The host of Leading Through Crisis, Céline Wiliams wraps up this year with a solo episode. Céline explains a bit about the origin of Leading Through Crisis as well as the direction for 2021. She reviews some of her takeaways from the incredible guests she had on the show this year and talks about some new formats coming next year.
She notes that mindset and community are a few of the factors that have differentiated the leaders that have made it through the year successfully from those that are still struggling. According to one of her guests, Jackie Porter, cultivating a community where she felt supported and like she had people in her corner was one of the biggest difference-makers for her as a leader this year more than ever. According to Céline, she has seen unexpected growth and performance in organizations this year when they invested in creating a strong culture and community.
Having seen the difference it makes when you put people first, Céline says, “I will continue to evangelize that concept”. She plans to continue designing culture and communities in organizations, working with leaders, and helping people shift their mindset.
While there are already many great conversations planned for next year, Céline welcomes your feedback and suggestions and would love for you to reach out with your thoughts. Let her know what you would like to see more or less of as we plan out the year.
To learn more about her podcast episodes visit: www.leadingthroughcrisis.ca
Connect with Céline through LinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/celinewilliams
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/revisionary_Céline/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/reVisionary_ca
- I'm Celine Williams and welcomed to the Leading Through Crisis podcast. A conversation series, exploring leadership in challenging times. Hi welcome to this week's episode of Leading Through Crisis. This is a little bit different than the episodes I've done before. So normally I am here with a guest that I'm interviewing and chatting with. We're talking about their experience with leading through crisis. We're talking about resilience. We're talking about, depending on the point in this year in 2020, where things are at with the pandemic and the world and how life is changing constantly. But this week, it's just me and there's a reason for that. So... I wanted to do a wrap-up episode for this year, for 2020, and, you know, kind of talk a little bit about where things are gonna go in 2021 and where, what things might look like. And some changes that I'm thinking of and give you a little bit of context. I never really started this podcast with an intro episode. I just kind of dove right in. I wanted to get really good information out there for the people that I was talking to who were looking for information around leading through crisis and leading in challenging times. And I wanted to do it as quickly as possible. And I've had the privilege and the honor of getting to talk to some really cool people this year. Some who I knew already, some who were friends of mine or associates in various ways, you know, kicking it off this year with Chris Dyer, who is the CEO of PeopleG2 and has written a book about company culture and we got to talk a little bit about company culture and the importance of it during challenging times. And also listening. We talked a lot about listening. If you haven't heard that episode, I really do recommend going in and listening to it and checking it out. Chris's brilliant and his book on culture is amazing and is 100% worth the read. So, you know, we started there and we had that conversation. I spoke to, you know, people like Dr. J.J. Kelly, who is a dear friend of mine and an incredible psychologist around the art of being real with yourself and emotional resiliency and the difference between emotions and thoughts and moving through guilt, which I think a lot of people are still feeling at this point in the year, especially as the pandemic continues to move forward. So that conversation is still so relevant. You know, I got to speak to Michael O'Brien, who is a brilliant executive coach about this idea of transitioning to the new normal. And we talked a bit about his experience going through an accident a number of years ago and how it, you know, what his new normal looked like and how he talks about that in his work and what that is, and, you know, super insightful and just also a lovely human that is a delight to get to speak to and have the privilege of having in my life in some capacity. And I got to speak to some people who I did not know before this podcast started, who were connected with me because of the podcast. You know, Liz Kislik, who's one of my recent guests who has a beautiful Ted talk on conflict. And we talked about resolving conflicts in the workplace and, you know, some of her suggestions and experience around that which are invaluable as is her Ted talk and the articles that she has written, I cannot recommend going and listening to those enough. And Ron Carucci, who is a partner at Navalent, and we spoke about honesty and fascination and, you know, the difference between going into things wanting to learn as opposed to wanting to win and some of the work and experiences he's had with executives and leaders. And again, so insightful. And I took notes on all of these conversations and I had the incredible pleasure of, of getting to be in the space of these people and lead these conversations and learn, really learn from all of what these people had to say. And it's been a blessing, and I don't think I knew how long this would last or what I would be doing. I just knew that I wanted to talk about leading through challenging times and leading when times get tough and resiliency and people's experiences and you know, anything that is difficult, what that looks like. And the work that I do, the leaders that I was speaking with were looking for something like that, that wasn't, let's talk about the pandemic, or let's go over the numbers, or, you know, they really wanted to talk about the people side of the business, of the work. They wanted to hear about the people side of the business and the work. And that was really my intention in putting this podcast together and putting it out into the world. And I think, I think it has done what I wanted it to do, which is open up conversations, expose people to different ideas, open up new ways of thinking, you know, have people come at things with a new point of view, maybe consider things they hadn't thought about before. It was never about providing one answer. I don't believe in that. You know, part of my philosophy is that there's not one, there's no such thing as one's foot size, one size fits all solution. It really has to work for you and your team and your leadership style and your organization and, you know, whatever that looks like. And so this was never about, here's the one way to do things it's gonna work all the time. It was always about, let's talk about different approaches or perspectives or experiences so that anyone listening to this, and quite frankly, me who has had the pleasure of having all these conversations, can take the best parts that apply for me, which may not be the best parts for someone else, but I can take what I need out of these conversations and become a better leader and become a more effective human in the world and become more compassionate and kinder and more thoughtful and more understanding and more open and more confident and all of the things that are valuable to me, which may be different than what's valuable to you, which is great. That's the point is to be able to make it work for you in a way that works for you. And so, you know, some of the things that I learned in 2020 through doing this podcast, and quite frankly, just through living through 2020, is that mindset matters. And I've talked about mindset for years and I've always believed mindset matters, but man, it can be a game changer. And I'm not saying it's the only thing that matters. And there's lots of circumstances and lots of things that are at play in all points and times, but mindset really does matter. And I've spent a lot more time being intentional about it than ever before. And that's been wonderful and it's made a huge difference to me. So, you know, that's one of the things and I'm going to continue to do, you know, be working mindset into the work that I do into the work that I do in corporate settings in, you know, with executives and with culture pieces and also the work that I do with groups of entrepreneurs, because, you know, that is important to me to help them and work with them around the leadership mindsets, because we're all leaders in some way, shape or form that are gonna serve them best. The other thing, you know, another one that comes to mind that stands out as something that really is important this year, is that community matters. I mean, you know, Jackie Porter who was on the show spoke about the importance of community in how she has managed through 2020, but it's real, it's a game changer and I have seen people thrive to as the best they could in this weird, weird year because of community. And I've also seen people really suffer without community and not always make good choices as they were trying to search it out. And so I'm really grateful for the community I have had and the community I have curated and the wonderful people that I've had around me in 2020, it's been a game changer for me. And I will continue to very intentionally be creating that community because it does make a difference as far as I'm concerned. When I think about the organizations I've worked with, culture matters and truth be told, I think culture matters because community matters and companies are the new communities and company culture is how we work together. And so the work that I get to do around culture has really, and this year, especially, and I've been very lucky and had the opportunity to work on some incredible projects and initiatives around culture, even in 2020, in very people focused organizations who recognize that it was the difference maker for their people to have these aspects of the business be the focus. And so culture matters. People see the difference that despite all the hardships of this year, I've seen incredible things happen in organizations and incredible growth and incredible focus and performance and outcomes because they we were all committed to the culture, because they all care about each other, because they had a sense of community. And, you know, the reality is that people matter and I firmly believe that. And I see that in the organizations that I choose to work with and the difference it makes when you put people first and, you know, I will continue to evangelize that concept. It's, I get, it's not for everyone and it's never going to be for all organizations and that's okay, but I will continue to evangelize it, nonetheless, because I believe that it, you know, going forward, it's gonna be more and more important. And so in sort of reflecting on 2020 and what this has been about and what this looks like, it brings me to what 2021 is gonna look like for this podcast and where this is going and, you know, when I started, when I was thinking about doing a podcast before Leading Through Crisis was born, I actually wanted to do a podcast called the Revisionaries, which is a play on the idea of visionaries and, you know, revisionist concepts doing things your own way, rewriting history and in a way that for you and I might still do that. And I may transition this into that at some point. But in the meantime, I still think there's a lot of conversation to be had had around the concept of leading through challenging times. And, you know, there's people, a lot of the people I speak to kind of fall into both categories. So I'm not a hundred percent sure how this rolls into that or what that will look like, but that is something that's on my radar and I will, you know, keep this podcast attuned to where that goes. But regardless for 2021, I am gonna do more short solo episodes like this. I'll probably have a cadence of doing it every, you know, four episodes or so, because I have had some feedback that that would be valuable for people. And I have a woman I work with who I'm gonna be doing some duo episodes with where we are reflecting on some of the learnings from the guests that have been on the show and talking about that she is brilliant and, you know, works in leadership development and culture design as well. And so I think it'll be a really interesting conversation around what that will look like. So I'm not sure the cadence of that, but that is coming. And I think that having the touch point of the podcasts with guests on a regular basis, but also the reflection podcasts with this woman to talk about what we learned and how, you know, tell stories and what it looks like in action I think will be a really interesting addition and experiment to what this is because I'm not expecting this podcast hasn't been perfect and I don't expect it to be, it is continuously improving and it's continuous learning and it's taking feedback and learning from that. And so if you have any thoughts on the podcast, share it, you can send me an email. You can go to leadingthroughcrisis.ca and connect there. You can, you know, reach out, however you need to. I'm on LinkedIn, under Celine Williams. The link to my LinkedIn will be in the show notes for this, but, you know, really I loved, I would love to hear what has been impactful for you and what has been most helpful and what you'd like to see more of or what you'd like to see less of, you know, I, feedback matters. And this is a bit of a, the only feedback I get really outside of the people that I know who listen to this is from the guests and that is wonderful and I appreciate their feedback and they're very kind to me. And for anyone listening and for the audience that exists for this and the future audience for this as well, I want to make this as valuable for them as possible and for you listening to this or watching this as possible. So truly let me know, let me know what you want more or less of, or what this could look like, or whether you, you know, does the Revisionary sound like a cool idea? Would you like me to just transition this into that somehow? I'm sure someone out there can help me do that, or like stop this and start a brand new podcast doing that, or forget that idea, let's just keep doing this because this, the theme of leading through crisis of resiliency is really valuable. I'm open and I'm curious and I'd love to hear from anyone who desires to reach out. And, you know, if you like the show, please support it. You know, vote, vote, rate it on iTunes, leave a comment, leave a review, I appreciate all of it. You know, it helps the podcast get in front of new people. It helps it become recognized and that's all I, that's all I really want is for it to be valuable for people and for them to find some value and for it to be helpful and to open up people's minds and eyes in some way, shape or form. So with that, thank you for listening in 2021 or in 2020, not in 2021. If you are newer to the podcast, please go check out some of the earlier episodes this year. There's some really phenomenal stuff. You know, if you're on social media, you can come follow me on Instagram, revisionary_celine, where I will be posting, you know, some quotes and references to some of those older episodes they're worth it. And I hope you have an incredible holiday season. I'll be back in 2021 with some great conversations, I'm already setting them up. So there's some good stuff coming and there's some changes and I'm excited. And I look forward to seeing you on the, in the new year. Here's to a very happy and healthy and peaceful and restful holiday season for all of us. Thanks for joining me today on the Leading Through Crisis podcast. If you enjoyed this conversation, please take a minute to rate and review it in your podcast app. And you can always learn more about any of our guests at www.leadingthroughcrisis.com.