BONUS EPISODE! Join me for a conversation with President and COO of SparkEffect, Kim Bohr as we kick off our partnership to provide you with actionable content for the next year on their podcast subseries, Courage to Advance. We talk about Kim’s journey and work in helping leaders embrace change and marry data, technology, and human-centric practices to achieve success. You will love her insights on how to build resilience in today’s rapidly changing landscape, and how integrating innovative technology, data-driven insights, and the human touch is the winning recipe for success in our times.
We kick off our partnership where SparkEffect will be offering you monthly insights, actionable takeaways, and inspiring stories of leadership transformation and the role empathy plays in success.
Tune in every 3rd Thursday, right here on The Empathy Edge!
To access the episode transcript, please scroll down below.
Key Takeaways:
- AI is not going away – the more we lean in and understand, the more we can leverage it for ourselves, our clients, and our organizations.
- Leveraging AI in your creative endeavors is great to bounce ideas off of, especially for those who work solo.
- All change involves bringing people along with you. The human need for information, reassurance, connection, and upskilling never disappears. Only the challenge in front of us changes.
“We believe that AI and data-driven insights are about augmenting and elevating that people-centered approach. And that’s why we find the data, along with the very skill-based empathetic approach, is where the superpower is unleashed for leaders and organizations.” — Kim Bohr
From Our Partner:
SparkEffect partners with organizations to unlock the full potential of their greatest asset: their people. Through their tailored assessments and expert coaching at every level, SparkEffect helps organizations manage change, sustain growth, and chart a path to a brighter future.
Go to sparkeffect.com/edge now and download your complimentary Professional and Organizational Alignment Review today.
About Kim Bohr, President & COO, SparkEffect
Kim is a published author, speaker, and entrepreneur at heart. As the President and COO of SparkEffect, she brings over 25 years of experience as a cross-functional leader, executive and board advisor, and leadership and organization development professional.
Kim has spent her career avidly studying and participating in companies with complex people and organizational dynamics. Making an impact on businesses is important to Kim. She stays inspired by the gratification that comes from unraveling challenging problems for individuals and companies. Her strong, strategic instincts, extensive experience, and the ability to create followership have shaped Kim into the leader she is today.
Connect with Kim Bohr and SparkEffect
SparkEffect: sparkeffect.com
Courage to Advance recording and resources:
sparkeffect.com/courage-to-advance-podcast
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/sparkeffect
LinkedIn for Kim Bohr: linkedin.com/in/kimbohr
Connect with Maria:
Get the podcast and book: TheEmpathyEdge.com
Learn more about Maria and her work: Red-Slice.com
Hire Maria to speak at your next event: Red-Slice.com/Speaker-Maria-Ross
Take my LinkedIn Learning Course! Leading with Empathy
LinkedIn: Maria Ross
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FULL TRANSCRIPT BELOW:
Welcome to the empathy edge podcast, the show that proves why cash flow, creativity and compassion are not mutually exclusive. I’m your host, Maria Ross, I’m a speaker, author, mom, facilitator and empathy advocate. And here you’ll meet trailblazing leaders and executives, authors and experts who embrace empathy to achieve radical success. We discuss all facets of empathy, from trends and research to the future of work to how to heal societal divisions and collaborate more effectively. Our goal is to redefine success and prove that empathy isn’t just good for society. It’s great for business. Today is a special bonus episode of the empathy edge podcast, because I am introducing all of you to my newest partner, Spark effect, and we are here today with the COO and president of Spark effect, Kim bore, who is actually also one of my dear friends, they are doing such great work, and they are going to be hijacking, if you will, the empathy edge feed every third Thursday with their new podcast, courage to advance leadership in transformation. This is a momentum inducing podcast series that explores the intersection of human potential and organizational success, you will hear inspiring stories of courageous leadership and transformative change guided by empathy and innovation. So today, we’re going to give you a little taste of what you’re going to hear. And we also want to hear the story of Spark effect and Kim’s journey, because they are working with leaders right now, helping them transform their organizations with empathy and leadership capability. So welcome Kim, to the podcast. Welcome to the podcast, family. I am so excited to highlight your great work.
Kim Bohr 01:52
Thank you, Maria. We’re so excited to be here and excited to listen and share and learn ourselves. Love
Maria Ross 01:59
it. So tell us a little bit about your story. We, you know, we can read the bio in the show notes, and we’ll have all the links in the show notes, but tell us a little bit about you and about Spark effect, and what is the work about these days, and what is driving the need for leaders to embrace more empathy in order to transform and keep
Kim Bohr 02:20
up. Goodness, you know, there’s, it’s, as you so strongly believe, empathy has become such a main skill, right, that is so needed in our business today. And so about almost five years ago, I came on board with Spark effect, and we were, at that point, really different organization. We were trying to figure out how to grow. We ended up bringing a smaller organization together with us, and it was a real pivotal time, because it was coming through the pandemic. I joined just a few months, excuse me, a few weeks, actually, before the pandemic. Oh boy, which you know, talk about trying to learn an organization, learn the people, learn all these components and be thrust into what we don’t, you know, have all experienced in so many different ways we will never forget. And so what I what was really fascinating, and what drew me to the organization in the first place was this love for people in business and my personal journey that I’ve always just had in from my own professional lens, has really focused on having business be better from the inside out, and it always begins with people. And so to me, this was a wonderful opportunity to help enrich that belief I’ve always held and be able to bring it into many organizations that are so dearly in need of that type of thinking. Well,
Maria Ross 03:48
and you and I met because I interviewed you for the empathy edge, for the first empathy book, when you were working with an organization called fierce conversations, and that was really about helping people and helping leaders have difficult conversations, and whether it was overtly stated or not, with empathy, creating that connection with people so that they could do their best work. And I love what you said, because I think it bears repeating over and over again, is that businesses are just a collection of people doing things together, and we’re going to talk a little bit on this bonus episode about integrating innovative technology with the human touch, because there might be some people going, Well, no, we’re just going to all get out staffed by AI. We’re not and so we have to learn how to coexist. But that’s where that those leadership skills and those empathy skills are going to be even more important as we dive into this world of of integrating technology with the human element. So talk a little bit to us though about the inspiration for the podcast you’re going to be doing for courage to advance. Why this podcast? Why now? It’s
Kim Bohr 04:58
just it feels. So people are so ready for it. I think you and I could both agree that the thoughts of some of the work we’ve been so invested in used to be seen as something that perhaps wasn’t as much of a strength as even though we know, and always have known, there’s a superpower into this work when you really embrace it. And so it started to make sense with so much coming at people the you know, we’re so overwhelmed with so much information and technology, and what’s the right and best solution for all the different competing needs that we have. And coming out of the pandemic, when we all, I think we could probably agree, felt a little maybe less stable in how we were to move forward and what we needed. And so it’s, it felt like it was the perfect time to say there’s this concept of of and, you know, we can be empathetic, and we can still also have clear expectations and results. Yeah, that was really like when we started thinking about it. It was, it was really clear that now is an opportunity where people are listening and looking for this to come together in a way that that now was acceptable, right, and made sense,
Maria Ross 06:10
yeah? And that’s why you know, that’s why we’re doing this partnership, is I really want to bring your content, your expertise, your stories, to this audience that cares so much about how to leverage empathy to be more successful, but it’s not without its challenges, and it’s not without pushback from certain people, and we’re seeing it now post pandemic, a lot of that snap back to bossism. Of you know, let’s go back to the ways that things used to be, because that’s where we’re most comfortable. And what I love about your work is that it’s all about leveraging the human connections to drive innovation, to drive transformation, not just get by, but actually leapfrog above your competition and create real change in the markets in which we play. So you know, I love also that what you’re going to be bringing to us every third Thursday are these stories and practical applications of how you have actually been in the trenches helping leaders and organizations embrace this concept and what it looks like, because it looks very different organization to organization. Doesn’t it?
Kim Bohr 07:18
It absolutely does, and so many you know, leaders are still they there are. There is still that strongly held belief of if I’m empathetic or if I’m too nice, then I’m ineffective. And what we find is that if we have the opportunity to see leaders really understanding the benefit of both bringing in the empathy, bringing in the structure, and bringing in data that will actually allow them to make the most informed decisions for the organization. It’s really that idea of getting it right versus being right, and so we’re really excited with the different conversations we have teed up and the type the topics that are so relevant to really expand the thinking and also bring really practical application for people, so that they don’t feel like they’re just inspired, but that there’s actually things that they can go do. Yeah, and that’s what we really want to make sure we’re the value we really want to be bringing. So I’m going to
Maria Ross 08:18
put you on the spot, and this might be a spoiler for a future episode. But is there a client that you’ve worked with that really stands out in terms of the Delta from before they started adopting this kind of leadership philosophy and then after? And maybe, what were some of the things? It could be anonymous, but maybe what were some of the things that they implemented to actually help them create more human centered leadership.
Kim Bohr 08:41
So so much of the one client in particular that I’m thinking of that I will reserve sharing the detail, but I will describe what the situation was. And, you know, very senior level CEO, very tenured in their career and really had the opportunity to be highly effective in the business metrics, however, really was seeing that their followership, if you will, was fractured, and the alignment within their own executive leadership team was fractured. And so what we were brought in to help them do, and what the philosophy was, quite frankly, that they started to adopt was it was a behavioral change, and that’s such a deep level of the work we’re doing. And it allowed us, in this case, to look at how the CEO was evaluated beyond the typical KPIs and metrics and things that still are true, but we like to say, Hey, look at what’s the input that’s going to produce the output, because eventually, if you’re not highly effective and empathetic in your approach, it’ll catch up to you. And in this case, it was with this individual. So what we were able to do was bring in data that allowed the CEO to see that the data. That was showing results that weren’t favorable, but that also at a more behavioral level change, and that was the catalyst for them to then say, well, then what do I need to do? But it really was taking the opportunity of, let’s look at the inputs and let’s and understand that if you invest in these other skills, you’re actually going to be able to produce better results. And in fact, they did. It took about two years, but part of that was consistency, transparency, sharing the results with the executive leadership team, sharing what they were working on, admitting that they weren’t going to always get it right, asking for the ability to feedback. So all of that was really a huge component. And so that story and others will be several that we will explore in our time together.
Maria Ross 10:50
And I love the next one that your first regular episode that’s coming out next week will be about the importance of CEO evaluations. We talk about performance evaluations for everyone else in the company, but who’s evaluating the CEO, and not from a getting them in trouble standpoint, right? But there’s still an opportunity for growth. There’s still an opportunity for flex, even if you’re at the pinnacle of your career, even if you’re at the topmost post. And that’s what I love about your work I’ve always loved about your work across the organizations you’ve worked with, is you are very data driven. And I think what we’re seeing now versus in the past, we’ve talked about these quote, unquote, soft skills, but really haven’t had the data and research behind it, and now we do, and now we can see, like I was saying, the delta between the performance you’re able to achieve if you’re sort of meh about, you know, in these skill areas. But what would happen if your CEO or your COO or your CFO could actually put ego aside and realize there’s things they have to work on, or they could work on, work on those things, and then exponentially, see the growth, see the results and see the success. And I love that you always start with data, because that is what many of these folks care about, right? They
Kim Bohr 12:09
do, and they opens up the conversation, right? And that’s the whole thing. If we could get the conversation open in a way that resonates, that’s where we can see the momentum and move right take place,
Maria Ross 12:19
right? So, yeah, so next week, I’m excited to hear what you have to say about how you go about doing CEO evaluations, how to do them well, and also what you’re looking for and how you actually have the conversation those you know, uncomfortable conversations with a CEO about you know, here’s your areas for improvement. You’re out there giving all this feedback to your people, but here’s where you could actually find some strike points and leverage points to improve your performance, and thus the performance of the organization as well,
Kim Bohr 12:51
absolutely. And just to take it a little bit further, it’s also about the strengthening of the relationships, not only within the executive leadership team, but also within the board of directors and those other really critical stakeholders in the organization that care to understand the more the whole role, and not just the results, in this short term type of way, right, especially when they’re looking to make more of this long term investment. And the other thing that we will be able to talk about and explore, is how this brings, you know, as I mentioned before, more transparency, but a little bit of a more even playing field of evaluation, so that others can understand that that CEO is evaluated on the whole person, which is inclusive of the metrics and the performance and the KPIs and The revenue that is part of it. It’s not a carved off component. And so it’ll be really, I think it’s, I know it’s going to be a very rich conversation that gives that full picture and allows listeners to really, just maybe think a little bit differently about for either themselves or those in their organizations. What could how this could look a little bit new, perhaps, than what happens today.
Maria Ross 14:04
I love it. I love it. Well, I’m super excited. And so today we’re going to give people a little bit of a taste, because we’re going to get into a topic here around integrating technology and human touch in organizational development. And I know that’s going to be a theme that you’re going to come back to in the sub series as we go along for the next year together. But can you talk a little bit about the perspective and your approach, specifically with your clients, about blending AI and data driven insights with human centric practices? What’s your stance on how humans and AI will coexist and will it evolve? Will it be something for the first few years, as we’re rapidly adopting AI and then, you know, kind of future thinking, what could it evolve into?
Kim Bohr 14:50
You know, it’s one things we know really clear, and what the stance that we’ve taken is that we believe, you know, our core, our cornerstone of our system. Is that it’s very human centered people first approach. And we believe that whether that’s because somebody is having to leave an organization, or they’re, you know, growing and developing everything in between organizational the cultural aspects of the the organizational evolution, all of that is about people first, and we believe that the idea of AI and data driven insights are really about augmenting and elevating and lifting up that people centered approach. And that’s why we find the data, along with the very skill based empathetic approach, is really where the superpower is unleashed for leaders and organizations. And so what we found is, from the AI lens, is even internally, we’re starting to understand how does it work to make us more productive and more effective, and what are the constraints that we have or we need to create around it? And so we’ve been exploring it internally, inside, just for our own efficiency standpoint, yeah, throughout this year. And what we also know to be true is that we need to be doing that because it is a real factor that isn’t going away, and the more we understand and lean in versus be fearful, the more we’re able to actually leverage it for doctors ourselves, but you know, those that we work for, and our clients and everyone else, I think that we do find it creating more efficiencies and in certain aspects of business, it probably will change. For sure, the dynamics of and scope of work will it completely eliminate maybe it might in some aspects, some specific aspects of business, more so though people shouldn’t be afraid of that, they should be leaning into understanding, how can they make the roles they do today more effective and efficient with it? And that’s where I think we’re going to see. The reality is it’s moving so quickly. We need to be participating and just adapting with whatever the new thing is that’s coming, and deciding our boundaries around it as well.
Maria Ross 17:09
Yeah. I mean, I’m really seeing, you know, I’m starting to dip my toe in. I know I’ve maybe mentioned this to you offline before, but for someone who’s worked in technology for so long, I am a late adopter. I’m a little bit of a Luddite, and so I’m always late to the party. So, but I’ve been dipping my toe in really seeing the benefit of AI as a thought partner, as a way to unleash my natural creativity, my innovation, and make it additive versus, you know, especially in the field I’m in, and maybe with some of my listeners in, is I work on my own, and so I don’t have that team environment. I don’t have that, those bounce back partners to always work with, and so leveraging AI for that has been great. Now, does it mean, you know, in my work, for example, doing brand strategy and brand messaging, is that going to go away? Probably not, but it probably is going to evolve, and it’s better to be part of the evolution than sort of let the evolution take you over, right? I
Kim Bohr 18:09
mean, we could think of so many of the stories in history where companies kind of threw the line in the sand and refused to take on some of the new type of a technology that was forming, and then they become obsolete. And so I think what we need to be thinking about is is, yeah, how does it, how does it inform and shape, versus the fear of it taking over, right, and recognizing that if I just put my blinders on, right, that’s not going to be a good outcome as well.
Maria Ross 18:36
But the reality is, whether we’re talking about AI or not, jobs change. Roles evolve like even even marketing. For example, I left corporate marketing in 2008 the role of a director of marketing, or of an executive in marketing has changed since 2008 and it has nothing to do with AI. It has to do with the way the expectations and the capabilities and what is required of that role has changed over time. So it happens whether we have technology as a catalyst or not. And so what I really again, what I really love about Spark effects work is that you’re creating resilience among leaders and among organizations to deal with whatever change is going to happen, as you said, marrying data with the human centric approach, and that’s going to get you through pretty much whatever change is going to happen or evolution is going to happen. So it’s not like, you know, there’s some organizations out there that are just consulting or just doing work around one specific problem or one specific challenge. What I love about your approach with clients is that you’re adapting it depending on we’re actually helping you build a capability, a best practice around how to deal with change Exactly. And maybe, right now, we’re talking about the change of AI, but in the future, it’s going to be something else. And if you build that muscle. People, and you build that capability within your organization, it’s sort of like, Okay, what’s next? I can handle it
Kim Bohr 20:05
absolutely. And it’s you know, you think about back to that idea of the pandemic. Most of us didn’t have an AI view coming into that. We didn’t foresee that on the horizon. Now, certainly there were some, especially in that Silicon Valley area, but we know that that wasn’t what we were thinking on yet our lives changed dramatically in how we thought about the nature of work, and way how work is continuing to evolve. And so it is about just it’s about how do we can we lean into it and be curious and find the aspects of it that allow us to be more grounded and more engaged and still be okay that, like, as you said, the next thing is going to come, and it’s going to surprise us, even when we don’t think we can be surprised again, right?
Maria Ross 20:50
Exactly, exactly. And I think the most important thing we can learn from that is that all change involves bringing people along with you on that change. So again, it goes back. I, as you know, I did change management way early in my career for management consulting firm, and the changes were different. The human aspect, the human need for information, for reassurance, for connection, for upskilling, never goes away. It’s just the challenge in front of us changes.
Kim Bohr 21:22
Yes, yeah, the emotional side will always be with us. We’ll always have emotion around change, whether that’s fear or excitement or all the degrees in between. Exactly, exactly.
Maria Ross 21:33
So as folks get ready to get some great insights from you over the next year, every third Thursday right here at the empathy edge. How can they make the most of courage to advance? I know that you are going to be providing some resources and pre work that go with every episode. So can you tell us a little bit about that? Because this is actually not just going to be a passive exercise for people.
Kim Bohr 21:55
Well, they what we wanted to bring is we believe so much around, you know, insights and action and everything and momentum is at the core of everything we do. And so we want to bring forward to people, articles and exercises and things that they can actually do their own self, assess, organizational assessments, and understand what where they might be in the continuum of all this change that is happening. And so we will be providing relevant to each episode, material that people can check out ahead of time. They can certainly download. They can reach out to us and have conversations. But the idea is to give them something that’s beyond just inspiration and really enabling them to feel like they have an ability to take action in some fashion. And so we’re really excited about what that’ll be with that first episode, as you said, next week around looking at CEO evaluations and how does that fit inside an organization? I love
Maria Ross 22:50
it. I love the fact that you’re going to give people sort of tangible things that they can work on and take away with every episode. And I’m just going to share the link, which will be shared in every episode you do, but spark effect.com/courage-two-advance-podcast, and we will have that link in the show notes of this episode. But more importantly, it’s going to be your link and call to action for every episode that you do. And that’s going to be the hub where folks can go back after listening to one of your episodes here on the empathy Edge platform, and they’ll be able to go back to that and see what resources you have available for them to take the next step beyond just listening to a really insightful and thought provoking conversation that you’re going to have with experts that you’re bringing in or sharing your own insights around client work. So I’m super excited
23:40
about it. I
Kim Bohr 23:42
am as well. I’m excited about the partnership, the alignment that we have in the conversations, and just to be able to hopefully make a difference and give people a sense of more that’s possible. Yeah.
Maria Ross 23:54
I mean, basically I when I met you, I knew you were my people, and for folks listening, if I’m your people. Kim and spark effect are your people too. So it’s going to be a great partnership, but we will put all the links in the show notes as well as links to connect with Spark effect in social media and on their website and connect with you, Kim. But this is just the beginning, so
Kim Bohr 24:15
we look forward to more wonderful we’re excited as well. And thank you
Maria Ross 24:20
everyone for listening to this bonus episode of the empathy edge. If you like what you heard, you know what to do. Please rate and review and share with a friend or a colleague, and until next time, please remember that cash flow, creativity and compassion are not mutually exclusive. Take care and be kind For more on how to achieve radical success through empathy, visit the empathyedge.com there you can listen to past episodes, access show notes and free resources. Book me for a Keynote or workshop and sign up for our email list to get new episodes, insights, news and events. Please follow me on Instagram at Red slicemaria now. Never forget, empathy is your superpower. Use it to make your work and the world a better place.
