Getting In The C.A.R. with Monte Williams

This week’s Love In Action podcast is sponsored by ALEU - The Leadership Development Company. Founder Monte Williams believes that “When you lead yourself with passion, you inspire others; and when you inspire others, anything is possible.” His personal mission is to inspire passion through the leadership of self and others. Monte also serves as Senior Director of Client Services at TaskUs, and over the course of his career he has built many high performing teams which have generated millions of dollars in revenue. He is an executive coach and speaker; he recently delivered an inspiring TEDx talk entitled, Get In The C.A.R. - The Keys To Sustainable Leadership. He joins Marcel Schwantes to talk about his company’s mission and how leading others must be preceded by leading yourself.Every business problem can be solved by investing in the growth and development of people, because when your people succeed your business succeeds. [1:43]Monte describes what inspired his mission statement. [5:10]Monte recounts his most trying leadership moment: “...it was the most just deflating, empowering conversation I think I've ever had in my career, because she was able to dig deep and pull out something that I had been battling with all my life… But if I wanted to make this leap into the next stage of my career I had to deal… with Monte.” [8:26]Monte posits that these three principles can simplify leadership:We are all human.We are all leaders.We are all connected by the human experience. [12:31]Monte says that three core principles bring success: Courage, Agility and Resilience, or C.A.R. Courage is “the ability to make the necessary changes within ourselves to inspire the most favorable outcome in our environment.” Mohandas Gandhi is a great example of courage, Monte says. Agility is “the ability to respond to real life stimuli... while still maintaining focus on the greater goal.” He cites Chesley Sullenberger III as an example of agility. Resilience is the ability to “weather difficult environments long enough to achieve whatever goal it is that you're trying to achieve.” A prime example of resilience is Nelson Mandela, Monte says. [16:18]“There is a human element to leadership that cannot be ignored or denied,” Monte says. “People don't work for companies. They never have, they never will. People work for people.” [29:30]The things that bring success in personal relationships, such as honesty, appreciation, trust and security, are the same things people want in their business relationships. [31:43]“You cannot ignore the human element,” Monte argues. “You can't ignore the emotional piece of leadership because when you ignore the emotional piece of leadership you can never help somebody reach their potential and you can never maximize your potential in your business.” [32:05]Marcel points out that this pandemic is a great opportunity “to pivot away from the transactional leadership model to more of a transformational servant-leadership model.” [ 33:50]ALEU offers executive coaching, where they help leaders develop a framework and culture for leadership and development. The company also helps businesses refine their organizational architecture so that everyone is positioned for success and growth. Another service ALEU offers is leadership coaching for the workforce. [40:39]Monte wants listeners to understand that their people are their most valuable asset, so people should come first no matter what. [43:40]Monte’s takeaway for listeners is: “If we're able to look at leadership from that perspective [that we’re all leaders] and help people get to wherever they want to get to in their journey, we will create a better world, create a better society, and we will create more profitable businesses.” [46:16]If you want to learn more about solving problems by investing in people, Contact Monte Williams at [email protected] for more information. [email protected]