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Karen Schmidt is a frontline leadership expert and Director of Let\u2019s Grow. Karen developed what\u2019s known as the Practical Leadership Development model to give frontline leaders the skills they need to boost their performance, improved team productivity which in turn, gives senior leaders peace of mind. She incorporates her Workplace Gardening Philosophy for a down to earth approach to leadership.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Karen is a speaker, workshop leader, facilitator and coach and her career took this road as a result of encountering disengaging leaders and colleagues who were performing below their capabilities. Originally a Human Resources practitioner, Karen\u2019s been nurturing frontline leaders for more than 20 years. Her experience comes from working with organisations across 20 industries and over 8 countries in both big cities and regional centres. Karen is the author of 5 books including <\/span>\u201cGreenhousing: nurturing the next crop of leaders\u201d<\/span><\/i> and <\/span>\u201cGreen Thumb Leader: how to grow from a frontline manager into a frontline leader\u201d. <\/span><\/i>Today she works with current and future leaders across Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia. Her clients include corporates, government, professional associations, not for profits and small business.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n During my conversation with Karen, we talk about:<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Links For This Episode<\/b><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cEngaged employees are the key to having loyal customers. Employee engagement is a direct result of who their supervisor is\u201d <\/span><\/i>Karen Schmidt<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI see too many people who are pushed into being a team leader. For the reasons:\u201cyou\u2019ve been here the longest\u201d, \u201cyou\u2019re the oldest\u201d, \u201cwe need to find a way of paying you more money and this is the only way to do it\u201d. If these people don\u2019t want to do the role then it doesn\u2019t matter if they have the skills or the knowledge. If they don\u2019t have the mindset or the attitude to do it, then they will fail.\u201d <\/span><\/i>Karen Schmidt<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cLook around and see people who have the mindset to do the role and approach them early on…Sometimes you need to give people weeks, months to get used to the idea. \u2018I see you as team leader potential. We\u2019ll help develop you and support you. Three or six months down the track there might be an opportunity for you. Think about whether you\u2019d like to do it\u2019.\u201d <\/span><\/i>Karen Schmidt<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cFor an effective leadership program, it can\u2019t be a \u2018one size fits all\u2019. There\u2019s nothing worse than saying \u2018I\u2019ve got 5 people in team leader roles, let\u2019s put them through this one program\u2019. They\u2019re all at different stages and need different things…It can be become theoretical rather than practical\u201d <\/span><\/i>Karen Schmidt<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI find the accountability aspect of coaching is what works. When you say \u2018here\u2019s your action items, we\u2019re going to come back and I\u2019m going to see what you did\u2019. I\u2019m going to hear why you didn\u2019t do things or what the results were and get you to critically reflect on your own behaviour. Because what I\u2019m trying to do is help them become self directed learners so they can take those strategies and use them when I\u2019m not around.\u201d <\/span><\/i>Karen Schmidt<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n Our podcast player will look like this on your site:<\/span><\/p>\n\n
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