Episode 19: Lisa Gable’s Leadership Blueprint: Why Transparency, Accountability & Mentorship Matter Most

On Board with Transparent Leadership Podcast

November 15, 2024

Episode 19 Show Notes

The key to leadership is transparency, direct communication, and making data-driven decisions.

Lisa Gable, a five-time award-winning author and business leader, serves on the Advisory Board of 6Star Capital. With her extensive experience, including serving under four U.S. presidents and as a U.N. delegate, Lisa offers invaluable insights into leadership, mentorship, and strategic decision-making.

Lisa delves into the vital role of transparency and clear communication in leadership. She explores how data-driven decisions can navigate complex challenges. Reflecting on her career, Lisa outlines three pivotal phases: building credentials, applying experience, and mentoring the next generation. She also shares her unique approach to balancing work and life while overcoming leadership hurdles. Tune in for an insightful discussion about the transformative power of technology in shaping leadership and education in our rapidly evolving world.

Links:

• Learn more about Lisa Gable and 6Star Capital.
• Connect with Kendra Davenport.

Transcript

Lisa Gable:

Build your personal team and identify ways that you're gonna help each other up the ladder of life. Women who've been in my life that are 10 to 15 years older than I am that have done that for me, I mentioned Barbara Barrett, Elaine Chao who's secretary of transportation's another person who's done that for me, but I've also done it for many other women and now we have this daisy chain of women who are basically from the age of 30 through, you know, secondary who may have connected to each other so that we're just constantly pulling each other through. And here's the reason why it's important. You do not know what's gonna happen to you in life.

Kendra Davenport:

Welcome to On Board with Transparent Leadership, an Easterseals podcast. I am Kendra Davenport, president and CEO of Easterseals, and I am joined today by my longtime friend and colleague, Lisa Gable. Lisa serves currently on the advisory board of 6 Star Capital, and she is chairperson of World in 2050. I've known Lisa for almost 20 years. I was thinking about it, Lisa, when I was preparing for this, and you have had a really illustrious career. I'd like to just give our listeners a little bit more on that. You are a 5 time award winning Wall Street Journal and USA Today best selling author. You're recognized as an innovative global businesswoman who leads with discipline and diplomacy always.

And in addition to many corporate and philanthropic roles, you have served 4 U.S. presidents, 2 U.S. governors, and you've served as a US ambassador, a CEO, a UN delegate. You really are someone I think I look to to help lead, mold, shape incoming leaders, especially women. Let's dig in because I could go on and on, and I don't think we've covered your whole resume, but we could be here for a while if we were going to do that. I have known you, I want our listeners to know, since about 2,006, 2007, and I was introduced when you came on board at a company, a nonprofit I was working with, to advise my CEO at the time. And ever since then, we have maintained a really wonderful, friendship and collegial professional, relationship. And one of the things as I was thinking about this discussion today that resonates with you to me is how you are always willing to lend a hand to send the elevator back down to help other people, especially women up. And I think those are the things of of a hallmarks of a great leader. Can you talk a little bit about for our listeners, your philosophy on leadership?

Lisa Gable:

Sure. Well, one thing I realized is I've in retrospect, I look at my life in 3 phases. The first phase of my life was what I call the credentialing phase, right? I go into graduate school, my undergrad degree. I worked at top tier institutions like the White House, the Defense Department, Intel Corporation. And phase 2 was deploying that experience to take organizations to the next level of performance. Today, I'm in phase 3. And phase 3 for me, I'm not working in a full time job. I'm serving as an advisor for a number of different things, but it's really focusing on ensuring that I help the next generation of leaders who are solving the world's most complex problems.

And I believe that is so important. I was quite fortunate as I was in the various phases of my life that I had female leaders like Ambassador Barbara Barrett, who is the secretary of the Air Force, who opened doors for me and whenever she went off of a board, a corporate board, a nonprofit board, a government board, she would recommend me for her place. And I've tried to do exactly the same thing, which is every time I leave a position, I always recommend another woman for that position.

Kendra Davenport:

I love that. I love that. I also think you're very transparent about the way you feel, about the way you think, about the way you make connections like that. Transparency, I think, is something I've tried to champion throughout my career, but especially in the past 10 or 15 years when I think it's become very, very important because I think the workforce is different regardless of whether it's a for profit workforce or nonprofit. I think more junior employees are looking to their employers to fill more gaps, to be more to them, to really be more mentors than just a boss, a supervisor. Can you speak a little bit about that and tell me how you feel regarding transparency?

Lisa Gable:

Well, for me, it's about being direct. And in fact, it was to some degree a negative when I was first starting out my career, every single job review that I got, as you're doing your performance reviews, one line would be, Lisa's very direct. But as I learned, as I became older, what I learned how to do is take that directness, which could be, you know, seen as being fresh to some degree, and turn it diplomatically into what you're calling transparency. And that is identifying my point of view on a position, which I always try to base on facts. So I usually really make sure that I've got some fundamental quantitative facts to back up why I'm making a recommendation. But then secondarily, doing so in a way that I am always looking at the problem or the question from the point of view of the person with whom I'm speaking. And learning how to adapt your language, not alter your personality to be all things all people, but instead utilize the language, identify the facts that are gonna best resonate with that person and help bring them along while being very honest is fundamentally a key attribute. And when I did turnarounds, I learned that you had to walk in the door and tell people what was going to happen.

And it's not easy, but by doing so, nobody had to second guess it. And then you tell them and walk through with them how they can best work with you to go through that transitional phase.

Kendra Davenport:

Great. I agree. I I also think of you, and and I'm again, as I was preparing for this, I was thinking about the many times I've come to you for advice and counsel and step by step plan. This is what I'm thinking, Lisa. What do you think? You have been very direct with me, and I've always appreciated that frankness. But I know personally you overcome professional challenges. Can you talk a little bit about where you draw that strength, that, that focus, that resilience? Because if you look at your career, as I have many times with awe, you have done an awful lot. You have reinvented.

You have changed. You have, as I said earlier, you have evolved, and yet you always seem to be doing something impactful, something meaningful. But I think it's very easy for more more junior women, men in their career to look at someone like you and say, wow. Like, she is she is here and think it was, you know, just a a straight and direct route up to where you are now fulfilled and and, and with a very full professional plate. Can you talk a little bit about how you overcame those challenges and maybe even give us some insight into something you you dealt with that at the time seemed like an insurmountable challenge?

Lisa Gable:

Sure. Well, there were many of those as you were very well aware because I have sought your counsel on those situations. One of the things I try to do is go very, very deep in the moment and try to understand the nature of whatever the organization is that I'm working with. And I always try to look at the underlying cause of whatever problem we're trying to solve. And I dig deep very, very deep, try to come knowledgeable very, very quickly because what I recognize is that when you use research and data, when you speak with facts, you have to have the right facts. You also have to understand the purple elephant in the room and how you're going to address that elephant. Now I would do my homework in advance. I'd come into a room.

I would have that one point I wanted to make. I didn't talk all of the time. I would make that point, and sometimes people weren't excited about it. And if if things all went well, I would have people going, yes, what she said. Oh, I love just like Lisa said, and then that brings the conversation. But I've also been called the princess of darkness. And you gotta know that it's gonna be one way to the other, it's not always gonna be this war quest. And what you have to do is not take that personally.

It's really step back and say, look, I understand that from your point of view, this is where the organization is going. And I understand that you don't have the flexibility that I have in order to say that this one underlying cause is there. That that by by, again, articulating other people's pain points is one way that I've been able to bring people around. And I've also discovered another thing, which is that as you're going through these processes, there are always gonna be your champions. There are always going to be people who just get in their own way. I I talk about the, you know, the the good apples and the bad bananas. And the apples are those people that are in the bowl and they just kind of make everybody bad around them because they just are so negative. Bananas are the types that you can put them anywhere in the room, anywhere in the organization, in some way, shape, or form, they kind of seep across the organization with their problems.

So you have to be able to identify who those people are. I've also had people that it was a direct threat to them. Once a boss, I later discovered had done something that was not terribly legal. I didn't know that. I tripped across it when I was doing my research. I didn't find that out until much later on, and I couldn't understand why they were reacting to me the way they were. Sometimes it's hard to tell. I life has never been easy.

I've sat in the floor of my closet crying and going, I do not wanna get up and drive 2 hours to go to such and such. It's so bad. We've all done it. I think that's one thing people have to understand is I don't know one single leader, that has not had a moment where they thought, oh my god, what did I get myself into? But what you have to do is you've gotta stick with it. And I've learned that turnarounds take about 18 months before you finally feel like you've got control of it. And as you're climbing that mountain and you're in that cloud forest, what you don't know is the peak of the mountain is really so close. And if you cut it off too early, you're not gonna get there. If you just push through, you're actually out in the sunlight again.

And so part of it is perseverance and just sucking it up and other times is crying when you need to cry.

Kendra Davenport:

Hallelujah. You I know, we share a lot. We have a lot in common, I think, about the in terms of the way we think and the way we operate. And I know you've shared because I've read examples of, times when you've sought the counsel of people like your dad, where his wisdom is something you've imbued in in something you're doing. Is there today someone you go to who's a mentor, who serves as that sounding board for you, who really speaks truth and tells you maybe what you don't wanna hear, or lifts you up when you are on the floor of your closet thinking I can't do another day in this?

Lisa Gable:

There have been those people and you know I'm getting older. So some of those people are getting older too. And and you know we've I've lost my father and so I think that's the other thing at different points in times in your life where that person you depended on so much is no longer there. And one of my favorite quotes that my father would always remind me is that you have to challenge your crisis and remember that every stumbling block is also the path to your greatest opportunity. What I try to do in every organization, and and I only, agree to lead an organization through a turnaround when I have the scenario in place, which is that I I ask for a level of independence, and I outlined for the board in advance where I will be able to make decisions, and I cannot if they if they cannot allow me to make those specific decisions. I'm not the person for them. But then I try to find that at least one board member if I'm fortunate, it's my board chair someone on the executive committee with whom I can have this. Oh my God conversations Because every time you're in a turnaround, you are just constantly finding stuff.

And as a leader, you can't tell anybody else about that stuff that you find. In some cases, it might be an HR violation and others that would put at risk the changes that you're trying to make or, or there would be some other issue. And so I've been fortunate both in in a few of my jobs where I've had a chairman of the board and we scheduled for the first, 1st 30 days of a turnaround, we scheduled a 5 o'clock, oh my god meeting. And we'd go into the cone of silence, and we would have that, and I could just spew. Oh my god, you would not believe what I found out today. Oh my god, you would not believe what they did. You can't you can't do that, but you need to be able to do that. And so and then in another case, I had someone who was the treasurer of my board, a man by the name of Sandy Douglas, who's now the president of a large food company.

He was president of Coca Cola then, and I always talk about I need my Sandy Douglas because he's the person I would call and say, okay, I just need to talk.

Kendra Davenport:

Mhmm. I think I think of all the people that I call call upon, and and I'm glad to know that I have some Sandy Douglases. Can you talk a little bit about what induced you to write your latest book and how you found the the moral fortitude, the time? I know you're you have a very, very full professional plate. You also have a personal life that is equally full. You're a mother. Where where did you get the time? Because I love that you did, and I think the way you have promoted the book, and I'm gonna let you talk a little bit about it, and promoted turnaround, in general, has been brilliant. But where where do you find the time, the energy, the impetus? Where did that come from, and did you always have it in you?

Lisa Gable:

COVID. In March of 2020, I was approached by a publisher, and he said, I've heard through people that you've done a lot of turnarounds in business government philanthropy. And I wanna bring a book out, in October of 2021, which, gives people some guidance in how to pull themselves out of whatever it is that we're in the middle of. And I was doing a turnaround at the time. I had done an 85% restructure of an organization. I was just coming out of that. And secondarily, I was raising a $100,000,000, but we were in the middle of COVID. And he talked to me and I said, when do you need the book written by? He goes, I need it in 6 months.

And what some people don't realize is you actually have to finish your book a year before it comes out. And so he approached me in March. And so basically in May of 2020 through December 31st, every weekend, every Saturday Sunday, I would get up at 7 o'clock in the morning, and I would go out to my screened in porch, while it was warm enough. And then I moved into the guest house and wrote nonstop. What I also did is I met with a, coach, a book, my editor, every Wednesday night at 6:30. And so I was able to get through my work and we would spend 2 hours where she would walk them through things I needed to change, what she didn't feel felt right. And so I wrote the book in 6 months. To be honest with you, it will be hard for me to find that window of opportunity again.

COVID gave, for me, it was a great gift for this. I was able to do a 100 podcast TV and radio interviews during the week.

Kendra Davenport:

You were in constant motion, I remember watching it.

Lisa Gable:

What else was I going to do? There wasn't a lot of, it was because normally I'm traveling, right? I'm like everybody else, I'm traveling. But in this case, I was stuck in my house for 2 years. My husband has, as you know, he has a rare disease and reoccurring malignancy. So we were those people that did not leave because he was someone that until he had the vaccine and then passed that window after the vaccine where he'd had his booster, we couldn't go anywhere. And I should say when we did leave the house, we both remember what we did. I went for a spa day in Home Depot and Lowe's. I'm like, really? Home Depot and Lowe's? I think the day is much nicer.

Kendra Davenport:

They wouldn't have been my first two choices.

Lisa Gable:

But having COVID actually gave me a gift. I could not do the normal things, but I had time, I had my work schedule, I had to manage my team, I had to raise the money, but I was right here in this one spot and couldn't really go any place. And so I just utilized that time to write the book and then promote the book.

Kendra Davenport:

You make it sound so simple. I think it all goes back to discipline. So talk to me a little bit about where that discipline comes from and what you use to, to stay focused, to to stay disciplined. And if you can parse that out for our listeners in terms of what makes you work. Are there things? Are there tools that you inculcate into your day to day that help you maintain that discipline?

Lisa Gable:

I rank and rate everything that I do. I I was a branding person at one point in time in my career, and so I define what brand purpose I want for what I call Lisa Gable Inc. Right? What is what do I want Lisa Gable Inc. To mean to other people? What do I want it to produce? And what quantitative deliverables do I wanna meet? It's the same thing I do in business. And so every quarter, and I do this also in every work format that I am in, I rank and rate everything that I am doing. How much time am I spending doing this? What types of obligations have I taken on? What types of board commitments? What kinds of meetings am I doing? What kind of speaking engagements? And what is the quantitative impact of each of those? And it really comes down to Intel Corporation. When I was at Intel Corporation, we had management by objectives. And you identified 3 to 5, objectives for each quarter, and then you outlined what the quantitative results of each of those would be so you could go back and measure whether or not you did it.

And I turned things down. I have taken myself off of boards when I realized it's not helping me accomplish the objective that I've defined for that point in time in my life. And I do that business, but I also do it work. Because say the other tool I use is decision trees. I love decision trees. And again I use this with I would use it with clients. I'd use it with turnarounds, but I use it with myself, which is if you say these are the things I wanna accomplish and then you look at everything you do as a yes, no does this action allow me to do that? Yes. Well, then we'll keep doing it Does it do does it give me the, impact that I was looking for in this particular case? Yes.

It does. Okay. I'll keep doing it. If the answer's no, then stop. And it's okay to stop doing things. And I think that's the hardest thing for people. You find people that have been on, like, a board for 9 years, and you're like, really? Are you still getting the same impact out of it? And are they still getting the same impact from you?

Kendra Davenport:

. I I am often asked, you know, Kendra, why don't you champion 10 year, like, 10 years, 15 years? Because I'm always I always take it with a grain of salt when people say, oh, this person's or this person stayed for 20 years. And I part of me thinks that's admirable, but the larger part of me thinks, how are you still fresh after 20 years in the same role or with the same organization? So I do love that, and I think it's important as you divide your time to to really think about where you're making an impact and what's helping you because, right, if it's not mutually beneficial, why do it? Right? Unless you're very morally committed and you're it's a selfless thing. Thinking of that and thinking of all the time and effort and an experience you have with turnarounds, is there something you find today that is, you know, maybe one of the biggest challenges for leaders? And if so, can you talk about that? And it can be management, can be anything.

Lisa Gable:

You have to I tell people to go and look at the original charter of the organization. If the organization is struggling, go back and look at the original charter and ask whether or not that charter is still relevant, whether or not people believe that is what the organization's purpose still is. And if it's still relevant, you then should again rank and rate everything you do to see if it allows you and to achieve that charter. What we discover with companies, and Intel Corporation is a great example of this, is a company that was incredibly focused. Right? Everything was around job 1. Job 1 was taking over the semiconductor market while I was at Intel. We went from, being, behind the Japanese to taking over 75% of the market worldwide in 5 years.

But then Intel got big and then they decided, oh, let's try healthcare. Oh, let's try this. Oh, let's try that. When they go back, and this is the thing the company is struggling with today, now they're going back and saying, oh, we should just focus on job 1, but they lost the market. Nvidia has taken has taken a lot of that market away from them. Somebody else stepped in. And it's that level of focus that is so important. The other thing to ask yourself is, is this organization still relevant? I went through a job interview once, and they had me looking at it was for a turnaround, and I knew that.

And they asked me to I said, I wanna look at the books before I accept the job. I looked at the books, and I did an assessment, and I came back to that board, and I said, this organization's done. It's done. And that's okay. Some organizations actually should only live for a moment in time. But if their moment in time's done, then possibly they merge or you shut it down. It's the hardest thing for people to do, especially in Washington, DC. There's so many organizations in this town that should go away.

It's everything doesn't happen to it has to result in perpetuity. I would say the last thing that I always discover is hubris. Always. Every single turnaround is hubris. It might be that someone is so convinced that they can do something the way that they want to do it, that they fail to remember that they are in an organization for a moment of time for the purposes of serving that organization, not for fulfilling their own interest. There should have been people that went on before you. There are gonna be people that go on behind after you. They're paying you a paycheck to grow the organization.

They are not paying you a paycheck to grow you.

Kendra Davenport:

Brings me to a great, great segue to what are some qualities you find are universal in very effective leaders? So when you think about the people you've worked with in turnarounds or in advisory capacities, who you've come away from, maybe not always agreeing with, but having deep rooted respect for the way they manage, the way they lead. Can you talk about what some of those qualities are, Lisa, in your mind?

Lisa Gable:

They take one thing I've learned is that people who take the time to talk to people and also really talk to people, like, go all the way down the line, go and talk to people at the lowest levels within the company, Make yourself highly accessible and utilize that time to find out what they think is going on, whether or not their job is working. And also do they say things that aren't working in the organization. Leaders who are willing to not who are willing to step out of the c suite are truly the best leaders. The second is that they are, again, that level of willingness to try and investigate what's going on. What I always liked is Craig Barrett would make me, he was the CEO of Intel when I was at Intel and I was a special assistant. He would make me call the 1 800 line and pretend to be a customer. And he would call the 1 800 line and pretend to be a customer. He really wanted to experience what was happening.

And I know Michael Dell, has been very well known for doing that, where he goes online and he'll actually reply to some of the negative customer experience emails that come in. And he really queries the person. He wants to understand what the true problem is. That level of humility, that willingness to to listen to people up and down throughout the organization, to not set yourself apart, to not become part of the private jet club that just goes from one location to another and stays at the 4 seasons. Those are the people I tend to respect the most. And it's one reason I really loved Silicon Valley during the nineties. It was a very down to earth group of people. It's changed.

Kendra Davenport:

As all things. At 6 Star, I know you're focusing on AI driven technologies. Can you talk a little bit about what you see as the the most positive aspect of AI in business and in the nonprofit philanthropic sector?

Lisa Gable:

Well, in I think in a couple of places, in government, I am a huge fan of the Estonia government, and I've written about it a few times. Estonian government, and they are, they have no government office buildings. They have and they also have the strongest AI system because the Russians are always trying to, attack custodian. They're always trying to get access to it. One reason they did that is their fear is a small country. If they ever got invaded by Russia, they could literally take the entire country on the cloud someplace else. And so I think that AI has this incredible potential, and it is kind of crazy that we're at the place we are today dealing with a regulatory and government system that was designed in the sixties seventies before. I mean, most US government departments and agencies were set up before 1986, before you had a laptop computer and nobody had a cell phone.

So I think there's a level of efficiency where we have to in government look at that. But in the companies, people are so worried it's gonna take away jobs. And I and I understand that concern. But if you have that concern, I truly believe industry should come together and try to up level the entire industry and retrain the industry as opposed to destroying an industry. Why don't you think about 10 years from now where where this all should take us and then train people to get there. We can do that in education. We can do that in industry and education. We cannot, we will never train enough teachers.

We'll never train enough teachers. We will never have enough calculus teachers to go to South Dallas, which is the poorest area of Dallas, Texas. So taking advantage of the technology and giving those students access to the same level of calculus education that somebody is getting in a boarding school in New England. So I I see the potential. I see the potential in, in healthcare. I do believe we have a if you know what's gonna happen, then train people for the next direction of where it's gonna go. Let them be part of the process. Let them be part of actually designing what the future will be.

Take the risk. It is so expensive to lay people off. And then it's so expensive to rehire people. If you calculate out all the expenses that you will go through from laying off and rehiring people over the next 10 years as the company and as the industry changes, then why not invest in them?

Kendra Davenport:

I knew you'd have a great answer for that, and I could talk to you all day about that. I am often asked predominantly by young women, and I apologize. I have a cold. I know you have a cold. Excuse me. I'm asked by women who are at the start of their career. How did you do it? How did you have a family? How did you balance a marriage? How did you continually ascend? And I think my response is always different. Right? It's different it's different for everyone.

And what worked for me isn't maybe going to work for you. How would you respond? Because I know you you have a similar life. I know you've worked with Jim, your husband, together. You've worked on your own. You've raised a daughter. How did you do it? How do you continue to do it? And what advice would you give to people more junior in their career who are looking at it thinking, gosh, I don't know how I'm gonna manage this.

Lisa Gable:

The first thing I would say is build your personal team and identify ways that you're gonna help each other up the ladder of life. Women who've been in my life that are 10 to 15 years older than I am that have done that for me. I mentioned Barbara Barrett, Elaine Chao, who's secretary of transportation is another person who's done that for me. But I've also done it for many other women. And now we have this daisy chain of women, who are basically from the age of, 30 through, you know, who we have connected to each other so that we're just constantly pulling each other through. And here's the reason why it's important. You do not know what's gonna happen to you in life. My husband, as you know, has been sick many times that he's gone through 3 times in our marriage where he's been very, very ill, and I couldn't work.

And so having people who then would go, hey, let's keep Lisa relevant. Let's help Lisa stay on that upward trajectory, recognizing she can't do a full time job. So we're gonna give her some boards and commissions that enable her to have a voice, but enable her to have a very distinct schedule so that she's off again and on again when she needs to be for her family, for her daughter, for her husband. And so that personal team, you help each other. And when I think through all that's happened to those women over the last 40 years and how we are in fact, I met with a woman the other day who, is she's having her first baby and her husband's a top gun pilot and she's a very well versed senior executive woman with a lot of opportunities in Washington, but she goes, I won't be able to do it. I'm having the baby in February. He's gonna get deployed to June. What do I do? I'm like, I have the solution.

This is what so and so did for me. So build build that system and recognize you're gonna help each other. And sometime I'm gonna be more important than you are. And sometimes you're gonna be more important than I am. And and if you don't care about that, you just keep helping each other, you're gonna be successful. And so I I'd say plan for the ins and outs and lights, but the reality is, and maybe it's because I'm older now, I I was devastated when my husband was first sick because I thought, okay. I've worked so hard to get to this point, and now I can't do anything. But 30 years later or 25 years later, I'm doing what I'm doing.

So life life doesn't stop. Yeah. You have to sometimes take time outs, and that's where your friends are gonna help you. That's where they're gonna help you maintain some type of relevancy, or they're gonna help you retrain to get back in. But you're gonna have to deal with it. Aging parents, sick kids, sick spouses, or you yourself may be sick sometime. It's just the reality of life, but no, it doesn't end. I've I've exited and reentered my career more times than most people realize looking at my resume.

Kendra Davenport:

And I think that's so important for people to hear, myself included. So thank you for that. You are very public. You're a very public persona. Tell us tell our listeners something they can't find out about you on Google. That

Lisa Gable:

I love ACDC. And my favorite thing my favorite thing to relax is that I play ACDC on my iPad with my with my headset in and I read, like, just really crazy suspense novels with serial killers or David Baldacci or something. And that's how I David Baldacci. So that's that's it. And I asked one of the rich person too. So I'm gonna fully include everything. Fully of it.

Kendra Davenport:

I love it, and I love that. You know, we like to end our episodes with an ask me anything segment, so stick around for that. But before I get to that, I wanna ask you just one more question. Anyone who knows me, and you and I are kindred spirits in so many ways, Lisa, You know I am a voracious reader. I read constantly. I'm usually reading multiple books. Talk to us if you can about what you're reading now. It can be anything, that you would recommend.

Lisa Gable:

One of the books I literally buy for everyone who works for me is Measure What Matters. I used to buy them Andy Grove's book, which was High Output Management and it's a little hard to read, but I make everyone who works for me Measure What Matters. Sure what matters. It's one of the best books. I I gave it to my daughter. It truly is something that if you're a younger person or if you're an older person and you're really trying to juggle a lot of balls, it enables you to find a very clear path forward. So that's my that's my referral book.

Kendra Davenport:

Okay. I fibbed. I have one more question for you. I just wanna know what's next. What's on the docket as somebody who I admire for constantly evolving and doing new things as I've said, what's next? What do you wanna do? What have you not conquered? What's on the bucket list?

Lisa Gable:

You know, it's life dependent right now. So I've been very involved for the last 3 years in women and democracy. I worked for Ronald Reagan. I feel very strongly that I had an amazing opportunity in life because I started in my business career after the Berlin Wall fell. And I was part of that group of people that got to travel around the world and help, you know, basically open business around the world. And I want to keep that for the future.

Kendra Davenport:

Thank you so much. Thank you for sharing as you always do from the heart and so candidly. It's been an absolute pleasure, Lisa. Appreciate you. And now for our ask me anything question, which today is, what qualities do you think are essential for leaders in the field of community services and disability advocacy, especially when it comes to driving meaningful change? Well, it's an interesting question because I am new to the disability services and programs field. Only been in this role about 2 years and 8 or 9 months, and it has been a a a steep learning curve. It's a complex field, and Easterseals provide services and supports to people with all disabilities of all ages.

I would say leading in this field requires compassion, requires a willingness to understand and learn constantly because landscape around disability is constantly evolving and changing. Sometimes for the better, sometimes not so much. I think a willingness to listen, and to ask questions. Right? None of us like to feel vulnerable. And if you're a type a personality, you really issue the that feeling. I think many of us do. I certainly do. But as I've gotten older, I've realized it's okay to ask.

It's okay to say, I don't understand that. Or could you explain that acronym? I think having that intellectual curiosity and not losing that is critical to being able to lead effectively. I also think you need to look around and see who's doing things that you want to do and doing them well. And emulate those people and ask those individuals to sit down with you and explain why they do what they do, how they do it, how they got to where they're going, how they created that merger, how they did that acquisition, what led them to that. Many of the leaders that comprise, you know, our our Easterseals network, which is 70 CEOs across the country, all doing very unique things with some very big commonalities. Right? All of our affiliates address disability, some form of disability, some target population, but many of them operate programs that are unique to them, unique to their affiliate. And I can honestly say, I think to a person, our CEOs do their jobs very, very well. And it is from those CEOs that I've learned a tremendous amount about the disability services community, about empathy and compassion and understanding, and recognizing, when something isn't working and where to go to make it work.

Recognizing that, well, you know, the adage together we are stronger is often helpful. Getting to the point where you are operating together with partners or other affiliates can be challenging. And so listening and being patient and taking your ego out of it as often as you can, those are all things I think are important. Easterseals empowers people with disabilities and their families to be full and equal participants in their communities and within society. Easterseals is where everyone can feel welcomed and people know that they aren't judged, but treated with the dignity that they deserve. Each day, we provide life changing services nationwide and advocate for policies that improve quality of life. From employment to housing services, to job training, childcare and respite care, adult day programs, and so much more, Easterseals is making a profound impact in thousands of communities every day. You can learn more by visiting easterseals.com.

That concludes our episode. Thank you so much for listening. If you like what you heard, be sure to write a review. Like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, and be sure to join us in the next episode as we discuss how we can all get on board with Transparent Leadership.