The power of influential leadership

Leaders set the tone, provide direction, and serve as role models for their team. But what does an influential leader do? They motivate and inspire people to join them in not only accomplishing the organizations mission but to reach their highest potential. An influential leader builds trust to create a sense of purpose within their team, fostering healthy communication and collaboration between team members, leading the collective to better results, optimal performance, and satisfaction.

In this candid interview with Brian Ripley, Vice President and Head of Business Development at PepsiCo, we hear about his journey to becoming an impactful, authentic leader while inspiring progression, change, and growth. Brian’s empowering and adaptive style represents a truly aspirational way in to the concept and practice of influential leadership.

What was your path to leadership?

My path began right after undergrad, while getting my MBA, in a program called, “Athletes in service to America” which took former college athletes and placed them in urban areas to help mentor underprivileged youth. From there, I eventually landed a job with PepsiCo and worked my way up in sales, from entry level to Vice President today.

Did you always know you were leader material?

I’ve always been super competitive, empathetic, and had a passion for helping others - all critical qualities of leaders in today’s business world.

How would you describe your leadership style?

Servant leadership. I feel like it’s the responsibility of a leader to serve and not be served - not to tell everyone what to do, but rather set the direction and the strategy and then remove obstacles for people so they can reach their goals.??

What are some elements of leadership that you’re passionate about?

Two things: coaching and innovating, on everything!??

Let’s take coaching first. I love sharing all the things I’ve learned from great leaders within the next generation of PepsiCo talent. While everyone learns differently, and it’s critical to adapt how you develop each individual team member, there are two things I try to include in every ‘coachable’ moment:

1. Always explain the ‘why?’. Explaining the ‘why?’ behind your feedback or advice should not only be used when providing developmental coaching but also when making decisions that impact that team member, whether helping them to prioritize, build skills, or choosing not to take their recommendation on something.??

2. Provide an example and, ideally, have it be something you’ve personally experienced, if possible. It can help teammates know they are not alone, you’ve been through something similar, and they can either learn from your success or mistakes. Including your mistakes makes you vulnerable and this openness builds trust.

Secondly, innovating. I think there’s a better way to do almost anything and enjoy trying to improve on things, either turning something tedious into something fun or inventing a new way of accomplishing the same task in a more efficient or impactful way.

Whether it’s transformative projects, training and development, process improvement, or how we work with our operator partners, there’s always a way to ‘plus up’ or reinvent how we do everything. The best organizations are always innovating and reinventing themselves to ensure long term, sustainable growth, which is particularly true at PepsiCo.??

Is there anything unique about how you go about getting to these new ideas???

I try and make ‘innovating’ fun, collaborative, and open to as many people as possible since ideas can come from anyone, even those who may not be accountable for the area we’re trying to improve. For example, someone doesn’t have to work in sales to come up with an idea to improve something in that segment. I also like to make innovating competitive and a team effort. Sometimes the best ideas come when one person throws out an idea and the rest of the group builds on it or improves it. Competition can always push people to elevate their thinking, so that can always help. At the end of the day, there’s always a better mousetrap, creating a fun, competitive, and open environment to develop new ideas helps get to the best result.??

How can leaders drive positive culture, responsibility, and accountability for a blended team of Gen X’ers, Gen Y’ers, and millennials???

To be successful in today’s business environment, leaders need to be able to adapt to all generations and ensure cohesiveness across their teams and organizations. When leading a blended team of different generations, you need to be able to create an atmosphere that fosters open-mindedness and trust. This ensures team members feel comfortable sharing new or different ways of doing things and can allow for the strengths of each generation, which may differ, to benefit all employees.??

Can you give a specific example of something you do as a leader with your team, especially with a team that lives in the virtual space?

We hold an informal, monthly, hour-long meeting that we’ve structured and branded in a light, fun way called the ‘Speakeasy’. The goal is to create a forum where all team members, not just leadership, feel comfortable voicing their opinions, ideas, and thoughts openly, but most importantly fearlessly.

Since we meet virtually, we usually open with a brief team building exercise to both lighten the mood and allow us all to connect with one another on a more personal level. This builds trust, empathy for one another, and nurtures relationships. Little things matter too. We include a fun theme for each call such as a ‘family picture’ zoom background, wear your favorite sports team jersey, or dress in holiday gear.??

Different team members across all levels come up with the ice breaker activities and themes to allow everyone to participate and have a sense of ownership. The calls are fun but also productive, as a lot of perspectives, ideas, and best practice sharing comes from them across all levels and generations.??

And, since it is a ‘Speakeasy’, we also use a portion of the call to ‘toast’ and ‘cheers’ (without alcohol of course!) accomplishments both small and large. All of this makes for a very rewarding call and one that folks look forward to versus ‘just another Zoom call on the calendar’.

I’ve also found it critical to pair people at different stages in their careers to work on teams or projects to get different perspectives and encourage sharing of experiences and skills, which are likely vastly different across each cohort. This can bridge generational divides by bringing together the best ideas and outputs of each, allowing them to learn new or different skills and capabilities, given the both typically have different strengths.

What have you learned from your experiences working for exceptional leaders???

I’ve been fortunate in my career to have worked directly for or under some exceptional leaders, so I could go on forever here, but I’d say the primary thing they have in common is they all have an unending drive for results that’s balanced with an empathic approach. I’ve learned just as much from bad leaders as I have from good. From bad leaders, you learn what not to do, qualities you don’t want to emulate, methods you don’t want to adopt. I feel like you can learn from everyone, leader or not. People at all levels throughout an organization do things, both good and bad, and to continue to grow into an exceptional leader you need to replicate the positive and avoid the negative.

What are some other qualities you can share from working with or for exceptional leaders???

In my opinion, there are five key qualities:

1. They push for and almost encourage debate. Disagreement can push everyone’s thinking and ultimately lead to the best answer or solution.??

2. They speak last, listen, and soak up as much information as possible before forming a perspective.???

3. They understand each employee is different and learn to adjust their style to get the most of their people. Some need tough love, some a scorecard, some need confidence or reassurance.

4. They hire people much smarter than them versus wanting to be the smartest person in the room, and build an internal bench of candidates to replace them, instead of living in fear or making it difficult for the company to replace them.

5. They proactively and consistently get feedback on both themselves as leaders and the team or organization they run. It could be as simple as a quick, confidential pulse survey with each team member or checking in live with a simple question such as “anything I/we could change/do better to help support you?”??

Finally, what’s the difference between a boss, a manager, and a leader?

They all need to develop and communicate a vision, set objectives, and ensure the team follows through to achieve results. But beyond that, I view the three differently. In fact, I hate the term ‘boss’. It feels too authoritarian and ‘manager’ brings with it connotations of controlling. A leader inspires the team or organization to innovate, think creatively, and strive for precision towards the accomplishment of goals. To me, ‘boss’ instills fear, commands authority, and tells people what to do. A ‘leader’ coaches, encourages, generates enthusiasm, removes barriers, shows you how it’s done, develops people, gives credit, and says, ‘Let’s do it together’ a lot.

An influential leader has a unique ability to drive multiple layers of success. Their ability to motivate and inspire those around them to reach their highest potential benefits their team and organization as a whole. This kind of leadership requires excellent communication along with a strong commitment to demonstrate the desired behavior through example setting, both of which take time and effort to develop but ultimately result in greater success. By embracing these principles, leaders create positive cultures within their organizations where everyone works together towards achieving success.