TLP010: Leadership and Followership at all Levels

Christian Anschuetz inspires the unconventional with a unique mix of strategic vision, adventurous spirit, bold action, and keen sense for calculated risk. He fuses these traits with executive business savvy and bleeding-edge technical knowledge to build high-performance organizations and solutions that enable transformative change. Mr. Anschuetz is an entrepreneur, business executive and veteran of the United States Marine Corps.  His diverse background and interests have helped incubate successful companies, propelled him to the executive ranks of two leading firms, and most recently, inspired the launch of the innovative nonprofit startup, Project RELO. Christian currently serves as the CIO of UL (Underwriters Laboratories).  He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from the University of Michigan, a Bachelor of Science in computer information science from Strayer University and is a graduate of Yale’s Executive Leadership Program.   Web - LinkedIN - ProjectRELO Twitter - @projectrelo Facebook - Recent article -   Summary & Ideas for Action In this episode, Christian Anschuetz shares his intention-based leadership style, and how his military career influenced his leadership style, and helped him thrive in a corporate career.  He also discusses how he aims to change the lives of veterans through his work with Project Relo. He talks about the need for leaders throughout the organization – regardless of title.  He also discusses how “followership” is key.  He defines effective leadership as one where an environment exists where people work outside their comfort zone, innovate, and work with a “spring in their step.”  Basically, effective leadership is when people follow willingly. As a leader, Christian creates teams of people who are innovative, support each other through risky situations, and help one another to eliminate the fear of failure.    Key Takeaways [3:10] How has Christian’s military experience impacted his role as a leader in the traditional corporate environment? [6:33] We need leaders throughout our entire organization.  Anybody and everybody can lead and that is how you get high performance teams. [8:18] Christian paints a vision for people of what is expected of them and then follows with the intention behind the goal. [14:18] If you are going to fail, you are going to fail with your team members who will then propel you past the failure. [20:36] How to get past the fear of failure by moving into unsafe zones. [25:20] Project Relo highlights the abilities of veterans and focuses on leadership objectives. [31:33] When people are pushing themselves into unsafe areas and are innovative, that is when Christian knows he’s being an effective leader. [39:34] Contact information for Christian and Project Relo.   Quotable Quotes “Members of the Marine Corps are known to have a certain level of cockiness. It’s because Marines believe they can do anything.” “When you manage risk-to-zero, you simultaneously manage opportunity-to-zero.” “In human relationships, technology is our enemy and not our friend.”   Points to Ponder How do you help people be confident, but not arrogant?  How do you balance this with humility versus insecurity? Is visioning the role of the leader, or that of the team? Does your team know what extraordinary performance looks like?  Is it OK in your environment to make mistakes and sometimes fail because that’s where learning and growth take place? How can you stretch people to do more than they thought they could (beyond normal comfort zones)? What metrics do you have in place to know that your leadership is creating the right environment for people to follow you willingly?