We’re back from our summer break with a new guest on the podcast today, Laura Gallaher. Laura is an organizational psychologist who is passionate about growing self-awareness.  She runs the company Gallaher Edge where she helps executives be better leaders so they can build strong teams. Laura is also the host of a podcast called Expand Your Edge that sets out to eliminate rigidity and black and white thinking.

In our conversation, we talk all about how to get over your own fears and perceptions in order to become a more effective leader. Laura stresses that strong leaders don’t need to have all the answers but they do need to create a culture at work where teams can communicate openly and employees felt heard by leaders. 

Self-Awareness in Business

“The self is the core of everything. I think everything is from the inside out,” Laura shared with me.

Self-Awareness is so important to Laura, both on a personal level and on a business one. A lot of her work with her clients center around how to become more self-aware as a business leader. Laura points out that to be self-aware means to understand all the stories you have learned since you were a child. These stories are about who you are and how the world works. If you don’t know those stories, you aren’t able to actively change them if you want. Especially if a change in the story means you are able to love and accept yourself on a deeper level.

That’s because self-love and self-acceptance is something you have control over. In fact, you get to decide how much you like yourself. So, if you are able to like yourself even when someone isn’t being nice to you, it’s easier to not be bothered by them and therefore be a more effective communicator.

In fact, Laura says that “the better I am with me, the better I am in this world.”

Laura tries to check in with herself often if she feels the pull to act or be a certain way. That feeling usually informs her there is something she is fearful of. Usually, that means Laura thinks she needs to perform in some way that isn’t authentic to herself. However, “I don’t want to try to be any kind of way,” Laura told me.

World Travel and a Business Pivot

To expand her own horizons, Laura recently left Orlando to embark on a year-long world-traveling adventure. The timing felt right to embark on the trip as she works on her own self-acceptance journey. Laura also realizes that her view of the world is very narrow. She hopes this trip will expand her horizons, make her a stronger consultant, and allow her to adopt new ideas into her own life.

Because of her travels, Laura had to drastically change how she ran her business. When she lived in Orlando, Laura conducted business mostly in-person. However, that wouldn’t work when she was a whole continent away. So Laura decided to pivot to a model where Gallaher Edge offers online learning and resources.

Because of this drastic shift, Laura had to build a whole new infrastructure on her website.  She admits, though, that the process has been slow and a bit tiring. However, she has learned so much about online course creation along the way. From her time previously working for NASA and Disney, Laura learned that going through the process is important in any new project. No matter where it ultimately ends up, there are useful things to learn along the way. It’s all about constantly becoming better. With this view, Laura is able to approach her work with excitement and enthusiasm.

Storytelling through Podcasting

If you want to hear more from Laura and her viewpoint, be sure to check out her podcast called Expand Your Edge. In the show, Laura interviews guests who get vulnerable about how they’ve been able to grow as people. She also talks to them about how being vulnerable in business has helped them in their work.

Laura loves the medium because she feels that storytelling is very important as a way to teach others. Through her podcast, she is able to show other examples of growth through the vulnerability of the guests she has on the show.

About Laura Gallaher

Dr. Laura Gallaher is an Organizational Psychologist, Executive Coach, and Licensed Human Element Practitioner. She began her career at NASA Kennedy Space Center. After the Space Shuttle Columbia exploded upon re-entry in 2003, killing everybody aboard, Kennedy Space Center hired Laura and a team of organizational psychologists to change the cultural influences that were deemed to play a role in the tragedy. She worked for 8 years with NASA to positively influence culture, develop leadership capacity, and improve organizational performance at Kennedy Space Center. She was also hired to help manage the change associated with radical changes in the performance management process and philosophy at Walt Disney Parks & Resorts.

Laura’s company, Gallaher Edge, works with executives who want an edge over their competition by looking inward and pushing past the edge of their comfort zone in order to increase their awareness, alignment, and accountability. She helps executive teams have conversations they didn’t even know they needed to have. Organizations are just people. Gallaher Edge helps executives learn what it takes to be more profitable by truly putting people first.

Links from the Show

Visit the Gallaher’s Edge Website
“Like” Gallaher’s Edge on Facebook

The post The Self-Awareness Edge with Laura Gallaher- Episode #59 appeared first on Orlando Lady Boss.