5 minute read
Executive Breakfasts Series
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS AND TOPICS
April 12th Steps to Understand and Implement A Responsibility-Based Workplace Culture. Judy Ryan, CEO LifeWork Systems
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June 14th The CURE Mindset: Establishing Your Baseline for Inclusive Leadership. Allison Choi, HR Consultant and Laura Scheidhauer, President, LHS Consulting LLC
August 9th Developing and Encouraging an Entrepreneurship Mentorship. R. Lewis Sheats, Director of the Chaifetz Center for Entrepreneurship at St. Louis University
October 11th How to Leverage Enterprise Agility for Competitive Advantage. Stella O’Brien, VP IconAgility and Doug Less, Agile Transformation Consultant EXECUTIVE BREAKFAST
This April the HCC proudly launched a new program, The Evolving Workplace executive breakfast series, presented by the SLU Chaifetz School of Business. The purpose of the series is to offer executives networking with peers, keynote presentations, and engaging table discussion. The topics are designed to provide attendees with new ideas and resources for their evolving business.
We kicked off the series with Judy Ryan, CEO of LifeWork Systems presenting “Steps to understand and implement a responsibility-based workplace culture”. In June Laura Scheidhauer, President of LHS Consulting LLC spoke about “The CURE mindset: Establishing your baseline for inclusive leadership”. In August R. Lewis, Director of the Chaifetz Center for Entrepreneurship at Saint Louis University presented information on how to develop and encourage an entrepreneurship mentorship. Lastly, we wrapped up the series with the topic “How to Leverage Enterprise Agility for Competitive Advantage” presented by Doug Less with Agile Transformation Consultant.
We are already planning the 2023 breakfast series, stay tuned on our social media channels to learn more about the new topics that we will bring you.
2nd topic
laura scheidhauer, president, lhs consulting llc
IT WAS SUCH AN HONOR TO PRESENT IN JUNE AS PART OF THE HCC BREAKFAST SERIES TO A WONDERFUL GROUP OF ENGAGED LEADERS.
When we think about inclusive leadership, I’m sure we have all experienced leaders who don’t make the effort to connect, leaving us feeling marginalized and ignored. When people don’t feel heard, they feel disrespected, misunderstood, and undervalued.
To solve these common problems, we introduce the C.U.R.E. Mindset: four key attitudes that lay the foundation of becoming an inclusive leader. C-Connection, U-Understanding, R-Respect, E-Empathy. When we’re talking about inclusive leadership, CONNECTION means that I am intentionally pursuing diversity in my relationships and making connections that put me in situations where I can learn from and better understand people who are different than me. That may mean people who look different than me, ethnically or culturally. But it can also mean people who think, believe, and live a very different lifestyle than me.
Once I have made a connection with you, it is important that I try to UNDERSTAND more about you. I want to “Get” you. This can only happen when I show more interest in what you are sharing with me than in what I want to tell you about myself or my opinions. Intellectual understanding is gained through the intentional process of active listening.
Everyone wants to feel heard and wants to feel RESPECT. Professionalism means that I can be myself and accept others as they are. I give you respect when I humbly consider what you have to share and validate you even when I don’t agree with you. EMPATHY is the result of having pursued intentional Connection, Understanding and Respect. It is a mark of a mature inclusive leader. When I can empathize with what you have shared, I can grow to be willing to walk in your shoes. I no longer just want to “GET” you, but I now have the capacity to “FEEL” you. Again, that should include those I do not agree with.
In order to move beyond inspiration, and experience transformation in your leadership and the culture of your organization, it is important to take the next step and create an action plan for yourself.
To implement the CURE Mindset for yourself, your team, or your whole organization to make DEI a true competitive advantage, empower your people to bring their best, and create an inclusive culture where everyone is valued, heard, and feels a sense of belonging.
You can BE MORE at work, home, and play.
314.402.5038
BeMore@lhs-consulting.com
lhs-consulting.com
3rd topic
HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED WHERE NEW IDEAS AND CONCEPTS ORIGINATE?
Recently, I had the opportunity to address this topic at the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Breakfast Series in an effort to instill and ignite an entrepreneurial mindset in the audience. Almost all concepts for new ventures, products, and initiatives are generated from 3 categories — Unsolved Problems, Gaps in the Market, and Changes in the Environment.
I tried to show the audience how Uber solved many problems in building their company to provide access to transportation where taxis may not be readily available, but also demonstrated the other problems and solutions Uber addresses. For example, transparency around the cost, the driver, and the route. In addition, Uber solves problems for the drivers by providing flexibility for unemployed or underemployed gig workers. When people think about entrepreneurship, we frequently recognize the problem/solution category because it is often directly related to our own experiences.
In the following two categories I dove into better recognition of opportunities and how to take advantage of them. For example, I explained how Fresh Thyme has filled a gap in the market created by a food desert in Midtown or how Spotify took advantage of a change in our technological environment to provide quick and easy access to millions of songs within seconds. Compare this to how we used to have to travel to a record store, purchase a cassette tape and play it on a device like a Sony Walkman. The technological change in the environment of the proliferation of smartphones has generated countless new opportunities like Spotify that we take for granted today, i.e. Google Maps, Facebook, Twitter, and Venmo just to name a few.
I concluded the presentation with the importance of how taking action is a critical component of an entrepreneurial mindset by highlighting the pathway from idea to a new venture, product or initiative only happens by acting on the opportunity recognized. I recommend starting with the customer. Use the information you gather from them to build a minimum viable product, go back to the customer, and iterate in incremental steps until you have product market fit.
We will board the 4th topic in the next edition. Keep an eye out! r. lewis sheats, director of the chaifetz centerfor entrepreneurship at st. louis university
