Ascending to 1st Chair: Lessons in Leadership and Organization Development

Walk with Jaime as she transitions from working ten years at an established corporation with a traditional structure, culture, and expectations to a startup where the organization is flat, fast, eager to change and grow, the employees are mostly remote, and she is the oldest and most experienced - at the age of 38. After years of hard work, patience, and earning the position of Senior Vice President at Tandem Corporation, Jaime is ready for a new challenge. She watched her boss transform from a stressed, anxious, and often impatient leader to someone experiencing a profound shift in how he leads by implementing L.I.S.T.E.N. - a theory and method of communication that ensures a leader takes the time to understand the needs of employees, family members, friends, and even strangers by listening to the stories they need to tell. Jaime has moved from second chair of this corporate orchestra to first chair where she now leads a small but exceptional group of professionals at the startup. She finds herself identifying with challenges she didn’t understand when observing her former boss and serving as interlocutor and peacemaker. Now she understands not only the need to implement L.I.S.T.E.N. from the beginning but also to help an organization define its vision and mission through the implementation of L.I.S.T.E.N.- Values and by including all stakeholders. She is at a stage in her development as the leader when mentorship, guidance, and a roadmap to help the startup thrive and grow is necessary. Enter her introduction to two Listeners who were recommended by Jeffrey, her former boss. One is a youth orchestra conductor and the other a mid-twenty-something entrepreneur savant who, before the age of 25, had developed software and sold two companies netting him a seat at the expert and mentor table. Over the course of one year, Jaime meets with her Listeners and learns the importance of ensuring the company’s stakeholders know they are valued, seen, heard, and appreciated. From the Authors Values are the heartbeat of an organization. L.I.S.T.E.N., a method for effective communication, was introduced in our first book, Listening 2 A Paradigm Shift for Leaders (That’s When the Magic Happens!). Our journey with Jaime expands upon the application of that theory and introduces L.I.S.T.E.N. Values. This theory serves as a guide for the development of corporate cultures to become an authentic, evolving, and compassionate listening organization. As it is with the concept of a benefit corporation (B Corp), guide your community of stakeholders to become an L Corp - Listening Corporation - in the spirit of the word corporate - of or belonging to a united group.* *Collins English Dictionary, 2018