Ep. 100: Rachael Bertrandt Crump - Global Leadership Perspectives

Contact Rachael Bertrandt Crump:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachael-bertrandt-crump-cpa-cgma-303b057/


About Rachael Bertrandt Crump:
https://www.insight.com/en_US/about/management/rachael-bertrandt.html


Leadership Article with Rachael:
https://profilemagazine.com/2020/rachael-bertrandt-insight/


FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:Adam:
(00:04)
 Welcome back for the hundredth episode of Count Me In IMA's
podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance
world. Once again, I'm your host Adam Larson, and I'm pleased to
introduce the featured guest for today's episode Rachael
Bertrandt Crump. Rachel is a Global Corporate Controller and
Principal Accounting Officer for Insight, a leading provider of
computer hardware, software cloud solutions, and IT services. In
her conversation with Mitch, she discusses what it means to be a
global leader, the importance of culture, and how to develop top
leadership talent. Let's head over and listen to the full episode
now.

Mitch: (00:44)
So our conversation today revolves around a leadership article
that you wrote earlier this year about being a global leader, to
kick off the conversation. Let's first start by getting your
definition of a leader. You know, I'd really like to get an idea
of who it is that you see as a leader or who can be a leader in
the organization, and then particularly for this conversation,
we're going to focus on global leadership and global
organization. So what does all of that really mean to you? What
does that look like?

Rachael: (01:12)
Sure. So to me, my definition of a leader is anyone or someone
who's driven to influence a particular outcome. So really in any
organization that can be anyone who has a passion or a drive,
around a particular topic, or to achieve a particular outcome. So
if everyone can be a leader, right, and an organization just
isn't what we might do in our nine to five or how we interact
during that work time. I'm a firm believer that, you know, we're
training our future leaders, in all of our organizational units
today, in our family units, and our schools and the volunteer
work and everything we do. And those are, those are our future
global leaders, global citizens. So it, it's almost  most
important that everyone who steps up to lead is their leading,
where their passion drives them to. I think that the diversity
and experience that everyone brings, is really what, what kind of
brings out passion in someone. And, and that's what makes a good
leader to me.

Mitch: (02:30)
Well, I really liked the fact that you brought up, you know, home
in school particular. Just my personal background, I actually
come from classroom teaching before I started this. I was working
with students and coaching and, you know, I think a big part of
that growth in an individual is the leadership that they see on a
daily basis. So now from our perspective, you know, obviously
more professionally, the organizational culture will certainly
shape a leader as well. So I'm curious, you know, how exactly
does that happen and can culture affect an individual's ability
to be a leader, particularly globally?

Rachael: (03:12)
I absolutely believe that that culture, impacts leadership. I
think it can propel leadership forward, kind of that Lightspeed,
if you will, but I also think the wrong culture can stifle would
be leaders. particularly if they have less direct leadership
experience and they're looking to step into, you know, a
leadership role, whether it's, you know, official or unofficial.
They can lose confidence if the organization and the culture
doesn't embrace diversity and experience. I think that, you know,
maybe many decades ago, experience was measured mainly, based on
jobs months, years, sorry, days, months, years in a job and now I
think there's a lot more that defines experience based more than
just on kind of the time in the seat or the time in the job and I
think it's that, you know, that diversity of experience that
really gets about how global organizations can be so effective
today. Someone coming into the workforce today that, and I use
myself as an example, you know, went to the same university in
Wisconsin, got the same degree I did, you know, few decades ago.
Their experiences actually entirely different than mine. Their
context, how they learn the tools, the office tools with which
they learned on, and that puts them at a different starting point
than it did me, and that experience just because, you know, I've
been in the workforce, then maybe I've learned my tools on the
job. Doesn't put me, you know, necessarily at an advantage, from
a leadership perspective over what their experience might have to
offer. So I really think that that is, you know, important in our
global organizations today, that we acknowledge the diversity in
experience, and how people, how people achieve experience in what
we define as experience, because I think that's what really
takes, an organization to the next level. And culture has to
embrace that, right? I mean, culture can be a whole other 
podcast, right. But, you know, culture really has to embrace
diversity and to draw it out, to draw out your, your future
leaders, because I mean, if we don't, if we don't train
ourselves, train up ourselves, right, we're going to be in a, I
think a world of hurt, we'll be at a disadvantage, as an
organization.

Mitch: (06:01)
Well, you certainly make great points, and I think the one thing
that I want to emphasize is, you know, there has been a shift in
what someone's experience is, you know, you mentioned that the
time piece of it, and I think a lot of businesses today are
recognizing that certain skills certainly differentiate,
applicants, regardless of, you know, how many years they have on
the job, but to your other point, you know, culture, it certainly
has existing barriers still when it comes to leadership
development. And while, you know, there might be a shift in
mindset as far as experience and skills and whatnot. What are
some of the other barriers that you think are really affecting
these organizations? And then what is hindering individuals from
reaping some leadership development from their
organization?

Rachael: (06:52)
So I tend to believe that that we ourselves and our unconscious
bias is one of our biggest barriers to effective global
leadership. We have to think bigger than our own, you know, kind
of universe right in the moment. And that can be super fun,
mindblowing, but it can also be a bit overwhelming. I also think
desire and passion have to come naturally. I believe every human,
you know, it, they have it for something in their life, but it,
it  they have to feel it and want it for it to come out, and
kind of break through their own natural barrier. And then, you
know, kind of along the same lines, we're, we're our own best
advocate and our own worst enemy, maybe. But other barriers
showing compassion and empathy and being vulnerable. So when you
think of global leadership that the people that you are leading
likely are, you know, very, diverse geographically, across many
different regions. And, and so you're serving them as a leader
and you're not in there, you know, you're not in their seat. You
don't know your day to day in your region likely looks very
different than their day to day in their region. And so really
being vulnerable and having, that empathetic view for what they,
you know, may be going through, I think really makes a difference
as to whether you'll be an effective global leader or not.

Mitch: (08:33)
And...