046: Yvonne Nomizu: I kept pushing and getting frustrated

046: Yvonne Nomizu: I kept pushing and getting frustrated

Intro: Welcome to the Fast Leader Podcast, where we explore convenient yet effective shortcuts that will help you get ahead and move forward faster by becoming a better leader. And now here’s your host, customer and employee engagement expert and certified emotional intelligence practitioner, Jim Rembach.

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Jim Rembach:    Okay, Fast Leader Legion, I am thrilled to have the guest that I have on the show today because she is just so intelligent and it’s matched by her humour but I love meeting with her because oftentimes she hides that humor and I love trying to get it out. Yvonne Nomizu, was raised in New England. The daughter of a mathematics professor but migrated and found a true home amongst the San Francisco Bay area sunny skies natural resources progressive thinking and envelope pushing business endeavours. She is most proud of raising two daughters who live today with a work-hard play-hard attitude and who believe that an individual can shape the future. 

Because Yvonne is curious about a lot of things and enjoys just about every business challenge she has worked in industries as diverse as hotels, investment banking, tech start-ups, and pharmaceuticals. Some of Yvonne’s most notable projects include taking inventory of food supplies at the Plaza Hotel in New York and having the executive chef surprise her with a deer head in the freezer, developing the Holiday Inn express brand, designing and installing specialized ATMs for the opening day at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, and redesigning the taxpayer experience for the IRS. 

Yvonne is currently CEO and managing director of Pacific Consulting Group where all her diverse experiences come together into helping client organizations understanding what drives customer value and to forward design products and services based on where the pack will be. Yvonne lives Atherton, California and is an active alumna of the Stanford Business School. She and her family enjoys downhill skiing, hiking, and international travel. Combining her love of customer experience and her Japanese heritage, Yvonne has started a blog at cxomotenashi.com which encourages CX professionals to learn from the unique form of Japanese hospitality. Yvonne Nomizu, are you ready to help us get over the hump?

Yvonne Nomizu:    Jim, I am. Here I am.

Jim Rembach:    Alright. So I’ve given our listeners a little bit about you but can you tell us which your current passionate is, so that we get to know you better.

Yvonne Nomizu:    My passion is building a business that moves the needle on customer experience. It is such a ripe, wonderful area. I think there’s been unbelievable progress but I don’t think we’re there yet, so I’m so driven by that, it’s been infused in my career for the last 35 years and I’m going to keep going.

Jim Rembach:     Well you, here’s the reserve part of Yvonne kicking in. You are feisty, and you and I have had some really good conversations in regards to, how you do get not just moving needle but, how do you get people to shove that thing in the right direction.

Yvonne Nomizu:    Wow! You’re painting me as pretty aggressive here.

Jim Rembach:    No you’re not. You see that’s what I love, is that you have this depth and this strength. Okay, so being and doing what you’ve done and accomplishing what you’ve accomplished and being considered a CX expert that’s no small fee, but you are so reserved that oftentimes I just enjoy being with you, spending time with you. So when you talk about helping and assisting and supporting people to move, what do you see some of the things that kind of block people from doing that?

Yvonne Nomizu:    Okay, I’ve got three things that I think I naturally look at. One is original thinking, are you just following the trends? Are you just jumping on the train because everyone else is? What is really going on? And I’ve been known to say stop, stop the conversation let’s go backwards put the pause on. I think some of the reason why people don’t migrate there, it’s not that they’re not intelligent, it’s that they may not know what the questions are and so I feel I can be valuable in saying “Well, here are the questions” and people say, “ Those are so basic.” And I go, “Yeah. So basic but if you layer, sort of assumption upon assumption upon assumption and then jump on that bandwagon, you’re kind of off the train is pointing to the wrong direction. So, stop, ask the right questions. And Jim I talked about this, why don’t people ask the right questions, it’s not just an intellectual thing, I think there’s some kind of lenses that people bring on, and frankly the more senior you go the more you are moving towards being a leader in terms of seniority and experience the more you think you know it, you’re actually paid well for making the assumptions and cutting to the chase and have being wise. 

And so sometimes that very thing that makes you a good leader it was the thing that stops you from starting from scratch and asking questions, so one is original thing. The other one that you know I have talked a lot about is, courage. Because at some point if you do that original thinking and ask those basic questions you kind of see the truth and you’re like “Oops! I don’t really want to see that truth, I think I’ll go over here.” And so just saying now that I see that truth what am I going to do about it is a very personal kind of leadership challenge and it’s inside you, it’s inside your heart, it’s inside your head, you have allies and so on but someone’s going to take first step. And the third thing is for a lack of a better words, its innovation. That’s just, “I don’t care if I look  [6:00 inaudible] I don’t care if I look stupid, I’m not really here as a leader to be liked, if I expect everyone else to be creative then how come I’m not in front to of everyone coming up with a creative idea that turns out to be stupid. So I think what it is, is how do you feel good with those three things? How do you have fun with those three things? Because I think If you’ve got the original thinking, you’ve got the courage and you’ve got that “I think I’ll be wild and crazy right now” there’s always a time to assess, evaluate, filter, shut-down, you always can do that but why not have is this face where you can go for it. So, I think when you put those three things together people, it’s the journey, that’s the journey for leadership.

Jim Rembach:    And as you were talking I started thinking too about innovation, self-limiting beliefs, courage, all of those things really lend itself well to one of the things that we like to focus on the show and that’s leadership quotes. For me, I need to refer to something to help me pick myself back up again a lot of times and quotes to that just well. Are there some that kind of stand out for you, that do that for you and that you recommend others?

Yvonne Nomizu:    Yeah. The first one that makes me be self-reflective is the leader that someone people follow. I like that one because it’s not about your charisma, it’s not per se about you communication, your strategic thinking and all that, it’s sort of says that the reason you would want to be a leader is that people are following you in a certain direction. Now, how do you get people to follow, that has a lot of elements to it from setting vision and strategy and communicating, who you are and authenticity and all of that so then a lot of things follow from that but I think that’s the first one that says why would you want to be that anyway. And that’s what success looks like this, I can run that race and I can get to the finish line it’s really no point if the rest of the team is behind me. So that one is always level setting and great power.

Jim Rembach:    On the Fast Leader show we focus on learning and change that really works and for leaders to change it’s really a vital component to their career and personal success and it really doesn’t matter, if you’re part of an organization, you run your own business, you’re male or female, in government, it really doesn’t matter but we have to make choices and we have to ebb and flow and navigate and be resilient but, can you think about a time when you had a hump to get over in your journey and it really is something that will impact others, can you share that?

Yvonne Nomizu:    Yeah. It’s a recent story, and here was the situation, I was really pushing hard on getting my organization to understand the shift that we needed to take and I set a vision, I set some measurers, I did the strategy thing, I did some staff meetings and I kept pushing and I kept getting frustrated and I kept pushing and I kept getting frustrated. The new person I hired is best among experience came in and within a couple of weeks we have a very good relationship and said “Let’s try to communicate in a different way.” And I said, “well here’s what I care about, I care about the people, I care about the employees I want them to be, to really be hopeful about this new future, not afraid of it.” And when he goes, “Yvonne I need you, I need the rest of the staff to know you the way I know you because what you’re not sharing with the staff is how much you care about them, I know you that way now and you need to get that across.” And I said, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course I care about them, I just decided to put this much in the 401k policy and I just decided to do this and everyone’s getting this vacation and these benefits.” He said “No” so I said “Okay, I’m going to be brave here” and at the next staff meeting instead of talking about the strategy and the measures, and the vision, and the client value, what we’re going to do and the innovation what we’re going to do, one person on the staff who’s been around for a long time asked a question, and I actually changed my tone, my voice went down and people afterwards said, “You sounded so completely different. “And I took a big deep breath and I said, “I’m very interested in hearing what you have to say about this, you guys are amazing, you are what this company needs to keep going.”
And actually once I started I couldn’t stop, so it was a little bit embarrassing for me because I had been so buttoned up in everything that I was saying on which I thought was very compelling. I just actually had a very awkward ends to my little speech and it was all like, “Wow! That was diarrhea of the mouth.” And then I stopped and then I quickly changed the topic and went on a little less to the agenda. And something shifted because I think they said, “We have never heard” maybe this was what you were telling me Jim “We had never heard that layer underneath.” My thing is that I think there’s a layer underneath, I process it pretty quickly and then I translate it to something that is sort of the charge for the troops but now what I’m committed to is revealing a little bit more of the layer underneath because frankly, that run of the mouth thing that I had probably had more impact than the previous five staff meetings where I was going on and on. So yeah I think it’s like where you’re coming from. 

Jim Rembach:    And that’s a great point Yvonne, and I appreciate you sharing that story because it was also so fresh and I can even tell a change in your voice as you were sharing that with us. And also that’s one reason why I kind of wanted you on the show because I do see you as one of those folks that a lot of times it is button up but there’s this underneath that has such a wealth of humor, intelligence, fun, fun-loving, and that’s one reason why I enjoy being with you so much, so thank you for sharing that.

So when you start thinking about so many things that you have on your plate, and I know that you with your volunteer work, with you doing work back with University, with your daughter, and of course your spouse all of those things, when you start thinking about all of that I mean what are some of your goals?

Yvonne Nomizu:    You know what it’s funny because now in my old age here, my goal is to be more in the moment. And here’s why I’m comfortable with that, because in the past I wasn’t that way and I was always working to where I was going because I was nervous about what I was going to get very much. So part of it is at some point you go “Don’t worry, you’ll get there” I start to have a confidence level about I may not achieve a hundred percent but I will get there. So, if I can relieve myself of that concern then it gives me more space to be in the moment and my story that I just told is actually how you in fact get more fuel and speed and power and influence if you want more in the moment. 

Some of my days are insane with my daughter applying for college and ranting and raving about the prom and then this and the boyfriend and I don’t have enough time with my spouse, and then I’ve got the business and then I just travel twice a month to the East coast to go to clients and I’m trying to help the clients too much as possible and it is crazy but I think I’m okay in the moment because there’s a trust that, “Am I going to focus on the right thing? I’m going to get it all done, in the long run I am okay but that helps me do is that it sorts of clears out half of the brain, the half the brain that was worried about the future and half the brain that was very goal focused and it freeze that up to actually be a little bit more high quality, more inclusive, more open, more absorbing of right now what’s going on and then actually I think I make better decisions. 

Jim Rembach:    And the Fast Leader Legion wishes you the very best. Now before we move on, let’s get a quick word from our sponsor. 

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Alright, here we go Fast Leader Legion, it’s time for the—Hump Day Hoedown. Okay, Yvonne, the Hump Day Hoedown is the part of our show where you give us good insights fast. So, I’m going to ask you several questions and your job is to give us robust yet rapid responses that are going to help us move onward and upward faster. Yvonne Nomizu, are you ready to hoedown?

Yvonne Nomizu:    I’m ready.

Jim Rembach:    Alright. So what do you think is holding you back from being an even better leader today? 

Yvonne Nomizu:    *Lot* of sleep

Jim Rembach:    What is the best leadership advice you have received?

Yvonne Nomizu:    Slow down, take it all in.

Jim Rembach:    What is one of your secrets that you believe contributes to your success?

Yvonne Nomizu:    Work hard, play hard.

Jim Rembach:    What do you feel is one of your best tools that helps you lead in business or life?

Yvonne Nomizu:    My team. My executive team.

Jim Rembach:    So what would be one book you’d recommend to our listener?

Yvonne Nomizu:    “Up in life”

Jim Rembach:    Okay, Fast Leader listeners you can find links to that and other bonus information from our show today by going to Fastleader.net/Yvonnenomizu. 

Okay Yvonne, this is my last Hump Day Hoedown question: Imagine you were given the opportunity to go back to the age 25 and you were given the opportunity to take the knowledge and skills that you have now back with you, but you can’t take everything you can only choose one, so what skill or piece of knowledge would you take back with you and why?

Yvonne Nomizu:    I would tell my twenty-five year old self to stop worrying so much, to have a level of faith and start your life whether it’s religious faith, faith in yourself, faith in people, faith in humanity. Ask the *faith* and you’ll be fine.

Jim Rembach:    Yvonne it was an honour to spend time with you today. Can you please share with the Fast Leader legion how they can connect with you?

Yvonne Nomizu:    You can reach me at Ynomizu (Y-N-O-M-I-Z-U) ynomizu@pcgfirm.com or people can call me on my cellphone 650 three zerp three five seven zero five

Jim Rembach:    Yvonne Nomizu, thank you for sharing your knowledge and wisdom. The Fast Leader Legion honours you and thanks you for helping us get over the hump. Woot! Woot!

Thank you for joining me on the Fast Leader show today. For recaps, links from every show, special offers and access to download and subscribe, if you haven’t already, head on over the Fastleader.net so we can help you move onward and upward faster.

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