Guest: Lisa Lutoff-Perlo, the former president and CEO of Celebrity Cruises and the author of Making Waves: A Woman’s Rise to the Top Using Smarts, Heart, and Courage.

In a Nutshell: Business can be a lot like the ocean: a constantly changing series of crests and troughs for leaders to navigate. And during the pandemic, conditions ebbed and flowed on a daily basis. With the benefit of hindsight, it’s becoming apparent that the CEOs who did the best job of weathering that once-in-a-generation storm didn’t do it alone. They rallied their teams around strong company values with empathy and unwavering determination.

On today’s show, Lisa Lutoff-Perlo discusses how she learned to balance compassionate leadership with competitive excellence while dealing with personal and professional hardships that she’s overcome throughout her career, culminating in how she led Celebrity Cruises through COVID-19, the launch of a spectacular new ship, and a devastating family tragedy.

.Lisa Lutoff-Perlo and I discuss:

  • Harnessing the power of communication during a crisis.
  • Managing a personal tragedy while encouraging and motivating 20,000 employees.
  • Why “Nurture Employees” tops Lisa’s list of leadership values and why she says, “I push as hard as I nurture.”
  • Maintaining consistent values throughout a large, decentralized organization.
  • How to balance data and intuition in decision-making.
  • Why Lisa believes women need to become more comfortable acting as their own PR firms as they advance through their careers.
  • How Lisa is leaving herself “open to the universe” as she transitions from a CEO role to the next chapter of her life.

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