"It is all about taking calculated risks outside of an established safety net."
Daniel Stewart is a sought-after organizational consultant and coach with proven experience advising senior leaders, building teams, leading change, and designing leadership-rich organizations. He leads Stewart Leadership’s extensive consulting & coaching practice, business development, and international partnerships.
He is the co-author of the award-winning book, LEAD NOW! A Guide for Results-Driven Leaders and the co-creator of the innovative Teaming for Success Model.
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Table of Contents
Thank you so much for giving us your time! Before we begin, could you introduce yourself to our readers and take us through what exactly your company does and what your vision is for its future?
Daniel Stewart: We believe that building strong leaders and empowering leadership teams is the foundation of successful organizations that truly impact the world. We partner with clients to design and deliver tailored and practical human capital solutions to help them achieve business and people results. Whether it is through coaching, training, or consulting, we solve people’s challenges so leaders, teams, and organizations can be more aligned, productive, and engaged.
NO child ever says I want to be a CEO/entrepreneur when I grow up. What did you want to be and how did you get where you are today?
Daniel Stewart: When I was a little kid, I really wanted to be a street sweeper driving those cool-looking machines with the massive brushes. As I got in high school, I thought about working for the state department and influencing global politics and trade. I eventually studied International Relations in college because I was fascinated with power and organization at the global level.
However, I had always been interested in business and how people interacted together to solve messy problems even as they were messy themselves, so I got a Master’s in Organizational Communication. That then launched my internal career in Organizational Development for several large companies and start-ups. During those years, I always had an itch, a restlessness, of doing more with more organizations. The inner entrepreneur wanted out and about 8 years ago, I left the corporate world to build up Stewart Leadership.
Tell us something about yourself that others in your organization might be surprised to know.
Daniel Stewart: Others might be surprised to hear that I get really nervous when I present to groups. I always have. I try to redirect the nervousness, but it takes a lot of energy and focuses to get geared up to be “on” for groups. Also, for fun, I love playing flag football. I have my own set of flags and have played every fall on Sat morning for years anywhere I’ve lived.
Many readers may wonder how to become an entrepreneur but what is an entrepreneur? How would you define it?
Daniel Stewart: It is all about taking calculated risks outside of an established safety net. It is about creating and building something new that doesn’t exist and summoning the technical, people, and financial know-how to make it work. It is also about not having a boss–you are the boss–and optimizing that perspective to inspire and achieve great things.
What is the importance of having a supportive and inclusive culture?
Daniel Stewart: I often say that your culture needs to align and support your strategy. Being proactive and intentional about building a culture is key. In the end, you want a culture that you enjoy, that inspires you, that motivates you and your colleagues to grow and to bring their best selves every day. In my view, a highly collaborative, transparent, and encouraging culture respects each person so they feel they belong. This is what larger organizations can sometimes lose. An open and inclusive culture can be such a competitive advantage while also just being the right thing to do.
How can a leader be disruptive in the post covid world?
Daniel Stewart: I find leaders can come from a guardian perspective or a collaborator perspective. Guardians ensure stuff gets done, often in a telling and directing approach. Collaborators tend to use more of a two-way, exploring approach to get things done. Both approaches are valuable. However, leaders can be disruptive by fighting the temptation to overuse the guardian approach! Leaders can embrace higher levels of uncertainty, believe that they don’t need to know all the answers, and especially be comfortable blurring the lines between the personal and professional. Leaders can embrace employees as people and not as resources.
That human-centric mindset can then find better answers to the organizational challenges that face us today in a hybrid, post covid world.
If a 5-year-old asked you to describe your job, what would you tell them?
Daniel Stewart: I usually say I help people work together better. I teach leaders how to be kind, work well with others, and communicate with other people.
Share with us one of the most difficult decisions you had to make for your company that benefited your employees or customers. What made this decision so difficult and what were the positive impacts?
Daniel Stewart: When the pandemic hit, we had just brought on key additional people onto the team. We had a key decision–do we keep everyone and continue to build toward an uncertain future or do we shift gears and slow the growth. We decided to invest in our future, keep everyone, build content and solutions, and get ready when the markets open up again. That was almost two years ago and I’m so proud of the team! We will now have the best year ever and it was because we took a long-term view during uncertain times. It wasn’t easy–we had lost 50% of our clients during that time and there were several points where my brother, my dad, and I weren’t sure if we would be getting paid at all. But we made it through!
Leaders are usually asked about their most useful qualities but let’s change things up a bit. What is your most useless talent?
Daniel Stewart: Great question. The first thing that comes to mind is my nose. I have a really good ability to smell things. Having a very sensitive nose can be a blessing and a curse. I can smell things that my wife or others can’t at all. So, amazing food is a beautiful experience. However, one whiff of a bad-smelling candle can be horrible! Walking into a Yankee Candle with a hundred potent smells all blasting away, is the worst.
Thank you so much for your time but before we finish things off, we do have one more question. If you wrote a book about your life until today, what would the title be?
Daniel Stewart: Network, Listen, Repeat–I’ve been networking and learning from other people about their professional journeys for years. I’ve learned so much from the mistakes and successes of others!
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Daniel Stewart for taking the time to do this interview and share his knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Daniel Stewart or his company, you can do it through his – Linkedin Page
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