April 8, 2025 • 39 mins
Burnout is not just a personal problem—it's a leadership crisis costing digital agencies millions in lost productivity, team turnover, and stalled growth. In this episode of the Catalytic Leadership Podcast, I sit down with Rachel Platt, founder of PLATTinum Consulting, to expose the hidden costs of poor leadership and the urgent need for a people-first strategy.
Rachel shares why most businesses—especially fast-scaling digital agencies—fail to implement feedback systems, leadership development, or team alignment strategies that actually stick. We unpack the connection between leadership blind spots and high client churn, low retention, and team burnout. If you're struggling to scale your agency or lead a small team through growth, this conversation is packed with insights on building a sustainable workplace culture, creating systems that retain top talent, and avoiding the mistakes that sabotage long-term agency success.
We also dive into the overlooked role of people strategy in mergers and acquisitions, and how ignoring the human side of your business can kill ROI. Whether you're a digital agency owner using GoHighLevel, part of a mastermind group like Seven Figure Agency, or a founder trying to lead through chaos—this episode is a must-listen.
Connect with Rachel Platt
Rachel is active on LinkedIn and always open to conversations around leadership, workplace culture, and strategic people systems. Visit www.PLATTinumconsulting.com or call/text her directly at 301-807-4334 to connect and learn how PLATTinum Consulting can support your team through growth, retention, and sustainable leadership.
Books Mentioned:
- Dare to Lead by Brené Brown
Join Dr. William Attaway on the Catalytic Leadership podcast as he shares transformative insights to help high-performance entrepreneurs and agency owners achieve Clear-Minded Focus, Calm Control, and Confidence.
- Free 30-Minute Discovery Call:
Ready to elevate your business? Book a free 30-minute discovery call with Dr. William Attaway and start your journey to success.
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Connect with Dr. William Attaway:
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dr. William Attaway (00:00):
I'm so excited today to have Rachel
Platt on the podcast.
was founded by Rachel in 2018.
For over 20 years, she hashelped organizations and
individuals achieve lastingsuccess through strategic human
resource leadership.
Through her roles as ChiefHuman Resources Officer, vice
(00:21):
President and Regional Directorin diverse corporate situations
and industries, she's built herreputation based on her ability
to develop pragmatic solutionsto meet complex organizational
and people challenges.
Rachel creates relationshipsbased on respect and a passion
for challenging others toperform beyond expectations.
(00:42):
has the expertise toaccelerate people strategy and
human capital related projectsin the areas of organizational
design, employee engagement,leadership development, culture
assessment and improvement,performance management, staff
training, communications, talentacquisition, dei and belonging
(01:04):
and employee coaching.
Rachel graduated with honorsfrom the Gozweta Business School
at Emory University.
She's also attended executiveeducation coursework at the
Thunderbird School of GlobalManagement.
Rachel is both a SHRM, scp andSenior Professional in Human
Resources Certified and iscertified as a Women's Business
(01:26):
Enterprise.
She's co-chair of the EducationCommittee for the Inclusion
Allies Coalition and is anactive member of the Society for
Human Resource Management.
Rachel, I'm so glad you're here.
Thanks for being on the show.
Rachel Platt (01:40):
Thanks for having me.
I've been looking forward tothis for weeks, so I'm so
thrilled to be here that thisday has finally come.
Dr. William Attaway (01:48):
I think this is going to be a fantastic
conversation, because we've hadseveral and I'm looking forward
to another one.
Intro/Outro (01:55):
Welcome to Catalytic Leadership, the
podcast designed to help leadersintentionally grow and thrive.
Here is your host author andleadership and executive coach,
dr William Attaway.
Dr. William Attaway (02:12):
I would love to start with you sharing a
little bit of your story withour listeners, particularly
around your journey and yourdevelopment as a leader.
How did you get started?
Rachel Platt (02:28):
your development as a leader.
How did you get started?
So I think I probably have astory like many others,
graduated and didn't know quitewhat I wanted to do, found a job
and then was lucky enough tohave several successive bosses
that saw something in me andchallenged me to move beyond
what I thought I was capable of,and I've had bosses that have
(02:54):
given feedback that was you knoweverything from.
You're not in the right job.
Your skills are better alignedover here, and I have always
been one to take feedback asfuel.
If someone gives me feedbackthat says you know this isn't
(03:14):
right or you're not headed inthe right direction on this,
then my first reaction is tofigure out how I can do better
and how I can use that feedback.
Sometimes they're spot on.
Often they're spot on that theysee something that I did not
see and I've used that to guidemy path.
(03:37):
And as I have gone throughout mycareer and had my own teams and
managers who reported to me,had folks who reported to them,
I've really tried to instillthis sense of feedback is fuel,
feedback is a gift, and yeteveryone starts from a place
(03:58):
where they're not good at thingsand owning our own sense of you
know we don't start out asmasters.
We have to learn, we have togrow and be curious.
That has been my path, and youknow I moved through my career
in so many.
I moved through my career andfinally got to the job that I
(04:21):
thought was the pinnacle of mycareer and realized on my own,
like I think so many people dograss was not greener and I had
moved so far away from thethings that I actually love
doing.
I might've been chasing a title.
I quickly realized whether itwas the place or the people, or
(04:46):
just being mature enough to saythis is I'm not having the
impact that I wanted to have,and so that's what I try to
create with all of my clientsand as they're thinking about
their leadership journey.
So I think it's a story like somany other people's, nothing
special.
Dr. William Attaway (05:04):
And yet everyone is unique.
You know, yes, and yours has nowasted experiences in it.
No, I truly believe.
If we were to describe, if youwere to yeah, if you were to
describe the impact that youwant to have and paint that
picture with as many brushes andcolors as you can, what would
(05:25):
that look like?
Rachel Platt (05:30):
Probably like a Jackson Pollock.
You know lots of differentcolors in all different places.
I don't know if you know thatartist, but lots come out.
Dr. William Attaway (05:39):
Yeah, absolutely.
Rachel Platt (05:40):
But absolutely.
I mean I think that there arejust so many key having an
impact on an individual levelwhen you're thinking about
leadership and you're thinkingabout people's strategy.
What people do in their careershas such an impact on every
(06:02):
aspect of their life.
I mean their financial future,their emotional in some cases
their mental health future, howthey view the world, how they
feel that they have impact, andso creating the systems and the
tools that allow an organizationto have a level of consistency,
(06:29):
but also a level ofcustomization.
Impact to me is about how doyou recognize the strengths in
every individual and surmisethat to meet whatever the
mission is, and that happenswithin your family and your home
life, or that happens withinyour work life as well?
Dr. William Attaway (06:55):
You know, I hear a lot of people talk about
strategy in their business, intheir team, whatever
organization they're leading,but there's not nearly as much
discussion that I hear anywayaround having a people strategy,
and this is something that youtalk a lot about.
How would you describe that?
Rachel Platt (07:17):
So a lot of organizations they talk about
human resources or they talkabout talent management.
Human resources to me, I mean,this is my background, this is
my educational background, Ihave spent my entire career in
human resources and yet so muchof it is tactical or compliance
(07:39):
based.
And really what the strategy isabout is how do I look at what
the business objectives are?
How do I think about the humanbeings that work here and
strategically align them, theirskills, their abilities, their
(08:02):
leadership strengths?
How do I look at each of thosecomponents and build so that the
organization can be moresuccessful?
You can't look at it in a siloor in a vacuum.
You need to look holisticallyat what are the business
objectives and how can eachindividual contribute to that,
(08:25):
and then how do you layer on topthe systems so that the
organization can thoseindividuals to be successful.
That's what people strategy isall about.
It's the economic, the internal, the external, the economics,
the political, the values of theorganization, the values of the
(08:47):
team.
All of that comes together in ablender to make just a mix of
all of the different thingstogether and get your idea If
you paint the picture.
There's a lot of differentcolors and textures that need to
go in to really maximize theorganization's ability to be
(09:09):
successful and to maximize eachindividual's ability to be
successful.
Dr. William Attaway (09:18):
So, without an intentional people strategy,
what are some of the ditchesthat you see companies or
leaders drive into?
Rachel Platt (09:28):
They have retention issues.
They struggle to give feedback,both to their top performers,
who they're looking to retain,to their lower performers, who,
you know, some tweaks can getthem to be solid performers.
(09:49):
But I haven't worked out anactual calculation on this.
I've been thinking about thisfor weeks and months and years
actually.
But I feel like there's acalculation out there there that
if you took all of your strong,fully contributing employees
and were able to give them thefeedback that allowed them to
(10:15):
improve, even by 5%, 10%, what'sthe bottom line business
incremental outcomes?
What's the profitability change?
What's the bottom line businessincremental outcomes?
What's the profitability change?
What's the employee retentionchange?
So people strategy for theorganizations that do it, they
are focused on just how tomaximize without burning their
(10:40):
people out, and those that don'tsee the repercussions from
retention and growth andemployee language.
Dr. William Attaway (10:51):
You know, burnout is nothing new.
I mean, we've known this was avery real thing for a very long
time.
But in a post-COVID world, Ihear so much more from people
who are saying I'm experiencingthis, I have experienced this.
I have experienced this, I seeit ahead and I think it's very
real, but I'm still watching waytoo many companies and way too
(11:14):
many leaders treat it as thoughit were a preference or a wish.
You know something that oh,we'll just get over it kind of a
thing.
You know, having a peoplestrategy and I love how you talk
about this is understandingthat people are people, are
resources that you have tosteward well.
You have to treat them asactual human beings instead of
(11:37):
as cogs in a machine that arejust interchangeable, and part
of that is helping themunderstand and right sizing your
expectations around what ahealthy and sustainable pace
looks like.
How do you do that withcompanies that may or may not
have placed a value on this inthe past?
Rachel Platt (11:58):
So how you do it?
That is an excellent question,because there are some
organizations that are notbought in on this and you can
give them the data, you can showthem the ramifications, you can
do storytelling of real lifeexamples, you can talk to them
(12:20):
about how this is impactingtheir organization, them about
how this is impacting theirorganization and if they're not
going to get it and not going tomake a change, ultimately
people are going to vote withtheir feet and they're going to
leave the organization and thatmay take a long time.
It may not be directlyattributable to or people may
(12:43):
not be honest in their exitmeetings about what was
happening, but at the end of theday, you can lead the horse to
water, isn't that the expression?
And I have all of the data andI talk with my clients about the
data.
For me, the good news,personally, is that often my
(13:06):
clients are the ones who areready and they really aspire to
be an organization that goesbeyond just basic compliance.
They aspire to be anorganization that really they
want the business to thrive andbe more profitable and they want
(13:27):
their employees to thrive.
So it is easier to get thoseorganizations on board with some
very specific and actionableways to avoid burnout, or
actually actually said, a betterway is.
I mean, yes, avoiding burnoutis 100% a goal, but, said in the
(13:51):
opposite direction, is how doyou actually create a
sustainable workplace?
We don't want to get to thepoint where people are burning
out.
We want to be long-termsustained.
Dr. William Attaway (14:09):
Right?
Do you find people push back onthis, and if they do, why?
Why is this not as real?
Everybody is capable of burnout, I think.
If you're running at anunhealthy and unsustainable pace
, why do you?
Rachel Platt (14:27):
think there's pushback on this.
In my experience, there is morecommunication, there's more
talking about this than therehas ever been before.
But one of the challenges that Ireally think exists in a lot of
industries is that the leaders,so many of the folks who are
(14:49):
leaders now they grew up in thisenvironment of high stress,
high burnout.
You're not talking about thisand it's kind of a little bit.
You know, I had to push boulderuphill both ways in the snow,
barefoot and I turned out okay,so doesn't everybody have to do
(15:12):
it that way.
Think about the changes thathave happened, like in hospitals
, in you know, the healthcareindustry, when you had your ER
doctors who were supposed to beon like 48-hour shifts.
Think about your publicaccountants whose busy seasons
were, you know, 80-hour weeks.
(15:34):
We're still seeing some leaderswho are like, well, I did it and
I survived Toughen up folks.
It's just not happening quiteas quickly as we would like in
many cases and in other casespeople just don't know how to
fix it.
They can't see any other way.
And that's where some outsideresources to help leaders, to
(15:58):
facilitate conversations sooften the answers exist within
the that organization, thepeople who work there, can solve
these problems if we'reactually interested in listening
and implementing.
And change is hard, but change,you know resiliency and change
(16:20):
and the ability to recognizethat what we're doing is not
sustainable, that constantcuriosity of how to make things
better.
Those are the best leaders thatare out there, in my opinion.
Dr. William Attaway (16:40):
I think we froze.
Rachel Platt (16:41):
Did you?
Dr. William Attaway (16:42):
Yeah, I think so too.
Rachel Platt (16:45):
So that part we might have to edit.
Dr. William Attaway (16:47):
And we will , no worries so.
So part of it is well, I paidmy dues, so you have to pay your
dues.
You know, with the hustle andgrind and the, you know the
overwork, I get that and I thinkthat's.
That's something of course I'veseen.
I know you've seen it.
This is, this is not uncommonat all.
(17:07):
That's that's understandable ofa great leader is to understand
that you are, you are to be thebiggest cheerleader for your
team.
You want for them to win andnot just at their kpis.
(17:30):
You want for them to win aspeople, and I think that's great
leadership.
For me, the struggle point thatI have here is if somebody's
firing a flare saying I'm notgood, yeah.
Help why does a leader not stepinto that and say how can I help
?
Rachel Platt (17:53):
Unfortunately, I have seen too many folks who
either have I don't want to saythat it's diagnosed, but like a
little PTSD from their ownexperiences.
As far as nobody helped me andI turned out, I figured it out,
I had to tough out on my own,and that is so unfortunate.
(18:14):
I think that there's also asituation, I think there's two
other situations.
One is where the leader reallyis either staffed so thinly or
they don't have a toolbox ofresources to be able to solve
(18:37):
the problem in a different way,problem in a different way, um,
and that's that is truly achallenge.
But if you are lucky enoughthat someone on your team
actually speaks up and says I'mon the edge, um, you've got to
(19:02):
find a solution, becauseotherwise the next thing that
they're going to tell you is I'mout, whether that's I need a
medical leave of absence,whether that's I'm quitting,
whether that's you know,hopefully not some sort of
self-harm, or physically sick,emotionally sick.
(19:24):
You know all of that.
You're going to have to solvethe problem and either you can
solve it together with thatemployee or you're going to be
solving it on your own withoutthat employee and often without
that employee available toanswer your questions or to help
transition it as you lightentheir load.
(19:47):
And the third thing, just kindof to get back.
We're also really strugglingright now.
There is still stigma andpeople's concern for their job,
for their job, everything that'shappening, I mean right now in
the economy, people areconcerned about their ability to
(20:09):
keep their job.
What happens if layoffs happen?
What happens if this happens?
And so, unfortunately, noteveryone is speaking up and so,
as a leader, there's realopportunity to just asking folks
on a pretty regular basis howare you, what did you accomplish
(20:30):
today?
Not what did you do for me?
But like how are you?
How's it going?
What can I do to support you?
What can I do to support you?
What can I do to removeobstacles for you?
How can I help?
Those are the types ofquestions that employees, in all
(20:52):
the data, all the surveys,employees are consistently
saying.
When my supervisor shows thatthey care about me as a human
being, my willingness to goabove and beyond, my loyalty to
that individual, my satisfactionat work, my desire to remain
(21:18):
with this employer, every one ofthose goes through the roof.
So checking in with your peopleis a really, really easy, low
cost thing to do.
I'm not saying that it's nothard to solve for some of the
(21:39):
answers that they may bring toyou, but at least asking the
question can have such atremendous impact.
I love that.
Dr. William Attaway (21:47):
You know, a lot of my clients are in
various stages of mergers andacquisitions, and this is this,
of course, is not new.
The M&A world is replete withexamples, especially, I think I
seem to see it more in recentyears.
You know, there's a whole lotof moving parts to any type of
acquisition or merger, but onething that is not often thought
(22:09):
about is having a peoplestrategy, like we've been
talking about throughout thisconversation.
How important is it to have apeople strategy, first and
second?
What does that even look likewhen it comes to a merger and
acquisition situation?
Rachel Platt (22:25):
Can I go shout this from the rooftops?
Dr. William Attaway (22:28):
Please.
Rachel Platt (22:30):
Can we just scream this into our megaphone you
have the greatest accountants,the greatest lawyers, the
greatest dealmakers in the world, but you're not going to get
your return on investment foryour merger or acquisition if
(22:55):
the people and the culture arenot aligned.
So, having a people strategy Ido a lot of this work and really
thinking about where thealignment is beyond just hey, we
pay on this cycle and we offerthis benefit or that benefit
(23:16):
that is all very, very importantwork that needs to be done kind
of in the due diligence process.
So you need to so that you canunderstand the change aspect,
but really understanding.
How did decisions get madearound here?
Who has the power to make thosedecisions?
(23:36):
How do we communicate?
How does the staff communicateback to the leadership?
What are the values of theorganization and are those
values just written on the wallor they actually lived and
breathe?
You know something that youlive and you breathe, and people
(23:59):
are rewarded and recognized fortheir demonstration of those
values.
Doing that work before you signa deal not just can the C-suite
get along and have beerstogether and can we talk about
(24:23):
business development together.
Yes, that is important, but itgoes way beyond that.
And doing that during the duediligence, if nothing else, so
that you know how much of achange exercise your
organization is going to need togo through, so that you can
(24:43):
plan for, and then, once you'rein the integration standpoint,
really, as the deal has beensigned and you're planning for
integration, people's strategyis all about change management,
transparency.
Change management transparency,communication, helping people
(25:14):
feel like they as individualsare valued and that they belong
at this new organization.
People want to know that thingsthat they aligned with
previously are going to becontinued at the new
organization or, if they're notgoing to be continued, they want
to know about it so that theirexpectations are set properly.
In my experience, the realityis, in the absence of
(25:36):
information, people make stuffup, they're just trying to fill
the void and that's how thegossip starts and that's how the
us versus them starts, and youreally have to put that together
in an overall people strategyfrom the beginning.
Dr. William Attaway (25:57):
I love that , I love the intentionality of
that and I love thepeople-centeredness of that, and
I think this is a piece that isnot often talked about in the
M&A space or thought about, butit is so incredibly important
because on both sides of themerger or acquisition you have
people and if you're notthinking about that, if you're
only thinking about the numberson the spreadsheet or the
(26:20):
contracts, language, like yousay, that's not enough.
You could have the best ofthose things and you will not
have a successful merger oracquisition.
Your outcomes will not bewhatever ROI you're looking for
from that deal you're not goingto hit those outcomes if you
(27:09):
can't retain or hire the butthat they feel seen and heard
and known in the midst of that.
Without that, you're missingsomething that really can make a
huge difference on your bottomline, and I don't know a
business leader or businessowner that doesn't want to see
that yes, if you look at all ofthe numbers, you know if it
(27:30):
costs three times the annualsalary to replace um a high
performer.
Rachel Platt (27:39):
If you look at the data as far as what happens to
morale, what happens to clientservice and this is certainly
true in a merger or acquisition,but just in general if you
invest time and yes, there aresome financial investments as
(28:05):
well but if you really justinvest time and think both think
with your head and lead withyour heart and I'm not trying to
make this all woo-woo, I'm nota woo-woo person.
I look at the data, not awoo-woo person.
I look at the data, I look atthe statistics that are out
(28:26):
there about what it takes tomake an important investment in
your people.
And giving timely, actionablefeedback, being transparent in
your communications anddemonstrating human care for
your team are three topindicators for organizational
(28:48):
success.
Dr. William Attaway (28:51):
I love that .
Let me talk about you for aminute, Rachel.
I mean, we've been talkingabout you the whole time, but I
mean specifically yourleadership.
You have to lead at a higherlevel today for your business,
for your clients, for your team.
You have to lead at a higherlevel today for your business,
for your clients, for your team.
You have to lead at a higherlevel today than you did five
years ago.
Yes, and that same thing isgoing to be true five years from
now.
Intro/Outro (29:09):
Yes.
Dr. William Attaway (29:09):
How do you stay on top of your game?
How do you level up with theleadership skills that you need
to be developing so that youwill be the leader that your
clients and your business needs?
Rachel Platt (29:22):
developing so that you will be the leader that
your clients and your businessneeds?
That is such a great questionand is one that I have been
spending a lot of time thinkingabout.
I do a lot of reading.
I read books that are out there, but one of the things that I
have really found so engaginglately is not listening to the
big names that are out there,but are listening to people that
(29:45):
are the practitioners, thepeople whether it's a podcast,
whether it's an article peoplewho are thought leaders on
LinkedIn.
What they're seeingexperiencing there's just, I'm
curious.
I think people are fascinatingwhy they do the things that they
(30:07):
do and the business behind that, and so I'm really spend a
significant amount of time.
I used to think of it jokinglyoh, my goodness, I'm wasting a
lot of time on LinkedIn socialmedia I'm not talking Facebook
or Instagram, anything like that, but even just on LinkedIn, I'm
(30:28):
wasting a lot of time, and onceI reframed that for myself, I
realized that actually, this iswhere I'm learning.
This is how I'm upscalingmyself.
This is how I am.
Yes, I'm paying attention tothe big trends that are out
there and the big surveys thatare released and the articles
(30:50):
that are out there but reallytalking to people about what
they are experiencing andlistening and reading about it.
It's an MBA in organizationaldevelopment.
Every single day, just beingout there in the world and
hearing what people have to say,yeah.
Dr. William Attaway (31:10):
Yeah, and I think part of that is having
that teachable mindset, thatteachable spirit.
You know where you are, alwaysin a learning posture for those
things that come your way, forthose things that you do
encounter, whether it's onLinkedIn or wherever you are, so
that you can recognize.
I need to learn that.
I didn't know that.
That's helpful.
(31:31):
I think you get to choosewhether you will have that
mindset or not.
Rachel Platt (31:38):
Do you also think I'm just curious?
I love to hear from people thathave very different opinions
than I do, 100%, I mean, I wantto learn from what their
experience is, even if Idisagree.
I want to know that so that Ican be aware and be sensitive to
(32:02):
different opinions, differentleadership styles.
That helps PLATTinum to bebetter able to serve our clients
, if we have the broadestpossible view.
And so having a growth mindset,having a learning mindset,
frankly, just being curious, um,yes, you know, I feel like I'm
(32:29):
some days.
We're back in ourthree-year-old stage.
Well, why?
But why?
It's actually a reallymind-expanding place to be and I
love it.
Dr. William Attaway (32:41):
Well, you know, I mean.
The average two orthree-year-old asks 125
questions a day.
The average adult asks six.
Rachel Platt (32:51):
I did not know.
I did not know.
Dr. William Attaway (32:53):
Yeah, I am not average, right.
Why did we stop askingquestions?
Why did we stop being curious,you know, and there's so many
answers to that question.
But I believe there's a wayback and I love the way you're
describing that.
I think that's so healthy andapproaching with curiosity, and
if you're only listening orreading people that you already
agree with, all you're creatingis an echo chamber, and if
(33:15):
you're a leader doing that, letme just encourage you to stop it
.
Right now.
You need to be exposed to ideasthat are far beyond that.
I read people I disagree withall the time because it helps me
to understand differentpositions and perspectives.
I may still disagree at the end, but you can learn from anybody
.
Sometimes you learn what's nothelpful or what not to do, but
(33:38):
that can be incredibly valuable,so I agree wholeheartedly.
Rachel Platt (33:44):
Yeah, some of my best experiences now looking
back, were some of my worstexperiences how not to do this,
how not to treat football, hownot to be a leader Boy.
Can you learn a lot from thosethings?
We could do a whole othersegment on that.
Dr. William Attaway (34:04):
I've got a drawer full of t-shirts.
That's right.
Yes, yes, is there a book thathas made a big difference in
your journey as you've beengrowing and learning as a leader
, a book that has reallyresonated, that you would
recommend to the leaders who arelistening?
Rachel Platt (34:24):
I feel like, if you have done 200 plus episodes,
I feel like so many people havemust have said this before, but
I am a Renee Brown believer.
Um, I dare to lead any articlesshe puts out.
(34:47):
Um, I mean, I don't think sheand I could be more different,
but I just find her way ofthinking, her way of being
curious.
What she talks about in termsof vulnerability, shame, how to
be a better human being, howwork advice goes to parenting,
(35:13):
relationship advice, familyadvice, all of those things I
would say, if there's anyone shehas had.
And her books have had thebiggest influence on me
personally and tend to be booksthat I recommend to up and
coming leaders, even if it isjust to say this doesn't
(35:36):
resonate with me, because itdoesn't resonate with everyone.
It resonates with me, but itdoesn't resonate with everyone,
and I just think it's a reallygood grounding for folks as
they're moving through theirleadership ability.
Dr. William Attaway (35:55):
I definitely would agree Highly
recommend her books.
She has taught me quite a bitover the years and I continue to
learn from her, so I willconcur most heartily with Brene
Brown.
So every time we talk, I walkaway having learned something,
and this is no exception today.
I'm so grateful for yourgenerosity and your transparency
(36:16):
and sharing from your journeyso far and the things that
you've learned, and sogenerously sharing that with our
listeners.
I'm so grateful.
I know many of them are goingto want to continue to learn
from you and to connect with youand find out more about what it
is that you're doing.
What's the best way for them todo that?
Rachel Platt (36:35):
Well, I am active on LinkedIn, rachel Platt.
Just so everyone knows, platthas two Ts, which is how we
spell Plattinum in .
Our website very simple , withthe two Ts, and you can also
just pick up the phone, give mea call.
(36:57):
I actually answer my phone 301.
You could even text.
So there's just so many ways tobe in touch and I look forward
to learning, growing and helpingothers be successful and
meeting more of your listeners.
So, thank you for having me,thank you for being such a kind,
(37:19):
caring and curious host.
All of your episodes that I'velistened to it comes through
loud and clear.
You're just so genuine and soreal and it's really fun.
Dr. William Attaway (37:36):
Well, I greatly appreciate that.
That is the goal, thank you forbeing here.
Rachel Platt (37:38):
Rachel, truly, thank you for having me.
Dr. William Attaway (37:40):
I appreciate it.
Thanks for joining me for thisepisode today.
As we wrap up, I'd love for youto do two things.
First, subscribe to thispodcast so you don't miss an
episode, and if you find valuehere, I'd love it if you would
rate it and review it.
That really does make adifference in helping other
people to discover this podcast.
Second, if you don't have acopy of my newest book,
(38:03):
catalytic Leadership, I'd loveto put a copy in your hands.
If you go tocatalyticleadershipbookcom, you
can get a copy for free.
Just pay the shipping so I canget it to you and we'll get one
right out.
My goal is to put this into thehands of as many leaders as
possible.
This book captures principlesthat I've learned in 20 plus
(38:25):
years of coaching leaders in theentrepreneurial space, in
business, government, nonprofits, education and the local church
.
You can also connect with me onLinkedIn to keep up with what
I'm currently learning andthinking about.
And if you're ready to take anext step with a coach to help
you intentionally grow andthrive as a leader, I'd be
(38:47):
honored to help you.
Just go tocatalyticleadershipnet to book a
call with me.
Stay tuned for our next episodenext week.
Until then, as always, leaderschoose to be catalytic.
Intro/Outro (39:01):
Thanks for listening to Catalytic
Leadership with Dr WilliamAttaway.
Be sure to subscribe whereveryou listen to podcasts so you
don't miss the next episode.
Want more?
Go to catalyticleadershipnet.
I'm so excited today to have Rachel
Platt on the podcast.
was founded by Rachel in 2018.
For over 20 years, she hashelped organizations and
individuals achieve lastingsuccess through strategic human
resource leadership.
Through her roles as ChiefHuman Resources Officer, vice
(00:21):
President and Regional Directorin diverse corporate situations
and industries, she's built herreputation based on her ability
to develop pragmatic solutionsto meet complex organizational
and people challenges.
Rachel creates relationshipsbased on respect and a passion
for challenging others toperform beyond expectations.
(00:42):
has the expertise toaccelerate people strategy and
human capital related projectsin the areas of organizational
design, employee engagement,leadership development, culture
assessment and improvement,performance management, staff
training, communications, talentacquisition, dei and belonging
(01:04):
and employee coaching.
Rachel graduated with honorsfrom the Gozweta Business School
at Emory University.
She's also attended executiveeducation coursework at the
Thunderbird School of GlobalManagement.
Rachel is both a SHRM, scp andSenior Professional in Human
Resources Certified and iscertified as a Women's Business
(01:26):
Enterprise.
She's co-chair of the EducationCommittee for the Inclusion
Allies Coalition and is anactive member of the Society for
Human Resource Management.
Rachel, I'm so glad you're here.
Thanks for being on the show.
Rachel Platt (01:40):
Thanks for having me.
I've been looking forward tothis for weeks, so I'm so
thrilled to be here that thisday has finally come.
Dr. William Attaway (01:48):
I think this is going to be a fantastic
conversation, because we've hadseveral and I'm looking forward
to another one.
Intro/Outro (01:55):
Welcome to Catalytic Leadership, the
podcast designed to help leadersintentionally grow and thrive.
Here is your host author andleadership and executive coach,
dr William Attaway.
Dr. William Attaway (02:12):
I would love to start with you sharing a
little bit of your story withour listeners, particularly
around your journey and yourdevelopment as a leader.
How did you get started?
Rachel Platt (02:28):
your development as a leader.
How did you get started?
So I think I probably have astory like many others,
graduated and didn't know quitewhat I wanted to do, found a job
and then was lucky enough tohave several successive bosses
that saw something in me andchallenged me to move beyond
what I thought I was capable of,and I've had bosses that have
(02:54):
given feedback that was you knoweverything from.
You're not in the right job.
Your skills are better alignedover here, and I have always
been one to take feedback asfuel.
If someone gives me feedbackthat says you know this isn't
(03:14):
right or you're not headed inthe right direction on this,
then my first reaction is tofigure out how I can do better
and how I can use that feedback.
Sometimes they're spot on.
Often they're spot on that theysee something that I did not
see and I've used that to guidemy path.
(03:37):
And as I have gone throughout mycareer and had my own teams and
managers who reported to me,had folks who reported to them,
I've really tried to instillthis sense of feedback is fuel,
feedback is a gift, and yeteveryone starts from a place
(03:58):
where they're not good at thingsand owning our own sense of you
know we don't start out asmasters.
We have to learn, we have togrow and be curious.
That has been my path, and youknow I moved through my career
in so many.
I moved through my career andfinally got to the job that I
(04:21):
thought was the pinnacle of mycareer and realized on my own,
like I think so many people dograss was not greener and I had
moved so far away from thethings that I actually love
doing.
I might've been chasing a title.
I quickly realized whether itwas the place or the people, or
(04:46):
just being mature enough to saythis is I'm not having the
impact that I wanted to have,and so that's what I try to
create with all of my clientsand as they're thinking about
their leadership journey.
So I think it's a story like somany other people's, nothing
special.
Dr. William Attaway (05:04):
And yet everyone is unique.
You know, yes, and yours has nowasted experiences in it.
No, I truly believe.
If we were to describe, if youwere to yeah, if you were to
describe the impact that youwant to have and paint that
picture with as many brushes andcolors as you can, what would
(05:25):
that look like?
Rachel Platt (05:30):
Probably like a Jackson Pollock.
You know lots of differentcolors in all different places.
I don't know if you know thatartist, but lots come out.
Dr. William Attaway (05:39):
Yeah, absolutely.
Rachel Platt (05:40):
But absolutely.
I mean I think that there arejust so many key having an
impact on an individual levelwhen you're thinking about
leadership and you're thinkingabout people's strategy.
What people do in their careershas such an impact on every
(06:02):
aspect of their life.
I mean their financial future,their emotional in some cases
their mental health future, howthey view the world, how they
feel that they have impact, andso creating the systems and the
tools that allow an organizationto have a level of consistency,
(06:29):
but also a level ofcustomization.
Impact to me is about how doyou recognize the strengths in
every individual and surmisethat to meet whatever the
mission is, and that happenswithin your family and your home
life, or that happens withinyour work life as well?
Dr. William Attaway (06:55):
You know, I hear a lot of people talk about
strategy in their business, intheir team, whatever
organization they're leading,but there's not nearly as much
discussion that I hear anywayaround having a people strategy,
and this is something that youtalk a lot about.
How would you describe that?
Rachel Platt (07:17):
So a lot of organizations they talk about
human resources or they talkabout talent management.
Human resources to me, I mean,this is my background, this is
my educational background, Ihave spent my entire career in
human resources and yet so muchof it is tactical or compliance
(07:39):
based.
And really what the strategy isabout is how do I look at what
the business objectives are?
How do I think about the humanbeings that work here and
strategically align them, theirskills, their abilities, their
(08:02):
leadership strengths?
How do I look at each of thosecomponents and build so that the
organization can be moresuccessful?
You can't look at it in a siloor in a vacuum.
You need to look holisticallyat what are the business
objectives and how can eachindividual contribute to that,
(08:25):
and then how do you layer on topthe systems so that the
organization can thoseindividuals to be successful.
That's what people strategy isall about.
It's the economic, the internal, the external, the economics,
the political, the values of theorganization, the values of the
(08:47):
team.
All of that comes together in ablender to make just a mix of
all of the different thingstogether and get your idea If
you paint the picture.
There's a lot of differentcolors and textures that need to
go in to really maximize theorganization's ability to be
(09:09):
successful and to maximize eachindividual's ability to be
successful.
Dr. William Attaway (09:18):
So, without an intentional people strategy,
what are some of the ditchesthat you see companies or
leaders drive into?
Rachel Platt (09:28):
They have retention issues.
They struggle to give feedback,both to their top performers,
who they're looking to retain,to their lower performers, who,
you know, some tweaks can getthem to be solid performers.
(09:49):
But I haven't worked out anactual calculation on this.
I've been thinking about thisfor weeks and months and years
actually.
But I feel like there's acalculation out there there that
if you took all of your strong,fully contributing employees
and were able to give them thefeedback that allowed them to
(10:15):
improve, even by 5%, 10%, what'sthe bottom line business
incremental outcomes?
What's the profitability change?
What's the bottom line businessincremental outcomes?
What's the profitability change?
What's the employee retentionchange?
So people strategy for theorganizations that do it, they
are focused on just how tomaximize without burning their
(10:40):
people out, and those that don'tsee the repercussions from
retention and growth andemployee language.
Dr. William Attaway (10:51):
You know, burnout is nothing new.
I mean, we've known this was avery real thing for a very long
time.
But in a post-COVID world, Ihear so much more from people
who are saying I'm experiencingthis, I have experienced this.
I have experienced this, I seeit ahead and I think it's very
real, but I'm still watching waytoo many companies and way too
(11:14):
many leaders treat it as thoughit were a preference or a wish.
You know something that oh,we'll just get over it kind of a
thing.
You know, having a peoplestrategy and I love how you talk
about this is understandingthat people are people, are
resources that you have tosteward well.
You have to treat them asactual human beings instead of
(11:37):
as cogs in a machine that arejust interchangeable, and part
of that is helping themunderstand and right sizing your
expectations around what ahealthy and sustainable pace
looks like.
How do you do that withcompanies that may or may not
have placed a value on this inthe past?
Rachel Platt (11:58):
So how you do it?
That is an excellent question,because there are some
organizations that are notbought in on this and you can
give them the data, you can showthem the ramifications, you can
do storytelling of real lifeexamples, you can talk to them
(12:20):
about how this is impactingtheir organization, them about
how this is impacting theirorganization and if they're not
going to get it and not going tomake a change, ultimately
people are going to vote withtheir feet and they're going to
leave the organization and thatmay take a long time.
It may not be directlyattributable to or people may
(12:43):
not be honest in their exitmeetings about what was
happening, but at the end of theday, you can lead the horse to
water, isn't that the expression?
And I have all of the data andI talk with my clients about the
data.
For me, the good news,personally, is that often my
(13:06):
clients are the ones who areready and they really aspire to
be an organization that goesbeyond just basic compliance.
They aspire to be anorganization that really they
want the business to thrive andbe more profitable and they want
(13:27):
their employees to thrive.
So it is easier to get thoseorganizations on board with some
very specific and actionableways to avoid burnout, or
actually actually said, a betterway is.
I mean, yes, avoiding burnoutis 100% a goal, but, said in the
(13:51):
opposite direction, is how doyou actually create a
sustainable workplace?
We don't want to get to thepoint where people are burning
out.
We want to be long-termsustained.
Dr. William Attaway (14:09):
Right?
Do you find people push back onthis, and if they do, why?
Why is this not as real?
Everybody is capable of burnout, I think.
If you're running at anunhealthy and unsustainable pace
, why do you?
Rachel Platt (14:27):
think there's pushback on this.
In my experience, there is morecommunication, there's more
talking about this than therehas ever been before.
But one of the challenges that Ireally think exists in a lot of
industries is that the leaders,so many of the folks who are
(14:49):
leaders now they grew up in thisenvironment of high stress,
high burnout.
You're not talking about thisand it's kind of a little bit.
You know, I had to push boulderuphill both ways in the snow,
barefoot and I turned out okay,so doesn't everybody have to do
(15:12):
it that way.
Think about the changes thathave happened, like in hospitals
, in you know, the healthcareindustry, when you had your ER
doctors who were supposed to beon like 48-hour shifts.
Think about your publicaccountants whose busy seasons
were, you know, 80-hour weeks.
(15:34):
We're still seeing some leaderswho are like, well, I did it and
I survived Toughen up folks.
It's just not happening quiteas quickly as we would like in
many cases and in other casespeople just don't know how to
fix it.
They can't see any other way.
And that's where some outsideresources to help leaders, to
(15:58):
facilitate conversations sooften the answers exist within
the that organization, thepeople who work there, can solve
these problems if we'reactually interested in listening
and implementing.
And change is hard, but change,you know resiliency and change
(16:20):
and the ability to recognizethat what we're doing is not
sustainable, that constantcuriosity of how to make things
better.
Those are the best leaders thatare out there, in my opinion.
Dr. William Attaway (16:40):
I think we froze.
Rachel Platt (16:41):
Did you?
Dr. William Attaway (16:42):
Yeah, I think so too.
Rachel Platt (16:45):
So that part we might have to edit.
Dr. William Attaway (16:47):
And we will , no worries so.
So part of it is well, I paidmy dues, so you have to pay your
dues.
You know, with the hustle andgrind and the, you know the
overwork, I get that and I thinkthat's.
That's something of course I'veseen.
I know you've seen it.
This is, this is not uncommonat all.
(17:07):
That's that's understandable ofa great leader is to understand
that you are, you are to be thebiggest cheerleader for your
team.
You want for them to win andnot just at their kpis.
(17:30):
You want for them to win aspeople, and I think that's great
leadership.
For me, the struggle point thatI have here is if somebody's
firing a flare saying I'm notgood, yeah.
Help why does a leader not stepinto that and say how can I help
?
Rachel Platt (17:53):
Unfortunately, I have seen too many folks who
either have I don't want to saythat it's diagnosed, but like a
little PTSD from their ownexperiences.
As far as nobody helped me andI turned out, I figured it out,
I had to tough out on my own,and that is so unfortunate.
(18:14):
I think that there's also asituation, I think there's two
other situations.
One is where the leader reallyis either staffed so thinly or
they don't have a toolbox ofresources to be able to solve
(18:37):
the problem in a different way,problem in a different way, um,
and that's that is truly achallenge.
But if you are lucky enoughthat someone on your team
actually speaks up and says I'mon the edge, um, you've got to
(19:02):
find a solution, becauseotherwise the next thing that
they're going to tell you is I'mout, whether that's I need a
medical leave of absence,whether that's I'm quitting,
whether that's you know,hopefully not some sort of
self-harm, or physically sick,emotionally sick.
(19:24):
You know all of that.
You're going to have to solvethe problem and either you can
solve it together with thatemployee or you're going to be
solving it on your own withoutthat employee and often without
that employee available toanswer your questions or to help
transition it as you lightentheir load.
(19:47):
And the third thing, just kindof to get back.
We're also really strugglingright now.
There is still stigma andpeople's concern for their job,
for their job, everything that'shappening, I mean right now in
the economy, people areconcerned about their ability to
(20:09):
keep their job.
What happens if layoffs happen?
What happens if this happens?
And so, unfortunately, noteveryone is speaking up and so,
as a leader, there's realopportunity to just asking folks
on a pretty regular basis howare you, what did you accomplish
(20:30):
today?
Not what did you do for me?
But like how are you?
How's it going?
What can I do to support you?
What can I do to support you?
What can I do to removeobstacles for you?
How can I help?
Those are the types ofquestions that employees, in all
(20:52):
the data, all the surveys,employees are consistently
saying.
When my supervisor shows thatthey care about me as a human
being, my willingness to goabove and beyond, my loyalty to
that individual, my satisfactionat work, my desire to remain
(21:18):
with this employer, every one ofthose goes through the roof.
So checking in with your peopleis a really, really easy, low
cost thing to do.
I'm not saying that it's nothard to solve for some of the
(21:39):
answers that they may bring toyou, but at least asking the
question can have such atremendous impact.
I love that.
Dr. William Attaway (21:47):
You know, a lot of my clients are in
various stages of mergers andacquisitions, and this is this,
of course, is not new.
The M&A world is replete withexamples, especially, I think I
seem to see it more in recentyears.
You know, there's a whole lotof moving parts to any type of
acquisition or merger, but onething that is not often thought
(22:09):
about is having a peoplestrategy, like we've been
talking about throughout thisconversation.
How important is it to have apeople strategy, first and
second?
What does that even look likewhen it comes to a merger and
acquisition situation?
Rachel Platt (22:25):
Can I go shout this from the rooftops?
Dr. William Attaway (22:28):
Please.
Rachel Platt (22:30):
Can we just scream this into our megaphone you
have the greatest accountants,the greatest lawyers, the
greatest dealmakers in the world, but you're not going to get
your return on investment foryour merger or acquisition if
(22:55):
the people and the culture arenot aligned.
So, having a people strategy Ido a lot of this work and really
thinking about where thealignment is beyond just hey, we
pay on this cycle and we offerthis benefit or that benefit
(23:16):
that is all very, very importantwork that needs to be done kind
of in the due diligence process.
So you need to so that you canunderstand the change aspect,
but really understanding.
How did decisions get madearound here?
Who has the power to make thosedecisions?
(23:36):
How do we communicate?
How does the staff communicateback to the leadership?
What are the values of theorganization and are those
values just written on the wallor they actually lived and
breathe?
You know something that youlive and you breathe, and people
(23:59):
are rewarded and recognized fortheir demonstration of those
values.
Doing that work before you signa deal not just can the C-suite
get along and have beerstogether and can we talk about
(24:23):
business development together.
Yes, that is important, but itgoes way beyond that.
And doing that during the duediligence, if nothing else, so
that you know how much of achange exercise your
organization is going to need togo through, so that you can
(24:43):
plan for, and then, once you'rein the integration standpoint,
really, as the deal has beensigned and you're planning for
integration, people's strategyis all about change management,
transparency.
Change management transparency,communication, helping people
(25:14):
feel like they as individualsare valued and that they belong
at this new organization.
People want to know that thingsthat they aligned with
previously are going to becontinued at the new
organization or, if they're notgoing to be continued, they want
to know about it so that theirexpectations are set properly.
In my experience, the realityis, in the absence of
(25:36):
information, people make stuffup, they're just trying to fill
the void and that's how thegossip starts and that's how the
us versus them starts, and youreally have to put that together
in an overall people strategyfrom the beginning.
Dr. William Attaway (25:57):
I love that , I love the intentionality of
that and I love thepeople-centeredness of that, and
I think this is a piece that isnot often talked about in the
M&A space or thought about, butit is so incredibly important
because on both sides of themerger or acquisition you have
people and if you're notthinking about that, if you're
only thinking about the numberson the spreadsheet or the
(26:20):
contracts, language, like yousay, that's not enough.
You could have the best ofthose things and you will not
have a successful merger oracquisition.
Your outcomes will not bewhatever ROI you're looking for
from that deal you're not goingto hit those outcomes if you
(27:09):
can't retain or hire the butthat they feel seen and heard
and known in the midst of that.
Without that, you're missingsomething that really can make a
huge difference on your bottomline, and I don't know a
business leader or businessowner that doesn't want to see
that yes, if you look at all ofthe numbers, you know if it
(27:30):
costs three times the annualsalary to replace um a high
performer.
Rachel Platt (27:39):
If you look at the data as far as what happens to
morale, what happens to clientservice and this is certainly
true in a merger or acquisition,but just in general if you
invest time and yes, there aresome financial investments as
(28:05):
well but if you really justinvest time and think both think
with your head and lead withyour heart and I'm not trying to
make this all woo-woo, I'm nota woo-woo person.
I look at the data, not awoo-woo person.
I look at the data, I look atthe statistics that are out
(28:26):
there about what it takes tomake an important investment in
your people.
And giving timely, actionablefeedback, being transparent in
your communications anddemonstrating human care for
your team are three topindicators for organizational
(28:48):
success.
Dr. William Attaway (28:51):
I love that .
Let me talk about you for aminute, Rachel.
I mean, we've been talkingabout you the whole time, but I
mean specifically yourleadership.
You have to lead at a higherlevel today for your business,
for your clients, for your team.
You have to lead at a higherlevel today for your business,
for your clients, for your team.
You have to lead at a higherlevel today than you did five
years ago.
Yes, and that same thing isgoing to be true five years from
now.
Intro/Outro (29:09):
Yes.
Dr. William Attaway (29:09):
How do you stay on top of your game?
How do you level up with theleadership skills that you need
to be developing so that youwill be the leader that your
clients and your business needs?
Rachel Platt (29:22):
developing so that you will be the leader that
your clients and your businessneeds?
That is such a great questionand is one that I have been
spending a lot of time thinkingabout.
I do a lot of reading.
I read books that are out there, but one of the things that I
have really found so engaginglately is not listening to the
big names that are out there,but are listening to people that
(29:45):
are the practitioners, thepeople whether it's a podcast,
whether it's an article peoplewho are thought leaders on
LinkedIn.
What they're seeingexperiencing there's just, I'm
curious.
I think people are fascinatingwhy they do the things that they
(30:07):
do and the business behind that, and so I'm really spend a
significant amount of time.
I used to think of it jokinglyoh, my goodness, I'm wasting a
lot of time on LinkedIn socialmedia I'm not talking Facebook
or Instagram, anything like that, but even just on LinkedIn, I'm
(30:28):
wasting a lot of time, and onceI reframed that for myself, I
realized that actually, this iswhere I'm learning.
This is how I'm upscalingmyself.
This is how I am.
Yes, I'm paying attention tothe big trends that are out
there and the big surveys thatare released and the articles
(30:50):
that are out there but reallytalking to people about what
they are experiencing andlistening and reading about it.
It's an MBA in organizationaldevelopment.
Every single day, just beingout there in the world and
hearing what people have to say,yeah.
Dr. William Attaway (31:10):
Yeah, and I think part of that is having
that teachable mindset, thatteachable spirit.
You know where you are, alwaysin a learning posture for those
things that come your way, forthose things that you do
encounter, whether it's onLinkedIn or wherever you are, so
that you can recognize.
I need to learn that.
I didn't know that.
That's helpful.
(31:31):
I think you get to choosewhether you will have that
mindset or not.
Rachel Platt (31:38):
Do you also think I'm just curious?
I love to hear from people thathave very different opinions
than I do, 100%, I mean, I wantto learn from what their
experience is, even if Idisagree.
I want to know that so that Ican be aware and be sensitive to
(32:02):
different opinions, differentleadership styles.
That helps PLATTinum to bebetter able to serve our clients
, if we have the broadestpossible view.
And so having a growth mindset,having a learning mindset,
frankly, just being curious, um,yes, you know, I feel like I'm
(32:29):
some days.
We're back in ourthree-year-old stage.
Well, why?
But why?
It's actually a reallymind-expanding place to be and I
love it.
Dr. William Attaway (32:41):
Well, you know, I mean.
The average two orthree-year-old asks 125
questions a day.
The average adult asks six.
Rachel Platt (32:51):
I did not know.
I did not know.
Dr. William Attaway (32:53):
Yeah, I am not average, right.
Why did we stop askingquestions?
Why did we stop being curious,you know, and there's so many
answers to that question.
But I believe there's a wayback and I love the way you're
describing that.
I think that's so healthy andapproaching with curiosity, and
if you're only listening orreading people that you already
agree with, all you're creatingis an echo chamber, and if
(33:15):
you're a leader doing that, letme just encourage you to stop it
.
Right now.
You need to be exposed to ideasthat are far beyond that.
I read people I disagree withall the time because it helps me
to understand differentpositions and perspectives.
I may still disagree at the end, but you can learn from anybody
.
Sometimes you learn what's nothelpful or what not to do, but
(33:38):
that can be incredibly valuable,so I agree wholeheartedly.
Rachel Platt (33:44):
Yeah, some of my best experiences now looking
back, were some of my worstexperiences how not to do this,
how not to treat football, hownot to be a leader Boy.
Can you learn a lot from thosethings?
We could do a whole othersegment on that.
Dr. William Attaway (34:04):
I've got a drawer full of t-shirts.
That's right.
Yes, yes, is there a book thathas made a big difference in
your journey as you've beengrowing and learning as a leader
, a book that has reallyresonated, that you would
recommend to the leaders who arelistening?
Rachel Platt (34:24):
I feel like, if you have done 200 plus episodes,
I feel like so many people havemust have said this before, but
I am a Renee Brown believer.
Um, I dare to lead any articlesshe puts out.
(34:47):
Um, I mean, I don't think sheand I could be more different,
but I just find her way ofthinking, her way of being
curious.
What she talks about in termsof vulnerability, shame, how to
be a better human being, howwork advice goes to parenting,
(35:13):
relationship advice, familyadvice, all of those things I
would say, if there's anyone shehas had.
And her books have had thebiggest influence on me
personally and tend to be booksthat I recommend to up and
coming leaders, even if it isjust to say this doesn't
(35:36):
resonate with me, because itdoesn't resonate with everyone.
It resonates with me, but itdoesn't resonate with everyone,
and I just think it's a reallygood grounding for folks as
they're moving through theirleadership ability.
Dr. William Attaway (35:55):
I definitely would agree Highly
recommend her books.
She has taught me quite a bitover the years and I continue to
learn from her, so I willconcur most heartily with Brene
Brown.
So every time we talk, I walkaway having learned something,
and this is no exception today.
I'm so grateful for yourgenerosity and your transparency
(36:16):
and sharing from your journeyso far and the things that
you've learned, and sogenerously sharing that with our
listeners.
I'm so grateful.
I know many of them are goingto want to continue to learn
from you and to connect with youand find out more about what it
is that you're doing.
What's the best way for them todo that?
Rachel Platt (36:35):
Well, I am active on LinkedIn, rachel Platt.
Just so everyone knows, platthas two Ts, which is how we
spell Plattinum in .
Our website very simple , withthe two Ts, and you can also
just pick up the phone, give mea call.
(36:57):
I actually answer my phone 301.
You could even text.
So there's just so many ways tobe in touch and I look forward
to learning, growing and helpingothers be successful and
meeting more of your listeners.
So, thank you for having me,thank you for being such a kind,
(37:19):
caring and curious host.
All of your episodes that I'velistened to it comes through
loud and clear.
You're just so genuine and soreal and it's really fun.
Dr. William Attaway (37:36):
Well, I greatly appreciate that.
That is the goal, thank you forbeing here.
Rachel Platt (37:38):
Rachel, truly, thank you for having me.
Dr. William Attaway (37:40):
I appreciate it.
Thanks for joining me for thisepisode today.
As we wrap up, I'd love for youto do two things.
First, subscribe to thispodcast so you don't miss an
episode, and if you find valuehere, I'd love it if you would
rate it and review it.
That really does make adifference in helping other
people to discover this podcast.
Second, if you don't have acopy of my newest book,
(38:03):
catalytic Leadership, I'd loveto put a copy in your hands.
If you go tocatalyticleadershipbookcom, you
can get a copy for free.
Just pay the shipping so I canget it to you and we'll get one
right out.
My goal is to put this into thehands of as many leaders as
possible.
This book captures principlesthat I've learned in 20 plus
(38:25):
years of coaching leaders in theentrepreneurial space, in
business, government, nonprofits, education and the local church
.
You can also connect with me onLinkedIn to keep up with what
I'm currently learning andthinking about.
And if you're ready to take anext step with a coach to help
you intentionally grow andthrive as a leader, I'd be
(38:47):
honored to help you.
Just go tocatalyticleadershipnet to book a
call with me.
Stay tuned for our next episodenext week.
Until then, as always, leaderschoose to be catalytic.
Intro/Outro (39:01):
Thanks for listening to Catalytic
Leadership with Dr WilliamAttaway.
Be sure to subscribe whereveryou listen to podcasts so you
don't miss the next episode.
Want more?
Go to catalyticleadershipnet.
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