Todd Cherches: Communication, Connection and Meaning in a Visual World

If I had to select six words, the top three would be Introspection, Reflection, and Connection. Introspection is about making the time and taking the time to look inward at who you are, how you are, and why you are. Reflection has to do with looking back on where you came from and how you got to where you are today. And Connection is about connecting the dots of your life’s journey…in addition to connecting intimately with others.

I would add to these Curiosity, Flexibility, and Humour. As an avid reader obsessed with origins – from etymology to history – I am consumed by the quest to understand the “Why?” of everything, as well as asking, “Why not?” As for Flexibility, we must continue to learn, grow, and change daily. As I always say, “In an ever-changing world, if you’re standing still, you’re falling behind.” And lastly, life can be difficult and stressful – especially when dealing with people. So, if you can maintain a sense of humour about things and an attitude of gratitude, it helps us to stay grounded and keep things in perspective.

In the early years of my career, my greatest challenge was working for a series of one bad boss after another, ultimately leading me to what I do for a living today. My personal and professional mission statement is to “Make the world a better place…one leader at a time.” And, to me, everyone is a leader in one way or another.

One pivotal moment among many stands out. While working at one of the three major television networks in Hollywood, my manager threw a box of pens at my head because they were not the ones she wanted. This incident was just one of many entries in the “Abuse Log” I kept to document the awful treatment to which I was subjected as her assistant. I tell the full story (“A Love Letter to Horrible Bosses”) in Chapter 5 of my book, VisuaLeadership.

On a related note, my book is dedicated, first, to my wife; secondly, to my parents; and, thirdly, to all of the horrible bosses without whom the rest of my career would not have been possible. My experiences working for these numerous narcissistic egomaniacs made me a more empathetic and compassionate executive coach, professor, leader, and human being.

I'd be fascinated to hear how they started out. I am obsessed with origins and origin stories, so I would ask them how and why they became who and what they are today.

The many unfortunate personal experiences I’ve had with bad leadership tremendously impacted who I am and what I do today. But I am also lucky to have had a few positive influences and mentors in my life as well. The most significant being my high school English teacher, Mr. Patterson.

I was always an extremely shy, quiet, unconfident, introverted student. Even though I was always one of the tallest kids in my class, I commonly did my best to make myself invisible. By nature, I still describe myself as a “3 B’s” guy – a Behind-the-Scenes, Back-of-the-Room Bookworm. But Mr. Patterson saw something special in me and was the only teacher ever to provide any personalised attention. He instilled in me a love of literature (especially Shakespeare and poetry), and he helped me to leverage my strengths as a thinker and writer, giving me the confidence to take risks and to dream bigger than I ever dreamed possible. Without his impact and influence, I’m unsure if I would be who or where I am today.

A huge turning point in my life and career occurred at age forty when I forced myself to take a course in public speaking. Despite my initial fear and hesitation, I quickly discovered that it was not as terrifying as I was expecting, and I was not as terrible at it as I thought. In fact, the head of trainers for the company, Joe Armentano, took me under his wing and coached me to be the confident public speaker I am today. Without his leadership, mentorship, and friendship, none of what I subsequently achieved would likely have happened, including my career as a leadership consultant, trainer, and executive coach; my teaching at NYU and Columbia University; my TEDx talk, my book, and even this interview!

To me, this is what great leadership is about: recognising the potential in people… and then helping them to discover it within themselves.

Throughout my entire life, since childhood, I always learned best through drawing, sketching, mind-mapping, modelling, colour-coding, visualising, etc., and have always been drawn (no pun intended) to the power of visual imagery and objects, mental models and frameworks, metaphors and analogies, and visual storytelling.

So, when I started to apply these techniques to my work, the effectiveness and impact were immediately apparent, and the feedback I received from others was overwhelming.

This led to numerous requests for me to teach others how to leverage the power of visual thinking and visual communication – what I have since branded as VisuaLeadership® -- which has become the foundation of my work today.

I always tell my clients and students, “Wisdom comes not from answering questions but from questioning answers.” So, the best thing you can do is become a better questioner. And a better listener. I’ve found that when conducting 360-degree feedback of executives, “Listening” tends to be the skill (and, yes, it is a developable skill) that most of them score themselves the highest in, yet their people score them the lowest in. I often joke that among many leaders, the biggest gap is often between the ears.

So, the key is to surround yourself with great people you can trust, empower, and hold accountable for delivering results, listen to them, and learn from them. Good, smart, dedicated, driven, passionate, self-disciplined and self-motivated business professionals don’t need to be managed; they need to be led. As the saying goes, “Lead, follow, or get out of the way.” Too many leaders don’t know how to get out of their own way. 

In my everyday life, my wife Karin and our two little Havanese puppies are my greatest sources of joy and inspiration. Beyond that, what drives me? An insatiable thirst for learning, accompanied by an overwhelming desire to teach, train, and coach others to help them become their best selves and live their best lives. As for finding harmony in my life, that is not a term typically associated with life in New York City! As a native New Yorker, while I love living and working in the Big Apple, the relentless pace and constant crowds can be both energising and energy-depleting. So, although easier said than done (especially when you work for yourself, and love what you do!), it is important to find a way to trigger the “off switch” and get away – physically, mentally, and emotionally.

As it is commonly said, there is no “work/life balance” anymore; it is all about “work/life integration.” That is, figuring out how to seamlessly incorporate nature, the arts, sports, hobbies, people, pets, and (for me, it may be something different for you) a little bit of chocolate into your daily life.

The management guru Peter Drucker famously wrote, “Time is the scarcest resource; if it is not managed, nothing else can be.” As you grow older, with each passing year - if not each passing day, week, and month - you realise that time speeds by faster than ever. So, we need to live in the moment and cherish each day. The famously simple quote (and book title) by Ram Dass, “Be Here Now,” might be the three most important words to live by in any language. 

As a life-long obsessive reader, I could talk forever about my favourite books. In fact, pages 311-316 of my book VisuaLeadership lists 52 of the top books and authors that had the greatest impact on my life and my work. Among them are the Complete Works of Shakespeare, Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People, and my coaching bible, Marshall Goldsmith’s What Got You Here Won’t Get You There. But it’s not just business books that I love. In high school and college, I majored in English Literature (with a concentration in Shakespeare and poetry), so I’ve read many of the classics. But since getting hooked on business and self-help books in 1998, I have read an average of one book a week for the past 25 years, which adds up to well over 1,300 and counting. So, if you ever ask me for a book recommendation, think twice…as you may regret it.

And in terms of format, while I occasionally read an ebook or listen to an audiobook, I am a traditionalist and loyalist in my preference for physical books – which I have approximately 3,000 of on my numerous bookshelves. As my common practice is to underline, circle, highlight, colour-code, make margin notes, and otherwise interact with a book while reading it, I am not just absorbing the content, by interacting virtually with the author. I find that actively reading in this manner increases my “Attention, Comprehension, and Retention,” helping me to focus, to understand, and to remember what I’m reading.

At age 12, my parents surprised me with a puppy. This tiny, 3-pound (later to be 15-pound), black cockapoo (half poodle and half cocker spaniel) became not only the love of my life - but because I struggled with some difficult challenges as a teen (including bullying, depression, social anxiety disorder, etc.), this fluffy little black ball of unconditional love (who ended up living for 17 years) helped me to get through one of the most difficult periods of my life; and for that I will be forever grateful.

As an extreme introvert who tends to be quiet around strangers, most people who don’t know me assume I am serious, cerebral… and even somewhat aloof. However, when I am comfortable (including when I am on stage teaching or presenting), my subtle, quiet, low-key humour and playfulness tend to emerge. And with my Long Island accent, attitude, and style, more than a few attendees of my presentations and training programs have described me as “the Seinfeld of leadership” – something I am quite proud of, as a huge, long-time fan of his comedy.

As previously mentioned, when you live in a big city like New York, even if you love it, you still need to escape from it every once in a while. And one of the main things my wife and I have in common is that we both love the beach, any beach, any time of year. When I think of the beach, I am reminded of the quote by author Isak Dinesen – which we have framed and hung on the wall of our den: “The cure for anything is salt water - tears, sweat, or the sea.” Although I have to say, of the three, I much prefer the sea.

If I could pick anywhere in the world to live, it would be right here in the Big Apple, which also happens to be where my wife and I are originally from. After college, I spent ten years living and working in Los Angeles - an amazingly beautiful and complex place with which I have a love/hate relationship. But, as the saying goes, there is no place like home, so I returned...and met my wife soon thereafter. And while, as the slogan goes, “I❤️NY,” it is equally nice to escape occasionally, fortunately, we have a small weekend residence in Fairfield, Connecticut, just ten minutes from a beautiful, picturesque beach on the Long Island Sound. So, we are blessed with the best of both worlds.

In the opening lines of my TEDx talk on “The Power of Visual Thinking” (as well as in the opening chapter of my book, VisuaLeadership), I tell the story of how when I was a kid, people would ask what I wanted to be when I grew up, my enthusiastic response would be, “Superman!” I wanted his super-strength, flying ability, and X-ray vision. And, when asked for my backup plan in case my first choice was unavailable, my answer was, “OK…then, Batman!” – as I dreamed of someday having my own Batcave, Batmobile, and Bat Utility Belt.

However, even though those childhood aspirations turned out to be an unattainable fantasy, as an executive coach, university professor, keynote speaker, and author, I have obtained certain aspects of each of these iconic superheroes in my career:

While I don’t have Superman’s X-ray vision, I have developed “visual thinking” as one of my superpowers! And although I don’t have his super strength or ability to fly, I have the “strength” of the confidence I have gained over the years…and as a result, my career has “taken flight” to new heights which I could never have imagined 20 or more years ago.

Similarly, while I don’t have Batman’s Utility Belt, I have an extensive management, leadership, and coaching toolkit I have created and/or acquired over the years. 

And, with these superpowers, I can fulfil my mission, passion, and purpose of helping to make the world a better place…one leader at a time.  

Anywhere and everywhere! Life lessons are all around us, hiding in plain sight…if we are only aware enough to notice. As quoted in the closing line of my TEDx talk on “The Power of Visual Thinking,” Proust wrote, “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands, but in seeing with new eyes.” And to that, I would add this reminder from Thoreau: "It’s not what we look at that matters; it’s what we see.”