[00:00:00] Janet Taggart: One of the most significant barriers to professional progress is the strongly held belief that expertise, performance, and time in role are the primary factors considered in the decision-making process. So let’s be honest, those things might get you noticed, but they won’t earn you followership. They won’t get people excited about working with you or advocating for your next big role.

[00:00:35] Stephanie Willmore: Welcome to the Leadership Transformations Podcast. I’m your host, Stephanie Willmore, accountability coach with Peridot Circle Consulting. In this podcast, we explore real-life situations with the help of our two founders and principal consultants, Janet Taggart and Linda Linfield. Today, we are joined by Janet Taggart.

[00:00:54] Janet specializes in empowering leadership transformations from the inside out, coaching aspiring to executive leaders to become known for their highest value. Janet, welcome back. 

[00:01:05] Janet Taggart: Great to be here. Thanks, Stephanie. 

[00:01:07] Stephanie Willmore: Thank you for joining us, and today’s episode touches on something that resonates deeply with many of our listeners, and that is how to become the kind of leader people want to follow.

[00:01:18] And we’re pulling back the curtain on the know, like, and trust factors, qualities that can really make or break your leadership brand. So Janet, how about you help us delve into that topic? 

[00:01:31] Janet Taggart: Yes, this topic, I don’t think could be more timely or more important. We often hear about the importance of expertise and a track record of results.

[00:01:41] And while those are essential, they’re not the whole story. One of the most significant barriers to professional progress is the strongly held belief that expertise, performance, and time and role are the primary factors considered in the decision-making process. So let’s be honest, those things might get you noticed, but they won’t earn you followership. They won’t get people excited about working with you or advocating for your next big role. 

[00:02:11] Stephanie Willmore: Right. So having a deep level of expertise and a solid performance can get you in the door, but it may not necessarily get you invited to stay at the table. 

[00:02:19] Janet Taggart: Exactly. In truth, one rarely gets considered for advancement if either their knowledge or their performance track record are subpar. However, these two dimensions of professional success are merely the ticket onto the field of play. 

[00:02:34] Stephanie Willmore: So what really sets a leader apart or an aspiring leader, once they’re starting to be considered for greater opportunities? 

[00:02:41] Janet Taggart: In addition to expertise and performance, those who are thinking about giving you new or more advanced opportunities will consider the impact you have on those who work with you and for you. From their experiences with you, they will begin to imagine how you would do with stakeholders at the new level of responsibility. For them to extend the opportunity to you, they will want to believe that your interactions will be productive, that others will want to engage with you. This is where the know, like, and trust factor starts to shape decisions about promotions and stretch assignments.

[00:03:20] Stephanie Willmore: Yeah, and it sounds like those types of qualities become even more critical when organizations grow or when their complexity increase. Would you agree with that? 

[00:03:28] Janet Taggart: I would absolutely, and seasoned leaders may have learned from past mistakes that they need to, they must consider the additional leadership qualities, especially if they promoted a technically brilliant candidate only to later spend months cleaning up relational and cultural damage.

[00:03:47] Successful hiring leaders understand that if they over-rely on technical expertise and performance criteria, they are likely to make a mistake that creates critical problems that are not easily solved after the fact. We’ve seen this play out many times. Take someone like Robert, not his real name, wicked, smart, deeply knowledgeable.

[00:04:09] But because he tends to be so insistent and condescending when challenged, he alienates his colleagues, his leaders, and his key stakeholders alike. The very brilliance he brings ends up causing his influence to suffer, even though his technical skills are absolutely top-tier. 

[00:04:31] Stephanie Willmore: Yeah. I think that’s such a common pattern that we see with organizations that we work with that they have individual contributors or even leaders who have really impressive results, have really impressive technical prowess, but then they have the opportunity to step into a broader role and have to work with others, and they really struggle to gain alignment and trust with their peers. 

[00:04:54] Janet Taggart: Exactly.

[00:04:55] To your point, hiring leaders have learned to pay attention to interpersonal dynamics, to notice whether or not an otherwise highly skilled and accomplished person can actually work well with others. Can they collaborate? Can they influence and can they multiply the impact of those with whom they work?

[00:05:14] That’s why we tell our clients that you need more than high technical abilities and intelligence. You need to become emotionally intelligent leaders who can navigate complexity with grace and clarity. 

[00:05:26] Stephanie Willmore: Yeah, and we talk often about the importance of having all of those leadership capabilities as organizations scale because so many organizations out there, especially tech organizations, have to think about what leadership looks like as they scale their organization.

[00:05:42] Janet Taggart: Yes, and if there’s a deficit in this area, it absolutely has a huge impact. Departments and team with a weak leadership bench present a significant challenge to leaders trying to scale their organization. Their teams may consist of people who can be relied on for their technical expertise and their passionate drive for results, but those same individuals may lack composure under pressure.

[00:06:07] Let’s use someone we’ve worked with, whom I’ll call Roger, as an example, incredibly likable, but in moments of stress, he becomes emotionally unpredictable. He loses composure. And what we find with many highly capable and driven technical experts is that their frustration with ambiguity or frequent interruption, or change in direction, may cause stress that leaks out unchecked.

[00:06:33] Stephanie Willmore: Yeah, and that stress, people try to be patient with it and manage it, but over time it has a subtle but powerful consequence on the team and even the organization. 

[00:06:44] Janet Taggart: Yes. And those tendencies, at worst, can cause others to dread working with them or to find ways to work around them, which is a massive red flag.

[00:06:54] Because here’s the ripple effect: top performers who struggle to maintain composure or become increasingly frustrated may treat others condescendingly when challenged. They may become jaded in their conversations and emotionally unpredictable in meetings. The damage here isn’t just the work, it’s to relationships.

[00:07:16] They often do more damage than good and do damage to relationships, which can negatively impact both team engagement and optimism for the future, both of which affect work quality and feelings of burnout. 

[00:07:29] Stephanie Willmore: Yeah, and it’s, it’s fairly common. HR leaders that work with us have told us, “We spend more time cleaning up messes than moving the work forward.” And that’s certainly something you want to avoid. 

[00:07:40] Janet Taggart: Absolutely. And in these situations, executive leaders find themselves, they do, they spend more time mitigating damage and repairing relationships. And that’s expensive emotionally, energetically, and financially. 

[00:07:55] Stephanie Willmore: Yeah. And so how can organizations get ahead of this? How can they avoid those types of consequences? 

[00:08:01] Janet Taggart: A better approach when hiring and promoting is to assess the high-performing technical expert on their interpersonal skills or their ability to get work done with and through other people, with an important emphasis that they get that work done with and through other people in ways that invite future collaboration, and a sense that we are better when we work together. That’s an important distinction. It’s not just the ability to get work done with and through other people; it’s the ability to do it in such a way that others want to, and look forward to future collaboration, and they look forward to the great work that comes as a result of doing it together.

[00:08:47] Also, I would say don’t underestimate the high potentials disposition, their effect. Ask yourself, do they bring optimism and positivity into conversation? Now, I’m not talking blind optimism here. Not toxic positivity, if you will. We are talking about the ability to see reality clearly. You have focus on the positive results that can be achieved.

[00:09:13] These individuals show up undaunted and eager to tackle the newest challenge. That’s the leader people follow, and that’s the leader people rally behind. 

[00:09:23] Stephanie Willmore: Yeah, those types of leaders, they’re more like influencers, and they can actually have an impact on the overall leadership culture at the organization.

[00:09:32] Janet Taggart: And when you develop a leadership culture, then you can start thinking about scaling it as well. And the good news is that both interpersonal skills and a person’s disposition or demeanor are really worth developing. Contrary to widely held opinion, these leadership attributes can be shaped and even dramatically changed.

[00:09:56] We know from our work with other expert high performers who need development in these areas that it is possible, and when we coach someone who finally sees how their behavior impacts trust and outcomes, wow. When the person understands that their current state of interpersonal skill and their effect is in their way, personally and professionally, they’re often willing to learn how to create a different experience for themselves and others.

[00:10:24]  Stephanie Willmore: So what happens next? 

[00:10:26] Janet Taggart: Well, in a word, transformation. In the process, they discovered that they can actually get more accomplished with better results and more buy-in to their projects and initiatives. They shift from pushing to attracting, from demanding to inspiring. By becoming deliberate about building productive relationships, it’s possible to become knowable, likable, and trusted. And when others know, like, and trust you, your expertise and track record of producing results become even more extraordinary. You’re no longer just getting results yourself, you can produce results yourself, and you can effectively influence others to add their best value.

[00:11:10] Stephanie Willmore: Yeah. That’s so powerful. That really is at the core of what we try to do as we coach leaders. 

[00:11:17] Janet Taggart: It does, and as I’ve said before, at Peridot Circle Consulting, we help leaders lead and help the best leaders become even better. And that means helping organizations identify, develop, and support those leaders who are ready to step forward, not just as experts, but as people who inspire trust, engagement, and alignment.

[00:11:37] Stephanie Willmore: Right. And I couldn’t agree more, Janet, about how important it is that the way that we lead and all of those qualities that you’ve talked about and unpacked today and embodied make such a huge influence on not only the people you work directly with, but the organization as a whole. So thank you for sharing that.

[00:11:55] Do you have any final thoughts for our listeners today? 

[00:11:58] Janet Taggart: Yes. I would just say leadership isn’t just about what you do, it’s about how you do it. And most importantly, it’s about how people experience working with you. When people want to work with you, they’re more willing to follow you. So invest in your relationships, cultivate a leadership presence others want to be around, and don’t settle for being technically brilliant. Be brilliantly human, too. 

[00:12:26] Stephanie Willmore: That is a beautiful note to end on. That’s really powerful and it’s authentic leadership at its best. So thank you for sharing all of those insights, Janet. And for those who are listening today, thank you for joining us on this episode of the Leadership Transformations podcast. If you are an HR leader and you are committed to building a strong leadership pipeline, or if you are a business leader who knows that your company’s growth depends on the growth of your people, we would love to connect with you.

[00:13:01] And at Peridot Circle Consulting, we partner with forward-thinking organizations to help leaders at every level rise to their potential. We do this with programs, coaching, and tools that can create real impact. So thank you for joining us. You were meant for greater things. Until next time.

At Peridot Circle, we facilitate the growth and transformation of individuals, leaders, and emerging leaders of fast-growing tech-savvy organizations. If any of our listeners are interested in learning more about our approach to leadership coaching at Peridot Circle Consulting and how to help transform how you show up at work, book a consult with us online at peridotcircleconsulting.com. We would love to help you and your organization achieve more than ever before.