Tell me about your vision in all of this and where did it come from? I've heard a few things
That maybe had brought this up. But what is what's your vision?
So my vision for my own company, but really for leaders as a whole is to get to a place where they
Feel that they're authentically showing up that they're capable of leading people
But that doesn't that comes with a set of responsibilities and skills, but it's not an exclusive of
What their other what you know what their teams would be doing?
My vision is to help inspire leaders to be their authentic selves
to
Be better at that and so, you know my my little story. I was a 30 plus year corporate
Transformation person. I started my career at Accenture. I ended my career at IBM
I did all kinds of technology transformation business transformation
organizational transformation throughout all of that and
When I decided to go out on my own, it was really about helping empower leaders
To embrace the kinds of change for themselves
But even more importantly to inspire that change in their people to inspire them to follow
And the leaders that I have worked with through without question have been really all about
Buying into the change is not something that it's while it's hard. It doesn't have to be
Personally hard it can be something that is a really amazing growth opportunity
And I've I have loved the last almost three years
working with
Primarily women because that's some of the networking that I've been part of but women that are
interested in in stepping into their own
ability
Impact and grow other people and individuals
And as it as entrepreneurs, I often talk with women that are doing just that because I
Contributed to a book that was all about becoming an unstoppable woman entrepreneur
That my little my little chapter
And I I just love talking with other women that are looking to do and don't get me wrong
I love talking to other men too. It's just different opportunities different barriers
So lots of times women entrepreneurs are struggling just like leaders are struggling to feel like they have
Opportunity or they they deserve the opportunity or they know how to follow through on
Opportunity they're presenting to themselves and it's so interesting you
you speak about the diamond dynamics of
differences between men, you know who are getting into the
The field of being leaders and women and we do have a big difference and I go back to
When I was younger, that's often what you've seen wasn't white-collar men
You know and they were the the leaders they were the CEO
See, they're the only ones with the acronyms in the company from what I visualized when I was younger
And so now that that things are changing and life is changing
And we see as women that we have the power to be in the same position
Just with a different, you know a different
Innate thing that we have called emotions, but we could still do the same thing
So I love that with all that being said, what's your why?
My my why has always been about
Being authentically myself in helping others
Even when I was a corporate executive I
Joked that I didn't get the IBM blue lobotomy, right? I never really the same way
That was standard that was taught
Because for me, it was really about showing up as an authentic leader
Helping others to understand build belief right build belief in where we were going what we were doing
and then taking that that strong belief and helping to
Embody that in a change create some capability and people create
Encouragement and engagement and then making sure that I was sustaining that so
What's funny is my my wife from a business perspective has always been that way
Going out of my own didn't change that why it just changed who my why impacted
But ultimately, you know, my wife has always been my family
I have
Three children all of whom grew up with a you know, strong independent for a long time single mom
It was very very committed to making sure that they not only succeeded in what they wanted to do
But they saw that success was possible
And so many lessons from business overlapped into parenting
Parenting overlapped into business that that driver of why you show up every day is
Going to far outlive anything that i'm going to do and and being you know generous in the ability to share those lessons
Model them for my children model them for for my my leadership, you know in company
I I spent a lot of time leading our local school board for that same reason
It is about bringing all of your capabilities to whatever the role that you have whether that be parent leader
Board member, what have you?
I love that. I love that and you you mention often authenticity
And I don't want to do our audience a disservice
Explain to the audience and even myself what authenticity means
As a whole and to you as well. It's often
It's a used word wide used word around and I want some of the the new leaders or the entrepreneurs to understand
what authenticity means
for me it it
It really truly means what do you hope?
That you be and deliver and and show up as lots of people will think well
This is what i'm supposed to do. This is what i'm expected to do my c-suite title
expects me to do these things and it doesn't feel
Like who you are
And showing up for yourself being and I and I i'm very careful about this
Lots of times leaders will say i'm i'm authentic. I shared my whole morning and it was terrible and
I I often say to leaders specifically being your authentic self does not mean
That you are burdening your organization with everything you think of it's not about
Dumping all of the woes and the sorrows and the things that the leaders responsibilities onto someone else
There there's an authenticity that says how is it that I want to be seen?
And how is it that I want to be heard and experienced?
That's different than being full kimono, right? You're not supposed
If you can stand there naked, that's not necessarily authentic unless you can stand there naked
Being very comfortable with how you're being seen and I think that's a balance because too many leaders think that if i'm going to be authentic
I'll just you know be able to just be
It's not all of that. It really is about how what is the effect? I want to have I I often say to leaders
When we're talking about communication, there's three questions that you ask yourself before you press send or post the blog or or even get on to a conversation
When you're done with this exchange of communication, what do you want people to think?
What do you want people to feel and what do you want them to do as a result of your communication?
If you can think about that from a level of authenticity, what do I want people to think feel and do with my leadership?
Presence today. Yeah, that's a level of helping you to be authentic
Leave you in a leadership role and not necessarily be full burdening of everyone, you know of everything you've ever thought
And it's a balance not not everyone does it very well
There's plenty of those leaders what we can probably all think of those that you're just like why did he say that or she say that like
That doesn't help me. It just makes me feel bad for you as the leader
But too many leaders think that that's what they're telling you
Go be authentic. Go be vulnerable. It doesn't mean they have to know everything about you
Thank you for being here today. I'm really happy that you tuned in to vision pros live
I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes continue to move forward
This is going to get more and more fun
We'll have more and more engagement as well
We'll invite people to participate in the show and thank you for giving us your time and attention
Have an excellent time building out your vision and be part of it
Yourself