Being More Open/Authentic to Your Team — Susan Eick

She's Talking Back

Susan Eick thought she had to act like a man in order to get invited into the corporate boy’s club, but it wasn’t working! The harder she tried, the fewer things she got invited to, and to top it off, it was exhausting! Why pretend to be something you’re not? Susan has learned over the years that being your authentic self is the best way to lead and have people respect/admire you. Women/Men have natural talents and we should leverage them, not try to act like each other.

Key Takeaways

• ● Leadership is a people’s game.
• ● Leaders are having time now to really take a step back and analyze where their time is going.
• ● As leaders take more digital meetings, they’re not scheduling time for breaks and so they end up feeling more exhausted than before.
• ● Sometimes it can be difficult to innovate, there’s a lot of testing that goes into it or they might not have a budget so they don’t prioritize it, but Susan is seeing that so many leaders had to innovate overnight due to the pandemic.
• ● They didn’t think they had innovation in them, but they were wrong! They were able to get things up and running with no budget, within a week.
• ● Susan explains the difference in culture in Canada vs. the U.S.
• ● What risks are out there for a modern leader?
• ● There’s a pent up demand for getting this back to normal as quickly as possible and leaders are forgetting that you still need to communicate to your team!
• ● Susan’s first employee retreat, she didn’t know if it went well or not. Fast forward to her latest one and she’s never felt more connected. The biggest shift in this was Susan and being more open/authentic to her team.
• ● When Susan was coming up in her corporate career, she had to look like a guy and show no emotions.
• ● Susan realized she couldn’t be someone she wasn’t, so when she started opening up and showing more of her personality, that’s when more doors opened for her.
• ● What’s next for Susan?
• ● Susan’s daughters have better female role models than she did when she was growing up. She is very hopeful for the future.
• Resources
• Refineryleadership.com
• Susan on LinkedIn
• Quotes
• Michelle’s quote: “There is a level of importance around keeping the intimacy around human connection and leaders with their team.”
• “Leadership’s a people’s game and we’ve forgotten that. In the past we thought it was a title, status, responsibility, and people get pushed down.”
• “Leaders I’ve been talking to have said that they’re forced to innovate overnight. We have this need and we have to act on it now.”
• “Work says they want your best you, but what if your best you is something that is not as beautiful and polished as what they’ve experienced in the past?”