#103—Shannon Banks: Unlocking the Power of Social Leadership and Purpose

Outthinkers

Shannon Banks is managing director of Be Leadership, and an award-winning facilitator, consultant, and coach. A pioneer in the field of social leadership, she founded her company in 2014 to help organizations bring their purpose to life through their people. In this episode, we'll dive into her steadfast belief that it is leaders that have the power to ignite purpose through social leadership.

Shannon has delivered quality, bespoke work to diverse clients across many sectors, including Roche, BNP Paribas, and the UK House of Commons and has partnered with world-changing organizations such as Teach for India, Grameen Foundation, and Siel Bleu.

She spent twenty years in the technology industry, including seventeen years at Microsoft where she held a variety of global leadership roles across the business and HR. She has won international awards for her work in leadership development and talent management and is a sought-after public speaker.

She is coauthor of the third edition of the field-defining book Optimizing the Power of Action Learning. Her forthcoming book Because: 12 Essential Skills for Connecting How you Lead with Why will be released October 2023.

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In this episode, she shares:

• The 12 leadership traits that can elevate you as a leader—both relationship-based and contextual-based
• Why now, more than ever, being a social leader is critical as technology cements itself into our work environment
• The difference between strengths, values and passions—and how they intermingle to optimize your purpose

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Episode Timeline:

00:00—Highlight from today's episode

00:54—Introducing Shannon + The topic of today’s episode

2:55—If you really know me, you know that...

3:49—What is your definition of strategy?

4:25—Could you talk to us about how your career inspired your book?

5:35—Why did you name your company "BE" leadership?

7:28—Could you lead us through your the 12 skills leaders must have?

9:20—Talk to us about your definition of social leadership

12:40—How can executives find their own purpose to help others to connect to theirs?

16:50—What's a powerful insight you could share for leaders on how to use this passion in the workplace?

18:11—Creating change at scale is incredibly difficult—could you share your story of living in Russia that illustrates this?

22:24—How can people follow you and connect with you to continue learning from you?

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Additional Resources:

Author Website: https://shannonbanksauthor.com/

Company Website: https://be-leadership.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannon-banks-be-leadership

Twitter: https:/

Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening.
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