Permission To Lead

In this episode I share a portion of my keynote to a group of leaders who represented multiple industries. It really gives a peak into one of my most humbling lessons in my leadership journey. 

[Note: I am hitting stages more, and I am super excited 👏🏾 🎙️]

A few key points from this talk:

• Leadership can feel like something you earn once and keep forever, until you walk into a new room and realize nobody asked to be led by you.
• When success comes quickly, it’s easy to assume your vision will inspire others the same way it inspires you. But teams have their own history, identity, and everyday rhythms. If you miss those signals, you can lose your best people fast, even when your intentions are good and your strategy sounds solid. 
• The turning point comes through humility and asking for feedback when it hurts. 
• The big takeaway is practical leadership: listen before you lead, adapt your message to the people in front of you, and remember that influence is granted, not claimed.

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Transcript

A Fast Rise At GE

The Call Center Wake Up

Reflection After A Rough Start

Feedback Exposes Culture Gaps

Earning Followership The Hard Way

SPEAKER_00 1:01

Leaders lead because people tell them that they want to follow them. It's not an anointing of any special sauce. We lead because we're given permission to do so. I had to learn that the hard way. Yes, I did. So there's a blessing and a curse that comes with coming into your career and being seen for something special and unique that takes your career up really far, really fast, right? It's a blessing. It certainly is. The flip side is you don't know what you don't know about making it magical for people. So that happened to me. Career skyrockets to the top. I become an influential leader at General Electric around the Jack Welsh time. It was exciting, it was thrilling. I got the best mentors, greatest sponsors in the world. Then something amazing happened. I was shipped out to GE Healthcare in Waukeshaw. I was given an opportunity to lead what would become a business-changing acquisition.$19 billion to set a new path for GE. The team and I, we nailed it. So you know what happens when you nail something? You get tapped to do something else. And this time, I didn't realize what the challenge would be. I got tapped to go and lead the Customer Service Center. That's right. The very fancy call center. And so, of course, as any good, you know, hot shot mentee, I got this. I'm gonna go in and I'm gonna tell the people this is the vision. Don't you all see it? I'm gonna say, if you do what I say do, you're gonna get these things and you're gonna be excited because you are motivated the exact same way that I am. Was I wrong? Within the first 30 days, my team of five leaders, one of them quit. I would later find out that this one was my secret sauce to being successful. She knew everything. I found out that the person who was formidably the number two was trying desperately to get out to another department. The only two people that were very content with the popcorn were the ones that I probably should have sent packing as well. And then the other one just thankfully was in a position where she was like, I'm just gonna pick apart what she says and decide what I'm gonna do, and I'm gonna lean in the gut. This is not a good place to be a leader. So what do you do? Well, you shut the door, you make sure nobody's looking, and you have a good cry. Then once you realize life moves on, you move on and you do a little bit of reflection and you say, What did I get wrong? And so, since I couldn't figure it out myself, I begin to call people in one by one and have candid conversations and say, I just want you to give me feedback. I am failing and I know it, and I need to know why. Someone says to me, Did you know that many of us grew up in the same community in Wisconsin? Did you know that? Actually, I didn't. Okay. Someone else says to me, Did you know that you spend a lot of time talking about G. E. Crotonville, the Leadership Training Institute of the World? Many of us don't really like to travel. Hmm, didn't know that. Thank you very much. Did you know that on Fridays, when you think it's exciting for us to all stay here and do recaps and reflections, we just want to go to the bowling lead and have beer, brats, and bowling. Did you know that? I did not. What I learned in the next couple of days, having candid conversations, is that leaders do not lead unless the people say so. I am Chantrapal and I'm proven not perfect. Thank you.