The Leader Interview Presentation

VETE 3112 Strengths Based Leadership

Tarleton State University
October 12, 2014
Rhonda LaBelle
The Leader Interview Presentation
Michael LaBelle, owner and operator of Mighty Grow Organics,
graciously agreed to be interviewed for this presentation on
leadership.
Michael is a long-time entrepreneur, owning a number of
different businesses over the past 30 years. In 2009, Michael
founded his current business, Mighty Grow Organics. Mighty
Grow fills a special niche in the organics movement,
converting poultry litter (waste) into a living, organic
fertilizer for home, commercial and agricultural use. In 2014,
Mighty Grow became a global business, exporting its products
to Belize.
In the years that I have known Michael, I have
always considered him to possess strong
leadership qualities. As a self-made business
man, however, Michael gives little thought to
his leadership strengths:
I dont really consider myself a leader that
others want to necessarily follow I kind of
do my own thing, start a business, start a
discussion, etc., and other people just kind of
get involved.
The Leader Interview Presentation
Q: Michael, what is your definition of a leader?
ML: A leader is someone who can get things
done, whether through force of personality,
or hard work, forward thinking (identifying
profitable trends) or innovation (making the
trend). A leader has to be able to make the
hard decisions, even when they are unpopular
or will make everyone/anyone uncomfortable,
as in must get the right people ON the bus
and the wrong people OFF the bus.
The Leader Interview Presentation
Q: Do you believe leadership is developed through nature or nurture?
ML: I think in some cases it is one OR the other, or sometimes
a combination of both.
Q: Can you explain?
ML: In my case I was not a born leader. I developed the capacity to lead from
just doing it. When you run your own business you are the man. There is no
one else to pass the buck to, so you learn over time that you have to make the
decisions mentioned above. And as time goes on you come to realize that its
really not so bad, being the boss. In my case, as I matured and developed my
skill set, what used to be hard became easy. This is best illustrated by
imagining yourself at the center of a circle. You as a leader are comfortable
with handling any situation that occurs in the circle. Anything outside of the
circle is outside of your comfort zone. But when you as a leader are forced to
handle a situation that is beyond your normal comfort zone, you soon find that
the circle has grown larger, and the number and complexity of the problems
you are comfortable handling has enlarged as well.
The Leader Interview Presentation
Q: What are the characteristics you see in those in leadership roles?
ML:
Decisive no one will or wants to be led by someone who cannot
make up their mind. This is one characteristic that the military is
very good at instilling in officers.
ML: The leaders I admire are decisive,
willing to work hard, maintain a positive
outlook, are in control of their
emotions, communicate well, and know
how to sell.
Q: Can you speak to these characteristics
separately?
The Leader Interview Presentation
ML:
Willing to work hard while there is no substitute for hard work, it is
important to work smart as well. Paretos Law says that 80% of your
reward will come from 20% of your effort. Activity is not always
progress.
Positive outlook this is not a Pollyannaish outlook on the world. It is
impossible to remain upbeat all the time. But you can look at the world
with a positive worldview, as in whatever comes my way, I can handle
it.
Maintain control of emotion leaders are not unemotional, they just
dont let their emotions get the better of them.
Communication leaders MUST be able to get their ideas across to
those they lead or interact with.
Sales we are ALL selling, all the time, whether [its] our products, our
ideas or ourselves. This goes hand in hand with communication.
Q: Characteristics, continued .
The Leader Interview Presentation
Q: Do you feel there are personalities that
naturally lend themselves to leadership?
ML: Sure. Leaders are either introverts
or extroverts. Intrinsically motivated or
extrinsically motivated. One thing that a
leader cannot be is passive! A leader
MUST take a stand and decide this
beach is one that I have chosen to die
on.
The Leader Interview Presentation
ML: Of course men and women are different. That is
just biology manifesting itself. Women can lead LIKE
men, but when they do I think they distance
themselves from their core biological strength, which
is to appeal to others to work WITH them, rather than
ORDERING them to work FOR them. In western culture
the double standard applies in that an aggressive man
is a strong leader whereas an aggressive woman is a
bitch. Just a basic difference in the perception of
the sexes.
From my standpoint, a woman can lead a group of
men by soliciting their cooperation far more readily
than she can by becoming a man and denying her
own strengths.
Q: What about Men versus Women? Do you believe they are equal or
are there obvious leadership differences?
The Leader Interview Presentation
Q: What role do you feel mentors play in developing leadership skills in others?
ML: Mentors can certainly shorten
the time it takes to develop
leadership ability, but are not
absolutely necessary. Many/most
of the worlds business leaders are
self-made men, whereas I think
women tend to need/want a
mentor to assist. That is just my
impression, not having spent a lot
of time around women business
leaders.
The Leader Interview Presentation
Q: What is your style of leadership: how would you characterize your
leadership role?
ML: I am not a bombastic leader, making threats or trying to
force anyone to do what I want them to do. My style of
leadership is that of striving to be the most competent
person in the room. I work to know more, see more and to
have studied the industry/situation more than anyone that I
lead. In my estimation, with my personality, I can then gain
and maintain the respect of those that I lead. They follow
my commands/suggestions because they know that I know
what I am talking about.
That being said, I generally am not challenged by accepting
when one of my [employees] has a better idea than I do. I
like to think that I can bring out the best in those that I lead.
I am results oriented. I want the best outcome, regardless of
who comes up with the idea or who gets credit. I do my best
to keep my eye on the goal, rather than what leads up to the
goal.
The Leader Interview Presentation
Q: As an entrepreneur in the organics movement, what leadership traits or skills
do you believe a leader should possess in a progressive movement such as yours?
ML: For me personally, I try to keep abreast of and if possible ahead of the curve,
knowing what innovations are occurring and where the industry is going. Case in
point: Currently, local, organic food is all the rage. My reading and study indicates
that the best producers will continue to improve their operations to meet the next
area the market will demand, that of nutrient dense food. Just because a head of
lettuce is organic does not automatically guarantee there is any nutrition present.
I think the next permutation in the foodie movement will be a guaranteed
minimum level of certain nutrients in produce, much like the minimum daily
allowance of vitamins and minerals.
The Leader Interview Presentation
Q: In what way (if any) do you feel this differs
from a leader in a "standard" industry?
ML: In a standard industry business
leaders still have to keep abreast of what
the market is demanding, but since the
organic industry is such a small community,
the movers and shakers are better known
than in staid, old line industries. Still, there
is no downside to ANY leader looking for the
next big thing.
Growing organic rye for High Ridge Spirits, LLC
The Leader Interview Presentation
Q: How do/did you develop your leadership skills?
ML: Mostly by accident. I became self-employed LONG
before I should have, but did so out of necessity. It was
kind of a swim or sink situation. Not necessarily what
I would have preferred, but I think the outcome (has
been) good; my personality traits may have played a
role in that as well.
Q: Do you feel an understanding of personality traits is an
important facet of leading?
ML: My personality is that I am comfortable risking it
all if the reward is big enough. I also have confidence
in my own ability to handle a fluid situation.
There is a popular statement relative to business:
Ready, fire, aim. The main personality trait is to be ready to take a shot at whatever you want,
realizing that no battle plan survives contact with the enemy so adjustments will have to be
made, so you must be confident in your ability to adjust to whatever the situation is. I suppose
self-confidence is a major factor in any leaders success.
The Leader Interview Presentation
Q: What is your take on ethics with regard to leadership credibility?
ML: Reputation is EVERYTHING! Do what you say and say what you will do.
Even if you win through unethical behavior, at the end of your life you
are still an [expletive deleted]. Develop a reputation that you will treat
others in as fair and equitable a manner as they treat you. But, as a leader,
you MUST set the standard.
The Leader Interview Presentation
Q: In your global enterprise, have you faced any situations where the
cultural ethics were different from those in the United States?
ML: I have encountered a couple of situations where customers want to
show their appreciation for your products or consulting with favors
that I was not comfortable accepting. Realize that I have only done
business in the Americas, so I cannot speak to cultural practices in other
parts of the world.
As a leader you have to be able to look at yourself in the mirror and think
that you have maintained your sense of honor. I realize this is VERY old
fashion sounding, but consider that EVERYONE, at least gives lip service
to admiring honesty, integrity, dependability etc., yet few are willing to
adopt an honorable outlook on life and most are willing to trade their
own integrity very cheaply, due in part to situational ethics.
The Leader Interview Presentation
Q: What do you feel is the most difficult job/responsibility facing people in
positions of leadership?
ML: Getting the right people involved in
your business and cutting those loose that
are slowing you down or hindering your
progress. Firing someone is not usually an
easy thing to do, but it has to be done. A
more difficult challenge, at least from my
standpoint, is attracting those that can help
you reach your goals. Sometimes luck plays
a part in this, as in my case; but you as the
leader still have to put yourself out there,
asking for help. To attract the right people
you have to BE the right people.
The Leader Interview Presentation
Q: Do you think the next generation, those now in college or in their
early-to-mid 20's, are being prepared for leadership positions?
ML: I dont think that most are being
prepared. The new economy is going to see
American workers fighting for market share
against the world, rather than just other
Americans. That is one of the reasons why I
decided on the industry that I did. By and
large it is very difficult to outsource what I
do, making organic fertilizer. My business is
based on the trash to treasure business
model, taking a waste product that few see
the value in and adding value to it, locally.
China graduates more engineers EVERY YEAR
than are working in the U.S. Similar trends
are presenting themselves in I.T., and many
other technical fields.
The Leader Interview Presentation
Q: Leaders of the future, continued
ML: The ideal needs to be passed along
to those now in college that the game
has changed. You need to become the
BEST in your field. You need to bring
passion and DRIVE to what you want to
do. The other thing, especially for
those starting college is this. How are
you going to monetize the skills you
are learning? So you feel like you
want to study 15
th
century French
poetry. Great! Who is going to hire you
with that degree? You want to teach?
Great, and where will you work when
colleges are downsizing and laying off
tenured professors?
The Leader Interview Presentation
ML: I use that example to illustrate a point. I know one
young lady who wants to make documentaries. Great. Is
there any money in that? Not much. So, study how to do
that while also working to repurpose those skills to get
[a] corporations story online. Most corporations are led
by older men who are not that familiar with current
technology. If a person can come in and solve a problem
for the corporations leadership, then they can write
their own ticket. Why go looking FOR a job when you
can MAKE your job?
I think that, unfortunately, the situation in the U.S. is
going to continue to deteriorate and those looking for
opportunity should look outside the U.S. This means
that those wanting to lead will need additional language
skills along with social [cultural] skills unfamiliar to
most Americans.
Q: Leaders of the future, continued
The Leader Interview Presentation
Q: Do you have any words of advice for those trying to develop their
leadership skills?
ML: My advice to anyone is to consider opportunities
(other) than those you are comfortable with. The
over used expression think outside the box applies
in this case. Travel is the greatest revealer of
opportunity that exists. There is a big world out
there. You dont have to limit yourself to just what
you are comfortable with. Lead by example. Seek
out new opportunities. Go where you have never
gone before.
Note: This interview took place on October 9, 2014.
Michael lives and works in Fruitdale, Alabama.