1. What have you found most challenging as a CEO or executive of a large enterprise?

Keeping people focused on the mission and objectives of our organization as our customer bases needs change.

2. How did you become a CEO or executive of a large enterprise? Can you please briefly tell the story?

I filled a need for program development and continued to press us to grow, and was asked by the board to take the mantle.

3. How do you structure your work days from waking up to going to sleep?

I begin the day with a 10-12 minute meditation, bless my kids as they leave for school, block my first few hours for thinking time while dropping my daughter at school, then block times via calendar to focus on priorities. I carve out workout times and listen to podcasts to expand my mind during these times as well. I hardly ever eat alone, talk while driving, then pick up my daughter from school. Evenings I work on hobbies and have dinner with the family. I end the day with a meditation sleep for 6-8 hours.

4. What's the most recent significant leadership lesson you've learned?

Everyone fails from time to time. When you do, learn from it, apologize to those impacted, forgive yourself, and move on.

5. What's one book that has had a profound impact on your leadership so far? Can you please briefly tell the story of how that book impacted your leadership?

Strengths Based Leadership. It provided context for how we can be our best self and how our best self can get in the way. Often our overused strengths, when used with basement behaviors are perceived and received as weaknesses by others. By focusing one's self on balcony behaviors for our strengths, mitigating our weaknesses with our balcony strengths and partnering with those who can cover our weakness, we can build a high performance team that exceeds expectations!

6. How do you build leadership capacity in a large enterprise?

By helping people understand who they are, who others are and how they can better work together, aligning their personal goals with corporate goals and aligning rewards across the group so they are set up to succeed.

7. What is one meaningful story that comes to mind from your time as a CEO or executive of a large enterprise so far?

I recently had the opportunity to help a board member reimagine their corporate role based on market needs and their observable skills. They had always seen themselves as an corporate IT operations leader or project manager. They hadn’t considered product management as a career choice and had been unsuccessful in finding a role. With this small tweak to their perspective and the obvious crossover skillset, they were hired by Microsoft as a product manager within a few months. This is a rewarding and enjoyable aspect of leading a volunteer non profit and working with passionate servant leaders.