Susan Ireland: The Journey From Boeing To Start-Up To Her Own Business (Episode # 476)

Susan Ireland spent 30 years in business operations leadership roles at The Boeing Company. She was on the original leadership team that built and established a new digital aviation business for Boeing Commercial Airplanes. After Boeing, Susan played a strategic role in a start-up company that developed, manufactured, and installed hydrogen systems on diesel engines.

Now, as co-founder of Seasons Leadership, a professional coaching and services business, she and her business partner, Debbie Collard, leverage and share the lessons they learned from both complex global organizations and small technology start-ups. Their objective is to make leadership excellence the worldwide standard.

Today Susan speaks with Dr. Karen about how to use business operations systems to manage your business, career progression for women in male-dominated fields, and how to use your values to take charge of your career.

Reach Susan Ireland at www.seasonsleadership.com

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Listen to the podcast here

Susan Ireland: The Journey From Boeing To Start-Up To Her Own Business

Susan Ireland spent 30 years in business operations leadership roles at The Boeing Company. She was on the original leadership team that built and established a new digital aviation business for Boeing Commercial Airplanes.

In this episode, I have a very special guest, someone whose backstory and experiences she has leveraged for what she does. Let me tell you about her because you can do the same thing. Susan Ireland is the Cofounder of Seasons Leadership, a professional coaching and consulting services business that she started with her business partner and colleague, Debbie Collard. Their objective is to make leadership excellence the worldwide standard.

Susan consults with leaders at all levels to enhance leadership and business acumen, encourage self-discovery, and turn challenges into positive results. Prior to her current role, Susan spent 30 years at The Boeing Company, holding a number of director-level business operations leadership roles. She also played a key role on the original leadership team that built and established a new digital aviation business for Boeing Commercial Airplanes.

At Boeing, Susan navigated and leveraged the complexities of large global organizations. Following her time with Boeing, Susan played a strategic role in a startup company that developed, manufactured, and installed hydrogen systems on diesel engines. There, she provided expertise in steering the design, implementation, and management of business processes. Her experiences at Boeing and the small entrepreneurial company give her the unique background to understand both large enterprises and small startup organizations.

Susan holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from the University of Washington and a Master of Science in Management from Antioch University. She is an alumna of the International Executive Program at INSEAD University in France and the Executive Leadership Program at Seattle University. In addition, she holds many coaching certifications, including the ICF Certified Professional Coach Credential. She is also a dynamic speaker and host of the Seasons Leadership Podcast.

When she’s not helping others along their journeys, Susan enjoys spending time with her family and traveling. Her personal values of wonder and awe have inspired her to see the world, including her longtime goal of living and working in Ireland for an extended period. Susan, welcome to the show. I’m so happy to have you here.

Thank you, Dr. Karen. It’s great to be here.

Getting The Idea To Start Seasons Leadership

Wonderful. You have such a rich background in history and I want people to know all about it. We’ll start with the present and what you’re doing. Tell us, how did you and your business partner, Debbie, get the idea to start Seasons Leadership?

Dr. Karen, it was spontaneous. I retired from Boeing in 2016. I knew at that time I was going to start my own coaching business because I love coaching and had already got my head around that that was what I was going to do. I was doing that. 1 year or 2 later, I noticed on LinkedIn that Debbie had retired and become a coach. Debbie and I worked together at Boeing but we hadn’t spoken since I left. I connected with her. We started talking about why she became a coach. It was very similar to why I did. She enjoyed working with people, supporting people, and helping other people achieve their dreams.

She had moved to Texas. I’m in Seattle but she was in Seattle for a visit. We got together. We started talking. It was exciting. We said, “We could do this and this.” We decided we wanted to share what we had learned over the years. She had a 30-plus-year background and I had a 30-year background. We said, “Let’s do it.” We both had a passion for the idea of what we knew and what we had learned. How can we share that with people who are in early, mid, and late careers to help them accelerate their progress and what they want to do? We learned by just going. We were living and learning at the same time. We wanted to give people a step up to help them.

I appreciate that because those of us who have gone through 30-plus years need to reach back, give back, and share what we’ve learned. That accelerates and elevates the leadership impact of other people. Thank you for doing that rather than retiring and moving off into the sunset without sharing all that wisdom and allowing that wisdom to go forward and benefit other people. That’s spectacular. I’m glad you decided to do that.

Creating A Course Amid The Pandemic

I know that you and Debbie started a course designed to capture all the things you learned from both of your careers. You started it at a difficult time at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. What happened with that course? How did you need to change during the COVID time and even after to be successful and effective?

We didn’t plan on launching it during COVID. After our conversation when Debbie was in Seattle, we said, “Let’s put everything we know into a program,” and we did. The idea was to have people come together in a cohort throughout the year. We wanted it to be a year-long because we thought it took that long to integrate some of these learnings. We didn’t want a quick fix for people. We wanted something they could use, implement in their careers and lives, and see a difference.

We put it together and were working hard and fast to do this. We got a group together, all women at the time, for an in-person event on March 20th, 2020. I was calling Debbie as she was getting on a plane, saying, “I don’t know if you should come because I don’t know what’s happening.” In Seattle, we were the center of everything. It started here. She in Texas said, “I think it’ll be okay.” She had no idea about the different environments we were in.

We had a great first cohort. It was a weekend long. We were the only people in the hotel. The hotel was very generous. We had food and everything we needed. After that, as we all know, everything shut down. Debbie got back to Texas and then the planes stopped. We decided, “What are we going to do?” Like everybody in the world, we had to do that word that everybody did, which is pivot online. You have to do what you have to do. We put our things online and got our cohort together. Everybody stuck with us and we started doing Zoom. It worked out great.

We’ve completed that year thinking this is going to end soon and we’ll go back to our in-person program. We couldn’t so we did another year virtually. It was surprising. Other people experienced this as well. Our first cohort was generally around the Pacific Northwest because we were located in Seattle. We had a few people fly in for it but it was mostly that. When our second year came around, because we were all online, we had people from all over the world, which was fantastic.

Being a leader first requires who we are at our core, what our values are, why we do what we do, and staying grounded in those things because that's what shines through. Click To Tweet

It brings a whole new dimension to the leadership conversations we were having. That’s what happened there. We decided we were being limited because it was only Debbie and me. To do the cohort type of classes was taking up a lot of our energy and space so we decided to put that on hold. As a matter of fact, Dr. Karen, I don’t even think I told you about this. We are getting ready to launch an online version that is more self-paced than our program. We’re excited about that. You’re going to see that soon.

You did mention it. Like other business leaders, you have to innovate, change, grow, and create new versions of what you started. Many business leaders, when talking about a coaching or consulting practice, need to know how to do that because there’s always change going on in the work environment. It’s very dynamic. You and Debbie have lived it in your previous work lives and are also living it now. That’s very credible because you have fresh information about what it takes to change and be successful. That’s wonderful. I love that story about how you didn’t let that stop you. You kept going, made it work, and made it into an advantage with the international element.

One of the things we do, which is important to us and can be helpful to other people, to help us be more flexible is to keep going back to what our mission is. Our mission is to support leaders to become more excellent leaders. When you think about that, it doesn’t say how we do that. We have to keep looking for ways to meet people where they are and what they need. You have to be creative with that. Sometimes it’s in person. Sometimes it’s online. It’s important to us to support leaders. That’s why we keep going.

The Balance Of Being And Doing In Leadership

Phenomenal. I’m glad to hear that part of your story as well. You have some concepts that you work on within your business. One is about the whole notion of being and then there’s the whole notion of doing. Tell us a little bit about that. What is this being? What is this doing? How do you support leaders in both of those realms?

This is not a concept we came up with, being and doing. It can be a challenge, especially for people who are in the work environment leading others, because there’s so much pressure on us to perform and deliver results. That is focused on what we do. Being a leader first requires who we are at our core, what our values are, why we do what we do, and staying grounded in those things because that’s what shines through. The doing will come. The being is about being confident enough in yourself, to be yourself, speak your voice, and allow others space to speak their voice. It’s the foundation. We spend time on that foundation, who you are as a person and a leader. We then talk about how you do it.

I resonate with what you’re saying about being and doing. I don’t know if you know or remember Frances Hesselbein. She was a nonprofit leader who worked with Peter Drucker. They had the Leader to Leader Institute, which went through various name changes. She lived to be 107 years old. I worked with her years ago. She had this concept of being and doing, which she taught often with the military and at West Point. Being a former military officer, I’m familiar with that as well.

It’s crucial to start with the self. The book I wrote is called Lead Yourself First!. It’s all about understanding who you are because we are the instruments of our leadership. What we do comes out of who we are. It’s phenomenal that you are acknowledging that and doing that work with the people you’re consulting with as well. We are of the same mind when it comes to that.

No kidding, Dr. Karen. Coincidentally, I am diving deep into Frances Hesselbein because I’ve connected with Alan Mulally. He is a fan of hers and was a close friend. I am deep into that. It’s so interesting that you were connected to her as well.

We did some joint projects together for a number of years, first with Texaco and then when it merged into Chevron Texaco. That’s how I know her, through years of working together.

I love the synchronicities, connecting.

Understanding Business Operations Consulting And Its Role In Leadership Success

You just never know. You also, Susan, refer to your work as business operations consulting. That’s an important term and it’s different from what we often hear. What is business operations consulting? How important is it to leadership success?

That was my career at Boeing, and Debbie’s as well. In a big corporation, sometimes titles, roles, and all of that aren’t clear. What we mean by business operations is it’s the organization that is connecting the dots and all other functional organizations together. It describes the plan and puts it all together, the schedule and the processes the organization needs to run. It’s like running the organization on the inside. It’s the space between all the different functions, the connection of it.

Most often, what I have found is organizations, big and small, don’t know about this or don’t do it very well. They don’t know what is wrong with their organization. Why aren’t we working? Why aren’t we communicating? How come the left-hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing? That’s what the business operations function is. It’s integrating it all together so everybody knows the plan that we’re on, how we’re doing on that plan, and who needs to do what and when to meet our goals.

When I hear you talk about this, Susan, I think a lot about the word alignment, making sure that all parts are aligned. The word systems also come to mind, having the right system so that all of this can be done. You address leadership and management systems. Say a little bit more about that. What are some of those pieces that people often forget?

When you have a leadership system, you can start at a high level by understanding who the leaders are, their roles, how they interact together, who is responsible for what, and how they agree to work. What are their operating principles? What are the behaviors they want to live by? What’s the system they will implement so that they all are working together? This takes time and dialogue between all the leaders. There’s no one system. I can’t say, “This is what everybody needs to do.” It’s not a cookie-cutter kind of a thing.

A management system is the operating rhythm. It's how you manage your business in an organized predictable way. Click To Tweet

You go in and work with the leaders. They participate as they develop their leadership system and operating principles. When you talk about a management system, that is the operating rhythm. It’s how you, in an organized and predictable way, manage your business. For example, we advocate having a BPR or Business Plan Review. This is something we got from Alan Mulally. Once a week, a business, a company, or an organization has a business plan review where the whole leadership team gets together. This is for big corporations or small businesses like Debbie and I. We do it every week.

You look at your plan and everybody has their part of the plan and they report. “This is how it’s going and where I need help. This is what’s going well,” that kind of thing. Everybody knows what’s happening in the business. It’s very transparent, from financials, human resources, engineering, operations, and supply chain. Everybody is reporting because everybody has an important piece of the business. You have that in a weekly rhythm. It can go fast. It sounds onerous.

When I first talked to people about this, they said, “You got to be crazy. I have no time for that.” Let me tell you, it can go pretty fast but you can get ahead of problems and tackle problems when you have a whole team working on it rather than just one person. Everything is in a system. You look at your finances, talent, and company regularly. Everything is in a rhythm and everybody knows what that rhythm is so they can prepare for it and it takes away the chaos that sometimes runs in the business it can have.

It’s like having the system in place in a rhythm so that what occurs on a regular basis, you’re not reinventing the wheel every week to deal with it. You already have the process in place to analyze and look at what you’re doing. People usually know these things are important and know what to do, yet at the same time, they often don’t do it. I heard you say one of the reasons they might not is they think it’s going to take longer than it does. They don’t understand that they either take a little bit of time and do it upfront or a lot of time on the back end because they didn’t do it. What else gets in people’s way? Why do they not do these things that they know are relevant?

One of the big things is they haven’t experienced it. They’ve only experienced chaos. That’s what their models are like. This is what it means to run a company. “I’m doing everything. I’m fighting fires. I’m the person in charge and I need to answer every question.” That is the way it is. You can get pretty far that way sometimes but that has a lot to do with luck. Putting a system in place feels constraining. Some people feel like, “I want to be free and do whatever I want to do.” When you have an organization that’s following you, it feels too chaotic to them. If they have a system, they know what’s happening. Another reason might be ego. “I know best so I’m going to do it.”

Lessons From Successful People At Boeing

That doesn’t always work. Let’s turn back the clock a little bit. I’m going to ask you some things about Boeing. You’ve worked with a lot of successful people there. Tell us a little bit about what you learned about successful people and how they operate.

I was super lucky. Working at Boeing was a great career. The people there were so dedicated. I believe they were the smartest people in the world. If I had a question like, “How does that airplane fly? I was not an engineer. What about that part? What does that part do?” There was always somebody very generous with their time and expertise to explain it to me. It was great in all functions, which was wonderful. It was amazing to be around people who were the best of the best.

What I learned from that is those people who had the most impact on me were very generous with their time, advice, and ideas. What I learned from them is to allow space for other people to learn. When I started, I was a communications major and went into industrial engineering. I didn’t even know what that was at the time but they put you in, gave you a job, and trained you how to do it. I found it interesting. I looked to other people to learn more. A big one is to share what you know with others around you.

Leave space for learning. Creating a culture of learning is a key to success in business if people focus on that. What other lessons did you learn from Boeing and being there? What else did you learn that you’re even taking with you and using?

One of the positive things is that you always have to keep learning. I came from a communication degree and my job wasn’t in communications. My job moved into business operations. There are ways to learn, get competent, and get good at what you do but you have to work at it. It doesn’t come out of the blue naturally. If it’s important to you, do the work, go to school, get mentors, practice, and ask for assignments that are stretch assignments where you have to push yourself. You will learn but it’s up to you to do that work. Nobody can do that for you.

That’s important about putting yourself in places where you can learn what’s next. Something else you said that I loved is your background in communication. My background is in psychology. We can apply what we’ve learned in those fields to so many different settings. What setting doesn’t need communication, or in my case, an understanding of people and how they operate? We can apply that not just in one space but in multiple spaces. It becomes a gift or a real ability that is flexible in a lot of senses.

That is exactly right. People are kaleidoscopes of skills, experiences, ideas, and thoughts. The more we can bring that to what we’re doing, the more rich and valuable our contributions will be.

Leaving Boeing: The Courage To Transition Into New Opportunities

What prompted you to leave Boeing at the time that you did? How did you even have the courage to make that step? Often, people stay someplace because it’s too difficult to think about moving and doing something different.

That is true. It started with a class I took. It was an extra elective class when I was getting my Master’s and it was in coaching, which I had never heard of before. I thought this was interesting. I coached people I worked with and loved working with people. I took it and liked it. The professor said, “You can do this as a career.” I thought, “What do you mean? I don’t even know what that means.” She said, “People will pay you for this.” I said, “I don’t know about that.” I pushed it off to the side but there was a seed in there that I thought, “Maybe someday I’ll look at this.”

That professor was great. As part of that class, we did a values exercise. I had done many value exercises throughout my career at Boeing because they had training. I went to training and different things. We were always doing this value exercise. I could do it pretty fast. I’d check the box and say, “I know my values.” It’s true, they were my values but I didn’t put very much thought into it. She kept saying, “Do it again.” I said, “What do you mean?” She said, “I don’t think you’re digging deep enough.” I did do it. Instead of an hour, it took me a couple of weeks, maybe a month, to do it.

You always have to keep learning. If it’s important to you, do the work.

Values exercises are all over the web and they’re all about the same. You start with words and then pick the words that resonate with you. My words were safety, security, family, and contribution. Those are good. Those are my values. I started to realize why those were my values. I was a single parent for most of my career. Safety and security made sense because I needed enough money and security for my family. Family was my priority and contribution was my work. They all played together and made sense to me.

As I was going through this exercise, I realized safety and security are still there. It’s not gone. However, the priority has changed because my kids are older. I’ve worked at Boeing for all these years and I have positions of responsibility. I’m feeling pretty secure. My risk factor is way better than it was when I first started at Boeing. I thought, “Maybe my priorities have changed.” Not that my family isn’t my priority, but where am I spending my attention and focus?

The contribution was still there. I said, “What is it that lights my fire and gets me going?” I was thinking about this and came up with wonder and awe. I knew that was it. When I was a little girl, what were the things that I used to dream about? I wanted to be an astronaut, travel the world, and do things like that. I thought, “I do. I still am that person and I want that. I have space in my life to do that.” I still have my responsibilities but I have more space to pay attention to that.

From then on, I started making my decisions with that in mind. If I had a new job, I thought, “Would this give me wonder and awe?” For me, that means, is it something new? Am I going to be learning something? Is it a great project? If the answer was yes, I took it. This is maybe a long way to get to why I decided to leave Boeing when I did. I started thinking about where I was in life.

Unfortunately, my son-in-law passed away from leukemia. It brought into clear focus that life is short in many ways. I realized I was in a position where I could leave and try something else that would give me wonder and awe. It was a little bit scary but I felt I was in a position where I could do it. Why not? The question was, what would give me wonder and awe? That was it. I leaped and that’s where it was.

That’s a great story and example of how we can live our lives by our values and also how those values can shift in priority over time. When I think about safety and security, it almost feels like the opposite of wonder and awe. At the same time, you already built the foundation of safety and security. That was taken care of, which gave you the margin and opportunity to pursue this other piece. It has been a part of you since childhood. Often, people don’t get to go back to those childhood dreams and live them out. Good for you that you did the exercise longer, got to wonder and awe, and you’re living some of that. You and I are talking to each other, and you are in Ireland.

I am. Remember when I was talking about leadership and management systems, the BPR, and the regular operating rhythm? I apply that to business. I did it at Boeing and I’ve done it in consulting. It works. What I didn’t talk about is that I do that with my life and it works. I define my values and what I want to do in the future. I think about that on a regular basis. I have an operating rhythm and I put these goals out there. I put my system in place to achieve those goals. I don’t do it as rigorously as I would in business. I give myself some slack if I don’t do things on time. I allow changes but the whole process and mindset of thinking of our life or projects like this puts in place mechanisms to make sure they happen.

Key Lessons From Working With Smaller Entrepreneurial Businesses

You’re talking about deciding what you want to do and accomplish for various values-based reasons. What I’ve discovered is that the how will come to you as you’re pursuing the what. That’s what you’re describing. That’s very powerful. I’ve also found that business tools often work very well when personalized. I’m glad you circled back to say that because it’s relevant. Thank you. You also had startup experience and worked with a smaller entrepreneurial company. Let’s talk about that a little bit. What did you learn from that experience? Tell us a little bit about that business.

That was fun. Hytec Power. It was truly a startup. Not very many people and everybody was doing everything. When I came on board, I came from my business operations experience and putting the processes together. I found myself doing HR functions and everything business-wise. I wasn’t doing any engineering or manufacturing but putting the process together so the business itself could have an operating rhythm, leadership system, and management system.

What I found is that in a startup, things move awfully fast. Having that foundation that I had worked well because I didn’t have to learn it. I was putting it together and working with the leaders there at the time. They were all on board to be able to do this because they were trying to get more established and systematized to deliver their product. The quickness is something to learn and be more flexible.

In a big corporation like Boeing, you have processes and you’ve got to follow them. In a small startup, knowing the intent of the processes and then being able to flex and still achieve the intent is important. First, you learn the rules and then how to break the rules. That’s where I was in the startup. That was good. The other thing is there’s no security in startups.

You might not get paid. You need to deliver. Not everything works out. You don’t have the backup or deep pockets that you do in a larger, more established corporation. You have to be more willing to accept those risks. I was in a good position since I had retired from Boeing that I was able to take those risks. I realized that not everybody can.

That’s important what you’re saying, knowing that it fits in with your life at that time and that you can manage the ups and downs and the roller coaster experience. We also know that a lot of startups and entrepreneurial businesses fail. What’s your sense about why that happens? What are some of the hazards that get in their way that cause them to fail?

The one startup I was with did fail. It’s probably as many reasons as there are startups out there. It could be the product wasn’t ready and you don’t have enough money to push it through to the end. Money is a big deal. It could be that you don’t have the expertise that you need. I wish I knew all the answers but there is no one great answer. The leaders in those positions have a huge responsibility to the people who are investing in them and the people who are working for them to be as transparent as possible and know when to call it and when to keep going.

That timing is not always obvious or clear to make those decisions. Sometimes, people call it too soon or they stay too long, and then the losses are greater. They weren’t going to be effective anyway because of other parts of the system. There’s a lot you learn in this faster-paced environment where you have to be much more agile. Talk a little bit about those lessons and how you’re bringing those forward as well. You’re fortunate to have both sides of the spectrum, big business and also entrepreneurial small business.

Sometimes, we can see something in another person that they can't see for themselves. Click To Tweet

One of the lessons that I learned there for startups is to have a diverse set of, I’m going to call them, board of advisors. It’s not necessarily a formal board of directors or anything like that but a board of advisors. Diversity is important because it’s people who have different experiences and perspectives, not just people who tell you what they think you want to hear. That would be the best thing, and then to have them be able to tell you as the leader or the group of leaders where you can do better.

That’s important because it’s a recognition of the fact that no one person has all the skills needed to run a business. If you’re bringing this diverse board around you and you’re willing to listen to the advisory board, the willingness to listen is huge. You can learn what you don’t know. You can avoid some unnecessary mistakes and get faster to where you need to go. That’s a great lesson you learned from the entrepreneurial small business.

It’s hard, though. The thing that gets people into startups is that they have this great idea and they’re good at something about that, either creating it or whatever it is. The problem is that you need much more than that idea to make it a reality. It’s hard to let go, being the person, expert, and founder, to be able to broaden your perspective and call more people in.

Navigating Male-Dominated Fields In Leadership And Business

You’re right. That’s a hazard of it. The kind of people who start and find things don’t easily let the pieces go, even though, at times, you need to. That’s huge what you’re saying. Susan, both of these experiences, the startup experience and the Boeing experience, occurred in what I would refer to as male-dominated fields. Talk a little bit about that. What was it like for you as a woman to work in these spaces? What did you experience? What did you learn from that?

Oftentimes, especially when I started in the late 1980s, I was the only woman in the room. Oftentimes, I could see people being promoted a lot quicker and further than I was, which was disappointing. I’m hoping it’s better. I’m not sure if it is but I’m hoping it is. What did I learn? I don’t know that I learned this by doing it. I learned this thinking about it. What would I do differently?

This is part of the reason why I’m a coach. I did not advocate for myself. I went with the flow. I was good at and still am good at reading a room and knowing, “If I want this, I need to do this.” I’m juggling other people’s needs and wants to get ahead. Looking back, I could have been a bigger advocate and taken more risks but I didn’t. I was a single parent for most of the time. Safety and security were top of my mind.

I had this notion that I didn’t want to get fired. I was afraid I was going to get fired. It’s a crazy notion. I was never going to get fired. I was a great employee. People wanted me to work in their groups. I contributed and provided a lot of value. Nobody ever suggested I was going to get fired. I had it in my mind that I wasn’t good enough because I wasn’t an engineer or in manufacturing. I was a communications major. Earlier in this show, I said I was just a communications major. I still do it.

I could have taken my career more into my own hands and got training earlier than I did. I waited. Boeing had a training program and everything but you had to be a certain level before you could take certain classes and that kind of thing, which is great. It’s a big corporation. That’s fine. They have to have their own program. It doesn’t mean I have to stick with it. That’s where I would have done things differently.

I heard a lot of things there that women who may be reading this show can take away. One is to advocate for yourself. Include yourself in the group that needs to be developed in service. It’s not just thinking about others, which you do naturally. Put yourself on that list. “What do I need next?” Take the risk to sometimes do it earlier or in a different rhythm than what the company might do on their own so you can take charge of your career in a lot of ways. I hear a little about balancing out the need for safety and security in terms of risk-taking and being willing to get out front a little earlier or sooner. What else would you advise women to think about based on your experience that we haven’t said yet?

I would say get a coach or somebody to talk to. It doesn’t have to be a paid coach but you can get a mentor. You can do it with your colleagues. Push each other. Sometimes, we can see something in another person that they can’t see for themselves. Tell them. Be open when your friends tell you, “I see something special in you. You do this well. Do more of it.” Support each other and lift each other up. That’s important. Some of the things are we don’t even know what’s possible. That’s why talking to others can help us. It was somebody else who suggested I get into management. I didn’t think about it at first.

It’s good to have an outside perspective, for sure. People will see the gifts in us that we sometimes ignore because it’s just, “That’s just us. That’s nothing special,” and we forget. For example, in these high-tech environments, your communications background is needed because that’s not usually what tech people are good at.

You’re exactly right. We need everybody. My role in integrating and aligning all the different functions is vital for the success of a project. It’s about seeing the value in what we do ourselves. The other thing I would say is, “That is what I would fall into. I was just a communications major.” Just because I do, say, and think that sometimes, I don’t let myself off the hook. I still have to step up, perform, show up, and be a leader. I’m not perfect.

I love that. Accept your imperfections because you’re still making a great contribution. That’s the bottom line.

Of course, we are. Nobody’s perfect. In spite of everything, still do what you need to do.

Leadership Challenges In Today’s Business World

You are working with a number of people and you’ve seen clients while looking at the business optics of today and into the future. What are some of the challenges that people are facing most in the world regarding leadership or business operations?

For leadership, people are tired and burnt out. I hear it every single day. They’re trying their best. They’re tired and burnt out. The thing I think people can do, and this is so hard, is take care of themselves. It’s so important. We de-prioritize ourselves so much. Everybody does it, especially women. Everybody comes first. Who are we when we are burnt out and tired? We’re cranky and short. We don’t make good decisions. We hurt relationships. We’re not good leaders.

Leadership is not a positional title. We are all leaders at some point in our lives. Click To Tweet

We might even jeopardize the people we think we’re helping. I think about that airplane example. When you’re with someone else who needs help, you have to put your oxygen mask on first. If you don’t, you die and they die too.

It’s exactly true. The great leaders I know, and I’m very blessed to know quite a few, do this well. It’s amazing. You think, “How can you do that?” They say, “I just do it. It’s important.” It’s a lesson in leadership to set those boundaries for yourself and take it. When we do that, other people respect them.

Seasons Leadership Podcast: What Listeners Can Expect

They see a model and an example of how to succeed. If they don’t see that, they don’t know what’s possible. They’re on the treadmill and can’t get off either. We certainly have to model that as well. I want to ask you about your podcast, Seasons Leadership. Tell us about that. Who’s on it? Who should listen? What will they gain from listening?

Thank you very much, Dr. Karen. Seasons Leadership is a podcast Debbie and I have done for years. We call ourselves accidental podcasters because we got into it through somebody else. We started having fun and kept doing it. We’re still learning but it’s for anybody who is a leader. We believe we are all leaders at some point in our lives. It’s not a positional title but we’re leaders for our families, groups, and communities.

What we do is talk about leadership excellence and what that looks like. We have different guests from different fields and perspectives. A leader is not the same. There are as many leader examples as there are people who are leaders. We want to show people that you don’t have to be a cookie-cutter mold to be a leader. You can be who you are. We’ve got plenty of examples of that.

I’ll direct people to check out Seasons Leadership and tap into some of the leadership excellence that we’re talking about. Susan, how can people reach you and get a hold of you?

One of the best places is through our website, which is SeasonsLeadership.com, or through our Patreon site. If you look at Patreon, look at Seasons Leadership and that comes up. Our podcast is on Spotify, Apple, and YouTube. We’re also on LinkedIn, too.

Words Of Wisdom For Corporate Leaders

They can look you up through your website, on LinkedIn, and through the podcast hosting channels. They can access the podcast there as well. Susan, you’ve shared a lot of deep wisdom with the community already that comes from big business and small business as well. What additional words of wisdom do you want to leave for my community of corporate business executives and leaders?

I appreciate what leaders are doing. We need excellent leaders because they will change the world for the better. If leaders can lead with humility, love, and service, the world will be better.

Amen to that part. Humility, love, and service. I’m a proponent of all three of those. Thank you so much, Susan, for being with me. I appreciate it, and for sharing your love, humility, and service even with the community.

Thank you.

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As we close out our episode, I’d like to share a Bible verse that comes from Proverbs 18:15, which says, “The heart of the prudent acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge.” Everything we’ve been talking about in this episode is about how to get additional knowledge and also wisdom, which is that knowledge applied, and to go outside of yourself sometimes to get it, whether it be your board of advisors, a coach, a mentor, a consultant that you might bring in, or people on your team. We are doing this work together, collaboratively, and in co-creation. All the best to you as you pursue excellence in leadership. Thanks for being here. We’ll see you next time.

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Spirit Wings Kids Foundation: Transforming Lives In Uganda

I want to share some important insights with you about Spirit Wings Kids Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization that’s doing wonders across the globe, especially in Uganda. I have with me Donna Johnson, the Founder of Spirit Wings Kids and a member of the board. She’s going to tell us about the permaculture farm they started. Donna, tell us all about it.

Thank you, Dr. Karen. For decades, we’ve been supporting the Orphanage and Family Network in Uganda. In 2018, my son was a permaculturist. We had acres that we dedicated to his planting. It was amazing. He also taught them how to do permaculture. It’s flourishing. During the pandemic, it saved lives. Two hundred and three families were fed during the pandemic. It’s such a miracle that God called us to plant that garden at the time that we did.

Thank you so much for your work in Uganda. A couple of other things I want people to know. A permaculture farm is self-contained in many ways, depending on how they’re growing the crops. You don’t have to use pest control. You don’t need fertilizer. It’s a very sustainable way to provide food for the community. That’s a blessing. If you want to be part of this wonderful work, 100% of all of your donations go to the people in Uganda to help feed them and their families. Go to SWKids.Foundation and give. Make a difference in the world. Thank you for doing so.

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I want to tell you a little bit about Spirit Wings Kids Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides profound services for orphans, widows, and families across the globe in many ways, especially in the country of Uganda. I’m speaking with Donna Johnson, who is the Founder of Spirit Wings Kids and also a board member. Donna, tell us about some examples of the profound work you’re doing in Uganda.

Thank you, Dr. Karen. We were there and it was incredible. It’s more than an orphanage. We have a soccer academy that keeps the boys off the street. We have a widow’s program that matches them with children. It’s a thriving network of entrepreneurs. It’s been such a meaningful blessing to see the work we’re doing there.

Leaders can lead with humility, love, and service, and the world will be better. Click To Tweet

What I love about what you said is you’re talking about their whole lives. You’re creating families between the widows and the children. You’re also making sure they have recreation and something to do with the soccer academy. You’re looking at the job situation and the entrepreneurial aspect. As a businesswoman yourself who’s very successful, you’re right in line with being able to make that difference. Thank you so much for the difference you’re making. I’m inviting everyone who’s reading to go to SWKids.Foundation and donate. A hundred percent of everything you donate goes to those people who are in need and who are receiving those services. Thank you so much for donating. Donna, thank you for this ministry.

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Victorious Family: Reaching Millions And Transforming Families

I’m here with Terence Chatmon, who is the President and CEO of Victorious Family and also the author of Do Your Children Believe?. Victorious Family has a goal of reaching 9.2 million families by 2030. Terence, tell us, how far along are you on that goal?

We’re very excited. We reached 133,800 families. We’re right around the 400,000 family mark toward our 9.2 million goal in the second year.

That is very exciting news. I know there are many new initiatives helping you to reach even more families. What’s new in the ministry?

What’s exciting is that on December 7th, 2023, we had a national newspaper cover, Victorious Family, that went throughout the country. That exposed us to over 30 million families in the US. From that, we’ve had a great deal of responses. One of those is a new partnership we’re forming with Hampton University to come alongside them and work in eight counties in the Hampton Roads area. We’re really excited about that. Millions of families will be exposed to what it looks like to have a family transformation taking place in your home.

That’s phenomenal. How can people reach you and your weekly resource that you have as well?

They can reach us at VictoriousFamily.org. Our resources are there. We’re excited because we have a brand new resource that came out. It’s our weekly rhythms guide. It gives parents and individuals a day-to-day rhythm in how they might walk in Christ. We encourage them to get a copy of our weekly rhythms guide for parents and individuals.

Thank you so much, Terence. I’m so glad that you’re here with me. Audience, please go to VictoriousFamily.org, donate to the ministry, get the weekly rhythms guide, and see what else is new in the ministry. See you next time.

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About Susan Ireland

PCC, MSM, Tilt 365

Susan Ireland has deep experience in the aerospace industry and business operations. As an ICF-certified professional coach, Susan works with executives, entrepreneurs and leaders at all levels to enhance leadership and business acumen, encourage self-discovery and turn challenges into positive results. Her thought-provoking and creative approach inspires enduring, transformative change.

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