May 18, 2024 • 11 mins
Tom and his co-host Johanna delve into the fundamentals of successful leadership. They share tactics on how to motivate teams, make efficient decisions, and steer towards positive outcomes. Tom introduces the L.E.A.D. System of Techniques.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to Succeed Even If. I'm Tom R.
Koo, the communication sage and spoken word strategist. And I'm Johanna.
In this episode, we're talking about secrets so you lead, get things done, and avoid big mistakes.
So Johanna, you lead a number of projects. Those are books, podcasts, and blog posts.
(00:22):
Excellent. So what's a mistake that you've made? Not telling my team that they did a good job.
Oh, you mean you want them to feel it so that they can really kind of bask in the approval?
I wanted them to know that they're doing a really good job and that I appreciated
them. I'm glad you bring that up.
That's really powerful because to be a leader is to give people basically a
(00:46):
clue as to where they stand. Are they succeeding?
Are they doing something of value? Are they being appreciated?
And so a leader has to pay attention and has to deliver those kinds of details
so that a person is motivated and will get great work done and will keep doing it and have stamina,
(01:08):
have persistence because all kinds of work is tough because we fail or we get
tired or we feel that there's no end.
Exactly. So we're going to talk about LEAD.
And this is some material that I brought to MBA students when I taught at Stanford University twice.
So just for an overview, I'm going to say that L of LEAD is listen.
(01:32):
Oh. and E is encourage collaboration, A is align people and mission, and D is decide and act.
So let's begin with that listen. I realize that if you want to make a great impression, listen.
If you want cooperation, listen. If you want to lead,
(01:54):
listen. By listening to people, you show that you care.
You show that you can be affected by them, meaning that they can trust you so
that if they have concerns, you will hear them out.
You will listen to them. It's powerful, but also a leader is only as effective
as that leader gets information.
(02:16):
If you don't have information, you cannot make a good decision.
You don't know know what's going on.
So listen is crucial. And the way to listen is to listen when you can't even stand it.
What I mean is that there have been times as a leader where someone will go
into a story and maybe I'm really feeling this edge of we've got to get X or
(02:38):
Y done, but it's an opportunity to listen.
And so I will just have to keep the horses inside me. shut up, quiet.
I've got to notice that this is an excellent time to create rapport and connection
and show that I care about this person because you lead people.
The old phrase was, you manage things, you lead people.
(03:00):
And so in order to lead, you must listen. Now E is encourage collaboration.
And one of the ways to do that is to really notice how people are so different from each other.
They have different values. They care about some things and they don't care about other things.
What I've noticed often is that in many environments, in the different corporations
(03:21):
where I've worked, many of the people are just trying to get by.
They're just trying to expend as little energy as possible because they don't have a leader.
I've seen so many times where people complain about managers.
And I just noticed they've had no training. I mean, real training in leadership.
They don't know when to listen. They don't know when to ask the right questions
(03:42):
and to ask follow-up questions so that someone knows that they care and are following along.
Just by keeping your mouth shut doesn't mean that you're listening.
The follow-up questions demonstrate
that you're listening. And you can even say, oh, wait a second.
Is it A, B, and C? Do I have that about right? And they can straighten you out if you care.
(04:02):
So listen and then encourage collaboration.
Part of encouraging collaboration is to express that appreciation that you were talking about.
When I asked you if there were some difficulties or things that you might not
feel good about in terms of your leadership.
Now, when you have a team like you do, in terms of getting blog posts done and
podcast episodes done, you're working with creativity. Yes.
(04:24):
And as the leader, you're saying we're going in that direction,
which means that there are times when someone offers some creative stuff and you don't take it.
One of the ways to lead well is to say, oh, let me ponder that.
Let's say, let me stir that in my soup.
So I don't reject things really quickly.
I just take some time because maybe I will realize a new perspective and I might
(04:50):
find a way to incorporate what the person has suggested.
Now, Steve Jobs was infamous, infamous for saying, that's the stupidest idea I've ever heard.
Well, great. There's tons of things he never heard. Yes.
Because people get pissed off, they get angry, they get resentful,
and they won't give you good material.
Now, A of LEAD is align people and mission. Now, sometimes I really see this in action.
(05:18):
The concept is you don't teach people to be friendly.
You hire friendly people. Yes. So when you align people and mission,
when you hire, and I've had to hire all kinds of folks.
I was directing a feature film and hired 136 people, cast and crew.
You've got to find the right person for the right role.
(05:38):
Mm-hmm. Casting is so important. And that's what you're doing in filmmaking
with actors, but you're also casting team members in any other endeavor.
Nonprofit organization, corporation, profit making. speaking,
you're casting people. You're putting the right person in the right position.
And it would be strange to cast someone as big as the Hulk in Marvel Comics
(06:01):
for someone who needs to go through tiny little spaces in the ground between
buildings or something like that.
You would need the right person in the right position.
And you want to cast someone or hire someone so So they can win.
So that's how we align mission and people is that we have to realize too,
(06:23):
there are people who are not friendly. They don't value people.
Do not hire them to be at the front of your organization.
Don't hire them as a receptionist. Don't hire them in retail.
These people need to be somewhere else.
I remember meeting someone who was actually feeling great. He was a grave digger. Oh my gosh.
But it was at night. It was quiet. He didn't have to have have garbage.
(06:48):
He had other language, but he didn't have to receive garbage from other people.
This was a perfect job. He had no idea he would like this job,
but this worked for him. That's hiring the right person for the right spot.
Now, mission will elevate what you're doing with certain people.
That's why you align people in mission.
Some people really believe in something. Like I really believe in education.
(07:10):
I believe education can be.
Terrific when we teach people how to access their skills instantly in the pressure
moment or what's called the clutch moment in basketball.
In the clutch moment, you either shoot and score or shoot and choke.
So my whole approach to education led to me creating over a couple of decades,
(07:30):
a science called Code Access Reset.
And this material I also introduced to MBA students students,
because I've been working on this material over a couple of decades.
And the idea here is this.
We need someone who believes in the mission in certain critical positions.
Other positions, if they're friendly enough, then they can do their job right.
(07:53):
Yes. And finally, D is decide and act.
I point those two things out because they're not exactly the same.
I remember working at a bank and I was part of the administrative assistant team.
One person knew the program Microsoft Excel, and I knew that the other program
that was more valuable at the time was Microsoft Access, more of a database program.
(08:18):
Do you mean more useful or do you mean someone was using the wrong program for the wrong thing?
That's the idea. This person knew Microsoft Excel. sell.
They really need to use the other program, Microsoft Access,
for different forms of data.
Subsequently, when I moved beyond that job, I would use other applications for contact management.
(08:39):
But at the time, what I noticed here was this.
This person reacted to,
didn't decide and analyze something first. Interesting. Explain more.
To put it in a few words, I was significantly younger than this person.
So this person was locked into their way of doing things.
Whereas I, to this day, maintain this fluidity about,
(09:02):
well, let me stay aware of what's available in
terms of opportunity and in
terms of tools that can make my work
more efficient and create leverage but this person
wasn't like that so my point is I've learned through
experience in different corporations that you need to decide after assessing
(09:25):
the situation how can we trust a leader we can trust a leader by seeing someone
who listens to people who who assesses options,
who has their perception expanded and their perspective opened up so that they
can really understand things.
And then they act because some people will say, yeah, you can talk to Sam all
(09:48):
the time, but does he act on any of this stuff?
Does he make anything better? Does he care?
You need someone who can decide and act. And that's a leader. Yes.
So Joanna, what we know is that many people decide to elevate their skills and
they can do that by by taking advantage of what we offer online courses that
(10:09):
help people become more confident,
more skilled at interacting with people, creating rapport and learning how to
sell or convince investors to fund their project, things like that.
And this is all available at getthebigyes.com forward slash best.
That's B-E-S-T. Once again, getthebigyes.com forward slash best.
(10:33):
Be the best you can be. Absolutely.
Oh, by the way, I'm curious, Joanna. What are you going to keep from our conversation?
I like the part about casting the right person for the right job.
Excellent. That's well said. I appreciate you bringing it up that way.
And one other detail. I want to encourage you, the listener,
(10:53):
to also take advantage of other ways you can learn from me.
Whether it's direct coaching or on
audible.com i have 33 audiobooks and
on amazon.com i've got 54 books
oh my word so i would love to support you in these different ways online courses
books audiobooks or catch me at a live event i would love to support you and
(11:19):
help you be your best catch you next time.
Welcome to Succeed Even If. I'm Tom R.
Koo, the communication sage and spoken word strategist. And I'm Johanna.
In this episode, we're talking about secrets so you lead, get things done, and avoid big mistakes.
So Johanna, you lead a number of projects. Those are books, podcasts, and blog posts.
(00:22):
Excellent. So what's a mistake that you've made? Not telling my team that they did a good job.
Oh, you mean you want them to feel it so that they can really kind of bask in the approval?
I wanted them to know that they're doing a really good job and that I appreciated
them. I'm glad you bring that up.
That's really powerful because to be a leader is to give people basically a
(00:46):
clue as to where they stand. Are they succeeding?
Are they doing something of value? Are they being appreciated?
And so a leader has to pay attention and has to deliver those kinds of details
so that a person is motivated and will get great work done and will keep doing it and have stamina,
(01:08):
have persistence because all kinds of work is tough because we fail or we get
tired or we feel that there's no end.
Exactly. So we're going to talk about LEAD.
And this is some material that I brought to MBA students when I taught at Stanford University twice.
So just for an overview, I'm going to say that L of LEAD is listen.
(01:32):
Oh. and E is encourage collaboration, A is align people and mission, and D is decide and act.
So let's begin with that listen. I realize that if you want to make a great impression, listen.
If you want cooperation, listen. If you want to lead,
(01:54):
listen. By listening to people, you show that you care.
You show that you can be affected by them, meaning that they can trust you so
that if they have concerns, you will hear them out.
You will listen to them. It's powerful, but also a leader is only as effective
as that leader gets information.
(02:16):
If you don't have information, you cannot make a good decision.
You don't know know what's going on.
So listen is crucial. And the way to listen is to listen when you can't even stand it.
What I mean is that there have been times as a leader where someone will go
into a story and maybe I'm really feeling this edge of we've got to get X or
(02:38):
Y done, but it's an opportunity to listen.
And so I will just have to keep the horses inside me. shut up, quiet.
I've got to notice that this is an excellent time to create rapport and connection
and show that I care about this person because you lead people.
The old phrase was, you manage things, you lead people.
(03:00):
And so in order to lead, you must listen. Now E is encourage collaboration.
And one of the ways to do that is to really notice how people are so different from each other.
They have different values. They care about some things and they don't care about other things.
What I've noticed often is that in many environments, in the different corporations
(03:21):
where I've worked, many of the people are just trying to get by.
They're just trying to expend as little energy as possible because they don't have a leader.
I've seen so many times where people complain about managers.
And I just noticed they've had no training. I mean, real training in leadership.
They don't know when to listen. They don't know when to ask the right questions
(03:42):
and to ask follow-up questions so that someone knows that they care and are following along.
Just by keeping your mouth shut doesn't mean that you're listening.
The follow-up questions demonstrate
that you're listening. And you can even say, oh, wait a second.
Is it A, B, and C? Do I have that about right? And they can straighten you out if you care.
(04:02):
So listen and then encourage collaboration.
Part of encouraging collaboration is to express that appreciation that you were talking about.
When I asked you if there were some difficulties or things that you might not
feel good about in terms of your leadership.
Now, when you have a team like you do, in terms of getting blog posts done and
podcast episodes done, you're working with creativity. Yes.
(04:24):
And as the leader, you're saying we're going in that direction,
which means that there are times when someone offers some creative stuff and you don't take it.
One of the ways to lead well is to say, oh, let me ponder that.
Let's say, let me stir that in my soup.
So I don't reject things really quickly.
I just take some time because maybe I will realize a new perspective and I might
(04:50):
find a way to incorporate what the person has suggested.
Now, Steve Jobs was infamous, infamous for saying, that's the stupidest idea I've ever heard.
Well, great. There's tons of things he never heard. Yes.
Because people get pissed off, they get angry, they get resentful,
and they won't give you good material.
Now, A of LEAD is align people and mission. Now, sometimes I really see this in action.
(05:18):
The concept is you don't teach people to be friendly.
You hire friendly people. Yes. So when you align people and mission,
when you hire, and I've had to hire all kinds of folks.
I was directing a feature film and hired 136 people, cast and crew.
You've got to find the right person for the right role.
(05:38):
Mm-hmm. Casting is so important. And that's what you're doing in filmmaking
with actors, but you're also casting team members in any other endeavor.
Nonprofit organization, corporation, profit making. speaking,
you're casting people. You're putting the right person in the right position.
And it would be strange to cast someone as big as the Hulk in Marvel Comics
(06:01):
for someone who needs to go through tiny little spaces in the ground between
buildings or something like that.
You would need the right person in the right position.
And you want to cast someone or hire someone so So they can win.
So that's how we align mission and people is that we have to realize too,
(06:23):
there are people who are not friendly. They don't value people.
Do not hire them to be at the front of your organization.
Don't hire them as a receptionist. Don't hire them in retail.
These people need to be somewhere else.
I remember meeting someone who was actually feeling great. He was a grave digger. Oh my gosh.
But it was at night. It was quiet. He didn't have to have have garbage.
(06:48):
He had other language, but he didn't have to receive garbage from other people.
This was a perfect job. He had no idea he would like this job,
but this worked for him. That's hiring the right person for the right spot.
Now, mission will elevate what you're doing with certain people.
That's why you align people in mission.
Some people really believe in something. Like I really believe in education.
(07:10):
I believe education can be.
Terrific when we teach people how to access their skills instantly in the pressure
moment or what's called the clutch moment in basketball.
In the clutch moment, you either shoot and score or shoot and choke.
So my whole approach to education led to me creating over a couple of decades,
(07:30):
a science called Code Access Reset.
And this material I also introduced to MBA students students,
because I've been working on this material over a couple of decades.
And the idea here is this.
We need someone who believes in the mission in certain critical positions.
Other positions, if they're friendly enough, then they can do their job right.
(07:53):
Yes. And finally, D is decide and act.
I point those two things out because they're not exactly the same.
I remember working at a bank and I was part of the administrative assistant team.
One person knew the program Microsoft Excel, and I knew that the other program
that was more valuable at the time was Microsoft Access, more of a database program.
(08:18):
Do you mean more useful or do you mean someone was using the wrong program for the wrong thing?
That's the idea. This person knew Microsoft Excel. sell.
They really need to use the other program, Microsoft Access,
for different forms of data.
Subsequently, when I moved beyond that job, I would use other applications for contact management.
(08:39):
But at the time, what I noticed here was this.
This person reacted to,
didn't decide and analyze something first. Interesting. Explain more.
To put it in a few words, I was significantly younger than this person.
So this person was locked into their way of doing things.
Whereas I, to this day, maintain this fluidity about,
(09:02):
well, let me stay aware of what's available in
terms of opportunity and in
terms of tools that can make my work
more efficient and create leverage but this person
wasn't like that so my point is I've learned through
experience in different corporations that you need to decide after assessing
(09:25):
the situation how can we trust a leader we can trust a leader by seeing someone
who listens to people who who assesses options,
who has their perception expanded and their perspective opened up so that they
can really understand things.
And then they act because some people will say, yeah, you can talk to Sam all
(09:48):
the time, but does he act on any of this stuff?
Does he make anything better? Does he care?
You need someone who can decide and act. And that's a leader. Yes.
So Joanna, what we know is that many people decide to elevate their skills and
they can do that by by taking advantage of what we offer online courses that
(10:09):
help people become more confident,
more skilled at interacting with people, creating rapport and learning how to
sell or convince investors to fund their project, things like that.
And this is all available at getthebigyes.com forward slash best.
That's B-E-S-T. Once again, getthebigyes.com forward slash best.
(10:33):
Be the best you can be. Absolutely.
Oh, by the way, I'm curious, Joanna. What are you going to keep from our conversation?
I like the part about casting the right person for the right job.
Excellent. That's well said. I appreciate you bringing it up that way.
And one other detail. I want to encourage you, the listener,
(10:53):
to also take advantage of other ways you can learn from me.
Whether it's direct coaching or on
audible.com i have 33 audiobooks and
on amazon.com i've got 54 books
oh my word so i would love to support you in these different ways online courses
books audiobooks or catch me at a live event i would love to support you and
(11:19):
help you be your best catch you next time.
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