What is your communication style? How do you communicate with others? What communication challenges would you like to overcome? Setting clear communication expectations and understanding why others interact the way they do is so important to the success of a team. Today we are talking with Lauren Sikes, Founder and CEO of Truth Collecrtive all about how honest conversations save us time, energy, and heartbreak.
Lauren is a learner and a teacher. But ultimately she is a dreamer and always has been. However, somewhere along the way, she stopped dreaming. As a kid, her joy came from sports and she was a gifted young athlete and nationally ranked. However, as the accomplishments mounted, her dreams became clouded by other people's expectations, comparisons, and timelines. Thus began a decades long journey of perfectionism and fear of failure that had her playing small, underperforming, and stuck in a rut. She carried this mentality into her professional career, all to one day realize, she was tired of it all -- tired of not showing up authentically.
Little by little, she began to reconnect with the dreams inside of her. As she sat around the table with her family at home and around the table with her coworkers at work, there were so many untold stories, emotions unchecked, dreams unrealized. She realized we were all fearful of our own potential and possibility. What if we started believing and started cultivating the courage to be less of what has always been and more of what could be? What if we had honest conversations?
So she did something she was not in the habit of doing, she asked for an opportunity rather than waiting for one to come to her. She asked her boss to start a program for teachers and that small program turned into what is her business today.
She created something that she needed. Lauren created a place where people could have honest conversations with ourselves and others. A place where people connect with their potential and possibility both individually and collectively. What she didn’t realize at the time and knows now, having honest conversations transforms the way we live and work. It is liberating and empowering. She knows this because once she started having these conversations — imperfectly no doubt — her life started to shift. Thus began the journey of tapping into potential and possibility through honest conversations and now she gets to teach others to do the same. Lauren is the CEO and founder of Truth Collective, a leadership and culture company that helps leadership teams have honest conversations that transform the way they work.
Main Topics:
Honest conversations save you time, energy, and heartbreak.
Barriers to having honest conversations.
Getting this started in your workplace.
Key Takeaways:
How did you find your way into teaching people to do this and why do people struggle with honest conversations?
What is your process for helping people have honest conversations?
How do honest conversations save time, energy, and heartbreak?