The Best and Brightest Executive Leadership Summit is designed as a gathering of premier companies from across the country collaborating to advance their employee enrichment and enhance their organizational culture.
Nearly 200 people took advantage of the opportunity offered by the summit, hosted Tuesday by the National Association for Business Resources, which provided what organizers called a “unique platform for senior leaders to delve into cutting-edge strategies in leadership, creativity, and innovation, driving transformative change and sustainable growth within their organizations.”
The summit held at the Detroit Athletic Club – with a social mixer the previous evening at The Gem Theater – featured networking opportunities, breakout discussions about the challenges facing businesses today, and a roundtable discussion featuring the CEOs from some of the nation’s best and brightest companies.
Kelly Duff, employee experience manager for Sentinel Technologies, based in Downers Grove, Ill., and offering cloud, security, subscription, managed and lifecycle solutions, said it was a great experience.
“I’ve been here before … it’s such a great opportunity to network with people,” Duff said. “You get to commiserate with people about the challenges we all face.”
Brigette Zoli is the chief people officer and director of business development for Plymouth-based Michigan Staffing, a multiple-time Best and Brightest award winner. She also enjoyed the chance to hear from people across the business spectrum.
“It’s a great event,” Zoli said. “I love the collaboration of the breakout sessions when we’re interacting with peers and discussing our best practices.”
The summit’s keynote speaker was Dr. Barbara Trautlein, the principal at Change Catalysts (changecatalysts.com), a Vernon Hills, Ill.-based company designed to help people, teams and organizations lead successful and sustainable change.
Trautlein started her own company in 1989 when she was in graduate school at the University of Michigan earning a degree in organizational psychology and began working for a consulting company.
She told the story of her first day on the job, trying to help the workers at a steel mill that was facing bankruptcy turn things around.
“I get up and introduce myself and it’s a room full of men … they’re all 20 or 30 or 40 years older than me, and pretty much to a man they had worked in that mill their entire careers,” Trautlein recalled. “And I get up and I talk about how we were going to transform them to high performance, total quality self-managed teams. And a guy from the back of the room stands up and … says, ‘We’re steelworkers and we don’t listen to girls.’
“I knew right from that first day that there was a lot of fear in the room,” she added. “However, I also knew from that first day in the job that there was a heck of a lot of fear and intimidation and uncertainty in the change leader standing in front of the room. So that’s what got me down my now 35-plus year path to equip and empower my fellow change leaders.”
Trautlein said Change Catalysts helps people, teams and organizations “lead successful and sustainable change” with greater confidence and less frustration and stress.
She talked about the neuroscience of change, which she said is “always very interesting and empowering for people” because it helps see that “when we lead change and we get resistance or pushback or challenges or questions, we’re not doing anything wrong as leaders.”
“It’s literally how our brains are wired and why we survive as individuals and thrive as a species,” she said.
One breakout session focused on company culture, innovation and adaptability. Some of the challenges discussed included:
- Company growth and incorporating that growth into the culture.
- Burnout among top performers.
- Succession planning for longtime employees preparing to leave.
- Resilience and the ability to rebound from the economic impact of various events.
- Communication.
- Engagement of hybrid and remote workers.
The other breakout session discussed the various needs surrounding the recruiting and retention of talent, and was designed to help participants to walk away with ideas about best practices.
Some of the consensus needs around talent included:
- The need for newer, younger talent.
- Employee retention.
- Leadership development.
- Talent accessibility.
Sara Harris, the director of operations for Integrated Living, Inc., a non-profit dedicated to the provision of adult foster care homes in community-based residential settings, pointed out talent can’t just be hired to fill a position.
It’s helpful, she said, when the talent actually cares about the mission, too.
“We want to attract and retain people who aren’t in it for the money, but the mission,” Harris said. “In our industry, that’s important. We really want to make the lives of the people we serve better.”
Sandy Harvey, the founder and President of Exodus Consulting Group, LLC, which specializes in providing strategic organizational, operational, and human resources consulting services, was one of the moderators of the breakout sessions.
She said her takeaway from them revolved around the commonality of the challenges business leaders are facing.
“There are a lot of people thinking they’re the only ones,” Harvey said. “But a lot of people are struggling with a lot of things around (talent) attraction, retention and engagement.”
