WOMEN AT
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Catherine Monson
CEO, Fastsigns International
Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly
Effective People; Winning by Jack Welch;
and Execution by Ram Charan and Larry
Bossidy. A book that I think is one of the
very best when it comes to basic people
management skills is The One Minute
Manager by Blanchard and Johnson. I
recommend to every manager on my
team that they re-read it every year. It
is a quick, short read and the leadership lessons are timeless and effective.
How has your life experience made
you the leader you are today? From
a young age, I knew that I wanted to
lead an organization. This is possibly
due to spending time during my childhood working alongside my father in
our family businesses. As the oldest of
four, I spent a great deal of time with my
father at his insurance agency and later
at private schools my parents owned.
I had no interest in earning money by
babysitting or child care or focusing
on what, at the time, were considered
traditional female interests, such as
cooking or sewing. I would rather talk
business with my father. I do believe,
to some extent, that most successful
leaders possess a similar behavioral or
personality profile. Therefore, to some
degree, I would say that I was born with
leadership characteristics or that these
characteristics were developed during
my childhood. My behavioral profile is
more dominant than accepting, more
independent than compliant, and more
driving than relaxed.
Role models? It has been my practice,
since first getting into business, to seek
out successful leaders and learn from
them. Sometimes it is in a mentee role,
other times in listening to them speak
or reading their books. As I progressed
in my career, I studied successful leaders. I worked to understand what made
those people successful and focused on
implementing those characteristics and
learning those necessary business and
leadership skills. Pushing myself to develop the qualities of successful leaders
has helped me achieve the position I
am in today.
Management gurus or books that
have deeply affected you: I have read
many books on leadership and continue
to do so. Several of my favorites include
Rudy Giuliani’s book Leadership; Good
to Great by Jim Collins; John Wooden’s
book Wooden on Leadership; Developing the Leader in You by John Maxwell;
Has mentorship made a difference
in your professional and personal
life? I have been blessed with many great
SYSTEM REVENUE: $340 million
NO. OF UNITS: 545
PUBLIC OR PRIVATE: Private
GROWTH PLANS: 1,000 locations in 20
countries with sales of $900 million
FOUNDED: 1985
BEGAN FRANCHISING: 1986
YEARS WITH COMPANY: 5
YEARS IN FRANCHISING: 20-plus
INTERNATIONAL LOCATIONS: 87
“I admire
leadership
regardless of
gender.”
mentors and have worked to implement
their advice throughout my career. They
have helped me become a better leader
and inspired me to continually improve
my skills in sales, marketing, and leadership. In my role, I also have the opportunity to mentor many people and
always learn from those experiences as
well. Those insights allow me to grow
both personally and professionally.
My early management style was more
autocratic than what works most effectively. In a previous role, I spent two
years running European operations and
better learned how to gain consensus
from both internal and external groups
while improving my collaborative skills.
Learning to lead by building consensus
has helped me become a better leader.
One of the most significant mentors in
my career has been Don Lowe, CEO of
the multi-brand franchising company
Franchise Services, Inc.
Female leaders you admire: I ad-
mire leadership regardless of gender.
Specifically with women, I admire Meg
Whitman because she’s had a diverse
career and excels in every area of business. I admire Anne Mulcahy, who had
to make tough decisions to save Xerox
from bankruptcy. Julia Stewart of DineEquity is another female leader I admire
because of her focus and drive. Julia
taught me the concept of the “leadership
shadow,” which means to lead in such a
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Franchiseupdate
Franchiseupdate I S S U E I , 2014
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