In today’s episode of The Business of Intuition we hear how one CEO has mastered three challenges every leader, sooner or later, has to face:

• To accept their strengths and weaknesses and to feel deserving of the top position in the company,
• If needed, to remove or reassign employees in order to build and protect a strong culture,
• To communicate a 10-year plan when everyone else can only see quarterly goals.

Tim O’Neal is CEO of Goodwill of Central and Northern AZ, and has spent the past 18 years focused on the vision of ending poverty through the power of work. When O’Neal was brought on the organization was in serious financial trouble and at risk of having its membership removed by Goodwill Industries International. O’Neal’s arrival marked a turning point in the 70-year history of the organization, and his leadership was instrumental in keeping the organization running by increasing retail operations by 3000 percent.

Today Goodwill has become a community leader in educating and connecting people to meaningful work and diverting millions of pounds of goods from AZ landfills.  Tim will also share valuable insights into how to:

• Use intuition when making key decisions,
• Earn the trust and loyalty from employees, Board members and community leaders,
• Engage people in a vision when no one can see beyond the day to day.

Goodwill’s founder, Edgar Helms, envisioned providing people in need with the skills and opportunities that lead to self-sufficiency by providing a hand up, not a handout. O’Neal believes wholeheartedly in carrying out this mission to better the lives of everyone in our state. He knows the best way to bring a positive impact to Arizona is to work together, collaborate, and cultivate partnerships with community members, organizations, and leaders.

O’Neal holds a Certificate in Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management from the Harvard Business School Executive Education program. O’Neal graduated in June 2010 from Goodwill Industries International’s Executive Leadership Development program, which drives excellence, strategic planning and personal development skills for top executives in the industry.

In this episode Dean and Tim discuss:

• The danger of complacency in successful organizations and how to look out blind spots that might bring you down.
• How working on the culture of our organization can be one of your biggest assets, by strengthening bonds and underscoring your vision.
• How being able to tap into your intuition is enhanced in a culture of trust, and how to build it.
• Turning things around by changing mindsets, having a vision, and being able to see opportunities where others would see issues.

Key Takeaways: 

• You have to know what’s going on in the business, and then to make appropriate changes.
• Make sure it’s always people first, no matter whether it’s inside or outside.
• Stay true to your vision, empower your people, and trust them to do their thing.

Tim balances his attention to data and detail with insight and intuition.  Two studies support this kind of balance:  

• A  Harvard Business Review article said that the higher up you go, the more important intuition becomes, because it makes executives better listeners, decision makers and creative problem solvers.
• The New Jersey Institute of Technology studied the relationship between intuition and business success and found 80 percent of executives whose companies’ profits had more than doubled in the past five years had above average intuition skills.

Resources:  

How the Mighty Fall

Developing The Leader Within You

The Obstacle is the Way

Connect with Tim O’Neal:

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-o-neal

Website: Tim O’Neal | Goodwill of Central Arizona

Email: timoneal@goodwillaz.org

Connect with Dean Newlund:  

Twitter: Mission Facilitators (@mfileadership)

Facebook: Mission Facilitators – Home

Website: https://www.mfileadership.com/

Email: info@mfileadership.com

Phone: 1-800-926-7370

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You’re the expert. Your podcast will prove it.