001 | Welcome to the Lucrative Leadership Conversations Podcast

How do Leaders sustain performance and profitability living into an exponentially changing future and leverage the collective intelligence within their organizations? How can Leaders create clarity, improve focus, increase accountability and gain commitment that results in superior performance. This is the focus of our brand new Lucrative Leadership Podcast.

Let’s have a conversation.

Meet the Lucrative Leadership Podcast Team

Gene Morton

Allow me to introduce my co-host, Gene Morton. I consider Gene THE expert on Leadership Structure. I Think you’ll agree once you get to know him. He resides in Colorado with his wife Vicky. He’s a devoted husband, father and granddad.

Gene is a veteran in the field of organizational development with a masters in Industrial Psychology from the University of Tulsa. He is also an advanced trainer in group dynamics, strategic planning, and consulting in organizational change management.

For over 40 years, Gene consulted on over 100 projects involving complex mergers, acquisitions, and corporate reorganizations in multiple industries. He has published numerous articles in organizational development trade publications and is a professional speaker on the topic of leadership structure and organizational design.

Gene is also the author of “ LEADERS FIRST: Six Bold Steps to Sustain breakthroughs in Construction” – a 2x award winning book published in 2012.

He knows his stuff!

On a personal level, Gene is compassionate, pragmatic, and humbly brilliant. He’s also a HOOT to talk to. You’ll find he’s VERY passionate about the power of effective leadership structure.

Gene doesn’t advocate one type of hierarchy or another. He does advocate that collaboration is key to increasing accountability and gain commitment. He’s also adamant that LEADERS HAVE TO GO FIRST to make change sustainable.

Gene uses a simple process he developed to help the Leadership Team in the C-suite organize themselves to work collaboratively around their collective strategic vision. He outlines this process in “Leaders First,” the book mentioned above. I highly recommend it.

Gene’s process isn’t industry specific. He’s implemented it successfully in healthcare, construction, insurance, government and nonprofit organizations. Understanding the key concepts and insights of this process is useful for leaders in any size or type of organization.

He has selflessly spent over 100 hours mentoring me to facilitate his alignment process. I still learn something new in every conversation we have. He’s a wealth of knowledge and wisdom. It’s my honor to share the mic with him and be able to share his wisdom and personality with you.

Susan Hasty

Now that you’ve met Gene, let me introduce myself.

Hello! I’m Susan, and I’m from North Carolina – hence the southern charm.

I consider myself a “maverick leader” on a mission. The status quo of leadership training has turned into a Whack-a-Mole game. Many solutions offered are incomplete, out of context and more complex than the problems they are meant to solve. Business is already complex enough.

Leadership done right can not only be simpler and easier, it should be FUN!

I enthusiastically believe there’s a far simpler more practical path leaders of middle market firms can take to achieve sustainable profitability. My co host and I share it in the 1st season of our podcast. In season 2, we’ll bring others on our show to collaborate with and expand on HOW TO tap into the power of lucrative leadership conversations and we plan on having fun doing it.

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I consider myself a “maverick leader” on a mission. The status quo of traditional management consulting and leadership training has turned into a Whack-a-Mole game. Many solutions offered are more complex than the problems they are meant to solve. Business is already complex enough.

Business leaders need simple and practical tools that help them discover their own solutions.

My company is 360 Profit Masters. using the Marshall Goldsmith Stakeholder Centered coaching methodology, I coach successful CEOs to model leadership behaviors that bring out the best in their leadership teams. The CEO is the gatekeeper to leadership collaboration. When they unlock the genius of their leadership team, together they can master sustainable profitability. When they and their team is ready for powerful change, I facilitate Genes alignment process with leadership teams.

One of my proudest accomplishments is that I’m a Coach and Practitioner of Neuro Linguistic Programing (NLP). NLP is a powerful communication model. It’s practically a user’s manual for the human mind; our greatest, most underutilized resource. It’s a resource for efficient behavioral change management that’s elegantly simple.

NLP is a human technology for understanding and mastering the art of influence and a powerful methodology for gaining new levels of resourcefulness and flexibility. Critical thinking is a major factor in making decisions. It’s our emotional state, how we feel, and our unconscious triggers dictate how we behave. Behavior has structure. When you understand this structure, you can change the outcome into something more desirable.

I’m certified as a Strategic HR Business Partner by the Human Capital Institute – HCI is The global resource for best practices in leadership, talent & performance management. (I highly recommend checking out their website at HCI.org for the latest research, knowledge and training available for talent management.)

My story

I co-founded 7 business ventures with 14 business partners over the last 35 years. I started my first business in Real estate several years after graduating from East Carolina U with a business degree. (Go Pirates!)

Over the next 10 years, revenues doubled annually. Then it all imploded – suddenly and violently – when my business partner slipped out with our client list. It was painful and brutally educational.

The greatest thing about going through hell is that you can come out on FIRE. The experience sparked a passion in me to help other business owners create a sustainable organization.

I was lucky that I failed young enough to recover – Resilience and practical wisdom only comes from living it, not just knowing it. There’s value and power in learning how to fail instead of falling apart.

In 2011, I co-founded 360 Profit Masters with a mission to help our clients improve profitability.

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Education in real life

I learned that small changes in the beliefs and behaviors of the CEO results in swift and substantial improvements in the performance of their leadership team. If we have clarity about the collective outcomes of our organizations, we can communicate more efficiently. This is my inspiration for starting the lucrative leadership podcast.

What I discovered…

How far removed Financial reports are from the behaviors that precipitated the results
How performance reviews can be a poor excuse for communicating
How accountability for bottom line results can’t be divided by function or division. If the leadership team isn’t collaboratively aligned around their strategic vision, nobody wins.

With that in mind, I discovered an article Gene wrote, titled “Leadership Wizardry begins with Structure”.

Leadership Structure refers to the arrangements & assumptions which either unify or defeat how leaders perform, alone and together. -Gene Morton

This struck a major chord with me.

In all my research on profitability & performance management which includes hundreds of books, thousands of articles, and multiple training programs, I’ve never been exposed to the relevance of leadership structure on company profitability.

Have you?

I reached out to Gene, and asked if he’d mentor me and allow me to facilitate his process and teach others the process. I believe it’s the missing link between strategy and execution.

I soon discovered if the CEO wasn’t committed to looking in the mirror of their own limiting behaviors and lead the change, the rest of the leadership team struggles to find the space they need to be accountable.

Professionally, I’ve pivoted 360 degrees from the services we started with 5 year ago.

I didn’t set out to rotate from one business discipline to another. I was on a mission to discover an efficient process I could implement with clients that would make a measurable difference.

What I discovered was the value in looking across disciplines and seeing the patterns that emerge. It’s like putting on 3-D glasses for the first time.

Today, it’s not just about making a change, it’s about mastering change.

Successfully mastering change requires moving from resisting change to embracing it. Mastering change requires flexibility, being open to alternative routes, and staying grounded despite the whirlwind in front of us. Flexibility has to be balanced with the right amount of structure.

With too much structure, our map has only one route. When things change and that road is blocked, we’re stuck. We need the flexibility to see multiple options, and to be able to reroute and move forward. We also need frameworks that give us the proper feedback so we know when we’re off course.

Mental models are tools that add structure to our thinking – LEADERS need different ones to build organizations for the 21st Century. Like skyscrapers, structures need to be strong enough to withstand the whirlwinds, and flexible enough to bend with the wind of change.

Maybe our ability to create a better future, to tap into our innate genius, both individually and collectively, starts with gaining an understanding of our different mental models, how we’re interpreting our surrounding environment, and how both are driving our behaviors. Then, we can adapt the structural forces at play to support, instead of inhibit, improvement efforts. Only now are we ready for change.

How DO WE improve our conversations?

If we have clarity about the collective outcomes of our organizations, we can communicate more efficiently.
If we have clarity about how our conversations impact others, we communicate effectively.
If we have clarity regarding our roles and others, we communicate productively.

If change is the only constant, we’ll need new mindsets. If we’re seeking to change behaviors, we need to restructure our communication. One of the most important presuppositions in NLP is this:

The meaning of our communication is the response we get.

The point of communication is to get an outcome. We’ll need to restructure our organizations and our communications if we hope to create sustainable cultures that can master change.

How do we do that? Where do we start?

Lucrative Leadership Podcast Conversations

I am excited to introduce the Lucrative Leadership Podcast. Our show will consist of weekly episodes, posted each Sunday morning. Gene and I will be sharing the “6 Bold Steps” leaders can take to organize themselves to prepare for rapid realignment.

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If this conversation appeals to you, I highly recommend buying Genes book…LEADERS FIRST: Six Bold Steps to Sustain breakthroughs in Construction”. You’ll find a link on my website at 360profitmasters.com. and It’s on both Amazon and the Barnes & Noble website.

Processes like Genes have been used successfully for years by fortune 1000 firms, yet they remain unaffordable for the majority of businesses. Our goal with the LLC podcast is to share this knowledge with as many leaders as possible in hopes it will help everyone prosper.

My vision is for sustainable prosperity which represents a healthier, happier, more prosperous future for all of us. Won’t you join me?

You can connect with either Gene or I at 360profitmasters.com where you can subscribe to receive weekly updates, show notes and bonus episodes by email.

If you enjoy our show, please share it with friend and co-workers. Also, we would be honored for you take a few minutes and give us a rating and review on itunes.

Are you on LinkedIn? We have a LinkedIn group called “Lucrative leadership conversations.” We love to connect and collaborate with others who are passionate about leadership and creating a more prosperous future.

If you have an interest in learning more about our process and coaching, I certainly invite you to schedule a call with me. You’ll find a link to my calendar on My website at 360profitmasters.com.

WE HOPE what we’re going to share is inspiring, useful, and transformational.

Here’s to having more lucrative conversations!

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I HOPE YOU join us next week…until then, STAY TUNED IN, TAPPED IN, AND TURNED ON!

And don’t forget to register for our weekly updates! (simply add your email to the form below)

About the Hosts:

SUSAN HASTY

Susan Hasty, CEO coach

Susan Hasty is the CEO of 360 Profit Masters and the host of the Lucrative Leadership Conversations podcast. Susan considers herself a “maverick leader” on a mission to inspire and equip leaders to ignite their leadership genius. Susan co-founded 7 business ventures over the last 35 years. Her passion is helping business owners and CEOs improve their own clarity, focus and commitment to build more sustainable organizations empowered to make economic liberty a reality. She is certified in Neurolinguistic Programming and is a Strategic HR Business Partner by the Human Capital Institute. She is a member of the Marshall Goldsmith Stakeholder Centered Coaching Network of International Leadership coaches.

Ready to your business more profitable? Schedule a free call with Susan Hasty

GENE MORTON

Gene Morton, organizational pyschologist Gene Morton is an organizational psychologist based out of Colorado. He is also an award winning author of the book, Leaders First: Six Bold Steps to Sustain Breakthroughs in Construction. Over the past 40 years, Gene has consulted on more than 100 projects in 85 organizations with leader groups engaged in complex mergers, reorganizations, leadership turnarounds, and system redesigns.

He developed the Leaders First Alignment Process to provide leadership teams the model they need to gain clarity as the organization evolves. His passion is mastering the complexities of organized and collaborative leadership.