E45 | Sally Henderson: Influencing Change From the Inside Out

Today’s guest is executive change mentor Sally Henderson. With 20 years of experience in leadership development, Sally works with high performing senior leaders keen to reach ambition faster by enabling powerful change from the inside out.

Sally cut her teeth in recruitment, setting up her own coaching-based recruitment company, The Career Company, before embarking on a successful career in Executive Search. It took having her first child to realise that whilst she was helping so many people get to where they want to go in their careers, she was not happy in hers. Ironically The Career Company motto was “You have a right to be happy and effective at work,” and as the founder of such a successful company, she simply wasn’t.

Knowing that her real interests and motivators lay far outside recruitment, she took the brave decision to walk away from her company and now works with C-Suite execs, Founders and senior leaders and MDs to influence and bring about transformational change through her innovative coaching and mentoring methods.

On today’s podcast:

• How do you know if you’re not living a rich life?
• Why imposter syndrome in senior leaders is such a common trait
• How she creates change that other people say isn’t possible
• Why we choose to stay where we are rather than change to what we really want
• The 3Cs to Create Successful Change

Links:

• https://www.sallyhenderson.co.uk/

Today’s guest is executive change mentor Sally Henderson. Sally has 20 years of experience in leadership development.

Knowing that her real interests and motivators lay far outside her first career in recruitment, she changed her ambition after the birth of her first child, and rerouted her career trajectory.

Sally now works with C-Suite execs, Founders  and senior leaders and MDs, to influence and bring about transformational change through her innovative coaching and mentoring methods.

In today’s episode, Sally shares a few of the tools that she uses when she works with these senior leaders, as the methods she employs aren’t relevant only to CEOs, but to any leader in any industry.

The issues with modern leadership

One of the most common complaints of leaders in today’s businesses is that they are brought in, or promoted internally, to fulfill a role and to achieve instant success, only they are expected to do this without any support or the necessary training to allow them to hit the ground running.

Sally makes a comparison with sports: anyone who plays an organised sport, regardless of the level, has a coach. The lower division teams, the athletes in training—no one thinks they can succeed in their chosen sport without the support of a coach.

But in business that isn’t the case. In business, where there is so much more at stake, leaders are expected to just get on with it, to instinctively know what is expected of them and how they are meant to achieve it. In fact, coaching in business is still such an alien concept that there can often be a stigma surrounding hiring in a coach/mentor.

Bringing in outside help can be viewed as admitting there’s a problem at the top levels—that your company has a weakness, and it starts with the C-suite—when in fact that isn’t the case at all.

If you want your business to reach success quickly, mentoring leaders on how to get there fast is a surefire way to achieve it.

But how do you know which bespoke leadership development is the right method for you?

There are so many different tools that leaders can use to develop their leadership styles. Sally doesn’t have a one size fits all method. In her arsenal of leadership tools, one that she recommends is her 5Rs to Drive Successful Change.

The third R out of the 5 is “Rhythm”

Most people operate in a groundhog day style of work where everyday is the same; they deal with what comes in, being reactive, rather than proactive. Instead, Sally advocates employing the rhythm method for leaders.

For example, instead of having an open door policy, meaning anyone can disturb you at anytime, set aside a couple of hours a week, say on a Wednesday, when employees can come to you. You are present and free for those two hours only, and then you keep healthy boundaries outside of these hours.   

This simple change will focus your mind and help create a weekly rhythm that works for a lot of people.

Books:

• Who Moved My Cheese? – Dr Spencer Johnson
• Superengaged – Nikki Gatenby
• The Joy of Work – Bruce Daisley