Lessons

Lesson Info

Authentic Leadership

So let's talk about authentic leadership and vulnerability. That's where we're gonna shift into, okay? So authentic leadership and vulnerability, this is probably one of my favorite sections to teach in any course, ever, because this one will make some of the biggest difference. A lot of little actions will change based on the big concept, or the big vision, being locked in, okay? So what we're really gonna do is we're gonna give you some sampling of some ways to start establishing your leadership and your vulnerability. Okay? And they go hand in hand. If you're gonna be authentic it's gonna take risk, 'cause it means it's you. And you're putting you out there not a character, not like a business robot, right? So that's what we're gonna talk about. So we're gonna dig in a little bit on that piece and so the way we're gonna start is on values. So it's basically like, I can't coach you, or help you, if I don't know what your values are. You can't be authentic, really, or measure yourself...

on a, we're talking about success metrics right? If you wanna measure yourself on "Am I being authentic?" which I think is a good thing to measure yourself on, well, what are you gonna measure against? My suggestion for you is values is the bedrock of that. This is really how we make all of our choices whether that we decide whether we're happy or sad, whether we're fulfilled or unfulfilled, okay? So what I wanna do is, we're gonna basically have you generate and connect to something we call a peak experience, one of you is gonna share it, and we're gonna pull some values out of that person, okay? So to start what I want you to do is just to close your eyes real quick, and if you're on camera go ahead and close your eyes as well at home. And I want you to start opening up the file cabinets of your professional life. And what you're searching for is something specific. You're searching for an experience, a time where you felt the most you. The most fulfilled. Like you had an impact that was really satisfying. Like you were in flow. And it could be from the last month, it could be where you're working now, it could have been from a year ago, maybe a couple years ago, five years ago, early in your career. And I want you once you grab one or two, see which ones pop up to the top. If one comes up first that's probably the right one. And I want you to for a second connect to some of the details of that. Where were you, what city? What year was it? Who were you working with? What were you working on? What were the actions you were doing, the contributions you were making? And maybe what was so satisfying? What was the outcome, what did it feel like? And so when you're ready, open your eyes, and I want you to just jot down for yourself a couple bullet points on that experience that you wanna share about. And again this is to just jog your memory on something. You don't have to write out the whole story, It's just which professional experience really had that contained in it? I'm gonna give you about 15 seconds to do that. So I'm gonna try something, I think, 'cause we're gonna be listening to you and helping you. Is there someone that feels comfortable coming up and sharing in front of the room, kinda sitting up with me? 'Cause we'll be talking to you for a minute. It'll be about five minutes up here with me. Anyone feel ready? Again, you don't have to write it all out, it's just so that you can tell me the story. Yes, Erica! A round of applause for Erica being brave. Yes, yes, yes! (Audience applauding) And that clapping was like a seven, we need to get to like a nine or a 10. Let's try it one more time, round of applause for Erica! (audience applauding) Awesome. Alright, so what I want you all to do while you're listening along, is to pay attention and be present for her story, but also be writing down any values you hear, okay? She's gonna tell us a story and we're gonna see, what are her values, okay? And so all your job is, up here, you're doing great. Thanks. Yeah (laughs), you're only job is just to tell the story of that peak experience, that peak professional experience as thoroughly as you can. It doesn't have to be super long. No I won't. But just tell us details. Spare that, all the story- And feel free to look at your friends in the audience while you're talking, you can look at me, but I'll just be taking some notes up on the board for us. Okay. Okay? So year 2015, I was the store manager of a company called Scoop NYC, and I had a corporate visit. And it was a very successful corporate visit because my store was doing well and I hired someone who had no experience in retail at all. And everyone was like, "Don't hire him, he doesn't have the experience." But there was something about him during the interview process that I just believed in him. And I trained, I coached him, I taught him everything from the product knowledge to how the store operates. And because of that he pulled the store to number one. And this is the person that everyone said, "Don't hire him." My district manager said, "Yeah, but there's not much experience. I dunno." And there was just something. He was warm in the interview process, and that I think is most importantly. When you're servicing, you have to have that openness to be able to talk to many people from different backgrounds and life experience whatnot. So that was really exciting for me to see someone that had no experience grow to be the top seller of the company. Wow. Not only just San Francisco, but company wise. And just seeing everyone say, "Oh that's great, congratulations, Erica." "Look at," his name was Steve, so they were, "Look at Steve, he's doing so good." So I stood there proud and it was like, "See everyone doubted me, but look he's doing good." So, that was my, story. Awesome, that's great. Round of applause for the story! (audience applauding) You're gonna stay up here for just a few more minutes okay? Sure, sure. So I want you to start looking while I ask them what they noticed, look at these values and what I'm gonna ask you in a second is to pick one or two that's like your key, the ones that stand out the most, that feel the most true for you. Okay. Any in addition to these that you heard? Yeah? I would say trust, she trusted in herself and her decision making and also in him. Absolutely, trust is big. What else? Yeah? I would say gut feeling, she went with her gut. Yeah, maybe the value there is intuition? Intuition, yeah. Or maybe even, like, yeah I think that's a good one. If there's another way to say it please tell me. Ownership mentality. Taking charge and doing what she felt was right. Yeah, I'd say ownership, and maybe I'll say responsibility. So another option, yeah, that sort of, ownership as a value, like, "I'm gonna really take control of this process. People are telling me maybe not to do it, but for me this feels right. I'm gonna do it my way." Yeah. Awesome, anything else we heard? Yeah? Risk taking? Willing to take the risk. So let's say risk or, yeah, that's a good value. And I'd say challenge, she likes a challenge, probably. So is there anything up here, we can keep doing some more, but is there any up here that really, like one or two that really stand out, that's like, "yes!"? For me? Um, I guess, the impact that it did for the business was huge for me. And the risk, yeah. And the risk, yeah. Is there one that feels the strongest of those two? I guess risk. Risk does? Ooh, good, thank you. That was you Lauren, right, that had risk? Ooh thank you, coming in last, last contribution. So I'm gonna pause and explain what we're doing here and then we're gonna keep going. So this is what we would do in a values exercise so it's connect with a peak experience, you could do this with one professional experience, or even two. You can add a personal peak experience in, and what you do is you just keep writing down values and you let the person or yourself be able to add values that they, like, "Okay, maybe it's kinda like risk, but actually this word means more to me," okay? What we're gonna do is we're gonna just take risk now and we're gonna what we do called "thread it." You're gonna describe what risk means to you, why it's such a key value of yours, and then we're gonna rate it. What we would do, we would do this for between four and six values, but today we're gonna do it for one value. But we can repeat this over time until you have your key four to six. Does that make sense? Okay, cool. So what we're gonna do now then is we're gonna erase all the other values. We feel good about risk? Sure. Yeah? Okay. So all I want you to do now is then, is tell us what risk means to you and we'll just be taking some notes. So just kinda talk, like, what's great about risk? Not knowing the outcome. Yeah. What else? Putting myself out there. Yeah. Can you tell me more about putting myself out there? Um, how can I... Something like self expression or like really, like? Yeah, just, yeah, yeah. Or just going outside the box, if you will. Yeah! If that makes sense? Totally. Anything else about, like, what else does risk mean to you if anything? I can't think of anything else. That's pretty good right? That would stick out. Great. So you could see, too, the reason we do this is we might have the same value of risk, I might be called challenge or adventure maybe. So I might call mine adventure, she calls hers risk, but then when we thread it her version of what risk means, like what's really important to her, it's specific, it's individual. So you wanna know, for you, not only what your values are but what those values actually mean and give some character and richness to them. Perfect. So how would you rate yourself on how you're living this value in your life currently out of 10? 10 being like, "I'm living it to the max," one is like, "I'm not living it." We know it's important to you, but how are we living it? I'm gonna say a strong eight. An eight, great, alright, so that's perfect. So a round of applause for Erica, I'll let you sit back down. Thank you. (audience applause) Alright, so we can see there, and you can see in your workbooks what you'll be able to do is to fill out four to six, thread them for yourself, and then rate them. So if in her sharing, you have one value that you know for you, one or two that you know is one of yours, feel free to just put it in the bubble right now that's like, "I know this is one of my values." You might have to do the exercise a couple of times to get to all four or six but you might have one or two you know, is like, "This is," for me, I'll tell you my key values, one of them is fun. Another is adventure, okay? And those are two that I know I could just pull 'em off the top of my head, (exhales forcefully) tell ya. This is what I measure myself on, and we check back in with clients on to make sure that we're actually living and leading the way that is important to us. Alright, so that's a huge component or building block to our leadership.