The Quantum Blueprint: Align Your Energy. Unlock Your Power. Lead With Purpose, with Samantha Baltadonis

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[00:00:35] Samantha Baltadonis, welcome to the conversation today. Thanks for having me, Dawn. It is a real pleasure to be with you. You're joining us from Nashville. I'm south of Salt Lake City in Utah. Today, we're going to be talking about your book, The Quantum Blueprint. Align Your Energy. Unlock Your Power. Lead With Purpose. I love everything about that from the main title to the subtitle. Everything in there is just awesome.

[00:00:59] And I'm just thrilled to have the chance to sit down with you. This has been a long time coming. We've had it on the schedule. We've had to postpone. You know, we're both busy, and it's just been hard to find the time. And so I'm thrilled to have the chance to sit down and to have this great conversation with you.

[00:01:17] As we get started, I wanted to share Samantha's bio with everybody. Samantha Baltadonis is an organizational development practitioner, transformation coach, and system strategist who bridges personal transformation with leadership and organizational excellence.

[00:01:33] Her signature system, quantum strategy, empowers human-centered leadership and business practices. With more than a decade of experience leading transformational change and one of the top Fortune 500 companies, Samantha specializes in blending energy, strategy, and execution to create regenerative change.

[00:01:52] Her work contributes to the next evolution of leadership, blending systems thinking, energetics, and strategy to redefine how influence is understood and applied in the dynamic world. She is the best-selling author of The Quantum Blueprint, which we're going to be talking about today. Samantha, anything you would like to add by way of your own background before we dive on in? That was phenomenal. We're good. Thank you.

[00:02:20] Okay. Well, one of the things I like to ask authors, like first thing out of the gate, why this book? Why now? You've been in the space for over a decade. You work with clients. You work on this stuff all the time. What was it about this topic? What was it about this that you just felt the urgency to get this book out to the world?

[00:02:42] Yeah, absolutely. I love starting here. When I wrote the book, one of the immediate pieces of feedback that I received from my publisher was that I had too many books in one. I had too much leadership content, too much about my personal story, and we needed to separate them out. And I had to sit with my own inner authority, which is a concept I talk about in the book, and really decide how much content I was willing to pull out.

[00:03:06] And I felt like the world really needed to hear the message about the importance of looking at our personal and professional worlds as two interconnected pieces rather than two separate pieces.

[00:03:18] And I went through my own healing journey while I was working at Amazon from Complex PTSD, which gave me a front row view of how my own experiences and perceptions and lived realities that I was attempting to unravel affected how I showed up at work every day.

[00:03:37] And whether I was in a leadership role or operating as an individual contributor, my energy, my engagement, and my investment in any energy that I had to put towards the work versus the energy I was putting towards repairing myself personally became very fragmented. And I realized that that had an effect on the people around me and the efficacy of the teams that I was a part of. And so there was self-reflection in that.

[00:04:06] There was an examination of the ways I saw that show up with other leaders that I felt left their own mark, positively or negatively, on a team or an organization that I was a part of. And when I chose to leave Amazon finally after 11 years, I felt like that really was the story that I wanted to tell, my own personal experience navigating a very intense career, which I loved, while also navigating a very intense personal process, which was worth it.

[00:04:35] And I think that's the underlying message of the book is that we all have our own life and our experiences through life, whether we would consider them traumatic or not, influence who we become as leaders. And having an awareness of how those lived experiences influence the way that we hold power and the way that we show up in our own work, whatever that may be, is really what I'm encouraging people to examine and become more aware of and more intentional about.

[00:05:02] It's not necessarily like, you know, an expectation of perfectionism or always being calm and stoic and bringing the best energy you possibly can bring. But having the awareness of the impact that you're having and choosing intentionally whether or not that's aligned with the legacy that you want to leave. Yeah. So, you know, a place like Amazon, I imagine, is quite intense. You talk about, you know, kind of survival. Survival. I know one of the things you talk about in the book is survival based patterns that shape leadership.

[00:05:31] You've kind of just referred to that in your own experience. Maybe talk about that a little bit more, you know, in terms of how that shaped yourself, your own experience, but also leadership generally. What are some of the common patterns that leaders tend to fall into for good and for bad? You know, how do we tend to navigate that? Yeah, absolutely. Well, I mean, one of the important things here is that adaptive responses can help us for a long time and then become a hindrance.

[00:06:00] And so, once again, understanding, you know, what those adaptive responses are and whether or not they're helping or hindering the work that you're attempting to accomplish in that moment in time. I think some of the most common patterns, you know, can come down to control, over-functioning, avoidance, reactivity.

[00:06:20] With each of those, though, I think underlying them, the leader is attempting with the best information and knowledge that they have and the awareness that they have to assist the organization in moving towards their goals. But what some leaders may not realize is that more control can also prevent decisions from being made. You can become the bottleneck if you're over-functioning as a leader and your team will become too dependent on you.

[00:06:43] When it comes to avoidance, you know, choosing kind of keeping the peace or some short-term harmony, if you will, over a necessary difficult conversation can also, you know, lead to additional dysfunction within the team. And then the reactivity piece is, again, a very normal stress response. But the work of leaders, I think, is being aware of when you're becoming reactive and allowing yourself the space to pause and then respond intentionally.

[00:07:12] Instead of default to that automatic reaction. Yeah, I think that default reaction is super, super common. I mean, we're human, right? And we're busy and we're stressed. And a lot of times we're just, yeah, we just, it's called default for a reason because it's easy.

[00:07:32] Like, when we're busy and we have a thousand things to do, we take mental shortcuts, we take social shortcuts, we take system shortcuts, right? We do all those things. That's what defaults are. And so, you know, for a variety of reasons, we tend to do those things. And in the short term, you know, it can seem easy. It can seem, you know, like even perhaps it might even seem like the best thing.

[00:08:01] But usually there's longer term consequences. And a lot of times they're more negative. And often unintended consequences, but still consequences all the same, you know. And yeah, so we just have to, you know, be willing to face, you know, often those harder things. Recognizing, you know, that they will pay off. They will pay off in the long term. It's worth the investment, right? Absolutely.

[00:08:29] And I think the unintended consequences pieces is such a good, like poignant way to describe this. So the opportunity then is, again, trying to become more aware of when adaptive responses that once helped you are starting to, you know, hinder the results that you're trying to drive as a leader.

[00:08:49] And most often, especially these more, you know, negative or say adaptive responses are going to come when stress is increasing. So as a leader, one of the things you can do that's further upstream to recognize that is, you know, the moment you start having those conversations with perhaps people above you around certain deadlines or expectations or changes within the organization.

[00:09:14] And the moment you feel that twinge of increased stress for yourself as a leader is a moment of reflection. Yeah, yeah. In the subtitle of your book, align your energy, unlock your power, lead with purpose. The power piece, you know, we've talked a little bit about aligning energy. I think that alignment is so important. Power. Power operates differently depending on how it is held, who holds it, where it's held, right?

[00:09:43] Talk first perhaps a little bit about unlocking your power as, you know, individually as you align your energy, you unlock your power. But also talk a little, you know, about how it does operate differently depending on how it's held, where it's held. And how leadership power strengthens a system or it destabilizes a system depending on that dynamic. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Well, I think power is a magnifier at the end of the day.

[00:10:13] So the moment you step into power, you know, the things that you may have not dealt with are going to potentially amplify. The intent that you have with how you want to hold that power is going to be amplified. Your impact on people around you and people who just know about the position that you hold, especially if you're in a much larger company, amplifies.

[00:10:37] And so there is the necessity to be aware of what you're carrying when it comes to inner alignment. How do you think about power, you know, logically with your brain? And how do you think about holding power more emotionally with your heart? And then how do you reconcile those two and keep the human experience at the center without, you know, letting go of perhaps your high expectations when it comes to running a business and running a business well?

[00:11:05] Part of the reason that I wrote this book was going through my own journey of, you know, recognizing and reclaiming the power that I hold over my own life, over my own circumstances, over my career. And one of those decisions was ultimately recognizing that my head and my heart were misaligned. And that was affecting the way I was showing up at work.

[00:11:26] And all of the things I was doing outside of work that were distracting or that I would rather be spending my time and energy on, such as building the business that I'm building now, coaching other leaders on how to navigate these types of challenges.

[00:11:40] But really recognizing that that inner alignment, your character, your values, the things that you're bringing from your past life into the positions that you hold is going to affect how you respond and how you lead that shared environment, whether that's a team, a family, a community.

[00:12:00] It all comes back to your inner coherence and the authority that you bring just from a stable place as a person, a whole human being, and really allowing other people then to find their own clarity as well and to find their own voice, their own power and their own ability to act and have ownership and agency over their life as well.

[00:12:27] So I think it's really underlying all of that is looking beyond whether you're a leader yourself or helping leaders or frustrated with the leader above you is looking beyond what either their intent may be, but really what the effect of their presence is and whether or not they're creating an environment where concerns or issues can be shared or disagreements can be made or other people can show up fully.

[00:12:52] And, you know, at the end of the day, it's my definition of leadership is that it is the shift in energy expectations and collective behavior as a result of your presence. And so if you look through the lens of the impact you're creating by holding that position of power, you know, are people more energized and more inspired and more capable or are you holding them back out of your own fear, control, avoidance, etc?

[00:13:16] Yeah, the impact. I like that framing it as the impact. It's ultimately intention, you know, I want good intentions, and I like to ascribe good intentions, I want to assume good intentions, you know, but sometimes we get frustrated. And sometimes we, you know, when we're upset, we tend to assume bad intentions and project those onto people. Ultimately, though, at the end of the day, intentions don't actually matter all that much, right?

[00:13:45] Like, ultimately, it's really about impact. You know, it's really about are the systems in place? Are the is the environment set up in such a way that people can be productive that people can accomplish what they need to, like you said, is the energy right? Is the motivation right? Is the like, are all the things, you know, functioning in such a way?

[00:14:08] Or, or not, right? Like, in, in, you can have the best intentioned manager or leader, where all of that isn't happening. And ultimately, you know, you might love the person, but like, they're not, they're not being effective, right?

[00:14:24] And, and on the other hand, you might have someone who, you know, I may not love them, they may kind of, I might kind of despise them. But, you know, they, they, they run a tight ship, and then it runs well, and, and people flourish. And yeah, they may not be my favorite human, but they, they are a good leader, right? And, and in an ideal world, I would love to have both, I would love to have someone that, like, I love, I respect.

[00:14:50] And, and, and they just run a really great team, you know, and I, and I do believe, I do believe that when, when you have a leader who like genuinely cares about their team, and like people look up to and respect, and, you know, I tend to believe that those tend to also be the better leaders. But, you know, it's not about the intention. That's the whole point. It's about the impact. And the impact really does matter, to your point. And so I think that's worth reiterating.

[00:15:20] Something else that I know you talk about in the book, that I want to spend a few minutes on. You describe fragmentation, you talk about it as an unseen for shaping leadership behavior. How, how does it tend to show up inside organizations?

[00:15:37] You know, even when things appear to be working, you know, even, even in small businesses, even in startups, but certainly as organizations start to scale and to grow, and certainly in large organizations, fragmentation is a challenge. It's a, it can be a real problem. You know, with your, you know, organizational development change hat on like, walk us through that a little bit.

[00:16:05] Yeah, absolutely. Especially my experience at Amazon. The Lean Six Sigma brain comes out here too. And especially from a personal level, where are you wasting energy fighting yourself internally and what you know you want to be doing instead of what you actually are. I think even in environments where we're recognizing that maybe, you know, we don't love the leader we're working for or don't love the work that we're doing.

[00:16:28] Those become, you know, you know, leaks within the organization of energy within the individual, but then it can become constraints within the organization as that leak within the individual, you know, permeates into the relationships and the meetings and then the decisions that are made in those meetings and how effectively those decisions are made.

[00:16:51] So, you know, strategy is telling us to move, the processes are telling us to move, and people are trying to move, but execution is stalling. And that's probably one of the most obvious ways that you can see fragmentation in the organization. The challenge then is identifying, okay, where are these interconnected points really causing the most waste in the organization? And where can I, you know, inject intervention of sorts to course correct?

[00:17:17] And what capacity do the people in the organization, as well as the team, you know, the vision for the organization, what is the capacity there across each of those levels to actually receive this change and positively move forward through it? Because as an org development practitioner and doing this work at Amazon over a decade plus, you know, there are times where you can suggest change within an organization or an individual or a team and cause more harm than good.

[00:17:47] So really recognizing, you know, the reality of the situation as well as what that organization can acceptably handle at any given moment is critical for injecting that regenerative change piece. So that we don't do this whiplash to people where, you know, there is a flavor of the week or, you know, we're going to focus on this really important initiative. And then a couple weeks later, it's shifting to another initiative.

[00:18:14] That all creates inner conflict for the individuals in the organization that also creates conflict and confusion within how the team is functioning. And that just continues to permeate up and down. And that's where we see such low engagement and such low change adoption and success with instituting change.

[00:18:32] And so really looking at, again, how strategy processes and people's lived experience and being willing to listen to those lived experiences outside of perhaps the loudest voice in the room or the one that you agree with is really important. And that, you know, comes back to being a leader who's willing to expand their perspective and continue to learn and grow just as much as they may be willing and asking people around them to do.

[00:18:55] Yeah, yeah. Well said. A number of years ago, I was in the room with the individual had had recently retired, but he had been the chief legal counsel for Microsoft.

[00:19:09] And he was he was kind of frustratingly describing his experience with I won't name the the big national consulting firm that had been working with Microsoft on change initiatives, but like multiple year, like millions and millions of dollars, multiple year change initiatives that from his perspective. Now, granted, he's a lawyer. Now, granted, he's a lawyer, so he's very cynical.

[00:19:35] But from his his perspective, it was a complete and utter waste of time, money, you know, he changed fatigue, like you said, like, you know, anyways, for for so many reasons, you know, like he found it incredibly frustrating, incredibly just a huge waste of time. Now, that was one perspective from a cynical lawyer. You're right now. You can't say that was for the whole organization, but it just highlights like this is a problem.

[00:20:05] It's a challenge. And large organizations tend to face this all the time, but it's not unique to large organizations. It can be for everyone. So, well, Samantha, I know at the time I need to let you go. But as we wrap up, I just wanted to give you a chance to share with audience how they can connect with you, find out more about your work, where they can find your book and then give us the final word for today.

[00:20:25] Yeah, absolutely. Well, the book is available anywhere you would purchase a book, as well as audio, all of that stuff. I'm most active on LinkedIn. So feel free to follow me there. And, you know, I think the parting message I would like to close with. Thank you so much for this opportunity, Jonathan H. Westover. But as I reflect on our conversation so far, I think one of the underlying things that is really important here is that I think we're all doing a little bit of a dance.

[00:20:51] And when you find yourself in an organization or as a leader, you find yourself frustrated with the way your team's operating. The point of the book that I wrote is to take the time to inquire what's going on within yourself. So what's activating around you? Take the time to investigate that. Where is it coming from? What might this moment require of me now? And how do I want to intentionally respond instead of fall back to my default and do what I'm most comfortable with in this moment?

[00:21:19] And when we take the time to increase the awareness over how we're being activated, what that meaning we're making out of it, and then intentionally choose how we want to proceed and the meaning we want to carry with us forward, we start to create alignment within ourselves. And that alignment is something that we can then carry into every conversation, every relationship, and every position of power that we may hold in our lives, whether that's in our family, in our community, or in a business.

[00:21:45] And I think we all have a very important role to play in helping businesses become a much more positive force for human flourishing. And that's going to take all of us. And that starts with our own inner coherence and personal alignment. I think that's the beginning of the work, but it is only the beginning. And again, thank you so much for giving me the space to share this today. Wonderful. Samantha, thank you so much. It's been a pleasure. I encourage the audience to reach out, get connected, find out more about what Samantha can do for you, check out the book.

[00:22:13] And as always, I hope everyone can stay healthy and safe, that you can find meaning and purpose at work each and every day. And I hope you all have a great week. Thanks for joining us for this episode of the podcast. We hope you stay healthy and safe, and please join us again soon.