Name: Michele Olive

Title: Senior Director PSSL Philanthropy

Organisation: City of Hope

Senior Director with over 30 years experience in business and leadership with 23 years of that in the medical field.

I am a mother of 3 successful young men, married 25 years and a grandmother of two beautiful girls. I have built and operated a successful CPR first Aid training company as well as managed up to 100 medical staff.

I am an inducted member of The National Society of Leadership and Success and am continuing my education to be a better leader and to learn more in regards to implementing processes.

Trained in the Six Sigma-Lean programs. Nationally certified Medical Scribe, Surgical Tech as well and Emergency Medical Technician. All of these skills have taught me how to adapt, think on my feet and take constructive criticism and lead by example.

I also have taught post-secondary anatomy, mathmatics, physiology, didactic and mock surgery as well as law and ethics for the healthcare professional. I love to teach, learn and give back.

Thank you to the 2,000 leaders who’ve generously done the 7 Questions on Leadership!

I hope Michele's answers will encourage you in your leadership journey. Enjoy!

Cheers,

Jonno White

1. What have you found most challenging as a leader?

What I find most challenging as a leader is at times, large companies give information in pieces. When working to get but in from your teams, you need to be able to paint a picture. You need to be able to answer questions and sound confident in what you are proposing. So getting, so to speak pieces of a puzzle, can cause concern, confusion and a lack of buy in.

2. How did you become a leader? Can you please briefly tell the story?

That’s a very weighted question.

I started in leadership on a scale that really was in the fashion industry as a buyer for a one store on Melrose and six stores in Japan. I was a merchandiser at the time and was really learning a lot from my mentor on how to spot trends and styles, and, I guess she just saw something in me and started to allow me to kind of take the lead on purchasing and buying.

It then led to me going to trade shows and being able to solidify contracts for large companies in order to carry their merchandise in the stores. Soon that turned into me becoming vice president, and eventually being able to solidify some of the most difficult contracts with designers to carry merchandise in the stores in the United States, as well as in Japan, and I was doing all of this at the ripe young age of 23.

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

I wake up at 5 o’clock in the morning. I try to be at the office by 7:30 in order to get myself organized check my emails and my schedule for the day and really prepare for when everything starts buzzing at 8 o’clock.

My goal is always to make sure that myself as well as my team are on the same page with what we have going for the day if not for the week, I try very hard to make sure that the multiple committees that I am on as well as the people that I’m dealing with.

I’ve touched base with at least once a week if not more depending on what we have pending if there’s anything but it’s always great to have that first of the week, touch base and then a midweek , what I like to call reflection.

This allows for the team to get together and discuss any obstacles good or bad things that have happened and any need for follow up from myself or anyone else. I try to get home by at least 6 PM. I take time to take care of my animals cook, clean and then finally my yoga meditation and maybe do a little catch-up on reading.

I spend time with my husband make my FaceTime calls to the kids and then I try to get in bed by no later than 930, 10 o’clock, I believe a good night sleep is key to everything. I make sure throughout the day I eat well and I hydrate I can’t think on my toes if I’m tired or feeling sluggish.

4. What's a recent leadership lesson you've learned for the first time or been reminded of?

One of the leadership leadership lessons that I am constantly reminded of is that you cannot utilize one form of leading. Just as people learn different ways, audio, visual, kinesthetic you have to lead multifaceted.

If you do not, you are nine times out of 10 going to fail I believe that you have to know your teams know how they want to be acknowledged know how they want to be recognized understand how they take information in and how they regurgitated, and you have to be willing to, listen actively as well as communicate effectively from many platforms.

You can’t say well I just email so therefore I will send email communications you need to understand your teams how they communicate when they communicate what’s the best time of day to communicate what’s the best day of the week to communicate when it when are they the busiest when are they more likely to be able to listen These all come in to play when you are dealing with large scale teams and it’s a lesson that I’m constantly reminded of.

That’s why I’m always in school and constantly learning and taking leadership classes to be a breast of any skill that I could learn that could help me be better for my teams.