened that really got me to thinking. I was invited to guest lecture at a graduate business school on the topic of organizational turnarounds, something I often speak and write, coach and consult about. So I was pretty happy to oblige and share what I've learned through the years. I've done that many times, and so this particular time really didn't pose anything out of the ordinary. So I went into it and found that the students were engaged, seemed to be taking a lot of notes. They asked good questions and the discussion was pretty lively. The professor who invited me seemed pleased. So, you know, everything went according to plan. Great, well done. But I'd like to tell you about what happened after class. I left the room after saying goodbye and then found myself swarmed by the students. Probably over half the entire class was standing there by the elevators as I was leaving. They asked me questions, bombarded me with questions might be more accurate, and I was fascinated by the nature of their questions. None, and I mean none, had anything to do with the content of my presentation. 100% of them had to do with the details of my career. They had little interest in the what. They wanted to know about the how. Here's a sampling of the questions that I received, which I tried to answer the best I could. How did you get your first job? When did you know you wanted to become a CEO? What did you do in order to become considered for a CEO job? What are your career regrets? What's it like reporting to a board? What was your work life balance like when you were a CEO? What's it like being a consultant versus an executive? How important is networking? What's the best way to get better at networking? Are you glad you chose this career? What other careers did you consider? What's it like trying to pivot mid career? How, how, how? I mean, these are some meaty questions and standing in front of a chiming elevator as it arrived was a tough place to try to thoughtfully answer them. On a similar note, I coach a variety of people who are at different stages in their careers. Some run big companies, and so the topics we discuss reflect that fact. Many, however, are earlier on, sometimes much earlier on, and it's not uncommon that we get into the hows as well. Now I will say I'm always sensitive to two facts. First, my path was my path. It might not be the right one for you. So I try not to preach about what works, what doesn't, etc. Instead, I just try to offer the lessons I've learned from my mistakes, from the lucky breaks I got from the risks I took, and the things that I've done that actually paid off. Secondly, times have changed in a lot of ways. For example, when I was coming up, AI was only something we read about in books or saw in movies as something that was trying to defeat humanity. Wait, come to think of it, never mind. Subject for another day. Anyways, people who are coming up the ranks in industry now face challenges I never had to. By the same token, though, there actually are a number of opportunities now that didn't exist back in the proverbial day. Times are different, things are different, and I'm very aware of that fact. As I said, these are some meeting questions, and the more I think about them, the more I believe I should focus on them for this podcast. So I'm going to take a little bit of time to pause and then to move a bit more in this direction. The tagline here is a show about leadership and how we find impact, meaning, and joy in our work and lives. That's still what I'm going to cover here, though I might possibly tweak that a little bit to reflect this minor shift, so please stay tuned. Also, everybody tells me two different, and I think competing things about my podcast. The first is that they like that it's audio only, so they can listen while they're doing something else, most typically driving. Second, that I should be doing a video version. Well, I don't really have the time or the inclination to do both, though I know that there are lots of tools that make that easier these days, and certainly there are plenty of people out there who have offered to lighten my production load at a cost. But my primary professional focus is coaching, mentoring, and consulting, and I'm pretty dedicated to my clients, so the time spent on this podcast is time spent away from them. I'm highly committed to this show. I think this is episode 114. But efficiency is king and so I've been thinking about this as an audio versus Video thing. I'm going to try to answer that question soon, and I would love to your feedback too. Thanks for listening. Leaving a positive review and letting others know about this podcast will help a great deal. My mission is to help empower organizations that matter by supporting those who lead them I offer coaching, mentoring and consulting services. You can learn more about me and my work@racebodone.com. Sa.