Kim Tice, a coach and recruiter for creative people after 18 years in advertising, joins Niiamah Ashong on the Outlier's Edge Podcast to talk about realizing a vision through teamwork. She describes her gift as enabling visionary thinkers and translating big ideas into action with a team behind her. What emerged is a sharper idea of team: not just people pulled together, but people who see and understand each other's strengths and weaknesses.
Episode at a glance
- Guest: Kim Tice, Coach and recruiter for creative people, after 18 years in advertising
- Host: Niiamah Ashong, coach to outlier leaders
- Show: Outlier’s Edge Podcast, released December 13, 2022
- Format: conversation, 54 minutes
- Topics: Vision and execution, It takes a team, Being seen and understood, Playing to strengths, Outliers and creativity, Creating spaces for courage
What Kim brought to the conversation
Kim Tice spent 18 years in the advertising industry on the business side, as a true partner to the creative team in coming up with big ideas, then transitioned into coaching and recruiting, still surrounded by creative people. She used to call herself a great number two, and now sees herself as an enabler of visionary thinkers who figures out how to get the work done, sell it through and get other people to believe in it. Niiamah Ashong trusts her not just to hold his vision but to carry it forward, and he sees her as someone who chooses to live in the fullness and richness of all life has to offer. With a colleague from the ad industry, she is creating programs to serve people in the creative industry.
What emerged
Kim Tice reframes the challenge for visionary leaders: they can cover a wall with ideas, but no one can do anything alone, and ideas that big need a team. She asks why anyone would pretend to be something they're not, when someone else's strength may simply be execution. When Niiamah Ashong asks her to put that question to him, he explores how being a chameleon has let him keep stepping into rooms where people play bigger games, and Kim adds that the right team is made of people who can see and understand each other. She also notices that what Niiamah did on his best team, talking to people and creating spaces where people feel courageous enough to be themselves, is exactly what he does now.
Questions this episode answers
Can a visionary leader succeed alone?
Kim Tice says no one can do anything alone, and visionary ideas are often so big that one or two people can't carry them. Her gift is supporting the vision, delegating and managing people to keep it moving forward, because not everyone can translate a vision into action.
What makes a great team?
Kim Tice says it's not just about pulling people together to be a team, but pulling together people who see and understand each other's strengths and weaknesses. Without that, she says, a leader can hire anyone under the sun and it's not the right team.
Why stop comparing yourself to people who seem to execute easily?
Kim Tice calls comparison the thief of joy, and notes that the people who seem to execute easily may simply have their strength in execution and project management. She asks why anyone would pretend to be something they're not, since in her own experience trying to be something she's not has taken her further from the goal she set out to reach.
What do the greatest teams have in common?
Niiamah Ashong believes the greatest teams find a way to tap into the outlier mindset, drawing on the different experiences of the people on the team while creating enough psychological safety for them to show up as they are. Kim Tice connects this to advertising, which she says is largely made of outliers, and senses a connection between creativity and outliers.
Who should a leader surround themselves with?
Kim Tice says that as she's gotten older she cares less about having commonalities with groups and is magnetized to the people who can see and understand her. She has many really good friends, and a core set who truly understand and see her.
In their words
I'm an enabler of really visionary thinkers, and I figure out how to get that work done.
Kim Tice
It takes a team. It takes a team to live the life I want.
Kim Tice
It's not just about pulling people together to be a team. It's pulling together people that can see and understand you and understand your strengths, your weaknesses, and you can understand their strengths and weaknesses.
Kim Tice
Key moments
04:09 – Trusted to carry the vision
08:22 – An enabler of visionary thinkers
13:33 – No one does it alone
14:35 – It takes a team
20:51 – Why pretend to be someone else
23:25 – Kim turns the question around
28:06 – The chameleon advantage
34:20 – Teams that see and understand each other
36:25 – The best team Niiamah has known
49:30 – Creating spaces for courage
About Niiamah Ashong
Niiamah Ashong is a coach to outlier leaders, host of the Outlier’s Edge Podcast, and founder of the Trailblazer Collective. He coaches leaders who are creating something only they can make: a company, a body of work or a movement. Make a difference with your difference.
Work with Niiamah: 1:1 with Niiamah | World of Difference
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