Embracing Empowerment in Leadership with Lisa Thimmesch

What if effective leadership is less about control and more about trust and empowerment? Join us for an enlightening conversation with Lisa Thimmesch, CEO of Lasting Coach and Consulting, who has dedicated over 30 years to mastering leadership in the pharmaceutical industry. Lisa shares her passion for leadership, manufacturing, and the profound impact of her experiences with Leadership Kansas. Her journey is a testament to the power of learning from diverse perspectives and underscores how such connections can enrich both personal and professional growth.

Throughout our discussion, Lisa emphasizes the calm confidence that true leaders bring to their teams, fostering an environment of growth without micromanagement. She opens up about the transition from corporate roles to entrepreneurship and how redefining personal success goes beyond monetary gains. Lisa's insights reveal how great leadership can ripple through an organization, enhancing not only workplace environments but also personal relationships and overall well-being. Listen in to discover the essence of impactful leadership and how it shapes not just businesses but lives.

Contact Lisa at:

www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-thimmesch
www.lastingcoach.com

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Transcript

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Leadership Journey and Coaching Passion

Dr. Katie Ervin 0:32

I am excited for this episode , as I always am , but another one of my Leadership Kansas classmates . I get to share her story with you . Hey , lisa , how are you ? I'm good . Thank you for having me , of course , of course , well , and we have connected since session one because we both have such a heart for leadership and people and giving everybody opportunity for growth .

Lisa Thimmesch 1:00

Yes , I would agree . You're definitely one of the people that I reach out to for advice , just always curious to see where your journey is taking you , and I know that you've always got some advice for me on my journey as well . So I very much appreciate how we connected and what Leadership Kansas has done for us .

Dr. Katie Ervin 1:17

Yeah , it's so cool , yeah , and likewise . I mean you introduced me to the . I have it right here . I was just talking about the other day to someone , the seven leadership , energy , seven energy , leadership , yep .

Lisa Thimmesch 1:30

The .

Dr. Katie Ervin 1:30

ELI yes , yeah , and we can talk about that as well . Well , before we jump in too far , can you tell everyone who you are , what you do ? All that good stuff .

Lisa Thimmesch 1:40

Yeah . So again , lisa Timish . I am the CEO of Lasting Coach and Consulting and specifically I like to focus on leadership and then , on the consulting side , manufacturing . I have a love for manufacturing and this has really come out for me during Leadership Kansas . As we go through the different manufacturing facilities . I love walking into them and seeing what they're doing , you know , to keep their employees safe and good quality and just general cleanliness . And then I love going into the ones and have a little bit of a visceral reaction and like , oh , I would really like to come in and help them right and like , oh , I would really like to come in and help them right . So again , lasting coach and consulting and coaching side , focusing on that leadership . But any kind of coaching conversation can go into any direction , so not always just about leadership when I have those conversations .

Dr. Katie Ervin 2:33

Yeah , yeah , I think that's so true and I want to ask you and lean in more on the leadership Kansas stuff . But before I do that , can you kind of talk to us about your career journey , like what brought you here ? How did you get here ?

Lisa Thimmesch 2:48

Yes , so I've worked in the pharmaceutical industry for over 30 years and over 20 years included leadership responsibility . I would have anything from a team of eight colleagues to over 200 . I would lead quality departments and I would lead manufacturing departments . It was a great career for me , definitely taught me a lot , a lot of challenges . Multiple times throughout my career I would get to create a new job for myself based on the needs of the company or the industry . At that time I got exposure to regulatory agencies like nobody else and at certain times of my career I was actually known as a subject matter expert within the industry on some different topics . I was actually known as a subject matter expert within the industry on some different topics . So it was , it was a very fruitful career . It was a great career to teach me about leadership and really very pivotal in where I am today and who I am today . Yeah , yeah .

Dr. Katie Ervin 3:52

I think it's so . Your journey is like so many people , where it's you know you're , you're , you're growing in your career , you're moving , moving through and and you get to this really great point where it's like you kind of , as you're moving through the journey , you reflect back and you're like I have picked up so much goodness through the , through the experience of it .

Lisa Thimmesch 4:13

Yes , yeah , absolutely , and and I think too , every experience , good or bad , is a learning experience . That is something else I've really come to appreciate about me is I have defined myself lately as a lifelong learner . I don't know that I would have said that 10 years ago about me , but learning and growing has become part of a passion and very much around that leadership and what I really like to see is how my growth helps others . You know , I think as leaders , that's what we all want to do , is we want to help other people , we want to help them be successful , we want them to enjoy coming to their work . We want to help them grow . You know , I never wanted to have somebody work for me forever . I really wanted to help them figure out what's next and be able to grow into that .

Dr. Katie Ervin 5:05

Yeah , well , and I think that's one of the cool things about Leadership Kansas that we get to do . I mean , we're so fortunate there's 39 of us , so we get to sit every month with all these leaders all across the state of Kansas and share what we know , share what we're learning . I know you know one of our favorite people which is hard to say because we really love them all but Erica , I had her on the podcast and every time I see her she's like what books are you reading ? What's happening ? But I feel like we do that with each other . Like what lessons have you reading what's happening ? But I feel like we , we do that with each other . Like what lessons have you learned since we've seen you last ?

Lisa Thimmesch 5:41

Yeah , and and I would say some of my favorite parts of leadership Kansas is sitting down with somebody after a session , one-on-one , and asking what'd you take away from that ? You know , what did you learn ? I , I , I know what I take away from it , I know what I thought about it in the minute , but what I want to know is what others think about it . And seeing us come , we are every walk of life . Yes , we are representing Kansas in all different ways . We all bring a different experience , both personally and professionally , and therefore we go into each of every one of these sessions with a different lens , and so I love sitting down and talking to my fellow classmates one-on-one and hearing what their lens showed them from that individual experience or tour or panel that we listened to .

Dr. Katie Ervin 6:31

Yeah , yeah . And to the point you brought up earlier , there's times that we'll be walking through something and you and I and our friend Brian in the class will be like we really want to support . How do we help them ? How do we Right ? We just , we want everyone to thrive . So often they're good at what they do and they don't always think about whether it be people development or , you know , quality control or whatever . There's these gaps that exist and we kind of get to see them as we go through our experiences .

Lisa Thimmesch 7:10

Yeah , I think it's no different than people , but organizations can also get in their own way when it comes to bettering themselves .

Dr. Katie Ervin 7:18

Yeah , yeah , and we've definitely seen some of that . Yeah , we definitely have . And I think you know to me I love that you do coaching . I always tell people like I do kind of coaching light . I coach some people , but it's not something I'm not certified in it but you're really passionate about it . So can you talk about that and why it's so important to you ?

Lisa Thimmesch 7:41

Well , I should probably start with how I even got into coaching . I honestly didn't even know really what coaching was . You know , we hear the word coaching all the time . It's a buzzword in a lot of ways , and I actually was going through kind of a challenging time in my career that that , I would say , rocked me to the point that made me wake up and ask myself is this what I want to do for the rest of my career ? Is this what I want to do for the next 15 to 20 years ?

Lisa Thimmesch 8:13

And and I have to tell you it was , it hit me hard because I've been at this company for a long time . I've demonstrated my ability to adjust with the different company names out front , the different leadership coming in and out , so I was a very flexible employee . And so this particular incident it hit me hard and it hit me very personally , and so it woke me up to ask like , okay , this can't be everything for me , there's gotta be something else out there . So , like , what is next ? And you know , I was just having a general conversation with a gal that I work out with every day and she , she looked at me and she says have you ever thought about coaching . She's a coach . She was an educator and now she coaches educators . And I said no , I said , tell me more . And so she shared with me the company that she got certified through . She shared the information , kind of shared what it is . She put that little tiny bit of belief in me and then said I think you'd be a great coach . I was like , okay , somebody thinks I'd be a great coach . You know that little tiny mustard seed , right . So she sent me the information , I looked into it , I called the company and I have not looked back .

Lisa Thimmesch 9:29

Coaching has been , oh my gosh . Personally , you know , I just continue to be a better person every day . I mean , we all have . We're never going to be perfect , but it's a tool that helps me , it gives me , it gives me a path , it helps give me some structure and give me some things to work on .

Lisa Thimmesch 9:50

But as a leader in an organization and being able to coach others , it absolutely has been pivotal .

Lisa Thimmesch 9:56

I mean , I've been able to focus on transitioning from a manager to a leader and there is a difference , in case you're wondering and so I've definitely been able to transition into that leader space and over the last year to two years I've been able to help my teams truly focus on the goals and moving forward , versus the day-to-day rug rat kind of race right and just watching that . You know , it's like this flower blooming and seeing them transition from a manager to a leader has been phenomenal . But one of the things I also love about leading is I love leading the younger leaders . The newer leaders . Yeah , that's a hard role , you know , transitioning from one of those employers to now the leader , and too many times we let the title drive us versus what's inside . And so being able to coach those leaders and really help them get that right footing underneath them is , you know , you're just helping them be set up for success in the role as well as within their teams and their company .

Dr. Katie Ervin 11:08

Yeah , yeah , well , and I think that is so important . I tell people I feel like I'm on a mission right now to like let everyone know we're going to be okay with all the generations in the workforce . Like this is yes , we're unique because we have five generations , but it's not a new day that we're looking at the generations behind us and thinking what are they doing ? Like we were all 20 something at some point and we all made ridiculous mistakes . This isn't new .

Lisa Thimmesch 11:37

Right , right , and I would love to be able to walk that path with these individuals , yeah , yeah , because because you're right , they are the future and they bring so much to the workforce . You know , and we bring a lot to the workforce as non 20 year olds . So being able to come together and , you know , do it together is such a great gift , I think , for anybody .

Dr. Katie Ervin 12:01

So yeah , well , and I think with team building and , you know , building strong organizations to just dismiss the younger generations and I have written about and seen like Gen Zs are getting fired at a faster rate than any other generation and it's like , well then , where are you getting your workforce Like they're the workforce ? Where are you getting your workforce Like they're the workforce ? What are you going to do for people ?

Lisa Thimmesch 12:28

Just continue to complain that there's no one out there to work . Yeah , and I would love to look into that a little bit more . My initial reaction to that statistic is then they did not do a good enough job in developing those people . Yes , then they did not do a good enough job in developing those people . Yes , yeah , you know , and I think that we , as the older generation , to your point forget that we were 20 at one point in time . And whether we have an expectation of that 20-year-old coming in and being where I'm at , or maybe the 20-year-old comes in and has an expert , you know , they think they need to be where the 50-year-old's at , I don't know . But there's gotta be development , there's gotta be time invested in our people to help them be the best that they can .

Dr. Katie Ervin 13:08

Yeah , when I think that goes to . You're talking about transitioning to . You know a leader and you know inspiring your team , so can you talk a little bit about the importance of of of taking that transition ? Yeah , so can you talk a little bit about the importance of taking that transition ?

Lisa Thimmesch 13:23

Yeah , let me talk first a little bit about the difference between manager and leader . So managers are typically people that you're going to go to every day for an answer . You know they're going to be a little bit more into the day-to-day activities , more of that doer . In some respects , a leader is somebody that you're going to go to and they're not going to give you the answer , but they're going to help you get to the answer . They're going to have more of a visionary thought around where are we going as a company ? Instead of thinking of what do we have to get done today , day-to-day , they're going to be thinking more about okay , if I accomplish these tasks over the next two , three months , it's going to support us on a larger scale . So it's a little bit more of that visionary type of thinking .

Cultivating Leadership and Self-Control

Lisa Thimmesch 14:09

When you get people to transition into that leader space , there's a calm that comes . I don't know how else to explain it . This is a personal feel that I get from it , but the day-to-day management has a little bit of a hectic face to it . That pace feels a little more rushed and hurried , whereas the leader , when you're wearing that leadership hat , it feels calmer , it feels more intentional , it feels more like we have things under control . We just have to trust the process and don't lose sight of what that is .

Dr. Katie Ervin 14:48

Well , and I think when leaders do that and create that , that calm , even you know sometimes it's , you know we're bringing on new products or we're changing systems or whatever you know leaders can even decrease some of that stress in the , in the change , which is important .

Lisa Thimmesch 15:07

Absolutely and yeah , to that point . You know , when you've got a big project going on , there's always this urgency of we got to jump in and get going on it . But I think what a leader does is it's like okay , hold on , take a breath , let's take a step back and let's be thoughtful about what this looks like . And when you do that slight pause , it's setting you up for success versus maybe just jumping in without the pause .

Dr. Katie Ervin 15:33

Yeah , yeah , and we've heard this for years and years and it's always entertaining to me when companies are like that's not true . But you know , people really truly do leave because a lot of times they have bad managers that cause them problems . They may love the company or whatever , and you know people will say , well , they left for more money . And I'm like look , I'm 48 years old and I've been called by a lot of recruiters in my life . Look , I'm 48 years old and I've been called by a lot of recruiters in my life and I've never had a recruiter lead with hey , katie , we're going to give you $12,000 more a year and more vacation days . They typically call and say are you interested , are you looking ? And if you're happy , you say no , thank you , I'm great . And you move on . There's some level of discomfort that causes them to say I'll listen .

Lisa Thimmesch 16:21

Absolutely , yeah , absolutely . And I think that , micromanager , you hear that a lot . That's so , to me , the difference . When you start thinking more of how they show up , a leader will show up with a more trusting mindset . I trust my people to do their job .

Lisa Thimmesch 16:39

Listen , I don't want to be the smartest person on my team . As the leader , I want to surround myself with people that are smarter than me , and then my goal is to help them do the best job that they can . I don't want to micromanage , I don't want to be looking over their shoulder . I don't want to be checking up on them all the time . I don't want them to say , oh hey , lisa gave me this job to do , but then Lisa turned around and tell me exactly how to do it . That's not a leader . And the other thing that comes out of this is you're not building future leaders in your company , when that's how you behave , you know , and that's what I think a leader does is they're more thoughtful around that succession planning . And am I helping this colleague grow and potentially be my replacement or another leader within our organization ?

Dr. Katie Ervin 17:29

Yeah , yeah , and I and I would imagine in your coaching and throughout your career , I've seen it as well it's you know , you have these managers that never have enough time . They never have you know , they can never get stuff done , they're late to everything . Like you cannot depend on them , everything . And it's I . There's times where , when I'm not coaching them , when I'm just their peer , then I'm like then get out of everyone's business , Like stop doing their job and do yours .

Lisa Thimmesch 17:55

Yeah , exactly , yeah , exactly , and and and I think that there has to be like a switch that happens there because , absolutely , when you're busy , busy , busy , you're feeling some level of accomplishment , whether it's the right level or not . There's oh , I got stuff done today whether it's the right level or not , there's oh , I got stuff done today . But when you do that switch of it's not my job to do all of that every day you do have to think more about then how am I feeling accomplished ? And it's softer . Right , it's not very tactical type of work , but it's softer work . And you know you've got to be okay with that . And again , you know I mentioned trust the process , trust the process . Well , that's part of it . It's not it's not something that's just going to happen overnight , but you've got to be able to see again you're planting that seed and you're going to see that growth if you tend to it .

Dr. Katie Ervin 18:44

Yeah , yeah . And I think too , when we think about that and I've I've had a lot of conversations with especially young adults , but I mean really a lot of people lately like what is your definition of success ? Like , yes , I would love to have a billion dollars and live on a yacht , but if I haven't had positive impact , if I haven't helped people be successful , if I haven't , you know , poured into people , then I'm just sitting on a yacht and some people will be like that's fine , then that's their definition of success . But if , at the end of days , I'm sitting by myself , that's not success to me .

Lisa Thimmesch 19:19

No , it's funny you ask that because obviously I recently transitioned out of the corporate world into this entrepreneurship and one of the things that I had to really ask myself is what's my day going to look like ? It's not gonna be driven by meetings that I had to really ask myself . Is what's my day going to look like ? You know it's not going to be driven by meetings that I have to attend . I get the flexibility , but what does my day need to look like ?

Lisa Thimmesch 19:42

And you know , I actually put down , I listed out , like four different things that I want to be able to answer at the end of the day that will help define my success , and they're nothing like I made X amount of money or I did anything like that . One of the things is did I have fun ? That's one of the questions I want to ask myself Did I have fun ? One of the things is do I have any regrets ? And how my day went , whether I did or didn't get things done , do I have any regrets ? So two of those four questions aren't even really about my job , but it's how I want my day to be for me .

Dr. Katie Ervin 20:21

Yeah Well , and I love that reflection . I tell people all the time like I've never had more pressure on my life owning my own business , but I've also never slept better . And it's because , at the end of the day , you know it's it's your stuff that you can theoretically control . You can't control when clients make decisions or pay or stuff like that .

Dr. Katie Ervin 20:38

But . But you know it's , it's my control , and I know people hate the word control when I say it , but it's like I'm not at the whim of of of someone else making decisions on my business and and that helps me sleep at night . And when I wake up at 2 am with this panic like , oh my gosh , they haven't paid yet , and what am I going to do , I can go to sleep and say you know what , I'll deal with that at seven in the morning . I can't deal with that right now .

Lisa Thimmesch 21:28

Yeah , and I don't dislike the word control at all . In fact , as a coach , we use that word quite often . You know when people are stressed or when they're worrying or they've got a lot going on . One of the big questions that I'll ask is what can you control ? Right , right , you know and we see so much picture of that on my door because I want people stopping and thinking like you cannot control the way your coworkers react to you . You can control the way you react . So I wanted just to allow that thought to be a point of conversation , and I think it does a lot of self-reflection . You become more self-aware the more self-aware we are . I think at the end , you've got more growth that comes out of that .

Dr. Katie Ervin 21:57

Yeah , and I think when you focus on what you can control , it takes your stress and anxiety down Like you can't . You know , traffic is one of those things where it will cause such a panic for people and it's like you know what it happens . There are things out of your control that happen all the time . It's your reaction to that .

Lisa Thimmesch 22:19

Yeah , I mean , you know we've had a lot of crazy weather lately . We cannot control the weather , but we can control how prepared we are , yeah , and how we personally let it stir us up . You know , inside too .

Dr. Katie Ervin 22:33

Yeah , yeah , I think that's so important . And that brings us to the last question that I love to ask everyone , and I think you're going to have such a great answer to this , so I'm excited to hear it . But , to the level you're comfortable sharing , what's the biggest leadership or career misstep you've taken ? Did you not hear ?

Lisa Thimmesch 22:56

my last question was do I have any regrets ? I want to ask myself every day Do I have any regrets , man ? I look back at my career and there's been so many ups and downs . I mean , first of all , I was never supposed to go into the career I went into , so I don't I don't want to call that a misstep or anything , because it obviously again was very fruitful for me and my family and personally who I became . I just I don't think that I have any missteps . I think , if anything , what I wish I had done differently or sooner maybe , was learned about coaching , learned about how I could have a different approach as a leader and how I could be showing up differently for my people to help them . I've seen , you know , I've had a few colleagues that I've been working very closely with over the last three to four years that I've just seen phenomenal growth in , and I just wish I had more time to have done that .

Dr. Katie Ervin 24:00

Yeah , yeah , that makes so much sense . And because it's audio , people couldn't see your face . But I love . I think the reason I love this question is one because I love for people to hear . I think the reason I love this question is one because I love for people to hear like we take steps in our career and we reflect back and are like , well , you know , maybe I would or wouldn't have taken that . But also I love to watch everyone's faces when I ask this question , because people are like , oh , okay , well , let me think about all of that . And that's the other important thing I think too is because earlier in our career , when we're , you know , maybe in our late twenties , early thirties , we make a mistake at work and we think it's the most detrimental . Like you know , the world is coming to an end because I made this mistake and it's like , yeah , you're going to get to a point where that is so inconsequential You're never even going to think about it again .

Lisa Thimmesch 24:51

That is so inconsequential , you're never even going to think about it again . Yeah , I , um , I don't know . I I def . I definitely have always lived my life with . I don't want to have regrets . I don't want to ever sit back and think of having regrets . So now I'm questioning that question that I've asked myself . But , um , to me it's always experiences . You know , when things go sideways or off the rails , what did I learn from it ? You know , the more I thought about it , I think the one thing I would say I wish I had done a little differently was found a better balance with family when my kids were younger . Yeah , yeah , you know that was a time in my career where I was extremely busy , extremely active in a lot of different things , and you know my family time suffered for that . Yeah , so , and coaches are great about helping people figure out what that looks like , you know as well . But , yeah , that would probably be my one regret . You know our kids grow up so fast that wish I had some more time with them when they were younger .

Dr. Katie Ervin 25:52

Yeah , yeah . I think that makes so much sense and I appreciate that reflection , and I cannot agree with you more on the importance of coaches and advisors and having people that will tell you the truth and give you the work that you can develop . So I'm really excited . I'm excited for your new journey into entrepreneurship .

Dr. Katie Ervin 26:18

I know we've been talking about this , yeah , so it's gonna be fun to watch you grow , and I will put all your contact information in the show notes . People can reach out to you , learn more about what you're doing , follow you on all social media , and I just appreciate you being with me today on the show .

Lisa Thimmesch 26:35

Thank you again . Thank you so

Leadership Impact and Personal Growth

Lisa Thimmesch 26:37

much for having me . I love doing this . I love , I love sharing . You know my passion , as you said , and I , you know , I love what you're doing as well , because the more we can help leaders grow , I mean , the better the workplace is going to be , the better people are , and you and I both know that's not just within the walls of a company , but all of that spills out into their personal relationships too . So just help people be happier , and you know who they are on a day-to-day basis .

Dr. Katie Ervin 27:04

Yeah , yeah , you are so right , you are so right . Well , thank you so much , and thank you everyone for joining us on this episode , and I will talk to you soon .