October 18, 2022 • 38 mins
Ron Higgs tells us that "You can learn from anyone", that you should "Solve more problems than you create" and why we should "Embrace gratitude". Hosted by Diana White
About Ron HiggsRon Higgs is a veteran, executive business consultant, engineer, and published author. His career started in the US Navy and included combat flight operations, developmental flight testing, program management, production & manufacturing management, and systems engineering. He has worked in several industries and held leadership positions in startups, small companies, and large corporations. Ron is the founder and principal of Wolf Management Solutions, where he is a business consultant, coach, and Fractional COO who helps companies scale through leadership, organizational development, and process improvement. Ron is passionate about helping BIPOC entrepreneurs become great leaders and build successful businesses.
His education includes a BS in Mathematics from the US Naval Academy, an MS in Systems Engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School, and a certificate in Engineering Flight Test from the US Naval Test Pilot School.
Episode Notes
Lesson 1: Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about 02:20 Lesson 2: You can learn from anyone, so always be open. 03:57 Lesson 3: I’ve never had an idea that someone else didn’t make better. 06:25 Lesson 4: Multitasking is BS, focusing is a superpower. 09:13 Lesson 5: Everything is related to leadership and your ability to build relationships is the key 12:53 Lesson 6: Solve more problems than you create 16:41 Lesson 7: You will make mistakes and reasonable people tolerate mistakes. It’s how you make it right that matters. 18:45 Lesson 8: Embrace gratitude - find something to be grateful for in every situation 23:57 Lesson 9: The most valuable thing that you have is your time. “Someday” isn’t a goal or a strategy and you are running out of “someday’s”. 26:02 Lesson 10: Don’t call yourself an expert or a trusted advisor, you’ll know when you get there because your peers will describe you that way 28:33
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
How many people can do thatwhen you're sitting in Zoom
calls and listen, I'm guilty.
Like if I'm a participant in theZoom call, am I just listening?
It's like, Hey, I can knock out a coupleof emails, I can follow along here.
I can read this.
I mean, how many otherscreens do you have up?
How many other windows do you have upon your computer while you're doing it?
Uh, but I think you're losingout when you do that, right?
(00:20):
Yeah.
There'll be a high rate of return on juststaying in the moment, and especially
when other human beings are involved.
Hello and welcome to 10 Lessons Learnedwhere we talk to leaders and luminaries
from all over the world to dispense wisdomfor career, business, and life in order
to make the world wiser lesson by lesson.
(00:43):
My name is Diana White, andI'm your host for this episode.
Our guest today is Ron Higgs.
Ron Higgs is a veteranexecutive business consultant,
engineer, and published author.
His career started in the USNavy and included combat flight
operations, developmental flighttesting, program management,
(01:04):
production, and manufacturing manage.
And systems engineering.
He has worked in several industries andheld leadership positions in startups,
small companies and large corporations.
Ron is the founder and principle ofWolf Management Solutions, where he
is a business consultant coach, andfractional COO who helps companies
(01:25):
scale through leadership, organizationaldevelopment, and process improvement.
Ron is passionate about helping BIPOCentrepreneurs become great leaders
and build successful business.
His education includes a BS inmathematics from the US Naval Academy
and MS in Systems Engineering fromthe Naval Postgraduate School and a
(01:49):
certificate in engineering flight testfrom the US Naval Test Pilot School.
Welcome, Ron.
Thank you, Diana.
first thing I'm gonna have todo is look up the word luminary.
never been described as one of them.
it just means that you have a lot toenlighten us about and we'll get to
it with your lessons, so, for sure.
(02:10):
First question, right out of the gate,what would you tell your 30 year old self.
And, you know, there's a long list, uh,but at the top of the list would be don't
wait for the right time to do something.
Right.
There's a lot of times where,you think about it's like, I'm
just waiting for the right time.
I'm just waiting for the right time, man.
(02:31):
Time will just get away from youand it happened to me, right?
As far as starting a business.
So if I could tell my 30 year oldself, start that business sooner.
That's some good advice.
We're gonna jump rightinto lesson number one.
Lesson number one, everyoneyou meet is fighting a battle.
You know nothing about.
How did you know this to be true?
(02:52):
It took a while you know, aswe know, and really because I'm
fighting one to some degree, you are.
Everyone, and this really came to headin a leadership position that I had where
I ended up being the boss of someonewith whom I had worked previously.
And we didn't get along and Iactually, I, I always say didn't
(03:13):
like this person very much, but oncethis person started, Working for me.
I got to know her and her story andactually came to really, really like her
because I listened to her story and went,Wow, she's really been through a lot.
So now I understand a lot moreabout her perspectives on some of
(03:36):
the things that we disagreed in.
So again, I just think that everyoneout there, you know it as well as I do.
Just dealing with somethingthat you know nothing about.
So, be kind.
Try to put yourself in theirshoes, you know, maybe that
person's having a bad day.
Maybe they'll dealing with something else.
But, that seems to work wellfor me once I really learned it.
(03:57):
I love that, that, and that's alesson that I had to learn as well.
you never know.
and most often, uh, Ithink you'd agree, Ron.
We take things personally, wethink everything is about us.
Oh, this person usuallysays, Hey, how you doing?
And today they justgave me a formal hello.
Why are they mad at me whenit has nothing to do with you?
You know?
(04:17):
I totally agree.
Lesson number two, youcan learn from anyone.
So always be open.
Now, this is what I agreewith wholeheartedly.
So talk about this.
Well, I truly believe that.
And one of the things that hit me aswhen I was a junior officer in the
Navy and I was actually going throughtest pilot school at the time, which
(04:38):
is something that was very difficultachievement for me to even get there.
And so I was really, you know, at thetime, sort of on the top of my game.
I was in downtown Washington, DC andI saw a homeless guy with a saxophone.
And he was out on the street playingthe most wonderful music I'd heard
(04:58):
from a saxophone, and I went, Youknow, maybe I should buy a saxophone.
Cause it's one of those things, it's like,ah, I think I'd like to learn that and I
could have this guy teach me because, soagain, I, I wasn't able to do that, but
I would have had it been practical andit just, I just sat back and went, you
know, you can learn something from anyone.
(05:22):
Right?
That guy knew how to do something thatI didn't do and, and he's homeless, And I
wasn't, fast forward, quite a few years.
And now I'm in a part of a networkinggroup with a bunch of different people,
and we had a young college graduate comein, say, Hey, this is my first job out
of college, and I'm just here to learn.
I, I don't think I haveanything to contribute.
(05:42):
I'm just here to learn from everybody.
And I said, Well, wait a second.
I was like, . We can actuallylearn quite a bit from you, right?
Because none of us have theperspective of someone just entering
the workforce and we can use that,So that, that is of value to us.
So don't think that you can't,or we can't learn from you.
Right.
That's a valuable lesson.
(06:04):
Everyone out there.
And, and I'll just tell youone last story about that.
When I was coo of a company, the companywas small enough to where I was able to
have one-on-one meetings with everyone.
And I told them that.
I said, Listen, I'm, I'm the COO ofthis company and you just started six
months ago, but I can learn from you.
We're here to learn from each other.
So keep that in mind, You'rejust not here to learn from me.
I learned as much from you as well.
(06:26):
I would've loved tohave had you as my boss,
That's no.
I hope there's a lot of few otherpeople who, with whom I've worked
that could say the same thing.
. Well, hopefully some of them will listen or view this episode
and say, Yep, I totally agree.
I remember a great experienceworking with Ron, Number three.
(06:49):
I've never had an idea thatsomeone else didn't make better.
When I read this, Ron, I loved it becauseI never really put that into words
before, but I believe that as well.
I believe I put ideas out there andhopefully somebody else can contribute.
So tell me what in yourexperience led you to that.
(07:10):
You know, I think it's allabout perspective, right?
Cuz we all have these great ideas andthen when you start noodling ideas
with somebody, they'll say something.
You go, Oh yeah, I didn'tthink about it that way.
And then I'll, give it a practical exampleis I was running a systems engineering
organization and I hired a young lady.
Who had just been with the team.
(07:30):
I mean, she had juststarted with the team.
So say she was with us for a monthand I said, Hey, I have this idea
and I want to do a dashboard.
If you know what a dashboard isand sort of show the status of,
you know, just one page thingbased in Excel that you can show.
The status.
So I took a shot at it and I drewit out and I said, This is what I
(07:50):
want it to look like, and these arethe ideas that I wanted to convey.
So I want everybody to be ableto look at it and kind of know
where we are and what's going on.
Right.
A visual representationof what's happening.
So she took it.
I mean, she had only worked with usfor a month cuz she took it and turned
it into something that I couldn't, inmy wildest dreams have come up with.
Right.
(08:10):
And so I was like, Wow,this is outstanding.
So I gave it to my boss and myboss is like, Wow, this is great.
So let's fast forward a couple monthslater, I was looking at something that
actually got briefed to the BoeingCEO and my boss's boss's boss, who all
the way up the chain had taken thatchart in, briefed it to the Boeing ceo.
(08:32):
the idea the stimulus wasmine, I was the catalyst.
Right.
But she took it much further thanI ever, than I ever could have.
And, and I think with lots ofideas that happens that way.
And don't you find asense of pride in that?
For, for me, whenever I had an ideaand I shared it with my team and
somebody in my team stepped up andsaid, I, I've got something that'll
(08:55):
make this just crème de la crème.
To me, it was a sense of pride.
To be able to tell them,You're awesome, You're amazing.
Look what you did.
And to see it reflected in theireyes to see the pride I have in
them reflected in their eyes.
That was awesome for me.
Absolutely.
I share that sentiment and just to letpeople know, uh, you know, I get a sense
(09:20):
of pride whenever, I've been a catalystor provided someone with some kind of
guidance that they have then gone on totake much further than I ever could have.
That is something to be proud
Lesson number four and you were kindwhen you wrote this, but I don't have
to be, we can curse on this podcast.
(09:42):
So multitasking is bullshit.
Focusing is a superpower.
Ooh.
Talk to me about this.
Well, you know, we areoverstimulated, right?
Our worlds are, everyone is multitaskingwith their phones, with everything, right?
With pads of every differentsize, computers, multiple
(10:05):
computer screens, everything.
You see it when people aresitting in front of you.
at dinner and everything else, and, andI'm guilty of it, but what I found is
that if you put that down and focus,right, is where you get a lot of results.
So I think now in today's worldof all of these distractions being
able to focus, you'll stand out.
(10:26):
If you can focus, I'll give you example,my phone right now is on the other side
of the room face down, so I can't hear it.
Or in the, the ringer's off.
So I can't hear it and I can't see it.
I'm focused here, right.
And a lot of other people do.
I have the notifications turnedoff of my computer and I am
solely focused on this discussion.
(10:48):
How many people can do thatwhen you're sitting in Zoom
calls and listen, I'm guilty.
Like if I'm a participant in theZoom call, am I just listening?
It's like, Hey, I can knock out a coupleof emails, I can follow along here.
I can read this.
I mean, how many otherscreens do you have up?
How many other windows do you have upon your computer while you're doing it?
Uh, but I think you're losingout when you do that, right?
(11:08):
Yeah.
There'll be a high rate of return on juststaying in the moment, and especially
when other human beings are involved.
So for me, I learned this before wehad cell phones, When I had a meeting
with my office with someone, I wouldcome out from behind my desk, right,
leave my phone or whatever, and.
Talk to that person.
And if the phone rang, I would ignoreit because I, I'm there that I'm, I'm
(11:33):
not going to take my attention awayfrom that person, you know, for some
unknown person on the other call.
Now sometimes, you know, in socialsituation when mom calls or my wife
calls, then you have to prioritize . Yes.
I you said, And she rarely calls me.
So it's like, uh, I better answer
(11:55):
. I, I'm, I'm so glad you said that.
Saving marriages one lesson at a time.
I'm so glad you said . Butno, it, it, it's very true.
And, really quickly, I learnedthat lesson , I used to work for a
company that used a platform, whenwe would have our virtual meetings
and the facilitator could actuallysee if you've left that particular
(12:16):
screen to do some other work, right?
They can tell if you havebeen distracted and so.
Diana, who is always savvy andtrying to figure out how to
do as many things as she can.
At one time I said, Oh, I'm just gonnaget another monitor, and I'll always
have the screen up on one monitorand I can work on the other one.
(12:38):
And it worked.
Until I realized how much informationI was missing out on because I could
not pay attention to both things.
And so I too now have adopted focus.
Very important.
And I, and I'm so gladyou had that lesson.
And I think many of our guestsin some way, shape or form,
have come to that lesson.
(12:59):
I hope so.
And even the technology is catching up.
I mean, I, I just got my new.
iPhone update , you know, and now you can.
set focus time, set your phones for focus,and you can customize it to what you need.
I really like that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Number five, everything is relatedto leadership and your ability
(13:20):
to build relationships is key.
Talk to me about that one.
Well, I am both a student, uh,and an instructor of leadership.
You know, having attended the US NavalAcademy, uh, since I was 17 years old,
you know, that baked it to my dna.
And, you know, when you thinkabout leadership, right?
Leadership influences culture.
Culture influences performance, right?
(13:41):
Happy and engaged people, They willinglylook out for your business so they
improve business processes on their own.
They improve products andservices on their own.
All that leads to abetter bottom line, right?
So happy people.
I think it was Richard Bransonthat said, No, you take care
of customers, don't come first.
(14:02):
Right?
Your, your team comes first.
The people in your business comefirst, and if you take care of them,
they will take care of your customers.
You know, different schoolsof thought on all of that.
But there's the importance of leadership.
And again, leadership isn'ta one size fits all solution.
Every person has different motivations.
And again, back to lesson one, right?
(14:25):
Everyone has different battles thatthey're fighting, so you do not know what
kind of battles those people are fighting.
And you don't know what motivatesthose people until you actually
build a relationship with them.
You can't go into someplaceand just, Okay, I'm gonna lead.
Right?
You have to get to know the peoplethat you're leading, and the only
way you can do that is throughbuilding relationships now, and
(14:48):
let's talk about, the journey of anentrepreneur and a journey of a founder.
If you're a founder and you'reout raising money, then I think
investors look for leaders.
And then also they're lookingto build relationships.
So that whole raising money partsabout building relationships
and not necessarily about money.
So an ability to build andcultivate relationships I think
(15:12):
is key to a lot of things.
And leadership is at the top of the list.
So true.
What, what is that expression?
People don't care what you knowuntil they know that you care.
Exactly
right.
May Angelou say that or someone.
Yeah.
You know what?
I don't, I don't remember,but I often, you know, I'll,
(15:32):
equate something to Snoop Dog.
Snoop Dog said I, I don't know.
I'll look it up.
But, but it's so true.
and also going back to your, your exampleof s omebody standing in front of someone
for, funding for their organization.
Well, people don't care until theycan see how passionate you are and
(15:52):
you can prove that you're the personto take it to the next level, right?
And so that expressionpermeates all relationships.
I believe no matter what situationyou're in, you really have to
make that human connection.
Well, they buy investors andothers buy into the leader
before they buy into the vision.
. And that's the why.
(16:14):
Building those relationships are key.
That's very true.
Well, we're gonna take a breakright now so I can thank our
affiliate partner Audible.
Audible is an amazing way to consume10 lessons learned books and other
podcasts, allowing you to build alibrary of knowledge all in one place.
(16:35):
You can start your 30 day free trial bygoing to audibletrial.com/10lessonslearned
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You can find your favorite lessonwhile at home or on the go.
Once again, that'saudibletrial.com/10lessonslearned all
lowercase for a free 30 day trial.
(16:58):
The link will be in the show notes.
Let's welcome back Ron Higgs andcontinue with lesson number six.
Lesson number six.
Solve more problems than you create.
Ron, can we make that a bumper sticker?
? Sure.
Sounds good.
(17:20):
Tell me about this lesson.
You know, this one camebecause somebody asked me.
Not too long ago, maybe a coupleyears ago, He goes, When you
leave the room, what do you wantpeople to remember about you?
Like when you in, in your workplaceor when you leave someplace, not
necessarily the room, but when you leavesomeplace, to move on to someplace else.
(17:40):
You know, what do you want thosepeople to remember about you?
And you know, I just thought offthe top of my head, it's like,
you know, that guy gets it right.
And that guy solved moreproblems than he created.
Cause sometimes solutions, Youknow, you can have a relatively easy
solution to something, but unlessyou think it through, it may end up
(18:00):
creating more problems than it solves.
So if you say, Oh, if you'reshort on people, it's like, Hey,
we need to hire somebody else.
Well, , that's reallyeasier said than done.
Right?
Do we have the budgetto hire somebody else?
Do we have enough work for that person?
Do we have, how long is that gonna take?
I mean, there, there'rejust a lot of things.
And so again, I think if you.
(18:20):
In general just solve more problems thanyou create, I think you'll leave with
wherever you are with a good legacy.
That's, that is brilliant.
That is absolutely brilliant.
And, for me in my career, it wasn'tsolve more problems than you create,
It was work smarter, not harder.
And I think the two kindof go hand in hand, right?
(18:41):
Because if you're trying to work smarter,you are alleviating those things that
might end up causing more problems.
So I appreciate that and,and I am going to steal it.
Thank you very much for that.
Oh no, they're in print,so I guess it's wide open.
Just, uh, make you goappropriate Attritions.
It's, this is open sourcelisteners and viewers.
(19:02):
These lessons are opensource content for you.
Feel free.
Lesson number seven, you willmake mistakes and reasonable
people tolerate mistakes.
It's how you make itright that matters Now.
This almost made me cry, Ron,and I'll tell you it, I read this
lesson after I had, made a bigfaux pas, made a big mistake.
(19:24):
And I am my worst critic.
Aren't we all?
Okay?
And I, I was beating myself up.
I think I was in what,how many rounds in boxing?
I think I was in my, roundfive of beating myself up.
And I read that lesson and I said.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's okay.
I'm human, but I wanna know howyou came to know this to be true.
(19:48):
You know, I, I, I have to tell you, Ithink every day, maybe not every day.
And I don't wanna oversimplify this, buteven as a patron in a restaurant, right,
we've all been patrons before, right?
And we've always, we've all beenvictims of sort of bad service, right?
And if, you know, you go to arestaurant and you have a bad
time where things are slow.
(20:10):
If the manager walks up andsays, Hey folks, you know what?
We're a little shorthand in tonight.
Uh, things may take, take a littlelonger, but how about I comp
you a dessert or an appetizer?
Does that sound good?
Yeah.
Again, He made it right.
And sometimes it's justinformation that you need.
You ever been on a plane that's justpulled out of the gate and just sat there
(20:33):
and sat there and you're just, becauseyou have no control over anything,
when you're a passenger in a plane.
And so you're just sittingthere going, What is going on?
You know?
And the pilot says, Heyfolks, sorry, bit of a delay.
You know, there's 20 airplanes,uh, ahead of us for takeoff.
Caused by some bad weather.
We take airplanes off about oncea minute here, so we should be
(20:55):
airborne in about 20 minutes.
Do you know what I mean?
It's just sometimes it just takes a littlebit of information to make things right.
And then for you, we'veall made mistakes, right?
So you know, you walk in immediatelyfess up to it, Hey, I made a mistake.
This is what happened.
This is what I'm doing tocorrect it now, right now.
(21:16):
And then these are the actions that Iwill take to make sure that it doesn't.
Absolutely.
That's making it right.
Yeah.
So again, you can just see how beinga patron in a restaurant or being
somewhere where you think, where youjust don't know what's going on or
you, somebody's made a mistake and nowyou are a little bit annoyed and all
you have to do, you know, people takethe right actions to make it right.
(21:41):
Now, sometimes people don't alwaystake the right actions to make it
right, and then what do you do?
It's like, okay, I'm never goingback to that restaurant again.
So again, fairly simple.
Just everybody's gonna makemistakes cuz we're human.
Just what are you gonnado to make it right?
And how are you gonna learn from it?
And hopefully not doing it.
And what I heard in between the lineson that Ron, is something pretty
(22:01):
powerful, which is, nine times outta 10.
The way you can make it rightis just by giving clarification.
Just by giving knowledge and clarificationof what the person might not know about
the situation, deescalates the situation.
And you know, a lot of people come from aplace of, I've made a mistake, somebody's
(22:25):
gonna want a pound of flesh and so letme just stay quiet and not say anything.
And that's one of the reasons whyI love what you put in the entire
lesson, which is reasonablepeople tolerate mistakes, right?
And so, viewers and listeners, if you area leader, if you are, a supervisor, you
(22:47):
have to figure out what your leadershipstyle is gonna be and if you are going
to be the person that understands thateverybody is human and people can make
mistakes within reason, obviously.
Or you're gonna be the kind of person thatyou know strives for perfection at the
loss of true authenticity in your team.
You know, in terms of organizationalculture, one of the things that I look
(23:11):
for, it's, that's really importantto me, is a culture that where people
don't have a fear of making mistakes,because there are a lot, just, I
think you insinuated this, right?
There are a lot of places where they'rejust gonna take a pound to flesh.
They are just waiting foryou to make a mistake.
So that, Not gonna get that promotion.
(23:32):
Not gonna go on that trip,not gonna do something.
Just something to knockyou down in some way.
And the organizations withgood cultures don't have people
living in fear of mistakes.
Hey, make a mistake, make it early.
Right.
Learn from it.
Don't do it again.
Now, repeating the samemistake is a different deal.
(23:53):
But, you know, just if you have a,a culture where people are not in
fear of making mistakes, I, I thinkthat that's part of a good culture.
Wow.
I feel so bad.
I'm gonna steal that one too.
I'm so sorry,
But we said it's open source, right?
So we're good.
All right.
We'll talk about, we'll talk later.
(24:14):
We'll talk about yourcommission a little later.
All right, number eight,embrace gratitude.
Find something to be gratefulfor in every situation.
Now, this is something that I was raisedupon, but a lot of people, Maybe even
if they knew it in the beginning, theylose this somewhere in their adulthood.
(24:36):
So talk about that, Ron.
Bring us back to that.
Embracing gratitude.
Well, I, I will tell you this, Iactually learned this from a former boss.
And one of the things in mil, inaviation in general, in military
aviation especially, you know,we're taught from the beginning in
flight school, what if X goes wrong?
(24:56):
Most of the trading has to do withwhat if, What if this happens?
What if you lose an engine?
What if you lose electricity?
What if the aircraftgets struck by lightning?
What if there's fire?
Right?
Where am I gonna land?
What am I gonna do, Right?
So there's a lot of that.
And so some of that, at least for me,had me always looking at those sort
of scenarios and I, I didn't stop.
But to balance that, right?
(25:18):
I look, it's like, okay, so what can webe grateful for in these situations right?
You get a flat tire on thehighway in the middle of the day.
Okay, Okay.
Well, it's not dark and it'snot raining, and we're not in
the middle of someplace else.
And one of my favorite things todo, you know, in corporate America,
when people rush into my officesay, Hey, we have an emergency.
It's like, Okay, is anyone dead?
(25:40):
Is anyone injured?
And we're doing good, right?
Is the building actually on fire?
No.
Then there's, there's things that wecould actually be grateful for, right?
In all of that.
So I think if you try to find somethingto be grateful for in every situation,
then I, I think that may lead in thefuture to coming up with solutions that
(26:03):
maybe you didn't think about beforebecause you are thinking of, Okay,
so what can I be grateful for here?
Grateful for the opportunity to work withsuch great people, all sorts of things.
That's where that came from.
I think that is one of themost powerful lessons to date.
That is amazing.
That is amazing.
Number nine.
(26:24):
The most valuable thingthat you have is your time.
Someday isn't a goal or a strategy,and you are running out of some days,
and this goes back to what you would'vetold your 30 year old self, right?
So let's talk about this.
Well, you know, this reallyhit home because this is shows
called, you know, lessons and ittook me 50 years to learn, right?
(26:45):
And I think once you reach a certainage, you realize that there are more
days behind than there are ahead.
And so you spent a lot of yourtime saying, Someday I'll do this.
Someday I'll have that.
Well, guess what?
Some days are running out.
Some days it's real.
Now it's finite because there are actuallymore days behind than there are ahead.
(27:08):
And I think some people realize thattoo through tragic circumstances.
Yeah.
You know, I had, uh, my best friendwhen I was 30 years old, dropped dead.
Right.
So I realized that like, wow,he was 31 years old and, and you
know, he just dropped dead of anundiagnosed heart condition, so
nothing's ever promised, right?
So people learn those lessons that way.
(27:28):
But again, I think your time, I thinkthe most valuable things that you have
time, I think is at the top right,cuz there's no more of it, right?
And then there's your energy, youknow, and where your focus is, right?
And so what you, because some, thereare some things that'll take the
way, your energy that don't deserveit, but we're talking about time.
Right.
And I, and again, I trulybelieve that time is the most
(27:49):
valuable thing that you have.
And so you should, youshould use it very wisely.
And as I would've told my30 year old self, don't keep
waiting for the right time.
Don't use the phrase someday Istopped using that term because
once I, once this lesson came to me.
(28:09):
I wholeheartedly agree.
And I told my daughter, youdon't wanna have these kinds of
conversations with your children.
Really, Nobody does.
But you, you have to plan ifyou're, if you're doing things
right, you have to plan, right?
And, I had a conversation with mydaughter and she said, Mom, why
are you talking about these things?
Like, what, what are you talking about?
And I said, Listen, kiddo, I'm 52.
(28:29):
The odds that I will live to be 104.
Not that great.
And so more than half of mylife is behind me, you know?
And I have to be honest with that.
And I have to say, what now?
What?
Now?
And that's when the bucket list came out.
And those bucket lists can be very fun.
(28:50):
I bet.
. I love
it.
So I love it.
So lesson number 10.
Oh man, I might haveto say this five times.
Lesson number 10.
Don't call yourself anexpert or a trusted advisor.
You'll know when you get there becauseyour peers will describe you that way.
(29:14):
I'm going to repeat that.
Don't call yourself anexpert or a trusted advisor.
You'll know when you get there becauseyour peers will describe you that way.
That is so powerful.
Take it away, Ron
. Well, a again, it's funny, I, how do you call yourself a trusted expert?
(29:37):
Really, But you know, this actually camehome in my dealings with my wife's son.
So I, I don't have kidsmy own, but I step kids.
And so he said something about.
Oh man, I, I couldn't really go outand have fun because all of my friends
were expecting me to take care of 'em.
They knew that I would drive,they knew that I would do this.
(29:57):
They knew that I was responsible, and Isaid, you know, You should be grateful for
that because there is no, to me, there'sno higher honor than having your peers
recognize you as someone who's responsibleand as someone that, as an expert.
So again, I, I looked at thatand went, You know what, Maybe
that's right for an expert.
And then, there are a lot of people whocould genuinely call themselves experts.
(30:22):
But when somebody says, Hey, I'm an expertat this, you know, that's just not me.
But when I hear somebody else call mean expert, that's when I go, That's
when I, I think I've really made it.
I think if this person thinks I'm anexpert, then okay, maybe I am, and
especially a group of your peers.
So I wait for that.
Right.
And, and in general, one of those things,and this also taught me to do this, Ask
(30:43):
other people what you're good at, right?
Because sometimes some thingscome to you so easily that you
don't even realize you're good at.
So if you want a good measureof the things that you're good
at, ask some of your peers.
And the things are people that arecloser to you, close to you, because
they'll come up and go, Well, youdo this, this, this, and this.
Something like, Wow, Ihadn't thought about that.
Right?
(31:03):
But when your peers call you anexpert or a trusted advisor, that's
what I think you truly made it.
Such sound, sound wisdom,and listeners and viewers.
I know, I know many of, of us,and I'm including myself, right,
because I'm also a consultant, right?
Ron, you're a consultant andwe know the name of the game is
(31:26):
you gotta puff up, you gotta letpeople know that you're out there.
You got, you have to reallysell your skills and your
wares to get your clients and.
it is a tendency to, inflate, ortout more of your expertise than
normal because you really wannastart making that revenue stream and
getting that pipeline of clients.
(31:47):
But there is something to be said forhaving your peers, your community,
your previous happy clients, give youthose accolades and tell the world.
What, you know, as opposed toyou spending all of your time
trying to scream at people.
Look at me.
I have the skills.
I have the skills.
cuz sometimes that doesn'tgo over as well as we like.
(32:09):
And I, I really resonatedwith lesson number 10.
And I would hope that peopledescribe me in, in a positive light.
I know most of my girlfriends wouldsay My expertise lies in shopping.
I don't know if that's a skillset that will take me far.
But hey, you could be apersonal shopper, right?
I, I don't think there's a skillthat you can't parlay into.
(32:30):
Something that generates revenuerightly these days, you know?
Yeah.
It's totally up to you.
But that lesson was powerful Ron.
So we finished with your lessons, butI'm not finished with my questions.
So first thing I wanna know iswhat have you had to unlearned?
Well, you know, that we all try to bethe best that we can be, I believe.
(32:54):
And in my younger days, I thought that.
You just had to be good at your job.
Doesn't matter anything else, aslong as you were good at your job.
Well, guess what?
That's I, I had to teach myself.
I had to learn.
I learned that's not true, right?
And, and this came to a head again in someof my interactions with my wife's son,
(33:15):
where I go, You know what, as someone whohas, been, in leadership roles, I will
take a C student who is good with people.
Collaborative and gets along with peopleany day over an A student who does not,
And so I start looking for the thingsthat you really can't teach, So you
can teach people to do a lot of things.
(33:36):
And so then I started stepping back andgoing, Hey, let's look for the things that
you can't teach for people that are goodat the things that you can't teach, right?
Because you can teach a good personskills, but some people who are
maybe bad people are not so friendly.
People may have good skills, but,but it takes more than that.
(33:58):
I have, I learned that the hard way.
Yeah.
So it is it, some peoplecall it soft skills.
Some people call it people skills.
Um, team being able tobe a team player, right?
All of those different things.
If it's not in their personality,it's kind of hard to teach it.
I spent 30 years in retail and weused to always say find somebody
(34:19):
with innate good people skillsand good customer service habits.
We can teach 'em how to run a register.
Right.
But we can't teach them howto make that connection.
So I agree.
I mean, there's a couple things I workethic, motivation, willingness, and or
ability to learn are the three thingsthat I look for that you just can't teach.
(34:41):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I think one of the other things isthat transactional relationship that
we seem to have in the workplace.
And I'm, I'm sure as a COO and beingwith all of these different companies,
you've seen it as well where, you'llhave an employee that they seem to
be a team player on the surface,but when you really look at it, all
they're doing is scratching a backso that they can have a favor later.
(35:05):
And that's not necessarilybeing a team player.
You know, that's, that's manipulatingthe organics of the team and
how the team is functioning.
And that's something totally different.
And when you're caught out there,usually people get resentful
and then the team falls apart.
So, again, I think that's anamazing lesson to unlearn.
Well, I appreciate that, and thosepeople of whom you speak are focused
(35:28):
on getting something out of it.
You know, I think as a part of theteam, if you're truly doing some
teamwork, then you're not lookingto get anything out of it yourself.
Right?
You're looking out for the team.
Over yourself.
So service above self, which is, youknow, one of those things I think
veterans bring into the workplace is aveteran, you know, service above self.
I, I'm focused on thatand a lot of veterans are.
(35:50):
And so that, that's anotherquality as to look for as well.
It's absolutely true.
So listeners and viewers, any ofyou out there that are veterans
first, thank you for your service.
Second, understand that, whatever you'refeeling, you have more skill sets and
more experience in being a part of ateam and doing extraordinary things
(36:14):
than the average human being out there.
Don't discount that.
Okay, I'll get off my soapbox now.
, I'm afraid of heights.
Let me get off this soapbox.
alright, so, Let's see,what are you working on?
Where can we find you, Ron?
Where can, where can somebodythat needs that fractional
coo, where can they find you?
(36:37):
LinkedIn, Ron Higgs easy, right?
I, I have a website,but it's not very good.
But most of my exposureis through LinkedIn.
So if you're gonna go to that website,it really doesn't say much more than
what you're gonna see on LinkedIn.
So that really is the bestplace to see it, because I have.
On podcast, a few other things.
(36:57):
You know, I've commented on somethings so you can get a really
sense of who I am, uh, by lookingat those things on LinkedIn.
So all of my contact information is there.
Please reach out and connect.
And if somebody wants to kind of figureout, you know, how do I get in Ron's head?
What is Ron thinking about?
What are, what are you reading right now?
What can they read so they can kindof get the feel of, your philosophies?
(37:19):
What are you reading?
Well, as I mentioned earlier,being both a student and instructor
of leadership, always lookingto learn more about leadership.
So right here on my desk rightis a book called Do Lead by a
guy named Les McKeown , right?
Very, very good book.
And you get a small book.
It's short, it's easy, and it hassome really powerful lessons about
(37:39):
leadership and, and I highly.
All
right, well, we'll have that titleand the author in the show notes
for our listeners and viewers.
Um, and I thank you forsharing that with us.
And I'm, I'm hoping everybodycan find it on Audible.
That would be great too.
I wanna thank my guest Ron Higgs forsharing his lessons with us today.
(38:00):
As usual, with every episode of viewersand listeners, I feel like I'm, I'm
learning more just like you are.
And it's one of the reasonswhy I love doing this show.
I wanna exit out here.
You've been listeningto 10 Lessons Learned.
This episode is produced by RobertHossary, supported as always by
the Professional Development Forum.
(38:21):
Please tell us what youthink of today's lessons.
You can email us atpodcast@10Lessonslearned.com
that's podcast at the numberone zero lessons learned.com.
Go ahead and hit that like buttonsubscribe and turn on the notification
bell so you don't miss any episodesof the only podcasts that makes
(38:42):
the world wiser lesson by lesson.
Thank you everyone and be safe.
How many people can do thatwhen you're sitting in Zoom
calls and listen, I'm guilty.
Like if I'm a participant in theZoom call, am I just listening?
It's like, Hey, I can knock out a coupleof emails, I can follow along here.
I can read this.
I mean, how many otherscreens do you have up?
How many other windows do you have upon your computer while you're doing it?
Uh, but I think you're losingout when you do that, right?
(00:20):
Yeah.
There'll be a high rate of return on juststaying in the moment, and especially
when other human beings are involved.
Hello and welcome to 10 Lessons Learnedwhere we talk to leaders and luminaries
from all over the world to dispense wisdomfor career, business, and life in order
to make the world wiser lesson by lesson.
(00:43):
My name is Diana White, andI'm your host for this episode.
Our guest today is Ron Higgs.
Ron Higgs is a veteranexecutive business consultant,
engineer, and published author.
His career started in the USNavy and included combat flight
operations, developmental flighttesting, program management,
(01:04):
production, and manufacturing manage.
And systems engineering.
He has worked in several industries andheld leadership positions in startups,
small companies and large corporations.
Ron is the founder and principle ofWolf Management Solutions, where he
is a business consultant coach, andfractional COO who helps companies
(01:25):
scale through leadership, organizationaldevelopment, and process improvement.
Ron is passionate about helping BIPOCentrepreneurs become great leaders
and build successful business.
His education includes a BS inmathematics from the US Naval Academy
and MS in Systems Engineering fromthe Naval Postgraduate School and a
(01:49):
certificate in engineering flight testfrom the US Naval Test Pilot School.
Welcome, Ron.
Thank you, Diana.
first thing I'm gonna have todo is look up the word luminary.
never been described as one of them.
it just means that you have a lot toenlighten us about and we'll get to
it with your lessons, so, for sure.
(02:10):
First question, right out of the gate,what would you tell your 30 year old self.
And, you know, there's a long list, uh,but at the top of the list would be don't
wait for the right time to do something.
Right.
There's a lot of times where,you think about it's like, I'm
just waiting for the right time.
I'm just waiting for the right time, man.
(02:31):
Time will just get away from youand it happened to me, right?
As far as starting a business.
So if I could tell my 30 year oldself, start that business sooner.
That's some good advice.
We're gonna jump rightinto lesson number one.
Lesson number one, everyoneyou meet is fighting a battle.
You know nothing about.
How did you know this to be true?
(02:52):
It took a while you know, aswe know, and really because I'm
fighting one to some degree, you are.
Everyone, and this really came to headin a leadership position that I had where
I ended up being the boss of someonewith whom I had worked previously.
And we didn't get along and Iactually, I, I always say didn't
(03:13):
like this person very much, but oncethis person started, Working for me.
I got to know her and her story andactually came to really, really like her
because I listened to her story and went,Wow, she's really been through a lot.
So now I understand a lot moreabout her perspectives on some of
(03:36):
the things that we disagreed in.
So again, I just think that everyoneout there, you know it as well as I do.
Just dealing with somethingthat you know nothing about.
So, be kind.
Try to put yourself in theirshoes, you know, maybe that
person's having a bad day.
Maybe they'll dealing with something else.
But, that seems to work wellfor me once I really learned it.
(03:57):
I love that, that, and that's alesson that I had to learn as well.
you never know.
and most often, uh, Ithink you'd agree, Ron.
We take things personally, wethink everything is about us.
Oh, this person usuallysays, Hey, how you doing?
And today they justgave me a formal hello.
Why are they mad at me whenit has nothing to do with you?
You know?
(04:17):
I totally agree.
Lesson number two, youcan learn from anyone.
So always be open.
Now, this is what I agreewith wholeheartedly.
So talk about this.
Well, I truly believe that.
And one of the things that hit me aswhen I was a junior officer in the
Navy and I was actually going throughtest pilot school at the time, which
(04:38):
is something that was very difficultachievement for me to even get there.
And so I was really, you know, at thetime, sort of on the top of my game.
I was in downtown Washington, DC andI saw a homeless guy with a saxophone.
And he was out on the street playingthe most wonderful music I'd heard
(04:58):
from a saxophone, and I went, Youknow, maybe I should buy a saxophone.
Cause it's one of those things, it's like,ah, I think I'd like to learn that and I
could have this guy teach me because, soagain, I, I wasn't able to do that, but
I would have had it been practical andit just, I just sat back and went, you
know, you can learn something from anyone.
(05:22):
Right?
That guy knew how to do something thatI didn't do and, and he's homeless, And I
wasn't, fast forward, quite a few years.
And now I'm in a part of a networkinggroup with a bunch of different people,
and we had a young college graduate comein, say, Hey, this is my first job out
of college, and I'm just here to learn.
I, I don't think I haveanything to contribute.
(05:42):
I'm just here to learn from everybody.
And I said, Well, wait a second.
I was like, . We can actuallylearn quite a bit from you, right?
Because none of us have theperspective of someone just entering
the workforce and we can use that,So that, that is of value to us.
So don't think that you can't,or we can't learn from you.
Right.
That's a valuable lesson.
(06:04):
Everyone out there.
And, and I'll just tell youone last story about that.
When I was coo of a company, the companywas small enough to where I was able to
have one-on-one meetings with everyone.
And I told them that.
I said, Listen, I'm, I'm the COO ofthis company and you just started six
months ago, but I can learn from you.
We're here to learn from each other.
So keep that in mind, You'rejust not here to learn from me.
I learned as much from you as well.
(06:26):
I would've loved tohave had you as my boss,
That's no.
I hope there's a lot of few otherpeople who, with whom I've worked
that could say the same thing.
. Well, hopefully some of them will listen or view this episode
and say, Yep, I totally agree.
I remember a great experienceworking with Ron, Number three.
(06:49):
I've never had an idea thatsomeone else didn't make better.
When I read this, Ron, I loved it becauseI never really put that into words
before, but I believe that as well.
I believe I put ideas out there andhopefully somebody else can contribute.
So tell me what in yourexperience led you to that.
(07:10):
You know, I think it's allabout perspective, right?
Cuz we all have these great ideas andthen when you start noodling ideas
with somebody, they'll say something.
You go, Oh yeah, I didn'tthink about it that way.
And then I'll, give it a practical exampleis I was running a systems engineering
organization and I hired a young lady.
Who had just been with the team.
(07:30):
I mean, she had juststarted with the team.
So say she was with us for a monthand I said, Hey, I have this idea
and I want to do a dashboard.
If you know what a dashboard isand sort of show the status of,
you know, just one page thingbased in Excel that you can show.
The status.
So I took a shot at it and I drewit out and I said, This is what I
(07:50):
want it to look like, and these arethe ideas that I wanted to convey.
So I want everybody to be ableto look at it and kind of know
where we are and what's going on.
Right.
A visual representationof what's happening.
So she took it.
I mean, she had only worked with usfor a month cuz she took it and turned
it into something that I couldn't, inmy wildest dreams have come up with.
Right.
(08:10):
And so I was like, Wow,this is outstanding.
So I gave it to my boss and myboss is like, Wow, this is great.
So let's fast forward a couple monthslater, I was looking at something that
actually got briefed to the BoeingCEO and my boss's boss's boss, who all
the way up the chain had taken thatchart in, briefed it to the Boeing ceo.
(08:32):
the idea the stimulus wasmine, I was the catalyst.
Right.
But she took it much further thanI ever, than I ever could have.
And, and I think with lots ofideas that happens that way.
And don't you find asense of pride in that?
For, for me, whenever I had an ideaand I shared it with my team and
somebody in my team stepped up andsaid, I, I've got something that'll
(08:55):
make this just crème de la crème.
To me, it was a sense of pride.
To be able to tell them,You're awesome, You're amazing.
Look what you did.
And to see it reflected in theireyes to see the pride I have in
them reflected in their eyes.
That was awesome for me.
Absolutely.
I share that sentiment and just to letpeople know, uh, you know, I get a sense
(09:20):
of pride whenever, I've been a catalystor provided someone with some kind of
guidance that they have then gone on totake much further than I ever could have.
That is something to be proud
Lesson number four and you were kindwhen you wrote this, but I don't have
to be, we can curse on this podcast.
(09:42):
So multitasking is bullshit.
Focusing is a superpower.
Ooh.
Talk to me about this.
Well, you know, we areoverstimulated, right?
Our worlds are, everyone is multitaskingwith their phones, with everything, right?
With pads of every differentsize, computers, multiple
(10:05):
computer screens, everything.
You see it when people aresitting in front of you.
at dinner and everything else, and, andI'm guilty of it, but what I found is
that if you put that down and focus,right, is where you get a lot of results.
So I think now in today's worldof all of these distractions being
able to focus, you'll stand out.
(10:26):
If you can focus, I'll give you example,my phone right now is on the other side
of the room face down, so I can't hear it.
Or in the, the ringer's off.
So I can't hear it and I can't see it.
I'm focused here, right.
And a lot of other people do.
I have the notifications turnedoff of my computer and I am
solely focused on this discussion.
(10:48):
How many people can do thatwhen you're sitting in Zoom
calls and listen, I'm guilty.
Like if I'm a participant in theZoom call, am I just listening?
It's like, Hey, I can knock out a coupleof emails, I can follow along here.
I can read this.
I mean, how many otherscreens do you have up?
How many other windows do you have upon your computer while you're doing it?
Uh, but I think you're losingout when you do that, right?
(11:08):
Yeah.
There'll be a high rate of return on juststaying in the moment, and especially
when other human beings are involved.
So for me, I learned this before wehad cell phones, When I had a meeting
with my office with someone, I wouldcome out from behind my desk, right,
leave my phone or whatever, and.
Talk to that person.
And if the phone rang, I would ignoreit because I, I'm there that I'm, I'm
(11:33):
not going to take my attention awayfrom that person, you know, for some
unknown person on the other call.
Now sometimes, you know, in socialsituation when mom calls or my wife
calls, then you have to prioritize . Yes.
I you said, And she rarely calls me.
So it's like, uh, I better answer
(11:55):
. I, I'm, I'm so glad you said that.
Saving marriages one lesson at a time.
I'm so glad you said . Butno, it, it, it's very true.
And, really quickly, I learnedthat lesson , I used to work for a
company that used a platform, whenwe would have our virtual meetings
and the facilitator could actuallysee if you've left that particular
(12:16):
screen to do some other work, right?
They can tell if you havebeen distracted and so.
Diana, who is always savvy andtrying to figure out how to
do as many things as she can.
At one time I said, Oh, I'm just gonnaget another monitor, and I'll always
have the screen up on one monitorand I can work on the other one.
(12:38):
And it worked.
Until I realized how much informationI was missing out on because I could
not pay attention to both things.
And so I too now have adopted focus.
Very important.
And I, and I'm so gladyou had that lesson.
And I think many of our guestsin some way, shape or form,
have come to that lesson.
(12:59):
I hope so.
And even the technology is catching up.
I mean, I, I just got my new.
iPhone update , you know, and now you can.
set focus time, set your phones for focus,and you can customize it to what you need.
I really like that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Number five, everything is relatedto leadership and your ability
(13:20):
to build relationships is key.
Talk to me about that one.
Well, I am both a student, uh,and an instructor of leadership.
You know, having attended the US NavalAcademy, uh, since I was 17 years old,
you know, that baked it to my dna.
And, you know, when you thinkabout leadership, right?
Leadership influences culture.
Culture influences performance, right?
(13:41):
Happy and engaged people, They willinglylook out for your business so they
improve business processes on their own.
They improve products andservices on their own.
All that leads to abetter bottom line, right?
So happy people.
I think it was Richard Bransonthat said, No, you take care
of customers, don't come first.
(14:02):
Right?
Your, your team comes first.
The people in your business comefirst, and if you take care of them,
they will take care of your customers.
You know, different schoolsof thought on all of that.
But there's the importance of leadership.
And again, leadership isn'ta one size fits all solution.
Every person has different motivations.
And again, back to lesson one, right?
(14:25):
Everyone has different battles thatthey're fighting, so you do not know what
kind of battles those people are fighting.
And you don't know what motivatesthose people until you actually
build a relationship with them.
You can't go into someplaceand just, Okay, I'm gonna lead.
Right?
You have to get to know the peoplethat you're leading, and the only
way you can do that is throughbuilding relationships now, and
(14:48):
let's talk about, the journey of anentrepreneur and a journey of a founder.
If you're a founder and you'reout raising money, then I think
investors look for leaders.
And then also they're lookingto build relationships.
So that whole raising money partsabout building relationships
and not necessarily about money.
So an ability to build andcultivate relationships I think
(15:12):
is key to a lot of things.
And leadership is at the top of the list.
So true.
What, what is that expression?
People don't care what you knowuntil they know that you care.
Exactly
right.
May Angelou say that or someone.
Yeah.
You know what?
I don't, I don't remember,but I often, you know, I'll,
(15:32):
equate something to Snoop Dog.
Snoop Dog said I, I don't know.
I'll look it up.
But, but it's so true.
and also going back to your, your exampleof s omebody standing in front of someone
for, funding for their organization.
Well, people don't care until theycan see how passionate you are and
(15:52):
you can prove that you're the personto take it to the next level, right?
And so that expressionpermeates all relationships.
I believe no matter what situationyou're in, you really have to
make that human connection.
Well, they buy investors andothers buy into the leader
before they buy into the vision.
. And that's the why.
(16:14):
Building those relationships are key.
That's very true.
Well, we're gonna take a breakright now so I can thank our
affiliate partner Audible.
Audible is an amazing way to consume10 lessons learned books and other
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(16:35):
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(16:58):
The link will be in the show notes.
Let's welcome back Ron Higgs andcontinue with lesson number six.
Lesson number six.
Solve more problems than you create.
Ron, can we make that a bumper sticker?
? Sure.
Sounds good.
(17:20):
Tell me about this lesson.
You know, this one camebecause somebody asked me.
Not too long ago, maybe a coupleyears ago, He goes, When you
leave the room, what do you wantpeople to remember about you?
Like when you in, in your workplaceor when you leave someplace, not
necessarily the room, but when you leavesomeplace, to move on to someplace else.
(17:40):
You know, what do you want thosepeople to remember about you?
And you know, I just thought offthe top of my head, it's like,
you know, that guy gets it right.
And that guy solved moreproblems than he created.
Cause sometimes solutions, Youknow, you can have a relatively easy
solution to something, but unlessyou think it through, it may end up
(18:00):
creating more problems than it solves.
So if you say, Oh, if you'reshort on people, it's like, Hey,
we need to hire somebody else.
Well, , that's reallyeasier said than done.
Right?
Do we have the budgetto hire somebody else?
Do we have enough work for that person?
Do we have, how long is that gonna take?
I mean, there, there'rejust a lot of things.
And so again, I think if you.
(18:20):
In general just solve more problems thanyou create, I think you'll leave with
wherever you are with a good legacy.
That's, that is brilliant.
That is absolutely brilliant.
And, for me in my career, it wasn'tsolve more problems than you create,
It was work smarter, not harder.
And I think the two kindof go hand in hand, right?
(18:41):
Because if you're trying to work smarter,you are alleviating those things that
might end up causing more problems.
So I appreciate that and,and I am going to steal it.
Thank you very much for that.
Oh no, they're in print,so I guess it's wide open.
Just, uh, make you goappropriate Attritions.
It's, this is open sourcelisteners and viewers.
(19:02):
These lessons are opensource content for you.
Feel free.
Lesson number seven, you willmake mistakes and reasonable
people tolerate mistakes.
It's how you make itright that matters Now.
This almost made me cry, Ron,and I'll tell you it, I read this
lesson after I had, made a bigfaux pas, made a big mistake.
(19:24):
And I am my worst critic.
Aren't we all?
Okay?
And I, I was beating myself up.
I think I was in what,how many rounds in boxing?
I think I was in my, roundfive of beating myself up.
And I read that lesson and I said.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's okay.
I'm human, but I wanna know howyou came to know this to be true.
(19:48):
You know, I, I, I have to tell you, Ithink every day, maybe not every day.
And I don't wanna oversimplify this, buteven as a patron in a restaurant, right,
we've all been patrons before, right?
And we've always, we've all beenvictims of sort of bad service, right?
And if, you know, you go to arestaurant and you have a bad
time where things are slow.
(20:10):
If the manager walks up andsays, Hey folks, you know what?
We're a little shorthand in tonight.
Uh, things may take, take a littlelonger, but how about I comp
you a dessert or an appetizer?
Does that sound good?
Yeah.
Again, He made it right.
And sometimes it's justinformation that you need.
You ever been on a plane that's justpulled out of the gate and just sat there
(20:33):
and sat there and you're just, becauseyou have no control over anything,
when you're a passenger in a plane.
And so you're just sittingthere going, What is going on?
You know?
And the pilot says, Heyfolks, sorry, bit of a delay.
You know, there's 20 airplanes,uh, ahead of us for takeoff.
Caused by some bad weather.
We take airplanes off about oncea minute here, so we should be
(20:55):
airborne in about 20 minutes.
Do you know what I mean?
It's just sometimes it just takes a littlebit of information to make things right.
And then for you, we'veall made mistakes, right?
So you know, you walk in immediatelyfess up to it, Hey, I made a mistake.
This is what happened.
This is what I'm doing tocorrect it now, right now.
(21:16):
And then these are the actions that Iwill take to make sure that it doesn't.
Absolutely.
That's making it right.
Yeah.
So again, you can just see how beinga patron in a restaurant or being
somewhere where you think, where youjust don't know what's going on or
you, somebody's made a mistake and nowyou are a little bit annoyed and all
you have to do, you know, people takethe right actions to make it right.
(21:41):
Now, sometimes people don't alwaystake the right actions to make it
right, and then what do you do?
It's like, okay, I'm never goingback to that restaurant again.
So again, fairly simple.
Just everybody's gonna makemistakes cuz we're human.
Just what are you gonnado to make it right?
And how are you gonna learn from it?
And hopefully not doing it.
And what I heard in between the lineson that Ron, is something pretty
(22:01):
powerful, which is, nine times outta 10.
The way you can make it rightis just by giving clarification.
Just by giving knowledge and clarificationof what the person might not know about
the situation, deescalates the situation.
And you know, a lot of people come from aplace of, I've made a mistake, somebody's
(22:25):
gonna want a pound of flesh and so letme just stay quiet and not say anything.
And that's one of the reasons whyI love what you put in the entire
lesson, which is reasonablepeople tolerate mistakes, right?
And so, viewers and listeners, if you area leader, if you are, a supervisor, you
(22:47):
have to figure out what your leadershipstyle is gonna be and if you are going
to be the person that understands thateverybody is human and people can make
mistakes within reason, obviously.
Or you're gonna be the kind of person thatyou know strives for perfection at the
loss of true authenticity in your team.
You know, in terms of organizationalculture, one of the things that I look
(23:11):
for, it's, that's really importantto me, is a culture that where people
don't have a fear of making mistakes,because there are a lot, just, I
think you insinuated this, right?
There are a lot of places where they'rejust gonna take a pound to flesh.
They are just waiting foryou to make a mistake.
So that, Not gonna get that promotion.
(23:32):
Not gonna go on that trip,not gonna do something.
Just something to knockyou down in some way.
And the organizations withgood cultures don't have people
living in fear of mistakes.
Hey, make a mistake, make it early.
Right.
Learn from it.
Don't do it again.
Now, repeating the samemistake is a different deal.
(23:53):
But, you know, just if you have a,a culture where people are not in
fear of making mistakes, I, I thinkthat that's part of a good culture.
Wow.
I feel so bad.
I'm gonna steal that one too.
I'm so sorry,
But we said it's open source, right?
So we're good.
All right.
We'll talk about, we'll talk later.
(24:14):
We'll talk about yourcommission a little later.
All right, number eight,embrace gratitude.
Find something to be gratefulfor in every situation.
Now, this is something that I was raisedupon, but a lot of people, Maybe even
if they knew it in the beginning, theylose this somewhere in their adulthood.
(24:36):
So talk about that, Ron.
Bring us back to that.
Embracing gratitude.
Well, I, I will tell you this, Iactually learned this from a former boss.
And one of the things in mil, inaviation in general, in military
aviation especially, you know,we're taught from the beginning in
flight school, what if X goes wrong?
(24:56):
Most of the trading has to do withwhat if, What if this happens?
What if you lose an engine?
What if you lose electricity?
What if the aircraftgets struck by lightning?
What if there's fire?
Right?
Where am I gonna land?
What am I gonna do, Right?
So there's a lot of that.
And so some of that, at least for me,had me always looking at those sort
of scenarios and I, I didn't stop.
But to balance that, right?
(25:18):
I look, it's like, okay, so what can webe grateful for in these situations right?
You get a flat tire on thehighway in the middle of the day.
Okay, Okay.
Well, it's not dark and it'snot raining, and we're not in
the middle of someplace else.
And one of my favorite things todo, you know, in corporate America,
when people rush into my officesay, Hey, we have an emergency.
It's like, Okay, is anyone dead?
(25:40):
Is anyone injured?
And we're doing good, right?
Is the building actually on fire?
No.
Then there's, there's things that wecould actually be grateful for, right?
In all of that.
So I think if you try to find somethingto be grateful for in every situation,
then I, I think that may lead in thefuture to coming up with solutions that
(26:03):
maybe you didn't think about beforebecause you are thinking of, Okay,
so what can I be grateful for here?
Grateful for the opportunity to work withsuch great people, all sorts of things.
That's where that came from.
I think that is one of themost powerful lessons to date.
That is amazing.
That is amazing.
Number nine.
(26:24):
The most valuable thingthat you have is your time.
Someday isn't a goal or a strategy,and you are running out of some days,
and this goes back to what you would'vetold your 30 year old self, right?
So let's talk about this.
Well, you know, this reallyhit home because this is shows
called, you know, lessons and ittook me 50 years to learn, right?
(26:45):
And I think once you reach a certainage, you realize that there are more
days behind than there are ahead.
And so you spent a lot of yourtime saying, Someday I'll do this.
Someday I'll have that.
Well, guess what?
Some days are running out.
Some days it's real.
Now it's finite because there are actuallymore days behind than there are ahead.
(27:08):
And I think some people realize thattoo through tragic circumstances.
Yeah.
You know, I had, uh, my best friendwhen I was 30 years old, dropped dead.
Right.
So I realized that like, wow,he was 31 years old and, and you
know, he just dropped dead of anundiagnosed heart condition, so
nothing's ever promised, right?
So people learn those lessons that way.
(27:28):
But again, I think your time, I thinkthe most valuable things that you have
time, I think is at the top right,cuz there's no more of it, right?
And then there's your energy, youknow, and where your focus is, right?
And so what you, because some, thereare some things that'll take the
way, your energy that don't deserveit, but we're talking about time.
Right.
And I, and again, I trulybelieve that time is the most
(27:49):
valuable thing that you have.
And so you should, youshould use it very wisely.
And as I would've told my30 year old self, don't keep
waiting for the right time.
Don't use the phrase someday Istopped using that term because
once I, once this lesson came to me.
(28:09):
I wholeheartedly agree.
And I told my daughter, youdon't wanna have these kinds of
conversations with your children.
Really, Nobody does.
But you, you have to plan ifyou're, if you're doing things
right, you have to plan, right?
And, I had a conversation with mydaughter and she said, Mom, why
are you talking about these things?
Like, what, what are you talking about?
And I said, Listen, kiddo, I'm 52.
(28:29):
The odds that I will live to be 104.
Not that great.
And so more than half of mylife is behind me, you know?
And I have to be honest with that.
And I have to say, what now?
What?
Now?
And that's when the bucket list came out.
And those bucket lists can be very fun.
(28:50):
I bet.
. I love
it.
So I love it.
So lesson number 10.
Oh man, I might haveto say this five times.
Lesson number 10.
Don't call yourself anexpert or a trusted advisor.
You'll know when you get there becauseyour peers will describe you that way.
(29:14):
I'm going to repeat that.
Don't call yourself anexpert or a trusted advisor.
You'll know when you get there becauseyour peers will describe you that way.
That is so powerful.
Take it away, Ron
. Well, a again, it's funny, I, how do you call yourself a trusted expert?
(29:37):
Really, But you know, this actually camehome in my dealings with my wife's son.
So I, I don't have kidsmy own, but I step kids.
And so he said something about.
Oh man, I, I couldn't really go outand have fun because all of my friends
were expecting me to take care of 'em.
They knew that I would drive,they knew that I would do this.
(29:57):
They knew that I was responsible, and Isaid, you know, You should be grateful for
that because there is no, to me, there'sno higher honor than having your peers
recognize you as someone who's responsibleand as someone that, as an expert.
So again, I, I looked at thatand went, You know what, Maybe
that's right for an expert.
And then, there are a lot of people whocould genuinely call themselves experts.
(30:22):
But when somebody says, Hey, I'm an expertat this, you know, that's just not me.
But when I hear somebody else call mean expert, that's when I go, That's
when I, I think I've really made it.
I think if this person thinks I'm anexpert, then okay, maybe I am, and
especially a group of your peers.
So I wait for that.
Right.
And, and in general, one of those things,and this also taught me to do this, Ask
(30:43):
other people what you're good at, right?
Because sometimes some thingscome to you so easily that you
don't even realize you're good at.
So if you want a good measureof the things that you're good
at, ask some of your peers.
And the things are people that arecloser to you, close to you, because
they'll come up and go, Well, youdo this, this, this, and this.
Something like, Wow, Ihadn't thought about that.
Right?
(31:03):
But when your peers call you anexpert or a trusted advisor, that's
what I think you truly made it.
Such sound, sound wisdom,and listeners and viewers.
I know, I know many of, of us,and I'm including myself, right,
because I'm also a consultant, right?
Ron, you're a consultant andwe know the name of the game is
(31:26):
you gotta puff up, you gotta letpeople know that you're out there.
You got, you have to reallysell your skills and your
wares to get your clients and.
it is a tendency to, inflate, ortout more of your expertise than
normal because you really wannastart making that revenue stream and
getting that pipeline of clients.
(31:47):
But there is something to be said forhaving your peers, your community,
your previous happy clients, give youthose accolades and tell the world.
What, you know, as opposed toyou spending all of your time
trying to scream at people.
Look at me.
I have the skills.
I have the skills.
cuz sometimes that doesn'tgo over as well as we like.
(32:09):
And I, I really resonatedwith lesson number 10.
And I would hope that peopledescribe me in, in a positive light.
I know most of my girlfriends wouldsay My expertise lies in shopping.
I don't know if that's a skillset that will take me far.
But hey, you could be apersonal shopper, right?
I, I don't think there's a skillthat you can't parlay into.
(32:30):
Something that generates revenuerightly these days, you know?
Yeah.
It's totally up to you.
But that lesson was powerful Ron.
So we finished with your lessons, butI'm not finished with my questions.
So first thing I wanna know iswhat have you had to unlearned?
Well, you know, that we all try to bethe best that we can be, I believe.
(32:54):
And in my younger days, I thought that.
You just had to be good at your job.
Doesn't matter anything else, aslong as you were good at your job.
Well, guess what?
That's I, I had to teach myself.
I had to learn.
I learned that's not true, right?
And, and this came to a head again in someof my interactions with my wife's son,
(33:15):
where I go, You know what, as someone whohas, been, in leadership roles, I will
take a C student who is good with people.
Collaborative and gets along with peopleany day over an A student who does not,
And so I start looking for the thingsthat you really can't teach, So you
can teach people to do a lot of things.
(33:36):
And so then I started stepping back andgoing, Hey, let's look for the things that
you can't teach for people that are goodat the things that you can't teach, right?
Because you can teach a good personskills, but some people who are
maybe bad people are not so friendly.
People may have good skills, but,but it takes more than that.
(33:58):
I have, I learned that the hard way.
Yeah.
So it is it, some peoplecall it soft skills.
Some people call it people skills.
Um, team being able tobe a team player, right?
All of those different things.
If it's not in their personality,it's kind of hard to teach it.
I spent 30 years in retail and weused to always say find somebody
(34:19):
with innate good people skillsand good customer service habits.
We can teach 'em how to run a register.
Right.
But we can't teach them howto make that connection.
So I agree.
I mean, there's a couple things I workethic, motivation, willingness, and or
ability to learn are the three thingsthat I look for that you just can't teach.
(34:41):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I think one of the other things isthat transactional relationship that
we seem to have in the workplace.
And I'm, I'm sure as a COO and beingwith all of these different companies,
you've seen it as well where, you'llhave an employee that they seem to
be a team player on the surface,but when you really look at it, all
they're doing is scratching a backso that they can have a favor later.
(35:05):
And that's not necessarilybeing a team player.
You know, that's, that's manipulatingthe organics of the team and
how the team is functioning.
And that's something totally different.
And when you're caught out there,usually people get resentful
and then the team falls apart.
So, again, I think that's anamazing lesson to unlearn.
Well, I appreciate that, and thosepeople of whom you speak are focused
(35:28):
on getting something out of it.
You know, I think as a part of theteam, if you're truly doing some
teamwork, then you're not lookingto get anything out of it yourself.
Right?
You're looking out for the team.
Over yourself.
So service above self, which is, youknow, one of those things I think
veterans bring into the workplace is aveteran, you know, service above self.
I, I'm focused on thatand a lot of veterans are.
(35:50):
And so that, that's anotherquality as to look for as well.
It's absolutely true.
So listeners and viewers, any ofyou out there that are veterans
first, thank you for your service.
Second, understand that, whatever you'refeeling, you have more skill sets and
more experience in being a part of ateam and doing extraordinary things
(36:14):
than the average human being out there.
Don't discount that.
Okay, I'll get off my soapbox now.
, I'm afraid of heights.
Let me get off this soapbox.
alright, so, Let's see,what are you working on?
Where can we find you, Ron?
Where can, where can somebodythat needs that fractional
coo, where can they find you?
(36:37):
LinkedIn, Ron Higgs easy, right?
I, I have a website,but it's not very good.
But most of my exposureis through LinkedIn.
So if you're gonna go to that website,it really doesn't say much more than
what you're gonna see on LinkedIn.
So that really is the bestplace to see it, because I have.
On podcast, a few other things.
(36:57):
You know, I've commented on somethings so you can get a really
sense of who I am, uh, by lookingat those things on LinkedIn.
So all of my contact information is there.
Please reach out and connect.
And if somebody wants to kind of figureout, you know, how do I get in Ron's head?
What is Ron thinking about?
What are, what are you reading right now?
What can they read so they can kindof get the feel of, your philosophies?
(37:19):
What are you reading?
Well, as I mentioned earlier,being both a student and instructor
of leadership, always lookingto learn more about leadership.
So right here on my desk rightis a book called Do Lead by a
guy named Les McKeown , right?
Very, very good book.
And you get a small book.
It's short, it's easy, and it hassome really powerful lessons about
(37:39):
leadership and, and I highly.
All
right, well, we'll have that titleand the author in the show notes
for our listeners and viewers.
Um, and I thank you forsharing that with us.
And I'm, I'm hoping everybodycan find it on Audible.
That would be great too.
I wanna thank my guest Ron Higgs forsharing his lessons with us today.
(38:00):
As usual, with every episode of viewersand listeners, I feel like I'm, I'm
learning more just like you are.
And it's one of the reasonswhy I love doing this show.
I wanna exit out here.
You've been listeningto 10 Lessons Learned.
This episode is produced by RobertHossary, supported as always by
the Professional Development Forum.
(38:21):
Please tell us what youthink of today's lessons.
You can email us atpodcast@10Lessonslearned.com
that's podcast at the numberone zero lessons learned.com.
Go ahead and hit that like buttonsubscribe and turn on the notification
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(38:42):
the world wiser lesson by lesson.
Thank you everyone and be safe.
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