Rodrigo:

What is the connection between vegetable soup and Leadership as you climb the copyright leather how do you avoid filter information are leaders allowed to say “I don’t know” join me as I talk to Brand Bence who ranks in the top 10 of the world’s coaching professionals.

She is the author of 11 award-winning books and has coached almost 1 000 leaders we will explore leading from the inside out how leaders can avoid filter and information the power of vulnerability and how can you build your personal branding join us.

You have coached hundreds of people what is the main reason why people come to you?

 

Brenda:

Well it depends over time it’s changed but I would say today what’s going on is there is this incredible level of uncertainty there’s uncertainty in the world today like I don’t think we’ve seen in decades maybe even hundreds of years everything’s changing everything’s changing in the workplace outside of the workplace what we eat; how we access news; how you know it’s it’s everything’s changing how we work how we go to work what the work environment’s like the people at work everything’s changing and so that level of uncertainty is what a lot of people are struggling with right now how do I make decisions how do I lead in this environment that is just so unique from the past we’ve never experienced something like this before and so that level of so it’s usually some form of that level of uncertainty today is what I see in my coaching practice and the ones that are struggling the most what’s happening with them.

Well I don’t know if there’s the most I think we’re all struggling I mean I don’t think any leader today has a really clear picture because everything’s changing so quickly everything’s changing so quickly so if the world is if the Earth is constantly moving how do you find a stable a stable ground you don’t so what you have to do is learn to get comfortable with the uncomfortable you have to learn how to manage in a world that is constantly changing and frankly I don’t see this changing anytime soon the world is changing we are changing the workplace is changing how do you lead in the midst of an environment like that that’s the key that a lot of folks are grappling with right now okay so it’s about how can I um seeing so much uncertainty how do I manage myself so that I can feel comfortable with so much uncertain and Thrive right exactly exactly uncertainty and what I say is this I say look when the world outside of us is in a constant state of change disruption which it is we have to take charge and manage the one thing inside of us that can actually impact all of it and that’s the way we think to change the way we think about all this change if we’re looking at it from a perspective of oh it’s bad it’s awful look at all why can’t things just be stable why can’t things just be you know certain it will never work we have to look to the Future and say okay so this is going to be different how do we go about this.

 

Rodrigo:

Yeah you in your previous interviews I see that you you mentioned a concept called leading from the inside out can you elaborate on that and how critical is it today?

 

Brenda:

Oh foundational today so inside out what I mean by that is we typically look at leaders from the outside do they have a strong presence do they look you in the eye do they speak clearly do they stand in the right way right and all of that’s outside that’s that’s outside perspective on leadership what I know for truth is that real leadership starts on the inside it starts with what we think it starts with how we believe it starts with all these preconceived notions that we have built up over the years and when you start to look at it from that perspective you go oh wow yeah and that inside impacts the outside so the inside our thoughts our beliefs preconceived notions are that and our feelings that’s important too impacts how we act how we react how we look how we sound all of that comes from the inside so if you don’t look at the inside first you’re just kind of moving things around on the Titanic deck chairs you know it’s just like it’s not it’s not going to end up with a different outcome you have to do the inside work first before you’re going to change the outside

 

Rodrigo:

Yeah and that’s what what you were mentioning at the beginning like to live with the uncertainty like you need to be strong inside you know and that then you can go really really strong in your into the business

 

Brenda:

And you know what is strong mean when we say go on the inside and be strong actually what it means is just being aware error so many of us aren’t even aware of what’s going on the inside we spend so much time focusing on the outside and with the people that we work with too we’re focusing on the outside but do we ever really take time to understand what’s going on on the inside and I think in today’s world that becomes more important than ever we have to understand what people are going through we have to look at them as humans in the workplace not just task deliverers right and how to how to go inside well look a number of things I like to do now first the most the most agile who works for you or with you we woefully Overlook motivators it’s so important you know um gone are the days where one size fits all you know we’re gonna develop this system is going to work for all of our employees that doesn’t work anymore there’s so much diversity in our world we have to get back down to all right what motivates each person what’s the motivation and there I have an exercise it’s a fun exercise I call it the motivators exercise very you know interesting title um so motivators exercise so I list out the top 11 motivators that I see in today’s world okay it could be things like the standards money title responsibility there’s nature of the work tying to something bigger like a bigger purpose, flexible work arrangements you know, giving me a better work-life balance.

These are all motivators of work and there’s a whole list what I like to do is this so I asked an employer ask a leader to ask their employees okay on the left hand is a column you’d say of these 11 motivators rank them okay so rank them so which one’s most important to you second third fourth Etc so rank them put that aside okay put it aside now come over here and take that same list of motivators and say which ones are you getting from this job yeah rank them top to bottom and when you can see that there is a massive numbers shift at least three points difference you’ve got an opportunity to look at that and say Okay so you’re not getting enough of the responsibility or you’re not getting enough of work-life balance how do we make sure that it’s risen up in terms of what you do here in the workplace. So, leadership has become very personal Rodrigo which is really unique I think social media has helped us all realize we’re individuals right each one of us is unique and different and so how do you come at it from a perspective of you got a thousand people or ten thousand people or fifty thousand people to lead how do you manage it where everyone gets their motivators met this is a great challenge of leadership today.

 

Rodrigo:

So, it looks like we go into a level of where leaders they need to be so aware to each person individually what motivates them so that they can make the entire team to thrive, right?

 

Brenda:

Absolutely because when we are motivated by what we do anything is possible yeah anything is possible you know what you get up in the morning you can’t wait to get out of bed because you’re gonna you have a purpose to what you do it means something to you it’s not just a paycheck or a title and by the way people always think money and title oh it must be at the top.

I have a fun story about this I was working with an investment banker and she had 10 people in her team and so I asked her to do the motivators exercise and she literally laughed at me she looked at the list and she laughed she said Brenda you do realize we’re investment bankers right it’s about money. okay do me a favor just humor me do the exercise anyway with your 10 individuals she came back in a month’s time she was shaking her head she said- that was amazing she said out of the ten only three listed money as important it completely changed the way she led her team.

You cannot make it one of the things that leaders do we assume that what motivates us motivates someone else and that’s so not true in today’s world with so much diversity so much change going on our motivators have shifted even the with covid 19 a lot of priorities change from people and that’s where I see a lot of leaders struggling to understand or shift it and how can they handle the different priorities and motivations in their team but that’s why it’s so important more today than ever.

I think gone is the day of the one-size-fits-all leadership or everyone wants this everyone wants that no no and it’s our job as Leaders to make it personal what does each individual want and I always encourage leaders to do at least once a year ask the same question do the same exercise for yourself and for others because things change an employee has a baby their priorities have changed an employee buys a home their priorities have changed right it’s in the nature of what’s Happening throughout their lives it’s our job as Leaders to make sure that we’re responding to what they need yeah and what motivates them because we’ll have happier better employees as a result and guess what productivity goes out, our revenues increase, our profits great increase, our retention stays strong yeah I love that what do you see are there some misconceptions that you encounter in when you’re talking with leaders.

I think one thing is interesting what is the definition of leadership so many leaders when I asked that question there’s a little bit of a pause because I don’t think we often stop to think about what is leadership anyway and I like to keep things very simple to me leadership is enablement instead of CEO meaning chief executive officer I encourage it to mean chief enablement officer leaving is about enabling people to do their best work it’s the processes the systems the structures the culture the environment the making sure you understand their motivators which allows them to be in a space of delivering their absolute best you know nobody gets up in the morning nobody gets up in the morning and says oh I can’t wait to get to work and underperform nobody okay nobody so if someone’s underperforming it isn’t about the individual it’s looking at enablement have I enabled them to do are they in the best job are they in the right fit have I given them the structure the environment the culture the what they need the systems the structures to be able to be successful to be able to express their greatest potential and that’s leadership that’s leadership you know we think of leadership as I will sit at the top and I will tell people what to do and it’s so not that I mean leadership is just not that leadership maybe you know your years and years ago it was that but that’s completely different now today leadership isn’t about telling people what to do it’s about asking and engaging and making sure that you have the right systems in place to make sure that they succeed it’s very interesting because I think leadership starts the way you see leadership right if you see leadership as like okay I’m here at the at the top and if they have a problem it’s their problem a lot of people I see a lot of leaders sometimes complaining no he’s not there he’s not communicating well he’s he has an issue but when when I see leaders bringing to themselves what can I do in order to enable my my team it’s on them like I love that the world and often what happens is you know they’ve got this problem and the first thing I ask them to do is go yes how does this relate to me as a leader what have I done that’s created this what can I do differently to create a different environment that allows these individuals to express their full potential and while they’re a part of my team python

 

Rodrigo:

What have you seen are the the leadership traits that separates the exceptional leaders from the rest?

 

Brenda:

Well I love the question I love the question because people ask me what makes a great leader and you know you can make a long list we can all make a long list but I focus on one thing and it surprises a lot of people when I share it but it is the power of listening Melissa said earlier leadership is not about telling people what to do leadership is listening to the people who know this business at that level the best and being able to make decide important decisions based on what they hear you know at the highest levels of an organization it always cracks me up when I sit across from a CEO of 75 000 person organization or 200 000 person organization and I look them in the eye and I say this isn’t about you it’ll leave us like what it is about me I work my whole life to get to this position but it’s not it’s not because there’s you are one let’s say you run a hundred thousand person organization that means that 999 999 999 people are doing the work you are one person and you have to keep that in mind.

So, it’s important to listen not just hearing that’s the taking in sound I mean really listening carefully to understand what’s going on what are people thinking because you cannot be everywhere throughout those kinds of organizations so it’s really about listening and then with objective curiosity not having preconceived notions about things because the pace of change is so fast today that you have to really be objectively curious to decide where am I going to be involved, what’s bring what’s really needing my attention and so listening I think is one of the most important things.

There’s many senior leaders in the world it’s funny I’ve done the research many senior leaders in the world very well known leaders who say I became a better leader when I started listening.

 

Rodrigo:

How can a leader become a better listener?

 

Brenda:

Well you have to have the intent you have to want to listen you have to recognize that you don’t have it all you have to be vulnerable enough to say you know what I don’t know I don’t know the answers to all these questions I shouldn’t know the answers to all these questions that’s what’s important you see too when you’re younger in your career you are rewarded for being an expert but as you get older in your career you’re rewarded for leading the experts very different environment very different Mission and so leading the experts takes a whole different set of skills than being an expert.

So, I really about encourage leaders to shift in that space of you are not only are you not an expert you should not be an expert you should only be an expert in one thing and that is being an expert in leadership that’s what matters be an expert in leadership and that’s what happens at the higher ends of organizations and it’s sometimes really hard to make that shift right you’ve been rewarded your whole career you’ve gotten money and bonuses for being an expert and suddenly you can’t be that anymore that’s challenging for a lot of leaders so learning how to lead the experts not be an expert

 

Rodrigo:

That’s really really good. I really really love that and so as a leader how can a leader Foster an environment where the team can thrive? Maybe you can share like what are the strategies.

 

Brenda:

Well the first place that I encourage leaders to look is culture now culture is a word that’s used a lot we talk about culture culture culture but once again when I ask people what is culture they go ah I don’t know how do you describe it how do we put a definition to it and the way I like to describe culture is it’s the feel of the place it’s the way we act it’s the way we react it’s the way we look it’s what we say it’s how we say it it is the way we are behaving but the analogy I like to use is pretend you’re making in a pot of you know vegetable soup okay and you’ve got the carrots and you’ve got the celery and you’ve got some you know other vegetables floating around but what’s holding it all together the broth culture is the broth of the vegetable soup of leadership it is the broth it is it is what we swim in and until we really understand the power of that culture and what we’re swimming in we don’t really often get culture and by the way culture changes quickly and culture starts at the top.

So, when a leader at the top makes a change to culture it trickles down into the organization suddenly you’ve established a whole new culture.

I remember a story actually shared with me that was a leader who wanted to change the to get people back into business formal wear you know let’s let’s look let’s look professional because we have clients coming to our offices so we sent a memo out on a Friday that said please know that as of Monday we’re going back to business formal you are expected to wear you know a suit jacket and a new dress and whatever okay so Monday comes and the co-leader there’s two leaders didn’t get the memo so he he shows up in jeans right guess what on Tuesday everyone’s back to wearing jeans so so the point is culture starts at the top and trickles its way down and we have to be aware of that so be aware that we are culture carriers we are the ambassadors of culture so be the culture you want to have within the organization is my message how can leaders use feedback more effective yeah so here’s the thing we can never as Leaders we can never see ourselves the way others can actually as humans we can never see ourselves the way others can we just can’t it’s not possible but what’s interesting is that the higher you get in an organization the more filtered the feedback becomes.

Let me share an example I was working at Procter Gamble PNG and there was a leader who had recruited me he was the vice president of my division at that time so he was clearly already doing very well well that leader was A.G lafley, now AJ Lafley actually went on to become chairman and CEO of PNG so of the 80 billion dollar conglomerate.

So, he was the chairman and CEO but at that time in my career he was the vice president of a function my function and he had a personal interest in recruiting me because we went to the same undergrad or same graduate school and all that anyway so he he he promised me when he recruited me you take care of us we’ll take care of you okay all right so I would work hard I was really working hard well A.G would come down every two weeks or so into the my my area of work and it’d be late at night because I always worked hard you know working hard seven eight nine o’clock at night and he would come down because he was working late too and he would sit in the bullpen with me there was no one else around and he’d say tell me what’s going on what’s really happening what are the people talking about what’s what is the tenure what’s what’s the feel of the place right now and he would ask all these questions and he did this for months every two weeks or so and finally one night I said AJ if you don’t mind me asking I said I’m a little curious why are you asking me all these questions and he said something I’ll never forget he said- Brenda he said I’m going to point in the organization where the higher up you go the more filtered the feedback becomes.

And he said when I hired you I knew you’d be a straight shooter I knew you’d tell me the truth that I needed to hear so I always check in with you to see what’s really going on so I don’t get filtered information at my level so powerful and I share that with coaching clients because I want them to recognize it so many clients will comment and they’ll say Ryan I’m doing great I haven’t gotten any negative feedback. And I said well first of all there’s no such thing as negative feedback there’s only feedback that helps us get better but secondly we may not be asking the right questions and then people may not feel comfortable to share what they need to share to make the place a better place not just to make you better but to help the organization so there are many ways of getting feedback.

 

Rodrigo:

Can you tell us what are some ways that you you saw that works better?

 

Brenda:

Right, I think it’s really important what not how not to get feedback is to get it in writing. I have learned over the years that written feedback very rarely carries the truth people are worried- oh if I write it they’ll recognize the way I’m writing or they’ll see that that’s me, I’ll just better I better just make it sound good instead that’s written feedback.

So, I haven’t done written feedback in my entire almost 20 years of being a coach I do verbal feedback that means I set up a call with an individual that’s the stakeholder and I actually asked them over the phone hey this is a private confidential conversation no one’s going to hear what you say I just want to know what you think what do you think NLS not just oh how are they making the world how are they adding value but also what could they do differently that would help them the most at this stage in their career and there’s a whole other series of questions that I asked but the point is when you get that verbal feedback and by the way it takes 20 minutes 25 minutes it’s not very long by the time you take that and consolidate that information and share it with they’re going nine times out of ten I hear leaders say I’m 53 years old I’ve never heard that before I’m 40 years old I’ve never had that piece of feedback so this is what I’m talking about you know I’ve been in this business for 20 years no one’s ever shared that with me because it’s a verbal and it’s confidential and people offer feedback because they want to help you not because they want to condemn you and put you down they want to help you they want you to be a better leader so verbal feedback all the way it’s to me the most important don’t do the written because you just won’t get real honest feedback.

 

Rodrigo:

I really love what you say when the the higher leader goes the the more filter information it happens so if a leader has in their mind like how can I really know what’s happening in in the business and that’s where you you come from you need to find ways to get better feedback and what you say is about get verbal feedback right?

 

Brenda:

Yeah and if you have enough trust in your team there’s another way that lead like leaders can do this on a regular basis and that is this people want to offer you feedback that they feel much more comfortable offering your feedback when they’ve given you positive feedback first so I always say to leaders okay we’re going to ask two questions of an individual you’re going to ask them what are three things that I’m doing well so you get the person starting to talk about why they like to work for you right and by the way give them a week in advance to think about this right you know don’t just hit it hit it you know and then the second question is okay so then what’s one or two things I could do better that would make your life easier and that would actually help disorganization as a whole no when you deliver that in a way that sounds very open you’re objectively curious about it you will get honest answers so again it’s all in how you come about it however if you’ve been a leader where no one’s ever really given you feedback before tread lightly go with verbal feedback from an external body first I think you’re going to be better off.

 

Rodrigo:

That’s a great advice so in another area but I think it’s really important for a leader is a vulnerability um how do you see vulnerability can help leaders today? And how can they build more trust using vulnerability?

 

Brenda:

The number one phrase that I encourage to build vulnerability is to get honest about the phrase I don’t know I don’t know the answer to most things today is I don’t know why because the world of data and information is just so overwhelming there is no way we can be an expert on anything the answer we have to get comfortable with as Leaders is I don’t know I don’t know but I’m curious let’s find out so I you know I coach um consultants for example and what are they paid for knowing the answer right they’ve paid to know the answers but the truth is no one can know the answers today there’s too much going on there’s too much information and everything’s changing so quickly so what I encourage them to do is say this let’s say that you asked me a question a client asked me a question about something that I’ve done a little bit of research but I don’t know 100 I’d say you know what that is a really good question and in fact I want to explore that as well here’s what I’m going to do in the next 24 hours I’m going to come back with you to you with an answer to that question and I’m going to research this because I think it’s a really powerful question that we all need to understand better how would you like me to come back to you by email by phone or would you like to meet again to discuss what I discover how does that come across to you right- professional, I care, I want to get to the answers correctly.

I’m vulnerable and honest enough to be able to say I don’t know, would you want to hire that person? I would because they’re open they’re objectively curious they’re willing to say you know what I don’t know but I’ll get back to you and I will do the research and I will find out right so to me that’s the kind of vulnerability that’s actually really powerful I think you can turn that I don’t know potentially perceived downside or negative into something quite positive because we can’t know everything and that brings also like ties what you say like it’s like it starts with the inside out right and it’s about being comfortable with just saying I don’t know I think not just comfortable it’s about being confident I think that I don’t know has to be delivered with a calm confidence a sense of confidence in that there’s no way anybody can know everything but I’m also going to be calm about it.

I’m not going to be uh I don’t know you know you can feel that you can sense it that’s an inside job inside you go you know what I don’t know this is really interesting and I’m hungry enough to go figure it out myself so I’ll get back to you right.

 

Rodrigo:

I love that I’m curious can you tell us one of the most spectacular Transformations that you’ve seen with a clients?

 

Brenda:

Well I I’m very fortunate to say there have been many uh but one that comes to mind that was exciting and also kind of funny at the same time I was called by a regional leader of a regional CEO of an organization and he had he said Brenda look I want you to coach this person he’s a direct report he manages you know we’ve moved him to managing multiple countries unfortunately he’s really failing he used to man we used to manage one country he did fine but now he’s trying to manage these countries it’s just not going well so look don’t worry if it doesn’t transform if it doesn’t change it’s okay you know we’re just kind of giving me a latch last ditch effort to make sure that you know we’ve done our job been fair to him and given him a shot so don’t worry if it doesn’t turn out I won’t hold you responsible whatever first of all I’m never responsible for change anyway it’s the first job of the client right but okay so I said all right so I met with this person and it became very very clear within a matter of one session what was going on what the issue was so we started working on that and over the course of our period of time working together not only did he get better and deliver better outcomes with his existing job but actually he kept getting more and more and more responsibility and they kept giving him more and more and more countries and eventually he took over his boss’s job.

So, tell them to deal with a last-ditch effort of someone who was failing the truth is he was not failing he just they hadn’t diagnosed what the potential challenge was and it was just something he could have easily figured out so once he figured it out he just took charge and started making the changes he wanted to make in his life and his and all of his businesses end up doing well so and he ended up becoming the regional CEO.

 

Rodrigo:

That is so funny what was the most important thing that you did with him that made him like realize?

 

Brenda:

Yeah so for him it came down to- Agile leadership what I mean by that is your ability to change your leadership style based on the situation so he started out in a in a one country where where it was quite a top-down type of country where you could tell people what to do and you could get away with it because people would just take their orders as soldiers and get the work done when he started taking on other more developed countries that one was less developed he took on more developed countries they didn’t want to be told what to do those general managers the heads of those countries like don’t tell me what to do I’ll do what I wanted you know I’ll do what I want to do so it became this contentious relationship and until he could realize ah I need to change my style so that it fits with more developed countries for example as opposed to the way I would manage a style in other countries and so his ability to adapt his leadership style to to different situations was foundational to success and he did and so he started building his tool chest of leadership styles in so many different styles that he knew at the time this particular situation he could turn it around say- aha this is the style I should use in this situation and this is the style I should use in that situation and by being able to increase his agile leadership his agility and leadership styles he was very successful over time.

 

Rodrigo:

Another good example of leading from the inside out.

 

Brenda:

Yeah, that’s right self-awareness I was going to say self-awareness right he didn’t see the style difference he didn’t know and you know we do this as Leaders we grow up in a certain way we kind of have our one size fits all we just stick with it because it worked for me in the past right but now you have to adjust you have to change you have to be agile so that was his secret to success and a few other things but yeah that was the main one.

 

Rodrigo:

Wow! such a powerful story, it was great it’s wonderful to see that.

 

Brenda:

And again that’s one of you know unfortunate very hundred hundreds of stories like that but the point is um when we can understand what’s going on when we have the self-awareness when we are able to see that’s what a coach can offer right is that third party external look objective look when you can help get that and you go aha that’s what I need to do differently okay I’m ready to learn that and he embraced it and you see the outcomes.

 

Rodrigo:

Yeah and it is funny that you you mentioned that my previous guest mentioned something very interesting he said, like all sports people at high level they all have coaches, why we I mean as Leaders we think that we go to a certain level and we don’t need coaching.

 

Brenda:

So that’s another example what you say about the importance of of having a coach to succeed and a coach and a mentor are very different things I think that’s the other thing that people are very confused by you know a coaching and mentoring are two very different things coaching so I would like to look at it this way so you’ve got an employee comes to you with a challenge now there’s three ways you can address that challenge you could be a coach you could be a mentor or you can be a consultant.

So, let’s start with Consulting, if you come to me with a problem you say Brenda I’ve got this problem and I say I’m going to help you with that problem I’m going to help you solve that problem I’m acting as a consultant I’m going to solve the problem.

One of you say Brenda I’ve got a problem and I say oh okay well when I was your age or when I was experiencing that same thing I did this so you could do that too if you want there you’re acting as a mentor.

When you are a coach what happens is you come to me with a problem I don’t pay attention to the problem I pay attention to you what’s going on inside of you what’s your level of self-awareness what’s going on what are some hard-wired beliefs that you’ve got rolling around inside that are holding you back from success I focus on you so that you can solve the problem, that’s the difference.

 

Rodrigo:

We covered a lot we started by understanding the importance of living from the inside out we also understood how to get feedback as Leaders move up and also we understood the power of vulnerability now area I think it’s important for leaders which is personal branding as a leader why should I care about personal branding? and what can I do in order to to implement a successful personal branding.

 

Brenda:

Why should you care, because you already have a brand there’s so many so many leaders say oh Brandy you don’t get me you know I I don’t I don’t have a friend nor do I want one that’s not who I am I just want to get my job done well your brand is the way people perceive think and feel about you well guess what they’re perceiving thinking and feeling about you right now so you already have a brand the question is do you have a consistent brand and is it the brand you want so I always say to leaders you already have a brand do you want it are you comfortable with the one you have are you happy with the one you have because if not now is the time to change it so it’s really key to understand we all have a brand we’re all being perceived thought of and felt about at any moment is it the brand we want and I call it leadership branding the brand of it’s leadership and branding how the two come together do you have the leadership brand you really want so if they say no actually I want to take charge of it I said okay well there’s three foundational steps I like to keep things simple Rodrigo so the first one is Define your brand and by the way this is all set up on this is all driven by how big corporations build Brands because that’s what I did for 20 years right building big corporate Brands so the first thing you need to do is Define the brand and what do you want that brand to stand for now there’s a whole system that I have for that but let’s keep it simple here today.

So, I’ll say this to you what are the five let’s do it this way you’re walking out of a meeting maybe it’s a town hall maybe it’s a team meeting and you you wave and you say goodbye and you walk out everyone turns to everybody else and they go wow she’s really what are the five words you want people to think of when it comes to you how what adjectives what descriptive words do you want them to think of when it comes to you you know inspiring strategic you know strong leader whatever I mean you have to decide what those words are right so that’s what’s what you want to stand for so that’s really the first step is really going to get really clear on what you want to stand for by the way if you really want to understand what you stand for you have your own defined words what you would like to stand for you also do what are the five words you think you stand for now if you’re being honest and then the most important is what everybody else say what are their five words what are all those combined five words you can combine them all and look at patterns oh um maybe I’m not as approachable as I’d like to be or oh I’m coming across as Fair well that’s good you know so you have to find that so Define it step one step two then you once you know what you want to stand for then how are you going to communicate it how are you going to communicate it and the answer is again pretty foundational and there’s a five activities we do each and every day that most Define the way our leadership brand comes across I promise you it’s these five it’s the way we Act it’s the way we react reaction is very important it’s the way that we look you know a lot of people think look is everything right oh the way you look now look is one aspect of leadership branding but it is not the only the way we sound what we say how we say it and what we think because as we know that starts on the inside that’s what drives the rest so then you have to say okay if I want to become a cross as more approachable am I acting approachable am I reacting in an approachable way am I looking am I speaking am I sounding my thinking approachable so it helps to really drive what do I want to stand for how do I communicate it sex step two step three is all about it sounds so fundamental foundational.

And so almost Elementary but it’s foundational how to avoid damaging it how do I avoid damaging this brand that I’ve defined and I’ve put so much action and communication into right how do I make sure I def out my make sure that I avoid damaging it and that’s where consistency comes in if you want to be approachable you need to be consistently approachable I was coaching in a an executive and she was had a little problem like called mushroom management.

What I mean by that is she kind of builds up anxiety and frustration irritation and what just kind of explodes at the top it’s called mushroom management right and so we talked about it and we realized that it was really holding her back from potential career future and so we said all right this isn’t serving you so and we started looking at what were the inside things that were driving the mushroom management you know how could she be more assertive or up front and address the issues before they became clouds you know mushroom clouds whatever so she really did a great job like three straight months very consistent changing changing changing and really doing her her best well then one particular trigger hitter and something happened and she just did another blow up so I interviewed her as stakeholders not long after that and all of them said well she was doing their oh she’s back to her old ways you know she’s backed her old ways three straight months of no issues one incident blew the whole thing and that’s my point we have to be consistent consistent consistent in how we communicate act react look sound think once we are then we have this alignment it’s like an alignment between my inside and my outside is fully aligned and that’s when you build a powerful leadership brand so first step Define second you communicate and the third make sure you don’t damage it right exactly keep it simple.

 

Rodrigo:

Very good Brenda we’re coming to the end I have only one more question what is one question that no one has asked you before and you would love to answer.

 

Brenda:

It’s philosophy for life. So, let’s go there I really believe I firmly believe with every ounce of my being that everything is always working out for our greatest good always always what does that mean when something goes wrong no it’s not wrong it’s helping us understand how life could be better because what we don’t want teaches us what we do want is that foundational so things like someone gets fired inevitably inevitably that turns into something really positive a catalyst for something better in the future or someone doesn’t get a promotion perfect let’s sit down and figure out what was holding that back so that you can actually turn that negative into something that’s going to help you move forward same in the world today looking at climate change look at it you know the great retention issues and all these all of that tells us informs us we don’t like the climate then let’s do something about it we don’t like the resignation then what do we need to do inside of our organization to make change everything that happens is always for our greatest good and when we can embrace it and look at it that way Everything Changes Everything Changes because you realize if you don’t get stuck in frustration and fear and irritation and disgust you shift out of that and say okay so this is happening for a reason so let’s figure it out let’s figure out how we’re going to make this place better how we’re going to make it a better place to work etc.

 

Rodrigo:

I was having Goosebumps when you were mentioning that that is such a nice way to end our conversation Brenda I enjoyed so much our conversation thank you so much for coming.

 

Brenda:

Well, thank you Rodrigo was really really great to engage I appreciate it.