As a leader, you want to amplify your impact…
The best way to do that?
Build other leaders.
When you unite other leaders to your vision, your impact will be exponential.
But how do you empower others to lead?
And how can you navigate leadership in challenging times?
This episode’s guest, Alyssa Cox, founder of Blue Swift Consulting, helps leaders rethink the way they tap into their networks to achieve their goals and strengthen their communities.
She joins the podcast to share her wisdom with you.
Mentioned in this episode:
Transcript
Alyssa Cox: If you’re building leadership among those you lead, then those leaders are able to harness the hours, effort and creativity of still others in pursuit of your vision, right. That’s how you get real exponential amplification of your impact. The proof of our leadership is in our leaders we build not in the work that we manage
Voiceover: You’re listening to the Build a Vibrant Culture podcast with professional speaker, coach and consultant Nicole Greer.
Nicole Greer: Welcome to the Build a Vibrant Culture podcast. My name is Nicole Greer, they call me the vibrant coach and I am here with none other than Alyssa Cox. I am so excited to have her here. Let me tell you a little bit about her. Alyssa Cox is the founder of the Blue Swift Consulting and has over 10 years of coaching experience with Fortune 100 companies across a wide range of industries that include automotive, pharmaceuticals, software and consumer products. She knows a lot about a lot people. And she’s passionate about helping people rethink the way they tap into their networks. She’s she’s all about the relationships. And when she helps them tap into their, their networks, here’s what they do. They achieve their goals probably faster, right? Easier.
Alyssa: Absolutely.
Nicole: Yes. And strengthens communities. Okay. So welcome to the show round of applause for Alyssa Cox. We’re so glad you’re here.
Alyssa: Yeah, I’m so excited to be here Nicole.
Nicole: Awesome. Well, first of all, I have had this thing. I’m collecting definitions of leadership. So I want to know, how do you define leadership?
Alyssa: So for me, leadership is all about amplifying your impact, right. We’ve all been individual contributors in our personal lives in our professional lives. And the thing about pure individual contributorship is there’s a natural ceiling to what you can accomplish. Right? One of the things I like to ask people is, how many hours in a day can you dedicate to achieving your goals. And if you’re working by yourself and the number of hours, you had to dedicate the extent of the creative thinking you can apply maxes out the number of hours you’re awake, and your personal creativity and experience, right.
As a leader, you’re able to harness the efforts of more than just yourself. So when you work with others, all of a sudden, the number of hours and effort and creative energy dedicated to your goal has grown potentially exponentially. So leadership, for me is the ability to harness those hours, that effort, that creative energy, that all those things that others can contribute in pursuit of your vision to amplify your vision and amplify your impact through the work of a team.
Nicole: I love that. Yeah, I call it gleaning the genius, right? There’s all these employees around and they know stuff. You just got to get the conversation going and figure out what they know and what they’re not telling you. This is very important. Okay. All right. So so I love I love your different definition and the word amplify, right? So it’s, it’s a kind of a music word amplify, right? Like, so it’s just like, turn the volume up on your people, right?
Alyssa: That’s right. I mean, people ask me about 360 feedback all the time. And they’re like, how do you feel about 360 feedback, and I just tell people, just because you don’t hear what people are saying about you, doesn’t mean they’re not saying it. Right. Just because you don’t hear what your organization has to say about about where they think that we should be going doesn’t mean they’re not thinking it, you’re just missing out. So tap into tap into your people tap into their knowledge, their enthusiasm, their excitement. People who are involved, are way more engaged.
Nicole: Yeah, I couldn’t agree more, I’ve kind of up so I’m gonna go down a bunny trail real quick. Alyssa will learn this about listeners, you know, I go down bunny trails. But, you know, there’s this whole big push out there for employee engagement. And people do these employee engagement surveys. And I’m in I’m in this like, fresh, illuminated state where I like, I’m like, don’t do that. Don’t do the employee engagement survey. Instead, why don’t you just get some strategies in place to engage the employees? Right?
So the minute you kind of say, you know, what are we doing wrong, they’re gonna tell you, and it will take you a long time to prove that you’re doing it right. My suggestion is just start doing it right. And you can talk to a professional like Alyssa Cox, who could help you figure out how to engage your people without having to go to that place of what are we doing wrong? Right. And here’s how you could do it right? And you could improve employee engagement. So I just, I’m just in a new place. I talked to HR director after HR director, who has done this employee engagement thing and she’s like, oh. And I like I know stop doing it. Anyway.
Alyssa: So the other problem with employee engagement surveys is, a lot of times they’re multiple choice. Multiple choice feedback is way easier to analyze. But what you’re asking people is do you understand engagement, the way I understand engagement, right? McKinsey just came out with a survey where they asked employers, why are people leaving? And employers said, they’re leaving for work life balance, and they’re leaving for money. And they asked employees, why are you leaving, and they said, I don’t feel engaged at work. I don’t feel appreciated by my organization. I don’t feel appreciated by my manager. Those are very different reasons. If you’re asking a multiple choice question around, would you rather have more work life balance and more money you’re missing the boat.
Nicole: Yeah. 100% 100%. Okay. So if two of us think that and Alyssa is very smart. You know me, well. But you know, we think that maybe you should just do this. So so let’s do this. You help people engage and build communities and build relationships inside of their teams, right? So what are the most important skills a successful leader needs to have? What what do they need to be working on?
Alyssa: You know, the most successful leaders I’ve ever worked with, have built other leaders. If you’re amplifying your impact exclusively by bringing on individual contributors, and then like closely directing and managing their work, then your impact has the potential to grow linearly with each incremental, mental individual contributor you manage. If you’re aligning people around a vision, and empowering them to make decisions and drive execution. If you’re building leadership among those you lead, then those leaders are able to harness the hours, effort and creativity of still others in pursuit of your vision, right. That’s how you get real exponential amplification of your impact. The proof of our leadership is in our leaders we build not in the work that we manage.
Nicole: Okay, I love that. So the most important skill set I heard was build other leaders. Exclamation point, underline put a star and then circle it, and then you’ve got the answer. Okay. And get people aligned around the vision, harness still others so you have exponential progress in performance right? All right. So I love that. Okay. So what do you believe is getting in the way? Why do some leaders, you know, they can do it, like, all you got to do is tell him what you just said, build other leaders, and they’re like, I’m on it. And then you’ve got other people that are like, well, how do you do that? Okay, so where do people struggle, where what do leaders need to do to build others?
Alyssa: You need to trust people, you need to come to your team with authenticity, with a little vulnerability. And you need to trust, you need to hire good people, and then give them the space to do what you hired them to do. And you need to be willing to make mistakes, you need to be willing to make mistakes as an individual. And you need to be willing to have your team make mistakes. If you’re not making mistakes, you’re not taking enough risks. If you’re not taking risks, you and your team are probably stagnating and the fear of failure, right, that’s contagious.
You end up in risk averse organizations that that don’t know how to grow, they don’t know how to try new things. They don’t know how to engage with a mission with a vision and progress. And that can really shut an organization down. I see a lot of leaders that aren’t cognizant, they wouldn’t describe themselves as risk averse, they wouldn’t describe themselves as fearing failure. But when it comes time to acknowledge identifying and acknowledging things that didn’t go, right, they really struggle with opening themselves up to to criticism and opening themselves up to that kind of critique.
Nicole: Yeah. And you said, before we get started, and I want to bring it back to that little genius that you said, before we got started, you said, I get lots of questions about learning through failure. I mean, like hello, getting schooled is one of the best things that can happen to you during the failure process. So talk a little bit about, you know, the work you’re doing about learning through failure.
Alyssa: We spend so much time in organizations, administering training, and doing structured learning, whether it’s it’s having people read independently, or having people take courses in person or online. But the the, we have this opportunity to learn that’s right in front of us. And that is that thing that didn’t go so hot, right? It happens every day. If we build the muscle to identify things that didn’t go so hot, think critically about why and then take proactive change to prevent it from happening in the future, then we have the ability to to achieve much more than we achieved today.
More importantly, we have the ability to not repeat the mistakes that we’ve made in the past. And so, you know, when I talk to teams about learning through failure, I’m not talking about learning through catastrophic failure. If you’re doing this well. You are course correcting every day. You’re identifying things that didn’t go great and you’re fixing it as you go and making small tweaks to keep yourself on track. You’re taking small risks you’re correcting when they go off track. And you’re it’s not it’s not snowballing behind the scenes into something that’s completely unremediable.
Nicole: Yeah. And so I missed one. I want to make sure I get get it written down. You said, we do tons of training. But after we have something that goes on, we want to identify what went wrong. Think critically. And then you had a third point, can I put you on the spot because I didn’t capture it? And then you said we can achieve and we can repeat after that. But it was identify, think critically, and then a plan maybe.
Alyssa: So we’ve got to figure out how not to do this again. Right? How not to repeat, how not to repeat our mistakes.
Nicole: That’s right. That’s right. Yeah. And I love what you’re saying about you know, this is not a catastrophic thing. When you when you finally decide to start doing this, don’t wait until like something really terrible happens. You need to look at like everything that you’re doing that that is substantial, right to your success and do the little course corrections. Yeah, I think that’s fantastic.
Alyssa: Don’t ever hide a dead fish in your desk? Right. Don’t hide a dead fish. That failure, everyone knows it’s there. It smells worse and worse. You’re not, you’re not hiding it from anybody, but you’re living in that stink? Get it out of there.
Nicole: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And, and that goes back to what you said about you’ve got to be vulnerable, you got to be authentic. And you’ve got to take those risks. Yeah, and you know, I have you I know, you’ve heard this before Alyssa, but this whole thing of CYA, cover your.
Alyssa: Assets.
Nicole: Your assets. Thank you for helping me.
Alyssa: Your stocks, your bonds. I need your liquid assets. That’s right.
Nicole: And, and I think that a lot of times leaders are just wanting to see CYA for whatever reason, instead of just, you know, putting it out there and, and being vulnerable like that. So I think that’s fabulous, fabulous advice. So how do people know how much risk to take? What do you think? What what are your thoughts on that? I mean, so the leaders listening, they’re like, okay, gals, what, you know, we need to take more risks. But how do we measure that? What, how do you take a calculated risk?
Alyssa: You’re taking calculated risks, when you identify things you’ve never done before. And finding ways to chart a course to try those things out. You’re taking calculated risks when you take your team and things your team has never done before, and put them in a position to try new things. You know, I had at one point, I was working on a project, I had a junior associate who she, tons of potential. I was really impressed with her work. And what I said was, I would like as we go through this work, I would like you to lead some of these client workshops. And she said, I’ve never done that before. I said that’s the whole point. I want you to lead these workshops, I’m going to work with you on developing the content, I’m going to be in the room with you. So if you need a fallback, I am here for you.
But I want you to try this, I want you can do this, I know you can do this, I’ve seen this potential in you. I know you see it in yourself, I want you to try this thing with me. Right. And at the end of the day she got on, she got in the room, led the workshop I was there, there were a couple of questions out of left field, there were some personalities that were a little difficult in the room. But she was able to take a supported risk, and I was there to help her, you know, answer some of those challenges. And honestly, most of the time, if I could sit still and be patient, and let her own this thing I asked her to own, she was able to answer some of those tough questions, she was able to address some of those tough situations.
And after the workshops, we were able to sit down and say, okay, what went well, what didn’t go so hot? What do we wish had gone better? This kind of trust this kind of risk taking, identifying things you haven’t done before, identifying things that make you uncomfortable, identifying whether or not they’re really critical, right? So for her, this was critical for her development. Identify. So when you identify those things that are critical, finding the support within your network, whether it’s within your organization, or outside your organization, to go and take a risk to go and try something new to go and try something that makes you uncomfortable in a supportive environment.
This is what’s going to lead to personal growth, this is gonna lead to growth for your team. This is what’s going to lead to growth for your company. You want to break into a new product area that you’ve never been in before. That’s scary, you’re going to invest dollars in that you’re going to invest energy and equity in that. You’re gonna invest part of your reputation in that. Go find the guidance that you need to do this, come up with your plan. And then let’s take this risk in holding hands and knowing here’s when we’re going to here’s the risk we’re going to take, here’s how we’re going to know if we’re successful. And here’s what happens if we’re not and we’re comfortable that we may not be successful. We’re going to try again a different way.
Nicole: Yeah, it’s all about the strategy right and getting it all laid out ahead of time. I, you know, I find that a lot of the fear is quelled when you just sit down and think for a minute, right. And if we do all the things that you just shared, we would certainly feel very good about what we’re about to do. Right. So I love your story. I think anytime you’re about ready to take a risk, just think about developing a person or putting a person out there. Yeah, because we’re just getting people ready to do more. We’re raising our competence levels. That’s fantastic. And don’t miss Alyssa’s beautiful mug she’s drinking out of. Okay, all right. The Vibranct Coaching Yeti! I’m just saying, okay, you can have one too. Call me if you want to be on the podcast. Alright. So our next question on here is, you know, we have a, I’m telling you this world, crazy. We had the COVID. I’m officially declaring COVID, almost over. Okay.
Alyssa: You and everybody else for the last two years, Nicole. It’s a dangerous position to take.
Nicole: I don’t know, let’s let’s declare ourselves back getting back in the game here. And then we’ve got, you know, crazy Russians on the loose, we’ve got lots of things going on in this world. So, you know, I worry about things. And I know that leaders are worried. In fact, I was talking to another gentleman today who is a coach and he he’s like, you know, now more than ever, leaders need to have relationships with their people. So I’m curious, since that’s kind of your sweet spot. What, you know, what do leaders need to do in this challenging, challenging world to help their people navigate all the stuff that’s going on?
Alyssa: I think it’s really important today to meet people where they are, you know, really, for the last two years, a lot of us have been holding our breath, you know, hoping that we were gonna wake up and return to normalcy was like, right around the corner. And normalcy isn’t like, normalcy is what we were doing two, three years ago, but the world’s moved on. Right? I posted a candid photo of myself on LinkedIn a couple of weeks ago, and I got a call from my mother letting me know that she thought that was unprofessional and inappropriate for the platform.
Nicole: I love a mother who’s on LinkedIn. That’s amazing. What’s your mom do? She’s on LinkedIn.
Alyssa: I mean, she is, we, she was a small business owner. Now she’s managing a number of properties that she and my dad run. But you know, she had a long career with AT&T and then a career in the nautical mapping industry. So very accomplished woman, I look to her for a lot. But I don’t think that her perception of the of who people are in the workplace has kept up with where we are today. Right? The way we show up professionally today, has evolved enormously in the last three to five years. And today, we can show up professionally as like a whole person, this is absolutely a shift in the right direction. But it poses a really unique challenge for leaders, right. As leaders meet people where they are, both personally and professionally, that means addressing a really wide range of needs.
And how do we as leaders do that? Right? It’s certainly a lot more time and intellectually intensive than viewing your subordinates as like, these cookie cutter occupants of a particular title and like shepherding them down one of a limited number of career paths, right. And so when we expect transparency, authentic authenticity and vulnerability and personal investments from our leaders, that’s because that’s what it takes to meet people where they are as individuals. And that’s, that’s really hard. So that’s, that’s one of the biggest challenges that I see and sort of a real mind shift for leaders that I see in the marketplace today.
Nicole: Yeah. And so when you say, meet people where they are, can you do a little deeper dive in there? Where are we checking in with them? You know, my, the first place I went in my mind is, you know, a human resource is like a ball of energy that you have hired, you’ve hired this ball of energy. That’s kind of how I look at people. That’s why we have to have a vibrant culture, we get to help people with their energy here, people. And the way I teach energy is I say to people, there are six energies in a human. There’s like intellectual energy, emotional energy, spiritual energy, physical energy, social energy, which is your sweet spot, and then also financial energy, you know. So when you meet people where they are, that’s that’s kind of where, a position I would come from is like, how are their energies doing. So how might you look at it? How do you look at meet people where they are?
Alyssa: I like to think about what are what motivates people? Not everybody that joins your organization is looking to be a senior leader. They may be motivated and they may be they may be driven to optimize in other parts of their lives. And you only know that by asking them. And so I’ve had people that work for me that are looking to advance very quickly within the organization. And they have a certain set of priorities and a certain kind of effort that they’re looking to put in. A certain a certain lifestyle work style that they’re looking to employ. And you need to ask questions and, and, and understand what that is. Because I also have people that have worked for me, that are fabulous on the team, I would take them back any day of the week, but they’re not looking to move on.
Right, they’re not looking to take on more and more responsibility, they’re looking to continue being really excellent where they are, because they’re building elsewhere. You know, they’re managing things on the personal front with their families, they’re managing things, even personal interests, right. There’s nothing, there’s nothing more special about managing things with your family, as opposed to managing things with your dog, right, you have a set of personal priorities. And it’s incumbent on me as a leader, to understand how those personal priorities intersect with your professional priorities so that I can make the right thing happen for you. That I can introduce you to the right people, set you up in the right with the right kind of work, set you up with the right kind of work schedule.
We have a lot of conversations now about coming back into the office versus continuing to work remote, right. That’s about meeting people where they are. Meeting people where their needs express themselves, and understanding what’s your objective. If my objective is to get the work done effectively, then it’s on me to understand there are a lot of ways to get from here to there, and be open and receptive to my people. I’ve hired great people. So let’s make sure that I’m giving them the space they need to to execute excellently. And it may be that what they need from me is not what I need from my boss.
Nicole: Yeah, yeah. So you know, I love what you’re saying. So there’s, there’s both you and I know this, there’s two kinds of motivation. There’s like an extrinsic motivation, which might be the right schedule, you know, the right environment, things like that. But then there’s that intrinsic thing. So I love what you just said about how some people are very happy being right where they are now. I had a colleague for a long time, and she I hope this isn’t incorrect or politically wrong or something. But she that way she talked about these folks, is that she’s like every company needs an army of Steady Eddie’s. And I’ve always remembered that. And I, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with saying it like that, is there? Help me.
Alyssa: I don’t think so. There is absolutely value in being the best you can be where you are today. There are people, you know, we don’t we don’t get on people’s case at work, for not wanting to be even better cooks. Right? I’ve never gotten on anyone’s case in my professional life for them standing up and saying I make a mean PB and J. And I don’t really care to do more than that. Why all of a sudden have we valorized the work environment. If you’re, if you’re in the right position, and you’re making a mean PB and J in that position, and that’s the scope of the position. If that’s what you want, there’s, there’s no reason not to not to support that decision.
Nicole: Right. So sometimes steady, Eddie’s might want to take on like a little project or something. And they would just add that into kind of their regular job, they still, I think, want to experience some growth. And you know, would might want to make a PB and J that has, you know, might be like an Elvis version. I don’t know, like banana or something, whatever. You know, that whole Elvis thing. But you know, here’s the thing, we can’t do it once we sit down and we talk to them. You know, I tell leaders all the time to have a one on one. And it trips them up. Because they’re like, well what do we do? What are we going to talk about? So if you were going to instruct the leader about how to have a one on one, how would you set them up? Because you’ve got serious coaching skills, I’d love to hear what you think.
Alyssa: It’s setting the meeting, and getting and sitting down one on one, but it’s also about listening. It’s not enough just to get two people in a room and ask somebody, well, what is it that you want? Have you created an environment where somebody can be honest about what they want? And so it’s about learning about who your people are. It’s about asking questions. It’s about coming in as a listener. And then demonstrating that those answers have validity. That your answers don’t have to be my answers. Because we’re not talking about my career. We’re talking about your career.
So tell me what you want. And then let’s figure out how to get you what you want. When you bring that message in a genuine way, people hear you and they open up and they help you understand what it is they need. And those are the people that are going to go to bat for you every single time. Because you may ask a little something from them, but they’ve been asking things from you, and you’ve been delivering for them, and they’re engaged in the work, they’re engaged in the interaction, and they know that the right thing is going to happen for them because they’ve got you in their corner.
Nicole: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And I would say to all the listeners, that a little book that I’ve had kind of on the shelf for a long time, recommended to leaders for a long time as this book by Matthew Kelly called The Dream Manager. And as you’re speaking, I’m like, oh, that’s the dream manager, you know, when you sit down, and that’s what you do you help people figure out what, what they want to be, or how are they how they want life to be. And, and you can talk to people about their personal lives. You know, you know, that old thing Alyssa where are people say, you ask them a question, they’re like you mean, my personal life or my professional life.
And I always have to remind people, it’s only one big fat life. And so you know, as we work with people over a long period of time, we get to know them and their families and different things like that. And I think there’s a fine line. You don’t want to cross over into, you know, close friend zone. You can be friendly, as the leader, but you certainly needed to know about people. What their goals are, what their dog’s name is to your point, and you know, what their hobbies are. What they want to do, what they’re gonna be doing, when they have the days off, and their weeks off. So that’s fantastic.
Alyssa: Absolutely. And if that doesn’t come naturally, to you just write that nonsense down. People are gonna tell you what their spouse’s names are, or what their kid’s names are, what their dog’s names are, just write the names down. Keep a file, if you’ve got to keep a file. Nobody cares how you get there. You ever go to the doctor, your general physician and or your general practitioner, and they say, oh, I, how are Bob and Susie doing? And you’re like, oh, you remember me.
They don’t remember you. They wrote that down. The file. But there is now, we now picked up a rapport. And now I can be honest with you about who I am and what I’m doing and I’m much more open. The same thing happens at work. Right? If you if if you don’t have a head for names, and I don’t, just write that stuff down. It demonstrates, it lets you demonstrate to people that you actually do care. And that’s all you’re looking for is a way to demonstrate what you already feel.
Nicole: Right? Absolutely. Yeah. And I think there’s an old saying that says people love to hear their name. And if you can just repeat their name several times in the conversation. It’s like she gets me, she’s hearing me, she’s listening to me she using my name you know? So I think Alyssa’s name over and over again don’t miss it, I’m modeling for you all okay. So I think that’s important too. Now let’s say because we you know, she’s got a website y’all Alyssa Cox okay, and Alyssa is spelled a l y s s a and last name c o x, if you want to go look up that a picture of her on LinkedIn, her mama told her not to post.
Alyssa: It’s not racy guys. It’s just, it’s just a candid, photo. Yeah, there’s there’s nothing fancy about it.
Nicole: Okay, but I just said, what’s your mom’s name? I love these mother and father names. What’s your mom’s name?
Alyssa: Mary.
Nicole: Of course it is. Her name’s Mary. Mary just wants the highest and best for Alyssa. But anyways, go over to LinkedIn. Check out Alyssa. But also, if you want to go to her website, it’s blueswiftconsulting.com. Hey, I’m curious about the name of your company. Where did Blue Swift come from? That’s a beautiful little name.
Alyssa: Well, thank you. So you know, if you’ve ever and you’ve you’ve named a company, right?
Nicole: Yes.
Alyssa: It is. For me, it was the hardest part about starting a company is picking a darn name. Every name that we came up with was either as like, oh, I don’t oh, I don’t like that. It doesn’t doesn’t fit. It doesn’t work. Or I’d be like, oh, that’s amazing. Yes. Let me go. Oh, the domain is $7,000. Oh, they’re already 15 other companies with that name. So Blue Swift Consulting came out of that exercise. And, you know, I love watching birds that change directions. Swifts are some of the fastest birds out there. And they can change direction on a dime.
They lay they build their nests on vertical surfaces with spit, basically, they can stick to anything. And they can handle changing winds and changing direction. And that’s what this consultancy is all about. It’s we’re all we’ve all got our nests stuck to the side of a cliff stuck to the side of a building. We’re all hanging on by spit, and the wind is changing. How do we change with it? How do we thrive through transition? That’s what this consultancy is all about. And so that’s that’s where the name comes from.
Nicole: Oh, that’s fantastic. I love it. I’m glad we took a minute to talk about that. That’s a great story. And for those of you who are, you know, entrepreneurial out there, it’s a thing. Naming and the company is a total thing.
Alyssa: It’s awful. It’s awful.
Nicole: That’s right. That’s right. Yeah. But once you get one, you fall madly in love with it like my Vibrant and your Blue Swift. You’re all good. And it actually it edifies me like, I will be like, Nicole, you’re vibrant, let’s go, let’s make it happen. Let’s have energy, right. So it can be a little striking a match for you if you get the right thing nailed down. Well, you know, on your website, you talk about the different things you do. And we were just talking about how you sit down, you talk to your people, you’ve got your steady Eddie’s, you got your people want to climb, sometimes you got to redesign roles for people, because the business shifts too.
So I mean, it’s, it’s, we’re not just one sided here, we’re not just saying, you know, take care of your people take care of people, because hello, you can’t take care of your people if you don’t have revenue, you don’t have sales, you don’t have everything going on. So sometimes the business shifts, and during COVID, many people had to kind of redesign the business model. And therefore when you do that, you have to redesign, you know, what people do inside the organization. And you’ve got some experience redesigning roles within existing departments, or maybe establishing whole new teams. So tell me a little bit about how you do what you call organizational design.
Alyssa: Setting your objective, you know, I talk about objective oriented networking, I talk about objective oriented leadership. Setting, the objective of your department is so critical in designing roles, designing work, designing processes. And so when we think about organizational design, when we think about designing roles, or redesigning roles, you have to start with a blank piece of paper. And the first thing that goes on that paper isn’t how are my people organized today? It’s got to be what are we trying to accomplish as an organization? What are we trying to accomplish as a function? What are we trying to accomplish as a team? What are we trying to accomplish as individuals within this team?
And that sort of KPI cascade, helps people understand where they fit in the macro company, sort of the macro organizational mission, the macro organizational goal. When people don’t understand how they fit into that, people start to disengage with with the company. So as we think about organizational design, as we think about designing roles, it really is what are we trying to accomplish? And what’s it going to take to accomplish that goal, right. And so if we’ve got, you know, I’ve worked with FP&A teams that have been pretty siloed, historically, and are looking to reengage with their business customers. If you as an FP&A person working in, for example, a consumer products company, if your whole job is to put your head down, come up with a financial forecast and move on.
I’m here to tell you that your remarketing people are enumerate enough to do your job. The only way you can find the only way you can add value is by partnering with those internal customers. And so as we think about the way you design that your organization, what are the what’s the value you’re looking to bring to your customers, what’s the value you’re looking to bring to the organization. And let’s think about how we design roles that allow you to do that, right? How we design responsibilities and sets of responsibilities that allow you to do that and how we design the organization. So there’s a progression.
The worst thing from my perspective that you can do with your organization is have no entry point. People need to be able to grow within your organization. And if your entire organization is made up of people who’ve been, if the only way to enter your organization is to have 15 years of experience, you’re gonna have a hard time recruiting. So figure out how you’re going to serve your customers, how you’re going to grow with it, how you’re going to grow people within the organization and how that organization fits into the broader mission that we have as a company.
Nicole: Okay, fantastic. Yeah. So sit down, blank piece of paper, come up with something new all together and start with what the objective is. That’s what I took away from that. All right. Very good. Very good. Well, I know that people are sitting here and they’re listening. They’re like, okay, so I need to build relationships with my people. I need to sit my people down and learn through failure. I gotta show up trustworthy, authentic, authentic, vulnerable, I gotta hire good people. And then I got to do three things. I got to help identify what’s going on, think critically, and plan for new things. So look at all the goodies you laid down today Alyssa Cox at Blue Swift Consulting. Amazing in my life.
Alyssa: They’re free, guys. These are freebies. I’m just giving this stuff away.
Nicole: Yeah. All right. Well, you know, I know somebody’s like, oh, no, don’t stop. Don’t stop. So my last question for you is this. If like, if there was like one special listener out there and you were like, mentoring them, and they’re like, oh, give me one more download. One more piece of leadership advice. What would you give them?
Alyssa: So when I was first promoted to a management position, one of my senior leaders in the department, he pulled me aside and said that I needed to decide what my leadership style and my leadership values were. That you can let your style and values develop organically, but you might wake up in the morning and discover you don’t actually like your leadership brand that you’ve built. And once you’ve built that brand, it can be very hard to change. So my advice is be intentional about your leadership style and values. Right. And that was critical advice and it’s advice I share with all of my teams, whether they’re in a formal position to lead people are not because again, leadership happens laterally too. But be intentional about your values as a leader, and how you want to lead your teams.
Nicole: Oh, I love that. Yeah. And so personal brand is huge. And your leadership style, what you’re going to pick what you’re going to be known for. I just That’s so crazy that you said that because just this morning, I did a program of for Farm Credit up in Maryland, and it was virtual. And we talked all about leadership presence, right? Like, figure it out now, while you’re a customer service rep.
Alyssa: Yeah, that’s right.
Nicole: Like, don’t wake up, be the CEO one day and say, oh, I didn’t know people didn’t like that about me. You know, because, I mean, you’ve got to be so intentional. Just as intentional as you are about the next sales process or marketing campaign or operations change, new software. You gotta be intentional about that leadership brand. I think that is an awesome nugget to end with. That’s fantastic. All right. So everybody, I am so delighted that you got to hang out with me and Alyssa Cox. She is the founder of Blue Swift Consulting.
Let me tell you where you can find her at blueswiftconsulting.com. She’s got a whole thing in there where you can go in and put your name and she’ll call you. And then also you can find her on LinkedIn. And it’s Alyssa Cox. I’ll spell it for you a l y s s a. Last name Cox, c o x. And she’s on LinkedIn and definitely I’m going braces are hanging up with her. I’m gonna go check out that picture her mother didn’t like. Mary didn’t like.
Alyssa: Make a comment. And I will respond to your comment. This is how LinkedIn works. But yeah, look at the picture.
Nicole: Absolutely, that is so fun. Okay, I’ve just been delighted to be with you. Thanks. Thank you so much, Alyssa Cox. And thank you for tuning in again to the Build a Vibrant Culture podcast. My name is Nicole Greer. Call me if I can help you. Thanks, Alyssa.
Alyssa: Thank you, Nicole.
Voiceover: Ready to build your vibrant culture? Bring Nicole Greer to speak to your leadership team, conference or organization to help them with her strategies, systems and smarts to increase clarity, accountability, energy and results. Your organization will get lit from within. Email Nicole@nicolegreer.com. And be sure to check out Nicole’s TEDx talk at nicolegreer.com.
