S5:E153🎙️ LIVE with Lisa Davis

¡Hola!

Hi, I'm John Maxwell. When the top companies in the world are looking for trainers, speakers, and coaches, there's one name that stands above the rest, and that's Maxwell Leadership. Our certified team members have gotten proven results for companies all over the globe, and our reputation, I'm proud to say, is second to none. Some of our members have risen to the top of their profession, including the one you're going to meet today. I proudly introduce you to my friend, Bob Fabien Zinga.

Welcome to the Leadership and Success Podcast with your host, Coach BZ, where we help you lead with purpose and succeed with impact. If you're ready to grow into the kind of leader others want to follow, this podcast is for you. If you're determined to elevate your success and leave a lasting legacy, this podcast is for you. As my mentor, Dr. John C. Maxwell, reminds us, everything rises and falls on leadership. Our goal is simple, to inspire you, challenge you, and equip you with insights that can transform the trajectory of your leadership journey. Welcome aboard. Welcome to another episode of the Leadership Success Podcast with Coach BZ.

95% of enterprises are showing no ROI in the adoption of AI. Recent data point that came out from MIT. You know, many folks don't understand, well, how can that be? We're gonna leverage the data within the organization. Crappy data in gives me crappy data out. Certainly don't want that within my AI products. A gentleman said to me, well, Lisa, you don't need to be a CEO because that will be replaced by a robot as well. And I thought, is this the world that we actually want to live in? That's what your talent hears. I'm removing you because my ROI— Growth always happens at the exit of your comfort zone.

Meet Lisa Davis, former Fortune 100 tech executive, 25 years driving innovation across government, healthcare, and global industry.

Healthcare has always been, unfortunately, a laggard when it came to digital transformation. So Blue Shield of California had an incredible mission of turning what we have, frankly, a sick care system, into a healthcare system that's worthy of our family and friends. It's mindset. No, it takes a company to transform how we're thinking about healthcare. That means we started with an agile mindset. We introduced agile methodologies. We moved into accelerating products and capabilities to market, and we did that with a platform approach. Decades leading through disruption shaped the principles that now define her work. My career has been built on grit and perseverance. That means every challenge, every obstacle, I was going to put one foot in front of another. Every failure, every time I didn't understand the decision, How was I going to get back up again and take another step forward to reach my personal or professional goal?

All right, welcome to another episode of the Leadership Success podcast. I have a very, very special guest here. I believe she is a living legend. But before I introduce her, like we normally do, this is our custom today, we have what we call moment of gratitude. We want to take just a moment every single time we meet to be grateful. And part of why we do this is because in the DOD, veteran and service member, it's really an epidemic, right? It's about 21, 22 people who commit suicide every single day. And here we believe that it's not possible to be suicidal and be grateful at the same time. So this being the second episode today, you already know what I am grateful for today, but really since June 10th, I've been really grateful for freedom, but freedom is not free. And today I am really grateful for Commander Gabriel Edwards. He is the 14th member who died due to the war that's happening right now in Iran. It's about 414 people who have been wounded in combat. And I really want to remember him today. I wrote a post about him earlier today. You guys can read it, but I am just grateful for every member of the US military because those young men and women, they put their lives on the line for you and for me. Freedom is not free. Somebody had to pay the price for it. And for some of us, we have to pay the ultimate sacrifice. And I am grateful for his life, his legacy, and for freedom in America. All right. So let me see if I can properly introduce our guest today. Today, I am really excited to welcome Lisa Davis to the Leadership Success Podcast. Lisa is an accomplished board director, a former Fortune 100 executive, global CIO, AI transformation leader, a keynote speaker, and number one Amazon bestselling author of The Only Woman in the Room: How to Win in a Workplace Still Built for Men. Over the course of her remarkable career, Lisa has led enterprise transformation across government, higher education, healthcare, and the technology industry. Serving in executive leadership role with organization including Intel, Blue Shield of California, Georgetown University, the US Marshal Service, and the Department of Defense, if you can believe that. Today, she advises boards and executive teams on AI adoption, digital transformation, cybersecurity, and leadership through her firm Davis Skoll Advisory. So our conversation today, we're gonna be talking on going from CIO to the boardroom, right? Leading with conviction in the age of artificial intelligence. Whether you are a current executive or aspiring leader, a board member, or simply passionate about leadership, this is a conversation you won't want to miss. Part of what we're gonna be learning today is how exceptional leaders drive digital transformation, not just technology implementation, but also why authenticity, grit, resilience, and courage remain humanity's greatest competitive advantage. So ladies and gentlemen, without any further ado, please help me welcome to the Leadership Success Podcast, Lisa Davis.

Thank you, Bob.

I can't see you anymore. Hold on, hold on, hold on. I think I know what's up. You must be using a Mac, a Macintosh. Uh, let me see.

I am, yes.

Do you see, uh, it's probably using the camera from your phone, so I believe you see you. Yes, I see you too. I just sent you a— yeah, this only happens to people who use, who use Mac. Here we go. But no, I'm looking at the wrong camera. You must have another camera. Uh, we just tested this. Hold on a second.

We just— my Mac camera. There I am.

Here we go.

Okay, it only happens with people who use Mac. Sometimes you use a camera on your phone or your iPad or something. But anyway, here you are, the one and only Lisa Davis. So great to have you on the podcast finally. You are a living legend for sure. Anything you are grateful for today, Lisa?

Oh, you know what, Bob? What I'm grateful for— meeting this incredible new community after launching my book, The Only Woman in the Room. And that community has brought you and I together today to have this podcast. I have been so impacted by the incredible stories that I continue to hear and the impact the book has had on leaders. So thank you. For the invite to participate in this podcast today with you.

And I must say, even if you are a man, a husband, a fiancé, a father like me, you have to read the book, number one on Amazon, The Only Woman in the Room. More to come about that. Is there something about you, Lisa, most people may not know when they first meet you? Maybe like a superpower or just something unique about you?

Superpower. I think one of my superpowers is building leadership teams. I like to say building future leaders. But one thing folks may not know about me, in my 26 years in serving for the Department of Defense and Department of Justice, I actually spent 5 years in Guantanamo Bay right after graduation from college.

That's amazing. Wow. But I thought civilian didn't have to travel the way the military—

Well, I happened to marry a Navy guy, Bob, and that's where our first duty station was.

Yes, yes. Okay, that makes sense. It's really funny. My wife was an Air Force brat, and she hated having to travel every 3 to 5 years. So she told herself she would never ever marry a military man, which I wasn't when we got married. But after 9/11, I just had to say, yes, I have to serve. But wow, man. So You have successfully led transformation across the government, healthcare, higher education, and Fortune 100 companies. But really, when people think about the DOD, usually we only think about the men and women in uniform, but it's the civilian as well, and also the contractor too. We don't need to forget about them. And it's quite demanding, I mean, the work we do for our country. But anyway, looking back over your entire career, what leadership experiences shaped you the most?

Mm. You know, I think people often see just the titles. And you kind of rattled off the titles of all the roles that I've had. But really, the defining experience is not— it's not about the role or the title. It's often— it's learning how to be, first, the only woman in the room, or one of maybe 3 women in the room, when I was studying computer engineering at Syracuse University. That was certainly an experience back when I was going to college in 1981, learning to lead and frankly grow up observing leadership in action from both male and female military leaders in the Department of Defense. And Bob, you can probably relate to this. One thing the military does very well, government does very well, is invest in leadership development and management development. Of their employees, both on the civilian side. So I essentially grew up— my first 26 years was in the Department of Defense, um, really understanding how do I build my own confidence, find my voice, build my expertise in order to be viewed as an expert and ultimately a leader in a truly male-dominated environment. And that very much shaped I would say my leadership style and communication style that helped me navigate other sectors after leaving the government, such as academia, high— big tech, and ultimately healthcare. And I think in all of those experience, the learnings are from the failures or the setbacks, or when things don't go according to plan, is ultimately what shapes our experience and shapes us into the leaders we are today.

Thank you so much for sharing that, because I know this is the Leadership and Success podcast, but I like to talk about failure sometimes because this coin was given to me by one of my best commanding officers. She was a woman, and it shows success and failure, uh, two sides of the same coin. How has failure shaped your life?

Well, I think failure is actually a greater opportunity for learning and growth than successes because it provides us an opportunity to reflect, to understand what went wrong. What should I have done differently in order to reach that outcome that I'm driving to, whether it's in getting a new role, whether it's in leading a project, whether it's a personal success or a professional success. And we like to speak about all the successes. But the reality is no career is full of one success after another. And if you, as a leader, can celebrate growth and learning, then failure is not a setback. But it actually can be an accelerant to your continual growth as a leader.

That is really, really powerful. Thank you so much for sharing that because many people know your resume. Like I said, you have some of the biggest titles out there across so many industries, but few know the person behind your resume. Who has been some of your greatest leadership influences throughout your career and your life and what lessons still guide you today?

Yeah, I think I start with my dad. You know, my parents got married very young, right out of high school, had me. My dad was working two jobs. He was going to school at night to earn his bachelor's degree, and he really taught me work ethic, hard work, and what— at the end of the day, nothing is easy. Put the work in, do the work. And the results come from doing the work. And then I had mentors or leaders along the way. And I'm not going to call anyone out per se, but they taught me. And one of the things I talk about in the book, Bob, is I can deliver flawless results. And especially for women and diverse leaders, performance and execution are table stakes. They're not differentiators. They are table stakes. So that is bottom line expected. What you need to develop beyond that is your brand, your exposure, building sponsorship and connections and allies that are going to speak your name when you're not in the room. That's where you ultimately get those next roles. And get ultimately to that leadership table if that's your goal. But, you know, and I love— and I do a lot of coaching and mentoring, and I'm a true believer in this reverse mentoring and coaching because as you develop leaders and you build high-performing teams, you learn so much from the people on your team and in your organization and the leaders that you are developing. So I'm getting as much growth and learning as I'm investing the time in them to help them reach their personal and professional goals. And at the end of the day, to me, it's not about the award. It's not about the title. It's about the impact that you had on people. And I love Maya Angelou's quote, you know, people will forget what you said. They'll forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel.

Yes. Wow, that is so insightful. Now, you often say that technology doesn't transform organizations, leaders, they do. What do leaders consistently misunderstand about digital transformation, especially the edge of AI?

Yeah, this has really become why so many enterprises are failing in finding an ROI in AI is because it's never about the technology.

Yeah, did you hear about the company who spent more than $500 million on AI the first quarter of the year? It's like crazy, the entire budget.

It's crazy. And I still, you know, as I'm helping and I'm doing consulting still with many healthcare institutions, and, you know, everyone has this pressure from the board and from the CEO. I want you to go faster. I want you to accelerate. What AI tools are you using? And my first response is, stop. It's not about the AI, it's not about the technology, it's about the organization, it's about your priorities, it's about doing the work around governance and prioritization of what will drive an ROI on business and mission outcomes. So you start with the business, not the technology team. But because it's viewed— AI is a technology, Many enterprises get it wrong by holding all accountability on the IT organization and no accountability on the business or operational side of the organization.

Mm-hmm.

So we have it backwards. So with AI, with any digital transformation, the tech is always the easiest part. Sure. It's the change management, it's the culture.

Mm-hmm.

It's incentive and leadership behaviors that are aligned through the organization. And I always like to say, when you're driving a digital transformation or even an AI, it has to be baked into the infrastructure. Now, what do I mean when I say that? How do organizations get things done? They're ultimately either measured to results and they're accountable to results in performance plans and bonus plans.

Yes.

So, If I'm trying to drive a digital transformation and I'm driving accountability across the organization, I want to ensure that performance goals are in performance plans that are tied to the transformation. I'm going to ensure that that accountability is on both technology, business, operational sides. I'm going to tie bonus plans and awards to success in hitting the metrics and the outcomes that have been established for the transformation. I'm going to bake it into my leadership behaviors and the culture that my organization has. And when those things happen, now I get to the technology piece.

That's powerful. That's really true alignment. Yeah, I think many businesses, I think they really get it wrong when What they say doesn't match with what they actually do or how they run their business. Wow. Now, you want to say a little bit more?

No, I was just going to say, you know, transformation happens when people change how they make decisions.

Wow, I love that. Yes.

But now, that couldn't be more true in AI.

But I remember when I first started my career, back then, there was a book that was extremely popular, Who Moved My Cheese? I think it is. Yes. It's a very, very tiny book. But looks like most people, they just don't like change today. We like to keep things just the way we are. So as a leader, how do you impact your culture, shape the culture of your organization so that they do embrace change?

I think it starts with building a foundation of trust.

Trust, yes.

And for me, creation of that trust, certainly when you're coming into an organization as a leader, starts with listening first. I always like to say this, this is why God gave us two ears and one mouth so that we can listen and understand what's happening across the organization, both on the technology side and on the business side, getting really all of those stakeholders giving you feedback and data in terms of what's working, what's not working, where are the obstacles, where are things being stalled? To get a really good understanding of current state before you come in and make any decisions. Right? As to— and that's usually, you know, you mentioned Who Moved My Cheese? One of my other favorite books that I still go back to is Kotter's change management book. It is a classic process of how do you do change management? How do you build trust? How do you find small wins? How do you build this flywheel of momentum? Right? And you need a flywheel of momentum when you're driving transformation. And think about that when you're driving AI transformation. We all got to be aligned on what the flywheel is doing and how we're going to continue to keep energy, inspiration, showing wins, get people excited about what's possible. A great example is imagine you sit down with Betsy, who is the accountant. In your organization and you say, Betsy, walk me through your workflow of how you get work done. And she takes you through and she says, you know, I import this CSV file and I got to export and then I got maybe a stopgap in systems and then I got to write this report off of Excel. And, you know, at the end of it, Lisa, it's— I don't know, I'm going to make this up— a 3-hour process. And then you bring in, after documenting the workflow, automation or AI or agentic AI. And this woman has now taken what may take 3 hours for her to do down to 30 minutes. And now you have incentivized Betsy and you give a $500 certificate to Betsy to being part of the solution. And Betsy's fired up. She's all in, in terms of, oh man, you just made my job so much easier. Thank you for taking out all of this manual labor that frankly, you know, drove me crazy day in and day out of having to do. So that's how you get people to buy into the strategy. Um, and then that trust, right? That trust is built by— and I'm a huge believer in this in leadership— Actions and words must align.

Yes.

And your employees and your teams, as leaders, it's kind of like being parents. You're constantly being observed. Do my words and my actions consistently align over a period of time so that people say, yes, I'm going to follow Lisa. I'm going to believe in this strategy. I'm going to get on board because I trust her in terms of where we're going. So that's how you have to build trust— consistency in actions. I don't think people don't resist change per se. I think people resist losing control.

Hmm.

They're— they have a set way of doing things, like, like they know how to do their jobs. And part of the Fear around AI is, one, I may not have a job because I'm not getting clear communication of what the strategy is and what we're doing as an organization. And two, I'm afraid of losing control because I'm going to be held accountable for the outcome.

True.

So how do we solve those problems as we invest in digital tools and capabilities or AI, and how do we build trust with their teams in our overall strategy.

This is really key. We're gonna go to the AI era next, leading in the age of artificial intelligence. But you're talking about building trust in an organization, 'cause you've served as a CIO in organization with vastly different culture. How do you build that trust quickly when leading large-scale organizational change?

Yeah, I think you got to build trust quickly. I always say you can never overcommunicate. And so many leaders today don't communicate enough. There's not enough transparency. And frankly, I wonder if there's enough honesty and integrity of ultimately what the goal is. So, you know, a great example, Bob, it's all of these headlines around AI is replacing people and people, all these people that are being laid off and can't find a job. And I, you know, I say to myself, really, that's— why don't we have an honest conversation? The fact of the matter is you're overspending, overspending on CapEx. You're not meeting your numbers for Wall Street. And you're— and we know that the biggest lever to hit cost controls is labor. So what happens is people lose their jobs and there's a reduction in force because of the mismanagement of funds and how they're managing the budgets. That's the truth of what's really happening. What you're starting to see now, really interesting, because I've always been on what I call Team Human, yes, and AI being an amplifier to the work that we do. Now you're starting to see this flip in messaging from these big AI companies that have been laying off all these people, say, oh, Well, I need to bring in interns because I need to have a leadership pipeline. Or, you know, I'm creating new jobs, okay, with what AI is bringing, and I'm creating oversight jobs and so forth. So the messaging is really important. Communication, how you're communicating to your team, what you're sharing, being transparent, being honest, having integrity. People knowing what you stand for, what your core values are. That's how you build trust. That's how you build trust in the military.

True, true. Yes. And talking about AI, it looks like there is, I guess, FOMO, right? Fear of missing out. Many organizations jump into AI without really having a case study or really a strategic plan on what to do. So since AI is really dominating pretty much every executive agenda these days, What separates organizations that are simply adopting AI for the sake of doing so from those that are truly becoming AI-ready?

Yeah, I think it first starts with strong governance and guardrails. What's your governance framework? There is usually an endless demand of, hey, I could use AI to do X, Y, and Z that comes from the organization. And of course, you're getting that pressure from the board, you're getting that pressure from the CEO and executive leadership. The governance framework that should be representative holistically across the organization should do the hard work of prioritizing based on, you know, you see this in healthcare a lot, constraints, funding constraints. You can't do everything that you want to do, right? Less is more in this strategy of prioritizing and identifying What are the business outcomes we're going to drive? And what is the ROI? Yes, by implementing these, the following AI pilots, and then that governance and product lifecycle should be rigorous in terms of, you know, pilot, test, move to production, it's ready, nope, Next, this one's not going to work. It's not getting us the outcomes. And move these pilots into production versus sitting in this endless cycle of pilots and testing that go on and nobody makes a darn decision, right?

Yes.

So it's, it's governance, it's framework, it's prioritization. It's tied to business outcomes and ROI. The other key qualities that I've seen of organizations that get it right is you have AI alignment from leadership down through the organization. What does that mean? That means everybody's held accountable. We're all saying the same message. We understand what the strategy is. We understand where we're going to apply the AI. We understand what are the outcomes that are going to accelerate our strategy. And that, like I mentioned earlier, is baked into performance plans, incentive plans, and accountability across the organization. When you put those things in place, then you get a much different result on how I'm leveraging Agentic AI, automation, machine learning, whatever it may be, to drive outcomes and hit those outcomes versus this figure we're seeing of Most enterprises are testing and playing with it, but they're not showing any ROI. It's because they don't have any rigor and discipline in place of how they're gonna implement the technology.

Well, it seems to me like, you know, you've been a CIO in so many large-scale organizations. It seems to me like when I started my career on the CIO CISO track, it was a lot about technology, but it seems to me like today it's really about the business, right? And then the technology is what allows you to carry on to the business output. But I feel like some CISOs and CIOs have it kind of backward. They feel like the technology is the main thing. And I think that's a mistake, isn't it?

I think it's a mistake, you know, even— and it's interesting because, you know, every company today is in a sense a technology company, right? So technology has really come to the forefront. And that's why that leadership is so important at the executive table. And reporting to the CEO, an equal at the executive table because of the expertise they bring from a technology lens. But it's not enough today to be just a technology expert. You have to be a business executive because the technology is enabling business outcomes. So you have to be able to translate technology to your peers as business executives and actually with them drive that transformation that is needed to accelerate the strategy. For example, with the use of AI. So I like to say that CIOs today should be translators of the enterprise.

I love that.

One of the things I always loved about CIOs, and, and frankly, this is applicable to CISOs too, is We are systems thinkers, and we have a unique role of looking holistically across the enterprise to understand what's working, what's not working, where can technology be applied to help accelerate business outcomes. And our job as a business technology executive is to bring, right, that translation of the enterprise to the board level and the executive table as to what it's going to take and how will we do it to be successful, to leverage the technology to accelerate our business strategy.

I love that. Before we get into your book, I want to ask you this: if you were advising a CEO beginning an enterprise AI transformation tomorrow, what are the first 3 questions you would insist the executive team answer?

What are we solving for? Number one, what are the outcomes that will be attached? How will we measure our success? And where is accountability placed in the organization?

That is so powerful. And everybody that's listening right now, we are going to be talking about this book. Everybody needs to get a copy, male and female. The Only Woman in the Room: How to Win in the Workplace. Still Built for Men. Before I do, I wanna play a short clip about the book. We'll be right back.

Hi, I'm Lisa Davis, and I'm coming to you live from the Strand in New York City, where tomorrow on March 31st, we will be celebrating the official launch of my book, The Only Woman in the Room: How to Win in a Workplace Still Built for Men. I can't wait to celebrate to celebrate with all of you. I can't wait for you all to read it. Remember to get your copy on Amazon tomorrow.

And all right, so why did this book have to be written, Lisa?

Um, when I first started writing the book, Bob, um, it was really to help women and other diverse leaders, um, share my wisdom and learning setbacks to make their journeys easier than mine was. So how could I help and impact leaders in their own personal career journeys? And then the world began to shift very quickly. I started writing the book on February 25th with the removal of DE&I, the removal of women from contracts, conversations around all kinds of women's rights. And at the same time, we had the emergence of AI coming front and center. So it felt like a confluence of forces that were coming together that empowered me to write this, write the book. And although the book is about my personal journey, Part of the book was also to build awareness.

Yes.

Of what it takes to lead as a woman and be successful in corporate America today. And the subtitle is so important.

Mm-hmm.

How to Win in a Workplace Still Built for Men. And it's purposeful because what a lot of folks don't understand is the workplace that we are all operating within was created after World War II. And it was created where the man went to work and the woman stayed home. It was very traditional family model. And it's hard to believe that that workplace structure, that workplace infrastructure has not changed. You know, here we are in 2026. And what do I mean by structure? As one of the most modern industrialized countries in the world, We don't have paid family leave policies. We don't have affordable childcare in this country. We don't have equal pay for equal work for women. We don't have remote flexible work policies. And if you look at the data, where 57% of women in this country work and have careers, and what's fascinating, Bob, is of that 57%, 60% of women are primary breadwinners in their family. So the model hasn't shifted to support women having to navigate both family and career, if that's what they choose to do, in the workplace to ultimately reach the executive level, which is why we see so few women in the executive ranks, so few Fortune 500 female CEOs. Because we have a pipeline issue where women usually step out of the workplace when they want to have a family or choose to have a family. And it is so difficult in this country to do both. And the one of the things I wanted to call out was a fascinating Wall Street Journal article. I don't know if you saw it. It was a survey done by Emily Riley, and it was a survey of top 1% of women earners. In this country, and I was lucky enough to be interviewed. And what the findings were fascinating, because the rhetoric and the perception is, yeah, women that do make it to the top are, you know, single cat lovers, whatever crazy rhetoric perception there is. And what the data showed that most women that make it to the executive ranks are, um, have families, are married, have 2 or 3 children, and they have found a way, which is part of what the story in the book is, to claw our way through every obstacle in order to make it to the executive ranks. So, uh, the book is to make leaders aware, one, of what it takes to succeed in the market today as a minority, as a woman, as a diverse leader. And two, more importantly, the leadership principles that I talk about that guided my leadership journey and career journey, I believe, are the foundation of what leadership is and should be applied in this era of AI that we are all living through.

That is so true, and I did say in the introduction, men should get a copy of the book as well. Again, The Only Woman in the Room. But I believe that, um, the book isn't simply about women for sure. It is really about leadership from my first read of it, and it's about conviction, it's about authenticity. What leadership lesson will resonate with men as well?

Well, men have an incredible role around being allies, right? And to understand what it means to be an ally. What does it mean to be a sponsor? Because the reality is men are sitting in the majority of the executive leadership roles. So one, recognizing your role as an ally and as a sponsor. And this really, I think, hits— comes to a point of realization when men have daughters. Yes, right. Because many times it was funny, I had so many men and obviously male colleagues and supporters, and you can see the endorsements in my book, many of them are for men. They read my book and they said to me, wow, Lisa, I had no idea. Wow, I had no idea. And the first thought I had was, were you living under a rock? Right? Because, you know, it's like, how could you not have any idea? So it exposes, I think, the reality. And that's really the purpose now in telling these stories, that it builds awareness and it amplifies, you know, why does the system need to change. And at the end of it, the purpose of it is, can we build enough awareness and amplify enough voices that we finally recognize as a society that we need to modify the workplace to support both men and women. Yes, because when we're both in the economy, we have a richer, richer economy. We're all thriving and surviving, and there's room for all of us to be there. It doesn't have to be one or the other.

So insightful, because in the book you kind of divide this into, um, 9 principles, right? Great, power, belief, connection, Authenticity, Strength, Rest, Wealth, and Impact. Of all 9, if someone could master only one of those principles here, which one would you recommend and why?

That's a hard question. But if I had to pick one, I would start with Belief. And this is— I think this is particularly important to women. Because part of the message in the book and the reason why I shared and was vulnerable in sharing my own personal journey is because I want people and I want women to know that it's not you and that you are not alone. So if I had to pick one of the chapters, it would be belief. Because when you believe in yourself, when you have belief in your core values, when you have belief in where your guardrails are, That belief then translates into building the trust with the teams that you lead. But so many of us doubt ourselves in terms of, I'm not good enough. I'm receiving this crazy feedback that I'm too much or I'm too aggressive or I need to change my tone or whatever the case may be in their feedback. So I really love the belief chapter because it starts with me, starts with us in terms of my belief and what I will take with that belief. And I always say to women, Bob, no one's going to come walk up to your desk and tap you on your shoulder and say, Bob, you're ready. Let's go. True.

Right?

That comes from within and believing in yourself and creating that in terms of being able to take the next step.

Wow. That is so powerful because you do start with a quote on the belief chapter, which is chapter 3, of Jeanne d'Arc. In America, we got to say Joan of Arc, but in France, it says, no, Je n'ai pas peur, j'étais née pour ça. I am not afraid, I was born to do this. Why do you think— because it's really throughout all of your work, you talked about trust and trusting yourself, so self-trust. Why is self-trust, believing, becoming one of the most important executive leadership skills, especially for women today, you think?

I think that is at the heart of what it means to be— the term may be overused, but it is about authentic leadership. Authentic leadership is not about not holding people accountable for execution. It's leading where your job is to make others successful. And as we know, when you invest in people and you invest in their success, it comes full circle. That also enables your success as well. No one is successful alone, period.

Yes.

Right. So, right. One of the important chapters in the book is connections and connections in this world of AI that we're living in where everything seems to be so transactional and social media. Where are relationships? Relationships, building and investing in relationships and people. Because at the end of the day, when everything else is done, it's that community, that impact on the leaders. And, you know, I share in the book that my last 4 or 5 jobs, I didn't apply for a role. They came from a network of someone that spoke my name and said, oh, you're hiring for X. You really should talk to Lisa. Right? That's the power of relationships and connections and why investing in relationships. And this is when kids are coming right out of school, even my own daughter at 23, my son at 25, network, network, network, build relationships because those relationships will sustain you through your career.

That is so important. But now we are living in the age of artificial intelligence and many people still work remotely. I kind of missed it during the pandemic, just being in the office, because there's so much that you can do and learn from people, especially when you build those connections. What would you advise a young man or woman right now just getting off of college? You have a first job, but it's remote and they rely a lot on technology. What do you think they could do a little different to build those connections and find sponsors and Yeah, I think it's important.

Now, if your job is remote, you can still build connections. You can set up virtual— I mean, look at what we learned through the pandemic. We're so quick to forget how productivity increased. We found creative ways of how to connect with people. We seem to have forgotten all of those lessons that we learned. Some of them we probably want to forget, but there's others that we can take from it. Having virtual coffee chats, having a virtual happy hour, playing games. How do you build relationships with people virtually if that is your only opportunity to do so? And then I would encourage them to think outside of the company or the job that they're working in. And I, I'd like to think about building connections in 3 concentric rings. The first ring is your operational network. Yeah, these are people that you come in contact with every day, whether it's through your job, but also in your community, in your home, in sports leagues, through your church. You know, if you just wrote down all of those connections that you come in contact on a weekly basis, you probably— your mind would be blown of how many people you actually know. So that is, that is reaching out one-on-one, and it's establishing relationships, because it's a small world at the end of the day, and you never know who knows someone who knows someone who makes that connection. Um, and it's fascinating how that ultimately happens. The next ring is I want them to think from a development network standpoint. That means I'm looking out 1 to 2 years from now, and I'm trying to figure out, certainly as a young person, but maybe even someone mid-career, What is it I want to do in the next 1 to 2 years? Who's doing that? If you have a company that's big enough that you can establish a one-on-one, go meet them for something to say, hey, help me understand what you're doing. What does it take to do this job? Here's what I'm working on right now. Maybe I can help you and what you're trying to do. And it's kind of a quid pro quo.

Yes.

In terms of learning and growing and building the relationship. So you're purposely— and maybe that's inside the company. If you come from a university and you have a big alumni network, man, you're searching those alums on people and you're reaching out on LinkedIn and establishing a connection and asking to have a coffee chat or an opportunity to meet in person. That's development. And then finally, I want you to think more strategically, 3 to 5 years out. Maybe, you know, maybe you don't coming right out of school. What is it I want to do? Because I encourage experimentation, trying a bunch of different jobs, figuring out really what you're passionate about doing. But that strategic network may be, hey, I'm going to reach out to Lisa Davis, who had this job as a CIO in Georgetown University, because I'm an academic and I want to understand what it takes to do that job.

Yes.

So I'm thinking beyond thinking strategically and being purposeful in building the relationships to help build my own personal network of contacts and peers and, you know, folks that are ultimately going to help me as I navigate my career. And, and so many folks are hesitant to do it because we now live in this age of texting and TikTok, and I don't want to go do that. But at the end of the day, that's how stuff gets done.

Yes.

In terms of who you know, certainly how difficult it is to get a job today. Who do I know who may know someone that can get me in the, in the role to possibly get this position that I'm interested in, um, in this company?

But one thing about that, for young people today, sometimes I feel like they just, they are afraid. Well, if I go out there and I ask them, they may say No.

That's okay.

Yes.

That's okay.

That's exactly okay.

The reality is, the reality is, I mean, if that person says no, and they're kind of rude, well, you probably didn't want to talk to them anyway. But the reality is most people, really, the majority of people say, I'd be happy to. I may be crazy busy at this point, but check back within me, check back in the next 4 weeks after I get through quarter close.

Amen to that.

Right, right.

That's how you make things happen. That's why, because I did reach out to you. I wasn't sure if you were going to say yes, yes or no. You did say yes, and here you are. But now I need to make sure not to keep you a second longer than I asked you to. But I'm so grateful you are here. But I'm thinking for women especially and minority underrepresented leaders as well, sometimes we struggle with, I guess it's called, what's it called? Syndrome. Imposter syndrome. Exactly. And they kind of struggle with confidence and visibility. So what practical advice would you give to someone, let's say a young woman who feels like they are the only one in the room and they just lack that little confidence?

Yeah, I do talk about this in the book. The fact of the matter is everybody has imposter syndrome, even the most powerful people in the world. Have imposter syndrome, although they're not going to tell you that they do. Flip the script on imposter syndrome. And when you get that feeling like, I'm not ready, why am I here, I shouldn't be here— when you have those feelings, to me, it's a sign of stretch and growth because you're in an uncomfortable or you're in a new setting. Maybe you're getting ready to deliver a keynote and you don't like public speaking. Maybe you're standing and you're leading a conversation and, you know, on a project at your company and you're like, oh, I'm getting that, you know, feeling like I'm not good enough. I don't belong here. Flip the script. Yes, I'm here because I'm growing and I'm learning. And one of the things I talk about in the book is keeping a win journal. Uh, you know, when you have those feelings, think about, well, what got me here? Oh well, I got my bachelor's degree or graduated with my master's. I've been doing fantastic work on this project. I've built these strong relationships. All these things that are going right, right? These are all wins. This is all learning and growth. We seem to forget all of those things that we do exceptionally well. And we think about only our deficiencies that we have, which cause that feeling of having imposter syndrome. So I think there are some practical steps that you can take to say, oh no, I belong here. I've done all these things. I'm going— I've looked back at my win journal. Look at all the stuff that I've actually accomplished. And then think about that moment in time as I'm having this feeling because I'm stretching. I'm growing. And that's a good feeling to have because it's going to give me this energy, right, in order for me to step into the moment and step into the opportunity that's in front of me.

That is so, so powerful. The one lesson I really love in your book, it's really the idea that leadership isn't really about waiting for the room to change, but it's about changing the room. And I really love the way you ended the book. Don't wait for the room to feel comfortable. Get in there anyway. Don't wait to feel fearless, act now. Don't wait to feel chosen, choose yourself. You belong in the room, now lead like it. And also the feeling I get is you might be the only woman or the only Black person or whatever it might be in the room right now, but don't be the last one, right? Keep that door open for somebody else. That's so powerful. So if we were to ask you, because we are running out of time, someone reads this book, what is the one lesson you really want them to remember if they could only remember one lesson from the book?

You are powerful beyond measure, right? I love Marianne Williams's quote is, you know, we were destined to believe in ourselves and we are powerful beyond measure. And this is really that quote that you just read from the book, Bob, is We will— you will never feel completely ready. It is a fallacy that you will be, I'm 100%. Every job I stepped into, I frankly had no idea what I was going to do and had to figure it out. I was not ready, but I learned, yes, what I needed to do to be successful. So understand that that is what You will never feel ready. Do it anyway. Take a seat at the table. Speak out in a meeting. And as you do that, remember that you are representing all that are following behind you. Right? So the purpose of the book and to sharing the stories was helping the leaders behind me and the generation behind me know what it's going to take and to get in there and lead anyway.

Wow, that is so powerful. Well, I couldn't say that any better. Everyone, number one Amazon bestseller, The Only Woman in the Room. Everybody needs to get a copy today. So as we end the show, looks like we have about 5 minutes left, I want to do the rapid-fire segment. I'm going to ask you a question. Don't take too long to think. No, whatever comes to your mind immediately, let us know. So one leadership myth you'd like to retire.

Results get me promotions.

What does?

Brand exposure connections.

I love it. Best career advice you've ever received?

Believe in yourself.

Trust, believe. What is one mistake almost every new executive makes?

They talk more than they listen.

True, true. You must have known my mom. She used to tell me about 2 ears and 1 mouth. I try hard to do that. So one daily habit that has made the biggest difference in your leadership?

Say that again, Bob.

One daily habit that has made the biggest difference in your leadership?

Taking care of yourself before you take care of others. In this, in this world of AI, what I hear from leaders is, I'm exhausted. I can't self-regulate. The pace is relentless. Complexity is Relentless. And on the chapter of rest, rest is a leadership strategy.

I love that. Now, I already asked you before the show a book you would recommend today that's not your book. You said Careless People. Why should people, my audience, read this book?

It's a fascinating read regarding the inner workings of Facebook from Sarah Winn, who was part of their chief strategy officer. And, uh, Facebook is not actually suing her, but basically from a retention agreement, she's not allowed to speak about the book, be anywhere near the book, which of course made me want to buy the book.

Yes.

To really understand why that was. And, uh, it's an eye-opening account of what is happening behind the scenes at one of the largest, you know, tech titans in the world.

Yes. Okay. What is one uniquely human leadership quality that AI will never be able to replace?

Judgment.

True. How do you personally recharge after leading through difficult season? You talked about rest earlier.

Wellness, exercise, family.

All right. And the last one is, what is one question every executive should ask themselves every Monday morning?

Am I passionate about what I'm doing?

Wow, powerful. Okay, we have a couple of minutes left as we come to a close. Man, I wish I could be talking to you forever and ever, but we do need to end the show. So what can my audience do to add value back to you, Lisa?

Oh, I would love your community, Bob, to reach out on LinkedIn. I'd love to be connected, hear feedback, subscribe to my Substack newsletter, Go With Grit, that I write weekly. All right, on Substack, check out my, uh, webpage, daviscoradvisory.com. Certainly for any speaking opportunities, coaching opportunities, it's all there for you. And if you haven't got my book, I'd love for you to buy the book on Amazon, Barnes Noble, Goodreads, or wherever, wherever you purchase, uh, your book content.

Okay, I don't know what happened to my computer, but basically we are done here. Okay. But yeah, I was going to Oh, hold on, let me fix one more thing. Sorry. Ah, man, I love technology, don't you?

Yeah, Murphy.

Yeah, yeah, that's, that's why I actually like to meet before so we can make sure this doesn't happen. But, uh, any—

did we get it all?

Yeah, no, we are, we are, we are, uh, we are still on. So you, you were talking about your subs, your Substack, and I want everybody to sign up for your Substack. Of course, there is a free plan and people can also pay, I think it's only like $5.

Yes, paid subscription. Yeah, yeah, that's fantastic. Yes, subscribe. Um, you can find my Substack newsletter, there's also a link on my LinkedIn page. Love for you to subscribe or be a paid subscriber. There's going to be differentiating content as soon as we hit 1,000 subscribers, and that's going to be exciting news. I also just announced that I'm going to be sharing other stories, women's and leaders' stories, to continue to build awareness. And if you're interested in sharing your story with me, I'd love to hear it. Reach out to me as well.

That's powerful. And then if people want to hire you as a consultant, where do they go?

DavisCoreAdvisory.com. There's lots of links there to hire me as a consultant or a coach.

Fantastic. Okay, that's, that's all I had for you today. We are almost out of time. Was there a question you wanted me to ask? I didn't get a chance to ask this.

No, I thought it was great. Thanks, Bob. You made it easy.

All right. The very last question I'm going to ask, and I love asking every guest, what would you say to your 17-year-old self knowing what you know now, having had this incredible career, what would you say to 17-year-old Lisa?

My 17-year-old self, I'd probably say, you don't have to have it all figured out. Right? Do be curious. One of the best leadership traits is curiosity. Be curious, continue to learn, build those connections, and Understand what you're good at, what you're passionate about, and make those decisions based on those learnings.

Wow. And it's as you learn that you become more and more confident in your own skills, isn't it? Wow, that's so powerful. Thank you. Thanks so much for giving us an hour today. I really appreciate that. And everyone, again, get a copy of the book. And everybody needs to get a copy like right now. It's The Only Woman in the Room: How to Win in a Workplace Still Built for Men. Thanks again, uh, really appreciate your time with us today, Lisa. Appreciate it.

Thank you, Bob. It's been a pleasure.

All right.

Okay, bye.

All right, everybody, uh, make sure to, uh, follow, uh, Lisa on, uh, LinkedIn, and she will definitely, uh, get back to you. So linkedin.com in Lisa-Davis-CIO and DavisCoAdvisory.com. You can find out more about her in her book and then also, uh, Substack. Velissadavis.substack.com. Okay, this is the end of the show. I don't think I'm gonna have an interview tomorrow, but we are gonna be back the day after tomorrow. But again, make sure to get a copy of the book. Thanks so much for watching. And for those who watched the first episode earlier today for Black History Year, we talked about Martin Luther King. Everybody knows who he is, just celebrating his legacy. We also talked about, uh, Amsburg, South Carolina, what happened on July 4th, 1876, our first centennial anniversary. And you can read the post I added to my LinkedIn account late last night. Okay, that's it for now. Thank you so much for watching. And again, we are celebrating freedom under leadership and success, podcast. So bye for now.

Oh freedom, oh freedom, oh freedom over me. And before I'll be a slave, I'll be buried in my grave and go home to my Lord and be free. Oh, freedom. Oh, freedom. Freedom.

Oh, freedom.

Oh, freedom over me, over me. And before I fall asleep, I'll be burying my grave and go home to my Lord. And be free.

Thank you for tuning in to the Leadership and Success Podcast with your host, Coach Bisi. If today's episode added value to your leadership journey, be sure to subscribe, share, and join us again for more wisdom nuggets on how to lead better and achieve greater success. Remember, leadership is the most most critical skill of our time. The world will always need leaders to inspire others, drive innovation, and execute meaningful strategy. So why not count yourself among the bold leaders shaping the 21st century? Until next time, stay inspired, stay committed, and keep leading with excellence.