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[No dialogue].
>> Judy Ethell: How is everyone tonight?
Good, can you hear me okay?
Perfect, so I have to get my cheat notes out here.
One of the things I found out tonight is I am like the only
thing that stands between you and spring break, right?
Yeah?
Ok.
Well, good evening, first of all I am delighted to be here, and I
am very appreciative of the school of business in inviting
me to talk here tonight.
I am sorry; I have to have my glasses.
Tonight's presentation is in recognition of Women's History
and Awareness Month, and I didn't know what that was so I
actually had to go look it up.
It's an annual declared month worldwide that highlights the
contributions of women to events in history and
contemporary society.
Another thing you'll notice when you look at the brochure, as the
presentation tonight is being sponsored by the University on
behalf of Grace T. Blair who actually
was the first woman to graduate from the
School of Business here at Eastern in 1936.
She's even older than I am, and she was in the US Women's Marine
Corp, in WWII.
She earned her graduate degree and taught until her retirement.
Grace was someone who really encouraged young women to take
the opportunity to go to college.
I think she is a great example of what I am going to be talking
about tonight, which is leadership and the opportunity
to give back.
Grace was clearly someone who did that, so it is a real honor
for me to give a brief moment of recognition to her tonight.
When I chose the topic tonight, I thought about my career today,
almost thirty years, and what I believe makes people
successful, so all of you here are pursuing your education to
choose a particular vocation or career once you leave Eastern.
I thought well, what makes people successful and an aspect
that allows them to leave good things behind them, in their
various experiences?
The item that resonated through my work experience, personal
experience and volunteer experience, was leadership,
in many different circumstances and many different forms.
It just wasn't leadership in the workplace; it was leadership in
my personal life and leadership in the volunteer place.
What I want to do is share some thoughts about
leadership with you.
I am going to talk a little bit about the scholar or the
education view because I thought you could take a few pointers
from that, what the experts say about leadership, and then
portray that to or translate that to some of my own
personal experiences.
Then I have a request for you, so you can work on this
when you are on the beach next week.
It's to take two or three things away that would fit your
personal style or perhaps your career choice, where you can be
a more effective leader in the future, and really make a
difference to those you are working with or those who may be
working for you.
Okay, well, I wanted to start off with a little bit
of a definition.
What is leadership?
Leadership is organizing a group of people to achieve a common
goal, very simple.
What is a leader?
A leader is the person capable of inspiring and a person
capable to associate others with a dream.
Let me just say this about leadership:
It's not just when you are a boss, or a supervisor.
I know I always thought that leadership well that means
I have to have a title or something, but it's really not;
I think that is a common misinterpretation.
Leadership is really each individual's position in how
they fit within a specific team, group, organizational
structure, etc.
For example, I've never been the CEO of a company, so
I've never been the top dog, so to speak, the top boss, but I've
had many leadership roles during my career.
Some were assigned to me, some of them I chose to pursue, and
others happened really due to circumstances.
There was a void; I stepped in to fill the void, and one of my
favorite quotes that I saw during my preparation was
actually this one done by John Quincy Adams.
John Quincy Adams was one of the first handful of presidents
of the United States, and was in that responsibility during a
very trying time in the US; which was shortly after
the revolution.
He said, "If your actions inspire others to dream more,
learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader."
And so while that applied over 200 years ago, I think it still
applies today.
Okay, well, let's talk about what the scholars and the
educators say about leadership.
There are some, a few theories, I guess, about what makes
a good leader.
Some say you are born with it, it's part of your wiring or not.
Others say it is really environmental; you
have to be at the right place, at the right time.
Still others say leadership is about learned characteristics;
it's things you can actually be taught.
The reality in my view is a leader is someone who makes the
effort to do so, because they always make a difference when
they make that effort.
Well, why am I right about that?
I get to make this up.
I've had at least 2,000 different people work for me,
during my career responsibilities.
When I was at Price Waterhouse Cooper's I had several hundred
people working for me at various times during my career there,
and then I was at BearingPoint, I had 900 men and women work
directly for me as part of the Global Finance Organization.
I have a lot of experience in seeing leaders, seeing people be
effective, and those that took time to work to be a leader
always made a difference in those environments.
Let's talk about the elements of leadership.
What did the scholars and experts say about what it takes
to be a leader?
These are the commonly used traits, and if you would go out
and do research, you might see that there are others as well
that would be on the list.
Honesty, forward thinking, someone who's capable, someone
who has the ability to inspire others, and someone who
has intelligence.
While this list may not always be the same, if you went out and
did your research, there's one common theme that everyone
seems to agree on.
That is merely portraying these traits is not necessarily what
makes a leader.
It's the ability to actually have the application and
demonstrate these traits in someone's day-to-day role
as a leader.
What they say is if you exhibit these traits, others will have a
desire to follow you.
Showing these traits will inspire others, so they will
have confidence in your leadership and follow you.
I would say, kind of think about it this way:
if you are an honest person, people don't necessarily know
that, just because you don't do something that
is dishonest, right?
They don't know, but if they see you in your day-to-day
application, making fair decisions, being open with
them about different issues that you may be addressing in the
workplace, then they will view you as an honest person.
I think it really goes to the saying, "Lead by example".
That would be my experience.
Okay, let's talk a little bit more about each
one of these five traits.
Honesty-what the experts say is people
want to follow an honest leader.
Think about maybe when you are on your job or whatever, are you
suspicious of your boss?
I know I was, for the first several bosses I
had in my career.
I was always a little suspicious of them, but when they dealt
with me in a fair and reasonable manner, I believed they were
honest people and enjoyed working with them.
There are going to be times in your career when you would
rather avoid the truth.
I would say in my career, I've had probably several hundred of
those, if I mess something up or did something wrong, and you
know whether that's a situation when you are evaluating someone,
making cost cuts due to budget constraints or
other circumstances, and as painful as it may be,
people just want you to tell the truth.
Let me give you an example here.
When I was at BearingPoint, we were going through cost cutting,
and the finance organization was an area that was selected for
cost cutting.
I really felt that that was something that we needed to
accomplish there as well.
We were looking at off-shoring to India or the Philippines
certain finance functions.
In order to introduce this to the staff, it was a global
staff, so we didn't really have a choice, we were going to do a
video conference, we had outside experts, human resource people,
etc., advising us on that.
They said to me, "Well, you know Judy, you don't need to worry
about this, because you are the CFO, we'll take care of this for
you, and announcing this to your team."
And I am like, "Wait a minute.
No, you are not.
I've worked with this team for three years.
I am going to do the video, because if they hear it from me, they know they'll
get the truth, because I always was straightforward
with them whenever we had any changes in the organization, so I want to do this call."
They were kind of shocked by that, but I really felt that as
the leader of that group, it was important that they heard
it from me, because they knew that I was an honest leader in
dealing with them in the past.
Another aspect, forward thinking; real simple.
People have to know where they are going, but many that you
will lead at various times in your career don't really have
the discipline to think forward or really how to map it out to
get from where they are today, to where things need to go in
the future.
From a standpoint of dealing with forward thinking, I kind of
dealt with that in what I call a shared vision approach.
My team usually knew what they needed to do and where to go,
but they just really weren't able to map it out.
So my job was to work with them, to put forth the best path, to
let them do their job and then I just sat back and let them do
it, and ran interference.
I hardly ever came up with the ideas, when it was forward
thinking items, because it is not my skillset.
I am not a particularly strategic thinking person.
However, I showed them the vision of here's where we are,
they brought the well here's where we think we need to be,
and I worked with them to develop the steps all
along the way.
I used my learned knowledge and business experience to fill the
gap to forward thinking.
It's something very important when you are thinking about
leadership is not just to look at today, but to look
out in the future.
Another area that the experts noted was you have to be
capable to be a leader.
I would say here, we all have our abilities and capabilities,
so I look out at each of you.
We have some accounting majors, marketing, MIS, finance,
management, etc., so you all have your capabilities, and you
all are going to have to be able to perform those capabilities in
an effective manner in order to do your job on
a day-to-day basis.
The biggest issue though I see with leaders here, is many of
them don't know when they are over their heads.
It's not that they aren't capable; they just don't know
when they've taken on more than they should.
My example here, I am an accountant, okay, I have my CPA,
accountants are someone who is typically viewed as being
low-risk tolerant.
As a result, I think many accountants that I work with
tend to underplay their capabilities.
Now, for those of you who might aspire to be CEO of an
organization or are more of a marketing and sales orientation, my experience
in working with individuals who have that aspect or background, they don't
really think they have any limitations.
As a result, sometimes they make bad decisions.
My advice here on being a capable leader is that you are
all very capable, just know your limitations.
Someone said long ago, Abraham Lincoln, and I am going to
change it just a little bit, "Nearly all men and women can
stand adversity, but if you want to test a man or a woman's
character, give them power."
This gets to being a capable leader.
Know your limitations, and know when you are over your head so
to speak.
Okay, another area for leadership which I probably
should have put the last one, is you have to be, your trait has to
be the ability to inspire others.
I would have to say of this whole area, it's probably not
my strong suit.
I am not the cheerleader type, not the rah, rah type, but
because I had the other four areas right, and was effective
at them, that allowed my team to create success, which in turn
inspired them.
Let me give you an example of what I experienced here.
When I was at BearingPoint, the accounting group had, we had a
lot of work to do, I was hired to re-do several years of
financial restatements, so it was a lot of overtime, a lot of
weekends, etc.
People wanted to transfer to my department, and so everyone
was like why do they want to transfer to your
department, because they are just going to have to work more?
Well that was because my team knew what they were going to be
doing for the next 12 to 18 months.
Our goals were outlined, their part of the goals was clear,
and most importantly, how they could be productive in getting
toward those goals was also outlined for them.
Another thing that I did that developed inspiration was I had
an open door policy; which meant that anytime someone had an
issue, no matter what, no matter what level they were...
I remember one night when I got a call from, I always said open
door policy so a staff from our business in the UK called and
said I can't figure out how to do my expense report, can you
help me?
I was like, okay, I am happy to help you with that.
But anyhow, I had an open-door policy, I would go to lunch with
staff, remember their names, ask about their child, new puppy, or
whatever was important to them in their life.
My point in saying that, and it seems very trivial, but
inspiration is something that each of us have, and our ability
to inspire others and when you work at being a good leader,
people will let you do that in your own unique way.
While I wasn't the cheerleader type and the rah-rah type,
because I was truly interested in the work that my team had,
working together with them, and a little bit about their
personal lives, that was inspiring to them.
Okay, the last area, intelli- gence as a leadership trait.
I am sure this is no secret to you, but college graduation is
really just the beginning of your education, not the end.
In fact, what you are taught here at awesome EIU is really a
foundation for a life-long educational experience.
To develop intelligence, you need to commit to continual
learning, both formally and informally.
There is such a wealth of information out there.
When I was preparing for my comments tonight, I am not an
expert on leadership, even though I've had that
responsibility in many ways, I actually went out
and did the research.
I did it on Google, and you could actually get whole books,
and manuscripts, and all this information out
there that was excellent.
There is lots of information available to you, to continue
your education.
To develop intelligence, you need to commit to continual
learning, both formally and informally.
My favorite time at work was to listen to others, and ask
questions about what they were thinking, and what they were
talking about.
I learned so much just by sitting and listening to the
team as they were discussing a particular issue.
It allowed me to see the issue from their perspective, which
was much more valuable than seeing it from my perspective.
That time really gave me the ability to see a problem in a
much more multi-faceted way, because I had
their input as well.
My experience as a leader; leaders love to learn.
They love to be able to see things in a different light.
They do that because they want to do the best for the team they
are leading, and for those for whom they are responsible.
What's the summary on the traits of a leader?
You all have these characteristics.
Just utilize them when you are put in a situation of
responsibility to work with a small team, maybe one or two
people, or even a larger group.
I mean, my guess is at some point there will be many people
in this room that might have more responsibilities in their
careers than I have had, so use your ability and knowledge in
these areas to be a good leader.
Okay another tip about leadership...
Now that we have a handle on the basic traits of leadership.
If you want to be a leader or even if you don't get put in
that position, you need to re-think your
decision-making process.
Changing it from one step at a time, which is what I would see
most new people to their career, the approach that they would
take, to having a master plan that you are
actually implementing.
It's taking the decisions from the present today, and thinking
about them in the longer term.
A few comments they made with this.
Think about each action you take from a perspective of a leader.
Keep your leadership activities in a realm you can influence and
make all the important decisions.
Said another way, don't make commitments today that you
can't deliver in the longer term.
Know your limitations and prepare for what
needs to be done.
I have to say, probably the only thing that would really get me
annoyed with people working for me, is if they didn't come to a
particular meeting or whatever, prepared.
Because they didn't really have the longer term view to take
that meeting from the particular issue or problem that we were
dealing with in the short term, to the solution in the longer
term if they weren't prepared.
Set the goal and keep repeating it.
You may have to change the goal along the way, and sometimes we
make mistakes.
I know I've made a lot of mistakes, but be clear why there
is a change and always focus on how it is fits into the original
set of goals.
I think the reward for you when you keep this in mind of
changing the process from short term to long term, is you will
be able to create leaders.
It is often said, "Leaders create leaders."
One opportunity that I had when I was at Price Waterhouse
Coopers I had someone from the National Office in New York call
one day and say we are coming out to visit you.
Well, typically that didn't mean anything good, when they were
coming to visit, so I said okay.
They came out to visit, and they said we want to talk with you
about what you are doing in your office to make partners because
it is a great reward for people working there to make partner.
Not only from a standpoint of job security, but also a
standpoint of finances and the amount of
money that they could make.
They said, "so your office here in St. Louis statistically has
developed and successfully campaigned more partners than
any other office in the US and we want to understand what you
do to make that happen."
I said well, it's my job to create new partners and future
leaders for this firm.
I am not always going to be here, so I want to make sure
that I am leaving people behind that can kind of pick up and
carry on.
That was the main reason, so your reward is creating people
to take your place, and to be future leaders.
Okay, and so these aren't just all my words.
This is why the experts say about leadership and what is
the most important skill for a new leader.
Jim Estell, constant learning, public speaking is important.
Take toastmasters.
David Zinger, connection skills-connection to work,
organization, and the people you lead.
Getting everyone to connect to an authentic level with their
strengths and leverage those strengths to the service
of organization.
Jim Cathcart thought leaders must keep things in perspective.
Keep the desired outcomes in mind.
John Gordon, connect and communicate.
Leadership is not so much about what you do; it's about how you
can encourage and inspire others to do things.
It's about creating a vision and communicating that vision
to others.
Buster Brown; humility.
John F. Kennedy; leaders are perpetual learners.
An attitude of openness toward learning and learning from every
single incident, however trivial it may seem at the time, is an
important thing to do as a leader.
Tad Thompson; unique voice.
Leaders must develop their unique voice for
whatever the circumstance.
Shelly Holmes, one of my favorite ones, integrity.
Leaders have to have integrity.
Others are looking for you to set the tone, to set the
particular ethics or whatever in a situation, and as a leader you
must have integrity.
Wilson Ramirez...most common mistake he's seen leaders make
is the assumption that people have to follow you.
They don't.
People follow you as a leader because they choose to, not
because you make them.
His most important tip about a leader: be self-aware.
Without a proper knowledge of ourselves, it is difficult to
properly lead other people.
Leadership requires a fine awareness of what other people
are feeling, and the use of our own personality and abilities to
lead them with, through, and in spite of, their feeling.
By knowing ourselves first, we can know other people.
Just a comment I'll make here on the items
I've said about leadership.
My leadership era versus your era, because I know it's very
different, right?
Most of you were not born probably
when I started my career.
I'm pretty sure most of you weren't born when I started my
career back in 1982.
There have been a couple of really big changes that have
happened during that time.
The first one is technology.
Having the internet, iPhones, cell phones, blackberries,
iPads, whatever, is a wonderful technological thing to do,
because it makes us more efficient and it also allows us
to communicate more with co-workers or whatever.
The only thing I'll say about technology is email.
Instead of just sitting there typing out an email to someone
and sending it off, think about what you are communicating
during that process, so that you can get part of your personality
in focus with that individual across the email.
The other thing is, don't ever send an email when you are mad,
because you'll definitely regret it later, too much evidence left
behind, I guess.
The other thing that I will say from a leadership perspective
that's very different from you know my era, at least the
initial parts of that era to what you are facing today, is we
have a very global nature of our business.
You know I think 30 years ago when I started in the work
force, we didn't have faxes, we didn't have computers, and all
of those things.
Our ability to work on a global basis and be influenced by
global aspects to our business was somewhat limited, just
because of the lack of communication,
information that was available.
Today, the global nature of our economy and the global nature of
information has a substantial impact on businesses here in
the US if that is where you choose to work.
I think you just need to be aware of that, and that we have
a very global impact on our economy here and be
knowledgeable about that, what that means to the specific area
you are working in, and how you can use that knowledge
to positively influence your career.
Well, what did I learn about being a leader?
Be curious about people, rather than being in judgment of them.
Some of the people that I may not have liked the most at the
beginning actually were some that I got the most information
and knowledge learning from later on, as we developed a more
close relationship.
Be willing to take the path less traveled.
Don't be afraid of creativity and counterintuitive thinking,
because sometimes that is really what you need
in a particular circumstance.
Rely on others, delegate.
People love, but also need to do important work, so let them.
I mean, I could have kept all of the important work, and you
know, going in meetings with this important person or that
important person, I could have kept that all to myself, but I
let my team participate in that.
If they worked on a project, they actually got to go to the
meeting with me and present, and that really made them proud of
their work, and it made their work important to them, and what
they were doing at that particular time.
Accept people for what they are, and I have a secret for you.
That's because they are not going to change.
When you accept people for what they are, that builds rapport,
and it really allows you to create some incredible magic in
the workplace.
When you start accepting people for all the unique skillsets and
thoughts that they have to bring to the particular place.
What I learned most of all, in my past career, and future
career, I loved building other leaders.
When my team was successful and got the promotion or got a
specifically difficult task completed, and were recognized
for that, it just made my day.
I loved building other leaders and having that relationship
with them throughout my work career.
That gets to you all as a leader.
I know, you are all saying, "Well, gee, I am just, I am in
my sophomore year or senior year, my graduate program, what
does this really have to do with me as a leader?"
Well, you have the traits, the five traits that we talked
about, you have those, so nurture them, know your
limitations about how you can apply that specific skillset and
work to be a leader, because I think you'll all do a great job
with that.
I think then, as you work to be a leader, there also comes a
responsibility with that.
Just a few statistics here, for you, when I was doing my
research I came across these, and I was actually stunned,
shocked at the statistics.
I don't know if you all realize, but you are a small percentage
of the US population, a privileged small percentage of
the US population.
Only 70% of students in public high schools graduate.
Of that seventy percent who graduate, only 32% of those are
even college-ready when they graduate.
I am sure someone could help me with the math here, because you
are much faster than I am with it, but of that the resultant
21% that could even go to college, even a smaller amount
of those, finish college, and get to graduate.
Bottom line: only about 1.3 million men and women
per year graduate.
I was stunned.
I would have thought it was ten million or some
number like that.
Now, I know sometimes it can be difficult going through college,
and you would be like why is that a privilege?
I work three jobs, and I have student loans, etc.
Well, trust me, with that statistic, only a million,
three going out into the work force as
college graduates, each year that's a
substantial privilege that you have.
My personal opinion, because of this privilege you have, I think
you also have an obligation.
That obligation is to be the best leader that you can be, in
whatever the circumstances are, and bring your skillset and
energy to help others.
Those you work with, those in your community, your alma mater,
your family, etc.
I think the privilege you have requires you to
give back, just like Claire did earlier in her career many
years ago.
I've had great opportunities in my lifetime, from both a career,
and work perspective.
I've been innumerable places...
I've seen a lot of things, done a lot of things.
Now in my semi-retirement, although it hasn't felt that way
the last month, but in my semi-retirement stage, I can
use those experiences, in the financial resources that I got
as a result of my careers and that I've earned to give back.
I think it is no surprise, at least, that scholarship
education is a particular area that I've chosen to give back.
Here at Eastern, I set up a fund to provide dollars for a
selected professor each year, to get additional
educational opportunities.
I also work with a lot of non-profits where they don't
have the dollars in resources to hire individuals to help them
with strategic issues or how they can raise more money
in order to service their needs, so I do
that on a volunteer basis, to help with the
particular issues.
That's something that I have found very rewarding to do,
and it's because I had the opportunity as a leader that
gave me the opportunity to give back and fulfill
that obligation.
My question to you is, leaving here today, what are you going
to do to be a leader, and use the incredible skillset that you
already have?
How are you going to give back in the future, when the time
comes when there are others that can use your leadership skills
to help them out?
That's my question to you tonight.
Thank you very much.
[Applause].
Do we have any questions?
Any that anyone wrote down, or want to raise their hand?
>> Student: I'd like to ask a question.
Sometimes you are competing from bigger name schools than EIU,
have you ever in your life felt like oh, I just graduated from
EIU, I can't compete with those people from like
Harvard, and others?
>> Judy: Yes, sure, when I, in many
experiences in my business career,
when I started at Price Waterhouse Cooper's, I was one
of 43 that started in my beginning class.
Many of these individuals I started with, went to bigger
named schools.
Initially, I was like, "Oh man, you know, how am I going to
compete against these people?"
The reality of it was, and I said this to some of the
students today, that I talked with, it wasn't about being the
smartest person in the room, and it wasn't about where I went to
school, it was about my ability to take the skills and the good
foundation education that...
The incredible foundation education that I got here at
Eastern, to take that and use it every single day, in my job, and
be tenacious and work hard, etc. The result was out of that group
of 43, there were two of us that made partner-me from Eastern,
and a friend of mine, John Altoff, who went to The
University of Missouri, St. Louis, which is a
commuter school.
That's kind of my end to the story, but yeah, initially I
felt intimidated, but I realized later on that that was stupid
because the education that I got here was superior, I think, to
what the other students got.
Any other questions?
Did anyone write any down?
Where are good places to go on spring break?
I am going skiing [laughing].
I leave Thursday; I think they have one hundred and forty
inches of snow.
So, I am looking forward- that's a lot of snow.
I am looking forward to that, Montana.
>> Student: Why are you going back
to snow?
>> Judy: You know, that's what everyone
says, "We're going some place warm."
I love to ski, and I love the mountains, and I ride
competitively, horses competitively, so on days when I
am not working, I still get up every morning at 6:30 and go out
to the barn, whether it is 10 degrees or 60 degrees.
Any questions?
Okay, well thank you very much.
I wish all of you the very best in your careers,
and I really appreciate your time and attention tonight.
Thank you.
[Applause].
[No dialogue].