LimeTime Session Recap: Ditch the Drama and Drive Well-being with Cy Wakeman

From rapid changes in technology to a competitive global market to a growing demand for innovation — the challenges of today’s business environment require a new type of leader. Reality-Based Leader Cy Wakeman kicked off our quarterly LimeTime virtual event with a dynamic and enlightening keynote presentation challenging leaders to interrupt their thinking of traditional approaches to well-being. According to Cy Wakeman, it starts with modern leadership.  

“We cannot as leaders do for others which we haven’t yet done for ourselves.”  

About Cy Wakeman and Reality-Based Leadership

Cy Wakeman is a leadership expert, author and keynote speaker who has been helping businesses improve their leadership for over 20 years. Through research studies and personal stories, she emphasized the importance of Reality-Based Leadership, a philosophy that aims to eliminate unnecessary drama and negativity in the workplace and how employers can bulletproof their employees so that they can succeed, regardless of the circumstances. 

According to Wakeman, the traditional model of leadership is no longer effective in today’s world. Leaders who cling to old mindsets and resist change are unlikely to succeed. Instead, businesses need leaders who are willing to take risks, experiment with new ideas and embrace uncertainty. 

Reality-Based Leadership is a philosophy that encourages people to focus on what they can control rather than what they can’t. According to Wakeman, the key to Reality-Based Leadership is to recognize that our thoughts create our reality, and we can choose to think differently. She explained that when we focus on the negative aspects of a situation or the drama that surrounds it, we create more drama and negativity. In contrast, when we focus on solutions and what we can control, we create a more positive and productive environment. It’s all about developing the right skillsets to move through reality — as Wakeman likes to call, “calling people up and loving people up.” 

“Engagement is not about creating only a good workplace, it’s about helping people be able to engage and move through a workplace in all of it flavors, in all of its colors, in all of its variability.” 

Principles of Reality-Based Leadership

One of the main principles of Reality-Based Leadership is to eliminate victim mentality. Wakeman stressed that employees should take responsibility for their own well-being and success. Instead of blaming others or circumstances for their problems, they should focus on what they can do to improve the situation. By taking ownership of their lives, employees can become more resilient and better equipped to handle challenges. When it comes to leaders and managers, Wakeman believes that “fixers reinforce victim mindsets.” Throughout her insightful keynote, she dives into research on how to hold space for people’s experiences without having to fix it. It’s up to modern leaders to be translators and energy managers. 

“The leader’s new role is to eliminate emotional waste by facilitating good mental processes.” 

Wakeman also stressed the importance of building resilience in the face of adversity. Leaders who can adapt to change and bounce back from setbacks are more likely to succeed in the long run. This requires a mindset shift away from a victim mentality, where leaders blame external factors for their problems, to a more empowered mindset, where leaders take ownership of their circumstances and focus on finding solutions. 

“True resiliency is having large positive relationship networks and asking for help early and often…the best and most resilient people are crowdsourcers.” 

Wakeman’s keynote serves as a wakeup call for leaders to embrace change and take bold action in order to succeed in today’s challenging business environment. By recreating mindsets and changing organizational cultures, leaders can build resilient teams that can adapt to whatever challenges come their way and help people bring their most evolved selves to work. She leaves viewers with a key piece of advice: “Think about the conversations you’re in and quit trying to improve upon on them…end all conversations that are exhausting and begin new ones.” 

Watch LimeTime presentation on-demand

Access the full presentation by LimeTime keynote speaker Cy Wakeman on-demand below.