December 2, 2025 • 50 mins
Every great movement begins with a single brave step inward. This episode invites you to discover your unique mission and align your leadership with your deepest truth. By embracing your values, amplifying your strengths, and reconnecting with your emotional depth, you can spark a revolution of authenticity and impact — starting with you. Guest: Dana Williams
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Working on Purpose is broadcast live Tuesdays at 6PM ET and Music on W4CY Radio (www.w4cy.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com). Working on Purpose is viewed on Talk 4 TV (www.talk4tv.com).
Working on Purpose Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/working-on-purpose--2643411/support.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The topics and opinions express in the following show are
solely those of the hosts and their guests and not
those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We
make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services,
or products mentioned on air or on our web. No
liability explicit or implies shall be extended to W FOURCY
Radio or its employees are affiliates. Any questions or comments
should be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for
(00:20):
choosing W FOURCY Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
What's working on Purpose? Anyway? Each week we ponder the
answer to this question. People ache for meaning and purpose
at work, to contribute their talents passionately and know their
lives really matter. They crave being part of an organization
that inspires them and helps them grow into realizing their
highest potential. Business can be such a force for good
in the world, elevating humanity. In our program, we provide
(00:51):
guidance and inspiration to help usher in this world we
all want working on Purpose. Now, here's your host, doctor
Elise Cortes.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Welcome back to a Working on Purpose program which has
been brought to you with passion and pride since February
of twenty fifteen. Thanks for tuning in again this week.
Speaker 4 (01:10):
Great to have you.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
I'm your host, doctor Elis Cortes. If we've not met
before and you don't know me, I'm a workforce advisor,
organizational psychologist, management consultant, logo therapist, speaker and author. My
team and I at Gusto now help companies enliven and
fortify their operations by building a dynamic, high performance culture,
inspirational leadership and nurturing managers activated by meaning and purpose.
(01:32):
And many many people don't recognize this how critical inspiration is.
And did you know that satisfy or inspired employees outperform
their satisfied peers by a factor of two point twenty
five to one. In other words, inspiration is good for
the bottom line. You can learn Madison how we can
work together at gustodshnow dot com or my personal site
at Leiscortes dot com. Getting into today's program, we have
(01:53):
Dana Williams, who is an executive coach, speaker, author and
founder of Dana Williams Consulting. Twenty five years in leadership
at Southwest Airlines, she now helps leaders move from performing
to thriving by lining their strengths, core values and purpose.
As a Gallup certified Clifton Strengths Coach, she is the
creator of the Strengths Journal and Your Authentic Imprint Framework.
(02:16):
She is a Forbes Coaches Council member and contributor, host
of the Dominate Your Day podcast, and author of The
Internal Revolution, Lead Authentically and Build your Personal Brand from Within,
which we'll be talking about today. If she joined you
today from Dallas like me, Dana, welcome to working on Purpose.
Speaker 5 (02:32):
Welcome.
Speaker 6 (02:33):
So fun to be on your show on the other
side of the mic, right, It was so good to
be on your podcast.
Speaker 4 (02:38):
And now I get to have you one mind.
Speaker 5 (02:40):
Thank you, and let.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Us celebrate this beautiful thing you brought into the world.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
Look at this.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
It's just gorgeous. And I loved being at your book
launch here in Dallas. That was fantastic. And I know
what it feels like, you know, to have this plan,
this dream of having a book, and then you hold
it in your hands and when people are reading it
and learning from but it's so amazing.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
It is.
Speaker 5 (03:02):
I get goosebumps every time I think about that.
Speaker 4 (03:05):
Isn't it wonderful?
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (03:06):
I really get it.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
I remember when my first book came out, and I
just it had been author had been on my resolution
list for probably more than a decade before it actually happened.
Speaker 5 (03:17):
And now like one book a year or something.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
That's what we're going for.
Speaker 6 (03:21):
So we're going for I'm like, oh, I got to
rest from this first one.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Yeah, you do, you do, and it's just like childbirth
and then you're fine, that's all right, Well, let's open
with the gift and the promise of doing the work
that you espouse in the book. I think that it's
just so beautiful what you put forth you say in
your book. The refreshing truth is that when you're living
your entire life from a place of authenticity, you recover
(03:45):
a lot of lost energy spent filtering or masking what
others can see. No longer suffer from an imposter syndrome,
that gut feeling that your persona doesn't feel authentic to
you or to others. Instead, you enjoy a special kind
of freedom. The result is that you embrace exactly who
you are and the world finally gets to see the
real you.
Speaker 5 (04:04):
Yes, this is.
Speaker 6 (04:08):
It's a seventeen year project of a journey for myself
of working with or just growing up with a very
busy mom who was working back in the medmen era.
And I was a latchkey kid, you know, and my
sisters and I would just do life.
Speaker 5 (04:26):
But I always wondered what she was doing.
Speaker 6 (04:28):
She was just so busy, but she was so happy,
and she was literally producing films and video and doing
that medmen era thing back in the sixties. And so
I grew up with her being very busy and being
very productive, but it was a limited time we got together.
Speaker 5 (04:46):
And then I got in the workforce and I did
the same.
Speaker 6 (04:49):
Thing with my daughter, and I got busy and I
got and then I thought. I took a break for
about nine years and did some nonprofit work and some
other things. And it was at that moment at least,
that our marriage kind of went just in the basement.
Everything was just horrible, and I was sitting there going
what am I doing with my life? And who am I?
(05:10):
And who have I been saying I am? And I
just went on a deep journey and what I really
learned is that you don't need to be more productive
to be more you.
Speaker 5 (05:21):
And authenticity is easy.
Speaker 6 (05:24):
It's hard when we're trying to be something we're not
and it was just a journey, but it was a
lot of deep work and a lot of counseling. And
then then I became got into recovery work with other people,
you know that are working on their marriages and working
on really and then working on themselves. And then I
started as a leader at Southwest, went back to Southwest
(05:47):
and when I was you know, literally, we were acquiring
air Tran this company, and we're thought, how can we
bring these people in and be a part of this culture.
And one of my friends, I said, you know, there's
this tool called strengths spinder. Let's try that.
Speaker 5 (06:05):
And so we.
Speaker 6 (06:05):
Did that and it was amazing. In marketing, I was
a marketing leader. I did not realize how impactful that
one tool was going to be on my life, and
it really helped me identify and.
Speaker 5 (06:18):
Unlock my unique talents. And then I put a coach
while I was.
Speaker 6 (06:22):
There, and so I was doing my day job in marketing,
but then I was helping other leaders across the company
integrate this in Then finally our present said, let's become
a strength based organization. So five years ago I started
my business as a consultant and I got to really
help Gallop work on the strategy of what Southwest needed
to become with strengths based airlines. And it was during
(06:44):
that that I saw the things I was looking at
working on my recovery work and the things I was
working on in leadership were the same, and I was like, Wow,
why don't we talk about this at work? Why don't
we talk about how to be authentic and how to
be yourself and talk about your feelings and all the
things that was happening. So that became my life work
(07:07):
was to say it's okay to be authentic at work
and to be yourself and it's not one day that passes.
I'm sure in the work you do as well, where
somebody's in a role that's not right, or they're trying
to lead people based on a persona they've created that's
not right and it's causing a lot of friction on
the team, and so being able to unlock all that
(07:31):
and part of the book is really having people take
this assessment called that I created called the Authentic Imprint Assessment,
and it's where they unlock and figure out where they
are as a leader in their journey and.
Speaker 5 (07:45):
What they need to work on.
Speaker 6 (07:47):
Whether it might be the core values, the mission strengths,
and then what is the emotional intelligence around that. That's
the multiplier for the formula, And so people can take
the assessment and then read the book and see where
they are are, then go back and take it and
see improvement.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
I have to say a couple of things to what
you've shared so far. First, I have to imagine listeners
and viewers are leaning in and really relating to that
idea of you know, not being able to be themselves
in their lives are certainly at work, and I can
imagine some people might even be touched to tears here
and move to tears by getting present to what that
(08:26):
feels like.
Speaker 4 (08:26):
So I want to first start there.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Then, when you talk about authenticity, one of the things
that I have been really working on as well and
centering in my work too, is helping organizations and leaders
to be able to create an environ more people feel
like they really matter and they belong. It's very hard
to be your authentic self if you don't feel like
you belong someplace, and so belonging. When it first started
(08:50):
being talked about, it was discussed as you know, we
accept you here. Who wants to be accepted or tolerated.
I don't want to be accepted or toted. I want
to be welcomed. I want to be celebrated. I want
other people to as well. And when you do feel
celebrated and welcome, you can be much more authentic. So
there's so much that we can do as leaders to
(09:11):
be able to create an environment for people to step
into the space that you're inviting us into as well.
Speaker 5 (09:17):
Yeah, and I think and I think that's it.
Speaker 6 (09:20):
It's coming in and really saying we care about you
and you're valued, and we know that from Gallup.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
They exactly.
Speaker 6 (09:27):
It's the research shows that when employees feel valued, they're
more engaged, that their work is meaningful, and people are
watching and connecting their meaningful work with the mission of
the company.
Speaker 5 (09:40):
That way's pretty powerful.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
It is.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
And as you know, I'm also a fellow Gallop Certified
Strengths Coach and have been for more than ten years.
Speaker 4 (09:48):
Really important work and.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
It's amazing how much people can learn about themselves when
they do that. Now, if you would next, you've mentioned
your authentic Imprint framework, But let's just talk more deeply
about that what is and bring it to life for
our listeners.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
And viewers.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Wow.
Speaker 6 (10:02):
So when you think about it, I was like, Okay,
you learn your strengths. And I've been a strengths coach
for about twelve thirteen years now have to count up.
And one of the things that I realized is people like, Okay,
now what and you've probably seen this in your work
as you come in and they oh, yeah, we did
that strengths, but it's in the door somewhere and I
don't know who I am. So I was like, yes,
(10:24):
And that's why I think one of the successes we
had at Southwest is we kept it in a drip
drip drip mode and we had a strategy. It wasn't
just oh, come and do this and you're done. And
I think it's like working out at the gym. You
have to practice using your unique talents and a lot
of it, as you know, Elise, is going back to
(10:45):
the past and getting rid of old patterns and things
that haven't served you. So today I was with a
group online and we were talking about the drama triangle
and how we're either you know that from the sixties
where you're either you know, you're either blaming somebody else
for something they've done. At work, or you're fixing something
(11:07):
or you're avoiding. And so what we did is we
flipped the triangle and said, look at the authentic imprint.
And this authentic imprint is a formula. It's your strengths
plus your core values plus your mission times your emotional recognition.
And the emotional recognition piece is something we see all
(11:30):
the time in the workplace, right it might be aware
of themselves but not self aware of how they're coming across.
And so the authentic imprint is a formula that you
can do in your mind very quickly when you see
yourself going in an emotional state, or you're feeling inferior,
or things aren't feeling you're off, It's like, wait, let
(11:51):
me get back to my center of who I am
and then let me approach my day intentionally instead of
letting me reacting to everything happening in the day. I'm
going to design my day and I'm not going to
live in default. And I was doing a lot of that,
living in default and just who.
Speaker 4 (12:09):
Can I help?
Speaker 5 (12:10):
Who can I fix?
Speaker 6 (12:11):
Who can I you know, and then it was like
I'd be drained and so and I think that's a
typical leader today. They are there's just so much chaos
and they're having trouble keeping up with the chaos and clarity.
So it's really an internal work, this authentic imprint. That's
(12:32):
why it's called the book is called the internal Revolution,
because we can't get it from external. It's got to
start here in the work that we're doing here. And
it's hard. That's why a lot of people don't want
to do the internal work, because they have to go work.
Speaker 5 (12:46):
On themselves and and do that sometimes.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
Oh. I mean, I was just delivering a two and
a half day workshop for a client last week and
high level people, and I think by the beginning of
the second day, somebody said, you know, this is so great,
but I'm worried that if I want to go back
to work, this is all going to go away. And
you know, we're taking time that we don't usually take
to step into this kind of self awareness, probing sort
(13:12):
of place that you're teaching us. And so the thought
was that this was going to be a one and
done thing. And then they were aware of that and
they were afraid of it. And I suggested just even
just if you just check in with yourself, like start
the day with the savers program, you know, the silence, affirmations, visualization, exercise, reading, describing,
et cetera. Just even five ten minutes can make a
big difference to check in with yourself and to center yourself.
(13:35):
So making it really more of a discipline, right, a
part of your day, not just something you do occasionally.
Speaker 6 (13:41):
Absolutely, and I think that the word is intentional. Instead
of being worried about the world and what's going to
happen and who's going to do what, it's like, no,
what do I have and what do I need? And
what is my intention today? And so that's why five
six years ago I created the Strengths Journal and launched
that way my Business, which is the only daily planner
(14:02):
to go along a companion guide to the Strengths. Yes,
so now I combine. You know, if you want to
get the book and get the Strengths Journal, if you've
got your strengths, that's great. If you don't, you can
still use the book and you don't have to know
your strength. But it's how do you discover you know
that power, you're just God given power that you have,
and then how do you align that with your unique
(14:24):
contribution that you've made to the world. And so many
people don't. They say they don't talk nice to themselves, right, right?
Speaker 4 (14:31):
That right?
Speaker 5 (14:33):
This kind of helps transform that mm hm.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
You know, and part of what I really appreciated about
what Gallop has done. I've been a Gallop van for years,
but I remember I think it was during the pandemic
when they started really talking about their work on well
being and well being is such a beautiful compliment in
what we're talking about here, cultivating your own sense of
well being. And I know that there are five essential
dimensions of well being that Gallop covers. Do you want
(14:57):
to situate those real quick force? Yes?
Speaker 5 (15:00):
So, and they're in order of importance.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
Okay, So the.
Speaker 6 (15:03):
First one, which blows everybody away is number one is social.
We need six hours of social interaction with the human
being every day.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
So I was blown away by that figure.
Speaker 5 (15:15):
Yes, yes, and especially during COVID.
Speaker 6 (15:18):
But that doesn't mean yes, we're getting social on a
recording like this, or we're getting social. And when we're
talking it's when those people when people would just go
and isolate and not have any human to human contact.
So number one is social, and then I'm sorry, And
number one is career real being, which is purpose and
(15:40):
then number two is social. Career well being is what
you talk about all the time with living, you know,
working on purpose. So I like what I do every
day and I feel like I can use my talents
to do good and I have a purpose. I was
at the doctor this morning and she said she was
she works with a lot of people that are in
different ages, but she said, my retirees, I see their
(16:01):
health go down right away. They lose purpose.
Speaker 4 (16:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (16:06):
And then the third one, so, so career is social,
and then the third is financial. I mean sorry, physical.
Physical is what I put in my body, in what
I do with my body. So it's not just people
to think, oh, you know, I went and walked, but yeah,
what are you eating, what are you putting in your head?
Speaker 5 (16:25):
What is your mindset around all this? And then the
next one is financial.
Speaker 6 (16:31):
I know where my money is and I have a
good handle on my money. The last is community well being.
So community is I feel safe where I live and
I am a part of my community. I get to volunteer,
I get to go do something. I was doing a
group of Southwest employees last year in marketing and they
(16:52):
were evaluating their core values as a team and they
all realized that they hadn't been and their well being,
and they realized that they hadn't done any kind of
giving back as a group, and they'd had a lot
of change. And so after that they said, we're going
to go do one of our you know, pull up
one of our old opportunities to go, whether it be
(17:13):
you know, Habitat for Humanity or Ronald McDonald House as
a group, and that kind of met that community need,
but also for them to bond as a team.
Speaker 5 (17:22):
So it's kind of two wellbeing things at once.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
Awesome so much that we can work on there, and
let's let our listeners and viewers think about those five
essential areas as we grab our first break. I'm your host,
doctor Relice Cortez. We've go on there with Dana Williams.
She's an author, coach, speaker, and founder of Dana Williams Consulting.
We've been talking a bit about where her book came
from and why she's out to help the people the
way that she is, and also her formula. After the break,
(17:49):
we're going to talk about how to put in place
some of the strutges that she lays out in her book.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
We'll be right back, doctor Elise Cortes is a management
consultant specializing in meaning and purpose. An inspirational speaker and author,
(18:16):
she helps companies visioneer for greater purpose among stakeholders and
develop purpose inspired leadership and meaning infused cultures that elevate fulfillment, performance,
and commitment within the workforce. To learn more or to
invite Elise to speak to your organization, please visit her
at elisecortes dot com. Let's talk about how to get
your employees working on purpose. This is working on Purpose
(18:43):
with doctor Elise Cortes. To reach our program today or
to open a conversation with Elise, send an email to
Elise alisee at elisecortes dot com. Now back to working
on purpose.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
Thanks for chaining with us, and welcome back to working
on Purpose. I'm your host, doctor Elist Cortes, as I
am dedicated to helping create a world where our organizations
thrive because their people thrive, are led by inspirational leaders
that help them find and contribute their greatness, and we
do business at better in the world. I keep researching
and writing my own books. As Daniel was mentioning, one
of my latest is called The Great Revitalization. How activating
meaning and purpose can radically and live in your business.
(19:24):
And I wrote that to help readers understand the lay
of today's workforce. What do they want and need to
give their best for you and want to stay? And
then I provide you twenty two best practices to equip
you to provide that in your leadership and your culture.
You can find my books on Amazon or my website
at least core test dot com if you are just
now joining us. My guest is Seana Williams. She's the
(19:44):
author of The Internal Revolution. Lead authentically and build your
personal brand from within. So one of the many things
I enjoyed about your book is that it's chock full
of all kinds of strategies and useful tools. And one
of the things that you talk about really early on
in your book is that you offer three fundamental transformations
(20:04):
that that take place along the way as you your
Internal Revolution journey continues. So let's talk about those three transformations.
Speaker 6 (20:12):
Yes, so really, and this is this is so wild
Elias today. And this group that I was with, we
did a poll and I said, what is the one
thing that is the hardest for you at work? For
you as a communicator, as a leader and for your team.
And it was clarity. And so if we're not clear
(20:34):
on the inside.
Speaker 5 (20:35):
We're not going to be clear out here, right.
Speaker 6 (20:38):
And you kind of have that feeling and you know
something's not clear, but you just keep going through and
it comes out kind of discom you know it's just
not right. So in this book, we really want to
help you discover and own and live in your unique,
unique strengths and then really identify and live in your values.
(20:59):
Those are usually your strengths and your corvets are doorways
to each other.
Speaker 5 (21:04):
They mit and match.
Speaker 6 (21:06):
So usually when you show me your core values, we
can line up your strengths that match right with that,
and it's just a doorway to your strengths. And I
think that is it gives a lot of clarity and
then mission being able to do.
Speaker 5 (21:19):
I do this so that people.
Speaker 6 (21:22):
Can blah blah blah whatever you're solving. And for me,
my mission is and I created this almost seven or
eight years ago, but it's to help people birth their
purpose and live in there and live in their strategies
or their strengths every day. And I use the word
I added the day every day about four years ago.
(21:46):
And because I realize that we're a work in progress.
You know, the leader we are right now is going
to be the leader that we need to be six
months twelve months from now. And with all the AI
and all of the things happening, I'm looking strategies as
a marketer for twenty twenty six differently than I looked
at twenty twenty five and twenty twenty four. People are
(22:08):
inundated with content and how do we be clear? But
we got to be clear on the inside about who
we are, what our strengths are, what our values and emission.
If we can't identify that, we're going to be kind
of just living in default.
Speaker 5 (22:21):
That's number one.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
I will comment on the values piece in that I
am surprised I do this a fair amount also as well,
where I take people through a values identification process, and
it's amazing to me how much clarity people get out
of that exercise. Right, So, in my case, I just
socialize a list of one hundred values and their definitions,
(22:44):
and then they pick the ones that most resonate with them,
get down to the list of ten, and then prioritize
one to ten.
Speaker 4 (22:50):
And that clarity is.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
So such a such a clarifying compass for people. I'm
amazed at that people that are well forties fifty sixty
that are doing that exercise and gaining something out of it.
It's it's amazing, it really is.
Speaker 6 (23:05):
And I think I think core values really help when
you're making decisions absolutely, and when you're saying not only
decisions for your team, but for yourself. And I was
just coaching a leader this afternoon on that and she
was she had high responsibility with her strengths, but she
had a very high core value of making sure that
(23:30):
she served everybody.
Speaker 5 (23:32):
It's like, well, how are you managing that?
Speaker 6 (23:34):
You know with you know, because you people with high
responsibility the basement or the when it gets in a
blind spot is hard to say no, right, And so
helping her realize she can't, you know, who are you
serving as a leader?
Speaker 5 (23:49):
What is your mission?
Speaker 6 (23:50):
And so once she identified her core values in her mission,
then she got clarity, so that that really helps. And
then the second one is just from lack purpose. We've
been talking about this. I think it's the red thread
of consistency throughout here is how do you.
Speaker 5 (24:06):
Go from lacking purpose to purposeful? What a lot of
it is how you start your day.
Speaker 6 (24:12):
You can say the airline business, if we get those
first planes out on time.
Speaker 5 (24:17):
The rest of the day, we're good.
Speaker 6 (24:19):
Right, Everything in the morning is off, it's going to
be off all day. Same thing with us as human beings.
And so I like to use the strength journal is
intentionality and say, here's my purpose for my intention for today,
and here's the three things I'm going to do, and
let me apply my strengths to help me get energized
(24:41):
to do those Because it's about not managing your time,
it's managing your energy.
Speaker 3 (24:48):
I really understand that, and I've been using that in
my coaching as well.
Speaker 6 (24:53):
Yeah, and I think so many people think, oh, I
have to back to my statement about you don't need
to be more productive. It's about who are you and
what are the strengths you're going to use every day
to help you be energized because we have unlimited amount
of energy there. And then the last thing is really
going from isolated to connected. Right now, we're in a
(25:15):
society where there's a lot of loneliness going on. There
is a lot of people that aren't connected and they're isolating.
They could be around a lot of people, but they're
isolating and they're lonely, and so how do you transform
your relationships? And you're just your off to be your
authentic self and thinking about your relationships. One thing when
(25:36):
I started this book book is I realized I wasn't
spending time with my girlfriends because I was busy working, right,
And so we now we intentionally play marsh On every
week and that I try not to let anything get
in the way of that. It also helps me with
my social well being every every week. So it's kind
(25:57):
of hitting several things. And that's what I like about
thinking about yourself and managing your day intentionally. But the
end of the day, I love this. My editor, her
husband's from Norway, and he always said are you satisfied
with today? And instead of saying how is your day?
Are you satisfied with it? Did you live out your
(26:18):
purpose today? Your intention intentionally? Are you satisfied today?
Speaker 3 (26:24):
That's really powerful. I like that question so much better
than how was your day? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (26:28):
Wow, so much?
Speaker 5 (26:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
Okay, Well, let's start a little bit more deeply into
your formula. We've already talked more about the values. Of
course we said something about that, but I do want
to talk a bit more deeply about strengths. My experience
is when people hear about this idea of you know,
discovering your strengths, that sounds kind of wo wo or whatever.
And then when they do get their strengths results back,
(26:51):
they get their top five or if they unlock the
whole thirty four. What I've discovered is a lot of
people look at those and they're like, look, those are strengths.
Speaker 4 (26:58):
Those are just me.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
So they don't recognize them as strengths. And so let's
talk a little bit about the power of really discovering
and leaning into our strengths.
Speaker 5 (27:07):
Yeah. I think the way I talk about it a lot.
Speaker 6 (27:11):
Is I think you have we kind of put labels
on ourselves early on or somebody does, and you when
you take this assessment, it's over six decades of research
and doctor Clifton created it when he said back in
the fifties, he said, what if we study what's right
with people instead of what's wrong with them? So that's
(27:32):
why it's positive psychology. So that's one thing. But I
think the other thing is because it's he bought the
Galup companies in the nineties and since has you know,
create you know, taking the assessment further, now thirty five
million people have taken it. You really see, like you said,
people got this is me?
Speaker 5 (27:50):
How did they know this is me?
Speaker 6 (27:53):
And when you start comparing your results with somebody else's
that might have like you and I might have one
of this same talents like strategic or idiation, our reports
are going to be different because we're one in thirty
five million people. So when you think about that, at
least we're in Texas. There's twenty eight million people here.
We have to outside of the state of Texas and
(28:14):
find five more million people before we find somebody just
like us.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
Yeah, you know, that's happened to me. In a workshop.
I was doing a strengths finder for leadership women and
I said that stat you know, it's the chances of
somebody having the exact same one and thirty five five
strengths issue in the exact order is one in thirty
three million. And these two women stood up on their
feet and they went, that's us.
Speaker 4 (28:36):
It was pretty calm. It was amazing.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
I've been doing these workshops for years and that has
never happened.
Speaker 5 (28:40):
Had to wow, that is I've never had that.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
Yeah, yeah, no, it's and and so The other thing
that I want to situate about strengths is is the
energizing aspect of living in them, right, the motivating aspect
of living with the more that we get to live
our strengths and more energy that we have, the more
viteuta that we have, and the more we are are
intrinsic motivation is that activated. And that's I think really
important for people to associate when they're thinking about the
(29:05):
importance in living and leaning into their strengths.
Speaker 6 (29:09):
Yeah, So today we were on this webinar and talking
with We had about thirty five people on there, and
they were talking about when they go into that default mode,
that emotional piece of just reacting to things instead of reflecting.
And when you know your unique talents, it's like which
(29:30):
one am I going to turn up and which one
am I going to turn down? Because they can get
in your way, right, And so I kind of think
that like a superhero and you're just kind of pushing
your buttons to depending on the situation, using your emotional
recognition to figure that out. But I think that helps
a lot, is identifying them and how to use and when.
Speaker 5 (29:50):
To use them, I think is important.
Speaker 4 (29:52):
I do too.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
We won't talk more about the mission and the emotional
regulation because I think you recognition me, because I think
you've handled that already. And there's more things I want
to pull from your book. I would love for you
to speak to the strategy that you encourage us to use, and.
Speaker 4 (30:05):
That's drawing your life now. Yeah, I really liked that.
Speaker 5 (30:09):
Yeah have you ever done that?
Speaker 4 (30:10):
Not like you're teaching us.
Speaker 6 (30:12):
No, Yeah, I had a counselor have me do it
when I was going through this deep dark time and.
Speaker 5 (30:19):
All of a sudden, what you do is you get
a piece of paper and you draw.
Speaker 6 (30:22):
A line birth and now, and you look at you know,
all the things have happened in your life, good and bad,
and you put them on there. And then I have
people put when they saw some you know, the ups
and downs, and then what strengths they saw, because your
strengths have kind of been with you your whole life.
But all of a sudden, the big thing here is
(30:43):
you start seeing a pattern. It could be a familiar pattern,
it could be a pattern that you've just carried. For me,
it was with being my mom being gone a lot
and my dad being gone, I was I became like
a kind of a person that was always like taking
care of everybody, fixing things and being a little bit codependent.
(31:04):
And I was like, ooh, that's where that came from.
How do I look at Do I want to bring
that with me into the next thirty forty years? How
do I how do I shift? And it's learning to say, oh,
that is not met here's my strengths, here's what I'm
going to use instead to manage me, instead of trying
(31:25):
to help manage everything else. Because I think when you
live in that kind of when any kind of environment,
we all can go back to childhood and different things,
but we pick up habits and we think that's just
the way they are, and then I can be that way.
But when you look at your map and think, no,
I'm going to design it how I want to be
in the next thirty years and you actually draw another
line today and where you want to be and what
(31:45):
is that You've heard this when you know where your
eightieth My mom did this on her eighties. She said
she was going to go back to college and she
did and she graduated eighty six.
Speaker 4 (31:52):
You got with your steed, which is just amazing.
Speaker 6 (31:55):
So it's like, yeah, where do I want to who's
at that party, what they saying?
Speaker 5 (32:00):
How, what is my legacy?
Speaker 1 (32:02):
What?
Speaker 6 (32:02):
And so if I'm going to keep that some of
those old patterns I don't want to keep. What does
this look like? And what are the things I want
to do in this next map? So you get to
draw out your map, and it really really is powerful.
And I've done it with millennials, gen X, I've done
it with boot baby boomers, done it with everybody. The
(32:23):
baby Boomers had a hard time getting their maps strong,
and I think it's because the generation before was always
don't talk about that, you know, be quiet, and this
is no put it out there? What what happened? And
how did you react? And what are those patterns? And
why are you holding onto those? How can you when
(32:44):
you go forward? What are some things that you can
And I see it, and my kids and grand kids,
I'm like, whoo, I've got to you know, I've got
to stop that. So it's teaching it. That was another thing.
Is this legacy behind us that we're leaving? And what
does that look like?
Speaker 5 (33:00):
So being able to draw your.
Speaker 4 (33:02):
Map, it's so powerful.
Speaker 3 (33:04):
And then that's the tools that you give in the
book are just tremendous and so I got so much
out of that from myself and the idea of legacy.
I do want to talk more about that specifically with
and through how you do You do have a very
specific way of following your internal compass. I want to
talk about that next after our break, let's grab Okay,
I'm your host, Doctor Release Cortes. We run the air
with Dana Williams. She's an executive coach, speaker, author, and
(33:25):
the founder of Dana Williams Consulting. We've been diving into
some strategies that she has in her book about how
we can really learn about our strengths or values, our mission,
our internal or emotional regulation. After the break, we're going
to take her through some more deeply in some of
the ways that she helps people get acquainted to and
connected to these areas.
Speaker 4 (33:44):
Will be right back.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
Doctor Elise Cortes is a management consultant specializing in meaning
and purpose. An inspirational speaker and author. She helps companies
visioneer for greater purpose among stakeholders and develop purpose inspired
leadership and meaning infused cultures that elevate fulfillment, performance, and
commitment within the workforce. To learn more or to invite
(34:19):
Elise to speak to your organization, please visit her at
elisecortes dot com. Let's talk about how to get your
employees working on purpose. This is Working on Purpose with
doctor Elise Cortes. To reach our program today or to
open a conversation with Elise, send an email to Elise
(34:40):
alisee at elisecortes dot com. Now back to working on Purpose.
Speaker 3 (34:52):
Thanks for staying with us, and welcome back to Working
on Purpose. I'm your host, doctor Elise Cortes. As you
know by now, this program is dedicated to empowering and
inspiring you along your journey to realize more of your potential.
If you want to learn more about how we can
work together and learn about the Gusto Now Academy for
leaders and individuals on various journeys alike, make your way
to Gusto dashnow dot com and then go to the
training tap and you'll find the academy information there If
(35:14):
you are just now joining us. My guest is Daniel Williams.
She's the author of The Internal Revelation Revolution. Lead authentically
and build your personal brand from within. So for this
next thing that I want to cover, you kicked you,
you situated this before. We what we're on break about
the opportunity to really be mindful and intentional about our legacy.
So I love the tool and the steps that you
(35:35):
provide in your book about following your internal compass and
knowing your mission. So we talked about the idea of
the importance omission before, but now I want to dig
into the details. So you have a four step process?
Can we walk through that?
Speaker 5 (35:48):
Yes? And I think.
Speaker 6 (35:51):
Most people when you ask, and I think coming from marketing,
we always had a mission, right, We always had a
key thing that kept us, you know, and so when
you're working on your personal mission, people just haven't thought
about that. And I was like, Okay, how can we
help people really understand their mission and their internal compass?
(36:13):
And I think it's just four ways. So first off,
who are you serving? You might be serving maybe you're
a teacher and you're serving students, maybe you're an executive,
maybe you're a board member, maybe you're running a nonprofit.
But who do you most care about serving right now
this time in your life? And then step two is
(36:34):
find your positive impact? What changes for these people when
you are at your best? So when you work with
somebody you help them do something, and you help them,
I think about the transformation that you're helping people do.
For at least I hear you say, you know the
gusto and working on purpose, and it's that is the
transformation you're making. And the transformation I'm working on is
(36:58):
birthing their purpose I first, and so as individuals, and
so it's thinking about that.
Speaker 5 (37:06):
And then step three is.
Speaker 6 (37:07):
If you know your strengths and your values, it helps
energize and motivate you. So I'm always going to take
you back to that because that's your uniqueness. And then
includes how you create change, how you make things happen.
And then I just have people write it and pencil.
The marketing side of me says, do not make it
(37:27):
very long, something you can remember. Many like sy this
is and I said, that's beautiful, but we need to
go a little shorter. Something you can remember and something
that you can say. And then when you combine your
audience and your impact into one fold sentence. So I
changed mine evolved over the eight years, but it's you know,
(37:49):
help now help leaders birth their purpose and live in
their strengths every day.
Speaker 5 (37:55):
And then I see transformation from the inside out. So
it's been excited to work with companies and individuals. I
work with a lot of leaders.
Speaker 6 (38:04):
And then teams, and it's been real exciting to see
the transformation. But it doesn't happen overnight, and you know
that at least it takes time.
Speaker 4 (38:12):
It does.
Speaker 3 (38:13):
You know, I want to echo a step too here
to find your positive impact and you talk about what's
situating the changes that that these people that you're serving
get when you're when network you're helping get to their
best I want to give a shout out to a
previous guest, Wendy Lipten Dibner. She's created a formula and
really a capture tool to help people really recognize the
(38:37):
their impact. And so even if you don't use her tool,
the notion of getting really clear about the impact that
both that you intend for your people that are to
have and then once you can actually capture what it
is that is so important to keep you motivated connected
When you really know your own impact and how much
(38:57):
you really are mattering in the world. It's keeps you
getting up every day no matter how tired you are,
how little sleep you've had, too much you have on
your plate, whatever it is. So I really want to
emphasize that step two. I think that's a really critical
piece that you're you're giving us.
Speaker 6 (39:11):
And I think at least two. What when you were
talking it just really keeps coming back to me, is
it's not hard when you're being your unique self and
you say it easily and you have a lot of
fancy words and you don't have all this it's just
being you. Yeah, it's just it's just like you know
you're in your authentic self.
Speaker 4 (39:31):
There is there.
Speaker 3 (39:32):
It really isn't a better feeling to one really really
stand completely in your authenticity and and and and be
of service to your purpose and know that you're making
a difference. There really isn't a better feeling than that,
as far as I've discovered in my life.
Speaker 5 (39:46):
It's kind of like a little natural high. Yeah, I know,
it's the best, the best drug you ever were in
the morning, you know, the best drug ever. Yea, that's right.
Speaker 3 (39:56):
I do want to touch a little bit more deeply
on the idea of emotion recognition. And I loved what
you said before data about you know, especially in organizations,
emotions can be taboo or no, no, we don't talk
about emotions. We don't do emotions here? What are emotions?
But you have a stat in your book that Gallop
study found that managers account for seventy percent of the
(40:18):
variance in employee engagement. So leaders who can notice and
name and respond to their emotional state before it shapes
their actions create what you call emotional safety for their teams.
Those who can't become unpredictable for us, draining energy from
everyone around them. I think that's a really important thing
because emotions get a bad rep right, So let's talk
a little bit more more deeply about how you help
(40:40):
people get more connected to their emotional recognition.
Speaker 5 (40:44):
Yeah, I think And I you know, worked for a
brand that was an emotional brand, Southwest Hard Yeah, right, right,
So if somebody had a death in the family, or
if somebody had a dog that died, or somebody, we
did something for them and it.
Speaker 6 (40:59):
Was very what do they need? You know, a lot
of caring nature. So it grew up building that culture
and helping with that culture. So it's natural thing that
I think about. But it's like, what would you do
in your family if somebody lost a loved one. I
had a recent situation where it's one of the employees
died in the group, and so it was real and
(41:23):
the leader was doing a fantastic job of giving everybody
space and this is what we know, and this is
what y'all need to go, you know, take time for yourself.
And so there's emotional recognition, and each person on the
team needs something different depending on how they were associated
with that person or what is going on. So and
then what happens in our personal life shows up at
(41:45):
work and can't help it right, and what happens at
work shows up at home. So how do we as
leaders managing ourselves and managing our families.
Speaker 5 (41:56):
And then how do we that have a.
Speaker 6 (41:58):
Purview of a few people that report to us, how
do we make sure that when something's off, that we're
helping them recognize it and get some help. I had
a leader one time who was really just not doing well,
and I knew something was off, and I just told him,
I said, you are CEO of your life and your
(42:20):
health right now, and I just need you to take
some time off and figure out what's going on. And
he so appreciated that, because I think it's harder for people.
It's like family members, they don't see it, but as
leaders we're not trained how to you know, we're not
trained in well being, We're not trained in some of
these psychological things, and so people are scared sometimes of
(42:45):
what to say. And I think if you just do
the human caring thing when there is something wrong or
there's something you can't miss again, it's going back to
your authentic self. And there's not a blueprint for that.
It's what works for you.
Speaker 5 (43:00):
You but in an emotional recognition way where you understand
the different people in the room yea.
Speaker 3 (43:07):
And that you're attuned to them and connected to them,
you know that you can expand your emotional vocabulary beyond mad, said, happy, glad, whatever, frustrated,
always stressed, all those kind of things so so so important.
In fact, when I'm out speaking Dana so often, what
I'm trying to do is help the audience feel connect
to their feelings, connect to and of course what I
(43:28):
really want, I want to inspire them to a place
where they get moved to tears. That's what I really want.
And if that happens, that I know I've done my job.
If eyes are dry in the room, I didn't do it.
But today what I find is that so many people
are so divorced from their emotions, they don't understand those
beautiful aspects of themselves, and they don't therefore derive the
(43:49):
benefit of really knowing them and honoring them and working
through them. Yeah.
Speaker 6 (43:54):
And I think I was talking to a leader that's
a mom, and she's talking about raising her daughters, and
she said, you know, if we can just raise them
to be resilient and to learn how to deal with
the good and the bad instead of trying to make
everything just good for them, And I said, oh, my gosh,
that is so. I think it's just each generation is different.
(44:15):
We've got five generations in the workplace right now, and
they all need something different, and they've all been raised differently.
So how do we recognize that and help guide them
as they're managing that.
Speaker 4 (44:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (44:28):
Yeah, so much opportunity to help people. It's such a
beautiful thing to get to do. We're getting close to
the end of the show, and I definitely wanted to
make sure that you had an opportunity to share a
story or an example of somebody that maybe you've worked with,
so we can understand a bit of how does this
journey of an internal revolution work?
Speaker 4 (44:44):
Does what's the opportunity in it.
Speaker 6 (44:47):
Yeah, So I had a team leader that came to
me almost two and a half years ago and said,
you know, she wanted to see if we could work
with her team. She wanted them to get more and
gage aged and understanding kind of as they were growing
and leading their teams. And so we started working with them,
and it wasn't an overnight something, but all of a
(45:11):
sudden this summer they got a huge, like sixteen percent
increase in engagement. And she said it was after, you know,
after we did the drip drip of everything, because it
is a roadmap, but once they developed their mission and
their core values and their strengths around that as a team,
(45:35):
the clarity broke through. And I think it was such
a great example because I think people just need to
know the work I'm doing matters every day and I matter.
Like we started off the conversation talking about and it
takes a while to get there to build the mission
(45:55):
and all the stuff, but we want to make sure
it takes a while because I want to build the
map with them knowing who they are first, and then
how they work with their team, and then now, how
are we going to impact our others? Within the organization
and the world with what we do that big impact.
Speaker 3 (46:14):
So I have to know because I've been with that's
similar work that some of the things that happen is
that you build trust and that help the team build
trust with each other. They're like, oh, that's why you know.
You have analytical in your top five strengths and I
have achiever really top five. So when you ask me
that barrage of questions, it's not that you're trying to
stop me from doing what I really want to do
(46:34):
and get this done. It's that you need that kind
of detail in order to make sense of it and
to be able to make a contribution. And I think
that's really important when when we can help our teams
understand those different dynamics and how we're coming at things
differently because of our strengths, because of our values. And
then I love the idea of that shared mission statement.
Speaker 4 (46:52):
Beautiful.
Speaker 5 (46:54):
It's really been powerful. It's funny.
Speaker 6 (46:56):
It's just that intersection of when you're marketing a brand
and you're creating and messaging for a group.
Speaker 5 (47:03):
It's a neat intersection because.
Speaker 6 (47:05):
They really get alignment and they and they were part
of crafting it. Yeah, it wasn't that somebody came in
and said, here's you are and here's your mission.
Speaker 5 (47:14):
It was like they got to develop it.
Speaker 3 (47:16):
Yeah, that's then we able to get out of that
is ownership and we like that. Well this show, Dane's
listened to white people around the world and they often
tune in because they are trying to become better versions
of themselves in some way, whether as individuals, as leaders.
They're trying to elevate the culture of their organization. They're
trying to be really cultivate who they are as humans
in the world of work. What would you like to
(47:37):
leave them with?
Speaker 6 (47:39):
Oh gosh, there's so many things. I think. I think
thinking about what is the impact you want to make
in the world, and go do that.
Speaker 5 (47:50):
There's only one you to do it.
Speaker 6 (47:52):
And if something has been boiling up inside of you
but you've been afraid to do it, use your unique talents,
do it and you will make.
Speaker 5 (48:01):
What I call and I talk.
Speaker 6 (48:03):
I love to talk about this concept of you're lighting
a little fire that you're building inside you. Like what
you're doing a lease, but then you've got all these
little campfires. If you would look at the United States
and the world, I know you go all over the
world at the campfires you've lit and the impact you're making.
You don't even get to see that, but I want
to leave them with you know, be it's just do
(48:26):
not be more productive, be more you and the way
that happens if you just sharing the impact that you
can bring to the world.
Speaker 5 (48:33):
And I love.
Speaker 6 (48:34):
Working with different difference makers who want to make an
impact and they're wanting to work on themselves. And it's
not easy work, right, You got to work hard on yourself,
but it's so easy when you start doing it and
realizing you're being yourself.
Speaker 3 (48:49):
What a beautiful way to Finishtana. I'm so happy to
know you, grateful for our connection, for our friendship, and
to be able to share you with my listeners and
viewers around the world.
Speaker 4 (48:57):
Thank you for coming on working on purpose.
Speaker 5 (48:59):
Thank you, Elie.
Speaker 6 (49:00):
My pleasure to be here today and be a part
of your amazing show and get to connect with your listeners.
Speaker 5 (49:06):
So thank you.
Speaker 4 (49:07):
Most welcome. Listeners and viewers.
Speaker 3 (49:09):
You are going to want to learn more about Dani
Williams her work as an executive coach and speaker at
Dani Williams Consulting in her new book the Internal Revolution,
so you can start by visiting her website. It's danawilliamsco
dot com. Let me spell that for you. Dana is
d A N A Williams w I L L I
A M S Coco dot com. Dana williamsco dot com.
(49:31):
Last week, if you missed the live show, you can
always catch it be your record a podcast. See you
next week for another educational and nourishing conversation Together, Let's
lean in and learn how to create destination workplaces that
call forth the best from everyone, build our inspirational leadership capacity,
and find ways you to business that betters the world.
Let's work on Purpose.
Speaker 2 (49:51):
We hope you've enjoyed this week's program. Be sure to
tune into Working on Purpose featuring your host, doctor Elise Cortes,
each week on w fours see why. Together, we'll create
a world where business operates conscientiously, Leadership inspires and passion performance,
and employees are fulfilled in work that provides the meaning
and purpose they crave. See you there, Let's work on Purpose.
The topics and opinions express in the following show are
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(00:20):
choosing W FOURCY Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
What's working on Purpose? Anyway? Each week we ponder the
answer to this question. People ache for meaning and purpose
at work, to contribute their talents passionately and know their
lives really matter. They crave being part of an organization
that inspires them and helps them grow into realizing their
highest potential. Business can be such a force for good
in the world, elevating humanity. In our program, we provide
(00:51):
guidance and inspiration to help usher in this world we
all want working on Purpose. Now, here's your host, doctor
Elise Cortes.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Welcome back to a Working on Purpose program which has
been brought to you with passion and pride since February
of twenty fifteen. Thanks for tuning in again this week.
Speaker 4 (01:10):
Great to have you.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
I'm your host, doctor Elis Cortes. If we've not met
before and you don't know me, I'm a workforce advisor,
organizational psychologist, management consultant, logo therapist, speaker and author. My
team and I at Gusto now help companies enliven and
fortify their operations by building a dynamic, high performance culture,
inspirational leadership and nurturing managers activated by meaning and purpose.
(01:32):
And many many people don't recognize this how critical inspiration is.
And did you know that satisfy or inspired employees outperform
their satisfied peers by a factor of two point twenty
five to one. In other words, inspiration is good for
the bottom line. You can learn Madison how we can
work together at gustodshnow dot com or my personal site
at Leiscortes dot com. Getting into today's program, we have
(01:53):
Dana Williams, who is an executive coach, speaker, author and
founder of Dana Williams Consulting. Twenty five years in leadership
at Southwest Airlines, she now helps leaders move from performing
to thriving by lining their strengths, core values and purpose.
As a Gallup certified Clifton Strengths Coach, she is the
creator of the Strengths Journal and Your Authentic Imprint Framework.
(02:16):
She is a Forbes Coaches Council member and contributor, host
of the Dominate Your Day podcast, and author of The
Internal Revolution, Lead Authentically and Build your Personal Brand from Within,
which we'll be talking about today. If she joined you
today from Dallas like me, Dana, welcome to working on Purpose.
Speaker 5 (02:32):
Welcome.
Speaker 6 (02:33):
So fun to be on your show on the other
side of the mic, right, It was so good to
be on your podcast.
Speaker 4 (02:38):
And now I get to have you one mind.
Speaker 5 (02:40):
Thank you, and let.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Us celebrate this beautiful thing you brought into the world.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
Look at this.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
It's just gorgeous. And I loved being at your book
launch here in Dallas. That was fantastic. And I know
what it feels like, you know, to have this plan,
this dream of having a book, and then you hold
it in your hands and when people are reading it
and learning from but it's so amazing.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
It is.
Speaker 5 (03:02):
I get goosebumps every time I think about that.
Speaker 4 (03:05):
Isn't it wonderful?
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (03:06):
I really get it.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
I remember when my first book came out, and I
just it had been author had been on my resolution
list for probably more than a decade before it actually happened.
Speaker 5 (03:17):
And now like one book a year or something.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
That's what we're going for.
Speaker 6 (03:21):
So we're going for I'm like, oh, I got to
rest from this first one.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Yeah, you do, you do, and it's just like childbirth
and then you're fine, that's all right, Well, let's open
with the gift and the promise of doing the work
that you espouse in the book. I think that it's
just so beautiful what you put forth you say in
your book. The refreshing truth is that when you're living
your entire life from a place of authenticity, you recover
(03:45):
a lot of lost energy spent filtering or masking what
others can see. No longer suffer from an imposter syndrome,
that gut feeling that your persona doesn't feel authentic to
you or to others. Instead, you enjoy a special kind
of freedom. The result is that you embrace exactly who
you are and the world finally gets to see the
real you.
Speaker 5 (04:04):
Yes, this is.
Speaker 6 (04:08):
It's a seventeen year project of a journey for myself
of working with or just growing up with a very
busy mom who was working back in the medmen era.
And I was a latchkey kid, you know, and my
sisters and I would just do life.
Speaker 5 (04:26):
But I always wondered what she was doing.
Speaker 6 (04:28):
She was just so busy, but she was so happy,
and she was literally producing films and video and doing
that medmen era thing back in the sixties. And so
I grew up with her being very busy and being
very productive, but it was a limited time we got together.
Speaker 5 (04:46):
And then I got in the workforce and I did
the same.
Speaker 6 (04:49):
Thing with my daughter, and I got busy and I
got and then I thought. I took a break for
about nine years and did some nonprofit work and some
other things. And it was at that moment at least,
that our marriage kind of went just in the basement.
Everything was just horrible, and I was sitting there going
what am I doing with my life? And who am I?
(05:10):
And who have I been saying I am? And I
just went on a deep journey and what I really
learned is that you don't need to be more productive
to be more you.
Speaker 5 (05:21):
And authenticity is easy.
Speaker 6 (05:24):
It's hard when we're trying to be something we're not
and it was just a journey, but it was a
lot of deep work and a lot of counseling. And
then then I became got into recovery work with other people,
you know that are working on their marriages and working
on really and then working on themselves. And then I
started as a leader at Southwest, went back to Southwest
(05:47):
and when I was you know, literally, we were acquiring
air Tran this company, and we're thought, how can we
bring these people in and be a part of this culture.
And one of my friends, I said, you know, there's
this tool called strengths spinder. Let's try that.
Speaker 5 (06:05):
And so we.
Speaker 6 (06:05):
Did that and it was amazing. In marketing, I was
a marketing leader. I did not realize how impactful that
one tool was going to be on my life, and
it really helped me identify and.
Speaker 5 (06:18):
Unlock my unique talents. And then I put a coach
while I was.
Speaker 6 (06:22):
There, and so I was doing my day job in marketing,
but then I was helping other leaders across the company
integrate this in Then finally our present said, let's become
a strength based organization. So five years ago I started
my business as a consultant and I got to really
help Gallop work on the strategy of what Southwest needed
to become with strengths based airlines. And it was during
(06:44):
that that I saw the things I was looking at
working on my recovery work and the things I was
working on in leadership were the same, and I was like, Wow,
why don't we talk about this at work? Why don't
we talk about how to be authentic and how to
be yourself and talk about your feelings and all the
things that was happening. So that became my life work
(07:07):
was to say it's okay to be authentic at work
and to be yourself and it's not one day that passes.
I'm sure in the work you do as well, where
somebody's in a role that's not right, or they're trying
to lead people based on a persona they've created that's
not right and it's causing a lot of friction on
the team, and so being able to unlock all that
(07:31):
and part of the book is really having people take
this assessment called that I created called the Authentic Imprint Assessment,
and it's where they unlock and figure out where they
are as a leader in their journey and.
Speaker 5 (07:45):
What they need to work on.
Speaker 6 (07:47):
Whether it might be the core values, the mission strengths,
and then what is the emotional intelligence around that. That's
the multiplier for the formula, And so people can take
the assessment and then read the book and see where
they are are, then go back and take it and
see improvement.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
I have to say a couple of things to what
you've shared so far. First, I have to imagine listeners
and viewers are leaning in and really relating to that
idea of you know, not being able to be themselves
in their lives are certainly at work, and I can
imagine some people might even be touched to tears here
and move to tears by getting present to what that
(08:26):
feels like.
Speaker 4 (08:26):
So I want to first start there.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Then, when you talk about authenticity, one of the things
that I have been really working on as well and
centering in my work too, is helping organizations and leaders
to be able to create an environ more people feel
like they really matter and they belong. It's very hard
to be your authentic self if you don't feel like
you belong someplace, and so belonging. When it first started
(08:50):
being talked about, it was discussed as you know, we
accept you here. Who wants to be accepted or tolerated.
I don't want to be accepted or toted. I want
to be welcomed. I want to be celebrated. I want
other people to as well. And when you do feel
celebrated and welcome, you can be much more authentic. So
there's so much that we can do as leaders to
(09:11):
be able to create an environment for people to step
into the space that you're inviting us into as well.
Speaker 5 (09:17):
Yeah, and I think and I think that's it.
Speaker 6 (09:20):
It's coming in and really saying we care about you
and you're valued, and we know that from Gallup.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
They exactly.
Speaker 6 (09:27):
It's the research shows that when employees feel valued, they're
more engaged, that their work is meaningful, and people are
watching and connecting their meaningful work with the mission of
the company.
Speaker 5 (09:40):
That way's pretty powerful.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
It is.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
And as you know, I'm also a fellow Gallop Certified
Strengths Coach and have been for more than ten years.
Speaker 4 (09:48):
Really important work and.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
It's amazing how much people can learn about themselves when
they do that. Now, if you would next, you've mentioned
your authentic Imprint framework, But let's just talk more deeply
about that what is and bring it to life for
our listeners.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
And viewers.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Wow.
Speaker 6 (10:02):
So when you think about it, I was like, Okay,
you learn your strengths. And I've been a strengths coach
for about twelve thirteen years now have to count up.
And one of the things that I realized is people like, Okay,
now what and you've probably seen this in your work
as you come in and they oh, yeah, we did
that strengths, but it's in the door somewhere and I
don't know who I am. So I was like, yes,
(10:24):
And that's why I think one of the successes we
had at Southwest is we kept it in a drip
drip drip mode and we had a strategy. It wasn't
just oh, come and do this and you're done. And
I think it's like working out at the gym. You
have to practice using your unique talents and a lot
of it, as you know, Elise, is going back to
(10:45):
the past and getting rid of old patterns and things
that haven't served you. So today I was with a
group online and we were talking about the drama triangle
and how we're either you know that from the sixties
where you're either you know, you're either blaming somebody else
for something they've done. At work, or you're fixing something
(11:07):
or you're avoiding. And so what we did is we
flipped the triangle and said, look at the authentic imprint.
And this authentic imprint is a formula. It's your strengths
plus your core values plus your mission times your emotional recognition.
And the emotional recognition piece is something we see all
(11:30):
the time in the workplace, right it might be aware
of themselves but not self aware of how they're coming across.
And so the authentic imprint is a formula that you
can do in your mind very quickly when you see
yourself going in an emotional state, or you're feeling inferior,
or things aren't feeling you're off, It's like, wait, let
(11:51):
me get back to my center of who I am
and then let me approach my day intentionally instead of
letting me reacting to everything happening in the day. I'm
going to design my day and I'm not going to
live in default. And I was doing a lot of that,
living in default and just who.
Speaker 4 (12:09):
Can I help?
Speaker 5 (12:10):
Who can I fix?
Speaker 6 (12:11):
Who can I you know, and then it was like
I'd be drained and so and I think that's a
typical leader today. They are there's just so much chaos
and they're having trouble keeping up with the chaos and clarity.
So it's really an internal work, this authentic imprint. That's
(12:32):
why it's called the book is called the internal Revolution,
because we can't get it from external. It's got to
start here in the work that we're doing here. And
it's hard. That's why a lot of people don't want
to do the internal work, because they have to go work.
Speaker 5 (12:46):
On themselves and and do that sometimes.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
Oh. I mean, I was just delivering a two and
a half day workshop for a client last week and
high level people, and I think by the beginning of
the second day, somebody said, you know, this is so great,
but I'm worried that if I want to go back
to work, this is all going to go away. And
you know, we're taking time that we don't usually take
to step into this kind of self awareness, probing sort
(13:12):
of place that you're teaching us. And so the thought
was that this was going to be a one and
done thing. And then they were aware of that and
they were afraid of it. And I suggested just even
just if you just check in with yourself, like start
the day with the savers program, you know, the silence, affirmations, visualization, exercise, reading, describing,
et cetera. Just even five ten minutes can make a
big difference to check in with yourself and to center yourself.
(13:35):
So making it really more of a discipline, right, a
part of your day, not just something you do occasionally.
Speaker 6 (13:41):
Absolutely, and I think that the word is intentional. Instead
of being worried about the world and what's going to
happen and who's going to do what, it's like, no,
what do I have and what do I need? And
what is my intention today? And so that's why five
six years ago I created the Strengths Journal and launched
that way my Business, which is the only daily planner
(14:02):
to go along a companion guide to the Strengths. Yes,
so now I combine. You know, if you want to
get the book and get the Strengths Journal, if you've
got your strengths, that's great. If you don't, you can
still use the book and you don't have to know
your strength. But it's how do you discover you know
that power, you're just God given power that you have,
and then how do you align that with your unique
(14:24):
contribution that you've made to the world. And so many
people don't. They say they don't talk nice to themselves, right, right?
Speaker 4 (14:31):
That right?
Speaker 5 (14:33):
This kind of helps transform that mm hm.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
You know, and part of what I really appreciated about
what Gallop has done. I've been a Gallop van for years,
but I remember I think it was during the pandemic
when they started really talking about their work on well
being and well being is such a beautiful compliment in
what we're talking about here, cultivating your own sense of
well being. And I know that there are five essential
dimensions of well being that Gallop covers. Do you want
(14:57):
to situate those real quick force? Yes?
Speaker 5 (15:00):
So, and they're in order of importance.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
Okay, So the.
Speaker 6 (15:03):
First one, which blows everybody away is number one is social.
We need six hours of social interaction with the human
being every day.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
So I was blown away by that figure.
Speaker 5 (15:15):
Yes, yes, and especially during COVID.
Speaker 6 (15:18):
But that doesn't mean yes, we're getting social on a
recording like this, or we're getting social. And when we're
talking it's when those people when people would just go
and isolate and not have any human to human contact.
So number one is social, and then I'm sorry, And
number one is career real being, which is purpose and
(15:40):
then number two is social. Career well being is what
you talk about all the time with living, you know,
working on purpose. So I like what I do every
day and I feel like I can use my talents
to do good and I have a purpose. I was
at the doctor this morning and she said she was
she works with a lot of people that are in
different ages, but she said, my retirees, I see their
(16:01):
health go down right away. They lose purpose.
Speaker 4 (16:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (16:06):
And then the third one, so, so career is social,
and then the third is financial. I mean sorry, physical.
Physical is what I put in my body, in what
I do with my body. So it's not just people
to think, oh, you know, I went and walked, but yeah,
what are you eating, what are you putting in your head?
Speaker 5 (16:25):
What is your mindset around all this? And then the
next one is financial.
Speaker 6 (16:31):
I know where my money is and I have a
good handle on my money. The last is community well being.
So community is I feel safe where I live and
I am a part of my community. I get to volunteer,
I get to go do something. I was doing a
group of Southwest employees last year in marketing and they
(16:52):
were evaluating their core values as a team and they
all realized that they hadn't been and their well being,
and they realized that they hadn't done any kind of
giving back as a group, and they'd had a lot
of change. And so after that they said, we're going
to go do one of our you know, pull up
one of our old opportunities to go, whether it be
(17:13):
you know, Habitat for Humanity or Ronald McDonald House as
a group, and that kind of met that community need,
but also for them to bond as a team.
Speaker 5 (17:22):
So it's kind of two wellbeing things at once.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
Awesome so much that we can work on there, and
let's let our listeners and viewers think about those five
essential areas as we grab our first break. I'm your host,
doctor Relice Cortez. We've go on there with Dana Williams.
She's an author, coach, speaker, and founder of Dana Williams Consulting.
We've been talking a bit about where her book came
from and why she's out to help the people the
way that she is, and also her formula. After the break,
(17:49):
we're going to talk about how to put in place
some of the strutges that she lays out in her book.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
We'll be right back, doctor Elise Cortes is a management
consultant specializing in meaning and purpose. An inspirational speaker and author,
(18:16):
she helps companies visioneer for greater purpose among stakeholders and
develop purpose inspired leadership and meaning infused cultures that elevate fulfillment, performance,
and commitment within the workforce. To learn more or to
invite Elise to speak to your organization, please visit her
at elisecortes dot com. Let's talk about how to get
your employees working on purpose. This is working on Purpose
(18:43):
with doctor Elise Cortes. To reach our program today or
to open a conversation with Elise, send an email to
Elise alisee at elisecortes dot com. Now back to working
on purpose.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
Thanks for chaining with us, and welcome back to working
on Purpose. I'm your host, doctor Elist Cortes, as I
am dedicated to helping create a world where our organizations
thrive because their people thrive, are led by inspirational leaders
that help them find and contribute their greatness, and we
do business at better in the world. I keep researching
and writing my own books. As Daniel was mentioning, one
of my latest is called The Great Revitalization. How activating
meaning and purpose can radically and live in your business.
(19:24):
And I wrote that to help readers understand the lay
of today's workforce. What do they want and need to
give their best for you and want to stay? And
then I provide you twenty two best practices to equip
you to provide that in your leadership and your culture.
You can find my books on Amazon or my website
at least core test dot com if you are just
now joining us. My guest is Seana Williams. She's the
(19:44):
author of The Internal Revolution. Lead authentically and build your
personal brand from within. So one of the many things
I enjoyed about your book is that it's chock full
of all kinds of strategies and useful tools. And one
of the things that you talk about really early on
in your book is that you offer three fundamental transformations
(20:04):
that that take place along the way as you your
Internal Revolution journey continues. So let's talk about those three transformations.
Speaker 6 (20:12):
Yes, so really, and this is this is so wild
Elias today. And this group that I was with, we
did a poll and I said, what is the one
thing that is the hardest for you at work? For
you as a communicator, as a leader and for your team.
And it was clarity. And so if we're not clear
(20:34):
on the inside.
Speaker 5 (20:35):
We're not going to be clear out here, right.
Speaker 6 (20:38):
And you kind of have that feeling and you know
something's not clear, but you just keep going through and
it comes out kind of discom you know it's just
not right. So in this book, we really want to
help you discover and own and live in your unique,
unique strengths and then really identify and live in your values.
(20:59):
Those are usually your strengths and your corvets are doorways
to each other.
Speaker 5 (21:04):
They mit and match.
Speaker 6 (21:06):
So usually when you show me your core values, we
can line up your strengths that match right with that,
and it's just a doorway to your strengths. And I
think that is it gives a lot of clarity and
then mission being able to do.
Speaker 5 (21:19):
I do this so that people.
Speaker 6 (21:22):
Can blah blah blah whatever you're solving. And for me,
my mission is and I created this almost seven or
eight years ago, but it's to help people birth their
purpose and live in there and live in their strategies
or their strengths every day. And I use the word
I added the day every day about four years ago.
(21:46):
And because I realize that we're a work in progress.
You know, the leader we are right now is going
to be the leader that we need to be six
months twelve months from now. And with all the AI
and all of the things happening, I'm looking strategies as
a marketer for twenty twenty six differently than I looked
at twenty twenty five and twenty twenty four. People are
(22:08):
inundated with content and how do we be clear? But
we got to be clear on the inside about who
we are, what our strengths are, what our values and emission.
If we can't identify that, we're going to be kind
of just living in default.
Speaker 5 (22:21):
That's number one.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
I will comment on the values piece in that I
am surprised I do this a fair amount also as well,
where I take people through a values identification process, and
it's amazing to me how much clarity people get out
of that exercise. Right, So, in my case, I just
socialize a list of one hundred values and their definitions,
(22:44):
and then they pick the ones that most resonate with them,
get down to the list of ten, and then prioritize
one to ten.
Speaker 4 (22:50):
And that clarity is.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
So such a such a clarifying compass for people. I'm
amazed at that people that are well forties fifty sixty
that are doing that exercise and gaining something out of it.
It's it's amazing, it really is.
Speaker 6 (23:05):
And I think I think core values really help when
you're making decisions absolutely, and when you're saying not only
decisions for your team, but for yourself. And I was
just coaching a leader this afternoon on that and she
was she had high responsibility with her strengths, but she
had a very high core value of making sure that
(23:30):
she served everybody.
Speaker 5 (23:32):
It's like, well, how are you managing that?
Speaker 6 (23:34):
You know with you know, because you people with high
responsibility the basement or the when it gets in a
blind spot is hard to say no, right, And so
helping her realize she can't, you know, who are you
serving as a leader?
Speaker 5 (23:49):
What is your mission?
Speaker 6 (23:50):
And so once she identified her core values in her mission,
then she got clarity, so that that really helps. And
then the second one is just from lack purpose. We've
been talking about this. I think it's the red thread
of consistency throughout here is how do you.
Speaker 5 (24:06):
Go from lacking purpose to purposeful? What a lot of
it is how you start your day.
Speaker 6 (24:12):
You can say the airline business, if we get those
first planes out on time.
Speaker 5 (24:17):
The rest of the day, we're good.
Speaker 6 (24:19):
Right, Everything in the morning is off, it's going to
be off all day. Same thing with us as human beings.
And so I like to use the strength journal is
intentionality and say, here's my purpose for my intention for today,
and here's the three things I'm going to do, and
let me apply my strengths to help me get energized
(24:41):
to do those Because it's about not managing your time,
it's managing your energy.
Speaker 3 (24:48):
I really understand that, and I've been using that in
my coaching as well.
Speaker 6 (24:53):
Yeah, and I think so many people think, oh, I
have to back to my statement about you don't need
to be more productive. It's about who are you and
what are the strengths you're going to use every day
to help you be energized because we have unlimited amount
of energy there. And then the last thing is really
going from isolated to connected. Right now, we're in a
(25:15):
society where there's a lot of loneliness going on. There
is a lot of people that aren't connected and they're isolating.
They could be around a lot of people, but they're
isolating and they're lonely, and so how do you transform
your relationships? And you're just your off to be your
authentic self and thinking about your relationships. One thing when
(25:36):
I started this book book is I realized I wasn't
spending time with my girlfriends because I was busy working, right,
And so we now we intentionally play marsh On every
week and that I try not to let anything get
in the way of that. It also helps me with
my social well being every every week. So it's kind
(25:57):
of hitting several things. And that's what I like about
thinking about yourself and managing your day intentionally. But the
end of the day, I love this. My editor, her
husband's from Norway, and he always said are you satisfied
with today? And instead of saying how is your day?
Are you satisfied with it? Did you live out your
(26:18):
purpose today? Your intention intentionally? Are you satisfied today?
Speaker 3 (26:24):
That's really powerful. I like that question so much better
than how was your day? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (26:28):
Wow, so much?
Speaker 5 (26:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
Okay, Well, let's start a little bit more deeply into
your formula. We've already talked more about the values. Of
course we said something about that, but I do want
to talk a bit more deeply about strengths. My experience
is when people hear about this idea of you know,
discovering your strengths, that sounds kind of wo wo or whatever.
And then when they do get their strengths results back,
(26:51):
they get their top five or if they unlock the
whole thirty four. What I've discovered is a lot of
people look at those and they're like, look, those are strengths.
Speaker 4 (26:58):
Those are just me.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
So they don't recognize them as strengths. And so let's
talk a little bit about the power of really discovering
and leaning into our strengths.
Speaker 5 (27:07):
Yeah. I think the way I talk about it a lot.
Speaker 6 (27:11):
Is I think you have we kind of put labels
on ourselves early on or somebody does, and you when
you take this assessment, it's over six decades of research
and doctor Clifton created it when he said back in
the fifties, he said, what if we study what's right
with people instead of what's wrong with them? So that's
(27:32):
why it's positive psychology. So that's one thing. But I
think the other thing is because it's he bought the
Galup companies in the nineties and since has you know,
create you know, taking the assessment further, now thirty five
million people have taken it. You really see, like you said,
people got this is me?
Speaker 5 (27:50):
How did they know this is me?
Speaker 6 (27:53):
And when you start comparing your results with somebody else's
that might have like you and I might have one
of this same talents like strategic or idiation, our reports
are going to be different because we're one in thirty
five million people. So when you think about that, at
least we're in Texas. There's twenty eight million people here.
We have to outside of the state of Texas and
(28:14):
find five more million people before we find somebody just
like us.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
Yeah, you know, that's happened to me. In a workshop.
I was doing a strengths finder for leadership women and
I said that stat you know, it's the chances of
somebody having the exact same one and thirty five five
strengths issue in the exact order is one in thirty
three million. And these two women stood up on their
feet and they went, that's us.
Speaker 4 (28:36):
It was pretty calm. It was amazing.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
I've been doing these workshops for years and that has
never happened.
Speaker 5 (28:40):
Had to wow, that is I've never had that.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
Yeah, yeah, no, it's and and so The other thing
that I want to situate about strengths is is the
energizing aspect of living in them, right, the motivating aspect
of living with the more that we get to live
our strengths and more energy that we have, the more
viteuta that we have, and the more we are are
intrinsic motivation is that activated. And that's I think really
important for people to associate when they're thinking about the
(29:05):
importance in living and leaning into their strengths.
Speaker 6 (29:09):
Yeah, So today we were on this webinar and talking
with We had about thirty five people on there, and
they were talking about when they go into that default mode,
that emotional piece of just reacting to things instead of reflecting.
And when you know your unique talents, it's like which
(29:30):
one am I going to turn up and which one
am I going to turn down? Because they can get
in your way, right, And so I kind of think
that like a superhero and you're just kind of pushing
your buttons to depending on the situation, using your emotional
recognition to figure that out. But I think that helps
a lot, is identifying them and how to use and when.
Speaker 5 (29:50):
To use them, I think is important.
Speaker 4 (29:52):
I do too.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
We won't talk more about the mission and the emotional
regulation because I think you recognition me, because I think
you've handled that already. And there's more things I want
to pull from your book. I would love for you
to speak to the strategy that you encourage us to use, and.
Speaker 4 (30:05):
That's drawing your life now. Yeah, I really liked that.
Speaker 5 (30:09):
Yeah have you ever done that?
Speaker 4 (30:10):
Not like you're teaching us.
Speaker 6 (30:12):
No, Yeah, I had a counselor have me do it
when I was going through this deep dark time and.
Speaker 5 (30:19):
All of a sudden, what you do is you get
a piece of paper and you draw.
Speaker 6 (30:22):
A line birth and now, and you look at you know,
all the things have happened in your life, good and bad,
and you put them on there. And then I have
people put when they saw some you know, the ups
and downs, and then what strengths they saw, because your
strengths have kind of been with you your whole life.
But all of a sudden, the big thing here is
(30:43):
you start seeing a pattern. It could be a familiar pattern,
it could be a pattern that you've just carried. For me,
it was with being my mom being gone a lot
and my dad being gone, I was I became like
a kind of a person that was always like taking
care of everybody, fixing things and being a little bit codependent.
(31:04):
And I was like, ooh, that's where that came from.
How do I look at Do I want to bring
that with me into the next thirty forty years? How
do I how do I shift? And it's learning to say, oh,
that is not met here's my strengths, here's what I'm
going to use instead to manage me, instead of trying
(31:25):
to help manage everything else. Because I think when you
live in that kind of when any kind of environment,
we all can go back to childhood and different things,
but we pick up habits and we think that's just
the way they are, and then I can be that way.
But when you look at your map and think, no,
I'm going to design it how I want to be
in the next thirty years and you actually draw another
line today and where you want to be and what
(31:45):
is that You've heard this when you know where your
eightieth My mom did this on her eighties. She said
she was going to go back to college and she
did and she graduated eighty six.
Speaker 4 (31:52):
You got with your steed, which is just amazing.
Speaker 6 (31:55):
So it's like, yeah, where do I want to who's
at that party, what they saying?
Speaker 5 (32:00):
How, what is my legacy?
Speaker 1 (32:02):
What?
Speaker 6 (32:02):
And so if I'm going to keep that some of
those old patterns I don't want to keep. What does
this look like? And what are the things I want
to do in this next map? So you get to
draw out your map, and it really really is powerful.
And I've done it with millennials, gen X, I've done
it with boot baby boomers, done it with everybody. The
(32:23):
baby Boomers had a hard time getting their maps strong,
and I think it's because the generation before was always
don't talk about that, you know, be quiet, and this
is no put it out there? What what happened? And
how did you react? And what are those patterns? And
why are you holding onto those? How can you when
(32:44):
you go forward? What are some things that you can
And I see it, and my kids and grand kids,
I'm like, whoo, I've got to you know, I've got
to stop that. So it's teaching it. That was another thing.
Is this legacy behind us that we're leaving? And what
does that look like?
Speaker 5 (33:00):
So being able to draw your.
Speaker 4 (33:02):
Map, it's so powerful.
Speaker 3 (33:04):
And then that's the tools that you give in the
book are just tremendous and so I got so much
out of that from myself and the idea of legacy.
I do want to talk more about that specifically with
and through how you do You do have a very
specific way of following your internal compass. I want to
talk about that next after our break, let's grab Okay,
I'm your host, Doctor Release Cortes. We run the air
with Dana Williams. She's an executive coach, speaker, author, and
(33:25):
the founder of Dana Williams Consulting. We've been diving into
some strategies that she has in her book about how
we can really learn about our strengths or values, our mission,
our internal or emotional regulation. After the break, we're going
to take her through some more deeply in some of
the ways that she helps people get acquainted to and
connected to these areas.
Speaker 4 (33:44):
Will be right back.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
Doctor Elise Cortes is a management consultant specializing in meaning
and purpose. An inspirational speaker and author. She helps companies
visioneer for greater purpose among stakeholders and develop purpose inspired
leadership and meaning infused cultures that elevate fulfillment, performance, and
commitment within the workforce. To learn more or to invite
(34:19):
Elise to speak to your organization, please visit her at
elisecortes dot com. Let's talk about how to get your
employees working on purpose. This is Working on Purpose with
doctor Elise Cortes. To reach our program today or to
open a conversation with Elise, send an email to Elise
(34:40):
alisee at elisecortes dot com. Now back to working on Purpose.
Speaker 3 (34:52):
Thanks for staying with us, and welcome back to Working
on Purpose. I'm your host, doctor Elise Cortes. As you
know by now, this program is dedicated to empowering and
inspiring you along your journey to realize more of your potential.
If you want to learn more about how we can
work together and learn about the Gusto Now Academy for
leaders and individuals on various journeys alike, make your way
to Gusto dashnow dot com and then go to the
training tap and you'll find the academy information there If
(35:14):
you are just now joining us. My guest is Daniel Williams.
She's the author of The Internal Revelation Revolution. Lead authentically
and build your personal brand from within. So for this
next thing that I want to cover, you kicked you,
you situated this before. We what we're on break about
the opportunity to really be mindful and intentional about our legacy.
So I love the tool and the steps that you
(35:35):
provide in your book about following your internal compass and
knowing your mission. So we talked about the idea of
the importance omission before, but now I want to dig
into the details. So you have a four step process?
Can we walk through that?
Speaker 5 (35:48):
Yes? And I think.
Speaker 6 (35:51):
Most people when you ask, and I think coming from marketing,
we always had a mission, right, We always had a
key thing that kept us, you know, and so when
you're working on your personal mission, people just haven't thought
about that. And I was like, Okay, how can we
help people really understand their mission and their internal compass?
(36:13):
And I think it's just four ways. So first off,
who are you serving? You might be serving maybe you're
a teacher and you're serving students, maybe you're an executive,
maybe you're a board member, maybe you're running a nonprofit.
But who do you most care about serving right now
this time in your life? And then step two is
(36:34):
find your positive impact? What changes for these people when
you are at your best? So when you work with
somebody you help them do something, and you help them,
I think about the transformation that you're helping people do.
For at least I hear you say, you know the
gusto and working on purpose, and it's that is the
transformation you're making. And the transformation I'm working on is
(36:58):
birthing their purpose I first, and so as individuals, and
so it's thinking about that.
Speaker 5 (37:06):
And then step three is.
Speaker 6 (37:07):
If you know your strengths and your values, it helps
energize and motivate you. So I'm always going to take
you back to that because that's your uniqueness. And then
includes how you create change, how you make things happen.
And then I just have people write it and pencil.
The marketing side of me says, do not make it
(37:27):
very long, something you can remember. Many like sy this
is and I said, that's beautiful, but we need to
go a little shorter. Something you can remember and something
that you can say. And then when you combine your
audience and your impact into one fold sentence. So I
changed mine evolved over the eight years, but it's you know,
(37:49):
help now help leaders birth their purpose and live in
their strengths every day.
Speaker 5 (37:55):
And then I see transformation from the inside out. So
it's been excited to work with companies and individuals. I
work with a lot of leaders.
Speaker 6 (38:04):
And then teams, and it's been real exciting to see
the transformation. But it doesn't happen overnight, and you know
that at least it takes time.
Speaker 4 (38:12):
It does.
Speaker 3 (38:13):
You know, I want to echo a step too here
to find your positive impact and you talk about what's
situating the changes that that these people that you're serving
get when you're when network you're helping get to their
best I want to give a shout out to a
previous guest, Wendy Lipten Dibner. She's created a formula and
really a capture tool to help people really recognize the
(38:37):
their impact. And so even if you don't use her tool,
the notion of getting really clear about the impact that
both that you intend for your people that are to
have and then once you can actually capture what it
is that is so important to keep you motivated connected
When you really know your own impact and how much
(38:57):
you really are mattering in the world. It's keeps you
getting up every day no matter how tired you are,
how little sleep you've had, too much you have on
your plate, whatever it is. So I really want to
emphasize that step two. I think that's a really critical
piece that you're you're giving us.
Speaker 6 (39:11):
And I think at least two. What when you were
talking it just really keeps coming back to me, is
it's not hard when you're being your unique self and
you say it easily and you have a lot of
fancy words and you don't have all this it's just
being you. Yeah, it's just it's just like you know
you're in your authentic self.
Speaker 4 (39:31):
There is there.
Speaker 3 (39:32):
It really isn't a better feeling to one really really
stand completely in your authenticity and and and and be
of service to your purpose and know that you're making
a difference. There really isn't a better feeling than that,
as far as I've discovered in my life.
Speaker 5 (39:46):
It's kind of like a little natural high. Yeah, I know,
it's the best, the best drug you ever were in
the morning, you know, the best drug ever. Yea, that's right.
Speaker 3 (39:56):
I do want to touch a little bit more deeply
on the idea of emotion recognition. And I loved what
you said before data about you know, especially in organizations,
emotions can be taboo or no, no, we don't talk
about emotions. We don't do emotions here? What are emotions?
But you have a stat in your book that Gallop
study found that managers account for seventy percent of the
(40:18):
variance in employee engagement. So leaders who can notice and
name and respond to their emotional state before it shapes
their actions create what you call emotional safety for their teams.
Those who can't become unpredictable for us, draining energy from
everyone around them. I think that's a really important thing
because emotions get a bad rep right, So let's talk
a little bit more more deeply about how you help
(40:40):
people get more connected to their emotional recognition.
Speaker 5 (40:44):
Yeah, I think And I you know, worked for a
brand that was an emotional brand, Southwest Hard Yeah, right, right,
So if somebody had a death in the family, or
if somebody had a dog that died, or somebody, we
did something for them and it.
Speaker 6 (40:59):
Was very what do they need? You know, a lot
of caring nature. So it grew up building that culture
and helping with that culture. So it's natural thing that
I think about. But it's like, what would you do
in your family if somebody lost a loved one. I
had a recent situation where it's one of the employees
died in the group, and so it was real and
(41:23):
the leader was doing a fantastic job of giving everybody
space and this is what we know, and this is
what y'all need to go, you know, take time for yourself.
And so there's emotional recognition, and each person on the
team needs something different depending on how they were associated
with that person or what is going on. So and
then what happens in our personal life shows up at
(41:45):
work and can't help it right, and what happens at
work shows up at home. So how do we as
leaders managing ourselves and managing our families.
Speaker 5 (41:56):
And then how do we that have a.
Speaker 6 (41:58):
Purview of a few people that report to us, how
do we make sure that when something's off, that we're
helping them recognize it and get some help. I had
a leader one time who was really just not doing well,
and I knew something was off, and I just told him,
I said, you are CEO of your life and your
(42:20):
health right now, and I just need you to take
some time off and figure out what's going on. And
he so appreciated that, because I think it's harder for people.
It's like family members, they don't see it, but as
leaders we're not trained how to you know, we're not
trained in well being, We're not trained in some of
these psychological things, and so people are scared sometimes of
(42:45):
what to say. And I think if you just do
the human caring thing when there is something wrong or
there's something you can't miss again, it's going back to
your authentic self. And there's not a blueprint for that.
It's what works for you.
Speaker 5 (43:00):
You but in an emotional recognition way where you understand
the different people in the room yea.
Speaker 3 (43:07):
And that you're attuned to them and connected to them,
you know that you can expand your emotional vocabulary beyond mad, said, happy, glad, whatever, frustrated,
always stressed, all those kind of things so so so important.
In fact, when I'm out speaking Dana so often, what
I'm trying to do is help the audience feel connect
to their feelings, connect to and of course what I
(43:28):
really want, I want to inspire them to a place
where they get moved to tears. That's what I really want.
And if that happens, that I know I've done my job.
If eyes are dry in the room, I didn't do it.
But today what I find is that so many people
are so divorced from their emotions, they don't understand those
beautiful aspects of themselves, and they don't therefore derive the
(43:49):
benefit of really knowing them and honoring them and working
through them. Yeah.
Speaker 6 (43:54):
And I think I was talking to a leader that's
a mom, and she's talking about raising her daughters, and
she said, you know, if we can just raise them
to be resilient and to learn how to deal with
the good and the bad instead of trying to make
everything just good for them, And I said, oh, my gosh,
that is so. I think it's just each generation is different.
(44:15):
We've got five generations in the workplace right now, and
they all need something different, and they've all been raised differently.
So how do we recognize that and help guide them
as they're managing that.
Speaker 4 (44:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (44:28):
Yeah, so much opportunity to help people. It's such a
beautiful thing to get to do. We're getting close to
the end of the show, and I definitely wanted to
make sure that you had an opportunity to share a
story or an example of somebody that maybe you've worked with,
so we can understand a bit of how does this
journey of an internal revolution work?
Speaker 4 (44:44):
Does what's the opportunity in it.
Speaker 6 (44:47):
Yeah, So I had a team leader that came to
me almost two and a half years ago and said,
you know, she wanted to see if we could work
with her team. She wanted them to get more and
gage aged and understanding kind of as they were growing
and leading their teams. And so we started working with them,
and it wasn't an overnight something, but all of a
(45:11):
sudden this summer they got a huge, like sixteen percent
increase in engagement. And she said it was after, you know,
after we did the drip drip of everything, because it
is a roadmap, but once they developed their mission and
their core values and their strengths around that as a team,
(45:35):
the clarity broke through. And I think it was such
a great example because I think people just need to
know the work I'm doing matters every day and I matter.
Like we started off the conversation talking about and it
takes a while to get there to build the mission
(45:55):
and all the stuff, but we want to make sure
it takes a while because I want to build the
map with them knowing who they are first, and then
how they work with their team, and then now, how
are we going to impact our others? Within the organization
and the world with what we do that big impact.
Speaker 3 (46:14):
So I have to know because I've been with that's
similar work that some of the things that happen is
that you build trust and that help the team build
trust with each other. They're like, oh, that's why you know.
You have analytical in your top five strengths and I
have achiever really top five. So when you ask me
that barrage of questions, it's not that you're trying to
stop me from doing what I really want to do
(46:34):
and get this done. It's that you need that kind
of detail in order to make sense of it and
to be able to make a contribution. And I think
that's really important when when we can help our teams
understand those different dynamics and how we're coming at things
differently because of our strengths, because of our values. And
then I love the idea of that shared mission statement.
Speaker 4 (46:52):
Beautiful.
Speaker 5 (46:54):
It's really been powerful. It's funny.
Speaker 6 (46:56):
It's just that intersection of when you're marketing a brand
and you're creating and messaging for a group.
Speaker 5 (47:03):
It's a neat intersection because.
Speaker 6 (47:05):
They really get alignment and they and they were part
of crafting it. Yeah, it wasn't that somebody came in
and said, here's you are and here's your mission.
Speaker 5 (47:14):
It was like they got to develop it.
Speaker 3 (47:16):
Yeah, that's then we able to get out of that
is ownership and we like that. Well this show, Dane's
listened to white people around the world and they often
tune in because they are trying to become better versions
of themselves in some way, whether as individuals, as leaders.
They're trying to elevate the culture of their organization. They're
trying to be really cultivate who they are as humans
in the world of work. What would you like to
(47:37):
leave them with?
Speaker 6 (47:39):
Oh gosh, there's so many things. I think. I think
thinking about what is the impact you want to make
in the world, and go do that.
Speaker 5 (47:50):
There's only one you to do it.
Speaker 6 (47:52):
And if something has been boiling up inside of you
but you've been afraid to do it, use your unique talents,
do it and you will make.
Speaker 5 (48:01):
What I call and I talk.
Speaker 6 (48:03):
I love to talk about this concept of you're lighting
a little fire that you're building inside you. Like what
you're doing a lease, but then you've got all these
little campfires. If you would look at the United States
and the world, I know you go all over the
world at the campfires you've lit and the impact you're making.
You don't even get to see that, but I want
to leave them with you know, be it's just do
(48:26):
not be more productive, be more you and the way
that happens if you just sharing the impact that you
can bring to the world.
Speaker 5 (48:33):
And I love.
Speaker 6 (48:34):
Working with different difference makers who want to make an
impact and they're wanting to work on themselves. And it's
not easy work, right, You got to work hard on yourself,
but it's so easy when you start doing it and
realizing you're being yourself.
Speaker 3 (48:49):
What a beautiful way to Finishtana. I'm so happy to
know you, grateful for our connection, for our friendship, and
to be able to share you with my listeners and
viewers around the world.
Speaker 4 (48:57):
Thank you for coming on working on purpose.
Speaker 5 (48:59):
Thank you, Elie.
Speaker 6 (49:00):
My pleasure to be here today and be a part
of your amazing show and get to connect with your listeners.
Speaker 5 (49:06):
So thank you.
Speaker 4 (49:07):
Most welcome. Listeners and viewers.
Speaker 3 (49:09):
You are going to want to learn more about Dani
Williams her work as an executive coach and speaker at
Dani Williams Consulting in her new book the Internal Revolution,
so you can start by visiting her website. It's danawilliamsco
dot com. Let me spell that for you. Dana is
d A N A Williams w I L L I
A M S Coco dot com. Dana williamsco dot com.
(49:31):
Last week, if you missed the live show, you can
always catch it be your record a podcast. See you
next week for another educational and nourishing conversation Together, Let's
lean in and learn how to create destination workplaces that
call forth the best from everyone, build our inspirational leadership capacity,
and find ways you to business that betters the world.
Let's work on Purpose.
Speaker 2 (49:51):
We hope you've enjoyed this week's program. Be sure to
tune into Working on Purpose featuring your host, doctor Elise Cortes,
each week on w fours see why. Together, we'll create
a world where business operates conscientiously, Leadership inspires and passion performance,
and employees are fulfilled in work that provides the meaning
and purpose they crave. See you there, Let's work on Purpose.
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