Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
iHeartMedia Presents CEOs you should know.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Hi.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
I'm John Denkele, founder and CEO of Dnkle Business Development
and former president and publisher of the Baltimore Business Journal.
This is iHeartRadio CEOs you should Know and I'm here
today with Aaron Moran, executive director of the Doctor Nancy
Grassmake Leadership Institute at taws And University. Welcome Maren, Thanks
for being here.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Thanks so much for the opportunity.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
John, Yeah, looking forward to our conversation. Appreciate you taking
the time out today. I thought we'd begin maybe I
just getting to know you and the organization a little
bit more so for those who may not be familiar,
Can you tell us about the Doctor Nancy GRASSMAIC Leadership Institute.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Sure. So, we are three and a half years new
and we were started with the vision, the mission and
the purpose to help to uplift our region by establishing
an institute that was available for the public good. So
our programs are designed to increase the competencies and the
(01:04):
skills of leaders to lead more effectively. Because we know
that great organizations they don't exist without great leaders. And
the inverse is also true when we invest in developing
even more great leaders than our organizations thrive, our communities thrive,
and our region flourishes.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Excellent. Well, thank you and talk to us a little
bit about your connection with the university.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Sure So, embedded in our name is doctor Nancy Grasmick,
our visionary and our founder, and in addition to being
the state superintendent for twenty years here in Maryland, she
is also a very proud to U alum and she
currently serves as the presidential Scholar. So when doctor Grasnik
(01:56):
was looking to found this institute, she wanted to be
associated with a university that not only had an outstanding reputation,
but one in which she had a great and deep
personal connection with. And just to be clear, even though
we are parts of Towson University, our programs aren't designed
(02:17):
for students. They are designed for leaders.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Gotcha great. Thanks for clarifying that. And I know you
do a lot of program and public programming and training
and development work with companies. Tell us a little bit
about your the public programming part of the Leadership Institute.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Sure happy to so. We offer throughout the course of
the year ten different public workshops, and those workshops are
typically one to two days in duration and most of
them are hosted on the TU campus and delivered in person.
We call them public because no one can go onto
(03:00):
our website and sign up for them. We ask that
no more than two people from the same organization sign
up because in these sessions, we really want a diversity
of industries and sectors and even different functional areas of
expertise so that we can curate a robust conversation of
(03:22):
leaders from from all different types of organizations. And so
those programs are offered currently for the fee of the
noomenal fee I believe of fifty dollars a day.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Wow wow.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Yeah, And we do that intentionally because we want to
ensure the financial accessibility of our programs regardless of you know,
the economic situation of the individual or the organization. And
we we partner with Whiting Turner and Saint John Properties
who are so generous with their philanthropy to helped to
(04:00):
underwrite those public programs.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Love it. That's great, wow, and another kind of cool
thing you do. You also do some customized programs for organizations.
Could you tell us about that and how organizations can
get involved with that?
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Absolutely, So this is really exciting content because this is
when we truly have the opportunity to see organizations transform.
So the way that this typically works with our clients
is that we will cascade our leadership development programs throughout
(04:36):
the organization. So what do I mean by cascade. I
mean we start with the most senior leaders of an
organization and we run them through a leadership development program,
and then we move on to their direct report, to
that kind of mid level manager, so to speak, and
we will deliver leadership development programming for them, and then
(04:59):
we go to their director sports. Right, there's brand new supervisors,
as emerging leaders, et cetera. And what's really powerful about
this type of cascade is that all of the individuals
that go through the program come out with a shared
experience and shared vocabulary. But because each level of leadership
(05:19):
has a different need for skilled development, the content varies.
Because senior leaders who have been leaders for you know,
twenty five years need something very different than a brand
new supervisor.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Right, yeah, Yeah. And what's interesting about that too, And
I love that the way you're doing that because there
seem to be so many people in that lower level
and mid level management that don't get that kind of
formal training at all. They're just kind of in a
lot of cases, they're a high performer in their current
role and then they get you know, promoted to a
(05:54):
position because of their maybe leadership ability or their performance,
but the training doesn't go along with that lot of cases.
Are you do you still find that when you're doing
your programming for companies.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
John, you are, You're absolutely a spot on that is
one of the greatest needs that we're seeing. And it's
been you know, an issue for so long that someone is,
you know, an incredibly proficient technical contributor, and all of
a sudden we've say, congratulations, now you're going to lead
a team. And that's a different skill set, right, It's
(06:32):
not something that people are born with, and it doesn't
set the individual of the success and it certainly doesn't
set the team or the organization up for success.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, And now to do some of these
are the topics chosen by the companies or do you
have like, you know, specific topics that you go over
that for instance, you know, whether it's leading a team
or you know, human resource issues to deal with or
having hard conversations like what's some of the kind of
(07:05):
programming around and I imagine and maybe that's a loaded
question because it might be just completely customized by the
by the client. Talk a little bit about that if
you wouldn't mind, Aaron, Sure, So.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
The answer to your initial question is yes and yes,
so we right. So we offer content based on a
specific theme that an organization might be interested in working on.
You mentioned kind of you know, difficult conversations. We offer
a full two day session that helps to build skills
(07:42):
on having critical conversations and an organization that might be
their greatest need, so to speak, or they might need
something that is you know, slightly tailored for them, and
we're able to do that. When I was describing the
cascading of you know, executive leaders to mid level managers
(08:03):
to emerging leaders, what is fascinating about focusing on the
level of leadership is that it really does transcend industry differences,
which I think is really really impactful. As an example,
we've partnered with the Office of the Attorney General to
do that type of programming and we also just recently
(08:25):
partnered with Saint Joseph's Medical Center. So you've got attorneys
in one hand, you've got doctors on the other, and
it's the same content because it's a very human focused approach, right.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I would say we're all human beings.
We act in the same way, whether we're having to
deliver a message or be the recipient of a message.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Right exactly, exactly.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
So talk to me about like this kind of continuous
leadership development for any organization. How important is that. I'm
sure you into these customized programs with companies and you
see the impact that it's having on you know, culture
and just overall development of the team. What's the importance
(09:11):
of them just continuing that, you know, and not just
a one off kind of thing. Well, what's the importance
of that continuous development?
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Uh? You know, I will make the bold statement that
I will say that the organizations that aren't investing in
continuous leadership development, not only will they not thrive, but
I don't think they will survive into the future.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
The world in which we're operating is so different than
it was obviously even since the past five years of
what we've experienced, and the environment is constantly changing. It's
fast paced, and if we aren't investing in the skills
to empower leaders to navigate in these uncertain times, those
(09:56):
organizations I don't think are going to survive into the future.
And and alternatively, those organizations that do invest are not
only going to be able to survive, but I believe
truly be able to thrive. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Yeah, that's a great point, A great point. I appreciate
talking about that. Who are your typical clients?
Speaker 2 (10:22):
I wouldn't say we don't necessarily have a typical client,
but I will. I will say that I believe it's
any organization who is interested in strengthening their leaders with
programs that quite honestly have a strong and proven track
record of being successful and effective and for a reasonable investment.
(10:46):
And I say that because we are part of a
public university, which means, guess what, we can't make a profit.
And so I will you know, you stack our offerings
up against other consulting firms, and not only I would
say that are we stronger and more effective, but we're
also much less expensive. So we work with corporations, we
(11:10):
work with government, and we work with nonprofits.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Got it great? Thank you appreciate that. Tell us a
little bit more about your personal background, how you got
to this point in your career.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Sure, so, I am a Baltimore native, a crowd Baltimore native,
and I didn't live here for almost thirty years before
accepting the position here. And the two most formative experiences
for me is that I spent about a decade working
(11:43):
with an organization called Great Place to Work, and they
partner with Fortune magazine to publish the one hundred Best
Companies to Work for list, And I had the opportunity
to not only study the organizations that were identified on
these on that list, but I also had the opportunity
(12:03):
to support organizations in strengthening their workplace cultures. And then yeah,
and then and I spent seven years with an organization
called Union Square Hospitality Group, serving as their chief culture officer,
really responsible for elevating and enhancing the employee experience. And
(12:25):
if you aren't familiar with Union Square Hospitality Group, they're
probably best known for being the parent company of Shakeshack.
You're familiar with that people, right, yeah, yeah, you recognize that.
So we took we took Shakeshack Public. Oh gosh, it's
probably a bit about ten years ago. And then Union
(12:48):
Square Hospitality Group also has a large, diverse portfolio of
businesses and restaurants in the hospitality industry. And in both
of those, you know, experiences it was all about enhancing
the culture. And you know, as I first mentioned, you
can't really have a great culture if you don't have
(13:10):
great leaders and so investing in leadership development and learning
about it has been a deep passion of mine as
a through lining really throughout my entire career.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
That's great. I appreciate hearing all of that. Well, all right,
Swars a little bit. I like talking about leadership love, Michelle,
and you're the perfect person to talk to you about this.
How would you how would you describe your leadership style?
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Well, thankfully, I've benefited from a ton of three sixties
over the years, and so my teammates have often shared
with me what their perspective is. It has it has
evolved over time, that's for sure. I would say. I
I make my best efforts to have an adaptive approach
(14:04):
to leadership. And what I mean by adaptive is adapting
to the unique situation in which I find myself as
well as the unique human beings with whom I'm interacting.
And I've realized that over time, by kind of stumbling
along the way, my kind of my natural leadership style
(14:27):
probably tends to be more democratic. And there are there
are pros and cons of that pro being that people
feel included. Con being man, it can take a long
time and also right clows down. And then you know,
if you're sitting around the table and you know everyone
thinks that their vote is the same, Well, there are
(14:49):
some folks who vote, quite honestly, should weigh more because
they have deeper level of expertise. So I've learned kind
of there are times when being democratic it is effective
and important, and there are times when it's not. And
I just need to read the situation and figure out
what will be the best way to achieve the goal
(15:11):
and adapt to my style in order to do so.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Yeah, I like that term, like the adaptive style, because
it's fun. I was talking to someone last week about
this and about Yeah, sometimes you need and want feedback
and to open it up a little bit more and
get different perspectives on things. But at the same time,
as the leader, also have to understand when you just
need to make a decision and like you have to
(15:35):
step in and you know, make the decision.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Yeah, And that's so for me, being autocratic is not
very natural, but I have to lead into that discomfort
when it is appropriate and necessary.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Yeah, Yeah, that's great. I appreciate you sharing that. So
you probably hear this a lot too, and your your
discussions with companies and leaders, you know, resilience, So it
seems to be the buzzword these days, especially after you
know COVID and what's transpired over the past, you know,
a couple of years and some uncertainty out there. What
(16:11):
what does resilience kind of mean to you and how
do you demonstrate that leading your team?
Speaker 2 (16:16):
Rad This is a very timely question because I'm hot
off of the conversation a meeting this morning with sim Reagan,
the CEO of Waiting Turner. Yeah, and he described resilience
as I'm paraphrasing here, but kind of stout and grounded.
And then when we kind of started to dig in
(16:37):
a little bit more about that, we were using the
analogy of a pilot in turbulence. You know, the turbulence
and the wind give it. It's a natural force. It's
going to happen. It's not the pilot's fault necessarily, but
there are things that the pilot needs to do in
turbulent times, and the first is to make sure that
(16:59):
there's and calm, to kind of make sure that they
have control over the plane to get to an altitude
where it is less turbulent, and to effectively communicate with
the passengers. And so I thought that was just such
a such a great visual. And then for me with
(17:21):
the team, which was kind of part two of your question,
I think for us, it's about being prepared for various
outcomes given the level of uncertainty that we were all experiencing,
and being able to identify creative solutions even if none
of the outcomes actually comes to fruition, and then using
(17:44):
mistakes as opportunities to learn and grow.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Yeah, that's great, I love it. I love it. What
advice would you give our audience about maintaining a positive
culture at their organizations.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
I'm going to walk right into this one, John and
teut ourselves here because I really do think that it
is taking advantage of leadership development programs, whether it's ours
or others out there, because great cultures require great leadership.
(18:18):
Every single organization has a culture. The question is is
it one that is helping your organization to achieve your
goals and objectives? And that requires intentionality, and that requires skill,
and that requires an investment in leaders Because you know,
even though there's there are people that believe that leaders
(18:39):
are born. No, they're quite frankly not. They are developed,
they're mentored, they're nurtured, they're trained, and it is it's
a constant evolution. And leadership isn't it's not a role,
it's not a title, it's not even authority. It is
it's a journey, and it's a lifelong journey. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Yeah, And it's you know as something too that I've
experienced that people need to know about your employees need
to understand what your culture is. I talk to some
CEOs and some mid level managers and stuff that they
can't they don't know what their own culture is in
a lot of sense because it's not communicating, like you said,
(19:20):
communicated up and it's not like there aren't succinct examples
of you know, what the culture is and how you
act and you know, those kinds of things. But it's yeah,
it's kind of interesting. I think a lot of people,
you know, struggle with with that and how to you know,
have that right culture and continue to maintain it and
communicate it. And like you said, oh, that's interesting, absolutely absolutely.
(19:45):
What what gets you excited about the future of the
doctor Nancy Grasmik Leadership Institute.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
You know, there are probably i'd say ten to twenty
times a week when I hear about the impact of
our leadership development programming on an individual and how they
feel like it has been such an investment in their
growth and development, how it has transformed them, how they
(20:16):
feel more confident, more prepared, how they feel more inspired.
And that's absolutely that fuels my soul to hear that.
So what gets me fired up for the future is
instead of you know, ten to twenty, I want hundreds
and I want thousands of those examples to be shared. Right.
(20:37):
That's so continuing to expand our impact with what gets
me really fired up about our future.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
I love it. I love it. On the other hand,
like what keeps up at night.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Oh, well, not what it used to now that my
children are much older now. But but it's an amazing
three and a half years since we started, and I'm
so grateful that we have individuals and organizations who are
really serving as brand ambassadors for us and talking about
(21:15):
their positive impact. What kind of keeps me up at
night is that the organizations that don't know about us
aren't able to benefit from our programming and I don't
want us to be the best kept secret out there
because we exist for the public good, and so I
have only a few people know about us, then we
(21:37):
aren't truly serving our mission. So elevated visibility, more organizations
knowing about us and quite honestly taking advantage of the
incredible programming that we have.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
Yeah, that's great. I appreciate you sharing that. Well the
kind of wrap things up. Is there anything else you'd
like our listeners to know about you and the Doctor
Nancy Grass Leadership Institute.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Yes, I would love to encourage anyone that is interested
in learning more to sign up for our mailing list,
which is on our website. It is www dot calson
dot edu backslash Graphmic Leadership. You can also follow us
(22:25):
on social but that way you'll have the opportunity to
see what kinds of programs we are offering and just
kind of learn more and hopefully attend an upcoming event
and get involved with this incredible community that we are
continuing to cultivate and build.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Well, excellent, Well, thank you so much, Erin. I really
appreciate you taking the time today to talk with me.
It was great catching up and I'll want you learning
more about the Nancy Grasmick Leadership Institute. So I really
appreciate your time and thanks so much.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Thanks so much, John.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
This has been iHeartMedia's CEO's you should know
iHeartMedia Presents CEOs you should know.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Hi.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
I'm John Denkele, founder and CEO of Dnkle Business Development
and former president and publisher of the Baltimore Business Journal.
This is iHeartRadio CEOs you should Know and I'm here
today with Aaron Moran, executive director of the Doctor Nancy
Grassmake Leadership Institute at taws And University. Welcome Maren, Thanks
for being here.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Thanks so much for the opportunity.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
John, Yeah, looking forward to our conversation. Appreciate you taking
the time out today. I thought we'd begin maybe I
just getting to know you and the organization a little
bit more so for those who may not be familiar,
Can you tell us about the Doctor Nancy GRASSMAIC Leadership Institute.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Sure. So, we are three and a half years new
and we were started with the vision, the mission and
the purpose to help to uplift our region by establishing
an institute that was available for the public good. So
our programs are designed to increase the competencies and the
(01:04):
skills of leaders to lead more effectively. Because we know
that great organizations they don't exist without great leaders. And
the inverse is also true when we invest in developing
even more great leaders than our organizations thrive, our communities thrive,
and our region flourishes.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Excellent. Well, thank you and talk to us a little
bit about your connection with the university.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Sure So, embedded in our name is doctor Nancy Grasmick,
our visionary and our founder, and in addition to being
the state superintendent for twenty years here in Maryland, she
is also a very proud to U alum and she
currently serves as the presidential Scholar. So when doctor Grasnik
(01:56):
was looking to found this institute, she wanted to be
associated with a university that not only had an outstanding reputation,
but one in which she had a great and deep
personal connection with. And just to be clear, even though
we are parts of Towson University, our programs aren't designed
(02:17):
for students. They are designed for leaders.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Gotcha great. Thanks for clarifying that. And I know you
do a lot of program and public programming and training
and development work with companies. Tell us a little bit
about your the public programming part of the Leadership Institute.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Sure happy to so. We offer throughout the course of
the year ten different public workshops, and those workshops are
typically one to two days in duration and most of
them are hosted on the TU campus and delivered in person.
We call them public because no one can go onto
(03:00):
our website and sign up for them. We ask that
no more than two people from the same organization sign
up because in these sessions, we really want a diversity
of industries and sectors and even different functional areas of
expertise so that we can curate a robust conversation of
(03:22):
leaders from from all different types of organizations. And so
those programs are offered currently for the fee of the
noomenal fee I believe of fifty dollars a day.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Wow wow.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Yeah, And we do that intentionally because we want to
ensure the financial accessibility of our programs regardless of you know,
the economic situation of the individual or the organization. And
we we partner with Whiting Turner and Saint John Properties
who are so generous with their philanthropy to helped to
(04:00):
underwrite those public programs.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Love it. That's great, wow, and another kind of cool
thing you do. You also do some customized programs for organizations.
Could you tell us about that and how organizations can
get involved with that?
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Absolutely, So this is really exciting content because this is
when we truly have the opportunity to see organizations transform.
So the way that this typically works with our clients
is that we will cascade our leadership development programs throughout
(04:36):
the organization. So what do I mean by cascade. I
mean we start with the most senior leaders of an
organization and we run them through a leadership development program,
and then we move on to their direct report, to
that kind of mid level manager, so to speak, and
we will deliver leadership development programming for them, and then
(04:59):
we go to their director sports. Right, there's brand new supervisors,
as emerging leaders, et cetera. And what's really powerful about
this type of cascade is that all of the individuals
that go through the program come out with a shared
experience and shared vocabulary. But because each level of leadership
(05:19):
has a different need for skilled development, the content varies.
Because senior leaders who have been leaders for you know,
twenty five years need something very different than a brand
new supervisor.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Right, yeah, Yeah. And what's interesting about that too, And
I love that the way you're doing that because there
seem to be so many people in that lower level
and mid level management that don't get that kind of
formal training at all. They're just kind of in a
lot of cases, they're a high performer in their current
role and then they get you know, promoted to a
(05:54):
position because of their maybe leadership ability or their performance,
but the training doesn't go along with that lot of cases.
Are you do you still find that when you're doing
your programming for companies.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
John, you are, You're absolutely a spot on that is
one of the greatest needs that we're seeing. And it's
been you know, an issue for so long that someone is,
you know, an incredibly proficient technical contributor, and all of
a sudden we've say, congratulations, now you're going to lead
a team. And that's a different skill set, right, It's
(06:32):
not something that people are born with, and it doesn't
set the individual of the success and it certainly doesn't
set the team or the organization up for success.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, And now to do some of these
are the topics chosen by the companies or do you
have like, you know, specific topics that you go over
that for instance, you know, whether it's leading a team
or you know, human resource issues to deal with or
having hard conversations like what's some of the kind of
(07:05):
programming around and I imagine and maybe that's a loaded
question because it might be just completely customized by the
by the client. Talk a little bit about that if
you wouldn't mind, Aaron, Sure, So.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
The answer to your initial question is yes and yes,
so we right. So we offer content based on a
specific theme that an organization might be interested in working on.
You mentioned kind of you know, difficult conversations. We offer
a full two day session that helps to build skills
(07:42):
on having critical conversations and an organization that might be
their greatest need, so to speak, or they might need
something that is you know, slightly tailored for them, and
we're able to do that. When I was describing the
cascading of you know, executive leaders to mid level managers
(08:03):
to emerging leaders, what is fascinating about focusing on the
level of leadership is that it really does transcend industry differences,
which I think is really really impactful. As an example,
we've partnered with the Office of the Attorney General to
do that type of programming and we also just recently
(08:25):
partnered with Saint Joseph's Medical Center. So you've got attorneys
in one hand, you've got doctors on the other, and
it's the same content because it's a very human focused approach, right.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I would say we're all human beings.
We act in the same way, whether we're having to
deliver a message or be the recipient of a message.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Right exactly, exactly.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
So talk to me about like this kind of continuous
leadership development for any organization. How important is that. I'm
sure you into these customized programs with companies and you
see the impact that it's having on you know, culture
and just overall development of the team. What's the importance
(09:11):
of them just continuing that, you know, and not just
a one off kind of thing. Well, what's the importance
of that continuous development?
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Uh? You know, I will make the bold statement that
I will say that the organizations that aren't investing in
continuous leadership development, not only will they not thrive, but
I don't think they will survive into the future.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
The world in which we're operating is so different than
it was obviously even since the past five years of
what we've experienced, and the environment is constantly changing. It's
fast paced, and if we aren't investing in the skills
to empower leaders to navigate in these uncertain times, those
(09:56):
organizations I don't think are going to survive into the future.
And and alternatively, those organizations that do invest are not
only going to be able to survive, but I believe
truly be able to thrive. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Yeah, that's a great point, A great point. I appreciate
talking about that. Who are your typical clients?
Speaker 2 (10:22):
I wouldn't say we don't necessarily have a typical client,
but I will. I will say that I believe it's
any organization who is interested in strengthening their leaders with
programs that quite honestly have a strong and proven track
record of being successful and effective and for a reasonable investment.
(10:46):
And I say that because we are part of a
public university, which means, guess what, we can't make a profit.
And so I will you know, you stack our offerings
up against other consulting firms, and not only I would
say that are we stronger and more effective, but we're
also much less expensive. So we work with corporations, we
(11:10):
work with government, and we work with nonprofits.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Got it great? Thank you appreciate that. Tell us a
little bit more about your personal background, how you got
to this point in your career.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Sure, so, I am a Baltimore native, a crowd Baltimore native,
and I didn't live here for almost thirty years before
accepting the position here. And the two most formative experiences
for me is that I spent about a decade working
(11:43):
with an organization called Great Place to Work, and they
partner with Fortune magazine to publish the one hundred Best
Companies to Work for list, And I had the opportunity
to not only study the organizations that were identified on
these on that list, but I also had the opportunity
(12:03):
to support organizations in strengthening their workplace cultures. And then yeah,
and then and I spent seven years with an organization
called Union Square Hospitality Group, serving as their chief culture officer,
really responsible for elevating and enhancing the employee experience. And
(12:25):
if you aren't familiar with Union Square Hospitality Group, they're
probably best known for being the parent company of Shakeshack.
You're familiar with that people, right, yeah, yeah, you recognize that.
So we took we took Shakeshack Public. Oh gosh, it's
probably a bit about ten years ago. And then Union
(12:48):
Square Hospitality Group also has a large, diverse portfolio of
businesses and restaurants in the hospitality industry. And in both
of those, you know, experiences it was all about enhancing
the culture. And you know, as I first mentioned, you
can't really have a great culture if you don't have
(13:10):
great leaders and so investing in leadership development and learning
about it has been a deep passion of mine as
a through lining really throughout my entire career.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
That's great. I appreciate hearing all of that. Well, all right,
Swars a little bit. I like talking about leadership love, Michelle,
and you're the perfect person to talk to you about this.
How would you how would you describe your leadership style?
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Well, thankfully, I've benefited from a ton of three sixties
over the years, and so my teammates have often shared
with me what their perspective is. It has it has
evolved over time, that's for sure. I would say. I
I make my best efforts to have an adaptive approach
(14:04):
to leadership. And what I mean by adaptive is adapting
to the unique situation in which I find myself as
well as the unique human beings with whom I'm interacting.
And I've realized that over time, by kind of stumbling
along the way, my kind of my natural leadership style
(14:27):
probably tends to be more democratic. And there are there
are pros and cons of that pro being that people
feel included. Con being man, it can take a long
time and also right clows down. And then you know,
if you're sitting around the table and you know everyone
thinks that their vote is the same, Well, there are
(14:49):
some folks who vote, quite honestly, should weigh more because
they have deeper level of expertise. So I've learned kind
of there are times when being democratic it is effective
and important, and there are times when it's not. And
I just need to read the situation and figure out
what will be the best way to achieve the goal
(15:11):
and adapt to my style in order to do so.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Yeah, I like that term, like the adaptive style, because
it's fun. I was talking to someone last week about
this and about Yeah, sometimes you need and want feedback
and to open it up a little bit more and
get different perspectives on things. But at the same time,
as the leader, also have to understand when you just
need to make a decision and like you have to
(15:35):
step in and you know, make the decision.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Yeah, And that's so for me, being autocratic is not
very natural, but I have to lead into that discomfort
when it is appropriate and necessary.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Yeah, Yeah, that's great. I appreciate you sharing that. So
you probably hear this a lot too, and your your
discussions with companies and leaders, you know, resilience, So it
seems to be the buzzword these days, especially after you
know COVID and what's transpired over the past, you know,
a couple of years and some uncertainty out there. What
(16:11):
what does resilience kind of mean to you and how
do you demonstrate that leading your team?
Speaker 2 (16:16):
Rad This is a very timely question because I'm hot
off of the conversation a meeting this morning with sim Reagan,
the CEO of Waiting Turner. Yeah, and he described resilience
as I'm paraphrasing here, but kind of stout and grounded.
And then when we kind of started to dig in
(16:37):
a little bit more about that, we were using the
analogy of a pilot in turbulence. You know, the turbulence
and the wind give it. It's a natural force. It's
going to happen. It's not the pilot's fault necessarily, but
there are things that the pilot needs to do in
turbulent times, and the first is to make sure that
(16:59):
there's and calm, to kind of make sure that they
have control over the plane to get to an altitude
where it is less turbulent, and to effectively communicate with
the passengers. And so I thought that was just such
a such a great visual. And then for me with
(17:21):
the team, which was kind of part two of your question,
I think for us, it's about being prepared for various
outcomes given the level of uncertainty that we were all experiencing,
and being able to identify creative solutions even if none
of the outcomes actually comes to fruition, and then using
(17:44):
mistakes as opportunities to learn and grow.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Yeah, that's great, I love it. I love it. What
advice would you give our audience about maintaining a positive
culture at their organizations.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
I'm going to walk right into this one, John and
teut ourselves here because I really do think that it
is taking advantage of leadership development programs, whether it's ours
or others out there, because great cultures require great leadership.
(18:18):
Every single organization has a culture. The question is is
it one that is helping your organization to achieve your
goals and objectives? And that requires intentionality, and that requires skill,
and that requires an investment in leaders Because you know,
even though there's there are people that believe that leaders
(18:39):
are born. No, they're quite frankly not. They are developed,
they're mentored, they're nurtured, they're trained, and it is it's
a constant evolution. And leadership isn't it's not a role,
it's not a title, it's not even authority. It is
it's a journey, and it's a lifelong journey. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Yeah, And it's you know as something too that I've
experienced that people need to know about your employees need
to understand what your culture is. I talk to some
CEOs and some mid level managers and stuff that they
can't they don't know what their own culture is in
a lot of sense because it's not communicating, like you said,
(19:20):
communicated up and it's not like there aren't succinct examples
of you know, what the culture is and how you
act and you know, those kinds of things. But it's yeah,
it's kind of interesting. I think a lot of people,
you know, struggle with with that and how to you know,
have that right culture and continue to maintain it and
communicate it. And like you said, oh, that's interesting, absolutely absolutely.
(19:45):
What what gets you excited about the future of the
doctor Nancy Grasmik Leadership Institute.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
You know, there are probably i'd say ten to twenty
times a week when I hear about the impact of
our leadership development programming on an individual and how they
feel like it has been such an investment in their
growth and development, how it has transformed them, how they
(20:16):
feel more confident, more prepared, how they feel more inspired.
And that's absolutely that fuels my soul to hear that.
So what gets me fired up for the future is
instead of you know, ten to twenty, I want hundreds
and I want thousands of those examples to be shared. Right.
(20:37):
That's so continuing to expand our impact with what gets
me really fired up about our future.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
I love it. I love it. On the other hand,
like what keeps up at night.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Oh, well, not what it used to now that my
children are much older now. But but it's an amazing
three and a half years since we started, and I'm
so grateful that we have individuals and organizations who are
really serving as brand ambassadors for us and talking about
(21:15):
their positive impact. What kind of keeps me up at
night is that the organizations that don't know about us
aren't able to benefit from our programming and I don't
want us to be the best kept secret out there
because we exist for the public good, and so I
have only a few people know about us, then we
(21:37):
aren't truly serving our mission. So elevated visibility, more organizations
knowing about us and quite honestly taking advantage of the
incredible programming that we have.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
Yeah, that's great. I appreciate you sharing that. Well the
kind of wrap things up. Is there anything else you'd
like our listeners to know about you and the Doctor
Nancy Grass Leadership Institute.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Yes, I would love to encourage anyone that is interested
in learning more to sign up for our mailing list,
which is on our website. It is www dot calson
dot edu backslash Graphmic Leadership. You can also follow us
(22:25):
on social but that way you'll have the opportunity to
see what kinds of programs we are offering and just
kind of learn more and hopefully attend an upcoming event
and get involved with this incredible community that we are
continuing to cultivate and build.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Well, excellent, Well, thank you so much, Erin. I really
appreciate you taking the time today to talk with me.
It was great catching up and I'll want you learning
more about the Nancy Grasmick Leadership Institute. So I really
appreciate your time and thanks so much.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Thanks so much, John.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
This has been iHeartMedia's CEO's you should know
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