The Collective Voice

CVoice_E09_Women Who Dare with Rene Delane

Natalie interviews René Delane in this podcast. René is the founder & CEO of Women Who Dare, where she offers speaking, coaching and consulting to corporations, organizations & individuals with custom-designed solutions for:

• women who want to up-level their confidence, presence and influence

• men who value the contributions women’s leadership brings to the table

• growing inclusion/diversity initiatives because it’s the right thing to do

René takes us on her journey from a town of 3,000 people and 850 square foot home to a career in numerous medical fields and eventually to founding her own company. René is an amazing storyteller and story curator, and this episode features several inspirational and noteworthy stories about the people she has encountered through both her work and day-to-day life. She recalls meeting Gloria Steinem at an airport security gate, Frank Hughes, retired NASA Chief of Space Flight Training and STEM advocate, and Deborah S. Delisle, former Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education within the Obama Administration.

Specific themes that emerge in this episode are:

• The importance of listening, positive thinking, and suspending judgement

• Taking charge of your change - based on her trademarked program Chocolate for the Brain™

• René’s take on our 4th podcast episode “Own Worst Enemy” and why she thinks women aren’t as nasty to one another as media would lead you to believe. She also gives additional ideas about how women can support one another.

• How Girl Scouts shaped her view of diversity & inclusion

• René’s tips for getting others to tell you their stories

• A new acronym - T.I.N.Y.

• How to build community and get over the thought “this person doesn’t want to talk with me”

• René’s take on millennials (and why she is not concerned by their generation)

• Why emotional intelligence is the most important trait leaders need to possess

Our favorite quotes from René:

• One person at a time getting to know another person prevents stereotyping from happening

• Humans need 3 things: to love, to be loved, and to matter.

Books and articles referenced in this episode include

• The Athena Doctrine: How Women (and the Men Who Think Like Them) Will Rule the Future

• René’s blog post “Born White”

Follow René on twitter @WomenwhoDare and contact her through her website www.women-who-dare.com

CVoice_E08_Connecting Profession and Purpose with Dr. K. Shelette Stewart

In Episode 8 of the Collective Voice, we introduce our listeners to Dr. K. Shelette Stewart, an author, speaker, and consultant with an impressive career trajectory and unique message for our listeners about seeking and setting yourself up for significance in your career.

We address Dr. Stewart’s educational and career journey and what ultimately led her to transition from a lucrative and high profile career to starting her own business, becoming an author, and serving a university and community of corporate leaders through her role in the SMU-Cox Department of Executive Education.

Listen in to learn more about:

• Connecting your profession with your purpose

• Establishing a communicating a brand using the the 5Ps (Dr. Stewart added a 5th - “Platform” along with Product, Price, Place, and Promotion)

• Conquering barriers and overcoming fear

• Being planful and patient when it comes to your own life and career transitions

• Messages in Dr. Stewart’s book, Revelations in Business, for both faith-based and secular listeners

Stay tuned for a future episode when we bring Dr. Stewart to share more about her book, Revelations in Business.  

Dr. K. Shelette Stewart can be found at: https://shelettestewart.com/ and her book is available on Amazon and wherever fine books are sold.

Connect with Joy at http://www.joyschwartz.com and Natalie at http://smalltownleadership.com

CVoice_E07_Mentoring

In this episode, Natalie shares insights on mentoring from a recently delivered keynote address. She begins by defining mentoring and stating its importance relative to advancing in one's career. 

Natalie and Joy go on to discuss the benefits and shortcomings of both formal mentoring programs as well as mentoring relationships that are cultivated more "organically." They share their own experiences as mentors to others and also as the recipients of mentoring. 

Natalie and Joy introduce and explain a 7-step framework (created by Natalie and posted on her website) for establishing and maintaining a strong mentoring relationship:

1. Why - Know why you need a mentor
2. Who - Identify potential mentor candidates
3. Introductions - Connect with several mentor candidates
4. Pre-meeting homework - Research who you are meeting with
5. Meet with potential mentors
6. Meeting follow up
7. Nurture and follow through

Joy then describes foundational steps for establishing a mentoring relationship, which include categorizing and assessing the strength of our network. She explains this via an article by Linda Hill and Kent Lineback, The Three Networks you Need. Joy also makes the point that mentoring can be a great path toward addressing development areas and gaps in experience.

Connect with joy at http://www.joyschwartz.com and Natalie at http://smalltownleadership.com

Authors and sources cited in this episode include: Sylvia Ann Hewlett, Connections.mic on meeting organically, “The Three Networks you Need,” by Linda Hill and Kent Lineback, and last but not least, Natalie's website: http://smalltownleadership.com/ with mentoring-specific resources, located here. 

CVoice_E06_No_Girls_Allowed_with_Nihar_Chhaya

This episode called “No Girls Allowed” is an extension of Girl on Self crime we referred to in Episode 4, Own Worst Enemy, and the potential repercussions of what we do and say when communicating with others, especially men.  To get an insider view on the topic, Joy invited friend, former colleague, and executive coach with Partner Exec., Nihar Chhaya, to return to help our listeners better understand the pitfalls and challenges women face when communicating with men and pragmatic strategies for addressing those challenges.

Nihar and Joy begin by reading a series of humorous quotes from an opinion piece from the Washington Post by Alexandra Petri called “Famous Quotes - the way a woman would have to say them in a meeting.” Listen in for some exaggerated examples of how women often communicate around men.

They go on to make key points on gender and communication, referencing several authors and speakers throughout the interview:

• Amy Cuddy at Harvard discusses these two aspects - power, or strength and warmth as equally important to gain credibility in a recent HBR article, Connect, then Lead.

• Marshall Goldsmith, a well known leadership coach, describes leadership as a “contact sport.” Read why in this article or tune in with this video.

• Claire Damken Brown and Audrey Nelson, authors of Code Switching: How to Talk so Men will Listen, explain that women often communicate with an inverted pyramid approach, i.e., first providing more details and then offering a shorter summary at the end, whereas men tend to communicate via a typical pyramid, with fewer details at the beginning.

• Sylvia Hewlett is an economist, consultant, lecturer, and expert on gender and workplace issues. In her book, Forget a Mentor, Find a Sponsor: The New Way to Fast Track Your Career and in this video, Hewlett addresses three elements of executive presence: appearance, communication, and gravitas.

We leave the audience with 3 key points:

1. Know how you will motivate and inform your audience.

2. Identify someone you trust to provide you with feedback and let you know if you are falling victim to communication pitfalls addressed in the episode.

3. Silence your inner critic so that you can communicate in your own authentic way.

Executive coach, Nihar Chhaya can be found at: www.partnerexec.com

Connect with Joy at http://www.joyschwartz.com and Natalie at http://smalltownleadership.com

CVoice_E05_Coaching_with_Nihar_Chhaya

In this episode, Joy interviews friend, former colleague, and executive coach, Nihar Chhaya, founder of Partner Exec., to get an insider view on executive coaching and how we can develop ourselves.

Nihar begins by sharing his background and demystifying executive coaching for our listeners. His career over the past 20 years spans what he calls the three B’s – Business, Behavior and Best Practices in leadership development.  Leadership is not an exact science and there is no playbook to help us become better leaders (although self-help authors may disagree).  Nihar helps our listeners navigate through this murky landscape.

He works with successful leaders that are stumbling due to some barrier, whether it’s internal (i.e., struggling with self-doubt or need to expand their strategic thinking or business acumen) or external (i.e., those who may have negative perceptions from others around them that get in the way of their effectiveness as a leader). He also works privately with individuals who need a sounding board and accountability partner but prefer to work with a coach outside of their company.

Nihar and Joy explore:

• Trust

• Vulnerability

• Benefits of coaching

• How to find out what “old tapes” are being played about you and how to address them

They close with three key points:

• Make an effort to know and be honest with yourself about your strengths, areas for growth, values, interests, and motivators

• Proactively find out what matters to the organization around you

• Make a connection between the two and have the courage to adapt or make a change

Executive coach, Nihar Chhaya can be found at: www.partnerexec.com

Connect with Joy at http://www.joyschwartz.com and Natalie at http://smalltownleadership.com

CVoice_E04_Own_Worst_Enemy

This episode features a discussion about girl-on-girl and girl-on-self crime and tools and tips on how to catch ourselves in the act and overcome our tendency to judge and tear others down, when instead we should be supporting and lifting one another up.

Girl on Girl Crime

Joy discusses Amy Poehler’s reference to “girl on girl” crime regarding how we judge the parenting of others from her book, Yes, Please.

Natalie talks about Hollee Becker's article in the Huffington Post calling out Scary Mommy on how we treat our friends who promote their network marketing businesses on Facebook. She uncovers what led 3 of her friends into these businesses and challenges the audience to support women who are putting themselves out there.

We discuss the 4 patterns uncovered in the book, What Works for Women at Work: Four Patterns Working Women Need to Know and related videos courtesy of the LinkedIn website.. The tagline of the book is “From Mean Girls to Queen Bees, we’ve all heard about how hard women can be on each other. “ The research cited in the book claims that it isn’t just our natural cattiness, but goes deeper into unconscious biases women have about other women.   The root of it all is this perception that since so few women do have a seat at the table that the rest of us have to compete for those few seats.  

Here are the 4 Biases we discuss:

1. Prove it Again - senior women in an organization expect women who are newer to the workforce to work just as hard as they did to get there and may judge those of us who automatically receive flexibility and a seat at the table more harshly, instead of realizing that their hard work helped pave the way to make this happen - and being proud of it.

2. Tightrope Bias – The fine line we have to walk between appearing too feminine, coming on too strong, too masculine, or being perceived as a *itch.

3. Maternal Wall Bias – Unconscious bias toward working moms or working women who express interest in parenting.

4. Tug of War Bias: girl-on-girl crime in the form of biases we pass through to other women, related to the other three patterns.  

Strategies to combat the “tug of war” bias:

1. Don’t judge other women or join in when you see it happening. There’s no “right way” to be a woman

2. Be direct to resolve conflicts with other women. Approach them with positive intent and seek first to understand vs.to be understood

3. Respect one another’s experiences. Generationally, our experiences may be different.

4. Get women to work together on projects or tasks, but preferably tasks not related to women’s issues.

Girl on Self Crime

Joy references a short clip from an episode of Inside Amy Schumer - “Compliments - Uncensored”.  Warning that this clip is profane and vulgar. See this clip here.

We wrap up by sharing tips from a Huffington Post article on ways to silence your inner critic.  

1. Put a better spin on things, focusing on behavior in the moment vs. comments about your overall character or personality.

2. Take the damn compliment.

3. Before putting yourself down, ask “what would my best friend say? or better yet, “would a guy say this about himself?”

4. Give your inner critic a name.  When you start speaking negatively about yourself, channeling “The Nag” or “the Gremlin” will bring levity to the situation and remind you about your overall awesomeness.

Connect with joy at http://www.joyschwartz.com and Natalie at http://smalltownleadership.com

CVoice_E03_5_Lessons_for_Career_Success_with_Kathy_Cleveland_Bull

In this episode of The Collective Voice, Joy and Natalie interview longtime friend and mentor, Kathy Cleveland Bull.  Kathy is a highly regarded professional speaker, trainer, and consultant. Her company, N~Compass Consulting, has helped clients on three continents "Navigate the Art and Science of Change." Kathy has appeared with Dr. Phil McGraw and Deepak Chopra where she delivered her powerful change message to an audience of over 7,000 people. 

Kathy is also the founder and director of the Center for Eating Psychology helping individuals change the way they understand food, weight, body image and nutritional health.

Kathy will walk through 5 lessons for career success, including:

1) Allow for mystery – a great lesson for those Type A planners to understand the importance of being willing to let things be versus constant drive for success  

2) Take your work seriously, but yourself lightly - a gentle reminder that you aren’t all that , and that’s okay.

3) Sprinkle your enthusiasm with the magic fairy dust of humility - A great lesson from Golda Meir and the 2 pieces of paper she carried in each of her pockets

4) Be willing to disappoint – a great lesson on facing failure and understanding that perfectionism is the royal road to disaster

5) The time of the lone wolf is over – in order to succeed anywhere – in business, in our communities, we can no longer live with an us vs. them. A great lesson drawn from the Hopi Native American tribe.

Kathy concludes by referring to The Middle Passage James Hollis. “We don’t really choose a vocation, rather it chooses us.” She urges the audience to be the larger person they are called to be.

Interesting in learning more about Kathy? Find her at www.ncompass-consulting.com , www.cpeohio.com, or 614-397-1966

Connect with joy at http://www.joyschwartz.com and Natalie at http://smalltownleadership.com

CVoice_E02_Networking_Basics

In this episode of The Collective Voice, Joy and Natalie explore why networking is important, the elevator pitch - how to craft one and when to use it, and how to “get personal” with your network.

CVoice_E01_Intro_Episode

In this session of The Collective Voice, Joy and Natalie will introduce themselves, the podcast, and what topics they will discuss. Take 10 minutes to learn about the show creators!