Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Join host Chantell Preston, a seasoned professional with over two decades of experience in healthcare operations, project management, and consulting, as she shares invaluable insights and lessons learned from navigating the complexities of career advancement and personal satisfaction.
Through candid conversations and expert advice, "Get Real, Get Results" serves as your go-to resource for achieving harmony between work and life without sacrificing well-being.
Learn more at: https://chantellpreston.com
We are great leaders. We have all these innate traits about us that we need to utilize. Put aside all the societal norms that, oh, we've gotta be like this and this. No. No.
CHANTELL PRESTON:Let's use our innate
CHANTELL PRESTON:Preston. I've got over 2 decades of experience in healthcare operations, project management, and consulting, and I've navigated the dance of career advancement and personal satisfaction So buckle So buckle up and get ready to challenge the status quo, shatter limiting beliefs, and embark on a transformative journey toward a more authentic, balanced, and fulfilling life. This is Get Real, Get Results, and I'm honored to have you join me.
CHANTELL PRESTON:So today, let's just jump right on in. Let's talk about the lie that women can't lead as this is gonna be a great one. This is my favorite. So let's talk about how times have changed, especially for women in regards to leadership roles. I think we all know the statistics about how women have come a long way in regards to where we were 20 years ago versus now.
CHANTELL PRESTON:However, we're still not there yet. So my goal is to create as many people as we can in those leadership roles. So let's talk about leadership. There's so many different directions we can go here, but I'm just gonna talk a little bit first about my own journey with leadership. When I was younger, I didn't know how to be a leader.
CHANTELL PRESTON:I kind of followed everyone's lead and kind of all the things I had heard throughout my my childhood and through college that in order to be a female in business, I had to be very assertive. Basically, I had to be a bitch. You know? I had to hold my ground. I had to never show emotion.
CHANTELL PRESTON:I had to not be friendly, and that was the only way I was gonna gain respect. Now I have to tell you, I'm also on the construction side because I had developed facilities. And so I did have a different persona when I'd walk on a construction site. However, in the boardroom or in the conference rooms, I felt like I had to be this cold hearted individual that didn't care about anything or anyone other than what were the goals and objectives of the company. I'm not saying that was right, but that's all I knew.
CHANTELL PRESTON:As I grew and I grew my career, I started to realize that it wasn't me. I mean, authentically, that wasn't me. I mean, I'm a pretty happy go lucky person. I'm a pretty compassionate. I'm pretty empathetic person.
CHANTELL PRESTON:I just I was trying to live this double life of being the person I was supposed to be at work and then, you know, taking that mask off and being who I really was outside of work. I realized that I wasn't doing anybody any favors by living that world. We look at how leadership has changed. In the old days, I was very authoritative. You know?
CHANTELL PRESTON:It was my way or no way. I was the boss. I knew what to do. I knew how to do it. You just do it.
CHANTELL PRESTON:Don't ask me questions. I learned as I grew that I wasn't getting the most out of my employees. I wasn't getting the most out of my staff. Why? Because they kind of lived in this fear of not crossing my path.
CHANTELL PRESTON:Whereas as I grew and through the COVID scenario, which was probably my greatest point in life of learning, I realized that I needed a different strategy. It was a different time. I had 400 and some employees. I need a different strategy of how to build a culture that I felt was embraced by all, and I did that through being authentically me. And when I say that, you know, I I'm not saying that I let people get away with murder.
CHANTELL PRESTON:I let people do things that they shouldn't be doing, but I became very authentic and very vulnerable with that. I wanted them to understand who we were as an organization. I was compassionate. I was empathetic. I was trustworthy.
CHANTELL PRESTON:You know, I really wanted individuals to realize their value. And I wanted everyone to understand how valuable they were. Because at that point, everyone was valuable, whether it was the CEO down to the housekeepers. We need everyone to work to make our organization successful. So as a leader, you know, most of the time, what keeps us hold us back is our own self doubt, our own insecurities, our own impostor syndrome.
CHANTELL PRESTON:I'm amazed by how many women my age that I talk to that, you know, I think we're, you know, talking about other things. Next thing I know, I'm coaching. Why? Because they have imposter syndrome. And they're like, I shouldn't be here.
CHANTELL PRESTON:I don't deserve to be here. Well, wait a minute. You're a badass. What do you mean you don't deserve to be here? You've earned everything you've done.
CHANTELL PRESTON:And so I wanna talk about how we get away from that and how we put our best foot forward to basically build our own confidence when we walk in a room. When I was younger, I'd walk in the room like I own the place, not because I did, because I know any better. I got away with a lot. Fake it till you make it, I guess. You know, as I got older, obviously, I realized that perception was an important component to not only my own confidence, but also how is perceived by others.
CHANTELL PRESTON:I didn't have to be a bitch. I just had to walk into the room and know my stuff and be confident in my abilities. Goes back to self love, self value. And so I was confident in who I was. I was confident in my own abilities because I figured if I didn't know how to do something, you know, at least I knew the right person to ask to figure out how to do something, and I wasn't scared to ask for help.
CHANTELL PRESTON:So how can I help do that with other people and show them that, hey? It's okay to not know everything. I'll be the first one I may need to raise my hand and like, hey. I don't have the answer to that, but let me get back to you and let me figure it out. You know?
CHANTELL PRESTON:My younger days, I'd have just spit out something. You know? And, like, I knew everything. I don't know everything. And I realized I gained so much more respect by being that person that says, hey.
CHANTELL PRESTON:I may not know, but let me figure it out, versus telling them something, then they're realizing, hey. That's not how it is. You're full shit. Fair? So we talk about self doubt.
CHANTELL PRESTON:We talk about, you know, know your own value. 1 of my great close friends just recently sold her organization, for a significant amount of money. She built it from from nothing to where she was now and sold it. And then she was looking for her next next gig. Where do I go next?
CHANTELL PRESTON:You know, that that great question after you sell your business. Who am I now? What do I do now? It was fascinating. She had so many she was so upset.
CHANTELL PRESTON:What am I gonna do? I don't know who I am anymore. You know, we all just kept saying, hey. Just wait. Just take a breath.
CHANTELL PRESTON:Figure out what you wanna do. You know, you're gonna have plenty of opportunities, but figure out what you wanna do. Figure out what you don't wanna do. And sometimes it's easier to establish what I don't want versus what I do want. So figure out what you don't wanna do.
CHANTELL PRESTON:Well, sure enough, she had multiple offers. Lots of people headed after her, wanting her to come work for them. And so she ended up in a phase with an organization, where they were negotiating the term sheet for her employment. So it was great. We were out playing golf.
CHANTELL PRESTON:She said, hey. I got a term sheet. Great. That's awesome. What did it say?
CHANTELL PRESTON:And she told me all about it. She was super excited. And I said, okay. Great. What did you counter?
CHANTELL PRESTON:She just looked at me. Counter? Why would I counter? Why would you not counter? And she's like, well, I thought it was fair.
CHANTELL PRESTON:Okay. Well, it might have been fair, but don't you think they expected you to counter? Because every man out there would have countered. Whether they said no or not, they would have countered. So it's fascinating to me how we don't take into consideration our own value.
CHANTELL PRESTON:We need to put our values and say, okay. I value myself enough that I'm going to counter what they offer me. What's the worst they can say? No. Okay.
CHANTELL PRESTON:Great. So now you know, but at least you asked. And guess what? Most of the time, they're gonna say yes because they know how valuable you are too. It's about finding that value.
CHANTELL PRESTON:You know, the other thing is risk. We all talk about risk. I'm just gonna tell you women are the most risk averse people I've ever seen, and that goes to investing, another episode, another time, to leadership, all those things. We We can't return in something, a proposal unless it's perfect. We can't, you know, We can't return in something, a proposal unless it's perfect.
CHANTELL PRESTON:We can, you know, submit our board reports and be less so perfect. I get it. I used to be the same way. However, you've gotta look at what is perfect. Right?
CHANTELL PRESTON:What is good enough? You know, we hold ourselves or limit ourselves by trying to achieve that perfection every time. Type a personalities, we're all here. You know, how to be perfect every single time. I want you to go back and and think about it.
CHANTELL PRESTON:What is perfect or what is good enough? Am I wasting so much time trying to get to perfection that frankly will never ever get to or is good enough to go on to the next task. And I see this a lot with entrepreneurs. I'll just say that. I see women.
CHANTELL PRESTON:They're like, oh, we want to raise money. We want this. Okay. Great. Well, where are you?
CHANTELL PRESTON:Well, I've gotta get my business plan perfect. K. I'll just say I do a lot of investing. I've never had a man say, hey. My business model is perfect.
CHANTELL PRESTON:Here you go. They say, well, we'll figure all that out later. Right? But here's kinda the gist of it, and they raise money. Make sure you have a good sense as to what's enough to get you where you need to be and to achieve your goals.
CHANTELL PRESTON:And I'm not saying do sloppy things. I'm not saying don't put your 100% in. Paralysis by analysis. Okay? I love that terminology.
CHANTELL PRESTON:It's my favorite. Sometimes we get ourselves in a system and we can't get out. We can't figure out because we gotta analyze everything to death. Right? And that's what we're used to doing.
CHANTELL PRESTON:We're used to, you know, looking at every problem, being problem solvers, and how do I do this and that? Sometimes you have to stop and say, okay. What are the things that I need to articulate? What are the points I'm trying to make? Okay.
CHANTELL PRESTON:Do I have that incorporated in there? Great. Then I'm gonna lead. And that's the same thing as being a leader with your company. You know, we want everything to be perfect.
CHANTELL PRESTON:It's never gonna be. And if somebody's telling you that it will, they're lying to you. It's never gonna be perfect. So what are my key indicators that I want to look at? Okay.
CHANTELL PRESTON:What are the things that are going to make the biggest impact within the organization right now, and how can I achieve that? And it's not a list of 50 things that you have to do. It's a top 3. How do I make these decisions? Same thing with your staff.
CHANTELL PRESTON:How do I put people in the right places? Again, we wanna set people up for success, not for failure. And so that's by putting individuals in the places where they're gonna be most successful. That's also in the time that we're in today. How do we become flexible?
CHANTELL PRESTON:You know, women, again, we gotta flex a lot. You know, we got yep. We're in the middle of our board meeting and, oh, my gosh. Somebody calls. I got a sick kid.
CHANTELL PRESTON:I gotta go. Okay. It's always us that ends up having to pick up the sick kid. Right? So we have to leave.
CHANTELL PRESTON:So flexibility is a key component to what we do. So let's talk about that with in business and in leadership. You know, we talk about our staff. Where is most of our problems? Personnel.
CHANTELL PRESTON:Let's just say it out loud. I'll say it for you. So how do we deal with that? And that's in providing an environment that allows people to be their best. Right?
CHANTELL PRESTON:And maybe that's taking the time to figure out how are those individuals how do they work best? You know, I have one, individual that I work with that the deal I made was she goes likes to go pick up her kids from school every day. Right? So okay. Great.
CHANTELL PRESTON:Then you can work from 9 to 4. You know, I don't care how long you work as long as you get your stuff done. And so it's about not really giving them an out. It's about establishing the boundaries that work for everyone. I don't bark from those boundaries as long as you're getting your stuff done.
CHANTELL PRESTON:Some people will tell you I I'm I'm very transparent. I'll tell you exactly where you stand with me when it comes to, working with me, working for me. So you know where you stand. You know what my expectations are, and I have very high expectations. But I'm also gonna allow you to work what works best for you.
CHANTELL PRESTON:That goes back to being leaders. We are great leaders. We have all these innate traits about us that we need to utilize. Put aside all the societal norms that, oh, we've gotta be like this and this. No.
CHANTELL PRESTON:No. No. Let's use our innate characteristics to make us the best leaders. Compassion, empathy, vulnerability, all of those things that we have innate to us as females, we need to utilize those in how we lead and manage our organizations. One other thing is how people perceive you.
CHANTELL PRESTON:You know, I love it because they say, oh, I've gotta come up with this great, presentation. Hey. Guess what, guys? They've already and they've already judged you in the first 10 seconds they see you. I'm just gonna tell you that right now.
CHANTELL PRESTON:Before you even sit down, they've judged you. And that's in every aspect of your life. So here's the thing I tell people. You know, when you walk into a room, you're walking in confident. They're gonna say, okay.
CHANTELL PRESTON:She knows her stuff. I have a great individual that came to me recently, and she said, Chantal, you're never gonna believe this. She started new job. She said, I did a chantalism. Okay.
CHANTELL PRESTON:Great. Was a chantalism. And she said, I had my first meeting with my new bosses, and I walked in the boardroom and nobody was there. So I sat at the head of the table. But I was like, oh, shit.
CHANTELL PRESTON:Okay. I don't know if that was a good one, but let's go with it for now. Let's see how this plays out. And she said, you know, it was fascinating because they both came in, and one of them looked at me, and she's like, oh, do I need to move? And he's like, no.
CHANTELL PRESTON:No. No. You're good. She goes, but they had immense amount of respect for me from the minute they sat down because I told them that I'm not gonna be treated any differently than everyone else in this organization just because I'm female. And she was so proud of herself.
CHANTELL PRESTON:And, you know, checking in with her, she's doing phenomenal in her new job. It's a great culture. And, again, she set the precedence that, hey. I am serious about being part of this organization, and I want to be treated as an equal. When you're thinking about how you're gonna lead, think about those things.
CHANTELL PRESTON:Think about how you play in your own mind. Emotion. I love it when they say, oh, women are just too emotional. Too emotional to do things. Right?
CHANTELL PRESTON:We're gonna do a whole episode on negotiations and how to handle your negotiate your emotions in negotiation because that and we negotiate whole aspects of our life with our children, with our bosses, with our spouses, spouses, everybody. We negotiate constantly. I want you guys to think about those things as you're going in and you're leading. So one takeaway that you can do today is when you're looking at your leaders, think about you. Reframe how you talk to yourself.
CHANTELL PRESTON:Reframe how you're thinking through things. But when you're walking in someone, you're walking around, remember, every aspect of you has to be present and confident and put that self doubt because I guarantee nobody in the room is doubting you other than yourself. Right? You're your own worst enemy. We want everything to be perfect.
CHANTELL PRESTON:They're thrilled with probably your work. Think about those things when you walk into a room. So next time you go in a room, think about where you sit. Think about how you walk in, and think about, is there a way I could have done this in a better perspective so when I walk in, people see me in a different light? So those are my takeaways for today.
CHANTELL PRESTON:Hey, guys. Thank you so much for joining us today. I look forward to seeing everybody on our next episode.
CHANTELL PRESTON:Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Get Real, Get Results. Now get off your ass, get out there, and enjoy the life that you wanna live. We're here if you need guidance, and until next time, do your best, enjoy the small victories, and stay unstoppable. And don't forget to visit chantellpreston.com for coaching or keynote booking information. And remember, you have to get real to get results.