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.
Welcome back leader. Let's get started. I wanna talk to you about something that happened to me last week that has inspired today's episode. I met with a client last week and explained to her about the masters of leadership program. Of course, she's one on one it's executive coaching privately. So she did not know that there's this masters of leadership program that I created for women of all levels at all levels of leadership. And I'm explaining to her, she and I started to, uh, talk about an individual that we both mutually know. And, and then she says, I'd love to sponsor this woman for a whole year inside your membership. And I was moved. She was moved. It was an exciting opportunity for a woman who she recognizes the potential in. She said, I want to sponsor her. We talk about sponsorships. We talk about mentorships.
How about I put my money on the line? I put my money where my mouth is and invite her to a full year membership in your program. Send me the invoice is what she said. And that's a thousand dollars invoice. It's $77 a month. And for 12 months it's like, you know, close to a thousand dollars. And I had the honor of calling this woman up and, and letting her know. And it was so joyous and there were tears involved and there were so much happiness and just gratitude, deep gratitude for a woman who recognized her potential and said, I'm putting my money where my mouth is. I believe in you and I have the means to provide this opportunity. It was by no means a handout at all. It is a hand up. It's a hand up, not a handout. And this woman who I presented this, this, uh, opportunity to said, when, when I am able to, I will then sponsor another woman and I will be there soon.
And I will have that opportunity. And I'm going to present it to another woman on her journey. And it's this, this beautiful, full circle opportunity, right? It's an opportunity for me to reflect on the generosity of women, right? Because here we are at the top, some of us are in the C-suite. Some of us are in executive leadership. And while a lot of us are on our path to leadership, we may not have a formal title, but we have been called to lead and to serve. And we want to move forward. We want to go forward, but where do we get the leadership training? Where do we go for development? If my employer doesn't see me or doesn't see the potential in me yet, are they going to invest in leadership development and training for me? Probably not. And so I wanted to make masters of leadership, affordable and accessible for any woman, any woman who has the desire who has been called, who has been anointed.
And I, and I don't use that word anointed in a frivolous way. I mean this, I mean this thoughtfully and mindfully, because you have been called, there was a calling in your heart. However, it came to you, whether it was through prayer, prayer, whether it was through faith and belief, whether it was through oppression experiences in the organization where you felt undermined disrespected, where you saw behavior that was inappropriate in the workplace, and you said something needs to change. And I am the person to do that, right? We are anointed by this calling. And so masters of leadership answers the void in the leadership development and training field for women in particular. And my client said, I'm, I'm going to sponsor her. She has great potential. And she deserves to be coached by you. So she changed my business model. my client changed my business model for me.
What , you know, it's so wild. I was telling my husband, I said, my goodness, how amazing, how there's inspiration everywhere. I'm open to receiving I ideas, creativity, innovation. I'm always looking for ways to stay in the beginner's mindset in my field of leadership, never ever will. I ever think I am greater than anyone, never will I ever not be humble. I'm humbled by what I get to do every day, who I get to serve every day. And it is my duty and obligation then to stay current, to stay dynamic in this field, to continue with a growth mindset and, and a beginner's mindset at that, so that I can come back day after day and serve my leaders, whether in the private C-suite or inside masters of leadership program. So my business model has now changed for every woman or employer who says, I want to support my employee, or if she's making that decision on her own to support herself for a full year, if she subscribes for a full year, an annual membership, an annual annual subscription into masters of leadership, you will have the opportunity to choose a woman to join your journey for that full year for free.
Hear me clearly, this is, this is something that I had not had had had no idea was possible until someone who said, I, I want to sponsor this other amazing human, what do I need to do? And she's the one who offered the annual subscription, the annual membership. And now it is something that I've, I'm dedicating to doing for every annual member. She will have the opportunity to choose another individual for free. It's two for one, my friend two, for one, you bring that woman alongside you. She may not have the education. She may not have the same experience level. She may not have the same lifestyle, the same viewpoint, the same, you know, belief systems. But you see the potential in her. That is the only qualifier. That is the only criteria for you to select another woman, to join the membership for free.
So if you join me and you press checkout as an annual member, you will now have an opportunity to choose another woman to join you on this journey. And you can be at, at various levels, you can be at different levels on your journey. That does not matter. I serve all of you, amazing female leaders. I will serve all of you, no matter what level of leadership you are in. That's my promise to you. That is my commitment to you. So if you commit to an annual membership, you will commit to another woman coming on on the journey with you. That's it amazing. My business model has changed, has completely changed, which has brought me to this idea today to talk about the human centric, the human centered leadership, where we put people first, we put people over profit. First. This is the social conscious movement in entrepreneurship.
This is the conscious capitalism that we want to incorporate into our businesses. This is the idea of, of leading the people, putting the people first, instead of leading the business, instead of putting profit profits. First, this human centered idea came from my new business model. I was inspired by my client in being so generous. And I had some time to think about it over the weekend. What's important to me, what is important to my business, our profits put over the people I serve. No, they never have never have, but as an entrepreneur, if you're not paying for the value that you provide, then you don't have a business, obviously, but there are ways that we can put our people first above the profits that it aligns with our values aligns with my values as a business owner, and you as a leader, what values drive, every decision you make, do you value connection with your employees?
Do you value engaged or committed employees? Do you value, integrity? Do you value communication? Do you value fun? Do you value joy? Look at what, what values drive every decision you make as a leader. And if they're focused on business and they're focused on the technical aspect of your leadership, then maybe just, maybe we can take a second look at that values list. Because when you put people first, your people will move heaven and earth for you. When you put your employees wellbeing first, then your employees will put you first above anything else. This is what we call loyalty. This is what we call committed and engaged employees. You know, my dissertation was, was spent doing, uh, research on the commitment level of an employee in relationship or correlation to the leader's leadership style. I wanted to know the diad of leader and follower here.
I wanted to know that if the leader responded in a certain way, acted in a certain way, spoke in a certain way, did that at all affect the employee's commitment and engagement in the organization. And yes, we saw a positive correlation that when the leader is committed to their employees, when that leader is, is high on the self-awareness level, right? She is high on her own values and understands who she is and is able to then show compassion, to show courage, to show creativity within her department, her employees were highly engaged and highly committed. And this was the research I spent many years doing and why, why I went into con consulting and why I'm now an executive coach. It is because of the diad of leader and follower. So it's important leader that we look at you first, we look at your values. We look at your self-awareness.
We look at your mindset, your beliefs, about your capabilities as a leader, your beliefs about your limitations as a leader, let's look at what drives you, because what is driving you is going to impact how you drive or do not drive or motivate your employees. So people first business second, and we do this, of course, mindfully thoughtfully in regards to the employees, obje, excuse me, the organization's objectives, right? Your team objectives, the goals that you have. So you start with the objectives of the organization and how your department relates to meeting those goals, right? Every department, every region, every entity in, within the organization is responsible for impacting the bottom line. So what is your stake in all of this? What is your you and your employee's stake in all of this? Right? So we look at that, of course, we look at what financial objectives we have.
We look at at the overall institution's objectives and how we relate to that, how our team relates to that. And so when I say people first and business, second, it's a new way of looking at your responsibility. As a leader, your responsibility is to motivate your employees. It's not to hit 'em over, over the head with a hammer over and over again. Every day, it's not to Badger them. It's not to harass them. It's not to coerce them. It's really about influencing, inspiring and motivating them to meeting those goals. That's what people first means, right? Business. Second. So business will be accomplished when you do the people part. First, when you focus on inspiring and influencing and motivating your people, first, your people drive the business, your people drive those objectives. So you, as a leader, you are leading the people, inspiring them, motivating them to then take action.
That's what we get to do. We influence change. I mean, we are change agents. That's what leaders do. We are changing an employee's belief about themselves so that they can develop their skills and they can then implement and take action towards meeting a result. That's what we get to do as leaders. So we focus on the human. This is human centered leadership. We lead the people first. It's people. First business. Second, we start looking at how to inspire them, right? That's that may be the first thing. What can I do to inspire this individual? Now, listen, leadership is active. Leadership is not passive. There's no laze fair leadership here. Not under my watch. What I want for you to do is start looking at your individuals, the individuals, that report to you and what inspires each one. This is going to take time to get to know your people.
And if you're spending over 40 hours a week with them, you're gonna get to know them fairly quickly. You're also going to be able to assess the gaps in their skillset. You're going to be able to see what they can or cannot accomplish. Some of these individuals were hired by a predecessor of yours. Some of these you hired, okay? So no matter who the individual is, you need to assess the gaps in their skillset. You will then take that information and help develop them. So if you see a void or a gap in an, in your employee, you're going to coach them through that. And you're going to offer them, should you have money in your budget to fill that void by a training or a workshop or a masterclass or a degree, or, you know, pursuing some continuing education so that they can fill that gap in their skill level, right?
It's also about helping them implement those skills. That's what we get to do. We help them take action because they now have the confidence because of their skill development. Now they can go take action. And you start looking at their behaviors. You start looking at how they make decisions. You start looking at how they're implementing these skills, and then ultimately, what results are they creating in your department? And you do this at the individual level. First collectively, collectively, you may get to the finish line. You may meet that objective. You may have a slacker here and there and that's okay, right? It's up to you a as to how you wanna inspire them, how you wanna help them meet the gaps in their skill level, and then help them with the implementation process, right? Because there's some people on the team that are gonna be heavy hitters while others are stragglers and you need to quickly identify them and start helping them fill the void, their voids, the gaps that they have in skillset.
So this is human centric leadership. We're looking at them individually. We're looking at them with the greatest potential. We're looking at them with rose colored glasses. Okay. And what I mean by that is that your employee was hired because they were whole resourceful and complete. Okay? Just like you are as a leader, there's you may identify all the, the skill voids in, within you. But I, as your coach, I get to see you with those rose colored glasses. You are going to tell me what you need to fill. I will never tell you that you're, that you shouldn't be in leadership or that you are deficient in this or that. No, I think you're perfect. Just the way you are. Honestly, that's rose color glasses and that's the ease and flow that you'll bring into your leadership. And I know for all of you out there going, what the hell?
How are you? What do you mean rose color glasses? No, we need to get moving. And these people need to know what the hell they're doing. And they were hired for a reason. Know my friends, you're putting business first. You're putting business first. So stop. I want for you to look at your employee as a human being, just like you would want to be looked at with respect, with dignity, right? You're not here to, you know, whip the, the donkeys into formation. That's not what you are here to do. You are here to tend to them. You're here to nurture them. You're here to coach them. Humans centered leadership puts people's needs first. What does my employee need to meet that result to accomplish that result, to meet those objectives? What do they need individually? That's human centered leadership. It's understanding that your business objectives will be met when you treat your employees.
Like the humans that they are, that is the human-centered approach. And so my friend, I want for you to pull back a little bit, and I want for you to assess, assess your current mentality or mindset around your current leadership style. Are you approaching this with the human centered approach? Are you approaching this with a business centered approach? Putting your people last, take inventory, take inventory of what your needs are. So now I'm coaching you leader. Now I'm looking at you as a human. Now I want I'm coming to you with human centered approach, right? That's what I am doing now for you. I wanna see you as the fullest potential person that you are with great potential with the capabilities of leading and impacting her people. That's how I look at you. And so I want for you to walk away from this episode, with this idea, this inspiration of putting your people first, but do the assessment, do the inventory on yourself.
What are your needs currently as a leader? What do you need to then put your people first? Is it a mindset issue that you have? Do you have certain beliefs about employment? Do you have beliefs about the workforce? Do you believe, do you have beliefs about a certain employee in on your team, right? Are you taking this personally as in, with a bias, as in with prejudice or maybe even discrimination, nothing wrong with this? This is self-awareness, it's nothing wrong in doing this kind of work. We need to check in with our own minds and our own needs and the gaps that we have as leaders. So that's what I'm doing for you. And that's what you'll do for your individual employees. All right, my friend, I hope you found today's episode. Helpful. Listen, this was inspired again by my client. My business model has now changed forever.
If you want to join me inside masters of leadership and you become an annual member, you will have an invitation. You can send to another female leader. She doesn't have to be in your organization. She can be in your family. She can be in, you know, you know, in a sorority that you were in, she could be in, in your church. She could be in another civic organization that you both work in. Whoever she is, wherever she is on her journey. Invite her into this program. My friend, this is why we put people first and business. Second, we care deeply about our people, developing our people, helping them see for themselves what they can't see. That's what we get to do as leaders. All right, my friend, head over to masters of leadership. It's the invitation page over on Dr. Denise simpson.com. Can't wait to serve you and your plus one. take good care. Buy it for now.
24:00 Hey
24:01 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.
