- Sep 25, 2019
- 3 min
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HI THERE! I’M MATTHEW LEE
I'm an experienced executive, leader and manager with previous roles in many industries.
Thanks for visiting my site! I invite you to take a moment and look around. To learn more about my background, experience, skills and how we could potentially work together, feel free to contact me.
Home: Welcome
BIO
Since my first role as a leader, as a Corporal in the Marine Corps, I've always believed that organizations get out of their employees what they put in. I strive for compassionate leadership and mentorship, with an eye towards developing employees in their roles, training for future roles and growing them as individuals to the benefit of the organization. I strive to emulate the best leaders I've worked with and for, and those whom I've admired from afar. To learn more about me, keep exploring my site or reach out directly.
Home: About Me
MY EXPERIENCE
Background & Expertise
MANAGEMENT & LEADERSHIP POSITIONS
2003-2006: Supervisor of Competitive Intelligence Department for a boutique Investment Bank
2006-2016: Manager for Department of Defense contract companies, managing the contracted effort on one to five various courses in Intelligence collection, Leadership and Management
2016-2018: Director of Management for a world-renown specialized engineering firm
2019: Manager of the Learning & Development effort for a non-profit behavioral health organization
INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE
Non-profit, National Defense, Contracting, Investment Banking, Engineering, Intelligence
ACTIVITIES MANAGED
Strategic Planning, Competitive Intelligence, Management Education, Program Management, Regulatory Compliance, Learning & Development, Live Training, Learning Management System (LMS) Administration, LMS Development and Implementation, Instructional & Graphics Design, Logistics, Operations, Executive Coaching,
Home: Experience
EDUCATION
ELLER COLLEGE OF MANAGEMENT, UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
Masters of Business Administration, Executive
Along with the core MBA instruction, the Executive MBA program offered insight on each topic from an Executive's standpoint, posing issues, questions and scenarios far more advanced than a traditional MBA to draw from the experience of the class. The professors were the premier experts in their fields, and were the best that University of Arizona had to offer - many were Deans of their individual academic specialty
EXCELSIOR COLLEGE
BS Liberal Arts/Criminal Justice
Combining a Liberal Arts major with a Criminal Justice minor exposed me to a multitude of differently minded individuals, and offered me the opportunity to see the world from multiple perspectives. This experience was useful to help tune my decision-making processes, as it showed me how extremely intelligent people could view the same problem and find drastically different (but equally effective) solutions. By remaining open-minded to perspectives and observations, I have found my decisions in a business environment to be more effective.
COCHISE COMMUNITY COLLEGE
AAS - Intelligence Studies
My first foray into academics came later in life than it does for most. I had a 10 year military career and many years of business experience under my belt before I ever stepped foot into a college classroom. I had previously relied on my experience and innate abilities to come to decisions, but after beginning college courses, I instantly saw the value in education, thus embarking on a rapid journey that culminated (thus far) with a Master's degree.
Home: Education
MY SKILLS
What I Do
LEADERSHIP
In my lexicon, I distinguish between "Leading" and "Managing". Leading is the process of inspiring employees to greater heights. It requires mutual trust and respect. Employees will give their all for a true leader because they want to, not because they are afraid of the repercussions if they don't. Scared or uninspired employees will put in the minimum amount of effort needed to keep from being punished or fired. Well led employees will push the limits of what's possible. My favorite analogy is "It'll take more than fear of a write up to get a Marine Fire Team to charge up a hill under fire". As a leader, I advocate for employees when it is required, I strive to get employees relevant training and I work with each individual to determine what motivates them and what their career goals are. Then I work with that information to inspire the employee and to help create a career path that is relevant to the employee. This often involves discussing the pros and cons of promotions into management positions - not everyone likes to manage and not everyone is good at it. If that is the case, alternative suggestions for career advancement are discussed. Ultimately, this helps employees feel valued and supported, and leads to better performance.
MANAGEMENT
Management, to me, means the ability to move people, projects and organizations toward a desired outcome. It is all of the administration that occurs after a team has been inspired, or as a result of the trust built between a leader and his teams. It entails following applicable laws, policies and regulations while directing towards completion. It also includes employee and corporate administration, such as proper documentation, hiring/terminating, evaluating, record-keeping and all of the tangible aspects of a functioning department or company.
From the beginning, I have always been a strategic thinker. As a child, I was the friend everyone ran their ideas by because I would present all of the potential outcomes in order of probability. As I've honed and refined my thinking processes, I've realized I have a talent for thinking concepts through to post-execution before they've left the idea stage. Throughout my career, I've been part of strategic planning processes and my input has helped many companies make better decisions.
I thrive in fast-paced and ever-changing environments because my ability to quickly think through the new data allows me to rapidly begin implementation of changes. I work well even when handling many different projects or departments, and I can switch back-and-forth between each on-demand. I am at my best when things seem at their worst, a trait I thank the Marine Corps for instilling in me
Home: Skills
"Too many managers think that people are working for them; they don’t realize that they should be working for their employees. I always approach my management style from the perspective that I am working for my employees. They’re the boss of me. All 600 of them.
As a manager, your first job is to practice humility before anything else. Work for the people on your team. Once you make that mental shift, it’s fascinating how many things just flow from there."
Gary Vaynerchuk
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