TSLP Season 4 Ep. 32- Leading Without Lowering Standards

🎙️ NEW EPISODE | Lead Without Lowering Standards
Can you lead with grace without compromising excellence?

In today's workplace, many leaders wrestle with balancing accountability and empathy. How do you support your people while still maintaining high expectations? How do you create a culture of trust without lowering the standard?

Join me for a powerful conversation with Christine Valdes as we explore what it truly means to Lead Without Lowering Standards.

Learn more about  Christine:
Website: https://christinevaldes.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinesariovaldes/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/christinesariovaldes
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christinesariovaldes/

One of my favorite reminders from this conversation:
Great leaders don't lower the standard, they raise people to meet it.

If you're a leader who wants to inspire excellence, build trust, and develop others without compromising your values, this episode is for you.

Thanks for tuning in to Transformation Station! If this episode fired you up, smash that subscribe button, share it with someone who’s ready to level up, and tell me the moment that hit hardest. Your voice keeps this movement unstoppable. 

Until next time, stand tall, step bold, and own your transformation.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:19

What if strong leadership is not choosing between high standards and healthy people? But what if it's learning how to build both at the same time? I have found over the years that leadership is not just about driving results, it's about developing people while pursuing. All right, come on, let's go ahead and get this conversation started. Welcome to Transformation Station Leadership Podcast, where we explore the mindset and resilience and intentional leadership practices that help leaders like you and me to grow, lead with purpose, and create meaningful impact. I'm your host, Adrian Benson, and today's conversation is about one of the greatest tensions that leaders like us navigate. We're talking about how to build strong, high-performing teams without losing the human side of leadership in the process. I'm super excited because we have an amazing guest today. And with Christine, who I'll tell you about in a moment, we're going to explore what it really means to lead in a way that develops people while still maintaining the excellence and accountability that you and I are accustomed to. Before we meet our guests and dive into the conversation, I want to remind you of a few things. Number one, I want to remind you that every month we have our lead her shift webinar. Our next one is coming up on June 21st. We have Dr. Melanie Gray that is going to join us, and we're going to talk about how to stop the overwork cycle. I know that this is a very relevant conversation. So I want you to go ahead and click the link that you're going to see in the description box, or you can just go to mobilizingwithimpact.com, go to the event tab. You'll find the Zoom link there. We want to go ahead and fill the room. So I need you to go ahead and make sure that you invite at least two other leaders in your community to join us. I also want to remind you and invite you to be sure to join us every Monday and Wednesday on Transformation Station Leadership Podcast. You know, this is where we're able to have leadership, resilience, service, growth, transformation conversations with professionals, executives, coaches, entrepreneurs, and change makers like yourself. If you missed this episode with Dr. Jacqueline Campbell, The Burden of Leadership, I need you to go back to YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, go back and you need to watch the replay and/or you can listen to it. You can listen to it on Buzz Sprout and Apple Podcasts and Spotify. I mean, come on. Matter of fact, wherever you find or you prefer to listen to your podcast because we know the community that learns together grows together. Well, today I'm excited because we have Christine Valdels with us. Christine Valdells' leadership philosophy was shaped long before executive titles and boardroom conversations. She began her career earning minimum wage, learning early the importance of resilience and responsibility and consistency. And over the past three decades, she worked her way into senior leadership, developing hundreds of professionals and leading large, geographically diverse teams in high accountability environments. And it is my honor to welcome to Transformation Station. Christine, we're honored to have you with us today. Welcome to Transformation Station Leadership Podcast.

SPEAKER_00 4:07

Thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here. I'm actually excited to uh join that June 21st class that you have with Dr. Melanie. I definitely am gonna join that also.

SPEAKER_03 4:17

So so glad to hear that. Wonderful, wonderful. So listen, as I was preparing for this episode with you today, you know, the title alone had me thinking about a lot. Um some of the things that I was thinking about is that many of us as leaders, we unintentionally separate performance from people development. We we we cause those two things many times leaders to be in two different categories. And and some of us focus so heavily on results that the relationship of our teams with our teams, it suffers. While on the other hand, there are some that avoid accountability in an effort to protect our people from discomfort. So I want to ask you this question. Let's start off this way. Why do some leaders believe that they have to choose between caring for people and maintaining high standards?

SPEAKER_00 5:13

You know, that's a really good question. Um, because I think earlier in my career, I I was trying to, I was trying to figure out like the balance between the two, right? Because honestly, I think it comes from how most of us were trained, right? We came up in environments where leadership was measured um on output, on what we produced. Um, did we hit the number? Did we hit the metric? Um, and close, and you know, did we close a quarter out the way we were supposed to? Did our people hit the numbers they were supposed to hit? And somewhere in that training, whether it was from my first manager or whether it was in school, um, I think we realized that, or we thought that the emotions part were a liability and caring too much would cost your results, right? Like if you cared too much, then people would think, oh, you're friends, and they don't have to work as hard, right? And so we internalized this false choice. Um, you can either be liked or be effective. You can either care for people or hold them accountable. It was one or the other. And early in my career, I had this balance. I was trying to care too much because I wanted to be more like me, but then all at the same time, I felt like I wasn't being a strong enough leader. But um, now that I've led teams for a long, long, long time, decades, um, and now I lead large teams, um, I can tell you from experience that leaders who get the most sustained performance out of their people are not the ones who keep the pressure high. Um, they're the ones um that are actually working on the relationships with their people. They actually know who the people are that work for them. They know what they're carrying at home, they know um, you know, what is it professionally that really drives them and what they're really trying to become, right? So for the people that I manage, I know that this person is aspiring to do this. I know this person is trying to refinance their house. This person's trying to pay off their house completely, pay off the full mortgage. Um, and so high standards and high care are really not opposites of each other, like how I used to think early in my career. They're actually partners together. And the best leaders understand that, right? Um, and the moment that you separate it, you get one of two things. You either get a team that burns out trying to please the leader, yes, um, right, or you get a team that checks out because they don't feel seen, right? So neither neither of those is winning. I've been on a team where I felt like I was always really trying to please the leader and I was just working, working, working so hard, and it was never enough. And um, you know, that's not a really good environment to really push the high performance. So I try to lead with an open hand, and that phrase to me means something specific to me. It means I'm not squeezing people into a shape, into the shape that I need them to be for the numbers. I'm not I'm holding them loosely with intention and direction. So I give them direction. Okay, so they messed up. That's fine. It's a learning for them. That's great. Let's let's move on to the next step. Um, and I learned this. I had it was like probably like my fifth leader that I had, and I learned it from him. I did something wrong, and it was the first time a leader didn't actually get mad at me for um doing something wrong or uh reprimand me. They said, Hey, that's fine, everyone makes mistakes. Okay, how how are we gonna work work this to work out of this? Right. And so that helped me work even harder for him because and then I because I felt safe in that environment. So yeah, it's both, it's together.

SPEAKER_03 8:48

Absolutely. I love it. You know, here in Transportation Station, we invite our viewers and listeners to always stop and assess what is being discussed. And you know, leaders, this is a great place to stop and assess. One of the things that I heard Christine say was the truth is that our people perform best when expectations and support exist. You said the words, it's a win-win. Ah, leader, it's a win-win to have accountability and to have support. I love the illustration that you gave us or the example that you gave us where you talked about how you know what's going on with your people, right? You know who is trying to buy their home, you know who is, you know, trying to go to school, you know who you like, you know these things, right? And knowledge is power because that also helps us to be aware in the day-to-day interactions that helps us to be aware as far as knowing how to motivate or inspire, and also when to pull back and just step back and give people some space to just be, right? So, leaders, where are you right now on the spectrum of expectations and support? In your workplace with your team, does it coexist or are there two different categories? And it's very clear, right? Because we talk about best practices, we want to remind ourselves that we are to communicate expectations clearly while consistently reinforcing support and development? So, leaders, I need you right now to go ahead and take out your notes, take this down, put it in your iPad, wherever you are taking your notes. We need to communicate expectations clearly and often while consistently reinforcing support and development. So, so Christine, let me ask you this question. What does leadership that builds people actually look like in practice?

SPEAKER_00 10:35

Oh gosh, that's a great question. Um, because I think a lot of leaders here build people and they think, oh, let's do a retreat, let's do our quarterly check-ins, let's do our year annual year-end reviews. And that's not what I mean. Um, for me, it starts with a belief shift, right? So I have a title. Um, and you know, other leaders have a title, but my title isn't my leadership. My calling to steward the people under is my leadership. So these are two very different postures. A title says I'm in charge, but stewardship says I'm responsible for what happens to the people in my care. When you lead from stewardship instead of authority, everything about how you show up changes, right? So practically it looks like this so public praise, private feedback, right? And and I'll I'll admit I try to do this all the time. It's not perfect. Sometimes you're rushing to get information, you're rushing to get from one meeting to another, and it doesn't always happen this way. But the goal is always public praise and private feedback, right? Always. Most leaders do it backwards, right? They correct people in front of the team. Um, they only give encouragement in private, and that's backwards because recognizing people really puffs them up. Um, and if you correct them privately with care, um, it actually goes farther. Um, and so it also looks like you like asking real questions, you know, rather than, you know, how are your numbers looking? Um, but what's one thing that I could do to help you? I mean, I know that's a it's a weird question. I mean, sometimes it comes across like, okay, hey, you're doing this, they're they're telling me that something that they want to put in place. And it's like, great, that's a great idea. How do you want me to help? Or where can I help you there? Right. It can sound like that as well. Um, it looks like noticing when someone is quiet in a meeting and they're like normally not quiet, right? And coming up to them after the meeting and saying, Hey, what's up? Everything okay? You good? You good? Like, right? Um, and I've done it where people are like, Yeah, yeah, I'm good. And I've done it where people all of a sudden just break down crying. So, really noticing those changes in your people, that's the stewardship. Um, and every interaction I have with my folks, um, you know, I I treat it as an opportunity. Um, it's not really to impress anyone. I'm not trying to demonstrate my authority, but it's really to deposit what I can into those people, every interaction I have. Because I don't have a lot of inner, you know, when you get a bigger and bigger team, right? My team's close to 100, it's hard to get that time with them. And so every time you see them, if you can deposit something, a word of encouragement, a real question, a piece of clarity, uh, you know, something that they did well, right? Something that you notice that they did in a meeting. And you just you just give them a little bit and you deposit, that really builds people up. It's like not dramatic, like where you see it in the movies, but if it's if it's consistent and it's daily, that really helps be build people up over time and it compounds um and that investment really helps the team overall.

SPEAKER_03 13:53

It's those little moments. It's those moments, right? Sometimes we would deem them to be insignificant, but they're not. And I love the fact that you're inviting us to have the perspective that every interaction is an opportunity to build in some way, right? Whether you're complimenting, like you said, noticing something and sharing that with the individual, finding a way to be able to say, I see you. And you know, I have found over the years that when my team members believe that they are seen and heard, man, they will move heaven and earth, they will go above and beyond because they believe that they have value to you, value to the team, value to the mission, value. It's those small things that move things forward. So, leaders, you're listening right now. Christine and I are inviting you to go ahead in the chat and tell us what is resonating with you. Tell us what have you seen in your own leadership journey? What practices do you utilize? Put it in the chat because we learn from each other. Christine, how can leaders maintain high standards without creating fear, burnout, or unhealthy pressure?

SPEAKER_00 15:35

Um, you know, it's it's that's a really, really good question because you want to always have the high standards, right? Um, I want to say this first because I think it reframes the whole question. Um, most pressure in organizations is not actually about the standard. It's about the unpredictability. Um, it's about leaders who move the goalposts all the time. It's about the teams that don't know where they stand until something goes wrong. Um, it's about when environments where the rules are unclear and it changes and the mood of the leader changes, and you don't know if the leader is gonna flip out or not, right? So it's really about it, it's really about that. It's not the standard, it's just it's unpredictable. I I know that I've been in organizations where, you know, this is the goal, and I'm a leader who lead Pete Lee's people, and my leader's telling me one thing, and then all of a sudden, my leader's changing what they're asking, and then I'm having to go back to my people and change it. And people, you know, people that unpredictability does not create a safe environment for people, right? Like you said, um, people can handle high expectations. I think most people can handle the high expectations, they are more resilient than you think. But what they can't handle is not knowing if they're safe. Yes, right, and not knowing like if this guy's gonna flip out and say something wrong. And and so you're constantly in this panic mode, right? Of okay, am I doing this right? Am I doing this wrong? Um, so for me, the answer of maintaining high standards without burning out people is clarity. I think you said it earlier. This radical, generous clarity all the time. We're we're not perfect with clarity. We try, you have to be you try, you try and try and try. But if you can be as clear as possible and tell exactly your team what you expect, exactly what success looks like, um, that goes a long way. So um I know for myself, you know, the clarity and the things that I do. Um, I also have a decision filter that I use as well for that clarity. So if I have to make a decision, I don't make it out of fear or urgency. I really try to make a decision. If I'm in a state of emotion or stress, I really don't make a decision when I'm in I'm in that state. Like if I get a really crappy email, I am not, and I am, and it really makes me mad. I'm gonna walk away first versus versus like answering it. So I actually I really try to make decisions. Um, I don't make decisions based on emotion, based on fear, urgency, or comparison. Because I think earlier in my career, I would also make decisions based on, well, what is she doing or what is he doing, right? And so, you know, because you know, what I try to do is I try to make those decisions based on my values. So that helps me in creating a um, I know that the decisions I'm making is actually value-based decisions that are based on me wanting to steward the people that I'm leading. And so that helps me bring clarity to the communication that I have because I know the decisions that I'm making are based on what I believe.

SPEAKER_03 18:53

So I love it. I love it. You stepped all over my toes a little bit and that's sent me down memory lane for a few things, right? I had a mentor one time who was um saying, you know, I think I don't know if you heard of the the acronym for HALT. Um you know, don't make major decisions or don't respond to things if you're hungry, angry, lonely, or tired, right? Yes, and then I had another mentor, a colleague actually, who said to me, we were having a conversation one day about emails that trigger, you know, the the fact that when you're reading an email, you don't have the opportunity to really to see the person, to hear their voice. Some of those nuances are lost. And so sometimes you read an email and you're reading it from your filter, like what they say, you're like that. Sometimes you put a tone that is there or sometimes really is not there. It's just you know how you're reading it. And I had a colleague who said, if you get an email that triggers you, do not answer it right. And you know, that has saved me so many times. So many times. I've let's say, let me let me walk away, let me and then come back. And then I reread, I'm like, oh, okay. Yeah, that's what I thought was not what they were really saying, or you know, what clarity. And so, you know, Christine and I invite you to to take in this back best practice, which says clarify the priorities, timelines, and expectations while checking in consistently with your team. And if you find that you are triggered on something, just halt because you want healthy accountability, healthy growth, healthy ownership, healthy community and communication within your team. So, so Christine, what role does trust play in building high performing teams? Many of the leaders that are here within our community are high C-suite. They're high performers, they're driven. So, what role does trust play in building high performing teams?

SPEAKER_00 20:49

Um, well, trust is the foundation, right? Everything else is just furniture in the room. Um you can have the best strategy, you can have the best product, you have the smartest people on your team. But if there's no trust in the room, none of it performs the way it should. Um, ideas don't get shared, problems stay hidden until they become a crisis, right? You're like, why didn't anybody tell me? Because they didn't trust to say anything, right? People are working at optimizing um looking good in front of the boss, um, worrying about everything else instead of actually doing the work. And so I think some leaders underestimate how quickly trust can be built and how quickly it can be broken.

SPEAKER_01 21:34

Yes, right.

SPEAKER_00 21:35

So trust isn't built in big moments. It does, it isn't built like you have one big meeting and a big like, whoa, yay, we're we're together. It's built in those, like I said earlier, in those small, consistent ones. Yeah, it's built every time you do what you say you're gonna do. Um, when you take accountability if something goes wrong, like as a leader, you know, I think that was the hardest thing. It's it's like you do something wrong and you don't see leaders say, Hey, it was my fault. I I don't see that that often. I actually don't. Um and when I do, I'm like, wow, that person is taking ownership. And so for me, I try to say, okay, it's my fault. And um, that area actually carries more because when you take accountability when something goes wrong, instead of deflecting, um, you give credit publicly about absorbing criticism pub privately, right? So you're actually showing people, hey, I own it, I'm gonna fix it, I'm your leader, right? And so that builds trust with folks. So um, I know that um early in my sales career, I had this uh, you know, I was in pharmaceutical sales. I've been far in pharmaceutical and pharmaceuticals a long, long time, but I was a sales rep for when I first started. And I remember I had this provider. I would go to his office and he would not see me. Like there were there's many doctors that don't see salespeople, right? And I remember he wouldn't see me at all. And I can I consistently showed up every single week, hoping that he would see me. I would talk to the receptionist and I would treat her like she was the physician, and I would tell her about my product and I would tell her about everything, but I would treat that, treat her genuinely and kind. And the purpose of me being there was really to educate him on the product and how it could help his patients. Um, and after about a year, that door opened, right? And once it opened, it stayed open because I had been there. I was so consistent in what I did and how I showed up, right? I wasn't trying to push down this message, I was really trying to provide the value. Um, because and when that door opened up, it stayed open because I had already built that trust with the office staff. Um, and the doctor would actually sit when I would talk to the staff, he'd sit in the back. Like I couldn't see him, but I knew he was back there and he would listen to me. Um, but the trust had been built. He knew I was there for to provide value. He knew I was there to really help him and his practice and help his patients. It wasn't really about me. So when you have a team, it's almost the same thing. It's like building those little, those little pieces, those little things, taking ownership when you do something wrong. Actually, you know, like I said earlier, giving those compliments, those one-offs when you see them depositing those things every single time that builds trust pretty quickly with a team. So I love it. Yeah, I would say that's the that's the biggest thing.

SPEAKER_03 24:40

That's fantastic. Listeners and viewers, we're asking you right now, what role does trust play in how you build your team? Again, I'm inviting you to share right now in the comments. And if you're driving, if you're moving about and you can't share right now, I need you to go ahead when you have a moment and come back to the chat because we want to grow as a community and or find your way over to mobilizingwithimpact.com and share there so we can keep the conversation going. Christine, I'm really curious about this. So, how can leaders, how can how can we give difficult feedback in a way that still builds confidence and growth? Let me just say this. Sometimes the filter is not always there. Some of us really struggle with being gracious and kind, right? Or tactful, rather, being tactful. But but how can we as leaders give difficult feedback in a way that still builds that still builds people up?

SPEAKER_00 25:35

Yeah, that was a hard thing for me too, because it was very uncomfortable for me to give hard feedback when I was first a leader because it was awkward. It was so awkward for me to give feedback. Like I felt like I was being mean, but then at the same time, it came across really mean because I was trying to be serious. Um, first of all, giving feedback like that um it takes practice, number one. Um, it's not, I don't think it's easy for anybody unless you've done it a couple of times, right? You have to it with practice, it becomes easier to do. The second thing is you have to come from a stance of I'm giving you this feedback because I want the best for you. If you're coming from a stance of I'm giving you this feedback because you suck, you're not doing your job. And if that's your positioning, that's how it's going to come across. So you have to check your stance. So my stance is always my I'm giving you this feedback because I care about you. I see the potential in you. I see how great you can be, how great you can, right? I was put in this position to steward you, to make you the best person, the best salesperson, the best manager you can be. And I see this potential. That's why I'm giving you this feedback. So when I'm coming from that stance, the feedback becomes easier to give. So, for example, I had this representative that reported to me, wasn't fulfilling his job requirements. So I sat down with him. I remember we worked together. We sat down, we were somehow I'm always in a Starbucks, I'm always in a coffee shop giving these because I'm always on the road. Um, and I sat down and I said, Hey, let's take a look at some of your numbers. Let's take a look at what you've been doing. So, you know, and I just first of all, that here's the third thing. You want to understand. So the third thing is you really want to understand before you before you give the feedback, really understand, you know, what's been happening. Because if you don't understand and you're giving the feedback, they may be saying, whoa, whoa, whoa, I I didn't, I that's not what I meant, or that's not what I was doing. So you have to understand. So I always try to go into the conversation. So let me just understand what's going on here. Okay, great. And then I lay out the standards. So for him, I was like, okay, let me understand this. I go, well, you know, the standards are this, these are the numbers that we have to hit, you know, and the reason why you're in sales is because of this. And unfortunately, I said, this isn't the first conversation we've had about this. So there, I said, I don't want to move into the next stage still, um, yeah, with you because of this performance issue. Because I know you're bad, you're I know you're better than this.

SPEAKER_01 28:19

Right.

SPEAKER_00 28:19

So it comes across like it's just my my what happened is the stance changed. I understood where that person was coming from. And um, you know, the it just you know, I just the more I did it, the easier it became. But I think if if you haven't done it before, make sure you understand. If you're giving feedback, you understand why that what is happening. And number two, if you haven't done it before, change your stance because if you come in, come in it with that stance, it's just easier to have that conversation.

SPEAKER_03 28:51

And I love part of what I feel like this conversation is doing is for the leaders who may be hesitant, who haven't done it before, right? This is an invitation to be courageous and just do it. You got to start somewhere, put into practice, right? You have that vision, you say, I want to be a leader that provides healthy feedback so I can just develop stronger leaders. Let me start. You start, and you'll start to find that balance for yourself. You'll start to understand how to read the rum, how to read the individual, how to read the situation. You'll start to put into practice listening. Um, when you were talking, I was thinking about that phrase that says, We seek to understand before we seek to be understood. That's a mantra that I have for years. I try to lean and stand on. Let me understand, let me ask questions, let me be quiet and listen before I tell what I think and what I believe or what I want to happen. Let me let me understand and read. And there's so much value in that. And so, leaders, we have a best practice for you that says balance direct feedback. That means don't shy away from what the situation or the issue is. Hit it directly, but balance it with specific guidance and encouragement, right? Christine talked to us about opportunities to build and to grow our people. So there's a formula direct feedback, specific guidance, encouragement for the purpose of improvement. Christine, as we turn the corner on this conversation, I feel like this is a masterclass right here. We're gonna have to have to take it seriously. As we as we turn the corner here, what is one mindset shift that leaders can make immediately to lead more effectively without lowering standards?

SPEAKER_00 30:43

Um I would say stop trying to be the leader with a title. Because we because I think when I first became a leader, I was really prideful about my title. And I, you know, I'd say, I'm a blah blah blah manager, I'm a blah blah blah manager. You know, it was like I was I lived like my pride was so tied into that title. Um, and it was harder for me to lead because it was I was leading from the title versus from this stance of being that leader who's stewarding people. Yes, right, because that shift for me um from authority to stewardship, because title is authority, and that's you know, and the leadership is my for me is stewardship. It changes how you walk into the room, it changes how you open up a meeting, how you deliver feedback, how you handle tough conversations, how you respond to someone when when your team makes a mistake, right? It just changes your stance again, that stance. Um because when you see leadership as authority, you're always managing the gap between where you want people to be and where they are. The gap feels threatening, right? So you push harder and you push harder and you put more pressure on, and the people feel it, and they either shut down or they comply without really buying in.

SPEAKER_03 31:57

Mercy.

SPEAKER_00 31:58

Right. Yeah, they're like, okay, we'll do it, whatever. Okay, we'll do it, we'll do whatever you want us to do, right? That's the that's the that's the comment. Um, but when you see your team as people who you've been entrusted with, like I see my team as people God has put in my care for this season, then I treat them differently. I know I ask better questions, I listen more, then I talk, I become more curious about what's blocking them instead of frustrated when they don't, you know, they're not hitting their numbers. And um, here's what I know that's true. Um, the results are better. Yes, when I come from that stance.

SPEAKER_01 32:36

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 32:38

I mean, I I would say my first probably like three years as a leader, I was not good.

unknown 32:43

I was really not good.

SPEAKER_00 32:45

I would say I was like, why did it take three years for me to figure it out? It's because I was sitting in that title and I was and I was like, I was in this title, and this was me as a person, and here is the title. And I said, Okay, I'm in the title, so I'm gonna act like the title versus acting like me. And the reason why I got the job was because of me, not because of the person I was acting like in the title, right? You just have to remember that that you don't become you're the title, but that's not who you are. That you're this person that's that's the reason why people wanted you in that role, right? And so um, leadership starts long before anyone gives you the title. It started long before that when you were this just an individual contributor, and it honestly lasts long after the title as well.

SPEAKER_03 33:36

I think that's a perfect place to end right there. Leaders, I need to know, we need to know what's resonating with you. We want to hear from you. I love the fact that uh Christine allowed us to end with the contemplation of the fact that our leadership is not tied to the title, our leadership began before we received that title, before you got the job, you're in the position that you're in, and your leadership continues when this season is over, when this particular employment or ownership ends. Everything has a beginning and an end. But who you are as a leader, that continues. Christine, what an amazing conversation we've had today. I want to thank you so much for sowing so much value into our community. I know, being a shadow of a doubt, that this conversation resonated, and there are leaders that want to know more, they want to hear more from you, tap into whatever resources you may have. What's the best way to do that?

SPEAKER_00 34:38

Um, well, I do have a website, Christinevaldez.com. Um, I will be revamping that in the next couple of weeks. It's gonna change a little bit, or you just connect with me on LinkedIn, and so um it's easier to find me, Christine Valdez, on LinkedIn.

SPEAKER_03 34:53

I love it. Fantastic. Listen, viewers, listeners, you know what we do. We love to support our guests that come. So I'm inviting you to reach out to Christine, let her know that you saw that you heard this episode, share with her what resonated with you today, ask her questions. We have an expert that's here, someone who's been in leadership for a long time. Because we know, again, the community that learns together grows together. Christine, again, thank you so much for joining us. It has indeed been a pleasure to have you with our community today. Thank you so much. Absolutely. All right. Well, listen, today's conversation reminds us that leadership is not simply about managing outcomes, it's about developing our people while we pursue excellence. And Christine, we can't thank her enough for sharing her insight and for reminding us that the strongest leaders are not those who lower standards or lead with fear, but it's the ones you heard her use the word trust. It's the ones who build trust and clarity and accountability and growth all at the same time. To each of you who are listening and watching, remember this leadership is not measured only by what your team accomplishes, but also by who your people become while working alongside you. And this episode, I know it resonated with you. So be sure to subscribe to Transformation Station Leadership Podcast. Share this conversation with two leaders in your network that you know want to build stronger people, healthier teams, and lasting impact. So until next time, stay intentional, stay grounded, and keep leading forward with clarity and with purpose.