Dream Big: Interview with Steve White, President, Special Counsel to the CEO of Comcast
I recently went one on one with Steve White. Steve is President, Special Counsel to the CEO of Comcast and the author of the new book Uncompromising: How an Unwavering Commitment to Your Why Leads to an Impactful Life and a Lasting Legacy.
Adam: Thanks again for taking the time to share your advice. What do you hope readers will take away from your new book?
Steve: Many things! Mainly, my hope is that readers are inspired by my story. I am living proof that the American Dream is real. When I was 10 years old, my brothers and I began going to work with my mother on weekends, and we did our best to help when we could. While my mother’s dream had nothing to do with cleaning motel rooms, it was honorable work and represented the hope she had for our future: giving all of us a better life. When my mother married my father, she never imagined that she’d end up raising four boys alone. Helping my mother make the best of her difficult situation was a formative experience that wired me to weather the ups and downs of living a full life. I talk openly about successes and failures on my journey from the projects to president so readers can apply the tools that worked for me. Publishing my story is about paying it forward and providing people with a playbook on how to live a life of success and impact—most importantly, leaving a legacy.
Adam: What do you believe are the defining qualities of an effective leader?
Steve: Effective leadership is not about a flash of brilliance or a brief experience. The defining quality of a formidable leader is the ability to sustain results—individually and through a team—whether you’re running a nonprofit or a for-profit. Generating sustainable results is dependent on four more qualities:
Visionary: Your ability to develop a direction, communicate effectively with your team, and establish alignment so everyone has clarity is key. When I think of visionaries, Steve Jobs comes to mind. He not only could develop a direction for the company, but he also could articulate it in a way that inspired his team and got everyone behind what he saw on the horizon.
People-oriented: A leader has to love working with people. This passion helps them become a talent expert in their own right. Selecting people who share a “good chip” on their shoulder and have something positive to prove makes it easier to establish alignment once someone’s on board. Making the right call on recruiting talent also facilitates a leader’s ability to develop and mold a group of people around a shared purpose.
Emotionally competent: Great leaders have an excellent emotional quotient or EQ. They are self-aware, which means they can adapt to evolving situations or challenges. In today’s workplace, high-EQ leaders show their heart when an employee is hurting, give tough love when necessary, and know when the team is straining under pressure and needs an afternoon off. Self-aware leaders also dig deeper to understand what employees are trying to tell them when the surface signals aren’t always clear.
Authentic: A smart leader never forgets that at the end of the day, we’re all human. We share a common bond, and that translates to talking with one another in a way that conveys dignity and respect for others. If every conversation at work could be characterized as dignified and respectful, working relationships would be incredibly productive…and enjoyable!
Adam: How can leaders and aspiring leaders take their leadership skills to the next level?
Steve: The day you stop investing in yourself is the day you shouldn’t lead anymore. If leaders aspire to motivate others and move up the ladder, they have to adopt an investment mindset. Change the way you think about yourself in the org chart. You’re the CEO of You Inc. This mindset means that I’m constantly looking for ways to challenge myself and get better at what I do. Everyone has shortcomings. Perhaps I’m considered old school now that I’m in the latter half of my career; how do I find ways to be more relevant? Am I reading, connecting with others, gathering data? If the answer is yes, I’m making a good investment in myself, which makes me more desirable to companies who want to hire me for my services. Your brain is a powerful muscle. Never underuse or neglect your potential.
Adam: What are your three most applicable tips for entrepreneurs, executives, and civic leaders?
Steve:
Life is short; be selective about who you spend your time with and how. The handful of people who most commonly occupy your time will shape you in ways you can’t imagine. Take a hard look around you and ask, “Do these people support me and stretch me in ways that are helpful?”
There are only two things you can control in life: your attitude and your effort. Don’t worry about what you can’t control.
Take radical responsibility for what happens in your life. No victims allowed.
Adam: What is your best advice on building, leading, and managing teams?
Steve: Diversity is important, but shared values are critical. Be intentional about the team you want to hire by taking the time to define who they might be. Once you’ve described the ideal team player, that persona becomes your “North Star” and will serve you well. Now that you’ve explored who should be on the team, consider how you’ll select them. If you want more people like the folks you have, will you ask for referrals? Or do you need to pivot and explore fresh territory? As you’re building your team, be sure you can describe your shared purpose that rolls up to the company mission. Then you can begin to align everyone around collective efforts. Humans are wired for meaning, and if you create a throughline between purpose and the tasks you want employees to perform, they’re likely to feel more fulfilled and stay longer with you and your company. Lastly, don’t forget to reward the behavior you want repeated early and often. Recognition can be as simple as a verbal acknowledgment in a team meeting or some form of written appreciation via email or otherwise. Don’t let it stop there. Look for ways to repeat the behavioral themes you’re looking for.
Adam: What are your best tips on the topic of diversity and inclusion?
Steve: Approach diversity and inclusion with a two-pronged effort that’s focused on the long game. Becoming a diverse and inclusive culture isn’t an overnight prospect. Be aware and in the moment by looking at your practices internally and evaluating your recruitment externally. Start by asking yourself if the board and C-suite support diversity and inclusion. Does your team reflect the company you’re operating and the customers you serve? Consider forming a group that is tasked with developing a diversity pipeline. Offer in-house, ongoing training, and leadership skills for people of color who aspire to lead. When you’re considering your next promotion, look at this pool of folks who’ve had training to see who’s ready for that next step. As for external recruitment, prioritize and define what you’re looking for in a candidate and be sure there’s alignment between who you hope for and your outreach practices.
Adam: What is the single best piece of advice you have ever received?
Steve: Life isn’t always fair, so you can’t feel sorry for yourself; you have to get up and move forward. I learned this piece of advice early in my career when I was fired on the heels of getting promoted. You see, I had never been a manager before, and I mistakenly thought that if I was great at sales, I’d also be great at leading people. Without any leadership training, I wasn’t giving my team the support they needed. When the annual company meeting rolled around, my group came in dead last out of ten teams. Don’t get me wrong; I deserved to be fired, but I also needed someone to show me the ropes. I was fortunate that a seasoned leader in the company took an interest in my career and reached out. He offered a temporary position to me in a different division of the company, and I gladly accepted. There he mentored me and modeled servant leadership. After watching him and the culture he created, I knew that was the kind of leader I wanted to be.
Adam: What can anyone do to pay it forward?
Steve: Define your purpose and know your why. Ninety-nine percent of the time, your why will entail impacting others. People often ask me how to discover their why. Asking the question “What is something I’d do for free?” often helps you uncover what’s just below the surface. This naturally leads you to consider your career and volunteer work. Does your passion align with how you’re spending your day? If not, what can you do to make the transition? Perhaps it’s having a conversation with your boss or upskilling to prepare yourself for a new focus. Ultimately, it’s about embracing what you’re passionate about and identifying paths that can help you get back on a journey you find fulfilling. When you’re aligned with your why and following your passion, you’ll be surprised at just how much you can have a positive impact on the world around you.
Adam: Is there anything else you’d like to share?
Steve: Dream big. As we mature, we tend to leave our childlike ambitions behind. Once you start putting limitations on yourself, your ability to dream big goes away. If you would have told me I would lead thousands of people, inspire others to follow their why, or author a book, my younger self would have said, “No way.” When I think about people who dream big, world-class athletes come to mind. They expect to win! I believe this mindset stems from one of the defining qualities of an effective leader that I mentioned earlier. People who succeed at great things in life have a vision in which they firmly believe and that’s rooted in their why. You don’t have to look very far to see people in our sphere who are breaking barriers that hark back to that youthful exuberance. Try not to put limitations on yourself.
Adam Mendler is the CEO of The Veloz Group, where he co-founded and oversees ventures across a wide variety of industries. Adam is also the creator and host of the business and leadership podcast Thirty Minute Mentors, where he goes one on one with America's most successful people - Fortune 500 CEOs, founders of household name companies, Hall of Fame and Olympic gold medal winning athletes, political and military leaders - for intimate half-hour conversations each week. Adam has written extensively on leadership, management, entrepreneurship, marketing and sales, having authored over 70 articles published in major media outlets including Forbes, Inc. and HuffPost, and has conducted more than 500 one on one interviews with America’s top leaders through his collective media projects. A top leadership speaker, Adam draws upon his insights building and leading businesses and interviewing hundreds of America's top leaders as a top keynote speaker to businesses, universities and non-profit organizations.
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