"Avoid getting into a bubble that locks you away from the real-time concerns of others."
Marie-Claire Ross is a speaker, facilitator and coach focused on helping leaders build trust, to improve decision-making speed, safety, accountability, and team productivity. She is the founder of Trustologie. She is also the author of TRUSTED TO THRIVE: How leaders create connected and accountable teams. Marie-Claire is on the SME Committee for the Australian Institute of Company Directors and is also a fellow of The CEO Institute.
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Table of Contents
Let’s start with a brief introduction first. Introduce yourself to our readers.
Marie-Claire Ross: I’m an inspiring speaker, facilitator, and coach and I provide deep insights complemented with a practical approach to improving leadership skills in the workplace. I’m the author of the book, TRUSTED TO THRIVE: How leaders create connected and accountable teams. I work with senior leaders, leadership teams, and work teams to help them build healthy, high-trust team cultures – ensuring that teams improve both their reputation and results across the organization. My pragmatic approach and deep experience ensure I bring relevant strategies to leaders at any level. That is why I’m a sough-out consultant with companies around the globe.
Our audience is interested to know about how you got started in the first place. Did you always want to become a CEO or was it something you were led to? Our readers would love to know your story!
Marie-Claire Ross: Twenty years ago, my passion was ignited when I took over running the video production company my husband started. Building it up to 15 employees and over $2 million in annual revenue. I never set out to be a CEO, but learning how to build the business and lead staff became a quest. I read every book I could, attended countless courses, and had far too many coaches. In the end, video production wasn’t my passion. And six years ago, I leaped and started Trustologie. To help CEOs and executives build trust within their teams and improve performance. Working with smart, business-minded executives who enjoy learning is where I like to be. My sweet spot is providing deep insights and a mirror to gently coax leaders to reflect on what they need to change. Today, I work with SMEs, Government, and large organizations to improve trust and cohesiveness in leadership and project teams.
“Selfmade” is a myth. We all received help, no doubt you love to show appreciation to those who supported you when the going got tough, who has been your most important professional inspiration?
Marie-Claire Ross: Since I began my journey as a CEO, I sort advice from a wide range of people – business coaches, professional CEO groups, fellow entrepreneurs, and those who hit the big time. I spent a lot of time catching up with those who were successful and finding out what they did to improve their business. While all that is helpful, I found that the biggest stumbling block was me. Too many limited beliefs and self-doubt. The only way I truly transformed that was through working with a spiritual healer. This changed my life and helped me to view myself, and my work, very differently.
How did your journey lead you to become a CEO? What difficulties did you face along the way and what did you learn from them?
Marie-Claire Ross: I have had a very weird career. I started in market research undertaking large research projects for Government and private organizations. I then fell into the role of being a CEO when I took co-founded a video production with my husband. At the start the challenges seemed overwhelming – getting finance to purchase expensive broadcast television equipment, winning big contracts, sourcing and training employees. Yet, looking back on the challenges that seemed so big at the time, I now realize are just the day-to-day reality of business. They don’t look so difficult now – which has freed me up to face even bigger challenges.
Tell us about your company. What does your business do and what are your responsibilities as a CEO?
Marie-Claire Ross: I am no longer the CEO of a video production company with employees. In the end, video production wasn’t my passion. And six years ago, I leaped and started Trustologie. To help CEOs and executives build trust within their teams and improve performance. Today, I run a practice, not a business. In some ways, this adds extra complexity because selling yourself is much harder.
What does CEO stand for? Beyond the dictionary definition, how would you define it?
Marie-Claire Ross: I passionately believe that businesses have the power to make the world a better place. It all starts with the CEO who is willing to acknowledge their role in creating a happy, productive team. A leader who helps those around them make sense of their lives through goals, purpose, and action. Being a CEO means having tremendous power – to do the right thing and lead others into behaving well. The ripple effect this has on society is huge. When people go to work and feel valued, trusted, and connected, it helps them feel like there is meaning in their life. They go home happy and treat their family and friends well. But if employees are treated poorly – they take it out on those around them. In my mind, a CEO who helps employees feel better about themselves works towards creating a world where world peace is a real option.
In my experience with working and being a CEO, it stands for someone prepared to take the higher ground in everything they do. This means making decisions that are right for all (customers, employees), being exemplary in behaviors (so that employees model the right actions), setting a clear direction, and creating a safe work environment where people feel connected. This isn’t easy because we are brought up in such an individualistic culture.
When you first became a CEO, how was it different from what you expected? What surprised you?
Marie-Claire Ross: I was surprised by how much I loved being a CEO – working on strategy, making high-level decisions, overseeing the culture, and working with top-end clients.
There are many schools of thought as to what a CEO’s core roles and responsibilities are. Based on your experience, what are the main things a CEO should focus on? Explain and please share examples or stories to illustrate your vision.
Marie-Claire Ross: In my experience with working with CEOs over the last 15 years, the core roles include creating the strategy, aligning and harmonizing the leadership team, being accountable/demanding accountable, demanding excellence, and designing a high performance/healthy culture. Where I see issues with how the CEO is leading the company is where they ignore people issues in their leadership team. The CEO must create an environment where people feel safe to speak up, be able to challenge the CEO and one another, and ensure all team members share errors/mistakes openly.
For example, a leadership team that I worked with had a great culture and they were doing well with sales, but the CEO wasn’t holding people accountable. The truth was he was afraid of being accountable himself. It created enormous issues because the executives felt bad about themselves that they weren’t improving their results. The CEO’s lack of accountability created an environment where results didn’t matter. He also didn’t make it safe for people to talk about this problem. It meant that sales and innovation dropped. It was through working with him to improve his fear of accountability that made all the difference to his performance and that of the company.
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?
Marie-Claire Ross: My most difficult decision was leaving my video production company and all of the followers that I accrued in a workplace communication blog I created. I was so fearful that my followers would be disappointed with my change in focus (from safety communication to trust leadership). Now, I realize I was so silly for thinking customers wouldn’t jump on board for a new journey. I still have a lot of followers from my previous topic and people love that my content has changed and grown, as their career did as well.
How would you define success? Does it mean generating a certain amount of wealth, gaining a certain level of popularity, or helping a certain number of people?
Marie-Claire Ross: Success is a tricky one to define because it means different things to people and it does depend on where you are in life. For me, at this point in my career, it is influencing as many people as possible to be a better leader. The more people I can reach to improve how they lead others, the better.
Some leadership skills are innate while others can be learned. What leadership skills do you possess innately and what skills have you cultivated over the years as a CEO?
Marie-Claire Ross: My innate leadership skills have been feminine-based – considering others, using intuition in business decisions, creating a psychologically safe team culture, and trusting people to do their best work. Leadership skills I had to work on were more around my beliefs and habits- not beating myself up when I felt my day wasn’t productive, delegating, employing the right people to help me, and having difficult discussions with clients.
How did your role as a CEO help your business overcome challenges caused by the pandemic? Explain with practical examples.
Marie-Claire Ross: As a CEO, you learn to be accountable and hopeful. Great CEOs are always optimistic and can see the silver lining. When the pandemic hit, I saw it as an opportunity to reset – the world and my business. I even created video content and articles to help others that fell into despair. To this day, I still have people who tell me how much I helped them at that time.
Do you have any advice for aspiring CEOs and future leaders? What advice would you give a CEO that is just starting on their journey?
Marie-Claire Ross: My advice would be to keep learning and be open to feedback. Encourage your leadership team to do the same. Consult with your customers, employees, and other stakeholders. Avoid getting into a bubble that locks you away from the real-time concerns of others. Over time, this hubris will put your business and personal success at risk.
Thank you for sharing some of your knowledge with our readers! They would also like to know, what is one skill that you’ve always wanted to acquire but never really could?
Marie-Claire Ross: Diving – I’ve always been too scared to do any sort of dive into the water. I love watching other people, but it is not something I can do.
Before we finish things off, we have one final question for you. If you wrote a book about your life today, what would the title be?
Marie-Claire Ross: “Overcoming Toxic Narcissists”
George Wright III, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Marie-Claire Ross for taking the time to do this interview and share her knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Marie-Claire Ross or her company, you can do it through her – Linkedin Page
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