Finding Your Authority with Stacey Engle

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This is a podcast episode titled, Finding Your Authority with Stacey Engle. The summary for this episode is: <p>The Future of Teamwork welcomes Stacey Engle to chat about her experience as the Founder and CEO of Authority Circle. She and host Dane Groeneveld talk about how Stacey helps leaders consider their defining moments, plot their roadmaps, and bring action to their teams. They also discuss the dysfunction caused by missed conversations, and Stacey shares the importance of finding your authority and writing your story.</p><p><br></p><p>Key Takeaways:</p><ul><li>[00:16&nbsp;-&nbsp;00:31] Meet Stacey Engle</li><li>[00:38&nbsp;-&nbsp;04:10] Stacey's path to entrepreneurship from learning and development to marketing and branding</li><li>[04:19&nbsp;-&nbsp;06:03] The experience of becoming president at 33</li><li>[06:03&nbsp;-&nbsp;07:22] The missing conversations are destructive</li><li>[07:34&nbsp;-&nbsp;09:46] Authority Lab and 90-day goal roadmaps</li><li>[10:16&nbsp;-&nbsp;13:45] The Web3 scaffolding and how Authority Circle thinks about the blockchain</li><li>[13:48&nbsp;-&nbsp;14:48] Accelerated adoption of technologies that make the world better through humanity and emotions</li><li>[14:51&nbsp;-&nbsp;17:31] Dysfunction stems from not having crucial conversations</li><li>[17:32&nbsp;-&nbsp;20:43] Reflecting on your achievements, ambition, and tall poppy syndrome</li><li>[20:51&nbsp;-&nbsp;24:13] How to encourage your team to start reflecting on their defining moments</li><li>[24:18&nbsp;-&nbsp;27:39] Origin stories for teams</li><li>[27:43&nbsp;-&nbsp;29:14] Habit formation and the importance of 90 days for leaders and teams</li><li>[29:18&nbsp;-&nbsp;31:29] Simplification and smart goals are the keys to providing great experiences</li><li>[31:38&nbsp;-&nbsp;34:33] Setting the pace as a leader</li><li>[34:37&nbsp;-&nbsp;35:59] Tackling what accountable means as a leader</li><li>[36:52&nbsp;-&nbsp;39:04] Making mistakes and getting her ducks in a row</li><li>[39:10&nbsp;-&nbsp;42:45] Success, failure, and your authority</li><li>[42:47&nbsp;-&nbsp;44:16] Creating the right story, impact as a leader</li><li>[44:19&nbsp;-&nbsp;47:11] Stepping into your authority as a leader</li><li>[47:13&nbsp;-&nbsp;49:04] Consumers buy products because of leaders</li><li>[49:09&nbsp;-&nbsp;50:55] Conversation recap</li></ul>
Introduction
00:15 MIN
Stacey's path to entrepreneurship from learning and development to marketing and branding
03:31 MIN
The experience of becoming president at 33
01:44 MIN
The missing conversations are destructive
01:18 MIN
Authority Lab and 90 day goal roadmaps
02:12 MIN
The Web3 scaffolding and how Authority Circle thinks about the blockchain
03:28 MIN
Accelerated adoption of technologies that make the world better through humanity and emotions
01:00 MIN
Dysfunction stems from not having crucial conversations
02:39 MIN
Reflecting on your achievements, ambition, and tall poppy syndrome
03:11 MIN
How to encourage your team to start reflecting on their defining moments
03:21 MIN
Origin stories for teams
03:20 MIN
Habit formation and the importance of 90 days for leaders and teams
01:30 MIN
Simplification and smart goals are the keys to providing great experiences
02:11 MIN
Setting the pace as a leader
02:54 MIN
Tackling what accountable means as a leader
01:22 MIN
Making mistakes and getting her ducks in a row
02:12 MIN
Success, failure, and your authority
03:35 MIN
Creating the right story, impact as a leader
01:29 MIN
Stepping into your authority as a leader
02:51 MIN
Consumers buy products because of leaders
01:50 MIN
Conversation recap
01:45 MIN

Dane Groeneveld: Welcome to the Future of Teamwork podcast. My name's Dane Groeneveld, CEO of HUDDL3 group, and today I'm welcoming Stacey Engle to the show. Stacey is the co- founder and CEO of Authority Circle and also founder of Authority Lab and there's so much more there to Stacey's story, so I look forward to having her share it with you. Welcome to this show, Stacey.

Stacey Engle: Thank you, Dan. Thanks for having me.

Dane Groeneveld: You bet. Working in startups all the way through to global Fortune 500s, big focus on learning and development, OD, driving business results, operational performance. You've had some pretty cool experiences and the world's changing a lot right now. I know you are keeping busy with lots of different projects too, lots of different advisory positions. Maybe you can give our listeners a bit of a background on how you got to where you're at today.

Stacey Engle: For sure. Well, it's funny because I moved 10 times before I was 18. I'm not sure you know that about me.

Dane Groeneveld: I didn't know that.

Stacey Engle: When I got into OD and learning and development, which I had no clue the whole field existed even when I went to business school and my undergrad. That's something I really want to have change, but I had no idea the field existed. When I got into it, people were like, " Well, you've been a change manager your whole life." And I was like, " Yeah, I've never looked at it that way." But in some circumstance, moving every two years for different elementary schools, two middle schools, two high schools, lots of change and lots of just soaking in people and new environments and definitely extroverted. Exploring different contexts has always been just a core and connecting with people quickly and connecting people with people. From an ethos perspective, that's something that I just always relate to with people who have more nomadic lives in one way or another. And the world is definitely going that direction. Business is going that direction. But I started out in learning and development, helping grow a business really from the start called Fierce Conversations with the founder, Susan Scott, and started in branding and marketing. That's what I went to school for. Really, that's always fascinated me because it's just the idea of why do we resonate with brands? Why do we resonate with tribes, if you follow Seth Godin. So this idea of now what I think is really true, but this idea of how do we market people developing themselves, teams developing themselves. It was just a dream for a decade of building that business by connecting with global brands, taking it to over 30 countries, 20 languages, a lot of amazing work. I really progressed through from marketing to helping build the company and team there and eventually becoming president of the company and then... That's where I started in the learning and development worlds and this idea of we're navigating our lives and companies one conversation at a time. That is very core to my foundational approach, just given... I was with... Because I just turned 37, I was there for a third of my life and my career, so it was very formative. It was a very formative time. That's where I started. And then-

Dane Groeneveld: Very cool. 33 is a very... You mentioned, we were talking about a becoming president at 33, fast pace of growth, and then you've got this organization and this broad customer base. Talk about hands in the fire, feet on the fire, whatever you want to call it as far as growth. You were right in the mix.

Stacey Engle: Totally. Just the messiness of the growth, but also just the core of having the vision. I learned a lot as a leader, not always in the way that I... Just all of the challenges that happen when you're a first time leader and then also in the global environment in the past decade and even more so now, leaders are... The overwhelmed leader is a real thing. It was kind of a meta experience from the standpoint of I was helping those leaders and our company was helping the leaders and I also was that leader. Leading from that authentic place was really different in the space too, because a lot of people want the PhDs or all of the theory and the data. There are different ways to leave. Not that we didn't have data and research and all of those, they're critical pieces, but this idea of how we show up in our lives, how we go to the places and conversations that people may not want to go or try to avoid and living that right as best as I could while purveying what we were doing.

Dane Groeneveld: I would say would that's one of the hardest parts of running a good team or being a good team members, is having those crucial fierce conversations because it's easy to know what you should do. It's really, really hard to execute on that, on a consistently reliable basis. And to do it in a way that doesn't cause destruction.

Stacey Engle: Right. Absolutely. Well, and I think for all the listeners and the people that you reach, it's this idea that a missing conversation is the worst one because it fails to address what needs to be addressed. You can always go back after a conversation didn't go as well and share that didn't go the way. But the missing conversations are the insidious ones that destroy companies, destroy teams and destroy marriages, destroy families. We went there, Dane. But that's like a core piece from that I've taken away from that experience working with leaders and of course on my journey.

Dane Groeneveld: Very neat. And then that took you into founding Authority Lab and Authority Circle.

Stacey Engle: Yes.

Dane Groeneveld: So tell me how that sort of transpired.

Stacey Engle: Absolutely. After that chapter with Fierce, it was the pandemic. I was helping advise some leaders and companies in just the rapid change that was needed. And the one thing that I kept going back to was this leader, this core need and desire of people to step in to a space. Do exactly what we were just talking about, step into the hard challenging areas and still, regardless of tenure of leader, still struggling of what should I make public, what should I keep private, how do I do this? That was really the inception of Authority Lab, this idea of how can I help leaders go through a quick process that's a more grounding one around the origin story. What are defining moments in your career? How can you share them in a way that you may have never shared them before. And then going to your present story. So going to what is currently on the plate and then having a roadmap to get to the goals in the 90 days. That's really, I walked you through a very nutshell version of Authority Lab but I ended up taking dozens of leaders initially through, because I didn't even want to touch any project until I knew leaders had this. Because I do believe anonymous brands are dead and we can talk about this with teamwork, but this idea, I do think it's a non- negotiable. Leaders have to look at their careers like businesses. Many portals of just, it's how you spend most of your time and it's not working for us mostly. So yeah, that was the inception of Authority Labs. I've fully launched that in 2020 and then more things have spawned from that. But that's Authority Lab.

Dane Groeneveld: Very cool. I'm going to come back to that piece on leaders building their own brands and their own stories and their own roadmaps because I think that's really interesting. It ties into some of the conversations we've had with other guests. But before I jump into that, maybe I know you and I are working on a few other projects. So maybe touch on some of those wider projects that you're starting to get involved with, so we know that full repertoire that you're bring into the conversation.

Stacey Engle: Absolutely. What happened, not intentionally, but in the most beautiful way, which I think we all as leaders have to be prepared for, to know where you want the impact to be, but not prescribed so much of how it happens which is really difficult at times, especially for type A types. Basically, Authority Lab was launched in the world in November 2020. We just celebrated it's two years. And then I met some emerging technology leaders and entrepreneurs. I partnered with Bill Inman, who is the co- founder of Authority Circle and has been instrumental with blockchain, all of the emerging technology. He and I partnered with some of the entrepreneurs with Authority Lab and I was hooked. The moment that I started meeting these entrepreneurs with the idea of Web3, decentralization, all these terms that are being thrown out more than ever. But at the core, the layman's terms that I always use is it's the new version of the internet. It's how we're using technology to connect. I started working with those leaders and we launched Authority Circle, which is more of an advisory agency group that has at the core this idea of the leadership fundamentals. The leadership needs to be there and supported. But then we help market and there are some other offerings. But some of the projects, to your question, we have Sophia the Robot, so we have some projects in robotics and really leading edge on how that's combined with machine learning and AI. Perk, some Metaverse clients as well as partners in NFT clubs. It's a very diverse portfolio with Authority Circle, but it is in the Web3 space.

Dane Groeneveld: Which is really cool. I'm fascinated, I'm learning about Web3 alongside you on some of those projects and just in general. When you think about some of these themes here, change management, missing conversations, building roadmaps as individuals, as leaders, the participation of robots, of AI, of machine learning, I'm fascinated by how that gives a wider cross- section of any team, a voice.

Stacey Engle: Absolutely.

Dane Groeneveld: And perhaps spots things that aren't being said in conversation that should be being discussed about and actually creates a scaffolding, a support framework for us all to be operating better as humans. So I think there's a fascinating kind of clash and spark that comes out of putting Web3 and good leadership processes together.

Stacey Engle: Absolutely. The whole vision of Authority Circle is around creating accelerated adoption of technologies that are going to make the world better through humanity and emotions. It's through the people. We get so obsessed with the technology, but it's through the people. That's where there's a huge necessity for stepping into our humanity and stepping into our leadership in new ways. I feel like it requires it tenfold because the machines are going to need to work along... We're going to work alongside each other and they will rise and fall. It's like this idea of nurturing our children. We need to nurture the machines and the technology we have around us, and they're constantly... It's learning from us. That's a huge responsibility.

Dane Groeneveld: That's one I've shared with a few people. I think his name's Mo Gawdat, he's working for Google X. He wrote the book Scary Smart, and he talks about AI as this toddler that's going to learn from us in the next 10 years. So if we're not stepping into those crucial conversations now, and we're continuing to be dysfunctional, by and large, you talked about it earlier, whether it's in a team at work, in a team, in our community, in our family. If we're being dysfunctional because we're not having those crucial conversations, then not only are the machines going to learn from our dysfunction, but they're also going to see all of the symptoms of that dysfunction and make some pretty sad assumptions on what we are as humans. I think now more than ever we've, we've got to take a bigger role in stepping in, as you say.

Stacey Engle: For sure. Well, and I think that dysfunction or the macro contexts can feel very abstract and conceptual. My pragmatic mind feels very much that it's easiest to say it starts with you. It starts with you as a leader. It starts with you stepping into what you can only own. Why I called it Authority Lab, Dane, people didn't like the name. Some of my most closely held advisors were like, " Authority? It reminds me of the police or some large organizations that I don't really want to have involved in my leadership development or leader brand." However, authority comes from the Latin word Octa, which means author. The core meaning of the word is you're authoring it. You are authoring this experience. You are authoring your... That's why I struggle with leadership brand. It's a good buck bucket, but at the end of the day, it's a being. It's how you show up and how we talk about ourselves and how we share our stories has a lot to do with our internal dialogue as well. I think just to add to what you're saying, it's this idea of knowing where to start is with yourself and your own authority and what you can bring. Some people called it like therapy for your career. And it's funny because we processed so many things personally, but often we don't process or really think through defining moments from a professional stance. And bringing that in.

Dane Groeneveld: Why do you think that is? Why do you think we don't stop and look at defining moments? Is that an ego thing? Have we been conditioned not to go and look at our own story so that we're less about ourselves and more about the team or the company brand? Where do you think that originates from?

Stacey Engle: I can just share from my experience that I feel like, I didn't. Some of this was work that I needed to do after having a decade chapter where I felt a lot of my identity was tied and that I hadn't reflected on defining moments. I think it's because I'm... And I'll be interested to get your answer, which I'm sure the listeners would love to hear. For me personally, I didn't reflect on defining moments because I'm totally type A and I would just be like, " Okay, we did that. Great. Best place to work award, design award, 25% growth award." Great. And we have a lot of other things to do. It's like that driver. Not everyone is like that. I think there's lots of different reasons on why, but for me, I feel like I often just had to really work at prioritizing that reflection professionally. What about you? Have you had had that practice in your leadership? I haven't now, but I was never taught to do that.

Dane Groeneveld: Yeah. I wasn't taught. I think I've stumbled across a little bit over time. Coming from Australia, we've got this thing called tall poppy syndrome where we like to take shots at people that have been successful and in higher ranking positions. So naturally, as you become successful, you don't want to talk too much about how you got there. Or even it's more about where you're at and performing, which ties in a little bit to what you said, focusing on the next goal. I definitely stumbled across it with a mentor who like you, I moved around a lot as a young person. So I think I had about eight schools by the time I was 15. My mentor was like, " Look, you've always been..." We talked about my ambition. And she was, again, using Latin Greek roots of words. She was like, " Ambition was always about going around collecting boats. And you've been moving into all these towns and schools and you've been having to learn ways to fit in and carry favor and achieve things." And so she was like, " Your defining moments early in life have been around that, around having to fit in and having to find ways to be successful in change fast changing environments." But yeah, it is interesting. I don't think it's something that a lot of leaders stop and take the time to explore.

Stacey Engle: Or prioritize it for their teams to do.

Dane Groeneveld: Correct.

Stacey Engle: So for instance, "Oh, the quarter end."-

Dane Groeneveld: That's what I'm intrigued by.

Stacey Engle: What are you intrigued by?

Dane Groeneveld: Tell me more about the quarter end. How do you get the team to start stopping, pausing, reflecting on their defining moments?

Stacey Engle: Well, it really is the exercise of making the space and time. At the end of the day, our most precious asset is the time and how we help direct or guide that says more than anything else, I think, about a leader. I think for your team, it's really setting some time aside. Shout- outs are great. Reflections and lessons learned as a group are great. And from a development of do we want people to step into their leadership in new ways? Because really, the sum is made up of the parts. Focus on the parts as well. Focus on the individual leaders and have specific professional goals that you're helping coach or support. Also, I think just having that conversation at the end of the quarter is super powerful of let's think about one or two things that you truly have learned and I'm going to set 30 minutes on my calendar to do that with you because it does matter. I think it's really relevant end of year, mid- year. When people go on their holidays, what are they telling their friends? What are they telling the closest people to them that they don't see of what they're doing or who they're working with? And as their leader, do you know what they're going to say? Have you taken time to ask and help curate? Because as a leader, we're often the experienced curators of the narrative. And I don't think that's manipulative. It's really a very strong duty and privilege to have for people.

Dane Groeneveld: I like that because we're living in an era now where people catch up and say, " How's work?" And it's just like, " Ah, it's a grind. It's busy." People don't really have time to really stop and say, " It's been a tough market coming through COVID, but we achieved X, Y, and Z. And I personally learnt this, and I helped one of my team members achieve a promotion."

Stacey Engle: Great.

Dane Groeneveld: I like what you're saying. I think if I'm hearing it right, before they go on their holidays, maybe by having some of those conversations, they can go into Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, whatever it is and be saying, " Hey, I looked back at my year and this is how I feel about it." This is what I'm grateful for, this is what I'm excited for next.

Stacey Engle: Absolutely.

Dane Groeneveld: You're actually helping those individuals to have better conversations away from work too.

Stacey Engle: Absolutely. I think also in the summertime or when people are going on holiday, so it definitely should happen more than once a year but once a year is a great start if it's not happening now.

Dane Groeneveld: Yeah. No, that's a good point. It's interesting the way you described authority, because I like you. I get what people are saying about authority not necessarily having the right connotation because of how they've perceived it in their lives. But when you think about that authoring, that storytelling, humans are storytellers. That's kind of our fabric. If you're helping leaders become storytellers, it makes them more accessible, approachable, easier to understand.

Stacey Engle: Totally.

Dane Groeneveld: It drives a lot more alignment than a scorecard with a whole bunch of red and amber and green metrics.

Stacey Engle: Totally. Yeah. I think the other piece why I didn't share it as full storytelling as well, and I use storytellers throughout my whole career especially with marketing. Now that I help early stage businesses with fundraising, it's very key to tell the right story and to have the right advisors. I think that's super critical. The lab does have this action piece though. So for me, what are you using your authority for and to serve? What are some of the goals there? Because a story is a tool and a vehicle that you need to get really clear on what kind of impact. I actually have done this with teams where we do the origin story of the team. So how did the team form? Because that's what I think often, obviously I'm talking a little bit more about stable teams, which if we're going to be talking about the future of teamworks, I think the fluidity makes it even more critical. But this idea of how did we form as a team? What are some of our origin stories or things that are defining? How can we share those quickly. There is that forming of the team. And then getting to business around what is present state and where are we trying to go. I think for me, that authoring is super important. And then it's like the action piece because for me, at the end of the day, action is one of my love languages. Many peoples, many leaders, we need to get stuff done and I get that. I think that's part of where my background. And then now I have other people who facilitate and there are more opportunities. It's not just me, but when I was founding it, it's this idea of how do we quickly reorient? It's not like one day you just arrived at your total authority. That's not the point at all.

Dane Groeneveld: Yeah. It's iterative.

Stacey Engle: It's an evolution. It's iterative and how do we, as leaders, own that and start to have more confidence? That's probably the biggest outcome of the whole experience. It's confidence in direction as a leader or team.

Dane Groeneveld: Got it. You touched on 90 days there. We were talking about taking action in 90 days. I know a lot of businesses talk 90 days because if you're publicly traded, that's how long you've got before you report back to the market. But what have you found important about 90 days for leaders and teams?

Stacey Engle: Well, I would love to hack and have a lot of people weigh in on how it could be done at different timeframes because I actually have condensed it. I think for leaders, there's just this cadence of a season because it's not just quarterly. But yes, there is some business orientation here. So that's the initial and that's where I start leaders. So there's not a practice or there's... For them to have that discipline of just what is. Habits are formed within a 90- day period. There's lots of research on that. If there's a habit that's needing to be created, that span. And then 90 days often has that at least longevity of you've taken on something a little bigger to work towards and stepping in. It's that. But actually there are other timeframes, for instance, with fundraising and projects and leaders who are pitching where it's kind of different. But at some point, it's just the action and it kind of accordion or slinkies from a timeframe perspective.

Dane Groeneveld: No, that's cool. When you think about that habit forming and you've seen good examples of leaders coming through Authority Lab and then going back to their teams and really putting it in place, what's really helped you define success and business performance with some of those leaders that you've had great experiences with?

Stacey Engle: I think it's often... There are so many ways to set goals. Like smart goals. And I'm sure you've even had experts on this show who will say, " This is the best way to set goals." What I do know with coaching and supporting leaders is that it often needs to be half of what they want to accomplish or do from a habit perspective. There's a simplification process and resistance to that that needs to be worked through for sure.

Dane Groeneveld: That feels real.

Stacey Engle: Yeah. Yeah. Saying no or not now, not now is a good gateway before saying no. Like, " Not now." That doesn't feel as permanent. That's what we use a lot. Like next. Okay. After you do that, so yeah, I would say the simplification is the key.

Dane Groeneveld: Yeah.

Stacey Engle: We all need more simplification. I want leaders to be more simple. On this surface, it's a funny dichotomy, I think. I think most people feel like they need to show up and have something more like whether it's a pitch or a strategy or a plan, it needs to have lots of bells and whistles. It needs to be sexy, whatever kind of adjective. Oftentimes, there's some element of going back to the basics, going back to core, simple is key kind of. That's at least my experience.

Dane Groeneveld: No, I've definitely seen a lot of that experience, a lot of that personally and in teams have been a part of. I think it's easy and maybe traditionally in businesses, we are encouraged to be super intellectual and strategic in our five- year plans and everything else. But I think now more than ever, we've got leaders responsible for the experience of their teams in the workplace, like the full experience. Not just did they hit their target and get their bonus this year, but how do they work, how do they show up with their team members, the whole lot. So I think you need to create more empowerment engagement through having everyone part of that effort, that change effort, that movement towards a new goal or a new direction. You can't get everyone behind a 36- page strategic plan. It just doesn't work.

Stacey Engle: First of all, people won't read it. It could be a 10- minute video, but they won't watch that whole video. That in the essence is the core of how much I think bringing in the technology element, we have more technology than we've ever had to make things engaging and yet we don't necessarily know how to do that yet.

Dane Groeneveld: No.

Stacey Engle: That's a whole field with teams, teamwork that I just think from an experience perspective is super exciting to just learn together as a team and to direct it that way, I think, more and more that's the route to simplifying, which is kind of feels not direct, but this idea of doing it together and learning what simple is for the team. It's not meeting the team exactly where they are because often, we need the inspiration and motivation, but it's just the ability to have those conversations to step in. You set the pace.

Dane Groeneveld: Yeah, absolutely. Setting the pace is a good way to look at it for a leader. I know when we had Eric Curial on the show, we were talking about crucial conversations there as well, that the best teams come together around solving problems. Often, it's the problem that makes you feel tight in the chest that you don't want to raise. That's the one you need to be talking about as a group. Setting the pace as a leader coming in, having a story about where you're going, and then driving some action around those issues that need to be solved by the team and how you're going to simplify that and cascade it out. That that seems to be not an easy or a comfortable pathway, but an obvious pathway to driving more accountable, more productive teams.

Stacey Engle: For sure. Well, and I think even to your point, it's like what does accountable mean to us? What is productive mean to us? There are all these words that are thrown out that don't truly have definition and I think that's a critical-

Dane Groeneveld: How do you tackle that?

Stacey Engle: I think it's really hard to see what you can't see. As a leader, I think this is where you need to engage. It doesn't have to be an advisor or coach. It could be your leader, it could be a peer, it could be someone on your team. But I think tackling, what are words and concepts we talk about all the time? Do we actually have the same definition of them? I think you don't want to go about it. I would encourage that exercise to be in service to the goals and to what you just shared, like the business problems you're solving. That's super key. You don't want it to just be this random exercise but I would actually say as a leader, I'm wanting to take our team to the next level. One of the things that I'm interested in exploring is how you interpret some things that I often talk about and how we can get clearer together and how you can make it better. That's how I would tackle it.

Dane Groeneveld: I like that. It actually reminds me of a very simple coaching story from the baseball field. We use silly language in sports and in business. A lot of it's very aggressive, macho language. I've got these kids and they're probably eight or nine, and one of them is fielding at second base and there's a slow- rolling ball coming to him. I'm like, " Attack the ball." Honest to God, this kid looks at me, he's like, " Do you want me to hit the ball? What am I supposed to do with the ball?" In my mind, I'm like, " Attack it. Run fast at the ball. Get it."

Stacey Engle: I love that.

Dane Groeneveld: Therein, I was just like, " Oh my gosh! This was a learning moment."

Stacey Engle: I love it. That's a good example of just...

Dane Groeneveld: And you see it all the time.

Stacey Engle: It happens and it happens all the time because my business is very global now and that's something that's really exciting about the global nature of just how technology is bringing us all together. Those idioms, besides business jargon, which I highly encourage not using as much. I came from a military family, so I know a lot of acronyms and worked with a lot of tech companies with a lot of acronyms. I know it's really hard to say that. The jargon mixed with also the global context of having idioms and phrases that make absolutely no sense to different people. I think embracing that and using that as a fun exercise as a leader, you don't have to get it... There's just so many times where we think as leaders, we have to be perfect and, " Oh, no. I made that mistake." Or, " Oh, I didn't know how to say that. So I just didn't go there." Once again, I just feel like it's engage. It's really uncomfortable. Yeah, I know it is. But going there and saying, " Is that even a phrase that you understand?" I love the example of attack the ball because I was trying to think of... Oh, I think it was the phrase, " Ducks in a row.

Dane Groeneveld: Ducks in a row.

Stacey Engle: I used that with one of my clients in Asia and I was like, " So we can just have our ducks in a row." And I could just tell by his expression that he was like, " What? What are we getting in a row? What is a row?" Anyway, I think it's a good reminder of our humanity because they have the phrases too. It ended up he was teaching me because I was like, " Well, this is the core idea." And then he is like, " Here is a funny phrase that we say." And it ends up being an opportunity for exchange.

Dane Groeneveld: It's funny, isn't it?

Stacey Engle: Yeah.

Dane Groeneveld: It's intriguing. I like where you're going though in that it helps not only to pause and look at those defining moments in the team, but it actually helps to sit down and define where you're going, what language you're using, what measurements you're using. I guess what does success look like, but also what does failure look like? So you guys know how hard you can push for whatever it is that... The objective for that next period.

Stacey Engle: Absolutely. I think a lot of people, if they listen to this conversation, they may be like, " These aren't new concepts. We've been talking about this since business was invented. This isn't new." I think what is new that leaders and people need to pay attention to is the fact that your presence, your... And it's not just social media, but your presence and how actively you're owning your authority, how you're getting out there, how you're sharing your stances, it matters more than ever. In 2022, it is not the same. So in this whole context of your defining moment, sharing your story, having shared language, I think the layer that makes this, the 2022 emerging new way of the internet, potentially new financial systems being created. The difference is that there's way higher stakes here, as the individual leader. You need to step into that and it's going back to the basics. These aren't new novel ways, but the stakes are higher and your responsibility is greater if you're really wanting to make an impact. That's what I would say, Dane. Because a lot of times when I've shared... The most resistance with some of Authority Lab is I don't want to be on social media and I don't want to be posting and sharing blah, blah, blah. I don't want to share what I'm doing for fun or I don't want to share... And I'm like okay, we can unpack from a goals perspective how you show up or where you show up. Is it a podcast? Are you having conversations? Are you... Those are all tactics, but the reality is if you are not stepping into your authority or having some attention being paid to this, everyone else is creating your story. Everyone else is creating your authority and you not saying anything is your story. You not participating is a choice that you're making, and that's part of your authority. And then it's usually like, " I'm not sure." I think now you look at trends with decentralization, trends with how business is going, how your teams, your team members are getting inundated with opportunities to make money. If they're only on your team to make money, you are lost. You're going to suffer. You're going to suffer, and I love you and I don't want you to suffer. That kind of idea. You can tell I get riled up about this, but the stakes are different. I think that that's really important to come out of this.

Dane Groeneveld: If you pause on those stakes, because I think it's fascinating what you just said, that if you don't show up and tell your story, someone else or a group of people are going to start determining that story and you do lose the opportunity. But for leaders that are trying to create the right story that addresses the stakes that are important to the teams that they're hoping to bring together, where do you think the stakes are? It's not just money. It's what? Purpose or?

Stacey Engle: Impact purpose. At the end of the day, the alignment with the impact and purpose is what will determine your money or whatever's important to you, your time to donate to work, to have your time with your family, your friends. I think the stakes are higher because we have more choice. Everyone has more choice and choices are more visible. As in, " So- and- so's working for this or has this side hustle on top of what they have for you going on." Where is the attention and who's deciding that? So that's what I mean when I say the stakes are high. At the end of the day, you're underlining it, Dane, because it isn't about the money. At the end of the day, this is about your impact as a leader.

Dane Groeneveld: You see it now. You read it in a range of publications that people don't quit companies, they quit box bosses. That's the negative framing. But the positive framing is people once upon a time would always want to go and work for ExxonMobil or Boeing or some big company. Now, they're choosing, more often than not. They'll choose a company with a purpose and that, but they'll choose a leader to work for or a team to be a part of because they have more faith, more attachment to being a part of that group and knowing what that leader stands for and how they're going to support them to manage their time at home, manage their health, manage their personal growth, all of those things. They're never on the awful letter. But they are an absolutely tangible part of why you turn up to work, why you commit to be a part of a team.

Stacey Engle: Absolutely. There is one reframe I would share with the idea that because I've been burnt out leading people before. It's an all in, if you take it home with you, if you think that you're responsible for all of your team's growth, all of your team's performance, all of your team's ability to be the best to their families, if you are taking that all in as a leader and you are not whole in those areas, then you are not... I can guarantee you that the biggest thing is this is the stepping into your authority. I know what you stand for by how you spend your time and what choices you make. I think that in the next 10 years, people won't have to ask you questions in an interview. They can look and actually see how you live. They can talk with people. They already do this. What kind of leader is that person? I know that it's happening. I love that in recruiting all the time because... It's like well, it all sounds really good and there's all these programs, but if it's not prioritized or a passion of mine now with being a working mom, because in the whole, we didn't talk about that, but in that whole span of the last two years of launching the businesses and process, I also had my first baby and just catapulting into that. You can say that you care about families or the challenges and you understand, but do you make that priority? Do you make that a priority personally? That matters.

Dane Groeneveld: Yeah. It totally does. Adam Grant put a post out there recently that said, " If you're trying to drive a good hybrid work culture, you can't be the boss that turns up to work five days a week." It doesn't work because then you're not creating safety, comfort, belief that it's okay for those team members to turn up to work just three days a week and work from home. I think you're absolutely right. And actually it reminds me of Dan Pink always talks about the shift with information from buyer beware, the seller beware. So now it's buy beware to seller beware to leader beware because you've got well, a presence, right?

Stacey Engle: Totally. Well, and that's what we see with the technology as well going this idea that we will buy. People join companies absolutely for the leaders. We're already seeing trends where consumers buy the products because of the leaders. That is going to grow and grow and grow. That is when this idea of, " Oh, it's worth the bottom line effort to focus on each individual leader's authority." That's when it will... Once those metrics start coming out, which they already are with influencer strategies, but it's going to get even greater with DAOs, decentralized autonomous organizations and clubs where they don't need intermediaries. Like leaders don't need intermediaries. They can go directly to the audiences and engage them. That is pretty game changing.

Dane Groeneveld: Yeah, it definitely is. Well, that's been a fascinating conversation. It went in some different directions than I expected, but if I sum it up, we talked a lot about the work you do with helping leaders to consider their defining moments, plot their roadmap, and bring action to their teams. We talked about the importance of the missing conversations, those missing conversations that if we don't address, they're the ones that cause the dysfunction. I love where we ended up there on the fact that today with the information with, technology going where it's going, leaders in teams need to really be living everything that is important to them and their teams. They can't just be the martyr that says, " I'm working really hard so that all of these other people can have it." Because no one's going to buy that and it's not real. So they've got to be telling their story to customers, to employees. I think hopefully, if that's done well, if I'm hearing you right and this conversation has excited me to take some actions immediately after this. But if I'm hearing you right, then leaders are going to create other leaders in their organizations and teams are going to grow and have a lot more success in any brand, in any product, in any community, just by addressing those basic human behaviors in an authentic way.

Stacey Engle: It's the good news and the bad news that it starts with us. It's the hardest task as a leader knowing that.

Dane Groeneveld: Yeah,

Stacey Engle: It's a lot easier to go outward. But yeah, I think that was a great summation. Thank you for the time.

Dane Groeneveld: Yeah. Thanks Stacey. I really enjoyed it. If people want to learn more about Authority Lab or Authority Circle and starting that work for themselves and for their teams, how do they find you?

Stacey Engle: Yeah, so Staceyengle. com, if you want to learn more about the process with Authority Lab and then authoritycircle. io is our agency's website.

Dane Groeneveld: Perfect.

Stacey Engle: Yeah.

Dane Groeneveld: Awesome. Awesome. Well, I'm sure there'll be a few listeners that reach out. Like I said, I'm pretty energized to take a bit more of a leaf out of your page and take some of these actions on.

Stacey Engle: Thanks, Dane.

DESCRIPTION

The Future of Teamwork welcomes Stacey Engle to chat about her experience as the Founder and CEO of Authority Circle. She and host Dane Groeneveld talk about how Stacey helps leaders consider their defining moments, plot their roadmaps, and bring action to their teams. They also discuss the dysfunction caused by missed conversations, and Stacey shares the importance of finding your authority and writing your story.

Today's Host

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Dane Groeneveld

|HUDDL3 Group CEO

Today's Guests

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Stacey Engle

|Founder & CEO of Authority Circle