Developing Future Leaders with Brian French

Summary: On this episode of FM Evolution, hosts Shawn Black and Jim Robinson were joined by Brian French, a leadership creator, teacher, and coach at Harmonic Learning, a business consulting service that partners with client organizations to create leadership development experiences. Besides his extensive learning and development background, Brian is also a professional musician and infuses musical themes within the content created by Harmonic Learning. In this episode, Shawn, Jim, and Brian discussed the characteristics of good leaders, how to create an efficient succession plan, and best practices for creating leadership development programs. Thanks for tuning in! Show Notes:(0:43) Introduction to Jim(0:54) Introduction to Brian(1:33) About Brian and Harmonic Learning(2:52) About Jim(4:20) About the Restaurant Facility Management Association(8:47) Defining Leadership(11:00) Characteristics of Great Leaders(15:33) Developing Future Leaders(19:42) Succession Planning(28:32) Leadership Development Programs(37:36) Advice for Developing Leadership Programs(42:26) Closing Thoughts Links:Shawn BlackJim RobinsonBrian FrenchHarmonic Learning, LLCRestaurant Facility Management Association (RFMA) Quotes:“In my view, care is at the core of being a leader. Caring for others. Caring for the group. Caring for the work. And caring for the self and equal balanced measure.” - Brian French, (9:33) “Leadership development is turning the mirror around where we have the magnified view and we’re seeing all the scars and all the imperfections. We need to see that in our leadership so we can then get better.” - Brian French, (15:56) “Succession for me as a business owner has always been about how does the legacy continue? The legacy is the individual, not the entity. Even though I have a company that will live for a long time beyond me, that’s not the legacy. It’s the people that are going to run it that’s the legacy.” - Jim Robinson, (23:49)   “The common theme of any leadership program is looking at where the leaders in the organization currently are and looking at where the organization needs them to be and closing the gap.” - Brian French, (28:59)