The New Portrait Of Leadership: Angelie Kapoor Of Oversight Global On Strategies to Shape Yourself Into A Modern Masterpiece
An Interview with Karen Mangia
Consciousness of the bigger picture is critical when leading. Coming out of your bubble and being mindful of the big goal for everyone involved. It’s vital to be conscious of the entirety of a situation, rather than just seeing things through one’s own lens. I learned that this is critical for problem solving and decision making.
We are living in the Renaissance of Work. Just like great artists know that an empty canvas can become anything, great leaders know that an entire organization — and the people inside it — can become anything, too. Master Artists and Mastering the Art of Leadership draw from the same source: creation. In this series, we’ll meet masters who are creating the future of work and painting a portrait of lasting leadership. As part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Angelie Kapoor.
Angelie Kapoor is an award-winning professional career and leadership coach, author and speaker with over 20 years of experience in the healthcare industry. She has held numerous leadership and management roles, and is the founder of Oversight Global — an organization that aims to address the consciousness crisis in the world by educating and empowering leaders to reach their fullest potential and contribute to the world the way only they uniquely can. Her wit, creativity, and professionalism make her a powerful advocate for awareness and change.
Thank you for joining us. Our readers would enjoy discovering something interesting about you. What are you in the middle of right now that you’re excited about personally or professionally?
Absolutely! Thank you so much for having me, I’m so excited to be here!
It’s actually interesting that you should ask. My husband and I made a huge decision just this last December to start an adventure of seeing this beautiful world and all that it has to offer.
In just a few weeks, we sold everything we had and relocated to the beautiful island of Bali, Indonesia. We had never been there before but always talked about going there.
Over the past 3 months now we’ve been getting settled in. It’s been exciting yet unnerving at times.
We’re actually in India in Delhi as I do this interview.
As we’re traveling around seeing different places and cultures, I’ve really started to realize and observe first hand how different things are in different parts of the world and how concepts like quality of life and hustle culture have various meanings and are present or absent depending on where you are.
It’s been absolutely fascinating!
We all get by with a little help from our friends. Who is the leader that has influenced you the most, and how?
Hmmm….. Tough question as I’ve been influenced by so many leaders over the course of my life.
Leaders like my third grade teacher who inspired me to use my imagination, creativity and ability to write which sparked my lifelong passion for writing. My passion has enabled me to start school newspapers, be on my high school yearbook and newspaper staffs, become an executive contributor for several magazines to authoring and publishing my first book, “Mindset: The Power of the Mind.”
A director at SeaWorld San Antonio who humored a young girl’s curiosity and diligence of regularly mailing to SeaWorld a list of questions regarding my favorite sea creature, orca whales. Eventually becoming pen pals, his generosity of his time and knowledge inspired me to study marine biology early in college and continue a lifelong love, curiosity and respect of animals both on land and in the sea.
I think overall the leader that has influenced me the most in my life has been my mother. She showed me through example how to be strong, resilient, independent and self-reliant. She showed me how being confident in my knowledge and my abilities can make anything possible. She also showed me how having compassion and a gentle heart can make all the difference.
Sometimes our biggest mistakes lead to our biggest discoveries. What’s the biggest mistake you’ve made as a leader, and what did you discover as a result?
Yes, I absolutely agree! That’s a tough one to answer as well, I’ve made so many mistakes as a leader.
I think overall my biggest mistake as a leader was trying to be something I wasn’t for a long time and not following my gut or instincts. When I first became a leader and manager in the workplace, I struggled for a long time in learning how to lead and also with feeling comfortable as a leader — settling into my leader role.
I dove into countless books, took expensive courses, workshops and trainings. I even sought guidance from topic experts and mentors.
I really didn’t start to make headway with my development as a leader until I discovered that I really needed to stop trying to be like everyone else and just be myself. It really took a deep, conscious journey of self-awareness and self-discovery for me to start to feeling comfortable as a leader as well as develop the skills I needed to be a confident, effective, empowering leader.
How has your definition of leadership changed or evolved over time? What does it mean to be a leader now?
My definition of leadership has definitely changed and evolved over the years of being a leader and developing and growing as a leader. In the beginning, I really trying to model other leaders that were in my life such as my boss, other directors and managers in my company.
As I started to learn more about myself, I really started to settle into ‘who I am’ as a leader and what that truly means for me. What type of leader I want to be perceived as and described as; what type of impact do I want to have, etc.
For me, what it means to be a leader now is first being a leader of myself. I’ve learned the hard lesson that before I can be an effective leader for others, I have to first do that with myself. Meaning being in alignment and having balance and harmony in what I call ‘the 5 components of who we are’ which are physical, mental, emotional, energetic and spiritual. This takes self-awareness and consciousness and truly knowing yourself. Knowing your personal values, beliefs, priorities and desires.
Then being able to lead others as a conscious, authentic, genuine leader. A leader that empowers, supports, inspires and motivates. A leader who helps people grow and fulfill their fullest potential and uniquely contribute to the world. A leader who strives to create more leaders — helping others discover and unleash their inner leader.
Success is as often as much about what we stop as what we start. What is one legacy leadership behavior you stopped because you discovered it was no longer valuable or relevant?
As a leader, I have found success by recognizing when certain behaviors and practices of the past no longer serve me or my team.
One particular misstep I encountered early in my career was managing by command, instead of collaboration. As a young, new leader, I learned this behavior from my boss’ example at the time as well as from other leaders higher up in the management ranks.
It took me some time to realize success is not found in adhering to outdated habits, but from recognizing when something no longer works and trading it in for something better.
Therefore, I made the conscious decision to stop this legacy behavior and work towards replacing it with a more effective method — namely collaborating with people around me instead of pushing them to follow orders without question.
This shift had incredible results; by trusting my team’s talents and skills, it helped us come together as a unit.
More recently a behavior that I found that just wasn’t having the intended effect I wanted in one of my recent departments was continuing a trend of one-way communication that existed prior to myself. I felt that it again had more of a command type of management feel and didn’t offer opportunities for my team to express their feedback or concerns.
After implementing regular open dialogue team huddles, my department saw improved performance and staff relationships.
What is one lasting leadership behavior you started or are cultivating because you believe it is valuable or relevant?
Practicing vulnerability and authenticity as a leader has become an integral part of my personal and professional journey. This is very contrary to what I initially learned and perceived in being a leader when I first started my leadership and management career. Initially I learned and believed that leaders are to be perfect at all times. Leaders had perfect lives and any struggles or challenges we experienced were to remain private and unknown to others.
As I continued to grow personally and professionally and expand my role of a leader, I ultimately discovered the power that vulnerability and authenticity can have. From being open about weaknesses and willing to learn from mistakes, to taking a hands-on approach rather than just leading strategically from the sidelines, I recognized the importance of going beyond surface level conversations.
Not just being aware of my unique strengths and weaknesses but being honest and open about them in conversations. Doing this has required confidence and resilience to be open to self-criticism and feedback from others. By embracing these qualities, I’ve experienced more constructive dialogue amongst my teams, which has led us to better solutions.
Being vulnerable has helped build trust with those I’m attempting to lead; its made people around me feel empowered knowing that they can communicate their ideas freely while also validating their own experiences and perspectives.
This is a leadership behavior that reverberates throughout my work regardless of role or context, allowing me to connect with people on an even deeper level that has resulted in not only more meaningful relationships, but better collaboration and meaningful work!
What advice would you offer to other leaders who are stuck in past playbooks and patterns and may be having a hard time letting go of what made them successful in the past?
Leading can be overwhelming. As a leader, it’s only natural to rely on past playbooks and patterns. It’s easy to rely on habits that have proven to be successful, even if they are no longer relevant or effective.
However, leadership is constantly changing. It’s important to be adaptable and flexible as a leader and not solely rely on those past playbooks and patterns.
I would advise other leaders to think like an artist instead of an engineer.
Allow yourself to explore your options without always resorting to the same old playbook. Try new things, fail fast, and keep continually growing. Don’t be afraid to be creative! Be open to change and new opportunities.
The key to progress is recognizing when it’s time for something new. Instead of clinging to the past, embrace the chance to create something fresh that can propel you and your team into greater success.
By continuously developing new and innovative ideas you can simultaneously help foster an open, engaging work environment for your team where everyone feels valued and challenged.
Many of our readers can relate to the challenge of leading people for the first time. What advice would you offer to new and emerging leaders?
Love this question! Thank you for asking it! Addressing the struggles of new and emerging leaders is why I got into professional coaching and why my company Oversight Global exists.
There’s no denying the challenges that come with leading people for the first time. As soon as you take on a leadership role, it can often be daunting to figure out how to effectively manage and lead others.
The best advice I can give to new and emerging leaders is to practice self-awareness.
When you are new to leading people, self-awareness is key. One of my greatest discoveries about leading others is that you have to know yourself in order to lead yourself and be open to changing the particulars as you go.
Become conscious of yourself and discover who you are when it comes to leadership — analyze your own likes, dislikes, strengths, and weaknesses. Self-reflection puts things into perspective, so it’s important to use self-awareness to ask the questions: how do I handle adversity? What kind of example am I setting for others? What motivates me and in turn can help motivate my team?
Once you understand yourself more deeply, the more likely you will be able to understand your team members better and subsequently create a better working environment.
Take the opportunity to explore yourself — because self-discovery leads to self-confidence, which gives your team that extra boost of motivation. Appreciate your uniqueness and empower yourself — discover your inner phenomenal leader!
Based on your experience or research, what are the top five traits effective leaders exemplify now?
Absolutely!
I’ve learned from experience that being an effective leader today means more than giving orders and having authority — there is a certain connection involved that is built through applying key traits that can increase the likelihood of success. In my experience, the top five traits effective leaders exemplify now are:
- Self-awareness: Self-awareness is the starting point. It’s hard to lead yourself if you don’t know yourself. I discovered this little known secret after I struggled for many months as a new, emerging leader. It wasn’t until I stopped trying to be like others and leaned into learning about myself and being myself. Ultimately uncovering my inner phenomenal leader! The more you learn about yourself, your leadership skills effortlessly improve and fall into place. Self-awareness is paramount in leadership, and helps transform any novice into an experienced master.
- Consciousness: Consciousness of the bigger picture is critical when leading. Coming out of your bubble and being mindful of the big goal for everyone involved. It’s vital to be conscious of the entirety of a situation, rather than just seeing things through one’s own lens. I learned that this is critical for problem solving and decision making.
- Empathy: Empathy gives leaders a better understanding of others. Putting yourself in others’ shoes allows for better relationships and trust building. Moreover, wise leaders are empathetic to the ones they lead and interact with, understanding their struggles and connecting on a deeper level with them. I’ve found that empathy is a key fundamental trait in not only leading but in interacting with others such as customers and collegues.
- Vulnerability: Vulnerability should not be underestimated either. By sharing experiences, making mistakes, laughing with your team, and showing them who you are on a human level helps build strong bonds and mutual respect. Vulnerability undoubtedly adds to the equation too, for it encourages trust and shows that you embrace both success and failure alongside your team. This was a valuable lesson which I learned that helped me build stronger, more genuine relationships with my team which resulted in an improved work environment, efficiency and productivity.
- Resilience: Lastly, resilience is a trait that everyone should carry as a leader. Failure is inevitable, but viewing it only as an opportunity for growth sparks positive outlooks and motivates those around them to find success together. Bouncing back from difficulty — showcases one’s commitment to never give up in difficult times.
American Basketball Coach John Wooden said, “Make each day your masterpiece.” How do you embody that quote? We welcome a story or example.
Such a great quote!
I would say I try to live by these wise words every day. Leading a life of purpose means continually striving to become the best version of yourself. I make it my goal every day to grow and progress every day so I’m a better version of myself today than I was yesterday. I’m continually striving to become the best version of myself; to fulfill my fullest potential.
I’ve created this consistent habit to wake up each morning and show gratitude for all that I have and that I experience. I also have a consistent habit of every hour of every day taking the time to reflect on what I’ve accomplished and learned in the past hour as well as set my focus and intention for the next hour.
Again, my ultimate goal each day is to learn, grow and progress. This enables me to make each day its own unique work of art; to make everyday a masterpiece.
What is the legacy you aspire to leave as a leader?
Such a beautiful question and thought.
The legacy I aspire to leave as a leader is one of encouraging others to embark on a journey of deep self-discovery and make sure that it pays off.
I believe that throughout our lives, we should always be striving to take this journey, figuring out who we really are and living with purpose and intention and avoiding the pressures imposed by the world, society, or circumstance to become a suppressed version of yourself.
We must all seek to discover our fullest potential, and use it to contribute something special and unique in this life, and that only comes from exploring what lies within.
Moreover, happiness and bliss should be sought after and each of us indulging in all the joys life has to offer. We should always strive for true bliss and take the time to enjoy this world — life is too short not to!
This is how I want to influence people through my leadership — to impart the message of discovering yourself and living a fulfilling life that brings unconditional joy.
How can our readers connect with you to continue the conversation?
Readers can find me at:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oversightglobal789/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/oversightglobal/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelie-kapoor
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@oversightglobal
They can also reach me by email: angelie@oversightglobal.com
Thank you for giving us the opportunity to experience a leadership master at work. We wish you continued success and good health!
About The Interviewer: Karen Mangia is one of the most sought-after keynote speakers in the world, sharing her thought leadership with over 10,000 organizations during the course of her career. As Vice President of Customer and Market Insights at Salesforce, she helps individuals and organizations define, design and deliver the future. Discover her proven strategies to access your own success in her fourth book Success from Anywhere and by connecting with her on LinkedIn and Twitter.
The New Portrait Of Leadership: Angelie Kapoor Of Oversight Global On Strategies to Shape Yourself… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.