November 3, 2025 • 19 mins
Ever feel like your team is living inside a 24-hour breaking news cycle? We’ve been there—where every email, rumor, or policy tweak turns into a fire drill and the loudest voice sets the tone. Today we unpack a simple shift that changes everything: stop breaking glass, and start to breathe and elevate. It’s not about dialing down ambition; it’s about dialing down drama so urgency becomes productive, not performative.
We talk through how media-style panic hijacks leadership judgment and why a smaller, saner information diet actually boosts performance. Then we get practical. Breathe means pause on purpose—step away, regulate, and buy time so your brain can think instead of react. Elevate means zoom out—expand the time horizon, define the real problem, and map options you can’t see when you’re nose-to-glass with the issue. With that reset, you can run two clocks: stabilize quickly on the surface while you work the root under the hood.
Along the way, we share how calm leaders set culture by how they react. Label levels of urgency so not everything becomes a five-alarm. Swap gossip loops for clear ownership and timelines. Use simple, steady language—what changed, what we know, what’s next—to lower heart rates and raise signal. If your org values constant alarms, it might cap your growth; the market increasingly rewards leaders who deliver under pressure without turning every update into a spectacle.
If you’re ready to build trust, retain talent, and make sharper calls when things go sideways, this conversation will be your toolkit. Share it with a colleague who keeps the figurative hammer within reach, and try the breathe and elevate practice on your next “emergency.” Subscribe, leave a quick review, and tell us: what helps you zoom out when the heat rises?
--
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--
About the podcast:
The Lead In 30 Podcast with Russ Hill is for leaders of teams who want to grow and accelerate their results. In each episode, Russ Hill shares what he's learned consulting executives. Subscribe to get two new episodes every week. To connect with Russ message him on LinkedIn!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_02 (00:00):
Stop breaking glass.
And instead, I want you tobreathe and elevate.
What am I talking about?
I'm talking about how sometimes,okay, maybe a lot, a lot of
times, leaders overreact.
You know how cable news saysbreaking news now.
(00:20):
The world's gonna end in threeseconds.
That's not, maybe that works forcable news.
It doesn't work for people inyour organization.
Let's talk about it.
SPEAKER_01 (00:31):
This is the Lead in 30 podcast with Russell.
Strengthen your ability to leadin less than 30 minutes.
SPEAKER_00 (00:43):
With coming to Atlanta, if you're an HR, LD
leader, or a leader of leaders,join us in November for our
executive breakfast.
Spend three hours with theexperts at Lone Rock Leadership.
And learn how to build personalaccountability, accelerate
decision making, lead throughchange, and create clarity,
(01:04):
alignment, and movement.
Reserve your free thought beforeseats fill up at Lone Rock.io.
SPEAKER_02 (01:11):
Yeah, at the time that we're pushing this episode
out, you've got like a matter ofa couple of days, just a few
days, to be able to register tostill attend our event in
Atlanta.
This is for uh HR leaders andleaders of leaders, LD, learning
and development uh experts, orpeople at organizations.
Go to uh lone rock.io for moreon that and uh just find a
(01:32):
contact form.
I think it's at the bottom ofthe main page and ask for some
information.
We'll get you registered.
It's free.
By the way, we were just havingsome team meetings and uh we're
locking down the uh thelocations.
We're coming to at least 10cities in 2026.
And on the list is Phoenix,Chicago, Nashville, Boston, New
(01:55):
Jersey, New York area.
We're going to the Philly area,we're going to Atlanta again,
we're going to Dallas, we'regoing to Jacksonville or North
Florida.
We're going to a bunch ofdifferent places.
It's going to be awesome.
Where we we we take part of ourteam at Lone Rock Leadership and
we meet, we put on a breakfast,and then we spend a few hours
giving you an overview.
(02:16):
Anybody that works in HR,anybody that works in LND,
developing leaders, trainingleaders and organizations, uh,
and typically it's 500 employeesplus is really what we work
with.
We do we do some work withsmaller organizations than that,
and a lot of work withorganizations way bigger than
that that have you know tens ofthousands, if not over a hundred
(02:38):
thousand employees.
But um, so we'll get all thatinformation out to you, but but
um Atlanta is our next one atthe time this episode is coming
out in November of 2025, is whenwe'll be in Atlanta.
Okay, so here's the topic.
Oh, by the way, welcome in tothe Lead in 30 podcast.
In less than 30 minutes, we giveyou a framework, a model, a
(02:58):
practice, a best uh best a bestpractice or uh uh an experience
to to to for you to consider inyour effort to upgrade your
ability to lead others.
My name's Russ Hill.
I am one of the co-founders andpart of the team at Lone Rock
Leadership.
We're an executive consultingteam uh practice.
We consult with senior executiveteams as well as um we train
(03:24):
mid-level managers andorganizations across all
industries.
LoneRockio is where you find outmore.
Okay, so um here's the issue.
One of the greatest complimentcompliments, this could not have
been said of me um a while back.
I don't know how many years agothis changed, and there are days
(03:45):
when it would not be accurate,but hopefully there are more
days where it is accurate now.
But um, we were dealing with uhwith a particular client issue.
This is uh uh a little whileago, and um and and and and
something that just had thepotential to be that that that
(04:07):
could have that could have blownup.
And uh and and and and and andyet as uh members of our
leadership team at our firm werewatching me uh react to react to
this situation that wasdeveloping, one of them said to
me, one of the members of ourleadership team said, Russ, I
(04:27):
can't believe how calm you are.
Like if if if I was the oneleading our reaction to this
issue, this this situation, man,I would I would just be really
emotional and really aggressive.
And you're just calm as can be.
Again, that could not have beensaid of me a few years ago.
(04:50):
And there are certainly days,there are moments when that is
not on um display in mybehavior, but I've made an
effort on it.
And some of you, like yournatural state is just so chill
that you actually, it's actuallya weakness of yours.
Like you aren't driven enough,you aren't intense enough, you
(05:11):
aren't um, you you're not you'reon enough urgency.
Like that's something you needto work on because it's
affecting the growth of yourorganization, it's affecting
your career growth, it'saffecting your lifestyle.
Like, come on, you could youcould be doing a lot better.
You could have more of animpact, you could have a greater
lifestyle, you could be growingand learning it more, um, but
(05:34):
you're a little too chill, ifyou know what I mean.
And maybe you're okay with that.
And that's okay.
If you're just kind of cool withthe the growth curve and all
aspects of your life,financially, from a wisdom
standpoint, from all thesedifferent areas, you're pretty
cool with it just being kind ofa flat line, then you be you.
You keep doing that.
I don't know why you'relistening to podcasts like this,
except maybe to help you go tosleep or or listen to those
(05:57):
weird, those weird people overthere that are really driven and
really ambitious and trying towhatever.
So, but for the rest of us, forthe rest of us, this is an
issue.
And so I just I I I I want totalk about this as it pertains
to um as it pertains to the waythat you lead.
(06:20):
And and to to kind of give you avisual on this, I would go to
cable news networks.
And many of you know that Ispent the first part of my
career, and when I say part, I'mtalking 15 years.
So I've spent a big chunk of mylife working in the media
business, street reporting,working as an anchor, being in
newsrooms in multiple cities.
(06:42):
Um, and and so I'm all aboutthat.
And and and and yet the industrychanged changed in so many ways.
Like the news industry today isespecially well, all over the
world, but especially in in theUnited States, is almost
completely it's foreign to me.
(07:04):
What I was trained on in, youknow what's crazy?
Like in in the first newsroomthat I worked in, if you were
registered to vote in aparticular party, so like you're
a registered Democrat or youwere a registered Republican,
you were fired.
You were literally terminated asan employee.
(07:25):
You were not to be affiliated,registered as a as a as a member
of any political party.
If in the newsroom, this iscrazy, you all, and it's not our
topic, but you'll get the pointin a minute.
Let me just go on this asidebecause it's interesting, at
least to me.
Um, and maybe you'll findinterest in it too.
If you in the newsroom youengaged in a political debate,
(07:46):
you were terminated.
So, in other words, you come towork and you're covering this
story, and it's the governorsays this, or the senator is
doing this from your state, andand you're in the newsroom and
you're getting in a in a kind ofa you know an off-the-air
discussion with your colleagues,other reporters, or a
photographer, or you know, aneditor or producer or whomever,
and you're like, no, I thinkthat the Democrats are crazy on
(08:07):
this, or I think the Republicansare that governor or this
senator, and you're advocating aposition terminated without
discussion.
That was taught to us injournalism school.
You are to be as unbiased aspossible.
You can have political views,you can have personal views, you
are never to advocate them,you're never to bring it up.
(08:29):
Um, isn't that wild how far thependulum is swung?
It's exact, like, oh my gosh.
Oh, can you imagine tuning into?
Like, where's that cable newschannel?
Where's that website?
Where's that media outlet?
Like, I would pay to subscribe.
What's your monthly rate?
I'd be paying for it.
(08:49):
Take a look at the world andjust report on what's going on
and don't have a position.
Yeah, it doesn't exist anymore.
Anyway, so as you tune in, ifyou do, and if you, and by the
way, if you do, why do you tunein to any cable news outlet
right now?
Anyway, if I I shouldn't evensay that.
If you're into it, go for it.
(09:10):
Fox News, MSNBC, whatever.
Like go, go, go, go feed it.
That's awesome.
Um, I I I don't do that.
I I just not it just doesn't itisn't for me anymore.
But but if you do consume any ofthat, what you'll notice is that
the world is constantly on fire.
Literally, what what thepoliticians are doing today,
(09:33):
what's happening in the world,everyone's being shot, every
place is on fire, the end isnear, all policies and decisions
are gonna bring about doom.
Like it's it's everybody's evilon all sides, and and and the
economy is gonna crash at anymoment, and it's like everything
(09:55):
bad possible is going to happen.
And by the way, they aren't justsaying that now, they've been
saying it for years.
And guess what?
We're still breathing.
Did you notice?
Like, and are you making decentmoney?
I'm making more money and I'mmore successful than I've ever
been.
And I'm feeling great aboutlife.
(10:16):
And my family has gotopportunity and things are going
good.
And yeah, is it ideal out there?
No.
Are there things happening thataren't terrific?
Of course.
But I've advocated in otherepisodes too, that the smaller
you make your world, the thehealthier you are mentally and
emotionally.
I'm just a huge believer inthat.
If you're consuming all thiscontent, the point is that
(10:39):
that's that's the revenue modelfor the media business.
Because if you if we can get youto tune in, because you have
this negativity bias, we all do,where we we we we we look at the
accident on the side of theroad.
We're really curious about thatdumpster fire over there.
Where's that smoke coming from?
We're naturally our brains lookfor that stuff, any kind of
(11:01):
threat of anything.
And so what the media hasdecided, their job is to
generate revenue.
Generate tons of revenue, whichcomes from ratings.
And how do you get people totune in?
Well, you you know that if youare boring and say, well, today
actually was kind of a mellowday in the world, and everything
appeared to be okay.
You're gonna have no ratings.
Instead, you have to be like,breaking news, you're about to
(11:23):
die, the world is about to fail.
And everybody, you know, youknow what I mean?
Some of you lead that way.
Some of you, the culture of yourorganization and your team is
breaking news.
The world's gonna end.
In other words, a customercancels something.
In other words, that departmentsends an email over.
(11:44):
In other words, you hear a rumoror somebody comes out of a
meeting and they're kind ofemotional.
Or in other words, there's a newpolicy that's announced, or in
other words, somebody quits, orsomebody's promoted, or
something happens, and you gointo breaking news, doom and
gloom mode.
You are the very thing that I'mdescribing.
(12:07):
And now, okay, maybe you're notthat way all the way, all the
time.
But some of you, some of us, weneed to calm down.
And so uh the phrase that I liketo use is break glass.
Some of you are constantly, youknow, you know, like the in in
in a building, you know, you gotto break glass to get to the
fire extinguisher or to get tothe fire alarm.
(12:27):
You break the glass and then youpull the alarm.
Some of you break glassconstantly.
Like, oh, I heard this.
Break glass, pull the alarm,sound the alarm.
The organization's about tosink.
Break glass.
The organization that departmentis about to destroy all of us.
You know what I mean?
(12:48):
And it's not helping.
And if you're in an organizationthat craves that, and that's
kind of how it is, aren't youtired?
Isn't it kind of exhausting you?
Or are you kind of a dramaaddict?
And if you are, uh if you'rereally into the thick plot,
(13:11):
that's not an effective way tolead people in most
organizations that are growing.
Instead of breaking glass, Iwant you to breathe and elevate.
Well, what does that mean, Russ?
Well, here's the phrase.
What I mean by it take a deepbreath, close your email
(13:33):
program, turn off your phone,log out of Teams, walk away from
your desk, go touch grass, getout and breathe, go drink
something, smoke something, andI'm just kidding, sort of, but
for some of you, that's a habitthat helps you relax.
(13:54):
And this is not a healthpodcast, so I got no judgment on
that.
You do whatever you need to do,whether that's a diet soda or
something different or inhaleair.
You know what I mean?
Go to the mountains, go to thebeach, drive home, get go to the
gym, breathe.
And then elevate.
(14:16):
And by the way, when I saybreathe, how long?
Like, how long should you?
What I mean is like just getaway.
And for some for some of you, inother words, something's just
happened.
A customer is just canceled,they just told you no.
The deal fell through.
A new policy was announced.
That leader announced thisthing.
She said this in a meeting.
(14:37):
He did that, whatever it is.
You breathe.
Breathe.
And and you can't be breathingat a calm rate if you're all
worked up and like callingsomebody and spreading the
drama.
(14:58):
And so don't be the 14-year-oldin middle school.
Be like the older, mature,successful person that just
breathes.
And so, how long does that likehow long do you need?
Well, it depends.
Like, this is a minor thingthat's kind of working you up.
You need may need to get get outfor like five, ten minutes.
(15:19):
Shut that down.
For other times, it's a bigdeal.
Like you're really worked upabout it.
It might be the the next 24hours, it might be eight hours.
You need to go to bed.
You need to you need to get somesleep.
You're not in the mindset toprocess this right now.
You need some distance.
And so that's where I go toelevate.
(15:41):
What do I mean by elevate?
So breathe and elevate insteadof break glass.
Elevate is zoom out.
Zoom out.
If I'm standing right in frontof a mountain and I look up, I
like there's no way we're gonnascale that.
This is an insurmountableproblem, an obstacle.
(16:03):
If I elevate and zoom out,you're like, oh, there's a road
through the canyon over therethat actually goes up and you
can get over the mountain.
Or, oh, there are ropes that youcan scale this.
And look over there, those youknow what I mean?
So when you elevate, you zoomout, that mountain isn't quite
as enormous as it looks whenyou're standing right in front
(16:26):
of it or closer to it.
That boulder, well, there's apath around it, but you can't
see the path around it whenyou're literally brushed up
against it.
So we're gonna breathe andelevate.
We're gonna get and look at thehorizon.
You can see the trails, you cansee the paths, the obstacles
(16:49):
become smaller.
So the the most effectiveleaders that we interact with
who actually scale organizationsand where people love to work
for them, they think she's thegreatest executive.
He's got the best culture overthere, are the ones that very
(17:13):
infrequently break glass.
That does not mean that there'sless drama around them, that
there's less bad news, that theydon't have the same sort of
conditions you have, that theyaren't seeing deals be canceled
or fall through, that theyaren't dealing with headquarters
(17:33):
or a board or with an executiveteam or a system that's
frustrating them.
It's not that they don't havetariffs or external market
conditions that are presentingsome challenges, or that their
competitors aren't getting superaggressive, or somebody on their
team didn't just exitunexpectedly, or that
controversy didn't just get theydidn't just get an email too.
(17:55):
Like that's all happening tothem too.
They just don't break glass,they breathe, they elevate.
They escalate like everything,they make it worse.
(18:20):
And so one of your jobs, whetheryou're a mid-level manager,
you're a frontline supervisor,you're a senior executive, is
just to be calm.
It doesn't mean you're notdriven, it doesn't mean you
don't have urgency, it doesn'tmean you don't have high demands
and and high expectations, itdoesn't mean that you're not
(18:43):
addicted to growth and committedto doing whatever is necessary,
just you're doing it with alower blood pressure.
You're strategic, not reactive,you're not impulsive, and you're
the kind of leader that peoplewant to work for, and it gets
(19:06):
promoted.
And if you're in an organizationwhere you can't thrive because
the culture is break glass,maybe look around and consider
your options.
That is what's on my mind inthis episode of the Lead in
Thirty podcast.
SPEAKER_01 (19:26):
Share this episode with a colleague, your team, or
a friend.
Tap on the share button and textthe link.
Thanks for listening to the Leadin 30 podcast with Russell.
Stop breaking glass.
And instead, I want you tobreathe and elevate.
What am I talking about?
I'm talking about how sometimes,okay, maybe a lot, a lot of
times, leaders overreact.
You know how cable news saysbreaking news now.
(00:20):
The world's gonna end in threeseconds.
That's not, maybe that works forcable news.
It doesn't work for people inyour organization.
Let's talk about it.
SPEAKER_01 (00:31):
This is the Lead in 30 podcast with Russell.
Strengthen your ability to leadin less than 30 minutes.
SPEAKER_00 (00:43):
With coming to Atlanta, if you're an HR, LD
leader, or a leader of leaders,join us in November for our
executive breakfast.
Spend three hours with theexperts at Lone Rock Leadership.
And learn how to build personalaccountability, accelerate
decision making, lead throughchange, and create clarity,
(01:04):
alignment, and movement.
Reserve your free thought beforeseats fill up at Lone Rock.io.
SPEAKER_02 (01:11):
Yeah, at the time that we're pushing this episode
out, you've got like a matter ofa couple of days, just a few
days, to be able to register tostill attend our event in
Atlanta.
This is for uh HR leaders andleaders of leaders, LD, learning
and development uh experts, orpeople at organizations.
Go to uh lone rock.io for moreon that and uh just find a
(01:32):
contact form.
I think it's at the bottom ofthe main page and ask for some
information.
We'll get you registered.
It's free.
By the way, we were just havingsome team meetings and uh we're
locking down the uh thelocations.
We're coming to at least 10cities in 2026.
And on the list is Phoenix,Chicago, Nashville, Boston, New
(01:55):
Jersey, New York area.
We're going to the Philly area,we're going to Atlanta again,
we're going to Dallas, we'regoing to Jacksonville or North
Florida.
We're going to a bunch ofdifferent places.
It's going to be awesome.
Where we we we take part of ourteam at Lone Rock Leadership and
we meet, we put on a breakfast,and then we spend a few hours
giving you an overview.
(02:16):
Anybody that works in HR,anybody that works in LND,
developing leaders, trainingleaders and organizations, uh,
and typically it's 500 employeesplus is really what we work
with.
We do we do some work withsmaller organizations than that,
and a lot of work withorganizations way bigger than
that that have you know tens ofthousands, if not over a hundred
(02:38):
thousand employees.
But um, so we'll get all thatinformation out to you, but but
um Atlanta is our next one atthe time this episode is coming
out in November of 2025, is whenwe'll be in Atlanta.
Okay, so here's the topic.
Oh, by the way, welcome in tothe Lead in 30 podcast.
In less than 30 minutes, we giveyou a framework, a model, a
(02:58):
practice, a best uh best a bestpractice or uh uh an experience
to to to for you to consider inyour effort to upgrade your
ability to lead others.
My name's Russ Hill.
I am one of the co-founders andpart of the team at Lone Rock
Leadership.
We're an executive consultingteam uh practice.
We consult with senior executiveteams as well as um we train
(03:24):
mid-level managers andorganizations across all
industries.
LoneRockio is where you find outmore.
Okay, so um here's the issue.
One of the greatest complimentcompliments, this could not have
been said of me um a while back.
I don't know how many years agothis changed, and there are days
(03:45):
when it would not be accurate,but hopefully there are more
days where it is accurate now.
But um, we were dealing with uhwith a particular client issue.
This is uh uh a little whileago, and um and and and and
something that just had thepotential to be that that that
(04:07):
could have that could have blownup.
And uh and and and and and andyet as uh members of our
leadership team at our firm werewatching me uh react to react to
this situation that wasdeveloping, one of them said to
me, one of the members of ourleadership team said, Russ, I
(04:27):
can't believe how calm you are.
Like if if if I was the oneleading our reaction to this
issue, this this situation, man,I would I would just be really
emotional and really aggressive.
And you're just calm as can be.
Again, that could not have beensaid of me a few years ago.
(04:50):
And there are certainly days,there are moments when that is
not on um display in mybehavior, but I've made an
effort on it.
And some of you, like yournatural state is just so chill
that you actually, it's actuallya weakness of yours.
Like you aren't driven enough,you aren't intense enough, you
(05:11):
aren't um, you you're not you'reon enough urgency.
Like that's something you needto work on because it's
affecting the growth of yourorganization, it's affecting
your career growth, it'saffecting your lifestyle.
Like, come on, you could youcould be doing a lot better.
You could have more of animpact, you could have a greater
lifestyle, you could be growingand learning it more, um, but
(05:34):
you're a little too chill, ifyou know what I mean.
And maybe you're okay with that.
And that's okay.
If you're just kind of cool withthe the growth curve and all
aspects of your life,financially, from a wisdom
standpoint, from all thesedifferent areas, you're pretty
cool with it just being kind ofa flat line, then you be you.
You keep doing that.
I don't know why you'relistening to podcasts like this,
except maybe to help you go tosleep or or listen to those
(05:57):
weird, those weird people overthere that are really driven and
really ambitious and trying towhatever.
So, but for the rest of us, forthe rest of us, this is an
issue.
And so I just I I I I want totalk about this as it pertains
to um as it pertains to the waythat you lead.
(06:20):
And and to to kind of give you avisual on this, I would go to
cable news networks.
And many of you know that Ispent the first part of my
career, and when I say part, I'mtalking 15 years.
So I've spent a big chunk of mylife working in the media
business, street reporting,working as an anchor, being in
newsrooms in multiple cities.
(06:42):
Um, and and so I'm all aboutthat.
And and and and yet the industrychanged changed in so many ways.
Like the news industry today isespecially well, all over the
world, but especially in in theUnited States, is almost
completely it's foreign to me.
(07:04):
What I was trained on in, youknow what's crazy?
Like in in the first newsroomthat I worked in, if you were
registered to vote in aparticular party, so like you're
a registered Democrat or youwere a registered Republican,
you were fired.
You were literally terminated asan employee.
(07:25):
You were not to be affiliated,registered as a as a as a member
of any political party.
If in the newsroom, this iscrazy, you all, and it's not our
topic, but you'll get the pointin a minute.
Let me just go on this asidebecause it's interesting, at
least to me.
Um, and maybe you'll findinterest in it too.
If you in the newsroom youengaged in a political debate,
(07:46):
you were terminated.
So, in other words, you come towork and you're covering this
story, and it's the governorsays this, or the senator is
doing this from your state, andand you're in the newsroom and
you're getting in a in a kind ofa you know an off-the-air
discussion with your colleagues,other reporters, or a
photographer, or you know, aneditor or producer or whomever,
and you're like, no, I thinkthat the Democrats are crazy on
(08:07):
this, or I think the Republicansare that governor or this
senator, and you're advocating aposition terminated without
discussion.
That was taught to us injournalism school.
You are to be as unbiased aspossible.
You can have political views,you can have personal views, you
are never to advocate them,you're never to bring it up.
(08:29):
Um, isn't that wild how far thependulum is swung?
It's exact, like, oh my gosh.
Oh, can you imagine tuning into?
Like, where's that cable newschannel?
Where's that website?
Where's that media outlet?
Like, I would pay to subscribe.
What's your monthly rate?
I'd be paying for it.
(08:49):
Take a look at the world andjust report on what's going on
and don't have a position.
Yeah, it doesn't exist anymore.
Anyway, so as you tune in, ifyou do, and if you, and by the
way, if you do, why do you tunein to any cable news outlet
right now?
Anyway, if I I shouldn't evensay that.
If you're into it, go for it.
(09:10):
Fox News, MSNBC, whatever.
Like go, go, go, go feed it.
That's awesome.
Um, I I I don't do that.
I I just not it just doesn't itisn't for me anymore.
But but if you do consume any ofthat, what you'll notice is that
the world is constantly on fire.
Literally, what what thepoliticians are doing today,
(09:33):
what's happening in the world,everyone's being shot, every
place is on fire, the end isnear, all policies and decisions
are gonna bring about doom.
Like it's it's everybody's evilon all sides, and and and the
economy is gonna crash at anymoment, and it's like everything
(09:55):
bad possible is going to happen.
And by the way, they aren't justsaying that now, they've been
saying it for years.
And guess what?
We're still breathing.
Did you notice?
Like, and are you making decentmoney?
I'm making more money and I'mmore successful than I've ever
been.
And I'm feeling great aboutlife.
(10:16):
And my family has gotopportunity and things are going
good.
And yeah, is it ideal out there?
No.
Are there things happening thataren't terrific?
Of course.
But I've advocated in otherepisodes too, that the smaller
you make your world, the thehealthier you are mentally and
emotionally.
I'm just a huge believer inthat.
If you're consuming all thiscontent, the point is that
(10:39):
that's that's the revenue modelfor the media business.
Because if you if we can get youto tune in, because you have
this negativity bias, we all do,where we we we we we look at the
accident on the side of theroad.
We're really curious about thatdumpster fire over there.
Where's that smoke coming from?
We're naturally our brains lookfor that stuff, any kind of
(11:01):
threat of anything.
And so what the media hasdecided, their job is to
generate revenue.
Generate tons of revenue, whichcomes from ratings.
And how do you get people totune in?
Well, you you know that if youare boring and say, well, today
actually was kind of a mellowday in the world, and everything
appeared to be okay.
You're gonna have no ratings.
Instead, you have to be like,breaking news, you're about to
(11:23):
die, the world is about to fail.
And everybody, you know, youknow what I mean?
Some of you lead that way.
Some of you, the culture of yourorganization and your team is
breaking news.
The world's gonna end.
In other words, a customercancels something.
In other words, that departmentsends an email over.
(11:44):
In other words, you hear a rumoror somebody comes out of a
meeting and they're kind ofemotional.
Or in other words, there's a newpolicy that's announced, or in
other words, somebody quits, orsomebody's promoted, or
something happens, and you gointo breaking news, doom and
gloom mode.
You are the very thing that I'mdescribing.
(12:07):
And now, okay, maybe you're notthat way all the way, all the
time.
But some of you, some of us, weneed to calm down.
And so uh the phrase that I liketo use is break glass.
Some of you are constantly, youknow, you know, like the in in
in a building, you know, you gotto break glass to get to the
fire extinguisher or to get tothe fire alarm.
(12:27):
You break the glass and then youpull the alarm.
Some of you break glassconstantly.
Like, oh, I heard this.
Break glass, pull the alarm,sound the alarm.
The organization's about tosink.
Break glass.
The organization that departmentis about to destroy all of us.
You know what I mean?
(12:48):
And it's not helping.
And if you're in an organizationthat craves that, and that's
kind of how it is, aren't youtired?
Isn't it kind of exhausting you?
Or are you kind of a dramaaddict?
And if you are, uh if you'rereally into the thick plot,
(13:11):
that's not an effective way tolead people in most
organizations that are growing.
Instead of breaking glass, Iwant you to breathe and elevate.
Well, what does that mean, Russ?
Well, here's the phrase.
What I mean by it take a deepbreath, close your email
(13:33):
program, turn off your phone,log out of Teams, walk away from
your desk, go touch grass, getout and breathe, go drink
something, smoke something, andI'm just kidding, sort of, but
for some of you, that's a habitthat helps you relax.
(13:54):
And this is not a healthpodcast, so I got no judgment on
that.
You do whatever you need to do,whether that's a diet soda or
something different or inhaleair.
You know what I mean?
Go to the mountains, go to thebeach, drive home, get go to the
gym, breathe.
And then elevate.
(14:16):
And by the way, when I saybreathe, how long?
Like, how long should you?
What I mean is like just getaway.
And for some for some of you, inother words, something's just
happened.
A customer is just canceled,they just told you no.
The deal fell through.
A new policy was announced.
That leader announced thisthing.
She said this in a meeting.
(14:37):
He did that, whatever it is.
You breathe.
Breathe.
And and you can't be breathingat a calm rate if you're all
worked up and like callingsomebody and spreading the
drama.
(14:58):
And so don't be the 14-year-oldin middle school.
Be like the older, mature,successful person that just
breathes.
And so, how long does that likehow long do you need?
Well, it depends.
Like, this is a minor thingthat's kind of working you up.
You need may need to get get outfor like five, ten minutes.
(15:19):
Shut that down.
For other times, it's a bigdeal.
Like you're really worked upabout it.
It might be the the next 24hours, it might be eight hours.
You need to go to bed.
You need to you need to get somesleep.
You're not in the mindset toprocess this right now.
You need some distance.
And so that's where I go toelevate.
(15:41):
What do I mean by elevate?
So breathe and elevate insteadof break glass.
Elevate is zoom out.
Zoom out.
If I'm standing right in frontof a mountain and I look up, I
like there's no way we're gonnascale that.
This is an insurmountableproblem, an obstacle.
(16:03):
If I elevate and zoom out,you're like, oh, there's a road
through the canyon over therethat actually goes up and you
can get over the mountain.
Or, oh, there are ropes that youcan scale this.
And look over there, those youknow what I mean?
So when you elevate, you zoomout, that mountain isn't quite
as enormous as it looks whenyou're standing right in front
(16:26):
of it or closer to it.
That boulder, well, there's apath around it, but you can't
see the path around it whenyou're literally brushed up
against it.
So we're gonna breathe andelevate.
We're gonna get and look at thehorizon.
You can see the trails, you cansee the paths, the obstacles
(16:49):
become smaller.
So the the most effectiveleaders that we interact with
who actually scale organizationsand where people love to work
for them, they think she's thegreatest executive.
He's got the best culture overthere, are the ones that very
(17:13):
infrequently break glass.
That does not mean that there'sless drama around them, that
there's less bad news, that theydon't have the same sort of
conditions you have, that theyaren't seeing deals be canceled
or fall through, that theyaren't dealing with headquarters
(17:33):
or a board or with an executiveteam or a system that's
frustrating them.
It's not that they don't havetariffs or external market
conditions that are presentingsome challenges, or that their
competitors aren't getting superaggressive, or somebody on their
team didn't just exitunexpectedly, or that
controversy didn't just get theydidn't just get an email too.
(17:55):
Like that's all happening tothem too.
They just don't break glass,they breathe, they elevate.
They escalate like everything,they make it worse.
(18:20):
And so one of your jobs, whetheryou're a mid-level manager,
you're a frontline supervisor,you're a senior executive, is
just to be calm.
It doesn't mean you're notdriven, it doesn't mean you
don't have urgency, it doesn'tmean you don't have high demands
and and high expectations, itdoesn't mean that you're not
(18:43):
addicted to growth and committedto doing whatever is necessary,
just you're doing it with alower blood pressure.
You're strategic, not reactive,you're not impulsive, and you're
the kind of leader that peoplewant to work for, and it gets
(19:06):
promoted.
And if you're in an organizationwhere you can't thrive because
the culture is break glass,maybe look around and consider
your options.
That is what's on my mind inthis episode of the Lead in
Thirty podcast.
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