Passages of Marriage by Mary Alice Minirth

Passages of Marriage by Mary Alice Minirth

Transformational Leadership Through Empathy

In Lunch with Lucy, entrepreneur Sherry Deutschmann shares how she built a $40 million company by putting her people first. She created an employee-centric practice called Lunch with Lucy that removed the hierarchical dynamics within the organization. On any given Wednesday, any employee could invite Lucy (Sherry's midday moniker) to lunch. At these events, Sherry wasn't the CEO. She was Lucy, a co-worker.

By making herself 100% available, Lucy created an environment where she could learn about the unique challenges faced by her team members, their dreams, their ambitions, and their insight into what she was doing right or wrong as a leader. She credits this approach with the success of her company.

The book's chapters are presented as courses on a restaurant menu. Deutschmann uses this construct to illustrate how choices can directly impact employee morale, engagement, and commitment, ultimately leading to a healthy and hearty bottom line, one lunch at a time.

With refreshing humor and humility, Lunch with Lucy is one woman's story of building a robust business through empathetic leadership and uncommon, commonsense business practices. Deutschmann deliberately put the needs of her people above those of her shareholders and customers through initiatives such as fair living wages and an equal profit share plan. This culture led LetterLogic to recognition by The New York Times, Forbes magazine, INC. magazine, Fast Company magazine, and EY.

Entrepreneurs will engage with this thought leader as she shows how she was successful--not in spite of her unorthodox leadership, but because of it. Her business model is transformational.