‘Effective harmony’ in leadership might start with how you follow

A Baltimore-area business advisor said her grandmother’s experience with puberty became the metaphor she uses to support founders in pinpointing the challenges they might face with their businesses.

“Nobody told her about puberty ahead of time, so she thought she was dying when she was going through puberty,” said Jodi Hume, founder of At The Core. “And I think about that all the time because when I am talking to founders, a lot of times they think that they are the only person that has that problem, or that they are uniquely flawed, or that their company is dying or has a problem. And most of the time, it is just some form of business puberty or, sometimes, business hospice.”

Hume, a third-generation entrepreneur, attributes her expertise not only to her familial background but also to her academic journey. She earned a degree in psychology from Loyola University and later obtained a facilitation certificate from Johns Hopkins’ Carey Business School. It was at Carey where she gained awareness around “small things,” like how people process information.

“It has helped not only in business but in my marriage, frankly, that some people are processors versus people who can just immediately respond with every thought that they have, it comes right out,” she said. “So verbal processors versus internal processors. And so, giving them that space in meetings to have just a second to say, ‘Okay, we’re going to pause.’”

She suggested pausing for 30 seconds or more to jot down thoughts and wait for responses when facilitating in a group setting.

“You get the most valuable information out of the people who don’t speak up and interrupt other people and throw their thoughts [around] all the time,” Hume said. “And a lot of times, there are these, like, rare gems of perspective and insight and wisdom that you would have otherwise missed if you don’t create those pauses and space.”

The former podcast co-host, who spent five years exploring topics ranging from “business depression” to embracing risk and learning from failure, noted throughout an interview with Technical.ly that her advising style for various founders integrates both listening and science.

Hume, a Towson resident whose clients have included edtech company Allovue, also explained the importance of both executive functioning and emotional regulation in business. She distinguished executive functioning as a cognitive process related to prioritizing, strategizing and decision-making that occurs in the prefrontal cortex. Emotional regulation, which involves managing one’s nervous system, emotions and rest, might be a requirement for a founder to stay on top of business and personal goals.

“So the ability to get off track because you’ve run yourself into the ground or somebody made you mad, and now that’s all you can think about — and so it’s, like, hijacking your brain, or you’re disappointed or you’re frustrated,” Hume said. “Those things cloud your ability to make really good decisions. So you always have to be listening [to entrepreneurs] for all of those things to tease out different threads and get to the bottom of what’s happening because it’s all too easy [for them to get off track].”

Lessons from music

She said that the real “art” of supporting an entrepreneur lies in checking in to ensure they’re tackling the right problems before attempting solutions. That art may mirror her role as the lead singer of a local band called The Wafflers.

In contrast to the typical band setup where the singer leads, Hume’s guitarist bandmate takes on the musical cues. This deviation from convention challenges the traditional band dynamic. Drawing parallels between singing harmonies and effective leadership, Hume likened it to a boardroom scenario where executives vie to be the dominant voice. She stressed the importance of team members alternating as the “leadership voice” for successful collaboration.

“Being a good follower is, I think, part one of the ways you can actually participate in leading,” she said. “You can’t just sing your notes the way you want to sing them. … You have to anticipate where they’re [you’re team members] going and match their rhythm and their tone to really do effective harmony.”