Nikki Lewallen: When I think community, which I've always valued and think is so important, community, you have a shared mindset with people, right? If I went to a gym and I was like, "I am here to be paleo and crossfit," I wouldn't want people in my accountability group that are like, "Oh, I get it," or, "I care about that." You want all in because you want to be around people that are advanced and are going to advance you because you have a shared mindset.

Tim Spiker: By building a strong community around themselves and then actively participating in that community, leaders give themselves the greatest opportunity to be successful and reach their potential over the long haul. I'm your host, Tim Spiker, and this is the Be Worth* Following Podcast, a production of the PeopleForward Network. On this show, we talk with exceptional leaders, thinkers and researchers about what actually drives effective leadership across the globe and over time.

Tim Spiker: Now, you may have noticed in that intro that I put a special emphasis on the PeopleForward Network, and there's a reason for that because you just heard from Nikki Lewallen, the founder and chief meaningful work officer of the PeopleForward Network. If you've listened to this podcast before, you've heard PeopleForward Network many times, because we are a proud member of that network.

Tim Spiker: This network is made up of leaders, podcasters and influencers with a people-first mindset. That is the idea that the greatest potential of any leader or organization can only be realized by investing in the people within the organization. Yes, "success" can be achieved through other leadership methods, but a people-first mentality is what enables leaders, followers and organizations to realize their greatest potential over the long haul.

Tim Spiker: Early in Nikki's career, a leader helped her find her superpower. Today, Nikki continues to use that superpower to bring like-minded people together because with the power of community behind you, Nikki believes you can go farther, quicker and help others do the same. Nikki's peoples-first perspective comes from the influence of a couple of great leaders in her life. Let's start by hearing about them and how they impacted Nikki.

Nikki Lewallen: This was such a great homework assignment. I actually spent time this morning really digging in to find the learnings that I teach other people because a lot of times that's what I do, is absorb something, learn it from someone and teach it because then that's what helps make it stick. I was looking at these people and what were the things that they taught me, let alone the journey that we had together. Pam was my very first boss outside of college.

Nikki Lewallen: The thing that Pam did was she really illustrated the whole let's help our people get on the right seat of the bus. I started down my career path thinking I was going to be a mental health therapist. Got my undergrad degree, my grad degree, get out of school, land in this job, which I had had three practicum or internship experiences prior. She was the fourth one. The first three, I was like, "Oh, I'm making a mistake. This is not the area I need to be going into."

Nikki Lewallen: It just didn't feel like a fit. I get to working with Pam, who runs an EAP, an employee assistance program, and it was the first time that I had ever seen employers spend money to help their people have, my air quotes, "work-life balance." I was like, "What? I'd always grown up with parents that were corporate America, lived for the weekend, lived for the evenings. They still lived with some regret around we didn't spend enough time with our kids." That was the lifestyle I saw.

Nikki Lewallen: Then I'm working with Pam and she's in this entrepreneurial realm. This is a very different world. It was the first time I'd ever been part of a company that was 30 employees, 35 employees. I hadn't been there very long and she said, "Have you ever taken a DISC?" I was like, "What's that?" She's like, "How about a Myers Briggs?" I was like, "No clue what you're talking about." She's like, "Okay, I think we should do some different assessments on you to really help figure out where the best place is for you here."

Nikki Lewallen: Well, what she knew in the back of her mind was I was wired as an entrepreneur/salesperson, and that's really what she was looking for. Her coach had been saying, "You need to go find someone to help you at this stage in the business," she'd been in it for 30 years, "that has that type of skillset." That's what she was seeing. But at the time, I get the assessments back, it does say very loudly, salesperson, entrepreneur, and all I thought was used car sales.

Nikki Lewallen: I didn't know any different. I'm like, "I just got my master's degree and you're telling me that I need to be a used car salesman." Anyway, the story evolved from there, but she was the one that helped me to really understand myself and be self-aware and use tools to see where I could provide most value. I had never seen a company's value prop add value to employees' lives to make their work experience better.

Nikki Lewallen: That was one thing. The other thing that she did was as soon as we found out that that was my sweet spot, she paid for a number of different development programs. I went through Sandler to learn sales. I got involved in a business development course. Her two things for me were right seat on the bus, really helping me to get to this place of understanding that this is how I'm wired, and thank God, and then developing me.

Tim Spiker: That sticks. I ask you who, and she comes to mind. Let's talk about another person who has had an influence with you from a leadership standpoint.

Nikki Lewallen: When I was 26 years old, this is after I've connected with Pam, she really helped me understand and see a vision for where I was going. As I started to take some next steps into more business development, more sales and really finding that right fit, I was so inspired by a lady that was the president of the [inaudible 00:05:49] company that I was working at. She could speak and everyone listened. A pin could drop. This lady had public speaking skills like you have never seen. I still remember the story that she told that day about going into a bakery and dropping a cupcake on the floor.

Nikki Lewallen: That was the story she was telling. I can still remember. This is so many years ago, and all I remember was holy molly, she is an incredible public speaker. I was watching who I wanted to be in front of me, her name was Lorraine, and I'm thinking, "I would rather jump off a building than public speak," and I don't like heights. I hired a coach. I had reached out to some people, always have been wired to network, and asked, "Who do you know that could help me get past my fear of public speaking and then help me develop public speaking?"

Nikki Lewallen: It just so happened that the recent world president of Toastmasters lives in my community and 15 minutes away, and so someone connected us. When I was 26, 27 years old, we met and I wrote the first check. I remember getting my checkbook out and I wrote my own check to invest in my first coach. That man is still my coach, like my family today. But if I were to think of the things that not only did he help me learn how to public speak and feel comfortable doing that, but I think of three things when I think of Tommy.

Nikki Lewallen: One is always striving for excellence, not perfection, and excellence is one of our core values that PeopleForward Network, my company, nowadays, and really illustrating what that means to strive for excellence every day versus perfectionism, and in that, taught me how to embrace failure because we're always striving for betterment and we're striving to be our very best, but that doesn't mean we don't take risks to try new things and that doesn't mean we don't come forward and say, "When I messed up," and take ownership and really understand that failure is one of the greatest ways that we're going to move forward in life.

Nikki Lewallen: Because if we don't try things and we don't learn from failures, we're never going to advance. Really rooted in excellence. Learning to embrace failure, which I feel like that's one of the greatest builders of psychological safety on a team. Finally, Tommy taught me that feedback is the breakfast of champions. I learned early on with him the difference between taking things personally and really looking at the gift of the feedback when people are sharing their thoughts of whatever it may be and interacting with you.

Nikki Lewallen: Now I feel like today I know how to take that much better and teach other people how to do that. But I'm also very proactive. I know, Tim, you know Rachel Downey, who I work very closely with and we just got on a new system where it's like, "Hey, every time we're on a meeting together, let's just make it a habit to jot down what could we have done better," because we both are striving for excellence and just built in habit. That's my short list of Tommy. I could probably write a book of what that man's taught me, but just incredible, incredible leader.

Tim Spiker: That's wonderful. When you talk about your interaction with Rachel that you mentioned there at the end, that only works when you know that the other person is for you and you don't even need all of the preamble you know that I'm trying to help, I know that you're trying to help. The relationship part is so solid there that you can see how that just speeds the learning and the feedback.