Are you struggling with your career right now? Do you want to know how to overcome those career challenges? Are you ready for the change that it will bring?
 
Unfamiliarity may be scary but it’s the hidden door that could unlock your full potential in your business and in your life. With this, changing the way you think can help you grow more and help you discover more things about yourself. The discomfort of change will help you grow and with this growth, you will be able to overcome the career challenges that you are facing.
 
Danielle deShaw is proving that when it comes to your career journey, where you start is not where you have to finish. She’s passionate about leading conversations that empower women 10+ years into their careers to do their careers and development differently, in a familiar way. A natural problem solver, as Host of The C-Suite on Roger TV, she connects career challenges facing women today to solutions provided by women entrepreneurs.
 
In this episode, Danielle shares her experiences in the big shift of her career journey, from working in a microbiology lab to becoming an award-winning businesswoman. She also shares the power of shifting your mindset and thinking differently.
 
 
What you will learn from this episode:
  • Discover how to overcome career challenges by changing your thinking
  • Learn more about the five-way process and how it can help you reflect more on your thoughts and actions
  • Find out how thinking differently can help you grow and better know yourself and the career that is best for you
 
 
Be in the moment, instead of wanting to solve the problem and move on to the next fire that’s burning. Be present and start to ask yourself, what’s really driving the actions and your decision.
Danielle deShaw
 
 
Valuable Free Resource:
 
Check out Danielle’s goal-achieving method! Visit:https://www.flowcode.com/page/danielledeshaw
 
 
Topics Covered:
 
2:24 – Challenge is facing difficulties and problems with the same old habits and behaviors while expecting a different result while doing the same thing
 
05:04 – Doing everything on their own and all alone especially when handling problematic situations: the common mistake business women leaders make
 
06:03 – One free and actionable tip you can do to address these challenges and change your way of thinking: Become aware of how you’re making decisions and what is actually driving the actions that you are taking
 
07:58 – One valuable resource to help you start thinking differently in a familiar way: Check out Danielle’s goal-achieving method! Visit: https://www.flowcode.com/page/danielledeshaw
 
09:11 – Q: How has thinking differently allowed me to overcome career challenges?
A: Because I was thinking differently, and I created this almost game-changing competence for myself, I know now that I have value to offer people. I can create that positive impact. I found my voice and I know my worth.
 
 
Key Takeaways:
 
“When you actually start listening and becoming more aware, you become aware that most of your thinking and actions are learned, they’re habits, and potentially they’re part of the overall corporate culture.” – Danielle deShaw
 
“Once you’re aware of this root cause of your thinking, you now know that starting point in which to start making paint, and when you paint you’re thinking you can paint how you’re seeing challenges and you become more open to identifying and taking actions on different solutions.” – Danielle deShaw
 
“Personal growth and thinking differently, and this idea around identifying a goal and knowing exactly what I wanted, and then she became a compass. No matter the highs or the lows that I was experiencing in my work, in business, or in life, I found that when I got focused on getting very clear on what it is that I wanted, and I took intentional action to move towards that, that goal and what I wanted, things always worked out.” – Danielle deShaw
 
“Because I was thinking differently, and I created this almost game-changing competence for myself, I know now that I have value to offer people. I can create that positive impact. I found my voice and I know my worth.”– Danielle deShaw
 
“At the end of the day, once I started thinking differently, and I saw the results, it became the data or that proof that really solidified that thinking differently works.” – Danielle deShaw
 
 
Ways to Connect with Danielle deShaw:
 
 
Ways to Connect with Sarah E. Brown
 
 
Full Episode Transcript:
 
Sarah E. Brown 1:02
My guest today is Danielle deShaw, from microbiology lab to Fortune 500 leadership, award-winning businesswoman, TV host, and coach. Danielle deShaw is proving that when it comes to your career journey, where you start is not where you have to finish. She’s passionate about leading conversations that empower women 10 years or so into their careers, to do their careers and development differently, and in a familiar way. A natural problem solver, as host of The C-Suite on Rogers TV, she connects career challenges facing women today to solutions provided by women entrepreneurs. As a coach, she blends professional development strategies with personal growth practices. The result is women taking that next step in their career or business with a clear vision, strong voice, and game-changing confidence. Danielle, thanks for joining me today.
 
Danielle deShaw 2:13
Thank you so much, Dr. Brown, for having me here today. I’m really excited to be here.
 
Sarah E. Brown 2:17
So what is the biggest challenge you help female leaders face in business today and what might be the symptoms of that challenge?
 
Danielle deShaw 2:24
So there are a lot of new challenges that women leaders are facing today in their careers. Challenges we have never seen before. What’s happening though is that women leaders were trying to face these challenges with old thinking habits and behaviors. And its symptom is we’re trying to do and challenge and create solutions and paint out results, and we’re doing the same thing expecting different results, and we’re not getting them. And this at the end of the day is impacting engagement, retention, efficiencies, and really the overall results that women are experiencing personally, professionally, and the organization’s as well. There is this hesitation though, around thinking differently and approaching our problem solving and our decision making differently. First, it’s because a lot of times we don’t know how to think differently. We’ve done professional development for years. We’ve received the same training as everyone else as per our training curriculum. But when we’re all thinking the same, it’s sometimes hard to step outside of what we know, to look at what we don’t know. Secondly, it’s new. Thinking differently, thinking new, it’s unfamiliar. It feels uncomfortable. And at the end of the day, there are no outcomes to foresee future results. Especially in business making, you know, for leadership, we’re always looking back to when we did that, what was the Y result that we got. When we’re thinking differently, we don’t have that past data that we can go back and analyze on or predict what the outcome will be. So this isn’t positive, the thinking is impressive. And sometimes when we try to think differently, kind of our ego gets in the way because we could be thinking, “Oh, well, you know, I should know how to do this already.” Or if I’m thinking differently, it means I wasn’t doing it correctly, to begin with. It’s not the case. It’s really about expanding your bandwidth and your ability to problem solve in a different way and create different solutions that are outside of the box to get different results. And I really help women leaders to make a stronger, faster, and high-quality decision, identify innovative solutions, and really how to communicate with strength and clarity while building strong relationships with themselves and others. This happens because women get clear on the results that they want, and they gain the confidence that they need to take that next step. I like to empower women to really think differently but in a familiar way. This is done by removing all the hesitations and the fear associated with change for doing something in a different way, by using familiar professional development and business strategies that are used by Fortune 500 companies to teach new ways of thinking about your personal growth, mindsets, and practices.
 
Sarah E. Brown 4:58
And what do you see as the biggest mistakes your clients are making before they start working with you?
 
Danielle deShaw 5:03
Some of the biggest mistakes are women are trying to do it all on their own. They’re the presentation to actually seek out and ask for help. Sometimes it might be seen in an organization as a weakness and not necessarily a strength. Another mistake is that women were trying to work harder and again, doing more of the same expecting different results. And that’s the kind of the definition of insanity- try to do the same thing, but expecting different results. It just doesn’t work. And therefore women are waiting too long to seek out help. What happens is they become lost. There’s no clear direction. They’re constantly putting out fires instead of being strategic and creating long-term solutions. It becomes very inefficient. And again, the solutions that are being implemented are very short-term. Performance and engagement decrease, and at the end of the day, you’re overwhelmed with frustration, and unhappiness increases.
 
Sarah E. Brown 5:57
Hmm. What is the number one free and actionable tip you can give them to address this challenge now?
 
Danielle deShaw 6:03
One actionable tip is really about becoming aware of how you’re making decisions and what is actually driving the actions that you are taking. And this now comes down to listening to the conversations that you’re having, that others in your organization are having. Be in the moment, instead of wanting to just kind of quick rate, solve the problem and move on to the next fire that’s burning. Just kind of stop and be present and start to ask yourself, what’s really driving the actions and your decision. When you actually start listening and becoming more aware, you become aware that most of your thinking and actions are learned, they’re habits, and potentially they’re part of the overall corporate culture. And then you could also use the five “Why’s”, the root cause problem-solving process, to really start digging into the exact reason why you’re thinking and doing things in a certain way. Once you’re aware of this root cause of your thinking, you now know that starting point in which to start making change, and when you change your thinking you can change how you’re seeing challenges and you become more open to identifying and taking actions on different solutions.
 
Sarah E. Brown 7:09
Terrific. You want to explain the five whys just a little bit more in-depth so that people know what you’re talking about on this?
 
Danielle deShaw 7:18
Absolutely! So the five-way process is a problem-solving process where you ask a question, and then you give an answer, and you keep asking why, five times. And the idea is that when you keep asking why you’re digging deeper and deeper into the actual root cause. A lot of times when we’re problem-solving, we’re looking at just the surface or the symptom of the problem. When you get into those deeper “why’s” you are identifying the true root cause. And then when you actually create a solution based on the root cause, that’s when you actually eliminate the problem from reoccurring.
 
Sarah E. Brown 7:50
Thanks. Danielle, what’s a valuable free resource you can share with the women- and this challenge better?
 
Danielle deShaw 8:00
A resource that I have that is free that women can go and download is a goal-achieving method to get women to start thinking differently in a familiar way. And this goal-achieving method, it’s based on the five S lean methodology, which has known results and benefits that organizations use to increase profits, decrease waste, and decrease time spent on processes. And I blend this with a personal growth mindset and goal-setting principle, which really can create these transformational changes. So it really helps to blend, again, doing something, you know, very familiar, but in a different way. And the idea is to shift to focusing on desired solutions and then creating consistent actionable thinking and behaviors. And this tool can be downloaded at https://www.flowcode.com/page/danielledeshaw
 
Sarah E. Brown 8:08
And that link will be on in the show notes for people to find. And did you say that was the five S? That was a lean methodology?
 
Danielle deShaw 9:00
Yes, the lean methodology.
 
Sarah E. Brown 9:05
Okay, got it. So Danielle, what’s one question that I should have asked you that will help our audience take action to address this challenge? And then would you please answer the question?
 
Danielle deShaw 9:11
That’s a great question that you asked and what I’ve thought about this, it was all about really- I wanted to show that I’ve walked the walk. So the question is, how has thinking differently allowed me to overcome career challenges? And the answer is, again, like you said in the very beginning, I started off in a microbiology lab. So for the first 15 years of my career, I was Fortune 500, I was very linear. I started in a microbiology lab, and I was very intentional, and I was moving up in my career, and I ended up in Fortune 500 leadership. I got into personal growth and this idea around thinking differently when I turned 40, and this was before I turned 40. I was coming up against challenges in my career that I did not know how to solve, with all of my academics and my training, and my development, I couldn’t fix everything. So I began to start thinking that there was something wrong with me that I didn’t know what I could do. I wasn’t competent anymore. I didn’t have the qualifications to be doing what I was doing. And I just really started to doubt who I was and was able to do, but then I realized that I’ve been driving my career really focused on what I want it to be, and then I completely forgot about the “who”. I was so focused on the analytics that I forgot to kind of step back and really look at, “Well, who do I want to be as a leader?” And personal growth really helped me to start thinking differently, which increased my belief in myself to the point where I intentionally stepped off the ladder at 40 and I became an entrepreneur a few years ago. And personal growth and thinking differently, and this idea around identifying a goal and knowing exactly what I wanted, and then she became a compass. No matter the highs or the lows that I was experiencing in my work, in business, or in life, I found that when I got focused on getting very clear on what it is that I wanted, and I took intentional action to move towards that, that goal and what I wanted, things always worked out. But again, like, my background is in manufacturing. 20 years in manufacturing. I was extremely analytical, process-oriented, introverted, and I was low risk. The focus was really on analyzing problems to come up with a solution. I didn’t formulate it very well. I had a big bubble around me about, you know, getting close to people, and I wasn’t comfortable in groups. By learning how to think differently, I’m still some of those things. I’m analytical. I love processes. I am naturally still introverted. I like being alone. But I’ve developed a whole new skill set. I’m much more creative and innovative, more people-centered versus process-centered. I’ve gotten comfortable with being uncomfortable. I like being in groups. I take more strategic risks, and I trust my decision. I’m now solution-focused, where I use the solution as a starting point, instead of the data. I’m still introverted, but I enjoy talking and getting to know other people and at the end of the day, I’m very confident in making these nonlinear career transitions. Again, I started in a microbiology lab. Today, I’m coaching. I’m also the community producer and host of a TV show, so I’m really putting myself out there. And TV broadcasting- it was an industry I knew absolutely nothing about. Because I was thinking differently, and I created this almost game-changing competence for myself, I know now that I have value to offer people. I can create that positive impact. I found my voice and I know my worth. And these are capabilities and skills that women need to have when they’re making those career transitions, or they’re really trying to step up and step out in the role that they’re currently in. But at the end of the day, once I started thinking differently, and I saw the results, it became the data or that proof that really solidified that thinking differently works.
 
Sarah E. Brown 12:58
Terrific advice. Danielle, thank you so much for being with us today.
 
Danielle deShaw 13:01
Thank you so much for having me. This is a pleasure to be on your show. Thank you

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