Qualities of a Good Leader: The DNA of Leadership

0:00Welcome to Leadership DNA, a podcast for those who aspire to be a better leader. Alongside Arturo Gomez, I'm Rob Cressy. Today's topic, non-negotiable qualities of a leader. In Arturo, over the last 65 episodes we have broken down the DNA of leadership. We know being a great leader is a combination of a lot of specific and intentional things.

0:27That being said, let's get to the non-negotiables. The absolutes. The must-haves. We're going to have some fun with this and we're going to break away from our regular format and we're going to do this like a draft where you and I are going to go back and forth and we're going to draft what we believe is the non-negotiable based on whatever is on the board.

0:49We're going to do six of these. Would you like to draft first or second? I'll draft second. Okay, cool. I like this. So with the first overall pick and the non-negotiable qualities of a leader draft, Team Rob Cressy selects self-awareness. And the reason I select self-awareness is because I know what it's like to live the first three decades of my life without this.

1:20It blows my mind that I can go through K through 12, four years of college in a decade of corporate America and not a single person ever introduced me to the concept of self-awareness. It wasn't until I left my corporate job and became a full-time entrepreneur on that very first day, that very first morning when I went from corporate to on my own and I woke up and I was like, holy smokes.

1:48There was no one to tell me what to do, when to do things. Do I work out? What do I do? And it was in that moment that I realized, holy smokes, everything is on me. And when you understand as a leader that everything is on you get to be intentional about designing every single aspect of your life.

2:12And we both know what it is like when you're dealing with people who are not self-aware. Just because someone has a lot of money or even has a high title, whether they're an executive or an ownership of a company, that does not mean they have the awareness of everything going on in their life or in that business.

2:32So because of that for me, self-awareness is the absolute number one quality I believe that is non-negotiable for a leader. What do you think? One, I'm loving this exercise. So I appreciate you bringing this idea because we're having fun with this. But yeah, I agree with you 100%. I think if the idea is that you and I are both selecting three qualities a piece, the hope is that the accumulation of the six is kind of in that framework of those top 10 qualities for leadership.

3:12Extremely important. I think it's a critical piece, like you mentioned, without a strong sense of self-awareness, it's very difficult for leaders to lead at a high level. My pick or my first pick is probably going to be empathy. Obviously, probably a little bit more of an obvious choice. But I think the ability for leaders to put themselves in a position to really understand and feel the position of the other individual that you're hoping to lead, I think is an extremely important quality.

3:57I think it is something that can be coached, can be trained, but I tend to believe that it is more on the side of a given gift. You have some individuals that I know that have high levels of empathy, have just a really tremendous awareness of the energy in a room. They know how to make people feel very comfortable, very quickly.

4:24I think that's the pathway to trust. Trust is the pathway through to, I think, a true sense of leadership. For me, it would be empathy. I love that. And empathy is something that we know when it is not present in there. And on the flip side, as business owners and leaders, we know being empathetic to the journey of our team members, the journey of our clients or our customers, and even the way that we can deliver empathy, whether it is communicating someone or I think one of the marketing principles that is so good is when you are using email in communicating with your customers or potential customers, being empathetic to what is going on in their journey, empathy to their pain points.

5:19And this is why there's a relatability to empathy because people want to be heard and seen and felt. Yeah, 100%. All right. So with my second pick here, number three overall in the draft, I am going to select candid communication, which for me is one of my core values. And I know this to be true as a leader.

5:47The success or a lack thereof of almost every single project in my life rises or falls to the level of communication. If you ever had a campaign or a project go south, the very first thing that I'm going to look at is the communication. If you've ever had someone ghost you or just stop getting back to you for some reason, you're like, huh, what's going on here?

6:12It is communication. And for me, this is so important that it's one of my core values because I want you to talk to me the same way that I am going to talk to you. So if I have something in my teeth, I want you to tell me. And the mindset for this is all about growth and improvement.

6:31This is not about making someone feel better or anything. It's actually all in the name of improving everything that we're doing. So as a leader, our ability to have candid communication, because Arturo, as leaders, we know part of our job among other things is making people better. And that includes what you're doing good so we can help elevate people by recognizing them at the same time when there is room for improvement, our ability to recognize that and in candid communication that actually also sets the framework for your culture.

7:08So for me, this is an absolute non-negotiable because if you're ever on the wrong side of it, you know how poor leadership is without candid communication. Yeah, no, I love it. I love it. It is a critical piece of leadership. It's a critical piece of moving your needle and allowing the team to actually evolve. That was a good one.

7:34And listen, to me, the communication piece as with other important pieces of leadership, it enables and assists with trust, honesty, connecting, camaraderie. And that's what people really expect. People that are looking to be led are looking for honesty. They want development. And in order to get that high level development, candid conversations need to be had. I think the other thing is that candid strong communication is the only way really to achieve the agenda that everybody is pushing for because it just gets everybody on the same page.

8:27And so critical quality. That was a really good one. I think for me, the next one, number four, would be courage. And so courage obviously has, I think, some broad interpretation. But as it pertains to leadership, in order to be a strong leader, you really have to have the courage to make tough decisions. And I think along with empathy and communication, the ability to have the courage to confront and to address and to hold people accountable is a mandatory piece. And I've worked with and currently work alongside several leaders where I think sometimes making the tough decision or sometimes having a tough conversation with a teammate is a challenge for them.

9:32And I think that you're doing a real tremendous disservice without having the ability to do that. And so to me, it's kind of paired up with authority. There's so much softness and round edges that we talk about with leadership, but you really have to bring authority and courage to the platform as well to really be able to lead people because that's what it's going to take.

9:58So I think for me, courage would be an extremely important piece of this list. Yeah, I love that. And my logical question becomes, how do you work on developing courage? Because we're not just going to sit at a four-way intersection and wait to help an old woman cross the street and be like, oh, I'm courageous in the way that I do things. Because for me, one of the concepts that really helped me is understanding that we could micro dose courage and courage looks different in a variety of ways.

10:35And I'll give two examples. And one of them I learned from Tony Robbins, and that is all around exposure to cold water therapy. So when you jump in the shower, you start with it cold because you can micro dose courage because 100 times out of 100 stepping into a cold shower is cold. It is going to feel uncomfortable.

10:57Therefore, one of the things that he shares is your ability to go courage and you literally see yourself stepping into the cold water as an opportunity to micro dose courage. And then the next level of this for me is around doing hard things by design because for me, that earns my confidence. I want to get comfortable being uncomfortable because as a leader by design, you mentioned it, we are going to leverage our courage to make tough decisions or to establish a certain culture and all that we're doing there.

11:32So I'm curious from you, how do you micro dose or cultivate courage in yourself? Well, for me, it's this idea that I truly am focused on helping the organization, helping individuals, really trying to contribute, empower, inspire. And I think there's a lot of tough conversations that are had along the way. And I personally, I don't really, I've gotten to a point where I don't feel like these conversations as hard as they may be or these decisions as hard as they may be are stressful.

12:19I mean, there's thought, there's a lot of thought that goes into them. And there's a lot of strategy in terms of the approach that these decisions or these conversations will be handled. But ultimately, the end goal is that the idea should be based around, are you really helping the organization and are you really helping that individual? And so that's to me where this empowerment behind courage is ultimately pushed because it really is driven by the sense of wanting to do good.

12:54Yeah, I love it. So my third and final pick in this draft, and it was actually in strong consideration for my second pick. And I'm just thrilled that it fell to me all the way at number five is growth mindset. To me, this is a non-negotiable of the century because with the growth mindset, essentially it says we can always make things better or I am not trapped in this situation.

13:25And there's levels to this game because part of growth mindset is being forward thinking. And also part of growth mindset and forward thinking is continuous learning. And I always go back to the origin of me as a leader where I really became the next level of myself. And I go back to that day zero of entrepreneurship when I created self-awareness for myself.

13:51And then I sat there and I was like, whoa, I'm sitting here at zero, no clients, no revenue, no nothing. I got to figure some of this stuff out. So that's when I audited the success habits of the most successful people in the world, the people I aspired to be like do things like what were their habits?

14:10What were their routines? What were their mindsets? And the thing that changed my life forever kept hearing over and over again, the average CEO reads 60 books a year. The average CEO reads 60 books a year. I sat there and I was like crap, I'm reading zero. I should probably get on this in that single decision right there changed my life forever and actually got me to where I am right now having this conversation with you because I legitimately saw the creation of my dreams on the other side of me learning how to read or create a reading routine.

14:46So what I ended up doing is saying, all right, if something's important enough, you will always find time to make it happen. When is there always time? First thing in the morning. So for the last 12 years, every single day I've read a book for 30 minutes. First thing in the morning. Why it guarantees I'm better today than I was yesterday because I learned something because of this, I started to learn about new people.

15:09So maybe I started with Rich Dad Poor Dad or a Stephen Covey book or Grant Cardone or Gary Vaynerchuk or Tony Robbins, whatever it is. And then there's a book mentioned in that book or there's a new speaker or author mentioned that and you're like, oh, new world, new world, new world. Because of this, it created this insatiable hunger to get better and to learn more.

15:36Well, this then becomes part of your culture and your ethos and your DNA of someone who transforms themselves into a high performer by always looking for opportunities for improvement. And that has never been more important than right now as we're sitting here in an era where AI and ChatGPT are coming around. And what are so many companies saying?

15:58You know what? I don't have the time. I'll work on it later. Guess what? That's not forward thinking. One of the reasons why the people who work with me on a client side of things are so successful is because I help put them in a position to succeed based on where things are going. And it's easy for leaders at the top to be stagnant or to rest on their laurels.

16:22And because of this, for me, growth mindset and those levels to this game, you can understand it. But are you always living it? To me, growth mindset. If you have this in your pocket, you will always win because you will always be getting better and you will always be doing something new for the first time. I love it.

16:42I love it. It's a critical piece. The workforce is ever changing. The competitive landscape is ever changing. And I think the personal evolution of every leader should be driven by this idea that they are wanting to learn. And I think on previous podcasts you and I have discussed, I'm not the same leader that I was when I was 20.

17:10I'm not the same leader that I was when I was 30. Also not the same leader that I was when I was 40. And so everything has been on a trajectory. It's always been about how to continue to evolve, how to continue to get better. But part of the idea behind that, at least for me, is that I owe myself and I owe the people around me this service.

17:36I owe them this concept of not being stale and not being lethargic and not being happy where we are, being okay in the present, being understanding that you worked hard and you have certain things. But I think always really having the fuel or the energy to continue to evolve yourself. And I think that that is something, at least for me, that I hope, I don't really see it subsiding but I hope it stays with me until the end.

18:08And I imagine that even in my old age that it will be something that I'll continue to try to sharpen in any way, shape or form. And whatever ways that manifests, I don't know. But kind of rolling with it and evolving as we go. So love it. I think it's a critical piece. I think for me the last one is vision.

18:34So kind of maybe along the lines and in close proximity to growth mindset. Leaders that have a true ability to connect with or to find North Star is an important piece. And so if you can understand where the organization needs to go, so be the individual that creates that map or even be the individual that has a great ability to follow a predetermined map and be able to articulate that in a way that culturally resonates with everybody is I think is extraordinary.

19:21And I think strong leaders will eventually be the map makers. They will be the ones that will guide the organization and guide the team regardless of their position. These are the individuals that will rise to the top of any organization or the individuals that will subsequently go out and become CEOs and presidents and leaders of their own organization or their own movement.

19:46And so vision is critical. You have to be creative in your mind. You have to be creative in the solutions that you present. And you have to be able to devise strategy around these achievements. And so I think and that's not everybody has that. And everybody has that. And the qualities that we're talking about, there's probably four or five maybe that we could even jump into.

20:12But I think devising a top six list I think is fun. It's critical. It's allowing you and I who are really deeply passionate about leadership to flush out the things that we actually believe are these non-negotiables. So to me, this idea of a leader not being able to create vision and or stay on track for vision is a real problem.

20:45So I think it's a very important attribute in this list. Yeah, because it really helps if everybody knows where in the world we're going. Kind of hard to hit the goals and the vision if we don't have the clarity of vision. And you're right, not everybody has this despite the fact that it seems like a very obvious and easy thing.

21:09Well, why? Because most people just don't spend a lot of time going over their vision. And I think back to a book in a quote that changed my life and it was the power of consistency by Weldon Long. One of the things he said is why do most people not achieve their dreams? And the answer is they just don't spend enough time going over them.

21:31So if you think about it, the average person sets a New Year's resolution once a year and then more than likely they never revisit it. But the best in the world, they go over their vision every single day. Doesn't mean it's any harder. Imagine one person just spending five minutes a day saying this is my vision. This is my vision.

21:51This is my dream. The power of consistency over and over and over again. And once I understood that, I was like, oh, so let's create this clarity of vision and then let's leverage consistency to continually live in that world. Sharpen that focus because once you've got the vision set, now we can create the systems, the processes, the roadmap for how we are going to execute and create that vision.

22:17And from where I am on the coaching perspective, one of the biggest things that I see or that I help clients with is clarity of vision that sometimes they've never actually had someone there with them to say, hey, can you help make this more clear for me? And it's very, it's why I'm so systematic about everything that I do because systems scale.

22:39And that is also true with vision. And when I look back in the last 12 months, the biggest thing in my entire life that has changed the game was the creation of my three-year vivid vision. For the longest time, I understand daily goal setting and monthly and even the yearly side of things. But as I evolve and grow as a leader, the long term vision, but creating accountability as well as connection to it had been a challenge.

23:12So you create a three-year vision of some things that you want to create for yourself. And I didn't always feel that connection because it felt so far in the distance. And it was also very easy to not do something today or this week or this month and be like, it's fine. It's just three years in the future right now.

23:31But it was Cameron Herold's book, Vivid Vision, that helped me create the process and said, hey, let's create the vision for all areas of your life in the next three years. Let's get that language in there. Let's put some vision in some visuals on it. And the real game changer for me was so often with vision or goal setting, it was very rigid.

23:55Here are smart goals. We're going to make them time bound. They have to do X, Y, and Z. But I'm a very emotional, creative, and energetic person. And oftentimes, that rigidity didn't speak to me. Sometimes I want the vision of a feeling, how I want to feel for the next three years with what I'm creating for content or thought leadership or being with my wife or my son or my business and exploration and play.

24:20So for anyone who's out there who would love to create clarity of vision, hit me up. I've got a lot of tools about this. I'm curious from your perspective, Arturo, the creation of vision for you, whether it's short term or long term. What's that look like? Because it's fun, it's a gift, and it's a superpower. Yeah. I mean, I'm a dreamer.

24:44I tend to drift into ideas throughout the day, multiple times throughout the day. And so for me, having a vision or clarity of where I want to go is been a little bit easier for me. But obviously, I'm also focused. My vision tends to be rooted in the things that I'm very passionate about and the things that I'm fundamentally focused on right now.

25:17And so it's not... You know, I don't have a vision of being a professional football player. I don't have a vision of doing things that are really outside of my scope or my wheelhouse. But I think that people really have to be open to ideas and have a little bit of that dreamer in them to be able to create these visions and really, obviously, be able to digest and account what they really are looking for, where they are in life and the things that are necessarily to be able to get there.

25:51From a vision creation strategy for business, again, I think it's really kind of dreaming about the realm of possibilities that you think are open and available for your business. And I think if you cannot dream it's very difficult to achieve it because you really don't have that sense of direction. I've met a lot of great leaders that I think were extraordinary at a lot of the things that we've already talked about.

26:20I think the lack thereof of vision was something that really kind of stunted their growth in terms of not being so driven or motivated to understand what the future could hold and what it looked like. And just being more set in this idea of executing on the things that they could execute on at a really high level helped drive the organization.

26:46But we're really lacking that last step of really being a contributor in terms of the ideation and strategy of how this project, how this business and how all this can evolve even for themselves. I think a lot of people get stuck in a rut, so to speak, whether it's career rut, relationship rut, because they just can't see beyond it.

27:12For me, the exercise is journaling. It's really forcing yourself to really try to be creative. Some people drift in and out of that ideation and that creativity in a natural way. But when you sit down and you force yourself to draft ideas, everybody has the capability of doing it. It pains me for the qualities that we did not get to include in our non-negotiables for Six because I'm looking at the list that I created and I'm like, oh my God, like all of these, as Tim Grover says in the book, Relentless, everything's labeled number one because it's almost important.

27:55We don't need a deep dive in, but I'm going to share a few of them that were, had we extended this for another six picks. Leading by example. So this is how I lead. I lead by example because I'll never ask you to do something I haven't done for myself. The next one would be positive culture. I didn't include this one because that's almost on a different level in terms of how we're thinking about the, a leader wants to create a positive culture and culture is absolutely paramount.

28:30But I felt it falls in a different bucket than what we're creating as a non-negotiable quality of a leader. A positive culture is something you create in design, not necessarily the quality inside of us. Listening, it's like that one is a leader and I know both you and I listening is such a superpower here. Commitment and self care.

28:54Those are two separate ones. Those on itself. Anything on your end that you want to say and also receiving votes? Receiving votes. There's, I think, yeah, I mean, I think, I think for me there's, you could extend into a top 20 list. I think for me the most important ones were discussed today. You mentioned a few that we didn't get a chance to touch on.

29:32I think, I think that, you know, it's, you know, you could expand the list to a great amount but I think it's pretty concise for me. You know, there are really a few things that, you know, there's kind of this, you know, spoke, wheel and spoke type, you know, characteristics that come off some of the stuff that we talked about but I think the ones that we covered I think would be the top ones.

29:57I love it. So as a recap, number one, self-awareness. Number two, empathy. Number three, candid communication. Number four, courage. Number five, growth mindset. And number six, vision. And Arturo, seeing that list, I am so inspired. Like I just think about whether it's us or a team member or someone else who rolls in with those six things. Oh baby, I mean, that is just a super leader and we would love to hear from you.

30:29What would your top six non-negotiable qualities of a leader be? And in what order? What would be your number one overall pick? We would love to hear this.

Transcript cleaned up for reading. Sign-off trimmed.

0:02Welcome to Leadership DNA, a podcast for those who aspire to be a better leader. Alongside Arturo Gomez, I'm Rob Cressy. Today's topic, the three basic elements of Leadership DNA. Arturo, what are those three elements? Well, I mean, the way that I've determined it, or we've determined it, and the way that I think that we see it is shedding ego, developing self-awareness, and cultivating strong interpersonal skills.

0:34And so, you know, I like to, you know, as we're embarking on this podcast again and kind of getting the engines fired up, I think it's really important to really kind of go back to the origin and really kind of dive in deep into what exactly makes a strong leader. And I think that these are three of the foundational pieces that are critical for strong leadership.

0:57I totally agree. And let's start with shedding the ego, which is actually one of the most challenging things for many leaders where you're putting the success of the team or the whole over, this is what I want as a leader. So, unpack this a little bit more about how you see shedding the ego. I mean, listen, it's probably one of the more difficult things to do.

1:25But, you know, when you see and you look at some of the individuals, whether it's coaches or, you know, other figures that have, you know, strong leadership skills, getting rid of ego and approaching communication with a team or individuals or even yourself, and just removing the ego and going to a very selfless place, removing that selfishness is very tough for people to do. It's extremely critical because I think that once that happens, you really start creating a safety zone. You start creating an environment for you to actually be able to have real authentic conversations with your team.

2:10It allows the people around you that you are hoping to lead to be a lot more receptive to the message. And it really fosters and builds trust. Yeah, 100%. And there's a few key words when I think about shedding the ego. And one of my favorite books around this is The Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday. And most of Ryan Holiday's books are just top notch and everything.

2:38But Ego is the Enemy is a great one because it's specifically drilling into this. But as a leader, there's definitely an openness that you want to have to empower your team. And Arturo, you and I, we love sports. And when you see the best teams that win championships, they have to shed the ego. And I think one simple example would be when the Boston Celtics won with KG, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen.

3:06KG was the man in Minnesota, but he wasn't winning. Paul Pierce was the man in Boston. Ray Allen was the man pretty much everywhere that he went. And their ability as a team to shed the ego in the name of the whole. And I know this is the same thing that had to happen with LeBron and D-Wade and Chris Bosh down in Miami. And we can take pages from sports teams on how we can look at the team as a whole in the guise of the larger goal for us. And with that, you empower other people because for those teams, their entire success wasn't just based on that. Because there's role players that come along the way. The Shane Battiers of the world, the James Poseys of the world, who contributed in a way, but they know from a leadership perspective, listen, we're all in this together.

4:00And one of the key words for me around shedding the ego is servant leadership, where you as a leader, you can shed your ego by wanting to serve those on your team. Correct. Yeah. I mean, that's really what it boils down to. And I mean, you mentioned all these examples of great sports teams and outcomes. But behind those players was also a very unselfish coach that was on the sideline that managed to convince these individuals to give a part of themselves up to actually be able to commit to the team. And so that's really what it is. It is that commitment of giving up self to kind of communicate and to come into this larger group. And it's a very critical part of leadership. And you cannot build trust with individuals if you are an ego-driven leader.

4:57Yeah, 100%. And Tim Grover in the book Relentless says everything is labeled number one. And the next thing that we're going to get to is developing self-awareness. And while all three of the elements that we're going to share are number one for being a better leader, to me, developing self-awareness is literally the foundation of all of this. And I go back to the beginning of my entrepreneurial journey.

5:25I think it was 13 years ago. And in my old life, I was selling digital advertising sales. And I was very successful at it. I made very good money. But I didn't wake up every single day looking forward to slinging banner ads and text links. And my dream was to get paid to talk about sports for a living. Man, I would sit there at work just dreaming of that. And finally, I burned the ships, went to zero, and went all in on being a full-time creator and making my dreams happen. And when I was sitting there at zero, I sat there and I started to audit the success habits to the most successful people in the world. And I realized something that up until that point, it was 32 years of my life, not a single person in K through 12, four years of college, in a decade of corporate work, not a single person ever introduced to me the concept of self-awareness. It took me going to zero. And on that very first day, I so vividly remember sitting there and being like, holy smokes, everything is on me. And for a lot of people, that weight is too heavy. But for me, it was like, holy smokes, are you kidding me? Every single decision of my life is up to me. When I wake up, when I go to bed, what I read, what I do, what I eat, do I work out? Who am I working with? Every single thing. And that single moment changed the rest of my life and unlocked me to becoming the leader that I am today. In our term, I'm curious, how do you develop self-awareness for others? Because we as leaders, I think for the people listening to this is an absolute, we all have self-awareness, but in leading other people who may or may not be self-aware. I mean, some of the exercises that I've done over the years, one, if I, as a leader, I really intend to have strong relationships with the team that I'm leading. And I think that honest conversations with those individuals is really critical. And I think that in those honest conversations, we are constantly trying to present them with facts and reality towards who they are as a representative of themselves and who they are, you know, potentially to the team. And some people live, honestly, there's individuals that get hung up on this and really can't get past it because they live in what I would call as an alternate reality in terms of, you know, the person that they really are and the way that people are perceiving that individual are two totally different, you know, they're on two totally different levels. And some of the things that I've done in the past, some exercises are, you know, you get into some 360 interview opportunities, which are interesting and unique and not everybody's open to that. But, you know, when there's times and opportunity to have real dialogue with some of the individuals that I'm trying to cultivate, there's a Q&A format that I present to them that allows them to actually give some feedback about themselves in a very kind of solitary type of environment. So they go and they basically draft what they think they are as far as a contributor to the team and how they've grown and how they've developed and, you know, perhaps give some insight as to what they think the team thinks of them. And it's a great exercise because it seems to flush out some realities. But, you know, if somebody can't get past the first step, which is shedding of ego, this next portion of developing self-awareness is really difficult. Yeah, which, this naturally segues into the third element, cultivating strong interpersonal skills. So when you shed the ego and then you become self-aware, I think about my own journey. Once I became self-aware, I started to audit the most successful people that I aspired to be like. And I kept hearing the same thing over and over again. The average CEO reads 60 books a year. The average CEO reads 60 books a year. And I sat there and I had to hear at 10, 15, 20 times before it finally dawned on me. And it was like, dude, if you want to create and do amazing things like these people, maybe you want to think about doing this. And this is when the second light bulb went off for me that changed my life forever. And I adopted a growth mindset where I'm not trapped in this position, this fixed mindset, but I can always make things better. And in the process, this is where I started to cultivate and develop and quite frankly, get an insatiable hunger for developing these interpersonal emotional skills for myself to be better in all areas of my life. And Arturo, what I love about what you just said is this can be very formulaic from the Q&As to the interviews in my world in personal growth coaching. I build programs and have conversations around taking people through these various levels because I've experienced what it's like to not have this. I also know what it is like to have this and we can then diagnose all the different interpersonal skills that you either want to cultivate, so from a positive or here's a roadmap or a choose your own adventure, which of these would you like to work on now knowing that there's levels to this game? Yeah, and you know, when we talk about this third component, I actually do feel that they are in order. I really feel that shedding ego and developing self-awareness and then moving into cultivating strong interpersonal skills is really the trajectory that these things need to happen or the way that the organic flow of the way that this happens. And so, you know, once you get to a point where you have developed self-awareness, you understand your weaknesses, your strengths, areas of improvement and it, I think, really allows you to have authentic, close conversations with people and what I mean by that is that when you're leading people, when you're going to get, when you're trying to get the most out of that individual or when you're trying to get them to become a better version of themselves, it really requires authenticity, closeness and trust and I think that you cannot do that unless you have the interpersonal skills and by the way, having the interpersonal skills at a level that really moves the needle from a leadership standpoint requires you to care. It requires you to care so deeply and so greatly about the outcome of this individual and so how do you get there? Well, you have to have shed ego. It's not about you. It's never going to be about you. It's always about the team. It's always about that individual and so when you can get to a point where you honestly wake up in the morning and the things that are on your mind are less about you and more about the team and more about how you're going to help those individuals overcome certain things, well, that's where that's really where the magic begins to start happening and, you know, I have specific examples literally occurring right now in some of the businesses that I, you know, that I have where we're trying to overcome certain things and we're trying to get certain individuals to the next level of leadership and all this stuff that I'm talking about is really kind of playing out. I would like to think that as a leader I'm at a spot where, you know, ego has kind of been set aside and that, you know, that I approach things from a very selfless manner and I think that that's the case. Self-awareness, it's again, it's, you know, as a strong leader you have to have it but right now what I'm really working on is developing these relationships with these individuals so that I can get certain concepts through their barriers and what show them little by little how just subtle changes in the way that they manage their people and the way that they speak and the way that they carry themselves how that's going to have a tremendous impact on the outcome.

Transcript cleaned up for reading. Sign-off trimmed.

0:03Welcome to Leadership DNA, a podcast for those who aspire to be a better leader. Alongside Arturo Gomez, I'm Rob Cressy. And today's topic, U equals leadership. And Arturo, let's start by having you frame where this comes from. Yeah, it's a guy that I've been admiring for quite some time, obviously from a distance. We're not super close, but I do know him through some close contacts. It's a guy by the name of Rishad Tobaccowala, high-level executive, currently is the chief growth officer for Publicis in Chicago. And so that, for those of you guys that don't know, it's a global advertising and communication agency.

0:53He's been in Chicago, in the Chicago area for a long time, but obviously also recognized on a global level. He has taken it upon himself to really kind of share years of experience that he's had, I think 40 plus years in the corporate space. And really, I think has a tremendous understanding, not only of the corporate structure, but of what has created tremendous corporate environments and what type of leadership in the corporate space has produced extraordinary results on a global local corporate type level.

1:32And so he has this weekly blog that he's been presenting, and it's called The Future Does Not Fit in the Containers of the Past. And there's such great information that he's been bringing forward on a weekly basis. And a lot of it really is tied into a lot of these leadership concepts that we've been speaking about for the last year and a half, almost going on two years.

1:54But there's one particular post that he had that I thought was super relevant and timely, to be honest. Today is July 1st, so we are six months away from January 1st, 2022. And for many of us, I think as we try to manage our goals and keep ourselves on pace for the year, this particular article, which is titled, You Equals Leader, I thought was really something really impactful when I read it.

2:32But it's also, you know, obviously our podcast is a leadership podcast, and we speak about all different aspects of leadership and how those different aspects can impact, you know, obviously others around us and certainly the way that we live our own life. And so, you know, I'll just kind of jump in, you know, his introduction is like, you know, every single person, I'm going to come back to some of these points real quick after I read through this.

2:58But every single person can be a leader. Leader is not a title that is bestowed, but a role that is lived. Leader does not mean boss. One can be a leader with zero minions or reporting staff. People are assigned to bosses. They follow leaders. And so I think one of the key things is, you know, kind of his opening statement is that everybody can be a leader.

3:20And I think that this is one of the things that we touched on very early in the podcast, that leadership doesn't necessarily need to be specifically a concept or something that people are talking about that are in charge or managing others. I think there's a whole portion of leadership that really can be reattributed to our own lives.

3:41And so there's leadership qualities and leadership tendencies that we can bring to our day-to-day lives that I think will, at least for me and for others that I've seen kind of pursue this path, have led to some really, I think, fruitful and productive lives. And they've had great opportunities to kind of present themselves because they're really following a leadership practice, but really kind of bringing that back onto themselves, right? And so, and then the article goes in to really discuss what he identifies as the six traits of leadership.

4:21And so we're going to go through those today, but his six traits, competence, time management, integrity, empathy, vulnerability, which is something I haven't seen on a leadership trait, you know, adjective on any list, really. I don't think, I don't think ever. But after reading it, I can see 100% where it comes into play. And I have specific examples from my life and from some of the things that I do that would play into that. Inspiration is his sixth. And then I'm going to also add one more that we'll discuss that I think is important in its investment. Okay. So, yeah, that's where we're at. All right. So, starting at the top in terms of every single person can be a leader.

5:15And I think the key for this, number one, is seeing yourself as a leader. And the prerequisite for leadership is leading yourself. And one of my favorite quotes, which my brand coach taught me, is live by design, not by default. And when I think about leadership, so many people just go through life on default. They just go through the motions and just let life happen to them.

5:43But leaders have a different perspective on the world. They say, all right, I'm in charge of everything in my world. I own it. Because of this, I see myself as a leader. I'm a leader of myself. I'm a leader of a family. I'm a leader of others. But you've got to start with the leadership of yourself. Because if you can't lead yourself, there's no way that you can lead others. Because as we've seen, when there's any shred of dysfunction, it always starts at the top.

6:08So, if the leader is not doing a good job of leading themselves, how can we use them as the example of how to better lead the rest of everyone around them? 100%. 100%. 100%. And all these six traits that he talks about, inclusive of the one that we'll add, is there's nothing that prevents people from directing these back onto their own lives. And you're right. And we've spoken about it in several different episodes.

6:36The idea that we firmly believe that you have to be able to manage, lead, and drive number one, number one being you, before you can actually take that step in that role. And so, leadership is a term that for some reason or another has gotten brought into this idea of multiples. But, you know, certainly can be redirected to yourself.

7:04And I would like to think that my best leadership qualities are actually around my ability to lead myself first. Because it comes from being self-motivated, self-made, where I create everything that's in my world. So, by design, I'm creating a life where I need to show up every single day. And when we look at what separates good from great is your ability to be consistent in this.

7:33And leaders are going to show up. But show me someone who is a leader for themselves first. Man, that's someone who I want to follow. Correct. Correct. Yeah. It's a, you know, it's a, and anybody that you see or that is in a strong leadership position that has been able to move the needle, you know, with their organization, you're traditionally going to see that person as somebody who's got great self-control. Great self-control. Great internal motivation.

8:03And really, it has checked a lot of the boxes in terms of these lists that we've gone over, you know, in terms of the interpretation of what defines, you know, great leaders. So. Cool. So, since we have six traits and a bonus, let's do a quick little nugget on each of these. So, number one, competence. So, this is really about building your proficiency and constantly learning and improving.

8:30And we did an entire episode around growth mindset. And for me, this is foundational to the way that I do coaching when I work with teams or individuals around mindset and high performance. And to level up your competence, you always have to have this hunger. And there's a great book around this by Carol Dweck around growth mindset.

8:54I highly recommend it if no one's read it before because it really speaks to competence because once you create a baseline of I'm always learning and getting better, boom, the sky is the limit. True. A hundred percent. And it's, you know, what's interesting is that if you actually look at these six and you peel off competence, there still is this kind of survival.

9:20Like you still could go into a room, into a space, new group, new team, and take them to a certain point. Competence, you know, because, you know, these other attributes, these other five really are strong components, really kind of like the human spirit and really defining you as a person that may have empathy and integrity. And those are things that people will follow in everyday scenarios.

9:48Competence, though, is something that in order to take your team to the next level, they have to trust and they have to know that you know what you're talking about. And so, you know, I find it very difficult for leaders that aren't very schooled in their particular art or where you're trying to drive this team to go.

10:14It's super important that you have this competence level that people are going to trust and also to be able to ideate and also to be able to actually work with your team in a way that allows for the best results and allows for the best success. People really want to follow people that they truly feel can take them across the finish line. And if you're not competent in specific subject matter or whatever it is that you're, you know, and I think competence is a wide range.

10:44I mean, there's a proficiency that also comes with competence in terms of are you a competent and agile enough leader that you will go find answers? You know, because that's super important. You know, we're all going to hit some walls at certain points in our career. And the key is that you have to always continually be looking to learn and you have to be constantly pushing yourself, you know, to get better. And so that's, you know, that's a really important thing.

11:13And I mean, he actually, you know, he ends that specific section about competence as the day we stop learning our leadership capabilities stop growing and we may begin to die. So and that's a truth. That's a reality. It's, you know, on a daily basis, I'm confronted with questions from my team that sometimes it's there's definitive quick answers in terms of, hey, this is, you know, I'm bringing 22, 25 years of experience in this particular space. And here's here's the answer.

11:42This is what I know. And then there's also the the sometimes we're we're the vulnerability and I don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves, but there's a there's a part where, you know, there is a communication that allows for dialogue to exist and where people can actually have conversations about. Hey, I don't I don't know the answer to this. Do you have I can go find it. There's people I can talk to or there's certainly a conversation that you and I can have.

12:08And if you have an opinion, a strong opinion about where we should go, then let's have that conversation. But competence, super important. You know, you got to have you got to have the right tool set to really take the team to the next level. And one simple tip around how you can integrate constantly learning into your everyday life. For me, the first thing that I do every single morning is I read for 30 minutes. Why do I do that?

12:36Because I ensure that today is better than yesterday because I learned something. And if something is important enough, you'll find time to do it. When is there always time to do it? First thing in the morning. That way, I don't have to make an excuse when someone gives me tickets to a Cubs game and I'm like, sorry, I haven't read yet. Like it's just a people are just going to go to the Cubs game instead of reading. So therefore, prioritize your learning. So you're always going to have that competence built into your lifestyle.

13:04So number two, let's get to time management. That's actually a great segue because that's a simple way in which I manage my time as it relates to my own personal development and learning. If something is important enough, you will find time to make it happen because I'm someone, one of my favorite quotes is make time, not excuses. Everyone will tell you every reason why they can't do something. I'm interested in talking with the leaders who say, I find time because I prioritize it.

13:34I schedule it. I'm curious from you, Arturo, what does time management mean to you? Because I know in this article, he framed it a few different ways because it's not just a singular topic. Right. So he, you know, I mean, he kind of presents three different, three different aspects of time management that he's, you know, attributing to successful leadership. I think it's super important, obviously.

13:56I mean, you know, as leaders, there's, there's expectations, you know, people have expectations of, of how we're going to perform, what we're going to do, what we're going to bring to the table, how we're going to act, how we're going to behave. A lot of this is driven by being able to find a time, whether it's in our own thoughts, whether it's projecting, whether it's, you know, drafting goals, whether it's kind of, you know, finding solutions or providing real direction. It all requires time, you know, it all requires time.

14:34That's why I think, you know, this podcast in particular is, is timely because the middle of the year seems to be, it's just a great opportunity just from a, from a calendar metric to actually sit down and kind of take a look and say, you know, what have you been able to accomplish the first six months of the year? And, you know, there's this first half of the year was quite crazy. I mean, we were, we were dealing with a lot and things seem to be kind of getting back to normal now.

15:00And so a lot of people may have not been able to really kind of spend time and put their goals on paper for the first six months. And so there's no time like the present right now is a great time to get back to, back to that focus. But the three things that he, that he highlights are a bifocal or focal time that is spent by leaders really kind of checking in on your particular goals and making sure that you're actually allocating time, very specific time to kind of move the needle and to check in. So this is uninterrupted time. This is like, Hey, I'm taking two hours every day, an hour, every day, an hour, every week, whatever it is.

15:42But where you constantly have to be going back and checking in on the particular goals. And it's, and you and I have talked about this in previous episodes. It's like, you can't, these goals need to be highly managed in order to really continually move the needle on these things. And so I think it's, I think it's an insanely valuable tip. And I think it's something, you know, I certainly use it.

16:05But I think that there's over the last couple of months, I've, I've, I need to get back into that focus because again, we're halfway through the year. Teamwork and delegation. I mean, there's no, there's no better way to really truly manage the enormity of, you know, the things that fall under our plate as leaders than to work in a team kind of collaborative setting and be able to delegate.

16:30And, and, you know, one of the things that I, that I love is, you know, that he mentions is obviously, you know, finding people that potentially are doing things better than you. Right. And so, and handing it off and letting that ball go with them, obviously with real direction from above, but it allows us to spread out and it allows more efficiency in the team. If you're able to do that.

16:52The other thing I will say about that is that if you are willing to share these opportunities, these tasks, these goals with other people, it's also part of their growth, their linear growth. It's, it's part of educating them. It's part of creating trust. It's part of, it's an essential piece of, you know, working within teams. And so if you, if you can't do this is a real roadblock for a lot of things that you potentially could do.

17:22So, and the last is time budget. And that's really kind of being mindful with, you know, all the things that you're taking on. And I think that I've been myself in this victim spot quite often, because I think sometimes you're, you're, you know, you're, you're pushing hard to, you know, ambition gets the better of you. And the reality is that there's very few people, if any, that can do a lot of things very well.

17:52And so you have to really find out if you're going to take something new on that, you have to be able to figure out where that, where that time is going to be captured from. Because time is not infinite. It's not constantly expanding where we have limited capacity based on time. And so, you know, if you're going to take a new project down, you got to figure out where that time is coming from. And so those things I think are extremely valuable. And I think, you know, to me, this kind of plays into organization.

18:19You know, it's just in order to be a really efficient leader and even an efficient teammate. I think these things are all relevant and very important in terms of, you know, moving the needle on that. I've got two very big tips around what I do around time management. Number one, when I create my being who I am every day, I have a declaration that I read and I say out loud.

18:44It is, I am that I have more than enough time to get everything done. And why do I read this? Because one of the biggest excuses I hear and I would even say to myself is, I don't have enough time. But as I audited it, I was like, wait a second. I'm just making time with the excuse. So I'm going to take that off the table and say, my being is, I have all the time in the world because we live and then we die. And then there's just time in between that. So time is not the problem.

19:14It's everything else in between there. And what do I do then is I like to do 30 minute Pomodoro sessions. So, so often people just, how do I find time? Well, you create time, boom, 30 minutes for me to get into flow. And what I'll do is I'll just track the 30 minute session. So if all of a sudden I look and I've done six 30 minute sessions, you're like, whoa, I've just got three hours of actual productive work done.

19:40And so often we think that it has to be a monster, but I actually prefer focusing on the micro because that's what allows you to get into flow. And the more you can be in flow, the more that you can get accomplished. So Arturo, let's move on to the next one. We've got integrity and what he talks about is trust is speed. And for me, integrity is one of my core values. It's something that this is the way that I was raised. When I would leave the house as a kid, my dad would say, do what's right.

20:10And I want to do business with people who do things the right way. And integrity is paramount for me and everything that I do. What about you? I mean, a hundred percent. I think it's this is probably one of those qualities or characteristics that are on most of the leadership, you know, kind of lists that you'll see in terms of the breakdown of characteristics that that define great leaders.

20:37But I think the trust piece that he brings up is super important because speed and efficiency in leadership, certainly in the corporate space, is important. And to be able to motivate, convince, and kind of champion ideas, that gets a lot easier when people look at you as somebody who they can absolutely trust. And when they know that you have a history of making decisions that lean heavily towards decisions that have strong integrity, you're going to build that trust very quickly. And again, it's, you know, some of the best, most efficient teams that I've ever managed. It was because the team collectively had had a good amount of time to work together.

21:34And I think that over that time, there was real trust that was built and it created, it created some outstanding results. An amazing book about this extreme ownership by Jocko Willink, which really says everything is on you as a leader. If things don't work out with the people who are below you have to take on that ownership.

21:59And for me, integrity and trust is about also your ability to own everything in your world. Even if you didn't directly do it as a leaders, as a leader, that's how you will gain trust. Out of your team members. Let's move on to number four. We've got empathy, understanding where others are coming from. And I feel like empathy is something that the world is always going to need and want more of because of how much of the world is running by default, has negativity, is quick to blame and to make excuses.

22:40So there's a part of us as leaders that we need to do a better job of understanding where others are coming from, as opposed to the alternative, which is oftentimes the default. A hundred percent. And I think this is, you know, beyond the basic definition of, of empathy. I think that what empathy does is, and he, you know, kind of highlights this is it creates conversation.

23:07And, and I bet you, if, you know, if you know, you look at there's one, there's no, there's no one leader in any organization today that can say that they absolutely are singular in terms of their decisions. And in terms of the successful output that's been created. It's a, it's all part of a collective from the team.

23:28And so getting to a point where you really actually truly care and trying to understand other people's perspectives can open things up and it does create a dialogue and it does create a conversation. And oftentimes there's a real solution that comes from that, you know, and, you know, somebody may have a particular fear about going in a specific direction or, or. You want to kind of challenge your decision.

23:56And if you're the, if you're the type of leader that stops and says, what's the concern or where is the, where is the problem that you see in this? I've, I've changed direction on a million different decisions based on that, you know, where I'm sitting in a group and all of a sudden it's not, it's not, you know, them against me. It's, this is, this is more of a conversation of guys, here's what I, here's what I feel. This is the, this is the direction we should go.

24:24And somebody brings up something that I hadn't really thought about. And so now that also now starts to play a part in the ultimate decision. And so I think empathy is again, it's, you know, by definition, really trying to get a better understanding of other people's feelings, emotions, opinions. Um, and that's really important just from a, from a, from a trait to be somebody that is open to that with other people. But I think that, you know, having empathy is also is strong. And he's saying it's a strong characteristic, certainly by the dialogue and the conversation that comes out of having empathy. And a cousin of empathy is the next one vulnerability.

25:11And he talks about how this is strength and vulnerability is something that I've learned a ton about through a lot of the personal development that I do. And one of the things that I love that they talk about is vulnerability is gold. And why is it gold? Because as leaders, we are not perfect. We are fallible and we don't want to give off an impression that we are perfect because there is something that brings people together around vulnerability. And certainly if you think about the world in which we live in, when it comes to social media, where everyone's presenting the best version of themselves, I actually like to take an almost opposite approach where I'll show you what I look like at five in the morning when I wake up.

26:00Because those are the sort of things that one, most people aren't willing to be vulnerable or show you that side of things. But two, there's something that allows you to follow a leader who you know is like you. Sure, we're self-motivated and have some incredible leadership qualities. But at the same time, we also do some dumb things just like everybody else does.

26:24And it's okay to talk about those vulnerabilities because the way that we usually frame it is, hey, here's something that I'm struggling with and here's what I'm doing to overcome it. So it's no longer here's a pity party. Let me talk about what's not going well in my life. It is how can I turn this into strength? It's 100%. I mean, and that's really kind of his overview of vulnerability.

26:48I think it's just from personal experience, there's been times where I needed help. I needed real help. And there was no hesitation on my end to share that and show that. And I think what ends up happening is, one, you're showing yourself certainly as human. But I think it also plays on the altruistic nature of human beings, right? And somebody sees somebody in need and they gather around to help. I mean, not in every case, but I think that we all normal human beings have that tendency. We want to help people.

27:36And so I think being able to show vulnerability in certain moments, I think, is important. And I think it also, what it does is it brings the team closer together. I mean, there's nothing that can bring a team closer together than those moments of really kind of a bilateral helping. And so I love it. I hadn't really seen, again, I hadn't seen this really on any list. And I think it's a critical and it's an important thing. And I think it's also a tool for leaders. Like, it's something that, you know, that they should understand how to use and when to use. And it's not just something, I guess, that you know, turn on and off. You know, it's not a switch.

28:28But I think that, you know, leaders should be cognizant that they can show that there's some vulnerability there. And they can show, you know, there's a real need for people to come together and to help. And I think that that's really important. And I've, you know, again, from examples, I think that there's been some real success stories that I can picture along, you know, along the last 22 years where I've had teammates come, you know, basically come to my rescue, you know. And so, and it really built some true camaraderie on the team. And we were able to get, you know, get through whatever it was that we were, you know, dealing with at the moment.

29:09When I'm coaching my podcast and brand building clients, one of the things that I encourage them is to write down a list of things that they're struggling with or working on or vulnerabilities in making that part of their content so that we can put this drip. It doesn't mean 100% of what they're doing is all vulnerability-based content. It certainly is not that. But there is a place for it. And sometimes you can be intentional about it.

29:33Like you said, I love how you said it's a tool for leaders because it is, because it is part of the narrative of everything we're talking about. Moving on to the last one, number six, before we get to the bonus, inspiration. What does inspiration mean to you, Arturo? Because for me, I prefer the term inspiration more than motivation. Because for me, motivation is a given. If we are having a conversation, that is the entry point already.

30:01I'm not going to sit there and wonder if you're motivated. If we're working together, motivation is par for the course. Instead, I like to lead by inspiring others. And the way that I can do that is by showing them what's possible. By doing things for myself. By being vulnerable. By having integrity. And doing these things that say, man, I inspire others who want to aspire for those things. Yeah. Yeah.

30:29I think the easiest thing that I kind of like, for me, inspiration equals fueling the soul. Okay? And it really is something that I don't just view as something that I do to others. There's a lot of things that I do that, you know, that I hope bring inspiration to myself. And, you know, inspiring and inspiration is actually a part of my purpose that I've identified.

30:56And I think it's last on his list. But I think it's extremely critical, especially when you're trying to move mountains in this, you know, kind of concept of leadership. You have to be able to get people to march behind you. And I think all the things that we kind of talked about that are, you know, previous on this list are really critical to be able to build that. But inspiring people is, you know, what's some of the greatest leaders in history. And I'm not even talking about people in the corporate space.

31:25I'm talking about people that were public figures that inspired movements and that inspired, you know, people to, you know, to fight for their rights and to stand up tall. And so I think it's inspiration really kind of brings, you know, forces people to think about the realm of possibilities. And so I think being able to do that on a, you know, with consistency is really important for a leader.

31:55And I think it's, you know, those are one of these are one of the things that really kind of, I think, keeps people engaged in that that people really want to know that they are learning from the best and that they're being driven to be the best. And and fueling the soul through inspiration is something that I think is a critical piece. And I would break it down three ways. Number one, who inspires you? Number two, who do you inspire?

32:23And this is what I recently learned myself. Number three, impress yourself. When was the last time you did something where you were impressed? And what made me think about this was in May, I did a 100 miles in May run walk challenge. And I'd accomplished the 100 miles by May 22nd. And fast forward to the last day of the month and 150 miles was only 10 miles away from me. And it was also Memorial Day. So it's like, all right, everyone's and I'm on the beach in Sarasota, Florida. So I can either sit there and be on vacation and enjoy it with everyone else in the 95 degree heat. Or I can go run 10 miles on the beach.

33:10And I decided to run the 10 miles on the beach because I wanted to impress myself. Because sure, the 100 miles was nice. But when I asked my wife the night before, should I do this? She's like, you've done a really good thing so far. Like I'm impressed by it. And that's when it clicked by it, clicked for me. She was impressed by it, but I was not impressed by it. I did not impress myself by what I had previously done. But when I did the 10 miles in the heat, I impressed myself.

33:39And it unlocked a new level for myself where now I'm looking around life saying, what can I do to impress myself? Awesome. I love it. Let's get to the last one. Our bonus investment. And this is an investment in yourself. And a lot of these things are going to actually go into investment because of things in life in which I've done the most, investing in myself is something that is at the top.

34:09And when I left my corporate job 10 years ago and made $0 overnight when I started my business, I quickly realized everything was on me. So I was like, all right, what can I control in this process? Number one, my mindset. Positivity or negativity? Only positivity because negativity will not serve me. And number two, I can control my personal development and what I learn. That is something that no one can ever take from me.

34:37No matter what my revenue looks like, as long as I continue to invest in myself, I know I will be getting better. And it is the gift that keeps on giving. Yeah, 100%. I mean, for me, the investment piece is on both. It's the investment in myself. And it's also the investment in your team. And so I think that when you look at great leaders and people that they truly care, they care about their organization, they care about their people, they care about themselves. And it is not certainly for the faint of heart. Like you can't become a great leader without this huge, strong investment. And so I think it's really critical that people understand that and that they know that. And there may be weeks where the investment is 20% to you and 80% to your team.

35:34And to me, it's just a critical part. And it kind of plays into the time management piece because there's always going to be instances where something arises and it's a team-related issue or it's an individual-related issue with somebody on your team. And this could be something totally outside of the corporate sphere. It could be so-and-so is dealing with an issue at home or a family member is sick. Whatever the case is, you have to be willing and you have to be able to dive in and invest time. And I think that this has been one of the biggest things that I've learned over the years, that without doing that, the trust factor is built in various ways. But this actually, I think, expedites it because people know that you're willing to drop anything for them. And it's that concept of no person left behind. And they coach it in the military and there's reasons they do that. And it's something, a philosophy that I think that I've learned and adopted over the last 20-some years.

36:48And you just have to be, you have to go into it knowing that there's going to be moments in time. And it could just be, again, it's not necessarily an issue. It could be just opportunities to coach, you know, pull somebody aside and give them, you know, some real substance and background as to why certain decisions were made. And I think, you know, that requires investment. It requires time. It requires energy.

37:14And it's really important, I think, for leaders to know that. And it requires emotion. And I know in one of our past episodes, we talked about EQ and investing in your mindset and your emotions and your state of being is this invisible stuff. But for me, it is the most important investment that you can make because it's the thing that is the most true to who you are. And it's what you can transfer for others.

37:42And it is really the culmination of all of these different things. So, Arturo, as we wrap this up, we always like to give an action item or a takeaway. I'll start with you. I think it's going to be, I think it's going to be a takeaway. I think it's, you know, I think that people should understand. One, right now is a good time in the calendar to really kind of take a moment to reset.

38:09And the other thing is that, you know, we, you know, I think that, you know, obviously our audience has been people that are hungry for leadership and a better understanding of leadership, you know, as most of our content is driven around that. And, you know, leadership starts with us. It starts with number one. And there's a lot of things that we can do on a daily basis, whether we're managing one person, 10 people or a thousand people, to really continue to improve our skills. And so, take a look. We're going to, you know, happy to share this blog post by Rishad. You know, we'll get that out to people so that people can actually dive into, see exactly, you know, how he wrote it, how he interpreted it. And also take a look at some of the other things that he's laying down from a leadership standpoint, because I do think there's a tremendous amount of value of what he's doing. But that's it.

39:10Who we are, what we are, and kind of how we want to approach the last back half of the year. And my action item is to let someone know who inspires you that they do. And what makes me think about this, Arturo, is the text message that you sent me two days ago, where you shared with me someone who wrote you on LinkedIn, who listens to this podcast, and put together a very thoughtful, like, five or six paragraph message around what this show means to him. And it touched me because I love hearing others who are active listeners, who are taking action on this stuff. And that fuels both you and I. And I know on my end, when I receive stuff like that, it's amazing. So I also make it a point to try and give that gift for others, because an amazing thing will happen. You'll come back and receive that gift yourself. So we would love to hear from you. If this episode made you think or take action, or you get down like we get down, we would just love to hear from you.

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