Featured Guest: Dr. Fred Petito, Executive Coach & Leadership Strategist
In this compelling episode of Leadership Talks, hosted by Martin Rowinski, CEO and co-founder of Boardsi, listeners are invited to explore the profound insights and experiences of Dr. Fred Petito. Known for his strategic prowess and deep commitment to cultivating leadership excellence, Dr. Petito shares his transformative journey from practicing law to becoming an influential figure in executive coaching and leadership development.
Episode Overview:
This episode delves into the heart of what it means to be a leader in the modern corporate world. Dr. Petito discusses the critical importance of personal transformation, the value of diversity in the boardroom, and the essential principles of adaptive leadership. Through his narrative, listeners will discover the power of authenticity, curiosity, and a steadfast dedication to personal and professional growth.
Dr. Petito’s story is more than just a career trajectory; it’s a testament to the impact that thoughtful, informed leadership can have on organizations and individuals alike. The conversation touches on pivotal topics such as:
- The role of ethics and compliance in maintaining organizational integrity.
- Strategies for risk management and strategic planning in uncertain times.
- The significance of financial management in upholding governance standards.
- The crucial nature of communication and transparency in building trust.
- How leadership and culture influence governance and organizational success.
Why Listen:
Whether you are an aspiring leader seeking direction or an established executive aiming to refine your approach, this episode offers invaluable wisdom and actionable advice. Discover how embracing diversity, fostering open communication, and leading with integrity can not only transform your leadership style but also propel your organization towards sustained success.
Join us on this enlightening journey with Dr. Fred Petito, as we unpack the essentials of effective leadership and the impact it has on fostering innovative, resilient, and inclusive corporate cultures.
#LeadershipTalks #ExecutiveCoaching #AdaptiveLeadership #BoardroomDiversity #PersonalTransformation #StrategicGrowth #LeadershipDevelopment #InspirationalLeaders #CareerTransformation #InnovativeLeadership
Dive into this episode of Leadership Talks for a deep dive into the dynamics of leadership that drives change, fosters diversity, and cultivates success in today’s fast-paced business environment.
Transcript:
Martin Rowinski (00:02.059)
Welcome to Leadership Talks. I’m your host, Martin Rowinski CEO and co-founder of Boardsi In this episode, I’m excited to welcome Dr. Fred Petito. Fred’s strategic leadership has accelerated growth strategies for early stage companies and those in private equity and VC portfolios. Beyond his roles in marketing, Fred is also a certified executive and leadership coach.
where he empowers executives to cultivate success, driving mindsets and strategies. Join us as we explore Fred’s journey, his approach to leadership, and his insights on personal transformation for executive growth. Fred, welcome to the show.
Fred Petito (00:46.584)
Thanks, Martin.
Martin Rowinski (00:47.911)
Should I call you Dr. Fred or is Fred okay?
Fred Petito (00:50.802)
I think Fred is sufficient. Thank you. I’ll start blushing. I’ll start blushing if you keep on calling me, Dr. Fred.
Martin Rowinski (00:55.283)
Awesome.
Martin Rowinski (00:58.764)
That’s okay. So Fred, can you share with us your professional journey to becoming an executive coach?
Fred Petito (01:07.37)
Yeah, absolutely. So I’ve had quite a varied journey. I started actually as an attorney. I practiced law in New York for three years. Did some litigation, commercial litigation, a little bit of corporate type work. Then in the late 90s, I actually got involved with one of the high flying digital IPO startups that was in the consulting space. I think they call it a…
a poof IPO, eight companies came together, they all kind of combined their different offerings like some McKinsey type folks and Anderson Consulting folks and some communications advertising people. They went public and then within a couple of years, it was all gone. So I kind of got into the marketing space in that late 90s, early 2000s internet bubble, which it was.
And then for the last about 20 years or so, I’ve been kind of in chief strategy officer roles at some private equity back agencies, marketing services firms working in biotech, and then some large global, a few large global firms working also in biotech life sciences, biopharma. So I’ve been involved with that side of the house. So about two years ago, I just, you know, after doing, working in 20 plus years doing
you know, life sciences and pharma, which is not necessarily the most rewarding experience. It’s a highly regulated, it’s hard to be kind of creative and strategic when you and everything is kind of dictated by, uh, by federal regulations and whatnot. So, um, I, uh, started coaching. I started doing executive coaching. I went, I got the certified, um, certified as a, as a, as a, you know, executive coach, I’ve done leadership coach training with, um,
Martin Rowinski (02:36.455)
Thanks for watching!
Fred Petito (02:59.766)
the Wiley group that specializes in leadership coaching. I also am getting my certification in team coaching, which is very super exciting and I’m really enjoying it. So I’ve been doing that for the last two years and I’m really enjoying it.
Martin Rowinski (03:14.819)
That’s awesome. And yeah, you’re right. I mean, corporate and especially in medical, you got a lot of red tape. So that can be pretty boring and slow down. Right.
Fred Petito (03:24.93)
Well, I mean, you could be as creative as you like, but no matter what you say or do, you typically can’t do it. So after a while, you know, after 20 years of saying, that sounds great, but you can’t do it, you know, it’s not the most rewarding experience. That said, you know, it’s good work and it’s important work.
Martin Rowinski (03:27.515)
Hahaha
Martin Rowinski (03:40.152)
Yes.
Martin Rowinski (03:44.267)
Yeah. So as an executive and leadership coach, what key areas do you focus on to help executives advance in their careers?
Fred Petito (03:54.014)
Yeah, I really like to focus on helping executives who are struggling with operational issues, um, and, you know, in, in kind of the thick of it, meaning that means they are, uh, a president or a C level or even, you know, a director, a senior director who is actually, um, you know, trying to navigate a complex business environment. Um, I know there are some executive coaches, they do a lot of transition work or they do, you know, uh,
a health executives during career changes. That stuff’s so much my bread and butter. It’s more of the, I think where I excel with, you know, my, just my background and my analytical training. I have a doctorate in business. You know, I’ve done a lot of, I both have a lot of hands-on experience, operational experience and strategic experience, but also a lot of training. So I find that’s where,
you know, the greatest impact I can make. And as part of that, it’s the leadership side, right? So they may have be dealing operational issues. But there’s a leadership challenge that’s associated with that, right? So how do they show up as their best selves and lead as effectively as they’re possible, while you have all this challenging operational environment around you because
It’s easy to sit back and theorize about how you’re going to lead and visualize that and have a great inner narrative about that. But then when you kind of show up in the real world, it isn’t as easy as it seems. It’s like the Mike Tyson quote, everybody has a plan until they’re punched in the face. So I think that’s a good metaphor for it.
Martin Rowinski (05:36.771)
Yeah.
Fred Petito (05:41.59)
the leadership challenge and that’s why, you know, being a leader is hard because it’s not things are never static. They’re always dynamic.
Martin Rowinski (05:49.119)
Absolutely. How do you advise leaders to navigate complex interpersonal and organizational dynamics effectively?
Fred Petito (05:59.806)
Yeah, I think it sounds like a simple question and on its face it is, but when you unpack that, I think there’s a lot of dimensions to it. And I think the first thing that I would advise or coach any leader is to be authentic, be themselves. You can’t be someone else. I think that the first thing you need to do is you need to show up as yourself. And no matter…
Martin Rowinski (06:06.284)
And that’s that today as a simple question.
Fred Petito (06:29.966)
how much changes around you need to stay true to who you are. How that person manifests, I think, is another story, right? So, as long as you’re… First thing, you stay true to understand your values, what’s important to you, and stick to that. And you want to be able to align your behaviors with your internal values. I think that’s the first thing. So, once someone’s able to kind of ground themselves in who they are authentically…
Then you can start working on some of the higher, what I maybe call higher order skills. And I like to think of them, two big ones for me that I like to focus on is this idea of adaptive capacity and adaptive leadership. So, the idea is that I think many leaders get caught up in an environment and I would see even in a world where their thoughts, behaviors and actions.
are more guided by the world around them than their internal kind of narrative or their internal values, right? So they lack that kind of ability to actually shape events around them and they’re shaped more by the events. So if the idea of developing adaptive capacity is trying to constantly…
be aware of how you’re thinking and feeling about things around you. And instead of being reactive, it’s being creative to the, and appropriate for the situation. So it’s, it’s not about getting smarter in terms of your IQ. It’s about increasing awareness of your thought processes, thinking critically about how you think meta, you know, kind of meta awareness. Uh, and then bringing an independent frame of mind.
to situations. A lot of my clients, me also, I remember when I was in kind of working in very difficult situations, oftentimes you’re not as intentional as you’d like. You’re not as creative in the moment. You’re more reactive, right? You’re more instinctive. And that’s that kind of, you know, your system tends to get hijacked by situations and being able to slow that down and slow yourself down.
Fred Petito (08:53.662)
and bring a more intentional mindset to things is what I like to call adaptive leadership. And it’s not something that I created, that’s something that has been around for quite a number of years, and comes from the work of developmental psychologists like Robert Keegan. And so this idea of being adaptive to the situation is all about cultivating a higher sense of awareness and ability to self-control and regulate yourself.
And show up in a more effective way. So that’s another important pillar.
Martin Rowinski (09:28.015)
Yeah, no, absolutely. And you know, you touched on a couple of things that I’ve actually written articles about. Transparency, I’ve written about leadership and being a transparent leader.
And another one that I like to talk about is vulnerability. A lot of leaders try to protect themselves and create a box where they’re untouchable, they’re not vulnerable, but I think being vulnerable really opens people up and gets your team to open up to you as you open up to them, showing them that it’s okay to be vulnerable, it’s okay to be open. And the other one is being, I guess, the old saying, open door policy.
Fred Petito (10:09.879)
Mm-hmm.
Martin Rowinski (10:10.547)
I mean everybody, I think we’re up to about 200 employees now and everybody’s given, you know, all of our executives and co-founders, they have literally direct access to us cell phone wise, which is I think in a way a blessing because there’s a lot of scams out there. They get weird text messages from not my cell phone, but from other cell phone numbers saying it’s me. Can you send me a card because I’m busy. I mean just.
Fred Petito (10:32.668)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah. I’m not surprised. Yeah. I, yeah, I think that, um, yeah, I think that’s a good point. I mean, I think you talked about vulnerability. I think, you know, I’ve been in leadership roles where I’ve had like chief strategy officer roles where I’ve had, you know, one of my clients right now is leading a group and I was in the same situation several cases where you have five or six different marketing disciplines reporting into you.
Martin Rowinski (10:37.671)
crazy stuff about theirself. I’m so glad that I’m here. Yeah. Anywho.
Fred Petito (11:04.882)
You know, and market research, social media, you know, search, user experience design. And there’s no way that anybody is able to be having mastery over these very complex specialized areas. And to be an effective leader, you know, sometimes it’s the feeling that I need to know all these things better than everyone else. And it’s not about the technical knowledge. It’s about the ability to, you know,
make people feel supportive and also give people both the agency and the support they need to thrive and be successful on their own. So you’re right. It’s not always easy to kind of subjugate that ego that says, I need to be the smartest person in the room. No, you need to be the most emotionally intelligent person in the room and empower other people to be the most intelligent in their domains of expertise.
So I think that’s a very true insight. Another big area that I like to work on is kind of some mindset shifts, right? I think that a lot of executives, even especially as they get really senior at the C level and president and stuff like that, they’re so talented and so smart, they kind of tend to believe that they know.
everything, right? It’s this mindset of certainty. And, you know, we’ve all seen in, you know, over the years, that, you know, markets move so fast, competitors move so fast, everything is always kind of changing a lot of volatility. And so the mindset that usually thrives in that environment is not the certain mindset, because you just don’t know what you don’t know. It’s the curious mindset. And I think that’s a big distinction is
is kind of that, you know, shifting from the kind of know-it-all confident person to the curious kind of humble person that I think is more effective in the kind of environment that we work in these days.
Martin Rowinski (13:14.743)
Yeah, no, definitely. And there’s no way everybody or anybody is the smartest. So you can if you think you know at all, then you’re going to stop learning. And that’s when you lose. So information is moving so fast these days. You got to keep learning and you got to be a sponge and always just acquire more and more information so you can make better decisions. I mean, that’s my thing.
Fred Petito (13:38.59)
Yeah, absolutely. And I think it’s bringing an open mind, that curious mindset. And I think that a lot of executives oftentimes fall into the trap of they bring old solutions to new problems. And many times, if you kind of have that, sometimes the curse of experience, you’ve done something similar.
Four or five times and you have a solution that’s worked, but this one this time is different You know if you if you if you’re bringing this kind of closed-minded Yeah, you know certainty mindset to the table You’re probably not going to get the results that you were hoping for it But you’re not really asking the questions you need to ask to literally illuminate What’s happening and what you need to do to strategize to move forward?
Martin Rowinski (14:30.731)
Yeah, absolutely. So these days, obviously, uh, there is a lot of talk about executive coaching. I mean, I can’t tell you how many times on LinkedIn I’ve been hit up by executive coaches and, uh, I mean, it’s just all over the place, right? Um, and now slowly and picking up, there’s more talk about team coaching.
Fred Petito (14:36.823)
Mm-hmm.
Martin Rowinski (14:55.887)
Can you talk about this a little bit and the difference? And I think you approach both, correct? You do team coaching.
Fred Petito (15:01.81)
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Um, I think, you know, I think team coaching is a lot more complex. Number one, that’s just to start. Um, and I think it’s different in a lot of ways. Um, team coaching is. Yeah. It’s starting to start with the premise that, um, first of all, most teams. Actually are not, don’t achieve the goals are set out for right now. Most, most, most teams are underperforming.
And it’s not because of individual performance, not because people aren’t doing their best or effective. Usually it’s because the organization around them may not be setting them up for success. Their goals might be unclear. And then internally, a lot of teams just don’t, haven’t done the work to, again, it’s not no one’s fault. It may not just be a skill set people or need that people are aware of.
But, you know, they don’t have the kinds of communication and collaboration that are really required for a team to work harmoniously and effectively. They don’t have the kind of the ways of working articulated and defined. And so working as a team is not a natural undertaking, right? It’s, you know, it requires a whole other level of, of thinking and planning and, and relationship building.
And people, I think, and organizations have always taken it for granted. We put a group together, they’re going to work well as a team. And some do, some most, many don’t. And it’s just, it’s just something that I think has been taken for granted for a long time. And at the end of the day, it’s a team is a, it’s a small, you know, social microcosm. Right. And so the things that make a team successful or unsuccessful.
or how people get together, how people get along, how they communicate, how they resolve conflict, how they collaborate with each other. And it’s a lot of, requires a lot of forethought and a lot of discipline to pull all those things together. And I think team coaching over the last five or so years is starting to become a little bit more
Fred Petito (17:26.126)
thing because people realized it’s hard getting teams to function at a high level is not easy, number one. And now when you have highly distributed teams over, you know, zoom and remote work and hybrid work, it’s even more difficult. So it’s, I think it, it taps and requires, I think more kind of a more holistic approach, number one, and it of
of course brings in organizational development issues. It brings in individual coaching issues. So it’s a little bit more complex.
Martin Rowinski (17:57.927)
Do you enjoy it?
Fred Petito (18:00.434)
I enjoy it. I do. Yeah, I do. It’s certainly something a little bit more substantial to me because of just the sheer complexity of it.
Martin Rowinski (18:01.583)
Hehehe
Martin Rowinski (18:13.863)
That’s awesome. What does personal transformation mean for a leader and why is it crucial in today’s dynamic workplace?
Fred Petito (18:24.182)
Well, I think I’m going to answer the second question first. So I think it’s, I think the idea of leadership is certainly the expectations and what’s needed to be successful, I think has gotten a lot more, the bar is a lot higher than it was say 10 years ago. I think the relational.
Martin Rowinski (18:30.053)
Okay.
Fred Petito (18:53.246)
and the kind of qualitative side of it, the emotional intelligence side of it, I think has gotten more important. You still need the technical skills and technical knowledge, but I think those soft skills, if you will, I think have become more important. I think the, so when I think of, you know, I like this, somebody has a headline, it’s like grow personally, thrive professionally, right? I think the idea behind that headline is that in order to be a highly,
effective leader. I think you need to grow as a person, grow, you know, your, I think that starts with self-awareness. You know, I think that’s the, the kind of the first, it’s really the building block of, I think, transformative growth for a leader. And it’s leadership growth, but it’s personal transformation, right? You, you grow as a person and you transform as a leader.
One of the places that I like to start is kind of teasing out this gap between, you know, we all walk around this ideal in our head of who we are as people and as leaders. And we do like to tell ourselves positive stories about ourselves. Otherwise, we’d all be depressed. So it’s good to have a positive self-image of yourself.
Martin Rowinski (20:10.599)
Thanks for watching!
Fred Petito (20:20.002)
But it’s also good to understand where the gap is between that positive self image and that image of you as a leader or an executive or whatever, and what you actually do in real life. And that’s where the transformation starts, I think starts to come, right? So once you start noticing the gap between your ideal self and your intentions and your actions and behaviors, that’s where you start.
getting unlocking growth. And I do like to think of, you know, my partner is a therapist, so I think this probably, if I pick this up, maybe just an osmosis, but I think I like to think of, we all carry our different internal cells, right? We have, you know, one of them is, we have these internal personas, right? One is the intuitive self. And this is maybe your
We have our thinking self, right? This is more of our left brain, if you will, our rational side that helps us analyze and make decisions, analyze information. We have a compassionate self, right? This is the emotional side, which is so important. And this is the relational side, how we manage our relationships with people and with ourselves. And then there’s the kind of the acting self. This is the kind of the willpower and the motivation that gets you to act. And I think…
If you, you know, it seems very simplistic to break it down in this way, where everybody is very multidimensional and human beings are very complex. And you add a organizational dynamic and a team dynamic around it, that, you know, it gets even more complex. But if you think about these four personas, as a way to think about how you’re showing up, you know, day to day at work, you start asking some questions like.
How do these different personas operate in me today? How am I showing up? Do I anchor heavily on that intuitive self or that thinking self or that compassionate self, whatever? And then it’s like, how do I balance them? You can’t be one dimensional. You need to be multi-dimensional. You need to show up in a way that is most appropriate and effective to the situation. And I think that’s the idea behind situational leadership, right, is you know kind of what…
Fred Petito (22:43.746)
persona to kind of lean into authentically, of course. And that requires self-awareness, that requires situational and contextual awareness. And that requires you to, we talked earlier about the adaptive self, you need to kind of slow down that processing and be a little bit more intentional and deliberate. And so I think that’s how I think about transformation.
Martin Rowinski (23:09.371)
That’s awesome. You touched on a lot of stuff I’ve written about, so that’s really good. Love it.
Fred Petito (23:14.046)
It’s good stuff. I mean, there’s so much great idea. I like to lean into evidence-based modalities and whatnot. And I think that there are things that incrementally, you work on these things over time. You’re going to become a more self-aware and effective leader. And I really believe in that. That’s why I do this. And it is transformative, but it takes time.
Martin Rowinski (23:44.571)
Yeah, it sure does. It doesn’t happen overnight. And speaking of time and future, based on your experience, what trends do you foresee in leadership in the coming years?
Fred Petito (23:59.15)
Hmm, I think that…
Fred Petito (24:05.142)
I think it’s just this continuing journey about unlocking that creative side of it that I just talked about. I think the 20th century was certainly all about, it was much more of a left brain type century. I think that the 21st century is a little bit more about creativity.
And I think the leaders of the 21st century already, we’re already a quarter of the way through, but I feel like, I think it’s the people who are able to unlock and cultivate creativity in the people that work for them and the teams that they lead. I think that is where leaders should focus, right? I think…
Technical skills are important, functional expertise is important, but I don’t think that’s gonna be rewarded as much in the future as those that are able to create some kind of multiplier effect by unlocking creativity in people.
Martin Rowinski (25:13.295)
Got it. Awesome. I got three quick fire questions. Are you ready?
Fred Petito (25:18.947)
Sure.
Martin Rowinski (25:20.707)
So for those long strategy sessions, do you prefer coffee or tea?
Fred Petito (25:25.663)
I’m a coffee drinker.
Martin Rowinski (25:28.015)
with cream or just black.
Fred Petito (25:30.631)
Whole milk.
Martin Rowinski (25:34.579)
When it comes to gaining new insights, do you lean towards a book or a podcast?
Fred Petito (25:41.947)
I love my Kindle. I’m a Kindle reader. I have hundreds, but I have certainly had near a hundred books on my Kindle. A lot of them are fiction, a lot of them are business books. Also love history. So a little bit more on the book side.
Martin Rowinski (25:58.08)
When it comes to history, since you mentioned that this is not one of the questions, but what type of history?
Fred Petito (26:05.498)
Um, you know, I, I jump around quite a bit. I do have a soft spot for, uh, kind of English history. You know, all the, all the, you know, uh, I just read a book, uh, about the wars of the roses, uh, you know, uh, in England and it just, it’s so fascinating. Um, and we all think we all live such civilized lives today and, you know, a few hundred years ago it wasn’t like that. So you’re-
It reminds you of how far we’ve come as a people and civilization. And so when you read books like that, even though it was, what, the 14th century, whatever, the scale of brutality, I thought why I read it. It’s interesting from a geopolitical and from understanding people behavior, but it’s just such a fascinating… So I do tend to lean more towards European history.
Martin Rowinski (27:01.143)
Yeah, that makes sense. Are you more of a morning person or a night owl when it comes to productivity? Morning?
Fred Petito (27:09.247)
Now I’m a morning person.
Absolutely.
Martin Rowinski (27:14.139)
How early do you start?
Fred Petito (27:18.134)
I usually set my alarm for seven, which isn’t that early, but it’s pretty early. So I’m usually, uh, I’m usually working by seven or 45 data clock.
Martin Rowinski (27:31.175)
So here is a scenario. You’re on a stage in front of 30,000 people. Among them, there’s one individual for whom your next words will be life changing. What you say will not only transform their life, but will also lead to a ripple effect of positivity, potentially impacting over 100,000 people. You have three minutes on this stage for your final message. What would you say to that one person who needs to hear it most?
Fred Petito (28:02.219)
Um…
I think it goes back to that whole thing about adaptive leadership. I do think that when people are able to disrupt the behavioral patterns and the intuition that guide their lives and are able to make incremental improvements on how they…
engage with people, lead teams, things like that. I think that’s the biggest, one of the biggest ah-has that I’ve seen coming from the behavioral sciences in the last 50 years is that ability to translate changing the way you think through increased self-awareness and the impact it has on your behavior and the things that you are able to then
unlock around you. So I think as a leader, it’s that ability to increase your personal impact and power as a leader.
Martin Rowinski (29:16.667)
Okay.
Fred Petito (29:17.761)
I think that.
Martin Rowinski (29:21.031)
Oh, okay. So pretty much wrapping up right now, but I got a question. Since you like to read books, have you? I didn’t find anything online as far as on your LinkedIn or anything. Have you written a book? Are you a book author?
Fred Petito (29:36.318)
No, but I published a dissertation recently. It’s not a book, but it’s a dissertation. I think it’s called Brand Equity, Firm Value and the Moderating Impact of Industry Dynamics, if you’re interested in that.
Martin Rowinski (29:57.309)
Okay. Any puns in writing a book?
Fred Petito (30:00.866)
I might, I would probably invest or energies in speaking rather than writing a book, I think. But maybe, maybe.
Martin Rowinski (30:11.082)
Okay, so possibly those are your next steps.
Fred Petito (30:14.042)
Yeah, I think so. A book maybe, I think speaking more likely.
Martin Rowinski (30:20.015)
Got it. Anything else you would love to leave our audiences with? Any other words of wisdom?
Fred Petito (30:28.174)
Yeah, I mean, I do think, you know, we talked a lot about coaching, we talked a lot about transformation and I really think, I do think that I’ve worked with a coach in the past and I really truly believe that there’s a lot of value that comes out of coaching. But I think the most important thing is that the people that do come to coaching, they bring a kind of open mind and open heart and that’s where you’re going to get the results. So I think some people they think come to the coach and they expect them to kind of make the…
to create the transformation for them. Or, and it’s just, that can never work that way, right? I mean, they can only help through kind of prompting and guiding and mirroring and asking the questions that unlock those thought processes and those emotions. But if you’re not kind of open to that process, you’re not gonna get what you were hoping for.
Martin Rowinski (31:20.527)
Got it. Awesome. Thank you very much. Thanks for your time and joining us on Leadership Talks. And yeah, that’s awesome. I really appreciate it. Hope you have a great day. OK.
Fred Petito (31:27.979)
Likewise, thanks Martin.
Fred Petito (31:33.006)
Thank you.
