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Omar L Harris | Leader Board | The DNA of High Performance Teams

247: Omar L Harris: Leadership giants have gaps

Omar L Harris Show Notes Page

Omar L Harris coasted on his own individual talent early in his career. The first time he led a team, he began to carry the performance of the team on his shoulders. This caused him to be hospitalized and suffer from panic attacks. Finally, he realized he needed to trust his people and put them in the right place to win.

Born to a chemical engineer father and social worker mother in the working-class town of Pittsburgh, PA, Omar L. Harris learned the values of connecting process to outcomes and the importance of being of service to others at an early age. Being the youngest of four boys in a family of 5 children he endured a lot of hope and pressure to succeed where others had failed in order to uplift and support his family. Moving from Pittsburgh to Charleston, WV, to Lake Charles, LA over the course of his childhood and adolescence engendered in Omar the ability to adapt to constant change which has been his status quo as an adult living all over the US and spending considerable time living and working in the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America.

As a young professional in the pharmaceutical industry, he was exposed to Gallup’s StrengthsFinder tool back in 2002 which informed his philosophy of focusing on what was right with people versus what was not. According to the StrengthsFinder assessment, Omar learned that he was naturally gifted with the ability to forge connections between seemingly unrelated items, influence transformation from good to great, quickly generate options, inspire confidence in others, and confront and overcome obstacles. Honing his natural talents into reliable strengths he successfully matriculated through Pfizer and ultimately found a corporate home at Schering-Plough as a fast-track management associate where he worked for one of the most successful marketing teams in the pharmaceutical industry. He became the youngest marketing director and senior marketing director in the company’s history before Schering-Plough was acquired by Merck.

His 8 years of experience working on this high performing team became the seed that would germinate and ultimately grow into his book Leader Board: The DNA of High Performance Teams.

Omar began leading teams in 2006 and began implementing principles he’d learned reading books by John C. Maxwell, Tom Rath, Patrick Lencioni, Stephen Covey, and Jim Collins to name a few. Over time he found significant gaps between the brilliant theories of these leadership giants and the exact application in the day-to-day minutiae of leading a team in the real world. So, he set out to synthesize and adapt these concepts into a suite of Team Performance Acceleration Principles that he’s used with teams of different sizes and scopes all over the world to drive results.

Omar currently lives alone in Sao Paulo, Brazil where he works as Country Manager – Brazil for Allergan.

Quotes and Mentions

Listen to Omar L Harris (@strengthsleader) to get over the hump on the @FastLeaderShow – Click to Tweet

“If you provide positivity to others, you in turn fill your own well of positivity.” – Click to Tweet

“You can avoid the negativity trap simply by trying to do something nice for other people.” – Click to Tweet

“Be aware of your impact of positive and negative on your team and organization.” @strengthsleader – Click to Tweet

“The more positive energy you put out, the more you’re going to get back.” – Click to Tweet

“By putting positive actions in place, you have the ability to drain the well of negativity.” – Click to Tweet

“There’s a halo effect when the leader is intentionally being positive.” – Click to Tweet

“The information about you as a leader can get transmitted faster than ever before.” – Click to Tweet

“If you are a negative leader or toxic leader in today’s environment, everyone’s going to know and no one’s going to want to work for you.” – Click to Tweet

“In today’s world you can no longer get away with being a toxic leader.” – Click to Tweet

“HR cannot create a personal relationship with your people with you.” – Click to Tweet

“One of the reasons we’re seeing this global disengagement crisis is because managers are increasingly less engaged and involved in their people’s lives.” – Click to Tweet

“Where you went to school, how smart you are on an IQ test and your past success, does not predict your future.” – Click to Tweet

“As a leader, don’t assume that the behavioral attributes you need to be successful are there.” – Click to Tweet

“Every project has elements of execution, influencing, relationship building, and strategic thinking to it.” – Click to Tweet

“If you’re a poor leader, changing companies is not going to make you a better leader.” – Click to Tweet

“You need to make sure your character is at the utmost level at all times.” – Click to Tweet

“There’s different coaching aspects depending on which stage your team is in.” – Click to Tweet

“The numbers are depressing if you look at the employee engagement numbers.” – Click to Tweet

“Focus on the person, not the role.” – Click to Tweet

“Everything happens in due time, don’t get ahead of yourself.” – Click to Tweet

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Hump to Get Over

Omar L Harris coasted on his own individual talent early in his career. The first time he led a team, he began to carry the performance of the team on his shoulders. This caused him to be hospitalized and suffer from panic attacks. Finally, he realized he needed to trust his people and put them in the right place to win.

Advice for others

Everything happens in due time, don’t get ahead of yourself.

Holding him back from being an even better leader

Not working out enough.

Best Leadership Advice

Focus on the person, not the role.

Secret to Success

Daily habits that lead to future outcomes.

Best tools in business or life

My energy, positivity, and my enthusiasm.

Recommended Reading

Leader Board: The DNA of High Performance Teams (Leader Board Series)

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable

How Full Is Your Bucket?

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t

Contacting Omar L Harris

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

Twitter: https://twitter.com/strengthsleader

Website: https://www.omarlharris.com/

Resources and Show Mentions

231: Jim Harter: Chief Scientist Workplace, Gallup

Call Center Coach

An Even Better Place to Work

Show Transcript:

Click to access edited transcript

247: Omar L Harris: Leadership giants have gaps

 

Jim Rembach: (00:00)

Jim Rembach: Okay. Fast leader Legion today. I’m excited because I had the opportunity to interview somebody who I have actually had the chance to interview before and he brings such a wealth and depth of experience and knowledge that I’m looking forward to this conversation. Even more than the last, born to a chemical engineer, father and social worker, mother in the working class town of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Omar L Harris, learn the values of connecting process to outcomes and the importance of being of service to others. At an early age, being the youngest of four boys in a family of five children, he endured a lot of hope and pressure to succeed where others had failed in order to uplift and support his family. Moving from Pittsburgh to Charleston, West Virginia to Lake Charles, Louisiana over the course of his childhood and adolescence endured in Omar the ability to adapt to constant change, which has been his status quo as an adult, living all over the U S and spending considerable time living and working in the middle East, Asia and Latin America.

 

Jim Rembach: (01:02)

As a young professional in the pharmaceutical industry. He was exposed to Guelph StrengthFinder tool back in 2002 which informed his philosophy of focusing on what was right with people versus what was not. According to the StrengthsFinder assessment, Omar learned that he was naturally gifted with the ability to forge connections between seemingly unrelated items, influenced transformation from good to great quickly generate options, inspire confidence in others and confront and overcome obstacles, honing his natural talents into reliable strengths. He successfully matriculated through Pfizer and ultimately found a corporate home at shearing plow as a fast track management associate where he worked for one of the most successful marketing teams in the pharmaceutical industry. He became the youngest marketing director and senior marketing director in the company’s history. Before Schering plough was acquired by Merck is eight years of experience working on this high performing team, became the seed of what would germinate and ultimately grow into his book leaderboard the DNA of high performance teams.

 

Jim Rembach: (02:03)

Omar began leading teams in 2006 and began implementing principles. He’d learned reading books by John C. Maxwell, Tom Rath, Patrick Lensioni, Stephen Covey, and Jim Collins. To name a few over time, he found significant gaps between the brilliant theories of these leadership giants and the exact application in the day to day minutia of leading a team in the real world. So he set out to synthesize and adapt these concepts into a suite of team performance acceleration principles that he used with teams of different sizes and scopes all over the world to drive results. Omar currently lives alone and saw Paul Brazil where he works as a country manager of Brazil for Allegan where he loves to travel and experience the culture. Omar L Harris, are you ready to help us get over the hump? Let’s do it. Let’s do it, man. I’m glad you’re here. Now 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? Or my current really is,

 

Omar L Harris:: (03:00)

uh, writing. So that’s where the author comes in leading. So, which is why I maintain a position at Oregon and lead an enterprise over 300 people and high performance strengths coaching. So basically helping people understand what’s great about them and put it into action to overcome their obstacles and achieve their goals.

 

Jim Rembach: (03:17)

Well, I’m talking about action. I mean your book leaderboard is just loaded with a lot of opportunities for that to take place. Um, being able to take, like you have said, some of those gaps that we often find in theory and making them real. But I think first of all, we often have to realize that there’s potential pitfalls and things that we can run into. In the very beginning of the book, you talk about negativity trap. Can you tell us a little bit about what that is?

 

Omar L Harris:: (03:44)

So the negativity trap is really where you get into a mindset or the negative cycle of negative thinking that perpetuates negative outcomes. And this really comes from the book. How full is your bucket? Um, was written by Donald O Clifton and Tom Rath, uh, back in, I think the early two thousands was what came out. And so, uh, what was most interesting about that particular, that particular book was it was a, uh, a great example of PLW in term camps, uh, in China. And the psychological effect, uh, that the, the, the captors used all the captives to basically utilize negative reinforcement to perpetuate a hopelessness and sort of hopeless hopelessness. And the captives, it didn’t do torture. It didn’t, you know, beat them. They didn’t treat them poorly. They just gave them bad news about their fit. They wrote letters, for example, from the point of view of the family members dying in the U S as an example, or, uh, they would perpetuate other negative thoughts in the captives.

 

Omar L Harris:: (04:45)

And this led to was sense of hopelessness and people basically die the hopelessness and these camps not up toward turnout of other things. So, uh, that was a very powerful example that I took from, from reading. Uh, how full is your bucket? And then the inverse of that situation is the theory that if you provide positivity to others, you intern for your own well of positivity so you can further be energized into your job and be engaged. So the idea that you can avoid the negativity trap simply by trying to do something nice for other people. So what I always tell people who are coming to me with negativity in my office and on a daily basis is, you know, do something nice for someone that somebody else, here’s something positive for somebody else. Be aware of your impact, both positive and negative on your teams and on your organization. The more positive energy you put out, the more you’re going to get back to providing a more. So it’s a bit of a virtuous circle. So, so you have to avoid the negative negativity trap, which is really these negative doubts, beliefs, self limiting beliefs, um, career limiting beliefs, things that we all have anxieties, fears, worries,

 

Jim Rembach: (05:53)

okay.

 

Omar L Harris:: (05:53)

And counteract that by simply putting positive action into place. By putting positive actions into place, you have the ability to really, uh, to drain the well of negativity. Refill with the Willow positivity. And this is the first, the book starts off with this example because, uh, more than any of the thing, there is a, there’s a halo effect of the Fado the leader on the organization when the, when the, when the leader is intentionally being positive with their, uh, with their organization versus when you’re not aware of your actual impact on those around you. So it’s about self-awareness. It’s about intentionally being positive because you know, that’s going to have a far more powerful impact on employee engagement or productivity, and you’re going to get it back into yourself as well.

 

Jim Rembach: (06:38)

Well, to me, what you just said, right there is the really the importance of modeling because I think, you know, it’s too easy for us, especially where if we’re in a position where we have some subordinates to oftentimes fall into the trap to where it’s like, okay, you know, don’t do what I’m doing. Do what I’m telling you to do.

 

Omar L Harris:: (06:57)

Right? Right. And today’s employees, the millennials and those coming after them, they’re watching you basically. You know, the idea of transparency is everywhere, right? Transparency on the web, transparency on social media. Uh, uh, right now there are websites and services where bosses are being rated by their employees of glassdoor.com so everybody’s watching you now and the information about you as a leader is can get transmitted faster than ever before. If you are a negative leader or a toxic leader in today’s environment, everyone’s going to know and no one’s going to where want to work for you. Whereas before you kind of get away with it today in today’s world, you can no longer get with being a toxic leader. And so that’s really why I start the book with the negative trap negativity trap to show that the main character of the story is trying to avoid that so he can basically perpetuate something positive for himself. And then for the organization.

 

Jim Rembach: (07:46)

Well, one of the things that’s important to all of this as well is making sure that when we’re selecting people for our teams, regardless of the size, and I would dare to say the smaller the team that even more important than it is, is that we don’t just necessarily go through a very typical, our common process of interviewing you actually use something that’s a little bit different. What is that?

 

Omar L Harris:: (08:08)

So my principle is called interviewing, but interviewing begins actually after the person has been hired to the team. So it’s a step of onboarding. So one of the things that really is really amazing to me in today’s day and age is that leaders outsource onboarding to HR. So HR cannot create a personal relationship with your people, with you. HR is not going to sell your people on you. Think about this. When you hire someone, if the maximum out of time is spent with you as their hiring managers, probably an hour in that first interview you did with them, right? You think that there’s a bond of trust already created and a bond of they understand your style. What’s going to work for you, what works for them and how you guys are going to work together to for powerful part partnership and really drive no. So interviewing is taking the next step to saying, listen, we work together.

 

Omar L Harris:: (09:00)

I as your leader, habit, intense interest and curiosity about who you are, the person, what makes you who you are and I’m going to sit down with you over the course of two to three hours and get to know the building blocks of you, your motivators, your desires, your drivers, your strengths, your weaknesses, things you hate, things that drive me crazy things you love. Because when I have all that information right from the beginning, first of all, the fact that I’m asking these questions creates proximity between the two of us. The second thing it does is it builds trust because it shows that my manager is concerned about knowing me as a person before we start talking about what my job actually is. So it’s no the person focused on a person, not just a role. And those two things combined creates a powerful partnership between you and your employee, which is the building block.

 

Omar L Harris:: (09:49)

If you have that with every individual member of your team, this is how you begin to talk through some of the stages of group formation and hack some of that process, which we’ll talk about it a little bit. I’m sure Jim. So, but that’s, that’s what interviewing really is, is a, a standardized approach during the onboarding process within month one, someone coming on your team where you sit down and really reveal yourself, become vulnerable, let them know about your life, you get to understand their life, build up our partnership and then, uh, take a, take a, take a

 

Jim Rembach: (10:18)

stuff from there. Well one of the things that also to me is quite, um, the opportunity when you start talking about that is I could even do that to my boss. So like for example, they may not come with me with this, you know, come to me with this particular, you know, interview process. However, I could essentially be using this tool in order for me, you know, as their direct report to get to know them better. You know, whether or not, you know, it’s, it’s open and open discussion and that they’re willing to do it. I just need to collect this information so that when I do try to get, you know, my ideas forth in an approved, when I try to, you know, um, have them enable us to get certain things done that only they can do. I mean I see it being as very a lot of ways.

 

Omar L Harris:: (11:04)

So Jim you are, you’re going to the bed step cause that’s actually you’re exactly right. You know the questionnaire works both ways. You know, I’m trying to influence leaders to be more people oriented and I’m asking them to do the stuff of doing interviews. But if you’re an employee you also have an obligation to break crate, break, bridge that barrier with your, with your manager. So it works both ways. And actually when I started my new job with Allegan last summer when I joined it and moved to Brazil from Indonesia, I actually sat down with my new manager who was the senior vice president of LA, of the [inaudible] region and I, I did an interview with him, a reverse interview. So we sat down over lunch and I actually use the process that we built the bond of trust right from the beginning I understood what his pet peeves were, I understood what he expected from me style wise, what expected for me from a communications perspective. I understood about his life, the fact that he had kids and you know his birthday well, whether it was important for him. So we got to a different level of, of comradery over the course of a two hour lunch and then our relationship was off to the races from that moment on. So you’re exactly right. It doesn’t just speak, it shouldn’t just be the manager to the, to the new colleague at Oxford, the colleagues. It’s actually very powerful for colleagues,

 

Jim Rembach: (12:14)

manager as well. Well, and I want to make sure that people kind of understand when we start talking about the reverse interview process is that certain cultures, that’s kind of expected. If we’re talking about the North American culture, specifically in the United States, we oftentimes will shirk or discount the importance of doing something like that because we think it’s invasion of somebody’s privacy. But in fact that’s how you build relationships is getting to those things because it’s not what, we don’t want to know what it is that people do. What we want to know is who are they.

 

Omar L Harris:: (12:45)

Exactly. Exactly. And the best teams I’ve ever worked for Jim or teams where we were involved in each other’s lives, we got personal. So, so, and I think if you’re going to spend all this time working with a group of people to achieve a goal and you don’t get personal, uh, it’s, it’s really, what’s the point of it. I mean, I think that’s, you know, keeping it a hundred percent professional and only what happened when people walk into the office. You don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes at the teammate or as a boss. Um, you’re really missing a major trick in terms of motivation and engaging the organization. That’s probably one of the reasons why we’re seeing this global disengagement crisis because managers are increasingly less engaged and involved in their people’s lives. They don’t understand what’s happening. I’ll give you, I’ll give you another example, Tim. I’m doing my midyear performance reviews, right? And one of the questions that I’m asking you, my major performance reviews is, um, tell me, uh, how, how has your level of stress right now, how has your current level of engagement with, uh, with me and with the enterprise and with the products we’re working on? Um, how was your overall health and is there anything in your personal life affecting your performer friend? Now I’m asking these questions in a mini review. I can ask these questions because I’ve already done interviews with all of these people.

 

Jim Rembach: (14:01)

Okay.

 

Omar L Harris:: (14:01)

And we already have trust. If I just come out the door asking questions like this, you know, it’s not going to work. But because I’ve already put the work in, uh, when I ask questions like this that are really caring and understanding questions and let me know what’s going on with somebody, um, it’s not taken in a wrong way and we, it further builds those last so’s trust.

 

Jim Rembach: (14:20)

It’s funny that you say that because I, um, a while back was doing a mid year review with, uh, somebody who was reporting to me and I started asking him questions about how could I, you know, better serve and support them, how could I, you know, and basically that was the gist of the review process. Um, and then when it was all done, she looked at me kinda fun and she said, is that it? And I’m like, well, yeah. And she goes, that is the strangest review that I have.

 

Omar L Harris:: (14:49)

But, but, but we’re, we’re, we are are of like minds. Jim, I asked the exact same question because for me, once again, that whole concept of servant leadership, I work for you. I did a rule book bears from you, so you can be massively successful if you’re successful. I’m successful.

 

Jim Rembach: (15:04)

Most definitely. Okay. So another thing when you start talking about identifying the right people, you use another little bit of a twist, somewhat of an acronym, uh, and then you use something called boom, a, w, H. O. M. what does that stand for and what does that do?

 

Omar L Harris:: (15:18)

So whom is the step before interviewing, which is how I identify a high performance DNA right from the start. Let me give you the background of this. So going, bridging another leadership Titan’s philosophy into the practical application. So one of my favorite books is good to great. I love good to great so much. We have a read good to great. It’s a study of a top tier companies. They had a peer group and basically they deliver 10 times market performance over a 30 year period. And they were studied by Jim Collins and associates. And then they wrote a book, uh, of somewhat, uh, not, uh, obvious insights about what made the, what made the great companies distinguish themselves from the good companies. So the first principle of good to great was not, you know, a counterintuitive insight was not they had the best mission or had the best process.

 

Omar L Harris:: (16:11)

It was called first. Who then what first, who then what says as a basic principle, get the right people on the bus and then decide where the bus was going. Right. I loved that and I kind of committed it to memory, but then I’m in a day to day world and I’m like, but who are the who? How do I decide who the right people are? Is that experience pedigree, a, you know, a past success? Is that the best measure of who I started there? Then I realized that actually where you went to school, how smart you are and an IQ test and your past success is not necessarily predict your future success. I have to go deeper. So I created an acronym initially was just work ethic, heart and optimism. And that was built out of, uh, really thinking about the teams that I worked on that were very successful.

 

Omar L Harris:: (17:00)

And what did everyone on those teams have in common? Well, we all worked really hard. We had shared passion and we saw problems and barriers as opportunities and not as things that were going to slow us down or stop us. So I use the who principle for many, many years. And then when I was working in Indonesia, I added the M, which is maturity because I, as I become, uh, increasing my leadership in terms of leading leaders, deleting leaders of leaders and leading leaders of leaders of leaders, the higher up you go. So for example, now I’m leading leaders of leaders of leaders, but shorty becomes a much more important attribute. And you can’t assume it’s because someone is, you know, 45, 50 years old or in their forties that they’re mature. And what I mean by maturity is they can deal with inevitable disappointment. They can deal with conflicts productively when they arise and then make a positive outcomes come out of that.

 

Omar L Harris:: (17:53)

Because so then I begin utilizing, creating questions from maturity that complemented the entire, uh, big fire cycles. So now when I hire a team for a team, anyone who comes on my team, they have to prove to me that they have the necessary level, minimum level of work ethic, heart optimism and maturity. My current team now is comprised of all these individuals. We don’t have unnecessary conflicts about silly things. We’re very focused on the mission. We all are aligned. The passionate about what we’re doing and when we kind of problems were very quick and collaborative to solve them together. So, um, high performance is almost guaranteed if you have that DNA right from the start, which is why I recommend hiring the right home.

 

Jim Rembach: (18:37)

Well, and as you are saying that, I kind of chuckled inside because I used to have this saying that I use quite often and you see, you’re causing me to reflect and bring it on back. As I was talking about my career of managing, you know, hundreds of people through operations, um, at various times is that I, I would say I’ve been blessed. I’ve had the opportunity to lead 18 year old men and 65 year old boys.

 

Omar L Harris:: (19:07)

There it is. You brought, you brought the whole thing home. And the whole point is as a leader, don’t assume that the behavioral attributes you need to be successful are there. Um, and, and so, so a lot of times we focus on someone’s town and their potential, uh, but these people are destructive on teams. You know, I’ve dealt with some of the smartest people you could ever lead. And individually they are superstar, they’re brilliant, but he put them in an, around another group of people and the frustrations boil over and people don’t move fast enough for them. And, and then it just creates unnecessary attention that people can’t get things done and it becomes devolves into, you know, uh, just a lot of negativity. And you’re in that storming phase that we’re going to talk about a little bit later.

 

Jim Rembach: (19:52)

Yeah. And let’s talk about that. Okay. So, and you’re talking about the, the, the team work and the team building process. I mean that talking about going back on those Titans that that was done back in the forties or 50s, I think. And you probably have more insight and sharing on that, but there’s a specific process that teams go through and, and it, it and it actually evolves and, and sometimes you go back two steps and move forward, but about that team process.

 

Omar L Harris:: (20:18)

So, so Bruce Tuckman who’s a behavioral psychologist and a giant of behavioral psychology, uh, wrote an a landmark article called uh, group development and sequences. And in that landmark article, what he did was he basically took a lot of research from a lot of different disciplines on different groups of people and it looked to find the thin red line between all these studies. And what he found was that basically, uh, when you’re talking about groups of, you know, between one and 25 people, like smallest type groups, uh, when you put these people together and you give them a task, naturally they’re going to go through four stages. Forming is the first stage, storming is the second stage. Norming is the third stage. And performing his last days. Now forming is guaranteed. And I would say storming is guaranteed. Norming and performing are not guaranteed. Uh, you’re just because you’re in a group of people, you don’t always arrive at norming and you, most teams never actually arrive at performing.

 

Omar L Harris:: (21:21)

Um, although their managers or leaders may think they’re, they’re in high performance, but they’re not actually that actually performing. So let me go through each one of those stages for you, Jim. So we can break it down a little bit. Better. Forming happens either when it’s a brand new team, random people that are coming together. So basically, you know, it’s a start up and you’re starting a new organization or when the leader is new. So imagine you are a leader. Like I was coming into Brazil last year inheriting an organization. The team begins to form around me because my energy, this is my presence changes the organization. So we forming from that, from that perspective or forming happens when the mission changes. So imagine that you won a championship, but the next year you want to win another championship. Well, the next year’s task is different than the first year task.

 

Omar L Harris:: (22:08)

The team members may be different. That dynamics in the market may be different. So therefore you’re forming again around the task. So those are the three instances where you’re actually four. So basically it’s a group of people coming together to do a task. As you go through and begin to decide how you’re going to go about doing the task, you go into a phase called stormy, which is basically when everyone has a different opinion about how to accomplish the task. You put 10 people together and said, listen, uh, you know, uh, screw in a light bulb. That’s where the dope comes from, right? You’re going to find, you know, 10 different opinions about the best way to do that, right? So that’s storming. And then that show was basically everybody wanted to put their point of view on the table and say, listen, this is how we should go about doing some critical tasks.

 

Omar L Harris:: (22:52)

The leaders tried to assert their authority. Uh, individuals are trying to be political, either to become close to the leader or to basically remove the leader’s power. So it’s a very uncomfortable period of time because although people have, they know what the task is and they agree on the task, how to achieve the task has not yet been aligned. So norming is once you know, everyone is aware of the task and know what we’re trying to accomplish and we agree on how we’re going to go about achieving the task. So what are the rules of the road where the rules of the game? Now we’re in Norman, now we have certain rules and established ways of working that will allow us to go forward and accomplish the task. And usually it stops right there. It stops adoring because because you’ve gone through storming, what happens in norming that prevents high performance?

 

Omar L Harris:: (23:38)

Well, one thing, people will become too polite. They don’t want to disrupt the harmony that they’ve established after coming through stormy. So there’s an artificial harmony that pervades norming teams that the leader must disrupt. All of the leader can disrupt the artificial harmony by stimulating productive conflict, by stimulating productive conflict. Then you get to the next stage, which is performing. That is when, uh, not, not only does everybody know what the task is, not only does everyone have the ways of working, but everyone is laser focused and a hundred percent passionate on doing whatever it takes to achieve the task. That’s the difference between a performing team and a Normington. It’s a level of commitment and the level of focus and orientation towards nothing’s gonna stop us from achieving this task, not even artificial harmony. And that’s when you get to high performance.

 

Jim Rembach: (24:33)

Well, and when you start talking about yet another acronym, so we’ve hit a several. You, you close the book with something called [inaudible].

 

Omar L Harris:: (24:43)

So really what I wanted to do was, uh, because once again, Bruce Tuckman wrote a great article, right about forming, storming, norming, and performing. There’s nothing in the article that says, what should a leader be doing? Or how can a leader actually help a group of people faster move through these stages. So that’s where the teeth have come into play. Because basically I have identified in the literature and in my own personal experience that there are definitely proactive ways a leader can take to speed. The group from forming to performing. And so the team performance acceleration principles or T paps or the state that the actual practical application things you can do starting today that will allow you to move much faster through forming jump right through storming gets normally very quickly and then get to performing after that. So there’s five team performances or it’s principles linked to each one of the stages of group formation. And that’s really unique about leaderboard is that there’s never been that kind of guidance linked to the state as a group formation put together before. And it’s not only my own, uh, own ideas, it’s also the amalgamation of the best, the leadership from the greatest minds on business, uh, business and operations and organizations, uh, over the last 20 or 30 years. But what’s different is it’s all practical application. It’s all things you can do, download tools and start utilizing them today.

 

Jim Rembach: (26:15)

Well, I think that’s the missing component for so many folks and they need to get, you know, charged, energized, uh, excited, motivated, you know, when they hear and read, you know, certain things about leading. And then it’s like, okay, now let’s go do it. And we’re like, where do we start? And it’s crickets. Right?

 

Omar L Harris:: (26:32)

Exactly. Exactly. So, so you know what I, what I like to say is I’ve, you know, the first person that goes through the wall gets the blood and knows, I’ve gone to the, what I’ve gotten the Belinda nodes for everybody. I’ve actually taken the pain and time to try to implement these things in the real world, see what works, what does not filter all that out and give you a curated list of tools that will definitely work to move the needle forward for your organization.

 

Jim Rembach: (26:59)

Well, and as I had mentioned to you, I mean, going through the book, I mean, I was inspired in a lot of different ways. Uh, I also had the opportunity to have, uh, dr Jim harder on the fast leader show who is the chief research scientist of workplace for Gallop, uh, who is author of this book called H the manager. He also shares a lot, a bit about, a lot about the strengths. And while, you know, there are some people out there that will talk about the strengths and even you know that strengths finder and identifying and you know, all of that, you know, has some gaps in it as well. It’s nothing is perfect here, but I th and I think one of the things that you’ve done with leaderboard, and I think you’re also, you know, working on some additional works associated with that, you know, is making it, like you said, it’s tangible. The day to day this is okay, you know, TA take all of this theory, you know, and do these things and now you’ll have success.

 

Omar L Harris:: (27:52)

Yeah. Speaking of the strengths specifically, and I’m glad you brought that up, Jim, is you know, as a certified strengths coach, I have a, I have a gigantic frustration I’m going to reveal to you right now, which is the power of focusing on what’s right with people versus what’s wrong with them as a leader to engage and really transform someone’s career is phenomenal. Two problems we have right now, only 20 million people globally have taken a strength finder assessment. So the vast majority of people still have not learned their strengths. What in globally there are less than 4,000 certified strengths coaches for 20 million people in the world. So even if you take the string spider test and you are very passionate and you and you, you get the, you get the bug that you want to develop restraints, that the likelihood that you’re going to find a strengths coach that was going to, that’s going to be able to take you through the process and help you improve is very difficult because of the, the, the gap between the number of people who are taking assessment and the number of actual strengths coaches.

 

Omar L Harris:: (28:56)

So leaderboard also fits in there to bridge that gap to a certain extent as well. Because when I talk about in the book and what I leaderboard actually is, so other than a clever title is uh, one of the actionable steps that we’re talking about. So all the leaderboard is, is taking principles from strengths based leadership, which was published back in 2008. Uh, and what strengths based leadership said is that, you know, there are 35 themes of talent. So basically everybody has, uh, 30, 34 teams of talent, talent, which are ordered in terms of their dominance from one to 34. Right? These things have talent. They say they organize it, the four domains of strength, so executing, influencing life stability and 50 thinking. So basically the 34 talents are organized in four domains of strength. Well, I take it a little bit further than than Gallup is, is to say what that means to me is that if I’m a leader looking at a group of people, that means I have people on my team who may be better than me in execution, who may be better than me at influencing outcomes, who may be better than me at relationship building or who me, who may be better than me, asked you to thinking I don’t have to be great at all of these things as leader anymore.

 

Omar L Harris:: (30:12)

I just have to be to put the people who are great at those things in there of straight sewed on a daily basis and then watch them that in capital. And that’s what a leaderboard is. A leaderboard is basically identifying the top domains of everyone on your team and the game of find the work. Because every project actually has elements of execution, influencing relationship building and should be thinking to it. So if you break down tasks and allocate them towards the individual or team who are strongest in those areas and gamify it, you’re going to start seeing progress towards goals accelerate at an exponential rate. And that’s what we did in our team as an actual example back in, you know, back in the early two thousands and that’s what a leaderboard is. And that’s the, that’s the real gold at the heart of the book is how do you apply strengths based leadership actually in the workforce 14 and take it a beyond the great theory of focusing on what’s great with people, but actually put it to work.

 

Jim Rembach: (31:12)

I mean, so for me, as you were talking, I’m like, well, that’s the personalization of work. I mean, what you’re doing is you’re making it right for me. Yeah. Yeah. Well, needless to say, when we start talking about a lot of, you know, the frustrations, um, a lot of the successes in the exhilaration, there’s a lot of things that help us really to get pointed in the right direction. And on the show we focus on quotes. Um, there are a quote or two that you liked that you can share.

 

Omar L Harris:: (31:38)

My favorite quote, and I don’t know if it applies to necessarily to, to, to what we’re talking about here, but, uh, is by Emerson. No change of circumstances can overcome the feet of character. So that’s something that I carry with me is that, you know, your, and I think it does link because if you’re talking about this transparency now that we have, and the fact that everything you do is watched and correlated and seeing roughly by the people who work for you, uh, you can’t, if you’re a poor leader, changing companies is not gonna make you a better leader. Uh, you need to put in the work, uh, and you need to make sure that your character is at the utmost level at all times, especially as a leader. So, you know, it’s inexcusable for the higher up you go to become a worse person. It’s inexcusable. I think the higher up we go, the better off we had to get them more actualized we have to become, and the more supportive we have to be for people because that’s why we’re, we given that great title was not, you know, because we were so as, because we have a lot more to give back to the, it’s not about the ego, it’s about what we have to get back to the organization. So I think that that quote for me kind of sums up that that idea

 

Jim Rembach: (32:48)

well and the modeling becomes even more important, doesn’t it?

 

Omar L Harris:: (32:50)

Yeah, yeah, for sure. For sure. So yeah, I really, I really am passionate about the servant leadership approach to religion, philosophy and, and really, uh, helping leaders understand that there is another way to achieve results. Top-down used to work still works in certain organizations, certain cultures in certain instances. But if he wants sustainable high performance, if you adopt servant leadership and begin to go to the customer and go to your front line and understand what the real challenges are and begin to drive solutions faster to those challenges, how can you not drive higher performance?

 

Jim Rembach: (33:27)

Well I think for me, um, like you were talking about is knowing and some people will call it situational leadership. So I mean I need to do top down. I mean I just need to want that longterm, you know, value generation and all that. Well then I need to switch on and I need more of the things that you’re talking about.

 

Omar L Harris:: (33:46)

And you’re right. And one of the things, the other things that I talk about in the team performance in the discussion section of the book is what is the role of the leader in the four stages? Because the change begin to form and you have to be on board directive. You do have to kind of tell people what to, to organize the group and organize the work. Whereas the storming, your mindset has to be coaching. You need to coach people a lot more. In norming, I talk about inspecting, so not coaching, but inspecting. So you’re, the mixture of the norms hold up under all circumstances. So there’s different coaching aspects depending on what stage your team is in. Um, and that will help you also move the team to the state is acknowledging what you have to do and what you have to exhibit for the group, for the group in that.

 

Jim Rembach: (34:29)

Well, and I would dare to say that the, or where you are now was a direct result of, you know, capturing a lot of information, self-awareness, you know, continuous commitment, you know, to learning all of those things that, you know, just didn’t come and your youth. And so when I start thinking about lessons learned, you know, we talk about getting over the humps. Is there a time where you’ve gotten over the hump that you can share?

 

Omar L Harris:: (34:52)

Oh yeah, definitely. Definitely. I think that, you know, early on in my career I coasted on talent, on my own individual talent. So my own ability to be a very, very hard working, but my own individual talent to put things together in a way that people hadn’t thought of before. And I kind of really coasted on that. But when I became a leader of organizations and teams, you know, the first time I led a team, I was trying to once again utilize my own individual towel to drive this group of people towards a goal. And I put the whole team on my bed and just like LeBron James catering the Cleveland Cavaliers to the chat, to the, to the finals in 2007 versus spurts. But as far as we’re a team, the problem is, is one guy who we only know who they are right now, right. That was like me back in 2006 I, I, you know, I was dragging my organization forward and we were getting some results done.

 

Omar L Harris:: (35:43)

But the moment I was out of the picture, it kind of collapsed. And that’s not leadership. Leadership is, you know, once again, sustainable DNA, it’s in the DNA. I mean means that when you, whether you’re there or not, these principles are going to be upheld and moving forward. So I think I had to overcome that hump because also the cost of myself was very personally challenging. I went through panic attacks once the hospital several times. At that same time of my life, I was working myself and putting so much pressure on myself individually that I almost broke myself. And I think that I had to reflect and really come back and say, listen, actually I’m not trusting my people enough. I’m not putting him in the right places to win and I have to invent a new way to do this. And that’s what I began to embark on the journey that ultimately began, uh, that ends with, uh, with leaderboard being published.

 

Jim Rembach: (36:35)

Well, and like I said, and I know you’re working on, you know, your next, you know, opportunity and your next book, I’m not going to get into that. I know that’s something that I, I would dare to say it out the course of your career, you’re probably going to produce several, but I know you said you’re a strengths coach finder. Um, you’re a country manager, you know your author, speaker. I mean you’ve got a lot of things going on. So when I start thinking about a goal, what’s one of your goals?

 

Omar L Harris:: (36:59)

Well, my main goal right now in one goal that you’re really helping, we miss Jim, is to really get some of these ideas out there. I think it’s not about that this is bigger than than Omar L Harris. It’s bigger than any one person. This is about, uh, how are we going to, the numbers are depressing. If you look at the employee engagement numbers, you look at what’s in what book. The book gets the, and it talks about employee engagement. You just get, the preps are like, listen, our our, how do we, we’re going to be in a perpetual recession or depression from an economic perspective, but we don’t get distinct fixed. Right? So for me, it’s really about trying to change the hearts and minds of principals, new leaders coming in. So I want to really focus on new people who are coming up and I’m really focused on doing whatever I can do in my power to get the word out to the new leaders coming in that there’s another way to do this.

 

Omar L Harris:: (37:54)

Um, and maybe not the ultimately right way, but there’s another way to do it, another path. There’ll be always be other paths of how to do things. Uh, so I think that’s one major goal that I have set for myself right now, which is where I’m probably really focused on, on that. And then am I, am I into the world is just, um, making sure that I am actually the example of these principles. So I think that, you know, one of the things that happens to you when you write a book like this, and you’re not a theoretical, uh, theoretical person. You’re not in academia. You’re actually doing it every day is people can say, Omar is not walking the talk. He wrote an entire book about this stuff and he doesn’t do any of it. Whereas actually when I’m talking to my team and my midyear reviews, one of my colleagues, she said to me, she said, Omar, you know, one of the great things that people appreciate about you is you wrote this book, but it’s 100%. You and I’ve met the world to me that actually that, you know, the, the, the, I w I’m really walking the talk and I think being that example, showing people that I’m not just talking about the stuff that I actually do, it is also really important to me right now to be somewhat of an example and, and to really talk to anybody who needs help on how they can make the transition. Cause I made it, um, uh, to the other side of this and that’s what I’m really focused on now.

 

Jim Rembach: (39:07)

And the fast leader Legion wishes you the very best. Now before we move on, let’s get a quick word from our sponsor.

 

Speaker 3: (39:13)

And even better place to work is an easy to use solution that gives you a continuous diagnostic on employee engagement along with integrated activities that will improve employee engagement and leadership skills in everyone using this award. Winning solutions, guaranteed to create motivated, productive, and loyal employees who have great work relationships with our colleagues and your customers. To learn more about an even better place to work. Visit [inaudible] dot com four slash better. Okay. Omar, they’ll hope they hold on as a part of our show where you give us insights fast. Okay. Several questions. And your job is to give us robust get referee responses are going to help us move onward and upward faster. Harris, are you ready to hold down? Let’s do it. Alright, so what is holding you back from being an even better leader today? Not working out enough. So my own personal energy is that I need to work out for

 

Jim Rembach: (40:02)

my physical fitness. What is the best leadership advice you have ever received? Focused on the person, not the role. And what is one of your secrets that you believe contributes to your success?

 

Omar L Harris:: (40:14)

Uh, daily habits that lead to future outcomes. So basically making sure that I’m focused on the right daily habits to lead the future outcomes. Although I’m not doing the workout enough and I am getting enough water, getting enough sleep, uh, reading every day, uh, and making some time for meditation on a daily basis.

 

Jim Rembach: (40:31)

And what do you feel is one of your best tools that helps you lead in business or life?

 

Omar L Harris:: (40:35)

My energy and my positivity and my enthusiasm.

 

Jim Rembach: (40:38)

And what would be one book that you’d recommend to our Legion? It could be from any genre. Of course. We’re going to put a link to leaderboard on your page as well.

 

Omar L Harris:: (40:46)

The five dysfunctions of a team by Patrick Lencioni.

 

Jim Rembach: (40:49)

Okay. Fast leader Legion. You can find links to that and other bonus information from today’s show. I go into fast leader.net/omar L Harris. Okay, Omar, this is my last Humpday hold on question. Alright. Edge. And you are given the opportunity to go back to the age of 25 knowledge and skills that you have now back with you. But you can’t take it all. You can only choose one. What skill or piece of knowledge would you take back with you and why?

 

Omar L Harris:: (41:13)

The only thing, I will go back and I’ll tell myself and give myself the perspective that everything happened to do time. Don’t get ahead of myself because, uh, you need to, I need to accumulate knowledge as well as, uh, accumulate, uh, promotions and whatnot was very focused on promotion to getting to a certain level. Uh, and I think that, you know, actually time and and perspective is equally valuable, not just moving fast, like a career. It was a fun time with you today. Can you please share the fast leader Legion, how they can connect with you? Yes. The best way to reach me facet of Legion is through my website, www.omarlharris.comomarlharris.com.

 

Jim Rembach: (41:55)

Oh, Omar Harris. It was an honor to spend time of the day and the fast leader Legion honors you. And thanks you for helping us get over the hump.

086: Ann Parker: I had kind of lost my power

Ann Parker Show Notes

Ann Parker was in her twenties and had become a shrunken version of herself. She lost confidence in herself and lost her identity. Her world and her future came crashing down and that’s when she reached inside and climbed out. Listen to Ann tell her story of finding new strength.

Ann Parker was born and raised in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania with an older sister and a younger brother with parents that raised them to be of strong faith.

Ann was a confident person in her youth, with a strong faith in God a personal passion for positively leading and influencing others. But she had to re-make and rediscover herself in her late 20s after a difficult divorce with her high school sweetheart.

The marriage wrecked her. As she was emerging from the “black hole” of divorce she learned to become grateful for all that the experience taught her about loving herself and others. Now, Ann feels lucky to have married again to the best man she’s ever known.

Ann’s divorce experience taught her how important it is to be true to yourself. One’s leadership “brand” should be consistent throughout your personal and professional life. Until you know yourself well – your strengths, passions, power, and needs for growth, you will not be as effective leading other people to their own places of influence.

Empathy and respect are huge for Ann. She feels that you can understand anyone you come across in life if you just make it a priority to see the world through their eyes. Hate, jealousy, greed, and shame cannot thrive when you allow people to be who they are and love them for who they are, regardless of your personal biases and limited worldview.

Ann is currently the senior manager of the Human Capital Community of Practice and the Senior Leaders & Executives Community of Practice at ATD (Association for Talent Development). At ATD Ann has had the privilege to talk to numerous training and development practitioners, hear from a variety of prominent industry thought leaders, and develop a rich understanding of the profession’s content.

In addition to her full-time work at ATD, she is a freelance blogger for The Huffington Post and a freelance writer/editor for Brighter Strategies.

Ann currently lives in Woodbridge, Virginia with her husband where they are anxiously awaiting the birth of their first child.

Tweetable Quotes and Mentions

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

“People have skills that get overlooked because of stringent job requirements.” -Ann Parker Click to Tweet

“I am the best leader when I am me.” -Ann Parker Click to Tweet 

“Who you are as a leader at work is who you should be as a leader at home.” -Ann Parker Click to Tweet 

“I’m am effective as a leader when I am playing to my strengths.” -Ann Parker Click to Tweet 

“Allowing yourself to be who you are is not easy.” -Ann Parker Click to Tweet 

“Let the folks that you mange know that you need their strength.” -Ann Parker Click to Tweet 

“Love yourself first; then you are able to be an incredible leader to other people.” -Ann Parker Click to Tweet 

“Recognize self-doubt and call it out.” -Ann Parker Click to Tweet 

“You are the best leader when you are you.” -Ann Parker Click to Tweet 

“Not every decision you make has to be perfect.” -Ann Parker Click to Tweet 

“There is not always a right choice; just make a decision.” -Ann Parker Click to Tweet 

Hump to Get Over

Ann Parker was in her twenties and had become a shrunken version of herself. She lost confidence in herself and lost her identity. Her world and her future came crashing down and that’s when she reached inside and climbed out. Listen to Ann tell her story of finding new strength.

Advice for others

Not every decision you make has to be perfect. You can be faced with choice A or choice B and both are okay, just make a decision.

Holding her back from being an even better leader

Self-doubt is something that creeps up in me.

Best Leadership Advice Received

You are the best leader when you are you.

Secret to Success

I am pretty empathetic. I like to see the world from their eyes and worldview.

Best tools that helps in business or Life

Faith, faith in myself. Faith in five people who I know will love me unconditionally no matter what. And faith in my God.

Recommended Reading

Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead

Rising Strong

Contacting Ann

Website: http://www.td.org/CTDO

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ann-parker-280313a

Twitter: https://twitter.com/atdsrleaders

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: 

Click to access edited transcript

086: Ann Parker: I had kind of lost my power

 

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. 

 

Alright Fast Leader Legion I can’t wait to meet with our guest today because for the past several years she’s been learning about other fast leaders and the mentors that guide them. Ann Parker was born and raised in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania with an older sister and younger brother and with parents that raised them to be of strong faith. Ann was a confident person in her youth with a personal passion for positively leading and influencing others. But she had to remake and rediscover herself in her late 20’s after a difficult divorce with her high school sweetheart, the marriage rector. As she was emerging from the black hole of divorce, she learn to become grateful for all the experience had taught her about loving herself and others. Now Ann feels lucky to have married again to the best man she’s ever known. Ann’s divorce experience taught her how important it is to be true to self, ones leadership brand should be consistent throughout your personal and professional life until you know yourself well your strengths, passions, power and need for growth you will not be as effective leading other people to their own places of influence. Ann is currently the senior manager of the Human Capital Community of Practice and the senior leaders and executives community of practice at ATD, The Association for Talent Development.

 

At ATD, Ann has had the privilege to talk to numerous training and development practitioners hearing from a variety of prominent industry taught leaders and developing a rich understanding of the professions content. In addition to her full-time work at ATD she is a freelance blogger for the Huffington Post and a freelance writer/editor for Brighter Strategies. Ann currently lives in Woodbridge, Virginia with her husband where they’re anxiously awaiting the birth of their first child. Ann Parker, are you ready to help us get over the hump?

 

Ann Parker:    I’m ready. 

 

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

 

Ann Parker:    Yeah, sure. So, I’m really lucky to be at ATD, Association for Talent Development for eight and half years now. And I’ve been challenged and grown here and seen my career track changed several times. I started in writing and editing for the membership publication magazine and now I’m in the communities of practice department, which is really just a member focus department. I think right now I’m really focus more on leadership and kind of influence in a greater role and a greater space in the organization. And I’m also for the members looking at ATD’s members who are talent development professionals and my specific membership segment is senior leaders and executives in that space. I’m really serving them well and I’m getting to know who they are and what they want from us as a professional membership association. 

 

And currently, I’m working on a really cool magazine for this audience it’s called Chief Talent Development Officer also CTDO is the acronym for that. And this is a free quarterly digital magazine so anyone can subscribe and the content is very high level, again its focus for talent development executives and it’s also focused on any leader in the organization. And the content show how developing people matters. And we talk about topic such as leadership development, change management, employee engagement and those kinds of things. So, I’m really excited and passionate about that currently and also gives me the chance to write and edit again for ATD which is one of my biggest hobbies and personal passion as well. 

 

Jim Rembach:    Thanks for sharing that and there’s something that you had mentioned that to me kind of struck a chord and I want to make sure that all of our listeners hone in on this particular fact and that is you don’t have to have the title of talent development in order to be focused on developing talent.

 

Ann Parker:    Correct, yeah. ATD really looks at a broad audience and we think about talent development it’s anywhere from someone who’s title is talent development officer to trainer, HR, human capital, organization development and even a manager. So anyone who’s in the role of mentoring, coaching, managing, developing another person, so any leader if you think about it that way. The stuff that we offer as an association and the magazine CTDO, specifically, is for anyone. And I think specially in the kind of the workplace today where change is constant and there’s a really interesting generation dynamic going on in the workplace this is exciting, inspiring and I find it to be pretty cool. 

 

Jim Rembach:    Well, there’s also one thing for me that when I start thinking about what you’re talking to is that people think or assume that innovation really comes from the lightbulb moment it is that, “Hey, I got this idea that’s no brand-new no one has ever taught of it before” that’s truly not the case.  And when you start thinking about coming up with something that is unique and different and that can make a difference. And so for me, I have found some of my best content, ideas, elements that I can now combine with something else to come up with something better when I look outside of my own industry, when I look outside of what my core skills were it was that expansion that cause me to actually expand, if that make sense. 

 

Ann Parker:    Yeah, absolutely. I think when I found that on my own personal work that when I can’t come up with my own personal “aha moments” on my own. And really when I surround myself with people who have different strengths, different ideas, who see the world differently we can kind of all put that together and create some really actionable ideas that are truly innovative. And I think the same goes for—we look at how you hire people for the workforce and exactly what you’re talking about Jim. 

 

Jim Rembach:    You know that’s a really good point. I kind of had a somewhat of a dispute, I guess you’d say let’s put it that way cause that’s friendly, with somebody who was talking about a particular job that they were trying to seek, a candidate for and one of the requirements they had within that particular job was something about having a 10 years of experience in that particular industry but when I look at the rest of the role I’m like, is that really a need? In fact, when you start thinking of having 10 years of experience only in that particular role, how much diversity? How much creativity? How much opportunity is being brought to your particular organization if you’re going to put people in that tiny box? 

 

Ann Parker:    Right. I think that’s extremely frustrating. And I think even if you look at job descriptions now, personally for me when you get education requirements—I think so many people have skills, and ideas, and viewpoints to add are just overlooked because of stringent and all the requirements like that I can agree with you, I think people need to look at not just a role and kind of who that person was already maybe that exceeded the role but what they want for the organization, what this role could do, what does this job position could do and then kind of hire to that.

 

Jim Rembach:    That’s for sure. Now, I know that having opportunity to chat with you briefly a couple of times and also learning more about you is that you’re a person who seeks inspiration. You had written a little bit about someone who you met recently, I’m a fan too of Berne Brown and some of her work and I try to get her on the show but she is just so popular right now that I can’t get her, but we seek out inspirations from others in order to help give us that extra bit of confidence to move forward and go down a particular path that we wouldn’t go through before or go to before and we use quotes on the show, is there a quote or two that kind of stands up for you that you can share with us?

 

Ann Parker:    Yeah, sure. I think about my personal leadership mantra, my personal leadership philosophy it would really be that, “I am the best leader when I am me.” And this kind of a quote that I’ve recited over and over to myself for the past few years. I went through a leadership development program here at ATD, I had the opportunity to go through that, it was a one on one coaching time along with some workshops. And I went into that experience, I was really so excited about it and I should mention I like to be inspired and I think I’m a pretty self-aware person and pretty reflective and I like to search for constant growth and development in my life. I was so excited with this opportunity. I went in thinking I had a certain number of things about myself that I wanted to change to be a better leader. I’m not decisive enough. I’m not assertive enough. I really need to develop my strategic thinking capabilities, these are all kinds of things that are in my head that I was thinking when I go in to this workshop. 

 

So it was all about developing your own leadership brand. And I learned that that really transcends beyond just your professional work life to your personal life as well. Who you are as a leader at work it’s who you should be as a leader at home, with friends, with your church or community. And so that was an eye opener to me that consistency which makes sense. And I kind of learn through the process coaching at the workshop that when I’m trying to master up these skills that I—I see my CEO, my Director that I think I need to attain, I’m going to be effective as a leader when I’m me and I am playing to my strengths as best as I can. And so that was kind of an eye opening epiphany for me, if you will and I think it’s a pretty simple concepts for it to really sink in my bones was pretty cool. So come into terms with that and then really looking at what I have to offer as a leader and how I can best influence people and developing those skills and certainly that all ties in to Brené Brown’s work I think the humanness of leadership when you allow yourself to be you, to be who you are to be authentic. Brené talks about a lot of authenticity and vulnerability, it’s not easy it really takes a lot of courage. So, I think along with learning that through the coaching experience and reading Brené’s work was really an inspirational and transformational moment for me and my personal leadership.

 

Jim Rembach:     And I would say that listening to you talk, and thanks for sharing that, is that many of the things that you’re referring to I think go on throughout our lives. I know for me I still struggle with looking at somebody else who I admire and saying, hey, I should do more of that or be more like that, and I have to stop myself because I start feeling like I’m deficient and then I can’t bring my whole self to the situation or the interaction because I feel like I don’t have as much confidence, this is what it comes down to.

 

Ann Parker:    Absolutely.  I agree, I think that’s an ongoing struggle something that we’re going to—as people do throughout their whole lives, it’s a process. I think even just being real about that sometimes in certain ways as a leader is respected letting the folks I manage know that. I need them, I need their strength, I need their skills and when they do all they can and they are best selves that’s when we all succeed.

 

Jim Rembach:     I think one of the things that stands out is really the whole concept of acceptance. And it isn’t acceptance from a deficiency perspective, a lot of people I think refer to acceptance at—oh, you’re just quitting and giving up.

 

Ann Parker:    Hmm-mm. 

 

Jim Rembach:     Well, but the thing is when we start looking at strength building and being extraordinary in regards to a strength is that what we really should be doing is putting our efforts and focus and additional learning on those strengths because it’s easier for us to expand something that we’re already strong at instead of looking and focusing in on weaknesses and trying to bolster them up. And so, I think coming to the humility, the realization talking about getting courage from that and saying, look I accept it that this isn’t one of the things I’m best at, but you know what, and you are and so I would love to collaborate with you.  

 

Ann Parker:    Yup, exactly. And it’s not easy to admit that, to yourself or to others even. And I think that’s absolutely the place where you have to get— have some humility there and find some courage to admit that and then to do what you can as well to be as you said your best self. 

 

Jim Rembach:     That’s for sure. So I know when we start talking about this stuff, the old saying and I’ve said it many times and I know I’ve said it several times in different episodes is that, the Lord didn’t give us youth and wisdom at the same time. 

And that’s for sure. 

It is. And we have to go over humps in order for us to get wiser. Is there a time where you can remember that you’ve got over a hump and you became wiser as a result can you share that with us? 

 

Ann Parker:    Yeah, yeah. So I think just personally you’ve mentioned at the beginning of my bio, I went through an early divorce and as people we go through at some point in our lives, maybe not everyone which is great, but I had kind of lost my power, if that makes sense. I become some shrunken version of myself. I was in my 20’s so certainly still kind of growing and molding as a person and myself. I been married very young and so it was kind of this personal crisis at a young age where I longer felt confident in myself. I no longer felt like I knew who I was. And kind of the world and the future that I built around myself all came crushing down and so it was kind of place a personal transformation, kind of reaching in and climbing out of that and finding myself again, I feel really grateful for the chance to do that. 

 

I think some people just going to go through their lives and life happens and you keep moving and you don’t really know who you are. You reach 50 or 60 or even 70, but I had the chance by the age when I think it really counts to kind of remake myself a little bit. So, yeah, I think for me that was kind of the biggest personal hump in my life so far. And honestly it took a lot of therapy and counselling and just a lot of honesty with myself. And came through that to really know myself better and love myself better and I think that’s kind of where it all start. I think even in your personal life and your leadership roles at work just know who you are and loving yourself then you’re able to really be an incredible leader to other people and kind of bring out the best in them. And so that’s been a pretty transformational experience for me. 

 

Jim Rembach:     Thanks for sharing that Ann and I know you’re on the better side of that caused we’ve talked about that earlier with finding the right person as well as expecting your first born. So, the Fast Leader Legion wishes you the very best. 

 

Ann Parker:    Thank you so much. Yes I am in a great place and I am feel grateful for that and very excited to meet my child, and Thanksgiving Day is when she will be here.

 

Jim Rembach:     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. Okay, Ann, 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. Ann Parker, are you ready to hoedown?

 

Ann Parker:    I’m ready. 

 

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

 

Ann Parker:    I think self-doubt is one thing that creeps up time and again for me and so being able to recognize when that’s happening and kind of call it out in myself and then either surround myself with people who can do what I can’t do or be honest with other when there’s something I don’t know and then again play to my strength. 

 

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

 

Ann Parker:    You are the best leader when you are you. 

 

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

 

Ann Parker:    I’m a pretty empathetic person and so I like to get to know people and see the world from their eyes and their view. I think that hatred and greed and intolerance can be avoided when people are able to as the old cliche’s—walk a mile in someone else’s shoes. And so I think I really value respect and empathy and that has helped me to be a pretty effective leader. 

 

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

 

Ann Parker:    Faith. I would say faith in myself. Faith in the five people who I know will love me unconditionally no matter what. And faith in my God. 

 

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

 

Ann Parker:    Brené Brown’s, Daring Greatly and her newest as well, Rising Strong. 

 

Jim Rembach:    Okay, Fast Leader listeners you can find links to that and other bonus information from today show by going to fastleader.net/Ann Parker. Okay, Ann, this is my last Hump Day Hoedown question: Imagine 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?

 

Ann Parker:    Decisiveness and the ability to understand that not every decision you make has to be perfect and there is not always a right choice. So you could be faced with choice A or choice B and both are okay, just make a decision.

 

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

 

Ann Parker:    Yes, you can connect with me via e-mail at aparker@td.org. You could also check out my latest publication via ATD, www.td.org/ctto.

 

Jim Rembach:    Ann Parker thank you for sharing your knowledge and wisdom the Fast Leader Legion honors you and thanks you for helping us get over the hump. 

 

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 

 

 

 

047: Warren Kennaugh: It took far much more time and effort

Warren Kennaugh Show Notes

Warren Kennaugh wasn’t totally unhappy working in the corporate world. But Warren wanted to do more of the things he loved. That’s when Warren decided to strike out on his own. But after a year in business, he was not able to buy an island and a Maserati. That’s when he found out it was going to take much more effort and time to make it. Listen to Warren tell his story and what he discovered that might help you move onward and upward faster.

Warren Kennaugh was born and raised in Sydney Australia. One of two boys and as a youth he loved pulling things apart.

His first degree was in Mechanical Engineering where he specialized in the construction and repair of heavy earth moving equipment. Having the need for more people contact (very un-engineer like) he secured a sales position in the banking and finance industry where he successfully rose through the ranks over 9 years. Just when he was positioned to lead the banks first ever national coaching practice the organization restructured and Warren saw it as his opportunity to strike out on his own.

Since that fateful day in 1996 he has built his own consultancy firm focusing on the human behavior of peak performance. Warren has worked with over 70 blue chips large corporations and advised over 300 senior managers and elite teams.

Warren’s expertise in the area of developing high performance has seen him take interim positions as Head of Sales Effectiveness for a major bank and the Director of Coaching & Facilitation for Melbourne Business School.

In 2006, Warren was asked to work with the Australia Rugby Union in preparing the team for the Rugby World Cup for the 2007 and 2011 campaigns. His success on that project has since had him working at the highest levels in world rugby, world cricket, PGA golf, rugby league and preparing the Australian Equestrian Team for the Rio Olympics.

Warren’s unique approach focuses on the evidence that we all operate from a predictable pattern of behavior that leads to success or failure in the things which are trying to achieve. Warren’s work enables an individual or team to easily identify the dynamics which limit their success which permits behavioral changes allowing them to achieve their goals.

Warren currently lives in Sydney with his wife and daughter and has a passion of old style film photography and is madly working away on his second book.

Tweetable Quotes and Mentions

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

“The deeper we know humans the more predictable they are.” Click to Tweet

“The more there is complexity (in behavior) the easier it is to see the patterns.” Click to Tweet 

“There are three simple things we need to do to really thrive.” Click to Tweet 

“What default skills are you good at?” Click to Tweet 

“Look for an environment that supports the same beliefs and values you do.” Click to Tweet 

“If I don’t fit with the organization…you will not get peak performance out of me.” Click to Tweet 

“Am I smart enough to know when under stress…the things I am likely to overplay?” Click to Tweet 

“Greatness is achieved by never being totally satisfied with the status quo.” Click to Tweet 

“I was a bit naive about the effort that would be required.” Click to Tweet 

“Would I swap out money and certainty to…do stuff I don’t enjoy doing?” Click to Tweet 

“I think I’m getting more comfortable with the uncomfortability.” Click to Tweet 

“I don’t get too far away from my own hump…I’m slightly better at managing it.” Click to Tweet 

“Look outside your paradigm and look at other ways of doing things you do.” Click to Tweet 

“Unless you take on a really big project you’ll never know what you are capable of.” Click to Tweet 

“Follow your own path, take advice and listen, but make your own decisions.” Click to Tweet 

Hump to Get Over

Warren Kennaugh wasn’t totally unhappy working in the corporate world. But Warren wanted to do more of the things he loved. That’s when Warren decided to strike out on his own. But after a year in business, he was not able to buy an island and a Maserati. That’s when he found out it was going to take much more effort and time to make it. Listen to Warren tell his story and what he discovered that might help you move onward and upward faster.

Advice for others

Look outside your paradigm and look at other ways of doing things you do.

Holding him back from being an even better leader

The challenge to do things differently than I normally would.

Best Leadership Advice Received

Unless you take on a really big project you’ll never really know what you are capable of.

Secret to Success

Follow your own path, take advice and listen, but make your own decisions.

Best tools that helps in business or Life

A strong team around me that gives me frank and honest and not always comfortable feedback.

Recommended Reading

Team Genius: The New Science of High-Performing Organizations
Fit: When Talent And Intelligence Just Won’t Cut It

Contacting Warren

Website: http://www.warrenkennaugh.com/

LinkedIn: https://au.linkedin.com/in/warrenkennaugh

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Warren_Kennaugh

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: 

Click to access edited transcript

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.

“Developing your company’s talent and leadership pipeline can be an overwhelming task but your burn is over with ResultPal you can use the power of practice to develop more leaders faster. Move onward and upward by going to resultpal.com/fast and getting a $750 performance package for free.”

 

Today I am so excited because I have the chance to have somebody on the show that I really enjoy. He’s someone who I look up to, I actually bounce ideas off of, a deep thinker as well as a great sense of humor and a good overall being and I don’t get to see him very much because he lives happily all around the world. Warren Kannaugh was born and raised in Sydney, Australia, one of two boys and as a youth he loved pulling things apart. His first degree was in Mechanical Engineering where he specialized in the construction and repair of heavy earth moving equipment. Having the need for more people contact which is very un-engineer like he secured a sales position in the banking and finance industry where he successfully rose through the ranks over nine years. Just when he was positioned to lead the banks first-ever national coaching practice the organization restructured and Warren sought as his opportunity to strike out on his own.

 

Since that fateful day in 1996, he’s built his own consultancy firm focusing in on the human behavior of the peak performance. Warren has worked with over 70 blue-chip, large corporations, and advised over 300 senior managers and elite teams. Warren’s expertise is in the area of developing high-performance which is seeing him take interim positions as Head of Sales Effectiveness for a major bank and the Director of Coaching and Facilitation for Melbourne Business School. In 2006, Warren was asked to work with the Australia Rugby Union in preparing the team for the rugby World Cup for the 2007 and 2011 campaigns. His success on the project has since had him working at the highest levels in World Rugby, World Cricket, VGA golf, Rugby League and preparing the Australian Equestrian team for the real Olympics.

 

Warren’s work enables an individual or team to easily identify the dynamics which limit their success, which permits behavioral changes allowing them to achieve their goals. Warren currently lives in Sydney with his wife and daughter and has a passion of old-style film photography and is madly working away on his second book. Warren Kannaugh are you ready to help us get over the hump?

 

Warren Kannaugh:         Absolutely, Jim, great to be here today. Great to be with your Hump Day. 

 

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

Warren Kannaugh:     Yeah, I look very much so. I absolutely had a passion for many years about what makes people tick, I supposed it’s the engineering element from which I come from. If you understand how a building is built or a bridge is built then it is predictable how things are going to paint out as far as structure goes and how do people get results. There must be ways, there must be patterns, and there must be parts at least resistance that people actually go through to get similar results about the success and failure. So that’s for my passion for my work perspective. No surprise of course I bring to other areas of my personal life where you mentioned the black and white photography, the art of taking  a great photo, the art of developing a great print, and many hours in the dark room whiling time away. Some diversity in approach but very much as we look at it, similar constants underneath that similar foundation in my interest. 

 

Jim Rembach:     When you started talking about the whole moving from the engineering piece and the very mechanical piece to the human behavior piece, you start having a big separation in, I guess you’d say the accuracy or the confidence levels of what you get as an outcome of whatever you engineer. So, if I am an engineer I know that if I have certain inputs and if I construct those in a certain way I’m going to get some pretty defined outputs that doesn’t happens with humans.

 

Warren Kannaugh:     The input that we know with humans are more predictable with thoughts. I heard a great quote the other day from a psychologist. The quote basically went, “The more there is complexity the easier it is to say the patterns” If we stand back and look at the building from ground level, it’s a whole lot of complexities as the building goes up 30 levels and so, however if we look at the diagram we will actually say there’s a fairly consistent approach to which level and how building’s built. Very, very similar with human behavior, if you follow me around and watch me complete task, I would have my four or five default patterns of which I would go about it before I give up, before I have a break or give up. In surmise, Jim, I think there is no doubt this quote said about complexity but role say quite predictable. 

 

Jim Rembach:     That’s a really interesting point that you bring up and so when you start thinking about what all of us have to contend with today and that we have so many things to do and only a finite amount of time to do them, however, we are working in some very similar patterns in the way that we go about our work, what needs to take place in order for us to really thrive? 

 

Warren Kannaugh:     Great question, great question. I think there’s three simple things that we need to do to really thrive. The first thing is to work at what default skills are we good at? Sometimes that types of walls for us to bump it around to work out. Sometimes it takes that much time because 10 or 20 years to work at exactly what we’re kind of good at. So if I can give you an example,  if you’re a sales person, say, you’re in sales and distribution you love people contact, you’re ambitious, you’re goal-driven, you want to make a difference, you want to be recognized, you work hard on the back, it’s quite different set of skills if you’re an accountant. Will you be want to be disciplined, will you want to be rigorous where you probably want more time to yourself, then you can be down to the introversion, extraversion. 

First thing is we need to know, the things that on default we’re good at, what skills or industry did I best fit in? What role did I best fit in? There’s no point to find a whole file of people contact who already know, makes you [6:30 inaudible] or not speak to anyone at that part we go and sign that one to be  but to be [6:33 inaudible]so, I think that’s the first thing. The second thing we need to know when I’ve got a bit of ballpark here is about what role I’m going to actually best perform in, that’s default AC for me , it’s then look for the environment that supports the same values and beliefs that I do. 

 

Quite often we can actually see someone who excels in one organization move to another organization and not apply their excellence and skill. And they haven’t lose this skill, on Friday afternoon when they’re hard performer they didn’t lose the skills over the weekend to Monday where they’re not feeling comfortable and not producing their best. Now, in that case we see a lot of organizations who look at engagement which absolutely critically important, but if I don’t fit—if I don’t fit with my manager, if my values and my beliefs and my motives don’t fit with the organization then no amount of apples in the [7:23 inaudible] membership is going to change it, you will not get peak performance out of me because I just don’t feel comfortable. 

 

And the third thing around that is I need to understand enough about myself to know when I’m under stress and pressure to what extent and what behaviors I’m going to over apply and potentially ruin my reputation. So, got the three things, the skills and the talent I’ve got which role does that actually best fit? Secondly, when I’m clear on the role I need to be really have the vision around by an organization that believe the same things that I believe, and ideally my direct manager, we’ve got on quite along but we have the same beliefs. And thirdly, am I smart enough to actually know when I’m under stress and pressure the things I overplay so I don’t end up looking I threw them ruining my reputation. 

 

Jim Rembach:     Listen to you talk while we were initially referring to the simplicity piece it got complex pretty fast [Laugh] and so it was like, “Oh, wooh wait a minute, we have a lot more variables that I thought here. When your start thinking about a lot of these things it does take a lot of effort, even if we can get the simplistic we have to go through the effort. And we need energy, focus like your term of purpose, values all of the things. And one of the things that we look on the Fast Leader show are quotes because they can help supply us with a lot of that and help us hopefully find some grounding, some energies so that we can move forward. Is there a quote or two that stands out for you that you can share?

 

Warren Kannaugh:     Yes. There’s certainly one that’s in my mind and it’s a great reflection for me. And it was one of my previous bosses said to me, “Greatness is achieved by never being totally satisfied with the status quo”. So, there’s always distinction about what else can be done, what else can be done, what else can be done, looking at, how can we move things forward, how can be better. I just think that’s a wonderful quote about not resting on laurels about—not accepting how things are. Of course, if you take that quote and put it on steroids and it’s a problem cause you’re never happy with anything but it’s just try it on the balance about being in a constant state of discontent to enable things to move forward and checking yourself and reflecting. 

Jim Rembach:     I think that’s a great point, they talked about several different studies associated with strengths can rapidly become weaknesses when they’re on hyper drive or steroids then you have to definitely balance and embed them to where that doesn’t happen, such a great point. 

 

Warren Kannaugh:     I think you’re so right. I’m originally working with a gentleman, Gary is outgoing, really the center of attention, what you describe as great leadership qualities. However, in state of stress and pressure he over [inaudible 10:24] those stage which undermines his reputation, which draws too much attention to himself, which makes it about ‘him’ not about the team. So, I think you’re exactly right, there’s such a fine line between—these are great absolutely leadership traits but in another context they don’t work. 

 

Jim Rembach:     That’s a great point. There’s a lot of factors that can affect that. Talking about your transition from being an engineer, working on heavy machinery and working with people and working with a lot of teams in sports as well as well as corporate—you yourself had gone through a big transition and with that we’ve had humps that we have to get over when anybody experiences that? Is there a time that you can remember of a hump that you had to get over that kind helped you get set in a better direction, can share that with us?

 

Warren Kannaugh:     Yeah, very much so. I would say the hump that I need to get over—you know, I went to my own consultancy, it was a very big deal. There as uncertainty about whether it was going to work. I wasn’t totally unhappy in a corporate environment but it was an opportunity for me to do more of what I wanted to do, I had some of that in the corporate world but there’s opportunity for me to do more. So I had questions about whether it was going to work, whether if I badly dissimulators, whether if I struck it on my own that I could feel the sustainable practice, so there was some real question that actually challenged at that point in time. 

 

I wasn’t unhappy working in a corporate environment but doing more of what I want really matter to me. It wasn’t enough to just to do it every now and then I want to make my life  about it and understanding how it work and not everyone wants to know that and so it’s about finding people who have an interest in that himself that I can work with. The challenges about starting my own business to time, and to get and to be without my men to men kind of reputation. It took far much more time and effort than I actually thought. And I been blessed at the moment to have the stuff that I love and I think after that—nine, ten years I think I can comfortably say I probably want to go back to banking and finance. 

 

Jim Rembach:     Let’s hope not because you’re doing some really good work that’s for sure. There’s a couple of things that stood out as you were sharing that story, and thanks for sharing it. You talked about that uncertainty piece, how were you able to deal with that uncertainty piece and get over that hump because a lot of times people hit that part and then they just go back because there’s security in that, so how did you push past? 

 

Warren Kannaugh:     I suppose in some ways I was a bit naive about the effort that would be required, so that was absolutely a blessing, to be honest with you. I set some goals around things that I needed to do at 3, 6 and 12 month period. And I loved to say, I shopped a lot in on the goals, I actually made it over the line. And by that time I’d gone from the fear of concern to more so about—I know it’s not where I need to be but I’m enjoying this more. So there was interesting changes and current shift for me is I went along that and that gave me enough to push through. It would have been easy to say, “Listen I made enough to buy a Maserati and a small island in the first 12 months and that was [14:01 inaudible] market. It wasn’t the case I made enough to get by. And I actually kind of said, “Would I swoop out money and certainty and predictability to go back and do stuff than in doing this much? And that was interesting [14:19 inaudible] now I want to do this. I can keep going at this and if I start develop a bit, there’s going to be why in front but for my own satisfaction, funny actually from where I was. 

 

I said to my wife about eight months ago I said, “I think I’m getting more comfortable with the uncertainty, more comfortable with un-comfortability.” It never disappears. I strike out a new project and I face the same questions about myself that I face when I struck out first time. So,   the irony is I don’t get too far away from my own hump but I get to know it better and I’m slightly better at managing it better. I wouldn’t suggest that Harvard come and do place and I will manage it, but I think I get a little bit better at managing it, Jim. 

 

Jim Rembach:    No, I think it’s a great point is that in itself and our decision-making process and the humps that we run into there’s habits in that. So, it’s best for us to figure out a habit by which we get over it because once we get over that first time needless to say, the second time it becomes easier.

 

Warren Kannaugh:    Without going back to the engineering analogy too much but the hump who live for one on the building is probably is the similar hump on all [15:34 inaudible]. And so, I come to accept the things that push me to uncertainty in there, in small things also do it in large thing, in some way this unfamiliarity and the uncertainty, if that makes sense. 

 

Jim Rembach:     It definitely does. We’ve talked on and off for quite a while, and we had the opportunity of meeting here in the workshop on influence and persuasion and I’m still glad that we’ve been able to keep in touch. But if you were to think about all of the things that you have on your plate, and I know there’s several including younger daughter coming-of-age, if you were look at everything you have on your plate what would you say are some of the goals that want to reach soon?

 

Warren Kannaugh:    They are really great questions. Obviously from the family perspective, with the coming of age, I’d like to see her transition nicely into, I should say, from junior school into high school, that’s what’s important. With some personal projects, I’m working on relating to the house that we live in we have a big renovation project starting there. I just finished one book and will start on the second and will start the third in the new year, so, I’m passionate about—see if I can get my message out to people, just be on people that I connect with. And really to some degree just to continue to do the work that I love to do. I will do the work with the sports people, I will continue to do the work with [17:11 inaudible] people and also balance that with my photography. Not quite any plans at the moments to do the practice on the moon, I want to do anything like that but I suppose to make small adjustments, the stuff that I’ve actually kind of got in place at the moment. It’s interesting for me, I tend not to have big goals, I tend to follow my nose and make adjustments as I kind of get along more from the perspective of where wouldn’t I be interesting to do that. And then I go out and see if that’s possible, and see that’s available and see if I can make that work, sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn’t but it’s more an inquiring mind, I suppose, it actually gets me into thing because it can be found, because I like to do it, and because it might add some value. 

 

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

 

“Whether in the office or on the road, work with your community or coach to practice great behavior and produce great organizational results. Capture real time behavior practice from competency base development plans and invite feedback in an elegant and simple application. Take top performance mobile by going to resultpal.com/fast and getting a $750 performance package for free.” 

 

Alright, here we go Fast Leader Legion it’s time for the—Hump Day Hoedown. Okay, Warren the Hump Day Hoedown is the 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. Warren Kannaugh are you ready to hoedown?

 

Warren Kannaugh:    I sure am, Jim, let’s go. 

 

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

 

Warren Kannaugh:    The challenge for me to do the things differently from what I normally would. The same thing that I ask people to do is to look outside my own paradigm and look at other ways to do the thing I things that you do. 

 

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

 

Warren Kannaugh:    Couple of years ago I did some work with the finest photographer by the name of Ralph Gibson and Ralph said to me, “Unless you take on a really big project you’ll never know what you’re capable of.”

 

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

 

Warren Kannaugh:    You must follow your own path. Take advice and listen, but make your own decisions. 

 

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

 

Warren Kannaugh:    A strong team around me that gives me a frank and honest and not always comfortable feedback. 

 

Jim Rembach:    What would be one book that you’d recommend to our listeners, besides one of your own?

 

Warren Kannaugh:    Thank you, Jim. Thank you. I want to pick     moment is a book called Team Genius it’s about inside   how team’s thinking

 

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/Warren Kannaugh. Okay, Warren this is my last Hump Day Hoedown question: Imagine you were given the opportunity to go back to the age of 25 and you have 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 one, what’s skill or piece of knowledge would you take back with you and why?

 

Warren Kannaugh:    Jim, without a doubt what I would take back with me is to actually gain a really strong understanding of what I’m good at and where I fit. That would just make things a whole lot of easy, which saves a whole lot of bumping around and a whole lot of things of me trying things that didn’t work. So, if I could type back 25 years to kind of work at what I’m good at and fairly close to now and stick to my meeting, that would be really kind of **

 

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

 

Warren Kannaugh:    Yes, Jim. They can connect with me on the website warrenkannaugh.com I look forward to hearing thoughts and being challenge by questions and insights from your fast leader listeners. 

 

Jim Rembach:    Warren Kannaugh 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

 

 

026: Dave Rendall: I was in trouble my whole life

Dave Rendall Show Notes

Dave Rendall was in college and was asked by his resident director if he was going to sign up to be a resident assistant. Thinking he was the reason resident assistants existed Dave failed to see that he was a good candidate. His resident director then became the first person to tell Dave that what he sees as weaknesses are actually his strengths. This was a major breakthrough for Dave that started him on the path to seeing goodness where everyone else had only seen badness which set a new course for his life. Listen to Dave’s story about how you can amplify yourself and get over the hump.

David Rendall started life as a pigeon-toed baby in Milwaukee. When he was eleven years old, his parents sent him to school with patches in his pants. He decided this was unacceptable, so he began collecting aluminum cans from dumpsters and got a job delivering newspapers at five o’clock every morning. Since then he has been a stock boy, lawn boy, caddie, painter, janitor, tutor, resident assistant, job coach, supervisor, nonprofit manager and senior executive.

He’s hyperactive, loud and rebellious. He’s also too idealistic and bad at managing details. All of these weaknesses have helped him succeed as a speaker, leadership professor, stand-up comedian and endurance athlete.

During the last fifteen years he has spoken to audiences on every inhabited continent. His clients include the United States Air Force and the Australian Government, as well as companies in the Fortune 50, such as AT&T and State Farm.

Early in his career, he managed nonprofit enterprises that provided employment for people with disabilities. He has more than twenty years of experience leading people and organizations. David has a doctor of management degree in organizational leadership, as well as a graduate degree in psychology.

He is the author of three books:

Dave currently resides in Pikeville, NC with his wife and three daughters.

Tweetable Quotes and Mentions

Listen and @daverendall will help you get over the hump on the @FastLeaderShow Click to Tweet

“What a lot of folks think are weaknesses are actually strengths.” -Dave Rendall Click to Tweet

“The things that people think are wrong with us are actually the best things about us.” -Dave Rendall Click to Tweet

“Deviance will always generate external pressures to conform.” R. Quinn by Dave Rendall Click to Tweet

“We’re afraid to stick out, so we try to fit in.” -Dave Rendall Click to Tweet

“What makes us weird, makes us wonderful.” -Dave Rendall Click to Tweet

“What makes us weak, also makes us strong.” -Dave Rendall Click to Tweet 

“What if my biggest weaknesses we’re also my biggest strengths?” -Dave Rendall Click to Tweet 

“Instead of me trying to force myself to fit in, how can I start finding the right fit?” -Dave Rendall Click to Tweet

“What if I listen for criticism and start to look at what the upside of that might be?” -Dave Rendall Click to Tweet

“There’s an upside for every down side.” -Dave Rendall Click to Tweet

“Where can I get rewarded for being who I am instead of being punished?” -Dave Rendall Click to Tweet

“Great leaders make other people great.” -Dave Rendall Click to Tweet

Hump to Get Over

Dave Rendall was always told he needed to be quite, sit still and do what he was told. Dave was led to believe he was bad and had several weaknesses that he had to overcome. Then when Dave was in college and was asked by his resident director if he was going to sign up to be a resident assistant. Thinking he was the reason resident assistants existed Dave failed to see that he was a good candidate. His resident director then became the first person to tell Dave that what he sees as weaknesses are actually his strengths. This was a major breakthrough for Dave that started him on the path to seeing goodness where everyone else had only seen badness which set a new course for his life. Listen to Dave’s story and it’s sure to help you to move onward and upward faster.

Advice for others

Ask yourself, “What if my biggest weaknesses we’re also my biggest strengths, what would life be like?” And “How instead of me trying to force myself to fit in, how can I start to find the right fit?”

Holding him back from being an even better leader

To find better and better partnerships with better and better people.

Best Leadership Advice Received

Mark Twain Quote – “Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”

Secret to Success

Being myself. Trusting myself. Tapping into my motivation.

Best Resources in business or Life

Constant learning.

Recommended Reading

Now, Discover Your Strengths

StrengthsFinder 2.0

David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants

Contacting with Dave Rendall

Website: drendall.com

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

Twitter: https://twitter.com/daverendall

More 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: 

Click to access edited transcript

026: Dave Rendall: I was in trouble my whole life

 

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.

 

Jim Rembach:    Thanks Kimberly. Okay, Fast Leader legion we’re going to have some extra fun today because we have somebody on the show who really focuses in on some of the things that we try to do here at the Fast Leader Show and that is entertain as well as educate, and his name is  Dave Rendall. Dave Rendall started life as a pigeon-toed baby in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and grew to be 6’6 and 6’9 in heels. 

 

When he was 11 years old his parents send him to school with patches on his pants. He decided this was unacceptable so he begin collecting aluminum cans from dumpsters and got a job delivering newspapers at five o’clock every morning. Since then, he’s been a stock boy, lawn boy, caddie, painter, janitor, tutor, resident assistant, job of supervisor, nonprofit manager and senior executive. 

 

He’s hyperactive, loud, and rebellious. He’s also too idealistic and bad at managing details. All of these weaknesses had helped him succeed as a speaker, leadership, professor, standup comedian and endurance athlete. During the last 15 years he has spoken to audiences on every inhabited continent. His clients include the, United States Air Force and the Australian government as well as companies in the Fortune 50 such as AT&T and State Farm. Early in his career he manage nonprofit enterprises that provided employment for people with disabilities.

 

He has more than 20 years of experience leading people and organizations. David has a Doctor of Management degree in Organizational Leadership as well as a graduate degree in Psychology. He is author of three books: The Four Factors of Effective Leadership; The Freak Factor; and the Freak factor for Kids. Dave’s legacy is that he wants to help people see surprising strengths in others and focus on positives. He currently resides at Pikeville, North Carolina with one wife and three daughters. 

 

Dave Rendall, are you ready to help us get over the hump?

 

Dave Rendall:    I am ready, let’s go. Alright. 

 

Jim Rembach:     This is going to be a good one folks, so, make sure that you go to iTunes download and subscribe and rate and review this episode and all the others on the Fast Leader Show. Okay, Dave, I’ve given our listeners a brief introduction about you but can you please tell us with her current passion is so that we get to know you better? 

Dave Rendall:    Yeah. My passion is, as you said, with the legacy to help people discover what I discovered in my own life, which is that for most people I think for all people, where a lot of folks think our weaknesses are our strengths but things that people think are wrong with us are the best things about us. The things that people are telling us to turn down the volume on are precisely the things that we should be turning off the volume. And once we understand that, that has profound implications for the way we take care of children, the way we live our lives and relationships with others, the way we manage people and the way we manage our own careers.

 

Jim Rembach:    I think those are some really interesting points, Dave because we actually live in a society that emphasizes conformity. Now, we do essentially see some of that breakout pieces through the expressions that people have with their different—YouTube’s and chat and tweets and things like that, but how is it when you start talking about the workplace environment and being more creative in your thinking and innovative. How can you make sure that you are part of that instead of being that total outlier that nobody wants to participate with?  

 

Dave Rendall:    I think it is about being an outlier, in Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers he talks about how it takes 10,000 hours of practice to be the best at something. And to be the best at something it’s not going to be about sitting in to somebody’s organization or trying to get people like us, it’s going to be people acknowledging and seeing that we’ve developed a tremendous amount of skill. And because we’ve been unusual because we put 10,000 hours into something because we’ve been obsessive, because we’ve been unreasonable, because we’ve been extreme. 

 

One of the parts of my framework that I try to teach people with the Freak Factors amplification that we need to be turning up the volume instead of turning it down. And you don’t get to 10,000 hours by casually pursuing something. You don’t get to 10,000 hours by doing things the way that everybody else does things. So, one of my favorite quotes is, deviance will always generate external pressures to conform, and you’re right we’re afraid to stick out and so we try to fit in. And part of what I’m trying to communicate to people is that, the way people try to make us fit in is by telling us that our difference is weakness by telling us that the thing that makes us unusual is a problem that we need to repair. What I try to show people is that, that is the exact opposite of the truth. The very thing the people are trying to take away from us is the very thing that we should hold on to and try to build up. 

 

Jim Rembach:    Now I know for me, I often say that I’m a freak in certain ways. I like to chase shiny objects, I like to do some of these things. And I don’t fit in a box that somebody has created for me, as a matter of fact, I’ve always try to kick my way out of it. And there’s been ups and downs with that, I mean, there’s an emotional roller coaster sometimes with that. So, one of the things that we focus on the Fast Leader show is leadership quotes because it gives us some grounding and gives us the opportunity to say, “Hey, I know this sticking out pieces making me atypical but I need to keep doing that because that’s me and that’s where I find some of my passion.” Is there a leadership quote or a passage or something for you that does that?

 

Dave Rendall:    For me,  one of the things I repeat in my book, one of things that I repeat consistently in presentations is, what makes us weird makes us wonderful and what makes us weak also makes us strong. I think we’ve been thought that what makes us weird is what makes us awful and we need to fix it, we need to change it, we need to conform and what makes us weak is what makes us wrong and I think that’s the opposite of the truth. If we believe that what made us weird is what makes us wonderful we’d want to become even weirder if you believe that what made us weak also made us strong we’d be willing to become weaker in some areas so we could become stronger in others.

 

Jim Rembach:    I appreciate you sharing all that. Several things that you said in there are quotes that we could pull out and use in order to give us energy. That’s one of the things also that we do at the Fast Leader show is we create a show notes from these interviews and make tweetable moments as well as things that we can take in. And you’ll find those at the show notes page which is at fastleader.net/Dave Rendall. Okay, Dave, when you start talking about navigating that path, and everything from that pigeon-toed kid which by myself I was as well, and I remember the corrective shoes that I just could not stand—

 

Dave Rendall:    Yeah, the braces. 

 

Jim Rembach:    Luckily I don’t have to go braces, but I did go corrective shoes, and man it was a pain. That course and that path oftentimes just has so many twist and turns in that we had a lot of learnings, realizations and we call them epiphanies on the show, but is there a time where you can remember that stood out for you as a defining moment that helped you get on the right path and build some of that confidence that you are talking about? Can you take us back to that time?

 

Dave Rendall:     Yeah. There was one definitely that didn’t take me all the way there but at least started me on the path. I was in college and I was a junior or I was a sophomore going into my junior year, and the resident director, the person responsible for managing the man’s dorm, came up to me, and I thought I was in trouble, and he said, “Are you going to sign up to be a resident assistant? Are you going to apply for the job?” And I said, “No, I’m the reason you have resident assistants. I’m not the resident assistant.” And he said, “No, no, no”. He said, “The very thing that makes you think that and the very thing that everyone else thinks is wrong with you is the very thing that I see as leadership skills. I see a lot of myself in you and people told me that I was bad and that I was wrong, and that I was different, and that I have a lot of weaknesses.” But he said—basically, he didn’t say it this way but it’s what I got from [inaudible 7:46] that’s the way I see it now, I see your weaknesses’ also as strengths.

 

 And when he told me that he was the  first person in my life to ever frame it that way, the first person in my life to ever say, “I see an upside cause in fact, nobody had even seen it as neutral people had only seen the downside so that’s what I saw too. And that was a major breakthrough for me and it didn’t all fall into place at that one moment. I realize that everything that was wrong was actually right, everything that was weak was also strong in that moment but that started me on the path of seeing goodness where everyone else had only seen badness and started me on a path that I’d never really been on before. 

 

 Jim Rembach:   So, you talked about that it wasn’t necessarily the switch that tripped it all for you but it was kind of a moment, how long did it take for that to really start taking a foothold for you?

 

Dave Rendall:    Yeah, I think it’s when I started seeing it for more than just 1% and started seeing it in more and more situations. So for me, what happened was I was in community leadership programs and participating with the Chamber Commerce and when they’d ask somebody to speak no one wanted to do it and they’d volunteer me.  And then I would do it and people will laugh and people will have fun and I would have fun and they would enjoy themselves and people would tell me I did a good job. And I realize that my whole life I’ve been giving them trouble cause I couldn’t sit still be quiet and do what I was told and now I was getting rewarded for standing up and talking and doing my own thing and being in charge and being upfront. Being the center of attention that was another thing I got in trouble for big time as a kid, all day I guess you just want to be the center of attention, don’t you? And it was like, ta-da—I am the center of attention now. 

 

And so, I think that’s when I had the breakthrough when I had a couple of those situations with that mentor kind of person. But then, over time too randomly and haphazardly started to stumble across the truth that the things that seem to be wrong with me. I was also reading some things, I was reading now, “Discover your Strengths” by Gallop, that kind of a positive psychology stuff. And I’m reading another book as well, about how we tend to want men to be more like women and define female characteristics, say positives, especially in relationships and male characteristics as negative, like aggressiveness and violence and things like that as opposed to being protectors and soldiers. 

 

We tend to denigrate the male characteristics and tell man they need to be more thoughtful and more quiet and more calm and nurturing and tend to see a lot of male characteristics as negative. I was reading how male characteristics can be both positive and negative and I was reading what we’ve done in psychology has been mostly about negative instead of positive. And then I was having these experiences and it all just came together and I started to see if my weaknesses were strengths, I wonder if that’s true for other people. That started a journey of exploration for me to see if that was true and it turned out to be true in ways that I couldn’t even really imagine at that time. 

 

Jim Rembach:     It sounds like that has been a lifelong journey. I think a lot of times we get too far off track and it takes us a while to get back on track so that we can do some of things that you’re talking about in the development. And again that’s one of the things that we try doing at the show is that, Fast Leader is something that we oftentimes have to redefine here on the show and that is what we are talking about doing is learning from others so that we don’t hopefully repeat those same mistakes and we come to our own epiphanies a little bit faster so that ultimately we can move upward and onward faster. And so, you shared a ton with us and I really appreciate you sharing your stories and those insights. But if there was one or two pieces of advice that you would really focus on for our listeners, what would it be?

 

Dave Rendall:    I think what you hear is exactly what my mission is. Like you said, if we can learn things without having to go through those same mistakes on our own. The reason I wrote the kids book was because I wish someone would’ve told me this when I was a kid. I wish someone would’ve alerted me to this earlier instead of doing the exact opposite. I read a ton of self-help books, I’ve studied psychology, I read a bunch of that stuff. In my book I call them self-destruction books because I think too often the books that we go to, to try to learn how to be better are busy telling us all the things that are wrong with us instead of helping us to discover what’s working. 

 

If I had to boil it down it comes back to asking yourself that question, what if my biggest weaknesses were also my biggest strengths, what would life be like? And how instead of me trying to force myself to fit in, how can I start finding the right seat? Like you said, that’s not going to happen all at once. I am pretty close to the right seat now, but I think it’s probably taken 3, 4, 5 steps to get a better fit, and then a better fit and a better fit. So, don’t think we necessarily find that answer in a moment but it’s a better question to be asking yourself, how can I find the right fit instead of casually asking yourself, how can I force myself to fit in? How can I change myself? How can I be what everybody else wants me to be? Even if the answer doesn’t jump out in a moment, when we’re asking that kind of question, when we’re exploring the potential of what if I listen for criticism and then over a period of time start to look at the upside about my—for example people are always criticizing you for being stubborn, that’s persistence, people always criticizing you for being slow and indecisive probably because you’re thoughtful and reflective, people are criticizing you for being judgmental because you’re analytical. There’s an upside for every downside and if we start to find that and start to ask, where can I get rewarded for being who I am instead of being punished for being who I am? We start to find new possibilities in our life. 

 

Jim Rembach:    Gosh, Dave, thank you so much. Like I said we have a lot of things that we can take from this particular episode, and I’ll say it again make sure you go to fast leader.net/Dave Rendall and forward this episode to your friends because I think there’s several messages in here that we all need to hear, and thanks again. Okay, so, you had mentioned something about being author to three books, you’re public speaker and all this journey that you’ve gone through and help so many others and legacy that you want to leave but as far as your current business is concerned,  what is one thing that’s really exciting you about the work that you’re doing today?

 

Dave Rendall:    What excites me the most is the opportunity I’ve had recently to speak to more and more young people. I think it’s cool to speak to adults I enjoy that I get good responses, I love to help businesses be more successful, but when I talk to a group of young people and help them to discover this at a young age or maybe even find it out that this is true before they’ve been pushed too far in the opposite direction and how this has become the way they look at life, the way they see things, that is one of the most exciting things—speaking to students, speaking to young people, speaking to teachers having an opportunity to impact people’s frame of reference for entire life as opposed to trying to redirect people onto a new path and a new direction. 

 

I’m sitting here in my office and there’s a little note that I got from a kid who read the Freak Factor for Kids book and it said, “Thank you Mr. Rendall for the book, it made me feel better about who I am.” And if you can do that for a child, that’s powerful and has an impact for the rest of their life. It’s not that I don’t care about adults, I certainly do. When you start about the thing that I’m most excited about it is the opportunity to talk to people who are younger—I was in a kindergarten class the other day and I got to speak to a group of kindergartners, being able to make at least another perspective so when they hear the standard perspective, the fit and conform do what you’re told there’s something wrong with your perspective, they…Yeah, but there is that one guy that one time who said the opposite whereas for most people it’s all they ever hear and so they assume it’s true. Just like a fish in water they never question it because it’s all around them to the point where they wouldn’t know there’s any other possibilities. 

 

Jim Rembach:    Well, Dave,  I have to tell you there’s probably a reason you are 6’6 and 6’9 in heels so you can be that imposing image in their mind, that they can connect to it. [Laugh] Alright folks, so not it’s time for the rapid part of our show and that’s the—Hump Day Hoedown.  Okay, Dave, the Hump Day Hoedown is the 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. Dave Rendall, are you ready to hoedown?

 

Dave Rendall:    I’m ready. 

 

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

 

Dave Rendall:    One of the things that I’m working on lately is to find better and better partnerships. Because I’m not going to fix my weaknesses and I don’t need to because that what makes me strong. I still need to have a more balanced life and more balanced business and the way I’m doing that is finding better and better partnerships with better and better people.  And so, that’s like a constant pursuit and a constant need is how do I find the right people to surround myself with, build relationships with, so that we can move forward together as oppose to saying, I need to be better, I need to find better and better people around me. 

 

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

 

Dave Rendall:    One of my favorite quotes is from Mark Twain’s: “Keep away from people who belittle your ambitions small people always do that but the truly great make you feel that you too can become great.” And I think that’s some of the best advice I’ve ever heard. If we spent our lives as leaders helping other people to find their greatness, if we bring out greatness in other people that what makes great leaders. Great leaders make other people great. 

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

 

Dave Rendall:    Being myself. Doing what I want, when I want, where I want. Trusting myself not trying to be someone else. Not trying to fit in to other people’s defined roles. Not trying to follow other people’s rules but creating my own path and tapping into that motivation that I already have instead of trying to fit myself into somebody else’s box.

 

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

 

Dave Rendall:    Just constant learning. I’m always reading books. I’m always listening to books on audible.com. Listening to podcast, like the Fast Leader podcast. Always taking in more information. One of my top strengths on the gallop strengths finder is inputs and that’s just something that I do nonstop. Even though I have a doctor, I haven’t stopped learning, I’m always taking in new information and trying to synthesize it for other people. 

 

Jim Rembach:     Okay, Dave, I know you’re a writer, you’re an avid reader, but is there one book that you would recommend to our listeners, maybe two?

 

Dave Rendall:    Alright, so two books. The one that probably had the biggest impact on me, we already mentioned it, “Now Discover your Strengths” or read “StrengthsFinder 2.01”, and you’ll understand that positive psychology mindset. But also another way to understand more about this Freak Factor concept, that weaknesses are strengths and read the whole book about it called “David and Goliath” by Malcolm Gladwell. He talks about how obvious weakness in all sort of situation, countries, armies, people, turn out to be surprising strengths, and I think it just a powerful reinforcement of my idea that weaknesses are strengths in even more surprising ways that I’d even considered. 

 

Jim Rembach:    Thank you Dave for sharing that—we’ll again make those available as well as other items on the fast leader.net/Dave Rendall show notes page. Okay Dave, this is my last Hump Day Hoedown question: Imagine you were given the opportunity to go back to the age of 25 and you have 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 thing, what skill or piece of knowledge would you take back with you and why?

 

Dave Rendall:    There’s no question the thing I would take back was the confidence and the knowledge that I can get paid to speak for a living. That I can do the thing that everybody spent their whole life trying to keep me from doing. That I could get paid to talk, that speaking was a business, that talking and being the center of attention was a positive not a negative, that making people laugh, and goofing around was a positive not negative, and that I could run my own business instead of going to school to try to become qualified so other people would pick me, that I could choose myself, that I could create my own business, that I could create my own future, that I could create my own income, that I didn’t have to do what other people expected me to in order to feed my family and pay my bills, that I could create my own path and then I could do that by being who I already was and just turning up the volume as oppose to try to fit in to what other people wanted me to be. 

 

Jim Rembach:    Dave Rendall, 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?

 

Dave Rendall:    Yeah. Just go to drendall.com, TED EX talks of the Freak Factors on there, you can join the Freak nation. There’s an assessment on there if you join Freak nation that’ll help you see how your weaknesses are connected to your strengths. Our links to the books and all the things like that, that’s the best way to get me on those links. There’s links on there to connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, I love to get connected. 

 

Dave Rendall, 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.

 

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