Latest / Andy Stanley Sermons / Andy Stanley - Evolving Your Leadership Competencies with David Roberts President and CEO of Verra Mobility
Transcript
- 0:05Hey, everybody. Welcome to the Andy Stanley Leadership Podcast, a conversation designed
- 0:09to help leaders go further faster. I'm Andy Stanley, and before we jump
- 0:13into today's content, I wanted to talk about a special offer from our friends
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- 1:23d Y too five to five one two three. That's Andy A and d
- 1:27Y too five to five one two three. You'll be glad you did.
- 1:32And now let's jump into today's content. So you are in for a real
- 1:37treat today on this podcast episode because joining me is my friend David Roberts.
- 1:42David is the president and CEO of Vera Mobility, with a market cap of
- 1:46over three billion dollars. Vera Mobility is a global leader in smart transportation that
- 1:51focuses on smart cities, smart roadways, and the connected systems that tie them
- 1:56seamlessly together that either are or will make all of our lives much easier now.
- 2:01Before joining Vera in twenty fourteen, David held several senior leadership roles with
- 2:06technology and finance companies. He was the president and CEO of Billingtree, a
- 2:09multi channel electronic payment platform company that some of us are familiar with. He
- 2:14was also a managing director at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, leading the equity
- 2:17plan services business. He writes for Forbes as a member of the Forbes Technology
- 2:22Council, where his articles include topics like the one we're actually going to discuss
- 2:25today, and on a personal level, My producer Susie Gray, and I
- 2:29have known David since he was in high school. So who would have guessed,
- 2:34right, Welcome to the podcast. It is great to be here,
- 2:37Andy, Thank you. Yes, it's always a little bit intimidating when someone
- 2:40I knew in the ninth grade grows up and does amazing, amazing things.
- 2:46It's like the first time I got on a Delta Airlines jet and somebody I
- 2:51grew up with was flying it, and I'm like, oh, no,
- 2:54I know that guy. I know that guy. He should not be flying
- 2:58a jet with paying passengers right anyway, So recently you published an article entitled
- 3:04Lessons Learned from Selfless Leadership, and in this particular article you talk about why
- 3:09it's important for leaders not only to cultivate some sort of personal leadership philosophy,
- 3:15but then learn how to grow and evolve it. And this is super interesting
- 3:17to us because we talk about leadership all the time, and most leaders have
- 3:22some sort of leadership philosophy that have either borrowed from somebody or they've inherited it
- 3:27from a company or from a former boss or leadership environment they were in.
- 3:31And so we all kind of have an approach. I mean, there's servant
- 3:34leadership, there's lead gray, there are others. But the challenge that we're
- 3:38going to talk about, and where this article is so helpful, is you
- 3:40talk about, Okay, so you have a leadership philosophy, but how do
- 3:44you stay in it? How do you grow it? And how do you
- 3:49continue to expand it and evolve your leadership within whatever framework you've chosen. So
- 3:53this isn't this isn't hey, here's a leadership philosophy to embrace or even a
- 3:58you need to find one. This is assuming you've been leading for a while
- 4:01and you've sort of got a target. Here's some things to do to ensure
- 4:06that you continue to grow in it and don't stay in the rest. So
- 4:09this is a very i think unique approach to leadership. And so you talk
- 4:13about you talk about four components. The first one is look to your past
- 4:16to establish principles. Number two, borrow from your mentors. Number three,
- 4:20move beyond your comfort zone. And number four increase clarity. So let's walk
- 4:26through these four and let's just go ahead and jump in to look to your
- 4:29past to establish principles. What do you mean by that? Yeah, you
- 4:32know, Andy, there's this old management principle which is you soar with your
- 4:36strengths and your staff to your weaknesses. And what I've noticed in my own
- 4:40career and even leaders around me, that as you progress and you put some
- 4:45points on the board and you get some results for your organization, you're going
- 4:48to end up getting more and more opportunity. You're going to get more people
- 4:51to report to you, you're going to get the corner office, you're going
- 4:55to get the bigger paycheck. And what happens, unfortunately, is that we
- 4:59sort of get what brought us there, which is ultimately you probably started with
- 5:03two people and a cold pizza around a conference room table and you were trying
- 5:08to get some results together, and you were really involved. You were on
- 5:11the court, you were listening, you were solving problems. And I think
- 5:15what happens is is you get removed from that, you kind of lose touch
- 5:17with those people, and ultimately, no leader is the result of just their
- 5:21own action. It is the actions that they generate through people. And I
- 5:26even think when I look at my own leadership, the best leading that I've
- 5:30ever done is when I'm really involved in thinking of others first. And then
- 5:34the times that I mess up are the times that I put my own agenda
- 5:38ahead of other people. And so for me to make sure that I stay
- 5:42in that zone, I came up with these concepts or principles that I called
- 5:46unself yourself, which is I needed some basic tools to make servant leadership a
- 5:50part of my daily practice. And I realized just aspiring to that ideology wasn't
- 5:56enough. I needed to put something in practice. Yeah, and that's why
- 6:00this article and these four things are so helpful because again, you know,
- 6:02we write those things on the wall, and even when I was looking at
- 6:05your content, I thought, so many leaders probably who listen to our podcast
- 6:11not only have some sort of leadership philosophy, we actually teach it. But
- 6:15committing to it and teaching it still doesn't get you there if there aren't some
- 6:20specific components or steps that we keep in front of us. Otherwise we drift
- 6:25back to our you know, same old ways, just do the same old
- 6:28things. So this is why this is, this is so incredibly important.
- 6:30So before we leave this particular and talk a little bit more about unselfing ourselves,
- 6:36Yeah, that was That was a concept that I came up with because
- 6:41what I have found Andy, I'm sure this isn't true for you, but
- 6:43I'm I'm very easily selfish. It's it may be my best thing. Yeah,
- 6:49I can very quickly turn things about me and I don't even know that
- 6:54I'm doing it, And just trying to not be selfish is something we wish
- 7:00we could do, but the reality is we can slip into old behaviors that
- 7:03turn us into the leader that we wish we weren't being, and certainly not
- 7:08the behavior that the organization would ask of you. So unselfing yourself is just
- 7:13that. It's just a set of daily practices or disciplines that I've implemented in
- 7:18my own personal career and certainly have observed us in the careers of other leaders
- 7:23that allow me to check myself, as it were, to make sure that
- 7:28I'm leading the way that I want, which is, Hey, I want
- 7:30to be a servant leader, and I think I'm sure the listeners of this
- 7:33podcast want to have that as part of their legacy. I just needed some
- 7:36practical tools to make it happen. Yes, to talk about because this certainly
- 7:41brought back memories. I thought you were too young to even know what this
- 7:45was. The Hoosier rule from the old movie. I mean, I don't
- 7:48even ask how old you were when you saw that movie. But that old
- 7:50Gene Hackman movie, it's a classic. It's amazing, and you've taken sort
- 7:56of a single principle from that film and made it kind of a life mantra.
- 8:00Talk about that. I thought that was interesting. Yeah, it's such
- 8:01a great movie for those that haven't seen it. Gene Hackman takes over a
- 8:05small basketball team in rural Indiana, and one of the first changes he makes
- 8:09is, hey, we got to stop shooting the ball. We got to
- 8:13pass the ball five times before someone takes a shot. And what I found
- 8:16for me andy, especially as I've been to CEO and as we've gotten into
- 8:20a much large organization, if I weigh in too quickly, if I make
- 8:26a comment or a statement before I ask at least five questions, I can
- 8:31very easily derail progress and unintentionally doing so. Because of my role, and
- 8:37certainly other leaders have this too. Hey, if I make a statement.
- 8:41People are going to take that as long they're going to run with it.
- 8:43But unless I help kind of bring out the best of everybody in the room,
- 8:46we have the high propensity to make a suboptimal decision. And so the
- 8:50Hoosia rule is I try to ask at least five questions before I make a
- 8:56statement about project or a problem. And I have found that helps me slow
- 9:01down and makes me listen more and maybe more importantly, when I finally make
- 9:05my comment or statement related to the topic, the team seems to be more
- 9:11open because they know they've been hurt. And this, again, this is
- 9:15a way to ensure you stay between the guardrails of your chosen leadership philosophy,
- 9:20which is a servant leader. This is just if you do that, If
- 9:22you do this, if you essentially pay attention to this little rule you talked
- 9:26about, it keeps you there, which again, we all need those things.
- 9:30I want to just go back to one statement you made that you can
- 9:31quickly end the conversation by weighing in too early. And for leaders this is
- 9:35so important because we never come into a conversation without an opinion, right,
- 9:41and I never have to raise my hand to talk you know, I don't
- 9:43have to raise my hand and say i'd like to say so that I just
- 9:46boom. You know, I just say it because I'm the boss. So
- 9:50that discipline of keeping our mouth shut or to your point, which is even
- 9:54better, of asking questions to generate conversation, even when we're pretty confident we
- 10:00know where this needs to go. Again, it's a it's a subtle form
- 10:03of servant leadership. Yes, and maybe even in addition to that, Andy,
- 10:07I can walk into a meeting unprepared, uninformed and make a statement and
- 10:13I can still be taken as gospel. Yeah, that's even worse. Yeah.
- 10:20I was actually had coffee late yesterday afternoon with a guy who just took
- 10:22over a really, really large nonprofit in Atlanta, and he used to work
- 10:28for us, and they hired him away from us, and we were so
- 10:31proud of the fact that they, you know, picked off one of our
- 10:33top leaders. And he's doing a great job. But he and he's new,
- 10:35so he's only been there a year now. So he and I met
- 10:39with him six months ago. So we met yesterday and he talked about this
- 10:41very thing. He said, because he's never been the point leader in an
- 10:45organization before he said, I realized I share my opinion, and the next
- 10:50thing I know, the wheels are turning and I'm like, wait, wait,
- 10:52wait, that wasn't a decision. To your point, he said,
- 10:56I've had to learn to sort of preempt a com I mean by saying,
- 11:01this isn't a decision, let me be appeer for a moment and just enter
- 11:05into a discussion. And again, don't take what I'm saying as the end
- 11:09of the conversation. But he had to learn that the hard way because again
- 11:13he's accustomed to being one of the people at the table, not the person
- 11:16at the table. So this discipline of asking questions first before weighing in,
- 11:20it's huge. Anything else on that, well, I was just going to
- 11:22say. The other thing I've realized is that when you become the point leader,
- 11:28the joke is you get taller, funnier, and smarter. Yeah,
- 11:31And it is very hard to get true and honest feedback If you're always coming
- 11:35in with an opinion first, You're just not going to know the truth unless
- 11:39you kind of bring it out because of the just because you're the boss.
- 11:43And that's not a bad thing, it's just something that we have to work
- 11:45through. Yeah, one of the other things you mentioned, and I want
- 11:48to get to these other things on the list that you have. They're so
- 11:50good is you talk about and this was quite an interesting discipline to every day
- 11:56pre decide to be extraordinarily kind to a specific team member or a team member.
- 12:03Again, this goes back to I'm predeciding I have some rules for my
- 12:07life to ensure I stay between the guardrails of my leadership philosophy. Talk a
- 12:09little bit about that. I thought that was pretty amazing. Yeah, the
- 12:13practice really comes down to as you go into the office or the meeting or
- 12:18what have you, you as a leader, you have an opportunity to have
- 12:24a positive impact in someone's life. And that can be a note of encouragement.
- 12:28It can also be even admonishment. But the reality is the way that
- 12:31you deliver that can be something that could have a really positive effect. One
- 12:35of the aspects that I do this is through thank you cards. It's not
- 12:41fancy and it's not hard. It's not a text message, but it's actually
- 12:43a handwritten thank you card. We're all send to someone's home, and the
- 12:46idea behind that is one they're getting an email or excuse me, they're getting
- 12:52a letter from me at their home that is recognizing them for a contribution and
- 12:56thanking them, and they can celebrate that with their family. And what I've
- 13:00found one I don't get as many thank you cards now that I'm the leader,
- 13:03for whatever reason, but I do notice that people really appreciate that and
- 13:09it's actually something that they'll hold on to. So to me, it's just,
- 13:11hey, what are the ways that I can think or acknowledge? Think
- 13:13or acknowledge And that's just a tool to buy which I can do it.
- 13:16And the thing that's most impressive to me is that you don't put it in
- 13:20an envelope and have somebody lay it on their desk or in their cube.
- 13:24They receive it at home, which means they're going to read it out loud.
- 13:28That one extra step is extraordinary. Years ago, when Frank Blake was
- 13:33on the Leadership Podcast and we were talking about how do you reach deep into
- 13:35an organization, he began writing handwritten notes to people who did extraordinary things between
- 13:43you know, basically the cash register back when we call it such a thing,
- 13:46when people actually stood there and checked you out. Yeah, And he
- 13:48said, then when they would go walk the floors. They would travel the
- 13:52country, walk the floors of home depots. Employees would walk up to him
- 13:54with those notes. They would keep them forever because they got a hand written
- 13:58note that was mailed to them from the CEO. So, yeah, those
- 14:01kinds of things are extraordinary. It's just a habit that keeps us within the
- 14:05context of our leadership philosophy, which in this case is cervaant leadership. Okay,
- 14:09we could talk the rest of the time about that. So look to
- 14:13your past to establish principles number two. Then second component, you talk about
- 14:18borrow from your mentors. What's that about. Well, I was very fortunate
- 14:24to have. I just had a lot of really great mentors in my life,
- 14:28men that were willing to take a chance on me to sort of lean
- 14:31into my life. And I have a library of the things that I've taken
- 14:35from them, and one of them was a way to represent what would could
- 14:39be considered just a very simple leadership philosophy, and we call it. Everyone
- 14:45here at my company has heard the story many many times. They'll probably fast
- 14:48forward the podcast as I go into this because they've heard it so many times,
- 14:50which is we call it the four FS, which is fair firm friendly
- 14:54and not too familiar. You got to repeat those that's amazing. Ye,
- 15:00fair, firm, friendly, but not too familiar. Yeah, I had
- 15:05to catch the they had to catch the extra f but has a couple extra
- 15:07words there. But yeah, So the concept is fair, especially with employees,
- 15:11but really with customers and suppliers and partners. We want to be seen
- 15:16as fair minded. We never want to take more than we deserve. We
- 15:20want to make sure that we're protecting what we deserve. But we want to
- 15:22be really fair minded. And people just like working with companies that act like
- 15:26that. That's not a hard one, right firm is Hey, when you
- 15:31are setting out expectations and you are going to hold people accountably something you need
- 15:35to be clear and you don't need to apologize for setting those expectations. I've
- 15:41seen a lot of leaders kind of struggle with what I might call taking a
- 15:45stand, and it's not being firm. It's not yelling or screaming or anything
- 15:48like that. It's just been, hey, we agree to an expectation.
- 15:52These are what we have, and so we're going to march forward accordingly friendly.
- 15:56It's just that it's like, hey, be approachable. It's very easy
- 16:00as the CEO, I could stay in my office and no one's going to
- 16:02come by unless I go find them, because they don't ever want to come
- 16:03in my office because they probably think they're in trouble if they do. So
- 16:07you've got to be approachable and find ways to be on the court. And
- 16:11then the final one is not too familiar. Not too familiar is I've seen
- 16:15this mistake with leaders that they build really tight bonds with their teams, and
- 16:21as they try to get to that more senior executive level, they're unable to
- 16:25release those relational bonds and it causes I think many times poor decisions. You
- 16:30lose clarity and perspective. And so not too familiar doesn't mean you're a loover.
- 16:34It just means, hey, I may not be the guy going bowling
- 16:37with the team every night. I'm going to keep some distance so that I
- 16:41can make sure that I'm doing my job correctly. That probably deserves an entire
- 16:45podcast because that whole idea of friendly. But I have to be honest,
- 16:49we aren't friends. We can't be friends because there's an inequity. I'm your
- 16:56boss and I can be as friendly and you, but there's there's just an
- 17:00inequity, and there I shouldn't go to lunch with everybody every time. And
- 17:03like you, two or three of the people that I work with, I've
- 17:07worked with for so long and knew before we begin working together and the relationship
- 17:11changed, and acknowledging that and staying in my lane in terms of that,
- 17:15it's a really difficult thing at times. Well, and maybe an additional point
- 17:19that it's actually a disservice to the person that works for you. They may
- 17:22not see it as such, but they don't need to be seen as the
- 17:26person has a special relationship with the boss. It needs to be based on
- 17:30performance. Again, you're friendly, you can enjoy working together, but sort
- 17:34of sharing a lot of personal aspects and time with them is probably something,
- 17:38certainly something I would encourage leaders to think about avoiding. Yeah, because people
- 17:41are going to assume that even if you're working hard for that not to be
- 17:45the case. How could they not? Oh, yeah, well you guys
- 17:47have known each other twenty years. I'll never be on the inside circle.
- 17:49Well I'll never have known you for twenty years. That's true. But yeah,
- 17:55Now to keep all this in context, So this is part of this
- 17:57whole idea of borrow from your mentor so what I took from this correct me
- 18:00if I'm wrong. Is I think it's great that you weren't afraid to say
- 18:04to your team here's something that you're going to hear me talk about a lot.
- 18:08I didn't originate this. I brought this in from some you know,
- 18:12this is something somebody else taught me. And I think sometimes our desire to
- 18:18be original, we're either not honest or we tweak an idea so we can
- 18:22own it and it's not as good. So the freedom to bring into our
- 18:26current leadership context things we've learned from other people and give those people credit.
- 18:32Absolutely. Yeah, originality is you know, it's overrated for sure. Yeah.
- 18:36I will cite books and make sure they know who the author is,
- 18:40or I'll buy them the book to make sure that they read it. There's
- 18:42no reason to own every idea. There's so many great ideas out there.
- 18:45It's how those get applied and you can say, hey, this worked for
- 18:48me, that's why I'm recommending it. Okay, first look through your past
- 18:52established principles. This is sort of remember where you came from and hang on
- 18:56to those core principles. Number two was to borrow from your mentors. And
- 19:00then number three, you talk about moving outside your comfort zone, which of
- 19:04course is something we all have to do from time to time, which sometimes
- 19:08entails, I don't know if you want to talk about this or not,
- 19:11it also entails moving outside of your competency zone, which can be detrimental.
- 19:15So there are times you got to step outside your comfort zone. But for
- 19:18me, when I do that, I realize, uh, oh, I
- 19:21shouldn't stay here too long. Yeah, I'm going to bring my weakness into
- 19:26an area where we need more strength last weakness. So talk a little bit
- 19:30about stepping outside of the comfort zone. Yeah, the best example, and
- 19:34I suspect most leaders that were in leadership through the pandemic could probably say we
- 19:40were all push out of our comfort zone in one way, shape or form,
- 19:45you know, And to some extent, the leadership in that is almost
- 19:48easier. And I say that with air quotes, and the reason I say
- 19:51that is you just got to You are so focused on what is in front
- 19:56of you. You're just making decisions. You're doing it as a team.
- 19:59It's much mon. We had to, Yeah, but there was no choice.
- 20:02It was right. It was super clear. Our business took a significant
- 20:06hit in terms of our financial performance, and we had to make hard decisions
- 20:08very quickly, move everybody home in two days. It was all the things
- 20:12that everyone can look back in time and remember how it happened. One of
- 20:18the comfort zone piece actually for me, came afterward, which is I'm an
- 20:22in office guy. I'm in the office right now. I like being around
- 20:25people. It's enjoyable for me. What I have found is there's a lot
- 20:27of people that don't like being in the office, and we as an organization
- 20:33have had to really embrace the hybrid stay at home, be productive, all
- 20:37those things. And as much as I would like to be the guy that
- 20:41says, hey, I want everybody back because that's better for me, it's
- 20:45clearly doesn't make a difference to the organization as long as we continue to put
- 20:49our results on the board. But I've had just sort of let that desire
- 20:55go to say, Hey, as much as I wanted, this is better
- 20:56for you, I'm happy to adapt. I'll be in the office if you
- 21:00need me. So so, I'm significantly older than you, and already you're
- 21:04starting to sound like the old guy, right I am to get off my
- 21:08long guy. It is it's embarrassing, and it's the Hey, we have
- 21:11an office. You think the reason we have an office is so you can
- 21:15come to the office. What's wrong with you people? Right? Do you
- 21:17know how much we pay for this thing? Square foot we're paying for this
- 21:21thing? Yeah, that's right. You decorated that space, Come use it.
- 21:23Okay. So again, there are so many applications I'm sure to stepping
- 21:27outside the comfort zone. Again, there's often a tiptation in leadership to get
- 21:33outside of my comfort zone because there's something that I feel like I need to
- 21:37address, there's a problem I need to solve. And then there are times
- 21:40when in my world I will be so frustrated with something that instead of going
- 21:45using proper channels or principles to address it, I will just get outside of
- 21:51my responsibility zone, which is often my comfort zone, and I don't manage
- 21:56those things. Well. Are you ever tempted to cross that ethereal line?
- 22:00Yes, especially when things go wrong, Because I'm a driver. I want
- 22:07to win. I want results, and I obviously want them sooner than everybody
- 22:11else wants them, because that's just that's the way that I'm wired. I
- 22:15notice when things are going wrong, I can get really frustrated very very quickly,
- 22:19and that starts to show up. And when that shows up to the
- 22:23point I made earlier, things start to shut down. And then I'm sort
- 22:26of talking about things that I just don't really know that much about. We
- 22:30have a big company, We're in seventeen countries. I don't know everything.
- 22:33But my frustration and anger brings me to the point where I think that I
- 22:37should just weigh in on it, and I should probably stay in my comfort
- 22:42zone and not leak outside of that and anything before we move on. That
- 22:47sort of tips you off. Oh, here I go again, because I
- 22:51know what it is for me. I mean, I've been doing this long
- 22:52enough while I realize, uh, oh, Andy, there's that thing.
- 22:56Yeah, and for me when I start having conversations with staff, for people,
- 23:02I realize, Okay, Andy, you're gearing up. You got a
- 23:04lot of energy around this. If you step over there, you're bringing too
- 23:07much energy with too much authority. And as Diane, my assistant reminds me,
- 23:11and Andy, your word's weigh one hundred pounds, So just this probably
- 23:15isn't the time to address it about for you, any internal red flags.
- 23:21Yeah, I can almost tell I've gotten I actually got coaching on this topic
- 23:26because I can get so animated that again, it's just a disservice that when
- 23:30I'm going to a meeting where I think that might happen, I put my
- 23:36watch on the other wrists. Wow. And it's literally just a cute Now.
- 23:41I think probably in the organization they know that if I have my watch
- 23:44on the other wrist, it's probably going to be a bad meeting. But
- 23:45at least it does express the fact that I'm trying to make sure that I'm
- 23:49keeping it in the risks. Wow. And so the people your direct reports,
- 23:52they know that's a that you do that well they do now, yeah,
- 23:57yeah, they will if they listen to it. Now, I'm self
- 24:00disclosed that I'm trying to make sure that I can. You know, you
- 24:04want to keep the bubble in the middle as much as possible as the as
- 24:07the point leader and emotion can be appropriate in certain occasions, but probably five
- 24:14percent of the time, not forty percent of the time, watch on the
- 24:18other wrist. Oh, David's in a mood. Everybody, I think,
- 24:22I don't feel well. I don't, that's right. Yeah, I should
- 24:25probably do that at home with my kids as well. They would start to
- 24:27know if I come home with my watch and never on in a one on
- 24:30one right performance performance reviews. Okay, all right, moving on. That's
- 24:36that's great advice. Okay, and again just bring this back to context.
- 24:40These are personal habits you've developed to make sure you stay in the zone of
- 24:45servant leadership, not top down. I have all the answers, okay,
- 24:48So number one, look to your past established principles, borrow from your mentors.
- 24:52You don't have to take credit for everything, move outside your comfort zone
- 24:56from time to time. And then this this last one, increase clarity.
- 25:02What do you mean by that? Well, this is this is so patently
- 25:06obvious. I mean this has been You've spoken about this in the past.
- 25:08Patrick Luncioni's book The Advantage has a great, great content around this. And
- 25:14what I would just say is, if I look back at the moments where
- 25:18I had a quote unquote miss or failure as a leader, my own it
- 25:22of that always goes back to clarity, because just because I said it,
- 25:27or I sent the email or we did a webcast or whatever, that doesn't
- 25:33mean it's clear. That just means I said something. And so what I
- 25:36have found is it clarity takes an enormous amount of energy and probably is job
- 25:42number one for the point leader because clarity can disappear so quickly in organizations that
- 25:48it's this constant, constant reminder. And so I've tried to make sure that
- 25:53when I'm ending meetings or when we're moving on forward initiatives or plans, that
- 25:59we stop each meet is everybody clear? Are there any questions? Is something
- 26:03we can start over if we need to? Whatever that is, just to
- 26:06make sure people have the opportunity to weigh in. And you touched on something
- 26:10and went by it. I want to come back to there is a tendency
- 26:14for me, I know, to get frustrated with the end user because they
- 26:19don't seem to understand what I so clearly are articulated. How how is it
- 26:26that twenty five people could not under you know what I'm saying if I don't
- 26:30hit pause and realize and doctor Hendrix, one of my graduate school professors,
- 26:34would say this, if the student hasn't learned, it's because the teacher hasn't
- 26:38taught. If the student hasn't learned, the teacher hasn't taught. That just
- 26:42reverberates I just have to remind myself, Okay, if they're still asking questions,
- 26:47they're not stupid, they're smart people. It's back on me. Yes,
- 26:52like you said, I've said it twenty times. We did a video
- 26:53and I sent out an email. If it's not clear, I got work
- 26:56to do. Yesterday afternoon, I went home very frustrated around a series of
- 27:02questions that has come from staff, around one issue that I think, how
- 27:07many times do I have? And last night I was so frustrated. I'm
- 27:11just gonna do a little therapy here with you, David. I was so
- 27:15frustrated, you know, last night, I'm thinking about it. This morning
- 27:18I get up and this morning I realized, Okay, my responsibility isn't to
- 27:22chastise them or to explain to them how clear I've been. Even that's what
- 27:26I want to do, It's okay, own it. Is there another way
- 27:30to make it clear? And I came up with, with the help of
- 27:33my assistant, Okay, let's let's try this approach, which was way better.
- 27:37So if I don't own that, I will telegraph frustration. That ultimately
- 27:41is my responsibility. So clarity is huge. Yeah, And the downside of
- 27:45that is everyone else thinks it's Okay, to be unclear too, because you're
- 27:52the boss, right, you could just say, hey, do what I
- 27:53say, here's what I said. I don't need to tell you again,
- 27:56and that's that is obviously a disservice to the organize as well. Totally wow.
- 28:00Okay, Well, as we wrap up, these are extraordinary takeaways.
- 28:06So for all of our podcast listeners, hopefully you have some sort of leadership
- 28:08philosophy that you are trying to align your actions with your behaviors to whatever it
- 28:12is you choose it. But you're going to need some habits, as David
- 28:17just illustrated, to keep that in front of you, or we just drift
- 28:19back to our same old, same ole and what was modeled for So,
- 28:22David, as we wrap up, any final thoughts on this topic for our
- 28:26audience, Yeah, the one thing I would just say is for a lot
- 28:30of leaders who are listening is servant leadership is a great ideology. Being others
- 28:33first, it makes a difference, but remember that ultimately it's also about results.
- 28:38Servant leadership is a way to garner the support of people to produce extraordinary
- 28:44results. If it didn't produce results, we wouldn't be talking about it.
- 28:47Yep. And again it seems so soft. Fortunately, enough people have talked
- 28:51about this concept for so long, people who've accomplished extraordinary things, like yourself
- 28:56that has taken this idea seriously. But living it out personally and developing the
- 29:00disciplines around it are a whole other thing. And this conversation has been so
- 29:04extremely helpful. That's all the time we have for today. Thanks so much
- 29:07for being here, David. I can't wait to see you again. And
- 29:10to all of our listeners, we want to thank you for joining us and
- 29:12invite you to visit the Andy Stanley dot com website where you can download the
- 29:17Leadership podcast application Guy that includes a summary of this discussion plus questions for reflection
- 29:23or group discussion, and be sure you join us next week for Reverb.
- 29:27The Reverb episode is where Susie and I talk about David. Rather than to
- 29:33David. We get to unpack what he has said and elaborate on it in
- 29:37our own unique Susie and Andy kind of way. So make sure you join
- 29:41us next week right here on the Andy Stanley Leadership Podcast