Scott Miller, EVP of Thought Leadership at Franklin Covey and author of the recently released book Management Mess to Leadership Success: 30 Challenges to Become the Leader You Would Follow joins the show to talk about what he learned from being fired, what a thought leader does, what makes great leaders and how to work towards leadership success.
Strap in for a fast-paced, energetic discussion on the ins and outs of leadership.
ABOUT OUR GUEST
Scott J. Miller is Executive Vice President of Thought Leadership. Scott has been with the company for 20 years and previously served as Vice President of Business Development and Chief Marketing Officer. His role as EVP caps 12 years on the front line, working with thousands of client facilitators across many markets and countries.
Prior to his appointment, Scott served as the General Manager of the Central Region, based in Chicago. Scott originally joined Covey Leadership Center in 1996 as a Client Partner with the Education Division.
Scott started his professional career with the Disney Development Company, the real estate development division of The Walt Disney Company in 1992. As a research coordinator, he identified trends and industry best practices in community development, education, healthcare, architectural design, and technology. Scott received a B.A. in Organizational Communication from Rollins College in 1996.
GET IN TOUCH WITH SCOTT ON LINKEDIN
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KEY TAKEAWAYS
[1:15] Michael introduces Scott Miller and welcomes him to the podcast to talk about his experience having nine distinct careers inside the same organization and what initially drew him to Franklin Covey.
GENERATIONAL DIFFERENCES [5:30] Scott’s father worked for Lockheed Martin for 35 years, and Scott had a plan to make it to CEO by his mid-fifties; he just never expected to walk most of that path with Franklin Covey! He touches on a few reasons why he stayed.
LEGACIES AND MANAGEMENT STYLES [7:54] Lifting people up is the one thing he would love his legacy to be. Scott also touches on how he approaches managing his employees; brutal honesty is a good start for him.
DISNEY DAYS [12:20] Despite having been an amazing learning experience, Disney was the wrong culture for Scott and his bull-in-a-china-shop attitude got him spun out. He shares his most valuable lesson coming out of Disney.
BEING AN IMPACTFUL LEADER [15:36] Regulating your emotions is a C-suite competency, not an option: You have to be able to have high-courage conversations where you’re moving outside your comfort zone and do it in a delicate and elegant way. He shares an interaction he had with Laird Hamilton.
THE FRANKLIN PLANNER AND MORE [19:22] Scott talks about all of the services and products Franklin Covey offers as well as some of the history of the company.
EARNING THE C-SUITE [22:17] Scott shares the serendipitous story of how he ended up as Chief Marketing Officer as well as how he got on the radar for the position. Always hit your forecast if not your goal, Scott is proud to have earned his way into the C-suite.
DIFFICULT CONVERSATIONS [28:35] If you can’t summon the courage to call out people on their blind spots, you don’t deserve the leadership role. Scott explains what you can do to improve, and, believe it or not, it starts with practice and separating facts from emotions.
WHAT IS AN EVP OF THOUGHT LEADERSHIP [34:00] Does Scott just sit there and pontificate all day? It really is the new public relations. Scott breaks down what his work entails in practice.
WORK-LIFE BALANCE [37:55] Scott shares his own experience with what he calls seasons rather than continuous balance.
PERSONAL BRANDS [40:27] Scott touches on the delicate balance he has to keep in order to grow his own brand while keeping his fiduciary responsibility to grow the Franklin Covey brand as well. Be very thoughtful about how you are curating your brand, and if you’re an employee of a company, it needs to be congruent with or separate from it.
BEST WORST JOB SCOTT EVER HAD [47:23] Waiting tables! Scott shares exactly what he learned in terms of both customer service and teamwork.
FINAL THOUGHTS [48:40] Don’t confuse being efficient with being effective.
[49:41] Michael thanks Scott for coming on the podcast to share his insight and closes out the podcast with his favorite takeaways.
We hope you learned something today and enjoyed the conversation. Please give us 5 stars on iTunes and share your comments so we can improve and ask the questions you want to hear.
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
Book: Management Mess to Leadership Success: 30 Challenges to Become the Leader You Would Follow, by Scott Jeffrey Miller
Podcast: On Leadership with Scott Miller
The 7 Habits of Very Highly Effective People, by Dr. Stephen R. Covey
SPECIAL THANKS TO
