00:00:00
26 years ago my life had fallen apart
00:00:05
because I had lost my way what I've
00:00:08
learned is that if you're going to be a
00:00:10
leader you cannot pay attention to the
00:00:13
forces on the outside you have to start
00:00:16
being led by forces on the inside it's
00:00:19
all about how to be the best version of
00:00:21
yourself it's infectious I can see it I
00:00:24
can feel it I can breathe it I can
00:00:25
believe it your
00:00:27
values drive your behavior behaviors
00:00:30
every day as an organization control the
00:00:33
things you can control the attitude is
00:00:35
important the work ethics important it's
00:00:37
important to be authentic to be genuine
00:00:41
so excited that I registered for this
00:00:42
conference I'm H I'm having a wonderful
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time meeting a lot of different people I
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think it's absolutely powerful uh to
00:00:49
have so many leaders to gather together
00:00:52
to be able to learn grown develop
00:00:54
together so I think it's a powerful
00:00:57
experience how do you maintain a
00:01:00
positive attitude a productive attitude
00:01:03
even more so in the face of challenge we
00:01:06
have to be always engaging in the
00:01:08
process we always have to be learning we
00:01:09
have to be willing to experiment even if
00:01:13
we fail you've heard it it's a cence
00:01:16
over and over relationships trust
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initiative one gives us the tools to do
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those things they don't just say do it
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they say this is how you do it
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[Music]
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good
00:01:49
morning good
00:01:53
morning good morning Welcome to our
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final think tank of December um Dr Fred
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has an amazing lineup for 2025 for those
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of you in person hopefully you got one
00:02:03
of our our cards announcing those dates
00:02:05
and for those online they're on our
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website I'd like to um invite you all to
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our conference we're having a leadership
00:02:14
conference our second annual in in the
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summer and it's going to be at one of
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our wonderful Partners establishments
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the Onida Nation it's at the Onida hotel
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which for those of you who would be
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flying in it's conveniently located
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right across from from the
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airport I'd also like to tell you about
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a contest that we are having at the end
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um you'll get a chance to enter a
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drawing to win a PDP which is our
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behavioral leadership assessment you're
00:02:44
going to get 25 wonderful pages of a
00:02:48
really awesome print out about you and
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then have a consultation with one of us
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so stay tuned at the end uh to learn
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more about that and I'd like to um
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welcome Dr Fred back from Miami he was
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is coaching uh the Miami Dolphin so he's
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in the house and he's going to be
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introducing my alma M okano fall School
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[Applause]
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District hi you
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all um it's good to have you um the last
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time I was here I was complaining that
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Miami was 2 and
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six um we're in the middle of a winning
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eight out of nine games I also want you
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to know that Miami uh needed to
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understand that when you go to Lambo you
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do need to put on long underwear
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underneath those shoulder
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pads they actually
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forgot their
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underwear that we normally get up and
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don't even think about and so they did
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not understand that you don't wear
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uniforms that are designed for
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103Β° to Lambo in uh late November um so
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um I just wanted to say
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that I've I I said to the guys yesterday
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do you realize what it's like to be in
00:04:15
Green
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Bay um when we just played one of the
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worst games uh of the year and and there
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is not a few people that have had a
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problem letting me know that
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and um but um it's a lot of fun you all
00:04:34
I am um really anxious and eager to
00:04:39
teach you uh to equip you today but
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before we do
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that um every month we lift up and
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celebrate the very good work of um one
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of our key partner clients we're doing
00:04:58
work with school districts all around
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the country um most recently uh We've
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started work at in decal which is in
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Atlanta um
00:05:09
102 103,000
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students um we're talking to the Atlanta
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school district right now um and and the
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cool thing is we also work with school
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districts that are as small as 300
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students in the entire district and um
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so we're we have the okono Falls School
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District here
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today um and we have had the pleasure of
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working with them what Dean three years
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two and a about two and a half three
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years I want to welcome uh and we also
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have um a number I think 161 17 um uh
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total folks and we have six of the seven
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board members uh that are here from you
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all uh there are several hundred people
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that are watching this we want them to
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see you so if you're from an aono Falls
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I I could don't complain I could ask you
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to Joanne to stand up by
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yourself okay you all stand up real
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quick and let's recognize okono fall
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School
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District thank
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you so I want to Dean come on up um
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where's our his microphone um and I want
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to introduce um Dean hes um the
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superintendent of schools um at okono
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Falls who has become a dear friend and
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colleague um and come and share with us
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uh and for a a few moments about the
00:06:49
exciting things that are happening in
00:06:51
your school district thanks red
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um we've been working with initiative
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one as Fred said for about two and a
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half years and I guess the first thing I
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wanted to share is just our thankfulness
00:07:04
um with this
00:07:05
collaboration we just got out of the
00:07:07
Thanksgiving holiday and I did a lot of
00:07:09
time to reflect and one of the things
00:07:11
that I was thinking about is in order to
00:07:13
do this work first of all you have to
00:07:14
have a partnership with quality group of
00:07:16
people initiative one has exceeded our
00:07:19
expectations um ultimately it's the work
00:07:24
that they're willing to do with us but
00:07:25
more importantly I'm extremely thankful
00:07:27
for our team in a kind of Falls and when
00:07:29
I think about that you have to recognize
00:07:32
that you need help in order to start to
00:07:34
improve and to grow and you have to have
00:07:36
the support and as Fred brought up um
00:07:39
our board has been extremely supportive
00:07:41
of this work and we came here we started
00:07:44
with our our leadership team in the
00:07:47
district and this work has enabled us to
00:07:51
address challenges that we were
00:07:53
experiencing we needed to break down
00:07:54
some barriers we needed to ultimately
00:07:57
recognize how we were impacting as
00:07:59
individuals and take some ownership of
00:08:02
that uncomfortable situations we needed
00:08:04
to learn to lean into those and that has
00:08:07
been very difficult work um and at times
00:08:10
you want to try to shy away from it um
00:08:13
Fred tells us to write on a on a little
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you know stick it and put it on our dash
00:08:17
of our truck which I did and mine is
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lean in and we've been trying to do that
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work the outcome of that is we are
00:08:24
growing significantly and when we think
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about how we do business today it's very
00:08:29
different than the way we were doing it
00:08:30
in the past we think about our decision
00:08:32
making and at times in the past we've
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allowed things like pressure and
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politics and strong personalities really
00:08:40
guide us down roads that we didn't need
00:08:41
to go and today we're more thoughtful of
00:08:44
our purpose we're more thoughtful about
00:08:46
the principles and the passion that we
00:08:48
have for educating children so I am
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extremely thankful I I look at this
00:08:53
group here today um I appreciate your
00:08:55
willingness to be here it's just kind of
00:08:57
a Testament of the work that we're doing
00:08:59
extremely uh appreciative of the people
00:09:01
that are back at okon Falls today
00:09:03
teaching our kids uh they're going to be
00:09:04
looking at this virtually when they get
00:09:06
a few minutes um Fred you talk about the
00:09:08
fact that the work doesn't get easier we
00:09:10
just get better at doing the hard so we
00:09:13
appreciate the tools in the tool bag and
00:09:14
we look forward to the future thank you
00:09:18
[Applause]
00:09:23
buddy we appreciate you and we
00:09:26
appreciate your team thank you so you're
00:09:29
ready to to dive
00:09:31
in uh let me um I think there are people
00:09:35
in here uh are you all ready to dive
00:09:38
in okay so today um would you put the
00:09:43
title up so that I know what I'm
00:09:45
speaking
00:09:46
on
00:09:48
uh we're talking about are the right
00:09:51
teammates on your bus and who's
00:09:54
driving um another way way to describe
00:09:58
it we're going to be talking about
00:10:00
protecting the
00:10:02
standard on your team and in your
00:10:05
company and you have the right you have
00:10:08
to have the right people on the bus in
00:10:13
order to protect that
00:10:15
standard um Newton's law of inertia says
00:10:20
bodies at rest cannot remain at
00:10:24
rest either you are moving forward or
00:10:29
you're moving backward there is no such
00:10:33
thing as standing still and being able
00:10:36
to stay there does that make sense
00:10:39
another way to describe it is that you
00:10:41
are either growing as an organization
00:10:45
you're growing as a team you're growing
00:10:49
as an
00:10:51
individual or you're
00:10:54
declining there is no in between
00:10:59
and so there are many of you who are
00:11:02
here who have the joy and the privilege
00:11:06
of being a part of a team or or of an
00:11:11
organization that is growing that is
00:11:14
advancing that is getting better that is
00:11:17
progressing that is clearly moving
00:11:20
towards its Mission and its purpose and
00:11:23
fulfilling its outcomes and
00:11:26
objectives I want to ask you a question
00:11:28
I'm and I'm going to ask you this and I
00:11:30
want you to dig deep and for those of
00:11:33
you who are online start typing and and
00:11:37
and Regina is going to share your
00:11:39
experiences what's it
00:11:41
like working with a
00:11:44
team that you are are a
00:11:48
team that there is there is
00:11:52
accountability there's
00:11:54
transparency there's not a whole lot of
00:11:57
drama because you put issues on the
00:11:59
table able in an appropriate
00:12:01
way the team cares about each other as
00:12:04
people you're not assets um but you are
00:12:10
valuable respected loved
00:12:13
people um
00:12:16
and what's it feel like to be on a team
00:12:20
like that talk to me describe what's it
00:12:24
feel like what do you say to yourself on
00:12:28
the word on the way to work um on Sunday
00:12:31
morning uh on Monday morning what were
00:12:34
you saying on yesterday one of our team
00:12:38
members was talking about that he used
00:12:40
to work at a place that he had the
00:12:42
Sunday night
00:12:44
scaries what are the Sunday night
00:12:47
scaries have you ever had the Sunday
00:12:50
night scaries what are they Dre
00:12:55
dread what's it like to work in a team
00:12:59
that you love coming to work because
00:13:02
you're growing you're getting better
00:13:05
what's it like talk to
00:13:07
meting say
00:13:09
exhilarating get to you get to come to
00:13:12
work not I have to come to work someone
00:13:16
said motivating what
00:13:19
else fulfilling what
00:13:22
else Purpose
00:13:25
Driven I'm
00:13:27
sorry energizing
00:13:30
ing anybody
00:13:33
else it's nourishing it's nourishing it
00:13:37
feed your
00:13:38
soul
00:13:41
okay you know
00:13:43
what what's it feel
00:13:46
like to be part of a team that's the
00:13:49
opposite of that that you're not a
00:13:52
growing team you're a declining
00:13:56
team and I'm not even going to give you
00:13:58
the definition
00:13:59
yet you already know what it feels like
00:14:03
to be part of a declining team describe
00:14:05
a declining team talk to me frustrating
00:14:10
frustrating constant anxiety constant
00:14:14
anxiety who
00:14:16
else stifled
00:14:20
stifled
00:14:22
draining someone said something back
00:14:24
here demoralizing
00:14:26
demoralizing roller coaster roller
00:14:28
coaster
00:14:30
okay anybody
00:14:34
else what do we have online Regina it's
00:14:38
Agony there's a lack of trust it's
00:14:40
heartbreaking it makes me angry it's
00:14:44
toxic
00:14:46
wow
00:14:47
wow so we're going to talk about
00:14:52
today we're going to talk about how do
00:14:57
you spot
00:15:00
those have have you ever had a member of
00:15:03
your
00:15:05
team that clearly was
00:15:07
declining that was standing out more
00:15:11
than anybody else and everybody knew it
00:15:14
have you ever had
00:15:16
that what is the impact of that presence
00:15:21
on a team that everybody else is aligned
00:15:26
what's the impact of that you've seen it
00:15:29
boat Anor say that again an angered an
00:15:34
okay it's a boat anchor it it drags
00:15:37
behind and holds the team back okay who
00:15:42
else come on talk to me causes anxiety
00:15:46
amongst the team causes anxiety among
00:15:48
amongst the
00:15:50
team does it cause a team to question
00:15:54
The credibility of the
00:15:56
leader yeah why they wonder why they're
00:15:59
not doing some
00:16:01
about and it also sends a message that
00:16:05
there's how many
00:16:07
standards there's two standards actually
00:16:11
let me talk to you about a principle
00:16:13
called The Law of lease
00:16:15
commitment um was actually discovered
00:16:18
and named by a g a researcher out of
00:16:21
Duke University his name was William
00:16:24
wamman from Walla Walla Washington
00:16:29
truth say that one a a fast 10 times but
00:16:34
he was the one who discovered in
00:16:36
relationships this principle of least
00:16:40
commitment and the principle says this
00:16:43
in any relationship it can be a marriage
00:16:45
it can be a friendship it can be a group
00:16:48
of
00:16:50
teammates any relationship in which
00:16:53
there is a person who is least committed
00:16:57
who is less committed
00:16:59
than the other entities in that
00:17:02
relationship and is allowed to stay
00:17:05
there that person begins to set the
00:17:10
standard in the
00:17:13
relationship that person not only sets
00:17:16
the
00:17:17
standard that per is that person is
00:17:21
actually the true leader of the team did
00:17:25
you hear that whoever sets the standard
00:17:30
is the true leader of the team what do
00:17:34
you think about that have you seen that
00:17:38
happened and it and and the it doesn't
00:17:42
matter if you have the title if you have
00:17:46
the
00:17:47
position if you're the formal leader you
00:17:50
are not the leader if you are allowing a
00:17:54
person in Decline to have a seat
00:17:57
longterm at your
00:17:59
table make
00:18:01
sense because you really don't have two
00:18:06
standards you have one
00:18:08
standard and the lowest standard the
00:18:12
lowest level the bar the lowest bar
00:18:15
becomes the standard and the higher
00:18:19
standard that you talk about is only an
00:18:22
idea it is not the standard make sense
00:18:26
we've seen it and so what I want to talk
00:18:30
about is that you can have a team that a
00:18:35
an a growing
00:18:36
developing healthy team there's High
00:18:40
accountability there's High transparency
00:18:43
there is a clear
00:18:45
framework for
00:18:48
expectations there is a clear framework
00:18:51
of what we expect from each other we
00:18:53
call it trust
00:18:54
accelerators that this is how we handle
00:18:56
conflict this is how we handle
00:18:59
misunderstandings this is how we handle
00:19:01
ourselves when we're trying to solve
00:19:05
problems and we all agree that if we
00:19:08
stay if we move out of those agreements
00:19:10
we're going to have a discussion about
00:19:12
it and it's going to be kind it's going
00:19:15
to be direct it's going to be respectful
00:19:18
does it always mean
00:19:20
comfortable kind is not always
00:19:24
comfortable make
00:19:26
sense and and so
00:19:29
and those are
00:19:31
organizations that that when they make
00:19:34
decisions they make decisions not about
00:19:36
not based on politics not based upon
00:19:40
whose family do we not want to upset by
00:19:43
dealing with this they don't make
00:19:47
decisions based upon personality they
00:19:50
make decisions based upon
00:19:53
principle and the principle is what is
00:19:56
our vision in other words where are we
00:19:59
going and why are we doing it they make
00:20:02
decisions based upon trust accelerators
00:20:06
these are the agreements that we are
00:20:08
going to be as long as we talk to each
00:20:11
other listen to each other problem solve
00:20:15
in this mind we are in our best selves
00:20:19
and people can feel
00:20:20
safe and by the way just because you're
00:20:24
safe psychologically does not mean
00:20:26
you're always going to be comfortable
00:20:29
does that make
00:20:30
sense and
00:20:32
so um and and and to be a part of that
00:20:35
team man it's like riding a rocket ship
00:20:39
it is like R you can't wait to come to
00:20:43
work healthy
00:20:45
teams look forward to
00:20:48
Monday declining teams look forward to
00:20:52
Friday you get it now let's talk about
00:20:56
the other perspective let's talk about
00:21:00
declining
00:21:01
teams um I'm going to share with
00:21:05
you
00:21:06
[Music]
00:21:08
um 10 ways to spot a declining Leader by
00:21:14
the way you can be 23 years old and
00:21:18
fresh out of college and be a leader in
00:21:22
Decline you can be 80 years old and be
00:21:27
fresh and relevant and full of life it
00:21:31
is not an age deal it is a mindset deal
00:21:35
make sense have you ever seen a young
00:21:38
person who is
00:21:41
old I'm not asking you to name look at
00:21:44
names and quit looking at the person
00:21:46
behind
00:21:47
you have you ever seen an older person
00:21:50
who's
00:21:51
young let me let me tell you the best
00:21:54
way to stay young as a team
00:21:59
is to keep bringing on people with fresh
00:22:02
ideas and to give them the ability and
00:22:07
permission to speak
00:22:10
boldly um I'll never forget I had a
00:22:12
colleague in my previous uh career of 20
00:22:17
years ago when I was a h a pastor I had
00:22:20
a friend who had been at the had had led
00:22:23
a congregation the same congregation for
00:22:26
44 years
00:22:28
he was in his early
00:22:31
80s and you would think that that would
00:22:35
have been stifled and boring and no
00:22:39
energy and just going through the
00:22:41
motions it was an alive place and they
00:22:46
were drawing young people like crazy
00:22:48
they it was full of energy and I'll
00:22:52
never forget I looked at the gentleman I
00:22:54
said how do you do it how have you
00:22:57
stayed fresh
00:22:59
how has your organization continued to
00:23:01
reinvent itself over and
00:23:04
over he said you accept the fact that
00:23:09
you only have so many
00:23:13
ideas and you have to be humble enough
00:23:17
and secure enough to keep inviting new
00:23:22
ideas and fresh people to be part of
00:23:25
their team and you create an environment
00:23:27
where they feel free and open to offer
00:23:31
those ideas you ever been around a place
00:23:34
that you got to be two years there to
00:23:36
have the right to speak ever been around
00:23:38
a place like that that is not a world-
00:23:40
class
00:23:42
organization it's not a world class
00:23:45
organization declining teams
00:23:48
decline when they have at least one
00:23:52
declining
00:23:53
member you know how you develop a bunch
00:23:56
of bad apples you you take One Bad Apple
00:24:00
and a bunch of good apples and you put
00:24:02
the Bad Apple
00:24:04
where right in the middle of the barrel
00:24:08
and pretty soon because no one has the
00:24:11
strength or the courage of leadership to
00:24:14
pluck that that Apple out the rest of
00:24:17
the Apple start being impacted you
00:24:21
cannot deine in
00:24:24
isolation did you hear that you cannot
00:24:28
decline in isolation what is tolerated
00:24:32
will become your culture now let's talk
00:24:35
about 10 characteristics of a declining
00:24:38
leader number one little or no passion
00:24:43
it is just a
00:24:47
job and that same person has a just
00:24:51
enough
00:24:52
mindset you ever been around those folks
00:24:55
that's a declining mindset number two
00:24:58
fiercely protect status quo while
00:25:01
resenting even vilifying productive
00:25:06
change why why do they hate change so
00:25:09
much why does a declining
00:25:12
leader hate change so
00:25:14
much
00:25:16
insecurity what else insecurity what
00:25:18
else it's work it's work what
00:25:23
else who may have to change to stay up
00:25:27
with the change
00:25:29
the declining
00:25:31
leader and positive change for a
00:25:34
declining leader looks like pure
00:25:38
shock here's another one number three
00:25:41
there is no interest in personal
00:25:45
development they don't show up at places
00:25:48
like this there's no interest in
00:25:51
personal development for themselves or
00:25:53
for
00:25:55
others they are the folks who in their
00:25:57
mind
00:25:58
they know it all and they have arrived
00:26:02
if you think that you've arrived you're
00:26:05
already in Decline and everybody else
00:26:10
already knows it but you would you agree
00:26:13
with that here's another one they are
00:26:16
the weak link on the
00:26:18
team you already talked about it it is
00:26:21
the anchor that limits the
00:26:24
room they are not forc multipliers to
00:26:28
make the rest of the room better they
00:26:31
are Force limiters that pulls the entire
00:26:34
room the creativity the collaboration
00:26:37
the level of trust they are a walking
00:26:41
stick dynamite in a healthy in a healthy
00:26:45
team um they are riding out the string
00:26:49
what do I mean by riding out the
00:26:51
string talk to me you've seen people who
00:26:55
are riding out the string you may have
00:26:57
been guilty of being being one of those
00:26:58
people at a certain season in your life
00:27:01
when you got into stinking thinking and
00:27:03
now you're just riding out the string
00:27:05
what's that mean writing out the string
00:27:09
biing your time just biing your time
00:27:13
it's the person who says I've been here
00:27:16
before that person came and I'll Outlast
00:27:19
that person and I'll be here after
00:27:21
they're gone and I'm just going to play
00:27:24
it safe right under the
00:27:27
radar growing people never ride under
00:27:32
the radar they reset the radar make
00:27:36
sense here's another one they have
00:27:39
negative attitudes that fuel frequent
00:27:44
complaining about teammates and how
00:27:47
things are
00:27:48
done if you are the person who's
00:27:51
complaining about how things are done it
00:27:54
means you're the one who's not getting
00:27:57
anything done
00:28:00
here's another one they are hoarders of
00:28:02
information for perceived personal
00:28:07
power they are hoarders of information
00:28:10
for perceived personal power they are
00:28:13
not sharers of information to help
00:28:17
others get better and to pass on
00:28:20
institutional
00:28:22
knowledge make sense you and let me tell
00:28:26
you you got a change challenge when the
00:28:28
person in Decline is the one who has the
00:28:31
most information would you agree with
00:28:34
that you have a challenge and here's
00:28:37
what courage looks like if they're not
00:28:40
willing to change they get
00:28:42
changed and you also have an environment
00:28:45
it becomes a learning environment the
00:28:47
soon as the declining member leaves the
00:28:50
team and in a learning environment you
00:28:53
and the rest of the team are up for the
00:28:55
ride and you know there are going to be
00:28:57
short term mistakes you know what
00:29:00
institutional knowledge is all
00:29:03
institutional knowledge is is wisdom and
00:29:07
and understanding that is gained through
00:29:09
making
00:29:11
mistakes that's what institutional
00:29:13
knowledge is and sometimes there are
00:29:17
teams that have to do the right thing
00:29:19
and jettison someone who has the
00:29:21
institutional
00:29:22
knowledge but they're weighing down the
00:29:26
team and you you have to put a create an
00:29:29
environment where the team can
00:29:31
accelerate their own institutional
00:29:33
knowledge by throwing them in the pool
00:29:36
and saying figure it out we got your
00:29:38
back and if you make a mistake we'll
00:29:41
talk about it we'll see how we learn
00:29:43
what we need to do differently but we
00:29:45
want you to swing for the
00:29:47
fence those are healthy
00:29:50
teams you guys with me am I putting you
00:29:53
to sleep or are you in deep thought de
00:29:56
thank you that makes me feel feel
00:30:01
better you said that perfectly just like
00:30:05
how we practiced it so thank you thank
00:30:07
you Gina um here's another one they
00:30:11
resent
00:30:13
accountability they see accountability
00:30:15
as an
00:30:17
attack and they love
00:30:21
drama because when there's drama guess
00:30:25
what where the focus goes
00:30:28
it goes off of them and if there's no
00:30:31
drama and the focus gets on them and the
00:30:34
accountability Rises they'll find
00:30:36
something else to stir up to get upset
00:30:39
about they are masters of
00:30:41
deflectors make
00:30:44
sense um they're unable to receive and
00:30:48
activate
00:30:50
feedback they are unable to receive and
00:30:55
activate feedback they aren't
00:30:58
stuck they're
00:31:00
what
00:31:03
declining and lastly they Place personal
00:31:08
Comfort
00:31:09
above corporate
00:31:12
Mission they Place personal Comfort
00:31:15
above corporate Mission and purpose let
00:31:18
me I wrote this statement if you allow a
00:31:22
person in Decline it's only a matter of
00:31:25
time that your team falls behind
00:31:29
behind what you
00:31:31
tolerate becomes the
00:31:34
standard um when you clean up the
00:31:38
standard is it
00:31:41
easy what
00:31:43
happens when you attack the standard
00:31:45
that needs to be cleaned
00:31:48
up what's it feel like do you just
00:31:52
launch into
00:31:54
it drama emotional it's emotionally
00:32:00
draining it's
00:32:03
hurtful it is hard to maintain the
00:32:07
standard what I'm talking about is easy
00:32:10
to talk about it's hard to pull
00:32:14
off would you agree it takes courage to
00:32:19
be the standard
00:32:20
Setter it takes courage to be the
00:32:23
standard Setter why do we
00:32:25
fear addressing the person or the
00:32:28
person's in
00:32:30
Decline why do we fear that why is it so
00:32:35
hard conflict we don't want to be
00:32:37
uncomfortable we hate conflict who
00:32:40
else we become the target we become the
00:32:44
target we become the target who
00:32:48
else B push back Bol with bold change
00:32:54
comes bold resistance
00:32:58
every
00:32:59
time bold change invites bold
00:33:04
resistance every time if you're not
00:33:07
getting bold resistance it's because
00:33:10
you're not doing bold
00:33:12
things used to say it as a as a pastor
00:33:16
if the devil ain't bothering you there's
00:33:18
just one reason because you ain't
00:33:20
bothering
00:33:23
him
00:33:24
um I wrote five things down fear lost
00:33:28
production oh my gosh that person does
00:33:32
something that no one else on the team
00:33:33
does oh and it's going to be hard I
00:33:36
don't want to have to train someone else
00:33:39
or man if it we're going
00:33:42
to a couple of us will have to double up
00:33:46
for a while have you ever seen that
00:33:47
before fear of lost production second
00:33:51
fear of not being able to find a
00:33:54
replacement they're so hard to find
00:33:58
third fear of discomfort fourth fear of
00:34:01
losing institutional
00:34:03
knowledge five fear of negative
00:34:05
reactions from others let me tell you a
00:34:08
story I'm in Paige Arizona 20 years
00:34:13
ago working with a hospital system if
00:34:17
you've ever been to paig Arizona you'll
00:34:20
know that paig
00:34:21
Arizona has about 700 800
00:34:26
people um um most people don't want to
00:34:30
live in paage
00:34:33
Arizona when we went there we discovered
00:34:37
that the
00:34:38
nursing uh sector within the hospital
00:34:42
system was in
00:34:44
trouble it was
00:34:46
toxic nurses did not trust each other
00:34:50
they didn't work together they
00:34:52
constantly talked about each other they
00:34:54
were competing with each other it was a
00:34:57
a really bad environment and it was
00:35:01
affecting health
00:35:04
care and so what I found was that they
00:35:08
had one lady in
00:35:13
Decline uh she happened to be the
00:35:18
supervisor in that
00:35:21
sector and everyone knew that she was
00:35:25
the problem
00:35:28
um and as you all said the the morale
00:35:32
was
00:35:34
demoralized um they were getting poor
00:35:37
outcomes it was a mess and when I talked
00:35:40
to the CEO of the hospital her response
00:35:44
to me was we live in paig
00:35:46
Arizona do you understand how long it
00:35:50
takes to recruit someone to Page
00:35:54
Arizona we cannot let them go
00:35:59
guess what the rest of the STA of the
00:36:01
team wanted to
00:36:04
happen
00:36:06
please let them
00:36:08
go please show us
00:36:10
leadership please show us
00:36:15
courage she finally made the
00:36:19
decision guess what the reaction
00:36:21
throughout the entire hospital that day
00:36:24
was
00:36:27
say it Susan celebration what was what
00:36:31
were what you've seen situations like
00:36:33
that what were people saying wooho
00:36:37
woohoo how do you spell
00:36:39
woohooo who else here's the big one it's
00:36:44
about
00:36:46
time make sense this is what
00:36:50
happened we coached her to go to the
00:36:52
team and say look we just we just made a
00:36:56
decision that we should have made a long
00:36:58
time ago and I take responsibility that
00:37:00
I was operating in
00:37:03
fear and you
00:37:05
all what I've learned is I've had to
00:37:08
start making my principles
00:37:10
non-negotiable again and focus on
00:37:13
long-term health of this team instead of
00:37:15
short-term
00:37:17
production and I'm willing to take a
00:37:19
step back in order to go three steps
00:37:22
forward and the team said we are too
00:37:27
and what do you think the rest of that
00:37:29
team did what do you think they
00:37:33
did they figured it out they pulled
00:37:37
together and they became more
00:37:41
productive minus one than ever before
00:37:46
there is such a thing as addition by
00:37:50
what subtraction
00:37:58
what do you
00:37:59
do when is it time to quit coaching up
00:38:04
and start coaching out we've talked
00:38:07
about that before one when the person
00:38:11
who is in
00:38:12
Decline will not receive feedback
00:38:15
without being
00:38:17
defensive if you are defensive that's
00:38:20
your default you quit growing a long
00:38:22
time ago being defensive is turning off
00:38:27
at the SP it the the elixir of growth
00:38:30
the new information that you need to
00:38:33
turn it
00:38:36
around one if that person their default
00:38:39
is to be
00:38:41
defensive gang game
00:38:44
over number two you want their success
00:38:49
more than they want their
00:38:52
success number three they keep bringing
00:38:56
problems
00:38:58
never
00:38:59
solutions they keep bringing problems
00:39:03
never
00:39:06
Solutions and number four their outcomes
00:39:10
never
00:39:12
change no matter how much you coach them
00:39:15
the outcomes never
00:39:19
change I had someone yesterday that I
00:39:22
was coaching who literally
00:39:25
said how
00:39:28
how do you go about
00:39:29
it you ask yourself these questions is
00:39:33
this situation is this person has have
00:39:37
they are they aligned with our vision
00:39:40
are they aligned with our
00:39:42
principles do they believe in the
00:39:45
direction that we're going as an
00:39:46
organization or are they fighting like
00:39:49
crazy if they are out of alignment with
00:39:52
these things they are not a cultural fit
00:39:59
I did not say they're a bad
00:40:02
person I'm simply saying they are not a
00:40:05
cultural
00:40:08
fit and anybody who is not a cultural
00:40:11
fit no matter how talented they become
00:40:15
becomes a
00:40:16
liability make sense and even if they
00:40:20
are good I'm I'm working with football
00:40:22
teams that have
00:40:25
padas and all the players are saying
00:40:27
they need to
00:40:29
go and the coaches are saying but this
00:40:32
guy scores a lot of
00:40:35
touchdowns but they don't factor in but
00:40:37
the conversations that are happening in
00:40:40
in the locker
00:40:41
room and and the fact that the coaches
00:40:45
the and and I'm I'm not talking about my
00:40:47
current coach I'm talking about other
00:40:49
coaches that I've worked with they're
00:40:51
willing to let a Chad Johnson of the of
00:40:54
the
00:40:55
Bengals disrupt the team
00:40:58
and by the way if you're declining and
00:41:01
you're allowed to continue decline
00:41:03
because of short-term production you are
00:41:07
the leader of the
00:41:09
team make
00:41:13
sense and if it is not a cultural fit
00:41:17
you have two questions yes or
00:41:23
no yes or
00:41:26
no well what if I don't have my plan no
00:41:29
you make the decision first based on
00:41:33
principle you hear me you make the
00:41:36
decision first based on
00:41:39
principle and then Clarity will begin to
00:41:45
follow that's when you start worrying
00:41:47
about how and
00:41:51
when and there could be a bunch of
00:41:54
different ways to handle it to minimize
00:41:56
the distress that it causes the
00:41:58
organization during that
00:42:00
transition but the one thing that is not
00:42:03
negotiable the the how and the when is
00:42:08
negotiable the why and the now is not
00:42:12
does that make
00:42:14
sense and so we've got a few minutes
00:42:17
left what's your
00:42:20
reaction thoughts
00:42:24
questions thoughts questions
00:42:28
right now I'm reflecting on there times
00:42:31
in the past where I've allowed my fear
00:42:33
not
00:42:41
to Dean says he's allowed his fear at
00:42:45
times when you when you're being led by
00:42:48
fear you're not leading you're
00:42:50
managing and when you're managing the
00:42:53
thing that you're managing is managing
00:42:56
you does that make sense leading leads
00:42:59
into it and says no matter what we're
00:43:01
about to face we're going to deal with
00:43:03
this
00:43:05
sucker and we're we're not stopping and
00:43:08
he talked about second gear first gear
00:43:11
is the
00:43:12
issue second gear is thinking it through
00:43:16
and third gear is
00:43:18
executing but sometimes when we're in
00:43:20
fear we get so stuck in gear 2 looking
00:43:24
for the perfect
00:43:25
solution perfect
00:43:27
and and I'm going to say it like this
00:43:30
there are times that no matter what you
00:43:32
do there's going to be blood
00:43:35
splatter no matter what you do it's
00:43:38
going to be
00:43:40
hard and that's why leadership
00:43:43
courageous leadership is so rare make
00:43:47
sense um anybody else we have anybody
00:43:51
that's talking Regina online yes the
00:43:53
idea of uh when you're allowed to to
00:43:56
decline you become the leader of that
00:43:58
team is really
00:44:01
resonating I had a CEO I was working
00:44:04
with of a major
00:44:06
company and uh their their leader in
00:44:10
Decline was the general manager at one
00:44:13
of their
00:44:14
plants and he had all the institutional
00:44:18
knowledge and if anybody made a
00:44:21
mistake he would dress them down and say
00:44:26
the only one who is going to be making
00:44:28
decisions around here as me you got that
00:44:30
and everybody knew
00:44:31
it and so the whole the whole Pro
00:44:36
program evolved around his insecurity
00:44:38
his need to dominate when he was gone
00:44:42
everything shut down it was all based on
00:44:45
him we went in and started look started
00:44:49
figuring out what was going on I met
00:44:51
with the CEO and I said you got a
00:44:53
problem and it's you got you got a you
00:44:56
got a sacred cow
00:44:57
we're going to talk about the Battle of
00:44:59
the Sacred cows next
00:45:01
month and you got a sacred cow and
00:45:04
everyone knows it and everyone knows
00:45:07
that he's the one who's leading this
00:45:09
company in a toxic
00:45:11
way and this is on you he said oh I got
00:45:15
it I'm going to manage him out over the
00:45:18
next two
00:45:20
years
00:45:22
wow can a lot get done toxic wise if you
00:45:27
allow a sacred cow to run a muck for two
00:45:31
years I said you know what this is what
00:45:34
your people are saying that you lack the
00:45:38
courage to lead you're trying to
00:45:42
manage you got to lead if you've got
00:45:45
people in
00:45:46
Decline you got to
00:45:49
lead you got to assume that they're
00:45:52
savable and you give everything you got
00:45:55
to save them
00:45:57
but if they're not working to save
00:45:59
themselves and they keep making excuses
00:46:02
and blaming you for making their life
00:46:04
uncomfortable that's the answer that you
00:46:07
need make
00:46:09
sense my question is this are you a
00:46:12
leader in decline or are you a leader
00:46:15
that is fresh and
00:46:18
Alive how many books are you
00:46:21
reading how many podcasts are you
00:46:23
listening
00:46:24
to what kind of people people in your
00:46:27
circle have you surrounded with you are
00:46:31
the byproduct of the kind of people that
00:46:35
you pack in your
00:46:37
suitcase if you have declining people
00:46:41
you will
00:46:42
decline if you have growing people they
00:46:45
will push you and push you to get
00:46:49
better be that person who's a force
00:46:53
multiplier not the force limiter
00:46:56
has this been
00:46:58
helpful all right you guys Regina come
00:47:02
[Applause]
00:47:09
on thank you Dr Fred I I love the
00:47:12
concept of kind is not always
00:47:14
comfortable but it's necessary and
00:47:16
that's a really important leadership
00:47:18
principle that we focus on in our
00:47:21
leadership transformation class so if
00:47:23
you'd like to learn any more about the
00:47:24
leadership transformation process reach
00:47:27
out to one of us with our initiative one
00:47:28
name tags here or just drop a a a note
00:47:32
in chat um again I'd like to invite you
00:47:35
all to our leadership conference if you
00:47:39
jump in before December 31st if you
00:47:41
register you can save $100 so it's early
00:47:45
bird registration right now also Dr Fred
00:47:48
mentioned our next topic January 10th is
00:47:51
the Battle of the Sacred cows which is
00:47:53
another really um key leadership
00:47:55
principle that we talk talk about in
00:47:57
leadership transformation and all of our
00:47:59
2025 dates are now available online and
00:48:03
third our contest so for those of you in
00:48:05
the audience you have a little slip of
00:48:07
paper you just need to write your answer
00:48:09
on the back of that and for those of you
00:48:11
online you can drop your answer in chat
00:48:14
or you can pull up our website and we
00:48:16
have a real simple fill-in form there
00:48:18
for you here's the question and you have
00:48:21
to do this before 10:00 this morning
00:48:25
here's the question what is the number
00:48:26
number one leadership topic that was
00:48:29
requested in
00:48:31
2024 what was the number one leadership
00:48:33
topic that was requested in 2024 we
00:48:37
can't wait to hear your answers and see
00:48:39
you in January thank you
00:48:41
[Music]
00:48:55
[Music]