Leadership Tea
The Leadership Tea podcast is where powerful leaders share their journeys, insights, and triumphs through informal conversations about what it takes to reach the executive level. Join us every other Wednesday to be inspired by the unvarnished stories of amazing executives who know what it's like to be "the only" at the table and who have succeeded regardless. They have proven leadership experience in their respective fields, from international affairs to the private sector to academia, and want to help others create their own success stories.
Leadership Tea
The Inner Brew: Cultivating Self-Awareness for Stronger Leadership
What if self-awareness could be your secret weapon in effective leadership? In Season 2 of the Leadership Tea Podcast, we are thrilled to welcome Nichole Gladden McCall, an accomplished leader and proud member of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Incorporated, who shares her profound insights on leading with authenticity and empathy. Nichole opens up about the critical importance of self-awareness, detailing her daily practice of mindful self-checks and accountability to ensure her leadership is both impactful and compassionate. Nichole’s message on authentic leadership shines through, making this episode a must-listen for anyone looking to lead with a startup mindset.
Navigating tough conversations with team members can be one of the most challenging aspects of leadership, and in this episode, we unpack actionable strategies to do just that with honesty and respect. We dive into the art of setting a positive tone, actively listening, and making sure everyone feels heard, even when addressing performance issues. With personal anecdotes and practical tips, we explore how to build trust and manage combative situations, ensuring that transparency and empathy are at the heart of every interaction.
Leadership is not just about strategy and performance—it's about people. Inspired by the Zulu proverb "Sawubona" meaning "I see you," we delve into the essence of creating an inclusive environment where every voice is valued. From tackling imposter syndrome to fostering genuine connections, we provide concrete examples to help leaders ensure their teams feel seen and appreciated. The episode wraps up with a fun lightning round, reflecting on personal preferences and the central role of love in leadership. Join us as we explore how leading with love, humanity, and honesty can transform the way we lead.
More information about Nichole is available here.
Find us on YouTube!
We publish new episodes every other Wednesday.
Follow us on Instagram @Leadership_Tea for more inspiration and insights.
Learn more about us and the podcast at www.stirringsuccess.com
If I invite you to dinner, I can't be disappointed that you decided to eat. If you are a vegan and I knew that before you came, I'd ensure there was something prepared for you. So those are some of the things about making sure that people feel seen. It's creating the space for someone to be able to lift their voice.
Speaker 2:Hello everyone and welcome to Season 2 of the Leadership Tea Podcast. We are doing a new thing focusing this season on the theme of strategic leadership with a startup mindset. Why? Well, there is more that unites us across industries than we think. Having a startup mentality is applicable to so many aspects of leadership, especially if you are going through a transition or starting something new or trying to stay fresh. Belinda and I have identified a few principles for leading with a startup mindset, and if you're following our episodes in sequence, you'll know that we first talked about having goals set to outcomes and the need to recalibrate, but not over calibrate. So this episode is dedicated to self-awareness. Whether you are leading a team for the first time, sharpening your skills, launching a business, stepping up into an executive position or changing careers, being self-aware is essential for maximizing impact and influence, and I can't think of a better way to dig into this topic than chatting with our guest, my girl Nicole McCall.
Speaker 2:Nicole works in the pharmaceutical industry. She is a member of the Divine Nine through Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Incorporated, where she has held numerous leadership positions both nationally and regionally. She embodies sisterhood, she is committed to community service and is a wife, mother, daughter and friend. We will leave more information about her background in the show notes, but what I love about Nicole is her realness. What I love about Nicole is her radical self-candor and how she holds herself accountable. She practices tough love in a way that is caring and respectful, and I've admired her since the day we met over 25 years ago. She doesn't know it, but she has been coaching me from a distance for a while now, through encouraging text messages or thoughtful social media commentary, and I modeled one of my leadership principles from something I heard her say a while back, and that is to lead with love. That stuck with me despite my initial hesitance to own it, but now I do.
Speaker 2:Something else she said in this episode that was so powerful is how we should hold water as a way of building trust and not be so quick to share other people's business when they confide in us. She speaks about being vulnerable in a way that is relatable and raw, and, speaking of vulnerability, we faced a few technical issues with this episode, mainly on my end. I had no idea, but at the time that we recorded, we were under a tornado warning. Y'all listen, it was something else. So, as a result, you'll hear more from Belinda than you will from me in this episode, but it was so rich and powerful that we thought it was too important to just leave it on the cutting room floor. So with that, let's get into it and hear from Nicole about self-awareness.
Speaker 3:All right, nicole. Thank you so much for joining us today and we're really excited to have you on the show. As you know, this season we are tackling the question of what it means to lead with a startup mindset.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And in that vein, one thing I wanted to ask you about is this idea of self-awareness, which is really important to that mindset. So self-awareness is really critical. Can you elaborate for us on what it means to hold a mirror up and incorporate that mirror and that self-awareness into your daily life and into your leadership values?
Speaker 1:Absolutely. It's hugely important and it's something I practice every day with great intent. It's something I learned about myself a long time ago. I'm a huge feeler and can be an emotional being really, and through some really good, you know, counseling and therapy of my own, I came to appreciate that sometimes, you know, I may overthink a scenario, and generally that overthinking usually puts me in a place of what would put me in a place of really, you know, worrying about how I showed up or if I hurt or offended someone with my honesty.
Speaker 1:So one of the things I learned to practice was that holding up the mirror, and that holding up the mirror is just really being honest with yourself about how you're feeling in the moment. It's being honest about who's driving the bus is something that I like to talk about, and I'll ask myself that question just like that. Okay, nick, who's driving the bus today? Are your emotions driving the bus? Is your logical self driving the bus? And so I think it's really important to do, because it helps you to take some inventory of how you want to show up and then, maybe, how you're showing up. So a lot of times, sometimes it's looking back. So maybe I've gone into a meeting where I had something that I had to lead, and certainly it's always a good idea to have an accountability partner, but that's not always an option to ask someone how did I do? How did this land on everyone? So you can ask yourself you know how do you feel like you landed? Did you read the room? Did you hear the verbal cues? Did you see what body language looked like? You know how did people lean in? Did they lean back from the table? You know those types of things, and so I hold the mirror up every day to be accountable to myself and how I want to show up for me being who I say.
Speaker 1:I am being true to who I desire to be, and I think the first person to check you should always be you, and so I take the time intentionally to start my day with you know how do I want to show up today. What do I have in front of me today? What's going to be tough, what's probably going to be easy? What are the things about today that I know I'm going to enjoy and that I want to get the most out of? Where do I not want to be distracted? Where do I want to make sure I'm really present and it just really helps to shape a day. It I want to make sure I'm really present and it just really helps to shape a day. It really helps to make a day that you probably thought wasn't going to be a great day, but having present of mind, being very self-aware, going in, it helps.
Speaker 3:Do just as a follow-up, do you think? Do you think your team sees you modeling that? Do you think it affects them as well?
Speaker 1:I do believe that they see me modeling it. I have had the opportunity to have conversations with team members about my being intentional in that space and holding it up, and so that language they actually use themselves, you know. Okay, so I'm going to hold the mirror up, you know, or they'll talk about. You know who's driving the bus and when we're having coaching sessions, I like the opportunity to ask them if they're agreeable to it, to say hey, so you know, holding the mirror up. How do you feel you know what I'm saying about that presentation. You just gave right.
Speaker 1:You know, how do you feel about getting an answer to a project that you tried to push through and you didn't get the budget for it. You didn't get what you wanted. What's your next step? What do you think your response is going to be from here and really just letting them talk it out and I just listen, and so we've had opportunities for me to share proactively. That it's what I do, but I'm confident they saw it first because they've commented to me, which always makes me feel great.
Speaker 1:Nick, I really appreciate the balance you have and the self-awareness that you have in the moment and your willingness to be vulnerable in a space, your willingness to say I don't want to frustrate you, but I'm not following you, and so I've got more questions. I will say to my team have patience with me. And they will often. I've never had a leader say to me have patience with me, you know, because so often it's the other way around, where you know leaders feel like, well, I've got to have patience with my people. Of course you do. I need my people to have patience with me, so so, yeah, yep, they definitely see that being modeled for sure.
Speaker 2:So I love what you said, nicole, about reading the room, because I think oftentimes people miss that, Leaders, especially when they walk into meetings or you're about to have a serious conversation, and they miss the energy that the team and their co-workers are putting out. And it could lead it can just lead to situations going from not great to worse, and I was. I was was wondering, as you were talking about reading the room and thinking about how you want to show up and how you want to shape the day and who's driving the bus. When you're talking to members of your team, when you're having conversations with them one-on-one about their performance, how do you have those conversations? How do you approach employees, for example, who might be struggling, who might need some coaching? What are some of the tricks that you use in those situations?
Speaker 1:So to the first part of what you said, kind of like reading the room. So let's you know, when I'm thinking about coming into a space where I know the meeting we're going to have, there's some hard agenda items that I anticipate some pushback, and a lot of times people come into a space like that when they know what the agenda is going to look like and they're armed and ready, right, and so I always make a conscious effort to disarm, make a conscious effort to disarm. So I rarely walk into a room late in a space where we're going to have those kinds of conversations. So I'm going to walk in and this is somewhat like in a sorority setting is a good example. Whenever it was the president of my chapter and I knew that this was going to be a particularly tough meeting, the first thing I'm going to do is walk in and I do it anyway. But I'd probably be even more intentional with making sure that I greet everyone, in particular greeting those that I know that I'm probably going to get the biggest pushback from, and I'm going to make the room light. You know I'm going to start with the joke. I'm going to lighten the air. You know I'm going to do those things to disarm and diffuse to begin with. I mean, that's just kind of like just even you know speaker one or one, you know you kind of work the crowd and you gain support before you even take the podium and you know, and that helps. So I'll do that in that setting, when it's in a larger group setting, especially when I know what's expected, and so I'm going to manage that on the front end and so I can set the tone for the meeting before the meeting even starts. So that's one thing.
Speaker 1:The other piece that you talked about is when you've got to have a conversation and it's one to one and the conversation is you know how do you set that up and you know when you know that it's going to be tough. Honestly, it depends. Sometimes I'll go ahead and just be forthright and start the conversation with hey, so elephant in the room is that we both know we need to have a little bit of a tough conversation because it's been a rough couple of weeks or this project hasn't gone well. What I don't like is I think you'll probably read some things about leadership where they'll tell you that you know, of course they talk to you about coaching you to balance feedback and when you know that something hasn't gone well and you sit down with your leader and they start with oh these are all these great things that you did. Well, you know the shoe is about to drop, like you already know that. Like it's like this, like this, this textbook kind of way of coaching that you start with the positives and all the great things you did and then you're going to take me way down because you're sharing these things with me, because you're trying to make me feel better, but you're getting ready to let me know what I did. That was not so great and that generally is just not my approach.
Speaker 1:I think people really appreciate when we can just go ahead and be honest. Cutting to the chase isn't about being abrasive or not about what's the word I'm looking for. It's not being coarse or not having balance or doing a great job with your delivery. But I also want to just respect your good old common sense and not walk in with sugarcoating or a prerequisite of compliments whenever we really need to get to a place. That's tough. So I like to go ahead and take the approach of okay, this is probably going to be a little bit uncomfortable, right, and I can also be honest and say, hey, this is not a conversation I was looking forward to today. It's not a conversation you were probably looking forward to today, but we're going to get through it together. You know, and I start with that, I just start with that, and I think that that helps more than anything that people feel respected and that you're not getting ready to put on this kind of, you know, dog and pony show.
Speaker 1:And in any situation like that, active listening is always important. So, you know, I will sometimes ask that person to hey, share with me how you feel like things you know went. Let me hear from you and I do my very best not to interrupt and then I play back. Let me play that back for you what I heard, you say and what you feel good about, what you don't feel great about and where you feel like we are now. And if I play that back wrong, I'm going to keep playing that back until we gain some agreement that they feel like they've been heard.
Speaker 1:And it's only after that person feels like they've been heard and we've gained some alignment there that now the door is really open for me to then talk about. You know what I think about where we are and where I think we may need to go next and we can gain some agreement on that. So that's generally my approach, you know, and most times that works. Sometimes things are just completely combative and someone can't receive it, and times like that I shut the whole conversation down, because if it can't be productive, then we can't have the conversation right now and we may need to have the conversation whenever someone else is driving the bus on their end. So yeah, that's generally the approach I take driving the bus on their end. So yeah, that's generally the approach I take.
Speaker 3:So it feels like in order for that to be effective, people really have to. They have to really trust you right? And so how do you build that level of trust with your team before it? Even you even need to have these kinds of conversations, because they inevitably happen, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:People that trust.
Speaker 1:So one word Gradually. The way to build trust is to build trust Gradually. It's is you have to let your actions Gain trust. It's not something that you can just readily ask for and expect to receive. I think that in a business perspective and I can give different examples when it comes to organizations I've been a part of but from a business perspective, anyone, especially someone coming in or early in their career, they'll say how do I build trust? And sometimes I said my question you might get it in an interview, but be really good at what you're good at Right. That's one way to do it.
Speaker 1:You know this is the old adage of of you know. You know, do what you say you'll do. You know your word is your bond. You know under promise over deliver. You know those things kind of work. But be good at what you're really good at and then be vulnerable, be okay with being vulnerable and be honest about what you're not good at. Like you know, don't.
Speaker 1:This whole idea of fake it till you make it is something I think that a lot of us have said. You know what I'm saying in our careers other times. You know, don't let them see you sweat. You know I don't really, there was a time when I subscribed to that. I don't subscribe to that anymore because those are the things that make you human. And when you are human and you can demonstrate that you have vulnerabilities, you can meet people where they are, because everybody's got them. I've interviewed people and I ask questions and you come in and you're so buttoned up that it's not believable, like you've got no flaws. You know what are your weaknesses? Don't have any. Are my weaknesses that I can't speak Spanish but I'm taking classes? You know, it's like always I'll make a weakness a strength. You know, and what I'm looking for is the real right, like it's okay to not be great at everything. It's actually okay to be really bad at something you know and to have a real life hurdle you're trying to overcome and you just haven't gotten there yet and maybe you're trying. Sometimes you try really well and sometimes you don't. That's human. So, with the humanizing you know I don't know if that's really a word, but being authentic and being honest and true to yourself is what helps people gain trust with you.
Speaker 1:When you are completely buttoned up, when you've got everything together, when you've got zero flaws, you do nothing wrong. You walk on water, I'm like, hmm, I don't know, something's not right, and so I think that's the way to do it. I think it's about being relatable. So it takes time. You can't walk into a team and expect to have trust with them on day one just because you simply asked for it, and I think that another strategy is to offer something up. So no, you don't walk into a room of strangers, you're leading a team and you're on a team and you tell them your life story and everything you've ever had to overcome and you give them your darkest secrets. No one's saying that you should do that. But what can you reasonably offer up to them that will show some human side or some vulnerability, that doesn't put you in a place that makes you feel awkward or at a deficit? And you can offer up some trust blindly is what I'm saying, right but that has to be to your comfort level, so you don't come in and spill your guts per se. But what are you willing to share? And that you know from an example, like with sisterhood, you know you do need to offer up a little bit of blind trust, not a ton but you offer some up and you trust people with a little right, and then you can people with a little right, and then you can give them a little bit more as they demonstrate that you can trust them with more, and then that whole spirit of sisterhood happens organically. Well, you know what that happens in the workplace. In the same way, I offer up a little bit, I trust you with it, a little bit of trust, blindly, and that happens more and more and more over time. And when I allow myself to be vulnerable in front of you, I give you permission to be vulnerable with me and we can meet each other there. So gradually would be the one word answer.
Speaker 1:The other thing about building trust is don't tell people's business. That's old school, baby. But listen, hold water. If someone does trust you with something, hold on to that. Because if I learn that you're willing to share with me everything that Belinda just told you, but I told you to don't tell anybody you don't even know me well and I'm asking you to trust me with someone else's business, that's bad news, red flag. So hold water. Hold something in confidence, unless it's something that's going to be detrimental to someone's life or limb, then other than that, then you keep it in the vault and that's where it stays. That that's about integrity, and that's one of the best ways also to build trust. Yeah well, that was a word I'm just saying.
Speaker 2:That was a word Like hold water. Living in a moment where we hear, especially from our listeners and from people that we talk to, that they don't have space to be heard. They're in stressful situations. People feel like a dustifier sometimes and information that's, you know, at a thousand miles per hour and with all the background noise in our daily lives what we're reading in the news, what's happening globally people are struggling to be seen. In whatever profession that you're in, whether you're in the private sector, public sector, wherever it is that you're working, people are struggling to be seen and want to be heard. What are some of the tips that you have that or strategies that have worked for you and your teams in terms of how you have created space for people to be heard?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So, wow, I guess I back up to kind of like, you know, thinking about it from a leadership perspective. And what leadership, you know, kind of means to me, and you really, for me, shouldn't be a leader unless you love people like full stop, full stop. And that means taking a real interest in who people are and what's happening in their backdrop. Right, and so, yes, every one of us, I believe that every one of us, at our core, we all want to be seen, and being seen is in many ways, the same thing as being heard, right? So, you know, I, you know, always subscribe to Sawa Bona, and it's a African, zulu proverb that literally means I see you, right. And it's more than words of politeness. It carries the importance of really recognizing someone's worth and someone's dignity, what they bring to the table. It's bigger than that, and so you can acknowledge someone without even saying hello. You know it's being aware of someone's presence, what's happening in their backdrop. So, you know, I don't want to lose sight of your question, but you know how do I make sure people feel seen. I take a vested interest in who they are. I try my best to meet them where they are Now understanding where someone is, or kind of like we all got some baggage or some things. That comes with us doesn't mean we're always going to agree. Certainly, if there's a mission or something that we need to achieve, we still need to do that, and you might not agree with it, but how I communicate with you, it's always important that you feel that you are being acknowledged. So it's kind of like we invite someone to the dance but then we don't play any music that they want to dance to or we don't create the space for them to dance. I think that's something that you've got to do whenever you want to have a really inclusive team.
Speaker 1:Talk about a lot about diversity and I don't know that we always know what diversity really means. But if we're creating an inclusive environment, we're creating that environment where everyone can be seen or be heard. If I invite you to dinner, I can't be disappointed that you decided to eat. If you are a vegan and I knew that before you came, I'd ensure there was something prepared for you. So those are some of the things about making sure that people feel seen. It's creating the space for someone to be able to lift their voice. I always think about we had a business rule we used to have at a company I used to work for, but we would assign business rule or like different assignments, to a role for each person in a meeting and someone was the tangent buster who would make sure that we didn't go down a rabbit hole or start a discussion. That's really not on topic, and we had a role that you call the Yoda and Yoda like Yoda in Star Wars, yoda is the person who's making sure that all voices are being heard, like they're paying attention in the meeting meeting, and if someone looks like they have a thought or an idea, or if they're uncomfortable, then the Yoda would be the person to say hey, shelby, do you have something on your mind? Or, belinda, we hadn't heard from you. Are you tracking with everything that's happening? That's part of making sure that people feel seen is that they're not dismissed or lost in the moment.
Speaker 1:I think a lot of times for women coming in early into their careers, when you get your first big job, sometimes you may have a little bit of imposter syndrome or you may wonder if you've really earned the right to be there.
Speaker 1:Or I've been in situations where I've had hero worship for someone that I'm working with because they're just so amazing or larger than life, and I just love the way they move.
Speaker 1:As a marketer and I've been in that seat before.
Speaker 1:So whenever I've got someone who's now at that table that's maybe a little bit green, or they're fresh out of college or this is their first opportunity, or they're in a more senior role I make sure that they're quiet, that I call on them. I want them to know that the seat that they have at the table is a valuable seat and they're there because they earned the right to be there and I want to hear them. So sometimes it's being proactive and making sure someone knows that you see them. Other times it's just you know the person is in the room, you know what their position or their stance is on something, and sometimes I will choose my words in a way that lets them know that I am aware of what their struggle might be. And after a meeting is over, they'll often say to me hey, I know you represented me in this conversation and I appreciate that Because of past conversations they could see me pulling that through with boldness. So I don't know if that answered your question, but there's a lot of ways to do it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think that was really helpful and you gave a lot of great tips there and I love how you started that with. Fundamentally, it's difficult to lead if you don't love and appreciate people. Yeah, if you don't want to be around people, then you're in the wrong, the wrong business.
Speaker 1:Indeed, indeed.
Speaker 3:So I want to thank you for all of the answers you've given to our questions. You've given us a lot to think about and chew on, but I want to switch gears, yes, and move into the lightning round.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 3:A little lighter, a little lighthearted, but just an opportunity for us to have some fun and close things out.
Speaker 1:Let's do it.
Speaker 3:So our first question just tell us what you feel in your gut. No judgment, prince or Michael Jackson, oh, prince or.
Speaker 1:Michael Jackson. Prince or Michael Jackson, I'm still in mourning for both of them. Ooh, prince if I'm feeling sexy, I love it. If I'm feeling sexy, no man has ever made lace look more beautiful. And Michael Jackson if I'm feeling nostalgic? Right, it's the music of my youth. Prince too, but I couldn't let my mama know that I love some of Prince's lyrics, right? So yeah. So, prince if I'm feeling sexy, and Micah if I'm feeling a little nostalgic.
Speaker 3:I love it. I love it. So with your grits, sugar or salt.
Speaker 1:So it is completely blasphemous to put sugar on your grits and I can't allow you to dine under my roof if that is what you do Now. I say that because my husband puts sugar on his grits and I think it's just horrible. I can't believe. I think if I had known that we might not be together. I was just too far in by the time I realized that was his twist. But it's always butter, salt and or some gravy. You know what I'm saying. I'll make that happen too on some grits, depending on what we're topping it with, but it's butter and salt all day. I don't know what's going on with my people.
Speaker 1:Because if you put sugar on your grits, you need to get yourself some cream of wheat. Oh, we used to call it cream of farina whenever.
Speaker 3:I was a kid. There's some cream of wheat or some oatmeal out there for you. Um, if you need to put sugar on there I don't know what's going on with that. I love it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, all right and do you have a favorite sitcom? Um gosh. So as a kid, um I would have to say that I love some, um, some happy days. I mean just I did um being a little bit older I mean the cosby show in a different world.
Speaker 3:Um, and in my early 20s, living single, living single I was just watching living Single for the first time in a long time the other day and I was like this show was great.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, I chose Happy Days and some people might think that's kind of corny, but it reminds me of a time and also the Cosby Show, when families watched TV together and we watched it together and I liked the song and it was nothing like a catchy tune Like TV shows don't come on with a catchy tune anymore, right, and I used to sing that Sunday, monday, happy days, like I was, I was on it, you know, um and so so we watched it together and I really, I really dug that that we did. But, yeah, living single all day long, and that that was like one of the last shows to have a great song too. I used to dance, still will, whenever I'm living singles on. So I'm Queen Latifah in that, you know what I'm saying. So, and we all my girlfriends had to choose. You know who you felt, like you you were, and all that, yeah, All right, we're going to ask you a couple of leadership questions, sure.
Speaker 1:What's your go-to leadership resource? Oh man, that's a good question. I don't know that I have one. I have a mentor that I go vassalists, and so she's one of them, and another one who was a personal friend, who was we don't have them anymore, but Dina Pledges, so she's someone else who's a leadership resource for me. I mean, I've read and do read leadership books and those types of things. I think those are always great to take away some nuggets, but honestly, I really believe in going to someone who I think does it well and that I respect. So for me it's you know someone else who's been in the leadership space, who I think has done a really good job at leading people and has balance, and that's, that's my resource.
Speaker 2:That makes sense, yeah, all right. So our final question, fill in the blank.
Speaker 1:Leadership is Can I give more than one. Leadership is a is a skill that can be learned, it is an art. But mostly I think leadership is loving. I think leadership in fact I know I don't think leadership is loving and it takes love to be in a leadership role. It takes love to want to lead people towards success. So I guess I would land with leadership is it's loving.
Speaker 2:You you posted something a while back it was years ago regarding leadership and love, and it was something that stuck with me, something that I actually incorporated into my own leadership values. Said you have to love people, you have to be willing to invest yourself and love being around people and love wanting to help people in order to be an effective leader, and I think you're absolutely right that love has to be a component of it.
Speaker 2:And it doesn't mean that you have to wear your heart on your sleeve, it doesn't mean that you operate on emotion, but you are self-aware, you, you read the room, you do all the things that you've shared with us today, Nicole, when it comes to building trust and showing some humanity and and taking a risk right and in terms of some humanity and taking a risk right In terms of huge risk, Right, Right, Like just just being willing to to give a little in order to get a lot, and I think that's just. It's something that that leaders take for granted and, at the end of the day, it really does boil down to love.
Speaker 3:So I just want to.
Speaker 2:You know from the bottom of my heart down to love. So I just want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for sharing with us tonight. This has been incredible. I've learned a lot. I always learn from my guests, but you've really given me a lot to chew on and for me to modify my own leadership style. So thank you.
Speaker 1:Oh, thank you. And if I could just add one little small thing to the end of that, it's looking at it from the other side of it for those who are looking at leaders. So, yes, you know, lead with love, love leadership. That's something I actually learned from another member of my organization that I love. It's one of the mantras that she has and I subscribe to it, but I think she said it really really beautifully. But love leaders Leadership is not easy, and so I'll close with that that you started out with.
Speaker 1:It really is. You open yourself up to all kinds of scrutiny. I was watching Simone Biles in the Olympics this week, which has just been incredible, and she was talking about the criticism that she received with the Tokyo Olympics when she was getting the twisties. And she was talking about the criticism that she received with the Tokyo Olympics when she was getting the twisties and she decided that she wasn't in a good mental headspace and that could be injury, that could be ending to her career. She wasn't able to make her mind and her body connect and she was saying I was getting all this criticism from people who are sitting at home on their couches, and so what I would say to people who are interested in leadership or have leaders that are doing their best, and it's really easy to be a Tuesday morning quarterback right. We all can do that really easily.
Speaker 1:But love leadership Like, show them some love, because it's not easy and you open yourself up to a ton whenever you put yourself out there to be a leader and lead people, and so you need to give leaders grace, because they're just people and you need to also give yourself grace as well. So, and Alexa is giving me Alexa, stop Alexa's giving me my updates right now, but yeah, so I just wanted to offer that back on the love leadership, it needs to be a little bit of both sides of that coin for those who are looking towards it, looking up to it, reaching out for it, and for those who are also in the seat. Oh, thank you.
Speaker 3:And love seems to be a theme that comes up in almost every episode.
Speaker 1:All of our it's something all of our guests have in common.
Speaker 3:I love that yeah, we're picking great leaders, and this is a trait and a value that they seem to share, so it's definitely something we should probably plan to explore later in a future episode. But, nicole, I also wanna thank you. This has been a phenomenal opportunity to have this chat with you, and you've just left us with a lot to think about, so thank you.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Thank you for having me and yeah, look, I hope we can connect sometime again soon, so I'd be open to it. I'm here for whatever you need. Thanks for all you do.
Speaker 3:Hey everyone, it's Blue Dove. Did you catch what Nicole said? I've never had a leader say to me have patience with me, because so often it's the other way around, where leaders feel I've got to have patience with my people. That comment really struck me. It's important. She noted that we're honest, open and, when appropriate, vulnerable with our team. When people feel an authentic connection to their work, their mission and their leadership, they produce a better work product. We can hold our teams to high standards and expectations while also recognizing their humanity. But to do this, we need to be honest with ourselves. This is something I've tried to model on my teams, even when it hasn't always been modeled for me.
Speaker 3:I was also really struck by her comments about feedback. Difficult feedback is never something any of us want to hear, let alone deliver, and she appreciated an approach to being honest with team members about that discomfort, while also reminding them about the need for the conversation in the first place. More specifically, she said I think people really appreciate we can just go ahead and be honest, cutting to the chase. It doesn't have to be about being abrasive or coarse. She went on to say I also want to just respect our good old common sense and not walk in with sugarcoating and just go ahead and take the approach of saying it's okay, this is probably going to be a little bit uncomfortable, but let's just be honest, it's not a conversation that either of us was looking forward to today. That makes sense. Empathy, common sense, honesty those were concepts woven throughout this episode and, honestly, these are concepts at the foundation of good leadership.
Speaker 3:I hope you enjoyed today's episode. Check back here every other Wednesday for more episodes of the Leadership Tea Podcast. Don't forget to check out our latest YouTube video and subscribe to our channel so you know when we drop new episodes there. Also, check out all of the new and exciting updates on our webpage at wwwstirringsuccesscom. You can also find us on Instagram at leadership, underscore T. Well, that's it. Thanks again for sipping wisdom and stirring success with us.
Speaker 2:Have a great week.
Speaker 3:Thank you.
