Ask Me Anything: How the Right Questions Shape Your Leadership Impact

[00:00:00] What’s on your mind? That’s the question we’re going to answer on today’s show. Welcome to Chain of Learning, where the links of leadership and learning unite. This is your connection for actionable strategies and practices to empower you to build a people centered learning culture, get results, and expand your impact so that you and your team can leave a lasting legacy.

[00:00:20] I’m your host and fellow learning enthusiast, Katie Anderson. What questions do you have for me? That’s the question I asked you a month ago. To ask me anything. Thank you to everyone who submitted questions. And I’ve already sent a special gift to everyone who submitted questions for this episode. And I got a lot of really great questions.

[00:00:39] Something I really appreciated about this process was getting a list of all the different types of questions from you about what’s on your mind so that I can continue to address them, not just in today’s episode, but as we continue to have more episodes and expand the chain of learning in 2025 and beyond.

[00:00:58] As I promised, I’m choosing a few questions here to explore in this episode, and most are not simple questions with simple answers. And although I can’t answer them all here, I’m going to give you some of my insights and ideas to get us started on the conversation. And as we move into the next year, I want to continue to dive into your questions about leading transformational change and how you can increase your impact and influence more deeply in the future.

[00:01:21] You can always ask me more questions at chainoflearning.com/ask. But before we dive into the five questions I’ve chosen to address in this episode, I want to take a step back. And talk about questions, why we ask them and how we react to them. The first step in creating a culture of continuous learning is to start asking more questions to lead with curiosity.

[00:01:45] But the next step is to understand what’s the reason behind the question. Why do you want to know the answer? It’s the questions you need to answer behind the question you asked. What is leading you to ask this question? What’s the problem you’re trying to solve? What have you already tried? What’s the real challenge here?

[00:02:04] And the next step is for the person being asked the question, not to default to immediately assuming that the person who’s asking the question to you needs your answer. If you really want to help other people solve problems and create a culture of continuous improvement, you have to get out of the habit of immediately answering any question that’s asked of you.

[00:02:23] As the person being asked the question, you’re put in the role of quote unquote expert, whether you’re in the front of the room as a facilitator, a teacher, a speaker, or a leader talking to your team members or a podcast host, just like now answering questions. One of the most important things. For us all to build cultures of continuous learning and improvement is not to immediately help by being the expert with the answer.

[00:02:47] We need to first step into being more of a process coach and probe deeper. When you’re asked a question, don’t reply immediately, pause and ask a question back. Start to uncover the question behind the question you’re asked. Get more context. You could ask. What is leading you to ask that question? Or what have you tried so far?

[00:03:08] Or what’s one thought you have about something you could do about that or what’s leading to this challenge. You’ll learn so much more and they will too. When I do this in workshops and coaching sessions, at least 50 percent of the time, the person asking me the question answers their own question, or at least partially answers it.

[00:03:28] And if they’re still seeking guidance, I as the person being asked, To provide input, then have so much more context from which to think about how my response or ideas can be helpful. When leaders I coach try this in real life, they’re surprised to find the same result too. If they ask a followup question.

[00:03:48] The questions often answered or there’s so much more progress that’s made. Oftentimes people just need space to think about a question that’s on their mind. And sometimes your insights can help them too, but far too often we’re reactive and immediately answer and our insights and thinking might not be what’s needed.

[00:04:07] So remember when you’re asked a question, Ask a question before answering. I actually did that with the very first question I’ve chosen to kick off this episode, where the question was initially submitted by email. When the question asked her responded to my newsletter and I immediately emailed him back to ask for more context behind his question.

[00:04:28] So I could know better. What help I might be able to provide. So question one is from Terry Callanan from the US. Terry initially emailed me with this question. Imagine a workplace where the leadership style is more command and control, but there’s a desire to learn how to build a culture of continuous improvement and shape the role leaders should play.

[00:04:50] Question where to start when I asked a follow up question via email, Terry then gave me some context about the organization that he’s working with. It’s trying to move away from putting out fires all the time and day to day execution to really wanting to develop a culture that’s more focused on improvement and how to create value for customers.

[00:05:10] Terry acknowledged that he knew his question was really broad and could take an entire podcast, but he wanted to know some strategies to help leaders get started. So Terry’s right. This could totally take up an entire podcast episode and so much more. It’s at the crux of how you lead leaders. Change to shift from a more command control focused on short term business results, where leaders are putting out fires all the time and being the leader as the expert with all the answers to one where there is ongoing continuous improvement and everyone’s engaged and capable and problem solving at all levels.

[00:05:44] My top suggestion of where to get started is to first help leaders recognize the impact of being in constant firefighting mode and defaulting to this command and control leadership where leaders are telling everyone what to do, and then help them work on how what I call, Break The Telling Habit®. This is linked again to how I started off this episode and my suggestion for leaders, not just jumping in and defaulting to be the one that tells everyone what to do, even if they’re asked a question.

[00:06:16] So I’ve asked the following questions to tens of thousands of leaders and change practitioners around the world. What happens when you tell people what to do and how do you feel? When someone tells you exactly what to do or gives all their suggestions, everyone’s reply, no matter where they are in the world or what industry they work in is.

[00:06:36] Frustration, annoyance, and maybe as a leader, you’ll get compliance, but not real engagement. And the unseen consequences is that when you tell someone what to do, who owns the problem? You do. So you are adding to your burden of so much to do. And this contributes to this feeling like, I don’t have time to ask questions.

[00:06:58] I got to get everything done. And I’m running around putting out the fires because you’re not building in the organizational capability. To solve all the other little problems or maybe not little problems just contributing thinking this is so important to start recognizing this How are you defaulting to telling people what to do?

[00:07:14] And how can you then start breaking the telling habit as I talked about in the most recent podcast episode with Isaac Mitchell in episode 32. it’s also about understanding what’s really urgent. What’s a crisis that must be fixed now versus our perceived sense of urgency. Not everything is a five alarm fire that has to be fixed now.

[00:07:36] It’s not all hands on decks and we need to get this done. And when we can acknowledge this, that not everything has to be done now, it’s all the state of constant crisis. It helps us hold back from telling people exactly what to do and how to do it. Give a little space. Even if it’s one day, ask some more questions, give people the time to do some problem solving and come back.

[00:07:59] And incrementally, this is going to start to build that culture of capability, confidence for problem solving. And you’re going to find that you’re unburdening yourself from that feeling of you have responsibility for everything too. So this making that small shift is the most powerful. thing that leaders who are wanting to move from this firefighting command and control culture to one that’s really focused on continuous improvement and excellence really is making this shift and breaking the telling habit.

[00:08:29] If you want more strategies on how to Break The Telling Habit® to go back and listen to episode 13 of this podcast, three ways to Break The Telling Habit®. I also have a ton of resources, including an ebook, E course called Break The Telling Habit® and more on my blog and in articles that I’ve written on my website.

[00:08:45] So this is a place to start. We have to Break The Telling Habit® first and foremost, and I’ll be sure to link to all of these resources in the full episode podcast show notes. All right, time to move on to the next questions in this ask me anything episode. So the next two questions actually come from Igor Souza from Brazil who submitted several great questions.

[00:09:06] Thank you And I chose a few of them because I believe they really represent a lot of the questions that I hear when I’m traveling the world, working with clients and hearing from you privately and individually too. The next question is, what are the most common obstacles you see organizations face when trying to implement transformational change and how can they overcome them?

[00:09:28] This is definitely also a big question that I’m not going to be able to fully uncover everything here in the podcast, but I do want to share a few thoughts with you and some suggestions as well. And this is going to be a core topic that I explore in future episodes in the podcast, um, including with Jim Womack, who I spent a lot of time with recently when we were at both speakers at the Lean Summit in Santiago, Chile.

[00:09:52] In October and leading transformational change is the focus of my conversation in the very next podcast episode with Michael Bungay, Stanier most famous for his book, the coaching habit, which has sold over 1 million copies worldwide. So be sure to tune into those in to 2025. Alright, so here are some of the challenges that I hear about often and see in my work with clients, whether or not they’re family owned businesses or large multinational corporations, government agencies, healthcare, biotech, whatever.

[00:10:23] These are consistent challenges and there are ways that we can overcome them. So the first challenge I see is seeing lean, um, and continuous improvement as about being projects or just focusing on the technical application of tools, um, without really focusing on people, respect for people and people development.

[00:10:42] As you’ve heard me say over and over again on this show, the missing link to the success of lean is not including this pillar of respect for people in our work and creating the conditions for learning for some tips on how to overcome this from current lean practitioners and executives on how to overcome this.

[00:11:01] I encourage you to go back to some of the past episodes of this podcast. You can hear about how Stephanie Bursick and her colleagues. are really focusing on how their behavior as leaders really show up to put people first to reinstill joy and vitality in the workplace to complement the process improvement initiatives that they’re doing.

[00:11:24] Um, Isaac Mitchell, who talked about creating a connection between individual purpose and organizational purpose, and then designing a career ladder that really helped. Individuals understand how their growth was going to also contribute to the organization’s success and their success too. And Sean Carner back in episode 10, where he found his leadership superpower in engaging employees in problem solving and not being that leader with all the expert, but instead setting the direction and then coming in to provide that support for them to do problem solving and develop their ideas.

[00:11:57] So there are a lot of ways that we can overcome this, but we have to make the shift of seeing lean is just the technical side of continuous improvement or process improvement. We have to bring in the people and the learning and the respect. All right. So the second challenge I see is outsourcing improvement to a team of Lean Six Sigma master black belts or practitioners who own improvement projects or implementation rather than being continuous improvement change leaders who can teach.

[00:12:27] Guide and coach other leaders in the organization at all levels about how they can lead and own improvements in their own areas of responsibility. Continuous improvement teams are important and really can accelerate improvement in organizations. I was a practitioner and then a leader of these internal change teams for years.

[00:12:47] But where I see a failure point is when organizations or their leaders see the team as the owners or the doers of improvement. And I see this sometimes with clients that I’m working with too, and it’s a big mindset shift that I’m really trying to help them make. This has to be leader led. So success in lean and continued improvement happens when the leaders are leading it.

[00:13:08] And the CI team is there to help teach and grow the capabilities of others across the organization with these principles, practices, and tools. So a tip to overcome this, if you’re a change leader, help your leadership team see that the only way That improvement will really be sustained is by building capability and you not being the magician behind the scenes doing the improvement work to others.

[00:13:34] You need to do it with them and help teach and guide them. And another way to make sure that is that you’re engaging the people who do the work. Even if you have some short term improvement initiatives that must be made and there’s time pressure on that, how can you engage the people who are part of that work or who own that area of where the issue is happening so that you can help do some mini teaching of principles and practices along the way?

[00:14:00] So really shift your own mindset that if you are a change leader, it’s not about you owning it. It’s about you teaching it. So that’s super important. And then the third challenge that I see is that we get the focus backwards, being outcomes focused on business results, rather than focusing on the process and inputs to get those results, such as developing people and creating organizational capabilities to get those results.

[00:14:28] You’ve heard me reference the quote Profit is excrement. This is from the chairman of a company I take people to in Japan and they are incredibly successful. They get huge results. Their profit margins totally outshine all their competitors in their space. But the thing is what leads to their success is.

[00:14:49] Seeing profit is a natural byproduct of developing a healthy, thriving organization where people are happy and engaged in the work. So this is where companies who get it right are focusing their effort into the inputs. They want the outputs, but they know it’s building the people that’s going to get there.

[00:15:10] So a tip on how to overcome this backwards thinking is help your leaders see that the outcomes are needed, but it’s by understanding the process and the inputs to get there that they will be able to truly repeat those results, improve those results, and stay ahead of the times. Build in discussion about process in all that you do and ask questions to dive deeper into problem solving.

[00:15:35] As we continue with this podcast and in the work I do, I really want to understand more deeply what are some of the challenges and barriers that you are experiencing and I ask you to go back to chainoflearning.com/ask to share. Some things like what are the obstacles you’re facing? What are you trying to do?

[00:15:55] What’s working and what’s not. And then we can dive deeper into those specific challenges and really start to unpack some ways that you can be working more effectively in your organization to lead transformational change. The next question, question three is also asked by Igor Souza. The question is.

[00:16:14] How can leaders effectively balance the need for short term results with the pursuit of long term strategic goals while developing people? This too is a common challenge that I see for organizations and could have included it above. It’s feeling like it’s an either or decision or paradox between short term and long term.

[00:16:34] And again, it gets to this focus on outcomes rather than developing the process and capabilities to get there. My answer is all grounded in How can we see this not as either or, but and I explore this very same question about short term results and longer term visions in an upcoming podcast episode with Wendy Smith, the author of both and thinking it’s the seeming paradox.

[00:17:03] And we have to unpack that and one way to imbalance this need for short term results with the pursuit of longer strategic goals, such as people development or sustainability is by keeping a both and mindset a tip to overcome this either or mindset is to identify what are the short term results that are needed.

[00:17:23] Perhaps it’s a cost savings or a quality improvement and work on that needed short term result. also seeing it as a people development opportunity. Maybe there’s a crisis that has to be addressed now, but then how can you find ways to bring in learning after the fact to reflect and engage in others in understanding what went on and how can we now work towards making sure this never happens again.

[00:17:50] So we can still focus on those short term results. and focus on people learning and development and over time be building and building towards that culture of continuous improvement and a thriving people centered learning culture. The risk of staying in focused on just short term results is that you’re never going to get out of that cycle and will in fact be surpassed by other organizations who are able to leverage longer term thinking.

[00:18:17] And doing both focus on results and focus on people at the same time. Question four takes a bit of a shift from questions about how you can more effectively lead organizational change to a question about my experience of, and recommendations on transitioning from being an internal change leader. as an employee to an entrepreneur leading and consulting with organizations around the world.

[00:18:45] There are actually two questions that were submitted that were related. So I’m going to share both of them and then address them in my responses here. So first, Ian Campbell from the UK asked, what advice would you give someone looking to use their lean experiences to start their own consultancy business?

[00:19:00] And Sam Morgan from the U S took me up on submitting a video and audio question. So here is Sam in his own voice asking the question. Hey Katie. Thanks so much for taking the question. Uh, mine is what would you say was the hardest part about making the move from being a lean leader inside the corporate environment to being a consultant and entrepreneur and what was the biggest thing you learned through that process?

[00:19:33] Look forward to hearing more. Take care. Both of these questions are really about how to make the leap from internal to external and the lessons learned. For a little context on my own journey, I left my last internal role in an organization over 11 years ago. And at that time I was reporting to the COO in a large healthcare system as the senior director of the Lean Promotion Office.

[00:19:57] Leading the internal change team that was responsible for the entire lean transformation at this large healthcare system in Northern California. And I was responsible for both leading and growing my team and coaching our executives on strategy deployment and their leadership behaviors to have this really be a leader led transformation, not just an internal lean team led.

[00:20:21] I actually never had this vision that I was going to have my own consulting practice. I really thought I was going to just keep climbing the ladder and have impact within organizations. And it was only through some changed conditions in my both personal and professional life that led me to take the leap into something that really felt like the unknown.

[00:20:43] But one thing that really helped lay the ground work, the foundation of me feeling comfortable for doing that, and actually. having some success almost immediately in getting clients from the very first days that I started my consulting practice. I actually had contracts under negotiation before my last day of work.

[00:21:02] I’d given notice for, you know, three weeks earlier and then cast the net to let people know I was going to be a free agent. And I had two clients who seamless to answer. Part of Ian’s question about how to make that transition. One of the things that really set me up for being able to do that, even though it was never a goal of mine, and now I’m so grateful for having made that leap, even if it was something I didn’t, I couldn’t even even imagine back then was that.

[00:21:31] I had for years been focused on both getting, you know, great results for in the work that I was doing for my organization and simultaneously building my own quote unquote thought leadership or reputation in a broader context. I, I, Talked about this with Joy Spencer on her podcast, Reframed to Create on episode 82, and I’ll put the links to this in the show notes as well, about how I did this and how part of what’s really important when we’re internal in organizations is not just seeing that the work we’re doing is just for the organization.

[00:22:06] Of course, that’s our role and our responsibility. But there are other ways that we can still be creating and building reputation in other capacities. And so a way that I did that was speaking at conferences. And at that time it was, largely in breakout sessions where I was sharing the improvement work that either I was leading or helping participate in at different industry events, either in healthcare or lean conferences.

[00:22:34] And through that, I was both highlighting the work that my organization was doing, but getting to be known across a broader network of the work that I was doing too. And that. Reputation building allowed me to have more connections and people knew about my work. Um, before I was even ready to need, you know, to do that in different way.

[00:22:56] This could also serve you if you’re, you know, maybe looking for a different role in a different organization doesn’t always have to be wanting to make that shift. So my recommendation to any of you who are, you know, seeking greater career growth, whether or not it’s within your own organization, potentially having bigger leadership roles in other organizations, or eventually starting your own consultancy or going out on your own is how can you start building your reputation and thought leadership.

[00:23:21] So contribute to writing posts on, on LinkedIn, you know, share things, things that you’re doing, or go speak at a conference or write an article. It can be something small, like it could even just be starting to make more comments on other people’s LinkedIn posts, um, and sharing your thinking and being part of a community.

[00:23:37] You’ll get known. beyond the work you’re doing internally, and that’s going to set you up for a lot of other things. And it’s about, I don’t like using this term, but it is truly about building your brand, but I don’t like to think about it as our brand. I think it’s about being our authentic selves and, and helping highlight the success and sometimes the failures too, but like just what’s going on and how you’re contributing to that.

[00:23:59] And so how do you contribute to a broader community? Conversation outside of just your organization. So to hear more of my story, definitely go back and listen to reframe to create episode 82. One of the other biggest challenges for me, once I made that leap and that decision that I needed to go in and do something different, and this is in part to address Sam’s question.

[00:24:21] Was it, I had to redefine for myself what success looked like as a high achiever. I, you know, just been continuing on the career ladder. I’d gone to a good university and then I, you know, I had taken a gap year and worked at planet Hollywood waitressing, but then I got back on the career track and, you know, worked for a few years, got my master’s degree, had a Fulbright, you know, then it was continuing to get more and more senior roles within an organization.

[00:24:42] And all of a sudden I didn’t have that. Path or what external definition of what success was. So I had to go back and really think about what did success or impact mean for me? It was one of the first times I really stepped back and went to think about what is my purpose and what’s the impact that I want to have.

[00:24:59] I may not have known how that was going to manifest, but I saw these as some guiding principles about the work I do. And looking back, you know, they still are some of what guide me today in, in my business. And, you know, I’m, I’ve worked towards achieving this, And I’m having some success with this and I want to continue to build and leverage on it.

[00:25:17] So one of them was first that I wanted to be known for my work and have clients come to me rather than having to quote unquote sell my work. So this gets back to my suggestion of how do you contribute to thought leadership? How do you lead with sharing information, ideas, contributing. That’s why I wrote my book.

[00:25:32] That’s why I started my blog. That’s why I have this podcast is not, I’m not trying to sell you on ideas. I want you to know who I am and my perspective. Of course, I’d love to come work with you in so many different ways. So, you know, go check out my website and find out how we can partner together from trusted advisor work to, you know, doing high impact workshops and leadership retreats, but that’s not what’s important.

[00:25:54] It’s about being known for your work and your ideas and then having people reach out to you. So the second was that I wanted to have a global impact and opportunities to work with leaders and organizations around the world. And I’ve been doing that. You’ve been seeing this. I’ve just this year, I’ve gone to Australia, Chile, Hungary, and Canada for working with clients and speaking it at conferences.

[00:26:14] And last year I was in Brazil and Colombia and so many other places. I love it. I’ve lived in seven countries around the world and this fills my cup. So I love the fact that I, By stepping into my own business, I was able, I am able to have this connection around the world and connection with you here, no matter where you’re listening.

[00:26:32] This is another way that we can do that. And third, I knew that I really wanted to have a purpose. Um, driven business and impact. I wanted to help others and know that I was having a meaningful impact in their lives and in their leadership. And so I really appreciate hearing from all of you about how I’ve helped influence you or helped you in some way, because that’s what gives me joy and energy.

[00:26:52] And. Over time, I’ve honed in on the understanding that my purpose really is to connect the hearts and minds of people around the world so that together we can make it a better place. And really all that I do comes back to that. And then a second part of what was challenging for me is as I’ve grown and developed, my, my business is also seen reframing that I’m not just an independent consultant anymore.

[00:27:14] I actually have a big business with a lot of different components and that if I was going to be able to have the impact that I want, So just, you know, fulfill all those things that I just talked about. I couldn’t do it all. I mean, I used to run my own, do all my website development and I just, I used to do it all.

[00:27:30] And I kind of had a mini crisis, um, during the pandemic to after my book was published to realize I couldn’t do it all to be successful. If I wanted sanity in my life. And truly to do the things that are the most high value add, I had to learn to let go of some of the things in my business, hire people who can help me leverage that and to be effective.

[00:27:49] And so I’d hired a team to help me edit, publish and market my book. And that was my first experience with really having team members working in my business. And then I hired a business manager four years ago, Claire, and she’s been with me since then has really seen, helped me leverage so much growth, um, and impact and being able to work with you.

[00:28:07] And Claire’s grown from being just my, not just my business manager, but my business director overseeing a broader team and my chief of staff, who is a business thought partner with me. And then I’ve also hired other team members. Like an executive assistant who interfaces a lot of my clients, Brady, who many of you might know, a web developer and other team members I’ve needed to help with various support.

[00:28:28] And I’ve continued to invest in coaching for myself to grow the skills that I need to be an effective business person and continue to reach the different level of impact that I want in my business. You know, for example, I have a speaking coach that I work with, Carol Cox, who she was on this podcast in episode 26, talking about how you can leverage storytelling for greater impact.

[00:28:49] My business and branding coach, Betsy Jordan, uh, who also was on the show in episode 14, who has been invaluable as a thought partner for me about not only how I’m positioning myself, but how I can help you as change leaders also think about positioning the work that you’re doing for greater impact. And of course my podcast coach and editor, Tim Wohlberg.

[00:29:08] So. Thanks, Tim, for making this show awesome. So it’s about reframing what does success mean? It means as your business grows, what are the support you need to be able to make greater impact and just continuing to grow and develop yourself as well. You know, it’s about really having that mindset of continuous learning and to recognize that you’re going to have growth, you know, where I am now, 11 years after I started my business, I didn’t even think I was going to start is so different.

[00:29:34] So. You’re going to be at different stages at different places. But so what can you do now to continue to build your reputation and thought leadership? That’s going to be universal across no matter where you are in your career. And then how do you continue to grow and develop through that and to be willing to take the leap into the unknown.

[00:29:51] All right, we are on to question five, which is the last question for this episode. And. This is actually something that has come up so much in my work with transformational change leaders and improvement teams over the last year and more. And I’m seeing as a big gap that we need to work on addressing and it’s something I want to have a focus for this coming year.

[00:30:17] So stay tuned because there’s going to be so much more about how we can dive into this not only on the podcast, but in other ways, because I really think this is going to be the crux of how we become more effective as change leaders in truly creating lasting impact. So there were two people who submitted very similar questions.

[00:30:35] The first is from Sabrina Malter from Germany. How can a continuous improvement team within an organization increase and demonstrate impact? And the second again is from Igor from Brazil. How do you measure the success of leadership coaching initiatives and what metrics should organizations focus on to ensure they’re getting the desired outcomes?

[00:30:55] Great. Questions. And this is one of the biggest challenges again, that I’m seeing change leaders, whether you’re internal or external having over the last handful of years, I’ve seen lean and continuous improvement teams being cut or decimated when a new leadership executive leadership team comes on, or there’s financial pressures because the executive leaders are not seeing the value for those internal change teams.

[00:31:23] Or for external consultants, being able to, you know, charge for a value based rate because it’s, you’re having a hard time identifying what are the real outcomes the business is going to get and tangible business results, and then link your coaching and the support you’re doing there. So if we are going to make this transition from not just focusing purely on the technical side of lean.

[00:31:47] And, you know, we’re just doing some cost savings and get out of this, this view that lean is just, you know, how do you lean out a company organization? And it’s really about how you do more with less. How do you do more by developing people’s capability for creativity and, and problem solving, and then we can improve and become more efficient to be a truly effective transformational change leader and have your value be seen in the organization.

[00:32:15] You need to understand how to speak the language of business. This is the K of being a knowledgeable business expert in my Katalyst change leader model. How can you work backwards from the business results, the tangible business results in link the coaching of leadership behaviors to that. So there’s a direct link in where we’re usually only focusing on maybe customer outcomes and business results, but it starts with What are the leadership behaviors and what are we coaching to?

[00:32:48] How is that impacting employee performance? And then how is employee performance impacting process efficiency? Then how is process efficiency impacting customer outcomes and how our customer outcomes then driving business results, such as the finance side and more. When we can get better at linking that we are going to be more effective in clearly demonstrating the value to leaders who may be only looking at those customer outcomes like retention and more to business results and the bottom line.

[00:33:21] How to do this is going to be a big focus of mine in helping you get better at in 2025. I am thinking about creating a workshop. I’d love to hear if this is something you’d be interested in being part of. I would do it remotely so people from around the world could do it. And I am working with some of my coaching clients, my trusted advisor, internal change leaders on how to be more effective this as well.

[00:33:45] Right now, if you want to hear some more tangible insights about how to do this, go back and listen to some of the previous podcast episodes that I’ve had here about how to become a more knowledgeable business expert. So with Brad Toussaint, for example, and Karen Martin about how you can speak the language of business.

[00:34:02] And if you haven’t done so yet already, be sure to download and do the Katalyst self assessment that covers all eight competencies that you need to be an impactful change leader. You can do this at kbjanderson.com/Katalyst spelled with a K. So you can be thinking about all the different things that might be influencing your ability transformational change.

[00:34:23] And then how are you linking the value and results to that. So stay tuned and I would love to hear from you. Drop me a line if you’re interested in learning more and exploring this as a topic for a workshop or other ways that I can help you on this podcast. Thank you again for everyone who submitted questions and I would love to keep hearing from all of you.

[00:34:41] So be sure to go to chainoflearning.com/ask to ask me more questions. This is going to help me understand how to best serve you as we move forward with more episodes and more content. My goal is to help you become more effective so that you and your team members really can lead that, um, that lasting legacy.

[00:35:02] As I reflect on most of the questions that were submitted. And the ones that I hear from you online and my work with clients around the world, it all gets back to this uniting theme. How do you have a more holistic approach to lean and developing high performing organizations by focusing on people as the way to get results?

[00:35:20] It’s not just the technical side of process improvement. It’s about the influence and social skills you need to complement your technical skills. And it’s about how you are showing up to demonstrate the value of the work that you’re doing from shifting from a doer of the improvement to a coach of improvement in your organization.

[00:35:40] It’s about focusing on people development while working towards business outcomes. And it’s about seeing that a learning culture will get you both short term results and build capability. for innovation into the future. I’ll put the links to all the episodes and the resources that I mentioned here in this episode in the full episode show notes.

[00:36:00] So be sure to go to chainoflearning.com/33. And as I mentioned, as we move into the new year, my goal for this podcast, as it continues to evolve is address the questions that are most on your mind. about leading transformational change with intention. So keep asking me those questions and have me on your shoulder asking you to a follow up question.

[00:36:24] What is one thought you have about that question you’re asking, or what’s one thing you’ve tried so far, or what’s a little bit more context behind the reason you’re asking that question. Go to chainoflearning.com/ask and submit more of your questions today. And if we go back, To where we started this episode, I challenge you to the next time you’re asked a question before immediately answering pause, take a moment and ask a followup question.

[00:36:52] You and the person who asked you a question might be surprised with the answer. If you’re enjoying this podcast and you haven’t already done so, be sure to follow or subscribe to chain of learning on your favorite podcast player or YouTube, and you can sign up for my newsletter at kbjanderson.com/newsletter

[00:37:09] so that you’re the first to know about new episodes and other resources to help you on your journey to greater impact. You won’t want to miss out on the next episodes, including conversations with Michael Bunkay Stanier, Wendy Smith, Jim Womack, and more episodes from me too. Thanks for being a link in my chain of learning today.

[00:37:28] I’ll see you next time. Have a great day and happy new year.