Making Waves at C-Level Thom Singer

After a long time away, the "Making Waves at C-Level" podcast is trying to come back into regular production. Host Thom Singer has been serving as the CEO of the Austin Technology Council, and has been hosting that organizations show "Austin Tech Connect".
But this show has been around for 10 years, and it has had a good following over the years. Thom is ready to come back and share ideas and promote his message of community, collaboration, and conversations.

In this episode he talks about building friendships and business relationships over the age of 50. Check out his short episode and share with him your thoughts.

https://thomsinger.com
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We hear a lot about "Collaboration"...but too often we see selfish people just using the word. Collaboration is a two way street. If you always start with "What's in it for me" you are not a collaborator. If you use collaboration as a buzz word for "Sales", you are not thinking win / win.
In this short episodes Thom shares his beliefs about what is collaboration. To really collaborate you need to have shared vision, open communication, mutual respect, and trust. But people enter collaborative situations and then want full control, they don't share important information, and they withhold resources.
Some believe you have to be all out for yourself if you want to win. Thom Singer thinks in the long run you are more satisfied in life when you embrace collaboration.
Ask yourself if you really see advantages to collaboration. If yes, live by example.

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Authentic leaders win in the long run. If you are pretending to have leadership success... people see through the lies. This episode talks about how to not only highlight your victories, but how great leaders admit their faults.
Thom Singer recently received six emails from people showing how someone told a blatant lie in their bio. They claimed something that was entirely made up, and people in the community knew this was just BS and were forwarding the bio around to others showing how this leader, known to be narcissist, had graduated to just making things up in their resume.
If you are not authentic, people will know. While nobody had the guts to call this person out in public (we still live in a mostly polite society that is resistant to conflict), people were circulating the lies with long chain emails about this person. Not good.
Does your resume have blatant lies? This episode of "Making Waves at C-Level" will make you rethink. Like we have not learned enough from Congressman George Santos who simply created a trail of made up things. Eventually his lies were seen. The person mentioned in this episode who padded their resume (who would hate being compared to Trump or Santos) would cringe at the emails making that connection.
You do not need to lie in your resume unless you are a total fraud who feels you are weak. Strong leaders can rely on their strengths and can admit their mistakes.
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You are at the top of your game. You are a c-level executive. Why in the world would you go to a networking event? The networking events have people who are not as impressive as you, and you only want to hang out with the cool kids. Why should you network?
You need to network for many reasons, and you should not prejudge people whose job titles do not start with a "C".
It is good for your own career and the reputation of you company if you are seen as participating in your community. Over the long run, non-famous CEOs who keep engaged in their community will find more ways to collaborate and uncover opportunities.
Too many are thinking if they go to a Chamber of Commerce event or Industry Conference that they will be annoyed by up and comers who want to talk to them. But many of those same people might inspire you. The best leaders I know want a lot of diversity in their conversations.
Hide in an Ivory Tower and your company may lose. Who is better at reputation management and community engagement..You or your competitors? If its not your team, then your competition might get a leg up.
This episode Thom Singer shares his three reasons to network even when you are in the C-Suite.
https://thomsinger.com
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Community, collaboration, and conversations can solve all problems. But not everyone leads with community. Too many people look at everything they do as having the need to be 10x'd. Yes, these young leaders who are disciples of Grant Cardone or Gary Vee tend to look at everything as their personal investment that must 10x. One young entrepreneur told me he could not join an industry association unless he could see a guarantee to 10x his dues to his bottom line. Ummmm, that is not how supporting a greater cause works.
I am not saying you should do everything for charity. You should focus on making money. But if everything is about how you make money, or if every relationship is about whom you can be friends with who can help you....life becomes phony.
The fakest person I know lives this way. The funny things is their close friends admit they have seen them dump people who are not "up" the food chain, and all know they can be pushed out of the friend circle on her whim. This is a bad way to live. One of her closest friends said "she is unhappy in her soul, but never lets it out to anyone".
I would rather have less money and be part of community.
In this episode I challenge listeners of the podcast to think about if they have one day a week that they do not lead with "What's in it for me?". Imagine if every human took one day to serve the greater good and help others find success. They would have 6 other days to kick ass, but we would have a lot more people helping others, too.
What did you think of this rant of an episode? thom@thomsinger.com
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There is an epidemic of loneliness in our society. People feel disconnected. Many admit to not having close friends. And these people work on your team.
These issues go back before the pandemic, but it has become more pronounced in the last three years.
When people feel part of a community, they will be more dedicated to their jobs. But with so many remote workers, it is harder to have a meaningful relationship with coworkers.
This episode challenges leaders to look at their team and really understanding who feels disconnected. If you want to up your retention rates, you have to get people to feel engaged with the whole company.
Do you feel alone, or do you know your team has people who are disconnected? Are you doing something about this?
https://thomsinger.com
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