Leadership
What does it take to become a leader?
In our last episode, we had the pleasure of speaking with Dr.Freischlag, whose leadership qualities and energy were truly inspiring. Today, we are taking a deeper dive into leadership, exploring the hallmarks of a true leader, examining the qualities that make leaders successful, and focusing on enhancing our daily lives with leadership attributes.
Follow The Girls of Grit:
We'd Love to Hear Your Stories!
Your experiences are important to us. Share how you've navigated catalysts for growth and personal transformation. Connect with us on social media or leave a review on your preferred podcast platform. Your feedback and stories inspire us and guide future episodes!
Transcript:
Note: We use AI transcription so there may be some inaccuracies
Anneliese Rhodes: What qualities and skills are required to become a leader? Are leaders born with their abilities, or are they developed over time? Is being a leader determined by the position, title, or number of people who follow them? Or is it more about that lasting impact that they leave behind after their time as a leader has ended?
We will answer all of these questions
Cynthia Ficara: and more in today's episode.
Anneliese Rhodes: Welcome to the Secrets in Medical Device Sales. I am Annalisa Rhodes. And I am Cynthia Ficarra. Together we are the Girls of Grit, two professional women bringing you Over 40 years experience as top performers, top earners, and leaders in the male dominated medical device industry. Tune in as we give you the keys to unlock the secrets to success in medical device sales.
Good morning, Cindy. Good morning to all of our listeners out there. Good morning, Lisa. Good morning, everyone.
Cynthia Ficara: Thank you for joining us as we are rolling into this episode after the episode last week where we spoke with Dr. Freischlag and had so much energy and excitement around her presence, her leadership, and everything that she embodies that we wanted to continue today and really just.
Talk about pointing out the qualities that make her successful and great and how you can be attracted to that type of leadership and wanting to be around people that have that presence like Sheeta. So today's episode in leadership, I think leadership could be an entire podcast for years and years and years.
There's a million avenues we can go. One thing that we just want to really kind of focus on today is how leadership qualities can impact your everyday life. So, how does leadership fit into your current role? We're also going to walk through and discuss a Harvard Business Review article about leadership qualities.
And lastly, discuss some of those leaders that have an impact on others.
Anneliese Rhodes: Absolutely. And yes, I think Dr. Freischlag embodies a true leader. I mean, she's just so impactful. Just hearing her talk, hearing her speak, you can tell that she's a true leader. Not only very knowledgeable, but she's also very experienced and she has that emotional intelligence to connect with all the people that she works with and that work for her.
And I think that that truly is being a great leader. And like I said in that episode, you know, and if you guys haven't listened, you need to tune back into the one last week because it was fantastic, but I would love to work. Alongside Dr. Freischlag, as well as learn from her. I think she's a fantastic mentor and somebody I definitely look up to.
Yeah, so we're going to talk about a lot of those things today. I think it's really important because, you know, leadership is a term, I feel like, sometimes, Cindy, that gets kind of thrown around. You know, I mean, you can say, Oh, well, you know, manager or director, and then you have a leader. And I really think that there is a distinction between being a manager and being a leader.
And I think that what we're going to talk about today, actually, I know what we're going to talk about today, are those qualities that truly stand out as being a leader. Those characteristics and you know the age old question of is a leader born or is a leader made and we ask that question a lot in our spotlight series to phenomenal women and you know it's funny because I think they're both.
I think that it can be an innate thing within somebody to really be that true leader just to have that it's kind of the it factor and so that's born in somebody. That's not something that's made. However, I do also think that you can create and become a leader through nurturing that want. To learn more, to, you know, open books up and learn from the greatest leaders of our times and find your mentors like Dr.
Freischlag and others that you and I are going to talk about today. So I think it's both innate as well as made. Yeah, so let's dive right in. I agree
Cynthia Ficara: with you. I really do. I think that, you know, you had me thinking when you were talking about, you know, Dr. Freischlag and leaders. And I think that sometimes if we think of celebrities or well known greats who became celebrities because of their amazing leadership, you know, you kind of think, what do these people have in common, but also what makes them unique.
And when I think of natural leadership and kind of these people we put on a pedestal, Some of the names that come to mind are people like Bill Gates. And Oprah Winfrey, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, I mean, the list goes on and on and on, but when you name all these names, Tell me, I mean, do you feel like we put them in a different category?
Anneliese Rhodes: Absolutely. I mean, they embody, gosh, just saying, hearing some of those names, it's like, oh, so powerful. And you know what else came to mind as you're reading a lot of those names, is most of those people, Cindy, came from nothing. Like, they started out with nothing. And they created their own world.
Leadership, their own presence, their own IT factor. Maybe it was innate in them to begin with, but they absolutely cultivated it through their experiences and through people that I'm sure they looked up to as young kids, you know, and saw what a difference, good, strong, empathetic leaders made versus those that were just more like a manager, like a dictator.
Somebody that's gonna say, go do this because I said so. And I think that, yeah, I mean, those names are amazing, you know, I have my own people in mind as well. And I think that that's kind of what leads me, is I think about them when I'm thinking about how would this person handle this situation that I'm in currently?
How would they handle it? And then maybe think, okay, well, if they would handle it this way, maybe I should exemplify that as well.
Cynthia Ficara: You know, I want to go back to something you said. You talked about those that came from nothing, and So maybe that ties into, you know, are you born a way where, okay, so your circumstances put you in a situation where you need to figure it out.
You need to, what do we say, have grit to get to where you need to go. You know, I watched, have you seen, I think it's on Amazon. There is a, it's either Amazon or Netflix. I think it's Amazon and it's all about Nashville songwriters and it's called All About The Salt. No! Put it in there. Oh my gosh. You would love it, Miss Singer Lady.
Oh, it's. Unbelievable what songwriters think about and how they do things. And one, they interviewed somebody who says, when you come to the town of Nashville, think about it. It's a town of all talented writers and singers. And how did they get on this one block? Okay. So town that into leadership, you get into big group people.
How did they get this way? Do you know one person who came to Nashville and. Wanted to present the songs, had an, I don't want to call him elder person, somebody else that worked there that's been there for years, maybe a mentor, or say to him, Hey, you know what? You haven't gone through the mud. You haven't been through the mud yet to get here.
You're not half of these people. I was every waiter in, in Nashville that serves you is a talented artist striving to get there. It's that drive. And then when you get there, it's giving that back. There's so many great leaders. To know what it takes and when you share your knowledge and you share that experience and then you exemplify holding yourself to a higher standard.
I'm working hard. I'm going to get there. But I loved that term that I've actually not really heard before. You have to go
Anneliese Rhodes: through the mud. It's so true. Not to just keep going down that path, but real quickly. When I was in college, I was getting ready to graduate and I was lucky enough to have an ability to go to Nashville, actually, and meet some really famous people.
And yeah, it was during the time that I was considering moving there, which, you know, I chose not to do, but it was an amazing, amazing city of great, great talent. But I remember the lady that I met with, she was actually at CMA Records. And she said to me, that was right when they had signed Lee Ann Womack.
And she said to me, you know, Annalisa, she said, you're gonna have to wait tables for years. And you're gonna have to work your way through. And you're gonna have to get told no a million times before that label tells you yes. She goes, just because you happen to know some people, Doesn't necessarily mean we're going to hand that to you.
And you know, I took that as a young kid. It's like, Oh gosh. But at the same time, I was like, I can do this. I know I can do this. And I truly think you're right. I mean, it is that grit. It is pushing through things. And I think today what we're going to talk about is finding that within all of you, finding that grit, finding inside of you.
Number one, what got you into medical devices, but now what's going to set you apart? What's going to make you a leader in your company? Whether or not you hold a title, that does not define a leader. What defines a leader are the characteristics that we're going to go through. And ultimately, it does bring you that Great success, that great, maybe it is a position that you end up having, but really, if you embody all the characteristics that we're going to run through today, that is what's going to make you stand out, shine, and be a true leader.
Cynthia Ficara: 100%. And you know, we realized over the course of the last couple months in our podcast, we have referred to this line and we talk about being a CEO of your own business. And I think today's a really good example to really talk about that. So here's Dr. Freischlag last week, phenomenal CEO of humongous hospital training, all these great titles that she's held.
So, but then you think about what makes her great. So think about, okay, you're going to approach your day on Monday. You're going to start your week. What if you took parts and pieces of her great qualities and applied it? To just your business, let's say you are a rep. Let's say you are a clinical. How do you do your job to the best that you can do it?
How do you embody those leadership characteristics? Like you said, you don't have to have an entire team under you to be a leader. When you lead yourself, The amazing success that follows is tremendous and really limitless. So going back to this article from the Harvard Business Review, the author talks about eight of the top most important qualities for a successful leader.
And the very first one she talks about is the Authenticity.
Anneliese Rhodes: I think authenticity is a great first characteristic because it truly means that you are staying authentic, genuine to who you are, what you stand for, and what your core beliefs are. You know, this makes me think of like when you have a manager or a leader who tells you one thing and then does another.
Right? So they're not even staying true to their word. And for me, that starts to build up a lot of distrust. So I think as women and men in our own career paths and searching for that CEO status and being in control of everything that we do and being. Very specific and our choices. I think we need to remember to stay true to who we are and what we stand for, because that builds that level of trust and loyalty that not only, you know, you want to find in your significant other and your partners, but your customers want to work with.
They don't want to work with somebody who they can't trust. They don't want to work with somebody who says one thing and does another. So I think authenticity is an integral Absolute must for a great characteristic of a leader. It
Cynthia Ficara: is. And when your words and your actions align, that's what builds trust.
And you know, the famous coach of Duke basketball, Mike Krzyzewski, you know, one of the things that he truly believes in is trust. And I actually looked this up before I enjoy listening to his perspective on leadership and he believes, and I quote, in leadership, there are no words more important than trust in any organization.
Trust must be developed among every member of the team if success is going to be achieved. And I think that's so great because he is authentic and he lives by this and builds Duke to have the people, that team that he built within it. And you know, there's another philosophy that I'm just going to say why we're on the topic of Coach K, because he talks about leadership and leadership.
His hunger is not for success. It's for excellent. And so he went on, I'm going to quote his words again, because when you attain excellence, success just naturally follows. So he talks about it in form of basketball, you know, winning games and championship is a byproduct of striving to do your best every single day.
If I teach them well, winning games will be a natural result. So think about our jobs. If we do our best every single day, we will win. And that win is what you determine is winning, the success and what you do as a rep. What you do as a VP, what you do as a clinical, and this is what excites me. So it all comes back to how do we start your day and take a piece of leadership quality?
Number one, let's be authentic.
Anneliese Rhodes: I love that. And you know what I was thinking of as you were talking about coach K? Is he started off not being a successful coach, right? I mean, it wasn't like he walked in and all of a sudden they started winning games. He built a team and that's what everyone starts out doing.
You start by building a team and he had the core values and he kept them on the forefront the entire time. And that's how he's become the most winningest coach. I'm assuming. and basketball, or at least one of the most winningest coaches because of what he stayed true to, which was his authentic self. So again, with leadership, fantastic point, fantastic person to look at.
You
Cynthia Ficara: just said something I think is key and we talk about in this podcast, how do we apply what we learn? You just said he built a team. So think about your current role. What is your team? Is your team your customer? So think about it. If you're going to approach your day today with authenticity, make your customers part of your team.
When you approach it in that view, you're a leader. Okay,
Anneliese Rhodes: moving on curiosity. So I love curiosity. One of my very close and very dear friends who I think they own like seven or eight businesses. She, one of her sayings, one of her mottos is always stay curious. And I love that. And it took me a minute to think about it, but you know, what she says in that is, I'm always learning.
I'm always picking up a new book. I'm always trying to get more information and experience as I move through my companies. Because if I don't stay curious and I continue learning, And I'm stagnant. And I think that's really important. I think we all need to be curious, no matter where we are in our positions.
I mean, you talk about being a rep or being a director, stay curious. Know what your people, what your customers needs are, learn from them, learn what their hot buttons are. Hey, what drives them? What do they enjoy doing? And then if you're a director, what does your team need? What drives your team? How can you make sure that they're happy?
I mean, these are things that are very important. And how do you lead them? Pick up another book on leadership. And we talk about this a little bit, but I think one of the greatest, greatest authors in leadership is John C. Maxwell. And you and I, we talked about the fact that we both read that same book on leadership.
But man, I mean, the guy's written like 10 books on leadership. He obviously isn't Like 30. Yeah. In leadership. So if you've never picked up a book by John C. Maxwell, go pick one up and go listen to it or go read it because, I mean, I guarantee you, you're going to pick up like 10 different things. But, man, I mean, I'm constantly trying to learn, Cindy, about how to be a better, more effective leader.
And I'm a rep. I mean, I'm a rep out here, like everybody else out there listening to this podcast. I'm a rep in the field. But I want to be seen as a leader. an expert in my field and a leader in my field and my customers, when they need something, they know they're going to get the same thing from me every single time.
And they're always going to have the best service and every bit of knowledge that I know. I'm going to be giving them, and if I don't know it, then I'm going to learn it.
Cynthia Ficara: Yeah, and if you're in Lisa's shoes out there as a rep wanting to learn, one of the books by John C. Maxwell is the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership.
That's one that I know you and I have both read. There's many others, like she said. So the number two curiosity, healthy curiosity, is very important, and every one of the leaders that are successful all will say. You're always learning. Continuous learning is going to get you where you need to be. So the third quality is analytical prowess.
So I can think of many leaders, and maybe you all agree with this, is that being analytical helps you make decisions going forward. You know, because if we're never looking at where we are, What's working? What's not working? What do we need to do to get where we need to go? Then you're just running around in circles.
So all good leaders try to take you on a path of success and being analytical and stopping to think about it is a very important piece of it. Whether it's something we talk about, you think of leaders as being dynamic all the time. But a lot of that dynamic outgoing personality and a lot of them is rooted in an analytical process.
Anneliese Rhodes: Yeah. I mean, you're talking about strategy, which is what we talked about a couple weeks ago. And one of our episodes is being strategic and being targeting. You're, you're analyzing the data in front of you or you're analyzing your people or, you know, whatever you're looking at to analyze, you're going to break it down to a point where you can understand it and then go from there and grow from there and lead from there.
So absolutely. I think you have to be analytical. Look, sometimes that takes a little bit, right? Not all of us are super analytical. We're not just born with that. So you have to learn that and, you know, that goes back to keeping learning and that curiosity. Number four I love, which is adaptability. Being able to adapt.
To all different kinds of situations and look, I mean, life is fricking adaptable, right? I mean, one day ain't going to be the same as the next. I mean, I tell my kids all the time, change is always going to be there. It is a constant in your life. Change will always be happening. So you have to be able to pivot and move and change and adapt.
And I think that absolutely needs to be a characteristic of a leader because. Without being able to be adaptable and change and move to things, you're going to stay stagnant in the same position and you're not going to be able to effectively lead people when something hits them smack in the face. So you have to be able to adapt to certain situations, learn from mistakes, move forward, you know, and honestly and recognize the fact that maybe you made a mistake and move on and adapt and grow.
Cynthia Ficara: All day long, every day. Number five is creativity. And I think this one's really fun because when you think of, I mean, think back, did you have a coach? Did you have a teacher? Did you have a boss, somebody that did something slightly different that stood out? So, you know, you mentioned books a few minutes ago.
There's a great book and I. Gosh, I should have looked this up before because I, off the top of my head, I don't know the author, but I will look it up to put it in the show notes. And the book is called It's Your Ship. And it's written by a Navy captain and he talks about his fleet. And if you think of military, you know how the military, I'm not going to say the word talks down, but just, you know, they yell at people, yes, sir, yes, sir.
So this one. Navy captain of the ship was creative and approached his team, his ship, his crew differently. He would go down to the mess hall. I think that's what it's called. Please. I have no military. And eat with those who were scrubbing the deck and sit with them and talk to them. Where do you want to go?
What do you want to do? And they were like, why is the captain of the ship down here? Why is he talking to me? I'm so such a low man on the totem pole, but this was a creative different approach that then they all, he got to know them and got to believe in them, got to be part of their team. And it was amazing story about how they just became this one of the best fleets in the entire Navy.
But. All that starts with creativity.
Anneliese Rhodes: I love that story. That's fantastic. Okay. Number six is comfort with ambiguity. So basically that means you got to be comfortable in the unknown. You got to be comfortable without knowing all the answers. And that's a hard thing to be. That's a hard place to be. Because as leaders, we assume that we should know everything.
I know I say that all the time. I should know as much as we don't. Nobody does, right? Nobody knows all the answers. No one's perfect. So you have to be okay with that. And I think along with that comes the confidence and knowing who you are as a person, your authenticity, all the things we just talked about, you know, that that's going to get you to a place where you will learn and you will know is that confidence, right?
Having the confidence to know that at some point, You're going to figure it out. It's all going to work out and you are going to lead them in the right direction. But I think being able to be comfortable in the uncomfortableness is a big one.
Cynthia Ficara: And that uncomfortableness, let's say it doesn't go as planned.
That leads us into number seven, resilience. So then, you bounce back. So many times, if we're afraid to try something, we never know if it's gonna work. And, being resilient, and striving through, again, we talked earlier about what I learned about watching that show in Nashville. You gotta go through the mud.
And then you pick yourself up and you keep going. And when you're a leader and you say and you act in that motion, people will follow you. And that to me, resilience is such a, I mean, I could go on and on about resilience, but I think just saying it right, just saying resilience speaks volume.
Anneliese Rhodes: Yeah, it really does.
It's such a powerful word. I love that. That's one of the characteristics because it is so important. And number eight is empathy. And we mentioned this on the last episode with Dr. Freischlag is she has. Empathy. She has emotional intelligence. She's able to understand where the people that work with her and for her are in their lives, in their days, in their practices.
And she's able to recognize that and then work with them. And I think that's a really true characteristic of a leader is to be able to empathize. You know, just because you have your agenda doesn't mean that everybody else is on your agenda. And I think as a leader, You gotta be able to bend and flex and understand that other people have other agendas.
Things that are more important to them than maybe what's important to you. So have empathy for that. Understand what they're going through. They may be going through a tough time. You have to be able to understand that as a leader if you want to be a true leader and move forward with your business.
Cynthia Ficara: Agreed. Being empathetic, listening, understanding, building relationships. You know, there's one leader that stands out to me, which if anybody, if any of you know me,
Anneliese Rhodes: I
Cynthia Ficara: am a Clemson grad and you know, you know, I couldn't leave this without mentioning Dabo Sweeney because when I think of great leadership, an unbelievable man that I could go on and on, you know, one of his, True leadership qualities is a relationship driven style, and so when you talk about his players and what he does, he has a saying where he talks about serving his players hearts and not their talent, because his words are serve, care, and love, that we're here to serve players, care for them, and love them.
And it's about the relationships and he is really known for his high standards as a person. So it's not just, do you come in and you have the talent? You got to have the heart and the whole person be respectful. And in our jobs as reps, we align with that. You know, that makes us authentic. That makes them trust us.
And so you'll love this Lisa. So she and I, Lisa, that is our ACC rivals. Yes, Clemson grad. She went to Florida State. So just this last fall, do you remember when Dabo Sweeney came to your hometown of Tallahassee? And guess what? He spoke to high school recruits. And he talked about, you know, they have high school recruits, these are top players.
And he has a whole spreadsheet where they track them throughout the year. One of those columns is questionable social media content. And so he talked about, it's not just how fast is the 40 yard dash? How fast can you throw? Oh, which game did you win? It's who are you as a person? And so I love the part about when I was reading an article on this, or maybe I listened to the YouTube playback of him talking about it was he was in a room.
So. I'm going to picture like a high school auditorium. I really don't know where this took place, but somewhere where he was speaking to parents and students, and he talked about this column with his social media content. And the comment was, The mothers were looking at their sons. Are you listening to this?
Are you listening to this? And I think again, it's a character of a good quality of good character relationships and who you build. If you take a little bit of coach Dabo Sweeney and Dr. Julie Freischlag and their qualities, Oprah, Bill Gates, take a little piece of what's good with them that you see that makes you authentically good.
And you approach your day each day as a leader of your own business. And have a great mindset going forward, being the best you can be, and that
Anneliese Rhodes: makes you a leader. So, our call to action today is really simple. Go to our website and click book now for your consulting session with Cindy and I. We are here to help you achieve your highest success and become that leader that you strive to be and become CEO of your own career paths.
Thank you so much for tuning in to another episode of Secrets and medical device sales brought to you by the girls of grit. Have a great week, a great month, and a fantastic year. Bye bye. Bye bye.
