How to Drive Change with Susan Inouye

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Chapters

• 2:13 Key Characteristics of Great Leadership Teams
• 4:09 The Importance of Investing in People
• 6:14 Understanding Sawubona Leadership
• 9:31 Client Success Story: The Gift-Centered Approach
• 14:37 The Power of Recognizing Gifts in the Workplace
• 19:20 Balancing Gifts and Blind Spots
• 23:50 The Importance of Embodiment in Learning
• 24:55 Client Story: From Stiffness to Flow with Salsa
• 27:16 Client Story: Letting Go Through Trapezing
• 30:10 Implementing Organizational Change
• 32:15 Leadership and Employee Engagement
• 40:31 Case Study: Transforming Leadership
• 45:10 Conclusion

Transcript

riverside_susan_& mike _ jun 13, 2025 001_mike_goldman's stud: 0:02

the number one driver of job satisfaction and dissatisfaction was things like recognition. They said compensation but they said compensation is not about the money so much as it is about the recognition. Do you value me? Do you care about who I am? Do you see me not as a an asset that is transactional, but do you see me as a human being in the moment, especially around AI and automation?

Mike Goldman: 0:42

You made it to the better leadership team show, the place where you learn how to surround yourself with the right people, doing the right things. So you can grow your business without losing your mind. I'm your host and leadership team coach, Mike Goldman. I'm going to show you how to improve top and bottom line growth, fulfillment, and the value your company adds to the world by building a better leadership team. All right, let's go.

riverside_susan_& mike _ jun 13, 2025 001_mike_goldman's stud: 1:14

Mike Goldman[00:01] Susan Inouye is an executive coach, bestselling author, and co-founder of Sawubona Leadership. With a two-decade career, transforming over 600 companies, she's renowned for integrating millennial insights into corporate strategy. Her bestselling book, Leadership's Perfect Storm, explores how millennials redefine leadership through possibilities, passion, and purpose. recognized as one of the top 10 inspiring women rocking the global business world. Susan's work fosters inclusive cultures globally under Sawubona leadership, celebrating individual gifts and uniting generations. really excited about this interview. We're going to talk about driving change, how to get your team to rally around around change efforts. We may talk a little bit about millennials, but Susan, welcome to the show. Susan Inouye[00:55] Thank you so much, Mike. It's great to be here with you. Mike Goldman[00:59] And my first question is, what do you believe is the most important characteristic of a great leadership team? Susan Inouye[01:07] Hmm. Yeah, I think there are many, but one that stands out for me is a shared commitment to being able to embody the values and live into the purpose of the team every day, not just in what we do, but in who we are. And when I talk about values, I mean, you know, what's most important to the team. And I think three values that come up for me. of great leadership teams is respect, accountability, and trust. The respect for each other's gifts that we bring into the world, the respect for each other's values, what's most important in our lives, and the respect for other people's thoughts and ideas and their viewpoints, especially when they're different than ours, and having openness and curiosity and less right-wrong judgments. And you know, when I talk about, I guess, accountability, I'm talking about holding ourselves and others accountable to our gifts, holding ourselves and others accountable to the values of the team and the purpose of it. And then I think a third one for me is being able to hold ourselves accountable to continuously growing and developing into the best versions of ourselves. And hopefully we're in companies. that actually put aside financial funds for that to happen and actually require us to do training and coaching and hire a coach and things like that. Because when you talk about driving change, the best companies, Mike, are the ones that adapt the core value of growth and development. Because if we're constantly changing and being better, then it's very easy when it should have comes along. for us to head in another direction because we've developed the muscle of change. Mike Goldman[02:55] Yeah, I'm so on the same page with you. And very often when we talk about, you know, setting money aside for, you know, people growth and all that stuff, people look at that as this warm, fuzzy thing and yeah, but we've got to, we've got to invest in new equipment or, or what I have seen time and time again, and there's studies that show it is that investing in people is going to give you a greatest ROI. The number one driver of profit growth is people growth. So we need to do that. So, so I love what you're saying there. I also, know, when you talk about values and purpose and the importance of that on a leadership team, what, what I have seen too is while that's important for the leadership team, the CEO has got to be the model. It's very easy to say, HR is going to own culture values, purpose, all that stuff. Our HR person is going to own it. Well, bull if the CEO doesn't model that. then we're not going to see the right change throughout the organization. So love that. Susan Inouye[03:54] Yeah, it's gonna come from the top. You're absolutely right. And what happens is the team aligns their team purpose according to the purpose of the organization. And the purpose is not the vision, it's why we exist. It is the deep commitment that we have to each other and to others outside of the organization. And it is what is the greater good that we are gonna serve. Mike Goldman[03:57] Yeah. Susan Inouye[04:20] And you're absolutely right, there is definitely a direct alignment between growing our people into the best version of themselves and increased productivity, revenue and profitability. And I've had many clients that I've worked with that have seen tremendous growth, like one that increased their revenues by 50 in only six months during 2010 when there was a downturn in economy. and banks had a solid reputation. So there is absolutely a direct connection and a lot of times, I don't know why, executives don't make that connection. Mike Goldman[04:55] Yeah, it's the first thing that they throw away when times are tough is their investment in people. So I want to drill into this more, but I've got to ask first the Sawubona leadership. Tell me, I know there's a story behind that and there's a meaning of that word. Tell us the story behind it, how you found that and what it means. Susan Inouye[04:59] Yeah, exactly. So, you know, it was more than 13 years ago, I started getting calls from executives complaining about their millennials. I mean, they were frustrated, they were puzzled. And they said, I mean, Susan, who would quit their job with another one to go to? You know, I mean, there were just things that were happening that were just out of the norm. And there was so much pain and suffering between generations. that I had to find some kind of solution and I wanted to find something that wasn't just based in theory and academics but grounded in proven results. And so an executive client, he took me to the ghettos of South Central Los Angeles to find my answer and there he introduced me to this person named Tony LaRae. And I found out that he was a former CEO. He had a very successful business which he had sold and for the past decade he had been transforming saving the lives of thousands of inner city millennial youth through his mentoring program with unprecedented results. Now, what I loved about what he did was, Mike, he went into the community. He asked these young people what it would take to engage with them and they told him. And over the decades he created what he called the gift-centered approach. And the gift-centered approach was at the heart of the way he led, which he called Sawubona leadership. And as I went to some of his mentoring sessions, he invited me. I was just taken aback because here was a community of people of all different generations, all different genders, all different ethnic backgrounds, and the deep connection, and the way they engage each other that brought out the best in who they were. I said, my gosh, I need him to mentor me because I not only saw a way of helping my execs, but I saw a way of creating cultures of belonging. And so he did. I took it into the corporate world over 13 years ago. I started to turn around companies and cultures in a way that was long-term and sustainable. And today, gift-centered approach in Sawubona leadership is in over 30 countries. And it was the subject of my best, my book, Leadership's Perfect Storm. We launched it in the end of 2018 and we were fortunate. It hit the number one bestseller in leadership and business management. Yeah, thanks. Mike Goldman[07:41] Congrats. So dig a little deeper on what is that the gift-centered approach, the Sawubona approach, what is that? Give us kind of the overview and then maybe we'll dive deeper, but start off with an overview of what it is. Susan Inouye[07:58] So, Sawubona means I see you, as in seeing the whole person. And we find that when we see and accept people for who they are, they see and accept us for who we are, and a different conversation unfolds. Not one where we're lecturing to each other, but a conversation where we're listening and learning from each other. And could I give you a story of one of my clients? Because she actually was able to drive change within her department. through entering through the portal of Sawubona. So would that be okay? Okay. Mike Goldman[08:29] Yeah, that'd be great. And then hold on. And then I want you to give me an example of two politicians that use this because I think we need that in the world. That's got to be your next thing, but. Susan Inouye[08:39] Well, I gotta tell you something which is really interesting. It was the Democratic Convention several years ago. They introduced Bill Clinton and they did a video clip on his travels. And he had gone to South Africa and they brought up the greeting, Sawubona that in Africa it's not just about saying hello, it's about saying, I see you. I see you as a human being. see you as a person. So I had a lot of people call me and say, Hey, Clinton stole your Sawubona But yeah, so it's been brought up. It's yeah. Mike Goldman[09:13] Yeah, we need that more. We need that more than the political world. But I took you on a left turn there. Go back to your you were about to tell a client story. Susan Inouye[09:16] I know. Okay, this is story Yeah, so I'll call this person Kathy. And Kathy was the director of IT. And I was working in the company with other execs, not with her. But one day she came up to me and she was just very distraught. She said, Susan, I don't know what to do. I'm gonna have to fire one of my best people, Jack. Now Jack is a millennial. And she said, I've tried everything. Now, Kathy came from the world of command and control. So she used the carrot and the stick on Jack. She gave him incentives. She gave him reprimands. Nothing seemed to be working. And she said, my boss said I have to let him go by Friday. I said, OK. So we talked a little bit more. And I told her about gifts. And then I asked her, so what do you think are Jack's gifts? And I remember her just having a blank stare. And this is not unusual because gifts are what we were born to bring naturally into the world. It's what we do without thinking about them. It's just who we are. So I reaffirmed the question. I said, Kathy, why did you hire him? And his eyes lit up, her eyes lit up and she said, wow, because he's not like any other tech rep. He doesn't talk down to our customers in that techie language that tech people usually do. He gains rapport easily. He can solve the most challenging issues and every rep comes to him for help and he's good at coaching them. I said, okay. She said, but I'm going to have to fire him. I said, wait a minute. Okay. Let's just step back and see a bigger picture. And this is one of the things that I have my clients do step back and see the big picture. I asked her, what do you think is Jack's retention rate of the clients that he does have? And she looked and she said, I don't know. She said, why? I said, because he could bring in less new servicing, new less clients, but retaining more. And that could be more profitable. So she said, let me find out. So the next day she calls me and she said, Susan, you'll never believe it. Jack has the highest retention rate of all our reps and he is more profitable. I said, great. I said, talk to your boss buy us time and let's brainstorm. So The first thing that we do is we brainstorm. said, Kathy, what is the gifts that are trying to come out in this so-called bad behavior? And she said, wow. She said, well, he gains rapport with people. He's very analytical, intelligent. He can solve the most difficult challenges. He's great at training and coaching people. He gains rapport easily. And she went on and on. I said, OK. I said, how do we redirect these gifts so it can better serve? Jack, you and the organization, let's redirect it." And she came up with this really great idea. She said, let's have him create a training manual, give away all of his secrets so the other reps can have it. I said, great. And I said, he also has the gift of training. Why don't we have him train the entire department? She said, my gosh, yes. I said, but first you have to convince him that you want him to do this. And I would start with acknowledging his gifts, recognizing them. And so she did, he was flattered and he said, sure, he'd do it. Now we did many other things, but what happened was the long story short is the company got a new training manual. Jack trained the entire department. Productivity and retention went up across the board. Jack in breaking down what he could do so naturally well found other ways he could be more effective and efficient. And now, Mike, he was making his monthly quotas of new customers served. They had three consecutive years of the highest retention rate of their customers. And Kathy was promoted from a director to a general manager. And that's how she drove change within the organization by entering through the pinhole, which I call Sawubona. Mike Goldman[13:25] So is that is the heart of Sawubona all about understanding, helping people understand what their gifts are, what their genius is, what their strengths are and saying, how do we take that and better leverage that in the organization, which is going to be great for them and great for us. that, is that the heart of it? Susan Inouye[13:47] It's the entry point. It is the entry point with where we start because, and it's not about taking an assessment where the assessment says these are the person's strengths or whatever. We call them gifts and we call the other side to the gift the blind spot. And you can turn a blind spot into a strength. But let me go back. It is the entry point because if you don't even see the gifts in your people, how do you And this drives change, by the way. How do you put them in areas of their job where their gifts blossom? And when their gifts blossom, they feel valued and seen. How do you then praise the gift? And praising the gift is different than just praise. It's not, it's not, know, I can praise the action, like, thank you, Jack, for putting my stapler back in my drawer. I really appreciate, and he'll keep putting it back in the drawer. But if I, praise the gift behind the action like, my gosh, you have such, you have a gift of organization. Like that is so cool. I mean, how could you use that in other parts of our company? And now I get him starting to think how we could use the gift, not just the action. When you start doing this, people feel recognized. And by the way, there was a study done by Korn Ferry. It was their 2025 annual. workforce survey and in it they said that the number one driver of job satisfaction and dissatisfaction was things like recognition. They said compensation but they said compensation is not about the money so much as it is about the recognition. Do you value me? Do you care about who I am? Do you see me not as a an asset that is transactional, but do you see me as a human being in the moment, especially around AI and automation? So this is the thing that drives them. And in Sawubona, when we recognize the gift, it drives me even further. So it's an entry point, but it's not everything. So we enter through it. I mean, I can tell you that I've had organizations that just see the gifts, praise the gifts, put people in... Areas where the gifts will blossom I had a business owner do this and I worked with her for a while They increased their profits. They doubled them in one year just by following those things but they create a culture where everybody is observing and There's other things we did too But it's the entry point if we can't even see this then all we're doing is Judging our people and saying hey you did this wrong. You did that wrong, you know Does that make any sense? Mike Goldman[16:39] It does, it does. how you said something earlier around the gifts is that that's something that comes, those gifts come natural to us. I don't remember exactly how you put it, but when I think of gifts and, and, and, you know, I might define natural talents, maybe in the same way is that we don't necessarily see that in ourselves because it's things that come easily to us so we think everybody can do it. So do you find that with gifts that people don't necessarily see their own gifts? We have to hold the mirror up to them to say, you may not know it, but you have these gifts. Susan Inouye[17:14] you Right, I mean when I do an assessment of a client that I'm working with, even execs, and they've risen to the top, they've been using their gifts for years, I'll ask them, what are your gifts? And they'll go, you know, I really don't know. So what I have them do is pick five people who have their best interests at heart, who they trust, that know them, and will tell them their gifts. and what their blind spots are, which is the other side to the gift. And so when they get back this feedback from people that they trust and respect, they go, my gosh, I didn't realize that I have this. didn't, yeah. And it's also these aha moments go, I got it. Yeah. Now the funny thing about gifts, and this is where development happens as well. And we talked about growth and development. being a really an engine of change for our people, right? Learning how to constantly change and build that muscle of change is the other side to the gift. So if a person has the gift of planning, and it depends on how planning is defined, usually the other side to that gift, what do you think it is? The other side to the gift of planning. Mike Goldman[18:32] Do you mean other side meeting a blind spot or? Susan Inouye[18:35] what they're blind to and need to learn. If you are a planner, what are you blind to and need to learn? Mike Goldman[18:41] would think someone who's a real good planner may sometimes be blind to making quick decisions and getting started because they want to analyze and keep planning. Susan Inouye[18:51] Yeah, so it's being able to let go and go with the flow. Most people who are great planners, if something doesn't go according to the plan, they get very frustrated, right? So now we know, but what's interesting is when you tell a person, look, you have this gift, but you're overusing it until it becomes your weakness. Just like when we overuse a muscle, it becomes weak. When we overuse a gift, our blind spot shows up. And so I say to them, if you learn to turn that blind spot into a strength, and a blind spot is not negative, it's a gift you don't have. If you learn to let go and go with the flow, then what happens is you have the capacity to do both, that when things don't go according to plan, you can head in another direction. And it's not either or, Mike. It's an integration of both. And this is also another definition for me of balance. When we have our gift, which we're already developing, we turn our blind spot into strength and we have the integration of both, that creates balance because we're seeing the world through a different lens. Mike Goldman[20:02] So how does someone do that? Cause it, sounds great, but if you've got someone who is a planner and you say it's great, that's a gift you have, but you also have to be comfortable letting go. They're not naturally comfortable letting go. So how do you help someone become comfortable with something that's the opposite of who they believe they are? Susan Inouye[20:09] Great. or not. Right, and so this is where we go deeper into the work that I do. It enters through Sawubona, but what happens is when I acknowledge someone's gift and just say you're overusing it until it leads to this, they don't get defensive. They go, yeah, that's true, yeah, okay. Now, so how do you get a person? And this is also a part of change. Change happens not in the mind, it happens in the body. Unless we change the way we feel in our bodies, we do not transform. Okay, so let me just say that statement, which means this, and then I'll get you into planning and flow, which is that it's like learning to drive a car. When we learn to drive a car, we have the insight. We go in a classroom, we have the insight. yeah, these are the rules of the road. This is what I must do. But it's intellectual insight. Aha moments. But aha moments is not transformation. Until you add practices, until I get in the car, until I feel the pedal, the brakes, until I'm in traffic and I embody what it feels like to be in that car in traffic and I practice it over and over again. I never develop new habits that lead to new competencies where now today I drive a car and I don't even think about it. That's what we call embodiment. That's what we call transformation. So I have to do practices of the body to help a person feel what it is to let go and go with the flow. So their body creates a new way of being where this becomes their new home base. They're used to it. They're used to going from planning to flowing and back and forth. So you want me to give you another story of one of my clients? Because this is a really cool one. Mike Goldman[22:19] Sure, because I'm trying to figure out like, what do I need to do with my body in order to feel, do I have to move around and you know. Susan Inouye[22:21] you short one and then I'll give you a longer one. So a CFO, he came to me and one of the things was is that he was very stuck in his analytical and planning kind of method, right? And I found out I always give practices to clients that they tell me about what they're doing in their life and then I bring a new nuance to that, a distinction. So he had said to me, Susan, He just in conversation, he said, my wife has always wanted me to take ballroom dancing. I love my wife. I want to do whatever she wants to do. That was just a side conversation. And I, take everything in and I said to him, okay, would you be open to the practice of learning salsa? And he said, salsa. I said, yeah, you said you'd do anything for your wife and she wants to learn ballroom dancing. He said, I said, so you could kill two birds with one stone. You could do a practice that I want you to do so you could feel in your body what flow is and you will then please your wife. He thought he went, wow, OK, OK. So they hired a ballroom teacher. And I remember he got in. I'll just call him George. George got into. private lessons with his wife. His wife was so excited. She said tell Susan I love her. Mike Goldman[23:50] You Susan Inouye[23:51] So when he went to go take private lessons with his wife, the salsa teacher first said, my gosh, you are so stiff. And he said, and he said, you're thinking too much, just kind of go with it. And he said to the salsa teacher, that's exactly what my coach said. And salsa teachers said, what did, why did you, what, what is this? Why did your coach send you to take salsa? And he said, because I don't know what flow feels like. And the salsa teacher said, she's very smart. You're going learn what flow feels like. It just changed his whole demeanor, his whole aura. Instead of being very stiff, like this, he was able to flow with what came to him. Now want to give you one more story because this is huge. I had a person, I'll call her Beth. She was the head of production of an event planning company. So you can only imagine that her core gift was planning. That was one of her best gifts. But she was on the verge of burnout because there wasn't anything she didn't plan. So when we started working together, I knew I had to get her into a practice of letting go and going with the flow. And did mention to me, we did too, she did mention to me that she wanted to clean out her house. But she had a lot of things that had memories for her. So I said, would you be open to the practice of cleaning out your house, not to get rid of things, but to feel what it's like to let go. Because in order for a person to stop planning, they first have to let go. She said, okay. So we created a ritual around letting go. I also found out she was a photographer. So she said, how about if I create a ritual where when I let go of something important to me, I feel what it's like in my body, and then I take a photograph of it and I create a photo book of all the precious things that have so much memory. I said, great. So she did it. It opened the door to... Her then telling me one day she always wanted to learn trapezing. And I went, and then she went on and I said, back up, back up. You've always wanted to learn trapezing. Why? She said, well, as a little girl, I saw them on the flying trapeze. I said, are you still interested? She said, yeah. I said, really? I found the New York school of trapeze on the Santa Monica Pier here in Los Angeles, where I live. I went to talk to them and they said, my gosh, we get a lot of executives that do things like this with trapeze. And that's what they kind of want to learn. So I gave her the practice of trapezing. She went down to Santa Monica Pier, she signed up, and she started taking trapeze lessons. Mike, she replaced her fear of letting go with a feeling of freedom. And she started to let go of whole projects. She started to trust her people. I mean, there were so many benefits. Her people started to drive the company forward rather than her having to lead it forward. They were the engine that drove it. And because now she knew what it felt like, and by the way, she's still taking it. She's now doing silks. And silks is a little bit harder. But she said, Susan, I have never felt what it is to have such freedom when I let go. So that's why doing somatic practices, practices of the body, are so important in transformation. Mike Goldman[27:29] So how do we relate this to a CEO or a senior leader that is trying to implement some major change in the organization? It's not necessarily they want to change from planning too much to letting go or something. they want to implement some change in the organization. And I'll give you a silly example from my previous life as a management consultant many years ago where change was not handled well was I was working for what's now called Accenture way back in like 1989. Susan Inouye[28:12] know that company well. Mike Goldman[28:14] Yeah, I helped my client, it was a retailer, implement a brand new system to automatically replenish inventory. Our pilot department was Playtex Bras. That's where we were implementing this system. And we thought the system worked great. Zero return on investment, inventory got worse. The reason why inventory got worse, getting back to change, is because while the system seemed to work fine, all of the merchants that had to approve these orders didn't believe what any computer system was gonna tell them. This was way back before AI and us believing what computers tell us, but didn't believe what any computer system would tell them. So what they did is these automatic orders will come out and they would just modify them all. And it totally screwed up inventory. It's a matter of we created this system, but didn't really handle the change management very well to get people to change the way they're thinking. Now these days there may be a whole bunch of other things, know, the AI changing the world and how we do things. But how should a leader think if there's a major change they want to drive in their organization? How could they use some of these concepts to think, you know, how do I implement change in my team or in my company? Susan Inouye[29:35] Yeah, so what I want to say to you is this. And then I'll give you some, I'll give you the thoughts on the most successful company and how they are getting their people behind change. First of all, if you're the kind of leader that is very command and control and all you do is give directives, then your people, first of all, know that you don't value their ideas, you don't value who they are. And it's gonna be very hard to all of a sudden care about them. so that they care about you. That is really the bottom line because even out of the survey of Korn Ferry, came out that you have to start to build that culture where people feel valued and seen for who they are. And so that they are bringing the change to you rather than you putting the change on them. There is a saying, there's a statement, which is leaders, true leaders. I'm not talking about people in positions of power or people with title. There is a difference. But truly just create the change, create the culture where change doesn't happen to us. It happens because of us. And what we're finding is, is that the most successful companies, what they do is the ones that are able to get their people behind change initiatives. are the ones that first receive the voice and the inputs of their people. But they have been doing that for a while. They receive it. They have created infrastructures where people can give their feedback, their ideas, their thoughts. They create opportunities where they can participate in, when we're talking about AI and automation, in the adoption process, the usage process, the implementation process. And in doing all this, it helps the company to integrate technology that is not only of supports, but advances the organization strategies that already exist. They give voice to people. For example, Gen Z, they grew up with AI. These are the companies that give voice to Generation Z by saying, hey, we want you to mentor our leaders. because we know that you'll catch on much faster than others. So it is very much so that you start to create that environment because we're in change all the time. And that's why I'm saying if one of the core values of a company is growth and learning and they require their people to do something every year, they're constantly changing so that when it happens, it's not a big deal. Mike Goldman[32:14] I love that. and it's not just like you could encourage growth and learning, you know, yeah, you've got to go get trained on that. You've got to go learn, but still not really see people still not really accept their inputs, still be more command and control from the top. But if you're encouraging growth and learning, and at the same time, you are understanding what people's gifts are and you are getting feedback and giving people opportunity to participate, then you're going to get that change. And I think a great example, had someone on the podcast not too long ago talking specifically about artificial intelligence. And the question came up, you know, do we need someone in our organization to be accountable for AI, to kind of own AI? And the answer then and her view on it was was very interesting. which was that AI, and I think this is a good kind of metaphor for other things that we're talking about. AI is very much a technology that is grassroots. It's not someone at the top saying we will all use AI in this way to do this. It's a lot of people trying out chat GPT for something and gamma for something else and perplexity for something else. And through that, you realize what's working and then perpetuate it throughout the entire organization. which is very different than top down. seems like that's a metaphor for how a lot of change should be happening. Susan Inouye[33:44] Yeah, and you've got to understand, mean, partly is the people at the top who are of generations prior to millennials. They don't take the time to really understand and know what their people need and value and then provide opportunities for those needs to be fulfilled. One of the things that we are finding out, and this came out in the survey, that what they value is growth. They value an organization, a company. investing in them becoming better leaders, investing in their skills in AI. They want to not just understand it, they want to be able to use it in a meaningful way in their work. And by the way, they see the change in AI happening, but they don't feel prepared to meet it because they feel that their companies are not giving them the skill, that they're not skilling them up to be able to meet the demand and the challenge. And so, and a lot of times one of the reasons it's not happening is because the generations prior to millennials don't feel comfortable with it. So it's hard for them. But like I said, the companies who are smart, they give voice to Gen Z and say, hey, let's have you mentor the people at the top. So very much of a different way of thinking. Mike Goldman[35:04] So what is, what's the, if I'm a leader and again, I want to drive change, what's the first thing a leader should be thinking about? How do they, know, do they need to go out and hire you to help people take salsa lessons and trapeze? because of your expertise and your gifts, you have the ability to come up with these ideas and help your clients, but for the leader who's saying, hey, you I need to try to change myself. I want to help change the company and do that through others. What's the first thing they ought to be thinking about? Is it that entry point of starting to understand the gifts in their team members? Is that the first thing they ought to do or is there a different way to get started? Susan Inouye[35:54] Well, it is, but the first thing is that they want certain things from their people. They have to have it themselves. And it can happen very fast if they step into the journey. In other words, if you don't know your own gifts, if you don't know your own blind spots, if you're not working on these things every day, then guess what? It's going to be hard for you to coach your people so that they can be the leaders you need them to be. But if you step in, the results can be tenfold. And so, so let me put it this way to you. In working with organizations and in doing speaking engagements, I've had many millennials come up to me and they have many needs, but the three needs that keep echoing is the need to feel heard, to use their gifts and have meaning and purpose in their lives. Now, when I ask the audience, who is of other generations, how many of you want that too? Every hand goes up. Because it's not a generational need, it is a human need. So if leaders do not address these three needs of human beings, then it will be hard to get people behind you to drive change. Because they'll constantly be complaining, they'll constantly be going, you don't get me. And the one thing that I do know is that when for, and this workplace survey backed it up, they say they want to be challenged. They want to have interesting and different work as long as you don't just lecture down to them. They want to be given opportunity to use their gifts in different ways and they want to work, walk away from their work every day feeling fulfilled because they have contributed. We are not you, if you know their gifts, you know where to place them, you know how to be able to help them, you know how to coach them, there's so many other things that can happen from that. So I say, like when I work with leaders, I'll give you another story too. I had a leader that came to me in the downturn of the economy in 2010. She wanted to drive change, to increase revenue and profitability in a time when We had a downturn in economy and banks had a solid reputation. And all of her bosses said to her, you just have to be patient and wait, there's nothing we can do. But she believed that there was something that could be done. She said, I really believe that I can drive this change so that this region, she was a regional manager and senior vice president of a subsidiary of an international bank that I worked with. And so she came to me and we talked. And I told her the entry point is going to be me helping you become a better person and a better leader. And she looked at me and she said, like, what does that have to do with me increasing my productivity and profitability? I said everything, everything. And so we started at the pinhole. And it's like the pebble in the pond effect. If you are the rock and you have changed and you're such an amazing leader, I drop you into the pond. Mike Goldman[38:49] Yeah. Susan Inouye[39:04] and your goodness ripples out to touch everybody else in the pond and things happen. So I worked with her, entered through Sawubona gifts. I talked to her people. The complaints from her people were and why they didn't like getting behind her. You know, they did their job, but the extra stuff that you need to drive change will not happen because number one, they said she only approached them when she saw them doing things wrong. She didn't value them. She didn't listen. We could tell she's thinking about other things. And we don't feel like we're a part of anything. And she had her business development officer say to me that she was the worst leader he had ever worked with. And by the way, you can tell her. So I told her just, you know, and she said, well, I didn't hire him. Anyway, we started working to get her to connect and receive to see the gifts because these are the answers to if you want to fill herd you have to connect and receive with your people if Your people want to use their gifts you have to see their gifts if your people want meaning and purpose you have to create a culture where they fill a part of something greater than themselves and so Therein lied we worked with her We quieted her mind, we did practices of meditation, she jumped right in. There was a point where she was so present, people were going, my gosh, it feels so different to be around her. They knew she was listening and present, she was receiving their ideas, she was open to them. She allowed them to be able to try those ideas as long as they had backup plans in case it didn't work. She found that she did have the gift of compassion for others, but she blocked it with her right wrong judgments. So when we quiet the mind, we can also sink into the heart and develop its intelligence through practices of appreciation. All of a sudden, she started to see the gifts in people and especially, I'll just call him Jim, her BD officer. And she started to recognize him through just praising the gift. She did many other things. She put people, she started see where she could put people in areas where they would excel. And all of a sudden the team came together like never before. I can tell you that within a period of six months, they increased their region's book of business by 50%. By the end of the year, they were at 150 of their goals. Within a year, they were the top region in the entire international bank. And she called me one day because, and she was like in tears and I said, what's going on? She goes, my God, Jim was in a meeting of my bosses. And he said, my gosh, what did he say? Cause he's the one that said she was the worst leader ever. He told them that I was the best leader he had ever worked for. That I see my people, that I value them, that I listen, I give them opportunities to participate. And Susan, I just never thought. that me becoming a better person and a leader would lead to all of this. And that's how you drive change. And that happened within a period of six months. So you tell me if that's not fast enough. Mike Goldman[42:28] Yeah, that's amazing. That's amazing. So Susan, as, as we start to kind of wrap this up, if someone, wants to take the next step, if someone wants to find out more about you and your services to help them understand their own gifts, see themselves better, help them see others better and help, help others see their gifts. Susan Inouye[42:47] help them increase their Mike Goldman[42:48] I'm using a different language now already for us talking together. But if someone wants to take that next step and better understanding their own gifts, helping others to see and leverage their gifts, where should people go to find out more about you, your book, your speaking, all the things you do? Susan Inouye[43:06] Sure, thanks Mike. We created a page. it's SusanInouye.com forward slash BLTS. So let me spell it. It's Susan S-U-S-A-N-I-N-O-U-Y-E.com forward slash B as in better, L as in leadership, T as in team. S is in show and they'll find on that page I have three offers. They can download a chapter of the book. That's one. Number two, they can there's a link to the book on Amazon and all proceeds by the way go to Youth Mentoring Connection who is the organization that taught me Sawubona leadership. And the third is they can book a discovery call and if they just want to ask me questions or they have a challenge, I'd be happy to ask me anything. And if they're interested in my services, they can ask that too. Mike Goldman[44:05] And by the way, if you're driving your car and you couldn't write down all those, and people could probably spell Susan, okay. It was the rest of it they need help with. This will all be in the show notes. So when you park your car and you have a chance to actually look at your phone, look at the show notes and it'll be there. But Susan, thanks so much. I always say if you want a great company, you need a great leadership team. Susan, thanks for helping us get there today. Susan Inouye[44:13] Thank You're welcome. Thanks, Mike.