Ucuzoglu spoke about modern leadership and the challenges ahead for professional services firms. There is still a stereotype of the CEO as someone who issues edicts from the corner office said Ucuzoglu. “This was born of a bygone era.”
Today’s leaders are faced with even more complex challenges and must lead with empathy and humility, he said. “If you embed value systems and then trust your people to make the right decisions in interfacing with other colleagues, clients, regulators, and communities, then values-based leadership has taken the place of the autocratic all-knowing issuer of edicts.”
As an accounting student at Leventhal, Ucuzoglu didn’t start out with his eyes on becoming CEO or having a long career at Deloitte. “When I began my career at Deloitte, in full transparency, I had mapped out just two years,” he shared with Holder, explaining that was the amount of time he needed to gain the work experience for his CPA license. His path forward ended up being much different than he originally envisioned.