019 - Building Resilient Leadership with Teresa Vozza

In this episode of the 6 to 7 Figure Women Podcast, hosts Jessica Fearnley and Meghann Conter were joined by Teresa Vozza, an award-winning leadership expert and executive coach.

We explored the nuances of resilience, particularly for women leaders and entrepreneurs. Teresa shared her journey through burnout and the importance of managing energy, reframing failure and building resilient leadership.

We discussed somatic practices, trauma-informed approaches, the importance of self-trust and the need to integrate grounding techniques into leadership for long term success and adaptability.

What we discussed:

[00:01:09] Introducing Teresa as an expert in resilient leadership.

[00:02:26] Teresa shares her personal experience of burnout in a corporate setting, leading to her journey of understanding resilience and energy management.

[00:04:48] Teresa’s transformation journey and the shift to entrepreneurship.

[00:08:34] Challenges and warning signs of burnout.

[00:10:21] Reclaiming resilience and the impact of societal expectations and support on resilience.

[00:13:55] The need for leaders to understand and manage their energy and the potential impact of using the term "resilience" loosely.

[00:16:46] Three tips for building a foundation of resilience, adaptability, and agility for corporate leaders.

[00:19:55] The importance of somatic orientation, intelligent energy management, and short-term focus for entrepreneurs in building resilience.

[00:23:08] Recognizing and adapting to the right business model for sustainable entrepreneurial success.

[00:25:34] The depletion to renewal grid and the importance of identifying what depletes energy and finding ways to renew it for increased income and satisfaction.

[00:27:14] Self-trust in building resilience, overcoming fear, and avoiding burnout, particularly for women entrepreneurs.

[00:31:46] The need for leaders to understand the mind and brain functions, behavioral flexibility, and the importance of embodied leadership in the face of global and local pressures.

[00:39:49] Discussion on the unique and universal impact of the pandemic, potential unaddressed trauma, and the need for resilience in facing mass depletion and trauma release in the future.

[00:45:28] Direct messages to ideal clients, addressing desires, fears, and the importance of focusing on deep desires.

[00:47:53] Teresa’s message to burnt-out corporate executives, emphasizing the need for self-investment and gaining clarity before making career decisions.

 

Quotes:

“So much of resilience is about what I like to call intelligent energy management. It's not just self-care and the process of taking bubble baths. It's great if that floats your boat, I'm a big fan myself, but it's really a process of asking yourself, where is my energy right now? In my business, in my role, in my family? And where am I leaking? Where do I need to plug the leaks?” - Teresa Vozza

“We don't need more learning opportunities. That's not what resilience is. The way I like to look at resilience is it's this ability to resource yourself in the moment, to know what it is that you need so that when crisis, adversity, volatility, whatever hits, you are able to meet the occasion. It doesn't mean you don't get ruffled, it doesn't mean that you don't experience some levels of stress. It just means that you have the bandwidth and the capacity in the tank to be able to meet the challenge.” - Teresa Vozza

“I was actually just looking up the definition of resilience, because it's interesting how the way that you interpret a word is so important. So it's either the capacity to withstand or recover quickly from difficulties in toughness, or the ability of a substance or object to bring it back to shape or elasticity. … If you build a foundation by being an adaptable and agile leader, aka you are somebody that has elasticity and you have flexibility, you are going to be better equipped to just think about, you know, handling a ball coming at you and you’re elastic it's going to bounce off, whereas you're rigid and it's going to just leave a mark.” - Meghann Conter

“That's definitely something that I speak to women about often - Just that sense of ‘I trust myself’. Something that I often hear clients say is like, ‘I don't know what to do’. And the thing I always want to say is, ‘yeah, you do’. You do know what to do, but you don't trust yourself or you're not able to listen, or you're moving too fast and you can't kind of pick up the signals that your body is sending you. But I do think there's a huge piece there about self-trust. I think that builds a ton of resiliency because ultimately then we don't need to look outside of ourselves.” - Jessica Fearnley

Links:

Teresa’s Website: teresavozza.ca

Connect with Teresa on LinkedIn

Follow Teresa on Instagram

Join The Dames virtual roundtable: www.thedames.co/roundtable

Connect with Meghann on LinkedIn

Book a discovery call to work less and earn more: jessicafearnley.com

Connect with Jessica on LinkedIn

Guest Bio:

Teresa is an award-winning leadership expert, executive coach, a keynote speaker, writer, and the former Chief Human Resources Officer for a Fortune 500 company. She is on a mission to help organizations build a culture of deep resilience and integrated leaders. Teresa’s thought leadership can be found in leading magazines like Fast Company, Collective World and Women of Influence. She is also a wife to Greg, and mother to two fabulous kids, Connor, and Isabel.