S02 EP04. Corporate Athletes: What High-Performing Leaders Do Differently

Leadership development often focuses on frameworks, strategies, and systems.

But what about the human side of leadership?

In this episode of Elevate, host Joy Fajardo sits down with Kimberly Fraleigh, Director of Leadership Development at Lippert, to explore what it really takes to grow leaders from the inside out.

Before coaching executives and frontline leaders across a global organization, Kim spent nearly two decades as a high-performance athlete. A career-ending injury forced her to pivot in ways she never expected, a moment that ultimately shaped how she thinks about resilience, adaptability, and leadership today.

In this conversation, Kim shares:

• Why great leaders must draw inward before they can lead outward.
• The surprising parallels between elite athletes and corporate leaders.
• What leaders often underestimate about change and transformation.
• The idea of “identity capital” and how small experiences shape leadership growth.
• Why the future of leadership development will be more human.

You’ll also hear practical reflections on self-awareness, building influence, navigating career pivots, and creating cultures where people truly thrive.

If you're leading teams, navigating change, or simply trying to grow as a leader yourself, this episode will leave you with plenty to reflect on.

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Music: Ramaramaray by Aiyo | Get Up on That Horse by spring gang 
Via Epidemic Sound

©  2026 LineZero

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Elevate, a podcast where we sit down with the women shaping workplace culture at some of the biggest names in the business. These are the leaders navigating change, putting people first, and keeping teams connected and engaged every single day. Elevate is brought to you by Line Zero, a global employee experience consultancy firm that partners with organizations to create connected workplaces. Tune in to learn how today's leaders are breaking barriers and building cultures where employees truly thrive.

SPEAKER_01 0:33

Welcome back to Elevate. I am your host, George Picardo, and today we're talking about something I think gets overlooked way too often, which is the real human side of leadership development. Our guest today is Kimberly Leechak Raleigh, Director of Leadership Development at LiPrick Components. Kimberly is a leadership coach. She's a trainer, the strategic partner who works with leaders from the frontline all the way to the executive suite, and she's often described as an energizing catalyst, someone who opens hearts and minds to both personal and organizational transformation. But here's what makes her story so compound. Before Kimberly was coaching in Nerd's true chains, she was a Division I diver at the University of Notre Dame, where she earned NCAA All Academic Honors. She spent two decades as a lead athlete, and that experience shaped everything about how she approaches excellence, health awareness, and human development today. She has degrees in theology and pre-medicine from Notre Dame, plus a graduate degree in leadership and coaching for organizational change. And now she's using all of that to help leaders navigate seasons of change, transition, and transformation at a company with nearly 12,400 employees globally. If you're open navigating leadership managing tour growth, or just trying to figure out how to bring more humanity into your workplace, this one's absolutely for you. Kimberly, welcome to Elevate. I'm genuinely excited for this conversation today. Thanks for having me, Joy. Thank you. All right, so let's just dive right in. You know, we talk a lot on this podcast about leadership and culture, but your story, it brings something really grounded to all of that. I already know our listeners are going to feel seen in this conversation. So I'll jump right into our first question. You've been called a catalyst, you know, someone who opens eyes and hearts to transformation. Now, when you hear people describe you that way, what does that actually mean for you?

SPEAKER_02 2:32

You know, I like to speak in analogies. So have you ever studied for a class or read a book for school and you read the whole thing and you're like, man, everything on that page feels important. And I feel like it's all important. You start like going through and underlining everything. I find that in my role as a leadership coach, trainer, and trusted advisor, I am the highlighter on the page, helping you figure out where you need to go and also being able to realize the gifts that are in front of you that you may not be able to see, and or maybe the decisions that need to be made that you're you're discerning on or struggling to make, maybe. And so I often find myself in these roles of being a catalyst from going unstuck to now we're catalyzing into movement, we're creating a pace. And people usually come to me during those seasons, as you mentioned, in transformation, change, transition. And people are like, well, what once was is no longer, and where I'm headed, I'm not sure. Can you help me? And so we'll look and see all of the gifts that they have in front of them and help discern the path forward and give a little shot or a genitaline shot of momentum. And then that gives them the spark to then take their next steps.

SPEAKER_01 3:43

This is the first time I've heard about the highlighter analogy, but I completely can relate. I have lots of books and most of them. I almost highlighted all of the features with my highlighter, but I I love the idea. Now, I follow you in socials, as you know, and you mentioned somewhere that the idea of drawing people inward so they can serve outward better. Where did that philosophy come from? And can you expound a bit on that? Sure.

SPEAKER_02 4:11

You know, you have to be aware before you can change. And I think one of the reasons that that drawing inward to better serve outward originally came to me from graduate school. We went through programs where we worked on our own leadership for the first year. We drew drew inward for an entire year and then drew outward for the second year. And I think that helped me understand how important it is to be spending time on ourselves, leading ourselves well, so then we can lead our team and our organization well. And I think that also kind of just stemmed in the way in which I lived my life as an athlete too. I was always working on my individual skills and also the teamwork skills. Because if I grew better as a as an athlete, then we were better as a team. The same concept.

SPEAKER_01 4:56

I think that kind of reminds us as well that transformation, it's not just about persistence or strategies. Yes, it is about that, but at the same time, it's also deeply human, like very inward. And as you mentioned, it ties directly into your background, right? Because before you were doing all of this, as I mentioned, you were doing something completely different, but equally intense, if not more. So let's talk about your athletic background because I think it's uh such a big part of your story. So you were a Division One diver at Notre Dame. How did all of that experiences shape the way you live today?

SPEAKER_02 5:31

I think I'll share one particular moment or story that uh created space for me to change and transform in a way that I wasn't expecting. And so let's put it, let's put, I mean, imagine you are in a gymnastics meet, you know, viewing in this out of the seats, where you're at a college-bound meet, watching me perform. I have already committed a prestigious university for gymnastics. And so this was just a final meet. We were um competing to continue working on our skills. And I already thought I had my life set. And I had worked for this for years. And as a division one athlete, as my was my goal. I want to do everything in my power to reach the highest level of my craft at the university level. And so it actually was a pretty good meet. I got through the first three events and I did very well. It was, I was really happy with that. And our team also had all won their own individual events too, which was I was really excited about. I was really energized. I was like, okay, now it's my turn. And we get to the last event, and I'm I actually stay on the beam the entire time, which is beam was always my my kryptonite, was my nemesis. I struggled with beam. I was always better at bars and vault and floor. And so I'm sitting there and I'm getting through the whole event. And on the last, literally on my dismount of the last, my last skill, my foot went crooked and I ended up shooting off the beam really, really in the wrong direction. And I landed with one foot planted on one of the mats and another foot planted on the other mat, and my the mat slid apart and I blew out my knee. And so basically it was a career-ending injury. I tore my ACL, MCL, meniscus in that time, and I was thrown into what I had been pre preparing for for my entire life was to be this division one gymnast in college. I always wanted to be a division one athlete. And and I do credit this to God, but he really brought me to this moment in time where I was like, hey, not everything is in your control. What are we, what are you gonna do about it, essentially? And so I went through, I had surgery and in this process, I was just experiencing change and transition that was not planned. And I think to your question around how does my my leadership philosophy actually trace back to my time as that athlete, I learned how important it is for us to know who we are and what we're trying to do with our lives in these moments of change or transition. And so a little bit like the highlighter analogy that I used, I realized, well, if I can jump, but I can't land, what else can I do? And a surgeon actually asked me that question. So I picked up diving. I used the same gifts and talents in a different way. I learned how to land on my head. And um, I think that adaptability and flexibility with the gifts that you have is a really important way of living our lives. And sometimes we need someone to join us along on that journey to help us transition through those things. And so I think those 20 years of high performance, you know, we were practicing 20 to 40 hours a week, given the time of year. For me, that was a career-changing moment for me. And I wouldn't have gone to Notre Dame without it, to be honest. I had committed to a different school. The University of Notre Dame was an incredible experience for me. And on top of that, I ended up meeting my husband that way. I mean, there were so many directions that landed, you know, life that I have today because I took the leap and tried something different using the gifts and talents that I had. So my leadership philosophy is you can you can learn in any moment about anything, and it is all a gift. I think it the athletics helped me build the work ethic that I needed and the mindsets and the behaviors needed to be successful through any change or transition or transformation. Am I perfect at it? No, I am very human. I still feel all the stages of disorientation when you go through changes and the neutral zone and then reorientation. You know, every change kind of goes through that cycle. But just learning how to handle it with a little bit more grace is what I've been focused on.

SPEAKER_01 9:29

I wanted to toss again because I wanted to appreciate how human and how vulnerable you put yourself into by sharing your story. I think this is your story that you've shared just now is one of the most amazing stories that I've heard. Like because putting yourself in a vulnerable spot, um it's gonna inspire a lot of people. And it's saying that the pen sometimes people see the director, but they didn't see the pen before the director. And I love that when you mentioned about uh what the doctor said if you cannot jump, like you can land you cannot land on your feet, then what else can you do? Because at the end of the day, everything is a gift, as you said, and it might have worked for the better for you too, right? And yeah, so I just really want to pause and appreciate that. So going back to our discussion, um, I'm curious. Um, do you see any parallels between what an elite athlete go through and what senior leaders kind of face? So, like you already mentioned a few, but you look in yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:44

When I first stepped into leadership development several years ago, I was given a fabulous HBR article, which I recommend everyone to read, talking about the corporate athlete. So it talks about this connection between physical athletes and day-to-day life, studies of their craft and studies of sport, then transitioning out of high-level athletics into the working world as a corporate athlete. And what are the things that kind of stay consistent? And literally the mindsets and behaviors for both of them are the same, especially for our executives. No mindset of optimism and risk, taking risks, taking growth opportunities, saying the hard things, a strong self-awareness, leading themselves really well through change. Anytime they go through, you know, competition or a meeting, if you will, or they're trying their sales pitch or whatever, going back and reflecting on how did I do? What could I have done better? What did I learn in this experience? These are all things that our our best executives, our best corporate athletes are really, really good at. It also helps translate to team skills. So working at from an athlete, physical athlete, when you're on a team trying to win as a team, same thing happens when you translate into the executive or business world. You're trying to bring a team together to build a culture of high performance. When we are all setting really strong vision and we're clear about the vision and maybe flexible about the method, letting people and their temperaments and their gifts surface the way in which we solve for the problems or the goals that we've set or we achieve the goals that we've set as a team, uh, we all work better together. And so that translates as well. And then leading the organization, you know, as a corporate athlete, all of the skills to lead an organization well, time management, work ethic, prioritization, all of these things are required. When you're having a full-time job as an athlete in college, we had twice a day practices. Plus, you have, you know, the physical therapy right after practice and the icing and then making sure you're eating right. And then, oh, I overachiever, I don't recommend it. I double majored, and then I was on these leadership groups and I made sure I was getting to church all the time. And I did too much, by the way. Uh, so I learned to pace myself post that season. However, that really sets you up for success when it comes to being an executive over an organization. What are the, what are our priorities? And how do we make sure we balance our time appropriately? And where should we be utilizing our gifts and talents that only I can use or I only possess? And where are the gifts and talents around me on this team best used as well? And so they they are able with their vision and that commitment and accountability skills around their work ethic and the prioritization helps you lead an organization really well as a corporate athlete. So if you haven't read that, it's a probably an old article by now, 15, 20 years ago, but it is still on point. And it really helps us think about how do you translate those skills as a corporate athlete and pace yourself and make sure there's space for recovery. That's why the reflection component is so important too. Slowing down, taking deep breath, thinking about what we just did as a team and how we need to pause or pivot is really important.

SPEAKER_01 13:58

I love that. Pausing, slowing down, you know, reflecting. Because at the end of the day, as you mentioned, one of the most common denominators between athletes and also leaders, it's the pressure to perform. I think. Even if you're already exhausted, you know, it kind of sounds familiar to leaders because I uh that I talk to every day. It's very real. So tossing and just really breathing, I think that's so important.

SPEAKER_02 14:26

They even do that, uh Joy in the off season or even before big meets and swimming. We we swim miles and we swim slower to build up to keep the muscle movement going, but it allows for us to remember and remind our muscles how to do something without doing it at the highest level. Because that's why these basics are so important, both in business as leaders and also in athletics. And yeah, we have we have off seasons for a reason. It allows your body to recover, it allows us to reflect, and it allows us to grow and set even higher goals and and stretch ourselves even more.

SPEAKER_01 15:01

Thanks for sharing that, Kim. I'll definitely make a note. And I think that's something that people don't always hear about because how how often will we have a leader that is also like a professional athlete, right? So thank you so much for sharing that. Now I'm gonna make a quick pivot and we'll talk about your journey, your career journey, right? So as you need a jump, literally, from individual contributor to leadership and eventually into this director role that you are in right now, what were some of those um we call it pivotal moments that really changed how you show up as a leader?

SPEAKER_02 15:36

There were several pivotal moments, but I think probably two different experiences that really helped me prepare for the role that I'm in today. And one of which was right out of college, I had the opportunity to be in a leadership development fellowship. It was called the Management Fellowship at the time. And what the experience allowed me to do was serve as an internal consultant or advisor within the company. And they moved me around all over the country, and I was able to get exposure to all the board of directors of all the different locations. And so I saw executive leadership at the highest level really early on in my career. And um, I don't know about you, but a rising tide raises all shifts. I like to be around the people that are way better than me because that's how I learn. And so that exposure and seeing what great leadership looked like at the executive level really set me up for success from an emotional intelligence perspective. By no means am I perfect, but I saw what I saw what was good. And and then they also extended trust to go in and fix certain parts of the business that were broken. And so they say, Kim, this part of the business is broken, go build relationships and figure out what we need to do to make it better. And I just thrived in that. I I so even though I wasn't had any, I didn't have anybody reporting to me, I had to learn how to lead with influence in that moment, right? I needed to build relationships with the 40 people that was on this project and I needed to build their buy-in. I had to hold myself accountable and them accountable, project management plans, change management. So I got really good experience of leading people without actually leading people. So that was one really great experience. The next one was maybe not such a positive experience, but it was a really uh, I learned a lot about myself. I think it was actually positive. I'd look back on it and I was positive. So I slowly grew in that company and I finally made it to the executive team. And I was serving as chief of staff to the president CEO of the company. And there was transition in this CEO leadership over time. And so I, and again, I didn't have direct reports at this time, but I was sitting as more of a junior executive on the leadership team. And so we had some turnover. There were actually in three years, there were three different CEO regimes. And so I get to the last CEO regime, and I'm the only constant in the office of the president. And so I'm the one that knows the relationships with the board. I know how we do things here, I know how to create the board decks and have the right conversations. I am not the CEO and I am not the president, but we now have another new CEO that comes in. And our first CEO that we that I first supported was excellent around culture and just really visioning, making sure we were taking care of our customer. Um, the second one had grown up within the organization, and I learned how strong he was in operations. So I learned so much from him about how to lead operations. This guy was really skilled at, um, from a philosophical perspective, how to facilitate transformation and change. And they were really getting the company to position the company to be sold. And at the same time, in him doing that, and he was excellent at it, I also learned how you kill a culture in about 30 days. And so I think as I moved from individual contributor into a leadership role, it sparked this in me of like, how do we change and transform without losing the thing that makes us special and human as an organization? And I don't think the culture completely died, but there was, it was deflated in a way that, oh, do our core values and our mission, our vision and our values do they matter? And how do they matter through this transformation? So that's what sparked me to go get my graduate degree in leadership development. And then I did my concentration in, as you had mentioned, related to organization, organizational change and transformation. And so both of those have both the early experiences and exposure to the actual seeing people do culture really well, to doing operations really well, to then the transformation side, but maybe the change management, not as much. That helped me really set myself up for success to be in the role I'm in today because I use all of those things. And I think if you're in a frontline team member position, an individual contributor role right now, you don't have to be in the roles that I was in to get some of these experiences. It takes a simple ask, hey, I'd I'd love to sit with you in that leadership meeting and just observe. Is that something that I can do? Or is there a lower risk meeting I could sit in on just to see them operate? How do they make decisions? Who has the influence in the room? Who doesn't? Who do you trust? Who doesn't? What kinds of questions can you ask? And that really shaped those experiences, really shaped how I lead today in the way in which I firmly believe you can go through change and transition as an organization and hold true and firm to your values and the vision that you have for the organization so that your people go home happier and healthier. And it doesn't kill the culture. I think that's really, I firmly believe that's possible. So yeah, that's how it shapes how I lead today for sure.

SPEAKER_01 20:36

Wow. I didn't know that, you know, your experience is definitely very different. Like having three different CEOs with different strengths and trying to you yourself went through a lot of change, like having to adapt with each of the leadership styles, what the like and guiding them because you kind of become the senior, but not the president, but you know how things work in the business. But more of like the right hand. I was the right hand, right? Yeah. And how you encourage our listeners to have like just ask. The worst case is you'll get enough. But who would say no if you're putting yourself out there and wanting to learn, right?

SPEAKER_02 21:22

We there's something I read in a book once, Joy. I think you'd really enjoy this concept. Um and she talks about this this idea of building identity capital. And building identity capital is learning about yourself in small moments. And so getting small experiences where you can put deposits into knowing who you are and what you're good and not good at. And so when I gave the example to our individual contributors listening on the phone, that small little experience where you sit in a high risk or low risk meeting watching leaders lead is such a great way for you to learn about yourself too. And you don't have to get a new job. For it. You know, you don't have to interview, you don't have to do anything. You don't have to change your job, even in the company you're working for. It's a simple ask just to get a little bit of exposure. And so if I offer a challenge to the listeners, is build that identity capital. How can how can you get small little micro moments that deposit into who you are and who you want to be as a leader?

SPEAKER_01 22:20

And that's, I think that also kind of is the reasoning or the logic behind people who stick with the business long enough for them to learn the ins and outs. They that accumulated knowledge about the business, you then become the expert, even if you're not the best employee. But if you stick long enough to see all the ups and downs, see how the company grows, at the end of the day, you're still gonna be an expert of somebody. So you just have to stick around and you know continue learning. I think. I mean, sticking around is not the answer, but it's more like learning as you stick around.

SPEAKER_02 23:01

Totally. There's always something more to learn.

SPEAKER_01 23:04

Okay, so I'm not sure if you already mentioned or we already mentioned earlier, but I want to talk a bit more about your the work you're doing at the Lippard. You mentioned you're working with nearly 12,400 people globally. What does leadership development actually look like for you day to day?

SPEAKER_02 23:20

Day to day. That one's really interesting because there is no one day that's the same. Um which is which is what I actually love about the job because people are people, human beings are different and the challenges you experience every single day are different. So each day is different, but I would say the general amounts of things that I'm doing, and so I could go there. I would say I serve as leadership coach, trainer, trusted advisor, and strategic partner. And so any given day, I could be in back-to-back coaching sessions with director GM level all the way up to an executive. I could also be in coaching sessions with frontline team members who are looking for a career change and need some advice or mentorship. And so that's that coaching side. Uh trainer, I also serve as a leadership trainer. We do facilitation development, that sort of thing. So a trainer could be, we just hosted our leader as coach certification program internally, for example. And so facilitating that material to a wide audience, letting them get their certification, facilitating the practicum and the final exam, and um maybe even observing their practice of coaching. I could be spending time doing that. We also do other types of trainings as well. We do curated training to each department depending on the needs of that leadership team or the organization as a whole. So coach, trainer, trusted advisor. So on any given day, I could get five to 10 to 15 phone calls or team met teams messages or emails. Hey, Kim, how would you handle X? Or hey, Kim, who do you know in this part of the business that could help us with X? Or hey, I'm about to have a really courageous conversation and I need to practice. Or so insert those experiences. I get those trusted advisor conversations all the time. So that's kind of all leaders, more at the executive level. I might get the question, hey Kim, we need to pivot on the strategy for this part of the business. Can you facilitate this conversation? Or I need to facilitate, I need I need to work on my top talent or bench strength. Um, can you help facilitate conversations where we're really thoughtful about building a good succession plan? Or perhaps I'm working on my own goals, Kim, and I can this one I keep failing on. Can you help me get through this? And so people will call me and ask for space and time and how to navigate something. And then that also kind of serves in that strategic partner role as well. But we also we also create strategic plans for every business function that we work with on what leadership development needs to look like and culture development look like for each business. Because while the whole organization is on a leadership and culture maturity continuum, so is each organization, depending on how new the leader is, how mature the organization is, the people underneath them. So we create a strategic plans for each group.

SPEAKER_01 26:11

Every is a surprise, seems like what am I gonna be solving today? But that actually, as you mentioned, that's what makes it exciting. Like you are a natural, I wouldn't say problem solver, not everything is a problem. It's more like you're just trying to it's like the puzzle piece. Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_02 26:34

Yeah, it's it's like sometimes people need help with the corner pieces, right? And the edge pieces. And so let's figure out the corner and the edge pieces, and then it's easier to fill in all the other ones. Sometimes they come with me, come to me with a middle piece and they're like, Does this go up, down, sideways? Do I have it backwards? And so yeah, while I maybe no day is the same, I think my role is to make sense of it or to put it into an or a structure or a tool or framework to help make it easy to understand and know what to do next. Again, that brings it back to the catalyst, right? Of helping people get from unstuck to moving in a way that is meaningful and they feel like it's connected to their goals and helps them succeed in the organization as well.

SPEAKER_01 27:17

You I love the analogies you're drawing, Kim. Honestly, I feel like what so when employees are very into it, sometimes they miss that one small thing that they can do to make everything just right. And I feel that you are that person to hold that and say, come on, let's tap back, let's look at the whole picture, and here you go. I love that. Amazing. All right. So one thing that you mentioned is uh helping leaders navigate through change and transition. And one of my other questions is what do you think leaders underestimate most about change, especially when it comes to the human side of it?

SPEAKER_02 27:53

This is so funny that you you ask me this because I just had this conversation yesterday. I think leaders underestimate on the human side of change how long it's going to take and how intentional it takes. And it takes tenacity. And so not only do you need to extra communicate with every single person, your early adopters, maybe the ones who are going to be your detractors from the change, you need to really spend time with everyone individually. Here's another analogy for you. Leaders are like a hub and spoke model, right? Leadership's, if you imagine leader at the center of a wheel, and every single person on your team is a spoke, helping you wheel that wheel down the road, you are only as good and your change is only as as smooth as each individual relationship is. And so you do have to go slower to go faster, building each individual relationship with each team member, understanding where they're at with the change, are they a promoter, a detractor, or maybe neutral? And either do they want to be involved in the change or not? And at the same time, sometimes when that you can't involve them, how do you help get them on board or sell the vision to get them on board in a way that they really care about where we're headed? So it's a smooth ride. Imagine if some of those spokes on the wheel were a little shorter than others, how would that ride feel? Bumpy. And so we have to be really mindful on how long it takes. And sometimes it does take, you do have to go slower to go faster because if you go slower, the change is way easier. You just need to make sure you've got the right wheel and the right relationships so that when the change happens, it's a lot the open communication's there, the relationship and trust is there. Um, people have been heard early on and often. And then your job, then, once you've done that, is to continue the relationships through the change, the tenacity is required to keep touching base with people. That is a lot of intentionality for a leader, especially if you're doing it on top of your day job. That's where a role like mine or someone else in this type of role is so important because we can say, Hey, have you checked in with your people? When was the last time you you asked them their stress levels or what's getting in their way of being successful with this new change? Or what are the barriers? Maybe we need to do a 30, 60, 90 day reflection. What's going well, what could be better, what have we learned, what's working, what's not.

SPEAKER_01 30:14

So you already mentioned something about my next question. You mentioned communication. Communication, leadership, they're tied closely together. So I'm curious, how do leaders at Lipper communicate priorities, change, and also the culture today? Are there any tools or platforms that you can share with our audience?

SPEAKER_02 30:33

It's a great question. And it's something that we're continuing to work on. I would say Lipper is growing in this area, and we found a way to make it work in the season that we're in. And there's always room for opportunities. I what I what I'm sharing with you is what we're finding that's working, but there's still quite more that we could be growing in. So when we do strategic planning as an organization, we do it by division, and then it's sort of rolled up with the high-level strategic plan. And we have a couple of different venues where we continue to communicate those priorities, one of which I find probably the most effective because some of our best storytellers are executives. So town halls are a number one way for us to know not only where we're headed as a company or how the industry is going, but how are we doing with our strategic plan? And what does it mean for me as the listener? Like how do I connect back to that strategic plan? It gives me meaning and purpose. And that helps with communicating priorities. We do reassess our strategic plans, as I mentioned, pause or pivot or keep. And so we do do that. Some reassess quarterly, some will reassess mid-year. We all try to take a look at our strategic plans about once a month. And each individual organization has decided the way in which they want to communicate information. And so some use Teams channels and big Teams chats, some have email blasts, some like the town hall approach for all their individual strategic plans. So it really depends on the personality of the leader at the top. I like to say organizations take on the personality of their leaders. So in that case, we I spend time with each executive leader helping develop their strategic communications plan. And so it looks a little different for every leader because of their personality temperament. You know, if they're more introverted versus extroverted, the size of the team, but we do think through the lens of how do we communicate those priorities, the change and emphasize the culture in the one-on-one setting, in the group team setting, and to the organization. So the organization knows what's going on. I've got a good example I can be really high level with, but one of our leaders has found a great, they they do town halls and include people outside of their organization so that they can learn what's going on in their organization and what's up and coming. And in this case, it's our supply chain senior leadership. So they're really good at letting everyone know what's going on in the industry, how it's going to affect our business, what's in it for me or what's in it for you. They share their strategic plan. Um, they do a really good job of staying committed to the culture as well. So they celebrate and recognize people who are living into the core values and leader qualities at Lippert. And then more internally, they have a regular all hands supply chain leadership development team building where we internally talk about how important culture is and we learn something very specific. And they do a really good job of communicating change internally as well. So hopefully that helps. We do lots of things. We have an everyone matters email blast that goes to people where we recognize really cool things that are going on in the company. We use social media like internal communications boards. So if you type in Lippert into LinkedIn, you're gonna see so much recognition of the stuff that's going on or very public with what we're doing because we want people and other companies to see what work can be like when you're sending your people home happier and healthier. Um, so we do a whole host of things.

SPEAKER_01 33:54

Amazing. Thank you for sharing that, Kim. And later I'll definitely check LinkedIn for all of those amazing things because one way or another, you'll get something out of it that you can also maybe replicate in your own organization, in your own team or personally in your life, right? So thanks for sharing that. Now I'll pivot again a bit here and talk about you being the women leader. So, as a women leading leadership development, what have been some of the challenges that you've had to navigate personally? Hmm, that's a great question.

SPEAKER_02 34:26

You know, a lot of like my career, I have often been one of the few females in the room, just naturally. I think it was the nature of the different industries that I have chosen. It wasn't always the case. Some of the rooms were more 50-50, but as you move up in the organization, the diversity was less. And so I honestly didn't notice it. We all put our pants on one leg at a time. I say focused on my job. But when you get into the world of manufacturing, there is definitely a difference in who's sitting around the executive table. And so if my the challenges that I probably have experienced, I wouldn't really consider them challenges, more as just ways I had to learn how to build influence with different types of people. Um, it comes back to emotional intelligence too. Like what matters to each person sitting at this table, regardless of gender. And um, how do you build those relationships with those you know and build up them in a way where they will support you when you're not in the room and they will support you and they'll be in your corner, even when you're in the room, maybe. But they serve as a an advocate for you to build you up and can build one-on-one relationships. And some of those mentors and and peers that I've built those influential relationships with, some of them are female, some of them are male. And I think I've found that they all have something to offer. We are made and wired to need each other. We can't just have one or the other and expect it to go well. And so I often find myself kind of maybe the challenge could be I will speak up and say something, but then someone else who's more tenured than me will speak up and say the same thing like two hours later and it lands. And so I think the challenges I had to learn was like swallow my pride a little bit or learn from them on how they're delivering information or communication or what relationships or political landscape do I not know about that I need to start building in order to make sure that I have a seat at the table. So I think I'd take it less about the challenges and get frustrated with being a woman and more as opportunities on how could I grow my influence in this room. And also recognizing my limitations. I may not be the person to influence this person, but if I know who they listen to, can I build relationships with them? And so it's more that's kind of how I've navigated that and not to take it personally. I can take things personally. I am very human. I'm like, come on, I'm great to work with. What are you talking about? I've got good ideas, you know, healthy self-esteem. I'm definitely not perfect, but yeah, just recognizing where I have limitations and flaws as well. And maybe my gifts aren't meant to be used in certain rooms, but other people's gifts can come forward and help with the same thing, solving it in a different way. And so yeah, I think that those would be some of the challenges in how I've been able to adapt or navigate to those along the way.

SPEAKER_01 37:20

Very optimistic. I love that. Like, yeah. I was like, because uh I I think all of us, women and men, have a version of that story where we said something, as you mentioned, I said something a while back, and a few moments later it was said just in a slightly different manner, and it landed. And you're like, what the heck?

SPEAKER_02 37:43

That's exactly what I said, and the way you greet. Oh, and then that and instead of pointing fingers, I'm I'm uh assume good intent. Maybe they said it in a way or framed it in a way or storytelled it in a way that it was the right timing. We talk a lot about communication and the right timing within our organization. We might have the best idea, but it'd be five years too early or two minutes too early in a meeting. And before you know it, instead of taking that personally, it's all about timing. I watched a really great biopic called General Magic. Have you ever heard of this? Yeah. General Magic is a biopic about basically the creators of what was going to be the iPhone before the iPhone existed. And they launched it too early in the in the industry to a place where just the infrastructure and and also the human adoption rate was so low because the the the world wasn't ready for it. And so great, great story on timing, but I would also apply it to this experience as well, is like timing matters and the way in which you storytell matters. And so that's how I've navigated those things.

SPEAKER_01 38:46

I think Kim, what makes you such a compelling leader is your self-awareness because you're not just developing others, but you're also aware that you are continuously still developing yourself. Because I haven't thought about that. Like in my head, I was just mad, like you know. But you know, I have my moments.

SPEAKER_02 39:08

I have my moments too. But you have to code switch quickly, otherwise you can get in your own way, you know. But thank you for that. That's nice of you to say.

SPEAKER_01 39:16

Yeah, and I heard it from a podcast or somewhere that you will really start growing when you own it. Like instead of saying, you know, blaming people around, you just own it because you cannot change. I mean, you probably can what do you call it? You can't influence someone's change, but it's still easier for you yourself to just adapt and grow and develop, right? All right, so moving on. This is the last biggest question before we go back to the end. When you think about the future, where do you see leadership development and employee experience headed over the next few years?

SPEAKER_02 39:53

Hmm. I think the human parts are gonna stay very human. I think AI and automation are going to remove the inhumane parts of our work. And what I mean by that is like all of the administrative aspects of the leadership development or cultural disdevelopment experience will get automated so that you can, as a leadership development professional, spend more focused time on developing the intentional top talent. What I mean by that is, for example, we've got a mentoring program and it takes a lot of manual intervention. Once somebody takes a class, then they go and have to fill out a form. The form then notifies us. We have to manually look at it, look at their profile, talk to them, make sure we match them. I mean, there's a lot of manual, it's not necessarily inhumane, but maybe more transactional part of the development experience. Maybe that's a better word, more transactional part of the experience. And if we can automate all of that, then people can get to mentoring, being mentored quicker. And so then it's really more focused on developing than it is focused on getting through a process so you can be developed. Same thing goes with after every single, you know, training we do, instead of having to manually write the emails of the recaps and all the handouts and all the things. I mean, I I love that we get to do those things, yet I could be have spent those 30 minutes coaching a leader, right? And so how do we optimize our time and more focus on developing intentionally all of our talent, not just our top talent? Because right now, what ends up happening is we have to prioritize and really focus on where the organization needs it the most. I also think we're gonna be evolving to utilizing automation and AI for our team members to really own their career journey even more. So they'll be able to utilize all of these different technologies that are coming out, which I think they're amazing. We're we're in conversations with a couple of different companies right now, where people can put in their resumes and their experiences and where they want to grow and utilizing AI generation to help them propel into different career paths or get paired with mentors in different career paths to help them explore so that they can really own their own career versus me having to go to Joy and say, Joy, I really want to grow. What should I do next? It allows them to own their own journey, which I think will be a really transformational part of leadership development and the employee experience over time.

SPEAKER_01 42:15

Seeing AI as an ally to making work more human is such a not a force, but it's a a very fresh and a very hopeful perspective, I would say. We often think of AI just, you know, taking over in blah, blah, blah. But the way you phrase it where it's now taking over the transactional stuff. So we can be more human. I think that's very fresh and hopeful. All right. So now before we wrap up, I have a few quick fire questions for you. Are you ready? I'm ready. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 42:49

So one leadership habit you swear by. I'm gonna say the two by two, and I'll explain what that means. This isn't chemism. I made this up. Okay. Um, I do my wheel of life twice a year, which is a reflection tool to help you think about all the most important priorities in your life to stay balanced personally and professionally. You kind of assess, and there's a lot of different categories: work, relationships, finance. I always add in a couple of categories that probably aren't naturally on the wheel of life, but like I know for me to get really jazzed up and energized in my life, I need a creative bucket. I need to be creating. I add in their spirituality. That part is really important to me too. So I assess the wheel of life two times a year to stay balanced personally and professionally. So that's the two. And then the buy two, I try to do two retreats a year, long weekend, completely disconnected from technology to meditate and be creative and pray. And that I find my best work gets done there because I just take time to disconnect, let the Holy Spirit kind of work. And uh, it allows me to reorder everything that I need to be doing at work and at home. And so for me, that's self leadership. Self-management, making sure I'm able to show up and lead my team well and be a good wife and family member and sister and daughter and those sorts of things too.

SPEAKER_01 44:08

It's a full circle from the very first thing that we discuss to slow down and breathe.

SPEAKER_02 44:14

Exactly. Exactly. And I love it. Those are those those four I usually do them not all at the same time. I do the wheel of life uh around my birthday in June and in December, and then I do the retreats kind of in between those. And so it allows for those moments to slow down and and think. Okay. Next one: a book or resource that shaped you. I struggle with these rapid-fire questions and only giving one answer. Can I give three? Okay, if you're going through Change Your Transitions, read Transitions by William Bridges. That book is excellent. It's been around a very long time. I think the first half of the book is most powerful, but if you're going through any sort of transition of any kind, it's a very helpful framework. If you're struggling with prioritizing your time, one of my favorite books is Deep Work by Cal Newport. He talks about the actual brain biological process of focus and attention residue and how do we optimize our time and stay focused on the things that we need to stay focused on. If you want to grow your leadership and orient your leadership and take that to the next level, I love the book by the founder of Hobby Lobby, Leadership Not by the Book is what it's called. And that one I found to be a really good basic ground level of leading. And it does have a little bit of a spiritual lens to it, and it would be practical for anyone reading it as well, um, of any of any faith type. So all right.

SPEAKER_01 45:41

Next question best advice you've ever received.

SPEAKER_02 45:44

I've gotten lots of great advice and I write it all down. I am a big writer. Uh the one that came to my mind just now is you're you're telling me about this. I had a spiritual director, a leader once say, Kim, and this is in Latin, in medio stat virtu, medio stat virtu. It's actually a saying by Saint Thomas Aquinas, which translates to in the middle way stands virtue. So I am an all or nothing. I'm an extremist. I go really hard and work really hard, and I also then shut down and burn out. And some of the best advice I've ever been given, and I actually have it here right next to my computer in MediaStat Virtue, Saint Thomas Aquinas, because I need to remind myself to pace. I need to remind myself to pace myself. Does this need to be done now? Does this need to be done by me now? And andor should I be delegating this? I mean, though it just helps me think through pacing and being in the middle way. It's very counter to my natural temperament. But I find a lot of peace when I am in the middle. And so I just have to choose it because I can go full-blown extreme one way or another. And we don't all want to burn out all the time, right? So trying to find a way to keep keep that level of endurance.

SPEAKER_01 46:56

That's interesting. Uh, just a fun fact, I was actually like in my high school uh days, that's junior high. My um, what do you call it? My section is named as Saints Name, and I was actually Saint Thomas, fourth year, Saint Thomas and Queenus. And for the hate being so slightly different, but anyway. What a small world. Yes, he's a he's he's great. He is, he is. We'll talk more about that later. But last question one thing you're still working on as a leader.

SPEAKER_02 47:27

Okay, well, I think this kind of goes with what you just heard from me, but I would say the gift of pace, ordering my days, my thoughts, my interaction in a way that brings peace. I am such a giver and a helper of other people. Anyone that comes to me is asking for my help. I will drop everything to help you. If you send me a message on LinkedIn and you need something, that's I mean, I'm going to focus on helping others before I help myself. So still learning. I'm working on as a leader the gift of pace. And I've got a great team that reminds me of that every single day.

SPEAKER_01 47:59

Thank you so much, Cam. I was like, remind it keeps on reminding me something when you say slow down and blah blah. And I was like, Can I though? Because I have my tanger. And on the very first, not the very first, but the very first feature of January, that's my reminder to myself. It just says here, slow down. So I didn't that's kind of like common, like it's it's super simple, like just slow down because the moment you run, sometimes, as you mentioned, taking it slow is the faster way to get to where you want it to be, right? So thank you so much, Kim, uh, for this conversation, your perspective leadership, all those um analogies that you have shared with us today. They're incredibly grounding. I know our listeners are walking away with a lot to reflect on, and honestly, so am I. Um, before I close, I know you'd like to invite our listeners to the red carpet rollout. Tell us more about that.

SPEAKER_02 48:52

Sure. Yes. So, listeners, we would love to invite you to follow our Lippert Components LinkedIn page because that's where we post all of these incredible events we have coming up. Um, one of which is this red carpet rollout that Joy is talking about. A little bit about Lippert. We are a manufacturing company that has gone through an incredible culture transformation where we had almost 130% year-over-year turnover about 15 years ago and went through an entire culture revamp and now we're down almost 100%. And we want to share with other organizations how you can um grow leadership and development in your organization. So we actually peel back the veil of who we are and we invite people onto our campus and you get it, you get um time with our CEO, learn from our CEO on how we do things. You learn from our chief leadership and culture officer, who is incredible, um, telling the story of our culture. You get plant tours, you see how we embed core values and leader qualities every single day into the ways in which we work our business. And those events come up a couple of times a year. I think the next one's in April, and then we have another one later on this year. So I will send that information to Joy to place wherever you place it and also follow our LinkedIn because we always post those things as well. But I've got the registration links I'll pass along and we'd love to have anyone. It's a very minimal fee and a really maximized experience. And everyone is welcome from any industry. We've had people all over the country come from manufacturing to finance to nonprofit, just to come see what a day in the life would look like and what are the small steps you can take to transform your culture. So we've had a really cool experience. One of the reasons I've loved working at Lippert for as long as I have, coming on seven years, is because of this intentional focus. Our CEO is so committed to transforming our leadership and our culture. Please come and join us. You can learn more too. We would love to have you. Amazing.

SPEAKER_01 50:55

Thank you so much, Cam. And to our listeners, please do check out the links that uh we will be putting on page. You can register through those links. Thank you for tuning in to Elevate if today's conversation sparked ideas about improving your own organization. We at Line Zero, we can help you take next step wherever you are at right now. We offer a personalized employee experience assessment. Our consultants will spend time with you to evaluate your unique employee experience ecosystem. We wanted to understand the specific challenges you face and engaging and supporting your workforce. If you want to learn more, uh visit our website at linezero.com. Again, the link to our page is going to be on the description as well. And of course, we also encourage you to follow Kimberly Sally on LinkedIn and also deliberate components. So finally, if you enjoyed this podcast, be sure to follow us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and LinkedIn at Line Zero for more conversations, insights, and of course stories about internal communications and employee experience. Until then, keep elevating, keep inspiring, and let's make every workplace a place where people thrive. Thank you.