Leaderology is a collective of human transformation advocates who are passionate about leadership. The organization champions and develops fearlessly authentic leaders who want to cultivate expansive, inclusive, and sustainable communities of effort. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Leaderology chief excellence officer Marissa Waldman to learn more.
Marissa Waldman’s Background
Waldman has been in the leadership development space for over 30 years. And Waldman said:
“I initially started my career as a counselor, helping people tap into their passion and purpose to find meaning in the work they were doing. That led to how they could pay it forward once they were in those roles and then lead others to find meaning and purpose just as they had. It was a natural trajectory for me to move my career into developing leaders who would pay it forward.”
Formation Of Leaderology
How did the idea for Leaderology come together? Waldman shared:
“We wanted to build a company that we wanted to see exist in the world – Leaderology was born. The management consulting and leadership development space is saturated and there is an old-school stereotypical culture that comes with that. I wanted to create an organization that developed fearlessly authentic leaders within corporations who changed the world. To do that we needed an organizational culture founded on psychological safety. That was the first brick we laid down and it has been a large part of our success.”
Favorite Memory
What has been your favorite memory working for Leaderology so far? Waldman reflected:
“I have so, so many. You know the early years we were a 100% women-owned and operated company. We launched the company back in 2019, and then in 2020 the pandemic hit. That year was our first big business challenge and the way the team leaned in and supported each other was incredible to witness. There was this conviction to lean into our values and support the community of leaders around us. We provided complementary coaching on call to any leader, at any level. Those years were tough for so many people and so many businesses. We innovated, we adapted, we hit our revenue goals and we made memories.
Additionally, four employees were expecting babies during the pandemic and each of them received fully paid maternity leave. Not one of those women had to worry about paying their bills while they were out caring for their newborns, and they had the security of knowing their job would still be there when they returned from maternity leave.”
Core Products
What are Leaderology’s core products and features? Waldman explained:
“Leaderology provides incredibly practical and realistic leadership development programs, executive coaching, and strategic team alignment programs that yield transformative results targeting leaders on the frontline all the way to the C-suite. Rather than push all individuals towards a single leadership mold – such as servant leadership – we help participants capitalize on the traits that make them unique and encourage them to step fearlessly into their own authenticity. Fundamentally, we reject the notion that bad leadership stems from a lack of skills; instead, it’s down to two questions: (I) what systems does the leader have in place to anchor their skills and leadership habits to; and (ii) how coachable is the individual?”
“We believe that anyone can be a great leader provided they’re given the tools and support needed to implement leadership principles practically and sustainably on a daily basis. Our award-winning programs and proprietary LeadershipSOPs Methodology provide leaders with a systematized process for enacting leadership more consistently and effectively. With those core fundamentals more repeatable and present, we’re seeing participants in our programs become more agile, resilient, flexible in the face of today’s VUCA reality, and able to apply their learning to any situation rather than getting swept back up in the status quo the moment things become tense.”
Challenges Faced
Has Waldman faced any specific bottlenecks in her sector of work recently? Waldman acknowledged:
“I think that the transformational work we do requires a lot of high-touch activity which can lead to some bottlenecks. Our industry is moving more toward incorporating artificial intelligence and technology support, which does reduce bottlenecks but may also suppress the power of the transformation that the leaders need. We need to make room for an authentic human experience while embracing this technological advancement.”
Evolution Of Leaderology’s Technology
How has Leaderology’s technology evolved since launching? Waldman noted:
“There’s been a number of new systems or infrastructure we have implemented. We really beefed up our IT infrastructure as with most organizations. Cybersecurity is something all businesses need to put an investment in regardless of industry. We want to protect our employees and our clients, so we have made a sizable investment over the years to ensure information stays secure. This will be something we’ll continue to do.”
“We are in the process of building our own OnDemand leadership academy and are also leveraging AI internally to streamline marketing, sales, product development, and project management. We also continually research and evolve our facilitation technology to keep our programs, workshops, and sessions as interactive and engaging as possible for participants, whether virtual or in-person.”
“We’ve launched a sister-company, FromJump – a SaaS platform that guides a newly-hired or newly-promoted leader through their first 100 days. Managers receive daily, consumable, microlearning content and are nudged with assignments to help them assimilate into their new role. We packed FromJump with impactful tools, frameworks, agendas, templates and so much more to help new leaders be successful in their first 100 days. We essentially put fresh managers in the driver’s seat of their own onboarding and it’s revolutionizing the space for sure! Our tech solutions are a new category in their space and solves for the two key problems many organizations face when assimilating new leaders: scalability and success. It’s revolutionizing how we approach onboarding and assimilation. We’re thrilled to see the reception it is getting.”
“Finally, with my team being fully remote we have to heavily rely on technology for communication and culture. This past year we introduced Motivosity – a reward and recognition platform to our employees. We anchored their appreciation to our culture for example, if a colleague is demonstrating one of our four values – bold, genuine, invested and excellence – you are able to recognize and reward the individual. It’s definitely helped create more visibility, broken down siloes, and the best part is our newer employees get to see examples of behaviors that get rewarded at Leaderology. They get to see our core values in practice. The platform offers a lot of great leadership and management tools.
Significant Milestones
What have been some of Leaderology’s most significant milestones? Waldman cited:
“Wow there’s been so many. We started Leaderology in 2019 and have exceeded every revenue goal we’ve established each year, even through the pandemic. We’ve received multiple gold and silver Stevie Awards for our business, our programs, and our community outreach efforts. This year we hit two significant milestones. In June we launched our inaugural Fearlessly Authentic Leadership Awards(or as we fondly refer to them – The FAAFs). We need to normalize bold, authentic leadership – especially in corporations- because that is where the power is to affect social change. Over the years with the rise of protests, strikes, and unions, as a corporate community, we’ve seen our employees and consumers demand change and that corporations take action. So, we need to normalize the type of leadership that acts with courage and authenticity rather than fit a ‘traditional’ model of leadership. The FAAFs are our way of doing that. This past year we recognized Hoai Scott, an executive at NBCUniversal and the Anti-Recidivism Coalition for the work they are doing to provide those formerly and currently incarcerated a second chance, a fair chance, at being hired. They are doing incredible work. I am talking six-figure life-changing salaries for some of these talented individuals. Nominations for FAAF 2024 are open right now and I am thrilled to see so many members of the business community nominate themselves or a colleague.”
“The other key milestone we achieved this year was to be named on the Inc. 5000 list as one of America’s top privately held companies. Only 19% of women-owned companies made it on the list and so it was a huge milestone for all Leaderologists. The significance for me is that you can be fearlessly authentic, you can use your platform to speak with conviction on leadership issues, you can provide full maternity pay cover to multiple leaders in the company through a global pandemic, you can give away your services for free to help those leaders in need, you can do the right thing and you can be considered in the top 0.5% of privately-held companies in America. Being fearlessly authentic as we’re finding is good for business.”
Customer Success Stories
After asking Waldman about customer success stories, she highlighted:
“We have a global client who is a Fortune 500 company and in the electronics industry. They came to us with an important ask. They shared that the organization was eager to cultivate a culture of learning and our LeadershipSOP programs had piqued their interest. They didn’t want mere competency-building workshops. They had tried that previously and although the session feedback reports came back positive, the CHRO noticed that there was no stickiness. The HR industry is very connected with deep networks. They had heard about our LeadershipSOPs methodology and the transformation that came about for the leaders and culture. Now, almost four years later, we have run over 20 programs. We have supported this client in building a culture of learning across the organization, across multiple countries, and across multiple functions and roles. In one of our recent programs, the CEO joined as a guest speaker, engaging the cohort in a vibrant conversation around company goals, leadership, and how important investing in leadership development is to the company. Leadership development has become embedded in the fabric of their culture, and our client saw a significant increase in engagement scores as a result. The capstone projects caused them to innovate more and make their own contribution to the organization’s success. We are thrilled with our partnership and excited to continue to cultivate cultures of learning. This is an anecdotal example of many of our clients. Leaders need a system, a playbook, to anchor good leadership habits too. Our LeadershipSOPs methodology is the engine and fearless authenticity is the fuel that drives corporate transformation.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates Leaderology from its competition? Waldman affirmed:
“Our brand promise and our approach. We consistently celebrate and stand by the notion that fearlessly authentic leaders change the world, and we build those leaders here at Leaderology. We’re very clear with our purpose and perspective. Our clients and prospects find our approach refreshing. We’re not here to make a quick buck, we want to ensure transformation takes places not only for the leaders going through our programs but those in their ecosystem whether it’s cross-functional colleagues, their vendors/supplier partnerships or their spouse. Leadership no longer clocks in and out of a concrete building, so we’ve made sure our transformative solutions impact every situation the individual must turn up as a leader. The other piece of feedback I hear a lot from our clients is “Your team, Marissa. They’re incredible.” I agree with them one-hundred-and-ten percent. I have an outstanding team of Leaderologists. They’re critical thinkers, each one more talented than the next, and they look around the corner, so our clients don’t have to. They are living embodiments of our company values – they are bold in offering recommendations, genuine in their interactions, invested in every stakeholder’s success and strive for excellence, always, in all ways.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of Leaderology’s future company goals? Waldman concluded:
“To build fearlessly authentic leaders who will change the world. To do this we need to normalize and develop such leaders and make the development accessible. We are doing this through the Fearlessly Authentic AF Movement – The FAAF Awards – and we are currently building a suite of OnDemand courses under the umbrella of Fearlessly Authentic DNA. These courses will allow any leader at any level to be equipped to pivot successfully and authentically to every situation in this VUCA environment we find ourselves in.”
