Episode 99 – Kelley Wacher | The magic is in you! Executive Coach, Behavioural Leadership with a Strengths Influence

In this episode I chat with the effervescent Kelley Wacher, whose mission it is to show people a pathway to self awareness, strengths and leadership excellence through behavioural coaching.

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Transcript

Murray Guest  

Kel, welcome to the podcast. It’s so great to see you. It’s been on my god, way too long, too long. Obviously COVID hasn’t helped the situation.

Kelley Wacher  

No, I’m sorry that you’re, you’re in COVID up there as well. Beautiful Newcastle.

Murray Guest  

Yeah, we’ve had, we’ve had someone from Sydney bring the germs up here a little while ago.

Kelley Wacher  

That’s a bit below the line.

Murray Guest  

I’m only going by what the media’s reported, Kel.

Kelley Wacher  

I don’t I don’t watch the media Murray I just, you know sometimes it’s just none of my business.

Murray Guest  

Probably a good idea at the moment. Are you well?

Kelley Wacher  

I am well actually I think, you know, for someone in a small business in the middle of a lockdown in COVID I think I’m doing extraordinarily well. You know there are, there are a lot of people around us that are not doing so well with, you know, mental health and in lockdown with children and partners but I’m pretty lucky, I like my partner so you know it’s we, we do lockdown together well and, you know, and my little boy is doing homeschooling. And we’re managing to keep it all together.

Murray Guest  

My thought on homeschooling is, it’s about the essentials. So Elliott’s in year seven. And if any teachers are listening I hope this is okay. It’s like, do the the essentials, and then if you want to play Minecraft and you want to ride your bike outside or go on the trampoline that’s okay but let’s just, let’s just get through this doing the bare the bare minimum even.

Kelley Wacher  

Yeah. Well, it’s interesting you say that because in our first lockdown when I lost all my business and I had nothing else to do but homeschooling with Max, I set it up, because I’m a facilitator I set it up like a training room – our lounge room – whiteboards and I was doing the complete teacher Saurus you know, and he was getting really tired and I was talking to the teacher, we were going from nine to three, you know, a break here and a break there and, you know, I even had little bells that I was ringing, and they said you know, Kel, they actually, at school he’s in second grade, okay, they actually do about three hours worth a day. And you’ve got him one on one, nine to three.

Murray Guest  

So Max is now at a year five level.

Kelley Wacher  

Yeah, so we’re just gonna send him straight back into, my partner’s like, We’ll just send him straight back to Year 4. Because he’s a bit of a high achiever, I think he’s got a bit of Maximizer in his, in his strengths there. And then what we do have though is he’s very easily distracted like his mother, you know, shiny things. So it’s we get to do a task, pet the dog, do a task, pet the cat. It’s like a menagerie here, we’ve got do a task pet the rabbit.

Murray Guest  

So we get some some rewards in there to increase the focus.

Kelley Wacher  

Yes, and I’m trying not to make it all food rewards, because kids all they want to do is eat. When you’re not doing school, or gaming or playing, it’s just food.

Murray Guest  

Yeah, well I’ve shifted it a little here of, if you want to eat it well, can you make it.

Kelley Wacher  

That’s fantastic. I think you want it you can make it. Like, no I can’t Mum, I’m not going to.

Murray Guest  

The shift that we’re, we’ve been trying to do lately and I tell you when we’re far from doing it anywhere to be proud of. But the shift from, oh we’re making dinner, dinner’s ready now come and eat it, to actually come and help us make the dinner, you know, let’s get involved, not just ring the triangle Ding ding ding come and eat dinner, like actually be part of the process.

Kelley Wacher  

Yeah, I think that’s really good it’s excellent parenting, can I just say. But you’ve got to start them off early. And I remember like Max now he’s eight, and he’s decided that he wants, he’s good on the coffee machine, quality is a little bit dodgy.

Murray Guest  

Yeah, gotcha.

Kelley Wacher  

But he’s pretty good, he gives it a go, you know, so he tries to make us a coffee in the morning, and he’s decided now that he wants to do breakfast in bed for us on a Saturday morning, which is lovely. So what he does is he, he cooks raisin toast. Okay. And then he cooks all three lots and slabs a bit of butter on and leaves it there then he makes the coffee’s. And then he puts a coffee on the little plate with the marshmallow and so we get in and we have average coffee and cold raisin toast, but do you know what, it’s the effort. Effort.

Murray Guest  

Well, it’s funny. I remember years ago with a facilitator, I was working with, and he talked about how do you, and we’re talking to leaders, how do you recognize the effort, not the outcome, particularly when things don’t go right. And that’s that shift I think that is important in parenting but also in, in leadership. Yeah, how we, how we do that.

Kelley Wacher  

Yeah, look, you know, what a great sojourn into discussing leadership and getting off the children well done, Murray. We do want to make it an interesting podcast, don’t we. But you know, you’re absolutely right and and you know what in saying that I get a lot of get a lot of learning and a lot of reminders, through parenting about leadership. Because when you think about leadership and parenting I mean sometimes, and there are probably a few leaders out there that could say sometimes leadership feels a bit like parenting. And I’ve heard that more than once, just managing behaviors and behavioral styles and motivations and you know, what’s making them tick, what’s making them do the things that they do. And, you know, in our work Murray, you know you understand that often we have people that, that don’t have performance problems they’ve got personal problems that impact their performance. And this is for our leaders as well. And so I think when we look at those, you know, those four core fears that you know, we look, we see the imposter syndrome and people not thinking they’re good enough or not belonging or, you know, that that fear of failure, which is also fear of success. And then, and then the, you know, the, what was that last one, the four fears…

Murray Guest  

A big one that I hear from a lot of leaders is the fear of getting it wrong.

Kelley Wacher  

Yeah, yeah. Fear of failure, and it’s like, you know what, you’re going to, that’s how we learn, right? From our mistakes. And we’ve got to be able to make them so that we can learn.

Murray Guest  

And that’s the thing that, and whilst parenting, as the parenting traits as leadership can feel like I’m leading children. The, the good that we can take out of the analogy of parenting and leadership is the parents want their children to learn, to grow, to be loved, to be cared, to be safe. And you want all those from your leaders as well.

Kelley Wacher  

Yeah, I mean, you know, the things that people rarely hear but but need to hear is that they feel valued, respected and appreciated. And, you know, I tried to do that every day. Yeah, is let people know that.

Murray Guest  

And I think, well what I reckon I’ve noticed with all the leaders I’ve been working with is this has become more and more important, around the understanding of the personal life, and the impact on the professional life through COVID, because we’ve had an insight into people’s lives through, whether it’s zoom or teams and people working from home and hey guess what there’s this whole life that people have outside of work, which we sought of knew about but now it’s just, just right at the forefront, and you can’t miss it. And good leaders need to appreciate and understand that.

Kelley Wacher  

Yeah, like we were talking a little bit before that that there seems to be a level of hybrid working when we go back, I mean I think we will say we have to live with this COVID, and we do and whatever else comes our way over the years. But there has been a learning in, in, I think this hybrid business but also a learning in trust, because leaders have had to trust people to work from home. And that’s been a really interesting journey for a lot of people I think, is stopping that atypical clock watching, and saying, Do you know what, I just, I just have to get the child sorted in homeschooling if there’s a child there and then I can get onto this project but I’ll put it in later at night. And then you’ve got the people who are at home on their own, who can potentially be overworking because that’s all they’ve got. Yeah, and not connecting. And, and the emotional roller coaster that people are on as well. I was talking to someone recently who said, you know, these days might be days that I’ve that I would normally have, where I’m at home and I’m not going anywhere, watching Netflix or doing working from home, but the fact that I’m being told I can’t do it, is creating a different emotional journey for me, as to my choice of doing it.

Murray Guest  

Yeah, and that’s where the trust is so so important. You’re right, and with trust comes empowerment and with empowerment comes accountability. So they’re all playing out with such importance right now. A really good example I heard recently with a leader, sharing the change in language they were using from, I need this by close of business to I need this by the start of tomorrow. And the shift creates this understanding, and empowerment of, I know that you’ve got stuff going on out, you know, outside of work in your personal life whatever’s going on at home. And when you get this done if you can have it back to me by the start of tomorrow. And it’s just so simple but so, so powerful and important.

Kelley Wacher  

Well, it provides that flexibility I think, you know, where people are very clear and this is the thing with, when people aren’t in front of you all the time is expectations Murray, is so important, be very clear on your expectations. Because you say give it to me by tomorrow. And as you know, it could be the end of tomorrow, could be the middle of tomorrow, could be tomorrow midnight, when you say, I need it by the start of tomorrow, it’s a very clear expectation. Yeah and, you know, I think, again, that’s what people are looking for clarity, and expectations about what’s okay, what’s not okay, you know, how do you want me to operate in this new environment.

Murray Guest  

Yeah, don’t, don’t make your child be at school for six hours at home, three hours is fine. You’re right. So, as leaders, how are we removing assumptions, because people as humans we make assumptions all the time. And how do we remove those assumptions or validate people’s assumptions and make that clear, because so many situations are different for people from home schooling to, to being by themselves, to being a carer to, you know 1000s of other variations and as a leader and as a team, how are we making it clear around what we need from each other in a positive way.

Kelley Wacher  

Yeah, I think there’s the need for level of compassion there as well. I mean, often I think sometimes we focus on the outliers rather than the majority. Yeah and so and we make decisions based on outliers. So we see one person who is not behaving as we would like them to behave, and we make decisions based on that person’s behavior for the rest of the people in our team versus the other way around, where we look at, you know, what is our, what is our practice around all of these people, and is this person an outlier. It’s like you know when you when you do facilitation and you get a feedback form, and they all have, you know, 10s and nines and eights and then you’ve got one person has a two and you’re like, that’s it I’m gonna find them and hunt them down.

Murray Guest  

Here’s the thing, I’m going to share, I’ve never shared the story. I presented at a summit, and, you know, a couple 100 people, and I got really good feedback. I get the feedback which is great and then there was this one piece of feedback, and it said, I don’t know what was wrong with Murray today, he was off his game, it was a terrible session. I’m like, what?! But as humans we focus on that one. We were drawn to it because we want to fix it, we want to understand.

Kelley Wacher  

Yeah, yeah, and that’s what I’m saying we need to have this level of compassion for the outliers, but, but continue to do what we need to do for the bulk of the people in the business rather than, you know, then that stick mentality as leaders. And, you know I was, I was talking to someone the other day who said you know what the weird thing is I’m here doing my work and I can stand up and be completely fine, because I’m talking to them about standing up and doing a little dance on the spot and how your physiology changes your psychology. Yeah. And she said, Then I walk three steps and all of a sudden I go into this deep depression or this deep anxiety. And that’s how quickly, she said, that’s how quickly her emotions are shifting from day to day, you know, and then we start looking at that work around well wow, I mean, it is wow, it is like, it’s debilitating for some people. And so I’m working a lot with people at the moment in in how to practice being able to manage that space as well as manage that workspace.

Murray Guest  

Yeah, because it’s such a blur at the moment, it’s blended. Yeah. So tell us a bit more about what you do with your clients.

Kelley Wacher  

With my clients well, my business as you know, Murray, is called Corporate Magic, and people say to me, do you pull a rabbit out of your hat, and I say no the magic is in you, not in me. Notwithstanding, I do now have a rabbit, so I could pull a rabbit out of my hat if I, if I needed to. But essentially what my business, I guess and most people, you know, create their business based on some of their journey and their learnings and their experiences. And, and that’s what I’ve done and I had a very, very successful career in travel and hospitality industry which is an industry that’s struggling so much right now and I have been doing a lot of work with, with that industry and trying to support them through this. I guess where my business came from was seeing the potential in people and potential that, that is not tapped. And you know you talked about empowerment before, and the thing about empowerment is, it’s not about a leader giving someone power. I think people already have the power. What it’s about is allowing them to let their own power out. And so, I love the concept of that phoenix rising from the ashes and the reason I like that, not only because I’m a Harry Potter fan, but the reason I like that is because it’s about failing and resurrecting. It’s about, you know, burning to the ground, and then coming out of that stronger and and better. And so when I think about what I do in the business, this is what I do, I get people, I’m not trying to fix people that are broken, I don’t think people are broken. I just think people have potential that is that is trapped. And misjudged or misread, and it’s about tapping into their potential so that they can fly, so they can bring that phoenix from the ashes. And I did that in my own in my own journey throughout my career, where, you know, I think if I could have a playlist of songs, it would be, you know, I get knocked down, but I get up again. Or, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. I’m not heading for the voice anytime soon Murray, but I mean it’s, it’s those songs of resilience that that you know really inspire me to do the work I do, and someone was telling me that you know whenever you hear stories about people climbing mountains or, you know, people going, that they, they get to the top of that mountain and they have this real sense of achievement, yeah, but on the way up the stories you hear is the frostbite and the fingers coming off and they’re running out of food and the starvation and all that sort of stuff, but what do they do when they get to the bottom of that mountain.

Murray Guest  

Well, what I’ve heard, and I want to get your perspective here, is quite often there’s a bit of withdrawal and depression because the high is gone. And we’re back to day to day. Yeah. So how do we maintain that?

Kelley Wacher  

So the next thing they do is look for another mountain. Yeah, okay, because we’re driven by this sense of wanting to achieve, by a wanting to contribute, you know, and it’s, you know their contribution is in that way but for other people, particularly for leaders it’s, I know when I was a leader in in my industry, it was about that, how are we contributing, that service leadership, how are we contributing to others, how are we developing the people around us, how are we creating succession plans, how are we delivering to our customers what they want and what they need, and making that sustainable. And so that’s what I’m thinking about in my business right it’s, it’s, how are we constantly contributing to, to making this world a better place one person at a time or one business at a time, or one leader at a time.

Murray Guest  

Yeah. Yeah. You mentioned to before the bit of the dance and the physiology and the psychology. Is that something you bring into your programs to help people shift how they’re feeling in their body.

Kelley Wacher  

Yes. Yeah, so, um, when I, you know I love this. When we bring people together and I’m not your atypical stand up, straight up corporate presenter, okay let’s just put that out there, I think, you know, my sense of humor and my wit has been my, my secret weapon throughout my career, since even when I was young and and engagement and bringing people together and, and I use that, I use that in my programs and I, and I do play games with people and it’s, it’s not just games for the sake of playing games but it’s to instill the learning. But it’s also we know that people learn more when they’re in a better headspace or better mind space. And so I do like in one of my programs I teach the five principles of success, and you know I was working with an Entertainment Group, and a lot of young people you know in their 20s. And so I put it into a dance, and then they put it to their own music. And, but what they learned from that is that they learned the five principles of success. They learned, know your outcome, take action, observe the people around you, have that behavioral flexibility and have that, you know Superman or that physiology and psychology of success. And so we put it into a dance, put it into, literally a quick one, and people laugh, it gets them outside of their comfort zone, they’re all doing it together. But the key is that they take away and they don’t forget that.

Murray Guest  

Yeah, yeah. And that’s what I love is when we feel the shift, as opposed to just talking about the shift or writing down the shift or that’s the theory of it. When we feel it, it really anchors it and locks it in doesn’t it, and we can get back to that.

Kelley Wacher  

Yeah and I love that and love to say to people, you’re doing the game and then say, well, what’s the purpose of it? What what are you learning here? What are you understanding? And, you know sometimes it’s just looking at behavior, this game that I play it’s got a few, you know poker chips in it, and it’s about creating change, and and what we get used to and building cultures, and it’s really funny because when you shift someone from one culture to another culture, there’s, there’s usually three different styles of behavior that come with that. One, they fight it, and they try to bring their own perspective in, right? Two, they just go with the flow. Three, they, they become the person in the room that changes it through influence. Right? So it’s really interesting to watch those three things, and we laugh because it’s like, oh my gosh, look how mad that person is, because something’s changed that they don’t like and now they’re trying to, they’re trying to bring their dominance, as opposed to the person who’s just a follower who says, Yeah okay, I just go with it, as opposed to the person who is influential and has that charisma and those leadership talents that inspire and influence others, and allow them to gain followers, just through how they model their behavior. I think it’s, you know, I love it. I love doing that and that’s what I miss about that face to face stuff, is to be able to do those engagement exercises. Sorry Murray, my passion is just coming through.

Murray Guest  

It’s great and it’s interesting I ran an online workshop the other day with a team, and I got them all to stand up and they’re like, What? We’re standing up here? One of them actually joked and said, Murray do you think we should check we all got pants on first? I said well I make that assumption you’re wearing pants, of course. I said, don’t forget I’m the funny one. But, but I think the moving our body. And the reason I’m bringing this up is, I think with all of the online meetings, online sessions, whatever platform you’re using, there’s so much sitting down again. Because if you think back to the office, you’re there meeting, you could get up, go get your cup of coffee and you connect with people, chat in the hallway, whatever it might be. Got to get back to standing up and moving your body and shifting that because you feel different and I love the power pose you’re talking about before. I had this great chat with the team about, do you think people can tell how you’re feeling, or your impact, your words based on your body position. They said, Yeah. I said, So how are you thinking about that now when you’re online, because it’s even more important.

Kelley Wacher  

Yeah, I’m in a networking group and I was saying to a fellow, lovely guy. But when he’s online, he looks like this. And he’s and he sort of, he sits back like this, even, like, with the space, and I said you’re a lovely guy and you’re really interesting, but not to look at online. I said what you need to do is come forward a little bit more, you know, when you’re looking at the camera and smile. You’ve got a wonderful smile, and people will engage with you more.

Murray Guest  

And can I say, same thing for anyone else listening here at the moment, of which I’m sure you are, and that is that running sessions I see people where they have no light on their face. And these are leaders in organizations that are then turning up for a session, and you can’t even see them like I mean physically, they’ve got the video on but – that another thing, everyone put your video on when you go into sessions. Sorry, no light on the face. So couldn’t, and I paused and said oh hey, can you actually get some light on your face? Oh the windows behind me. And I said, yeah I get that, so how about you move, turn your laptop around so we can see you so we can interact with you so we can connect with you, it just makes such a difference.

Kelley Wacher  

Yeah. And you know, I think that that’s a really great point you make there Murray, because that turning your video on, it’s almost, I find it a little bit disrespectful when people don’t do it. Yeah, I agree. Because what it’s saying to you is, I’m not that interested in really listening to you, I’ve got some other emails that I want to do and I don’t want you to see me doing them. So, so it’s like, for me, I become background noise for somebody else, while they’re doing their work. Yeah. And I think if you’re going to put the time and effort into organizing and meeting with people, getting the right people in the meeting, of course, who, where you’re involving people, then people could at least be respectful enough to turn on their cameras.

Murray Guest  

I 100% agree and I think, therefore if you feel like it’s not that valuable, how can you influence that, how can you make sure that the the process, the agenda, the, the outcomes or who’s there, whatever it might be, is shifted so you find it valuable.

Kelley Wacher  

Absolutely. And yeah, and that’s the issue having long drawn out winded, you know long winded meetings with no actions and no outcomes and and where people are thinking, Why am I here. Yeah. So, again, that takes you to the whole concept of the, you know, effective meeting space that you’re in.

Murray Guest  

Oh, that’s right. You are passionate about Strengths like I am. And we have two the same by the way, in our top five, which is Individualization and Relator. You additionally have Maximizer, Empathy and Achiever. If you are going to get one of these tattooed on your neck because you love it so much, which one is it going to be and why? 

Kelley Wacher  

Relator.

Murray Guest  

Oh, that that was, that was a split second decision.

Kelley Wacher  

It was, wasn’t it. You know what, the reason I say Relator, is because, it’s between that and Individualization, right, but when I think about strengths and when I think about my particular strengths, and I go through the journey of my life because I think your strengths, they don’t start when you do the, the Gallup Strengths profile right, they start when you start seeing those traits and things that you yearn for and learn quickly and satisfaction all that through your throughout your life. Yeah. And so when I see how I’ve used my talent throughout my career before I even discovered the strengths process, I see that relator. Okay, you know, Yoda would say, Oh the force is strong in this one, the relator force. And the reason that is is because I’ve been one of those people who, people always come up to me in the street and ask me things. People tell me stuff about themselves that I just think, wow, that’s really interesting, I wonder why you told me that, you know, and that ability to build trust with people and really deep dive into people with their level of comfort. Yeah, they don’t think that you’re being, you know, giving them the 10th degree or the, you know, whatever they call, the Spanish Inquisition, yeah, it’s that it’s that real deep caring of what somebody is going through, what they think. And being able to delve in to that person. And, you know, had I known that, all that time ago I might have been doing this a lot sooner than I’m doing it now. However, I have used that throughout my career in sales, I said I was a terrible sales person because I cannot flog things to people. But people would say, But Kel you find out what we need, and then you make the effort to meet those needs.

Murray Guest  

And I think, for me that’s individualization relator feeding off each other. Yes, yeah, what’s the individual needs, their goals, their challenges. And build that relationship and deliver on that.

Kelley Wacher  

Yeah. And so, so yes and those two I mean, because individualization is at the top, which you know is the number one but, but they’re really so close together for me. The maximizer is that one for me that, you know it can be really good if I’m using it well. And boy, it can make me crazy if I’m not because, because it’s, you know, it’s about good better best.

Murray Guest  

It’s great to create more work for yourself, isn’t it?

Kelley Wacher  

Yeah, because I sit down I think, oh my gosh, I know through my relator and my individualization that I can read the room and I can see where people are at and I can change tact and where I’m going, yeah. And then my Maximizer comes in and says, If I don’t say this exactly how I’ve written it or exactly or, or I skip a slide or something like that, it’s like, Argh.

Murray Guest  

Gotcha. Yeah. Can I ask what’s been the impact that you’ve seen, what’s been the impact of people knowing the strengths that you’ve seen with people you’ve worked with.

Kelley Wacher  

Wow, you know, I’ve seen some amazing and significant change that people have made. And I’ve seen relationships change between people. But one of the most significant, I think I saw was a girl who was being performance managed in an organization, and we had an opportunity to have a discussion about her strengths and where she was at and again it comes back to, these are your talents and this is where you thrive. But this is how you’re being in the world at the moment. And I literally just asked her some questions, your coaching process. And it was like this light turned on for her. You know it was just like, wow. And it was a story that she told me and I just asked her I said, Well, why are you choosing to do this instead of this, and you know she left there, and she literally, you know, changed her relationship, changed her work, changed her attitude, changed everything she did, and started to look for things based, like she looked for a role that was going to allow her to use her talents well, she looked for an organization where she could fit into the organization well, with the talents that she had. And so it’s, that was one of the greatest things that I saw in someone who went from, you know what I talked about the Phoenix crashing and then coming out of the flames, yeah, yeah, it was that, was really that.

Murray Guest  

Yeah and for that I think about the self awareness and you holding up that mirror to her around, Well, this is how you’re showing up, and this is where your talents lie. Yeah. And the the lightbulb moments that come on in the work that we do with people it’s just so rewarding. And the trajectory of her life that she’s now on, through that conversation with you.

Kelley Wacher  

Yeah, and it was again, the basis of it was that not good enough, that feeling not good enough, and so allowing the world around her in all of her, you know, personal life to be able to beat her down until it starts to impact her at work. And so, you know, that was one that really sits with me. I mean I’ve got a few that really sit with me and people that have just made, you know, incredible change with the understanding of, of their talents and one of the things I say about this for anybody who’s doing these types of profiles, whether it’s this or whatever it is. Don’t just do it from the book and sit and go okay these are my five. Yeah, because you know what, there is so much, there is so much, such a gift and so much magic in the combination, and how they work together, and like as you know, it’s like one in 33 million is the chance of you having the same five in the same order as someone else. And so, but if you just read those five and you look up the, you know what those five mean, it’s, it doesn’t make you, that’s not what makes you unique, what makes you unique, is being able to go through that process of discovering how they work together, how they work for you in your life and how they create a difference to what you do.

Murray Guest  

Yeah, and I love that point that you said too is how they interact and how they feed off each other, how they bounce off each other and how they show up in different situations, different combinations, different conversations. It is a discovery and I first found out my top five, nine years ago. And what I say to people is I’m still learning more about myself as I think about how they all work together still now. It’s not like I’ve done that, tick the box, it’s that ongoing learning journey which is just so beautiful.

Kelley Wacher  

Yeah, absolutely. I mean you’ve got using individualization and relator as well. And you know, which would you get tattooed of your five?

Murray Guest  

So it’s interesting because relator is really strong it’s my number one. However, responsibility is my number five, and it anchors me, and I think I have a real core value around doing what’s right and following the rules and that’s that responsibility. And I can see and I can see it as me because I can also see how it gets in my way sometimes and it has in the past of some of those basements of responsibility or those, those dark elements of not wanting to let things go, or taking on too much. So, it would be, I probably would have responsibility as a real gangster tattoo around a chair. And then relator across the back. I might get those two I think.

Kelley Wacher  

So that’s kind of like the flip side of you, you get this responsibility tough guy at the front. And then the relator from behind.

Murray Guest  

I have loved even thinking about how they show up at different times for me, and those combinations and yeah and the more, the thing to that I’ll add to what you’ve said about that ongoing discovery is, the more you talk about your strengths with other people, you’ll learn about them but also learn about yourself and learn about these other perspectives so I think with whoever we’re working with, whether it’s in, you know, corporations, teams, leaders, families, doesn’t matter, talk about this stuff. Yeah, yeah, because when you talk about it increases that that learning exponentially.

Kelley Wacher  

Yeah, I use it a lot after I’ve done, you know the strengths I use it a lot in in my coaching practice especially when we’re having conversations and when, when I’m aware of the person’s talents plus also their bottom five as well, it really helps me when I’m having conversations with them and I say to them, you don’t see that what you just said then that really comes from your relator, that comes from your maximizer, you know, I can relate it back to the talents. And I say, Can you see that, what that looks like? And if they’re telling me a story and I say wow, I can really see this coming out, this shining out here, you know, and I know because my, my bottom five, and I like to always touch on the bottom five and say, look you know what’s really important to know, you might be really aware of it because we’re often aware of what we don’t like. And, and, more so than we’re aware of what we do like or what we do want.

Murray Guest  

Yeah, and those bottom ones, and I know for me, context is down there and it’s just a big blind spot. And in my claiming of all my strengths, I can claim that blind spot of how I miss giving people the detail, the big picture, or taking time to understand the past. And so it’s like, Ah, okay, now how am I more aware of that and how do I navigate that.

Kelley Wacher  

Mm hmm, interesting isn’t it so that that awareness I mean, and I know mine is around, analytical. Discipline.

Murray Guest  

Yeah, so Kel, obviously with the work you do with leaders, with teams, you bring fun, you bring energy. Yes, a bit of magic, unlocking the magic within. What does the program look like, what, what’s happening in these programs.

Kelley Wacher  

So I kind of got a bit of a three prong approach because I’ve got the coaching side of it, which is we know that one to one. What I like to do, I don’t like to be a one hit wonder. I don’t want to go in and do a time management program and then leave you to it, and I think that’s just a waste of time. So what I enjoy doing is stages in the program, so you do the first stage and we do some coaching around that for some stickiness, so you get to practice, to practice the tools that you’ve learned, to practice the behaviors to, to create some significant change and implement that in your workplace. Yeah, so there’s a lot of action around that as well. Then we come back to do the next stage, which is more advanced communication stuff. Again, coaching them, couple of coaching sessions and they learn about it, and in this time they’re doing a, in the leadership program they’re doing an improvement project with their team. So it’s not just here’s a, here’s an example. Here’s a project you could work on. It’s something that they figure out in their team, they go through a process, a problem solving process, they work with a team using all the skills to, to create something better, or to fix something, whether it’s low hanging fruit or a bigger project, and then at the end of the program they get to present their learnings based on their behavioral change, based on what’s it been like to engage the group and collaborate with people. And what was the outcome of the project.

Murray Guest  

Yeah, fantastic. And can I just say I have a dislike of scenarios. Within reason, or sorry, let me just put that right. If talking through a scenario, yeah, great, but let’s not, then talk about it but let’s put into action let’s do it let’s, let’s let the rubber hit the road like you’re saying what’s a real project that that’s going to help you implement what we’re talking about. I love that.

Kelley Wacher  

Yeah, bring a real problem that we can talk about instead because, because that’s what makes it of value to you. I mean, you bring value by saving someone time, effort and emotion. So that’s what the program is about, how can how can you go back as a leader into your organization and save time, effort and emotion in what you do.

Murray Guest  

I love that. Yeah and that’s what people need. It’s been wonderful chatting.

Kelley Wacher  

It has been lovely chatting.

Murray Guest  

Good to see you. I want to know if people want to catch up with you, know more about what you do, where’s the best place to track you down.

Kelley Wacher  

LinkedIn. I’m on LinkedIn, Kelley Wacher, or on my website, www.corporatemagic.com.au

Murray Guest  

That will be linked in the show notes everyone check it out. 

Kelley Wacher  

Yeah, or just call me. 0405523507. That’s for me. 

Murray Guest  

You’re the first person to give their number out on my podcast.

Kelley Wacher  

Is that politically incorrect these days.

Murray Guest  

Please call Kelley, she would love to take your call at three o’clock in the morning.

Kelley Wacher  

I just don’t want to see it written on the back of a pub door. We’re in lockdown so that’s not going to happen.

Murray Guest  

My friend, tell me what is your definition of inspired energy?

Kelley Wacher  

Inspired energy, I think, inspired energy, to me, is the realization of an individual’s potential, and the ability to let that out, because that brings that energy into the world.

Murray Guest  

Love it. And I, as you say that I’m picturing the Phoenix. 

Kelley Wacher  

Beautiful. 

Murray Guest  

Thank you so much. Wonderful to see you, keep well, keep healthy, and hopefully post lockdown we’ll see each other face to face.

Kelley Wacher  

Beautiful. Thanks Murray.

Murray Guest  

Thanks a million.