Leading requires clarity of purpose. How do you handle the present to prepare for the future? Eric shares the principles he's learned to lead with clarity.
Leading requires clarity of purpose. How do you handle the present to prepare for the future? Eric shares the principles he's learned to lead with clarity.
[0:00] It takes leadership to sit down and go no these are our current circumstances,
But this is where we're gonna end up where I want us to end up hosting influence what I do right now,
This is the game changers with Eric Bowls and host Dale Dixon
Getting clear on the future to unleash your best in life and work Dale Dixon here this is the game changer podcast with Eric Bulls Eric great to be with you today
Great to be with you there. So, our conversation today is about casting a vision for the future. The idea behind this is
We are living in uncertain times. I mean, what?
What's gonna happen tomorrow a friend and I just yesterday we're having this conversation is the CEO of of a large security company and we were talking about the military term voca,
Uncertain.
[1:05] Really characterizes the world in which we live,
Few seconds we spent talking about it leading up to it,
I think this is going to be a fantastic conversation for leaders to dive in to for this podcast as we talk about what does leading look like.
Today and we as we record this I know people can come back and listen to it any time boat I think we're all to that place we're
None of us know what's gonna happen tomorrow. I mean, and that's always been the case but never has it been highlighted at this point.
It's always existed unknown is always existed. Right? But we've had everything.
[2:00] You know, they've been a lot of people.
About what we've experienced as all the different social constructs that have been thrown up in the air. The number of leaders that I work with who are in certain environments where
You know, the choice of coming back to work or not working from home working or hybrid. I mean, these are just the conversations and dynamics that we never thought of before. Like, some of the,
Levels of uncertainty where you know, we don't know what it'll look like in a couple months. We, you know, we have to make decisions,
Based on some certainties but when we don't know what those are, what in the world, right? And so, one of the things that.
It's really important for leaders to be aware of is that there,
When I did a ton of work with USA and insurance and I'm gonna mention them quite a bit today because of,
The CEO and chairman there at USA
Insurance.
[3:10] And he's crying. Nah, then we're all in trouble, right?
What's happening with the rest of us? So, anyways, as we go forward, you know, those are the specific things we wanna equip everybody listening today. To be able to do, how do I add a little more, how do I turn the unknown.
Into more of the known in in that some of the process we'll walk through.
So I immediately.
[3:45] I think what you're saying is are you a thermostat or are you a thermometer as a leader? So are you gonna set the temperature in the room or are you going to reflect what's happening? And that's an interesting
Balance as you work to be that real authentic leader and have honest conversations about the challenges that we're facing in this business,
Too much fear and anxiety in the team.
[4:14] Yeah. Well, I I think to be honest, I actually believe many times the balance is the wrong direction. I think too often, we don't treat the people that we lead and work with as adults
So we water down
The it and when that's happening you're removing urgency out of the equation and so when I talk about clarity of vision you're gonna hear that so I reference the same point again but I really believe that.
[4:40] Even when it comes to a thermostat and I love the analogy you gave at the thermometer tells you what the temperature is in a dap store where the thermostat sets the temperature.
But the thermostat also pays attention to what the temperature is and the thermostat doesn't pretend that is hot when it's cold. It was like it's cold. Let me do something about it.
That's what we're saying about leaders that hey you're not just being thrown in a win you can do something about it and part of doing something about it is getting it clear about what do I want the temperature at
What do we need to do to course correct and when that gauge goes up on the thermostat what kicks in the heating system it may have to work extra hard
Right but in a we got so many leaders now that instead of
Turning up the heat. You know, they're just putting on sweaters and coats and then if it gets too cold, I mean it gets too hot, they just open windows, that's not sustainable, like at some point, something has to be able to control the temperature more so they just,
Circumstances that surround it
It really does so so we're even though the
We're talking about vision how important division is a vision that even the word vision means what I can see and so when I ask a lot of leaders tell me what you say when you look at when you when your outlook goes and tell me what you see.
[6:00] And too often for leaders hope there's a little no one's here but too often for leaders they tell me what they're simply looking at,
I didn't ask what you look at I did ask what you see if I'm holding an acorn in my hand and I ask you what do you see many people say oh I see an acorn
That I that's what you're looking at.
What you see though is can you see the ultra inside of it can you see the potential the possibility inside of it and that's one of the things that qualifies someone to be a leader not necessarily just how confident they are but
But my also what it qualifies some leaders can you help,
Everyone of us are built with what I like to call a fear of uncertainty. There's this phrase that and I've been saying it for years because of how it impacted me that.
[6:54] Unhappiness over uncertainty,
That's how much people can't stand uncertain. I will rather be unhappy and certain about it.
Uncertainty to get to what I really desire.
I know I I use that word hope a lot but I also wear a leader hope is not a strategy okay so hope myself is not a great strategy but hope should be invested into a strategy and because if there if I have hope for the future.
[7:32] It gives me power and depression. I actually
Heard that quote but I watch it exist. I watch it when my mother needed to have doubled long transput because of a autoimmune disease. I watch it with my daughter. Madison, who has lupus and right? I watch these doctors. I watch it.
Actually speak about what the future's gonna look for then after they go through the process a difficult process now to get there,
That hope and fuel than what power in the present moment they're in right now we need our leaders functioning that way we don't deny the challenges right now.
But have you spent some time thinking ahead of what you would like the future to look like and not just in terms of numbers but not only what are the,
I always say it this way there's a certain certain.
[8:26] But there should be certain qualities we'd like to see in the future too that gives us a sense of hey this is who we are we're gonna get there because of resilience see all those different things kinda incorporate that.
[8:36] So, so one of the things I, you know, oh god. This is a tweetable quote, right? And because you went through it, I wanna make sure we get it right. Hope for the future powers the present.
[8:46] Yes.
What does it do to the present moment,
Man, it's complete.
Show me show me a marriage where hope for the future's lost show me a career with somebody doesn't believe there's any hoop for all that power that would have them fight through it
Gets lost.
One person say to me as as and people's you know wonder why why vision or leadership in providing this kind of hope is so important.
[9:30] I whole economy is built on confidence. Do you really believe we have some tangible you know, something that equates the value of our economy right now? Like we have so much, you know, real
Tangible well sitting in some you know vault somewhere no there are whole communies built on the belief system,
And whoever can help facilitate,
Intangible thing. The most valuable thing that you have is something that's intangible.
Which is can you provide hope belief I would say a great leaders are dealers in hope,
And I'm not talking about fake hope.
Analogy. We don't have to deny or pretend difficult circumstances aren't there. No, we're saying in the midst of those difficult
Circumstances can i look at my leader and because i see my leader and see their confidence that transfer over me and saying we still can do this we got this we can get through this and get to the other side.
[10:40] What are some effective ways that you see leaders,
Articulate.
[10:55] Great great question there's two things that well there's a few things but but if I were to really challenge a leader I I actually was all the time tell me what better looks like,
They're like, oh, that's a great question. I said, is it challenging question? Is time you have to spend on purpose thinking ahead, seeing ahead, okay?
[11:23] That is a.
[11:25] That's time spit by yourself writing that out.
[11:34] ISSS believes if we're sitting here a year from now.
[11:50] About the results. So, it gives him a chance to look back even though we're sitting here today. I want you to project ahead,
Hey imagine where they are from now and you need to tell me not only what that looks like but what they got you fired up but what what excites you what is you going,
The reason that's so important especially for leader if I'm not thinking that way.
[12:11] I don't have to do that to describe current circumstances for the difficulty of right now,
I say all the time. Now is so powerful. It blinds me of what's gonna take place later. But i need as a leader, I need to flip this. Hopefully, this makes some sense.
I need later to have more influence on what I do right now
Not what i'm doing right now is gonna dictate what happens later we know that,
But I actually have to spend time on my mind,
Influences what I do right now and also influences what I communicate right now when I talk to my team right now everything is tied to getting to that
Image that I spent time thinking about here.
Hopefully that makes some sense. Oh, man.
The important versus the urgent.
[13:13] What I'm.
And letting the future dictate your actions rather than the present circumstances.
Is you know the urgent is the present circumstance that I've got to deal with right now and we lose focus when we're thinking clarity we lose focus on the future which should be dictating our actions as leaders.
[13:40] That's what separates,
So, you know, everybody else, if if you're a leader, you, you have to work with everything in power, not to be some marionette doll, where streams are connected to you and the current circumstances dictating how you function, right? That's the complete definition of being a not only a victim but being at thermometer.
Right like okay it takes no leadership for that it takes leadership
Just sit down and go no these are our current circumstances but this is where we're gonna end up
Where I want us to end up hosting fluents what I do right now also it includes what I do and also influence of what I don't do it influences what I pay attention to it also influences what
Does it matter? Too often, people are like trying to make priorities and and and like we talk about what's important?
But there's what is that anchor to like.
[14:44] And I think that's great. You know, they tell me about their goals.
I said now show me your calendar,
Show me where I can show me how where you wanna go is influencing what you choose to do every day.
You guys have meeting where people are making presentations to you that have nothing to do with where you're trying to go.
On what we do every day but more importantly, you should be able to see it as a leader of this is where we're ending up. You know, I tell you a quick story. I'm talking about clarity and and and sometimes I I like to break clarity
Down and I give you the five steps here in a second but,
Let me change that not a story or example but actually it's actual life like a decision he actually made. His name was Mike Philips, Michael Philips, and he had the time he was a CEO for Frank Russell and and.
They.
[16:04] When Mike was the CEO.
I super you know obviously you have the Russell Index you know at the time for how influence your weather in the in the in the financial industry a gold boy.
He takes me all around I get the chance to see all they do and come to find out Mike's like yeah and I'm in the process of retiring.
[16:31] Well, Mike wasn't that old. So, I was like, you know, in his 50s, I was like, why are you retiring? First of all, you know, I mean, what you do, the impact you have, how well respected the company is, you're being the face of it. I mean, all the things that come along with that,
Best line ever.
I had envisioned 5 years ago.
Where we're gonna be in 5 years I can't see.
[17:09] Wow.
That he goes my job is to see far enough ahead,
I find too many leaders I don't believe there's anybody listening who function this way but I'm just please,
Hear me when I say this.
Barbarian it was this little comic strip.
And hag our standing behind him going
Hey tell me where you're going so I can lead you there,
And unfortunately too many leaders,
That's what happens like they're asking all the questions of their folks.
There is no question we wanna get our people engaged in the vision,
But you're believe your picture of what the future can look like.
The thoughts starter. It should at least be the priming of the pump. When we engage the rest of our team in it, is there building on that?
But it should start with you. You spent some time looking ahead of what's in front of you, what's,
In with leaders do that accurately what a difference it makes now.
[18:33] What I wanna say real quickly is these these five things are practical so I this is some people can write down and so I learn this from general robles.
Who's with USA Insurance and and I never forget it was such a huge influence on my life.
He talked about it this way but he he he called it clarity and and cuz clarity leads to focus focus leads to execution so it has to begin with clarity we have more leaders unfortunately getting upset about bad execution
But they're not everything about well where we focus on the right thing in first place and if in order to focus on the right thing we gotta have clearing in first place and guess what leaders
That's what we own, right? So Clarity is this one is Clarius one
And that's a question. We gotta answer that question. That is not an easy question to answer. It doesn't take 1 minute to do it. You gotta be thorough. What?
There's you know, my question, what does better look like or what do we actually want, right? Number two.
[19:40] Now,
This is only important for you to answer.
Number one and it's important for you to answer number two but it's also important for your people to be able to be clear about number one and then join you in the conversation about why it's important,
This is why this is what elevates
Are engagement into the vision this is what makes it shared this is what elevates I was like this multiplies intelligence this engages us now we know the why behind what we're doing versus just doing something,
Now number three is.
[20:19] How are we gonna do it.
[20:29] Now when I heard this from General Roblesdale it was an aha moment.
Difficulties
Even when I think of the about the military I think about hey man here's the order you do exactly what you're told he's just yeah he go but keep this in mind,
As a commander, as a leader,
Is some kinds of distance from the actual solution to the problem,
And so, for where I said, this is what I want. We all agree on that. Why we want it? We all agree on that but how we're gonna do it?
That has to be owned by everybody involved. So, as long as we all got what and why together, our house don't all look the same. So, how I do it sitting at my level, we need to win that hill,
Great and this is how we're gonna do it.
I'm not the best one to be able to describe how we need to do it. He goes, we got people closer officers and soldiers closer to the problem who have a better idea. They can find better solutions than I can. Now, I'm gonna tell you, it's still getting done
Cuz the reason why we need to done is super important but the how must be flexible. Now, they'll fall as here. This was so good.
Give me the reasons for the house.
What's that?
[21:50] The enemy gets a vote.
The enemy gets a vote. The enemies are variable in the equation. So, if we try to tell you how you're gonna do it,
Whether you're successful or not, guess what? You might have to adjust.
So if we don't add flexibility to it.
[22:12] Oh, but something we got a problem.
Man, I'm telling you the play we drew up look great in the locker room.
But once I got on the football field guess what you know like,
You know, the the great Reggie White is really good. Deon Sanders is a really good quarterback. Like, I know the play looks like if his one on one, you have nothing to worry about.
But based on who's covering you we might have to adjust,
Exactly what we're really challenging leaders to do is keep that in mind you got to be flexible.
[22:48] The enemy gets a vote,
Think about the world we live in right now for our leaders down, right? The pandemic is open. Yeah.
There's so many variables here to vote. Now, you're what and your why don't need to change but your how,
What's the change? Now, not to make this too long but for some organizations.
We got leaders so,
And,
Talking about the what and why or allowing their people to understand what and why.
What happened when you have to change?
What's being done and you tell your people, okay, I need you to do it this way.
Well, they were never connected to the strategy or the understanding of an in the first place.
Hey.
[23:47] Okay
We gotta identify all the benefits that come when this thing is when this is accomplished and that cat just come from the leader
Organizational benefits, personal benefits, all that stuff. What that is doing is building up our desire.
[24:13] There's a great quote.
And and and share it off with a great quote by Saint,
The same.
[24:28] If you want to build a ship.
First.
Help them fall in love with the amit city of the sea.
We'll find a way to build a ship,
And so we too often as leaders we spend our time.
[24:59] Sometimes not all tasks are fun, right? But if I got three different people doing three different jobs, we all know the story.
If I got one person laying bricks, another person, if one person believes their jobs are like Brooks, another person believes their job is to build a wall. The third person believes their job is to build a cathedral that people will worship in and spend time in for 500 years.
There's a chance at some point all three are doing the same task,
So, they if I have to adjust, they're okay with it but if you get the person who's just laying bricks to have to do something different, they're gonna argue with it cuz they never connected what they're doing to a cathedral that's gonna be around for 500 years.
Leaders that's our that's why vision's so important.
Number five last one.
[25:59] The cost of an ad. I learned this from Dr. John Cotter who, you know, who's known as the
The father of
Organization, small business, large ones, when it comes to leaders who are trying to innovate or lead change, what's missing?
And he get the best answer. He says, urgency.
In many times is missing a sense of emergency because as leaders, we go through, we may even do those top four very well but we don't do the fifth one well.
We try to protect people from the cost of an action versus letting them know the actual cop.
When you got the combination of all this that's clarity.
[27:01] So, for those driving in their car right now, listening to the podcast, it's knowing what we want, why do we want it?
How are going to do it with flexibility,
Around pushing forward to the future.
[27:28] Adele and closing in the most practical way I tell leaders just use those you wanna have a rich conversation with your team
Just walk through those five steps,
I said it's not passion.
Clarity clarity comes from consistency,
Greater focus. When we get greater focus, what do we get?
Much more better, a much better execution. It's just, it's, it's systematic.
Do not grow weary.
Still we're weary with it.
[28:30] Keep keep on keeping on.
[28:38] Fantastic. Well, hopefully, this podcast has impacted you and your walking away with at least five things to do. I have, I've got a note card, front and back with a number of things that I can be doing to get
Better around this idea of leading with vision and clarity so thank you for all of that
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Dot com that's the website to learn more about Eric and what he does as he coaches trains and inspires leaders to unleash their potential and those
Around them he's an executive coach a leadership
Expert as you can tell a change consultant and keynote speaker just get ready to head on the road to do a few keynotes as well.
[30:07] Do so.
As we continue this conversation around leadership.
[30:24] The game changers unleashing your best in life and work with Eric Bulls and Dale Dixon,
Eric is an executive coach, leadership expert, change consultant, and keynote speaker. Read his book, moving to great, and find him at eric bulls. Com.
Connect with Dale at Dale Dixon Media. Com.