Let’s Grow Leaders named a 20 Best Companies to Watch of 2021  by The Executive Headlines.
 

Leadership | Let’s Grow Leaders

Karin Hurt and David Dye:

Karin Hurt and David Dye help human-centered leaders resolve workplace ambiguity and chaos, so that they can drive innovation, productivity and revenue without burning out employees. As CEO and President of Let’s Grow Leaders, they are known for practical tools and leadership development programs that stick. Karin and David are the award-winning authors of five books including, Courageous Cultures: How to Build Teams of Micro-Innovators, Problem Solvers, and Customer Advocates and Winning Well: A Manager’s Guide to Getting Results-Without Losing Your Soul A former Verizon Wireless executive, Karin was named to Inc. Magazine’s list of great leadership speakers. David Dye is a former executive and elected official. Karin and David are committed to their philanthropic initiative, Winning Wells – building clean water wells for the people of Cambodia.

 

Below are the highlights of the interview with, CEO of Let’s Grow Leaders, Karin Hurt

In her own words: Karin Hurt

I (Karin) started Let’s Grow Leaders in 2013. A few years in I met my (now husband), David Dye. We  were so philosophically aligned that we decided to collaborate to write Winning Well together. After we finished writing the book we realized that we had fallen in love. We got married and merged our businesses together. That’s really when our business began to thrive. 

We have a powerful partnership with diverse skillsets that enables us to serve our clients well.  In the last few years, we’ve been expanding our team with more human-centered staff—who have also made a huge impact. We’ve trained over 10,000 leaders in 14 companies.

See also:  (this is the love story behind Let’s Grow Leaders might be fun to include some of this)

What are your company’s values? What is Let’s Grow Leaders operating philosophy?

We help human-centered leaders resolve workplace ambiguity and chaos so they can drive innovation, productivity, and revenue without burning out employees.

Everything we teach is based on our own extensive executive experience leading large teams, grounded in research, turned into practical tools.  Before founding Let’s Grow Leaders, Karin Hurt, our Founder, was a Verizon Wireless executive for 20 years, leading HR and Operations teams, including a 2200 person sales team and a 10,000 person customer service customers service organization—all with award-winning, breakthrough results.

What is your purpose behind your products/ services? What is the biggest problem you want to help solve through your product/service? What are you paranoid about?

We help leaders get breakthrough results without “losing their souls.” We’re on a mission to end toxic, cynical dehumanizing leadership by providing very practical tools and techniques.

What factors influenced or motivated you to start this venture?

The truth is neither one of us set out to rid the world of cynical, dehumanizing leadership. We both just hit a point of such utter frustration that we started to blog. We had witnessed too many examples of executives and managers destroying themselves and their teams with a win-at-all-cost mentality. Others were so focused on being liked by their teams (or pleasing their bosses) that they failed to speak up or hold people accountable.

 

We plainly shared two passions:

1. Convincing leaders that you can get breakthrough results without losing your humanity.

2. Giving managers the practical tools to make the change–and to make the change stick.

What are the biggest challenges you faced in the initial years? What can your peers learn from it?

One thing that surprised me in the early stages was the ups and downs of the work coming in. Sometimes there was so much work that I had to turn some away and other times there was not enough.  What I learned about being an entrepreneur is that in order to keep things steady, it’s vital to be working on business development every week, while working on building content and delivery.

I also learned the importance of building a strong network of peers doing similar work (other leadership authors, training company leaders, and keynote speakers). I’ve learned so much from my “competitors” who have become great friends and supporters

What do you feel are the reasons behind your company’s reputation?

Practical leadership skills that lead to sustainable results.

What’s so different about Let’s Grow Leaders and why opt for it?

Highly practical and sustainable.

How is Let’s Grow Leaders helping users by providing an end-to-end service.

We offer a comprehensive, customized solutions, practical tools and techniques, and digital learning reinforcement that creates lasting behavior change.

What gets you most excited about Let’s Grow Leaders future? What is the long-term strategy for Let’s Grow Leaders?

We’re currently working on building out a Courageous Cultures Catalyst Coaches and Facilitators Program to help facilitators and coaches to leverage our tools and techniques to help more teams. We’re also excited about the momentum of our latest book, Courageous Cultures: How to Build Teams of Micro-Innovators, Problem Solvers and Customer Advocates and how it is resonating with leaders during this challenging time. Many companies are reading this together and leveraging the tools. We just found out it’s being translated into Chinese (our first book Winning Well was a best seller there, so we’re excited to see how it resonates).

What do you believe will be your legacy? How will the success of your company help manifest it? What’s your endgame?

Human-centered leaders all over the world have greater influence and impact and are using our practical tools to make their (and their team’s lives) easier. And, our kids continue to be remarkable human beings making an impact on the world.

About adaptability, how do you stay relevant to the consumer interests and needs in this highly volatile market?

We’re constantly developing new courses and programs to meet the needs of our clients. This 18 months was a huge pivot for us to moving many of our programs to live-online, which clients really love—making it easier to train global teams together and do more with spaced learning over time.

Do you have any new products or services ready to be/getting ready to be launched?

Yes, a new Courageous Cultures Catalyst Program so Coaches and Trainers can get certified to train our Courageous Cultures content and tools

What do you think are the best skills that you bring to your business?

Vision, Innovation, Client-Focus, Practical Approach

What are your messages for budding entrepreneurs/young generation?

Be the leader you want your boss to be. Stay authentic. Collaborate. And encourage courage in yourself and others.