Beyond the Fenceline: The Mindset of the Next Generation Executive

Scott Lindahl, VP Corporate Services & Chief Security Officer, at Kellogg Company sat down with me in a great conversation around his journey that led him to begin using this language and adopting the behavior of a corporate leader.

Scott’s journey entailed working in manufacturing, retail, financial services as well as a small security services firm. Along the way he studied how salespeople interacted with clients. And he found the best ones had a way of creating a conversation through the power of great questions.

He adopted this as his career matured and, as a result, began to learn not only the business but also the personal and professional drivers of his corporate customers. This approach became the framework that guided his own behavior and those that worked under him. He would call this “freedom within a framework”

With this basic understanding of his journey, we then began to talk about the future. Leaders in every part of an organization are dealing with the same macro and micro issues. The speed of change is accelerating and impacting the way we get things done. Technology, in many cases, is acting as the lever. Scott believes that one of the keys is how to see the whole picture. This will naturally lead us to better ways of gathering and harnessing information that is critical to our organization’s risk and opportunity.

If CSO’s do this well, they can help the CEO and their executive team navigate the road ahead.

Enjoy the conversation.