Stedman Graham, Business Advisor, Chairman, and CEO, S. Graham & Associates
In conversation with: Ruth Umoh, Editor, Next to Lead, Fortune
In conversation with: Ruth Umoh, Editor, Next to Lead, Fortune
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TechTranscript
00:00Good afternoon everyone Stedman. I am delighted to be joined in conversation with you
00:05Thank you so much for joining us here at the fortune of global forum. Thank you so much
00:09It's a pleasure to be here. Absolutely before you delve into the conversation at hand a quick reminder
00:15We will be taking some audience questions now that we have Stedman here with us
00:19So do you keep that in mind as we kick off this conversation?
00:22Stedman I have your book here with us and we'll soon be you know, really really delving into it
00:27You are a steadfast proponent of what you have coined
00:32Identity leadership and you've a fuse about the role it plays in
00:37Mobilizing teams and mobilizing workforces and helping organizations reach their maximum potential
00:43Define this theory for us and its significance
00:47Well identity leadership. Thank you so much for that identity leadership is self-leadership
00:53Based on the philosophy that you can't lead anybody else until you first lead yourself
00:58So I've kind of dedicated my life to help people figure out how to work on themselves
01:04how to organize themselves
01:07Change the learning system around
01:09So they learn how to learn and then self actualize their potential as a human being and there's a process for that
01:16and so I've been looking for this kind of all in my life to try to fill that hole up in my heart based on
01:21My background and stuff. I've had to go through with my family and all of that
01:26So the ability to be able to again
01:30Maximize your potential based on who you are
01:33To me is one of the most important things in the 21st century. Yeah, you use this phrase repeatedly
01:40Self-leadership. What do you mean by that? What does that look like in practice?
01:43Well self-leadership is is learning how to take information education make it relevant to who you are as a person your talents your abilities
01:51your skills
01:53and to be able to
01:56Organize content and take this iPhone
01:58Which is one of the greatest tools in the world and make that relevant to you to your growth and empowerment
02:04Most of us can't do that
02:07You got a billion people who basically they wake up in the morning. They wash their face. They brush their teeth
02:11They get something to eat to get the kids all to school work all day come home in the afternoon
02:15They spend time with the family. They watch TV. They go to bed
02:18Maybe they dream that's Monday and they repeat that same cycle over and over every single day
02:23So if you did the same thing you did yesterday as you will do today as you will do tomorrow, what have you done?
02:28The answer would probably be the same thing which is nothing and then everything we learn in school
02:34We get to memorize take tests repeat the information back and label with a grain to explain if I asked you what you learned
02:40What you would probably say I forgot or nothing. So nothing from nothing. There's nothing
02:45so the most important question is do you know who you are and
02:50Can you source information and make that relevant to your talents to your abilities your skills so that you can constantly grow
02:57beyond your circumstances
02:59Do you know who you are answering that question?
03:03requires
03:04Self-awareness that is certainly key to identity leadership
03:08Certainly key to being an efficacious leader. That's easier said than done
03:13How do leaders develop this muscle? How do they you know augments their ability to?
03:20introspective
03:20And and have that level and deep that deep level of self-awareness and yeah
03:25Yeah, I mean most you you won't get in the school for the most part
03:30so it really kind of is a privilege to be able to
03:36Organize content and apply that to your development my life changed when I learned how to learn
03:43Because before I was just reading and not applying information to my talents and to my ability
03:48And this thing called love
03:51It's kind of the center of everything
03:53It's your core base. So I mean I teach in schools and I have curriculum in schools and colleges
04:01And all of that and the first thing I do is I get people to write down everything they love in their life their passion
04:07their purpose
04:09What they care about their interests and to be able to organize information education and apply that to your development
04:15So that you can define your own existence
04:18which is what we're looking for today is self-directed learners lifelong learners and
04:23This room is full of talent
04:26So the question is is how can you?
04:29Leverage that talent to be the best person you could possibly be and create as much value
04:36As you were you were born to create based on your potential as a person
04:40Yeah, you said your life changed when you learned how to learn
04:44I mean we have luminaries in the room. We have CEOs
04:47We have world leaders who arguably believe that they know how to learn. What do you mean by that?
04:53You learned how to learn. It was a bit more mind expansive. Well learning how to learn it means you focus on the internal
05:00foundation of what you're good at
05:04You focus on what you're passionate about you focus on your purpose in life and then you're able to
05:11grow and
05:13Organize yourself in a way that you're you can create a sustainable process to be really great at what you do
05:21and
05:22Now we have access to content and information around the world to be able to apply all of that leverage
05:28into the global marketplace to create more value to me is
05:35Learning how to learn, you know and everything you read everything you learn everything you experience
05:39You'll be able to take those experiences and all of that and make that relevant to your empowerment
05:44This ideology around identity leadership can feel a bit nebulous
05:49Daunton, where does one begin?
05:52Well one begins with
05:55Writing down and being conscious of everything that you want to achieve in your life
06:01Everything you're passionate about again. Love is like there's only two emotions
06:06Either love or hate good or bad
06:08Well, it won't can I can't looking at the glass half empty or half full so to be able to choose man
06:14What you're good at what you care about?
06:17What you want to do what makes you happy and then the bill from that and then to be able to apply
06:23Information to that so that you can constantly improve your life and get out of that routine is what is how you begin to?
06:30create
06:32Maximum potential give us a personal anecdote. Have you applied that in your life?
06:36Well, you know coming from a small town, you know
06:40I kind of having a race-based consciousness growing up with two special-need brothers in my family was very difficult for me
06:46I grew up with low self-esteem a lack of confidence in myself being defined by my relationship with Oprah, of course and
06:52And being put into a box
06:55I didn't know how to define myself and I was looking to figure out how do I?
07:01Create kind of equality in my own life and how do I
07:07Define myself and I realized that it's not an outside job. It's an inside job
07:12So we're often defined by house and car and money and title and all those external things
07:18And when I realized that I first had to focus internally to build my own existence to define my own potential
07:24That's when I realized oh
07:26You're going the wrong way and that
07:28Most people in the world are focused on the outside world. So when you define their existence and build value
07:34So when I changed that perspective and that started to take an information education and make it irrelevant to my own personal professional development
07:42That's when I started to grow and I realized it's not who you are. It's not where you start
07:47it's who you can become and
07:49We live in the greatest country in the world, which is America
07:52So to be able to live in this country and utilize all the systems and all of the
07:57Possibilities that make that relevant our personal professional development. That's pretty much a
08:03Gift for us an opportunity turn into the audience any questions
08:07If you have one do raise your hand a mic handler will come to you any questions
08:15Well, that makes my life easier because I have many more questions, okay
08:19You so you're talking about identity we just had, you know a pivotal election
08:24Identity certainly played a you know a central role. The world has become far more
08:29Interconnected business has become increasingly global and the leaders role has become
08:35You know much more complex. They face a slew of challenges and setbacks on a daily basis
08:42What role does self-leadership play in keeping one?
08:47Motivated and grounded. Well, I think you the key is to be able to invest in yourself today
08:55We want folks to be self-directed
08:57lifelong learners
08:59You have a global marketplace today, which is great
09:02You couldn't have a better opportunity than to be in to be living in this era today
09:07Because you have access to so much information and to be able to source that information and make that relevant again to your gifts
09:16To what you do. Well to me is the opportunity
09:20We've never had acts so much access to information before in our lives
09:25So to be able to apply that information to who we are every day
09:30Is a is an opportunity and when you say self-directed in your estimation
09:35Is that creating a purpose a mission and executing on it?
09:40That's that's really being excited about learning
09:44Being excited about reading and
09:47developing and building and creating and designing your own future because you can and
09:55We talk about production and performance we want people to perform
10:00We want people to build value the value that you give yourself is the value the world gives you the world sees you as you
10:06See yourself. So how do I get you to perform at the highest possible level based on what's possible for you?
10:14Utilizing all those tools that can be relevant to your development personally and professionally
10:19Yeah, it perfect segway to my next question because you've outlined in your book here about identity leadership
10:25But nine steps or so to understand in and discovering who one is
10:31Some of the steps you list include, you know outlining your vision creating a support network
10:37And and and leaving your comfort zone and facing your fears out of those nine
10:42Where do most leaders stumble and face the most internal resistance?
10:47Yeah, most people stumble with the first step of knowing who they are from the outset
10:52Yeah
10:52Because they're they're so they're taught so much to focus on the outside world as a way to define their existence
10:58And so they lose control for the most part
11:01They have no control to develop build define or create or design their future
11:06And so they get stuck being the world's constantly changing all the time
11:10So they have to keep adjusting and you have to keep adjusting, you know based on
11:17You know how the world
11:20You know what what's happening currently and in your environment and where you are today?
11:26so so that's the that's the
11:29foundational piece that you have to go back to the core of who you are all the time and that's a very difficult in a
11:34Changing environment out of those nine steps. I'm sure you're gonna say look, you know, they're all your favorites
11:39But I wish would you say is the most?
11:42Catalystic as one thinks about how they maximize their potential and certainly the potential of their companies
11:47I think you know once you find out who you are vision is very important. You know, what can you create? What's possible for you?
11:54Who you want to become?
11:57Developing a setting goals developing a travel plan around
12:02Again, where are you going?
12:04Being able to master the rules of the road you're guiding principles
12:07What are your principles that you want to live by?
12:12Building relationships all those things that are relevant to again building value
12:17you
12:18Really quickly you noted at the top of the conversation
12:21You said you know a challenge has been being identified by your relationship with Oprah Winfrey
12:27That said you've been a longtime friend in confidence of the media mogul
12:32So I would be remiss if I didn't ask you
12:35you know how her leadership style differs from or
12:40Potentially aligns with this ethos around identity leadership that you've said. Well, well number one. She's authentic
12:46She believes in what she does. She's a
12:49Extraordinary learner. She's reading all the time. Here's a person that reads about five books a week
12:56She is able to apply the information to her development
13:00She direct takes charge of her own
13:03social economic opportunities
13:05She utilizes the free enterprise system as a way to enhance her value
13:10So all of those things are relevant to the nine-step success process
13:15The process of success is the same for everybody
13:19The difference is some people know it some people don't
13:22Fantastic, that's all very we will take it no time. All right. Well with that being said, thank you so much
13:29Deadman for your time. This is such a great conversation
13:32You