February 18, 2025 • 32 mins
How prepared are you to lead in a workplace that’s changing faster than ever before? As corporate executives, you’re facing unprecedented challenges—shifting workforce dynamics, evolving employee expectations, and relentless demands for adaptability.
Is your leadership evolving to meet these demands, or are you stuck in outdated methods that no longer work?
Bernadette Boas is joined by Vanessa Juldeman, President of Mosaic People Development, to delve into the rapidly evolving landscape of leadership in today's corporate world. With over 20 years of experience with top organizations such as Campbell Soup and the UN, Vanessa shares her expertise on how leaders need to adapt to meet the demands of an ever-changing work environment.
Key Challenges Explored:
- Navigating unprecedented workplace challenges and shifting workforce dynamics.
- Addressing the macro and micro-level changes in organizational structures.
- Dealing with the lack of self-awareness, strategic insight, and insufficient education among leaders.
Key Talking Points:
- The New World of Leadership
- Essential Leadership Skills
- Five Powerful Tools to Lead Successfully
- Balancing Task and Relationship Orientations
Resources and Links:
- Dive deeper with Vanessa's book, Mastering Leadership,available at mosaicpd.com.
- Connect with Vanessa Judelman through Mosaic People Development's website for more insights.
Stay Connected: Follow Bernadette Boas and the Shedding the Corporate Bitch Podcast on social media to join the conversation and receive updates on future episodes.
Don't forget to revisit this episode for a refresher or share it with colleagues to foster a collective journey in becoming powerful leaders. For personalized guidance, reach out to Bernadette at coachmebernadette.com/discoverycall.
We're thrilled to have you with us and look forward to embarking on this transformation journey together!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
How prepared are you to lead in a workplace that's
changing faster than ever before?
As corporate executives, you'refacing unprecedented challenges
shifting workforce dynamics,evolving employee expectations
and relentless demands foradaptability.
Is your leadership evolving tomeet these demands, or are you
stuck in outdated methods thatno longer work?
(00:24):
In today's episode, we tacklethe pressing realities of this
new world of work, how it'sredefining leadership
responsibilities, disruptingtraditional approaches and
pushing leaders to rethink theirstrategies.
We'll explore five powerfultools that will help you lead
with confidence and agilityamidst this rapid transformation
(00:46):
.
Joining us is Vanessa Huldeman,president of Mosaic People
Development.
Joining us is Vanessa Huldeman,president of Mosaic People
Development, a leadershipauthority with over 20 years of
experience working with toporganizations like Campbell Soup
and the UN.
Get ready to change yourperspective and level up your
(01:07):
leadership game.
So let's dive in.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Welcome to Shedding the Corporate Bitch, the podcast
that transforms today'smanagers into tomorrow's
powerhouse leaders.
Your host, bernadette Boas,executive coach and author,
brings you into a world wherethe corporate grind meets
personal growth and success ineach and every episode.
With more than 25 years incorporate trenches, bernadette's
own journey from beingdismissed as a tyrant boss to
(01:31):
becoming a sought-afterleadership coach and speaker
illustrates the very essence oftransformation that she now
inspires in others with her tips, strategies and stories.
So if you're ready to shed thebitches of fear and insecurity,
ditch the imposter syndrome andstep into the role of the
powerhouse leader you were bornto be, this podcast is for you.
Let's do this.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Vanessa, how are you?
Welcome, welcome, welcome.
Thank you, great to be here.
It is fabulous to have you herebecause I find this subject
matter critical and veryexciting when it comes to what
leaders need to do today in theever-changing world and in this
new world that we're living in.
(02:14):
So we'll get into even what isthat new world, and a lot more
than that.
But before we do, I like to getour listeners and viewers
connected and relating to ourguests, so could you share with
us a little bit about Vanessa?
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Of course.
So let's go back to birth.
I was born in an interestingplace.
I was born in Johannesburg,south Africa, and my family
immigrated to Toronto where Ilive now when I was seven years
old and for many years myparents missed their family back
in South Africa, so we used totravel back and forth a lot.
(02:51):
So I know South Africa verywell.
It's my roots, in fact.
I saw the Lion King thisweekend on Broadway in Toronto
and the music and the costumesare from South Africa, inspired
by South Africa.
So, it was just so heartwarming.
I have two children.
My older son just starteduniversity.
(03:11):
He just started college, sohe's 18.
My younger son is a Division Ibasketball player, so we spend a
lot of time watching basketballand my favorite food is sushi.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Again, I love this subject and you are the perfect
individual based on yourbackground, which you can always
share with us as we go todiscuss this.
But the first thing I want tounderstand is how do you define
and envision the new world andthe new leader that needs to
(03:44):
take the reins of that new world?
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Absolutely.
So I define it sort of on amacro level and a micro level.
So the macro level is reallyaround what's going on in our
environment Dramaticenvironmental changes, virtual
first workplaces, massive amountof rapid change.
Organizations are getting a lotmore focused on bottom line, I
(04:12):
find, and on data, data analysis, so that's a huge change.
Just the way people are workinghas changed so much.
So that's the macro.
The micro level are individualleaders.
How is all this changeimpacting them?
And I see, in this new world ofwork, leaders lack oh, I'm
going to say three things.
Number one, they lackself-awareness.
(04:32):
Number two, they lack strategicinsight.
So a lot of leaders are toldthey need to be strategic, but
they don't know what it means.
The third thing, on more ofthat micro level that I'm seeing
, is promotion without education.
So, because organizations aremoving so quickly, this new
(04:55):
world of work, leader islaunched into a new role without
a lot of education.
And as we know, you know,there's different levels of
leadership and every level ofleadership requires leaders to
learn new skills and behaviors.
Even moving from an individualcontributor to a leader for the
first time requires new skillsand behaviors.
So those are some of the trendsthat I'm seeing right now.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Well, let's break them down, All right.
So you got into the educationpiece.
So when you say education,you're not talking about that.
They should come in with adegree or you know.
But it's more relevant thatthey get the on-hand training,
development, coaching, mentoringthat they need to up-level
(05:39):
their skills or gain new skills.
Is that where you are?
Speaker 3 (05:41):
going with that.
That's exactly it.
That's exactly it.
So once you enter the workforce, it requires you to have a
different skill set.
So when you're an individualcontributor, I mean you have to
be a team player.
You have to have expertise inyour specific area that you're
focusing on, whether it'sfinance or marketing or IT or
whatnot and then the minute youget promoted into a leadership
(06:03):
role, you have to learn newskills.
You have to learn how to coach,you have to learn how to get
results for other people, youhave to learn how to give
feedback, and a lot of leadersthat come to me for training or
coaching are feeling reallystressed or they lack a lot of
confidence, and so my goal as anexecutive coach, as someone who
does leadership training, is toto gain well, two things First
(06:26):
of all, increase theirconfidence level and increase
their toolkit, because it is adifferent job.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Absolutely, and there is the people element, beyond
the coaching and the developmentthat you mentioned.
But even what do you see fromkind of an empathy, emotional
intelligence, being able toactually inspire and motivate
their team members?
Speaker 3 (06:49):
It depends on the individual, but I am working
with a lot of leaders who lackempathy because they're driven
so hard and they need to be sofocused on the bottom line that
they forget that they need to beempathetic.
And so where that often forexample, where I see that, let
me think of an example I wastalking to a coaching client
recently and we were talkingabout feedback, positive
(07:12):
feedback.
So she says to me you know,vanessa, I'm kind of an
intrinsically motivated person,so I really I don't need
positive feedback.
And I said to her good for you.
And 75% of the population isdifferent than you.
So just because you don't needpositive feedback, it doesn't
mean that people on your teamdon't.
So let's talk about how to getpositive feedback, because it's
(07:36):
so critical for building apositive culture in your team.
And I actually stopped theconversation and I said to her
what do you think the benefitsof positive feedback are?
And she was flabbergasted.
She said I don't know.
I've never really thought aboutthat question.
So we had to unpack that firstand then I had to figure out how
(07:56):
to get positive feedback.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Well, doesn't that also highlight for you too, that
you know I'll use her just asbecause you brought her up, but
as the fact that they'rethinking internally, they're
thinking I don't need it.
They're not necessarilythinking like a servant leader
as far as I'm here to help mypeople.
So I'm going to naturally thinkabout what they need versus
(08:20):
what I need and recognize thatthose two things may not be the
same what they need versus whatI need and recognize that those
two things may not be the same.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
Oh, 110%.
And so I always tell leaderswhen you become a leader, you
have to learn how to change oradjust your style to meet the
needs of your team.
Right, so they go why?
I'm like well, because you're aleader, that's why.
Like why can't they like I'mthe boss?
Like, why can't they change?
Or does there still have to bemy needs?
I'm like no, that's old school,we don't work in the new world
(08:47):
of work.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Right.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Like not anymore.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
So that's education.
I'm very intrigued because Ihear it quite a bit myself is
what you said about that leadersneed to be strategic, and
they're not quite sure what thatmeans.
So what does it mean to you andwhat does it need to mean to
you?
Know, the managers out therewho want to be leaders but are
lacking that strategic viewpointso people don't realize there's
actually three parts ofstrategy.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
There's strategic thinking, strategic planning and
strategic implementation.
Strategic thinking, strategicplanning and strategic
implementation.
So the first thing I do when Iwork with leaders is break it
down.
So what is strategic thinking?
Thinking outside the box,challenging the status quo.
I always say to leaders, whenyou hire a new person within the
first week, so Friday at theend of the first week, ask them
(09:40):
what works around here, what doyou like about our culture?
What doesn't work?
What ideas do you have toovercome what's not working?
That's strategic thinking.
It's not only crafting myvision and creating a strategic
plan.
It's constantly thinking aboutwhat's working, what's not and
what we can do to overcomewhat's not working.
So that's strategic thinking.
Then there's strategic planning, which is sitting down with
(10:01):
your team, really getting clearon your expectations with them,
creating development plans,creating a delegation strategy
for yourself, thinking aboutyour job and what you're paid to
do versus your team's job andwhat they're paid to do.
And then strategicimplementation is getting the
job done and how are you doingthat strategically and what kind
(10:25):
of coaching meetings are youhaving to hold people
accountable?
So those are the three parts ofstrategy that I focus on.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
And do you find that many managers struggle there
because one they have verylittle white space?
On their calendars to kind ofsit back and work on those
things.
But what do you do to kind ofget them to shift from that
attitude?
And in some cases is it anexcuse that they're giving that
(10:54):
they're not doing.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
It could be.
It could be, and what I teachpeople is put structures in
place so you don't have to thinkabout it.
So a good example of that wouldbe set up formal coaching,
accountability coaching meetingsand make them really short.
So at the beginning of everyweek, let's say, make it a 20
minute meeting.
It could be with your team, itcould be, depending on how large
(11:18):
your team is.
It could be one on team, itcould be, depending on how large
your team is.
It could be one-on-ones withyour direct reports, and you
could, in your accountabilitymeeting you could talk about,
for example, your agenda'sreally tight and short.
What's on your plate for thisweek?
What are your goals for thisweek?
What are you doing to move yourgoals forward?
What help or support do youneed from me?
And maybe the fourth item couldbe something like feedback,
(11:41):
feedback from me, feedback forme to give you, for you to give
me, or maybe any kind ofinformation from the business
that I need to share with you,and that's it.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
All right, let's move on to self-awareness.
What is the challenge there formany of the leaders that you
see out there?
Speaker 3 (12:01):
I call it.
There's two things Eitheryou're an unconscious leader or
you're a conscious leader, andso unconscious leaders have
never developed themselvesbefore.
They have absolutely no ideahow their behavior is impacting
the people around them.
Conscious leaders and mostleaders have to learn to be
(12:22):
conscious leaders.
To have someone to tell them,you have to be a conscious
leader.
What does that mean?
Understand your strengths,understand your weaknesses,
understand that your behaviorimpacts some people around you
and that, as a leader, you haveto be very conscious of your
behavior.
And so, once you are, you canreally consciously create that
(12:43):
culture with your team that youaspire to.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Would you say that these are kind of the biggest
shifts that leaders need to makein order to really adapt and be
impactful leaders in this newworld of work?
Adapt and be impactful leadersin this new world of work,
Absolutely, Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
And it starts with I think about it in terms of three
pillars of leadership success,so you have to know yourself,
manage your team and lead yourbusiness.
So the know yourself is thatself-awareness piece, is that
conscious leadership.
The manager team is how tocoach, how to develop, how to
give feedback and then theleader business is managing
(13:23):
change.
It's that strategic, executingstrategically piece that we
talked about.
It's also prioritization.
I mean so many leaders, interms of time management, don't
know how to manage their time,don't know what their priorities
are.
So that actually part of thestrategy bucket, too, is being
super clear on your priorities.
And when I work with a leaderand they don't know what their
(13:44):
priorities are, I say to themwell, go speak to the person you
report to and get thatclarified, because you can't
clarify your expectations withyour team until you know what's
expected from your leader.
Now, if it's a CEO, maybe theyneed clarity from the board.
For example, I have a CEO whohis organization he's been
running the organization forfive years there's no strategic
(14:05):
plan.
So I said to him what's thereason you don't have a
strategic plan?
He's like the board hasn'tdeveloped it.
So then I said well, what's thereason you haven't talked to
the board about developing itRight?
He said I never thought of it.
That's executing strategically.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Would you say?
Would that be considered one ofthe biggest mistakes that
leaders make when it comes to,you know, addressing change and
adapting to, you know, the newmode of work is one of those,
being that they don't have astrategic plan or don't know
what's really important.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
Oh, 100%.
And especially becauseorganizations are changing so
quickly.
So you know, we used to be,we'd have a five-year plan.
Well, you can't have afive-year plan anymore and you
can have a five-year plan, butthere's I mean, month to month,
my clients are changing theirplans.
It depends on the economy, itdepends on sometimes there's
governance issues that come upat the last minute, so it really
(15:02):
depends on what's happening intheir external environment.
And so I really ask my clientsto sit down orderly, look at the
strategic plan, if they haveone, and think about okay, what
am I doing to align myself withthe strategic plan and what am I
doing to align my team withthis strategic plan?
And do our goals need to changefrom last quarter?
(15:26):
Because I don't know about yourexperience, but I just find
things change so quickly nowSetting goals that are going to
last even a year.
People's goals get outdated inmonths because changes so rapid
Are you seeing that as well?
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Absolutely, and they are actually delaying setting
goals because they're just notquite sure what's going to land.
So yes, so yeah, and that's agreat point.
As far as that touches on theadaptability right, that touches
on the leader being able to bethat nimble, that agile, that
adaptable.
(16:01):
What challenges do you see whenit comes to that?
Speaker 3 (16:04):
well, it's interesting because I see it as
a combination of structure andadaptability and leaders have to
have both.
So, for example, the structurepiece is putting that meeting in
your calendar.
At the beginning of the year,quarterly, I get together with
my team and we talk aboutstrategy.
(16:25):
So that's the structure part ofit.
Then the adaptability part ofit is now we need to look at our
goals and figure out are theystill relevant or do we need to
tweak and change them?
So it's kind of thatinteresting nuance between those
two and I find some leaders aresuper good at the structure
piece and others are super goodat the adaptability piece.
(16:45):
The challenge comes whenleaders have to merge the two.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
Right Sure, and that creates issues in itself.
You talk about five practicaltools that you use in your
business with leaders to helpthem take control of the need
for change of this new world ofwork.
Can you walk us through whatthose five tools are that they
(17:10):
should be using and consideringSure.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
So I'm going to start with what I think is the most
important one, which is coaching, and most leaders do not know
how to.
So they've been told I need tobe a coach, but they don't know
what it means.
They don't know, for example,that there is a difference
between formal and informalcoaching Right.
I talked already about thoseformal coaching meetings where
(17:34):
you have to specifically putthem in your calendar, have an
agenda, have them at a regulartime and then there's informal
coaching, which is day-to-dayright.
So that's the first.
The second is feedback, Againcritical for leadership.
A lot of leaders don't knowthat they need to give positive
feedback.
We talked about that a littlebit already.
(17:55):
They know they need to giveconstructive feedback, but they
don't know how to do it.
One of my clients this morningthat I was coaching said to me
Vanessa, how do I give feedbackto somebody who's not doing a
good job?
Right, Because it was quiteinteresting.
She said I know that I need, inthis new world of work, to be a
(18:16):
nice leader, but can I stillgive direct feedback?
So these are things thatleaders are worrying about.
They don't know how to givedirect feedback and still be
that new world of work leaderwhere you have compassion, Right
right, right Right, becausewe've all been there, we've all
been in their shoes and needthat feedback.
(18:40):
See, it's just for developingpeople, like it's not so scary.
So that leads me to the thirdone, which is developing people.
So you have to know how tocoach, you have to know how to
give feedback, you have to knowhow to develop with people.
That's your job as a leader.
You have to know how do I movepeople from developing to fully
developed.
And so the first thing I alwayssay to leaders is well, write
down and list all their tasks.
Do they know what you expectfrom them?
(19:02):
Do they know what their tasklist is?
Do you know what they should befocusing on?
Start there, like being really,really specific about what they
need to accomplish in theirrole, and then you can look at,
you know what are theirstrengths, what are their
weaknesses, what are their gaps,and so that's your job as a
leader.
You need to figure out do Ineed to give them a lot of
(19:23):
direction?
Do I need to give them a lot ofsupport based on some of their
gaps?
So that would be the next area.
Okay, so we've got coaching,feedback, developing Delegation
is the other one.
Delegation is so critical forbusiness.
When I talk about leaders, wetalk about the fact that there
(19:43):
are huge benefits for you, forthem and for the organization.
When you develop, when youdelegate For you, it's getting
stuff off your plate.
It's allowing you to be morestrategic For them, they can
learn and grow.
They can't learn and grow ifyou don't delegate.
And you want people to learnand grow.
So everybody needs to befocused on letting stuff go and
(20:08):
taking on new tasks to grow anddevelop.
For the organization, it's hugein terms of succession planning
.
It's huge in terms ofsuccession planning.
It's huge in terms ofmaintaining knowledge.
If somebody leaves theorganization, you know and you
don't delegate, you can'tdevelop your people, you won't
be able to maintain thatorganizational knowledge.
And then we have changemanagement.
So again, you know it's soimportant to understand the
(20:33):
barriers to change, why peopleresist change, how to overcome
resistance to change, how tocommunicate change.
That's your job as a leadertoday.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
With so much change, you have to know how to
communicate it and how to movepeople through some of those
barriers to change things thatyou touched on, such as, like
prioritization, leading thebusiness, managing the team all
could fit into one of those fivethings, Because the first thing
that jumped out of me when youwere talking about delegation is
(21:04):
whether or not the individualknows the difference between
dumping and delegating.
And, based on, like even whatyou said about the listing of
skills you know of each of theirpeople so they know that they
could be delegating things thatmaybe fall outside their job
description, but they're good atit.
Would that?
Would that be a strategy thatyou would use?
Speaker 3 (21:35):
When you delegate, think of who you're delegating
to, why you're delegating tothem, what you're delegating to
them and how you're delegatingto them right.
So the who is if I have alarger team, some people just
have one direct report, so theyknow who, but some people have
three, four, five, six directreports.
Think about who.
What are their strengths?
Who needs to develop in thisarea?
Who fills my gaps?
Leaders have gaps.
It's impossible for leaders tobe good at everything.
(21:57):
So think about the who.
Who is that person on my teamthat can do it better than me?
Right, and hire people likethat too, right?
Hire people who can close yourgaps, too right.
The how is how much directionand support do I need to give
them?
If they've been doing this taskquite a lot already, I don't
need to give them a lot ofdirection.
(22:17):
I could just give them somecoaching and some support.
But if they're brand new to thetask got to be super directive,
lay it out.
Here's how you do it.
Give them a little piece of it.
And a lot of leaders hold backalso because hold back on
delegating, because it's such abig task that it's overwhelming
and it's able to break down thetask.
Break it down and just smaller.
(22:39):
Just delegate the first piece,delegate the second right.
That's part of the how ofdelegation, so delegation itself
is an art.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Yes, yes, and would you also say that, based on what
you just explained in regardsto that project that might be
really big?
Is there a trust issue thatthey also have with their people
that you find to be why theyresist to delegate as much, as
they just haven't taken the timeto do it?
Speaker 3 (23:08):
Oh, of course, of course, and I think often
leaders don't have thatlearner's mindset right, so they
forget what was it like tolearn to do this, because you
know, at one point they were newto this task as well, and so
they.
I would say honestly, ninetimes out of 10 leaders don't
(23:28):
trust their teams to delegatebecause the leaders are
delegating incorrectly.
They're throwing stuff atpeople and saying just go do
this, just go do thispresentation for the executive
team and bring it back to me.
And they bring back thepresentation.
That's happened to a client ofmine recently and it's terrible.
Well, why They've never done itbefore.
So what do you say?
What do you say?
Right, they can't read yourmind.
(23:50):
No one wants so, right, theycan't read your mind.
So that's knowing thedifference between when to be
directive and when to besupportive.
If someone's doing apresentation for the executive
the first time, I would be superdirective.
I'd be like, okay, use thisfont.
Here's a presentation I did lastyear.
It's got the appendix writtenand the table of contents is
there for you.
You can see how I structured it.
Go to the first two slides.
(24:11):
Let's do our understanding ofyour needs and updated
performance results.
Let's just do those two slides.
Come back Let me review it.
Oh, you're missing data.
I promise you the CFO is goingto want the data, so make you
can hold back a little bit.
(24:31):
Hold back, I'm just moresupportive.
And then say you know, maybethey, maybe they're on their
third year now of doing thispresentation.
The executive team say we'vedone this already twice.
What do you think is the rightapproach?
What information do you thinkyou need to get from the finance
team this year and give them alot more freedom and collaborate
a lot more?
Speaker 1 (24:51):
Love it, love it, and you touched on, at the very
beginning, data, and you justmentioned data and how analytics
and data you know is soprevalent in every leader
toolkit and or just expectation,day in, day out, not only of
their people but of themselves,from their bosses.
What skills must leaders havetoday to become data-driven
(25:20):
leaders or analytical leaders toreally ensure that they are
optimizing the data and the tonsof data that they're getting?
Speaker 3 (25:30):
Well, it's a huge change management initiative in
any organization when they bringin a focus on data.
So one of my clients, forexample, is a pharmaceutical
firm and for the sales team thesales team used to be
relationship driven, so that wasthe focus of their development
was all about how are youbuilding relationships and how
are you following through andhow are you nurturing those
(25:51):
relationships?
Now it's on data.
It's are you meeting yourtargets?
Are you meeting the numbers?
Are you putting your numbersinto the system?
How quickly are you puttingyour numbers into the system?
It's a completely differentskill set.
So this is a huge changemanagement initiative and
anytime organizations change,they think just onboarding a new
system like that that's easyfor people to adopt to no, no,
(26:13):
no, no, no.
Right, we are creatures ofhabit and we are programmed not
to change, so that's a changemanagement initiative.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
And would you say that?
Not only internally are theybeing forced to change into that
analytical mindset, but thecustomer is also very
data-driven and they're takingthe whole relationship.
How well do I like, know, trustand want to do with you, to be
(26:41):
more like okay, show me thebottom line of how you can help
me.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
I think it's a combination of both.
I still do think relationshipis king.
It's so important.
It's not a one or the other tome.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
What does the modern leader need?
If you were to give us like oneor two things that if they were
to leave this conversation withus right now, they should focus
on what?
Speaker 3 (27:09):
So I'm going to give you a continuum, and the
continuum is going to be task onone side and relationship on
the other.
And I'm going to say the modernleader needs to be in the
middle.
They need to have a balancebetween task and relationship.
So task is getting results,getting the job done.
It can be also how youimplement the task, like doing
(27:30):
it in a very growth mindset way.
The relationship is that piecearound building high trust, team
developing those strongrelationships, coaching your
people, giving them feedback.
So in my mind, it's not okay tohave either or you have to have
both.
And for leaders to think aboutthat continuum, sometimes you
(27:51):
need to be more on the task side, Sometimes you need to be on
the relationship side, butoverall in your leadership
practice you have to have abalance of both Right.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
And for them to find that, if they are lacking it,
what really should be theirfocus.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
It depends which way you're lacking.
So you have to think about andthat's a great question, because
I find leaders tend to be onone end of the continuum or the
other.
Some naturally go to the taskside and some naturally go on
the relationship side, and sothe first thing I would say to
you is what's your naturaltendency?
If your tendency is to focus ontasks, I'm going to say what is
(28:29):
one thing that you can do todial up your focus on
relationship, and that's goingto be your development plan for
2025.
If you're on the other side andyou really drive relationship
practice through relationship,I'm going to say to you the
opposite what is one thing thatyou can do to dial up your focus
on task, and that's going to beyour development plan for 2025.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
Awesome, that's fabulous.
I love it, love it, love it.
Vanessa, this has been fabulous.
So many tips and greatpractical strategies.
I so appreciate youcontributing to our growth and
our ability to be better leadersin today's new world of work.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
Thank you for some great questions and really
engaging conversation today.
You're so welcome.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
What a powerhouse conversation with Vanessa
Huleman of Mosaic PeopleDevelopment.
It was filled, packed with justpractical tips and strategies
and advice for you to reallylevel up your skill and
capability as a leader, toreally become a powerhouse
leader.
She talked about five toolsthat she educates her clients on
(29:44):
that they need to possess inorder to really be the impactful
individual that they want to bein the workplace, and that was
coaching, feedback, development,delegation and change
management, and she broke themall down so you can really kind
of see discreetly, what it willtake for you to really up-level
(30:06):
your game.
And then she talked about thethree pillars that, if you were
to focus on anything, thesethree pillars are the foundation
of leadership, and that was toknow yourself, manage your team
and lead your business, andagain broke those down to really
help you understand whatexactly that means.
(30:26):
You can literally replay thisepisode time and time again,
share it with your team members,make it as a lunch and learn
where you all come together andeven listen to it and really
come up with a plan for yourselfand each other as far as what
you want to do to really becomethat powerhouse manager, leader,
(30:48):
contributor, team member,employee for your business.
It was a fabulous conversation.
I thoroughly enjoyed hersharing all of it with all of
you.
And to go even deeper, withVanessa, you can pick up her
book Mastering Leadership.
You can go to mosaicpdcom andcheck that out, in Kindle form
(31:08):
or in paperback.
And check that out in Kindleform or in paperback and it's a
practical, almost like workbookthat will share stories and
examples and illustrations ofall the talking points that we
talked about today and so muchmore, and then allow you to
actually engage with the book inorder for you then to adapt it
(31:32):
into your own leadership style.
So, again, go to mosaicpdcomand look for her book Mastering
Leadership.
It was a fabulous conversation.
I was so honored to have her toshare all of that with all of
you.
Now, if you should, beyond theconversation that we have today,
still struggle to reallyunderstand who you are as a
(31:55):
leader and what it's going totake for you to be that
powerhouse, then don't hesitateto reach out to me at
coachmebernadettecom.
Forward slash discovery calland let's have a conversation.
I am so happy that you are herewith us this week and I'll look
forward to having you rightback here for another episode of
Shedding the Corporate Bitch.
Bye.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
Thank you for tuning into today's episode of Shedding
the Corporate Bitch.
Bye.
Thank you for tuning intotoday's episode of Shedding the
Corporate Bitch.
Every journey taken together isanother step towards unleashing
the powerhouse leader withinyou.
Don't miss any of our weeklyepisodes.
Subscribe to our podcast onApple Podcasts, spotify or
wherever you love to listen.
And, for those who thrive onvisual content, catch us on our
Shedding the Bitch YouTubechannel.
Want to dive deeper withBernadette on becoming a
(32:36):
powerhouse leader?
Visit balloffirecoachingcom tolearn more about how she helps
professionals, hr executives andteam leaders elevate overall
team performance.
You've been listening toShedding the Corporate Bitch
with Bernadette Boas.
Until next time, keep shedding,keep growing and keep leading.
How prepared are you to lead in a workplace that's
changing faster than ever before?
As corporate executives, you'refacing unprecedented challenges
shifting workforce dynamics,evolving employee expectations
and relentless demands foradaptability.
Is your leadership evolving tomeet these demands, or are you
stuck in outdated methods thatno longer work?
(00:24):
In today's episode, we tacklethe pressing realities of this
new world of work, how it'sredefining leadership
responsibilities, disruptingtraditional approaches and
pushing leaders to rethink theirstrategies.
We'll explore five powerfultools that will help you lead
with confidence and agilityamidst this rapid transformation
(00:46):
.
Joining us is Vanessa Huldeman,president of Mosaic People
Development.
Joining us is Vanessa Huldeman,president of Mosaic People
Development, a leadershipauthority with over 20 years of
experience working with toporganizations like Campbell Soup
and the UN.
Get ready to change yourperspective and level up your
(01:07):
leadership game.
So let's dive in.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Welcome to Shedding the Corporate Bitch, the podcast
that transforms today'smanagers into tomorrow's
powerhouse leaders.
Your host, bernadette Boas,executive coach and author,
brings you into a world wherethe corporate grind meets
personal growth and success ineach and every episode.
With more than 25 years incorporate trenches, bernadette's
own journey from beingdismissed as a tyrant boss to
(01:31):
becoming a sought-afterleadership coach and speaker
illustrates the very essence oftransformation that she now
inspires in others with her tips, strategies and stories.
So if you're ready to shed thebitches of fear and insecurity,
ditch the imposter syndrome andstep into the role of the
powerhouse leader you were bornto be, this podcast is for you.
Let's do this.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Vanessa, how are you?
Welcome, welcome, welcome.
Thank you, great to be here.
It is fabulous to have you herebecause I find this subject
matter critical and veryexciting when it comes to what
leaders need to do today in theever-changing world and in this
new world that we're living in.
(02:14):
So we'll get into even what isthat new world, and a lot more
than that.
But before we do, I like to getour listeners and viewers
connected and relating to ourguests, so could you share with
us a little bit about Vanessa?
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Of course.
So let's go back to birth.
I was born in an interestingplace.
I was born in Johannesburg,south Africa, and my family
immigrated to Toronto where Ilive now when I was seven years
old and for many years myparents missed their family back
in South Africa, so we used totravel back and forth a lot.
(02:51):
So I know South Africa verywell.
It's my roots, in fact.
I saw the Lion King thisweekend on Broadway in Toronto
and the music and the costumesare from South Africa, inspired
by South Africa.
So, it was just so heartwarming.
I have two children.
My older son just starteduniversity.
(03:11):
He just started college, sohe's 18.
My younger son is a Division Ibasketball player, so we spend a
lot of time watching basketballand my favorite food is sushi.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Again, I love this subject and you are the perfect
individual based on yourbackground, which you can always
share with us as we go todiscuss this.
But the first thing I want tounderstand is how do you define
and envision the new world andthe new leader that needs to
(03:44):
take the reins of that new world?
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Absolutely.
So I define it sort of on amacro level and a micro level.
So the macro level is reallyaround what's going on in our
environment Dramaticenvironmental changes, virtual
first workplaces, massive amountof rapid change.
Organizations are getting a lotmore focused on bottom line, I
(04:12):
find, and on data, data analysis, so that's a huge change.
Just the way people are workinghas changed so much.
So that's the macro.
The micro level are individualleaders.
How is all this changeimpacting them?
And I see, in this new world ofwork, leaders lack oh, I'm
going to say three things.
Number one, they lackself-awareness.
(04:32):
Number two, they lack strategicinsight.
So a lot of leaders are toldthey need to be strategic, but
they don't know what it means.
The third thing, on more ofthat micro level that I'm seeing
, is promotion without education.
So, because organizations aremoving so quickly, this new
(04:55):
world of work, leader islaunched into a new role without
a lot of education.
And as we know, you know,there's different levels of
leadership and every level ofleadership requires leaders to
learn new skills and behaviors.
Even moving from an individualcontributor to a leader for the
first time requires new skillsand behaviors.
So those are some of the trendsthat I'm seeing right now.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Well, let's break them down, All right.
So you got into the educationpiece.
So when you say education,you're not talking about that.
They should come in with adegree or you know.
But it's more relevant thatthey get the on-hand training,
development, coaching, mentoringthat they need to up-level
(05:39):
their skills or gain new skills.
Is that where you are?
Speaker 3 (05:41):
going with that.
That's exactly it.
That's exactly it.
So once you enter the workforce, it requires you to have a
different skill set.
So when you're an individualcontributor, I mean you have to
be a team player.
You have to have expertise inyour specific area that you're
focusing on, whether it'sfinance or marketing or IT or
whatnot and then the minute youget promoted into a leadership
(06:03):
role, you have to learn newskills.
You have to learn how to coach,you have to learn how to get
results for other people, youhave to learn how to give
feedback, and a lot of leadersthat come to me for training or
coaching are feeling reallystressed or they lack a lot of
confidence, and so my goal as anexecutive coach, as someone who
does leadership training, is toto gain well, two things First
(06:26):
of all, increase theirconfidence level and increase
their toolkit, because it is adifferent job.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Absolutely, and there is the people element, beyond
the coaching and the developmentthat you mentioned.
But even what do you see fromkind of an empathy, emotional
intelligence, being able toactually inspire and motivate
their team members?
Speaker 3 (06:49):
It depends on the individual, but I am working
with a lot of leaders who lackempathy because they're driven
so hard and they need to be sofocused on the bottom line that
they forget that they need to beempathetic.
And so where that often forexample, where I see that, let
me think of an example I wastalking to a coaching client
recently and we were talkingabout feedback, positive
(07:12):
feedback.
So she says to me you know,vanessa, I'm kind of an
intrinsically motivated person,so I really I don't need
positive feedback.
And I said to her good for you.
And 75% of the population isdifferent than you.
So just because you don't needpositive feedback, it doesn't
mean that people on your teamdon't.
So let's talk about how to getpositive feedback, because it's
(07:36):
so critical for building apositive culture in your team.
And I actually stopped theconversation and I said to her
what do you think the benefitsof positive feedback are?
And she was flabbergasted.
She said I don't know.
I've never really thought aboutthat question.
So we had to unpack that firstand then I had to figure out how
(07:56):
to get positive feedback.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Well, doesn't that also highlight for you too, that
you know I'll use her just asbecause you brought her up, but
as the fact that they'rethinking internally, they're
thinking I don't need it.
They're not necessarilythinking like a servant leader
as far as I'm here to help mypeople.
So I'm going to naturally thinkabout what they need versus
(08:20):
what I need and recognize thatthose two things may not be the
same what they need versus whatI need and recognize that those
two things may not be the same.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
Oh, 110%.
And so I always tell leaderswhen you become a leader, you
have to learn how to change oradjust your style to meet the
needs of your team.
Right, so they go why?
I'm like well, because you're aleader, that's why.
Like why can't they like I'mthe boss?
Like, why can't they change?
Or does there still have to bemy needs?
I'm like no, that's old school,we don't work in the new world
(08:47):
of work.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Right.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Like not anymore.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
So that's education.
I'm very intrigued because Ihear it quite a bit myself is
what you said about that leadersneed to be strategic, and
they're not quite sure what thatmeans.
So what does it mean to you andwhat does it need to mean to
you?
Know, the managers out therewho want to be leaders but are
lacking that strategic viewpointso people don't realize there's
actually three parts ofstrategy.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
There's strategic thinking, strategic planning and
strategic implementation.
Strategic thinking, strategicplanning and strategic
implementation.
So the first thing I do when Iwork with leaders is break it
down.
So what is strategic thinking?
Thinking outside the box,challenging the status quo.
I always say to leaders, whenyou hire a new person within the
first week, so Friday at theend of the first week, ask them
(09:40):
what works around here, what doyou like about our culture?
What doesn't work?
What ideas do you have toovercome what's not working?
That's strategic thinking.
It's not only crafting myvision and creating a strategic
plan.
It's constantly thinking aboutwhat's working, what's not and
what we can do to overcomewhat's not working.
So that's strategic thinking.
Then there's strategic planning, which is sitting down with
(10:01):
your team, really getting clearon your expectations with them,
creating development plans,creating a delegation strategy
for yourself, thinking aboutyour job and what you're paid to
do versus your team's job andwhat they're paid to do.
And then strategicimplementation is getting the
job done and how are you doingthat strategically and what kind
(10:25):
of coaching meetings are youhaving to hold people
accountable?
So those are the three parts ofstrategy that I focus on.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
And do you find that many managers struggle there
because one they have verylittle white space?
On their calendars to kind ofsit back and work on those
things.
But what do you do to kind ofget them to shift from that
attitude?
And in some cases is it anexcuse that they're giving that
(10:54):
they're not doing.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
It could be.
It could be, and what I teachpeople is put structures in
place so you don't have to thinkabout it.
So a good example of that wouldbe set up formal coaching,
accountability coaching meetingsand make them really short.
So at the beginning of everyweek, let's say, make it a 20
minute meeting.
It could be with your team, itcould be, depending on how large
(11:18):
your team is.
It could be one on team, itcould be, depending on how large
your team is.
It could be one-on-ones withyour direct reports, and you
could, in your accountabilitymeeting you could talk about,
for example, your agenda'sreally tight and short.
What's on your plate for thisweek?
What are your goals for thisweek?
What are you doing to move yourgoals forward?
What help or support do youneed from me?
And maybe the fourth item couldbe something like feedback,
(11:41):
feedback from me, feedback forme to give you, for you to give
me, or maybe any kind ofinformation from the business
that I need to share with you,and that's it.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
All right, let's move on to self-awareness.
What is the challenge there formany of the leaders that you
see out there?
Speaker 3 (12:01):
I call it.
There's two things Eitheryou're an unconscious leader or
you're a conscious leader, andso unconscious leaders have
never developed themselvesbefore.
They have absolutely no ideahow their behavior is impacting
the people around them.
Conscious leaders and mostleaders have to learn to be
(12:22):
conscious leaders.
To have someone to tell them,you have to be a conscious
leader.
What does that mean?
Understand your strengths,understand your weaknesses,
understand that your behaviorimpacts some people around you
and that, as a leader, you haveto be very conscious of your
behavior.
And so, once you are, you canreally consciously create that
(12:43):
culture with your team that youaspire to.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Would you say that these are kind of the biggest
shifts that leaders need to makein order to really adapt and be
impactful leaders in this newworld of work?
Adapt and be impactful leadersin this new world of work,
Absolutely, Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
And it starts with I think about it in terms of three
pillars of leadership success,so you have to know yourself,
manage your team and lead yourbusiness.
So the know yourself is thatself-awareness piece, is that
conscious leadership.
The manager team is how tocoach, how to develop, how to
give feedback and then theleader business is managing
(13:23):
change.
It's that strategic, executingstrategically piece that we
talked about.
It's also prioritization.
I mean so many leaders, interms of time management, don't
know how to manage their time,don't know what their priorities
are.
So that actually part of thestrategy bucket, too, is being
super clear on your priorities.
And when I work with a leaderand they don't know what their
(13:44):
priorities are, I say to themwell, go speak to the person you
report to and get thatclarified, because you can't
clarify your expectations withyour team until you know what's
expected from your leader.
Now, if it's a CEO, maybe theyneed clarity from the board.
For example, I have a CEO whohis organization he's been
running the organization forfive years there's no strategic
(14:05):
plan.
So I said to him what's thereason you don't have a
strategic plan?
He's like the board hasn'tdeveloped it.
So then I said well, what's thereason you haven't talked to
the board about developing itRight?
He said I never thought of it.
That's executing strategically.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Would you say?
Would that be considered one ofthe biggest mistakes that
leaders make when it comes to,you know, addressing change and
adapting to, you know, the newmode of work is one of those,
being that they don't have astrategic plan or don't know
what's really important.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
Oh, 100%.
And especially becauseorganizations are changing so
quickly.
So you know, we used to be,we'd have a five-year plan.
Well, you can't have afive-year plan anymore and you
can have a five-year plan, butthere's I mean, month to month,
my clients are changing theirplans.
It depends on the economy, itdepends on sometimes there's
governance issues that come upat the last minute, so it really
(15:02):
depends on what's happening intheir external environment.
And so I really ask my clientsto sit down orderly, look at the
strategic plan, if they haveone, and think about okay, what
am I doing to align myself withthe strategic plan and what am I
doing to align my team withthis strategic plan?
And do our goals need to changefrom last quarter?
(15:26):
Because I don't know about yourexperience, but I just find
things change so quickly nowSetting goals that are going to
last even a year.
People's goals get outdated inmonths because changes so rapid
Are you seeing that as well?
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Absolutely, and they are actually delaying setting
goals because they're just notquite sure what's going to land.
So yes, so yeah, and that's agreat point.
As far as that touches on theadaptability right, that touches
on the leader being able to bethat nimble, that agile, that
adaptable.
(16:01):
What challenges do you see whenit comes to that?
Speaker 3 (16:04):
well, it's interesting because I see it as
a combination of structure andadaptability and leaders have to
have both.
So, for example, the structurepiece is putting that meeting in
your calendar.
At the beginning of the year,quarterly, I get together with
my team and we talk aboutstrategy.
(16:25):
So that's the structure part ofit.
Then the adaptability part ofit is now we need to look at our
goals and figure out are theystill relevant or do we need to
tweak and change them?
So it's kind of thatinteresting nuance between those
two and I find some leaders aresuper good at the structure
piece and others are super goodat the adaptability piece.
(16:45):
The challenge comes whenleaders have to merge the two.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
Right Sure, and that creates issues in itself.
You talk about five practicaltools that you use in your
business with leaders to helpthem take control of the need
for change of this new world ofwork.
Can you walk us through whatthose five tools are that they
(17:10):
should be using and consideringSure.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
So I'm going to start with what I think is the most
important one, which is coaching, and most leaders do not know
how to.
So they've been told I need tobe a coach, but they don't know
what it means.
They don't know, for example,that there is a difference
between formal and informalcoaching Right.
I talked already about thoseformal coaching meetings where
(17:34):
you have to specifically putthem in your calendar, have an
agenda, have them at a regulartime and then there's informal
coaching, which is day-to-dayright.
So that's the first.
The second is feedback, Againcritical for leadership.
A lot of leaders don't knowthat they need to give positive
feedback.
We talked about that a littlebit already.
(17:55):
They know they need to giveconstructive feedback, but they
don't know how to do it.
One of my clients this morningthat I was coaching said to me
Vanessa, how do I give feedbackto somebody who's not doing a
good job?
Right, Because it was quiteinteresting.
She said I know that I need, inthis new world of work, to be a
(18:16):
nice leader, but can I stillgive direct feedback?
So these are things thatleaders are worrying about.
They don't know how to givedirect feedback and still be
that new world of work leaderwhere you have compassion, Right
right, right Right, becausewe've all been there, we've all
been in their shoes and needthat feedback.
(18:40):
See, it's just for developingpeople, like it's not so scary.
So that leads me to the thirdone, which is developing people.
So you have to know how tocoach, you have to know how to
give feedback, you have to knowhow to develop with people.
That's your job as a leader.
You have to know how do I movepeople from developing to fully
developed.
And so the first thing I alwayssay to leaders is well, write
down and list all their tasks.
Do they know what you expectfrom them?
(19:02):
Do they know what their tasklist is?
Do you know what they should befocusing on?
Start there, like being really,really specific about what they
need to accomplish in theirrole, and then you can look at,
you know what are theirstrengths, what are their
weaknesses, what are their gaps,and so that's your job as a
leader.
You need to figure out do Ineed to give them a lot of
(19:23):
direction?
Do I need to give them a lot ofsupport based on some of their
gaps?
So that would be the next area.
Okay, so we've got coaching,feedback, developing Delegation
is the other one.
Delegation is so critical forbusiness.
When I talk about leaders, wetalk about the fact that there
(19:43):
are huge benefits for you, forthem and for the organization.
When you develop, when youdelegate For you, it's getting
stuff off your plate.
It's allowing you to be morestrategic For them, they can
learn and grow.
They can't learn and grow ifyou don't delegate.
And you want people to learnand grow.
So everybody needs to befocused on letting stuff go and
(20:08):
taking on new tasks to grow anddevelop.
For the organization, it's hugein terms of succession planning
.
It's huge in terms ofsuccession planning.
It's huge in terms ofmaintaining knowledge.
If somebody leaves theorganization, you know and you
don't delegate, you can'tdevelop your people, you won't
be able to maintain thatorganizational knowledge.
And then we have changemanagement.
So again, you know it's soimportant to understand the
(20:33):
barriers to change, why peopleresist change, how to overcome
resistance to change, how tocommunicate change.
That's your job as a leadertoday.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
With so much change, you have to know how to
communicate it and how to movepeople through some of those
barriers to change things thatyou touched on, such as, like
prioritization, leading thebusiness, managing the team all
could fit into one of those fivethings, Because the first thing
that jumped out of me when youwere talking about delegation is
(21:04):
whether or not the individualknows the difference between
dumping and delegating.
And, based on, like even whatyou said about the listing of
skills you know of each of theirpeople so they know that they
could be delegating things thatmaybe fall outside their job
description, but they're good atit.
Would that?
Would that be a strategy thatyou would use?
Speaker 3 (21:35):
When you delegate, think of who you're delegating
to, why you're delegating tothem, what you're delegating to
them and how you're delegatingto them right.
So the who is if I have alarger team, some people just
have one direct report, so theyknow who, but some people have
three, four, five, six directreports.
Think about who.
What are their strengths?
Who needs to develop in thisarea?
Who fills my gaps?
Leaders have gaps.
It's impossible for leaders tobe good at everything.
(21:57):
So think about the who.
Who is that person on my teamthat can do it better than me?
Right, and hire people likethat too, right?
Hire people who can close yourgaps, too right.
The how is how much directionand support do I need to give
them?
If they've been doing this taskquite a lot already, I don't
need to give them a lot ofdirection.
(22:17):
I could just give them somecoaching and some support.
But if they're brand new to thetask got to be super directive,
lay it out.
Here's how you do it.
Give them a little piece of it.
And a lot of leaders hold backalso because hold back on
delegating, because it's such abig task that it's overwhelming
and it's able to break down thetask.
Break it down and just smaller.
(22:39):
Just delegate the first piece,delegate the second right.
That's part of the how ofdelegation, so delegation itself
is an art.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Yes, yes, and would you also say that, based on what
you just explained in regardsto that project that might be
really big?
Is there a trust issue thatthey also have with their people
that you find to be why theyresist to delegate as much, as
they just haven't taken the timeto do it?
Speaker 3 (23:08):
Oh, of course, of course, and I think often
leaders don't have thatlearner's mindset right, so they
forget what was it like tolearn to do this, because you
know, at one point they were newto this task as well, and so
they.
I would say honestly, ninetimes out of 10 leaders don't
(23:28):
trust their teams to delegatebecause the leaders are
delegating incorrectly.
They're throwing stuff atpeople and saying just go do
this, just go do thispresentation for the executive
team and bring it back to me.
And they bring back thepresentation.
That's happened to a client ofmine recently and it's terrible.
Well, why They've never done itbefore.
So what do you say?
What do you say?
Right, they can't read yourmind.
(23:50):
No one wants so, right, theycan't read your mind.
So that's knowing thedifference between when to be
directive and when to besupportive.
If someone's doing apresentation for the executive
the first time, I would be superdirective.
I'd be like, okay, use thisfont.
Here's a presentation I did lastyear.
It's got the appendix writtenand the table of contents is
there for you.
You can see how I structured it.
Go to the first two slides.
(24:11):
Let's do our understanding ofyour needs and updated
performance results.
Let's just do those two slides.
Come back Let me review it.
Oh, you're missing data.
I promise you the CFO is goingto want the data, so make you
can hold back a little bit.
(24:31):
Hold back, I'm just moresupportive.
And then say you know, maybethey, maybe they're on their
third year now of doing thispresentation.
The executive team say we'vedone this already twice.
What do you think is the rightapproach?
What information do you thinkyou need to get from the finance
team this year and give them alot more freedom and collaborate
a lot more?
Speaker 1 (24:51):
Love it, love it, and you touched on, at the very
beginning, data, and you justmentioned data and how analytics
and data you know is soprevalent in every leader
toolkit and or just expectation,day in, day out, not only of
their people but of themselves,from their bosses.
What skills must leaders havetoday to become data-driven
(25:20):
leaders or analytical leaders toreally ensure that they are
optimizing the data and the tonsof data that they're getting?
Speaker 3 (25:30):
Well, it's a huge change management initiative in
any organization when they bringin a focus on data.
So one of my clients, forexample, is a pharmaceutical
firm and for the sales team thesales team used to be
relationship driven, so that wasthe focus of their development
was all about how are youbuilding relationships and how
are you following through andhow are you nurturing those
(25:51):
relationships?
Now it's on data.
It's are you meeting yourtargets?
Are you meeting the numbers?
Are you putting your numbersinto the system?
How quickly are you puttingyour numbers into the system?
It's a completely differentskill set.
So this is a huge changemanagement initiative and
anytime organizations change,they think just onboarding a new
system like that that's easyfor people to adopt to no, no,
(26:13):
no, no, no.
Right, we are creatures ofhabit and we are programmed not
to change, so that's a changemanagement initiative.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
And would you say that?
Not only internally are theybeing forced to change into that
analytical mindset, but thecustomer is also very
data-driven and they're takingthe whole relationship.
How well do I like, know, trustand want to do with you, to be
(26:41):
more like okay, show me thebottom line of how you can help
me.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
I think it's a combination of both.
I still do think relationshipis king.
It's so important.
It's not a one or the other tome.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
What does the modern leader need?
If you were to give us like oneor two things that if they were
to leave this conversation withus right now, they should focus
on what?
Speaker 3 (27:09):
So I'm going to give you a continuum, and the
continuum is going to be task onone side and relationship on
the other.
And I'm going to say the modernleader needs to be in the
middle.
They need to have a balancebetween task and relationship.
So task is getting results,getting the job done.
It can be also how youimplement the task, like doing
(27:30):
it in a very growth mindset way.
The relationship is that piecearound building high trust, team
developing those strongrelationships, coaching your
people, giving them feedback.
So in my mind, it's not okay tohave either or you have to have
both.
And for leaders to think aboutthat continuum, sometimes you
(27:51):
need to be more on the task side, Sometimes you need to be on
the relationship side, butoverall in your leadership
practice you have to have abalance of both Right.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
And for them to find that, if they are lacking it,
what really should be theirfocus.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
It depends which way you're lacking.
So you have to think about andthat's a great question, because
I find leaders tend to be onone end of the continuum or the
other.
Some naturally go to the taskside and some naturally go on
the relationship side, and sothe first thing I would say to
you is what's your naturaltendency?
If your tendency is to focus ontasks, I'm going to say what is
(28:29):
one thing that you can do todial up your focus on
relationship, and that's goingto be your development plan for
2025.
If you're on the other side andyou really drive relationship
practice through relationship,I'm going to say to you the
opposite what is one thing thatyou can do to dial up your focus
on task, and that's going to beyour development plan for 2025.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
Awesome, that's fabulous.
I love it, love it, love it.
Vanessa, this has been fabulous.
So many tips and greatpractical strategies.
I so appreciate youcontributing to our growth and
our ability to be better leadersin today's new world of work.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
Thank you for some great questions and really
engaging conversation today.
You're so welcome.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
What a powerhouse conversation with Vanessa
Huleman of Mosaic PeopleDevelopment.
It was filled, packed with justpractical tips and strategies
and advice for you to reallylevel up your skill and
capability as a leader, toreally become a powerhouse
leader.
She talked about five toolsthat she educates her clients on
(29:44):
that they need to possess inorder to really be the impactful
individual that they want to bein the workplace, and that was
coaching, feedback, development,delegation and change
management, and she broke themall down so you can really kind
of see discreetly, what it willtake for you to really up-level
(30:06):
your game.
And then she talked about thethree pillars that, if you were
to focus on anything, thesethree pillars are the foundation
of leadership, and that was toknow yourself, manage your team
and lead your business, andagain broke those down to really
help you understand whatexactly that means.
(30:26):
You can literally replay thisepisode time and time again,
share it with your team members,make it as a lunch and learn
where you all come together andeven listen to it and really
come up with a plan for yourselfand each other as far as what
you want to do to really becomethat powerhouse manager, leader,
(30:48):
contributor, team member,employee for your business.
It was a fabulous conversation.
I thoroughly enjoyed hersharing all of it with all of
you.
And to go even deeper, withVanessa, you can pick up her
book Mastering Leadership.
You can go to mosaicpdcom andcheck that out, in Kindle form
(31:08):
or in paperback.
And check that out in Kindleform or in paperback and it's a
practical, almost like workbookthat will share stories and
examples and illustrations ofall the talking points that we
talked about today and so muchmore, and then allow you to
actually engage with the book inorder for you then to adapt it
(31:32):
into your own leadership style.
So, again, go to mosaicpdcomand look for her book Mastering
Leadership.
It was a fabulous conversation.
I was so honored to have her toshare all of that with all of
you.
Now, if you should, beyond theconversation that we have today,
still struggle to reallyunderstand who you are as a
(31:55):
leader and what it's going totake for you to be that
powerhouse, then don't hesitateto reach out to me at
coachmebernadettecom.
Forward slash discovery calland let's have a conversation.
I am so happy that you are herewith us this week and I'll look
forward to having you rightback here for another episode of
Shedding the Corporate Bitch.
Bye.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
Thank you for tuning into today's episode of Shedding
the Corporate Bitch.
Bye.
Thank you for tuning intotoday's episode of Shedding the
Corporate Bitch.
Every journey taken together isanother step towards unleashing
the powerhouse leader withinyou.
Don't miss any of our weeklyepisodes.
Subscribe to our podcast onApple Podcasts, spotify or
wherever you love to listen.
And, for those who thrive onvisual content, catch us on our
Shedding the Bitch YouTubechannel.
Want to dive deeper withBernadette on becoming a
(32:36):
powerhouse leader?
Visit balloffirecoachingcom tolearn more about how she helps
professionals, hr executives andteam leaders elevate overall
team performance.
You've been listening toShedding the Corporate Bitch
with Bernadette Boas.
Until next time, keep shedding,keep growing and keep leading.
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