Empowering people to seize opportunity, do it differently and dare to succeed.

Part one of a two-part profile, read part two here.

Meet Jeb Horton, Senior Vice President, Global Services 

• A seasoned leader with an inclusive approach
• A music lover and a native of California
• A believer in not letting obstacles define your future

When I started my career, leadership was top down. I looked at leaders as the ones who knew everything. Immaculately dressed, they had this degree of sophistication and the air of having knowledge way beyond what was their domain of expertise. I learned quickly that this wasn’t’ the case. They didn’t know everything. 

Redefining Leadership

As I began my leadership journey, I’ve realized that there are many nuances in that role in any organization. Business is complex. Top-down leadership isn’t always the right way. People need meaningful direction — they need context and most importantly they need frequent communication. A good leader is someone who maintains dialogue, who takes information and distills it to provide direction. I’ve found over my career that many things that I thought were true, aren’t.

A Wider Perspective

People can often be parked as this or that and then that opinion can stay for a long time. I’m very intentional about making sure everyone listens to what they are saying. I think it's important to really embrace what everybody can contribute to create an environment where they're willing to share. I believe in seeing different viewpoints. We are greater together than we are individually. As a leader, you must be willing to recognize and embrace that.

Like Growing a Sequoia

Back when I was at Deloitte, we hired 5 graduates from Cornell. I made sure they all had meaningful work and had to support to succeed right out of the gate. I was awarded the sequoia award. The sequoia tree is a big tree in California that has lots of little roots. Those people now are incredibly successful, running private equity firms and businesses of their own.

I believe in being a champion for others. It’s something I’m passionate about and I’ve been lucky to be a part of many employees’ development. Over the past 20 years, my greatest honor has been empowering people to seize opportunities, do things differently and dare to succeed.