Leadership Jam Session

In this episode, I sit with Tim McElderry, a Director of Commercial Leadership Training in the biopharmaceutical industry. Tim shares his leadership journey, including the creation of his personal leadership model, and how he intends to apply his expertise in leadership in a bid for public office.

• Tim's leadership journey started with a transition from a successful commercial sales leader career to commercial leadership development
• He created a personal leadership model based on qualities (work ethic, humility, attitude, team first) and behaviors (caring, clear expectations, higher purpose, lead by example, connecting)
• Tim emphasizes the importance of connecting with individuals to understand their intrinsic motivators, a skill he has honed in leadership.
• He sees running for public office as a growth opportunity and a way to apply his leadership skills to benefit his community
• Tim's leadership model serves as the foundation for his campaign platform, focusing on connecting with constituents and addressing local issues with a leadership-oriented approach

In today's fast paced and ever evolving world, the success of any organization hinges on the skills and expertise of its employees. But how can organizations ensure that their workforce is equipped with the right knowledge and abilities to thrive in a highly competitive landscape?

That's where training and coaching come into play. Joining me today are two exceptional guests who bring a wealth of knowledge and experience in the field of learning and development and sales leadership. Mark Jarvis and Brian Reardon both hold Director of Commercial Training and Development roles in their respective organizations, and have guided numerous individuals towards reaching their professional goals while fostering a culture of continuous growth and improvement, accountability, and trust. 

Together, they shed light on the value of training employees and the art of distinguishing when coaching or training is the ideal solution.

• As a leader, it’s your job to coach, teach, guide, and pull through what the training team has developed
• The training team is not responsible for the execution, i.e., what happens in front of customers. That’s the responsibility of the front-line leader – it’s a coaching issue 
• Through coaching, the identification of behaviors, gaps in skills or capabilities are surfaced. Then the training team can be called in for help with skills and capabilities training to enact change in behaviors
• Alignment between and across relevant stakeholders is paramount and be sure to identify and align on behaviors that are needing change
• Training solutions should not be “one and done”. They should be a journey that takes place over time with pre, event, and post-event activities for learning sustainment
• If you want better training solutions, involve the leaders early on and include a coaching element. Front-line leader pull through is the key to any successful training journey

This is part two of a two-part recording where I sit with several coaches that participated in a recent Emerging Leaders program that I create and facilitate. These are seasoned leaders, hand selected by the organization to help coach assigned participants throughout the entire duration of the program. You'll hear perspectives around the importance of people development, different approaches, timing, etc.

If you haven't listened to the previous episode, episode 84, I would encourage you to listen to that one first as this episode dovetails on that conversation where I sit with participants, a.k.a., emerging leaders who went through the program and shared their leadership development journey. Below are key takeaways from the coach’s perspective.

• There’s a misconception that leadership is about having direct reports; it’s really about your ability to influence and coach
• Leadership skills are developed and cultivated. No one is born a natural leader
• Coaches and mentors are also on a continuous learning journey
• There’s tremendous value in have a cross-section of employees in a leadership development program. The varied perspectives from people in different roles is priceless
• If you’re going to build a leadership development program, make it an imperative to have seasoned leaders be part of the program to help shape and mold the next set of future leaders

For many of my clients, I create and facilitate what's called an Emerging Leaders program. It's designed to prepare emerging leaders for their first management positions. Participants learn and apply foundational leadership skills throughout a multi-phased experiential journey.

At the core of the program is the use of internal managers to serve as coaches and mentors. These are seasoned leaders, hand selected by the organization to help coach their assigned participant throughout the entire duration of the program.

As a two-part recording, joining me today are Scott Dumler, Josh Key, Brian Fagan, and Elizabeth Martin, who went through my program as participants and are now leading people. You'll get to hear leadership development from a learner's perspective, and what a participant is going through during their leadership development journey, their ‘aha’ moments, etc.

In the next episode, you'll hear from the coaches who helped shepherd the participants to gain their perspective on mentoring these emerging leaders during the program.

• Adapt to different styles when communicating. The same conversation with two different people has a dramatic impact if you’re not meeting their style and what they’re looking to get from the conversation
• Utilize your peer set and other leaders to gather insight and advice. No one person as all the answers
• It’s ok to say, “I don’t know”. You can always figure out how to get the best answers for your people
• Consider developing people by giving them exposure to other teams, functions; people who are not in the same role. This makes the practice of leadership the common denominator
• Self-awareness is key

In this episode, I sit with Rob DiTota, vice president of US commercial for a large medical device organization and has over 25 years of healthcare experience with 15 years of leadership experience. Rob has a unique background where you will hear him talk about his leadership experience as an officer in the fire services, as well as his leadership experience in the corporate world. I think you'll find tremendous value in hearing him talk about his thoughts on team culture and his approach to how he turned around challenged cultures into great ones.

• Culture is your values and behaviors. It drives the vision and mission of the organization
• To diagnose cultural issues, first ensure that everyone is on the same page with your definition of culture
• Transparency and trust is critically important in building teams, building a culture, and driving performance
• When working through tasks of turning around culture, decentralize the command. This means give your team the autonomy to make decisions on their own; to lead
• Keep things simple. The more complexity you add to your strategy and leadership style the higher the likelihood things don't get done
• Don't be afraid to own your mistakes. You don't become a strong leader without challenges, obstacles, and failures
• Act as one team! 

In this episode, I sit with Michael Lyons, who serves as president and general manager of oncology at Myriad Genetics, where he brings over 20 years of experience in the biotech, MedTech, and pharmaceutical space. Michael was recognized by PharmaVoice Magazine as one of the top 100 most inspiring global leaders, and Pharmaceutical Executive Magazine also named him as one of the top emerging leaders in the world.

• To have leadership, you need to have followership. And that doesn't mean that people report to you in an organization. It means that they'll follow you from organization to organization
• Whether there's a reporting structure, dotted line, straight line, up, down, left, right, leadership is about taking the time to listen to your colleagues, making certain that they're okay, being empathetic, understanding their challenges, etc. 
• Our job as leaders is to clear hurdles and have everyone operating at their very best
• Have strong work ethic, treat people fair, remain humble, and focus on what's most important 
• Vision and culture can never be just words on a page. It can never be the aspect where you forget about it, or you just say it at your quarterly business reviews. You need to hire against it. You need to onboard against it. You need to do merit evaluations against it. Because if that piece becomes compromised, then everything will fail

In this episode, I sit with Sandy Black who’s Vice President of North America Commercial Operations at LivaNova, a global medical technology company. Sandy's responsible for several departments within the commercial side of the organization including commercial data and analytics, sales incentives, commercial excellence and training, customer service contracts and pricing, as well as case management and clinical nurse education. Sandy shares her journey how solving problems in R&D led her to leading commercial teams.

• Seek to understand, ask questions, and don’t make assumptions
• You can't make assumptions about teams just sitting in your office. You must get out there and connect with people
• Using questions during heated conversations can help deescalate situations
• It's OK to allow teams to fail especially when the decisions aren't business critical.  It can be a great learning experience for all
• When leading large projects, it's critical to have advocates and buy-in at all levels to not only support your mission, but to help with pull-through at the ground level

In this episode, I sit with Edgar Butler Jr. Edgar is a seasoned leader with a background in the insurance industry. Edgar is also a leadership and employee development coach and author of Clarify, Construct, and Control Your Career. We discuss Edgar’s early days that shaped and molded his leadership style with great tips and a framework for leading your people.

• Manage process. Lead people
• Help your teams by putting them in the best position to create success for themselves while achieving company goals
• Your team, individually, wants to know you care about them
• The words you use with your team, and about your team, really do matter so choose wisely
• We’re pouring (ourselves) into individuals because we want to understand who they are as people
• We’re pulling the ‘greater’ out of people especially when they may not be hitting the mark
• We’re pushing because we see the potential in them to go on and become successful

• Book: Clarify, Construct, and Control Your Career: Practical Principles To Help You Develop And Advance Your Career
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/edgar-butler
• http://edgarbutlerjr.com/

In this episode, I sit with Dr. Calvin Lawrence. Dr. Calvin is a motivational speaker and a leadership consultant. He has over 40 years of experience teaching and leading in the educational system at the high school and collegiate level. He also has a doctorate in educational leadership and administration. We discuss the successes and mistakes learned and earned in mentor and mentee relationships. 

• “Going across the room” – as a mentor, you shouldn’t wait for people to come to you seeking mentorship. Proactively meet others and you’ll see who could use mentoring or should be mentored based on potential 
• Be intentional with your leadership and mentoring role. Same goes for being a mentee 
• Having an ‘open door policy’ is not enough. The door can stay open, but what good is it if no one walks in? 
• As a mentee, do not assume that leaders are too busy to mentor. If you’re in a mentorship, leadership has accepted the role of mentoring and they are ready to support you 
• Mentorship is a two-way street. As a mentor, you may feel you are the only one ‘giving’ in the relationship, but remember, you are also learning from your mentee 

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/calvinlawrence-edd 
• calvinlawrencespeaks.net  

In this episode, I sit with co-authors Sean Georges and Dr. John Buford to talk about their recently published book titled, On mission: Your Journey to Authentic Leadership. The book serves as a resource for personal leadership development, crafted by Sean and John, two former marine officers with a combined 80 years of leadership experience in military, business, nonprofit, and education.  

• Authentic leadership is both authenticity in the human being who is influencing another person in the direction of a shared mission and authenticity in who they are and how they engage 
• Leadership does not work the way an org chart looks. It is relationship driven, mission focused, and can work in any direction within a hierarchy 
• If you want to gain commitment, influence others, and change ways of thinking, your people must know you care for them. We call that leading with love 

• On Mission: Your Journey to Authentic Leadership