Leading Her Introvert Way: Conversations about executive leadership, career growth, business and mindset for mid-life Black women.

57: You Can Be An Introvert Woman, Lead With Integrity And Build Great Wealth - Here's How

• Nicole Bryan • Episode 57

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It's not just about the money (although money is important too).  Discover the secret to redefining wealth beyond the financial realm  and uncover strategies to elevate your career and life as an introverted woman leader. 


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Speaker 1:

Hi, lady Leader, and welcome back to another episode of the Leading Her Way podcast. This podcast is for you if you are a introverted, professional woman who is dedicated to being the best leader she can possibly be and who is also looking to advance her career into the senior leader and or the executive leader ranks. My name is Dr Nicole Bryan and it is my sincere pleasure to be here sharing with you some thoughts and challenging the way you think and accompanying you on your leadership career journey you on your leadership career journey. Now, before we tackle today's topic, I would love to know how you're doing so, if you could just stop multitasking for just a second, because you're likely listening to this podcast while you're doing something else maybe driving, maybe reading, maybe driving, maybe reading, maybe cleaning, but whatever it is, just pause for a second and really check in with yourself and tell me how you are doing. For me, I'm actually feeling pretty good today. I'm feeling hopeful and I'm feeling excited and I'm feeling energized. It's from a conversation. Probably it wasn't an easy conversation, but I spent four hours with one of my mentees. Now, as an introvert, you already know that spending that amount of time when it was just one-on-one conversation, that's a huge, huge energy expenditure for any introvert, but the reason I'm feeling energized is because I feel like I was able to help her. So she's in a situation where she really loves her job. She loves the work that she does on a day-to-day basis, but she is working for someone who is a chronic micromanager, and so we spent most of our time honestly just catching up with each other, not necessarily talking about things related to work, but probably about an hour, hour and a half. We did talk about her work situation and strategized on how she can reclaim control over the relationship with her boss and position herself to make an ask of her boss in terms of how to stop micromanaging. So we did some role-playing, we did some root cause analysis meaning trying to uncover the reason her boss feels the need to micromanage and we left with a very solid strategy of how she can respectfully nip that crap in the bud. So I'm looking forward to seeing how that plays out for her.

Speaker 1:

Now for you and I, let's go ahead and talk about and get started on today's topic, which is a topic that you've said you wanted to hear more about, which is wealth. Now, if you haven't already listened to episode 53, I would encourage you to go back and listen to it. It was the first time we've talked on this podcast about wealth, specifically about you as an introverted woman who is looking to get into executive leadership, practicing, embracing abundance. But one of the things that we did not spend a good deal of time on in that episode was defining wealth. So if I asked you to define wealth or to explain wealth to me, what would your response be? Many of the people that I know would define wealth in one singular way. But let's look at how Oxford dictionary defines wealth. So they describe wealth as a noun, and it is an abundance of valuable possessions or money. Another definition from Oxford is the state of being rich, and then a third definition from Oxford is having plentiful supplies of a particular resource. So that's how they define wealth, and you likely came up with this response as well.

Speaker 1:

The immediate thought is only money, but what I'd like to talk about today is not just about money that is in or not in your bank account. We'll definitely talk about that at some point. What I would rather focus on is the complete wealth portfolio that every introverted woman leader needs to build, because here's the truth sacrificing your wellbeing for that executive title. That's whack. What we're diving into today is about how to build wealth for yourself across all the dimensions of your life, and what I'm hoping is that by the end of our conversation, you'll have a much broader and a much more significant definition of wealth for yourself, one that includes financial wealth, health wealth, time and energy wealth and social wealth. So let's break down each one of those a little bit further, and we can start with money, because, frankly, we all need to get comfortable talking about it. As introverted women, we often focus on doing great work while staying quiet about compensation, and that has got to stop, because when we don't talk openly about compensation, we don't know what is available to us, and when we don't know what is available to us and when we don't know what's available to us, we don't negotiate. And when we don't negotiate, we limit our own earning potential, and when we limit our own earning potential, we literally block ourselves from building financial wealth.

Speaker 1:

Now, it usually surprises people when I share my story of using my corporate roles and becoming an executive as the path to becoming financially wealthy, to becoming a multimillionaire. And, yes, part of that was getting to a place where I was able to understand the value that I contributed to the organization, where I was able to rise and take my career to the top levels of the companies that I worked for to the top levels of the companies that I worked for, and I was able to negotiate good salary packages. But that's only a part of it. Like earning the money was just one part of it. The other part of it was investing my money wisely. There's many people who make multi, six figures, close to seven figures, but what they do with that money is either they burn it or they may put it in a savings account where it's not earning a lot of interest and it's not earning more money by itself. And so what I had to learn and educate myself on is how I could make the money that I am earning work for me, and I've been able to do that in a variety of different ways, whether it is investing in stock options or investing in property or other investments where my money was able to, and continues to be able to, grow. So making a good salary is great and it is a perfect starting point, which, the higher you move up in leadership, the more earning potential you have.

Speaker 1:

But if you are a person who has poor spending habits or is not willing to invest the money that you earn so that your money continues to work for you, then building financial wealth becomes less viable. So financial is the first part of the wealth definition that we're talking about. The second part is actually health wealth. Financial is the first part of the wealth definition that we're talking about. The second part is actually health wealth, and this one is probably more important to me, believe it or not, than financial, and the reason why that is is because I always think of the reality that I can always earn more money Maybe I have to get another job that I can always earn more money. Maybe I have to get another job, maybe I have to invest my money in other vehicles.

Speaker 1:

I feel like making more money is easier than correcting chronic health issues, and so when I think about health wealth, I'm specifically talking about physical and mental and emotional health, Because when you have all three of those things, they contribute to your sustainable success. So physical health for you could be about creating boundaries around your work hours as a leader who wants to transition to becoming an executive, or physical health could be about designing a introvert-friendly exercise routine that is proactively keeping you healthy, rather than you having to be reactive. Or physical health might be about using your need for solitude as an introvert to maintain healthy habits. Now, when we talk about mental and emotional health, this could include introvert, specific stress management for yourself, and that could look like having strategic alone time. It could look like putting energy preservation techniques in place, or it could be about mindful meeting scheduling. Another way for you to establish mental and emotional health for yourself could be just simply giving yourself processing time for decision-making, because we know that, as an introvert, the way you process information looks and feels very different from non-introverts, from ambiverts and extroverts. So just creating processing time for yourself in order to make thoughtful decisions for you, your team, the organization or even in your personal life is a way to create mental and emotional health. And then another way is actually leveraging emotional intelligence as a leadership tool.

Speaker 1:

Now here's why this matters. You cannot lead effectively when you're depleted. Your introversion gives you natural awareness of your energy levels and you have the ability to use this for your benefit, for other people's benefits. When we disregard our physical health, our mental health or our emotional health, we are literally disregarding ourselves and what fills us up and what allows us to operate at the highest levels that we can. So we've talked about financial wealth and health wealth.

Speaker 1:

Now let's talk about time and energy wealth, and time and energy are one of those other types of currency that is not replenishable. When time passes, you can't get time back. We wish we could get time back right, but we can't. So, as an introverted leader, time and energy management isn't just about productivity. It's about sustainability, and so what this means is we, as introverts, don't have time to waste. Our energy is already limited, and so we need to be really thoughtful and very strategic about how we use our limited time and energy. What that means, then, is we really have to be looking for high ROI activities and spending our time there, so that would include, for example, developing key stakeholder relationships, because we don't have the time and energy to go out there and build relationships with everyone about everything. Instead, we have to really think about who are the key people in our organizations that we need to be connected to and that we need to proactively manage.

Speaker 1:

Another high ROI activity is creating strategic thinking time, so when I'm at work, I will be very thoughtful about how many meetings I put for myself or allow others to put on my calendar every day. I'm also very thoughtful about taking breaks. Now, it's not always possible, but I try my best to do that. Why? Because I know going back to back in meetings I don't have the space and time to think, to come up with solutions, to process the information that I just spent an hour taking in. If I am in back-to-back meetings from 9 am to 3 pm, or in some cases till 6 pm, then I already know that I'm going to be completely depleted in terms of energy. I'm not gonna be able to focus in any of the meetings because I'm still processing things from the last meeting, and so I've learned over time that creating pockets of 15, 30, or even 60 minute windows throughout my day is really important for me to be able to deliver on what I need to deliver on for my team and for the company.

Speaker 1:

Another thing to think about is what energy conservation techniques you could put into place. One of the things that I used to do all the time is delegate. Delegation is a power move. If you have someone on your team or a peer who you trust and who you know will get things done on your behalf, then delegate. Once you delegate, you will relieve the pressure from yourself and conserve your energy for only those things that only you can do, whereas if other people can do the same role or do the same part of your responsibilities, then delegate it. That's a no brainer.

Speaker 1:

Now I'm sharing with you a few things that I've done in the past in terms of creating high ROI activities, energy conservation and creating time wealth. But you can think about your own. You can probably borrow some of mine, but it would be important for you to think about what you need in terms of high ROI activities, conservation, conserving your energy and building time wealth. But whatever tactics and strategies you determine work best for you. Just remember that your time and your energy are finite resources. It is imperative that you invest them like precious commodities, because they are precious commodities.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so we've talked about financial wealth. We've talked about health wealth. We've talked about time and energy wealth.

Speaker 1:

The last one I wanna talk to you about is social wealth. Now, you and I know that there is this ridiculous myth that exists about introverts not being social beings or not valuing relationships, but we also know that we not only value relationships, but we are great at building them, and the only difference between us and our extroverted counterparts is that we are best served when we focus on strategic relationship building. So what does strategic relationship building look like? It looks like prioritizing quality over quantity in professional relationships. It looks like building deep, meaningful, mentor-mentee and sponsor-to-leader connections. It also looks like being very selective at networking that energizes rather than drains you.

Speaker 1:

Your introversion is not a liability when it comes to social wealth. It's actually your ticket to building genuine, lasting professional relationships. So I hope this has started to expand your thinking and broadening your idea of what true wealth is. It's not just about money or finances, but wealth is a very holistic concept that stretches and can stretch across all dimensions of who you are as a person and who you are as a leader. And if you are able to shift the way you see wealth from just money into all of these other forms as well, then it becomes easier for you to recognize that building wealth in all of its forms isn't just smart. It's actually necessary to sustain your leadership and to grow your leadership career. And as an introverted woman leader, you have unique advantages in building this very holistic wealth portfolio for yourself.

Speaker 1:

I would love to hear your reactions to today's episode, whether or not you have thought about wealth in this way before, or what aspects of the wealth definition we've talked about today the social, the health, the financial and the time and energy. Which one of these areas you are going to start working on first. And if you are a woman, introverted leader who is ready to build wealth for yourself and your family, then I would love to work with you. So use the link in the show notes to book a sales call with me. The sales call is simply a conversation where we get to talk about what is going on with you. We talk about your specific leadership career goals. We talk about your personal goals outside of work, and then I'll ask you a ton of questions about who you are, your values, your aspirations, and you'll have the opportunity to ask me a ton of questions as well. Then, based on what we talk about, I'll share some ideas that I have to help you accomplish your goals, and then we'll decide together whether it makes sense to work together. If this sounds good to you, like I said, just go ahead and click the link in the show notes, or you can use the link in my LinkedIn profile featured section. Either one will take you straight to the page where you can book your call with me, and I look forward to hearing from you.

Speaker 1:

Until next week, lady leader, keep leading your introvert way. That's a wrap for this episode of leading her way. Thanks for tuning in. If you have thought Three, two, one, yeah to write a quick review on Apple Podcasts. Your review will help spread the word to other ambitious females so they know they're not alone and that this podcast is a community of support for all of us. Leading her way to the top, remember your leadership is needed, your leadership is powerful, so lead boldly. Until next time.