How to Lead like You Mean It | Laysha Ward

LinkedIn: [00:00:00] Linkedin presents.

Joanthan Fields: [00:00:13] So are you living with intention or just reacting to life? We all want to feel like we're in the driver's seat of our lives, actively shaping our journey with clarity and with purpose. But way too often we find ourselves just reacting to whatever comes our way. What if you could approach your path with greater intentionality, the way that you show up in life and work, and also the way that you lead thoughtfully, designing how you want to move through both work and life. Leveraging your unique gifts to create maximum positive impact. In today's powerful discussion, we'll explore a whole being framework for leading and living with profound meaning, one that begins by getting anchored in your core purpose as the guiding light, and then curating the right community of nurturers and challengers to support your evolution, developing the inner resilience to embrace uncertainty and finally flourishing by investing in holistic well-being and deep human connections. My guest today is Lisa Ward, accomplished C-suite executive with over 32 years of senior leadership experience at target, and she is a purpose driven leader with a nationally recognized track record, delivering for the consumer brand and insightful strategist and spokesperson and author of the new book, Lead Like You Mean It Lessons on Integrity and Purpose from the C-suite. So join us for an inspiring conversation on how to thoughtfully author a life of meaning, authenticity, and positive legacy. I'm Jonathan Fields, and this is SPARKED. Hey, and before we dive into today's episode, a quick share. So if you're a coach, a consultant, or a leader, and you would just love to stand out more in 2024 and beyond. With a powerful new credential and a set of results driven superpowers, we have got something for you.

Joanthan Fields: [00:02:05] With nearly a million people now discovering their profiles, the Sparketypes have become a global phenomenon. People want their work to light them up, and oftentimes they would love some help along the way, which is why we developed our certified Sparketype advisor training. As a certified advisor, you will discover cutting edge tools that spark profound work life. Client transformations stand out with a highly unique credential and skill set in a crowded market. Find ease and flexibility with templated engagement flows, you'll become a part of a global network of change makers, and you'll rack up 40 ICF continuing education credits. Our fall cohort is enrolling now with visionaries just like you, and we would love to invite you to uplevel your capabilities as a coach or consultant or leader by becoming a certified Sparketype advisor. To learn more about the fall training and see if it's right for you, just click the link in the show notes now or visit sparketype.com. Slash pros. Excited to dive into the ideas from the book. Before we go there, though, we're having this conversation at what feels like a really interesting time in your career. You know, you have this incredible career senior management for over three decades at target, very recently left that I'm so curious in this moment in this season when you're starting to think about, okay, so how do I think about what I say yes to for the next season of contribution? I'm just so curious, sort of like how you step into that, like how you think about these things.

Laysha Ward: [00:03:41] It's such a great question, and I feel really fortunate that the way I've approached this season of my life and career is the way I've attempted to approach previous seasons of my life and career, which is what the book is centered around. Right? How do you live a life of purpose and operate with integrity? No matter what season you're in, in your life and your career? And I've attempted to do that at every stage. And so as I started to think about this next chapter in my life, I went back to purpose. What is my purpose? What is the impact that I want to continue to make in this next season? Who do I want to impact? How will I impact what I'm hoping to do to make a difference in this season? Because I retired from target, I didn't retire from life.

Joanthan Fields: [00:04:37] Right?

Laysha Ward: [00:04:37] And so, you know, being of service is my purpose. And I want to continue to be of service. But I'm able to do that in different ways, which is really exciting. And so it was really great to be planful and intentional with purpose at the center, and then be able to develop a portfolio for my life that allowed me to reimagine what I could do in in a way that was quite freeing and exciting, not scary. You know, I was often asked, oh my gosh, aren't you afraid what your life is going to be like after nearly 33 years at target? And I genuinely said no. I had an amazing career with an incredible brand, with an awesome team. Feel really good about the contributions I was able to make, but I'm excited about this next phase of my life, and while I'm relatively young and relatively healthy, I feel really blessed and highly favored to be able to think about where I can use my time, my talent, and my treasures in different ways. And I'm excited about that. Now, some trepidation because there's newness in it, including writing this book. I've never done that before. I'm a first time author, and I'm building new muscles as a part of this process. You know, I was pretty good at my job, I think. Right? C-suite leader, lots of success. But I'm a new author. And it was hard. You know, I was out of my comfort zone. And at times I'm like, what have I gotten myself into? But I'd love to learn. And so it was really nice to be using a rookie mindset, like, what does it feel like to be in this new place where I don't know not only everything, I don't know anything, and I have to really learn and be curious and take new partners and have some successes and had some failures along the way getting to this moment. So I'm really glad that you asked, because I think so often we think about retirement as the end. I see it as the beginning. It's I retired from one thing to make space, to start other things.

Joanthan Fields: [00:06:45] It is so interesting, right? I think we have this sort of generational understanding of retirement as, oh, this is this is the day where you clock out and you quote, stop working like you've paid your price, you paid your dues. You go do the thing that now you actually go live your life. And it's like that. The generation I think, you know, I'm a Gen Xer, I think Gen X is sort of like younger. It's a bit of a foreign notion to us. You know, it's like, I don't I actually like a lot of what I do. And, you know, the thought of just being able to kick back and never work again, it's actually not interesting to me. Exactly. You know, I.

Laysha Ward: [00:07:17] Think what's cool is we get to design the life that is right for us, and that's how I'm trying to approach it and even have a conversation with others. And that's why in my book, lead like You Mean It, it's meant to be life and leadership lessons that share my experiences, my lived experience. But there are reflection questions throughout the books that you can think about. Well, what does this mean to me? Yeah, right. How do I apply that to my life and to my career? Because each of us is on a unique path and the choices we make are uniquely ours and what we're called to do is also divinely ours. But it's nice to have, I think, you know, a roadmap, some guidelines that allow you to think about how you make the right choice for you. And quite frankly, I go into this thinking, Jonathan, if I've made a bad choice, hopefully it's not a lifelong decision. Right? I can learn from that choice. If it was a mistake and I don't like it, I can stop doing it right and move on and do other things. It's this idea of the strategic yes and the strategic no. And I'm going to say yes to many things in this new phase, but I'm going to say no to a lot of things to ensure that I'm making space for the things that are truly aligned with the life that I'm designing, with the purpose that I have in mind for me, and that my husband and I, you know, want to do together.

Joanthan Fields: [00:08:50] Yeah, that makes so much sense. And it's interesting also because, you know, you wrote you wrote a book where lead is literally in the title of the book. Lead like you mean it, but really zooming the lens out here, when you look at sort of like the larger framework that you offer in the ideas, it's really about living a meaningful life. Correct. You know, this is this is you can apply it on a leadership level to groups, to teams, to organizations. But it's also about just how am I going to step into my life. Absolutely. And actually and mean it, you know, and actually do something meaningful that matters to me.

Laysha Ward: [00:09:17] You hit the crux of why I wanted to do this. You know, I talked to you about my purpose of being of service. And to me, writing this book was an offering, right? A way to be of service at scale. I've been really proud of the people that I've been able to mentor and sponsor and serve as an ally for, but at some point you can only help, you know, so many people. And so this ability to do it at scale is, is one of the main reasons I wanted to write this book so that I could help more people be the best versions of themselves. And and that's exciting to me to have leadership development be something that can be offered up to more people. Not every company or organization has the resources or the capacity or the frameworks to offer that. And so if this can be a part of a person's tool in their tool kit, then that is rewarding to me. And I've partnered with an incredible global leadership development company, adaptation, and they were partners with me along the way so that the reflection questions that the reader who I kept at the center of this book, you know, when when we were writing it, I was like, you know, I want to keep those reflection questions simple and actionable, right? Like, how do we do this in a way that really will allow the reader to get what they need out of it, not to make it some sort of homage to me? The stories I share are really just meant to, again, to be of service to the reader so that they can think about what does this mean for my own life? How can I find my own purpose? How can I continue to operate with integrity and humanity and and see my life really as you know, one I think so often in our lives, at least in my generation, our careers were over here and we had career development, and then our personal lives were completely separate.

Laysha Ward: [00:11:11] And I believe that we should be taking a holistic approach to our lives and careers and seeing them as a part of the same puzzle piece, and that's what we'd like. You mean it is really encouraging the reader to do see their lives holistically, and to think about them through the frames of, you know, acting from their purpose, working through intentional choices in their lives and deciding what they want to do and what they don't want to do. Really nurturing meaningful relationships. Because at the end of the day, life is, I think, challenging on many levels. But we can do challenging things, but we don't have to do them alone. So really nurturing the right relationships, I think, is so essential to leading with meaning. And equally important is championing or advocating not only for yourself but for others, because ultimately that's a way to be of service, not only to yourself, but but I think to others along the way.

Joanthan Fields: [00:12:09] Yeah. And that's actually one of the core ideas that that you offer up, you know, along the way in the book is this notion that it's really not about just you, you know, that, you know, part of what we have an opportunity to do in the workplace. Yes, of course, we're on a team or a division. We're working on a product, whatever it may be. There are going to be goals. You know, there are going to be things that you're working towards individually and collectively. But you also offer this this reframe, you know, that says, but what if we actually zoom the lens out? What if we think bigger? What if we actually think about impact and community? Take me into this conversation a little bit more.

Laysha Ward: [00:12:44] You know, what I love about a purpose driven life is the ability to have impact that is bigger than you, right? You have this ability to see the world bigger than you, to have impact that's bigger than you, and to leave the world better off than you found it. And I think that's really important. And at the core of leading with meaning. And I talk about this in a variety of ways that allow you to get to that moment. It starts by investing in you, like really betting on yourself, doing the self-work, because you can't help others. If you haven't helped yourself and done the work that you need to do first, and then you move into this identification of your purpose and writing a purpose statement and then taking actions to bring that purpose to life. All of that's about investing in you. And then we move into this notion of getting better together, right? It's not just about you. It's about a a broader ecosystem. And building out that ecosystem with intention is really a gift. And this idea of, you know, forming your kitchen cabinet, as I like to call it, who are your strategic advisors and how do you build out a roster of people from various walks of life who can walk the path with you, and that varies throughout your life and career stage. And so my kitchen cabinet is not static. It's ever evolving and growing in ways that allows them to help me, but for me to also be of service and to help them. So this idea that we all get better really does allow us to expand the circle that we are doing the work with and through. And it also allows us, I think, to all be both a student and a teacher, which I find really compelling, and that moves then I think down a path of, gosh, if we've invested in ourselves and we're getting better together, we can then work well and live well, right? We can do this sort of multi-dimensional sort of life that focuses also on wellbeing.

Laysha Ward: [00:14:47] You know, where do we make sure that we're thinking Holistically about our lives in ways that allow us to move forward and grow. So I do think growth is so important in our lives to be continually growing and to have a growth mindset. And for me, a big part of that has been being open to other people's perspectives, different points of view. And for me, that requires not just talking and sharing my own point of view, which I do think is important. But I offer up in the book the importance of listening, debating and negotiating with listening being at the core. I think listening is an underrated skill that really does open up a world of possibilities in terms of the impact that ultimately we'd all like to make. And then I, I sort of wrap this around this concept of sustaining ourselves and others so that we can flourish. And a lot of that is about culture, right? A lot of that is about personal relationships. So that we, again, are bringing these sort of dual sides of our lives, lives and careers together with the relationships both in our lives and careers that are essential to what I call the ultimate love letter to life, which are the people that we authentically have in our lives who are supporting us, who we're supporting, who we love and who help us have the kind of impact that we've been called to do.

Joanthan Fields: [00:16:15] I mean, thank you for that. So you just walked us basically through the the four major sort of pillars of your approach. I'd love to drop into those in a little bit more detail. Like, you know, when we start out with the notion of investing in yourself, betting on yourself, what does that actually look like in practice?

Laysha Ward: [00:16:36] You know what? I often as I'm mentoring or sponsoring people, I ask them, you know, do you believe in yourself? It seems like a very simple question, and you would be surprised how many pause and can't really answer it with confidence, right? So this idea that you need to believe in yourself, you need to bet on yourself is foundational, I think, to leading with meaning. If you're going to lead like you mean it, you've got to believe in you. And if you don't believe in yourself, it is often more difficult for others to believe in you. And so I just want to remind people of that very important starting point. Believe in you, bet in you. Because if you're not betting on yourself, hard to ask other folks to do it. So double down on you is the message. You're worth it, right? Yeah, you are worth it.

Joanthan Fields: [00:17:26] Here's my question. I'm nodding along, and I'm also imagining that over the years you have probably had many conversations where you've shared this with somebody and they've said to you, I get it, I understand it, but I don't. I don't actually believe in myself. How do you begin to have a conversation with somebody that that maybe opens the door to possibility like that says like, like how do I actually develop that self-trust, that self-confidence if it's not actually there right now.

Laysha Ward: [00:17:51] You know, I have found that having meaningful relationships has helped me through the moments where I didn't completely believe in myself. So I'm saying it with great confidence now. But in all transparency and candor and vulnerability, I have had moments in my life and career, particularly earlier in my career, when I didn't believe in myself fully either. But it was often through the people who were mentoring me, who were allies for me, who were advocates for me, who saw something in myself even before I saw it. And it was their willingness to have open conversations with me, talk to me about my goals and my objectives, talk to me about my strengths. What were my superpowers? What were the things that I did well? What was the impact that I would like to make? What were the things that scared me? You know, how do you face the fears that might get in the way of you believing in yourself and and encouraging me to move beyond the fear. Right. It it was having people in my corner, in my kitchen cabinet who were part of my hype squad, who helped me believe I could do it.

Laysha Ward: [00:19:03] And yes, I might fail along the way and make mistakes, but that was okay and expected. If I was dreaming big enough and trying hard enough and stretching as much as I should be, that would be absolutely a part of the equation of my learning and growing and applying my learning and growth from those mistakes, and from each of those successes and failures. I would believe that I had the capacity to continue to learn and grow and advance in whatever endeavor was put in front of me. And so for me, it's also this notion of not only that kitchen cabinet, that support network, but practice. You need to have the ability to build the muscle, right. And that comes from having the right career experiences and opportunities, whether that's inside of the workplace or perhaps in your community, to try new things like where can you test and learn and fail and iterate and then do it again so that you have the ability to say, yeah, I can do this, I can do this, and I can likely do more harm.

Joanthan Fields: [00:20:17] Talk to me more than about the notion of the kitchen cabinet. You shared that a number of times now. And my big curiosity here is, is how do we figure out who who is in our kitchen cabinets? Like who's in, who's out? Because we probably all have a wide set of relationships, but it sounds like also like these are these are potentially really important people to you. And not just, yes, people, but you also want people who are going to challenge you, but with integrity, you know, and with the highest intention. So how do you look at how we actually bring people into that kitchen cabinet?

Laysha Ward: [00:20:51] It's so important to have the right people in your corner. And I would want to remind people that you get to design who that kitchen cabinet is, right? You get to choose, and you should be evaluating throughout your life and career who is in and perhaps who is out. Right. These aren't lifetime appointments, right? It's not the Supreme Court. You you may have people for a season. You may have people for a particular reason. And I'm always transparent with the people who are a part of my kitchen cabinet, because some of them, this may sound a bit, you know, controversial, are transactional. I am very clear that I need your expertise and help on a very particular thing, and that is where I would like to focus our time. Others in my kitchen cabinet have literally been with me for a lifetime. And so to know that you have the capacity to design that set of advisors based upon what your evolving needs are, I think helps people start and you need to think about what are your needs again purpose. What's your purpose. What are your goals and objectives. Where then do you need advisors to assist you with your purpose, with your goals and objectives? Do you need an advisor, for example, to even help you frame your purpose? Do you need an advisor to help you with a very specific goal? When I was joining my first corporate board, for example, I wanted to learn as much as I could about not only serving on corporate boards, but corporate governance in particular.

Laysha Ward: [00:22:31] And so I sought out people in my kitchen cabinet who were experts, experts in particular on corporate governance, and they were able to share their expertise with me, which was incredibly valuable. But they weren't helping with every part of my life. There was a specific role I needed them to play. And so as you dig into lead like you mean it, I talk about building a portfolio of relationships. And so I really would encourage folks who have the opportunity to dive into the book to read that section, because it does offer up a way to think about building that kitchen cabinet with mentors, with allies and advocates, but not only those who are going to be sort of what I'll call nurturers, but people who will be challengers to you. I literally have one of the categories that I call challengers. They are there to give you some tough love and to push back on you because you want a really healthy exchange of ideas and perspectives, and people who are going to tell you what you need to hear, not just what you want to hear. And that's when you know you're building trusted relationships that can add value to your life and your career. And certainly in building my kitchen cabinet. One of the things I always tried to do is to have reciprocity. So when you're in my kitchen cabinet with grace, I say, what is it that I can do for you? Is there any way that I can also help you? If not now, it's a standing offer.

Joanthan Fields: [00:24:01] Yeah, I think that's it's an important piece of that puzzle, too. You know, and part of what emerges from your willingness to bring these people together and then share often challenging moments or big questions and be open to receiving feedback that sometimes is going to, you know, validate what you're thinking. And oftentimes it's going to say or sting.

Laysha Ward: [00:24:20] I've got some stories that I'm like, that's. Not what I thought I was going to. Hear.

Joanthan Fields: [00:24:25] Right, right. And that's kind of part of what you have to be open for. And it also speaks to one of the big things that you write about in sort of like the third pillar, you know, work well, live well, which is this notion of, of opening yourself into to growth, you know, and part of that involves embracing discomfort. Yeah. Um, taking calculated risks. How do you think about stepping into a place where you don't know how it's going to end? You don't know if it's the right thing or not, but you feel like you actually have to do this. Like, this is the growth edge that you have to say yes to when you really have no idea how it's going to end. So you're stepping into the void. There's a lot of uncertainty. There may be risk that you can't easily quantify. You can talk to all the people in your kitchen table. You can sense it out. You can try and run all the data in the spreadsheets. And all the. Scenario planning in the world doesn't always prepare you, right?

Joanthan Fields: [00:25:14] Exactly, exactly. At the end of the day, like generally the most important stuff is the stuff where you're never going to have perfect information and yet still you have to step out there. Absolutely. How do you how do you think about those moments, you know.

Laysha Ward: [00:25:27] And you're right. I try to be as prepared as possible. And I do my homework, and I try to get the insights that are needed and do scenario planning. Here's what could happen. Here's what I'd like to happen. Here's what's likely to happen. But at the end of the day, end of the day, life is life, right? And there is often a lot of unpredictability in our lives and our careers. And I like to think about clarity versus certainty. And so I get clear about what I'm going to attempt to do to solve the problem or make progress. And so for me, I think about where there is discomfort and being uncomfortable. Opportunity is usually not far away. So I do stay focused on, you know, we will find a solution one way or the other. And that's how I do approach it. And I'm not afraid of being in the gray. And so this idea that I may not have all the answers is one of the ways that I approach it, and that may require that I get other resources to help think through the solution, so that, again, I don't feel like I'm shouldering it on my own. And I really try to think about, you know, progress over perfection. You know, it may not be a holistic solve.

Laysha Ward: [00:26:48] I may need to make progress over time to get to the right solution. And so for me also having this sort of adaptive leadership mindset so that again, I may think I'm going in the right direction and the data set might suggest that I am. But if there is something that occurs that requires that I adapt or pivot, I know how to do that without being paralyzed. I can step back and think about, you know, what is the current situation analysis? What are the new facts that are in front of me, and how should I best proceed based upon the new insights that I have in front of me? And I take the next step, and then I take the next step. And that's how I've tried to approach it with a risk appetite framework. Yes, we often think about a risk appetite in our careers, but I certainly think about that in my personal life as well so that I can manage it, but I don't want that risk to get in the way of opportunity. Right. So it's just meant to be a frame that allows us to think about the choices we're making, the ways that we'll move through challenging situations. But doing nothing is taking a risk too.

Joanthan Fields: [00:27:54] Yeah. And I think that's the thing that often people don't really look at, you know, there's there's no sideways. You know, it's like we're either we have a trajectory or like, you know, we're moving forward or we're moving back. There's no stasis.

Laysha Ward: [00:28:07] So absolutely. And I'm one to think about moving forward.

Joanthan Fields: [00:28:10] Yeah, I try and keep myself there as much as I can.

Laysha Ward: [00:28:13] I try moving forward towards growth.

Joanthan Fields: [00:28:15] We're all human at the end of the day also.

Laysha Ward: [00:28:17] Absolutely I am, yeah. I'm more and more human. Every day, it turns out.

Joanthan Fields: [00:28:22] Which really brings us to, you know, the last part of the book, sustaining yourself and others and the end others are really important part of that phrase, where you really deepen into this notion of flourishing together like that success is a collective journey. What does flourishing together? What does that look like in practice for you?

Laysha Ward: [00:28:40] You know, that was actually one of the hardest parts of the book for me to write. You know, Jonathan, historically, even though my career has had many outward facing components, I am actually more of an introvert and have tried to keep my life private and yet to do the work that I feel called to do, it is often required for me to be more public and more vocal, and so I struggle with that. And so I think that's an important frame, particularly as you're thinking about leading like you mean it like it's not just for extroverts. I want people to know, like the folks like me who are more introverted and, and sort of compensate for that, to do what I'm called to do and find a way to still do it, but have to recharge to deal with the energy that has been depleted. And one of the ways I do that is by flourishing with others, like flourishing with the people who I know care about me, who are rooting for me, who don't care about my position or my title. Right? They care about and love me. And that's why in this book on life and leadership, career and life, I felt strongly that I wanted to talk about, again, investing in you, but also investing in these personal relationships, because we often only talk about the work relationships.

Laysha Ward: [00:30:00] But if you don't have the right personal relationships to sustain you, it's just not going to be possible. I think, for you to have the kind of impact ultimately, that you'd like to have and to find joy in it and to be, I think, um, sort of connected to a life well lived as a result of it. And so I talk about my sister, my hairstylist, Miss Ruby, and my husband, Bill, and I share both joyful and painful moments that I've not shared before publicly in many ways, but done in service of the reader. Because I do think it's important when you're trying to lead with meaning that you again see yourself as a full, whole human and understand the trade offs that we often find ourselves making that I think we're better equipped to make when we have the right constellation of relationships, including those that are either family or found family, friends, coworkers, or, in the case of one of the closing stories in the book, My Husband, which is a very good one that I would encourage you all to read.

Joanthan Fields: [00:31:10] So, by the way, I'm nodding along with fellow introvert here and who has lived a fairly public last chunk of my life.

Laysha Ward: [00:31:20] You understand.

Joanthan Fields: [00:31:21] I get it.

Laysha Ward: [00:31:22] You're my people. You're my people.

Joanthan Fields: [00:31:24] It's like constantly moving in and out of. Yes. Doing what you need to do, showing up in a particular way, but also doing what you need to do to take care of yourself and preserve yourself and and have your smaller group of people where you can just be you and let the guard down and know that you can breathe. Um, so as we come full circle in this conversation. Um, somebody, let's say, like, they're kind of nodding along with this conversation, like. Yeah. This all makes a lot of sense to me. Um, what would you invite people to explore as? Sort of like an opening thought prompt or question to get them thinking about, like. How do I step into this exploration of leading and living like we mean it?

Laysha Ward: [00:32:02] The question I would have them think about is, what impact do you want to make in your life? Whether that's at work or in the world, being grounded in your purpose is the central question, and it becomes the lantern that lights the rest of the way. So that is the fundamental central question I would ask the reader to start with, be grounded in that question around purpose. Mm.

Joanthan Fields: [00:32:31] Thank you. And remember, if you're at a moment of exploration, Looking to find and do or even create work that makes you come more fully alive, that brings more meaning and purpose and joy into your life. Take the time to discover your own personal Sparketype for free at sparketype.com. It will open your eyes to a deeper understanding of yourself and open the door to possibility like never before. And hey, if you're finding value in these conversations, please just take an extra second right now to follow and rate SPARKED in your favorite podcast app. This is so helpful in helping others find the show and growing our community so that we can all come alive and work in life together. This episode of SPARKED was produced by executive producers Lindsey Fox and Me, Jonathan Fields. Production and editing by Sarah Harney. Special thanks to Shelley Adelle for her research on this episode. Until next time. I'm Jonathan Fields and this is SPARKED.