Episode Details

Our guest this week is Michael Todd, the Hallmark Cards managing director for Australia and New Zealand.

About Michael

Michael is also a certified conscious leadership coach who loves to play and toddle. He has experience leading across 35 countries, large multinationals and entrepreneurial start ups across food, agri, packaging, and technology. At Hallmark, he is accountable for driving product leadership, growing market share, and building more successful relationships with retail customers in the Australia and New Zealand markets. 

In his previous role, he worked as general manager of Global Foodservice Customers for Fonterra, a New Zealand-based multinational dairy co-operative responsible for approximately 30% of the world’s dairy exports. He also has experience with a number of consumer goods multinationals including Mondelez, PepsiCo and Amcor Packaging.

His energy comes from working with diverse customers, teams and countries; getting to the bottom of a customer need. He feels there is a 'buzz' to shaping a unique solution with a team that is empowered to make a difference, and believes we are fortunate to live in a world of great change, smaller in reach, more diverse in needs, and richer in opportunity.

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In this Episode We Canvas:

• The Four States of Leadership

He says there are four states of leadership (not stages because stages are sequential). In the first state, people like it when life happens “to” them because it enables them to live in drama and get a toxic energy that gives them the adrenaline to keep on going. In the second state, life happens “by” someone where they can create possibilities and start to get in a state of flow, awareness, and acceptance. The third one is where life happens “through” someone where they surrender as life shows up, but as a coach, he focuses more on helping people and organizations play a balance between the first state (and the adrenaline that comes from it) and the second state (and the possibilities one can create from it). He refers to that as either being below the line or being above the line.

“Coronavirus is fantastic for the world because it’s giving people this adrenaline to create more stuff” - Michael Todd

• Above the Line Versus Below the Line

Michael says it’s a simple black line where conscious leaders are above the line and unconscious leaders are below the line. Leaders who are above the line are completely open, curious, and committed to learning while those who are below the line are closed, defensive, and committed to knowing what’s going on. The trick with conscious leadership is not in being either above or below the line, it’s in one being aware where they are at any point in time. It’s all about awareness. A leader’s ability to shift from below to above is determined by whether they can accept themself, surrender to what is, and be open, curious, and committed to learning.

“The trick with conscious leadership, or just being conscious, is being aware of where you are at any point in time” - Michael Todd

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