How Do You Become More Ambitious? How Leaders Nurture Ambition

0:03Welcome to Leadership DNA, a podcast for those who aspire to be a better leader. Alongside Arturo Gomez, I'm Rob Cressy. Today's topic, Nurturing Ambition. Arturo, what is Nurturing Ambition? Well, you know, for me it's certainly been one of my passions and one of the things that I enjoy the most in terms of the concept of leadership. I think people, if they actually give the concept or the idea of Nurturing Ambition, that the results that come from that are extraordinary. And so, and it's also, I think as leaders, it is our obligation to really be there in that mentoring capacity to really develop and hone and allow the individual to understand what ambition can do for them.

1:01And also, and also kind of to show them the pitfalls that are potentially lying ahead if ambition is actually, isn't, isn't actually developed and nurtured in a proper way. And so it's kind of a double-edged sword because the people that I've, throughout my life, there's always somebody in the group that you can see has an extraordinary level of ambition.

1:28They're the ones that are pushing the envelope rapidly to, you know, to rise, to rise in the ranks. And so the reason I say it's a double-edged sword is because you will ultimately see that individual leave. That, that is, it's not always the case. It's not always the case, but for me, it's been, it's been, the percentage of that happening has been far greater than, and it's, it's okay.

1:58That's okay. I think as leaders, we have to understand that, you know, we eventually will have to, you know, kick our, you know, kick the little birds out of the, out of the nest. And that's, that's part of the process. And that is also part of, you know, a concept that we discussed in a, in a podcast early on, which was about, you know, establishing legacy. And so at the end of our careers, there's going to be things that we will be judged on.

2:26And there's going to be things that we will actually look back on. And it really, you know, there's, there's obviously accomplishments in our resume and perhaps, you know, some people are even, you know, looking at the material things that they've accumulated. Regardless, I think true evaluation of one success is going to be really driven by, by legacy.

2:50And that is helping other individuals around you achieve their dreams and empowering those people. And so nurturing ambition is a very critical part of leadership, certainly an important part of this whole concept of mentorship. And, and it has to be done in a way that, listen, if it's done properly for that duration and that period of time that that individual is on your squad, you will have, you will benefit tremendously. I mean, I think one of the, one of the easier examples I think that you can look at is when you look at college athletics or you look at like college football, for example, every year there's a new makeup.

3:35There, you can't, you know, there's some powerhouses and some teams that you can really look at and you can say the Alabamas of the world or whatever have been, have been perfecting this for years. Every year there's a new man up. And every year it's the responsibility of Nick Saban to make sure that he's getting these guys. He's fulfilling his promise. His promise is I'm going to get you to the NFL.

4:00That's his promise that that's every one of these guys, they're going, they're not going to Alabama because for any other reason they're going to Alabama because that's a short pit stop to the next level. And so if we think about, if we think about that, we also, again, we have to think about the requirements, the obligations that are, that are associated with properly nurturing ambition.

4:24And so there's a lot to it, but yeah, that's fundamentally what the way that I, the way that I see it and the way that I interpret it. And I just finished a book by Simon Sinek that talks about the difference between infinite thinking and finite thinking. And when you're talking about nurturing ambition and how some people are going to eventually grow and move on, I think it's so important to have an infinite thinking mindset when it comes to the development of others. Because I get excited for the people. And of course we don't want to see anybody leave. But if you're saying, I don't want people to grow and leave me, that's in, that's finite thinking.

5:07That's saying I can only do this where we want to think in abundance because guess what? That doesn't mean my relationship with them is done. They're just moving on to something else. And if you do business the way that I do, I'm very relationship oriented because you never know where that person's going to go. And you've already built that relationship with them. You've already nurtured their ambition to help them get to where they want to go. So also being a big believer in karma, you do things the right way.

5:36Good things are going to come from you. So I believe it is so important right at the beginning to build this culture of nurturing ambition. Because if you don't, then you're going to stunt the growth of not only your company, but your employees and the potential. But if you have an unlimited mindset around all of this, where it's just growth everywhere, it is the ultimate game changer. Right.

5:59And, you know, again, when you know, the responsibilities as leaders is you got to, you got to embrace it because it's, you're going to, you're going to encounter it. You're going to encounter it in any, in every situation. Which I think we should look at it as being blessed. We should look at it as actually being blessed that we have the opportunity to work with somebody that potentially is going to move on to greatness.

6:27And if you're part of the process for that empowerment, then you're, you're fulfilling your job as a leader. And I would say that, you know, even though the percentages of people leaving my organization or leaving me to go on to other things, part of it was just because we just weren't at a, at a point where we could continue to. Um, it wasn't necessarily that they didn't want to stay.

6:56It was, it was kind of, we just weren't, it was our own maturation of a company and being able to actually keep them, whether it was a salary thing, whether it was a roles and responsibilities thing. There was, there was various reasons why those individuals ended up, you know, moving on. I think it's also very healthy for people, you know, to see and understand different scenarios. It's as leaders, it's our, it's our obligation to make sure that they're most prepared for that next step.

7:25But it's also, it's also important for us to make sure that we're bringing in this concept of, of patience and that we have to, part of the nurturing process is letting them know and actually bringing candor into the conversation where we can tell them and let them know, listen, you're not ready for it. But I'm going to get you there.

8:13And now are great friends of mine, are great friends of mine. And I would say over the, you know, again, over the last 23, 24 years that I've been, um, in business, there's, there's a long list of very successful entrepreneurs that, um, you know, that are, that were at some point mentees that I was able to mentor.

8:36And, and, um, and, you know, I look back and really, uh, am very happy and excited at the fact that I was able to, uh, nurture those individuals and get them to a point where, you know, and they must've learned other things along the way. But, um, the, it's, it's, it's a real important piece, uh, that we make sure that we bring candor into the relationship, that we bring patients into the relationship and, and also making sure that they understand what reality looks like for them.

9:09So Arturo, what I want to do, let's get to the, how do you work on it? Part of this. And I want to break down the part of the process side of things. So when we're going to nurture the ambition, what does that process look like? And I know on my end, I've both been nurtured my ambition as well as a leader, nurturing others ambition. So when I started Bacon Sports seven years ago, I joined an incubator that helped teach me business fundamentals, how to pitch my company, how to throw events, things like that.

9:42So they cultivated or nurtured my ambition by putting me in an environment with other like-minded people that could allow us to grow together. On the flip side, one thing that I do, and if you haven't listened to our mentoring episode, definitely go and listen to that. But on the mentorship side of things, I have a multi-year relationship where every week or every other week, I jump on a 30 minute call with someone to help see what's going on in their world. What can I do to help you? And I think the simplest words you can say is, what can I do to help? Because when you look at ambition, people want to take action, but oftentimes they don't know what to do.

10:26Maybe they need some confirmation or some guidance or, hey, here's some perspective from what I learned that can help you along the way. Because so often when you're ambitious, you have this loop in your head, or at least I know on my end, where all I can think about is my ambition and the things that I want to accomplish. It's just over and over and over again.

10:46And sometimes you just get stuck in your head. And sometimes you just get stuck in your own loop where having an outside perspective. So us as leaders, if we can say to someone, what can I do to help? Really, that opens up the door to really allow them to see their full potential and take action on the things that are going to help them realize it. Because it's important that this doesn't mean we're doing things for people.

11:10What we're doing is we're guiding them so that they can do it themselves often. And in the process of learning from the experience, that's how they become better. Yeah, I mean, over the years, we've learned, I mean, we've actually implemented development action plans. And that was just really part of our culture. You know, that was part of our, and that was something that we implemented really for everybody.

11:39You know, there were, there were certain people that you obviously saw a greater level of ambition that really kind of responded to the development action plan in a different way. And the way that we would do it is we would really, obviously give, you know, began with a real true assessment of the individual and kind of where they stood in terms of their position, their title, their understanding of their understanding of the business, their leadership qualities. And we would end up, you know, for everybody was a little bit different. We would do this on a quarterly basis, kind of as a standard.

12:18But there were some people that I would meet with on a weekly basis to really continue to develop their, this hunger of development. And again, that time commitment is, it takes time, it takes energy, and it takes a lot of preparation to, you know, to be trying to educate and nurture somebody along the process.

12:46So, but I can tell you from my experience that the benefit is remarkable. I mean, the benefit is if you really consider yourself somebody that is a strong leader, then you have invested and you will continue to invest heavily in the development and the nurturing of the people that are, that are around you that are asking for it.

14:12[audio gap] We do see things play out in that specific arena, you know, quite frequently. You know, you have kids that end up at a college and they end up at a Division III college and they were never ranked and nobody ever recruited them, but they end up going on to, you know, the Randy Mosses of the world, you know, where they just are people that just needed a chance. They needed a shot. They needed a coach that believed in them. And they go off to do these insanely remarkable things, you know. So it's behind every success story like that, there is a story of somebody who gave a ton of attention, a ton of time at the development and actually saw those things, those very special things that were there that really could put that person on a different path. And one thing that I do, and I mentioned this in the mentorship episode, is when I have mentoring calls with someone, I say, what is your intention of this call? Because what my expectation is that you're bringing something to the table that I can help you on.

17:02And that's how I nurture ambition is by giving them the power to build the world in their image and say, Rob, this is what I want to do. This is what I need your help on because this isn't about me. It's about you and what I can do to help. And it's a very simple question because it forces them to think about this before they go and talk to us. And so often we have a culture of doing meetings and the meetings about the meetings. Not me. I don't have enough time to do things like that.

17:31So the way that I'm going to nurture ambition is to actually train them to think properly in terms of how they can best move forward with their own development. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's a great approach. That's a great approach. So it's, yeah, I think it's, again, it is, it requires both. It requires both individuals to be participating in this development.

18:01And it requires the individual that has this ambition to be patient. And certainly it also, again, it requires everybody to kind of be very introspective about what they really are contributing at the moment. And then also an understanding of where they want to go. I mean, there has to be an end goal in sight. And so as with anything that is, you know, quote unquote, a development, there's a stop point and a start point. And so, you know, those are key things too for people to be aware of that development requires a plan. So I've got three book recommendations. And the reason I love book recommendations is because every time I read a book, I read it on a Kindle. I highlight the notes that I read from every single book. And I've got a library of every book I've ever read and every note I have, because then I can go back and I can reread the book notes.

18:59Why in the world would I want to do that? Because it's retention. You don't learn how to ride a bike by riding it once. You write it over and over and over again. So the same is true for the retention in books. So what I did for today's call is in my library, I just searched the word ambition to see which books popped up in what quote. So I'm going to give you three books. And I'm going to give three quotes for, or one quote from each of these that speaks to nurturing ambition.

19:26And the first one is from one of my favorite books. It's an absolute must read. It is Relentless by Tim Grover. If you're not familiar, Tim Grover was Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade's trainer. He says, Believe this, everything you need to be great is already inside of you. All your ambitions and secrets, your darkest dreams, they're waiting for you to just let go. What's stopping you?

19:54His book resonates so much with the ambition side of things because he talks about what drives MJ and Kobe and Dwayne. And it's this relentless ambition that just, I love it. The next one is from a book called High Performance Habits by Brendon Burchard. He says, Develop influence with those around you. It will make you better at getting people to believe in and support your efforts in ambitions. And that's something we didn't even talk about in terms of like, what this can do for others to be better performers in your job and in believing in you and your culture. We're doing this from a selfless standpoint. Of course, there are actual benefits that are going to come to us in our businesses, even though that is not why we're doing this. And the last one is a book called The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz, who is a venture capitalist. Really, really interesting book. And it said, so what makes people want to follow a leader? We look for three key traits, the ability to articulate a vision, the right kind of ambition, and the ability to achieve this vision. And I just loved his perspective from where he sits as a venture capitalist in terms of what he's looking for, because they very much look for the ambition side of things. So Arturo, any thoughts on anything that I just jammed about right there? Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, we, you know, we did say early on in the podcast, you know, there is, there is, there is a tremendous benefit to the business and to the organization, but by doing these things. Right. And, you know, it's like, again, I'll bring up the Nick Saban. Nick Saban's not doing this to put people in the NFL. He's doing it to win championships, but there is a promise. There's a development and, you know, he's there to wash the field with his talent. And so, yeah, we, as entrepreneurs, as leaders, and as, you know, business owners, we have to, again, understand the point that, you know, that you just made and that we, you know, we did touch on early on is that there is a selfish benefit to us by investing. You know, when you have the best team on the field, you win. And so it's not a bad thing having a bunch of hungry, ambitious people around you. I mean, that's what you want.

22:21That's what you want, but you also have to learn how to, how to extract it, how to develop it and how to show those individuals that they should be hungry, that they are built for success. And the benefit to any organization, again, it's the balance between doing it in a selfish way and doing it in a selfless way where you, you have to do it because you want the best for that individual, but you're also doing it because you want the best for your business. Of course. And go ahead and be the team that does not develop the people who work with you. And let's see who wins the company that develops their leaders or the company that says, you know what? I don't want to develop them because they're going to leave. It's a pretty simple answer right there. So, Arturo, do you have one takeaway or action item for the listener? Action item would be to, you know, for anybody that's listening, whether you are on the side that you would say you're, you're looking for development. I think it's important to have very clear, concise plan of what it is that you want so that you can have a conversation with an individual that potentially could be the men that, you know, mentoring you throughout this process or somebody that may give you know, whether it's your boss or whether it's the department head, whomever that person is, have a very thought out plan and whether that plan is the final plan, it may not be, but I think having a plan that you can discuss and a desire of where you want to be is something that's really important. I think as leaders, I think that we should all kind of take a peek around our organizations right now and make a list, short list, long list of the people that stand out that really could benefit from some strong mentoring and the people that stand out that really could help your organization get to the next level. If they were given the tools to do so. Oh, I really like those. And on my end, I've got sort of a two-sided one. One, if there is someone who helped nurture your ambition at any point in your career, why not drop them a line and say, what's up and say, thank you. I'm sure they would love to hear from you. And on the flip side, if there is someone who you helped nurture their ambition, why not check in with them and say, what's up and say, Hey, is there anything that I can do to help you and see what happens? Arturo. By the way, I love those. Those are, those are, those are fantastic ideas.

25:05Letting people know the impact that they've had on your space, on your life. That's, that's a great thing to do. It's relationship building one-on-one. And I think we're going to need to do an entire episode just about that, because that is how you win in life is by being aware and intentional about the people who have come through your path and say, you know what? Let me just check in with you and shoot a friendly text because think about how many people do not do that for us.

25:34Totally.

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