This week marks Julia Sweitzer’s 1 year anniversary with us and… MY. GOSH. I don’t even know where to begin. She’s had made a first year with Ellevated Outcomes unlike anyone ever has.
It’s amazing to think about her year by reflecting back to the specifics I sought to fill her seat in 2024. In that year’s job posting, I cited wanting someone with experience in both technical and IRL Leadership. For part of our role in client engagements is to guide them through significant change, both in their organization and within themselves, as leaders and humans. And also: I wanted to fill our bench with someone who had the growth potential to lead in our organization.
When I think about Julia’s explosive growth and impact at Ellevated Outcomes over the past year, there are 3 core reasons why. She…
1. Manages (up to) Me.
Julia is a master anticipatory thinker. She is one of the few people (that I know in all my endeavors) who is “peeking around the corner” at the same pace – or even in front of – me.
When she pitches me an idea or question, she has thought through the whole thing: knock-on effects; questions I’ll have; others’ perceptions, involvement needed; etc. She’ll come to me for sign-off and authority when required, but she’ll have done all the heavy lifting on my behalf.
When you operate as an executive, having someome on your team who manages you in this way is gold. No. Platinum.
2. Takes Initiative and Sees the Bigger Picture.
On her 1 MONTH anniversary (August 12, 2024) I had a proposal from Julia in my inbox for Ellevated Outcomes to sponsor Nashville Design Week. From the outside, you may think this was a bold move. She was brand new, still early days in learning the job, and asking for money for us to sponsor an event. Of course, she’d done the right things to prep me for this verbally first. So alongside the proposal sat a decision rubric, to help me objectively assess the brand alignment and value of this opportunity.
Since then, she hasn’t stopped advocating and pitching, ha. I haven’t said yes to everything, but her batting average is pretty good, if you ask me. Alongside knowing that she’s going to manage herself, the team, and me through the process impeccably, another reason I so often say yes is because she understands Ellevated Outcomes deeply.
She comprehends the width, depth, and complexity of what we do externally and all the internal pieces set up to conspire on others’ behalfs. She sees the behind-the-scenes effort and invisible-to-the-naked-eye orchestration that makes Ellevated Outcomes what it is.
3. Has a Bottomless Feedback Cup
If you’ve been following along for a couple months, you know that we talk allllll the time about feedback. I tease Julia: it’s like she can’t get enough of it! (I’ve had moments wondering: “Is she going to break… yet?” Nope, has still never broken, folks). And let me be clear: she’s not seeking “Tell me how great I am” feedback. She wants the tough stuff. Here’s a recent example:
We were running a dress rehearsal of the Bespoke Hiring Process. We’d iterated on the content and speaking notes for weeks, so none of the content was new. However, it was the first time I was seeing it “performed.”
We were 48 hours from the live Masterclass. The content was what we’d designed; but Julia was reading it. (Which is so common: of course it feels safer to read your script than to talk freely). I always try to give tough feedback privately, but there wasn’t time. If I waited until the dry-run was complete, we would’ve wasted an hour for everyone and then had less than 48 hours to change course.
So in front of our team, I paused the practice and coached Julia to throw away the notes and change her entire approach: right then, right there, in real time. When I’ve had to do this in the past, I’ve had people burst into tears, or get angry with me and flee for another room (literally).
But this time, neither of these happened. Julia gathered herself and her new approach for 2-3 minutes, and then we soldiered on. At 6:21PM, she sent me a recording of another practice round. Within it (you guessed it), she requested more feedback. She said, “Don’t be shy to give me more feedback. I’ll send you another version after work tomorrow, if there’s anything you’re not confident about. I want to get this right.“
You can imagine the indellible mark that day made on me. And it’s Julia Sweitzer, through and through. I want to clarify one thing about all this that is the most important point in celebrating Julia’s 1 year anniversary. She certainly has a baseline of grit, standards of excellence, and humble confidence that have positioned her for all the above. But these are the skills she has developed this year, since joining Ellevated Outcomes.
Julia comes to us with a deep hunger to learn, a brilliant brain, and a strong internal compass. And activated here at Ellevated Outcomes, this is how she’s put those attributes to use. Which puts me at the edge of my seat. If this is what’s possible after year 1…
We’re so happy you’re with us, Julia.
