Latest / Steve Azar's Resonance: A Podcast for Leaders, Unpacking the Power of Song, Silence and Strategy / Resonance Season 3: Slow Down To Speed Up, Another Look At Discernment

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Resonance Season 3: Slow Down To Speed Up, Another Look At Discernment · Steve Azar's Resonance: A Podcast for Leaders, Unpacking the Power of Song, Silence and Strategy

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: This is Resonance, the podcast with leaders that unpacks the power of song, silence, and strategy.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: We believe the great leadership begins with deep listening, not just to others, but to the still small voice within.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_02: It's not just about being a successful leader, it's about being soulfully aligned as well.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: In a world moving fast, resonance invites you to pause and reconnect with purpose, people, and possibility.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: We'll dive into some cool stories, celebrate with friends, and dig deep into the music too.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_01: Cause song has a way of saying what words cannot alone.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: So whether you're leading a business, a team, or just trying to lead your own life with more meaning, this is Resonance.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: Resonance, Resonance.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: Hey folks, welcome to Resonance Year Two, heading into through January, February, it's winter, it's cold here in the Mississippi Delta, even.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: But where my comrades are in Oregon and South Dakota, it's a little colder.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_01: Randy Harrington, Mike the Monk, Guy Farrell.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: Grateful for you guys tuning in as always.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: A new year begins.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: Leaders often feel pressure to move fast, to execute, launch, and produce results immediately.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: But acceleration without alignment creates confusion, frustration, and wasted effort.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: This episode explores why most effective leaders pause to ensure clarity, shared understanding, and unity of direction before pressing the gas pedal.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: Alignment is not a consist consensus.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: It's not compliance, it's shared commitment.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: When leaders get alignment right early, momentum follows naturally, and thus sustainability.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: Mike?
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: I thought you had it covered there, Steve.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: You've got it covered.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: Well, how many times have we uh have we been in a position where we start out a new year and we want to start out fast?
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and so we do all kinds of things to start out.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: We want to get, we want that first month or first quarter, whatever it is.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: We want it to get right out of the blocks, just like we're you know at the bell at the Kentucky, Kentucky Derbies.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: So but unfortunately, I've seen it too many times, and Randy, I know you have too in working with clients where they're so excited to get going and so you know driven to get to a fast start that they forget about this idea of making sure that everybody's on the same page.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and then making sure that that everybody is.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, everybody's running in their own direction.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_02: I think it is something about wanting to get off the blocks quickly and and to go fast, but I think a lot of it is that leaders have usually thought about this effort, whatever it is, a thousand times.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_02: And they make the assumption that everybody else in the organization is thinking the same way they do, or as much as they have.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_02: And the reality is they have not.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_02: They haven't come close to thinking about it as much as you have.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_02: And so as a result, there's this huge disconnect that we we deal with almost immediately.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_02: So the first thing is just because you're thinking about it doesn't mean everybody else is thinking about it.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_02: The other big thing when we look at the research on this stuff is we find out that to the degree that what you are attempting to do is in any way different from what you have done, you really have to go back and look at the assumptions again, and you almost have to start as if you were a brand new team.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_02: And that doesn't feel right, but that is really what you have to do.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it would be like if you had a football team and you said, okay, we're gonna go and we're gonna go on a dragon boat canoeing race.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_02: So we're a football team, we're a good football team, but guess what?
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_02: Paddling is a lot different than playing football, and so you have to redo everything again.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_02: So just because you're a team, just because you work together well, does not mean you are ready to execute.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_02: And that's what we're talking about today.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, that brings up a point.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: Me and um what's my old buddy Brett Saberhagen were doing a boat race canoeing, and we were on the straightaway in St.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: Thomas's charity event, straight away we had left everybody and we were laughing at how far back all these other great athletes were.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: But when we got to the turn, we didn't know we didn't know how to we were fighting each other and all that and all that.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_01: But it reminds me, first of all, being in sync.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: Second of all, the music business, when you go into the holidays, it's like you've been running this sprint, sprint, sprint, or either more like a triathlon, right?
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: And you're gonna you're running out of gas when you get toward Christmas and it gets very sluggish.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_01: And then when you come out of Christmas, it takes equal time to ramp back up.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: So it's almost like you lose two to four weeks because you're still sluggish, trying to catch up.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody's moving at a different pace, and if everybody's not in sync while you have a record out, then good chance the record's gonna fail.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_01: So I know we touched on the record part of it, making sure you share up a record before Christmas, before they start playing all these Christmas songs, and you better have more spins nationwide on a record the first time they go go public again, go for ads, they call it.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_01: You know, then uh because the the chart will freeze for two weeks.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_01: And once it opens back, if not everybody is moving at the same pace and the same speed, and one regional guy drops the ball over another regional guy, and there's way less spins here, and just barely a little more here, well, then you probably lose your record.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: So it's interesting how you can, I guess as a leader, you got to come in and sort of try to rally the troops, right?
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_02: Well, you can anticipate this.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you know this drag happens every year.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you know this is the thing.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_02: So as a leader, you need to build that into your thinking.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_01: You're dealing with music now, just FY.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: You're dealing with the music business, and you know, the music business has a little bit of a rap that is uh, you know, probably true.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: So, so it's not like you know what I mean, you you got people it's just a different group of people.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: And well, sure.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_01: So you're dealing with that types in in the business world that type.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_02: Well, it is it's the truth.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_02: And Mike Carroll smiles quietly to himself.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he knows the type.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and not to mention I can say that about 30 some industries, so you know it's a special anymore.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: That's good.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_02: No, there's party animals everywhere, Steve.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_02: There's no doubt about it.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, and I proudly include myself among them.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I I mean I think I think the key is is how do we get everybody in sync before we take off?
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I mean, Randy, you talk about a football team.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's kind of like you know, the football team has has had all its success thrown for you know 400 yards a game, and now all of a sudden they decide to run 27 times in a row.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's it's completely completely different than what they've done to already build their success.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I can't tell you how many times I've seen that with leaders that say, okay, it's a new year.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna try something new.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna do something, even though the previous year was successful, um, now we got to do something completely different.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: Now we got to, you know, uh zig instead of zagging.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: So I think it's it's important that that as a leader, you're making sure that everybody is in alignment with which direction you're gonna go and how you're gonna get there.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: And when they're not, then I think you have to slow down.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: You have to really make sure.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um one of our one of our episodes was slow down to go fast.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you have to really think about if I don't have everybody in alignment, then I can't go flying out of the blocks here in January thinking that I'm gonna accomplish all this great stuff, and I have a drag because somebody is not on board that's a critical component of how they're gonna get forward, how they're gonna move forward.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that's that's a real thing.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_02: I've had interactions with some medical school people, and one of the things that I thought was a really smart thing to do as a doctor goes into rounds, particularly if they're they're they're a young doctor or they're new, the leading physician would do something where they would call a shared diagnosis moment, where the the doc comes in, sees the patient, the patient's already been diagnosed and already in halfway through treatment.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_02: But what the doctor will do is take time to allow the new doctor to formulate the diagnosis him or herself.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_02: So they sort of put the patient's piece out there.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_02: There's a discussion about what's going on.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_02: And so what happens, what they find is that when the when the new doctor comes to the diagnosis him or herself, this is what's really going on.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_02: Then the course of treatment becomes easy because now we're all aligned.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_02: But if the new doctor comes in and the old doctor says, well, we've got him on 10 CCs of that and 50 cc's of this, and we've got a machine that goes ping every hour.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_02: So that's what we're gonna do.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_02: The new doctor is gonna be hesitant to engage, he's gonna be slow to make changes, you're gonna get a poorer quality of medical care at the end of the day because the handoff isn't clear.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_02: And this is what you're talking about, Mike, is when you're starting to do back to the football example.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_02: If we need to run the ball 25 times now, why has that changed?
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_02: What has changed in our opposing team or in the game that we're gonna play that demands that change for us?
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_02: And the players all need to come to that conclusion themselves.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_02: They need to have that sensibility of, oh, yeah, we need to, you know, here's why we need to run, and then everything goes there.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_02: So I think the foundational piece seems to be sharing the diagnosis of what needs to change or why we need to make a change.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: I understand calling an audible.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: I get it.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_01: Plays change, you know, it's it's a chess match in a lot of times you're playing sort of sport.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_01: So why do you make a change and why do folks this has happened to me many times over my career?
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_01: We are you're rolling, things are moving at a perfect pace.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: You have all this momentum, and somebody somewhere wants to maybe make a mark or whatever, and they literally start running when we don't have a running back, or they start throwing when all the in all the uh best ride receivers are on injured reserve.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: So you're you're down to your four string quarterback.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: So I guess what I'm saying is what makes someone or a company, or even in my business, what makes anyone decide, oh, that's a good idea when you're winning?
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: That's my question.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: Mike?
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think and I I think that's a great question.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: I think, you know, a lot of times if there is not clear focus from an organizational standpoint, if there's not clear vision from an organizational standpoint, then that opens the door for somebody to kind of go rogue and and you know do something that that you know they're trying to, you know, trying to trying to get a a feather in their cap to say, oh, I just came up with a new idea and we should try this.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: And and that's why it's so critical from a standpoint of understanding the vision and making sure everybody's aligned with the vision.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: Because again, if you've got that vision, if you understand what that that per what your purpose is, then that's your filter.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: Everything has to go through that filter.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: If your filter is to provide the greatest experience for a customer, then when you decide to change things or do things new or do things different or whatever, you've got to go back and ask the question does that fit within the purpose of providing this great experience for a customer or whatever, you know, whatever it is, or a product or a service or any of those kinds of things.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: So I think it's important that, especially at the beginning of a year, when we start to to roll into a new year, we've got to reaffirm our purpose.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: We have to reaffirm the vision to say, this is this is what we're trying to accomplish.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: This is why we do what we do.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: And everything needs to be in alignment with that.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if that's changed, then it's a different story.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: Then you've got to step back and say, all right, now we've got to we've got to really slow down.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: We've got to really pause and make sure that we're getting everybody on the same page for whatever that new purpose is or new vision is or whatever the case may be.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: So I think it's I think it's twofold.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's number one, making sure that everybody's in line aligned with the purpose and the vision.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: And if the purpose and vision has changed, then we've got to stop and bring everybody along with us.
• 12:09
  unknown: Okay.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_02: And your culture is going to be a big part of this process too.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_02: If your culture has the built-in capability to change and morph, that's who we are.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_02: We flow to the work, we're adaptable, we don't expect the future to be the same.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_02: If that's our culture, if that's the way we roll, then it's going to be a whole lot easier.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_02: If, on the other hand, you have a culture that says, no, we need to measure five times and cut once, and we need to be very safe and we can make no errors and things like that, very different.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_02: We've talked about different cultures where when lives are on the line, you have a different leadership structure and different accountability structure than if making a hamburger is on the line, right?
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, so it's a it's a different set of concerns.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_02: But the culture piece, I call that out because you can't not have culture.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_02: Culture's there.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_02: So you have a culture that is either working for this new effort or it is going to be a tide working against that new effort, or maybe just flat and not helping at all.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_02: So I think one of the things that a good leader is going to do is really say, holy smokes, not only are we a passing team, but now we have, because of whatever reason, we have to go do our running game, but our our whole culture is about our wideouts and whatnot.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_02: It's not about running up the gut.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_02: So you have to make those adjustments more foundationally.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that's what you're talking about, Mike, when you said slow down a little bit.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I and I think the other thing to that point, Randy, and you hit it on the head, a lot of times leaders don't know what their culture is.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there's a there's a great tool out there called the Competing Values Framework that was developed by Bob Kit Bob Quinn and Kim Cameron at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: And it's been it's been around for many, many years.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: But what it does is it identifies what type of culture that you have.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: And there's four different quadrants: there's collaborate, there's create, there's control, and there's compete.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: And and where your culture fits is is where where you have to start with.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: You have to understand that, okay, this is where we are today.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: Now, that's not maybe where we want to be.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe we want to be different, but if we don't understand where we are, it's awfully hard to get to where we want to go.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's the thing that that that tool allows you to do is it really allows you to look at, okay, where is it that we are today and where would where do we want to be in the future?
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: And then what's the bridge?
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: How do we how do we get there?
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and I think it's a it's a great tool.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: I use it with clients all the time, and it's a great tool because it really helps them so many times leaders just don't really understand their culture.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: And and and I've seen, in fact, I worked with a client just in the last few months where the leadership team thought it was one place and rank and file thought it was a whole nother place, you know.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: And so now you've got to really figure out okay, how do we bring them together to make sure that everybody's in alignment and and understands what the culture is and where we want it to go.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_02: Musically, I think this shows up because you've got if you've got five people in a band, you've got five different visions of what they think that band is gonna be or what's gonna happen out there.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_02: And one of the things I've heard you get amped up about, Azar, is like when you're when you're out there performing, doing like the Bob Seeger work you did and stuff like that, your band had a very clear set of what it was trying to do.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_02: And it wasn't just the songs, but it was the experience you were trying to create for that audience, both as it related to Steve Azar as and then also to tee up the next big band that's gonna come along, right?
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_02: So you were playing a role in that that was, and there was a lot of clarity.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_02: And so when you're building a new band and you've got that new drummer or that new bass player or that new whatever, and they've got their own goals, their own things they're trying to achieve.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_02: And so what's really seems to me important is that somehow you guys got to have those conversations about who's leading this gig, right?
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_02: This this moment.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that can't be, you can't skirt around it.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_02: That has to be on the record, I would say.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_02: Is that true?
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, do you have to go on stage?
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_02: Does the band need to know Steve's calling the shots on this?
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_02: If Steve's gonna call an audible, or how does that work?
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: Well, first of all, it takes a long time to find the guys that believe in me as an artist, uh, and they're 100% all in, not 99%, 100%.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_01: And I feel the same way about each one of them.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_01: So it feels like the best way I can tell you how it feels as of the last 20 years of my life, there's no doubt that it's probably 22 years for the guys that have been together.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_01: Some 31 years, 26 years, 22.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_01: But I'm gonna take my my latest drummer who's been with me 22 years.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_01: And that's there's been some additional people from the Kings Men and all that that we did that make made sense.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_01: But as you guys say, they aligned really well.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_01: When I get on stage, obviously I'm the guy doing the entertaining when it comes to talking and doing all this.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: And a lot, I I turn a lot of that over to Jason.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_01: He has his own mic and he's you know, we yin-yang back and forth like Johnny Carson and and uh what's his name?
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: Who was Johnny Carson's side?
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_01: Ed McMahon.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_01: So we're a little bit like that.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_01: But with that said, I think there's such a respect for what I feel about each one of them and a respect that they feel for me that I just feel like it's circling.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I feel like that we're just dancing together and we're not stepping on each other's toes.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_01: And if we do one of us makes a mistake, um, it's amazing how fast we get in line.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_01: Like, and all of us can almost follow a mistake and go there together, like within a beat of the music.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_01: And so we're that in sync.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: And that's why um I'm so grateful for these guys, because I know that there's gonna be come a time when maybe one of them, it just they're tired.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_01: I've had people, I've had them retire from me.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you know, one of them, my great shirt Mark is out fishing every day in his little in his little boat, or whatever he does.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_01: He covers himself up with garb because he can't be in the heat, but he's done playing guitar on the level we were doing it, and he wanted to fish.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_01: And so in came my guitar tech, who was with me forever since 99, and he became my guitar player, and he's remarkable, remarkable, one of the best I've ever played with.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_01: But with all that said, we're all so much on the same page that I don't feel like I do feel like I'm leader of the band, but I don't have to let them know or feel that I feel like I'm their leader of the band.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_01: I come out there as a teammate.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_01: I come out there, but I'm the quarterback, you know?
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_01: So you know, I'm I'm the one that has the ball in my hand all the time.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, but you know what?
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_01: Don't forget the center has the he's the first one to touch the ball.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_01: So the center and the band is very important as well.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_01: So uh there's uh there's a lot going on there, but it's it's tricky for me now because I finally, after the last 22 years, I've been just spoiled with it just being so easy and so right.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna ask you a tough question, Steve.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna ask you a tough question.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_02: You let's say you get a really great musician for whatever reason that walks in the door, and this person is just a a monster on percussion or whatever it is, and you're just like, wow, and has a great resume.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_02: But that individual, you play with them two or three times, and the sink isn't there.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_02: You're not sinking, it just feels like you're kind of always fighting, and maybe that person has got more of a sense of capability or whatever that they think isn't being recognized.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_02: And so what I see a good bit where I'm going at with this question is you'll see sometimes an executive will be thrilled about hiring the smartest person in the room for a particular job, only to find out that that person is about to screw up everything.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_02: Even though they are the smartest person in the room.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_02: And so, do you what do you do as a musician when you come off stage and the and the sink just didn't happen?
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_02: What does that conversation sound like?
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_01: Well, first of all, I think that when you get to a certain level and you have people that are that have moved to Music City, moved to LA, moved to New York, moved to here, moved to there, whatever, or stay down in the Delta, you know, and live down here and play with the BB on the road, the bottom line or or Little Milton or some of the greats down here, if they wanted to make the Delta their home, awesome.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_01: But that they're all at a level where they are pretty much at 80% of your happiness.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_01: But what about the other 20% that takes you to what do you euphoria, right?
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: And so those guys, I just there's a difference.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_01: And the difference would just be that about 20%, but that 20% changes everything.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_01: And the crowd feels it because you feel it, and the band feels it, and it just it is a beautiful thing.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: And there's no way other way to explain it except for they're all capable because they they've usually been humbled, uh, pretty much.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_01: They've uh played with the greatest, all these great acts and all this.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: But when it comes to finding the perfect synergy and the magic dust and being that band, uh it's another 20% level that that that's when you find the greatness, and that's when you find the comfort and the easiness and the and what what keeps you coming back.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_02: I'm telling you, if you're at 80% do you do you I guess I'm asking, do you fire the individual who can't give you that 20%?
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_01: Well, uh sometimes it's just a mutual feeling and you just know it's not working out.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_01: Chances are it's not working out for them either.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you know, there's uh it just it it's sort of an unwritten rule.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_01: It's sort of you sort of feel it.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, like musicians feel things, and it it's they use we use our guts so much um emotionally and and all that, we're we're sort of uh that way.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_01: And uh it's funny, each bandmate, each person that plays a different instrument is temperamental in a different way.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_01: And it could be zero temperamental or or whatever, but the bottom line is it's so interesting based off the instrument they play.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: You can almost tell you what their personality is and how much time you know they do things during the day, whatever else they do during the day.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_01: So um I I've learned that over the years that the keyboard player and the piano player, you know, they're different girl, they're different birds, you know.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: And so um than I am.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, no, I don't know if the words fire are maybe just part ways.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: And I think in our in our world it's always nicer uh to think to do that.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_01: But guys, it's been over two decades since I've even had to even think about making a change.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: The last two changes were because of retirement.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_01: You know?
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_02: So Mike, I know you know that while certainly musicians have a gut, so do leaders.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_02: What do you think?
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_02: How should a leader use his or her gut?
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I think, you know, certainly gut decisions, I've seen good ones and I've seen really, really bad ones, you know, as I know you have, Randy.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I I think that uh again, it it kind of depends on the type of decision.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: It depends on what it is you're you're you know trying to make a decision on.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: But again, I think it all goes back to that whole idea of alignment and making sure that whether it's a gut decision or whether it's a brain decision, is it aligning with what we're trying to do?
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's that's what's so important, you know, as we think about this idea of alignment before acceleration, making sure that what we're trying to do here is we're trying to make sure that we are all on the same page in that decision that's being made to go forward, and this is how we're going to do it.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't really matter whether it's a gut or a brain decision as long as it's in alignment with the overall and what you see, and I know you've seen it too, Randy.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: What you see is you'll see all of a sudden a leader will make a gut decision that has uh that I mean just comes completely out of left field, and it's like, good Lord, what are they thinking about there?
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_02: You know, they've they've lost more trust and they've created disalignment, active disalignment.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_01: Can I ask you something, Mike, while you're on this topic, and Mike, while you're there?
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_01: Is that something that's been sort of coming, or do they just have a moment of losing it?
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, like, or is it both?
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I've seen I've seen both.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's a matter of circumstances, sometimes it's a matter of maybe something's shifted in the market, something's shifted in what's going on in their industry, in their business, in their world.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's just they're making that decision just because they think that they need to they need to make a change for the sake of making a change.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the key right there is that if you're just making a change for the sake of change, you might want to step back and rethink that.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, two, two quick thoughts.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_02: One is I saw this play out very profoundly, where a leader kind of went off the rails and I had no idea where this came from.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_02: And when we went back and looked at the postmortem of why they did what they did, the leader said, Well, to be candid, my board chair came in an hour before we had this meeting, and the board leader basically told me that he didn't think I was being aggressive enough.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_02: And so so then he just sort of took that on and it didn't work at all.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_02: So sometimes it's this outside voice that comes in and kind of messes everything up.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_02: The second piece, though, and this is we can borrow from our musician friends, is rehearsal works.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_02: And so if alignment really is crucial in in the tech industries, they call it safe fail kind of practicing, where yes, we're gonna rehearse this, we're gonna actually maybe do a small version of this gig, but we're gonna do it in a way where we're not gonna cause any damage if it doesn't go off the rails.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_02: I like the phrase you need as a leader to create opportunities for your team to catch themselves being themselves, right?
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_02: So you you need to have them in a place where you're gonna put the stress on them to do what they need to do, but at the same time, not so much stress that they can't have that objective third party of wow, I see where this just went sideways.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_02: You know, where they can begin to figure out the subtle communications that need to happen to ensure alignment when all the poop starts flying.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_02: You know, because that's it.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_02: It's not just about getting it done, it's getting it done in an environment that's more challenging, disturbing, combative, confusing, right?
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_02: That's the issue.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_01: That felt a whole lot like it feels for me to be on stage, what you just said.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_01: By the time you got to the point, the rehearsal part, never been a big fan because but I but back up.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_01: I know I have to do it.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_01: I know it has to be done.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_01: I gotta tell y'all something.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_01: My guys are at a point right now, if they played on the record, Barry, my bass player who've known since in the 80s, is phenomenal, phenomenal.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_01: Uh a chameleon when it comes to playing with different folks, blessed to have him sends immediately a chart.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_01: And so we all can see.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm telling you right now, these guys can play off a chart, which they don't do on stage, but they can play off a chart and you will swear they're playing from the bottom of their heart.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_01: So there there is something about where they stand now as musicians.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_01: They put so much time in.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_01: But but I'm telling you, when you get to game day and you're playing, it feels nothing like that rehearsal hall.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_01: And you've got to, it's a totally different deal from the garage to Madison Square Garden.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's just you know, and so you've got to be able to handle it.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_01: So when you get into a big situation, I guess, and you guys say y'all are watching all these folks that are coming in and and these companies are growing and they're growing and they're growing and they're so successful.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_01: And here we go.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_01: We're you know, we've come from the, you know, the every business, right?
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_01: Started in some little room and all of a sudden, you know, you're Amazon.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_01: But with with with all that said, I mean, what happens when it just gets to be so heavy and you're dealing with alignment?
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_01: You keep talking about this alignment thing, it's got me curious as far as it's got me thinking about my my life and and my career over.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I'm seeing a lot of stuff from the past now that I need to go lay on the couch.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_01: But with that said, I'm not on the couch, I really care.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_01: Uh but but I mean, like, when somebody comes in from the board or whatever and says something to fire somebody up and takes them a totally different direction, then all of a sudden you feel like as a somebody on the team that you just walked into the room with somebody you don't even know.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_01: So like, how does someone even go there when they're already in the position that they're in?
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_02: My my in my thought was insecurity on the part of that leader, right?
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_02: That leader didn't he he should have acknowledged what the board chair said.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for giving me that feedback and had the clarity of mind to know I can't just go in and shift gears all of a sudden because I'm gonna screw up everything.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_02: And he did.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_01: I actually had another question.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_01: I forgot what it was, so I had to make up one.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_01: That's pretty good though.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_01: That's your Gilligan.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_01: I'm on the island right now, you know.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: That was good.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: Starting season two on a right on the right note here.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: So Mike, what were you gonna say?
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I I mean, I and I would agree with Randy.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I I think that if you're not comfortable in your own skin as the leader of that organization, there's always gonna be external factors involved, whether it's a board member, whether it's a market shift, whether it's, you know, president, whether whatever it is, you know, i there's always going to be things that that are going to be outside or external forces.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: And the question is, are you strong enough?
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: Are you convicted enough in what you're trying to do to be able to, and and the Benedictins talk about stability all the time.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: Are you convicted enough?
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: Have you got your roots set so that when these external things happen, you're very comfortable saying, you know what?
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: There you go, let's let's let them happen.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: We think we're very well prepared for this.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: And if we need to make some minor course changes or shifts, we'll do that.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_00: But we're not going to throw out the baby with the bathwater here, you know.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, Mike, you know, when you first turned me on to this whole purpose thing, that core thing that gets us to do everything while we do it, and everything centers around that, everything orbiting around, you know.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_01: I've I've it's changed my world.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_01: I'm telling you.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_01: So can you unpack when it comes to the monk principle of intention?
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_01: When that has to do with creating maybe clarity of purpose, enabling leaders to align, right?
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_01: Priorities, whatever goes into all of that.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_01: Makes sense.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, I the whole idea of that monk principle of intention is exactly what it says.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: What we're doing, we're doing intentionally.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: But we're not just winging it.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: We totally understand why we do what we do, who we are, what our vision is.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: We're totally aligned with, you know, the actions and activities, the str the strategies, all of those things are clearly aligned with that clarity of purpose.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: And everything's intentionally.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_02: There's an expectation of what's going to happen when you do that thing with intention.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_02: So it's not just about what we do, but then there's an expected reaction to it.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_02: So if we thought we just made the best pizza in the world and we serve it and everybody is leaving it on their plate or shooting it into the garbage, all of a sudden, you know, we're not getting the feedback that we thought was right.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_02: So this feedback loop is a big part of intention.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_02: To me, that sort of completes the circuit.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_02: I have the intention, clarity of intention.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_02: We create alignment, we do the thing, and then does it happen or not happen?
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_02: And are we switched on to be looking, all looking for those reactions?
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_02: And then maybe there's somebody whose job is to just look at the broad reactions.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_02: Another one we're hearing from companies like Satmetrics and other big consumer marketing companies are saying, really, really, really pay attention to the people you've pissed off.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_02: Really pay attention to the people who didn't buy the record, to the person who was at the cruise uh lunch and didn't have a good time.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_02: Whoa, whoa.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_02: Well, no.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_02: I know, I know it never happened.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_02: I know, because you're on it.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_02: But this is my point though, is you are on it.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_02: And you and you are when you're greeting those people as they leave or whatever it is, however you do that, you're there as a quality control manager as much as you are anything else.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_02: Because you know when somebody is.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_02: I remember the story about you telling somebody was cold, and then you had them rearrange everything in the in the room because they didn't want them putting under the the air conditioning.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_02: That's the kind of thing that uh that we're talking about here.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_02: But but intention resolves with feedback.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_02: Are we getting the feedback into the system that we think we expected?
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_02: And if yes, then we amplify, then we hit the gas.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_02: If no, then we dampen, we pull back.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_02: And so leadership is this business of hit the gas or hit the brakes a little bit.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_01: All right, when it comes to my January lens, let's make sure that I'm clear about one thing.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_01: I get the fact of small goals looking at not only a day, but a week ahead, a month ahead, you know, chipping away one bite of the elephant, as they say at a time.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_01: But for me, I literally see my whole year in front of me.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_01: Now, there's some additional stuff that happens, probably about 20 or 30 things that maybe 40 things that come up that can sit perfectly in the windows that are available.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_01: But other than that, I see my whole year.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_01: So when Gwen and I sit, you know, who handles all the business part of what I do, and she's the spreadsheet, right?
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_01: Everything's there for her, and I'm the list guy, like we've discussed.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_01: We go through our year and not only do we look ahead, but we look behind and see what was a waste of time, what was really beneficial, and what leads us to making sure that we don't have a lot of waste in the future and that we use all of our time wisely so we can enjoy ourselves in the off times, you know?
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_01: So it's not only that, we got to be able to have recharge.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_01: If I'm going, going, going, and she's going, going, going, and sometimes we got to just say, hey, wait, take a break for a second, and uh, let's smell some of the uh St.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_01: Cecilia roses outside our window.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_01: So, so that's sort of where we go, and we're about to do that obviously at the beginning of the year.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_02: And the the beauty of that is that you two are of a like mind, that you two are sharing the same set of data, you're looking at the same calendar, you have this alignment that allows you to call audibles and work more fluidly.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_02: And the same challenge is present in a small business or a large business to try and create that sense of alignment.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_02: It's just a whole heck of a lot harder when you're talking about having dozens and dozens of employees.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_02: Although there are many people who would say the hardest thing in the world to do is work with your spouse.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_02: And I and that's a whole nother, we could do a whole thing on that for sure.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_02: But but but in general, what we're saying is is that you want to have that sense of alignment, that there's a shared sense of priorities, that we understand the same things that we should be looking out for or attending to.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_02: And when you have that alignment, then you can begin to have some fun with it.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_02: So you can, like one of the things that Mike and I have talked about a couple of times is really using the calendar so that you have these weigh-in points.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, at the end of the first quarter, here's what our expectation is.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_02: And we're gonna do a conversation that says, did we meet or fall below our expectation?
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_02: And it's not that that's a bad thing, it's just a scientific modality, a methodology to go through this to figure it out.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_02: It's just what's the truth of what's actually happening here.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_02: And one quick thought that I have found to be very useful.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_02: When you have a team that's like coming out of the top of the year, they're feeling gung ho, they're ready to go.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_02: An interesting pause that you can take is to do something called a pre-mortem.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_02: And basically what that says is you say, okay, it is now January of 2027, and we blew it in 26.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_02: We failed in 26.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_02: We knew we had these goals and they they we they did not happen.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_02: What do you think we did wrong?
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_02: If we're gonna fail in 26, what would it be?
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_02: And and in our shop, we call it painting the pain or calling out the weaknesses or the gaps, and you'll hear your own team member say, well, we're not communicating enough laterally, or we really misinterpreted the data, or we made a big mistake by putting all of our eggs in that basket, or whatever it is, but you can hear them say these things, and when those things are surfaced, they become more aware of them.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_02: And those pre-mortems work because they they they really keep you conscious.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_02: I did a pre-mortem uh down in Georgia one time and went back like seven months after the gig, and they had put it onto a poster, here's how we'll fail, in their break room.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_02: And so it was there every day.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_02: People were looking at that thing, going, We can't be doing that if we're gonna succeed.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_02: And they attributed that one five-minute throwaway session with really helping them carry the ball through the end of the year.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_01: Never heard that, never heard of looking at all the negative things that could happen and stare at it.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, wait, what a great way of, you know, it'd be kind of hard for me.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_01: I'm an optimistic guy, so I don't know if I want to see negative thoughts on this.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_02: And that's why I don't I don't usually make it a centerpiece.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_02: It's just like, hey, let's do this thought exercise.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_02: We all know what we're worried about, so let's say what we're worried about.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_02: Where could we go sideways here?
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_02: And then what can we do in the middle to try and have that not happen?
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_02: So it's an old it's an old technique.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_02: It's been around for a good long while.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_02: A pre-mortem is just uh way to to kind of head things off.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_02: But I think when you're when you're when you have alignment, it's a good final check.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_02: It's like that walk around on you do on the car.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_02: What's gonna go wrong before I drive over this big snowy pass?
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I kind of I kind of I don't look at it from a from an annual perspective.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_00: I break it up into either quarterly or month or or twice a year, six month sections.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, one of the one of the challenges that I see is that we try and and take on too much.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I'll work with a client and create a quarterly plan.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the things that I will always tell them is if you've got more than three strategies that you're working on in that quarter, I guarantee you you will fail because you simply do not have the bandwidth to be able to do more than three.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you look at strategies, then you've got tactics and tools underneath that and tasks and timelines and all of those things.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_00: So that all starts adding up.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the one thing that I always talk about, similar to what you do with the the postmortem or the pre-mortem, Randy, is when we define a strategy, one of the questions that I ask is how can that strategy not happen?
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_00: How can it fail?
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_00: Same thing, only I'm just breaking it into a smaller bite-sized piece.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_00: But identifying that reason of why the heck it's gonna fail.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_00: And if we know that on the front end, like you say, you know, you can focus on the positive stuff that needs to happen, knowing full well that if it goes sideways, all you got to do is look and see what you determined as a failure point and realize that, okay, that's that's why this isn't working.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, I write songs about the mistakes you make in the past and overcoming them and the silver linings and all the things that come from adversity and all that.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_01: But I've never thought about looking that far into the future with what could go wrong that maybe hadn't gone wrong before.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's interesting.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_02: It's a it's kind of a NASA thing.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_02: It's a thing that says, and this is the way I think about it, to the degree that what you're planning to do is audacious, it's bold, it's big, it's new, it's never been done.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm suggesting that when we look forward, lots of what we're gonna be doing is gonna fall into that category of, well, nobody's ever done this before.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_02: And so when you're in that space, it's more important than ever that you give yourself that chance to have that that discussion.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, what could go wrong?
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_02: Because if everybody could do this, everybody would be doing it.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_02: So, what is it about this that keeps people from adopting this strategy that we think we can do, right?
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_02: And that's where NASA is all the time.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_02: They're saying, we're gonna go to the moon, we're gonna do these crazy things, but what can go wrong?
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that's that's awesome.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_01: Second, I just don't think I've ever thought of it quite that way, but uh, I'm gonna use that this year.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna use it, we're not gonna have another meeting.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_01: The other thing is accountability.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_01: So there's been times in my life, especially where I'm I'm walking in like going like, I don't want to know the truth.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_01: I don't want to see the truth.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_01: Like, and so yeah.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_01: And so you on purpose, you sort of don't, I don't want to see the ratings, I don't want to see the surveys, and I don't want to see all the our show and all this, which which each person does when we're doing my resident show.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_01: But I've gotten to the point over the last number of years where I do want to see it.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_01: I want to see every single thing everybody's saying, and that is against everything I've ever believed.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_01: So, so, but it's really helped.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_01: And there's there's a the bottom line is there's a reality there.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_01: And so uh I I think my younger Steve used to avoid reality and go, uh, they're just critiquing that they could be wrong.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I don't want to see the negative comments, I only want to see the positive.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_01: I've gotten to the point in my life where I understand the the asset and benefit of both.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and I don't think there's any question that in order for success to happen, you have to be able to understand the metrics.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_00: If you can't measure it, it's pretty hard to define whether it's successful or not successful.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_00: So it really is important that you've got metrics that you're looking at from a leadership standpoint.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_00: And and the other side of that is uh, you know, to kind of wrap up this show today, the other side of that is bringing this back together with alignment versus acceleration.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_00: If you're not aligned, if your metrics aren't aligned with the the opportunity that you're looking for, then that's the other problem that you got.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're looking at the wrong metrics, you know.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_01: So wrap it up, but I want one more statement here.
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_01: You're saying all these words that have nothing to do with the emotion of why I do what I do, and why so many of why you listen to what I do, and why so many people that do what I do, I mean, it just sounds too sterile.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_01: It just sounds wrong.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_01: What's not wrong is looking at all of the facts after the after the emotion, after everything you've done creatively, and you can't do that anymore, and you can't cry anymore, you can't laugh anymore, you can't be moved, but there's a truth after that, and I think that helps you move forward and become more successful.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I I think the key to that is that you're connecting that emotion with the metrics and the alignment.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_00: That's where the magic happens.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_00: When when those things all come together, that's where the magic happens.
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_00: All right, fellas.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_00: Well, let's wrap this one up.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_00: Randy, bring us home.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I, you know, this is one of those moments where uh we're in real time.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_02: So here we are.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_02: It's January.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_02: It's time to rock.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_02: And uh our our our wish for anybody listening to this is that they have created an audacious, bold plan for the year, and that they have found the alignment that they need and they're ready to go, but they're gonna take it step by step, and they're gonna be watching the data as it comes in, making adjustments as needed.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_02: But uh cheers to you guys and cheers to a fantastic 2026.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that was that was uh a wrap today.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_00: Again, we're into season two.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_00: Can you believe it, guys?
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_00: Season two of Resonance.
• 42:19
  SPEAKER_00: You can find it on all the major podcast platforms, or you can go to our website, resonanceleader.com.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_00: Make sure that you like us, comment on us, follow us, subscribe to us, whatever it is, whatever method it is you use, and tell somebody else about it, because we'd love to have more folks listening to us.
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_00: So, all right, fellas, till next time.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_01: Take care.com.