How To Change Yourself To Change Your Company

The book, Reinventing the Leader, is an inspiring account of the magic that can happen when a leader realizes they must undergo their own transformation in order to transform their organization.

This candid and practical book by Guilherme (Gui) Loureiro, Regional CEO overseeing Walmex, Walmart Canada, and Walmart Chile (now Chairman of the Board for Walmex and Regional CEO for Canada, Chile, Central America, and Mexico), and his executive leadership coach Carlos Marin shows how even the most successful leaders must be open to personal change in order to transform their company. The book details how the pair pioneered a data-driven, customer-centric business transformation at Walmex—Walmart’s biggest division outside of the United States.

“This book is a blueprint for transformational success for leaders in any business who find themselves facing the need to retool their own company’s systems and operations and energize and inspire an entire corporate culture in order to compete in an ever-shifting digital economy. It’s about sustaining a cherished brand while disrupting the very essence of how it has done business in the past. And perhaps most important of all, it’s about learning to learn—becoming aware of how to better leverage your strengths, limit your weaknesses, and listen more effectively to your associates and customers to find out what they really want and need during a time of major transition,” says Gui.

The blueprint for transformational success includes these steps:

Start by questioning and challenging the organization’s underlying assumptions and beliefs about the sustainability of its success.
Revitalize or discover the purpose that will give deeper meaning to why the organization does what it does—the compelling motive for its existence.
Engage the hearts and minds of the people of your organization by reinforcing that vital purpose.
As a leader, you must define on a personal level why your life matters, what you stand for, and what you want your legacy to be.
Establish clear goals that are in alignment with the higher purpose.
Set specific objectives and targets to be reached to provide benchmarks during each aspect of the transformation.
Communicate a plan that consists of clear tactics and action steps, outlining what, how, who, and when for each objective.
Actively promote and practice learning on an ongoing basis. As the process advances, your new experiences and insights will lead to adjustments and adaptations that will improve the final results. As a leader, encourage your team to work cooperatively to learn and grow in order to make the transformation successful.
Learn to tell a compelling story about what happened and how it was done.

Gui Loureiro (Photo by: Roberto Rubio Macaria Cinco)

Carlos Marin (Photo by: Shadi Ameri)

Some of my favorite lessons from the book, in the authors' words, include:

Humility: Doing the hard, personal work it takes to get to know yourself better is fundamental to growing and maturing as a leader. It requires having the humbleness and curiosity of a novice, which will allow you to have new insights and flourish free of the sanctions of your own self-perceptions.

Curiosity: As a leader you’ll want to cultivate a desire for learning and to see opportunities and possibilities where others see only difficulties and impossibilities. A sense of curiosity and wonder will allow you to reframe challenges as potential solutions.

Mentors: Wise leaders recognize the benefits of having someone with more experience to advise and support them throughout their career. Try to find a mentor who will help you learn and find the strengths that may be hidden within you as you move forward on your journey.

Comfort Zone: Expand your comfort zone. Be willing to part with old and familiar ways to jump into new possibilities, despite how scary that can be.

Listening: One of the best ways for you to value and show others the respect they need and deserve is to genuinely listen to them.

Coaching: The journey toward transformative self-awareness can be made more effective by working with an experienced coach. A professional coach can help you understand your strengths and opportunities better and faster as well as to help you change and improve. Using your strengths can be a very powerful tool to help you correct what needs to be fixed.

Self-Reinvention: A key ingredient of self-reinvention is identifying those you can learn from and humbly drink from their fountains of knowledge and experience.

Underperformers: Don’t confuse caring for people with tolerance for underperformance. Being a leader requires the appropriate and timely recognition that despite your efforts to help, someone may not want to change, adapt, or evolve…and that’s when you must act swiftly.

Vision: It’s vital for you to provide clarity of vision so that everyone is on board and aligned with it. Communicate, communicate, and communicate the vision. It is never too much.

Talent: Value the leadership talent of your team and invest in the continued growth and development of those who are able and willing to cope with change as the company evolves.

Thank you to the book’s publisher for sending me an advance copy of the book.

Comments

10 Quotes From The 5 Levels Of Leadership -- John C. Maxwell

Soon I'll post my full review of John C. Maxwell's latest book, The 5 Levels of Leadership . In the meantime, here are some of my favorites quotes from the book that I believe should become a must-read book by any workplace/organizational leader: Good leadership isn't about advancing yourself. It's about advancing your team. Leaders become great, not because of their power, but because of their ability to empower others. Leadership is action, not position. When people feel liked, cared for, included, valued, and trusted, they begin to work together with their leader and each other. If you have integrity with people, you develop trust. The more trust you develop, the stronger the relationship becomes. In times of difficulty, relationships are a shelter. In times of opportunity, they are a launching pad. Good leaders must embrace both care and candor. People buy into the leader, then the vision. Bringing out the best in a person is often a catal...

Five Essential Principles For Sustaining Growth Through Innovation

Even though many companies strive for innovation, most struggle to achieve meaningful change. The largest reason for this disconnect? Playing it safe. Leaders and organizations want to implement new ideas, but too often they are held back by the fear of failure, even though setbacks are intrinsic to the innovation process. In the new book, No Fear, No Failure , by Lorraine H. Marchand (with John Hanc), readers will learn how to overcome the status quo that stifles creative thinking and how to create a culture that encourages innovation. Marchand provides a framework for sustained growth built on the “ 5 Cs ”: Customer First Culture Collaboration Change Chance She draws on more than 120 interviews with leaders across industries, real-world case studies, and her firsthand experience and shares step-by-step, field-tested strategies, tactics, and tools that practitioners can use to embed creativity within organizational cultures. Marchand is a former Big Tech and Big Pharma ex...

How To Be A More Human Leader

“To be most effective in today’s environment, leaders must be human leaders. Human leaders must be able to lead not only with their heads but also with their hearts and souls,” says veteran executive coach Hortense le Gentil , author of the book, The Unlocked Leader: Dare to Free Your Own Voice, Lead with Empathy, and Shine Your Light in the World . She adds, “In addition to being respected, seen, and valued, employees also seek leaders who feel human, not distant and perfect beings with whom they can’t connect.” Additionally, leaders need to put the collective interest before their own and work hard to make other people’s good ideas happen. “And although the book focuses on leadership at work, each of us is a complete individual, not a sum of separate, isolated parts. As such, the process presented in the book applies to all areas of your life,” shares the author. She further explains that becoming a human leader is a journey, not a desti...

29 People Who Taught Us Life Lessons In Courage, Integrity And Leadership

The 29 profiles you will read in Robert L. Dilenschneider’s new book, Character , are about people who are exceptional exemplars of character. They’re inspirational because they used their abilities at their highest levels to work for causes they believed in. Because of character, they influenced the world for good. The dictionary defines “character” as the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual, the distinctive nature of something, the quality of being individual in an interesting or unusual way, strength and originality in a person’s nature, and a person’s good reputation. “But beyond these definitions, we know that character is manifested in leadership, innovation, resilience, change, courage, loyalty, breaking barriers, and more,” explains Robert (Bob), “Character drives the best traits in our society, such as honesty, integrity, leadership, and transparency, and it drives others to exhibit those qualities.” Profiled in the book ar...

How To Create More Human Workplaces By Tackling Hidden Patterns

Most organizational change initiatives fail because they treat symptoms, not systems. Real transformation happens when you see and redesign the hidden patterns driving how work actually works. “Hidden Patterns prioritize principles over procedures. Each pattern is a tested, fundamental idea, not a formula,” explains Clay Parker Jones , author of the new book, Hidden Patterns, A Playbook For More Human Workplaces . Based on behavioral science and real-world case studies, the book identifies 75 common organizational problems , the core solutions to each, and connected patterns to link sustainable improvements. “If the examples or templates don’t seem immediately relevant, that’s fine,” shares Jones. “The core principle is what matters. Take the idea, apply it flexibly, and test it out. Make it your own.” “In the book, you’ll find patterns that lay groundwork for healthier, more humane workplaces rather than prescriptive tactics masquerading as guaranteed quick fixes.” J...

Leadership Lessons From Kent Taylor, Founder Of Texas Roadhouse

From cover-to-cover of Made From Scratch you’ll learn the leadership lessons of the late Kent Taylor , founder of the restaurant chain Texas Roadhouse. In the new book, Taylor recounts how he built the restaurant chain from the ground up after being rejected more than 80 times as he pitched the idea for the business. His approach to business was often out-of-the-box, however, his business lessons and leadership lessons from the course of his life and career are invaluable. Here are some of my favorite leadership lessons from Kent and his book: The best leaders stay down-to-earth and approachable. In a bottom-up company, the leader learns from frontline people. As soon as you make a profit, find a way to give back. Be willing to laugh at yourself. Become a student of your craft. Positive reinforcement inspires much greater performance than fear ever can. Want to get the respect of your people? Then roll up y...

Debbie Laskey's Expert Insights On Marketing and Leadership

Debbie Laskey is one of my go-to experts when I seek advice about a number of business topics, including marketing, social media, and nonprofit marketing and leadership. So, it's my privilege to share today some of Debbie's insights on all these topics. However, before you read the answers to my questions to Debbie, we'll set the stage with her background: Debbie has an MBA Degree and 17 years of marketing experience in the high-tech industry, Consumer Marketing Department at Disneyland Paris in France, insurance industry, and nonprofit sector. She’s created and implemented successful marketing and branding initiatives for nonprofits including the Foundation for the Junior Blind, Exceptional Children’s Foundation, League of Women Voters of Los Angeles, and Brides for Good; and in the B2B financial sector for an insurance company and CPA firm. Currently, she works with the Nonprofit Communications and Media Network and Special Olympics Southern California. ...

How To Achieve Real Optimism Even When Life Is Hard

“Optimism is not about believing that everything will turn out the way you want it; that everything will go according to plan, or that positive thinking about the future can stave off disaster. It’s about accepting that life is hard—sometimes really hard—but it always has something to teach us,” explains Dr. Deepika Chopra , author of the new book, The Power Of Real Optimism: A Practical, Science Based Guide To Staying Resilient, Curious, And Open Even When Lie Is Hard . She adds, “If we can stay open to those lessons, we will survive.” Why should we strive to become more optimistic? “Because, simply put, optimism improves our mental and physical health and makes us more able to face whatever life has in store while staying committed to our goals and values,” shares Dr. Chopra. In this fresh, science-backed debut, professional psychologist and media expert Dr. Chopra shows us how to build the kind of optimism that can actually withstand real life. The book offe...

Best Reasons For Doing Employee Exit Interviews

Don't be the guy in the picture when an employee leaves your company. Instead, conduct exit interviews and surveys. Leigh Branham explains in his book, The 7 Hidden Reasons Employees Leave , what the most favorable conditions are for conducting the interviews and surveys. And, if you need convincing to read the book, take a look at these 11 best reasons for listening and gathering the data when an employee leaves : Bringing any "push-factor" root-cause reasons for leaving to the surface. Alerting the organization to specific issues to be addressed. Giving the employee a chance to vent and gain a sense of closure. Giving the employee the opportunity to provide information that may help colleagues left behind. Providing information about competitors and their practices. Comparing information given with the results of past surveys and employee data. Detecting patterns and changes by year or by quarter. Obtaining information to help improve recruiting. Possibly heading off ...

Teach An Employee Something New Today

Take the opportunity today to teach an employee something new. Nearly everyone likes to learn and is capable of tackling a new challenge. Teach your employee something that expands their current job description. Teach something that will help them to get promoted within your organization at a later date. Teach them a skill that uses new technology. Or teach them something that will allow them to be a more skilled leader and manager in the future. You can even teach something that you no longer need to be doing in your position, but that will be a rewarding challenge/task for your employee. The benefit to your employee is obvious. The benefit to you is you'll have a more skilled team member who is capable of handling more work that can help you to grow your business and/or make it run more efficiently. Be a leader who teaches.

Eric Jacobson On Management And Leadership

Search This Blog