Center for Leadership
Studies

As CFO of Puerto Rico construction management company, Caribbean Project Management, Mark Cummings is frequently called upon to put his left-brain to work. Having worked in finance all over North America, his professional history also evinces a strong disposition toward numbers and logistics. Part of his attitude—what he describes as the fiscal conservative side—can be attributed to his professional life, but Mark explains that he has always hovered irreconcilably somewhere between conservative and liberal. Cummings had often tried to make the two sides communicate, but was never able to fully achieve it until involvement with the MAOL. After speaking with The Center for Leadership Studies’ Mel Toomey, Cummings says, “It was everything I’d been trying to communicate and didn’t know how.” His first brush with MAOL material was overwhelming and exhilarating all at once.

“A lot of it makes sense, and a lot of it doesn’t. Your brain is trying to understand and accept and know without thinking about it. You’re not used to focusing on that effort, so it hurts. When I first finished my session with Mel, I was thinking, “All right. I’m sold on the program, now I need Tylenol.”’

Taking quickly to the MAOL frameworks and methodologies he learned in sessions and through reading, Cummings began to apply them within his company in the context of his breakthrough initiative. Over the course of two years Cummings planned to pay down every cent of his company’s debt, a complicated task because, as CFO, he wielded little control over the company’s revenue. Cummings explains that the key to stretching to set uncontrollable targets is working with others in such a way that they, too, want to achieve the objective, transforming it from a personal aspiration to a collective dream.

“The delicate part is soliciting buy-in to your initiative, and soliciting with trust,” explains Cummings. “Sometimes you temporarily have to be the master of the game and sometimes you have to be the one to get it going and let it take care of itself. If it is a positive thing and worthwhile achieving, those you work with will want to support it because it’s to their own benefit.”

Since beginning his studies Cummings says that he’s experienced many personal shifts. His relationship with his family has improved, his professional life is transforming, and he attributes much of this to better listening skills. Through the MAOL, Cummings learned about generous listening and how to listen for opportunity, without preconceptions. He says that this style of interaction has changed the way he relates to everyone in his world.

“I no longer get angry as much, and I now realize that when I did, it was anger out of frustration,” he explains. “I was frustrated because I didn’t know if people were hearing what I had to say, and two because I didn’t understand what they were saying. Ironically enough, the two are the same. I can be more sure of others hearing me if I am more sure that I’m listening to them. Before the MAOL I thought they were different, but they’re not. “