Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Every day you have a choice. You can wake up and choose to give in to mediocrity and complacency, you can choose bad habits and poor choices, and you can do the bare minimum to get by and fly under the radar. Or you can choose to make today the day that sets you apart from the crowd, you can choose to start doing the right things, the things that will set you up for success. You can choose to create a life that is worth living, worth waking up to, and worth sharing with the world around you. Today You can choose to start with a win.
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:09:23
Speaker 2
worked with a company once, Adam, who referred to their employees as Rpas revenue producing units.
00:00:10:01 - 00:00:10:20
Speaker 1
All right. Everybody right.
00:00:10:20 - 00:00:12:08
Speaker 2
That things were not going well.
00:00:12:08 - 00:00:16:15
Speaker 1
Welcome to start with a win where we unpack leadership, personal growth and development
00:00:16:16 - 00:00:19:04
Speaker 1
and how to build a better business. Let's go.
00:00:19:06 - 00:00:27:12
Speaker 1
Ever wondered what it takes to unlock your potential as a leader and make meaningful changes in the world? Today we talk about that on. Start with a win.
00:00:27:12 - 00:00:47:15
Speaker 1
Coming to you from area 15 ventures and start with the win headquarters. It's Adam Contos with start with a win. We are thrilled to have an Morris with us, someone who's not just passionate about leadership, but has an infectious drive to help others achieve their best and is an entrepreneur, leadership coach and the powerhouse behind a leadership consortium.
00:00:47:17 - 00:01:15:16
Speaker 1
An innovative program that's transforming leaders across the globe. With a track record of advising top executives and building groundbreaking companies and insights are truly invaluable. She's also a bestselling author and the co-host of fixable, where she tackles workplace challenges in just 30 minutes. So if you're eager to learn how to lead with impact and accelerate change, you're in for a treat within Morris.
00:01:15:18 - 00:01:17:21
Speaker 1
And welcome to start with a win.
00:01:18:00 - 00:01:23:17
Speaker 2
Oh thank you Adam I'm really delighted to be here and have my favorite conversation with you today.
00:01:23:17 - 00:01:45:03
Speaker 1
Oh, this is about leadership, folks. I'm super excited about this because we've had a great deal of people on the show talking about business growth and things like that, but ultimately it's about leadership. So we've brought on an amazing expert today to really dig deep into leadership. And Anna and I have had some conversation before the show talking about some of our favorite leadership points.
00:01:45:08 - 00:01:53:15
Speaker 1
And I want to really get into those. But and please take us back a little bit. How did you get into being a leadership expert and writing about leadership?
00:01:53:17 - 00:02:19:16
Speaker 2
Yeah. You know, I actually Adam, I started out in an unexpected way. I was actually in the public health world at the beginning of my career. And one of the things that was clear to me, I was working in a bunch of nonprofits. I was drawn to the mission. That was always something that's deeply energizing to me, this idea of working towards something bigger than myself and what became clear to me was a huge variable in this world.
00:02:19:18 - 00:02:46:20
Speaker 2
And then, as I came to discover in almost every sector and around it, off to every sector is that these what we call soft skills and well rounded off to leadership as as the topic of our conversation today, it was such a big factor in whether teams and organizations were able to achieve this ambitious mission. And so I just became captivated by that question.
00:02:46:22 - 00:03:12:17
Speaker 2
I ended up in business school where people seemed to take that question seriously, and then I built my own company. It wasn't a particular success, but it was an extraordinary education in my own, you know, strengths and limitations as a leader. And I was just very motivated to figure out how to get the word out that this is the thing that matters.
00:03:12:19 - 00:03:27:13
Speaker 1
You said something there that was really interesting to me, and that's finding the soft skills of leadership. And we've we've been talking about the soft skills for a while. Can you, can you give us a little bit of a definition of what you think the soft skills are in leadership?
00:03:27:15 - 00:03:45:09
Speaker 2
Yeah, well, we just gave ourselves the challenge to try to write it down in kind of a playbook format. We just published a book called Move Fast and Fix Things, and we tried to summarize, okay, what out of it, particularly when you're a change leader, which is why bother being a leader if you're not trying to change it?
00:03:45:11 - 00:04:05:20
Speaker 2
But what are the things you really need to be good at? And where we landed was you know, you have to be good at diagnosing the problem. So step number one, you really have to be able to pause and look with clear eyes at what the real issue is. And that's really counterintuitive for a lot of leaders because we want to be in action.
00:04:05:22 - 00:04:30:06
Speaker 2
We want to jump in there. And we're often, if if we're pretty good at this, at at risk of falling into overconfidence, that the way we're seeing the issue is, you know, what we're seeing is, is, is necessarily reality. And so we push people on this one to really slow down, to bias inquiry over advocacy, to figure out how to ask the right questions.
00:04:30:06 - 00:04:50:12
Speaker 2
And so I would say that would be soft skill number one that often gets overlooked. You have to be able to build trust. Leadership is a relational practice. The foundation of any relationship or network of relationships. And it's a way to think about an organization. A simple way is trust. So you have to be able to do that well.
00:04:50:12 - 00:05:18:13
Speaker 2
You have to do it as an individual. You have to do it with your team. You have to do it with your key stakeholders. If you're an enterprise leader, I'd say that's number two. Number three is what we would call inclusive leadership. So you have to really be able to lead across boundaries of difference. You know, often the the information and capability that you need most who lives inside someone who's very different from you.
00:05:18:19 - 00:05:40:14
Speaker 2
And so you really have to learn how to enable people, not just people who are like you, but the people who are not like you and say, that's number three. Number four is storytelling. So you have to be able to tell a story that enables people to act with urgency in your absence. So there's other tools of what we call absence leadership.
00:05:40:16 - 00:06:00:19
Speaker 2
Great strategy, building a great culture. These are all things that enable people to go out and achieve the mission when you're not in the room. And increasingly as leaders, as you move up the hierarchy, as we work in a remote work environment, we're not in the room, but storytelling. We would summarize that all in this of storytelling challenge.
00:06:00:21 - 00:06:16:02
Speaker 2
And then you got to be able to go fast. I like and so that's number five. You got to be able to, you know, set the metabolic rate, the battle rhythm if you will, atom of the team. You have to be able to set that pace and keep it going.
00:06:16:04 - 00:06:17:15
Speaker 1
The battle rhythm.
00:06:17:17 - 00:06:22:03
Speaker 2
That those are my top five soft skills. What would you add to it.
00:06:22:05 - 00:06:45:08
Speaker 1
Well I would so the I would say, just to put a bow on it, I would say, be able to accept and deliver accountability. Is probably but I think all of these things need to be in place in order for accountability to actually happen. So you can't you can't roll in. A lot of people roll in with accountability first.
00:06:45:08 - 00:06:47:06
Speaker 1
It doesn't happen that way.
00:06:47:08 - 00:06:51:01
Speaker 2
Without setting people up to succeed or handle that accountability.
00:06:51:03 - 00:07:17:16
Speaker 1
Exactly. Or having that, that, you know, that clarity and that transparency. And you said it best, you know, in number two is trust because you can't trust accountability without trust is management. Yeah. So I mean, you've you've got to kind of break that barrier there. And these I've, I've heard, heard these calls, soft skills. I, I've also heard them called Human skills, which I love.
00:07:17:16 - 00:07:48:17
Speaker 1
I, I think that's kind of the, the new trend that we're trying to define them as is human skills because, and I like that you talk about your MBA. You know, I, I got mine also also guilty. Yeah. Also guilty. And I was scratching my head during that process going, when do I learn leadership? Because, you know, we, I think the, the closest thing we got to that was, this course called Human Capital Management, which really.
00:07:48:19 - 00:07:50:01
Speaker 2
Technical title a.
00:07:50:01 - 00:07:50:17
Speaker 1
Totally.
00:07:50:18 - 00:07:53:13
Speaker 2
That's the whole ballgame. Human capital management. Yeah.
00:07:53:14 - 00:08:01:02
Speaker 1
Right. Yeah. And I mean, doesn't it depersonalize it quite a bit. Yeah. I mean, so I.
00:08:01:07 - 00:08:11:10
Speaker 2
We worked with a company once, Adam, who referred to their employees as Rpas revenue producing units.
00:08:11:12 - 00:08:12:07
Speaker 1
All right. Everybody right.
00:08:12:07 - 00:08:15:13
Speaker 2
That things were not going well. Things were not going well, as you can imagine.
00:08:15:16 - 00:08:55:00
Speaker 1
Right. Let's let's not call our people units, okay, folks, you know, they are they're human beings. And and they wake up in the morning the same as we do. And and we have to, you know, drop some inspiration and, and help them achieve things to be to feel the accomplishment. And so that's, that's fascinating. But the one thing that I noticed and maybe you noticed this also, maybe you went to a better business school than I did, but, why don't we teach these soft skills of leadership more going all the way back to, you know, call it high school, for instance, when we're really in this formative process of team building
00:08:55:00 - 00:09:05:15
Speaker 1
and saturate you if you go even back to elementary school, for that matter. But why are we missing this key component in society, in your opinion?
00:09:05:17 - 00:09:30:17
Speaker 2
This is a this is a very deep question. I think, I mean, if we go all the way back to high school, I do think sports and team sports in particular are really powerful leadership laboratory. There was just some interesting research that came out on, on women leaders and the percentage of them that had played team sports in high school or college and its astonishingly high number.
00:09:30:19 - 00:10:10:02
Speaker 2
I do I do think that that's one place where we get it right of really, even for kids who are not particularly interested in athletics are born out. I mean, you know, most schools will really encourage most people to participate. But I do think after that moment, you know, they're in it in the school environment, I think there is this industrial burden where at one point we were really using, you know, elementary and high school to train, you know, laborers, you know, to go do very routine work inside factory.
00:10:10:02 - 00:10:28:15
Speaker 2
So I, I do think there's an interesting story there that we were, you know, this was an anti leadership curriculum for a reason because that this was a time where we thought we didn't need very many leaders. And we needed a whole bunch of, of workers to go and do what they were taught. We live in a very different world now.
00:10:28:15 - 00:10:54:13
Speaker 2
And I think arguably our education system is still keeping up. I have two teenage boys. We argue about this all the time. All the time. So yes, I do think there's probably ways to go, but what be what's really interesting and what we think about all the time in our work is that then when you get inside organizations, you know, MBAs are, you know, explicitly training grounds for leadership.
00:10:54:13 - 00:11:22:14
Speaker 2
And, you know, I'm sure you can argue some schools are better at it than others. But then when we get inside organizations, often they don't gracefully catch that ball in terms of leadership development. And it's it doesn't rise to the very top of the priority list. This is the way I'm an invest in my people because we need a really deep bench if we are going to achieve the not just achieve the short term mission, but build a really enduring enterprise.
00:11:22:16 - 00:11:53:00
Speaker 2
And when we sample and the organizations that are really successful in an enduring way, you know, that achieve real excellence over time and that excellence continues to accelerate. Let's say a company like Microsoft, it's not an accident that they are being very explicit about their investment in leadership development and even in these turbulent times. That's my favorite academic euphemism for like, batshit crazy, you know, like economic environment.
00:11:53:02 - 00:11:58:13
Speaker 2
You know, these organizations are continuing to invest because they understand that that's the future.
00:11:58:15 - 00:12:19:03
Speaker 1
Right? Well, and that's the opportunity also, you know, those I truly think that those that are, wound up with the strength of leadership throughout the organization are those that are going to propel themselves past the their peers in, true competition, you know, and it goes back to the sports days. And, you know, we talk about Sports Night.
00:12:19:03 - 00:12:47:07
Speaker 1
I agree with you. It's it's an amazing laboratory for the, the practical application of leadership. We have team captains, we have, you know, different coaching levels, things like that. But the ultimate, the ultimate question is, can we say that we are training leadership, like, actively and, knowingly, you know, intentionally training leadership on call it a weekly basis.
00:12:47:09 - 00:13:11:14
Speaker 1
And I truly think that that is one of the, the current challenges that we face. Do you know of any organization or, active, you know, whoever institutions of any sort that spend time each week delivering leadership development to their people? And, I'm sure you do. What impact does that have over the peers?
00:13:11:16 - 00:13:33:09
Speaker 2
Yeah. So I didn't pay you to ask me that question, but I will answer it in the following way that, you know, my coconspirator and all the work that I do. Francis thrives on the fact that at Harvard Business School also happens to be my co-parent, my wife, my coauthor. We started our own company to deal with this gap called the Leadership Consortium.
00:13:33:11 - 00:13:59:00
Speaker 2
Yes. Which is that, essentially companies can outsource this challenge to us. It was it seemed like such a big need. And it's also our observation that does not take a ton of time or a ton of resources. And so, you know, we have a program that's, just a couple months long that's really training people to prepare for higher levels of leadership.
00:13:59:02 - 00:14:22:04
Speaker 2
And one of the when we measure outputs from the program, one of the one of the key metrics we're looking at is confidence. Like, do I have the confidence to raise my hand and say, yes, I want to take the ball and go do this hard thing, and I know how to solve problems and I know how to access that support I need, and I know how to you know, navigate uncertainty.
00:14:22:06 - 00:14:46:06
Speaker 2
Now, so, you know, we started that company because it was our observation that it was hard for organizations in their existing form to solve this problem on their own. Now, there are companies out there that are doing this well in-house. And I think Microsoft is one I think, you know, ServiceNow is another one that's thinking deeply about this.
00:14:46:07 - 00:15:09:02
Speaker 2
You know, we we spent a lot of time in the tech world. So we have a bias for that. I think the the pattern, one of the patterns, when we look at organizations that are really getting this right, that we see is that there's a deep partnership between the CEO and the chief people officer or the chief human resources officer.
00:15:09:04 - 00:15:48:14
Speaker 2
And I do think, Adam, that that's a real tell, you know, because sometimes, particularly in younger organizations, HR will be this kind of afterthought, right? Or this like luxury, you know, service that we're really not allowed to invest in. But when both, you know, these mature organizations, but also these younger organizations that are in that they they're really using that those people functions not just as a compliance, you know, arm of the company, but as a way to really invest in the the leadership capabilities of their team, not just the current leaders, but the future leaders of the organization.
00:15:48:16 - 00:16:13:22
Speaker 1
Wow. And what you just said does not get missed by me because you said something very important to me. You mentioned the company ServiceNow. So if you look at this sign, for those of you on video, stay hungry, stay humble. So Bill McDermott, who was the CEO of SAP and now is the CEO of ServiceNow, I was at a very small mastermind and he came in to speak with us.
00:16:14:00 - 00:16:36:05
Speaker 1
And Bill McDermott, you know, SAP is the largest software company in the world. ServiceNow is another juggernaut in business, one of the best companies on the planet. And what you just said was that they have regular leadership development, which is core to Bill McDermott's fundamentals. I mean, he is a.
00:16:36:06 - 00:16:57:19
Speaker 2
I'm a I'm a I mean, he's a legend, right? But but this is a great example. He is partners deeply with the chief people officer there, Jackie Canny, to bring that vision to life because, you know, you interact with Bill and you're like, oh my God, one like 1 in 1,000,000,000 who like, who is this epic human being?
00:16:57:21 - 00:17:20:12
Speaker 2
But he made a commitment to translate his vision and his ethos and his values, you know, into an entire organization. And you can't get there without a very smart and strategic investment in training and leadership development. So he and Jackie partner really deeply to to bring that commitment to life.
00:17:20:17 - 00:17:26:19
Speaker 1
I think it's the first thing that they think of in the morning. I mean, it's they're not thinking about the business or thinking about the people in their growth.
00:17:26:21 - 00:17:29:12
Speaker 2
100%, 100%. That's true.
00:17:29:17 - 00:17:49:17
Speaker 1
So quick little story. It was it was interesting. I was brand new CEO, brand new public company CEO. And Bill said, do you have any questions for me? I said, Mr. McDermott, I have a question for you. As a brand new CEO, what advice do you have for me in order to build the best company possible?
00:17:49:19 - 00:18:10:23
Speaker 1
And he talked about building leaders in the organization, but he ended with so, Adam, I want you to remember this. And that's that's why I have this hanging here. He said, it's your job as the CEO to stay hungry and stay humble, meaning you're always learning leadership and delivering leadership to help people grow.
00:18:11:01 - 00:18:14:18
Speaker 2
It's so good. So good.
00:18:14:19 - 00:18:40:14
Speaker 1
You talk about, you know, leadership through stories. That's one of my stories. And that's why it's hanging on the wall behind me is, it's so funny that you you close the loop on that ServiceNow connection and Bill McDermott, because I as soon as you said that, I'm going. No way. This is incredible small world. But truly leaders notice leaders and it's it's a fun thing to be part of on this planet when you're you're helping people grow and get better.
00:18:40:16 - 00:18:57:01
Speaker 1
So, I want I want to talk a little bit about your book, move fast and Fix things. What's the premise behind this? I mean, there's rapid change and taking care of the stakeholders, things of that nature going on. But why did you write this book? And what's the intent of the book?
00:18:57:03 - 00:19:38:20
Speaker 2
Yeah, we you know, in our experience, it speed had had gotten a bad name in many organizations. I think it's really the dangerous legacy of move fast and break things. It wasn't that we were breaking so many things and everyone was okay with it. I think the world has really kind of push back on that ethos, which really did define the innovation economy for so long, but we really wanted to rehabilitate Speed's bad reputation, because when we looked at the leaders who were most successful both in and beyond tech, they were solving problems at an accelerated pace while also taking responsibility for the success and well-being of their customers, shareholders and employees.
00:19:38:22 - 00:20:00:23
Speaker 2
They weren't moving fast and breaking things. They were moving fast and fixing things. And so we wanted to get the word out. And then we wanted to really push ourselves on this idea of, of could we distill down the choices that these leaders were making and the lessons from the last 20 years of, you know, very disruptive time and in American business and global business?
00:20:01:01 - 00:20:30:12
Speaker 2
And could we pull out the patterns of how to do this right in your own organization at whatever size or, you know, level of maturity? And, and that's where we ended up with this, these kind of five steps. We, we give them, you know, we assign them to days of the week. We think that sequence matters. And in particular, you have to build trust first and then earn the right to go fast on top of that foundation of trust.
00:20:30:14 - 00:20:44:17
Speaker 1
Okay. So that's why there's five of those and five workdays during the week, typically, those of us that are entrepreneurs know that, you know, Friday means we have two more days before, two more workdays before Monday. So,
00:20:44:19 - 00:21:03:13
Speaker 2
But although we will put, we push you to take a break, because if you look at all of the peak performance literature, and I'm sure you've had some of these researchers on your show, Adam, you know, the power of really giving yourself room to recover is the difference between, you know, winning the race and burning out as you go.
00:21:03:15 - 00:21:12:05
Speaker 1
Totally, totally end and to end point. You know, my, like, my workout program five days a week and I have to take my two days off.
00:21:12:07 - 00:21:20:14
Speaker 2
You have to take your two days off. That's that's really clear. That's really clear. And all of the data, it doesn't work. You don't get stronger otherwise.
00:21:20:16 - 00:21:43:23
Speaker 1
Correct. Yeah. It's, and, you know, it's it's fascinating. My, my workout app even tells me that it's like you have to have time for recovery. Take the day off. Like, I love this. Somebody giving me permission because as as a leader, a lot of times there's no one there to give us permission but ourselves. We have to give our self permission in order to, to rest and recuperate, and recharge, for that matter.
00:21:43:23 - 00:21:56:02
Speaker 1
Well, we have so much amazing leadership conversation going on that. And and I decided to make this a two part. So this is the end of the first part. Make sure you go back and listen to it. There's a lot of great information on leadership here.
00:21:56:06 - 00:22:12:22
Speaker 1
I love the move fast to fix things piece and be good at diagnosing the problem. Take a look at the notes that you have from this one, and we will see you on the next episode of start with a win with and more and more leadership conversation.