Transformational Thinkers with Sara Sheehan

Sara Sheehan discusses the importance of conquering mindset to overcome fear and define success in today’s episode. She splits the conversation into three key parts, touching on How to Stay Driven and Motivated, Overcoming or Minimizing Fear, and Defining Success as a Leader. In each part, Sara examines why mindset is such an important component of success and how to master each step by asking important questions and paying attention to goals.

Sara shares the inspiration she drew from a continuing education course by James Garrett, called “Brain By Design” and points out that sometimes teaching can continue to reveal new insights as we revisit it over and over. How do we master dread? We confront it to get more comfortable with the thing we dread. How do we take risks? We start with the courage to put ourselves out there. Mindset determines the direction of our energy and action and Sara offers guidance on how to change and develop our mindset in new ways.

This quote from Carol Dweck sums up the episode nicely: “A growth mindset is the belief that all abilities are trainable. Nothing is fixed. That we can change anything from intelligence to creativity to athleticism through persistent and adaptive effort.” The words we need to keep in mind are mindset, consistency, commitment, courage, and success. Practice what we fear and consider success as something that grows and evolves in ways Sara highlights in this episode.

This episode is step 2 from my free ebook on my website: 7 Steps to Thrive in the New World

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Contact Sara Sheehan | Sara Sheehan Consulting:

• SaraWSheehan.com
• Sara Sheehan on LinkedIn
• Meet with Sara

Transcript:

Sara Sheehan: [00:00:02] Welcome to Transformational Thinkers with Sara Sheehan. Today, I would like to discuss the very important topic of conquering your mindset and how to overcome fear and define success. I'd like to start with a quote that I love that really speaks to my heart by Carol Dweck. A growth mindset is the belief that all abilities are trainable. Nothing is fixed. That we can change anything from intelligence to creativity to athleticism through persistent and adaptive effort.

Sara Sheehan: [00:00:40] Today, I will split the conversation up in several parts, and I'll dive in first with, 'How to Stay Driven and Motivated'. During my career in business, I've worked with some of the largest consulting firms and Fortune 100 clients, mentoring and developing senior leaders and designing organizations and business strategies, managing change, optimizing talent and leadership development, and solving complex human performance problems. As you may imagine, I have often had to overcome the fear of standing on the edge of the unknown waters and define success for myself within the space. How did I do this? By being very consistent in the actions that I take on a weekly basis. Planning out my week, my calendar, and my time so that I have time to focus on marketing. I have time that's set aside to be creative, and I have time set aside to reach out to potential and new clients, as well as existing relationships to test out my programs in market research conversations. Because I became consistent and thoughtful in my activity, fear hasn't been an overwhelming factor for me in a long while. This is possible for you, too. Invest in setting aside time to do mindset work. This is absolutely critical for anyone who is a business owner, leader, or in a scenario where your role will bring you in contact with managing and mediating between different people, temperaments and challenges. It helps you show up better in every meeting and every conversation, and it serves as your special energizer. Once you're in a conversation and you see that it's going well and it's successful, it'll motivate you for the next thing on your calendar. It's a situation where it feeds off of itself.

Sara Sheehan: [00:02:38] Part two, 'Overcome or Minimize Fear'. Your mindset is critical. A strong mindset keeps you in your best energy. Additionally, planning your day around your mindset can be a very useful approach. Let's explore an example. When I plan my day, I look at scheduling difficult meetings during the time of day when I have the best energy. It helps me stay mindful about setting 5 to 7 priorities for each day, and working the list until it's done. Overcoming fear is really about mindset, consistency, and focus. Those three things make a huge difference. It's also important to step into and practice what you fear so that you can move from fear to growth to mastery.

Sara Sheehan: [00:03:27] 'How Brain Science Helps in Business'. Overcoming fear takes practice. According to a sig...

Sara Sheehan’s guest in this episode is Jeremy Fischbach, CEO of Happy, a mental health company providing frictionless, non-clinical support for people in demanding environments. Happy supports large organizations like hospitals and the Department of Defense and operates by eliminating barriers to accessing emotional support. Jeremy drew on his background in psychology and law, as well as his personal difficulties accessing mental health support, to develop Happy. He tells Sara exactly how his innovative approach prioritizes accessibility and impact.

Jeremy’s personal struggles and dissatisfaction with the time-consuming and inaccessible nature of mental health support led him to envision a system where emotional support was readily available and proactively offered. He focused on creating a frictionless system with a platform where users find emotional support without facing complicated processes. Sara explores how Happy’s model addresses a growing need among people who feel disconnected from support.

Sara and Jeremy discuss Happy’s high adoption rates and clinical-level effectiveness, the real-time emotional support offered, and how it enhances employee engagement. Despite struggles with disrupting traditional and digital mental health systems, Jeremy highlights the importance of continuing to challenge old models and assumptions. Happy’s success highlights the need for compassionate, accessible, and innovative mental health solutions that make user experience the priority.

About Jeremy Fischbach:

Jeremy Fischbach is the Founder of Happy, whose mission is to create a more supportive culture by expanding access to the essential ingredient of mental health and by teaching and inspiring people to better emotionally support each other. Prior to Happy, Jeremy was the CEO of Myne, which built interactive educational and sports analytics software that leveraged users’ psychographic data to improve performance. Jeremy has a psychology degree from Princeton and a J.D. from NYU.

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Contact Sara Sheehan | Sara Sheehan Consulting:

• SaraWSheehan.com
• Sara Sheehan on LinkedIn
• Meet with Sara

Jeremy Fischbach | Happy

• Website: FrictionlessMentalHealth.com
• Jeremy Fischbach on LinkedIn
• Email Jeremy

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Transcript

Sara Sheehan: [00:00:02] Hi there, I'm Sara Sheehan and welcome to my podcast, Transformational Thinkers with Sara Sheehan. Today I'm joined by Jeremy Fischbach, CEO of Happy, a frictionless mental health company that is completely disrupting how large organizations care for their employee's mental health. Many of the large organizations that are working with Happy have employees that are in harm's way or in very demanding professions like military organizations such as the Air Force or the Department of Defense, large hospitals with health care workers including nurses and doctors, just to name a few. By the way, their clients are reaping huge returns on investment. Jeremy is the founder and CEO of Happy, whose mission is to create a more supportive culture by expanding access to the essential ingredient of mental health, and by teaching and inspiring people to better emotionally support each other. Prior to Happy, Jeremy was a CEO of Myne, which built interactive educational and sports analytics software that leveraged users psychographic data to improve performance. Jeremy has a psychology degree from Princeton and a JD from NYU.

Jeremy Fischbach: [00:01:39] I'm honored to be here, Sara. Thank you for making time on a Saturday.

Sara Sheehan: [00:01:44] Absolutely. Jeremy, I find you to be a truly fascinating person. Can you tell me a little bit about your backstory and how it led you to where you are?

Jeremy Fischbach: [00:01:57] I'm not sure that I agree with your characterization, but I think I've taken the same type of circuitous path that a lot of people have to wherever they are in their lives today. I think for these purposes, my story begins with a deep curiosity about people which preceded going to college. I just happened to always be on the outside of any population I was a part of looking in, and I think it gave me a chance to better understand who I was, who other people were. When I got to Princeton, I majored in psychology and neuroscience and was actually going to be a psychiatrist. I was pre-med and then had a near-death experience right before graduation that sent me on a whole different course. I was a composer in New York City for many years. Then for reaso...

Sara Sheehan talks about the power of authenticity in leadership in today’s episode. Authenticity is about leading in a genuine way, with transparency and in alignment with personal values and the organization’s mission. She breaks down exactly what authentic leadership looks like and how it sets executives apart by making them trusted and effective.

Sara shares five core components that define authenticity in leadership: The Core of Authentic Leadership, Why Authentic Leaders Are More Trusted, The Competitive Advantage of Authentic Leadership, How to Cultivate Authentic Leadership, and Authenticity as a Catalyst for Change. She breaks down each core value into directive steps that examine how to incorporate it into daily leadership.

The ways in which authentic leadership improve how an executive is viewed are many, but it’s not simply a perspective change. It’s a change to the way in which an executive operates. Authentic leadership understands alignment between words and actions, it shows that vulnerability is strength, and it cultivates open and frequent communication. As Sara unpacks authentic leadership, she reveals a path to a more genuine way of leading that will effect sincere change with repercussive benefits to the organization as a whole.

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Contact Sara Sheehan | Sara Sheehan Consulting:

• SaraWSheehan.com
• Sara Sheehan on LinkedIn
• Meet with Sara

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Transcript:

Sara Sheehan: [00:00:02] Hi there, I'm Sara Sheehan and welcome to my podcast, Transformational Thinkers with Sara Sheehan. Today, I'm talking about a topic that is very near and dear to my heart, the power of authenticity in leadership. Why CEOs and executives who lead with integrity inspire trust and drive business success. In today's fast paced, interconnected world, the one element that remains constant in high functioning organizations, is trust. As leaders, CEOs and business executives are in a unique position to influence culture, foster resilience, and drive meaningful change. But with skepticism on the rise, due to an era filled with buzzwords and spin, the best leaders are finding that authenticity is a key to inspiring loyalty and commitment within their teams. Authenticity goes beyond simply being yourself, it's about leading in a way that is genuine, transparent, and aligned with your values and the organization's mission. Authentic leaders build organizations that attract and retain top talent, maintain trust with key stakeholders, and develop lasting resilience to weather market uncertainties. This monologue explores why being an authentic leader not only sets you apart, but also makes you a far more trusted and effective executive.

Sara Sheehan: [00:01:48] 'The Core of Authentic Leadership'. Authentic leadership, in essence, involves a commitment to being open, consistent, and true to one's values and principles. An authentic leader exhibits self-awareness, a clear understanding of personal strengths and weaknesses, and maintains integrity regardless of circumstances. This approach helps leaders foster genuine relationships and develop trust based cultures that drive long term success. Research shows that authenticity has become increasingly valued in the workplace. In Deloitte's Global Human Capital Trends report, over the last four years they have found that more than 80% of employees expressed a desire for their leaders to demonstrate empathy, an element closely linked to authenticity. As employees and clients alike seek trustworthy and transparent organizations, leaders who prioritize authenticity become magnetic forces, naturally attracting both talent and clientele.

Sara Sheehan: [00:03:01] 'Why Authentic Leaders Are More Trusted'. For CEOs and executives, the ability to inspire trust is indispensable. Trust is at the heart of every successful relationship, from boardrooms to client engagements. Here are key reasons why authentic leaders inspire great trust. First, consistency and transparency. Authentic leaders are consistent in their actions, providing employees and stakeholders with a stable foundation upon which to rely. When executives are transparent about their intentions, motivations, and even setbacks, they send a message of reliability and accountability. This builds trust because it allows others to see that the leader's decisions are rooted in a clear and honest approach. For example, consider an executive leading an organization through a difficult restructuring by clearly communicating the rationale behind the change, addressing the challenges openly, and ensuring a process that respects employee's contributions. Authentic leaders demonstrate commitment to fairness and ethical standards.

Sara Sheehan: [00:04:26] Second, align...

Sara Sheehan examines how to create a positive company culture based on guidance from Daniel Coyle’s book The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups. She identifies the three fundamental skills that Coyle singles out as key to sustaining a strong organizational culture - building safety, sharing vulnerability, and establishing purpose - and discusses how each skill improves team performance when implemented.

Sara gets in-depth into how each of the three skills affects company culture for the better. Building safety allows teams to perform well because their members feel safe, connected, and supported. Sharing vulnerability may seem counterintuitive to high performance but Sara reveals that in truth it leads to deeper trust. Establishing a purpose comes through sharing a defined mission and values. Everyone should feel guided by a clear and shared understanding of why they do the work they do.

Far from being merely theoretical, Sara shares how these foundational skills would look in operation through the example of a fictional company putting them into practice. She then follows up with real-world success stories from an unnamed client of hers. Having already used these skills to guide real clients to better results, Sara’s sharing of Coyle’s book and examination of what it means in practice becomes an invaluable tool for unifying companies into a positive culture.

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Resources discussed in this episode:

• “The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups” by Daniel Coyle

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Contact Sara Sheehan | Sara Sheehan Consulting:

• SaraWSheehan.com
• Sara Sheehan on LinkedIn
• Meet with Sara

__

Transcript:

Sara Sheehan: [00:00:02] Hi there, I'm Sara Sheehan and welcome to my podcast, Transformational Thinkers with Sara Sheehan. Today I'll be sharing a monologue message with you on creating a positive workplace culture. Over the course of my career, the number of companies with toxic workplaces has increased dramatically. There are three key skills that leaders can build to develop and sustain a strong workplace culture. Building safety, sharing vulnerability, and establishing purpose. This month, I'll be talking about building a positive company culture and the insights from 'The Culture Code' by Daniel Coyle. This book provides a wonderful guide for how to address and create a great place to work. Building a positive company culture, key insights from 'The Culture Code'. In 'The Culture Code', Daniel Coyle explores the secrets behind the success of highly productive teams, emphasizing that effective group culture is not a fixed attribute, but rather a dynamic living process. Based on extensive research and visits to eight of the world's most successful groups, Coyle identifies three fundamental skills that leaders can cultivate to create and sustain a strong organizational culture. Building safety, sharing vulnerability, and establishing purpose. In this talk, we will break down these key points, illustrate their practical applications, and offer concrete steps for implementing them in the workplace to foster a positive and thriving company culture.

Sara Sheehan: [00:02:10] First of all, building safety, creating a sense of belonging. The first step toward developing a positive organizational culture is fostering a deep sense of safety within the group. High-performing teams excel when their members feel safe, connected, and supported. They feel like they belong, and this sense of belonging encourages them to contribute their best efforts without fear of exclusion or judgment. Key concepts here include belonging cues. These are subtle signals that people send and receive and social interactions reinforce the message you are safe here and you belong. This can include eye contact, physical proximity, tone of voice, and active listening. Connection and support. Teams that thrive are ones where individuals feel they have each other's backs. There is an implicit understanding that everyone is part of a tight-knit unit working towards a shared goal. Some practical tips for building safety. Create inclusive environments. Leaders should actively create spaces where everyone's voice is heard, regularly soliciting feedback and input from all team members builds a sense of inclusion and value. Focus on nonverbal communication. Small, consistent acts of nonverbal communication can reinforce safety. For example, leaders who make eye contact, nod during conversations, and lean in while listening create an atmosphere where team members feel ...

Sara Sheehan shares an episode containing three messages about mindset approaches. The three approaches collectively yield an attainable vision of transformational leadership. Drawing on her years of experience, Sara’s passion for building long-term relationships and delivering business results gives this episode a timely impact. Transformational leadership has never been as important as it is now.

The three mindset approaches Sara lays out involve resilient leadership, the learning leader, and aligning vision with action. Resilient leadership is about transforming challenges into opportunities. Not all leadership navigates smooth waters, storms will be encountered. How does a leader handle storms gracefully? The learning leader and aligning vision with action address qualities that a good leader must cultivate to realize success.

In this episode, Sara’s advice encompasses the necessity of continuous education, what that education involves, how to cultivate a clear and compelling vision, and how to align goal setting with that vision. While Sara acknowledges that all leaders are individuals and every organization will need different strengths at different times, transformational leadership will always involve resilience, growth, and the alignment of vision and goals. Knowing how to approach these mindsets and make them work for each organization is part of the legacy of effective leadership.

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Contact Sara Sheehan | Sara Sheehan Consulting:

• SaraWSheehan.com
• Sara Sheehan on LinkedIn
• Meet with Sara

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Transcript:

Sara Sheehan: [00:00:02] Hi there, I'm Sara Sheehan and welcome to my podcast, Transformational Thinkers with Sara Sheehan. Today I'm sharing a collective of three messages with mindset approaches that yield transformational leadership in a monologue format. In the first segment, I'll talk about resilient leadership, transforming challenges into opportunities and building resilient leadership. In the second segment, I'll discuss approaches for the learning leader. Keeping ahead of the curve with continuous education. And finally, we will discuss how aligning vision with action is the key to strategic success.

Sara Sheehan: [00:00:57] Hi there! Today I am going to talk a little bit about transforming challenges into opportunities and building resilient leadership. Leadership is not just about steering organizations through smooth waters, but also about navigating through storms. Challenges and setbacks are inevitable aspects of the working world, and a leader's ability to handle these situations gracefully and effectively is what defines true resilience. For CEOs, cultivating resilience is not just a personal trait, but a crucial component of their professional legacy. Resilience and leadership goes beyond simply recovering from setbacks. It involves using challenges as stepping stones for growth and learning. When faced with difficulties, resilient leaders look for lessons and opportunities for improvement. They see every setback as a chance to refine their strategies and enhance their teams capabilities. This mindset not only helps in overcoming current challenges, but also prepares the organization for future hurdles. Another key aspect of building resilience is focusing on personal and team strengths. By understanding and leveraging your strengths and those of your team, you can navigate challenges more effectively. Strength-based coaching can help identify these areas of potential and develop them further, contributing to a more resilient organizational culture.

Sara Sheehan: [00:02:58] One way to look at using your strengths is by thinking of a strength as a muscle that you need to build and work out. If you are using it regularly, you'll be more likely to increase its strength, increase the connection that you have with that capability, and actually build more confidence in it. Constructive feedback is a cornerstone of personal and professional development. For CEOs, seeking and acting on feedback that can lead to significant improvements in leadership style and decision-making processes, embracing feedback not as a criticism, but as a vital part of input, a vital piece of input that can help refine your strategies and approaches. Just to double-click on this topic a little bit, make sure that you're looking at feedback as a tool, a means to an end that can help you make significant leaps in your performance. If you don't have feedback happening where you're able to learn from others, you may be stuck in a significant way. You may be hitting that upper-limiting problem. Seeking a mentor's perspective is something that is so very important. Experiencing challenges offers a great opportunity to check in with a few of your ...