Have you mastered the art of mobilizing others?
Do you know how to step into your potential?
Get the “insider” lessons of exemplary leaders from our guest, Deb Calvert, a Certified Master of The Leadership Challenge. Deb is a coach, author, and expert on research-based practices of high-quality leaders. She is also the Founder of People First Productivity Solutions and has over 25 years of experience in leadership development.
Deb has a ton of insights for us on this episode and plenty of tips you can start using today, including:
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How to start leading with your values
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Understanding the 8 purposes behind any question
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Simple shifts to lead more and manage less
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The meaning of the term “entelechy”
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And so much more
This show is packed with information for anyone – sellers, buyers, and leaders of all stripes. Don’t miss a word of our conversation – straight from the master herself.
Mentioned in this episode:
Transcript
Deb Calvert: Stretch yourself. You really, see, you can’t lead if you are stuck in the status quo. That nobody ever got excited by a leader set who said, hey, let’s go do more of the same things we’ve always been doing. There’s nothing there.
Voiceover: You’re listening to the Vibrant Leadership podcast with leadership speaker and consultant Nicole Greer.
Nicole Greer: Welcome to the Vibrant Leadership podcast. My name is Nicole Greer. They call me the vibrant coach and I am here today with none other than Deb Calvert. Deb has over 25 years of experience in leadership development, organizational effectiveness and management training. She was an HR director with a fortune 500 company prior to founding People First Productivity Solutions in 2005. Deb is an ICF certified executive coach, a licensed practitioner and numerous assessment tools and a certified master of the leadership challenge. She is a published author and her research and methodologies have been published globally in academic journals. We have some serious genius on the show today. Deb I’m so glad you’re here with us.
Deb: Thanks, Nicole, I’m honored to be here. You’ve got some serious genius on the show every time you’re there. So it’s all good.
Nicole: Oh, well you, know. Hey, I’ll pay you later for saying that. So I, I went through your website. And first of all, everybody who’s listening, you have got to go to the website. And let me tell you what it is. It’s peoplefirstps.com. There is a plethora of goodies over there. And you would just be foolish if you didn’t go there and take a look at what she’s got for you. So the first thing I noticed that, of course, in your bio, it also says that you’re an author. And so the first book is Discovered Questions and get connected. Did I get the title right?
Deb: Yeah, almost. Discover Questions Get You Connected.
Nicole: Get you connected. Okay, fantastic. Thank you for helping me. All right. So tell us about this book. And what’s inside of it that we might glean a little genius out of why questions are so important.
Deb: Yeah, you know it. It’s an acronym. The word discover is eight purposes for asking questions. And it’s based on about 20 years of research in the field with sellers and buyers. I’m more of a buyer side researcher. If you’re the folks who are listening, aren’t and sales, here’s something I found interesting and surprised me too. A lot of business owners and entrepreneurs and solopreneurs have told me that this is really, really helpful for them. So for what it’s worth, you might find some value in just knowing that there’s eight purposes, for asking questions. The next book that I’m putting out his Discover Questions for Coaches. So that just tells you how translatable this is.
Nicole: So will you go through D I S C O V E R, maybe peek inside a couple of those letters for us, because we don’t know why questions are so important. You know, I had Bob Tiede, I don’t know if you know that name. But he his big thing is questions as well. And I teach a class called powerful questions. And both of us went to coaching school. Questions are so magically powerful, it is incredible. They can change your life. So would you just maybe peek in a couple of those letters for me?
Deb: You bet. I’ll just do a few. So the first one D stands for data. We all ask lots of data questions. The purpose is, we want the fact we want the solid, proven information. Anytime that’s your aim or your purpose, you’re asking a data question. Here’s one that people don’t ask very often, but it’s super important. And that is the V. The V stands for value questions. Why does that matter? Out of these three things, which one is most important? Why? Why is that important? And this gives people a chance to when you ask questions like that it gives them a chance to work it out for themselves.
It’s a bonding question, because now you understand people, maybe you even tap into some of their intrinsic motivation. And you understand why they will or won’t do whatever you might be asking them to do in sales and management and anyplace else in life. So that’s the, that’s two of them, just to give you the nature of what they’re like. Some of them we ask very often, there are others of these eight types that we don’t ask very often, but they can be game changers when we know that that would be a good thing to understand. And we incorporate that into our conversations.
Nicole: That’s awesome. That’s awesome. Yeah. And again, if you visit, Deb’s website, you’ll find all eight letters with what they’re about. And those can help you you know, we are talking about leadership on the Vibrant Leadership podcast, but you know, I think leaders are in sales. What what’s your take on that? Are leaders in in the sales business?
Deb: Not the way that that sales is stereotypically defined, but I don’t even think that good salespeople are in that business. So maybe we’ll just unbundle the two. I believe that, that leaders, by the very nature of what they’re trying to do have to be influential, and sometimes have to be persuasive and have to sell their ideas. But you see, it’s not about manipulating. I didn’t use that word. It’s not about tricking or or pushing. Those are all those those stereotypes that even salespeople want to disassociate themselves from. But true selling with a pure intent of helping people. Absolutely leaders do that.
Nicole: Yeah, I think so too. I think everything is sales. I mean, if you want to go out to dinner with your husband, and you want to go to your restaurant, you’re going to have to figure out how to get yourself there. So there’s, there’s all sorts of things that have to do with sales. So let me ask you the first question that I sent to you, when when we decided to do this podcast, which is what is your definition of leadership? Will you kind of give us your take on it?
Deb: Yeah, that’s an easy one for me. But it’s not my definition, you mentioned that I’m a certified master with the leadership challenge. And I’m really proud of that honor, they make you work hard to get it. But I chose to become affiliated with that particular pathway into leadership development, because it’s evidence based. And because it’s so seminal, the work that Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner authors of The Leadership Challenge and a whole lot of other books. The work that they’ve done is, is cited in almost every thing that’s, that’s been done in leadership in the past three decades.
So I’m going to use their definition because I like it so much. And there are some significant word choices within it. They say that leadership is the art of mobilizing others, to want to struggle for shared aspirations. And I just, I just love that definition. for a lot of reasons. I’ll jump straight to the one that most people sort of scratch their head about, and that is to want to struggle, why would anybody want to struggle, and that’s not fair leader shouldn’t make people struggle, right? Sometimes people get a little indignant about that part of the definition. So I like to remind people that anything that we think is worth having for, we will want to struggle for. So it’s not struggle for the sake of struggle. It’s for shared aspirations. And by the way, Nicole, that’s how you get your husband to the restaurant you want to go to.
Like what’s in it for him. Shared aspiration. But to want to struggle, people do, right, nothing, nothing that we really ask people to do, is necessarily easy. There’s always going to be within any change some internal or external struggle. So better to get people to a place where they want that, then you’re pushing and micromanaging. I know a word that’s come up a few times in your recent interviews, right. But there’s an option we can lead people to a place where they want to work for it.
Nicole: Yeah, absolutely. And, and I think that most people do understand that, you know, you put the effort in, you get the reward, you know. And I, we were just talking before we got press the play button here, about the fact that I got my master’s degree done about a year ago. And it was a struggle to figure out all the things to get that done. But I did read information that your co authors and the gentleman that gave you that definition, I read that when I was in my program, so you hang out with some really, really cool guys. And they were also helped you co author, your second book, is that correct?
Deb: Yep. So their their work around the leadership challenge. They have introduced something to the world called the five practices of exemplary leadership. That’s all based on this evidence, this this research that they’ve done worldwide with over 5 million people. So basically, the five practices of exemplary leadership are broken down into 30 behaviors that leaders use more frequently than others, right? Effective leaders, the ones that we willingly choose to follow. They do these 30 things more often than other people do. Okay, so I was working in leadership, I also work in sales.
And I had the thought one day of, you know, the five practices, the 30 behaviors, what if sellers did that more often? How would buyers respond to that? And so I took that question to Jim and Barry, they were intrigued. And we went through Santa Clara University to do a research study about this very question. And we found that buyers, like all 30 of those behaviors. And in fact, want to see all 30 of those behaviors more frequently in the sellers they choose to do business with. And that became the premise then for the book called Stop Selling and Start Leading that we co authored.
Nicole: Hmm, that is genius. I love it. Okay. So, at a high level, could you share with us what the five practices are?
Deb: You bet. So the first practice is to model the way. And that one, the behaviors underneath it are all about that you know, your values, your own and your organization’s. And that you align your actions with your values, you become a good example to other people. And you treat people in ways that show your values. It’s not random, it’s not accidental, it’s not based on your mood, you know, there’s everything is, is lined up, there’s an integrity within that. The second of the five practices is to inspire a shared vision.
So a couple of pieces in that. Inspire, that that word it means to breathe life into. So leaders know that they have to continually be putting that vision back out there and helping people see how they’re connected to the vision, because it’s not the leader’s vision, it’s a shared vision. Inspire a shared vision, double underlines under shared. You want it, and I want it. And the reason that we both want it is that we co created it, or I listened to you and understood what you wanted and needed. I didn’t just make it up in my own head. And then number three is to challenge the process. Challenge the processes, you know, leaders are, well, they’re restless, they’re always asking what’s new, what’s next, what else, they’re looking for the small wins the incremental improvements. They’re willing to experiment and take some risks all in the hope of moving more and more toward that shared vision.
So that’s the first three, the next one is enable others to act. Collaborating, cooperating, trusting others enough to let go and give them opportunities to grow. Giving them the resources that are necessary to help them accomplish what you’ve asked them to accomplish. And then last but not least, is encourage the heart. And it’s not encourage the mind, it’s not encouraged the body, the strength, it’s the heart, which is an emotional peace. And it’s encourage, not just at the end, when people finally reach the goal, it’s encourage the effort. Encourage what’s happening along the way to help people to get where you’re going.
Nicole: Okay, so just to review, because you might be on your treadmill or whatever, you might not get all five of them. But the first one was to model the way. The next one was to inspire a shared vision. And the shared is underlined twice with two exclamation points. To challenge the process number three. Number four, enable others to act and encourage the heart, which means to look at the effort that’s getting done. Oh, I love that. So those are the five practices of exemplary leaders. And then these 30 behaviors are something that we could find in your book. And then like maybe take one and try to start incorporating that into how we show up daily is that what is that your advice on how to apply the book? How do we apply all this?
Deb: Yeah, you know, I will send you Stop Selling and Start Leading is primarily about sales people. So you could leapfrog that one and go straight to The Leadership Challenge if you wanted to see that the parallels here as a leader. And if you really want to dive deep, you can take something called the leadership practices inventory, it’s a 360, or a self assessment that will tell you exactly how you are showing up with those exact specific 30 behaviors. So there are six of them under each of the five practices.
Nicole: That’s awesome. And so if somebody wanted to do that, would they connect directly with you through your website, Deb, so they could take the assessment?
Deb: Absolutely. You can, you can go to the leadershipchallenge.com, you’ll find me there with the other certified masters, but you know, find your own way into it. There are multiple paths.
Nicole: Okay, fantastic. Fantastic. Okay. So another thing you talk about in your second book is step into your leadership potential. So, you know, I’m hearing kind of like, we’ve got to have the confidence to just, you know, know that we have leadership inside of us. So how do you actually step into your potential?
Deb: Well, first, you come to grips with the fact that whether you know it or not, whether you like it or not, you already are a leader. And some people grapple with that they think No, no, leaders are only the people at a top of an organization or leadership that’s only a select few who are born with certain charisma or other characteristics. Not true. I can prove to you it’s not true because you can go to a playground and you can see four year olds and five year olds playing. And there are just some things that certain people do at every level throughout any life, certain things that you’ve done too that cause people to watch and to pay attention, and then to emulate you. So to step into your full potential as a leader.
Number one is come to grips with the fact that you already are a leader, you already do make a difference. If you’ve never thought about that look out because you’re making a difference even so, it just might not be the difference you really want to make. And then number two. Intentionally, think about what is the difference I want to make? Where do people want to go? And how could I help? How can I guide them to that place? And then look out like, once you do those things, you will have unleashed this awesome new creation inside yourself, which is your own leadership, your ability to thoughtfully intentionally take people to someplace they want to go, someplace where you can help them to get.
Nicole: Hmm, that’s absolutely beautiful. And I totally see how that dovetails with sales. Right? You we don’t want to sell you something, we want to take you where you want to go. Is that is that the connection?
Deb: It’s part of it. Absolutely. You know, the original root word of leadership or leader is leden, l e d e n. And it meant to guide. So that visual of being a guide is a critical one when you think about yourself or anyone as a leader.
Nicole: Yeah, absolutely. And then if you dovetail that with being able to do those five exemplary practices, you will be an amazing human on planet earth getting amazing things done, correct. Yeah. Okay. So you you say in your book, also, that there’s just some simple behavior shifts that we can make. And, you know, I think that some leaders are super successful, and we go, wow, how do they do it? And then the others are like on the struggle bus, you know, they really struggle to lead. So what are the simple behavior shifts that might help leaders to do better?
Deb: Let me start with sort of a high level headline on that. I see an awful lot of people struggle, because they don’t understand that there is a difference between managing work and leading people. And your job, if you have any title of authority, your job really is both if you’re only using the tool of managing work, or tasks, well, first of all, that’s short term. Secondly, it’s not all that inspiring, and you, the more you use that authority, or that command and control that comes from your title, the more you’ll have to use it. And you’re wearing people out, and you probably don’t like it very much, either. So that struggle, and where people find out that they don’t have to struggle is in leveraging the other side of it.
How do I lead people so that I don’t constantly have to tell them what to do, they want to do it. So that I don’t constantly have to check up on people. They put in the emotional commitment, they cared a lot about this. So the quality was built into it. When I’m trusting people, enabling others to act, I’m also paying attention to things like I listened to them, I treat them with dignity and respect. I help them to understand what it looks like for us to be successful together. And there’s a two way exchange that’s going on there. I invite their diverse opinions. So these are some of the behaviors that cause you to be leading people not just managing tasks and work.
Nicole: That’s fantastic. Well, I love your history where you were in HR for many years. And so what what is your leadership story? I know I have a lot of HR people that listen to the podcast, I do a lot of teaching at UNC Charlotte and work with people who are in HR. So I know that somebody out there is listening, wondering like well how did she become the HR director inside of, you know, this big company? Could you share a little bit about maybe your journey and what you did, what you, lessons learned, etc?
Deb: Yeah. And to be clear, not the HR director, but an HR director at a corporate level, because my entire career had actually been in sales. And I became a sales trainer where I worked. And one day, we were owned by a parent company. But one day, the publisher of the newspaper where I worked came in and said, hey, Deb, we need some leadership development here. And I said, oh, yeah, because I’ve been doing sales, training, leadership development, you mean like management training? And he’s like, no, not just for managers. But we probably need that too. But I’m talking about leadership development for, you know, leaders everywhere, because we want to raise all the boats since the first time I ever heard that that phrase.
So yeah, so he left and I was very ponderous. I had this great big bookshelf that I’d inherited when I became the trainer. So I was looking at the bookshelf, and there was one and only one book that on the spine had the word leadership on it. That was The Leadership Challenge first edition. So I got an early introduction to Jim and Barry before I ever moved to California and got to work with them directly. But it caused me I read the book. It caused me to start understanding leadership at a very young, early time in my career, and how it was different from management’s that had exactly one management job before I took on that training role. So anyways, flash forward, I began doing something there in our market, which was one of the top five markets for the corporate parent company and It was catching on our sales were rocking.
That was from the sales training, the management program I put together was bringing people through, you know, an upskilling of supervisory skills. And then we were doing this leadership development that really got a lot of people’s attention, especially two years later, you know, when the publisher said in a big meeting on one of those calls with shareholders, that what Deb Calvert was doing was making a difference in our bottom line. So you know, then I started getting invitations to the other newspapers, and I went to Philadelphia, I went to Miami, I went to Fort Worth, and corporate said, no, we need you to come here and start doing this from the corporate level. So they brought me in as an HR director to work across the organization with sales training, and leadership development.
Nicole: That’s fantastic. So um, you know, there are a lot of people that listen to the podcast, and maybe their company isn’t so big. And they’re thinking about how do we do leadership development inside of a smaller organization? What’s your experience with that? How would you start if I was just sitting here thinking, Okay, we have got to do some leadership development, get our ducks in a row. So when so that we can have these leaders that help us grow. How would you How would you advise them or counsel them?
Deb: Yeah, well, first of all, this is for anybody, at any level, leadership at every level is a real thing. You don’t have to be aiming for the CEO job, you don’t have to already have the CEO job to be thinking of yourself as a leader, and to have more impact and effectiveness. Nor do you need to be in a company that’s some large size. I coach, I’m sure you do, too, Nicole, I coach people who are solopreneurs, they’re just getting started, or they’ve been a financial planner for 20 years, but it’s just them and maybe one or two assistants. They still need to be leaders. Working with clients leading themselves.
There are many applications. How do you get started? Well, you know, there’s some of this work that you can do yourself. I do recommend Jim and Barry’s work. There are 30 plus books. But there are lots of other tools, you’ll find some on my website, you’ll find some on the leadershipchallenge.com website. And there are lots of other good resources. So I try to point to those in my connect to lead blog almost every week. What can you do? Well, one easy thing to do. And I really don’t know why more people don’t do this is to hire yourself an executive coach, right? Talk to Nicole, talk to me talk to anybody who’s ICF certified, because that does make a difference. And begin to think about a coach will help you think about your goals for your own professional development.
Stretch yourself, you really, see you can’t lead if you are stuck in the status quo, that nobody ever got excited by a leader set who said, hey, let’s go do more of the same things we’ve always been doing. There’s nothing there. So to be able to press yourself to challenge yourself, and even inspire yourself, that’s part of becoming a leader who can then do that with and for other people. But you’ve got to get okay with it and used to it for yourself. First, your credibility depends on you being good at it before you say oh, yeah, this other person in my organization that they got to do something different.
Nicole: Yeah, yeah. So I’m curious why you decided to become a coach, my my story is, is that I had been in training and development for years and years and years. And I don’t know, I got wind of this idea of coaching. And I was like, you know, I had heard of it. And that was in 2007. And then I picked up a book by Laurie Beth Jones, about coaching. And I read it and I was like, this is what the whole world needs. We all need like an advocate, we need somebody in our corner who will see our potential challenge us to actually bring it to work, right and put it to work.
And and I think when I learned to ask good questions, and became an excellent listener, like, I had a radical change in my life. I mean, I became more likeable as a human because I was asking questions and, and listening better. And then also, when you you learn about coaching, you become so sensitive to the outcomes of your own life and those of others. It’s just all about doing your best work. I mean, it’s just fantastic. So what is your story? How did you find coaching? How did it find you and what happened to you when you became a coach. Because I think leaders to take the coaching course of some sort or get the skills in their toolbox.
Deb: Absolutely. The questioning skills and the listening skills being paramount of those. Well, I was actually sort of pushed into it when I took that corporate role. There was a list of you need to do this. And you should do that. And you’ve got to have this credential. And it was it was so overwhelming, like I cried, like within my first two weeks of having relocated across the country and then finding out there was this mountain of stuff that I didn’t already know how to do. So I was completely overwhelmed. But yeah, I like to learn so you know, once I got myself together, it became exciting.
And becoming a credentialed coach was a part of that, because I was going to oversee the trainers and coaches and all the other markets. So without being able to find it myself, I got thrust into it. And I’m sure glad that I did it. As you said, it’s it’s life changing. And I am so gratified by throughout now, the past 20 years, the people who have come to me and said even many years later, what a difference I made in their life and how much I helped them. And I mean, to me that that’s what it’s all about more than anything else. I’m super energized by and honored by by those kinds of opportunities.
Nicole: Yeah, and I think, too, that, you know, leaders want to leave a legacy, or most ones that I meet, you know, they, they didn’t get in the CEO role or an executive VP role, because they just wanted to make the money associated with that. They wanted to make, truly want to make a difference. And then, you know, impact the people along the way. That’s fantastic. So, you said on your website, I wrote a couple of things down, as you’ve talked about that leadership is a lot about putting values into actions, visions into reality, of creating innovation out of obstacles, and separateness into solidarity and risk into rewards. I just thought these five phrases were fantastic. How can leaders turn their values into actions?
Deb: Okay, so those five phrases, they are about to book Stop Selling and Start Leading, and they actually marry up with the five practices of exemplary leadership. We’re sneaky there, and how that all fits together. How do you put your values into action? Number one, you know, what your values are. Not what you aspire for your values to be. But what they really are, and you do the gut check. Right? So I say that I have a value, one of my values is family, bedrock value family. All right. Well, if I were following you around for, let’s say, six days, so it includes at least one weekend day, is that what I’d see? Would I see you spending time with your family? Would I see you being at your best with your family, not just taking them for granted and being exhausted, so that you watch TV and bark at them?
Would I see that you on your calendar, have time for your family? Are they incidental, there’s no judgement here. Maybe family isn’t the value that you profess it or think it to be. And that’s okay. Nobody can judge another person’s values. That’s not right. But don’t call it a value because then you lose your credibility, if the actions and the words don’t line up. Maybe your value is something like mine, one of my values is productivity, it goes in my business name, because I care that much about it. But I can’t voice that value on to other people. So what if I like to measure the amount of work I’m able to accomplish in a shorter and shorter period of time, I that that’s just me.
But you got to know first, and then you align, when you do figure out what they really are. If you’re off if your actions aren’t quite matching, okay, family really is my value, this is a miss, I now realize it. Well, you’ve got that information. So you take deliberate, conscious actions to reflect your value in your actions. And it’s a real commitment. It’s a it’s an introspective, deep level of work that you do. But once you do it, you then have an internal compass, you know, how to prioritize how to manage your time when to say yes, when to say no at all becomes so clear, and so much easier than the day to day jumble that you might be experiencing.
Nicole: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And I’ve got a list, you may have one as well that I work with clients. That’s a list of core values, so that people are like where do I go find these values? I’m like, I got a list for you to look at. And then of course, you can always Google. But you can reach out to me if you need a list of those values, because I love your one about productivity. Yeah, that’s just so fantastic that you’re trying to do more and more in less time and figure out shortcuts and workarounds and systems and strategies. I love that.
Deb: So long as the quality is still there. And I’m not I didn’t say efficiency, different thing.
Nicole: Yeah. Okay. Very good. Very good. Okay. So how does a leader turn a vision into reality? Let’s talk about that one for just a moment. Because, you know, it’s a big, big work out there. People are like, what’s your vision statement? What’s your mission statement? So how do you actually turn that vision into a reality?
Deb: Not by yourself. Number one, remember shared is underlined. People there’s this mythology that it’s lonely at the top? Well, if you’re experiencing that you’re doing it all wrong. So you want to be able to lead and create other leaders around you. Eleanor Roosevelt has a quote that says a good leader causes others to have confidence in the leader. A great leader causes others to have confidence in themselves.
Nicole: I love it
Deb: Step one to bring things into reality. Is that it’s not you alone, you’ve got lots of people who are leaders in their own right, who are also working toward that. You also have to keep it front and center. If this is our vision, and this is where we’re going, we can’t be distracted by the day to day and all the fires that we’re putting out in our failure to trust and delegate so that we are constantly doing the busy work stuff. So we have to have clarity, we have to have others. And we have to struggle sometimes and not to abandon that journey when it becomes a little bit difficult. Just build it in, it’s not always going to be easy. But the only way you’re ever going to bring it to reality is to make that deep, deep commitment. And, and keep going.
Nicole: That’s exactly right. Yeah. And so that the last one I want to talk about here is separateness to solidarity. I’m hearing that that’s a little bit what you’re like, you’re not alone. It repeats there. But can you talk a little bit specifically about separateness versus solidarity, that alone at the top thing you said they were doing wrong?
Deb: Yeah. And by the way, these are the things I’m describing to you not in the exact language, but they’re reflective of those 30 behaviors that we talked about earlier, too. So separateness, it happens a lot in business, we have an, you know, the lone wolf kind of person, we’ve got our measure of effectiveness, when we’re at an individual contributor level, is all about our autonomy, our independence, our initiative, our whatever, you know, that causes us sometimes to compete with others. And to jockey for position.
That’s all fine and well, for some types of jobs and at some levels, but it is different from leadership, because it’s really hard to bring others with you, if you’re a lone wolf, or if you’re competing with them. So how do we get to a place of solidarity? Well, we’ve got our shared aspiration, we also are likely to have some shared values that that bring us together. And when I’m encouraging the heart, especially if I am celebrating and recognizing things you’ve done that demonstrate our shared values, well, then I’m creating even even deeper bonds. And we have even more that that brings us and keeps us together. And when the struggles come, it’s easier to to be together than it is to try to battle those alone.
Nicole: 100%. I love that. Well, there’s probably one special listener that’s sitting there going, gosh, I hope she drops one more piece of genius for me before this podcast ends. So if you were mentoring a single special listener, maybe it is the sales leader. I have had other people who are sales gurus on the Vibrant Leadership podcast, and I know that most organizations have to have some kind of product that goes out the door that earns revenue. So if there’s a meant if you were to mentor a single special listener, what one piece of advice would you give them? Leave them with?
Deb: Yeah, I will go with one that’s a value to me. But it’s also a standby piece of advice. And that is, make sure you’re putting people first, whatever you’re trying to do processes, profits, doesn’t matter. People are what will get you there. So you’ve got to put people first. And it’s about enabling them the right resources, the right training, but it’s also about ennobling them. And that is a real word. To a ennoble means to make someone feel worthy or important. And you do that by giving people time, being available for them. Asking questions, listening to their answers, treating them like it’s a human to human exchange, not some transaction to get the job done.
When you enable and ennoble people, and you put them first, you’re going to end up with higher levels of employee engagement. That always means more additional discretionary effort and better quality output. So you’re going to accelerate to getting whatever you want to from a manager or leader perspective, whatever you want to get to. And you’re gonna find that you’re not only unleashing your own leadership potential, but you’re doing something called entelechy, and that, feels like this is a word vocabulary class or something.
Nicole: I gotta tell you something, Deb. I love vocabulary words, in my every morning when I have my quiet time. If I read something, I don’t know a word, I write it down. I look it up. I’m just like a little nerd. I’m a little like a little fifth grader with my vocabulary list. So I love what you’re doing.
Deb: All right, well, entelechy another real word comes from Greek. And it means to bring out the full potential. It’s what coaches do, it’s what leaders do. And it’s what you’ll be doing if you’re putting people first.
Nicole: And that is the name of her organization. Right so let’s make sure we know how to get ahold of Deb we want to go to www.peoplefirstproductivity.
Deb: So peoplefirstps.com is the website. The PS stands for productivity solutions. That’s the business name, People First Productivity Solutions.
Nicole: Okay, fantastic. And I am telling you I not even kidding, I went to her website. There is a plethora of information. There’s a series of webinars there. There’s ways to get a hold of her books, the ideas that she’s sharing and representing, I think that you would just be crazy if you didn’t go visit it. And then of course, purchase one of her books. She is got a lot to offer you with leadership. Deb, I’m delighted that you’ve been on the Vibrant Leadership podcast. I followed her today on Twitter, LinkedIn, and on Facebook. I suggest you do that too. And then you can go to the website and we can also get on a mailing list right to get your, your blog, is that correct?
Deb: Yeah, so we send out a weekly newsletter. It includes that week’s blog, we always put a video and some other little bits and pieces of information each week. So connect to lead community is what that’s called look for that on the website.
Nicole: Okay, fantastic. All right. I thank you so much, Deb, for being on the Vibrant Leadership podcast. Have a great rest of your day.
Deb: Nicole, thanks for having me. Thank you so much for the time that we had today.
Voiceover: Ready to up your leadership game? Bring Nicole Greer to speak to your leadership team, conference or organization to help them with her unique SHINE method to increase clarity, accountability, energy and results. Email speaking@vibrantculture.com and be sure to check out Nicole’s TEDx talk at vibrantculture.com/TEDTalk.
