Leadership Development: Strategies for Sustaining Growth and Adaptability

In this episode of 'Bring Out the Talent,' we are joined by Phil Cicio, a seasoned TTA consultant and Leadership Development expert. Join us as we discuss our off-the-shelf comprehensive leadership development programs – ‘Strategies for Sustaining Growth and Adaptability.’ These leadership development programs are specifically designed to empower new and emerging leaders, and mid-level leaders.

 These impactful programs are founded on real-world success and experience in cultivating leaders across diverse industries and organizational sizes. They are aimed at enhancing leadership skills and unlocking the full potential of individuals who are poised to make a significant impact in their organizations. With a global reach, TTA's leadership development programs have been implemented in 47 countries, engaging over 1.74 million participants.

 Wherever you are in your leadership journey, this episode is sure to provide you with valuable insights to help you chart your path to leadership success.

Chapters

• 0:00 GMT20240529-150738_Recording
• 1:56 Marker
• 41:27 Marker

Transcript

Jocelyn Allen:

 Oh, it's going to be a good one today, folks. Can you tell?

Maria Melfa:

 Yes, we're a little rusty, so bear with us today. Feeling a little loopy. Talking about an extremely important topic that I believe touches upon everybody because we're talking about leadership. Leadership is not just for the person in the corner office anymore. It's for everyone, right?

Jocelyn Allen:

 Sure is. And if I do say so, I think this particular leadership episode has like a little bit of a certain special something to it because we're revisiting with our old pal Phil Cicio. But we're here to talk about TTA and Phil Cicio—the leadership program and our tactics for making sure that your people, because it's about people like Maria just said, are on the path of growth and sustainability. So we're thrilled to have Phil back and to talk to you today about some things that are going on.

Can you share with us a brief overview of the programs that you've curated with us and what it means to you? What is the vision behind the two programs that we have, which is New and Emerging and Mid-Level Leaders?

Phil Cicio:

 Well, a couple of things that are really important. You said something in your opening, Jocelyn, that I think is important—allowing or giving tools to leaders in order to be able to help them to develop their leaders and develop their organization. And these tools, right? You can give them to leaders, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're going to use them...

Phil Cicio:

...And so most of the leadership development training that I've been to, that I've seen out there, it's good. And the tools are good, right? I don't want to say that they're not. However, even though you have the tools, it doesn't mean that you as a leader are going to actually use those, right?

There's knowing what to do—and then actually doing what you know.

And so that's because most of the leadership development training out there is kind of surface level, right? It shares ideas and concepts and tools, but it doesn’t really get to the part that's most important—getting inside that leader to get them to make a transformation. Development and transformation comes from the inside out, not the outside in.

And this program—and all the programs that we put together here within the program—are all about that. Starting from the inside-out approach to leadership, rather than the surface level.

In today's world, people are looking for a different type of leader. Maybe a decade or two ago, you could come in and you could be a boss and a manager. Today, people aren't looking for that. They don’t want to be told what to do—they want to be inspired to do what’s necessary to grow within the organization and help it grow.

It’s changed quite a bit. Most organizations, back when I first got my leadership position, were about profitability. And although that’s still really important, that should be a byproduct of great people led by great leaders.

The difference is—can we inspire leaders to be better people and better people leaders? If we can do that, we're going to have great impact.

Phil Cicio:

 In all of the leadership development training that I've done, I rarely go into a group where I would actually say, “These people are leading from the inside out.” They’re typically managing people—task-driven leadership. And it’s not because they don’t have the ability, but more than likely it’s because that’s how they were taught.

They were led by a boss or a manager, so they became a boss or a manager. Maybe their title says they're a leader, but that doesn’t mean they’re really leading—because people may not be following them.

What I’ve found is that most people with leadership titles aren’t actually being followed. You can go into any organization and find people without a leadership title that everyone’s following. Why?

What’s the difference? Why are they following someone without a title and not the person who has it?

They might be doing things for that titled person because they have to. But they’re not following them.

There’s a different component, a different set of character traits, required to be the kind of person people want to follow.

If you walked into a room and said, “Follow me,” what would your people think?

• “Oh no, here we go again.”
• “Are we in trouble?”
• “Where are we going?”

Or… would they simply get up and follow you because they trust you, believe in you, and know you know where you’re going—even if they don’t?

That’s what leadership is about.

Phil Cicio:

 And to learn that—it’s not just about having the tools to give feedback or motivate people. It’s about connecting with them intrinsically, internally. Motivating them to come to work for something other than money and benefits.

Because most people today—according to most of the studies I’ve seen—more than 80% are just trading their time for money and benefits. And you’ll get out of them what they believe that money and benefits are worth. No more.

And most people don’t believe it’s worth enough—so you won’t get enough out of them.

If you want to get the most out of people, you have to inspire them to come to work for something more intrinsic. A sense of purpose. Meaning in their work.

Today’s employees are looking for that. They want to go home knowing they’re making a difference.

This program is about starting from the inside out, not the outside in—like most others. That’s a key distinction.

Maria Melfa:

 It’s a great analogy—whether your people would actually follow you out the door. And it’s true. People are looking for more than just a paycheck. They want to feel a sense of belonging, to feel like they’re making a difference—more than ever.

It used to be that you’d only hear that from mid-career professionals. Now, you see it from younger people right out of the gate—they want to be somewhere they can make an impact.

Phil Cicio:

 Yeah, especially the younger generation. I’m seeing it more and more.

I’ve spoken to thousands of people, young and old. The young people today—they’re not money-driven. They want to be inspired. And if you’re not doing that, they’ll go find someone else to follow—or they’ll become that kind of leader themselves.

Phil Cicio:

 The command and control approach doesn’t work anymore. Now, I know there are moments when it’s necessary—in a crisis, against a deadline, absolutely. But that can’t be your default setting.

Your default as a leader has to be about motivating people internally, not externally. You can only offer so much money, time off, or perks. Those things are limited.

People have untapped potential waiting to be expressed—but they’ll only express it if they’re inspired by something greater than themselves.

I’ll always do more for my family or others than I’ll ever do for myself. That’s true for most people. So leaders need to help their people connect with that greater purpose.

Here’s an example. I recently worked with a Fortune 100 company. Over several months, we brought in groups of 30–50 leaders at a time.

And I asked the same question every time:

“Do you know your company’s mission statement? Can you even paraphrase it?”

Not one person could answer. Out of hundreds of mid-level leaders—barely a handful could even get close.

So then why are they coming to work?

 They’re trading time for money and benefits.

And if those leaders don’t know the mission, I guarantee their teams don’t either.

Maria Melfa:

 Exactly. If you don’t even know why you’re coming to work—it’s hard to expect exceptional performance. Especially when challenges come up. People start asking, “Is this even worth it?”

Phil Cicio:

 Right. But if they understand the bigger “why”—they can say, “Yeah, this is hard, but it’s worth it.”

When a leader helps someone connect to the mission, performance improves. But if the only motivation is a paycheck, people will always ask if what they’re doing is worth it—and often decide it’s not.

Phil Cicio:

 So again, it's not the fault of these mid-level leaders that they don’t know the mission. It’s that the message isn’t being impressed upon them consistently by senior leadership. It’s not compelling enough. And if it’s not compelling to you, how can you motivate others?

You can’t lead people to do exceptional work when they have no idea why they’re doing the work in the first place.

Great leaders push beyond external motivation. They focus on intrinsic drivers—purpose, meaning, connection.

Yes, tools are important—how to give feedback, how to coach—but that’s surface level. This program goes beneath that. That’s what excites me, Jocelyn—if that’s what you were asking.

Jocelyn Allen:

 It was. Yes. No, absolutely. And you’ve got me excited again too!

I love the people-centric aspect of leadership development. It really energizes me—because that’s where I thrive: human connection, relationship-building.

And that’s what’s special about this program—it’s story-driven. From the moment we meet a client, we ask them to tell us their story. That’s how we uncover what they really need. We build the experience around that story, and we share it with their people.

Learning, needs assessments, leadership—it’s all rooted in storytelling. It’s how people connect.

Can you walk us through some of the key focus areas within the two programs that you feel are especially impactful?

Phil Cicio:

 Yeah. So we have two tracks—one for New and Emerging Leaders, and one for Mid-Level Leaders. Even those not in a leadership role yet but who aspire to be—that first track is for them.

In the New and Emerging Leader program, we cover the fundamentals of leadership. The goal is to move beyond just management. Yes, there’s management involved, especially for those in entry-level roles, but leadership is about more than tasks—it’s about transformation.

We’ve designed this to take people through a three-tiered journey, each building on the next. And at the third level, we’re digging into strategy, potential, behavior—understanding what drives people and how to activate that.

Phil Cicio:

 At the third tier, we’re really talking about leading at a strategic level—pulling the best out of people, understanding how behavior works, and how to grow people to grow the business.

Because that’s always been my philosophy:

If you want to grow your organization, you have to first grow your people.

Leadership development is just that—growth. And not just growth in management skills, but in who you are as a person.

I get so many testimonials from participants who say, “This didn’t just make me a better leader—it made me a better person.”

You can care about people without leading them.

 But you can never lead people if you don’t care about them.

That’s what we emphasize in this program: empathy, caring, trust. These are not “soft skills.” These are human skills, and they’re critical.

Now, I know there are leaders who will say, “Yeah, yeah, but I need to get things done. I’ve got deadlines. I don’t have time to focus on belonging and purpose.”

That approach—command and control—can work in the short term. But it will lead to attrition, disengagement, and a team that doesn’t believe they belong.

Jocelyn Allen:

 So true. And I love that you’re getting into connection at a psychological level.

This isn’t just about theory. It’s biological—how we’re wired as humans.

Phil Cicio:

 Exactly. There are two primal needs that all humans have:

1. A sense of belonging
2. A sense of security

And as a leader, if your people don’t feel like they belong, and don’t feel safe, they will not perform at their best.

Phil Cicio:

 Let me explain why that matters.

Your brain’s number one job is survival. It’s constantly scanning to avoid danger. If your brain senses that your security is threatened at work—say, because your leader doesn’t trust you—it sends signals to protect yourself.

Now, it doesn’t know it’s “just a job.” Your brain treats it like life or death. It activates defense mode, and suddenly you’re not taking risks, not speaking up, not innovating—you’re just surviving.

Same thing with belonging. If you don’t feel like you belong on a team, your brain reacts like you’ve been exiled from the tribe. That’s how deep it goes. You become restricted. You hold back. You protect your place instead of growing into your potential.

That’s what command-and-control leadership creates: restriction.

We want people to feel safe, connected, and empowered. That’s when they express their full potential.

I always give the example of being micromanaged. If you’ve ever had a micromanager, you know what happens. You start second-guessing everything. You play it safe. You don’t feel trusted—so you’re not going to give your best.

You’re restricted.

A leader’s job is to remove that restriction. Let people feel free to ask questions, to challenge ideas, to explore.

Maria Melfa:

 I know exactly what you mean. When I started the company with my father 30 years ago, he was old school—definitely command and control. And even though it came from a good place, I absolutely felt restricted.

Phil Cicio:

 And yet you still grew the company. That’s the perfect example of what I’m talking about.

Jocelyn Allen:

 Exactly. And back then, no one questioned it. But eventually we all started seeing things like stress, burnout—and realizing, Oh… people are still human at work. That was a turning point.

Jocelyn Allen:

 And that's what makes this program so important. It's not just grounded in experience—it’s adaptable. It evolves with people, with culture, with the next generation of leaders.

It has structure, yes, but it’s also fluid—which is rare. But that’s what real people development is.

Phil Cicio:

 Right. And you said something that really stuck with me—leaders believe they’re leading human beings, but too often they’re treating them like human doings.

That’s a massive shift. We’re not just trying to get people to do more. We want them to be more. And that starts with the leader’s mindset.

This program is about culture change—changing beliefs, changing what leaders see as possible in their people.

I worked with a team recently where one manager flat-out said, “I don’t believe in this person. So I don’t give them anything beyond basic tasks.”

And that’s the tragedy. That employee may never get the opportunity to grow—not because of what they lack, but because of a belief someone else held about them.

The opposite is also true. I had a mentor who believed in me more than I believed in myself. That belief pulled something out of me I didn’t even know was there.

Same person. Same background. Under one manager, I was underperforming. Under another—I was thriving.

Maria Melfa:

 And now look where that’s taken you. That belief clearly unlocked something powerful in you.

Phil Cicio:

 A hundred percent. That mentor changed my life.

And that’s how I open many of our leadership sessions. I say there are two reasons people don’t express their full potential:

1. They don’t believe in themselves, and
2. They don’t have someone who believes in them before they believe in themselves

That’s why you, as a leader, matter. You may be the one person who can pull something out of someone that they didn’t know existed.

I always ask:

“Why would anyone want to be led by you?”

That’s not a judgment—it’s an invitation to reflect. If you can’t answer that, this program will help you find the answer. And once you do, it becomes powerful.

Jocelyn Allen:

 Yes! And this program helps people build confidence while also helping them build up others.

What’s especially important is that it doesn’t feel like “more work” for the leader. It helps them feel supported, too. That’s often overlooked.

So let’s talk logistics. If I’m a client thinking about how to implement this—how do I decide who should be in which tier?

Phil Cicio:

 Honestly, anyone can benefit. Whether you’re brand new, aspiring, or experienced—this program meets you where you are.

It’s structured around three tiers. Each tier focuses on a different level of growth:

• Tier 1: Developing yourself
• Tier 2: Developing others
• Tier 3: Developing the organization

And the structure is flexible. While it’s designed as three full days per tier, we can break that into half-day sessions over time. That helps learners practice, apply, and come back stronger for the next session.

Jocelyn Allen:

 Exactly. And what’s great is that the format allows time for reflection and real-time application. It’s not just content—it’s impactful learning over time.

Participants come back after each session with real examples of how they’ve changed—and how their team is responding.

It’s a life-changing experience, not just a workshop. It’s about helping people become who they’re meant to be—not just better at their jobs, but better in life.

Phil Cicio:

And one of my favorite parts—we can incorporate real client stories. This isn’t a canned training. This is a program built around your company, your people, your culture.

Maria Melfa:

 And Phil, we hear that all the time. Clients who have worked with you are always blown away—not just by your delivery, but by the transformation they see in their teams.

Phil Cicio:

I’ll just say one last thing—if there’s no change, there’s no progress. If you want your organization to grow, you need to grow your leaders. It’s that simple.

This program isn’t about just giving leaders tools. It’s about helping them use those tools, and more importantly, helping them change mindsets and behaviors—because that’s what drives transformation.

Change your leaders, change your people.

 Change your people, change your organization.

 That’s the return on investment.

Maria Melfa:

 Well said. Drop the mic—except don’t, because we have one more thing…

Jocelyn Allen:

 Phil, it’s time again for the TTA 10! Ten rapid-fire questions—fun, lighthearted, and just for you.

David (Producer):

 90 seconds on the clock. Let’s go!

Jocelyn Allen:

1. Favorite color?
2.  —Green
3. Dinner with any fictional character?
4.  —(Laughs) I’ve honestly never thought of that... maybe Superman?
5. Jack and Jill went up the hill... but no water up there. What are they fetching?
6.  —Gold?
7. Favorite class from the leadership program?
8.  —Unlocking Your Team’s Potential
9. If you could invent a new holiday?
10.  —TTA Day
11. Most spontaneous thing you’ve ever done for fun?
12.  —(Laughs) Probably something with my wife—she’ll kill me if I don’t say that.
13. Most useful skill you’ve ever learned?
14.  —Loyalty
15. If you could have any animal as a pet?
16.  —I already have a little dog!
17. Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall... how’d he get up there?
18.  —I helped him up.
19. Time travel—past or future?
20.  —Past.

David (Producer):

 He did it! Phil wins again. And in true TTA fashion, we’ve got a tribute for you...

🎶 (plays Frank Sinatra-style tribute song celebrating Phil’s charisma, Italian heritage, leadership style, and golf skills) 🎶

Phil Cicio:

 That was amazing. I’m totally honored—and my wife is going to be hearing this on repeat at home!