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.00:46 Welcome back leader. Let's talk about leadership being easy. How can we believe that leadership is easy? What do we have to do to help us believe that leadership can be easy? And I'm here to tell you, leadership can be easy. And it, I'm not telling you this because I've been in this field for over 26 years. I'm not going to tell you this just because I have a PhD in leadership studies. I'm not going to tell you this from someone who has this vast lens on leadership. I am telling you this as someone who has distilled down leadership into just a few variables. This is why I do what I do, because I wanna take something so nebulous, so abstract and distill it down into just a few variables for us. And when we do that, we make leadership accessible, available to anyone who has been called to lead into serve, right?02:03 Because you go into an organization and you see these leaders hustling. You see these leaders burnt out. You see leaders jumping the ship, right? They are going to another organization. They are treating themselves badly and their employees badly. And we saw a lot of this behavior the past few years. And so you are now thinking, there is no way I'm gonna go into leadership. There is no way I can be a leader. I'm called to lead into serve. I'm probably smarter than than this dude, but I'm not gonna put myself through all that. There's too much sacrifice. So your brain is interpreting what you've seen, what you've heard, how you've been treated, how your leaders behave in the organization. What you have done is come to the conclusion that you just shouldn't lead. That that desire that you initially had was a pipe dream that want that calling.03:04 It was a nudge in your heart. It was a nudge in your brain somewhere, somehow somebody, something someplace made you believe. There was an, there was a an ounce of belief in you at that moment that made you believe that you could do this and yet you could do it better. But the past few years have been really hard for a lot of us. And what I'm hearing from you all out there in the trenches in the field from my clients and from those who reach out on social media, is that you want to lead. You want help to spark that excitement again, you want to entertain this idea of leadership, but you're not gonna do it in the way that your current leader or former leader has done it. You have made a decision in your mind that this is not the path or the route that you wanna take.04:03 And here you are interested, still interested in leadership. And I'm here to tell you that it can be easy. Your brain is going to overcomplicate things. That's what it does. The brain's going to brain. I want for you to pay close attention to this thought, this sentence that you can borrow. And the thought is, leadership can be easy. Leadership can be easy. I am willing to believe that leadership can be easy. I'm willing to believe that I can step into this leadership role. I can come back into it rejuvenated, replenished, excited and passionate. I believe that I could be a masterful leader one day. I believe that here is the start of the journey. Here is the start with a new belief. Leadership can be easy, especially when you work with us inside the institute where we distill it down to just a few variables.05:16 We're looking at your mindset, your skillset, and the actions that you take. And these three variables impact this very important thing, your results, the results that you create in your leadership practice. So we're looking at these three variables and we are measuring them. So as soon as you come in, you get to understand where you are on a Likert scale. Where are you in the mindset variable? Do you have a strong identity of a leader? Are you someone who has a great attitude about your role as leader, but more importantly, your employee's roles? Are you someone who can believe in herself and in her employees? What does your mindset look like? What beliefs do we have working for us? And what beliefs do we have working against us? Self-awareness is a skill that taps into your mindset. So self-awareness is a skill we develop strongly inside the institute because of all of the important information, the important data points we get when we dig into your mindset.06:41 This leads me to the second variable. The skillset variable. Self-awareness is the number one skillset. Uh, it's, it's the strongest predictor of success in a leader and their team. So self-awareness is a skill and there are many other skills that we are going to measure that we're going to look at, that we're going to develop, that we're going to hone. Cuz you're already coming in with very strong skills and we want to find conscious awareness around them, the ones that we are strong in and the ones that we need to develop. So that's the second variable that we look at. And the third are your actions. What actions do you take as a leader? What habits do you have that are impeding your success as a leader? What habits do you have that are propelling you forward? We're looking at the actions, the behaviors, the habits, the strategies, the tactics that you take as a leader.07:41 So we look at those three variables very closely. And once we take a look at those three variables, we look at what results you have created thus far with the baseline that you have today. Because your current abilities will not be enough for the future leadership roles that you are seeking. There is capacity that you have. There is a capacity that you have yet to meet because we are looking right here, right now and working with your current abilities. So inside the institute we distill this down, we distill it down so that your brain can say, I can do that. leadership can be simple , because we will show you how we take these big abstract, nebulous concepts and theories and we distill it down to just a few very important variables that you must develop to be a masterful leader who impacts her teams. Teams that are highly engaged, highly committed, loyal, loyal to you and the organization.08:56 I always say an amazing transformational masterful leader is someone who develops a very strong team, a team that will move heaven and earth for their leader. And this is what we do inside the institute. So here's what I'd like for you to, to think about. Where are you right now on your belief about the difficulty or the ease of leadership? Where do you fall on that spectrum? Are you someone who believes it is very difficult? Are you someone that believes it's very easy or are you someone who says it depends on the context because it depends on your current abilities within that context, within that circumstance, within that situation in the workplace, right? Because there's some challenges that you face that are a breeze. Of course you could do it in your sleep, something you've developed. You've got all the skills that you need to get through an obstacle.10:04 But then there are circumstances or situations where you don't have the proper mindset, the proper skills, or even the actions to take. And that is understandable. And so here we get to dissect, we get to look at those beliefs that you have around leadership more, more specifically your leadership abilities. Is this hard for you? Is it easy or is it both? It depends on the context, on the circumstance, on the situation. And a lot of you're gonna fall within that percentage. A lot of you will fall within. It depends on the context. I believe so because you, my dear, have been leading your people. Whether you have a formal title or not. You have been guiding, you have been the trailblazer in your family, in your community, and maybe even your, in your department right now. So if you don't have a formal title, just know that you have been leading, you have been leading people, you have been guiding them, you have been inspiring them, you have been influencing them, you have been persuading them.11:17 You have used your, your skill of compassion. Some of you fall into the empathetic field, others fall into the compassionate field. Some of you are practicing a growth mindset. So you have this skill honed in. You're open to evolving, you're open to seeing your blind spots. Some of you are very strong in the self-awareness skill, right? Some of you know what habits are impeding your success. Some of you understand that there are some actions that you have been taking that have created very negative or challenging results. So you already have these skills, self-awareness being one of 'em, growth mindset being another, the skill of compassion, having compassion or empathy for your employees. These are skills that we develop through our experience in the organization, in the workplace, and even in our lives, in our families, in our communities. And so take this thought on, I want for you to try it on like you would, uh, an outfit .12:28 Try this thought on and see where it lands in your body. And that thought again is leadership can be easy. And if that thought that particular sentence is too far off from how you feel today, then let's find us a thought or a sentence that can bridge that gap from where you are right now. And that new thought that leadership can be easy. What is between those two sentences? What is between those two circumstances? Could it be a thought? I am learning to make leadership easy. I believe it's easy and it can be easy for me because maybe you're not there yet, right? Maybe you're not there in believing that thought that leadership can be easy. And so start thinking about power sentences for you, sentences that are going to move you into, into believing that leadership can be easy for you. I want for you to see where it lands in your body.13:41 Did, was that a shift in your energy? Was that a shift in your e energetic body? For me, when I think leadership can be easy, I feel hope. I feel like yes, actually that I could be true. I'm hopeful that it is true. It can be easy, it feels really hard today. But you know, tomorrow it can be easy. And when you start disciplining your brain and when you start setting the course for your brain to think differently about leadership, your brain will look for evidence. Your brain will look for evidence to confirm this thought. Once you keep thinking this thought over and over again, it then becomes a belief system. It becomes part of your neurology and now it is embedded. And now your braining. Go find all of the evidence to confirm that leadership is easy. So this is why I felt this episode was important for us to have because I conducted a focus survey, uh, among 22 women of color.15:04 They are leaders from all stages of, uh, their experience level and education level. And one of the questions I asked was, is, is leadership easy, hard, or is it both? And the majority that responded to that focus, uh, that focus group survey said yes, I think we were like at 90% said it gets both . It's both. It can be hard and it can be easy. And it just depends on the circumstance. And this is why it's important that we discuss the power, the agency that you have over your perspective, over your mood, over your attitude about leadership. This is all within your control. Remember, you have agency over what you want to think about. And so if you are in a role of leadership or you are wanting to return to leadership or you are entertaining this spark, again, I want for you to think of this thought leadership can be easy.16:08 Start practicing that thought every single day. See what it feels like in your body. Where in particular in your body? Is it in your solar plexus? Is it in your heart chakra? Is it in your throat? Is it in your crown? Or maybe in your root? Where is the sensation, the vibration of this emotion in your body? Identify what that emotion is. Identify where it physically is in the body because this is what you're going to use every single day. You're going to practice this thought. You're gonna allow for these emotions and then you're gonna act from whatever that emotion that ha has been conjured up from that one thought out of your brain because that thought means something different to me. My brain, my body will interpret this as a different emotion than you possibly. And so what is that for you? And again, if that thought is too farfetched, I want for you to think of a thought that you can believe today about the ease and the flow and the possibility of it being easy for you too.17:17 So my friend leadership can be easy, especially the way I teach it inside the institute. This is something that my students tell me all the time, thank you for taking these big nebulous concepts and distilling it down to very simple way of understanding because now I can go apply it. Now I can put this into practice. Now I can take action. Now I can create strategy and tactics around these strategies. So when you come into the institute with a perspective of an ex of a researcher or a scientist, you come in looking at ways to solve for whatever obstacle or challenge you're faced with, right? Cuz that guiding thought that leadership can be easy. Well, how can it be easy? Well, it can be easy with measuring three variables. And so what we like to do is take a circumstance, take a concept, take a a situation that you're faced, you're faced with in the workplace, and then we distill it down to tell me about your mindset.18:27 What are your thoughts about what just happened with this employee? And we have a conversation about that through coaching. And then we talk about, well, what skills did you use to get through that difficult conversation with your employee? And that'll come out whether these skills were benefiting you or not in that circumstance. And maybe perhaps we look at, well, what skills could we have used in that particular circumstance? And then we talk about your actions, the behavior that came from that circumstance, and then ultimately the result that you created from that circumstance. So it's so simple for me, however, because I've been doing this a long time, but what I get to do now is distill it for you to make it simple for us. So I invite you to take this new thought on. Leadership can be easy. Let me know where you feel it in your body, identify the emotion, and then let's get to work. I'll see you over in the institute, masters of Leadership Institute, or on my social media feeds, and that way you can stay connected to me. Let me know what results you are creating from your mindset, your skillset, and those actions or habits you've been taking. All right my friend. Leadership can be easy for us all. Take good care and I'll catch you on the next episode. Bye for now.20:00 Hey, leader, do you want weekly leadership tips, coaching and training straight to your email inbox? Yeah, I thought so. Head over to dr denise simpson.com/leadership. Again, that's dr denise simpson.com/leadership. Just submit your name and your email address and we'll get started right away. I look forward to serving you inside your email inbox. See you soon.
