3 questions asked in a Thought Leader session
In his Thought Leader session on Sunday, Bob Rosen, Ph.D., chairman and CEO of Healthy Companies International, talked about how leaders create healthy organizations by fostering their human capital and building the capacity to live with anxiety. At the end, audience members asked some thoughtful questions. Below is a sample of three of them, with a bonus. [Note: paraphrasing below, not direct quotes.]
Question: Is there any hope for creating a healthy company despite a leader at the top that casts a shadow instead of showing the light?
Rosen suggestions were to find financial data, if the leader is a financially minded person, that might make a business case for self reflection or to show the leader success stories of great leaders that he or she can follow and benchmark against.
Question: How do effective leaders find the right balance between fearing risk and driving for success?
Rosen said that if you have a philosophy that life has ups and downs and you learn from those ups and downs, then it changes the way you interpret risky situations.
Question: How does inclusion factor into a leader creating a healthy organization? (The questioner noted that Rosen hadn't used the word inclusion during his presentation despite a focus on human management.)
Rosen suggested that success with inclusion depends on very foundational qualities, such as generosity, understanding, and openness. He said, "To get to respect for diversity, you have to start with being a good person."
And a bonus lesson: an audience member asked a follow-up question to the last one above, noting that a fine line exists between striving for inclusiveness and creating a sense of entitlement among stakeholders. Rosen responded with a one-minute version of his lesson about the four choices a leader has for methods to make decisions, which Scott blogged about just last month.
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