Neil Khaund Of National Society of Leadership and Success: Five Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Leader During Turbulent Times
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Embrace change. It’s one of the great human frailties — we don’t like change. The irony is that oftentimes, change brings about greater happiness and greater success. You need to change to keep growing.
As part of our series about the “Five Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Leader During Turbulent Times”, we had the pleasure of interviewing Neil Khaund.
Neil Khaund is the President and CEO of The National Society of Leadership and Success (NSLS), the largest accredited leadership honor society in the United States. With more than a decade of private sector education and organizational growth experience, Khaund currently leads the organization through its new phase of international growth.
Throughout his career, Khaund has been passionate about democratizing education and improving the online learning experience. His work has encompassed SAT prep, corporate training programs, and everything in between.
As CEO of Livius Prep, one of the nation’s leading providers of college preparation programs, he transformed the company into a high-growth, online education services provider serving students and schools around the country. Later, Khaund launched and operated a number of high-growth businesses, including Kennedy International Education, an international online education firm that provides U.S. college certificate programs to B2B customers throughout Latin America.
A pioneer in creating new educational curricula, Khaund spearheads sector efforts that drive real educational results for students across demographics.
Thank you so much for your time! I know that you are a very busy person. Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?
I actually started out in financial services. I graduated from the University of Michigan right when the dot-com bubble burst, so I had to start out in commission-based financial sales. In retrospect, it was the best learning experience I could have received coming out of college. It not only forced me to develop a sense of resiliency but also taught me people skills that have helped me throughout my entire career regardless of if I was actually in an internal strategy role or a CEO in the education industry. Anytime I have the opportunity to speak with students, I always advise that they build those selling skills as soon as possible. You’d be surprised how useful those skills are regardless of your career trajectory.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘take aways’ you learned from that?
I am not sure if it’s funny, but it was definitely a moment I’ll always remember. Early on in my management career, I was managing a group of sales reps and I brought them in for a strategy session. At the time, I hadn’t been given much management training, so I thought my main responsibility was to be the smartest person in the room to drive us to the promised land.
I spent weeks developing a strategy for driving sales I thought was so brilliant I was sure my team would be thinking, “Wow, I am so lucky to be working with him!” The reaction I got was anything but. I got questions, concerned looks, and constant doubts. As a young manager I did not respond well and took offense. I remember a rep of mine during our break asking “Hey Neil, are you OK?”
As a leader, our job isn’t to be the smartest person in the room. Our job is so much simpler and, candidly, more enjoyable. It’s to get the best out of everyone in that room. Rather than spending weeks preparing some secret strategy to unveil, I should have been meeting with my team, gathering their insights and feedback toward a shared vision, and then when we come together, we are focused more on how we execute vs. unveiling some approach no one understands.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?
My father is a true immigrant success story in that he came from India to North America in the early 1970s with $7 in his pocket and worked nights as a bellboy while he finished his master’s in engineering. He built a great career for himself and retired leading R&D for one of the world’s largest manufactures.
Growing up, he was always very tough in terms of always challenging me to study more, read more, and build something for myself. The expression among many of the kids from our Indian community would say it was like “perform or die.” I promise it wasn’t that serious, but the pressure was certainly there. It wasn’t until his retirement ceremony that I understood why. At his retirement, people from around the world showed up to tell stories of how he spent years motivating and challenging each of them to aspire for more. I was blown away hearing their anecdotes and then realized that this was his form of leadership. Some folks take more of a motivating coaching role and some know exactly what it takes to get the most out of you. I like to think my dad knew exactly what buttons to press as he did with so many of his colleagues.
Extensive research suggests that “purpose driven businesses” are more successful in many areas. When your company started, what was its vision, what was its purpose?
The NSLS is coming up on its 20-year anniversary, and our founder has been extremely mission driven since day one — always focusing on how we can help the greatest number of people in the greatest way. Today, we see our focus on driving a positive impact in the community and in the world by helping build tomorrow’s leaders. We see it as not just an opportunity but a responsibility.
Thank you for all that. Let’s now turn to the main focus of our discussion. Can you share with our readers a story from your own experience about how you lead your team during uncertain or difficult times?
A few years ago, I was running a center-based college prep business with locations around the United States. When COVID-19 hit, we were forced to transform our business to being a 100% in-person service to an online tutoring company. The challenge wasn’t necessarily the conversion to an online-driven business but building a marketplace in a very crowded online tutoring market. We found a marketing strategy to differentiate ourselves using a live-online freemium option that not only saved our business and the jobs of about 100 staff but also was a growth vector that had higher margins and unlimited scalability.
What to take from this is not that we are amazing marketers or somehow discovered a secret strategy. Something I have always focused on with my teams is for everyone to develop a growth mindset. While some folks may think a growth mindset is purely focused on driving sales or profits, I have always looked at it differently. A growth mindset is instilling in your team to always be reaching a bit further than what is needed. It’s stretching your individual skill set and knowledge into areas that you may not know, but over time you will continue to build confidence and personally grow from. I think my teams have always had this focus, so if or when a crisis occurs, we are prepared to adapt and move quickly because we can have confidence we can thrive in the unknown.
Did you ever consider giving up? Where did you get the motivation to continue through your challenges? What sustains your drive?
Not even for a second. The question was never whether or not we can make it to the other side of the pandemic — it was just a matter of how. When you instill a growth mindset in your entire team, you never know where the idea will come from but you can be assured that people are thinking about things differently than the normal course of business. This is what motivates me to this day. There is nothing better than working with a team member who has been a bit heads down and getting them to think outside of the box and find a new gear they didn’t know they have. Because guess what? We all have it.
What would you say is the most critical role of a leader during challenging times?
I believe it’s essential for leaders to be as steady a presence as possible. During challenging times, the status quo is disrupted and people are searching for something solid to latch on to. Leaders need to be the calm voice that people can look to for guidance and direction.
Many leaders think this means being cold and stoic, but it’s really about being faithful to whatever cause your organization champions and to your employees’ work. Being steadfast for your team isn’t about pretending that everything is okay and not showing your emotions. It’s about being honest with yourself and others while letting them know that you are there for them, are aware of their needs, and are willing to grow and work right alongside them to get to the other side.
When the future seems so uncertain, what is the best way to boost morale? What can a leader do to inspire, motivate and engage their team?
Boosting morale begins when things are steady and successful. Even when you’re doing well, in the background, you should be taking steps to make your organization resilient to market and economic changes. That way, when uncertainty does disrupt your day-to-day, your team’s confidence is already high — and becomes even higher when they hear you say that you have prepared for such moments. The root of motivation and engagement is support — letting your team know you are prepared and basing your corporate infrastructure on actively showing support keeps employees inspired to do their best work.
What is the best way to communicate difficult news to one’s team and customers?
We never know everything that the people around us are going through. These days are especially complicated and challenging for many. Given the flux of our economy, bad news such as layoffs or pay cuts are unavoidable. If addressing a group of people, I suggest scheduling a meeting for the end of the day so they can decompress from bad news after work. Approach customers tactfully and request a time to speak with them at their convenience. Try to handle matters as delicately but as professionally as possible.
How can a leader make plans when the future is so unpredictable?
If there’s anything the past few years have taught us, it’s that we should always expect change. But this shouldn’t stop us from setting goals. Leaders should set multifaceted goals that take unpredictability into account. In the past, growth and security have often been separate objectives, but today they’re largely linked. Organizations that don’t pivot and adapt to change quickly are more at risk. Continue to set concrete, measurable goals, but understand that everything is in flux, and simply changing focus and moving in a different direction can be success.
Is there a “number one principle” that can help guide a company through the ups and downs of turbulent times?
Having a strong mission and set of values is key to navigating turbulence. Strong values can give organizations parameters to follow in the event of an unexpected catastrophe. And they can even help define success in events where traditional goals and KPIs have to be thrown out the window.
Can you share 3 or 4 of the most common mistakes you have seen other businesses make during difficult times? What should one keep in mind to avoid that?
- I like thinking about good profits vs. bad profits. Bad profits are things like service and penalty fees that do nothing to inspire promoters of your business. When you focus on good profits, you focus on building products and services that enrich lives vs. detracting them. This type of focus will help keep momentum in good times and bad.
- They de-emphasize employee development. Learning and development is often the first line item on the budget to get crossed off. We are living in a different talent market for the foreseeable future and investing in your employee’s development is key to not only retaining talent when times get tough but also attracting the folks who can propel your group forward.
- Find a way to be listening at all levels within the company. Many organizations tend to lean on their management teams when it’s those employees who are closest to the customer who are the ones with the greatest insight. Find a way to ensure you have a finger on the pulse and ear close to the ground for the anecdotes that can have a transformative impact on your trajectory.
- Be resilient. I know that’s easy to say but when times are tough, you as the leader need to be the one keeping the team calm and focused. As soon as your team sees you losing your edge during the tough times, guess what? You aren’t the leader anymore.
Generating new business, increasing your profits, or at least maintaining your financial stability can be challenging during good times, even more so during turbulent times. Can you share some of the strategies you use to keep forging ahead and not lose growth traction during a difficult economy?
I think as a leader you have two hats you need to be wearing. The first hat is a familiar one that is focused on making success formulaic. Once you’ve identified your strategy, vision, and differentiation, build a highly achievable three-year plan and stick to it. Work with your team to build quarterly goals that will make progress toward that three-year plan.
On the flip side, as the leader you also need to be the one in the bird’s nest looking not only for troublesome icebergs but also for opportunities to accelerate even faster toward your goals. Regardless of what’s happening in the economy, you need to be the one ensuring the plan’s success is on track.
Here is the primary question of our discussion. Based on your experience and success, what are the five most important things a business leader should do to lead effectively during uncertain and turbulent times? Please share a story or an example for each.
1. Resilient. The second your team sees your concern, during turbulent times you aren’t the leader anymore. During the height of COVID-19, there were times we had a tough time making payroll, but I wanted my team focused on innovating and executing. In some cases, you can share some vulnerabilities but keep your team focused and moving forward.
2. People first. The Great Resignation will lead to the undoing of many organizations. Great companies are built from great talent and that comes from not only attracting talent but also developing the talent you have. No matter the organization this is my focus, and it has served me well.
3. Celebrate the wins. One of my favorite examples was from a company I worked with that announced every single new sales meeting booked department-wide. While the email inbox was flooded, every rep was motivated to be recognized. We all think it’s about the commission, but taking the time to recognize people can be a long-term motivator.
4. Growth Mindset. As I mentioned earlier, if you are not finding your employees opportunities to stretch beyond their capacities, then you are not helping them grow. Helping them grow is the focus that can help organizations survive during the turbulent times and thrive during the good times.
5. Embrace change. It’s one of the great human frailties — we don’t like change. The irony is that oftentimes, change brings about greater happiness and greater success. You need to change to keep growing.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“Behind every great player is a great coach who believed in them more than themselves.”
This quote is how I manage on a daily basis. Your organization is not going anywhere unless you’re investing in your people and their development. Most people need someone to believe in them, and it’s something I think about with every employee I have ever interacted with. To me, it’s not only a way to protect our organization during tough times, but most often, it’ll end up being your best growth strategy.
How can our readers further follow your work?
You can follow the NSLS on Twitter and Instagram at @TheNSLS, on Facebook at facebook.com/theNSLS. And of course, our website is www.NSLS.org.
Thank you so much for sharing these important insights. We wish you continued success and good health!
Neil Khaund Of National Society of Leadership and Success: Five Things You Need To Be A Highly… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
