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 Hey, leader, what is going on? I am hoping you are enjoying your summertime. I don't know if you are on vacation. I don't know if you are working your butt off. I don't know what plans you have for the summer. I know kids are home, so schedules may become even heavier because you have kids at home during the summer. Sometimes it feels like heavier during the summertime as opposed to during the school year when they're busy at school. But now you've got just a few short months to cram some stuff in, and I hope that you, dear leader, are taking good care of yourself because you come first. Listen, not that I don't care about your children now, that I don't care about your employees. It is you that I serve and it is you that I'm most concerned with. And so I hope you are taking good care of yourself mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually, my friend.01:49 That's all I'm concerned about. And speaking of, concerned about, I was talking to a client about the three buckets of her leadership. Three simple buckets. She was very concerned about leading. She is a new leader on a path to really great things. Her, you know, background is exceptional. She was reluctant to be a leader, reluctant to go into leadership until someone said, I see your potential, and I know you've been underrated, underestimated, underserved. I want for you to consider going into leadership. And there's an opportunity that's opening up and we think you're really great for this opportunity. And she is in the technology field. And like many women in technology, they are marginalized. They're very few far between, but they're there. And so she came to me to work together so that we can get ready, get a foundation ready for her so that she knows where to go from here.02:56 And so the foundation for everyone, whether you are new to leadership, whether you are in mid-level leadership, whether you are a C E O or may, maybe even an executive, you can also be in the nonprofit world. You may be a board of director, you may be a board member. You may be serving on committees and appointed committees. You may be leading a community. You may be leading an, an activist or, or a, a very powerful activist focused mission. Wherever you are, you're leading. And so it does not matter what position you hold, that's the point. Today's conversation does not matter what position you hold and how long you've been in that position. Let me be very clear. Some of my episodes are very centric to certain positions that this one applies to us all. And this is a reminder, especially if you've been with me for a while and you've been listening to this for a while, you may want to ask yourself, am I doing these three things?04:03 Are these three variables still in my conscious awareness? Am I being intentional in developing these three variables that we call the buckets? Three buckets that impact your leadership? Like think of a fountain. I always think of like this, this one bronze fountain. It's, it's like one bucket. That water is leading into another bucket, and then that water is then pouring into the third bucket and then ultimately into a pond at the bottom of that fountain statue. It's, it's, it's, in my mind, I see it. I don't have a a picture of it, but if you can see these three buckets and you're pouring water into each of these buckets, and it's kind of circulating, right? So one bucket of water fills into the next bucket, that second bucket of water, it fills into the third, and then that third into a general pond or a general area.04:56 And so I like to think of it as three variables that impact your leadership. How effective, let me be specific, how effective your leadership is. Three variables, my friend. It is that simple. And I'm, I simplify leadership. That's my job is to distill it down. You know, I'm reaching 30 years in this field and I absolutely love what I do. I'm obsessed with leadership, and I'm also obsessed with so many other disciplines. And I'm always looking for ways to distill it down. Because when you make a nebulous concept like leadership, simple, then we democratize leadership. That's right. When we democratize something, we make it broader and open and accessible to others that wouldn't have these opportunities. And so I am a woman of color. I am a leader. I am someone who has been marginalized in the workforce. I'm someone who has had to fight to use her voice to be heard and to be understood.06:02 I have fought to be visible in the workforce. I have done so much work in this area personally that I'm now able to share this with my clients and you, the, the, the listener. This is about sharing as much information as possible so that we can then at least have equal footing, right? At least have equal footing. But my hope is that we get to leverage this information that gives us the competitive edge, right? It's one thing to have equal footing. That's, that's never gonna happen. I'm so sorry. As much work as we have put into democratizing leadership so that marginalized people have better opportunities, we still have so much work to do. And I don't know if we'll see it in this lifetime. And you know what that is, okay? Because we are working towards this common goal, this common solution to a very, very hard problem.06:59 But here we are now doing what we can. And I'm getting to share this information with you so that you can then go and apply it, right? This is pragmatic information. This isn't theoretical. This is you taking this information and putting it out into the workforce, out into your organization, out into your communities or in your nonprofits. It's important that we distill leadership down. We take a large nebulous abstract theory, and we make it pragmatic. That's the beauty of what we get to do here on this podcast. We get to use this information in real life, in real life in pragmatic ways, because I want for you, dear leader to have that competitive edge. Yes, I said it. I want you to win every day all the time. And I know that's not possible, but my hope is that you take this information and go use it.07:54 And so when we think about leadership, we think about all the things, we think about all the skills, we think about all the strategies. We're, we're thinking, oh my goodness, this isn't for me. Where did I get myself into? Especially when new leaders come into the picture, a lot of them feel overwhelmed. A lot of them feel like they don't belong. A lot of them regret taking these roles because once they get into these positions, they have to change their mindset. They really have to go from an, an individual star performer into a leader. And these organizations are not giving them the opportunity to get training so that they can be effective leaders. So I'm always thinking of that new person because I'm, I'm a new person everywhere I go, I, I'm, that's, that sounds really strange, but I make myself new because I'm always going into different levels of comfort.08:50 I'm always reaching for a new opportunity, opportunities that make me very uncomfortable. And I do this on purpose so I can keep stretching the boundaries of my neurology. And when I do that, I feel like I'm new at something. I'm new in the room, I'm the newest person in the room. I'm learning something new. I don't know, uh, a lot about this area, but I'm learning and I'm learning from others. So I'm constantly doing that to my brain so that I can feel the discomfort on purpose, because this is when I get to open up my consciousness and, and learn. I'm on alert. I'm learning something new that's going to make me better. And so this is what we get to do as new leaders and e even if you're a seasoned or experienced leader, go into work tomorrow and pretend you're a new leader with a fresh pair of eyes.09:43 And I know we've got a ton of bias and we've got a lot of experiences that are, that are stored in our unconscious mind. I know that much. But I want for you to go into the organization tomorrow as a beginner with the beginner's mindset, ready to grow, ready to, ready to get curious, ready to open yourself up to new ideas and new possibilities. And so I'm asking you to do that too on this episode with me. So let's get into the three buckets. I think of these buckets as, as buckets that are being filled up with water. They're being filled up with water. One bucket may be a little lower than the other bucket. One bucket may be overflowing, one bucket may be dry and empty. And these are the three buckets that I have distilled leadership down into three variables. I know, I know some people are probably out there going, really, you actually distilled this down to three to three simple variables.10:41 And yes, my dear leader, I have made leadership simple again, because I wanna democratize this whole idea of leaders being chosen, being a certain, you know, gender, being a certain skin color. I want to make sure that you have that competitive edge by knowing this information. So these three variables will impact how effective you are in your leadership practice. Hear that again, three variables that correlate to the effectiveness of your leadership. I'm measuring these for you. We measure these three variables in the Masters of Leadership Institute. These are the three variables. And of course, under each variable, you have different constructs that we will not discuss today. But if you come into the institute, we'll certainly do that. But for the sake of this episode, and to simplify and to distill leadership into three variables, we're gonna get into those three buckets. Okay? You ready for bucket number one?11:43 I know, I know you are. If you're driving, make sure you pull over somewhere. Again, I don't want you to to, to drive and write at the same time. But listen, this is important work, so we're gonna get to it, okay? Number one, the first bucket is the mindset bucket. Your mindset is everything. Listen, I work on my mindset before I work on my skills and my habits. I'm always looking at the source of my thinking, the source of my thoughts, the source of my belief systems. I spend a great deal of time there because I believe mindset is about 70% of what you do every day as a leader. Think about it. You go and you, you, you, you start your day, you prep your mind, you prep your brain. You're getting ready with your body. You're, you're getting, you know, you're getting all of the, uh, neurochemicals moving.12:33 You are excited. You are maybe even nervous. Something is gonna happen today. Something, you know, board meeting or, uh, a a challenging conversation you're gonna have. And so you take some time to get your mindset right before you go have those conversations, before you go and cultivate those relationships with your employees, you are working on your mindset, whether you realize it or not, you are working on your thoughts, your thinking. And by the way, you're thinking every three seconds, a thought will not escape you. Trust me, every three seconds, you will have a thought. And it's up to us to self-regulate those thoughts and to choose thoughts. And yes, you can, you can choose them. Now, thoughts come in, uh, you know, depending on the circumstance, depending on the situation, thoughts come in and you feel that you don't have control of those thoughts. They feel like that.13:28 But you do have control of tho those thoughts. So when something does pop in your consciousness and it's a negative thought about an employee, what you can do is take a few minutes and just contemplate that. Ask yourself, is that true? What evidence do you have? Tell me, brain, why are you showing this thought to me? I like to say you put your thoughts on, on the stand. Like if you, you're in a court of law, like you're about to interrogate, or you're about to cross examine a thought , and you are challenging that thought. It's like, well, where did that come from? And is that really true? And so I want for you to consider that mindset is a very important bucket. It's a very important bucket no matter where you are on your path of leadership. Mindset is critical. So we focus a lot of, of our work inside the Institute on mindset.14:19 And we do that through group coaching. We do that through private coaching. We are always looking at ways to support you and your belief systems, right? We wanna look at what cha, what limiting beliefs are challenging you. We wanna look at what beliefs are impeding your success. We also wanna look at beliefs that are helping you climb that mountain or climb that goal. We are always looking at mindset. So mindset mastery takes some time. It's not overnight. So I don't want for you to think that there's anything wrong with you. If you've been trying to do this on your own, or you've been, you've been at it for a while, know that there is a way that we teach how you get to look at your thoughts and keep the thoughts that are working for you, and then look at the thoughts that are working against you.15:16 And what we do is reconceptualize those. We reframe them, we redefine them for ourselves, and we get to do that through coaching. So that's what I recommend all leaders, wherever you are on your path of leadership, is to look at that mindset bucket. And you can do that by asking yourself, what am I doing right now to develop that mindset bucket? Am I getting support through a coach? Am I getting support through some kind of services, um, through my organization? Some organizations, not many have in-house counseling or in-house coaching or in-house leadership trainers. So see for yourself what you have. And also, if they do not have those services for you, ask about professional development for your leadership position. If there is a budget, you're going to want to hire a coach, someone that can support you on your path of leadership. You're going to want to get training.16:18 And the organization in my personal and professional opinion should pay for this. So there's, there's two ways. Go ask and see what is available today. And then number two, what professional development budget do you have, does the organization have for you in helping you develop as a leader? So number one, again, the mindset bucket. I spend a great deal of time on this bucket, let me tell you, because when you create an overflow of tools and resources and knowledge, practical knowledge in this bucket, it is overflowing. And when it overflows, it spills into the second bucket. And that second bucket is the skillset bucket, right? Because when you get your, when you have your mind, right, and you've got a strong foundation and, and, and your belief and your self identity and your leadership value, and who you are as a leader, when that mindset mastery is, is formed, and it's a strong foundation, it's you're going to almost naturally go and seek support in developing certain skills.17:30 You're gonna tap into certain skills that maybe were dormant in another role in another lifetime. And now you get to explore those skills. Some of you are honing some very strong skills right now. Some of you have identified big gaps in your skills. Maybe some of you're going from a emerging leader status to more of a mid-level leader. Some of you may be going into new senior level positions that are requiring you to learn new skills and maybe even hone some skills that you already have and that you've brought into this new position. So the skills set, the skills bucket, that's such a very, I say it's, it's important. It's the bucket where you are learning certain skills, you have identified those gaps, and you are taking responsibility for what you need to fill, how you fill those gaps, is it through leadership training? Is it through leadership development?18:28 Is it through doing some professional certifications online? What are you doing to fill those gaps? And so then you fill up that bucket and then it, it overflows, right? And it may overflow in this current position, right? Because you, you've been working hard in this position for a while, and you've been developing those skills to be successful in this position. But like I said, what if you move into a new position or a new organization and then you have to assess your skill gaps? Again, this isn't like a, you know, a graduate degree you have, you, you've, you completed it, it's now on a wall. Wonderful. You never have to work at it again. No. Because of the changing times in the external environment, in the external circumstances of our organizations, those circumstances impact how we lead our workforce. If there is inflation, if there is recession, if there is a world war, if there is, um, you know, other, you know, d damaging things that are happening in our economy and our government know that that will impact your brain and your employees brains, and you're going to want to make sure you have the skills to support them.19:38 And more importantly, when you identify the gaps in your own skills, you are better equipped to identify the gaps in your employees skills. You understand how this works? You have to do the work first so that you can then identify the gaps in your employees skills. This is critical work, and this is why this second variable, this second bucket, is so important to take a closer look at. So that's bucket number two. Variable number two is the skillset bucket. Let's move into variable number three. Number three are your habits, behaviors, and actions. Just know that bucket number three is how you demonstrate. It's like the physical demonstration of your mindset and your skills. This is where we see you act. We see you demonstrate, we see you behave, we see you and your habits. This is a very important bucket. Listen, all three are important.20:39 , all three buckets are important. I can't even stress enough how important they each are in your leadership practice. This third bucket also includes your strategies, right? Because you have certain strategies that have worked for you, right? A strategy is just looking at a solution. So you have a problem and you, you, you have a theory. And the theory is, I think I can solve this problem through doing this. And so your strategy is proving that theory, right? Right? It's proving that this solution is going to solve for that problem. That's basically what a strategy is. And in that strategy, you have tactics. You have certain specific action steps that you or your team will conduct so that you can then prove that your solution is right, that your solution is actually right for this particular problem. That's what strategy is. And that is also included in this bucket.21:39 Again, this is, this is the bucket where we see you demonstrate, we see you behave, we see your habits, we see you act, we see your tactics, we see your strategies. Very important bucket. So I just wanna touch a little bit about your actions, the actions of a leader. What are your actions today? And you can look at actions like your patterns, patterns of behavior, right? You start looking at how you do things, how you make decisions. There are patterns that you already know. Some of these patterns may also be habits, right? These may be just physical loops, right? They're, they're the thought loops in your brain that then are demonstrated into a physical loop right there. These are the habits that you create. Do you have a daily habit as a leader? Are your habits spilled onto your employees? And are these habits good habits?22:39 You may think they are, but they may be stressing the hell out of your employees. And so start looking at this through the lens of, am I impacting my employees or am I hindering them through my habits, through the way I make decisions through my patterns? And let me tell you something, your employees are watching your every move. They know how you're going to respond before you even respond. Let me tell you something. They are watching your habits and your actions and behaviors. This is what we get to see in the 360 leader surveys that we do with my clients. We get to see that they know you sometimes better than you know yourself. They're more conscious of your reactions, how reactive you are, how proactive you are, right? They're looking at your every move because you're guiding them. You're the leader, you're the model of excellence.23:36 And some of you aren't very excellent, and some of you aren't acting like models of excellence. And so if you are interested in having us do the 360 leader survey for you and your team, you, you're gonna want to reach out to us because this is what we get to do inside the institute. We get to develop your actions as a leader, because we want for you to be conscious of your behaviors, your patterns, and how those behaviors and patterns are impacting your leadership. That third bucket, my friend, is so critical. Listen, all three, like I've been saying, these three buckets are so critical. Now listen, these three buckets, again, there's gonna be times where one bucket is, is dry and needs to be filled. It needs to be nourished, it needs to be resourced. Sometimes another bucket may be overflowing because in this particular season, you've been working on that bucket pretty hard.24:35 Know that there is a beautiful balance between these three buckets that we can show you how to do. But know that if as you are assessing your own buckets and you are seeing that there's one that's overflowing while others are dried up, maybe there's just an imbalance in one bucket, but but an overflow in an another, and you want to find a better way to balance these three variables, these three buckets, then you're gonna wanna join us in the institute. Listen, right now, we are excited because we have, um, put out a quarterly planner that is going to help you. We designed it for you so that we can help you with these three buckets. You get to assess your leadership abilities, your current leadership abilities, and you get to see for yourself where you're sh where you wanna strive for more. And so it's important that we, we look at this together because leadership doesn't have to be difficult.25:30 It, it doesn't have to be nebulous or abstract. And this is why these three buckets for you to have a better understanding that, listen, how effective my leadership is, is dependent on three variables, my mindset, my skillset, and my actions. Okay, that sounds very simple. And then now we get to do some work. We get to assess where are we right now in those three buckets, and then in what bucket do we need to pay a little more attention to? Which one do we do we need to resource more. And so then we begin the work from there. So you get to do that self assessment with us, and then we get to support you on where you are in relationship to your current leadership role and your specific needs, the needs of those three buckets. Dear leader, I know I shared a whole lot with you today, but I want to make sure that you understand we are gonna democratize leadership for every human that's been marginalized, especially for us.26:30 So when we understand that leadership can be this simple, then we get to go and and ask for these raises, ask for these promotions, get into the path of leadership. We then use our voices. We feel more confident. We have a team behind us, we have a community behind us who wants for all of us to have these opportunities that we deserve. And this is why these three buckets need to be shared far and wide with as many people as possible so that we can have more women of color or marginalized folks on the path of leadership. So get ready, my friend, start seeing how you can implement some of these ideas in your leadership practice today, or first thing tomorrow morning. I want for you to look at those three buckets and you can do a simple gauge, where am I? And scale of one to 10 in each of these buckets, 10 being overflowing and five being half, half filled, and one being, you know, a drop in there.27:28 And I want for you to measure where you are so that you can come into the institute and we can support you in wherever you are, again, in relationship to your current leadership role. All right, leader. Well, thanks so much for spending some time with me today. Make sure you stay close over on LinkedIn. Would love to support you there as well. Connect with me, send me a dm. Let me know you heard this episode. All right, dear leader, go get it. Put these three buckets into action and know that I'm here to support you every step of the way. Take good care. 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.
