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Redefiners
Leadership Lounge: How to Create and Maintain Impact as a Leader
00:18:21
Creating leadership impact isn’t about one defining moment—it’s about the ripple effects your leadership generates over time. In this episode of Leadership Lounge, Emma Combe sits down with Shannon Knott and Erin Marie Collins to unpack what meanin...
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Foreign.
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Welcome to the Leadership Lounge, a place to kick back and listen as our experts dissect some of the biggest questions leaders face today. I'm Emma Coon, Leadership Advisor in our London office and host of the Leadership Lounge podcast. In today's episode, we're exploring what it takes to create and and maintain meaningful impact as a leader and why this is a continuous, evolving process rather than a one time achievement. Whether you're a next generation leader trying to build your influence, a C suite executive helping to shape strategy, or a CEO leading an organization, creating impact isn't just about what you accomplish today. It's about the ripple effects your leadership creates across stakeholders, teams and and the broader organization for the long haul. So today we'll be digging into how do you define and measure your impact as a leader? What capabilities do you need to develop to create lasting influence? And how do the most inspirational leaders think differently about their impact? But before we dive in, remember to share any burning questions you want our experts to answer by emailing redefinersusslerynolds.com it would be great to hear from you. And if you enjoy listening to our episodes, leave us a rating on Apple or Spotify. So let's dive in. First up, we'd like to introduce Shannon Knott, Leadership Advisor in Russell Reynolds Associates Atlanta office, who specialises in the transition and development of senior executives. Shannon, welcome to the Leadership Lounge.
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B
Thanks for having me, Emma.
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A
Shannon, let's start with the fundamentals. When you're advising your leadership, how are you thinking about and defining impact?
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B
By definition, every action or inaction has an impact. Therefore, leadership impact is about both the tangible and the intangible effects that we have on others. Our team, our organization, the industry, the communities we impact. It's really more than about hitting targets or delivering financial results. Don't get me wrong, those are important, of course, but I'd argue that they're, they're more table stakes. As a leader, impact goes a lot deeper. It's about how, how you create lasting change, how you influence how others think and work. And lead impact is, is also, I would say, very contextual. So what creates impact as a director is going to look a lot different than what creates impact as a VP or a CEO. I'd say the important thing, I can't underscore this enough is to be conscious and intentional about the impact that you aim to have.
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A
That's definitely something I see, Shannon, when I'm talking to organizations about their next CEO. Some organizations I find, have CEOs that really want to make an impact by focusing internally, they bring deep expertise. They can really motivate and drive transformation by working with teams to change the pace, to change the strategy. And it needs to be quite internally focused. In other contexts, a CEO will surround themselves with people who are superb at running the business day to day, and they feel they can have the most lasting impact by focusing externally, by influencing policy or regulation or their customer base. So it really does depend on. But the upshot of impact essentially boils down to trust. The Edelman trust barometer in 2025 found that around seven in 10 people distrust business leaders. And yet business leaders are more trusted than others, such as the government and media. So there's definitely a level of distrust in society at large. But for me, for CEOs to create meaningful impact for their customers, their people, other stakeholders, it's about how they can deliver really clear, consistent messages over time. We'd like now to introduce our second voice, Erin Marie Collins, Leadership Advisor in our Melbourne office, into the conversation. Erin Marie, welcome to the Leadership Lounge.
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C
Thanks so much, Emma. It's wonderful to be here.
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A
So, Erin Marie, what sets apart leaders who sustain real impact over time, in your view?
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C
That's such a great question. Thank you, Emma. We often relate impact to business performance, but it's really important to dig a bit deeper because sustained impact isn't just about meeting or exceeding performance metrics for a leader. It's about creating the conditions that allow others to perform at their best, and not just today, but tomorrow.
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A
I love that line about how impact relates to how the people around you perform. You can't do it all yourself. It's all about unleashing the best possible performance from your top team. And Shannon, I'm sure you also have a perspective on this question. What do you think sets apart leaders who sustain real impact over time?
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So I'd say that early success and leadership performance often comes from mastery. So being the expert that delivers results through sheer drive and their competence. But sustained success then requires something different from leaders. Leaders have to be adaptable and curious that yes, they have that drive, but also resilience and, and emotional intelligence. And importantly, being able to see the world through a broader, more systemic lens. These are the traits that we measure in our leadership portrait assessment, which is predictive of long term leadership performance. And we find that leaders who can sustain real impact do so because they're able to stay curious. They continually learn and adjust and they treat leadership less like a position and more as a practice. And it's that ongoing evolution that keeps Their impact fresh and relevant.
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A
Your point about leadership being a practice rather than a position to maintain is a really interesting one, Shannon. And in my mind, if you're not curious, if you're not stretching yourself, if you're not bringing outside perspectives back into the organization, then you're not role modeling that you want your direct reports and their teams to do the same. And of course, it's so important in a rapidly changing world led by AI to be open and curious. So for me, this is really key. And Shannon, you also mentioned the importance of resilience alongside Curiosity in our H2 2025 Global Leadership Monitor. When we ask leaders what skills are needed for long term organizational health, one of the top skills was being innovative and creative, far higher than financial acumen. This demonstrates the adaptable and agile nature of leadership today. So, Shannon, from your experience advising CEOs and C suite executives, is leadership impact something you achieve or something you need to continually earn?
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B
That's really interesting. I'd argue that it's something that you need to earn continually. Each stage in a leader's career comes with new rules of engagement. What earned you credibility five years ago might not do so today. The leaders who thrive long term are the ones who don't rely on yesterday's playbook. They understand that what made them successful earlier in their career, their execution, their expertise, their control, has to begin to give way to influence and judgment and inspiration. Sustained impact is then about how you can recalibrate that balance again and again. It's like a muscle that requires ongoing training.
- [07:53]
A
That recalibration point is so critical, the same strengths that might have made you impactful at one level can indeed become your biggest blind spots at the next. And as a senior leader, a wrong move can mean your credibility can be lost immediately. So, Shannon, what can help leaders sustain this momentum and impact over time?
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It's not a single intervention, but rather a conscious and intentional rhythm of reflection, feedback and renewal. The leaders who invest in reflection and feedback sustain impact because they stay self aware. They're willing to evolve their leadership identity just as the enterprise evolves around them. And at the same time, and this is important, they remain anchored to their core sense of purpose. That purpose can provide them with direction and stability in the rapidly changing environment. When I'm working with new leaders who are stepping into a role, or even before they've assumed the role, we focus on ensuring that they have a really clear sense of who they are, what they value, what they aspire towards, and importantly, the legacy that they want to leave. Behind at Russell Reynolds, we call this potential realization. And these are the factors and the capabilities that we seek to develop so that leaders can fulfill their potential but also sustain that impact over time.
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A
Reflection is so critical, Shannon. And we recently had an episode on this very topic and about how CEOs and sees suite leaders can find enough time to reflect and to get feedback. And one brilliant way of course, is to get an outside mentor. It's to have somebody with whom you can have entirely off the record conversations to really reflect on actions that you've taken and also how you might approach difficult topics in the future. And of course, a mentorship isn't remedial that relationship. It's not about fixing something that's broken, but it's about expanding what's possible. And Shannon, your point around the importance of values and your purpose as an anchor cannot be overstated. Our research found that 95% of C Suite leaders globally agreed that having a clear sense of their personal values and aspirations was important in preparing them for their current role. Having a clear purpose can help leaders make difficult trade offs, communicate more authentically and maintain resilience during crises. I've been lucky enough to feel that actually our own CEO here at Russell Reynolds has brilliant clarity on what he stands for. He's of Greek origin, Constantine Alexandrakis, and he has always told us that he stands for this Greek word, philotomo, which is really hard to translate into English, but actually it stands for a range of values. It stands for honour and dignity, a deep sense of personal and family honour and pride. It stands for selflessness and generosity, for empathy and compassion, for doing the right thing and for hospitality. And actually all of that wrapped up in this one word as a representation of what we as a private partnership should stand for in how we act and behave both with each other and serving our clients has been super impactful. It's really clear it's one word, but actually it has such depth to it. And Constantine was particularly careful at the beginning of when he took on the CEO mantle to really articulate this to us. And now, several years down the line, it has stuck with me. It does really stand for so much and for the impact that he wishes to have. I'd like now to turn back to you, Erin Marie. Many leaders assume they're making an impact, but struggle to assess whether their efforts are truly landing. How can leaders evaluate whether they're actually creating meaningful impact across. Across different stakeholder groups?
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C
I love this question, Emma, because impact isn't about what we intend. It's about what others experience and two ideas, perhaps, for leaders to go find out what others are experiencing. First is to create a stakeholder map of peers, of community members, of stakeholders, and ask yourself, how do I come to understand what they're thinking and calibrate if what I'm doing is having the impact that I intend? And be quite objective about this. Don't just read the customer verbatims. Go talk to a customer. The other idea that I love, and this comes from a client I've worked with for a long time, is to build a trusted cabinet of mentors, of confidants, of colleagues who will give you that unfiltered feedback so that you can be sure you're hearing it, you're hearing the experiences of others, and able to calibrate and adjust what you're doing to make sure that your behaviors are actually having that impact.
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A
I think you're absolutely right, Erin Marie. This is unbelievably important. Your approach needs to be tailored to different audiences while still ensuring they receive a consistent experience of your leadership. And there are some crucial questions that leaders should be asking themselves regularly to assess whether they're creating an impact across different groups. So, for example, when thinking about your team, are people growing and developing under your leadership? When you're absent, does productivity continue or stall? And when thinking about external stakeholders, are you shaping external industry conversations? If you're a CEO, are you building trust with investors? Looking for how people respond to your ideas and the quality of your conversations can help inform this. And these are some of the signals that can help you assess your impact. And seeking out honest feedback to understand whether you are having the kind of impact you're intending is obviously really important. Some of the leaders I speak with carry out skip conversations, which I may have mentioned on the podcast before, where you don't just get feedback from your direct reports, but you skip a level to get more honest feedback. So, Erin Marie, I'd like to turn our attention to inspirational leadership. When you think about the most inspiring leaders you've worked with, what stands out about how they sustain sustained impact over time?
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C
I think the most inspiring leaders I've seen they can do. They can do two things. They can absolutely shine in the spotlight. When they're on stage and needing to galvanize groups of people, they come alive and they can do that really well. They also show up in the everyday, in the routine and the mundane. They role model the behaviors that they expect from others day in and day out, consistently, sometimes quietly. They're not afraid to show vulnerability in the moments that they aren't sure or.
- [14:33]
A
Don'T know, that duality is so important. Erin Marie and the most inspiring leaders I've worked with show up for the big moments. They're amazing at the board presentations, at the town halls, the strategic announcements. But it isn't necessarily what motivates them, actually, it's the folks who are also able to show up day in, day out with their teams across the world, having some consistent messaging and really being excited to support the business in the day to day. That duality is so important. I'd like to put the same question to you now, Shannon. Which leaders have inspired you and how do they sustain impact over time?
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So when I think about leaders who've inspired me, and I actually have one in mind, a leader at Russell Reynolds, who led one of our largest markets, she wasn't necessarily the most outgoing or the most charismatic. She was open and she was curious. She was known in a meeting to be reflective in the moment. She was always willing to step outside of her comfort zone and to try new things, to learn openly. And then the environment, therefore she created was one where we also felt safe to take risks and to learn and to evolve. And she wasn't stagnant. She kept growing. And her focus then was on improving her leadership rather than trying to prove her leadership to someone.
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And you often hear that the inspirational leaders are authentic, and I'd argue that's true, but not without intention. They've done the hard work to understand who they are as a leader and the impact that they want to have on those around them. And so it's really not about perfection as a leader. It's about evolution. It's about continuing to learn. And that's really what our development work is all about. It's helping leaders stay in motion, to develop the adaptability and agility to keep learning and growing long after the title arrives.
- [16:43]
A
Shannon I think this piece around intentional authenticity is a really fascinating topic and something we'd love to unpick in more detail, maybe on a future episode. Because actually, there is a big debate around the extent to which leaders should bring their authentic selves to work or not, and how should that be managed and how to be most impactful in that context. But thank you so much for your thoughts on this. So our time in the lounge today has come to an end. In 30 seconds, this is what we've learned. Impact is intentional. It requires conscious effort to define, measure, and refine over time across different stakeholder groups. Sustained impact comes from treating leadership as a practice, not a position. Ensure you remain curious, adaptable, and committed to continuous learning and leadership evolution. Even after reaching senior roles. Development at the top isn't remedial it's about expanding what's possible. The most impactful leaders proactively invest in understanding themselves and how they impact others and self. Reflection is critical. The most effective leaders set aside time for reflection and build a trusted cabinet of advisors who will give them honest, unfiltered feedback to help them hone and evolve their impact over time. If you have any topics or burning questions you'd like us to cover in future episodes of Leadership Lounge, then please get in touch. Email your questions to redefinersusslernolds.com until next time. Goodbye.