In this episode, Sarah Tenisi speaks with Kristi Royse, founder and CEO at KLR Consulting. She is also an Executive Coach at Skyline Group International, and a leadership development consultant for a wide variety of well-known companies, including Workplace by Facebook and Rodan + Fields.
A great leadership team, according to Kristi, is defined by vulnerability and passion. Every individual on the team—especially during these challenging times—needs to be willing to be willing to ask the important questions and be open to receiving answers that they may not always want to hear. Active listening allows us to drop our egos and become authentic, vulnerable, and passionate members of the team committed to the growth and success of the organization.
Listen in as Kristi discusses why she disagrees with The Golden Rule and why she prefers to follow The Platinum Rule instead, a primer on the four DISC personality types and how understanding each type can help you communicate better at work, and leading amid the pandemic.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
● [0:27] Kristi’s role at KLR Consulting
● [1:14] What a great leadership team looks like
● [3:12] What open communication and collaboration looks like
● [4:24] How Kristi helps teams of all kinds tap into their full potential
● [5:48] Kristi’s number one tip for uncovering core leadership problems
● [6:56] Tools and methodologies for helping a team reach its potential
● [10:00] The four DISC personality types
● [15:02] The advantages of a balanced team
● [18:14] Handling disagreements
● [22:16] Unique challenges in training tech organizations
● [25:46] Management versus leadership
● [28:37] How KLR Consulting evaluates their success in training a team
● [32:34] How different situations call for different leadership styles
● [37:36] Kristi’s parting words of wisdom for building a great leadership team
Key quotes:
● “Allowing for authenticity is a key success factor in effective leadership teams.”
● “When we think about effective communication, you really need to think about how you’re adapting and adjusting your communication style to meet those that you’re working with, whether it be employees, colleagues, clients, or potential clients.”
● “Awareness leads to understanding, leads to acceptance, leads to change.”
● “What makes a strong leadership team is balance.”
● “Sometimes, the best answer is to walk away.”
● “Managers do the work. Leaders figure out who is the best person to do the work.”
● “The biggest leadership challenge I’m seeing this year is lack of clarification and lack of alignment. That’s when people can get really frustrated. Different meeting management can lead to greater communication and collaboration and, therefore, less stress.”