Anne Chow is on the rise. And for good reasons.
Don’t recognize the name immediately? You will soon.
Anne is a 30-year associate with AT&T and this year was named as CEO of AT&T Business, a $35B+ (yes billion) division of AT&T. If this were a stand-alone company, it would be a Fortune 100. She is also the only female to hold that role and the first women of color CEO in AT&T’s 140+ year history. Nicely done Anne.
I know Anne as a member of FranklinCovey’s board of directors, and in a few months, you’ll likely come to know her as a bestselling author as she launches FranklinCovey’s next big book, A Leaders Guide to Unconscious Bias: How To Reframe Bias, Cultivate Connection, and Create High-Performing Teams. Incidentally, today it’s #1 on Amazon in numerous categories and launches November 10th, 2020.
Over the past year, I’ve worked closely with Anne as one of the three authors of this book and something she’s repeated over the course of many phone calls has stayed with me. Before I share it, let me tell you a bit more about Anne. She was educated as an electrical engineer. That impresses me mainly because I can barely find the circuit breakers in my home, let alone even understand the concept behind electricity. I’m one of the billions of people who will go to their grave never truly understanding how car engines work, coding, cloud technology, or sadly, how electricity works.
Somehow, when I turn the key each morning, the car moves forward, and when I flip the switch the lights and heat turn on. Shameful, I know – just being honest people.
Anne is also an accomplished, Juilliard trained pianist, earned a master’s degree in both business and engineering, serves on so many social and philanthropic boards I’ve lost track, and with her husband launched two daughters safely into college this fall. Next, I’ll learn she’s a scratch golfer.
I’m both exhausted and emasculated. Not by her, by myself.
Anne’s the real deal. Fast. Funny. Sharp. Punctual. Concise. Relatable. Wise. Inspiring. Hard-working. Friendly.
But most of all, she’s willing to admit, readily and publicly, when she needs to learn. Learn something from someone else who may know more than she does.
The phrase Anne repeated to me countless times over the course of both authoring and launching this new book was “Tell me about that, I don’t know about that.”
I’ve met too many people that have unrivaled educational pedigrees, resumes, and vitaes that are pages long. They believe they are experts on everything, and thus consequently so does everyone else. Candidly, in the words of Liz Wiseman, author of the bestseller, Multipliers, they’re diminishers and it’s impossible to feel smart around them.
They can’t fathom the idea that someone else might know something they don’t.
Quit them and find a leader like Anne.
And while you’re searching, be sure to integrate Anne’s mindset into your own. Nobody can be an expert on everything. Especially those who believe they are.
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