In this illustrious episode, Lori Mazan, President of Sounding Board, Inc, shares how she has provided tens of thousands of coaching sessions to top leaders, from Fortune 100 CEOs to venture-backed startup executives.
You will discover:
– Practical tips on how to succeed as a leader in a hybrid work environment
– Why we need a revolution in leadership
– Your role in coaching your team up to the next level
Episode Transcript
Scott Ritzheimer
Hello, hello and welcome. Welcome, once again, to the secrets of the high demand coach podcast, and here with us today, is what I would say is the definition of a high demand coach. It’s the one and only Lori Mazan who is a distinguished executive coach with 25 years of experience. She’s the co founder president and chief coaching Officer of sounding board Inc, they offer a tech driven, human centric approach to leadership development as the go to leadership development firm for forward looking companies including Chevron, Sprint, Citibank, intellicon, tap joy and 10x genomics. Mazan and her team develop capabilities to produce immediate, positive business results, and she packages her strategies in her new book, The leadership revolution, the future of developing dynamic leaders. And believe it or not, she’s here with us today. Lori, it’s such a privilege have you on the show. I’m so excited about this conversation. So welcome.
Lori Mazan
Thank you so much.
Scott Ritzheimer
I want to jump in. I want to jump in because the title of your book caught me. There’s a couple things that were very interesting about it, but the first one was the choice of the word revolution. Tell me, why do you think we’re in the need of a revolution in leadership, and what should it look like?
Lori Mazan
I chose that title for really two reasons. One, because leader development, it’s still using the approaches and a skill based approach from the last century, literally all those assessments leaders take, they were developed 50 years ago. Skill based development. It came out in 1970 with OSHA and safety training. Like we really need to upgrade how we’re developing leaders. And we know that from the view into leadership across the country, that really we have to focus there. The other is, you know, the revolution is like the turning of the wheel. It doesn’t require violence or anything. It just means rolling forward. So let’s just roll forward and develop leaders from the current state instead of from the state of 50 years ago. Yeah, yeah. And it’s a big while, it’s a big plug for a coaching related development approach, because it was.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, it was exactly where I was going, yeah. So yeah. That was what was so unique about the book, from my perspective, is it came from the kind of practitioners lens of how we actually develop these leaders. And so it’s right there. It’s almost hidden in the title, if you’re not really paying attention. But this is really the leader’s guide to developing leaders? Is that a fair way of putting it?
Lori Mazan
It’s kind of a leader’s guide to developing leaders, a leader’s guide to developing themselves, and even a coach’s guide to developing leaders. It depends, like the lens you’re viewing it through.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yes, totally, totally. So I want to dive in on that. What would you say, especially in the era of leadership, we’re stepping into what is the role of a leader in coaching their team members, and how can we do it more effectively?
Lori Mazan
Yeah, well, I mean the old style approach is really this command and control style, and especially the younger generations do not appreciate that anymore, and so I do think leaders need coaching skills for themselves. They’re not really any coach, because it’s not a neutral relationship. There’s a power and status dynamic there, but coaching skills 100% and those coaching skills can help leaders develop their employees, investigate how they are thinking about things. Prompt them towards new and innovative actions that maybe that employee hadnt thought of. Coaching skills are going to be required in the future.Even right now, it’s really required right now. It’s true if you want to retain employees.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, I’m wondering if we could unpack that a little bit, because one of the first off the the challenge that I hear a lot from leaders is like I have my own job to do. There’s so many things pulling from my attention, how could I possibly take the time to mentor and coach my employees? The question free is, how could you not but the even if we get past that, there’s this question like, What do I do? Like, is it a meeting that I have? Is it like, do we review their work together? What are just some practical ways that we can coach our leaders along their path.
Lori Mazan
Well, one thing for leaders, if you’re wondering, how do I have time for this? If you are coaching your employees well or using coaching skills in your interaction with employees, you will actually free up your. Time, because the result of that is your employees are more self initiating, they are more innovative. They are more self managing. And yes, you have to put some time in up front to get to that, but you will read the rewards down the line where you’re suddenly thinking like, oh, how come I have space in my day? Hawaii, have space in your day, because now your people are doing what they need to that’s not causing you problems. And I’ll tell you a quick story, back from my coaching days where I was coaching barely a seasoned leader, and their manager said, Hey, I didn’t see any difference in their, you know, development over the last three months. It was a three month check in, and I was like, really, you know, when we started, you said this fellow was the number one problem that you had to deal with, and you heard stuff about him every day. And I’m like, How often are you hearing stuff about him now and then the the boss was like, Oh yeah, I haven’t heard anything about him in three months. And I said, so how much time are you saving not having to deal with him over the last three months? And they’re like, oh yeah. So He improved a lot. Like, yes. So the more your employees are excelling, the more time you have for the things you really need to do, like strategic thinking, influencing across the organization, and things that are hard to quantify and kind of intangible.
Scott Ritzheimer
It’s so true. It’s so true, and I see it time and time again, and the the invest up front doesn’t take long to pay off. Now, it really doesn’t. It catches every single client of mine off guard. You bring up such a good point there. All right, so let’s say we’ve got, let’s say the listeners like, Yes, all right, I’m gonna do it now. What do I do? Is like, but they’re having that Ricky Bobby moment, like, what do I do with my hands? Yes, they have no idea how to actually engage in coaching. What are just some practical tips for starting the process of coaching your team?
Lori Mazan
I mean, I think you have to understand that coaching is a more advanced form of development, right? A skill based development is like telling people what to do in a generalized sense. It’s not applied specifically to their circumstance or their context. All your HR rules and what people are supposed to do. It’s generalized across the company. So one of the first things you can do as a leader is you can with your employee, identifies specifically what they need to be doing, how they need to be doing it, where’s the road to advancement for them, and it’s like an alignment issue at sounding board. We actually use this as our performance evaluation. How well is the manager and the employee aligned on what is the manager’s job. You know, what is their development path? And what we do is, instead of making one or the other right or wrong, we just work to close the gap so that the over time, the manager and their employee is more and more aligned.
Scott Ritzheimer
Lori, you talk about this kind of revolution of stepping into the forward and letting go of some of like the skills based assessments and some of the challenges that we’re still hanging on to. The flip side of that is, what should we not let slip away? What is it that we’re getting right in near you, or have done so over the last 10 years that we that you think we might have if we’re not careful.
Lori Mazan
Great question, by the way, because hardly everyone asks what we should keep you know, that’s actually a very good coaching question, which is, what are you doing well, and how can you keep doing that? Right? We don’t always have to focus on the negative. I would say in the age of AI, the number one thing to keep is that human interaction a regular cadence of touching base you mentioned earlier, like, do I do this once a year? No, this kind of coaching relationship happens on a regular occasion, Cadence once or twice a month to keep the momentum going. And I think with all the push on the AI, people get a little confused about what is the value of AI, which is really good for automating repetitive tasks and doing low level stuff, but it can’t replace human empathy. And so I think that connection. You know, why do people leave the company? They leave the company because of their manager. If you have a good relationship with your manager, it’s going to be harder for you to leave. So just keeping that relationship going, growing, flourishing is the number one thing. Leaders. Do. And I think many leaders have realized that,
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, it’s so true. So true. Speaking of technological change in leadership, how do we need to be rethinking leadership now in the context of this new remote, hybrid work environment, we’re not all in an office together. What does leadership work look like moving forward?
Lori Mazan
Oh, I think it’s gonna continue to be more and more hybrid like so for leaders, communication and connection is gonna be one of the number one goals. It is harder to stay connected to folks when you’re remote. You have to find new ways to do that, because it’s not the same as if you’re passing in the hall, in the office, you know, every day and you see the person. So it takes additional effort and commitment, and I think that’s going to be, you know, the leaders big part of their job going forward, even with hybrid work the way companies are doing it, not everyone’s in the office on the same day, so you just don’t have that natural way you interact with people. So you have to create that.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah. What are you seeing working really well in that regard, what are some some habits or activities that leaders are engaging in to kind of forge those connections even environment.
Lori Mazan
I think one of the best ways is creating online or even hybrid interactions that are not specifically task oriented. So one thing that happens in the office is you have your social chat, you have your work buddies, and so you have to find ways to create that remotely as well. Another piece is going to be getting people together in person. So for example, sounding board has something we call home week, and we actually stole it from the Gates Foundation where I used to work a long time ago, and we get all the employees together for a week on a periodic basis, and it just reconnects them. They get to socialize together. We do like big picture strategy for the company, and everyone just loves it. And they go back energized, and then that energy lasts for 234, months, until we have it again. So you’re just gonna have to find some new ways. I just saw in the Wall Street Journal today that companies are starting to do in person, off sites and meetings again. And I think that’s really healthy.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah. I agree. And the cool thing about it is, when we do get together in one room, it’s so much more special, right? Like that, especially if you’re intentional about how you use that time. I love the idea of a home week where it’s like, hey, it’s not just business as usual. We’re actually getting together. We’re being intentional about how we’re using this time to bring back alignment, to bring back connection.
Lori Mazan
Yeah, it’s 100% you remember back in the day, everyone was like, Oh, my God, I have to go to that thing. No, now people want to, right? It’s very, very different environment. So it’s like a pulpit for employees versus, you know, torture.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, for sure, for sure. Lori, there’s a question I like to ask all my guests. I’m going to ask it of you as well here. What would you say is the biggest secret that you wish wasn’t a secret at all. What’s that one thing you wish everybody watching or listening today knew?
Lori Mazan
Well your title high demand coaches. I actually think any good coach can be a high demand coach. Like when I started, everyone told me you can do it. You can’t only coach. You have to do other stuff. Blah, blah, blah. No, it’s not true. You just have to figure out how it works for you and make sure you know you’re high quality. But any high quality coach can be a high demand coach. They just have to figure out how works for them. And it can be through a company like sounding board, where we have a network of coaches, but I worked as an independent coach for 20 years before I started this company, so just know you can find the way that’s going to make you successful, just like coach yourself, right? That’s what you do for your for your clients, you need to offer that same kind of confidence and belief for yourself.
Scott Ritzheimer
Fantastic, fantastic. Lori, yeah, there are some folks listening.
Lori Mazan
Oh, can I just add one little last thing in? Yeah, I have a long term practice of this martial art called Tai Chi. Chuan. It’s like the martial form of that stuff old people do in the park. And there’s actually a book, and it’s called there are no secrets. And there are no secrets because people actually know they just don’t do it. And I feel like that’s actually true for the coaching profession as well. Like we see people like you and others out there, we know it’s possible, but making that step to really do it for ourselves is is the biggest challenge.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah. yeah. So true. So true. There’s some folks listening, whether they’re a leader, you know, trying to develop the leaders in their organization, or they’re coach who’s listening to this, and they’re just coming alive with it. Where can they find more out about you? And sounding board, how can they get a copy of your book?
Lori Mazan
Yep, so you can go to the website, soundingboardinc.com, there’s a place there where you can buy the book Leadership Revolution, and also you can find out about sounding board. And you’re also welcome to contact me on LinkedIn, Lori Mazan, and I you said you were I was unique. Guess what? I actually am unique, because I’m the only Lori Mazan on LinkedIn. So if you want to find me, you actually can.
Scott Ritzheimer
That’s fantastic. That’s fantastic. I With a name like Scott Ritzheimer. It seems like that should be true, like there shouldn’t be a lot of it, but I’m a junior, right? So I always have to tell everyone you know, find Scott Ritzheimer. You’ll get down to two and then find the one who looks he’s 14. That’s me. Lori. It was just a privilege having you on the show. So excited to have you here. Thanks for being on thanks for sharing with us today, and for those of you watching and listening today, you know your time and attention mean the world to us. I hope you got as much out of this conversation as I know I did, and I cannot wait to see you next time. Take care.
Contact Lori Mazan
Lori Mazan is a distinguished executive coach with 25 years of experience. She’s the co-founder, president, and chief coaching officer of Sounding Board, Inc. It offers a tech-driven, human-centric approach to leadership development as the go-to leadership development firm for forward-looking companies—including Chevron, Sprint, Citibank, Intellikine, Tapjoy, and 10XGenomics; Mazan and her team develop capabilities that produce immediate, positive business results. Mazan packages these strategies in her new book, Leadership Revolution: The Future of Developing Dynamic Leaders.
Want to learn more about Lori Mazan’s work at Sounding Board, Inc? Check out her website at https://www.soundingboardinc.com/ and grab a copy of her book Leadership Revolution: The Future of Developing Dynamic Leaders https://amzn.to/40anSGR
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