Inspiration comes in many forms. That’s especially true in the C-suite, where leaders need to be flexible, agile, engaged, and objective in order to be truly effective at their jobs. Or, to put it in the words of Steve Schloss, Chief People Officer of the United States Golf Association (USGA), leaders need to master the four disciplines of conscious leadership, connected leadership, informed leadership, and influential leadership. We continue our two-part conversation with Schloss, who shares his insights on “Inspired Leadership.”
“As I evolved my own personal style, I also learned that you can’t grow without taking risks based upon your own level of risk tolerance and… that the true meaning of leading a global effort is understanding what it means to be truly cross-culturally competent.”
Effective leaders are big, bold, outspoken individuals, who inspire confidence and loyalty through the sheer force of their dynamic personalities. Or, are they?
In this week’s Confessions podcast, “Flexing for Success,” we talk to Steve Schloss, Chief People Officer of the United States Golf Association (USGA), about the leadership skills that introverts bring to the table, and why they shouldn’t be overlooked because of their more reserved personalities.
“I’ve often said to people that if you want applause, you can talk all you want, but if you want results, you have to listen.”
In our previous episode of the Confessions Podcast, we discussed the importance of smart risk taking with Mark Buthman, CFO Emeritus at Kimberly-Clark Corporation. In that discussion, Mark revealed an interesting fact about himself – he doesn’t possess the normally dominant Business Chemistry traits of a CFO.
Whereas most CFOs identify as Drivers and Guardians – driven and analytical personality types – Mark is an Integrator and team builder. It’s a dominant trait that gave him a unique perspective on the need for diversity within a team, and which he believes led to much of his success over the years.
“Over time, as I built teams, I tried specifically to look for complementary skills. One of the risks in finance, and [on] any leadership team—there’s a lot of analytical, decisive leaders around, but that doesn’t make for such diversity.”