Latest / Get Real with Jim Weiss / Bravery Is A Practice with Jill Schulman
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: So great to talk to Jill.
- 0:01Speaker 2: I mean, you know, I think this concept of bravery
- 0:04Speaker 2: is really foundational to any person's success, whether in life
- 0:09Speaker 2: or in business or in any other way. So I
- 0:11Speaker 2: think it was such a fundamental, basic discussion on our
- 0:15Speaker 2: podcast where we want to impart real practical ways of
- 0:19Speaker 2: living better and making the world a healthier place.
- 0:21Speaker 1: So I think, you know, it starts with bravery.
- 0:24Speaker 2: There's a lot of science, there's a lot of data,
- 0:26Speaker 2: so I learned a lot.
- 0:27Speaker 3: Also, I'm fine when I'm listening to podcasts outside of ours,
- 0:30Speaker 3: but also in our recordings when our guests really jog
- 0:33Speaker 3: my memory and make me think of times in my
- 0:36Speaker 3: life where I haven't practiced what they're preaching, or where
- 0:39Speaker 3: somebody has done something that's felt uncomfortable for me. I'm
- 0:42Speaker 3: always like, this is a sign of a good conversation,
- 0:45Speaker 3: And with her, I was like thinking back on early
- 0:47Speaker 3: career and things bosses said to me, or ways I
- 0:50Speaker 3: behaved or company structures. Her work is so vital. Work
- 0:56Speaker 3: is the thing we're doing till we're eighty. Right, we
- 1:00Speaker 3: have to enjoy and feel safe and comfortable and brave.
- 1:03Speaker 2: Also, Jill puts it across in a very personal way
- 1:06Speaker 2: through her own experience in life and candid and open.
- 1:10Speaker 1: So I think that makes.
- 1:12Speaker 2: For a little bit better way to take it. And
- 1:14Speaker 2: when the person coaching you is a bit vulnerable themselves
- 1:18Speaker 2: and they're not perfect, yeah, that's also helpful.
- 1:21Speaker 3: I mean her answer Dan for what she's getting real
- 1:24Speaker 3: about was our best yet, I think, or most vulnerable.
- 1:26Speaker 4: Yeah, what did it make you think about as a leader.
- 1:28Speaker 2: One of the things I feel I do as a
- 1:31Speaker 2: leader is to help people see they can do something
- 1:34Speaker 2: they don't think they can do. I think helping someone
- 1:38Speaker 2: get there is really important.
- 1:40Speaker 1: The how you do it is everything.
- 1:43Speaker 2: So you know, you've got to bring people along and
- 1:47Speaker 2: meet them where they are where we talk about that.
- 1:50Speaker 2: You can't over impose and you want to make a statement.
- 1:54Speaker 2: I think there's an art to doing this, which is
- 1:56Speaker 2: why Jill has a training company. I think people there's
- 1:59Speaker 2: an art in a methodology to get people where you
- 2:03Speaker 2: need to get them without turning them off or turning
- 2:06Speaker 2: them away. You don't have to yell, and sometimes listening
- 2:11Speaker 2: more is the way to get us there. And so
- 2:15Speaker 2: again I think it's this whole kind of journey of
- 2:17Speaker 2: the podcast and my conversations obviously help me, help you,
- 2:23Speaker 2: help our listeners, help the audience think about new.
- 2:26Speaker 1: Ways to evolve and grow.
- 2:28Speaker 2: And she talked about the concept of a growth mindset,
- 2:32Speaker 2: and I think I have plenty of mentors out there
- 2:34Speaker 2: who've taught me that.
- 2:36Speaker 1: But I guess it's just never being satisfied and just
- 2:39Speaker 1: relentlessly pursuing what's next.
- 2:42Speaker 3: Yeah, well, should we show off her book for the
- 2:44Speaker 3: audience and then sure there's motivation, there is the bravery effects.
- 2:52Speaker 4: Be brave, get braver.
- 2:56Speaker 2: So, Jill Schulman, you teach the science of brain bravery
- 3:01Speaker 2: and the bravery effect. Your book is a roadmap for
- 3:04Speaker 2: that science. I can't believe there's a science for it.
- 3:07Speaker 2: From cybercrime to digital building to school and public shooting.
- 3:11Speaker 2: Does bravery look different when we have to be HyperWare
- 3:15Speaker 2: aware of everything around us and our devices, social media,
- 3:20Speaker 2: emerging AI making it harder to be brave today? Is
- 3:24Speaker 2: it a different context that you're talking about this topic.
- 3:29Speaker 4: Yeah, in twenty twenty six, bravery is more important than ever.
- 3:34Speaker 4: And I'll give you two reasons why. Number One, if
- 3:38Speaker 4: we look at the messaging that we see in the media,
- 3:41Speaker 4: the messaging is that being uncomfortable is bad that we want.
- 3:47Speaker 4: If there's anything that makes us feel anxious, then what
- 3:52Speaker 4: we should do is we should avoid it. And stress
- 3:55Speaker 4: is horrible, It's going to kill us, so we want
- 3:56Speaker 4: to avoid it at all costs. And I say this
- 3:59Speaker 4: because sometimes you see the world through the eyes of
- 4:02Speaker 4: your children. So I have an eighteen and twenty year old,
- 4:04Speaker 4: two daughters, and that's what they think. Like my the
- 4:07Speaker 4: key to success and happiness in this world is to
- 4:10Speaker 4: everything to come with ease. And it's just not what
- 4:14Speaker 4: the science supports. And you know this in our when
- 4:17Speaker 4: we met at the HbA conference. I mean I studied
- 4:20Speaker 4: psychology at Penn and my degree is in applied positive psychology,
- 4:25Speaker 4: So I'm a happiness scientist, Like I know, what does
- 4:27Speaker 4: the research tell us that makes people not only the
- 4:30Speaker 4: most successful in happiness when we think of the messaging
- 4:34Speaker 4: that's out there, like we need a little bit of
- 4:36Speaker 4: a correction where we need to teach the world so
- 4:39Speaker 4: in corporate America and our younger generation that we should
- 4:43Speaker 4: not be running away from what we fear. If we do,
- 4:47Speaker 4: it will not make you more successful, it will not
- 4:49Speaker 4: make you happier. In fact, I'm a little bit of
- 4:50Speaker 4: a science geek, Jim, And it's because I worked in
- 4:52Speaker 4: pharma and I always said I will never make a
- 4:54Speaker 4: claim without some science to back it up. So there
- 4:57Speaker 4: was a really interesting study that was just done in
- 5:00Speaker 4: twenty twenty four and the researchers followed more than two
- 5:04Speaker 4: thousand adults over four years, so it's a longitudinal study,
- 5:07Speaker 4: and they found that experiential avoidance so when people were
- 5:10Speaker 4: scared or there's risk and so they avoided it, it
- 5:15Speaker 4: caused the development and persistence of anxiety and depression. So
- 5:20Speaker 4: this is where again I'm talking, like to my two
- 5:23Speaker 4: daughters who are eighteen and twenty, like, I want them
- 5:26Speaker 4: to know that if they keep avoiding the things that
- 5:29Speaker 4: have risk or they're scared of, it is not going
- 5:32Speaker 4: to make them happier, right, And that's where people are confused, like, Okay,
- 5:36Speaker 4: this really makes me nervous, I'm gonna avoid it. So
- 5:37Speaker 4: I'm gonna have mental well being if I avoid the
- 5:40Speaker 4: uncomfortable things. And that is absolutely the opposite of what
- 5:43Speaker 4: we know based on the science. And the second reason
- 5:47Speaker 4: why bravery is so important today, especially in the business
- 5:51Speaker 4: world in the healthcare industry is I think back in
- 5:54Speaker 4: the day, Jim, like when I was starting off a long,
- 5:57Speaker 4: long time ago in pharma. What difference cerentiated me and
- 6:01Speaker 4: a lot of top performers is we had the most knowledge.
- 6:06Speaker 4: If you have the most knowledge, then you could run
- 6:10Speaker 4: circles around people that weren't as smarter, didn't have as
- 6:12Speaker 4: much knowledge. But AI has changed that, like people don't
- 6:18Speaker 4: need to study as much because they can get the
- 6:20Speaker 4: information just at a click. But there's actually two things
- 6:23Speaker 4: that we need now. And because AI is wonderful, and
- 6:25Speaker 4: I know you had an episode on that, but right now,
- 6:28Speaker 4: the skill of bravery, if people stepping forward in the
- 6:33Speaker 4: presence of fear, that is what's going to make them
- 6:36Speaker 4: the most successful in the workplace. You know, for them
- 6:38Speaker 4: to ask the uncomfortable question of the doctor, for someone
- 6:42Speaker 4: to give the feedback to someone else at work, for
- 6:46Speaker 4: them to be better. Bravery is just an absolutely essential
- 6:50Speaker 4: skill moving forward. So it's really the ability to connect
- 6:53Speaker 4: with people number one. That's an important skill and then bravery.
- 6:56Speaker 4: And if those are the skills that we're working on
- 6:58Speaker 4: in the workplace, we're going to unstoppable.
- 7:01Speaker 2: Well, it doesn't sound like it's just the workplace you mentioned,
- 7:03Speaker 2: you know, asking questions in the doctor's office. Well, why
- 7:06Speaker 2: did people not want to bother the doctor or the
- 7:11Speaker 2: mother or anybody. I've had this happen when my kids
- 7:14Speaker 2: see me in a call and they don't come in
- 7:17Speaker 2: with what they want. Is it because they were scolded
- 7:21Speaker 2: when they did it before? What are some of the
- 7:23Speaker 2: factors that go into not stepping up and forward and out?
- 7:28Speaker 4: Yeah, it's mainly if we look at the literature, it's
- 7:32Speaker 4: this social fear. It's the fear that it's going to backfire.
- 7:36Speaker 4: So if I ask the difficult question of the doctor,
- 7:40Speaker 4: then maybe there's going to be some retaliation and then
- 7:43Speaker 4: he's not going to see me next time, or if
- 7:45Speaker 4: I close too hard. I was in sales leadership and
- 7:48Speaker 4: pharma for a very very long time. That was the
- 7:51Speaker 4: biggest challenge that we sometimes had in leading our sales organization.
- 7:54Speaker 4: Like they would do the three point message, you know,
- 7:55Speaker 4: back in the day, but getting them to ask for
- 7:58Speaker 4: the commitment. But the reason why there's scared is it
- 8:00Speaker 4: makes them uncomfortable to make the other person uncomfortable and
- 8:03Speaker 4: what if they say no? But you and I both
- 8:06Speaker 4: know this, like if they say no, then we can
- 8:09Speaker 4: ask why. So it's all about social fear. If we
- 8:12Speaker 4: look at evolutionary psychology, fear has so much control over
- 8:18Speaker 4: our behavior, and this is what kept us alive back
- 8:21Speaker 4: in the caveman days. Like you feel fear when you
- 8:23Speaker 4: get close to the edge of a cliff, that's what
- 8:25Speaker 4: keeps you alive because you're not going to fall off,
- 8:27Speaker 4: or when you see a bear or a saber toothed
- 8:30Speaker 4: tiger and you take action to minimize that risk. So
- 8:34Speaker 4: being motivated by fear is what used to keep us alive.
- 8:37Speaker 4: But in today's day, it's all about social fear. But
- 8:41Speaker 4: our nervous system does not know the difference. So in
- 8:43Speaker 4: those situations, people feel the fear and they think the
- 8:48Speaker 4: fear is a sign that something's wrong and they should
- 8:51Speaker 4: not move forward, and that's not the truth. So what
- 8:55Speaker 4: I teach audiences is to be curious when you're feeling
- 8:59Speaker 4: the fear. Most of the time, fear is not a
- 9:02Speaker 4: stop sign. It's a sign post to move forward in
- 9:05Speaker 4: that direction because it's pointing you to the thing that
- 9:08Speaker 4: you most need to do.
- 9:09Speaker 2: So I always like to start at the start. Your
- 9:11Speaker 2: good origin story is fun. When did you first experience
- 9:15Speaker 2: the power of bravery? Why bravery? How did you get
- 9:18Speaker 2: all into this.
- 9:19Speaker 4: Well, let me start. I think the first time where
- 9:20Speaker 4: I discovered the power of bravery, it was when I
- 9:24Speaker 4: was nineteen years old in San Diego, California, and I
- 9:26Speaker 4: was standing on a platform forty feet in the air
- 9:30Speaker 4: and in front of me was a rope that extended
- 9:34Speaker 4: from the platform more than one hundred feet down to
- 9:37Speaker 4: basically the ground a lower platform, and it looked like
- 9:39Speaker 4: a zipline. Jim, it looked like a zipline, but it
- 9:42Speaker 4: wasn't a zipline because there was no equipment. It was
- 9:45Speaker 4: just me and my body and I was expected to
- 9:47Speaker 4: go down this thing. This was on the Navy Seal
- 9:50Speaker 4: base in Cornado, California. Because I went to college in
- 9:53Speaker 4: San Diego, I had a full scholarship ROTC scholarship Marine
- 9:57Speaker 4: Corps option, so I was training to become a marine.
- 10:00Speaker 4: And someone at my unit thought it would be a
- 10:02Speaker 4: fun idea to go to Coronado and do this thing
- 10:07Speaker 4: called the Confidence Course, and they kind of sold it
- 10:10Speaker 4: as it's on the beach in Coronado, it'll be fun.
- 10:13Speaker 4: This is where Navy seals get scared, and we're doing it.
- 10:17Speaker 4: And I'm nineteen years old in college and I'm on
- 10:20Speaker 4: this platform, and I feel the fear Jim, Like, you know,
- 10:24Speaker 4: when you're scared, but you can kind of fake it
- 10:26Speaker 4: on the outside, you know, you're like, I'm cool, Like, no,
- 10:29Speaker 4: I'm not scared, and then sometimes you're your body betrays you,
- 10:33Speaker 4: like my knees were shaking, my hands were shaking. I mean,
- 10:37Speaker 4: it was evident that I was so scared. But when
- 10:41Speaker 4: my feet hit the ground on the other side of
- 10:45Speaker 4: that rope, something shifted and I ended up doing all
- 10:49Speaker 4: the obstacles on this confidence course. It's not called an
- 10:51Speaker 4: obstacle course, it's called the confidence course. And I didn't
- 10:53Speaker 4: realize it until after I did all the obstacles of
- 10:57Speaker 4: why and it is bravery or confidence is not built
- 11:03Speaker 4: by doing all the things in the mindset and waiting
- 11:06Speaker 4: until you feel ready. So what I learned that day
- 11:08Speaker 4: is when you take a step forward on shaky k ease,
- 11:11Speaker 4: when you act when you're scared, that is actually what
- 11:15Speaker 4: builds confidence and bravery. So that was I think the
- 11:18Speaker 4: first time where I realized that. And then fast forward
- 11:21Speaker 4: to five years ago when I started studying at PEN
- 11:25Speaker 4: Then I was learning all the psychology behind it. When
- 11:28Speaker 4: I was doing my master's thesis, which I did with
- 11:31Speaker 4: the Wharton School of Business. It's like you experience life
- 11:34Speaker 4: and you just know these universal truths and then you
- 11:36Speaker 4: study the science behind it. And we need this in
- 11:39Speaker 4: the workplace because we usually do this. I mean, you
- 11:42Speaker 4: know this, Jim, because you've been leader and Pharma and
- 11:44Speaker 4: you've helped so many different clients. Sometimes we just go
- 11:47Speaker 4: and say, like, do the thing. Let me just train
- 11:48Speaker 4: you in how to do the thing. Just do the thing,
- 11:50Speaker 4: But we don't help people build the bravery to be
- 11:54Speaker 4: able to do the hard things. So I kind of
- 11:57Speaker 4: think of like a stream like it. Sometimes we're downstream
- 11:59Speaker 4: saying do the thing, But if we just go upstream
- 12:01Speaker 4: and help them build the bravery, it has such a
- 12:05Speaker 4: huge impact downstream, they're going to be able to do
- 12:08Speaker 4: the hard thing.
- 12:09Speaker 2: Well, there's something between you standing on this platform and
- 12:13Speaker 2: putting your feet and hands onto the rope. Yeah, there's
- 12:18Speaker 2: a sum you know, that's where it is.
- 12:20Speaker 1: So what is it? Adrenaline? What the hell? Or you
- 12:23Speaker 1: just like shut your eyes and go what is it?
- 12:26Speaker 4: When I decided to grab the rope, it's because I
- 12:28Speaker 4: had the fear of getting on the rope and what
- 12:30Speaker 4: would happen? But then I had a larger fear, and
- 12:33Speaker 4: larger fear was everyone else from my unit looking up
- 12:37Speaker 4: at me. So when we look at when people make
- 12:40Speaker 4: a brave decision, what we teach them is we want
- 12:43Speaker 4: people to think about what is the consequence if you
- 12:46Speaker 4: don't take the brave step. So for me, I got
- 12:49Speaker 4: on that rope and I grabbed the grope and did
- 12:51Speaker 4: the obstacle because I had a greater fear of looking
- 12:55Speaker 4: like a wimp around all of my fellow Marines. And
- 12:58Speaker 4: the stakes were high for me because I went into
- 13:01Speaker 4: the Marine Corps option ROTC. I wanted to be a
- 13:04Speaker 4: marine after the military.
- 13:05Speaker 2: You worked for over a decade in sales with Abbott
- 13:08Speaker 2: among others. What made you go in that direction from
- 13:12Speaker 2: where you were?
- 13:13Speaker 4: Yeah, doesn't that make sense? A female officer in the
- 13:17Speaker 4: combat arm of combat engineering one of the first How
- 13:20Speaker 4: did I move from that to pharmacales? I wish I
- 13:23Speaker 4: had the story Jim of saying like I always had
- 13:26Speaker 4: a desire. No, I got out of the Marine Corps
- 13:28Speaker 4: and there's recruiters that specialize in placing junior officers. So
- 13:34Speaker 4: I got out of the Marine Corps as a captain.
- 13:36Speaker 4: So these recruiters grab you, and they're like, I want
- 13:39Speaker 4: to place you into a job so I can get paid.
- 13:42Speaker 4: And they're the ones that said, pharmaceutical sales. This is
- 13:45Speaker 4: back in two thousand and that's when there were such
- 13:48Speaker 4: expansions in the commercial side, in the sales organization, so
- 13:51Speaker 4: there's a great demand. So they said, why don't you
- 13:53Speaker 4: think about doing pharmaceutical sales and I'll take you. My
- 13:56Speaker 4: first response, Jim, was pharmaceutical sales. I'm a captain of marines.
- 14:01Speaker 4: Excuse me, Like I am above sales and what's with
- 14:06Speaker 4: the medical I had no interest, and the recruiter said
- 14:10Speaker 4: to me, you know what, it would be really great
- 14:11Speaker 4: for you to go to these interviews to practice your
- 14:14Speaker 4: interviewing skills, even if you don't want to do it.
- 14:16Speaker 4: So I agreed. So I went and I interviewed with
- 14:19Speaker 4: two companies and the second company I interviewed with was
- 14:23Speaker 4: Abbot Labs back in the day, and the hiring manager
- 14:27Speaker 4: was a Marine Corps former Marine Corp officer. The interview
- 14:30Speaker 4: turned into like, okay, tell me about this industry is
- 14:32Speaker 4: it great? And so I ended up taking the job.
- 14:35Speaker 4: And then I fell in love with the science and
- 14:41Speaker 4: I fell in love with sales. And I absolutely loved
- 14:45Speaker 4: and I have spent pretty much my entire career. I
- 14:49Speaker 4: was there for thirteen years. I went to a device
- 14:51Speaker 4: company for a little bit, then I launched my company
- 14:53Speaker 4: and I primarily serve healthcare pharma companies. So I'm so
- 14:58Speaker 4: glad that recruiter kind of twisted my arm and said, aid,
- 15:02Speaker 4: miss fancy Pants, just go do some interviews, because it
- 15:05Speaker 4: ended up leading to this amazing career.
- 15:08Speaker 2: Well, it's amazing how we get into what we get into.
- 15:11Speaker 2: So let's share some core parts of the playbook in
- 15:15Speaker 2: the Bravery Effect.
- 15:16Speaker 4: The book is written as a parable. So for those
- 15:19Speaker 4: of us who love like Lencioni's book The Five Dysfunctions
- 15:22Speaker 4: of a Team, love it. I used to work for
- 15:23Speaker 4: the table group doing that work. Or if you love
- 15:26Speaker 4: Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson's The New One Minute Manager,
- 15:30Speaker 4: like if you love learning through parables, I decided to
- 15:33Speaker 4: write the book as a parable. In fact, Ken is
- 15:35Speaker 4: a mentor of mine. He wrote the forward. The book
- 15:37Speaker 4: is written as a parable, and it teaches that bravery's
- 15:40Speaker 4: a skill that anyone can learn, and it's in a
- 15:43Speaker 4: professional environment, and it really goes through the three different
- 15:47Speaker 4: think of it as exercises because we were using the
- 15:49Speaker 4: analogy of going to the gym. Three different things you
- 15:52Speaker 4: can do to build your bravery, and the first comes
- 15:55Speaker 4: from cognitive psychology, So it is on mindset. First have
- 16:00Speaker 4: to win the battle in our mind before we can
- 16:03Speaker 4: take the action. So mindset, how we think, does impact
- 16:08Speaker 4: our actions. So cognitive psychology and I really cite four
- 16:12Speaker 4: different things in the book. One is making sure people
- 16:15Speaker 4: have a growth mindset, citing Carol Dwe's research. Number two
- 16:19Speaker 4: I love a Leah Crumb's research out of Stanford on
- 16:22Speaker 4: stress is enhancing mindset. This is such a game changer
- 16:26Speaker 4: in organizations. So if people think that stress is bad
- 16:31Speaker 4: and they should avoid at all costs, and most of
- 16:33Speaker 4: our jobs JIM are stressful because there's challenges, then we'll
- 16:38Speaker 4: have a negative stress response.
- 16:40Speaker 1: But stress is helpful, right.
- 16:42Speaker 4: Exactly exactly if you teach people that stress and challenges
- 16:47Speaker 4: are what make you stronger. We are actually born to
- 16:50Speaker 4: strive both physically and physiologically, if we look the research,
- 16:53Speaker 4: so we do need to be challenged. So we talk
- 16:56Speaker 4: about changing people's mindset. Then we get into behavior psychology,
- 17:00Speaker 4: which is actually taking the step forward. Like when I
- 17:03Speaker 4: was on that platform, and we go into some evidence
- 17:06Speaker 4: based tips on how people can actually take that step
- 17:09Speaker 4: on shaky knee. So there's behavioral psychology and then lastly
- 17:13Speaker 4: we end with social psychology. So my third part of
- 17:17Speaker 4: the bravery model is about building a brave tribe. Curating
- 17:22Speaker 4: a brave tribe. If you've got a challenging goal and
- 17:26Speaker 4: there's some fear along the journey, make sure that you
- 17:30Speaker 4: find the right mentors that have the experience the knowledge
- 17:35Speaker 4: that you need, but also will make sure that they
- 17:38Speaker 4: call forth your best. They won't let you tap out
- 17:40Speaker 4: when you're scared.
- 17:41Speaker 2: Amazing, what do leaders miss about being brave?
- 17:45Speaker 4: Leaders need to learn how to be brave themselves and
- 17:47Speaker 4: model it, but they also need to teach the skill
- 17:50Speaker 4: of bravery to their team. Like I've done a lot
- 17:55Speaker 4: of work teaching psychological safety in the workplace. You know,
- 17:57Speaker 4: Amy Edmundson from Harvard is the one has done you know,
- 18:00Speaker 4: most of the research. Love her, love all of her research.
- 18:03Speaker 4: I talk about it all the time. But what we
- 18:05Speaker 4: miss is the real goal is not creating psychological safety.
- 18:10Speaker 4: It's not The real goal is candor. We want people
- 18:14Speaker 4: to ask for help, We want people to share their ideas,
- 18:16Speaker 4: so we're not the goal that this drives me crazy.
- 18:18Speaker 4: Leaders like we want psychological safety. I'm like, no, you don't.
- 18:21Speaker 4: You want candor so. We need to teach leaders how
- 18:25Speaker 4: to create psychological safety, which will take that risk down.
- 18:29Speaker 4: But people are still scared to speak up. You know,
- 18:33Speaker 4: when I use that example, some people are just shy.
- 18:36Speaker 4: Like you can make it totally psychologically safe, but still
- 18:38Speaker 4: people still are scared of speaking up. So there are
- 18:42Speaker 4: two sides of the coin. We want to try to
- 18:46Speaker 4: make it safer, but we need to teach the skill
- 18:48Speaker 4: of bravery. So there's this field called you know, just
- 18:50Speaker 4: if you know of like self efficacy, you know that
- 18:53Speaker 4: concept by Albert Bendera, like how do people feel confident
- 18:56Speaker 4: to do something? There's something called voice efficacy, and I
- 18:59Speaker 4: like to teach that to the clients that I serve, Like,
- 19:01Speaker 4: we need to teach people the skill of finding their
- 19:04Speaker 4: voice and speaking up. When you teach them how to
- 19:06Speaker 4: do it, they practice it, and you have psychological safety.
- 19:09Speaker 4: Now we have candor so leaders I think miss teaching
- 19:14Speaker 4: the skill. It's like the X factor. Just imagine the
- 19:17Speaker 4: compound effect if you teach your team how to be
- 19:21Speaker 4: brave and throughout week, there's all these little opportunities. Like
- 19:25Speaker 4: day one, it's like, okay, asking the hard question of
- 19:28Speaker 4: the doctor, you know. Then then later on it's asking
- 19:30Speaker 4: for the close, and the next day it's having a
- 19:33Speaker 4: difficult conversation, and the next day it's setting an ambitious goal.
- 19:36Speaker 4: Like think of the impact to someone's career and their
- 19:39Speaker 4: success if they're always leaning forward and doing the uncomfortable thing. Now,
- 19:45Speaker 4: imagine the opposite people who don't ask the hard question
- 19:48Speaker 4: because oh, I don't know what they're gonna say, and well,
- 19:50Speaker 4: I don't want to close because oh gosh, it's really uncomfortable,
- 19:54Speaker 4: and then I don't want to have that. I know
- 19:55Speaker 4: I need to have that difficult conversation, but ough tomorrow
- 20:00Speaker 4: I'm not going to do it yet. And ah, this
- 20:02Speaker 4: goal that I'm setting, let's make it safer, let's degrade
- 20:06Speaker 4: it a little bit to make it easier. Imagine that
- 20:10Speaker 4: the compound effect of always making things safer on that
- 20:15Speaker 4: person's success, but also on their career. So if we
- 20:20Speaker 4: really care about serving our employees and helping them have
- 20:23Speaker 4: their best career, we need to teach them how to
- 20:25Speaker 4: be brave, to have that self leadership. It's a game changer,
- 20:28Speaker 4: and all the research is in the book.
- 20:30Speaker 2: Our workplace is accidentally training people to avoid risks. What
- 20:35Speaker 2: are the dynamics you change to help employees be braver
- 20:39Speaker 2: in the workplace.
- 20:40Speaker 4: Every organization is different, and we can measure what is
- 20:43Speaker 4: the culture like. But when I go into organizations, we
- 20:47Speaker 4: train people the evidence based skills that are practical so
- 20:51Speaker 4: that they can step forward in the presence of fear
- 20:55Speaker 4: toward that noble, worthwhile goal. And that's really what I'm
- 20:58Speaker 4: on a mission to do. It's helping people take that
- 21:02Speaker 4: step forward. And there's nothing wrong with people that feel
- 21:06Speaker 4: the fear and they step back. There's nothing wrong with you.
- 21:08Speaker 4: It's because you're human. When you feel the fear, you
- 21:12Speaker 4: run the other way, and that's how we're biologically wired.
- 21:15Speaker 4: But we can learn how to take a step forward
- 21:19Speaker 4: in the presence of fear when it matters, when it's
- 21:21Speaker 4: the right thing to do. There's some companies that have
- 21:23Speaker 4: it as a core value. ABV is a client that
- 21:26Speaker 4: I work with, and one of their core values is
- 21:29Speaker 4: it's called clear and courageous, so it's one of their
- 21:31Speaker 4: core values. I think AV does this really well. They
- 21:33Speaker 4: actually train people and they mean it. There's a lot
- 21:37Speaker 4: of companies that talk about like, oh, innovation is important
- 21:40Speaker 4: and transparency is important, and they've got it on their
- 21:42Speaker 4: website and on their walls, But are they training people,
- 21:48Speaker 4: are they enabling them to actually do those skills. We
- 21:51Speaker 4: have to do some work to bring those values to
- 21:54Speaker 4: life if we really want to make an impact on
- 21:56Speaker 4: the culture.
- 21:57Speaker 2: So what happens to companies when bravery is apps from
- 22:00Speaker 2: the culture.
- 22:01Speaker 4: Well, that's the rist. So when bravery is absent, people
- 22:03Speaker 4: set goals that are safe, that don't challenge them because
- 22:06Speaker 4: they're scared if they don't. When they see challenges or problems,
- 22:10Speaker 4: they don't bring it up. They don't share their ideas,
- 22:14Speaker 4: which stifles innovation. They're not having the uncomfortable conversations. You
- 22:19Speaker 4: know that person at work that there's a bunch of
- 22:21Speaker 4: tension and everyone sees it and it's slowing everyone down.
- 22:23Speaker 4: Everyone's talking about the tension and getting instead of getting
- 22:26Speaker 4: worked tone. That slows us down. So people are not
- 22:29Speaker 4: having the conversations, feedbacks not being given. It just slows
- 22:34Speaker 4: down everything and we don't accomplish as much. And the
- 22:39Speaker 4: workplace environment is more stressful in a bad way because
- 22:43Speaker 4: people have all these ideas and thoughts and they just
- 22:45Speaker 4: sit there and they don't do anything about it. So
- 22:47Speaker 4: when we can bring braver into the workplace, what we
- 22:50Speaker 4: have found is that it elevates performance of the individuals,
- 22:54Speaker 4: it impacts results of the teams that go through it,
- 22:56Speaker 4: and it improves the job set up faction. I guess
- 23:01Speaker 4: that's the answer to your question is not having it
- 23:03Speaker 4: is very costly, but nurturing teaching the skill of bravery
- 23:08Speaker 4: has all these positive outcomes.
- 23:09Speaker 1: One hundred percent.
- 23:10Speaker 2: But how do we spot the impostors who are not
- 23:13Speaker 2: brave leaders? Are there tell tale signs that the sky
- 23:17Speaker 2: or gal as a faker not a maker.
- 23:20Speaker 4: Well, there's a way we can measure it. So I
- 23:21Speaker 4: do have a bravery assessment. And when people say like
- 23:24Speaker 4: I'm not scared of anything, like I'm great, And then
- 23:26Speaker 4: I'll say, like, you know what, when you get to
- 23:28Speaker 4: the part of the bravery assessment where it talks about
- 23:31Speaker 4: admitting mistakes and asking for help, You're probably going to
- 23:36Speaker 4: have an opportunity there. So part of it is, like
- 23:39Speaker 4: any skill development, like we've got to look in the
- 23:41Speaker 4: mirror honestly and go So I tell people, like everyone
- 23:45Speaker 4: can benefit from elevating their bravery skill. You might be
- 23:49Speaker 4: pretty strong and we're going to increase it a little bit,
- 23:51Speaker 4: and that little increase is going to help you be
- 23:53Speaker 4: even more successful. Other people have a bigger opportunity. But
- 23:57Speaker 4: a lot of times bravery it's very personal and it's visible.
- 24:01Speaker 4: So Jim, for you to stand on a stage in
- 24:04Speaker 4: front of thousands of people that doesn't require bravery because
- 24:07Speaker 4: you've been doing it a long time, no problem. Somebody
- 24:10Speaker 4: else might do the exact same thing and they are terrified.
- 24:16Speaker 4: So when we teach the skill of bravery, like a
- 24:18Speaker 4: lot of it is, people have to do their own assessment,
- 24:21Speaker 4: like what are the things? What are the fears that
- 24:25Speaker 4: hold them back from performing at their best or going
- 24:29Speaker 4: after what they really want in life? Are they in
- 24:31Speaker 4: the same position for way too long? It's usually a
- 24:35Speaker 4: fear problem, So it's very individual. It's hard to answer
- 24:38Speaker 4: that question.
- 24:39Speaker 2: But well, I wanted you to dish a little with me,
- 24:41Speaker 2: like what are the tell tale signs not of the
- 24:44Speaker 2: workplace asshole, but someone who's kind of faking it?
- 24:48Speaker 1: You know.
- 24:48Speaker 2: Again, I do think this is an issue for people
- 24:52Speaker 2: who want to rise in the workplace but they're blocked
- 24:56Speaker 2: by somebody standing in their way. I just I wanted
- 25:00Speaker 2: up make the point too about the stage thing, because
- 25:03Speaker 2: I did the graduation speech last year from New House
- 25:06Speaker 2: and I was scared shitless.
- 25:08Speaker 1: I really was.
- 25:09Speaker 2: I was really, really in a I think a good
- 25:12Speaker 2: way ultimately, but I had to get up there, do
- 25:14Speaker 2: a selfie, make a joke about the water underneath that
- 25:18Speaker 2: it was really possibly grain alcohol, which I used to
- 25:21Speaker 2: drink years ago as a kid at Syracuse. I had
- 25:25Speaker 2: to kind of cut that fear down when I stood
- 25:27Speaker 2: in front of the audience at my wife's funeral and
- 25:31Speaker 2: had to break the ice with humor. It's sort of
- 25:34Speaker 2: how I go at it. What's the mistake you're most
- 25:38Speaker 2: proud of in your life?
- 25:41Speaker 4: One of the mistakes I'm probably most proud of is
- 25:44Speaker 4: I was doing leadership development at Abbott right when I
- 25:49Speaker 4: was spinning off to ABVI. I was in charge of
- 25:52Speaker 4: leadership development for our immunology division back in the humor
- 25:55Speaker 4: days for our commercial organizations. I was doing leadership development
- 25:58Speaker 4: and I found this is what I was meant to do.
- 26:01Speaker 4: You know, when you find the thing that aligns with
- 26:04Speaker 4: your soul and your values, like driving business by doing
- 26:07Speaker 4: leadership development was I was in flow and I left
- 26:12Speaker 4: that job because I was recruited by a company to
- 26:15Speaker 4: make an insane amount of money. It was the potential
- 26:18Speaker 4: was three times more, So I left. I went to
- 26:20Speaker 4: another company and I went back to doing sales, and
- 26:23Speaker 4: it was a great company. I mean, I man, sure,
- 26:24Speaker 4: it's Intuitive Surgical. So I went to Intuitive Surgical and
- 26:29Speaker 4: I was selling the Da Vinci robot. I had a
- 26:32Speaker 4: couple friends from Abby that had gone over there and
- 26:34Speaker 4: they loved Yeah.
- 26:35Speaker 1: We worked for years.
- 26:37Speaker 4: Yeah, it's amazing. Everything was really great. But what I
- 26:40Speaker 4: realized is I really missed doing the leadership development. But
- 26:46Speaker 4: I made a move primarily because of the income and
- 26:50Speaker 4: the technology is really cool too. Secondly, when I was
- 26:54Speaker 4: working in Chicago and flying there all the time, I
- 26:56Speaker 4: did come home and my youngest daughter is in kindergarten
- 26:59Speaker 4: and I came home home early on a Friday wants
- 27:01Speaker 4: to pick her up, and she was so excited to
- 27:02Speaker 4: see me because I'm gone so much, and she had
- 27:04Speaker 4: a picture of the family and I wasn't in it,
- 27:08Speaker 4: and so that's part of the reason. Also, I took
- 27:09Speaker 4: the job at Intuitive because it brought me closer to
- 27:11Speaker 4: home and it was a great job as a great opportunity,
- 27:14Speaker 4: but I'm like, I want to do leadership development. I
- 27:16Speaker 4: want to get back to it, and I want to
- 27:18Speaker 4: be able to do it when it worked for me
- 27:21Speaker 4: as a mom. So I took the leap and started
- 27:24Speaker 4: Breakthrough Leadership Group as a result of that. So I
- 27:27Speaker 4: don't regret. I mean, just taking that turn kind of
- 27:31Speaker 4: made me realize, like, no, I really want to focus
- 27:33Speaker 4: on leadership development and I want to be able to
- 27:35Speaker 4: be home more for the kids. And I realized it's
- 27:38Speaker 4: not the job forcing it, it's me. I love to work,
- 27:41Speaker 4: I love I'm passionate about work, so I'm probably always
- 27:43Speaker 4: going to be challenged by working too much.
- 27:46Speaker 2: What's something you wrot want to get really real about
- 27:49Speaker 2: in twenty twenty six?
- 27:51Speaker 4: What am I going to get really real about? Can
- 27:53Speaker 4: I tell you something totally personal?
- 27:56Speaker 1: Well that's the whole point.
- 27:58Speaker 4: That's a whole point. Always looking to how can I grow,
- 28:02Speaker 4: how can I get better? And what I'm getting really
- 28:05Speaker 4: real about is both of my girls are now in college.
- 28:08Speaker 4: We're empty nesters, so I am one hundred percent focus.
- 28:14Speaker 4: My number one goal is making my marriage even better.
- 28:17Speaker 4: And I have a great marriage. By the way, this
- 28:19Speaker 4: is what causitive psychologists do too, like we don't wait
- 28:21Speaker 4: until things are broken. I have a very good marriage,
- 28:23Speaker 4: but I've been busy with the career of the kids,
- 28:25Speaker 4: have been around, and now I'm so excited. It's the
- 28:28Speaker 4: most important relationship in life. But that's what I want
- 28:30Speaker 4: to get really real about. And my husband's probably rolling
- 28:34Speaker 4: his eyes because he sometimes does. He's like, oh, what
- 28:36Speaker 4: does this mean. I'm like, but no, let's let's take
- 28:39Speaker 4: our relationship from good to great and to awesome. So
- 28:43Speaker 4: that is what I'm getting really real about this here.
- 28:46Speaker 1: I'm dropping the mic on that one. I love that.
- 28:49Speaker 1: Thanks so much, Jill. This was fun.
- 28:51Speaker 2: I you can talk about bravery endlessly and lots more
- 28:55Speaker 2: of our people and companies and clients could use it.
- 28:58Speaker 1: I learned a lot today. Thanks.
- 29:00Speaker 2: I was excited for this one, and thanks for sharing
- 29:03Speaker 2: your wisdom with us.
- 29:05Speaker 1: Well.
- 29:05Speaker 4: Thank you so much for having me and I so
- 29:07Speaker 4: enjoyed meeting you at that HbA leadership conference. And I'm
- 29:10Speaker 4: excited for you to read the book because I would
- 29:13Speaker 4: love to know what you think. It's an easy read
- 29:15Speaker 4: and it's also on audible.
- 29:17Speaker 1: Please.
- 29:20Speaker 2: Hey, everyone, thanks for joining me on the get real podcast.
- 29:23Speaker 2: You know, I hope you feel a little healthier hanging
- 29:25Speaker 2: out with me. You know it's going to be a
- 29:28Speaker 2: lot of fun. Passing this along to others. Please subscribe below,
- 29:32Speaker 2: Please share. I'm excited not just to talk about healthcare,
- 29:37Speaker 2: but a lot of other fun topics. It's about making
- 29:40Speaker 2: healthy talk about healthcare. It is not a lecture. This
- 29:44Speaker 2: is supposed to be fun. And look forward to spending
- 29:47Speaker 2: more time with you in the future.