July 21, 2022 • 41 mins
In this episode we chat with Monty Montoya, CEO of TherOptix and a visionary in the space of corneal therapeutics and transplants. We learn from Monty about his career and leadership philosophies, his unique take on time off away from work, and about the amazing new technologies being developed in his space.
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(00:00):
Leaders need to set and share avision with their teams. Leaders
need to ensure that we are allseeing future opportunities
through the same lens. My guesttoday on the leaders perspective
has built his career aroundvision.
Welcome to the leadersperspective podcast.
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We're we talk to Triple Threatleaders about the people
products, trends and experiencesthat influence business. I'm now
pleased to introduce your host,Jason Goldberg.
Welcome back to the leadersperspective podcast where we
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engage with Triple Threatleaders to learn about their
lives, careers and leadershipphilosophies, and have the
opportunity to discuss a hottopic in society. As a reminder,
a Triple Threat leader is onewho embodies the very best of
leadership and who has strongIQ, EQ and DQ intelligence
quotient, emotional quotient anddecency quotient. I'm so excited
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to welcome to the show MontyMontoya, the CEO of
therapeutics. I said in theintro that Monty focuses his
career on vision. He is anexpert and leader in the world
of corneal therapeutics,products and transplants, and
has developed some of theleading products that have
restored sight for hundreds of1000s of people worldwide. Prior
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to his current role, Montyserved as the founder and CEO of
cornea gem, a venture backedbiotech company. He was founder
of Oregon biotech, a spin outfrom cornea Jen. Previously he
was president and CEO of sitelife. And earlier in his career,
he was CEO of the NorthwestLions Eye bank. He is also the
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Advisory Board Chair of LifeCenter, Northwest and organ
procurement organization servingthe Pacific Northwest, and a
board member of the Hollandfoundation for site restoration.
And I'm very pleased to say thatMonty was a classmate of mine
from the Fuqua School ofBusiness at Duke University. I
am very pleased to welcome tothe leaders perspective, Monty
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Montoya.
Welcome Monty, thanks forjoining us today.
Well, thank you, Jason, reallygreat to be here with you and
have some time to catch up.
Absolutely. It's been a longtime. I can't believe we
graduated 19 years ago, it isreally hard to imagine that 20
years ago, we were together atDuke, and almost 20 years, I
guess next year will be our 20year anniversary. But what a
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what a great two decades it'sbeen and it's been fun to follow
along with your career and andsee how you progressed and just
such a great cohort of humanbeings making a lot of impact
around the world. It's amazing.
You know, I tell people that theclass that we were in had such
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an incredible global presence,and a lot of what people are
doing are truly mission driven.
And, and you are absolutelyleading the pack in terms of
mission driven roles. So veryimpressive.
So why don't we jump right in tothat, right? I you know, tell us
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tell, tell, tell our listenersabout you. You know, where are
you from? What are your hobbies?
A little bit about Monty?
Yeah, so I actually grew up in asmall rural town called Rimrock.
In in Arizona, a lot of peoplewould know where Sedona is, I
would say we're kind of thesouth side of Sedona, the
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farmers and the workers live inRimrock. My dad was the the this
kind of the caretaker, theelementary school, I went to
Beaver Creek Elementary. Andwhen I graduated from Camp Verde
High School, that was the largertown next Rimrock that I had to
bust over to I think I had 68kids in my graduating class. So
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kind of a small, small townupbringing. And I went from
there to the kind of exactopposite when I went to Arizona
State University for myundergrad, I think at the time
there was, you know, it was thethird largest university in the
country. And so went from thesmall town environment to just,
you know, explosion of peopleand, you know, all kinds of
(04:22):
experiences in it. You know,it's been a great experience for
me to come from that backgroundwhere, you know, hard work and
sweat on your browser's kind ofwaiting to find you to, you
know, post our Duke MBAeducation, having an opportunity
to be a part of things that, youknow, really can help shape the
world and make, make the world abetter place and, you know,
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hobbies that I've developed overover time really kind of revolve
around culture and people. Ihave just really enjoyed, you
know, through my work, havingworked in 30 plus different
countries and getting to knowamazing people
all different cultures andbackgrounds and religions and
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just seeing the good inhumanity, you know, crossed our
planet has been really a great,great experience for me. One of
the things that I sort ofbrought along from my childhood
is golf. That's a hobby I haveto this day, I'm still sort of
an average golfer, but mygrandfather taught me how to
play and I grew up playing inthe Beaver Creek Country Club,
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which unfortunately, is, isclose today waiting for somebody
to buy it. So if you're outthere and you're looking for a
fantastic project, want toreally revive a community look
up the Beaver Creek CountryClub, it's for sale.
Something that I've developedover the last probably 20 years
here in the Seattle area where Icall home is an interest in
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understanding of wine and thewinemaking process. And that
kind of I fell into thatprobably because of my my love
of culture and people and I madea friend here who ended up
starting a winery inBrent labor. And so for the past
16 years, actually 18 years nowit's first first vintage was
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2004. And been, you know,helping my friend Chris Sparkman
of Sparkman sellers. In everyaspect of winemaking. This does,
you know again, Grunt labor andhelping out wherever it needed
to be helped. And I've learned alot and just grown to
appreciate, you know, that wholeprocess of, of winemaking, the
business side of it as well,maybe it's a retirement gig for
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you. It really could be I justenjoy it. I mean from the
farmers, which is part of whatyou know, I grew up with who
grow the grapes, you know, allthrough the process. And then
ultimately, this kind of crazysales and marketing process as
well that that drives that wholebusiness. And so there's a lot a
lot to learn there and fun, fun,fun people along the way as
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well. Very cool. Very cool. So.
So you went to ASU.
And how did you find your way?
What did you study?
So I started out as abioengineering major there,
truth be told, I flunked out ofthe engineering part of the
whole process and defaulted tojust getting a basic biological
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sciences degree, okay. I alongthe way, thought about going to
medical school, but early on,think to some good thanks to
some good mentors, realized Iwas either going to be a good
doctor and a bad husband andfather, or a good husband and
father and a bad doctor. Andkind of was self aware enough to
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realize that was not a good setof choices. And so ultimately,
that led me into the biotechhealthcare field, where in
college undergrad actuallyworked in the summers for WL
Gore in their medical researchfacility in Flagstaff, Arizona.
And then that ultimately, set meup for what became my career and
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kind of, you know, full time joband ultimately a passion of
eliminating corneal blindness. Ilove that. So So let's, that's a
great transition.
Tell us about corneal blindness,right, I think, you know,
probably,you know, not something that
most people face. It's, it'ssomething that clearly people
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don't want, you know, when theywhen they hear that they have
some type of corneal injury or,or disease. It's a frightening
time. So how many, how manypeople does this impact? And
tell us about about the field alittle bit? Yeah, well,
you know, it's kind ofinteresting. So when you look
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into somebody's eye, and you seethe colored part of their eye,
there's a clear layer of tissuethat covers over that colored
part of your eye, and that's thecornea. It's basically the
window of your eye. It's, it'swhat allows light to pass in and
for you to actually see also theshape of that tissue that
clearly of tissue refracts thelight, so that it ends up on
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your retina and allows you tohave focus and be able to see
and so it's a critical part ofof your vision. Today, there are
about 12 point 7 million peopleworldwide who are cornea blind,
in at least one of their eyes.
And unfortunately, right now,there's not a treatment or a
pathway where all those peoplecould be put in a situation
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where their sight was restored.
And there are genetic forms ofcorneal blindness. And then you
can imagine a whole set ofinjuries or infections. Anything
that affects the front of youreye, can cause your cornea to
become Miss shaped, which thenthe light doesn't focus properly
or cloudy, from infection sothat the light can't pass
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through. And soAs you know, either diseases
injuries or infections are whatcaused people to go corneal
blind and the predominantmajority of those people
actually live in in lower middleincome countries. And so that's
where finding sustainable andscalable solutions to corneal
blindness is been a challenge.
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And I feel really great at thispoint in my career over the past
two decades, especially wereally elevated corneal
blindness to a point whereindustry is starting to take
interest and really ramping upthe innovation. So my hope is
that over time, we will reachthat goal of eliminating corneal
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blindness by the year 2040. Soit's a strategy that we are a
touchscreen of a mission that welaid out at Site life, a company
I was at.
And to really make that happenand have that goal of 2040. And
it's, it's starting the flywheelstarting to spin faster and
faster. So I'm still hopeful wecan meet that goal. And how many
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people need a corneal transplantin the US every year? Yeah, so
every year, it's around 50,000.
People who need corneatransplants, that's a pretty
static member, I think that thegrowth and need for corneal
transplants is flat, you know,maybe single single digit
growth.
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Fortunately, here in the US,because of organizations like
site life, and cornea, Jan thatI was was previously at, we
actually have a surplus oftissue available for transplant
here in the US amazing.
Which is fantastic. If you'rehere in the US, unfortunately,
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pretty much every other countryaround the world has a shortage.
And the reality is globally, weproduce probably somewhere in
the neighborhood of 200,000corneas for transplant, where
you probably need, you know, 2million a year to just keep up
with the new cases of cornealblindness that come on. And then
you think of that, you know, 12point 7 million number, you
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realize that we've got to dosome things differently, to
scale access to care andtreatments that can help restore
these people's vision. Socorneal corneal tissue and
transplants is just a piece ofthis right? What what are the
other aspects of of your, yourworld?
Yeah, well, you know, one of thegreat programs that was launched
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at Site life was really earlytreatment of corneal abrasions.
And so, you know, if you've everhad an experience where you
scratch your you think youscratch your eyeball, you're
scratching your cornea, verypainful. And in most cases, if
if you, you know, bathe, youknow, daily or wash your face
regularly, you won't have anyproblem, it'll be painful for a
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while, and in a day or two,it'll heal and you'll be fine.
In a developing world situationwhere you may not have the
ability to bathe with cleanwater and wash your face with
clean water, that scratch onyour cornea can very quickly
lead to an infection. And so oneof the things that they've been
doing at Site life is trainingcommunity health workers. In
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most cases, these are women whoare trained how to identify a
corneal abrasion and treat itwith an antibiotic, so that it
heals quickly. And this sort ofjust prevents a whole load of
corneal blindness fromhappening. So being on that
prevention side is another partof what's happening out there.
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And then more recently, orientedbiotech, another company that I
helped found, has been able todevelop a product where we can
take cells from a donor cornea,multiply those cells, so that
one donor cornea can actuallyprovide transplants for over 100
people, I think, really, it'sprobably going to be closer to
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1000 people from one donorcornea. And so this really
solves the shortage problem. Andthese cells are delivered via an
injection into the what's calledthe anterior chamber of your
eye, just behind the cornea. Andso that's another mode of
treatment that I think is goingto have a huge impact and the
cornea regenerates, correct itthat's a great question. And the
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answer is yes and no. So thecornea actually has many
different cell types in it,there's layers of cells. The
outer layer of cells is calledthe epithelium. The epithelium
continually regenerates. And asyou're blinking or whatever,
you're removing the oldepithelial cells and the newer
cells come forward, and so thatthat process is continued
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working, and there's a segmentof corneal blindness we're
working on at the HollandFoundation, which is a nonprofit
I'm affiliated with, wherepatients actually are
unable to regenerate newepithelial cells and they
develop very severe painful whatare called ocular surface
disorders.
But on the back of the cornea,you have what's called the
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endothelium. And that's a singlelayer of cells. And those cells
do not regenerate. And so thereare genetic disorders like Fuchs
dystrophy, or other injuriesthat can actually damage those
cells, and they don'tregenerate. And the primary
function of those cells is topump fluid out of your cornea.
So it stays compact, and clear.
And when your cornea swells, itactually becomes cloudy. And so
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the endothelial cells are reallycritical, but they don't
regenerate. And one of the, themost common forms of transplant
is replacing that inner layer ofcells with with donor tissue.
Very cool. I mean, I thought Ishared with you, when we spoke
last week that I was about sevenyears ago, I had I had a corneal
injury to my right eye. And itwas, you know, I've had
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orthopedic injuries and, andother injuries, and I can, I can
attest that the corneal injurywas by far the most frightening
and the most painful injury thatI have ever experienced.
And, you know, just in additionto the the pain, the panic, the
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fear that this causes whensomebody is potentially losing
their sight, in the eye issignificant. So having
therapeutics that can restoresight is amazing. And obviously,
mine wasn't as severe itregenerated. And as you
mentioned earlier, it actuallymine actually regenerated and
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changed theshape the shape of the cornea.
So therefore, I landed myselfwith with glasses after that. So
but but from a pure, you know,this is not just physical. This
is also psychological, becauseit has a massive psychological
component to what you do.
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Yeah, it really does. You know,I just reminded me, of some of
these things I get a littlechoked up thinking about and
remembering, but I just flashedback to this conversation, I was
in Nairobi, Kenya, sittingacross from a cab driver who had
a corneal abrasion, turned intoan infection. And through that
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whole process, he was a driver,he lost his job, he couldn't
support his family, his wife andhis kids left to go back with
her family, because theycouldn't support him. And he was
sort of a drain to them. Andhe's sitting across from us
basically saying, Can you pleasehelp me because if you can't,
I'm just going to kill myself.
Because life is not worthliving, if I can't see. And so
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the the reality of of blindnessacross the globe is pretty
weighty and the psychologicalimpacts that it has on the
person who's blind, but thenalso the ripple effect out on
all the people who are aroundthem is pretty amazing. You
know, it really impacted me whenthe first time I went to the
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who, in Geneva, of all thethings they can have, out in
front of the WHO headquarters isa a large statue of a blind man
holding on to a stick, and ayoung boy is holding on to the
other end of it. And it's it'sbasically this thing that that
captures the impact of, ofhealth ailments. And in the US,
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blindness is the one because theelderly man is blind. And so
this child has been charged totake care of him and he follows
the child around well, thatchild's not going to school.
And so that future of thatperson, that child basically is
changed. Probably not for thebetter because there are now two
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people who are affected andprobably more by my by this
blindness. Very cool. It'samazing.
So Tell, tell me about youstarted to tell me in our prep
session about some technologythat you're developing, that
allows for medications to bedistributed through a lens.
(19:22):
Yeah, so I'm currently leading astartup company called fair
optics. And we are working onbrain to market technology that
was developed at the Langer labat MIT and in partnership with
Boston Children's Hospital andmass pioneer, where we can take
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drugs put them in a polymer,embed that Polymer inside of a
contact lens that then candeliver drugs after ophthalmic
surgical procedures in a verycontrolled manner. So you have
you know, more precise dosingover the desired time period
that you want to deliver thatand this could really change the
trajectory of post surgical careand ophthalmology. Right now, if
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you know many people out therehave had cataract surgery, for
example. And so after cataractsurgery, you're sent home with
drops, and you have to put thesedrops in your eye and the drops,
when in your eyes are veryeffective, but But it's hard to
get them in, especially ifyou're, you know, let's say 70
or 80 years old after cataractsurgery, that's kind of hard to
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do. And so there are asignificant amount of post
surgical complications acrossophthalmology. And so by having
this contact lens on the cornea,delivering a drug at a
controlled way, can really helpeliminate, you know, some of
those those challenges that wesee post surgically, the first
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product that we're working on,which you would have loved to
have Jason when you had yourcorneal abrasion is for corneal
brain corneal pain. And so,there are procedures like PRK or
corneal crosslinking, where inorder to do the procedure, the
surgeon has to remove thatepithelial layer of tissue and
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so that the eye is exposed,those nerve endings are exposed,
you know, to to the air, whichactually creates a lot of pain.
And so by putting on a thoroughoptics lens that actually has an
analgesic in the lens, we cantake care of that pain problem.
For those patients while they'retheir epithelial layer, regrows
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it usually takes two to threedays for that to happen. Right
now, it's kind of amazing thatthe primary way that doctors are
dealing with this post surgicalpain and PRK especially, is by
prescribing opioids. Yep. And,you know, there's been studies
done at some of the topophthalmology centers in the
country where, actually corneasurgeons, who are providing
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large volumes of PRK surgery aresome of the highest prescribers
in the system, a maze ofopioids, a whole host of
problems leading the lead fromthat. Yeah, exactly. Okay. So
how did you come up with thisidea?
Well, I have to give credit tothe founders of their optics,
Dan Kahani, who is at BostonChildren's in MIT, he's actually
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has his section in the Langerlab at MIT and Joe Chileno, who
is a corneal surgeon at Mass ionhere, those two really are the
founders of of this whole idea.
And over the last, you know, 10plus years, they've been doing
academic work, that ultimatelyled to a patent, the patent that
they were able to secure as forany drug, encapsulated in a
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contact lens, so very powerfuland broad patent. And then, you
know, just this concept, and sothose two are really the key, my
role came in once therapeuticshad licensed that intellectual
property from MIT, BostonChildren's and mass pioneer, was
to come in and do the techtransfer and, and get a product
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that that ultimately can make itthrough FDA approval, and most
importantly, really servepatients and surgeons in a
powerful way.
A sell advisors, expertconsultants are all veteran
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(23:39):
reach our experts today.
Let's pivot. And let's talk alittle bit about your leadership
style and philosophies. You'veled very large teams, across
your organizations. How do youset clear vision and strategy
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for your teams? You know, Ithink
one of the key things in all ofthat, for me has been really
identifying big, you know, thosebig, hairy, audacious goals
kind of working really, reallydiligently to refine what that
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is, and then frame it into, youknow, something that's specific,
measurable, attainable, relevantand timely, okay, those the
SMART goal, for example, atsight life,
you know, we developed a visionslash mission statement that
went, you know, I still know itto this day. We serve as a
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global leader and partner toeliminate corneal blindness by
2014. And so, you know, we kindof had this very big thing to
eliminate corneal blindness. Wewere very specific
about our role to be a leaderand a partner.
You know, if you see thepictures and hear the stories of
the corneal blindness, you knowthat it's very relevant.
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And then you have that timelygoal of 2040. And then the only
question in that was, Is itattainable? Can we really make
this happen and, and in thatmission statement really served
as a catalyst, and a framing forfor all of what sight life has
done over the last 12 years andstill going forward. And so I
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think, again, having that big,you know, hairy, audacious goal
is part of it.
But then, I think important tothat is you have to have
strategies that are, let's say,yearly, but also, you know,
three to five year strategiesthat are serving that statement.
And so what do we need to bedoing today
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that, you know, those those, youknow, one or two really critical
things that have to happen thisyear for us to make the
appropriate progress towardsthat goal. And so making sure
that that's clear across theentire organization, and making
sure everybody understands whatthey do on a daily basis to
serve those strategies, right,excellent.
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today's workforce, as you know,seemingly burnt out, all of the
companies that I talked to, arehaving a difficult time, whether
people are working from home orhave a hybrid arrangement.
Some people seem to be workingmore hours than ever, even
though they seem to have moreflexibility. What have you done
(26:36):
with your teams to be able tocombat fatigue and improve
morale and retention?
Yeah, you know, I think this isan area where we're still
learning, you know, across thebusiness landscape of how to
manage this. And, and I thinkthis combination of the
pandemic, and this access totechnology that allows us to
(27:00):
work from from anywhere, has, insome ways provided short term
productivity. But this issue ofburnout is, is much, much
bigger, I think, than werealize. And so, one of the
things that I've been practicingreally for for the last 10 plus
years,is, is a concept I call NATO.
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And it's no access time off. Andso, in this process, I was the
first one to do it myself.
Fortunately, I had a boardchair, you know, 10 plus years
ago, her name was Diane Sabin,and she was a former CPA and
CFO. And she thought it would begood periodically for the CEO,
to be on vacation, and to nothave access to anything in the
(27:46):
organization, just as a way tocheck for fraud and redundancy
in the organization. And so herpurpose for that was more kind
of from a CPA audit complianceperspective. But what I learned
when I took time off, and I wasunplugged from the network, I
couldn't log into my emailbecause they changed my password
(28:12):
that I, wow, I actually had alot better experience I came
back even more refreshed. But Istill had one problem in that is
that I came back to this pile ofemails. And so all that, you
know, sort of refreshing I hadgained kind of dissipated very
quickly because I'm trying tocatch up and, and dig out from
(28:32):
under this mountain of email. Soin the no access time off
process, I ultimately developedfor myself and then began to
push down into the organization.
When you had a vacation, Ireally encourage people to take
at least a week, and if possibletwo weeks a year where you're
completely unplugged from thenetwork. And for most hard
(28:53):
chargers typing people like youand I, Jason and probably the
people listening to this, youhave to change their password
because we can't help ourselves,we'll still try to work with
our spouses, you know, off tothe store, and we're on
vacation, we're checking to seeif there's anything we missed.
(29:14):
But so, so changing thepassword, so you can't get in at
all. And then here's the big onethat really made a difference
for me. That out of officemessage that informs people that
you will never read the emailsthat they send you during this
time period. And that if theyneed to contact somebody in the
organization, here's who theycan talk contact or if they need
(29:38):
to contact you. This is whenyou'll be back and resend the
email then. And and while you'regone, all of those emails are
completely deleted. And so whenyou come back from your time
off, you have zero emails inyour inbox. And that has been
something that I have found toreally help refresh people
(30:00):
and kind of changed perspectiveswhen you know, just having that
time off to, to get your brainrested and your mind rested. You
know, I feel like it's reallypromoted the creativity of of
our key leadership, it'sdefinitely been a great tool and
retention of, you know, keepingpeople and, you know, I'll tell
you some of the people that willfight this the most are your
(30:22):
salespeople.
Right, you know, they can'timagine being away and not being
able to resolve problems, butbut they're the ones that
probably need as much asanybody, it's, you know, it's
amazing to hear a leader, notjust, you know, do this
themselves, encourage it forother people, no matter the
function in the organization.
(30:45):
And, and obviously, it's, it'sscary, right? It's, it's, it's a
massive sea shift in peoplethinking about this. But I know
that when when employeesreturned from vacation, and they
find dozens, if not hundreds ofemails waiting for them.
It negates the entire purpose ofthat vacation, they come back,
(31:08):
they're underwater, they'reoverwhelmed. Undoubtedly, people
who check their emails eitherduring vacation or right before
they come back, just so thatthey can catch up. And this is
just an absolutely phenomenalidea that other leaders can can
implement and should encouragepeople, people who are listening
this probably can feel thatanxiety, I felt it when you were
(31:31):
talking about it.
Days before my vacation is over,oh my gosh, I know, I'm gonna
have 1000s of emails or hundredsof emails and I have to deal
with and absolutely, I'm justgonna start working on them now.
So last thing I wanted to chatwith you about
in this market, how are yourecruiting high performing
(31:53):
talent?
You know, one of the thingsthat, you know, it's funny,
there's some of these thingsthat we benefited from our time
at Duke, we had some greatleaders and professors there.
And one of the things we workeda fair amount with, remember sim
sitcom and, and Alan, Alan land,yep. His culture and how to
(32:16):
build culture. And, and one ofthe things that stuck for me and
I was able to develop is, youknow, it's not just having
values in the company, those arereally important. If you don't
define the behaviors, thatanimate those values in your
company, it's really hard toknow what you're recruiting for.
Yep. And so one of the thingsthat I've done at my company is,
(32:40):
is put a lot of time and effortin understanding, not just from
my perspective, but the companyitself. How do we, how do we
define top performers? What arethey? And what are the behaviors
those individuals exhibit? Andso for example, you know, one of
the the values that insight lifewas passionate. And we went
(33:01):
through identifyingwhat are those? What is passion
look like, at Site life, and oneof the funny things that came
up, is, you're willing to pitchin help and help whenever it's
needed. You just nobody has toask you. It's just you just step
in. And once we identified thatit was really funny to watch, if
some, like the one thing younever said at Site life was,
(33:24):
that's not my job. If you saidthat, like everybody just would
kind of take a step back belike, okay, this person doesn't
belong here, right. And so whatwe began doing is actually
codifying the questions in ourinterview process, looking for
those behaviors, and potentialcandidates. And so finding
(33:46):
people who were already doingthose behaviors wherever they
were at, and then bringing theminto the organization, and
actually, we many times we'remore focused on does this person
have the right behaviors, we'llteach them how to do what they
need to do, we'll train them upon whatever the details of their
job are. But if they have thebehavioral slash cultural fit,
(34:09):
we can make them work.
Absolutely. I completely agree.
I was chatting with somebodythis morning about it. I was
asked how do you build highperforming teams? And what do
you look for and it is somewhatamorphous, right. And so I, you
know, I explained some of thetechnical characteristics, but I
also explained a persona ofsomebody being both a helper and
(34:34):
a problem solver, and beingintellectually curious, because
if you're a helper, you're aproblem solver and you're
intellectually curious. Youdon't care if the issue or
problem to be solved or work tobe done is within your realm. Or
if it's over in a completelydifferent area and you're just
(34:55):
excited to help somebody else tofor the greater good
it? Yeah. You know, I think it'sone of the things that's really
hard and I struggled with this,I just thought of a accordia Gen
i, we got to a point where weneeded to hire a new Chief
Commercial Officer. And we, Iwas able to recruit in somebody
(35:19):
that the investors and the boardreally had high esteem for, they
thought, well, this person isfantastic. We can't believe
you've recruited them in. And inthe onboarding process, this
individual basically got kickedout of the process. And like day
one, it was patently clear thatthis person did not fit our
(35:41):
culture. At the same time, Iknew I had investors and board
members that, you know, justthought this person was, was
perfect. And they were going to,you know, be everything we
needed. And so I'm in thissituation, do I honor the
culture? Or, or do I protect myown backside of my board and
investors. And, and, you know,to do the right thing,
(36:03):
ultimately, I had to let thatperson go. And we, you know, we
had a very amicableconversation, where we both
realized, Hey, this is not agood fit, right? And let's,
let's call it now allow you tomove on, and allow us to move on
and do it in an amicable way.
And so we were able to do that,but I have to admit, it was a
little scary as a CEO, because Iyou know, I wasn't sure how the
(36:26):
board in the investors wouldhandle but I think ultimately,
everybodywas pretty pleased to see that
the culture was that strong,that, you know, right away, even
though this this, you know,highly regarded highly touted
brilliant person, very, veryaccomplished, they just didn't
fit. And that was identifiedquickly, you have to protect
(36:47):
that at all costs.
So, Monty, I want to, you know,thank you again, this has been
an amazing conversation I'velearned a lot about, about your,
your field. I know, thelisteners,
I'm sure have, have learnedquite a bit. And, and certainly,
(37:09):
you know, and probably even moreimportantly, learning from your
leadership style and some of theunique things that that you
brought to your companies inyour industry. And I know that
the leaders and aspiring leaderslistening in will will learn
from that and, and I'm prettysure we're going to see NATO
implemented around so when whenwe start seeing NATO all around,
(37:32):
we're going to attribute that toyou.
I love to see that just for thebenefit of humanity for people
to have that, that, you know,mental, physical, emotional
health, you know, through thatprocess be great. Thanks again.
Thank you, Jason, fun to behere. Well, that was an
absolutely amazing conversationwith Monty and and I personally
(37:55):
absolutely loved hearing aboutall of the exciting things that
he is working on, and in thecorneal space, and absolutely
appreciate that somebody likeMonty a leader like Monty has
dedicated his life and hiscareer to restoring sight for
(38:17):
millions of people. So, at theend of every podcast, we recap,
with the three main things thatwe learned from our triple
threat leader of the day, andAnd I noted down three things
that I learned from Monty. Thefirst one is around goals and
vision, we need to set big,hairy, audacious goals,
(38:41):
otherwise known as B hag.
And it's not enough to tie thosebig, hairy audacious goals, or
at least set those big, hairyaudacious goals on their own. We
have to tie them to smart goals,and smart goals SandForce,
Specific, Measurable,Achievable, Relevant and time
(39:01):
bound. So we take those biggoals, we tie them to smart
goals, we then set a timelinefor those on both short and
medium term objectives. And thenwe need to make it personal.
What does that mean for eachindividual in each role?
Second thing I learned fromMonty is his philosophy on NATO.
(39:25):
No access time off, which Ithink is an absolutely
incredible philosophy and is isa wonderful thing to do for your
employees.
It's to make sure that youremployees aren't overwhelmed
during or after a vacation. TimeOff, is time off time off is is
(39:48):
meant to be spent rechargingthose batteries coming back to
work full steam ahead. And whenwe stare down the barrel of a
full inbox that's that's waitingfor us.
When we come back, it negatesall of that time off. So lock
down, email, delete the emails,refer to other people on the
(40:12):
team who are not on vacation,and let that employee come back
to a clean slate, Moving at fullspeed ahead as soon as they come
back. So NATO was absolutelyfantastic leadership idea from
Monty and the third is aroundhiring and and Monty suggested
(40:33):
that we need to define behaviorsthat animate culture and values.
I think that's really powerful.
We have to define our culture.
We have to define the behaviors.
And once we do that, and we'rerecruiting, we look for people
who support one another. And andif you do those things, you can
often recruit into highperforming teams.
(40:58):
So once again, I want to thankyou for listening to the leaders
perspective podcast. As always,have a great day and be your
best self.
Thanks for listening to theleaders perspective podcast,
brought to you by a celladvisors visit a cell dash
advisors.com For moreinformation about our growth
(41:20):
turnaround, optimization, riskin HR Advisory Services
LLC, and is available onYouTube, Apple and Spotify.
Leaders need to set and share avision with their teams. Leaders
need to ensure that we are allseeing future opportunities
through the same lens. My guesttoday on the leaders perspective
has built his career aroundvision.
Welcome to the leadersperspective podcast.
(00:21):
We're we talk to Triple Threatleaders about the people
products, trends and experiencesthat influence business. I'm now
pleased to introduce your host,Jason Goldberg.
Welcome back to the leadersperspective podcast where we
(00:42):
engage with Triple Threatleaders to learn about their
lives, careers and leadershipphilosophies, and have the
opportunity to discuss a hottopic in society. As a reminder,
a Triple Threat leader is onewho embodies the very best of
leadership and who has strongIQ, EQ and DQ intelligence
quotient, emotional quotient anddecency quotient. I'm so excited
(01:06):
to welcome to the show MontyMontoya, the CEO of
therapeutics. I said in theintro that Monty focuses his
career on vision. He is anexpert and leader in the world
of corneal therapeutics,products and transplants, and
has developed some of theleading products that have
restored sight for hundreds of1000s of people worldwide. Prior
(01:27):
to his current role, Montyserved as the founder and CEO of
cornea gem, a venture backedbiotech company. He was founder
of Oregon biotech, a spin outfrom cornea Jen. Previously he
was president and CEO of sitelife. And earlier in his career,
he was CEO of the NorthwestLions Eye bank. He is also the
(01:50):
Advisory Board Chair of LifeCenter, Northwest and organ
procurement organization servingthe Pacific Northwest, and a
board member of the Hollandfoundation for site restoration.
And I'm very pleased to say thatMonty was a classmate of mine
from the Fuqua School ofBusiness at Duke University. I
am very pleased to welcome tothe leaders perspective, Monty
(02:13):
Montoya.
Welcome Monty, thanks forjoining us today.
Well, thank you, Jason, reallygreat to be here with you and
have some time to catch up.
Absolutely. It's been a longtime. I can't believe we
graduated 19 years ago, it isreally hard to imagine that 20
years ago, we were together atDuke, and almost 20 years, I
guess next year will be our 20year anniversary. But what a
(02:36):
what a great two decades it'sbeen and it's been fun to follow
along with your career and andsee how you progressed and just
such a great cohort of humanbeings making a lot of impact
around the world. It's amazing.
You know, I tell people that theclass that we were in had such
(02:57):
an incredible global presence,and a lot of what people are
doing are truly mission driven.
And, and you are absolutelyleading the pack in terms of
mission driven roles. So veryimpressive.
So why don't we jump right in tothat, right? I you know, tell us
(03:18):
tell, tell, tell our listenersabout you. You know, where are
you from? What are your hobbies?
A little bit about Monty?
Yeah, so I actually grew up in asmall rural town called Rimrock.
In in Arizona, a lot of peoplewould know where Sedona is, I
would say we're kind of thesouth side of Sedona, the
(03:39):
farmers and the workers live inRimrock. My dad was the the this
kind of the caretaker, theelementary school, I went to
Beaver Creek Elementary. Andwhen I graduated from Camp Verde
High School, that was the largertown next Rimrock that I had to
bust over to I think I had 68kids in my graduating class. So
(04:01):
kind of a small, small townupbringing. And I went from
there to the kind of exactopposite when I went to Arizona
State University for myundergrad, I think at the time
there was, you know, it was thethird largest university in the
country. And so went from thesmall town environment to just,
you know, explosion of peopleand, you know, all kinds of
(04:22):
experiences in it. You know,it's been a great experience for
me to come from that backgroundwhere, you know, hard work and
sweat on your browser's kind ofwaiting to find you to, you
know, post our Duke MBAeducation, having an opportunity
to be a part of things that, youknow, really can help shape the
world and make, make the world abetter place and, you know,
(04:44):
hobbies that I've developed overover time really kind of revolve
around culture and people. Ihave just really enjoyed, you
know, through my work, havingworked in 30 plus different
countries and getting to knowamazing people
all different cultures andbackgrounds and religions and
(05:04):
just seeing the good inhumanity, you know, crossed our
planet has been really a great,great experience for me. One of
the things that I sort ofbrought along from my childhood
is golf. That's a hobby I haveto this day, I'm still sort of
an average golfer, but mygrandfather taught me how to
play and I grew up playing inthe Beaver Creek Country Club,
(05:29):
which unfortunately, is, isclose today waiting for somebody
to buy it. So if you're outthere and you're looking for a
fantastic project, want toreally revive a community look
up the Beaver Creek CountryClub, it's for sale.
Something that I've developedover the last probably 20 years
here in the Seattle area where Icall home is an interest in
(05:52):
understanding of wine and thewinemaking process. And that
kind of I fell into thatprobably because of my my love
of culture and people and I madea friend here who ended up
starting a winery inBrent labor. And so for the past
16 years, actually 18 years nowit's first first vintage was
(06:14):
2004. And been, you know,helping my friend Chris Sparkman
of Sparkman sellers. In everyaspect of winemaking. This does,
you know again, Grunt labor andhelping out wherever it needed
to be helped. And I've learned alot and just grown to
appreciate, you know, that wholeprocess of, of winemaking, the
business side of it as well,maybe it's a retirement gig for
(06:35):
you. It really could be I justenjoy it. I mean from the
farmers, which is part of whatyou know, I grew up with who
grow the grapes, you know, allthrough the process. And then
ultimately, this kind of crazysales and marketing process as
well that that drives that wholebusiness. And so there's a lot a
lot to learn there and fun, fun,fun people along the way as
(06:58):
well. Very cool. Very cool. So.
So you went to ASU.
And how did you find your way?
What did you study?
So I started out as abioengineering major there,
truth be told, I flunked out ofthe engineering part of the
whole process and defaulted tojust getting a basic biological
(07:22):
sciences degree, okay. I alongthe way, thought about going to
medical school, but early on,think to some good thanks to
some good mentors, realized Iwas either going to be a good
doctor and a bad husband andfather, or a good husband and
father and a bad doctor. Andkind of was self aware enough to
(07:42):
realize that was not a good setof choices. And so ultimately,
that led me into the biotechhealthcare field, where in
college undergrad actuallyworked in the summers for WL
Gore in their medical researchfacility in Flagstaff, Arizona.
And then that ultimately, set meup for what became my career and
(08:03):
kind of, you know, full time joband ultimately a passion of
eliminating corneal blindness. Ilove that. So So let's, that's a
great transition.
Tell us about corneal blindness,right, I think, you know,
probably,you know, not something that
most people face. It's, it'ssomething that clearly people
(08:26):
don't want, you know, when theywhen they hear that they have
some type of corneal injury or,or disease. It's a frightening
time. So how many, how manypeople does this impact? And
tell us about about the field alittle bit? Yeah, well,
you know, it's kind ofinteresting. So when you look
(08:47):
into somebody's eye, and you seethe colored part of their eye,
there's a clear layer of tissuethat covers over that colored
part of your eye, and that's thecornea. It's basically the
window of your eye. It's, it'swhat allows light to pass in and
for you to actually see also theshape of that tissue that
clearly of tissue refracts thelight, so that it ends up on
(09:10):
your retina and allows you tohave focus and be able to see
and so it's a critical part ofof your vision. Today, there are
about 12 point 7 million peopleworldwide who are cornea blind,
in at least one of their eyes.
And unfortunately, right now,there's not a treatment or a
pathway where all those peoplecould be put in a situation
(09:35):
where their sight was restored.
And there are genetic forms ofcorneal blindness. And then you
can imagine a whole set ofinjuries or infections. Anything
that affects the front of youreye, can cause your cornea to
become Miss shaped, which thenthe light doesn't focus properly
or cloudy, from infection sothat the light can't pass
(09:58):
through. And soAs you know, either diseases
injuries or infections are whatcaused people to go corneal
blind and the predominantmajority of those people
actually live in in lower middleincome countries. And so that's
where finding sustainable andscalable solutions to corneal
blindness is been a challenge.
(10:22):
And I feel really great at thispoint in my career over the past
two decades, especially wereally elevated corneal
blindness to a point whereindustry is starting to take
interest and really ramping upthe innovation. So my hope is
that over time, we will reachthat goal of eliminating corneal
(10:43):
blindness by the year 2040. Soit's a strategy that we are a
touchscreen of a mission that welaid out at Site life, a company
I was at.
And to really make that happenand have that goal of 2040. And
it's, it's starting the flywheelstarting to spin faster and
faster. So I'm still hopeful wecan meet that goal. And how many
(11:05):
people need a corneal transplantin the US every year? Yeah, so
every year, it's around 50,000.
People who need corneatransplants, that's a pretty
static member, I think that thegrowth and need for corneal
transplants is flat, you know,maybe single single digit
growth.
(11:25):
Fortunately, here in the US,because of organizations like
site life, and cornea, Jan thatI was was previously at, we
actually have a surplus oftissue available for transplant
here in the US amazing.
Which is fantastic. If you'rehere in the US, unfortunately,
(11:45):
pretty much every other countryaround the world has a shortage.
And the reality is globally, weproduce probably somewhere in
the neighborhood of 200,000corneas for transplant, where
you probably need, you know, 2million a year to just keep up
with the new cases of cornealblindness that come on. And then
you think of that, you know, 12point 7 million number, you
(12:08):
realize that we've got to dosome things differently, to
scale access to care andtreatments that can help restore
these people's vision. Socorneal corneal tissue and
transplants is just a piece ofthis right? What what are the
other aspects of of your, yourworld?
Yeah, well, you know, one of thegreat programs that was launched
(12:31):
at Site life was really earlytreatment of corneal abrasions.
And so, you know, if you've everhad an experience where you
scratch your you think youscratch your eyeball, you're
scratching your cornea, verypainful. And in most cases, if
if you, you know, bathe, youknow, daily or wash your face
regularly, you won't have anyproblem, it'll be painful for a
(12:54):
while, and in a day or two,it'll heal and you'll be fine.
In a developing world situationwhere you may not have the
ability to bathe with cleanwater and wash your face with
clean water, that scratch onyour cornea can very quickly
lead to an infection. And so oneof the things that they've been
doing at Site life is trainingcommunity health workers. In
(13:17):
most cases, these are women whoare trained how to identify a
corneal abrasion and treat itwith an antibiotic, so that it
heals quickly. And this sort ofjust prevents a whole load of
corneal blindness fromhappening. So being on that
prevention side is another partof what's happening out there.
(13:37):
And then more recently, orientedbiotech, another company that I
helped found, has been able todevelop a product where we can
take cells from a donor cornea,multiply those cells, so that
one donor cornea can actuallyprovide transplants for over 100
people, I think, really, it'sprobably going to be closer to
(14:00):
1000 people from one donorcornea. And so this really
solves the shortage problem. Andthese cells are delivered via an
injection into the what's calledthe anterior chamber of your
eye, just behind the cornea. Andso that's another mode of
treatment that I think is goingto have a huge impact and the
cornea regenerates, correct itthat's a great question. And the
(14:25):
answer is yes and no. So thecornea actually has many
different cell types in it,there's layers of cells. The
outer layer of cells is calledthe epithelium. The epithelium
continually regenerates. And asyou're blinking or whatever,
you're removing the oldepithelial cells and the newer
cells come forward, and so thatthat process is continued
(14:50):
working, and there's a segmentof corneal blindness we're
working on at the HollandFoundation, which is a nonprofit
I'm affiliated with, wherepatients actually are
unable to regenerate newepithelial cells and they
develop very severe painful whatare called ocular surface
disorders.
But on the back of the cornea,you have what's called the
(15:12):
endothelium. And that's a singlelayer of cells. And those cells
do not regenerate. And so thereare genetic disorders like Fuchs
dystrophy, or other injuriesthat can actually damage those
cells, and they don'tregenerate. And the primary
function of those cells is topump fluid out of your cornea.
So it stays compact, and clear.
And when your cornea swells, itactually becomes cloudy. And so
(15:36):
the endothelial cells are reallycritical, but they don't
regenerate. And one of the, themost common forms of transplant
is replacing that inner layer ofcells with with donor tissue.
Very cool. I mean, I thought Ishared with you, when we spoke
last week that I was about sevenyears ago, I had I had a corneal
injury to my right eye. And itwas, you know, I've had
(15:58):
orthopedic injuries and, andother injuries, and I can, I can
attest that the corneal injurywas by far the most frightening
and the most painful injury thatI have ever experienced.
And, you know, just in additionto the the pain, the panic, the
(16:18):
fear that this causes whensomebody is potentially losing
their sight, in the eye issignificant. So having
therapeutics that can restoresight is amazing. And obviously,
mine wasn't as severe itregenerated. And as you
mentioned earlier, it actuallymine actually regenerated and
(16:40):
changed theshape the shape of the cornea.
So therefore, I landed myselfwith with glasses after that. So
but but from a pure, you know,this is not just physical. This
is also psychological, becauseit has a massive psychological
component to what you do.
(17:04):
Yeah, it really does. You know,I just reminded me, of some of
these things I get a littlechoked up thinking about and
remembering, but I just flashedback to this conversation, I was
in Nairobi, Kenya, sittingacross from a cab driver who had
a corneal abrasion, turned intoan infection. And through that
(17:26):
whole process, he was a driver,he lost his job, he couldn't
support his family, his wife andhis kids left to go back with
her family, because theycouldn't support him. And he was
sort of a drain to them. Andhe's sitting across from us
basically saying, Can you pleasehelp me because if you can't,
I'm just going to kill myself.
Because life is not worthliving, if I can't see. And so
(17:49):
the the reality of of blindnessacross the globe is pretty
weighty and the psychologicalimpacts that it has on the
person who's blind, but thenalso the ripple effect out on
all the people who are aroundthem is pretty amazing. You
know, it really impacted me whenthe first time I went to the
(18:12):
who, in Geneva, of all thethings they can have, out in
front of the WHO headquarters isa a large statue of a blind man
holding on to a stick, and ayoung boy is holding on to the
other end of it. And it's it'sbasically this thing that that
captures the impact of, ofhealth ailments. And in the US,
(18:35):
blindness is the one because theelderly man is blind. And so
this child has been charged totake care of him and he follows
the child around well, thatchild's not going to school.
And so that future of thatperson, that child basically is
changed. Probably not for thebetter because there are now two
(18:58):
people who are affected andprobably more by my by this
blindness. Very cool. It'samazing.
So Tell, tell me about youstarted to tell me in our prep
session about some technologythat you're developing, that
allows for medications to bedistributed through a lens.
(19:22):
Yeah, so I'm currently leading astartup company called fair
optics. And we are working onbrain to market technology that
was developed at the Langer labat MIT and in partnership with
Boston Children's Hospital andmass pioneer, where we can take
(19:43):
drugs put them in a polymer,embed that Polymer inside of a
contact lens that then candeliver drugs after ophthalmic
surgical procedures in a verycontrolled manner. So you have
you know, more precise dosingover the desired time period
that you want to deliver thatand this could really change the
trajectory of post surgical careand ophthalmology. Right now, if
(20:09):
you know many people out therehave had cataract surgery, for
example. And so after cataractsurgery, you're sent home with
drops, and you have to put thesedrops in your eye and the drops,
when in your eyes are veryeffective, but But it's hard to
get them in, especially ifyou're, you know, let's say 70
or 80 years old after cataractsurgery, that's kind of hard to
(20:30):
do. And so there are asignificant amount of post
surgical complications acrossophthalmology. And so by having
this contact lens on the cornea,delivering a drug at a
controlled way, can really helpeliminate, you know, some of
those those challenges that wesee post surgically, the first
(20:52):
product that we're working on,which you would have loved to
have Jason when you had yourcorneal abrasion is for corneal
brain corneal pain. And so,there are procedures like PRK or
corneal crosslinking, where inorder to do the procedure, the
surgeon has to remove thatepithelial layer of tissue and
(21:13):
so that the eye is exposed,those nerve endings are exposed,
you know, to to the air, whichactually creates a lot of pain.
And so by putting on a thoroughoptics lens that actually has an
analgesic in the lens, we cantake care of that pain problem.
For those patients while they'retheir epithelial layer, regrows
(21:36):
it usually takes two to threedays for that to happen. Right
now, it's kind of amazing thatthe primary way that doctors are
dealing with this post surgicalpain and PRK especially, is by
prescribing opioids. Yep. And,you know, there's been studies
done at some of the topophthalmology centers in the
country where, actually corneasurgeons, who are providing
(22:01):
large volumes of PRK surgery aresome of the highest prescribers
in the system, a maze ofopioids, a whole host of
problems leading the lead fromthat. Yeah, exactly. Okay. So
how did you come up with thisidea?
Well, I have to give credit tothe founders of their optics,
Dan Kahani, who is at BostonChildren's in MIT, he's actually
(22:26):
has his section in the Langerlab at MIT and Joe Chileno, who
is a corneal surgeon at Mass ionhere, those two really are the
founders of of this whole idea.
And over the last, you know, 10plus years, they've been doing
academic work, that ultimatelyled to a patent, the patent that
they were able to secure as forany drug, encapsulated in a
(22:52):
contact lens, so very powerfuland broad patent. And then, you
know, just this concept, and sothose two are really the key, my
role came in once therapeuticshad licensed that intellectual
property from MIT, BostonChildren's and mass pioneer, was
to come in and do the techtransfer and, and get a product
(23:14):
that that ultimately can make itthrough FDA approval, and most
importantly, really servepatients and surgeons in a
powerful way.
A sell advisors, expertconsultants are all veteran
operators to bring realsolutions to your business
challenges, contact us at infoat acel dash advisors.com To
(23:39):
reach our experts today.
Let's pivot. And let's talk alittle bit about your leadership
style and philosophies. You'veled very large teams, across
your organizations. How do youset clear vision and strategy
(24:03):
for your teams? You know, Ithink
one of the key things in all ofthat, for me has been really
identifying big, you know, thosebig, hairy, audacious goals
kind of working really, reallydiligently to refine what that
(24:24):
is, and then frame it into, youknow, something that's specific,
measurable, attainable, relevantand timely, okay, those the
SMART goal, for example, atsight life,
you know, we developed a visionslash mission statement that
went, you know, I still know itto this day. We serve as a
(24:47):
global leader and partner toeliminate corneal blindness by
2014. And so, you know, we kindof had this very big thing to
eliminate corneal blindness. Wewere very specific
about our role to be a leaderand a partner.
You know, if you see thepictures and hear the stories of
the corneal blindness, you knowthat it's very relevant.
(25:11):
And then you have that timelygoal of 2040. And then the only
question in that was, Is itattainable? Can we really make
this happen and, and in thatmission statement really served
as a catalyst, and a framing forfor all of what sight life has
done over the last 12 years andstill going forward. And so I
(25:31):
think, again, having that big,you know, hairy, audacious goal
is part of it.
But then, I think important tothat is you have to have
strategies that are, let's say,yearly, but also, you know,
three to five year strategiesthat are serving that statement.
And so what do we need to bedoing today
(25:52):
that, you know, those those, youknow, one or two really critical
things that have to happen thisyear for us to make the
appropriate progress towardsthat goal. And so making sure
that that's clear across theentire organization, and making
sure everybody understands whatthey do on a daily basis to
serve those strategies, right,excellent.
(26:15):
today's workforce, as you know,seemingly burnt out, all of the
companies that I talked to, arehaving a difficult time, whether
people are working from home orhave a hybrid arrangement.
Some people seem to be workingmore hours than ever, even
though they seem to have moreflexibility. What have you done
(26:36):
with your teams to be able tocombat fatigue and improve
morale and retention?
Yeah, you know, I think this isan area where we're still
learning, you know, across thebusiness landscape of how to
manage this. And, and I thinkthis combination of the
pandemic, and this access totechnology that allows us to
(27:00):
work from from anywhere, has, insome ways provided short term
productivity. But this issue ofburnout is, is much, much
bigger, I think, than werealize. And so, one of the
things that I've been practicingreally for for the last 10 plus
years,is, is a concept I call NATO.
(27:22):
And it's no access time off. Andso, in this process, I was the
first one to do it myself.
Fortunately, I had a boardchair, you know, 10 plus years
ago, her name was Diane Sabin,and she was a former CPA and
CFO. And she thought it would begood periodically for the CEO,
to be on vacation, and to nothave access to anything in the
(27:46):
organization, just as a way tocheck for fraud and redundancy
in the organization. And so herpurpose for that was more kind
of from a CPA audit complianceperspective. But what I learned
when I took time off, and I wasunplugged from the network, I
couldn't log into my emailbecause they changed my password
(28:12):
that I, wow, I actually had alot better experience I came
back even more refreshed. But Istill had one problem in that is
that I came back to this pile ofemails. And so all that, you
know, sort of refreshing I hadgained kind of dissipated very
quickly because I'm trying tocatch up and, and dig out from
(28:32):
under this mountain of email. Soin the no access time off
process, I ultimately developedfor myself and then began to
push down into the organization.
When you had a vacation, Ireally encourage people to take
at least a week, and if possibletwo weeks a year where you're
completely unplugged from thenetwork. And for most hard
(28:53):
chargers typing people like youand I, Jason and probably the
people listening to this, youhave to change their password
because we can't help ourselves,we'll still try to work with
our spouses, you know, off tothe store, and we're on
vacation, we're checking to seeif there's anything we missed.
(29:14):
But so, so changing thepassword, so you can't get in at
all. And then here's the big onethat really made a difference
for me. That out of officemessage that informs people that
you will never read the emailsthat they send you during this
time period. And that if theyneed to contact somebody in the
organization, here's who theycan talk contact or if they need
(29:38):
to contact you. This is whenyou'll be back and resend the
email then. And and while you'regone, all of those emails are
completely deleted. And so whenyou come back from your time
off, you have zero emails inyour inbox. And that has been
something that I have found toreally help refresh people
(30:00):
and kind of changed perspectiveswhen you know, just having that
time off to, to get your brainrested and your mind rested. You
know, I feel like it's reallypromoted the creativity of of
our key leadership, it'sdefinitely been a great tool and
retention of, you know, keepingpeople and, you know, I'll tell
you some of the people that willfight this the most are your
(30:22):
salespeople.
Right, you know, they can'timagine being away and not being
able to resolve problems, butbut they're the ones that
probably need as much asanybody, it's, you know, it's
amazing to hear a leader, notjust, you know, do this
themselves, encourage it forother people, no matter the
function in the organization.
(30:45):
And, and obviously, it's, it'sscary, right? It's, it's, it's a
massive sea shift in peoplethinking about this. But I know
that when when employeesreturned from vacation, and they
find dozens, if not hundreds ofemails waiting for them.
It negates the entire purpose ofthat vacation, they come back,
(31:08):
they're underwater, they'reoverwhelmed. Undoubtedly, people
who check their emails eitherduring vacation or right before
they come back, just so thatthey can catch up. And this is
just an absolutely phenomenalidea that other leaders can can
implement and should encouragepeople, people who are listening
this probably can feel thatanxiety, I felt it when you were
(31:31):
talking about it.
Days before my vacation is over,oh my gosh, I know, I'm gonna
have 1000s of emails or hundredsof emails and I have to deal
with and absolutely, I'm justgonna start working on them now.
So last thing I wanted to chatwith you about
in this market, how are yourecruiting high performing
(31:53):
talent?
You know, one of the thingsthat, you know, it's funny,
there's some of these thingsthat we benefited from our time
at Duke, we had some greatleaders and professors there.
And one of the things we workeda fair amount with, remember sim
sitcom and, and Alan, Alan land,yep. His culture and how to
(32:16):
build culture. And, and one ofthe things that stuck for me and
I was able to develop is, youknow, it's not just having
values in the company, those arereally important. If you don't
define the behaviors, thatanimate those values in your
company, it's really hard toknow what you're recruiting for.
Yep. And so one of the thingsthat I've done at my company is,
(32:40):
is put a lot of time and effortin understanding, not just from
my perspective, but the companyitself. How do we, how do we
define top performers? What arethey? And what are the behaviors
those individuals exhibit? Andso for example, you know, one of
the the values that insight lifewas passionate. And we went
(33:01):
through identifyingwhat are those? What is passion
look like, at Site life, and oneof the funny things that came
up, is, you're willing to pitchin help and help whenever it's
needed. You just nobody has toask you. It's just you just step
in. And once we identified thatit was really funny to watch, if
some, like the one thing younever said at Site life was,
(33:24):
that's not my job. If you saidthat, like everybody just would
kind of take a step back belike, okay, this person doesn't
belong here, right. And so whatwe began doing is actually
codifying the questions in ourinterview process, looking for
those behaviors, and potentialcandidates. And so finding
(33:46):
people who were already doingthose behaviors wherever they
were at, and then bringing theminto the organization, and
actually, we many times we'remore focused on does this person
have the right behaviors, we'llteach them how to do what they
need to do, we'll train them upon whatever the details of their
job are. But if they have thebehavioral slash cultural fit,
(34:09):
we can make them work.
Absolutely. I completely agree.
I was chatting with somebodythis morning about it. I was
asked how do you build highperforming teams? And what do
you look for and it is somewhatamorphous, right. And so I, you
know, I explained some of thetechnical characteristics, but I
also explained a persona ofsomebody being both a helper and
(34:34):
a problem solver, and beingintellectually curious, because
if you're a helper, you're aproblem solver and you're
intellectually curious. Youdon't care if the issue or
problem to be solved or work tobe done is within your realm. Or
if it's over in a completelydifferent area and you're just
(34:55):
excited to help somebody else tofor the greater good
it? Yeah. You know, I think it'sone of the things that's really
hard and I struggled with this,I just thought of a accordia Gen
i, we got to a point where weneeded to hire a new Chief
Commercial Officer. And we, Iwas able to recruit in somebody
(35:19):
that the investors and the boardreally had high esteem for, they
thought, well, this person isfantastic. We can't believe
you've recruited them in. And inthe onboarding process, this
individual basically got kickedout of the process. And like day
one, it was patently clear thatthis person did not fit our
(35:41):
culture. At the same time, Iknew I had investors and board
members that, you know, justthought this person was, was
perfect. And they were going to,you know, be everything we
needed. And so I'm in thissituation, do I honor the
culture? Or, or do I protect myown backside of my board and
investors. And, and, you know,to do the right thing,
(36:03):
ultimately, I had to let thatperson go. And we, you know, we
had a very amicableconversation, where we both
realized, Hey, this is not agood fit, right? And let's,
let's call it now allow you tomove on, and allow us to move on
and do it in an amicable way.
And so we were able to do that,but I have to admit, it was a
little scary as a CEO, because Iyou know, I wasn't sure how the
(36:26):
board in the investors wouldhandle but I think ultimately,
everybodywas pretty pleased to see that
the culture was that strong,that, you know, right away, even
though this this, you know,highly regarded highly touted
brilliant person, very, veryaccomplished, they just didn't
fit. And that was identifiedquickly, you have to protect
(36:47):
that at all costs.
So, Monty, I want to, you know,thank you again, this has been
an amazing conversation I'velearned a lot about, about your,
your field. I know, thelisteners,
I'm sure have, have learnedquite a bit. And, and certainly,
(37:09):
you know, and probably even moreimportantly, learning from your
leadership style and some of theunique things that that you
brought to your companies inyour industry. And I know that
the leaders and aspiring leaderslistening in will will learn
from that and, and I'm prettysure we're going to see NATO
implemented around so when whenwe start seeing NATO all around,
(37:32):
we're going to attribute that toyou.
I love to see that just for thebenefit of humanity for people
to have that, that, you know,mental, physical, emotional
health, you know, through thatprocess be great. Thanks again.
Thank you, Jason, fun to behere. Well, that was an
absolutely amazing conversationwith Monty and and I personally
(37:55):
absolutely loved hearing aboutall of the exciting things that
he is working on, and in thecorneal space, and absolutely
appreciate that somebody likeMonty a leader like Monty has
dedicated his life and hiscareer to restoring sight for
(38:17):
millions of people. So, at theend of every podcast, we recap,
with the three main things thatwe learned from our triple
threat leader of the day, andAnd I noted down three things
that I learned from Monty. Thefirst one is around goals and
vision, we need to set big,hairy, audacious goals,
(38:41):
otherwise known as B hag.
And it's not enough to tie thosebig, hairy audacious goals, or
at least set those big, hairyaudacious goals on their own. We
have to tie them to smart goals,and smart goals SandForce,
Specific, Measurable,Achievable, Relevant and time
(39:01):
bound. So we take those biggoals, we tie them to smart
goals, we then set a timelinefor those on both short and
medium term objectives. And thenwe need to make it personal.
What does that mean for eachindividual in each role?
Second thing I learned fromMonty is his philosophy on NATO.
(39:25):
No access time off, which Ithink is an absolutely
incredible philosophy and is isa wonderful thing to do for your
employees.
It's to make sure that youremployees aren't overwhelmed
during or after a vacation. TimeOff, is time off time off is is
(39:48):
meant to be spent rechargingthose batteries coming back to
work full steam ahead. And whenwe stare down the barrel of a
full inbox that's that's waitingfor us.
When we come back, it negatesall of that time off. So lock
down, email, delete the emails,refer to other people on the
(40:12):
team who are not on vacation,and let that employee come back
to a clean slate, Moving at fullspeed ahead as soon as they come
back. So NATO was absolutelyfantastic leadership idea from
Monty and the third is aroundhiring and and Monty suggested
(40:33):
that we need to define behaviorsthat animate culture and values.
I think that's really powerful.
We have to define our culture.
We have to define the behaviors.
And once we do that, and we'rerecruiting, we look for people
who support one another. And andif you do those things, you can
often recruit into highperforming teams.
(40:58):
So once again, I want to thankyou for listening to the leaders
perspective podcast. As always,have a great day and be your
best self.
Thanks for listening to theleaders perspective podcast,
brought to you by a celladvisors visit a cell dash
advisors.com For moreinformation about our growth
(41:20):
turnaround, optimization, riskin HR Advisory Services
LLC, and is available onYouTube, Apple and Spotify.
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