welcome to sky team's people first with morag barrett welcome to this week's episode of people first and i'm excited to introduce you to my friend and guest this week laurie michelle levitt she is known as the pivot catalyst and has coach consulted and trained hundreds of leaders around the world to achieve their objectives and generate extraordinary momentum she speaks globally on catalyzing momentum leading pivoting and workplace culture change and also leads the 10x business and leadership private peer advisory groups she's the founder and president of a bridge corp which offers the aligned momentum program and software to help managers lead and when she's not writing one of her favorite getaway locations conducive to deep thought and creativity she's supporting orchestration of pivots decision making and judgment calls for business leaders and their teams around the world she's the author of two books which we will talk about momentarily but first off laurie welcome to people first hi mirag great to be here okay so i start every episode with your origin story so i want you to flash back to when you were a wee girl and the teacher's saying laurie what do you want to be when you grow up what was your answer back then and what was the pivot point that brought you to where you are today well it was probably more laurie why are you designing and drawing pictures in your books books because one of the things that i really wanted to be was a fashion designer and i actually went down that road a little bit and used to draw a lot of designs um the first career i applied for was as a pan am flight attendant that'll date me um but i'm too short i'm 5'5 and back then that was too short it's funny those requirements how they change because i can tell you some of the planes that you and i now get to travel in would cry out for somebody of that stature to be able to walk easily and comfortably so pan am air steward was not in your future then no it was not so what happened then what did what happened next uh well what happened next was i did i went to school i actually did do some fashion work realized that the the professors i was taking it from it just wasn't creating the passion in me that i had when i was drawing it and ended up in business and specifically in count and accounting which i didn't love but it served me because i picked up the role every role i had was decision support and that is that that still serves me today so analysis and decision support i knew we had something in common it's the numbers piece whilst i may not have been an accountant i was in finance and looking at the numbers for companies that were looking to grow and then realize that the missing element from my perspective was the human piece that those leaders weren't investing as much time and care in how business got done the quality of the relationships within their team within their company with their clients and that was the missing gap that was stopping them from being successful so i know you've authored two books you've got the pivot and pivot to clarity so what's with the fascination for pivoting yeah and and actually very similar story i'm just going to backtrack a little bit because i too i did mergers and acquisitions work and when i was doing that they really just wanted to know that i had this great financial model that's what they wanted to rely on and i knew that i needed to be understanding the people the people that were going to be now combined so that it would work and those the higher-ups did not want to hear about what i had to say about the people they just wanted to know the numbers and that may have been part of this the start of of all of this of of um [Music] knowing that you have to look into the future to know what what you're trying to do now is that going to work in the future it's not about the historical numbers it's not about what you know right now it's it's also about the future and why i wrote the books the first book um the pivot orchestrating extraordinary business momentum the idea for it came back in 2013. i was working with i'm an entrepreneur myself now after leaving corporate and i was i was looking at how pivot was being used and it was being used as a quick shift like a project like this thing you do you do it quickly and you do it once and then everything's great and that is not how significant change works and that's really what people mean when they're saying a pivot they're meaning significant change if you're wanting to change significantly in an organization it is many shifts by many people over time and that book finally came out in 2017 took me a while to write it and then clarity is really key in in organizational change and that's the reason i wrote the second book the two books are tied together they don't have to be read together but those that are communicating what is wanted to others need to be clear for themselves first and it needs to be inspiring before they're going to inspire anybody else and then they need to do a better job of being clear if they've just spent days weeks months years maybe thinking through something and getting clear for themselves and then they may say it once or this is the one you'll love as a financial person put it all in a budget and expect that budget to be inspiring and and communicate this in a in a more compelling way to everyone so you touch they use the words leadership and management and often we use them interchangeably i know the leaders that i get to work with it's about defining what do they mean where are they similar different and how and when do you need one or other or both so how do you define leadership and management yeah thanks for asking and it's great question i have been i have been really noodling over this because there is so much talk about everybody's a leader and we still use the senior leadership team and we talk about i talk about how managers are being asked to lead and yet we give them all the resources and only enough time to manage work and so how on earth are they going to lead people better leadership is is something you do it's not a there's no job as far as i know there's not a job description that says leader like a ceo's title is ceo not leader manager might be the manager of something and everyone manages anybody who influences others and makes decisions that affect many is is like a manager um leading is what you do with with compelling people and and they're wanting to follow your lead it's a responsibility and managing to me is managing the work so it involves people because you're managing resources you're managing and that you're making connections and those involve you're managing do you have the talent and skills on board to do what needs to be done but you're not directly managing a person at least i hope not and that's what needs to change and that's what work that's what leadership is so the title of your second book is pivot to clarity and that as i started to read is around communication inspiring and engaging creating that vision so what are some of the common mistakes that you see leaders making that we should all be paying attention to every single day oh my goodness that when when there are so many and i've made them it helps us write our books right when we're learning i don't know if you do this when you write your books but learning as as we write them and one is i find many leaders in the getting clear part getting clear about where you want to go i see many stepping into a strategic planning session and really no one has spent the time to look very far out in the future we so want to get to that execution plan to get to the stuff that we know we know and yet that is not going to result in an inspiring or significantly you know breakthrough performance type strategy so a mistake is going directly into this what i call execution planning and missing the strategic thinking part even visions are vision statements how do we put some words into a statement that we want to create and really not this this vision of where you want to be in the future and even for ourselves i mean it's um sometimes it's not clear and when you get clear that's what pulls you through the really tough stuff that's why it's so important it creates that north star you know that you want to go to it it's what a leader when they get when you get it right then then everyone is pulled toward it rather than you're always trying to push your agenda onto others and that goes back to the word you used earlier momentum which is the magic that we're all going for is how do we set that north star in direction but actually take steps towards it that pick up speed and bring others with us so on that note what role have relationships played in your success relationships um well one always have i'm a coach i have coaches myself mentoring and i love seeing that it's more and more prevalent in in businesses today um i relationships with the person who is quote the manager whoever else is leading the team it used to be that we you know don't it was it was almost like you crossed the line was being so fearful of being seen as a friend that you might not even be friendly and that's just ridiculous i mean we're we're all humans and as as far as i've found everyone wants to do their best everyone wants to do what matters and there are times when it doesn't show up that way because something has happened where they have become disengaged and and they need that spark again and that's what a relationship does i i would like to actually say the word connection it's not just a relationship because we have relationships with spouse you know mother daughter child but it's the connection that you make with someone else that is really critical and we need to not be fearful of making those connections and fear seems to be one of those underlying when i am coaching leaders and they're talking about the mind trash or the reasons why they haven't done whatever it is on their list fear often creeps in there what does your book share around how do we get past that fear because we've got our north star but then of course we go oh my goodness how can i ever be as audacious enough as to actually ask for that or how do i dare even take the step because what if i fail so tell me about fear and what are some of the solutions that you've uncovered in your research and your work absolutely um so in the book i touch on hope and fear in the section on being clear with others because we need to understand what fear someone else may have so that our message will land but there is fear that creeps in as you mentioned in the getting clear part and my advice to that is to learn to interrupt yourself so let's say you're going on that nature walk and you have a wild idea and and it feels good it feels like wow that would be that would be fantastic and then that as you said the mind stuff starts happening and you you think to yourself well how could i do that and i can't bring it into that the senior leadership team or i can't state that to my colleague or my boss or whatever because they're gonna think i'm gonna look stupid they're gonna think i'm crazy and and we we shut ourselves down before we even stop so my recommendation is to learn to pause that mindset and just say to yourself isn't that interesting isn't that interesting that i thought and and and move it aside so that you can at least flesh out this idea um you have and then then in the communication part you need to get over the feel of luke is the fear of looking stupid yeah i was sharing on a podcast i was a guest on a radio show this morning and reminiscing about my own fear and trash talk and i was headed to meet with dr linda sharkey who i co-authored the future-proof workplace with and i still can remember it viscerally i was sitting at denver airport and thinking who am i this is the dr linda sharkey she's had an amazing career i know nothing about the future of work yet um what am i doing and then on my social media feed this meme came up that said and you'll love the punchline of this you don't have to believe everything that you think morag barrett and it was like good great universe so i remember going and you know putting it to one side and linda and i had spent the day together and we got to the end and she said to me do you think we can do this do you think the book's going to be any good and i have to laugh because it doesn't matter where we are in our careers that little gremlin voice can creep in the question is can you turn the volume down enough and move forward in spite of it use it to inform but don't use it to stop you i love that use it to inform right it's not just ridiculous you're you're hearing it for some reason i that's one of the reasons my first book took so long well i think we might take a long time you know this this message out in the world that says i don't think it's that way who am i and then yeah i mean it's just it's a gift if and that's how how a leader should think of it when they have that vision and it will take some time to as a leadership team to learn to sit and listen to each other and not have to get directly to those things that you can check off a list so i know that you've gone from communicating your vision your message verbally through the programs that you do through the written word that you have to you also have a software solution that helps us all to pivot whether it's to clarity or to vision so tell us about the courage it must have taken to move into yet another medium of communication what you've learned along the way so i've been developing software since i started as a an entrepreneur back in 2001 and my first one was helping healthcare organizations get through the privacy and security regulations and to do so with the business mindset so it was being addressed by attorneys medical records experts who really didn't understand organizations they didn't understand what questions to ask and so it was you know typical entrepreneur you see something that wow that's not being handled right and they're never going to get through this and what can i do to serve and i created that software and i feel the same way about greater business vibrancy about organizations that stay ahead of the competition are simply just relevant because everything's moving so quickly to maintain their highest value and and to be great places to work and it's possible and i've seen that happen when an organization has what i call a state of aligned momentum where everyone is in a state of aligned momentum where everyone is aligned and there is momentum like if if there's a stall it's very very short toward that shared objective and so being this financial person that i am and just wanting whoever reads the book to be able to put into practice i came up with well how would that be measured how would we even know we're in this state of aligned momentum and i came up with these different key indicators and from that i've developed this software that in i say transforms performance management to performance momentum and it gives managers the system they need to lead better because i even like the semantics because performance management's about control fit in the box it tends to be retrospective performance momentum is forward-looking it is expansive so tell me about the elements and and tell me more about the performance momentum so um well the elements of being in the the key performance indicators of being in align momentum are clarity so that's why they're actually going to be seven books because there are six of these uh clarity there are three that will indicate that you are ready for better execution and those are clarity mastery mindsets and nimble decision making and then there are three that indicate that you are ready for a better future which is strategic thinking talent adaptability which is the next book and you and i should talk about the future of work and managers as coaches and they're not just coaches but having those coaching skills and all of that along with my decades of experience in performance management helped me create that that transformation from management to momentum if i want that how do i put that into a software that becomes a system that actually helps all the managers throughout the organization not just someone with a title manager but anyone influences others at work to be better at leadership so when you use the word pivot i'll admit i have a little bit of flashback to my sequin days as a ballroom dancer and a pivot turn it can get us wonderful but it's almost like a 180 and that's not what you're talking about but i'm curious in terms of the 21st century the future of work how do we keep up with the pace of change that you've talked here without feeling like we are forever on a spinning top experience yeah and so you get as and now i'm gonna speak to the leader i know there are leaders throughout the organizations who i'm speaking to are those that are making decisions that affect the entire culture that's what i mean when i'm saying the leader in this particular sense is orc is is creating is spending time creating this culture this remains in a state of aligned momentum this is a continuous leadership um what you're doing as a leader that's if you're focusing on that then every person within the organization can make the shifts on their own those smaller shifts that remain aligned with where you're wanting the organization to go and only then will you have that now that just in itself creates pivots it allows you to be able to create significant change we just went through the pandemic and we kept using the term pivot and if if those that are running organizations are expecting people to be able to do that again tomorrow it's it's not going to happen because they haven't created that state where alignment the momentum exists there was an urgency and everybody rallied for this project but they can that can be this foundation to help them understand what can be done to get them more along the way toward having that state of align momentum i hope that makes sense so as you look to the future then what's the one piece of advice i mean there's so much that we could do yes first step when we're already feeling over what's the first thing that we can do as leaders to set ourselves and others up for success to know where you are in the process if if if you want these things where i describe the a vibrant business if you want breakthrough performance then you want to be in a state of aligned momentum and there are stages and the first stage is the start and the start is where it is a safe place to speak out to step up and if you don't have a safe place you can go through i don't know how many initiatives but you will not get to where you want to go you have to start where

where you are needing to start i mean it sounds like a contradiction doesn't it you're right most of us won't choose to start from here but you know that's where you're at we'll start looking at the context or we're still looking at clarity which are really important stages but but it's not the start i mean how is your communication ever going to land you can work on clarity if people are fearful not if you're looking at the context in the organization which is the structure and the social context of the organization really really important but again if people don't feel safe you're not gonna know like you can do an assessment and you're not going to get honest feedback for example because they're fearful of giving it

so you need to start there so on that note how can people learn more about either where they're at and of course learn about the powerful work that you do with your clients uh i'll give you two one my website is thepivotcatalyst.com you can also get there by my name but the pivotcatalyst.com is probably the easiest and since the pivot to clarity is the newest book i do have a landing page up and it's just pivot to clarity.com and i have a few giveaways um with for those who order the book excellent well we'll make sure all of that information is included in the show notes here but laurie thank you for sharing your insights with people first today thank you

thank you so much for joining morag today if you enjoyed the show please like and subscribe so you don't miss a thing if you learned something worth sharing share it cultivate your relationships today when you don't need anything before you need something be sure to follow skyteam and morag on linkedin facebook twitter and instagram and if you have any ideas about topics we should tackle interviews we should do or if you yourself would like to be on the show drop us a line at info skyteam.com that's s k y e team dot com thanks again for joining us today and remember business is personal and relationships matter we are your allies