Greg Ablett Show Notes Page

What is Organizational Health? What does it do and how does it positively impact an organization? In companies today, the focus has mostly been on being smart and being more intelligent. Everything is about technology and streamlining processes and tasks. However, according to Greg Ablett, that is not the only factor that contributes to a company’s overall performance. Organizational health is important because it allows the company to operate without politics and confusion. It allows the company to perform better and helps team members become smarter therefore outperforming the competition.

Listen to this episode as Greg Ablett shares more about organizational health and its practical benefits and importance.

Greg Ablett grew up in Owasso, Oklahoma, just north of Tulsa with one younger sister. He grew up in a family of extremes, extreme love, and extreme discipline, with his mom usually giving the love and dad dishing out the discipline. He admires both of these qualities about each of his parents, and looking back now, he feels he had the best of both worlds, which fully translated into his life and his career. Still, his biggest inspiration and joy today comes from his wife Melissa and their three children.

Greg has an insane appetite for learning – with degrees in Business and Finance, a Master’s in Human Behavior, and nearing his Ph.D. in Human Development. But maybe his favorite study, believe it or not, is Barbeque. When he’s not reading the latest on business or inspiring stories about the success of others, you will find him studying up on the latest practices and theories for making great barbeque.

After a car accident ended his professional golf career in the early ’90s, Greg fell in love with business. He has led seven companies over the past twenty-five years serving, leading, and consulting in over 20 industries around the world. His experience and studies have helped companies not only achieve their ultimate potential faster but, more importantly, become healthier, which he believes is the last remaining competitive advantage in business today.

After a heartbreaking ending to a 14-year marriage, he committed himself to learn everything about relationships and what made them tick, what made them work, not work, what made them thrive and prosper, what gave them passion and chemistry, and what it would take for someone to have this for a lifetime – a journey that took almost 12 years of study.

In 2017, Greg founded the io Group where he now serves as a business and life strategist, coach, and advisor to individuals, high impact executives, teams, and couples that want to realize their peak potential. His focus is a transformational change in people and companies, transforming their leadership skills, their lives, their businesses and their relationships from the (I)nside (O)ut. In his new book, Extraordinary Relationships from the Inside Out he distills a lifetime of experience into simple, essential principles and practices that are practical and applicable for every one.

Greg currently lives in Omaha, Nebraska with his wife Melissa and has three kids.

Tweetable Quotes and Mentions

Listen to Greg Ablett get over the hump on the @FastLeaderShow – Click to Tweet

“There are two things an organization needs in order to prosper in the long term – they have to be healthy and they have to be smart.” – Click to Tweet

“Love is not a place you go to get, it’s a place you go to give.” – Click to Tweet

“If you want things to change, you have to change. If you want things to get better, you have to get better.” – Click to Tweet

Hump to Get Over

Greg Ablett was coming out of a divorce and felt he was failing in his relationship. Trying to make it successful, Greg did his best to learn from it and made himself better. After coming out from that separation, the experience became one of Greg’s major turning point in his life where he is now able to find clarity in handling relationships both in business and life.

Advice for others

Learn how to handle your own EQ and see the world on a different lens.

Holding him back from being an even better leader

Time and being hard on self.

Best Leadership Advice

Develop your skills on self-awareness.

Secret to Success

Understanding how to develop and foster teamwork.

Best tools in business or life

Trust within relationships.

Links and Resources

Greg’s website: https://www.theinsideoutgroup.com/

Greg’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/greg-ablett-01841a152/

Greg’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theiogroup

Greg’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/greg.ablett

Fast Leader Show on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/FastleaderNet

Fast Leader Show on Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/364qAA2

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Show Transcript

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Unedited Transcript

Jim Rembach (00:00):

Okay, fast leader Legion today. I’m excited because you’re going to get a very different perspective on what you thought was the separation between your personal life and your business life and how both of them can actually benefit. Greg Ablett grew up in a loss. So Oklahoma, just North of Tulsa with one younger sister, he grew up in a family of extremes, extreme love, extreme discipline, and his mom usually giving the love and his dad dishing out the discipline. He admires both of these qualities about each of his parents and looking back now, he feels that he had the best of both worlds, which fully translated into his life. And his career still is biggest inspiration and joy today comes from his wife, Melissa and their three children. Greg has an insane appetite for learning with degrees in business and finance a master’s in human behavior and nearing his PhD in human development.

Jim Rembach (00:55):

But maybe his favorite study, believe it or not is BBQ. When he’s not reading the latest on business or inspiring stories about success of others, you will find them studying up on the latest practices and theories for making great barbecue after a car accident and in his professional golf career. In the early nineties, Greg fell in love with business. He has led seven seven companies over the past 25 years, serving, leading and consulting in over 20 industries around the world. His experience and studies have helped companies not only achieve their ultimate potential faster, but more importantly become healthier, which he believes is the last remaining competitive advantage in business today, after a heartbreaking ending to a 14 year marriage, he committed himself to learn everything about relationships and what made them tick. What made them work, not work, what made them thrive and prosper? What gave them passion and chemistry and what it would take for someone to have this for a lifetime, a journey that took almost 12 years of study in 2017, Greg founded the IO group where he now serves as a business and life strategist, coach and advisor to individuals, high impact executives, teams, and couples that want to realize their peak potential.

Jim Rembach (02:17):

His focus is a transformational change in people and companies transforming their leadership skills, their lives, their businesses, and their relationships from the inside, out in his new book, extraordinary relationships from the inside out. He distills a lifetime of experience into single essential principles and practices that are practical and applicable for everyone. Greg currently lives in Omaha, Nebraska with his wife, Melissa and his three kids, Greg Abbott. Are you ready to help us get over the hump? Yeah,

Greg Ablett (02:45):

I will certainly try. Thank you for having me. It’s a pleasure.

Jim Rembach (02:48):

Well, you know, and, um, and I’m really excited about our conversation today because you and I have had, uh, several, uh, off Mike interactions and I’m hoping that we can bring that insight and energy, uh, to the time for us to have together so that other people can lead into it. But absolutely now, uh, given my leaving a little bit about you though, but if you can please share your current passion so that we can get to know you even better.

Greg Ablett (03:12):

Well, certainly I think, you know, what you heard in there? My, my favorite passion is probably barbecue, right? And, um, uh, I started grilling at a very young age. My dad, uh, first initiated me when I think it was about eight. Um, and you know, as I grew up and as I got out of college and so forth, I just kinda fell in love and I’ve got grills literally all over the place, it’s smokers and you name it. And so, um, it, it, you know, my passion is really creating things. Um, and that’s just one of the things I think that, that I just kind of fell in love with. I’m like, I just, I love a great, perfect meat. Um, and it’s not just me either, but smoked vegetables, fish, you name it. Um, you know, they can go have a barbecue. I’m probably gonna put it there.

Jim Rembach (03:58):

Well, and I think, okay, so as you’re talking, mr. Jett, another thing as far as discovery is concerned, uh, when you and I have chatted, it’s like why double majored in finance and real estate or financial I’ve spent, you know, 20 plus years on trying to get better at the relationship piece and becoming more elegant and impacting the customer experience. And you’ve done the same thing. I’m like we’re brothers, right. But I mean, for me, when I, when I start looking at some of the things that you’ve had from experiences that had, and have not, I think it’s quite compelling, intriguing, and I think we need to, and that is both seven companies that you’ve been involved that you were involved with and we’re running some of those turnaround stories were just quite frankly, unbelievable. That happens so fast. And I’m like, yeah. Right. Um, right, right. So you can give us a little bit of insight into, first of all, before we go into the details, what kind of turnaround are we talking about when the right things are focused in on, and the right people are part of the organization?

Greg Ablett (05:05):

Great question. Um, first of all, it’s faster than a lot of people think. And so there are really two things I think an organization needs in order to prosper for the longterm. I think they have to be healthy and I think they have to be smart, but I think we’re a lot of organizations focus. The majority of their time is on the smart side of the equation. You know, the decision sciences, things like, you know, it and marketing and strategy and, you know, those types of elements, right? Or in the operations of themselves, but being a healthy organization, removes things like politics, bureaucracy, you know, it builds high levels of trust. And really it’s about the cohesive behavior between the executive team. When you can get that right. What starts to happen is that you can now engage in what we call ideological conflict and ideological conflict is really about the search for the truth, right?

Greg Ablett (06:05):

It’s not about the loudest voice in the room that wins. And everybody’s probably familiar with that if you’ve ever been associated into business. Um, and it’s not necessarily the top person, it’s not just the CEO, this is okay, this is the way we’re going to do it. Ultimately they do have, um, you know, the say so into what goes on, but building a cohesive team is about listening to your entire team, the entire perspectives of that, and have an ideological conflict is about the search for the truth. When that happens, we can get to this place called commitment. You know, even when people first disagree with what’s going on, they can commit to a decision because they can see that it’s the right decision for the business. Even though it may hurt their particular function or department, or they may have to give up some things within that.

Greg Ablett (06:51):

You know, if that makes sense or sacrifice some elements, but that commitment now raises the bar and the ability for those executives to now hold each other accountable for their own behaviors. And that is what actually produces results. A lot of people believe that, you know, you have to be just extremely intelligent or you have to have all this knowledge in order to run a business effectively and efficiently fast, right. In order to turn around a business or make a lot of money or whatever the case may be. But in my experience, businesses far beyond knowledge based, it’s about behavior, it’s about behavior and what we’ve done in the past, and certainly what I’ve done. And I’ve been a huge proponent of organizational health for gosh, uh, 20 some odd plus years. Uh, now I think going back to 2000, um, and it’s really about the behavioral dynamics that happen not only within that team, but now outwardly to the culture.

Greg Ablett (07:53):

So how do you develop that? Um, so we have very specific practices and principles that we apply in businesses that have turned businesses from literally a million dollars or $1.8 million investment to 18 months later being $18 million or taking, you know, a $250 million company and turn it into almost a $600 million company in three years. You know, how you’re able to do that is you’re able to one establish clarity throughout the entire organization. So everybody understands what they need to do. And what’s most important to do right now that you reinforce and over-communicate that clarity, right? So we don’t get distractions. Listen, we all get distractions in our world, right? Our environments are constantly, um, you know, in we’re getting pinged, you know, whether it’s a phone or if it’s, uh, you know, outside influence, but our environments are always, you know, in business it’s it’s competition, right?

Greg Ablett (08:49):

It could be technology, disruption, it could be a number of different things. And so the idea about, you know, if you think about an executive team that’s cohesive in its behavior, they can not only see more elements, not only within their own organization, but outside the environments. So when they can perceive everything correctly, in other words, they’re not perceiving it through some narrow lens or they have the ability now to sit down and look at things objectively and find it or objective truth to a solution that’s air. Southwest airlines is a great example of a company who is very healthy in that regard. And you look at some of the things they’ve done and, you know, looking at them in business, you know, they started out obviously as a small airline, but if you look at some of the details of that, go underneath, you know, if you peel back the covers and look underneath there, they haven’t preloaded an employee in 45 years.

Greg Ablett (09:48):

They’ve always been profitable for 45 years. They’ve and look at all the stuff that they have from an environment, right. Plagued with, you know, economic woes, labor, strife, all of these things, but they haven’t done it. What’s been different about it. And you’ll see organizations like this Chick-fil-A is another great example. We’re an organization that is healthy. Here’s an organization you want to talk about performance, that’s closed on arguably the busiest day, right? Or the fast food week. And yet they blow away the competition. These things don’t happen by accident. They happen because there are purpose, purposeful, driven principles that they not only believe in, but they practice it abide by. And, uh, so organizational health is a big part of that, but some of those turnarounds that, that you’ve spoke about, um, they, they have been massive. And then, you know, to the extent of being into the billions of dollars in shareholder value, but they’ve not been done because we’ve been smart. They they’ve, they’ve been accomplished because we were healthy well, and I think what you’re talking about, this whole paradox that you refer to in the paradox of that smart is enough. Um, and then you also talk about, you know, cohesive behavior. Um, you also talk about ideology conflict, but ultimately when you start looking at getting to those points,

Jim Rembach (11:18):

It has to be even more basic and foundational than that. And that’s where I think all of the work that you’ve done around a relationship comes into play going even from, you know, a one-on-one, you know, affectionate type of relationship, and then taking it to an organizational customer experience perspective, if you can kind of walk us through that and the connection, because a lot of people don’t see that. I mean,

Greg Ablett (11:41):

Right. Yeah. I understand that because we’d gone, but others, right? Yeah. It’s, it’s, it’s really interesting because there, there is this, this, um, similarity between all of these things and, you know, the first one that starts with is with people, right. And it’s the behavior of individuals. And so when you look at relationships, um, there’s a similar type of paradigm that exists in relationships, right? We all get into, we’ll say we meet somebody and it gets into an intimate relationship. And we think that we understand all the skills and our behavior is good and everything is just going to work perfectly. Right. Rarely does it ever work perfectly. You know, I tell people all the time, marriage is really about three things. It’s harmony, disharmony and repair. Right. And so the, but the basis of this is, and, and I certainly, you know, I don’t know about you, John, but I never got a manual that said, here’s how to have an extraordinary relationship.

Greg Ablett (12:45):

Right. And we studied it as a kid and we practice these skills. Um, but what’s interesting is, is people will do this in business, but they won’t do this for their relationships. It’s kind of interesting. And so the, the paradigm has been thus far of, Hey, let’s jump into this and let’s just try to treat each other well until somebody, you know, starts to scoot on my beliefs a little bit and say, you know, I, I don’t know if that happens and we develop these resistances and then it becomes resentment. And then all of a sudden we start to spiral downhill. Right? Well, understanding that the number one cause of relationship failure today is emotional aptitude. It’s about the behavior, the perceptual and an expression aspects of what I’m giving to you. And the perception is of what you’re giving to me. And that’s no different, um, in a relationship, but a relationship when you look at it.

Greg Ablett (13:43):

And as we started to really dive down deep into it over 12 years of the study, we really, you really start to come to the conclusion that Love’s not a place you go to, to get, it’s a place you go to give. And I think a lot of people get into relationships for the aspect to get, and if you’re going there to get, you’re always going to be disciplined, you know? But I think when, and I often tell people this, you know, in relationships and it’s the same in business. If you’re leader in business, you don’t go there to get something you go to there to give. And the more you give and the more you lean into it, the more you’re healthy and understand people and understand how teamwork really works. And that’s about understanding your team. Well, it’s not just similar relationships. You need to understand your partner, you know, what their needs are, what their driving aspects are, what are the, what are the beliefs and associations that they’ve had in their past?

Greg Ablett (14:36):

Right? Um, all of these things make a big, a huge impact into where you’re going to go in the relationship, which is another interesting, you know, I would say paradox in business, we have these things called vision statements, right? And we say, this is what we want to be. I’ve yet to meet a couple who says, this is who we’re going to be. Certainly anyone that I’ve coached, this is, this is our vision statement. This is how we want to be. And this is how we’re going to behave toward each other. And these are our commitments. Yeah. We stood up and give our vows. But how many of us think about vows or practice vows on a daily basis? And so the idea behind certainly by an extraordinary relationships from the inside out is about the individual. Like how do we develop practices that are not only usable, right?

Greg Ablett (15:28):

Cause I don’t want stuff. This theory theory based. I want stuff that’s actually proven to work, but it’s practical. I can integrate into my everyday life. And it’s not just about knowledge. It’s something you have to do, you know? Right. Um, you’ve spent a lot of work as you know, and certainly in the psychology world about, um, EEQ right. And self-awareness, if I give you a book about self-awareness you look at the book and you’re going to go, I’m going to read the book about self-awareness, you’ll get the concept, but you won’t get how to do it until you practice it. And so relationships are no different. And what we’ve done is we’ve taken distilled down to very simple and yet practical ways. And organizational health is exactly the same way. It’s very simple, but a lot of people, they have the sophistication bias. They go, no, it’s gotta be more complicated than that.

Greg Ablett (16:20):

There can’t be to get those kinds of results in business or to have an incredible relationship. It can’t be that simple. And I’m going to tell you that it is, um, and, but it’s about behavior. It’s not, you know, yes, you have to be armed. Yes, you have to have the skills, but you got to know what to practice. And so this book was based on that element out of the paradigm that today we just kind of, you know, we come together in a relationship and then when a crisis happens, we go, Hey, let’s go see the marriage therapist. So let’s go see the marriage counselor or whatever the case may be. And they try to spend, you know, the next year diving down through this deep woven web of past history and all of the things to trying to figure you out, to figure out where’s the disconnect happening.

Speaker 4 (17:09):

Well, this

Greg Ablett (17:09):

Book was written on that saying, say, how do you avoid that all together? You know, it was, it was based upon the question of, let’s not be reactive about what can I do proactively to change the entire course of where my relationship is. You know, if you just take it today and you move it this much, where’s it going to be in three years, four years or five years. Right. And, but most times today, you know, I hear, I hear a couple say, and we grew apart or we just outgrew each other or we stopped being interested in the same things. Or I hear a number of number of different excuses and it’s really not bad. I think you can look to the principles or practices that I put into this book and you’ll go, this is what they weren’t doing. Wasn’t really about, we outgrew each other or it was, we couldn’t help each other bring each other along.

Greg Ablett (18:04):

And we weren’t aiming for the same spot. You know, how many couples do you know that have a vision statements is this is who we want to be. And so not dissimilar from business. Um, but when you look into business, you can go to the other extreme and say, let’s look at customer experience as an example, right? And there’s still a relationship between me as the customer and you as the company. And, you know, there are three things. I think that, um, you know, us as, as customers, when we look at an experience, it really is involved around three things. It has to be functional. Um, so if we’re going to a business or we’re purchasing a product or whatever the case may be, it has to meet our needs. You know, we want the experience to meet our needs in that sense and meaning that it was, it was valuable.

Greg Ablett (18:53):

It was, you know, what we were after it needs to be accessible, which means it needs to be easy, or it needs to be purse perceivably, easy, you know, without a lot of effort. But the third thing that we, that we always judge it on, that we don’t necessarily, we come out of the experience with is the emotional connection to the company. And I think that’s what a lot of companies, when they look at customer experience, they lose that. They lose that aspect. Well, that emotional connection exists, whether it’s, you know, in an experience from a company to, you know, you as an individual person goods and services and so forth, the emotional connection within a team, a culture within a business, the emotional connection that you have with your significant other, you know, all of that becomes important. And, you know, in the book and relationships, I talk about the needs and the six human needs, um, which, which weren’t developed by me, but developed by a much more famous individual by the name of Tony Robbins.

Greg Ablett (19:53):

And, um, um, you, you look at the understanding of this, but you start to understand and see people in a different way. The same thing can be applied in teams. The same thing could be applied in relationships, but also the same thing can be applied in customer experience. And I think this is where it’s missed. When you get those three elements where it has to be functional, accessible, and drive a positive, emotional connection with your customer. There are ways that you can do that. So there are expressions. Remember the expression and perception aspect of both give and take, right? There are five principle expressions that have to be transmitted or expressed if you will, for the other individual. And the first one is really transparency. So I had to give you a sense of transparency and the reason is because the perception then becomes trust right now.

Greg Ablett (20:49):

I, you know, if I, if I get a sense that you’re transparent, then I’m probably going to trust you. If that makes sense. And a lot of people say, well, wait a minute, Greg, you can’t measure this. And I said, well, you’re, you’re you’re right. But, and this is the simplicity behind it, you know, for the people out there that have the sophistication bias or the quantification bias, right? This is no you’re going to be assuring. It’s gotta be put to a number and so forth. And so on, which I’ve actually done this for several different companies, including the last one, the major turnaround that we did. Um, but the basis of this is if I said to you, I said, well, could you tell if I’m happy? If I’m happy, can you tell the other person’s happy? Or if I’m sad, or if I’m angry, could you tell that I was angry by my expression?

Greg Ablett (21:38):

Probably. So my point is is that you don’t have to be a clinical psychologist to be a practical one, right? You understand what these things are in human beings, and you can pick up what they are, whether you’re on a phone, even if you’re not speaking with them, if you’re not, or excuse me, if you’re not sitting in front of them, but you’re speaking with, you can tell is something bothering you or whatever the case may be. So again, these are perceptions and expressions, but the first one is transparency. So that has to be expressed. So the element of trust is given the same thing on executive team, the number one thing you have to do trust, what’s the number one thing you got to have in a relationship trust. So transparency becomes a really, um, integral component, integral component of these five expressions. The second one is really centricity.

Greg Ablett (22:30):

So it’s the ability to be personalized, you know, so that you feel like, man, you’re not treating me just like another, you know, cow in the herd that I’m special to you as a company. Right? And so how you develop that and how you get that person to come across with that perception that, Oh, they were, they, I mean, they really cared about me, which kind of goes into the support element, which is a third element. And support is really about empathy. You know, how many times did you say, Hey, my credit card was stolen or something like that. And they were like, okay, you need to do this. Oh, okay. You, I mean, you’re just like, dude, you, you know, and by the way, somebody just took, you know, $7,000 or whatever it is on my bank account. Right. Um, I remember, I remember one time you remember when, um, uh, at the time they had the ATM machines, you know, where you go in there and somebody had stuck like a fake thing on it and was recording, uh, the pin numbers sport.

Greg Ablett (23:29):

Well, somebody stole my, my card number and my pin. And they would drew several hundreds of hundreds of dollars out of there within like 30 minutes. Like, I didn’t even know what was going on. And so I call him and I’m like, Oh my God, this is out your checking account now. Right. This is all a different credit card. I dispute it, blah. No, that’s not your checking account. So you’re freaking out. And I remember the experience that I had and especially I was like, okay, well, sir, um, we’re going to have to file this complaint and we’ll have to file this paperwork when we haven’t do an investigation. And then I’m like, I just got my bank account drained. What can we do right now? Right. And they were just, un-empathetic about the situation. And you think about that. And well, now what’s your experience as you come away with that, right?

Greg Ablett (24:21):

Um, not only was, it felt difficult. You did meet my needs, but I now can’t stand you as a brand and as a company, because you didn’t take care of me, it wasn’t personalized to me. You treat me like everybody else. So the empathy aspect is, is, has to be a perception by people relative to brand. The, the fourth one is really about service and service is really about two things. It’s about being knowledgeable and being responsive. You know, how many times do you call it, explain your situation to a customer service rep. And they go, Oh, well, that’s another department. Okay. So you get flipped over to another department and then you change them. And they’re like, well, really, I don’t know, hold on a second. Let me check with my supervisor. And you’re like, this doesn’t feel responsive. It’s not knowledgeable everybody I talked to.

Greg Ablett (25:10):

Right. We all have shared those kinds of experiences. Um, and really the fifth is about engagement. And the engagement aspect is that we’re both working toward the same goal, right. That we’re both working hand in hand, if you will, as a team in that respect. And so engagement side, you know, Jim, what’s your address? It’s one, two, three Sesame street or whatever. That’s not engagement. Right. So the idea is, is that you’re working toward a common goal both together. Well, when you look at these five expressions, there’s just different layers of them based on the certain situation. You know, if in a fraud sense, I’m going to have to express much more support, right? And in the aspect that the perception of empathy is going to be there, I’m going to have to express a lot of transparency. So that trust is given about that things are going to be taken care of.

Greg Ablett (26:01):

So there’s just different levels of that recipe that you’re going to do within every interaction. So you, but, you know, it’s kind of funny. We’ve taken people who have don’t have any psychology, any human behavior background and taking them and said, does that feel transparent for me from a scale, from one to five, for the people that want to measure this? And they would say, Oh, it doesn’t feel like it’s transparent at all. Or they don’t feel like they’re empathetic toward the customer here. You know, we’ve all we’re viewed calls or heard calls or seen interchanges or whatever the thing is, but you can take these five elements and you can rank them across every experience you have not dissimilar. Then, you know, when you look at a business that’s healthy versus one that’s just smart, right? Smart. They usually involve in technology and so forth.

Greg Ablett (26:50):

And technology has actually been a really big disruptor when you talk about the experience of things, right? So it really starts to fragment the experience in terms of how now, how do you bring it together? How do I know that, you know, the thing I was just working on on my phone, that I went to, you know, my computer that I could pick up where I was left off, you know, Amazon actually has done this probably better than a lot of other folks, but, um, but for a long time, it’s been disjointed in that respect. And so I think companies can take, you know, the customer experience aspect of this thing. And, you know, if you think about those five expressions, those are no different than what you need on a team, in a business. Those are no different than what you need in a relationship, um, and so forth. And so w w w what we’ve done is, is that, you know, I, I can see different connection points across these three. Um, but it all starts really with the behavior, the perception and expressions of the

Jim Rembach (27:51):

Well, and for me, when you started talking about this, I think about this whole development of people who are interacting with customers, and, you know, even as a leader, interacting with their colleagues or their peers, you know, or, you know, the, the people who they report to. I mean, there, there’s a whole lot of development and skill development that can happen as a result of using this as your core, you know, as far as, you know, helping people to do these exchanges and to be deliberate and to change, you know, behaviors and to, you know, have others have received that perception of trust. I mean, cause it happens internally and externally. Um, absolutely. You know, when we start thinking about all this, you know, we really have to focus, um, and to be able to execute. And one of the things that we do to help us focus on the show, are we focused on quotes? Is there a quote or two that you’d like you can share?

Greg Ablett (28:41):

Oh gosh, well, I, you know, um, Jim Rome w uh, the, the, uh, personal development speaker in the seventies was, was, uh, who I listened to as a young kid, or as a matter of fact. And, um, which was where I think, you know, my fuel for business got started way back when, and I think personal development and learning became a really big component of it, but one of his famous quotes was, if you want things to change, you have to change. You know, if you want things to get better, you have to get better. And, and that was, that was one that still sticks with me today. You know, I think I was five years old when I heard that quote, and it is always stuck with me throughout, you know, now a whole lot more years, not to age myself through bad, but, um, it certainly stuck with me, um, since that time.

Greg Ablett (29:32):

And so, but I have a number of different quotes, and certainly you sit out there on Instagram and read a bunch of them, but, um, I sit around and, and a lot of times and think about, you know, these different aspects of not just life, but relationships and business, and, um, and understand where are they similar and where are they different and why, and where could we apply principles and practices in one that would work for another. Um, and so that’s some of the aspects of where I think all of those three kind of come across. And, but one of my favorite quotes is definitely Jim Rome and, um, which, uh, probably one of my favorites had stuck with me for gosh, you know, 40, 44 years now.

Jim Rembach (30:14):

Well, and we’ve seen it and hear this resonate on the personal and professional side as well, but there’s times where we don’t, we are not intentional, we’re not deliberate, you know, our, our offline, and, you know, we talk about getting over the hump and those being, learning opportunities. And when other people, um, can hear those, a lot of times it’ll help them as well. Is there a time where you’ve gotten over the hump that you can share?

Greg Ablett (30:37):

Yeah. You know, I tell ya one of the biggest hurdles I ever had, the biggest challenges I’ve ever had, um, was coming out of a divorce, you know, in a marriage, you know, if anybody’s ever been through. And a lot of us always been through, you know, some type of breakup or some type of thing of that nature. And, um, you know, there are two different really driving forces that I found in life. And that is, you know, the first driving force is the avoidance of pain, which is where most people go or the gaining of pleasure. Right. And, and those are really the two forces that kind of drive us all as human beings. Um, and pain was a great motivator for me. And so, you know, I, while being, you know, I was not in a good place, I’m not in, you know, a place where I felt like, man, I really understand what it takes to have a successful relationship.

Greg Ablett (31:31):

Um, and when you come out of it, you know, you come out of anything and you fail, you question everything, you know? And, um, uh, that, that was a great motivator for me. There was a, there was a time when I basically just said, you know what, I ha I can control this part. Um, and I remember the night that it happened, um, it was about two 30 in the morning. I was still up. Um, and I was going in, I had just moved into Omaha, believe it or not. Um, it was just dumb, cold outside if you’ve ever been here in the winter. Uh, it’s not a whole lot of fun, but, uh, a great place left, but, uh, certainly certainly pretty cold. And I vividly remember, um, sitting there as I’m going through all these reports for a new position that I had just taken on running a new company.

Greg Ablett (32:25):

Um, I hadn’t been there a week and, um, as I’m going through this divorce and I remember going, gosh, I, I can control this in business. Why can’t I control this in relationships? How do I, if I can make businesses success, why can’t I make success? And that was like the hump that was like, like the light bulb clicked on for me. And I went, I can do this. I just got to go learn what it is that drives relationships. And as I started to learn, I went, Oh my gosh, that’s kind of the same here. That’s kind of the same here. You know, we all kind of get these Epiphanes right at some point as, as we start to learn. But, um, that was probably my biggest challenge and turning point because, you know, for, for months, um, you know, after we separated, uh, from my, uh, my initial or excuse me, my, my former wife, um, now ex-wife when we, we separated, um, as anybody does, you go through a month of just, there’s, it’s just a bad dark place, you know, um, you start questioning everything, you know, you start questioning yourself and your ability and so forth.

Greg Ablett (33:34):

But I remember that time when I was sit down again, two 30 in the morning and I’m going, I know the strategy for this business. I know exactly what to do. I know exactly how to do it. And all we gotta do is go do it. I go, why did I, why don’t I have that relationship? Well, because I didn’t study relationships. Like I studied business, I didn’t understand those types of things. And so I went back to school, started, you know, looked at my masters in human behavior and then turned around and started pursuing my PhD in human development. And, um, it’s great to understand why people do what they do, but if you can’t change it, if you get modified, if you can’t give them something useful and practical, they don’t won’t get used. It won’t, it won’t won’t stick. And so, um, as I started to study that, that became like the night, I still remember back today, um, like it literally was yesterday and going, wow, why can’t I do this for that? And it just started to kicked off this journey, got me over the hump, got me out of the depressive state that I was in. And here we go.

Jim Rembach (34:42):

Well, and, and when I start thinking about that and how you have brought these two things together and how you have had success with one, and now you are having success in the other, uh, and looking at, you know, obtaining the PhD. I started thinking about, well, worst Greg going to go now. Right. So if you can share with one of your goals. Yeah. So

Greg Ablett (35:01):

One of the goals, um, and, and, and believe it or not, the relationship coaching stuff got started by accident. You know, I was, as I was learning as I was developing, you know, really the principles that now you see in this book, um, I needed something to test it on. And, uh, in the book I mentioned that the first couple that I ever coached was Brian and Kelly. And, uh, I talk about their story in the book. And Brian was a friend of mine, lived in the apartment that was next door to me, literally the same one. I was up at two 30 in the morning, trying to figure, you know, this visit. Well, he and Kelly live next door. And I tell the story about how they, um, uh, they went, they were in this incredible relationship. And years later, we, you know, we got separated because of business and I moved away to run some other companies.

Greg Ablett (35:53):

And before I’d moved back to take on a multitude of different companies and Brian and I met up, and then all of a sudden they were getting divorced. And I was like, I had learned all this stuff. I like, can I just share with you what I’ve learned? And, and let’s see if it helps. And it turned their relationship around completely. And now they’re literally a model couple. And, um, I went, wow, I should probably test this out on others and see if this continues to work. And so they gave me another couple of neighbor referred me, and then I had referrals, you know, kind of coming out, you know, from every, every sideways. And so for awhile, that kind of, that was the goal is to help as many people as I could. Um, but my primary goal, I think, in, in life as it is pretty much every day, I think my goals really don’t change that much.

Greg Ablett (36:47):

Um, there’s, there’s probably many goals that I’ll have, you know, within that. But my first one is continue to grow every day, you know, do something to, you know, stand at the front door of your mind and beat it something great. Um, you have the ability to control that. And, um, that’s always the goal. And I think, you know, the key is just continue to learn and learn, learn. Um, and, uh, at least for me, you know, I have this insatiable appetite for learning and, um, and it, it makes me feel like I’m growing as an individual. Um, and I think that’s the end result is to feel like, Hey, I’m growing, but to do that, I gotta put it into work if that makes sense. And so my goals are always put in work fast leader, Legion wishes you the very best

Speaker 5 (37:35):

Can we move on? Let’s get a quick word from our sponsor. And even better place to work is an easy to use solution that gives you a continuous diagnostic on employee engagement, along with integrated activities that will improve employee engagement and leadership skills in everyone using this award winning solutions guaranteed to create motivated, productive, and loyal employees who have great work relationships with our colleagues and your customers to learn more about an even better place to work, visit [inaudible] dot com for slash better for winning solutions, guaranteed to create motivated, productive, and loyal employees who have great work relationships with our colleagues and your customers to learn more about an even better place to work visit [inaudible] dot com forward slash better. All right, here we go past him. It’s time for the home. Okay, Greg, the hump, they hold on to some part of our show. Can you give us good insights fast? So I’m going to ask you several questions and here give us robust yet rubber responses are going to help us move onward and upward pastor Greg Abbott. Are you ready to go down? You got it. Right. So what is holding you back from being an even better leader today? Uh, more,

Greg Ablett (38:36):

Well, the first one to answer, I’m gonna give you this time, which is not a really good answer. Uh, but the, the biggest hurdle that I have is probably that I’m more, I’m harder on myself. It’s given myself permission to be okay.

Jim Rembach (38:52):

And what is the best leadership advice you’ve ever received?

Greg Ablett (38:56):

The best leadership advice would definitely be? Um, I think developing the skill of both self-awareness, um, in that sense is probably the best advice that I’ve ever been given relative to leadership.

Jim Rembach (39:11):

All right. What is one of your secrets that you believe contributes to your success?

Greg Ablett (39:16):

Teamwork, um, understanding how to develop and foster teamwork. Um, I don’t think anything gets accomplished in business relationships or even, you know, from a business to an outside consumer without the idea of teamwork. So I think that’s paramount.

Jim Rembach (39:35):

And what is one of your best tools that you believe helps you in business and life?

Greg Ablett (39:41):

Ooh, best tools. Uh, gosh, there’s a lot, Jeff. I gotta be honest. Um, the best tools, uh, to be honest is, is, um, to have the trust, I think, within the relationships that you hold, whether, you know, you sit on, on, uh, an executive team, whether you run a team, whether you’re in a relationship with somebody else, or it’s the development. I think of that trust, um, that is it’s the key to really everything. Um, in terms of success, it’s the start starting block. If you can’t get there, you won’t get anywhere else.

Jim Rembach (40:24):

And what would be one book you’d recommend to our Legion and it could be from any genre?

Greg Ablett (40:30):

Well, gosh, uh, well from a business perspective, I would definitely say pick up, um, a book on organizational health, uh, Pat Lencioni, um, and the table group has the, a book called the advantage, um, was just terrific. And there’s a whole slew that he has out there on, uh, organizational health, um, from a relationship aspect way. It’s really going to be tough, pick up mine. How about that?

Jim Rembach (40:57):

What we’re going to do that and okay. Best litter leaf. And you can find links to bet, let’s say on only book, as well as a few others on a Greg’s show notes page, which you will find@fastleader.net slash Greg Abbott. And we also will put a link to extraordinary relationships from the inside out as well. Okay, Greg, this is my last question. Imagine you’re the opportunity to go back to the age of 25 and you can take knowledge and skills that you have now back with you, but you can’t take it all and you can only do so what skill or piece of knowledge would you take back with you and Juan?

Greg Ablett (41:28):

Uh, great question. Um, and, and I’ve thought about that question several different times, and I can honestly say that probably the skill or of, of both self-awareness and self-management, I think the EEQ skill, um, would allow me to see the world through a different lens. I would’ve made different decisions upon that. Um, I would have been able to surface more choices because of those perceptional changes, um, that I did not have at 25. And if there was one skill, I could probably go back and change where if I could take one with me and go back, um, and change the course of that, it’d probably be that

Jim Rembach (42:11):

Greg, I had fun with you today. Can you please share with the fast leader Legion, how they can connect with you?

Greg Ablett (42:15):

Yeah, absolutely. So you can go to the inside out group.com, uh, spelled just like that, uh, the inside out group.com. And when you can hook up with me on LinkedIn, um, and, uh, and, or find us on Facebook or Instagram,

Jim Rembach (42:30):

Greg Ablett, thank you for sharing your knowledge and wisdom, Fastly Legion honors you, and thanks you for helping us get over the hump.

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306: Greg Ablett – How Organizational Health Can Benefit Your Company