Tara Asquith and Leslie Wyatt from SoftPro joined October Research CEO and Publisher Erica Meyer on stage at the National Settlement Services Summit (NS3) Women’s Leadership Breakfast to discuss strategies for being an impactful leader. Attendees were encouraged to continue the conversation at the Women’s Leadership Summit (WLS) Nov. 2-3 in San Antonio.
SoftPro’s Chief Product Officer Tara Asquith and Director of Regulatory Compliance Leslie Wyatt joined October Research CEO and Publisher Erica Meyer on stage before a packed house at the National Settlement Services Summit (NS3) Women’s Leadership Breakfast.
The panel addressed questions attendees submitted to the leaders, starting with the most popular: how can you be an impactful leader?
“I think it’s important that you recognize who you have on your team and the size of your team,” Wyatt said. “If you’re just a team of two, a team of three, a team of five, it’s still important to be a leader and to know your people, and it’s still important to create that team environment.”
Creating such an environment includes really getting to know your team members, how they work and what their strengths are, “because it’s their skill set that you want, not to change them to be who you want.”
“Not everybody wants money; some people like accolades, some people like positive enforcement,” Wyatt said. “Learn their personalities and lead in a way that fits their personality, not the way that you want to be a leader. You have to adapt to them; they don’t have to — they shouldn’t have to — adapt to you. That’s how you can also retain them on your team.”
Asquith agreed that learning your team’s strengths and skills is critical to being an effective leader.
“I hire them for their skill set, but I’m also playing to their strengths. If I don’t know your strengths, I can’t play to your strengths. So, getting to know what you are really strong at, what you enjoy most about your job, what you enjoy least about your job, helps me navigate what kinds of things I will task you with and what kinds of things I will not task you with,” she said.
It’s also important that the rest of the management team is on the same page, Asquith added.
“I spend a lot of time also mentoring my managers to do the same thing. That’s what’s important. It can’t just stop at the level beneath me. It’s got to really resonate for the entire organization,” she explained.
Wyatt pointed out the importance of encouraging team leaders to make decisions without having to run everything past you.
“It’s so important to empower the leaders on your team to make decisions and feel comfortable having conversations, making decisions for the sake of their team, without always having to come to you. It’s always an open door, but they shouldn’t feel like everything has to go to you,” she said.
“Most things are not a big deal, right? At the end of the day, once it comes to you and it gets figured out, it’s kind of like, ‘Wow, we could have figured that out two weeks ago but somebody didn’t feel comfortable speaking up’, or someone thought, ‘Oh, if I say this, they might get mad at me,’ but if you’ve empowered your leaders underneath you to lead a certain way, less of that’s going to happen. They’re going to be able to resolve things without you, and that’s what you ultimately want as a leader,” Wyatt said.
Meyer said it may seem easier in the moment to just provide a team member with an answer, but that does not empower them to make decisions on their own moving forward.
“When people come to me, I usually have the answer, but I realize I’m not doing anybody justice if I’m just answering, so I am really working on asking, ‘Well, what do you think?’ Otherwise, it’s always going to fall on my lap. I’m taking stuff off my plate by just turning it around and empowering them to think about it and make a decision,” she said.
It’s also important to “be real” with your team, Meyer said.
“We all have crappy days. That’s OK. And I used to try and be like, ‘I’m the CEO, I’ve got to have it all together, and I’ve got to lead by example,’ but they also need to understand that not every day is a good day,” she said. “And they notice, and ask, ‘Are you having a bad day?’ and I’m like, ‘Yes, I am, and it’s OK, but I’ll be back tomorrow.’”
Being human and sharing such struggles makes leaders more approachable, Asquith said. It also gives team members the space and permission to make mistakes, Wyatt added.
Another topic the speakers addressed was how to lead during times of uncertainty or change. Clear, transparent communication is key, Asquith stressed.
“I think that the most important thing is to lead with clarity and communicate often, because when there’s times of uncertainty, people are always asking questions. There are rumors in the office about what’s going on. So, I think frequent communication is one of the most important things that you can give your team,” Asquith said.
Meyer agreed. “You feel like you’re over communicating, but I don’t think you can ever over communicate. I feel like I can talk about things over and over and over, but again, just bringing it up, having those conversations, nips things in the bud quickly,” she said.
It’s also important to clarify the things that are not changing and to admit if you are unsure about something, Asquith added.
“If you don’t know, say you don’t know. And if you do know, I’m a big proponent of the good, the bad, the ugly. I need to tell you the way it is, because I need you to trust me. If I just tell you everything’s all rosy, and then it turns out not to be, you no longer trust me as a leader,” Asquith explained. “You choose your words the way you need to, but you need to be candid about what is the reality of the situation, but also speak with confidence, that you are in control, that you are going to guide them through whatever the change is.”
Attendees were encouraged to continue the conversation at the Women’s Leadership Summit (WLS) on Nov. 2-3 in San Antonio. For details and to register, click here.