Chief Change Officer - Wayland Lum: From Corporate Comfort to Purposeful Leadership

Episode Date: December 6, 2024

In this episode, Wayland Lum, CEO of Copperbox Leadership Advisory and former leader at Chicago Booth, Korn Ferry, and Nvidia, shares his journey from art supplies to boardrooms. Blending creativity with business psychology, Wayland redefines what it means to be a modern leader. With a passion for helping leaders reach their full potential, he explains how betting on oneself can lead to transformational change—not just in business, but in life. From navigating the balance of fear and courage to embracing core purpose, Wayland reveals the power of leadership grounded in authenticity and impact. His insights extend far beyond corporate walls, showing how intentional leadership can create a ripple effect that positively shapes the world. If you’ve ever considered stepping out of your comfort zone and betting on your own vision, this episode will leave you inspired—and maybe a little bit braver. Key Highlights of Our Interview: Breaking Free from Prestige “Leaving prestigious organizations for my own leadership practice wasn’t easy. Many stick to the comfort of a stable paycheck and a corporate name—but I felt called to something more.” Why Modern Leadership Matters “In a world of constant flux, leadership grounded in systemic and timeless principles offers the resilience and clarity needed to navigate both societal and business challenges.” The Private Equity Sprint “Private equity moves fast. Our work helps leaders in portfolio companies close leadership gaps quickly, aligning their capabilities with quarter-by-quarter business demands.” Inspiration Starts Within “To inspire others, you must first be inspired. Your energy, your spark, comes from operating with purpose—and trust me, people can tell if it’s there or not.” The Wisdom of Acceptance “Modern leadership is about accepting the full spectrum of emotions—joy, fear, grief, and love—and leading with a wisdom that reflects this understanding of human nature.” _________________________ Connect with us: Host: Vince Chan | Guest: Wayland Lum Chief Change Officer: Make Change Ambitiously. Experiential Human Intelligence for Growth Progressives Global Top 3% Podcast on Listen Notes World's #1 Career Podcast on Apple Top 1: US, CA, MX, IE, HU, AT, CH, FI, JP 2.5 Millions+ Downloads 50+ Countries

Hi everyone, welcome to our show Chief Change Officer. I'm Vince Chen, your ambitious human host. I'll show it is a modernist community for change progressives in organizational and human transformation from around the world. Today's guest is from Austin, Texas, in the United States, Wayland Long. His career in HR has nothing short of remarkable. Back in college, he studied industrial and organizational psychology. Then, after graduation, he worked at some of the biggest and most influential institutions in the world, including the highest valued company of the present day, NVIDIA, and global organizational consulting firm, CoinFerry.

He also spent eight years in Chicago and London at Chicago Booth School of Business, helping MBA students shape their career futures. Now he's in Texas, running his own leadership practice. On this show, we'll explore three areas of interest. First, his career evolution from big corporations to consulting to business school and private practice. Second, the eight principles of modern leadership he creates for his leadership clients. Third, his vision for human and AI coaching partnerships.

Let's get started. Wei Lend, welcome to our show. Finally, I got you on the call with me. Yeah, that was great. Thanks for having me, Vim. I'm looking forward to our conversation. If my memory serves me right, last time we met in person, it was in London. And last time I went to Texas, it was before COVID for South by Southwest.

The time flies, yet I'm happy that we've kept in contact, we've reunited at some point, and now you come to my show to share your wisdom and insights with the audience. Thank you so much. How are you doing? I'm doing well, Vince. Yeah, it's another Balmy day in Austin, Texas. And I'm looking forward to the summer as we chatted about before. So yeah, and also excited to be with you and have a great conversation. Wei-Lan, let's start with your history. Your career in HR has been nothing short of remarkable.

Back in college, you studied industrial and organizational psychology. Then after graduation, you've worked at some of the biggest and most influential institutions in the world, including the highest value company of the present day, NVIDIA, a global organizational consulting firm, CoinFerry. You've even spent eight years in Chicago and London, shaping the careers of MBA students at the top one business school, Chicago Booth. Now you're in Texas, running your own leadership practice. Can you walk us through your career evolution?

Yeah, absolutely. Thanks, Vince. So I think early on, going back to undergrad, I knew early on that I had a desire to meld the disciplines of psychology and business. And so it was a very easy choice for me to study industrial organizational psychology. Did that at San Jose State, go Spartans. And from that experience, launched my career into HR, which got me close to talents, organizational talent, first in Silicon Valley, then high tech, and then more broadly across to New York and then other parts of the country as well.

And I would say, again, the thing that has been a prevailing theme in my career is how to work with and provide value to the best talent in the world. And so if you look at my career trajectory, it's really been a journey and a sort of quest, if you will, to find who those individuals are or those groups of people and be able to work closely with them to really help them to develop their maximum potential and become the now the folks that I have now, the leaders that they're meant to become. And by doing so, we know that the world is more positively impacted and becomes a better place. Here's what I find truly admiring and courageous of you. You've taken the leap from these large,

prestigious organizations to running your own leadership practice. Many people were shying away from that, taking to their comfort zone, the stable paycheck, and the prestige of a big corporate name and a nice business card. But you did not. What was the critical aha moment that let you down this path of building your own practice?

Was there a specific experience that made you think, this is it, I just need to do this. And once you made that decision, how did the transition actually play out? Yeah, so the decision was really many years in the making, and it really started, Vince, as I coach a lot of the leaders that I work with and understand more about them. It really does start with early formative experiences, right? Growing up, when I was thinking about career and stuff, I actually thought I was going to be an artist. Like my dad, he was a graphic artist.

I enjoyed oil painting, using Prisma color drawing, et cetera. And that creativity has always stayed with me. And then when I moved into business psychology, industrial organizational psychology, that creativity and wanting to innovate really manifested itself in, and now this new area of interest for me that became my career. And so I always had that. And when I was at these larger organizations, I felt that I wasn't fully able to express that sort of creativity and maybe perhaps fully work

with leaders in the way that I wanted, which would be much deeper, more transformational and really wanting them to make significant changes in terms of who they were and then in turn make changes in who they were, and then in turn, make changes in who they were as leaders. One thing that I often coach my clients on, and indeed as coaches and consultants, particularly as coaches and leaders, we've got to walk our talk. And so we cannot simply be coaching other leaders on what they may need to do and how they need to change. But we also need to step into our own change ourselves and be held accountable for that.

And so I'd often coach my leaders to be bold, courageous in their decision-making to really go with their intuition, follow their heart, and really step out into the directions in which they believe they need to, they need to go. And when it came down to the fundamental question I asked myself is, Wei, are you going to stay within a large organization, rely on the reputation of this firm, the resources, the beautiful steel and glass building

that you walk into every day and with all the nice facilities and the office environment that you have privilege of having access to, or are you going to go step out and bet on yourself? And when I framed the question like that, Vince, the answer became very clear. I had to go step out and bet on myself, as I would have coached and encouraged my leaders that I work with to do. And I can say that I have not regretted a single moment.

It's been absolutely amazing. I am 200% agreeable with your choice in walking the walk and talking the talk. In a world where a lot of people just talk, a lot of times they talk very, very loud without much substance at all. Walking the walk and talking to talk becomes very precious and courageous.

Unfortunately, it is also something that is silenced by the noise in the world, but that's what makes a true leader. Absolutely agree. You are a coach, yet I'm curious. Have you ever been on the other side of the coaching relationship? What was it like being coached and how has that experience shaped your approach with your own clients today? Yeah, early on in my career, when I was just starting out at HR, I actually did hire a coach for myself and my coach, the reason why I hired him, and this is way

back in the, gosh, early, early 2000s, I wanted to become a coach and therefore I thought a good way to do that would be to get mentorship and be able to learn from a really experienced executive coach. And I remember, I think one of the most important things that he taught me, because he used to continuously push me and say, Waylon, you can do this. You can work with these types of leaders. You can have the type of impact that you want to have with a certain level of leader. And at the time, Vince, I didn't quite believe him or I didn't

feel ready. And that's probably understandable, given I was much younger and didn't have the experience and the tools and I would say even the life experience that I have now. However, that experience of working with him has influenced the way that I develop others. And so I'm always pushing them to be more than what they envision themselves being at this point in time. And I do that with my team and certainly do that with the client leaders that I work with as well. And what I found is that when you have that expectation of people, more often than not, they're able to rise to the occasion and they will become more than they have thought possible.

And that's really awesome to see. I think in terms of coaching, I highly recommend that to anybody and whatever bit of aspect of your life that you might want coaching for. I do encourage you to explore that. Of course, you need to find the right person, the right fit. But I found it for myself to be tremendously rewarding. I still work with some business coaches here and there to help me with thought partnership and just being a good counterpoint or a good thought partner as I think about growing my

own business and also how I am leading others. So. On your LinkedIn profile, you have this statement. We develop modern leaders to face the biggest business challenges. Speaking of leaders, who are the people you typically work with? Can you paint a picture for listeners of the kinds of leaders you quote?

Yeah, absolutely. And that statement talking about walking the talk, then we we develop modern leaders to face their biggest challenges. That is really a derivation also of what the vision of Copperbox is, which is to prepare leaders to confront and address the greatest challenges of our time. And that is both our vision, it's also an aspirational goal that we have for our firm. And it goes beyond the realm of business and into areas such as government, policy, certainly large, big problems that the world faces, such as climate change and

misinformation, loneliness, et cetera. And so that's our aspiration. Now, how do we do that in more sort of purposeful and day-to-day terms is through our work with business leaders. And so one area that we are very focused on and do a lot of work in is private equity and supporting private equity operating companies and their executives. As we know, private equity moves at a very fast pace. Firms have investment theses that they need to achieve and fulfill, and they do that through the talent that they have at their portfolio companies.

A lot of our work is really helping those leaders to quickly identify the areas of their leadership that need to be, the gaps need to be quickly closed and to really partner with them closely at pace in order to do that. What I mean at pace, I really mean on a quarter by quarter basis, which is the cadence of business in general, that's certainly the cadence of business within private equity where they're trying to achieve very specific objectives and goals quarter-by-quarter. You know, we hear the term modern leadership thrown around a lot these days. I was wondering, what does that actually mean to you? How would you define modern in the context of leadership?

Yes, so modern leadership is really about the many demands of a leader today that didn't exist or they didn't have those expectations put upon them even, let's say, four or five years ago, pre-COVID. But in a post-COVID era, and particularly with the challenges that we face today, societal, not to mention in business, right? Modern leadership is required.

And so how I define it, and I know we'll talk in a moment, Vince, about the eight principles, but how I really define it is taking a more timeless view on leadership based on understandings of human nature, based on understandings of patterns that we've seen occur throughout history, and based on an understanding of the, on the ways in which people typically react and respond to different types of stimuli

in their environment. So those are just a few examples, but what we're really looking at here is understanding leaders and leadership and how to lead from a much more systemic point of view. And not simply, oh, I'm interacting with this individual or this group, but really understanding that individual and that group within the context of a system and more timeless principles about how individuals and groups operate.

Yes, your eight principles of modern leadership. I read them all before our call today. I'm so impressed. For example, one of those is nature as majestic teacher. You're right, majestic teacher. You're right, nature serves as a timeless source of wisdom. Wisdom is both ancient and modern. Here's another one. Embrace lives, stages, and seasons. Every person is born, lives, and dies. We have seasons in life. spring, summer, fall, and winter. On this show, unfortunately, we can't go through all those principles in details, but could we explore those a bit? Maybe you could share some real-world examples or stories that illustrate them that you use to help your clients become a modern leader to face, to embrace, and to master the biggest challenges? Yeah, absolutely, Vince.

So the eight principles are our perspective, our copper box, our ethos, if you will, about how we think about modern leadership. So at the end of the day, you must help business leaders achieve their outcomes. And so that is first and foremost. And that being said, working with them is an opportunity to go for transformational change for the leader. And we know that when they achieve transformational change,

when they become stronger leaders, not only in work, but also in different aspects of their life, there is a much more powerful cascading benefit and impact that is much more far reaching. And that's what we want to help them achieve. And so when we think about the eight principles, we have that in mind that it's not simply about business outcomes, but we are confident that when

we help leaders to become more modern, to achieve transformation, inevitably, that is going to have great impact on the businesses that they lead and they run. So when we think about the eight principles, first, really, it does start with getting grounded in core purpose. And there's a lot of talk about purpose.

There's a lot of talk about finding your purpose or finding your why. And in essence, it is where everything starts. Core purpose is understanding both your deeply held values, how you move in the world, what's important to you, what you'll put a stake in the ground for. It's also about the values and gifts that you bring to the world and that you want to use, become your superpowers. And the combination of your values and your gifts are very powerful. And when you're able to combine both of those and then channel that into your purpose, you

really do become unstoppable. So I've seen that in my own life, being able to have the renewed energy to really drive my business and to have the impact on leaders, but I also see that in the lives of others, both my team members and also our clients. And the last thing I'll say about getting grounded

in core purpose is that we talk a lot about inspiration and leadership, but really to be inspirational, getting grounded in core purpose is that we talk a lot about inspiration and leadership, but really to be inspirational, you yourself have to be inspired. And so what is it in the world that inspires you, that gets you up in the morning and how you're able to bring that energy, which by the way, other people can see very quickly whether you have it or not, but as a leader, it is important to have. And so how are you bringing that so therefore those that you lead can also be inspired because

hey, Wayland got a light, an energy, a spark that's being driven deep within and that intrigues me and as my leader, I know that he's operating from a place of a real inspiration, a real purpose and I'm inspired by that. And secondly, it's interesting because I've found time and again, and this is very consistent across organizations, is that leaders certainly they've got big titles, right? We work with leaders that have really big titles, really big roles, but they sometimes see leadership as a responsibility as opposed to a choice. And what I mean by that is, yeah, there are responsibilities to leadership,

but leadership really starts with the choice. And so we talk about picking up the torch of leadership. And picking up the torch is a conscious choice. And there's two things to that. When you pick up the torch, you can choice. And there's two things to that. When you pick up the torch, you can certainly, and it's a great metaphor, you can light the way for others as a torchbearer. But at the same time, if you pick up the torch, there is a bit of playing with fire and you can get burned.

So you understand that as a leader. There is going to be a certain level of personal discomfort. There's going to be sacrifice. If you're not sacrificing, then there's an aspect of leadership there's that is about sacrifice. So I would argue if you're not sacrificing, then there's not full or true display of leadership on your part, because if you didn't have to sacrifice, it'd be easy and leadership isn't easy.

And so I'm picking up the torch, I think is really critically important and making that decision for every leader is this first step. And I guess the last thing I'll say about picking up the torch is leadership can be scary. I've found myself fearful in different situations and just had to clench my teeth and move forward. But I think one thing perhaps maybe might be comforting to leaders or at least a good reminder of what you're there for and why you're there is that fear is a precursor to courage. So these two aspects of the human condition,

they always appear in that order. You do not get courage without first experiencing fear. And so as you understand that, when you understand yourself in those kinds of situations, you understand that you're probably in the places that you need to be making the decisions that you need to be making, and that's leadership. Wow, as I was listening to you,

two things really jumped out at me. First, you hit on this idea that leadership is a choice. That actually takes me back to my days at Chicago Booth. There was this professor, Linda Ginzel, who used to drill that idea into our heads constantly. Leadership is a choice, she would say. And hearing what you talk, it's clear that idea really lines up with what you're describing. The other thing that struck me was your take on fear and courage. It reminds me of this animated movie, Inside Out. Have you seen it yourselves? They just released the sequel.

The movie is all about human emotion. And there's this interesting dynamic between joy and sadness in the movie. At first, they seem like totally opposites, right? But as the story unfolds, you start to see how they are actually connected. The big lesson is that you can't really appreciate joy if you've never experienced sadness. I see a similar principle in what you are saying about fear and courage. I see a similar principle in what you are saying about fear and courage. They are not as separate as we might think. They are two sides of the same coin, each one giving meaning to the other. Does that resonate with what you're getting at?

Yeah, so it's Vincent. I love what you're sharing here. And actually, I need to catch that movie myself. I've been meaning to do that because I've been hearing such great things. And when it comes to these, these sort of like these emotions that are juxtaposed or two sides of the same coin, it's a good lesson for us as leaders generally speaking. You know, another one, as I was listening to you, that comes to mind is love. For example, love that you have for somebody else.

A deep love. And with deep love can also come profound grief, right? When losing a loved one, let's say. And so these strong emotions and the best of the emotions that you can experience in the world, such as joy, such as love, they do come with also other profound emotions that can also be at times devastating in one's life, right? Understanding both of those things, accepting that and going seeking love out anyways, or

wanting to be joyful, knowing that there'll be days when there will be profound sadness and understanding and accepting that I think is a bit of wisdom that that we're talking about here in terms of modern leadership because it's really an understanding of human nature both the human experience for oneself but also for others. Wayland has left us so much to reflect on and explore. Thank you so much for joining us today. If you like what you heard, don't forget to subscribe to our show, leave us top-rated reviews, check out our website, and follow me on social media. I'm Vince Chen, your ambitious human host.

Until next time, take care.