The Louis Carter Most Loved Leader Process

Hi everybody, I'm Louis Carter. Welcome to this webinar on what we do here with the Most Loved Leader framework and my coaching process. It's been shown to work every single time as long as you take part in it and agree to doing it. It's a year-long process. I'm going to bring you through the entire steps, all the steps of the process in this webinar. And really describe to you what you'll take part in for that year. So I'm going to show you the screen here. We're going to go through sort of the business case, why it's so important that you now here as a CEO and all of your C-level leaders take part in this program, this process, and the way in which it can help you to grow as well as know where things are around you that could be hiding or lurking that could get in your way. And potentially harm you longer term and in shorter term. And we'll get into that right now. There's a lot of great material and can't wait to show it to you. You're going to get a lot out of this, and I'm psyched to show it to you today. A lot of research, a lot of great stuff here. So let's start with this today. It's about this concept of becoming a more efficient, effective leader, increasing your team alignment, sort of creating these conditions for achievement of your organization goals, and in the process of improving productivity and performance. And you as a leader really knowing where you're at in this, in your system, whether it's with your board or with your employees or your customers, your vendors, your whole ecosystem that in which you lead. Let's, let's go into the model itself. The Most Loved Leader Equation framework. We use Most Loved Leader because it's part of my book In Great Company: How to Become a Most Loved Leader. When you're loved as a leader, it is actually better than being hated, because loved leaders gain upwards of 2 to 4 times more performance and retention from employees than those who are hated. We did some extensive research on it, and it showed just clearly that when you're hated, generally, people check out. You get what's called less voluntary discretionary effort. People don't want to volunteer to do better for you. They actually check out. They leave. So even if you are working super hard to be loved and to empathize and to be with people, sometimes you may not know how that is really being received by people. So you may do all the right things. You may be on all the greatest shows or be out there saying all the right things. And people know things or hear things or see things about you that you may not know. That first thing, consistent advice gathering, is really key to this, is knowing what's happening around the corners. And we get into that, we do that with you, where we ask for advice, we ask for what you do well, what you could do better, what you should stop, start, or do more or less of as a leader, becoming a more effective leader. Again, please remember, this isn't just about perception and you being this ubiquitous awesome love leader. It's about really getting into the bottom line and basics of who you are and how you're leading effectively. And that takes some scientific work. So that's the first part, consistent advice gathering. Second is sort of like how you get to those greater business results. What are they? How do you define those business results? And how do you achieve them through your leadership effectiveness? The third is respect building. Respect building happens through the advice gathering that we'll be doing and about actually making the changes that you hear that are important to you. Some of them you're going to forget about. They're not great advice and you're going to let go of. It could be from a, like kind of a vending machine. It's really cheap advice. Others are diamond and platinum. They're amazing advice. And you're going to want to take those and, and change those. And the ones that you decide to change is how you build that respect, because it's increasing the trust between you and your ecosystem. And that's when the real stuff happens. Again, it's not just about how you're, you're seen on TV or somewhere and what you say and how you pretend, and perhaps an inauthentic way. It's not necessarily necessarily you. It could be a— there's— it could be really a fake, uh, how a fake you rather than an authentic you. You get that authentic you of what you really are and how you're really seen, rather than just this public image, because it's exhausting, actually. There's a study showed that there's a latency effect to being fake, and it reduces productivity in the long run. So that's it. And when you come to that, that that clear vision of who you are and the way you want to be, and marry that with what you're hearing from people and make those changes accordingly. It's a really beautiful way to create true kind of appreciation, love, respect for who you are, rather than this kind of superficial version of yourself, which everybody can see through. Why is this so important? Well, today, you know, everybody's like CEOs like me and you, leaders all around the world, you they're shouldering this pressure from customers, right? Employees, boards of directors, doesn't matter how much of the company you own. There's always that board of directors, that additional people who, who are just putting massive pressure on you to, to perform in a certain way. And it feels like you're pushing that boulder up a hill. And 60% of CEOs are fired for relationship issues, things that you don't see. It's not just, again, things that you're not seeing, you're not asking, you're not properly asking and being, and having the courage to ask and then change and have that kind of appropriate response. That's sort of— and they're lacking that critical key leadership skill set. You may think you have the leadership skill set; however, it may be that you don't, because it's more complicated in the interrelationships between you and employees and customers. Everybody has very different psychologies. It's important to understand what those really are. So, and there are a lot of them come in signals, right? So 60% are fired. Up to half existing CEOs don't quit, they're fired. So out of there. Check out the Glassdoor, Indeed responses here. We get 1 stars, worst management ever, worst CEO. These, uh, this just spreads on like wildfire, okay? So you may have all the greatest reviews and all the greatest things people are saying in front of you, and then boom, you get hit with 1% to 4% of people who just, they, they just, something happened the wrong way. They rubbed the wrong way, happened, something happened wrong. And we have to sort of, we have to get in front of that. And that's what this is really about is getting in front of it. Not just having that self-awareness, having that awareness of really what's happening around you, your full circle, because you can't see constantly in that full circle. So we look at that again, they're C-suite leaders. They get fired because they're not given consistent feedback. That's the reason. It's because they're not giving consistent feedback. They get the once-a-year review rather than a once-a-day constant feedback from people. It's a little bit like being a frog boiling in water, right? And so they wait, wait a year for it to happen. And hey, look, I don't think it's right, and I don't think it's fair, and I have a way for you to get out of that boiling pot, and this is, this is the way. I'm going to show it to you. And I invite you also to do this with me. I have a, my, my First 100 Days Playbook for C-level CEOs talks about how, what to do in those first 100 days, how to immediately get into those relationships and deepen them. Now, here's the thing. It's not first 100 days. It's the first 100 days, strictly first 100 days for CEOs. First 100 days in general, you should be doing this at whatever point in your career as CEO, owner, board member, C-level, it must happen in order for you to escape that boiling pot. When you have that reliable system that I'm gonna— I'm describing to you here today about, about how to gather the framework and how to gather the feedback, how to implement it and form respectful relationships, you'll get out of that pot. However, your leadership can't be the same old stuff. So you might think you're doing and you're being this great leader. If the thing is, it's probably not. OK, so what you really think and your, think you're being the perfect leader and you're reading all the greatest business books and you're doing all the right things. Well, people no longer trust that. They see through that. And there's a systematic way to become highly respected where you don't have to be that kind of perfect leader and doing all these perfect things that you think you must do, that politicians really do. No one trusts politicians. And there's a reason for that. They're not— they, they And we'll get into that here right now, rather than jumping to conclusions. We're going to get into the reason why. It's because really of the full view, and we'll, we'll discuss that. So me, I'm Louis Carter. I'm founder and CEO of Best Practice Institute and Most Loved Workplace, which I founded. We have a relationship, publishing relationships with Newsweek and also John Wiley Sons' Leader to Leader, and really showing who the greatest leaders and workplaces are in the world. Very proud of that. Love doing that. I've generated over $1 billion in revenue and increased sales for my CEOs. And I'm a bestselling author of 11 books on leadership and management. My most recent is called In Great Company with McGraw-Hill. I've written books since 1998 on leadership development. I was one of the original people to develop this, this this field of leadership development, back with Warren Bennis, who is one of the creators of the field. It started much farther back, though, further back for me. Here's me with my dad. We were going— actually, we ski-chute back then. And, you know, it was a day when, you know, I knew, I thought, I thought every— I thought I'd be working with my father when I was older. I had every intention to go work with him. And, you know, and I'd go and I'd work for them in the summertime and even during the year. I thought, I'm going to prepare and I'm going to work for this company. And then one day, you know, I got out of college and basically no more company. They sold the company. Turned out, you know, after my grandmother passed away, there wasn't quite as much of what's needed to sort of the glue for the organization to keep going. There was less of an understanding of those corners, seeing around the corners, if you will, for leaders and what could happen, it fell apart. And I don't want that to happen to you. I don't want that to happen to anyone. And that's really why I developed this company, why I've been doing this for over 25 years, because I want to help CEOs and leaders sustain a really core business that they can leave for legacy and leave a legacy themselves for everybody. So not just family, but for everybody inside the organization. So this Surefire Way, as we call it, sort of effective leader is about getting greater impact, greater results. And that's, that's what I'm bringing you here today. The 3 different sort of areas are trust building, getting consistent advice, and then execution and accountability. That execution and accountability is critical because it's where your teams actually implement the new changes, and that, that you're going to need to implement, right, and that you know your vision requires to move forward. So it's very important that not just you gain that vision, others gain the vision and start developing their skills and developing themselves as leaders. So growth remains a top priority for CEOs. As you see, it's, it's 53% here. And for business goals, and what are your business goals? Well, 53% CEO says is business growth. So You know, however, even though 53% say that business growth is top priority, you know, are your leaders really prepared to grow the company? Ask you that yourself, that are your leaders prepared to grow your company? Well, 1 out of 3 companies feel their leaders can grow their company. So imagine that. Imagine what you're thinking right now. Is it true? Are your leaders really prepared to grow your company? So why is there this disconnect? Disconnect is everyone wants performance and productivity, but no one knows how to develop their leaders. So they need something to help them. Everyone thinks they know what everyone else is thinking about them, but they don't. OK, so there's no way to do it without really not just asking, but reporting, creating a full awareness. And it It takes work to do it. It's actual reporting and interviewing and developing and coaching and follow-up, and I'll get into that later. So let's fix that right now. So if any of these people have referred me to you, thank you to them. Thank you very much. These are folks who work in my industry, my peers, clients, and here are some of them. Marshall Goldsmith, he wrote the book What Got You Here Won't Get You There. He talks about my commitment to ongoing improvement and organizational change with my clients. Frances Hesselbein, the former CEO, Girl Scouts of America, she was the Presidential Medal of Freedom Award winner. She says that our work is the essence of what it takes to be a truly great leader. John Baldoni, as a CEO, I practice what I preach. You look at other things like the CHRO of KeyBank and My process really works. It's absolutely the best way to transform for results. So, and we also give back. I give back to the Frances Hesselbein Leadership Foundation that provides, provides opportunities for people who don't have the means to have leadership experiences. And that's important to us, to be able to pay it forward. So I quickly became to, came to realize that the old way of being this perfect, amazing leader that perceived as a great leader is broken, because we just people don't trust them anymore. So what if I simplified the process of, of becoming a great leader? And so I did that. So I've helped people. Here's one right now, Ray Williams, who's my very first client, and I was delighted to have him. He, he, as a CEO, he inherited a health system that was, wasn't profitable at the time. And we've worked together to double revenue to over $1.4 billion. And it's been profitable each year as a CEO. So we two-timed his growth. What we realize with Ray and all of our clients is that what got you here won't get you there. And we can get you there with help and great relationships with our supporter and stakeholder program. Here it is. This is our stakeholder program. It starts with sort of an assessment, self-assessment, where you are at and where you're going, your vision, your goals, where you want to go, and the selection of stakeholders. Who are the people in your groups that support you, can support you, changing to them to be, to think like they are supporters of you, like they will help you in your leadership growth. They will help you become a more effective leader and help you grow the enterprise. These people are your supporters. You need them to be able to grow beyond your inner circle. You need a greater circle of people you can trust to help you grow. We increase the circle for you. These people are the ones who may challenge you even more, who may have divergent viewpoints than you do, where they may see your true authentic self sometimes and have opinions about them and help you get to another place for your growth. So the second part is interviews. What we do, we interview all of your stakeholders, about 8 to 12 of them. Typically they're from your board. They could be from people who report to you, others that are from different business units. If you want to go all the way, we could do customers. Some do it, some don't. We do vendors. The important part is to get enough good solid information about the people you work with daily who can, who will push the ball with you and who will get things executed and done the way you want it and you know it needs to be done and your goals are specified by you and the board to get that information. So we're capturing that stakeholders feed forward suggestions, we're giving it back to you in a report that's done by our team, psychometricians, statisticians, people with degrees.

I'm—

that's what I have too, a degree in social organizational psychology. We're fully trained in this, and we give you a really concrete report. And then we do the monthly action planning, work with you. If we work with one— somebody who works for you, we present it to you. If we work for you, we could work with your board or just do straight with you if you're the key-only decision maker about what that monthly action plan will be to actually put into place. And then the last part is execution on the job, right? Getting it done, following up, ensuring that it does. And I'm going to talk a little about follow-up in just a bit and how important it is. So did you know that micro advocates— these are people who are in your company, you don't know they exist, you don't know where they are sometimes. They may be frontline, they're hiding inside of a company. They generate 10 times more positive thoughts in your leadership than advocates with organizational influence with massive followings. So these people who are kind of in the woodwork, you don't know where they are, they're saying things or they're leaving and they're giving small little, you know, reviews that don't really help you. They make you look horrible and make the company look horrible, reduce your ability to recruit the best talent and retain the right talent, and also to great— get great productivity. So authenticity, quality, and personal engagement really matters in this case. In my company, in Great Company book, in my book In Great Company, we talked about, and I created this system to help clients increase their own leadership effectiveness and their team performance and become that most loved leader that increases performance. Respect is at the center of everything here. And respect is what we get to by doing this process. And it's not tacit, it's not passive respect. It's real. So, and real respect looks very different. You can't sit back and wait for this, however. And in 2019, it was a record year for CEO departures, Challenger and Gray. It's only, by Challenger and Gray, it's only gotten worse now in 2020, 2021 with the pandemic and beyond, because 1,640 CEOs were replaced. And then 70% of those were fired. Do those key leadership skill sets, ignoring signals around them and alienating the management team. So you may have a great team. However, you may not know that you're alienating them. OK, you may have a great inner, inner fiefdom, but there's stuff happening with alienation, and it's OK. We can change that. It's— this is not, this is not unchangeable. It's not something you have to beat yourself up after. It's something we could change. We can help you change. If it exists. If it doesn't exist, that's okay too. We're going to look at your vision, your goals, and find out what's around the corner, things that you perhaps don't know about. Key takeaway here is it pays to be proactive with your board and management team. So very proactive relationships on one-on-one are constantly evolving, not just the whole, right, where they don't get those, those relationships with you, those deep inner relationships of authenticity, which so many CEOs don't get. They put out the video, they have the huge fireside chats, and it just doesn't work because they don't really understand what it takes for supporters to act. And this is research we did that's in Strategy Business, where it showed that more follow-up enables more change. This is an email that we sent out to people about the interview. It's what it looks like. We're When I first joined, I developed goals and I want to improve myself and my effective communication, and Lou will actually be working with you on this to ask for, for your email and do the actual interview. So why stakeholders perform? What do they do? They perform because we set up a stakeholder group, support group for you to enable your success and your company's success. It's built on trust and respect. It's real trust and respect, because you're giving them that trust and respect to help you. And you're giving them that honor of saying, "Look, I want your help. I want your advice. I need your perspectives. We, I need you. Without you, I can't do this." Appreciation for what they're doing, and then clear direction. Clearly direct them to further stakeholder performance and to help you get better. So the Effectiveness framework are clear vision, Learn what others think of you. Do the— we're doing analysis and coaching of you. And then we do team effectiveness and goal alignment. Without that team effective goal alignment, we can't fully achieve the, the goals that you wish. And that, that comes with our work as well, aligning your teams with you. Not just people who think that they're with you or you think they're with you; it's actual alignment and showing that, showing definitive objectives and key results that are achieved, and not things that you just don't know are happening. So to get that trust and respect, you must first know what everybody is thinking of you. And why it doesn't work the other way? Well, you know, people say, "I can read people well, and I know what everyone thinks of me," right? Yeah, right. "I'm the boss and the position demands respect. If they don't like me, they can leave and go somewhere else. You know, they don't like how I present to them, so you know, this is the typical kind of thing sent by the HR department. Well, we're going to invite you to the CEO town hall, or here's a great CEO video, check them out, from the HR department. It just doesn't work. You may think it's working. You may think it's working, but in reality, we found that these are antithetical to real, respectful, genuine relationships. And what we do is essentially bring those genuine relationships. Here's what really matters. So, in our report, we found that over 76% perform for an organization because of values and respect, not comp and benefits. OK? So values and respect, you may be putting those front and center and showing that you have great values and you have great respect. However, they, it may not be perceived and they may not be doing it to, for each other and for, for you. Comp and ben came real low. All right, now it doesn't mean it doesn't— isn't important. It just means that the other is even more important, and it has to be genuine. So are they— you ask yourself these questions: are your people motivated enough? Does someone have the capabilities of performing the desired behavior, right? Did we remind them, ask them to perform the desired behavior? Well, we need that Leadership Effectiveness Framework to establish that and enable that. And the key takeaway to begin with: the goal is a response. Vince Lombardi said, "Mental toughness is many things. It is humility, because it behooves all of us to remember that simplicity is the sign of greatness and meekness is the sign of true strength." Okay, so this is about simplicity, keeping things simple for people, not making it hard to get to know who you truly are with, you know, these kinds of fire side chats and videos or, or things that are really superficial, making it easy for people through an easy process like this one. Again, simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex. And this is the simple process that I'm describing to you. People act in emotion and justify with logic. So the emotion comes in, not because you're relating things that are just about you one day, and they, they're, you're, you're sort of evoking their empathy. People have emotion because they see you're listening to them and know their perspective and actively ask for their perspective and then change and follow up to their perspective and actively align to them, make it simple for them to, to achieve and succeed. And be the, the person who connects those values with logic, right, and vision. So it's really, this is what it's all about. So why do we make leading and managing so difficult? You know, well, with Ray here, he increased the alignment with executive team and board of directors. He, what worked was he co-created shared behaviors and goals agreed upon by all principles. He made it simple. Very simple. And the result is 100% increase in revenue, 45% increase in profits, and over 15% average increase in physician comp. It was important there. And so let's just see a little bit about Ray and what he had to say about our process.

How do we create that trusting open, constructive kind of dialogue that you really need. His advice, his leadership was just amazing in that regard.

I'm an executive coach, and I also work with companies to help change their culture, focusing teams on doing real work together to build culture and not on petty parties, organization cultures, events, and team building exercises.

Probably heard the term herding cats, but Lou really did that in an exceptionally smart and inclusive way. And I think what came out of that were results for us that we would have just never achieved otherwise. Couldn't have happened. I think the consensus that came out of the co-creation process and just Lou's expert facilitation made all the difference for us.

Doing the real work with you and always have for 20 years.

I've also asked Lou to be the coach for several key executives that I've brought on since I came on board. Specifically for me, um, he's really helped me develop a high-performing team, right? And it's been exceptional. Just exceptional. I think both of them came into their new roles with specific challenges and hurdles that they needed to overcome, and Louis has just been great at helping them address their challenges and to think differently and bigger and thinking through how do you assume key role like that and at a large company like this and work with a board of directors and other key leaders throughout the company and me. See how this all kind of connects together and how Louis' master plan helping us here really, really formulated and really is putting us in, I would say, rocket ship mode. Louis has been the best executive coach I've ever had. I just, I would not have been as successful as I have been the 3 years I've been CEO here without, without Lou.

I am here for you. We are here for you. So that's a little bit from, from Ray to hear that about the process we've gone through together. It's been a wonderful one and it continues to be. As I do for all of my clients, I continue on. I'm a lifelong guide and provide everything I've got throughout the years, literally give you everything I've got. And I do that for everybody. I'll do that for you. Here's a goal alignment report and some leader practices and values that came out of the work. Something Ray said, again, leader effectiveness We look at that kind of framework of appreciation, direct, honest, and trustworthy, collaborative, knowing what everyone thinks of you. And here's the process. So this is where I want to go through with you is the first thing we'll do is co-create a list of supporters. We'll do this on a, on a, on using a tool. We'll enroll the supporters during a meeting, a facilitated meeting that we'll design. The third thing is we'll co-create the goals and the desired vision, be very clear on that. And then we have a team to, to, meeting to conduct one-on-one stakeholder interviews. And we'll actually conduct those interviews, put them into a report. It's called, using what we call is thematic analysis, which is basically, it's real stuff. It's showing what people are actually saying and how many people are saying certain things. Rather than having someone give you third-party input, which can always be problematic. It happens a lot where people, you say, you just ask the HR manager, "Tell me how things are going with me." And they have one perspective that could be completely skewed because they want to, they have some political influence or there's some political perspective. You need real perspective that is scientific, that is themed So you can see what's really happening. Most pulse— there's these monthly pulse tracking of behavior change. We actually track the changes and show you how they can change over time, how they do change over time. It's necessary to track them in order to do so because it's, it's a research method. Then we do monthly one-on-one coaching sessions and have facilitated team alignment and goal meetings to ensure that everything, you know, happens. This is the, the full view of everything. In a little different way that you'll get in your, your, uh, your document. Um, this is the activity we follow, uh, performing the observable activity, uh, ask for advice, reflect on it, you thank, you respond briefly, and we talk about cost-benefit of it, and you actually do changes. And this is the research around it: the more you follow up, the more change that happens. If you do less follow-up, it's actually been found that you get less change, perceived change. So again, if perception is very important, less follow-up, less perceived change, and sometimes you actually get negative perceived change. You're seen in a worse way. And here's it showing you, you get negative here perception of you if you don't follow up, but if you do follow up, you get massively positive perception. And so, you know, this is again—

I've also—

This is the part of it from Ray, another video. Let's move on though. We use appreciative inquiry with you, which is really the questions are, what do you do well? What can you do better? What should you stop, start, or do more or less of? And it comes from a colleague of mine, David Cooperider, from Case Western Reserve. He's a professor. PhD there, and we use that model. The model is appreciation plus respect plus advice plus dialogue equals success. And again, it's not about just speaking to people and at people and letting them see you as this great leader. It's really about engaging and appreciating, actively respecting, actively asking for advice, actively having dialogue. It's the only way to do it. So let's talk about evolution of feedforward. It's about feeling bad about things you've done versus giving you freedom to direct you to become better. Blame and fear, yelling and telling, asking for feedforward, and then finally, continuously improving is the evolution itself. And showing and tracking results. We've had a lot of results with leaders from getting them on Become Most Loved Workplace, Most Loved Leaders, getting in Authority Magazine, going into CAO magazines, being, getting, getting top ratings on Indeed and Glassdoor, just, you know, increasing revenues and just massive amounts of amazing influence and needs that they have had as a leader to be able to grow the company that every CEO needs. We measure and track goals with OKRs. It's been done at Google. It's a book by John Doerr, Measure What Matters. You need that too for your company and for you. And we make this part of it. That's Measure What Matters by John Doerr. It's creating the world's first email browser and search engine and getting $100 billion market cap and $10 billion in revenues from nothing was going to take a lot of work. The vision was simple, but the work— that's how the work came in for Google. And that's where this came from is how, how this worked at Google, how they had a great vision of being, you know, the, the first world's first email browser. There's a lot of work that goes into that. So what's next? Well, this is what's next. You're invited to be just like all the people that I've worked with and to come with me. I'm ready to take on more clients. I'm inviting on more CEOs to work with personally, one-on-one. I also have other coaches. I'm inviting you, though, to work with me. Just like folks here that gave me these reviews. You might, you can look at Hubert Joly, Chairman Best Buy, Brian Fishel, CHRO of KeyBank, Karen Dyson, who's Lieutenant General, U.S. Army, Mrs. Marshall. So what are your takeaways? Well, I can't see what I don't know. Follow up continuously with people. Develop and hold others accountable for key goals, vision, results. Practice gratitude and appreciation. Use emotional regulation and empathy. And focus on sustaining trusting and respectful relationships. And so on the chat, you know, basically, that's really what we're talking about here. That is it. I'm giving you this invitation now to become a Most Loved Leader, to work with me and do it. You can do it. You don't lack the support; you're it. I always say that you, it's, it begins and ends with the CEO. It really does. If you're unwilling to change, it won't work so well, too. So there's laziness. There's a principle called the lazy leader. It's a, it's a real thing. I doubt that's you if you're watching this video. Chances are you're a much, an overachiever, and I've worked typically with overachievers, and helping them get even better. So effective leaders helping them get even better. So these are some of the things, again, that we give, and some of the feedback improvements you can see here on the bottom that we've achieved. And again, this is my invitation to you to become one of my clients. I'm taking on more clients. I can take 3 more to work with, and I'm inviting you on to do that. So, give me a call. Let's get you on the calendar. Let's get you talking to my team so we can start the process, get the right information in, and begin. Because this is your time. Time is now. Let's start.