Mette Norgaard, Ph. D., MBA is an expert on strategic leadership and learning. She works with executives to design and deliver learning solutions that advance the company’s strategy. She has also designed and participated in executive dialogues and workshops with thought leaders such as Stephen Covey, Jim Collins, John Katzenbach, Rob Goffee, Margaret Wheatley, and Ram Charan. Mette brings an eclectic background to her work, from being raised in a village of 900 to living in New York City, from being a front-line leader in healthcare to teaching thousands of leaders from entrepreneurial and Fortune 500 firms. Prior to starting her own practice, Mette worked with FranklinCovey Co for ten years. She was the director of Principle-Centered Leadership Week, an executive retreat at Sundance, UT. In addition, she was part of a small team of consultants who led large-scale change processes for Fortune 500 firms and the US Government. Before joining FranklinCovey Co, Mette served as a leader in both healthcare and manufacturing, and she knows first-hand the incessant pressures to do more with less and do it faster. Her latest book, co-authored with Doug Conant, CEO of Campbell, is TouchPoints: Creating Powerful Leadership Connections in the Smallest of Moments (Jossey-Bass, 2011). She is also the author of the international bestseller The Ugly Duckling Goes to Work: Wisdom for the Workplace from the Classic Tales of Hans Christian Andersen (Amacom, 2005), which has been published in many languages, including Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, and Chinese.
TOPICS
TouchPoints
We live in a 24/7 information age. The pace is fast and furious, the meetings are back to back, and issues are coming at you from all directions. At times it feels like the information age has morphed into the interruption age. If you want to have more influence, you need to lead in shorter bursts of time and more of them. You need to think leadership … in even the smallest of moments. TouchPoints are about real people, dealing with real issues, real time. The good news is that you can anticipate TouchPoints, you can prepare for them, and you can start today. By deliberately working to master the touch, you can take on greater responsibilities and change the arc of your career. You simply do it one TouchPoint at a time. Attendees will be able to:
- Turn everyday interactions into an leadership moments
- Infuse each moment with a little more clarity and commitment
- Leverage the exponential effect of leadership
- Commit to mastering the head, heart, and hands—so they can bring their unique “touch” to every situation.
Strategic Leadership
As the head of a division or company, one of the most leveraged things you can do is to create a culture where everyone acts like a leader. A place where each associate generates the energy and direction needed to succeed in their own work. One where each leader puts the strategy first and the function second because they assume they will be treated fairly over time. If you are committed to creating such a culture, Mette is the right partner for you. Depending on the strategic priorities, you may want to start with the executive team, your high-potential leaders, or a number of informal leaders. For the executive team, the challenge may be to:
- transform a fractured team into one where people stand shoulder-to-shoulder, moving in the same direction.
- keep the team strong by having “quarterly meets” to improve performance. After announcing what you have achieved, you get together to look at how you did it and how you can do better next quarter.
For high-potential leaders, the aim may be to lift their energy and help them become talent magnets.
For informal leaders, human resources may choose to create a cadre of internal change guides. This can be done by selecting highly-respected professionals from different functions and having them become a voice for change.
