Leadership is Everywhere

“Leadership is right here in this room,” explained Mark White, executive vice president of Asian and European operations. “You don’t need to have direct reports to have leadership skills – you can lead yourself to success.”

There are tens of thousands of books, programs, classes, articles, speeches, and videos that discuss leadership. It’s an important topic and the skills that encompass leadership have been a point of discussion for many, many years. In order for the North to defeat the South in the Civil War, or the Chicago Bulls winning the 1998 NBA championship they needed to have good leadership skills to drive results.

Here at Shape we have a number of avenues to access leadership development skills. From SPS for Leaders, Boot Camp for Leaders, a Mentoring Program and more, it all goes back to Shape’s investment in the associates. Shape Professionals Group is another program that aligns with the corporate strategy to allow associates to grow within the company and professionally.

On Friday, Mark spoke to a crowd of more than 100 associates about leadership. While he claims he’s no expert (we beg to differ), Mark honed in on several factors that we need as Shape associates to keep our company moving forward. All giving great insight to what it takes to succeed as a professional and a member of the Shape Family.

Mark noted that there are several different characteristics that make an associate stand out at Shape: their energy, ability to energize others, their competitive edge, how well they execute, passion for Shape’s success, ability to work well in a team and collaborate, and last but not least, humility.

We also learned about his “secret sauce”, the underlying need for any good leader: transparency and trust. Without transparency and trust, nothing else matters – it’s only half baked.

A big thank you to Mark and everyone who attended Friday’s professional development luncheon. Shape Professionals Group is looking forward hosting a variety of other events this year including networking, volunteering, and more professional development classes.