Dr. Talton, the visionary CEO behind Synergy International Limited, Inc., is an award-winning firm dedicated to improving the intersection of employee leadership, inclusive culture, and consumer needs. With a mission to facilitate the growth of organizations, Synergy brings together a diverse set of skills in psychology, research, leadership development, diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Synergy’s innovative approach is centered around understanding the behaviors of consumers, employees, and communities. By leveraging this knowledge, Synergy identifies opportunities for cohesion and growth. With a focus on creating an inclusive culture, Synergy helps organizations foster an environment where every employee feels valued and has the tools to succeed.
Below are highlights of the interview:
Can you tell us a little about your journey before joining Synergy?
As a young girl, I wanted to become a psychiatrist after watching the movie “Sybil,” about a young woman with 27 personalities. Even as a child, I believed that I could jump through the television and help put Sybil back together again, helping her to feel that she was important and that she belonged. I share that story because it is so fundamental to who I am today. In fact, my friends used to call me “Dr. Rachel” for that reason. Ultimately, I ended up graduating with my BA in Psychology/Pre-Med, an MBA with a concentration in Finance, and a successful marketing career in the retail banking industry. In 2002, my then-husband had a sudden and fatal heart attack. I then left the banking industry, got my doctorate in management with leadership trust as my research area, and started Synergy International Limited, Inc. to help organizational executives lead more effectively and inclusively, create trust and cohesion within teams, and understand their consumer and employee needs.
Tell us about the company and describe your responsibilities and position there.
At Synergy, we work with a number of global clients, including Amazon and AWS, Mars, Inc., Toyota, Pinterest, Rag + Bone, and many others, to support their diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) and cultural competence initiatives. We serve as executive coaches to many leaders, as well as conducting marketing research, outreach services, and leadership development programs.
A large part of our business involves working with teams. We help them build trust and become more cohesive, while working with the leaders to engage their employees more effectively. Much of our work begins with assessments, including the Intercultural Development Inventory, the ILC 360, the Hogan assessment, the DiSC profile, and many others that give an understanding of where the client is today and how they can improve their leadership skills, cultural competency, or inclusive leadership behaviors.
My role is to set the strategic direction of our company and help implement many of our programs. I love modeling good leadership behaviors for our staff, but I also believe that feedback is a gift. I am so proud of the team we’ve been able to build and, importantly, the culture of Synergy.
What is your way to build sustainable growth and success in business and in life?
I wrote a book in 2016 about building sustainable growth and success in business and in life called Flourish: Have It All Without Losing Yourself in 2016, and I believe these principles still ring true today. My research has shown that there are six specific areas in life that require our focus, dedication, and commitment – although these will not require the same amount of focus at the same time. The required areas of focus for sustainable growth in business and in life are: Success (Work + Wealth); Self-Care (Health + Wellness); Spirit (Faith + Mindfulness); Synergy (Personal + Professional Relationships); Service (Contribution + Purpose); and Legacy (Sustainable Impact). It is necessary to unpack each of these areas, and truly determine which of them has primacy in your personal, professional, spiritual, relational, financial or other areas of your life. While the literature has validated the benefits of ensuring your work and life are healthy in these areas, it has also shown the deleterious impacts of not focusing on each of these areas.
How do you generate great ideas in your organization?
The most innovative ideas in our company have been derived from either a client need or an employee need. A great example of that is when we designed our LEAP program (L=Leadership & Strategy – is your organization, from leadership to front-line staff, diverse and inclusive, and does your organizational strategy truly ensure inclusion, equity, and a sense of belonging for every employee? E=Employee Engagement– is your sourcing, recruiting, hiring, and onboarding process inclusive and representative across all 36 dimensions of diversity? Also, is your organization’s talent management and learning and development strategies inclusive? A= Advancement & Succession Planning – are opportunities for advancement across the organization strategically equitable, and is your succession planning program formal, inclusive, systemic, systematic, tailored and experiential? P=Positioning – is your brand, community engagement strategy, and purchasing strategy innovative, inclusive and equitable?
This LEAP approach has been utilized by some of our largest global clients and has been used as the foundation for the ESG program for one of the foundation boards I sit on.
What is the culture like at your current company? What is your leadership style?
One of my personal mantras about my work is that this is my “God Job.” I firmly believe that the excellent services we provide our customers are driven by the brilliance, empathy, trustworthiness, and superpowers of each of the employees who deliver them. As a result, our firm’s culture is one of collaboration, innovation, respectful communication, and inclusion.
As the founder, I am committed to the notion that our values, vision, and culture are driven both from the top down and from the bottom up. We have a powerful feedback loop where coaching and mentoring happen consistently for all employees. We encourage social engagement, although the three (3) pandemics (COVID, racial unrest, and the economic pandemic) have affected that in recent years.
In my humble opinion, I believe my leadership style is more transformational than transactional or strategic. To implement effective change, I rely on communication, charisma, adaptability, and empathetic support to inspire them to greatness. I also value self-awareness, am open-minded, proactive, innovative, and adaptive, and try to be humble and seek feedback as I lead.
How do you align your organization with your vision and mission?
When I founded Synergy, I did so with the vision of responding to executives’ needs, employee needs, and consumer desires. It has been natural to build our products and services around the effective execution of meeting those needs, to deliver on our brand promise, and to align them with our original vision.
What qualities are lacking among today’s leaders? And what five books can you recommend on leadership?
I think some of today’s leaders lack the ability to be trustworthy, some lack integrity and inclusiveness, and many lack the ability to actively listen and be vulnerable. Forever the optimist, I believe these skills can be taught, as long as the leader is interested in learning them.
My top five leadership books are:
- The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell
- Start with Why by Simon Sinek.
- Think and Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
- The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni
