JeVon McCormick, CEO of Scribe Media, recently ranked #1 Top Company Culture in America by Entrepreneur Magazine, is redefining what it means to be a leader in America today with his book Modern Leader.
In the business world, as with the natural world, you adapt or perish. It’s time to tear up the old corporate playbook and start leading from the front. The modern workforce has spoken: leadership is not a game.
Old leadership methods have become less effective and, frankly, they never fully grasped or represented America’s potential to begin with. The old corporate playbook is grossly outdated, and leaders who stick to it are watching their companies struggle. Most leaders realize there’s a problem, and while they sense there must be a solution, they aren’t sure where to turn. One thing is clear: there are difficult choices and conversations ahead.
JeVon McCormick wrote Modern Leader to facilitate those difficult discussions because doing nothing isn’t an act of leadership. It’s a symptom of fear.
Modern Leader encourages decision-makers to remove the limiting, segregating systems that have long been the status quo in corporate America. It’s time to bring people back to the heart of every decision.
Modern Leaders know a true, people-first initiative means tearing down the exclusionary echo chamber that first created this problem. Spoiler alert: the solution isn’t to hire a Chief Diversity Officer or post about Black History Month once a year on your company’s Instagram account.
JeVon McCormick is an author, CEO of Scribe Media, and public speaker. He was recently named the best CEO by Austin Business Journal and Entrepreneur Of The Year.
He didn’t write Modern Leader for money or fame. He wrote it for leaders everywhere who are ready to take action. And he wrote it because he wants to serve the communities where he grew up. JeVon feels a profound responsibility to share the lessons he’s learned, and demonstrate what can be achieved by someone like him.
Born to a Black pimp father and a white orphan mother, JeVon’s early years were spent in and out of juvenile detention. He worked to change his life and become a highly successful entrepreneur with a beautiful family. JeVon is proof that a person’s background should not limit their opportunities. And he’ll be the first to tell you he has accomplished all that he has because of his background, not “in spite of it.”
JeVon’s experiences throughout his personal life and career allowed him to see the imbalance of leadership in corporate America and the need for real, actionable change in a society on the precipice of evolution.
In his new book, JeVon shares critical lessons on what it means to be a leader in the modern world, and how to break free from outdated belief systems.
THE OLD PLAYBOOK IS EXCLUSIONARY
Black representation at the highest levels of corporate America is abysmal. Black people make up 13.4% of the US population, yet you can literally count on one hand the number of Black CEOs of Fortune 500 companies.
Their names are Roger, Marvin, and Kenneth. And the wealthiest Black man in America is named Robert Smith.
That’s the “old playbook” at work—a system designed to leave out anyone who doesn’t look and sound like everyone else who has run the same exclusionary game throughout history. It leaves out anyone with an ethnic-sounding name and anyone without a pristine academic background.
“The people who created the playbook also created the phrase, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’ Since it worked for so long for them, there was no need to fix it.” JeVon explains.
But the truth is, it never worked for the rest of us. The old playbook only worked for people within a narrow slice of experience and perspective.
“In my early 20s, when I was trying to get on people’s calendars to get appointments and interviews, ‘JeVon’ could not get an appointment,” he says. “But I switched and edited myself and called myself JT, John Thomas McCormick, and I’ll be damned. The next week I had appointments and callbacks.”
The effect of JeVon changing his name to a more “acceptable,” playbook-sounding name was immediate and profound. “I would show up in a room with the name JT McCormick [and] people would just blatantly say, ‘Oh, you’re not who I expected to show up.’”
When leaders rely on the old playbook, they miss a massive number of people with untapped talent, knowledge, and innovation— people that have always been waiting in the periphery. JeVon believes we can do better. “I edited myself to the broken playbook to get where I wanted to go.” A few years ago, he realized it was time to reclaim his name: JeVon. In doing so, he sought to make the corporate landscape more welcoming for others who also don’t have “playbook-approved” names.
“You shouldn’t have to edit yourself to get an interview or to further your career. Show up as your true authentic self every day, and only good will follow.”
TALENT SURROUNDS YOU—LOOK OUTSIDE THE PARADIGM
“You don’t need an Ivy League degree to excel,” JeVon emphasizes. “I have a GED and never went to college, and I’ve run two eight-figure businesses. Some of the greatest, untapped business talent on the planet is currently out there working two jobs on the streets, or even serving out a prison sentence.”
As the CEO of Scribe Media, JeVon has brought his philosophy of seeing the “people behind the paper”— their degrees and resumes—front and center. Leaders need to open their eyes and look for talent on the periphery, like the single mother who barely made it out of high school but who has more dedication, determination, and follow-through than the recent Wharton graduate.
Raised in a community surrounded by pimps, drug dealers, and addicts, JeVon understands the importance of providing opportunities to individuals who come from a wide variety of diverse backgrounds. He describes it as opening a door and welcoming each unique individual inside.
When you lead from this mentality, you broaden points of view and mutually enrich everyone involved. JeVon spearheads this style at his company, Scribe Media. There’s a wealth of knowledge in the world, and what many business leaders lack is listening, learning, and seeking to understand the knowledge of others.
IT’S NOT YOUR FAULT, BUT IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY
JeVon’s Modern Leadership philosophy is about taking responsibility. In Modern Leader, he asks leaders to reflect on the concrete steps they are actually taking—or not taking—to create a more accountable, responsible culture for the people they serve. Leaders have the power to make critical cultural changes that permeate their entire organization. If nobody at your company wants to be left “holding the bag” or won’t “own” up to errors and issues, it’s time for a hard look in the mirror—because company culture starts with you.
A future-focused company spearheaded by Modern Leadership stands in stark contrast to traditional leadership. The future is based on optimism and openness, new ideas and fresh perspectives, rather than the exclusionary rhetoric the old playbook infuse into our society.
Modern Leadership requires willing evolution. You must be willing to open your eyes and get uncomfortable. You don’t have to spend millions of dollars, but you do need to spend time learning, listening, and taking action.
The Modern Leader knows the world we live in may not be their fault—but fixing and revolutionizing it?
That’s the Modern Leader’s responsibility.
Are you ready to modernize your leadership and change the exclusionary, narrow corporate landscape as we know it? Order JeVon McCormick’s book Modern Leader today.
