Leading From The C-Suite: Amanda HarNess of Business Excelerated On Five Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective C-Suite Executive

An Interview With Doug Noll

Notice your “head-trash”. Put in the work to address your self-awareness and enhance your relational intelligence. Notice what limiting beliefs exist in your mind and how they play out in your leadership style (and quite frankly your daily life in general). The number-one thing that stops good leaders from becoming great is almost never their technical skills — it’s their ability to self-reflect and relate to others.

As part of our series called “Five Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective C-Suite Executive,” we had the pleasure of interviewing Amanda HarNess.

Amanda HarNess is the Founder and CEO of Business Excelerated. As a coach and consultant, she uses the Leadership First Approach™ to help large and mid-sized organizations solve their people-problems. She collaborates to uncover dysfunctions, identify the cause, strategize and implement solutions, and evaluate progress along the way. Together with her clients, she helps to increase employee retention, improve the customer experience, enhance revenue, and navigate change faster and easier. Her passion is to help organizations close the gap between where they are now, and where they want to be.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive into our discussion, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the backstory about what brought you to your specific career path?

Absolutely, I like sharing this story. My first career was as an Occupational Therapist (OT) and I worked in the medical industry for a little over ten years. Straight out of High School I went to University into an OT specific program. And I have so many amazing memories of working as an OT and playing a role in bettering the lives of people who were going through life-altering injuries. In fact, I keep in touch with a few of my former patients and they enrich my life to this day.

Well, during the years that I was an OT I was also on various boards and committees, and in leadership and director level roles where I was engaged with department-specific and facility-wide growth initiatives. For the ten-plus years that I was a therapist, I also gained a large amount of experience in leadership development, effective communication, growth goals and execution strategies, process and systems improvement, and enhancing patient satisfaction.

After that, my career as an Occupational Therapist shifted into the work I do now for a few reasons. One, seventeen-year-old Amanda chose the OT career path and the older me decided I wanted something different. Secondly, I also experienced burnout so started to consider what the next phase would be. Thirdly, I’ve always had an entrepreneurial “bug” and had a desire to start a business in leadership development. This was work I had a lot of experience in (as mentioned above), it was work that came naturally to me, and I had a great passion for it. So, with the encouragement of a friend, a bottle of wine, and a few nervous tears, I decided to take the leap. When I came home to tell my husband, he said “It’s about time.” And that was that.

So, I started my own consulting and coaching business focused on implementing the Leadership First Approach™ to help service-based organizations solve their people problems and enhance their organizations starting at the top. Every day I get to leverage my experience mentioned above, as well as my education in human behavior, psychology, and communication to provide unique value to the world of leadership development. It has been an absolutely wild ride, and I genuinely love the work I get to do.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?

One of the most unexpected twists in my career is that after leaving a former employer, I was invited back as an outsourced consultant. I mentioned that my first career was as an Occupational Therapist, and at one point I was a therapist for a world-renowned hospital in specialized care.

A few years into my business I was invited to be a consultant on a project with that hospital. When I initially left that hospital it was bittersweet, and through this project I discovered that I could still give back to a place that I truly believe in (just in a new capacity). It was an opportunity for me to continue to support the hospital and therefore still make a positive difference in the lives of the leaders, staff, patients, and families.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life?

Well this one came out of my own head, but there are “The Three Rules” that I developed a few years ago, and I believe they are applicable to all life situations.

Rule #1: Don’t Panic

Rule #2: Be Tenacious

Rule #3: Party

Here’s the thing. As humans we act based on stimuli around us. My stomach grumbles, I eat. Email comes to my inbox, I sort it. Spider comes out from the depths of the corner to eat my face, I smoosh it. And throughout the day as we are acting on these stimulants, we can choose to react or respond.

The difference between the two is subtle and important. We react based on assumptions and emotions, and we respond based on information. When my stomach grumbles I can react by shoving the nearest piece of food in my mouth, or I can respond by choosing the food that sounds good and is healthy for my body. When the email comes in I can hastily “reply all” and regret sending my opinion to everyone that should not have seen, or I can save the email for later when I have more time. As the spider plots his wrath I can scream and run away, or I can usher him outside (depends on how big, haha). All of these compare a reaction or a response. And responses are much more productive and effective most of the time; in our home lives and at work.

1. The first step is Don’t Panic: Take a pause and think it through.
2. The second step is to Be Tenacious: Ask yourself, “what would an empowered ‘me’ choose, and what response would produce the best result?
3. And third… Party. This one is somewhat self-explanatory but the underlying theme is to celebrate your wins. I prefer to dance my way through life (pretty literally), but to each his own.

Is there a particular book that made a significant impact on your leadership style? Can you share a story or an example of that?

In general, the books that have an effect on the way I lead are the ones that lean into human behavior and psychology. I find that these books are more realistic. They don’t share grandiose ideas of what a leader “should be,” but instead provide the reader with more understanding of why they are the way they are. They enhance the readers’ self-awareness as well as their ability to give themselves some grace. First providing leaders with cause and reasoning for why they do the things they do, allows them to gain clarity, confidence, and understanding internally. This creates self-acceptance, and the ability to navigate their strengths and weaknesses more effectively. They can then pass this understanding on to other leaders on their team, and their employees below them. This positive and effective ripple effect is what the Leadership First Approach™ is all about.

When we can agree that we (humans, teams, leaders, employees., etc.) are not static robots, but dynamic humans, we take a step in the right direction as leaders. And then when we can put that perspective into practice through our actions and our words, we make great leaps as organizations. This is not meant to sound overly theoretical or whimsical. It is meant to create a bridge between the concept that a successful organization is not an entity, but actually the people within it. One book in particular that get’s this right, is “Leading Change in Healthcare” by Anthony L. Suchman. It does place some emphasis on the healthcare industry, but the great majority of it can be applied to any organization in any industry.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

Off the cuff, I would say there are three things that make Business Excelerated stand out from other leadership development consultancies. The most prominent factor is my Leadership First Approach™.

Leadership is the cornerstone of organizational success, with the level or amount of success mirroring its leadership quality. The impacts of leadership (both positive and negative) are felt throughout every aspect of a company, directly and indirectly influencing employee performance and retention, then affecting customer satisfaction, and impacting overall revenue. So I promote a Leadership First Approach™ with the idea that “sh*t rolls down hill” and we need the top of an organization to have a strong foundation in order for the rest of an organization to thrive.

When leadership is an underlying problem, it creates a ripple effect that hampers progress and development. Addressing leadership issues is often a prerequisite for creating an environment where employees can thrive, goals can be achieved, and teams can produce meaningful, lasting change. Afterall, it’s leadership teams that have all the control. They make the decisions, set expectations, give direction and insight, and determine what resources and support are provided (or not). Therefore, effective leadership is integral to fostering outstanding organizational health and progress (otherwise known as organizational kick-ass’ery)… Alas, the Leadership First Approach™

The other two stand out factors of my business are my sense of humor, and the fact that I “call it like it is.” With the first of these, I like to promote serious growth with a side of laughter. In my line of work sometimes we are faced with having hard conversations among leadership teams, or must address a leader’s personal development. And I believe it is important to accompany this with a bit of humor. It relieves tension and allows us to be more open and accepting. Plus it’s healthy to have a sense of humor about yourself.

Second, it is critical to uncover the cause of a problem in order to create solutions that stick. I refer to this as the Elephant in your Boardroom. In this process we challenge the status quo, and we ask as many questions as an inquisitive five year old (why? why? why?). This helps us to avoid making assumptions, trying things that would not have worked in the first place, placing blame where it doesn’t belong, or creating temporary solutions. We get to that next level of organizational kick-ass’ery.

You are a successful business leader. Which three character-traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

Sure thing. Here goes…

1 . Transparency and asking for help

Asking for help or admitting that we need it can be difficult. I have heard some leaders say things like “I don’t want to inconvenience the other person,” “I don’t want to appear weak,” or “I don’t want to admit ‘I can’t’.” And what I really hear these leaders say is “I don’t know what to ask for help with,” or “I don’t know how to ask for help.” It’s what they are really saying even though it’s not the words they are using. And fortunately, I realized early on that this limited way of thinking does not serve me or anyone around me. I place a high value on collective intelligence and the good ‘ol adage “teamwork makes the dream work.” When someone asks me “how it’s going” I am honest, speaking to both the positive and negative factors. Sometimes this leads me to ask for help, but often times I am offered help instead which is quite beautiful. An important thing to add here in relation to asking for help, is that I separate my abilities from my own self-worth. This leads me to number two…

2 . Seeing my traits as objective facts

I strongly believe that strength and weakness or just opposite, in the same way that red is not blue. Strength and weakness are not synonyms for good or bad, or smart and stupid, or capable and incapable. I simply self-reflect, leverage my strengths, and address my weaknesses. Knowing my strengths allows me to optimize and capitalize on what I can do myself, and identifying my weaknesses allows me to work on improving them or working around them (fill the gap with something or someone outside myself). This perspective and level of self-awareness has allowed me to see progress and growth in my company faster and easier than if I were to try and do it alone. And voilà! We are led to number three!

3 . Responding instead of reacting

Self-awareness is the foundation of effective leadership. This leads to curiosity, understanding, and acceptance (of situations and people). When we are self-aware of our judgements and emotions, we are able to navigate them more effectively. We react with emotion and bias; we respond with information and data. The ability to respond instead of react requires that we take a pause, and we are able to do this when our minds are more open to possibility. When we are self-aware enough to consider each thought as a hypothesis rather than a fact, we can approach people and situations in a way that results in real progress. This year, my company reached new milestones and received the highest revenue we’ve seen. And much of this can be attributed to responding to the unsteady economic environment we saw in 2023, rather than reacting. Rather than make sudden moves and frequent changes, we paused and got curious allowing us to remain agile and make small shifts that lead to success.

Leadership often entails making difficult decisions or hard choices between two apparently good paths. Can you share a story with us about a hard decision or choice you had to make as a leader?

Well I just shared the high note that my company achieved best revenue this year, but we also made an “oopsie” too. Essentially, we invested in something that we saw as a growth opportunity but really turned out to be a major loss (in time and money).

When presented with this opportunity, we took our time to make the decision because it required some faith (and that risk made the decision a bit a difficult). We knew it was going to cost time and money, but it had great potential for business growth. That sounds like a home run, but I also mentioned that it took some faith; this opportunity had no guarantee. And as it turned out, we did not receive an equal return on our investment despite best efforts and engagement.

With all confidence I can say that I grew as a leader and business owner from this investment (internal growth), but the business did not grow externally. So this coming year we will be dropping out of this investment and shifting to other opportunities. Both decisions (to choose in, and then later choose out) have been difficult. There are feelings of disappointment and shame, as well as a sadness to leave the people we’ve met through this. But ultimately it will be the right choice to redirect our growth focus in the coming year.

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. Most of our readers — in fact, most people — think they have a pretty good idea of what a C-Suite executive does. But in just a few words can you explain what a C-Level executive does that is different from the responsibilities of other leaders?

Honesty the primary difference is that I (as CEO) am ultimately accountable for it all, in the end. There are greater impacts that result from my decisions. For example, I might make a decision to begin offering a new service to our clients in order to serve them better and increase our overall revenue. And the people around me help me carry out the actions required to achieve these goals.

But in the end, because the decisions to go that direction was ultimately mine, then the success or failure lands on me. Did I make the right decision in the first place? Did I have the right people doing the right work? Did I provide them with the right resources and tools to be successful? Did I draw a clear vision of our goal and clearly communicate expectations?

This is the Leadership First Approach™ at play within my own organization. And the difference here between myself as a C-Suite Executive and another person on a leadership team is that I keep an organization-wide pulse rather than department specific. Which also means the impact of my decisions are felt more widely. I recognize that and don’t take it lightly.

And then once I make those important decisions in the morning, I go play golf the rest of the day and jerk around… Kidding.

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a C-Suite executive? Can you explain what you mean?

Well I just played into one of those myths above, haha. A C-Sute Executive can sometimes be perceived as a body in a chair half the day, and player on the golf course the second half. It’s a body with a nice blazer that only cares about the numbers. And while this may be the role some C-Suite Executives play, the majority choose differently. The golf-playing version of leadership is not an effective model that supports an organization; it’s self-serving. And unfortunately, the “bad apples” get more of the attention leading to a generalization, and giving us all a bad rep.

Now that’s not to say that I don’t have a “f*ck off Friday” here and there. But I do it just as much as anyone else does, and it’s considered paid time off like everyone else too.

What are the most common leadership mistakes you have seen C-Suite leaders make when they start leading a new team? What can be done to avoid those errors?

The temptation to have a “fake it ’til you make it” attitude will mess things up every time.

• That temptation to just smile and nod and make it seem like you’ve got it all together.
• The temptation to quickly assert yourself as a new authority who should be both respected and well-liked.
• The temptation to organize and re-organize your desk things in order to create a false sense of control.
• The temptation to nervously drink too much coffee only creating more acid reflux (than you already have).

It is uncomfortable to move from feeling confident in your work (your successful role that got you the promotion), into a C-Suite position that brings with it a new space and larger expectations. But we must remember that it’s not as though immediately upon moving into this new position, everything you needed to know about leadership was “Matrix’ed” (uploaded) into your brain. This new level can feel really cool and expansive; and it can be really hard and weird. With all of that comes a level of uncertainty. There can be a sense of pressure, or a misconception that you need to have all the answers.

Instead, start here:

• Work on increasing your comfortability with confrontation and conflict
• Enhance your knowledge of the difference between high-producing and high-performing teams
• Amplify your commitment to ongoing learning and self-awareness
• Strengthen your agility and response to problems when they arise

These may be familiar areas you’ve worked on before. But it’s time to level these attributes and skills up another notch (right along with that promotion). Seek out resources, ask for help and guidance, and remember the three life rules (from above).

In your experience, which aspect of running a company tends to be most underestimated? Can you explain or give an example?

Balancing what is right for the people (employees and customers) and what is right for the numbers (revenue) is one of the most difficult and underestimate aspects of running a company. There are times when it really is extremely difficult to choose. We always want to support the people, but revenue is the life blood of a business.

It’s really a chicken or egg conundrum. Supporting the employees, allows them to support the customers, which can increase revenue. But there are times when decisions are made with revenue in mind as the primary factor, because without revenue then you can’t pay employees, and therefore have no one to serve customers.

For example, there are some services within our business that we have had to stop providing even though they were highly valued by customers. These services just took too much man-power and time, and the return on investment (revenue) did not have a great enough margin to keep offering them. This did impact our customer base and loyalty a bit, but we have recovered very well and it was the right long-term decision to make.

Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “Five Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective C-Suite Executive”? If you can, please share a story or an example for each.

1 . Drop the illusion

Stop accepting “fake news” as truth about what is means to be an effective leader. It can feel like a really tall order to be a leader if you’ve been told that a good leader is:

Self-aware, Strategic, Creative, Decisive, Results-oriented, Communicative, Transparent, Inclusive, Innovative, Curious, Accountable, Flexible, Adaptable, Resilient, Inspiring, Collaborative, Empowering, Visionary, Trustworthy, Passionate, Authentic, Respectful, Compassionate, Empathetic (…Holy sh*t this is a long list…).

These are all consistently described as essential leadership attributes in many of the resources out there. And it is impossible to be all of these things all of the time. If this is what we use as the definition of a “good leader,” then we are setting leaders up for failure. It makes being a “bad leader” too easy. It makes being a “good leader” exhausting before someone even gets started.

You can read a more realistic version of effective leadership in one of my LinkedIn Newsletter editions titled “Navigating a Leadership Reality: Adapting your Attributes.” (link)

2 . Be curious

I could argue that the greatest attribute a successful leader can model is to be curious. As a curious leader you ask questions (of yourself, of your people, of situations). Asking questions opens your mind to possibilities, opportunities, and avoids assumption. And assumptions can lead us to focus on the wrong thing, try something that won’t really work, or place blame where it does not belong.

Here’s what a story of “curious leadership” could look like:

You’re open-minded enough to imagine the possibility that delegation could actually work out well. So you put trust in your teams and they trust you in return.

Because there is mutual trust, communication lines are more open which results in improved accountability and less surprises (the bad kind).

And when your teams feel safe to report errors or offer ideas, you get to leverage collective intelligence and scale faster (rather than being the only one to come up with ideas and solutions).

This fosters innovation and therefore increases the speed of execution toward your goals (which are now collective goals rather something that only lives at the top).

And when your people feel purposeful, trusted, and respected, they choose to stick around and you see greater employee retention.

And because employees choose to stay you are able to have a longer-term influence on shaping them into high-performing teams that grow with you.

With curiosity, leaders have an awesome impact, employee teams flourish, customers are more satisfied, revenues increase, and the world goes round.

3 . Notice your “head-trash”

Put in the work to address your self-awareness and enhance your relational intelligence. Notice what limiting beliefs exist in your mind and how they play out in your leadership style (and quite frankly your daily life in general). The number-one thing that stops good leaders from becoming great is almost never their technical skills — it’s their ability to self-reflect and relate to others.

CFO’s, CMO’s, COO’s (and all the other C-suite titles you can think of) usually get where they are because they’re good at their functions: Finance, Marketing, Operations… But by the time you get to the executive level, your technical skills matter less, and your people skills matter more (a.k.a. your ability to LEAD).

Here are some traits you can choose from that result from your level of self-awareness and relational intelligence:

• Listening to understand OR poor attentiveness
• Fostering collective intelligence OR having to be the smartest person in the room
• Prioritizing the benefit of the many OR politicking and favoritism
• Developing self-awareness OR blindly driving by ego
• Valuing compassion and empathy OR using time limitations as an excuse to not relate

Those are the attributes that will either shape high-performing teams that push the organization forward, OR will hold you back for the rest of your leadership career.

4 . Stop using excuses

Here are a few of my favorites. STOP:

1. Faulting others for your unfulfilled expectations
2. Assigning negative intent to the words of others
3. Letting fear or impatience dictate your decisions
4. Using perfectionism as an excuse to micromanage
5. Deprioritizing recognition of your team’s hard work
6. Avoiding confrontation as a result of your own discomfort
7. Being quick to react instead of allowing space for curiosity
8. Using time constraints as an excuse for poor communication
9. Putting other people’s needs first in the name of “servant leadership
10. Avoiding your own development from fear of what you mind uncover

Feeling personally called out? That might be an area to dig into… What would you add as #11?

5 . Increase your confidence with confrontation and conflict

This is a topic I address a lot with my clients because I work with leaders who are in positions to hold others accountable. And often times conversations of accountability look like confrontation or conflict. In fact, this is such a popular subject, that one of my LinkedIn Newsletters went viral on this topic. This newsletter addresses “Powerful Tools for Navigating Confrontational Conversations” and you can read more here (link).

Having the hard conversations is one of the greatest favors you can offer your teams (and yourself). Ignoring issues only prolongs negativity, but addressing the proverbial “elephant in your boardroom” leads to growth and better experiences. It requires courage and confidence, and a desire to make positive change. The conversation needs to be had with the goal of progress and growth. The edition of my newsletter that went viral offers you five useful tools and three things to avoid that will help you out.

But here’s some bonus material:

1. Recognize the difference between the two; not all confrontation is a conflict (so don’t treat it like one).
2. Asking permission is what I consider Universal Effective Communication. It is not meant to coddle someone, but instead to ensure they are in the headspace to receive your words in the way you intend, and demonstrates respect for their autonomy.
3. Focus on identifying the cause of an issue. This makes you solution-oriented rather than problem focused, and you will move out of confrontation or conflict faster and easier.

In your opinion, what are a few ways that executives can help to create a fantastic work culture? Can you share a story or an example?

To put it simply, leadership (especially at the Executive level) needs to own culture first. Want to know why your employee and cultural development initiatives have not delivered the results you anticipated? It’s because you need to take a Leadership First Approach™.

Drop the excuse (number 4 from above) that you want to let the employees create the culture. The truth lies is in the word “leadership.” You lead people toward the future vision of a company, and that includes the culture you want them to adopt and foster. When you walk the talk and authentically own the culture, others will see this as permission to do the same. They will understand what is expected of them, and they will be more likely to embrace it internally (not just as a mask they wear while at work).

One notable example of a company culture that was first established and led by Executive Leadership is that of Zappos. Founded in 1999 by Tony Hsieh, Zappos is an online shoe and clothing retailer that became well-known not only for its customer service but also for its unique and vibrant corporate culture.

You can easily find articles about it online because Tony Hsieh (as the former CEO) played a crucial role in shaping and championing the Zappos culture. His leadership style and commitment to creating a unique and positive workplace environment set the tone for the entire organization. The Zappos culture became a hallmark of the company and drew attention in the business world for its distinctive and innovative approach.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

Easy. I’m already starting one. It is my mission to keep telling more and more people about the Leadership First Approach™.

I hear a lot of organizations emphasize employee and culture development. And while that is admirable and often based on the people-first position of servant leadership, I continue to advocate for the Leadership First Approach™.

As I wrote about above, in many ways the success of an organization is a direct reflection of the leadership that oversees it. Leadership teams are who make the decisions, set the expectations, and provide the support needed to execute successfully. So, it is in a company’s best interest to invest in the development of its leadership because enhancing leadership first offers trickle-down effects that support the organization long-term. It becomes a solution that sticks. And that’s my favorite kind.

How can our readers further follow you online?

Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanda-harness-business-excelerated/

Subscribe to “An Elephant in your Boardroom”: https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=6958192236622745600

Email: Amanda@BusinessExcelerated.com

Website: https://businessexcelerated.com/

Thank you for the time you spent sharing these fantastic insights. We wish you only continued success in your great work!

About the Interviewer: Douglas E. Noll, JD, MA was born nearly blind, crippled with club feet, partially deaf, and left-handed. He overcame all of these obstacles to become a successful civil trial lawyer. In 2000, he abandoned his law practice to become a peacemaker. His calling is to serve humanity, and he executes his calling at many levels. He is an award-winning author, teacher, and trainer. He is a highly experienced mediator. Doug’s work carries him from international work to helping people resolve deep interpersonal and ideological conflicts. Doug teaches his innovative de-escalation skill that calms any angry person in 90 seconds or less. With Laurel Kaufer, Doug founded Prison of Peace in 2009. The Prison of Peace project trains life and long terms incarcerated people to be powerful peacemakers and mediators. He has been deeply moved by inmates who have learned and applied deep, empathic listening skills, leadership skills, and problem-solving skills to reduce violence in their prison communities. Their dedication to learning, improving, and serving their communities motivates him to expand the principles of Prison of Peace so that every human wanting to learn the skills of peace may do so. Doug’s awards include California Lawyer Magazine Lawyer of the Year, Best Lawyers in America Lawyer of the Year, Purpose Prize Fellow, International Academy of Mediators Syd Leezak Award of Excellence, National Academy of Distinguished Neutrals Neutral of the Year. His four books have won a number of awards and commendations. Doug’s podcast, Listen With Leaders, is now accepting guests. Click on this link to learn more and apply.