Lead With Value

How Leaders Unleash Their Vision, Empower Others, and Evolve Their Business

Kareen Walsh

• Publisher: Revampologist, LLC
• Year: 2019
• eBook ISBN: 9780578437132
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

[BACK COVER]

Do You Want to Become a Highly Effective, Value Exchange Leader?

Throughout Kareen Walsh’s book, she shows you how to build long-standing relationships with your clients by adding value at every opportunity. Her book lifts the veil from coveted practices used by highly effective leaders to articulate your true values, build a value system in your organization, and lead with greater ease.

Reading about actual coaching interactions that leverage these practices will enable you to become a highly effective, value-exchange leader yourself. You will learn how to remove your blind spots and communicate what matters to you. When you align what you value most with what you do every day, your life, business, and relationships will grow tenfold.

Kareen is the CEO and founder of Revampologist, a consultancy and coaching company. As a growth strategist, serial entrepreneur, and executive coach, she has used the effective tools, habits, and routines outlined in this book for ten years to coach C-Suite leaders to lead with value.

Kareen is the host of the podcast, Your Badass Journey, and author of Be A Badass: Six Tools to Up-Level Your Life.

“What you have to give, you offer least of all through what you say; in greater part through what you do; but in greatest part through who you are.”

BOB BURG AND JOHN DAVID MANN, COAUTHORS OF THE GO-GIVER LEADER

THE POWER OF THE VALUE EXCHANGE

In a recent coaching session, one of my elite executive clients expressed his desire to become an equity partner in his firm. Up until now, he was a senior executive running a region of the business without a partner equity stake or a title for which he qualified, and he thought it was time to up-level into an ownership role. Prior to engaging me as his coach, he had used his approach and methods to gain a partnership role, but the firm’s managing partners still had not granted him the role or recognition that he sought. Before he planned his exit strategy, he wanted to be sure that he had tried everything possible. He knew in his gut that there was a way to make it happen—but he might be limited in how best to approach it.

I thrive when people come to me with a desire to step up and do more to be more. Initially, my clients tend to have one agenda that ultimately leads to the true agenda of how best I can serve them. This leader first asked to better his leadership style and leverage feedback that came back from a 360 review by his current management, peers, and colleagues. We navigated data points and emotions in our first session. The root of the issue he grappled with—his personal agenda to become a partner in his firm, to earn equity, and to be recognized as a true leader of the firm—was not being fully addressed by the company’s managing partners. In turn, he felt deflated. He was considering an exit strategy that would likely make him feel as if all his effort to date in a role that was lower than his self-perceived worth had been for nothing. Worst of all, he feared he would have to start all over again.

His tunnel-vision focus on the lack of results he desired had created an imaginary dilemma. My client felt defeated as he recounted the moment to me, and it wasn’t only due to the lack of response from the managing partners. It was his awareness of where he was today in relation to his expectation of where he had hoped to be. He felt that by now people should see his greatness and comply with his wishes. After more than thirty years in business and leadership in running his own company, he now wanted to partner with another.

He defined success as ownership, a stake in the business, an equity-return on his time and business-building investment. If he could not achieve that, he felt “less than.” He was clear on what he wanted and completely capable of achieving it. He offered substantial value and an agenda he wanted to bring to fruition. Alongside this warranted arrogant stance, he held a desire to be self-aware and conscious of how others received him, and he wanted to be a Servant Leader. He had been a consultant for years and, as such, was generally the expert in the room. He became a coach to increase his impact and leverage the skills to assist others in achieving their goals. Now he realized he wanted to lead again. What he really wanted from the managing partners was recognition and ownership that would give him a return on his efforts to build the business in a region where his managing partners did not have previous experience. That was the value he brought to the table. In our conversation, I helped my client change his perspective of seeing this as a dilemma, I encouraged him to focus on understanding what was valuable to these managing partners and how he could best tell them the ways in which he supported that vision. Through this communication, both sides would immediately feel a greater sense of fulfillment.

In our initial sessions, he described the business structure, the type of personalities he was working with, how they led, the team size, and the company financials. I asked what he had tried so far, so I could better understand the landscape of his business field and know more about the people he wanted to partner with. I asked why he thought he would be a good partner and what he brought to the table. He laid it all out for me in detail.

I also asked how long he had desired to be a managing partner of this region, and I asked what feedback or communication he had received from his managing partners. He said discussions had been in play for over a year, but no decisions had been made. He had laid out a detailed plan for the partnership structure, his equity stake in the business, and how revenue could be shared to make it worthwhile for him to stay with the company. No response. He had leadership team meetings with them, and when he broached the subject, it was deferred to another time. He felt deflated, confused, and led on.

I assessed his side of the story, understood his desire, and focused on his approach thus far. He knew the outcome he wanted, and he had tried everything he could think of. As an outsider looking in, I saw two major items missing. First, it was he—not the managing partners—who initiated the partnership proposal. The partners were unaware that adding him to the managing partner team was even on the table. Second, his approach for his desired outcome did not include a win for the managing partners. Without knowing the benefits of having my client as a managing partner, why would they give up an equity stake? What was the value exchange?

I asked my client, “Before you sent your proposal for partnership, was there a desire by the managing partners to have another partner? Did they open the door, or did you?” “Giving up” a portion of partnership growth and equity shares to someone new feels like relinquishing control. Start your growth and contribution dialogue by showing how all pockets will get fuller with the equity stake, and your acceptance rate will be higher.

I asked, “How do they gain from your helping them grow the business? How are you going to earn your share?” He paused, and it was an “aha” moment. He said that he never laid out how he would help them raise the bar that would earn his share. Instead, he defiantly did less in his current role, as if to say, “Hey, if you are not going to pay me what I want, I am not going to do more than I am asked to do.” It was not his true nature, but his defeated stance caused him to rebel when he didn’t get the answer he wanted.

I called him out on it. “The mirror is up now. Do you see how your behavior deters them from adding you as partner?” Withdrawing his value from the firm resulted in their devaluing him. I pointed out that the plan he presented showed what his positive outcome would be, but it said nothing about what they would get by adding him on as a partner. “What will you change about what you do today to grow the business in a way that warrants the equity stake? Where is that proposal and what is the timeline for your actions to benefit the whole? What will you need to make that happen? What is the value exchange?”

When you focus on the value exchange in every transaction, both parties win. It is easier to get a yes from the other side when you are clear about how they will benefit from the arrangement. My client had proposed no benefits to the business and existing partnership. Why would they consider giving up equity if they could see no upside? I gave him an assignment: Between now and the next session, create a value exchange plan that outlines the wins for the managing partners and his approach to make it happen. Get clear on the value exchange for both parties. We knew he wanted equity and ownership, but what would the other partners receive for that stake in the business?

My client’s “aha” was realizing that he assumed they understood his value to help them build business in this region, but he had never explained how he would do it and align with the partnership. He now saw how his approach could turn off the partners, so we strategized on how he could approach the next meeting with value exchange as the intention for each proposal on the table.

Value Exchange Leadership™ (VXL) is all about growth through learning. No matter what your level of management, enhance your focus from what you have to offer, what you desire, what your path is. Then add the lens of what the other persons (your direct reports, your C-Suite executives, your board members, or your clients) will receive. That’s the VXL process.

Update on this Client

On implementing the Value Exchange Leadership™ stance, my client was given an equity partnership stake and is now one of the managing partners in the business. He has increased their regional team and business, because (a) he feels valued and empowered, and (b) he is giving value to his partners by increasing revenue shares and stepping up as a leader and trainer to his team. All of this has resulted in building sustainable clients and raving fans in his market.

A More Common Occurrence

Have you ever been laid off and started to believe that your value in your industry is tarnished? Unfortunately, layoffs are not uncommon across different levels of employment. A layoff can feel confusing to someone who has given so much time and effort to a company, believing he has added value, only to now be let go. How do people navigate something that is completely out of their control, when they feel like they have to scramble to maintain status quo? If you shift your focus on the value you receive to focus on the value of the system you plan to join next, it will help you find a better fit. It will also prepare you with tools in case it happens again.

Consider this specific case that exemplifies how to recover from questioning your value to leveraging a circumstance in order to find your fit and go after what you want. After delivering my “Be A Badass: Six Tools to Up-Level Your Life” online program, one of my badasses asked for one-on-one coaching to navigate her current employment situation. She realized through the program that she wanted to up-level her career and be highly regarded as a Creative Design Leader. She recounted her recent layoff from the agency she was working with, feeling undervalued and questioning what she could have done differently. How could she have sustained a thriving career with this company? She described how she was being led and assigned out to projects, the hours she worked, the level of effort she put in with her clients, their adoration for her, and her success with the projects. In spite of all that, the company fired her without just cause.

I questioned the value system of the firm. The requirements for each project delivery, assignment, and method of engagement with their own employees was inhumane. It did not consider the person behind the work, their bandwidth, or their desire to do great work for the client. This agency focused on throughput, getting paid their margin for each project completed, and moving quickly on to the next. The company valued the bottom line over its team. They valued the ability to call it done over the quality of work that the team could produce, if given the time. They valued younger, hungry grunt workers over senior designers—people whose experience merited more pay due to better results for the firm and their clients. That’s the value my client brought to the table, and it was stripped bare when they realized she did not fit the mold and could not churn out the work fast enough for their demands. She focused on quality; they focused on quantity. Their values were not aligned.

My first session was to show her that she had not failed; the system failed her. She had been willing to do whatever it took, and her health suffered for it. She worked overtime without pay. She lacked excitement about her work, and she was stagnant in her role. She was being taken advantage of and mismanaged. I cheered the fact that she was let go because now she could assess what really mattered to her and figure out what corporate system would fit her best. We worked on rebuilding her bruised ego. (No one likes to be let go.) When you do everything you know and still are not groomed for growth with the company, you naturally feel discarded and undervalued. I assigned actions for her to take between sessions to build herself up, to define what she wanted next, and to identify what to avoid in order not to repeat the same scenario.

She clearly defined the type of company she wanted to be a part of and gained clarity on her ultimate career, and we worked backwards from there to determine her action plan to achieve the next level. We worked on her personal brand for the career she wanted, rather than just selling what she can do. We practiced how she would present herself in conversations with hiring managers and teams to evoke an offer. She followed through on every assignment and put it to the test as she navigated her next career move. She realized that she needed to detox the previous work environment in order not to attract the same situation. As of this writing, she is interviewing with Google and in the final rounds of conversations to confirm that she can thrive in their environment and ensure a value exchange for what she brings to the table and what the company can provide her.

It is easy to fall into the trap of expecting a company to take care of you. You will be groomed. You will grow. Most of all, there is an expectation that someone else will guide you on your path. In most cases, you are left to your own devices. Those who choose to grow beyond their status quo ask for more training, ask for more time with their direct manager, seek out the influencers in the field they want to grow in, and learn from others who have gone before them. The percentage of leaders who have been shown how to build other leaders to increase the value they bring to the table is small. If you plan to lead others, learn to up-level those who report in, so you can move forward in your career. If you plan to grow past your current role, grooming someone else to take your place is the easiest way to move forward.

Be Unapologetically Value-Ridden

I laugh and shake my head at my bold expression to an executive coaching client. This client needed to wake up and face how he was showing up and how to step into his greatness. After only two months of working together, I had helped him identify the gaps in the skill set of his direct reports, the lack of structure and operations across his team, and his need to break old habits of the chief-level staff to make the impact he desired. For him to really step up, make the hard decisions, and get into action was daunting. He was overwhelmed, scared, and excited, all at the same time.

About eight weeks into working together, we had a one-on-one session in his office. It was a typical Manhattan office—grey on grey with a window that looked onto another building right across the street. We had just finished a whiteboarding session where he drew out the layers of service and team structure he envisioned. He was crystal clear about what needed to happen next, but he was unsure how to go about it. He kept focusing on a limiting belief that he should not rock the boat and risk losing his job by proposing his plan to the executive board. He kept saying, “I have only been here six months.”

He had voiced this excuse probably ten times, and now he looked down at the floor in fear, almost cowering from the leadership life he had stepped into and the potentially amazing impact he could make on the firm if he would just go for it. I saw him hiding from the man I knew he was inside as he played into a toxic leadership environment that had been accustomed to the status quo, not optimizing newer techniques or technology to enhance their customer experience. He was holding back from putting himself out there. He was playing small.

He had a vision of achieving the role he was hired into, but it was a stretch for him now that it was real. Self-doubt crept in once he understood the internal hurdles he would have to overcome to make his desired impact. His Personal Value System was cloudy, and he forgot what he most loves to offer: innovation. He wanted to create new product channels. More than that, he wanted to break the mold and leave his mark at the company and for the company. Now, that is a VXL vision!

I took a deep breath. I stood three feet from him and squared my shoulders to align with his. I looked him straight in the eyes and said, “You have been here six months. Enough already! Balls out, man!” Gasp, did I just say that out loud? I heard my own fearful self-talk: Shit, this dude is going to fire me! What did I just say?

Putting all negative thoughts aside, I continued in the zone of this-is-not-about-me and said: “You have been here six months; you know what you need to do to shake things up! You didn’t take this job to conform; you took it to challenge yourself and help grow the company. Why are you hiding behind your length of time on the job? You are the leader of this team. Yes, it is challenging, but if it wasn’t, you wouldn’t feel the growth. You earn this salary for a reason. You were hired for a reason. ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4
• Chapter 5
• Chapter 6
• Chapter 7
• Chapter 8
• Chapter 9
• Chapter 10
• Acknowledgments
• An Invitation