238: How to Live Life in Crescendo

Did you know that Stephen R. Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, was working on another book before he died in 2012? The book is called Live Life In Crescendo: Your Most Important Work is Always Ahead of You.

His co-author was his daughter Cynthia Covey Haller, and she was committed to see the book through to publication. This took several years because of all the stories she included as examples of the “Crescendo Mentality.”

In this unforgettable conversation, Cynthia takes us behind the scenes about the creation of the book and the key message that Stephen was eager to get out to the world in the last years of his life. She also reveals the condition that robbed Stephen of his ability to speak and write near the end.

You’ll discover:

The story behind the book’s title and subtitle
Examples of what the Crescendo Mentality looks like in action
Why contribution is a key theme running throughout the book
How Stephen turns the concept of “retirement” upside down
What you can do to be a “Transition” person who ends unhealthy patterns in a family or community

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Cynthia’s Book

Live Life In Crescendo: Your Most Important Work is Always Ahead of You

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237: Avoid Leadership Derailers and Common Traps of Living

In your role as a leader and in other areas of your life, what kinds of habits have prevented you from being as effective as you’d like to be? My guest Gregg Vanourek has studied and written about these leadership derailers and common traps of living, and we cover several of them in this conversation.

Gregg runs Gregg Vanourek LLC, a training and development firm, and teaches at the University of Denver and Stockholm Business School. He helps people with leadership, personal growth, and life design through his books, courses, workshops, speaking, and coaching.

Gregg has been an entrepreneur for most of his career. He was a tech startup executive at K12 Inc., which is now a market leader with $1 billion in sales. He also co-founded New Mountain Ventures, focused on developing entrepreneurial leaders.

Gregg is co-author of three influential books, including LIFE Entrepreneurs about infusing your life with passion and purpose, and Triple Crown Leadership: Building Excellent, Ethical, and Enduring Organizations. He’s working on a new book about the common traps of living.

You can take the two assessments Gregg refers to in this interview, “Leadership Derailers” and “Traps Test,” for free on his website.

You’ll discover:

What Gregg considers the superpowers of leaders
Why both Head and Heart are necessary to lead effectively
The #1 leadership derailer that causes problems for leaders and their teams
The most common traps of living that prevent people from experiencing the success and happiness they desire
Specific suggestions for changing these into positive habits

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Gregg’s Resources

Websites

Gregg Vanourek

Triple Crown Leadership

Traps Test: The Common Traps of Living

Books

Triple Crown Leadership: Building Excellent, Ethical, and Enduring Organizations

LIFE Entrepreneurs: Ordinary People Creating Extraordinary Lives

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236: Overcoming Obstacles for Black Women’s Advancement to the C-suite

Black women are under-represented in the C-suite. That’s a reality that Dr. Mechelle Roberthon has seen first-hand, and she’s on a mission to turn that around. This is a must-listen interview if your organization is committed to ensuring diversity at all levels, including top executive positions.

Michelle shares important insights from her dissertation research and describes specific actions organizations can take to ensure opportunities for diverse representation at top leadership levels. Mentorship and Sponsorship are key elements of this process.

Mechelle is a Certified Professional in Talent Development. Her background includes training delivery, performance improvement, and managing learning programs. She received her Doctor of Education degree from Baylor University and holds a Master of Science in Education with a specialization in Training and Performance Improvement.

Mechelle is an experienced career and professional development instructor. She’s taught over 500 corporate courses and receives consistently high evaluations. Her dynamic teaching style has become a favorite amongst learners. You’ll understand why when you listen to our conversation!

You’ll discover:

The event that inspired Mechelle to choose her dissertation topic
What she learned from interviewing Black women already in, or aspiring to, positions in the C-suite
4 specific actions you can take to ensure opportunities for diverse representation at top leadership levels
What organizations do wrong when someone leaves voluntarily
What effective Offboarding looks like

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Dr. Mechelle Roberthon ‘s Resources

Websites

Dr. Mechelle Roberthon

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235: A Leader’s #1 Priority Every Week

Do you faithfully hold weekly 1-1 meetings with each member of your team? Jeremy Barr explains why this is the most important thing you can do as a leader. In this fast-paced conversation, Jeremy shares lots of nuggets about leadership that he’s learned from his various executive roles and now teaches to company founders, business owners, and leaders. He’s on a mission to have a positive impact on 3 billion people, and you’ll be fascinated to learn the approach he’s taking to reach that audacious goal.

Jeremy has been CTO, COO, CEO and VC investor. As a leader, he has managed teams of teams of people. He is currently building the world’s largest investor and founder network. He created his company Rocket Mindset to rapidly uplevel the skills of founders and leaders.

Jeremy is unique among the guests on this show because of the size of the positive impact he intends to have. Everything Jeremy does is to impact 3 billion people…and have a lot of fun while doing it. To achieve this audacious goal, Jeremy is working with his global team of investors and founders to run, invest in, and advise a ton of companies with the intention of growing them and the humans inside them rapidly.

His favorite things are to find and create high quality, highly evolved humans.

You’ll discover:

What you should learn during the interview process to ensure you hire the right person
How to make an effective pitch, no matter what idea you’re trying to sell
A winning approach when you want to help two people resolve a conflict
Why daily stand-ups with your team create greater clarity, focus, and productivity
The kinds of questions to ask that help your team become autonomous

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Jeremy’s Websites

Rocket Mindset

Montelier Capital

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234: Practicing The Collaborative Way

What would happen if everyone in an organization adopted a collaborative approach to working together? Lloyd Fickett has facilitated such transformations scores of times over the past 20+ years with a set of 5 practices he created called The Collaborative Way. In this powerful conversation, Lloyd explains each one and describes the benefits that individuals, teams, and entire companies experience as a result of living these practices.

Lloyd founded Lloyd Fickett & Associates, Inc. in 1983, a management consulting firm initially focused on leadership, team building and extraordinary performance. In 1990 he developed The Collaborative Way® while working with Rodel, one of his clients. Since then, Lloyd

has helped his clients adopt The Collaborative Way® in order to build the futures they envision while navigating challenges like rapid growth, mergers, acquisitions, and other market pressures.

Lloyd is co-author of two books, The Collaborative Way®: A Story About Engaging the Mind and Spirit of a Company and Leading the Collaborative Way: Overcoming the Seven Most Common Pitfalls.

You’ll discover:

What led Lloyd to create The Collaborative Way while working with Rodel, one of his clients
Why Listening Generously is the #1 practice
That Honoring Commitments is not just about making them
The distinction Lloyd makes between Acknowledgement and Appreciation
The benefits one company has experienced by practicing the 5 commitments for 25 years

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Connect with Lloyd

Lloyd’s Resources

Websites

The Collaborative Way – Lloyd Fickett & Associates, Inc.

The Collaborate Way app

Books

The Collaborative Way®: A Story About Engaging the Mind and Spirit of a Company

Leading the Collaborative Way: Overcoming the Seven Most Common Pitfalls

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