April 16, 2025 • 37 mins
Are we in a modern renaissance? Kevin welcomes Dr. Christie Smith to discuss the major shifts impacting leadership today, including distributed teams, AI, workforce expectations, and global uncertainties. Dr. Smith introduces the concept of gray-collar workers, a growing segment of the workforce that combines blue- and white-collar roles and explains why traditional leadership models are no longer adequate. She also breaks down the Essential Leadership Flywheel, which advances beyond emotional intelligence to emotional maturity. This focuses on suspending self-interest, fostering curiosity, and genuinely understanding the context in which employees operate.
Listen For
00:00 Introduction and Podcast Overview
01:01 Kevin’s Book Flexible Leadership
01:56 Meet Dr. Christie Smith
03:06 The Journey Behind the Book
04:24 Early Influences and Advocacy
05:24 Why Now The Timing of the Book
07:19 Framing Leadership in a Complex World
08:20 Leadership is Hard
10:23 The Challenge of Polarization
12:33 A Modern Renaissance Hope and Opportunity
14:27 Leadership and the Human Centered Workplace
15:31 Centering Humans in the Digital Age
16:55 Defining Gray Collar Workers
19:05 Empowerment and Gray Collar Jobs
20:28 Four Human Needs in the Workplace
21:00 The Power of Agency in Leadership
22:15 From Emotional Intelligence to Emotional Maturity
24:24 Essential Leadership Flywheel
25:21 Suspending Self Interest as a Leader
26:22 Why Leadership Trust is Declining
28:02 Investing in People Drives Results
29:09 Contextual Competence A Modern Imperative
30:53 Flexibility Empathy and Humanity at Work
32:18 Rapid Fire Fun and Reading
34:30 Learn More About Christie and the Book
35:57 The Final Question Now What
Christie's Story: Dr. Christie Smith is the co-author of Essential: How Distributed Teams, Generative AI, and Global Shifts Are Creating a New Human-Powered Leadership with Kelly Monahan. She has over 35 years of experience advising the C-Suite of Fortune 500 companies. She is the founder of The Humanity Studio™, a research and advisory institute dedicated to improving the way we live by revolutionizing the way we work. She has held global leadership positions at Deloitte, Apple, and Accenture as a highly respected expert in leadership, talent management, organizational design, workforce management, change management, and executive team performance. She is a highly sought-after speaker on business strategy, leadership and culture, DEI, people analytics, and the impact of workforce technologies and AI. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Harvard Business Review, to name a few. Christie received her doctorate in Clinical Social Work with a focus on leadership and culture from New York University.
https://www.smith-monahan.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/christiesmithphd/
https://www.instagram.com/christiesmith.phd
This Episode is brought to you by...
Flexible Leadership is every leader’s guide to greater success in a world of increasing complexity and chaos.
Book Recommendations
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:08):
Work andthe conditions and implications of it
continue to change,and even in the face of technology,
business is still drivenand powered by humans.
Today we are talking abouthow all this is connected and how, as we
consider human powered leadership.
Welcome to another episodeof the Remarkable Leadership Podcast,
(00:29):
where we are helping leaderslike you grow personally
and professionally to leadmore effectively and make a bigger,
positive difference for their teams,organizations and the world.
If you're listening to this podcast,you could join us in the future.
Live where you can get this informationsooner.
On your favorite social media channelwhere we live stream,
(00:51):
so you can find out about
when those future live
episodes are happening and get connectedwith us and therefore, of course, interact
and see.
The sooner you can do all that byjoining our Facebook or LinkedIn groups.
Just go to Remarkable podcast.com/facebook
or remarkablepodcast.com/linkedin to do that.
I hope you'll do those things.
(01:11):
I just want to remind youthat today's episode
is brought to you by my latest book.
As you're hearing these wordson the podcast. It's out.
Been out a few weeks.
Flexible leadership navigate uncertaintyand lead with confidence.
It's timeto realize that styles can get in our way,
and that following up to our strengthsmight not always be the best approach
in a worldmore complex and uncertain than ever.
(01:33):
Leaders need a new perspectiveand a new set of tools
to create the great resultsfor their organizations and team members.
That's what flexible leadershipprovide you.
You can learn more and orderyour copy today.
Just go to remarkablepodcast.com/flexible.
I hope you'll do that.
And with that let me bring in my guestand I will introduce her
(01:54):
and we will get started.
Her name is Doctor Christy Smith.
She has over 35 years of experienceadvising the C-suite of fortune
500 companies.
She's found the founderof the Humanity Studio, a research
and advisory institutededicated to improving the way
we live by revolutionizingthe way we work.
(02:16):
She has held global leadership positionsat Deloitte, Apple and Accenture
as a highly respected expertin leadership, talent development,
organizational design,
workforce management, change management,and executive team performance.
She's a speaker on businessstrategy, leadership and culture.
The AI people and analytics, and theimpact of workforce technologies and AI.
(02:36):
She earned her doctoratein clinical Social Work
with a focus on leadershipand culture from New York University.
Her work has been featured in The New YorkTimes, Wall Street Journal, Harvard
Business Review, Forbes, fortune, and CNN.
And now, in her brand new bookthat she's coauthored with Kelly Monahan,
Essential How Distributed Teams,Generative AI, and Global Shifts
Are Creating a new HumanPowered Leadership.
(03:00):
Christy, I've said all that stuff.
Why would they not want to know you?
Welcome.
Thank you so much, Kevin.
It's a pleasure to be with you today.
It's my pleasure to have youand so excited as we're doing this
live two days before the drop
or launch or pub date, whatever wordyou want to use of the new book or so.
(03:21):
So excited for all of you that arelistening to this later on the podcast.
Of course, you'll be able
to get it and we'll tell youall about how to do that as we go.
So, Christy,I said a few things about your past in the
in the intro here, but what's the journey?
What leads you to this placeof writing this book?
I'm guessing when you were five,
(03:43):
eight, ten, you weren't thinkingyou're going to write a book.
You probably had some other sort ofcareer or life aspirations.
What?
Tell us just a
little bit about the journeyas it connects to and leads to the book.
Yeah.
You know, I think, Kevin, it's interestingthat you talked about me being five.
I actually think that the journey,
to writingthis book has been a lifelong endeavor.
(04:06):
You know,I grew up the youngest of eight kids.
And so grew up in the late 60s and 70swhere the conversation
around our dining room table was certainlyabout service, was about our obligation
as an upper middle class familyto be the voice for the voiceless.
It was, an era where we were,
(04:27):
grappling, as a nation,
and as a, as a world with the Vietnam War,
with the Cold War,looking at women's rights,
you know, civil rights,all of these things.
And so there was an obligationaround the table.
No, no matter being the youngest, that we,
(04:49):
contribute to thethe advancement of the conversation,
awareness and education, and to, again,be that voice for the voiceless.
So I think everything, started aroundthat dining room table.
That's where I've asked that question now400 and some times.
And, I don't know, anyone has given me a,
(05:12):
a more direct through line than that.
So that's that's very cool.
So all right,if in some ways I'm kind of putting words
in your mouth here, but in some waysyour whole life has led up to this book.
Yeah.
Why now?
Like, there's stuff in the subtitle,
distributed teams, generative AI,global shifts. But.
(05:33):
But why now?
Why this book?
Yeah, I mean, I think that now is,because of the gift of time.
I, you know, left to corporate,
the corporate world last August.
And, you know, my entire career, as I
said, has been in the pursuitof helping others be excellent.
(05:57):
As a consultant,certainly as a vice president at Apple.
You know, these, you know,my work has been about
what are the systemsI'm part of as an organization.
Those systemsI've been invited into, in organizations
I've been invited into as, a consultantand to make them better. Now,
(06:21):
it I think we are at a
the usual time in, our world today.
And, looking at the combination of issuesthat leaders are facing
and that employees are facing, with,
war, in Europe, in the Middle East,
with socio economicand political pressure,
(06:44):
with a skills shortage, with employee
engagement at a, at an all time low.
Multiple things are and technology,of course,
these things are impactingthe way work gets done.
And, and the humanity in the workplacelike they've never been before.
(07:04):
And so, Kelly and I really feltthat there was no definitive
book out there talking about the totalityof these issues on leadership.
Rather, there was one offs,that people were addressing.
And so we really wanted to look at,
how do all of these things,
(07:25):
impact leadershipand the humanity in our workplaces?
So, I'mgoing to ask you an impossible question,
and I'm going to tell you up frontthat it's an impossible question because,
I think about the book in three partsand the whole first chunk of the book,
from my perspective,is about that sort of level setting,
(07:47):
about where we are and how whywe're at the point that we're at.
And so the impossible question is,if you had to say one thing
now, like, what'swhat's one of those things that maybe,
is thatyou're thinking about the most right now?
Or maybe that's even a little differentthan as you finish the book.
(08:07):
Or even just the thing that you would want
to frame the rest of sort of our timetogether, about of all of that
sort of context setting about where we're,we're living and working now.
Yeah.
What would be that thingthat you'd want to start us with?
That leadership is hard.
It's really hard today.
And work never been easy.
Never been easy, never been easy.
(08:29):
But the requirements of leadershipfrom employees from,
a shift from being fiduciaries
of a PNL or a product lineor what have you,
to being global citizensand having to weigh in
to socio political, economic issues,
(08:50):
and the rise of technologyand the pace of change,
all of these things makes, leadershipincredibly difficult.
And therefore we need a new playbook.
So we're going to talk aboutthat playbook a little bit.
But one of the things that you bring outin the early, well, let me do this.
I'm going to a different place.
(09:11):
So you've talked abouthow the world is changing.
Yep. And stuff's happened fast.
I think everyone who's listeningwould not there head.
A wise person asked meand another author asked me
several books ago and they said,Kevin, what have you learned
since you wrote it?
Because as you well know,
it's been a while since you wrotethe words that I read this weekend.
(09:34):
Yeah.
And that others will be able to read soon.
What have you learned since then?
Stated a different way is what may bethe kind of wish was in the book.
Now, based on what you know now.
That isn't
I think it's a great question.
I would say that, you know,we wrote this book, fairly quickly.
(09:56):
So, you know, we started this endeavor,
you know, about the beginning of last year
and, finished it in about, 7 or 8 months.
I think that, if, if I were to point
to anything that,
(10:16):
is, you know, even more pressing,
it's the it's the issue of polarization.
It's the issue of how,
we have
lost the art, and leadersneed this art desperately.
The art of holdingthe conversation in the middle.
And how do we havethat conversation in the middle?
(10:39):
I think that may very wellmay be the subject of,
the next book.
That's a great way to frame it.
And I think that that is a real issue.
And I think it's maybe one of the reasonsleadership is hard,
but it's also one of the waysthat leaders,
I'm a big believer that, you know, nothingpositive happens in the world
(11:00):
without someone leading us there.
And there's no reason why those of uslistening can't be among
those leading us to that place of havingbeing able to have a conversation
in the middleand even being able to have a conversation
if we know our our politics, for example,that's not the only thing we're polarized
about that, where we might knowour politics are different,
and yet we can still even havea conversation, period,
(11:22):
which in many cases has been a challenge,I think, for a lot of folks,
as well.
And I just might add, civil discourse,
and underscore civil
is, something that I think,
really does fall on the shoulders
of, the private sector
(11:44):
and, leaders in the private sectoras, as leaders have really moved,
as I said,from that kind of shareholder to,
you know, fiduciary responsibilityto more global citizens.
We are looking for leaders everywherein our society today,
and we are looking for leaders most,
(12:06):
you know, notably in business,
to help us navigatesocio political and economic conditions.
And, so therefore I think a that makes,you know, leadership really hard.
But I also think it requiresthis ability to,
hold, you know, civil discourse
(12:27):
and have conversationsthat are fundamentally different
than we're having in a much more broadersense.
In a polarized world.
I love that I'm going to
shift gears a little bit and say, and,and take us to another place.
One of the things that that I believethat you believe,
is that in some ways, we're living in a,
(12:50):
a modern renaissance.
And I'd love for you to saya little more about that,
because so far we've been sort of saying,hey, it's hard, it's difficult.
Hey, look at all these challenges.
And yet if when I hear that idea,
that feels very hopeful.
Yeah.
So first of all, do I have this right?
(13:11):
And then secondly, what does that mean?
And why do you say it?
Well, you know, it's, it's ait's a wonderful question
because we even in thebook start the book out with,
you know, historically
how the Black Plagueled to the Renaissance, in Europe,
(13:31):
with the appreciation, putting humans
at the center, art, the sciences,you know, music,
all of those things were born out
of this tragedy of the Black plague.
And so we,
you know, talk about that parallelof coming out of, Covid
(13:57):
and the the Renaissance period that we,
you know, have had with the refocus
on humans and humans at work, how,when and where we work.
What are the tools in the innovations?
What's the appreciation for,
art, music,
(14:18):
that kind of thingthat, you know, Steve Jobs
so beautifully talked aboutwhen he started Apple,
which is the intersection of artand science.
Right.How do we bring those things together?
And I think early on, post-pandemic,we were very much focused
on, humanityat the center of the arts and sciences.
(14:40):
And so, you know, this bookis really looking at, okay, so given.
Yes, given,
the reality of this
renaissance and with the pace of changeand the pace of technology
and the pace that we are moving interms of growth
and, human need, right?
(15:01):
How do we, emerge?
How do we all emergeas leaders that can covet that
and can nurture it?
We're going to talk about some of the waysthat we can do that in a minute.
Before we get there, though,in the chapter where you're talking about
sort of the digital stuff, the,the generative AI stuff,
(15:23):
you make a you,you write, the two of you write something
which I really, really like, and I'm goingto read it and let you comment on it.
And it also it'syou use a word gray collar.
So I'm going to ask you to describe that.
I don't think everyone may know whatthat is, but let me read the quote
firstbecause it's, it's it's under everybody.
(15:43):
The subtitle of the section calledCentering Humans in the Digital Age.
And she they write in other words,to stay ahead of the digital age, leaders
must not only excuseme, will not only have to upskill workers,
especially those considered gray collar,but redefine what it means to engage
a workforce with increased say and growingexpectations for leaders themselves.
(16:06):
So there's quite a bitwe could unpack there.
So start by telling everyonewhat you mean by, again, gray collar.
Maybe not everyone quite understands that.I think that's useful in and of itself.
And then let's unpack ita little bit more.
So we've always talked about our workforcein, two extremes, right.
Blue collar workerswho are health care workers, plumbers,
(16:29):
you know, electricians, those people
who, are really doing manual labor.
And then we've talked about white collarworkers who are in our offices,
who are knowledge workers,who are more analytical.
What have you may be very technically
inclined, obviously, with the riseof technology and innovation,
(16:52):
but we we've really talkedabout only two segments of our population.
What we wanted to do was introducea third population
that overlaps, both,which is what we call gray collar workers.
And gray collar workers are thoseindividuals who have to kind of borrow
from both of those extremesin order to get their job done.
(17:16):
So if you look at let's talkabout automotive, for instance,
and you look at automotive workers,even when I go get an oil change or a
check up on my car,that individual needs to understand
the electronics within my carlike they've never had to understand
(17:36):
before in order to reset,
recalibrate all of those types of things.
They are using technologyand in some cases
I right to understand the machine.
The same is true
for you know, and we would call that graycollar workers.
That requiresa whole different set of education.
(18:00):
For white collar workers,
they need to understand
how things work fundamentally differently.
And the technologies that, exist today.
I mean, when we looked at, researchwhere we looked at
thousands of senior leaderswho said, yes, technology
(18:23):
is going to change everything,and we know we need to meet this time.
And that change today,only 25% of those leaders
were even consideringdoing something about it.
Right?
Because the technology is intimidating.
So this notion of a third categoryof worker in our society
(18:44):
called a gray collar worker is, growing.
We need the educational and skillsdevelopment,
infrastructure skills are outpacing today.
Our educational systems,and traditional employment models
for learning and development,simply can't adapt.
(19:06):
Yeah, I would argue that
that's that'swhere all of the job growth is, right.
And all the conversation about,reskilling, upskilling,
what are the jobs going to bein the future?
They, that they almost all follow in their
as opposed to in the purewhite collar, pure blue collar.
In fact, I think of almost everyonethat I know and most all of our clients,
(19:28):
and the folks on their,in their organizations, I find it hard
at this point to identify very many peoplewho are truly blue collar.
Right.
And, and I think that's,
you know, it'slike anything else, there's gradations.
But I think that point alone, is
really important for us to get as leadersto figure out and to understand.
And, I mean, I was having a conversationwith a client
(19:51):
30 minutes, Christy, before we started,and we were talking about sort of
two parts of the organizationkind of in this sort of, well,
white collar, blue collar.
They didn't use language.
And yet those distinctions become lessand less important
when we start to realize how muchis really happening in the middle.
That's great. I love that.
(20:12):
So I want to shift gears.
You talk.
And I said, there's sort of three partsto the book, in my opinion.
Next part,you talk about three things that that
it won't surprise youthat we've had conversations
on this podcast about,like the importance of purpose,
well, meaning and connection.
But the fourth one is agency.
(20:32):
And I'd like to talk about that one,
even though all of all of it is important.
I'd like to talk about agencyas it relates to,
how people are feeling about,first of all, before I go there,
when youwhen I say the word agency to you,
(20:52):
as a as a human powered leader,
what should we be thinking aboutas it relates to agency?
Let's just start. There.
Yeah.
I think that we should bethinking about empowerment.
How do we understandour employees in a way,
and this is the new playbook or modelthat we introduce.
(21:15):
This is an element of it is tohow do we know our employees
and the humanity within our workplacewell enough
that we can empower them to eitherstructure their work,
do their work,actually define who they am?
They are, beyond a set of competencies
(21:35):
or a job title,or the color of their skin or their gender
to really contribute to the organization,the team, and what needs to be done.
So. So why,
how do we do that?
Especially in a timewhen there's all the conversation
(21:57):
and even all the experiencethat people might have who are listening,
around using technologylike generative AI, for example,
how how do we as leaders
cultivate this sense of agency
and how does that intersect and connectwith things like generative AI?
Yeah.
So, we have to fast forward, right, to,
(22:21):
to what is this new model of leadershipthat we are talking about in the book?
You know, most of the listeners,who are listening to this understand
this concept of emotional intelligence,which is this idea.
And we see lots of leaders
talking about this today,this idea of understanding myself
(22:43):
and the attributesI need to create for myself as a leader.
It's an internal job.
Things like empathy, compassion,transparency, all of those things.
You know, you take a nice little testfrom emotional intelligence
and it tells you where you fall on
some of these attributesand what you need to do to cultivate them.
(23:06):
And that's great.
It's a precursor to what we call
emotionally mature leaders right now.
The difference between emotionalintelligence and emotional maturity is,
as I said, emotional intelligenceis all about you, right?
Emotional maturity is allabout the humanity in your organization,
(23:27):
which is thethe attributes of emotional maturity
are suspension of self-interest,insatiable curiosity
about the people that work with you,understanding the context
in which they're coming to workand doing their work.
It is about cultivating,
(23:48):
cultures of excellence.
That give people a senseon your team and architect,
the team that here's the workthat we together
define that you need to do thatgives purpose, agency,
a sense of connection, a senseof well-being in the work that you do.
(24:08):
And then certainly meetingthose human requirement that we lay out
in, in the book.
So this evolution from intelligenceto maturity
is really a shift from selffocused to human focused.
And we were going to get there and it's,
it's greatthat we weren't there in the, in the book,
(24:29):
you call it what you just described to usas the essential leadership flywheel
that I want to talka little bit more about.
And, and one of them is this idea that,
well, it's not about us, right.
And you said it.
And in the book, you talk about itas being the mindset
of suspending self interest.
(24:51):
You know,
hard, super hard.
Not not exactlyhow humans are generally wired.
So talk about that.
Like, I think, listen,those of you that are listening
are, are likely in a subset of all leadersbecause you're choosing to listen
to this, or watch this.
(25:12):
And so, so Christie, at some level,you're speaking
to the choir herebecause chances are most people here
intellectually get this idea.
Yeah, it's not about me.
I have to suspend my self-interest.
And it's hard, as you said,
give us a couple things that we can doto help us shift this mindset.
(25:34):
Remind ourselves of this mindset, move
in the direction of this approach.
Yeah.
Well, let's,you know, in order to give you that,
let's first start with some realitiesin the workplace today,
which point to the needfor a suspension of self-interest.
One number one,there is we are experiencing
(25:58):
the lowest scores on corporate leadershiptrust
that we've ever had globally.
So we are looking at the Edelman Trust
survey says that 62% of peopletrust their organization
leaders now, 62% is misleading
(26:18):
because that includes countrieslike China, the UAE, Russia, right.
Where it's a little difficultto speak out.
Right.
And so you're really looking at, morein the 40
percentile for Western countries, right?
So, so that's number one.
Trust is at an all time low.
(26:39):
Number two,we are looking at an epidemic of,
employee disengagementthat's costing us $8.8 trillion a year.
Now, if you put that 8.8trillion into contact,
that's like saying the combinationof annual revenue
of Microsoft, Apple and,
(27:02):
and Amazon together, a year
plus $322 billion of mental health issues
that we're paying for, and burnoutwith employees a year.
So we've got an economic crisis
boiling as a result of this.
Right?
(27:22):
So if that is the precursorlack of trust, lack of engagement,
when we examine whatwhy are those things happening?
It's because leadersonly care about themselves, right?
That that it's about their productivitynumber.
It's about their revenue number.
(27:42):
It's about their bonus.
And we all know leaders like this.
Now I'm not vilifying that.
That is human nature.
It's how we were all raisedin our organizations.
I get it right.
What's going to be my bonusat the end of the year?
What's going to be my ratingat the end of the year?
How am I going to take care of my own?
Those are very natural things.
(28:03):
However, they don't meet the timethat we're in today
because of those economic realitiesthat I just talked about.
So this notion of whatwe used to call servant leadership,
this notionof suspension of self-interest,
so that I can understand
my team and my employees to such a point
(28:26):
where I'm structuring the workand architecting how we get that work done
so that we meet better, productive goals,that we meet better revenue
goals, that when I suspend self-interestand I'm invested
tirelessly in our people,all the rest will come.
(28:47):
Yeah, it's the other way.
It's I got to get mineand then it's the other way around.
And then and then everyone can win.
The other thing that,I just love the phrase that you use and,
and before we started the, beforeI hit the record button here,
you were asking me about my new book.
I said, there's one thing in your bookthat is a really close,
(29:08):
close connection to what I've writtenabout in Flexible Leadership.
And so this idea of contextand you talk about it,
the two of you talk about itas contextual competency.
And I love yeah, I love that frame for it.
So say a little bit more about itbecause I, I'm with you
that the context in which we lead mattersa huge amount really this entire.
That's what this whole conversationhas been about. That's right.
(29:30):
And that's true at the macro level.
It's also true at the micro level.
And I do believe it'sa con, it's a competency.
So say a little bit moreabout what you mean there.
Well, I think that you're rightabout the micro and the macro.
Right.
When I started we started talkingabout how difficult leadership is.
Well, let's look at the context ofleadership today in the world that we live
(29:51):
in. It's got all of those headwindsthat we have already talked about.
But if you think about on the micro level,I mean, you know, Kevin,
I am sure you and I are of thethe same age when we entered
into the workplace wherewe had to check our humanity at the door,
you came to work,you didn't talk about life.
You didn't talk aboutwhat was happening outside work.
(30:12):
You came and you did your job,and you did it with excellence.
And that was it, right?
That is not the world we live in today.
So understanding the contextin which people and this is where
and it's tied to insatiable curiosity,understanding the context
in which peopleare coming to work to do their work
(30:33):
and why they may be working with onehand tied behind their back,
whether that is because they are dealingwith childcare, elder care, a divorce,
a, you know, a child with autism,
whatever it is, we come to work
right within a contextof what's happening in our lives.
(30:55):
Now, do we have to disclose all of that?
And there are sold to our leaders? No.
But what leaders need to do is understand
that the people who are on their teamare coming
with challenges of their own.
And my job as a leader is
to make the the job easierand to understand the context in which
(31:21):
that person's coming to job, to their job,
and have the flexibility to help them,
you know, achievebeyond their wildest dreams
their work, despite
the conflicts or
the issuesthat they may be bringing into work.
So this notion of contextual competenceand understanding your team
(31:44):
and what their own, you know, pardonthe consultants phrase headwinds may be
is something that I, as a leader,need to do in order
to help themachieve their professional goals.
Yeah, I think that's and again so
so right I the longer that I live,
the longer than I do this work,the more I think that context is
(32:08):
supremely important,more profoundly important.
Again, at the macro level, as we've talkeda great deal about on this,
in this conversation,as well as at the micro level.
And so I've got a couple of the things.
Christy,I want to ask you before we finish
a couple thingsthat I like to ask people in this setting.
I this is this is.
(32:28):
Well, I'll get to in a second.Let me ask this first.
What do you like to do for fun?
Haha.
I, love to play golf.
I love to.
I still consider myself,you know, an athlete.
That's that's the brandI grew up with in that big family.
I talked about earlier.
So, triathlons, running, weight training,all of those things.
(32:53):
I absolutely love.
And and most importantly,time, with my family.
Awesome.
And the other, the only thing you knew forsure I was going to ask you
is this next question.
And I'm going to put context around itfor everybody.
So if you've listened before, you probablyknow what question I'm about to ask.
Christy knows because it's, you know,when I told her I was going to ask,
(33:13):
but I'll give I'll give everybodya little context for that.
When I've ever since I was a kid, I've,
I've found that when I met smart people,
people that I admired,I always wanted to ask them this question.
So what are you reading? And. Yeah.
So when I started doing the show,I'm like, well, why wouldn't I do that?
Ask that question not just for me, butfor everyone else that gets to hear it.
(33:36):
So, Christy,what are you reading these days?
Yeah.
So I, I'm reading a bunch of differentthings.
Right?
Certainly Adam Grant's workI absolutely love.
So his new bookI am reading, I love Mel Robbins new book.
Let them.
I think that is, fascinating.
(33:58):
I, I love historyand the stories of history.
So, was Winston Churchill's,
biography.
So I jump back and forth.
I also really enjoy, you know, a daily
feed of all of the newspapers and,
(34:19):
you know, magazines that I love,whether it be The Economist or the
Financial Times or the Journal or whathave you, New York Times, all of that.
I just love information.
We will have all that for you,as well as a link to Christie's book,
which is the question you really wanted meto ask from the beginning. Christie.
So, like,where can we learn more about you?
(34:40):
Where do youwhere can people go to get the book?
Like, what do you want to tell people?
How do they.
Well, yeah.
So, I appreciate you asking.
You can buy the book on your favorite,
book websites or in your book stores.
Certainly is listed on Amazon,Goodreads, and, many others.
You can go to smith-monahan.com,which is, the book's website.
(35:04):
So please,
you know, take advantage of that.
I am working now on a projectsince I've left, the corporate world
called the Humanity Studio,which is a leadership advisory firm.
And so you can find,the humanity studio.com,
find more about me,the book and, and everything else.
(35:27):
So, I appreciate you askingand really look forward
to hearing people's views, on the book.
The humanity studio.comand Smith monahan.com,
the book is titled EssentialHow Distributed Teams, Generative
AI and Global Shifts are Creatinga new human powered Leadership.
(35:48):
Christy, it's been a pleasure to have you.
But before we say our goodbyes,I've got a question that I ask all of you.
And again, it's the thingI ask you every single episode.
It's the most important question thatyou could ask yourself before we finish.
And that is now what?
What are you going to do with whatyou just heard?
Just having heard it.
(36:08):
Found it to be interesting.
You know,
better than doing your exercisewith only your own thoughts.
Like, that's one thing.
But what we really hope is that youtake some action with what you learned.
Close the gap between, oh, I learned this,and what am I going to do with this?
I have my own notes.
My notes don't matter.
What mattersare the things that you thought of,
(36:30):
the actions that you want to take.
Certainly we would hope that one of thoseis to order a copy of the book essential.
But beyond that, what actionswill you take for having been here?
Because it's in that that you havethe chance to lead differently and start
to make a bigger positive differencein the world?
Christy, thank you for being here.
Such a pleasureto have you enjoyed our conversation.
(36:51):
I hope you did as well.
Thank you. Kevin,it was so much fun to be with you.
Everybody.
That's it for another episodeof the Remarkable Leadership Podcast.
If you enjoyed it,make sure you are subscribed
wherever you're listeningor make sure that you're telling others
they should come listen towhether this episode or the next episode,
because you know,there'll be another episode next week.
When we back with another episodeof the Remarkable Leadership Podcast.
(37:13):
We'll see you then.
Work andthe conditions and implications of it
continue to change,and even in the face of technology,
business is still drivenand powered by humans.
Today we are talking abouthow all this is connected and how, as we
consider human powered leadership.
Welcome to another episodeof the Remarkable Leadership Podcast,
(00:29):
where we are helping leaderslike you grow personally
and professionally to leadmore effectively and make a bigger,
positive difference for their teams,organizations and the world.
If you're listening to this podcast,you could join us in the future.
Live where you can get this informationsooner.
On your favorite social media channelwhere we live stream,
(00:51):
so you can find out about
when those future live
episodes are happening and get connectedwith us and therefore, of course, interact
and see.
The sooner you can do all that byjoining our Facebook or LinkedIn groups.
Just go to Remarkable podcast.com/facebook
or remarkablepodcast.com/linkedin to do that.
I hope you'll do those things.
(01:11):
I just want to remind youthat today's episode
is brought to you by my latest book.
As you're hearing these wordson the podcast. It's out.
Been out a few weeks.
Flexible leadership navigate uncertaintyand lead with confidence.
It's timeto realize that styles can get in our way,
and that following up to our strengthsmight not always be the best approach
in a worldmore complex and uncertain than ever.
(01:33):
Leaders need a new perspectiveand a new set of tools
to create the great resultsfor their organizations and team members.
That's what flexible leadershipprovide you.
You can learn more and orderyour copy today.
Just go to remarkablepodcast.com/flexible.
I hope you'll do that.
And with that let me bring in my guestand I will introduce her
(01:54):
and we will get started.
Her name is Doctor Christy Smith.
She has over 35 years of experienceadvising the C-suite of fortune
500 companies.
She's found the founderof the Humanity Studio, a research
and advisory institutededicated to improving the way
we live by revolutionizingthe way we work.
(02:16):
She has held global leadership positionsat Deloitte, Apple and Accenture
as a highly respected expertin leadership, talent development,
organizational design,
workforce management, change management,and executive team performance.
She's a speaker on businessstrategy, leadership and culture.
The AI people and analytics, and theimpact of workforce technologies and AI.
(02:36):
She earned her doctoratein clinical Social Work
with a focus on leadershipand culture from New York University.
Her work has been featured in The New YorkTimes, Wall Street Journal, Harvard
Business Review, Forbes, fortune, and CNN.
And now, in her brand new bookthat she's coauthored with Kelly Monahan,
Essential How Distributed Teams,Generative AI, and Global Shifts
Are Creating a new HumanPowered Leadership.
(03:00):
Christy, I've said all that stuff.
Why would they not want to know you?
Welcome.
Thank you so much, Kevin.
It's a pleasure to be with you today.
It's my pleasure to have youand so excited as we're doing this
live two days before the drop
or launch or pub date, whatever wordyou want to use of the new book or so.
(03:21):
So excited for all of you that arelistening to this later on the podcast.
Of course, you'll be able
to get it and we'll tell youall about how to do that as we go.
So, Christy,I said a few things about your past in the
in the intro here, but what's the journey?
What leads you to this placeof writing this book?
I'm guessing when you were five,
(03:43):
eight, ten, you weren't thinkingyou're going to write a book.
You probably had some other sort ofcareer or life aspirations.
What?
Tell us just a
little bit about the journeyas it connects to and leads to the book.
Yeah.
You know, I think, Kevin, it's interestingthat you talked about me being five.
I actually think that the journey,
to writingthis book has been a lifelong endeavor.
(04:06):
You know,I grew up the youngest of eight kids.
And so grew up in the late 60s and 70swhere the conversation
around our dining room table was certainlyabout service, was about our obligation
as an upper middle class familyto be the voice for the voiceless.
It was, an era where we were,
(04:27):
grappling, as a nation,
and as a, as a world with the Vietnam War,
with the Cold War,looking at women's rights,
you know, civil rights,all of these things.
And so there was an obligationaround the table.
No, no matter being the youngest, that we,
(04:49):
contribute to thethe advancement of the conversation,
awareness and education, and to, again,be that voice for the voiceless.
So I think everything, started aroundthat dining room table.
That's where I've asked that question now400 and some times.
And, I don't know, anyone has given me a,
(05:12):
a more direct through line than that.
So that's that's very cool.
So all right,if in some ways I'm kind of putting words
in your mouth here, but in some waysyour whole life has led up to this book.
Yeah.
Why now?
Like, there's stuff in the subtitle,
distributed teams, generative AI,global shifts. But.
(05:33):
But why now?
Why this book?
Yeah, I mean, I think that now is,because of the gift of time.
I, you know, left to corporate,
the corporate world last August.
And, you know, my entire career, as I
said, has been in the pursuitof helping others be excellent.
(05:57):
As a consultant,certainly as a vice president at Apple.
You know, these, you know,my work has been about
what are the systemsI'm part of as an organization.
Those systemsI've been invited into, in organizations
I've been invited into as, a consultantand to make them better. Now,
(06:21):
it I think we are at a
the usual time in, our world today.
And, looking at the combination of issuesthat leaders are facing
and that employees are facing, with,
war, in Europe, in the Middle East,
with socio economicand political pressure,
(06:44):
with a skills shortage, with employee
engagement at a, at an all time low.
Multiple things are and technology,of course,
these things are impactingthe way work gets done.
And, and the humanity in the workplacelike they've never been before.
(07:04):
And so, Kelly and I really feltthat there was no definitive
book out there talking about the totalityof these issues on leadership.
Rather, there was one offs,that people were addressing.
And so we really wanted to look at,
how do all of these things,
(07:25):
impact leadershipand the humanity in our workplaces?
So, I'mgoing to ask you an impossible question,
and I'm going to tell you up frontthat it's an impossible question because,
I think about the book in three partsand the whole first chunk of the book,
from my perspective,is about that sort of level setting,
(07:47):
about where we are and how whywe're at the point that we're at.
And so the impossible question is,if you had to say one thing
now, like, what'swhat's one of those things that maybe,
is thatyou're thinking about the most right now?
Or maybe that's even a little differentthan as you finish the book.
(08:07):
Or even just the thing that you would want
to frame the rest of sort of our timetogether, about of all of that
sort of context setting about where we're,we're living and working now.
Yeah.
What would be that thingthat you'd want to start us with?
That leadership is hard.
It's really hard today.
And work never been easy.
Never been easy, never been easy.
(08:29):
But the requirements of leadershipfrom employees from,
a shift from being fiduciaries
of a PNL or a product lineor what have you,
to being global citizensand having to weigh in
to socio political, economic issues,
(08:50):
and the rise of technologyand the pace of change,
all of these things makes, leadershipincredibly difficult.
And therefore we need a new playbook.
So we're going to talk aboutthat playbook a little bit.
But one of the things that you bring outin the early, well, let me do this.
I'm going to a different place.
(09:11):
So you've talked abouthow the world is changing.
Yep. And stuff's happened fast.
I think everyone who's listeningwould not there head.
A wise person asked meand another author asked me
several books ago and they said,Kevin, what have you learned
since you wrote it?
Because as you well know,
it's been a while since you wrotethe words that I read this weekend.
(09:34):
Yeah.
And that others will be able to read soon.
What have you learned since then?
Stated a different way is what may bethe kind of wish was in the book.
Now, based on what you know now.
That isn't
I think it's a great question.
I would say that, you know,we wrote this book, fairly quickly.
(09:56):
So, you know, we started this endeavor,
you know, about the beginning of last year
and, finished it in about, 7 or 8 months.
I think that, if, if I were to point
to anything that,
(10:16):
is, you know, even more pressing,
it's the it's the issue of polarization.
It's the issue of how,
we have
lost the art, and leadersneed this art desperately.
The art of holdingthe conversation in the middle.
And how do we havethat conversation in the middle?
(10:39):
I think that may very wellmay be the subject of,
the next book.
That's a great way to frame it.
And I think that that is a real issue.
And I think it's maybe one of the reasonsleadership is hard,
but it's also one of the waysthat leaders,
I'm a big believer that, you know, nothingpositive happens in the world
(11:00):
without someone leading us there.
And there's no reason why those of uslistening can't be among
those leading us to that place of havingbeing able to have a conversation
in the middleand even being able to have a conversation
if we know our our politics, for example,that's not the only thing we're polarized
about that, where we might knowour politics are different,
and yet we can still even havea conversation, period,
(11:22):
which in many cases has been a challenge,I think, for a lot of folks,
as well.
And I just might add, civil discourse,
and underscore civil
is, something that I think,
really does fall on the shoulders
of, the private sector
(11:44):
and, leaders in the private sectoras, as leaders have really moved,
as I said,from that kind of shareholder to,
you know, fiduciary responsibilityto more global citizens.
We are looking for leaders everywherein our society today,
and we are looking for leaders most,
(12:06):
you know, notably in business,
to help us navigatesocio political and economic conditions.
And, so therefore I think a that makes,you know, leadership really hard.
But I also think it requiresthis ability to,
hold, you know, civil discourse
(12:27):
and have conversationsthat are fundamentally different
than we're having in a much more broadersense.
In a polarized world.
I love that I'm going to
shift gears a little bit and say, and,and take us to another place.
One of the things that that I believethat you believe,
is that in some ways, we're living in a,
(12:50):
a modern renaissance.
And I'd love for you to saya little more about that,
because so far we've been sort of saying,hey, it's hard, it's difficult.
Hey, look at all these challenges.
And yet if when I hear that idea,
that feels very hopeful.
Yeah.
So first of all, do I have this right?
(13:11):
And then secondly, what does that mean?
And why do you say it?
Well, you know, it's, it's ait's a wonderful question
because we even in thebook start the book out with,
you know, historically
how the Black Plagueled to the Renaissance, in Europe,
(13:31):
with the appreciation, putting humans
at the center, art, the sciences,you know, music,
all of those things were born out
of this tragedy of the Black plague.
And so we,
you know, talk about that parallelof coming out of, Covid
(13:57):
and the the Renaissance period that we,
you know, have had with the refocus
on humans and humans at work, how,when and where we work.
What are the tools in the innovations?
What's the appreciation for,
art, music,
(14:18):
that kind of thingthat, you know, Steve Jobs
so beautifully talked aboutwhen he started Apple,
which is the intersection of artand science.
Right.How do we bring those things together?
And I think early on, post-pandemic,we were very much focused
on, humanityat the center of the arts and sciences.
(14:40):
And so, you know, this bookis really looking at, okay, so given.
Yes, given,
the reality of this
renaissance and with the pace of changeand the pace of technology
and the pace that we are moving interms of growth
and, human need, right?
(15:01):
How do we, emerge?
How do we all emergeas leaders that can covet that
and can nurture it?
We're going to talk about some of the waysthat we can do that in a minute.
Before we get there, though,in the chapter where you're talking about
sort of the digital stuff, the,the generative AI stuff,
(15:23):
you make a you,you write, the two of you write something
which I really, really like, and I'm goingto read it and let you comment on it.
And it also it'syou use a word gray collar.
So I'm going to ask you to describe that.
I don't think everyone may know whatthat is, but let me read the quote
firstbecause it's, it's it's under everybody.
(15:43):
The subtitle of the section calledCentering Humans in the Digital Age.
And she they write in other words,to stay ahead of the digital age, leaders
must not only excuseme, will not only have to upskill workers,
especially those considered gray collar,but redefine what it means to engage
a workforce with increased say and growingexpectations for leaders themselves.
(16:06):
So there's quite a bitwe could unpack there.
So start by telling everyonewhat you mean by, again, gray collar.
Maybe not everyone quite understands that.I think that's useful in and of itself.
And then let's unpack ita little bit more.
So we've always talked about our workforcein, two extremes, right.
Blue collar workerswho are health care workers, plumbers,
(16:29):
you know, electricians, those people
who, are really doing manual labor.
And then we've talked about white collarworkers who are in our offices,
who are knowledge workers,who are more analytical.
What have you may be very technically
inclined, obviously, with the riseof technology and innovation,
(16:52):
but we we've really talkedabout only two segments of our population.
What we wanted to do was introducea third population
that overlaps, both,which is what we call gray collar workers.
And gray collar workers are thoseindividuals who have to kind of borrow
from both of those extremesin order to get their job done.
(17:16):
So if you look at let's talkabout automotive, for instance,
and you look at automotive workers,even when I go get an oil change or a
check up on my car,that individual needs to understand
the electronics within my carlike they've never had to understand
(17:36):
before in order to reset,
recalibrate all of those types of things.
They are using technologyand in some cases
I right to understand the machine.
The same is true
for you know, and we would call that graycollar workers.
That requiresa whole different set of education.
(18:00):
For white collar workers,
they need to understand
how things work fundamentally differently.
And the technologies that, exist today.
I mean, when we looked at, researchwhere we looked at
thousands of senior leaderswho said, yes, technology
(18:23):
is going to change everything,and we know we need to meet this time.
And that change today,only 25% of those leaders
were even consideringdoing something about it.
Right?
Because the technology is intimidating.
So this notion of a third categoryof worker in our society
(18:44):
called a gray collar worker is, growing.
We need the educational and skillsdevelopment,
infrastructure skills are outpacing today.
Our educational systems,and traditional employment models
for learning and development,simply can't adapt.
(19:06):
Yeah, I would argue that
that's that'swhere all of the job growth is, right.
And all the conversation about,reskilling, upskilling,
what are the jobs going to bein the future?
They, that they almost all follow in their
as opposed to in the purewhite collar, pure blue collar.
In fact, I think of almost everyonethat I know and most all of our clients,
(19:28):
and the folks on their,in their organizations, I find it hard
at this point to identify very many peoplewho are truly blue collar.
Right.
And, and I think that's,
you know, it'slike anything else, there's gradations.
But I think that point alone, is
really important for us to get as leadersto figure out and to understand.
And, I mean, I was having a conversationwith a client
(19:51):
30 minutes, Christy, before we started,and we were talking about sort of
two parts of the organizationkind of in this sort of, well,
white collar, blue collar.
They didn't use language.
And yet those distinctions become lessand less important
when we start to realize how muchis really happening in the middle.
That's great. I love that.
(20:12):
So I want to shift gears.
You talk.
And I said, there's sort of three partsto the book, in my opinion.
Next part,you talk about three things that that
it won't surprise youthat we've had conversations
on this podcast about,like the importance of purpose,
well, meaning and connection.
But the fourth one is agency.
(20:32):
And I'd like to talk about that one,
even though all of all of it is important.
I'd like to talk about agencyas it relates to,
how people are feeling about,first of all, before I go there,
when youwhen I say the word agency to you,
(20:52):
as a as a human powered leader,
what should we be thinking aboutas it relates to agency?
Let's just start. There.
Yeah.
I think that we should bethinking about empowerment.
How do we understandour employees in a way,
and this is the new playbook or modelthat we introduce.
(21:15):
This is an element of it is tohow do we know our employees
and the humanity within our workplacewell enough
that we can empower them to eitherstructure their work,
do their work,actually define who they am?
They are, beyond a set of competencies
(21:35):
or a job title,or the color of their skin or their gender
to really contribute to the organization,the team, and what needs to be done.
So. So why,
how do we do that?
Especially in a timewhen there's all the conversation
(21:57):
and even all the experiencethat people might have who are listening,
around using technologylike generative AI, for example,
how how do we as leaders
cultivate this sense of agency
and how does that intersect and connectwith things like generative AI?
Yeah.
So, we have to fast forward, right, to,
(22:21):
to what is this new model of leadershipthat we are talking about in the book?
You know, most of the listeners,who are listening to this understand
this concept of emotional intelligence,which is this idea.
And we see lots of leaders
talking about this today,this idea of understanding myself
(22:43):
and the attributesI need to create for myself as a leader.
It's an internal job.
Things like empathy, compassion,transparency, all of those things.
You know, you take a nice little testfrom emotional intelligence
and it tells you where you fall on
some of these attributesand what you need to do to cultivate them.
(23:06):
And that's great.
It's a precursor to what we call
emotionally mature leaders right now.
The difference between emotionalintelligence and emotional maturity is,
as I said, emotional intelligenceis all about you, right?
Emotional maturity is allabout the humanity in your organization,
(23:27):
which is thethe attributes of emotional maturity
are suspension of self-interest,insatiable curiosity
about the people that work with you,understanding the context
in which they're coming to workand doing their work.
It is about cultivating,
(23:48):
cultures of excellence.
That give people a senseon your team and architect,
the team that here's the workthat we together
define that you need to do thatgives purpose, agency,
a sense of connection, a senseof well-being in the work that you do.
(24:08):
And then certainly meetingthose human requirement that we lay out
in, in the book.
So this evolution from intelligenceto maturity
is really a shift from selffocused to human focused.
And we were going to get there and it's,
it's greatthat we weren't there in the, in the book,
(24:29):
you call it what you just described to usas the essential leadership flywheel
that I want to talka little bit more about.
And, and one of them is this idea that,
well, it's not about us, right.
And you said it.
And in the book, you talk about itas being the mindset
of suspending self interest.
(24:51):
You know,
hard, super hard.
Not not exactlyhow humans are generally wired.
So talk about that.
Like, I think, listen,those of you that are listening
are, are likely in a subset of all leadersbecause you're choosing to listen
to this, or watch this.
(25:12):
And so, so Christie, at some level,you're speaking
to the choir herebecause chances are most people here
intellectually get this idea.
Yeah, it's not about me.
I have to suspend my self-interest.
And it's hard, as you said,
give us a couple things that we can doto help us shift this mindset.
(25:34):
Remind ourselves of this mindset, move
in the direction of this approach.
Yeah.
Well, let's,you know, in order to give you that,
let's first start with some realitiesin the workplace today,
which point to the needfor a suspension of self-interest.
One number one,there is we are experiencing
(25:58):
the lowest scores on corporate leadershiptrust
that we've ever had globally.
So we are looking at the Edelman Trust
survey says that 62% of peopletrust their organization
leaders now, 62% is misleading
(26:18):
because that includes countrieslike China, the UAE, Russia, right.
Where it's a little difficultto speak out.
Right.
And so you're really looking at, morein the 40
percentile for Western countries, right?
So, so that's number one.
Trust is at an all time low.
(26:39):
Number two,we are looking at an epidemic of,
employee disengagementthat's costing us $8.8 trillion a year.
Now, if you put that 8.8trillion into contact,
that's like saying the combinationof annual revenue
of Microsoft, Apple and,
(27:02):
and Amazon together, a year
plus $322 billion of mental health issues
that we're paying for, and burnoutwith employees a year.
So we've got an economic crisis
boiling as a result of this.
Right?
(27:22):
So if that is the precursorlack of trust, lack of engagement,
when we examine whatwhy are those things happening?
It's because leadersonly care about themselves, right?
That that it's about their productivitynumber.
It's about their revenue number.
(27:42):
It's about their bonus.
And we all know leaders like this.
Now I'm not vilifying that.
That is human nature.
It's how we were all raisedin our organizations.
I get it right.
What's going to be my bonusat the end of the year?
What's going to be my ratingat the end of the year?
How am I going to take care of my own?
Those are very natural things.
(28:03):
However, they don't meet the timethat we're in today
because of those economic realitiesthat I just talked about.
So this notion of whatwe used to call servant leadership,
this notionof suspension of self-interest,
so that I can understand
my team and my employees to such a point
(28:26):
where I'm structuring the workand architecting how we get that work done
so that we meet better, productive goals,that we meet better revenue
goals, that when I suspend self-interestand I'm invested
tirelessly in our people,all the rest will come.
(28:47):
Yeah, it's the other way.
It's I got to get mineand then it's the other way around.
And then and then everyone can win.
The other thing that,I just love the phrase that you use and,
and before we started the, beforeI hit the record button here,
you were asking me about my new book.
I said, there's one thing in your bookthat is a really close,
(29:08):
close connection to what I've writtenabout in Flexible Leadership.
And so this idea of contextand you talk about it,
the two of you talk about itas contextual competency.
And I love yeah, I love that frame for it.
So say a little bit more about itbecause I, I'm with you
that the context in which we lead mattersa huge amount really this entire.
That's what this whole conversationhas been about. That's right.
(29:30):
And that's true at the macro level.
It's also true at the micro level.
And I do believe it'sa con, it's a competency.
So say a little bit moreabout what you mean there.
Well, I think that you're rightabout the micro and the macro.
Right.
When I started we started talkingabout how difficult leadership is.
Well, let's look at the context ofleadership today in the world that we live
(29:51):
in. It's got all of those headwindsthat we have already talked about.
But if you think about on the micro level,I mean, you know, Kevin,
I am sure you and I are of thethe same age when we entered
into the workplace wherewe had to check our humanity at the door,
you came to work,you didn't talk about life.
You didn't talk aboutwhat was happening outside work.
(30:12):
You came and you did your job,and you did it with excellence.
And that was it, right?
That is not the world we live in today.
So understanding the contextin which people and this is where
and it's tied to insatiable curiosity,understanding the context
in which peopleare coming to work to do their work
(30:33):
and why they may be working with onehand tied behind their back,
whether that is because they are dealingwith childcare, elder care, a divorce,
a, you know, a child with autism,
whatever it is, we come to work
right within a contextof what's happening in our lives.
(30:55):
Now, do we have to disclose all of that?
And there are sold to our leaders? No.
But what leaders need to do is understand
that the people who are on their teamare coming
with challenges of their own.
And my job as a leader is
to make the the job easierand to understand the context in which
(31:21):
that person's coming to job, to their job,
and have the flexibility to help them,
you know, achievebeyond their wildest dreams
their work, despite
the conflicts or
the issuesthat they may be bringing into work.
So this notion of contextual competenceand understanding your team
(31:44):
and what their own, you know, pardonthe consultants phrase headwinds may be
is something that I, as a leader,need to do in order
to help themachieve their professional goals.
Yeah, I think that's and again so
so right I the longer that I live,
the longer than I do this work,the more I think that context is
(32:08):
supremely important,more profoundly important.
Again, at the macro level, as we've talkeda great deal about on this,
in this conversation,as well as at the micro level.
And so I've got a couple of the things.
Christy,I want to ask you before we finish
a couple thingsthat I like to ask people in this setting.
I this is this is.
(32:28):
Well, I'll get to in a second.Let me ask this first.
What do you like to do for fun?
Haha.
I, love to play golf.
I love to.
I still consider myself,you know, an athlete.
That's that's the brandI grew up with in that big family.
I talked about earlier.
So, triathlons, running, weight training,all of those things.
(32:53):
I absolutely love.
And and most importantly,time, with my family.
Awesome.
And the other, the only thing you knew forsure I was going to ask you
is this next question.
And I'm going to put context around itfor everybody.
So if you've listened before, you probablyknow what question I'm about to ask.
Christy knows because it's, you know,when I told her I was going to ask,
(33:13):
but I'll give I'll give everybodya little context for that.
When I've ever since I was a kid, I've,
I've found that when I met smart people,
people that I admired,I always wanted to ask them this question.
So what are you reading? And. Yeah.
So when I started doing the show,I'm like, well, why wouldn't I do that?
Ask that question not just for me, butfor everyone else that gets to hear it.
(33:36):
So, Christy,what are you reading these days?
Yeah.
So I, I'm reading a bunch of differentthings.
Right?
Certainly Adam Grant's workI absolutely love.
So his new bookI am reading, I love Mel Robbins new book.
Let them.
I think that is, fascinating.
(33:58):
I, I love historyand the stories of history.
So, was Winston Churchill's,
biography.
So I jump back and forth.
I also really enjoy, you know, a daily
feed of all of the newspapers and,
(34:19):
you know, magazines that I love,whether it be The Economist or the
Financial Times or the Journal or whathave you, New York Times, all of that.
I just love information.
We will have all that for you,as well as a link to Christie's book,
which is the question you really wanted meto ask from the beginning. Christie.
So, like,where can we learn more about you?
(34:40):
Where do youwhere can people go to get the book?
Like, what do you want to tell people?
How do they.
Well, yeah.
So, I appreciate you asking.
You can buy the book on your favorite,
book websites or in your book stores.
Certainly is listed on Amazon,Goodreads, and, many others.
You can go to smith-monahan.com,which is, the book's website.
(35:04):
So please,
you know, take advantage of that.
I am working now on a projectsince I've left, the corporate world
called the Humanity Studio,which is a leadership advisory firm.
And so you can find,the humanity studio.com,
find more about me,the book and, and everything else.
(35:27):
So, I appreciate you askingand really look forward
to hearing people's views, on the book.
The humanity studio.comand Smith monahan.com,
the book is titled EssentialHow Distributed Teams, Generative
AI and Global Shifts are Creatinga new human powered Leadership.
(35:48):
Christy, it's been a pleasure to have you.
But before we say our goodbyes,I've got a question that I ask all of you.
And again, it's the thingI ask you every single episode.
It's the most important question thatyou could ask yourself before we finish.
And that is now what?
What are you going to do with whatyou just heard?
Just having heard it.
(36:08):
Found it to be interesting.
You know,
better than doing your exercisewith only your own thoughts.
Like, that's one thing.
But what we really hope is that youtake some action with what you learned.
Close the gap between, oh, I learned this,and what am I going to do with this?
I have my own notes.
My notes don't matter.
What mattersare the things that you thought of,
(36:30):
the actions that you want to take.
Certainly we would hope that one of thoseis to order a copy of the book essential.
But beyond that, what actionswill you take for having been here?
Because it's in that that you havethe chance to lead differently and start
to make a bigger positive differencein the world?
Christy, thank you for being here.
Such a pleasureto have you enjoyed our conversation.
(36:51):
I hope you did as well.
Thank you. Kevin,it was so much fun to be with you.
Everybody.
That's it for another episodeof the Remarkable Leadership Podcast.
If you enjoyed it,make sure you are subscribed
wherever you're listeningor make sure that you're telling others
they should come listen towhether this episode or the next episode,
because you know,there'll be another episode next week.
When we back with another episodeof the Remarkable Leadership Podcast.
(37:13):
We'll see you then.
Popular Podcasts
Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club
Welcome to Bookmarked by Reese’s Book Club — the podcast where great stories, bold women, and irresistible conversations collide! Hosted by award-winning journalist Danielle Robay, each week new episodes balance thoughtful literary insight with the fervor of buzzy book trends, pop culture and more. Bookmarked brings together celebrities, tastemakers, influencers and authors from Reese's Book Club and beyond to share stories that transcend the page. Pull up a chair. You’re not just listening — you’re part of the conversation.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com