What Is the Coaching Leadership Style? Coach More, Discipline Less

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, CCD, Daily Fundamental Goals. Arturo, I know this is something that is huge for you, and I don't know much about this. So I'm curious, what is CCD? So, well it stands for Coach, Connect, and Deliver. And I think that you and I have talked about how passionate we are about leadership, and how we've really been students of leadership for years, for really almost an entire lifetime.

0:46And so, probably about 10 years ago I would say, I came to a conclusion that there had to be a cheat guide or a better way to try to deliver fundamental understanding to some of the people that I was trying to train and develop. And so, you know, I tried to figure out, was there several key points that kind of created a broad guideline or framework for people to actually follow in times of need?

1:24In terms of times of, and when I say times of need, meaning when you lose your path, because I don't care who you are, I don't care what level you are, there are days that we just don't have the exact answer in the direction of what we should be doing at the exact moment in time. And so, for me, the three things that really stood out when I started to really try to scale down everything that we do in leadership, coaching is the fundamental responsibility. It's the main thing that we as leaders are asked to do, okay? We are there to teach. We are there, and this really goes to, it could be staff, it could be guests.

2:13There's things that we can do to coach people that are looking at our business from the outside, family members, children, brothers, sisters. I mean, this really applies to anything in life, okay? And so, coaching is one of the things when you go into work or when you're really kind of putting on that leadership hat, you need to understand that coaching is one of the main components of what we're there to do. So, there's a lot that goes into that.

2:39But again, I think giving yourself a framework to understand what are my responsibilities today and what are the things that I can do so that I actually feel like I've been effective in my job. The next thing is connecting. And, you know, we talk about EQ and we talk about empathy and we talk about understanding people's different energy levels. Connecting to me is exactly that. It is creating an emotional connection with somebody that allows you to better understand who they are.

3:07And in turn, it gives you a better understanding of how to deliver the needs that that individual has so that you can get them across the finish line or so that you can help guide them, coach them. And the connecting part is, again, it's, you know, extremely, it has many different touch points. So, we can talk about connecting, again, with our wife, with our family, with our children, with our staff, with our teammates, and even our guests.

3:37Better understanding of all people around us is going to allow us to connect at a much deeper level. That is something really important. And then delivering results. We're all held accountable. Again, I don't care if you're the founder or CEO or whoever you are. There is some level of accountability at any stage. And so, if you are a CEO, you're being held accountable by your staff, by your P&L, potential investors, partners. And again, that also flows downhill, too. As a teammate, somebody that you are responsible for delivering results. People are counting on you. You know, think about a running back who's depending on his line to be blocking for him.

4:28We're all, there are a million examples that we could talk about in terms of the levels of accountability. But at the end of the day, we have to go into any situation as leaders with this level of accountability that we are there also to deliver results. And whether those results are financial, that we are there to create a tremendous financial outcome, or that we're there to create a great service experience, or that we're there to coach.

4:58We're there to deliver results. And so, these are the things that I've been using. This little acronym is something that I've used. And I've actually had previous employees, you know, come up to me in the street, literally, and say, hey, Gomez, CCD. And so, it's something that is so easy for people to remember. And I think the concept of it, as you know, when you talk about leadership, is that it does provide a little bit of a path and a little bit of a light. So, when you do have this tunnel vision, or you're confused as to what you should be doing in that particular moment, work on those things. Make sure that you're coaching. Make sure that you're connecting. And we all should remember that we do have this responsibility to deliver results.

5:45So, I want to dig deeper on the, you don't know what you should be doing at the exact moment in time. Because it's a feeling for myself as an entrepreneur when you're at the top and you've got a lot of things to do where, I'm not going to say it's analysis paralysis, but sometimes you can get overwhelmed. And you're like, what is the thing, you almost want to rank in your head from a prioritization, what is the thing that I should be doing to achieve the revenue goal?

6:14And I think for me, a lot of the issue came from the corporate background that I had and then shifting over to entrepreneurship. There was just a disconnect there. And the way that I've overcome this is, I don't care about what it is that I work on. So, it's like, what should I be doing? Not caring about what should I be doing. What I care about is my action. Can I do something? So, in the instances in which I get that feeling, and for me, it's a real feeling.

6:42It's grinding, or you feel lost, or like, man, why am I doing this, or things just aren't flowing right now. The key to me is to say, all right, what is one anything that I can do? Because I know at least that I'm moving things forward. But I'm curious to hear from your end, because none of us are perfect at this. How do you deal with that? Yeah, I mean, it's, I think part of it is the, you know, organization that I have.

7:12But we all have these moments where we feel like we're not on the right path. And so, I think, again, for me, it's really boiling it down to where I, what I should, the moment. So, for me, delivering results is a broad concept. And in the fact that there's a lot of things that I'm doing on a daily basis that revolve around strategy.

7:35And that revolve around the time that's spent on working on the business that I fulfill. And so, for me, that fulfills that particular category. And so, we're not going to be doing all three of those things at all times. But I think that if you really try to boil down, and again, this is all these three categories.

8:03There's a premise, though, that you are doing other things that we've discussed in other episodes. And again, that's working on yourself. That's being organized. That's kind of creating these paths. I mean, this stuff won't work if somebody's just a mess. And if they just need to really take a couple steps back and work on some of the other things before you get to this next level.

8:27So, there is, you know, maybe I should have mentioned that there is some kind of prerequisite to really be able to jump into this program. And so, but it's not a lot. It's not a lot. I mean, I've used this particular coaching technique or this acronym or these fundamentals on all levels of management. And so, you know, we're talking about, and even non-management, hourly employees or people, including, you know, my daughter, things that I work on with her. There's aspects of this program that I emphasize. But so, yeah, I think it's, I think people need to keep a momentum, keep a pace, but not be so overly concerned that they may not be in the right place at the right time.

9:15But you have to find something to grab onto, because if not, you're going to get lost and you're going to get washed. I'm curious on the strategy side of things, how you quantify it. So, the reason I'm asking this is with strategy, you're working on putting things together. But oftentimes, we obviously need strategy, and strategy can be a complete game changer.

9:38But also, can strategy be something that people just continually do as an escape from doing other things? Because when you're doing strategy, you're thinking, you're tinkering, and you're writing, you're putting things together. And that's action, but I have a sales background. For me, it was always hard to break the, if I'm not doing emails and phone calls, I'm not making sales.

10:04So, putting that as a juxtaposition versus strategy, how do you sort of quantify that for yourself? Well, I think you just, you look at the category that it stands under. So, it's delivering results. So, strategy is essentially set up so that you can eventually deliver results. If the work that you're doing is not delivering any kind of results at all, well, then you got to give yourself a little bit of a check there.

10:31And you got to understand that at some point, the strategy or the work that you're focusing on, it needs to have some action. It needs to have some reaction. And so, yeah, I think it's, you know, you have to, you got to move the needle. You got to move the needle. And so, you know, delivering results, again, is somewhat of a broad concept because it allows you to deliver results categorically in a lot of different areas. I mean, in the morning when I get started, I have a list of, you know, sometimes it's 10, sometimes it's four. You know, sometimes it's more. But anytime I get longer than 10 items that I want to accomplish throughout the day, it's, excuse my language, but it's bullsh*t.

11:22It's just, you can't, you know, and maybe, and when I'm talking about, there's little things. Yeah, I want to do laundry. I want to do this. I want to do that. Yeah, the list can grow, but if you're really talking about being observant about moving the needle in your business, it's very difficult to get that list longer because these things take time. And so, but anyways, you got to get back to a list of objectives for the day.

11:43And so, and I think for many years, I also felt there were days where I felt like I was spinning my wheels and that I just, I had this really bad feeling at the end of the day because I just said, I didn't get anything done. I didn't get anything done. And so how do you avoid that? You actually create a very manageable but impactful list of things that really need to get done, whether it's in your personal life, whether it's in your business life.

12:11And you have to, you have to go after it. And I guarantee you at the end of the day, when you're looking at this list, whether it's five items or 10 items, and you've chopped away at it or knocked most of it out, you will feel like you are delivering results. So let's get to sort of the how we do this. And I've actually got some great examples. So one thing that I've been doing years that I learned from one of my mentors, Andy Frisella, is I create a power list.

12:39And the power list is five things that I need to accomplish every single day that are high priority. When I get those five things done, that day is a victory. So it doesn't matter if you get that done at 1 p.m. or 9 p.m. You get these five things done, boom, you're good for the day. The next thing is I've got another mentor, Jesse Itzler, and this is a new one for me as of like one week ago.

13:04So often we allow business to be the main driver or oftentimes the only driver of our success. If we don't have a good day in business or the stock market, it wasn't a good day. But wait a second, that doesn't make sense because our life has a lot more buckets in it, correct? We have health, wealth, love, and happiness, or at least those are my four pillars there. So maybe you don't have the best business day, but does that mean that you didn't have a great day for fitness and your relationships weren't good and things like that? So here were the nine things that I wrote down, and Jesse actually talked about this to say, at the end of every day, can you go through a checklist and say, if I did these nine things, it was a good day. So for me, exercise, show love, action, positive thoughts, gratitude, learn something new, challenge myself, believe, and write down one idea.

14:01If I can do each one of these things every single day, that is a good day. And it sort of takes me outside of business. I know business is a gigantic part of my life, but I really want to quantify the totality of my life. And this is something that I'm very intentional about because it has been a struggle for me for a long time. Yeah, I think, you know, again, it's important for people to know that the things that we're talking about, the coaching, the connecting, and delivering results, that's applicable to yourself, to your life. So, yeah, I think, you know, I think the things that you mentioned, and every one of those things that you mentioned to me is delivering results. It's doing something. It's having an actionable plan. And, again, it's, it's, it's, the beauty of it is that this is applicable to business. It's applicable to your personal life.

14:57It's applicable to a lot of different things. And results can be small things. Small things create big impacts, you know? So, it doesn't need to be, you're not building castles every day, but, you know, there's small things that we are doing to move ourselves towards the ultimate goal. And whether that's self-improvement or whether that's the improvement of our particular business or the, or, you know, increasing the efficiencies of our team or whatever it is, it still is delivering results.

15:26And so, you have to focus on those things. You have to understand it. But it can, it comes in many different shapes and sizes. So, I want to end with this in the most simple form. So, Arturo, someone listens to this and is like, I'm ready to implement CCD in my life today. What can I do? Like, I love everything you guys just said, but what do I do right now? What can I do starting today to implement CCD in my life?

15:54I think jump, so jump into it. I don't think, one of the reasons that I try to simplify this whole concept, and again, it's like you could, I could, when you try to really break down these individual categories or these adjectives or these components, there's a lot of stuff that goes into each one of these. And again, there's an assumption, there's a prereq that you are working on other aspects of your life to be able to really dive into this stuff.

16:20But it was really intended for people not to overthink it. It was really intended as a safety guard for people when you need to press the autopilot button, when you need to press the autopilot and say, okay, there's a lot of things going on. There's a lot of chaos in my life at this particular moment. What do I need to be doing? And so, I think, again, you can be coaching. You can coach inward. There's a lot of things that we can be doing to really kind of coaching ourselves, motivating ourselves, and pushing ourselves to become better.

16:51It obviously very easily applies to the outside world, the people that are around us connecting. We as humans want to connect. We do. We want to connect. And I think that there is a tremendous advantage and benefit when we do that. And whether we do that for the goal of our business or whether we're doing that for the goal or the health of our personal relationships, we can be connecting every day.

17:19There's always room to create a greater strength or depth of a relationship, whether it's family or whether it's business. And delivering results. Everybody's got to remember that we are held accountable. We should be holding ourselves accountable. There's, again, there's a bunch of other people that are holding us accountable to make sure that we are delivering results. We got to be moving the needle and we have to stay on path.

17:48So, every episode, we like to give book recommendations. Why? I know both Arturo and myself are very avid readers. And if we've read something good, we like to share it. So, as we're thinking about the episodes, I like to go back through my Rolodex and say, hmm, what are some good books that might be related to this? And I actually have three books that I think can be good for you to read. One, Radical Candor. Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity by Kim Scott.

18:18Highly, highly recommend that book. Number two, Let My People Go Surfing by the founder of Patagonia. It really gave me an appreciation for how they built their company. And they're so purpose-driven, which is something we talk about all the time on the show. And then number three, It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work by Jason Fried. Jason Fried is a Chicago guy. He's written so many good books. But those are three books that I recommend. Arturo, you have anything that you want to add, whether it's related to this or just a good book?

18:49You know what? As far as books, I think this concept is just a culmination of a lot of the things that I've read in particular. There's not really a book that stands out to me that talks specifically about this concept. I think there's a lot of things that we can jump into. You named a couple fantastic books for people to jump into. But yeah, I think the takeaway is that it's meant to be simple, that we shouldn't overthink these things and that we just need to sometimes dive in and give it our best and just start tweaking things as we go along. So this was done to create a simple path for people at all levels. I use it all the time and I continue to coach it and present it to people at all levels that I come across. And my action item is a simple one and it's about connecting.

19:43And here's what I want you to do. I want you to send at least one video message to someone, sending them some good vibes or checking in on them. And guess what? You're going to see the response from that and it's going to be good. You're going to be like, whoa, how did that happen? Rinse and repeat. It is one of the biggest game changers ever. When you send video messages, you know why? Guess who doesn't send video messages? The rest of the world. Arturo, really enjoyed this episode.

20:13I'm looking forward to implementing CCD in my own daily life. One thing that does help so much with this podcast, if you dig it, give us a rating and review on iTunes. It's the least you can do for the value that we provide because when you let others know what you think about this, it can help us with discovery.

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. Today's topic, Coach More, Discipline Less. Arturo, what is this and where did this come from? So it's a quote. I don't know the actual origin, but where I got it from was from our good friend, Carrie Luxem, who we've done a podcast with, who's a brilliant and inspirational leader herself. And she posted something on social, I believe it was actually on LinkedIn, and I saw the quote and it just said, Coach More, Discipline Less.

0:45And I think for leadership purposes and really for anybody that's aspiring to motivate, mentor, coach, it's such a powerful statement. Because getting back to the core of, if you really are trying to put yourself into a leadership position or consider yourself a leader, it's not about how often you discipline or how much fear your employees or the people around you have.

1:22It's more about how much time are you investing for the purpose of the organization and for the purpose of the goals of the individuals that are marching behind you. And it's something that I, again, this quote is something that's, the concept is really familiar to me, but it's something that I don't say or think about on a daily basis.

1:46But when you really go to a kind of a granular level and you look at, I can look at places that I've, that I've had in current businesses that I have, that I think are categorically successful, very successful places. They are really driven by this concept of love, mentorship, real coaching, coming down to a team, because there's never, ever going to be a day that you're going to live in perfect.

2:12And if your objective is to come in on a daily basis and say, how many people can I discipline today? Well, your mindset is total, but I've met managers like that. I've met individuals like that really were more of a reactive from a leadership standpoint. I wouldn't even classify them as leaders, to be honest. I would just say that, you know, they were, they were individuals that were put in positions that had a title on their business card, but these were individuals that really were more, they were more focused on how much they could actually hammer on people around them. Rather than develop them, coach them, inspire them, you know, and embrace their journey.

2:50So, um, I think if you find yourself in a spot and you are somebody who considers yourself a strong leader, if you find yourself in a spot where you're doing, you're focusing way too much on discipline or you're disciplining too much. Well, I think there's something broken in the process. And I think that you have to go back.

3:13It's that concept of, you know, looking at the man in the mirror or the woman in the mirror or whatever, and, um, and really taking a step back and saying, so why is there issues that I'm having to address at a consistent high level with my staff? Is it because we didn't train them properly? Is it because they don't have the tools?

3:31Is it because I'm doing something that's, that's not, um, inspiring or motivational or, um, you know, really embracing again, you know, their process and their journey. You have to take a stop. You have to pause everything to really take a look at it. Something is wrong. Well, 100%. And as I look at the way that I coach and mentor and lead my team, this ultimately gets to, you want someone to be able to make the correct decision in the future. So what is going to help them learn and understand it so that we can get the best results repeatedly. And I think what you're talking about so much is structure or systems and processes and scolding.

4:19Someone doesn't necessarily mean that the next time that they're going to do it correctly. And for me, a lot of this ends up becoming culture-based where you want a culture of accountability and forward thinking and initiative. And these are all things that I both coach and expect from everyone that I work with, because I believe for me, the best teams that I can have, uh, run efficiently on their own.

4:49But inevitably things aren't going to be always puppy dogs and rainbows. So what do we do when it is not good? And I always have to look back on myself. One of my favorite books are about this extreme ownership by Jocko Willink. When something doesn't do good on your team, sure. It may be something that somebody else did, but you talked about it ultimately as the leader.

5:12What did I and we do or not do that got that result for our teammates? So then moving forward, we say, all right, well, what can I do to correct this? What can you do to correct this? What can we correct this together? So that moving forward, we can make the right decisions in us as leaders. We're not sitting there having to scold at the expense of vision, culture, and everything else that we want to accomplish because we want to be doing more forward momentum than negative momentum. Right.

5:47And if you're working in or you are perpetuating an environment that has a tremendous amount of discipline, I think what's going on is that I think rather than an environment of structure, you have an environment of lack of structure. So, you know, there's, there is also the, you know, at least from my personal experience, the most efficient and highest performing teams that I've ever had were because we had an environment where everybody was motivated on a daily basis because they really truly felt they were going to be respected.

6:27They were going to be led, they were going to be mentored, and that there was going to be something for them to learn and to understand. And so, you know, for me, the way that I view really all employees, but certainly the ones that are chomping at the bit to, you know, to, to rise, you know, higher is that I have to literally on a daily basis, I, you know, create very small, tangible objectives of things that I'm going to teach them.

6:55You know, and it's not, you know, I don't want to continue to try to teach them things that they should know, I want to move on to the next thing. And so whether that is, you know, right now there's three employees, for example, in one of my businesses that don't really know the conversations that I'm having individually with them, or maybe they do, maybe they're sharing it with each other, I don't know. But that's really revolved around higher level management.

7:24And, you know, there's constant texts back and forth about, hey, how do I approach this? Or did you see what so-and-so said? And, you know, that, you know, really, you know, pisses me off or aggravates me. Like, how would you handle it? And there's always, there's always a response. There's always, you know, at least for me, there's always something that is a coachable moment. And, and I think that that is something that is critically important to leadership.

7:54I mean, that's, that's all it is. And so people that really pride themselves in being, you know, rule by the iron fist kind of a person, I think, you know, I think they've missed the point. It's always good to have structure. And it's always good to have an understanding that if you step outside of the bounds, there's going to be repercussions. And there's going to be, you know, something to that. But that shouldn't be the emphasis and that shouldn't be the focus. Yeah.

8:18And I think that actually comes down to accountability that in the perfect world, we want our team to be accountable for everything that they do, all of their actions. And we don't want to get to the point of discipline because we want them to be self-aware enough to understand why they're doing the things that they're doing. And if they're not doing the correct thing, then I didn't put it in the right structure to be able to do that. One question I have for you, Arturo is around the term coaching.

8:45And as it relates to leaders and leadership, because I'm not sure if everyone, managers or CEOs or everything in between think of themselves as a coach. So often there is a hierarchy of where people see themselves in a food chain. And certainly when you're at the top, there's a lot of expectations and people treat you a certain amount of way.

9:10But I know on my end, I actually had to see myself as a coach instead of just as a leader, as an entrepreneur. And I think the core of it comes from wanting the best for everybody that comes in contact with me or is around me. And then two, I have so much to share that can help them on their journey. And three, I'm here to help us get the best results possible.

9:39And the best results doesn't always mean I'm going to discipline them. And if they don't do something right, that they're going to get yelled at. But instead, you as a coach has to say, what can I do to get the best results out of my team and do this repeatedly? I'm curious from your end, how you see yourself as a coach. Did you actually step into that and you say, I see myself as a coach?

10:06I mean, I don't really have that conversation, you know, often with myself. But it is, you know, listen, I think part of my passion towards leadership and part of my passion towards coaching is fundamentally ingrained in my purpose. You know, my purpose is to, you know, to inspire and empower and bring happiness to those around me and myself. And so, you know, fundamentally, that's the goal and the objective of every single day.

10:34And I also want to make sure that, you know, people understand that just because somebody has a CEO title or a president title next to them does not make them a coach. Those aren't, you don't get anointed, you know, these, those are, those are leadership titles in a construct of corporate America in terms of the way that we view, hey, what's the leadership hierarchy? Well, there's a CEO, there's a president, vice president.

10:57It doesn't mean that those individuals are spending a tremendous amount of time working on developing, you know, their teams. Most successful, I would probably argue and say that almost, that every, not almost, that every successful organization that we can see today has somebody in the chain of command that is spending a tremendous amount of time and energy in the coaching and development of the teams.

11:24And so, you know, as, you know, as a leader, I think that, you know, we have, and there's, you know, I'll refer to the leadership construct in corporate structure related to business, because we can look at it a couple different ways. But in this way, the more time that you spend mentoring and coaching individuals, the efficiency in the output that comes from the business is extraordinary.

11:52So if you're somebody who thinks you're very P&L focused and P&L driven and profit, profit, well, why not invest all your time and energy in your product? Your product really is, is your people and, or your people are certainly an ancillary portion of your ultimate product. You can't deliver great food, great, great, great, anything without having a great team underneath you. And great people are not going to stick around for uninspired leaders that really are focused on discipline rather than coaching and doing something great. So there really is a very tangible direct link to the way that businesses perform.

12:42If leaders are actually doing their job as coaches, mentors, developing, inspiring, empowering. So let's get to how to do this or how to work on it. And number one for me, nice and simple as leaders, we lead by example. So the best way to get a future result out of somebody else is to see you doing it first. That is definitely number one for me.

13:13Number two, I believe you want to build a culture of discipline. So instead of saying we are disciplining everybody else, I would prefer to have discipline built into what we're doing because within discipline becomes accountability, doing the right thing, being intentional, being aware. And when your teammates are all disciplined because they want the best for themselves and for everybody else, boom, that's how we're going to be able to get the results.

13:42So Arturo, what about you? What are some things that people can do to coach more and discipline less? Yeah. I mean, I think, listen, I think you, you mentioned it. You started the conversation with lead by example. I mean, that's, that's super critical. People aren't going to follow and really be motivated by individuals that are not, you know, driving the concept of where we want to go and living it on a daily basis, but process driven.

14:11So create a process and drive it. I think the other thing is having a growth mindset, you know, and we've, we've had a podcast about that and we've talked about that, but it really kind of is a trickle down. So if you is as a leader, you have these growth mindsets that are particularly most likely driven towards tangible numeric accomplishments on a, you know, on a P&L, or we're going to do a hundred million in sales or 10 million in sales or 500, whatever the case is. I think you also have to have a growth mindset with the development and the movement, the succession of individuals that are on your team.

14:52If you're, you know, and some people view it as a very dangerous thing. And that's why some leaders get, that get caught up in how much they empower their staff. Well, this person can leave. This person can compete with me. I think if you live your life like that, you, you restrict your leadership capabilities. I actually, I tell people, I said, listen, my goal is for you to continue to be inspired every day that you're here with me.

15:19And if there comes a day where you're not and you decide you want to leave, I hope that the time that we spent together was constructive for you and that it made you a better, a better person, a better businessman, a better business woman. You know, so that's, that's the goal. And I think that that's what, you know, leaders should don't, don't fear the process and the empowerment of people because it's a beautiful thing. You, you'll be very surprised at what that type of culture creates.

15:49Well, in, on the inverse, imagine what kind of culture gets created when you're not willing to invest in coaching in the people because you're worried that they're going to leave. And for me, there is no place for leaders to be operating out of a fear-based mindset by design. We want everyone to be better. And I genuinely want everyone to be better. My purpose is to be a positive force for good that leads others to what's possible. And Arturo, you've mentioned this so many times.

16:18There is nothing that makes us feel better than someone who's a part of our team who leads and go and does something else where they can flourish. Of course, we want them to be within our world, but that is not the end. These relationships are going to continue to go on and on and on. And you never know where that's going to come back in. And I even say this to people when I'm working right out of the beginning. I'm like, listen, just please be candid with me. If you've got something else going on, just let me know.

16:47I'm there to support you. I want to see you successful. I know I'm not the end of your journey. I'm just part of it. And I want to make sure I'm a positive force in that so that when you go somewhere else, that our impact is being felt on somebody else's organization. And so often we lose sight of the impact, not only on just one person that we can have, but the people around them in the greater good of the world.

17:14Because if you can create this culture of coaching others and making them better, you're going to make the world a better place. You're going to be so much more successful in the leaders that have this mindset. I can guarantee you are so much more successful than the ones that have that fixed mindset who say, I'm concerned about someone leaving, so I'm not going to teach them. Totally.

17:37You know, listen, I think the other thing that people need to understand are that leaders, aspiring leaders, people that are in positions of power as they develop others, is that what I've come to realize, what I've found is that the higher you go in pursuit along your life in terms of this pursuit of success, wherever that journey may take you, that your resume, your legacy of what you've left behind becomes critically important to the people that are looking to either invest in you or not. People invest in the horse, you know, and they don't, it's not, it's not necessarily the concept. The concept is, you know, it's a, it's a big part of it. You know, it's an interesting concept, but can this individual really bring this thing to life? A lot of that now is, it's very clear that success at the highest levels is a cultural thing.

18:29It is, it is, can this individual, you know, you may have somebody who's the smartest person in the world. And if they can't lead a team and nobody wants to work with them, or they have a toxic behavior and a culture that they've left scattered behind as pieces of a legacy, it's going to be hard for people to invest in that. You know, and so it's, think of it as a real clear resume builder.

18:57The other thing too, is that this legacy component, you never know where dots may be connected again in the future. And so I've been a, I've been a benefactor of time and energy that I've put into somebody who left me, who came back, you know? So I got, I got everything that I put into that person and a little bit more when they came back to the fold. So.

19:52I love it. [audio gap] It goes in lessons and blog posts and podcasts so that it can be easily consumable by anyone. Because when I look back at when I graduated college to where I am right now, conversations like the ones you and I are having right now didn't exist for me.

20:20And if someone said, Rob Cressy and Arturo Gomez, I want to be a leader. I want to be an entrepreneur. I want to create the life of my dreams. What are the things that I need to do or know in order to get to that place? And I don't believe that is being taught in college or regular education. And the world is changing now. So I want to be the leader who says, listen, you don't need to do things exactly like I did.

20:45But let us show you the way of some things that have helped us, some perspectives and some possibilities. So you can take the things that do resonate with you and put them into your life and practice. And then you go ahead and you share that with others. Right. Yeah. I mean, again, it goes to the long legacy conversations that we've had.

21:08To me, the biggest defining thing in anybody's career that's in a leadership position is how many other leaders did you create? That to me is the currency that certainly drives me. And I think that drives a lot of other leaders is what is your path? Did you leave a path of destruction or did you leave something that actually fertile ground wherever you went? I love it.

21:38So now let's get to our action item or takeaway. And for me, it's a very simple action item. I just want you to share one thing positively with someone else. Because when I look at coaching, it is coming from a place of goodness in your heart where you say, hey, I have or know something that I can share with somebody else that can help them on their journey.

22:04And I think back to when I was the emcee of marketing conference in New York and a woman stood up and said, why would anybody care to listen to what I have to say on a podcast? And the answer was, because if you have one thing inside of you that can help one person, then it should be your duty to share that with the world. So today, go and share one thing with someone else that will make their life, business, or relationship better. What about you, Arturo? What's an action item or takeaway?

22:31I think to me, it's about the legacy component. I think we have to, as leaders, it doesn't need to be as structured as a kind of a traditional corporate environment where you have a yearly review or a six-month sit-down or whatever. But if there are people in your organization that you value, which there should be, then you should find some pockets of time to have some sit-downs, some one-on-one times with these individuals to find out how things are going. Find out where they are in their process and the things that they may want to achieve. I have over the last, you know, really over the last 22 years, but there's things that kind of resonated a little bit stronger with me probably in the last six months.

23:17I have a team of hourlies that, you know, and to me, I don't care if it's hourly or salary. I think I just bring it up only from the context of that I have these insanely high performers that are doing extraordinary things right now because they've been fully empowered. And so really running the business. And the business is overachieving in every category.

23:42And so, you know, I think it speaks to, and each one of the people that I've kind of given this, you know, title or the ability to run, given them the keys, so to speak. You know, I don't give them the keys entirely, but I'm there. I'm in the car in the backseat, perhaps. They were all given year-end reviews and sit-downs, which is, you know, something that people may do with hourlies on a regular basis, but more often than not, they don't. And there's an extraordinary opportunity just from having a conversation. Again, it doesn't need to be super structured. Check in with your people. Check in to see how they're doing. Check in to see if they have any personal goals.

24:27Check in to see if there's anything that you can do to push them further or create better opportunities for them. I think you're going to get a tremendous amount of output from that conversation. Yeah, and to me, that comes down to two words. Intentional coaching. You're just being intentional about how you are coaching someone and getting them that development that they're looking for.

24:54And one thing to add to this from a coaching perspective that I've found has worked is I like to praise the efforts, not necessarily the end result. Certainly when someone does something amazing, hey, I'm going to let them know about that. But, and this is specifically on the hourly thing that you said, Arturo, because when they're sending me their hours every two weeks, what I always say to them is thank you for your effort, because I know what they're putting into that. And for me, that is the most important thing.

25:25A hundred percent. So it's, that's everything that leadership is meant to be. So, you know, take, listen, you know, I don't think that you and I are presenting ourselves as the most, you know, highest level experts on the planet. But we are presenting ourselves as individuals that have been doing this for a long time and have been doing it at high levels. Give it a shot. Give it a shot. Invest some time, because that's what we're there for.

25:52And if, and if time investing time in your people is not something that's for you, then find something else that is for you. But, you know, being in a leadership role, you have to coach more discipline, less. Arturo loved this conversation.

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