Having a Focused Leadership Strategy

One of the key things I'd love for you to talk to and get some insights from , uh, from you is , um, first all about yourself. How did you get started with the improver group? What's, what's kind of the story behi Beto , uh, by you, and how you decided, what was that catalyst by , uh, actually starting the improver group a few years ago?

And I thought my life was all about helping people via the church world and the ministry nonprofit world. And that's where I was engulfed in. And then somewhere along the way, light bulb came on and said, and I think there was actually a famous quote out there. It says, where there is no mission, where there is no margin, there is no mission. And I was like, what does this mean margin?

And I began to explore this as a young , uh, adult. And really that began the path of creating margins in my life, whether the margins be , uh, money or time or having more energy and emotional bandwidth to help and serve people.

And I found out that you can create margins in business and you can do it on your own as an entrepreneur, as a solopreneur, but it gets even better if you really , uh, utilize people around you. And I began to experience success in real estate and some oil and gas and insurance and , uh, different fields. Did some retail and some restaurant. And the thing that I kept noticing is , uh, man, it all hinges on people.

It all hinges on who's around you, who's, you know, who are the ones leading the charge? How is communication being handled? And so even though I loved business, I still had that old heartbeat for teaching people, for inspiring people, for them, seeing the big picture, some of that stuff from my ministry world.

And so really improver, it's kind of a fusion of that on, on serving people, helping 'em think about life, helping 'em think about serving, helping 'em think globally and, and , and from that perspective and helping them live within purpose, but also the business side of things where we're creating margins through performance and production and, you know, having higher retention.

And so that's where , uh, the idea came from. So we launched it a few years ago under improver coach , uh, added a networking element, an investment element. So now we're just like, Hey, we're a grouping of different things, . So here we are with the Improver group.

And right now our main thing that we specialize in is leadership development, team culture training, and just working with individuals on getting the right mindset and executing on that in an efficient and effective way.

So that's one of the things I think everybody that I, I , um, I have and I interview is I learned several insightful things about those people, and some of them I've known for 10, 15 years, so , um, or longer. So it's just fascinating.

So today specifically, we're here to talk about, so going into knowing that this will be airing in January, so leadership strategy 2024 , um, and, and just as companies do a little bit of a reset year end , beginning of the year, what are your, what are your thoughts around, you know, leadership?

And if a company, if they haven't really done a lot around thinking about leadership strategy as being a differentiator for their business, what should they be thinking about at the beginning of the year around leadership and leadership strategy itself?

And then there's this moment as people begin to look into the new year where they're being reflective on what has been and kind of trying to imagine what could be and really potential. They're , they're thinking about, man, where, where was there potential? What should change? And one of the things that's common is that people want their reality to change. Everyone wants their results.

They want to, okay, maybe I want higher , uh, profit margin, or, you know, hey, we need to decrease turnover or increase retention. Like what, there's all these things that we want to see different. And, and that's tends to be where our mind goes. But the question is, is , well , how do we actually get the different reality a year from now?

What do what needs to happen in order to go from where I'm at right now to where I want to be? And if an individual wants their reality to change, they've gotta change really their habits. Uh , our, our reality and our consequences in life are shaped by the habits that we have, and we're a product of our habits.

But if you wanna change your habits, you have to change individual actions and those daily steps and tasks. But if you want that to change, you've gotta change your attitudes and your beliefs. And so at the end of the day, this all starts in our mind. This is all a, as an individual, it's what are we putting in, what content are we absorbing?

Who are we listening to that shapes our mindset, our beliefs and our attitudes, which lead to actions, which lead to habits, which lead to our results. So that's on an individual level. On a company level, the same thing is happening. People are looking at man as a company, what are all the things that we would love to be different at the end of next year compared to where we are now?

And a lot of times we only wanna focus on the plans and like these small tweaks, but leadership is really taking a step back and saying, wait, what is our culture? What is our vision? It's doing a heart check. 'cause at the end of the day, if you've still got the same mindset, the same attitudes, the same belief, the same vision, your actions and your processes and systems are just gonna reflect that. Hmm .

So in the new year, if people want different results, they want to improve, they've gotta start with leadership. They have to start with mindset. They have to start with culture. And if you work on that, the right strategies will come out of that. And from the right strategies, then you can focus on systems, processes, and individual behaviors.

So where would you say from a, now is this something, because it does sound like it's a blend, like, you know, you said it really starts with the individual, but for a company perspective, let's say it's a company of , um, I don't know , I'll , I'll just say off the top of my head, 300 employees, they have , um, their top leadership team has 10 leaders in their top leadership team.

How would that group, if you're saying, okay, here's an example of a company 10, 10 key leaders , uh, who are really driving the, the , the long-term strategy, the company and growth , um, how would , is there anything they should be doing c collectively as a leadership team to make sure they're, you know, the infamous, the , the analogy of that they're all rowing in the right direction Yes.

Versus actually going, you know, in different, going in a circle to make sure they're actually aligned and in unison with that.

And as a leader, you've got to be able to pour into others. And you can only pour into others if you're being poured into and if you're learning and growing. So first off, you do have to start from a position of being a healthy leader. We call those 100 X leaders , meaning you're 100 per not perfect, but you're 100% healthy in your , uh, in your habits and in your, your systems.

And your intentional X means you can multiply that into others. So, so you start with the health, but then you've gotta have the vision there. And a lot of people suffer from either having the wrong vision or they have a vision that doesn't have specific goals and milestones attached to it. And so, you know, the areas of reflection would be is, okay, as leaders, are we healthy and where do we need to grow?

But then what is our vision? Are we, or is that still the heartbeat? Are we still pushing forward on that? And what do , what needs to happen now in order to move that forward? And we've gotta narrow that focus. One of my favorite books is the Four Disciplines of Execution. And one of the reasons I love that book is because the first discipline is to identify your wig, , WIG, right ? It's your wildly important goal.

And it's not goals, it's goal. And the premise is if you want to execute well, you've gotta have a primary goal that if you accomplish that, everything else becomes easier, better, all of your other goals under that or more likely to happen. So what is that main driving factor that if your team within the company or your company as a whole gets that done, it's a big hurrah moment.

And so you identify that goal and you set a couple of measures that are within your control that you can focus on to reach that goal. And so that's where I think a lot of leaders should be thinking about this year, what not, what are the 30 different metrics that are out there that we could put on our dashboard, but what are, what is that one lagging measure that one result we hope for this year?

And then what are those two or three leading measures that we actually can leverage and we can influence to do that? And let's focus those inputs to create the outputs we want. Did that answer your question? Uh, there, is that, is that helpful , uh, on it or were you looking for something more tangible than that ? No, no,

But at the end of the day, you can't control that number, that that is the thing that you hope to get. But it's not a hundred percent within your control. And that's why it's a lagging measure. It comes later, it's the output. But your leading measures are your input. So you could say, well, our goal is this amount of revenue, so what are the two factors that we can measure that are within our control to get that?

So when I was running an insurance sales team, one of our goals was , uh, a certain amount of premium, recurring premium that we wanted to , uh, earn that year. Well, one of the primary drivers of that premium was referral partners. And our referral partners were real estate agents and loan officers. Mm-Hmm .

So our goal that year, even though we ultimately wanted revenue, we actually set a goal that particular year of new partnerships, but we can't make a realtor go with us. We can't make a loan officer go with us. But what we can do is we can make ourselves , uh, go on visits and we can make ourselves do phone calls. So our leading measures were the phone calls and visits.

Our lagging measure was how many new partnerships were formed. And so that would be an example on a growth side , uh, this could be the same thing if you're not talking about clients, but you're talking about team members. Maybe you're in HR and you're like, we need to grow our headcount by X number of people this year to sustain our company growth.

Well, you can't make people the right fit, come and be a part of your company, but what can you do? So work on those leading measures. So that would be one , uh, one example as far as thinking about vision and goals for the year.

And these are techniques and tactics and strategies, but really the world we live in and our company is a step above that, which is if you work on the right leaders and you're developing your leadership, your communication, your alignment, you're , you're creating self-awareness, those kinds of things end up being the fruit of, of healthy leadership in your team .

So again, you gotta start from this position of healthy leadership. And that might be the strategy you need to do is say, okay, this year our main goal is to implement some type of a leadership program with the hopes that it'll lead to these results.

Um, how do you find companies, because this is an interesting time, really the first time in our, in our , um, really the first time in history, we've, we have, we still have five generations in the workforce. So how, or would you say that a healthy leader would be able to manage effectively those different five generations because they, they all have different needs and desires.

So how would a healthy leader and a healthy leadership team is there? Is there some of the work you've done? Is there some , uh, you know, proof on saying, you know, if a healthy leader can effectively manage those different five generations? Or is that just something that you, you know, you still have to, you still have to really focus on intentionally. How do you manage those different generations?

'cause they all have slightly different needs.

Because managing through authority always , it just backfires. And a lot of the unhealthy cultures that are created in companies are from insecure managers who are trying to use their position as a way of gaining leverage instead of growing as an individual and using influence. So you can lead through influence or you can lead through authority.

And so what we coach on here is being a healthy leader, you have learned to balance two things, to be a liberating influential leader. And two of those areas are being the right amount of support and the right amount of challenge.

And so when you're either managing up or down generations and different circumstances, it really doesn't matter 'cause you're still asking that question, what is, what challenge does this individual need? And what support do they need? And if you're supporting them and challenging them in the right way, you're going to gain influence through them.

If you're fighting for their good and you are trying to elevate them, which is what a good leader does , uh, then it doesn't really matter. Age , uh, age comes into play when you get into these , uh, uh, micromanaging authoritarian type , uh, cultures. And , and those are really toxic , uh, on it. So even more specifically, I'll say we have three kind of areas we call it the core.

And so when we try to work on a leader's core, we're looking at three things. It's iq, pq, and eq. So the IQ is what we do the least of because IQ is their task awareness and how intelligent they are on the job itself. And so most companies, that's when they think of manager or leader, that's really the thing that they're thinking about is, man, this person seems smart and they're really good at doing this job.

And so they're sales and they're doing good at sales, so we should make them a sales leader or a sales manager, right? And that's only one component of a healthy leader. To bring balance into that you need to have eq, which is an emotional quotient. That's your emotional health. And you need to have pq , which is a personality quotient, and it means you're aware of personalities, your own, and others.

So creating self-awareness and others' awareness in addition to whatever the task is, is paramount to creating a healthy culture of leadership and growth.

HR Catalyst was founded in 2013 with the goal of bringing the best in class HR practices to small and middle market companies. We are your outsourced strategic people experts. We help you solve the people issues in your business that are slowing you down. If you have HR concerns, you can schedule a complimentary call on our [email protected].

One of the next things I wanted to do , so in your opinion , um, because the focus of a lot of the companies that we work with within hr Catalyst, middle market size companies, typically less than 200 to 300 employees are smaller. So how well do you think, how well do you think middle market size companies actually implement a leadership strategy or really focus intentionally on their leadership period?

It , it seems that most people feel like, well, leadership is just purely organic and you just kind of have it or you don't. And it's, it's just, you kind of catch it, but you really can't be intentional. And it's like, no, leadership development is something you can do on purpose, it can be intentional and there can be a strategy and should be a strategy behind that.

Because I do love the concept of having a healthy leader because if that individual's not healthy, they can't be a healthy leader. So what would that process look like and what do you, you know, just, just, you know, back of the envelope math, what kind of an investment would that organization need to make?

Uh, and really it's even hard to say that there's some rules of thumb, but I would say on the average, everyone should be spending, even if their company's not willing to do it , uh, you should be spending at least three to 5% of your income , uh, should be focused on your own personal growth and development. Because if you're spending at least that , uh, then you're going to get a return on that.

In fact, I think Brian Tracy had a rule about that. Maybe he, he said 7% or something, but, but that three to 5% I think is, is kind of maybe the best idea of a baseline , uh, on that. But really the , the , there's a , um, there's a philosophical belief about the leadership , uh, development cost that I think is wrong.

And really what it has to do is they just, a lot of companies see this as an optional expense. This is almost like a splurge or it's a luxury item, and they don't see it as a necessity. And so it's strange. They go, man, why, why are, is our turnover so high and we're having a hard time retaining these , uh, incredible employees? Or why are we having such a hard time attracting top talent?

And then at the same time, they don't want to invest in having better, stronger leaders and healthier cultures. And so I believe that when you invest in your leaders, it's the best investment that you can really make into your business, and you're gonna get an exponential return if you're investing those dollars the right way.

And so the impact to that person's, if you're not starting out with a good starting point at the, at the base of that first leader, that more senior level leader, then of course the numbers, the, the lack of leadership where that person's incompetence and leadership will just be exponentially multiplied by the, throughout their organization.

So , um, so what do you , what would you say here is, so having a leadership strategy, is that a system, is that a process? Is that both, is that, what are your thoughts there?

And are there ways to evaluate that? You know, something that companies run into is they, they want to use data to help , uh, guide their decision making , but you get into things like leadership topics and personal growth, and now it gets harder to measure. 'cause like how do you measure how good of a leader someone really is?

And so our company has been able to develop some tools along with a partnership with a giant worldwide , uh, is the name of the company we've partnered with. And we have tools that can really measure the things that maybe were previously thought to be immeasurable.

So part of the leadership strategy in the new year is how do we put some metrics on these topics , uh, like your team performance and your leadership, like measuring communication as an example, or how well is the team really executing and the alignment , uh, can you measure alignment?

And so if you have a good leadership strategy, you can actually measure those things that maybe feel a little bit vague and then you can have , uh, courses and content and information to help strengthen those areas that are not performing at the area that you would want to. So we do a lot of online courses is one of the ways that we , uh, are able to help companies with their leaders.

So we've got Fortune 100 companies around the world are using our materials, but so are small businesses as well, but we can assign actions to certain employees. So if they're dealing with , uh, working in a hybrid environment or managing stress or dealing with conflict, we can assign them courses that are really practical and really helpful to help them grow , uh, as a leader.

And , and I think the last thing I would add onto this is creating a common language within your company as part of what creates your culture. So being systematic and consistent with your leadership is really important. So sometimes people pull a book here, a speaker there a thing , and it's just real haphazard. And so yeah, that's better than not doing anything at all.

But a really healthy leadership strategy is, well, let's create one where there'll be some consistency where a year from now people wake up and when they say certain words, everyone around the table knows what those words really mean and they know the impact of that, and it creates for better efficiencies and effectiveness.

A lot of , a lot of good intentions about working out about eating right, getting this amount of sleep, but what from a leadership perspective could actually derail the process for them ? What are some of the things you've seen there in your experience?

This is not just a one off , or these aren't just a siloed events , but this is a part of a plan. And, and that plan also includes follow up and follow through . And accountability is really paramount. Of course, having great content to start with is really good. And part of what people do is, yeah, your team needs inspiration and motivation.

And there's old Zig Ziglar story that I love to share, which was Zig was doing this big event, thousands of people there, and somebody criticized him after the event and they said , uh, Zig, you know, the problem with your motivational stuff is, is it just doesn't last. And Zig said, yeah, we think of it kind of like bathing. You should do it often.

So a good leadership strategy in the new year is when we do these training events, we do a workshop, a coaching session, however you set it up, you need to think, what can we teach them so they learn something new? How can we inspire and encourage them so they feel better? And then what resources can we put in their hand to actually utilize this on Tuesday so it makes sense?

And then have an accountability follow-up , uh, process. Uh, those are some good ingredients of a great leadership strategy.

And you know, they have an incredible leadership culture and you know, so you , it doesn't matter, blue collar, white collar , um, you know, the health industries , uh, of course we probably see the greatest gains in those industries , uh, that tend to be , um, maybe financial service oriented, health and wellness oriented.

Uh, because those people many times understand mindset, vision, and they're already growth focus and they're trying to maintain a certain sense of health and wellness , uh, but really a good leadership strategy, everybody needs it and everybody should have it,

So each day it's just like your own bodies or , or DNA is working and we're either building up the body or we're tearing it down. We're either making our bodies healthier or unhealthier, and we're doing that with our companies as well. So you need to start today because the long-term health , uh, depends on it. Secondly is , uh, the hiring environment is so volatile right now.

Attracting top talent and retaining your best employees is so valuable. And so you need to make investments in them. All of the data shows that people want to be , uh, poured into, they wanna learn, they want to grow. Um , you know, the technology and social media and things have changed the way people interact, but the ability to connect relationally and be leaders is something people wanna know more of how to do.

And so, yeah, your health and people need it , uh, for your team and ultimately whoever your end client is, they need you to be healthy, they need you to be a healthy leader. They need you to have a healthy , uh, culture because your product or service is going to be a result of that, ultimately that health , uh, from the top. And so the people you're serving, they need you.

And so don't forget how important it is to partner with great companies who can come in and they specialize in this. That'd be one thing. The same thing is I wanna invite , uh, the , those listening to go to our website and there's a free assessment, like I mentioned earlier. How do you measure these , uh, seemingly immeasurable leadership characteristics? Well, one of the assessments we have is your leadership voice.

And so you can discover what type of leadership voice do you have. So improver group.com , you can take that for free. And you do this five to 10 minute long assessment and it's gonna tell you which of the five leadership voices best describe you. And then I wanna challenge you as a leader to step into that voice and begin using your leadership voice to be a better leader.

It takes less than a minute or two and you can finish it in a month. Uh, and that book is about responsibility and , uh, taking responsibility, not procrastinating, not blaming. I love Who Moved My Cheese. That's another classic about adaptability. And so I gotta throw that one there. And man, this last one is tough. I've got so many.

Um , it's a tie between the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell and then the 100 X Leader , uh, by Jeremy Ache and Steve Cochran . Uh, and those are all about being healthy leaders.

And then this other one may surprise you a little, it's not really leadership focus , it's actually a podcast called The Art of Manliness. And uh , anybody can listen to it. It's really good, but there's just so many cool, I mean it goes from , uh, poetry to history to philosophy, but then also how do you do a fireman's carrier ? How do you do this or that? And it's just a really engaging , uh, podcast

We can discover like, where are you and where do you want to go? And if we can serve you in that, we're happy to, but I'm also happy to point you in other directions , uh, if somebody else has a better resource for your needs than what we have.

Take care . Bye-Bye . Thank you.