'Ready to Lead' is a show that gives leaders the tools, tips, and insights they need to grow their team, their company, and themselves personally. Hosted by Richard Lindner and Jeff Mask, 'Ready to Lead' shares the real-world, real-life insights that leaders need to do to be great.
As leaders, it can be tempting to bypass team building exercises and just get down to business already. That is a very bad idea. In today's episode, co-hosts Richard Lindner and Jeff Mask build a solid case for why leaders in today's virtual environment can't afford not to design trust-building experiences for their team. If you want to make an impact—and you want it to be enduring—you have to rally people to do their best work, or it won't be sustainable. Your dreams and aspirations will crumble, and work will be a drag. When you align people, connect with them, and build deep strong relationships, the output is the best work of your career. You can accomplish way more, way faster, and more profitably when you have a strong foundation of trust. Listen in for some great practical advice on intentionally designing organizational trust as a leader. IN THIS EPISODE YOU'LL LEARN: 3 levels of trust-building experiences you need to implement consistently Creative ideas for shared experiences your team will love and remember 3 big questions to ask during a vulnerability-creating experience What you need to know about assessments before you give them to your team LINKS AND RESOURCES: feedback@readytolead.com (email your thoughts/questions to Richard and Jeff) OTHER SHOWS YOU MIGHT ENJOY: https://businesslunchpodcast.com/ (Business Lunch) with Roland Frasier and Ryan Deiss https://www.digitalmarketer.com/podcast/perpetual-traffic/ (Perpetual Traffic) with Ralph Burns and Kasim Aslam https://www.digitalmarketer.com/podcast/digitalmarketer/ (DigitalMarketer Podcast) with Mark de Grasse and Mandy McEwen
When is a decision yours to make as a leader and when do you entrust it to your team? On today's episode, co-hosts Richard Lindner and Jeff Mask talk about the fine line leaders walk when it comes to making decisions. If you think that being a leader, being in charge, automatically means you make all the decisions, you need to take a step back. Sometimes the biggest decision a leader can make is deciding to delegate that decision-making to someone else. As leaders, we also need to take a deep dive into why we make the decisions we make. Are we being ruled by fear, or do we have the best interests of our team in mind? As leaders, our job is to multiply effective leadership—to lead others well so they may lead others well. Listen in for some actionable tips and helpful frameworks for making, delegating, and analyzing decisions. IN THIS EPISODE YOU'LL LEARN: Tips for creating decision-making opportunities for your team 3 big fears that lead to unhealthy decisions 2 frameworks that can help you make better decisions The one thing NOT to say when a poor decision is made on your team LINKS AND RESOURCES: https://readytolead.com/podcast/a-simple-framework-to-eliminate-bottlenecks-and-help-your-organization-make-better-decisions/ (Ep. 35 : A Simple Decision Framework) https://www.amazon.com/Fierce-Conversations-Achieving-Success-Conversation/dp/0425193373/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=fierce+conversations&qid=1645033379&s=books&sprefix=fierce%2Cstripbooks%2C86&sr=1-1 (Fierce Conversations) (book by Susan Scott) https://www.amazon.com/Decisive-Make-Better-Choices-Life/dp/0307956393/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=decisive+by+chip+and+dan+heath&qid=1649079652&s=books&sprefix=Decisive%2Cstripbooks%2C93&sr=1-1 (Decisive) (book by Chip Heath and Dan Heath) feedback@readytolead.com (email your thoughts/questions to Richard and Jeff) OTHER SHOWS YOU MIGHT ENJOY: https://businesslunchpodcast.com/ (Business Lunch) with Roland Frasier and Ryan Deiss https://www.digitalmarketer.com/podcast/perpetual-traffic/ (Perpetual Traffic) with Ralph Burns and Kasim Aslam https://www.digitalmarketer.com/podcast/digitalmarketer/ (DigitalMarketer Podcast) with Mark de Grasse
What's one of the single biggest frustrations/struggles for new leaders? Time management. On today's episode, co-hosts Richard Lindner and Jeff Mask take on the challenge of helping new leaders manage their time effectively as they transition from an individual contributor role to the role of manager. That shift is no joke, they say. And hopefully it helps to know that you're not alone. No less than 100% of leaders find this difficult. And no two leaders approach time management the same way. Jeff and Richard don't. Their suggestion is to learn as much as you can, then put a plan into action. Think of it as an experiment. If it doesn't work, and you have to change it, that's still a win. It's a stepping stone on your way to success. Listen in for some helpful guidelines and frameworks you can test out as you transition into leadership. IN THIS EPISODE YOU'LL LEARN: How the 3 Ps and the 4 Ds can help eliminate frustration and challenges How to use the Eisenhower Matrix as you plan your day, week, and month The pros and cons of a player-coach role How and why to use day-theming in addition to calendar-blocking LINKS AND RESOURCES: RTL 02/14 episode on delegating feedback@readytolead.com (email your thoughts/questions to Richard and Jeff) OTHER SHOWS YOU MIGHT ENJOY: Business Lunch with Roland Frasier and Ryan Deiss Perpetual Traffic with Ralph Burns and Kasim Aslam DigitalMarketer Podcast with Mark de Grasse and Mandy McEwen
What's one of the single biggest frustrations/struggles for new leaders? Time management. On today's episode, co-hosts Richard Lindner and Jeff Mask take on the challenge of helping new leaders manage their time effectively as they transition from an individual contributor role to the role of manager. That shift is no joke, they say. And hopefully it helps to know that you're not alone. No less than 100% of leaders find this difficult. And no two leaders approach time management the same way. Jeff and Richard don't. Their suggestion is to learn as much as you can, then put a plan into action. Think of it as an experiment. If it doesn't work, and you have to change it, that's still a win. It's a stepping stone on your way to success. Listen in for some helpful guidelines and frameworks you can test out as you transition into leadership. IN THIS EPISODE YOU'LL LEARN: How the 3 Ps and the 4 Ds can help eliminate frustration and challenges How to use the Eisenhower Matrix as you plan your day, week, and month The pros and cons of a player-coach role How and why to use day-theming in addition to calendar-blocking LINKS AND RESOURCES: https://readytolead.com/podcast/delegating-4-simple-steps-leaders-can-take-to-free-up-time-while-getting-more-done/ (RTL 02/14 episode on delegating) feedback@readytolead.com (email your thoughts/questions to Richard and Jeff) OTHER SHOWS YOU MIGHT ENJOY: https://businesslunchpodcast.com/ (Business Lunch) with Roland Frasier and Ryan Deiss https://www.digitalmarketer.com/podcast/perpetual-traffic/ (Perpetual Traffic) with Ralph Burns and Kasim Aslam https://www.digitalmarketer.com/podcast/digitalmarketer/ (DigitalMarketer Podcast) with Mark de Grasse
When was the last time you praised someone on your team with specific, authentic feedback? On today's episode, co-hosts Richard Lindner and Jeff Mask talk about the absolute importance of leaders expressing appreciation and acknowledgment for the work their team is doing—in a consistent way. If you do it randomly, whenever the urge strikes, it probably won't happen. You need to build this mechanism into your weekly routine. They share some helpful stories (both good and bad) and some actionable ideas for appreciating your people and inspiring them to greatness. We often glaze over this issue, but it can be one of the easiest and most powerful things we do as leaders. “The ripple effect of this is literally incalculable,” Jeff says. Listen in for some helpful and tangible tools and frameworks you can put into action today. IN THIS EPISODE YOU'LL LEARN: How to do a quick self-audit to see how you're doing in this area of affirmation Tips for offering feedback that is consistent, authentic, and specific Creative ways to offer praise in a virtual workplace How often to offer praise/appreciation (and why frequency matters) LINKS AND RESOURCES: https://www.amazon.com/New-One-Minute-Manager-Manager-updated/dp/8172234996/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2FFS9P3SJYALF&keywords=one+minute+manager&qid=1647790482&s=books&sprefix=one+minute%2Cstripbooks%2C110&sr=1-1 (The New One-Minute Manager) (book by Ken Blanchard) https://www.amazon.com/Languages-Appreciation-Workplace-Organizations-Encouraging/dp/0802418406/ref=sr_1_1?crid=F44OCJ3NXZDX&keywords=5+love+languages+workplace&qid=1647615043&s=books&sprefix=5+love+languages%2Cstripbooks%2C82&sr=1-1 (The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace) (book by Gary Smalley) feedback@readytolead.com (email Richard & Jeff and toot your own horn) OTHER SHOWS YOU MIGHT ENJOY: https://businesslunchpodcast.com/ (Business Lunch) with Roland Frasier and Ryan Deiss https://www.digitalmarketer.com/podcast/perpetual-traffic/ (Perpetual Traffic) with Ralph Burns and Kasim Aslam https://www.digitalmarketer.com/podcast/digitalmarketer/ (DigitalMarketer Podcast) with Mark de Grasse and Mandy McEwen
When was the last time you praised someone on your team with specific, authentic feedback? On today's episode, co-hosts Richard Lindner and Jeff Mask talk about the absolute importance of leaders expressing appreciation and acknowledgment for the work their team is doing—in a consistent way. If you do it randomly, whenever the urge strikes, it probably won't happen. You need to build this mechanism into your weekly routine. They share some helpful stories (both good and bad) and some actionable ideas for appreciating your people and inspiring them to greatness. We often glaze over this issue, but it can be one of the easiest and most powerful things we do as leaders. “The ripple effect of this is literally incalculable,” Jeff says. Listen in for some helpful and tangible tools and frameworks you can put into action today. IN THIS EPISODE YOU'LL LEARN: How to do a quick self-audit to see how you're doing in this area of affirmation Tips for offering feedback that is consistent, authentic, and specific Creative ways to offer praise in a virtual workplace How often to offer praise/appreciation (and why frequency matters) LINKS AND RESOURCES: The New One-Minute Manager (book by Ken Blanchard) The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace (book by Gary Smalley) feedback@readytolead.com (email Richard & Jeff and toot your own horn) OTHER SHOWS YOU MIGHT ENJOY: Business Lunch with Roland Frasier and Ryan Deiss Perpetual Traffic with Ralph Burns and Kasim Aslam DigitalMarketer Podcast with Mark de Grasse and Mandy McEwen
The transition to leading virtually hasn't been easy. It helps to learn from people who have been doing it for a really long time. On today's episode, host Jeff Mask sits down with Ralph Burns, CEO and founder of http://tiereleven.com/ (Tier 11) and co-host of the https://perpetualtraffic.com/ (Perpetual Traffic) podcast, to talk about his new book, https://www.amazon.com/Virtual-Boss-practical-masterfully-managing/dp/0578903776/ref=sr_1_1?crid=PAC2UVWCL4OK&keywords=virtual+boss+ralph+burns&qid=1646928845&s=books&sprefix=virtual+boss+ralph+burns%2Cstripbooks%2C83&sr=1-1 (Virtual Boss). Jeff planned to just skim the book in preparation for their interview, but he couldn't stop reading. He loves that it's written from the actual trenches of virtual leadership, not some theory. Ralph has put in the work and has applicable, useful info for today's leaders in virtual spaces. The guys geek out over human psychology together, talk about building trust and getting the most out of your team, and dig deep into what truly makes a leader great. Listen in for some encouragement and advice from a long-time (and well-respected) virtual leader. IN THIS EPISODE YOU'LL LEARN: What leaders need to know about human psychology Tips for transitioning from in-person to virtual leadership How constructive reprimands can actually build trust Why emojis are key to Ralph's company being a virtual organization LINKS AND RESOURCES: https://www.amazon.com/Virtual-Boss-practical-masterfully-managing/dp/0578903776/ref=sr_1_1?crid=PAC2UVWCL4OK&keywords=virtual+boss+ralph+burns&qid=1646928845&s=books&sprefix=virtual+boss+ralph+burns%2Cstripbooks%2C83&sr=1-1 (Virtual Boss) (Ralph's new book) https://perpetualtraffic.com/ (Perpetual Traffic podcast) https://tiereleven.com/ (Tier 11) https://www.amazon.com/4-Hour-Workweek-Escape-Live-Anywhere/dp/0307465357/ref=sr_1_1?crid=EEI9A8PJL6KF&keywords=4+hour+work+week&qid=1647012401&s=books&sprefix=4+hour%2Cstripbooks%2C118&sr=1-1 (The 4-Hour Workweek) https://www.amazon.com/Motive-Leaders-Abdicate-Important-Responsibilities/dp/1119600456/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=the+motive+patrick+lencioni&qid=1647012767&s=books&sprefix=the+motive+p%2Cstripbooks%2C89&sr=1-1 (The Motive) feedback@readytolead.com (email your thoughts/questions to Richard and Jeff) OTHER SHOWS YOU MIGHT ENJOY: https://businesslunchpodcast.com/ (Business Lunch) with Roland Frasier and Ryan Deiss https://www.digitalmarketer.com/podcast/perpetual-traffic/ (Perpetual Traffic) with Ralph Burns and Kasim Aslam https://www.digitalmarketer.com/podcast/digitalmarketer/ (DigitalMarketer Podcast) with Mark de Grasse and Mandy McEwen
The transition to leading virtually hasn't been easy. It helps to learn from people who have been doing it for a really long time. On today's episode, host Jeff Mask sits down with Ralph Burns, CEO and founder of Tier 11 and co-host of the Perpetual Traffic podcast, to talk about his new book, Virtual Boss. Jeff planned to just skim the book in preparation for their interview, but he couldn't stop reading. He loves that it's written from the actual trenches of virtual leadership, not some theory. Ralph has put in the work and has applicable, useful info for today's leaders in virtual spaces. The guys geek out over human psychology together, talk about building trust and getting the most out of your team, and dig deep into what truly makes a leader great. Listen in for some encouragement and advice from a long-time (and well-respected) virtual leader. IN THIS EPISODE YOU'LL LEARN: What leaders need to know about human psychology Tips for transitioning from in-person to virtual leadership How constructive reprimands can actually build trust Why emojis are key to Ralph's company being a virtual organization LINKS AND RESOURCES: Virtual Boss (Ralph's new book) Perpetual Traffic podcast Tier 11 The 4-Hour Workweek The Motive feedback@readytolead.com (email your thoughts/questions to Richard and Jeff) OTHER SHOWS YOU MIGHT ENJOY: Business Lunch with Roland Frasier and Ryan Deiss Perpetual Traffic with Ralph Burns and Kasim Aslam DigitalMarketer Podcast with Mark de Grasse and Mandy McEwen
“How in the heck do we keep people?” is the question on every leader's mind right now in the midst of The Big Quit happening all around us. In today's episode, co-hosts Richard Lindner and Jeff Mask sit down to talk about the tension of employee retention. Specifically, retaining the most talented people who are the best fit for your company. Of course you don't want them to leave. And as difficult and scary as that thought might be, there are some really simple (not easy) ways to make sure it doesn't happen. Listen in as they share some dos and some don'ts of keeping the right people on your team. Retention Starts with the Leader's Mindset As Jeff and Richard talk to other people at different levels of leadership organizationally, they're hearing a lot of stressful talk about retention. How do we keep people from leaving? Why are they leaving? Is this my fault? Tell me what to do! Jeff says one aspect of leadership that can happen is that you finally find the right team, a great fit, and you develop a scarcity mindset of “I hope nobody leaves.” He had a manager once with this underlying attitude of “I'm paying you well. You should be grateful. Your only way to grow is in this company and nowhere else.” The employees felt like they were under his thumb, like they were owned. He believes this is why much of the workforce is saying, “I'm done with this. I don't have to keep enduring what I've endured. I don't have to put up with this fear-based tactic.” Covid has opened our eyes to what matters, to what we're willing to put up with. Jeff thinks that the lack of care and love for individuals is what has led to the Great Resignation. It's not the only thing, but it's a big part of it. It's time to rethink and not repeat the habits and behaviors of that manager. Have you had that leader? Have you been that leader? Are you that leader right now? We need to talk about how to retain people in a more healthy, holistic, long-term way of thinking, instead of a short-term, scarce, fear-based way of thinking. Some things are obvious. Don't make your team members feel owned. Don't posture as if they're lucky to have this job. Don't ask for inappropriate chunks of their personal time as the norm. Other things are less obvious and will take some thought and maybe even some trial and error. Building a Sense of Belonging A sense of belonging is so important in a workplace, but how do you build that? Richard has tried some things in the past that just didn't work. They did team lunches once a week one time. The budget ballooned, and people would get their food and sit in the corner with their cliques. It had little to no effect on anyone's sense of belonging. If you're not prioritizing knowing your team, there's no way you'll know what to do or if it's working. You need a cadence of communication. Jeff and Richard believe weekly one-on-ones are the key. They're one of the best retention builders. And you need to posture the one-on-one as their time, not yours. Your “agenda” is getting to know them first and giving them clarity second. Building relationships is key. It's easy for an employee to leave when there's no relationship. Jeff plays devil's advocate for a minute. “Weekly one-on-ones? You don't realize how busy I am or how many people I'm leading. We work together daily. We don't need one-on-ones.” Yeah, you do. Doing meaningful work together is great. Get stuff done and that builds bonding. But if you only do that, and you don't dedicate time to finding out their hopes, dreams, and aspirations, it won't be enough. This is not a secondary task of leadership. It's a primary task. That significant carved-out space over weeks and months is the most effective people-building time and a preventative measure to keep people from leaving. What Do One-on-Ones Look
“How in the heck do we keep people?” is the question on every leader's mind right now in the midst of The Big Quit happening all around us. In today's episode, co-hosts Richard Lindner and Jeff Mask sit down to talk about the tension of employee retention. Specifically, retaining the most talented people who are the best fit for your company. Of course you don't want them to leave. And as difficult and scary as that thought might be, there are some really simple (not easy) ways to make sure it doesn't happen. Listen in as they share some dos and some don'ts of keeping the right people on your team. Retention Starts with the Leader's Mindset As Jeff and Richard talk to other people at different levels of leadership organizationally, they're hearing a lot of stressful talk about retention. How do we keep people from leaving? Why are they leaving? Is this my fault? Tell me what to do! Jeff says one aspect of leadership that can happen is that you finally find the right team, a great fit, and you develop a scarcity mindset of “I hope nobody leaves.” He had a manager once with this underlying attitude of “I'm paying you well. You should be grateful. Your only way to grow is in this company and nowhere else.” The employees felt like they were under his thumb, like they were owned. He believes this is why much of the workforce is saying, “I'm done with this. I don't have to keep enduring what I've endured. I don't have to put up with this fear-based tactic.” Covid has opened our eyes to what matters, to what we're willing to put up with. Jeff thinks that the lack of care and love for individuals is what has led to the Great Resignation. It's not the only thing, but it's a big part of it. It's time to rethink and not repeat the habits and behaviors of that manager. Have you had that leader? Have you been that leader? Are you that leader right now? We need to talk about how to retain people in a more healthy, holistic, long-term way of thinking, instead of a short-term, scarce, fear-based way of thinking. Some things are obvious. Don't make your team members feel owned. Don't posture as if they're lucky to have this job. Don't ask for inappropriate chunks of their personal time as the norm. Other things are less obvious and will take some thought and maybe even some trial and error. Building a Sense of Belonging A sense of belonging is so important in a workplace, but how do you build that? Richard has tried some things in the past that just didn't work. They did team lunches once a week one time. The budget ballooned, and people would get their food and sit in the corner with their cliques. It had little to no effect on anyone's sense of belonging. If you're not prioritizing knowing your team, there's no way you'll know what to do or if it's working. You need a cadence of communication. Jeff and Richard believe weekly one-on-ones are the key. They're one of the best retention builders. And you need to posture the one-on-one as their time, not yours. Your “agenda” is getting to know them first and giving them clarity second. Building relationships is key. It's easy for an employee to leave when there's no relationship. Jeff plays devil's advocate for a minute. “Weekly one-on-ones? You don't realize how busy I am or how many people I'm leading. We work together daily. We don't need one-on-ones.” Yeah, you do. Doing meaningful work together is great. Get stuff done and that builds bonding. But if you only do that, and you don't dedicate time to finding out their hopes, dreams, and aspirations, it won't be enough. This is not a secondary task of leadership. It's a primary task. That significant carved-out space over weeks and months is the most effective people-building time and a preventative measure to keep people from leaving. What Do One-on-Ones Look Like? How often do you do one-on-ones, and for how long? When you're first starting, you should do 60 minutes once a week. Then you can go down to 30 minutes with this caveat—leave a buffer on your calendar for 30 minutes after. You wouldn't believe how many grenades get hurled, how many breakdowns people have, at the 28-minute mark of a 30-minute meeting. This person has been working up the courage to say this for 25 minutes. The worst thing that can happen is saying, “I wish you'd said that at the beginning. I have another meeting to get to.” People do this at doctors' offices too. Just when the doctor has finished and is walking out the door, the patient says, “Oh, by the way, there's also…” And they unload the thing they were afraid to ask/say. We are leaders of hearts and minds. When we have a consistent one-on-one where we're investing in people, they're more likely to share, feel seen and valued. If they still want to leave, you celebrate them. You're building them for who they are, not just to build your company. Belonging is the answer to solving talent retention. How do we build a sense of belonging? Build relationships. Get to know your team. Have everyone fill out a new team member survey. If you don't know someone, you can't invest in them. People are different, so treat them how they want to be treated, not how you want to be rewarded. Know someone so you can invest in them and reward them in a way that is meaningful to them. Invest in your team member's growth, personally and professionally. Then, when performance or alignment starts to break down, you have your bond to fall back on. “Hey, Jeff, your performance isn't up to usual. Is everything okay?” Caring about the problem now is fine, because you've been caring for a long time. If you only “care” when things are going wrong, you're not going to retain talent. Pat Lencioni has a powerful model that explains why people leave their companies: Anonymity (no one knows them or values them) Irrelevance (they don't see how their work matters or is impactful) Immeasurement (they don't know how to tell if they're succeeding or not) Own Your Imperfections As a Leader When you boil it down, leadership is simple. It's simple, not easy. If you bring someone in, do weekly one-on-ones, and they understand what they're responsible for, how to achieve success, how to measure what they own, if you have effective communication, and you care about them when they're doing well and when they're struggling, you've nailed it. But, like so many things in life, we'll nail something one day and fall on our face the next. When this happens, we have two choices: 1.) negative self-talk. I suck at this. Live a self-fulfilling truth. Or 2.) you suck it up, say you messed up, get back on the horse, kill impostor syndrome by being honest about what happened. You're going to screw up. How you respond/move on from there is critical. This takes us back to the Triangle of Trust. When we mess up, we're vulnerable and we own it, instead of acting like we have it all figured out, have all the answers. One last thing. Let go of the counterintuitive way of thinking that you have to retain them here, that people feel like your claws are in them, they're obligated/need to stay. This makes them feel stifled, like they owe it to the company. When you grow them, teach them, coach them from a place of abundant possibility, inside or outside the company, ironically, people are more apt to stay than leave. Let go of the scarcity and control. Replace it with abundance and freedom for people, and watch what happens. When it's about them and their growth, that creates an environment where people would rather stay than go. When they feel free, it changes everything. “This is where I've thrived and grown the most. My leaders care. Why would I go?” If you aren't currently having one-on-ones, book them. With every person who reports to you. Build meaningful connections with the people who work with you, and watch your talent retention go through the roof. Richard and Jeff want to hear from YOU. Did something in today's episode resonate with you? What insights or actionable items are you going to implement today? They'd love to hear your feedback on this episode. Email them here with your thoughts/questions: feedback@readytolead.com LINKS AND RESOURCES Episode 4: The First 90 Days Leading a New Team The Truth About Employee Engagement (book by Patrick Lencioni) Pat Lencioni's website OTHER SHOWS YOU MIGHT ENJOY: Business Lunch with Roland Frasier and Ryan Deiss Perpetual Traffic with Ralph Burns and Kasim Aslam DigitalMarketer Podcast with Mark de Grasse and Mandy McEwen
If delegation is challenging for you right now as a leader, this simple, proven exercise will help. Today's episode is a micro-session with host Jeff Mask, and it's for any leader who has big goals for the year but way too much on their plate to get it all done. It's okay to admit it: to accomplish what you need to accomplish going forward, you're going to need help. You're going to need to delegate. Listen in as Jeff walks us through a simple delegation exercise that can make a huge difference for any leader. The Decision Tree Without meaning to, leaders tend to be bottlenecks. A lot of things have to run through you for approval. Or you have your team coming to you for questions that seem really elementary and self-explanatory. You know you don't actually need to be part of every decision or meeting, but no one is clear on who has ownership of what. People feel disempowered and disenfranchised, because they're constantly coming to you for permission. Jeff came across a very helpful delegation framework while reading Susan Scott's book, Fierce Conversations. One of her employees shared it with her. It's called The Decision Tree. Think of your organization as a tree. Trees have trunks, branches, leaves, and roots. Each decision fits into a category. It's either a leaf decision, a branch decision, a trunk decision, or a root decision. To visualize this framework, imagine 3 columns going left to right and 4 rows going top to bottom. Column 1: Decision Type (leaf, branch, trunk, root) Column 2: Team Member's Role Column 3: Leader's Role When you get clear on what type each decision is, and get clear on each person's role, then it's amazing how you can eliminate bottlenecks, confusion, and frustration. Leaf, Branch, Trunk, or Root? If you pluck a leaf off a tree, does it make much of an impact on the tree? No. A leaf decision is something that doesn't require your approval. Something like setting up a team meeting. You don't need to sign off on it. A branch decision is something a little bigger, like handling a high profile client. The team member can decide it, do it, and just let you know. A trunk decision is a little bigger. Maybe this is something like changing a strategy. The team member can decide what they think, connect with you, get approval from you, then go do it on their own. A root decision is something major, something very impactful to the company. Maybe a core value needs to be changed. A team member can make a recommendation, but you make the ultimate decision as the leader. Implementing this simple exercise is powerful, magical. There are no more bottlenecks. Everything works more quickly. People have autonomy. The leader is relieved. And it's onward and upward to those big goals. Google “decision tree template” to find the one that works for you. Richard and Jeff want to hear from YOU. Did something in today's episode resonate with you? What insights or actionable items are you going to run with today? They'd love to hear your feedback on this episode. Email them here with your thoughts/questions: feedback@readytolead.com LINKS AND RESOURCES https://www.amazon.com/Fierce-Conversations-Achieving-Success-Conversation/dp/0425193373/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=fierce+conversations&qid=1645033379&s=books&sprefix=fierce%2Cstripbooks%2C86&sr=1-1 (Fierce Conversations) (book by Susan Scott) OTHER SHOWS YOU MIGHT ENJOY: https://businesslunchpodcast.com/ (Business Lunch) with Roland Frasier and Ryan Deiss https://www.digitalmarketer.com/podcast/perpetual-traffic/ (Perpetual Traffic) with Ralph Burns and Kasim Aslam https://www.digitalmarketer.com/podcast/digitalmarketer/ (DigitalMarketer Podcast) with Mark de Grasse and Mandy McEwen
If delegation is challenging for you right now as a leader, this simple, proven exercise will help. Today's episode is a micro-session with host Jeff Mask, and it's for any leader who has big goals for the year but way too much on their plate to get it all done. It's okay to admit it: to accomplish what you need to accomplish going forward, you're going to need help. You're going to need to delegate. Listen in as Jeff walks us through a simple delegation exercise that can make a huge difference for any leader. The Decision Tree Without meaning to, leaders tend to be bottlenecks. A lot of things have to run through you for approval. Or you have your team coming to you for questions that seem really elementary and self-explanatory. You know you don't actually need to be part of every decision or meeting, but no one is clear on who has ownership of what. People feel disempowered and disenfranchised, because they're constantly coming to you for permission. Jeff came across a very helpful delegation framework while reading Susan Scott's book, Fierce Conversations. One of her employees shared it with her. It's called The Decision Tree. Think of your organization as a tree. Trees have trunks, branches, leaves, and roots. Each decision fits into a category. It's either a leaf decision, a branch decision, a trunk decision, or a root decision. To visualize this framework, imagine 3 columns going left to right and 4 rows going top to bottom. Column 1: Decision Type (leaf, branch, trunk, root) Column 2: Team Member's Role Column 3: Leader's Role When you get clear on what type each decision is, and get clear on each person's role, then it's amazing how you can eliminate bottlenecks, confusion, and frustration. Leaf, Branch, Trunk, or Root? If you pluck a leaf off a tree, does it make much of an impact on the tree? No. A leaf decision is something that doesn't require your approval. Something like setting up a team meeting. You don't need to sign off on it. A branch decision is something a little bigger, like handling a high profile client. The team member can decide it, do it, and just let you know. A trunk decision is a little bigger. Maybe this is something like changing a strategy. The team member can decide what they think, connect with you, get approval from you, then go do it on their own. A root decision is something major, something very impactful to the company. Maybe a core value needs to be changed. A team member can make a recommendation, but you make the ultimate decision as the leader. Implementing this simple exercise is powerful, magical. There are no more bottlenecks. Everything works more quickly. People have autonomy. The leader is relieved. And it's onward and upward to those big goals. Google “decision tree template” to find the one that works for you. Richard and Jeff want to hear from YOU. Did something in today's episode resonate with you? What insights or actionable items are you going to run with today? They'd love to hear your feedback on this episode. Email them here with your thoughts/questions: feedback@readytolead.com LINKS AND RESOURCES Fierce Conversations (book by Susan Scott) OTHER SHOWS YOU MIGHT ENJOY: Business Lunch with Roland Frasier and Ryan Deiss Perpetual Traffic with Ralph Burns and Kasim Aslam DigitalMarketer Podcast with Mark de Grasse and Mandy McEwen
If you hope to grow your revenue, your teams, and your company, you have to find a way to delegate. There's simply no way around it. In today's episode, co-hosts Richard Lindner and Jeff Mask take on the evergreen, but ever-challenging, topic of delegation. Delegation is something all leaders need to take a look at annually (okay, and monthly, weekly, daily), but it's especially timely right now. As we kick off a new year and aspire to achieve new goals, we realize we can't continue to own everything we owned last year if we hope to grow this year. We've got to find a way to hand off tasks. So how do we do it? Who do we delegate to? How do we let go of control? How do we set the person up for success? Listen in as Richard and Jeff answer all of these important questions and more. The Delegation Doom Loop If you're paralyzed by fear at the very thought of delegation, you're not alone. Maybe you've delegated in the past and gotten burned. Maybe you tried to delegate and ended up wasting a bunch of time and doing everything yourself anyway. Jeff says that leaders often find themselves in a difficult doom loop when they try to delegate: I'm so overwhelmed I semi-delegate a critical task I semi-train someone on said task It doesn't work out, and I take it back over Repeat But what if a simple mindset shift could make you sprint toward delegation instead of running away? What if you could delegate confidently and give up control easily? What if you could help your team truly own what you're delegating, and then grow it beyond anything you could have done yourself? What if you really invested the time to train people well? What could happen in your future? Most of us leaders have the human tendency to want to control things. This makes delegation challenging. But the more you delegate, the easier it gets. Your company can't grow if you're always holding on to the most important things. And it's always the most important thing for where you're at. It's not the most important thing for where you want to go. If you don't delegate, you're always going to be treading water. You won't get anywhere. It all starts with your mindset. Think of the top of that doom loop. You're so busy. You're so overwhelmed. Replace: “I'm so busy” with “I have all the time in the world.” And look at what happens to your energy and your thinking. When we think that way, rather than using busyness as a badge of honor, we have all the time in the world to go create and innovate. It enables our mind to delegate in a truer form, a way that's more enduring and sustainable instead of coming from a place of scarcity and fear and franticness. The E.D.G.E. Framework for Delegation Jeff learned a methodology 20 years ago as a Scout Master teaching 13-year-old boys. It's called E.D.G.E. Explain Demonstrate Guide Enable Explain the why behind the task you're delegating. Help them understand why it matters to them, the purpose behind it. Give visual aids/examples to solidify the idea/end product. Demonstrate the actual skill when done well. Show them what success looks like, all the while keeping in mind that they might do it a little differently than you do. Guide them, coach them through the process. This is where you let them try and experiment, so it sinks deep into them, instead of just watching you, then being left on their own. This step takes time and patience. This is the key step we often skip—or go through too fast—when we're delegating, and then we're frustrated and they're frustrated. And we're back to the doom loop. Enable. They're on their own, and you've set them up for success. Roughly 5% of our time is spent explaining, 15% demonstrating, 80% guiding, and 0% enabling. Invest that time, and you eliminate the doom...
If you hope to grow your revenue, your teams, and your company, you have to find a way to delegate. There's simply no way around it. In today's episode, co-hosts Richard Lindner and Jeff Mask take on the evergreen, but ever-challenging, topic of delegation. Delegation is something all leaders need to take a look at annually (okay, and monthly, weekly, daily), but it's especially timely right now. As we kick off a new year and aspire to achieve new goals, we realize we can't continue to own everything we owned last year if we hope to grow this year. We've got to find a way to hand off tasks. So how do we do it? Who do we delegate to? How do we let go of control? How do we set the person up for success? Listen in as Richard and Jeff answer all of these important questions and more. The Delegation Doom Loop If you're paralyzed by fear at the very thought of delegation, you're not alone. Maybe you've delegated in the past and gotten burned. Maybe you tried to delegate and ended up wasting a bunch of time and doing everything yourself anyway. Jeff says that leaders often find themselves in a difficult doom loop when they try to delegate: I'm so overwhelmed I semi-delegate a critical task I semi-train someone on said task It doesn't work out, and I take it back over Repeat But what if a simple mindset shift could make you sprint toward delegation instead of running away? What if you could delegate confidently and give up control easily? What if you could help your team truly own what you're delegating, and then grow it beyond anything you could have done yourself? What if you really invested the time to train people well? What could happen in your future? Most of us leaders have the human tendency to want to control things. This makes delegation challenging. But the more you delegate, the easier it gets. Your company can't grow if you're always holding on to the most important things. And it's always the most important thing for where you're at. It's not the most important thing for where you want to go. If you don't delegate, you're always going to be treading water. You won't get anywhere. It all starts with your mindset. Think of the top of that doom loop. You're so busy. You're so overwhelmed. Replace: “I'm so busy” with “I have all the time in the world.” And look at what happens to your energy and your thinking. When we think that way, rather than using busyness as a badge of honor, we have all the time in the world to go create and innovate. It enables our mind to delegate in a truer form, a way that's more enduring and sustainable instead of coming from a place of scarcity and fear and franticness. The E.D.G.E. Framework for Delegation Jeff learned a methodology 20 years ago as a Scout Master teaching 13-year-old boys. It's called E.D.G.E. Explain Demonstrate Guide Enable Explain the why behind the task you're delegating. Help them understand why it matters to them, the purpose behind it. Give visual aids/examples to solidify the idea/end product. Demonstrate the actual skill when done well. Show them what success looks like, all the while keeping in mind that they might do it a little differently than you do. Guide them, coach them through the process. This is where you let them try and experiment, so it sinks deep into them, instead of just watching you, then being left on their own. This step takes time and patience. This is the key step we often skip—or go through too fast—when we're delegating, and then we're frustrated and they're frustrated. And we're back to the doom loop. Enable. They're on their own, and you've set them up for success. Roughly 5% of our time is spent explaining, 15% demonstrating, 80% guiding, and 0% enabling. Invest that time, and you eliminate the doom loop. It's an amazing process. It just requires us to believe in people, to see them for who they can become and what they're capable of. And give them the time and investment they deserve. Your future self will thank you. “You Don't Need Me Anymore.” There are several helpful delegation frameworks, but they're all very similar to E.D.G.E. Delegation often fails because we're so fixated on the task and “how I do it” and not the end result. We need to explain the why, not just the what. Then they get the essence of what you're trying to accomplish. It's super powerful, super simple. It's all about teaching the why, showing them how to do it, demonstrating what completion/success looks like, guiding them through, letting them try and try again, then letting go and saying “you've got this.” Of course you can be there if they need you in the future. How do you know if they're ready? Use the Rule of 3. If they do it once, good. If they do it twice, it's a trend. If they can do it three times, they've got it. Have you been there to guide them through 3 successful completions of this? Then they're ready. Richard says there's something really powerful about the phrase. “You don't need me anymore.” It's different from “Go get ‘em, Champ. I'm rooting for you!” You've taken the time to give them every single tool they need. You're not throwing them off the cliff and hoping they land on their feet. They're set up for success. When they've done the task well, Jeff likes to have a quick reflection moment. “Remember how you felt when I first told you that you were going to take this on? How did that feel? And how do you feel now?” Take that time to reflect, and let them bask in that confidence. It's a pattern. It's going to happen again. Repeat that to them. Remind them. They grow, you grow, the company grows. You now have all the time in the world to go after bigger goals and dreams. Remember, the mountain of leadership is summitless. We'll never arrive. We have so far to go, and we're fine with that. We're all learning together and what a fun journey it is! Richard and Jeff want to hear from YOU. Did something in today's episode resonate with you? What insights or actionable items are you going to run with today? They'd love to hear your feedback on this episode. Email them here with your thoughts/questions: feedback@readytolead.com OTHER SHOWS YOU MIGHT ENJOY: Business Lunch with Roland Frasier and Ryan Deiss Perpetual Traffic with Ralph Burns and Kasim Aslam DigitalMarketer Podcast with Mark de Grasse and Mandy McEwen
Millions of people left their jobs last year, and the elephant in every office right now is: how do we talk about money? In today's episode, co-hosts Richard Lindner and Jeff Mask tackle the difficult topic of salaries and raises head-on. 2021 was the Big Quit, the Great Resignation, the Year the Employee Leaves. Everyone has felt it. When 38+ million employees in the U.S. quit their jobs in a single calendar year, everyone feels it. That's a lot of people walking out. That's a lot of investment in training and onboarding and growth. That's a really big hit. So, what are we going to do about it? If you're a leader freaking out a little (or a lot) about this right now, know that you're not alone. Listen in as Jeff and Richard calmly and wisely walk us through next steps. Let's Be Honest: No One Really Knows What Richard is hearing from people he leads and in his communities, masterminds, and from other CEOs, executives, and mid-level managers is this: My employees are asking for raises, and I don't know what to do. I don't know how much to pay them. I don't know if I should pay over market. I don't even know what the hell market is right now. Richard doesn't know either. He says it feels like we're sitting here bidding on a house in the hottest real estate market out there. How much over market do we have to go? There are times when the answer is whatever it takes. Sometimes it's none. How do you know? The next big question is: How do you have these conversations with team members? If they haven't asked, they're thinking about it, building up the courage to ask. The longer they've waited, the bigger issue it's become in their minds. When they do ask, how do we have that conversation from power, not fear? From humility and vulnerability? How do we model leadership practices and principles within that conversation? How do we stop waiting for them to ask and just initiate, so it's not this big elephant in the room? Avoid Panic and Emotionally-Driven Decisions Richard passes the puck to Jeff who doesn't have solid answers either, but he does have some really good ideas. His first tip is to avoid extremes. Don't panic. Don't rush into decisions that are driven by emotion. This time may seem unprecedented, but he and Richard have seen a lot of ebbs and flows over the past 20+ years. They've been through up markets and down markets. There are some tried and true principles that can give you peace, clarity, confidence, and unity as a leadership team. You need to be unemotional. This doesn't mean you don't care about your people. It means your decisions aren't rash and made in the moment based on feelings. (Like panicking and thinking, “I can't lose this person!”) You need to be united as a leadership team. You need responsibility and alignment. You have to do what's best for both the person and the company as a whole. Looking at a situation unemotionally means that the question isn't “What are we going to pay Jeff?” But: “How do we pay here?” You need an agreed-upon compensation strategy upfront from the beginning. When this is missing, there will be friction and tension. You need to know what your principal stance on compensation is at your company. What's your compensation methodology? If you're not in charge of this at your company, ask your leader that question. Clarify and Communicate Your Compensation Strategy Conversations around money are much easier when everyone understands the company's compensation methodology. And when that methodology has been clearly communicated to all employees. The whole team needs to be aligned. You're overtaxing everyone when you don't have a methodology or documented compensation guide that everyone agrees to. What are your company's guiding principles around compensation? Some companies strategically pay just under market, some just...
Millions of people left their jobs last year, and the elephant in every office right now is: how do we talk about money? In today's episode, co-hosts Richard Lindner and Jeff Mask tackle the difficult topic of salaries and raises head-on. 2021 was the Big Quit, the Great Resignation, the Year the Employee Leaves. Everyone has felt it. When 38+ million employees in the U.S. quit their jobs in a single calendar year, everyone feels it. That's a lot of people walking out. That's a lot of investment in training and onboarding and growth. That's a really big hit. So, what are we going to do about it? If you're a leader freaking out a little (or a lot) about this right now, know that you're not alone. Listen in as Jeff and Richard calmly and wisely walk us through next steps. Let's Be Honest: No One Really Knows What Richard is hearing from people he leads and in his communities, masterminds, and from other CEOs, executives, and mid-level managers is this: My employees are asking for raises, and I don't know what to do. I don't know how much to pay them. I don't know if I should pay over market. I don't even know what the hell market is right now. Richard doesn't know either. He says it feels like we're sitting here bidding on a house in the hottest real estate market out there. How much over market do we have to go? There are times when the answer is whatever it takes. Sometimes it's none. How do you know? The next big question is: How do you have these conversations with team members? If they haven't asked, they're thinking about it, building up the courage to ask. The longer they've waited, the bigger issue it's become in their minds. When they do ask, how do we have that conversation from power, not fear? From humility and vulnerability? How do we model leadership practices and principles within that conversation? How do we stop waiting for them to ask and just initiate, so it's not this big elephant in the room? Avoid Panic and Emotionally-Driven Decisions Richard passes the puck to Jeff who doesn't have solid answers either, but he does have some really good ideas. His first tip is to avoid extremes. Don't panic. Don't rush into decisions that are driven by emotion. This time may seem unprecedented, but he and Richard have seen a lot of ebbs and flows over the past 20+ years. They've been through up markets and down markets. There are some tried and true principles that can give you peace, clarity, confidence, and unity as a leadership team. You need to be unemotional. This doesn't mean you don't care about your people. It means your decisions aren't rash and made in the moment based on feelings. (Like panicking and thinking, “I can't lose this person!”) You need to be united as a leadership team. You need responsibility and alignment. You have to do what's best for both the person and the company as a whole. Looking at a situation unemotionally means that the question isn't “What are we going to pay Jeff?” But: “How do we pay here?” You need an agreed-upon compensation strategy upfront from the beginning. When this is missing, there will be friction and tension. You need to know what your principal stance on compensation is at your company. What's your compensation methodology? If you're not in charge of this at your company, ask your leader that question. Clarify and Communicate Your Compensation Strategy Conversations around money are much easier when everyone understands the company's compensation methodology. And when that methodology has been clearly communicated to all employees. The whole team needs to be aligned. You're overtaxing everyone when you don't have a methodology or documented compensation guide that everyone agrees to. What are your company's guiding principles around compensation? Some companies strategically pay just under market, some just over, some right at market. In the fast food industry, two chains—In-N-Out Burger and Chick-Fil-A—purposely pay 20% to 40% above market to attract and retain the top talent. They believe that best customer experience enables the most repeat business. Instead of cutting corners on comp with employees, when they generously overpay, they're ultimately creating customer loyalty. Figure Out the Formula Some companies come up with a formula. Maybe something like results + time + scope + embodying core values = your salary. A formula is a great way to say this is how we determine compensation. We take into consideration this + this + this. You avoid exceptions. When you don't have clarity, everything is an exception. You've also got to determine what the salary bands or ranges are by role. Then you've got to look at timing. How long before someone is eligible for a raise? Then get clear on general amounts for raises. 2% to 5% is typical for an annual raise. A raise is not a promotion. A raise is more money for the same role. A promotion is a new, higher role which often comes with a pay increase. What we do consistently becomes expected. If you give a big raise to right a wrong, make that clear, so they're not expecting that percentage increase every time for a raise. Don't give a 15% raise to right a wrong, then go back to 2% increases without explaining why. After you get clear on the amount, then you double down on training with leaders. Anyone who will ever have a conversation about raises or promotions needs to be trained on how to broach the topic and how to field questions. Be clear upfront. Be the one to proactively communicate it. Be transparent. Share the same information across teams in the company. Some teams (like sales teams) might have it set up a bit differently (commission-based), so make that clear. Take some time to look at the people who report to you. Look at their compensation. Start with salaries, then any variable compensation. Look at the benefits your company provides. Go to salary.com where you can plug in some location information, number of direct reports, their career experience, and other things. It will tell you the general salary bands and a career path. Start to do this research. Richard wants everyone on his team to understand that he will never be able to pay them what they're worth. Not because he's not willing to pay market or above market but because no one will ever be paid what they're worth. Period. Your self-worth and what this company can afford to pay you must be bifurcated. Worth and compensation, when put together, is dangerous. Proactively Talk to Your Team About Money Why are people leaving their jobs? What do we need to do? Is it just money? Is it something else? Are we paying competitively? Do we need to change our bands? What other ways are we providing benefits? Mental health benefits, self-care? What are we providing over and above direct monetary compensation and is it valued? Do they know it exists? Are they taking advantage of it? How are we aligning their compensation with the company's growth? Is it time to look at profit-sharing? Do we have incentives so people will want to reach goals? In your next one-on-one with your employees, bring up the stat of 38 million people leaving their jobs in 2021. Ask: Have you thought about leaving the company lately? What caused you to look? Were you just curious, or is there something here that could be better? Let's talk. What are some goals you have that you don't think can be met here? Here's how I could help you achieve these goals. We've got to have these conversations. They're already having them one-sided in their heads. Or with their co-workers or friends or partners. We're all scared. They're just as scared as you are, thinking: Is the grass just greener over there? If I leave, will I regret it? You have to help them definitively know how they can meet their goals here. We fight for relationships we care about. Are you fighting for your team members to stay? Do they think you would care if they left? Don't wait for them to bring it up. Take it to them. Yes, it's uncomfortable. Having this conversation is hard. Having a valuable employee leave is hard. Choose your hard. Elevate Your Leadership Elevating leadership is why Jeff and Richard launched this podcast. The leadership game is evolving, changing, elevating. When we create environments for our people where they feel safe, rewarded, valuable, and appreciated, they'll feel connected and part of something bigger than themselves and they'll want to stay. When you invest in your people and their professional development paths, the ROI is significant. Compensation isn't the only thing, but it is important. So create guiding compensation principles or ask your company to do it. Be clear. Go proactively talk to your team about money. Have those hard conversations. Be the leader that inspires people to be the best version of themselves. Richard and Jeff want to hear from YOU. Did something in today's episode resonate with you? What insights or actionable items are you going to run with today? They'd love to hear your feedback on this episode. Email them here with your thoughts/questions: feedback@readytolead.com LINKS AND RESOURCES salary.com OTHER SHOWS YOU MIGHT ENJOY: Business Lunch with Roland Frasier and Ryan Deiss Perpetual Traffic with Ralph Burns and Kasim Aslam DigitalMarketer Podcast with Mark de Grasse and Mandy McEwen
When you know your purpose, your why, as a leader, you're able to set harmonious and powerful goals for yourself and your team. In a previous episode, co-hosts Richard Lindner and Jeff Mask talked about setting relevant goals that align with their overarching purpose as a company. In today's episode, they want to continue that conversation and connect some dots. How do you go deeper into your own personal why, your personal purpose? This is a topic that is absolutely invigorating for Jeff and, frankly, pretty intimidating for Richard. As they chat, Jeff plays the teacher/coach/guru/spiritual guide and Richard is the critic/cynic. Listen in for two very different and valuable perspectives on discovering your life's purpose. Richard's Reluctant Perspective What if you don't know what your personal why is? What if you're not even sure you care to know? Then you're on Team Richard. Richard says, “I don't clearly know my personal why. I don't have a personal mission statement. I can't tell you my personal purpose.” What Richard does know is that, at the Scalable Company, their purpose is to help entrepreneurs scale themselves so they can scale their companies. It's something he's really passionate about. He's also passionate about the Ready to Lead podcast because he believes he and Jeff can help other leaders learn from their failures and mistakes. Richard is envious of those who have personal mission statements. It's hard for him. Blue ocean thinking and dialing that in are not his strengths. He just wants to get to work on his goals. But, because of his deep respect and admiration for Jeff, he's willing to listen and is open to changing his mind. Jeff's Passionate Perspective Jeff believes this episode will be so valuable to people on both sides of the issue. Those who don't know their purpose and those who do. He's going to share a few exercises and frameworks he uses to help the CEOs and leaders he coaches uncover their why, the gift they bring to the world. “The clearer we are on our why,” he says, “and the more effectively we can set goals that are relevant and in harmony with our why, the more we'll be in the flow, excited and energized.” So many people are already exhausted and burnt out, and the year has barely begun. He believes it's because we're not anchoring to our bigger purpose and the reason we exist. We're missing out on a deeper, richer meaning we could attach to our goals that could fuel us and keep us going. Jeff and Richard are both leading people in all walks of life. It's important to understand people's mindsets and backgrounds to lead them from where they're at. Maybe you know your true why, but you're leading people who don't. Or maybe you don't know yours, but you're leading people who do. It's important that we understand each other. Some Necessary Prep Work in 3 Steps Jeff has a valuable framework to share that includes four questions to ask yourself when trying to figure out your purpose. But, like most things, we need to do a little prep work first. We need to set a foundation for discovering our purpose and living into it. Here are 3 important first steps: Step #1: Avoid perfectionism. What happens very often when people try to discover why they exist is that they get stuck on making sure it's perfect and exactly right before they go anywhere else. You kind of have to try it out. I think it's this, or it might be this. Be okay to flex with it, tweak it, change it. If you're a perfectionist, it's all or nothing—and most often, it's nothing. Step #2: Ask yourself how at peace you are with your past. Can you look in the mirror and embrace who is, rather than wishing you were someone else? Jeff says we adults are just kids in big people's bodies, trying to figure out life, mask insecurities, things that have been buried deep...
When you know your purpose, your why, as a leader, you're able to set harmonious and powerful goals for yourself and your team. In a previous episode, co-hosts Richard Lindner and Jeff Mask talked about setting relevant goals that align with their overarching purpose as a company. In today's episode, they want to continue that conversation and connect some dots. How do you go deeper into your own personal why, your personal purpose? This is a topic that is absolutely invigorating for Jeff and, frankly, pretty intimidating for Richard. As they chat, Jeff plays the teacher/coach/guru/spiritual guide and Richard is the critic/cynic. Listen in for two very different and valuable perspectives on discovering your life's purpose. Richard's Reluctant Perspective What if you don't know what your personal why is? What if you're not even sure you care to know? Then you're on Team Richard. Richard says, “I don't clearly know my personal why. I don't have a personal mission statement. I can't tell you my personal purpose.” What Richard does know is that, at the Scalable Company, their purpose is to help entrepreneurs scale themselves so they can scale their companies. It's something he's really passionate about. He's also passionate about the Ready to Lead podcast because he believes he and Jeff can help other leaders learn from their failures and mistakes. Richard is envious of those who have personal mission statements. It's hard for him. Blue ocean thinking and dialing that in are not his strengths. He just wants to get to work on his goals. But, because of his deep respect and admiration for Jeff, he's willing to listen and is open to changing his mind. Jeff's Passionate Perspective Jeff believes this episode will be so valuable to people on both sides of the issue. Those who don't know their purpose and those who do. He's going to share a few exercises and frameworks he uses to help the CEOs and leaders he coaches uncover their why, the gift they bring to the world. “The clearer we are on our why,” he says, “and the more effectively we can set goals that are relevant and in harmony with our why, the more we'll be in the flow, excited and energized.” So many people are already exhausted and burnt out, and the year has barely begun. He believes it's because we're not anchoring to our bigger purpose and the reason we exist. We're missing out on a deeper, richer meaning we could attach to our goals that could fuel us and keep us going. Jeff and Richard are both leading people in all walks of life. It's important to understand people's mindsets and backgrounds to lead them from where they're at. Maybe you know your true why, but you're leading people who don't. Or maybe you don't know yours, but you're leading people who do. It's important that we understand each other. Some Necessary Prep Work in 3 Steps Jeff has a valuable framework to share that includes four questions to ask yourself when trying to figure out your purpose. But, like most things, we need to do a little prep work first. We need to set a foundation for discovering our purpose and living into it. Here are 3 important first steps: Step #1: Avoid perfectionism. What happens very often when people try to discover why they exist is that they get stuck on making sure it's perfect and exactly right before they go anywhere else. You kind of have to try it out. I think it's this, or it might be this. Be okay to flex with it, tweak it, change it. If you're a perfectionist, it's all or nothing—and most often, it's nothing. Step #2: Ask yourself how at peace you are with your past. Can you look in the mirror and embrace who is, rather than wishing you were someone else? Jeff says we adults are just kids in big people's bodies, trying to figure out life, mask insecurities, things that have been buried deep since childhood. Either we embrace childhood insecurities and let them become strengths, or we make peace with them, or we let them go, or we're tethered with childhood baggage. If we can't make peace with our past, and we can't embrace who we are in our present, it's really hard to have clarity for the future and why we exist. Step #3: We need a really healthy relationship with fear. At our core as human beings, we are wired by fear. It's how we survived from the beginning of humanity. Saber-toothed tigers wanted to kill us, and fear helped us survive. It's still in our DNA. How we work it out in a modern civilization, when the tigers are no longer after us, is fascinating. Jeff says 95% of the actions we take are subconscious. We coast along in life on autopilot through learned patterns and behaviors. The more we can unpack why we do what we do, the more we get clear that it's rooted in fear and avoidance. Everything boils down to a fear of failure or a fear of loss. The journey to understanding that is advantageous to every human being. When our decisions are motivated by fear, we can hack our brains and choose a different path. A good book to help with this is Choosing Clarity: The Path to Fearlessness by Kimberly Giles. If we don't make peace with it, it's tough. We're afraid of failing and losing something. Instead of pain avoidance, what if we lean into it? Articulating our fears out loud makes them way less scary. 4 Questions to Help You Discover Your Personal Purpose Question #1: What does the world need? Jeff likes to reframe this one as: What does God/higher power/the universe want for me? This one isn't something you can answer in a second. Ponder, meditate, pray, listen to what thoughts come to your mind and write them down. Richard pushes back on this one and says he's not a self-promoter. His instant gut feeling is that this question is a little grandiose. “I just don't have that big of an opinion of myself,” he says. He admits that it could be a limiting belief, but he knows he's not alone in feeling this way. Jeff says that fear and ego are cousins. It's easy to look at ego and think, “That person is such a self-promoter. I'm not that. Who am I to say that I can make an impact on the world?” But he encourages us to ask, “Who am I NOT to show up and ask the universe what part I can be playing in the world?” The point is, it's beyond us. What if each person on the planet asked, “How can I bless the lives of other people?” Think of what could happen. Question #2: What do I love doing? What gives me tons of energy? What lights me up? What makes me feel full? What kind of work would I be doing, so that when Sunday night comes, I can't wait for Monday morning? When we know we're on to something, we're lit up, so on fire, so inspired, so grateful, so happy. It's our oxygen that then enables us to provide oxygen to others. Question #3: What am I good at? Here's how you know what you're really good at. Typically, people will tell you that you're good at something, but you brush it off. It comes so naturally to you that you don't think it's worthy of being applauded. You think, doesn't everyone do this? There's such a lack of effort required for you to do it that it doesn't seem like it could be amazing. Jeff says that, every time he hears Richard talk about setting up a system, learning a new technology, or making an operation efficient, he knows that's his zone of genius. He's so good at it, so wired for it, that he doesn't understand why it wouldn't come naturally to everyone. It doesn't come naturally to Jeff, so Jeff can see the genius; Richard can't. Question #4: What can bring in income? Where can I make money doing what I love and what I'm good at? This is the final piece. The model is typically done with overlapping circles, and where they all come together is the epicenter of your purpose. What does the world need? What do you love doing? What are you good at? What are you paid for? When you put all of them together, that's purpose. When you combine what the world needs and what you love doing, that's your mission. When you combine what you love doing and you're paid for it, that's a vocation. When you combine what you're good at and what you're paid for, that's a profession. When you combine what you're good at and what the world needs, that's your passion. If you can find something in the middle of all of those, you've found your purpose. By the end of the episode, Richard says he feels like he's more of a believer now. Purpose doesn't feel as overwhelming as he originally thought. Jeff says that, when we get clear on our personal purpose, we can set goals that align with our why. That's where sustainability and longevity come from. More than anything, Richard and Jeff want to awaken you, inspire you to live your fullest, best, most productive, happiest life. So many human beings don't do this. Let go of fear, they say. Fear is what is keeping us from doing awesome, amazing, creative, big things in service of others. Let it go. And you'll be ready to lead. Richard and Jeff want to hear from YOU. Did something in today's episode resonate with you? Do you relate more to Richard or Jeff when it comes to knowing your purpose? How can you take action today? They'd love to hear your feedback on this episode. Email them here with your thoughts/questions: feedback@readytolead.com LINKS AND RESOURCES Choosing Clarity: The Path to Fearlessness (book by Kimberly Giles) OTHER SHOWS YOU MIGHT ENJOY: Business Lunch with Roland Frasier and Ryan Deiss Perpetual Traffic with Ralph Burns and Kasim Aslam DigitalMarketer Podcast with Mark de Grasse and Mandy McEwen
The words “you're fired” spark a lot of emotion, but in some unfortunate circumstances, they're necessary to say or hear. In today's episode, co-hosts Richard Lindner and Jeff Mask talk about best practices when it comes to delivering termination news. Most leaders have faced—or will face—that moment of truth when they have to let someone go. There's a right way and a wrong way to fire people, Richard and Jeff believe, and they want to give you the script. Listen in for some super practical advice on firing someone the right way and tips for preventing it in the first place. The Script They start off with the script right away, then work backward. Here's what you say in 30 seconds or less. If you handle things right from the very beginning, this is how easy it can be to fire someone. If you've led with clarity, if everybody knew what was required/expected, there shouldn't be surprises. Having a script memorized is key so you don't freeze up under pressure. The script: “Hey, Jeff. Thanks for joining me. Listen, the decision has been made that this will be your last day with the company. I'm sure this is not what you wanted to hear, but I'm also sure it's not a total surprise. While I know this isn't how you wanted it to end, I'm sure there is some relief as well. I have this HR person with me. They're going to walk you through what's next with benefits and any remaining pay and returning equipment and next steps. I'm sorry it turned out this way. It's not what any of us hoped for. I wish you luck and let me know if there's anything I can do for you.” It may seem short, even cold, but when you hear the process leading up to it, you'll see why this is all that's needed. Avoid Surprises by Creating Clarity from the Beginning Once upon a time, Richard sent Jeff a text saying, “I've let people go in the past, and I want to do it better.” He had a situation that raised his spidey-sense, and he wanted to address it before it got bad. He says he had a rare moment of intuition, of realization before reaction. He and Jeff chatted on the phone and it went great. He says that was the day he chose to lead differently, to avoid surprises, to create crystal clarity from the beginning so people know where they stand at any given moment for any given goal in any given role. Jeff shared what he had done, and Richard tweaked it to fit his business. They co-created a collaborative version of how to walk people through a plan, the https://scalable.co/library/how-to-fire-someone-with-fairness-and-dignity/ (Performance Improvement Flowchart). You've hired someone and things are going well, until something goes wrong, a triggering event. When you make the decision to fire someone, there has typically been a series of things that went wrong. Did you brush those under the rug, or did you address them as they came up? Something going wrong is an opportunity to have an alignment conversation. (You don't need a flowchart for immediately-terminable offenses like assault or harassment.) Let's say something happened. Who's responsible? Let's say Jeff is responsible. Richard leads Jeff, so he has a conversation with him and leads with curiosity. “Hey, Jeff. Let's grab some time to chat. I want to talk about this. Is this something you feel you're responsible for?” The goal is to leave the conversation with clarity about responsibilities. Richard ends with: “Do you have any questions? Do you need anything?” What Happens After the Conversation After the conversation, Richard sends Jeff a simple follow-up email so they have a document to refer to. The motive of the email is not bureaucracy (protecting against lawsuits); it's clarity, getting on the same page. “Here's what we talked about. So glad we're on the same page.” Richard is a big fan of the book, Extreme Ownership. If this is the first time, the leader can take the...
The words “you're fired” spark a lot of emotion, but in some unfortunate circumstances, they're necessary to say or hear. In today's episode, co-hosts Richard Lindner and Jeff Mask talk about best practices when it comes to delivering termination news. Most leaders have faced—or will face—that moment of truth when they have to let someone go. There's a right way and a wrong way to fire people, Richard and Jeff believe, and they want to give you the script. Listen in for some super practical advice on firing someone the right way and tips for preventing it in the first place. The Script They start off with the script right away, then work backward. Here's what you say in 30 seconds or less. If you handle things right from the very beginning, this is how easy it can be to fire someone. If you've led with clarity, if everybody knew what was required/expected, there shouldn't be surprises. Having a script memorized is key so you don't freeze up under pressure. The script: “Hey, Jeff. Thanks for joining me. Listen, the decision has been made that this will be your last day with the company. I'm sure this is not what you wanted to hear, but I'm also sure it's not a total surprise. While I know this isn't how you wanted it to end, I'm sure there is some relief as well. I have this HR person with me. They're going to walk you through what's next with benefits and any remaining pay and returning equipment and next steps. I'm sorry it turned out this way. It's not what any of us hoped for. I wish you luck and let me know if there's anything I can do for you.” It may seem short, even cold, but when you hear the process leading up to it, you'll see why this is all that's needed. Avoid Surprises by Creating Clarity from the Beginning Once upon a time, Richard sent Jeff a text saying, “I've let people go in the past, and I want to do it better.” He had a situation that raised his spidey-sense, and he wanted to address it before it got bad. He says he had a rare moment of intuition, of realization before reaction. He and Jeff chatted on the phone and it went great. He says that was the day he chose to lead differently, to avoid surprises, to create crystal clarity from the beginning so people know where they stand at any given moment for any given goal in any given role. Jeff shared what he had done, and Richard tweaked it to fit his business. They co-created a collaborative version of how to walk people through a plan, the Performance Improvement Flowchart. You've hired someone and things are going well, until something goes wrong, a triggering event. When you make the decision to fire someone, there has typically been a series of things that went wrong. Did you brush those under the rug, or did you address them as they came up? Something going wrong is an opportunity to have an alignment conversation. (You don't need a flowchart for immediately-terminable offenses like assault or harassment.) Let's say something happened. Who's responsible? Let's say Jeff is responsible. Richard leads Jeff, so he has a conversation with him and leads with curiosity. “Hey, Jeff. Let's grab some time to chat. I want to talk about this. Is this something you feel you're responsible for?” The goal is to leave the conversation with clarity about responsibilities. Richard ends with: “Do you have any questions? Do you need anything?” What Happens After the Conversation After the conversation, Richard sends Jeff a simple follow-up email so they have a document to refer to. The motive of the email is not bureaucracy (protecting against lawsuits); it's clarity, getting on the same page. “Here's what we talked about. So glad we're on the same page.” Richard is a big fan of the book, Extreme Ownership. If this is the first time, the leader can take the bulk of the responsibility. If the team member is responsible, show them in the handbook (or wherever) that they are. Did you know that? Were you clear? If they were, why didn't they make it happen? Do they not have the tools/resources? What is the culprit? The only fault you assume is the fault of the organization at this point. Say: “I know you. I know you wouldn't maliciously do/not do this. So what do you need?” Don't just tell yourself the worst story you can come up with and assume it to be true. Seek to understand, not to assign blame. Seek clarity. Maybe they share some personal information. You have an opportunity to care for them, show them grace. So, in these accountability conversations: Lead with curiosity Lead with “this is likely my fault.” Ask the questions: “Do you know what success looks like? Do you have the resources you need?” Understand the human connection and what else is going on. Recap and follow-up email. When the Offense is Recurring Let's assume we've had several of these conversations—correction over correction—and it has clearly become a pattern. Now you need a next-level conversation of accountability. You need to initiate a plan for alignment and growth (or performance improvement plan). The goal is not to fire someone at the end of 30 days. You want them to fix the problem. Next comes radical candor. “I like you and respect you as a person, but things aren't working out, and we need to take action and fix this. We need to take definitive action, and this is what it looks like.” Clearly set expectations. “You're consistently showing up every single day 5-10 minutes late.” Or “your work is late.” Or “your actions are not lining up with core values. This is the core value you're violating consistently and how you're doing it.” You make an ultimatum: “I need to see you walking into work 5 minutes early to make up for the broken trust with your team.” (“Never let your team down” is an actual core value of Richard's team.) “You're going to find a way to serve and be supportive to your team. Every day you're going to check in with me 5 minutes before work, and if you're ever running behind, you're going to call me before it happens, not after. At any time you don't do this, it's equivalent to you resigning. We sign this, and we're doing it together.” You're taking responsibility to do the hard work of changing patterns. If they can't/won't do it, you're parting ways. The power is having core values you can pull back to, draw, from, coach to. You should hire, coach, and fire to your core values. It's how you grow and maintain a great culture. And We're Back to the Initial 30-Second Conversation All of this leads to the quick and simple termination conversation Richard shared at the beginning. “You said you were going to do something. You didn't. It's over. Not because I don't like you, but because this is what the seat requires. This is about being true to our core values.” If you've taken all the right steps leading up to it, this conversation won't be awkward; it will be the way it's done. As we truly care about people we lead, these conversations can be powerful and life-changing. Richard and Jeff want to hear from YOU. Did something in today's episode resonate with you? Anything you disagreed with? What advice can you tweak and implement in your workplace? How can you take action today? They'd love to hear your feedback on this episode. Email them here with your thoughts/questions: feedback@readytolead.com LINKS AND RESOURCES Extreme Ownership (book by Jocko Willink) Performance Improvement Flowchart OTHER SHOWS YOU MIGHT ENJOY: Business Lunch with Roland Frasier and Ryan Deiss Perpetual Traffic with Ralph Burns and Kasim Aslam DigitalMarketer Podcast with Mark de Grasse and Mandy McEwen
OTHER SHOWS YOU MIGHT ENJOY: https://businesslunchpodcast.com/ (Business Lunch) with Roland Frasier and Ryan Deiss https://www.digitalmarketer.com/podcast/perpetual-traffic/ (Perpetual Traffic) with Ralph Burns and Kasim Aslam https://www.digitalmarketer.com/podcast/digitalmarketer/ (DigitalMarketer Podcast) with Mark de Grasse and Mandy McEwen
OTHER SHOWS YOU MIGHT ENJOY: Business Lunch with Roland Frasier and Ryan Deiss Perpetual Traffic with Ralph Burns and Kasim Aslam DigitalMarketer Podcast with Mark de Grasse and Mandy McEwen
You want to hire people you know, love, and trust, and quite often those are friends and family members, but how do you avoid favoritism and nepotism? On today's episode, host Jeff Mask is joined by his brother, Clate Mask, CEO and co-founder of Keap (formerly known as Infusionsoft), a sales and marketing automation platform. Clate loves entrepreneurs and has great respect for the grit and tenacity and perseverance they show as they build their businesses. He built a company that helps entrepreneurs overcome the challenges and frustrations that go with the territory. Automation helped him and his business, and now he shares it with others. Clate and Jeff have a lot of experience working together in multiple companies over the years. They've seen what works really well and what can be really painful, creating family strife. So how do you work with family and friends? How do you lead through nepotism and favoritism? How do you avoid those horror stories we all hear about when family members work together and end up ruining their relationships outside of the office? Listen in for some encouraging stories and practical tips—all born from years of experience, both good and bad. What NOT to Do When Working with Family Years ago, during the dotcom era, Clate was Jeff's boss in a company he didn't own. It was a lot of fun, and they learned a lot. Jeff is six years younger than Clate and idolized him. They had a good relationship, but as Jeff started tasting success, he got prideful, and Clate would try to keep him in his place. Clate had the mental game and knew how to push Jeff's buttons. Both of their weaknesses came out. Their company had a ping pong table where they'd play lunch tournaments. Clate won 95% of the time, because of his skill and mental edge. They always played best of three. One day, they had each won one game, and Jeff was one point away from winning game three. He smashed it and won. An employee had walked behind Clate at just that moment, and Clate slammed the paddle down and said, “If you want to win that way, sure.” They replayed the point. Clate won and gloated, and 21 years of little brother exploded inside Jeff. He lost it, started swearing, and they were yelling at each other, totally embarrassing themselves. They went back to work and kept fighting over Instant Messenger. Learning From Their Failures They eventually got over it and healed. Fast forward. Clate started a new company with two of his brothers-in-law. Jeff could have joined but didn't want to mess up their relationship. Jeff went out on his own and found success. After two kids and a cancer diagnosis, he wanted to find purpose and vision in business. At the same time, Clate was looking for a Jeff Mask in his company and thought, shoot, we just need Jeff Mask. Jeff was hesitant at first, because he really didn't want to risk ruining a family relationship he treasured. But he and Clate sat down for a ground rule-setting conversation at the very beginning. They knew they had to be intentional, and they were. They set ground rules for what they would be and not be. They decided together that they would avoid these three things at all costs: greed pride laziness And they would make sure they demonstrated: selflessness humility grit There were certain standards Jeff had to meet, results he had to get, and if he didn't measure up, they agreed Clate would fire him. Clate told Jeff “I don't want you to be my younger brother. Just be my brother.” He had matured and was no longer trying to hold a psychological edge. He said it was having two sons of his own that opened his eyes and caused him to reflect. He watched their older/younger brother dynamic, and his heart went out to the younger brother. Some Practical Tactical Things To Consider The perception of nepotism is worse than nepotism, but you have to deal with it. Nepotism and favoritism are real, but it doesn't mean you can't hire friends and family. You just need those ground rules, clarity, and core values, so we can have awesome relationships. You've got to practice open communication, confront issues, and put your relationships above the business. That doesn't mean that, because of our relationships, a friend or family member can do whatever they want in the business. It means that, if we part ways in the business, our relationship is stronger than that and won't be destroyed. It means saying I love you more than I love the business. We might not be working together at some point, but my love and care for you is greater. Sometimes the business requires you to let go of family/friends, even when it's hard. Don't hire anybody that you can't fire. Two of Clate's brothers-in-law founded the company with Clate, and the younger brother, Brad, worked for them. Over time, Clate knew he had to let him go. The brothers (and Clate's wife) pleaded with him not to do it, but he did. They went a year or more where family gatherings were really hard, especially for Brad's wife and Clate's wife. Clate told Brad his life would be better when he moved on, so he could be a business owner. When he got his own business going, he realized it was the best thing that could have happened to him. But it sucked for over a year. The leader has to have the courage and conviction to do what's right for the business and love the family member. If you're a family member, the bar of performance is higher. You have to be a star, or it will be “that's just because he's a family member.” Clate has two sons in the business right now, and the bar is higher for them. You have to push yourself to be great. Results will calm all concerns. When the family member does well, people will know. As your company gets bigger, try to avoid having family members report to each other. The company runs better that way. Guard yourself on favoritism. Don't show lesser trust with others. Give them a chance too. You can't have courage/conviction and not love. And you can't have love and not courage/conviction. It's both/and. A Happy Ending Jeff joined Infusionsoft (now Keap) before any outside capital came in, and it was bringing in $3 million a year. When he left 11 years later, they were north of $100 million. Jeff and Clate remember Jeff's exit interview well. They had the conversation, and there was some deep emotion happening. Clate's office has a glass door, and Jeff knew three things: He was about to cry. Everyone could see him. He didn't care. Clate and Jeff cried and hugged for a long time. They just couldn't get over the amazing fact that 11 years earlier they had committed to each other to not be proud, selfish, or lazy, and they did it. And their relationship was stronger and more powerful than ever. It was hard work to do that. But it can be done. They went their separate ways four years ago and remain best friends. Even if you don't work with family or friends, these core values are still powerful. You don't have to be a statistic in the horror stories of working with family. But it takes intentionality and ground rules and open communication. It takes courage and humility and love. Richard and Jeff want to hear from YOU. Did something in today's episode resonate with you? Anything you disagreed with? What experiences do you have to share about nepotism in the workplace? They'd love to hear your feedback on this episode. Email them here with your thoughts/questions: feedback@readytolead.com LINKS AND RESOURCES: keap.com clate@keap.com OTHER SHOWS YOU MIGHT ENJOY: Business Lunch with Roland Frasier and Ryan Deiss Perpetual Traffic with Ralph Burns and Kasim Aslam DigitalMarketer Podcast with Mark de Grasse and Mandy McEwen
Richard and Jeff want to hear from YOU. Was something in today's episode a big aha moment for you? Anything you disagreed with? What did you learn that you've applied to your leadership? Email them here with your thoughts/questions: feedback@readytolead.com OTHER SHOWS YOU MIGHT ENJOY: Business Lunch with Roland Frasier and Ryan Deiss Perpetual Traffic with Ralph Burns and Kasim Aslam DigitalMarketer Podcast with Mark de Grasse and Mandy McEwen
What does it mean to lead well through the holidays with all its distractions and deadlines, and people's different beliefs and cultural backgrounds? On today's episode, co-hosts Richard Lindner and Jeff Mask talk about the holiday season and how it can be exhausting and loaded with dangers and pitfalls. But it can also be rewarding, even life-changing, with a few key mindset shifts. Listen in for some heartfelt tips on turning the holiday season into an incredible opportunity for you and the people you lead. Who Gets Your Time and Energy This Holiday Season? In the past, Richard has taken on more responsibility as a leader during the holidays so he could give his team the gift of recharging and spending time with their loved ones. But his “selfless” act often turned into him feeling resentful. On the flip side, he's thought, “I'm important, and I deserve this time off, so everyone else can take care of everything.” Neither one of these extremes is healthy. So, how do we make sure the key initiatives are still accomplished, but the workload isn't given to one side or the other? Not 100% or 0% delegation, but working together to complete the truly important tasks while also giving the gift of recharge to ourselves and our team? How do we focus on what's important and avoid resentment? Jeff often talks about work/life integration and making sure you know where you're going to spend your time, making sure your loved ones know you prioritize them. But how do we do this and get the work done? Most leaders have individual roles, management roles, and a family life. That's a lot of hats. The next level after work/life integration is work/life harmony. When you create a chord in music, everyone knows the role they're playing and we're all on the same page. This harmony requires proactive communication. What are the critical tasks that still need to happen and who is owning them? What are our contingency plans? At the root of a lot of our stress is workaholism and fear of failing. That fear drives us. Get a plan in place to make the holidays awesome and full of love and life instead of fearful and exhausting and being a martyr. Ask Questions and Get Curious Richard says he used to think leaders had to have all the answers, but he's learned that asking questions and being curious as a leader is invaluable. He looks at the holidays as an opportunity to be curious and asks questions individually and to his team. What holiday traditions or rituals are important to you? Which days are big for you that you'll need time off for? What do you do over the holidays and with whom? Seek to understand and build a calendar for when people are engaged outside of work. The team as a whole can start to understand each other better. It gives people a more diverse understanding of what this season can mean. It's very valuable and powerful when people step in to help others, but be mindful of people who always volunteer to do extra work. Look for opportunities to avoid resentment. Where does it build? Leaders need to ask, because people probably won't volunteer those details. Don't Forget About Your Indirect Employees The family and loved ones of your actual employees are what Jeff and Richard call indirect employees. If resentment builds up with a life partner or a child toward the company, you're putting the employee in a difficult place. Seek to understand what's important to them and their family. You want someone at home who loves the company and the manager. If the employee even thinks about exploring other opportunities, the person at home says, what in the heck? Why would you leave this amazing place? You have an opportunity to engage your indirect employees and let them know you value them and their family's mental health as much as you value your employee. How can we be a blessing instead of a burden to our team's families? How can we win them over through genuine care and authenticity and sensitivity? Look for ways to make the holidays a better time for everyone. Ask: “Who wants to be home for their family for the holidays for once? Let's create a new date to meet our goals.” You Have the Power to Change Your Mindset Deadlines are often about our own mindset. We can change this. What would need to happen for us to take the last two weeks of the year off? What's important to your team members? How can they set really meaningful goals and get rewarded when they meet them? Let them challenge themselves and their peers. Reward them in a deep and meaningful way. That's what Q4 should be about. We have to meet our goals. We have to support the customer. What needs to happen so we can do that? And also take time off? Jeff believes Americans culturally have an issue. We don't know when to turn off and let the creative functions of our brains really take over. European culture has this rejuvenation figured out. He says there's something to be learned from a culture that knows how to rest and when to rest, knows how to prioritize, a culture that works to live, not lives to work. We have some things backward that create burnout, fatigue, fear, and scarcity. We can't become the best versions of ourselves. Ask yourself honestly: what are my fixed beliefs? What are my biases? What would need to be true for you to meet your goals at work and spend time with your family? How do we prioritize the things that are truly important and will be a force multiplier? What can we do that takes less time and has more impact and is more energizing? Richard and Jeff challenge you to figure this out for yourself and everyone who reports to your company. Do it this year. Try and fail. Acknowledge what went well and what didn't. If you better your best, you won't stop growing. If you make this holiday season feel different, if you make your people and their families feel important, you'll build trust and loyalty. Don't miss this opportunity. Richard and Jeff want to hear from YOU. Was something in today's episode a big aha moment for you? Anything you disagreed with? What did you learn that you've applied to your leadership? Email them here with your thoughts/questions: feedback@readytolead.com OTHER SHOWS YOU MIGHT ENJOY: Business Lunch with Roland Frasier and Ryan Deiss Perpetual Traffic with Ralph Burns and Kasim Aslam DigitalMarketer Podcast with Mark de Grasse and Mandy McEwen
It can be hard to know how to navigate a really tough environment as a leader. This is how one woman did it really well. On today's episode, host Jeff Mask sits down with Karen Pierce, CEO of KMP Consultants, to talk about best practices in leadership and how to deal with tough, even toxic, work environments. Karen and Jeff met at an event where Karen told him, “we speak a very similar language.” It's true. They do. The bottom line? They both believe deeply that leadership is all about putting people first. It's not as much about skills and getting things done. It's about developing people, inspiring them, motivating them. Karen heard someone say once: “You can't be a leader if nobody's following you. And if nobody's following you, you're just out on a nice walk.” Listen in for some great examples of leading well when things aren't going so great. What Karen Does Now and How She Got Here Karen helps leaders in organizations navigate change by developing an environment where people can thrive and have fun, feel valued, like they have a place, like they're a part of the organization, not just someone who gets assigned a task. Work doesn't have to be a four-letter word, she says. It should be rewarding and affirming. We spend at least a third of our waking hours there. Rather than endure it to the weekend, we should feel like we're contributing to something better than ourselves. As we look at this Great Resignation, employees are voting with their feet. If we don't create an environment where they can thrive, they're heading somewhere else. Karen's journey started when she was a young female aerospace engineer who faced a significant amount of resistance in spite of her ability. Women just weren't respected in the field, in general, and being good at what she did turned out to be more negative than positive. She could work really hard and do a great job and still not be part of the team. People felt threatened by her. Her work was sabotaged. When she got promotions, people talked about who she slept with to get there. Her life was even threatened. She came to a decision point. Pursue this or quit and find something else. “I have a purpose here,” she decided. “I can try to make a difference.” Maybe she could change people's minds and make things better for the women who came after her. Dealing with Toxic Work Environments Over the course of her career, Karen has handled toxic work environments with grace. At one point, Karen's boss sent a problem employee to her. This employee was frustrated with his job, was feeling very threatened, and had almost hit his manager. He was dealing with mental health issues that people didn't know about at the time, putting Karen in a difficult situation. He threatened her life at one point, but no one believed her. It wasn't until they were in court (he sued her) and had an outburst, that her lawyer realized her life was in danger. Leading through mental health challenges is so tough, and is part of a leader's reality more now than it's ever been. Passing employees from one leader to the next isn't the best idea. Help them be extraordinary first in their current role, before passing them on. If it's happened more than twice, don't be seduced as a leader, thinking you can be a hero. There's a pattern there. Not being believed is a frustrating, even terrifying, thing. It took a lot of guts for Karen to raise red flags, because she was young and female. She didn't want to be a failure. She asked good questions and kept good records, and eventually the truth came to light. Fast forward in her career to when she got a leadership position that several people she was leading wanted. They were in an open office environment with about 40 people. The VP came barreling in, hair on fire, screaming obscenities, and heading toward her desk. Apparently, she had written something in her weekly report that had made its way to the President's desk, and this guy had gotten flak for it and decided to humiliate her. She calmly stood up and said, “I think this conversation would work better in the conference room.” She went and he followed, and it just got worse. She finally said, “I think we're both upset and should take a breather and reconvene when we're calm.” Everyone saw her walk out and walk back to her desk where she had a private meltdown. What Karen Did Right Karen noticed immediately after that encounter that her esteem at the company rose incredibly. She had shown that she respected herself, sending a message to her team that she would have their backs and respect them as well. She could have cowered in the man's presence, f-bombed right back at him, even assaulted him. But she responded with grace and dignity, clarity and confidence. She had the discernment to know to take it somewhere private, then the discernment to stop it so he could calm down. People gravitated to her to be led by her because of how she led herself in that moment. Her boss recognized that he could rely on her to be professional when things were uncomfortable, and her peers stepped up their game. She elevated the game for everyone. Ask yourself these questions about Karen's situation: Where does this apply to me as a leader? How has it applied to me in the past? How might it apply to me in the future? How will I choose to respond if this happens to me? In the end, good wins over bad, Karen says. It's up to you to maintain your own principles. Jeff likes to call these character-revealing moments. Our character is developed in the private moments when no one is watching. In business, we have all sorts of moments where things don't go the way we want. Whatever the stress is, those are character-revealing moments. Choose to respond positively, powerfully, and productively. It's our choice. It's a lot easier to lead when things are great. In leadership, we show our face when tough times arise. Leadership is about others, Karen says. It's about the people you lead. Take the ego out of it. Don't take things personally. Think about how you can help others get through it. Richard and Jeff want to hear from YOU. Was something in today's episode a big aha moment for you? Anything you disagreed with? What did you learn that you've applied to your leadership? Email them here with your thoughts/questions: feedback@readytolead.com RESOURCES: Connect with Karen on LinkedIn KMP Consultants OTHER SHOWS YOU MIGHT ENJOY: Business Lunch with Roland Frasier and Ryan Deiss Perpetual Traffic with Ralph Burns and Kasim Aslam DigitalMarketer Podcast with Mark de Grasse
Rituals and routines, done with intention, can help us prepare ourselves to show up emotionally and mentally and lead from a place of power. The theme of routines and rituals is popping right now. People around the globe are finding that the routines that once worked so well are no longer serving them. Life has changed, and our routines need to change too, if we want to stay on top of our game. In today's episode, co-hosts Richard Lindner and Jeff Mask kick things off by telling a true (and painfully embarrassing) story about how this is actually their second time recording the episode. Why? Because the first attempt was a miserable failure. Why was that? Because, ironically, they went into it without putting in the work of mentally preparing with a routine. It was an hour of their lives that they will never get back, but what an amazing validation of today's topic. Listen in for some great tips on implementing routines and rituals into your day so you can be your best for the people you lead. What Do You Need in a Ritual or Routine? As leaders, we need to be present physically, mentally, and emotionally for our team. How do we get there? One way is by implementing rituals and routines that prepare us to perform and give our best. Some questions to ask yourself: What roles do I play where I need to be at the top of my game? Am I at the top of my game right now? If not, why not? How can I get there and what will it look like? How do we upgrade, level up our routines and rituals to today's standards? Things are evolving. Our routines/rituals need to evolve with them. We have to be willing and humble and self-aware to know when and how to update them. Ask yourself: what are my most critical roles in life? What does performing at the highest level look like? What would need to be true in my thoughts, words, and actions to make sure I can perform at the level I need to so the people I lead can create and work and change? Are Routines and Rituals Inherently Selfish? One way of looking at a routine is: how do you take the time to be intentionally selfish so you can ultimately be selfless? You actually do need to be selfish in your routines so they fill you up, put you in the best possible place, so you're not responding to yourself and your needs when you're being called to lead someone else. Jeff brings it back to the oxygen mask analogy once again. When we take care of ourselves by making sure we're in a high-oxygen environment, what's the motive? To be able to serve other people. Where this gets misconstrued is where we hear a lot of talk about me time and pampering. That's okay but to what end? When we intentionally invest in ourselves in order to bless the lives of others, that selfishness enables us to be sustainably selfless. When our tank is full and our foundation is solid, we bless people, and receive more oxygen, and it's this awesome cycle. You might need me time for a season for healing and regrouping, but then it's time to take time for yourself in order to bless others. Rituals and Routines at Work Richard shares that early on in his executive leadership, he didn't prepare for meetings in a powerful, meaningful way. One of his biggest breakthroughs was to put in a 15-minute buffer between meetings. He would take that time to review his numbers and ask: what story are they telling, what context needs to be added to tell the actual story, what does he need from the room, and what can he get from the room? Showing up like that was more powerful. He started having more of an impact on his peers. He would ask: what do people need to know, think, and feel? He made a concerted effort to think of them, not himself and how he was being perceived. What does your audience need? Think of them first. What are they hearing? How am I making their job easier? How am I enabling them to grow? So much of the preparation is a pivot in mindset. Jeff suggests studying anyone you admire personally or professionally. He guarantees they have rituals and routines. Maybe you're thinking “I'm not a robotic, rigid, ritualistic person. I'm much more free-flowing, so this doesn't really connect with me.” Jeff and Richard say that anyone with any personality can apply this concept. You don't have to do a specific thing at 6:02am each day. It's all about intentionality and starting with the end in mind. Figuring out how to create an environment that enables that desired end result to be achieved. We have to have intentionality to create a new outcome. Richard has had the privilege of leading creatives. One of his first sins as a leader was to think that everybody needed to do things exactly like he did. He says it's important to acknowledge who people are at their core and where their genius is. Creatives need rituals and routines so they can be at their creative best. Startup and Shutdown Routines Jeff has learned that, if he doesn't do certain things before bed, he doesn't sleep as well. He's not as refreshed in the morning. Figure out what works for you, he says. Experiment. Be a scientist. Test a hypothesis. Richard has two shutdown routines to take him from work mode to home mode and vice versa. If he doesn't shut one mode off and turn the other one on, it's detrimental. There are times he needs to make quick decisions at work, and he needs to be in work mode from the moment he walks in the door. His shutdown routines allow him to transition from one role to the next. When he closes his day professionally, before he drives home (or walks around the block if he's working from home), he has routines. The pandemic blurred the lines between work and home. That's why we're going through routine/ritual audits. We stopped doing them, and when we started back up again, the world had changed and they no longer worked. At the end of the day, how does he prepare to make sure he's ready the next time he puts his hat back on as professional Richard? He has to close mental doors, go through his calendar for the next day, his inbox, his 3 big initiatives for the day. Did he get done what he needed to? He cleans up his desk a little bit before he leaves so the mess isn't there when he gets in the next day. He shuts down so he can transition and also be prepared for the next time he steps back into the role so it's seamless. How About You? What are your rituals and routines? What do you need to uplevel? What end do you want to create, and what do you need to change to make that happen? Before Richard and Jeff do the podcast each week, they pray and ask for divine help so that they'll have a bigger impact. They also talk about their thematic goal, then 2-5 bullet points, then make sure they're not too scripted or robotic. They do have intentionality though. When they hit the red button, during the countdown, they make stupid faces at each other. They don't take themselves too seriously, but they take the show very seriously. If this podcast is just about them, they failed you, the listener. They believe they can share their failures and help thousands of leaders not to make the same mistakes. They share honestly so you can learn from them, because it's not about them. They want to help you be ready to lead. Richard and Jeff want to hear from YOU. Was something in today's episode a big aha moment for you? Anything you disagreed with? What did you learn that you've applied to your leadership? Email them here with your thoughts/questions: feedback@readytolead.com OTHER SHOWS YOU MIGHT ENJOY: Business Lunch with Roland Frasier and Ryan Deiss Perpetual Traffic with Ralph Burns and Kasim Aslam DigitalMarketer Podcast with Mark de Grasse
When you invest in appropriate relationships with the people you lead and make them feel valuable, you become all the more effective as a leader. In today's episode, host Jeff Mask sits down with Kimberly Holmes, CEO of Marriage Helper to talk about some universal principles that work across all relationships, whether personal or professional. Kimberly is passionate about championing marriages and creating strong families. She and her team want to take over the world with hope for great relationships. Listen in as she shares how you can implement these powerful relationship principles into your leadership. How Kimberly Became CEO of a Successful Company Kimberly's story starts back in the mid-1980s. The founder of Marriage Helper was a very successful speaker whose schedule was booked five years out. He was married with two daughters when he fell in love with another woman, and left his family to be with her. He was divorced for three years, became a drug addict and an alcoholic, lost his friends, was living out of his car, and almost died. He told God he was going to turn his life around, called his ex-wife, and asked her to take him back, which she did, against the advice of her loved ones. They remarried, even though they weren't in love, and they had a third child in celebration of their remarriage. That child was Kimberly. She says, “I literally would not be on this earth if it weren't for two people committed to trying to make it work, to put it back together.” She entered the family business part-time and saw the amazing change that was happening in the 3-day workshops her parents hosted. The service worked, but they had no marketing whatsoever. Her dad was considering shutting it down, because it wasn't profitable. She knew they had to get the message in front of people, because it was needed. They were an organization driven by mission and believed the stakes were high. Kimberly became CEO with a staff of four. They started an email list, and experienced 100% growth for two consecutive years. There was really nowhere to go but up. In 6 years she had 5x'ed the company. She learned marketing, got clear on her why, and worked hard to scale. And now they have a staff of 75. How to Invest In Relationships You have to invest in people if you're going to take your business from 4 people to 75. Kimberly has invested in relationships on her team, and the team helps people invest in their marriage relationships. What are some things she has learned about relationships over the years that can apply to us as leaders? Kimberly says people want to leave a relationship for one of three reasons: They don't feel liked. They don't feel loved. They don't feel respected. At the core, if someone feels liked, loved, and respected, they'll feel more attachment to the relationship they're in. So, ask yourself: what am I doing that is showing the other person that I like, love, and respect them? People are attracted to those who evoke emotions that they enjoy feeling. Am I helping people feel edified, uplifted, supported, liked? If leaders can do this in an appropriate way in their relationships at work, it makes all the difference. It changes us and the people we're leading. People need to feel valued, like they're not just a number. You want them to like the way it feels to be a part of your team and a part of your company. The Four Stages of a Relationship There are four stages to any relationship, and understanding each one of them can help you make your relationships stronger, whether at home or at work. Stage 1: Attraction Attraction isn't just physical. There are four components to attraction: physical, intellectual, emotional, spiritual. (PIES, to help you remember) As a leader, how are you providing intellectual stimulation? How do you make people feel emotionally? And spiritually, we're attracted to people who are aligned with our core values. Attraction is what makes us want to get closer to a person. When team members are attracted to our organization, they want to get closer, stay longer. Stage 2: Acceptance Once I'm attracted and move closer, as I learn more about them, can I accept this person for who they are without trying to change them? In business, sometimes people do need to change. They need to be coached into who they can be. But how do we approach this? I see your giftedness and potential, and what you can grow into. I accept who you are now, but I'm also not going to leave you here, because I see what you can be. Stage 3: Attachment The bottom line of attachment is I will be there for you, no matter what. That's powerful. Sometimes it's just sitting there, just listening. The way you build attachment and show someone you'll be there for them is done in the small things consistently over time when the person needs you. You show up the way you say you're going to show up. Stage 4: Aspiration You have a vision for your relationship, something you can look forward to together. When we can give the people on our team a vision of where they can go, the conflicts and drama at work don't seem as big, because we remember our vision and our mission. Leading As a Woman in a Male-Dominated World As Jeff listens to Kimberly speak, he hears clarity, confidence, and conviction. He hears her knowing how to lead from her place of strength, leading as a female CEO powerfully and consistently. “How do you lead from a place of power and confidence in a very male-dominated world?” he asks her. “I'm going to be completely vulnerable and open,” Kimberly says. “It probably hasn't been until the past 2-3 years that I've trusted my voice. As a child, someone did and said things to me they shouldn't have, and when I spoke up about it, nobody believed me. It wasn't until I went to therapy and EMDR and faced my demons that I realized I wasn't wrong. I was right. What happened to me was wrong. I can trust myself. I have discernment. I'm learning to know when to trust myself and when to get support from the people around me who believe in me.” She goes on to say, “I've never seen men as the enemy, but I also want to empower women to trust themselves. We actually have innate parts of us that come naturally to some of us that can make us exceptional in our own way. I don't see it as competition but as a collaboration.” Jeff leaves us with some wisdom: The sooner we can be clear and calm with our past, the more powerfully we can lead in our present and future. We put those stories in our minds that tell us why we can't do certain things, and they're just not true. We have to find our voice, find our core values, and humbly and authentically lead from our strengths. Richard and Jeff want to hear from YOU. Was something in today's episode a big aha moment for you? Anything you disagreed with? What did you learn that you've applied to your leadership? Email them here with your thoughts/questions: feedback@readytolead.com RESOURCES: Marriagehelper.com Marriage Helper on YouTube Relationship Radio It Starts With Attraction podcast OTHER SHOWS YOU MIGHT ENJOY: Business Lunch with Roland Frasier and Ryan Deiss Perpetual Traffic with Ralph Burns and Kasim Aslam DigitalMarketer Podcast with Mark de Grasse
Corrective conversations are never fun, but as leaders, it's our responsibility to help people become better versions of themselves. Today's episode with co-hosts Richard Lindner and Jeff Mask is all about having those difficult, but necessary, corrective conversations. How do you give correction? When do you give it? How do you do it well? It can be an easy thing to mess up, and Jeff and Richard want to help people avoid that pain. Listen in as they talk about why correction matters and how to do it in a way that truly benefits everyone. WHY Have Corrective Conversations? Why is it so important for leaders to give timely correction when something gets off track? The biggest reason is this: we need to lead people for who they can become, not for who they are today. We want the people we lead to become their best selves, and a lot of everyday actions prohibit them (and us) from doing that. Jeff says that, as leaders, we have the ability to change the trajectory of ourselves and those we lead. When we don't give that feedback, we're not helping people see the implications of their behavior so they can be better. It's an obligation, an opportunity, a blessing, to help people elevate their thinking and behavior. When we don't, we're just thinking about ourselves. Richard says that the hardest pivot for him was changing the way he thought about correction. It doesn't have to mean confrontation. Correction isn't necessarily coming from a place of judgment. It doesn't mean the person is bad. There's just an action that needs changing. It's pain avoidance when we don't have these corrective conversations. We like to lie to ourselves and think we're protecting the other person from pain, but we're protecting ourselves. WHEN to Have Corrective Conversations Jeff once had a team member whose behavior was not in line with their core values. It wasn't off-the-charts horrible, but he knew he needed to talk to this person and kept putting it off. His delay resulted in a chain of events that occurred in a short period of time that was very destructive to the brand of their company and the overall vibe of their team. It got out of hand quickly because Jeff didn't have the courage to address it at that moment. If something strikes you as off on your core values, that's your first and clearest red flag. Core values can be a guiding light for how to behave. Maybe you have that spidey sense that something is odd or a little uncomfortable—or you notice a reaction or body language from the person that person is talking to. In a virtual world, this can be more difficult. Don't avoid it and let it grow into a larger problem down the road. Richard always looks at attitude, effort, and effectiveness. Those are the categories he puts things in when evaluating each team member. If something is off in any of these categories, then a conversation is needed. Attitude and effort are more of a corrective conversation. Effectiveness is more of an exploratory conversation. Jeff says that Richard married data and intuition. Data can be taught; intuition can't be. Going down the intuitive path (spidey sense) isn't helpful if there's only an intangible aspect. You need intuition + data. Definitely don't wait until the time is right, because it never will be. Don't wait until your next one on one. The more time that goes by without correction, the more it communicates that the behavior is acceptable. This is how a good work culture deteriorates. Have the conversation that same day—with one caveat. If there's a blow-up and someone loses their cool, that needs to be dealt with, but there needs to be a cooling off period. The deeper question is: how do we know if we are calm enough as a leader to offer the correction? If my motive to correct is in love and care for the person, I know I'm ready. Cool down. Get your mindset right. The outcome of the correction will be vastly different. Learn to give the benefit of the doubt. Fight the urge to go to the worst story. What's the best possible version? Come from a place of curiosity. What do you need to do to break you from that triggering place and help you calm down? Jumping jacks? Rehearse Ted Lasso quotes? Take a walk? WHERE to Have Corrective Conversations You've heard the phrase “praise in public, correct in private,” right? For the most part, Jeff likes that statement, but with caveats. If you're leading a leadership team, and there's a behavior that's off, hopefully you have enough trust within the team to address it at the moment. You can say something like: “This isn't how we roll. We hold ourselves to a higher standard.” When you don't correct in public, you've communicated that it's tolerated. Or, worst case, “ah, there's the leader's favorite.” Jeff shared a story of a time he was meeting with a team doing annual planning. It was all about creating a future you don't know exists yet. People's livelihoods were on the line. The energy from one team member was very negative (“this is why it can't be done”). Jeff is a fan of constructive criticism, but he's not a fan of looking for all the reasons “why not,” and sucking all the life out of a room. It was the middle of day one of a two-day meeting, and Jeff told the guy in front of the rest of the team, “You know I love you, so before I say anything, I need you to know that. Everything coming out of your mouth is why things can't happen. I need your help to change it from why it can't to what needs to be in place for it to happen. Sometimes you act like a victim, and I need you to be the champion you are.” He looked at Jeff, and the rest of the team looked at Jeff, but Jeff knew he had done what he needed to do. The whole energy for the year they were creating was getting destroyed by one negative person. That happened 10 years ago, and 3 different times that guy has told Jeff that that one conversation was more pivotal than any other conversation in his career. “When you called me a victim in front of everybody else, at first I was pissed,” he said. “But I knew you were right, and I had a choice to make. I had to change.” HOW to Have Corrective Conversations All of this leads to HOW. How do we have a corrective conversation that leads to the desired outcome of growth, change, and alignment? First, how NOT to: don't use a medium that's not open to corrective conversation. Not Slack, text, or email. This needs to be done over Zoom or in person. Don't start it with written communication. It feels efficient, but don't do it. It doesn't end well 99.99% of the time. The intent isn't understood. It's more judging than curious. We're missing out on the richness of nonverbal communication. The person will read the written text through the tone of what they're feeling, like we all do. Remember, from the book, Fierce Conversations—I want to talk with you, not I need to talk to you. Want and with, not need and to. Start with that, pull them aside, and say, “let's chat for 15 minutes.” When your motive is love and care, the energy will be so different. When you're annoyed and want to stick it to them, they know it. Another tip: replace “but” with “and.” Don't say a bunch of good stuff about them, then say “but.” Say the good stuff, and use “and.” I know you're kind and good AND I think there's a problem with x. Then ask inquisitive, thoughtful, inspiring questions. Not incriminating and condescending. “Hey, I saw this happen, and I'm curious, how did that occur to you?” At the very beginning, seek to understand their point of view. “What were you feeling when this happened?” is sooo much better than “what were you thinking?” Richard likes to ask: “What were you reacting to?” Repeat what they just said, using slightly different wording. “What I hear you saying is ________.” And then the next question is the pivot. “So how do you think it occurred to the other person in the situation?” If you start with them, they won't react with self-preservation. They'll feel safe and can access that higher level of thinking. They can empathize with the other person. Then you can tell them how it occurred to you. How did it occur to you? What were you feeling? What were you reacting to? How do you think it occurred to [the other person]? This is how it occurred to me. Key Takeaways What are we doing as leaders? We're inviting people to change their behavior for the good. We're not forcing, pushing, or requiring. Inspire, not require. Inspiration comes through thoughtful, well-worded questions. When they see in you the passion for them to become better, they can't help but become better. They'll rise to the occasion. Richard suggests a why, why, how sequence: Why is what happened detrimental? Why is the action going to keep you/the company from meeting goals? How are you going to get in alignment? Last step: follow everything up with an email. “Thanks, Dan, for the conversation today. Just wanted to recap so we're on the same page. Can you give me a quick reply to this email to confirm that you received it and agree?” Hopefully you heard some actionable steps you can take. Put your own personal twist on it. You've got this. Richard and Jeff want to hear from YOU. Was something in today's episode a big aha moment for you? Anything you disagreed with? How do you handle corrective conversations as a leader? Email them here with your thoughts/questions: feedback@readytolead.com RESOURCES: Fierce Conversations (book by Susan Scott) OTHER SHOWS YOU MIGHT ENJOY: Business Lunch with Roland Frasier and Ryan Deiss Perpetual Traffic with Ralph Burns and Kasim Aslam DigitalMarketer Podcast with Mark de Grasse
What does decluttering have to do with leadership? Way more than you think. In today's episode, host Jeff Mask sits down with Kathi Lipp, world-renowned author of over 20 books and host of the Clutter-Free Academy podcast. Kathi has dedicated her life to serving people who are overwhelmed by clutter and people with a mission who want to communicate it. Why talk about decluttering on a leadership podcast? Because there are a lot of grounding principles here for leading ourselves and leading others. When we have cluttered minds, when we have cluttered systems and processes, when we don't have clarity, it's so much more anxiety-inducing to lead. Listen in as Jeff and Kathi talk about how decluttering leads to more peaceful, powerful, and effective leadership. The Damaging Effects of Clutter Years ago, Kathi was a young mom, heading into a dark place, overwhelmed by her house and life and stuff. Her dad was a hoarder. They didn't call it that then, but that's what he was. She tried all the programs and strategies, but nothing worked. Until she figured out that it was more than just having too much stuff. What is my relationship to stuff? she asked herself. Why do I have this need to keep bringing things into my home? She realized that it was more of a mental/spiritual issue than a stuff issue. “Once I dug into that and dealt with it,” she says, “I was able to find freedom. I'm not Martha Stewart, but I could invite you in for a cup of coffee at any time without having to apologize, and that's a big leap for me.” Kathi says that, when you know that you're different and you don't understand why, it wreaks havoc with what you can potentially do. When you can't have people over, when you can't get out the door on time, when you only have one area of the house where you can aim your Zoom camera, it limits who you can become and who your partner/children can become. Clutter is just a physical manifestation of what's going on inside of us emotionally or spiritually. If you're not coping in an area, it will seep out somewhere else. Clutter can lead to depression for many people. If you are depressed, you have clutter. If you have clutter, you're dealing with some level of depression. How Clutter Affects Us As Leaders Decluttering enables us to clear out the closets of our minds, to help us be more present as leaders. It helps us let go of the heavy, painful anchors that are holding us back from becoming the true person we could be. So we can lead our team to be their best selves too. What is one thing leaders can do to start down this path toward peace and clarity? Kathi says she's a big believer in picking one thing and focusing on it for 15 minutes. If you have 20 things on your to-do list, and you haven't prioritized them, you aren't going to be able to tackle them without feeling frozen. She uses this 15-minute principle in her work, her environment, and her creativity. It ups her creativity and productivity—everything she needs to be a good leader. She recommends that leaders start by clearing a space on their desk. She sits down every day and writes ten 15-minute items. Things that will push her business forward. She also chooses one thing to do an hour-long deep dive on. She asks: What is one thing I need to spend some concentrated time on? Then she puts it on her schedule. “We overestimate what we can get done in a week, and we underestimate what we can get done in a moment,” she says. “Fifteen minutes is a moment, and we can actually get a lot accomplished.” Kathi suffers from bright shiny object syndrome. (Don't we all?) Everything else in the world besides what she's doing looks more fun, more awesome. But she keeps bringing her focus back to the task at hand. She reminds herself constantly: “I have to do the things I have to do so I can do the things I want to do.” Setting Yourself Up for Success Every new day, when you sit down at your desk, that's your launch pad. This is what you're launching from every day. Are you constantly in recovery from the day before? Or are you starting each day moving forward? Ask: What can I do right now to take care of my future self? Right now Kathi is concentrating heavily on her health. If she wants to have a good week, she has to set aside time on the weekend to roast vegetables, cook brown rice, and lay out her workout clothes. She's taking care of her future self. She also does that for her work when she clears her desk and makes her coffee the night before. It's not just being organized for the sake of being organized, she says. It's about: can I make decisions now to make it easier tomorrow? Decisions take energy. Jeff agrees that so many leaders struggle from decision fatigue. If you get home from the office, or you leave your home office for the day, and you can't decide what to eat, where to go, or whatever, you're suffering from decision fatigue. As leaders, we're constantly making decisions. If we can eliminate some of that through future planning and organization, we'll make our lives a little less taxing and trying and heavy. Don't Spend All Your Time Organizing Instead of Living Kathi has met a lot of leaders who like to appear organized, but don't understand what true organization is. She once worked with a guy (back in the pager era) who had all the systems—notebooks, planners, everything cross-referenced. She was in awe. Then a coworker told her that this guy spends all this time just saddling up. He spends so much time on his systems that he never gets on the horse and goes anywhere. If you're spending more than 5% of your time getting/staying organized, look at your systems and see if you're doing the right thing. Don't over-engineer this. If you're spending all your time organizing your life and not actually living your life, you're avoiding something. Set yourself up for success the night before. Get really clear on what the most important priorities are. Set 15-minute power times. Know yourself best. Know your rhythms. And schedule everything around that. For Kathi's life work, part of her has to be creative and part of her has to execute. She's most creative in the morning. That's when she does her writing, blogging, and podcasting. Executing and meetings are in the afternoon. It's not because she wants to give her coaching clients less. It's because she's already lived out her purpose today. Meeting with people is her most energizing work. She writes 500 words a day, but writing does not bring her joy. People do. She says we are constantly having to balance our space, time, energy, and money. Why would we allow things into our space that aren't serving us? The more you get rid of, the more it will increase your peace. She says we keep stuff for three reasons: fear (what if I need it someday?), guilt (Aunt Tillie gave it to me) and shame (I spent so much money on it, I need to keep it for the rest of my life). It's a spiritual issue and it can be dealt with. We are not stuck. “There is a message, a business, something that only you can bring to the world,” Kathi says. “Throw off anything that is keeping you from doing that. Spend time on your biggest hindrance so you can be the biggest blessing to the world that you were created to be.” Richard and Jeff want to hear from YOU. Was something in today's episode a big aha moment for you? Anything you disagreed with? What clutter do you need to remove from your life so you can be a better leader? Email them here with your thoughts/questions: feedback@readytolead.com RESOURCES: Kathi's website OTHER SHOWS YOU MIGHT ENJOY: Business Lunch with Roland Frasier and Ryan Deiss Perpetual Traffic with Ralph Burns and Kasim Aslam DigitalMarketer Podcast with Mark de Grasse
The Great Resignation has had a huge impact on teams and organizations. How do you respond as a leader when you lose a really good team member? In this episode, co-hosts Richard Lindner and Jeff Mask talk about what happens when one of a leader's biggest fears becomes reality: a key player on the team decides to leave. Instead of just speaking in generalities, Richard shares a very personal and recent story, and he and Jeff walk through these important questions: How do we process it internally? How do we communicate it? How do we make sure the company is better because they were here instead of worse off because they're gone? Listen in for some great tips to help you think about—and become better from and through—these experiences. Richard's Team Loses a Key Player Richard says their company was blessed not to lay anyone off during Covid, but they still experienced the Great Resignation to some degree this summer. He recently had the scary realization that his team was at the definition of a skeleton crew. Everyone was perfect for their job—right person, right seat, right attitude, right cultural fit. “If anyone here leaves,” he thought to himself, “we're going to be in a bit of a bind.” And then it happened. Someone who had been with the company for five years (in internet years, that's forever, Richard says) put in her resignation. In the growth they had seen over five years, this person had been critical in figuring things out and ushering in that change. She was always smiling, had the best attitude, and owned her role. When Richard got the news, his mind went to “not her, not her.” This was going to hurt. Richard said this is when you start to spiral mentally, no matter how long you've been leading. He went immediately to a bad place, because he always processes the worst case scenario first. This person embodied their core values. The company could have written its values by following her around. When she left, we asked, where did we fail in leadership and vision? Where did we fail in growth and opportunity? What are the rest of the team members going to think? Will others leave because she left? If “bad people” (an underperformer, someone who's not a cultural fit) leave, we get it. But when a good person leaves, the fear is that other people will think, “Wait a second, if she's leaving, should I leave? What does she know that I don't know?” How Do We Process It Internally? Important question #1: how do we internally process the impact of this person leaving? How can we work through it in a way so that it's a growth opportunity instead of something that paralyzes us? If we don't work through it in our own minds in a healthy way, it has a negative ripple effect on everyone around us. A negative spiral is not helpful. Every failure is a failure of leadership. However. Good people leaving is not always a failure. It just means that, organizationally, their growth has outpaced your need. When done correctly, sometimes we grow people too good, too much. They outgrow the company. It's a job well done. You're called as a leader to grow people. You're called as a leader to align that growth with the company. When they outpace it, you fulfilled your calling. If the company can't support their growth, you let them go with your blessing. Jeff summarizes Richard's process. First, he went to a dark place, thinking “where did I fail? What will people think?” That's totally normal, human, healthy. Where the unhealthiness comes in is when we stay there. We have to reframe. “Where's the good in this? Where do we go from here?” It comes down to selflessness as a leader. Seeing the situation from the individual's perspective and being happy for their growth. How Do We Communicate It? Once you've internally processed this person's departure from the company, how and when and what and to whom do you communicate it? Richard says that, first, you talk to the person leaving. There's an HR process they follow, but it needs to be collaborative. Create the tone and plan together. Be honest with the person. Say, “I'm concerned that other people will think there's a problem. The story you told me, your truth, is awesome. I want people to hear that.” Partner with them on the truth. Jeff says that people's BS meters are strong. When we spin it, people connect the dots. Truth and honesty is key. After you talk to the person and make a plan, then you tell the people affected by this person leaving before you tell the company as a whole. One of Richard's company's rules is: no surprises. If someone is impacted by the change, don't surprise them with the announcement at the company level. People who are unaffected should not be told at the same time as the people dramatically affected. The person leaving usually announces it at the team meeting. Keep it short and sweet. Don't say goodbyes yet. Don't be like the people who say goodbye in a restaurant, then walk out in the same direction. That's awkward. Allow the person to say goodbye through a company channel—email or Slack—on their last day. Celebrate the person leaving, then dial in the critical areas of responsibility and functions of this role, and start the search for someone to step into that. How Do We Make Sure This Betters the Company? You absolutely want your company to be better because someone was here, not worse off because they're gone. And this can only happen if you put repeatable systems and processes in place. Hopefully, their replacement can take the company from great to greater because of what the previous employee was able to put in place. Richard's dad told him something when he was 13 that has stuck with him ever since. “Son, your job is to go further than I did, because my job was to give you a better starting point.” When a great team member leaves, the next team member can go further because they had a better starting point. The first thing to do, after communication and timeline, is that the person needs to evaluate critical tasks they do. Is it documented? Is it up to date? Cross train someone by recording Loom videos of how you do this. Hand that playbook to the person who comes in, and they should be able to do it at 80% of the person who left—right away. How long did it take the person who left to get from where they started to where they ended up? A long time. The new employee just runs the playbook from day one. If the person does this the right way, they can't wait any longer. They have to follow their dreams. Set up their successor for success. Then the only thing you should feel is gratitude and express it. Say goodbye on the last day, publicly or privately. Honor them in a powerful way. See this as your last opportunity to lead them. Then keep leading after they go. Richard and Jeff want to hear from YOU. Was something in today's episode a big aha moment for you? Anything you disagreed with? What have you discovered about yourself and your team? Email them here with your thoughts/questions: feedback@readytolead.com OTHER SHOWS YOU MIGHT ENJOY: Business Lunch with Roland Frasier and Ryan Deiss Perpetual Traffic with Ralph Burns and Kasim Aslam DigitalMarketer Podcast with Mark de Grasse
How to Become a Disruptive Entrepreneur with Rob Moore The word “disruptive” can have a negative connotation, but it's really all about stepping in, shaking things up, and making the world better. Rob Moore is a powerhouse, and he's super great at what he does. He loves entrepreneurship and property investing; he runs several businesses and two podcasts; and he lives up to his brand as an entrepreneur that disrupts. In today's episode, he sits down with host Jeff Mask to share his incredible story. Listen in to be inspired to do some disrupting of your own. Rob's Rock Bottom Story Rob's dad owned a pub in the UK where Rob worked from age six. In 2005, when Rob was 26, his dad had a massive nervous breakdown in his pub. The police were called, beat his dad up as they tried to restrain him, and his dad was ultimately diagnosed as bipolar. Rob was humiliated, and he determined right then and there to make something of himself, to “make up for lost time after a decade of acting like an idiot.” Fifteen years later, he has written 18 books, runs several companies, became a millionaire at 31, a decamillionaire at 35, and has raised more than a million pounds through his charities. He says he owes it all to his dad. He's been able to help his dad retire, buy a house, travel, drive a great car, and he's going to send him on a 55th anniversary trip overseas. “That's what being an entrepreneur has given me,” Rob says. Jeff says that, “when we rattle off CVs that are stale/cardboard, it doesn't get to the essence of being a human being.” Rob's story is so relatable to so many. And it really begs the questions: Why do we do what we do? How were we raised, and now how do we lead? How do we take this to a higher, healthier, more productive level based on the difficulties we've gone through? How do you disrupt yourself? How do you disrupt an industry? How do you become a disruptive entrepreneur? And why does that even matter? How does the world benefit from us thinking that way? Rob answers these questions and more. What Do You Do? How often do we hear that question: “So, what do you do?” Jeff asks Rob what his answer is when people ask what he does for a living. “I never answer what I do,” Rob says. “I don't fricking know what I do. I spin a lot of plates. I like variety. I don't want to be labeled or typecast. So I don't answer what I do. I answer what my vision is, because I'm really crystal clear on that.” Rob's personal vision is to help as many people on this planet start and scale their business and get better financial knowledge. Full stop. He's got billions of people he wants to help, and that is what he does. He answers that question in a vision statement. Jeff has a vision statement as well. He helps CEOs confidently grow their business without losing their souls. Knowing your vision statement is an awesome leadership lesson. Why do we do what we do? Why were we put on the planet? The clearer we are with our vision, the more naturally things will flow to us that accomplish and further that vision, and the easier it is to say no to things that aren't relevant to the vision. What Does It Mean to Be a Disruptive Entrepreneur? A few years ago, Rob realized that, if he wanted to grow globally, which he did, he needed to extricate himself from his UK training company. One year he did 250 days of training, teaching courses. Everyone wanted “Rob and Mark at Progressive.” Rob and Mark painted themselves into a corner with their brand, because they were so intrinsically linked to it that they couldn't really scale it and they definitely couldn't sell it. Rob went on a rebrand mission to move himself and his partner out of the brand and brought in a team of trainers. He did research surveys to ask people to describe things, and they all kept saying “disruptive.” Disruptive can have negative connotations. It often crosses the line. Especially in the UK. You can't just be disruptive. You need to have something behind it. You need to better an industry, decrease friction, increase speed, something. Otherwise, you're just noisy. They decided the brand, the Disruptive Entrepreneur, worked, since everyone was already saying it about him (in both positive and negative ways). So they just went for it. Seven years on, it has stuck with them. To be disruptive is to shake up how things are done and do them better with boldness and bravery in spite of the ridicule you might get. It's about finding an industry that's lazy, monopolized, not representing good value, and improving it, removing the friction, and interrupting the status quo. Don't Just Disrupt an Industry; Disrupt Yourself Rob believes the greatest challenge is continually disrupting yourself so you're not complacent. With every new level, there's a new devil, and your reward for solving a problem is a greater problem. Learning to disrupt yourself is critical to staying away from apathy and entitlement and continually pushing ourselves. Where can we disrupt ourselves as leaders? Where are we not serving our teams well? Where are we apathetic? Where might we level up a little bit? It's human nature to get in a rut. Get out. Find ways to serve your team in a more engaging, selfless, and powerful way. Disrupting Yourself By Loving Yourself In a recent post, Rob shared two photos—one of him as a 12-year-old and one of him now. He says, “I wish I could go back and tell that young kid that everything is okay and that he's useful and valuable and loved.” Rob has learned so much from leaders and thinkers, but it wasn't until two years ago that he hired a therapist. He'd had a lot of hesitation. His therapist keeps telling him over and over that he needs to love his younger self. As a kid, he was bullied, felt so much on the outside, wet the bed at boarding school, and suffered from loneliness, shame, and embarrassment. He learned to cope and fit in by being nice to everyone, but he became such a people pleaser and created pain around conflict. He spent his teenage years in pain. His therapist asked him recently, “What would you say to your 12-year-old self if you met him? What would you feel about him?” He said he'd be embarrassed and ashamed of him. She said, “I can't believe you're saying that. You should love him.” He's working on it. Therapy and personal development courses have helped him learn to use that loneliness as a force for good. “I did things for recognition and praise for a long time,” he says, “which was fine, because I needed it. But it really has to be about serving others. Since I had that shameful experience, I feel like I can help a lot of people.” As Jeff leads, especially coaching CEOs, he often says, “All we are as adults is adolescents in big people's bodies.” We're all working through being at peace with who we've been, who we are today, and who we're going to become. That's the journey and beauty of life. That is leadership. The most respected, most successful, most sustainably impactful leaders are the ones who have made peace with who they were as a child and adolescent. The Universe Is a Mirror How do we disrupt those negative feelings and love the child within and find gratitude for who we were and who it made us today? Because, otherwise, we project it on the people we're leading. Rob says that, if you are hurt as an individual, you're going to hurt other people or retreat/hide. You can only effectively lead others consistently when you let go of the hurt you're feeling and the negativity you might experience toward yourself. He believes the universe is a mirror. If you're hurt and hurt people, your whole life will be a combat. To love, you have to love within. Your self-worth projects out and attracts or helps lift people out, then the universe as a mirror reflects that back to you. Being comfortable with who you are means you can accept challenge and criticism. Can you say that, despite your failings, you're not a failure? And despite your experience, you're still useful and valuable? That's the strong foundation to be a leader. How you receive information from people is fully your responsibility. Don't take things personally, and you won't be triggered. And you can be a brilliant leader. Be humble, self-aware, at peace with yourself. Have compassion for others. Rob says, “I really believe greatness and beauty and wealth and relationships and experiences and success is on the other side of being bold and taking risks, doing things that are uncomfortable, scary, a bit big for you, that you're not quite ready for.” He finishes every piece of his content with this saying: if you don't risk anything, you risk everything. Richard and Jeff want to hear from YOU. Was something in today's episode a big aha moment for you? What risk are you going to take today? What have you discovered about yourself and your team? Email them here with your thoughts/questions: feedback@readytolead.com RESOURCES: The Disruptive Entrepreneur Podcast Rob on IG OTHER SHOWS YOU MIGHT ENJOY: Business Lunch with Roland Frasier and Ryan Deiss Perpetual Traffic with Ralph Burns and Kasim Aslam DigitalMarketer Podcast with Mark de Grasse
Trust among coworkers has never been more important than it is in today's virtual environment, and leaders have to intentionally design experiences that help build that trust. As leaders, it can be tempting to bypass team building exercises and just get down to business already. There's work to be done, goals to be met. Who has time for “shared experiences” and “team bonding,” right? In today's episode, co-hosts Richard Lindner and Jeff Mask build a solid case for why leaders can't afford not to design trust-building experiences for their team. If you want to make an impact—and you want it to be enduring—you have to rally people to do their best work, or it won't be sustainable. Your dreams and aspirations will crumble, and work will be a drag. When you align people, connect with people, build deep strong relationships with people, the output is the best work of your career. You can accomplish way more, way faster, and more profitably when you have a strong foundation of trust. Listen in for some great practical advice on designing organizational trust as a leader. The 3 Levels of Trust-Building Experiences To build trust with each other organically and consistently, you have to do it with a consistent cadence. You have to build these experiences into your company's rhythm. But where do you start? How do you design these experiences? How do you develop the appropriate amount of intimacy based on the level of trust you have? You don't want to do too much, too soon. There are three types of experiences you can create as a leader, and they need to go in this order if you want to go at a good, healthy pace. shared experiences vulnerability-creating experiences healthy conflict experiences Start with Shared Experiences Shared experiences require no real relational equity. You could do a zipline together. Ride go-carts. Play a round of putt-putt golf. Tackle an obstacle course or an escape room. No one has to get vulnerable with anyone else. You just show up and play the game. Jeff recommends not going to a movie together. It's better than nothing, but there's not a lot of interaction. You're just sitting there. Personalities don't come out. There's no struggle, no common goal. A shared experience should incorporate a challenge of some kind. You're architecting and engineering something in a non-work environment that mirrors what you'll go through at work. You start together, struggle together, and emerge victorious at the end. You can have your trust at a level 0 out of 100 and get it up to 10 after this shared experience. Richard's leadership team does something called the Hot Wings challenge, which is Facebook-famous. The show interviews celebrities who have 10 hot wings in front of them, with sauces that build from “not that hot” to “oh my gosh why would anyone ever eat this?” Along the way, you'll see the person's mask coming off, bit by bit. Richard's team members take turns in the hot seat. When you want to talk about difficulty and shared experience and pleasure and pain, he says, this one's loaded. You ask questions along the way like, “What would your wrestler name be?” It's one thing to answer that question when you're sitting around a table. It's another to answer it when your eyes are watering, your lips are burning. It adds something to it. He also suggests a board game like Apples to Apples. Jeff says jackbox.tv, Quiplash in particular, is great for when you can't be together physically. These games provide time to get to know one another, share emotions, laugh, bond. It's something you can anchor back to, reference time and time again as you're working together. Next Up: Vulnerability-Creating Experiences You don't jump into this category right away. Ease into it. Make sure you've got one or two shared experiences under your belt first. The personal history exercise by Patrick Lencioni is a good one. You go around the room and ask everyone the same three questions: Where were you born and raised? Where were you in the family's pecking (birth) order? Tell us a meaningful experience from childhood that shaped who you are today. Ideally, the leader goes first and is more vulnerable than they'd like to be. The point isn't for everyone to break down in tears (but that does happen). The end goal is to share details where people say, wow, I never knew that. One of Jeff's mantras is: “If I don't like someone, I don't know them well enough.” And this experience helps you get to know someone better. Richard says it gives you new data points to reevaluate previous interactions. You can say, “Oh, when I thought this person was intending to make me feel a certain way, now I realize that's just because they feel this…” You can change the narrative of how they made you feel with what you now know. Increased data = increased empathy. You can also do what's called a Life Plot exercise. The y axis top to bottom is high and low. The x axis is time. Plot your top 3 highest highs of your life and your 3 lowest lows. This shows you—and your team—what you've gone through and how resilient you are. The Deepest Level: Healthy Conflict Experiences A few years ago, Richard's company flew Jeff out for one of their strategic offsites for their leadership team. He took them through an exercise called Trust Maker, Trust Breaker. If you've built shared experiences, then had vulnerability conversations internally, now you can do them externally. Now, each person can go around the room and talk about each other. “Here are the things you do that build trust in our relationship. Here are things you do that break trust in our relationship.” You can see why you wouldn't want to start with this exercise. You as the leader have to model this, being even more transparent than you expect them to be. Who will give you strong feedback and see how you take it and respond? That will allow others to see this as a safe place. Another activity you can do is what Jeff calls “Start, Stop, Continue” and Richard calls “Keep, Start, Stop.” You talk about what are we doing well, what are we not doing well, what do we need to keep, what do we need to start doing, and what do we need to stop doing? And you get really honest with each other and deal with any conflict that arises in a healthy, productive way. Sometimes you need an outside facilitator for these things. You can't fully participate and facilitate, and your team needs you to participate. If you've never intentionally done a trust-building exercise with your team, schedule a shared experience for this quarter—or the next one. Then the following quarter, do a vulnerability experience. Then the next quarter, do a healthy conflict experience. You're building trust intentionally and appropriately. The Role Assessments Can Play Assessments are another important thing to do with your team. There are two different types: Who I Am and How I Work. Myers-Briggs and DISC tell you more of who you are, while something like StrengthsFinder breaks down what type of work you're good at, that energizes you. When you can align the work with the person's personality, they'll be on fire. But so often we mismatch that, because we just don't know. Richard says assessments are “slightly better than a horoscope.” In other words, don't put all your stock in it. It gives you a third party with a standard rubric that is grading everybody the same way. It's not perfect, but it allows us to have a conversation. Everyone does the assessment, sends them to the leader, then each person presents their own assessment. Share: here's what I agree with, here's what I'm unsure about, here's what I disagree with. Then open it up to the rest of the room for their feedback. The goal is getting to know who someone is. How do I better intentionally communicate with each person on my team? And how do I better receive communication from each person on my team because of what I know about them? Don't assume like everyone communicates like we do. It takes humility and self-awareness to recognize that. Take a backseat to your own personality and let other personalities shine. Don't try to get everyone to conform to how you do things. Give other people the space to lead from their strengths. How often should we be creating/leading these trust-building experiences? Richard believes you should do an experience and an assessment back to back quarterly. Jeff says to allocate more time than you think is necessary. You need at least 30 minutes per person to walk through assessments. Don't cut people off when they're sharing who they are. That's the opposite of trust building. Thank you for investing in leading others. When we take it seriously, it has a massive impact. Richard and Jeff want to hear from YOU. Was something in today's episode a big aha moment for you? Have you tried trust-building experiences? What has worked well? What hasn't? What have you discovered about yourself and your team? Email them here with your thoughts/questions: feedback@readytolead.com OTHER SHOWS YOU MIGHT ENJOY: Business Lunch with Roland Frasier and Ryan Deiss Perpetual Traffic with Ralph Burns and Kasim Aslam DigitalMarketer Podcast with Mark de Grasse
One of our roles as leaders is to identify and unlock people's gifts. Today's guest tells us how. Unlocking people's gifts presupposes that we believe everyone has gifts to unlock. Stacey Ferguson, Digital Director at Time's Up, believes they do, and host Jeff Mask wholeheartedly agrees. In today's energizing episode, the two of them sit down for a fun and enlightening chat about bringing out the very best in the people you're leading. Know What You Want and Go After It Stacey's story begins with her thinking she knew what she wanted in life, getting it, then realizing it wasn't all it was cracked up to be. She dreamed of being a big entertainment lawyer and landed an “amazing” job with a big firm that represented artists. Turns out, at the end of the day, it was just a lot of contracts/paperwork and long days and weekends. One night she was working late; she was 8 months pregnant and hungry; and she took a brief to this guy in his office. He looked up at her, like he was seeing her for the first time, even though she'd been in and out of his office all day, busting her butt for 12 hours straight. “Have you eaten today?” he asked, almost as an afterthought, and she thought to herself, “What am I doing here?” She immediately started looking for another job. She says she could have been more courageous and quit on the spot, but started quietly applying at other places. She also asked the managing director of the firm if she could switch to a department with more reasonable hours. He said sure. Then another employment opportunity came through with the Federal Trade Commission. Her director was actually happy for her, a reaction she wasn't expecting. This experience taught her that it's always best to go with your gut. Why We Suppress Our Gifts Once Stacey had more free time, she was able to start a blog. That's where she found her voice and developed an online community. She started creating. She started a blogging conference for women of color. Everything took off and exploded from there. Jeff recognized in her story that she figured out what she wanted, had the courage to follow through, and going down that path herself has allowed her to authentically unlock the gifts of others. Those are the steps we need to take in order to let the gifts we have within us breathe. Fear and insecurity and self-doubt are what suppress the divine genius within us. It comes in all shapes and sizes. We all have something amazing inside, but those loud voices can suppress what we know we can create or do. As Stacey built this community of bloggers, she realized that being a leader was about so much more than her. It's about other people. The greatest leaders aren't the ones who just do great things themselves; they're the ones who inspire others to greatness. Identifying and Unlocking Gifts in Others Everybody really does have a gift. But a lot of times they don't see it. It's buried. You have to help them comb through the junk to get to the gift. One way to figure out what your gift is: ask some of these questions. What do you enjoy doing? What do people come to you for? What feels organic and natural to you? What can you do as a no-brainer in your sleep? Maybe you make the best cupcakes. Maybe your friends ask you to plan their trip. Maybe you don't see the value in it; you don't think it's special. A thousand other people make cupcakes. Everyone has that thing, but they take it for granted. You're unique; you're different; you have to bring your full self to whatever it is you're doing. When you look into someone's soul, see the gift, highlight the gift, and speak to that person, it's so fascinating to hear their response. “Oh, doesn't everyone do this?” We're wired to assume that, if something is going to have massive value, it should be really hard. Sometimes that's the case, but not always. When something is natural/intuitive to us, we don't see it for all it is. Stacey recommends to people who are stuck to gather the people close to them and ask, What do you all think I'm good at? A lot of them will have the same answer. Do an informal focus group with people who know you well. It's easier to see gifts in others than in ourselves. Jeff once had a professor who encouraged her students to look at different facets of their lives and pay attention to the patterns. Look for words. Do word clouds. If you're wondering about your own gifts and the gifts of those you lead, this can be a cool team-building exercise. You want to recognize gifts and leverage them, so people can flex them in a healthy way. How Unlocking Gifts Energizes Your Workplace Stacey read an article years ago about Oprah and how she tries to always be “in flow.” Once Stacey began to discover her gifts and live them out, she felt that flow. And that flow can “overflow” into the workplace. When you unlock the gifts in the people you lead, work is no longer stressful and friction-filled. When we can help people figure out what they do well, then align the work around those gifts, they are fired up. They are so excited and energized instead of completely drained. We have to help the people we're developing find the place where they do magical work. Stacey says that, when you're miserable, treat that as your spirit saying, “this isn't the right place for you.” There are opportunities where you currently are to flex a muscle, get better at something. If you don't love your job, treat it as your first investor. Do what you love on the side, and build that up to a place where you can make that transition. Jeff says to think of the lives of people we're working with. We have such an awesome opportunity to help them flourish and to feel valued and seen and heard because they're doing what they're born to do. We can do it if we look for it. Don't just forge ahead, focused only on projects. We can still get projects done, but in a way that's harmonious, in flow, and works with people's gifts. Take a quiet moment to think through: Do I believe that everyone I'm leading has gifts inside of them inherent to who they are? If I do believe that, do I know what they are? If I do know what they are, am I helping them leverage them? If I'm not, am I trying to figure it out? And do I know what my own gifts are? When you unlock your gifts and others' gifts, work becomes way more meaningful, in flow, powerful, productive, and ultimately? The bottom line of your business improves dramatically. Richard and Jeff want to hear from YOU. Was something in today's episode a big aha moment for you? Did you try a gift-unlocking exercise? What have you discovered about yourself and your team? Email them here with your thoughts/questions: feedback@readytolead.com RESOURCES: Time's Up Follow Stacey on IG @timesupnow on IG OTHER SHOWS YOU MIGHT ENJOY: Business Lunch with Roland Frasier and Ryan Deiss Perpetual Traffic with Ralph Burns and Kasim Aslam DigitalMarketer Podcast with Mark de Grasse
Leading people was already difficult in a pre-Covid world, but learning how to engage in healthy conflict is extra challenging in a virtual environment. It's a leader's job to assess human dynamics and behavior and guide people in and through conflict in healthy, productive ways. But it's so much harder to read people when you're not face to face, rubbing shoulders with each other every day. Sometimes things might feel okay, but it's often “artificial harmony” (credit to Patrick Lencioni). It's difficult for many organizations to get people to speak their truth. In this episode, hosts Richard Lindner and Jeff Mask speak directly to those leaders who feel like “something's off” and want to know how to get things back on track. Not by pretending everything's fine, but by dealing with conflict in a healthy way. How We View Conflict Richard prides himself on his ability to “mine for conflict” (another Lencioni term). Years ago, he correctly identified conflict avoidance as one of his weaknesses, so he leaned all the way into it to get the muscle memories, the reps, and make it a strength. Soon he could smell it everywhere. He even started off all of their team meetings with “healthy conflict is good.” But he admits that he's having more trouble with it right now than he used to when it was one of his weaknesses. He finds it a lot harder when he doesn't have that frequent/close in-person connection. He often feels like he doesn't have enough relational equity to take people to the mat, even for the right reasons. And he knows he's not alone. When he has this conversation with other leaders, they have so much to say. They're all feeling it. So, how do they fix it? Jeff says that, weirdly, one of the reasons he “loves” this pandemic is because anything that was a weakness before is exacerbated now. Why would he love something like that? Because it gives us insight into which aspects of our leadership need to be improved. When you look at it that way, it's more of a fun quest, rather than a draining exercise. This mindset shift changes everything. Recognize Conflict and Name It The first thing you have to do is recognize that conflict exists and name it. Call it what it is. Think back to the 4 Zones of Leadership. The Friend Zone is one of the reasons we avoid the “danger zone” of conflict. We often avoid conflict because we want to be liked. If you continue to avoid going there, the cycle will continue, and your work environment will turn toxic. In the book, The Three Laws of Performance, authors Steve Zaffron and Dave Logan talk about how the way people perform correlates with how situations occur to them. How we see the world is how we show up. How we see things arises in our speech/language. We need the self-awareness to recognize that other people see things differently than we do. So, what are some of the signs that we have conflict in our virtual workplace? It's hard to pick up on context clues from Zoom windows. Richard says they've hired team members that don't live in the area. There are people who have never had consistent shoulder to shoulder time with the rest of the team. They're not building that sense of trust just from being together. How do we diagnose conflict? How do we know what's off and where? 3 Common Signs of Conflict Jeff shares three common signs that there is conflict you need to deal with in your workplace. Sign #1: When the conversations in public do not mirror the conversations in private. You're at a leadership team meeting, and someone is saying a, b, and c. Then you're one on one with that person and they're saying x, y, z. They're nodding and smiling in front of the group, then being negative (and honest) in private. That's a great telltale sign. Red flag #2: when someone used to be able to deliver results on time, better than expected, and now they don't, and they haven't communicated why. Their word isn't their bond anymore. Conflict indicator #3: When you can see departments no longer aligning. There's a lot of infighting and friction. If there's 2% variance of alignment at the leadership level, you can 10-50x that at a department level. It's easier to see/detect at the departmental level than at the leadership level. When departments start to go around each other, there's a lack of trust. The Stories We Tell Ourselves Listen to your language. The language you're using validates the point of view you have. When we have all sorts of stories going on, beliefs we think are true, it's all stuffed in a dirty closet or junk drawer. How does it feel when you finally organize that junk drawer? A big sigh of relief, right? We have stories collecting dust in the drawers of our mind that we need to let go of. We have 1.) a persistent complaint about a person. 2.) Then there's a pattern or behavior that person does that matches what we think. 3.) Then there's a payoff because I've been validated in my complaint and 4.) There's a major cost to that behavior that hurts. The stories we tell ourselves form our bias, and our bias becomes truth. And when something validates what we believe, we think there's no point in having conflict because it won't change anything. If we think conflict is pointless, then we're going to avoid it. We have to believe it's worth it. The Two Root Reasons We Avoid Conflict The human need to be liked We believe nothing can change At the core of both of those? Ego and lack of humility. We need to look at ourselves in the mirror and admit those ego-driven results to ourselves. Our need to be liked and our need to be right. Ask that mirror: “How am I a part of this problem? What have I done to create this?” We have to care enough about people to go there. As leaders, we are able to change the course of someone's life, but only if we have the hard conversations. Conflict isn't dangerous. It's actually the joy and happiness that comes from achieving something great. If we can see the end from the beginning, we'll be happy to do it. Just that little moment of awkwardness. Awkward, then onward. Let's freaking stop talking about conflict and call it resolution. The goal is the end, not the middle. And the desired end result is alignment. And the responsibility for alignment lies with us, the leaders. Richard and Jeff want to hear from YOU. Is there a topic you want to dive into? Was something in today's episode a big aha moment for you? Or did you disagree with something? Email them here with your thoughts/questions: feedback@readytolead.com RESOURCES: The Three Laws of Performance (book by Steve Zaffron and Dave Logan) Radical Candor (book by Kim Scott) Fierce Conversations (book by Susan Scott) Babe's Tragic Day on YouTube OTHER SHOWS YOU MIGHT ENJOY: Business Lunch with Roland Frasier and Ryan Deiss Perpetual Traffic with Ralph Burns and Kasim Aslam DigitalMarketer Podcast with Mark de Grasse
As leaders, we have privilege, and it's up to us to empower the people we've been charged to lead. Today's guest, Mike Yates, empowers people on a daily basis. Mike is an educator, the host of the Schoolish podcast, TED talker, and runs the Reinvention Lab at Teach for America. In this episode, he sits down with host Richard Lindner to talk about recognizing privilege and power structures and how leaders everywhere can leverage that knowledge to gain a better understanding of their team. Mike's journey is fascinating and unconventional, and he's doing some pretty awesome things with his life. Jack Of All Trades: An Insult or a Compliment? Mike grew up hating school. His mom was a teacher, so that didn't go over very well in his house. He remembers being raised to be a well-rounded person, so he had his hands in a lot of stuff. “No one ever told me to hyper-specialize,” he says, “and I developed an ability to multitask. I decided to use my varied interests as a strength.” Ironically, he became a teacher, and not surprisingly, he hated it. So he found a side hustle which led him to build a teacherless school that utilizes technology in cool ways. He built his personal brand, started a podcast, and became a jack of all trades, a phrase he discovered is actually misquoted (or incompletely quoted) most of the time. The actual phrase is “A jack of all trades is a master of none but better than a master of one.” Richard, who identifies as a “generalist,” was thrilled to hear him say that. It took Richard a long time to appreciate that quality in himself. It always seemed to him like the most successful people had an extremely narrow area of focus, while Richard was just generally good at a lot of different things. Now he realizes that, if you want to excel organizationally as a leader, you have to have a general understanding of how every area of the company works. The Culture of Power Richard loved Mike's TED talk on recognizing privilege and asked him to break down the culture of power for listeners. Mike says that the “culture of power” is a phrase coined by Lisa Delpit. It's this idea that power structures exist all around us. Mike used the example of his mostly Black and Latino students, who would say to him from a place of major deficit, “I could never go to college. I'll never be Bill Gates or Elon Musk or Lebron James.” Mike would try to dig deep to find something to help empower them. “No, you're probably not going to be Lebron James, but you can be JJ Redick, if you do the right things and can see yourself differently.” He wanted them to have an alternate way of viewing what they thought were deficiencies. Each of us needs to understand power structures and accept where we have privilege. There's white privilege (which people get all up in arms about), but there are other privileges too. “I speak English,” Mike says. “As long as I live in the U.S., that gives me an advantage. I have the use of all my limbs. I went to college. My mom went to college. There are things that give me privilege.” Empowering Those You're Charged With Leading Mike says that, as a leader, your words carry a lot of weight. When you recognize the qualities and skills of the people you lead, you can metaphorically lift their chin when you see greatness in them. He knows a guy who's often the most powerful person in the room. He saw something in Mike back in the day, and told him so, and it made a huge difference in Mike's life. Good leaders help their people see themselves as powerful, give them that chin-up moment. Richard agrees. “You don't need to flex your power for people to know you have it,” he says. “True leadership is pulling greatness out of people. When we struggle with impostor syndrome, we're worried about getting people to know we deserve to be here. Instead, we should focus on others and bring out their power.” Someone on Mike's team told him recently, “Do you understand what happens when you show up in a meeting?” He didn't. He sometimes forgets he's a senior leader of an organization. This person said, “You basically control the energy of every meeting we have. You have the ability to suck the air out of the room or make it go really well.” It was a weakness Mike has turned into a positive power because he recognizes it now. The Critical Characteristics of a Good Leader Mike says a good leader isn't afraid to take the blame. They know how to put out fires, to take responsibility when someone on the team drops the ball. Richard adds that every failure is a failure of leadership. He tells his company's up-and-coming leaders, “you get all the blame and none of the credit.” It's humbling, but you also understand your role in caring for and growing the people you're charged with leading. Mike says good leaders listen. The best leaders he's had listened deeply. They have the ability to listen past what you're saying and get underneath it, asking the right questions, guiding people to the solution. Along those same lines, a leader should know everything, be an expert, make that extra effort to be educated/informed. They should hire smart people, but should also know enough not to be threatened by anyone in the room. The best way to create good leaders in your company is to be a great leader. Model good leadership, and people will imitate you. Lead with confidence, work hard, have humility, and seek to understand others' areas of power and bring them out. “I really think leadership in any industry is a people game,” Mike says. “We're in the people business. You do it for human beings. As technology gets better, the ability to be human will be more important than ever.” Richard and Jeff want to hear from YOU. Is there a topic you want to dive into? Was something in today's episode a big aha moment for you? What did you learn from Mike and how will you apply what you learned? What other guests would you like to hear from on the podcast? Email Richard and Jeff here with your thoughts/questions: feedback@readytolead.com RESOURCES: yatesmike.com The most popular Mike Yates on LinkedIn Mike's TED talk on Recognizing Privilege Schoolish (formerly the School Sucks podcast) The Reinvention Lab at Teach for America OTHER SHOWS YOU MIGHT ENJOY: Business Lunch with Roland Frasier and Ryan Deiss Perpetual Traffic with Ralph Burns and Kasim Aslam DigitalMarketer Podcast with Mark de Grasse
OTHER SHOWS YOU MIGHT ENJOY: Business Lunch with Roland Frasier and Ryan Deiss Perpetual Traffic with Ralph Burns and Kasim Aslam DigitalMarketer Podcast
When we focus the bulk of our time on underperformers and fixing problems, we bring the rest of the team down. Every time you fix something, does something else break? Are you constantly drained from plugging leaks and putting out fires? Does it feel like your workweek is just a giant real-life game of Whack-a-Mole? If so, chances are, you've probably fallen into the trap of always focusing on the underperformer. We're hardwired as humans—and especially as leaders—to fix what's breaking. We bounce from one broken thing to the next. Some of us hang our identity on that. But what happens is that we unintentionally neglect and overlook what's going well. And our reward for fixing one problem is being handed the next. In this episode, co-hosts Richard Lindner and Jeff Mask talk about our tendency to focus on underperformers and how it's not a sustainable way to run a business. There's a much better way to get things done. The Business Law of Thirds Jeff walks us through a framework where you envision a rectangle divided into thirds. It's The Law of Thirds, but the business one, not the photography one. In the top third are your high performers. When you're growing something, leading through change, they're lifting everyone around them, championing the cause, on board, a joy to lead. At the very opposite end of the rectangle, the bottom third, are the people who are frustrated and super cynical. They're not just questioning the strategy (that can actually be helpful), but they're always pessimistic, sowing seeds of doubt, a lot of toxicity. In the middle third are the fence-sitters, not quite sure where they stand. They could really go either way—and they do. So, where do we as leaders focus? Our tendency is to pay attention to the bottom third and invest time there, because they need TLC. They're loud, squeaky, and we're concerned they're going to affect everyone else. But, when we focus on the bottom third, two things happen. The fence-sitters realize where the attention is, and they start gravitating to the bottom. They do it subconsciously. We just go where the attention is, as human beings. Focusing on the bottom means you get more people doing the grumbling. The second thing that happens is you alienate the top performers. Some of them will leave, frustrated with the situation. They get sick and tired of the hand-holding of all the mediocre people. They don't thrive in that environment. Be Careful Not to Perpetuate the Cycle When we focus on the underperformers, we're modeling how to get attention: negativity. Negative actions get positive rewards. We've got to rewire that. When you're so focused on trying to get an underperformer to the bare minimum, what's happening to the ignored high performer? You might be thinking about High Performer Jane, “If everyone could just be like Jane...” Well, are you talking to Jane, investing in her, challenging her? Or are you putting her on a pedestal, comparing people to her, but then not focusing on her, giving her any attention, helping her go from good to great to greater? Jim Collins, in his incredible book, Good to Great, says, “People are not your most important assets; the right people are.” Are you focusing on the right people, or do you need to flip the rectangle? Richard and Jeff would challenge you to focus just 25% of your time on the underperformers and 75% on the people who want to go from good to great. When you focus positive attention on the high performers, people who are excited, then the people in the middle will gravitate to the attention, the excitement, the energy. Some of the bottom third will jump out of the boat and leave. Fine. Leading them is one of the hardest things you have to do. We don't want to lose the mediocre people, but they suck everyone's energy. High performers are 400% more productive than average performers. Think of what else could be done, how much more profitable, focused, energetic you can be if you focused on them. Leading excited overperformers makes Sunday night fun and energizing. You're actually excited for Monday morning. Where our focus goes, our energy flows. Where energy flows is where we grow. Recognize, Replace, and Recite Be honest with yourself. Sometimes we focus on underperformers because we secretly enjoy having these problems to solve. It makes us feel like we're needed, valuable. When you find yourself saying “I'm just so busy,” what we're doing is feeding our ego that we're important. We're tired and saying we don't want to be busy, but we're feeding it. We do want to be busy, and a martyr vibe happens. Shift that mindset. Instead of a little bit of glory and brownie points for being a fixer, flip it. You don't need to put out fires to be valuable. Change the narrative. Recognize, Replace, and Recite are the 3 Rs of the mindset framework.Recognize when things are off. Replace it with something more powerful. Recite who we are. I lead high performing people. Focus on the overperformers and watch everyone else rise, get better, or bail out. Or: I take things that are working and scale them. When problems come up, you can still solve them. You just don't look for them every waking moment. Leadership is an awesome journey because we're truly affecting lives for the better, if we so choose. Richard and Jeff want to hear from YOU. Is there a topic you want to dive into? Was something in today's episode a big aha moment for you? Or did you disagree with something? Email them here with your thoughts/questions: feedback@readytolead.com RESOURCES: Good to Great (book by Jim Collins) OTHER SHOWS YOU MIGHT ENJOY: Business Lunch with Roland Frasier and Ryan Deiss Perpetual Traffic with Ralph Burns and Kasim Aslam DigitalMarketer Podcast
Once you know when you need to hire, the next question is who do you need to hire? In this micro-episode, host Jeff Mask walks through a simple, but effective, model you can use to determine whether or not a person is a good fit for your company. The bottom line? You can do all the research, all the due diligence, and still mis-hire. Then you've got someone who doesn't fit your team or culture, and you have to fire them. Listen in as Jeff takes a dive deep down into some frameworks that he's loved over the years that are super powerful and help you know exactly who to hire for the long term. Don't Hire Too Quickly Once upon a time, Jeff was tasked with growing a brand new team from scratch. He had to go from zero to six people in 4-6 weeks. He let the urgency get to him. “I've got to hire people, get things going, meet this massive revenue target, and make sure we're being wise stewards of resources,” he told himself. He quickly looked at resumes and skill sets and figured out job descriptions and did all the right things. Or so he thought. He realized later that he had let the urgency to hire by a certain time trump the necessity of hiring the right people for the long term. His short-term focus translated into a lot of turnover, wasted effort and time, and frustration for people. Ultimately, they ended up keeping only two of the six hires long term. He knew he could have done better. If you've hired too quickly or don't have a hiring process, hopefully you can learn from his mistakes. Years later, he stumbled across an awesome book by Patrick Lencioni called The Ideal Team Player. It's full of powerful systems and frameworks, and he wishes he'd had it sooner. How to Hire The Ideal Team Player Jeff loves the simplicity of Lencioni's models and how, when you use them and apply them, they actually work. The first one is called The Ideal Team Player (link at the end), and you ask three basic questions about a potential hire. Is the person humble? Is the person hungry? Is the person smart? Are they humble? To borrow a quote from C.S. Lewis, humble isn't thinking less of yourself; it's thinking of yourself less. Is this person coachable? Can they listen? Are they looking out for others, not just for themselves? Are they hungry? Are they driven, self-motivated? Are they self-aware? Can they take that and know when to take the initiative? Are they growing? Are they devouring books and wanting to learn more? That's a great indicator. Are they smart? Not intellectually smart—although that's important—but people smart. Do they have emotional intelligence? Do they understand how to work well with others? Will they bring cohesion to your team? You Need All Three: Humble, Hungry, Smart Right smack dab in the center of humble, hungry, and smart is that ideal person you want to hire. This begs the question: what if someone has just one or two of the qualities and not all three? Is that good enough? In a word, no. If someone is just humble, but not hungry or smart, they're a doormat, a pleaser. They don't stand up for things. If someone is just hungry, ambitious, but not humble or people smart, they're just a bulldozer. And, if they're people smart, but not humble or hungry, they're just a charmer. Lencioni has names for people who embody two of the characteristics but are missing the third. What if you're humble and hungry? You're an accidental mess maker. What if you're humble and people smart? You're a loveable slacker. What if you're hungry and people smart? You're a skillful politician. You need to be really careful of the counterfeits. You have to have all three. Two doesn't cut it. When you find that ideal person, you can hand them any challenge or opportunity, and they can get it done—and take feedback well. Action Steps If Jeff had known about this genius model back when he hired that first team, he would have found the right people instead of pushing his timeline and settling for less than what was best. Here are steps you can take right away: Check out The Ideal Team Player model PDF. Assess yourself first. Where do you stand? Are you an Ideal Team Player? Check out the “How Do I Ask Great Interview Questions?” PDF. Use these frameworks in your hiring process. Definitely have a framework as you hire. Make sure you have a great purpose, and implement advice from the previous episode on How to Know When to Hire. Once the when is clear, you can develop the who based on this awesome model. Implement something TODAY. Don't just listen and move on. Write something down and take action. Richard and Jeff want to hear from YOU. What worked when you used this model and what didn't? Was there anything that wasn't clear and you'd like more explanation/clarity? What questions do you have about hiring? Do you have any positive tips or stories about hiring to share? Email them here with your thoughts/questions: feedback@readytolead.com RESOURCES: The Ideal Team Player (awesome book by Patrick Lencioni) OTHER SHOWS YOU MIGHT ENJOY: Business Lunch with Roland Frasier and Ryan Deiss Perpetual Traffic with Ralph Burns and Kasim Aslam DigitalMarketer Podcast
Hiring a new person is serious business, and there are some really important questions to ask yourself as a leader before you take that step. In this episode, hosts Richard Lindner and Jeff Mask walk through some really vital steps we need to take before we bring someone else on our team. In Richard's company, they have a saying that reflects an important value: We take the social responsibility of hiring very seriously. What does that mean? It means that, when they make the decision to hire someone, it's more than an exchange of time for money. It's not a pair of jeans at Nordstrom's. It's a human. They have other humans relying on them. And hiring should only be done after much care and consideration. Listen in for some great advice on making these key hiring decisions as a leader. Taking the Social Responsibility of Hiring Very Seriously When Richard's company is considering hiring someone new, they do what they call “work journaling” for a bit first. They ask questions like: What are we doing? How are we spending our time? Is the leader hoarding something that should be passed down? What percentage of my day is spent on things I should be doing? What percentage of my day is spent on things I should be delegating? And they follow these three basic rules of thumb: We don't throw people at inefficiencies We don't throw people at “we've always done it that way” We don't throw people at seasonality Each of these things leads to unnecessary hires. That's bad for the leader, the company, and the person you hired. Why don't they throw people at these things? Because they take the social responsibility of hiring very seriously. When we're in the most pain we're most likely to throw a warm body at a problem. Don't hire people in your emotional state. Step back and assess first. You Can Never Make Enough Lists If someone requests additional help doing their job, make some lists. What the leader is doing, what everyone on the team is doing, what the person requesting additional help is doing. Go back to that critical task list—Do, Defer, Delegate, Delete. For the person asking for another hire, ask: Do you have the time to do all of this? Are we following a documented process? Is it efficient? What can we automate? When you ask those questions (about how you're spending your time, etc.), you can figure out if you actually need to hire someone, or if you just need to make some other changes. What if you get really efficient with your time two weeks after you hire a new person? Don't hire for seasonal work unless you're advertising for a short-term, temporary, seasonal hire. If people don't know they're being hired temporarily, don't hire them temporarily. These are the processes you have to go through so you can be socially responsible when you hire. We as leaders can get frustrated and impatient. Once again, all problems are leadership problems. We have to take this responsibility very seriously. Check Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself There are a few things Richard and Jeff encourage you to be aware of and think about as you're considering hiring. There are people who are empire builders who like to build a large team of people underneath them. You need to look in the mirror to know yourself. Are you an empire builder? Does success for you look like the number of employees you have? Do you have a ton of employees but your company isn't profitable? Vanity metrics are things that look and feel great but ultimately don't drive to the end result we're looking for. A million subscribers but no engagement. A huge email list but not a good open rate. A boatload of employees but not comparable profitability. Richard says he won't bring on a person unnecessarily, because the profitability of his company will go down, and he's endangering his whole team.The goal of the company is profitability, making money. You need to know what profitability looks like and whether or not a new hire will bring you more of that. Jeff says to run through the 3 Ps (people, profit, purpose). Who are the people who can generate the profit to ultimately fulfill the purpose? You need all 3 legs of the stool. The right people, the right profit, your right purpose. It's a sustainable model. Necessity drives invention and innovation, but we need self-discipline to be as efficient as possible, to be wise stewards of what we've been given. Do the work beforehand. Make sure you actually need another team member before you add them. If someone on your team asks you to hire someone, Richard says you can say, “Great, let's talk about it. At this company, we take the social responsibility of hiring people very seriously. We have a process to walk through first. First thing, brain dump, work journal. Then categorize all your tasks (4 Ds). Make sure we have processes and automation in place. If we go through all this and still think we need the person, great. Let's do it! The next episode is a micro-episode about Who to Hire. Stay tuned! Richard and Jeff want to hear from YOU. What questions do you have about hiring? Do you have any positive tips or stories about hiring to share? What other topics would you like them to address on the show? Email them here with your thoughts/questions: feedback@readytolead.com OTHER SHOWS YOU MIGHT ENJOY: Business Lunch with Roland Frasier and Ryan Deiss Perpetual Traffic with Ralph Burns and Kasim Aslam DigitalMarketer Podcast
As leaders, alignment, clarity, and trust among your team are great, but sometimes the bridge to get there is the dreaded awkward conversation. Every leader can relate to the sense of dread that comes with knowing you need to have a difficult conversation you've been avoiding. How do we lead into this? How do we request an awkward conversation and then how do we handle it? In today's episode, co-hosts Richard Lindner and Jeff Mask share some practical advice for dealing with awkward conversations and then hopefully eliminating the need for them. Turn Awkward Conversations Into Fierce Conversations Jeff says the most important thing you can do is practice a conversation before you have it—especially that opening sentence. The first five seconds are always the most difficult—it's awkward, then onward. He starts conversations with “I want to talk with you about…” not “I need to talk to you about…” Replace need and to with want and with. Then fill in the space after about with a clear statement of the issue. Rehearse that first sentence more than anything. Memorize the facial expression, tone, and pacing so you set the stage for a productive, constructive conversation. Jeff highly recommends Susan Scott's book, Fierce Conversations, where she gives six steps to an opening statement, then #7 is an invitation for them to respond. Name the issue Give a specific example Describe your emotion Clarify what's at stake Own your part Indicate your wish to solve the problem Invite them to respond Here's an example. 1. Name the issue (how you respond to certain members of the team). 2. Give a specific example (when Stacy talks, you talk over her and don't let her finish). 3. Describe your emotion (it's frustrating but I don't want to embarrass you). 4. Clarify what's at stake (but I'm afraid if we don't talk about it, we won't gel as a team) 5. Own your part (I should have addressed this earlier) and 6. Indicate your wish to solve the problem (I really want to work this out.) 7. Invite them to respond. Some Practical Advice for Before and During the Conversation You want to start from a good place, which means getting the raw emotion out of the way and getting to logic. Share your thoughts and feelings with someone else. Write it all out in an email you'll never send. Create a plan to move forward. Establish your desired outcome. When we get to that step 7 and ask for their feedback, how do we invite honest feedback and not a defensive reply? Facial expressions and body language while listening are so important. Make them feel safe. Resist the temptation to build a stronger case. Don't get defensive. Listen. The goal is to help them feel understood—seen, heard, and valued. Don't be on your phone. Don't check something. Don't lose eye contact. Not intense staring, but don't lose focus or get distracted. Listen with your ears, eyes, and heart. What if you mess up that feedback invitation at any point? Own it immediately. Think of a brick wall between the two of you. What you're doing is removing brick after brick so you can see each other clearly. Immediately own up to something you did that wasn't helpful, and ask them to continue. Don't apologize forever. Check your motives when you're asking them questions. Are you truly curious and want to understand their perspective? Or do you have a judgment-type energy? What Is Your Body Language Actually Saying? Richard shares a personal example of something he was doing that was sending the opposite message of the one he intended. When he's processing, thinking, he folds his arms across his chest. It's his default move. He does it without even thinking. One day his business partner confronted him about it. He had shared an idea with Richard, and Richard agreed with him verbally, but his body language (crossed arms) was saying something different. Richard was pondering, considering, but his partner received it as him being defensive, closed off. Richard has had to consciously try new ways of holding his arms/hands while processing—putting them behind his body, sitting on them, anything but crossing them over his chest. He's had to become self-aware. “What helps me with modeling and accountability,” he says, “is not hiding something I'm struggling with. Sometimes acknowledging the problem helps solve it. He went from unconsciously incompetent to consciously competent. He's aware of the habit now, but it's going to take him a while to fix it. He took an additional accountability step and shared his struggle with his team. His assumption before was that people knew he was pondering their smart idea and considering it with his arms crossed. Now he knows that it makes people feel uneasy, bad, hurt. He and his partner came up with a funny word for him to call Richard out, and he asked the rest of the team to help him break the habit too. Now, everyone had context, and other times he had done it made sense to them. He broke the habit super quickly after that. Richard suggests being curious in finding out something YOU do that follows that pattern. You don't realize you're doing it, and it may have a negative connotation attached to it. Just the act of doing that will give you the ability to talk to an employee about this same kind of thing. Final Pieces of Advice One question people ask Jeff is: “How do I make sure I know the best time to have the conversation?” You know it's too soon if your emotions are raw. You know you waited too long when you're wondering if it's still a big deal. Err on the side of sooner than later. When you don't address it, you tolerate the bad behavior. That speaks loud and messes up your culture. If you felt those butterflies in your stomach as you listened, you probably need to have an awkward conversation. Do it. Have it. Don't let another day or week go by without having that conversation. And then: “What do I do after I have the conversation?” The simple answer: follow up and reinforce with care. Richard and Jeff want to hear from YOU. What other questions do you have about awkward conversations and how to handle them? What have you done that worked well? What can they do to help you lead from a powerful place? Email them here with your thoughts/questions: feedback@readytolead.com RESOURCES: Fierce Conversations (book by Susan Scott) OTHER SHOWS YOU MIGHT ENJOY: Business Lunch with Roland Frasier and Ryan Deiss Perpetual Traffic with Ralph Burns and Kasim Aslam DigitalMarketer Podcast
If you're experiencing burnout and/or impostor syndrome, there are some practical things you can do to get your energy back so you can lead powerfully. Burnout is a pattern that's happening globally right now. People are stressed, tired, anxious, and it feels like the marathon has no end. In this episode, co-hosts Richard Lindner and Jeff Mask validate this burnout you're experiencing, explain how it causes impostor syndrome to rear its ugly head, and share some exercises you can do to refresh and re-engage. Three Levels of Burnout Leaders have to deal with burnout. Period. First, there's internal burnout. You're feeling it as a leader. Richard says impostor syndrome always builds when he's burned out. “I'm not capable, I don't have the skills to handle this.” He's been feeling some of that embarrassment, shame, and fear lately, and he thinks this is a great time to talk about it. Then there's burnout in the people you're in charge of leading. How do you know when to push them to do their best and when/how to give them a break? Then what about when your leader/manager is experiencing burnout? If the person at the top doesn't deal with it effectively, they push it down on everyone else. It's cascading. At least one of those levels is relevant to every leader on the planet right now, especially in these times. Two Things You Have to Do We're in a season of funkiness and ambiguity right now. The more we label it as weird/difficult, the more we'll flounder. We have to accept it, learn to be cool with it. It's not going back to “normal.” We have a choice of how we'll respond to it. This isn't about putting a happy face on it; it's about changing your mindset. Acknowledge it Change your mindset What opportunities are available now that wouldn't have been available before? New, unique, and trying times are where character is truly developed, where our best selves can show up. Dig deeper into changing your mindset. Get a piece of paper, draw a line down the middle, and make two columns. On the left side, write down everything that's frustrating you right now. There's power getting it out of your head. Write down the crap, get it out, no filters. Let it sit, look at it, meditate on it, accept it. Then prioritize it. Weight it. Which things are affecting/frustrating you the most right now? On the right side of the paper, flip it. Ask yourself these questions: Is there any good in this situation? Am I learning anything? Growing? Getting stronger? Increasing in humility? What can I be grateful for in that crap list? Then look at those two columns, and ask yourself, “How am I going to choose to respond?” We totally have a choice how we respond to any situation, regardless of how difficult it is. Richard says this exercise works, that Jeff has walked him through it before. Getting it out of our head and onto paper is so powerful. “Embrace the suck,” he says. Acknowledge it. Feel your feelings. How you react to that emotion is where the positive/negative comes in. We get to choose. But it takes reps. Go Back to Your Why Some other things you can do: ask, “have I already solved this problem in the past?” Ask: “Is this a season?” Sometimes we need to just stick it out. Acknowledge that the pain alleviation is coming, but it has to run its course. Maybe there's nothing you can do but wait it out for three more weeks. Maybe there's no end in sight. Then what do we do? Say, “I don't know when this will end, but I'm going to keep going.” We're always talking to ourselves, so we might as well say positive things, or we'll keep feeding ourselves negative self-talk and stories. Stop those tapes, erase them, and replace them with something more powerful and positive. This is where step #3 comes in. Step #1: acknowledge it. Step #2: Change your mindset. Step #3: Remember your why. Go back to your individual purpose. Why do you exist on this planet? Then think about the purpose of your company. Dig deep and determine it. If you believe in a higher power, spend time there. If you believe in being in nature, get out in it and get your mind clear. What are your gifts? What energizes you? What activities drain you? When we lose our why, we lose our way. Start With a Brain Dump If You Need To Richard gets super honest at this point and says, “When I hear this and I'm in burnout, I think, just stop for the love of all that is holy. I have a to-do list 10 miles long and you want me to figure out my why?” For the record, he believes everything Jeff is saying. He knows it's true. But he still can't start there. His brain doesn't work that way. When he's in burnout, the last thing he wants to do is pontificate, get introspective. “You don't understand,” he's thinking. “I'm stupid busy.” This is how he buys himself the focus to go through Jeff's process, because he knows it's impactful. It starts with a to-do list, a task list. His brain is a computer, and there are too many tabs open. He has to get out of that, before he can deal with the why. Richards likes to start with a brain dump on a whiteboard. He writes out every single thing he's doing, needs to do, everything that's in his brain, no categorization. He's even been known to use two whiteboards. Jeff talked about a brain dump for emotions, and Richard's is everything he has to do. When you see the overwhelm in physical form, you think, “Oh, of course I'm overwhelmed by all I have to do and think about,” and you can breathe in a sense of relief. The next step is to categorize. Not into home/work, because work/life integration is important, but a grid with four quadrants: Do, Defer, Delegate, Delete. Then you plot everything on the whiteboard into these four areas. Now you're left with a couple of boxes to focus on. You cut it down to 15-20% of your To Do List that you should actually be doing. Look at that “Do” box and get a quick win for momentum to spark your confidence. Richard believes in two big forces in life—momentum and resistance. See: Steven Pressfield's books, The War of Art and Do the Work. Do What Works For YOU Jeff loves that he and Richard shared two different approaches that work for them individually. There's no one right way to lead—or to deal with burnout. You can do it the way that's most authentically yours. That's the beauty of marrying emotion and logic. That's why Jeff and Richard are doing this podcast together. They want to connect with all kinds of leaders around the world with different personalities and ways of looking at problems. As leaders, it's so important to admit our weaknesses and ask for help when we need it. From a coach, family member, peer, counselor, therapist. It's critical that we as leaders have our hearts and minds right. We can't lead others if we can't lead ourselves. If you continue to feel the burnout, stop the cycle. Acknowledge it. Validate it. Work on your mindset. Ask for help. Go deeper on your purpose. Change the cycle. The burnout happens when we stay on the hamster wheel with no end in sight. If you don't learn how to stop and breathe and take a break, it will never get better. Take some space. Know what energizes you, fills you up. Do some of them. Keep your battery charged. Once you've gotten yourself to a place of stability, once you've gotten your own oxygen mask on, you can keep serving and helping your people. Richard and Jeff want to hear from YOU. What other practices have you discovered that help with burnout? What other questions do you have about burnout? Did they share anything you thought was off the mark? Email them here with your thoughts/questions: feedback@readytolead.com RESOURCES: The War of Art (Steven Pressfield) Do the Work (Steven Pressfield) OTHER SHOWS YOU MIGHT ENJOY: Business Lunch with Roland Frasier and Ryan Deiss Perpetual Traffic with Ralph Burns and Kasim Aslam DigitalMarketer Podcast
As a manager, how do you have those awkward and difficult conversations with your employees about salaries and raises and promotions? Richard and Jeff have some answers. More people are leaving their companies right now than at any time in history. We entered the first relief period a few months ago. People left, companies made adjustments, now what are we left with? The people we absolutely need. You start making emotional decisions. How do I keep this person and make sure they don't leave? Because of Covid, a lot of these conversations have been postponed and avoided, and now they've ballooned. In today's episode, co-hosts Richard Lindner and Jeff Mask walk listeners through some anecdotal stories and a process for having these conversations effectively to benefit both the employee and the company. Listen in for some practical, actionable steps you can take to resolve these complicated issues. What to Do When Someone Asks For an Inappropriate Raise If a team member comes to you asking for a raise or promotion, and it's inappropriate to their situation, how do you say no? Jeff says we all have horror stories as leaders, where we had good intentions but unintended consequences. People want a raise, just because they need the money, not because they've earned it. The company isn't growing, or the person isn't growing, or hasn't delivered more value. So what do you do? “I want to back up and say why I think this is a broken conversation,” Jeff says. He believes that, when it comes to career progression paths, we've let it creep in that the path lies on the shoulders of the company/manager. He believes leaders need to train their employees to see what progression can look like, and tell them it's a choose your own adventure path. Step #1: Flip the script. Help them see it's theirs to declare. Step #2: Create different options with them, but let them own it. In the past, there was a manual. This is what you did. This was the progression. Now people change careers multiple times and much later in their working life. What you as a leader have to figure out is what do they want? Where do they want to go? Where Does Your Employee Want to Go? As a leader, before we get to “I want more money,” try to figure out what they really want. Most of them don't know or can't articulate it. Ideally, you'll ask these questions from the very beginning. Where do you want to be in 5 years? What do you want your day-to-day to look like in 10 years? What makes you happy? What energizes you? What income level are you looking at? What positions are here that would check the boxes of fulfillment for you? Your job as a leader is to identify skill gaps between where they are and what they want. A conversation about raises is easier if you've already talked about skill gaps. It has to be “no and here's why.” Or, better yet, “no, and here's what it will take to get it to a yes.” The no is so much easier if you've already built a foundation of clarity of what growth looks like. When it's not discussed initially, the employee blames the company and feels stuck. Call out what you want, then figure out a plan. What skills do I need to develop? Then it becomes a really cool process. If you created a great plan, the question of a raise doesn't come up. You have a much better path and help people stay engaged. Don't Be Too Quick to Give Away Titles What if someone comes to you asking for a promotion, a new title? It can be scary if you think the person will leave if you don't give them what they want. Make sure you're not hearing an ultimatum where there isn't one. That's not leading from a place of confidence and power. #1: Be self-aware. Make sure you really understand. #2: ask why. Why do they want this title? If you're not motivated by titles, then it's difficult to understand someone who is. Don't give away a title like it has no value. Richard shares a story of an employee who was doing awesome, growing rapidly, and their value to the company was growing. They came in early one day to ask about a director title. Richard gave it to them. Then, he was dismayed when this person went from having an amazing attitude to not being engaged, when they went from having a massive impact to going backward. A week or so later, he got an email from the employee. “After doing some research online, here's the average salary for a director of this. Here's mine. There's a large gap between the average and mine.” This person had looked at the salary of a director, but not the roles/responsibilities/experience. They matched a salary to a title, but they didn't match the roles to their average day. They hadn't actually earned the title and never should have been given it. It's important to find out why a person wants a new title. Do they want to be more important organizationally? Do they want more money? Do they want to strengthen their resume? Have the person go do the research as to what that job title entails. After your research, do you still believe it's appropropriate and you've earned it? And do you want that responsibility? Then we can have that conversation about a new job title. Don't Overlook the Importance of Growth Jeff has a huge takeaway for leaders. Teach the principle of patience for promotions and raises but impatience for growth. And separate the two. Too often people want a promotion, raise, or title and rob themselves of the growth, maturity, and value they can create for themselves. How can they grow here or strengthen this muscle? They'll be so much more valuable over time if they can develop this patience. You can't mistakenly replace growth with the band-aid of a title. The employee says what growth looks like for them, and you help them plan their path. It comes back to the 3 Cs—care, clarity, and consistency. Care means being able to have a tough conversation in the moment. If you can't do it because you want to be liked, that's not caring. See them for who they can become. Give clarity around what is needed before they can achieve a certain income. What are the goals, the time frame? When we're clear on foundational principles, we won't have to have these awkward conversations. If you haven't, own it. “That's on me. I'm sorry. Let's have that clarifying conversation now.” Consistency is important when it comes to a process around compensation conversations. If you're not consistent, favoritism creeps in, perceived or real. If it's perceived, it is real, at least in their mind. Avoid awkward, out-of-the-blue conversations by taking care of the 3 Cs at the beginning. That's how you create a great culture. Your job as a leader is not to give people more money. It's to make people more valuable to the company so they can help it earn more money. Does each person on your team know what it is that they do that brings more value to the company on a day/week/monthly basis? If they're producing more value, give them more money. And have these conversations from the beginning. Richard and Jeff want to hear from YOU. What questions do you have about compensation, raises, and job titles? What wasn't clear that they could clarify for you? What other topics would you like them to address on the show? Email them here with your thoughts/questions: feedback@readytolead.com RESOURCES: The Truth About Employee Engagement (book by Patrick Lencioni) Multipliers (book by Liz Wiseman) OTHER SHOWS YOU MIGHT ENJOY: Business Lunch with Roland Frasier and Ryan Deiss Perpetual Traffic with Ralph Burns and Kasim Aslam DigitalMarketer Podcast
What does it look like to lead your team through external forces and distractions in a powerful way? This is another one of those universal things that everyone is feeling right now. In this episode, co-hosts Richard Lindner and Jeff Mask share some personal examples from their own lives and work. Richard just got back from one of his first business trips in a long time. He gathered with 150 leaders/founders/executives for the War Room Mastermind, and all of them are feeling the strain of external forces wreaking havoc in their own lives and their employees'. Jeff says it's a recurring theme with his coaching clients as well. Just as quickly as leaders feel like they've gotten a handle on it, a new distraction rears its head. Listen in as they offer some grounding practices and habits that will enable you to be the leader of your life and the owner of your circumstances. How Can You Lead Well In Spite of What's Going On? There are a billion external forces, scenarios, you could be dealing with at any given time. Then each person who reports to you could be dealing with one of a billion of their own. In the past 10 days, Richard had every refrigerator in his home go out, multiple A/C units broke, his back fence fell down, one of his kids had multiple Covid tests, his car broke down, his wife's car broke down, and he had to cancel a trip. And that was just at home. He still had to show up at work every day, lead at work, lead at home, and lead and serve at War Room. How does he show up and maintain his energy with all these external forces at play? He has to be very careful not to bring his money problems from home to work and inappropriately generate revenue for himself as quickly as humanly possible in ways that might not be in line with the company. Or push his people because he's worried about money going out the door. Or complain about money going out the door to people who make less of it than he does. So, what's Richard's solution? A change in mindset. Instead of “here's what's happening to me,” he challenges himself to flip those things into opportunities to succeed. “One of the ways I am my best self,” he says, “is when I'm up against a worthy adversary, a worthy competitor. So I have to be challenged.” He acknowledges that he needs to be careful not to compete with anyone who works for him though, anyone he's charged with growing or leading. He's failed there in the past, and it was costly. For him, he looks at external forces and challenges as his competition. He can use hard stuff to help him get to his optimal performance level by leveraging what he knows about himself and competition. Know Yourself Inside and Out You have to know yourself really well. You have to know what it takes to be your best self and how you show up as your worst self (and what triggers it). What do you need personally and professionally to be able to show up as your best self? And when that starts to go away, what happens? The more self-aware we can be, the better we can lead. The first thing you have to control is you, because you'll never be able to control the external forces. Recognize where you're off, replace those thoughts, recite the words out loud. Own your own emotion, your thinking, your process. Remember, as Jack Sparrow says so eloquently, “The problem isn't the problem. It's our mindset around the problem.” The one problem that's unsolvable is the unnamed problem. Once we name it, we can solve it. Heart-Led Leadership Is More Critical Than Ever If everyone on our team has a life, and life shows up in all these different ways, how do we get everyone aligned? You have to have trust, a cadence of communication. As a leader, you really have to know what's going on with everyone, but then that means you're carrying a lot. Let's say you're in charge of a team of five people. One is building a house; one is having a kid; one is getting divorced; you're going through something yourself. That's a lot. And honestly? Each person probably has more than one external force happening at one time. How do we show up in the midst of that and align ourselves as a team? This is where Jeff geeks out and backs up a century to the Industrial Revolution, when workers were just cogs in a wheel. Their emotional well-being was irrelevant. Now we have knowledge and emotional workers. What's going on in our minds and hearts is what generates billion dollar ideas and moves the economy forward. So leadership has got to evolve to lead through that. Have you ever wished your employees could keep their personal lives to themselves and not bring them to work? This isn't 1932. As the workforce evolves, work evolves, and humans evolve, human-centric and heart-led leadership is more critical than ever. We're leading hearts and minds in a way today that's never been done in history. It's why Richard and Jeff are passionate about this podcast. They see a need to help leaders lead with heart and mind and know when it's heart and when it's mind. 3 Steps to Leading Through External Forces Step #1: put on your own oxygen mask. How do we lead through this? We have to get our own mindset right first. We mistakenly think that, if we're in charge, we have to be okay. We have to have this superhuman ability to lead through any obstacle in our lives, personally or professionally. No, we don't. Model vulnerability for your team. Always look for opportunities to model the behavior you want from your team, especially when it's counterintuitive. That's what adversity gives you—the opportunity to model courage, humility, vulnerability. Talk to an external person for help. Don't deny it; don't avoid it; don't put up walls. Step #2: give oxygen to others. Create an environment of safety, where people can be vulnerable. Dig in and be connected with your people. This is where powerful world-class one-on-ones are hugely important. Jeff's recommendation is at least 30 minutes a week. Do it powerfully where it's about them, not you, not just to check a box. Prioritize them as sacred time. Don't reschedule it. Empower your team to have trust and confidence in each other, so you're not the only one they come to when they need something. You won't be able to connect powerfully with every single person on your team, but someone can. Step #3: make a list of your stressors. Get them out of your head and on paper. Put an E or an I next to each one. Is this an external stressor or an internal stressor? It's just painting a picture. How will you choose to respond? It's a choice. You can prioritize based on what's really keeping you up at night the most. Take control of your emotions and actions. Do an inventory of your life and ask yourself what's the greatest external force you have given too much power to? How can you reframe that? What can you do to change that? How can you take over ownership of your emotions and words and thoughts and actions? You'll feel more empowered and prepared to lead. What Is Working for You Right Now This episode naturally evolved from external forces to how do we lead people? Welcome to leadership. This is the evolution. Hopefully you feel validated that you're not alone and empowered to be better at managing external forces and leading powerfully, and hopefully you feel supported with tools you can use. Richard and Jeff want to hear from YOU. What has worked for you as you've navigated through external forces? What wasn't clear that they could clarify for you? What are you going to lead in spite of today? Email them here with your thoughts/questions: feedback@readytolead.com OTHER SHOWS YOU MIGHT ENJOY: Business Lunch with Roland Frasier and Ryan Deiss Perpetual Traffic with Ralph Burns and Kasim Aslam DigitalMarketer Podcast with Jenna Snavely
You're not alone if you're facing anxiety, concerns, and difficult situations in your workplace 18 months into the pandemic—it's a pattern across the globe. A lot of people thought (hoped) we'd be back to normal by this point, or at least adjusting really well to our “new” normal. But it turns out there are just a lot of new problems and questions, fears and insecurities. In today's episode, co-hosts Jeff Mask and Richard Lindner want you to know you're not alone. It's not just a hot topic; it's the anxiety everyone is feeling, whether or not they realize it. They want to help you understand what's going on and give you actionable steps to make things better, to give more clarity, to help you realign and reunite your company. This is how the episode will go: Validate what you're feeling. Live in that feeling a little bit. Go through some of the causes/effects. Give some hope. Your Experience/Feelings Are Valid We've all been through a lot in the past 18 months, and then we saw some signs that things were getting a little better. Then other things started to creep in. Things like: Tension being a little bit higher Friction being deeper and hotter Pockets in the business that don't feel as engaged/dialed in Resentment Entitlement Inconsistent sales Overall dysfunction within leadership teams More easily frustrated with people Richard shares their company's story. On Friday, April 13th, 2020, they sent everybody home from their headquarters for a couple weeks, which turned into a month, then a quarter. Then they made the decision to be a virtual first company. They knew they couldn't go back. They still don't know if today is a new normal or a temporary normal. They're in limbo. A couple weeks ago, things seemed to start getting better-ish, but people started leaving. Everyone wanted to know, what are we doing now? People seemed way more disconnected, out of touch, accusatory in tone. It was harder to get people on the same page. Everything seemed forced. They're not in a rhythm, not in alignment. Then people start leaving. Why Are People Leaving Your Company? Richard can't help but think, “Uh oh. Did we make it this far, then we're going to fall apart? The world is going to get better, and we're going to crumble? That's what it felt like.” “Our thoughts go to dark places,” Jeff says. “Maybe it's me. Maybe I'm a horrible leader. Maybe the company isn't as good as I thought it was. Now that things are more stable, people are going where they want to go. Before, they felt imprisoned in this company, but at least it was a place of security. And your ego goes all over the place.” Richard says yes to the ego. They stepped up and supported their people during the bulk of the last year. They cut other things before people. When the first few people put in their resignation, he had to fight his ego. “How dare you leave us when we didn't leave you? Do you know how easy it would have been to just cut this, but we didn't, but now you are? That's my own brokenness and humanity popping up, but I felt it.” Why are people leaving now? For a lot of reasons. First of all, it felt like a lot, because no one left for 18 months. People were exploring new opportunities because this wasn't a cultural fit for them. They had hit a ceiling. All types of normal reasons people leave. Natural ebb and flow of turnover happens. But it didn't for 18 months, so it felt like a lot all at once. Harvard Business Review has been putting out some great articles about the Great Resignation. It's helpful to put it into the context of a bigger picture. What occurred during the pandemic was a lot of soul-searching. Why am I doing what I'm doing? People had a lot more flexibility in where they live and work. They're leaving companies and also industries—not just because it's a horrible place to work. Some people leave because your company looks a lot different from the company they signed up for. We've changed. It's hard enough running a business, and then you slap a pandemic on it. There are so many new variables at play that are tough to navigate. Communicating Well When You're Not Face-to-Face The environment is shifting, so the medium we use to communicate is changing too. Face to face interaction was easier in many ways. The difficulty of going from eyeball to eyeball dialogue to strictly text/Slack/email is that you strip out so much of the richness of communication—tone, body language. As receivers, we fill in the gaps in the texts. And often erroneously when it's a high conflict situation and we're lacking nonverbal cues. One thing Richard does is make himself read the message to someone else or just out loud. Then he checks his tone. Have you ever read a text conversation out loud and noticed the change in inflection/tone when you get to YOUR part? Are you putting a bad guy tone, a Disney villain tone, on the other person's text? Are you ascribing emotion to the conversation that's not actually there? We filter texts through what's going on with us. We read it with baggage. So Richard does the Disney Villain Test. Take a breath, count to 5, tell himself the best case of what they could have meant, because he just acknowledged the worst case. It probably needs to be a conversation. Want to jump on the phone? Or acknowledge the weirdness. It takes time, but you have to invest the time upfront to deliver communication the right way from the beginning. A five minute conversation can offset weeks of resentment, underperformance, lashing out. Interpersonal stuff is a domino effect. If you feel that tension, when's the last time you connected on a personal level with that team member? There are probably other issues happening in their lives that are more important than work. Some Helpful Tips for Making Those Connections #1: Use a message matrix. It's a simple tool you can download. It lists different scenarios of communication and times to check in or face conflict and different mediums you can use. Knowing which medium to use with what timing with what person is super helpful. #2: Intentionally build relationships of trust. Check in on people. Flex your emotional intelligence muscle. If you don't have a high EQ, ask for help. It's one of the most critical skill sets we can understand and grow as we're leading through this unique time. #3: Give yourself a break. Stop beating yourself up so much. Stop expecting perfection. Don't go down the spiral of “everything's falling apart.” #4 Acknowledge It publicly. Not on Facebook, but with your team. A lot of times we leaders think we can't acknowledge a problem until we have a solution, but that's a limiting belief. That is a false narrative. One of the most powerful tools a leader has is to acknowledge something is wrong, even if—especially if—you don't have a solution. You'll see your team breathe a sigh of relief. Have a virtual meeting with your team. We know there are a lot of things going on personally, and there are a lot of changes in the business. This is normal. We are going to figure out a solution to make it easier to communicate and collaborate. We don't have one yet, but we'll get it. Know that we're committed to changing it. You're not alone. You Can Do This. Tell Us About It. We're all working through leading and growing together. No company or leader has it perfectly figured out. That's okay. Learn from each other. Give yourself space and grace. And take one action today. What's one thing you can do to create a healthier work environment today? Richard and Jeff want to hear from YOU. What's working for you right now? What have you figured out in your organization as a leader that's helping this transition? And what are your biggest problems? Where are you stuck? What are some areas you can use some help? Where are things going well and why? If you have any really cool tools you'd like to share, they'll give you a shoutout and share them here on the podcast. If you have questions/problems they can help you find a solution to, email them here: feedback@readytolead.com OTHER SHOWS YOU MIGHT ENJOY: Business Lunch with Roland Frasier and Ryan Deiss Perpetual Traffic with Ralph Burns and Kasim Aslam DigitalMarketer Podcast
When you have clarity in the role, clarity as a whole, and clarity of goals, the team you're leading will absolutely be winning. Today's episode is a micro-session around three simple, but powerful, principles to help your team win. Too often, as leaders, we overlook fundamentals. We get distracted. We get going too quickly. People get hired and they're excited, but when days and weeks go by, and they're not quite sure what winning looks like in their role, they start questioning: Am I adding value? Am I succeeding? I don't know. If there's ever a question in your team member's mind about whether or not they're succeeding, that's the beginning of a difficult path. So let's change that. Think about this for a minute: What's a role you once held in a company where you just didn't know if you were doing a good job or not? You didn't know what success looked like. You didn't know exactly what was expected of you. Sometimes we'll get a job description at the beginning, but we never revisit it, and we don't really know if that's still what our job is. The 3 Keys to Winning Clarity in the role Clarity as a whole Clarity of goals When those are all clear, our chances of winning are significantly greater. Let's break it down. #1: Clarity in the Role Why does the role exist? What did the job description say again? And are you actually doing that? What are the three key metrics, the big things you're measured on? What are the reasons why the company is investing money in you to get that job done? Are you clear on what that job looks like? Are you clear for the person you're hiring of what their job looks like? Second, what does success look like? Can you define success as a leader? And can your team members define the same success? Too often, we have different definitions. The employee may feel like they're doing great, but you are frustrated with their work, because you haven't articulated what success looks like. And don't forget this important third point: the timeframe of that success. Jeff was leading a director one time. They sat down and got clear on his role and the key metrics, what success would look like, and he was good to go. A couple months went by, and Jeff had this feeling something was wrong, but the guy seemed to think things were great. Jeff pulled him aside and asked about the role. The director was on fire. He loved it. “You know,” Jeff said, “I'm just concerned that we've only got a little less than a month to go to nail these milestones.” “What do you mean?” the director said, puzzled. “I thought we had until the end of the year.” It was a palm-to-forehead moment when Jeff realized he had never told him the time frame. Jeff was thinking a quarter. The director was thinking a year. It was totally Jeff's fault. #2: Clarity As a Whole How do the players work together? Who does what and when and why? If everybody does everything, it's hard to know who owns it. Balls get dropped, batons get dropped. Think of a 4x4 relay team. Each runner knows what their particular role is. They know what to do. They know what it needs to look like when they pass off the baton. They know what time they want to beat. And they know they want that gold medal. That's clarity. Defining what and how the roles work also helps cross-functionally. When you have different departments working on different tasks, you need to know what each department's role is, so that when you're working on customer experience or whatever, it's fluid and there aren't holes. #3: Clarity of Goals What are the milestones? What are the time frames? What, if relevant, are the rewards? Why does it matter? When each person on the team knows their roles, knows their part of the whole, and knows what the goals are, your chances of winning are significantly greater. Ask yourself: On a scale of 1 to 10, when it comes to each of the roles on your team, how clear are the roles? Do they each have clear metrics? Do they know what success looks like? Are they clear on the time frame of that success? On a scale of 1 to 10, does every team player know how they work together, who's doing what, who hands the baton off and when? Is that clear in everyone's mind? On a scale of 1 to 10, how clear are the milestones, the time frames, and the rewards on the goals that you have set forth? Could each member of your team articulate the goals? This is a quick simple exercise you can implement. Implement these 3 keys to winning, and momentum will be so much stronger, so much more powerful. When people know they're winning, momentum begets momentum. When they're questioning winning, when they're questioning success, ambiguity begets ambiguity, and it's tough to win in that situation. Richard and Jeff want to hear from YOU. How are you implementing these 3 keys to winning? What other things have you tried that have been successful? Do you have feedback on the show? Topics you'd like them to dive into? Things that resonated with you or that you disagreed with? Email them here: feedback@readytolead.com OTHER SHOWS YOU MIGHT ENJOY: Business Lunch with Roland Frasier and Ryan Deiss Perpetual Traffic with Ralph Burns and Kasim Aslam DigitalMarketer Podcast with Jenna Snavely
The absolute foundation of leadership is a powerful positive mindset, and it needs to start on day one. What comes to mind when you hear the word “mindset?” If you feel like mindset isn't important, and you're impatient to get to the tactics, the “good stuff,” then this episode is for you. Co-hosts Richard Lindner and Jeff Mask reflect back on the days when they first started working together. Jeff introduced an exercise called “positive focus” and Richard wanted to skip it and move right to the solution to his problem. He quickly learned that, if you don't start by fixing the problem of mindset, then every solution is a temporary band-aid. In this episode, we'll walk through mindset and positive focus, then move into some tactical suggestions for your first day, week, and months leading a new team. Why Mindset and Positive Focus Are So Important At the start of Richard's first coaching session with Jeff, Jeff said, “Let's start out with your positive focus.” Richard remembers thinking, “Better yet, why don't you help me?” He really wanted to skip all the woowoo juju stuff and didn't understand why Jeff was making him do it. Richard said, “I don't know, man. I got nothing.” And Jeff said, “Well, I guess we're just going to sit here then. There's something good, and we're going to find it.” Fast forward to today when they start off every weekly leadership meeting with positive focus, and Richard believes in it wholeheartedly. Jeff knows a lot of people can relate to Richard's initial skepticism. Mindset can seem touchy-feely and unnecessary when there are difficult business problems to solve. Jeff takes people back to the second Back to the Future movie when Doc Brown creates the time space continuum on the chalkboard and says “this is where we've been, and this is where we are.” He tells Marty that, when he went back in time, he changed something, and now there's a new time space continuum, another 1985. When we don't start our meetings, our thoughts, from a place of positivity, we're on a time space continuum that isn't healthy because we're thinking what we're fearful and frustrated about. The highest part of our brain isn't functioning. We're in the bad 1985. When you reframe and refocus your brain on the positive, you start to exercise the higher-level functioning of your brain, the aspects that enable you to problem solve, learn, and create. We're wired as humans to be thinking more in the survival state, which is owned by the brain stem, the oldest part of our brain. When we try to solve problems from that part of our brain, we don't get great outcomes. Contrast that with the prefrontal lobes, the part that's responsible for learning, adapting, creating, problem-solving, leadership. When we use that part of our brain, we hack ourselves to a higher level to get to a much deeper, better outcome. Jeff says at the beginning of every meeting, “Let's hack our brains.” A Simple Exercise to Realign Your Team's Mindset Leadership is not about protecting yourself. It's about growing others, aligning others, and building a cohesive team. If you put yourself first, none of that works. If we understand the science behind it, understand the need for mindset, what is a simple exercise we can go through to realign our mindset? Jeff recommends starting with a level one exercise. The question is simple: What are you grateful for in your life today? At the beginning of a meeting, you just go around the room and give everyone a chance to answer that question. The level two question is this: What is something in your business that you're excited about or grateful for? Encourage people to get super specific, add detail, paint a visual image. This starts to evoke emotion, which releases oxytocin and serotonin, good stuff in the brain that fuels you to solve big problems. Give people time and space to think if they need it. If someone gives the copout, “I can't think of anything,” say, “We'll wait.” Who starts? Jeff believes it's powerful when the leader starts and shows some vulnerability first. And how long should it take? Five minutes is good—no more than 10% of the meeting time or people feel like they're not getting traction. The only caveat is when the team needs healing for whatever reason, when you need to create a bond and trust. How Do I Start Leading a Team? How do we take a great mindset into leading a team? Maybe it's your first time, or maybe you've led before but now you're leading your peers. What do you do the first day, the first week, the first month? Richard says, for him, the first day is all about introductions and information. He used to think it was all about power and authority, making sure everyone knew he was in charge and was there to fix all the problems. He suffered from arrogance, assuming there was no intelligence or great ideas before he got there. Jeff taught him to make it about others, not himself, to ask, “What do people need to know, think, or feel?” The first day is 10% about Richard, 90% about this team. He has them fill out a team member profile with easy questions that give him insight into who they are. (Favorite snack? Restaurant? Hobby? Have a pet? A partner?) Jeff likes to ask, “What do you like most about your job? What's frustrating about your job?” He'll say, “I'll share just a little bit about myself, but I really want to get to know you.” He gets personal, so they see him as open and vulnerable—and a whole person. He tells them how long he's been married, about his kids, that he loves to surf and accomplish crazy things. He also shares some weaknesses, because he doesn't want to give off the vibe that he's perfect, because he's not, and he likes that he's not. He likes the joy of learning and growing and failing. Right from the get go, he sets the precedent that failing is fun, something everyone can learn/grow from. Whatever your leadership style is, make sure you start communicating that right away. If you're not a “my door's always open” person, then make sure no one expects that. The Value of a Keep-Start-Stop Exercise By the end of that first week Richard likes to do a Keep-Start-Stop exercise where you ask everyone these three questions: What should we keep doing (or do even more of)? What should we start doing (that hasn't been greenlit)? What should we stop doing (because it's taking too much time or isn't having the desired effect or is bad for the company, the customer, or the team)? When you frame things like that, you're telling people you hear them. After you get that information from them, your job is to attack it with curiosity, to figure out if it's good for the company. Give them subtle lessons in presenting a business case. You think we should do more of this? Why? What stats are you using? How is it affecting overall company goals? What if you had more resources? Why do you think we should stop doing this? Why are we still doing it? Get Into a Leadership Rhythm In that first week, it's important to start the rhythm of when will I be doing what? When will I meet weekly with my team one on one? When will I hold the weekly meeting? When will I review different dashboards and stats? Get into a cadence, because leadership can feel sporadic and urgent. If you're not careful and don't discipline how you'll manage time, time will manage you. Be intentional about when you want to do what. Block out time for people, preparation, and proactive measures. Human beings like consistency. We're not talking about structuring every minute of every day, especially not for creative people. But even creative people like to have consistency so they know expectations and they're prepared. On that first day, seek to know. They know you; you know them. First week: make people feel heard. Understand what they're thinking about in their role professionally and also set expectations for what the average day/week/month looks like. Then the rest of the month is all about professional alignment. Sit down with each person and look at their job description. Does this accurately represent what you do? How are you measured? What are you responsible for? Get it all aligned, accurate, up-to-date. Get clarity. The next episode is a mini-one where Jeff will answer the question: How do I make sure there's clarity and everyone knows what winning looks like? Richard and Jeff want to hear from YOU. Have feedback on the show? Topics you'd like them to dive into? Things that resonated with you or that you disagreed with? Email them here: feedback@readytolead.com OTHER SHOWS YOU MIGHT ENJOY: Business Lunch with Roland Frasier and Ryan Deiss Perpetual Traffic with Ralph Burns and Kasim Aslam DigitalMarketer Podcast with Jenna Snavely
Leading from a place of empathy and accountability isn't easy, but it's the only way to get the results you want. How the heck do I hold my team accountable? It's literally the number one question leaders ask. And it often comes with a tone of frustration and annoyance with the team. When leaders ask that question, they're pointing fingers, but they need to shift the mirror a little bit and take a deeper look. In today's episode of the Ready to Lead Podcast, co-hosts Richard Lindner and Jeff Mask turn the mirror on themselves as leaders and ask: Have I created an environment where clear accountability is the norm? Or are there ambiguities, inconsistencies, and miscommunications between me and my team? In Jeff's experience, 90% of accountability issues go away when we apply the following model. 3 Keys to Winning The three keys to winning are easy to remember because they all start with the same word, and they all rhyme. Clarity of role Clarity as a whole Clarity of goals Let's start with clarity of role. Is each person's role super clear? Do they know their responsibilities? Do they know what success looks like and by when? It seems elementary, but so often we hire someone and never have that foundational conversation about their responsibilities, what success looks like, and the timeframe. Then we move on to clarity as a whole. As a team, how do we work together? How do we pass the baton back and forth, both intra- and inter-departmentally? When people know who's doing what, it's much more clear how we operate together, in our own department and cross-functionally. When we don't define things clearly—who owns what and when—then there are a lot of gray areas and finger-pointing. The final key to winning is clarity of goals. This is all about clear milestones, rewards if necessary, and ultimately what success looks like. When we have all that clarity, then accountability conversations are easy to have. They get difficult when we haven't done the groundwork to create clarity, and we're all on different pages with different interpretations of what things mean. Think of a 4x4 relay team. Each runner knows what their particular role is. They know what to do. They know what it needs to look like when they pass off the baton. They know what time they want to beat. And they know they want that gold medal. That's clarity. Each Team Member Has to Understand the Why When Richard starts a new company as an entrepreneur, it's just one or two people, then a handful more, and it's easy to be on the same page. You're literally in the same room doing everything together. But then, as the team grows, it's easy to assume everyone knows the why as your team widens, deepens, grows. But that's a logical lie. People need to understand what you do, who you serve, the business model, and value creation as a whole. If they don't understand that, they can't possibly understand how they contribute to that value, individually or as a team. If they know what they're supposed to do, but they don't know why, you might as well hire robots. A robot will continue to do that one thing even after it stops working. So will the employee who doesn't understand why in the hell they're doing what you asked them to do. If they understand the why, they can come to you and say, “This isn't working, and I researched it, and I think we should try this instead.” Understanding the Kindness Counterfeit What commonly happens is that leaders try too hard to be nice and slack off on accountability. What they're really trying to do is maintain likeability. But ambiguity isn't kindness; clarity is. Dancing around the truth, cushioning it, isn't helping anybody. And, really, it's selfish leadership. You want people to like you, so you avoid that hard conversation. Go into that meeting with, “Hey, do you remember we talked about clarity of role, whole, goal? From this definition of success, I don't see it happening. Do you see it in a different way? Did we get to this result by the time we agreed on? I know you're better than this. I know you can do it.” When you speak to them from who they can become, not from who they are, that gives you the courage to be clear. Kindness isn't about being weak. It's about being super direct and loving. They know you care because you're pushing them to the next level vs. letting them flounder in a place of apathy. We don't hold people accountable because of pain avoidance, but we're just setting ourselves up for greater pain down the road. We're trying to avoid making someone feel bad, but the compounding effect of that is terminating someone. Firing someone is harder than having an accountability conversation. Bad bosses don't set clear expectations. They don't hold people accountable. Then one day when they're so resentful of that employee, they fire them, and that person goes home and says, “I don't know what happened. I thought everything was fine. No one ever told me I was doing a bad job.” Lead with Humility and Curiosity Lead with humility and curiosity. It takes the sting out of accountability. Say: “I want to talk with you about…” instead of “I need to talk to you about…” Maybe you have inadequate data. Maybe they're doing someone else's job. Give them the benefit of the doubt and find out. Lead with, “These were the areas you were going to own. This is how we were going to track them, and the metrics aren't there. I'm going to assume it's because something's not working or you don't have the resources you need. Do you have everything you need to fill this role and achieve these goals?” You never know what's going on. The line between personal and professional has been blurred more than ever because of the pandemic. Maybe they have some heavy stuff at home. That excuses problems for a little while, but only if you know it's going on and you reset those expectations. Others on the team can help pick up the slack, but it needs to be communicated to them in an appropriate way. Your mindset around accountability is the difference between avoiding it and leaning into it. Accountability is love, caring. It's best for everyone. If the goal is alignment, an accountability conversation is good for both of you. What can you implement from today's episode? Take action and let Jeff and Richard know how it goes. The more we take action together, the more we'll grow and be more and more ready to lead every day, every week, every month. Richard and Jeff want to hear from YOU. Have feedback on the show? Topics you'd like them to dive into? Things that resonated with you or that you disagreed with? Email them here: feedback@readytolead.com OTHER SHOWS YOU MIGHT ENJOY: Business Lunch with Roland Frasier and Ryan Deiss Perpetual Traffic with Ralph Burns and Kasim Aslam DigitalMarketer Podcast with Jenna Snavely
There's no perfect way to lead, but there's a good way, and these four foundational principles lay the groundwork for long-term success as a leader. The Ready to Lead Podcast is the show that gives you—the leader—the tools, tips, and insights you need to grow your team, your company, and yourself. In this second episode, hosts Richard Lindner and Jeff Mask dive into their philosophy of leadership. “As we start on this journey together,” Richard says, “we can't move forward until we break down what leadership means to us. What is the lens through which we'll view every conversation we have?” Leaders have different leadership styles; Jeff and Richard are classic examples of that. There's no one right way to lead. But no matter your personality, there are foundational principles that should undergird your leadership if you want to lead well and sustain results. Four Foundational Principles of Leadership These are the foundational principles every leader needs to be aware of and cultivate—and in this particular order. Mindset Culture Communication Trust Mindset is how we think, how we process the world, how we look in the mirror, how we talk to ourselves, our motives. Culture is there whether you like it or not, whether it's toxic culture or accidental culture or an intentional culture. Communication that's consistent and clear is how we help our team see the vision of the company the way we see it. And trust is the foundation that holds everything together. If there's no trust between a leader and the team members, everything falls apart. On top of that foundation, we build leadership pillars: creating clarity, growing people, managing constraints, and driving results. These things don't get done if we don't lay that foundational framework from the beginning. Why Mindset Has to Go First It all starts with mindset. Peter Drucker, one of the greatest leadership and business minds of all time, has a book called Managing Oneself. You have to know what your strengths and weaknesses are and have the EQ to acknowledge those, make peace with those, and build teams around those. You may be thinking, if it starts with mindset, how do I know if my mindset is strong? Jeff likes to focus on the motive. When it comes to leadership, what's your motive for leading? He has a lot of people coming to him saying they want to lead. He asks them, “Are you sure? Why? Before you answer, I want you to think about it, process it for a couple days. Get really clear. Why do you want to lead?” Very often people want to lead because they want more power, more money. They want to move up, climb the ladder, feel the progress and achievement. Those can be fine, but if your deepest motive isn't developing, growing, and serving people, leadership will be very draining and difficult for you. When our motives are more about others and less about ourselves, then our mindset can be way more powerful and sustain us through the growth that inevitably comes when we lead. Be clear on your motive for leading, and your mindset will be in a solid place. From Mindset to Culture to Communication to Trust Mindset—and your awareness of it—creates culture, then enables communication and trust. If we miss mindset, we're in trouble, because it controls everything else. We can't skip over it. Oftentimes we create toxic cultures because of our unhealthy relationship with ourselves. Then communication becomes sporadic, and sporadic communication leads to pirate ships and siloed teams and uprisings. It creates an us vs. them culture. There's nothing more dangerous. And you'll never get to a place of trust. Richard says there's nothing wrong with being coin-operated (he definitely is to a degree) as long as you seek alignment with people. He cares deeply about their team's mission and empowering people. How do we empower and grow people? How do we put the right people in the right role, help them own it, and give them the clarity they need to drive the mission, the company's goals? Your job as a leader is to duplicate yourself. That's why mindset is important. That's why culture, communication, and trust are important. This is the exercise for today. It's a fun one. Look in the mirror. Look yourself in the eyes, and ask yourself this question, “What if there were 15 of me running around right now leading this company?” If you threw up a little bit in your mouth, isn't that a good gut-check question? If it stings a little, good news,—you know what you need to work on. Leadership isn't never screwing up. Leadership is being self-aware enough, self-confident enough to admit you screwed up and say you're sorry. You need the courage to employ that. It will make your life a whole lot better. What's Coming Up Next Jeff says the number one question he gets as a CEO coach who develops leaders is this: How do I effectively hold my team accountable to deliver consistent results? It's an age-old question, and Jeff and Richard will address it in the next episode. And you might very well be surprised at the answer. Richard and Jeff want to hear from YOU. Have feedback on the show? Topics you'd like them to dive into? Things that resonated with you or that you disagreed with? Email them here: feedback@readytolead.com OTHER SHOWS YOU MIGHT ENJOY: Business Lunch with Roland Frasier and Ryan Deiss Perpetual Traffic with Ralph Burns and Kasim Aslam DigitalMarketer Podcast with Jenna Snavely
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