Tina Collins, an award-winning coach to executives and their teams, joins Niiamah Ashong on the Outlier's Edge Podcast to talk about using her unique traits to lead in tense environments. She shares how humor about herself puts teams at ease so the real work can happen, and why she takes her work seriously without taking herself seriously. What emerged is her vision for a place where leaders practice leadership over the long term, the way athletes train for game day.
Episode at a glance
- Guest: Tina Collins, Award-winning coach to executives and their teams
- Host: Niiamah Ashong, coach to outlier leaders
- Show: Outlier’s Edge Podcast, released December 20, 2022
- Format: conversation, 50 minutes
- Topics: Humor as a leadership edge, Taking the work seriously, not herself, Being an outlier, Creating your own belonging, Practicing leadership like an athlete, Essential skills, not soft skills
What Tina brought to the conversation
Tina Collins spent about 26 years consulting globally, on teams that accomplished extraordinary things, including saving lives in Afghanistan. She came to see that the best part of her consulting was coaching, and she now helps leaders and their teams outperform and live up to their potential, which she calls the greatest work of her life. Her edge is a really good sense of humor, especially about herself, and she says she almost has people in stitches within the first 60 seconds, which puts them at ease so they're able to hear differently. She has also trademarked a word, commonly used in the 1400s, that names the space between where a person is and where they want to be.
What emerged
The central distinction is one Tina Collins names herself: she doesn't take herself seriously, but she takes her work really seriously. Early in her career she played the part in gray suits and heels, and when she later practiced her stand-up comedy material on her colleagues, she found they were more invested and trusted and respected her more. On belonging, she is moving from looking outside for a place to belong to looking inward and creating that place through her own vision. Niiamah Ashong sees her vision of a place to practice leadership as the direction the learning industry is heading: people have access to information, and what they don't have access to is experience.
Questions this episode answers
How can a leader use humor to put a team at ease during change?
With the latest team she onboarded, Tina Collins held conversations with each person before the first meeting, then used what she learned to bring humor into the room. She told the team right off the bat that she wasn't going to flip the table right now, and when the whole team laughed together, the anxiety and fear went way down because they knew they were going to have some fun.
What does it mean to take your work seriously without taking yourself seriously?
Tina Collins separates what she does from who she is: she listens deeply and asks super prickly questions, and who she is, in her words, is a source of levity, peace, comfort, hope and fun. She believes that when people see someone having fun while doing really tough work, it feels less intimidating, less scary and more possible.
Why isn't reading about leadership enough to become a better leader?
Tina Collins notes there are over a billion articles on what leaders need to be, but reading about good listening doesn't teach the nuance of great listening. She says leaders need an ecosystem for long-term practice, the way Olympic athletes put in hours and hours of dedicated training.
Are soft skills really the hard skills in leadership?
Niiamah Ashong argues the so-called soft skills are the hardest skills, and Tina Collins calls them essential skills. She says working out the resources, cost and time a plan needs is easy compared with getting a team to work optimally, which she calls the harder skill, hands down.
What does it mean to be an outlier as a leader?
Tina Collins pictures a herd in a field with one animal off to the side, someone willing to separate from the group to explore and have their own adventures. Niiamah Ashong adds that this outlier could walk right back but has chosen something different, and he sees being an outlier as a competitive edge.
In their words
I really don't take myself seriously, but I take my work really seriously.
Tina Collins
If people see you having fun while you're doing really tough work, it's less intimidating, it's less scary, it's more possible.
Tina Collins
This desire to always have a place where I belonged may not exist. I may have to create it.
Tina Collins
Key moments
06:12 – From global consulting to coaching
14:21 – What an outlier looks like
16:23 – Humor as her unique advantage
18:58 – Onboarding a new team with humor
22:32 – Serious about the work, not herself
25:05 – Earning trust through stand-up comedy
26:38 – The person versus the product
34:17 – Creating her own place to belong
37:22 – A practice center for leaders
41:57 – Soft skills are essential skills
Enter Tina Collins’s world
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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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