Steve Brody, The Role of a Leader in Building and Sustaining a Great Culture – InnovaBuzz 513
Steve Brody, Brody & Associates
In this episode, I’m really excited to have as my guest, Steve Brody, an expert at helping people prepare to exit their businesses. He wrote a book called, “What Happens After the Sale” and has helped hundreds of business owners think through their exit plans.
Steve has over thirty years of marketing, general management, and consulting experience within large corporations and privately held firms. Steve’s experience has been in the consumer packaged goods and services industry, including beverages, pasta, frozen and refrigerated prepared foods, electronic information services, and distribution services.
Steve is active in consulting at the Executive Management level. He currently operates Advisory Boards for CEOs of firms from diverse industries. In addition, Steve has consulted with clients in the areas of Strategic Business Plans, Marketing Plans, Market Research, Business Plans for equity investors and executive coaching.
In our conversation, Steve talked to me about:
- A leader’s role in building and sustaining the culture of an organization
- Steps to identify the 3-4 most important core values of an organization
- Why leaders don’t need to have all the answers and what they need to do and be instead
Ellen Melko Moore in episode 487 introduced us to Steve.
Listen to the podcast to find out more.
Listen to the Podcast
Leadership in many ways is about motivation and inspiration. @StevenBTX on #InnovaBuzz podcast Click To TweetShow Notes from this episode with Steve Brody of Brody & Associates
Key points and takeaways from this episode include:
- The role of a coach is to help a leader recognize how they are coming across in their organization and the impact they are making.
- It’s important for leaders to be willing to have this type of relationship with a coach. They have to be willing to look at themselves and prove themselves.
- Leaders must be willing to leave their egos at the door.
- A leader’s role is huge. It starts at the top and rolls down to the organization. As goes the leader, there goes the organization and the creation of that culture.
- A leader’s personal and professional attributes are 2 different aspects that have to be balanced. There have to be equal elements of each of those.
- Leadership in many ways is about motivation and inspiration.
- Leaders can create the values that they want and are important to them, but they have to choose the right people that are going to fit those values.
- You can’t dictate people to follow you. They should want to follow you, and they have to be motivated and inspired to do so.
- No one is good at everything. Surround yourself with the right kind of people that complement you.
- One of the biggest roles of any leader is to help identify the future.
- Hiring someone who’s just like you creates a certain level of comfort, so hire people who have different experiences from you.
- It all starts with your values. Find the most important and comfortable for you and translate that into a culture.
- Being strategic sometimes means being opportunistic. It’s looking at opportunities that excite you and taking advantage of them.
- Don’t focus on just a share of the market. Don’t just focus on the category that your product is in. Go one level up above the industry you’re in.
- All leaders must have a vision. It’s your view of what the future might look like or the future that you want to satisfy. You have to fill that role because people in the organization are looking to you to provide them with direction.
- Leadership is getting people to follow you based on their desire to go where you want to go. You have to have people who are motivated to go in that direction.
- A vision is not something that you can dictate. You have to have people who are willing to follow that.
- Self-awareness and clarity of purpose are keys. People need to feel good about their role and purpose because that is what motivation and inspiration are about.
The Buzz – Our Innovation Round
Here are Steve’s answers to the questions of our innovation round. Listen to the conversation to get the full scoop.
- #1 thing to be more innovative – Be naturally curious and be a lifelong learner.
- Best thing for new ideas – Be a good observer.
- Favourite tool for innovation – TED Talks
- Keep project/client on track – Rockefeller Habits. Measure where you want to go and organize that.
- Differentiate – Choose a niche and focus on that. Don’t try to be all things to all people.
To Be a Leader
Be a great connector for others. You will never have all the answers to everything. Be great at asking questions.
Reach Out
You can reach out and thank Steve through his website.
Suggested Guest
Steve suggested we have a conversation with the CEO of Publishing Co, Henry DeVries. So Henry, keep an eye on your inbox for an invitation from us to the InnovaBuzz Podcast, courtesy of Steve Brody.
Links
Book
Cool Things About Steve
- He is a Master Chair for Vistage International, the world’s largest CEO member organization.
- He’s a Certified NAVIX Consultant.
- He was the President of four different consumer firms all owned by Investors or Equity Groups.