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30 SMT007 MAGAZINE I JUNE 2020 Feature Interview by Barry Matties and Nolan Johnson I-CONNECT007 DOWNLOAD AUDIO FILE OF THIS INTERVIEW On May 13, Barry Matties and Nolan John- son spoke with Dr. John Mitchell, IPC presi- dent and CEO, in another installment in our series of industry updates. In this interview, Mitchell discussed the challenges of leadership in crisis situations. In his role at the helm of IPC, Mitchell brought a unique insight into the power of leadership. He pointed out that a good leader will assemble a strong team, get out the team's way, and con- centrate on breaking down obstacles. Other observations from Mitchell included the balance of communicating with optimism and realism, and that while COVID-19 is testing leadership skills, it is also providing an opportu- nity for innovation within organizations. Mitch- ell concluded by sharing ways in which indus- try leaders are regularly networking, supporting each other, and sharing successful strategies. Barry Matties: Welcome. Today, I'm talking with John Mitchell, IPC president and CEO. John, welcome, and thanks for taking the time to talk with us again. John Mitchell: My pleasure. Thanks for having me, Barry. Matties: John, we recently conducted another survey, looking at some of the lessons learned during the COVID-19 outbreak, along with the shifting priorities companies now have. What we found is a lot of the response is focused on leadership and leadership issues. As the president and CEO of IPC, you are certainly a highly visible industry leader, along with your team, and IPC helps lead the industry in so many ways. Today, I want to focus this conver- sation around leadership. To start, why don't you share what you think the role of a leader is, please? Mitchell: In a broad and kind of generic con- text, the role of a leader is to cast the vision, and you bring in and work with a team that you enable and get out of their way (laughs). You also overcome obstacles that they encoun- ter; if you have resources they need or chal- lenges, your job is to help share that idea of where you're going so you and your team can work together to make sure that's a reality. But when obstacles come up, it's the leader's job to try to break those down. Matties: There are a lot of different leaders out in the world—good, bad, and some right in the middle. What do you think makes a good leader? IPC's Dr. John Mitchell: Leadership in Crisis