For years, I’ve followed a mix of marketers and experts.
But now that I’m five weeks into a yearlong leadership and management program, I’m starting to see something.
I’m becoming less interested in the individual and their skills, experience, or accomplishments, and more interested in their teams.
I wonder what kind of conversations they’re having. The speed at which they move and act. The connection between the leader and everyone in the team. How they respond to challenges.
This is where the real work is getting done.
As much as podcast interviews are a blessing, they are also a curse. They are a conversation between the host and the interviewee. And inevitably, the host tries to draw out the most interesting aspects of the interviewee’s past, while the guest carefully ensures all they say reflects well on them (instead of offering the true story of struggle and emotional turmoil).
Friends, this is not where the real conversations are happening. You won’t find many secrets inside these engineered exchanges. Because they aren’t authentic. And they always use something familiar, something the audience can easily connect and relate to, as their anchors. I can almost guarantee there are conversations and processes far less familiar inside the top performing teams. Because they have access to distinctions others don’t.
If you want to find the true secrets, observe the leader and team in motion. Look at how they handle even the most mundane and remedial of details. Watch as they communicate and act with power.
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