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- [00:00]
A
If you've ever had an idea for a business but weren't sure where to start, Shopify makes it easy to turn that idea into something real. Everything you need to start selling is there from day one, so you can focus less on the setup and more on building what you want to create. One of the biggest hurdles for any new business is getting customers all the way through the checkout. Shopify Checkout helps make that process simple, so when someone's ready to buy, they can complete their purchase quickly and easily. And when they return, their information is already saved, making repeat purchases even smoother. And once the basics are taken care of, you can spend more time growing your business. Instead of managing the technical details, Shopify gives entrepreneurs the tools they need to build, adapt, and scale as they go. With Shopify, nothing stands between your idea and a real business. So go make it one. Start your free trial@shopify.com leadership that's shopify.com leadership. You're not overloaded. You just rely too much on your own individual brilliance to get results. Until you learn to lead your leaders better, you'll never get out of the spin cycle. Today, Em and I are going to take you through the 12 execution breakthroughs that will massively lift your ability to lead your leadership and reduce the pressure you're under right now.
- [01:24]
B
Welcome to the no Bullshit Leadership Podcast. In a world where knowledge has become a commodity, this podcast is designed to give you something more access to the experience of a successful CEO who has already walked the path. So join your host, Martin Moore, who will unlock and bring to life your own leadership experiences and accelerate your journey to leadership excellence.
- [01:47]
A
Hey there and welcome to episode 414 of the no Bullshit Leadership Podcast. This week's episode 12 execution breakthroughs for Leading Leaders. A few weeks ago, we sat in a room with six CEOs who we've been working with for the better part of a year now. We asked each of them to rate their own leadership performance on a range of dimensions as founders and CEOs on a scale from 1 to 10. When it came to how well they think they've implemented a strong accountability cadence in their business, all but One of these CEOs rated themselves at 6 or below. Accountability is about making it clear who owns every task and every decision, keeping a firm handle on progress, understanding how risks and assumptions evolve over time, giving direct, clear feedback on how each accountable person is performing, and implementing rewards and consequences where necessary. Interestingly, every single one of them could describe the problem accurately. It wasn't that hard to diagnose. But as is generally the case with leadership, it's incredibly difficult to change. What do you reckon, Em?
- [02:53]
B
Yeah, Marty, that's the bit that got me. Because no one in the room needed new information. They all know their businesses inside and out and they're doing a lot of things right. It just seems as though building a culture and a rhythm to support that single point. Accountability is so, so much harder than it would first seem.
- [03:11]
A
Yes. Yes, it is. So it's not about not knowing what to do. It's all in the execution today. That's why we're giving the no bullshit leadership community the 12 execution breakthrough levers that came out of that room. Six from me, six from you, Em. Now, if you're the person who everyone ultimately relies upon to get things done, this one is absolutely for you.
- [03:32]
B
All right, Marty, I'm really looking forward to this episode. So why don't you kick off with number one, all right?
- [03:38]
A
No mucking around here. Right? Number one, delegation without accountability is doomed to failure. Now, there's an old saying that you'd well know him. If you want to be successful, just hire good people and get out of their way. Doesn't, doesn't sort of work like that. If you don't keep a close eye on what's going on, you'll struggle to hold them accountable for delivery. Now, One of our CEOs hired an individual who was very impressive on the outside. There was talk of massive growth in markets they hadn't yet been successful in, which was going to effectively encourage the CEO to make this new hire a partner in the business. So impressed would he be. So he hired this individual and just gave him run of house. But it's the same old story. You can't just watch their lips, you've got to watch their feet. About a year later, this rising star had made almost no progress. The numbers were poor. And what's even worse, the team had effectively been corroded from the inside by the time that CEO realized the damage was done.
- [04:38]
B
Marty, one of the things that I remember this CEO saying was that because he didn't make him accountable, they ended up putting themselves in a world of hurt. And everyone in the room felt that.
- [04:49]
A
I know, I know he wasn't alone. He was just the one who fessed up. So when you delegate anything, but especially in this case, where this person had accountability for driving business growth, you've got to make sure you put in place the processes that enable you to inspect progress diligently. And when it goes wrong, you've Got to suck it up and make the hard calls to get everything back on track. So this CEO has done that, and now the business is on its way back. All right, Em, that's a great lesson. Being totally hands off is one thing, but the flip side isn't much better. Why don't you take us on number two?
- [05:23]
B
Yeah. So number two is rescuing people when they don't deliver doesn't help them. It limits their growth. So you may think that you're protecting your people when you hold on to the hardest work and jump in and help them whenever they can't do their own jobs, but you're not actually helping. You're just limiting their growth. So One of the CEOs built his business over almost two decades and now operates across multiple countries. He promoted a general manager a while ago, but hadn't been able to find the right people to fill some of those key leadership roles under that gm. Now, because of that, the CEO felt responsible for jumping in and helping the GM to do her job. And he also gave her a lot of latitude when she didn't deliver, because really, there wasn't a complete structure below her. And I'm sure this sounds familiar for so many people, they go, oh, I just can't hand this or that off yet because I haven't set them up for success yet. But recently, with a few key hires, the structure was filled out and they were looking really good.
- [06:25]
A
That was good.
- [06:26]
B
However, the CEO was still holding things back and overcompensating for the gm. So in this session, he worked out that he was the reason that everything was happening too slowly, because too much of the work and the decision making had to flow up to him. Now, on top of that, as long as the GM wasn't expected to do the entirety of her job, she wasn't growing.
- [06:49]
A
Ah, the old double whammy.
- [06:52]
B
Yeah, it's a cracker. But one of the quotes that I wrote down that he said in the session was, I'm still unconsciously running things rather than sharing. And that was a really great light bulb moment, I thought. So what happened now? Before the team was at capacity in each of the required roles, holding onto some of the more complex work was legitimate for the CEO. But once the structure was finalized, that excuse was gone. And the only thing still limiting the GM was the stuff that hadn't yet been handed over. And look, I like to do this practical test. If you're not sure what to start handing over first, you do this little thing. You say, if I went away for three Weeks tomorrow. What breaks? That list isn't a risk register, it's your handover list. That is what you start to use.
- [07:41]
A
Oh, nice.
- [07:42]
B
Now, Marty, there's a version of this where the leader genuinely has handed it over, but the environment hasn't been set up to enable execution. Tell us about number three.
- [07:53]
A
Yeah, number three is accountability without empowerment is cruelty. Now, I talk about this all the time, right? Accountability and empowerment, two sides of the same coin. You cannot have one without the other. If you give someone accountability without giving them the authority to execute, you haven't empowered them, you've basically just set them up for a fall. One of our CEOs told us about a job that went wrong because the leader who was accountable for it, didn't feel empowered to stop that job when she saw issues with the work clearly emerging. It was a huge production run and the supervisor on the floor was clearly accountable. She could see the output wasn't up to the specified quality. She even flagged it to someone out loud and had a bit of a think about it and just decided to keep the job running because it would have disrupted their whole day. But as we know, hope's not a strategy. Hoping that things are going to work out when you can see them going wrong doesn't actually pay you back. So the next day, the whole run had to be scrapped and done again. Thousands of units. Not cheap, not easy, very, very frustrating. She should have stopped the line and sent it back. She sort of knew that while it was happening, but didn't feel empowered to make the call. In fairness to her, nobody ever told her that she could. She had accountability for the outcome, but she didn't feel as though she had sufficient authority to. To make the call. And this is interesting because we think we've given people empowerment. They have everything they need, but do they have the confidence in what we've told them? To actually make the call when it counts the most? I saw this when I was running CS Energy. A lot of people who worked on the front line didn't feel as though they had the authority to stop production if they had a safety concern. Not only did I give them really clear permission when I talked to these people who were doing the work on the front line, in one case, I even put my mobile telephone number on a whiteboard in the smoko room so that anyone who questioned the authority of a worker to stop production could call me directly for confirmation anytime, day or night. It was cool. And it got some traction too. This. This approach sort of originated in Toyota. Their lean Manufacturing and Kaizen were designed to reduce variation and improve the quality and consistency of their manufacturing. Management installed emergency stop buttons along the entire production line, and anyone on that line could push that button if they thought it was necessary. Now, of course, this is Japan. Nobody's going to abuse that authority. They know that really, really clearly. So they think very, very carefully before they push the button. But the button genuinely has to be theirs and they have to genuinely believe that they're empowered to use it. The fix for our CEO took one sentence. From now on, you have 100% authority to do whatever you think is appropriate in that situation. See, if people don't feel as though they have that empowerment, the accountability will always float back up to you. They'll always ask the question or push the decision up line because they don't feel they have the authority to make it. So before you jump to the conclusion that your people lack initiative, test frequently whether they feel as though they have the empowerment they need to deliver. That alone should keep you out of your people's knitting. But sometimes you'll feel the need to dip down even though you know you shouldn't. What do you reckon? M number four.
- [10:59]
B
Yeah, that segues beautifully into number four, which is micromanaging slows everything to glacial speed. If you jump in and interfere in your people's work, it grinds to a halt. You become the bottleneck. Accountability shifts upwards to you, and your people wait for you to solve their problems instead of solving them themselves. And we don't want that, right? That is like.
- [11:22]
A
No, we do.
- [11:22]
B
Not everyone, One of the CEOs runs a business where the whole promise to the customer is that the job turns up when she says it will. Delivery in full, on time. So her standard is about as simple as standards. Get. Get the order right, deliver it when you said you would, and if something goes wrong, talk to the customer openly and promptly. But when something goes wrong and the CEO intervenes, she's called a micromanager. And we spend a little bit of time on this. On the why? Well, she said, it's probably because it's not being done the way I want it done. And then she kind of corrected herself. And this is the really important bit, this is the thing that I got from it is, you know, she said, I don't mind how they achieve the outcome as long as the outcome is achieved. And Marty, you gave a great script for how she might approach this next time. Do you remember what you said?
- [12:15]
A
Oh, I do, I do. And I used to say this quite frequently. People Particularly for myself, it's as good for me as it is for the individual I'm leading, because they need to understand exactly what they're able to do. So I would say, look, I genuinely don't care how you get this done. You committed to this. This is the outcome I expect. And if that outcome doesn't arrive as we expect, then I'm going to get interested in about what you're doing, because A plus B should equal C. But until then, as long as you're delivering the outcomes I need, knock yourself out.
- [12:48]
B
Yeah. And I mean, you know, things will go wrong, like, suppliers are going to let you down. People get sick. Like, things break. It just happens. You can't control the result 100% of the time. But what you can control is what happens next, how fast you respond, how you handle it, what you do to fix it, all that stuff. You know, holding a standard on the part that's controllable is not micromanagement. Like, that's the job. That's what a leader needs to do. But it is. It is quite a fine balance between controlling the task itself, which is micromanaging, and holding people to account for the result, which is, I don't know, just good leadership. And look, if you want to keep things moving, you just need that good leadership. And we want to get rid of the micromanagers. So this is where it gets hard, because I guess you're not just holding your own standard, you're holding other people's standards as well. So, Marty, can we talk about standards? And in number five?
- [13:46]
A
Sure, sure, absolutely. And this is an interesting one, because the deeper your organization goes, the harder it becomes. Standards need to be upheld all the way to the front line. So if your standard just stops at your direct reports, it's worthless. You've got to drive the standards through as many layers of leadership as it takes until you reach the front line. Two of the six CEOs had the same problem, which they described in almost the same words. They feel as though they get the message through to their direct reports, and then beyond them, it just stops dead. So we started talking about echoes. And I've always had this expression that to understand whether something is working, you've got to listen for echoes coming back down from below. If you're just broadcasting what you want, telling everyone what they need to do, you've got no idea what's really happening until you get out there and have a look and see how close it is to what you think should be being done. But if you can hear the echoes coming back up. People using the same language, people talking about the same things. When people express themselves, they're focused on the value. That's what lets you know that it's going all the way through to the front line. Now, you've got to remember that weak leaders lower the standard to meet the performance, and strong leaders lift the performance to meet the standard.
- [14:59]
B
Oh, I love that quote, Marty. It's one of my favorites.
- [15:02]
A
Yeah, it's a cracker, isn't it? Emotional. What you've got to realize there'll be leaders below you who have very different ideas about the standard that they need to uphold. And believe it or not, there are some weak leaders in your business. If you have more than, say, 50 people in your business, there will be weak leaders in that. In that 50. They're not bad people. They just don't want to do the work to push their team to stretch to the standard they need. So you'll be able to work this out when you don't hear the echo, because when there's no echo, there's no buy in. That's a good little test you can run for yourself. Yeah. So one of the reasons the echo dies is that what got sent down wasn't clear enough in the first place. So how can we fix that?
- [15:43]
B
All right, so number six, if you can't measure it, you can't hold people accountable for delivering it. They have to know very specifically what good looks like, and you have to recognize it when you see it. So I asked one of the CEOs what creates the most value in his business, and it was a great answer. Make people happy. So I asked him what actually constitutes as value, because I had a feeling that his definition and mine were a long way apart. Now, everything he said after that was spot on. Personal connection, frontline team, engaging properly. People feeling welcome in a way they don't get anywhere else these days. All good stuff, right? Warm and fuzzies. But you can't hold a general manager to account for any of it. It just can't be measured in any meaningful way. And so Marty actually said during this session that we were doing, you know what, making people happy is awesome, but going to a movie makes people happy. So what is it that you actually do, and how does that turn out in terms of the value it delivers for your customer and your business? And that was a cracker, Marty, when you said that, everyone just kind of sat there.
- [16:52]
A
A lot of ways to make people happy.
- [16:54]
B
Yeah, that's it. And so we landed on this. That Happiness might be the way you describe the purpose, but making sure they come back is the value. If someone walks out, delighted and never returns, you've delivered the purpose and created nothing. So this particular CEO, he actually got there himself. As we were going through the session, he realized that he needed something really measurable. So whether that be reviews or repeat customer rates or dollar spend per customer, staff turnover, whatever it is, none of that replaces why they exist or that purpose piece. It just gives your people something that can actually quantify and strive for. Marty, if you say it fast enough, it sounds easy. Make people always sounds like a really good call to arms. But if that's the kind of ambiguous direction you give to a general manager on a Monday, it means nothing. And we can't hit goals when we can't measure them. So that was a really good lesson there. The other reason that nobody holds the line. Can you take us into number seven, Marty? Sure.
- [17:56]
A
M number seven. Lifting the pace requires pressure. Lifting the standard requires conflict. Now, a leader's job is to set the tone, the pace and the standard for their team. Of the three, I think pace is probably the easiest. It requires a relentless focus and a little pressure, don't get me wrong. But really, you just got to be mildly dissatisfied with the speed of delivery to make a difference. The standard is so much harder because setting a higher standard means that you'll have to do some tough things and engage in conflict willingly. So setting a high standard takes three steps, each of which can be quite uncomfortable. First, you've got to form a really clear picture of the current standard. Second, you've got to be able to describe why that standard isn't good enough to take the team where you need to go. And third, you have to absolutely live in that gap every day. You've got to constantly show people where they are in relation to the new standard you're setting and help them to lift to get to that standard. The minute you say, that's not good enough, I need you here. Instead, you've just created some conflict. Someone's not going to like that. They're going to argue with you about whether your view of the standard is right. They're going to argue about how close they are to the standard. You're just going to enter into a conflict. So changing how people see the standard is a culture. Leverage and culture levers take a long time to pull sometimes. So I asked one of the CEOs straight out with his frontline leaders were able to set and hold a high enough standard? Did they have the drive and were they totally comfortable working in a high conflict environment? His answer just probably would be for most leaders of leaders was no. Well, why not? Well, you know, they're all young leaders, they've just been promoted. They're great technicians and I'm just helping them to develop into frontline leaders. But they keep getting dragged back into the doing because they feel much more comfortable down there and because it's easier to do it themselves than it is to lead their people to lift to the standard. That's what they naturally revert to. If your leaders don't hold the line, it's most likely not a capability issue. It's more likely that nobody's ever taught them to be comfortable in conflict. And this is why the leaders mantra has to be respect before popularity.
- [20:05]
B
Back to episode one.
- [20:06]
A
Respect before popularity. Yeah. And people may not enjoy the conversation, but they need to take the message on board. If you're trying to lift the standard, it is an absolutely long term thankless job and it is relentless. But you can't back off it or nothing will change. So a bit of homework for you. A couple of back catalog episodes that you can go back and check out yourself. Episode 348, Overcoming your fear of feedback and episode 260 Setting the bar, how to raise the standard of leadership excellence. They should give you a really good foundation with this stuff. So em, let's, let's talk one on ones. I know you're, you're a fiend for one on ones.
- [20:44]
B
I am just a beast for these. Anyone who works with us knows number eight is structure. In one on ones builds the guardrails to connect fully with the individual. So I think that a lot of people think that having structure in one on one meetings kills the relationship. But I have found that it's actually the complete opposite. The structure is what makes room for the human. Bit 3 out of 10 on cadence of accountability. His own description was I check in, but I'm more of a floor walker. He has one on ones with everyone, right? So he's, he's doing the work. His whole Monday is dedicated to them. But by his own admission they meander. Nothing really gets resolved. And there's very little focus on accountability, which probably most people that I talk to are in that category. Like there are very few people who have really tight one on ones that are focused on accountability. And so, you know, I obviously went on my little spiel about how great one on ones are when they're structured. And he said, look, if I make my one on Ones formally scripted. I'm going to lose that connection that I have with people. And he told a story of one of his leaders who's facing some challenges outside of work. And you know, when he's had a rough start to the day, then this CEO doesn't feel like that's the moment to hold him accountable for what didn't get done at work. And that's a fair point, I guess. But honestly for me, there's nothing stopping you from getting him in your office for a chat, for a general chat that is way different to a one on one. Like have those meetings outside the schedule, one on one process. Because the purpose of a one on one, it has to be different from a general catch up. And I think that is where people really suffer because they blend those two things in.
- [22:37]
A
Yeah, I think those structure 101s have to have a really clear pathway to the target so people know where they stand. You know, here's what we agreed, here's what's happened, here's what we need to do differently. So this structure and guardrails that you create, they give you a factual starting point and it doesn't ever stop you from stepping into the human element. So whether you're in that structured one on one or whether you're in a different meeting, you can always say, look, hey, I know you've got a lot on outside of work. Is this a little too much at the moment? I'm starting to sense that we perhaps need to take the foot off the accelerator a little bit, just something like that. To show that you have that connection with the individual.
- [23:12]
B
Yeah, it goes so far. I just think that without the structure, you're just improvising off your gut feel of the other person's psychological and emotional state. And that is always going to push you to be overly lenient and accepting of excuses. Wouldn't. Would you agree, Marty?
- [23:30]
A
Oh, totally, absolutely. Absolutely.
- [23:33]
B
I just don't think you'll ever get the right balance between like diligence of accountability and compassion for the individual's circumstances. So with the structure, the mechanics, they just look after themselves so that your attention is free for the person sitting in front of you. And I love your three questions to close everyone on one. Marty, I'm pretty sure one of your clients gave you these three questions and they've just stuck.
- [23:56]
A
Yeah, I got this running, running a weekly webinar for Leadership beyond the Theory. And I used to finish my one on ones just by saying, hey, you know, hey, great chat, that was awesome. You know, we're going to catch up on this date and da da da, just go through the niceties. But he said to me, he said the best way to finish a one on one is to get clarity and to reinforce what you've said. So the three questions are, do you understand what I've asked you to do? The second question is, do you think that's a reasonable request? And the third question is, is there anything that might stop you from delivering? And I think those three things, I reckon they increase the likelihood that you're going to get the person delivering what you've asked them to by about 200%.
- [24:37]
B
Totally. And it's a sales tactic as well. You know, our SDR always says, like, is there anything that's going to stop you from being able to get to your appointment? Like that's it. It's a tactic to truly get people
- [24:48]
A
to commit for sure.
- [24:50]
B
Now if you don't feel like you've got your one on ones nailed, we have a free training in our free community, the no Bullshit Leaders Hub. And you can get there by going to school.coms K-O-O l.comnblh and there's a free training there. I think it goes for about 90 minutes. It's got a fantastic PDF with it, so I'll leave a link in the show notes, but that is absolutely something you need to go and do if you need help with your one on ones. Okay, onto the next one, Marty. And I think this explains why most people listening to this are drowning. Tell me more.
- [25:29]
A
Yes, EM number nine. Just because you fixed the problem doesn't mean you've solved it now. You shouldn't give your team kudos for fixing problems if the same problems keep coming back week after week. Fixing a problem is just about responding to the symptoms. Solving the problem is a lot harder because you've got to get down to the root cause.
- [25:49]
B
Now.
- [25:49]
A
One of the CEOs nailed his own culture in a single sentence. Their attitude is, ah, no worries, we'll get it fixed and everyone feels really good about it. He went on to observe that getting it fixed wasn't solving the problem. Most of it was repetitive rework. One of the other CEOs had the same problem at an even greater scale. Three delivery teams doing the same work three different ways. One of those teams was able to carry 20% more workload than the other two with way less stress on its people. That team had put systems in place to make sure they didn't have to repeat the same fixes over and over. The other two were just reacting. They were making it up as they went along. Now, he described it as like running up a sand dune. There are four things that rob value from your team, and they can be difficult to spot because they're largely out of sight. Snags, waste, complexity and rework. And it's rework that really kills you. Every time your team reacts to a crisis and sorts it out, you've got to go back afterwards and ask what they're going to do to make sure it doesn't happen again. They've got to be pushed to go back and fix the root cause. Otherwise they'll just keep resolving the same problem. So, you know, I use one of my favorite lines. Really well run businesses are kind of boring, and that should be your goal. They're boring because they're proactive, they anticipate risk, and they always solve problems at the root cause, not just the symptoms. This is how you get a really good rhythm of execution. I told this CEO, there's a distinct danger that he's going to make his business boring if he keeps going the way he is. It's great work. All right, em, next one's yours. Let's talk about the money.
- [27:26]
B
Yeah. So number 10, money is less important to people when they see a future path. Now, people are going to ask you for more money almost as a reflex. But what they really want is a path. Ask anyone what they want and they'll say they want to be paid more at least. I don't know, Marty. I think that's what they think they want.
- [27:45]
A
They think, yeah, everyone thinks they want more money, and they do.
- [27:48]
B
So One of the CEOs was approached by two of their senior workers who said that had offers to work for a competitor for substantially more money. Now, he couldn't match the offer, and he told them plainly that he couldn't. Then he showed them the development pathway that he was creating for them. He showed them where the business was going and painted a picture for the part that they could both play in that. And they could see it now. Both of them actually stayed. And in his words, not for the highest dollar figure.
- [28:19]
A
Yeah, that was fantastic, wasn't it? That was a great moment, I think, in the day. And this is all about delayed gratification. Now, you can get a little pay rise now if you whinge and moan enough. But the fastest way to get paid more is to go up a level. And when you do that, you're going to get somewhere between 20 and 50% more money than you had at the previous level, you couldn't get that through incremental annual rises over five years. So painting the career path kills two birds with one stone. They think they just want more money. What you give them is purpose, direction, a career pathway, and some more money.
- [28:55]
B
All of the above. I love those. I love that. When it's all of the above, when
- [28:59]
A
you can have your cake and eat it, too, in leadership, it's a. It's a good day.
- [29:02]
B
Yeah. It's not. It's not common. So you got to take it when you can get it, Marty.
- [29:07]
A
Yeah.
- [29:08]
B
So look, the kicker, the people he was most worried about losing are the ones who are now on the development pathway. So giving them that direction, it refocused them entirely. And they are the most loyal people in the company. Now, if you're a leader of leaders and you can't boost money, you can almost always build the path. So do that this week. Have a think about who is on your team and who might be the one asking for the next pay rise, and just think about how you can pull those two things together. All right, Marty. This one is going to make a few people feel a lot better about themselves. Number 11.
- [29:47]
A
Thanks M. Number 11. There's a big difference between being relaxed and being complacent. Now, if you're feeling comfortable about how your organization is running, you may have just lost the plot. You should be feeling that everything is too slow, everything's too loose, and you should be frustrated that you can't capture the value you can see being left on the table. That should be a natural setting for a leader of leaders. One of our CEOs marked himself a 5 out of 10 on his effectiveness in setting the tone, the pace, and the standard. And listen to how he talked about his business. I couldn't see why he'd rated himself so low. So when I asked him what the basis for this was, he said he knew exactly how fast and how well he could do the job himself, and he'd use that as the yardstick for measuring team outcomes. So I told him that he should never lose that feeling of dissatisfaction that. That sense of unease that he had. It's. It's a huge asset to a leader. Anytime you feel as though you aren't doing well in a particular area and you'd give yourself a low score. It's not a condemnation of your leadership performance. It's just that you can clearly see the opportunity to capture more upside. So your objective is to be relaxed about where you are, but never satisfied, never complacent. If you're happy with the status quo, that means you can place it and your business is slowly going backwards no matter what you think's happening. So just don't believe your own bullshit.
- [31:10]
B
Absolutely love that last minute. I'm going to replay that. That's on repeat.
- [31:15]
A
Yeah. Okay, good, excellent. And why don't you take us out? We're going to get all philosophical on this one. Go.
- [31:22]
B
Okay, so number 12 and I wanted to end on this one because it's just such a good place to leave it when it comes to leading leaders.
- [31:30]
A
Oh yeah, this was such a mic drop moment, wasn't it?
- [31:33]
B
Yeah, it was. And it was one of those things that was completely unscripted, had no idea where it was going to come from, and boom, everyone wrote this down. So number 12, discomfort is the price of admission to a meaningful life. Now, right at the end of one of the sessions, Marty, you asked one of the CEOs, so are you excited about what's ahead? And he just, he just said no. He just seemed a little deflated, you know, despite the fact that his business is actually cranking, like he employs a few hundred people, he's generating tens of millions of dollars. And the service that he delivers like it is genuinely doing good for the people who need it. It is one of those really strong, purpose driven businesses. And he'd had a year where market conditions were changing really quickly. He'd also hired a GM to take over the day to day operations, but the grind and the frustration was still there. And I hear this every single day from leaders about that feeling of unease and just not being satisfied. And so yeah, he just said, you know, I'm a little bit deflated at the moment, but discomfort is the price of admission to a meaningful life. And we all just kind of sat there and went, yeah, that seems right.
- [32:55]
A
My version of this. All self esteem comes from achieving difficult things. There is no achievement, there's no greatness without suffering, without obstacles, without setbacks. This is why it requires resilience and tenacity. And as a leader of leaders, you're going to need plenty of that. There's no version of your job where you're going to feel good the whole way through. And you already know that, like you've been around long enough to know.
- [33:18]
B
So, Marty, Those are the 12 execution breakthroughs. And as I said, not one of them was new information to our six CEOs. But that's the point, you know, every one of them understood the problem deeply. But identifying the problem is just the start knowing what to do to fix it. That is what counts.
- [33:36]
A
Yeah, spot on, Em. So I'd love you to pick just one of those 12. Pick the one that made you shift uncomfortably in your chair as you were listening to either me or Em describe it, and and then put a bit of time into working out how you can address that particular issue that you have. It will make your job so much easier. Em, thank you so much for being here. That brings us to the end of episode 414 of the no Bullshit Leadership Podcast. I really hope you enjoyed it. As you know, listening is easy and leading is hard, so get onto that one thing. I'm really looking forward to next week's episode. Are you unhappy with your job or unhappy with yourself? Until then, I know you'll take every opportunity you can to be a no Bullshit.