March 10, 2025 • 43 mins
In this episode of The Leadership Vision Podcast, we sit down with Stephanie Chung, an executive leader in the aviation industry, speaker, and author of Ally Leadership: How to Lead People Who Are Not Like You.
In Part 1 of this conversation, we explore:
- Stephanie’s early years as a military brat and how constant change shaped her adaptability and leadership.
- Her journey breaking barriers in aviation and the power of mentorship in opening doors.
- The influence of military culture on leadership, accountability, and team success.
- Overcoming challenges like breast cancer and how it reshaped her purpose as a leader.
Takeaways for Leaders:
- How has your background influenced your leadership approach?
- Who in your organization needs an opportunity to grow?
- How can you foster a culture of shared accountability on your team?
This is an inspiring conversation about resilience, leadership, and the impact of embracing new opportunities. Stay tuned for Part 2, where we explore Stephanie’s book and dig into what it truly means to lead diverse teams with action and intention.
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Read the full blog post here!
CONTACT US
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The Leadership Vision Podcast is a weekly show sharing our expertise in discovering, practicing, and implementing a Strengths-based approach to people, teams, and culture. Contact us to talk to us about helping your team understand the power of Strengths.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Because of my upbringing, you know, on the
military side and of course, mycareer choice being aviation and
then specifically privateaviation, it gave me a lot of
material to have to understandhow to work with people who were
not like me.
So where I would say that Ihave grown and developed to
maybe become my own type ofleader is to realize that in the
(00:22):
military it's do as I saythat's not necessarily effective
outside of the military right.
And so as a leader, I'm not aperson of do as I say, I'm more
of a person of like.
Well, let's figure out here'swhat needs to get done Now, how
we do it.
That's up for interpretation.
Let's have that discussion andreally making sure that the team
has a voice at the table,because at the end of the day,
(00:45):
they're the ones executing it.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
You are listening to the Leadership Vision Podcast,
our show helping you buildpositive team culture.
Our consulting firm has beendoing this work for the past 25
years so that leaders arementally engaged and emotionally
healthy.
To learn more about us, you canclick the link in the show
notes or visit us on the web atleadershipvisionconsultingcom.
Hello everyone, my name isNathan Freeberg and in today's
(01:09):
episode we chat with anincredible leader, speaker and
author, stephanie Chung.
Stephanie is a pioneeringexecutive in the aviation
industry, a leadership expertand a passionate advocate for
harnessing the power ofdiversity.
She's also the author of a newbook called Ally Leadership how
to Lead People who Are Not Likeyou.
(01:29):
This is a powerful guide forleaders navigating all kinds of
diverse and evolving workplacesthese days.
We had so much great stuff totalk about with Stephanie that
we're actually going to bebreaking this interview up into
two parts.
In part one here we dive intoStephanie's journey from growing
up as a military brat tobecoming a high-level executive
(01:50):
in private aviation and beyond.
We explore how her uniqueupbringing shaped her leadership
style, the power ofadaptability and the lessons
that she learned navigating anindustry where nobody really
looked like her.
Now, brian, linda and I, wealways start our interviews by
introducing ourselves to ourguests, but normally I just kind
(02:11):
of edit all of that stuff outbecause I don't know that our
listeners would enjoy that partof the conversation.
But for this one I left it inbecause it just felt important
to the topic at hand.
You know, since the topic isabout understanding and working
with those that are not like you, a big part of that is learning
about someone's background, soI left it in.
Now, as you listen to this, I'dlike you to consider just two
(02:35):
things in your own leadershipjourney.
Number one, how does yourbackground and life experience
shape the way that you leadtoday?
And number two, what strengthshave you developed from times of
transition or challenge thatyou can perhaps leverage in your
leadership?
Now, be sure to come back nextweek for part two of this
interview, where we shift gearsa little bit and explore the big
(02:57):
takeaways from Stephanie's bookAlly Leadership.
Now, some of those thingsinclude what it means to be an
ally in leadership,understanding and using
privilege for good, and whydiverse teams perform better.
And it's not the answer thatyou might think, but for now,
let's dive into Stephanie'sjourney and learn more about
this inspiring leader.
(03:18):
So I'm Nathan.
I've been with LeadershipVision since 2007, 2008.
And then, in 2013, my wife andI moved out here, portland,
oregon, with our thenseven-month-old son.
We now have four kiddos, agessix to almost 12.
And they are all home at themoment because Portland is
(03:39):
experiencing a rare winter stormand my background's in computer
science I've worked in highered for 12 years, dear God, and
really during COVID and becauseof all these kids that we keep
having, haven't been doing asmuch consulting, because the
podcast has kind of taken offand in the last little over a
(04:01):
year almost a year and a half westarted interviewing guests,
people like yourselves, authorsand leaders and speakers, and
it's just been so awesome tochat with people and see where
there's similarities anddifferences and you know what is
your view of leadership, how doyou deal with you know team
culture and all that stuff.
So, yeah, so I love doing thisand I get to work with these two
(04:21):
lovely people.
Brian, I've known, no, actuallyno, linda, I've known longer,
but I introduced the two of them.
So, brian, why?
Speaker 1 (04:28):
don't you introduce?
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Oh, that's awesome how long have you two been
married?
Forever 16 years.
16 years Feels like forever,right.
Speaker 4 (04:36):
How about 17 years?
Did you carry the one?
Speaker 3 (04:40):
I made the one.
Anyway, you go ahead.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
Stephanie, I'm Brian.
I was the founder of thecompany.
I never intended to be abusiness owner, but I founded
the company in the year 2000.
I had the good fortune to besomeone that was on the front
leading edge of when Gallupreleased the StrengthsFinder
tool.
So I had a grant at auniversity to do leadership
(05:04):
program that was promotingdistance education in 1998.
So there was a pioneering work.
Gallup heard that we had allthis money and that I needed a
psychometrics.
They called me and I said thatthe tool.
Because of my education.
I thought the tool soundedstupid.
I took the call because I thinkmy boss told me to and then
that entered into an eight yearpartnership.
(05:25):
So my job with with that workwas to help Gallup extend the
use of the Strengths Finder toolfrom coast to coast with the
age range of 18 to 34 year olds,cause we were trying to at the
university create a distanceeducation program that was not
all white males but includedwomen and people of different,
diverse backgrounds.
And you know that wasinteresting work.
(05:47):
But what happened was in doingthe work for the university I
was asked to come back and talkabout this whole idea of
positive psychology and a toolthat can help under something in
you.
And so that's when the companystarted.
So it was complete accident,but I really believe that you
know I'm doing the work that Ilove to do.
I'm'm fulfilling my purpose andthe significance for which I
believe I was created by helpingpeople understand who they are.
(06:11):
My education is in behavioralpsychology and my master's
degree is in clinical counseling.
The last 10 years I've workedon applied neuroscience.
I geek out on readingneuroscience textbooks and
applying that to the work thatwe do.
And so for me to be able to workwith an organization speaking
in front of an audience, or becoaching someone and watch them
(06:31):
light up as they begin toinvestigate and learn about
their inner landscape anddiscover potential they didn't
know that they had, and how toapply that in their life, in
their relationships, that justmakes my light go on even
brighter, and so I just love thework that we do and I guess
that's all I love it.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
That's good, okay, when Nathan sent the documents
and we're talking with you, thefirst thing I said, oh, she is a
player, so I loved readingabout you and so Nathan's like
we know all these things abouther.
I was like I think we knowinformation, but we're really.
I hope that you feel that wereally want to get to know you
and your story as well and weshare some commonalities.
(07:13):
So I joined Leadership Visionin 2008.
Nathan recruited me to come andwork, and so I, brad and I,
were working together.
Nathan recruited me to come andwork, and so I, brad and I,
were working together, and so Inever expected that I would
marry him so much as like dothis work together and now be
running the company.
So, but in 2000, end of 2010, Iwas diagnosed with breast
(07:38):
cancer.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Oh, we do have that in common, yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
So I so I get that, and Nathan was the person that
helped us turn our story into ablog and keep our fan club
apprised of what was happening,and definitely I needed the
support.
But I happen to be in adoctoral program studying how
teams and individuals navigatechange, as I am going through
(08:03):
the absolute physical change of2011.
And for me, I'd never expectedto be to study change and then
be the actual case study, casestudy.
So I was in my own case studyand I think there was something
where I emerged, maybe similarto you.
I emerged out of this breastcancer battle.
(08:25):
I was like I'm not going on theroad with Komen.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Yeah, but you know what?
Speaker 3 (08:28):
You know what?
I have an awakening, and I wantto extend the reach to people
to understand why they're hereon this earth and what they need
to do and be a part of, and so,anytime that we can highlight
the brilliance and beauty ofpeople, that's our, that's our
win, and not just for their sake, but for the sake of humanity,
(08:53):
that's right.
So, uh, brian and I do themajority of the consulting
together and we have we have abook coming out in June, so I
would also like to talk aboutlike oh my goodness, that's not
for the faint of heart, not forthe faint of heart, not for the
faint of heart.
So we want to learn learn fromyou in that.
But I just appreciate youtaking the time today to be with
(09:14):
us to share your story, toshare the things that you've
learned, as well as the thingsthat you've studied and then
shared with the world.
So what a powerful story.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
That's a really powerful story.
So how long have you been?
I'm assuming you're inremittance.
Okay, yes, cancer brain.
Speaker 4 (09:33):
Well, yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
So two years ago you'll like this, Stephanie.
My yearly checkup with myoncologist and at the end he's
like well, we're done.
I was like what?
I was like wait a second.
And I started bawling.
And he's like what is wrong?
And he said you didn't cry whenyou were going through
(09:53):
chemotherapy and radiation andall the reconstruction,
everything you didn't cry.
Then Like well, what am Isupposed to do?
And he started to cry and hesaid this is why I got into this
profession to help save peopleand I don't get to save
everybody, but I was able tohelp you.
And as he started to cry, I waslike well, what do I do now?
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Maybe I'm not seeing you every year.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
And freaking out every year like leading up to
that, and he said you live, yes.
That's powerful Right, and sothat was like shoulders back
here we go.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
That's right, that's right, exactly.
You got a new.
I love that, linda, so muchbecause I don't think that
people, unless you've gonethrough it, they don't
understand all the different.
You know, yeah, you're sofocused on just getting the
cancer out of your body andwhatnot, but there's so many
other pieces that you don't talkabout or think about until
you're with someone who.
(10:49):
I have a friend that recentlygot diagnosed and and, and you
know, going through the wholeprocess and I said the thing
that you have to at least for me, what I had to brace myself for
and I didn't nobody told meabout this is that when you, you
know luckily for me, thank God,we found mine really early but
you still have to go to thecancer center and do all the
stuff you got to do.
And so the one of the thingsthat probably hit me the most,
(11:15):
Linda, was going into the cancercenter.
You know, every week, every twoweeks however many times I had
to go and you're seeing otherpeople, usually older couples.
They'd been married for 50, 60years and then one week you go
there and they're not there orthe person that you saw wasn't
there, you know, and it's just.
And so you're trying to like,keep yourself focused on.
I'm going to beat this thing.
But every week you go there andyou're like where's John?
(11:37):
You know what I mean and so itjust all that that goes with it,
or I?
You know, I got to see and havea new appreciation.
My parents were married, youknow, forever, right and so.
But you get to see marriedcouples that have been.
They're just an older, cutercouple and you're like you've
been married 60 years you knowwhat I mean, or?
whatever, and it's just sopowerful and then, but you know,
(11:59):
like, you just kind of tell,like you know, so it's there's
little things that you gothrough that you never quite
prepare for, because you nobodytells you to prepare for that,
right?
So yeah, I love your story.
You and I are going to have ourseparate conversation.
Let's do a separate podcast onjust that Cause, susan G would
probably love to hear she.
She she's actually a friend of,not Susan G.
(12:20):
She's not a friend of mine.
The CEO of Susan G's not afriend of mine.
The CEO of Susan G Komen is afriend of mine and she's always
wanting me to get involved.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
And I'm like girl, I got a lot going on.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
But let's have a conversation, but let's have a
conversation, because I think itcould be really interesting a
different way to talk about it,right?
So anyway, yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
So funny.
When I was texting yesterday Iwas like Brian don't know if we,
we don't, we may not need to bea part of this conversation.
Let's just let.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
Yeah, I'm showing up and suddenly I will say and you
meant you'd mentioned yourhusband, but I will say that I I
couldn't have got through itwithout brian hundred percent I
mean he and we just got marrieda year and a half into our
marriage.
He is is flying me out toCalifornia for my doctoral
program.
I'm like we're not stoppingthis.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
You're going to get in that golf cart in the airport
and drag you to the gate.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
They gave you something to focus on, though.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
Oh yeah, that's right and that's what Nathan and
Brian both did is they gave me ato really grow through it, and
so I yeah the last 14 years ofof this journey.
I'm just really thankful forthem.
So you, you, you will meet inNathan and Brian men who
(13:35):
understand the power of thecollective, not just their,
their power, but acknowledgingand putting women in places of
power.
And influence.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
We love strong women.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
You do love strong women.
Strong women don't intimidateyou.
You don't need to suppress them.
That's awesome.
I know I like you two.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
So let's go, let's do this and Nathan's wife is a
power player as well.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
So yeah, and she works for.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
Nike, so thanks for representing.
Speaker 4 (14:11):
I know I was like we all have Nike representation.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
That's right.
Well, we got to love Nike.
I love the fact that Nike Ithink, well, I think it was Nike
that did the commercial, thefemale commercial for some
people.
Love that, love everythingabout it, and, yeah, it's, it's.
I love the companies that are,that you know, grinding in like
they're putting their calfmuscles in and they're not
cavemen, and so, uh, it's, it's,you know it's again their calf
(14:35):
muscles yeah digging in.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
Yeah, all right, let's hear let's hear about you,
let's, yeah, let's hear someabout you.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
You do nathan, do you have?
Speaker 2 (14:42):
nathan, do you have a question?
Do you have a question?
So there's a lot of stuff aboutyou that I've learned Air Force
brat.
I don't know if that'sappropriate for a military kid.
I'm wondering if you canintroduce yourself, but do it in
a way that leads up to why youdecided to write this book.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Okay, so one of the things that is probably one of
the things I'm most proud of andyet makes me very probably
unique in some instances, is thefact that I grew up a military
brat.
So my dad was a master sergeantin the US Air Force and really
what that meant for me is that Imoved every two years of my
life.
So I was that kid, so alwaysthe new kid, right, and I still
(15:25):
think of myself as aprofessional new kid because I
was always that kid that had to,you know, was new to the class,
new to the neighborhood.
I had to, you know, get to knoweverybody, so that is now my
superpower.
But when you're little, that's,you know, all the kids are
doing it on the military baseand so you don't know that
that's unique and different.
I'm so incredibly grateful thatthat was the lifestyle that I
(15:47):
was kind of birthed into, if youwill, because it has tremendous
benefit to me now as an adult.
But knowing all of that, youknow, one of the things that
kind of got me to the book, ifyou will, is one I was always
around people who weren't likeme, so that was the beginning of
the whole thing, and then I hadto learn how to acclimate right
.
I had to learn how to change mycommunication skills or observe
(16:10):
certain things, because if Iwanted to have any friends, then
I needed to adjust to everybodyin the situation at hand.
And that's one part of it.
The second part of it isgrowing up a military brat.
I knew early on that I wanted tobe in aviation, and so when I
was little though, you know,whenever I would see aviation
depicted in TV, film, magazines,anything like that I would say
(16:34):
if you were a man, you were apilot, and if you were a woman,
you were a flight attendant,right.
So, though I knew that I wantedto be in aviation because I
literally heard planes taken offand landing, my entire life I
grew up on Air Force bases.
And though I knew that I wantedto be in aviation because I
literally heard planes taken offand landing, my entire life I
grew up on Air Force bases, andso I knew I wanted to be in
aviation.
But the problem was that Ididn't know what I could do,
(16:54):
because whenever I would seeaviators depicted in movies, tv,
film, what have you?
They were always, of course,either man, pilot, woman, flight
attendant.
They were always, of course,either man pilot, woman, flight
attendant, but they also didn'tlook like me.
But I'd never seen a person ofcolor depicted as an aviator in
any of the top tier mediaoutlets, and so I didn't know
what was available to me.
(17:15):
So, that said, I started offparking planes loading luggage
at the Boston Logan Airport.
Start off at the very bottom.
I was always broke and neededovertime pay, so I would go work
upstairs at the ticket counterto check people in for their
flights.
And while I was up there, oneof the executives that worked
for the airline said to me.
He said you know, steph, everytime I come to this airport, I
(17:36):
see you.
I see you with the smile onyour face serving customers.
I think we have you in thewrong position.
I think you should be in sales,and I didn't know anything
about sales.
I'd never sold a thing, rightand so.
But I really I trusted him.
His name was Jim, and so thatthen took me a different route,
because up until that point Ithought I was going to be in
operations for the airlines.
(17:58):
I then moved into sales, gotsold for the airlines for many,
many years and then gotrecruited into private aviation.
And the reason why I bring thisup is because private aviation,
you know, is an aspirationalindustry, meaning people either
want to fly privately or atleast have enough money to be
able to fly privately if they sochose, and so it's a very
aspirational kind of industry.
(18:18):
But it's an industry that Ihave loved and it's loved me
back, but it's an industry thatI always say we suffer from PMS,
we are pale, male and stateOkay, and so therefore I grew up
in an industry where literallynobody looked like me for most
of my career within this space.
We're working really hard tochange that now and we've made
(18:40):
some great progress, but westill have a ways to go.
I say all that to say thatbecause of my upbringing, you
know, on the military side and,of course, my career choice
being aviation and thenspecifically private aviation,
it gave me a lot of material tohave to understand how to work
with people who were not like me, because in the private
(19:02):
aviation space, I would takeover teams that were primarily
white, male teams.
That was the complete oppositeof who I am, and yet I needed to
figure out how I was going tobe able to lead them and lead
them successfully, right,because we all had a job to do,
and so that's really a lot ofhow the book was birthed is by
(19:23):
my own life experience and thethings that I did right and the
things that maybe I didn't doright, and then, you know,
create this book that I feellike was inspired.
Really, you know, part of mypassion and my purpose to take
all of that information the good, the bad and the ugly and then
to use it so that it canhopefully help other leaders,
especially today's leaders asthey're coming up, to be able to
(19:44):
do it faster and better and toaccelerate their leadership
capabilities.
And so that's what the book isit's a tool to say, hey, here's
how I did it and hopes that itcan help you as well.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Yeah, I love reading all those personal stories in
there that you included, sothank you for that, thank you.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
I have a question about your upbringing, Stephanie
.
When you're on these bases,what was like the personality
type of a lot of the adults youwere hanging around with?
Speaker 1 (20:24):
really been instrumental for me in my life
is, you know, one could arguewe've got the best armed forces
right.
And so you grew up as a littlekid seeing excellence.
There's a couple things thatstood out to me.
I saw a cause and demand right,or cause and effect, I should
say and I saw excellence.
So meaning, you know you don'tsee sloppy soldiers.
You know their pants arecreased, their shoes are shine,
their hair is in place, they're,you know, built like Captain
America, right, which is whatyou see at some events.
(20:48):
And so that's where that's thestandard that you're paying
attention to and functioningwith.
The flip side is and a lot ofpeople may not know this unless
they've been on bases or been inthe military you also see cause
and effect.
So, as a military child, if Idid something stupid and got in
trouble on the base, let's sayas a teenager, I'm, you know,
speeding on the base.
If I get pulled over, it's myfather who has to be accountable
(21:13):
to the fact that I was speedingon base right Now, of course,
that's going to trickle down andeventually have to answer for
as well.
But you know you were verymindful that if you did
something it wasn't me gettingcalled into the commander's
office.
It was my father, and so that'swhat I mean by cause and effect
that you really were eachother's keeper, if you will.
(21:33):
So I saw that as a child, andhow that impacted me in the
workforce is, especially from aleadership perspective, is that
you know, whenever I take overespecially when I used to lead
sales teams whenever I wouldtake over a team, the very first
conversation I would have withthe team first conversation is
on this team.
You are your brother andsister's keeper.
(21:54):
That's how this team's going tofunction, and so we're going to
either all win together orwe're going to all lose together
.
It's our choice, and why thatwas important is because when
you grow up as a military child,you see teamwork right,
everybody.
You know, when I, when I veryfirst my very first leadership
job, I remember calling myfather and I was really excited
(22:14):
about it, but I wanted to do agood job and I asked him.
I said, dad, you know I reallywant to do a really good job, as
you know, as a new leader, etcetera.
And what are some advice thatyou would give me?
And leader, et cetera, and whatare some advice that you would
give me.
And so my dad, as a mastersergeant in the air force, said
there's two things for you toalways remember always protect
your team and always knowthere's two sides of every story
(22:34):
and why that's important.
And I still lead to this day.
So anybody who's ever worked onmy team they know.
If you've got a problem withsomebody else, one of our
colleagues, do not go intoStephanie's office and talk
about it, right?
Because the first thing she'sgoing to ask you is why are you
talking to me about it, didn'tyou?
Did you go and talk to you,know, xyz?
And if the two of you can'tfigure it out, then the two of
you can come to my office andthe three of us can try to.
(22:56):
You know, sort it all out.
But you were never allowed tojust come to me, john, about
somebody else, right?
Because we're a team.
And that's the first thing.
Second thing is that that's thetwo sides of every story.
And then there's the protectingof the team.
You know the leader should beprotecting the team.
Sometimes the team's going todo something.
You know that was not maybe agood decision or what have you.
(23:19):
The worst thing you couldpossibly do as a leader is throw
that team under the bus right.
When it's good, you give thepraise.
When it's bad, you take thebullets right.
And so all of the way that Igrew up as a military child
really impacted how I be today,and quite frankly I think that's
.
My competitive advantage isbecause I can see things
(23:39):
differently, because I wasfortunate enough to grow up
around the best armed forces inthe world.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
Would you say you're like your father, or what ways
are you like your father?
And what ways are you your ownperson?
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Yeah, I would say I'm like my father in the sense of
my father was.
You know, we were talking, wewere joking about it earlier,
before we went live, being ableto dig in right, you know.
So my father, my father,trained me where you must
complete the mission, it doesn'tmatter what's going on, the job
has to be done right.
And so that I'm very much likemy father.
(24:15):
If you give me, here's the goal, here's what we're trying to
get accomplished, here's what weneed the team to do, whatever
it is, it actually doesn'tmatter what it is, it will get
done Right.
So I really credit my dad tothat.
Gosh, areas where I was adaddy's girl, so I was probably
more like my father than not,the areas that I've that I've
developed over time is, you know, the thing about the military
(24:37):
is they always say there's nobad soldier, right, if the
soldier doesn't do what theywere told to do, it's because
you didn't communicate it well,because they do what they're
told to do.
So where I would say that that Ihave grown and developed to
maybe become my own type ofleader is to realize that in the
military, it's it's it's do, asI say, kind of thing that's not
necessarily effective outsideof the military right, and so,
(24:59):
as a leader, I'm not a person ofdo as I say, I'm more of a
person of like well, let'sfigure out, here's what needs to
get done.
Now, how we do it, that's upfor interpretation.
Let's have that discussion andreally making sure that the team
has a voice at the table,because, at the end of the day,
they're the ones executing itRight.
And so I am.
I'm more of a leader like that,and that's a little bit
(25:21):
different than typically whattends to happen in the military.
Speaker 4 (25:30):
So, as you were coming up like you're in high
school college you're raised inthe environment that you're
explaining what were some of theshaping influences or
experiences that you had in that18 and 22 year old or 16 and 22
year old timeframe that youwere able to test out your
influence as a leader, like howyou could see yourself impacting
others?
Was there like a team or wasthere an experience or anything
(25:52):
that was doing that?
Speaker 1 (25:54):
Yeah, I'm trying to think.
I've had so many differentexperiences.
I'll tell you about anexperience that I had.
That was it was.
It was good, but not reallythat good Right.
Speaker 4 (26:04):
It was shaping and not really that good right.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
We learned from all of it.
It was shaping.
It was shaping Exactly.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
And I remember I worked for one of the major
airlines at the time and youknow we had to do some major
layoffs, right, and so you knowyou're laying off, you know,
thousands of people, right, andso we did all of that, and then
at the end they brought in apsychologist or a psychiatrist
to work with those leaders thatwere still remaining, to kind of
(26:30):
talk through, because whenyou're in the middle of it,
you're just completing themission, you're just in the
middle of it.
But now it's time for us tokind of debrief, breathe a
little bit, cry, do whatever wegot to do.
All the stuff we couldn't doduring the middle of it, now's
our time to do it.
The stuff we couldn't do duringthe middle of it, now's our
time to do it.
And so I remember it's me andmy, my peers, and we're all you
know, uh, mid-level managers atthis point.
(26:50):
And so I remember they, thepsychiatrist, going around the
table and everybody had toexpress their Felix and kind of
a scale of one to five.
You know where are you right onon the, on the barometer, and
so most people were kind of attwo or three and it was a lot of
tears, just a lot of emotion, alot of tears and they finally,
you know, they get to me and Iwas like I'm at five, right, you
(27:18):
know, and I remember like now Iwouldn't have done it that way,
but I remember some of my peersjust like, oh, my goodness, how
excited I am, you know, andit's almost like the room turned
on me and I remember beingsurprised that the room turned
on me because now it took me offguard, right, and the
psychiatrist noticed it.
Thank goodness there was me andthis other girl.
We both are at fives.
Everybody else is like two orthree.
And he said you know me and Iwon't say her name.
(27:41):
He says tell me a little bitabout your upbringing.
Turns out we were both militarybrats.
So for us it wasn't that wedidn't go through the five
stages of grief, we just wentthrough them very quickly, right
, and so so for us it was likewe're having the same pain
you're having.
But we realized that we had ajob to do.
(28:02):
We got the job done and now weneed to get our head back in the
game, because there's still awhole lot of people here that
need to be led, and now we'veoff guard.
So I learned in that process toyou.
It wasn't that I said the wrongthing.
(28:33):
I just needed to read the roombetter, right, and to be mindful
that not everybody was at thesame stage that I was at, and
because they had differentbackgrounds and upbringings,
maybe some people were going totake a longer time in the
different stages and theydeserved to be able to have that
time, and so, anyways, that wasone of those moments that I
remember, just because there wasso much emotion happening, and
so it stuck with me.
Speaker 3 (28:54):
Right, and it also makes sense that you said that
your father taught you aboutcompleting the mission.
So it's like maybe I spent 30seconds at a two, yes, but we
got work to do, so I'm going tosay five yeah, the mission's not
done yet, right.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
Yeah, and you know it's interesting because that
still lingers on with me now.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
You know, now I'm on boards and things of that nature
, and I remember recently havinga discussion and the discussion
was about the CEO'scompensation pay and we were
having a discussion about thebonus and the person had hit,
you know, 98%, whatever versus100%, and I was fixated on but
the mission wasn't completed,right, and everybody else is
(29:37):
like, okay, but we had a lot ofobstacles and, you know, the
person still hit 98% and I wasstill like, yeah, but that's not
100%, right, you know.
And so there's areas that itstill lingers with me where I
sometimes have to throttle itback a little bit, um, and just
again read the, the, the scopeof the room and figure out, okay
, can we give on this one.
But then I also flip side of it.
(29:57):
I think that sometimes we givetoo much right.
It's like no, if the goal isthis, then the goal is this,
like, why are we talking aboutanything that hasn't hit the
goal Right and so?
So, anyways, it's, it's.
I always say I'm, I'm, I'm.
I've had people who work on myteam go love working for stuff,
because she demands excellenceand that, going back to your
(30:20):
original question, brian, that'sone of the things that shaped
me is I was around excellenceand so I demand excellence.
I give excellence, but I alsodemand excellence.
We will do what we say, we willcomplete the mission, we will
start what we will finish whatwe start Like.
All of that, to me, isincredibly simplistic, but it
makes life easier because, youknow, some people spend so much
(30:42):
time worrying about stuffbecause they just were so closed
or have an excuse why theydidn't get it done.
I'm very black and white in alot of things and it makes life
a lot easier.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
And you've tasted what excellence looks like and
the rewards of it, so that canmake a difference too.
Brian, you had a follow upquestion.
Speaker 4 (30:58):
Yeah, putting a lot of the pieces together of, you
know, the, the, the, the workyou're doing, the leadership
experiences that the work you'redoing, the leadership
experiences that you have hadand I know that there are.
You know, our work is almostprimarily focused on leadership,
executive leadership teams andthe struggles that they're going
through.
I'm sure you've witnessed manyin your career.
(31:20):
My question is what was thecatalyst for deciding that you
have to write a book?
Because I you know, was itsomething where you know you
thought you discovered thishidden treasure that needs to be
shared with the world?
Or was it out of sheerfrustration?
And keep running into a wall?
You're like I've got to changesomething?
What was it for you thatbrought you to that point of
(31:42):
saying I need to refine this andget it out?
Speaker 1 (31:45):
Yeah.
So it's interesting because,because I'm a professional
speaker, so that's that's reallyhow I, how I make a living.
And my speaker's bureau hadsaid to me hey step, people are
asking does she have a book?
Like you come, you speak, theylove it and they want more and
they're like.
So my speaker's bureau is theone actually who, who suggested
highly, highly, you need towrite a book, you need to write
(32:06):
a book, you need to write a book.
And I remember at the time Iwas also still a working
executive, so I was in the.
C-suite, I'm on boards, I'mdoing, speaking, and in my mind
I'm like there is no way I havetime to write a book.
And so I just kind of, you know, would listen to them, but just
knowing I just didn't have thecapacity to write a book.
Finally, I started to, you know, things started to change in my
(32:32):
schedule and whatnot, and so Ihad time now at this point.
But now I was really determined, brian, about well, what kind
of book do I want to write?
I don't want to just write abook, because they said I got to
write a book, so what bookwould really do I feel
passionate about?
And one of the things that I did, which I'd never done before,
is I went away, and I went awayall by myself, which I'd never
done that, and I went completelyoff the grid.
So no cell phone, no computer,no internet, no, nothing.
(32:54):
It was just like I'm going awayfor five days and if in fact
there's a book in me, this willbe the time that it's going to
have to be birthed.
And so, when I went away, I'm awoman of faith and so it ended
up happening which was not partof my plan was when I went away,
the first three days.
I always tell people it was meand Jesus.
It was something I had notanticipated, and it just became
(33:19):
three amazing days of justworship and silence of just
worship and silence, and I couldreally hear from for me, hear
from the Lord as to what it wasthat he wanted me to do, and so
when I walked out of there fivedays later, I had the outline of
the book, and so I do feel verystrongly about this book that
(33:41):
it was inspired not because ofme, but because I didn't know
what our world would be goingthrough.
I wrote this book last year anda lot's going on over the past
year that none of us saw coming,and so the timeliness of this
book is really incredible.
One of the reasons why I wrotethe book as well is I felt like
a lot of the conversation thatwas out there tended to focus
(34:04):
primarily on white men, so theconversation was all right.
How do white men lead women andpeople of color?
And though that's a goodquestion, and primarily white
men, because they still controlso much of the leadership
positions within Fortune 100,500, et cetera.
So though it's a goodconversation, but I felt like
the conversation needed to godeeper and wider, because, as
the world changes so now youknow, when we look at the modern
(34:26):
workforce, we've got sixgenerations working so
intergenerationally.
This is unheard of right, andwe know that a Zoomer, gen Z,
thinks very different than aBoomer, and so on and so forth.
So that's one challenge thatleaders are dealing with.
The second challenge is thatwe've got women as the majority
of the world's population andspecifically in our country,
we're the majority of thiscountry's population, and so we
(34:49):
have women, have a differentperspective and viewpoint and
communication style, and so thatimpacts the workforce.
On top of that, you look at thedemographics that are changing
right.
So the ethnic races are allgrowing.
Non-ethnic race continues toshrink.
That changes the demographics,not to even mention we've got
people with different abilitiesphysical abilities, we've got
(35:10):
neurodiversities, we have LGBTQplus community.
The list goes on and on and on.
So leaders are being challengedon leading people who are not
like each other and leadingpeople who are not like them,
and so I had already mentioned Icame from an industry where,
you know, I was literally thelonely.
Only there was hardly anybodylike me, and if they were there,
(35:31):
I didn't see him on the way upRight, and so so what that did
is when I started to write thebook, it was just a lot of my
personal.
The book is filled withpersonal stories, a lot of my
personal experiences good, bador indifferent on how I
navigated this whole thing, andso that's really the premise
behind why I wrote the book andwhy I think it's really
(35:53):
important.
Not because I wrote the book,but I think it's important that
if you're going to lead today,then you need to know how to
lead all God's children, everyrace, every creed, every gender.
That's the job, and so if youcan't do that, no problem, right
, but you're going to be likeirrelevant eventually because
the world's changing, whetheryou want the world to change or
(36:15):
not, and you stick in your headin the sand ain't gonna make
people go away because theydon't agree with your particular
way that you see life or yourlifestyle or whatever.
It just doesn't work that way.
And so now is the time forleaders, all leaders, to be able
to.
You know, I wrote the book forevery leader.
I didn't want the conversationjust to be hey, white guy, you
need to do this, that and theother right.
(36:35):
I'm like, okay, we all need tostep up, right, and so all of us
have a place that we couldlearn and grow.
And how do we do that is reallythe question, and we have
different ways to do it.
There's no one way to do itright, there's different ways to
do it.
And so that's really where Ifeel very passionate.
I feel like there's a lot ofconversation right now.
Right before I got on this call,I had a big.
(36:57):
My PR team reached out hey, xyzMagazine wants to get a quote
from you today aboutintergenerational work, right,
and you know everybody's got tokind of ease up a little bit
that each generation hassomething that they bring to the
table, and most of people likewe're probably all around the
same age.
We tend to be the ones theboomers and the Gen X.
(37:18):
We're in the leadership rolesright now, but we're going to
have to compromise, becausethere are things that you can
learn from Gen Z and millennials, and so you know, let's embrace
that, versus just assuming thatthey don't have focus and they
don't want to cut to the office,and you know all those negative
stereotypes.
Some of that could be true, butthere's also some things that
they do bring to the table thatall of us could really be
(37:40):
blessed from, and, at the end ofthe day, we all have a fiscal
responsibility, whether you workfor a nonprofit or publicly
held or privately held.
Our job as leaders is to makesure that we bring profitability
into the equation.
That's right, and so, with thatin mind, you want the best
talent possible.
Nobody needs to be havingdiscussions about diverse
(38:01):
workforce, because the numbersare clear.
Speaker 3 (38:03):
So we don't need to have that discussion, it's just
imperative.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
It's just imperative, it's just a good way to do
business.
And so, anyways, I think thatthe leaders who can really
embrace the fact that theworld's changing and, instead of
being afraid of it, actuallylean into it, they're going to
be the ones that really, youknow, get to be unstoppable and
change where we're going and thespeed in which we're going, and
(38:27):
they have the ability to reallybe, I don't know, very
impactful, should they choose toembrace it.
Speaker 3 (38:32):
I got chill bumps probably four or five times
while you were talking and wereally see that the generational
gaps are really cultural gaps.
It's almost like completelydifferent cultures trying to
integrate and talk to each otherand find ways to work together.
So many ways that I amresonating with you as you then
put books into people's hands.
(38:52):
What has been some of theconversation back to you, or
which parts?
And I'm sure, like when youwrite a book, you're hoping like
well, it'll just, it's, it'sbeen inspired, it's going to go
out there and you hope thatit'll have a certain kind of
effect.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
Is there?
Has there been any surprisingeffect?
Yes, yes, you know.
What's really interesting to meis when I wrote the book.
So I know you all are in themiddle of writing a book.
When you're in the book writingprocess, there's a part that
you do beta readers right.
So you're done with themanuscript and then you give it
to the beta readers and the betareaders come back with you know
, their, their.
So you're done with themanuscript and then you give it
to the beta readers and the betareaders come back with their
perspective and places that theyfeel like the book could be
better.
So for me, I did a couple things.
(39:33):
I increased my beta readers, soI did more than I was asked to
do, and I made sure that therewas a beta reader representation
from all different typesbecause the book is really all
about that from all differenttypes, because the book is
really all about that, right.
But I also leaned very heavy onwhite executive men because I
(39:54):
knew that this book because,again, all books had been
towards just that one group andI wanted to go deeper and wider.
So I really wanted to get theirperspective as well.
So when I gave my book todifferent beta readers.
I remember there's two thingsthat would stood out to me beta
readers.
I remember there's two thingsthat would stood out to me.
One was the white men, whodon't know each other, by the
way, right, and they've all gotbig corporate positions.
Every one of them came back tome with you know, steph, you're
(40:16):
really onto something with thisbook.
I think you should make it amovement, don't just make it a
book.
And I was like, really, tell memore.
And I said you know, tell mehow you felt reading the book.
And they said you challenged me, you made me think.
And I remember saying did atany point ever make you mad?
And like, no, you never made memad, but you made me think.
(40:37):
And that was what I was goingfor, right, that does nobody any
good for people to be upset,Right?
That wasn't my focus and so sothat was really one thing that
was interesting to me.
The other thing is, even thoughI wrote it for corporate America
, I had people who were inministry say to me this book is
really good for ministry.
And I was like, really, likeyou know?
(40:58):
And they said, yeah, becausepastors are leading people that
are not like each other andthey're not 100 percent sure how
to do or at least they shouldbe Right the church should not
look like shouldn't look thesame in the church, so because
that's not how heaven's going tolook.
So that was another part thatwas really interesting to me,
because I didn't write it forministry, I wrote it for
(41:19):
Marketplace but was encouragedby people in ministry saying
this is a book that ministryneeds to take hold of as well,
by people in ministry sayingthis is a book that ministry
needs to take hold of as well.
Speaker 2 (41:29):
Wow, another big, big thank you to Stephanie Chung
for this super fun conversation.
Wow, just what an incrediblejourney she's had, from growing
up as a military brat tobreaking barriers in aviation.
Stephanie's story is such apowerful example of how our
backgrounds shape our leadershipand how adaptability,
(41:49):
resilience and even embracingstruggles and new opportunities
can really set the stage forsuccess.
Now, as you reflect on thisepisode, here's two more things
to consider with your team.
Number one how have your pastexperiences shaped the way that
you lead?
Number one how have your pastexperiences shaped the way that
you lead?
Take a few minutes to justreflect, or even share with your
team, how your backgroundinfluences your leadership style
(42:12):
, decision making and teaminteractions.
Much like Stephanie sharedabout her dad's style of
leadership.
You know how did that impacther.
Think about your own example.
Number two what opportunitiesdo you have to build
relationships with people whoaren't like you?
Stephanie's story was such agood reminder to me that
stepping outside of our comfortzones and being intentional
(42:34):
about connection can really helpus grow, not only as leaders,
but just as good human beings.
And sometimes I think youreally have to go out of your
way to step out of your comfortzone.
It's not going to be very easy,so think about what ways you
can do that Now.
Next week, we'll get intoStephanie's book Ally Leadership
and explore how leaders canbetter support, empower and lead
(42:57):
diverse teams.
So, if you haven't already, besure to subscribe to the
Leadership Vision podcast,wherever you get your podcast,
just to make sure you don't misspart two.
And until then, thank you somuch for listening to the
Leadership Vision podcast, ourshow helping you build positive
team culture.
For more resources like this orjust to talk about what it may
take to create a positive teamculture in your organization,
(43:21):
please reach out to us atconnect at
leadershipvisionconsultingcom,or you can click the link in the
show notes, visit any of oursocial media pages or you can
explore our vast online resourcelibrary at
leadershipvisionconsultingcom.
I would really encourage you totake what you've learned here
today and consider how you canlead with greater awareness and
(43:42):
adaptability in your ownleadership journey.
I'm Nathan Friberg and, onbehalf of our entire team,
thanks for listening.
Because of my upbringing, you know, on the
military side and of course, mycareer choice being aviation and
then specifically privateaviation, it gave me a lot of
material to have to understandhow to work with people who were
not like me.
So where I would say that Ihave grown and developed to
maybe become my own type ofleader is to realize that in the
(00:22):
military it's do as I saythat's not necessarily effective
outside of the military right.
And so as a leader, I'm not aperson of do as I say, I'm more
of a person of like.
Well, let's figure out here'swhat needs to get done Now, how
we do it.
That's up for interpretation.
Let's have that discussion andreally making sure that the team
has a voice at the table,because at the end of the day,
(00:45):
they're the ones executing it.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
You are listening to the Leadership Vision Podcast,
our show helping you buildpositive team culture.
Our consulting firm has beendoing this work for the past 25
years so that leaders arementally engaged and emotionally
healthy.
To learn more about us, you canclick the link in the show
notes or visit us on the web atleadershipvisionconsultingcom.
Hello everyone, my name isNathan Freeberg and in today's
(01:09):
episode we chat with anincredible leader, speaker and
author, stephanie Chung.
Stephanie is a pioneeringexecutive in the aviation
industry, a leadership expertand a passionate advocate for
harnessing the power ofdiversity.
She's also the author of a newbook called Ally Leadership how
to Lead People who Are Not Likeyou.
(01:29):
This is a powerful guide forleaders navigating all kinds of
diverse and evolving workplacesthese days.
We had so much great stuff totalk about with Stephanie that
we're actually going to bebreaking this interview up into
two parts.
In part one here we dive intoStephanie's journey from growing
up as a military brat tobecoming a high-level executive
(01:50):
in private aviation and beyond.
We explore how her uniqueupbringing shaped her leadership
style, the power ofadaptability and the lessons
that she learned navigating anindustry where nobody really
looked like her.
Now, brian, linda and I, wealways start our interviews by
introducing ourselves to ourguests, but normally I just kind
(02:11):
of edit all of that stuff outbecause I don't know that our
listeners would enjoy that partof the conversation.
But for this one I left it inbecause it just felt important
to the topic at hand.
You know, since the topic isabout understanding and working
with those that are not like you, a big part of that is learning
about someone's background, soI left it in.
Now, as you listen to this, I'dlike you to consider just two
(02:35):
things in your own leadershipjourney.
Number one, how does yourbackground and life experience
shape the way that you leadtoday?
And number two, what strengthshave you developed from times of
transition or challenge thatyou can perhaps leverage in your
leadership?
Now, be sure to come back nextweek for part two of this
interview, where we shift gearsa little bit and explore the big
(02:57):
takeaways from Stephanie's bookAlly Leadership.
Now, some of those thingsinclude what it means to be an
ally in leadership,understanding and using
privilege for good, and whydiverse teams perform better.
And it's not the answer thatyou might think, but for now,
let's dive into Stephanie'sjourney and learn more about
this inspiring leader.
(03:18):
So I'm Nathan.
I've been with LeadershipVision since 2007, 2008.
And then, in 2013, my wife andI moved out here, portland,
oregon, with our thenseven-month-old son.
We now have four kiddos, agessix to almost 12.
And they are all home at themoment because Portland is
(03:39):
experiencing a rare winter stormand my background's in computer
science I've worked in highered for 12 years, dear God, and
really during COVID and becauseof all these kids that we keep
having, haven't been doing asmuch consulting, because the
podcast has kind of taken offand in the last little over a
(04:01):
year almost a year and a half westarted interviewing guests,
people like yourselves, authorsand leaders and speakers, and
it's just been so awesome tochat with people and see where
there's similarities anddifferences and you know what is
your view of leadership, how doyou deal with you know team
culture and all that stuff.
So, yeah, so I love doing thisand I get to work with these two
(04:21):
lovely people.
Brian, I've known, no, actuallyno, linda, I've known longer,
but I introduced the two of them.
So, brian, why?
Speaker 1 (04:28):
don't you introduce?
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Oh, that's awesome how long have you two been
married?
Forever 16 years.
16 years Feels like forever,right.
Speaker 4 (04:36):
How about 17 years?
Did you carry the one?
Speaker 3 (04:40):
I made the one.
Anyway, you go ahead.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
Stephanie, I'm Brian.
I was the founder of thecompany.
I never intended to be abusiness owner, but I founded
the company in the year 2000.
I had the good fortune to besomeone that was on the front
leading edge of when Gallupreleased the StrengthsFinder
tool.
So I had a grant at auniversity to do leadership
(05:04):
program that was promotingdistance education in 1998.
So there was a pioneering work.
Gallup heard that we had allthis money and that I needed a
psychometrics.
They called me and I said thatthe tool.
Because of my education.
I thought the tool soundedstupid.
I took the call because I thinkmy boss told me to and then
that entered into an eight yearpartnership.
(05:25):
So my job with with that workwas to help Gallup extend the
use of the Strengths Finder toolfrom coast to coast with the
age range of 18 to 34 year olds,cause we were trying to at the
university create a distanceeducation program that was not
all white males but includedwomen and people of different,
diverse backgrounds.
And you know that wasinteresting work.
(05:47):
But what happened was in doingthe work for the university I
was asked to come back and talkabout this whole idea of
positive psychology and a toolthat can help under something in
you.
And so that's when the companystarted.
So it was complete accident,but I really believe that you
know I'm doing the work that Ilove to do.
I'm'm fulfilling my purpose andthe significance for which I
believe I was created by helpingpeople understand who they are.
(06:11):
My education is in behavioralpsychology and my master's
degree is in clinical counseling.
The last 10 years I've workedon applied neuroscience.
I geek out on readingneuroscience textbooks and
applying that to the work thatwe do.
And so for me to be able to workwith an organization speaking
in front of an audience, or becoaching someone and watch them
(06:31):
light up as they begin toinvestigate and learn about
their inner landscape anddiscover potential they didn't
know that they had, and how toapply that in their life, in
their relationships, that justmakes my light go on even
brighter, and so I just love thework that we do and I guess
that's all I love it.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
That's good, okay, when Nathan sent the documents
and we're talking with you, thefirst thing I said, oh, she is a
player, so I loved readingabout you and so Nathan's like
we know all these things abouther.
I was like I think we knowinformation, but we're really.
I hope that you feel that wereally want to get to know you
and your story as well and weshare some commonalities.
(07:13):
So I joined Leadership Visionin 2008.
Nathan recruited me to come andwork, and so I, brad and I,
were working together.
Nathan recruited me to come andwork, and so I, brad and I,
were working together, and so Inever expected that I would
marry him so much as like dothis work together and now be
running the company.
So, but in 2000, end of 2010, Iwas diagnosed with breast
(07:38):
cancer.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Oh, we do have that in common, yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
So I so I get that, and Nathan was the person that
helped us turn our story into ablog and keep our fan club
apprised of what was happening,and definitely I needed the
support.
But I happen to be in adoctoral program studying how
teams and individuals navigatechange, as I am going through
(08:03):
the absolute physical change of2011.
And for me, I'd never expectedto be to study change and then
be the actual case study, casestudy.
So I was in my own case studyand I think there was something
where I emerged, maybe similarto you.
I emerged out of this breastcancer battle.
(08:25):
I was like I'm not going on theroad with Komen.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Yeah, but you know what?
Speaker 3 (08:28):
You know what?
I have an awakening, and I wantto extend the reach to people
to understand why they're hereon this earth and what they need
to do and be a part of, and so,anytime that we can highlight
the brilliance and beauty ofpeople, that's our, that's our
win, and not just for their sake, but for the sake of humanity,
(08:53):
that's right.
So, uh, brian and I do themajority of the consulting
together and we have we have abook coming out in June, so I
would also like to talk aboutlike oh my goodness, that's not
for the faint of heart, not forthe faint of heart, not for the
faint of heart.
So we want to learn learn fromyou in that.
But I just appreciate youtaking the time today to be with
(09:14):
us to share your story, toshare the things that you've
learned, as well as the thingsthat you've studied and then
shared with the world.
So what a powerful story.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
That's a really powerful story.
So how long have you been?
I'm assuming you're inremittance.
Okay, yes, cancer brain.
Speaker 4 (09:33):
Well, yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
So two years ago you'll like this, Stephanie.
My yearly checkup with myoncologist and at the end he's
like well, we're done.
I was like what?
I was like wait a second.
And I started bawling.
And he's like what is wrong?
And he said you didn't cry whenyou were going through
(09:53):
chemotherapy and radiation andall the reconstruction,
everything you didn't cry.
Then Like well, what am Isupposed to do?
And he started to cry and hesaid this is why I got into this
profession to help save peopleand I don't get to save
everybody, but I was able tohelp you.
And as he started to cry, I waslike well, what do I do now?
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Maybe I'm not seeing you every year.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
And freaking out every year like leading up to
that, and he said you live, yes.
That's powerful Right, and sothat was like shoulders back
here we go.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
That's right, that's right, exactly.
You got a new.
I love that, linda, so muchbecause I don't think that
people, unless you've gonethrough it, they don't
understand all the different.
You know, yeah, you're sofocused on just getting the
cancer out of your body andwhatnot, but there's so many
other pieces that you don't talkabout or think about until
you're with someone who.
(10:49):
I have a friend that recentlygot diagnosed and and, and you
know, going through the wholeprocess and I said the thing
that you have to at least for me, what I had to brace myself for
and I didn't nobody told meabout this is that when you, you
know luckily for me, thank God,we found mine really early but
you still have to go to thecancer center and do all the
stuff you got to do.
And so the one of the thingsthat probably hit me the most,
(11:15):
Linda, was going into the cancercenter.
You know, every week, every twoweeks however many times I had
to go and you're seeing otherpeople, usually older couples.
They'd been married for 50, 60years and then one week you go
there and they're not there orthe person that you saw wasn't
there, you know, and it's just.
And so you're trying to like,keep yourself focused on.
I'm going to beat this thing.
But every week you go there andyou're like where's John?
(11:37):
You know what I mean and so itjust all that that goes with it,
or I?
You know, I got to see and havea new appreciation.
My parents were married, youknow, forever, right and so.
But you get to see marriedcouples that have been.
They're just an older, cutercouple and you're like you've
been married 60 years you knowwhat I mean, or?
whatever, and it's just sopowerful and then, but you know,
(11:59):
like, you just kind of tell,like you know, so it's there's
little things that you gothrough that you never quite
prepare for, because you nobodytells you to prepare for that,
right?
So yeah, I love your story.
You and I are going to have ourseparate conversation.
Let's do a separate podcast onjust that Cause, susan G would
probably love to hear she.
She she's actually a friend of,not Susan G.
(12:20):
She's not a friend of mine.
The CEO of Susan G's not afriend of mine.
The CEO of Susan G Komen is afriend of mine and she's always
wanting me to get involved.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
And I'm like girl, I got a lot going on.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
But let's have a conversation, but let's have a
conversation, because I think itcould be really interesting a
different way to talk about it,right?
So anyway, yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
So funny.
When I was texting yesterday Iwas like Brian don't know if we,
we don't, we may not need to bea part of this conversation.
Let's just let.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
Yeah, I'm showing up and suddenly I will say and you
meant you'd mentioned yourhusband, but I will say that I I
couldn't have got through itwithout brian hundred percent I
mean he and we just got marrieda year and a half into our
marriage.
He is is flying me out toCalifornia for my doctoral
program.
I'm like we're not stoppingthis.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
You're going to get in that golf cart in the airport
and drag you to the gate.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
They gave you something to focus on, though.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
Oh yeah, that's right and that's what Nathan and
Brian both did is they gave me ato really grow through it, and
so I yeah the last 14 years ofof this journey.
I'm just really thankful forthem.
So you, you, you will meet inNathan and Brian men who
(13:35):
understand the power of thecollective, not just their,
their power, but acknowledgingand putting women in places of
power.
And influence.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
We love strong women.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
You do love strong women.
Strong women don't intimidateyou.
You don't need to suppress them.
That's awesome.
I know I like you two.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
So let's go, let's do this and Nathan's wife is a
power player as well.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
So yeah, and she works for.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
Nike, so thanks for representing.
Speaker 4 (14:11):
I know I was like we all have Nike representation.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
That's right.
Well, we got to love Nike.
I love the fact that Nike Ithink, well, I think it was Nike
that did the commercial, thefemale commercial for some
people.
Love that, love everythingabout it, and, yeah, it's, it's.
I love the companies that are,that you know, grinding in like
they're putting their calfmuscles in and they're not
cavemen, and so, uh, it's, it's,you know it's again their calf
(14:35):
muscles yeah digging in.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
Yeah, all right, let's hear let's hear about you,
let's, yeah, let's hear someabout you.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
You do nathan, do you have?
Speaker 2 (14:42):
nathan, do you have a question?
Do you have a question?
So there's a lot of stuff aboutyou that I've learned Air Force
brat.
I don't know if that'sappropriate for a military kid.
I'm wondering if you canintroduce yourself, but do it in
a way that leads up to why youdecided to write this book.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Okay, so one of the things that is probably one of
the things I'm most proud of andyet makes me very probably
unique in some instances, is thefact that I grew up a military
brat.
So my dad was a master sergeantin the US Air Force and really
what that meant for me is that Imoved every two years of my
life.
So I was that kid, so alwaysthe new kid, right, and I still
(15:25):
think of myself as aprofessional new kid because I
was always that kid that had to,you know, was new to the class,
new to the neighborhood.
I had to, you know, get to knoweverybody, so that is now my
superpower.
But when you're little, that's,you know, all the kids are
doing it on the military baseand so you don't know that
that's unique and different.
I'm so incredibly grateful thatthat was the lifestyle that I
(15:47):
was kind of birthed into, if youwill, because it has tremendous
benefit to me now as an adult.
But knowing all of that, youknow, one of the things that
kind of got me to the book, ifyou will, is one I was always
around people who weren't likeme, so that was the beginning of
the whole thing, and then I hadto learn how to acclimate right
.
I had to learn how to change mycommunication skills or observe
(16:10):
certain things, because if Iwanted to have any friends, then
I needed to adjust to everybodyin the situation at hand.
And that's one part of it.
The second part of it isgrowing up a military brat.
I knew early on that I wanted tobe in aviation, and so when I
was little though, you know,whenever I would see aviation
depicted in TV, film, magazines,anything like that I would say
(16:34):
if you were a man, you were apilot, and if you were a woman,
you were a flight attendant,right.
So, though I knew that I wantedto be in aviation because I
literally heard planes taken offand landing, my entire life I
grew up on Air Force bases.
And though I knew that I wantedto be in aviation because I
literally heard planes taken offand landing, my entire life I
grew up on Air Force bases, andso I knew I wanted to be in
aviation.
But the problem was that Ididn't know what I could do,
(16:54):
because whenever I would seeaviators depicted in movies, tv,
film, what have you?
They were always, of course,either man, pilot, woman, flight
attendant.
They were always, of course,either man pilot, woman, flight
attendant, but they also didn'tlook like me.
But I'd never seen a person ofcolor depicted as an aviator in
any of the top tier mediaoutlets, and so I didn't know
what was available to me.
(17:15):
So, that said, I started offparking planes loading luggage
at the Boston Logan Airport.
Start off at the very bottom.
I was always broke and neededovertime pay, so I would go work
upstairs at the ticket counterto check people in for their
flights.
And while I was up there, oneof the executives that worked
for the airline said to me.
He said you know, steph, everytime I come to this airport, I
(17:36):
see you.
I see you with the smile onyour face serving customers.
I think we have you in thewrong position.
I think you should be in sales,and I didn't know anything
about sales.
I'd never sold a thing, rightand so.
But I really I trusted him.
His name was Jim, and so thatthen took me a different route,
because up until that point Ithought I was going to be in
operations for the airlines.
(17:58):
I then moved into sales, gotsold for the airlines for many,
many years and then gotrecruited into private aviation.
And the reason why I bring thisup is because private aviation,
you know, is an aspirationalindustry, meaning people either
want to fly privately or atleast have enough money to be
able to fly privately if they sochose, and so it's a very
aspirational kind of industry.
(18:18):
But it's an industry that Ihave loved and it's loved me
back, but it's an industry thatI always say we suffer from PMS,
we are pale, male and stateOkay, and so therefore I grew up
in an industry where literallynobody looked like me for most
of my career within this space.
We're working really hard tochange that now and we've made
(18:40):
some great progress, but westill have a ways to go.
I say all that to say thatbecause of my upbringing, you
know, on the military side and,of course, my career choice
being aviation and thenspecifically private aviation,
it gave me a lot of material tohave to understand how to work
with people who were not like me, because in the private
(19:02):
aviation space, I would takeover teams that were primarily
white, male teams.
That was the complete oppositeof who I am, and yet I needed to
figure out how I was going tobe able to lead them and lead
them successfully, right,because we all had a job to do,
and so that's really a lot ofhow the book was birthed is by
(19:23):
my own life experience and thethings that I did right and the
things that maybe I didn't doright, and then, you know,
create this book that I feellike was inspired.
Really, you know, part of mypassion and my purpose to take
all of that information the good, the bad and the ugly and then
to use it so that it canhopefully help other leaders,
especially today's leaders asthey're coming up, to be able to
(19:44):
do it faster and better and toaccelerate their leadership
capabilities.
And so that's what the book isit's a tool to say, hey, here's
how I did it and hopes that itcan help you as well.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Yeah, I love reading all those personal stories in
there that you included, sothank you for that, thank you.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
I have a question about your upbringing, Stephanie
.
When you're on these bases,what was like the personality
type of a lot of the adults youwere hanging around with?
Speaker 1 (20:24):
really been instrumental for me in my life
is, you know, one could arguewe've got the best armed forces
right.
And so you grew up as a littlekid seeing excellence.
There's a couple things thatstood out to me.
I saw a cause and demand right,or cause and effect, I should
say and I saw excellence.
So meaning, you know you don'tsee sloppy soldiers.
You know their pants arecreased, their shoes are shine,
their hair is in place, they're,you know, built like Captain
America, right, which is whatyou see at some events.
(20:48):
And so that's where that's thestandard that you're paying
attention to and functioningwith.
The flip side is and a lot ofpeople may not know this unless
they've been on bases or been inthe military you also see cause
and effect.
So, as a military child, if Idid something stupid and got in
trouble on the base, let's sayas a teenager, I'm, you know,
speeding on the base.
If I get pulled over, it's myfather who has to be accountable
(21:13):
to the fact that I was speedingon base right Now, of course,
that's going to trickle down andeventually have to answer for
as well.
But you know you were verymindful that if you did
something it wasn't me gettingcalled into the commander's
office.
It was my father, and so that'swhat I mean by cause and effect
that you really were eachother's keeper, if you will.
(21:33):
So I saw that as a child, andhow that impacted me in the
workforce is, especially from aleadership perspective, is that
you know, whenever I take overespecially when I used to lead
sales teams whenever I wouldtake over a team, the very first
conversation I would have withthe team first conversation is
on this team.
You are your brother andsister's keeper.
(21:54):
That's how this team's going tofunction, and so we're going to
either all win together orwe're going to all lose together
.
It's our choice, and why thatwas important is because when
you grow up as a military child,you see teamwork right,
everybody.
You know, when I, when I veryfirst my very first leadership
job, I remember calling myfather and I was really excited
(22:14):
about it, but I wanted to do agood job and I asked him.
I said, dad, you know I reallywant to do a really good job, as
you know, as a new leader, etcetera.
And what are some advice thatyou would give me?
And leader, et cetera, and whatare some advice that you would
give me.
And so my dad, as a mastersergeant in the air force, said
there's two things for you toalways remember always protect
your team and always knowthere's two sides of every story
(22:34):
and why that's important.
And I still lead to this day.
So anybody who's ever worked onmy team they know.
If you've got a problem withsomebody else, one of our
colleagues, do not go intoStephanie's office and talk
about it, right?
Because the first thing she'sgoing to ask you is why are you
talking to me about it, didn'tyou?
Did you go and talk to you,know, xyz?
And if the two of you can'tfigure it out, then the two of
you can come to my office andthe three of us can try to.
(22:56):
You know, sort it all out.
But you were never allowed tojust come to me, john, about
somebody else, right?
Because we're a team.
And that's the first thing.
Second thing is that that's thetwo sides of every story.
And then there's the protectingof the team.
You know the leader should beprotecting the team.
Sometimes the team's going todo something.
You know that was not maybe agood decision or what have you.
(23:19):
The worst thing you couldpossibly do as a leader is throw
that team under the bus right.
When it's good, you give thepraise.
When it's bad, you take thebullets right.
And so all of the way that Igrew up as a military child
really impacted how I be today,and quite frankly I think that's
.
My competitive advantage isbecause I can see things
(23:39):
differently, because I wasfortunate enough to grow up
around the best armed forces inthe world.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
Would you say you're like your father, or what ways
are you like your father?
And what ways are you your ownperson?
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Yeah, I would say I'm like my father in the sense of
my father was.
You know, we were talking, wewere joking about it earlier,
before we went live, being ableto dig in right, you know.
So my father, my father,trained me where you must
complete the mission, it doesn'tmatter what's going on, the job
has to be done right.
And so that I'm very much likemy father.
(24:15):
If you give me, here's the goal, here's what we're trying to
get accomplished, here's what weneed the team to do, whatever
it is, it actually doesn'tmatter what it is, it will get
done Right.
So I really credit my dad tothat.
Gosh, areas where I was adaddy's girl, so I was probably
more like my father than not,the areas that I've that I've
developed over time is, you know, the thing about the military
(24:37):
is they always say there's nobad soldier, right, if the
soldier doesn't do what theywere told to do, it's because
you didn't communicate it well,because they do what they're
told to do.
So where I would say that that Ihave grown and developed to
maybe become my own type ofleader is to realize that in the
military, it's it's it's do, asI say, kind of thing that's not
necessarily effective outsideof the military right, and so,
(24:59):
as a leader, I'm not a person ofdo as I say, I'm more of a
person of like well, let'sfigure out, here's what needs to
get done.
Now, how we do it, that's upfor interpretation.
Let's have that discussion andreally making sure that the team
has a voice at the table,because, at the end of the day,
they're the ones executing itRight.
And so I am.
I'm more of a leader like that,and that's a little bit
(25:21):
different than typically whattends to happen in the military.
Speaker 4 (25:30):
So, as you were coming up like you're in high
school college you're raised inthe environment that you're
explaining what were some of theshaping influences or
experiences that you had in that18 and 22 year old or 16 and 22
year old timeframe that youwere able to test out your
influence as a leader, like howyou could see yourself impacting
others?
Was there like a team or wasthere an experience or anything
(25:52):
that was doing that?
Speaker 1 (25:54):
Yeah, I'm trying to think.
I've had so many differentexperiences.
I'll tell you about anexperience that I had.
That was it was.
It was good, but not reallythat good Right.
Speaker 4 (26:04):
It was shaping and not really that good right.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
We learned from all of it.
It was shaping.
It was shaping Exactly.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
And I remember I worked for one of the major
airlines at the time and youknow we had to do some major
layoffs, right, and so you knowyou're laying off, you know,
thousands of people, right, andso we did all of that, and then
at the end they brought in apsychologist or a psychiatrist
to work with those leaders thatwere still remaining, to kind of
(26:30):
talk through, because whenyou're in the middle of it,
you're just completing themission, you're just in the
middle of it.
But now it's time for us tokind of debrief, breathe a
little bit, cry, do whatever wegot to do.
All the stuff we couldn't doduring the middle of it, now's
our time to do it.
The stuff we couldn't do duringthe middle of it, now's our
time to do it.
And so I remember it's me andmy, my peers, and we're all you
know, uh, mid-level managers atthis point.
(26:50):
And so I remember they, thepsychiatrist, going around the
table and everybody had toexpress their Felix and kind of
a scale of one to five.
You know where are you right onon the, on the barometer, and
so most people were kind of attwo or three and it was a lot of
tears, just a lot of emotion, alot of tears and they finally,
you know, they get to me and Iwas like I'm at five, right, you
(27:18):
know, and I remember like now Iwouldn't have done it that way,
but I remember some of my peersjust like, oh, my goodness, how
excited I am, you know, andit's almost like the room turned
on me and I remember beingsurprised that the room turned
on me because now it took me offguard, right, and the
psychiatrist noticed it.
Thank goodness there was me andthis other girl.
We both are at fives.
Everybody else is like two orthree.
And he said you know me and Iwon't say her name.
(27:41):
He says tell me a little bitabout your upbringing.
Turns out we were both militarybrats.
So for us it wasn't that wedidn't go through the five
stages of grief, we just wentthrough them very quickly, right
, and so so for us it was likewe're having the same pain
you're having.
But we realized that we had ajob to do.
(28:02):
We got the job done and now weneed to get our head back in the
game, because there's still awhole lot of people here that
need to be led, and now we'veoff guard.
So I learned in that process toyou.
It wasn't that I said the wrongthing.
(28:33):
I just needed to read the roombetter, right, and to be mindful
that not everybody was at thesame stage that I was at, and
because they had differentbackgrounds and upbringings,
maybe some people were going totake a longer time in the
different stages and theydeserved to be able to have that
time, and so, anyways, that wasone of those moments that I
remember, just because there wasso much emotion happening, and
so it stuck with me.
Speaker 3 (28:54):
Right, and it also makes sense that you said that
your father taught you aboutcompleting the mission.
So it's like maybe I spent 30seconds at a two, yes, but we
got work to do, so I'm going tosay five yeah, the mission's not
done yet, right.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
Yeah, and you know it's interesting because that
still lingers on with me now.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
You know, now I'm on boards and things of that nature
, and I remember recently havinga discussion and the discussion
was about the CEO'scompensation pay and we were
having a discussion about thebonus and the person had hit,
you know, 98%, whatever versus100%, and I was fixated on but
the mission wasn't completed,right, and everybody else is
(29:37):
like, okay, but we had a lot ofobstacles and, you know, the
person still hit 98% and I wasstill like, yeah, but that's not
100%, right, you know.
And so there's areas that itstill lingers with me where I
sometimes have to throttle itback a little bit, um, and just
again read the, the, the scopeof the room and figure out, okay
, can we give on this one.
But then I also flip side of it.
(29:57):
I think that sometimes we givetoo much right.
It's like no, if the goal isthis, then the goal is this,
like, why are we talking aboutanything that hasn't hit the
goal Right and so?
So, anyways, it's, it's.
I always say I'm, I'm, I'm.
I've had people who work on myteam go love working for stuff,
because she demands excellenceand that, going back to your
(30:20):
original question, brian, that'sone of the things that shaped
me is I was around excellenceand so I demand excellence.
I give excellence, but I alsodemand excellence.
We will do what we say, we willcomplete the mission, we will
start what we will finish whatwe start Like.
All of that, to me, isincredibly simplistic, but it
makes life easier because, youknow, some people spend so much
(30:42):
time worrying about stuffbecause they just were so closed
or have an excuse why theydidn't get it done.
I'm very black and white in alot of things and it makes life
a lot easier.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
And you've tasted what excellence looks like and
the rewards of it, so that canmake a difference too.
Brian, you had a follow upquestion.
Speaker 4 (30:58):
Yeah, putting a lot of the pieces together of, you
know, the, the, the, the workyou're doing, the leadership
experiences that the work you'redoing, the leadership
experiences that you have hadand I know that there are.
You know, our work is almostprimarily focused on leadership,
executive leadership teams andthe struggles that they're going
through.
I'm sure you've witnessed manyin your career.
(31:20):
My question is what was thecatalyst for deciding that you
have to write a book?
Because I you know, was itsomething where you know you
thought you discovered thishidden treasure that needs to be
shared with the world?
Or was it out of sheerfrustration?
And keep running into a wall?
You're like I've got to changesomething?
What was it for you thatbrought you to that point of
(31:42):
saying I need to refine this andget it out?
Speaker 1 (31:45):
Yeah.
So it's interesting because,because I'm a professional
speaker, so that's that's reallyhow I, how I make a living.
And my speaker's bureau hadsaid to me hey step, people are
asking does she have a book?
Like you come, you speak, theylove it and they want more and
they're like.
So my speaker's bureau is theone actually who, who suggested
highly, highly, you need towrite a book, you need to write
(32:06):
a book, you need to write a book.
And I remember at the time Iwas also still a working
executive, so I was in the.
C-suite, I'm on boards, I'mdoing, speaking, and in my mind
I'm like there is no way I havetime to write a book.
And so I just kind of, you know, would listen to them, but just
knowing I just didn't have thecapacity to write a book.
Finally, I started to, you know, things started to change in my
(32:32):
schedule and whatnot, and so Ihad time now at this point.
But now I was really determined, brian, about well, what kind
of book do I want to write?
I don't want to just write abook, because they said I got to
write a book, so what bookwould really do I feel
passionate about?
And one of the things that I did, which I'd never done before,
is I went away, and I went awayall by myself, which I'd never
done that, and I went completelyoff the grid.
So no cell phone, no computer,no internet, no, nothing.
(32:54):
It was just like I'm going awayfor five days and if in fact
there's a book in me, this willbe the time that it's going to
have to be birthed.
And so, when I went away, I'm awoman of faith and so it ended
up happening which was not partof my plan was when I went away,
the first three days.
I always tell people it was meand Jesus.
It was something I had notanticipated, and it just became
(33:19):
three amazing days of justworship and silence of just
worship and silence, and I couldreally hear from for me, hear
from the Lord as to what it wasthat he wanted me to do, and so
when I walked out of there fivedays later, I had the outline of
the book, and so I do feel verystrongly about this book that
(33:41):
it was inspired not because ofme, but because I didn't know
what our world would be goingthrough.
I wrote this book last year anda lot's going on over the past
year that none of us saw coming,and so the timeliness of this
book is really incredible.
One of the reasons why I wrotethe book as well is I felt like
a lot of the conversation thatwas out there tended to focus
(34:04):
primarily on white men, so theconversation was all right.
How do white men lead women andpeople of color?
And though that's a goodquestion, and primarily white
men, because they still controlso much of the leadership
positions within Fortune 100,500, et cetera.
So though it's a goodconversation, but I felt like
the conversation needed to godeeper and wider, because, as
the world changes so now youknow, when we look at the modern
(34:26):
workforce, we've got sixgenerations working so
intergenerationally.
This is unheard of right, andwe know that a Zoomer, gen Z,
thinks very different than aBoomer, and so on and so forth.
So that's one challenge thatleaders are dealing with.
The second challenge is thatwe've got women as the majority
of the world's population andspecifically in our country,
we're the majority of thiscountry's population, and so we
(34:49):
have women, have a differentperspective and viewpoint and
communication style, and so thatimpacts the workforce.
On top of that, you look at thedemographics that are changing
right.
So the ethnic races are allgrowing.
Non-ethnic race continues toshrink.
That changes the demographics,not to even mention we've got
people with different abilitiesphysical abilities, we've got
(35:10):
neurodiversities, we have LGBTQplus community.
The list goes on and on and on.
So leaders are being challengedon leading people who are not
like each other and leadingpeople who are not like them,
and so I had already mentioned Icame from an industry where,
you know, I was literally thelonely.
Only there was hardly anybodylike me, and if they were there,
(35:31):
I didn't see him on the way upRight, and so so what that did
is when I started to write thebook, it was just a lot of my
personal.
The book is filled withpersonal stories, a lot of my
personal experiences good, bador indifferent on how I
navigated this whole thing, andso that's really the premise
behind why I wrote the book andwhy I think it's really
(35:53):
important.
Not because I wrote the book,but I think it's important that
if you're going to lead today,then you need to know how to
lead all God's children, everyrace, every creed, every gender.
That's the job, and so if youcan't do that, no problem, right
, but you're going to be likeirrelevant eventually because
the world's changing, whetheryou want the world to change or
(36:15):
not, and you stick in your headin the sand ain't gonna make
people go away because theydon't agree with your particular
way that you see life or yourlifestyle or whatever.
It just doesn't work that way.
And so now is the time forleaders, all leaders, to be able
to.
You know, I wrote the book forevery leader.
I didn't want the conversationjust to be hey, white guy, you
need to do this, that and theother right.
(36:35):
I'm like, okay, we all need tostep up, right, and so all of us
have a place that we couldlearn and grow.
And how do we do that is reallythe question, and we have
different ways to do it.
There's no one way to do itright, there's different ways to
do it.
And so that's really where Ifeel very passionate.
I feel like there's a lot ofconversation right now.
Right before I got on this call,I had a big.
(36:57):
My PR team reached out hey, xyzMagazine wants to get a quote
from you today aboutintergenerational work, right,
and you know everybody's got tokind of ease up a little bit
that each generation hassomething that they bring to the
table, and most of people likewe're probably all around the
same age.
We tend to be the ones theboomers and the Gen X.
(37:18):
We're in the leadership rolesright now, but we're going to
have to compromise, becausethere are things that you can
learn from Gen Z and millennials, and so you know, let's embrace
that, versus just assuming thatthey don't have focus and they
don't want to cut to the office,and you know all those negative
stereotypes.
Some of that could be true, butthere's also some things that
they do bring to the table thatall of us could really be
(37:40):
blessed from, and, at the end ofthe day, we all have a fiscal
responsibility, whether you workfor a nonprofit or publicly
held or privately held.
Our job as leaders is to makesure that we bring profitability
into the equation.
That's right, and so, with thatin mind, you want the best
talent possible.
Nobody needs to be havingdiscussions about diverse
(38:01):
workforce, because the numbersare clear.
Speaker 3 (38:03):
So we don't need to have that discussion, it's just
imperative.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
It's just imperative, it's just a good way to do
business.
And so, anyways, I think thatthe leaders who can really
embrace the fact that theworld's changing and, instead of
being afraid of it, actuallylean into it, they're going to
be the ones that really, youknow, get to be unstoppable and
change where we're going and thespeed in which we're going, and
(38:27):
they have the ability to reallybe, I don't know, very
impactful, should they choose toembrace it.
Speaker 3 (38:32):
I got chill bumps probably four or five times
while you were talking and wereally see that the generational
gaps are really cultural gaps.
It's almost like completelydifferent cultures trying to
integrate and talk to each otherand find ways to work together.
So many ways that I amresonating with you as you then
put books into people's hands.
(38:52):
What has been some of theconversation back to you, or
which parts?
And I'm sure, like when youwrite a book, you're hoping like
well, it'll just, it's, it'sbeen inspired, it's going to go
out there and you hope thatit'll have a certain kind of
effect.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
Is there?
Has there been any surprisingeffect?
Yes, yes, you know.
What's really interesting to meis when I wrote the book.
So I know you all are in themiddle of writing a book.
When you're in the book writingprocess, there's a part that
you do beta readers right.
So you're done with themanuscript and then you give it
to the beta readers and the betareaders come back with you know
, their, their.
So you're done with themanuscript and then you give it
to the beta readers and the betareaders come back with their
perspective and places that theyfeel like the book could be
better.
So for me, I did a couple things.
(39:33):
I increased my beta readers, soI did more than I was asked to
do, and I made sure that therewas a beta reader representation
from all different typesbecause the book is really all
about that from all differenttypes, because the book is
really all about that, right.
But I also leaned very heavy onwhite executive men because I
(39:54):
knew that this book because,again, all books had been
towards just that one group andI wanted to go deeper and wider.
So I really wanted to get theirperspective as well.
So when I gave my book todifferent beta readers.
I remember there's two thingsthat would stood out to me beta
readers.
I remember there's two thingsthat would stood out to me.
One was the white men, whodon't know each other, by the
way, right, and they've all gotbig corporate positions.
Every one of them came back tome with you know, steph, you're
(40:16):
really onto something with thisbook.
I think you should make it amovement, don't just make it a
book.
And I was like, really, tell memore.
And I said you know, tell mehow you felt reading the book.
And they said you challenged me, you made me think.
And I remember saying did atany point ever make you mad?
And like, no, you never made memad, but you made me think.
(40:37):
And that was what I was goingfor, right, that does nobody any
good for people to be upset,Right?
That wasn't my focus and so sothat was really one thing that
was interesting to me.
The other thing is, even thoughI wrote it for corporate America
, I had people who were inministry say to me this book is
really good for ministry.
And I was like, really, likeyou know?
(40:58):
And they said, yeah, becausepastors are leading people that
are not like each other andthey're not 100 percent sure how
to do or at least they shouldbe Right the church should not
look like shouldn't look thesame in the church, so because
that's not how heaven's going tolook.
So that was another part thatwas really interesting to me,
because I didn't write it forministry, I wrote it for
(41:19):
Marketplace but was encouragedby people in ministry saying
this is a book that ministryneeds to take hold of as well,
by people in ministry sayingthis is a book that ministry
needs to take hold of as well.
Speaker 2 (41:29):
Wow, another big, big thank you to Stephanie Chung
for this super fun conversation.
Wow, just what an incrediblejourney she's had, from growing
up as a military brat tobreaking barriers in aviation.
Stephanie's story is such apowerful example of how our
backgrounds shape our leadershipand how adaptability,
(41:49):
resilience and even embracingstruggles and new opportunities
can really set the stage forsuccess.
Now, as you reflect on thisepisode, here's two more things
to consider with your team.
Number one how have your pastexperiences shaped the way that
you lead?
Number one how have your pastexperiences shaped the way that
you lead?
Take a few minutes to justreflect, or even share with your
team, how your backgroundinfluences your leadership style
(42:12):
, decision making and teaminteractions.
Much like Stephanie sharedabout her dad's style of
leadership.
You know how did that impacther.
Think about your own example.
Number two what opportunitiesdo you have to build
relationships with people whoaren't like you?
Stephanie's story was such agood reminder to me that
stepping outside of our comfortzones and being intentional
(42:34):
about connection can really helpus grow, not only as leaders,
but just as good human beings.
And sometimes I think youreally have to go out of your
way to step out of your comfortzone.
It's not going to be very easy,so think about what ways you
can do that Now.
Next week, we'll get intoStephanie's book Ally Leadership
and explore how leaders canbetter support, empower and lead
(42:57):
diverse teams.
So, if you haven't already, besure to subscribe to the
Leadership Vision podcast,wherever you get your podcast,
just to make sure you don't misspart two.
And until then, thank you somuch for listening to the
Leadership Vision podcast, ourshow helping you build positive
team culture.
For more resources like this orjust to talk about what it may
take to create a positive teamculture in your organization,
(43:21):
please reach out to us atconnect at
leadershipvisionconsultingcom,or you can click the link in the
show notes, visit any of oursocial media pages or you can
explore our vast online resourcelibrary at
leadershipvisionconsultingcom.
I would really encourage you totake what you've learned here
today and consider how you canlead with greater awareness and
(43:42):
adaptability in your ownleadership journey.
I'm Nathan Friberg and, onbehalf of our entire team,
thanks for listening.
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