Jeff Meredith

Speed Mentorship

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:
1:15 | Jeff Meredith Background
2:15 | In your role as the CEO, what does a typical day look like for you?
4:30 | What things are you not focused on?
6:30 | What would you say are your most successful habits or routines?
8:02 | Do you have a sleeping or exercise schedule you maintain?
9:18 | What are some of your weaknesses and how do you manage or overcome those?
11:30 | How do you manage stress appropriately? Do you have any techniques that help you cope with that stress?
12:50 | How do you keep your ego in check?
14:40 | Do you have a work-life balance? How do you keep it in a healthy balance?
17:00 | What are some of the most common leadership issues you're seeing with young leaders today? And what kind of advice do you have for them? How are you continuing to coach them or help them through some of these, challenges?
20:00 | What kind of advice do you have for a younger generation?

EPISODE KEY TAKEAWAYS:
Strategy & execution is just one area of focus for a leader

The other areas are organization alignment, leading, coaching, and guiding my team and then interaction with Blackstone and our board. Keeping them engaged and tapping into their expertise.

Allow people to grow and take on additional responsibilities

I cut out about 65 meetings and backed out of some of the strategies. I’m focusing on a few initiatives that need some extra push, but I want my leaders to be able to lead.

Schedule thinking time

By scheduling thinking time to think through the things that we want to accomplish. Often if you spend some time out thinking about your competition, you won’t have to outwork them because you have a better game plan.

Write down your ideal leadership traits

Take time to determine the traits or items that make you a good leader and spend time checking yourself against those traits. Adjust and continue to make yourself a better leader. You may start to notice that some of your actions are not aligning with the type of leader you aspire to be.

Be present in the moment

If you are unable to delineate the work or the life in a way where you’re not present for either part of it, that’s where it breaks down. The thing that matters the most is having the conversations, and taking the time to be a part of it all.

Sometimes people change when they start leading a team

To begin with, people forget what made them worthy of the role, and they start to manage the team because they have a new responsibility that they must prove they are worthy of the role. You still have to be yourself and tap into other strengths. You can’t do it all to prove yourself.

Earn it every day

Don’t assume that you are entitled to anything. Earn your spot on the team every day.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What meetings could you give up? By giving up those meetings, how would you empower your team to grow? How would you spend your new extra time?
2. What are 3 leadership traits that you would like to grow? How will you keep yourself responsible to your continual growth in these areas?