Getting Unstuck – Leading with Intentionality – a Conversation with Mark Ethier
“We create tools and technology and education and services. But all of that is in service of helping a filmmaker, a podcast or a musician, a producer and engineer to really get their art out to the world to tell a story. That really to me is the essence of what we do.”
Today on Getting Unstuck
What are the hallmarks of an organization that relentlessly seeks to operate within a culture of continuous learning? And what does the leader look like who leads such an organization with intentionality? We dive deep into those intertwined topics with the help of Mark Ethier, Co-founder and CEO of iZotope, makers of intelligent audio technology.
In October 2019, Mark accepts an Emmy for iZotope’s RX 7 Audio Repair Technology at the 71st Engineering Emmy Awards. This was iZotope’s second Emmy.
In this episode
1. Listen for how an organizational culture and its leadership that is devoted to continuous learning. . .• focuses on growing thinkers at all levels of the company
• discerns rather than defines its core values
• makes explicit what might otherwise be implicit or only implied, e.g. “articulating why we exist, our core purpose”
• creates innovation as a cultural norm, and in the process gives people the ability and space to be afraid and fail
• hires the “right” people – people that share the organization’s values and connect to its mission and the purpose of the business
• demonstrates vulnerability as a means to create trust
• focuses as much or more on the people doing the work than on the work itself
2. Listen for the number of times Mark frames leadership behavior as needing to be “intentional.“
3. Listen for how organizational success starts with the leaders’ deep self knowledge.
“If you hire the right people and give them the right context, and give them the right resources and materials, and get out of their way, they’ll do amazing, amazing things.”
For reflection
In the interview, Mark talks about the “peaks and valleys” method of sussing out a job candidate’s values. What’s one “peak” experience you’ve had, and what does it reveal about your values? What’s one “valley” experience, and what does it reveal?
For more information
Mark’s email address at Izotope