How Strategic Leadership Can Transform Vision into Success with Sharon Galluzzo

Consuela Muñoz: Welcome everybody to Lead to Achieve. In today's episode, we are going to be talking to Sharon Galluzzo, and she is an expert in strategy and helping you create that foundation for the growth that you need to have. Welcome Sharon,

Thank you so much, Consuela. I'm so excited to be here.

Consuela Muñoz: Well, as you know, I'm really excited to talk with you today, and I wanted to ask you, just to kind of start out, can you share with us one strength, one of the key strengths that you think has shaped your leadership journey,

so many things. And I think one of the keys is that I have the ability to have that overarching, big vision and then actually step back and be able to systematize and create the ability to achieve that vision. So I think that's one of my strengths. Love

Consuela Muñoz: that. Oh my gosh. And does that flow with strategic strategy or not? Right? That's totally aligned with what do. So I love that you're using your strengths to do what you do each and every day, right? That's that's where we want leaders to be. So tell us a little bit more. I know what we're doing. You've led in the past and with teams, and tell us a little bit more about where you'd start and what's really important,

well, whenever we're working with a team, is there's so many pieces that are really important. You need all you need the idea. People, you need the execution. People, you need the communications. People, you need the deep thinkers. You need the quick you know, you need everyone. And in order to move the team forward, first of all, you have to recognize that each each person on that team has a role, and it's an important role. And, you know, give them the power to do the thing that they know how to do. And I think the most important thing overall, because you have so many different people and different personalities, a different everything is communication. So how can you communicate with the deep thinkers and the and the pie in the sky people and the the you know? How do you how do you bring that all together? I think the communication of the leaders ability to communicate is so critical, and I think it's something that might be overlooked, because leaders sometimes think, well, well, they should just know, this is what we're doing, right? I think that's a This,

Consuela Muñoz: to me, is really important. I have communication as one of my top strengths. So again, I'm on board with all that, so communication, as far as how, how does communication play in then, when you're looking at strategy, you're talking about talking to, you know, each of the different kinds of people that might be on a team, or whoever you're working with, how does that bringing in communication help you to build That strategy and the foundations that you're going to need. The

communication is critical, because if you are not crystal clear on what it is you want, how you want it done, and what results you want to achieve, then everyone in your group is going to have a different idea of how to get there. You know, you've seen that. You've seen that example where you say, Okay, everybody write down how many is a few, and everybody writes down different numbers and how many is some. And everybody writes down different numbers because we think differently. We you know, we process information differently. Some people hear one thing. You might be really clear about what you say, but that's not what they heard, but they're sure that's what you said. So the clarity and the ability to communicate so that people can hear you and understand what you're saying is critical to get for anything to get done. And so I think that's, that's where it comes in to be a real critical thing.

Consuela Muñoz: I love that. So for me, when, when I'm hearing you say that, I'm thinking, it plays a big part in that goal setting is that is that part of is that part of the work that you do is in getting everybody on the same goal, on the same strategy to even do that, and I can see where communication will play into that. But tell us a little bit more about how you can help people be more strategic.

So great question with the overall strategy and or like the goals. I sorry, I went to my answer, but you asked about goals for a goal for source goal, it's gotta be crystal clear, where are we going. So if I said you Consuela, come visit me at the beach, what's the first piece of information you're going to need to know? What beach? What's the address? Why? Not even what beach? I can tell you what beach. How are you going to find the address? Exactly where are you going? So. So when we know that, we start with that, and then you backtrack and build the strategy to get there. And so being and giving the people that are leading the different pieces a bit of autonomy to say, Hey, this is how I think the best way to get there is. And then you can have everybody come together and say, Okay, these are all the ways we think we can get there. Now as a group, what are we actually going to do so that you are actually, I just heard about a person who had this, this amazing event, spent a lot of money, did all this stuff, and had problems when it was over and when they debriefed to figure out what the problems were, is that they had siloed information. So this group did this, this group did this, this group did this, but they were not cross communicating, and so it created weaknesses and problems in the execution of that event because they didn't have the cross communication. So you need to have both pieces. We need the experts to come in and say what they think should they should do, and then we need to create the path through that actually enables everyone to get on the same bus at the same time to get to that destination.

Consuela Muñoz: Yeah, and I'm ready to go to the beach, by the way. So we can totally do that, I want to go? Be my next response, no. So I love thinking about it in that thing, because if you don't know where you're going, it's really hard to get there. But it's really important for everybody to know the same place, and then you can figure out that more detailed, what you're going to do for your strategy, how we're going to get there, but as long as you're all going to the same place, that's where you start. So I love thinking about it in that analogy of this is how we're going to get there. So the other thing I would say, I feel like, and I don't have a specific research data point, but I feel like this is something that creates trouble in teams and in people trying to achieve this communication, or miscommunication, lack of communication, and this example that you gave the cross communication that wasn't going on, but that creates a lot of tension in teams that could be resolved if people would just share and comment and talk to each other

exactly, and also listening and talking in the way that and this is the leader's responsibility. The leader's responsibility is, is to listen to how the people on the team communicate and adjust their communication to the person who's doing whatever needs to be done. So many times as leaders, we're like, Well, this is how it is. This is this is who I am. Catch up. Don't you know? You can't figure it out that's on you if you want to be successful. It's actually on you as the leader. It's not on them. Meet them where they are. That doesn't mean you undo or don't do what you want to be done. Want to be done. It's that you are communicating with them. I'm a visual person. If you tell me a whole bunch of numbers and you don't write them down, I will struggle. If you will write them down and say them out loud, then I am going to be more successful. So understanding and being aware of what are the strengths and weaknesses on your teams, and what do they need, and how do they need to be communicated with, will make your team stronger and will make you a better leader.

Consuela Muñoz: I love this completely, because I think that goes it's not only understanding yourself and what you are capable of and what you need, but understand understanding those strengths of each person on your team and how best to communicate with them based on where they operate from. Because as you can imagine, what you're saying like, if you have somebody that's strategic, they need to hear the information in a completely different way than somebody who is in executing or relationship building. If relationships are really important to them, they need to hear that information in a different way. So keeping that in mind when you're communicating would really help your team, as you're saying, be more powerful. So now, as we've talked to this, I've talked a little bit about what you do around strategy. How does this go in? Tell us a little bit about what forming this foundation and how important that is for teams and leaders.

The importance of foundation is you can go so much further, like if you build a house, don't put a foundation on it. You can build a one story house and it'll be okay, probably, maybe. However, you can't go any higher than that. If you have a strong foundation. You can build a skyscraper. You have to figure out, what are the holes? Where are the holes in our mission? Where are the holes in what we're. Doing? Where are the holes in the way I'm communicating? Where is it that there are gaps and weaknesses? Figure out how to shore those up and in that vein, then you can go, Okay, now we can do anything. We can do anything because we got all our bases covered. We got all the foundation secure and firm, and now we are able to, in my world, scale and grow. So, yeah, with teams, what do you want to do? How do you want to you know, how what is the next thing that you want your team to do? What is the you know, what direction do you want things to go? And so building that foundation enables you to be not only good at what you do now, but it opens the door for what you could do in the future.

Consuela Muñoz: Love this, right? This. It makes, I love your analogies. If you're listening to this, write that down. If you have no foundation, you're lucky to get one story. But if you build your foundation, well, you can build a skyscraper, and why? I think that's really important. A lot of times people are trying to achieve big things. They want to achieve big things, aspirational things. I don't know if you've ever been in a thing, and they're like, here's my aspirational goal, but they fall short. It's almost like setting an aspirational goal is a goal you know you won't achieve, but you can, when you take in, in to account the information you're providing, get that foundation firm, have great communication building that skyscraper is achieving what others don't think is impossible, what others say, oh, that's that would. No one would ever be able to do that, but you could when you put those things in place. Oh, my goodness, I love that analogy. Yeah, thanks. So So with what you're what you're doing with folks. Tell us a little bit more about how you come in and help someone to do this. So

the way that I work with my clients is the very first thing that we do is the 10,000 foot view. I come in and I look at everything that's going on, where, what is it you want to do, what's in place, what all of the things that exist, and then I go, Okay, now here are where the gap start here is where we need to fill in, strengthen that kind of thing, and then we come back down. We Well, while we're up there, we map a path out of the maze. I use a maze as an analogy, because when you're when you're running teens, when you're doing things, you sometimes just feel so overwhelmed, like you're just lost in this maze, and you're making wrong turns and you're banging into walls, and you're turned around and you're overwhelmed, and you just don't know what you can do. And so when I we do that 10,000 foot you were actually looking at the maze from the top. And now we can map a way out of the maze. So what needs to happen, and where do we need to go and what needs to be accomplished, so we can get you out of that maze. And then on to the the more important things that you want to do, because the maze is actually where you're stuck.

Consuela Muñoz: Love that so and again. And y'all learn, I love analogy. So I love that, you know, thinking of being in the maze. I don't know if you've ever been in a maze. I took the babies one time. They were young, my my kids and my girlfriend, and we're gonna go on the corn maze, and not even the difficult one. Y'all and we go in there. And my girlfriend, I like, we each had one in a stroller, and we were in there five minutes. I'm like, Oh, we're not doing this. Let's walk backwards the way we came there's like, I do not want to be lost in here with my kids, right? Like that. So a maze can be very challenging and very, as you're saying, overwhelming, and that's not a place that you want to be if you're trying to achieve something amazing. So figuring out a plan before you get in there, that's a good idea, right? Having that strategy is gonna, is gonna make the difference for you guys. Yeah,

we actually just did a corn maze this fall with my daughter and her husband, and it was funny, because my daughter loves to run ahead, so Oh yeah, it was fun. We had a really, yeah,

Consuela Muñoz: no. I mean, I can see that. And also, whoo, I don't want to be lost up in there with the sun going down and the kids running around. No, I don't want to do that. So having having a map, that would be a good plan for me, like, let the kids think we're in a maze, but let me know where we're going, right? And in that way, like, you want to know where you're going so you can lead the team out if there's any trouble. Absolutely.

Yeah, I love that. Actually, at the corn maze, just to follow this analogy, they actually have towers where people are standing up above, and they can look down and see where you are in the maze. So if you get in trouble, you wave the flag, and they can come help you, so that that

Consuela Muñoz: is a nice improvement from where we're from, where things used to be, that there's at least help. Along the way, right? And so in that way we would, we would probably see that if we carried the analogy into the team and the foundation and the strategy that is someone helping to guide the leader and the team through, so that if they get stuck, oh no, this is the plan. This is where you are now. We can figure out where you need to go next, because we know where you are, so I love carrying that through them. So this has been really great, Sharon, and I just wanted to ask you real quickly, and I know you've done strength finder, and I know you know a little bit about your strengths, but can you share with us what is the most important strength that you think you've have to to get those you know, achieve those results that other people think are impossible. What is the strength that you use to do that? And how, again, has that informed you as a leader,

I think that the the the strength that I that I posed that the most that I possess is the ability to hear, learn, absorb information and then embody that, and be able to then communicate that to other people. So the the ability to okay, I don't know everything. I don't ever need to know everything. I need to know where to go to get the answer, but I don't always need to know everything. And everything that I do know gets sort of like absorbed. It's really funny. I just sort of embody it, and then I just go. And not everyone has that ability. And I learned that when I started my multi six figure business, I did not know how to run a business, and I went, went out and learned everything that I could, and found that I had an aptitude for it, so that ability to take in information and then create something that something with all of my experience and all of my learning now I've created something new that I can get to the world, that I can share and and make a difference for people. I

Consuela Muñoz: love that very much, that strategic ability. So thank you again for being here today. Sharon,

you're so welcome. It was wonderful, and I'm so excited to listen to your podcast.