Better Person-Better Leader

I was I was already doing some change management work within my organization, when I was selected by my company to go through the master’s degree program. The program exceeded my expectations. Up to that point, I had been leading more horizontally, but in the middle of the program I got my first manager role. The LIOS training was pivotal.

I started leading a team of hourly employees who were old enough to be my parents. This wasn’t the deep south in the Jim Crow era, but I will tell you that at that time, I didn’t have a welcoming party in East Tennessee. I was inexperienced; I was immature; and I was a lot of things that didn’t translate into an effective leader. 

The program taught me about how people learn, how to connect with people, how to cater my message to my audience, how to really listen and understand people’s intrinsic motivation, and how to connect all that with business goals. One of the biggest impacts was learning about myself as a person and a leader. And then how to mesh what I was learning about myself with how to lead others.

When I consider my career trajectory, a fundamental piece that stands out is learning how to be vulnerable, with discretion of course. What I learned was that it was possible to really know others and to be known as a human in business. This way of being became a foundational leadership tenant throughout my career. For example, I just used this principle recently.  

I’ve been in my current VP role for about two years, and my team is spread out across seven different states. I believe that my ability to allow others to know who I am and what I believe, accelerated our level of trust and genuine interest in one another.

For my whole career, I’ve also used systems thinking as a way of approaching problem solving. It’s been a huge part of how I’ve been able to grow and develop in my career. I see people around me that don’t have those skills and I can see it’s more challenging for them. The family of origin work was very powerful.  I see people struggling with authority issues all the time, but they are unaware. 

I also use Sponsor, Agent, Target all the time. When you are talking multi-level organizational change, role clarity and alignment are so important. These are some of the primary concepts from LIOS I use to make change sticky. These models and concepts are so integrated into my thinking, they are now the air I breathe.

I remember one powerful experience using VOMP in a 3rd party conflict resolution process in an effort to reduce the number of grievances. I was working at a site that was over 60 years old. There were remote locations on the site, so I used a conference room in an old training center that was off the beaten path and led folks the VOMP process. What I learned is that most of the issues were not contractual issues; they were all people issues – and I could help solve them. It was very satisfying work.

Paraphrasing is another example of a simple skill that made a major difference at work—and at home. My wife tells me that LIOS saved our marriage.  It helped me be a better listener.

I’ve been leading people for a while, and I think these skills and theories will stay relevant for a long time. My mom would say, “He who has friends, must first show himself friendly.”  That’s a way to show vulnerability and invite you to connect with me. Vulnerability is a leadership characteristic that moves others.

When you apply these concepts it makes you a better person, and a better leader.

 ~ Joel Baker, Target Group VP, Global Supply Chain Logistics. LIOS ABS Master’s degree, 1994 – 96