Exploring Life & Business with Ken Kilday of Leader’s Cut

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ken Kilday.

Hi Ken, It’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers.
As a former Fortune 500 executive leader, I was always drawn to the impact of exceptional people-development on individual and collective success in any organization. Without realizing it, my method of developing the teams in the businesses I led became my calling card. The philosophy is that every person has a native genius. When they are in an environment where they can be their best, where it is expected, and where they can apply it in their service and that of others, something extraordinary occurs and has durable results.

After leaving the corporate treadmill in 2018, it made all the sense to launch a business that reflected my passion and native genius. I applied it in the pursuit of helping business leaders and owners be their very best. The typical client often seeks out an Executive Business Coach because they’ve heard from someone they see as a role model of success using a coach as a formula for success. When digging a little deeper, this leader is asking themselves internal questions that don’t seem to have an answer. Questions like: When does it get easier? Why am I not getting the results I used to get by working this hard? Why does my team of all-stars squabble more than my young children?

In answer to these questions, based on my 30 years in business, I’ve developed a unique and highly customizable framework for coaching to find answers. This framework is not just based on my history of success, but also on the times that I got things wrong—and knowing how to eliminate that risk in the future. The structure I use is foundational and highly customizable. Clients can liken it to the human skeleton, all of which have 206 bones, absent illness or injury, yet every person is unique. That’s what I bring to the table: a business framework that is structurally sound and designed to be used by the entrepreneurial-minded.

What are the results? In the professional coaching industry, the published expectation is an ROI that is 5-8 times that of the coaching fee. My longer-term clients who have worked with me for two or more years enjoy an ROI of 10x their fee. How can it get ‘atypical results’ as the fine print often says? Because, like an athlete who trains hard, eats well, and rests sufficiently, they are getting the holistic approach correct and building on each success. Think of it this way: In your favorite sport, has there ever been a championship winner who did not have a coach? Sure, plenty play casually, yet they aren’t performing at the elite level. The same is true in business. I am committed to helping my clients achieve exceptional results.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story. Has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what challenges have you had to overcome?
My corporate career taught me how to design, build, and launch a new business – particularly one that would be delivered digitally. In 2018, that was still uncommon. Yet Leader’s Cut would have online scheduling, Zoom calls, and every technology I could think of to support clients (and the business) without requiring me to be physically present in the same geography as the client. Part of the reason I designed the business this way was because we were planning on selling our primary home and moving to what had been our little vacation home in Sedona, Arizona. That meant I would sit in my little office alone and prospect like crazy while I got my business off the ground. I was blessed to have clients immediately, and even more blessed that there has never been a time that I didn’t have paying clients. Yet when COVID hit, like many businesses, it was a little lean for a year or so. Because I stuck with it and kept serving my clients, looking for additional clients, and improving my services, I’m still here six years later.

Thanks for sharing that. Please tell us a bit more about your business.
Ken is an exceptional former executive leader who has transitioned into an acclaimed Executive Coach and Business Strategist. With his extensive leadership expertise, he empowers CEOs, Business Owners, and Executives to elevate their leadership capabilities, make sound decisions, and achieve remarkable personal and professional outcomes. Whether implementing the groundbreaking Making the Cut™ business operating system, providing individual coaching sessions, or enhancing team effectiveness, Ken’s approach is driven by unwavering awareness.

The most accomplished leaders consistently leverage keen awareness to accomplish three essential things:

• They purposefully step away from their daily responsibilities and immerse themselves in strategic thinking and business focus rather than getting mired in operational details.
• They proactively connect with leaders in similar positions, sharing insights and lessons to facilitate informed decision-making.
• They continually seek fresh perspectives from external sources, embracing new and innovative ideas to invigorate and transform their businesses.

Ken possesses an innate ability to forge meaningful connections. He enables his clients to objectively reflect on their challenges and confront them with unwavering courage, resulting in positive transformations in their professional and personal lives.

Who else deserves credit in your story?
Acknowledging their impact is critical to anchoring the power of strong leaders who may never write a book, testify to Congress, or be interviewed by Oprah. Nonetheless, these elite leaders significantly contribute to their companies, communities, and families. I have worked with, admired, and learned from these five people. They continue to lead, learn, guide, and inspire. Keep reading to be inspired by these quotes from women leaders below.

• Resilience is a Habit: Lindy Bannister

As I worked my way through business school at Albertsons, I met Lindy, who would become the first significant mentor of what has become a long and diverse career. In those days, Albertsons, Inc. was a powerhouse in the industry, led by a hand-picked successor by Joe Albertson himself. We had lofty goals that we frequently achieved individually and as a company. At the time, we averaged six times the average profit of our competitors. In our location, we were our own family – operating for our individual, collective, and community success. Lindy was at the helm. We could discuss operational excellence, teamwork, attitude, and what it was like for a woman to lead in a traditionally male world in the 1990s.

What is more informative, however, is Lindy’s habit of resilience. I had no idea what Stoic Philosophy was then, but now I understand that she led us with a mindset of controlling what we could control. We did not influence the weather that kept shoppers away or competitors that opened nearby. We could not change ineffective advertising or a tone-deaf district leader. What we could do was make sure our store was stocked, staffed, and spotless. We could also make sure the family was well-treated. That core focus, being ready, happy, kind, and hardworking no matter the external pressure, resulted in tremendous, repeatable success. It’s a lesson I’ve taken to different teams, geographies, and industries to significant effect.

• Pragmatism is Leadership: Ted Gaskamp

Ted and I first crossed paths working at USAA; I did not report to him but often bypassed my leader to seek Ted’s counsel. Strangely enough, I did not realize that I was doing that until the third time Ted asked, ‘What does Mike have to say about this’? It was simply the most natural thing to “ask Ted.” It had become my mantra – because there was no reason to ask someone who talked a lot but said little. When I relayed that to Ted, he chuckled – and a bond in pragmatism was born. Ted’s pragmatism drove him to lead with intention. When dropping by his desk, he stopped what he was doing to listen with full attention – to do otherwise would require the speaker to repeat themselves. Though he often had an answer, he guided us to find it for ourselves because he knew we’d take action if it were our idea. When one of us had a personal issue (i.e., death in the family, divorce, disappointment), Ted knew there was little he could do to fix that issue. He’d move his chair to work near us and say, I don’t have an answer, but I can sit here and show my support. Ted taught me that leadership doesn’t have to be complicated. The pragmatic approach is challenging because it requires attention, patience, prudence, and often listening. Yet it yields loyalty, trust, connection, and, invariably, results.

• Challenge is Growth: Terri Kallsen

Several years into my career with USAA, Terri took the helm of our new Wealth Management division with a clear sense of direction. Later, I would hear her share a portion of her philosophy of that direction, saying, “I hire, promote, and develop potential.” Her first challenge to me was when, in the most matter-of-fact voice, she warmly smiled and declared, “Ken! I’m glad I ran into you. You’ll be one of our new media spokespeople. Expect an invitation for training that starts next week.” Naturally, I replied, Terri, I’ve never done this before. She quickly smiled and said, “And now you will.” That challenge, the training alongside her, and the media interviews that became routine were exhilarating and nerve-racking and pushed me further, faster than I’d ever grown. In addition to the apparent skill development, it also grew my confidence—the kind required to speak up with leaders like Terri, who would come to rely on hearing my perspective. Terri taught me to have confidence in others, encourage them to thrive on skinny branches, and support them without condition. That environment is one where people take risks, grow, learn, and become strong leaders in their own right.

• Perfection is Poison: Neesha Hathi

Arriving at Schwab to be part of the team that would come to develop, staff, launch, and grow a technologically advanced offer was incredibly exciting. As Chief Digital Officer, Neesha led the innovative effort – undoubtedly an experience often akin to herding cats. My role was to build teams of people to deliver the service. Her digital team was rapidly building the vehicle my team would drive. Very early on, she encouraged us to get a version in front of real clients quickly. She gently yet firmly opposed waiting for the perfect version before we went public. Her reason was simple: When teams delay a launch in the pursuit of perfection, they become highly invested in the output, making it challenging to implement client feedback. Instead, she led us to iterate, learn from feedback, and constantly improve based on facts. She believed that a perfect vehicle no one wants is poison compared with the one they can’t wait to buy. Neesha taught me that establishing a safe space to create, evaluate, iterate, and recreate leads to better ideas that become better solutions that real clients relate to.

• Be Visible: Colleen McKenna

After launching my coaching business, I sought additional structure to grow my practice. To that end, I briefly affiliated with Vistage in the pursuit of advancing a peer-advisory group. Part of that journey introduced me to Colleen and her company, Intero Advisory, as one of the resources to help us develop our local network. From the outset, we knew our core values were aligned. Her approach to building a presence on LinkedIn was to be real, visible, and consistent. As with many platforms, there is sometimes a feast or famine approach to sharing information. On Facebook, that equates to either a picture of food at one of the spectrums or an incendiary political diatribe on the other. In the LinkedIn ecosphere, a similar spectrum would be someone with a partial profile rarely engaging up to the other extreme of overly informal posts more appropriate for Facebook. Colleen calls these extremes being invisible or being social. After she released her book, It’s Business, Not Social, I had the opportunity to meet her entire team, profile them, and facilitate a practical session. Everyone showed up, spoke up, and engaged in a real, professional conversation. It was a fantastic metaphor for her having an engaging, experienced, and real digital presence via LinkedIn. Colleen leads her company just as she coaches others on LinkedIn: that we can share who we are in a genuine, professional way to build lasting relationships, whether in real-time or in a digital space.

Pricing:

• https://kenkilday.com/program-pricing/

Contact Info:

• Website: https://kenkilday.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leaderscut
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/leaderscut/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenkilday/

Image Credits
Michelle Blackard