TSLP Season 5- The Catalyst

🎙️ Great leaders don't simply create results.
They create other leaders.
There comes a point in our leadership journey when success can no longer be measured only by what we accomplish.

The greater question becomes:
Who is becoming stronger, wiser, more confident, and more capable because we led them?

I'm sitting down with Arnold Beekes for a Season 5 Vital Conversation on The Catalyst: Developing Leaders Who Develop Leaders.

We'll explore what it means to become a catalyst for growth, why leadership multiplication matters, and how leaders can move beyond being the person with all the answers to becoming the person who develops capacity in others.
Because leadership isn't ultimately about creating followers.

It's about developing people who are equipped to lead and develop others long after you've left the room.

Learn more about Arnold:
Website- https://braingym.fitness
LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/in/arnoldbeekes/
YouTube- https://www.youtube.com/@BrainGymFitness
Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/arnold.beekes

Thanks for tuning in to Transformation Station! If this episode fired you up, smash that subscribe button, share it with someone who’s ready to level up, and tell me the moment that hit hardest. Your voice keeps this movement unstoppable. 

Until next time, stand tall, step bold, and own your transformation.

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:19

The leaders who create the greatest impact are not the ones who just work harder. They are the ones who think differently, innovate intentionally, and sustain their energy for the journey. We're talking about true trailblazers like you and me. We understand that innovation and well-being are not competing priorities, but they are powerful partners in creating lasting success. Come on, let's go ahead and get this conversation started. Welcome to Transformation Station Leadership Podcast, where leaders like you and I don't just talk about transformation. No, we lead it, we live it, and we ignite it. I'm your host, Adrian Benton, and today we're exploring a timely and powerful topic. That's right. We're talking about the catalyst for trailblazing innovation and well-being. Joining me today is Arnold, and I can't wait for you to meet him. But before you meet him today, I want to remind you of just a few things. Number one, a greater force than failure, intentional time with God. This is a journal for anyone who has ever failed. If you've ever made a mistake and you're thinking to yourself, how do I overcome? Well, in this journal, you'll find four steps that you can walk through, self-guided, self-paced. So get your copy today. You can get your copy of A Greater Force Than Failure on Amazon.com. You can get the Kindle or the paperback. Guess what? It's waiting for you. I also want to remind you every Monday and Wednesday, Transformation Station Leadership Podcast, we're going live with our podcast and we bring in amazing leadership experts to help sustain us, to help create us ideas, and so that as a community, we can talk and walk forward together. If you miss this episode, Faith Filled Leadership with Zachary Partner, I need you to go back. I need you to go back and find the replay on YouTube or LinkedIn or Facebook, Buzz Sprout, wherever you get your podcast, you want to go there and make sure you pay attention to this episode, Faith Filled Leadership, every Monday and Wednesday. Matter of fact, don't just go and watch or listen, but I want to invite you also to subscribe. That way you can be sure to get the notifications and never miss an episode. All right. Well, listen, today I'm super excited because we have a special guest with us. We're talking about Arnold. Arnold worked for 20 years in technology and organizational leadership first. Then 20 years in psychology and personal leadership. Then the next 20 years, he intends to continue helping others with brain athletes. Brain athletes is an innovative fusion between brain health, psychology, sports, and spirituality. And his mission is to enable better brains and better innovation for better living. It's my honor to welcome you, honor. Welcome to Transformation Station Leadership Podcast.

SPEAKER_03 3:51

Well, love it to be here. Thank you very much for the nice introduction.

SPEAKER_00 3:55

Absolutely. So listen, I'm really excited about this conversation because our community here, we have high-driven leaders, right? And so when I hear that world trail trailblazers, I think about this community here. Now, in my mind, when I think about trailblazing leaders, I'm thinking that these are leaders who are willing to challenge assumptions, they're willing to um step beyond conventional thinking, they're willing to, here's what's important, create new possibilities where most people will see limitations, right? That's that's kind of what I think of when I think about trailblazers. So I want to start off by asking you this question: what does it mean to be a trail-basing leader in today's rapidly changing environment?

SPEAKER_04 4:45

Well, thank you for those nice uh definitions that they really match my definition. I would like to start with my definition of transformation, which is to break free from limitations. That's what transformation is, and that's something which first of all needs to happen at the personal level, so that is something which the leaders need to be willing to do that, and then secondly, move into your people, and if you help your people to break free from limitations, then your organization will as well, because people think an organization is an entity, yes, it is a legal entity, but an organization is nothing than a set of bricks with a sign on top of the roof. Yes, it is the constellation of you and your people, that is organization. So if you want to do something trailblazing, you get it first of all, because you gotta be the example, which I don't see with many leaders, break free from limitations, and then allow and enable your people to also do that.

SPEAKER_00 6:06

1000%. I love this. So here I can't we always give our listeners and viewers an opportunity to stop and resonate with what is being said. So, viewers and listeners, I want to ask you from what Arnold has shared with us, what's resonating with you right now? I love your definition of transformation, right? You started off off on a very key note here to break free from limitations. Leaders, Arnold and I are inviting you, even now, to challenge yourself. How can you break free in your everyday life from limitations? What limitations are you putting on you? And you know, Arnold, there's a best practice that we want to share with our leaders. You know, one way that you can move forward is to dedicate time each month, maybe even each week, but we'll go with dedicate time each month to challenge one existing process or assumption or belief that may be limiting your growth. All right, so leaders, you got to be intentional. We're inviting you to dedicate time. So, Arnold, I want to ask you this question.

SPEAKER_03 7:10

This I hear before you go there, may I respond to your practice?

SPEAKER_04 7:14

Yeah, I would say they need to do it preferably every day.

SPEAKER_00 7:21

I love that.

SPEAKER_04 7:22

Why only once a month? Then it will have no impact. I'm saying I love your practice, but to make it your practice into a habit and make it into behavior, yes, you should think about the limitations which you have, which we all have. I have Adrian has everybody has limitations. I love it. Consciously think about how can I escape from them? How can I throw them away and be enriched? Yeah, and what I'm thinking.

SPEAKER_00 8:00

I love it. All right, well, leaders, listen, we're being challenged. Scratch that one once a month, every day. Dedicate time every day to challenge. I love that, Arnold. That is fantastic. So, so so then that leads me to this question, which which you know, I know that there were some leaders who heard you say, no, no, no, not a month, every day, and they're like, Oh Lord. So here's the question why is change so hard?

SPEAKER_04 8:27

I think change is not hard.

SPEAKER_00 8:29

Oh, talk to us, talk to us because we're not used to change, we're not taught to change.

SPEAKER_04 8:44

Why is I'm asked, I've asked many years ago myself the question. I think the only constant in life is and whether you talk about human life, right, psychical life, nature, the planet, animals, trees. Yeah, what is the constant? The constant is change. Yes, correct. Yes, talk about the seasons, yeah, and it doesn't matter where you live in the world, you always have some kind of a season, but like what is it? It's always changing, and what are not changing, and we think change is hard and difficult, and we should limit change because people don't like change. It's a bit stupid because it's it's ignoring, I would say, a natural law. So why is change hard? I think that it is intentionally put on us that we should dislike change. Let me clarify.

SPEAKER_00 9:50

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_04 9:51

When you go to school, primary school, high school, further higher education, it doesn't matter. Do they teach you anything about change at school? No, nothing about change, change management. Maybe if you get a business administration education, then they talk about change, but in all other stuff, they don't teach you anything about change. Why is that? The reason is they don't want you to change, they want us to be predictable, they have put in at least 15 years to become obedient to have as the number one in our life is conformity. Then as if we put in 15 years to get you to understand that we don't want you to change after that because it ruins our whole investment. Yeah, we want predictable employees who do exactly as they're told who are not questioning us. That's what we want, and that's what we want you to do the rest of your life. I see. That is why change is not taught. But change is we are an anomaly, I think, as humans, in the whole context, in the whole environment in which we live, because everything is changing all the time.

SPEAKER_00 11:20

Yes, absolutely, absolutely. So, you know, when when you're talking, I'm I'm thinking, you know, I love what you were talking about when you talked about predictability, right? Um, and many times, whether it's an organization or an individual, we crave predictability, we crave consistency, we crave knowing the knowing, right? We don't like to not know or or have uncertainty. And change, change introduces uncertainty. Change is what causes you to have to have courage, right? Stepping into the unknown, right? And so, you know, tell me what you think about this leadership principle. People rarely resist change, they resist uncertainty because that's what I thought about as you were talking. You know, when we talk about why is change hard, I agree with you. Change is is in it in and of itself, change is not hard. I agree with you 1000%. I think that we make it into something that is difficult because we're resisting the uncertainty that it brings. What do you think?

SPEAKER_04 12:26

Yeah, I uh well, I I like what you what you said because that ties into the predictability thing, yeah. And if it's not predictable or 99% predictable, then we're like, oh, what's gonna happen? Yeah, but but again, it is taught. Think about how you grow up as a baby, and you first start to maybe from crawling into walking, yeah, and then later on. Well, I'm from the Netherlands, like bicycling, and and and and then all of this, and and driving a car, everything is changed all the time, yes. Yeah, it is it dealing with uncertainty, yes, but it's everything in life is uncertain. I could die tomorrow, today, or in in 30 years. I don't know. So it's like we're we're used to dealing with it, but we we kind of make it difficult, yeah. And why is it uncertainty? Because and that ties into the change thing from a managerial point of view. We don't want you to change, we we don't want you to think, we want you to do exactly as I tell you to do, yeah. And when people start to think or come up with ideas or be creative, then they're like, Oh, I don't know what's gonna pop up, yeah. And that is actually the reason why many, many organizations, large or small, doesn't matter, medium-sized, whatever. Their change process is lousy, it's failing all the time. I see, and many, many even organizations who used to exist for maybe more than a hundred years, are gone now because they they stuck too long to that certainty that is the way we do things here. It's the definition of culture, yeah. But it's like, hey, everything is changing all the time, and people talk about rapid change. I disagree with that because well, we think it is rapid, but I tell the people for thousands of years there are wars. Why are there still wars? Why didn't we change that? For thousands of years, the people live in poverty. Why is there still poverty today? Most people are unhappy. Why is that? Yeah, so it's like if you look at the real big picture, and I'm talking about the real big picture, it's not much change happening, it's not rapid change. I I I just recently coached a vice president in a large uh multinational in London in England, and it was a she, and she was talking about the situation where there was a merger and acquisition, and then you you get people fighting for positions and everything, and and and she was like, Well, it's a bit complicated, and this happened, and I'm like, I experienced that myself 30 years ago, and nothing changed, it's like exactly the same behavior, exactly the same stuff. Yeah, so I was telling her what was happening, that it was not crazy, and I predicted what would happen, and I'm supposed to write so, but that I'm not telling it, was 30 years ago, and I'm like, have we not learned anything?

SPEAKER_00 15:57

Mercy. So, so let me ask you this question, right? I'm gonna skip ahead a little bit. What is unconditioning, right? We're talking about change, it's not hard, it's a learned behavior. So, what is unconditioning?

SPEAKER_04 16:11

It's to remove the strait jackets of other people's agenda.

SPEAKER_00 16:16

Talk to us, talk to us. That's serious, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 16:22

And that is what what what they call conformity. Conformity means, and your word predictability is like, hey, you do exactly what as I tell you to do, that's my agenda, not your agenda. Yeah, and if you comply with that agenda, you're fine. If you're not interested whether you say, Why should we do this? I think it can be done much faster or easier, whatever. No, just do this. Yeah, and unconditioning is like removing the straitjacket because I ask people, I asked everyone I talk to, it's like well, the now the world championship football, you guys call it soccer, but it's like or the Olympics or any world championships in sport. I say, How many gold medalists are wearing a strait jacket? Mercy, and then they look at me. What a stupid question. Of course, nobody is. Yeah, but why are you wearing a strait jacket all the time?

SPEAKER_00 17:31

Mercy. Wearing it and don't even realize it. Have mercy. So if I hear you correctly, unconditioning is the process of identifying and releasing, identifying and releasing um habits, beliefs, assumptions that no longer don't serve us, you know, and leaders, a lot of us are leading using principles and tools and tips that's that worked for somebody else. And because it worked for somebody else, we we're trying it as well. Or, you know, we're operating off of a system that applied to the other team that we led, and we're trying to use it for the team that we're at now. And Arnold and I want to invite you right now to stop and to assess what are those habits, beliefs, assumptions, thought patterns that are not serving you right now, right? Haven't served you throughout your life. What uh, you know, Arnold talked to us a few moments ago about how we learn, it's a learned behavior to think that change is hard, right? What are those learned behaviors that have not been serving you through your life? The invitation is to you right now to uncondition. Allow yourself to challenge those outdated thinking, those question question, those assumptions, and allow yourself to be courageous and to create new possibilities. You know, one of the ways you can do this is to regularly, regularly examine beliefs and habits by asking, is this helping me grow or is this keeping me stuck? Very basic, simple question that when you answer it authentically, will give you answers that really are like the keys to helping you to move forward. Arnold, I want to ask you this question, right? What are the biggest barriers preventing leaders from being more innovative?

SPEAKER_04 19:59

Well, implicitly we talked about that, but a few of them are the number one I would say fair.

SPEAKER_00 20:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:10

Another one is lack of courage. And a I would say implicit, not explicit, desire to remain in your comfort zone.

SPEAKER_00 20:28

Mercy, fear and lack of courage, and uh say that last one again sticking to your comfort zone.

SPEAKER_04 20:41

Wow. So you know, fear let me explain the last part to you because you you're your hicky bond. The what you see with a lot of things is that a lot of leaders think, oh yeah, my people need to change, and they need to have different behavior, and then and they need to use AI and they need to do this, and they need to do that. Okay, but are you changing yourself? No, no, no, I'm good. Um, I'm everything I do is fine. That doesn't work anymore. It it never has, yeah, yeah, and and it never will. But it's like, hey, leader, you're a real leader if you lead yourself and look in the mirror and say, What can I change to do things better?

SPEAKER_00 21:30

Personal responsibility and accountability. I love that 1000%. I love it. So so let me ask you this question, right? I'm gonna move forward a little bit. This question is how can we as leaders create cultures that encourage creativity and innovation? How how can we create cultures?

SPEAKER_04 21:51

I would I would say by looking at the flip side of that. What's the flip side of creativity and innovation to a certain extent? You could say it's failure. Okay, and accept failure, and it's only failure if you something didn't work out the way you planned it, but you're not learning from it. Like I said, with mergers and acquisitions 30 years ago, they made the same mistakes as today. And I'm like, that's stupid. Yeah, so it's like it can happen, but hey, you need to learn from your failures. And it's like, this is no rock bottom science that if you get failure and you merge two organizations, and people are scared to lose their jobs, and ever and other people are fighting, is like in this case, in this company, with the boss of. The person I coached was like, who's gonna be the new AI leader in our company? Well, her boss thought that he was gonna get it. I said, No, he will never get it because he's not from the guy who bought you. Yeah, it's an important position, so it will be the other company, it will never be euro. It's like it's naive, you so it's like, but anything is failure, is like I'm I'm going back to the Chowtle thing. Well, um well, in the US, it's not common to bike, but in the Netherlands, every living being bikes. It's like if you bike, you fall.

SPEAKER_01 23:28

That's the first thing which happens, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 23:31

So it's like, are you then frustrated? Do you stop bicycling then? No, in the Netherlands, you get approximately 15 million people on a bike, so it's like, no, everybody just continues, it's part of the game.

SPEAKER_00 23:49

I think that's a strong message, and you know, leaders, we want to pause right here and give you an opportunity to share in the chat. Arnold and I want to know what is resonating with you. I know that this conversation is challenging you in your thoughts, it's challenging you to look at the practices, the daily habits that you have, and it's also challenging you to look at the future. You know, we're talking about innovation. And Arnold, as you're talking, I'm thinking to myself, you know, when you talk about allowing there to be a culture where it's okay to make a mistake, where you understand that failure is a part of the learning process. One of the things that I try to um speak over and speak into my team, I tell them all the time, I'm not asking you to be perfect, but I am asking you to be progressive. I'm asking you to stay learning. I'm asking you to have a culture here where somebody can make a mistake and we help each, we help to hold each other accountable and we help each other to grow from it. And teams, it's important that you foster a culture where your team has permission. They have permission to make a mistake, they have permission to be accountable to each other, they have permissions, permission to challenge assumptions. You know, Arnold, I think sometimes leaders get stuck in this rut where they don't want anybody to challenge them. You know, they want to say something and that's the law. No, you you need people on your team that's gonna say, I don't know about that, or what do you think about this, or that's not gonna work. That that pushes you out of your comfort zone and that helps to keep the innovation and creativity alive. You know, our teams can't fear criticism or punishment if they make a mistake or they challenge our ideas, right? Respectfully, you create a culture of respect, but there has to be this um this openness, this is this psychic. There we go, this psychologically safe environment. That's where teams flourish when it comes to creativity and innovation.

SPEAKER_04 25:41

Yeah, I would say that you have in the English language a beautiful world, it's called a dissenting opinion. Yeah, it's it's a legal term, but it's like enable and allow and promote dissenting opinions because it's just the kind of lone wolves who come up with these things, it's like there's something interesting in that. I haven't totally thought about that, yeah. Whereas if it that's why I call it the lone wolf versus the sheep, yeah, it's like the sheep say, Nay, of course it's fine, it's nice. That's gonna bring you nowhere. But that person who's the lone wolf who says has a dissenting opinion, I think I think it works differently. It's it's like in the area which which which I'm mostly it's called mental health and emotional health. I already start from the premise and said the industry is using a wrong word, they are working with mental illness and emotional illness, they do nothing about health. We we talk about the healthcare industry, but you can ask your doctor and say, What should I eat to stay healthy? and he will look like you whether whether you want to go to Mars. So it's like they don't know these things, yeah. So it's like we use the wrong word, and it's saying no, that industry is focused on people who are sick or illness or whatever, it's got nothing to do with health, yeah. And so it's like you need people who challenge words or processes or assumptions, like beliefs, which you've been using maybe for for years and years, and then personally, uh-uh, I don't agree. In in the case of mental health, I don't agree that for most people it's like there's something wrong in your brain. I tell you, for most people, by far, I'm talking about I think 95% plus the of the people who are labeled now with a mental illness, there's nothing wrong with their brain.

SPEAKER_00 27:41

Let's see. So we're talking about mental wellness right here, which I think is a great, a great place for us to to park it before we go into our last question, right?

SPEAKER_04 27:52

Talk to us a little bit about mental wellness for well, the definition what what I use, Adrian, is is mental wellness or brain fitness as I call it, doesn't matter. It's like it's a state of psychological and physical well-being in which an individual uses his or her uniqueness, learns continuously, deals with challenges, and contributes to a better world for all.

SPEAKER_00 28:25

I love that, and that is a serious challenge because that causes us to understand that mental wellness is not a death destination, mental wellness is an ongoing everyday practice. Leaders, you know, you heard Arnold talk to us about mental illness versus mental wellness. We challenge you to focus on mental wellness. How can you create daily habits that support your mental wellness, which could include reflection? You know, I had a mentor that told me every day as a leader, you need to carve out a minimum of 10 to 15 minutes, more if you have time, but carve out some time before the day is over to just stop, be quiet, and let your mind just reflect on the day, and then make a choice to let go of what you need to let go of so that when you go to bed at night, you're not tossing and turning, and your mind is not racing and thinking about all the things that happened during the day and what you need to do tomorrow because you gave yourself an opportunity to stop and to reflect. So, leaders, again, we challenge you to create daily practices that will support your mental wellness. And notice that as you support your mental wellness, your people follow your cue, they follow your example, and it will almost like give permission in the culture for them to do the same thing. So, I want to ask you one final question as we turn the corner here. What is one catalyst that every leader can activate today to drive greater innovation and well-being?

SPEAKER_04 30:13

I'm gonna give a very impactful thing, but I'm pretty sure most people won't expect it. I would say go walk. Walk every day. Every day, most people just have a sedentary lifestyle. They hop out of bed, then they go in the car or train or public transport, then they're in the office sitting all day, and then the return trip exactly the same. Walking is good for your physical and psychological health. In when you talk about in you need ideas, you need different perspectives. That is happening when you're walking, and you free up space in your brain, so you get what they call downloads, creativity downloads. It's like, oh, I got this idea, I don't know where it's coming from, but hey, sounds interesting. Yeah, just and it's it's something which almost everyone can do, so it's like yeah, and you can do it every day. It doesn't matter whether it's hot, warm, rainy, or snowing with it, you can walk every day.

SPEAKER_00 31:25

I love it, I love it 1000%. This has been a really great conversation, and I'm telling you, I honestly aren't I need to go back and watch the replay because you gave us a lot of food for thought. There were multiple times through this podcast episode where we just needed to sit and reflect and ask ourselves some honest questions. And so I know that there are leaders that are listening and watching that absolutely have questions for you and want to know more about the resources that you have. What's the best way for our listeners and viewers to be able to engage with you further?

SPEAKER_04 31:55

Well, the most easy way is to go to my website called brainathletes.club. Brainathletes is one word and it's plural, and that's where they can find my trainings, my books, my coaching. So, and there's even a link where you can book uh a meeting with me. My email is there if you just have some questions or don't know what to do, whatever. I'm I'm open to that. Yeah, it's um what I want to do with brain athletes is to that brain athletes are the new leaders, better for all leaders. And I hope you want to become a better for all leader.

SPEAKER_00 32:35

I love it. What a charge, right there, Arnold. Thank you so much for joining us here on Transformation Station. It has been wonderful to host you. Thank you so much. All right, well, what a conversation we had today. This conversation with Arnold reminds us that innovation is not just about changing markets, it begins with changing our mindset. And if today's episode made a difference, if today's episode challenged you, if today's episode inspired you, then guess what? I need you to go ahead and share this episode with two leaders in your network, with a leader, with an entrepreneur, with a team member who you know is committed to creating meaningful impact while maintaining personal trailblazing well-being. All right. Every Monday, Wednesday, I look forward to seeing you and engaging in discussion. So until next time, keep thinking boldly, keep leading courageously, and continue your transformational journey.