00:08 Hi, I'm Denise Simpson, a master life and leadership coach who helps women step into their authentic and feminine power. So they can lead like visionaries influence with grace and create a legacy of contribution and service. You'll hear about real leadership clients with real problems, navigating their success in life, business, and career. If you're ready to become a masterful leader, then this podcast was made for you. So let's get started.
00:47 My friend, welcome back. Let's talk about mastery, mastery of your craft mastery of your skillset, of your mindset of strategy mastery. This word mastery is something I have been aspiring to achieve. The evidence list shows, however that I'm a master in leadership, you can show somebody a resume. They can look at your credentials, look at your CV, look at a portfolio of your publishings, all the things that you've created in a specific industry to be considered a master. Although I am considered a master, I always come to leadership with a mindset of a beginner, the mindset of a novice, because I always wanna remain current because this field is so dynamic. I don't wanna become static. And this is what I've noticed in many of the so-called leadership experts out there, both men, women, and non-binary people out there calling themselves leaders. What they're doing is regurgitating the same information that gurus from yes or year were talking about.
02:13 And so for me to be dynamic and to be current for the sake of caring for my clients, for the sake of moving them from one level to the next, I want to be well versed in this field. I want to plan for them. Plan for trends, plan for patterns, plan for seasons in their career. I want to know every single output because every single external factor was contributed for. I am paid to solve problems in a leadership capacity in an organizational behavior capacity. And so it's important. that someone like me stays current and remains dynamic dynamic in my thinking dynamic in my mindset, dynamic in foresight, dynamic in my vision for them and their organizations. I have to move as far away from being static as possible and move into a mindset of dynamic, of being a dynamic contributor to their organization. So mastery is very important to me and how I became a master in this area is because I wanted to be the best, the best leader.
03:43 I didn't wanna be perfect because that's unachievable and unrealistic. And by the way, I am not a perfectionist. I produce B minus work every day but my B minus work may be an a plus plus for you or for the other person. For me, B minus work is, is very fulfilling for me. I spent a great deal of time being a perfectionist in my formal education in my younger years as a leader. And I realized perfectionism was just something that was unachievable and it was ruining a lot of my relationships. It was really having to go internal, looking at the internal landscape of why I felt I needed to be perfect and thoughts, like I'm not good enough kept coming up, or this is what I was told to do be and have as a girl. So I have to be perfect. I have to fit this mold of their expectations.
04:48 So a lot of stuff that I had to unlearn so that I can unlearn the perfectionistic unrealistic model that I was trying to be. And so I turned then to being the best for myself, for my family, for my employees and my followers, how can I be the best and how you can be the best is by failing as many times as possible, being vulnerable as many times as possible, showing your family, showing your community, showing your employees that you're not perfect, but that it's okay to aspire to be the best. Because when I am the best, everybody around me, benefits from being the best, the best of me. So when I show up in that essence, I then inspire someone else to be their best. And all I get to see is their best at all times. It's a win-win for us all, when you aspire to be the best.
05:54 So while you're you're on this path, of aspiring to be the best. You start picking up skills, you start picking up ideas, you start picking up your own philosophies and ideologies. You start challenging the status quo. You start looking at what was with a different lens of what can be. And so, as you are traversing this path, you're gonna find a lot of obstacles on this path, but remember, you're aspiring to be the best you're on that path of aspiring to be the best. And so experiences will take you in, in different places. You will take more risks because you're aspiring to be the best, not the, not for competition's sake, although that will be inevitable because once you become the best at something, you have no competition, but I want for you to want to be the best because you have that great potential within you.
06:59 And because you get to model excellence among your family members, your children, your community members, your church members, even your followers, your employees. So this path that you're on of aspiring to be the best will take you in so many directions, because you are willing to put yourself in situations where you will risk failure. You're gonna risk looking. Not that smart. You're going to risk a lot, sometimes a little, but you're going to put yourself in those situations because you know, that's going to grow and expand you into this new person you are becoming this path is about becoming someone you aspire to be. That's the journey. It's who you are becoming on the path on the journey. It's enjoying the journey because once you get to summit that mountain, once you get to place your flag on that mountain top you, my friend have become something that you weren't.
08:18 When you start at the bottom of that mountain and the process of where you are now to reaching that top with the, your flag in hand , you've got that flag in your hand right now. And you are traversing. It's very treacherous terrain. It's filled with obstacles. It's filled with anxiety, maybe a little bit of depression, a little bit of self doubt, maybe some overwhelm fear, for sure. Right? All of the natural emotions that an aspirational human like you, that has so much potential will feel on the way to the top of that mountain. And I have to tell you once you reach that mountain, it it's not like the anxiety or the doubt or the imposter syndrome goes away. It doesn't, it's just a new level of it, right? It's just a new level. Like they say new level, new devil. So you reach a new level and you're stretching the boundaries of your neurology and things you thought were resolved, gushing up.
09:25 Sometimes, sometimes they're floating on the surface and sometimes they surprise you, right? But that's a whole other discussion for when we reach a new level of success. And then we start looking at well, what's beyond that new level of success. Ooh, I bet there's another mountain peak behind that. I wonder what that would look like. Right? So that's another discussion, but for the sake of our conversation right now, where you are on this path, where you have identified a certain place in your organization, right? Or perhaps you're in an organization right now, and you are aspiring to be a leader. So you don't have a formal title yet, but you, you have the, your eye on the prize, right? You've got your eyes set on the future because leaders are always looking ahead. Trust me, we are not looking behind. Leaders do not look behind.
10:29 The only time we look behind in the rear view mirror, as we are the captain and the driver of that car. The only time we look at that rear view mirror is to say, thank you. It's to really feel the, the emotion of appreciation for how far you've come and how many people have helped you get to where you are today. We don't dwell on the path. We don't pull up negative memories. Yes. We resolve the trauma and we resolve some other unpleasant experiences through coaching. But what we like to do is move forward because our brains haven't seen what the future can look like. Right? We, we use our imagination to, to try to decipher what a, a future could look like for us. And so we're busy looking forward. We're busy moving our employees forward. We're moving our followers forward. We wanna reach objectives and missions and campaigns maybe.
11:32 And we're always looking forward. That's important to know. And so if you are an aspirational leader and you don't have this formal title yet know that this is a skill that you can develop on your path to leadership. And so let's say you're right here, aspiring again, you've got your eyes set on a leadership opportunity. You are wanting to prepare yourself with the right mindset, with the right skillset and with the right behaviors that a leader takes. And you want to do this for yourself so that others can also keep an eye on your development, because you know that this will make an impact on your current supervisor, because you know that they may refer you or recommend you to this position that may open up some in some other division, right? So you're doing this for yourself, but also you're doing this so that others take note, right?
12:37 You want them to notice your development. And so start looking to the future. Where am I going? And if you're in an organization where you feel completely aligned, where you could see yourself in this organization for a great deal of time, maybe, you know, five, seven years, maybe 10, some of us know right away, we wanna retire with an organization. There's some employers of clients that I've worked with that are so excited to create a lifetime legacy in these organizations. And that's exciting, cuz nowadays it's hard to find an employee who feels a complete bond and alignment with the organization's culture, their mission and their vision. It's very unusual for that to happen. But when it does, it is special. It is so special. And we just plan really. We map out the trajectory of their career there and that's exciting cuz we know where we're going, but some of us are in organizations where it's unpleasant.
13:47 Perhaps the culture is not an alignment with what we believe in. And right now it's a stepping stone, right? It's a stepping stone, but know that you can get coaching around those thoughts that you're having about your organization so that you can really help yourself along this path. And coaching looks like helping you really pull the evidence, pull the facts from a circumstance because your brain is gonna create very negative stories. I mean, that's, that's, the brain will go to the negative side first and foremost, that is what the brain will do immediately. And so the brain will create some interesting stories for you to keep you upset, to keep you unpleasant uncomfortable, to keep you telling the same story about your leader or about your peers, right? So coaching will help you pull the facts out of what your brain is presenting you with so that you can reframe that situation.
14:50 And so that you can, can enjoy your time in this organization. Coaching is miraculous in that way. It'll help you shift and reframe a current circumstance. And so if you are aspiring, here is my best advice for you can to get better at your craft, right? Where whatever position you're in right now, what could you do to add more value to the organization? Is it taking a course at a college or university? Is it getting a certification or a credential in this certain specific industry? What can you do to help you really leverage that skill? Right? What can you do to set yourself apart? What can you do to be the best? So start looking around, start asking for resources, even approach your supervisor. What is out there that I can do? What, what do you recommend I do. I wanna be the best at this job.
15:58 I really enjoy being in here and I know I can contribute so much more. Do you have any ideas? And if they don't go to HR and ask them for ideas, they have a book full of ideas on what employees have done. Credential, certifications, trainings, conferences, you name it. They, they know where to direct you. And so if your leader can't help you head over to the HR department. So this aspiring leader, you're aspiring to lead. You have your eye on the prize. You're looking forward. You're excited about your future, which is really important for you to feel excited about your future. So many people are not so many people left the organization, the workplace during the pandemic, uh, 54 million women left the first year of that pandemic. And a lot of them did not return. They were unfulfilled, unsatisfied, burnt out, anxious, depressed, you name it.
17:04 So many emotions that they were feeling and a lot of results they created because of that. And a result they created was leaving the workplace altogether. However, there's a lot more people coming in and they're calling this now the great re resentment or the great regret, excuse me. So those that were part of the great resignation are now being called, uh, are, are those that are coming back to the organization are now being termed the great regret they regretted leaving. They came back into the organization and said, you know, it's actually much better here and far worse out there. And I'm gonna do something about my mindset to get me back into the workplace. And so I love that idea, not the whole great regret part, but they're back and they're representing us. And that's exciting. So back to the aspirational leader, my biggest advice, like I said is to go seek opportunities, to get better, to be the best.
18:09 And I want for you to also keep in mind that you are well, we would call a novice, not in a negative way at all. Cuz I consider myself a novice still again, a beginner's mindset is, is really what I, I cheer everybody no matter where they are on this path to leadership, but the novice says, show me what I need to know. That's your affirmation. That is your belief. That is the thought that drives your decisions to better yourself in your current role. And maybe sometimes the resources that you collect at this current role are actually a springboard into another industry or another direction or another trajectory. And so be open to that, that affirmation. Show me what I need to know, what do I need to know to be better here? And so there are certain actions that you'll take as a beginner with a beginner's mindset.
19:12 Remember that's the essence of the novice is show me what I need to know. You want to have a new vantage point, right? You want to really look at your current industry with, with, with, with a new pair of eyes almost right. You've got your goggles on now. And you are now looking at all of these areas that you can expand on. And so this affirmation show me, what I need to know is really what drives the novice in helping her make decisions for her future. One last thing I will leave you here with is the idea of a SWAT analysis. SWAT analysis stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. So right now, currently I want you to conduct that SWOT analysis on where you are in this particular organization, in this particular industry and your strengths that you currently have might list. All of those things could be a four year degree, could be a two year certification.
20:24 It could be, you know, some tech or vocational work that you've done, right? Perhaps you got a certification coding a few years ago or perhaps you're currently working on an MBA and that's a strength. These are all strengths. So list those strengths out so that your brain can see, whoa, I've done some great work. I'm actually ahead of the game here. This is a lot of really good things. The interesting thing about the brain is that if you don't celebrate your wins and a lot, a lot of us women do not, we don't celebrate our wins. We don't take time to really integrate that into our neurology, into our, our nervous system into our cells. I know I did that with the PhD. I just kind of skimmed through that because it was so traumatic. At least the defen, the public defense part in that that whole dissertation and research and public defense part was really traumatizing for me.
21:21 Um, so much came up and my nervous system shut down during the public defense, which is a whole other story . But I skimmed through that, um, that day, honestly, I was awarded that PhD on the day that my nervous system shut down and that's again, story for another day, but I did not take the time to celebrate that accomplishment. I didn't. And it took me really many, many years after the PhD to really understand why I didn't wanna go back to that moment and celebrate it in my mind. Um, so much went into, into all of that work, to unlearn and unwind and reframe that, win that big celebration. So I want for your brain to see this list and go back to those moments of celebrating. And if you didn't get to celebrate it, why, why not? We have an opportunity to celebrate it now.
22:16 And so you list out your strengths, you then list out some weaknesses. Well, what are some things that I can work on? I don't like the word weaknesses. Um, but we're challenged in these areas and, and one of them can be that you are the first one in that department, or you're the first one outta college, uh, in, in your department. And you're a newbie, you know, technically a newbie. Um, you know, maybe you have senior rep, you know, senior employees above you who may not take you seriously, right? That could be a weakness. Uh, a weakness could be your mindset, right? You have limiting beliefs that you need to unravel and you need to unlearn. You need to, to create new beliefs for yourself. So maybe it's mindset, that's a weakness, right? Maybe perfectionism is a weakness for you because you don't get anything out.
23:07 You don't produce. You don't perform because of your, you know, perfectionism identity. And maybe that's something we need to look at, right? So what are the weaknesses could be, education could be, skillset, could be mindset, could be behavior, could be, you know, the results you've created so far. So list out those weaknesses again, it's telling your brain and by the way, your brain is gonna come up with a whole lot of, lot more things on this list than your strengths list. so don't be surprised. So what I want for you to do is enlist those, those weaknesses so that your brain can see, okay, there's some work here to do. And I, and that's okay with me. And then opportunities is the next thing I want you to do. What are some opportunities right here right now to be the best I'm aspiring to be the best I'm aspiring leader.
23:57 I want to learn more. I wanna position myself and leverage my skills, but what opportunities are readily available for me right now, or what are some opportunities that I need to create for myself? Because no one else will because this organization will not provide any more money for my professional development. So what do I need to do? What can I do? What's within my control. Okay. That's a great list. And that's a list that maybe you can present to your leader. So, you know what I've been thinking about this? I did my own SWAT analysis and here are my strengths. I, you know, if you disagree with any of those on that list, let me know. I'm willing to talk about those. Here are my weaknesses or the areas I'm challenged in. If you agree or disagree with any of those areas, let me know we can discuss them, but here are some opportunities and here are the opportunities that I want your help with.
24:53 Can you help me fulfill these opportunities? And here's why these opportunities are gonna help me in my current role. And here's why it's important. I do this, the value I'm gonna contribute is tenfold. It is 10 times what I'm doing right now. And I wanna be as valuable as I can to you and this organization, right? So those are your opportunities. And the last thing on the list are threats and the threats could be, you know, could be an environment issue, right? You could be in an, in an environment in the organization where marginalized people are explicitly excluded, right? So that's something that we can, we can look at, right? What are some threats in regards to pay? Is there a pay gap between men and women or nonbinary people, right? So are there significant threats within the structure of the organization? Right? So start looking at things that are systemic and start looking at things that you may have control over, right?
25:54 A threat could be someone at home, it could be a partner or a spouse who is not, um, wanting to see you succeed. Sometimes a threat could be our very own mothers, right? Because they don't wanna see you grow and expand. Maybe they have a different idea for your future and they disagree with what you're doing. Right? So start listing out those threats. Again, I don't like that word, just like I don't like weaknesses that these are SWAT analysis that we do inside the organization. When we're looking at, you know, trajectory of, of where the organization is going, we're always looking at a SWAT analysis to look at what internal strengths we have, what external strengths we have, what internal threats we have, what external threats we have. And so we're always looking at this in a scope of external factors that we don't have control over, but we can mitigate.
26:48 And then what internal factors meaning within our four walls that we can ha we have more control over. And so that's really the idea of a SWOT analysis in an organization, but we're doing this just for you, the aspiring leader who wants to be the best. And so this is how you start your journey, right? This is where you begin. This is the work and, and let it be exciting. Get curious about your future. Get curious about what you can do today, right? What do you have control over right now? Do you have control over joining me inside masters of leadership, right? Because you want to be the best and you know, you're gonna get the best through my program, right? What do you have control over, right? Versus what you don't have control over. Right? And so whatever you can control, grab the bull by the horns and take advantage of that and go get it.
27:45 My friend, cuz you, my friend are the best. You are aspiring to be the best you're you're aspiring leader. And you're willing to take risks because you know that these opportunities are gonna grow and expand you into the leader that you want to be a masterful one. That's what we're headed. That's the top of the mountain. You're carrying that flag. We're gonna summit this mountain. And once you get to the top of mastery, that's where you are going to place your flag in the ground. That's it? That's it. It's yours. It's your mountain top. all right. My friend, I hope you found today's episode, helpful aspiring leaders. We need more of you. I'm so excited to serve you and um, reach out over on IG. I like to go have fun on IG. I'm everywhere though. LinkedIn I'm on um, Facebook of course the podcast. Um, I'm not on Twitter. Can't stand that place. No offense. If you like it. I just don't. But IG is where I get to go. Have a little more fun and loosen up a little bit. So head over to IG at Dr. Denise Simpson, let me know you heard the episode and what you took away from this amazing conversation. All right, my friend, I'm wishing you the best week ahead and I will see you or actually I will talk to you on our next episode. Take it care.
29:13 Hey, if you enjoy listening to this podcast, you have to join me inside my exclusive coaching membership for women in leadership. Just like you. I wanna help you become a masterful leader with the help of a community of the most powerful women on this planet. My membership is called masters of leadership. Yes, of course it would be called that . So whether you're a novice or a master, you have to join us. You're gonna get the support that you need and deserve inside my membership. So head over to Dr. Denise simpson.com/m O L. That website again is Dr. Denise simpson.com/m O L. You deserve this, my friend. So join us inside. See you soon.
