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The Path To Leadership
We podcast about strong leaders, loyal employees, avoiding burnout, and raising profits building strong cultures. Everyone is a leader, but the path isn't always easy. Developing critical skills to build stronger, more successful and profitable organizations.
The Path To Leadership
Welcome to Season 2
What does it take to grow as a leader and step out of your comfort zone? Join us as we kick off season two of "Path to Leadership" with an exploration of the transformative experiences and rich learning opportunities from the Leadership Kansas program. This season, I'll introduce you to some of my incredible classmates and share the diverse insights we've gained throughout our journey.
On a more personal note, I'll share some of the significant transitions happening in my family life, from my daughter's academic journey to my son's career milestones, all while navigating the demanding role of caregiving for my mother. This episode emphasizes the importance of vulnerability and balancing personal and professional growth.
Don't forget to send in your questions or topics you'd like us to address in future episodes. Enjoy the season and let's continue this journey together on "Path to Leadership"!
Follow Catalyst Development on LinkedIn @catalystdevelopment, @drkatieervin, @jennascott
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Learn more about Supervisor 101 at www.cdleaders.com/supervisor101
Learn about LEADERs Institute at www.katieervin.com/leaders
Theme music by Emma Jo https://emmajo.rocks/
everyone. Welcome back to the path to leadership and welcome to reason two. Hope you've had a great summer. It's hard to believe that it is september where. Where does the time go? It's so interesting, as we, you know, shut down for the summer and took a little break. It seemed like it was so long ago, but then also it was just yesterday. So excited to be back up and going again for season two. I am so looking forward to the conversations. This season.
Dr. Katie Ervin:I've been working on our guest list and there are some really neat people that I am going to be talking to. We're going to be continuing to look at your own journey to leadership and how you can continue to grow in your journey. I have people from just really all over the state of Kansas. I've been in the Leadership Kansas program, which is really neat. It is through the Kansas Chamber and it goes until November and each month we spend a little bit of time in all the cities all across Kansas, in all the cities all across Kansas, and so we've been to Lawrence, kansas, and we've been to Garden City and Dodge City, we've been to Hayes, kansas, wichita We've just been all over and it's been a lot of fun and what has been neat for me, as someone who is an Army brat and has really traveled around a lot to see the different areas in Kansas, it's just been so much learning. But then to also be in a cohort with 39 other professionals throughout the state of Kansas in all kinds of different industries and backgrounds, and we know as we go through our leadership journey that anytime we're around people that are different than us, it's really prime learning opportunity. And getting comfortable, being uncomfortable and having uncomfortable conversations is what helps us grow and that's really been part of this experience. It's been really neat to step out of my comfort zone and, as someone who is an extrovert and who's someone who does leadership training for a living, I have worked really hard to sit back and learn and absorb and take things in and it's been just such a cool adventure.
Dr. Katie Ervin:So I'm going to introduce you to some of my classmates throughout this season and some of the unique things that they do and some of the really cool things that we've learned in Leadership Kansas. We're going to do a lot of that. We are kicking off our third Leaders Institute cohort coming up in October. We will start really opening registration up. You can early register at katiervincom slash leaders and this is our year-long leadership institute. It's in person here in Kansas City and, as we are going through this year's cohort, it is so cool to watch the early career and the emerging leaders and the senior leaders all come together to really learn from each other, learn from amazing experts here in Kansas City and just watch as they continue to grow as a group but also grow individually. So we are going to be doing that here real soon and going to share with you throughout this season some of the journey that this cohort has gone through. We talked to some of the members last year of the 2023 cohort and it was fun to chat with them, and so we're going to bring some of our 2024 cohort together to share kind of their learning journey and what they've been going through and what they're learning. So a lot of really exciting and fun conversations this season.
Dr. Katie Ervin:I'm also interested to hear what you want to learn about. What are those growth areas that you really want to focus on and continue to work through? I want to make sure that we are bringing in experts in those areas because really your path to leadership is about those growth areas, those areas that we have the self-awareness and know we need to work on, but then also maybe shine some light on what might be some blind spots for some of us, to make sure that we're continuing to grow and learn and help people get to that next level. I will say the summer for me has been just a lot. It has been a transition in a lot of areas. My amazing daughter, abby, who I talk about quite a bit, is transferring from University of Mobile to Pittsburgh State University, which is where I went to school, and so it's really cool to have her closer to home and to be able to spend more time with her as she is getting started back up at Pittsburgh State. My son is still at Argosy Casino and loving life there, getting a lot of good experience as an early career professional. I'm learning a lot from him as he goes through his journey as a early career professional and a Gen Z, both of them in the workplace and in the world. So I continue to do a lot of research on how we really leverage all the different generations in the workplace. So we're going to talk a lot about that and, as many people in my circle know and most of you who listen to the podcast may not know, I have, since April, really taken on the role of caregiver for my mother producing or holding blood.
Dr. Katie Ervin:So three days a week we have to drive 25 to 30 minutes to a local hospital to check her levels and then typically she has to get platelets, blood, platelets and blood or any combination. So these journeys can be anywhere from two to three hours a day to six to eight hours a day, and while I am the primary caregiver, I'm so thankful my family has really stepped in and helped with some of the caregiving as well. That has been a real journey in how you run a business and also try to be a caregiver. It takes a lot, and so I've had to learn to be very vulnerable, which I've always really prided myself on being, but sometimes I'm better at it than others. When people ask how you're doing, I stop saying great or fine, now it's. You know there's a lot going on and we're going to get through it, but not every day is a super fun day for me right now, but that's okay. Everything happens for a reason, and so we are learning and growing through this.
Dr. Katie Ervin:I would imagine as this season of the podcast goes forward, I will be sharing more bits and pieces of this as we continue to try to get her into remission or hopefully cure. This. It's not very common, and so her hematologist is trying a lot of different things, and so it's definitely been a journey on this, and so I am learning to give myself a lot of grace. I am learning to give myself a lot of grace, but also trying to learn to give others grace and really fight through what's going on here. So that's really what's been happening in the off season. I am ready to start these conversations.
Dr. Katie Ervin:So next week on the Path to Leadership, I'm really excited. I have my good friend, jill Hathaway on. She works for the Missouri Small Business Development Center at UMKC. She talked a lot about the work that they do there, the work they do supporting entrepreneurs and small business, so I'm really excited for you all to hear about her and the work that they are doing at the Missouri SBDC. So that will be next week. I can't wait for you all to hear that, and I hope you enjoy the season. Please reach out, let us know if you have questions or want us to cover different topics, and I will see you on next week's Left to Leadership. Thanks everyone.
