Episode 34: What Is An Upgraded Leader?
What does it mean to be an Upgraded Leader?
In this episode, I share:
-How important it is to grow more leaders on your team
-A productivity hack and career development tool all in one
-How to handle a poor performer
-Impact of your physical and mental health on work performance
-Using our privilege for good
What would you add to this list? Let me know!
Full Transcript:
Welcome back to The Upgraded Leader Podcast. I'm your host Nicole Case, and today we're talking about . What is an upgraded leader? Anyway, so last episode, you heard that I have decided to tweak the name of this podcast a little bit and just kind of my overall, overall branding to the upgraded leader instead of just the upgraded career.
[00:01:25] And today we're gonna talk about what that actually means, what that means to me specifically. So one thing I'll say is that, that I believe that the upgraded leader really is just more inclusive. Because it's not just about our careers, it's about leading in our own lives. And I also think that just we are leaders at all levels.
[00:01:46] It doesn't matter what our job title actually is. It does not matter if we have employees reporting to us or not, but we are a leader in our lives no matter what.
[00:01:57] So I wanna talk about my six qualities of an upgraded leader. So first and foremost, an upgraded leader is one that knows that it is one of their most important roles to create other leaders. So let me say that again. What are your most important roles as a leader? Is to create more leaders. Leaders. So what this looks like is helping your team solve their own problems.
[00:02:22] Solve problems on their own so they don't have to come to you for every little thing. You are growing, you are developing your employees, you are helping them get to that next place in their career. And so one, you could say, well, Nicole, don't you talk, tell us that we need to own our careers and everything else, and not let our bosses, you know, do it for us.
[00:02:41] Yes, absolutely. We should be owning our own careers and yet as a leader, we should also be turning around and helping develop. Those of us behind us so that they can come along too. Especially if you're finding that you're a little bit stuck in your career and you haven't been able to kinda get up there any further or move up any further, take a look at the people that you're developing below you, because if you are continuing to be bogged down and.
[00:03:08] All of their day-to-day and all of their minutia, you are not going to be able to pick your head up and look around and actually do the strategic work that you're being paid to do. So, you know, being stuck and putting your head down because you're just, you've created maybe this culture or this relationship, a dependency where everybody ha, everybody has to come to you or everything needs to be funneled through you.
[00:03:29] That's not developing other leaders to, again, Solve their own problems or to be able to really figure things out on their own and then come to you when they truly are stuck and then you can coach them through it. I have been doing lots of leadership training, um, over these last couple of months, and one of the concepts that I've been teaching is this idea of developing other leaders and coaching other leaders.
[00:03:53] And after one of the trainings one day, um, someone came up to me and said, Nicole, this is just life giving. Just the idea that I can . You know, have my employees solve their own problems. Like that was a new concept for him. And um, and so I'm here to tell you that that's what an upgraded leader does. They develop other leaders, and I remember, I.
[00:04:13] Having, um, having a boss myself several years ago who would always say something to the effect of, you know, well, someday when I'm working for you, or, you know, someday when we're, when we're all in your business or all in your company with you. Like, like I just had this really great, awesome group of leaders around me who just really pushed me to, to.
[00:04:33] To grow really gave me the opportunities and the experience to truly be where I am here today. And I just kind of laugh, like looking back on that experience where I had, you know, these handful of leaders that are like, oh, when we're all working for Nicole and her business. And at the time, at that time, I definitely did not have.
[00:04:52] The thought that this would be a business that I would run in this way. Like I just, I, I didn't have that thought at that time. So for them to like see that potential in me, um, it's just really powerful. And so how are you doing that for your own, for your own employees?
[00:05:06] The next quality of an upgraded leader is that they are someone who takes ownership of their work, their lives, and their teams. Now, I know there's lots of large systemic issues out in this world that might keep us from being as successful as we should be, but as an upgraded leader, we can look at those situations and say, you know what?
[00:05:27] This stuff is going wrong, or That person is a roadblock, or That person isn't getting back to me and doing what I need to do. , they can look at all of that stuff and say, All of that's going on. Yes, that is true. But this is what I own in this situation. And I actually really love this as a coaching question too.
[00:05:45] Um, with my, with my clients or even back when I was in hr, you know, people who are just kind of pointing the finger and, oh, wo is me, and you know, You know, all of these things are going wrong and yeah, you're, you're probably right. You know, there are things that are going on out there that other people should be doing and taking care of, and it's really impacting your, your ability to get your work done.
[00:06:06] But at the end of the day, what is it that you own? What part of the situation do you own? So that you can really take back your control and your agency instead of, again, continuing to spiral in this victim mode. Now, there's definitely times where, yeah, let's be whiny, let's complain about things and you know, get that energy out.
[00:06:27] But then we have to kind of reset, recenter, and as an upgraded leader, we're saying, okay, what part of this do I own? What part of this can I control? What part of this do I contribute to this situation? And they, and they go from there. The third characteristic of an upgraded leader is that an upgraded leader believes that no one shows up to work to do a bad job on purpose.
[00:06:50] Upgraded leaders don't assume that people are just lazy or are failures. I. There are a lot of reasons why people struggle in their work, and it's our job as leaders to dig in and figure that out. So again, back to this idea of what part of this do you own? If you have an employee that's not meeting expectations, first look, look inward at you to be like, okay, what part of this might I be contributing to it?
[00:07:16] Meaning do they have clear expectations? You know, have I been changing up the expectations or priorities? Have you know things been shifting all, you know, all over the place? Have I actually given them the resources, including the time to meet those? Expectations, right? So we first have to turn and look at ourselves and be like, how am I leading?
[00:07:36] How am I managing this situation? You know, is there something here that that maybe I haven't been doing that's causing or contributing at least to the, these performance issues or these performance challenges? So often when I was in hr, I would have people come to me, managers come to me and say, oh, this employee, they're terrible.
[00:07:56] They're not doing this, they're not doing that. And my first question to them is always, Have you talked to 'em about this? And I can't tell you how many times their answer was. Well, no, of course. I haven't talked to 'em about this yet, and it's like, well, let's . Why don't we start there? Right. Let's start there with, you know, this is the, this, these are the expectations, and you're not meeting them.
[00:08:14] What's going on there and making the assumption that people are just lazy or they just suck at their job, or people are just out just to, you know, get a paycheck and whatever. Are there people like that out there? Sure. I've certainly had people on my own team that I've managed. Who I definitely felt like, hmm, I think this person just wants to do the least amount of work for the most amount of money.
[00:08:38] Right? You know, sure those people exist, those people are out there. But I challenge you to think through like what's going on that is causing, causing them to miss on the expectations. Again, assuming that you have set super clear expectations and given them the resources they need to meet them. Where's the gap here?
[00:08:57] What's going on? And you know, sometimes it could be something going on at home, right? It could had nothing to do with you. It could have nothing to do with the workplace, and it could be everything to do with something that's going on at home. You know what's going on? I've noticed these are the facts. This is what I've seen, this is what I've observed, what's going on there?
[00:09:17] And like taking that assumption away of, oh, they're just lazy, or they're just failure, or they just, you know, they're no good. Or whatever. Like, let's take that aside for a second and just . Talk to these people as humans. And again, it's not that the consequences might change necessarily, but you are more likely to turn around a situation or at least you know, part ways with that person in a way that would feel way better than just harping all the time.
[00:09:43] And honestly, like sometimes people are just in the wrong role or they're in a wrong company. Maybe the culture is just not . Conducive to the way that they work, and that's okay. And they might just need a fresh start somewhere. I have, I cannot tell you how many times I have seen people who I've put on performance improvement plans in HR, and then they exit the company.
[00:10:04] And then in their very next role, they are thriving because they just, they needed that push. They knew that they weren't doing well. You know, they were just kind, it kind of turned into a self-fulfilling prophecy. They were spiraling down. And if they had a manager or a leader who was like, listen, this is not working.
[00:10:20] You know, like, what's going on? And they were able to have just that human conversation with them Again, the exit is still the same. The, the consequence is still the same, but. They can feel like, let me, you know what, let me, let me get this fresh start at this, at this next, at this next company. Again, I do not believe that reasonable, rational, healthy human adults come to work to do a bad job on purpose.
[00:10:41] And if they are struggling, it is our job as a leader to dig in to see what's going on there and to offer our support. So the fourth characteristic of an upgraded leader is that they do less but better. Upgraded leaders don't take it on all themselves. They know when to say yes. They know when to say no.
[00:11:01] They know how to effectively delegate the correct work to the correct team members. They know what things that they should not be working on. Right. I, a lot of times with my, with my clients, I'll go back and I'll go back to 'em and say, what are you paid to do? What are you being paid to do? And let's make sure you're focused on that.
[00:11:19] It's not to say that during certain times, you know, we all gotta roll up our sleeves and we all have to, you know, we all have to dive in. Sometimes that's certainly true, but generally speaking, you should not be doing it all yourself. That, again, this also goes back to that idea of, um, of that your most important role as a leader is to create other leaders so that they can solve their own problems.
[00:11:40] So if you were just constantly . Doing the work for everybody else, then what are they doing? You know, what are they here for? So this is both true for yourself and for your team members too. 'cause a strong upgraded leader is going to look at the business and say, this is where we should be spending our time and resources and.
[00:12:01] And really just recognizing that, hey, this is what we need to be doing in order to realize that best r o i for the company or to move the needle for the company. And, uh, an upgraded leader is going to revisit those priorities and those tasks and those, um, the workloads. They're gonna revisit those regularly, you know, whatever that frequency looks like.
[00:12:19] But we, our businesses move just so quickly and just the economy moves so fast, the market moves so fast that we have to spend the time, you know, really . Reflecting, really taking a, a look at what's going on in the, in the business, understanding what's going on with our employees, what they're working on, and just making sure that we're working on the right things.
[00:12:41] And if we gotta tweak that or change that, we're able to do that before it's too late, right? Before we get to a place where, oh, geez, well, we've just always done it that way, so that's why we do it. Versus there's a very specific reason why we do this task or we do this task in this way. And that's because it's the best way to do it right now, and that's what's gonna realize the best, um, the best results for the business.
[00:13:02] So not only is an upgraded leader revisiting the priorities for the team, priorities for themselves, but just at a really tactical level, they're revisiting their regular meeting cadence like every quarter to see does this still make sense and do I need to be in this and do, do I need to be in this meeting or not?
[00:13:17] A lot of times I'll tell, um, I'll tell leaders like, if you are showing up to a meeting and you see one of your employees in the meeting as well, that they've also been invited, you have to ask yourself, do I need to be here then? Do, do both of us. Do we need to like suck up both of our salaries in both of our times in this meeting, or can one of us attend and fill in the other one?
[00:13:38] And that might not be true every single time. Like that might not be true every single meeting. There might be really great reasons why both of you are there, but you still have to ask that question as a leader. Just pause and ask that question. Why? You know, why are both of us here? And honestly, if you have an employee who's also in the same meeting that you are, Is it you that really needs to be there?
[00:13:58] Is this an opportunity for you to say, you know what, such and such has it today, you know, such, such can represent the team today. I'm gonna step out. They'll, they'll catch me up and they'll let me know anything that I need to know. Like that's a great. Development opportunity for our employees. Whenever, you know, if you're both invited to the same meeting, let them take it.
[00:14:16] Let them stand out, let them be there, and you can step away. Because what's gonna happen if you would stay in that meeting, uh, just what human nature is, is that they're gonna default to the more senior person, right? They're, they're most likely gonna default to you. So if you really wanna, like, help that person develop and grow, let them be in the meeting.
[00:14:36] You step out because then they will have to defer to them. They will have to talk to your employee. So, so again, this idea of meetings, like I just, I talk to leaders all the time about Nicole. I'm just in back-to-back meetings. Like I don't have time to think, you know, I'm just firefighting all the time.
[00:14:52] And you know, if you have the ability to like. Carve out a period of time during, um, during the day or during the week to like, actually, I don't know, do some strategic thinking. You know, you're gonna be able to actually optimize that work. You're gonna be able to go into those, the meetings that you do need to be in, and you're gonna be able to influence in the way that you need to.
[00:15:13] You're just gonna get better outcomes because you are not trying to do all the things either for your team. You're not trying to be in all the places. You know, we. People are just gonna continue to invite you to things, or they're gonna continue to include you in things until they hear from you.
[00:15:28] Otherwise, I think sometimes we're so scared to say, you know what, I'm not available at that time. Can we find a diff a different time? Or, you know what, um, I don't think I'm the right person for this meeting. You know, can you include my employee in this instead? Or, you know, what? I'm not available for that.
[00:15:43] Um, that meeting right now, I'll listen to the recording or I'll, I'll catch up on the meeting notes, you know, let me know what my actions are. So, you know, we don't need to be in all of the meetings, although I can, I can appreciate feeling the pressure because we've been invited. But we should have the agency, we should have the ability to say, you know what, that's not the right meeting for me to be in.
[00:16:03] And I'll catch up with the meeting notes later. So again, as part of this, by doing less but better, an upgraded leader recognizes what their strengths are and they lean into those, right? Because your strengths are, you know, your secret sauce, you are probably able to get those tasks done or those things done utilizing your strengths.
[00:16:24] Way faster and way better than, say, a task or, or a project or something that you need to do that doesn't utilize your strengths very well. In fact, it'll probably take you longer. I say this to, I say this to people all the time. Yeah, I can do, um, I can, I can do that presentation, I can pull that together.
[00:16:41] I'm slow at it. , but I can do it. Or of course I know how to use a spreadsheet. Of course I know how to slice and dice data. I'm just gonna be slower at it 'cause it's not a top strength for me versus, you know, me speaking in this way. So, you know, and that's another great example, just . I am definitely a better verbal speaker than I am a writer, and so I would, it's gonna be way faster and easier for me to record a podcast episode in this way than it is for me to like take all of this information and then write it out and post it somewhere, say in a blog or something.
[00:17:13] That's gonna take me way longer, and it's gonna be such a slog for me to do that. Believe me, I tried, I had a blog first before all of this. I had a blog several years ago, about five or six years ago, I had a blog and I was like, boy, this is terrible. And we have to just recognize what our strengths are and lean into those as much as possible.
[00:17:30] And then we also have to do that for our team, right? Like we have to recognize the strengths in our own team members and work to optimize those. That's just part, again, part of our job is just assessing . What are those strengths that we have in our team members? And how are we having the work organized in such a way that we can capitalize on all those things?
[00:17:47] 'cause we are totally gonna be way more effective, way more productive as a team if we are able to move those things around. So again, not every leader needs to be well-rounded, but every good team really should. So the fifth, um, the fifth, fifth characteristic of an upgraded leader is that they
[00:18:09] Prioritize their physical and mental health. Now, I've talked a lot on this podcast about our physical and mental health and how it plays such a huge role in our success. And that just, I just, I can't state that importance enough. I have a, I have a, um, I have another business friend of mine that says that she's ever thinking about how she doesn't have time to work out because she's got work to do and, you know, she doesn't have time.
[00:18:32] She will like, have, she'll like, you know, Say to herself, I am going to go work out for at least a little bit, because she knows that when she comes back that she's going to be even more productive and effective after the workout, and it doesn't have to be like an hour long. Grind fest, you know, at the gym.
[00:18:51] It couldn't even be, you know, something as quick as, you know, 10, 15, 20 minutes. But she knows that if she's ever saying that to herself, that, ha, I don't have time to work out if she's ever saying that to herself. That is a signal that she needs a workout, in fact, . And, um, and so as part of all of this, like we have to recognize that rest is part of the success formula.
[00:19:11] Upgraded leaders take their P T O. And they ensure that their team is taking their p t O as well. We need to take that break, break in order to rest and spend time doing other things, right? Use our brain in other ways, which sparks that new energy for innovation and excitement in our work. And I know I personally have been really focused on rest and really focused on my physical and mental health like a whole lot, I would say in the last seven months, especially.
[00:19:38] and I'm really seeing how it enables me to show up and perform just even better. Like I can see like the weeks where I'm super full, I've got a lot of stuff going on, a lot of client calls, lots of training, lots of things like that. And I know well, okay, I need to have my nutrition on point. I know I need to be able to move my body.
[00:19:56] For, uh, even just 15 minutes every day in order for me to again, be able to show up and perform the way I want to be able to show up and, and deliver to my clients in the way that I know I'm capable of doing. And I can definitely look back on times I. In my business and even in my career where I wasn't feeling well, I wasn't taking care of myself and I, and it was showing up in my work performance, frankly, like I, I could tell like I had just this, this energy of chaos or this energy of just like, you know, I'm just feeling like I'm slogging through mud.
[00:20:28] And I know that part of that was definitely that I was not taking care of myself. And I think even, even in work situations or business situations where I was just really struggling, you know, there were a lot of things not going my way. I was like, kind of up against a lot of like really hard odds, but I know that like had I actually like taken the time to really focus on my physical and mental wellbeing, that that would've at least lifted some of that slog off of me.
[00:20:56] And I could've really been able to divert more of that energy into the business issues or the, or the, um, the company issues that were in front of me. So the final characteristic of an upgraded leader for me is, One that we recognize that we have privilege . We use whatever that privilege is for good.
[00:21:17] Again, we all have different levels of privilege. There's a lot of intersectionality there. But one of the major privileges that we all have as leaders is that we're leaders, right? We have influence. We have influence in our companies and in our businesses to make decisions, to change things. And again, there are a lot of things broken and a lot of things not working in corporate, in this capitalistic society that we have.
[00:21:41] It can be really frustrating and defeating, and we can feel like, well, it shouldn't be this way. So why am I playing into this game? Believe me, I have these thoughts regularly. Regularly. I'm definitely like, you know, why am I playing into this game? You know, why am I coaching other people to play into this game?
[00:21:57] And like, believe me, I get down on it too. But the reality is we need to play the game today. In order to change it tomorrow. So my mission is to get more upgraded leaders into positions of power and influence, because I know that when, when those upgraded leaders are in those, in those positions, that we are working to tear down those systems that are harmful.
[00:22:19] We are working to change the game, right? We are working to do that, but we need to get it. We need to get into it first, right? We gotta get into it first. That's just the reality of what we're facing right now. So we recognize that we all have our individual privileges that have gotten us to the place that we're at.
[00:22:36] You know, even though, you know, we might needed to, to crawl and, and, and, you know, claw our way to that place, but again, we still have a certain level of privilege and whatever that privilege is, we need to use it for good. So that's what it means to me to be an upgraded leader, and I'd love to hear what you would add to that list, because all of our lists are going to be a little bit different.
[00:22:58] So I'd love to hear about it. So send me an email at nicole@theupgradedleader.com or on LinkedIn and let me know. Let me know what you would add to this list as an upgraded leader, and I'll see you back here in two weeks for another episode. But in the meantime, remember, your career deserves an upgrade.
