WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.120 Today, we're going to talk about courageous leadership and I want to share with you three 2 00:00:06.120 --> 00:00:10.840 powerful techniques to take your leadership to the next level. 3 00:00:10.840 --> 00:00:15.760 But before we get into it, let's take a second and talk about the concept of leadership. 4 00:00:15.760 --> 00:00:20.840 You know, a title does not make you a leader, it just makes you a placeholder in an organization, 5 00:00:20.840 --> 00:00:23.140 maybe on an org chart. 6 00:00:23.140 --> 00:00:29.320 But if you want to define leadership at its foundation, one might say it's how you intentionally 7 00:00:29.320 --> 00:00:30.940 manage your influence. 8 00:00:30.940 --> 00:00:35.740 A person who is intentionally managing their influence is a leader. 9 00:00:35.740 --> 00:00:41.460 And by that definition, we're all leaders because we all lead our own contribution. 10 00:00:41.460 --> 00:00:45.740 You know, sometimes people say, well, I don't lead anything in the organization, meaning 11 00:00:45.740 --> 00:00:47.460 I don't have any direct reports. 12 00:00:47.460 --> 00:00:49.940 I don't have a team that report to me. 13 00:00:49.940 --> 00:00:54.220 But that still makes you a leader because you're managing your own contribution to the 14 00:00:54.220 --> 00:01:00.140 organization and you're leading customers, you're leading vendors. 15 00:01:00.140 --> 00:01:05.760 You are leading, you're actively managing your influence in that context. 16 00:01:05.760 --> 00:01:10.800 And so in that sense, we're all becoming a team of leaders. 17 00:01:10.800 --> 00:01:18.640 And you know, I think in the older days, you know, back, we used to have this idea that 18 00:01:18.640 --> 00:01:24.420 leadership really happens at the higher echelons of the organization, maybe the C-suite. 19 00:01:24.420 --> 00:01:29.180 And so leadership development was really for those inspiring managers or executives who 20 00:01:29.180 --> 00:01:31.420 were stepping into the next level. 21 00:01:31.420 --> 00:01:35.620 But nowadays, we're seeing leadership development happen throughout the organization. 22 00:01:35.620 --> 00:01:41.660 It's one of the big global trends we're seeing that is really transforming productivity. 23 00:01:41.660 --> 00:01:46.200 Because when people feel that they lead their own contribution, you have a higher sense 24 00:01:46.220 --> 00:01:51.100 of ownership, higher sense of innovation and even a higher sense of loyalty. 25 00:01:51.100 --> 00:01:54.080 We add meaning to their lives. 26 00:01:54.080 --> 00:01:59.020 We're going to get into a little bit about why then does leadership matter? 27 00:01:59.020 --> 00:02:04.580 Well leadership matters because, look, with growth comes complexity. 28 00:02:04.580 --> 00:02:07.500 With increasing growth comes increasing complexity. 29 00:02:07.500 --> 00:02:11.140 And complexity is the enemy of clarity. 30 00:02:11.140 --> 00:02:14.540 And without clarity, you cannot drive speed. 31 00:02:14.560 --> 00:02:18.840 You know, Jack Welch once famously talked about the three S's. 32 00:02:18.840 --> 00:02:24.600 You know, self-confidence leads to simplicity, which drives speed. 33 00:02:24.600 --> 00:02:28.580 Now instead of self-confidence, maybe we would call it courageous leadership. 34 00:02:28.580 --> 00:02:31.840 It takes a lot of courage to be simple. 35 00:02:31.840 --> 00:02:36.360 The saying we have around here is that, you know, if you're dealing with complexity, you're 36 00:02:36.360 --> 00:02:37.980 still the student. 37 00:02:37.980 --> 00:02:40.940 When you're dealing with simplicity, you've now become the master. 38 00:02:40.940 --> 00:02:43.800 Because we all know that if everything's important, nothing's important. 39 00:02:43.800 --> 00:02:47.500 So somebody has to be saying what's important. 40 00:02:47.500 --> 00:02:54.100 And when we get past that point, you know, where the chaos in our own heads is removed 41 00:02:54.100 --> 00:02:58.340 and we get some clarity, suddenly it's like everything kicks into gear. 42 00:02:58.340 --> 00:03:02.900 We suddenly find clarity and momentum and we're off to the races. 43 00:03:02.900 --> 00:03:08.220 You know, there's a great saying that says the mist in your mind becomes the fog in the 44 00:03:08.220 --> 00:03:09.220 organization. 45 00:03:09.220 --> 00:03:12.180 And for many leaders, you know, there's a lot of mist. 46 00:03:12.180 --> 00:03:14.920 They're not clear about what's their priorities here. 47 00:03:14.920 --> 00:03:15.920 What are we doing? 48 00:03:15.920 --> 00:03:19.480 Every two or three months, there's a new vision and a new this and a new that. 49 00:03:19.480 --> 00:03:22.920 And the team doesn't know what to execute on because they don't know what's important. 50 00:03:22.920 --> 00:03:25.600 It feels like, you know, we just bounce around. 51 00:03:25.600 --> 00:03:31.720 When you've got that feeling in your organization, you really do have a fog in the organization 52 00:03:31.720 --> 00:03:35.720 which came from the mist in your mind as the leader. 53 00:03:35.720 --> 00:03:43.700 So a leader can really substantially change and transform a team by creating clarity. 54 00:03:43.700 --> 00:03:52.460 So I want to talk about three powerful techniques to seriously up-level your leadership as an 55 00:03:52.460 --> 00:03:53.460 individual. 56 00:03:53.460 --> 00:03:58.260 Now, we're talking about leadership throughout the organization, but I also want to talk 57 00:03:58.260 --> 00:04:02.340 a little bit about the key, you know, the person who's leading the leaders because that 58 00:04:02.340 --> 00:04:04.580 takes a different level of skill. 59 00:04:04.600 --> 00:04:07.120 So let's talk about three powerful techniques that will help you. 60 00:04:07.120 --> 00:04:09.800 The first we call flip the coin. 61 00:04:09.800 --> 00:04:11.680 What do we mean by flipping the coin? 62 00:04:11.680 --> 00:04:19.040 Well, one might say that the first job of a leader is to define reality as it actually 63 00:04:19.040 --> 00:04:21.800 is and not as we hope it to be. 64 00:04:21.800 --> 00:04:27.840 So what we find out is that, you know, reality, also the exact situation we're in, the context 65 00:04:27.840 --> 00:04:31.840 we find ourselves in, has very distinct facts. 66 00:04:31.860 --> 00:04:39.540 And if we can state those facts bluntly and clearly, then what happens, quite surprisingly, 67 00:04:39.540 --> 00:04:41.700 is it opens up new possibilities. 68 00:04:41.700 --> 00:04:43.460 It's like two sides of the coin. 69 00:04:43.460 --> 00:04:47.220 On the one side, we turn it and we say, here is the one side of the coin. 70 00:04:47.220 --> 00:04:48.760 This is the problem. 71 00:04:48.760 --> 00:04:54.860 And when we state those in the clearest possible way, no sugarcoating, then when we flip the 72 00:04:54.860 --> 00:04:59.720 coin to the possibility of what this opens up, well, both the possibility. 73 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:04.240 and the reality of the situation are both equally real. 74 00:05:04.240 --> 00:05:08.320 The facts and the possibility are equally real. 75 00:05:08.320 --> 00:05:12.480 So I found as a leader that the reason why we struggle sometimes to 76 00:05:12.480 --> 00:05:14.800 define reality is we don't 77 00:05:14.800 --> 00:05:18.540 entirely know what the reality in our organization is. 78 00:05:18.540 --> 00:05:20.080 Now in a smaller company, 79 00:05:20.080 --> 00:05:22.080 we tend to have a better sense. 80 00:05:22.080 --> 00:05:25.660 But even there, even in a small company of 10 people, 81 00:05:25.660 --> 00:05:29.160 perhaps there can still be what I would refer to 82 00:05:29.160 --> 00:05:32.400 as depth perception in the organization. 83 00:05:32.400 --> 00:05:34.680 As an organization grows, 84 00:05:34.680 --> 00:05:36.400 so grows the complexity. 85 00:05:36.400 --> 00:05:38.000 And it's harder and harder to see 86 00:05:38.000 --> 00:05:41.200 deeply into the organization to see what's real. 87 00:05:41.200 --> 00:05:43.800 Now this doesn't mean that as the leader, 88 00:05:43.800 --> 00:05:45.860 you have to know everything about everything. 89 00:05:45.860 --> 00:05:48.680 But it does mean that you have a very clear sense 90 00:05:48.680 --> 00:05:51.400 of reality that your business is in. 91 00:05:51.400 --> 00:05:54.200 And I say that because when you ask most leaders, 92 00:05:54.200 --> 00:05:56.680 they would feel they do have a sense of that reality. 93 00:05:56.680 --> 00:05:59.280 Well, here's one thing that I have found. 94 00:05:59.280 --> 00:06:01.640 So I call this the one thing feedback. 95 00:06:01.640 --> 00:06:03.760 This one thing feedback technique is 96 00:06:03.760 --> 00:06:05.520 a very powerful way where you can ask 97 00:06:05.520 --> 00:06:07.480 different people in your organization. 98 00:06:07.480 --> 00:06:09.080 These three questions. 99 00:06:09.080 --> 00:06:12.360 By the way, don't just ask your direct reports. 100 00:06:12.360 --> 00:06:15.000 Ask various people in the organization 101 00:06:15.000 --> 00:06:18.420 whom you think will give you an honest answer. 102 00:06:18.420 --> 00:06:20.560 So three questions to ask. 103 00:06:20.560 --> 00:06:22.200 The one thing feedback. 104 00:06:22.200 --> 00:06:26.400 Question number one, what one thing do I do uniquely? 105 00:06:27.000 --> 00:06:29.720 This gives your team a chance to compliment you, 106 00:06:29.720 --> 00:06:33.780 to show what value you bring to the organization. 107 00:06:33.780 --> 00:06:35.620 But it will surprise you sometimes 108 00:06:35.620 --> 00:06:37.080 the things people bring up 109 00:06:37.080 --> 00:06:38.880 that you may not have quite thought of. 110 00:06:38.880 --> 00:06:42.920 And realizing that what's that one thing you uniquely bring 111 00:06:42.920 --> 00:06:46.720 is actually very much unique to you. 112 00:06:46.720 --> 00:06:50.580 Second question is, what one thing do I need to stop doing? 113 00:06:52.040 --> 00:06:54.040 I once asked, I used to ask these questions 114 00:06:54.040 --> 00:06:57.720 and I think it's great to ask this every, say, 115 00:06:57.720 --> 00:07:01.480 six months or so, is ask various people. 116 00:07:01.480 --> 00:07:03.640 I ask these questions and people said, 117 00:07:03.640 --> 00:07:04.760 well, you always bring clarity. 118 00:07:04.760 --> 00:07:07.240 That's always the thing people tend to bring up for me. 119 00:07:07.240 --> 00:07:09.040 And then the one thing they said is, 120 00:07:09.040 --> 00:07:10.960 what thing do I need to stop doing? 121 00:07:10.960 --> 00:07:13.240 One person said, you need to stop doing the books. 122 00:07:13.240 --> 00:07:16.880 Well, at that point, we were running four operating entities 123 00:07:16.880 --> 00:07:18.040 and I was doing all the books 124 00:07:18.040 --> 00:07:19.540 because in my mind I thought, 125 00:07:19.540 --> 00:07:22.800 well, if I'm there involved in that level of detail, 126 00:07:22.800 --> 00:07:25.280 I'm tracking the expenses and revenue 127 00:07:25.280 --> 00:07:27.440 and I got my finger on the detail. 128 00:07:27.440 --> 00:07:29.480 And what it turned out to be is that 129 00:07:29.480 --> 00:07:32.160 this was not only a complete waste of my time, 130 00:07:32.160 --> 00:07:35.460 but it wasn't providing me the depth perception 131 00:07:35.460 --> 00:07:37.440 that I thought it was providing. 132 00:07:37.440 --> 00:07:39.600 And so I got involved with asking people, 133 00:07:39.600 --> 00:07:40.440 why do we spend this? 134 00:07:40.440 --> 00:07:41.280 Why do we spend that? 135 00:07:41.280 --> 00:07:42.360 What's going on here? 136 00:07:42.360 --> 00:07:43.200 That type of thing. 137 00:07:43.200 --> 00:07:45.800 And I could have easily handed that off to a good bookkeeper 138 00:07:45.800 --> 00:07:47.400 so that I did that. 139 00:07:47.400 --> 00:07:50.040 The third question is, what one thing can I do better? 140 00:07:50.040 --> 00:07:51.800 This is like giving a blank check. 141 00:07:51.840 --> 00:07:54.040 Now, the first time you ask these questions, 142 00:07:54.040 --> 00:07:56.400 you may not get a lot of feedback 143 00:07:56.400 --> 00:07:58.040 because a lot of people in the team 144 00:07:58.040 --> 00:08:00.320 don't know what the consequences are 145 00:08:00.320 --> 00:08:02.080 to answering you honestly. 146 00:08:02.080 --> 00:08:04.840 But over time, they get to trust you and get to know 147 00:08:04.840 --> 00:08:07.400 you really do wanna know the foundation 148 00:08:07.400 --> 00:08:09.640 and the answer to these questions. 149 00:08:09.640 --> 00:08:13.040 So as you do this, as you're flipping the coin, 150 00:08:13.040 --> 00:08:15.000 drive your depth perception 151 00:08:15.000 --> 00:08:18.800 by sampling different people in the organization 152 00:08:18.800 --> 00:08:22.040 and know exactly what the answers are. 153 00:08:22.040 --> 00:08:24.920 Second big powerful technique, 154 00:08:24.920 --> 00:08:26.320 so first is flip the coin. 155 00:08:26.320 --> 00:08:31.320 Second is build mental strength through powerful questions. 156 00:08:32.159 --> 00:08:34.080 You know, big questions like, 157 00:08:34.080 --> 00:08:36.480 is this idea part of our future? 158 00:08:36.480 --> 00:08:38.919 You know, you'll be watching out for quick fixes 159 00:08:38.919 --> 00:08:42.039 that tend to get alive and now you have to live with that 160 00:08:42.039 --> 00:08:44.360 and then it becomes a lot more expensive. 161 00:08:44.360 --> 00:08:47.420 And so what started off as a quick fix 162 00:08:47.420 --> 00:08:49.620 ended up as something you have to support 163 00:08:49.620 --> 00:08:52.100 at greater cost later on. 164 00:08:52.100 --> 00:08:54.500 But it's really about coming up with the best questions 165 00:08:54.500 --> 00:08:57.220 and I think most leaders intuitively know that. 166 00:08:57.220 --> 00:08:59.140 And so leaders sometimes say to me, 167 00:08:59.140 --> 00:09:02.140 I don't know how to always ask the best question. 168 00:09:02.140 --> 00:09:03.620 Here's a simple technique. 169 00:09:03.620 --> 00:09:05.420 Gather your team together and say, 170 00:09:05.420 --> 00:09:09.020 what's the best question we can ask right now? 171 00:09:09.020 --> 00:09:11.300 Then brainstorm them, put them on a board 172 00:09:11.300 --> 00:09:14.780 and then decide which is the best question to ask. 173 00:09:14.780 --> 00:09:16.140 You know, research that was done 174 00:09:16.140 --> 00:09:17.900 at a Northeastern university 175 00:09:17.900 --> 00:09:19.660 studied the most successful people 176 00:09:19.660 --> 00:09:21.740 in different areas of society. 177 00:09:21.740 --> 00:09:23.620 You know, academics, business people, 178 00:09:23.620 --> 00:09:25.980 technologists, medical people, 179 00:09:25.980 --> 00:09:27.500 educational people and so on. 180 00:09:27.500 --> 00:09:29.060 And what they found is they all had 181 00:09:29.060 --> 00:09:31.300 this unique thing in common. 182 00:09:31.300 --> 00:09:34.220 That very successful people are very good 183 00:09:34.220 --> 00:09:36.580 at rapid firing questions to themselves 184 00:09:36.580 --> 00:09:38.580 and then ordering those questions 185 00:09:38.580 --> 00:09:40.340 in order of the most important, 186 00:09:40.340 --> 00:09:44.140 even if that question seems super simple. 187 00:09:44.140 --> 00:09:46.300 Heads up, the simplest questions 188 00:09:46.300 --> 00:09:48.220 are often the most powerful 189 00:09:48.220 --> 00:09:50.500 because they go right to the heart of the matter. 190 00:09:50.500 --> 00:09:53.500 A complex question is hard for a team 191 00:09:53.500 --> 00:09:56.420 to immediately ascertain, well, how relevant is, 192 00:09:56.420 --> 00:09:57.500 how do we answer that? 193 00:09:57.500 --> 00:10:00.100 But a simple, straightforward question that is. 194 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:04.480 is really clear is the most helpful. 195 00:10:04.480 --> 00:10:06.000 Because here's the bottom line, 196 00:10:06.000 --> 00:10:08.600 things do not automatically improve. 197 00:10:08.600 --> 00:10:12.040 Elon Musk made the point that for SpaceX, 198 00:10:12.040 --> 00:10:15.200 there are now 50 years since we put someone on the moon, 199 00:10:15.200 --> 00:10:18.220 but that technology was foundationally forgotten. 200 00:10:18.220 --> 00:10:20.140 Knowing how to put someone on the moon 201 00:10:20.140 --> 00:10:22.240 was forgotten along the way. 202 00:10:22.240 --> 00:10:25.080 And now we're slowly getting back to the plan 203 00:10:25.080 --> 00:10:29.200 of hopefully before the end of the 2020s or before 2030, 204 00:10:29.200 --> 00:10:32.200 seeing somebody on the moon again. 205 00:10:32.200 --> 00:10:36.240 I mean, that's incredible that it's taken that long. 206 00:10:36.240 --> 00:10:38.200 So maybe there's a 60 year gap. 207 00:10:38.200 --> 00:10:41.800 I say that to say, things do not automatically improve. 208 00:10:41.800 --> 00:10:43.720 Technology doesn't automatically improve, 209 00:10:43.720 --> 00:10:45.520 systems, culture in your business 210 00:10:45.520 --> 00:10:47.120 doesn't automatically improve. 211 00:10:47.120 --> 00:10:49.800 You have to constantly make the adjustment 212 00:10:49.800 --> 00:10:52.640 and it takes courageous leadership 213 00:10:52.640 --> 00:10:56.040 to ask tough questions, penetrating questions, 214 00:10:56.040 --> 00:10:58.840 and to constantly build that mental strength 215 00:10:58.840 --> 00:11:01.000 in each of your team members. 216 00:11:01.000 --> 00:11:03.120 Make them thinkers and teach them 217 00:11:03.120 --> 00:11:06.800 how to think critically and creatively. 218 00:11:06.800 --> 00:11:10.980 Number three, continually challenge your assumptions. 219 00:11:12.080 --> 00:11:13.800 Let me ask this, great question. 220 00:11:13.800 --> 00:11:15.480 Ask your team this. 221 00:11:15.480 --> 00:11:20.480 If we stopped existing as an organization, would it matter? 222 00:11:20.520 --> 00:11:24.960 We all need to understand the core reason we exist. 223 00:11:24.960 --> 00:11:26.940 This is the foundation clarity 224 00:11:26.940 --> 00:11:29.900 on which you're gonna build a high performance team. 225 00:11:29.900 --> 00:11:31.740 You cannot have clarity 226 00:11:31.740 --> 00:11:34.700 when you don't know the core reason you exist. 227 00:11:34.700 --> 00:11:37.080 And you don't know how to execute on that 228 00:11:37.080 --> 00:11:39.260 if you don't know why it's important. 229 00:11:39.260 --> 00:11:41.860 So that's the question to ask your team. 230 00:11:41.860 --> 00:11:44.260 What's the core reason we exist? 231 00:11:44.260 --> 00:11:47.140 And once we know that, that clarity means, 232 00:11:47.140 --> 00:11:50.340 okay, now we know how to execute on it. 233 00:11:50.340 --> 00:11:53.360 It's amazing that as organizations grow, 234 00:11:53.360 --> 00:11:57.000 sometimes the core reason we exist gets forgotten 235 00:11:57.000 --> 00:11:58.920 or gets diluted along the way. 236 00:11:58.920 --> 00:12:01.200 So hitting the pause button regularly 237 00:12:01.200 --> 00:12:05.320 and driving it to that core reason we exist. 238 00:12:05.320 --> 00:12:08.440 You know, I remember a story of a consultant 239 00:12:08.440 --> 00:12:10.240 who arrived at a corporation 240 00:12:10.240 --> 00:12:12.200 and before he started working with them, 241 00:12:12.200 --> 00:12:15.900 he walked around and just asked people, excuse me, 242 00:12:15.900 --> 00:12:20.560 asked people, hey, you know, tell me what you're doing. 243 00:12:20.560 --> 00:12:22.280 And they would tell him, and then he would ask, 244 00:12:22.280 --> 00:12:23.640 why does it matter? 245 00:12:23.640 --> 00:12:24.520 And they'd say, what do you mean? 246 00:12:24.520 --> 00:12:26.640 I'm a programmer, I'm writing code. 247 00:12:26.640 --> 00:12:28.560 Yeah, but how does your writing code 248 00:12:28.560 --> 00:12:31.440 contribute to the overall company? 249 00:12:31.440 --> 00:12:32.520 And they were like, well, you know, 250 00:12:32.520 --> 00:12:33.720 I just do what my boss says, 251 00:12:33.720 --> 00:12:34.880 and then we want this new feature 252 00:12:34.880 --> 00:12:37.200 and the customers ask for it, so I give it to them. 253 00:12:37.200 --> 00:12:38.120 And he said, okay, I get that. 254 00:12:38.120 --> 00:12:40.960 So why does your business exist? 255 00:12:40.960 --> 00:12:42.720 And he said, well, you know, we sell software. 256 00:12:42.720 --> 00:12:44.800 He said, no, no, I'm not asking what you sell. 257 00:12:44.800 --> 00:12:48.600 I'm asking why do you exist and why does it matter? 258 00:12:48.600 --> 00:12:50.080 And he didn't know. 259 00:12:50.080 --> 00:12:51.760 And then there's the second story 260 00:12:51.760 --> 00:12:54.760 of somebody who arrived, the same consultant actually, 261 00:12:54.760 --> 00:12:57.080 arrived at another client, 262 00:12:57.080 --> 00:13:00.200 and he decided this time to go to the loading dock. 263 00:13:00.200 --> 00:13:01.520 And he went to the loading dock 264 00:13:01.520 --> 00:13:04.660 and he said to the person doing the loading, 265 00:13:06.000 --> 00:13:07.680 you know, what do you do? 266 00:13:07.680 --> 00:13:09.720 He says, well, I load all the equipment 267 00:13:09.720 --> 00:13:12.280 that we go and install at the big box stores. 268 00:13:12.280 --> 00:13:14.840 And, you know, they provided, you know, 269 00:13:15.800 --> 00:13:19.760 various telecommunications equipment to big box stores. 270 00:13:20.440 --> 00:13:22.240 So, you know, like Walmart and so on. 271 00:13:22.240 --> 00:13:23.680 So he said, well, what do you do? 272 00:13:23.680 --> 00:13:25.320 He said, well, I load the, you know, 273 00:13:25.320 --> 00:13:27.960 the equipment up and then for delivery. 274 00:13:27.960 --> 00:13:30.960 And so he said, well, you know, why does it matter? 275 00:13:30.960 --> 00:13:32.800 You know, how does this contribute? 276 00:13:32.800 --> 00:13:36.720 And so the docking person says, 277 00:13:36.720 --> 00:13:39.720 well, I've been out, I've watched them install 278 00:13:39.720 --> 00:13:42.120 and I realized that if I pack it wrongly, 279 00:13:42.120 --> 00:13:44.760 it takes so long to get to the key things 280 00:13:44.760 --> 00:13:48.080 that it really slows down the time of installation. 281 00:13:48.080 --> 00:13:51.240 And installation time is what's one of the key drivers 282 00:13:51.240 --> 00:13:53.360 of costs in our business model. 283 00:13:53.360 --> 00:13:57.300 So I repack the equipment in a certain order 284 00:13:57.300 --> 00:14:00.560 so it comes out logically as the installer needs it. 285 00:14:00.560 --> 00:14:01.680 And so we've, you know, 286 00:14:01.680 --> 00:14:05.320 we've cut the installation time down by 40%. 287 00:14:05.320 --> 00:14:08.120 And that's really helped the bottom line. 288 00:14:08.120 --> 00:14:10.220 There was the docking bay. 289 00:14:10.220 --> 00:14:12.800 Listen, your people need to know 290 00:14:12.800 --> 00:14:16.960 that what they do matters and how it contributes overall. 291 00:14:16.960 --> 00:14:21.080 And you can only get there through clarity. 292 00:14:21.080 --> 00:14:22.920 Always challenge your constraints. 293 00:14:22.920 --> 00:14:24.840 You can't say, well, it always takes an hour 294 00:14:24.840 --> 00:14:26.440 to install this thing. 295 00:14:26.440 --> 00:14:27.680 What if it doesn't? 296 00:14:27.680 --> 00:14:30.840 What if there's a way that we can make it shorter? 297 00:14:30.840 --> 00:14:34.400 And here's the thing, almost all constraints are wrong. 298 00:14:34.400 --> 00:14:38.560 It's amazing to me how when we lead organizations, 299 00:14:38.560 --> 00:14:41.000 over time, we develop assumptions 300 00:14:41.000 --> 00:14:42.960 that we made two or three years ago, 301 00:14:42.960 --> 00:14:45.360 which were really valid at the time, 302 00:14:45.360 --> 00:14:47.520 but they're no longer valid now. 303 00:14:47.520 --> 00:14:50.040 They're just a constraint that we've accepted 304 00:14:50.040 --> 00:14:51.760 as part of our thinking. 305 00:14:51.760 --> 00:14:54.320 So great leaders constantly challenging 306 00:14:54.320 --> 00:14:58.480 those underlying assumptions and constraints. 307 00:14:58.480 --> 00:14:59.920 And, you know, it is true. 308 00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:05.000 that when we're trying to optimize something, 309 00:15:05.480 --> 00:15:07.200 one of the core things to ask is, 310 00:15:07.200 --> 00:15:09.940 should we even be optimizing this? 311 00:15:09.940 --> 00:15:13.320 It's amazing how many times we spend energy, time, 312 00:15:13.320 --> 00:15:16.640 and effort optimizing something that shouldn't even exist. 313 00:15:16.640 --> 00:15:19.680 This process or this product shouldn't even exist, 314 00:15:19.680 --> 00:15:21.400 but we spend all the time optimizing 315 00:15:21.400 --> 00:15:23.120 and then realizing we don't need it, 316 00:15:23.120 --> 00:15:24.400 and then we get rid of it. 317 00:15:24.400 --> 00:15:25.360 And when we do that, 318 00:15:25.360 --> 00:15:28.360 we've wasted a tremendous amount of resources, 319 00:15:28.400 --> 00:15:32.300 but more dangerous is that we didn't have the clarity 320 00:15:32.300 --> 00:15:35.320 to know that that thing should not exist. 321 00:15:35.320 --> 00:15:37.840 So there's a healthy destructiveness 322 00:15:37.840 --> 00:15:40.200 to constantly challenging old assumptions. 323 00:15:40.200 --> 00:15:42.120 And I've heard leaders push back on this and say, 324 00:15:42.120 --> 00:15:44.720 well, if I challenge such deep assumptions 325 00:15:44.720 --> 00:15:47.380 in the organizations, the very foundations, 326 00:15:47.380 --> 00:15:51.040 won't it kind of shake the foundations of the organization? 327 00:15:51.040 --> 00:15:52.400 And I say it will, 328 00:15:52.400 --> 00:15:55.680 but you'll be surprised at how healthy that actually is. 329 00:15:56.520 --> 00:15:58.120 In one particular case, 330 00:15:58.120 --> 00:16:02.960 I had a situation where I had to call reality as it is. 331 00:16:02.960 --> 00:16:05.800 And so I went around and asked my three questions, 332 00:16:05.800 --> 00:16:09.760 you know, my one thing feedback system, 333 00:16:09.760 --> 00:16:12.280 and I got a good sense of what was going on. 334 00:16:12.280 --> 00:16:15.560 Then I asked the team and I said, look, here's reality. 335 00:16:15.560 --> 00:16:18.880 The hard facts are we're 90 days away from bankruptcy. 336 00:16:18.880 --> 00:16:20.280 We know that Apple went through that. 337 00:16:20.280 --> 00:16:22.480 It's not just small companies. 338 00:16:22.480 --> 00:16:24.560 And then what's the possibility? 339 00:16:24.560 --> 00:16:29.240 And so what we did is we really built mental strength 340 00:16:29.240 --> 00:16:30.480 through powerful questions. 341 00:16:30.480 --> 00:16:33.120 What possibility could we go after? 342 00:16:33.120 --> 00:16:36.800 And we decided that what's the best question we can ask? 343 00:16:36.800 --> 00:16:39.320 Once we knew that, and we had a simple reason, 344 00:16:39.320 --> 00:16:40.480 why do we exist? 345 00:16:40.480 --> 00:16:43.320 And why is it important that we continue existing? 346 00:16:43.320 --> 00:16:47.920 And what it did is it produced such a deep sense of clarity 347 00:16:47.920 --> 00:16:49.400 on what we were doing. 348 00:16:49.400 --> 00:16:51.600 We decided we were gonna run a big event, 349 00:16:51.600 --> 00:16:53.760 and that big event we were gonna go all in, 350 00:16:53.760 --> 00:16:56.200 which rescued the business. 351 00:16:56.200 --> 00:16:59.800 And so people say, well, if I were that blunt with my team, 352 00:16:59.800 --> 00:17:01.640 I don't wanna lose good people. 353 00:17:01.640 --> 00:17:03.880 I would put it to you that in most cases, 354 00:17:03.880 --> 00:17:06.400 my experience is that you will not only keep 355 00:17:06.400 --> 00:17:09.240 the good people, but you'll make them really confident 356 00:17:09.240 --> 00:17:10.520 because they'll trust you. 357 00:17:10.520 --> 00:17:12.079 They'll trust your honesty. 358 00:17:12.079 --> 00:17:15.359 They'll trust that you have their best intentions. 359 00:17:15.359 --> 00:17:17.440 You didn't just walk in and one day and fire them all. 360 00:17:17.440 --> 00:17:18.920 So I'm sorry, we out of money. 361 00:17:18.920 --> 00:17:20.359 You have no job next week. 362 00:17:21.119 --> 00:17:23.760 I think when people learn that you're willing 363 00:17:23.760 --> 00:17:28.119 to call reality, then they also believe your possibility. 364 00:17:28.119 --> 00:17:32.280 So I hope you love and enjoy up leveling 365 00:17:32.280 --> 00:17:34.880 and using these powerful three techniques 366 00:17:34.880 --> 00:17:37.560 to take your leadership to the next level.