“Remember, people seek and fear change at the same time. But you as a leader … there’s no insignificant acts when you’re a leader. It doesn’t mean you have to be perfect, it doesn’t mean you have to have all the answers, but you have to show up.” – Mike Robbins, keynote speaker
Showing up is exactly what approximately 100 printing industry leaders did this week for the PRINTING United Leadership Summit in San Diego, California, at the Park Hyatt Aviara Resort, Golf Club and Spa. The PRINTING United Alliance member-only event provides printing industry leaders the opportunity to “talk shop” with their peers in an intimate and structured format. Beyond educational sessions and the opportunity for 1:1 chats, the event provides value with a format that includes an exclusive two-hour breakout discussion with small groups of leaders at printing companies across the U.S. and Canada diving into the most challenging and exciting topics that are top of mind.
Before the breakout sessions commenced on the second day of the event, Mike Robbins, keynote speaker and leadership author, engaged with the attendees on opening night in his keynote session “Authentic Leadership in Times of Change.”
He shared there are three areas to focus on: growth mindset, authenticity, and appreciation.
“Growth mindset is about looking at everything that comes our way as an opportunity to learn and grow — even and especially challenges,” he said.
One way to do that is in challenging times to ask “why is this happening for me,” rather than “why did this happen to me.” It helps to reframe the situation, make a leader more resilient, and encourage them to look for the opportunities that will come from addressing the challenging head on.
He then noted that authenticity comes from a place of conviction and not self-righteousness, stressing that leaders should lean into vulnerability and understand the difference between recognition and appreciation.
“I want to briefly talk about this really simple but incredibly powerful concept of appreciation, distinct from recognition,” he said. “This one thing to me unlocks teams and culture and performance more than almost anything else, even and especially when things are uncertain and stressful. … Recognition is about outcome and appreciation is about people. Recognition is about performance and appreciation is more about our relationship and caring about people.”
Read this full article on Printing Impressions, a publication of PRINTING United Alliance, ASI’s strategic partner.
