Steve Smith - Does Authority Make You A Leader?

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Welcome to the Exit Coach Radio show, the show for baby boomer business owners who are looking for cutting edge information as they plan their 3 to 10 year business succession and exit. Every week we interview top professional advisors for. Their best tips, strategies, and precautions so you can be well planned. And don't miss our one minute exit coach tip of the day on exitcoachradio.com. And now here's your host, the exit coach, Bill Black. Hi, everyone. Thanks for joining us. Uh, we have a great lineup today and my next guest is especially, uh, special to us. He's been on the show many times. As a matter of fact, he's one of the only guests that has a dedicated file folder with his content on our, uh, on our website, Exit coach. Radio.com. So he is Steve Smith of Growth Source Coaching here in Lake Forest, California. And um Steve is a, is a strategy coach, and he helps businesses get to the next level. And we're going to talk about leadership versus authority. And the question is, if you have authority in your position, does that mean that you're considered a leader? So let's get into that. Steve, welcome to the show. Hey Bill, thanks for having me on again. It's a real pleasure. Pleasure to have you back, Steve. You've contributed a lot to our listenership, um, giving them a lot of great ideas, and I encourage our listeners go and find Steve's folder and, and dig up his past interviews. And Steve, uh, a lot of your histories in those interviews, but tell everybody really quickly what you do with growth source coaching and who you do it for. OK, um, I, I'll give you, like I know you like it, I'll give you the short summary. Um, I work with business professionals and they could be owners of businesses or they could be executives working in larger companies, but I work with them directly to help them. Tune up the things that are necessary for them to do the best possible job in the position or the role that they have. It could be the way they think. It could be the way they lead, the way they make decisions, the way they market, the way they manage their organization, but it's all things that emanate from them outward because that's the way things change and improve in a business entity. So to put that in another way, it's so it's vitally important that you as a person are the best you can be to be a leader of your business to make it the best it can be. You know, most people go through life just trying to get through life, and I realized a few years ago that, you know, we only have so much time and you know you've got to make every day count. You have to be the best you can be in every situation you're involved in. And that requires continually learning and improving and finding ways to just be exceptional everything you do. Sometimes people want it and they don't necessarily have the tools to get there, and that's kind of where I come in. Steve, uh, a lot of people talk about, um, You know, coaching as a way to get better, and I'm sure everybody can relate to the professional athlete. And if you're a golfer, you hear continuously about, you know, Phil Mickelson has this coach, and these golfers have coaches who watch them and make minor adjustments that make major differences. But a lot of business owners don't know what it's like to be coached and um what it's like to be coachable. And so what's the most important aspect about being coached? Um, the single most important aspect for anybody that is considering getting help, uh, of which coaching is, you know, is one selection, but the single biggest aspect is you have to want to improve. You have to want to get better. You have to want to be able to reach certain performance or achievement milestones, and everything you've done up to this point isn't getting you there. So the desire to want to improve and recognize change and adopt that change to be a different, better person going forward has to be there. If you need the help but you don't want the help, I can't. I can't force coaching on you. It just doesn't work that way. You have to be fully engaged and participated and then be willing to kind of accept the information, the observations, the things that will come to you from your coach that you have to, you know, weigh in and think about to decide what am I willing to do in order to reach those those extraordinary levels of success. So the opposite of that would be the person that you go see who says everybody's been saying I should be doing this. I think everything's fine, but I agreed to take the meeting to see what what you have to say. Is that the opposite the downer? Well, and, and actually no. Um, I've had a number of folks come to me like that, and interestingly enough, uh, I've had more and more people that I am working with today that were introduced to me from their spouses. Why? Because they, they were just so So stressed out and so overworked and trying to get their business either off the ground or get it to a higher level of of just running smoothly and being profitable, and they take all that stuff home with them. So the spouse is the one that gets the kind of the blunt end of all that and I've actually had spouses call me up and say, can you help my husband or can you help my wife? And I'll sit down and have those conversations to find out if The person in question, the owner, sees what the spouse sees in terms of the negative consequences of not figuring out how to do it well. So I'll have that conversation, but it's really to help them become aware of what situation they're in because ultimately they've got to say yes to it. If they're not actively saying yes, then there's that's the end of the conversation. I can't really do much more than that. OK, so, uh, what I think I heard you say there is that sometimes it's, it's based on a person's attitude about the business and they're dumping a lot. They're, they're seeing a lot of negativity and they're carrying that around with them, kind of a dark cloud over this person. And sometimes it starts with, you know, if you can, if we can start to look at things differently and coach that attitude, then we can start really looking, so and that goes back to what you were talking about. It comes, it starts with the person who's in the leadership position, right? It absolutely does because until you can help them see it and, and, and take ownership for it so that they can break through it and start to get on a path of really learning and doing and being more successful, you're gonna be stuck at square one, because you know the difference between coaching and consulting is in coaching you're gonna do most of the heavy lifting. You know, in consulting, I would come in and provide a solution and put it together and hand it to you and then leave, but coaching is part of the individual developing into a better person for whatever role that they're in so that they can have a better effect on the business they run. Great explanation. So if someone's out there listening and they're wondering if coaching would be good for them, how, what's a good way for them to determine that? Well, look, you can do all kinds of research on the internet, and I would certainly suggest that you go out and look around to see what's available in terms of coaching services, but at some point you have to pick someone to have an initial conversation with. And if you know people that have been coached or if you have professional relationships with folks that you could get good referrals from, find someone. And you know, go and check them out on the internet so you can learn a little about who they are and kind of what their approach is like, but reach out and have that conversation. Uh, most coaches are, are totally willing, including myself, to help you figure out whether this is what you want, not to try to sell you something. That you don't think you need because again trying to sell you is really so counterproductive in this business. We're really here to say let me help you figure out if this is what is going to help you get what you want and if that's the case then you make the decision, but reach out to somebody, have have a. Conversation because until you get to that point, you're just going to be swimming in circles. OK, what are some of the the the warning signs that someone should be seeking out a coach? like you said, the spouse maybe would call because he's bringing problems home or she's bringing problems home and they're not getting resolved. What are some of the other warning or danger signs that someone might have that indicate that they should perhaps seek out a coach? OK, here's a big one and one that I've been running into quite a bit lately. If you're in a position of responsibility and authority within your organization, you know, you're at the director level, at sea level, you've got a lot of responsibility for people around you, and you're starting to see discontent in the ranks. You know, you might have good people unexpectedly leaving. You might have other people kind of mentally checking out. When you start to see those kinds of things happening and the people above you asking questions about why all this is going on, that's a great time to sit down and try to try to look at yourself and say how much of this may be coming from me either not knowing what to do or not doing the right stuff. And of course it's impacting the folks around me. So looking at your immediate circumstances around you is one good way to decide. Maybe you need to bring in some professional help and get that tune up that will make you better. Um, from a business owner standpoint, if you find yourself just rotely investing in the same types of programs, marketing is special, that's that's one that everybody has a really difficult time getting their arms around, and you're just not getting the return, you know, or you're trying various things inside your organization and it's not running smoothly the way you want, you know. Processes aren't being adopted by people, um, you know, the customers are getting such a radical array of unsatisfactory experiences at the tail end, and you can't figure out what the problem is. Many times, given the kind of organizations that you're dealing with, it emanates from the person in the corner office. They're the ones that initiate and kind of, kind of put their footprint on everything. So if everything kind of looks a little dysfunctional, it's probably because of how they're doing it. So you really have to be able to look at what you're getting and saying, am I happy with this, you know, if I'm not happy with this and I haven't been happy for a long time, maybe it's time to reach out and have somebody help me fix it. When, when someone starts a coaching engagement with you, um, how does it unfold that is, is it a, is it, is it, is there a typical engagement first of all, like we'll get together on a every couple of weeks basis or monthly? And how long does it take to see results for most people? OK, typically the coaching engagement starts with a conversation really to get to the bottom of what the person is dealing with, what they want as a different outcome, maybe what they need to learn and be able to put into practice at a very high level in the organization that they have. And once you can establish that. Then you can sit down and figure out what kind of sequential coaching the person needs. I, I offer people two options. They can have short, very short sessions on a weekly basis, which I call more of a tactical approach, and those are for people that just need a lot of touch points along the way to help them get through what they're not able to do on their own. Um, then you could have more of a strategic approach, which is longer sessions every 2 weeks to give people an opportunity to have some real in-depth conversation about what they need to achieve and then give them the time to actually do it. So whichever one you would, you would choose, um, it's very sequential. Once you get locked into a day and time, that becomes your day and time, and, and you know, you start learning how to meet those goals and objectives as you move down the road. Now how long does it take? That's largely based on how hard you're willing to work to actually make it to to to get the effected outcome that you're looking for. In my practice, what I've seen over the years is that businesses tend to start seeing noticeable change in what they're trying to either overcome or achieve somewhere between 5 and 8 months. That's when you start to see things happen. Um, how long you stay is just dependent upon how much you want to get, um, you know, changed up and under your own control because eventually the whole idea of coaching is not to work with you forever, but to give you a point, a launch pad where you can just take off on your own and continue doing these things and they will stick. It's not something that Two weeks later, you know, you'll lose it because the coach isn't there. That's not the whole idea. You should be able to adopt new behaviors and new practices and new methods and then be able to do them on your own at some. Right, and then just like uh back back to our golf example, uh, there are situations where periodically you check back in because you're familiar with the individual and uh it it it might turn into a many years long type of engagement if you're still. Determining that there are issues that need to be worked out down the road, right? Yeah, actually, and I have clients that after maybe working with them 12 or 18 months, we will shift the contact to something more of a maybe once a month or once a quarter, kind of like, um, to, to keep them on track and just make sure that there there's something that they haven't forgotten or haven't taken their eye off of. But uh, yeah, if you're if your real desire is to reach a level of perfection and excellence in what you do. You're always going to be mindful of the fact that people around you many times can see when you're kind of leaking off the edge before you do, and so the folks that are really interested in always being at the top of their game, they always have people around them to keep them on the straight and narrow. So let's get back to our original topic question. If you have authority in your position, does that mean you're considered a leader? Yes. And my, my, my answer to that right up front is no, and I'll tell you why. What I'm seeing in business today, and it'll be going on for another 8 to 10 years, is there's a tremendous amount of people in, you know, predominantly the baby boom generation. That are at a point of retiring or leaving their their formal jobs and that's leaving an incredible vacuum and the folks in, you know, generations behind us are coming up and taking those positions. You get into a position where you're responsible for the direction and the performance of a department or or a location or maybe the entire organization, um. It's really easy, you know, not when things are running smooth, but when things aren't running smooth, when, when the company's up against some difficult decisions or issues that they have to get through, that's where people without really good leadership skills tend to fall back on their authority level because they know that when push comes to shove, they have all the stripes, they can make people do things. And I see that happen way too much and unfortunately that doesn't necessarily mean that people are really going to follow you and they're going to, you know, stay true to the vision of the company and they're going to give you 150% every day. They're gonna work under that pressure when they see the pressure coming and when it comes off, they're going to back away. So what I try to get people to understand is that, you know, if you're in a, in a, you're at the top of the company you're the CFO of the company, the CEO of the company. Your authority allows you to make decisions on where to invest money, you know, what things to spend money on, who to hire, who to fire, um, you know, what kind of an organization you're gonna build. Those are all authority-based, uh, attributes. Leadership does not require any authority. If you're a really good leader, people are going to buy into your vision and the direction, and they're going to trust that what you're doing is not only right for the company, but it's right for them. They will follow you because they trust you and they believe in what you're doing. That doesn't necessarily require authority. That's the big difference. That's huge. So, uh, from what I'm hearing you saying there, authority could be granted, but leadership has to be earned, and it has to be in some cases, learned and in some cases, that's where you go to a coach and learn about how to be a leader. Steve, tell our listeners how to get in touch with you. If you have a leadership position and you don't feel you're doing your best and you really want to get an outside perspective, then they can call me. You can call me directly. Uh, my office number is 949-951-9163, or you can go to my website and you can sign up for a complimentary assessment on your leadership capability, and there's no cost to that, but it's a great way to start in terms of figuring out how far off you are, what you might need to do in order to be able to get better. And that website is growthsourcecoaching.com and Steve has a player of just a lot of different videos, but all of his exit coach Radio and Exit Coach Network interviews are also listed there, and Steve, we really appreciate all that you've contributed to our listeners and our and our our information base. So thanks for joining us again today. You know, Bill, I'm always glad to be on your show. I think you do a wonderful job of making this just a really good conversation. Half the time when I'm talking to you, I don't even realize I'm on the radio. So thank you for that. My pleasure. Thanks again for joining us. We're going to take a short break. We'll be right back after this, so please stay tuned. You're listening to Exit Coachradio.com, the information station for age 50 plus business owners, where we're interviewing top advisors for their best tips, ideas, and precautions so you can be well planned. We upload new one minute tips every day. Exitcoachradio.com. Come listen for a minute. Thank you for listening to Exit Coach Radio. Hey friend, I know how this feels. Waking up exhausted after multiple trips to the bathroom and feeling embarrassed by sudden leaks. I used to be constantly on edge, searching for a restroom whenever I was out. Then I discovered better woman. I was skeptical at first, but two months in, everything changed. I experienced improved bladder control. No more heart-stopping moments when I laugh or sneeze. Less urged to go, deeper and more restful sleep. I finally felt like myself again, confident and in control. Better Woman is natural, effective, clinically tested, and trusted by women for over 25 years. Ready to take back your control? Head over to Bebetternow.com to order your supply today. That's Bebetternow.com. These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Users directed individual results may vary.