Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Christine Fonner. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Christine, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Any thoughts around creating more inclusive workplaces?

Most leaders were not trained to be leaders. They became good at what they did and gained promotions into positions where they are then responsible for people. Most people leaders are in over their heads and this is why over 80% of the workforce experiences toxic leadership and conflict in the workplace. That statistic is staggering. 59% of the workforce in the US is not even really engaged. It’s not because they’re lazy. It’s because the workplace is untenable. Since COVID, many organizations have started implementing “wellness programs” and although I believe this is a step in the right direction, it’s still pretty surface level compared to what we know is really necessary for people to feel cared for.

From an early age, I found myself in leadership positions. And early on, I wanted to understand what makes people WANT to come to work everyday. I wanted to learn how to create spaces for joy and excitement for others. Life is just too short and I was lucky enough to have a few fantastic mentors and bosses early on in my career that taught me what was possible before I started hitting the wall with poor and toxic leadership for the next two decades.

After twenty years in leadership and becoming a leadership expert, I can tell you a few things that help authentically create a more inclusive workplace:

1. Radically care for your people on a personal and professional level. If you don’t know what this means, learn what it means.

2. Learn your blind spots, biases, and ignorance. Be a voracious learner in behavioral science, relational and emotional intelligence, and conflict resolution.

3. Learn how to build strong and healthy teams of people that know how to communicate effectively, empathetically, and collaboratively.

4. Learn what people really need to thrive and then figure out how to give it to them while being the support, advocate, and safe space for them.

5. Place joy, care, and love at the center of the organizational culture. Adopt Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), goals, and success measurements that reflect core values and that put your people first.

Christine, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Christine Fonner, M.Ed., PhD candidate Founder and CEO of Roam Life LLC & Christine Fonner Coaching

Christine is an executive leadership coach for women. She is also the founder of Roam Your Soul, a women’s leadership and adventure community. With 20 years in nonprofit and corporate leadership, Christine is an advocate for helping leaders cultivate what she calls, “radical care” in the workplace.

Christine coaches women who want to find deeper meaning in life through transformational learning and authentic community. She believes that everyone needs a support network, community, and opportunities to be vulnerable to engage in what makes life meaningful.

Christine has a Master’s in transformational leadership/change management and is a strengths-based transformational leadership expert. She is a PhD candidate in Organizational Leadership, specializing in “the human factor” – the responsibility leaders have in creating “radical care” in the workplace and the connection between personal/interpersonal needs and joy at work.

At the center of all I do is a passion for building meaningful community for authentic connections to happen and for helping people learn communication and leadership strategies for creating more joyful and meaningful relationships personally and professionally. We are all leaders. Leadership is how we impact and influence for the greater good. Recognizing the strengths and capabilities that we all have to truly step into our leadership potential is how we bring community together to thrive and feel joy in our daily lives.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I have worked in over 30 organizations across 10 industries for more than 20 years. 2 years ago, on a Monday morning all hands call, I learned I no longer had a job after filing and winning a Title IX complaint against a senior executive leader. That battle took 8 months and was traumatic. And two months later I was “let go.”

I have witnessed and experienced an unbelievable amount of damaging behaviors by “leaders” in my career and decided early on that I wanted to become a leadership expert. Not a sales expert. Not an operations expert. Not an academic expert. But a people expert. I wanted to learn how to create company culture where people WANT to come to work every day as their happiest and best selves. We deserve it. And I wanted to know why so many organizations just aren’t doing it.

How many of you get to come to work every day as your most authentic self? Your most joyful self? How many of your bosses ask you about what brings you JOY? And how they can help you get there as often as possible?

There is cross-generational TRAUMA in how the corporate culture operates. Especially for women. I have learned and experienced the impacts intimately throughout my leadership career. Leadership is all about our impact and influence. In my PhD research, I explore the impacts that toxic leadership has had on women in leadership. Promotion opportunities “lost”, wages “lost”, family decisions made, psychological effects of continuous abuse, terminations, health concerns…the list goes on.

EVERY WOMAN I MEET HAS MULTIPLE STORIES.

This is why I started Roam Your Soul and Christine Fonner Coaching. To lift women up together. To create strength in our collective voices. To create spaces for women to step fully into their leadership potential. To share my expertise so that other women adopt new understandings and teach them to others, too.

Ask the women in your life to tell you about a toxic leadership experience and how it impacted them. Hear the collective harm, hurt, and trauma that we are experiencing. And join me in the movement of growing, healing, and building strength as a community and in your own leadership so we can all say, “That is enough. I am enough. We have had enough.”

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

Leadership is all about the relationships, communication, and community that you are able to build for others to thrive. Coaching and understanding coaching relationships and approaches is a key component of being a great people leader. I love, “The Art of Coaching,” by Elena Aguilar and anything by Erik de Haan, a phenomenal researcher, writer, and coaching expert.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://roamyoursoul.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/roamyoursoul/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RoamYourSoul
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christine-fonner/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrfgxRc3mn_fHswAh8IIVWw
• Other: Podcast: https://executiveslounge.christinefonner.com/