Designed Wisdom with Frances Baldwin

“As mentors, we answer the questions that the mentee never thought to ask because we know what's important,” shares Frances Baldwin, Principal Consultant at Designed Wisdom, Inc. Frances has been in the leadership and authentic change space for a very long time, spending the beginning of her career as an internal change agent. Today, Frances joins Mike Horne in conversation to discuss how to create authentic change in organizations through effective leadership.

When an organization is wealthy and successful, it can be more difficult to inspire change because the leaders within the organization may not necessarily see a reason for it. These can be the more challenging people to influence, but when they do manage to make authentic change, it has a huge impact on the overall performance of the organization. Before you can inspire change, you have to learn the culture and the guidelines of that organization and really understand where they are coming from and where you are coming from. When you have a strong understanding of who you are as a person, it is easier to bring out who others truly are.

It is always a risk to step out of your comfort zone and try to influence change, especially if an organization is seemingly functioning well and possibly resistant to change. However, it is always the right thing to do and it is important to embrace change for the better whenever the option presents itself. Tune into this week’s episode of the Authentic Change Podcast to learn more about the concept of wisdom, the importance of mentorship, and how to inspire change at the leadership level.

• “I would start by saying the first thing is, know where you are, what the guidelines are. And I can't just adapt and become one of them. But I know what boundaries to bump up against. And when I want to bump up against a boundary, I need to have a solid foundation or reason for doing that. And sometimes you have to be in that state of ambiguity where you're stretching and just hoping it's gonna go well, because you believe so much in your own process.” (10:51-11:20 | Frances)
• “It makes you believe in what you're doing when you can see a person change some important dimension of themselves.” (15:56-16:02 | Frances)
• “As mentors, we answer the questions that the mentee never thought to ask, because we know what's important.” (19:56-20:03 | Frances)
• “It takes courage. It takes risks. It takes being able to step out of ambiguity and get rewarded for it to know it's okay, it was the right thing to do.” (40:04-40:15 | Frances)