Unlocking Leadership Success: What Transcend Leadership Collective Can Do for You
Confessions 6.3.25 Q&A
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Mary Skop: [00:00:00] Welcome to Confessions of a Terrible Leader, where real leaders share the raw truth about the lessons they learn the hard way. So you don't have to join our host, Layci Nelson, founder of Transcend Leadership Collective, and former terrible leader. On this podcast, we invite you to step into the confessional and get real with the messy stories and behind the scenes reality of leadership.
Let's get to it.
Hello, friends. And welcome back to another episode of Confessions of a Terrible Leader. I'm your friendly neighborhood podcast producer Mary Skop, back here today with our founder and president, Layci Nelson. Layci, welcome back to the show.
Layci Nelson: Why Thank you. Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here.
Mary Skop: Wonderful, as always.
Yes. You know, Layci, it has come to my attention that it would behoove us Yes. To have a q&a in which we just do a breakdown of what the heck does Transcend Leadership Collective actually offer. It's clear that we're a [00:01:00] leadership podcast. It's clear that this is a free leadership resource. Mm-hmm. But let's break down.
Let's do our slightly more sophisticated elevator pitch of what exactly it's that Transcend has to offer. Take it away, Layci.
Layci Nelson: Amazing. Our service offering. So the biggest thing to understand is. I'm gonna go from general 30,000 feet down to, okay, how do take that and
what do.
Understanding that everything that we do, everything that we do here is underpinned with our HHART first, leadership, philosophy and framework. Yes. Our pantry of ingredients. When we're developing our services, we have a stack of ingredients that we're gonna pull. Sometimes a company might need a chocolate cake or a person another might need some blondies.
Right? Right. But [00:02:00] foundationally, the quality of those ingredients and what we have in our pantry are all HHART first, which is the neuroscience and the behavioral science that is behind what it takes to have healthy conflict, honest communication, and. Everything we do is formulated by those key ingredients.
Mm-hmm. And the neuroscience, the behavior science, the experience, cutting edge. We refresh everything at least once a year, if not more often. If some groundbreaking science comes out. We're staying on the edge of what is that? And we're agile, so we can move pretty quick. So you're getting the freshest, most high quality farm to.
I'm so glad you asked. So, developing, developing, right? We have three core offering when we work with a company or an [00:03:00] individual and can offer any of these, or we can offer all of them as full stack integration into your organization. We're an assessment to figure out what do you need, what's gonna serve you best for the outcomes You're after I or Blaine, our sales director, will ask tons of questions that really are aimed at getting you the best possible pull from that pantry to get you what you need.
Of course, we don't do everything. We're not gonna come in and do brain surgery. We're not gonna come in and do financials. That isn't what we do. Oh Lord, no, no, we're not SixSigma, we're not lean. What are we. Our trainings help leaders understand what it takes to actually be worthy of being followed, and the practical skills required to turn strategy into outcomes.
That's what we're doing, and we do that through these offering. The first one, first, we offer strategic planning, facilitation, and then implementation support. What the heck does that mean? All that means is that we come in and work with your core [00:04:00] leadership team. If you're not even sure who that is, we can help you decide who needs to be around the table, and we facilitate over a course.
Of three sessions within a framework that we use, it's our proprietary framework. We provide for you a solid three sessions that at the end you're gonna walk out, aligned around your core values, your why, who you are, what you're doing, what kind of impact you wanna make. What is that longer term goal that you are uniting around, and how are you gonna know that it's happened or not happened?
What sets you apart and makes you unique in the industry and the field that you're in. Mm-hmm. Then we take it one step further. So those are the typical things that most organizations come in and work with you on, is to get clarity on those, and then we also make sure that you have the systems in place to follow up on that.
So we teach you how do you implement this? How do you break this down so that this doesn't just become a fancy document that collects dust or was that [00:05:00] one thing you do once a year, but then we kind of forget about it?
Mary Skop: We did the training. The end. Yeah. Yeah. Right. No, we do not do that. No,
Layci Nelson: that's not helpful for anyone.
It actually hurts morale, but that's a different podcast. From there, we also help you identify, okay, now what needs to happen in the next three years concretely? Mm-hmm. And we zoom in a little bit and then we zoom in even closer. Now we're gonna go, what needs to happen in the next year and how are you gonna know what happened or what needs to happen in the next six months or the next 90 days?
We really break it down, and this is all in strategic planning. So you're walking out with not only a strategic plan, but you also have an annual plan and a next 90 day roadmap to get your team really kickstarted. And then we offer services to help with further implementation beyond that. But we start with getting that plan really locked in.
Accountability.[00:06:00]
It helps you establish right up front what are the norms? What do we want our norms to be? How far off the mark are we in the way that we operate from how we wanna operate? What commitments are we willing to make to close that gap? And really pushing those HHART first skills and identifying what's the area that's gonna move the needle the most for us.
We also introduce goal tracking and provide a goal tracking form that you can use at every leadership meeting that provides mutual transparency tools, not weapons. That's the whole thing. And then a dashboard, which if you already have an ERP you love or some kind of system, you can just integrate this into it.
We don't sell you a software on the backend, or if you're like, we actually don't have that. We don't necessarily want an ERP, whatever. Fine, great. We're gonna give you these Google Docs. They're yours. They're Google Docs, right? So there's not, yeah, an extra expense. There's flexibility. There's flexibility.
It works with your systems. Yeah. [00:07:00] Okay. So that's that. And then we provide that implementation support, and you have all these tools. So you walk out with a plan, you walk out with tools to actually make it happen, and then you have the opportunity for further support should you want it. That is one of the offerings, the strategic planning and implementation.
Mary Skop: Amazing.
Layci Nelson: The second offering is coaching, and we provide our coaching in a couple of different formats. We have one-to-one executive coaching, and that is where you can work with. Myself directly, or one of our other qualified executive coaches that can help really uncover where are your blocks in your leadership.
It includes a 360 evaluation. It includes access to our curriculum for leaders. It includes personality profiles, and a lot of really tailored for what's going on in your world. Every single session starts with gimme a personal win, a professional win. I wanna hear what's going on in your world since the last time we met.
And then also, what are any [00:08:00] particular challenges that are pressing on you that make sure. And so we take eight sessions to work through the foundational curriculum, which I'm gonna talk about in a second, and address real life things for those skills to really hit home. So what is this curriculum? The other offering that we have in the coaching space is a group coaching offer that really is more for the midline or emerging leaders in the company.
And they. We do it virtual or in person and they get a walkthrough of what is the lift. And the lift is also what we take executives through. It's the same curriculum. It's the coaching piece that's a little different. So it's like a workshop coaching hybrid. You're getting both. It's an intensive, it's eight sessions long.
It takes about three months to complete, give you time in between. It's small bites because that's what makes it work. And we're covering everything. We start at the personal, who are you, what are you about? And then we take it to how do you then lead a team? And these are [00:09:00] really practical skills. It's not just theory, it's how do you actually make it happen?
How do you delegate? Yes, you need core values. Guess what? We're gonna ask you what your own are and how much alignment are they in or not in with the organization. We're gonna help you learn how to delegate, how to have collaborative conversations, how to talk about your vibes with employees and not have it turn into a punitive thing.
We're gonna help you understand strategy. What is strategy? How do you strategy? Is it working? Is it not working? If you aren't in a position where you're not setting strategy, but you're implementing strategy, we're gonna help you understand that and give you the skills and tools to become more valuable to your direct supervisor and ask them better questions.
That's gonna help everybody excel that is that curriculum. Go to the website. There's tons of information on the lift. Yeah. I'm sure Mary will drop all the links so you can just go, right, yeah. Where you need to go. Absolutely. Like I said, the executive is one-to-one. They go through it at their own [00:10:00] pace.
The group offering is one coach to, we don't have groups bigger than 20, but typically our group size is five to 12. Those are our coaching hybrid curriculum workshop option intensives. Third offering, we'll come in and tailor custom build for your organization. From our pantry of ingredients. Yes, exactly.
What your organization needs to get to, where you want to go. In the realm of, of course, those heart first leadership skills. Some of the things we've done with organizations, we have worked with organizations to define and create their own leadership creed and created from our pantry, but also implemented their pantry of ingredients as well that are of course aligned and custom built for them.
A leadership curriculum that's actually its own log on portal. It's branded for them. We do all the heavy lifting and mm-hmm. We are coaching and working with their employees. Their top leadership so that everyone gets [00:11:00] aligned from the boardroom to the shop floor to the field, and it's three phases of implementation of this really culture shift or yeah, leadership charge.
We've done that in multiple organizations. For some, they're like, Nope, our people aren't gonna respond as well to that. We want a hundred percent in-person workshops. We fly people all over the United States to deliver those. We have staff in the Midwest and the west coast. We have trainers that are ready to go.
We really work on the custom design with the organization. What exactly do you need? And we're gonna build it with you. We're gonna do that heavy lifting, but we're gonna build it with you within the scope of that list of the pantry offer, build. We have a structure to take them through. We know from best practices that it's small bites is most effective multiphasic, and we also have, hey, if you want full stack integration, you want everything, right?
If you want the strategic planning, the coaching, the workshops, you want it all the [00:12:00] way from top to bottom, which we have organizations that do, and those are the ones that are gonna get the best results because everything is getting aligned at.
Mary Skop: Right. Absolutely. Everything is integrated.
Layci Nelson: Yes. That is an option.
That is what we do in a nutshell. Yeah. And we also understand some organizations need to, it was a really big nutshell, by the way, but we also understand that some organizations, if we're in unknown quantity, they're gonna be like, yeah, can we just do a workshop? And so Right. Like, can this out? Yes. Yes.
And again, we can design it with you and figure out the outcome that you're after, and then we'll go, okay, we think this is the best way to do it. And we'll provide those one-off workshops where we're coming in, providing six hours of training over a day with your team. And we respect and understand, you gotta get to know us, you gotta feel us out, and we wanna get to know your people.
But typically what happens is they get integrated and folded into a [00:13:00] larger plan. However, if you aren't, we want a workshop. That's what we've got in the budget right now. We just wanna see what this is actually like in real life. Right. That is an option, is to come in for a day and do a workshop with your team.
Mary Skop: Mm-hmm. Awesome. That is a big nutshell. But as you can see, there is much that we can offer and really fully customizable to every extent of the word. It's like peak customization. Yes. That is an option. I'm not one of these entities, but I can just say as a team member mm-hmm. That I, you know what I just realized, I think we've hit our very close to like, I think three.
I know. It's like, whoa. But my point of that. To say I've gone through multiple quarterly and strategic planning sessions now. Yes, many. And I can say honestly that just as an individual, and I do own my own business, but just as an individual having gone through these strategic planning sessions, I make decisions so much [00:14:00] faster now.
Yes. So much faster and not in a reckless way. Mm-hmm. Although that'd be kind of fun for minutes. Oh right. And then it's like, what have I done Regret so much regret what have I done to my life? But I genuinely, I make decisions so much faster now. Yeah. Good decisions and effectively. And I realize that over this past year, and I credit that to having gone through so many strategic planning sessions.
Mm-hmm. And it has taught me to see what is the most important thing. Mm-hmm. And what things, maybe we let go of this thing, maybe we tweak this particular item. And just as an individual, that is invaluable. That is priceless to me. No more decision fatigue other than what could be expected, like normal decision fatigue.
I mean, I have six kids, my gosh, gimme a break. But all that to say is it has had a very positive, profound impact on that very large aspect of my personal life. So that's just my little two sense there. Well, thank you for that. Yes. [00:15:00] Absolutely
Layci Nelson: will know what to say yes to and what to say no to. A lot faster.
And what are our priorities? My entire team, I'm accountable to all of you because of the process that we use. You know what I'm working on and you know, when I'm on track and when I'm not. Yeah. You know, when I have dropped the ball, and I think it creates opportunities for building in even more mutual respect among your employees.
That's a whole nother, yeah. Whole nother, you know. Right. What are the indirect outcomes that are still really powerful? Yes. Is it does great things for morale for everyone, and that clarity for sure. Oh my gosh. That clarity cuts through so much conflict. If your team is struggling with understanding who's doing what, people are stepping on each other's toes, or you look like the Spiderman meme where everyone points at everyone else, you know, there's a lack of account that my job.
Defensive is what you with when even try to talk about who should be doing what. Those are all good signs [00:16:00] help you.
Mary Skop: Yes, let us help you the noise and really get in. Yes. Well, Layci, thank you for that breakdown of services. Is there anything else you would like to add before we sign off? Hmm.
Layci Nelson: I would say you can always talk to us and there's not high pressure.
We really wanna find the best solution for you with the resources you have, and if we're not the right fit or we're looking at it and we're like, you know what, we're not what you need yet or right now. Sure. We're gonna tell you that there are companies that we say we're probably not gonna be the best investment of your resources right now because we see that you need to get a couple more of these other things in place before it makes sense to work with us.
And so it does not behoove us to serve people that aren't genuinely gonna benefit from what we have to offer. If you're curious at all a conversation and we can drop my scheduling link or Blaine's, actually, a conversation is, I mean, that's what we're here for. Right? And it's no pressure at all. There's not [00:17:00] even low pressure.
It's just an exploration. It's like, eh, let's talk. Yeah. It's just conversation. Just a conversation. There's no bait and switch gonna happen to you. I know. Getting on the phone or getting on a Zoom or whatever can feel like, God, I don't wanna sit through a pitch. I'm curious, but I don't wanna sit through this pitch.
It's not how we operate. Yeah. It really is just a conversation. Right.
Mary Skop: Cool. Awesome. Well, Layci, thank you very much for your time and the breakdown of services. Always appreciate these conversations and friends. Until next time, go manage like a leader. Thanks for listening to Confessions of a Terrible Leader.
If you're feeling brave and have your own terrible leader story that you'd like to share, head over to Transcend leadership collective.com/podcast to fill out a guest application. We'd love to hear from you. Confessions of a Terrible Leader is hosted by Layci Nelson and produced an. Edited by Fixation Point Productions Music is by Leaf Olson and Mary Scott from the band.
The number of months Confessions of a Terrible Leader is a free leadership resource offered by Transcend Leadership Collective. If [00:18:00] you are ready to refuse the limits of average leadership and join the leadership revolution, visit transcend leadership collective.com to check out our offerings for engaging workshops, strategic planning, and more.
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