Help People Move Towards Vision, with Brooks Bradford

Summary

Podcast Summary: Coaching for Leaders – "Help People Move Towards Vision" with Brooks Bradford

In the March 12, 2025 episode of Coaching for Leaders, host Dr. Dave Stachowiak engages in an insightful conversation with Brooks Bradford, President of Hydrokinetics. This episode delves into effective leadership strategies that help individuals and organizations move towards a shared vision, drawing from Brooks' extensive experience in both the oil and gas industry and volunteer leadership roles.

Introduction to Brooks Bradford and Hydrokinetics

Brooks Bradford begins by explaining the core operations of Hydrokinetics, an oil and gas service company specializing in downstream process line cleaning. Unlike midstream or drilling operations, Hydrokinetics focuses on maintaining the efficiency and safety of production facilities, often responding to urgent issues such as freezes or power outages globally.

“We are very responsive and we're just kind of one of the pieces of the oil and gas industry on the petrochemical side and makes for every day is an exciting day.”
(Brooks Bradford, [02:09])

Leadership Challenges in a High-Stakes Environment

Operating in a fast-paced and high-stakes industry presents unique leadership challenges. Brooks emphasizes the importance of minimizing downtime and environmental impact, which requires not only technical expertise but also adept leadership to motivate teams under pressure.

“We want to get the job done and done safely.”
(Brooks Bradford, [02:23])

Brooks’ Involvement in Volunteer Leadership

Beyond his professional role, Brooks is heavily involved in the Houston Livestock Show on Rodeo, a significant volunteer organization awarding over $600 million in scholarships to Texas youth. His participation in the organization's inaugural leadership development program sparked his interest in deeper personal and leadership growth.

Journey into the Coaching for Leaders Academy

Initially skeptical about the Coaching for Leaders Academy, Brooks shares how he discovered the podcast through his volunteer work and began listening during long drives across Texas. His skepticism stemmed from a belief that the Academy was tailored for larger companies, but his experience proved otherwise.

“Once I got into the academy, that it was nothing like my fears. We had a really good, diverse group in our cohort.”
(Brooks Bradford, [05:33])

Defining Focus Areas: Task Management, Delegation, Team Alignment, and Personal Branding

Upon joining the Academy, Brooks identified three primary focus areas:

1. Task Management
2. Delegation
3. Team Alignment on Vision and Goals

Additionally, he recognized the need for Personal Branding, particularly through LinkedIn, to enhance his professional presence and customer interactions.

“I was very kind of scattered all over the place... Now it is, I need to get this done.”
(Brooks Bradford, [13:15])

Implementing Small, Consistent Actions

A significant takeaway for Brooks was the Academy’s emphasis on starting with small, manageable actions. Initially doubtful, he embraced the strategy of dedicating just five minutes a day to personal branding on LinkedIn, which gradually built his confidence and online presence.

“It’s an interesting strategy and really excited. That was probably the biggest kind of high level takeaway I had was just get started, make it manageable and just kind of push through it.”
(Brooks Bradford, [10:37])

Impact on Team and Organizational Stability

Brooks highlights how these leadership changes have brought stability and empowerment to his team. By consistently articulating the vision and allowing team members to take ownership, he has fostered a culture of accountability and proactive problem-solving.

“It’s brought stability... empowering our management team that they can step up, they can make decisions.”
(Brooks Bradford, [14:33])

A poignant moment came when a manager acknowledged the alignment between Brooks’ communicated vision and their actions, reinforcing the effectiveness of his efforts.

“Keep reiterating your vision of the future for this organization. They will listen.”
(Brooks Bradford, [16:05])

Changing Perspectives on Leadership Development

Throughout the Academy, Brooks experienced a paradigm shift regarding leadership development. Initially resistant to the idea that small, consistent efforts could drive significant change, he now advocates for this approach, demonstrating its efficacy in both his professional and personal life.

“I was wrong. But it’s an interesting strategy and really excited.”
(Brooks Bradford, [16:47])

Dave’s Reflections on Sustainable Leadership Movement

Dave underscores the importance of sustainable, consistent actions over intense, sporadic efforts. He emphasizes that leadership development is an ongoing journey, where small steps lead to substantial, long-term progress.

“Movement that's sustainable... developing consistent systems that get you started one step at a time, with peer support and accountability.”
(Dave Stachowiak, [18:07])

Conclusion: Leadership as a Continuous Journey

The episode wraps up with a reaffirmation of the idea that leaders aren’t born, they’re made. Brooks praises the Academy for its supportive community and practical approach to leadership development, encouraging other leaders to embark on similar growth journeys.

“It's been a great ride, a great program, and been excited to be part of it.”
(Brooks Bradford, [18:19])

Notable Quotes

• “Any strength, if overused, often becomes a liability.”
  (Dave Stachowiak, [00:06])

• “It doesn't have to be perfect. That was something I struggled with.”
  (Brooks Bradford, [16:47])

Key Takeaways

1. Start Small: Incremental changes can lead to significant improvements over time.
2. Consistency Over Intensity: Regular, manageable actions are more sustainable than occasional intense efforts.
3. Empower Your Team: Clear communication and delegation foster ownership and accountability.
4. Personal Branding Matters: Developing a professional presence, even outside your comfort zone, can enhance leadership effectiveness.
5. Continuous Learning: Leadership development is an ongoing process requiring dedication and adaptability.

This episode serves as a valuable resource for leaders seeking practical strategies to align their teams with a shared vision, manage tasks effectively, and build a strong personal and organizational brand. Brooks Bradford’s experiences provide actionable insights that can be applied across various industries and leadership contexts.

Transcript

[Dave Stahoviak]

Dave Stahoviak here, host of the Coaching for Leaders podcast. I work with a lot of high achievers and they tend to set the bar really high for themselves. As one of my mentors once told me, any strength, if overused, often becomes a liability. Sometimes our desire to achieve a lot can actually stop us from starting or something. I see a lot to keep from continuing when we run into obstacles. That's why I'm sharing this conversation today with Brooks Bradford. He's leading a super successful organization that, as you'll hear, is really busy and we discuss what he did through our academy to help motivate people and himself towards an important vision. By the way, if you're considering the Coaching for Leaders Academy applications close this Friday. Friday, March 14th. More details about that at the end. Now here's our chat. I'm talking with Brooks Bradford today. He is the president of Hydrokinetics. He's also an alum of the Coaching for Leaders Academy. Brooks, so good to be talking with you.

[Brooks Bradford]

It is always a pleasure to talk with you, Dave.

[Dave Stahoviak]

I know people have heard of the oil and gas industry, especially folks in Texas like you are, of course, but I think probably a lot of folks aren't familiar with the kind of work your organization would do. Could you share a bit about what is hydrokinetics and what's the kind of work you all do?

[Brooks Bradford]

Absolutely. So we, we are an oil and gas service company. We have a patented process for cleaning process lines so downstream. So not drilling or midstream, but it's at the end, end of the road where they're actually making plastic. And when these facilities have an upset, that's when we come in. And that could be in our backyard here in Houston or it could be in Thailand or anywhere else in the world. So we're very responsive and we're just kind of one of, one of the pieces of the oil and gas industry on the petrochemical side and makes for every day is an exciting day. So you never know what, what's going to pop up.

[Dave Stahoviak]

I can only imagine. And I know one of the things you all think about as an organization is how do you clean really well so that you minimize downtime for people. So it helps with efficiency. The environmental stuff, all of that's what your firm's really dedicated to doing, right?

[Brooks Bradford]

Correct. Yeah. So we are there to speed up the process. Production is where they make money and we want to cut down that downtime and the environmental impact, the water usage, the fuel that's used. So we have A very efficient process. We can do multiple miles of cleaning all in one go. And so our clients are typically downtime sensitive. So they, they want to get the job done and done safely. So we, that's kind of where we fit in. And there's a lot of the industry has normal shutdowns where every year, every two years, they have long durations where the whole plant goes down. We typically don't have that luxury. Most of our calls are they had a freeze, they had a power outage, and they're down. And so we'll have to mobilize really anywhere in the world at a moment's notice. So. So it's interesting.

[Dave Stahoviak]

I can only imagine a lot of leadership challenges come up and you and I have talked about some of them in the past in the academy and that's part of what led you to seeking out the podcast. And in fact, the leadership role you have is not the only place you lead. Right. How did you come across the podcast?

[Brooks Bradford]

So I had, I'm also heavily involved in the Houston Livestock show on Rodeo, which is a 35,000 for a volunteer organization. So a great, great organization down here in Houston given over $600 million in scholarships to the youth of Texas. I could probably dedicate another hour just to talking about that. And part of that program is they started a leadership development program and Mel Underhill and her team were phenomenal and I was part of the inaugural class. And as I went through it, you know, I kind of got the bug and be like, you know, I need to probably spend a little more time on this and personal development. You know, in a mid sized business like ours, it's, we're jumping from fire to fire and we rarely take the time out to really look at leadership and get better. And so I kind of took that time to figure out what is the next step. And part of that I started asking around, looking around for different podcasts. Cause I, I'm still a very much a face to face person that I want to meet our customers in the field where they're at. So I have a lot of windshield time. You don't realize how big Texas is until you start driving. And so started listening to different podcasts and then kind of got hooked on coaching for leaders and then started hearing about the academy and I was like, well, might start looking into that, but honestly just had a healthy skepticism about it because I didn't think that I would fit. To me it was, it felt like it was going to be a, a bunch of large company managers that would look at an oil and gas service company and be like, yeah, we don't have those problems. So, yeah, so it was interesting. We had those conversations early, but I was really pleased, you know, once I got into the academy, that it was nothing like my fears. We had a really good, diverse group in our. In our cohort. So kudos to you and your team for kind of picking the right people. And it was a blast.

[Dave Stahoviak]

I'm. I'm so glad. And, you know, it's always interesting as our relationships build through the process of learning, like, what were people thinking and feeling and concerned about early on? And in the spirit of that, what did you hope to get out of the academy? You mentioned with the rodeo, like, kind of getting that bug of starting to think about leadership development. What were you hoping to take away from this?

[Brooks Bradford]

So at that time, and now I wear many different hats, so I have my normal work, you know, hydrokinetics hat where I'm dealing with multinational clients and different levels of workforce. And then on. On the rodeo side, I'm dealing with a. I had a committee of 475 volunteers. So it was a different group, different motivations and trying to balance that and balance life and figure out how do I lead a group of volunteers, how do I lead a group of guys in the field, and also how do I get better? And so kind of went in with a blank slate going, what areas do I want to focus on? And that's where, as we got started, I kind of was able to refine those. And. And then also there was some course correction as we went through that. What my initial product was on day 10, by the end of it was a very different product. And I was pretty excited about that.

[Dave Stahoviak]

Yeah. Great. And as we start the academy, of course we spend a lot of time doing assessment, conversation, team building with our cohort. And one of the things that we do early on is to articulate a vision for each one of us and then zero in on three focus areas. Three things that for each person, each leader is really important for us to move forward on. As you did that, Brooks, what did you decide that you wanted to zero in and really focus on to do better?

[Brooks Bradford]

So, yeah, so the three that ended up being my focus areas were kind of task management, delegation, then kind of team alignment on the vision and goal. And then the last one that kind of came up as we went through was kind of a personal branding. And there was a. I'm an engineer by heart, not a big social media guy or big type A personality, but realized that you know, need to be active. And LinkedIn was my first kind of attack on that to be active on there, interact, interact with our customers and tell our story. And it kind of pushed me to get doing that cause I had never really spent time or focused on it.

[Dave Stahoviak]

What did you decide to do? I mean specifically with that, the personal branding and LinkedIn. I remember us talking about that. What action did you take and how'd that go?

[Brooks Bradford]

Yeah, so I just part of it was initial, just short interactions, part of it was the take have the five minute task and early it was just reading articles, industry related articles and then kind of blossomed from there to interaction with folks. I'm, you know, I've made some posts and one thing I learned is just start, you know, you're not going to have a perfect polished application. So got out there, just started having some interaction, making some posts on things that were interesting. I'm kind of bringing it back to the podcast piece is there has been times where the subject has been not related to our industry at all. And there are some major areas that you know that collide and that I'm like, I have these aha moments and that's when it's pretty interesting, pretty cool to see and dive down deeper. You know a good example was a recent episode on standing up for yourself and listening to that. And one of the items was, you know, she was telling a story about how not saying something in the doctor's office. But for us in our industry, we have stop work authority. We're around heavy equipment, chemicals, high pressures, high temperatures and we want to empower our entire team to say something and they see that exact same scenario of you know, why I'm, I'm the low man on the crew or maybe they're right, I'm wrong. But you have to empower these folks in the field. And it's really interesting to see some of these cross pollination of ideas especially in the oil and gas industry which at times could be stuck in the 80s.

[Dave Stahoviak]

Yeah and it was really, I remember seeing that post and I was thinking about this commitment you took on for personal branding and the tactically like getting More active on LinkedIn. You took something nerd on the podcast, you framed it around the oil and gas industry. You wrote up this beautiful post and lessons and, and it's really like what a great way to put those things together. And you, you mentioned something big a moment ago that I'd love to come back to because you said like the key is starting and you and I had this conversation, I don't know, maybe like 90 days in on the academy of like, I know you were a little skeptical of like the process and just the invitation to just start with small actions. Five minutes a day is our big thing in the academy. Like just start small, one thing a day, next day, one thing. Consistency over intensity. That seemed awkward at the beginning for you, didn't it?

[Brooks Bradford]

Very much so. I was highly skeptical that small actions would make a difference. And early on, the hardest part was narrowing down to something very small. It was, you know, here's the area that I want to attack. But you had to break it down into much, much smaller pieces because what you wanted to do was probably going to take an hour a day. And I've, I'm now a flag waiver for it. It is something I look at every couple months on, hey, what, what am I going to do now? What is a small action? And it works. And I, I will be the first to say I, I was wrong. But it, it, it's an interesting strategy and really excited. That was probably the biggest kind of high level takeaway I had was just get started, make it a manage and just kind of push through it.

[Dave Stahoviak]

I appreciate you saying that because I think that I shouldn't say, I think we all fall into this. I know I do. Like, we get bombarded with so much information. Books, podcasts, YouTube, LinkedIn, like so many things a lot of us see professionally as far as professional development ideas every day. And it is, it's really hard just to start. And you'll appreciate this, Brooks. I mean, the thing that I'm doing most, as in leading our academy conversations, is trying to get people to do less. Actually like zero in on one thing. Let's start here, one thing at a time. The support from our partners and our community and our cohort and just starting that consistency. And once you start doing that, and I love that you're still doing that, then you're like, okay, I can do that, I can do five minutes. I don't have to spend three hours today trying to make time to do something. And you get a bit of traction with it.

[Brooks Bradford]

Absolutely. And I'm, I, I've moved on to the pure momentum group now and very similar deal is the initial activity I wanted was too big and we kind of talked through it and narrowed it down to something that is absolutely manageable. And with everything else going on and calendars and everything else, it has to be small to make the consistency happen and been, been really proud of it. And it's Now a recurring task on my, my calendar. One that is new that I adopted because of the Academy, you know, and that task management delegation piece was just kind of like what. How do I put my hands around what is going on and how do I prioritize and was looking at options and that came out of it as well.

[Dave Stahoviak]

Yeah. And that was one of the other focus areas, right, that delegation, that task management. When you think about that today versus when you started the Academy, what's different about how you approach that now?

[Brooks Bradford]

You know, I, I was very kind of scattered all over the place and there wasn't much focus time. It would be shiny object to shiny object kind of deal. Now it is, I need to get this done. I, you know, I'm seeing, I'm reprioritizing between a, you know, at least weekly, sometimes daily on what needs to happen and there's much more intentionality and kind of focus on what needs to happen or what doesn't need to happen or also the delegation piece. So that's been, you know, that was really interesting kind of moment to figure out is this a priority? Is this not? Whereas before it was everything was flowing at equal, equal priorities. And so then, you know, at times there'd be stagnation or just things wouldn't get done, but now it's, there's a clear order and much cleaner operation, which I like. But yeah, that was, that was a big one, especially kind of during that season of life when I had a lot, lot thrown at me.

[Dave Stahoviak]

Yeah, indeed. You were navigating a lot of personal stuff too, and personal transitions, as you have done that both on the personal branding side through LinkedIn and social media, and also the delegation, the time management, it's helped out you. How has that helped out the team and the organization?

[Brooks Bradford]

Yeah, it's brought stability. And one of the other point was on team alignment, on kind of vision and really it was repeating that and making sure people heard it. And you know, it's brought, gave people some ownership, they understand where they can pick up some slack or take the lead on a project. But I think the one big moment that I had was you keep repeating kind of the vision and the plan and sometimes it feels like it's just falling on deaf ears. And there was this moment, you know, a few weeks into that that I had one of my managers come to me and said, hey, you know, you've been talking about this and I, I did X, Y and Z. Because you had been saying that is that, is that good? I was like, absolutely. It's good. Like keep, keep moving. That's exactly what we want. And it kind of gave me the, the refresh that, okay, this is, this is working. It's not just words that are being said in a meeting. So I've kind of taken that to heart too. Is gonna have to say it, email it, get it, you know, where people see it enough and understand it. And I've, I've been mentoring a couple other folks and that was one of the lines we had kind of last week is don't give up. Keep, keep reiterating your, your vision of the future for this organization. They will listen. And even when it doesn't seem, seem like they are, they're listening and you'll get there. So that was, that was a big one. And it's just empowering our management team that they can step up, they can make decisions. And I was excited to see that.

[Dave Stahoviak]

Super cool. Yeah. As you were saying that, I was thinking to one of the times Patrick Lencioni was on the show, he made the point that a lot of leadership, especially at the executive level, is about being the chief reminding officer, right? Like reminding people what's important, reminding people, the vision, doing that consistently. I mean, it's very much in the spirit of what you just said. Like, as you did that, you saw that consistency happening, like people starting to notice that and then do things with it. Super cool. Brooks. I often ask people what they've changed their minds on. You know, you and I have known each other just a little over a year now, going through this process, going through the academy, working with all the colleagues that we had in our cohort, six of us. What did you change your mind on?

[Brooks Bradford]

You know, it kind of touched on it a little bit, but I came in fairly skeptical about the small task in the vision, that just a daily small piece could make such a difference. And I was somewhat vocal about that, but it does, you know, it works. I still continue it now in, not on as strict regular basis, but every month or so there, there's kind of a new small vision, if you will, on what I'm going to do. And, you know, I, I, I was wrong on it. There's no doubt. And now I've, you know, I've actually been talking to my wife about the same thing on. She, you know, was working on some stuff for work and I was like, hey, try this. And she had the healthy skepticism as I did. So I'm trying to be evangelical about it, but that was the one big takeaway is, yeah, I had some, the Big points and kind of changed how I operated, but in the back of my head, it's, you know, it's just consistency and small little steps. It doesn't. It doesn't have to be perfect. That was something I struggled with, too, is if you're going to put a product out there, it better be dead on. But I realized that wishful thinking in most cases, you know, get something out there, start, get some momentum, and you'll learn as you go.

[Dave Stahoviak]

Brooks, I so appreciate the privilege you've allowed me and us in our community to support you and your team and your organization. And thank you so much for sharing your experience with. With me and with us. I so appreciate it.

[Brooks Bradford]

Yeah. Thank you for. For having me. It's been a great ride, a great program, and been excited to be part of it. Actually, one of my weekly tasks is to make sure I get on the portal and see what's going on and add. Add things as I go. So it's been a great community and good for idea sharing, and we realize that, you know, nobody has. Has this dead on and everybody is working on something, and it's been fun to be in a group that kind of sees that and it's all trying to get better.

[Dave Stahoviak]

Oh, man. Yeah. We're all learning together on this. This leadership thing, aren't we? Every single week. Yeah. Thanks so much for. For being a part of this and contributing.

[Brooks Bradford]

Thank you.

[Dave Stahoviak]

I was thinking about what Brook said about keeping moving well after the Academy. That's one of the hardest things about leadership development, I think, at least, is that you can attend a workshop or read a book or listen to a podcast episode and come across a strategy or an idea that's super useful, and then a week later you forgot about it, or maybe even worse, you're still thinking about it, and now you've got that guilty feeling about what you're not doing. It's just kind of adding to the list. One of the reasons our key objective in the academy is movement. Not just today or tomorrow, but movement that's sustainable. Trying to move mountains on any given day isn't sustainable. What is is developing consistent systems that get you started one step at a time, with peer support and accountability. That's so people know where the organization is going and doing better at avoiding escalations and increasing capacity and delivering on time. All of those things ultimately come down to the people stuff. Maybe you're like Brooks, where you've hit an inflection point and realize that there's an opportunity to get better. Perhaps it's time management or networking or team vision like he moved on. Or maybe it's another leadership skill entirely. If that's you, I hope you'll consider applying to our academy. You'll work personally with me and five to six other leaders who who are focused on making movement on the behaviors that are most important right now. To apply, visit coaching4leaders.comacademy now through this Friday, March 14, many of us get to the point in our careers where it's important to change our behaviors. Often it's at the inflection points. If you're ready to get moving together with other leaders and me, I hope you'll apply more details and the application again at coaching for leaders.com academy. Keep in mind that applications do close at the end of the day this Friday, March 14, so be sure to get there before then. Thanks for listening. And remember, leaders aren't born, they're made.