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Simone Vincenzi

192: Simone Vincenzi: I basically made myself homeless

Simone Vincenzi Show Notes Page

Simone Vincenzi decided to quit his job and go to school to learn how to run his own business. Tragically, his grandfather pasted away and Simone decided to travel back to his hometown in Italy from London every two weeks to comfort his grieving mother. Quickly, his savings was exhausted, but he continued to travel home to his mother and made the choice to become homeless.

Simone was born and raised in Maranello, Italy along with his younger brother Graziano. His parents divorced when he was 14 and it taught him how to fend for himself an that good can come from something bad.

While growing up Simone was always independent and loved talking to people. He has always been the life of the party. This is why he found the perfect career in the catering industry as a waiter and restaurant manager.

He was always happy doing what he did and he did not understand why people would compromise their happiness. This is the reason he moved to deliver seminars to help people live a happier life.

Simone Vincenzi, known as The Experts Strategist, is the co-founder of GTeX. He’s a contributor to Forbes, Entrepreneur Magazine and the Huffington Post. He’s a TEDx speaker, Host of the podcast Explode Your Expert Business and author of 3 life-changing books.

Simone is transforming the personal development and speaking industry to help changemakers change more lives.

Every year he speaks in front of more than 5,000 business leaders, which included sharing the stage with Les Brown, Dr. John DeMartini, Trent Shelton and many more. He has also organized over 170 events, including Gary Vee speaking from York Hall boxing ring.

Following his passion for making an impact on the younger generation, he also partners with the largest youth organizations in the UK, helping them deliver more effective courses and training.

Simone now lives in London with his lovely wife Lovelda. Simone cannot live without 3 things: Speaking, basketball and playing his Didgeridoo.

Tweetable Quotes and Mentions

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

“Structure and frameworks are crucial, because they give guidelines, but at the same time they give freedom.” –Click to Tweet  

“Why are you doing what you’re doing, what is the motivation behind it?” –Click to Tweet  

“There needs to be a line where we have a policy and line where we have a framework.” –Click to Tweet  

“There’s this big talk about you’ve got to be passionate, but I know a lot of passionate people that are doing freak zero with their lives.” –Click to Tweet  

“Where are you channeling all this passion that you have?” –Click to Tweet  

“The moment when I implemented my strategy, I now had a channel for my passion.” –Click to Tweet  

“Intention creates attention.” –Click to Tweet  

“Count your blessings, and everyone has a different blessing.” –Click to Tweet  

“Be aware of what you’re doing and ask for advice.” –Click to Tweet  

Hump to Get Over

Simone Vincenzi decided to quit his job and go to school to learn how to run his own business. Tragically, his grandfather pasted away and Simone decided to travel back to his hometown in Italy from London every two weeks to comfort his grieving mother. Quickly, his savings was exhausted, but he continued to travel home to his mother and made the choice to become homeless.

Advice for others

Have a strategy and be more aware of what you are doing and ask for advice.

Holding him back from being an even better leader

Making decisions without thinking about consequences.

Best Leadership Advice

Lead by example.

Secret to Success

My resilience.

Best tools in business or life

My team.

Recommended Reading

Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action

The Richest Man in Babylon

Contacting Simone Vincenzi

Podcast: https://gtex.org.uk/podcast/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/explodeyourexpertbiz/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simone-vincenzi/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/simonegtex

Resources and Show Mentions

Call Center Coach

Public Speaking

 

Show Transcript: 

[expand title=”Click to access edited transcript”]

192: Simone Vicenzi: I basically made myself homeless

 

Intro: Welcome to the Fast Leader podcast, where we explore convenient yet effective shortcuts that will help you get ahead and move forward faster by becoming a better leader. And now here’s your host, customer and employee engagement expert and certified emotional intelligence practitioner, Jim Rembach.

 

Call center coach develops and unites the next generation of call center leaders. Through our e-learning and community individuals gain knowledge and skills in the six core competencies that is the blueprint that develops high-performing call center leaders. Successful supervisors do not just happen so go to callcentercoach.com to learn more about enrollment and download your copy of the Supervisor Success Path e-book now.

 

Jim Rembach:     Okay Fast Leader Legion, I’m excited to have somebody this guest that we have on the show today because he’s going to help give some framework and understanding and something that we oftentimes think is intangible. Simone Vincenzi was born and raised in Maranello, Italy along with his younger brother Graziano. His parents divorced when he was 14 but it taught him how to fend for himself and that good can come from bad. While growing up Simone was always independent and loved talking to people. He has always been the life of the party. This is why he found the perfect career in the catering industry and as a waiter and restaurant manager. He was always happy doing what he did and he did not understand why people would compromise their happiness. This is the reason he moved to deliver seminars to help people live a happier life. Simone Vincenzi also known as the expert strategist is the co-founder of GTex. He’s a contributor to Forbes, Entrepreneur Magazine and The Huffington Post. 

He’s a TEDx speaker host of the podcast, Explode your Expert Business and author of three life-changing books. Simone is transforming the personal development and speaking industry to help change makers change more lives. Every year he speaks in front of more than 5,000 business leaders which include sharing the stage with Les Brown, Dr. John Demartini, Trent Shelton and many more. He also has organized over 170 events including, Gary Vee speaking from York All Boxing Ring. Following his passion for making an impact on the younger generation he’s also partnering with the largest youth organizations in the UK helping to deliver more effective courses and training. Simone now lives in London with his lovely wife Lovelda cannot live without three things: speaking, basketball and playing his didgeridoo. Simone, are you ready to help us get over the hump?

Simone Vicenzi:     Ready to rock, Jim. Ready to rock. 

Jim Rembach:     I’m glad you’re here. Now I’ve given my Legion a little bit about you but can you share what your current passion is so that we can get to know you even better?

Simone Vicenzi:     Yeah, absolutely. My passion is to inspire and empower business leaders to get more customers and to change more lives ultimately.  We work with businesses that—I have a mission that they’re not just there for profits. Although profits are important and they’re a crucial part of a business but it’s not the main reason why they started a business. Like it’s not the main reason why I started my business. And we particularly helped them in making a lot of money and getting a lot of clients running seminars live and online presentations. That’s what we specialize on here at GTex. 

Jim Rembach:     For me when you started talking about that issue of mission and why an organization exists. I often find because I was been having this discussion with one of my clients, being certified in emotional intelligence, I try to help them differentiate by connecting at a deeper level other than, hey these are our features and our benefits. Because from a product perspective—even if in a service perspective for that matter too many times we go to the functional and we forget the whole finesse piece. And it’s really the finesse piece that ultimately causes people to initially engage with us maybe get to a point of having trust with us and then ultimately staying with us and referring us. It’s really those things that are kind of rooted in the whole whether its happiness authenticity all of those components that we say are intangible. For the course of my life I’ve found that they’re not intangible there’s frameworks and there’s things to focus in on that helps you deliver. When you start thinking about creating some structure and frameworks about that how do you help or teach organizations to do that?

Simone Vicenzi:     As you said structure and frameworks are crucial, are really important because they give guidelines but at the same time they give the freedom for an organization for an individual to be themselves and to express themselves within the framework. That’s why I prefer frameworks rather than scripts the scripts as a script is something which is setting stone, this is the script. While when you’re given a framework you’re allowed individual or a company to be to be free and to put their own personality in their own ethos into the equation. If you’re thinking about the topic of mission which is what we started talking about and you mentioned the importance of every mission behind products behind services then there are a few things that we explore with a company. First, of all he is a why they started what they started. There’s a brilliant book which probably you’ve read or maybe you’re listeners have read which is called, Starts With Why from Simon Sinek, if you have not read the book you might have watch his TEDx talk or maybe you have read some of his articles. In that book he mentions that people follow leaders that have a purpose. But a lot of leaders they forget to actually share why they started doing the things in the first place. So something that we start from is why are you doing what you’re doing? What is the motivation behind it? What is your personal motivation? And there are two things that you can distinguish within that. One is your personal motivation for yourself as a human being. And the other is your personal motivation that you have for what you want to create for others in the work because they are both important. 

Now we all have personal goals. There are very few mother Teresa’s in the world they’re just doing big for others. I have my personal goals, I want to be wealthy I want to have a great lifestyle I want to provide a great lifestyle for my family for my children, when I will have children, for my wife. I want to go on holiday whenever I want. I want to wake up with a smile on my face and be happy doing what I do. That’s my personal motivation. But then I have an external motivation which is what I want to see in the word, what is the legacy that I want to leave? And then at this time I’m talking about changing the way entrepreneurs run their businesses. Because I believe that if an entrepreneur is more purposeful and runs the business in a more effective way and they make more money as well then they will have a ripple effect in their communities in their families in their household with their clients and this is the intangible that I cannot see but it excites me because I know it’s happening even though I can’t see directly. And that’s where we start from the beginning. 

Jim Rembach:     Now you bring up some really interesting points because as you’re talking there’s a couple things that kind of stood out to me that I think are definitely worth us maybe delve into a little bit deeper. First of all, I think there’s a big mistake that gets made if we’re not careful taking a framework and turning it into a policy. Because then I think that does put the constraints on people because ultimately what we need to be able to do is take that mission and that reason and the passion behind it that which we’re talking about the positives, not the threats and a weaknesses components it’s the positive components, and actually not being able to scale it. You talked about entrepreneur but organizations that are even large have the same desires and goals and issues and humps they need to get over. And so when we start talking about taking that personal, aligning it with the work that you’re doing, and not using the framework  for something that could be a negative or detractor like turning it into a policy. Is there a point by which you see that kind of happening and then you got a kind of real people back from? 

Simone Vicenzi:     First of all even that because we work with a large organizations. One side of our business, which mainly my business partner deals with, is a sales training for recruitment agencies. So we work with larger recruitment agencies we work with the some of the largest recruitment agencies in the world to help them train their staff. And I believe that not every policy is wrong I think that in life or in business we will need policies and we need frameworks. So there needs to be a line where we have a policy and the line where we have a framework. Now I think that the way you are dealing with certain issues that there are for example very critical for example, how are you going to deal when a client is not happy and now they want to cancel their account or they’re asking for a refund? There needs to be a policy for that. There are so many things that you can leave to that person to decide but then there might be other decisions for example, we’re talking about leadership you are looking at the manager how would the leader team to perform better? So very specifically about the sales environment. In that case it’s better to give them a framework because if we give them a policy the policy might not be aligned with the personality that they have and actually instead of supporting them it’s holding them back. In that case they’re looking at how do you lead your team? It’s great to have frameworks because then I can put my personality I can put my genius or I can put what I know is great for me I can infuse that in the framework so that I can have this connection with my team. Does it make sense, Jim?

Jim Rembach:     Absolutely makes sense, and so for me as you were talking I started also thinking about the build the depth and level of expertise of somebody who is looking at being able to create or scale. If I don’t have a lot of experience and depth and understanding I’m going to err unintentionally on the side of policy because I don’t know a whole lot of it about myself and I don’t understand that really here’s where I should be leveraging and using a framework and kind of give people the freedom. I do see a whole lot of requirement in regards to utilizing people who have the skill and understanding and who know how to apply some of the finesse and the artistic and the freedoms and the innovative energizing types of things to know the difference in where the line is. I don’t think you can actually just give it to somebody at a lower level and say here, follow this procedure or follow this process and now write this up. 

Simone Vicenzi:     It also depends by the person by the individual because there are people that work really well with frameworks and there are people that work really well with policies and the very solid structures. If you’re given to a person who is incredibly detailed that they love to have a structure to follow and they want to know word by word what they are going to say what they’re going to do otherwise it puts them in a situation that makes them feel uncomfortable and they would not perform as well then you know that that person will need a much more stricter guidelines. But then if you give the same guidelines to another person who’s maybe very creative and they love to express themselves that’s holding them back. I think in every business it’s finding the right person the right role with the right personality with the right passion that gives you the outcome that you want or the best possible outcome for the company. We’re going into the art of recruitment here which is I think is a major part of the leadership conversation. How do you find the people that are the best fit for your team? One person instead of another one. Which role would it be? How do you move people within the organization from one side to the other? And it’s something that—for example I’m going through right now. We grew our company one year from three to eight people so we had a really a large growth. And it was about allocating the different people in the different role. And the more we were getting to know them the more we knew what position was best for them. 

Jim Rembach:     I think that’s a great point. Because as you were talking I started thinking about, if that person needs a whole lot of that structure and a whole lot of that step and processes and detail and stuff that person who’s perfect for being in compliance or being in quality being an analyst where hopefully someone who’s in a leading position or we put in a leading position is one that—just give me a framework and let me apply what I know and my skills and what I learn and give me the opportunity to have some more flexibility because therefore I’m also going to do that for my people. And that’s when you know an organization can scale where they can actually gain some velocity instead of needing people that are in leading roles to have so much structure and policies and things like that to give them a decision-making power so in other words. In other words, okay, I have all this behind me and I know this is how it’s supposed to go and therefore I feel confident enough in order to be able to move forward. Where people who are a little bit more creative and have the frameworks can say, you know what? Give me 80% of what I need to know or heck even 50% of what I need to know infuse me and other people and let’s go. 

Simone Vicenzi:     Exactly, exactly absolutely. 

Jim Rembach:     When you start thinking about—gosh! All these people who you’ve spoken to all these people you’ve spoken with all these people who you’ve worked with what you’re doing I can only imagine that you’ve been exposed to a ton of different quotes in order to inspire you. And on the show that’s one of the things that we look at. Is there one or two that you can share that you like?

Simone Vicenzi:     Absolutely. There is one which was very relevant to me in particular in my leadership roles and as well and growing my business, which was, Passion will get you moving a strategy will get you there. And the reason why I love this quote it is because there is this big talk about passion you got to be passionate, you got to be passionate, you got to be passionate, you got to be passionate. But I know a lot of passionate people that are doing freaked 0 with their lives but they’re really passionate. Every time they have a new project and is the most amazing project ever and then you’re looking at their bank account or their organization or their team or whatever they’re doing and you’re like, where are you channeling all the passion that you have? And that was me at the very beginning very passionate all over the place. Why? Because I didn’t have a solid strategy. The moment I implemented this strategy then I had a channel for my passion and I could focus my passion to create something of value something productive. 

Jim Rembach:     And as you talk about that I’m starting even to think about my kids, I have three kids, and for me I’m like, hey, when you get up in the morning you have to know what you want to be doing or what you should be doing or if not you end up laying around all day. And so for here right now we’re doing this interview while my kids are having their summer break from school and that’s exactly what they want to do all day. And so finally my wife and I said, this is crazy. We try to keep them busy and doing camps and things like that and my daughter’s going on mission next week but there’s times in between where we don’t have things for them to do so she created a checklist. And she said, look if you do these things you probably could get them done in 15-20 minutes. At the end of the day we still have to go to them and say, you hadn’t even finished your checklist. So it’s like they don’t have a good practice and a good habit of actually going through and executing because. You talk about the passion piece and an even frameworks instructor but you got to move forward. 

Simone Vicenzi:     Absolute, absolutely, I agree with you. 

Jim Rembach:     How do we get people to move from, I don’t know where to go I don’t have a framework to actually executing, is that where—

Simone Vicenzi:     I can tell you an organization I’m not a parent so I I’m the kind of person that will not give advice if it’s something that I’ve not experienced myself. So in this case sorry to disappoint you Jim but nothing around parenting there teenagers and kids are different than adults and I used to work in about 150 schools a year that’s how I started doing courses. When I run a seminar with young people or teenagers it’s completely different from when you run a seminar with adults. If they listen to you for 10 minutes in a row with the young people you’re lucky. There are some schools that I went into that if I came out without having like pens and books thrown at me it was a good day. So I would not expect that unless I go in a prison maybe to go this wrapping a seminar with adults. 

Jim Rembach:     I would dare to say though that the whole attention span—okay, so adults may not throw books and pens at you however the attention span is actually for many adults even shorter because they have so many different things that they have to focus on so many tasks they have to do and so many responsibilities so oftentimes the attention span you got 30 seconds—and that’s important from a speaker perspective from a trainer perspective.

Simone Vicenzi:     You know what’s a difference Jim? The difference is if the audience wants to be there or not, that’s the main difference. Because even if you go to school and the students want to be there, I did some summer camps with students and they wanted to be there. It was a leadership camp they were the top performing students of the school and sometimes even not the top performing but they wanted to be there and it makes the experience very different. It’s almost like the same if you go into an organization if the people of the team they want to be there is one thing it’s completely for an experience everyone is excited, I want to get involved they’re there to learn and therefore when you are excited your attention is increased because it’s something that you want, intention creates attention. So when your intention is there the attention is there too as well. 

Jim Rembach:     That’s a great point. Okay, so looking at the things that you’ve actually gone through talking about the parents early divorce and quickly you learned how to fend for yourself and getting to even where you are today I’m sure there’s a lot of humps that you had to get over, things that you’ve learned along the way, can you share one of those stories with us?

Simone Vicenzi:     Yeah, absolutely. I’m not even 30, I’ll be 30 years old soon, but I feel that I lived an intense life. One of the story that I can share is when I became homeless that was a huge learning experience for me. I was at a point where I was very successful in the catering industry. At the age of 19 I was the youngest Michelin star restaurant manager in Europe. I just earned a lot of money from a very young age I was living incredible lifestyle. I was going clubbing every night strip clubs, you name it I was I was living the dream at 19. And when I was 22 then I came here over to the UK I was recruited to work in this Michelin star restaurant from Italy so I moved here and after a couple of years then I knew that something needed to change. And therefore I decided to quit my job and then started my business doing leadership from what I’ve achieved before in the catering industry. But I didn’t have a clue how to run a business. I had some savings, not too many, but I have some savings but at the same time my grandfather died at home. So, now my mom was left there by herself with my little brother and my mom and his father, my grandfather had a very strong connection so she was devastated completely devastated and I know that in that moment my mom needed me. I was in the fortunate position where I was going through my studies to complete my diplomas and to go to my business salaries and I wasn’t didn’t have a job as well and I was living off my savings so I decided that every I was going to go back every two weeks to Italy and travel two to Italy and two weeks in London. But then I looked at my finances and I couldn’t sustain that kind of lifestyle. I wasn’t earning any money and I was taking two flights and London is a very expensive city as well. 

What I decided to do is I basically made myself homeless. When I was in London I was sleeping in parks, streets, and tube stations whatever and wherever there was a Wi-Fi I was there during the day and I was going through my studies and still learning and then I was going back to Italy I was there to support my mom and still going through my studies. And that was one of the best experiences of my life because I’ve learned what it was like to live with nothing. I think that everyone should have the experience not to be homeless but to live with nothing because it makes you appreciate 15 20 times hundred times more every small thing that you have and that’s what happened to me and so I’m happy that I made the decision because I knew that my mom needed help she needed me there, and my mom didn’t know anything at the time otherwise she would never allow that, she didn’t know I quit my job she thought that was taking two weeks holiday at a time to be with her, and that went on for six months. And then when mom was better I went and find a part-time job because I had no money at all, deplete all of my savings and then I started building my business from there. 

Jim Rembach:     I have to say that I think you’re the first person who I’ve ever heard became homeless by choice. 

Simone Vicenzi:     I don’t know anyone else too. 

Jim Rembach:     I can’t even imagine coming to that conclusion and making that decision and how you—

Simone Vicenzi:     For me was it wasn’t a tough decision that’s the thing of the story, it was logical I am that kind of person and I’ve always been. I’m willing to do whatever it takes to get what I want. I don’t care how long it takes I don’t care how hard I had to work I don’t care whatever situations I’m in I have just this winning attitude that I don’t care about the circumstances I’m in and I was born that way that’s always been me I’m super competitive. I play basketball in the national league here in the UK for example and I’m pretty sure. I’m not like the average player that you expected as basketball player I’m a short Italian guy but I’ll go to my training every single day and play by myself and do whatever is required for me to compensate what Mother Nature didn’t give me with. My wife she didn’t even like me she didn’t even want to date me and it took me like more of a month, some people call it stalking, t to get her to actually consider me. I’m the kind of person who never gives up and for me that is just the logical decision, this is what I got to do. What do I have? Great I’ll do it. 

Jim Rembach:     Well that resilience is something definitely shoot, I think I would say a lot of people would covet to have that kind of resilience and be able to do what you need to do in order to be able to go forward. A lot of people won’t take the two, three, four steps back in order to ultimately get to ten steps forward that that vision is oftentimes lost. 

Simone Vicenzi:     That’s why I think I’m better lucky, we say count your blessings and everyone has a different blessing this is mine and everyone has theirs. It’s a personality that I thank God for having that and giving me this confidence because that’s what made me—at the age of 26 become one of the most influential migrant entrepreneurs here in London and more and more and more. And that’s all down to my opinion that resilience and I’m thankful to God whatever you believe in, if you believe in God or not whatever I’m thankful that that’s part of me. 

Jim Rembach:     Yes, I’m a person of strong faith and oftentimes I’ve shared in the show and I do believe that those things come from him oftentimes we just don’t find our blessing we all do have them and we have. We have to learn how to find them and then have to own them and continue to grow them. When I start thinking about all these things that you have going on and being a very young man and I could definitely see a family coming in front of you—

Simone Vicenzi:     Yeah, coming soon.

Jim Rembach:     Good luck with that.

Simone Vicenzi:     I need it.  

Jim Rembach:     I’m sure you have a lot of goals but if there was one that you could focus in on what would it be?

Simone Vicenzi:     On a personal level, yeah, having a family having kids that’s on a personal level that’s coming next year probably and that’s going to be a completely new chapter of my life. Every blessing comes with a curse at the same time there is the Ying and Yang in everything. My personality I’m incredibly driven and I can get things done and I don’t need anyone around me then that also impacts everything else that I’m doing so it took me a long time to become a team player not only in my business but also with my wife and she has to remind me constantly, hey we are the two of us you’re not by yourself anymore. And with the family coming up it’s going to be even more difficult because I’m just used to have an idea and crack on with that. I want to do something no problem I’ll do it without really thinking about the consequences that can create, it’s just my personality. When you have a family that’s different, I’m sure you know that better than me I’ve heard this. So on a personal level that’s my goal and then on the business level is to get GTex to be the number one community in the UK for experts and speakers and trainers to be the number one hub where they think about training. I’m a consultant I’m a speaker and trainer when I think about training I go with GTex and that’s the most logical choice for me, and that’s where we are building a company. 

Jim Rembach:     And the Fast Leader legion wishes you the very best. 

 

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Alright, here we go Fast Leader legion it’s time for the Hump Day Hoedown. Okay, Simone, the Hump Day Hoedown is a part of our show where you give us good insights fast. So, I’m going to ask you several questions and your job is to give us a robust yet rapid responses that are going to help us move onward and upward faster. Simone Vincenzi, are you ready to hoedown? 

 

Simone Vicenzi:     I’m ready to hold down.

Jim Rembach:     Alright. What do you think is holding you back from being an even better leader today?

Simone Vicenzi:     Making decision without thinking about consequences. 

Jim Rembach:     What is the best leadership advice do you have ever received? 

Simone Vicenzi:     Lead by example.

Jim Rembach:     What is one of your secrets that you believe contributes to your success?

Simone Vicenzi:     My resilience. 

Jim Rembach:     What do you feel is one of your best tools that helps you lead in business or life?

Simone Vicenzi:     My team. 

Jim Rembach:     What would be one book that you’d recommend to our listeners and it could be from any genre?

Simone Vicenzi:     Love as a book I love, The Richest Man in Babylon—it’s a financial book.

Jim Rembach:     Okay Fast Leader listeners you can find links to that and other bonus information from today’s show by going to fastleader.net/SimoneVincenzi. Okay, Simone, this is my last Hump Day Hoedown question: Imaging you were given the opportunity to go back to the age of 25 and you’ve been given the opportunity to take the knowledge and skills that you have now back with you but you can’t take everything back you can only choose one. So what skill or piece of knowledge would you take back with you and why? Heck this was just three years ago.

Simone Vicenzi:     Exactly, exactly pretty easy to remember even if it’s four or five years ago. A lot change in five years—biggest piece of advice—what should I bring? Strategy—bring more awareness of what I was doing and actually asked for advice, that’s probably the best one. Asking for advice because I was doing too much by myself and that was very stupid. Sometimes necessary but sometimes I could have be more humble and say, hey I need help. 

Jim Rembach:     Simone, it was an honor to spend time with you today, can you please share the Fast Leader Legion how they can connect with you?

Simone Vicenzi:     Yeah, absolutely. There are two places where you can connect with me, you’re listening to a podcast so you probably like podcasts and you can join my podcast which is, Explode your expert biz, you can find it on any podcasting platform. The other option is to join our Facebook group, if you’re going on Facebook which is, guess what? Explode your expert biz, on Facebook and you can get a lot of free training on how to be a great consultant, speaker, trainer in your field.

Jim Rembach:     Simone Vincenzi, thank you for sharing your knowledge and wisdom the Fast Leader Legion honors you and thanks you for helping us get over the hump. Woot! Woot!

Thank you for joining me on the Fast Leader show today. For recaps, links from every show special offers and access to download and subscribe if you haven’t already. Head on over a fastleader.net so we can help you move onward and upward faster.

END OF AUDIO

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Dianna Booher Leadership Podcast

132: Dianna Booher: I laid awake for two or three nights

Dianna Booher Show Notes

Dianna Booher found herself with only 10 days of cash flow. She made a huge investment in developing people and was now faced with making a decision to lay them off. She was able to avoid that decision and shares what she learned and how to prevent it from reoccurring.

Dianna was born in Bynum, Texas, a small farming town in central Texas, where she and her younger brother Keith were helping her dad and mom pick cotton and hoe corn before she was four years old.

Fed up with farming, her dad got a job as postmaster and the family later moved to Arlington, Texas, where she attended her last two years of high school. And by that time, a baby sister Angela had arrived to delight the family.

Dianna was the first of the extended family to go to college and also to go on to receive her Masters in English literature.

Growing up, Dianna was always involved in sports—either playing basketball, volleyball, or cheerleading for varsity football. Between sports and her many church youth activities, she had opportunity to interact with many great coaches and strong leaders who shaped her thinking and instilled a passion to help others.

From those experiences, it was a natural to want to influence the lives of others in the same way—to help young people learn decision-making skills and communication skills just as she’d learned at the feet of her parents, coaches, sponsors, and church leaders. So she started out full-steam ahead: Finishing her undergraduate degree in three years and with a teaching certificate under her belt, her first few years were spent in the public school room. She taught junior-high Spanish and English literature to seniors.

But after three years in the classroom and dealing with a husband struggling with severe depression (they eventually divorced and he’s now deceased), she decided to stay home and care for their two preschoolers herself while she earned her Master’s degree. The big question: How to continue to make a difference in the lives of youth? The answer: Write articles and books.

She sent off the first article to a major magazine and an editor asked her to turn it into a book. Simon and Schuster went on to publish an entire line of her books for young adults. After more than a dozen nonfiction books and novels for the youth and general adult market, Booher turned her attention to the business market.

When her first business book was released and her publisher sent her on a media tour, Shell Oil and IBM called to say, “Come out and talk to us.” Thus, Booher Consultants, a communication training firm began to grow into a multi-million-dollar firm that has been in business for the past 37 years, serving more than one-third of the Fortune 500.

Dianna has gone on to found another company, Booher Research Institute, where she currently works and continues to write books, coach on executive presence, deliver keynotes, and consult with organizations to help them communicate a clear message. Her latest release (her 47th) is Communicate Like a Leader: Connecting Strategically to Coach, Inspire, and Get Things Done.

Dianna currently lives and writes in Colleyville, TX with her husband Vernon of 28 years.

Tweetable Quotes and Mentions

Listen to @diannabooher to get over the hump on the @FastLeaderShow Click to Tweet

“This one key question can either enhance your career or get you no attention.” -Dianna Booher Click to Tweet

“You need to start thinking in a broader way to stand out.” -Dianna Booher Click to Tweet 

“You must ask yourself, how does my work affect the whole organization?” -Dianna Booher Click to Tweet 

“Start thinking big picture and communicating that way.” -Dianna Booher Click to Tweet 

“Start connecting across all functional lines.” -Dianna Booher Click to Tweet 

“How does your work communicate in a much broader way?” -Dianna Booher Click to Tweet 

“Take a stand, make a point, and then sell that point.” -Dianna Booher Click to Tweet 

“At the senior-level you need to be a persuasive thinker to get buy-in.” -Dianna Booher Click to Tweet 

“You can have a gazillion ideas, but without execution, what good is it?” -Dianna Booher Click to Tweet 

“You have to keep focusing on the fundamentals.” -Dianna Booher Click to Tweet 

“It’s not the idea, you have to actually do something.” -Dianna Booher Click to Tweet 

“Have a skill, have a plan, and execute on it.” -Dianna Booher Click to Tweet 

“It is all about execution.” -Dianna Booher Click to Tweet 

“If you don’t set some self-improvement goals, you’re not going to improve.” -Dianna Booher Click to Tweet 

“I’ll do better, is not a plan.” -Dianna Booher Click to Tweet 

“You need someone in your organization who watches what you don’t know.” -Dianna Booher Click to Tweet 

“The most difficult thing you have in business is finding the right people.” -Dianna Booher Click to Tweet 

“The single most important thing to be successful in business is to get the right people.” -Dianna Booher Click to Tweet 

Hump to Get Over

Dianna Booher found herself with only 10 days of cash flow. She made a huge investment in developing people and was now faced with making a decision to lay them off. She was able to avoid that decision and shares what she learned and how to prevent it from reoccurring.

Advice for others

You have to think both deeply and broader to move to the next level.

Holding her back from being an even better leader

Time. There are too many ideas to accomplish.

Best Leadership Advice

Watch your cash flow. Get the best people, even if you have to go without.

Secret to Success

Do it now. Never put off tomorrow, what you can do today.

Best tools that helps in Business or Life

My iPhone.

Recommended Reading

Communicate Like a Leader: Connecting Strategically to Coach, Inspire, and Get Things Done

Real Leadership: 9 Simple Practices for Leading and Living with Purpose (Business Books)

Contacting Dianna Booher

website: http://www.booherresearch.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/diannabooher/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/diannabooher

Resources and Show Mentions

Increase Employee Collaboration

54 Emotional Intelligence (EQ) Competencies List: Emotional Intelligence has proven to be the right kind of intelligence to have if you want to move onward and upward faster. Get your free list today.

 

Show Transcript: 

[expand title=”Click to access edited transcript”]

132: Dianna Booher: I laid awake for two or three nights 

 

Intro: Welcome to the Fast Leader Podcast. Where we uncover the leadership like hat that help you to experience break out performance faster and rocket to success. And now here’s your host, customer and employee engagement expert and certified emotional intelligence practitioner, Jim Rembach.

The number one thing that contributes to customer loyalty is emotions. So move onward and upward faster by gaining significantly deeper insight and understanding of your customer journey and personas with emotional intelligence. With your empathy mapping workshop you’ll learn how to evoke and influence the right customer emotions that generate improve customer loyalty and reduce your cost to operate. Get over your emotional hook now by going to empathymapping.com to learn more. 

 

Jim Rembach:  Okay, Fast Leader legion today I’m excited because the guest that I have on the show today is a master educator in leadership communication. Diana Booher was born in Bynum, Texas a small farming town in Central Texas where she and her younger brother Keith were helping her dad and mom pick cotton and hoe corn before she was four years old. Fed up with farming, her dad got a job as a postmaster and the family later moved to Arlington, Texas where she attended her last two years of high school and by that time baby sister Angela had arrived to delight the family. Diana was the first of the extended family to go to college and also the go to receive her Master’s in English Literature. Growing up Diana was always involved in sports either playing basketball, volleyball or cheerleading for varsity football. Between sports and her many church youth activities she had the opportunity to interact with many great coaches and strong leaders who shaped her thinking and instilled a passion to help others. From those experiences it was a natural to want to influence the lives of others in some way to help young people learn decision-making skills and communication skills just as she’d learned at the feet of her parents, coaches, sponsors and church leaders. 

She started out full steam ahead finishing her undergraduate degree in three years and with a teaching certificate under her belt her first few years were spent in public school rooms she taught junior high, Spanish and English literature to seniors. But after three years in the classroom and dealing with a husband struggling with severe depression they eventually divorced and he’s now deceased she decided to stay home and care for their two preschoolers herself while she earned her master’s degree the big question how to continue to make a difference with the lives of youth the answer write articles and books.

She sent up her first article to a major magazine and an editor asked her to turn it into a book,  Simon and Schuster went on to publish the entire line of her books for young adults. After more than a dozen non-fiction books and novels for the youth and general adult market Booher turned her attention to the business market. When her first business book was released and her publisher sent her on a media tour Shell Oil and IBM called to say, come out and talk to us, thus, Booher Consultants, a communication and training firm began to grow into a multi-million dollar firm that has been in business for the past 37 years serving more than 1/3 of the Fortune 500. Diana has gone on to found another company Brewer Research Institute where she currently works and continues to write books on coaching, coach on executive presence, deliver keynotes and consult with organizations to help them communicate a clear message. Her latest release her 47th is, Communicate Like a Leader, connecting strategically to coach inspire and get things done. Diana currently lives and writes in Colleyville, Texas with her husband Vernon of 28 years. Diana Booher, are you ready to help us get over the hump?

Dianna Booher:  I am.  It’s great to be with you.

Jim Rembach:  I’m glad you’re here. I’ve given our listeners a little bit about you but can you tell us what your current passion is so that we can get to know you even better?

Dianna Booher:  It is writing, it’s always been writing since that that turning point.

Jim Rembach:  Talking about loving it—your 47th book. I have to sit here and say as someone who’s looking at putting everything together for their first book it’s how would I ever get to 47, how have you done that? 

Dianna Booher:  You’ve got to do something missing all those airplanes, sitting in the airport, sitting in those hotel rooms at midnight thinking I want to be home so you might as well write a book to take your mind off of those travel with terrible cancellations and those kind of things. 

Jim Rembach:  I can totally understand that and so for me I get a lot of my good reading at that time too. But when you start thinking about this particular book, how is this this one particularly different than the previous ones? 

Dianna Booher:  Basically it is a compilation of all the questions that I’ve been asked by people who’ve come to me for coaching. In these 3 decades when they’re getting ready they have all the fundamentals down but they think, here is the issues I’m struggling with and they finally come for coaching. Then these are these are the key questions that that are holding them back going to the next level I call it finishing touches that they need. And so I put them together I sit down I wrote a list here and I started with sixty chapters, nobody is going to read a book like that. But I call it down into what I considered the top 36 questions that I get. And then I put them into chapters, I thought, what ways do you interact when you’re a top leader? You’ve got basically six ways. You’ve got to write to people, you’ve got to talk with them, you got to negotiate, you just have to interact one on one, you keep your network alive and then you have to develop people that you work with—you hire, you give them feedback etc. and I group them that way and then viola! There’s the book.

Jim Rembach:  One of the things that I noticed too is you talk about all those chapters can usually be daunting but in fact what I think is that you made it a lot easier for me to go through it and I’m sure everybody else would experience the same because you could easily take and combine the first eight chapters into one. But I think it would overwhelm when you start talking about the different aspects and the different areas that are actually broken out so for me I found it easier read.

Dianna Booher:  Yeah, you can just look through the chapters and find whatever you’re struggling with. In fact, the titles of each of the chapters telling you what the point is. Nobody today has time to sit down and read through cover to cover the whole book and so you can just skim through it and say, oh I need to know more about that, oh, we waste time in meetings and you just go right to that chapter about how do you know how much a meeting cost you. Oh, I have trouble with people who dominate our meetings, how do you control those people? You just go right to that full section.

Jim Rembach:  One of the things that stood out to me very early on is the title of your second chapter which is, Have an answer ready for this one key question, always. So, what’s that question?

Dianna Booher:  Yes, we just get asked a lot of questions—is the merger happening? You have to work over the weekend but the one key question is, what are you working on? And most people plan, what’s not a big deal? I just tell them I’m working on this report or I’m trying to get this done or get that proposal out but that one key question, can either enhance your career and make you very visible and very vital or you just brush it off and you get no attention. And that one question has really three parts almost always that you need to use when you answer that question. The first part is you need to say, here’s the problem I’m working on solving and you can usually do that in one sentence. And the second part should be, and this is why it’s important to the organization we solve that problem. The third part of your answer should be and you have the benefits to solving that problem and here’s the outcomes, the physical things the advantages to solving that problem. And then depending on who asks you that question you might want to add, and here’s how it’s going to affect your timetable or your budget. So, if you put those three parts in your answer, and again it might not be three sentences you will answer it correctly and you will gain visibility for your answer.

Jim Rembach:  Going back to what you were talking about as far as people being able to move on to the next level being able to see be seen a little bit differently within an organization is oftentimes in their studies that have shown this is that people kind of hit that ceiling in their mid-40s. They have technical skill that’s gotten them to a certain point but they need to be able to flip and be able to—also well, yes, speak and communicate at a strategic level. But they also need to understand the human and the emotional side of the business and draw and make those connections. And so, can you confirm and see when people finally come to coaching that that’s about the age that it occurs or is it later or earlier?

Dianna Booher:  Well. I don’t know that it’s a certain age but it’s a certain position and generally it happens yes because they’ve been out of college, they’ve gone through a college program they’ve been on college about 15, 18, 20 years and they are through mid-management and even if they’re on their own entrepreneurial venture they’ve gone through and they’ve got it up and started and then they think what’s next plateaued? And they need to get to that executive leadership position. Are they wanting to get there? And they just plateau there and they think they’ve got to get more visibility they’ve got to get more polish and they need to get more strategic in their thinking and they need to stand out and that’s how they stand out. They need to start thinking in a broader way, what is the big picture not it’s (9:27) silo here but how does my work affect the whole organization and they need to start positioning their answers to position themselves for the whole organization and not focus on what am I doing right here in my little bubble but start thinking big picture communicating that way and connecting across all functionalized.

Jim Rembach:  And one of the things I noticed too and for me I when I started thinking about this on my own career and the progression and the stall the things that you basically just described is that I think someone who is even at the frontline per se at the introductory or entry level of an organization if they were actually being able to learn these types of skills and be able to improve those if they’re going to fast-track and they’re going to move up faster than anybody else.

Dianna Booher:  Absolutely. 

Jim Rembach:  So when I looked at this book to me I kind of saw like a self-assessment. 

Dianna Booher:  Yeah, that’s true. In fact, I had a client who came to me and he said, he was Vice-President of a large telecom and he said, my whole division just got laid off and I have hired now, he got venture capital together got two other partners and he said, we’ve just bought another small telecom and I went over and hired 40-45 mid-managers ahead of our old company and put them in leadership positions in my new telecom. And he said they’re brilliant, Diana, they’re brilliant at their technical jobs but now they need to think at a higher strategic level because they’re going to have to go out in the community and bring in business and sign contracts with our new clients and speak and bring in goodwill for our new organization and they need to connect at a more strategic level. And to do that they need to change the way they communicate they’re not just communicating with their colleagues here they need to think in a much broader way and then they need to communicate there. They have the fundamentals but it needs just be at a higher level that they know how to communicate to walk into a C-suite anywhere and communicate up and down the chain no matter where.

Jim Rembach:   Okay, I could be sitting here and saying, I have an advanced degree. I wouldn’t got an MBA and I’ve taken business communications class, what’s different with what you’re actually have on this book and what you’ve learned? How come those people who’ve gone through all those classes aren’t able to effectively apply it and move forward faster?

Dianna Booher:  I think that they are still thinking of people who are on the same plane. They’re thinking of connecting with a colleague in their same department. They’re still using the same jargon, they’re still thinking about the people who can almost read their mind. They can take shortcut words, shortcut phrases and they’re not thinking how does my work here communicate in a much broader way? For example, I know this is simplistic but you wouldn’t take the work that you do every day and explain it to your grandmother in the same way because she has much broader perspective on everything because she’s not only interested in your work she’s interested in what your brother does in another organization and she’s interested and understands from a perspective of 80 years maybe and she understands how the whole country works. It’s not that she doesn’t care about what you do but she just has a long-term perspective and she is thinking about how is this going to affect your grandkids she sees further down the road and she has a much broader interest so, don’t think about this person not understanding. That’s what a lot of times people think when they’re so educated in one area they are thinking deeply and I’m not saying don’t think deeply I’m saying you have to think broader and that’s what a c-suite officer is thinking. They’re saying I hired you to think deeply I need to think broadly and so you need to be both deep and broad that’s what the change or the difference. 

Jim Rembach:  That makes a lot of sense to me but I often would think that people would potentially discount it and say that—because here’s what I’ve seen happen people will do that and then if there isn’t that connection if they’re not able to communicate and see that they’ve gotten a response to connect with the person who they’re trying to convey the information to they’ll just say, well they just don’t get it. 

Dianna Booher:  The point is they’re saying, I need you to get it and I’m paying you to tell me what you think in other words to take a point. Let me give you an example, let’s say just in the field of making a presentation you’ll have somebody in their area and they’ll say I’ve research this and I’ve researched this and I know everything there is to know about this topic. And they come in to the c-suite and they say here’s a situation we need to make a decision about what kind of software or hardware we’re going to use in this area. Here are all the pros and cons and they start talking about it and the c-suite officer is saying, give me the bottom line and tell me what we should do here I don’t need to redo your thinking that’s what I paid you to do. And then that person in that area is thinking, yeah but there’s some drawbacks I don’t want to stick my neck out here but let me tell you the advantages and disadvantages and get your making mistake. And that executive is saying no I don’t want to redo your job because I have 25 other people who have an equally important decision and I don’t have time to redo all of their thinking I want you to stick your neck out and take a stand. And that’s what someone who’s forty-five years old for example who’s going in and saying, hear all of my thinking and rethink this with me. And they’re saying no, I don’t want to rethink it with you. 

Jim Rembach:   That’s a really interesting point. One of the things that I have—over the course of the past several years gotten into the practice of doing is when I put together a presentation deck that I have to use to communicate and convey. It used to be that, for example, I’d have  40 slides, what I do now is I have five slides and then 35 back up slides if I need them. 

Dianna Booher:  Yes, in case somebody has a question. So, what that executive is expecting you to do is to take a stand make a point, what is your attitude about it and then sell that point. Can you sell that point? Can you make it memorable? How effective are you and selling that idea across functional lines? Say at the mid-management level they’re checking your logic and making sure that you’ve got it right and you’re a logical thinker but once you’ve convinced them at that mid management level you’re a logical thinker then at the higher level you need to be a persuasive thinker to get buy-in, there’s a different skill there.

Jim Rembach:  Totally. And what I find and what I found myself doing is that it was TMI, it was too much information I was overloading people and I sold them in the first minute or two so to speak, and then I talked them out of it.

Dianna Booher:  Right, that’s the number one problem that CEOs tell me. When they send one of their, let’s say not an executive vice president maybe a junior vice president to me they’ll say they ramble they get down in the weeds and they get lost we ask them a question they have no authority they are wishy-washy. So, it’s that polish that they communicate like a leader that book goes through those issues that when somebody comes to me, that their boss has said this is the problem that’s what this chapters’ address.

Jim Rembach:  Without a doubt. When we’re starting to talk about this career progression, hitting these walls, going over these humps, there’s a lot of passion associated with it. And one of the things on the show that we like to do is focus on quotes in order to help us focus and go in the right direction. Is there a quote that you can share that will help us do that? 

Dianna Booher:  Yes, I like the quote by Marge Chang, he says without strategy execution is aimless. Without execution strategy is useless. And what that always says to me is, you can have a gazillion ideas but if you can’t execute them what good does it do. People today do talk about strategy all day but if you don’t carry it out then what good does it do? And then other people in their organization focuses on doing the same thing over and over and over but you can run around particularly on social media, you see people just run around on social media—this, this, this they’re on every platform but it’s just scatter approach, it’s just spray and it has no meaning so they have to go hand.

Jim Rembach:  Thanks for sharing that. When you said that I started thinking about something that is a problem for a lot of organizations and that is execution it is actually getting things done. I kind of see what you have in this book and really it’s kind of that tipping points to execution, okay, it’s strategy and then we put this in place and guess what we’ll finally move things forward. 

Dianna Booher:  Yeah, and what you have to keep focusing on the fundamentals you have to keep focusing on the ideas. Somebody tell me early in my career ideas are a dime a dozen. I know when I went to the to two friends who were businessmen one in ExxonMobil an engineer in ExxonMobil and the other was an was an engineer at Shell Oil and basically they got me started—you read my bio when my husband’s struggling with mental illness and he was hospitalized over and over and over and over and just could not overcome and I thought I’m going to have to make a living for myself I’m going to have to make a living for two toddlers what can I do? And I said, I like to write. And they said, we’ll introduce you into some companies, you write a book and we’ll introduce you. And when I started here they said, Diana, ideas are a dime a dozen. It’s not the idea you have to actually do something and that’s the issue that I’ve thought about over and over in my career, you have to learn how to have a skill, have a plan and actually execute on it. I have so many colleagues who it’s like an idea week, a sort of a plan a week and in that I’ve seen them come into business and fail, go into business and two years later they’re not in business anymore it is all about execution and that’s when somebody comes to me for coaching on how to build their business how to build a speaking business how to build a consulting business if it is actually following through. The same thing with communication on these skills as an individual if you don’t set some self-improvement goals to improve your communication you’re not going to improve it by just—I’ll do better, that’s not a plan.

Jim Rembach:  I tell me my 13-year old daughter that all the time—I’ll do better—okay, what’s your plan? What? I’ll just work harder. No, let’s get to some specifics here.

Dianna Booher:  Yeah, yeah and in it matters even if you’re giving feedback sometimes people have trouble giving feedback. Whether they’re trying to handle an apology situation with the customer or whether they’re trying to give feedback to an employee if you don’t know here are specific guidelines like in how to communicate like a leader here are five things you need to do when you apologize here, five things you need to do when you give feedback. If you don’t know what those five guidelines and you don’t go through them then chances are every time you sit down to get feedback it’s not going to get any better and you still frustrate people.

Jim Rembach:  That’s a great point. Everything that you’ve talked about as far your younger years and being able to make a living for two toddlers and starting the Institute and how you’ve gotten to the point where you’ve written you’re 47 book, Jesus, it’s amazing.  I know you’ve had a lot of humps to get over and we can learn from that. Can you share a story where we can you know learn from and helped us get over the hump faster?

Dianna Booher:  I think probably the most severe hump I had was learning to watch cash flow. When you are focused on doing everything yourself and you don’t have a background in particular area you need to find someone in your organization who watches what you don’t know get a complimentary employee who has the skills you don’t have and I when I start in business I just wanted to focus on writing and developing training programs to that work based on the content of my book which is how I’ve grown my business and I didn’t have a background in finance so I didn’t really know how to read a financial statement very well I depend on my accountants to do it and take in the books to the accountant let them read it. 

When there was a big oil crunch I had a lot of oil and gas companies were my clients the big one and all of a sudden there was a big bust and I think it was the mid 90’s and I looked at the cash flow and whoa! we’re going to have a problem here and it came down we have ten days of cash flow had some big projects coming in but am I going to have to lay off these trainers and I had poured two and three years into training them because they all have Master’s degree and they had to follow us around in the classroom for two or three years to be well trained and it was a huge investment to keep them on staff when they weren’t busy but it came down to I’m going to have to lay these people off. And I laid awake for two or three nights thinking what am I going to do but fortunately a big project came in and I didn’t have to make that layoff. But learning that what you don’t know and hiring the people to keep you on track for the skills that you don’t have and always keeping your eye on the cash flow is a huge issue.

Jim Rembach:  And as you were saying, thanks for sharing that and of course you came out the good side of it so that was awesome, but it goes back to kind of the thing that full circle pieces that as an individual you need to get a coach in order to help you with the things that you’re not all that great at that you need to be great at in order to further your career.

Dianna Booher:  Right. And hiring the right people that’s another thing. The two people who were coaching me as I started out my business they said Dinah the most difficult thing you’ll have in business is getting the right people and I thought, Hah, that’s not a big deal but I learned it is a big deal. I didn’t have experience in interview now I’ve learned in 30 years the questions and in fact I put those in my book there’s a chapter on hiring on core competency I put in the nine most important questions I think to ask to get at people’s character and to test their confidence. But I didn’t know that know that back then but I have come to agree that the single most important thing you can do to be successful in business is to get the right people not just people that you feel comfortable with not people that you like but the people who are in alignment with your character and your values. You can teach people skills, you can train them but you cannot teach them values and if they don’t share your values you’re going to be in trouble.

Jim Rembach:  It’s a great point. You have to maybe see what happens as far as how many more you have in you and I will be sitting here with your 67th book and having a discussion I don’t know. But I know you had a lot of things on your plate when you start looking at one of your goals, what is it?

Dianna Booher:  I would like to get back to writing novels. I’ve written novels in the back I’ve written a lot of Christian books and at the back with an inspirational message. I’ve also written a lot of business, probably as many business books and self-help as Christian books but I enjoy writing novels. For some reason when I did my Master’s degree thesis was novel and published five novels so I’d like to do both I’d like to keep both of those going. But one key goal right now although I’m still in the business arena and writing business books is to help other authors share their stories so I’m also helping coach other authors who want to get published to go through that process—you’re having to find an agent, you have not decide the best way to get published and looking at their pitch letters and proposals so that’s the key goal right now as well.

Jim Rembach:  And the Fast Leader Legion wishes you the very best. Now before we move on let’s get a quick word from our sponsor:

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Alright here we go Fast Leader listeners it’s time for the Hump Day Hoedown. The Hump Day Hoedown is a part of our show where you give us good insights fast. I’m going to ask you several questions and your job is to give us robust yet rapid responses are there going to help us move onward and upward faster, Dianna Booher, are you ready to hoedown?

Dianna Booher:  I am. 

Jim Rembach:  Alright. What do you think is holding you back from being an even better leader today?

Dianna Booher:  Time. Just too many ideas to accomplish.

Jim Rembach:  What is the best leadership advice you have ever received?

Dianna Booher:  I think it’s watch your cash flow and get the best people even if you have to go without.

Jim Rembach:  What is one of your secrets that you believe contributes to your success? 

Dianna Booher:  Do it now and never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.

Jim Rembach:  What do you feel is one of your best tools that helps you lead in business or life?

Dianna Booher:  I think that would have to be my iPhone. I can take it anywhere and accomplish anything on that phone.

Jim Rembach:  What would be one book that you’d recommend to our listeners, it could be from any genre, of course we’re going to put a link to Communicate Like a Leader.

Dianna Booher:  Real Leadership by John Addison, I love that book.

Jim Rembach:  Okay, Fast Leader listeners you can find links to that and other bonus information from today’s show by going to fastleader.net/Dianna Booher. Okay, Dianna, this is my last Hump Day Hoedown question. Imagine you were given the opportunity go back to the age 25 and you’ve been given the opportunity to take the knowledge and skills that you have now back with you but you can’t take everything back you can only choose one. What skill or piece of knowledge would you take back with you and why?

 

Dianna Booher:  I would take back the skill of being able to do projections. I’ve never been able to do a huge financial projection and I’ve learned that through the years but at the beginning I had no clue how to do that.

Jim Rembach:  Dianna it was not her to spend time with you today can you please share with Fast Leader listeners how they can connect with you?

Dianna Booher:  Yes, www.booherresearch.com

Jim Rembach:  Dianna Booher, thank for sharing your knowledge and wisdom the Fast Leader Legion honors you and thanks you for helping us get over the hump. Woot! Woot!

Thank you for joining me on the Fast Leader show today. For recaps, links from every show special offers and access to download and subscribe, if you haven’t already, head on over a fastleader.net so we can help you move onward and upward faster. 

 

END OF AUDIO 

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081: Bill Dann: My inadequacies led to him being crushed

Bill Dann Show Notes

Bill Dann was working for a native Alaskan run organization. The Board of Directors put a lot of pressure on Bill to replace himself with an Alaskan native, since it was the purpose of the organization. Bill hired a young leader and unfortunately he was put into a situation that he was not prepared for. He got creamed. Bill has never forgiven himself for that. Listen to Bill talk about the lesson he learn and how it can help you to move onward and upward faster.

Bill was born and raised in Los Angeles, California as the fourth of four kids whose father was an attorney in the motion picture industry.
After High School Bill went off to the University of his Forefathers, Cornell. There he obtained both his undergraduate and then graduate degree in Business and Public Administration with an emphasis in Health.

While at Cornell, a recruiter from the Indian Health Service encouraged him to fulfill his military commitment by serving on a “nice warm Indian reservation”. Which ended up being Alaska. After 2 years, he was offered an opportunity to go to Nome, Alaska for 3 months to start a corporation whose purpose was to demonstrate new models of health care delivery and to give Alaska Natives greater control over their lives. It lasted more than 3 years.

There Bill created an organization made up of workers, many of whom were new to healthcare and to work. It was truly a challenge. This led to a lifelong fascination with how to get individuals and organizations to be all that they can be.

After teaching management for six summers at the Boston University School of Public Health Bill was convinced that his experience in Nome had taught him universal principles about why and how people. So in 1981, he started a consulting firm which became Professional Growth Systems which continues today as his principal activity.

As the author of Creating High Performers – 7 Questions to Ask Direct Reports, Bill’s commitment as both a consultant and a writer is to enable individuals to achieve their full potential and fulfillment from work.

Bill currently lives in Anchorage, Alaska with his beautiful Siberian Yupik bride Jenny of 40 years. He also has one son and now two wonderful grandchildren.

Tweetable Quotes and Mentions

Listen to @arcticwill and get over the hump on the @FastLeaderShow Click to Tweet 

“Work is a major source of satisfaction or dissatisfaction in our lives.” -Bill Dann Click to Tweet

“Everybody has their own definition of work-life balance.” -Bill Dann Click to Tweet 

“You’re not going to be successful in your personal life if you’re not feeling successful at work.” -Bill Dann Click to Tweet 

“We’re driven by factors focusing on numbers without understanding the elements to get them.” -Bill Dann Click to Tweet 

“Strategy is important but execution will trump strategy.” -Bill Dann Click to Tweet 

“A well-executed inferior strategy will outperform a great strategy not executed well.” -Bill Dann Click to Tweet 

“The most challenging things in our lives is relationship.” -Bill Dann Click to Tweet 

“It’s rare that we’re able to get to a situation where we’re really honest with one another.” -Bill Dann Click to Tweet 

“Leadership is two domains – strategy and how do I get the best out of my people.” -Bill Dann Click to Tweet 

“It’s the responsibility of the employee to show up with motivation.” -Bill Dann Click to Tweet 

“There are two types of (people) problems – won’t do and can’t do.” -Bill Dann Click to Tweet 

“The people with won’t do problems will try to get it defined as can’t do.” -Bill Dann Click to Tweet 

“People in leadership positions have trouble with confronting the truth.” -Bill Dann Click to Tweet 

“If you’re choosing not to perform at your highest level, are you really happy about that?” -Bill Dann Click to Tweet 

“Most job descriptions are of little value; they don’t serve a leadership function.” -Bill Dann Click to Tweet 

“People deserve to have clarity, coaching and the training they need to be successful.” -Bill Dann Click to Tweet 

“Respect for other people and belief in them is not sufficient, you have to train and coach them.” -Bill Dann Click to Tweet 

Hump to Get Over

Bill Dann was working for a native Alaskan run organization. The Board of Directors put a lot of pressure on Bill to replace himself with an Alaskan native, since it was the purpose of the organization. Bill hired a young leader and unfortunately he was put into a situation that he was not prepared for. He got creamed. Bill has never forgiven himself for that. Listen to Bill talk about the lesson he learn and how it can help you to move onward and upward faster.

Advice for others

Don’t be intimidated by those with a lot of authority or a lot of success.

Holding him back from being an even better leader

How to effectively hold people accountable.

Best Leadership Advice Received

Respect for other people and belief in them is not sufficient, you have to do the hard work of training and coaching them.

Secret to Success

Respect for other people’s point of view and ideas and not having to have the solution be my own.

Best tools that helps in business or Life

A strategic planning tool that brings people together and holds them accountable.

Recommended Reading

Managing Corporate Lifecycles – Volume 1: How Organizations Grow, Age & Die

Creating High Performers: 7 Questions to Ask Your Direct Reports

Contacting Bill

Website: http://www.professionalgrowthsystems.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/william-dann-4037b8

Twitter: https://twitter.com/arcticwill

Resources

54 Emotional Intelligence (EQ) Competencies List: Emotional Intelligence has proven to be the right kind of intelligence to have if you want to move onward and upward faster. Get your free list today.

 

Show Transcript: 

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081: Bill Dann: My inadequacies led to him being crushed

 

Intro: Welcome to the Fast Leader Podcast, where we uncover the leadership like hat that help you to experience, break out performance faster and rocket to success. And now here’s your host, customer and employee engagement expert and certified emotional intelligence practitioner, Jim Rembach.

 

Need a powerful and entertaining way to ignite your next conference, retreat or team-building session? My keynotes don’t include magic but they do have the power to help your attendees take a leap forward by putting emotional intelligence into their employee- engagement, customer-engagement and customer-centric leadership practices. So bring the infotainment creativity the Fast Leader show to your next event and I’ll help your attendees get over the hump now. Go to beyondmorale.com/speaking to learn more. 

 

Okay Fast Leader legion today I’m excited because I have somebody on the show that when I had the opportunity to read his book the clarity and simplicity of his teachings are really something that could be leveraged by almost everyone. Bill Dann was born and raised in Los Angeles, California the fourth of for kids whose father was an attorney in the motion picture industry. After high school Bill went off to the university of his forefathers—Cornell. There he obtain both his undergraduate and then graduate degree in business and public ministration with an emphasis in health. While in Cornell, a recruiter from the Indian health service encouraged him to fulfill his military commitment by serving on a nice warm Indian reservation it ended up being in Alaska.

 

After two years he was offered an opportunity to go to Nome, Alaska for three months to start a corporation whose purpose was to demonstrate new models of healthcare delivery and to give Alaska natives greater control over their lives, it lasted more than three years. There Bill created an organization made up of workers many of whom were new to healthcare and the work it was truly a challenge this led to a lifelong fascination with how to get individuals and organizations to be all that they can be. After teaching management for six summers at the Boston University school of Public health, Bill was convinced that his experience in Nome had taught him universal principles about why and how people work. 

 

So in 1981, he started a consulting firm which became professional growth systems which continues today as his principal activity. As the author of creating high performers seven questions to ask direct reports, Bill’s commitment as both a consultant and a writer is to enable individuals to achieve their full potential and fulfillment from work. Bill currently lives in Anchorage, Alaska with his beautiful Siberian Yupik bride Jenny of 40 years. He also has one son and now two wonderful grandchildren. Bill Dann, are you ready to help us get over the hump?

 

Bill Dann:     I’m ready and excited. 

 

Jim Rembach:     So am I. I’ve given our listeners a little bit about you but can you tell us what your current passion is so that we can get to know you even better? 

 

Bill Dann:     My current passion is what we described in the bio, I’m still on an industry to find ways to unlock the potential of individuals at work. I feel that work is how we spend the majority of our time, it’s a major source of satisfaction or dissatisfaction in our lives and my mission is for people to feel as fulfilled with their work as possible. If we focus on that then the organizations will be successful and prosper as well. 

 

Jim Rembach:     Yeah, I definitely see that the lines—for the longest time I’ve been talking about your work life and home life and I had a guest on the show a little while back who had said, “You know what, it’s just life.” 

 

Bill Dann:     Exactly. 

 

Jim Rembach:     And you need to bring the best of both of those things to wherever you may be.

 

Bill Dann:     Yeah. There is some challenge in finding balance between the two and everybody has their own definition of that but you’re not going to be successful in your personal life if you’re not feeling successful in your work and vice versa.

 

Jim Rembach:     That’s for sure. When I had the opportunity to review the seven questions that you have in the book and we’re not going to list them all here because that’s why people continue after the podcast. When I look at the concepts, the constructs of the questions I had taken those and adjusted them a little bit and use them in a performance review process before and I can tell you that when I have done that the reactions that I got were so much strange, meaning that the folks who I had the opportunity to review and had those conversations with had said, “I’ve never had a review like this before” it’s just totally foreign them. So, when you start looking at the seven questions which one would you say that people say no to the most?

 

Bill Dann:     Probably, one of the most often people say no to is, I don’t really have clarity about what’s important to you. I know it’s in the job description but because of mixed messages or because we haven’t really have that communication I’m not really clear about what pushes your buttons and what’s really important for me to do or not do in order to be successful in your eyes. I don’t know what your personal standards are. 

 

Jim Rembach:     So when you started thinking about what you were just saying I think that could be multi-faceted. Meaning from as an individual, me being an employee, that my boss isn’t connecting with me or the company isn’t connecting with me but then also  me as an individual I really don’t understand the purpose and sense of direction and when really achievement wat potentially going to occur.

 

Bill Dann:     Absolutely.

 

Jim Rembach:     So when you look at it from those different angles, what do you think that organizations struggle with the most? Is it over all outside in or is it the inside out piece?

 

Bill Dann:     I think it’s the inside out piece. I think they find it easier to focus on what their strategy, how we’re going to grow and much more difficult to focus on how do we optimize execution there. And how do we develop a culture that enables that to happen. And we’re driven Wall Street, we’re driven by all kinds of factors that are focusing on numbers without really understanding what the foundation elements are to get to those numbers. Strategies are important but the execution will trump strategy, meaning that a well-executed inferior strategy, when I perform a great strategy there is executed well.

 

Jim Rembach:     That’s a really interesting point because I think when you look at the biggest struggle that most organizations have it’s really not in the planning components, it’s really not in the developing of the strategies and know you could arguably say it’s not even in the areas of innovation more so it’s in the areas of execution.

 

Bill Dann:     Exactly. Well, I think the most challenging—the biggest picture here is the most challenging thing in our lives is a relationship whether it’s your personal life or your work life. And it is rare that we’re able to get to a situation where we can be really honest with one another and explore why it we’re not succeeding. I was coaching a client team yesterday, leadership team, that’s trying to evolve to the CEO implementing a chief operating officer concept and she’s having a real challenge letting go. She feels like she’s lost her team, she lost her sense of importance, she’s not showing up well and the COO said to me, “You know, we need to sit down and use the job descriptions you really get in to this.” And I said, “No, you need to explore the relationship, what are the buttons that are being pushed trying to make this change and how to we get through those? And until we find out the root causes of those that’s in the DNA of who she is, what we put on papers going to matter, we’ve already put it on paper and we’re not abiding by it. So, we’re all scared to go there, we’re all scared to have that kind of communication which is what the seven questions are trying to address make it easier to start that dialogue.

 

Jim Rembach:     Yeah. And I think when you started talking about that I started thinking about that I started thinking about something that’s really important for us on the show. When you start thinking about finding that strength, finding that focus and the purpose so that you can execute, you can move forward, we look at leadership quotes quite often because they can do just that. Do you have a quote or two that you can share with us that’s important to you? 

 

Bill Dann:     I guess I like to begin by saying—one of the things I think that leads to confusion is that leadership to me is wailings having it leads to confusion is leadership to me a really two domains there is where we’re going, what’s the strategy and what are the rules that we’re going to apply, so that’s kind of the general in an army context, what’s the mission and what (inaudible 8; 58). And then there’s the other side of leadership which is really supervision, which is okay, I’ve got that all defined now how do I get the best out of my people. And sometimes we get those things confused and use it under a single word called leadership but they’re very, very different elements and I think having that understanding’s important. In the book I talk about something that I got from Ken Blanchard which is that there are really two kinds of problems that people have at work one is the can’t do problem, where I don’t have the information, the skills, the authority, the resources, to achieve what you want me to achieve or what I want to achieve. And the second is a won’t do problem where I’ve got all of that but for any given reason could be something related towards not related to work, I’m not motivated to go make that to happen and I’m not performing. And what I found working with supervisors is it they’re really struggle with how to decide what kind of problem it is and to stop beating themselves up for what is really the responsibility of the employee which is to show up with motivation. So I think that’s the first thing, the quote I would cite is that there’s two types of problems the—won’t do and can’t do and if you don’t have clarity about which kind of problem is you can’t solve it. 

 

Jim Rembach:     That’s one thing that stood out to me as well. I recently had a conversation with somebody about the whole “can’t do, won’t do mindset. And I often find, at least for this particular person who I had this discussion with, is that they took and flip, what they were saying was can’t do from their “won’t do” file. And so it’s like, No, No, No, you can’t do it, if you’re choosing not to and most of the things that are sitting there in your can’t do file, really I won’t do’s. 

 

Bill Dann:     And you’ll find that—I’m talking about this on the book, the people with won’t do problems will try to get it to find this can’t do because they don’t want to take responsibility for their own interaction.

 

Jim Rembach:    For me I can—okay, so I don’t have the patience a lot of time for people who are just crippled by won’t do’s but unfortunately sometimes those people are in very key and important roles with the  organization because of their technical aptitudes and capabilities. What can an organization do to get those people to move?

 

Bill Dann:     I think you’ve got to first of all confront the truth and I this is what’s difficult for people in leadership positions they really have trouble doing that. And then begin an honest discussion I mean the reality here is that if you’re choosing to not perform at your highest level are you really happy about that? Likely you’re not. So, let’s get to a common goal. I want you to be all you could be at work for your self-esteem would it make sense that you want to be, you use to perform really well not you’re not choosing too, and let’s find the root causes and see if we can find a solution. Sometimes those root causes are temporary it could be something happening in their personal life and sometimes those root causes can’t be turned around and there needs to be a wake-up call for that individual where they get counseled, this clearly is no longer the right fit for you.  It’s not that you’re bad it’s you’re not happy so you’re not happy, we’re not happy, we need to solve this together. The problem is that we set up supervision as a judgment relationship, my job is to sit in judgment of you and that dynamic is just a bad place to start from. If we begin with—look, we’re partners and you’re finding success at work and are finding success at our market, so how do we work together to accomplish that? And if we’re not how do we solve it?

 

Jim Rembach:     I think those are some very good points, thanks for sharing. One of the things that I talk about is servant teamwork because it seems more in tuned and aligned with where we’re going as a society today. And really that collaborative model that you’re talking about in that in the workforce we often find and we’re now having a generational issue. Where a lot of kids who are getting in to the workforce have essentially been cuddled and catered too much their lives in the whole societal shifts in regards to getting the participant trophy. They won’t come and bring those things to work and we’re having supervisors as leaders to do more of that tough love, parenting, and those discussions. And  when you start thinking about what I have to do in my work day when I’ve got things piled on top of me that I have to do having those discussions I got time for that. So, do you see a shift having to take place in regards to, you talk about a job description a moment, are job descriptions going to have to start shifting and changing and permit and allow for more of these discussions to take place so the companies can move forward or are we just going to continue to get ready to drive over the cliff and have people just start bailing who could potentially do these things at work but they don’t have time and so they feel frustrated. 

 

Bill Dann:     What a great question. I talk about this in the book I think most job descriptions are of little value and the reason they have little value is their construct that was created in order that that I can evaluate of the worth of a given position relative to another position, they serve as HR or personnel function they don’t serve a leadership function. What’s missing is, what is it you expect me to produce? Not one of the activities I’m engaged in but what are the outputs you’re expecting from me? And how are you going to evaluate whether or not those are happening and without that clarity I think we set up the relationship for a lot of misunderstandings couple that with not really communicating what my personal standards are as a supervisor and you have people set up on the wrong foot. And the book is about how many times I did in learning a lesson from it that. 

 

I was contributing mightily to people’s failure they were doing the best they can it was my inadequacies as a leader that was leading to the underperformance. You talk about when was your aha moment, that was the aha for me that I had to do I couldn’t simply lead by stating my belief in you. I believe you can do it. You can get there from here. They needed help to get there from here. My view at that time was that stepping in there to provide that was disrespectful, it was overly paternalistic, whatever you want to call it and the reality is that’s what people want from leadership thickly initially.

 

Jim Rembach:     We definitely as leaders as even as employees have a lot of humps that we have to get over and I think you’re talking about your aha moment, but can you tell us the story that allowed you to come to that conclusion?

 

Bill Dann:     Well, there was a point in my career where I was working for a native run organization and the board of directors put a lot of pressure on to replace myself and in management position in the organization will Alaska natives that was the purpose of the organization. And they push on me pretty hard and I got pretty aggressive and went and found a young guy out of California who was from the region, had good credentials and healthcare, seem very bright and I brought him into the situation he was all prepared for and he got craned and to this day I think about what ever happened to that young man who came home to live his dream of serving his people and my inadequacies led him being crushed. The professionals in the organization were not willing to give them a buy because he didn’t know how to do the job and I wasn’t willing to provide enough time to give him the tools to do it well. And I have never forgiven myself for that and that continues to be a lesson that people deserve to have clarity and they deserved to have coaching and they deserve to have a training they need to be successful, that’s the responsibility of leadership.

 

Jim Rembach:     Thanks for sharing that. I started thinking about that leadership can’t be catch and release.

 

Bill Dann:     That’s a great one.  (Inaudible 18:17) 

 

Jim Rembach:     I know you got a lot of things going on. You wrote this book, you talked about—when we had the opportunity to have some written dialogue earlier about a legacy and about teaching other people about the things that you’ve learned, you talked about your son and your wife, but when you look at all those things what are some your goals?

 

Bill Dann:     Well, at this point, I’m in the late stages of my career, so my goals now are to mentor people who can do the same work that I’m doing and use our tools well to have the proprietary products that we’ve developed that we think are really state-of-the-art live on and I create a legacy—a successful organization that have used the tools to further the organizations and people within them.

 

Jim Rembach:     And the Fast Leader legion wishes you the very best. Now before we move on let’s get a quick word from our sponsor. 

 

An even better place to work is an easiest 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 guarantee to create motivated, productive and loyal employees who have great work relationships with their colleagues and your customers. To learn more about an even better place to work visit beyondmorale.com/better.

 

Alright, here we go Fast Leader listeners it’s time for the Hump Day Hoedown. Okay, Bill, the Hump Day Hoedown is a part of our show where you give us good insights fast. So, I’m going to ask you several questions and your job is to give us robust yet rapid responses that are going to help us move onward and upward faster. Bill Dann, are you ready to hoedown?

 

Bill Dann:     I’m ready. 

 

Jim Rembach:     Alright. So what do you think is holding you back from being even better leader today?

 

Bill Dann:     The challenge I continue to struggle with is how to effectively hold people accountable.

 

Jim Rembach:    What is the best leadership advice you have ever received?

 

Bill Dann:     Respect for other people and belief in them is not sufficient you have to do the hard work of  training and coaching them. 

 

Jim Rembach:    What is one of your secrets that you believe contributes to your success?

 

Bill Dann:     Respect for other people’s point of view and ideas and not having to have the solution be my own. 

 

Jim Rembach:    What is one of your best tools that helps you lead in business or life?

 

Bill Dann:     We’ve developed a strategic planning tool that I believe is terrific for bringing teams together holding people accountable and managing the journey to success.

 

Jim Rembach:    What would be one book that you recommend for our listeners and they could be from any genre?

 

Bill Dann:     Well, I really like the book somewhat dated now by a German named Ichak Adizes called Corporate Lifecycles and it describes the phases of birth, life and decay and death of an organization. I think it’s got tremendous insights.

 

Jim Rembach:     Okay Fast Leader Legion listeners you can find links to that and Bill’s book Creating High Performance: 7 Questions to Ask Your Direct Reports on the show notes page that you’ll find at fastleader.net/Bill Dann. Okay Bill, this is my last Hump Day Hoedown question: Imagine you were given the opportunity to go back to the age 25 and you’ve been given the opportunity to take the knowledge and skills that you have now back with you but you can’t take everything you could only choose, what skill or piece of knowledge would you take back with you and why?

 

Bill Dann:     It’s a great question I thought a lot about it and I think that I would take back the understanding now that we all put on our pants or skirt the same way. As a young man I was very intimidated by people who are successful. I couldn’t confront them, I couldn’t approach them as equals, and today I have no problem with that. And I think that being able to stand up for yourself and not be intimidated by those in authority or those that have a lot of success, I would love to have that at age 25.

 

Jim Rembach:     Bill it was an honor to spend time with you today, can you please share with the fast leader listeners how they can connect with you?

 

Bill Dann:     You can go to me on LinkedIn. You can also find me on Twitter and both those are available on our website, professionalgrowthsystems.com

 

Jim Rembach:     Bill Dann, thank you for sharing your knowledge and wisdom the fast leader Legion honors you and thanks you for helping us get over the hump. Woot! Woot!

 

Thank you for joining me on the Fast Leader show today. For recaps, links from every show, special offers and access to download and subscribe, if you haven’t already, head on over the fastleader.net so we can help you move onward and upward faster. 

 

END OF AUDIO 

 

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