Exponential Leadership

If a leader takes people where they want to go, does a great leader takes people where they don't necessarily want to go, but ought to be?
Bio
Cynthia Bryant has worked in federal agencies for over 20 years. She has led mediations to resolve workplace conflicts and been part of an advising body to the president on diversity and inclusion. She has served on the boards at the University of Kansas Law School, and the Seeing Eye guide dog school, which incidentally, is close to her heart as she uses a guide dog too.
Synopsis
We begin by talking about her experiences with President Jimmy Carter, before moving onto broader topics about how disability knows no race or colour or gender. She gives incredible insight into the difficulties of segregation, and the search for solutions that help people move forward. We then talk about the best qualities of a leader, how to engage with people and deal with their assumptions. We close by discussing why we need to take a moment, shut our eyes, and just listen. When we see less , we often hear more.
Reflection
Something I found interesting was her mother deliberately exposing her to a wide range of cultures growing up, causing her to see empathy as an essential quality in a leader, especially as she talked about the difficulties of segregation. I know I have cast my net quite wide over my lifetime, but don't we all sometimes miss something?
More from Cynthia
https://www.linkedin.com/in/cynthia-bryant-8945b024

‘We all have common ground, we are all human at the very core, we all experience the same emotions, just about different things and in different ways.’
Bio
Jennifer Johnson is not only an award-winning businesswoman and lawyer, but she is the immediate past president of the Mississippi bar association. The Mississippi bar is a compulsory bar. Every lawyer in Mississippi has to pay into it, but historically not every lawyer has been represented. Jennifer has set the first steps into making an integrated future a reality. I am proud to talk to this 21st-century lawyer, advocate, award winner and awesome mother on the podcast today.
Synopsis

She starts by talking about how she was elected and the state of the bar. We talk about how some people don’t see a racial issue in that state and the idea of racism being “over”. The need to temper honesty with compassion, and the strength gained with diversity. We end by talking about the personal truths of each person, how people can end up being defined by a social category they are assigned to, and how important it is that we don’t see those so vividly, and connect with each other.
References
Books / Articles
Radical Candour
Thanks for the Feedback

Organisations
The Mississippi Bar Association
Harvard Law School
University of Southern Mississippi
Oscher Lifelong Learning Institute
ABOTA, the American Board of Trial Advocates
The Magnolia Bar Association

People
George Floyd
Robert Gibbs
Sacha Baron-Cohen
Sir Simon Philip Baron-Cohen
Douglas Stone
Sheila Heen
Chris Voss

My name's Eksteen De Waal, and today I'm talking to Rieneke Deelstra. One of the things that's always struck me about Rieneke is that she's not somebody that brags, even though she's done some amazing things in life. She's led large-scale transformations within government, she has consulted and coached leaders at the highest level in local government and in the civil service, and at the same time, part-time, she's also qualified as a clinical psychologist. She just gets on with it and gets it done, and it's such a way that everybody just feels comfortable with her. Now, most coaches probably achieve this, but Rieneke is really special in this regard. She's got a way of helping you see a different perspective without it being forced, and I think that's an amazing ability. Now can you imagine how wonderful that is in a time of crisis?

So today we talk about what leadership in a crisis means. What is the impact on top leadership, middle management, and on the employees that work with the clients or the customers?

So we start talking about what does it mean now for hybrid working? What is the scope of what we term as crisis, or in a crisis how do we get our scope as clear as possible? Then we talked about what it is to impress leaders. We then go on to talk about what working with teams means for their improvement during a time of crisis, and how do you interact with your employees in a time of crisis.

How does confidence feature into this and how can reflection with others and bouncing ideas off of others help you? We also talk about how lonely it is at the top, and about the importance of cognitive empathy, and then looking at triggers and previous traumas and how that feeds into a crisis. We then do a quick stop where we talk about coaching versus psychiatry or psychology. And we talk about the attitudes towards. But also attitudes towards security, peace of mind, vulnerability and even mental health in leaders.

I wonder if Rieneke knows how blessed people are to work with her. And I'm not just gushing. Iit's always a genuine pleasure to talk to her and I find her insights very valuable. I think talking about middle-management and the impact of loneliness in senior management has yet again shone light for me on that we tend to forget that leaders are just people.

When we lead organizations, we also need our support. We also need those people that fight for us. They'll tell us we're doing an okay job, as long as they’re not yes-sayers and they’re people that can understand the vulnerabilities, but at the same time, also be honest and straight up with us. I think those kinds of people need to be cultivated, especially ones with high cognitive empathy that can show you things that you may not be able to see.

So what if you worked for an organization that has been 200 years in the making, adheres to no rules of society, abides by no laws, and rules with an iron fist? And that is the numbers gang in South Africa, it rules most of the prisons. And specifically, in this case, I'm talking to Welcome Witbooi, and he led 2,700 people out of the 7,000 inmates at Pollsmoor prison, one of the maximum security prisons in the world, and one of the top 10 most dangerous prisons. So is there leadership in crisis more than a gang leader in a prison? Where you’re constantly under surveillance, constantly being judged and have to perform or your life is at stake.

Well today I’m talking to Welcome Wibooi about that. And we talk about how he got into gangs and what that meant. And then we move on to the hierarchy where we talk about how does the structure of such a gang or such an organization work because it's been around for a while. So, how does it police? How does it govern? How does it operate? What are the operational parameters? What are the sales parameters? What does your supply chain look like? How do you manage all of that? And then how do you discipline? How do you make choices that you know, could cost someone their life? Not just that. How far do you think that through?

We talk about loyalty. We talk about trust and distrust. And who do you trust, but also talk about what can we learn from that and do a comparison between that and modern day corporates? Well, I hope you enjoy this session today because I really enjoy talking to welcome. And he is an interesting character, in that he's reformed and runs his own charity, and at the same time he’s doing his MBA. What a turnaround and what insights. Enjoy this with me.

You know, what I'm taking from the conversation with Welcome today is that he actually thought more about the consequences of applying penalties. Yes. In his case, it would mean someone's life very often. But how often in corporate business do we not make that consideration, not think of the impact, not only on the person, but their coworkers, everybody that they work with, the performance impact on the organization as a whole, or in that department, what mitigating factors we need to put into place.

And it's not just about their skill or their ability, but how could it impact the people around them? Do we think about the emotional impact, the relational impact and the wider impact on that person's family and their friends and associates. He thought about those elements before he made his final decision.

I'm just wondering if we can learn from that in our modern day, corporates. Be a little bit more conscious of what our teams and our organizations really need and be decisive, but considerate.

In today's podcast, I'm talking to Dorine Velhuyzen, who’s had a very interesting career. She started off by travelling around the world and discovering some communities in Africa, specifically that needed help. She created foundations and charities over the years to help those people in need.
And today she's leading the charge for babies and expectant mothers in the Netherlands in healthcare. I think during this some interesting insights around leading. And in this podcast, we first start off with a journey around the world and then looking at what she's doing today and how the connections that she's formed have helped her in leading and leading for definite and lasting change.
I think what I found most interesting in this conversation with Dorine is that there's always a sense of connection. There's always a sense of connectedness, no matter where she is in the world is looking for those connections that will bring together a network or create a new network that supports not only people locally in a community but attaches them to an international community. I also think those connections, those abilities of hers to ask the right questions. I mean, she's challenged me quite a few times, by asking me some amazing questions, I learn from it all the time. And I think that is one of the things that. I've learned here in the Netherlands and to me, is that they're the epitome of” ask the right question”. Keep on asking the questions till you get the answers that you need to find the best solutions. Don’t just take for granted what people give you as information, always dig a little bit deeper, always find out is that the real reason behind things?
And I think as leaders, that's really important thing to learn for ourselves is that people will sometimes give us the answers they think we want, or even the answers they think we need. But very often we don't get the answers that help us make better decisions. So let's ask a few more, what, and a few more hard questions thrown in a few more open-ended ones at people at sea. If we cannot find out what is both the content we're missing and maybe the emotional turmoil that goes beyond that.
https://nl.linkedin.com/in/dorineveldhuyzen/nl
https://www.linkedin.com/company/babyconnect/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dorineveldhuyzen/
https://www.facebook.com/dorine.veldhuyzen.1 https://twitter.com/TALMOR_Dorine
www.babyconnect.org
www.carecodex.org