Ep185 Angel Beets - A New Wave of Skills Top Companies Are Looking For

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:03:18
Angel Beets
I actually had somebody track me down in networking about a year and a half ago or so,

00:00:03:18 - 00:00:05:03
Angel Beets
and she said, I just want to tell you,

00:00:05:03 - 00:00:10:03
Angel Beets
I didn't get that job. And she was a finalist candidate. But she said the process was so impressive.

00:00:10:03 - 00:00:12:01
Angel Beets
Your team is so good at what they do

00:00:12:01 - 00:00:15:04
Angel Beets
that I never felt like I didn't know where I stood in the process.

00:00:15:10 - 00:00:18:00
Angel Beets
I got good feedback. That's everything.

00:00:20:14 - 00:00:30:10
Mike O'Neill
welcome to Get Unstuck and On Target, the weekly podcast that offers senior leaders insights and strategies to not only lead with competence and vision,

00:00:30:14 - 00:00:33:10
Mike O'Neill
but also to achieve groundbreaking results.

00:00:33:21 - 00:00:43:21
Mike O'Neill
I'm your host, Mick O'Neill. I coach top level executives on the power of ethical leadership to forge teams to be as united as they are effective

00:00:44:20 - 00:00:45:22
Mike O'Neill
in each episode.

00:00:46:02 - 00:00:56:04
Mike O'Neill
Join me for insightful conversations with leaders just like you, providing practical advice to help you get unstuck and propel you and your company forward.

00:00:57:02 - 00:00:58:03
Mike O'Neill
Let's get started.

00:01:02:02 - 00:01:27:24
Mike O'Neill
Joining me is Angel Beets. Angel is the CEO of Diamond Partners and executive search and leadership development firm based in Cincinnati. In addition to running her firm, she provides strategic oversight for GP Elevate, a leadership development program designed to prepare high potential leaders for executive roles. She also develops custom training programs for leadership teams and leads strength

00:01:27:24 - 00:01:30:24
Mike O'Neill
training sessions for businesses and non

00:01:30:24 - 00:01:32:08
Mike O'Neill
profit groups.

00:01:32:10 - 00:01:38:09
Mike O'Neill
You can see shortly why I was interested in having Angel on the podcast. Welcome, Angel.

00:01:38:11 - 00:01:41:12
Angel Beets
Thank you. I'm really excited to talk to you.

00:01:41:14 - 00:02:06:13
Mike O'Neill
Let me speak to that. The fact that you are the CEO of a recruiting firm that also does leadership development strikes me as something that I don't see very often in my role. But let's start with you, Angel. You are CEO of a recruiting firm. You are able to pursue other passions. Walk us through a little bit about kind of what got you to where you are now.

00:02:06:15 - 00:02:26:05
Angel Beets
Yeah, I get to ask that question a lot, especially people look at my LinkedIn. They're like, look at this work out. I often joke that my career path has been really curvy, but along those curves, I see some really direct correlations back to the things that I've loved since I was a little kid. And that's communication, public speaking and writing and also teaching.

00:02:26:06 - 00:02:44:22
Angel Beets
I mean, I was the big sister who made my brother do school in the summer. And, you know, I did speech contests when I was in elementary school, and everything has revolved around those. But my background really is in public relations. That's what I studied. I was fascinated by influencing others in a positive way for positive reasons.

00:02:45:03 - 00:02:46:13
Angel Beets
So my career followed,

00:02:46:13 - 00:03:01:08
Angel Beets
agency work in Indianapolis, in Chicago and and some nonprofit work as well. But then I went to grad school at Illinois and found a real love for interpersonal communication. came back to Cincinnati area, and then way back into agency PR, but then taught college for ten years.

00:03:01:08 - 00:03:22:14
Angel Beets
I got to teach at a community college where I really taught every single, communication class public speaking, interpersonal comm, everything. but then really missed sort of being with industry and like back into PR and then found my way to Gilman Partners. And you know, I look back in my life and I think about how much I've always loved careers, been fascinated by careers.

00:03:22:16 - 00:03:49:10
Angel Beets
I'm the nerd at parties who wants to know what you do and why. And I just find it fascinating what people choose to do for work. And so coming here made a lot of sense for me. The people really spoke to me and we can talk about that later. I think there are certain soft skills that are prevalent here that have really built into our culture over the years that I was attracted to without y understanding y, and that's what's, really made me want to come here and stay here for a long time.

00:03:49:14 - 00:04:14:10
Angel Beets
And the leadership development piece makes a lot of sense for us. You know, we focus as a firm on the top third of the organizational chart, replacing a lot of directors and vice presidents and C-suite leaders. And so our clients want to keep that top talent. It's not always about looking externally to bring in new talent. So for us, it was how do we help develop those senior leaders at our clients to let them stay for a long time and make a difference?

00:04:14:12 - 00:04:44:15
Mike O'Neill
I love that you made reference to you were attracted to your organization because it's just the soft skills that you saw, readily apparent. it's that term soft skills I'd like to spend some time on. And that is, you all have found a way to marry recruiting for the top third, but you're also acknowledging that an organization has a choice, and that is, do you the expression do you buy or build?

00:04:44:17 - 00:05:08:06
Mike O'Neill
Do you go outside the organization to find what you're looking for, or do you build and your company provides a unique you can do both. which is very, very unusual. Let's go back to recruiting, just for a moment. in the time you've been at Human Partners, how has professional recruitment, particularly for that top third change, changed?

00:05:08:08 - 00:05:35:03
Angel Beets
You know, I've seen a big shift in my six and a half years here. But I would say my colleagues who've been here for much longer have also spoken to the differences they've seen. One of the big ones, especially I think I shared this with you a while back, is in the finance space, too. You know, there were times where companies would come and they would want a CFO, for example, and it was someone who would sit in their office, often his office, because that was what the CFO profile looked like.

00:05:35:05 - 00:05:58:21
Angel Beets
And he would crunch out PowerPoints and worksheets. And, and that's not necessarily what companies are looking for today. You know, client after client is using the phrase roll up their sleeves, partner collaborate, teach. They want to CFO who can work with other business leaders to really help them think creatively and strategically about the business and help them understand the finance piece.

00:05:58:21 - 00:06:26:14
Angel Beets
So, you know, I love that shift, and that's not the only place we're seeing it. There was a great HBR article a while ago, too, that really spoke to the rise in mentions of soft skills on C-suite, job descriptions and the decrease in some of the mentions of those nonfunctional skills like finance and strategy. I'm not implying that CEOs and C-suite leaders don't need those skills, but I think more and more we sort of assume that they're coming with those skills.

00:06:26:15 - 00:06:44:01
Angel Beets
Now, that's a side, topic that we really need to dig in and ensure they have those skills. But we're looking more and more for those other skills, the interpersonal skills that I don't think were necessary or as prevalent in C-suite leaders, call it, a decade or two decades ago.

00:06:44:04 - 00:06:57:20
Mike O'Neill
You know what the challenges is when you're looking at technical skills, you can assess those, but soft skills. How does Gilmore Partners go about assessing the soft skills of a candidate that you're considering presenting?

00:06:57:22 - 00:07:14:00
Angel Beets
Yeah, there's a lot of ways we do that. And our recruiters, many of them have been doing this for a very long time, and it's definitely a blend of art and science. but part of that is in the questions we ask. If you're asking very technical questions at get at the skills, you're not going to hear the other pieces come out.

00:07:14:02 - 00:07:32:21
Angel Beets
You know, part of it is questions about, yes, how they have handled something, how they might approach a situation, understanding that, you know, sometimes we don't know all the details, but how might you approach a situation like this? listening for how they speak about their team in the past or who has provided them counsel in the past.

00:07:33:01 - 00:07:57:23
Angel Beets
You know, if someone comes in and they're very much like they were the reason that this former company achieved. That's a it's partly true sometimes, but there's also other factors. So we're listening for key words that would help us dive in deeper. We also do use the predictive index assessment, which is not a pass fail by any means, but it does allow us to dive in a little deeper or ask some better questions about candidates, how they'll show up on the job.

00:07:58:00 - 00:08:18:14
Angel Beets
You know, when we do reference checks for our clients, we don't just do a quick phone call. That's what you hired them again. And thank you. We're done. We really do dive in and ask some deep questions. And it's sometimes surprising what you'll hear in a reference check if you really do it correctly, that you might not get to if you just do it as a box check in the process.

00:08:18:16 - 00:08:40:03
Angel Beets
you know, we also use presentations for some senior level candidates where they come in and they present their response to a situation. And you learn a lot by how they handle something in the moment, how they talk to a board or to a group of leaders. it can be a make or break for a lot of the candidates as well, because we want them to have that gravitas, that executive presence.

00:08:40:03 - 00:08:53:21
Angel Beets
And in an interview you can sometimes I don't want to say fake it. That's not right. But you can you can, exhibit those skills. But when you're really presenting to an impressive group of leaders, it can change how they view you.

00:08:53:23 - 00:09:04:22
Mike O'Neill
Very, very much. interesting. And how you all kind of Mary these arts and science approach I mentioned Elevate GP I'm assuming is for Gilman Partners.

00:09:04:23 - 00:09:05:21
Angel Beets
It is. Yeah.

00:09:05:23 - 00:09:13:16
Mike O'Neill
Elevate. Walk us through. Tell us a little bit about it and how it came about. And what is it you're all trying to accomplish for your clients there?

00:09:13:18 - 00:09:33:12
Angel Beets
Yeah. This was off framework of a program that was created by another great group here in town. And they asked us to sort of take it on and breathe some new life into it. And that's what we did a few years ago. So we're on our 10th cohort right now. We have 127 graduates in our program, and it's really designed to take very high potential leaders.

00:09:33:12 - 00:09:58:14
Angel Beets
This is not a fixing program. There are other things that can help fix, but we take high potential leaders who need to step out of their day to day role and really focus on the whole organization very broadly. So we're not claiming to be necessarily an MBA program that's that's much more in depth. But we sometimes joke micro MBA, and we're giving both a mix of functional hard skills with these interpersonal skills, because that's what leaders need.

00:09:58:16 - 00:10:23:01
Angel Beets
And honestly, as much as I talk about interpersonal soft skills being critical, there is it's very hard to find a way to learn some of these functional skills outside of going to a formal training program, a formal MBA program. And so we do offer them participants, inside a full day into talent management. How do you attract, retain, develop talent, assess the talent on your team.

00:10:23:05 - 00:10:40:13
Angel Beets
Ask good interview questions. ask questions. It gets a culture fit. How do you do that? we do a whole day on organizational strategy. How do you think about your differentiators? How do you know what to say no to? Because as you very well know, it's easy to say yes to everything. And then no one knows when to call you anymore.

00:10:40:15 - 00:11:00:07
Angel Beets
we do a half day on finance with a former CFO. Was one of our team members. he does a great job of helping us understand the basics of Ebit and cash flow. And, you know, so many leaders come to us with that deep financial training and others come to us saying, I have a budget, but I don't understand how it all comes together.

00:11:00:12 - 00:11:24:00
Angel Beets
So that's always really helpful. We do a half day on change management with change management, facilitators who really understand the process. We talk about why humans resist change because almost all of us do. How we can help, really help sell our team to move toward positive change. And then we move in to the softer skills. I do a whole session on interpersonal communication, on crucial conversation patterns.

00:11:24:02 - 00:11:44:09
Angel Beets
We talk about emotional intelligence with that, with a facilitator in that space, talk about productivity and time management. It's not just about being busy, it's about being productive. And how do you as a leader, exhibit that? And how do you make sure your team thinks about productivity versus, you know, versus other aspects of, just being busy?

00:11:44:11 - 00:12:04:24
Angel Beets
And then lastly, we follow up with executive team behaviors that can make them either make or break. How do you build trust in your executive team and how important that is to cascading down the whole organization? So at the end, everyone comes together. They share out their learnings, how they've applied the content, and then we celebrate with our alumni and our sponsors.

00:12:04:24 - 00:12:28:09
Angel Beets
And it's it's it's cohort after cohort, such a rewarding experience because it's not just a feel good program. I am a big believer that we should deliver content unless it's excellent. I maximize our coming out and if you can't apply something immediately, then you're not going to apply it. Most likely, if you have to sit on it for six months, you're going to forget about it.

00:12:28:09 - 00:12:35:02
Angel Beets
So we need content that can be applied right away, and we make sure that our participants are applying it.

00:12:35:04 - 00:12:47:20
Mike O'Neill
Do you use a term cohort and you hear that oftentimes in an educational setting? how do you comprise a cohort? Is it a blend of people from different organizations?

00:12:47:22 - 00:13:13:12
Angel Beets
It is. Yeah. And that's one of our beliefs. So we know there's value in both doing development work with your colleagues versus doing it solo. But our belief in this program is that you need to step away from the office, step away from your team members, and come by yourself and develop a cohort, a network of leaders who are facing similar challenges, where you can be really open with them and share your own challenges at the end of the program.

00:13:13:16 - 00:13:32:08
Angel Beets
I'm hearing them say to each other, oh yeah, well, that thing that that Rebecca did when she said, they know each other's colleagues in a very, you know, appropriate way, but they understand the challenges each other's facing and they're able to give them advice and really work each other through those situations, which is the whole value of the program.

00:13:32:10 - 00:13:50:06
Angel Beets
so and I think that's harder to do when you can't with your, your three colleagues and suddenly you're very guarded about what you can share. So our colleague, our cohorts and yes, it's educational. I come from that community college background. I like the term cohort. It does feel kind of formal, but I don't know, class is what other programs use.

00:13:50:06 - 00:14:18:16
Angel Beets
I like cohort, it just kind of works for me. but our cohort is made up of about 12 people. That to me is where the small group communication literature says that we start to splinter off and decide groups. But in this case, we can all stay as one good solid unit. and the conversations are what people stay for, you know, the facilitators are excellent, but it's those deeper conversations, the breakouts, where they can share their own challenges and advice that's really valuable.

00:14:18:18 - 00:14:40:05
Mike O'Neill
For those who are watching this on YouTube, they can see me nodding as you go through that. The number of things you just mentioned just really resonate with with me and how we try to do things. And that is there's real power. in bringing a group together, they can build a sense of camaraderie. I love the idea that this group is comprised of people in other organizations.

00:14:40:07 - 00:15:03:17
Mike O'Neill
Therefore they have a ready resource, peers, if you would, that they can tap into. You mentioned the size of the group being ideal around around a dozen. if it if it's much more than that, it loses the intimacy. If it's much smaller, there's a sense of kind of, of isolation. and then you mentioned you take them kind of out of their work setting.

00:15:03:19 - 00:15:27:10
Mike O'Neill
that's critically important to just kind of get unplugged, get plugged back in. the fact that you have had 127 graduates in it, you make available those alumni, if you will, and how you bring back and you celebrate wrapping up. Those are all really, unusual characteristics that at least strike me as it's been refined over years.

00:15:27:12 - 00:15:46:07
Mike O'Neill
But it sounds like it works kind of appeal to you, the CEO, for a moment, you offering this service, your company offering this service, let's say, to your recruiting clients, I view that as a value add, but it also means that that really strengthens that relationship.

00:15:46:07 - 00:15:48:03
Angel Beets
That's exactly right.

00:15:48:05 - 00:15:50:01
Mike O'Neill
do y'all find that

00:15:50:01 - 00:16:10:08
Mike O'Neill
When a person leaves a company that you place, if they had a good experience working with you, then actually they might reach out to you. At the same time, there are folks who you all reach out to to consider for opportunities that whatever reason that that doesn't work out.

00:16:10:10 - 00:16:27:02
Mike O'Neill
That's kind of what I want a key. And on, do you find that the experience that a candidate has with Gilman Partners has bearing on the likelihood that they might actually, at some point pick up the phone and reach out and says, let's talk. Yeah, you place in business for us.

00:16:27:04 - 00:16:43:16
Angel Beets
Yeah. And anyone watching that is me nodding as you were talking to, because that's exactly right. You know, I so the cool thing about my role, I'm not a recruiter and our team is pretty clear about that. I did one search for a half years ago. She is still in her role. I have 100% track record. like, that's that's not what I do.

00:16:43:16 - 00:17:01:02
Angel Beets
It's not what I'm good at. That's what they're great at. But the cool thing about my role is that people know Gilman Partners. So when I introduce myself, they often know who we are. They know our reputation. And I can't tell you how many times someone will say to me, oh, I worked with so-and-so on the job. I didn't get it, but she was great.

00:17:01:02 - 00:17:20:15
Angel Beets
Or he was great. I hear that all the time. I actually had somebody track me down in networking about a year and a half ago or so, and she said, I just want to tell you, I didn't get that job. And she was a finalist candidate. But she said the process was so impressive. Your team is so good at what they do that I never felt like I didn't know where I stood in the process.

00:17:20:21 - 00:17:45:02
Angel Beets
I got good feedback. That's everything. Well, she call us in the future, I don't know, but that's everything is selling, right? Every single thing we do, is selling is business development, I guess. But that's not necessarily the goal. It's that we're dealing with people on people's lives, and our recruiters recognize that people are the business that we're in, and we want to be treated well as people.

00:17:45:02 - 00:18:06:23
Angel Beets
And we know how frustrating it is not to know what's happening, to be kind of cast aside and ignored. And so we try really hard. Now I will say, you know, we place 120 leaders a year. So we're talking to how many thousand people are we always good? I don't know, I hope we're good as much as possible, but, that experience is really important.

00:18:06:23 - 00:18:11:13
Angel Beets
And we tried really hard to make it a good one.

00:18:11:15 - 00:18:24:13
Mike O'Neill
As you kind of reflect on where recruiting is going, where do you sense professional recruiting, is gravitating towards? What do you envision?

00:18:24:15 - 00:18:42:01
Angel Beets
That's a good question. I wish I had a little crystal ball, but, you know, we're hearing more and more about AI technology, and I do see many more tools coming out that utilize AI and I think there's, you know, it's early for a lot of those tools to they're not quite there yet. We're starting to get a sense of what I can currently do.

00:18:42:01 - 00:19:01:06
Angel Beets
We have no idea what it's going to do, and I have no idea what it's going to do in ten, 20 years. I'm sure there are people out there who are who are mapping that out, but there is some value in AI to us, though, it's not in selecting candidates. You know, we don't use resumé screeners. We don't anticipate using resumé screeners.

00:19:01:08 - 00:19:21:19
Angel Beets
Our philosophy has always been screen them in. If you have any doubt whether a candidate could be a fit, maybe they have a different career experience, different industry experience, but they look interesting. Screen them in. You never know if you're going to find and I don't know that technology will be, that sharp. Maybe down the road it can learn to screen people in.

00:19:21:21 - 00:19:46:20
Angel Beets
I think we use AI for very, very small pieces of our job that are more, redundant to help us take content and boil it down a little faster in small ways like that. But I think overall we will be using more technology as recruiting moves on. I also, though I've seen a trend in the past couple of years and we've experienced this to to more and more companies outsourcing the big jobs and their organizations.

00:19:46:22 - 00:20:20:12
Angel Beets
You know, you with technology, maybe the smaller jobs or the jobs you're you're recruiting for over and over and over, volume recruiting, that might make sense for technology. But when you're trying to hire a CEO or a CFO or a really key role in your organization, even if it's not C-suite, but it's really, really hard to find that when you hire a recruiter and we're seeing a lot more of those jobs come to us, the average salary that we are placing has gone up pretty significantly in the past few years, and part of that is because salaries have risen up more than anything.

00:20:20:12 - 00:20:43:18
Angel Beets
We look at the the kinds of jobs we're doing there, just higher level jobs. And I think our clients are recognizing that it's it's hard to do everything. The demands on HR leaders are extraordinary. They're superheroes and organizations so often, and they're asked to it's kind of like a school teacher. You're asked to do this job but also manage health and wellness and manage, you know, all the benefits.

00:20:43:18 - 00:20:55:23
Angel Beets
There's so many different pools that HR leaders are facing that the recruiting piece is so time consuming that when they offload that we're able to really bring expertise.

00:20:56:00 - 00:21:21:20
Mike O'Neill
You and I have talked offline about, who are, my customers are HR would be oftentimes one of those. In my experience, HR they are under incredible pressure. They're wearing lots and lots of hats. And to do particularly senior level recruitment right. It's very time consuming. And it really requires kind of a skill set, something that job honed.

00:21:21:22 - 00:21:40:12
Mike O'Neill
over the years. I'd like to go back to something you just said, and that is the fact that you're not a recruiter, but you're the CEO of a recruiting firm. Yeah, some people might kind of go. As a little bit of a head scratcher. Why are you a good choice to be the CEO of Gill and Partners like you.

00:21:40:14 - 00:22:05:07
Angel Beets
Well let's hope that I am. But I feel like it's going okay so far. You know, we had this conversation a lot internally with our clients too. You don't have to build an airplane to be the CEO of a company that builds airplanes. My job isn't to recruit. I have. I'm lucky enough that our partner team is super smart and really experienced.

00:22:05:09 - 00:22:22:17
Angel Beets
And so I can go to a meeting and speak to Gill and Partners and the strength of our team, but they can talk about the process. My job is a people job. My job is to make sure that our team is in place. They feel engaged. They feel valued. They have the the tools and the skills they need to be successful.

00:22:22:19 - 00:22:58:13
Angel Beets
That our culture is one they that they appreciate, they want to show up to every day. I think about the business. I think about how to grow it, how to expand it. that's that's what I bring. And, you know, one of my soapbox topics is when you look at the roles in an organization that are least likely to move into the CEO role, it's typically marketing, HR, and legal and not always, but those tend to be the C-suite jobs that women fall into, which is part of the reason it's hard to move women into CEO roles.

00:22:58:15 - 00:23:18:15
Angel Beets
those roles don't have a lot of direct pal experience broadly, either. or they should, but they don't always. And but I would argue and push back and say, you know, marketing in particular, in HR in particular, to have such a great spot to see the people on the organization, to think about the branding of the organization.

00:23:18:17 - 00:23:47:14
Angel Beets
I mean, for six years I have thought so much about our brand and what it means and how we talk about it and how we position ourselves and where we show up in the market, where we don't show up in the market. So to me, that speaks to the CEO role. So very much. As this job has become more public and more social, I don't think 15, 20 years ago CEOs were on, well, LinkedIn didn't exist as much, but it they didn't have that more invisible social role.

00:23:47:16 - 00:24:05:22
Angel Beets
It was you were internal. You led your company. And now there's an expectation that we are in many ways, the face of our organization. When I show up, people think about my brand as the government partners brand, and I want them to know that when they deal with me, it's what they're going to experience. When they deal with our team.

00:24:05:24 - 00:24:15:10
Angel Beets
So I think the role has changed a lot, and that's a reason the marketing leaders can make really good CEOs, because they understand that piece.

00:24:15:12 - 00:24:30:05
Mike O'Neill
You know, thus far, most of our conversation has been kind of forward looking. let's look back for a moment. Let me invite you to kind of reflect on a time where perhaps you were a client got stuck, and what did it take to get unstuck?

00:24:30:07 - 00:24:51:02
Angel Beets
For me, it's always gone back to two things. When I get stuck, I look at, well, my strengths. So I'm a big believer in cliftonstrengths, strengthsfinder tool. Gallup. my top strengths are communications, strategic maximizer, relator and activator. And I can spew those off and I believe in every single one. And I see how they show up.

00:24:51:04 - 00:25:12:03
Angel Beets
And I truly, I literally do this when I get really stuck and can't figure out where to go. I just tick off my strengths and I think about, how could I use one of these to get out of this situation. And you know, having communication is my number one. Strength helps because that's often the answer. It's I have been avoiding this situation and I need to jump in and just have a conversation.

00:25:12:05 - 00:25:38:17
Angel Beets
It's taken me a while to get better at hard conversations, managing those, well, crucial conversations. But as I teach that content, as I talk about that to others, it's made me, a little bolder, but also more recognizing the fact that they're not that type of conversation, they're just human conversations. We have similar, similar motives, especially if it's up with a coworker.

00:25:38:17 - 00:25:58:15
Angel Beets
We typically want the same thing. We want to see success in our team, success in our business, success for our clients, which is how we get there. And that, to me, isn't necessarily deep and personal and difficult. It's just we have to hash it out. So I go back to my strengths a lot for help there, and I've done this, even becoming the CEO of Goldman Partners.

00:25:58:15 - 00:26:18:14
Angel Beets
I mean, that was we had a wonderful long time CEO who the community knows still and trusts and believes in. And I had to really have tough conversations all the way around to earn the trust of our team and to get them to see that my heart is in the right place, and it's in this business and we're all in it together.

00:26:18:16 - 00:26:47:18
Angel Beets
I think about clients to my back. I think back to when I was just a baby. You know, my first year or two out of college, I worked for an amazing PR agency and Indian Apple, as it's called, Borsch off. I think back to the people I worked with then there are many of them are still there now 27 years later because they really, really train to their people well and they treat them fairly in some of the policies that they implemented were so good for working moms are so good for working moms.

00:26:47:18 - 00:27:04:18
Angel Beets
I didn't take advantage of those when I was there, but I wish I had the opportunity. but when I was there, I dealt with some, some really challenging clients. I was 22, 23 years old, and I had a client who who screen mad at me, and I knew I was right. And that wasn't a cocky, I knew I was right.

00:27:04:24 - 00:27:22:24
Angel Beets
What I told him was just kind of kindness and common sense, and he didn't want to hear it. And he hung up at the phone and yelled and I cried. And I remember his his cousin called me, they shared an office. This cousin called and said, I'm sorry that happened. You were spot on. He just doesn't want to hear it.

00:27:23:01 - 00:27:46:16
Angel Beets
And that was the first time I thought, wow, somebody stood up for me, somebody new that bothered me, or he knew it would bother me. And he called me to tell me that I was the stuck piece of that, I guess, is that I debate it over and over and over. I'm 23 years old. Can I tell this man who's twice my age, more than twice my age, and he's wrong and I decided to do it, because I it hurt in my gut.

00:27:46:22 - 00:28:07:20
Angel Beets
So usually my when I'm getting stuck, it's like I feel it in my stomach or I go to my strengths and that's how I, I know that I have to act on something, and usually it's having a difficult conversation. my youngest daughter is 13 and her school district has done an amazing job with their counselors of teaching them interpersonal skills.

00:28:07:22 - 00:28:32:24
Angel Beets
And she has learned Maslow's hierarchy of need. And so we were I tell her a lot, maybe I shouldn't tell her things, but I was having a challenge and I was telling her about that and she said well maybe they aren't mad at you. Maybe they're feeling like they're not getting the respect that they need. and I was like, and she and she reference Maslow, and I was like, oh, shoot.

00:28:32:24 - 00:28:51:23
Angel Beets
Yeah, you're spot on. Right? But but I go back to that a lot too, because people are people. Doesn't matter if you're in a for profit or nonprofit or your entry level or the CEO or you know, whatever your background is, they have the same core human needs. And if we're not having those needs met, we are going to act out in different ways.

00:28:52:00 - 00:28:56:18
Angel Beets
But it doesn't necessarily matter who you are.

00:28:56:20 - 00:29:24:02
Mike O'Neill
Sounds like your daughter, is very, very sharp. And, it might be you learn. Yeah. She we learned from them. They were not. It's not like she's she's got a awareness that, maybe most 13 year olds don't necessarily have, you know, and we talked about a pretty wide range of topics. So but if you reflect on this conversation, what do you want our viewers and listeners to have as takeaways?

00:29:24:04 - 00:29:47:00
Angel Beets
You know, I'm so passionate about interpersonal skills, soft skills. And I'm asked all the time if we can learn those or develop those, or if they're just someone born into us. And I struggle with that question because I think it's a little bit of both. I do think they can be learned and developed. I think you have to have, first of all, an understanding and an awareness, though, of where you work in those areas.

00:29:47:02 - 00:30:18:24
Angel Beets
And maybe that's a good friend or a coach or someone to help you understand that. But those who aren't interested truly, authentically interested in making a difference won't see growth in those areas. But I do think that with practice, it's a muscle. You know, as you practice these things over and over, we can get better at them. So I would just say, you know, the old leadership style where you can sit in your office and yell when you get angry and, you know, let your HR team deal with the people because you're the CEO and that's not your job.

00:30:19:01 - 00:30:46:10
Angel Beets
That model is dying. It's still out there because we still encounter it. But it's not. It's not the model of the future. Leaders have to care about their people authentically, and they have to develop those those softer interpersonal skills that are so important. And so it can feel like there's an area we are lacking. Get some help of trusted friend or advisor, help you identify the areas where you need growth, and then tackle one at a time and make some progress.

00:30:46:13 - 00:30:58:20
Angel Beets
It's possible, and I hope more people recognize that that is not just, a soft phase we're in and in the workforce right now. It is the future of a business, and I'm glad for it.

00:30:58:22 - 00:31:23:06
Mike O'Neill
Angel, I want to echo some things that you have shared today. And before we wrap up, I'd like to invite our listeners to reflect on a question that affects all leaders. And that is, have you ever wondered why people choose to follow you? Is it out of mere obligation, or do they genuinely believe in your vision, leadership does, in fact, thrive on clarity and competence.

00:31:23:06 - 00:31:54:21
Mike O'Neill
It's not just about command, it's about cultivating practical solutions that drive real bottom line results. So I invite you to visit Bench builders.com for a personalized leadership strategy that leverages fortune 500 insights. We are here to elevate your leadership potential and help you make substantial progress towards your goals. So I invite you to lead in a manner that inspires people to follow because they're drawn to your vision, not because they must.

00:31:54:23 - 00:32:09:09
Mike O'Neill
I encourage you to think about how you can lead with clarity and confidence. Attracting followers not out of obligation, but inspiration. Angel, your insights have been so invaluable. Thank you for joining us.

00:32:09:11 - 00:32:24:05
Angel Beets
This was great. Thank you so much for your time. And I love what you just said too, is that talent has choices, our employees have choices, and they need to choose to follow that leader who is at their organizations, otherwise they can go elsewhere. So thanks for joining us today.

00:32:24:07 - 00:32:31:04
Mike O'Neill
Well, it's obviously my pleasure. If listeners want to reach out, engage with you further, what's the best way for them to do that?

00:32:31:06 - 00:32:47:16
Angel Beets
They can reach us through our website. It's GilmanPartners.com. Gilman has one L but also can reach out to me directly on LinkedIn. It's just at Angel beats Betts. Or if they want to drop me an email, it's ABeets at GilmanPartners.com.

00:32:47:18 - 00:32:51:13
Mike O'Neill
Excellent. Thank you Angel.

00:32:51:15 - 00:32:53:18
Angel Beets
Thank you so much I appreciate it.

00:32:53:20 - 00:33:06:03
Mike O'Neill
I also want to kind of do a big thank you to the subscribers who are turning in. And I hope today's discussion provides you with insights that will help you get unstuck and on target.

00:33:07:15 - 00:33:11:15
Mike O'Neill
Thank you for joining us for this episode of Get Unstuck and on Target.

00:33:11:17 - 00:33:32:05
Mike O'Neill
I hope you gain insights to help you lead with competence and drive your organization forward. Remember it, Bench builders. We're committed to your success, your leadership excellence, and your strategic growth. If you've enjoyed our conversation today, please leave a review rate and subscribe to keep up with our latest episode.

00:33:32:14 - 00:33:36:14
Mike O'Neill
This show really grows when listeners like you share it with others.

00:33:36:13 - 00:33:40:01
Mike O'Neill
Who do you know? Who needs to hear what we talked about today?

00:33:40:10 - 00:33:47:15
Mike O'Neill
Until next time, I encourage you to stay. Focus on the target and continue to break new ground on your leadership path.