58 - An MBA Refresh and The Most Important Thing Business Leaders Need To Do Today with Michael Alleruzzo, Professor of Management & Executive Leadership Coach

Welcome to The Kayleigh O’Keefe Show!

“A mission statement is worthless if you’re not living it,” says Michael Alleruzzo, Professor of Management and Executive Coach. Michael learned early on in his career that people will always work for themselves first and others second. Even though, as a leader, you might want to gain the loyalty of your employees, this is a nearly impossible feat if you’re not creating a company culture and vision that you yourself can authentically stand behind.

Tune into this week’s episode of The Kayleigh O’Keefe Show to learn more about:

• The importance of self-reliance

• Why Michael pushes his students to read and actively reflect

• How to become more self-aware

• Why company culture is the first thing Michael addresses when consulting

• And why being honest with yourself is an essential step towards becoming an authentic leader! 

Quotes

• “There are two critical questions I think that...anyone, whether you want to be a leader or not, has to ask him or herself at all times from a professional standpoint. One is, ‘Do I get to be natural? Am I me? Do I get to be authentic? Do I feel like myself when I’m at work?’ And the second one is, ‘Is it working? Am I successful? Is it working for me? Is it working for my stakeholders?’” (4:20-4:48)

• “The number one lesson I learned was a painful one: people work for themselves first and everything else second.” (10:26-10:33)

• “I think if we trained students to be active and involved and when they have a question to ask the question immediately in first grade at six or seven years old, by the time they got to me, they’d be doing it all the time, but we don’t train them to do it. And so I think if we did more of that, the active part of learning vs. the passive part of absorbing would happen. (23:40-24:12)

• “People are allowed to disagree. Rational, reasonable, logical people are allowed to disagree. And if you can disagree with someone but you have a rational, reasonable, logical rationale for it, we can learn from each other, we can agree to disagree, we can be ok with it. Just know that.” (28:48-29:05)

• “Employees want to be part of the organization’s strategy, want to be part of the organization’s decision making, they want a voice...they want a vote. And so, they want to hear from their organization’s top leadership about where do we stand, and we want to hear you speak out against these atrocities, and we want to know that you’re on the right side of this.” (49:40-50:05)

• “One of the things I tell students is whatever you do, whether you speak up or not, be prepared for some criticism. If you take a side or not, be prepared for some criticism.” (52:31-52:43)

Links

www.michaelalleruzzo.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-alleruzzo-0527251/

Visit Kayleigh's website: https://kayleighokeefe.com/

Schedule an Author Discovery Call: https://calendly.com/kayleigh-okeefe/solo-book-writing-publishing

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