309: Great Teams and Great Leadership with Julie Campbell: Fan Favorite Replay

Hi there. You’re listening to the Leading Lady podcast. I’m your host, AliceAnne Loftus, and I’m a certified professional coach specializing in leadership and work-life balance. I work with clients to shift their limiting beliefs, insecurities, and self-doubt. This podcast will be filled with tools and strategies to help high-achieving women like you feel connected, empowered, and in the lead of your life, both personally and professionally. Let’s transform your life starting now. Lead yourself. The rest will follow.

Hi there, leading ladies, and welcome to today’s episode. I’m joined by my dear friend and fellow Leading Lady Ambassador, Julie Campbell. Julie is the president and CEO of the Seven Leadership Group, making the world a better place through virtuous leadership. She has served for 20 years in the U.S. Navy in various leadership positions in space systems, electronic warfare, and communications, followed by ten years leading teams in the defense and information technology industries. With a passion and curiosity for people and their purposes, Julie is a lifelong mentor and collaborator with a mission to help others level up their leadership as they change the world.

When she’s not knee-deep in creating partnerships, fundraising, and growing the network of mentors, fellows, and supporters, you can find her volunteering at her two sons’ school, cheering at sports events, playing board games, or walking, listening to podcasts, and reading. Sometimes all three at once. Julie relishes her precious time with friends and prefers the beach over the mountains.

Okay, I might have to fight you there. I’m a mountain girl. And honestly, do not take her camping. That we have in common. Instead, offer her a sturdy roof over her head, a nice comfortable bed, good food, decent wine, and engaging company. And I just want to add, Julie, you are one of the most lovely people I know, and I’m so thankful to have you in my orbit. So thank you for joining us today, and let’s get started.

Julie Campbell: That sounds great. Thanks, AliceAnne. You’re so sweet. It’s kind of a mouthful, isn’t it? I need to edit that bio.

AliceAnne Loftus: You know, sometimes I wish that I could just have episodes where I just said, “I just want to tell you all about this amazing woman that I know that’s in my life,” because I’m sure you come across this as well, but we meet such interesting people. Such interesting people.

Julie Campbell: I love it. Yes, I agree. Yes.

Why Teams Matter

AliceAnne Loftus: So thank you for joining me today. We’re going to be talking about really why teams matter in our organizations. And I also want to really dive into the heart of a great leader, what the characteristics are of a great leader. So let’s just start off. Why do teams matter?

Julie Campbell: Yes, let’s get started. Okay. Well, as you read in my bio, you can kind of see I have a bias towards teams, right? I always love a good team. And I don’t know if it’s nature or nurture. I’m the youngest of six, so I kind of grew up in a team, and so I was rarely the leader unless I was, you know, the cutest kid on the block. But it’s just in my bones.

And then I spent 20 years in the Navy leading, always part of a team or leading a team. A mantra that several of my bosses would use is, “One team, one fight.” And I carried that when I had command and carried that into even my civilian work that I did, because you are pulling together as a team.

I’m a people person, and we share that. And I appreciate seeing, but also celebrating, the successes of others. And so that’ll tie into what makes a good leader of teams. But face it, when you’re part of a winning or high-performing team, you realize that you’re part of something bigger than yourself, which is just amazing.

So hopefully those that are listening have been parts of some wonderful teams so that they can resonate. They may also have been parts of some crummy teams, which will also tie to the leader of the team.

AliceAnne Loftus: And I know that a common misconception is that I work with solopreneurs. A lot of the women that I coach, while it is true many of the businesses that I work with, they are solopreneurs or it’s a one-woman show, there are many small businesses out there where women are running teams.

My own business, my first business, I’ve been in childcare for over 20 years, and I have a large team. And I would not be able to grow or move forward in my business without my team and being able to work with other individuals, different personalities, pulling in everyone’s various strengths and supporting each other where needed. That’s a skill. That’s something that you really, really have to embrace, is that teamwork mentality.

And believe it or not, on the strengths assessment, teamwork is very low on mine.

Julie Campbell: Well, we’ve got some work to do then. Yeah. Well, AliceAnne, you said it. People think teams means, “I’m leading a team of direct reports.” But frankly, when you look at the Leading Lady Ambassadors, we’re a team. We come together for a common purpose, and we pull together all with our strengths and our weaknesses.

There are some key characteristics that all tie to, and when we talk a little bit about this, that make up that team. And even in this year that I’ve been participating, you and I have talked about this, it takes time to build a cohesive team, a team that trusts each other. And we’re starting to gel as one of the newer members on the team.

So it doesn’t have to be that, “Okay, I’m a manager and I have five direct reports.” That’s not what it means to be a team. It could be your contractors who help do your social media. They’re a part of your routine.

AliceAnne Loftus: Yes. Yes. So I think that’s a common misconception that solopreneurs don’t have teams because they absolutely do.

Julie Campbell: But let’s talk too. You asked me, “Why do teams matter?” And let’s talk to those folks that say, “Oh, I can do this alone,” and let’s debunk some of those things.

I truly believe that collaborative decision-making moves goals forward and gets things done. So having people on your team that can help inform your decisions, maybe they’re not making the decisions, but informing those decisions. There’s wisdom when you bring teams together.

You cannot master challenges by yourself, right? So maybe it’s a team where you have a coach on your team or mentors on your team, but individual managers cannot meet all performance challenges in an organization, especially in a larger organization.

Those teams build the gaps in organizations that we have. Innovation, so much of what we do in our industries, even you’ve probably seen it in the life of Leading Ladies and how we’ve had to innovate, how we advertise, and how we provide services. Well, I imagine you didn’t come up with all those ideas yourself, right?

AliceAnne Loftus: Yeah. I mean, we’re human. We need the perspective of others. We need to bounce ideas off one another. We need to agree that we might not have all the answers. And, you know, I always say that leaders are learners, and you learn from your team and you learn from listening to others.

Julie Campbell: Yeah. I also think some friendly competition on a team is good. It encourages personal growth because as you see your teammates grow, you’ll want to grow. Plus, they’ll encourage you to grow. They give you mutual support, and good teams will have a shared learning environment.

I’ve been part of some great teams where it’s not always the senior person training the junior person. I’ve been trained by a lot of folks that have these expertises and skill sets that I didn’t have. And if I went in with that learning mindset and was excited to learn from them, it just creates this wonderful shared learning environment.

Frankly, it also increases job satisfaction. So part of what we do here, and what I do every year, is I look at the state of the workplace, the global workplace. My kids are going to enter the workplace. My husband is in the workplace. My dear friends are in the workplace.

And we specifically look at employee engagement and job satisfaction. And I know you’ve heard the word “quiet quitting” this year. That’s a new term.

AliceAnne Loftus: Quiet quitting. Yes. And it makes total sense. It makes total sense.

Julie Campbell: It is. They go to work, they’re filling a seat, watching the clock, punching the clock, and then doing the minimal effort required. They’re not connected to their employer or to their team. It’s really sad to see. It’s sad for me to see.

And those people that are quiet quitting, they’re most likely to be stressed out, burnt out. So this past year, 59% are what the Gallup poll says are disengaged or quiet quitting. Fifty-nine percent. Isn’t that horrible?

AliceAnne Loftus: Horrible. Yeah.

Julie Campbell: So when you’re thriving at work, you feel proud of what you do, that you’re part of a team that’s making a difference. You take ownership in your performance. That’s only about 23% of the world’s workforce.

As we look at building our teams and leading teams, we really want to move some of those quiet quitters into those thrivers. And I think you can do that when you’re part of a great team and when you’re leading a great team.

The last thing I want to say about teams, and this I truly believe in my soul, is we were created to be in relationship with others. So being part of a fabulous team, whether it’s your family team or your work team, because we spend so much time at work, that’s what we’re meant to be.

So let’s talk about how we create those teams. What are some key concepts that a leader can do to create those thriving teams and move some of those quiet quitters over to those really engaged employees or people on your team?

Leadership Begins With You, Not About You

AliceAnne Loftus: I love that. So you shared with me in the pre-interview three principles at the core of a leader. Number one is leadership begins with you, not about you. Can you tell me more about that?

Julie Campbell: Yes. It makes sense, right? But so often we see leaders that are really looking to get ahead. They’re looking for that promotion, that pay raise. They want those accolades. And we’ve all worked for people like that.

So let’s flip that. It begins with you as a leader. You have an important role to guide that team, but it’s not about you.

Many people have used over the years that term “servant leader.” I like that term. I’ve used that term. I’ve tried to be a servant leader. But I realize too, and I’ve done this, sometimes when you’re selfless, you don’t take care of yourself.

AliceAnne Loftus: That’s the truth.

Julie Campbell: Yeah. So it gets a bad rap, right? I’ve recently heard of “other-focused leader.” So yes, I care about my well-being. I have to be healthy so that I can lead a team. I have to take care of myself. I need to understand what’s going on with myself.

But as an other-focused leader, I need to care about them, how they’re feeling, how they’re developing, my team members, my followers, the people that I’m pulling together as a team.

So it really focuses, when you talk about leadership begins with you and it’s not about you, it focuses on the character of the leader.

Leadership is a relationship of influence. We want to influence, not for people to submit to us as a leader.

AliceAnne Loftus: We want to influence future leaders.

Julie Campbell: Yes. And we want to influence them to embrace this common purpose or mission that we have.

So as a leader, it begins with you. You have to make sure that mission, that purpose, is clear. And you have to state it over and over again. You need to encourage and excite people around that purpose and mission.

And if that purpose and mission is not cutting the mustard, then maybe you as a team need to look at that and refine that purpose and mission.

As a leader, where it begins with you, not about you, you have to make sure you’re setting and reinforcing the conditions. People want to have that structure. They want to understand what their goals are. They want to understand what you expect of them, and they want to be held accountable.

You think, “Gosh, they’re adults. They’re professionals.” But all of us need that little nudge sometimes, that little reminder to be held accountable.

So again, as the leader, begin with you, not about you. You’re thinking about holding your folks accountable, giving them that purpose and mission reminder, defining their goals, and celebrating when they make progress toward their goals.

AliceAnne Loftus: Oh, I love that. We have to know our goals, but we also have to celebrate them, even the small celebrations.

Julie Campbell: And there’s individual goals, but team goals too. And when you can make team goals and you are celebrating as a team, that just amplifies the progress the team has made.

Leadership Through Virtues

AliceAnne Loftus:Yeah. So I talk a lot about leadership through values. And what I love is how you bring leadership through virtues. Can we talk more about that? Because that is a really interesting and powerful concept.

Julie Campbell: Yes. Great. People use them interchangeably, so let me try and kind of dispel that.

Values are not a bad thing. First, let me start with that. You need to have values. You need to have team values, company values, personal values.

Why virtues? I want to say values may not be enough. And here’s why.

We all operate from a set of values. In fact, you and I came together because we valued a virtue that we have, but that I’ll talk about. We value excellence and we value relationships.

When you look at excellence, it’s doing everything, exuding excellence, not hoity-toity, but really taking care and making sure you’re prepared.

AliceAnne Loftus: Your due diligence.

Julie Campbell: Yes. But I will submit that our values change over time.

AliceAnne Loftus: Absolutely.

Julie Campbell: My values and your values before we had children, and now we have children, those values changed. As our children get older, our values shift. It’s for the season that we’re in.

But to be consistent and transcendent and timeless, I look at virtues. This is how I live out my values. This is how I bring the best into my values.

And where it’s most important is when it gets tough. When you’re tired, stressed, overwhelmed, broken, or things are not going according to plan, it’s really hard sometimes to live out your values fully.

So when you look at virtues, those virtues are how I’m going to live out my values.

We look at five virtues that are critical for our leaders and for leaders of teams to recognize and practice and reinforce.

Those virtues are love, and that’s a selfless love, agape love, the golden rule, but love of others. You can do that in the workplace. Truly showing not a feeling for somebody, but the act of love for somebody.

The second virtue is integrity. We know this as businesswomen. It’s alignment between your family, your personal, and your professional lives. Consistently living like someone is always watching. Doing the right thing when no one is watching.

AliceAnne Loftus: It’s so hard.

Julie Campbell: But so important.

The third virtue is truth. That’s really seeking and evaluating facts to distinguish and stand up for what is fundamentally right.

The fourth virtue is excellence. This is where you and I really connected when we first met. It’s really that continuous pursuit of learning and improving and then growing in these other virtues.

And finally, the last one that you and I resonate with is the virtue of relationships. Building a business, building a team, you need to be able to cultivate those positive connections between individuals, groups, and your community.

As a leader, if you’re leading behind your desk and in your office and you’re not out walking the deck plates, as we used to say in the Navy, but you’re not building those relationships and listening and asking personal questions, it’s going to be really hard to uphold some of those values that you have around relationships and building your business.

AliceAnne Loftus: Yeah. In relationships, I choose to go deep, not wide. Maybe that’s something introverted Alison is going through, because I really, really want to connect with people.

It’s more important to me to have deep, meaningful connections and relationships than to know a lot. Followers aren’t relationships. Likes, clicks, those aren’t necessarily meaningful.

But when you’re connecting with the right people and you’re making an impact in the relationships and you’re investing in those relationships, really beautiful things can happen.

Julie Campbell: Absolutely. And it takes courage. We sometimes throw in a bonus virtue of courage, because sometimes as you’re building those relationships, someone may say something or they don’t realize they’ve done something.

So having the courage to work within that relationship and let somebody know that maybe what they said was inappropriate or harmful or hurtful.

So it’s really, like you said, not that surface-level relationship. It’s that deep relationship.

So love, integrity, truth, excellence, and relationships. By grounding your foundation in those virtues, those will support your values. They will support your business. They will really influence your team because as they see you leading from that foundation of virtue, they’re going to appreciate it and perhaps want to do the same.

Emotional Intelligence and Leadership

AliceAnne Loftus: Yeah, I love this just so much. And finally, I want to touch on something that we don’t really talk about a lot when it comes to leadership and teams, and that’s the EQ, the emotional intelligence piece.

I really try to pull that in. And I tell everyone that my son actually worked with someone who went through your program. My son is an athlete, and one of his mentors obviously is a coach.

This coach went through your program, and the emotional intelligence that he brought to how he worked with my son in coaching him in baseball completely transformed how my son shows up as a teammate, as a leader on his team, as a student, as a member of our family.

So it really does trickle down into communities and children. I was just astounded by the emotional intelligence support that came through that.

Julie Campbell: So great to hear. Leaders feel like they have to be the most technical and they have to know everything to lead others.

And I came from a lot of technical teams. We were engineers and had to set up equipment, and that was our mission.

But emotional intelligence, and some people think, “Oh, that’s soft skills. Pepper a little bit of that here and there.” That’s not going to work.

AliceAnne Loftus: That’s your foundation.

Julie Campbell: It is. It is essential.

And frankly, women think, “Oh gosh, we kind of do this naturally. We’re more empathetic and more socially responsible.” Well, maybe. But it’s interesting, and I am an emotional intelligence coach, to see that what we think and how we think we know our feelings and emotions, we all have work to do.

Emotional intelligence is being aware of, controlling, expressing, and handling your emotions, and understanding the emotions of others. And that’s key as a leader of a team.

The only way you get better at that is really doing these exercises with yourself and asking and listening to others.

A great leader realizes that her emotions help her better understand others. It’s critical for motivating others. I can tell somebody to do something all day, but if I don’t know that they’re feeling hurt because something happened outside of work, they may or may not respond.

And it’s critical for collaborating and harmonizing. As a team, yes, we talked about competition, a little friendly competition, but ultimately you have to harmonize with others or you guys are going to self-destruct.

The tool that I use has 15 elements, which is a lot, but I’ll give you just a couple of examples so you can understand what emotional intelligence elements are.

One is interpersonal relationships. One is empathy. And the other I’ll mention is social responsibility. They really connect closely to the behaviors that we exhibit with individuals when leading our teams.

It also ties really closely to that virtue of love. So if I am strong or exercising my emotional intelligence elements that are interpersonal relationships, showing empathy, and being socially responsible, meaning I’m that servant leader, that other-focused leader, that really will show that I am loving those individuals on my team or those individuals that are my customers or clients.

So we love at Seven Leadership Group to tie emotional intelligence to the virtues and how you can behave no matter where you’re leading, whether it’s home or work, and grow in those virtues by tying your emotional intelligence to that.

Learning More About Seven Leadership Group

AliceAnne Loftus: Yeah, I love this so much. And I think the program that you have is something we all need. I’m excited to work with you even more in 2024.

How can our listeners get involved or learn more about Seven Leadership?

Julie Campbell: Absolutely. So our website is sevenleadership.org, and it gives you an overview of our programs.

Our flagship program is our Fellows Program. That’s where leaders in all different industries, military, government, nonprofit leaders, come together and learn to lead in a cohort based on that foundation of virtue over about a five-month period.

They’re paired with an individual mentor, as well as learning from the other leaders in the community that they share the cohort with.

Then we have this Mentors Program where we certify our mentors to walk alongside fellows, whether it’s in our program or in their organizations, so they can give back their hard-earned wisdom.

And then we also work with organizations and bring whole teams through, and that is just fabulous because you get to see the result of the whole team.

There’s more information on our website. We hold monthly something called Discover SG, so you can come get a really short overview. It’s about 30 to 40 minutes long, all on Zoom because we are national, and learn more and ask your questions.

And then, of course, we’re on social media always posting what we’re up to.

AliceAnne Loftus: Well, thank you so much. Is there anything you want to leave our listeners with today?

Julie Campbell: You can lead great teams. When you lead great teams, you’re going to see your performance and your results skyrocket, and it is going to feed your soul.

Because remember, we were created to be in relationship with others. So let’s make our world better by leading great teams.

AliceAnne Loftus: Yes. Thank you so much, Julie. And until next time, ladies, take the lead.

Thanks for tuning in for another episode of the Leading Lady podcast. You can find all of the links and information mentioned in this episode at LeadingLadyCoaching.com. If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to follow the show so you don’t miss any future episodes. And while you’re there, it would mean the world to me if you would take a few seconds and leave me an honest review. This will allow me to help other high-achieving women find inspiration, connection, and develop strategies to live and lead with purpose and intention. See you here next week.