Stedman Graham, Business Advisor, Chairman, and CEO, S. Graham & Associates
In conversation with: Ruth Umoh, Editor, Next to Lead, Fortune

Fortune Global Forum 2024: Leadership In the Age of Identity

Conferences

Stedman Graham, Business Advisor, Chairman, and CEO, S. Graham & Associates
In conversation with: Ruth Umoh, Editor, Next to Lead, Fortune


Good afternoon, everyone. Stedman. I am delighted to be joined in conversation with you. Thank you so much for joining us here at the Fortune Global Forum. Thank you so much. It's a pleasure to be here. Absolutely. Before you delve into the conversation at hand, a quick reminder, we will be taking some audience questions now that we have Stedman here with us. So do keep that in mind as we kick off this conversation, Stedman, I have your book here with us and we'll soon be you really, really delving into it. You are a steadfast proponent of what you have coined identity leadership and you've aus about the role it plays in mobilizing teams and mobilizing workforces and helping organizations reach their maximum potential, define the theory for us and its significance. Well, identity leadership. Thank you so much for that. Identity leadership is self leadership uh based on the philosophy that you can't lead anybody else until you first lead yourself. So I've kind of dedicated my life to help people figure out how to work on themselves, how to organize themselves, uh change the learning system around. Uh So they learn how to learn uh and then self actualize their potential as a human being. And there's a process for that. Uh And so I've been looking for this kind of all of my life to try to fill that hole up in my heart based on my background and stuff, I've had to go through uh with my family and all of that. So the ability to be able to again uh maximize your potential based on who you are. To me is one of the most important things in the 21st century. You use this phrase repeatedly. Self leadership. What do you mean by that? What does that look like in practice? Well, self leadership is, is learn how to take information, education, make it relevant to who you are as a person, your talents, your abilities, your skills uh and to be able to um organize content and take this iphone, which is one of the greatest tools in the world and make that relevant to you to your growth and empowerment. Most of us can't do that. Uh You got 8 billion people who basically they wake up in the morning, they wash their face, they brush their teeth, they get something to eat, they get the kids off to school, work all day, come home in the afternoon, they spend time with the family, they watch TV, they go to bed, maybe they dream this Monday and they repeat that same cycle over and over every single day. So if you did the same thing you did yesterday as you would do to today as you will do tomorrow, would that be done? The answer would probably be the same thing which is nothing. And then everything we learned in school, we get to memorize, take tests, repeat the information back, get labeled with a grade two weeks later, if I asked you what you learn what you would probably say I forgot or nothing. So nothing from nothing. There's nothing. So the most important question is, do you know who you are? And can you source information and make that relevant to your talents, your your abilities, your skills so that you can constantly grow beyond your circumstances? Do you know who you are answering? That question requires self-awareness. That is certainly key to identity, leadership. Uh certainly key to being an efficacious leader. That's easier said than done. How do leaders develop this muscle? How do they, you know, augment their ability to be introspective? Um and, and have that level and that deep level of self awareness? And yeah, I mean most you, you you won't get in school for the most part. So it's, it really kind of, it is a privilege to be able to organize content and apply that you develop my life changed when I learned how to learn because before I was just reading and not applying information to my talents and to my ability. And this thing called love, it's kind of the center of everything. It's your core base. So, I mean, II I teach in schools and uh I have curriculum in schools and colleges and all of that. And the first thing I do is I get people to write down everything they love in their life, their passion, their purpose, what they care about their interests and to be able to organize information, education and apply that to your development so that you can define your own existence, which is what we're looking for today as self directed learners, lifelong learners, and this room is full of talent. So the question is, is how can you leverage that talent to be the best person you could possibly be and create as much value uh as you were, as you were born to create based on your potential. As a person, you said your life changed when you learned how to learn. I mean, we have luminaries in the room, we have ceos, we have world leaders who arguably believe that they know how to learn. What do you mean by that? You learned how to learn? It was a bit more mind expansive, well, learning how to learn. It means you focus on the internal foundation of what you're good at. Uh You focus on what you're passionate about. You focus on your purpose in life and then you're able to grow and organize yourself in a way that you're, you can create a sustainable process. To be really great at what you do. And now we have access to content and information around the world to be able to apply all of that leverage into the global marketplace. To create more value to me is uh learning how to learn, you know, and everything you read, everything you learn, everything you experience should be able to take those experiences and all of that and make that relevant to your empowerment. This ideology around identity, leadership can feel a bit nebulous uh daunting. Where does one begin? Well, one begins with uh writing down and being conscious of everything that you want to achieve in your life. Everything you're passionate about again, love is like there's only two emotions that either love or hate go to good or bad will or wont can and can't looking at the glass half empty or half full. So to be able to choose man, what you're good at what you care about, what you want to do, what makes you happy and then to build from that and then to be able to apply information to that so that you can constantly improve your life and get out of that routine is what is how you begin to, to create a maximum potential. Give us a personal anecdote. Have you applied that in your life? Well, you know, coming from a small town, you know, kind of having a race based consciousness growing up with two special need, brothers in my family was very difficult for me. I grew up with low self esteem and lack of confidence in myself being defined by my relationship with Oprah, of course, and, and being put into a box. Um I didn't know how to define myself and I was looking to figure out how do I uh create kind of equality in my own life and how do I define myself? And I realized that it's not an outside job, it's an inside job. So we're often defined by house and car and money and title and all those external things. And when I realized that I first had to focus internally to build my own existence, to define my own potential. That's when I realized, oh, you're, you're going the wrong way and that most people in the world are focused on the outside world is the way to define their existence and build value. Uh So when I changed that perspective and that started to taking information and education and make it irrelevant to my own personal professional development, that's when I started to grow. And I realized it's not who you are. It's not where you start, it's who you can become. And we live in the greatest country in the world, which is America. So to be able to live in this country and utilize all the systems and all of the possibilities to make that relevant to our personal professional development. That's pretty much a uh uh a gift for us and an opportunity turn into the audience. Any questions, if you have one do raise your hand on my hand, I will come to you any questions? Well, that makes my life easier because I have many more questions for you. Uh So we were talking about identity, we just had uh you know, a pivotal election. Uh Identity certainly played a, you know, a central role. Uh The world has become far more interconnected business has become increasingly global and the leader's role has become, you know, much more complex. They face a slew of challenges and setbacks on a daily basis. What role does self leadership play in keeping one motivated and grounded? Well, I think you, the key is to be able to invest in yourself today. Um We want folks to be self directed, lifelong learners. Uh You have a global marketplace today, which is great. You couldn't have a better opportunity than, than to be in to be living in this era today because you have access to so much information and to be able to source that information and make that relevant again to your gifts uh to what you do. Well, to me is the opportunity. Uh We've never had uh a so much access to information before in our lives. So to be able to apply that information to who we are every day uh is a, is an opportunity. And when you say self directed in your estimation is that creating a purpose, a mission and executing on it. That's, that's really being excited about learning, being excited about reading and developing and building and creating and designing your own future because you can, and uh we talk about production and performance, we want people to perform. We want people to build value. The value that you give yourself is the value the world gives you, the world sees you as you see yourself. So how do I get you to perform at the highest possible level based on what's possible for you? Utilizing all those tools that could be relevant to your development personally and professionally. It perfect. Because I go to my next question because you've outlined in your book here uh about identity leadership about nine steps or so to understanding um and discovering who one is uh some of the steps you list include, you know, outlining your vision and creating a support network and leaving your comfort zone and facing your fears out of those nine. Where do most leaders stumble and face the most internal resistance? Yeah. Most people stumble with the first step of knowing who they are right from the outset. Yeah, because they're so they're taught so much to focus on the outside world as a way to define their existence. And so they lose control. For the most part, they have no control to, to develop, build, define, create or design their future. And so they get stuck being in the world is constantly changing all the time. So they have to keep adjusting and you have to keep adjusting, you know, based on, um you know, how, how the world, you know, what, what's happening currently in, in, in, in your environment and where you are today. So, so that's the, that's the foundational piece that you have to go back to the core of who you are all the time. And that's very difficult and a change in environment out of those nine steps, I'm sure you're going to say, look, you know, they're all your favorites, but which would you say is the most catalytic as one thinks about how they maximize their potential and certainly the potential of their companies. I think, you know, once you find out who you are, vision is very important, you know, what can you create, what's possible for you uh who you want to become uh developing a uh setting goals, developing a travel plan around uh again, where you're going uh being able to master the rules of the road, your guiding principles. What are your principles that you want to uh live by uh building relationships, all those things that are relevant to, again, building value. Uh You really quickly, you noted at the top of the conversation, you said, you know, a challenge has been being identified by your relationship with Owen for Oprah Winfrey. Uh that said he's been a long time friend and confidant of the media mogul. So I would be remiss if I didn't ask you, you know, how her leadership style differs from or potentially aligns with um this ethos around identity leadership that you've said. Well, well, number one, she's authentic. She believes in what she does. She's a extraordinary uh learner. She's reading all the time. Here's a person that reads about five books a week. Uh She is able to apply the information to her development. Uh She direct takes charge of her own social economic opportunities. She utilizes the the free enterprise system as a way to enhance her value. So all of those things are relevant to uh the nines step success process. The process of success is the same for everybody. The difference is some people know it. Some people don't. Fantastic. Uh That's all we would take no time. All right. Well, with that being said, thank you so much for your time. This is such a great conversation. Thank you such a pleasure.