The Enlightened Executive

Cameron Herold, the CEO Whisperer, shares his business executive insight with Enlightened Executive Susan Drumm. He shares the problems he sees many corporations make and how they can be resolved with his techniques.

What are the TWO MAIN ISSUES most companies face? They are a lack of communication between executives and getting the most out of your employees.

Cameron shares with Susan how he helps major corporations resolve these problems.

Here are some of the questions he answers.

• Where do most CEOs get "stuck"?
• How to define the role of COO & CEO
• What advice do you give the COO that he isn't getting from the CEO?
• Most impactful thing you've done for your own development?
• What do you do to grow your leadership?
• Explain the "Activity Inventory" Tool?
• What is your "meaningful mission"?
• What's the biggest challenge facing fast growing leaders?

The Enneagram is a typology system that describes the 9 human personalities as a number of interconnected personality types. The Enneagram is used for executive coaching and it is considered the best tool for leadership development.

Susan Drumm explains:

• What is the Enneagram?
• What makes it the best tool for leadership development?
• The 9 personality types and the leadership characteristics.
• How the Enneagram will help you grow as a leader.
• Why the Enneagram is so useful to improve performance.

As leaders, it can be tough to make corporate decisions that align with big issues because the shift in operations would create a disruption to business as usual. And then, shareholders might jump ship after the potential short-term loss of that disruption — or would they?

Andrew Behar has data that proves the opposite is usually true: Shareholders care deeply about corporate commitment to big issues and won't abandon companies who sacrifice short-term profit to uphold those values. In fact, most major companies are rewarded by shareholders for these types of decisions - and he has the data to prove it.

This week on The Enlightened Executive, we are joined by Andrew Behar. Andrew is the CEO of As You Sow, the nation's leading non-profit practitioner of shareholder advocacy and engagement. In this video, he shares why leaders who commit to addressing big issues enjoy better business outcomes and longevity.

Do you think you can get your team to give you honest feedback? Like no-holds-barred honest?

Many of my clients tell me they struggle to get real feedback from their direct reports and I'm not surprised.

In this Leadership Insight episode of The Enlightened Executive, we discuss four keys you can implement to get honest feedback from your team. Often, team members are afraid to be honest about their concerns, leading to leaders thinking they don't need to change which ultimately leads to problems remaining unresolved. I don't want this to happen to you or your team! Tune in for tips on how to elicit honest, helpful feedback from your direct reports.

Do you need help getting honest feedback from your team? We'd love to help you create an environment where that can happen. Learn more about this topic here: https://meritageleadership.com/honest-feedback-from-your-team/

What would happen if you stepped away from your routine for a full week… to focus on crafting your future?

In today's episode of The Enlightened Executive, we are joined by Matt Brannagan, the Director of Faculty at the Hoffman Institute to discuss hitting the "reset" button on your life and creating change. The Hoffman Institute is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to transformative adult education, spiritual growth, and the personal dimensions of leadership. The Hoffman Institute's flagship offer is a 7-day residential retreat for those who are committed to creating change.

He also shares how the Hoffman Institute addresses patterns like…

• Feeling disconnected from others because you haven't reconciled your past
• Listening to messages from your past as though they were happening in the present

If you're interested in learning more about the Hoffman Institute, you can visit their website: www.hoffmaninstitute.org

Without knowing how the current health crisis will progress, leaders are scrambling to decide whether to reopen offices or to allow employees to continue to work from home. Many have landed somewhere in the middle with a hybrid model, neither 100% remote nor 100% in-person.

According to Robert Glazer, the hybrid model is both the most common choice and the riskiest. The risk lies in the temptation to adopt a hybrid model without outlining clear details. As he puts it, "Hybrid needs to be a strategy, not the absence of a strategy."

In this week's episode of The Enlightened Executive, we are joined by Robert Glazer to discuss the benefits and challenges of adapting a hybrid-work model. As the CEO of Accelerated Partners, Robert has successfully led a hybrid remote team for 14 years. His leadership has earned the company numerous industry and company culture awards, including Glassdoor's Employees' Choice Awards two years in a row.

Quick question for you: Do you think emotional intelligence is important in the workplace?

In this Leadership Insight episode of the Enlightened Executive, we discuss how you can assess your emotional intelligence. To receive the most honest assessment of your emotional intelligence, we would recommend a professional 360 assessment, however, if you're interested in testing the waters first, in this episode we offer 10 questions for a DIY 360 assessment.

Emotional intelligence is important in the workplace because it can't be outsourced to a robot or a factory, it's no longer a "soft skill" -- it's now an essential skill, and the higher your EQ, the more likely you are to get hired and promoted. If you're interested in taking a full assessment or want to work on raising your emotional intelligence, let's get connected.

While teams made up with people with similar personalities and perspectives may enjoy smooth meetings, they may not be the most productive teams. It's not good for your company (or your clients or margins) to be staffed exclusively by people who share the same worldview, the same personality type, or the same approach to business.

In fact, every company would benefit from hiring for cognitive diversity — even if it creates conflict.

Why? Because the conflict that arises from cognitive diversity is good conflict.

In this Leadership Insight episode of The Enlightened Executive, we dive into the topic of why you need cognitive diversity on your team. It's actually conflict that results in better products, happier customers, more effective systems, and fewer missteps. In this episode I discuss the definition of cognitive diversity, what sort of conflict arises from it, and how you can make sure you have a cognitively diverse team.

You might be familiar with the idea that the events of your past (particularly of your childhood) continue to impact you today. But did you know that the same is true for organizations? The events and attitudes that shaped your organization in its infancy are likely still permeating into your company culture, even though you may not be aware of it.

Dr. Amir Kfir offers a three-phase process for resolving conflict in your organization:

1. Understanding the other party with a sense of empathy
2. Understanding what the conflict is really about
3. Being able to visualize a future where both parties are truly benefitting

To learn more about Dr. Amir and his work, a great place to start is with his book, Nonflict: The Art of Everyday Peacemaking. You can support his nonprofit organization, Million Peacemakers, which teaches his conflict-resolution method around the world. https://www.millionpeacemakers.org/nonflict-way

One secret to resiliency as a leader is self-compassion. The more readily you can forgive yourself for mistakes, the faster you can bounce back. Some leaders may believe that forgiving yourself for your mistakes leads to laziness and a lack of ambition. In other words, if you aren't hard on yourself for errors, you won't be motivated to improve.

However, according to Sharon Salzberg, this type of punitive mindset only leads to exhaustion, as you drain your energy berating yourself. Self-compassion, on the other hand, allows you to move on more quickly from mistakes, show empathy for yourself and bounce back better than ever.

Sharon also guides listeners through a live loving-kindness meditation on this episode so you can experience a shift in your own awareness.

If you want to learn more about Sharon's work, visit her website https://www.sharonsalzberg.com/. If you want to learn more about the Insight Meditation Dharma retreat center, visit https://www.dharma.org/retreats/retreat-center/.