Leading the pack

Execute to Win’s Network Leadership Summit last week featured a panel of Arizona CEOs who discussed what it takes to lead.

Execute to Win (ETW) is a software consulting company that helps organizations improve alignment to improve results, leadership, strategy and more.  

The Network Leadership Summit focused on key leadership tools and approaches through discussions, presentations and networking opportunities.

The event featured a CEO roundtable, ‘Leading With Heart,’ moderated by Conscious Capitalism-AZ president and Y Scouts co-founder Brian Mohr.

The participating CEOs included:

• David Adame, Chicanos Por La Causa president and CEO
• Lee Benson, Execute to Win founder and CEO
• Adam Goodman, Goodmans Interior Structures CEO
• Matt Likens, GT Medical Technologies president and CEO

After kicking off the panel with light-hearted lightning round questions, the panelists discussed the importance of values within an organization and a leadership team.

“People that are coming to work for us, they’re coming because they want something fulfilling, they want to make a difference and they want to serve other people,” Adame said.

Adame is the president and CEO of Chicanos Por La Causa, which provides services geared to empower those in need to tackle challenges in a self-sufficient manner.

He added, “If you’re going to serve people, you’ve got to love it right? And, you’ve got to have that trait when coming to work for an organization. And, I’ve got so many people here and I wouldn’t trade my staff for anybody.”

Benson, ETW CEO, explained that leaders should use their unique skills and values to lead a team effectively.  

“Everyone’s different. The leaders will pick a completely different set [of leadership values] that cause great results to happen. I think many make the mistake of taking a list that sounds good, feels good, looks good and just applying it and they wonder why [they] didn’t get the result they were looking for by applying it,” Benson said.

Embracing the unique qualities of an organization’s leaders and working to stay true to the organization’s overall principles help maintain a balance and forward-thinking.

Likens, GT Medical Technologies president and CEO, explained that it’s important to “keep it simple” when it comes to an organization’s leadership values.  

“I think you’ve got to pick what you’re going to do, make it as ‘you’ as required in order for the organization to really rally around those principles. And then, stick with it and be absolutely true to those principles,” Likens said.

GT Medical Technologies works to improve the lives of patients who have brain tumors.

The panelists also discussed leadership development programs and whether a one-size-fits-all approach or a customized approach is more effective.

While each of them agreed that a customized approach is important and helpful, Goodman noted that a uniform program can bring a team together.

“There’s clearly a case to be made for that [one-size-fits-all approach]. There’s value of having everybody on the leadership team going through something together and interacting with each other on it,” Goodman said.

Goodman is the CEO of Goodmans Interior Structures, which is a supplier of corporate office and business furniture.  

He added, “Now, that said… there are fine points of each particular leader that need to be refined and upskilled, and that calls for individual customized one-on-one coaching.”

ETW’s Network Leadership Summit was held earlier this week in Tempe. The summit provided perspectives on leadership from some of the country’s most admired authors, management coaches, executives and entrepreneurs.