Categories: Articles

A Lesson In Great Leadership

Episode #332 of Six Pixels of Separation – The Twist Image Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to.

There are few kinder people than Mark Miller. I had the pleasure of meeting Mark many years ago at my first TED conference. I didn’t know anyone (and this can make it kind of awkward) and Mark was always kind, welcoming and willing to invite anyone and everyone into a conversation. I think I leaned on that kindness more than I should have at that first event, and over the years I would look forward to running into him at every TED. Mark is the author of three excellent books on leadership titled, Great Leaders Grow (his latest), The Secret Of Teams and The Secret. With each of these books, Mark worked (at varying levels) with Ken Blanchard (master author of books like, The One Minute Manager, Who Moved My Cheese?, Raving Fans and many more). I had been chomping at the bit to chat with Mark about his thoughts on what it takes to be a great leader. Mark is also the Vice President of Organizational Effectiveness at chick-fil-a. Our chat finally happened and the timing was, somewhat awkward. Chick-fil-a had created a firestorm when their COO, Dan Cathy, made several public statements about his thoughts on same sex marriage. Being who I am, I had to ask Mark about this as well. For the record: I am all for two things: happiness and peace. If two people want to be together and love each other, I don’t care who they are (or what they are), so long as they are adding more happiness and peace to the world. This podcast (and the blog) are never political, so I did my best to navigate the issue. I hope I both didn’t let any of the regular listeners down while, at the same time, respecting and honoring my friendship and admiration for the way Mark thinks about business and leadership. Enjoy the conversation…

You can grab the latest episode of Six Pixels of Separation here (or feel free to subscribe via iTunes): Six Pixels of Separation – The Twist Image Podcast #332.

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.