Latest / The Start, Scale & Succeed Podcast / Strategy Drag Is Slowing Your Leadership Team with Aleya Harris (stage 5) - Ep. 439

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Strategy Drag Is Slowing Your Leadership Team with Aleya Harris (stage 5) - Ep. 439 · The Start, Scale & Succeed Podcast

0:00
Scott Ritzheimer: Hello, hello, and welcome, welcome once again
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to the Start, Scale, and Succeed podcast-the only podcast that
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grows with you through all seven levels of your journey as a
0:09
founder. I'm your host Scott Ritzheimer, and today we're
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tackling a problem that quietly drains founders, especially
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those in the level five CEO stage. And here's the problem,
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and I don't know that you would describe it that way, but I
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think you might recognize that it's happening by the end of
0:26
this episode, and have some ideas on how to fix it. And that
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is that if we were to really ask every person on your executive
0:33
team what the strategy of the organization is, we'd very
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likely get however many stories there are people on your team,
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and it will exhaust you. It will totally deplete you if you don't
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recognize why that's happening and come up with a better
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strategy for getting there. Now you don't have to take my word
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for it. With us here today is Alea Harris. She's an
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award-winning keynote speaker, former Google vendor partner and
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CEO of the Evolution Collective, she created the Story-Driven
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Leadership Framework, helping founders, CEOs, and leadership
1:09
teams build trust, strengthen communication, and scale their
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business through authentic leadership. Blending executive
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experience with practical business strategy, Aleya equips
1:19
entrepreneurs with actionable tools and to lead
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high-performing teams, create memorable brands, and thrive in
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an AI-driven marketplace. Her engaging, story-driven approach
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has inspired audiences across corporate, nonprofit, and
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entrepreneurial communities. She's here with us today, Aleya.
1:38
I told you this before we started, but I'm going to say it
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again here for everyone. As I was researching for this
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episode, I came across a concept that you talk about quite a lot,
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actually, and I'd never heard of it before. But it was like
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instant. Oh my goodness, we have to talk about this, and it was
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this idea of strategy drag, strategy drag. What a what a
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brilliant phrase. So let's just start off. Let's kind of define
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what is this, and and and most mostly from what does it feel
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like when you're experiencing it?
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Aleya Harris: I love that you're starting with a feeling because
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it is intangible until you see it, and then you can't unsee it.
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So think of it like driving your car with the parking brake on,
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you know where you're gonna go. The car's working. You're just
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like, why am I stuck? What? What is that screeching? What is that
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burning smell? And you're like, I don't know. Every unclear
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priority, conflicting incentive, and old habit is adding
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resistance to the strategy. Your strategy is trying to move
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forward while all of that is pulling it backwards, right? And
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I don't know about you, but that sounds like a rubber band being
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pulled in two different directions. And if you pull too
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hard on a rubber band in two different directions, what
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happens? It's
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Scott Ritzheimer: it's not pretty.
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Aleya Harris: Yeah. So what I try to do with clients is get
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them to like you're saying see and feel what that strategy drag
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looks like specifically for their organization. So another
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way to say it is like you you approve a strategy on Friday.
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You and your team feeling super smart. Might even go out for
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drinks afterwards. Like oh, we crushed it. All five of us know
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exactly what's happening, and then by Monday, the five
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departments or the five department heads have five
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different interpretations of what you just did in that room
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on Friday. Right? People need another meeting. Decisions get
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delayed. Work gets done twice or not at all. That strategy drag,
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and you're paying for it. It's expensive. Strategy drag means
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that thing that absolutely happened needs to happen to take
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your business to the next level is not happening. The thing that
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you've invested 1000s of dollars in is not happening, and in
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fact, you may unintentionally be continuing to invest money into
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something while it's falling out of the bottom, and you don't
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know why. You're you're paying for this in time, money, and
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momentum. So, when you finally see your strategy drag, which is
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what we do as the first step, and when we work with people, is
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our strategy drag scan to get you to understand where that
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money, time, energy is going. You can reduce it, and when you
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reduce it, that means that you're helping people understand
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why the strategy matters. And I think it's cute that everyone
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thinks that that their employees love their company as much as
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they do. I that's not true. Everyone is motivated
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differently. Everyone looks at through the world through
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different belief lenses, so it's not just why the strategy
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matters for Acme Inc. It's why the strategy matters for Joe
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Schmoe, for Jane Doe, for the people that actually work there
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as humans. What it means for their role, what it means for
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them as humans, what it means for their family, what they need
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to. Do differently in their next meeting or customer interaction,
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so that their behavior actually changes. They're not just
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nodding and smiling at you while doing the same thing that it
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said in their job description. Because you can't get mad at
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them for that, right? I'm just doing my job. I'm just doing my
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job description. So it has to be enough and clear to and specific
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to act on, so that that strategy, when it touches the
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rest of the organization, moves the organization forward rather
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than creating internal conflict.
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Scott Ritzheimer: Yeah, there's a there's one question that I
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think really defines success in implementing strategy more than
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anything else, and and I rarely see it addressed by teams. And
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the question is not actually what the team is asking, but
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what of the each what each individual employee is asking.
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And I'd be interested to see if you agree with this. But the the
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number one so far so good. Yeah. So far, I'm in full agreement.
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The number one question I think is, what does this mean for me?
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Right, like folks aren't out there thinking, "How do I?
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Aleya Harris: What's in it for me?
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Scott Ritzheimer: Yeah, I don't think they're out there
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thinking, "How can I implement the next change from the
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executive team? Like nobody wakes up thinking that, but when
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they hear a change, there's the the visceral, emotional,
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instinctual, and even intellectual reaction of like,
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"Well, what does this actually mean for me? And when we when we
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think of our people as these kind of robotic automatons that
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just execute whatever it is that we decide, I think we totally
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overlook that question and then wonder why nothing changes. How
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do you how do you see story as being at least part of the
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solution to that question.
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Aleya Harris: Okay, first of all, I'm gonna preface this, and
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I'm gonna try to keep this short. But you know, I'm in the
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middle of writing my second book, which is literally about
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this, and so you know, my brain is full of all of the ideas. But
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I'm gonna keep it short, and I will say I want to go back to
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that Automaton concept-that is what you wish people are or were
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when you're in leadership. And I mean, if we're all honest, we
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kind of wish at a certain level-not all the time-but when
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we're sitting there with our spreadsheets that they were more
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like people were more like chess pieces than humans because it
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would be so much easier, be so much easier to run a business
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that way and then like activate their personality later, right?
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I want you to recognize that, know that you're fine, and we
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all think that you're not a bad, you're not a horrible human, but
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that is not reality. That is not the way the world works.
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Speaking of the world, I got really curious about how other
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cultures, other time periods, dealt with issues like this.
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There's a big change. We all need to move in one direction. I
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mean, this is yes inside companies, but this isn't inside
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wars. This is inside villages. This is inside the way that
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humans work. That's like a life experience as a change. So we
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got to do something, right? And everybody's got to get on board.
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And I am a storytelling geek, full blown nerd, full blown.
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Like if there were like a pocket protector specifically for
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storytelling geeks, I would have it and love it. So I was
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originally indoctrinated into story via StoryBrand, which is a
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wonderful concept, and then that is built on the hero's journey,
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which was codified by Joseph Campbell, and kind of he
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squished a bunch of storytelling frameworks together and created
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this like what is this mono myth of how a lot of people and
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cultures tell stories? I became interested in what if we
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unsquish them? What if we pulled them apart? Because squishing
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all these people together is the same concept as wanting them to
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be automatons. We want it to be easy. We want it to be simple.
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So let's create this one archetype that most people can
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sort of kind of follow, and it works in most situations, sorta
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kinda. As we've already covered, when you simplify and you
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oversimplify humans like that, you're actually shooting
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yourself in the foot because that's not how the real world
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works. So I went back and I looked at all of the original
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storytelling frameworks, and recognize that they're actually
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blueprints for human behavior. When you think of a story and
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the way that stories are told in different cultures, different
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time periods, they reflect value systems. They reflect what
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people want, how they want to live their lives, what their
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ideals are, and they give you clues on how they have
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historically encouraged people to get there. Each storytelling
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framework kind of has a different goal. Some are about
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uncovering deeper truths. Some are about encouraging
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innovation. Some are about building on a legacy while
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adding your. And finding what that new era looks like. Some
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are about coming together of two cultures, two peoples, and how
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do we form a greater, better third? I don't know if you heard
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it and what I said, but what I what what I said was, how do you
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drive AI and then market? What I said was, how do you develop in
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mergers and acquisitions. What I said was, how do you deal with
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it when you have a 3040-year-old, company that you
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just purchased that you want to maintain the legacy and move
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forward? That's what these storytelling farmers are
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teaching us how to do. So you pick the storytelling framework
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that matches your aim, your goal. You you develop the the
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the kind of beats from it. The what are the key messages? But
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then you're like, oh, pooped a dupes. Now I got to actually
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talk to people about this, right? And this is what we're
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talking about. This is where the problem is. I then looked, and
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this is, this is me in a tarot card spread. This is how this
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literally all came to to pass, Scott.
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I'm pulling tarot cards for myself, and then I started
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looking at the tarot cards, and I realized I was like, these are
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truly archetypes for different personalities. And then I
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started going down a rabbit hole of younging archetypes,
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archetypes, and and thinking of like the disc model, the Myers
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Briggs model, all of those type of ways of personality typing,
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and I realize that there's really only really seven ways
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people look at the world, and I develop them into seven belief
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archetypes. An example of that would be the sculptor. I am a
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sculptor. I used to I used to call this one the destroyer, and
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then I realized that that was a bit aggressive, so we're gonna
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we've we've we've morphed into the sculpture where I look at a
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big hunk of thing, and I chisel away at it until it represents
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what I think is beautiful until I get the statue of David out of
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it. Right, that's how how I'm in a chisel, so when you have an
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organization, let's say you have sculptors, which I assume that
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every organization has all seven. I'm not trying to go
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around typing people. That's exhausting, and nobody got time
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for that. Say you're trying to use a you have a merger and
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acquisition. We work with clients that have this a lot,
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and you have two very different cultures, two very different
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belief points you're trying to bring together. So you would use
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a storytelling framework that does that. But then, when you're
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in your communications and you're trying to talk to someone
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with a specific belief system, for example, the sculptor, you
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highlight different things to get them on board to work with
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what they believe, not change what they believe. Right? This
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is not like a toxic relationship where you're like, I could
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change him. I know I could change him. Just give me some
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time. He's not that bad. No, we're gonna call a spade a
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spade. It is what it is. But we still need this person to move.
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So if you're a sculptor, the things that you're going to tell
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me are what you've done to already think about and poke
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holes at your strategy. What still needs to be refined, and
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you're going to try to get me on board to help you, right? As you
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move forward through that, and you develop communication plans
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based on storytelling frameworks, the blueprint
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blueprints for human behavior that exist for 1000s of years,
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you deal with belief systems. You actually get people on board
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and able to move forward through any type of change.
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Scott Ritzheimer: Yeah, that's so good. There's a principle or
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pattern that I like that I think you're sharing it very
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articulately, and that is to speak the language of your
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audience, right? Rather than expect them to understand your
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language, and so I love that. Again, bringing the framework
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and the actual individual person in the belief system, I love
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that. I love that combination. I could probably nerd out on it
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with you for a very long time, but to track the
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Aleya Harris: storytelling dark side, Scott. There you go.
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Scott Ritzheimer: To to keep this within at least some
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reason, there's a question that I want to get to because I ask
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all my guests, and I'm very interested to see what you'd
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have to say. But the story, the question is this: What is the
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biggest secret that you wish wasn't a secret at all? What's
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that one thing you wish every founder, CEO, and executive
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listening or watching today knew?
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Aleya Harris: It is not as hard to build your business as you
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think, it is. To which everyone listening went, "How dare you!
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You don't know the blood, sweat, and tears I put in this. This is
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a lesson that I'm learning right right now, in the in my scaling
14:36
journey. It is really about being in the room with the right
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people, and having a clear idea of your purpose in the world,
14:47
how it interacts with somebody else's problem, and how it
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brings you profit. However, if you're like me, that means that
14:56
instead of doing the thing I'm scared to do, which might on a.
15:00
Given day, be something different. Show up, talk to the
15:03
person, call the person. You know, whatever. I'm like, oh,
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I'll just create another offer in my little hole in my computer
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by myself. I'll just have another all hands meeting. I'll
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just have another right, and I complicate it because of my own
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hangups. This goes back to the kind of overarching theme of
15:24
this episode of looking at how individual beliefs, motivations,
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and behaviors impact the organization as a whole,
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including your own. How are your limiting beliefs impacting you
15:41
and your effort and the things you know you're supposed to do,
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know you're not supposed to do, or from finding out what truly
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will get you to that next level. the The biggest secret here is
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the secrets that we often keep from ourselves, our own
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fallibility. Because when you are at the top of a company,
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people are depending on you. You're someone's mortgage is
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getting paid because you're keeping this business together.
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It's a lot of responsibility, and so we often put on a facade
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of infallibility. And then the problem is we start to believe
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it too. So then we end up failing, despite our best
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efforts.
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Scott Ritzheimer: Yeah, yeah. So true. So true, Aleya. You know,
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again, I could go in for this conversation for a little while,
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but I'm not alone in that. I'm sure there are folks listening
16:31
that would love to hear more. They'd love to know more about
16:34
you and the work that you and your team do. How can folks
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reach out to you? How can they connect to find out more?
16:40
Aleya Harris: I'd love to for you to visit our website
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evolutioncollective.com evolutioncollective.com and
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there just schedule a call. We want to chat with you. I want to
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hear where your strategy is dragging. I want to hear how you
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individually are like, oh my god, I just had to come to Jesus
16:56
moment. Can we talk about it? I am not a typical business
17:00
consultant. I will meet you where you're at, but I am not
17:04
going to stay surface level with you. I am not the person to come
17:09
to if you want someone to coddle you and tell you how cool you
17:12
are. I'm the person who you come to when with the most love,
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because my purpose in life is to love people into their highest
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versions of themselves. I will be the person that, with the
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most love, helps you touch the squishy part, touch the the part
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within you, within your brain, within your heart, within your
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whatever that is holding you back. Examine it, heal it, move
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forward, and do the same for your organization.
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Scott Ritzheimer: So good, so good. Well, thank you so much
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for being on with us today. Fascinating conversation,
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really, really cool stuff. I thoroughly enjoyed it. And for
17:44
those of you watching and listening, you know that your
17:46
time and attention mean the world to us. I hope you got as
17:49
much out of this conversation as I know I did, and I cannot wait
17:53
to see you next time. Take care. Hey everyone, Scott Ritzheimer
18:00
here. Thank you so much for listening to the Start Scale and
18:03
Succeed podcast. I hope this episode gave you exactly what
18:06
you need for the level you're in right now. If you want to
18:10
discover what level you're in, take our 10 question Founders
18:13
Evolution Quiz for free at foundersquiz.com. That's
18:17
foundersquiz.com. It'll pinpoint exactly where you are and give
18:22
you tailored tips to move forward and reach that next
18:25
level in your journey as a founder. If you got something
18:29
out of today's episode, don't forget to subscribe, rate, or
18:31
review. It helps us reach more founders like you, and let's be
18:35
honest, it means a ton to me, my team, and all our incredible
18:39
guests. So keep starting, scaling, and succeeding, and
18:43
I'll see you in the next episode.