Welcome to Milestone Moments, the show where
we explore the journeys that lead to success.
I'm Sheila Slick, your host and founder of Five
Milestones. In every episode, we will bring you
insights from the minds of entrepreneurs, leaders
and experts who will share not just their expertise,
but the milestone moments that have reshaped
their journeys and led to significant achievements.
So if you're looking for motivation, you're in
the right place. Subscribe now and discover the
milestones that mark the path to success. Welcome
to another episode of Milestone Moments in Business
and Leadership. I'm your host, Sheila Slick,
and today my special guest is Liz Weber. Liz
has been named one of 2025 Top Global Gurus for
Leadership, along with Simon Sinek and John Maxwell.
When Liz Weber talks, her clients listen. Liz
is also an advisor to boards. to owners and C
-suite teams. She's a leadership, strategic,
and succession planning consultant, author, and
speaker. Liz helps her clients focus on the right
things at the right time to get the right impact.
And as a result, they enhance performance, profits,
and their workplace culture. Welcome to the show,
Liz. Thank you, Steele. I'm really happy to talk
with you today. That's a very impressive background.
I always love to ask, how did you get to doing
what you did, what you do today? What was that
pivotal moment that led you to this? Well, Sheila,
I think you and your listeners would all like
to have that magic bullet, that straight line.
But as I think, as we all know, it kind of winds.
And I first heard about being a consultant in
my capstone course in my graduate school. I'd
been getting my degree in international business.
I thought I wanted to be a commodities broker.
And my capstone course was taught by a man named
Jim Farrell. And he was this thing called a consultant.
And I had never heard of that as a career possibility.
But he was not a professor. He was not a Ph .D.
He was a businessman. And when he explained what
he did. By working with his clients on all aspects
of business that I had been studying, whether
it was marketing, accounting, finance, administration,
logistics, production, personnel, he had to know
a little bit about all of it to advise his clients.
It was in listening to him, in hearing what he
was dealing with in the real world versus the
theory that was in the books, he was taking the
theory and applying it and sometimes twisting
the theory to make it work for his clients. And
in listening to him and in that class, it just
resonated with me so much that, you know, I think
it's something that if I can share with the listeners
is... Pay attention to those moments when something
just, it just feels right. And you don't know
what to do with it yet, but it just feels right.
I never forgot that. And I continued my studies,
obviously. And then when I was in my first career
shortly out of college. Again, I was very fortunate
to work in an office at the U .S. Department
of State where we had a number of consultants
that we worked with. So I was able to work with
consultants to see what they did for a client.
And I was very fortunate in that a couple of
the consultants that I work with were actually
attorneys and work for an attorney practice as
well. And I asked them, I said, I want to do
what you do someday. And they basically, very
nicely, but kind of patted me on the head and
was like, well, that's great, but you're only
24. You really don't have enough experience yet.
Get some experience and get some. Get some kicks
in the gut so you can understand what your clients
who are going to be business owners or who are
managers that have to deal with some of the challenges
that they have to deal with. So when you speak
to them, you can speak from a position of empathy
and not theory. And that really resonated with
me. I worked in that position for about nine
years, and then I started my own company, and
I started a training company. Because, again,
one of those impact points for my job, I was
attending one of those Fred Pryor National Seminar
-type workshops that were out there. And I remember
sitting in that workshop thinking, I could do
this. I was an adjunct professor at a college
at the time, too, and I was like... I could do
this. I already do this partly for my job. And
so that's where I got the idea of starting my
training company. But in the back of my head,
I still wanted to do this thing called a consultant.
But through my training company and working with
managers, doing supervisory and mid -level management
training. I was fortunate in that I was in a
position in the training room where the managers
would share their experiences on the job. What
was working? What wasn't working? Senior management
wasn't hearing this. Frontline employees weren't
doing that. And I was, of my own volition, I
guess confident enough that I would put their
concerns together and I would share them up the
chain to say, this is what I'm hearing in the
training room. You might want to consider X.
And without realizing it, I was giving them advice.
And so my training clients started becoming my
consulting clients because I was getting the
information from their managers. I was putting
it together in a way that made sense to senior
management. And I became one of those situations,
Sheila, where mid -level managers were going,
well, that's what we've been trying to tell them
all this time. And then you come in and you tell
them and they pay attention. Well, ding, ding,
ding. Yes, that's true. But I was also packaging
the information in a way that made sense to people
further up the chain. I love that story. And
I cut myself almost with the ageism, you know,
contradicting myself. Well, how can you be a
consultant right out of college? I didn't know
about consulting when I studied either. So in
my mind, a consultant is someone that has enough
knowledge, but also experience where you're coming
in to solve a particular problem and share that
advice. And so I absolutely love that. You made
me think outside of my own box that you can have
that thought even at a really, really early stage
in your career. So today, what is the most pressing
challenge? that is facing these people that you're
either consulting or training? You know, it's
really interesting because even as crazy as things
are for so many people right now, a fundamental
problem that has been a through line in my 30
-something years of doing this is really helping
people understand what their jobs are. Now, that
sounds really very basic, but what I mean, Sheila,
is... if your title is XYZ manager or XYZ manager
of this department, what are you really supposed
to be doing as that manager? How much of the
hands -on work are you supposed to be doing given
the staffing that you have, given the technical
changes, given the new product that you're supposed
to be rolling out? And how much of your time
are you supposed to be spending developing your
team members to better do the jobs they're being
paid to do? And that understanding of what as
leaders or as managers, our jobs are supposed
to be and how do we do that? And then how do
we communicate to those we're responsible for
what their jobs are and how many of them need
to more fully do the work that is part of their
position responsibility that for years as managers.
It's just been easier to give it to Sheila because
she'll just do it and not complain. And meanwhile,
we have Rhoda over here, who's a great person,
a lovely person, but let's be honest, is really
doing about 75 % of the work. And we've got Sheila
doing 125 % of the work. So it's a matter of
really being fair to people and developing people
to their full potential and not just making it
easy on ourselves and overloading some of our
really hard performers. So what would be one
insight or a takeaway that someone listening
to you today could do if they can recognize that
they're that person that's doing more of that
work, that 75 % that you mentioned? Well, it's
one of the things of... look at the position
you're hired to do and you're being paid to do.
And when you look at the position responsibilities,
ask yourself or ask your team, on a scale of,
you know, one to ten, how competent are you to
independently and competently do that work by
yourself? And you can kind of assess that. The
other way to look at it is just simply look at
your to -do list or what you've been working
on. And how much of the work that you've spent
your time on just today or just so far this week
is actually work that is at your level versus
how much of the work that you've been doing is
actually work that your team members should be
handling. But you're just trying to help them
out and get it done. And let's be honest, between
you and me and your listeners, it's easier if
we just do it anyway. So that type of mentality,
by default, we're... not allowing them to grow
into those responsibilities because we think
we're being nice, but we're actually inhibiting
their growth and we're keeping more work on ourselves.
Now, you've also authored a few books. Can you
tell me a little bit about that? Yeah, I've written
10 books. And, you know, I think the one that
probably speaks the most to what you and I have
just had a conversation about is one of the books
I wrote. It's called Something Needs to Change
Around Here, The Five Stages to Leveraging Your
Leadership. And it's really written for leaders
of all levels. I've had great success with it
for first -time leaders to actually executives
in the C -suite in the boardroom. To clarify
what we've been talking about is How do I intentionally
as a leader change the way I'm thinking and the
way I'm behaving so I am more effective in leading
my team and I can help them be more effective
given the jobs that they're doing? So that's
one book that I'm really proud of. And there
is a free assessment that goes along with it.
So if any of your listeners are interested in
that, that's something that can be available
to them as well. And the primary. market that
you serve would be corporations, institutions,
individuals, small businesses? I'm a B2C, basically,
excuse me, B2B, business to business, and my
industries are typically... Private sector companies,
family businesses. I do a lot with state government.
I do a lot with trade associations. And those
are typically my industries that I work with.
And again, I'm working with typically mid -level
managers, minimum and above, quite often the
executive suite, the C -suite, the owners, or
the boards of directors. And where can we find
you or learn more? So I think the two best ways
to find me, I'm on LinkedIn. I'm most active
on LinkedIn. And my handle on LinkedIn is at
LizWeberCMC. And Weber has just one B. And my
company website is the acronym for my company
name. It's W as in William, B as in boy, S as
in Sam, L as in Lima, L as in Lima, C as in Charlie
.com. And before we wrap this up, what is your
next milestone? You know, the next milestone
I had this year is just really continuing to
go deep with my clients and help them take it
to the next level. Because as I alluded to before,
things are just very challenging for a lot of
my clients right now. So my focus this year is
to be a stabilizing force for them and help them.
continue or refocus on what they can do next
to stabilize them, stabilize their workforce,
stabilize their business, and keep moving forward.
Well, thank you so much for joining me today,
Liz. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.
And thank you all for tuning in to another episode
of Milestone Moments in Business and Leadership.
Until next time.