Glowing Brighter: Rethinking Business Leadership

Alana Muller:
Welcome to Enterprise.ing, a podcast from Enterprise Bank & Trust that's empowering business leaders one conversation at a time. Each week, we'll hear from top business professionals about lessons on leadership and entrepreneurship that they've learned along the way. I'm your host, Alana Muller, an entrepreneurial executive leader whose primary focus is to connect, inspire, and empower community. We at Enterprise Bank & Trust thank you for tuning in to another episode.

Hello, listeners. Welcome back to Enterprise.ing podcast. Today, we have in the studio Whitney Kenter. With more than two decades of experience in business advisory, financial services, and executive leadership, Whitney is founder and CEO of Glowe Connective, the innovative advisory firm to businesses and executives that helps visionary leaders to uncover, activate, and amplify energy to scale successfully. Whitney Kenter, welcome to Enterprise.ing podcast.

Whitney Kenter:
Thank you. I'm so excited to be here. Thanks for having me.

Alana Muller:
You are welcome. So glad you are. I understand that your expertise lies in unbound visionary creativity, audacity to dream big, and the corralling of energy to unlock value and potential in people and businesses. I need to know what that means. What does that mean to you? And how did it help you to launch Glowe Connective?

Whitney Kenter:
So, I think the first couple of components of that, the “visionary creativity” and the “audacity to dream big,” is I've consistently found myself asking, "Well, if that's the way it has been, how could it be? What could be different? What's different today that makes us need to go back and reimagine things?" I love going back and looking at how things originated, and then I also like looking at the current and future state of things and figuring out how can we think differently about anything, whether it's structuring the business or structuring an org chart or something like...It's like, how can we think differently about this so that it works?

And then the energy piece, the “E” in Glowe is for energy because we are all made of energy, and we are in business, which is a system of energy. And how do we think differently about getting the best of us to show up? Because when we're in our healthiest, best place, we do glow a little brighter. We're more energetic, we attract clients, we attract better things into our lives. And so that energetic component is core to Glowe for sure, but I just think it's given the time and how we are in society today, I think it's really important to just refocus and re-center around the energy.

Alana Muller:
I think that's really nice. Well, okay, I have to go back on two things. First of all, you said “the “E” in Glowe.” For our listeners, for anybody who's not reading the show notes, where is there an “E” in Glowe?

Whitney Kenter:
We spell Glowe with an “E” at the end, and so we are emphasizing the impact that you have as a human being when you are aligned and you're doing your best work and you're really energized and excited about what you're doing. And even if you're just in a calm state, a regulated state, you still are showing up differently than if you're stressed, overwhelmed, depressed, anxiety, all the different things that really just detracts from your glow and detracts from that energy. That's what we're trying to eliminate.

Alana Muller:
Oh, that's so nice. Well, and you talk about this notion of energy. And what I hear you saying is really you put this call out to the universe, and the universe delivers something back. And I really love the way that you think about breaking the way we've always done things or not doing things just because we've always done them in a particular way, but really that notion of re-imagining it. What a cool way to begin to think about growth and this regeneration of business. Do you find that your clients come to you at a particular time or stage in the lifecycle of their business where it's time for that renewal? Or is this an all the time thing that you encourage people to engage in?

Whitney Kenter:
Well, I think because we're introducing something new, I would love to say that people are calling me all the time and saying, "Hey, Whitney, I'm ready to glow. How can you help me?" We're starting to get a little bit of that, but not really. I think that a couple of pain points that we're getting brought in to solve is low growth, no growth. How can they think about that? The big one, the big topic that I'm talking to almost every leader about is how are we going to bridge this generational divide? There's a huge amount of concern and fear and anxiety around the rising generations not knowing how we do business and not having the same work ethic and not having the same point of view. And they're concerned about succession or transitioning leadership to people that aren't like them and don't have the same core beliefs. And so that's just recurring. And so oftentimes, those come up when there is a change in leadership or there's a pending change in leadership.

We have worked with a number of family-owned businesses, and based on my history of working with family-owned business owners, that's just a natural thing, to think about the family dynamics and the dynamics going on at work. As much as it's a structural thing to have succession planning, there's a lot of the behavioral side and the trust and communication side that needs to be dealt with. Anytime there's a change in leadership, we can usually find ourselves having conversations. And then the growth thing is huge, and employee engagement in this leadership transition or just really how to engage the Millennials and Gen Z seems to be a really popular topic.

Alana Muller:
Yeah, I bet, I bet. Well, and this is a unique time because we have... I think it's five different generations at this very moment. And if we think of greatest generation, boomer, on down the line, even if we think about the people in our own lives at both ends of the spectrum. There's another expression for Gen Z; you probably know it. I can't come up with it right now, but there's all these different expressions for the Greatest Generation. I think it's also called the Silent Generation all the way down to this now Gen Z. And as we think about those different individuals, and as you describe, people with different beliefs, contrary ways to do business or to engage just in the world, I do think it makes sense to acknowledge and also respect the differences from a generational perspective. And I always wonder, how do we even draw the lines from generation to generation? But it's you know it when you see it, right?

Whitney Kenter:
Right, right. I have written about how when we hear a lot of the frustrations with, "Let's go one way," the older generation, understanding and having compassion for the fact that because of the stage of life that they're in and everything that they've experienced that is contributed to being who they are and how they've led their lives, at a certain level, you automatically start to try to outrun irrelevance. And that does change your thinking about things because you're hanging on but you know you shouldn't be holding on. You need to be transferring that knowledge, but you're feeling like there is no place for me anymore. Understanding where people are in their life cycle is as important as understanding their generational characteristics and their own individual human characteristics.

And I think if you look down, I think it's because the... I was just talking about this this morning. We have basically been the creators of the characteristics that we're seeing in these younger generations that we no longer like. We've created an environment in school that gives them a very clear direction. "You do this thing, you get this award, you get the national honor..." And so when we get into business and they say they want a clear path, they want more communication, more transparency, things like that, it blows our mind a little bit because it isn't what, in business, our experience has been; it's been more top down, it’s been told to us, we get... All of that to say it is time to reimagine. Whenever you have this amount of friction, I guess, in the system, it's time to reimagine it. And that's okay. We've done it for hundreds and hundreds of years. When things start to have friction and they start to break a little bit, it's time to reimagine. I think it's a great opportunity for us.

Alana Muller:
It is. And it's a neat time to be doing that, so I think it's super exciting. One of the things that I know that you talk about is working with your clients to align their individual, what you call “superpowers” with their roles in their organizations, fostering creativity, collaboration, et cetera, et cetera as those key elements of the energy that you talked about so that they can shift and grow their business. Talk to me about what your superpower is and how you help your clients to uncover theirs.

Whitney Kenter:
It's easier to talk about how we help others find theirs. I have a deep belief, and we do at Glowe, that helping our clients have a deeper knowledge of themselves helps them become better leaders. And from an energy perspective, I think some of it is just getting back to the core of who they are that maybe we've received programming or we've been on a hamster wheel for a certain amount of time, and so we begin to create certain core beliefs about ourselves that may or may not be exactly core to who we are. And so I like being able to help people figure out when they're at their best. When are they, we call it “in flow”? When are they in their zone? And you can just tell. You can tell when someone is in their zone because the way they light up or the way that it comes naturally to them.

And I love asking questions to people and having them say, "Well, a lot of people are good at," fill in the blank. And I'll say, "Well, actually that's not true." But I think somehow we've gotten in this habit of we should focus on our weaknesses to make our weaknesses better, versus leaning into what we're naturally good at and just keep making that better. Because the big joke for me has always been can I do spreadsheets? Yes, I can. Am I world-class best at spreadsheets? No. I don't think like that. I think in whiteboards and paintings and drawings. And I can do a lot of things, but putting me in front of a spreadsheet is probably not going to give anybody the best result. And so-

Alana Muller:
Well, what I can tell you, two things on that. I can help you with the spreadsheets. We can be good thought partners there. And you're reminding me, there's a tool that I use in my business called Strengthscope. And I think that a better name for that would be energy scope, because what it is it's exactly what you're describing, it's an assessment of what energizes you in your work. And what are your zappers? What takes away from that energy? And so I often will ask clients, "When was the last time you were best at work?" Or, "When was the last time you were best?" You know?

Whitney Kenter:
Mm-hmm.

Alana Muller:
And so I love that you're describing this approach to, as we were talking about, uncovering superpowers by asking them, "When were you at your best?" And then finding those points of intersection.

Whitney Kenter:
Right. And a lot of times, you can find it through where people spend their time outside of work, what energized them. And you keep going a little bit deeper. What about cooking is interesting to you? Do you like going from a recipe? "Oh my gosh, no, I just like getting in there and experimenting and all that kind of stuff." The way that you get there is usually not a direct question and answer; it takes some nuance and some exploration. But that, for us, is the fun part because then when we think about, okay, well what does the person that's in this role that's responsible for these things, and these are their superpowers, what does that mean? How do we get the best out of them in order to get those results?

And especially when we're talking about leadership transition, and especially when there's a CEO transition, usually the outgoing CEO is not exactly the same carbon copy of the incoming CEO, and so that creates a shift in the whole leadership team. You have to start over a little bit with not just roles and responsibilities, but how are we going to accomplish these objectives? And maybe it looks slightly different, and that's okay.

Alana Muller:
Right. That makes good sense. Well, one of the things that I focus on myself is relationship building. I always love to hear what my guests have to say about that. In your business, what role does relationship building play? And how are you leveraging your own connections to enhance your success?

Whitney Kenter:
I'm a relationship person through and through. And I pretty much make every decision in my life based on relationships. And so that connection piece is really important to me. And I think that that has for sure fueled Glowe's growth because especially in the first two years, people were like, "You're doing what? And what is this weird glow? And it's pink. And I don't really understand anything about what you're talking about." Anytime you're introducing something new, the relationships are even more important because they're like, "Well, I trust you, and I get what you're saying, and I like what you're saying, and yeah, let's do this." And so gratefully, Glowe has evolved quite a bit. And so we have a lot of good evidence of the impact that we're having, which is great. And I think more and more people too are coming around to this notion.

But I think that the relationships thing, I think what I've learned over the years is when I was early in my career and people were teaching me networking and all of this, there were so many meetings per week or day or whatever it was, and you just got to go find the meetings and you got to ask people to introduce you to other people. And now I feel like I try to go from a place of genuine curiosity, or if someone introduces me, and they're like, "Oh my gosh, Whitney, you need to meet so-and-so. I was having a conversation, and you guys just need to know each other," that is all I need to know. I don't need to go look at them on LinkedIn, I don't need to ask if it's going to add value to Glowe or anything. If someone that I know thought of me during another conversation, then there must be something there. And it's a little bit of a treasure hunt. I'm like, "Wow, I wonder what they saw."

And I think that I've told people this, I didn't realize that... I've always heard opposites attract, and I do understand that, but also I think when it comes to people in relationships, like attracts like. Common viewpoints, common tribes, common experiences, whatever those different things are, that's what fuels me because I love exploring other people's experiences. And we connect on that.

Alana Muller:
Yes, absolutely. I love that.

Whitney Kenter:
And then the relationship builds from there. Yeah.

Alana Muller:
100%. It's a series of touch points over time. And the more you have to talk about, the more you have to talk about, right?

Whitney Kenter:
Right. Exactly.

Alana Muller:
It's exciting to find those points. And the common ground that you're describing, common experiences, common interests, they're always going to vary slightly because we each have our own story, but as you think about where somebody has come from and you can contribute or help to enhance that story with your own commentary, I always think that that's beneficial. I think that's really a nice way to do it.

Whitney Kenter:
Right. I've noticed in some meetings we'll get to the end and someone will say, "Well, why did you want to meet?" Or, "How can I help you?" And my response is usually the same. I said, "Well, either someone introduced us or I thought your story was interesting and I reached out," or whatever. "I have no idea where this goes from here, but what I can tell you from experiences, this connection is not random. We will probably figure it out somewhere down the road why our paths crossed. And I just trust in that now. And so there's nothing for us to do other than we made this connection, we invested this time, and let's see what happens. I have no idea what's going to happen." And maybe something does occur to me during that discussion where I'm like, "Oh my gosh, I need to introduce this. This is what needs to happen." But oftentimes I'm like, "I don't really know, but that's okay."

Alana Muller:
Cool. Yeah, love it. I love that you're open to that. As you said, I can tell you're a people person and thrive on those relationships, so that's very neat, very neat. Whitney, I know that you're passionate about self-exploration and healing. And that self-exploration piece I think is what we've been talking about. But when you talk about yourself, you also talk about that healing aspect. In that spirit, I'd love to know what are some of the biggest obstacles that you've faced? And how were you able to overcome them, emerge as a stronger leader? Did you get advice or do you have advice for others who are facing challenges in their work?

Whitney Kenter:
That's probably a whole other discussion, but I'll try to truncate what I usually say about that. I would say that for me, the healing journey started when I had three successive people hold up a mirror to me within a two-week period. And I think at the time, from an outsider perspective, you could look at me on paper and be like, "Oh my gosh, the perfect life and all the things." And was doing all the right things from a board perspective and had the job title and the kids and all the stuff, but it wasn't me. I wasn't living into my authentic self. And I didn't know it. I didn't see it. And gratefully for me, these mirrors happened. And then it was, okay, well, if I'm not that, how did I get here? And then who am I? And what does that even mean?

It's a super scary bridge to cross, and so I did have help. I would say in a few instances, I was not good at asking for help. I just thought I was smart enough to figure it all out on my own until this happened. And then it was, whoa, I do need help. And I didn't really have a strong support network, and so it was like, where am I going to go?

And then I would say the path just emerged from there. It was almost like one person would introduce me to someone else that really helped me with my transformation and healing journey, and then that person explicitly or implicitly handed me off to someone else, and I learned a little bit more and I learned a little bit more. It was a good, call it 11-year journey of taking off the pieces of the mask to figure out what was really underneath there.

And so I think that from my own experience of I wasn't intentionally putting all of these masks on or all these layers on, it just was happening. And a lot of it was just like, you go from college to the first job to the marriage to the kids, and then you'd go from VP to SVP to... You just get swept up in it without pausing. And I think that's a huge difference between the younger generation who are very early on in their lives saying, "What is my purpose? What is the meaning for me? What do I love to do?" And they're challenging and not jumping on the hamster wheel, which has its own set of challenges.

I think it's a real gift for me to have had that moment where it was that mirror moment. And I think that being vulnerable enough to understand what I actually needed to heal in order to come back to myself was really the path. And so I am very passionate about it because I do feel like a lot of us are wandering around without that connection back to self. Given everything that's going on in the world today, I think we all could benefit from coming home to our authentic selves a little bit.

Alana Muller:
So true, so true. Well, gosh, you said so many great things in there. First of all, it sounds like not only do you have either mentors or peers in your life, people you respect and admire who you've built enough trust with that, A, they felt comfortable coming to you with those mirrors, and B, you were comfortable enough to look in the mirror. That can be really scary, I suspect. And so the fact that you have those strong, solid connections I think is just point number one. Really, really important building that trust and being open to the notion of something, of some kind of change or transformation or something to move you from here to there.

And you're right, we do, we have all these facades and the notion of this perfect life, and that's what it is. I think with social media, one of the things that's happened is that there is this facade that gets created, the perfect picture or the perfect post. Some people have a perfect day, and then some people are having a less perfect day every day, right?

Whitney Kenter:
Yeah.

Alana Muller:
And one day it's our turn for the perfect day, and then the next day less so. And so I think that I admire the fact that you were willing to seek the advice or if maybe it was brought to you and that they were willing to offer it, but that together you were able to move forward. Really, really nice. Yep, love that.

Whitney Kenter:
Yep. Yep. I think it's important because we think about personal development and then we think about work. And I think what I'm trying to-

Alana Muller:
Same.

Whitney Kenter:
... help people see that we only have one life. I don't really like the phrase work-life balance because we have one life. It's how we're structuring our lives. I like the harmony. Being in harmony with all the aspects of our life seems a lot more realistic to me. And so-

Alana Muller:
Love that. You and I may have been separated at birth, actually.

Whitney Kenter:
Well-

Alana Muller:
I completely agree with this, especially in this country. And speaking of the United States, I think that we have this tendency to draw very discrete, distinct lines between our home life, our work life, and our community life. And for whatever reason, we say nary the twain shall meet. And it's just the same life, right?

Whitney Kenter:
Yeah.

Alana Muller:
It's the same life. And so I love your idea of harmony. I think that's a really beautiful way to think about life and to think about home, work, and community because it's just the same place. Right?

Whitney Kenter:
Right. Absolutely. Absolutely.

Alana Muller:
Yeah. Really, really nice. Talk to me about this. What's something that you're working on right now that you're especially excited about?

Whitney Kenter:
Oh, my gosh. I'm working on so many exciting things. The exciting thing is with Glowe, we're still in this building phase. And the momentum is such that I'm constantly thinking about how else can we help people? How can we create this awareness? How can we help people make these shifts? Because it's not a one meeting, and all of a sudden you're glowing, okay, great. Good job. It's a process for sure. And how do we do that? And I think that I'm very excited that we are converting our newsletter to a Substack. It gives us a lot more opportunity to be talking about these things and what we're experiencing and how the shifts are happening so that people can start to relate more. It's that storytelling aspect that I love to do. I'm excited about that.

I'm excited about the team expansion that we've had recently. Just some really incredible people that have been attracted to the work that we're doing and bringing their genius to our work and our clients. I'm super excited about that because it just feels like, okay, how do I reach more people? The Glowe team and the Connective, how do we help people? Because I do think that we are ripe for some changes. We've got the worst mental health crisis, the worst physical health crisis. We have to do something. We can't continue to go down this same path, so let's do something different.

Alana Muller:
Excellent. Great idea, great suggestion. Well, I have loved having you on the show. You may or may not know that I close with the same question for every guest, and so it's your turn. And my question is this: If you could meet one person living, not living, fictional or non-fictional, if you could meet with them for a cup of coffee, who would you want to meet and why?

Whitney Kenter:
For sure Audrey Hepburn. There has been-

Alana Muller:
I love it.

Whitney Kenter:
... something about her essence and grace and beauty. And certainly she did not have a, quote, "perfect life," but grace always comes to mind with me for her. Obviously she was just beautiful in all the different ways, but I would love to sit down with her. And she just seemed like the most beautiful, graceful soul. And she's been an idol of mine since as long as I can remember. That would be my person.

Alana Muller:
I just love it. I have the picture in my mind. I think you're going to breakfast. I've got it.

Whitney Kenter:
Yes, exactly.

Alana Muller:
Well, that is fabulous. Thank you for sharing that. Whitney Kenter, where can our listeners go to learn more about you and more about Glowe Connective?

Whitney Kenter:
We are on LinkedIn. And our website is probably the best place. That's where you can sign up for our newsletter, things that we publish. We have a podcast also. And we can link all that in your show notes for the listeners.

Alana Muller:
Fabulous. Whitney Kenter, thank you so much for being on Enterprise.ing Podcast.

Whitney Kenter:
Thank you for having me.

Alana Muller:
Thanks for joining us this week on Enterprise.ing. Be sure to visit our website, enterprisebank.com/podcast to subscribe so you'll never miss an episode. If you found value in today's program, please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or telling a friend about us. Enterprise.ing, powering business leaders one conversation at a time.

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