Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Lucille Maddalena. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Lucille, appreciate you joining us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?
I am on a mission to remind anyone who is committed to a career, to building their leadership legacy, to include joy in the journey. To get to where I want to go, I chose to bring sled dogs into the story. As Chip Bell states, initial reactions to uniting corporate offices and sled dogs on a trail were confusing:
“True confession! I was going to hastily scan this book and pen a quick accolade. But by page three, I was reading every word…with joy. This book is about successful influencing—as a leader, as a mentor, even as a parent. As an interactive “working” book built around a poignant sled dog team metaphor, you will gain powerful insights, helpful instruction, and wise encouragement. ”–Chip R. Bell, author of Inside Your Customer’s Imagination.
The question to answer is: “What does dog sledding have to do with working in a corporate office?”
It isn’t far-fetched to think of ‘teamwork’ and ‘leadership’ when describing a sled dog team. For me and many of my companions on the trail, what the sport inspired is difficult to describe because it is a deep dive into our personal lives and work.
I chose the title MOVING ON BY! because “ON BY” is the dog sledding command to tell the team to leave the hard-packed trail, enter the deep snow to pass the team ahead of you and win. The task seems simple enough until you are the one training and maintaining the dogs 24/7 was well as gathering and learning to use the equipment you’ll need on the trail. In many ways, this process is similar to the steps we go through to prepare ourselves as we build a successful and rewarding career.
We know it is not the accouterments, the equipment, and accumulated knowledge that gets us the win . Harnessing our drive takes the power to commitment, the passion to invest, and the pride in achievement.
The book uses sled dog analogies and metaphors to present teamwork and leadership case
Studies. All of the case studies are actual events: people caught in a complex work or life situation that could derail their careers and lives. In all cases it took patience, support, and accepting risk to overcome any hurdles, to find their trail markers, and achieve their goals. Hearing the stories of others inspires us to stay on our trail to seek the trail markers leading to your success and get where you want to go. Find the path that allows us to work to live not live rather than living to work.
It was a challenge to wake up, and then load the dogs and gear for a 6 a.m. run on a weekday morning. In the back of your mind might be a major presentation to make at work later that day. Yes, it was not easy to reach for more by going for a pre-dawn long walk, or quick run or workout, a swim, or a hike.
It was hard –until we were ready, on the trail with a clear blue sky as the sun begins to reflect white light off the snow and there is complete quiet. We see no movement; it seems there are no sounds in the surrounding fields and hills. It is a moment to breathe, so revel at the joy of life, to rebuild your soul. To take in the energy of the dogs, to appreciate them for their natural instincts to work together, stretch their legs, invest their vast energy in a task that brings them back to their origins.
How do we capture that freedom to simply embrace life when we have so many demands on our time? As employees, parents, adult children and care givers, we often have obstacles in our path, some we place there, and others are imposed by circumstances. We all need to renew our store of power, passion, and peace to be able to choose our own path, to make difficult choices before we can obtain the security and comfort needed.
While using dog sledding tales and by sharing our process of learning how to care for our team, you will learn about the dogs, the history and requirements of the sport, and how people in snow-bound communities cherish their dogs and include them in life events. The analogies and metaphors will take you to the trails to experience the thrill as well as the demands of a sport that unites humans with animals.
How our gut instincts often align with the reactions and responses of animals brings us back to our heritage, our first steps as humans, as well as acknowledging the deeper need for connections, unity, and trust. In the Tales from the Trail, you will be able to explore those traits by experiencing them as others have, in a natural, uncontrolled environment. Each tale from the trail is followed by a case study that will inspire, disappoint, and pose questions that only you can answer.
The case studies in Moving ON BY! introduce you to remarkable people I have had the privilege of working with and the choices they made. However, before you hear their stories, it is wise for you to see yourself in a different perspective, a wild environment of instinct and reaction. To help you explore those feelings, you will be able to assess yourself to learn where you would be placed on a sled dog team. Friends and colleagues who have taken this little assessment say they guessed correctly and were glad to have confirmation as to whether they were a ‘lead’ dog, work best at ‘point’, or at ‘wheel’.
The first story takes place far from the far north climate of snow. It is set in a factory located miles from the nearest small town. The women who work there have limited education and a lack of access to training or work opportunities. Forced to accept discrimination and operating under the authoritative demands of the family-run business, the women were trapped by distance and insecurity. Readers describe the journey to hear their story as if they were stepping back a century in time. You will learn the drastic, life-changing events they experienced when a large firm purchased the factory, and the new managers created a unique program to invest in each employee.
In other case studies readers will contemplate the situation of someone who is overwhelmed by life while attempting to maintain, even grow, a career. Realizing that work/life balance cannot be achieved, is the first step to unburdening and reducing the anxiety of believing every goal can be met at the same time. Debunking the myth of work/life balance challenges us to seek an alternative, perhaps what is now termed ‘work/life integration’, or what I choose to embrace as work/life harmony.
Seeking harmony requires keeping joy in your life no matter what you are confronting. I ran with the dogs for about six years early mornings before work and weekend races. I competed against local fun teams and a few professional teams from Alaska. When the first of my three sons arrived, the dogs retired to the critical role of pets and companions, as their energy and natural enthusiasm for life continued to fill our home with greater joy.
To be honest, I never intended to address ‘joy’ in the book. As a coach and management consultant, my career has been focused on business methods equating success to financial gains. My goal when I decided to write my third book after a long hiatus from publishing, was to prepare a text that would help the people I coach support the development of their high performers. Focusing on people at work just beginning to build their legacy, folks from about age 32 to perhaps 45, or at any age when experiencing that drive to advance, requires an effective mentor. Learning how to be a role model and mentor are the first steps to true leadership, developing a following, and confirming your connections for effective working relationships.
Unexpectedly, actually writing the book offered a distraction, a way to keep busy on long nights while worrying about and attempting to understand what my 2-year-old grandson was experiencing. Noah was born with Osteogenesis Imperfecta type 1, a disorder where the body does not produce enough collagen, leading to brittle bones. During 2023, Noah suffered five breaks; including his femur which required a full body cast for 6 weeks, and months of physical therapy. This condition is rare, meaning there’s less public awareness, and in turn, less funding for research.
While the disease cannot be cured, new treatments developed in the past two decades have dramatically improved the quality of life for those suffering from this disorder. However, more is needed to raise awareness and contribute to ongoing research. I hope you will reach out to The OI Foundation, at OIF.org. Noah truly embodies the foundation’s motto: “Unbreakable Spirit.”
What’s amazing is how writing MOVING ON BY! took an unexpected turn to seek joy. As Leo Tolstoy said in War and Peace, “The strongest of all warriors are these two –time and patience.” Focusing on what I know and experienced gave me the time to absorb how his life situation impacts the vision I have for our future. Just as running with dogs allowed me to embrace nature in a dramatic, natural environment, revisiting that experience on the trail was calming. More important, the underlying motivation, dedication, and commitment to win united with the essence of my career and gave me a new medium to share useful experiences in a book as an outlet to support those committed to achieving their goal.
I discovered new patience, to move cautiously on this new trail, by using the self-coaching process. As I employed this process, I decided to expand the book to include self-coaching. Self-coaching encourages us to revisit what worked in the past, what is needed to feel satisfied today, and what will provide value in the future.
As a result, each chapter grew to have four elements. Following each Tale from the Trail and Case Study on Leadership and Teamwork, readers will have an opportunity to learn what today’s top thought leaders and experts in a cross-section of relevant disciplines have to share in the Insights section of each chapter. Finally, I wrapped up each chapter by challenging the readers’ knowledge with Tasks to complete or take away for contemplation, such as how to find a hobby.
By adding these sections, the book grew from providing case studies to becoming a workbook for individual development as well as group training. Marshall Goldsmith provided a wonderful endorsement of the book by describing its practical application:
“Moving ON BY: Leadership and Teamwork Case Studies is an extraordinary resource for self-development and leadership enhancement. Lucille’s unique approach, blending illustrative stories with real-life case studies, provides an engaging and insightful journey into the world of leadership and teamwork. This book is not only an excellent guide for personal growth but also a valuable tool for coaches, consultants, and HR professionals looking to inspire positive change in individuals and teams. Lucille’s expertise shines through, making this book a must-read for anyone seeking to harness their potential and achieve success in their career and life.”— Marshall Goldsmith is the Thinkers50 #1 Executive Coach and New York Times bestselling author of The Earned Life, Triggers, and What Got You Here Won’t Get You There.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Greetings! My name is Dr. Lucille Maddalena. I am described as a coach, author, speaker, and trailblazer in education and organizational dynamics. She was the first woman accepted into the Rutgers University labor studies program.
Working my way through college, I was accepted as a doctoral candidate. This opportunity enabled me to visit job sites and recognize the need for people moving from blue-collar careers. To support their success, I created the Transition to Management seminar series; and then pioneered its acceptance to establish my business as Morris Business Group, Inc. This initiative quickly gained traction at US corporations, making me the inaugural woman to lead management seminars at major pharmaceutical and manufacturing entities. Evolving into a global program conducted in multiple languages, this endeavor empowered over 6,000 new leaders.
Transitioning to a role as a Senior Consultant, I joined a national consulting company while maintaining my client base as Maddalena Transitions Management. Seeking healthy exercise and natural surroundings, I added to these responsibilities with an unexpected passion—six years of pre-dawn and weekend dog sledding. This unique hobby, alongside evolving client needs, prepared me for the transformative experience of motherhood. My canine companions transitioned from sports to cherished pets, while leaving me with a drive to connect with others, to work in harmony, and to maintain mental as well as physical health with activities outside of work.
The leadership and teamwork lessons learned on the trail inspired me to overcome my hiatus of publishing a book by writing MOVING ON BY! Harnessing my sled dog team’s instinct to win! It will challenge you to go “ON BY!” obstacles, presenting “Tales from The Trail” to introduce “Teamwork and Leadership Case Studies” followed by “Insight” to assess the scenarios, and “Tasks” such as identifying where you would run on a dog sled team.
Today, as an Executive Coach operating under MTMCoach, I am honored to hold the distinction of being the first woman coach at six multinational corporations spanning the pharma, biotech, construction, and manufacturing industries. I value the opportunity to guide leaders in demanding occupations, helping them navigate organizational nuances and develop robust networks in new or enhanced roles.
With 40 years of marriage and the joys of grandchildren, my husband and I share a mutual respect for each other’s careers and a deep devotion to family. Visit my website www.mtmcoach.com to see a video I prepared describing my work.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
In the Introduction to my book, MOVING ON BY! My goal was to talk to the reader’s story, however, to do that well I felt I had to share a tale about obstacles in my path. I worked my way through college and graduate school: the first obstacle occurred immediately after beginning the first semester at college living away from home. I took a ridiculously heavy course load hoping to complete the requirements and limit college hours to minimize expense. I was on a student loan program to reduce costs of tuition, room, and board, by working in the college cafeteria, serving food from 7-9 every morning.
Law class was my downfall. I didn’t enjoy it and I was the only woman in the class. The law chose to use sports analogies to make the dry law cases of interest. Unfortunately, I did not follow sports; I met privately with the instructor asking him to add other explanations beyond sports to study example law issues. Instead, he used levity to inform the class of male students of my concern. I failed the class because the professor I hired to teach me did not value my needs.
This learning experience carried with me, becoming unexpectedly relevant as I was hired for my first full-time job after graduation by a start-up radio station. Loving the job and being paid to write as a reporter and newscaster, I worked hard, obtaining FCC certification and adding innovative radio programming to the daily schedule. I was also promoted by the station as the state’s “First Female Drive Time Radio Newscaster”, receiving fan mail and general interest. The fun ended in the third year when a new General Manager was hired for the station. One of his first statements implied his belief that men would prefer a more masculine voice reading the news while they listened to the radio on their commute home.
I was taken off drive-time news. Angry, I shared my story with the National Organization for Women who filed a sex discrimination suit against the station. After six months of harassment, the FCC announced in my favor stating that women should be allowed to provide prime-time news. I had kept news of the lawsuit and my removal from the station from reaching the public or my colleagues in the field. With the FCC decree, I now could inform all of the events. However, I decided not to make any public announcement and moved on to the next phase of my career beyond radio.
Here is where we return to trails that take unexpected turns. What is fascinating, and the reason I share this story, is that the thread of my tale does not stop here. It took 20 years before I knew the impact of that decision.
I finally learned the consequences of my actions when I attended a business conference. The guest speaker was a famous woman news broadcaster. She explained that she was a ‘weather girl’ 20 years earlier, when her station manager promoted her to the national news desk as a broadcaster, responding to a new FCC mandate requiring women to be on drive time news. The risk I took and the life disruption I experienced opened a door that became a gateway for women to take a seat at the desk.
It is my hope that reading the case studies offered in this book will connect the experiences offered here to your history, expanding your repertoire of options to consider when at a crossroads in your career. Take the time to reevaluate what you need to rediscover your joy: make love and laughter part of every exciting moment of your life. I hope my story will help you in some small way to take that next step to find your trail markers that unleash your power and passion. Don’t let the dogs get you down.
How do you keep your team’s morale high?
Learning to work with dogs is a lot like managing a group of young, inexperienced, and excited newcomers to a profession. It can be difficult to focus their attention and important to constantly remind them that you care about them as individuals and as a team.
Preparing to drive a sled dog team took more than one year of constantly spending time with each dog and the pack to learn how they respond in different situations. As an educator, I am convinced you cannot teach anyone anything: the impetus comes from the learner. When someone is ready to learn they will learn. That is the time every educator cherishes with an enthusiastic response.
Not all dogs enjoy running as part of a team and pulling a sled. There is a lot of testing and experimenting before an alert driver can put together the right dogs in the right combination to form a working team. My story takes place after investing time in my team, gathering all the gear necessary, and hundreds of successful practice runs, sometimes joining with friends in the fun of running their teams as well.
This is the story of my first sled dog race. Sponsors of races are volunteer sled dog groups: people who love dogs and are invested in the sport, learning to follow the guidelines and rules of the International Sled Dog Racing Association to consistently ensure the safety of drivers and dogs.
Teams leave the starting shoot in 3-minute intervals along a set and well-packed trail of snow. My team took off beautifully at the start: we traveled for 5 or 10 minutes – impossible to track time—when we emerged from under a canopy of trees into the bright sunshine. I realized I should have worn goggles as I squinted to see why the dogs were showing signs of increased enthusiasm, tails up and ears pointed straight ahead.
To my surprise, we had caught up to the team that left the starting chute ahead of us! The dogs and I were excited. The drivers’ job is to call commands while standing on the back of the sled runners, constantly ‘pumping’ by balancing on one runner and pushing with the other foot.
Now the team was climbing a hill ahead of us; as we began the climb, I was completely off the sled runners, running between them attempting to keep any of the lightweight and sleek hand-made sled from slowing the dogs. As we approached the other team, my task was to call “ON BY!” informing the other driver of our presence while directing my lead dog to move off the packed trail to pass the other team and regain the trail.
At that moment, instead of issuing the ON BY command, I called out “May I pass you?” The other driver looked at me, then looked away. Most remarkable, my beautiful, graceful little lead dog actually turned her head, and we had eye contact for less than a second before she turned back to the trail, lowered her hunches while reaching out to guide the team safely around the other team and reemerge on the trail. I learned more in that impossible moment than I learned in any classroom.
Under the excitement of the moment apparently, I reverted to where I spent the greater part of every day: in the office. Walking down a hallway, if I needed to walk by someone I would smile and make a polite comment. But I wasn’t in my normal environment – I was in the dogs’ environment. I was on the trail, in the snow, running and sweating, pushing the sled and seeing how every dog on my team looked forward, ignoring the team as we passed.
The fact that my lead dog performed that action was completely unpredictable. She brought me back from wherever my mind was to the now, to the team, and our goal. In later contemplation and during many ensuing discussions of the event, the topic always returned to commitment and connections. It does not matter what role you have in the team effort; you are part of the team: you depend on your teammates, and they depend on you. It is a promise, a trust that you will perform as you perform during countless practice events. Teamwork is all about trust: honoring your role and the investment of every team member.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.mtmcoach.com
- Instagram: firemtn (name of our sled dog team)
- Facebook: Lucille Maddalena
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maddalenatransitions/
- Youtube: Lucille Maddalena
- Other: ResearchGate