Stepping into your first leadership role can be scary. You know you’re meant for more and you’re ready to give it your best, but where do you start and how do you know you’re on the right path?

In this episode of The Impact Ripple, we’re talking about the journey to leadership.

While some of us choose leadership as a career, others are chosen to step up and lead. Regardless of how you got here, there are some key phases all leaders must go through in order to create the kind of impact they truly wish to have in this world.

During this conversation, I share part of my own leadership journey (as well as the many personality assessments that told me I wasn’t cut out to be a leader!) and the way I experience being a leader in my own unique way.

You’ll also learn about a powerful tool I’ve created called The Leadership Impact Model, which will help you develop your leadership skills from the ground up, so you can reach your full potential and create a massive impact.

If you’ve been looking for a roadmap for your leadership journey, be sure to check out this episode!

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Experiencing leadership in your own unique way

• The ONE skill that all leaders must have 

• A roadmap for your leadership journey

Mentioned In This Episode:

• Transform Your Stories (book) – www.sprouthr.co/transform 

• The Leadership Impact Model – see below

The Leadership Impact Model

At the base of the Leadership Impact Model is self-awareness. This is a successful leader’s most essential skill. Without self-awareness, we don’t know what we’re doing well or where you need improvement. Everything else is built from having a solid understanding of who we are and how we show up in the world.

Next is personal responsibility. Once we’re aware of our strengths and where we need to improve, we must have complete and total acceptance and ownership that we are responsible for the outcomes in our own leadership journey. We are the source of our successes, as well as our challenges and frustrations. Without taking ownership and personal responsibility, we can never reach our full potential and impact as a leader. At this level, we also realize the importance of admitting our mistakes and missteps and apologizing when we fall short. Vulnerability plays a big role here and helps us create better connections with our teams.

The middle tier is capabilities. We know what we can and cannot do. We understand that we need other, talented individuals around us to complement our strengths and fill in the gaps where we are weaker. We realize that we cannot do it all; there are other people in the world who can do many things far better than we can. This tier is where we learn how to trust our own capabilities and let go of those things that are not strengths.

The next tier is purpose. This is the point in our leadership journey when we know why we are here and we have a clear vision for our future. Nothing will stop us from fulfilling our purpose. At this tier, we’re building mutual trust, respect, and rapport with our teams.

Finally, the top tier is impact. Because we’ve worked on your self-awareness, taken personal responsibility for our success and growth, identified our capabilities and released the rest to our team of experts, and found our purpose, we can now reach our full potential and greatest impact. At this level, our energy and enthusiasm around our purpose are like a flame drawing moths in the dark. People are excited by the clarity of our vision, motivated by the goals and milestones we’ve set forth, and are ready to go on the journey alongside us. At this level, our teams are fully supportive of the mission and vision we have and would do anything for us. We’re not just leading a business or even a team, we’re changing lives with the impact you’re able to have.

TRANSCRIPT EPISODE 2 - The Journey to Leadership

Ashley Cox  0:04  

Welcome to episode two of the impact ripple podcast. The go to source for hiring and leadership made simple, doable and fun for visionary female business owners. I'm your host, Ashley Cox, author and certified HR expert. And I believe that you don't have to change who you are. To be a great leader, you already are one. So join me as we kiss uncertainty and overwhelm goodbye and say hello to the tools and support you need to grow a profitable, sustainable, impactful team with more confidence and ease. 

Ashley Cox  0:41  

On today's episode, we're talking all about the journey to leadership. And I'll be sharing a really helpful model that I created to help you reach your full leadership potential and impact. One of my favorite things to do when I'm training or teaching a class is to ask a question at the beginning to get your wheels turning. So let's start with this one today. What is the impact you'd like to create in this world through your business? 

Ashley Cox  1:12  

Chances are, if you're like the clients that we work with here, at SproutHR, you have a pretty ambitious vision. The clients in our one-on-one work and inside of our group program, The Ripple Collective have shared impact visions such as making large financial donations to their favorite charitable organizations or starting a variety of different nonprofits or programs that their communities need. Sometimes they talk about being able to offer pro bono work to folks that are in need, and creating greater mental health care access to underserved populations. They also have talked about building better businesses that truly put people first and, and care for the people. And you know, we are absolutely all here for that. And the list just goes on and on. 

Ashley Cox  2:04  

These women that we work with have dreams that are bigger than the products or services that they offer and the businesses that they've built. They're full of heart and passion and an unyielding desire to help others. I know these women are going to bring these big dreams to life. I'm so honored that I get to see their fire and the drive that they bring to these projects every single day. However, they can't do it alone. And neither can you. The journey to leadership often begins though, with a dream that's so much bigger than we are. Sometimes you might not even realize that you're on a journey to leadership. 

Ashley Cox  2:49  

Several of our clients actually have said over the years, "I never set out to be a leader. I didn't see myself leading a team of other people." And I love that realization. Because while some choose leadership as a career path, others are chosen as leaders, sometimes by the size and the power of the visions that they have for a better future. How inspiring is that? So, however you find yourself coming into your leadership journey, I believe you can be a great leader, and that you don't have to change who you are at the core in order to do so. 

Ashley Cox  3:30  

Have you ever heard that saying where they they say that leaders are born and not made? Well, I don't think that's true. I think that leaders can be both born and made. And I can really see this in my own leadership journey. So in case we're new to each other, I've worked in a variety of leadership roles and in human resources for over 16 years now. And one of the parts of my job that I really loved the most was taking multiple personality and behavioral assessments, trying to figure out is this a tool we want to use? Is it accurate? Does it give us helpful information to work with our teams. So some of the popular ones that I've taken are the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (I'm an ENFP) and the Enneagram (I'm a type 7). So if that gives you any clue into my personality, if you're familiar with either of those, and then some maybe less well known ones outside of the corporate world, like the color code (I'm a yellow) and the Harrison assessment, which offered a full individualized profile, and many, many, many more.

Ashley Cox  4:45  

And as an independence-loving free spirit, time and time again, these assessments have said that someone with my particular traits of personality or behavioral traits typically does don't enjoy being in a leadership role, or they're not one that are generally pegged as natural born leaders, because being in a leadership role can sometimes feel overly demanding or restrictive. But I don't think leadership has to feel like that. In fact, I think our society often tells us toxic stories about what leadership is, and what it looks like. And if you haven't listened to Episode 1 on toxic stories, it's a really good one. So be sure to go back and take a listen to that episode to understand a little bit more about what I'm talking about. 

Ashley Cox  5:35  

So here's, here's some of my thoughts. What if leadership felt empowering and fulfilling? What if it offered freedom and purpose? What if you could do it with intention and compassion? How do those how do those feel? How is that settling in for you? Because all of these things are true, because this is exactly how I experienced leadership and have for many, many years now, even though I may not have been, quote, born to be a leader. Yeah, at least according to personality assessments, right. And the same can be true for you. Even if you've never felt like a leader, or maybe like me, you've been told your whole life, that you don't have the personality or the skill set to be a natural born leader. But first, you have to stop telling yourself that you're not a leader, or you're not cut out to be a leader. These toxic stories might just be what's holding you back from bringing your big impact vision to life. So to learn more about how to overcome these toxic stories, be sure to listen to Episode 1. And I actually share three strategies there that you can implement today, because I don't want these stories to hold you back from being the leader that I know you can be. 

Ashley Cox  7:03  

Today, we're going to build on that concept with a model that I've created after working with hundreds of leaders, 1000s of leaders, for nearly two decades, and it's what I call The Leadership Impact Model. This model is actually a part of my book, Transform Your Stories, which if you're interested in you can find out more about this on our website at SproutHR.co/Transform. As I was doing research when writing my book, Transform Your Stories, and The Leadership Impact Model that I was creating, I initially thought of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. However, I learned that his model was actually shaped by the beliefs of the Blackfoot nation, which is an indigenous people of Canada, and he learned about their beliefs on a trip to visit some friends in about 1938. After learning of the true origins of Maslow's model, I felt much more drawn to the Blackfoot nations beliefs and here's why. The Blackfoot nation believed that self actualization was the basis of the model and they refer to theirs as the teepee model because they believe that TPS reached to the sky and their next here was community actualization with a final tier of community perpetuity. Now, Cindy Blackstock, a University of Alabama professor and member of the gets going first nation has explained that cultural perpetuity is something her gets going people call, quote, the breath of life. It's an understanding that you will be forgotten, but you have a part in ensuring that your people's important teachings live on one. The Blackfoot nations model shows how we must first become the best version of ourselves before we can help the community and before our impact can live on throughout time. And I feel the very same way about leadership. Before we can truly create the positive impact we want to have in this world, we must first become the very best version of ourselves. So the leadership impact model is also symbolized by a triangle. And I chose this shape not because of Maslow or the Blackfoot nation, but because triangles are the strongest shape that exists. It's why bridges and buildings are made with triangular support systems and your leadership journey will require a strength that is unmatched in order to reach your full potential.

Ashley Cox  9:44  

I'm going to walk you through the model and if you'd like to follow along, you can find a link to an image of the model along with brief descriptions of each tier in our show notes. At the base of The Leadership Impact Model, we begin with self awareness. As I mentioned in Episode 1, self awareness is the most important skill that any leader can have. And it's the only skill that you'll ever hear me say that every leader must have. Without self awareness, we have no context clues as to how we're showing up in this world. And we simply cannot know what we're doing well, and where we need improvement without self awareness. So self awareness is the base of the model because a solid foundation is absolutely essential for our journey to leadership. And everything else that we're going to talk about, will be built on that foundation. So self awareness, we're at the base and that's our first tier. 

Ashley Cox  10:46  

Moving on to our second tier of The Leadership Impact Model, we have personal responsibility. Once we have self awareness, this next step is what is going to allow us to accept and own the outcomes of our thoughts, our stories, our actions or inactions. And not only is this important for reaching our full leadership potential and impact but it's also critical for us to be able to model this behavior for our teams. Because the leader who doesn't take responsibility will have a team that doesn't take responsibility either. At this tier, we also realize the importance of admitting our mistakes and our missteps because leaders aren't perfect, y'all. This is also where we learn and are able to apologize when we do fall short. Vulnerability plays a big role here. And it's what really helps us create better connections and rapport with our teams. So these first two tears are the factors that I use to determine whether a client is a great fit to work with us. If they have a high level of self awareness, and they can demonstrate that they take radical personal responsibility, then I know that I can help them step into a leadership role and become incredibly successful. Regardless of whatever other skills or talents or traits or qualities or personality characteristics they have. Those are the two most important. 

Ashley Cox  12:22  

Moving on to our middle tier, or our third tier of The Leadership Impact Model, we have capabilities. And this tier, we fully know what we can and cannot or maybe should not be doing in our business, we understand that we need other talented individuals around us to complement our strengths and fill in the gaps when we know we are weak or where our time just isn't well spent. We realize at this tear, we cannot do it all. And do it all alone. In episode three, we'll talk about how important it is to understand that even though you may be able to do it all, there are often other people out there who can likely do it faster or better than you can. You'll definitely want to tune in to that episode for more and that's Episode #3, which is coming up next. In the capabilities tier, we learn how to trust our own abilities and let go of those things that are not strengths or where we shouldn't be spending our time. 

Ashley Cox  13:29  

In the fourth tier, we have purpose. At this point in our leadership journey, we truly know why we are here on this earth and what we're meant to do. Now some folks know this early on, but sometimes it takes the journey into leadership to really uncover it for others. And there are others who even think that they they come into this leadership journey with one purpose only to find that they have a deeper, stronger purpose that's been hiding underneath a surface level one at this point. Whatever the case, nothing will stop us from fulfilling our purpose at this phase. And that begins to create clarity for us and stoke that fire in our hearts. So we start to cast off those things that are no longer serving us and we become more intentional about where our focus lies and what we're working on. We become purpose filled and purposeful. People begin to follow us at this tier genuinely because they want to be part of something much bigger than themselves. And it's clear that we know the way at this tier, we're building mutual trust, respect and rapport with our teams. 

Ashley Cox  14:50  

Finally, we reached the top tier of The Leadership Impact Model which is impact because we've developed our self awareness taken personal responsibility for who we are and how we show up in the world. We've identified our capabilities and release the rest to our team of experts and found our true purpose, which means now we can reach our full leadership potential and create our greatest impact. At this tier, our energy and enthusiasm around our purpose are like flames drawing moths in the dark. People are excited by the clarity of our vision, motivated by the goals and the milestones we've communicated. And they're ready to go on the journey alongside us, willingly not being dragged, which I know sometimes leadership can feel like we're dragging people along. But when we've reached this tier of the leadership model, they are coming along with us willingly. At this level, our teams are fully supportive of the mission and the vision that we have. And they would do anything for us because they believe in where we're going, and why we're going there. We're not just leading a business or even a team at this point, we're leading a vision and creating impact in the world. 

Ashley Cox  16:14  

So if you want to reach your full leadership potential, and create the greatest impact you can have in this world, this is the journey to leadership, we must all go on. And as a reminder, you can find a link to an image of the model, along with some descriptions of each tier in our show notes. You can also download a free sample of my book transform your stories at SproutHR.co/Transform to learn more about overcoming the toxic stories that are holding you back, and how you can use the leadership impact model to fulfill your full leadership potential and impact. 

Ashley Cox  16:52  

Now we've reached the end of our episode today, which means it's time for our final segment, Imagine the Impact where we get to envision what it could look like for you to take action today. So I have a question for you in today's segment, where are you on the leadership impact model? Are you just starting off at self awareness? Or maybe you find yourself midway up at capabilities? What's the greater purpose or impact you want to fulfill in this world? Imagine the impact that better understanding your own leadership journey, including where you are, and where you want to go, could have on your business, your community and the world. 

Ashley Cox  17:39  

If you found this episode helpful, we'd love for you to share about it on social media so that it can reach more leaders just like you simply take a screenshot of the episode on your phone, share it on Instagram stories and tag us at @SproutHR.co 

Ashley Cox  17:56  

Thanks so much for joining me today on the impact rebel podcast. It's an honor to be here with and for you on your leadership journey.