How to Grow Your Team Without Losing Yourself with Jada Willis

What is your biggest challenge when it comes to keeping your head in the game at work and at home so you can create your best life? Welcome back to Shedding the Corporate Bitch. I'm your host, Bernadette Boas of Ball of Fire Coaching. And in today's discussion, we have a very special guest, Jada Willis, who will dive deep into some of the common challenges faced by leaders, particularly around time management, self-leadership, and fostering a positive organizational culture. Jada will share her unique strategies and insights into how these elements intertwine to create more effective and happier leaders along with healthier workplaces. And as a seasoned expert with 18 years in human resources, she will ensure you have what you need to be a powerhouse leader.

Welcome to Shedding the Corporate Bitch, the podcast that transforms today's managers into tomorrow's powerhouse leaders. You're Your host, Bernadette Boas, executive coach and author, brings you into a world where the corporate grind meets personal growth and success in each and every episode. With more than 25 years in corporate trenches, Bernadette's own journey from being dismissed as a tyrant boss to becoming a sought-after leadership coach and speaker illustrates the very essence of transformation that she now inspires in others with her tips, strategies, and stories. So if you're ready to shed the bitches of fear and insecurity, ditch the imposter syndrome, and step into the role of the powerhouse leader you were born to be, This podcast is for you. Let's do this.

Jada, welcome, welcome, welcome. How are you?

I'm doing so good. Thank you so much for having me.

Oh, you're very welcome. I'm excited to have this conversation because I think we all could use some help when it comes to just what can we be doing to be better leaders, better CEOs, just overall better professionals. So I'm very excited to get into that, but before we do, I always like to have my guests share with our viewers and the listeners a little bit about yourself personally so they can get to know you and then they like, know, trust, and wanna do with you. So share with us a little bit about Jada.

All right. Fantastic. So currently I live in Charleston, South Carolina. I split my time between Charleston, South Carolina and Columbia, South Carolina. I'm originally from a small town outside of Pittsburgh, and you know, something that, that most people do not know about me is that I am a cowgirl. I enjoy and love country music, rodeos, mechanical bulls, and all of that.

And okay, but have you ridden the mechanical bull?

I, I have. I actually, in a very, very small town, I'm a mechanical bull champion.

Wow.

Yeah. So that, that was many years ago, so I'm gonna try not to to break anything these days.

Isn't that the truth? Oh my gosh. I mean, it's so true. Well, that is fascinating. And again, it's, you know, it kind of lends itself into the work that you're, that you're doing now, just from a really wanting to help, you know, other people to get on the ball, so to speak, and, and to just try new things and get out of their head and take on new challenges. So what brought you into this line of work that you're doing?

Yeah, so I actually, I've been human resources for 18 years and I built and sold an HR consulting firm. And then I consider myself present day more of that CEO mentor, executive coach that is focused on the two biggest things that are impacting an organization, and that's leadership and culture issues.

Yeah.

So, yes. Isn't that the truth?

I'm going to have work for, for years to come.

Right. No, no, that's so true. Now, touching on your HR background and experience, and is, are they also from, if you were to look at the lens of an HR corporate leader right now, is it the leadership and culture that they're challenged with themselves?

Oh, absolutely. I think that, you know, from a very high level, so I take my clients from 30,000 feet all the way down to 300 feet. But if we stay at that 30,000-foot level and focusing on more of the leadership issues, now leadership also lends itself from culture. I bet that every business and people problem is gonna be found under identifying, you know, what's your last leadership decision? What are your leadership priorities? And then also culture. Are we putting a lot of strategy? And intentionality in the culture that we're continuing to build. And that's a day-to-day effort.

What would that next level down be where you're focused on with your, with your clients that you see, you know, corporate professionals and leaders struggling with, and then leveraging your HR background, which is fabulous, you know, to be able to mentor, coach, and, and lead them. What, where do you, do you have a starting point? Or is there a kind of a natural process?

You know, there, I mean, honestly, there is a discovery process, but I have found that mostly it's in regards to self-leadership and accountability. So, I mean, there's two different buckets, but it's how we show up and lead ourselves will really trickle into how we're gonna show up and lead others around us. And if we're poorly leading ourselves, then Usually those bad habits will fall into how we're gonna communicate, how we're going to prioritize the work we do, how we're gonna relate to others. And, and the other piece is that leaders, and you're gonna see this in so many organizations, and then more and more that leaders are struggling with accountability. Like accountability isn't a curse word. Understanding that all of us want some level of accountability and structure and and communication, and that means the top performers, the best performers, as well as struggling bottom performers. And so, you know, if I was talking to any clients running to that issue of accountability, making sure that there's policies and, and processes for leaders to follow so that they are able to be consistent across the board on that level of, of accountability.

Okay. So those are two anchors that we can work with as far as Absolutely. You know, helping, helping our viewers and our listeners. So let's break each one of them down a little bit more. When you say self-leadership, explain that, you know, for our viewers and listeners in such a way that they can then see themselves there. Because do you find that many of your leaders don't necessarily see themselves really clearly as far as how they are leading others.

You're absolutely right. So I like to consider it from, you know, the warm and fuzzy all the way to the tactical. And so, you know, the warm and fuzzy, even though it's, it's absolutely true, is, is thinking about how do we talk to ourselves and the level of self-care that we exhibit and what are our needs and wants as a human, all the way to how we're showing up in our executive presence to communicating with staff in our, in our workday. So give you an example. It's one thing that I've done for myself and do for many clients is establishing what are your non-negotiables for yourself? Meaning that even if you have that crazy schedule, I have 4 bonus kids, but still I make sure that there's a certain point in the morning I have to do this, is that I am doing the things that are going to set me apart for the day. So that's For me, it's affirmations, meditations, and things of that nature because I know that I'm gonna be high energy peopling all day and I need, I need to anchor myself so that I'm not, I'm not using curse words all day. So I knew there was a reason why I liked you. I love that, that, that, that being the case, but also really looking at, I have a system of, uh, time multiplier system for my clients, but also looking at how are you prioritizing your week, your day around even your energy. So I'm a morning person through and through. If I know that about myself already, well then guess what? I know that I'm gonna do my best in creative work in the morning. Or if I have a really tough conversation that I need to have and I need all cylinders firing, guess what? I'm gonna, I'm more likely to schedule that in the morning than I am in the afternoon. Whenever I know that I need to be doing more of those like mechanical mundane tasks of like emails or Things that I don't need to use my brain for. But it's, it's so, that's leading yourself with intentionality, understanding and getting to know what are my needs and wants, what are my boundaries? And then it's also allowing your employees to have that kind of autonomy and freedom to be human and realize they are the same person in the sense of maybe they need to exhibit some self-care and how they're relating to that and prioritization. On what do they need, what are they desiring to be a better version of themselves, a better leader to themselves and others.

Right. So in regards, you mentioned your time multiplier. And if we were to look at things like in the day of a life, you know, of a leader, how can your time multiplier, if you want to explain that a little bit more, how can that help them to start going down the path? Of really understanding what their own self-leadership and what's needed.

Okay. It starts actually at the very beginning of the week. I'm more of a, a Sunday planner. Everyone's different. And that just means, yeah, I do a complete brain dump. This is how I'd walk someone through. And I mean, it's every task that you can think of first. And then also what's even been bothering you, like nagging you of, you know, what's coming up next, but Maybe it's not a top priority. Then you also look at your calendar because you've already forgotten something hasn't been in your brain. So you look at your calendar, then you further look at your brain dump, and then it's the, it's the 5D process. It's also establishing 5 priorities for the week that are going to move you forward. Now at this point, we've already set our goals of what we're looking at and the quarter. So you work backwards and then we start thinking about, is this a do now? Every task, is it a do now? Do later, never do, delegate, or do not ever do. It's looking, it's looking at from a prioritization standpoint, what is this week in the sense of those 5, those 5 big anchors, right? Those 5 big gators, I like to say. And then looking at those tasks that are gonna get you there and then looking at your schedule. So now going back to your schedule and saying, all right, I already know that I have to keep these meetings, this, or, or this meeting doesn't relate to my big goals. So what are the tasks I'm gonna filter in based off of my energy? So this, this is like the quick down and dirty version. This usually takes so much time to go through, but it's looking at where do I put this task as it relates to my energy and my prioritization from a, you know, a focus perspective. So it really is looking at it from a day-to-day standpoint. So then from Sunday, I look at it on Monday. All right, I've already pre-planned this. Has anything changed, adjusted, become a little bit more urgent? And you keep that top of mind before starting your day. And the end your day is also planning ahead to the next day and looking at, all right, if I'm gonna get to 5 o'clock on Friday and I wanna give myself a self high five, what have I done, accomplished? To move this week forward.

Yeah, that's awesome. I mean, and that would keep somebody very focused and very kind of organized to where they're not so stressed and overwhelmed if they would were to really look at their, their to-dos and get a good understanding of what they are. But that said, do you also have to walk them through even before you can get there? Do you even have to walk them through them? Really getting a good understanding of, like you said, the low energy in the morning? Because I would expect that a lot of leaders, they don't necessarily like sit down and go, you know what, I wonder how best I work.

You're so right. Yeah. So first stop, first start of this is, and it's a, it's an intensive, I say intensive, but we can usually cover this in a day to 2 days of a workshop. But, and it just depends on how self-aware one is. And sometimes I do have to dig a little, right? Pull it out. But it's starting, yes, with your energy level and asking some really probing questions on what does that look like and where do they currently focus their time? Because it's not just jumping in and assuming that they don't do some of this, right? How do currently they, they use a time management tool? But it's also looking at, I like to say this to clients, if I reach, this is the big 30,000-foot view. We reach December 15th and I usually say some kind of, I don't know, fancy restaurant I wanna take them to on December 15th because We are celebrating you. What are the things that come to mind that you're like, absolutely, I want to be celebrating X. Then guess what? We work backwards because you've just established some goals. Well, we gotta then work backwards on how can those goals turn into smaller goals and then action items. So it's getting to know first the person and some of their habits. And I can get to know really quickly some of those bad habits that it's usually like self-sabotage or lack of boundaries and work on that while we're also really helping them and I'm helping them shape what they should focus on next in order to get to that December 15th celebration.

And what have you found your, your clients realize when they go through this process? And it could be, you know, like you said, it's involved. It doesn't, you know, happen in 5 minutes. What do they discover about themselves and, and how does it change them?

Oh my goodness. It's so much fun, like to watch this process unfold. And it's so much fun to also then see, because some people are skeptical, right? I'm like, hey, just try it. I want you to try it for 2 weeks. Come back to me and, and I'll be checking in and I wanna, I wanna see, I want you to really apply this. Well, it's so much fun whenever they're calling back after 2 weeks and just like, you have no idea what happened. I have more time. I have more energy. I'm like, what? So what happens initially is that when you start working, I like to say also in your zone of genius from The Big Leap, your zone of genius at the right times, you actually do get more energy to get more done.

Love that.

It's the momentum. It's the momentum. So people are reporting that, hey, I have more time in the sense of I'm working on things in such a, such a strategic way that now I actually can get to the little things, or I've learned how to delegate the things that I know I shouldn't really be spending my time doing. And now I'm giving that, I'm giving that task, I'm giving that thing over to someone on my team, and now they're excited, they're growing. But I easily can hear that I didn't know that I was just so in my own way. I was so in my own head.

That, right? It's awesome.

Now I'm sleeping better.

What?

I didn't even know that you'd be sleeping better. Is that like—

That's awesome. Yes, I can just imagine it. Cause even just us talking about it, I'm going in, I'm very visual. I'm in my head, like going through my calendar. I'm going through my to-do list and I'm delaying, I'm deleting, I'm not doing.

That's great.

And it kind of makes you feel just so much more Controlled. There you go.

That's the other thing. It's like, I feel like my day is not running me. I'm, I'm actually running my day. Yes. And that, oh my goodness. But see, like, those are big things, but the ripple effect of what it does for you as a human and as a person and how you could then show up and have more energy mentally, emotionally, physically for the people in your life. So you're not going home and being like, I have still a mountain of work to do. My, my biggest thing is helping executives not also be working those like 18-hour days. Like this, you do not have to. That is, that is a lie.

Right. And you shouldn't. We all have just one life to live and it goes so fast.

And there are seasons. I need to put a caveat. Listen, there are seasons. Listen, I understand, but that shouldn't be the norm.

Right. I, yes, I love that. I love that. You mentioned. Earlier in this conversation, a key thing that all of this requires, and that is self-awareness. And so this is probably, is this just one part of how you help them really kind of not just one time, not just, you know, periodically it's exercises, it's homework, but overall gain self-awareness?

You know what's really neat is by default, because Ideally, you should be going through the Time Multiplier System every week, bare minimum, from a, the full scope, right? From a planning perspective. That in and of itself actually contributes to being more aware of how you're making decisions, how you are spending your time. So that will also have a ripple effect in thinking about what do I really wanna be doing and what's really important to me? And so I'm also a big fan of journaling. And so being, I like at the end of my day to to kind of report back to myself, hey, here's my wins, learnings, what am I proud of?

Right.

And, and it, it also helps from a, when you look back, the patterns. So start thinking through what are the patterns that you've actually started creating or that you're living intentionally or otherwise. Yeah. Self-awareness is a huge part, but it'll also happen naturally when you go through this process.

Yeah. I love that. I love that. Because again, Why go through all these days, weeks, months, and years and not be completely aware of how you're showing up each and every day? Exactly.

And I talk to my clients a lot about legacy, right? And legacy is, is really, it's not just when you retire. It's honestly when you leave a room, you leave a room. It's, it's how, what was the impression vibe? What did you, what did you contribute? Either negative or positive. And your legacy is being formed. And so. What do you want to be known for? And that's a part of how you're tactically also showing up and otherwise. Powerful.

That is powerful right there. Absolutely. I love that legacy. I love it.

Okay.

Let's pivot to accountability. And you said that, and I'm going to misquote you because I didn't scribble down the one word, but you, you know, it's not a bad thing.

It's not a curse word.

Ah, it's not a curse word. That's awesome. So how do you approach accountability with your clients as far as not holding them accountable, but getting them skilled and being an accountable leader?

Well, it also starts with, and this is the HR background, understanding what are our policies, right? What are our policies in the sense that does a leader really understand the full scope of our policies? And then what are also the goals that you're placing on your team and expectations? If your team members, and you can't say without a shadow of a doubt that your team knows exactly what's expected of them, what's in their job description, and how do they contribute to the overall mission of the organization. That's a tough one. If you can, if you can pass all this, then you are, you're doing a disservice to your team. So accountability is understanding what is the Uh, again, the culture, what are the expectations, what are the goals, and then helping your team realize them. Now, and also, if there's not a structure in place where you're having those one-on-ones and you're having one-on-ones not just about the work that you're doing, you're actually having one-on-ones to ask that employee, how are you doing? What are the hurdles getting in your way to get work done, and how can I best support you? That is also a form of accountability on a two-way dialogue, right? Well, now what happens next is that employee maybe starts struggling either from a performance perspective or, you know, maybe they start having some conduct issues. Well, you've already built that relationship and built that rapport, so now you have an easier dialogue and way to say, hey, first off, let's conduct a seek to understand. You don't seek to understand, but that's what you're doing. Is conducting a Seek to Understand, and you're saying, is everything okay? That's always the first. And then you're asking next of, or you're telling them the specifics of the behavior, right? This is exactly what occurred, and tell me more. Tell me from your perspective, and this is what happens next. So you're starting that process of the accountability and then moving into if there's possible corrective action or termination. Now, getting my clients there, it's usually the barrier of, I don't want to be mean. I'm scared to have this conversation because it's such an awkward, difficult conversation. Well, guess what? If you already start the building of relationship and rapport with your employees by having those one-on-ones, by getting to know them on a level of support, care, and concern, this should actually be more about correct the action, which is correct, right? This should be more about how am I helping you to show up in your work? And sometimes identifying if this is a will issue or a skill issue. Do I need to help you with training, resources, or do I really, if I, if there's an attitude issue, then ultimately there's only one. Right. Well, well, maybe, maybe, maybe. So accountability starts in the form of relationship and then realizing that this conversation is more a again, a two-way productive dialogue that you are there as a, as a mentor and a coach to that employee versus just, you know, a dictator. And I think changing that mindset is really important. But also we're just, we shy away from it. We run from employee issues. We run from people issues. And guess what happens when we ignore problems? They become major, major issues that are disrupting employee engagement. In retention, turnover, I mean, a myriad of things.

Satisfaction, happiness.

Right. Like, and it's because high performers see that you're not identifying and you're not, you're not holding this other person accountable, so they're not gonna work as hard. And it really just costs the business so much from a time, money, energy standpoint.

And the, the thing is though, do you find accountability isn't always necessarily about punishment or corrective action? It's just, do you find that it's just kind of reminding them that they committed, you know, they agreed to the expectations, to the goals, to the things that were laid out, and therefore someone's just reminding you of what you kind of signed up for?

Accountability means that you care. That's really what it is. And when you have that really consistent type of one-on-one team meeting, leadership meeting, as well as one-on-one with your employees, That's because that's, that's why I framed those questions in the way that I did. It's because I wanna make sure that I'm being a support to you, but also that we're all going through any of the goals that you have in mind. What are your priorities? And so that you know that it's not just like you're also in this alone. It's how can I, how can I support you? How can I help? It means that you have a, a, a partner, uh, a mentor in this. So it is actually about. Caring about the work. And then guess what? If an employee thinks that they have a voice and can share what they're going through, what they need, or even just a, you know, verbal processing session, then they are also trusting you. They're more connected to you and the organization because they just wanna show up and do their best work. I don't believe any employee wakes up and says, you know what? I wanna be a sucky employee today. Like, unless it's highly unlikely something has occurred.

Right. Right. No, I love it. It's so true. And I love that. So taking that all back, the self-leadership and the accountability, taking it back to the two key challenges that you said at the very beginning that you kind of, you know, is, or is a focus for, for the work that you do, but also the challenges that leaders are having. You mentioned leadership, which we've touched on, but, and you mentioned culture. What aspects of culture really need more attention from our leaders?

Okay. So I'm going to need approximately 4 more hours on this. I would say understand that culture isn't just this like funny buzzword that we're using. It really exists whether we wanna put intentionality to it or not, or whether we wanna put action planning to it or not. Culture's already happening through how we're showing up to make decisions, how we make tough decisions. I would say this, the best piece of advice I have for any organization is to be a core values-driven culture. And what that means is start and be really clear on what your core values are. I mean, clear in the sense of, I actually have a 5 5-point test upon some core values. What that means is if you have to make a really tough decision to lose a client, to lose an employee, and it's framed back to your core value, are you okay with that? Because you have to put yourself through a core values test. And you have to be— and core values shouldn't be easy. It means who are we? What do we stand for? And where, like, where are we going? Who are we impacting? So with that, then guess what? Your core values should then trickle into coaching conversations, celebrations, engagement. Everything you do should be rooted back to how does this relate to our core values? When you're doing planning, strategic planning and otherwise, go back to your core values. Performance reviews, core values.

Accountability.

Core values.

Would you agree that it's not a good excuse for a particular individual leader to then say, well, they don't understand the, the culture and the core values that our company is driving, and therefore they really haven't defined it for themselves?

I, I would say that that's actually the leader's to help them, to meet the employee where they are. Oh, also in the hiring process, we should have already been going through if this employee's a core value, but you know, but besides that, they're already here. Leader's here. Well, it's actually that leader's job to, I like to apply this thing and it's, it was Love Languages. So now it's, uh, Workplace Appreciation Languages in the workplace. When you start understanding what your employees need and want, then you can tie them back and correlate them to your core values. So it's getting to know, that was one example, but getting to know your employee and then helping them realize and see their job as it relates to the mission. But also how, how are they showing up and what's that maybe emotional ownership to the, the core values, but it's the leader's job to do that.

Yeah. So Jada, let me ask you this as it pertains to culture and values. Certainly the company may have defined theirs. Do you find that individual managers/leaders struggle to have ever really intentionally matched up their values to the core values?

Absolutely. And I really think that, again, leaders are, are not even taking— this is a self-leadership piece as well. Well, but realizing how do I relate, how do I connect with my organizational values and understanding. So I think that they need to be a bit more curious and inquisitive when it comes to what are our core values? How are we exhibiting those? How are we showing up? And then how, how do I resonate with those core values and actually opening that dialogue with other leaders as appropriate and, and possibly even HR, but like that's a discovery process that's really important. For leaders to feel really connected to the organization because all of that is going to trickle down to their employees if they can't resonate. But you know what, it's a really good exercise to also have your own personal core values and make sure that it is a good fit and make sure that it feels right because otherwise you won't be showing up authentically, but it will also start being a rub eventually for decision-making. Right.

Because you had, being that you have such an extensive HR background, you have had, you have to have had hired individuals and they went through the checklist during the interview process, but when they came in, if there's any breakdown of what those core values were and how the culture is actually operating, they're suddenly finding that they're disconnected.

Absolutely. So it's, if it's either maybe there's not a core value fit, however, or the organization isn't living up to their core values. They're making decisions that are opposite of what they're, they're saying. And so I would say the foolproof way from an organizational perspective to help that is if the top leadership is open, is the fact of make sure that there is some sort of open dialogue or, or feedback mechanism so that you can do the surveys, request the feedback, and also see, are my core values actually resonating? And do they, are they being seen and felt at every level, every level of the organization?

Right, right. Yeah, I love that. Yeah.

And that's a check that all organizations should be doing.

Right.

Absolutely. Absolutely.

Love this. Love this. Love it. What is one last tip or strategy that you would share that our viewers and listeners as leaders can start acting on? Right now?

And there's so many things that are racing through my mind. And so I want to give, um, one tangible piece, and I think it's to look at the overall experience of your life. And what that means is if we look at it from accountability, self-leadership, culture, and then I'm looking, drilling down into your goals, your priorities, How about we take a step and look at how am I showing up? Who am I impacting? And what do I want to be doing? And the reason why I say that is because that in essence is going to bring you to that zone of genius that I discussed earlier. And we should be spending 70% of our time in our zone of genius. If you want to live a happier, more fulfilled life, and you actually want to contribute at a higher level? So when we start asking these questions to ourselves and listening, then it's also gonna dictate some of our goal setting, what we choose to spend our time doing, and hopefully the overall experience of our weeks, our days, and ultimately our lives.

Yeah, that's awesome. This has been fabulous. So just full of tips and tools and strategies. That we could be, that we could be using just so we are all powerhouse, authentic self-leaders.

Yes.

Yes. I love it. Thank you so much, Jada. I so appreciate it. And I want to be sure. Oh, I do want to mention everyone, please go to her website, jadawillis.com. She also has a free download, 5 Ways You're Sabotaging Your Business. So be sure to check her out, what she does, how you can work with her, while at the same time download that and take advantage of it as well. Go back and listen to this and make note of the steps that she emphasized in each one of the multiple tools that she gave you in order for you to start leveraging in your career and life right now. Jada, thank you so much.

Thank you so much for having me. This was great.

Wow. What an enlightening conversation with powerhouse Jada Willis. As we wrap up, let's take a moment to summarize some of the key takeaways. First off, Jada's Sunday planning strategy is a game changer. Starting the week with a brain dump and setting your 5 key priorities based on your quarterly goals, your yearly goals, can really set the tone for a productive, energetic, and balanced week. And then she went on to discuss her 5D process, categorizing tasks in what, what you should do or not do. So she mentioned do now, do later, never do, delegate, or never ever do. And it's crucial for time management and avoiding overwhelm. Remember, energy management, as Jada says, is just as important as time management. She then went on to emphasize the importance of goal-oriented planning and self-awareness, which is pivotal not only for leaders, but also for anyone that is striving to improve their productivity and wellbeing. Lastly, adopting core values deeply into the fabric of the organization influences everything from decision-making to daily operations. It's clear when leaders align their actions with core values, it fosters a more engaged and cohesive team. Lastly, thank you so much for joining us this week and joining this episode of Shedding the Corporate Bitch. And until the next one, I will see you soon. Take care. Bye.

Thank you for tuning into today's episode of Shedding the Corporate Bitch. Every journey taken together is another step towards unleashing the powerhouse leader within you. Don't miss any of our weekly episodes. Subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever wherever you love to listen. And for those who thrive on visual content, catch us on our Shedding the Bitch YouTube channel. Want to dive deeper with Bernadette on becoming a powerhouse leader? Visit balloffirecoaching.com to learn more about how she helps professionals, HR executives, and team leaders elevate overall team performance. You've been listening to Shedding the Corporate Bitch with Bernadette Boas. Until next time, keep shedding, keep growing, and keep leading.