EP005 - How to be a better leader during crisis with Dr. Jonathan H. Westover of Human Capital Innovations
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How to be a better leader during crisis with Dr. Jonathan H. Westover of Human Capital Innovations
About the episode
This episode focuses on leadership during challenging times. How owners and co-founders should approach leadership? Can we learn leadership skills, and how? Finally, how should leaders respond to challenges? I invited Dr. Jonathan H. Westover, author, and professor of Organizational Leadership and department chair at the Woodbury School of Business, and leadership consultant at Human Capital Innovations, to discuss the topic.
About the guest
Dr. Jonathan H. Westover is a Professor of Organizational Leadership and department chair at the Woodbury School of Business (UVU), Academic Director of the UVU Center for Social Impact and the UVU SIMLab, and Faculty Fellow for Ethics in Public Life (previously the Associate Director) in the Center for the Study of Ethics.
He is also an experienced OD/HR/Leadership consultant with experience transforming organizations across the globe. He received his bachelor's and master's degrees from Brigham Young University and his doctorate from the University of Utah, and he serves on a host of nonprofit, community, and association boards.
Connect with Jonathan on LinkedIn.
Check out Dr. Westover's new book, The Alchemy of Truly Remarkable Leadership, here. Check out the Human Capital Innovations (HCI) Podcast here. Check out the latest issue of the Human Capital Leadership magazine here.
About the host
My name is Peter Benei, founder of Anywhere Consulting. My mission is to help and inspire a community of remote leaders who can bring more autonomy, transparency, and leverage to their businesses, ultimately empowering their colleagues to be happier, more independent, and more self-conscious.
Connect with me on LinkedIn.
Want to become a guest on the show? Contact here.
Quotes from the show
When we have disruptive times like these we live in right now, change is a huge factor in success. New market opportunities, new environments, new technologies, or simply just black swan events - these are all shaping our business. However, reacting to changes is complicated, challenging, and can be difficult.
The best way to react to changes is to have a culture of change within our organization. If our organization has a culture that embraces change, we can have a higher probability of succeeding.
We have to see ourselves as leaders all the time. But when we look at an organization with their high-management, we find that people within high management are great at managing people. But they don't have the necessary skills to lead others. They usually end up in high management because of their expertise in a specific field.
But being a great salesperson, for example, leading a sales team, is not the same as leading a whole organization.
We need as leaders to maximize our potential. But a massive part of leadership, probably the essential part of leadership, is helping other people, the people in our teams, the people within our organizations to maximize their potential. When they maximize their potential, they will help the organization to become more successful.
That's the kind of environment that breeds a positive workplace culture with high employee engagement, innovation, and creativity levels. The whole goal is to try to help organizations be their best possible selves.