Daily leadership practices and navigating transitions with Beth Schryer

Join me, Susan Ireland, as I catch up again with Beth Schryer, global corporate business leader, who has been a featured guest on both our Women in Leadership Podcast and the Seasons Leadership Podcast. Beth shares her recent experience transitioning to a new company and how it has influenced how she measures success. We talk about daily leadership practices, what it means to be trustworthy and a good listener and self-care. This discussion highlights many of our core leadership values through personal stories of leadership.

Show Notes:

(2:25)  Choosing the type of leader you want to be, Beth relates how she finds those moments of choice in her own leadership. We talk about daily leadership practices and how to get better results.

(8:10) Beth shares how she “starts with trust,” and how having the outlook that “everyone is in it for the right reasons,” leads to a more energizing outlook. 

(11:15) We break down how to be a better listener by making space for everyone. We give practical tips on how to invite people into the culture you expect. 

(19:21) Next, we talk about the chain of command, how people’s perceptions of how hierarchies should work influence their engagement and emphasize the need to thank people for giving you bad news.

(21:00) Beth talks about transitioning companies and how she found points of sameness across large corporations. We highlight fundamental elements found in every job and share how we manage aspects of the job we don’t like. 

(25:40) Leaders draw on a whole suite of good practices and we highlight a few. We talk about leaders not having all the answers and how leaders need to encourage people to find their own resolution. 

(28:40) Self-care and success, Beth shares her personal philosophy that there is not a work life balance but just work life choices. She admits to being an advice-giving monster.

(36:40) We conclude our discussion with humility being one of the best qualities in a leader. Nobody gets there by themselves, and we recognize it takes an army along the way to be a great leader. 

(44:00) Beth shares a unique and fun challenge she gave her team that some are tackling with the help of Microsoft AI – to write the best story of how she broke her finger.

About Beth: Beth Schryer is the head of Global Workplace Services (GWS) at Microsoft. She is responsible for the planning, delivery, and operations of Microsoft’s global real estate portfolio of approximately 42M square feet, comprised of over 600 buildings in 110 countries. Prior to Microsoft, Beth led Facilities Management for The Boeing Company encompassing safe, high-quality facilities and real estate solutions across the office, factory, warehouse, and laboratory portfolio. She also held numerous Business Operations leadership roles in the commercial airplanes business unit including the 737, 767 and 787 airplane programs (P&L) and the Manufacturing & Safety function.

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