One of the best ways to prepare for corporate leadership early in your career is to serve on non-profit boards, advises Linda Rebrovick, president of Impact Corporate Consulting in Nashville, Tenn. The experience of working with a leadership team and achieving organizational goals is invaluable as you move into the corporate board orbit later in your career.
It’s also important to remember that everyone in the company is in sales, she says. Even if they’re not calling on potential customers, they still represent the company and can affect its prospects for success.
Rebrovick is a 1977 Harbert graduate in marketing.
One of the best ways to prepare for corporate leadership early in your career is to serve on non-profit boards, advises Linda Rebrovick, president of Impact Corporate Consulting in Nashville, Tenn. The experience of working with a leadership team and achieving organizational goals is invaluable as you move into the corporate board orbit later in your career.
It’s also important to remember that everyone in the company is in sales, she says. Even if they’re not calling on potential customers, they still represent the company and can affect its prospects for success.
Rebrovick is a 1977 Harbert graduate in marketing.
Narrator:
Welcome to the Harbert College of Business podcast.
Sarah Gascon:
War Eagle.
Currie Dyess:
Welcome to another episode of the Harbert College of Business podcast. Today's guest is Miss Linda Rebrovick. Linda is an experienced board member, CEO, entrepreneur, and senior executive providing business management consulting and serving as board director with private and public companies.
Sarah Gascon:
In today's episode, we will discuss the benefits of acquiring skills, value of sitting on boards and the importance of leadership on multiple levels.
Linda, welcome and War Eagle.
Linda Rebrovick:
War Eagle back to you, Sarah and Currie. And thank you to the Harbert College of Business podcast series for including me. I'm really honored.
Sarah:
Well, it's a pleasure having you.
Currie:
Absolutely.
Sarah:
We want to start by understanding how you got to IBM. You found your way to IBM because you interviewed them for a paper in school, is that correct?
Linda Rebrovick:
Yes, I definitely owe Auburn for that. I was in the college of business and we were doing papers in our marketing class and I had an affinity for IBM because my father was an entrepreneur, owned an insurance company and I worked on his IBM computers for my first job. When I found out that IBM was coming to interview, I signed right up for an interview. But I had also done this paper and had been able to interview one of the IBM reps from Montgomery. It just meant a lot to me that he came all the way to Auburn. I'm sure he was there meeting with Auburn, who was his customer. But it meant so much to me that he took the time to spend with a student at Auburn. That really got me excited about the company.
Currie:
When you were here at Auburn studying, remind me again. Was it secretarial or something?
Linda Rebrovick:
Yes, yes. The real part of the story was I started out to be in office administration and back to working for my father. I wanted to go into business and at the time, remember this was 1970's early, '73 to '77 was when I was at Auburn as a student. I was looking at the different opportunities and one of them was to go into office administration. I had a wonderful professor at Auburn, Professor Magnus. He really changed the trajectory of my life and set me off to be where I am today. Because he suggested to me that I probably didn't have the patience to be in office administration, but that I would be really good in sales and marketing. That is part of why Auburn's so fantastic and that's why it's so important to have mentors and advisors, because they're going to give you the straight advice. They're going to guide you because they've been there, done that and they can look back. I'm just so glad I took his advice.
Sarah:
What did your professor see in you that suggested you should go into sales and marketing then?
Linda Rebrovick:
I'm sure you might have to ask him that question, but I think it was my passion for sales. I got very excited when I was doing presentations and speaking to the class or speaking to an audience. I also have to admit that I was Miss Auburn and part of that was going through the student government election process. So I got to learn how to be really quick on my feet, answering some pretty tough questions from the students. Working to get the votes so that I could win. Maybe I would add that to what he saw in my excitement about sales and marketing and just my ability to communicate.
Those are skills that are important, quite frankly, in anything you do. Whether you are actually the sales person out on the line, I tell people, everyone in the company sells. Everyone in the organization is sales. You're talking to the external world and you represent who you work with and who work for.
Currie:
So you went to work at IBM after that. How long were you there and what is the path to get to where you are now? We're going to definitely get into everything that you do, and it's very impressive. But it seems like it was quite a journey.
Linda Rebrovick:
Yes, I stayed at IBM 16 years. And quite frankly, I probably would have retired there, but at the time I don't know if you know what IBM stood for. But it stood for I've been moved and quite frankly, I was living in Nashville. I was from Nashville, my family was here and my husband had a career here. It just wasn't practical for me to move. I was happy to commute and worked my way up through IBM over those 16 years. It was a tremendous background and a tremendous experience. The training, the management training, just the breadth of opportunities that I was able to take advantage of at IBM are outstanding.
It gave me the opportunity then to go work for KPMG Consulting. They were looking for people who could live in any city, but would be willing to travel. That just really fit my career more at the time. I think really it is all about where you are in your lifetime and where you are in your career and what is the opportunity in front of you. Currie, to answer your question, I truly saw that there was more that I wanted to do. I wanted to try to be a partner at a consulting firm. That sounded like a very compelling opportunity. And that's what they were offering me.
I think the point is, a lot of what you do along your career journey is based upon where you want to go. There's no right answer. But for me, I continued to want to go further in my career, to take on more leadership responsibility, albeit, you really have to earn it. You have to perform. But at the same time, you've got to be driven toward it and motivated toward it, and I was. And at IBM, I couldn't move any higher without moving.
Sarah:
What do you enjoy most about consulting?
Linda Rebrovick:
This is a great question. To me, consulting is perfect and it is very similar to sales. But in the way that you really get to work side by side with your client to put together a solution to solve a problem. When a company has a business problem, and you've got the chance to come work on a team with them together toward aligning and building that solution, and be part of delivering that solution, for me, it's one of the most rewarding experiences.
The other thing I love about it is, you go into so many different companies and so many different industries. Again, to fit my personality, I would tell anyone who enjoys that, who really wants to be out there and learning about manufacturers and distributors, and healthcare companies and the government and how all these organizations run, and the kinds of opportunities that they have ahead of them and that you can have an impact in, that's what consulting does. It truly sets you up to have a broad based expertise in terms of delivering projects on time and on budget. If you move up through your career, you're going to always be measured on those financial results and financial outcomes. So having that base of experience as a consultant will be invaluable.
Currie:
Miss Linda, you have excelled in multiple leadership positions. What is your personal leadership philosophy and has that changed over time?
Linda Rebrovick:
I have a great story to tell you how it's changed over time. My first leadership job was at IBM as a marketing manager. It was in Huntsville, Alabama and I was the youngest person in my team as the marketing manager. It was fascinating because I went down there really gung ho, really intent on being in charge. Here I am, I've got 10 seasoned male salesmen who obviously had been at the company a lot longer than I had. I was trying too hard to carve out my position. That's what I thought my role was, to really get in there and be in charge.
Well, one day I was standing in the bullpen, I can remember it like it was yesterday. And I was yapping out orders, I guess, of what he needed to go do, this particular salesman. He looked over at me and he said, "When are you going to stop being a boss and start being a coach?" Whoa! Hit me in the face like a ball. I thought, "Let's go into my office. We need to talk." Again, you've got to listen to what people are telling you, just like I listened to Professor Magnus, I listened to this sales rep. He gave me the best advice. He said, "You're not going to get the best out of us by telling us what to do. You need to be the coach, you need to be in there, you need to guide us, you need to help us. Move things out of the way so that we can be successful and help us strategize. Then coach us and call the shots from the sideline, if you need to. But give us the chance to be enabled to go do our job."
That was a huge change and it really set me off on the right foot and I was so fortunate that he had the courage, quite frankly, and maturity to tell me that. Our little team ended up being the top team in the region the following year as a result of many things, but including the change in my leadership style.
Leadership is everything. You can look at any company, the CEO sets the tone. At the end of the day, the culture, the skillsets, the people they surround themselves with are going to be the deciding factor of how well that organization does. And more importantly, how much people enjoy working with them. I always try to be myself, I learned that. I learned you need to be honest, you need to be truthful. I care about managing people. I was fortunate to find early in my career that I enjoyed more and I excel more at leading teams. It was because I care about the people. It was because I knew that my job was to set the vision, my job was to be the coach, my job was to truly enable them to achieve what they wanted to achieve. If they achieved what they wanted to achieve, then that was the highest form of recognition that I could ever hope for.
And guess what? The customers were happy when our employees were happy. You just have to remember that as a leader and you got a lot of people to please. But the people that work for you and around you, are the most important.
Currie:
Wow! That's great. Now, Miss Linda, you are a fellow at this small school that no one has ever heard of; Harvard University. Why is it important for elite level leaders such as yourself, to continue to sharpen that sword?
Linda Rebrovick:
Well, first of all, let me say that it is the better crimson school. How about that?
We're okay with Harvard because they are the better Northern crimson school. The program that I'm going to at Harvard is an advanced leadership initiative. It's truly an experience of a lifetime to be around the other people who have accomplished much in their careers, and there's 60 of us. This is really about coming up with how we want to do something impactful from a social impact plan, if you will. In a social way that changes the world, quite frankly. To have the resources of the university really at our exposure, made me excited about being able to go there and work on this plan. I've always been in react mode. Someone's come to me and said, "Would you like to participate with us on the entrepreneur center," for example. I happen to have a real tremendous job where I'm on the board and one of the founding board members of our national entrepreneur center, which is just an extraordinary organization to help entrepreneurs.
But I didn't set out a plan and really think about going into the world of entrepreneurs. I will continue to do that, but what this is going to allow me to do, is think on a broader platform. Think on a global or national platform. Think about how in a proactive way I can bring my skills that I've gained over my time at Harvard, over my career of over 40 years and really give back in a meaningful way. It's amazing, it really is. We're actually auditing classes at the Harvard Business School and Kennedy School and Public Health School. So the resources and what I'm learning there about many social areas is tremendous. That's why I'm there.
Currie:
Socrates says, "For he who changes the world, first he must change himself." Is that what you would recommend for anyone who is beginning their leadership journey?
Linda Rebrovick:
Well, I had to in my story in Huntsville, for sure. I do believe that when you first step into your leadership job it's hard. I was scared. I think a lot of my reaction to running in there boldly was just being new to it and being scared and not sure of what to do. You learn that throughout your career and throughout your life, always be open to change, always. In the world we live in today, innovation is going so fast and technology is growing so fast and the world is changing so fast. The agile and flexible, yet methodical at the same time people, people who are able to do all of those things, are going to be the most successful.
Business is changing, people always need to be ready to change in order to achieve what you want to get done and to lead others. It's a really hard thing to lead people through change, there's no question about that. But it's one of the most important leadership skills you will have.
Sarah:
You discussed acquiring skills, but what happens when your skills don't necessarily align with your interests?
Linda Rebrovick:
Yeah, that's a great question. I think that everything you learn is important, so if you get to a place where I want to do X, but my skills are leading me to Y, and right now that is an opportunity that I can grab, do it. One of the jobs that I had early in my career at IBM, was also I wanted to get back to Nashville. They wanted me to run the customer center and that really wasn't a promotion at the time. It was somewhat, if you will, of a lateral because I wouldn't have a sales team or a branch reporting to me. I thought about it and I took the job even though I didn't think it was the best thing for my skills. But quite frankly, I learned so much and by the time the consulting branch came open I was ready and I had proven that I would step in and do what it took for the company to be successful.
So there's a lot of other things that you're accomplishing when you take something that isn't exactly what it is you wanted to do. Go into it with a positive attitude, go into it and give it all you have and keep looking for those other things. A lot of what you will learn is going to be on the job, I guess, is my answer to your question. People want job experience and they will look at how well you did at whatever you've done. What are your personal characteristics? Those are as important. You can learn skills, but how you approach things, how you work together on a team, how you treat people, how you respond in a crisis, how you motivate others. And how well you are able to grow your organization by driving all the things that we've talked about.
I think you have to put a high importance on those. It's not just your skills. Have some confidence that if you step into something that wasn't exactly where your fit is, go in and learn it and prove that you can learn something new. That's what I've always done.
Currie:
That's fantastic advice. Linda, you sit on quite a few boards and you have a lot to say about boards. In what way do you think sitting on for profit and not for profit boards has been beneficial to your journey?
Linda Rebrovick:
I truly do enjoy and value the time on the boards. It truly started when I was sitting on not for profit boards. I highly encourage people to sit on not for profit boards because you learn so much. You're sitting around the table with other executives. My story was always I was sitting on the other side of the table, trying to get their business and help them with problems and solutions. But when you're sitting in a board room, you're on the same company, if you will. You're on the same team, you're rowing together, excuse me, toward the same goals. People don't think about that. But think about the development that you're gaining by watching how they make decisions, watching how they run the meetings, watching how they encourage people to work for that not for profit. That's an education that you can't imagine getting inside your own company.
Then you add to that, you're doing something special. It's so rewarding to help a not for profit. But they run very much like a company. They have financials, they just are not paying taxes, but they are running a business, if you will, an organization. For me, I got involved in the United Way, I got involved in Leadership Nashville, which today I'm able to be the president of the trustees of Leadership Nashville. That's just the highest honor in the world in Nashville, and so I love that I spent many, many years on the board to get there.
That truly gave me some expertise, it's not the key to going on a public company board. But it gave me some expertise to understand how a board worked. The next thing that happened for me is when I went to KPMG. I was interviewing because I was going in as a direct entry partner and they said okay, "You're going to interview with some board members." I thought that was rather interesting that a partnership had a board of partners. When I was interviewing with the board member who is a partner, he said, "Yes," he said, "we nominate ourselves, we have a board. It works like a public company board except within a partnership, et cetera, et cetera." I thought, "Well, that would be a great way to get true experience."
So I ran for the board at KPMG and was selected and was one of the first people to get on the board, I believe, that came from outside the firm. I was bringing my knowledge from IBM. But the majority of people that had been on the board had been able to attain that as either an auditor, tax professional or consultant and grown up in the firm. Actually, that was my campaign speech, if you will, was that I was bringing experience from outside that would be invaluable from a company like IBM. So through that process we built a governance, if you will, for our board over that year or two and I learned a tremendous amount about going onto a public board.
So from a not for profit board, if you follow me, to a private company board, to a public board is a great transition to make that move. Because it's a real important responsibility when you're on a public company board in terms of the fiduciary responsibility and the SEC requirements and regulations. Obviously, a private company board, you also have some fiduciary responsibility, but in that case the partners were the investors. In the case of a public company, the shareholders are who you work for. So it is real important that you have enough skill, knowledge, expertise to always act in the best interest of the shareholders.
That's how I got there, which was I think the best way to get there. And I got the opportunity to be on two boards starting in 2001, which was tremendous. Both small companies. HealthStream, which is a healthcare workforce credentialing business that works with all the hospitals and the healthcare professionals to help them provide more quality of care by giving the best development for themselves. It's an amazing company. Software as a service, we have many, many different courses that we provide. Again, have the same tremendous growth. But the company went public in 2000.
Then I was on the board at the time, of Pinnacle, excuse me, which was and certainly still is, a bank that has grown tremendously. It's one of the largest headquartered in Nashville today. I stayed on that board for a while and then had to jump off when I went to work for Dell. Then today, I'm on the bank board of Reliant Bank, which is another local community bank that's on its growth pattern.
I really enjoy going in and helping companies grow and it's certainly what I did in my business life at IBM and KPMG and Dell, if you follow trajectory. I came in and helped them build services companies and to scale as I would call an in-trapreneur, and then I was an entrepreneur as a CEO running a software company and built it up from scratch. Then I'm helping companies do that very same thing on a board. So when you go on a board they're looking for where your skills are going to add value. Where do you bring what you've done in your business life to help them? The nomination process is very much built around a skills assessment of the people on the board and then the skills requirements and then the ability to find the people that bring those skills to the table.
Sarah:
What would you say are some of the biggest challenges you've experienced on all of those different types of boards?
Linda Rebrovick:
Well, every decision I'd say, which is challenging but also opportunistic, is acquiring companies. I've had the chance to be involved in quite a bit of M&A. Personally, I spend a lot of time with the board trying to understand is this the best decision for the shareholders? Those are tough and yet at the end of the day, the timing is important. Not only is it a good idea and a good business decision to acquire a company, but it's also is this the right time for our company and the right time for their company? And do the cultures fit, not just will the business fit? But do our cultures fit? I think that, to me, again, turns out to be an exciting part of being on a board, but also a very challenging part about being on a board.
Currie:
It sounds pretty tough aligning the board and the company you're on the board for and the company you're acquiring. That sounds quite a task. Now, for the students who are recent grads or about to graduate from the Harbert College of Business, how would one get involved in a board or where would they maybe priority rank that as they are entering into their career?
Linda Rebrovick:
Yeah, I think that's why I was recommending you start with a not for profit board. Work your way into a private company, whatever size that is. Later, when you have time and be on that board. Then move your way into a public company board. But I think the best place to start is on a not for profit board. Find one you're passionate about, find one that has other executives on that board or other individuals on the board that you want to be around. That you want to learn from and that you want to work with. That's truly going to give you the best opportunity to start gaining board experience.
Again, there's a time. You've got a long lifetime to be on boards, so don't push yourself too fast. And they're hard to get on, quite frankly. It's very episodic, especially on a public company board and there are a lot of people that are candidates for those board positions. So the more you can start to experience and I would also say as you're on these not for profit boards, the best thing to do is get in a leadership role. Work your way up to being the chair of that board. Be the secretary, be the treasurer, head up a committee on the board. Try to show your leadership skills every step of the way and again, you will learn a tremendous amount being the chair of a not for profit board.
Sarah:
From a leadership skill standpoint or characteristics, what would you define as yours?
Linda Rebrovick:
My leadership skills are definitely relationship based. I get to know people really well, try hard to understand what motivates them. Again, it's very much built around how can I help you achieve your goals and at the same time the goals of the organization? But I want people to trust me, I want to always be truthful with them, I think respect and trust are so important. If they don't believe what I'm telling them, then they're certainly not going follow me. At the same time, I want to listen carefully and try to learn from them. I don't know everything. They're going to give me the best information about their area of expertise. Then work with them to come to an answer together.
Ultimately, certainly my decision is going to have to be made eventually, but I like to ensure that I have discussed and gained as much knowledge as I can from the people surrounding me. So relationships, trust, honesty and teamwork. Working together to solve problems and to make decisions. Again, try to enable the team to be successful. I mean, I look at my job as how do I get the things out of the way for them? How do I ensure that they are well represented?
There's two kinds of people, I guess, as you're going into your careers that I would say you want to think about. There are mentors, who are advisors. Those individuals will say, "Okay, I think you need to meet these people," and maybe make an introduction. But then they're off and gone to the next thing they're going to advise you on, like what you need to get involved in.
A sponsor is the other person. And the sponsor is someone who is going to not only say, "You need to meet these individuals," but the sponsor's going to then make sure you meet the people, follow up with the people you met with, talk with you about how the meeting went. Maybe even go to the first meeting with you and really guide you on a more comprehensive and proactive way as opposed to a mentor, who will give you advice.
This is real important that you have a sponsor sitting at the table. Which is, quite frankly, a lot of the reason that I wanted to be on boards, that I wanted to be in executive roles, because if you're sitting around those tables you can truly make an impact in the life of others. So people that I knew who I was always defending and presenting and selling for, if you will, sponsoring people that I knew had talent and to help them move up in their career. A sponsor does those things. They take on you and your career, where a mentor is a fabulous person, but they're really there just to give you advice versus owning your success.
So as you go out into any job you're in, always make sure you've got mentors, but also make sure you have a sponsor at the table.
Currie:
That's great advice. That's really great advice. When thinking about everything that you've accomplished, it is truly impressive. We are really curious though, what is next for you?
Linda Rebrovick:
As I said, I'm working on changing the world. A very, very huge goal. What is important to me is to continue to find ways that I can make the world a better place. There's several ideas that I have as I'm pursuing this fellowship at Harvard. At the same time, I'll get back to you on that once I decide what those are. I've got till the end of the year to work on that. But it is also real important to me to give back to everyone who's helped me and every organization that's helped me to be where I am. I include Auburn in that and that's why I'm excited you asked me to do this podcast. I want to give back to Auburn. Auburn did so much for me and I care so much about the school.
We started this meeting with War Eagle. I say that all the time and it's just a rallying cry for me. Auburn is family and even though I've been out of the school day to day for quite a long time, I try to get back as often as I can. I'm still very close to several people that I roomed with and others that were in my sorority and in organizations with me. I just remind people, as you're on your way up, don't forget the people that helped you get there. Always, always, always go back and give back and you will find that to be so rewarding and so important. I really am trying to do that.
I ran for mayor along the way. So I'm also very committed to the quality of life where I live and work. Nashville, as I said, has been my home. I'm a fifth generation, it's been home to my family for a long time. The most fantastic city. We have had tremendous success with incredible leaders. While I did not win the race, I have been able to meet incredible people through that process. I definitely learned a lot about myself in a different way through that process in terms of how politicians are good at what they do and it's a different world than the business world.
But the greatest thing is that I've continued to help the city in any way that I can through our transportation plan that was just published, worked on a smart city flood management project with the mayor and his team. Through the campaign, believe that I opened the city's eyes. Many people tell me that anyway. That I opened their eyes to what a smart city could be, which is a term for an innovative, high tech platform that enables people to enjoy, have access. It really does open the world. Well, we saw that with COVID. All the children needed laptops and they needed the internet to work in their home so that they could go to school. That's what a smart city provides. It provides infrastructure, it provides platforms, it provides access so that no one gets left behind. That's another thing that I continue to work on, is trying to be available for anything I can do to ensure that everyone in Nashville has the opportunity to be successful.
Sarah:
Linda, it's been a pleasure speaking with you today. How can our students keep in touch with you or keep in touch with your story and learn from you?
Linda Rebrovick:
I would love that. Thank you again, so, so much. You two are amazing. My email is L for Linda and then Rebrovick, my last name. I'll let you spell that for them, lrebrovick@gmail.com. Send me an email anytime. Come to Nashville, we have an Auburn Club here. Invite me down there, I'll come down there. Auburn's a very, very special place and enjoy it while you're there. It goes too fast. And War Eagle to all of you. This has been a pleasure for me too.
Currie:
Thank you so much, Linda.
Sarah:
War Eagle, Linda.
Currie:
War Eagle.
Narrator:
Harbert, Inspiring Business.