And We’re Back, Again
There is a Mexican restaurant that was close to our house when we used to live in the LA area, and this restaurant is known for the way that they greet their customers when they walk in the front door. So right when you walk in the front door, whichever employee sees you first will yell out,
“Hey, where have you been?,”
and that feeling of warmth and belonging when they yell that out and give you a big smile, there's just nothing like it. I think that's honestly what I thought of when I pulled out my podcast microphone today and plugged it in – I realized I wanted to give you a little update of where I've been, what I've been up to, and to let you know that we're back and there's gonna be some new episodes rolling out regularly soon. So here we go, welcome back!
In this episode…
What Chaili has been doing during the last year while the podcast was on a break
The teeter totter analogy and why Chaili believes you should aim for work/life alignment instead of balance
How you, the listeners of Coffee on Leadership, have helped the brand evolve into what it is today and how you can be a part of the future of the show
The ABCs of Leadership Development and how you can have a creative approach to your own leadership growth
Dig a little deeper:
Listen in:
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** This is a raw, unedited transcript
Chaili Trentham: (00:00)
There is a Mexican restaurant that was close to our house when we used to live up in the LA area. And this restaurant is known for the way that they greet their customers when they walk in the front door. So right when you walk in the front door, whichever employee sees you first will yell out, Hey, where you been? And that feeling of warmth and belonging when they yell that out and give you a big smile, there's just nothing like it. And I think that's honestly what I thought of when I pulled out my podcast microphone today and plugged it in . I was looking at all of the buttons on it and thinking, I legit don't know what all these buttons do. So that's the level of professional podcaster we're at over here. But I realized I wanted to give you a little update of where I've been, what I've been up to, and to let you know that we're back and there's gonna be some new episodes rolling out regularly soon. So here we go. Welcome back.
Chaili Trentham (00:00):
So I took a break from the podcast, obviously, well, maybe not obviously, but it's been a year since I dropped an episode, and I'm not sure how that happened or how that much time went by, except I totally do because a lot has happened. Basically, I came back for season two at the end of last year and had big dreams and then things came up and I have spent the past year doing some really fun and new and creative and life giving and soul filling things. And I wanna share a few of those with you and talk about what's coming up next. So during the past year, I also facilitated so many workshops on behalf of coffee on leadership with companies who are honestly doing remarkable things. And so when I do those, I get to dust off my professor hat and design learning experiences for companies making really big efforts to develop their leaders.
Chaili Trentham (01:04):
And for me, there is no greater privilege than to be guiding conversations in rooms full of leaders willing to show up and do that kind of work. So I led sessions on work life balance for companies in the middle of transitioning back to the office, or in one instance it was a company who was announcing that same day they were gonna be switching to fully remote work going forward. I, I spent a lot of time talking about the teeter-totter, which if you have been with me for a while or have been in my workshops, you've heard of my analogy of a teeter-totter of work and life on either side. And, and the concept is that we need to ditch the goal of balance and opt for alignment instead so that we have more flexibility and agility when we're transitioning from and between and within and among work and life projects.
Chaili Trentham (02:01):
And it's something I really stand by. And so to get to share that with companies is really special to me. I had the privilege of being the kickoff keynote for a company, launching their new women's leadership program. I led another workshop with a company who is paving the way in what corporate BRGs or ERGs employee resource groups what those should look like. And their panel of BRG leaders followed up my talk and had a little panel section and it, their synthesis of what I had just spoken about into the way that they lead their, their ERGs had me so grateful to be able to do what I do because in consulting and facilitating, I get a glimpse inside of so many different industries and different size companies and different leadership approaches and styles. And that really helps me grow and become better at
Speaker 2 (02:59):
What I do and how I integrate learning and development and the stories that I hear from leaders throughout different companies so that we can all be doing this leadership thing a little bit better. Let's see what else. I talked to conflict management with a tech team who is changing the world of retail. I got to speak about leadership and uncertainty and VUCA environments with leaders from a Fortune 100 team and then actually gave that same talk to a global collective of small business owners the very next day, which was great. And you know me, I love talking about volatility <laugh> and change, and I did whole leader development session. So how we show up as our whole self at work with leaders in the electric auto industry. I got to talk happiness and productivity with leaders from a company who they are consistently on fortunes lists of best places to work.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
I trained managers and employees at a company development day to prep as they were finding out the next day that their IPO was going public. So that was a super fun one. And I spent six of those months in the past year copywriting and copy editing for projects in collaboration with the largest shoe brand in the world, getting to write and tell stories through their organizational voice that highlighted goal setting and spending time with family outside and international women's day and more incredible topics. And that really stretched my creativity and my writing style for picking up brand voice, which was so important kind of for what I do. I designed a, I got to design a digital course to a company Brene Brown Steer to Lead certification program that was literally being rolled out in global organizations before I hit publish, which was such an honor.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
I trained leaders and groups on productivity in their team leadership with the working genius tool developed by the table group, which by the way is brilliant and we'll talk a lot more about that on the podcast soon too. And all of this all, I don't say all of this to brag, but I do say it to celebrate because so much of this, this work that I get to do on Coffee, on Leadership happens behind the scenes and I don't get a chance to share it with you friends. And the reality is that most of this wouldn't have happened if you weren't here because so many of you who listened to this podcast and tune in and Hi mom <laugh> were colleagues or friends or family who have sat in workshops with me and listened and you give feedback and you learned and you told your own stories bravely and you stepped into leadership development in a way that I was able to support and ask questions and listen and that all of that has really helped coffee on leadership to evolve as the brand that it has become today and has contributed to the work that I get to do today.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
So thank you truly. And also I share this because I want you to know that these are the things that are top of mind for me right now, and that means they'll be integrated into the next episodes that I design and the conversations that you hear. And so if there are topics that you're like, Ooh, emotional intelligence, or I wanna know about bringing my whole self to work, whatever it might be, when you hear that, I want you to reach out and say like, Hey, let me know more about that because that's where I love to be as in conversation with you all.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
So I'm in a little bit of a reset and a restart, which is exactly where I was a few episodes back, if you wanna go back a few to see where I was at resetting a year ago. But I'm also realizing that I need a little bit more help to make this move, which is why I have hired Hailey who will help me make this happen more regularly. And so you can consistently expect <laugh>, what you can consistently expect from me moving forward is a more consistent podcast schedule. But here's, here's what I want for you and what I've always wanted for this podcast. I want you to have a place where you get a whole lot of what I always promised short and sweet learning moments. But I also realize this past year a lot about my own leadership. And that is I've uncovered the amount of range I want to have.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
I like showing up in different spaces and having that cross-disciplinary approach that if you were at some of the very first workshops in my backyard, then, you know, the crossdisciplinary conversation around leadership is what, where I really thrive and where I think we can unlock a lot of our leadership potential by learning from others. And so that's, that's the level of range I want for the topics that we're looking at. It's partially because I'm also an inventor at heart and so I'm always looking for that new research, new knowledge, new learning opportunities, but partially because I also really appreciate the creativity that I'm allowed when I shifted a new places and that I can bring into that space. And so I want that for you too. I want you to have a creative approach to your leadership by looking across the board at different topics and deciding what you can integrate into the places and spaces where you lead.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Right? So in the upcoming episodes, one thing that we are gonna start with is setting up the ABCs of leadership development. So if you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen me post the leadership notebooks that I put out on Amazon, and that really was like a little bit of a got done a little bit early. But here we are, we're gonna talk about the ABCs of leadership development because I've, I always tell the story of when I was teaching leadership theory when people would find out about that other colleagues or friends, they would be like, So what's the best leadership theory? You teach leadership theory to college students. Tell me what the best theory is <laugh>. And instead of straight a straightforward answer, I would always ask, Well, what do you think makes a good leader? And that would open up a conversation, but I also recognize the value behind frameworks and valuable insights to leadership so that you can then integrate that into the way that you lead, right, to have a little bit of a better understanding or language to ground you and root you.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
And so that's where I came up with kind of the ABCs of what I personally believe you need to be leading in an impactful way. So the ABCs of leadership development is really a, a simple easy framework for understanding the basics of your leadership. It's rooted in theory but with an added dose of personal growth and learning because despite leadership representing the way we interact with others and guide others and lead, it's actually unequivocally dependent on your self-awareness and understanding of who you are and what you believe as an individual. And so the A is for authentic leadership and what that actually means, not from just the buzzword of authenticity, but authentic leadership theory, what that looks like. That was the grounding theory in my grad research. And so I'm passionate about this one of really breaking that down and giving you the tools you need to show up as an authentic leader, brave leadership, what courage actually looks like in your leadership decision making and what that actually means to step out and courage in whatever role you're in.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
And creativity, creativity, leadership is required. I truly believe that. I think that we need to think more creatively about our approach to problem solving and critical thinking. And I want us as a collective to be thinking about how we become more agile leaders who embrace change and utilize the creative process for our own growth and development. So stay tuned cuz this is about to get good <laugh>, there's lots more for your development tethered to this podcast in the future of coffee leadership. And I'm really excited to have this conversation with all of you who continuously show up and listen. So thank you for being here and we'll talk soon.