Tony Mitchell
In today’s chaotic and unpredictable environment, organizations and their leaders need transformational leadership to stay ahead of the curve. As someone with real-life experience who has been in the trenches and led real transformation, Tony advises on how to transform your board, leadership, and organization. Then he becomes an advocate, a confidant, in the journey.
A Lifetime of Transformation
Transformation has been a theme that has resonated throughout Tony’s life since birth. Given up by his birth mother to foster care as a newborn, Tony was in the foster care system for two years before a caring, yet impoverished family adopted him.
His family managed to meet almost all their needs from what was produced on their small farm. This led Tony to define “wealthy” as being able to buy anything, other than basic staples, from a store. Growing up on a farm and in poverty taught him the importance of hard work, perseverance, and key principles about leadership.
He learned, “You have to know where you are, where you want to go, and ultimately, how you’re going to get there.”
Through hard work and determination, Tony overcame his disadvantaged background, becoming the only member of his family to go to college. How then did someone from such a disadvantaged background not only earn a degree, with honors, and become a CPA, but also go on to hold a number of C-level executive positions with several corporations, as well as serve on several boards of companies and non-profit organizations?
Tony learned that genuine transformational leadership is best driven by truth-based convictions.
From childhood, Tony found himself asking, “How am I going to stay true to my convictions, yet adapt to a new environment?” Later, as a professional, Tony revised this question to, “How will our business stay true to its purpose and convictions, yet adapt to a new environment?”
Tony’s remarkable life journey and career experience revealed his ability to adapt at a moment’s notice, self-direct when necessary, and apply practical thinking in every situation. He then applied these principles to help transform organizations.
After leaving corporate America, Tony is now passionate about applying his decades of growth and experience to helping others – CEOs, boards, audiences, and leaders – discover the benefits and rewards of intentional and genuine transformational leadership derived from truth-based convictions.
Boardroom
How can my board lead transformation?
In the 21st century, pressures and demands of the board room – and the C-suite – are more intense than ever. Rapid and unexpected disruption impacts organizations with unprecedented speed, requiring leaders to be wise, discerning, agile and adaptable. To survive and thrive in this environment, more than modest adjustments are required. It often demands transformation on many levels. The question is, do you know how?
Tony has spent three decades working with small private companies and multi-billion dollar corporations – not only as a C-level executive but also as a board chairman and board member. He knows leadership. Also frequently speaking on building a healthy marriage, he understands the dynamics of family-owned businesses. Drawing from this wealth of experience, he joins your board to provide real-world counsel in casting your organization’s vision and helping your organization best define how to move from where it is, to where it needs to be.
Speaking
Inspire and Motivate
If you’re like most people, life is coming at you 100 miles an hour and you realize there’s a need to quickly adapt and put real transformation into practice. Tony knows exactly how you feel. He has experienced the need for transformation firsthand – both corporately and personally. Through his journey, he’s learned organizational and leadership principles that he is unapologetically passionate about sharing – to inspire, motivate, and help others experience real transformation, in their organizations and personally as a leader.
Tony speaks on a variety of themes including:
• The Power of Conviction-Based Leadership
• Organizational & Cultural Transformation
• Personal Leadership
• Leaving a Legacy
• Building a Strong, Thriving Marriage
• Men’s Groups and Leadership
Tony can see the forest for the trees and the trees for the forest. He gets the big picture and the small picture and has the amazing skill to take the little puzzle pieces with no discernable match and put them all together to make a complex puzzle come together with clarity and beauty.
While thinking inside the box due to necessary constraints, Tony simultaneously provides an out of the box approach.
In 2009 Tony became Chairman of the MFHA board. During his tenure Tony helped management streamline its financial reporting, enhance its sponsorship value proposition and re-organize the governance model. As a result of Tony’s leadership, MFHA has a new product platform that is focused on building “Cultural Intelligence” for its members and the industry. This new business model has transformed the organization and has enhanced MFHA’s ability to help its members attract, develop and retain multicultural talent.
Tony and I have worked together for more than a decade, most recently as a CEO-CFO combination. During our time working together, Tony helped lead our company to double in size, while improving margins, DSO and working capital. Tony helped lead us through both good times and challenging times. He is strategic, thoughtful, and has a servant leadership management style. He is respected and trusted in our organization. I can attest to Tony’s business acumen, value system and integrity. He has impacted our financial performance, but also our culture…all for the better.
Tony is a visionary leader who can make the tough decisions that are necessary for a business to remain relevant. He is a man of integrity, a great communicator and has excellent coaching and developing skills. I personally am a much better executive because of Tony Mitchell’s leadership and mentoring.
Tony’s strategic insights and innovative ideas on how to be proactive in addressing the “new normal” are well received by his peers. His approach is tried and true and shown to be effective not just theoretical. Strategic thinking is a gift which Tony possesses. I always look forward to hearing the new strategic ideas he shares on a monthly basis.
Previous consultants have tried to accomplish (and not been successful) where he is helping us succeed.
Tony has impeccable integrity, whit, compassion, authenticity, and inspiration both in helping others and in applying these qualities to his own life and goals.