DAN GAYLIN: So, Jeff, I’d love for you to talk about how you learn as a leader and who you learn from.

JEFF BRYANT: Throughout my career, I’ve learned from people up and down the chain in an organization. We can learn from our most junior leaders and colleagues just as much as from our senior leaders and colleagues. To facilitate this, we need to create opportunities to engage with everyone. You can’t learn from someone you don’t interact with, so it’s crucial to create deliberate moments to spend time with the full scope of our staff. Staying on the learning topic, we should approach every situation with a learning spirit.

And a senior leader once instilled in me the importance of a professional reading program. Her comment was, “Jeff, you are never going to be learning fast enough if you don't have a professional reading program as part of your routine.” That advice has stuck with me over the years. Learning from others and owning the responsibility to learn on our own are crucial, especially in an organization as rich in history and experience as NORC, with over 80 years of service.

DAN: Great, so what are a few leadership books you would recommend?

JEFF: Dan, happy to share four publications I’ve found very helpful over the years. The first is “Leadership and Self-Deception” by the Arbinger Institute. This book does the best job explaining some of the really complex human dynamics that exist at work and offers strategies to navigate those successfully. The second book is “The 360 Leader” by John Maxwell. This isn’t a book you sit down and read cover to cover. Rather it is more of a reference book dispelling common leadership myths and offering practical insights on leading up to your boss, leading across to your peer group, and leading our more junior colleagues. The third book is called “Good to Great” by Jim Collins. It is a nice collection of shared attributes among CEOs who were able to take companies from good to great and then sustain that “greatness” over significant periods of time.

Finally, I recommend reading the “Harvard Business Review.” This publication is very much about leadership and helps me stay abreast of current themes, trends, and thinking in leadership domains helpful at work, at home, and in our community.

DAN: Thanks Jeff, those are great recommendations. How do you manage an organization through dynamic change, and what aspects of leadership do you think are important in those situations?

JEFF: The first thing I try to pay attention to is honoring the legacy and tradition of the organization. It's there for a reason and has significant value. Letting the current staff know that we honor this legacy is the starting point. Once we identify that change is necessary, it’s often crucial to change the situation to facilitate this. This could mean introducing new external leadership, realigning teams, or even changing someone’s physical work environment to push for the needed change.

It’s also important to understand the team’s culture and their readiness to adopt change. Whether it’s integrating new technology, changing business practices, or adjusting scope, knowing where the team stands culturally and their potential to embrace change is vital.

DAN: Well said, and it reminds me of one of my favorite expressions, which is “culture eats strategy for breakfast.” You can have the best strategy, aligned with the mission and objectives of the organization, but if it’s incompatible with the culture, it has no chance of succeeding.

DAN: What's something that drives you or supports your thinking as a leader that we haven't touched on?

JEFF: I think good leaders shouldn’t feel threatened by other people’s success. We should be in the business of training, helping, and resourcing others to do a job better than we did it. When they succeed, we should rejoice in having played a small part in their journey. This is a leadership dynamic we may not think or talk about enough.

DAN: I couldn’t agree more. I think as we take on increasingly senior leadership roles we focus more enabling—and delighting in—the accomplishments of our colleagues.

Jeff, thank you for sharing your insights and experiences. It's been such a pleasure discussing leadership, the importance of intent, and the dynamics of managing change with you. Your perspectives on learning from everyone in the organization and fostering a culture that supports growth and success are truly inspiring. Thank you for your time and for being such a vital part of our team.

Again, a big thanks to Jeff for sharing his extraordinary depth and breadth of knowledge with us. We are very fortunate to have such a skilled leader here at NORC.