Transforming Work with Sophie Wade 41: Minter Dial — How to Lead in the New Era of Work
Minter Dial, a management consultant on leadership and transformation and author of several books, speaks about his latest book, You Lead: How Being Yourself Makes You a Better Leader.
Minter discusses what he learned when he ran a division at L’Oréal and what he needed to understand about himself—with the help of the Grateful Dead—along the way. He also shares why having a business purpose is a game-changer to help a company or brand differentiate itself from the competition.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
[02:56] Minter’s career begins in banking then a start-up travel agency for musicians.
[5:05] He moves back Philadelphia and tries all kinds of jobs.
[06:28] The Grateful Dead is core to Minter’s existence.
[06:51] After business school, Minter applies to two companies: LVMH and L’Oreal.
[08:10] Minter climbs the corporate ladder as a cross-cultural leader.
[09:48] How power and proximity affect corporate culture
[11:16] Minter is focused on creating a differentiated culture for the Redken brand.
[12:24] How they decided what type of culture they wanted.
[13:32] They figured out how to develop purpose to drive the culture.
[14:54] The challenge of translating the external purpose message for the division internally.
[16:39] The financial results of a purpose-driven business.
[18:06] The folk tale that gave the Grateful Dead their name.
[19:40] The two important morals of the story that tying into self-awareness.
[21:12] How leadership is about letting go of your ego.
[22:55] We are never going to know fully who we are and we continue to evolve.
[23:52] The importance of understanding your emotions, including your triggers and how to be present.
[26:30] “You Lead” was supposed to be Minter’s first book and how he recognizes his need to be more self-aware.
[29:20] Minter wanted to help people who weren’t empathetic to delegate their empathy.
[31:22] The importance of self-awareness in leadership.
[34:02] Minter’s book “Futureproof” is focused on mindset.
[34:30] Trust is the critical component of leadership and requires authenticity.
[35:50] The notion of gaining trust as a leader needs to be intentional.
[38:00] The purpose of Minter’s next book is helping people heal and harder conversations need to be tackled in order to do that.
[40:11] How do we start to change our leadership style?
[41:10] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: When listening to other people, reformulate what they have said rather than bouncing off it.
RESOURCES
Minter Dial on LinkedIn
Minter Dial on Twitter
Minter’s book You Lead
Minter’s podcast Minter Dialogue
Minter’s DIALOGOS on Substack
QUOTES
“I really felt it was important that if you run a brand, it must be different from the inside out from the other brands.”
“It has everything to do with having a de facto realistic purpose that is not all about 100% everything perfect. It's just making things manifest, making them real, and everybody talking some kind of real language.”
“In today’s world, especially now we’re working in the distributed world, if you don’t have trust, you have nothing.”
“You can’t limit your purpose to something that your team internally doesn’t experience, because if all you’re doing is making your customers happy…what about me?”
“The thing about the Grateful Dead is there’s a philosophy which is essentially once you understand that you are mortal, that you will die, then you become more grateful in the present.”
“When you think of the Grateful Dead, Jerry Garcia, he was the leader, but he was not one of those fear and control leaders. He was a participant. You were contributing with him in his leadership.”