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From the Classroom to the Boardroom: Teaching Leaders with Melanie Mills
Melanie Mills, an educator turned executive coach, talks with Greg Aden about telling leaders the truth, building empathy and curiosity, and moving from the middle school classroom to the board room.
Melanie spent seven years teaching sixth, seventh and eighth graders in Windsor, Colorado, including coaching able bodied students to work alongside and lead classmates with special needs. Thirty years later she does a version of the same work with executives, and she says middle schoolers taught her how people actually learn, question and grow. Greg and Melanie explore why one CEO told her the most valuable thing she did was tell him the truth when no one else would, and why truth is less about being right and more about saying what you see, sense and feel, then getting curious about what the other person sees.
They also discuss empathy as the lowest ranked strength in the United States, the difference between leadership and position power, why a leader should be approaching rather than simply approachable, the courage it takes to ask a team how am I doing, and how helping leaders find a calm center changes the way they show up.
Connect with Melanie Mills:
Want to keep the conversation going? Book a 15 minute conversation with Greg: adenleadership.com/15-minute-sl-podcast-connection
Watch full episodes and shorts on YouTube: Aden Leadership on YouTube
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