We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Dr Iyandra Smith Bryan. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Dr Iyandra below.
Alright, Dr Iyandra thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Was there an experience or lesson you learned at a previous job that’s benefited your career afterwards?
The best leaders I’ve worked for and supported were the ones who understood the organization at a granular level (i.e they could zoom in and out of the details if they needed to); they had an insatiable curiosity about the business and a general desire to study the issues at the forefront in great detail; yet, they never stayed in the granular, they never stayed in the weeds. They were always asking the overarching strategic question: what’s the bigger picture this detail has to nest in? They could zoom in to the trees but quickly zoom out to the forest ie vision, always keeping functional leads laser focused on the overarching strategic vision and trajectory of the organization.
It’s incredibly difficult working for a leader or supporting a leader who is always in the weeds, who micromanages every task or detail, or who doesn’t trust their functional leads and team enough to carry out the vision. It’s incredibly difficult supporting a leader who doesn’t give you the rope to execute or effect his or her vision but is holding every inch of the rope every step of the way.
In the same breath, it is incredibly difficult working for a leader who is so detached from the weeds that he or she doesn’t understand the impact of her decisions on the front line, midline and back line because she hasn’t taken the time to speak one on one with her team, to understand their needs, to understand the business, the processes, the whys behind the whats; how a leader can think they can be effective yet detached is perplexing.
A great leader has to master the balance. A great leader operates on both levels, weaving in and out of the trees to the forest seamlessly and effectively and making the time needed to always know where her people stand at all times. She’s alert, present, and in tune and as a result always mindful of the impact of her actions and decision making.
The truth is leadership is not just science, it’s also art; and developing leaders to move from good to great takes intentioned time and effort. It’s truly a mastery of both art and science.
#LeadershipDevelopment
#leadership
Dr Iyandra, 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?
I am a trailblazing leader and advocate for women in finance, based in Nassau, The Bahamas and Miami, Florida. With more than 15 years of financial services experience, my gifts and talents lie in leadership, transformation, stellar execution, and innovation.
Currently, I serve as the Chief Operating Officer of a global fintech brokerage with users in more than 56 countries. As Chief Operating Officer, I am the strategic partner to the Founder and the CEO, providing strategic oversight across business lines, while spearheading global expansion efforts, and managing trading operations, financial audits, legal and regulatory matters, contract & project management, human resources matters, strategic partnerships & communications, as well as sustainable and impact investing.
Prior to my current role, I served as Chief Operating Officer of the Cayman Islands branch of a leading global publicly-listed Swiss financial institution and as Managing Director of a global fiduciary services company. I am a licensed attorney in Florida and the Commonwealth of The Bahamas. I have been appointed by the Bahamian Government to serve on numerous Advisory Committees and also sits on the Board of Directors of the Bahamas Financial Services Board, where I chair its Marketing Committee and FinTech Working Group.
I am also a member of various professional and civic organizations, inclusive of The Forum, the Florida Bar Association, the American Bar Association, 100 Women In Finance, Women in Financial Markets, the Women’s Wealth Circle, TechGC’s Fintech Group, and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, amongst others. My achievements are numerous and include recognition as the Top 40 Under 40 Professionals by the United Kingdom’s Black Women In Asset Management, the 40 Under 40 Professionals in The Bahamas, and the Bahamas Financial Services Board Promotion, Development, and Achievement Award, amongst others.
A sought-after speaker and media contributor, I have been featured in CNBC, Kiplinger, NASDAQ Media, and many more. I am dedicated to promoting diversity and inclusion and have championed initiatives supporting women in male-dominated fields. In addition to my professional success, I am deeply committed to community service and serves on the Boards of numerous nonprofit organizations and have led significant fundraising initiatives that exceed in excess of a million dollars. I am truly grateful to have initiated my own endowment fund, the Dr Iyandra Smith Bryan Global Leaders Fund, a scholarship fund that provides funding for Bahamian female students pursuing undergraduate or graduate studies in male dominated fields, finance or technology.
You can contact me by reaching out to her at everydayigrow.com.
Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
One of the best things that have ever happened to me in my life happened in January of 2021, I was introduced to an incredible book called The Big Leap, written by Gay Hendricks. If you’re wondering how a book could be one of the best things that have happened to me, well you haven’t read the book yet! The Big Leap had a profound impact on me and my leadership because it shifted how I viewed life, this journey, the world. It really was the book that I needed in January of 2021, a period in my life that was incredibly tough for me, and proved to be the awakening I needed in order to see how I was restricting my own abundance.
Let me ask you a question: Have you ever attained higher levels of success in one part of your life to only then be confronted with lower levels of unhappiness that prevent you from enjoying your enhanced success? Sounds familiar right, well just so you know there is a name to this phenomena and Gay terms it the “Upper Limit Problem”. For those who have never heard of the “Upper Limit Problem”, let me school you! Gay Hendricks writes that each of us have an internal thermometer for how much success, wealth, happiness, love and intimacy, we will allow ourselves to experience, kind of like a success comfort zone, our upper limit setting. When we exceed our internal thermostat setting, we UNCONSCIOUSLY do things to sabotage ourselves, so we can revert back to an old, familiar place where we can feel like we are in control, but where we are actually rejecting the overflow of abundance that the Universe/God has for us. This Upper Limit Problem is our universal human tendency to sabotage ourselves when we have exceeded the artificial upper limit we have placed on ourselves.
And you may think, “no, I don’t have that issue”, but think about it, before we get to how we Upper Limit ourselves, you should know that there are many reasons why we subconsciously “Upper Limit” ourselves, Gay identifies four hidden barriers: (1) we feel that we are fundamentally flawed in some way and so are not deserving or cannot expand in the areas of abundance and success; (2) we are afraid that by expanding our abundance, we will alienate others and cause us to be disloyal to our roots (family and friends), leaving others behind which will result in us being alone; (3) we believe that bigger success will mean bigger burdens (“the mo money, mo problems belief”); and (4) lastly, this belief that if we outshined others, then we would make others look bad which is a “crime”, so we lessen our flame to be more at the level of others so we can be with the pack/fit in with the team. I definitely resonated with all of these barriers and have even found logical rational reasons or ways to talk myself into believing that these barriers exist for a sound reason.
Now some of the ways that we “Upper Limit” ourselves, cramp our positive energy as Gay says, is by (1) worrying, (2) deflecting, (3) getting sick, getting hurt, (4) picking arguments with others, and other ways. I’ve again done it all! I’ve been the worrier, have you ever worried so much about what was going to happen that you took a simple dilemma and turned it into a catastrophe, your thoughts just magnified a quite normal situation. I am at a beautiful dinner with great company, but I can’t enjoy because I realized I left a candle on at home and I am imagining the entire house burning down despite the fact the kind of candle I have simply burns down. I’ve also been the one that had an incredible keynote presentation I was excited about and then come to the keynote totally sick, like my body just absorbed my fear and belief upper limiting what I am capable of. Or that time when everything is going perfectly right, so I have to pick an argument to mess it all up because life is just going too well in the moment. Or when someone tries to compliment me, and say you’re amazing girl, and I am like no girl I am out here struggling, doing the best I can – YEP THAT RIGHT THERE is deflecting at its finest! Well turns out we all subconsciously upper limit ourselves, at a time when the universe truly wants to take our lives to another trajectory. The key is to recognize in the moment when we are doing it, put a stop to it, and allow abundance to come into your life. Until we can solve our Upper Limit Problem, we will keep finding ways to bring ourselves back down when we’ve blown past our old setting.
Since reading this book, I have grown tremendously as a person and as a leader, I immediately can sense when I am Upper Limiting myself and it liberates a new energy inside of me, which I can then draw on to propel me to new heights of abundance, love, and creativity. As soon as I realize I am Upper Limiting myself, I can then shift my energy to break free of the Upper Limit and feel positive flow of energy again. It’s about expanding my consciousness and allowing myself to receive the abundance, success, and love that I am meant to receive. Importantly, it also allows me to live my life in the “Zone of Genius” a place where I am operating at my highest vibrations, doing the things I love, and expending time on the energies that only will fuel positivity and positive energies in my life.
The Big Leap really has been an absolute game changer, it has helped me to truly cherish every moment, every minute – and importantly has helped me to receive more blessings in my life by allowing myself to receive what the Universe has for me, and not rejecting or inhibiting my own success. There are some other incredible theories in the Book as well, like living on “Einstein Time”, doing only what you are called to do (leaning into your greatest gifts and talents) and what’s in your Zone of Genius, and vibrating high enough for love, positivity, and greatness to enter your life. It truly is a game changer in every step of the way. My life has been defined as: “Life Before I read The Big Leap” and “Life After I read the Big Leap”…I am so excited about what’s in store!
So cheers to leaping out of the pond and into the ocean, because greatness is on its way!
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
A critical lesson that I had to learn was worrying about the critics. For a long time, I sought to please every single person. I worked my hardest, I pounded the pavement, I grinded throughout the day and the night – wanting to ensure that all persons saw my work and were pleased with the work. Several years ago, as I was down and out after hearing that a person was criticizing an event that I was planning for the betterment of my community. This was around the time I was listening to alot of podcasts.
At this time, I was fortunate to hear of the speech of President Theodore Roosevelt, “Man in the Arena” where he stated, “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
I realized in that moment that life will never be about winning. Life is not about losing. Life is simply and all about SHOWING UP. It’s about making impact. It’s about serving others, it’s about doing the work. It’s about having the courage to show up and the integrity to put yourself on the line for society’s good.
The praise doesn’t matter, the criticism doesn’t matter (unless of course you’re receiving constructive feedback from persons in the arena with you). Just get on the battlefield and do the work.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.everydayigrow.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/iyandra.bryan/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-iyandra-s-6396a3136/
- Youtube: https://onlyfemspodcast.com/
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