Be Real: Interview with Author Mike Watson
I recently went one on one with Mike Watson. Mike is the President at Ignite Management Services and has served in many roles, including directorships at all levels of Chambers of Commerce in Canada. Mike is also the co-author of the new book Rise Up: Leadership Habits for Turbulent Times.
Adam: Thanks again for taking the time to share your advice. First things first, though, I am sure readers would love to learn more about you. How did you get here? What experiences, failures, setbacks or challenges have been most instrumental to your growth?
I started my career in financial services, which proved to be a remarkable training ground. I was provided an inside look at how companies operated and some of the key drivers of success.
When I advanced into an executive role, my responsibilities grew to include the creation and execution of strategy in retail banking. This is where my love of strategy began.
When you get into strategy, you're exploring a very complex landscape where the most adaptable survive and thrive. It’s an exercise of really understanding what's going on in the landscape and then positioning to adapt to or capitalize on those changes that are taking place around us. From that, every challenge becomes an opportunity. This allows someone like me to remain optimistic, because when things happen you can say OK, that's interesting, how might that impact the direction we go?
It is also where I learned some difficult lessons about leadership and the type of leader I wanted to be.
There is one particular story that, to this day, reminds me of the importance of leading through people. I had penned an enterprise strategy that received the support of my executive colleagues and the board of directors. But when we went to implement, we saw a steady decline in results that continued for six consecutive months.
It was only when a coach and mentor pointed out that I had launched a strategy without the support of the people who would bring it to life that I learned the importance of leading through people, and that without broad support, strategy will fail
People don’t want to be told what to do, people want to be part of something they understand and believe in.
I had launched a strategy with significant focus on the technical components. We were clear on the brand, the segments we would serve, the service offerings that would be tweaked, changes required to the distribution model among a long list. But what I neglected was to engage people to lean on their expertise as the ones who would bring the strategy to life.
In my case, the strategic implementation I had put into place was on its way to being the most catastrophic failure of my career. The good news is I was able to learn from this mistake. A heartfelt effort to engage with the team followed. The organization went on to thrive years after I was gone. The failure had become a learning and the goodwill of the people carried it forward.
It was during this time that I embraced the adage that wisdom does not grow on our good days. This is also where I learned that strategy is all about people.
I left banking to form my consulting firm 15 years ago and today we provide strategic advisory and leadership development support to companies across the continent.
Adam: What are the best lessons you learned from years at the Chamber of Commerce?
The Chamber of Commerce demonstrated the importance of trust relationships and how they form the foundation of a network.
The Chamber was made up of a group of people that were all community conscious. It was a group that recognized that the small business community makes a significant contribution to society. The group that I met were aligned in our values where the cause was for a better Canada. The people there had a thirst for knowledge to learn, to really understand the economy and the world around us. So I was surrounded by these incredibly smart professionals who were generous with their time and then, through social interaction, relationships started to form. I genuinely felt that we cared about each other. We communicated with one another quite consistently, we did things that were fun, and we explored Canada. We made sure to move our meetings all around the country, so we would always leave a meeting having learned something.
My years in the Chamber movement were a shining example of what happens when you give generously of your time with good people who have a shared pursuit.
Interestingly, just last month, I was asked to support a biotech company as it hit its next stage of maturation. My old Chamber colleagues were able to connect me with the right people who could support this organization. With their help, the young founder of the firm will be well on his way to protecting his IP and growing his business.
Adam: What do you believe are the defining qualities of an effective leader?
Leadership comes from the establishment of habits which lend themselves to helping individuals become the best versions of themselves. It’s something that’s learned, not something you’re born with.
Bad leaders focus on themselves. Great leaders focus on others.
The classic example of that is in his early career, Steve Yzerman was one of the leading scorers in the NHL, but the team wasn’t achieving the overall success they wanted. His coach, Scotty Bowman pulled him aside and said, “you can win the scoring championship, or you can win a Stanley Cup: you pick.” Steve Yzerman became one of the great leaders in NHL history.
Being a great leader starts with this mindset: I am in pursuit of the best version of myself. I'm doing this for the legacy that I will leave society in a better place, or my children will have an example that they can see as they grow older, or whatever that person identifies as important to them. A leader chooses to be the best version of themself as step one.
Once they choose to be the best version of themself and become conscious of it, they then rigorously assess their performance on a regular basis. “Am I on track?” When you’re paying attention to this it translates into “what actions will I take? The actions they take is where the habits are formed. You do it again and repeat it again and again.
I am a little cautious about calling out defined leadership qualities or attributes. These are static. More important to me is a person’s willingness and motivation to be the best leaders they can be. With this driving purpose they can work on the habits of active trust, humility, inquisitiveness, discipline, optimism, and courage.
Adam: How can leaders and aspiring leaders take their leadership skills to the next level?
Never ever give up the pursuit of being the best version of yourself and do the work required to get there.
There is a simple trick. Take a bit of time each week to ask people what one thing is that you might do more of or less of to make you more effective as a leader for them.
You process what people say to you alongside what you have chosen as your core values. You’re testing what you’re hearing against what your intrinsic character values. It may work or it may not work. You may not be great at it, so you step back and you say, OK what do I need to adjust and then go at it again. It's a little bit like going to the gym, building the muscles you need for those strengths to become second nature to you.
Adam: What do you hope readers take away from your new book?
I really hope that people reflect on their own leadership and how it might change.
The book highlights many of the tough lessons I have learned and those I’ve learned from the people we serve. The point of presenting the learning this way is to recognize that we all make mistakes, and it is through those mistakes that we grow. I hope that the way we present the information allows people to be a little gentler on themselves.
Adam: What are your three best tips applicable to entrepreneurs, executives and civic leaders?
Entrepreneurs: be real.
Executives: be real.
Civic leaders: be real.
Be authentic. Be approachable. Don't play to a script, but actually look at the people and care about who they are. Recognize that each person adds value, has value, and cares about people. Connect with them.
The point of this is that if we care to lead, we must lead with care. Care enhances trust and without trust, we are severely limited in what we can accomplish.
Adam: What is your best advice on building, leading and managing teams?
First off, leadership exists in both how we build and how we manage. We want to always be conscious of our role to help people be the best versions of themselves.
As it relates to building a team, I encourage leaders to be very conscious to build a team with diverse perspectives. Far too often we see people gravitate toward people who are like minded. Think about the problems you seek to solve. What perspectives will you require to solve them.
There are a few practical approaches a leader can take to enhance the effectiveness of a team. We encourage leaders to focus on the following items within the team:
Align on vision. Make sure you share a common view of the destination.
Align on strategy. Make sure every member of the team is clear on the strategies that you will deploy to get there, and they feel a sense of ownership of that strategy.
Enable creative conflict with optimism. Invite and encourage people to share their perspectives. When this is done because we have optimism that the sharing of ideas leads to better results, we find ourselves in a positive feedback loop.
Ensure the team works hard to build trust with one another. Without high trust, no team can achieve its potential.
Focus on results. Keep scorecards and measure your results. This is essential to success.
A company will never be more than its people. Whether it's operating a forklift or a joystick or figuring out where we need to put the next plant, if the people aren't clear on the mission, their decision is going to be vectored off from the rest of the group. In the early stages it doesn't feel like much, but over time if you're vectored off by a couple of degrees you could end up in a different time zone! Having the people aligned and on course is essential, because the little decisions that get made during the day are the pieces that together become execution of strategy.
Doing a job is hard work. We will find setbacks along the way that can have us default back to old behaviors if people aren't passionate and engaged with the enterprise. If the will of the people isn’t there, the corporate performance will be suboptimal.
Adam: What is the single best piece of advice you have ever received?
The best advice I received was from my dad when I was a young bank manager. I was struggling to get my team on the same page. In very simple language, my dad said to me, “Michael, I have always found that when I explain to people where I want to go, share and discuss why, and ask them for their help, a team is formed.”
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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