Women in Customer Success Podcast

132 - How to Enable Others to Reach Their Full Potential - Nieves Canada

• Marija Skobe-Pilley • Episode 132

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How can you, as a leader, truly empower your team to reach their full potential? 

In this episode, we discuss what it means to enable team members to recognise their potential or unique talents and how to approach difficult conversations.

My guest is Nieves Canada, a leader in customer success and a passionate advocate for enabling others.

Nieves shares with us her journey from being a translator to becoming an executive in the tech industry, she also discusses her purpose of empowering others to recognise their unique talents and thrive in their personal and professional lives. Nieves also shares valuable information about leadership, active listening, and the significance of building trust within teams. 

In this episode:

  • Nieves's journey from translation to customer success
  • The importance of enabling others
  • Strategies for enabling team members and fostering trust
  • Building trust in leadership
  • Nieves's children's book


It is stories that move us, and inspire us to do things. So, tune in for this one as I’m sure it will give you that extra boost of motivation much needed this time of year.

Follow Nieves! 

This episode was brought to you by Deployflow.

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About Women in Customer Success Podcast:

Women in Customer Success Podcast is the first women-only podcast for Customer Success professionals, where remarkable ladies of Customer Success connect, inspire and champion each other.


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Host Marija Skobe-Pilley


NEW - Women in Customer Success Courses:

  • Thriving as a First-Time People Leader - https://womenincs.co/thriving-as-a-first-time-people-leader
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Speaker 1:

What does it mean to really enable someone as a leader? What are the tools that you can use to unlock someone's skills, potential or maybe their passion? I'm super, super excited about the conversation that you're just about to hear. She is an executive coach, customer success strategist and a children's book author. She is Nieves, canada, and I'm completely impressed by her. We met recently and just felt great connection from the very beginning, so many synergies between us and our experiences at so many levels, and I can't wait for you to hear this conversation, because I know you're gonna love Nieves.

Speaker 2:

Let's get into it. Hi everyone, this is Maria Scobepillay and you're listening to Women in Customer Success podcast, the first women-only podcast where remarkable ladies of customer success share their stories and practical tools to help you succeed and make an impact. If you want to learn more about customer success, get career advice and be inspired, you're in the right place, so let's tune in.

Speaker 1:

I'm super excited about this conversation today. Yeah, welcome back to Women in Customer Success podcast. Today is going to be great because recently I met one absolutely inspiring lady and we connected on so many levels. That was like the synergy that I haven't experienced in a while. So I'm going to present her to you all today and I really hope that we are going to explore all of those synergies and things that she is amazing at today. So welcome, nieves Cañada. Welcome to Women in Customer Success podcast.

Speaker 3:

Thanks. Thanks a lot, maria. I have to say you're also very inspiring personally in the customer success community. I've been following you already for a couple of years, so I was also looking forward to connect personally with you and the pleasure is mine. So really thanks for having this chat, for having connected and looking forward to today.

Speaker 1:

Oh, thank you for that and, as I said, the pleasure is mine because I'm just super excited to present to the wider CS community you and everything that you're doing. There's some amazing and incredible things that I'm already just so proud of you. So, Nieves, obviously everybody wants to get to know you a bit better. Tell us, where are you based at the moment?

Speaker 3:

So I'm Spanish, but I'm based in Ghent in Belgium already for too long. I would say I came here again, I will stay here for one, two years, but then life happens and it's a central point for being in the middle, like in customer success, of the whole Europe. So I really enjoy the country and the possibilities that this central location also offers, possibilities that this central location also offers.

Speaker 1:

Wonderful Again. First synergy I guess I moved from Croatia to England just to be there for a year and then life happens right I met my husband and then again I've been here for way too long, but glad to hear you are enjoying Ghent. Are you eating enough of Belgian waffles? That's what I'm so into.

Speaker 3:

I know, I know I started with waffles and it wasn't too pricey. No, I'm trying to find some Mediterranean diets here as well, because otherwise there's so much and you can't get into the local raw foods.

Speaker 1:

Oh, excellent. I'm really super happy to hear that you are managing Mediterranean diet still. That's the way forward. Very good, nieves. So obviously you speak few languages as you are an expat and living in another place, so tell us which languages do you speak?

Speaker 3:

So by studies I'm a translator, which is happy with me during my whole life because I wanted really to be able to communicate. I think communication has been with me since ever and actually I'm more or less fluent. I would say I don't want to be perfect, you see. Also my English has been very good, but in French, english, french, spanish and a bit of Italian. What, wait, wait?

Speaker 1:

wait how many? Let's repeat that again how many languages is that in total? Spanish, english, french.

Speaker 3:

Dutch and a bit of Italian, but of course that's super similar to Spanish, so you need to be humble there. It's not a big effort.

Speaker 1:

My dear, there's nothing for you to be humble about. You speak four languages. That's more than the majority of people on the planet. Okay, that's cool, but translator into which languages like how did that work? What did you study like? Did you do it professionally as well at the beginning?

Speaker 3:

so my idea was really to be in conferences. But there are a lot of skill set that I discovered during my studies that I thought maybe that's not for me and the other option was to be a translator behind a computer and that was neither for me. So my main languages working there or studying were French, english and then Italian. Dutch came when I moved to Belgium. But during my university studies I realized actually what I enjoy really is communication and not so much the translation part of it. So that's why I was yeah, I think I had one or two little jobs here and there on translation and I realized this is not fitting who I am. So I moved from professional thought profession initially to the tech industry, together with my physical move from Spain to Belgium.

Speaker 1:

Oh, that's handy. Why not change your life completely upside down, in every single aspect, starting from scratch? Oh, that's handy, like just why not change your life completely upside down, in every single aspect, starting from scratch?

Speaker 3:

Exactly, I think and that's why I also love working in tech and startups and scale-ups is change. I think I know that we as humans have quite a natural resistance to change, but for some reason I really enjoy change because I see change as an opportunity and I must also admit I don't think out what the cons are. So I'm a very optimistic by nature person, and more of do it and figure out later how. So because if I think too much, probably I wouldn't have taken some decisions in life.

Speaker 1:

I do appreciate it a lot. I find myself being similar in so many situations, like when I'm enthusiastic about something and the idea comes on, then I just go for it straight away, right, while it's hot, without thinking of all of those consequences later on. But I have realized it works well for me. Otherwise I wouldn't do half of the things I do in life if I would actually sit down and plan it all. It's kind of a good thing to have it sometimes, right.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I think for me, if I can say it in one sentence, I've been following my gut feeling, and when I didn't, I had a not so good period. So that's something that's a lesson learned for me Follow what my intuition is saying and go full with it.

Speaker 1:

How would you describe what do you do now and why do you do it? Just related to that intuition, I kind of want to also know, like, what was your gut feeling telling you about doing things that you're doing at the moment? Like, how did it all evolve?

Speaker 3:

Well, actually right now I'm an executive at Customer Success, or I would say post-sales revenue, because that's how I think of Customer Success as well, and I help startups and scale-ups to build CS organizations or optimize them.

Speaker 3:

In my current role at Sedamin, that's what I'm building as well there.

Speaker 3:

So the post-sales organization from Noraly Custom Success, as we know, also support education, so it's a brother school, very enriching, by the way, and I also because you see, I go with the flow and I follow my intuition and I have discovered a couple of years back that when we talked about what's your purpose in life, I used to think of a fixed job description and follow that, and what I discovered is that it's a brother thing and then you fill that purpose with jobs.

Speaker 3:

So my brother purpose, or sense of purpose, is really to enable people to be at their best, and that can take several forms. So, in a leadership position within CS or a revenue team, enable people to be at their best, and that can take several forms. So in a leadership position within CS or a revenue team, that's perfectly a very good match because then I can empower my team and the businesses. But I'm also an executive coach and I've been helping people, especially women in leadership and also new CS leaders, to find their way, and that's also something that I really really enjoy. So any type of task that is tied to that purpose, whatever the title is or the nature of it, it's my natural gut feeling coming my way.

Speaker 1:

I just love it on so many levels, talking about the purpose, how much of it do you know in advance, like, or as you go along, or how much of your purpose you kind of discover when you're looking retrospectively and you just feel like, oh, I find myself now in a good place and I can see that you know what I was doing so far. It's really according to my purpose. Like, how do you discover it? I know it's such a philosophical question in a way. Like you know, we all are pursuing our purpose in some ways through so many different things and jobs and career activities and family, like on so many levels, like, how do you know when you're aligned with that purpose, or how do you recognize that you are on the right track?

Speaker 3:

For me it was a long search, I must admit, because I was again focused on the job and not on what's behind and what's the why. But I always knew and this is something that I always tell my mom, she tells me, she reminds me when I was about 17 years old, I still didn't have any idea on what to study. I told her I don't know what I will do, but I know that I will have a team and I will be traveling around with my suitcase and my glasses. And after 10 years, or 10 years after, when I was 28, I had already some experience in the corporate world and I started having my team and traveling with my suitcase and my glasses. Yeah, it was like that picture that I had in mind came true, and my mom was the one telling me or reminding me. Do you remember when you told me I don't know what, but I want to have this and I see myself having a team and working in an international environment? And I'm talking about I was still in my hometown in Spain, without any idea of I would be learning languages or something. So I think that was for me the first clue on investigating why do I really enjoy that? And I started in the corporate world. I've always been driven by impact, making an impact, so I'm always proactive, taking on challenges. There is a problem, let's find a solution, and I think that's what led me to manage a team. I think I have a good understanding with people, but it was only later on, after a couple of years, when I was leading teams, there was a mini leadership MBA path with one of the companies I was working for and there was a question that really triggered my real purpose and our trainer asked us you leaders, why are you actually in leadership? When did you discover that you wanted to become a leader and what's behind that desire of being a leader? And I don't know why, but that question puts me back in the field.

Speaker 3:

Many, many years ago, when my brother was being, of course, raised in the same way that I was studying at school and at the age of six, he had a very, very old school teacher. He had a very, very old school teacher. She only wanted to have women, girls, and he didn't really like guys. So my brother was a very little child, right, and she was doing a terrible work with all the boys from that classroom because she said something like you are worthless, you are not going to be anyone in life at the age of six, oh my gosh. Yeah, it was incredible how that generation they didn't finish their studies. They were having a lot of low self-esteem and I was watching that. We didn't know about that after many years ago.

Speaker 3:

And then I was watching my brother with his super intelligent, a lot of capabilities, and I couldn't understand why does he want to leave studies? He has more capabilities than I and I think he was my first purpose of enabling people to see their best. And thanks to that question, from the leadership program and the experience with my brother, I realized this is actually my purpose. I want people to see their unique talents, to build their confidence and to be their best version. And sometimes you cannot see that from your own because you have life circumstances, and I think that's where I can play a role and identify or support, together with the person whether it's in my team or in another type of environment where they can be at their best what their unique talents are and how can I, from my position, support that flourish I would say, position supports that flourish, I would say, and I want to go much more in depth into how do you actually do it.

Speaker 1:

But just before that, another note on that purpose. You just reminded me, gosh, it's such a good example when you said your mother told you and she reminded you, like how many times you have some intention about your life when you're a child or when you are very young and, as you said, you have that visualization of yourself traveling the world with sunglasses, like it's all cool, and then one day you just turn around or you need a mother or somebody to remind you and say, oh gosh, I'm actually living my dream, like it's so awesome. And say, oh gosh, I'm actually living my dream, like it's so awesome. I remember when I was a teenager, like people were telling me in lots of situations oh, you are a born leader, you're natural leader, and I don't know why. But like we were in a community, just group of many of us, and you know, we just decided we're going to do a musical and I conducted that because I was in music by that time or we are gonna do this program or that program and we just do it and naturally things happen, and then, only only a few years ago, one of my friends told me oh, do you know what? You told me when you were like young, in that age, I'm like what? Oh, you just wanted to travel the world and speak across the world on different occasions. I'm like really kind. Oh, you just wanted to travel the world and speak across the world on different occasions. I'm like really Kind of some of those things actually happened without me almost realizing, and it's also much related to purpose, like almost life is giving you all of those experiences. So if you're open for it, like you shouldn't miss it out.

Speaker 1:

I really love how there are so many of those situations from your childhood or very young age when you can just visualize you have no idea how things will turn and then you realize, oh, it's just already happening. And I really love that example of how naturally you wanted to enable your brother how to kind of discover his potential, right. But tell me now, what do you even mean by enabling? Because it's different from just teaching, it's different from showcasing something or some knowledge to someone. What is enabling? What does it mean for you? For?

Speaker 3:

me we can think of also the difference between mentoring and coaching. In mentoring you transfer knowledge. In coaching, you support the person to find their answers and I think that's enabling. And you were talking about childhood and for me these are natural talents that we were born with and sometimes people move away from them because of circumstances, because people around expectations. So it's also tied to your natural talents and what you really enjoy and you can be for your community. That's.

Speaker 3:

It's super important to look back into your childhood to remember what did you really enjoy playing around, what were your natural talents that maybe you don't even recognize, but people came to you for that. What's in your bookstore and what I see is for me it's always around understanding people, coaching books, neurodynamic programming, people coaching books, programistic, neurodynamic programming. So it's all around how can I understand better how people work or are or can be supported, discovering their talents? And that's for me, the enablement, the coaching side, versus the. This is what you need to do to get there, which is the second step, I would say, and that's also more on a mentoring format when you are in a specific industry.

Speaker 2:

But yeah, that's how I would see, both enablement versus telling others what Today's episode is brought to you by DeployFlow, your go-to team for cloud transformation, deployment services and managed support.

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Speaker 1:

So, in your capacity as a position, as being on a position of leadership, when you have a team, a team that you've been dreaming about traveling the world, what are some of the strategies that you are using to enable those people? Like, where do you start? What is it that you're recognizing and then understanding? You know where they need help. Just wonder, like, what's your process to enable them?

Speaker 3:

First of all, it's listening. I think we all should have really I think it became a buzzword active listening skills, but it's so important to really ask with an intention. And for me to really ask with an intention and for me talking to people and understanding that the role they are in is just a process in their why. That's when I remove the role and I ask but what is really important to you? What are the values that you have from your parents that you would like to pass on to next generations? What do you really enjoy doing in life and do you have a plan for yourself to grow professionally? I think that's where you really start to understand what drives the person at that moment in time, because that can also change right.

Speaker 3:

Sometimes you are in a life moment where you need to gather money because you want to raise a family, but sometimes you want to learn, so you cannot provide money to these persons as a motivation. So for me, really working on what's in for them from their perspective that helps me to unlock or reallocate, on how can I support them and enable them read a lot on how can I support them and enable them. So I always tell my team, regardless of this job, specific job, what would you like to be, or is it something that you don't know? That you want to go with the flow? And from their map, from their current role, how can we support that personal and professional journey?

Speaker 3:

Sometimes it's a professional journey. I've also had more of a personal journey. That's from my leadership role. I can also enable people that want to grow into and have better relationships with colleagues or communication or more empathy, so it can be very diverse depending on what they really think for themselves. I really would love to grow into this or the other direction. So that's kind of. It's not a process, it's a natural way to get to know the real person behind the job.

Speaker 1:

I wonder if you could think of any of the examples or like some of the favorite moments that you had with team members, seeing them really like flourish, become very successful in something particular, like I wonder what was some of the outcomes, maybe, that you're really proud of?

Speaker 3:

Well, the most proud moments is when you are leaving a team and people are crying because you are leaving. They are saying I always left companies because of a boss, but it's the first time that I would leave a company because I want to follow the boss. So for me that has been the major compliments and I still have goosebumps if I think of those words or when people are referring to me you've been more than a leader, you've been a coach to me, because that's the part of the enablement and the personal flourishing that I'm looking for in this position. To give you a very concrete example and I think if she listened to this conversation, she will know immediately that I'm talking about SCS let's go. I started building a SCS team from scratch.

Speaker 3:

She was doing more of the admin renewal thing and we had a very tough beginning because she was very demanding and she didn't have a lot of trust in leadership. So she was asking me but what are you actually going to do? And very tough at the beginning, like yeah, but I'm doing the job, what are you going to do? Like she couldn't understand really what my purpose was to join the team and the vision of the department. So I told her give me a couple of months. We need to build this trust in both ways. I want to bring the department, so I told her give me a couple of months. We need to build this trust in both ways. I want to bring the department here and I want to understand where you can be part of that that you enjoy doing. And actually that was the path that we followed. So the word to track.

Speaker 3:

I immediately saw her passion for the ops side of things and, of course, as a new CS team side of things. And of course as a new CS team you don't have the bandwidth to specialize the team, but as soon as you can put additional projects, she was the one leading everything around CRM. She really enjoyed that and because of that she builds also her presence and her visibility with the rest of the team. So she was the go-to person for CRM stuff, even outside CS. So she was really at their best with CS.

Speaker 3:

On the other hand, she was having some issues communicating with some colleagues because if you know her, she's a sweetheart but sometimes her communication was super direct, super harsh and I can handle it, but not everyone. So we also work on that communication empathy level and she was another person after one year. She told me what a trajectory or a path that I've been through, and I was really impressed that she was really always looking for getting better. So I think that's super important. When the person wants to improve whatever it is or to do things differently, that's the first step and then, of course, you can support from that perspective.

Speaker 1:

So that's one of the great things. Oh, that's one that's such a nice and cute example. Oh, if she's listening, well done to you, kudos to you. And yeah, I can see why it all happened. It's interesting.

Speaker 1:

You just said, like, if people want, like if they are open to learning, how can we? I mean, it's a difficult situation when we have people around us that couldn't care less, right, especially in the working environment, who are there for the paycheck, who are there for waiting for five o'clock I'm not saying that's anything wrong with it but people who have a mindset of just doing the bare minimum or doing things that have to be done and that's it. It's just the job. Like, don't bother me for anything more. Like, how can we approach enabling those people because surely you know we were talking about the purpose like, is anyone aware of it? Do everybody even approach their work as, like, being aligned with their purpose? I don't think so. Really, how can we unlock those people who may not have even interest in continuously growing and developing, because I'm sure we both know those people.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah, yeah for sure. And that's where the understanding the person really comes in, because we don't know what this person has been having in the past, this person has been having in the past and the reason for being, I would say, disengaged or go with the flow without being involved or motivated. There is always a why behind. So for me, when I see this, I first try to understand what's that luggage that I don't see? And they always have that I don't see and they always have. So understanding that luggage is a working point for me to unlock. If I still can find motivation. Sometimes you don't, and that's because maybe they are not a good fit for the role or for the company, because someone that is made for corporate is not made and cannot thrive in a startup. Yeah, so it's a combination of understanding that luggage that they are bringing with them and that we don't always see unless you deep dive into understanding it, and sometimes you need to take decisions. Is the person in the right environment at the right time? Maybe not at the right time and maybe not at the right role, maybe not.

Speaker 3:

And when I also hire for attitude and if that's like the third option, wrong attitude, even if you are the most hard-skilled person. That's not working for me and I don't trust. Someone can be at their best and even if they have a long path where they need a lot of support, I don't have an issue with that. I'm very patient with people that really need support, but with someone that is not showing or is not showing the right attitude, that's not someone I need to have in a team, because this I always say attitude is contagious. And people that can bring even joy when things are not going well, because things are not always going to be pink, we'd say in Spanish. So we need people that are there for the good and for the bad, and when things are good and you even can't realize and be grateful on things that you have, that's not the people I can work with. So you always need to sometimes take also decisions.

Speaker 1:

I'm really glad that we're having this conversation because, as much as leaders want to enable others and that's the right thing to do in any situations, as you said, there are attitudes or maybe you know, lack of coachability or positive behaviors that sometimes you, as an external person, you just can't do anything about. Like we have been in situations where you have, exactly as you said, team members being contagious, being completely so negative that they are becoming burdened to the rest of the team, they're wasting or they're draining energy from others and very often, yes, it is related to the environment where they are at. Like, if they are made for corporate, where everything is you know, you just follow the process, you just do that part, don't think too much out of the box. Maybe they're fine. They're absolutely not fine in places where they constantly need to bring solutions to those problems, because all they see is just the problems. They're absolutely not fine in places where they constantly need to bring solutions to those problems, because all they see is just the problems, or company doesn't give us this or doesn't do this or that.

Speaker 1:

It's really, really hard and I'm glad that we're talking about how very often, yes, you just need to draw the line and make decisions of exiting people from the business, or when you're in a good position, like just not hire them when you recognize that they wouldn't be a fit. So, as much as it's so noble and great to enable others, there are situations when you can't do much, like your hands are really tight. As great as you can be, like a person doesn't allow you even to access to that area of changing their attitude.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, exactly, and there is a turning point because I'm always believing I can unlock this situation. So I'm always going to do everything that is in my hands to support the person. But if things are not changing, my conversation with that person is look, this is what we've been doing this, this and these concrete things for you. Now it's up to you, because this is a win-win situation. If we're missing one of the wins, this is not a place where you can be at your best and not a place where we can get you where you are.

Speaker 3:

Maybe there is a mismatch. And that's a turning point for the person to really think and assess is this a place where I want to be, Because, yes, we've tried this and this and this with me? And then you will see people that say, okay, now it's on me, and I've seen this many times that they change and then you say is this the same person like six months ago? But you also have people that say, no, this is not enough for me. And then you need to take a decision, because you only can do what you can, right? So I always going to take a decision after putting everything in place that I can, for sure, but yeah, that could be one of the consequences or next steps for that person.

Speaker 1:

And if you are that person listening, there's no shame in that and it's absolutely fine to recognize. Well, this environment is not good for me or I don't thrive here. It simply just doesn't play to my strengths. Like that doesn't make you any less than or any less capable or less CS leader, less CSM. You just have to recognize like, okay, this was maybe an experiment, it's not for me, I need to look for some different environment.

Speaker 3:

I think that's exactly how you are saying it, because that a person not fitting a specific environment or a specific job might not even be their own fault Maybe it was the hiring manager who made a wrong decision and that doesn't make or devaluate the impact of this person. That's where they can really flourish. And I have one case in mind where there was someone in a company I was working for in my team. This team had like four different leaders in one year and a half, but this person, everyone knew this is not something for this person. Even he knew it, but there was no open communication around that. So I had a lot of conversations with this person, because this person was put in a very sales role and he enjoyed doing theater and being creative. And I had that open conversation where I told him do you really enjoy what you are doing? He said actually not. And then what's preventing you to be here? Because you are not happy.

Speaker 3:

And then and all the luggage came, so he didn't dare to leave the job to not, because then he wouldn't meet the expectations from family, et cetera, and he felt blocked. So we agreed okay, let's put a plan together, let's try to give you that fulfillment that you don't have and that we also don't see, of course, in your results for a period of time, and after that period, we can make a decision. It didn't work out because, yeah, it wasn't meant to be, and then, at the end of the period, we took the decision to part ways. Since then, and still after so many years, every time that he's now in a theater and doing things with kids and super happy, and every time he sees me he thanks me for having that tough conversation and to dare to have that conversation and to part ways, because now he's doing something where he's really enjoying and he's not feeling stuck, so he's living to his purpose again. So sometimes, again, it's not the person, it's the right person put in the wrong environment.

Speaker 1:

Oh, absolutely. Oh, my gosh, I just love, love, love that story and I would like you know, for everybody listening to, to really dare themselves right, because, as you said, he like, he thanked you that you dare to have that conversation with him. It's incredibly important. Even if you're feeling that you know you're in the job and maybe you're really struggling in some way and it's not in a way that performance review would help you, it's okay to ask your leaders for help, right, saying you know I'm not exiting business now, I don't have any other solution. You know I have a family to feed, I have responsibilities, it's all okay. But like, how can you help me going towards the path? And it may just be a different role or a different team.

Speaker 1:

It's actually doing lots of service to your manager as well, because if you are feeling that way, surely they're that they are recognizing, uh, in the performance or, in general, in the attitude. So, just having very honest conversation, without being afraid that you know what will happen, they are recognizing in the performance or, in general, in the attitude. So, just having very honest conversation without being afraid that you know what will happen. Tomorrow will I still have my job? And I understand there might be situations where it is potentially risky, but if you have a good relationship, it's just good to address. What do you feel that it's happening with you and your approach to work?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and I think trust that's the key thing and has been the key thing for me for building relationships with customers, for building the team, for putting the team together. If there is no trust, then we should ask ourselves why and take actions from there. If you don't trust a team member can do a good job, it's their self-fulfilling prophecy. They are not going to be doing a good job. If you believe in someone, even if they are far away, to accept they will get there, because you are believing it, you're going to enable them. And same with someone looking for a job.

Speaker 3:

I always say what's important for you in a job and try to meet that, regardless of the job, the title because that's going to be your daily life and when it counts is in many occasions is have a good relationship with my manager, and I think that should be a must have for everyone, because if you cannot have that trust, that click with your leader, you will be halfway or where you can be. Yeah, that's a very, very important component for me, and when I ask people what's important for you is that it needs to click well with your hiring manager.

Speaker 1:

Actually, Nieves, you are giving us so much amazing tips and wisdom on well enabling team members and just creating that environment of trust, environment of care and of growth and just making sure that people can understand what is their part to play, what is on their responsibility, how to approach different situations and seeing how they are performing at a job. Are they playing to their strengths? If not, how they can go about it and do some decisions in their career with the help of their managers. It, and you know, do some decisions in their career with the help of their managers. Thank you so much for that. I'm so excited to just quickly jump into another topic, because you are not only enabling teams which I can see how amazing job you're doing with it but you have something special for enabling children. Can you please tell us more about it?

Speaker 3:

special for enabling children. Can you please tell us more about it? So I recently posted about that on LinkedIn and I was thinking should I or should I not? I'm not a content creator on LinkedIn, I just prefer to share knowledge during events. But this was something I was so proud of that I said I just gonna do it. I feel my my gut feeling say just say it, why not? It's, it's not bragging or it's just it comes from a better, from the best place and that's from really my heart. So I launched a children book with a coaching tool embedded. It's coming from a very personal story with my own daughter.

Speaker 3:

When she was six years old, I was told by the school director that they were feeling at school that she at school, that they are working with different levels, and level two was done, level one was done and then level three. She had to sit and think. One, two, three. She had to sit and think. For her it was like am I going to do this, just like level one and two? And if she had questions on herself, she always found an excuse not to try it. So I was like okay, how are we going to solve this? What can I do from my at-home perspective. And they said, yeah, we just not force, force her, but we will make sure that she stays and that she thinks. And that she uh, approached that and I thought I don't think that's not good. Yeah, it was like that's might not be working.

Speaker 3:

And then I saw that as well at home, to the point that we were coming from the dentist and she had some holes I don't know what the name in English is yeah, holes, yeah, okay. And then a dentist asked her have you washed your teeth? Good? And for her it was like, oh my God, I didn't do this perfect and because of that I'm having now this and why? And so we came home and she said mom, are you going to brush my teeth? For me I was like but you've been doing this already two years. You are six, you can do this perfectly. No, I cannot do this perfectly, because look what the dentist told me. And I was like, oh my God, she's now suffering from perfectionism at the age of six, to the point that she doesn't dare to even brush her teeth.

Speaker 3:

And then I thought, okay, I need to do something, because I'm coaching people adults on perfectionism, on fear of failure, on imposter syndrome, and I see this at home with my own daughter. So I thought, okay, let's try one of the coaching tools that I'm using I'll put it in a children way and I started doing that with her, to the point that after a month she had one of these moments like no, I don't know. And I said do you need to use your tool? And she said actually, mom, I think I'm not going to use it anymore. I was like, oh, why, if it's helping you? Because actually now I know that if I don't know if I'm going to be able to do something, I first need to try. And I was like, oh, wow.

Speaker 3:

And then I said this is magic. I want this to go to other children, I want other parents to be embedded so that the parent or someone from a teacher can also use that with children. And I believe on the power of storytelling at business, but also with children, and certainly at that age, because until the age of eight, everything that you say to children forms their core belief system. So it's a very key age to give tools when they feel stuck, because these are things that they will take for the rest of their lives and that's how it was born so purely from a purpose driven purpose yeah, facts and without any financial goal or business plan behind. Purely from. If this helped my daughter, I'm sure it can help other children as well so what is the tool?

Speaker 1:

tell us, tell us, what was that coaching tool? I'm just now thinking in my head, oh my gosh, your description sounds so much like my six-year-old son, like complete perfectionist in absolutely everything, that sometimes you're thinking, gosh, did I give birth to something like that? Like it's amazing in a way. Yeah, it's like so amazing. I wish I was like that in so many things. Yeah, but wonder, like, what are those main steps in the tool? Because I believe the book is still in Spanish, isn't it Correct exactly? It book is still in Spanish, isn't it Correct, exactly?

Speaker 3:

It has now launched in Spanish. The tool is based on an anchoring tool from Neuralistic Programming and that's a way to tell your brain everything is fine. So you anchor in your body the statement of you don't need to be afraid and your mind will react on that anchoring. That's a very simplistic explain. But to give you an example on business world, you can use this tool before you go into public speaking. People start shaking, your body doesn't respond and if you anchor a sentiment of everything is under control and you do this before going on stage, your brain will say it's everything under control and that will go back to your body. So it's a perfect tool, super simple, that you can use to, yeah, when you are afraid of public speaking, but in many, many other occasions. So in that book it's used to tell the kids even if you think you are not going to be capable of, it's fine, try it. So that's the tool.

Speaker 1:

Beautiful tool, anchoring Nieves. I want to give the audience a chance to look for your book. Where is the best place to find a book and what's the title?

Speaker 3:

So it's again in Spanish. You can find it in Amazon, but also in my personal website. It's called the Magic of the Impossible, la Mafia de lo Imposible. That's a beautiful banner. It has a very nice illustration I'm not responsible for the illustrations, by the way, I don't have those talents, but it's and also includes at the end the explanation for the parents, with the QR on the tool itself and some additional activities for the children to reinforce it. So, yeah, amazon, my personal website, and if it gets translated into other languages, I'll make sure that people are also aware of it. So don't hesitate to reach out if you would be interested so that, if it ever gets translated, I know who to inform firsthand.

Speaker 1:

Yes, please do it. And for everybody listening, it's La Magia de lo Impossible. You can find it on Amazon. If you have any friends who have children, who are maybe bilingual or who speak Spanish, that seems like a perfect Christmas gift. So thank you for sharing beautiful book, beautiful resource, your coaching tool and your amazing experiences with us today. It was so awesome. I think that I could just, you know, sit here and chat with you for ages. This was wonderful. Thank you so much for coming to the show.

Speaker 3:

Thanks a lot. I'm looking forward to meet you in person, hopefully soon, and we can continue this chat and many others. So I really really thank you for this today and for what's next, also for us.

Speaker 2:

Thank you for listening. Next week new episode, Subscribe to the podcast and connect with me on LinkedIn so you're up to date with all the new episodes and the content I'm curating for you. Have a great day and talk to you soon.