In the first episode of Coach Class I had the pleasure of speaking to Stephen Smith, President and CEO at L.L.Bean. Steve and I worked together at ASDA here in the UK, before he became CEO of the family owned outdoor clothing retailer in Maine, USA. Since then I've been lucky enough to have L.L.Bean as one of my clients.
Steve thinks about leadership as curiosity, and trying to get the best out of the people around you. He thinks about expert skills and transferable skills in people all the time. Expert skills are what you are good at e.g. you're a marketer, you're a social media expert, you're a public relations, professional. Whereas transferable skills are what makes you a great thinker, you're persuasive, you have great time management, you're charismatic.
He has three big three values that he lives by and thinks about all of the time from a leadership perspective: empathy, transparency, and integrity.
Empathy - put yourself in somebody else's shoes, understand their perspective. And that can be a person working for you, or can be an adversary or peer.
Transparency - sharing everything, talking about everything, trying to give as much context as possible.
Integrity - just always attempting to do right to do the best possible thing.
Those three values, to Steve are the most important values. When he thinks about his own career, and he thinks about managing and leading people, he imagines assembling skills. He thinks about removing friction, trying to understand why things get done and how they get done and how these decisions impact the organisation and these individuals.
Tune in to hear more of what Steve has to say. He is a truly remarkable leader and human being.
🎧 Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, and please rate or share if it resonated.
