Joya is currently enrolling members for international (Europe) and domestic (NYC) strategy days. She also leads a year-long intensive mastermind of C-Suite level women, which is accepting applications for 2024.
https://www.joyadass.com/
info@joyadass.com
Joya is currently enrolling members for international (Europe) and domestic (NYC) strategy days. She also leads a year-long intensive mastermind of C-Suite level women, which is accepting applications for 2024.
https://www.joyadass.com/
info@joyadass.com
Yeah, that requires a lot of self-leadership we, when we think about leadership and what the modern leader does, we think about people who have teams that report into them. It makes me think about self-leadership. Wow. Self-leadership, uh, you know, at times I will be the first to tell you there were, uh, occasions where all you had was yourself to, uh, lead. I grew up in chaos, joy. I'll touch it a little bit more. Uh, ladies, just so you understand. Yes, my dad was a drug dealer, but uh, more importantly, my, my, my father was a pimp, my, my in, in the 1970s, my dad was a real life pimp. He put women on the street corner, they sold their bodies. He took every dollar. Um, obviously my mother was one of his prostitutes. My dad's black, my mom is white. Um, so as a kid, yeah. And, and, and, you know, looking at the self-leadership, I didn't have a place where I fit in, you know, black people didn't like me because I was half white, white people didn't like me because I was half black. So you were left to self lead at times. And it really life came down to the decisions are, you know, the only options I had was rapper, athlete, drug dealer, and where I was growing up. And I say, Uh, with all truth, but also funny, I sucked it all three, so I had a different avenue. Um, part of that self leadership was learning just in the chaos that, that you're in it. It was one of the best educations I could ever ask for. I would not change the way I grew up, uh, from being sexually molested by one of my dad's prostitutes, uh, ages six, seven, and eight years old. One of the most direct leadership, influential things that happened to me. And the third time I was coming out of, uh, the juvenile justice system, it said another way, juvenile prison. Cause it is prison for kids is the corrections officer got down on one knee, huge guy. And he looked me in my eye and he said, Hey, if you come back here again, you're going to man prison. And I don't know what, I I'll be 50 this Saturday and I don't know what it is about the sound of man prison, but I didn't want anything to do with it. And so I still don't want anything to do with something called man prison. And that was one of those deciding factors where I had to say to myself, okay, are you going to come back here again? Or are you going to make different decisions, different choices. And it was in that moment, I made the choice. I said, okay, never coming back here again. I definitely not going to man prison. You began by scrubbing toilets and then you became, and then, you know, I'm skipping many, many, many steps, but then you became president of a software company for those that are just wondering what that trajectory looks like. What would you say was the key thing? What was your guiding North Star? Uh, you know, uh, never giving up, um, but you know, Joya, uh, you know, this, I only have a GED, I don't have a college degree. Um, so, so I, I make the joke, but I do mean it long before I became a CEO. I tell people all the time, I already had three letters after my name, GED CEO didn't change me as a person you just gave me three different letters, but when I was cleaning toilets, I just made the choice. Again, life comes down to choices that, okay, if this is my job, this is my career, I'm going to have the cleanest toilets in all of Texas and everything I did from that moment was a choice. I was going to be the best at it. I was going to be on time. I was going to be in early. I was going to do everything I could. And I was going to ask questions if you told, if you told me no, no, just meant not right now, but I, I never...a ton was self-belief because I didn't have anybody else that believed in me. No one else ever said they were proud. No one else, uh, told me I was smart and I didn't blame anybody. I don't blame my parents for what I came into. I just knew, I had to believe in myself. You've written a book about modern leadership and that's the topic today? Why don't we start with where, what modern leadership is not. Wow. Um, what, it's not, it's not the new hotness of an app. It's not, um, you know, right now you have, and I so appreciate, uh, I believe Michelle, uh, the, the title you, you, you gave it, you read off for her. Um, I find it interesting how many people. Uh, are going down the diversity path at this point and they feel because they started using pronouns at the office because they hired a chief diversity officer because they hired a few minority candidates. Now, all of a sudden they, they they've, they've checked the boxes and they are D and I in, so, and, and I find that to be such, excuse my language, bullshit. Um, so it's, it's not just this speed. It's what do you do? On a daily basis, everyone's out there preaching about what they're doing to attract talent. Here's what we're doing. Okay. Well, what are you doing when they're there? How are you treating them? Once they're in the door? How are you listening, learning, seeking to understand the experiences of what they've gone through. Uh, I'm on a tangent, right, right now. But give, give me, give me this one for one second. So I'll, I'll share this with you all. When I first started my career in my early twenties. When I finally got tired of cleaning toilets, I was trying to get on people's calendars and, you know, trying to land a, an appointment could not do it. And one gentleman finally picked up the phone one day and said, Hey, how did you get a black first name, Javan and an Irish last name McCormick. What jumped out to me was not the fact that he said black first name, was I didn't know my last name was Irish. My mom got the last name in, in the orphanage, and we have no clue where this name comes from. I still have this name. I have no clue where it comes from. So I was so excited to find out my last name was Irish, but when I hung up the phone, I realized, oh, I'm being judged before he ever get in the door. So my full name is Javan Thomas. I changed my name to JT McCormick in the following week, my calendar lit up and I had appointments on appointments on appointments and from the age early twenties, and like I said, I'll be 50 on Saturday. Uh, I was going by JT McCormick. What's important about this is back during the George Floyd murder. I was watching what was going on in our country and all the virtue signaling that that was happening, you know, blackout Tuesday on social media, we were arguing over a syrup bottle and I heard you serious. What's that doing for us? But one thing jumped out to me. I read a piece that said that there were only four fortune 500 black CEOs in America, three I'm sorry. And I said, oh really? And so I went and looked, Kenneth Frazier, Marvin Ellison, Roger Ferguson. And as a bonus, the wealthiest black man in America is named Robert Smith. So, so four ethnic-free names, if you will, and it hit me, I thought to myself, well, okay, I'm not a fortune 500 CEO. But I, I made it to the chair. I've worked hard and I made the decision right there. I said, you know what, I'm going to start going by Javan McCormick. And the reason why I did that, wasn't for me, I made my careers, JT McCormick. I actually did it for all of the Martaviouses, the Laquandas, the Rayvontase, all those people. Who've been trying to get an interview, but can't get in the door because you see their name and they're immediately dismissed and they can't even get an interview. And I did it for them because. I had the belief that one day you'll be able to work with Javans and not just JTs. And so that became very important to me to really reclaim my name and show, hey, there's, there's a Javan McCormick in here too. So, and plus I haven't found another Javan CEO, so there you go. And you also say that modern leaders aren't created by using the latest technology. No now it's, um, you can have all the technology in the world. We've seen this Zoom, Slack, everything, it's humans, it's human connection. Uh, you know, for me, one of my favorite things right now is, is I tell people, um, I know what it's like to not be accepted. So, so for me, it's very important in our organization that. I don't care who you voted for. I don't care how you identify, what your race is, what your religion, everyone here knows. I at our company knows I'm a God guy. They know my kids go to private Christian school, but what they're blown away by is that, uh, our director of books who arguably runs the largest division in the company, Uh, she's gay and she does not believe in God. And people are shocked when I say to them, but you know what? God forbid, she got in the car accident and became paralyzed. I'd be the first person there picking her up, excuse my language, wiping her butt, um, brushing her teeth, reading her story, and people are blown away by that. And I said, you know what? Because, um, the commandments said, love thy neighbor. And that's the important, the most important commandment. It didn't say love thy neighbor, but not if they're gay, love that neighbor, but not if they're mixed race, love thy neighbor, but not if they're transgender. So I, we, we have created a culture of truly accepting people for who they are. What their beliefs are, what their values are. Um, and you can't do that through technology. You have to listen, learn, seek to understand what do people go through, uh, how are they identifying? Um, use pronouns? Great. Tell me what they are. Um, and, and that's just my, it's a benefit of growing up the way I did not being accepted that I refuse to have an organization that we don't accept people, all people for who they are. And the final point that you have that modern leaders are not created by leveraging the latest cutting edge leadership or management strategies. Um, I love the magazine, um, HBR, but so many people want to use HBR as the gospel. And I always HBR said it. So we got to do it. Um, I bring it back down to, to human connection again, if you don't sit with the people that you serve, even this, um, my role as CEO is to serve and support the organization. I mean, if we're really technical as a CEO, you don't actually do the work. Your role is to serve and support the organization. Yeah. You make some decisions. Yeah. You set some direction. If done correctly, you even take responsibility when things go wrong, but you don't actually execute on the day to day. The people who work with you execute on the day to day. So. There's so much written about leadership, but again, in my opinion, it comes down to the people that you serve in our organization if you are in a leadership position, you are called a direct support. Not, you don't have direct reports. You are a direct support because all your role is as a leader is to support those individuals that you serve. That's it. So, um, love HBR love a lot of the articles love a lot of the books on leadership, but we've got leaders in a little too high on a pedestal. When the fact of the matter is the people are the ones executing, uh, on the work. Enjoy the last thing I'll say to this, I was just on a call before this and I said to a gentleman. We all have heard when it comes to home buying it's a sellers market or it's a buyer's market. I would say right now, in my opinion, for one of the first times, at least since my business career, it's finally a people market when it comes to business, corporate America, and if you aren't figuring out how you're going to serve those people, you're going to be left behind. I want to pivot to your list of what modern leaders do. And they are, and you already touched on this. See what's possible. You know, a good, quick story. If you haven't figured I'm kind of a, a story guy. Um, my dad, when I was a kid, I was nine years old and I grew up in public housing, uh, welfare, I've eaten out of trash cans. Um, and my dad was driving me through, uh, River Oaks in Houston, Texas. Uh, one of the most exclusive neighborhoods in the country. And I saw 10, 15, 20$5 million homes. And it was the first time I had ever saw homes that big, that one family lived in. What he showed me was possibility. And for me in my role is what can be possible. Yeah. We, it, it's easy. We're quick to tell you, what's not possible. We're quick to tell you what you can't do, but people don't want to see what's possible people, you know, they're, they'll critique the hell out of our culture and tell us that we're not capable of this or capable of that. But here we are, we continue to grow. I am. I want to hear. What you feel is not possible, but I'm going to focus on what's possible. And when I look at my background and where I am today, Yeah, there's a whole lot possible if I'm sitting here right now on this call. But there's many steps between showing telling an execution. So how do you enable what's possible as a modern leader? Um, you, you nailed it. It it's, um, it's showing and telling, we live in a society where we're quick to tell someone what to do and education is the key. Um, I find it to be a travesty that 40% of all graduating high school students in America, I don't care where you fall on the economic ladder. Low-income, uh, wealthy 40% of all graduating students, factual statistic, will not go to college, but we send you out into society. Until you all the best, make the most of it be productive. We didn't teach you how to shake a hand. We didn't teach you punctuality. We didn't teach you high interest loans. And, we didn't even teach you that. Hey, you can become a pharmaceutical rep. Here's how, so it's not just telling that's the problem. We're always pointing the finger, telling somebody, pull yourself up by the bootstraps. Well, hell show me how so. So here it's it's with us. Let me show you what's possible, let me show you how you can attain it. And then I'm going to tell you how you can go about doing it. And so it's, it's a combination of those, those two things. Uh, the, the last piece on this Joya, I always go back to taking it to school because kids don't have a choice. No one asks to be born into this world. You just showed up and this is what you got. Um, but we always say education is the key and people are on step two. Because education is step two. What's step one, showing up with the tools when I was a kid and the teacher said, who needs a piece of paper? I raised my hand because I didn't have paper who needs a pencil. Me, I need that too. I didn't have the supplies. So how am I supposed to get an education when I don't even have the tools to get the education? So we're, we're, we're so busy, always telling that we don't sit back and take time to think about what do I need to show first before I start telling. The modern leader also requires you to open your eyes, your words, what does that mean? Um, you know, we touched on it earlier with the, the names. You know, you, you, you interview someone and I'll say this to all of you, please, please share with your, your hiring, uh, folks in your organizations. Even if you don't hire the individuals. If you see a name Martavious, Laquanda an ethnic name. If you will, God give them an interview. These folks aren't even getting interviewed. They can't get in the door because their name is they're being judged before they can even get in the door, open your eyes here. Think, think about this for a second. If you went to Harvard for your undergrad, you got your master's at Harvard, and let's even say you got your MD from Harvard, but at the top of your resume, it says Rayvonte Jenkins. Somebody may not even make it down to see your credentials that you went to Harvard and they'll just kick your resume to the side. And I say that because people do need to open their eyes and realize that's still happening. That's, that's a very real thing I can firsthand tell you. That's a very real thing. So if you see your resume, give them an opportunity, just give them a, an interview so they can practice so they can get a rep. I'm not saying hire them. Give them a shot. So open your eyes to what's actually happening in the world and the people who are being left out and can't get in the door. That's the whole thing. Can I get in the door? If I, if I even fail at this interview, at least I can learn for my next one. So that dovetails into your next point, which is to open your doors. That's what a modern leader does. Yes. Um, you know, I, again, I always start with the kids. Um, when I was at the software company, I was president of a software company. I was mentoring high-risk youth, coming, transitioning back into the juvenile system. And I shared this one particular story because it's so powerful. Um, so these kids were transferring back into society. So I arranged for the state of Texas to allow these kids to come, to take a tour of the software company, because I realized just like me, I didn't know the big house existed. These kids also had never seen a software company. These kids get to our office. Some of them have never been on an elevator. Some of them, one of the highlights for them like, oh my God, you guys have beautiful, uh, wood doors on the restrooms, the restrooms. They did not know what was possible. So we walked them around. We showed them all the double monitors, the screens code on the white boards. So they got to see what was possible. Um, fast forward. One of those kids ended up getting back into society. Graduated high school. I got to speak at his high school graduation. He got into community college. Then he got into a four year college. He got a computer science degree. That kid right now makes 150 grand. It has 50 grand in his 401k that he is so proud, proud of. And it came because that kid got to tour a software company. So when I say open your doors, sometimes people just need to see what's possible. If I, how am I supposed to become something when I don't even know what what's possible? Um, Joya, if you would allow me to, to give me a, uh, a one minute tangent here, um, I gave you all a little bit of my background of how I grew up in, and a lot of people. Don't like this example, but I'm gonna, I gotta put it out there. Um, every drug dealer knows the first rule is the first sample is free. Why, because they know you're going to get hooked on the product and they know you're going to come back. So all the kids, people, whoever on these corner of the street corners, hustling drugs each day, they're giving away the first sample for free. Now imagine if I went and told one of these kids, hey, you could make six figures a year giving out free samples. We're going to give you a company car, a credit card with an expense account, we're going to pay you six figures. And at the end of the year, if you're really good, you're going to get a big bonus. And we're going to give you an award. These kids will look at you. Like, what did I say? Yeah, it's called a pharmaceutical rep. What a pharmaceutical reps do for a living. They pass out free samples. And when I give that example, so many people are fitting well. Yeah, but that's a different, no, it's not. It's passing out free samples. And, and I say that because again, these kids don't even know what's possible. They don't even know that's an opportunity for them out there that wait a minute, I can become a pharmaceutical rep? So, uh, again, it's showing people what's possible. It's not always just telling somebody. And your final point is open a backpack. What does that mean as a modern leader? Um, it goes into what I said, you know, I I'll never forget third grade Mrs. class. Um, I was bussed to the suburbs to, you know, I was part of the, the bus the poor kids out to the suburbs to the good school. Uh, I got the. I get what they were trying to do, put us in a better educational possibility, but what they forgot was you're sending this out to suburban schools where all these kids have everything. These kids get to eat lunch each day, and I'll never forget. I was sitting next to this kid. And I didn't have any supplies. This kid's got the Spiderman backpack. The Spiderman pencil. The Spiderman folder. I thought, hell, I thought this kid was Spiderman. I was just waiting, waiting for the webs to come out. And, and so, uh, I'll never forget that. I just didn't have the supplies I wanted to be good. I wanted to succeed. It was so bad that when I was 15 years old and I got reunited with my mother in Texas, they have me tested and I was only testing on a fifth, fifth grade level. As far as reading, uh, to this day last night, my daughter needed to spell the Egyptian. I couldn't spell it. I didn't know how that happened last night. It just made me think about it right now. Um, and it all came by way of, I didn't have the tools. So what we do here is we find, and this is all public knowledge. If you go online, Every school who receives free lunch, it tells you the percentage at the school. So I look for the school who has the highest percentage. Some of these schools are at 99% free lunch. And I looked for elementary schools and then I get their backpack list. It of all the supplies that are supposed to be in there. And I go in, I find out how many students are at the school. I call the principal and I buy the complete backpack list for every kid in the school, uh, supplies full. Here's why it's important. Especially for companies a school of about 450 students, elementary school students, it cost about$18,000 to, to pull that off. Don't get me wrong. I get$18,000 is not, not a lot, but then again, when we're talking companies, corporations,$18,000, hell the people that have double that in coffee budgets. And so if you could pull off providing backpacks and school supplies for an entire elementary school. At least these kids have a start. They have a chance. I had the tools to get the education. Everyone's yelling at me to get an education. I don't even have the tools. So that's why I say open the backpack.