THE THOUGHTFUL ENTREPRENEUR PODCAST
The Importance of Self-Awareness in Leadership
In a recent episode of “The Thoughtful Entrepreneur Show,” host Josh engaged in a compelling conversation with Kirsten Yurich, an executive mentor and vintage chair, to explore the nuances of effective leadership. Kirsten shared her extensive knowledge on leadership dynamics, the critical role of self-awareness, and the evolving trends in the corporate world. This blog post will distill the key takeaways from their discussion, providing actionable advice and deep insights for both current and aspiring leaders.
Kirsten underscored that self-awareness is fundamental to effective leadership. Leaders who are attuned to their strengths, weaknesses, and emotional triggers are better positioned to manage their teams and make sound decisions. She offered practical tips such as regular self-reflection, seeking feedback, and investing in emotional intelligence training to enhance self-awareness. These strategies help leaders understand and manage their emotions and those of their team members, fostering a more cohesive and productive work environment.
A positive work environment is essential for employee satisfaction and productivity, and Kirsten highlighted the leader's role in shaping workplace culture. She emphasized leading by example, fostering open communication, and recognizing team members' efforts. By demonstrating respect, approachability, and a positive attitude, leaders can cultivate a supportive and engaging work atmosphere. Regular team meetings, one-on-one check-ins, and various forms of recognition can further reinforce a positive culture, driving both individual and organizational success.
About Kirsten Yurich:
A former CEO and dynamic executive with successful track record of developing leaders, delivering results, and bringing together individuals, teams, and stakeholders to create high-performing cultures that perform past mission. With a clinical background and advanced training I create safe and challenging environments for people to transform into their best selves in life and work. Maximizing their talents so their families and companies are successful. I practice my own personal values of candor, integrity, humanity, and presence on a daily basis in order to be worthy of my clients.
About Vistage:
Vistage is the world’s largest CEO coaching and peer advisory organization for small and midsize business leaders. We offer the most effective approach to achieve better results, grow your company faster and maximize your impact as a leader.
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Links Mentioned in this Episode:
Want to learn more? Check out Vistage website at https://www.vistage.com/
Check out Kirsten Yurich website at http://kirstenyurich.com/
Check out Kirsten Yurich on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirsten-yurich/
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Transcript
Speaker 1 (00:00:05) - Hey there, a thoughtful listener. Are you looking for introductions to partners, investors, influencers, and clients? Well, I've had private conversations with over 2000 leaders asking them where their best business comes from. I've got a free video you can watch with no opt in required, where I'll share the exact steps necessary to be 100% inbound in your industry over the next 6 to 8 months, with no spam, no ads, and no sales. What I teach has worked for me for over 15 years, and has helped me create eight figures in revenue for my own companies. Just head to up my influence. Com and watch my free class on how to create endless high ticket sales appointments. Also, don't forget the thoughtful entrepreneur is always looking for great guests. Go to up my influence. Com and click on podcast. I'd love to have you. With us right now. Kirsten. Kirsten, you are an executive mentor, and you're a vintage chair. Kirsten, your website is Kirsten Urich. Com. It's great to have you.
Speaker 2 (00:01:17) - Thank you. Josh, I'm so happy to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:01:19) - You have a long and storied career to as a former CEO, but tell us a bit about the work that you do, who you serve.
Speaker 2 (00:01:27) - Sure. So I'm going to answer that with a question, which is how I do my work. Josh I'm going to guess, Josh, you have not always worked for yourself. Is that true?
Speaker 1 (00:01:35) - Oh, it's been a while. It's been a while, but I remember the days.
Speaker 2 (00:01:38) - Okay, so tell me. I'm guessing you once had a boss that did some things that maybe you weren't awesomely pleased with, that maybe you felt held back the team or weren't working towards the goals.
Speaker 1 (00:01:52) - Oh my gosh. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Looking back now you know with again 20 years now as being a CEO, I mean we're all doing the best we can with what we know at the time. But hoovey. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:02:04) - So you had those bosses. Well, I'm that person that tells that boss those things.
Speaker 2 (00:02:10) - Because as the employee, you don't get that chance. Right. They kind of control with that power dynamic. They're controlling your livelihood and you really don't get the opportunity to tell them, hey, that really wasn't great. Or you know, what would be really better is this. And so I'm that, you know, miniature person on their shoulder telling them what they don't want to hear or helping them see what what they don't want to see so that they can become the leader or the parent or the spouse, the person that they always knew that they could become, you know.
Speaker 1 (00:02:44) - So I'm mindful now of our leaders who are listening to this. We don't want to be like Josh's old boss. Yeah. You know, we want a boss.
Speaker 2 (00:02:55) - You left. Right. You think about.
Speaker 1 (00:02:56) - The last boss you left. You know, we all want to be. At least I hope we all want to be self-aware. You know? We all want to be mindful. Certainly. We want to know when we're being, you know, just, you know, we're creating a drag on our organization, you know, and again, we're all human.
Speaker 1 (00:03:13) - But, what are some ways that I think that we can maybe start to get more honest information about how we're performing.
Speaker 2 (00:03:25) - That's a great question. I think when we think about leadership, we see the ribbon cutting and the speeches and all of the big accolades that come with leadership. And when you get down to the nitty gritty, when I speak with leaders day in and day out, it is those mundane little interactions that happen on a daily basis that leaders have to get right and that leaders have to do and not kind of let the pace of or pride get in the way of those interactions. You know, leaders have such an opportunity to create and use the energy in their organizations. They they make the climate, they create the weather. And as I've heard from others, the weather trickles down the mountain. Right? So if they come in, you know, because they had a rough morning at home and they bring that with them, that's going to trickle down through the organization. Right. And so it is their self-discipline and their self-awareness about what that means when they walk in the door and, you know, shows on right as a leader and coming into the organization.
Speaker 2 (00:04:31) - And if they don't realize that no one's giving them the feedback of, like, you know, when you walk in the office, it goes from a calm atmosphere to a crazy atmosphere, right? That disrupted everybody's morning. And that's not really what they want as a leader, so that, you know, their impact and their intentions are misaligned, but they're not getting the feedback that they need. And so they need somebody that's objectively there to kind of tell them that or to help them in their own organization, solicit that feedback. How do I create the environment to make it safe for the people around me to tell me those things?
Speaker 1 (00:05:09) - Yeah. I well and I wonder too, if I think there are leaders that are making a good faith effort to try to uncover that, but maybe the culture just does not support that level of feedback. so I'm thinking of maybe some ways that we can try to get at that objective data or somehow encourage that information. And I'm just thinking of like, you know, maybe we're an employee may not feel comfortable in sharing that feedback for, you know, fear of offending or upsetting something.
Speaker 1 (00:05:41) - And so they they just kind of keep it quiet into themselves. And whereas as the leader, I'm like, no, no, no, no, I really do need to know. Yeah. So I don't know. Just, you know, thinking of mechanics of like, you know, again, how we can survey, our organizations or our teams, you know, again, maybe we create some anonymity. Anonymity to it. Have you seen this executed? Well, you know, again, just kind of talking about. No, no, no, I want organization from the organization. I want info from the organization about, you know, what I'm doing, okay. As a leader and what I'm not doing. Okay. And that's another thing too. I'll just speak. I don't it's I think the negative information, I think certainly can sometimes be hard to get to, but I think the positive, like the very honest, positive feedback sometimes might be a little awkward too. And I'm sure I'm not alone in this.
Speaker 2 (00:06:35) - Sure, absolutely. There's some great. Feedback around, you know, how do you take a compliment? And sometimes leaders are the worst taking compliments. And so then they're really awkward at giving compliments. Right? And we need to be generous with our accolades to the people around us so that it becomes part of that culture. And we also have to be good at taking them. Right? So if we're always sort of this false humility piece, that's going to rub off on others too. And so I've practiced with leaders just saying thank you. I'm working on that. We're thank you that, you know, was difficult for me to do. Right. Just just saying thank you because somebody's taking the the moment to step into that awkwardness of giving you positive feedback. That was a gift. And if you push that gift away, they're not going to give it to you again. And maybe they won't give it to somebody else. And what is that ripple effect in your culture? So that's it's important for you to give it and to accept it.
Speaker 1 (00:07:34) - Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know it is not to get too distracted on here but it is really interesting. You know how we do respond to gratitude. and you know sometimes, you know, again we don't want to feel like we're being, you know, braggy or whatever. So, you know, we do. We sometimes were just dismissive of it. And then that's not fair. I think to the person who issued that and and again, to your point, it's what does that teach or what does that instill in your organization? I would love to be an organization. I think we we speaking for myself, I feel like we do a pretty good job. Like the thanks are pretty. if if folgen, is that the right word? They're there. Quite common. and I'm very grateful for that. well, there's, there's a little bit more gratitude there.
Speaker 2 (00:08:23) - So here's how to take it up a notch. You know, saying thank you is good. And I think it's a great first step.
Speaker 2 (00:08:29) - How specific can you be right. How actionable can you be? Can you can you take that thank you. And turn it into something that's very specific for that person, so that they know exactly what you recognize and are acknowledging. Because it goes back to how observant were you? How much did you pay attention to what that person did or said, or what they brought to the table in that moment, what they overcame to do that thing for you? So how specific and personal can you get in your praise and in your gratitude and actionable? So pulling out the things that are repeatable, right. People, you know, repeat things that get reinforced or rewarded. So we need to be thanking and giving gratitude on the things that we want to see more of, not paying attention to things that we want to see less of. Leaders end up spending what, 80% of their time with 20% of the problem makers, when we need to be spending more of our time, you know, catching people doing what's right and then, you know, accelerating those results.
Speaker 1 (00:09:27) - I'm certain, because of your relationship with vintage, that you'll have a point of view on this. but, you know, the, the sentiment that, sometimes, you know, again, as leaders, it can be a little bit lonely, in that we don't have necessarily anyone within the organization that there just may be some worries or concerns that that there may not be a very good outlet, within our organizations to share that for fear of, well, if I share it with this person, that might then trickle to this person and then down and then throughout the organization. So therefore it's better to not even bring this up. And so we need peers. We we need we need leaders. Don't worry.
Speaker 2 (00:10:09) - Yeah. As I see as a former CEO, that is the reason I sought out Mr.. Right. Loneliness and the ability to have a community of people that I could talk to honestly and without judgment, without agenda. And they can fire me, right? They don't. They're they have no ownership or agenda related to my business except me personally becoming better.
Speaker 2 (00:10:31) - And so that's why I started out as a CEO and why I moved to the other side of the table, because creating that space for other leaders became a mission for me personally. And, you know, coming off of one of those sessions yesterday, people left there fulfilled, refreshed, rejuvenated, you know, knowing that I may have come in with some things on my head and my heart, but boy, I'm glad I'm not you today, and I'm glad I could give you something today. Right? To another CEO on the table who walked in with something even more challenging, right? There's power in the peers, and that community is going to rise. All of the leaders and all of the companies. And then what is it doing for our collective community? If leaders are coming together and getting better, their companies are getting better, and then that means all of the people that work in those companies are working in a better place and going home a happier person. That means their homes are better.
Speaker 2 (00:11:28) - That means our communities are better. That means our children are better. That's mission work.
Speaker 1 (00:11:34) - Yeah. Kirsten, is is all of your work through vintage, or do you coach and consult separately, or is that all kind of within? Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:11:41) - Some is through Vista. Some is privately coaching leadership development. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:11:46) - So tell me more about that.
Speaker 2 (00:11:48) - Yeah. well, I coach privately with CEOs all across the country actually, and locally. And I work with companies, develop leadership development programs to help leaders at multiple levels and, improve the performance of their people and those kinds of things.
Speaker 1 (00:12:03) - Yeah. Yeah. And for someone who's heard of this stage, maybe they've talked to people that are part of it. Do you mind just kind of giving an overview of what visage is and, and who it's, who it's a great organization for?
Speaker 2 (00:12:15) - It's a great organization for a leader who. Knows that they want to be better, is willing to be in a room with other leaders and be open to that opportunity.
Speaker 2 (00:12:29) - Doesn't want to be the smartest person in the room. Somebody who might go to a gym for physical improvement and wants to go to an executive gym. For their executive skills and all, but such groups are different. Some are just up here, right at the head, so my hands are around my head for the people just listening. And some go the whole way down, right. And work on the whole person because as you probably know, you don't leave your personal life at home when you show up at work and you don't leave work at work when you show up at home. And so we have to consider the whole person.
Speaker 1 (00:13:05) - Yeah. And how was the. How was this like, how was it structured? I mean, just very kind of mechanical nuts and bolts. This is how it looks.
Speaker 2 (00:13:13) - So executives joined the company, which is an executive mentoring organization. That's 45 countries, 45,000 members, big, 60 years old. Right? So they kind of have the secret sauce. They know what they're doing.
Speaker 2 (00:13:27) - They've been around and they joined visage as a member. They have access to a platform of networks where they can connect with all vintage members across the world. But locally, they have a group of 12 to 15 CEOs that they sit in the room with. Together, we get together once a month for a full day, of of activities. We have speakers, and then we process the things that they're coming in with to accelerate their results. and then I meet with each of those leaders on a monthly basis for executive coaching. So those are sort of the three legs of the stool.
Speaker 1 (00:14:01) - Yeah. and so specifically in your personal consulting coaching work, what does that like, what particular industries, particular types of organizations, size of organizations, types of leaders? who would make kind of that ideal connection for you?
Speaker 2 (00:14:19) - Yeah, I've worked with, individuals from my past industry, which is behavioral health and mental health industry. So I've worked with CEOs there as well as developing leadership programs with their, but leadership is not industry specific, so that's not necessarily a barrier.
Speaker 2 (00:14:37) - I've worked with companies that are a couple million to, 100 plus million. So there's no real sweet spot. Individuals that are looking to improve themselves, looking to improve their team. I've worked with entire teams coaching an entire leadership team to improve their health and effectiveness, as well as developing leadership programs where they can work on leaders at different levels and building their skills and competencies across the organization.
Speaker 1 (00:15:07) - And cursed, am I correct? You have a book too. I'm so sorry we didn't talk about that.
Speaker 2 (00:15:11) - Haha. Well yeah, so from a previous life it is more of a graduate level textbook in precision teaching. So, anyone that's interested in how to, measure behavior and define behavior and improve behavior through a particular, frame of reference called precision teaching, can check out the precision teaching book. Absolutely. Check it out. It's, Greatness achieved publishing company. Yes.
Speaker 1 (00:15:40) - Excellent, excellent. Well, so one one last kind of question. in terms of, like, trends in leadership and just like, you know, again, leaders who this is what you do and, you know, from your perspective, what would you say are some of the big things we should probably be paying attention to in the year ahead?
Speaker 2 (00:16:01) - Well, we have five generations of.
Speaker 2 (00:16:04) - People in the workforce, right? That's 25 plus permutations of the relationships that we have to be handling. You could have a manager that's 30 and an employee who's 60, and you as the CEO or the big boss, you have to learn the the needs and the challenges that come with all of those types of relationships. So I think that's one of the big trends is these multi generations in the workforce and what it means for both your recruiting, your selection, your management training, the needs of employees are changing. Certainly this hybrid work and all of those things continue to be a challenge. And those threads are coming through in our discussions. So I think that's one of the trends, of leadership. And then one of the others that just came out yesterday in a conversation is, you know, the old style command and control leadership. You know, that boat, you can't even see the tail of the boat anymore. Right? It is completely gone. I don't yeah, good luck.
Speaker 1 (00:17:02) - Good luck.
Speaker 2 (00:17:03) - If that's clearly not a sailor. There's no tail to a boat. I don't know bolster and. You know, so this value driven leadership that is out there, if a company is not established what their values are and the leader is not fully, you know, the leader doesn't embody them if they're not a founder, if they're their hired CEO, there's alignment issues with that. And these values don't trickle down and are not evidenced within all of your human practices. So you're hiring your selection, your performance evaluation. You know, the life cycle of an employee, your coaching practices. How are you equipping the manager? Right. Gallup shows us that 70% of the variance of performance of any one employee is related to the competency of your manager. 70% of the variance of every employee is related to the competency of a manager. So what are you doing to equip managers to lead today? And if you're not doing much? Then you can't expect much. So I think there are some of those trends that leaders have to face.
Speaker 1 (00:18:08) - Yeah. Kirsten Urich. Your website, Kirsten Urich. Com to a friend that's listening. Kirsten, what would you recommend? They've listened to our conversation. Maybe they were kind of searching for you. They found this podcast, listen to it. And now they're like, okay, what's the next step here? I'm curious.
Speaker 2 (00:18:25) - Well, they certainly can. I think check out what it would look like for them to get feedback about their leadership. And that could come in a variety of ways, right? Talk to their leadership team, do they? Is there a gap between how they think they're doing and what their leadership team thinks? Start by asking a couple questions. Right. You don't go from listening to a podcast to calling somebody for services, right? That's a big ask. Nobody. Yeah, nobody's going to do that. Right? Yeah. But start if you're curious. Now you're like, Am I the leader? That's that's not aware. Am I the leader that's doing this? Great.
Speaker 2 (00:19:01) - Keep that nugget in your mind and just start to become more aware. More aware. Ask questions. If you have a buddy CEO in another company, what are they doing to solve these problems? Start asking questions. Maybe you can build a network of your own. Maybe you need to join a group. Maybe you need to get a coach. I don't know, but you need to do something if you're doing nothing.
Speaker 1 (00:19:23) - I appreciate the Kirsten Urich again, your website, Kirsten urich.com. That is key. K I r s t e n y u r I c h. We've got the spelling to our friend that's listening to our podcast. Just click around, find the show notes. You get a direct link to Kirsten's website. Chris, it's been great having you. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (00:19:41) - Thanks, Josh. This was fun.
Speaker 1 (00:19:48) - Thanks for listening to the Thoughtful Entrepreneur Show. If you are a thoughtful business owner or professional who would like to be on this daily program, please visit up my influence.
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