"Delegating is the key to successfully growing a company."
Michael E. Lee Tweet
Michael E. Lee is the president and Chief Executive Officer of FinDec and has been employed with the company in some capacity for nearly 25 years. Michael is most passionate about helping clients achieve goals they thought were not achievable. Specifically, he provides the resources to FinDec advisors so they can deliver and help clients reach aspirational financial goals. He loves to mentor people and provide leadership and direction in their careers.
He nurtures the team so they can help clients stay focused on their long-term financial goals and retirement planning. In today’s world of immediate information and quick decisions, people have to be reminded that planning and preparing for retirement is a marathon, not a sprint. Michael trains the FinDec team so they can instill in clients to keep their eye on the finish line. Michael is consistent and grounded in strong professional habits. People who work with Michael also put in a great deal of effort — people want to cultivate success together and be around leaders who are also working tirelessly to obtain a goal. Leading by example and building a strong team has helped Michael advance FinDec. He believes that you are truly only as successful as the team you build around you.
Michael’s leadership skills were sharpened through years of serving his country. He obtained the rank of Major, spending 13 years as a military police officer in the United States Army after graduating from college. He also served three years as a civilian law enforcement officer.
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Table of Contents
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
Michael E. Lee: There wasn’t a “light bulb” moment where I knew I would end up in my current career. My upbringing was that of the typical American generational family with their business.
Both my parents worked in this business from eight in the morning until eight at night, so I spent a lot of time around them in the office and naturally absorbed what they did. As I got older, I realized I enjoyed the work I was doing, so I continued to work in the business through college. However, my story takes a detour when I went into the military after college and got into civilian law enforcement until my father wanted to retire. I was in my early thirties and loved my career in law enforcement, but I saw myself in my family’s business and wanted to help.
How I got to where I am today as President and CEO of FinDec has been anything but linear. I had experiences in different fields
Was there somebody in your life that inspired you to take that specific journey with your business?
Michael E. Lee: I don’t think one person inspired me, but it was a whole culmination of people. Given my background of working for my family’s business since I was a freshman in high school and then joining the military after college, I came in contact with many successful leaders. My family and colleagues in the military, law enforcement, and FinDec have all significantly influenced how I got to where I am today. I always make it a point to talk to people and get advice from them since I’m a big believer that if you push yourself outside your box and challenge yourself to get other perspectives, you will be better because of it. I don’t think I’d be where I am today if I just relied on one person instead of continuously getting input from people throughout my different career paths.
Often leaders are asked to share the best advice they received. But let’s reverse the question. What’s the worst advice you received?
Michael E. Lee: I can think of one instance that’s not necessarily bad advice, but more miscommunication that could have had severe consequences. When I was in the military, my commanding officer wanted me to do something as I headed into the field with about two hundred soldiers. They wanted something to go a certain way that day—which I understood—however, I had to communicate to them that I had other priorities on the ground. I had to ensure that they went smoothly before I could tend to the commanding officer’s orders. They were not happy with me for not dropping what I was doing, but at the moment, I knew I was making the best decision for my unit and they later understood that as well.
When you receive advice that maybe you don’t agree with or would go about it differently, you must communicate that and follow your judgment since nothing you do should be illegal, unethical, or immoral. Your job as a leader is to take all the information you’re given to make the best decision, so it is essential to hear many different perspectives since what is considered “right” to you may not be to someone else and vice versa.
Resilience is critical in critical times like the ones we are going through now. How would you define resilience?
Michael E. Lee: I don’t think there is a secret formula to it; you have to keep moving forward. There’s always the next day. You can be having a bad day when you feel like everything is going in the wrong direction and you want to quit, but tomorrow is a new day and maybe you’re going to knock it out of the park. Moving forward and not dwelling on what you should have done or could have done is essential. Otherwise, you’re still worried about what you did the previous day, meaning you can’t see the potentials and opportunities of the current day. You have to be resilient to let those things go and learn from them to avoid similar pitfalls in the future.
In your opinion, what makes your company stand out from the competition?
Michael E. Lee: We don’t try to recreate ourselves to be something else or get an upper leg on the competition. We understand that every client isn’t going to be a match or see eye-to-eye with us, which is why we’re happy to let them test the competition and try to find a match for them. For example, we recently had a client come back to us because they were unsuccessful in finding a provider they liked better than us. I like to think about it this way: if you’re not honest with who you are when you first start dating someone, your true colors will come out eventually, and then you’ll have a mess on your hands. At FinDec, we’re not trying to trick anyone into thinking we’re the best; they have to see that for themselves.
Delegating is part of being a great leader, but what have you found helpful to get your managers to become valiant leaders as well?
Michael E. Lee: Delegating is the key to successfully growing a company. I think it’s a natural human tendency to want to do everything, but delegating is a skill set you have to learn in order to let go of control and allow people to fail. When teaching leadership at FinDec, I emphasize that the only way they will learn is by failing. If you’re always doing everything right or if other people are helping you, then you have a safety net that doesn’t allow for personal growth.
As a leader, it is my job to build a strong team of executives who are confident in their roles. I do this by encouraging them to trust in their abilities and to just “go for it,” regardless of if it works out or not. Then, because they can learn from their mistakes, they can adjust and do it better the next time around.
Being a CEO of the company, do you think that your personal brand reflects your company’s values?
Michael E. Lee: I think that my personal brand reflects my company’s values because they are one of the same. It is just as much a part of me as FinDec holds great value in family, integrity, new ideas, determination, education, and community. I carry these values around with me wherever I go, so if it weren’t FinDec and another business instead, then that business would be held to the same high standard of values as well. I train my team to be strong on their own and believe in their abilities because only then can you start to bring people together as a team. My goal as CEO is to find people who also believe in the company and naturally carry the same values through their personal lives, translating into hard work.
What’s your favorite leadership style and why?
Michael E. Lee: In the military, I was exposed to many different leadership styles, some good and some bad. Still, ultimately my favorite style was always the one that didn’t micromanage us and allowed us to be ourselves. Of course, I could make my team learn to do things exactly the way I do them, but I don’t see the value in that sense you could potentially miss out on a new perspective that might make your processes more efficient. Additionally, if I didn’t allow my team to fail, then they would never learn from their experiences and be successful on their own down the line. In a nutshell, my favorite leadership style is the one that stays true to its ethics and rolls with the punches.
Do you think entrepreneurship is something that you’re born with or something that you can learn along the way?
Michael E. Lee: I think you’re born with some of the skills that make an entrepreneur and the rest is created later down the road through experiences. While some people have a naturally more entrepreneurial spirit than others, I believe that life circumstances dictate whether or not you become an entrepreneur. When you’re searching for a career in life, you will pick up a diverse set of skills from various jobs, a broad network of people, and the confidence to be a leader, all without noticing you’ve become an entrepreneur!
If you had told me at age 21 that I’d be running my family’s business turned national corporation in the future, I wouldn’t have believed you, but I am where I am today and running the company I am today because I naturally gained the experience and knowledge to be an entrepreneur just by circumstances taking me certain directions in life.
What’s your favorite “leadership” quote and how has it affected the way you implement your leadership style?
Michael E. Lee: My favorite leadership quote is by a Major in the military who said, “A bad leader is not one that makes bad decisions, but one that doesn’t make a decision at all.” The second you stop making decisions is the second you stop being a leader. Being indecisive has a trickle-down effect on your organization, team, and clients. It causes your peers to lose respect for you, which is not easy to regain once it’s lost. I think it goes hand-in-hand with my style of leadership, where you have to fail to grow. I always remember it’s okay to make the wrong decision as long as you learn from it.
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Michael E. Lee 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 Michael E. Lee or his company, you can do it through his – Linkedin Page
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