The Leader Lab is one of the best-known professional coaching and training consultancies out there, with a wide array of services including keynote speaking, workforce training, conferences, team development, and lots more. Founders Tracy Spears and Wally Schmader have written several books on leadership (“What Exceptional Leaders Know,” and “Leadership Is A Verb” are just two).
They’ve also presented at media events repeatedly, including Forbes, Fast Company, the Wall Street Journal, Yahoo, among many others. In fact, Fox Associates SVP Sales and Business Development Bill Bell recently mentioned that he’d seen Spears speak twice this year at association events and described her as “exceptional.”
Wally Schmader.
Because leadership is such an important aspect of a successful media enterprise, and because good leaders can sometimes seem scarce, Fox Tales wanted to speak to Schmader and Spears about their eight-year-old company, and about leadership, particularly where it intersects with media.
In this Q&A, Spears and Schmader respond to our questions jointly.
Fox Tales: What are the three or four core elements of an exceptional leader, across all industries and sectors?
Tracy Spears and Wally Schmader: Exceptional leaders come in many forms. The most important attributes we see in our work are:
- The ability to deliver thoughtful, candid, feedback.
- The ability to focus deeply, without distraction. Focus is the new IQ.
- A personal/professional brand built around authenticity and transparency.
- The prioritization of positive recognition; catching people doing things right.
Fox Tales: You’ve worked with many media organizations. How does this industry rank in terms of exceptional leadership? Which companies in particular are standouts?
Spears and Schmader: The media industry has done an excellent job prioritizing leadership, and still has so much additional opportunity to:
- Be much more intentional about developing future industry leaders from within.
- Promote an “exceptional leadership” agenda focused on what today’s leaders must prioritize (sustainability, inclusion, professional development).
Fox Tales: How do leaders apply temperament, tolerance and teamwork on a practical, day-to-day basis?
Tracy Spears.
Spears and Schmader: It starts with fluency. Does the leader understand that everyone interacts in different ways and are not motivated by the same things?
How do others define success? How do they like to receive their feedback? How can the leader make space for everyone to thrive?
Just adding “Behavioral Diversity” to the list of how to build an exceptional team is a great start.
Fox Tales: What’s the next big challenge for leaders in general and media leaders in particular?
Spears and Schmader: The next big challenge is to learn to how create a work culture of positive teamwork with remote/hybrid teams. Culture is your employee-facing value proposition. It’s how employees connect emotionally to work.
- How will you engage people and differentiate your organization in this new world of work?
- How can media leaders make sure their industry is a leading and progressive voice through this seismic change?