Steve Gladis on Partnerships, Leadership, and Culture

Dr. Steve Gladis is an executive coach, author, speaker, and professor at George Mason University. He’s published 26 books on leadership and thinks a lot about culture and the elements of a great leader. He’s also a former faculty member at the University of Virginia, served as an FBI special agent, and was a decorated officer in the US Marine Corps. He has a company, Steve Gladis Leadership Partners, that donates a significant portion of corporate profits back to the community. Steve is a giver, somebody who really cares about society and humanity.  

Steve had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include:

“The best partner I’ve ever had, and I’ve had her for over 50 years, is my wife” (6:15).

“We all need our yin to our yang” (6:50).

“I never send anything out unless someone else has looked at it” (7:00).

“You should be looking for people not like you because they bring the other piece of the puzzle together” (9:10).

“The key is to have a mechanism in place before you get in trouble, not when you get in trouble” (12:15).

“The best gift that anybody could give anybody else would be get yourself an executive coach in the beginning who can help you work together in this partnership” (13:15).

“I write every day” (22:00).

“In a way, {dyslexia] is the best thing that ever happened to me… It’s given me this creative workaround mentality… it’s taught me how to be resilient” (26:10).

“If you’re always the smartest guy in the room, you’re in the wrong room” (27:50).

“Anything can be an opportunity” (31:30).

“[The biggest mistakes leaders make] is not telling or showing people how much they care” (33:40).

“Trust is at the center of all relationships” (34:00).

“Head, heart, and hands is compassion… it’s an active thing” (40:20).

“You can tell when somebody really cares about you” (40:50).

“If you like what you’re doing, you’re making a decent living at it, and you’re having fun at it, why wouldn’t you want to keep doing it?” (47:50).

“Some of the most miserable people I know are some of the richest people I know” (48:00).

“You can’t hit a target you can’t see” (51:15).

“Until people know what they want, it’s really hard to get them to where they want to go” (52:10).

“Teams head towards entropy all the time” (54:40).

“Nothing stays level, especially in the relationship world” (55:00).

“Stuff happens. You have to be ready for that” (1:02:45).

“Experiments fail. That’s why they call them experiments” (1:03:45).

“I’m a teacher at heart, so when people want to know I’m happy to talk” (1:05:15).

Additionally, you can find Steve’s website here, and I also encourage you to connect with him on LinkedIn.

Thank you so much to Steve for coming on the podcast!

I wrote a book called “Shift Your Mind” that was released in October of 2020, and you can order it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Additionally, I have launched a company called Strong Skills, and I encourage you to check out our new website https://www.strongskills.co/. If you liked this episode and/or any others, please follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers.

Thanks for listening.