How do you become a better leader?
Leadership is all about setting direction, influencing, and guiding an organization or a team towards a common goal. However, what does it really take to not just to become a leader, but a better leader?
Cassandra Rix is a team dynamics and performance coach at The Resonance Coach Ltd., a company that can help organizations discover how and who they want to be, what leadership they stand for, and how culture can survive and indeed thrive in commercial environments. Cassandra’s vast experience in strategy development and culture shift is relevant for teams of all shapes and sizes, whether established or still forming.
In this episode, Cass shares what true leadership is all about. She will talk about honesty, humility, and authenticity in leadership. And more importantly, she also discusses the five key tips to becoming a better leader.
Hang around with me for long enough and you’ll believe you can achieve anything!
In this episode:
[02:20] Cass elaborates on the quote “Hang around with me for long enough and you’ll believe you can achieve anything.”
[03:12] Cass believes she can read people and is also a huge believer in manifesting.
[04:54] In the beginning, her plans were different. She was going to become a math teacher and dreamt to become an opera singer.
[05:56] A bad experience while teaching taught her a lesson. And that is to let go of things that are not serving you. She realized that there’s a difference between giving up and letting go.
[06:37] Cass found a job in accounting but eventually became a marketing manager for a health and rehabilitation company.
[07:20] At the age of 20, Cass was introduced to the world of pharmaceuticals as a medical rep. And that was the beginning of the real story of anything is possible.
[08:37] She discovered that her passion at the time was in how healthcare spent money on health.
[09:57] She went from marketing to consultancy and that led her to become the best facilitator she could be. And facilitation is the closest job to coaching.
[11:07] We can’t motivate other people. But what we can do is create environments where they are most likely to be motivated for themselves. – Cass
[12:32] Sometimes being too empathetic and understanding can be a problem for a leader.
[15:12] Why being authentic and telling the truth is what’s needed in leadership.
[19:10] Rejection can mean a mismatch or someone isn’t right for you.
[20:16] What Cass learned as a receiver of feedback and the giver of feedback.
[22:34] There’s a need to give honest feedback. There’s a need to stop colluding and disagreeing sometimes.
[22:48] The four groups in structural dynamics.
[29:07] When working with a team, the first thing to do is to know yourself.
[31:11] And when you already know who you are, the next question for you is, who do you want to be? That’s where resonance comes from.
[32:24] Second, Be prepared to say the things that wind you up.
[33:19] Third and most importantly, ask each other what is success for me?
[37:27] Humility for Cass is about being able to admit two things, that I don’t know and I’ve got it wrong.
[41:14] Authenticity is about bringing your whole self to work.
[45:06] There are five key tips to better leadership. First, ask for feedback.
[45:34] Second, when you hear that feedback listen to it properly,
[46:49] Say thank you to the person that’s given you feedback.
[47:33] Four, figure out the stuff that annoys you.
[48:33] Five, say the thing that needs to be said in your leadership team, and then let it go.
[49:43] If you have all of those things if you build a leadership team that has the trust of each other, then the business will trust you.
[51:45] Fear is the reason why people and leaders don’t practice these five steps.
[54:38] Cass shares some leadership resources.
About Cassandra Rix
Cassandra Rix is a team dynamics and performance coach at The Resonance Coach Ltd., a company that can help organizations discover how and who they want to be, what leadership they stand for, and how culture can survive and indeed thrive in commercial environments. Cassandra’s vast experience in strategy development and culture shift is relevant for teams of all shapes and sizes, whether established or still forming.
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Leadership Resources Cass Mentioned: