Balancing Empathy and Urgency: Leadership Lessons with Julie Smith

Andy Brown's Exploring Emotional Overdraft

Balancing Empathy and Urgency: Leadership Lessons with Julie Smith
In this insightful episode of "Exploring Emotional Overdraft," host Andy Brown is joined by Julie Smith, founder of Talent Sprout and author of the Amazon bestseller, "Coach Yourself Confident." Together, they delve into the intricacies of emotional overdraft in leadership, discussing the challenges and strategies for maintaining mental and physical well-being while striving for business success.

Key Talking Points:

1. Introduction to Julie Smith
   • Julie's corporate background with Mars and PepsiCo.
   • Founding Talent Sprout and her leadership coaching journey.
   • Writing "Coach Yourself Confident."
2. Understanding Emotional Overdraft
   • Definition: Subsidizing business success at the cost of personal well-being.
   • The concept of resilience as the currency of emotional overdraft.
3. The Role of Self-Assessment
   • Julie's experience with the emotional overdraft self-assessment.
   • The value of identifying habits that contribute to emotional overdraft.
4. Empathy and Overcommitment
   • Julie on empathy leading to overcommitment: "There is so much in there that just shines a light on habits that don't serve me well."
   • The impact of empathy and duty on leadership and personal boundaries.
5. Urgency and Its Magnetic Pull
   • The contagious nature of stress and urgency in organizations.
   • Andy on urgency: "I wonder if urgency is magnetic. You kind of get drawn to it like a North, North and South magnet."
6. Procrastination and Accountability
   • Julie on procrastination: "It's really about trying to get underneath the surface of what is getting in the way."
7. Self-Doubt and the Self-Doubt Tax
   • Julie's concept of the self-doubt tax and its two forms: missed opportunities and overwork leading to exhaustion.
8. Humble Confidence
   • The balance of capability and confidence.
   • Julie's mantra: "I am good enough and I can be better."
9. Practical Strategies: To-Do Lists and Done Lists
   • The tyranny of to-do lists and faulty calibration.
   • The concept of a "done list" for acknowledging accomplishments.
10. Emotional Intelligence in Leadership
    • The importance of recognizing and managing emotions in leadership.
    • Andy on feelings as a measure of thinking quality: "Your feelings are a measure of the quality of your thinking."

Quotes:

• Julie Smith: "Empathy is a wonderful thing, but when it tips into putting other people's needs before your own, it's no longer a strength."
• Andy Brown: "Stress is contagious, and I think urgency is magnetic."
• Julie Smith: "The self-doubt tax is the cost of oversized self-doubt."
• Andy Brown: "Your feelings are a measure of the quality of your thinking."

Connect with Julie Smith:

• Website: Talent Sprout
• LinkedIn: Julie Smith on LinkedIn
• Book: Coach Yourself Confident

Call to Action:

• Subscribe to "Exploring Emotional Overdraft" for more insightful episodes.
• Take the emotional overdraft self-assessment on Andy Brown's website.
• Connect with Julie Smith on LinkedIn and explore her coaching services.