Elearning! Dec-Jan

DEC 2014 -JAN 2015

Elearning! Magazine: Building Smarter Companies via Learning & Workplace Technologies.

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Tips Tips Leadership 48 December 2014 / January 2015 Elearning! CREATING SUSTAINABLE ORNIZATIONS BY IGNITING HUMAN POTENTIAL INTERVIEW BY TATIANA SEHRING Mark Fernandes, chief leader- ship ofcer of Luck Companies, has a true passion for inspiring people to reach their highest potential. Te values-based leadership (VBL) ambassador was named one of the 100 Top Tought Leaders in Trustwor- thy Business 2014 by Trust Across America. Q: WHEN EXACTLY WAS YOUR "A-HA" MOMENT THAT HELPED YOU TRANSFORM YOUR MINDSET AND LEADER- SHIP STYLE? Fernandes: I was basically a big guy with a bad attitude. I got things done without regard to how I got it accomplished. Conversely, our CEO Charlie Luck was my absolute opposite: a big care bear. And what I value is that he kept hanging in there with me, when I was try- ing to fgure everything out. In 1993, I traveled to North Carolina to meet Dr. Gerald Bell, who runs Bell Labs at UNC Chapel Hill and wrote the book, "Te Carolina Way: Leadership Lessons from a Life In Coaching." Dr. Bell instantly gained my respect. He said, "I've interviewed 5,000 executives, and I want to explain how this story is going to end for you. You need to know that you're going to have a shiny exotic car, a beautiful estate sitting on the hill overlooking everyone else, and a really big house — but you also have to know that there isn't going to be one soul to share it with if you don't start fguring this out." Tat moment was the frst time I realized that I needed to care and be compassionate. And that was my "a-ha" moment. Q: WOULD YOU TAKE US THROUGH LUCK COMPANIES' JOURNEY OF LEADERSHIP AND CUL- TURE TRANSFORMATION? Fernandes: We began our organizational leadership jour- ney in 2003-2004 as phase one. Te start of phase two came afer we decided to rewrite our mission statement in 2009. We'd done so well establish- ing our values. We understood the power of leadership, but we learned a few lessons the hard way, and phase one taught us that if there's ever to be a change in the culture, it's im- perative that the leaders be fully committed to demonstrat- ing the values in everything they do. Tere's a level of inau- thenticity that associates will notice and it can erode their trust in the leadership if they're not actively seeing the behav- iors exhibited in the actions and words of their leaders. So we developed a mission state- ment that stated "We will ignite human potential through VBL to positively impact the lives of others around the world." VBL, as an ideology and model, was a new concept. We wanted to use what we learned to develop a leader- ship model to help our associ- ates meet what they're capable of becoming and then start sharing it with the world. We thought, maybe we're on to something here. Tere are only a few compo- nents that serve as the overall responsibility of our VBL team. First is that we model the way. We hold ourselves to the high- est standard. When people think of a values-based leader, can they look at us and see what we embrace? Te second The Power of Values-Based Leadership

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