Q&A With Millennial CEO And Book Author Rick Lindquist

Rick Lindquist

Millennial Rick Lindquist is making his mark in the business world and enjoying the success of his co-authored 2014 bestseller book, The End of Employer-Provided Health Insurance. Lindquist, in his 30's, is the President and CEO of Zane Benefits, Inc.

He joined Zane Benefits as its thirteenth employee in 2007. He was promoted to Director of Sales in 2009 and took over as President in 2011. Rick received a Bachelor of Science in Economics and a Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science from Duke University.

Today, he kindly answered questions about leadership, mentors, his book, and Millennials in the workplace.

Q&A with Rick Lindquist, President and CEO of Zane Benefits, Inc.

1. Which of your leadership skills helped you most to rise through the ranks at Zane Benefits?

Lindquist: Professional will, which is defined in Jim Collins’ famous book, Good to Great. My parents taught me this concept at a young age, and it was reinforced through sports. It’s a simple concept. First, you must do whatever must be done to produce the best long-term results for the company, regardless of how difficult it may be. Second, when mistakes are made, you always hold yourself accountable rather than pointing fingers outward. Professional will and general curiosity are two core leadership skills we look for in team members at Zane Benefits. Curiosity is the sign of a world-changing, great, individual.

2. How much of what you read in books and on Blogs about how to lead Millennials do you believe is good advice. Why or why not?

Lindquist: I just read The Alliance by Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn. It’s a terrific book about leading all workers (especially Millennials) in today’s workforce. It emphasizes a framework that ensures continuous mutually-beneficial value creation between employer and employee. Today’s workers are more empowered than ever. In order to attract, develop and retain the best people (especially with respect to Millennials) in today’s job world, you must have a plan to advance your workers’ career opportunities during their time with you. Good advice.

3. What inspired you to co-author your book?

Lindquist: It was all about empowering the healthcare consumer and small business owners through education. At Zane Benefits, we help small businesses level the health benefits playing field. Our approach is quite different than the traditional approach to company health insurance where the employer picks one plan for everyone. Instead, we enable each employee to purchase their own individual health plan independent of employment and provide a real dollar defined contribution from the company to cover the cost. Contrary to common belief, everyone wins with our solution because the employee gets choice and lower premiums and the employer saves money and removes a significant administrative burden. The book is about sharing our learnings from eight years at Zane Benefits with all small businesses and educating employees on the advantages of individual health insurance.

4. What was the most difficult thing about co-authoring your book?

Lindquist: It was definitely the timeline. We decided to write the book in July 2014 and had a deadline of November 2014, which is when open enrollment happens for individual health insurance. That gave us roughly four months to get the project done and edited (while also running a fast growing software company). It was hard, but with the help from some key team members (especially Christina Merhar and Michael Dyer), we got it done. It was totally worth it. The emails we receive from readers thanking us for the content are fulfilling.

5. What leadership skills did you learn while playing sports in high school and college do you use today in the workplace?

Lindquist: It’s funny. I love hiring athletes because high-level sports teach two core leadership skills: professional will and curiosity. Great athletes recognize the need to do whatever is necessary for the long-term interests of the team. And, the best athletes (the captains) nearly always hold themselves accountable versus pointing fingers at teammates. Also, the most successful athletes have learned the benefits of being curious. Curiosity, or asking why and how, is the shortcut to winning in athletics. The same applies to business.

6. What are the advantages and disadvantages of being a CEO in your early 30's?

Lindquist: Not sure there are any disadvantages. I love my job. It doesn’t feel like work. I’m so lucky to be able to lead (and be led by) a team of great people who share my number motivation: Zane Benefits’ mission to level the playing field for small businesses.

7. How important have mentors been to your career?

Lindquist: Huge. I would not be here without them. There are way too many to list. I’m talking hundreds (if not thousands) of people. Other than my parents, the most influential mentor so far has been my partner and co-author, Paul Zane Pilzer. Without Paul’s mentorship and full support, I would not be here today. That reminds me of a funny story about Paul and my first meeting. When I first interviewed with Paul in 2007, I asked him about Zane Benefits’ company health insurance plan because my father had told me: “A good job comes with good (employer-provided) health insurance.” My father’s advice was ignored when I accepted Paul’s job offer and purchased an individual health insurance policy for $57 a month—I am still with the same insurer today.

8. What's your favorite book about leadership and why?

Lindquist: Good to Great. It validated my core values with respect to leadership style. The best CEOs are Level 5 Leaders which is defined as someone with both professional will and unflinching humility. It also gave me a framework to better lead people way smarter than me. Here’s our version of the framework as we apply it at Zane Benefits. First, get the right people on the bus, then figure out the what. Second, confront the brutal facts of the business. You must do this together. Third, figure out what you are all deeply passionate about, what you can be the best in the world at, and what drives your economic engine. The intersection of these three circles is your BHAG, or big hairy audacious goal, The BAHG forms the basis for your company’s great opportunity. Fourth, create a culture of self-disciplined people who take disciplined action consistent with the big hairy audacious goal. Fifth, use technology to accelerate momentum. And, manage the company toward continued improvement and results.

9. What's your advice for how best to lead Millennials in the workplace?

Lindquist: First, cancel your group health insurance plan if you have one and give employees money so they can choose, manage and keep their plan when they switch jobs. : ) Seriously though, the best advice on leading Millennials is to recognize that they are not joining your company to be “lifers”. They are focused on building experience and skills toward personal professional goals that develop rapidly as they advance in their careers. The only way to attract them, develop them, and keep them is to “give them the keys” in a structured fashion and work together in a mutually beneficial way. Read The Alliance for more.

Lindquist and his book have been featured on Marketwatch, MSN, Forbes, and Bloomberg. You can follow the him on Twitter.

Co-author and mentor to Lindquist, Paul Zane Pilzer

Comments

Business And Life Lessons From Entrepreneur Miguel Leal

What I like most about Miguel Leal ’s memoir, aside from its overall compelling and inspiring information, are the business and life lessons he shares. Those lessons are found throughout his recently released memoir, The House That Cheese Built . The book is a quintessential American dream story from a Mexican entrepreneur who shares the tale of building a multi-million-dollar business from scratch, complete with both success and failure, and always a vision of hope. Leal came to the U.S. penniless as a teenager, speaking almost no English; he literally slept in the boiler room of a Wisconsin cheese factory for months before he was caught. Through hard work, grit, and ingenuity Leal would go on to launch his own business. He is widely credited with introducing Mexican cheeses to the U.S. market and grew his company to a multimillion-dollar success story that defined an industry. Yet, like many successful entrepreneurs, Leal’s great successes were matched by a variety of ...

Twenty-five Of My Favorite Leadership Quotes

All year during 2012, I collected my favorite quotes about leadership from Twitter. When the year ended, I published the list. So, for today's leadership flashback , among the thousands of tweets and retweets on Twitter about leadership during 2012 these 25 were my favorites. A mix of advice from some unknown individuals along with many from leadership book authors and famous leadership experts, and a few from past U.S. presidents and current-day athletes. Great leaders know the power of asking questions. Lead with your heart, not just your head. Learn to let go of fear and embrace the unknown. People are much more impressed by your potential than by your track record. Smart leaders use the power of stories whenever they have important messages to convey. To be effective, leaders have to close the conversational gap with their employees. One of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency -- Arnold Glasow Managers...

How To Uncover Your Blindspots To Become A Better Leader

What you don't see about yourself can hold you back as a leader. That's typical for many leaders. What we don't see is what we can't see: we have blindspots . Your blindspots prevent you from achieving your greatest success. “It turns out that we're often not great judges of ourselves, even when we think we are. Sometimes we're simply unaware of a behavior or trait that's causing problems,” explains Martin Dubin , author of the new book, Blindspotting: How To See What’s Holding You Back As A Leader . “Bottom line: until we uncover these blindspots, we can't move forward. The good news is that you can learn to do your own blindspotting .” “Most of us understand the idea of blindspots in a general sense—areas we can’t see, to take the term most literally, or places we have gaps that we may not even realize, to be a little more abstract,” says Dubin. “But in the context of this book, I’m defining blindspots quite specifically: They are...

Helping People Win At Work

Here are some of my favorite pieces of advice from Ken Blanchard's and Garry Ridge's book, Helping People Win at Work : All good performance starts with clear goals. Continually planning and executing without the value of review and learning can blindside you. You don't want to save up feedback until somebody fails. It's amazing how much more you learn when you admit you don't know. If you can't measure something, you can't manage it. The key to developing people is to catch them doing something right. Whenever you attempt to influence someone else's beliefs, thinking, or behavior, you're engaging in leadership. A compelling vision tells people who they are, where they are going, and what will guide their journey.

Full Engagement By Brian Tracy

Best-selling author Brian Tracy's book, Full Engagement , provides practical advice for how to inspire your employees to perform at their absolute best. He explains that above nearly every measure, employees' most powerful single motivator is the "desire to be happy." So, Tracy teaches you how to make your employees happy by: Organizing their work from the first step in the hiring process through the final step in their departure from your company so they are happy with you, their work, their coworkers, as well as in their interactions with your customers, suppliers and vendors. Full Engagement includes these chapters and topics: The Psychology of Motivation Ignite the Flame of Personal Performance Make People Feel Important Drive Out Fear Create That Winning Feeling Select The Right People Internal Versus External Motivation At a minimum, Tracy suggests that managers do the following when managing their employees : Smile Ask questions Listen ...

The Inspiration Code

At the end of each year, I select my choice for the best new leadership book for that year, and then highlight that book on my blog. Well, only five months into 2017, I had already found a new leadership book so good that I couldn't wait until year-end 2017 to share it. Reflecting back, and sharing again, that book is, The Inspiration Code , by Kristi Hedges . Perhaps now more than any other time, the need for inspirational leadership is critical in the workplace. Filled with profound insights and compelling data, and based on a commissioned survey on who and what inspires people, Hedges uncovers a set of consistent, learnable behaviors that dramatically enhance leadership success. And, shows you how to inspire those you lead. And, how to energize people every day . Kristi Hedges But, first, what exactly is inspiration? Hedges explains that psychology professors Todd Thrash and Andrew Elliot have determined that inspiration is :...

The Three Pillars Of Executive Presence

After two years of research, forty focus groups and a national survey, author Sylvia Ann Hewlett contends the three pillars of Executive Presence are: How you act ( gravitas ) How you speak (communication ) How you look ( appearance ) All three work together to help you telegraph (signal) to others that you have what it takes and that you're star material. "One thing to note at the start is that these pillars are not equally important--not by a long shot," explains Hewlett. "Gravitas is the core characteristic." And according to the senior leaders that Hewlett researched the top aspects of gravitas are : Confidence and "grace under fire" Decisiveness and "showing teeth" Integrity and "speaking truth to power" Emotional intelligence Reputation and standing/"pedigree" Vision/charisma In her book, Executive Presence , she teaches how to act, communicate and look your best while avoiding the most comm...

The Rainmaker's Credo

How To Become A Rainmaker is a quick, instructional book that reveals the rules for getting and keeping customers and clients. Written by Jeffrey J. Fox , the handbook format provides you the best approaches to take to become a true rainmaker – one who brings clients, money, business, or even intangible prestige to an organization. One of the real gems in the book is Fox’s The Rainmaker’s Credo , which includes: Cherish customers at all times. Treat customers as you would your best friend. Listen to customers and decipher their needs. Make (or give) customers what they need. Teach customers to want what they need. Make your product the way customers want it. Get your product to your customers when they want it. Give your customers a little extra, more than they expect. Thank each customer sincerely and often.

How to Be a Leader – 9 Principles from Dale Carnegie

Today, I welcome thought-leader Nathan Magnuson as guest blogger... Nathan writes : This is it, your first day in a formal leadership role. You’ve worked hard as an individual contributor at one or possibly several organizations. Now management has finally seen fit to promote you into a position as one of their own: a supervisor. You don’t care if your new team is only one person or ten, you’re just excited that now – finally – you will be in charge! Unfortunately the euphoria is short-lived. Almost immediately, you are not only overwhelmed with the responsibilities of a team, but you quickly find that your team members are not as experienced or adroit as you. Some aren’t even as committed. You find yourself having to repeat yourself, send their work back for corrections, and staying late to fill the gap. If something doesn’t change soon, you might just run yourself into the ground. How did something that looked so easy ...

The Fresh, New Approach For How Governmental Leaders Achieve Unparalleled Success

The new book, Bridgebuilders , should be on the reading list of every public official, CEO, and civic leader. That is because throughout the book, authors William D. Eggers and Donald F. Kettl share compelling and instructive stories about some of today’s most successful bridgebuilders—federal state, and local government leaders who transcend boundaries and partner across sectors, to achieve success and meet their goals. “Bridgebuilding is the fresh, new approach that strengthens institutions, and government agencies by breaking free from organizational boxes and rigid, top-down leadership,” explains Eggers and Kettl. “Furthermore, the outdated model that worked well at one time—identifying a problem and creating a program designed to solve it—is giving way to new, muti-sector approaches to create public value.” The authors stress that leaders need to manage horizontally, making connections with other departments, as well as with stakeholders outside governmen...

Eric Jacobson On Management And Leadership

Search This Blog