Debbie, welcome to the show. Tell me about your
vision. Well, it's so glad I'm so glad to be
here. And my vision is one where in the short
run, if I can get a team, a leadership team to
really unlock and work together in a different
way, in a multiplier way. and not leave potential
on the table and not leave impact on the table
and not leave smarts on the table and experience
on the table. If they can come together in a
cohesive way, I know the results are going to
be better. And not only are the business results
going to be better, work for them is going to
be less stressful. And so then I go to the cumulative
effect. So we have a leadership team that's more
effective, more impactful, and less stressed.
Their families experience less stress. The people
they are leading will experience less stress.
So I don't think work has to be a four letter
word. I mean, OK, it is four letters, but you
know what I mean. It doesn't have to be a dirty
word. It doesn't have to be unpleasant. It should
be a place where as adults we go to live into
our gifts and live into the impact that we can
make. And leadership teams are such a big part
of promoting that or getting in the way. I see
the power of teams and my vision is to work with
as many teams as possible so that they can really
be the best they can be. And it's great for their
shareholders. It's great for their employees,
but ultimately it's great for them as human beings
and it's great for their families. So I really
feel there's a way that I can unlock them. They
can get the results and just remove friction
and remove stress and improve results. Tell me
more about that. I am very, very curious. on
the stories, how you got to this point and why
you got to this point about your vision. I'd
love to hear more. Yeah, it's a great question.
I think, so I was in the corporate world for
over 25 years and I've been in consulting, I've
been in industry, I've been in private sector,
nonprofit sector, public sector, and I've seen
I've been in the US, I've worked overseas. And
I think like all of us, we've seen when teams
work, we know when we're in that impactful team.
And the more and more work that I started to
do on people strategy and working with more senior
leaders, the latter part of my career, the more
I'm looking at the complexity of this world and
going, we need teams. You don't have what it
needs, what you need to do all on your own to
thrive anymore. You need the team around you.
Right. So those days of the solo. I mean, you
still have the solo folks, but for the most part,
we need each other. And so how do I how do I
really lean into that? And I remember hearing
someone had said to me recently, a few years
ago, imagine you have a team of five people.
Is the team of five even producing the output
of five individuals or are they suboptimized?
Are we paying attention to not just the five,
but the plus and the plus and the plus and the
plus, the in -between? So if we know teams are
critical for today's work and for tomorrow because
we don't know what's coming, but together we
have a better chance, and we know what it's like
to be on those impactful teams, I realize that's
what gives me joy. I love working with teams.
I loved being an individual coach, and I love
that spark when I work with executives. And prior
to being a coach and alongside being a coach,
I've always been in the organizational development
space, right? I work with teams more as an expert
or as a consultant. And this path that I'm on
now brings my two loves together. So I know teams,
I know systems, I know how to think about that,
and I know how to coach. And I think there's
this real need now where executive teams, they
need more. They don't need these one -off. strategy
sessions they're important they don't need a
one -off team development session that's important
they need to learn how to work together differently
they need to unlearn habits that just happen
over time and they need to make intentional choices
about here's where our business is going and
here's what we need to do so that's i think the
meta of where my vision came from and just seeing
the power of teams Of having some real joys and
highlights in my experience and having some real
pain points and lowlights in my experience. And
they were always at the team level. And then
just, I think, learning more about the space
and going, the world's just going to get faster
and more complex. And the need for leadership
teams is so much more now. So I just figured,
like, what can I do with my strengths and my
gifts to help them? And that's what I feel good
about. So that's a little bit more. I'm happy
to delve further, but that's a little bit more
in the backstory anyway. Thank you for sharing
that. And I'm happy to hear more. Have you read
the book, Five Dysfunctions of a Team? Yes. It's
one of those books that talks a lot about these
things. What would you say, Debbie, then how
did you get started on this path, like the entrepreneur
path of, I think, leaving the corporate world
and then diving in? diving deep into your own
pathing and helping people through your own business
strengths. Where did that come from and how did
that get started? I think it's a great question,
Harry. And I think a lot of us that do coaching.
So I went through my own graduate school experience
and then I had an opportunity at a company to
really oversee the coaching cadre of external
coaches. And I was talking to my then. boss and
i said you know i would really like to deepen
my skills as a coach and he's like absolutely
you should and so that started my own sort of
executive coaching journey on the more formal
level and even since then even though i've had
industry jobs and i had more and more senior
roles i always had a small sort of cadre of clients
that i kept external and i mentioned to you just
when we logged on i live just outside of chicago
Well, for four years, my family and I, we lived
in Maine, which for people outside the U .S.,
it's the northeast most part of the country.
Kind of sticks out there. It's closer to sort
of like the maritime provinces in Canada. There's
a big saying of you can't get there from here.
It's a very different place. And the thing about
Maine that's beautiful, it's rugged, it's further
away, is everybody has what they call a side
hustle. And I think there I was really kind of
leaning into. what am i doing in this coaching
and consulting space and i realized i'm getting
a lot of joy out of that and i had this small
voice that was starting saying when are you going
to do this full time and it was a scary voice
for a long time and then we moved back to the
chicago area uh and then the pandemic hit and
i think like a lot of people in the pandemic
there are a lot of you know really key moments
where people were looking themselves in the mirror
and saying what's really important just before
the pandemic i changed jobs um in 2018 and i
said to myself i think this is going to be my
last corporate role i just needed to say that
to myself i didn't know when i was going to leave
it was a wonderful final role for me i was chief
talent officer and i had an opportunity to build
a function and really help a company do part
of what i'm really good at doing And I think
the pandemic, I lost both my parents in 2021.
I think it was just this time for me to say,
if not now, when? And so I took the leap. And
being very pragmatic, I told my then boss and
I gave her about a year's notice. And I said,
look, I'm accountable for succession. Let's role
model a good succession and let's ramp me down
and ramp up your next generation. And in the
meantime, I started talking with people about
the Plager Group. And here was my vision. Here
were those places. And to a person, everyone
said, I'm so glad that you get to bring your
gifts to more people and to do what you love
and the world needs you. And that was validating
as scary as it was. And so April 8th, 2023, I
was fully 100%. I call that my anniversary, even
though I was like still like ramping down, ramping
up that call it my anniversary. So I'm almost
finishing my second year. And I'll say it's the
hardest thing I've ever done work -wise. I was
a good corporate employee. I worked in startups.
I worked in Fortune 75s. I worked in mega consulting
firms. I know corporate cultures. I know how
to navigate and shift. And this was something
completely different. And it has been a remarkable
journey. And it's wild. And it was really scary.
And it's not scary now, but it was really scary
in the beginning. And I just kept going back
to my vision of, what I wanted and needed to
do and how I felt like I could contribute to
the world. 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
becoming a vision pro yourself.