Episode #6

[00:00:00] INTRODUCTION

[00:00:00]

[00:00:00] Taty Fittipaldi: In today’s episode, we will dive deep into the second pillar of The Global Leadership Pillars: people leadership. This Pillar is usually the most sought after in training and development.

[00:00:12] Taty Fittipaldi: So we’ll explore what is it that you really need to seek to lead internationally. I’ll give you an overview of what people leadership is all about, and I will tell you some pro tips for developing and practicing its skills. As a reminder, if you want to have a full overview of what The Global Leadership Pillars are, you can listen to episode number three of The Leadership Nest podcast.

[00:00:38] INTRODUCTION: Hello and welcome to the Leadership Nest Podcast. The podcast that nests stories, knowledge, and science to soar the leadership in you. I’m your host, Taty Fittipaldi. As always, our podcast will be divided into three phases. A story, a lesson, and [00:01:00] its application. This way, you can have structure and information while also having some fun.

[00:01:09] INTRODUCTION: This program is brought to you by… by Coaching Expatriates.

[00:01:12] TODAY’S STORY: Today’s story.

[00:01:20] TODAY’S STORY

[00:01:20] Taty Fittipaldi: Alex is a savvy global executive in the consulting industry with a knack for leading diverse teams. But who has never used much of storytelling as a leadership tool before. And to recently he was asked to, by his stakeholders.

[00:01:36] Taty Fittipaldi: He had just taken charge of an international internal project that involved teams from different continents. Each with their own unique leadership styles and decision-making preferences. He was told that two of his new regions would benefit a lot from storytelling as a leadership tool. So he would have some [00:02:00] opportunities to use and practice it.

[00:02:02] Taty Fittipaldi: During his first virtual team meeting, Alex noticed that the Asian team members were more reserved while the European counterparts were more direct and assertive. Instead of imposing a single style, Alex adapted his communication approach to accommodate these cultural differences, valuing input from everyone. His comprehensive understanding of global leadership and decision-making styles was crucial for that.

[00:02:31] Taty Fittipaldi: After that first meeting Alex decided to work on trust a building from the get go.

[00:02:36] Taty Fittipaldi: To establish rapport and trust, Alex organized one-on-one video calls with team members across different time zones. They didn’t just talk about work. They took the time to understand personal interests, family backgrounds, and aspirations.

[00:02:53] Taty Fittipaldi: This deepened the connection and fostered an environment of open communication.

[00:02:59] Taty Fittipaldi: All were [00:03:00] developing well until Alex and the team were faced with their first major decision. They had to cut 20% of these projects costs without firing any employee. Alex faced resistance from the north American team who wanted to quickly cut costs by having layoffs.

[00:03:21] Taty Fittipaldi: Instead of forcing a decision, Alex engaged in thoughtful inter-regional discussions, asking different regions to share their perspectives, addressing concerns, and highlighting the bigger picture. This approach aligned the team’s perspective. And garnered their support. Mostly because everyone in the team brainstormed ways to approach the cuts, without firing, by bringing to the table, feasible actions and ideas that ended up convincing the Americans that this was possible. Because it’s not that the Americans didn’t [00:04:00] want it that way. They just thought it would be impossible. By creating the possibility the team together created a common ground.

[00:04:10] Taty Fittipaldi: As a team, they finally decided together to incorporate these ideas first in a simulated profit and loss report, also called P&L. And they would to bring this simulated P and L for each of the regions to their global leadership summit, which would happen the following month. There, they would put all regions P&Ls together and see how close they were to the goal, and discuss the next steps further.

[00:04:41] Taty Fittipaldi: So the decision was basically to make no decision. Until they had more data, specially on the financial side of how the ideas played out.

[00:04:52] Taty Fittipaldi: Alex was a bit concerned with his reputation. And people’s impressions of him though, [00:05:00] because he didn’t want anyone to think that he was doing this because he couldn’t make a decision himself, but rather, he wanted to show how important everyone’s contribution was for him and for the company’s culture. So he worked on impressions management of his leadership style during his one-on-ones, with the team members.

[00:05:22] Taty Fittipaldi: But he also wanted to use the global leadership summit as a new opportunity to align people’s impressions of him who was a new leader to this role. Before the summit, he released pulse surveys that were cascaded to the entire project’s team.

[00:05:41] Taty Fittipaldi: So that he could collect further the employee’s impressions about him, and the project. The data he was able to pull was quite insightful, which helped him brainstorm some strategies for the summit and practice beforehand. [00:06:00] Mind you, he even hired an executive coach to help him strategize structure, and practice, the things he was planning.

[00:06:08] Taty Fittipaldi: “I think you’re ready, said to the coach. Go get them tiger.” Making reference to the Spider-Man movie they talked about in one of their conversations. Alex grinned and said, “shut up. You know I prefer the black Panther.” He smiled.

[00:06:25] Taty Fittipaldi: During his flight to the global leadership summit, he tried to relax, but it was pretty confident and excited.

[00:06:33] Taty Fittipaldi:

[00:06:33] Taty Fittipaldi: On the first day, Alex delivered a keynote speech, that focused on sharing personal stories that demonstrated his journey, struggles and lessons learned. By being vulnerable and relatable, Alex consolidated the impressions the audience had about him as a leader because he showcased his authenticity, humility, but also the [00:07:00] expertise and knowledge. Most importantly, he achieved his goal of showing that he appreciated the opinions of his team members. And that, that was an important leadership aspect for him. The Latins and Asians quickly related to that while the Europeans and north Americans started to get Alex better.

[00:07:23] Taty Fittipaldi: The summit was a success and it was beyond Alex’s wild hopes, how well things played out. As soon as they worked on the full P&L simulation from all the regions, the data provided the elements they needed to make the final decision. They were able to decide on keeping the head count and making other cost cuts ideas. The regions also quickly bonded further, and the Summit expedited the team’s chemistry and interactions. More so because of a poker game, they started. [00:08:00] More on that in a bit.

[00:08:01] Taty Fittipaldi: As the project progressed and months passed by, Alex was able to consistently set clear expectations regarding timelines, goals and roles, which deepened the team’s trust on him. This prevented misunderstanding and ensured everyone was always on the same page, regardless of their location.

[00:08:24] Taty Fittipaldi: Based on feedback and these expectation management interactions, as he called them, he created an innovative visual dashboard, that was updated as a screensaver every day, by the IT team and remotely installed in each computer. The entire project team could see the main details of the project status, and what to expect next on their own computers. Every time, the screen saver was activated. On top of that, every time they [00:09:00] opened a new browser, the dashboard was also available there. The teams loved this idea so much, that soon, with new suggestions, this dashboard became almost alive. And the more and more robust and useful to the teams.

[00:09:18] Taty Fittipaldi: And because everyone contributed to the dashboard, it was a resource that everyone was proud of.

[00:09:25] Taty Fittipaldi: At some point, Alex noticed a team member in the south American branch, Juan, struggling with a new role. Instead of micromanaging, as some suggested, Alex provided guidance and resources, encouraging this team member to take ownership of their own growth. Alex acted as a partner and ally on top of being a manager. This manager coaching approach not only improved performance, but also boosted morale. So much [00:10:00] so that Juan, A.K.A., Don Juan, became the top name for Alex’s succession plan.

[00:10:08] Taty Fittipaldi: Juan was also selected to help Alex spearhead the cost cuts progress in each of the regions, after Alex worked on the pilot implementation after the summit. But Juan suggested a more inter-regional approach during the waves of implementation. So to foster further inter-regional collaboration, Alex organized virtual brainstorming sessions that involved team members from different locations. And by emphasizing everyone’s strengths, and encouraging cross-pollination of ideas, Alex ignited a sense of shared purpose and excitement. The team also invented a celebration ritual, that was super fun. And it all started during the summit. The regions played the virtual poker game together every Friday [00:11:00] afternoon for half an hour. This ritual consistent of giving the celebrated region that achieved the new tollgate, on the cuts project, an extra card. Of their choosing for the poker game. To give them a upper hand.

[00:11:14] Taty Fittipaldi: The winner of the game at the end of the project would be allowed to bring all the extended leadership team to the next global leadership summit. So all the regions were super excited about this opportunity. All employees we’re going above and beyond for it.

[00:11:35] Taty Fittipaldi: One day, Juan asked Alex for an impromptu virtual meeting. “Boss, I’m really concerned. Some regions and team members are a bit burned out. Working on the activities to implement the cuts on top of everyone’s activities has been challenging.”

[00:11:56] Taty Fittipaldi: “Yep. I figured so,” said Alex, ” [00:12:00] and I sort of noticed. I was planning to bring this up to you actually. Do you have anything in mind?” Alex asked Juan.

[00:12:08] Taty Fittipaldi: “Look, boss. The most weight seems to be with our Asian and south American teams. I know they value context and stories a lot, and that they respect you very much. So how about use some storytelling to motivate them in this stretch run?”

[00:12:25] Taty Fittipaldi: So, as discussed, during the last critical project review, Alex shared a story about a previous successful journey of overcoming obstacles that this very same team had five years before. This story served as a metaphor for the team’s current challenges and emphasized the collective goal they were working towards. The story, made them remember why they were doing what they were doing. And the big picture of it all. The [00:13:00] financial cuts were not the goal. The goal was much bigger. The story also made them remember the power they had as a team. This ignited renewed motivation and determination for these last few weeks of the project.

[00:13:16] Taty Fittipaldi: In the end, folks, Alex’s leadership journey wasn’t just about executing tasks. It was about understanding, connecting, and inspiring a global team, to achieve a vision. TOGETHER. By embracing key global leadership skills, Alex transformed the project into a true collaborative success story, that showcased the power of effective global leadership in their company.

[00:13:47] Taty Fittipaldi: Oh, and by the way, the poker game was so much fun for the teams that this was incorporated into all future projects and ended up [00:14:00] evolving over time into something even more fun and fulfilling as a celebration. And what’s more important. This was not created by Alex as a leader. Alex always inspired the team members to come up with innovative ideas to lead the organization’s goals. After all, as you’ll learn, organizational leadership leads ideas. I invite you to listen to today’s lesson and try to identify which of Alex’s action correspond to each of these concepts.

[00:14:36] TODAY’S LESSON: Today’s lesson.

[00:14:44] TODAY’S LESSON

[00:14:44] Taty Fittipaldi: People leadership is one of the four success pillars in The Global Leadership Pillars™ and is, the ability to lead people, master work relationships in different cultures and create high-performing and collaborative teams, in [00:15:00] a way that creates value to their stakeholders. In other words, you make people come together, work together and create value together, with the same goal and vision in mind.

[00:15:15] Taty Fittipaldi: Just to make a quick recap. The four pillars of The Global Leadership Pillars™ are personal leadership, that leads self, for greater performance. People leadership that leads people to empower a vision. Organizational leadership that leads ideas. To create positive business impact. Cultural leadership that leads behavior to create an inclusive and happy workplace.

[00:15:44] Taty Fittipaldi: In this episode, we learned through our story about the power that proper people leadership can have. This power though, is based on some foundational skills. So let’s spend some time talking about what they are so that [00:16:00] you can know what to seek and develop as a global leader.

[00:16:03] Taty Fittipaldi: Skill number one. Understanding global leadership and decision-making styles. Different types of people value different things. Therefore they behave, relate and think in different ways. More so, depending on where they come from. Culturally speaking.

[00:16:22] Taty Fittipaldi: Leaders have to learn how to identify and read styles. Quickly.

[00:16:27] Taty Fittipaldi: This can help them address specific needs and interests, which will build trust and bonds faster. When leaders identify what people value and focus on, they can lead a more robust conversation. Driving actions And leading initiatives becomes easier.

[00:16:44] Taty Fittipaldi: When we talk about styles, it’s not about boxing or labeling people. It’s about zoning in to what they value as closest as possible. Each individual is unique. There are no two people that are alike,[00:17:00] even within homozygote twins. But each individual, on this planet, leans towards certain styles, more than others. And if you understand this, you can quickly create rapport, build trust, and keep their focus on a shared goal. This will help leaders accomplish more and drive better and faster decisions.

[00:17:25] Taty Fittipaldi: In our story today, Alex had to help the team coordinate leadership, communication, and decision-making styles during their first big decision. He knew each region’s main preferences, and tried to accommodate and facilitate the work to achieve a final result that everyone could be proud of.

[00:17:45] Taty Fittipaldi: It’s important to point out that some decision makers are sometimes against something, not because they don’t want to do it, but because they don’t know how to do it. Or simply because they don’t believe it’s [00:18:00] possible. So understanding styles and what’s behind the decision-making is crucial for making impactful business decisions.

[00:18:09] Taty Fittipaldi: Skill number two, learning deep communication and trust building.

[00:18:14] Taty Fittipaldi: We all think we know the basics of communication. But we don’t. Communication has a lot more nuances than we think. It can be verbal, nonverbal, or through signs.

[00:18:26] Taty Fittipaldi: But even within these categories, there are far more nuances than we realize. For example. Did you know that nonverbal aspects of communication have more impact on a conversation than anything else? That’s crazy. That means to say that what you say has less power than how you say it.

[00:18:47] Taty Fittipaldi: And this is especially critical for cultures called high context cultures. Which are cultures around the world that rely on context, information, and implicit [00:19:00] messages to understand their speaker. We will talk about high and low context culture in detail in a future episode. So stay tuned. Look, you can plan arguments, copywriting, and devise a bunch of things to say. In the end, that counts less than the subtle messages that you are literally communicating without knowing. This is how much communication is nuanced.

[00:19:30] Taty Fittipaldi: Learning deep communication and the nonverbal aspects of communication and it’s cultural elements are critical, in our globalized world. If you want to build trust and long-lasting work relationships. It’s also important to mention that within the communication skill set, we have sub skills, that make use of communication. For example, negotiations, delegation, presentation, expectation management, storytelling, and [00:20:00] so on.

[00:20:00] Taty Fittipaldi: In our story, Alex decided to build a rapport and trust through a series of initial one-on-ones and then further these bonds during meetings, using storytelling, which is a subset or sub skill of communication.

[00:20:17] Taty Fittipaldi: Mastering communication and its sub skills is an important aspect of leading and influencing. Which leads us to the next skill.

[00:20:28] Taty Fittipaldi: Skill number three, developing influencing skills.

[00:20:32] Taty Fittipaldi: Influencing is the capacity individuals have to be a compelling force or produce effect on the actions, behavior, and opionion of others. Have you ever heard someone referring to someone as like, ” They are a force of nature.”? This is a bit what’s like to be influential. It’s natural, but at the same time can be powerful.

[00:20:57] Taty Fittipaldi: In other words to influence people is the [00:21:00] ability to guide people to come to certain conclusions without coercing them. Because influence is not manipulation. Although both may use the same set of skills, manipulation is for one’s own personal gain only, while influencing takes into consideration what will also benefit the influenced party.

[00:21:23] Taty Fittipaldi: As you can see influencing skills are like electricity. It’s not good or bad. It can be used for a good or a bad.

[00:21:33] Taty Fittipaldi: All leaders must learn to be influential if they want to create real impact in their company. And in the world. The truth is that nowadays nobody makes decisions alone. You will always have to influence people during the decision-making process. And influencing skills are critical for that.

[00:21:54] Taty Fittipaldi: Alex used influencing skills during the story by helping the team members [00:22:00] reach a consensus about the initial request of making cuts without layoffs.

[00:22:06] Taty Fittipaldi: If he didn’t engage the team in discussions and simulations, the American counterparts might have accepted the task, but would not have done it with a full buy-in.

[00:22:18] Taty Fittipaldi: By using special influencing tactics, Alex was able to harness the team’s power, in favor of an idea.

[00:22:26] Taty Fittipaldi: Skill number four, practicing impressions management. You know, the saying, there is not a second chance to make a first good impression. Impressions management is about you learning how to make sure people have and perceive the right impression about you. Again, It’s not about manipulating.

[00:22:48] Taty Fittipaldi: One thing I’ve learned in my career is that the best thing we can do is be authentic. Sometimes though, even when we are one hundred percent [00:23:00] authentic, people get us wrong. So impressions management is about helping people get us right.

[00:23:07] Taty Fittipaldi: Leaders who learn impressions management have been shown to make quicker progress in their careers than those who don’t.

[00:23:15] Taty Fittipaldi: And once again, that’s because leaders don’t make decisions alone. And when people get us wrong, they might make the wrong decisions when they have us in mind.

[00:23:25] Taty Fittipaldi: A lot of experts in the market label this skill as personal branding. And although they have this partially right, impressions management goes beyond personal branding.

[00:23:37] Taty Fittipaldi: Personal branding as a leadership skill is all about showcasing your unique qualities, values, and expertise, in a way that leaves a positive and memorable impression on others. It’s like crafting your own special trademark, that helps people recognize and trust your abilities as a leader.[00:24:00]

[00:24:00] Taty Fittipaldi: Just like a good book cover can draw readers in, your personal brand highlights what makes you stand out and sets the tone for how you lead and inspire those around you. So it’s basically your own awesome way of saying this is me and I’m here to make a difference.

[00:24:18] Taty Fittipaldi: Now impressions management goes a step further. Because it follows up and collects feedback from initial and ongoing impressions, and manage them by rebranding and reshaping impressions to meet your real person. For example, your personal branding might want to convey that you are a reliable person who always meets deliverables on time. However, upon data and feedback collection, you identify that your stakeholders think that you are reliable enough to meet deliverables, except when it comes to [00:25:00] budgets. Now, imagine this is wrong. You were really great with budgets. So you use then your impressions management to override this impression and help people see the values and contributions you can also make around budgeting. So impressions management is not personal branding. It goes beyond personal branding. Remember that.

[00:25:27] Taty Fittipaldi: In our story today, Alex was always very attentive to his reputation and people’s impressions of him. And found numerous touch points to showcase his true, authentic self. He wanted to people to get him. Understand where he was coming from, and why he did the things the way he did.

[00:25:48] Taty Fittipaldi: Skill number five, managing expectations. Managing expectations is your ability to communicate what you are expecting to happen, while you also learn from others, [00:26:00] what they are expecting in return.

[00:26:03] Taty Fittipaldi: It sounds simple enough and it is, but very often people don’t care to learn and practice this useful skill.

[00:26:10] Taty Fittipaldi: Listen, managing expectations needs an incredible amount of emotional intelligence. You have to deal with motivations. You have to deal with emotions and you have to deal with intentions and desires.

[00:26:24] Taty Fittipaldi: Sometimes the simplest things are the most difficult ones to accomplish. Like saying, I love you. Or I’m angry.

[00:26:35] Taty Fittipaldi: So simple, but sometimes so difficult. There are fears involved, emotions, motivations, intentions, desires. So it’s no wonder people find it so difficult.

[00:26:47] Taty Fittipaldi: What leaders need is a straightforward methodology to help them manage expectations, step-by-step. And not sometimes, but always. [00:27:00] Managing expectations needs to be consistent. Otherwise people will get confused. And confused teams don’t perform well.

[00:27:10] Taty Fittipaldi: By learning an expectation management methodology and putting it into practice, you develop a skill that can skyrocket communication, performance, and teamwork. That’s very much what happens in our story because Alex was very conscientious about setting the right expectations for everyone and even creating an innovative way to deliver all these expectations, statuses, and next steps through a dashboard.

[00:27:40] Taty Fittipaldi: This not only helped the teams perform their tasks better, but even helped them get a sense of shared purpose.

[00:27:47] Taty Fittipaldi:  Skill number six, learning and practicing manager coaching skills.

[00:27:53] Taty Fittipaldi: Manager coaching skills are the ability to guide and coach your team on things that make them feel [00:28:00] stuck or frustrated.

[00:28:01] Taty Fittipaldi: People often confuse manager coaching skills with mentoring. Mentoring is basically someone who is more experienced making recommendations on how to proceed or take action, on certain things and decisions. Coaching is the act of guiding the thinking process of an individual so that they find their own answers. Answers that work for them.

[00:28:27] Taty Fittipaldi: It’s always great to have mentors who trailed the blaze, and who could give us some tips already. But the truth is, as a manager, you want to teach your team members to think for themselves.

[00:28:41] Taty Fittipaldi: You want them to develop critical thinking skills. The keyword here in this skill is development.

[00:28:49] Taty Fittipaldi: And you coaching them is achieving just that.

[00:28:53] Taty Fittipaldi: Like influencing skills, it’s not about manipulation. It’s about helping individuals [00:29:00] set their mindsets correctly for what they want to accomplish, gain new perspectives that they never thought of before and then think about their own answers and solutions. I dare say that manager coaching skills should be taught to every single leader that has any leadership role in an organization, regardless of title or power.

[00:29:25] Taty Fittipaldi: Leaders who move from telling their employees what to do, to guiding them, see a huge increase in performance. And long-lasting development.

[00:29:36] Taty Fittipaldi: But what’s even more important to mention is that coaching creates an amazing bond of trust between managers and their employees. And that’s why performance skyrockets. And the turnover rates get reduced.

[00:29:52] Taty Fittipaldi: During our story today, Alex showed his manager coaching skills while helping Juan get out of a tough [00:30:00] initial transition. He could have done it the old way by micromanaging, putting pressure, and even firing him. But he understood the value of that employee and chose to guide him through the process. Manage your coaching skills can be very powerful to help people achieve goals, but also to help managers and employee bond and trust each other even further.

[00:30:29] Taty Fittipaldi: Skill number seven, creating collaborative teams and driving motivation.

[00:30:35] Taty Fittipaldi: People collaborate for different purposes. And people are motivated by different things as well. And these go hand in hand.

[00:30:43] Taty Fittipaldi: We as leaders have to learn how to form collaborative teams, to get the optimal performance from our talents. Each individual talent when summed will never be as good enough as when all talents come together. I called this [00:31:00] the power of collective brainpower.

[00:31:02] Taty Fittipaldi: Focusing on collaborative teams is part of wanting to create a more inclusive and engaging workplace. People want to belong. So leaders must do this the right way. They need to learn what drives people to collaborate and what are the motivational drivers for each individual in the team.

[00:31:24] Taty Fittipaldi: And then use this information to move teams from storming to performing.

[00:31:30] Taty Fittipaldi: In our story today, Alex did this, not overnight, of course, but he created the perfect ground for the entire team to bond and act together. And even come up with their own rituals, celebrations, and fun time.

[00:31:46] Taty Fittipaldi: Skill number eight. Telling stories that weave purpose, goal and vision.

[00:31:53] Taty Fittipaldi: I usually don’t include this separately because for me, this is inside good communication skills. But in [00:32:00] wanted to explicitly highlight this due to its importance. You see, storytelling is not just about telling a story. The story you tell must weave the goal, the purpose and the vision into the story. The goal is the, what? In what you want to accomplish, the purpose is your why? Or the motivation behind it. The vision is your when? In other words, when goals and purpose are aligned, this is the picture you want people to see.

[00:32:31] Taty Fittipaldi: A picture that was elusive before this story was told.

[00:32:36] Taty Fittipaldi: Actually, that’s one of the reasons why The Leadership Nest podcast has a section with the story in every episode, because stories can be powerful to teach us and motivate us on a deeper level. We can help people see what was not there before.

[00:32:54] Taty Fittipaldi: In our story today, Alex used stories in two separate [00:33:00] events, with a specific purpose and intent. He used a story to create emotional connection to what he was saying, and guide people in understanding his points.

[00:33:11]

[00:33:12] Taty Fittipaldi: So these eight skills are the foundation of people leadership.

[00:33:17] Taty Fittipaldi: Now, as you listen to in the previous episode, If good leadership starts with good personnel leadership, then awesome leadership incorporates all these crucial skills in people leadership.

[00:33:31] Taty Fittipaldi: Most leadership programs out there teach important skills for good leadership, but awesome programs will portray all four pillars of the global leadership pillars. In other words, people leadership is super important, but alone, it won’t create all the positive impact global executives seek nowadays.[00:34:00]

[00:34:01]

[00:34:02] TODAY’S TIPS TO APPLY WHAT YOU LEARNED

[00:34:02] Taty Fittipaldi: Here are a few strategies and routines you can use for developing your people leadership skills.

[00:34:08] Taty Fittipaldi: Number one. Assess. Start by assessing your proficiency in each of these skills. If you don’t know where to start, you can use my Global Leadership Growth Blueprint workbook, where you have step-by-step exercises to define skill levels, traits to develop career goal setting, career path mapping and overall career and leadership development planning. I will leave a link to this paid resource in the show notes below.

[00:34:36] Taty Fittipaldi: Number two, set goals. I know this might sound cheesy, but without a goal you cannot measure. And if you cannot measure, you cannot identify progress. So everything starts with you setting a goal for the skills you want to develop. As a coach, I always suggest my clients to develop one to three skills at a time only. More, is less, [00:35:00] here. Our attention spans are short. So to be fully focused and see real progress, we need to drill down on what we want, and focus on that first.

[00:35:11] Taty Fittipaldi: That’s why having a career and leadership plan is also important. In my opinion.

[00:35:16] Taty Fittipaldi: And that’s not only for newbies, mind you. If you have 20 years of experience in your career, that’s valid for you to.

[00:35:23] Taty Fittipaldi: A plan is useful, no matter how experienced you are.

[00:35:27] Taty Fittipaldi: Number three, set metrics. Once you nailed your goals, it’s time to set how you want to measure your progress. Because these skills are mostly soft skills. The measures can be a bit abstract. Try to make them real and quantifiable as much as possible. For example, if your goal is to work on deep communication and develop non-verbal skills, one measure could be how many meetings you were able to observe nonverbal communication and what they [00:36:00] communicated. Set a tracker for that. A written tracker! Most people I know who don’t rely on written trackers end up forgetting about their goals and metrics.

[00:36:13] Taty Fittipaldi: And, mind you, not long after three or four weeks they started. Listen. Life can get in the way. It’s easy to get distracted nowadays. So make sure to set a cadency for using your tracker, and measure your progress.

[00:36:28] Taty Fittipaldi: Number four, set a tracker. As I mentioned before, setting a tracker is important. It can be a digital tracker or a paper tracker in a paper notebook. It does not matter so long as it is something you will use and refer to often. I use clique up for all my trackers.

[00:36:48] Taty Fittipaldi: They have an awesome freemium version that is quite comprehensive and easy to use. It’s digital though. But you can sync across all platforms. I will leave a link to [00:37:00] this resource in the show notes for you.

[00:37:02] Taty Fittipaldi: Number five, hire help, and start practicing. Practice makes perfect, my friend! We cannot measure what’s not happening. Without practice, we cannot master any skill, even if we learned it very well. So hire some help so that you can bring up situations, simulate and plan alternatives for plans or actions. And have an impartial person to help you measure and track your development. Executive coaches are great for that. Anyone who worked with a good one before I can vouch for that. They’re like personal trainers who motivate you and help you exercise without strain.

[00:37:44] Taty Fittipaldi: I will leave some resources on these topics for you in the show notes below, make sure to visit and reflect on them.

[00:37:54] [00:38:00]

[00:38:00] KEY TAKEAWAYS

[00:38:00] Taty Fittipaldi: What’s your main takeaway from this episode? Here are mine.

[00:38:04] Taty Fittipaldi: Number one people leadership is one of the four success pillars in the global leadership pillars. And is the ability to lead people, master work relationships in different cultures, and create high-performing and collaborative teams in a way that creates value for their stakeholders.

[00:38:22] Taty Fittipaldi: Number two. People leadership is comprised of several foundational skills. Which are: number one, understanding global leadership and decision-making styles.

[00:38:34] Taty Fittipaldi: Number two. Learning deep communication and trust building

[00:38:38] Taty Fittipaldi: number three, developing influencing skills.

[00:38:42] Taty Fittipaldi: Number four practicing impressions management,

[00:38:45] Taty Fittipaldi: number of five, managing expectations.

[00:38:48] Taty Fittipaldi: Number six learning and practicing manager coaching skills.

[00:38:53] Taty Fittipaldi: Number seven, creating collaborative teams and driving motivation.

[00:38:58] Taty Fittipaldi: Number eight telling [00:39:00] stories that weave purpose, goal and vision.

[00:39:04] Taty Fittipaldi: My takeaway number three, is that without practice, we cannot master any skill, even if we learned it very well. That’s why it’s important to set a goal, a measurement, and a tracker, and, then, start practicing. Over and over and over again.

[00:39:21] Taty Fittipaldi: And the final takeaway: in a previous episode. I mentioned the importance of reflecting and journaling for growth. This is a useful tip here to: reflecting and journaling our practices is a great tool to help us unpack and process a lot of stuff. Which is part of the learning process and development.

[00:39:44] Highlights

[00:39:44] Taty Fittipaldi: This brings us to the end of this Leadership Nest episode. I hope you have enjoyed learning about people leadership and it’s foundational skills. Tune into our episode next week, when we will be talking about the third pillar of The Global Leadership [00:40:00] Pillars™, Organizational leadership. [00:41:00]

[00:41:00] PODCAST OUTRO: [00:34:00] If you have any questions you’d like us to answer in a future episode of the show, just go to speakpipe.com/Taty Fittipaldi or click the link in the show notes below to leave us a brief audio message. Make sure to visit us on our website, www.leadershipnest.com, where you can subscribe to our show anywhere podcasts are streamed so you never miss a show. While there, if you find value in our show, you can. also Subscribe to our Global Leadership Weekly Newsletter from Coaching Expatriates, where we deliver bite-sized lessons on global leadership, decision-making, and cultural competence to help you learn how to think, relate, and strategize in a whole different way as a global leader. If you liked the show, you might want to check our online global executive leadership program, a nine-week leadership [00:35:00] development and learning system that will help you lead internationally while making financially conscious and impactful decisions. Taty Fittipaldi is also available for private coaching. See the website for more details at www.coachingexpatriates.com/executive-coaching. Thanks for joining us this week on the Leadership Nest Podcast. Be sure to tune in next week for the next episode. Until the next time, keep nesting! Wherever you are in the globe, this is Taty Fittipaldi wishing you a beautiful day.