By: Kathy Albarado on August 19th, 2016
Why Culture, Clarity & Feedback are the Keys to Great Leadership
Ep 028: Why culture, clarity, and feedback are the keys to great leadership with Kathy Albarado
I had the great pleasure to be interviewed by Halelly Azulay, founder of TalentGrow LLC, a consulting company focused on developing leaders and teams, especially for enterprises experiencing growth or expansion. Halelly is a leader I admire and is an author, speaker, facilitator and leadership development strategist, and hosts her very own podcast called, The Talent Grow Show.
I encourage you to watch the podcast interview below!
"Listen to Kathy Albarado, founder and CEO of Helios HR, an award-winning human capital management consultant who brings a triple-whammy perspective on leadership to The Talent Grow Show. As a leader in her own successful company, Kathy understands leading those who help her organization win awards and satisfy clients. As coach to her client leaders, she helps client companies achieve success. And as a community leader and philanthropist, she has built a unique platform that allows many companies share leadership best practices and success insights. Kathy speaks with TalentGrow Show host, Halelly Azulay, about her path to launching her own company based in her strong passion for great organizational culture. She describes ways you can create a great culture, as well as the importance of seeking clarity and feedback. And she gives specific examples, stories, and how-to's for doing just that."
What You'll Learn:- Why is knowing what you don’t want to do is as if not more important as knowing what you do want to do (3:40)
- What emotional reaction ultimately launched Kathy’s company, Helios HR (and why does Halelly think it was a courageous decision)? (6:03)
- Why is Kathy passionate about culture being critical to business success, even more than having a brilliant strategy? (8:55)
- Your organization’s culture should attract the right people and repel those that shouldn’t be in your organization (9:28)
- What was Kathy’s vision for creating her organization, Helios? (It has to do with how people feel about going to work) (10:20)
- Kathy doesn’t even like the word ‘work’ – hear why she thinks we need a new word, for when you love what you do and the culture of your organization (11:34)
- What’s one of the keys for having a great culture? (12:25)
- How can you *really* find out what your culture is (and why you don’t want it to be very different from what you think – or say – that it is)? (13:22)
- What Kathy suggests we need to do to get feedback about our culture? (Kathy gives a concrete example of how and when to do that and you can emulate it) (13:50)
- How does Kathy’s organization do performance conversations? (14:15)
- What does Kathy mean by ‘doing check-ins’? (15:20)
- What’s a scary question Kathy has managers ask their employees? (15:33)
- Why trust is foundational for a good culture? (16:22)
- What is something that Halelly thinks is remarkable about Kathy? (16:40)
- Why did Kathy create the Apollo Awards program to recognize companies that have great practices in employee engagement and employee development, and how has it evolved now that it’s been running for 10 years? (17:00)
- Why is it meaningful to have a community of leaders who can collaborate and share best practices to improve their success and learn from each other instead of competing? (18:38)
- People WANT to share – we just need to ask them to (and build the platform that allows them to do it, rather than just telling about it being missing) (20:24)
- What is the most common leadership mistake Kathy has seen? (22:13) As a leader, you need to recognize that you’re speaking through a megaphone – why does that put an added expectation on leaders that can be really exhausting but really important. (22:14)
- Why should leaders seek clarity – ask more questions and not assume they understand what people’s intentions or needs are. (23:03)
- Why should leaders have someone that they can just be themselves with – with whom you can let your guard down, but also who will tell you what you need to hear, not just what you want to hear (23:48)
- What is Kathy excited about? (Hint: it takes place with young women in Honduras) (25:40)
- As every guest does, Kathy recommends one specific action listeners can take to upgrade their leadership skills and career success. Listen to find out what it is, and her specific examples for how to do it. (28:07)
- What’s a useful frame for asking for feedback that helps you get more helpful feedback? (29:40)