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In this episode, Doug Theis, Director of National Strategy at Expedient, shares his insights on effective leadership. Drawing from his 41 years in IT, Doug explores the critical question: "How do I lead?" He discusses his journey through various roles, emphasizing that leadership is not confined to those with direct reports; influence without authority is equally impactful.
Doug highlights the importance of self-awareness and team understanding through practical tools like DISC, Working Genius, and StrengthsFinder assessments. He stresses the value of feedback, sharing personal anecdotes on how constructive criticism shaped his career.
Listeners will learn about Doug's experiences in building IT Leaders communities across multiple cities, emphasizing the significance of networking and shared problem-solving. He delves into the nuances of creating an effective team, the pitfalls of misusing personality assessments, and the essential skill of knowing what to delegate as a leader.
Doug also discusses strategic thinking in IT, from infrastructure to project management, and the necessity of clear communication in conveying organizational goals. He underscores the importance of adapting leadership strategies to evolving team dynamics and economic conditions.
This episode is rich with actionable advice, book recommendations, and personal stories, making it a valuable resource for current and aspiring IT leaders. Tune in to gain practical insights on leading effectively, building strong teams, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement.
Creators & Guests
What is IT Leaders?
The purpose of the IT Leaders Council is to bring together IT Directors and Managers for leadership training, educational content from guest speakers, and peer discussions in a vendor-free, collaborative environment. IT Leaders Councils are currently offered in Indianapolis, IN and Columbus, OH, with more cities coming soon!
00:00:00:11 - 00:00:26:02
Doug Theis
And I'm excited to be able to present to you today. The question that I've asked myself many times. I find new leaders asking themselves the question, and I find existing leaders when their team changes or when they're struggling, how do I lead? That's really what I want to address today. And I've got a few book references that I'd really encourage you to lead.
00:00:26:03 - 00:00:49:07
Doug Theis
But I want to tell you a little bit about myself. First of all, I've got 41 years in it. I've got a lot of miles on me. I've been a service provider. I've been an individual contributor. I've been a director and a manager, and I've also been a team lead. Lots of team lead and influence. So part of a team, but having influence on existing team members.
00:00:49:09 - 00:01:16:21
Doug Theis
My role right now, I'm the only person who does what I do at expedient. And. But I work very closely with the team and some of the other teams as well. So don't forget, you can have influence without having direct reports. It's really important and you can lead in that fashion as well. I've been delivering IT leaders for eight years, both in Indy or in Indy in Louisville and now in northeastern Indiana and Fort Wayne.
00:01:16:23 - 00:01:45:14
Doug Theis
And next week we're going to deliver our first Denver IT leaders. And it looks like Phoenix is going to be nearer to the end of the year or so, building these communities where you can meet with people. Some people call networking misery loves company. Frankly, just knowing that other people are doing the same work that you are, I think is reinforcing to your skill set and asking them what they do to solve problems I think is important.
00:01:45:16 - 00:02:07:07
Doug Theis
You know, the last eight years I've been spending with cloud and co-location services at Expedia, and we've got a data center in Indy that's our closest, but it's an amazing company. The fact that they let me spend my time and their money to put on community events like this and to bring value to the community first. I've really I can't say enough good things about the company I work for.
00:02:07:09 - 00:02:36:10
Doug Theis
I have got a number of approaches that I think have served me well, and I've seen other people implement. I think the starting point to be a good leader is to know yourself. There's a few different ways you can do that. I think assessments are an easy way to do that. I think there are three assessments that I value because they're cheap and they're easy to implement, and they give you meaningful feedback in a few different dimensions.
00:02:36:12 - 00:03:07:13
Doug Theis
How many have taken disc over the years? Do you remember what your profile is? Oh, I think it's the time. In time. You're an AI, so you're you talk to everybody, right? Kate? You're a decision maker. Command and control. Make it happen. And the S's or C's in here. You're c, you're compliant. Deon. I very that surprises me, but I believe you.
00:03:07:15 - 00:03:27:10
Doug Theis
Yeah, I, I think those are good. You know why? Why are they useful? I think they're useful in order to determine where your strengths are and maybe where you're weaker. And also for your team members. And we'll talk about that in a minute. Working genius was just presented to me at the IT leaders in northeast Indiana last month.
00:03:27:12 - 00:03:55:04
Doug Theis
Terry Gower, you can look this up on YouTube or on the IT leaders podcast. Talk specifically about the working genius. It's a $25 assessment. Oh, my God, that's a cheap assessment. So it really lets you figure out where your role is in terms of productivity for your organization. So the boss is likely to say yes. If you need to get approved on $25, you can take it yourself and you can involve your team as well.
00:03:55:06 - 00:04:20:08
Doug Theis
There are six different categories. Denoted by the acronym widget that show where you might live in a continuum. And I think it's super useful, especially in terms of how you relate to other team members. Strengthsfinder. Anybody done that? Another cheap one. Good book. Along with it, I think it has the most dimensions, which I actually think is valuable.
00:04:20:09 - 00:04:42:12
Doug Theis
Some of these are so narrow that, it may be difficult for you to find meaning in those. So strings finder is an easy one. You actually buy the book and you take the test. Gallup owns that product now. Not only assessments, but just like Angela said, feedback is important. Talk to your friends. Any husbands in the room?
00:04:42:14 - 00:05:06:01
Doug Theis
If you need some feedback, ask your wife. She'll tell you exactly what she's thinking, and vice versa. I think, and your friends, I mean, your good friends will be honest with you and your boss. Be candid. Don't wait for your turn to talk. Listen, when that comes along. Take the feedback. Listening is one thing, but actually acting on the feedback and moving forward.
00:05:06:04 - 00:05:32:06
Doug Theis
I was very defensive in my youth on feedback was terrible. And I got called on it by more than one leader over time. And, frankly, I didn't learn how to shut up in the lesson until I was 40 years old. So, I, you know, it's embarrassing to think back through that, but they were trying to help.
00:05:32:08 - 00:06:03:13
Doug Theis
And when you frame feedback in those terms, it's extremely meaningful. I had you come to, Closing my mouth was probably the first move I made in order to do that. And, stopping the, that that space between where we talked about waiting for your turn to talk rather than listening. Was probably second, even though it comes first in the sequence.
00:06:03:15 - 00:06:26:15
Doug Theis
So, yeah, it was. I just want to have that added for itself for the people. Exactly what sparked it. Yeah. Getting some honest feedback. That's maybe a little more unvarnished, maybe more of the black and white version of the cookie. I think is important to having empathy and just being like, how would that make you feel somebody came at you like that?
00:06:26:17 - 00:06:34:04
Doug Theis
Oh, that's good. Yeah. Yeah.
00:06:34:06 - 00:06:54:08
Doug Theis
I didn't learn this next bullet item until also fairly late in my career. Know what a good employee looks like? And I've got. I'm going to talk to you about a book that I think this is. This is so important. What is it that makes a good employee is extremely informative when it comes to what makes a good leader.
00:06:54:10 - 00:07:21:04
Doug Theis
So that's know yourself next. You really need to know your team. And the place you need to start is to ask them about themselves. Anybody know about, identity versus role. Have you heard that terminology? It's called air theory. Identity versus role. My role is I'm the director of national strategy for expedient. My identity is I have a fear of missing out, and I love to overachieve.
00:07:21:06 - 00:07:49:13
Doug Theis
I love talking to people. Who am I? Ask who somebody is. Ask what a person's identity is. What kind of a person are you? If they answer project manager or, systems administrator, politely remind them that that's their role. It's not who they are, so ask who they are. Christian. Who are you? What it's about.
00:07:49:15 - 00:08:17:22
Doug Theis
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's a great that's a great topic, right? I mean, what about your personal life? You play many roles in in your life, and mom has some identity issues that, account executive or systems administrator or, software engineer don't have. So understanding who they are. Ask them directly and listen. Let's not forget to listen.
00:08:18:00 - 00:08:44:21
Doug Theis
The assessments that I mentioned that are useful for yourself are often useful for your team. Now, there's a drawback to this. Don't weaponize the assessments. I have been in a couple of roles over the course of my career where, we did meaningful assessments. Myers-Briggs is one of the older ones that has 16 different, dimensions.
00:08:44:23 - 00:09:11:14
Doug Theis
And I so remember someone saying, well, you're an entj. You know, like, you know, you're ugly. We also talked about don't use it as a crutch ou crutch to talk about that a little. Yeah. So Durant and I are both highly social individuals. So, you know, you might catch us talking in the hallway, and if somebody were to call us out, using it as a crutch to say, oh, you can't blame me for that.
00:09:11:16 - 00:09:30:23
Doug Theis
I have a high. We've we do C I have a high B, I'm very social, but that's still using it as a crutch or I'm not great with data analysis. Can you just do this for me? You know, that kind of thing. Thank you as well. Do you use culture index rights and do use my call. Yeah. Mike is like, oh, we might call.
00:09:30:23 - 00:09:58:19
Doug Theis
Yeah. Sorry. I was like, I needed some help. Yeah, I guess my call, my my call is our sci consultant. Yeah. So so that's really important. You often need to know you often need someone to help you collate the information. Terry Gower, the speaker at IT leaders in northeast Indiana, helps with working genius. He actually helps debrief teams for a very reasonable price, frankly.
00:09:58:21 - 00:10:22:02
Doug Theis
Mike Hall sounds like he's good with culture index is the one that you're using. And there's plenty of desk people out there. I think it's really important to get some outside help when you're trying to evaluate a team as a whole, even if it's 3 or 4 people understanding how people fit into the puzzle and whether they're in the right seat or just using the language for the first time.
00:10:22:02 - 00:10:47:16
Doug Theis
Having someone help you adopt. Yes. Yeah. Without weaponizing it. Yeah. Because it could be kind of hard if you don't know how to handle it. Not a weapon, not a crutch. Again, know what a good employee looks like. And we're going to talk about that in a second. Over time, as you're a leader, you're going to have the opportunity to build new teams as you have turnover on the team, or you're going to be able to move people around in those roles.
00:10:47:16 - 00:11:09:19
Doug Theis
If you're growing, you may just be adding to the team. So understand that building an ecosystem or a group that's effective is an ongoing process. It's not one and done. I'm like, we're okay, we're done now. It doesn't happen that way. It's really important. And it's important to know your team in order to have it happen. Thought diversity is a superpower.
00:11:09:19 - 00:11:34:11
Doug Theis
And I want to tell you a story about, a coworker I had who ended up being an employee at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis. Gary Bruce. I worked with him for years. He was one of those guys who, if you showed up at 801 in the morning, he'd be like, good afternoon, part time. Pretty, pretty intense guy. We would have a lot of discussions on problem solving around the table when I was a leader.
00:11:34:13 - 00:11:59:10
Doug Theis
Here's here's an issue that we've got. What are your thoughts on how to solve that? Gary would never speak up at the table. Most of us would throw out ideas and, we'd reflect on those, maybe have some discussion the next day. Gary would have the best idea of all once he had a chance to think about it.
00:11:59:12 - 00:12:22:03
Doug Theis
He didn't want to do the Red fire AME thing, but given the chance to focus on it and critically think about the problem, he often had the best answer and his solutions, or often the best ones. Doug, this is not wired like that. Doug is more of a ready, fire, aim guy. Or let's talk about it. Let's iterate quickly right now.
00:12:22:05 - 00:12:45:04
Doug Theis
So I use Gary all the time when we're talking about leadership, understand your team. And he had different characteristics than me on the on the Myers-Briggs that we use back then. I know exactly what kind of a risk profile I bet he has. I haven't seen him in a while, but, understanding who he is, I could have done much better work.
00:12:45:06 - 00:13:11:05
Doug Theis
Okay, we've talked about knowing yourself and knowing your team. I cannot emphasize how important this became in my career, especially after I became a leader. Know what? You must give up. Anybody read the book? Essentialism? Yeah. Oh my gosh. I think probably one of the best ten books I've read in the last two decades. Greg McEwan is pretty loud on LinkedIn.
00:13:11:06 - 00:13:35:11
Doug Theis
I would encourage you to follow him. He's easy to access. His system is quite simple. I'll. I'll give away the punch line here. Explore and evaluate everything that you're doing. Inventory it. Write it down. You know, put it in your iPad. However, you tend to collect those sorts of things. Eliminate determine what's not bringing value to you anymore.
00:13:35:16 - 00:13:55:02
Doug Theis
When you become a leader, especially if you are an individual contributor on that team, you often have to delegate, right? Used to be. I used to be super technical. Had to give it all up. Not all of it. I had to keep people honest, frankly, especially early on. But I had to give most of it up and I ended up being a better leader for it.
00:13:55:02 - 00:14:23:03
Doug Theis
And my team ended up being more capable as part of that. And then finally execute. Do what you do, what you've kept. Do it well. So an essentialist thinks less, but they think better. They do the disciplined pursuit of less. I think that's the hardest part, frankly. You know, you think about it all the time. Can you really give it up?
00:14:23:05 - 00:14:34:14
Doug Theis
The answer is yes, but it takes discipline. And then you get a life that really matters. It's not a long read. God bless the short business book writers.
00:14:34:16 - 00:14:54:07
Doug Theis
But I think it is an extremely important one. It was to me. So know yourself. Know your team. Know what? You must give up. Let's remember what we do for a living where it people. And there are a lot of different strategies depending on your roles. Keith, you're an infrastructure guy that's at your heart and soul.
00:14:54:07 - 00:15:16:19
Doug Theis
You've probably got an idea of what The Day After Tomorrow looks like, probably for your organization. Some days you may not be as focused on it as others. When stuff's on fire, but you've probably got an idea that you're moving towards SaaS more, or you're moving more towards a cloud. A cloud environment, generally speaking. But it's probably not going to be pure anything.
00:15:16:19 - 00:15:44:16
Doug Theis
It's probably going to be a combination of other things. Security and security professionals in here. And they have the whac-a-mole approach to security. It's a strategy. It's not a great one. Zero trust is a common one. I understand what those words mean. I think the project managers, you know, the being able to govern and help the organization understand what the priorities are and what's important are incredibly important.
00:15:44:18 - 00:16:07:22
Doug Theis
Brand new project manager sitting in front of me, right now, guys. You don't know what you don't know quite yet for your new organization. And so you have a great ability to help. And then the support teams, like you were saying, Isaac, you know, you're going to have to teach them to be psychiatrists and kind people in spite of the other, the person who's on the other end of the line.
00:16:08:00 - 00:16:34:16
Doug Theis
No, it's important to you. Any thoughts on this? Any things that surprised you as you became a leader? On the strategy that you believed was going to be effective versus what really came to fruition? It's ever evolved because based on situations and approaches where you were have what started with what I do. Six bang, you go to a two year for another event.
00:16:34:18 - 00:16:55:07
Doug Theis
It may all be different. You're not going to always be consistent. You're going to attempt to be. But as things change, we change. People change. You have to adjust. What do you think? Dog years are in it. Is it seven years? You know, is that is one year? Seven years? I think it's faster than that. It's got to be.
00:16:55:07 - 00:17:21:11
Doug Theis
It's got to be. I really think it is. I, you know, that ever changing attitude and idea is super important. So you better have a framework when it comes to your discipline that can last more than six months. Yeah, well, even more important that you're going to communicate your strategy. Oh my gosh. Thank you Keith. And if they don't know where your head's at then they're going to be questioning like I don't understand where we're going.
00:17:21:11 - 00:17:49:09
Doug Theis
So you got to sit down and say, here's my vision. Here's where I want to get us. Yes. Well, they. Come on. Do you think that if you don't communicate that they'll adopt their own or doubts or dogma or do what? Or do nothing. Just last, last in, first out for others. And that is basically not not only knowing the strategy, but knowing how you contribute to that strategy that your team does.
00:17:49:09 - 00:18:05:16
Doug Theis
But there's there may be work that, you know, is not that exciting to do, but is critical to the strategy. And I think helping people understand that and see that, can get you through some of those tough times or, you know, how you're spending your cycles work around things that are really, you know, taking you to the direction that you need to go.
00:18:05:18 - 00:18:24:17
Doug Theis
But I like working on those things that are worthless. Okay. That's great. The thing that resonates with me on this slide is the bad news early from Walnut. I'm working with a customer, and her chief complaint right now is when I get bad news late, I may. If they had known it was going to happen, that it could have happened, they would have been okay with that.
00:18:24:17 - 00:18:54:21
Doug Theis
But if you're going out after a fire for things are already falling apart, that is that one will not accept. So my, my IT Leaders Bootcamp instructor who did our leadership 101 boot camp for many, many years before she retired a couple of years ago in Indy. Her motto is bad news. Early is good news. And, it is not limited to the project management strategy.
00:18:54:22 - 00:19:20:21
Doug Theis
I think it's super important. Yeah. Yeah. Really powerful. Anybody else? Our knowledge is transferred. Yeah. Yeah, we talk about it a lot because that is critical for all these infrastructure and for the knowledge transfer. Yeah, we we talk about it. We talk about cross training. Do we do it 20% 30%. How good is your organization at doing that?
00:19:21:00 - 00:19:44:22
Doug Theis
How good is your team at making sure that happens? Go ahead. One of the things that I've been working on is of truth and visibility. So some people will say, well, this is what's happening in the head. You end up with the data set. It's well, no, not really. So we've been getting data sets and just publishing reports out there for people to see for themselves what's going on.
00:19:44:22 - 00:20:15:13
Doug Theis
It just created a lot of conversations that we're having. That's a topic in and of itself. You know, Kanban boards are often most valuable because everybody can go look at them. You know, if the work in process is often invisible, a lot of the work that it does is invisible. I think that's super important. And I'm not sure, whether asking someone to review or report, meets the criteria visibility or not.
00:20:15:15 - 00:20:39:07
Doug Theis
But I think it should. I mean, I think we all have responsibilities like that to review those things. Please. Yeah. One of the things that I've seen very to work with immigration and are several ovp, but they I just idea. Well, yeah. And you're I take strategy. It's like yes. Funny. So you have and as it goes through the layers it changes the lot.
00:20:39:07 - 00:21:06:00
Doug Theis
It's amazing how that changes the tactics. Right. It does. And that's why we have disciplines in it. Right. Because we all have to divide the work and conquer the work. Yeah. One person two years. It's not the one person. Oh my gosh. So true. A couple of notes on this one. Leveraging outside perspective is a superpower. It is not often easy or obvious to do.
00:21:06:02 - 00:21:28:13
Doug Theis
Vendors and service providers are one of the best ways to do that. Especially seasoned people think old, who have done the work for a long time and have the ability to see many, many organizations trying to do the same work. This is where a lot of the work I do these days, in the last ten years, I've spent more times just coaching people on how to move forward.
00:21:28:15 - 00:21:40:16
Doug Theis
If that if this is an area where you could use some work chat with me, I can at least give you some advice on where to get started on this. I think it's super important.
00:21:40:18 - 00:22:06:19
Doug Theis
Okay. We've talked about yourself. We've talked about your team. We've talked about what to give up. We've talked about what's the last one IT strategy. Let's talk about beliefs on leadership. I'm going to talk about three broad categories here. I'm not going to go into detail in this talk because we're running out of time. But you will get the presentation from both Angela and for me in a follow up email.
00:22:07:01 - 00:22:36:13
Doug Theis
So you can examine these on your own. Remember the be employee, a good employee to be a good leader. Sy Wakeman is amazing. She is one of the most interesting leadership speakers I've ever heard. I had the good fortune to hear her live probably about six years ago, and I've read every book she's ever, written except for the most recent one, which is called Life's Messy, Live Happy, which is in my stack right now.
00:22:36:15 - 00:23:08:04
Doug Theis
Her formula in her second book, Reality Based Rules of the workplace. This is about being a good employee. Your value is your current performance plus your future potential minus three times your emotional expansiveness. Read drama, read drama and emotional expansiveness. Ditch the drama is one of her mottos and your ego is not your amigo. That's another one of her.
00:23:08:06 - 00:23:31:15
Doug Theis
Her real. Her real important messages on this. These are her metrics on if you're if you're really looking as a good employee to edit your own story and not to be a venter, necessarily, or or not to be a victim or not to get caught up in what's not important in your job. This five step process is really powerful.
00:23:31:16 - 00:23:52:01
Doug Theis
I think the what do I know for sure is really important, right? We make assumptions all the time. Well, she said this. So he thinks that, I'm this or that. I don't know that for sure. I know that the person I'm thinking of is trying to get some work done, and that's really about all I know. So I'm not going to read through this.
00:23:52:01 - 00:24:14:08
Doug Theis
I will I will recommend that you grab this book. Remember, if you know how to be a good employee, you've got a boss and he or she probably cares about that. It is a long way towards getting to the good leader. Her first book is called Reality Based Rules of Leadership, and it is also a great book.
00:24:14:09 - 00:24:47:05
Doug Theis
So both of hers, my first speaker at IT leaders in Louisville, was a centric consulting guy named Brad Clark, who's amazing. And it was probably the single best topic I've ever heard in an IT leaders meeting in all these 50 meetings that we've held over the years. And it was based on a book called Conversational Intelligence by an author who's no longer living, who Brad had the chance to meet, before she passed.
00:24:47:07 - 00:25:14:01
Doug Theis
And it's really about bringing a company's culture to every conversation. I'm going to read a few, senses here. I'm not big on reading slides, but I think these are important. Greatness depends on culture, which depends on the quality of our relationships, which depends on the quality of our conversations. How real does it get? Every single conversation that you have can have an impact on your culture?
00:25:14:03 - 00:25:44:23
Doug Theis
Conversational intelligence is hard wired and learnable. And it's about connecting and navigate and growing with others, both in your organization and really any relationships that you have. So how you show up in those conversations has an impact every single time. And then relationship precedes tasks and transactions. Trust drives output. And trust starts with conversations.
00:25:45:01 - 00:26:06:16
Doug Theis
Take a look at these. We usually only see our own point of view. Remember that the feedback, discussion and how good am I at listening? What's that guy talking about? She doesn't know what she's speaking of. I know exactly I know all about that. Shutting down because of fear. We have a thousand fears as human beings. Fear of looking stupid.
00:26:06:16 - 00:26:34:11
Doug Theis
My boss talks about it all the time. That's his biggest fear. He knows it. He's self-aware about it. He fights it every single day. We all do. Not not hearing what's really sad. Oh, my gosh. Makes my stomach hurt. Listening to reject, which is closely related to the desperate need to be right 100% of the time and asking questions for which we already have our answer.
00:26:34:11 - 00:27:02:10
Doug Theis
All of these are poisonous to driving culture and having meaningful conversations. This is really kind of the punch line of conversational intelligence that tell ask. The most basic transactional form of communications, command and control leadership. And then the advocate and inquire is the next level. And then share and discover or is really the growth. This is an amazing book.
00:27:02:10 - 00:27:27:05
Doug Theis
It is hard to get a hold of this book if, if you like reading and learning and if you don't read any other book I've mentioned today, this is probably the one that I think may have the most impact on you. Conversational intelligence by Judith Glaser. And then finally, another speaker I had, in January of 2023 at IT leaders Indi Sarah K Roberts.
00:27:27:05 - 00:27:57:08
Doug Theis
Robinson. She is a force of nature. First off, she is one of the very first humans trained on Strengthsfinder after Gallup bought it. And she has the amazing ability to talk about how your five traits actually interact with each other that make you who you are, which the book and the materials don't really address. So she's really powerful, and she's a good integrator of that information for your teams when they when they come.
00:27:57:10 - 00:28:28:16
Doug Theis
Her podcast and her video are available in the January 2023. Fresh is an acronym for feedback. We know all about feedback now, thanks to Angela. Rewards. This is so important. And I don't know that I've ever understood that. Understanding what's rewarding for each of your employees gives you the best chance to help motivate them and help them be engaged, and engagement comes next.
00:28:28:18 - 00:28:58:19
Doug Theis
I identifying employee skills and thoughtfully placing them based on their skills is probably the best way to drive engagement. And you know, you're 1% not engaged when you're actually focused on your employees. That number is amazing. I mean, it's zero functionally. And then service give meaning to your employees work if they understand the why of the company, chances are they understand their own why?
00:28:58:19 - 00:29:30:12
Doug Theis
Maybe you can help them illuminate that. The intersection of those two whys is your job as a leader? Find it. And then human connection. Hybrid work has driven more loneliness than, I think any of us really understood. I anecdotally, I have noticed that people who are forced to go into the office even three days a week are kind of unhappy because they want to be remote.
00:29:30:12 - 00:29:59:13
Doug Theis
And the people who are home five days a week are kind of unhappy because they don't feel the water cooler culture like they used to. So we've developed this new work model where everybody's slightly unhappy. Their, that connection needs to be managed directly and purposefully. Do I have answers? Your team is really the key to your answers and the people that are on your team.
00:29:59:18 - 00:30:29:01
Doug Theis
I've talked many times at the beginning of IT leaders about, new managers. They often lead away from a crappy manager they had. I'm not going to do that. Or they lead towards a good manager they have. I think that lady was brilliant. She was the best leader I've ever had. I'm going to do what she did. And they often leave their team behind and the nuances of their own team, at least on that first iteration of leadership.
00:30:29:01 - 00:31:05:00
Doug Theis
So don't miss that. That's an easy one to fix. Keep your team in mind as you lead. So finally, iterate your approach. Teams change. Organizational leadership changes. Your boss is going to change. Economics change priorities. Change in the organization. Prepare for the change by knowing what your beliefs are and leadership I named off. Be a good employee. I named off conversational intelligence, bringing culture to every conversation and keeping that fresh leadership model in mind.
00:31:05:01 - 00:31:27:02
Doug Theis
Those are three I've got seven more books I could talk to you about that I think are meaningful, but these are the ones that really I come back to again and again. If you build yourself a framework for leadership that's meaningful. Any of these changes are going to have less of an impact on how you approach the leadership equation over time.
00:31:27:04 - 00:31:54:02
Doug Theis
You know yourself, know your team, know what you have to give up. Know what your strategy is. Know what your leadership beliefs are. These are my three. They've changed over time. And then iterate. That's the approach. Thank you. Any questions or any thoughts as we close?