Jon Spiesman

One Percent Better Leader

Just like other skills, leadership is something that improves through willingness and consistent practice.  No one becomes a true leader overnight, but working at it consistently and targeting small improvements over time leads to great results!  Are you willing to put the effort in to get 1% better today?  OPBL is dedicated to helping leaders achieve their goals 1% at a time.

Founder and CEO

Tala Peak Leadership, LLC

"Culture eats strategy for breakfast" - Peter Drucker.  I help leaders intentionally build the culture of their organizations and exceed their goals.  Tala Peak Leadership works with leaders to analyze their situation and create a specific plan to shift the culture of the organization and create measurable results.

Managing Owner

Center for Executive Coaching

Certified Executive Coach 

Bayer

Business lead for Integration of Bayer and Monsanto entities, business processes, and ERP systems.  Set up enterprise project governance and project management systems for $200M integration effort.  Identified and recruited talented leadership team.  Drove collaborative teamwork across teams of Monsanto and Bayer experts, senior executive stakeholders, and complex business teams.  Maintained highly engaged teams throughout grueling and intense 2 year project schedule through visible and authentic leadership, fun and engaging team activities, and regular newsletters and town hall style communications.  Project stakeholder management and communications was considered best-in-class internally and was implemented on other enterprise critical projects.  Creatively addressed the challenges that COVID placed on a global project team to achieve an on-time implementation with fully remote teams.

VP, Business Lead US/CA Integration Project

Continuation of Monsanto role through transition to Bayer ownership.  Responsible for customer support and account management, logistics and delivery, and business process support for $8B revenue business.  Lead team of ~500 with $50M direct budget managing ~$200M of Logistics spend.  Leader of cross functional team, each leader with diverse and independent functions and sometimes diverging interests.  This role required a CEO mindset to elevate vision of team success and foster collaborative teamwork.  Consistently maintained highest levels of engagement scores within function/division/region by prioritizing communication, clear goals, employee trust, and celebrating wins.  Success required effective team building, stakeholder management, authentic leadership presence, and high personal accountability and credibility.
Notable Accomplishments in Team Performance and Innovation Leadership:
•	Defined and implemented new business model pilot for outcome-based pricing and direct to farm delivery
•	Implemented Monsanto’s first Digital Transformation of customer experience encompassing B2B strategy, customer portal strategy, digital finance tools, and market funding tools.
•	Implemented TMS system for transportation optimization and shipment visibility – project won global recognition from JDA for customer value creation, completed on-time, and achieved savings goals.
•	Implemented perfect order metric to drive improved customer experience and streamline processes
•	First implementation of Robotic Process Automation – automating ~10,000 process steps in first year.
•	Implemented hub support model across select support functions to enable standardization and efficiency gains of 20% in cost and resourcing

Director, North America Customer Care

Monsanto Company

Responsible for customer support and account management, logistics and delivery, and business process support for $8B revenue business.  Lead team of ~500 with $50M direct budget managing $200M of Logistics spend.  Responsible for customer support and account management, logistics and delivery, and business process support for $8B revenue business.  Lead team of ~500 with $50M direct budget managing ~$200M of Logistics spend.  Leader of cross functional team, each leader with diverse and independent functions and sometimes diverging interests.  This role required a CEO mindset to elevate vision of team success and foster collaborative teamwork.  Consistently maintained highest levels of engagement scores within function/division/region by prioritizing communication, clear goals, employee trust, and celebrating wins.  Success required effective team building, stakeholder management, authentic leadership presence, and high personal accountability and credibility.
Notable Accomplishments in Team Performance and Innovation Leadership:
•	Defined and implemented new business model pilot for outcome-based pricing and direct to farm delivery
•	Implemented Monsanto’s first Digital Transformation of customer experience encompassing B2B strategy, customer portal strategy, digital finance tools, and market funding tools.
•	Implemented TMS system for transportation optimization and shipment visibility – project won global recognition from JDA for customer value creation, completed on-time, and achieved savings goals.
•	Implemented perfect order metric to drive improved customer experience and streamline processes
•	First implementation of Robotic Process Automation – automating ~10,000 process steps in first year.
•	Implemented hub support model across select support functions to enable standardization and efficiency gains of 20% in cost and resourcing

Promoted to Lead cross functional team including Customer support and account management, logistics, demand and distribution planning, and business process support for $6.5B revenue business.  Success in this role required strong partnering and negotiation with sales and marketing functions and functional global leadership.
Notable Accomplishment Areas in Operational Excellence and Innovation Leadership:
•	Led first Monsanto implementation of SFDC – over 1M cases, 36% increased NPS, 49% reduction in resolution time, and 32% improvement in customer effort score.
•	Implemented Monsanto first mobile track and trace and delivery feedback process, enabling real-time feedback on 19,000 deliveries with a satisfaction rating of 99%.
•	Implemented new OTC system to enable movement of $800M brand to agency model.
•	Established dashboards, metrics, and governance processes to drive consistent operational excellence across business lines.  The improved target setting and harmonization between functions delivered $10M in logistics savings, improved OTD, and a 90% variance reduction against quarterly targets.

Director, US Supply Chain

Notable Accomplishments
•	Influenced key decisions makers to change the strategic plan for the 5 year soy crop LRP through creation of a model to help bring visibility to hidden costs and risk associated with the ramping up of new product volumes.
•	Created and implemented novel contingency plans to replace 20% of total supply plan impacted by historic 2012 drought conditions.

Director, North America Soybean Seed Mfg

Notable Accomplishments:
•	Led first Monsanto implementation of new SC model integrating Procurement, Planning, Logistics, and Customer operations into one organization.  
•	Post-centralization of Customer Service function led a full re-evaluation of the function and the OTC processes which led to several impactful initiatives including:  Implementation of a new distribution model in Italy reducing product returns by 50% with an increase in sales, implementation of a front/back office split in Customer Service enabling 50% improvement in efficiency and labor arbitrage of $2.5M USD to East Europe.
•	Designed and implemented a new Procurement model for EMEA, increasing staff H/C from 1 to 45 but reaching breakeven savings 7 months into first year and 2X committed financial contribution over 3 years ($70M USD).
•	Led definition and implementation of first measure of NPS and OTD in EMEA and drove a 10% improvement against baseline in the first year.
•	Oversight of hosted site shutdown and demolition in Antwerp, Belgium including negotiated settlement with asset owners, labor unions, and works councils.

EMEA Supply Chain Director

Manufacturing Business Unit Leader

Monsanto

Production Planning

Area Leader

Site Manager

Freeing Execs to work ON their business instead of IN their business.

You finally have time set for that romantic dinner date with your spouse.  Her favorite location, the smell of butter, garlic, and wine wafting from the kitchen as you imagine a plate of Veal Parmigiano.  The maitre’d seats you and you open the menu as you feel a familiar buzz from your jacket pocket….
Your phone ringing.  It's work…again.

You missed another of your son’s soccer games.  His dejected gaze at his shoes when you explain, it carves at your soul.  That look from your wife….all too familiar.  

You can see that your strategy is outdated, opportunities laying lonely on the table like those magazines articles you keep meaning to read.  

You just need time…you need to get ahead of a few things.  You need freedom to work on your business, not stuck feeling trapped in your business.

You sacrificed much to build your business.  You deserve success….you also deserve to live your life and enjoy what you have built, not be a slave to it.  You can regain your treasured personal time, you can pursue those business opportunities and catalyze the next level of growth.

If you recognize yourself here….there is hope.  You grew your business career one block at a time…the way out of this situation is the same….to grow out of it. 

I use proven coaching frameworks to target measurable improvement areas for your leadership.  True organizational change starts through courageous change with senior leaders like you.  I’m so confident in this process that I offer a results guarantee.  You will see measurable improvement or you don't pay.  What do you have to lose?

Want a leadership master-class? The Johari window is a pretty good candidate.

Leadership is relationship…when relationships and trust are strong, you have a good chance as a leader.

The Johari window is a framework to expand trust and achieve potential.

The “arena” is where you can openly lead….leveraging your strengths and those of others to achieve results.

In the arena - you build trust through competence and leading with humility.

You also build trust through vulnerability - sharing some of the hidden things in the ‘facade’.

What are the things that you lose sleep over? What are you working on to be a better leader?

Vulnerability requires a lot of courage but it brings humanity into the leadership equation.

When you have gained enough trust, you may start to learn about “blindspots”.

In my last post, we talked about blindspots….negative or positive, they represent opportunity.

A workplace with trusted relationships allows for exploration into the “unknown”.

When you are consistently expanding the arena by shrinking the other three quadrants….I would wager your results will be strong.

It may seem oversimplified to think about this with a 2x2 matrix.

But if you really think about it….does leadership need to be more complicated than this?

What is missing for you?

Have you seen or used the Johari window before?

💡Leadership Tips that make you think
🔔 Follow me or connect if you are cheeky

Best sketchnote by Tanmay Vora ✍️ — make sure to give him a follow!

#EncouragingLeaders #JohariWindow #Leadership #Trust #GreatPlaceToWork #LeadershipDevelopment

Veronica Llorca-Smith 🍋

Want to find a speaker for your next leadership event?

I design customized keynotes and workshops to motivate and build high-performing teams and help develop new leadership skills.

Blending my 20-year corporate experience (Apple, Estée Lauder), my personal experience living in 9 countries and my journey as an amateur triathlete, I create engaging sessions that bring both inspiration and actionable frameworks. 

Topics:

Inclusive leadership
Unconscious Bias
Cultural Agility
Inclusive Language
Allyship

Growth Mindset: 
An Athlete's Mindset
Becoming Your Best Ambassador

Previous clients: UBS, AIA, ManpowerGroup, BioRad, Native Union, UK Cabinet, Michael Page, DASH...

Motivational Speaker & Author: DEI & growth mindset

🎙Public Speaking: I create customized presentations and workshops for organizations and events. My content leverages my 15-year corporate experience (Apple, Estée Lauder) as well as my personal experience as a triathlete and an author. 

🎓 Topics:

- Cultural agility as a competitive advantage in the workplace

- Inclusive leadership: mindset, behavior and processes

- Inclusive language as a catalyst for inclusion 

- An athlete's mindset: mental frameworks to get results 
  
- Thriving as a woman in the workplace

- Maximizing your influence with a personal brand

Languages available: English, Spanish, French, Italian & Portuguese

Veronica Llorca-Smith 💎

Yesterday I opened a coaching session with the worst line ever:

“I have imposter syndrome”

Note: I am the coach here (luckily I'm not a surgeon)

I know, not the most professional or polished line I could come up with, but definitely the most real.

My client, Charlie is a C-level exec and Founder, columnist at MarketWatch, 30K+ followers here, and has served US Presidents. 6 of them. It’s all public info.

So yes, feeling like an imposter was in order. 

He could have dismissed me after my "Grand Opening", but he didn't. He listened carefully, asked questions, took notes, and we had the most amazing hour. 

We brainstormed, trouble-shooted, ideated and combined our perspectives and expertise to take his strategy to the next level. I honestly gave 200%.

This morning, I woke up to his email and his feedback is one of the most powerful testimonials I've ever received.

Out of everything we discussed, the thing that actually struck him most was my opening because it was raw, honest and human. 

Sometimes we forget that real beats perfect. In a world that expects us to be perfectly groomed and polished, being honest goes a long way.

Feeling like an imposter syndrome doesn't make you weak: it means you are human and real and above all, it means that you care.

Thank you for trusting me and for inviting me to your table, Charles P. Garcia

Full article here: https://lnkd.in/gV_QgdxY

Veronica Llorca-Smith🎤

International Speaker & Corporate Trainer in 6 languages: Leadership, Communication & Cultural Agility | Penguin Author | Ironman Triathlete | CEM (Chief Executive Mom)

Testimonial written by my client with a black banner of Capital Mischief 

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