A Leader Must First Know Him/Herself with Denise Cooper

Welcome to another episode of The Authentic Change Podcast, I am Mike Horne, your host and I am joined today by Denise Cooper, who is the founder and CEO of Remarkable Leadership Lessons Inc, a successful leadership firm that offers semi-custom programs that teach executives leadership behaviors that create sustainable high-performance inclusive organizations. Denise has a book with the same title: Remarkable Leadership Lessons: Change Results One Conversation at the Time, which she talks about in this episode. In today’s conversation, Denise explains the most valuable lessons a leader must know in order to promote an authentic environment that fosters change and is led with integrity and trust.

• [2:39] Denise speaks a few words about herself.
• [4:08] Denise shares some of the remarkable leadership lessons.
• [5:55] Does your team understand exactly what results you are trying to achieve?
• [6:31] What gets in the way of us really getting to know ourselves?
• [8:43] Denise shares a valuable example about leadership.
• [10:10] Be careful what you teach to people.
• [12:05] How to start understanding yourself better?
• [13:12] Being curious can be hard.
• [16 09] Denise talks about “living with failure”.
• [18:30] Denise highlights the importance of context.
• [20:02] Sometimes less is more.
• [22:30] Denise talks about HR not being actualized in regards to measuring individual or collective performance.
• [23:45] We should be measuring how we build capacity.
• [25:46] What are the obstacles for change to happen more rapidly in organizations?
• [28:55] What causes leaders to be encouraged to know themselves better and to be curious about their staff?
• [33:28] What is an offer that you could not refuse?
• [33:55] The reason why we stay in a job is not money, it is the feeling that what we do matters.
• [36:33] Community is equally important as culture.
• [40:20] Denise shares a piece of general advice: understand where your areas of safety are.