Center for Leadership
Studies

Lisa Ellis is quick to admit that her first encounter with MAOL was a lesson in redefinition.

“As much as I had notions coming into the sessions about leaders and what was important in the role of leadership, I understood that my knowledge didn’t even begin to scratch the surface,” Ellis says. “My view was really more one of management: you manage processes because you’re trying to replicate the same results. Needless to say, I quickly learned that what I thought was a pretty enlightened view of leadership was really not leadership at all.”

Over the span of her MAOL coursework and breakthrough initiative, Ellis came to understand what her personal definition of leadership actually is, and to step into that role herself. Having gone through massive transitions based on the global economy, Ellis’s organization was in the process of wholly redesigning itself. Ellis’s goal was to recreate her company’s culture and revenue goals in order to move it toward sustainable cash flow, establish her company as the industry resource, and to extend further into the market with new products and services.

Ellis’s involvement with the MAOL has increased her commitment to generating future leaders within her organization. As head of human resources for Waterworks, a luxury bath solutions company, equally important to driving tangible business goals was opening up the company to allow for individuals to redefine their roles in a way that would provide future growth.

“We’ve seen the rebuild start to happen based on engaging in conversations about roles not as they were, but how they could be, moving from what they could be to the feasible,” Ellis says.

In progressing through her degree, Ellis says that one of the most important things that she has learned is that one’s role in the organization certainly does not dictate whether one can step forward and be a leader. Anyone can have the ability to impact the company on a larger scale based on a leadership imperative. Ellis notes that, for her, the business portion of the journey runs concurrent with a serious reckoning of self and ego. She has learned how to more deeply look at how she presents herself to the world and where she can grow and evolve as a leader, a phenomenon, she says, that she expects most MAOL candidates experience.

“I think to enter into the MAOL you have to be prepared to learn and grow and feel like you don’t really know anything at first about leadership,” she explains. “You’ll watch yourself and the journey unfold to a point where you can see it in both yourself and others and register accomplishments along the way. This brings you nothing but opportunity and opens a whole new way of looking at your business.”