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Building Stronger Leadership Through High-Trust Relationships with Meighan Hackett Poritz (Ep. #43)

The BetterManager Team
Building Better Managers Podcast Episode 43 - Meighan Hackett Poritz

Building Better Managers Podcast Episode #43: Building Stronger Leadership Through High-Trust Relationships with Meighan Hackett Poritz

In today's fast-changing workplace, senior executives need the support to try new things, innovate, adapt, and even admit when they don’t know something! Meighan Hackett Poritz, Managing Director of The Learning Forum, shows us how leveraging high-trust networks, instant benchmarking, leadership development programs, and a coaching culture can take your leaders, managers, and your entire organization to another level.

In this episode:

Meet Meighan:

  • Meighan is the Managing Director of The Learning Forum,  is a member-driven networking organization for senior executives of large multi-national and government organizations. Member firms include over 120 organizations which include 5 of the Fortune 10, 25 of the Fortune 100, along with 10 key government organizations.
  • Her councils provide leaders access to confidential peer learning through a high trust network.  They are a platform for ideas, inspiration, and benchmarking which has a lasting impact on the strategy and growth programs of Fortune 500 companies.  
  • Meighan completed an Ironman triathlon and raised $10,000 for blood cancer research. She is passionate about the emerging trends that link sustainability, personal well being, productive workplaces, and communities.

The Executive Council Network

  • The Executive Council Network is currently comprised of about 15 councils. It's a network made up of those who lead functions such as Talent Management, Enterprise Learning, People Analytics, Innovation, Foresight & Digital Workplace, as well as some newly formed groups such as CHROs and CLOs.
  • There are between 20 to 25 firms in each group in order to keep it small, so the conversation can really foster and grow.
  • The first meeting was back in 1996 and has been hosted by West Point, Navy SEALs, MIT Media Lab just to name a few. More often than not, our member firms would host us to showcase their work at Google, Facebook, IDEO, GE, media, Time Warner Media. Members often want us to come visit them to see what they are doing, and then that becomes the theme for that year's meeting.

The Difference: Confidential Peer Learning

  • Why is this different than just going to a conference or other things consulting firms?
  • What distinguishes us most is that we give leaders this platform for confidential peer learning, and it's through a high trust network where they can really learn directly from each other on the topics that are most relevant to that group.
  • Confidentiality is extremely important because senior leaders need to be in that place of trust to be able to say the things that aren't expressed in other situations.
  • Building that trust is the important thing. Without meaningful relationships, and that trust, there's not an open dialogue and a willingness to share, and that information exchange. So the real magic happens when we invest time and into our members get to know them, they get to know each other and build long term relationships with each other. So that it really creates this unique level of trust. Members can then tap into each other's experiences and practices to help get their work done.

Using Benchmarking Deal with the Accelerating Pace of Change

  • As we've seen the pace of change accelerate, it's a big advantage to get access to instant benchmarking - quick input from those that you trust is very important. Having a such a strong network, we're able to bring together these leading experts with practitioners to quickly respond to some of these pressing challenges of today.
  • Inspiration and innovation is more important than ever. Through our interactions, which are across industry, you might learn something that you hadn't known before. It helps you make the connection in your mind with a problem that you're working on.
  • The minute someone has an issue or question or problem that they need some input on, we can poll our community, we ask the question, and we tap their expertise. We're often amazed at the level of candor that they'll share pretty immediately in response - that really only happens when you have this high level of trust and camaraderie.

Current Trends: Leadership Development Programs

  • Most companies are putting a big emphasis on investing in Leadership Development Programs. They're using people analytics that go way beyond traditional HR issues to build a future ready workforce.
  • They're focused on developing and retaining talent through coaching and Manager Development.
  • They're also investing in VR for training and a lot of other new and innovative ways to approach talent, such as Adaptive Simulations and Virtual Showrooms.
  • The future of work and all the areas that we can manifest culture in this virtual hybrid work environment are also very topical.
  • The questions have become: How do we want to be together? How do we want to you know, collaborate and work together?

Downloads & Resources

Learn more about Meighan on LinkedIn or at TheLearningForum.org.

Subscribe to our podcast on your favorite podcast platform!

Check out our blog articles on Workplace Culture here.

About Meighan Hackett Poritz

Meighan is the Managing Director of The Learning Forum,  is a member-driven networking organization for senior executives of large multi-national and government organizations. Member firms include over 120 organizations which include 5 of the Fortune 10, 25 of the Fortune 100, along with 10 key government organizations.

Her councils provide leaders access to confidential peer learning through a high trust network.  They are a platform for ideas, inspiration, and benchmarking which has a lasting impact on the strategy and growth programs of Fortune 500 companies.  

Meighan completed an Ironman triathlon and raised $10,000 for blood cancer research. She is passionate about the emerging trends that link sustainability, personal well being, productive workplaces, and communities.

Episode Transcript
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