In this empowering episode, Vanessa Judelman shares how you can lead effectively in a fast-paced world by becoming a conscious leader. If you’re struggling with team misalignment, or if you feel frustrated by slowing pace despite growth, you won’t want to miss it.
You will discover:
– How a RACI chart ensures strategic execution by clarifying team roles
– Why conscious leadership helps you set the right tone for team alignment
– How to use short coaching meetings to bridge pace gaps with your team
Episode Transcript
Scott Ritzheimer
Hello, hello and welcome, welcome, once again to the secrets of the high demand coach podcast. And here with us today is yet another high demand coach in the one and only Vanessa Judelman, who is president of Mosaic people development with over 20 years of experience helping organizations build leaders who drive outstanding results as a speaker facilitator, certified executive coach and leadership consultant. Vanessa brings practical, results oriented approach to leadership development. She teaches leaders how to transition from doers to strategic thinkers. Vanessa empowers leaders with tools and strategies to boost self awareness, confidence and teamwork, and she’s coached leaders at top organizations like Campbell Soup the United Nations, Hello Fresh sick kids and the Bank of Montreal. She’s also the author of mastering leadership, what it takes to lead in today’s fast paced world, and she’s here with us today. Vanessa, welcome to the show. I’m so excited to have you here with us today. In the intro to your book you can’t you set the stage for why leadership matters in today’s fast paced world. So for the founders, leaders who are listening today that are they’re just feeling beat up, some of them, and wondering, is this as good as it gets like? Is this really what I signed up for? How can stepping up as a leader help them find their way through that chaos?
Vanessa Judelman
Oh, leadership has never mattered more. And it’s interesting because there’s a lot of research now which indicates that people are very disgruntled. There’s a great report by a public relations firm called Edelman, which talks about their Edelman Trust Barometer, and people have never trusted organizations less. People are feeling a high sense of grievance, and we all know data and research indicates that people leave managers, they leave leaders, they don’t leave companies, right? I’ve been there before. I work for an amazing company. I had an amazing role, and I didn’t like my leader, and so I left. So leadership matters now more than ever before. And so what do leaders need to do? You need to be very conscious of the tone that you set every single day. So I kind of divide the world Scott into two kinds of leaders, like those who are unconscious leaders and those who are conscious leaders, right? So the unconscious ones don’t think at all about their behavior, the impact their behavior has on people. Conscious leaders realize now more than ever before, that they set the tone their behavior matters, and so when I work with leaders, whether it’s coaching or training them, I always say to them to consciously and intentionally think about the tone that you want to set in your organization and on YouTube.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, what, what are the challenges of approaching leadership unconsciously? Is that you don’t know that you’re approaching it unconsciously. So what are some of the signs that someone is anyone listening? Might think, Well, yeah, of course, I’m a conscious leader, and many of them would be listening to shows like this. But what are some signs or symptoms, or maybe even better yet, what’s that? What’s the default tone of an unconscious leader?
Vanessa Judelman
Lack of self awareness, for sure. So if you don’t have any self awareness, so for example, I don’t have understand what emotional intelligence is so emotional intelligence is understanding my emotions, how they impact me and the people around me. If you have no like, I’ve had clients before that didn’t even know what emotional intelligence means, what it is how to be conscious of their emotions. So lack of self awareness around things like your strengths, your weaknesses, how to leverage them, your triggers, when you’re mad, angry, upset, what you need to dial up or down to be more effective. So for example, I love leaders to gain consciousness. In order to gain consciousness, Scott is to do a self assessment, like a DISC profile, for example, where they can get real clarity on their strengths and weaknesses. And what I love about a tool like the disc is it helps people to understand that everybody has a different work style. No work style is good or bad, right or wrong. We all are wired differently, and so you have to know how you’re wired. So for example, what I see is a lot of leaders are and business owners wired to drive for results, because you know your job in your business is to get results. So if you’re wired to drive for results, and you move really quickly, sometimes conscious leaders know they need to dial down their pace and actually dial up their listening. And so understanding your strengths and weaknesses and how you’re wired is such a critical part of leadership.
Scott Ritzheimer
One of the things that I think is hard for folks, especially when the world around them is moving so fast, is when they. Can see it. They know what needs to happen. They see the pace at what’s happening around them, and then they feel this gap between that and the pace of the rest of their team. How do you help folks to bridge that gap between that hard charging, but maybe even warranted fast pace with those who are a little bit more systematic in their approach or process oriented or stabilizing in nature. How does a leader bridge that gap when the world around them is moving so quickly?
Vanessa Judelman
I love to recommend that leaders leverage coaching. I think the tool of coaching, a lot of leaders are told I need to coach my team, but they don’t know what it means. And so one of the practical things I teach leaders is how to have an accountability meeting, coaching meeting. That’s short. It could be 15 minutes, Scott, and all you do is you you meet. So if you’re a fast paced leader, slow down for 20 minutes. Make it a regular meeting. Make it maybe Monday morning, right? I meet with my team Monday morning. We look at 234, things like, what is on your plate this week? What are the key goals that you need to me move forward. What can I do to help you move those goals forward? And then maybe just a bullet point around, here’s some information I need to share with you to be successful this week. That’s it, yeah. So I like your comment around like, what do structured leaders do? Well, right? They put that structure in place. But anyone can do that. And I love the idea of, I think structure is something that’s not talked about a lot of lead, a lot in leadership, right? Yeah, put structures in place. Like, book those meetings monthly, put, I always recommend, for example, leaders, put quarterly meetings in place to bring the whole team, or the whole business together to talk about strategy. Like, just do it all at the beginning of the year.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, I love that. I love that. So one of the we’ve got a lot of folks that listen to the show that are founders, and they’ve been growing and they’ve been excelling. And one of the really tricky parts of the founder business is a lot of what you do early on is dependent on that pace, right? So even if you’re not like ultra fast paced, you learn to be pretty fast paced, at least, right? And it’s vital to success. And then we have bits of our brain that are wired to think, Hey, if you don’t move fast, this company dies, this project dies, this launch doesn’t work. And and that serves us well in many circumstances, many cases, for a while, but as you start to get bigger, as the team starts to get more complex, you just can’t move that way anymore. And so there’s this feeling of just frustration, to some extent, resentment, to some extent, even disillusionment, that I thought when we got bigger we’d be able to go faster, and instead, it feels like we’re going slower. So what are some things you talked about, structures you talked about slowing down. And I love this idea of these short meetings. What are some, some structures that they can put in place so that they actually can speed back up?
Vanessa Judelman
So what’s, I would just say, what’s your goal of moving quickly? What’s What’s the purpose is speed? What’s required right now? That’s the question I’d ask, and if not, what’s your goal? So I always start with the goal in mind. Is it right? I don’t think speed is always the goal, to be honest. Yeah, right. Is it around strategically executing? Well, then speed is not what’s necessarily required. It’s taking a step back. It’s saying, what are my goals this quarter? What are my I love leaders to think about, like two or three critical I call them critical goals. Like, what are the two or three critical goals? I would rather that you slow down and focus on two or three critical goals and do them well, then rush around with a tremendous pace. That’s not a thoughtful pace. So move move quickly. Have a sense of urgency, but do it strategically. Do it thoughtfully, and move the right goals forward quarterly. But you know, each quarter at a time?
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, yeah. One of my favorite visuals for this is the airport, right? There’s so many different paces happening at the airport. And you can see the people who’ve got, like, the 13 hour layover, you know, and they’re just, they’re passed out in a chair somewhere, not even at their own gate. You can see the ones who’ve got, you know, some time, you know, they’re moving. They’re on time. You can see the ones who are like, like, they’re they’re moving right, like, there’s some intentionality, like, I gotta get where I’m going. And then there’s the ones where, like, the family is strung out the length of the thing, you know, because they’re all, like, five minutes late for the flight that’s supposed to have taken off already. And, and I think we get so used to that, right? We get so used to the just hair on fire sprinting down the hallway that we think anything short of that is isn’t enough, right? And what I hear you saying is, no, there’s an intentionality that we need, but not the frantic chaos. And yeah, I love that, that concept of mental model. But for you,
Vanessa Judelman
Scott, can I just add one more thing about that? I would also say, leverage your team. If this is this goes back to when I work with leaders. We leverage three pillars of leadership success, right as a leader, to know yourself, manage your team and lead your business. So when you have that self awareness, when you’re a conscious leader, and you know yourself, if you know you’re somebody who moves really quickly. Hire someone to close your gaps. Hire that thoughtful, strategic person on your team who can say, Wait a minute. Okay, let’s slow down. I’ll give you I’ll give you an example. This is kind of like a personal example, not a business example, but a couple years ago, my husband and I were building some steps, redoing our steps up to go up to the front porch. I’m a fast mover. He’s a thoughtful, slower paced person, so strengths and weaknesses, right? Yin and Yang? So I was like, Okay, let’s hire that first person, yeah, I like the stonework, and let’s just do it. And he’s like, whoa. Let’s interview three or four people. Let’s get different quotes, let’s get them to do different designs. So my impetus is, move quickly. I don’t have time. I don’t want to interview different people. And I said, You do it like that’s his strength. So he met with different people, he got different quotes, he got different designs. And by him going slower and being more diligent and strategic about it, we got a better product for better price, right? So examples like that show up in business all the time. So I have somebody on my team who is complete. Most of my team members, exact, probably all of them have completely different strengths than I do. And I’ll call I’ll say, I need help on this, right? So that’s knowing yourself is understanding your gas. Then you go into that manager team pillar where you’re leveraging your team, you’re leveraging the strengths of your team to help you fill your gaps, but also to execute on your strategy most effectively.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, I love that, because it brings back we talked about beforehand, like, what’s the goal? The goal is not to get the fastest set of steps, right? The goal is to get something that we’re going to enjoy and be proud of for the rest of the time that we’re in the home. And just being clear on that goal is such an important point. So okay, you’ve laid out these, these pillars leading knowing yourself and then managing your team. The third pillar is leading your company and or your business. And for founders who are are dreaming big but struggling to steer between here and there Right? What’s a strategy that you found is helpful for keeping that vision alive while handling the day to day grind?
Vanessa Judelman
So lead your business is about three things. First of all, it’s about managing change. So you have to be able to understand what’s changing, how to change, how to move people beyond resisting change, you have to be able to the second piece is around prioritization and delegation. So you have to be really clear on what your priorities and key goals, critical goals are, which we talked about, and then delegate. One of the best tools, like practical tools that I teach at leaders around delegation, is write down a list, especially as a leader, if you’re feeling overwhelmed on what you are paid to do, okay, right? Literally, get a piece of paper. What am I paid to do? Okay? Look at what’s on your to do list, and look at what’s not aligned with what you’re paid to do. And that’s where you can start prioritizing and delegating effectively. And then the third piece of lead your business is executing strategically. So most leaders don’t even know what does it mean to be strategic, right? There’s three parts of strategy thinking, planning and implementation. So you need time. That’s how I recommend schedule three times a year, where you bring your team together and you think strategically, you plan strategically, and then those weekly meetings where you check in your coaching meetings, that gives you an opportunity to move your strategic plan forward.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, I love that when it comes to that thinking, planning and and implementation, what do you what are you seeing folks do of the three best and worst, right where? Where are folks doing all right, right now? And where do you tend to see them struggling?
Vanessa Judelman
Oh, for sure. I mean, people do strategic thinking. They do nice spell Excel spreadsheets. They’re pretty good at planning, execution, hands on, falls of the wayside. Is that your experience as well? Scott, yeah, it is. Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Scott Ritzheimer
I. And I think what’s challenging, especially as you grow, which just feeds into this, this whole conversation we’ve been talking about, is that execution increasingly depends on other people, right? And so it creates two challenges. One, you have to be able to communicate with them and lead them effectively, and we’ve talked about that a little bit, but it also gives us an excuse for not planning Well, right? If we don’t plan well and it was never really executable in the first place, then we can kind of pawn it off on it well, they just didn’t execute it. So what goes wrong in the thinking and planning stages that really sets us up for failure in execution?
Vanessa Judelman
People don’t think about so if they have a goal. So a lot of leaders don’t even know how to set a goal. Like when I do leadership programs, I’m always shocked when I say, Okay, everybody raise your hand. How many of you have set goals? Maybe 50% of people put their hands up. So some people are not even setting goals. Right? Then it’s so it’s so easy, but people don’t do it. Take your goal and break it down, right? A lot of people get so flustered because their goals are so large, because they are so ambitious, literally, take a piece of paper, write your goal and break it down into steps. Then go back to your list of what you’re paying to do, right? Look at Okay, which of these steps do I need to do personally? What do I need to delegate to other people, right? And I also love, I’m really want to give your listeners some practical tools. I love a good RACI chart, right? So you take an Excel spreadsheet, RACI stands for responsible, accountable, consult and inform, and you have your project, and you break it down into steps, and you say, Okay, who’s responsible for implementation. Who’s accountable? So accountability is the highest level, like, if the shit hits the fan, the Accountable person, right? Really needs to take ownership. Who do we need to consult, and who do we need to conform, inform, and that helps you manage things like meetings, manage how you communicate to people. So I do find that people don’t have the discipline around execution, where they can put those plans in place. And literally, these doing something like racy chart can take 10 minutes. Do it with your team too. Put it up on if you’re meeting virtually, put it up on a whiteboard and do it with your team. I love building racy charts with teams, because then everybody’s accountable to their piece of it and has ownership over it.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, that’s so good. It’s such a simple tool. And you’re right. Just that one extra step, right? Do it in the meeting, take that extra step, write it out, and you’ll save yourself in the inordinate amount of time during implementation. All right? Vanessa, I’ve got one more question. I ask this of all my guests, I’m very interested to see what you have to say. All right. The question is this, what would you say is the biggest secret that you wish wasn’t the secret at all. What’s that one thing you wish everybody watching or listening today knew?
Vanessa Judelman
Your emotions are your personal GPS. So in other words, people underestimate leveraging their emotional intelligence. So when you’re triggered, use your emotions to say, notice I’m triggered right now. Don’t make a don’t make a big decision when you’re coming from that place of fear or anxiety, notice your emotions, take a deep breath, walk around the block and come back and make that decision when you’re feeling clear, when you’re feeling concise, when you’re feeling stable and a lot calmer. So I think people underestimate how many decisions they make in business based on their gut and their emotions. Sometimes, in fact, Scott, they disguise it as their intellect when it’s actually they’re making very good decisions based on their intuition and emotions.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yes, yeah, it’s so true. It’s so true. And I love the idea of separating that initial burst right from the longer lasting emotions, right? Because there’s that instant knee jerk trigger response that’s, let’s be frank, not always very helpful, right in that exact moment, but those emotions that linger for just a moment longer, there’s so much truth in them. And if we can separate those two, take that walk, take that moment and not disregard the whole thing, I agree. I think that’s remarkably powerful, and we’re doing it anyway, right? So we might as well be doing it consciously. This is a great point. Vanessa, there’s some folks listening. They’d love to get some some coaching, some training, how they can be a better leader, and how they can help their the leaders on their team be better. How can they find more about you and the work that you do?
Vanessa Judelman
Sure. Well, I would recommend you head over to my website. My business is called Mosaic people development, so you can head over to mosaicpd.com, and what I would recommend is go on the tab at the top called blogs. And I write a weekly blog all about leadership. It’s based on. My experiences with people that I coach, with people that I train. So what I always hear from people when they read me weekly blog is, did you read my mind? Right? Were you writing that? For me, it’s because the blog is written based on my experiences with actual leaders. That’s why it hits home and resonates so much. And so that’s what I would recommend. Is a great place to start.
Scott Ritzheimer
Amazing, amazing. Vanessa, thanks so much for being here. Just a privilege and honor having you on the show today. Absolutely loved it. For those of you watching and listening, you know your time and attention mean the world to us. I hope you got as much out of this conversation as I know I did, and I cannot wait to see you next time. Take care.
Contact Vanessa Judelman
Vanessa Judelman is the President of Mosaic People Development, with over 20 years of experience helping organizations build leaders who drive outstanding results. As a speaker, facilitator, certified executive coach, and leadership consultant, Vanessa brings a practical, results-oriented approach to leadership development. She teaches leaders how to transition from “doers” to strategic thinkers. Vanessa empowers leaders with tools and strategies to boost self-awareness, confidence, and teamwork. She has coached leaders at top organizations like Campbell’s Soup, The United Nations, HelloFresh, SickKids, and the Bank of Montreal.
Want to learn more about Vanessa Judelman’s work at Mosaic People Development? Check out her website at https://www.mosaicpd.com/
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