Leadership that comes to life in a pandemic

Leadership strategy + advisory

Fiona Triaca

Naked Ambition

Naked Ambition director Fiona Triaca was challenged by Visibility Co to reimagine her ideas of leadership and has been rewarded during the biggest challenge of all: COVID-19.

The Challenge

With a rapidly expanding business, and growing team of full-time employees, Naked Ambition director, Fiona Triaca, realised she was in need of a strategy for her leadership to get clear on her vision for her own impact, to bounce ideas off and help uncover new ways of thinking about leadership. She also needed a framework with which to have coaching conversations with her team members.

While Fiona was lucky enough to have some great male leaders as role models throughout her career, she also worked with several who weren’t so great. She also had some long-held beliefs about the way she thought you needed to grow and run a successful business. Fiona knew she needed to be challenged to think about her leadership differently. She wanted to avoid the feeling of that constant, adrenaline-filled hustle that came with growing a business, as well as the pressure to work long hours and not be able to spend time with her children. Visibility Co appealed to Fiona because they approached leadership through a more holistic lens, with a focus on balancing work leadership with home leadership, taking all aspects of your life into consideration - not just the professional.

Fiona wanted to feel like things were in balance as she built Naked Ambition, and to feel confident that she was on the right track as a leader.  She wanted her team to respond positively to the work she was putting in, and for them to feel secure in the roles they played in her business and its growth.

The Solution

Fiona undertook a three-month, one-on-one leadership program with Visibility Co.

The team started with Visibility to Self: a deep-dive into Fiona’s leadership vision, purpose and values, before moving into the second pillar, Visibility to Self.  Fiona sought feedback from her team on her leadership and the culture of Naked Ambition, and gained a much deeper understanding of her learning and communication style, and that of others, and to build capability in the way she communicated and influenced those around her. While Fiona’s style is usually active and action-oriented, she appreciated the ability to slow down and dig deeper, and recognised the importance of this as a leader in her business.

The leadership vision that Fiona developed with Visibility Co is something she keeps coming back to; it takes her back to the big-picture and what’s really important, it reminds her to hold space for others to perform at their best and gives her the ability to lead more effectively with her team.

The Result

Fiona quickly realised that leadership started with her and how she perceived herself: her values, her vision and her self-talk. With the help of the team at Visibility Co, whom she came to trust deeply, Fiona was able to create a leadership roadmap that helped her to recognise the opportunities she had to step up and lead more effectively, as well as identify and harness the strengths she already possessed as a leader. She embarked on this work at the right time, and has found it to be extremely rewarding as her business has grown.

After being challenged to think differently about values and their importance, Fiona came to the realisation that where there is a difference of opinion this commonly comes from an inherent difference in values.  An ‘activator’ by nature, she was also challenged to slow down and consider the decisions she was making in order to speed up and progress things.

Fiona’s clear leadership vision, coupled with some of the deeply practical tools she gained during her program, has meant she has been able to step back and let different members of her team shine. She has created a tight-knit team who all feel like they are working in their zone of genius (or ZOG) every day. She is particularly proud of the way her team has rallied and worked so hard to deliver on a strategy that is delivering on her business vision and has kept her business afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The leadership program I’ve done with Visibility Co was super-rewarding.

I’ve been able to step back and become really conscious of my leadership vision and style, which has allowed all the different members of my team to shine. We’ve become a very close, tight-knit team and have been able to achieve some great outcomes together, including weathering the storm that is the COVID-19 pandemic”

Fiona Triaca

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