Business
On today’s podcast episode, we are meeting with Helen Nghiem of Epsilon to learn what makes a good leader and how she trains leaders from all over the world. How important is communication as leaders take on more teams, and how does the pressure shift as leaders are no longer able to manage projects on their own? Are leaders the same across the globe, and is the modern economy changing what is expected of leaders? Helen Nghiem discusses how to use leadership skills to tell stories in order to communicate effectively, to instil a sense of loyalty and excitement for a company, and how these stories make memories stick. Helen Nghiem is a seasoned consultant and corporate learning and development leader with a passion for galvanizing leaders and employees for change. Throughout a 20-year career, Helen's industry experience is wide, spanning management consulting, energy, travel and hospitality, technology, and digital marketing. She drives business results by drawing from deep expertise and insight to build unique talent and organizational development solutions. In her current role, Helen helped Epsilon grow from a $500M company to a Fortune 100 global enterprise. She cites the company’s steadfast investments in leadership and employee development as the agent of growth. You can find more information about Helen on Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/helennghiem 1:00 Leadership development and creativity. Skills needed in communication, influence, and engagement in order to develop leaders 2:00 What is Epsilon? What do they do regarding leadership interaction and management? What technology do they use and how does data play a role? 5:00 Did Helen focus on people who were becoming new leaders who were taking on responsibilities they’d never had? Or did she focus on seasoned leaders? What was the business need Epsilon chose to approach and why? 7:00 How does Helen define a leader? How does vision play a role? What about the shared experience of change and ambiguity? And communication skills? 10:00 How does pressure shift to communication as the number of teams reporting to a leader grow in number? What makes leaders not able to take over a task if the team falls through? 12:00 Did Helen have a master plan for what would make a leader successful when starting her program? What sorts of topics did this entail? 17:00 What did Helen learn from leaders in the program over 9 years? What did the leaders get out of it? Have leadership needs changed in that timeframe? How does leadership change across cultures? 23:00 What are the most impactful stories Helen has heard from leaders? How do leaders fare with managing the requirement to tell an impactful story in front of other leaders? Does she remember the stories told by leaders over the years? What makes them stick? What benefits does this have? 30:00 How are senior leaders impacted by Helen’s program? Open, honest, and vulnerable are expectations of leaders. How do stories promote these sensations? 36:00 Where has Helen seen the impression of a leader strengthened or expanded based on their experience in the program? What part did storytelling have in this? Plus, Helen shares her own story.