Our Archive

Blog Archives

Dropinceo > Blog > the ceo's compass

Guest Writer: JL Heather

The Innovation Toolkit: Key Strategies Every CEO Should Know

Media3L is the media arm of The Drop In CEO Brand which stands for Lift, Light and Lead. I like to shine a “Light” on valued partners in my network for which I have the pleasure of knowing JL Heather, Managing Partner and Principle Executive Coach at Centered. Enjoy his through leadership on Innovation and I encourage you to reach out to him and add him as a valuable resource to your network!

Innovation is the lifeblood of long-term success. Yet for many organizations, it remains elusive—a buzzword that sounds great in strategy meetings but struggles to deliver tangible results. Why? Because innovation isn’t a single initiative or a job title. It’s a system—a series of deliberate, interconnected actions that foster creativity, collaboration, and execution.

As a CEO, your role is to ensure that system works. It’s not about micromanaging ideas or dictating solutions; it’s about creating the conditions for innovation to thrive. Based on what we’ve seen at Centered, here are three key strategies to drive real impact from your innovation programs.

1. Understand Your Organization’s Innovation Readiness

Before you can foster innovation, you need to know where your organization stands. Are your teams aligned around shared goals? Do they have the resources, autonomy, and psychological safety to explore new ideas? Understanding these dynamics is critical, yet many leaders skip this step and dive straight into initiatives without assessing their starting point.

Take the time to evaluate your organization’s innovation readiness. Look at the alignment of your culture, processes, and leadership behaviors. Ask tough questions: Are teams encouraged to experiment, or is failure quietly punished? Do your systems and structures make collaboration seamless or stifle it? Knowing these answers helps you identify where to focus and how to unlock your teams’ potential.

2. Embrace Agile Problem-Solving Frameworks

Innovation isn’t a linear process. It’s iterative, messy, and often requires rapid adaptation. To move fast without breaking the wrong things, CEOs should champion frameworks that encourage structured experimentation, such as design thinking or agile methodologies.

These approaches allow teams to prototype, test, and refine ideas quickly, reducing the risk of overinvesting in solutions that don’t work. By embedding agile problem-solving into your organization, you create a culture of progress over perfection—a mindset that helps teams focus on outcomes rather than bureaucracy. Encourage experimentation, celebrate learning from failure, and model the value of adaptability.

A great way to dive in is with a Design Sprint!

3. Build a Leadership Culture That Enables Innovation

Innovation thrives when leadership inspires it. As a CEO, your behavior sets the tone for how teams approach risk, collaboration, and creativity. Are you creating space for exploration, or are your priorities sending a message that execution always outweighs experimentation?

Focus on building a leadership culture that balances vision and trust. Ensure your leaders know how to foster collaboration across silos, encourage open dialogue, and provide psychological safety for teams to take smart risks. Invest in developing leaders who can empower their teams and remove barriers, rather than micromanaging outcomes.

Your Role as the Innovation Enabler

As a CEO, you don’t have to be the source of the best ideas—but you do need to create the conditions for those ideas to emerge. This means understanding where your organization is today, equipping teams with the right frameworks to move forward, and setting a leadership example that prioritizes growth, experimentation, and adaptability.

Innovation isn’t just about big, flashy ideas; it’s about building the systems and practices that make creativity a repeatable, scalable process.  By focusing on readiness, agility, and leadership, you can build a system that delivers innovation not as a one-time win but as a repeatable, scalable process.

The question isn’t whether your organization can innovate—it’s whether you’re building the system to make it inevitable.

About Centered

At Centered, we empower your organization to innovate boldly.

By fostering a culture of experimentation, inspiring leadership, and building high-performing teams, we ensure your business continually adapts and thrives in a changing world.

Comments

 

 

 

Read More

Ban Two-Way Communication and Adopt Two-Way Understanding

When my husband announced we would have new hardwood floors & carpeting on the 2nd floor in our home, I was elated with the change. When my entire world was disrupted that Monday and had to re-arrange all my plans, I did not respond well. What happened? My husband communicated the change. He gave me the details of what to expect. He was frustrated we did not appreciate the process for which I felt really bad. The breakdown came because communication fails when we don’t have two-way understanding of the impact. Let me share more so you don’t make the same mistake in business.

Leaders cascade initiatives and deploy change agents so communications happen throughout the organization. The presentation is polished, videos are recorded and townhalls arranged in hopes that the organization understands the impact. The key word is “Hope”. Where leaders fall short is they invest the communication and not on the outcome of understanding.

A few ideas that can help a leader though this issue to avoid conflict, irritation and dissention among the rank and file.

Invest in Understanding as the outcome of what you’re trying to achieve. The communication is simply the vehicle towards understanding.

  • Ensure you cascade in detail the change and the expected impact
  • Ask people if they can articulate the impact to their work; confirming understanding.
  • Ask people to raise issues associated with the event that were not considered and with open discussion, you can ease the tension.

It’s not rocket science, but when we ask people to think in terms of outcomes and impacts from the end user perspective, we realize we have a lot to learn about communication. Remember the telephone game where what starts out as one message is degraded by the time it gets to the last person.

As leaders we have a responsibility to assure that what we communicate is understood; else we fail to be leaders.

Getting back to my situation; I was banned from my office for two days and could not function in a noisy home that transcended all three floors. There was no escape, so I needed to adapt. I found work arounds, including my basement for which I was able to continue doing business. I later recorded a video thinking I had a virtual background that later failed and I was recording my basement background! How embarrassing, but it added to the humor of the situation and I might say a fun recording!

The next time you have to communicate, change your mindset that you’re in the business of effecting understanding for a better outcome!

If you’d like to discuss how we can build this competency into your team, let’s talk!

Until then, wishing you better Two-Way Understanding!

-Deb

Read More

CLARITY AMIDST CHAOS HELPS US AVERT CRISIS

When a CEO calls me to discuss a potential challenge, I run towards that opportunity with all the energy I can. You see, I can see that CEO in ways they cannot imagine. All I want to do is rush into the chaos to gain the clarity they are seeking to avoid the crisis that is looming.

In full transparency, let me share with you how I operate and if you’re my CEO who is in the same place, read on to see if you want to work with me!

Step 1: Listen to the CEO, but dig deeper

The CEO provides much insight into their world and often advices where they think the problem is. This is very helpful, but please know you commission me to see what you cannot see. I’ll validate your concerns, but I’m going to give you the systemic conditions that need to be addressed as well.

Step 2: Give you more than what you asked for

You see, I believe in providing tremendous value and see the world from the CEO perspective. Yes, we will “whack-a-mole” in what is obvious. I will also look at your landscape with lenses in Quality, Operational Efficiency & Waste, Environmental Health & Safety, Food Safety and Leadership. Be ready for a systemic implementation approach whether you hire me or not

Step 3: Distill the information into consumable and actionable chunks.

Life is complex, but feedback should not be. I will give it to you straight leveraging the SWOT approach and reveal or confirm what are your organizational Strengths and Opportunities. You can accomplish so much more by leveraging these insights than the Weaknesses and Threats. When it comes to the bad stuff (sad face), I position it so it focuses on Conditions & Management Practices. Fix those deeper issues and you fix it through-out the organization. You may not like what I say or become defensive, but you, the CEO hired me to show you the way, not what you want to hear

Step 4: Deliver with Gratitude

Maybe this should have been Step 2 or 3, but just know throughout the process, I am in deep gratitude to you for giving me the opportunity to see your world and help you navigate the challenges. I will use my 35 years experience to provide my best insights, but I will never give you my 5 step approach because it simply will not work. You and your organization are unique and like a surgeon, will apply the specific cure for your situation.

Step5: It’s a partnership

I care about you as a person and your organization that you take so much pride in. We collaborate on the insights and prioritize together; walking arm in arm. I’m in it for the long game as are you and I simply want to see you succeed.

So, this piece today was inspired by an amazing conversation I had with a CEO and VP yesterday and validate to me the work I’m best suited to do as The Drop In CEO.

If you are having a feeling in your gut that the near term chaos may manifest into a crisis without your leadership, act now and trust yourself. A partner such as The Drop In CEO may be who and what you need to elevate your leadership, shine a light on the people in your organization and solidify your Legacy.

Let’s talk!

-Deb

Read More

Media Matters: When the Audible Word is More Powerful Than the Written Word

I wrote “The CEO’s Compass: Your Guide to Get Back on Track” to lift up CEO’s by exploring their Hero’s Journey through the unknown, guiding them to their own Peace of Mind in 2021.

I was so grateful when it came out to share autographed copies and seeing the book sales in Amazon and other outlets. I thought I had hit the big times and then someone said to me, ‘is it available on audio?’ and then I realized I fell short of meeting my audiences needs.

The same thing goes for business; when leaders think the presentation or the email is enough to cascade a proclamation; I would say they miss the mark in communication and truly influencing an outcome. When a leader shows up with their voice and intonation, we connect with humanity on a different level. Know your market and communicate accordingly!

That is why I’m announcing that starting tomorrow, I am recording the audiobook for The CEO’s Compass and can’t wait to get it to my audience who prefers my voice. Yes, Deb’s voice will read the book in a way that I hope connects with you intellectually and emotionally; ultimately leading to Peace of Mind.

I’m excited to partner with David Wolf and his team at Audivita Studios | Audiobooks | Podcasts for this new media offer.

Anyone wishing to advocate for this offer, please DM me and I’ll share with you the marketing details.

Many thanks for everyone who has supported me along the way and for those who come knocking on my door in the future, I thank you in advance as well.

-Deb

Read More
Photo by Tim Mossholder: https://www.pexels.com/photo/help-wanted-sign-on-glass-5737622/

Help Wanted: Ideal Clients, all others need not apply…

Job Title: Ideal Client

Job Description: You must be a highly aware leader who is open to new ideas and responds to your gut when you know you need some help. The perfect client is one that sees the landscape changing and realizes that unless you course correct now, you will sink the ship and everyone in it. With this important responsibility, you must also be people centric; knowing that with any improvements, you must also improve the capability and capacity of your team. If you don’t move fast, they will sink the ship for you. Finally, you are keenly customer focused and everything you do is in service to them and everyone has their back whether it is quality, service or safety. Cost is secondary.

Additional Qualities: You’ve come to a cross road where you know you can only see the trees and that’s okay. You realize you need an external view to give you the perspective of the long term strategy needed to not only fix your concerns, but manage them sustainably. That takes a trusted partner whether you call them a Consultant, Advisor, Fractional Leader or a new category, a Drop In CEO who will partner with you during this time.

Desired Skills: An open mind, agility, strategic thinker, good listener, good communicator, steadfastness for the greater good and always seeking to improve themselves and the people in their care.

Fine print: This is not a pitch for services, but a humorous attempt to get you to think differently about yourself and how you lead. I do of course want to work with my ideal client and have those tremendous feelings of vibrating off their energy and achieving amazing results. But it’s also a message to CEO’s/Presidents/CxO’s to assess if you would be an ideal client for someone who might be able to support you during a challenging time.

How to apply: We are an equal opportunity employer of The Ideal Client and seek diversity in all aspects of your thinking, background, culture and leadership. We do not discern with physical attributes, but for those who are diverse in all other aspects. Reach out to us at deborah@coviellocm.com or DM me on Linkedin or my website; I’m here 24/7 and ready to take your call!

And until we meet and discuss how we can partner, I wish you well and much success in applying for your next opportunity!

-Deb

Read More
Photo by Kelvin Valerio: https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-wearing-black-cap-with-eyes-closed-under-cloudy-sky-810775/

The New CEO Playbook: Stop Chasing Results and Start Pursuing Peace of Mind!

“Managing Up” became my tool of choice to connect with this C-Suite Leader and align on the challenges and the treatment going forward.

Once we aligned on a go-forward game plan, they came into my ecosystem again and quickly realized we lacked some fundamental ways of working and accessible resources to move the initiative forward.

Once they could observe first hand the conditions were not conducive to getting the desired result, their leadership came through to address the conditions.

The change in their energy and the clarity that came to the team on next steps forward were magical!

By addressing the conditions that were barriers of progress, we may have solved this issue and many others; ultimately getting to more efficient, effective and sustainable results.

When I saw the clarity in the team and an action that made sense, I was starting to feel peace of mind we would get to a better place.

I can only hope that with time and “Managing Up”, this leader will also see and feel “Peace of Mind”, where barriers are broken down and the team can operate at top performance. In doing so, the customers will gain back trust.

So why do leaders still use the old playbook? Maybe they know no other way? Maybe they trust it so much that if they push harder, it will still work? That’s insanity as we know it and only the highly aware leader will pursue a different way of working.

In recent weeks, several of you have come to me, sharing your challenges. I am grateful for those relationships and trust. But when I called “BS” on their thinking, I jolted them into realizing they were creating their own chaos and could not see a better way.

In one case, I told the person that they are the CEO even though not in title. It was on them to act and behave that way because others needed their leadership.

In other case, the person was making course corrections in their career. They were pursuing the same line of work when I showed them it was not for them. They focused on the past playbook to deliver in the future. Instead I said to focus on what they’re amazing at and differentiating than the rest. Only then, will they achieve peace of mind in pursuit of purposeful work.

For those who don’t trust yourself or think they don’t need a partner, I wish you well living “Groundhog day”.

For those who are highly aware leaders knowing the old playbook doesn’t work, let’s talk.

I sincerely care about you and I want to see you succeed. Until then, I wish you well!

-Deb

Read More

The Demise of Leaders When They Persist In Using The Same Playbook

You know I’m talking to you; you’re amazing at your leadership and have ascended the ranks and praised for your results. But now you’re in chaos; maybe even crisis and you wonder what has changed? I’ll tell you… the conditions, the unplanned for risks and even loss of a key leader are things you didn’t plan for, so who’s to blame? Quite frankly, I find it is the leader who persists with the same playbook with different conditions and expects the same result. Time to reflect on your own leadership or else it will be your demise.

Pro Tip:

  • Pause and reflect on your leadership style. Does it need to change? Do you need to adopt a new mindset that may require leaning on the help of others or bring in experts. Unless you move to being highly aware of yourself, then nothing will change your circumstances
  • Assess if you’ve been leading towards results or outcomes. Those that pursue results are destined to relive the cycle of missing the targets and then beating the teams into getting the results. That’s not leadership. When we lead with purpose and ask teams how can they achieve certain outcomes, you leverage the collective creativity of your team to solve bigger issues, not short sighted results that undisciplined leaders focus on.
  • Close the internal gaps within your teams and unleash their potential. When you focus on the human capacity, capability and confidence, they will achieve more. These are also leading indicators of future success. Look also at the interactions of team members or organizations and coach their ways of working and service level agreements. When you close gaps in the human dimension, you set the stage for sustainably reaching your results.

These are simple to say, but without the right mindset and behaviors, leaders are unable to change the cycle of going into chaos because they’re playbook is incomplete or they need a new one. I’m curious if you agree or have alternative views. I’ve had people say sometimes external factors “force” leaders to behave in certain ways. I get that, but I wonder then are these the organizations we as leaders should be working in? I’m not saying we should quite tough organizations, but then leaders need to have the courage to focus on changing the culture and show true leadership or else seek a different environment where they can use the same ole playbook and claim success.

The greater outcome is to reflect upon our leadership and ask if we were truly meant to lead. If yes, do you have the courage to try a new playbook?

If you’re curious or would like to dialog around this, let’s talk.

I’m forever in service to you and wish you much success-Deb


Read More

Infinity Days: Gifted Time and How to Create the Most of it!

Raise of hands, how may of you have waken up at 2:00, 3:00 or 4:00 am wide away give into the fact you’re not going back to bed?!

I call these “Infinity Days” and in essence creating the “25 hour” day. With my additional hours and clarity of mind, I cherish these days vs. feeling doomed due to lack of sleep. Thus has been my good fortune this last week and wanted to share how I’ve leveraged the treasured Gift of Time!

Full transparency here, I’m going through a major well being journey and between the change in my diet, supplements and well-being focused, I think my body chemistry is evolving for the better. With these changes has come deeper sleep; thus needing less. When I wake, I’m “buzzy” and I can’t create enough lists to keep up with what I wanted to do. Until recently, I never fully committed to my well-being, but I knew it was foundational. Once committed, the side effects of alertness and clarity came with. My advise to you is clear the clutter, focus on what is important to you, trust the process and realize abundant energy.

It goes without saying, I’ve organized every draw & closet that I seamlessly ignored for years. I’m in full baking mode; leaning into my creative endeavors and a need to nourish all who comes across my doorstep. I’ve even endeavored in some home decorating, moving from simple surroundings to creative embellishments. While the home is springing to life again, it’s the purposeful work that is really taking off.

Up until now, there was projects I needed to complete, but I’d often procrastinate to the last minute. With a few extra hours in the day, I now plan the work more methodically and enabled by the removal of clutter from my day. Disciplined in email management, cautious to not overbook, delay what is not important and only focus on value added work has been life changing. The gift of time has allowed me to enter into each day without stress.

Another thing that has come that I’d been long awaiting: the return of my voracious need to create through Speaking, Writing and Podcasting. I’m creating strategies to network with more people to create opportunities to speak more, write more and even start a new Podcast Series called: “Chambers Across America: Elevating the American Dream”. Stay tuned for this new endeavor.

I’d like to now share how I lean into an “Infinity Day” and a few ideas for you to create the same experience.

Caution: I’m not advocating for you to set your alarm to 2:00 am to create an “Infinity Day”. I’m advocating for you to recognize these days where you have the gift of time and how to maximize it!

  • Clear your calendar of all unnecessary events or activities.
  • Only do deep email management 1 time per day. The rest of your day should only be to scan and file for when you have the time do to the deep work.
  • Where passive participation is required in a virtual meeting; stay engaged, but consider doing something that requires no attention and check a personal chore off your list
  • Be sure to balance your “to do” list with career / business and personal tasks. You want to end your day with joy knowing you invested in yourself as much if not more than your work.
  • Take planned breaks. If you have the gift of time and are knocking it out of the ballpark, taking 5-10 minutes to re-energize will allow yourself to keep up the productive pace.
  • Eat & Drink well. The body is a well-oiled machine and needs nourishment as well as for your brain to maintain clarity.

The gift of an “Infinity Day” is not to be taken lightly. It’s a gift and it’s up to you how to leverage it to fulfill yourself and to also give back to others.

Wishing you well and hope you have a pleasant and productive day!-Deb

Read More

Pursuing Outcomes vs Chasing Outputs Can Bring You Peace of Mind

Society distills what we do down to agendas, action items and report outs; leaving very little to the human element. While we talk about change management, stakeholder engagement and team building are vehicles to help humans move through a project, they fall short of making a deep connection needed for sustainable results. I’m talking about the difference between Outcomes and Outputs for which we need to dig deeper and why we need to shift our focus achieve a Strategic Advantage in your work.

To illustrate this point, I had an opportunity to engage with a senior leader and get a particular result for my initiative; aka the output. I had my agenda and prepped what I wanted to achieve. Through our engagement, I got what I needed, but not before I realized there was something deeper that needed to be achieved. This leader was struggling with their messaging to move forward their strategic initiative. I realized they needed my superpower of deep listening to reframe what they said into something that was concise and messaged what needed to be said.

We took a moment to discover the disconnected thoughts and after they spoke at length, I played back what I heard and the enrichment that was needed to present a strong message. As soon as I delivered this to the leader, I immediately saw calm in their face and body. I was able to say what he’s been needing to say in a way that made sense. The outcome of this interaction was Peace of Mind for this individual. I also became a trusted partner for them in the future; for tasks unknown.

I could have stopped at the output of my agenda to get their support on my initiative. Instead, I carved out enough time to build a trusting relationship for which that outcome is far more important and may now be a strategic advantage for me for the next initiative or to support this leader.

The point is that we are rewarded daily for results, transactions and executing on an agenda. This behavior is short sighted and while necessary does not achieve sustainable results nor achieve outcomes that pay higher rewards. How do we balance the two and evolve our behavior and leadership? Ultimately, aren’t we in pursuit of Peace of Mind? The image on this article should be what we’re striving for through these insights both for ourselves and those we serve.

Actionable Tips for Strategic Advantage and Achieve Peace of Mind

Start with the outcome you want to achieve. Could it be to build a relationship, establish trust, or finding ways to build a long term partnership. This is the ultimate focus of your efforts and success criteria

Continue with your tactical agenda, but be open to not completing it in favor of achieving your Outcomes

Change your mindset on what does success look like. No one will remember you for the action item you completed. You will be memorable the relationships you establish and outcomes you achieve. Think about it.

I hope you found this article helpful. If you have a situation that is unique that you want a better outcome, I’m happy to talk you through it in a complimentary 15 minute conversation to help you to achieve a better outcome!

Read More

How a disastrous pantry helped clean my soul!

Okay, what do you see in this picture? It’s unfortunately the result of me cleaning out my pantry after a few years and realizing how far I had let it get cluttered. I’m also frustrated with myself because of the neglect. What you don’t also see are the numerous draws and cabinets that followed the same decluttering all in the same July 4th weekend. I’m proud that I did the work and have a clean slate for our family and for my soul. But what else happened that weekend is the real story…

Why did the kitchen get so cluttered? Because there are closed doors. When the doors are closed, the world sees a clean kitchen. I focused on the window dressing for the last few years and quietly ignored the clutter that was building up behind the scenes. I got accustomed to moving things around to find what I needed and was not incentivized to do much more. Sound familiar?

I also was putting on a facade of taking care of myself and my well-being. I know I’ve been on a journey that has made me look better on the outside. Many of you have commented about my transformation. But behind the facade, there was still clutter and a lack of commitment to lose weight. I’m quite healthy, so there was no urgency to change. However, building up inside was clutter that I was not proud of. I’m pleased to say given now the clean kitchen inside and out, I’m also decluttering my body both outside and inside. Stay tuned for more changes.

Turning now to you, I pose a few questions for you to ponder:

  • Do have a great life, but maybe you are still uncertain about the future?
  • Did you recently take a vacation, but really didn’t fully relax and feel renewed?
  • Do you have everything you need, but still worry about financial security?
  • Do you have a closet or draw you’ve been meaning to clean up, but procrastinate?
  • Could it be you’ve worked hard to be a better You, but fall short of fulfilling your soul?

The theme is falling short of truly committing to yourself and until you think about that gap between great and being fulfilled, you may never feel like you’ve decluttered your life.

Take a look at my kitchen again and can you see the clutter that may still hold you back from feeling amazing?

My advice to you: Take one draw, one cabinet, one car, one plant, one pile and clean it up. In the process, your mind will be clear or it might wander. I promise you by the time you clean up the 1st, the 2nd and the 10th thing in your surroundings, you’ll cleanse your soul and maybe find a path to fulfillment in other areas.

Let me know if you tried this and what came to you as a result of the process.

For me, I have a clean kitchen and when I get back from my business trip, the huge pile of photographs may finally get organized! I’m also focused on an evolved branding campaign and an intense weight loss program. I’ll show you pictures of my progress! I’d love to see yours after you take the first step!

Until then, happy cleaning!

-Deb

Read More