Seasons Leadership Podcast
Join Debbie Collard and Susan Ireland, co-hosts and co-founders of Seasons Leadership, in making positive leadership the norm rather than the exception. On the Seasons Leadership Podcast, we will bring you practical, actionable advice you can apply now to improve your leadership - and life. Join us on Wednesdays throughout the seasons.
Selected by Feedspot as one of the Top 15 Positive Leadership Podcasts on the web.
Seasons Leadership Podcast
Fall: Empowering your transition
Join us as we reflect on four years of fall reflections. At Seasons Leadership we use the seasons as a powerful tool for understanding transitions and cycles in leadership, offering you actionable insights to navigate these changes. Fall is a time of integration and reflection. Get inspired to dig into your own journey this fall and reflect on what is serving you and what is no longer serving you. We share our own fall transitions and more exciting news about our Elemental Leadership course.
Show Notes:
(3:25) Evolution: How is the fourth podcast on fall different for us? We reflect on how we have evolved.
(5:30) Transitions and integration: We recognize through all our senses what we experience in the transition from summer to fall and connect those inspirations into integrating all these different things from your life.
(9:00) Loss and growth at the same time: We talk about this time of transition and notice that many leaders come to us for coaching when they are experiencing fall.
(11:00) Updating business practices: We discuss how we always spend time in fall looking at our business strategy.
(13:25) Personal transitions: We share our personal transitions and talk about harvesting all the work we have done in the last four years.
(17:45) Take the time to reflect: We conclude the podcast asking questions and giving strategic advice to make the most of fall. How are things showing up in your leadership? Think about your strategic planning. Take responsibility for your life, nurture it and take care of yourself. Explore the possibilities!
Join Debbie Collard and Susan Ireland, certified coaches and co-founders of Seasons Leadership, in making positive leadership the norm rather than the exception on Wednesdays on the Seasons Leadership Podcast. (Selected by Feedspot as one of the Top 15 Positive Leadership Podcasts on the web!)
And now you can join our community of values-based leaders on Seasons Leadership Patreon at Patreon.com/seasonsleadership. At our gold-level, unlock our exclusive Lessons in Leadership Column from our Resident Seasoned Leader David Spong, a lifetime member of the Board of the Malcom Baldrige Foundation and our Leadership Elements Series.
Welcome everybody to the Seasons Leadership Podcast, where we are committed to leaders everywhere, at all levels, who want to make progress on their leadership journey. We will bring you actionable advice to improve your leadership and life today.
Speaker 2:Thank you for joining us At Seasons Leadership. We share a vision to make excellent leadership the world-wide standard. Learn more at seasonsleaderseadershipcom.
Speaker 1:Well, hello everybody listeners out there in Seasons Leadership land. We are entering the season of fall, which means summer is coming to an end.
Speaker 2:Right, right, and we're recording this in late August, and here in the Pacific Northwest we've had unseasonally rainy and cold weather. I know that sounds funny for Seattle, but usually it's sunny and hot right now, and so I've gotten a taste of it, and so it feels like summer is ending.
Speaker 1:And how are you feeling about that, Susan?
Speaker 2:I'm not ready.
Speaker 1:I'm sure. I'm sure you are not ready, and here it has been also unseasonably different summer. It hasn't been the same as it usually is, which has been good for considering South Texas. It has been less hot than it normally is for this time of year, which is great. But that generally means that that hotness is going to show up later, when we're in the fall, which is usually my favorite season. So I don't know how that's going to affect it. But how are you all feeling out there? Are you feeling things are different because you're transitioning from summer into fall? It's perfectly normal to feel that way.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's, and it is interesting how our external environment really does affect how we feel.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, absolutely. Someone said to me one time that they want to only live where it's. Maybe they should move to seattle. They only want to live where it's cloudy and rainy and stuff, because they just they're over being in the hot and the sun all the time. And, um, I've had other people tell me that they only want to live someplace where they can actually see a difference in the seasons. Right, and that's that difference. It's so interesting to me because that difference is more than the weather or more than the amount of light we have during the day, or more than external factors. Right, it's also an internal feeling that we have it totally it is.
Speaker 2:It really is, too, and that's why, at seasons leadership, we use the seasons, that is, as a metaphor for our lives. Right, it's a.
Speaker 1:It's a great way to make sense of what's happening yeah, and if you follow us at all, you know that we do use seasons as a metaphor for life and leadership and what you might be experiencing in these different things. So what if we dive into? How is this fall different for us, since we've been doing these fall podcasts or seasonal podcasts?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I feel like it's a little bit different for us because so this is our fourth podcast on fall. Can you believe that so quickly? It really goes by really quickly. But even though fall is fall, right, We've been at this time, you know it. It's different. The world is different. We have moved past a pandemic. There's still collateral damage all around that, um and covid has not disappeared, but we've we've figured out how to change the world. It did, and we figured out how to live with it For our business. It really shaped how we are showing up in the world.
Speaker 1:Yep, absolutely, we've evolved.
Speaker 1:We had to evolve very quickly, as you all probably know, because we've talked about it when the pandemic first hit, because we were holding our first in-person leadership class for seasons and we had to pivot quickly and figure out another way to do it and then took it online it and then took it online. We've expanded into many different areas from that initial foray into leadership development and training, and things have changed personally for each of us at that time as well. And oh, by the way, I wanted to jump back and say it is we're entering fall in the northern hemisphere. We often forget about our friends that are not in the Northern hemisphere. We often forget about our friends that are not in the Northern hemisphere and for them it is not coming into fall. But given that we use this as a metaphor, it still makes sense. If you are instead going from winter into spring in the Southern hemisphere, you're still having transitions to based on the season, so right, right.
Speaker 2:So and that, let's talk about what the metaphor of fall means and means to us. Really, it is about transitions and and and integration. So if you think about what's happening in the natural world, you, you know you're in summer and then the leaves start to change. You know he's from green to yellow, the, the, the. You can feel that cold breeze come, you know. You just have that feeling like something's changing here. The weather's shifting in the northern hemisphere, especially in seattle, it gets dark earlier and light later. So you start to feel that change of the light. So things are transitioning.
Speaker 1:You know we're going into harvest, that kind of thing and that, for me, the the smells change too right, because you start getting the different smells on the breeze, Then you do during the heat of the summer and the warmth, and it starts feeling more like a closing in or protecting or integrating all that great sap that was running through everything during the summer and now it's like storing it up.
Speaker 2:That's right. That's right, that's right. Um, do you? Even when you're going through the five senses, you know? I'm thinking, oh, that's good. The smells, the sounds are different too. The birds are different. That's kind of. That's kind of a sound. When I'm waking up in the morning, if I'm hearing less birds or different types of birds, I think, oh, the season's changing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, and fall is also seen as a time of things completing or ending, which can be sad in some ways. It's not for me personally. I happen to love fall. In some ways it's not for me personally. I happen to love fall, and yet you're celebrating all the great stuff that happened over the summer and it just seems like a lot going on all at once. Which is why we chose integration as a theme, because you're having to integrate very disparate things together in your life.
Speaker 2:It's the harvest right. You've done all this work and now you're harvesting the fruits of your labor.
Speaker 1:Absolutely yeah.
Speaker 2:But there is a feeling, I think, even when we're celebrating something, so using it, going back to the metaphor, say, if you're changing jobs, you get that feeling that it's time for a change. And even you're changing jobs, you know, you get that feeling that you know it's time for a change. And even if you're going off to something that you love, so it's a big, it's a positive change. Still, ending has that kind of that little edge of melancholy or sadness, because endings mean endings. You might be leaving a place that you love, or you might be leaving people and teams and you know how. That is where you think we'll always stay together and we'll keep in touch, but we know that it's harder when you're not in the same proximity.
Speaker 1:It really is.
Speaker 2:You've got all these feelings and emotions mixed up. You've got happiness and celebrating and excitement, but also a little sadness and realizing that you're in a different phase of life.
Speaker 1:Gratefulness for what you've experienced, but also an anticipation of what's yet to come. So you're dealing with loss and growth at the same time, which seems like an oxymoron, right? You can't have those two things in the same place, but you can. You can, you're in transition, seasons are a time of transition, and there are external reminder that the world continues to change, right, and that we're an integral part of that natural cycle of things. And it's some. It's time to let go of some things. Maybe it's mindsets, maybe it's beliefs, maybe it's a physical thing that we've outgrown that no longer serves us, that we've outgrown that no longer serves us.
Speaker 2:You know, it's interesting, debbie too, because I think what we find is people come to us for coaching when they're in fall not in the physical season necessarily, but in the fall of an element of their life, whether it's a career, a job, maybe just a phase of life, and they're searching and reflecting, which is really important to do in the fall.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and it's important to get other perspectives when you're going through something like that, and not just, of course, trust yourself and look internally, but also look externally for other people to give you their perspectives, maybe from a more objective place, of what you're experiencing, and maybe it's validating that, hey, you're not crazy, you really are going through a transition.
Speaker 2:Or maybe it's just reinforcing yep, you're doing the right thing, keep going and giving you great advice, or maybe just listening to what you're going through right well, we use the energy of fall and all these things, these mixed up emotions and things happening, to update our business strategy, which, yes, which I find that this is the best time to do it, and I'm looking forward. I'm going to come to Texas this year to visit you in the fall and do this.
Speaker 1:But it'll probably be warmer less warm than it is now here, but warmer than it is in Seattle right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, I'm looking forward to that. But we always spend this time we do this as part of our regular operating rhythm to take a look at our strategy and determine if there are there things we need to let go of to make room for new things.
Speaker 1:See what's happening in the world. Are there things we need to adapt or change up? Maybe we let go of an aspect of something that wasn't serving us, and it's a great time for asking yourself these questions, whether you're in a business or whether in your personal life, or both, and often, since we are a small business and we're the two founders, we have lots of conversations that are mixed up between our personal lives and our business lives. Right, because they're not mutually exclusive. Right, and it's great time for asking those questions and searching out what the answers may be. You're not going to necessarily have an answer immediately, but that's what fall's about. It's about integrating this stuff together and say okay, now, what do I have? What does this new picture tell me about what I need to do next or where I need to think about going Right?
Speaker 2:You know. It's reminding me that the way we do our strategic planning is it actually starts in the fall, just like what you said. We start asking questions, but it is a process that works itself through winter really, and then, as we hit spring, we've got a new, a new plan, and then we we execute that plan through spring and summer.
Speaker 1:Exactly so. It's a continuous cycle, right yeah, of letting something go and taking on the next thing. So we are. We are living what we practicing, what we preach, I guess you could say, or living what we tell everybody is important, yeah, so, susan, for you personally, what's ending or transitioning for you right now?
Speaker 2:well, um, so for our business, we are. We are growing into a new online phase with elemental leadership. That's been super exciting, um, and so that's. Do you want to talk more about that, debbie?
Speaker 1:You know, I do you know, I do, I'm so excited about this because and this is actually a great analogy for this season of fall because we had created the course before and we took people through it live and, as I mentioned, the pandemic happened and we had to shift to online. But then at some point we said this isn't serving us, because our vision is to make excellent leadership the worldwide standard, and we weren't getting out there enough or reaching enough people in the way that we were doing it, and so we kind of shelved the course temporarily, continued with the podcast, started doing other things, being on other people's podcasts, started putting blogs out, reaching out to people around the world where we could. And then we said during one of our planning sessions we said man, we've got all this stuff sitting on the shelf and we haven't done anything with it. What do we want to do with this? And so we came up with the idea of let's see what it would take to do an online course and put it out there so we can reach more people and won't be constrained by our availability. They'll we'll get to come to them directly on their own time when they, when they can handle that.
Speaker 1:So very excited to see where this takes us and we're not going to stop with one. There will be a follow-on course about elevated leadership. So highly recommend you check into both of those things. But we're definitely we're harvesting elemental leadership, if you want to put it that way, because we've created it and now we're definitely we're harvesting elemental leadership, if you want to put it that way, because we've created it and now we're putting it out there and we'll be starting to grow.
Speaker 2:Elevated leadership yes yeah, I'd say that I think it's great. I'm very, really excited about it. The the other thing for me is I'm going to get married in 2025, that's a big change thing for me is I'm going to get married in 2025.
Speaker 1:That's a big change. Congratulations on that. Yes, that's a very big change, and would you say that that was an all of a sudden thing, or did it come up over time and over different seasons?
Speaker 2:Well, I guess it feels all of a sudden for being single for so long you know like 17 years or something.
Speaker 1:Being single for so long, you know like 17 years or something, but it was gradual over a couple of years and it is wonderful and a transition, definitely a transition from being a person to being a couple, absolutely, absolutely, and I'm assuming you are grateful for that in the season of fall.
Speaker 2:I'm very grateful. I am very grateful, yeah, yeah, life is good. Something to be grateful for, absolutely, yeah, okay. So wait a minute, wait a minute back to you. What?
Speaker 1:else is transitioning for you. Really, the things that are transitioning for me are mostly business related right now but, as we talked about before, our personal lives are interwoven with that, so much so, um, my family has been really super supportive and I'm very grateful for them because I've been spending a lot of time on our, on our, our business stuff and coaching lots of clients, helping people. I think I said to somebody on LinkedIn today. They said How's everything going for you? And I said you know having fun and helping people. It just doesn't get better than that. It's true.
Speaker 1:So that's, that's what's transitioning for me right now Not big transitions, but impactful ones, I think.
Speaker 2:Right, right. Well, we are harvesting from our business side all the work that we've done in the last three, four years.
Speaker 1:So absolutely, absolutely, and it feels like that for sure. So what can? What actionable advice do we have for our listeners if they're going through fall, as they're experiencing fall?
Speaker 2:Right. Well, I would say the number one thing is take the time to reflect. You know, get cozy with a cup of tea or with some pumpkin spice. I hear that you know it's very popular.
Speaker 1:A lot of people are very into it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, or just take a walk in nature and notice the changes that are happening all around you and just see what are the messages that you're getting from nature and how does it apply to you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. And since our podcast is for leaders and everybody is a leader to somebody don't forget to think about how are things transitioning in your leadership, how you're showing up as a leader. Are you going through some transitions in that as well? And so it could be. You know, like we do think about your strategic planning. Think about it, all aspects of it, right? Your career, your life, your business. You know, maybe you're in sports, or sports, your health, anything that's in your sphere of your, of your life is subject to going through these seasons, and so just reflect on that. Where are you in each one of those? And do you need to take some time to mourn something that you're letting go of, that no longer serves you, and anticipate the thing that will come in to replace it? What's next for you, right?
Speaker 2:I think you said something really important there and we've alluded to it throughout this is that we only have one life Exactly to it throughout. This is that we only have one life, exactly.
Speaker 1:there isn't a career life, and a personal life and a, you know, spiritual life.
Speaker 2:And a spiritual life, yes, exactly there's, there's only one life and, uh, you know it's good, it's got to be. It's your life and so it's like take responsibility for it and nurture it and take care of yourself and remember you always have choices.
Speaker 1:That's right. So take it seriously and say what is next for me, what am I going to do? And you don't have to make decisions right now. You're just exploring possibilities and honoring what you're going to let go of and anticipating what you're going to start.
Speaker 2:Great advice Okay.
Speaker 1:Thank you, excited for the possibilities. Everybody have a fantastic fall and it is my favorite season. It is beautiful. Thank you, listeners, for joining us today. We hope that you were inspired by this conversation.
Speaker 2:And we invite you to join our community on Patreon See the link below. There you will find more resources to help you on your leadership journey.
Speaker 1:Make sure to join us next time for more conversation about leadership excellence.
