7 MORE Questions on Leadership with Jeff D. Standridge, Ed.D.
- ryogesh88
- May 6
- 4 min read
Name: Jeff D. Standridge, Ed.D.
Title: Managing Director
Organisation: Innovation Junkie
Dr. Jeff D. Standridge helps organizations and their leaders generate sustained results in the areas of innovation, strategy, profit growth, organizational transformation, and leadership. He works extensively with health care organizations, technology companies, and tech-enabled companies across all industries.
Formerly a Vice President for Acxiom Corporation (www.Acxiom.com), Jeff has led established and startup business units in North & South America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Jeff serves as Managing Director for the Conductor (www.ARConductor.org), as well as for Innovation Junkie (www.InnovationJunkie.com). He is a Co-founder and Managing Partner of Cadron Capital Partners (www.CadronCapital.com) and teaches in the College of Business at the University of Central Arkansas (www.UCA.edu). He is also retired from the U.S. Army and, Arkansas Army National Guard.
Dr. Standridge has been an invited speaker, trainer, and consultant for numerous companies, institutions, and organizations across five continents. He is also a best-selling author of three books, “The Innovator’s Field Guide: Accelerators for Entrepreneurs, Innovators & Change Agents,” and “The Top Performer’s Field Guide: Catalysts for Leaders, Innovators & All Who Aspire to Be,” and “Creating Startup Junkies: Building Sustainable Venture Ecosystems in Unexpected Places.”
Jeff holds the Doctor of Education with special work in Leadership and Organizational Behavior, and a Master's Degree from the University of Arkansas-Little Rock. He holds a bachelor's degree in Health Sciences from the University of Central Arkansas in Conway. In addition to his executive coaching and custom-tailored consulting, and CEO Advisory Services, he has received accolades for his world-class presentations, training programs, and workshops.
He and his wife, Lori, have two grown daughters and two granddaughters, and make their home in Conway, Arkansas.
Learn more about Jeff at:
Thank you to the 2,000 leaders who’ve generously done the 7 Questions on Leadership!
We’ve gone through the interviews and asked the best of the best to come back and answer 7 MORE Questions on Leadership.
I hope Jeff's answers will encourage you in your leadership journey. Enjoy!
Cheers,
Jonno White
1. As a leader, how do you build trust with employees, customers and other stakeholders?
I follow the adage ‘People follow people they know, like, and trust.” In my experience, people also BUY from people they know, like, and trust. So success, in both sales and leadership, is about being authentic, trustworthy, and likable. It’s also about going beyond the transaction to understanding the strength of building strong and enduring relationships.
2. What do 'VISION' and 'MISSION' mean to you? And what does it actually look like to use them in real-world business?
Mission addresses the “who,” “why,” and “what” questions about the organization - “Who are we?” “Why do we exist?” and “What do we do?”
Vision, on the other hand, addresses the “Where” and “When” questions - “Where are we going?” and “When will we arrive?” To be effective, a quality vision statement must be aspirational, inspirational, time-bound, and have absolute clarity.
3. How can a leader empower the people they're leading?
The word “empower” literally means to make someone stronger and more confident in dealing with the circumstances surrounding them. We empower people when we keep that definition in mind as we interact with those we lead. As we prepare for a difficult conversation, and after we have a difficult conversation, we should ask ourselves, “Does this person feel stronger and more confident because of our conversation?”
4. Who are some of the coaches or mentors in your life who have had a positive influence on your leadership? Can you please tell a meaningful story about one of them?
Early in my career, my leader (Holly) confessed in a team meeting where we were discussing the struggles of a particular project. She spoke up and said, “That was a leadership failure on my part. I let you all down. That won’t happen again.” Never had I witnessed such vulnerability and strength together at the same time.
Another leader (Cindy) was very good about “putting a mirror in front of me” to enable me to process my interactions with others after the fact.
5. Leadership is often more about what you DON'T do. How do you maintain focus in your role?
Every once in a while, divide the annual revenue of the organization by 2,000 (the rough number of working hours in a year) to understand what an hour of my time is worth it the Company.
I think track my time in 30-minute increments for approximately two weeks to identify the tasks that could be performed more economically by someone else.
6. If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Everyone plans differently. How do you plan for the week, month and years ahead in your role?
I have developed a Strategic Growth System (SGS) that maintains a view of 3 Years, One Year, Quarterly, and Weekly at any given time. This SGS is what keeps us (and our Clients) on track strategically, tactically, Operationally, and culturally from day to day, week to week, quarter to quarter, and year to year.
7. What advice would you give to a young leader who is struggling to delegate effectively?
Understand the “Founder’s Curse.” This principle says that “The value of your company is inversely proportional to its dependence on you.”
In addition, the Law of Compensation and Service says that “your compensation is directly proportional to the number of people you serve and the value with which you serve them.”
Understanding these two principles in tandem gives us the motivation to figure out how to properly delegate.
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