Becky Ruppert McMahon, President & CEO, Cleveland Leadership Center
On August 29, a sell-out crowd of 250+ leaders from all stages and ages participated in CLC’s eighth annual leadership symposium – Spark: Grit to Great. Presented each and every year in partnership with Marcum LLP, Spark is designed to help Cleveland leaders discover how making new connections and embracing different perspectives can spark innovation. If we’ve learned anything over the past few years, it’s that innovation is essential for our businesses and our communities to thrive into the future.
Carey Jaros, President & CEO of GOJO Industries, Inc., ignited the audience with an opening keynote centered on how leaders today are being asked to go faster than ever, to deliver more value than ever, often with fewer human and financial resources. At the same time, leaders must also focus on driving engagement, providing opportunities for growth and development, and advancing critical environmental, social, and governance initiatives from diversity, equity and inclusion to environmental sustainability.
Tapping into her own career evolution and intentional study of transformational leadership, Carey wowed the crowd with more than a few “Aha!” moments. Most impactful to me were three major takeaways from social scientists and organizational behaviorists Carey looks to as she navigates the “leaders must go faster, delivering more value with fewer resources” paradox.
1: Be generous. Share leadership.
Based on the works of Margaret Wheatley, PhD, Carey talked about best-in-class leaders building organizations that place autonomy above order and control. Leaders who share their leadership with others can create self-organizing environments that produce what all leaders crave: the capacity to respond continuously to change. In these systems, change is the organizing force, not a problematic intrusion. Failure and making mistakes become part of the growth process and ultimately lead to individual and organizational success.
2: Be brave. Use radical candor.
Too often, well-meaning leaders coach teams in the least effective manner – by providing indirect, watered-down feedback that fails to give employees opportunities to grow. Developed by Kim Scott, the concept of radical candor posits that to be successful, leaders must build strong relationships with their teams through the delivery of direct feedback that is clear, specific, and demonstrates personal care for employees’ growth and development.
3: Be real. Build trust to go fast.
Trust is the foundation of everything we do. Frances Frei, PhD advocates that if leaders and the people they lead can learn how to trust one another, our world could see unprecedented human progress. Real trust, however, can only be created with a “triad of trust” – authenticity (I experience the real you), logic (I know you can do the job because your reasoning and judgment are sound), and empathy (I believe you care about me and my success). If one pillar crumbles, trust wobbles.
By the end of Carey’s remarks, the crowd was literally cheering.
From there, the half-day Spark symposium gave attendees the chance to participate in a series of workshops that provided a variety of insights and ideas. Speakers included:
- Nic Barlage, CEO, Cleveland Cavaliers,
- Paul Matsen, Chief Marketing & Communications Officer, Cleveland Clinic
- George Sample, Principal Consultant, Blue Streak Consultants
- Denise Polverine, Publisher, Cleveland Magazine
- Joyce Pan Huang, Director of City Planning Commissions, City of Cleveland
- Allison Lukacsy-Love, Managing Director, Major Projects, Greater Cleveland Partnership
- Patrice Blakemore, SVP Equity & Inclusion, Greater Cleveland Partnership
- Karla Wludyga, VP of Organizational Development, PRADCO
Even though the August day was warm and sunny, we wrapped up Spark 2024 with a fireside chat featuring Dr. Michael Baston, President, Cuyahoga Community College, and Craig Hassall, President & CEO, Playhouse Square. The two friends (frequent collaborators, and Leadership Cleveland 2024 classmates) discussed their respective journeys to leadership and to Cleveland – Dr. Baston in 2022, and Craig in 2023. They also shared their mutual, fundamental belief that sustainable community change can only happen when leaders build trust and step outside of their silos.
Finally, throughout the half-day program, attendees were invited to share their own reflections on what leadership means to them. Through a digital platform, CLC collected a variety of responses that reflect a wide range of thoughts about leadership.
Here’s a sample:
To me, leadership is the ability to harness the power of others to build a shared vision and then execute on that vision. Inside CLC, that’s what we strive to do every day – within our team of 14, and across our programs that bring together leaders from a wide spectrum of life and career stages with a goal of inspiring, connecting and challenging individuals to make a positive community impact.
If you are thinking about finding a new transformative CLC experience, reach out. I’d love to hear from you anytime at bmcmahon@cleveleads.org.
Lean in to leading on!
