Team Leadership Success Habits from Michele Havens

This past Friday was the kickoff to the fall 2023 Good Leadership Breakfast Series. The theme through November is: Good Leadership is a Team Sport.  Guests were treated to a free, Second Printing copy of our newest book: Good Leadership is a Team Sport, and the program was focused around improving team leadership for everyone involved.

Michele Havens, President of the West Region of Northern Trust, flew in from Los Angeles to be the guest speaker, and to share her insights on team leadership. Michele is a first-generation college graduate who honed her natural-born determination with Tony Robbins motivational CDs, and participation in high school sports. Her career has been shaped by a courageous, engaging, and energetic leadership style. In my opinion, just a few minutes with Michele will energize anyone and help you believe anything is possible as long as you have a role on the team.

Success Habits

We discussed three Success Habits that have propelled her to lead the most exciting, fastest growing part of the corporation:

1. Use interpersonal connectivity to create buy-in for structural changes they might not like.  “We all deserve to be seen, heard and appreciated…especially when we have to make changes to the business. It’s just the right thing to do,” she explained.
2. Surround yourself with strong people who provide straight talk. And listen to them. “Admittedly, I’m an east coast girl for whom ‘straight talk’ comes really easy. I’ve learned I have to tone that down a little bit to be my best self. But I always invite people to evaluate the effectiveness of meetings, and share what they think we can do to get better results. It just makes sense,” she shared convincingly.
3. Tie everyone’s work back to the team’s top priorities. “I really do believe good leadership is a team sport. And that means people really care about the team winning,” she observed. “It’s the team leader’s job to make sure the priorities are clear, and everyone involved has their oar in the water, rowing in the same direction.”

The 104^th episode of the Good Leadership Breakfast included a team leadership workshop, and research that added to the body of knowledge about how good leaders get great results with their teams. You can listen to the Good Leadership Podcast that features Michele Havens here. 

Tickets for the October 20, 2023, Good Leadership Breakfast, featuring Mai Any Tran from the St. Paul and Minnesota Foundation are available here.