Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey there, I'm Jill
Griffin and this is the Career
Refresh.
Today I want to talk to youabout leadership, and leadership
is often talked about,especially now, in a time when
we are so desperate for strongleaders, and I think people
(00:21):
believe that leadership is likea destination, that once you get
the title, once you get to thiscertain opportunity, it's like
ta-da, now you're a leader andmaybe that might be how it plays
out for you.
But I think the way I see it isthat it's not necessarily about
destination or that title, butit's really about a practice and
(00:41):
a mindset that you get theopportunity to nurture
throughout your career, and it'ssomething that you're going to
show up for, be intentionalabout, and you're going to be
thinking through the variousopportunities and challenges
that pose themselves to you inthe workplace right.
So it's not linear, and somedays you're going to feel like
you've got it, it's figured out.
(01:02):
Other days you are circlingback, you're learning again and
you are adjusting, and that'snot failure, it's growth.
And some people might say it'sa failure, and listen, failures
happen.
I like to look at it now as away in which that that's a way
it's not going to work and wethink this through and how are
we going to approach thisdifferently so that the next
(01:22):
time we're in this situation,we're able to learn from it?
Right, that's the growthmindset.
I like to think of leadershipas situational points or vantage
points.
Right, it's not about climbinga level, it's understanding that
you may move between your role,your environment, your industry
, your organization, all basedon your personal growth.
(01:42):
So let's talk them through.
The first one that I think isbest labeled as self-leadership.
Right, this is where it begins.
This is the inner work.
This is owning your mindset,your presence, your outcome.
It's less about reacting andmore about observing yourself
over time.
How do you respond when thingsstart to go a little bit
(02:03):
sideways or not go the way youhad planned?
How do you talk to yourself inthose moments?
How do you respond when thingsstart to go a little bit
sideways or not go the way youhad planned?
How do you talk to yourself inthose moments?
How do you find equanimity,right?
And that really meaning that,whether you get a $10,000 bonus
or a $10,000 bill, you're sortof like all right, you know, I'm
still good.
All right, this sucks and I'mstill good.
That's what we mean byequanimity in this case.
(02:25):
So how do you talk throughyourselves in those moments?
You can't expect to lead otherswith clarity if you don't first
lead yourself with clarity.
And that means again settingboundaries, your non-negotiables
, managing your energy andreally deciding what matters
most to you.
That's the first one.
Second one is the relationalleadership.
(02:46):
You've gotten to a point whereyou're starting to understand
the footing, the parameters, theswim lanes for which you're
working within, within the rolethat you're in, and it becomes
about connections.
The relationships is whereyou're generating your
leadership and this is whereyou're getting your leadership
also tested.
So this is not about being justa great communicator, although
(03:08):
that's really important.
It's how do you communicatewhen you're in a state of what I
like to call halt, which is thehungry, angry, lonely, tired.
Those are the moments that canreveal a lot.
Those are the moments wheneverybody's coming at you, your
team is feeling demotivated andis looking for guidance, someone
just cooked fish in themicrowave, or you're working
(03:30):
from home and you're feelingreally frustrated about stuff
that's going on around you atthe same time trying to show up.
And how are you showing up inthose moments?
As you are relating and incommunity and collaboration with
others.
So relational relationship isabout trust, consistency,
empathy.
It's not just the soft feelgood, which, of course, is
important, because we're humanand we want more humanity in our
(03:53):
relationships and the exchangeswe're in.
But what in the real day-to-daylistening?
How are we listening,clarifying and respecting other
people's perspectives andcreating room for them?
I often see that as people aregetting promoted up, they think
that it's all about making surethey state their case and their
point of view is heard, and it'simportant to be able to shape
(04:13):
that.
But leadership in this level isalso about creating space for
others.
It's also making sure thatyou're not stepping on people
and meaning that you're creatingspace for others.
You're finding the rightopportunities to draw them out
and say you know, hey, jill,what are your thoughts on this?
That you're creating space thatothers can look to you and be
led by you.
And that's the second one.
So again we have first isself-leadership.
(04:35):
Second is relational leadership.
So probably you can guess what.
The third one is Teamleadership.
This is where it starts to getbigger.
You're aligning a group ofpeople towards a shared goals.
You know, I once worked on ateam that was completely stacked
with talent.
It was some of the mosttalented people I've ever had a
(04:56):
chance to work with and on paperwe were absolutely a dream team
.
But after a few reorgs and somenew talent coming in, talent
getting moved, people leavingand some new talent coming in,
talent getting moved, peopleleaving Not really a lot of
clarity as to where we weregoing the team started to become
fractured, frustrated.
They started to become, youknow, a lot of that fun and
(05:20):
sparkle and the inspiration wehad from like we're going to do
this together was starting tofade a bit.
It was in pockets, but itwasn't that strong and things
shifted when it wasn't.
There wasn't a strategy todocument and a path forward to
tell us where we're going.
So our senior leader stood upand said we're going to all get
together and we're going to havea little conversation about
(05:41):
this, and everyone was sort ofthinking what is going to happen
in this meeting and this issomething I actually want to be
a part of.
So it started with that leadersaying you know what?
Here's where I'm going to dobetter and here's what I'm going
to start doing, here's what I'mgoing to stop doing and this is
what I need from you.
Here's what I've been doingthat will contribute to the
value of you know the end goalof the organization.
(06:04):
And then stopped talking andthen said, okay, who's next?
And again, very unsettling atfirst, as you were looking
around the room and then, littleby little, each person took up
that same track and said, okay,here's where I'm going to do
better and here's what I needfrom you and here's what I
commit to.
What happened is you started tohave a space where honesty was
(06:26):
created.
People were showingvulnerability, sort of in the
Brene Brown kind of way not inthe all.
Let me show all my insides andmy small intestines on the table
and making sure that everybodyis following and seeing what I'm
talking about.
It wasn't about likeoversharing as part of
vulnerability, but really sayinglike this is when I'm at my
best and when you're not clearwith me in what you want or you
(06:48):
only do a drive by myworkstation and I actually would
prefer it in writing.
Right, people getting clear inwhat they wanted is really how
the team started to shift.
Within a few weeks, I'm goingto say you started to see people
were having fun again, theywere doing their job.
We were creating good work.
Clients even commented on likethere seems to be a shift in the
team.
They seem to like each otherand that's the power of team
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leadership.
It's like, how do you thinkabout psychological safety,
accountability, alignment,community and how are people
coming together and everyone ona team is accountable for that,
but it gets set by the leader,right?
That idea that the fish stinks,you know, rots from the head
right.
The fish stinks, you know, rotsfrom the head right.
You want to make sure that whoyou are as a leader of a team
(07:31):
and that you're aligning to yourown values and goals those that
align with your organizationsand really creating space for
the team to also takeaccountability of their behavior
and their actions and inactionsand create a path forward.
All right.
The next becomes organizationalleadership.
This is if we're thinkingsystems or like the system level
.
This is not about your personaloutput anymore.
This is about creatingconditions so where other people
(07:54):
can thrive without youmicromanaging them or rescue
them.
This is how you are beingcross-functionally with the
other peers that are either atyour title or in similar
departmental leads.
I coached a leader recently whoI have their permission to share
this, but they were absolutelytrapped in the like.
(08:14):
I'll just do it myself becauseit's faster and it's you know,
they're sort of in that loop.
So it felt safer and what washappening is that they were
doing everything.
They weren't challenging theteam, they were overworked, they
weren't getting everything donethe way that they wanted to get
things done and were startingto feel that pressure and the
cracks.
The shift changed in ourcoaching, realizing that they
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were doing all the work, theywere taking away the agency and
the freedom of others to be ableto step up and do the work.
And sometimes you need peopleto struggle a little bit to
figure out how to get there.
I'm not talking about blowingthe goal.
I'm saying like, let themfigure it out.
And when you don't think aboutorganizational leadership and
you're always solving everyoneelse's problems, it tends to
(08:56):
create a distrust and acredibility in the organization.
See, that happen sometimes isthat the individual will start
speaking for you, right?
So if I'm a leader and we go toa meeting with other leaders,
I'm not letting my team speakbecause I can answer it better
or faster, or so I think I can,and maybe you can because you
have more seasonality and moreexperience in this area, but
(09:18):
you're not doing anyone aservice by sitting in and being
the person who's answering allthe questions, and I'll tell you
, your peers and your executiveleadership is also not thinking
the same thing.
All it's showing me is that youdon't necessarily know how to
lead a team.
So, when you think aboutorganizational leadership, I
want you to think about how areyou scaling culture, empowering
decision-making, empoweringsovereignty and self-agency, and
(09:44):
making sure that people arestepping into that
accountability and letting go ofthat tight level of control so
that others can step up?
Next area is what I callgenerative leadership.
This is where leadershipbecomes stewardship.
Your influence really extendsbeyond your direct team.
(10:05):
You mentor, you uplift, youshape the culture in ways that
outlast you.
It could be reverse mentorshipwith a junior colleague.
They could be mentoring you onsomething that they're seeing,
while you're also mentoringrising junior leaders.
It can be rewriting whatleadership looks like in your
industry.
Generative leadership, though,is not about age or seniority.
(10:27):
It's about choosing to lead inways that are magnetic and
making sure that your presenceripples through long after you
leave the room.
So being the smartest person inthe room who is going to tell
everyone this is what we need todo isn't necessarily generative
leadership Teaching others andhelping them also learn and
(10:47):
therefore you can shape theculture and ways that it will
outlast you being in the room.
That's what we're talking about.
This also may mean you taking arole within your industry or in
a trade association or a tradegroup that supports your
industry.
Where are you making sure thatyour influence extends beyond
the direct impact of your teamand perhaps even beyond your
subject matter expertise?
(11:08):
Who are you on the leader?
I find that people really loveto talk about purpose, and
purpose sometimes is a veryoverused word.
I prefer intention.
Purpose can feel fixed orforced.
Intention to me, feels alive.
It feels like it's organic andgrowing and can pivot where
purpose feels very directive andit's helpful, but it doesn't
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feel like there's flexibility tome in the word purpose.
Intention is how you show up inthe moment, it's what you
prioritize, it's how you frameyour impact, it's how you're
making decisions when things getcomplicated.
It's every point of leadershiphere.
It's the self-leadership,relational, team, organizational
and generative Thinking through.
(11:54):
Your intention is that throughline, and when you're navigating
organizations with intention,there's an opportunity to really
think through the practicalpart, which is about outcomes
and relationship.
Yes, it's how things get done.
It's how.
Titles aren't the only peoplethat are holding the influence
and power.
It is the relationship thatdoes so.
(12:15):
I want to ask you to askyourself, like, when you're
thinking this through and you'rethinking through your intention
, it's questions like, well,what needs to happen and by when
, and what's the outcome?
And how do I make it clear thatyou're giving people ownership,
that they can do the how?
When you're telling them thewhat?
Right, you want to make surethat they're having a stake in
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that so they can also grow theirleadership and along the way, I
want you to never underestimatethat there are small signals
that you may see, that thesesmall signals are those
milestones in which we growagainst right.
It signals respect when you'regiving people an opportunity to
step up along the way, becauseyou respect their intelligence,
(12:57):
their expertise, their subjectmatter and how they're going to
show up for the company.
So the question I'm going toleave you with is who are you
today as a leader?
Who do you want to be as aleader?
What's that gap and what's thework you need to do?
That's the work right.
Leadership is about nurturingthis mindset.
Okay, friends, you know Ialways love to hear from you,
(13:18):
what do you think, what are yourthoughts, how are you working
through these various areas ofleadership?
And I always love to hear fromyou.
So you can email me at hello atjillgriffincoachingcom, and, if
you need support, also reachout, because I would love to be
your coach or come into yourorganization and help you work
through creating some of ourteam dynamics, increasing team
dynamics and improving culture.
(13:40):
All right, until next time,barely think through your
leadership identity and who youwanna be, be in possibility and
always, always, always.