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Michael Moorhouse · Calm Under Fire

• Col. John Boggs: Well, welcome back to Calm Under Fire. I'm Colonel John Boggs, and today I'm joined by Michael Morehouse, an executive leader and coach with more than 30 years of experience helping organizations grow by aligning strategy, performance, and the people doing the work. He spent his career at the intersection of business results and human behavior, which is where real leadership lives. Michael, thank you so much for being here. I'm glad to have you. Michael Moorhouse: Sean, I'm really excited to be here. Thank you for having me on your podcast. Col. John Boggs: Absolutely. Michael, when someone asks you, what do you do? How do you describe it these days? How do you do that? Michael Moorhouse: ⁓ you know, it's, it's, changed a little bit, but, know, in very simple terms, ⁓ I'm either going to help an organization or leaders unlock performance and growth. ⁓ I do that by being able to go ahead and understand whether they be business goals or personal goals in the strategies that they have, and then aligning ⁓ people for the organizations around those and making sure that there's alignment there. And if it's an individual ⁓ making sure that we're aligning their goals and objectives. Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Michael Moorhouse: towards being able to achieve what they want to accomplish. And it ⁓ sort of leans into the human side of it, soft skills, ⁓ things along those lines that actually make things actionable. Not just words, but the activities that they've got to be able to go through. Col. John Boggs: Okay. Wow. What problems do you not... Let me ask you this. You talked about alignment. When alignment is off, what does it look like? How does it show itself on the ground when alignment is not there? Michael Moorhouse: You know, it usually isn't something really big. ⁓ Sometimes that happens. There may be some catastrophic failure, but the reality is it's patterns that start showing up ahead of time. could be something as simple as ⁓ somebody comes back to you, you know, John, I need to clarify what I need to do again. So they're asking for clarity. It might end up being something along the retention side. You may not see projects moving along, but there's always individual patterns that start showing up. Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Michael Moorhouse: The problem that lot of organizations and leaders have is that they don't really recognize the patterns. And so what we really try to do is give them a pretty good idea of how to start picking up on some of the signals. Most of the time, it's not going to be a KPI that shows up first. It's going to be a conversation, a question, something that is going to start signaling that there isn't clarity. Col. John Boggs: So when you step into a new organization, Is there something that you assess first? Is there something that you're looking for? Michael Moorhouse: There is there's actually there's a couple of things. Organizationally, what I like to look at ⁓ ⁓ do they communicate? What are the methods? ⁓ often? ⁓ clear it is? ⁓ if you think about communication and organizationally, it's really critical for people understand where the company's going, ⁓ what role in it is, what success looks like. Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. you Michael Moorhouse: what failure looks like is probably as important as anything else. And being able to understand those milestones at an individual level and actually organizational too, but specifically with leaders is trying to understand do they have really good, solid self-awareness. Now, if you think about self-awareness and why it's important, it's how we make our decisions. If I understand what my biases are, what my decision-making process is, Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Michael Moorhouse: That's my current state and I have to make sure that my base level that innate self is really going to be appropriate or do I need to step back and look at it, be differentiated from that particular situation. this has got to be about 10 or 12 years ago. Somebody asked me what the most important thing for a leader, what quality is the most important thing to have? And hadn't thought about it ahead of time and my response ⁓ just sort of came out and it's self-awareness. So organizationally communication and there's an awareness of the organization, but with leaders, it's self-awareness. How self-aware are you? And I find that if we can get them to a level where they're self-aware, that begins ⁓ work on making better decisions and understanding people better. Col. John Boggs: Wow, that's interesting you said self-awareness. I found that in my work also. And you talk to communicate and it's that lack of self-awareness. How does that show up? Michael Moorhouse: Well, I can tell you from personal experience. You know, it shows up with, you know, phrases like, I've told them exactly what I think and they should be able to understand that. The reality is that everybody receives information differently. We all process it differently. ⁓ But shows up is when you're not self-aware, you think you're accomplishing things that aren't being accomplished. Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Michael Moorhouse: It could be a communication. It could end up being, ⁓ I will say laying out a strategy, whatever it is. Communication is very important. Self-awareness is important. ⁓ if you become self-aware, you then realize that everybody else has got a slightly different lens. ⁓ There's saying that it's the sender's responsibility to make sure that the receivers understand it. If you're not self-aware, Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Michael Moorhouse: You generally don't do that. And I've been guilty of that more than once. Col. John Boggs: Yeah, have you found have you found in your work? And I'm still with self-awareness how leaders tend to communicate but what I'm finding is they tend to communicate for their own ears and rather than talking to the the team or to the to your crew they they really love the sound of their voice and they're talking for their own ears and they never Michael Moorhouse: Mm-hmm. Col. John Boggs: really listen. What is your experience with this? Michael Moorhouse: You know, and I want to break it down into some buckets. I tend to break things down in three. So whether it's a leadership, you know, we'll call it a leader or an organization. There's three basic buckets that I think they fall into. One is the the leader of the organization that knows that they have a problem that they have to deal with. And they're aware of it and they're working towards it. They may not be making the progress that they want and they need some help. The second is Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Michael Moorhouse: somebody understands that they have a problem, but they don't really know what they need to do about it. The last is I think a little bit of where your question sort of falls into and the leaders or the organizations that don't think they have a problem and therefore doing nothing about it. it's one of those things where you find a lot of people there ⁓ it's like any problem until it gets too painful for somebody to be able to act on. ⁓ Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Michael Moorhouse: they will not do it. I, you my personal experience and we're all familiar with three sixties. ⁓ I was luckily, I was, you know, younger at the time at about 28 years old, I had a three 60 that was done. And, ⁓ it was that, awakening that the person that I thought was in front of the staff wasn't, there's a different person. I didn't like that person. And so that was a turning point for me. And one of the things was, a comment was something along the I think the word pontificate came out. So, ⁓ I don't know if I answered your question, but it's, it's, it's just one of those things that people do it because there's a, you know, this innate, I'll call it self validation. There's a lot of, there's a lot of things that drive that, ⁓ you know, from a, I'm not a psychologist. want to qualify that, but I've done a lot of work around neuroscience and, and, ⁓ worked on, on quite a bit of things, but there is this, Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. ⁓ Mm-hmm. Michael Moorhouse: view sometimes if somebody feels like they need to convince not only everybody else but themselves that they are where they need to be. And I think there's a misunderstanding of what a leader's job is in the world. you were, was it 20 years or 30 years in the Marine Corps? 30 years. And so, you know, you're familiar with commander's intent, you know, you very clear picture of what has to Col. John Boggs: 30 years, yeah. Mm-hmm. Michael Moorhouse: has to get done. And in many cases that leaders can lead and I will say, you know, get things done through authority. But real leadership isn't through authority or rank or anything else. It's the ability to move people to the goals that you have for them, know, giving them the ability to have independent thought and the ability to work on their own. And people that tend to listen to themselves, and want to be able to think that they're really doing a great job, they don't understand that. They look at it from the standpoint that it's their authority, their title that actually gets them to a position where they're able to move people, but that's not what moves people. Col. John Boggs: Yeah. Wow. I often say that leadership is, leader is not a, it's not a noun. It's a verb. It's not a title. It's a lot of work. It's a lot of action. Well, in your, and I love that. Thank you so much. In your experience, what problems? Michael Moorhouse: It is. Col. John Boggs: What problems look operational, but they're really leadership. Michael Moorhouse: ⁓ First, I believe that every organizational problem is generally a leadership problem at some level. ⁓ So, you know, if, if we, if we really dissect it, I think that true operational problems tend to be tools that are broken, processes that are broken, things that can be identified and fixed. Col. John Boggs: Mm. Michael Moorhouse: And those are, those are, think are relatively easy to identify versus, you know, true leadership problems. Anything that requires judgment, critical thinking, the ability to collaborate, coalesce opinions and bring people together tend to be leadership problems. But a lot of people look at it and say, oh, well, you know, these are operational issues. John and his team aren't executing and. Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Michael Moorhouse: They think it's an operational issue. They need more tools. They need all these different things. But many times it's going to be that they don't have the clarity. They don't understand what their role truly is in the organization, what success looks like, what failure looks like. And I think those masquerade as operational problems. And we try to make it very sanitary and say, I'm going to use this approach. I'm going to get down to the root cause. But we never look back at leadership as being the root cause. Did that answer your question, John? Col. John Boggs: Yes, it does. Yes, it does. So what separates the leaders? I won't call them good or bad. I'll just say what separates leaders from those who can create momentum, those who can move the organization as opposed to those they create friction. It's almost wherever they go, there's just a pile of stuff that we have to get through because the bots came through here and suddenly what was going well is not. What is that separator? mean... Michael Moorhouse: Yeah. Yeah. A couple of things. ⁓ And I use this whole idea of direction and momentum, know, where you're going and, you know, clear path of where you're going to be. And then the momentum part. And there's a couple of things that drive momentum in my view. There's many things, but I think two main things are going to end up being clarity. Number one is everybody know what their job is, where they fit into that journey, what's expected of them. Col. John Boggs: ⁓ Michael Moorhouse: But the second part is trust. Trust is so critical. if you think about it, with a military background, one of the things that I didn't serve in the military, my dad was a World War II Marine and I've worked with a lot of people that have been in the military. But one of the things that I've observed in the military is that because of what you go through, Col. John Boggs: ⁓ Mm-hmm. ⁓ Michael Moorhouse: that there's a certain level of trust that is built up, which makes your, whatever the unit is, whether it be a platoon, whether it be a division, it makes it fluid and it adapts quickly and it ends up doing things that are much, much higher cadence. And if you think about it, if there's a high level of trust, different questions are going to be asked, you know. Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Michael Moorhouse: not clarifying questions. It's not, okay, now what do we want to do? What's the goal of this? It's, okay, I'm going to get this done. How can you support me doing these things? So if you think about it is trust asks different questions and they're generally action oriented questions versus clarification questions. Col. John Boggs: It does make sense. It does make sense. And there's a. Michael Moorhouse: Does that make sense? Col. John Boggs: and that you brought the service up, particularly the Marine Corps, there's a funny thing with trust. In the Marine Corps, it's almost, you show, trust you immediately. I mean, it's just, it goes without question. I trust you until I find out I can't. Whereas on this side of the fence, on the civilian side of the fence, it's I've got to earn your trust. And it's... Michael Moorhouse: Mm-mm. Col. John Boggs: It's it's one you start the bag is full you can only you can only take out and the other the bag is empty You got to put it in ⁓ so that's that's but I I agree with you wholeheartedly. It is trust It is trust. What does a leader do who? ⁓ they've got to build trust. I mean they what do they do? Michael Moorhouse: Yeah. You know, I have ⁓ a framework and like I said, I like to do things in threes and at a very simple level is a ⁓ has to be able to know the individuals. They have to know you. And that comes through, you know, it's superficial. could be, John, what's your background? You you're married, you have family, how long have you worked in the business? Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. ⁓ Michael Moorhouse: And you've got to be able to know something about that person. It gives you some context. Understanding is the next level, which is typically going to happen through deeper discussions, but most of the time it's going to end up being through actions and shared experiences. ⁓ And hopefully in that you're going to have some conflict because understanding really comes out of conflict, deep understanding, constructive, ⁓ and generally, you know, with the right intentions. And Once you have that and you have a deep understanding, then you move to that trust level. And the way that I've always looked at it, I'll go back to the military side. One of the things that the military does incredibly well ⁓ they do training. And through that whole process, you get to know people, you get to understand them, you ⁓ pain experiences, ⁓ the trust level, let's say that it's given, but it becomes much deeper. Col. John Boggs: Okay. Okay. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Michael Moorhouse: problem that we have in the typical corporate world is we don't do that. And for me, ⁓ when you look at trust, it's built through those shared experiences and going through this, I call it the cut framework. You do that and ⁓ you've got to be able to do it. And what a lot of companies don't do or a lot of leaders don't do, they don't actually do the simulations or the training. ⁓ It could be something as simple as we're going to sit down and for two hours, ⁓ going to go through a simulation as if the company ⁓ was, you know, under track from competitors. How are we all going to work through this? And it not only brings people closer together, you'll understand it a deeper level how they how they react and how they think. But it also has a side benefit that if any of these situations ever come up, now you've done a sim on it and you've got the ability to react a little bit quicker. And with that, can go, OK, I've been through the sims with John, so I trust his judgment. Col. John Boggs: What do you do with the What do you do with that mid-level leader who Michael Moorhouse: I'm going to ask you different questions. Col. John Boggs: is stumbling along. They're trying to impress the boss. And they don't seem to be doing it. They're more directive in nature. They're more ⁓ command-oriented. A lot of folks think the Marine Corps is very command-oriented. If they knew the truth, they'd be surprised. Michael Moorhouse: You're being so tactful. Col. John Boggs: Yeah. How do you how do you how do you deal with that guy? What do you do with him? Michael Moorhouse: ⁓ You know, it goes back to that self-awareness ⁓ and, know, guess, know, jokingly, ⁓ nothing like a good 360 to wake up somebody. ⁓ But it is, it focused on the self-awareness side first and foremost. There's a lot of assessments out there. There's one that I use that is, that is ⁓ powerful, but almost any of them will do. ⁓ and really sit down with somebody to give them an idea of what their... their personality style, we'll use that term, is. And then ⁓ really look how they're, we'll say, leveraging that either positively or negatively within an organization. ⁓ It is always difficult when somebody is, we'll call that persona the one that is an authority manager, because they don't understand the concept of moving people. ⁓ They understand the move of pushing people. Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. you Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Michael Moorhouse: And so, know, being getting them self-aware is really the first part of it. But it is really creating creating a series of activities that will help them understand individuals, the effect and and also building the trust part. I'm not trying to trying to hit it at a high level because everybody's going to be different. If you happen to be, you know, what I call the I told you so boss. Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Michael Moorhouse: you know, that comes in afterwards, that's going to be a different approach. If you're the one before you start this, John, here are the 18 things I want you to do in sequence. And you call me when it's done to make sure that you didn't cause problems. They're all going to be different. Self-awareness is that first step is OK. Mike, you happen to be this this type of leader, and it does not align well. So you want to look for that alignment. So we do a deep assessment and then Col. John Boggs: Mm. Mm. Mm-hmm. Michael Moorhouse: and start working with them. And I can tell you that... Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Michael Moorhouse: Some people get it right away, but my experience, and it's not going to be everybody else's, is there almost has to be a breaking moment, sort of a born again leader type of approach where something was so painful that all of a sudden it clicked. The sad part is a lot of them don't take the feedback well. And so they propagate their style across different organizations or departments. Col. John Boggs: Wow. That sure did. And it leads me right to another one. This is a kind of a true story here. I had an opportunity to work with a young man. I since don't do that anymore. Now I only work with senior folks. But he was tagged as an up and comer in a bank. Michael Moorhouse: Did that answer the question, John? Col. John Boggs: a large bank out of New York. And they were springing, they wanted to get him coaching. Not because something was wrong, of course, and we both know if you're doing great, you get a coach. You get a coach and folks that are listening, if you're good at what you do, you get a coach and you're talking and we're talking right now to a great coach. So pay attention. With this young man, the company, the bank, very large bank, New York. I mean, it's banker's capital. And he decided that he didn't need a coach. He was appreciative. He thanked me. He thanked his organization, he said, don't need a coach. I thought that was interesting. And okay, they're springing for you for a coach and you're gonna turn this down. And he said, a coach. I almost, if I wasn't sitting down, I'd have fell down. A coach is for the weak. Now, I know what I said, but what is your comment to something like that that a coach is for the weak? Michael Moorhouse: you know, I'd like to tell you that I didn't think that at one time, but I was many decades ago. I never really thought at that standpoint, but I said, you know, I've got my act together. You know, I look how successful I am because I'm young and I'm doing well. ⁓ And it's not uncommon. One of the things that I try to ask people almost immediately would be it actually doesn't matter because of age because Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Michael Moorhouse: Sometimes, you know, the older you get, the more entrenched you are, the more certain you are of your skills. I'll go, John, are you coachable? ⁓ ⁓ go, well, what do mean by that? Well, are you willing to be able to take honest feedback? Are you willing to listen? Are you willing to be curious? ⁓ And there's movie that I watched. ⁓ Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. ⁓ Wow. Michael Moorhouse: really great. there's a great quote that aligns really well is the sin of certainty. So great leaders need to be able to kill the sin of certainty. And, you know, when I was younger, I was very certain about everything. And I'm sure anybody that's, you know, seasoned has gone through that. But, you know, the older you get, if you're you're curious, it's going to end up you're going to find out that certainty doesn't exist because what made you successful in Col. John Boggs: That's true. Michael Moorhouse: this season is not going to make you successful in the next one. ⁓ you know, I with people like that, I, I, and I've had, I've heard that. ⁓ And some people, they're not ready to be coached. And that there's a reality, because if they're not coachable, doesn't matter how good you are. They're not going to listen. ⁓ I do try to at minimum. Drill into everybody that to be a great leader. You need to be curious and kill that sin of certainty. know, certainty is, this is the way I've always done it. Certainty is, I'm the guy with the best answer. And you have to do that. it doesn't even, I don't even ask people to be humble, but just be curious. Curiosity kills certainty and the cat. Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. ⁓ That's great. That's great. That's great. Michael, you've built coaching programs. You've worked with top companies. What makes coaching stick versus becoming just a training where we forget in a month or so? ⁓ You know, it's just another, well, this is just another training program. Michael Moorhouse: Sorry for all those cat lovers out there. Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ So we've all been at those, I'm going to call them the two day coaching seminar, webinar, whatever it is. And we go away and day one, we're really excited. Day two, it's sort of, you know, it's heading downhill. And by day three, we're going, oh, that's good. That was all right. And then by the end of the week, we're done. What makes it stick is number one is making sure the person is coachable, really understand them. Col. John Boggs: ⁓ Michael Moorhouse: Let's assume that everybody's open to it. The thing that's really important that it has to align, going back to the alignment side, with the goals and objectives of that person. If I'm trying to coach somebody on communication, but their real goal is to really become a, you know, maybe they need to become a better strategic leader. If that's the most important thing to them, it's not going to stick what I'm trying to coach. So it's got to be really relevant ⁓ in a line with their goals. Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Michael Moorhouse: It doesn't mean that you can't do more than one. Hey, we're going to, we're going to coach you on strategy, but we're also going to end up coaching you on communication because it's going to help you with it. And then it's got to be repetitive. It's no different than going through the military. Like we're talking about doing simulations. The coaching has got to be aligned. It's got to be relevant to them and it's got to be useful on a day to day basis. And it's going to take some time. I I don't think anything that Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Michael Moorhouse: you know, less than 90 days really works. Ideally, if somebody's going to work on something six months, ⁓ and it's small changes, ⁓ you know, the, the, things that we do minute to minute, hour to hour, day to day, week to week have a much bigger impact than some big decision we made. Those things become our habits and those habits shape your character, whether it be work or personal. then, you know, your character actually ends up shaping your life. And so, so, you know, I guess to make it relevant, make it something that somebody really wants to do and anchor it and then repeat and build on it, repeat and build, repeat and build. Col. John Boggs: Do you coach the high performers differently from others? You get us, well, let me give you an example. You're working with a CEO. Michael Moorhouse: you Col. John Boggs: He's really good at what he does. He's very sharp. the next, the other CEO, you're working with two CEOs, the next CEO, ⁓ he's not as sharp. He works hard, gets the job done, but he's not quite as, he's not quite the high performer as CEO one. Michael Moorhouse: Mm-hmm. Col. John Boggs: Do you coach them differently? Michael Moorhouse: ⁓ absolutely. ⁓ And I, there's different flavors of, of individuals out there. mean, we were made differently. We all have different gifts. ⁓ We'll call high performers somebody. I think we're talking about somebody that's really goal and goals and objectives oriented, pretty driven. You know, if we can get past the, you coachable piece? Absolutely. Because they're going to be driven by making sure that you set the, what I'll Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Yes. Mm-hmm. you Michael Moorhouse: the goals and objectives align really well with what they want to get done. And they tend to be drivers. And so your approach is going to be different as here's what we're going to do. Here's how it's going to align. And it's going to be I'm not going to say black and white, but it's going to be it's going to be a lot more defined. Lower performers or people that aren't driven, they may be more people oriented. They may be, you know, it's not that they're not a high performer, but they're certainly a different performer. Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Michael Moorhouse: If you think about it, they get the job done, but they do it differently. We'll look at things that maybe ⁓ are them back. Identify what's working for you, what's holding you back. We'll mitigate those, make a decision on do we mitigate those things that are holding you back or do we build on the things that are moving you forward? There are a lot of, ⁓ you know, and I think particularly today that are very much about culture, about building an organization that is very productive through the activity of the whole. they're not necessarily the personality or the driver. That's a completely different set of skills. A lot of those people lack some of the other ones. They need to be a driver. So we'll work with them differently to try to get them to be that, or we'll give them some different work that will mitigate things or build them up. Col. John Boggs: This is great. Michael Moorhouse: Just... Col. John Boggs: This is fantastic, Michael, because what you're saying, if I'm reading this correctly, is this is not one shoe fits everyone. This is not that. This is very, as the Brits would say, very bespoke. Coaching is very bespoke, and that's what you do. That's how you make your difference, your mark. And I greatly appreciate that. ⁓ ⁓ hope people listening appreciate that. That's ⁓ coaching. ⁓ Michael Moorhouse: Mm-hmm. Col. John Boggs: It's not, I'm not gonna coach you the same way as I did coach A because it's, you're not A. Michael Moorhouse: Yeah, and if you think about it, let's just say that you've got some kind of client continuity where, John, you were at, company a, ⁓ and coached you on certain things. ⁓ You've changed the environment that you're in. It's a different organization. There's different context. may coach you differently because you're in a different environment. ⁓ coaching somebody ⁓ coaching a journey. There's, ⁓ know, whether ⁓ coaching employee or you're coaching somebody, it's a journey. Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Michael Moorhouse: And nobody ever arrives at being a leader. They just get close, you know, close to it and it's continuing to unfold and uncover. That's what makes it so much fun and interesting is, you know, if somebody says, you know, I've ⁓ I became a leader. ⁓ OK, that's that one moment. Maybe you're a leader then, but are you still a leader because now the world around you has changed? We're all going through it with we'll call it the ⁓ Col. John Boggs: Yeah. Very good. Yep. Michael Moorhouse: highly accelerated change management with technology. What I knew last year may not matter. So, but, you know, it's a, what do they call it in military? It's a, know, the unfolding circumstances on the battlefield, right? It's, it's, and it's, I think the analogy is there is, or Mike Tyson's, everybody's got a, you know, great plan until they get punched in the face. So yeah, I, I do want to mention one thing. I think that in today's environment, the ability to have, ⁓ I wrote, Col. John Boggs: Absolutely, absolutely right, yeah. Michael Moorhouse: an article on, this mental fitness and the ability to adapt and be resilient is critical. And, and you know, that sin of certainty, certainty means it's a fixed set of beliefs and concepts and decisions and things. I don't think, I don't think we're there. You have to adapt. It's if your company isn't changing. Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. you Michael Moorhouse: your vendors are, your competitors are. So change is coming externally if it's not coming internally. And I believe we're moving into that constant state of change. It is no longer episodic. Col. John Boggs: Wow. Change is coming externally if not internally. Michael Moorhouse: Mm-hmm. Col. John Boggs: I'm going to get that note. Michael Moorhouse: It's just technology. how many times do you, you from a consumer perspective, somebody said, my bank just updated the website that I go into and I can't navigate. I mean, that's on a consumer side, but internally that happens. You know, we all do business with people. They shift. and that's, ⁓ think that is, you know, going forward is that mental resilience, ⁓ helps. ⁓ Col. John Boggs: Yeah, that's right. hmm. ⁓ ⁓ Michael Moorhouse: the ability to adapt ⁓ and look at it as fun, mindset management. Col. John Boggs: Well, you you lead me right into my next thought, and that's when the pressure hits. All these changes are happening. Pressure is on. Deadlines. still, but I still have to make my deadlines. I've still got people issues. God knows I've got people issues. I don't know how many times I've heard that one. What helps a leader stay clear, stay calm and clear on what they're trying to accomplish? Michael Moorhouse: Yeah. Yeah. Going back to, I think what we started with is, you know, the clarity of purpose, you know, like is what is my business about or what am I supposed to be doing? Anchor yourself with that. ⁓ Self-aware. And I think this actually is probably where self-awareness comes in. We all react differently to pressure. And there's some incredible neuroscience behind it. But, you know, some people that are that are ⁓ left brain tend to be more checklist oriented people that right brain are going to behave differently. So understand your, that what we'll call that functioning, that optimal functioning where you're doing well, but also how you operate under stress and how that manifests itself. So self-awareness is really critical because you can find a way to take that pressure off. If you get past that, then, you know, create what I will call decision models. Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Michael Moorhouse: that this is how we will make decisions. Understand what team you've got, who you can count on, but it's really building this base that you operate off of. going back to the idea of simulations, it's a lot easier. And I don't have to tell you, with being in Marine Corps for 30 years, if you simulate what's going to happen on the ground, Col. John Boggs: That's correct. Michael Moorhouse: then when something happens on the ground, it may not be the same, but you're pulling scenarios off a bookshelf, you can run through them rapidly. so at a very high level, I think that's what you have to do. One of the things that leaders don't spend enough time doing is running through the what ifs and what I call business simulations or interpersonal simulations. How would you handle this? Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Michael Moorhouse: And instead of reacting or responding from a position of knowledge and confidence in what we'll call maybe context, they either react or some people melt down. ⁓ So I think that's important that you spend some time going through those things and it'll give you the confidence when something difficult comes up. Col. John Boggs: Wow, that's, ⁓ that makes a lot of sense running through the what ifs. Michael Moorhouse: Does that make sense, John? Col. John Boggs: Wow, could you say a little bit more about that? The what ifs? That is just, that's very good. mean, holy smokes. Michael Moorhouse: Yeah. But that comes down to the curiosity piece. ⁓ I've always been very curious ⁓ to the point where I actually have to discipline myself for not being too curious at times. ⁓ But one of the things that I think helped me was if we were going to do, we're going to launch this business line. I had a vision of what, you know, what the, you know, the happy path was. And then there was this one where it was really incredible. We really hit the, the, the ball out of the park. Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Michael Moorhouse: But I always went to, but what if this happens? How would I react? What would I do? And that was a constant thing in my head, you know, just on an ongoing basis because a week from now situations are different. I don't think you have to become obsessed with it, but you have to go through the exercise. that is, and this goes to training your mind to be able to run through those things. Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yes. . Michael Moorhouse: going back to that sin of certainty. Well, I know that when this happens, this is what we have to do. Well, that worked a year ago, it doesn't work today. You've got to constantly be refreshing the database and refreshing the software and doing it and hopefully doing it with other people. Col. John Boggs: Yes, yes. Michael, if someone's listening today. Michael Moorhouse: Mm-hmm. Col. John Boggs: and they wanted to become a better leader. And that's really the point of this whole exercise is for people to become better at leading. I I don't care what you're leading, we can always be better. What would you tell them, the first thing you'd start with, if it's, what's one thing they could do differently today that could help them in the long run? Michael Moorhouse: I'm going to give you a multi-layered answer, John. So ⁓ it sort of ties in. think if I was going to say one thing is actually two things become very self-aware that that your your decisions are all shaped by how you perform and how you Col. John Boggs: Okay. Michael Moorhouse: process information, how make decisions. So become very self-aware and you're gonna find that the way that you are right now is very good in certain situations and then you have to get this other person in other situations. that is definitely, to me that's a base for all leadership, self-awareness. ⁓ If nothing else, become curious. Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. All right. Michael Moorhouse: become very curious and kill that sin uncertainty. Be curious about your business, be curious about your staff. If you're curious, you're going to ask questions, you're going to listen. It drives a lot. ⁓ If I'm curious and I want to find out something and I talk to you, John, I'm going to ask a question. If I'm curious, I'm going to listen. If I'm not curious, I may ask you the question and then I'm just going to disregard it. So curiosity right now, I think is probably one of the most important things to be as a leader. start there and it will open a tremendous amount of doors for you. Col. John Boggs: Okay. That's well, as a coach like you, is exactly what I expected to hear that. And what I'm hoping is that our listeners Michael Moorhouse: Was that what you're expecting? Yeah. Col. John Boggs: really take that to heart. ⁓ couldn't agree with you more. I just couldn't. But three years from now. What would be true for you to feel like you made a real difference in the leaders that you worked with? Michael Moorhouse: ⁓ I think, you know, to feel that I made a difference is that what I did, ⁓ the information that I gave them, insights, things that I put them through was useful and created a positive impact. And it doesn't have to, nothing dramatic. It could end up being something as simple as ⁓ just made, they were able to make some better decisions. They were able to connect more with people. Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Michael Moorhouse: ⁓ And at the heart of it, is, you know, connecting with the people that work for you at a particular level. just being useful and having an impact, I think, is the most important thing. I've never been much of a legacy person ⁓ because I think a lot of times if you think too much about legacy, you make decisions based on trying to get the legacy. And if you ever really look at the true legacies, they were the people that did all the right things and the legacy followed. Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm. Michael Moorhouse: Um, there was a, uh, decades ago, there was a teacher in Northern California that had passed away. Elementary school teacher, a gentleman, who, I think 30 years he'd passed away and I'm sure he never thought of leaving a legacy, but like 3000 people showed up at his funeral, all like students. And, that really sunk in. And I think if you do the right things every day, that is the legacy. Col. John Boggs: Wow. Michael Moorhouse: And I think this is one of the things that I do talk to leaders on. say, well, you know, want my legacy to be this, that I built a great company. did this. so one of things I try to get people to think about is the legacy will follow the right decisions, the right things, love the process, ensure that it's a, you know, think critically and act virtuously about your goals and the legacy will follow. The world does not care about our legacy. They only care about what we do on a day-to-day basis, and those add up to legacy eventually. Col. John Boggs: Well. It's great. That is great. It's good stuff. Michael, ⁓ for the folks who are listening, they want people who are listening and they want to reach out to you. They want to, hey, I really liked Michael Morehouse. How do I work with him? How do I connect with him? How do they do that? How do they reach out to you? How do they connect with you? How do they get the great coaching ⁓ you clearly give? How do they reach you? Michael Moorhouse: ⁓ real, you know, real simple. have a website. It is the more house group.com and, ⁓ you can also find me on LinkedIn. Those are two very easy ways to, to reach me. And, I respond to ⁓ their inquiries. ⁓ and I generally, ⁓ when somebody wants to chat with me, I'll, I'll ⁓ them on the phone. like to talk to people. ⁓ that's a great way to do it. Col. John Boggs: That is a great way. is a great way. Wow. Well, Michael, thank you very much. This was absolutely wonderful. I greatly appreciate it. Folks, ⁓ Morehousegroup.com. That's how you reach Michael. Morehousegroup.com. So, and I hope they realize that they got a taste of what great coaching is and we'll reach out to you. Michael, thank you very much for being here. I greatly appreciate it. Thank you so much, brother. Thank you so much. Michael Moorhouse: John, I appreciate it. It's been enjoyable. Looking forward to chatting offline on a regular basis. Col. John Boggs: All right, brother, I'll talk to you in a bit.