Leadership is Influence: How to Develop More Women Leaders

Want to see more women excelling in corporate leadership roles? Listen in for the solution to enabling women leaders to achieve that. Ret. Air Force Lt. Col. Paul Lawrence Vann, author of "Leadership is Influence," shares key strategies to facilitate the increased representation and advancement of female leaders. Show Notes | Transcript "You are a leader because the way you live your life is your leadership journey." - Paul Lawrence Vann Paul Lawrence Vann, a retired lieutenant colonel with the US Air Force, is a dynamic force in the realm of leadership. His journey from managing a community grocery store at the age of ten to serving as a first-generation college graduate and then joining the Air Force has instilled in him a profound understanding of effective leadership. With a specialized background in financial management and a diverse range of leadership experiences within the Air Force, Paul brings a unique blend of expertise and insight to the table. As an international speaker and leadership consultant, he is deeply committed to empowering and nurturing women with leadership potential. In this episode, you will be able to: Uncover the secrets to excelling in corporate leadership roles and shattering the glass ceiling. Discover the critical impact of effective leadership for women in the corporate world. Learn the essential skills and strategies for advancing in your corporate leadership role. Unlock the power within you to become a formidable force in the corporate leadership arena. Related Live. Love. Engage. episodes you may enjoy: Mindful Boss Moves: Elevate Your Leadership with Presence The Power of Authentic Leadership: Inspiring Others through Your Purpose Women Getting Involved in Local Politics: Debbie Peterson’s Story Leadership: The Samurai Way with Don Schmincke Resources: Connect with Paul here and here Learn more about Paul's mentor, Rear Admiral Grace Hopper here Join the Soulful Women's Network here Send me a message here ☕ Support the podcast here ❤ Love this episode? Leave us a review and rating here Connect with Gloria Grace: LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube TRANSCRIPT Gloria Grace Rand Namaste. Did you know that there are more women business leaders than ever before, which is really a great thing, but not so much at Fortune 500 companies. And that's what we're going to be talking about today is how we can change that with a wonderful guest that I'm going to be bringing on here shortly. But for those of who may be new, I am Gloria Grace, the light messenger, and really is my passion to help women, and entrepreneurs in particular, but women professionals to be able to really shine their light in the world. So without further ado, I am going to bring on our guest because he knows a thing or two about leadership. Let me just say that. So I'm going to bring him on and then introduce him officially. So his name is Paul Lawrence Vann and he is a retired lieutenant colonel with the US Air Force. He's also an international speaker, two-time best-selling author. His latest book is called Leadership is Influence, which we will be talking about. Yeah, you know, we're going to learn more about you, Paul, in a second. But now, right now, I want to officially welcome you to live, love, engage. Paul Lawrence Vann I'm honored to be here and thank you so much, Grace. We're going to have a great time and sharing a very important topic. So I'm ready to roll. Gloria Grace Rand Awesome. Well, let's start off with a little bit about your background. I alluded to the fact that you were in the air force. So what brought you to where you are today? Being a speaker? You're also a leadership consultant. This is definitely leadership is in your, not the bailiwick is not what I'm looking for. But anyway, this is your focus right now. So what prompted you to do that? Paul Lawrence Vann Well, thank you for asking this question, Grace. And what brought me to leadership is that at the age of ten, my parents started a community grocery store. And there was no one more excited about it than me until my parents told me I would have to open up the store at the school each day. So at the age of ten, I had to give up any after school activities, sports, playing with my friends, different things such as that. And fast forward. I started building relationship with the vendors that came through with the customers, and it was actually growing and developing me as a leader at the age of ten. And then fast forward, I was a first generation high school graduate, first generation college graduate, and then first generation, two master's degrees. And then I joined the Air Force just after I received my degree. And of course, I had two years of Air Force ROTC at North Carolina State University. And that really got me started, and I ended up joining the Air Force and coming on duty as a commission officer as a second lieutenant about six months after I graduated from college. And so I attended every leadership school that the Air Force had to offer, and I led people. I managed different resources, equipment, and billions of multibillions of dollars. And then that's what led to me becoming an entrepreneur after I retired after a 20-year career in the United States Air Force. Gloria Grace Rand Wow. That's amazing. And what I was thinking of, as you were describing all these wonderful experiences that you had that helped you to become a leader, I'm thinking that not everybody. Well, number one, is either cut out for leadership, or maybe number two, they're afraid to be a leader. But it seems like you really took that role on. You embraced it. Why do you think that is? Or what was it about leadership? Maybe that really appeals to you. Paul Lawrence Vann Well, again, a great question. And what it really entailed is the fact that I have a functional specialty, which happens to be financial management. I'm a certified financial manager through the United States Air Force and the Department of Defense. And what I found out was, even though I have that functional specialty as a military officer, I'm also in a leadership position because I've led people to different contractors, plants for billions of dollars to the extent that some contracts, we had to actually let go. So I was in a leadership position, reporting directly to a two star General, and it was incumbent upon us to decide, do we save taxpayers money or do we go along with the program? At certain times, we had to drop the program. So $3 billion that impacts jobs. So these are all leadership roles. And one of the things I want to share with you is an individual who really inspired me for my life, the late Admiral Grace Hopper. And she came up with cobalt and everything, for all the languages that we have for computers. And she made this comment in my very first leadership classes. She said, we've been managing far too much. Instead of leading, she stated that we manage resources, dollars, and equipment, but we lead people. We need to get back to leading more. And that played an instrumental role in me really wanting to take on leadership. And even though people may not know this, but everyone is a leader, and the reason why I state this is because everyone has to lead their life. Good, bad. And that's one reason why I say that. Gloria Grace Rand Yeah. Well, now, you raised a good point, and I love that she was a general. Yeah. Paul Lawrence Vann Navy general. Gloria Grace Rand That's amazing. That inspired you. But making that distinction between managing and leader and being a leader. So what do you say the difference is? Paul Lawrence Vann Well, the difference is when we come to leadership, we have to lead people. People want to be led. And I always use the example of if a person is in a corporation, there's a leader with the title that might be the CEO, the president, vice president. And then we have a manager, managers. They manage the workflow for the employees, and they are leaders as well. And then employees are also leaders because they actually get the work done. So we look at a manager, even though they're managing the workflow, they're still leading. And even though as an employee, they're still leading as well. And I'll use the example. When I used to work at UPS, I worked for four years of college because my parents couldn't afford to pay any tuition for me. And I worked. And what I learned was that I was leading. I made the decision to after school each day, after class, each day at campus, that I was going to go work, be able to afford college. And ultimately that would lead to me going into the United States Air Force. But leadership is all about people. It's all about people. And being a servant leader, you want to allow the employees, the subordinates, to be able to get the work done in a leader's role is to make sure they have everything they need in order for them to accomplish the vision, the mission and the goals of the organization or business. Gloria Grace Rand Yeah. And that's absolutely a critical role for them to be able to play because otherwise, nothing's going to get done or it's going to get done half assed, shall we say? Paul Lawrence Vann Absolutely correct Grace yeah. Gloria Grace Rand Now, you said that when we met previously at a publicity summit, and that you really are committed to helping more women to become leaders. So I'm going to say, number one, first off, why do you think it's so important that we have more women in leadership roles? Paul Lawrence Vann Well, first of all, I have five sisters, so I'm backing them. And then I've worked for a lot of amazing women leaders. And so I think it's very important that when we look at women, especially if we looked at Fortune 500, more women should be in leadership roles. They have a larger population. They typically have more education,...