June 9, 2025 • 24 mins
In this empowering episode, Vanessa Judelman shares how you can lead effectively in a fast-paced world by becoming a conscious leader. If you’re struggling with team misalignment, or if you feel frustrated by slowing pace despite growth, you won’t want to miss it.
You will discover:
- Why conscious leadership helps you set the right tone for team alignment
- How to use short coaching meetings to bridge pace gaps with your team
- How a RACI chart ensures strategic execution by clarifying team roles
This episode is ideal for for Founders, Owners, and CEOs in stage 4 of The Founder's Evolution. Not sure which stage you're in? Find out for free in less than 10 minutes at https://www.scalearchitects.com/founders/quiz
Vanessa Thompson is the President of Mosaic People Development, with over 20 years of experience helping organizations build leaders who drive outstanding results. As a speaker, facilitator, certified executive coach, and leadership consultant, Vanessa brings a practical, results-oriented approach to leadership development. She teaches leaders how to transition from "doers" to strategic thinkers. Vanessa empowers leaders with tools and strategies to boost self-awareness, confidence, and teamwork. She has coached leaders at top organizations like Campbell's Soup, The United Nations, HelloFresh, SickKids, and the Bank of Montreal.
Want to learn more about Vanessa Judelman's work at Mosaic People Development? Check out her website at https://www.mosaicpd.com/
Mentioned in this episode:
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Scott Ritzheimer (00:00):
Hello, hello and welcome, welcome, once
again to the secrets of thehigh demand coach podcast. And
here with us today is yetanother high demand coach in
the one and only Vanessautelman, who is president of
Mosaic people development withover 20 years of experience
helping organizations buildleaders who drive outstanding
results as a speakerfacilitator, certified
(00:23):
executive coach and leadershipconsultant. Vanessa brings
practical, results orientedapproach to leadership
development. She teachesleaders how to transition from
doers to strategic thinkers.Vanessa empowers leaders with
tools and strategies to boostself awareness, confidence and
teamwork, and she's coachedleaders at top organizations
(00:43):
like Campbell Soup the UnitedNations, Hello Fresh sick kids
and the Bank of Montreal.She's also the author of
mastering leadership, what ittakes to lead in today's fast
paced world, and she's herewith us today. Vanessa,
welcome to the show. I'm soexcited to have you here with
us today. In the intro to yourbook you can't you set the
stage for why leadershipmatters in today's fast paced
(01:06):
world. So for the founders,leaders who are listening
today that are they're justfeeling beat up, some of them,
and wondering, is this as goodas it gets like? Is this
really what I signed up for?How can stepping up as a
leader help them find theirway through that chaos?
Vanessa Judelman (01:22):
Oh, leadership has never mattered
more. And it's interestingbecause there's a lot of
research now which indicatesthat people are very
disgruntled. There's a greatreport by a public relations
firm called Edelman, whichtalks about their Edelman
Trust Barometer, and peoplehave never trusted
(01:42):
organizations less. People arefeeling a high sense of
grievance, and we all knowdata and research indicates
that people leave managers,they leave leaders, they don't
leave companies, right? I'vebeen there before. I work for
an amazing company. I had anamazing role, and I didn't
like my leader, and so I left.So leadership matters now more
(02:04):
than ever before. And so whatdo leaders need to do? You
need to be very conscious ofthe tone that you set every
single day. So I kind ofdivide the world Scott into
two kinds of leaders, likethose who are unconscious
leaders and those who areconscious leaders, right? So
the unconscious ones don'tthink at all about their
behavior, the impact theirbehavior has on people.
(02:26):
Conscious leaders realize nowmore than ever before, that
they set the tone theirbehavior matters, and so when
I work with leaders, whetherit's coaching or training
them, I always say to them toconsciously and intentionally
think about the tone that youwant to set in your
organization and on YouTube.
Scott Ritzheimer (02:44):
Yeah, what, what are the challenges of
approaching leadershipunconsciously? Is that you
don't know that you'reapproaching it unconsciously.
So what are some of the signsthat someone is anyone
listening? Might think, Well,yeah, of course, I'm a
conscious leader, and many ofthem would be listening to
shows like this. But what aresome signs or symptoms, or
(03:04):
maybe even better yet, what'sthat? What's the default tone
of an unconscious leader?
Vanessa Judelman (03:11):
Lack of self awareness, for sure. So if you
don't have any self awareness,so for example, I don't have
understand what emotionalintelligence is so emotional
intelligence is understandingmy emotions, how they impact
me and the people around me.If you have no like, I've had
clients before that didn'teven know what emotional
intelligence means, what it ishow to be conscious of their
(03:34):
emotions. So lack of selfawareness around things like
your strengths, yourweaknesses, how to leverage
them, your triggers, whenyou're mad, angry, upset, what
you need to dial up or down tobe more effective. So for
example, I love leaders togain consciousness. In order
(03:58):
to gain consciousness, Scottis to do a self assessment,
like a DISC profile, forexample, where they can get
real clarity on theirstrengths and weaknesses. And
what I love about a tool likethe disc is it helps people to
understand that everybody hasa different work style. No
work style is good or bad,right or wrong. We all are
wired differently, and so youhave to know how you're wired.
(04:20):
So for example, what I see isa lot of leaders are and
business owners wired to drivefor results, because you know
your job in your business isto get results. So if you're
wired to drive for results,and you move really quickly,
sometimes conscious leadersknow they need to dial down
their pace and actually dialup their listening. And so
(04:44):
understanding your strengthsand weaknesses and how you're
wired is such a critical partof leadership.
Scott Ritzheimer (04:53):
One of the things that I think is hard
for folks, especially when theworld around them is moving so
fast, is when they. Can seeit. They know what needs to
happen. They see the pace atwhat's happening around them,
and then they feel this gapbetween that and the pace of
the rest of their team. How doyou help folks to bridge that
gap between that hardcharging, but maybe even
(05:16):
warranted fast pace with thosewho are a little bit more
systematic in their approachor process oriented or
stabilizing in nature. Howdoes a leader bridge that gap
when the world around them ismoving so quickly?
Vanessa Judelman (05:31):
I love to recommend that leaders
leverage coaching. I think thetool of coaching, a lot of
leaders are told I need tocoach my team, but they don't
know what it means. And so oneof the practical things I
teach leaders is how to havean accountability meeting,
coaching meeting. That'sshort. It could be 15 minutes,
(05:51):
Scott, and all you do is youyou meet. So if you're a fast
paced leader, slow down for 20minutes. Make it a regular
meeting. Make it maybe Mondaymorning, right? I meet with my
team Monday morning. We lookat 234, things like, what is
on your plate this week? Whatare the key goals that you
need to me move forward. Whatcan I do to help you move
(06:14):
those goals forward? And thenmaybe just a bullet point
around, here's someinformation I need to share
with you to be successful thisweek. That's it, yeah. So I
like your comment around like,what do structured leaders do?
Well, right? They put thatstructure in place. But anyone
can do that. And I love theidea of, I think structure is
(06:35):
something that's not talkedabout a lot of lead, a lot in
leadership, right? Yeah, putstructures in place. Like,
book those meetings monthly,put, I always recommend, for
example, leaders, putquarterly meetings in place to
bring the whole team, or thewhole business together to
talk about strategy. Like,just do it all at the
beginning of the year.
Scott Ritzheimer (06:51):
Yeah, I love that. I love that. So one of
the we've got a lot of folksthat listen to the show that
are founders, and they've beengrowing and they've been
excelling. And one of thereally tricky parts of the
founder business is a lot ofwhat you do early on is
dependent on that pace, right?So even if you're not like
(07:13):
ultra fast paced, you learn tobe pretty fast paced, at
least, right? And it's vitalto success. And then we have
bits of our brain that arewired to think, Hey, if you
don't move fast, this companydies, this project dies, this
launch doesn't work. And andthat serves us well in many
circumstances, many cases, fora while, but as you start to
(07:35):
get bigger, as the team startsto get more complex, you just
can't move that way anymore.And so there's this feeling of
just frustration, to someextent, resentment, to some
extent, even disillusionment,that I thought when we got
bigger we'd be able to gofaster, and instead, it feels
like we're going slower. Sowhat are some things you
talked about, structures youtalked about slowing down. And
(07:57):
I love this idea of theseshort meetings. What are some,
some structures that they canput in place so that they
actually can speed back up?
Vanessa Judelman (08:07):
So what's, I would just say, what's your
goal of moving quickly? What'sWhat's the purpose is speed?
What's required right now?That's the question I'd ask,
and if not, what's your goal?So I always start with the
goal in mind. Is it right? Idon't think speed is always
(08:30):
the goal, to be honest. Yeah,right. Is it around
strategically executing? Well,then speed is not what's
necessarily required. It'staking a step back. It's
saying, what are my goals thisquarter? What are my I love
leaders to think about, liketwo or three critical I call
them critical goals. Like,what are the two or three
(08:52):
critical goals? I would ratherthat you slow down and focus
on two or three critical goalsand do them well, then rush
around with a tremendous pace.That's not a thoughtful pace.
So move move quickly. Have asense of urgency, but do it
(09:12):
strategically. Do itthoughtfully, and move the
right goals forward quarterly.But you know, each quarter at
a time?
Scott Ritzheimer (09:20):
Yeah, yeah. One of my favorite visuals for
this is the airport, right?There's so many different
paces happening at theairport. And you can see the
people who've got, like, the13 hour layover, you know, and
they're just, they're passedout in a chair somewhere, not
even at their own gate. Youcan see the ones who've got,
you know, some time, you know,they're moving. They're on
time. You can see the ones whoare like, like, they're
(09:42):
they're moving right, like,there's some intentionality,
like, I gotta get where I'mgoing. And then there's the
ones where, like, the familyis strung out the length of
the thing, you know, becausethey're all, like, five
minutes late for the flightthat's supposed to have taken
off already. And, and I thinkwe get so used to that, right?
We get so used to the justhair on fire sprinting down
(10:04):
the hallway that we thinkanything short of that is
isn't enough, right? And whatI hear you saying is, no,
there's an intentionality thatwe need, but not the frantic
chaos. And yeah, I love that,that concept of mental model.
But for you,
Vanessa Judelman (10:21):
Scott, can I just add one more thing about
that? I would also say,leverage your team. If this is
this goes back to when I workwith leaders. We leverage
three pillars of leadershipsuccess, right as a leader, to
know yourself, manage yourteam and lead your business.
So when you have that selfawareness, when you're a
conscious leader, and you knowyourself, if you know you're
somebody who moves reallyquickly. Hire someone to close
(10:43):
your gaps. Hire thatthoughtful, strategic person
on your team who can say, Waita minute. Okay, let's slow
down. I'll give you I'll giveyou an example. This is kind
of like a personal example,not a business example, but a
couple years ago, my husbandand I were building some
steps, redoing our steps up togo up to the front porch. I'm
a fast mover. He's athoughtful, slower paced
(11:06):
person, so strengths andweaknesses, right? Yin and
Yang? So I was like, Okay,let's hire that first person,
yeah, I like the stonework,and let's just do it. And he's
like, whoa. Let's interviewthree or four people. Let's
get different quotes, let'sget them to do different
designs. So my impetus is,move quickly. I don't have
time. I don't want tointerview different people.
And I said, You do it likethat's his strength. So he met
(11:29):
with different people, he gotdifferent quotes, he got
different designs. And by himgoing slower and being more
diligent and strategic aboutit, we got a better product
for better price, right? Soexamples like that show up in
business all the time. So Ihave somebody on my team who
is complete. Most of my teammembers, exact, probably all
(11:49):
of them have completelydifferent strengths than I do.
And I'll call I'll say, I needhelp on this, right? So that's
knowing yourself isunderstanding your gas. Then
you go into that manager teampillar where you're leveraging
your team, you're leveragingthe strengths of your team to
help you fill your gaps, butalso to execute on your
strategy most effectively.
Scott Ritzheimer (12:11):
Yeah, I love that, because it brings back
we talked about beforehand,like, what's the goal? The
goal is not to get the fastestset of steps, right? The goal
is to get something that we'regoing to enjoy and be proud of
for the rest of the time thatwe're in the home. And just
being clear on that goal issuch an important point. So
okay, you've laid out these,these pillars leading knowing
yourself and then managingyour team. The third pillar is
(12:36):
leading your company and oryour business. And for
founders who are are dreamingbig but struggling to steer
between here and there Right?What's a strategy that you
found is helpful for keepingthat vision alive while
handling the day to day grind?
Vanessa Judelman (12:56):
So lead your business is about three
things. First of all, it'sabout managing change. So you
have to be able to understandwhat's changing, how to
change, how to move peoplebeyond resisting change, you
have to be able to the secondpiece is around prioritization
(13:19):
and delegation. So you have tobe really clear on what your
priorities and key goals,critical goals are, which we
talked about, and thendelegate. One of the best
tools, like practical toolsthat I teach at leaders around
delegation, is write down alist, especially as a leader,
if you're feeling overwhelmedon what you are paid to do,
(13:40):
okay, right? Literally, get apiece of paper. What am I paid
to do? Okay? Look at what's onyour to do list, and look at
what's not aligned with whatyou're paid to do. And that's
where you can startprioritizing and delegating
effectively. And then thethird piece of lead your
business is executingstrategically. So most leaders
don't even know what does itmean to be strategic, right?
There's three parts ofstrategy thinking, planning
(14:03):
and implementation. So youneed time. That's how I
recommend schedule three timesa year, where you bring your
team together and you thinkstrategically, you plan
strategically, and then thoseweekly meetings where you
check in your coachingmeetings, that gives you an
opportunity to move yourstrategic plan forward.
Scott Ritzheimer (14:23):
Yeah, I love that when it comes to that
thinking, planning and andimplementation, what do you
what are you seeing folks doof the three best and worst,
right where? Where are folksdoing all right, right now?
And where do you tend to seethem struggling?
Vanessa Judelman (14:43):
Oh, for sure. I mean, people do
strategic thinking. They donice spell Excel spreadsheets.
They're pretty good atplanning, execution, hands on,
falls of the wayside. Is thatyour experience as well?
Scott, yeah, it is. Yeah,yeah, for sure.
Scott Ritzheimer (14:59):
I. And I think what's challenging,
especially as you grow, whichjust feeds into this, this
whole conversation we've beentalking about, is that
execution increasingly dependson other people, right? And so
it creates two challenges.One, you have to be able to
communicate with them and leadthem effectively, and we've
talked about that a littlebit, but it also gives us an
excuse for not planning Well,right? If we don't plan well
(15:22):
and it was never reallyexecutable in the first place,
then we can kind of pawn itoff on it well, they just
didn't execute it. So whatgoes wrong in the thinking and
planning stages that reallysets us up for failure in
execution?
Vanessa Judelman (15:37):
People don't think about so if they have a
goal. So a lot of leadersdon't even know how to set a
goal. Like when I doleadership programs, I'm
always shocked when I say,Okay, everybody raise your
hand. How many of you have setgoals? Maybe 50% of people put
their hands up. So some peopleare not even setting goals.
Right? Then it's so it's soeasy, but people don't do it.
(15:59):
Take your goal and break itdown, right? A lot of people
get so flustered because theirgoals are so large, because
they are so ambitious,literally, take a piece of
paper, write your goal andbreak it down into steps. Then
go back to your list of whatyou're paying to do, right?
Look at Okay, which of thesesteps do I need to do
personally? What do I need todelegate to other people,
(16:22):
right? And I also love, I'mreally want to give your
listeners some practicaltools. I love a good RACI
chart, right? So you take anExcel spreadsheet, RACI stands
for responsible, accountable,consult and inform, and you
have your project, and youbreak it down into steps, and
you say, Okay, who'sresponsible for
implementation. Who'saccountable? So accountability
(16:44):
is the highest level, like, ifthe shit hits the fan, the
Accountable person, right?Really needs to take
ownership. Who do we need toconsult, and who do we need to
conform, inform, and thathelps you manage things like
meetings, manage how youcommunicate to people. So I do
find that people don't havethe discipline around
execution, where they can putthose plans in place. And
(17:07):
literally, these doingsomething like racy chart can
take 10 minutes. Do it withyour team too. Put it up on if
you're meeting virtually, putit up on a whiteboard and do
it with your team. I lovebuilding racy charts with
teams, because theneverybody's accountable to
their piece of it and hasownership over it.
Scott Ritzheimer (17:25):
Yeah, that's so good. It's such a simple
tool. And you're right. Justthat one extra step, right? Do
it in the meeting, take thatextra step, write it out, and
you'll save yourself in theinordinate amount of time
during implementation. Allright? Vanessa, I've got one
more question. I ask this ofall my guests, I'm very
interested to see what youhave to say. All right. The
(17:46):
question is this, what wouldyou say is the biggest secret
that you wish wasn't thesecret at all. What's that one
thing you wish everybodywatching or listening today
knew?
Vanessa Judelman (17:55):
Your emotions are your personal
GPS. So in other words, peopleunderestimate leveraging their
emotional intelligence. Sowhen you're triggered, use
your emotions to say, noticeI'm triggered right now. Don't
make a don't make a bigdecision when you're coming
(18:19):
from that place of fear oranxiety, notice your emotions,
take a deep breath, walkaround the block and come back
and make that decision whenyou're feeling clear, when
you're feeling concise, whenyou're feeling stable and a
lot calmer. So I think peopleunderestimate how many
decisions they make inbusiness based on their gut
(18:41):
and their emotions. Sometimes,in fact, Scott, they disguise
it as their intellect whenit's actually they're making
very good decisions based ontheir intuition and emotions.
Scott Ritzheimer (18:51):
Yes, yeah, it's so true. It's so true.
And I love the idea ofseparating that initial burst
right from the longer lastingemotions, right? Because
there's that instant knee jerktrigger response that's, let's
be frank, not always veryhelpful, right in that exact
moment, but those emotionsthat linger for just a moment
(19:12):
longer, there's so much truthin them. And if we can
separate those two, take thatwalk, take that moment and not
disregard the whole thing, Iagree. I think that's
remarkably powerful, and we'redoing it anyway, right? So we
might as well be doing itconsciously. This is a great
point. Vanessa, there's somefolks listening. They'd love
to get some some coaching,some training, how they can be
(19:34):
a better leader, and how theycan help their the leaders on
their team be better. How canthey find more about you and
the work that you do?
Vanessa Judelman (19:40):
Sure. Well, I would recommend you head
over to my website. Mybusiness is called Mosaic
people development, so you canhead over to mosaicpd.com, and
what I would recommend is goon the tab at the top called
blogs. And I write a weeklyblog all about leadership.
It's based on. My experienceswith people that I coach, with
(20:02):
people that I train. So what Ialways hear from people when
they read me weekly blog is,did you read my mind? Right?
Were you writing that? For me,it's because the blog is
written based on myexperiences with actual
leaders. That's why it hitshome and resonates so much.
And so that's what I wouldrecommend. Is a great place to
start.
Scott Ritzheimer (20:19):
Amazing, amazing. Vanessa, thanks so
much for being here. Just aprivilege and honor having you
on the show today. Absolutelyloved it. For those of you
watching and listening, youknow your time and attention
mean the world to us. I hopeyou got as much out of this
conversation as I know I did,and I cannot wait to see you
next time. Take care.
Hello, hello and welcome, welcome, once
again to the secrets of thehigh demand coach podcast. And
here with us today is yetanother high demand coach in
the one and only Vanessautelman, who is president of
Mosaic people development withover 20 years of experience
helping organizations buildleaders who drive outstanding
results as a speakerfacilitator, certified
(00:23):
executive coach and leadershipconsultant. Vanessa brings
practical, results orientedapproach to leadership
development. She teachesleaders how to transition from
doers to strategic thinkers.Vanessa empowers leaders with
tools and strategies to boostself awareness, confidence and
teamwork, and she's coachedleaders at top organizations
(00:43):
like Campbell Soup the UnitedNations, Hello Fresh sick kids
and the Bank of Montreal.She's also the author of
mastering leadership, what ittakes to lead in today's fast
paced world, and she's herewith us today. Vanessa,
welcome to the show. I'm soexcited to have you here with
us today. In the intro to yourbook you can't you set the
stage for why leadershipmatters in today's fast paced
(01:06):
world. So for the founders,leaders who are listening
today that are they're justfeeling beat up, some of them,
and wondering, is this as goodas it gets like? Is this
really what I signed up for?How can stepping up as a
leader help them find theirway through that chaos?
Vanessa Judelman (01:22):
Oh, leadership has never mattered
more. And it's interestingbecause there's a lot of
research now which indicatesthat people are very
disgruntled. There's a greatreport by a public relations
firm called Edelman, whichtalks about their Edelman
Trust Barometer, and peoplehave never trusted
(01:42):
organizations less. People arefeeling a high sense of
grievance, and we all knowdata and research indicates
that people leave managers,they leave leaders, they don't
leave companies, right? I'vebeen there before. I work for
an amazing company. I had anamazing role, and I didn't
like my leader, and so I left.So leadership matters now more
(02:04):
than ever before. And so whatdo leaders need to do? You
need to be very conscious ofthe tone that you set every
single day. So I kind ofdivide the world Scott into
two kinds of leaders, likethose who are unconscious
leaders and those who areconscious leaders, right? So
the unconscious ones don'tthink at all about their
behavior, the impact theirbehavior has on people.
(02:26):
Conscious leaders realize nowmore than ever before, that
they set the tone theirbehavior matters, and so when
I work with leaders, whetherit's coaching or training
them, I always say to them toconsciously and intentionally
think about the tone that youwant to set in your
organization and on YouTube.
Scott Ritzheimer (02:44):
Yeah, what, what are the challenges of
approaching leadershipunconsciously? Is that you
don't know that you'reapproaching it unconsciously.
So what are some of the signsthat someone is anyone
listening? Might think, Well,yeah, of course, I'm a
conscious leader, and many ofthem would be listening to
shows like this. But what aresome signs or symptoms, or
(03:04):
maybe even better yet, what'sthat? What's the default tone
of an unconscious leader?
Vanessa Judelman (03:11):
Lack of self awareness, for sure. So if you
don't have any self awareness,so for example, I don't have
understand what emotionalintelligence is so emotional
intelligence is understandingmy emotions, how they impact
me and the people around me.If you have no like, I've had
clients before that didn'teven know what emotional
intelligence means, what it ishow to be conscious of their
(03:34):
emotions. So lack of selfawareness around things like
your strengths, yourweaknesses, how to leverage
them, your triggers, whenyou're mad, angry, upset, what
you need to dial up or down tobe more effective. So for
example, I love leaders togain consciousness. In order
(03:58):
to gain consciousness, Scottis to do a self assessment,
like a DISC profile, forexample, where they can get
real clarity on theirstrengths and weaknesses. And
what I love about a tool likethe disc is it helps people to
understand that everybody hasa different work style. No
work style is good or bad,right or wrong. We all are
wired differently, and so youhave to know how you're wired.
(04:20):
So for example, what I see isa lot of leaders are and
business owners wired to drivefor results, because you know
your job in your business isto get results. So if you're
wired to drive for results,and you move really quickly,
sometimes conscious leadersknow they need to dial down
their pace and actually dialup their listening. And so
(04:44):
understanding your strengthsand weaknesses and how you're
wired is such a critical partof leadership.
Scott Ritzheimer (04:53):
One of the things that I think is hard
for folks, especially when theworld around them is moving so
fast, is when they. Can seeit. They know what needs to
happen. They see the pace atwhat's happening around them,
and then they feel this gapbetween that and the pace of
the rest of their team. How doyou help folks to bridge that
gap between that hardcharging, but maybe even
(05:16):
warranted fast pace with thosewho are a little bit more
systematic in their approachor process oriented or
stabilizing in nature. Howdoes a leader bridge that gap
when the world around them ismoving so quickly?
Vanessa Judelman (05:31):
I love to recommend that leaders
leverage coaching. I think thetool of coaching, a lot of
leaders are told I need tocoach my team, but they don't
know what it means. And so oneof the practical things I
teach leaders is how to havean accountability meeting,
coaching meeting. That'sshort. It could be 15 minutes,
(05:51):
Scott, and all you do is youyou meet. So if you're a fast
paced leader, slow down for 20minutes. Make it a regular
meeting. Make it maybe Mondaymorning, right? I meet with my
team Monday morning. We lookat 234, things like, what is
on your plate this week? Whatare the key goals that you
need to me move forward. Whatcan I do to help you move
(06:14):
those goals forward? And thenmaybe just a bullet point
around, here's someinformation I need to share
with you to be successful thisweek. That's it, yeah. So I
like your comment around like,what do structured leaders do?
Well, right? They put thatstructure in place. But anyone
can do that. And I love theidea of, I think structure is
(06:35):
something that's not talkedabout a lot of lead, a lot in
leadership, right? Yeah, putstructures in place. Like,
book those meetings monthly,put, I always recommend, for
example, leaders, putquarterly meetings in place to
bring the whole team, or thewhole business together to
talk about strategy. Like,just do it all at the
beginning of the year.
Scott Ritzheimer (06:51):
Yeah, I love that. I love that. So one of
the we've got a lot of folksthat listen to the show that
are founders, and they've beengrowing and they've been
excelling. And one of thereally tricky parts of the
founder business is a lot ofwhat you do early on is
dependent on that pace, right?So even if you're not like
(07:13):
ultra fast paced, you learn tobe pretty fast paced, at
least, right? And it's vitalto success. And then we have
bits of our brain that arewired to think, Hey, if you
don't move fast, this companydies, this project dies, this
launch doesn't work. And andthat serves us well in many
circumstances, many cases, fora while, but as you start to
(07:35):
get bigger, as the team startsto get more complex, you just
can't move that way anymore.And so there's this feeling of
just frustration, to someextent, resentment, to some
extent, even disillusionment,that I thought when we got
bigger we'd be able to gofaster, and instead, it feels
like we're going slower. Sowhat are some things you
talked about, structures youtalked about slowing down. And
(07:57):
I love this idea of theseshort meetings. What are some,
some structures that they canput in place so that they
actually can speed back up?
Vanessa Judelman (08:07):
So what's, I would just say, what's your
goal of moving quickly? What'sWhat's the purpose is speed?
What's required right now?That's the question I'd ask,
and if not, what's your goal?So I always start with the
goal in mind. Is it right? Idon't think speed is always
(08:30):
the goal, to be honest. Yeah,right. Is it around
strategically executing? Well,then speed is not what's
necessarily required. It'staking a step back. It's
saying, what are my goals thisquarter? What are my I love
leaders to think about, liketwo or three critical I call
them critical goals. Like,what are the two or three
(08:52):
critical goals? I would ratherthat you slow down and focus
on two or three critical goalsand do them well, then rush
around with a tremendous pace.That's not a thoughtful pace.
So move move quickly. Have asense of urgency, but do it
(09:12):
strategically. Do itthoughtfully, and move the
right goals forward quarterly.But you know, each quarter at
a time?
Scott Ritzheimer (09:20):
Yeah, yeah. One of my favorite visuals for
this is the airport, right?There's so many different
paces happening at theairport. And you can see the
people who've got, like, the13 hour layover, you know, and
they're just, they're passedout in a chair somewhere, not
even at their own gate. Youcan see the ones who've got,
you know, some time, you know,they're moving. They're on
time. You can see the ones whoare like, like, they're
(09:42):
they're moving right, like,there's some intentionality,
like, I gotta get where I'mgoing. And then there's the
ones where, like, the familyis strung out the length of
the thing, you know, becausethey're all, like, five
minutes late for the flightthat's supposed to have taken
off already. And, and I thinkwe get so used to that, right?
We get so used to the justhair on fire sprinting down
(10:04):
the hallway that we thinkanything short of that is
isn't enough, right? And whatI hear you saying is, no,
there's an intentionality thatwe need, but not the frantic
chaos. And yeah, I love that,that concept of mental model.
But for you,
Vanessa Judelman (10:21):
Scott, can I just add one more thing about
that? I would also say,leverage your team. If this is
this goes back to when I workwith leaders. We leverage
three pillars of leadershipsuccess, right as a leader, to
know yourself, manage yourteam and lead your business.
So when you have that selfawareness, when you're a
conscious leader, and you knowyourself, if you know you're
somebody who moves reallyquickly. Hire someone to close
(10:43):
your gaps. Hire thatthoughtful, strategic person
on your team who can say, Waita minute. Okay, let's slow
down. I'll give you I'll giveyou an example. This is kind
of like a personal example,not a business example, but a
couple years ago, my husbandand I were building some
steps, redoing our steps up togo up to the front porch. I'm
a fast mover. He's athoughtful, slower paced
(11:06):
person, so strengths andweaknesses, right? Yin and
Yang? So I was like, Okay,let's hire that first person,
yeah, I like the stonework,and let's just do it. And he's
like, whoa. Let's interviewthree or four people. Let's
get different quotes, let'sget them to do different
designs. So my impetus is,move quickly. I don't have
time. I don't want tointerview different people.
And I said, You do it likethat's his strength. So he met
(11:29):
with different people, he gotdifferent quotes, he got
different designs. And by himgoing slower and being more
diligent and strategic aboutit, we got a better product
for better price, right? Soexamples like that show up in
business all the time. So Ihave somebody on my team who
is complete. Most of my teammembers, exact, probably all
(11:49):
of them have completelydifferent strengths than I do.
And I'll call I'll say, I needhelp on this, right? So that's
knowing yourself isunderstanding your gas. Then
you go into that manager teampillar where you're leveraging
your team, you're leveragingthe strengths of your team to
help you fill your gaps, butalso to execute on your
strategy most effectively.
Scott Ritzheimer (12:11):
Yeah, I love that, because it brings back
we talked about beforehand,like, what's the goal? The
goal is not to get the fastestset of steps, right? The goal
is to get something that we'regoing to enjoy and be proud of
for the rest of the time thatwe're in the home. And just
being clear on that goal issuch an important point. So
okay, you've laid out these,these pillars leading knowing
yourself and then managingyour team. The third pillar is
(12:36):
leading your company and oryour business. And for
founders who are are dreamingbig but struggling to steer
between here and there Right?What's a strategy that you
found is helpful for keepingthat vision alive while
handling the day to day grind?
Vanessa Judelman (12:56):
So lead your business is about three
things. First of all, it'sabout managing change. So you
have to be able to understandwhat's changing, how to
change, how to move peoplebeyond resisting change, you
have to be able to the secondpiece is around prioritization
(13:19):
and delegation. So you have tobe really clear on what your
priorities and key goals,critical goals are, which we
talked about, and thendelegate. One of the best
tools, like practical toolsthat I teach at leaders around
delegation, is write down alist, especially as a leader,
if you're feeling overwhelmedon what you are paid to do,
(13:40):
okay, right? Literally, get apiece of paper. What am I paid
to do? Okay? Look at what's onyour to do list, and look at
what's not aligned with whatyou're paid to do. And that's
where you can startprioritizing and delegating
effectively. And then thethird piece of lead your
business is executingstrategically. So most leaders
don't even know what does itmean to be strategic, right?
There's three parts ofstrategy thinking, planning
(14:03):
and implementation. So youneed time. That's how I
recommend schedule three timesa year, where you bring your
team together and you thinkstrategically, you plan
strategically, and then thoseweekly meetings where you
check in your coachingmeetings, that gives you an
opportunity to move yourstrategic plan forward.
Scott Ritzheimer (14:23):
Yeah, I love that when it comes to that
thinking, planning and andimplementation, what do you
what are you seeing folks doof the three best and worst,
right where? Where are folksdoing all right, right now?
And where do you tend to seethem struggling?
Vanessa Judelman (14:43):
Oh, for sure. I mean, people do
strategic thinking. They donice spell Excel spreadsheets.
They're pretty good atplanning, execution, hands on,
falls of the wayside. Is thatyour experience as well?
Scott, yeah, it is. Yeah,yeah, for sure.
Scott Ritzheimer (14:59):
I. And I think what's challenging,
especially as you grow, whichjust feeds into this, this
whole conversation we've beentalking about, is that
execution increasingly dependson other people, right? And so
it creates two challenges.One, you have to be able to
communicate with them and leadthem effectively, and we've
talked about that a littlebit, but it also gives us an
excuse for not planning Well,right? If we don't plan well
(15:22):
and it was never reallyexecutable in the first place,
then we can kind of pawn itoff on it well, they just
didn't execute it. So whatgoes wrong in the thinking and
planning stages that reallysets us up for failure in
execution?
Vanessa Judelman (15:37):
People don't think about so if they have a
goal. So a lot of leadersdon't even know how to set a
goal. Like when I doleadership programs, I'm
always shocked when I say,Okay, everybody raise your
hand. How many of you have setgoals? Maybe 50% of people put
their hands up. So some peopleare not even setting goals.
Right? Then it's so it's soeasy, but people don't do it.
(15:59):
Take your goal and break itdown, right? A lot of people
get so flustered because theirgoals are so large, because
they are so ambitious,literally, take a piece of
paper, write your goal andbreak it down into steps. Then
go back to your list of whatyou're paying to do, right?
Look at Okay, which of thesesteps do I need to do
personally? What do I need todelegate to other people,
(16:22):
right? And I also love, I'mreally want to give your
listeners some practicaltools. I love a good RACI
chart, right? So you take anExcel spreadsheet, RACI stands
for responsible, accountable,consult and inform, and you
have your project, and youbreak it down into steps, and
you say, Okay, who'sresponsible for
implementation. Who'saccountable? So accountability
(16:44):
is the highest level, like, ifthe shit hits the fan, the
Accountable person, right?Really needs to take
ownership. Who do we need toconsult, and who do we need to
conform, inform, and thathelps you manage things like
meetings, manage how youcommunicate to people. So I do
find that people don't havethe discipline around
execution, where they can putthose plans in place. And
(17:07):
literally, these doingsomething like racy chart can
take 10 minutes. Do it withyour team too. Put it up on if
you're meeting virtually, putit up on a whiteboard and do
it with your team. I lovebuilding racy charts with
teams, because theneverybody's accountable to
their piece of it and hasownership over it.
Scott Ritzheimer (17:25):
Yeah, that's so good. It's such a simple
tool. And you're right. Justthat one extra step, right? Do
it in the meeting, take thatextra step, write it out, and
you'll save yourself in theinordinate amount of time
during implementation. Allright? Vanessa, I've got one
more question. I ask this ofall my guests, I'm very
interested to see what youhave to say. All right. The
(17:46):
question is this, what wouldyou say is the biggest secret
that you wish wasn't thesecret at all. What's that one
thing you wish everybodywatching or listening today
knew?
Vanessa Judelman (17:55):
Your emotions are your personal
GPS. So in other words, peopleunderestimate leveraging their
emotional intelligence. Sowhen you're triggered, use
your emotions to say, noticeI'm triggered right now. Don't
make a don't make a bigdecision when you're coming
(18:19):
from that place of fear oranxiety, notice your emotions,
take a deep breath, walkaround the block and come back
and make that decision whenyou're feeling clear, when
you're feeling concise, whenyou're feeling stable and a
lot calmer. So I think peopleunderestimate how many
decisions they make inbusiness based on their gut
(18:41):
and their emotions. Sometimes,in fact, Scott, they disguise
it as their intellect whenit's actually they're making
very good decisions based ontheir intuition and emotions.
Scott Ritzheimer (18:51):
Yes, yeah, it's so true. It's so true.
And I love the idea ofseparating that initial burst
right from the longer lastingemotions, right? Because
there's that instant knee jerktrigger response that's, let's
be frank, not always veryhelpful, right in that exact
moment, but those emotionsthat linger for just a moment
(19:12):
longer, there's so much truthin them. And if we can
separate those two, take thatwalk, take that moment and not
disregard the whole thing, Iagree. I think that's
remarkably powerful, and we'redoing it anyway, right? So we
might as well be doing itconsciously. This is a great
point. Vanessa, there's somefolks listening. They'd love
to get some some coaching,some training, how they can be
(19:34):
a better leader, and how theycan help their the leaders on
their team be better. How canthey find more about you and
the work that you do?
Vanessa Judelman (19:40):
Sure. Well, I would recommend you head
over to my website. Mybusiness is called Mosaic
people development, so you canhead over to mosaicpd.com, and
what I would recommend is goon the tab at the top called
blogs. And I write a weeklyblog all about leadership.
It's based on. My experienceswith people that I coach, with
(20:02):
people that I train. So what Ialways hear from people when
they read me weekly blog is,did you read my mind? Right?
Were you writing that? For me,it's because the blog is
written based on myexperiences with actual
leaders. That's why it hitshome and resonates so much.
And so that's what I wouldrecommend. Is a great place to
start.
Scott Ritzheimer (20:19):
Amazing, amazing. Vanessa, thanks so
much for being here. Just aprivilege and honor having you
on the show today. Absolutelyloved it. For those of you
watching and listening, youknow your time and attention
mean the world to us. I hopeyou got as much out of this
conversation as I know I did,and I cannot wait to see you
next time. Take care.
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