Purpose & Performance Group Blog

Magic in the Room #199: The Power of Mattering

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 21:37:07 GMT

In this episode of Magic in the Room, Luke Freeman, Hannah Bratterud, and Chris Province dive into the concept of “mattering,” inspired by Zach Mercurio’s work, and explore why it is a foundational driver of engagement, performance, and culture in organizations. They challenge leaders to move beyond assuming people matter to actively ensuring individuals feel that they matter by being valued and by contributing value to a shared purpose. The conversation highlights how mattering differs from belonging, why it cannot be replaced by perks or efficiency, and how leadership behaviors like attention, recognition, and presence directly shape whether people feel seen, heard, and understood. Through examples ranging from workplace dynamics to broader societal trends like social disconnection, they argue that disengagement, conflict, and even poor performance are symptoms of a mattering deficit. Ultimately, they position mattering not as a soft concept, but as a measurable, actionable leadership responsibility that underpins trust, resilience, and long-term success.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Credits:

This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded on-site at the Magic in the Room Studio in Bixby, Oklahoma
Music by Evan Grim. Find his music on Apple Music

Magic in the Room #198: The GUEST Experience

Tue, 03 Mar 2026 21:09:13 GMT

In this episode of Magic in the Room, Luke, Hannah, and Chris explore how the concept of mattering transforms customer experience through their practical GUEST framework. Building on the idea that people thrive when they feel noticed, affirmed, and valued, they argue that exceptional service is not just about efficiency or technical competence, but about intentionally designing experiences where guests truly feel significant. They unpack the five elements of the GUEST model: Greet with empathy, Uncover needs, Express gratitude, Share names, and Teach benefits. They show how each step reinforces belonging and loyalty, whether in a 30-second interaction or a 30-year relationship. The conversation highlights the difference between service and hospitality, the power of recovery when mistakes occur, and the leadership responsibility to embed mattering into culture rather than leaving it to chance.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Credits:

This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded on-site at the Magic in the Room Studio in Bixby, Oklahoma
Music by Evan Grim. Find his music on Apple Music

Magic in the Room #197: Leadership Lessons for 2026

Wed, 18 Feb 2026 20:21:47 GMT

In this episode of Magic in the Room, Luke, Hannah, and Chris explore the lessons, transitions, and leadership insights they’re carrying forward into 2026, emphasizing the importance of narrowing focus, letting go of resistance, and aligning with natural rhythms to create meaningful momentum. They discuss how personal and professional growth often emerges through periods of chaos and transition, highlighting themes such as intentionality, subtraction as a multiplier, and the courage required to release control, certainty, and outdated habits. Drawing on their work with purpose-driven organizations, they explain how leadership transformation begins internally, noting that organizational change is inseparable from personal development and mindset shifts. They also explore how embracing disturbance, addressing root causes instead of symptoms, and cultivating hope rather than cynicism can unlock resilience, stronger culture, and long-term performance.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Credits:

This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded on-site at the Magic in the Room Studio in Bixby, Oklahoma
Music by Evan Grim. Find his music on Apple Music

Magic in the Room #196: Leading with Hope in a Cynical World

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 19:40:44 GMT

In this episode of Magic in the Room, Luke, Hannah, and Chris delve into the timely topic of hope versus cynicism in leadership, particularly in a world rife with uncertainty and negativity. The discussion focuses on whether hope alone is sufficient for transformational leadership or if, in environments steeped in cynicism, leaders must amplify their energy and intentionality, sometimes matching the intensity of cynics to move organizations forward. They examine the "hope recipe," which involves envisioning a better future, creating a pathway, and having agency. They also discuss the difficulty of maintaining agency when systems, culture, or fatigue threaten to sap it. They differentiate between strategically "letting go" and simply "giving up," emphasizing the importance of support, accountability, and self-awareness as antidotes to cynicism.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Credits:

This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded on-site at the Magic in the Room Studio in Bixby, Oklahoma
Music by Evan Grim. Find his music on Apple Music

Magic in the Room #195: Activity vs. Impact

Wed, 03 Dec 2025 00:08:02 GMT

In this episode of "Magic in the Room," Luke, Hannah, and Chris unpack the difference between being busy and being truly impactful, exploring why organizations often get stuck in high-activity, low-impact cycles. They identify five common contributors: compliance-heavy environments, resistance to change, disconnected decision-makers, fear-driven “CYA” cultures, and firefighting systems that reward heroics over long-term strategy. From there, they highlight what creates real impact: clarity of purpose, agency, curiosity, intentionality, and the discipline to question assumptions and align action with a meaningful “why.” The conversation encourages leaders to build awareness of their strengths, design systems that support healthy impact, maintain congruence between their public and private influence, and cultivate the kind of presence that can genuinely move a room.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Credits:

This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded on-site at the Magic in the Room Studio in Bixby, Oklahoma
Music by Evan Grim. Find his music on Apple Music

Magic in the Room #194: NNAHRA Interview

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 22:08:12 GMT

In this episode of "Magic in the Room," Chris interviews board members from the National Native American Human Resources Association (NNAHRA) discussing the power of purpose-driven leadership within tribal organizations. Recorded at the NNAHRA annual conference, they explore themes like courage, vulnerability, accountability, community service, and fostering environments where all employees feel valued and able to contribute. They share how NNAHRA builds a supportive professional network for tribal HR leaders, encourages alignment between individual roles and tribal purpose, and creates space for courageous conversations across governance and enterprise structures. They also discuss future initiatives, including new certifications and the 2026 conference at the Hilton Village in Hawaii. The overarching message: lead with purpose, support one another, and build cultures rooted in respect, courage, and shared responsibility.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Credits:

Learn more about NNAHRA:  https://nnahra.org/
This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded on-site at Pechanga Casino and Resort in Temecula, California
Music by Evan Grim. Find his music on Apple Music

Magic in the Room #193: TribalHub CTTP Program Launch

Tue, 05 Aug 2025 11:23:51 GMT

In this episode of "Magic in the Room," Luke Freeman sits down with Mike Day, founder and CEO of Tribal Hub. This episode explores the rapidly evolving landscape of tribal technology leadership, focusing on unique challenges and opportunities in tribal enterprises. They unveil the new Certified Tribal Technology Practitioner program, designed to close skill gaps in both technical proficiency and essential soft skills for aspiring and seasoned technology leaders in tribal contexts. Hear insights on building effective teams, coaching, strategic communication, and the importance of understanding tribal culture, sovereignty, and self-sufficiency. Learn how this hands-on certification, from industry assessment to personal development plans and one-on-one coaching, aims to empower leaders to drive transformational change in their organizations. Discover more about the inaugural program at tribalhub.com and why investing in people is key to sustaining vibrant tribal communities.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

YouTube
Apple Podcasts
Spotify

Credits:

Learn more about TribalHub and the CTTP Certification:  https://tribalhub.com
This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded on-site in Placerville, California
Music by Evan Grim. Find his music on Apple Music

Magic in the Room #192: Return on Relationship

Tue, 01 Jul 2025 19:34:09 GMT

In this episode of "Magic in the Room," hosts Luke and Chris are joined by Sara Hardwick of Giftology to explore the concept of Return on Relationship. They discuss how investing in authentic, intentional relationships, both internally within teams and externally with clients and partners, can drive loyalty and long-term business outcomes. Sara shares her journey into the world of strategic gifting and highlights the philosophy behind Giftology, including the power of delight, personalized systems of care, and the importance of playing the long game in leadership and marketing. The conversation also introduces the Rich Relationship Society, a community built to help leaders implement these practices in meaningful ways.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Credits:

Follow Sara: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahardwick/
Learn more about Giftology: https://giftologygroup.com/
Giftology Book: https://www.amazon.com/Giftology-Increase-Referrals-Strengthen-Retention/dp/1619614332
This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded onsite in Bixby, Oklahoma
Music by Evan Grim. Find his music on Apple Music

Magic in the Room #191: Regaining Agency in Chaotic Times

sarah@sarahbrolsmawhitfield.com (Sarah Whitfield) — Tue, 03 Jun 2025 17:01:08 GMT

In this episode of "Magic in the Room," hosts Luke, Hannah, and Chris delve into the themes of leadership, agency, and emotional regulation amidst chaos. They discuss how leaders can maintain control and purpose when faced with unexpected challenges or disruptions, emphasizing the importance of not succumbing to emotional hijacks. The conversation highlights the concept of "amygdala hijack," where emotional responses can override rational thinking, and the need for leaders to remain intentional and mindful in their reactions. They also explore the idea of maintaining emotional bank accounts, where relationships are built through consistent positive interactions, and the dangers of making impulsive withdrawals during moments of emotional flooding.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Credits:

This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded onsite in Tulsa, Oklahoma
Music by Evan Grim. Find his music on Apple Music.

Magic in the Room #190: Leading Through Loss

sarah@sarahbrolsmawhitfield.com (Sarah Whitfield) — Wed, 07 May 2025 23:02:47 GMT

In this episode of "Magic in the Room," hosts Hannah Bratterud, Chris Province, and Luke Freeman delve into the complexities of leadership, particularly when dealing with personal and professional challenges that aren't covered by standard policies. They discuss the importance of embracing a holistic community approach in workplaces, where personal and work lives intersect, and the difficulties leaders face when unexpected events, such as illness or loss, occur. The conversation is deeply personal, as Chris shares the story of his late friend Doug, highlighting the impact of personal relationships on professional environments. The discussion highlights the need for strategic planning that includes contingencies for unexpected disruptions and the importance of vulnerability and open communication in building trust within teams.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Credits:

This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded onsite in Tulsa, Oklahoma
Music by Evan Grim. Find his music on Apple Music.

Magic in the Room #189: Looking Back and Moving Forward

sarah@sarahbrolsmawhitfield.com (Sarah Whitfield) — Tue, 08 Apr 2025 00:28:52 GMT

Welcome to a new season of Magic In The Room! In this episode, hosts Hannah Bratterud, Chris Province, and Luke Freeman reflect on the evolution of their podcast as they enter this new season. They discuss the concept of seasons in both personal and professional contexts, emphasizing the importance of recognizing transitions and growth. The team shares insights from their recent strategic planning session, highlighting the theme of "Year of the Snake," which symbolizes shedding old layers and embracing renewal. They also reflect on the challenges and successes of 2024, noting rapid growth and the need to address structural weaknesses. Looking ahead to 2025, they focus on themes of agility, purpose-driven leadership, and building capacity in various aspects of life and business.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

YouTube
Apple Podcasts
Spotify

Credits:

This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded onsite in Tulsa, Oklahoma
Music by Evan Grim. Find his music on Apple Music.

Magic in the Room #188: Activating Shared Values at the Citizen Potawatomi Nation with Guests Kelley Francen and April Carter

sarah@sarahbrolsmawhitfield.com (Sarah Whitfield) — Mon, 16 Dec 2024 16:04:31 GMT

In today’s episode of Magic in the Room, Chris and Luke sit down with Kelley Francen and April Carter to discuss leadership development at the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. Kelley and April developed a unique program that integrates the traditional cultural teachings of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation into leadership development. The goal of this program was to make sure that the values of the community are activated by the leaders. Even if you do not work in a Tribal setting, there are valuable lessons in this episode about you can develop leaders who live the organizations values.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

YouTube
Apple Podcasts
Spotify

Credits:

This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded onsite at The Citizen Potawatomi Nation Cultural Heritage Center. Find more information about the cultural center at www.potawatomiheritage.com.
Music by Evan Grim. Find his music on Apple Music.

Magic in the Room #187: Wrapping Up Lead a Team

Thu, 07 Nov 2024 14:21:35 GMT

Today we wrap up season five of Magic in the Room! This season has focused on the skills that people need when leading a team. The good news is that these skills can be learned, if we are intentional. In this episode, Hannah, Chris, and Luke share their biggest takeaway from the season, and share some advice for every leader.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Credits:

This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded onsite at the National Native American Human Resources Association’s 28th annual conference at the Choctaw Casino & Resort in Durant, OK.
Music by Evan Grim. Find his music on Apple Music

Magic in the Room #186: Meaningful Recognition

sarah@sarahbrolsmawhitfield.com (Sarah Whitfield) — Tue, 01 Oct 2024 19:14:52 GMT

People who lead teams can (and should!) develop a new set of skills. One often overlooked skill is being about to intentionally recognize people's efforts and character in a way that is meaningful. This is a skill that can be learned, it just takes some effort. In this episode of Magic in the Room, Hannah, Chris, and Luke discuss various types of recognition, and how to incorporate it into your team.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Credits:

This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded onsite at the National Native American Human Resources Association’s 28th annual conference at the Choctaw Casino & Resort in Durant, OK.
Music by Evan Grim. Find his music on Apple Music

Magic in the Room #185: Corrective Action

sarah@sarahbrolsmawhitfield.com (Sarah Whitfield) — Thu, 05 Sep 2024 20:53:30 GMT

What do we do when people's behavior or performance are not aligned with the values and commitments of an organization? Corrective action is one tool for helping team members know when they are not meeting expectations and what steps they need to take to perform at a high level. Corrective action may not be your favorite topic, but it is critical. In this episode of Magic in the Room, Hannah and Luke discuss the elements of good corrective action, and how to make it effective.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Credits:

This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded in Big Sky, Montana
Music by Evan Grim. Find his music on Apple Music

Magic in the Room #184: Feedback & Engagement

sarah@sarahbrolsmawhitfield.com (Sarah Whitfield) — Mon, 12 Aug 2024 12:18:48 GMT

Giving and receiving feedback is critical to individual and team success, yet for many people feedback can feel threatening or unwelcome. In this episode of Magic in the Room, Hannah, Luke, and Chris discuss how to give feedback that is helpful and leads to high performance.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

YouTube
Apple Podcasts
Spotify

Credits:

This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded onsite in Tulsa, OK
Music by Evan Grim. Find his music on Apple Music

Magic in the Room #183: Performance Development

sarah@sarahbrolsmawhitfield.com (Sarah Whitfield) — Tue, 02 Jul 2024 06:11:32 GMT

Every leader wants their team to perform at a high level, but this does not happen by accident. On today’s episode of Magic in the Room Hannah, Chris, and Luke talk about performance development, which includes one-on-ones, development plans, training, and anything you do to help people learn and grow.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

YouTube
Apple Podcasts
Spotify

Credits:

This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded onsite in Tulsa, OK
Music by Evan Grim. Find his music on Apple Music

Magic in the Room #182: Navigating Conflict

sarah@sarahbrolsmawhitfield.com (Sarah Whitfield) — Tue, 04 Jun 2024 00:40:48 GMT

In today’s Magic in the Room episode, Hannah, Luke, and Chris continue our series on the skills leaders need to build effective teams. Conflict is inevitable, so leaders must learn to navigate it effectively. The first step is to change how we think about conflict. Not all conflict is bad, and some types of conflict are helpful. We can build more effective teams if we learn to encourage helpful conflict and manage harmful conflict.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

YouTube
Apple Podcasts
Spotify

Credits:

This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded onsite in Tulsa, OK
Music by Evan Grim. Find his music on Apple Music

Magic in the Room #181: A New Approach to Gifting with guest John Ruhlin

sarah@sarahbrolsmawhitfield.com (Sarah Whitfield) — Tue, 28 May 2024 12:40:28 GMT

Gifts are often used to build relationships in business, whether with clients, customers, or employees. But what if we have been doing gifting all wrong? In today’s episode of Magic in the Room, Chris and guest John Ruhlin discuss a new way to think about gifting. The bottom line is that gifts can be used to build long-lasting relationships, but not if you just put the company logo on a mug and send it to everyone. Instead, you should intentionally make every gift focused on the receiver and create a lasting memory they will associate with you.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

John is the founder of GIFT·OLOGY and the author of Giftology: The Art and Science of Using Gifts to Cut Through the Noise, Increase Referrals, and Strengthen Client Retention.

Find John on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnruhlin/ or at giftologygroup.com .

Credits:

This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded onsite in Tulsa, OK
Music by Evan Grim. Find his music on Apple Music

Magic in the Room #180: Effective Communication

sarah@sarahbrolsmawhitfield.com (Sarah Whitfield) — Mon, 06 May 2024 23:54:04 GMT

This week, on Magic in the Room, we discuss the next skill for leading teams: Effective communication. Often, leaders think they have communicated something by sending an email or mentioning it in a meeting, but the message has yet to be received. Join Hannah, Chris, and Luke as they discuss how leaders can turn data into wisdom and build shared understanding.

To download the free guide that goes with this episode, subscribe below:

Listen now on your favorite platform!

YouTube
Apple Podcasts
Spotify

Credits:

This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded onsite in Tulsa, OK
Music by Evan Grim. Find his music on Apple Music

Magic in the Room #179: Commitments and Accountability

sarah@sarahbrolsmawhitfield.com (Sarah Whitfield) — Tue, 02 Apr 2024 13:31:45 GMT

Today, we continue our series on the skills needed to lead a team. We started with building trust in episode 178. In this Magic in the Room episode, Hannah, Chris, and Luke discuss a new skill: creating an environment of commitment and accountability. The core idea in this conversation is that people can only be accountable if they know what they are committed to. People can hold themselves accountable once we have a common understanding of commitments.

To download the free guide that goes with this episode, subscribe below:

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Credits:

This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded onsite in Tulsa, OK
Music by Evan Grim. Find his music on Apple Music

Magic in the Room #178: Building Trust

sarah@sarahbrolsmawhitfield.com (Sarah Whitfield) — Tue, 05 Mar 2024 20:55:39 GMT

In today's episode of Magic in the Room, we continue our series on leading a team with the foundational skill leaders must have: the ability to build trust. It may sound cliche, but trust is the foundation of a high-performing team. In fact, Luke and Hannah argue that dogs have better lives and fewer people die when teams have high trust! When teams don't have trust, the result is lower performance, lower well-being, and ultimately, people leave. If you focus on one thing as a leader, it should be building trust. In today's episode of Magic in the Room, we continue our series on leading a team with the foundational skill leaders must have: the ability to build trust. It may sound cliche, but trust is the foundation of a high-performing team. In fact, Luke and Hannah argue that dogs have better lives and fewer people die when teams have high trust! When teams don't have trust, the result is lower performance, lower well-being, and ultimately, people leave. If you focus on one thing as a leader, it should be building trust.

To download the free guide that goes with this episode, subscribe below:

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Credits:

This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded onsite in Tulsa, OK
Music by Evan Grim. Find his music on Apple Music

Magic in the Room #177: Lead a Team

sarah@sarahbrolsmawhitfield.com (Sarah Whitfield) — Tue, 06 Feb 2024 01:34:36 GMT

Welcome to Season 5 of Magic in the Room! In this episode, Hannah, Chris, and Luke introduce the topic we will focus on this year: Lead a Team.

Everyone’s leadership journey starts with leading themselves, which was the topic of Season 4 of Magic in the Room. The next step on the journey may be having formal leadership over a team of people. As you make this leadership shift, you must change your definition of success from focusing on individual accomplishments to equipping your team to be effective. The transition is not easy! In this episode, we discuss what that transition is, how to make it, and the practical skills you need to develop to be an effective team leader.

To download the free guide that goes with this episode, subscribe below:

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Credits:

This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded onsite in Tulsa, OK
Music by Evan Grim. Find his music on Apple Music

Magic in the Room #176: One Year of Intentional Leadership

sarah@sarahbrolsmawhitfield.com (Sarah Whitfield) — Tue, 19 Dec 2023 13:23:48 GMT

Today, we are wrapping up our season on Intentional Leadership. We believe everyone is a leader because they can notice something that could be better choose how to change things for the better and act to make the change. This simple idea has much depth, and we have spent the last year talking about it!

In this episode, Chris, Hannah, and Luke wrap up the season by reflecting on the most significant things they have learned and hope listeners apply to their lives.

If you want to catch up on the whole season on Intentional Leadership, check out magicintheroom.com/lys .

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Credits:

This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded online
Music by Evan Grim. Find his music on Apple Music

Magic in the Room #175: Hope: The Antidote to Nihilism

sarah@sarahbrolsmawhitfield.com (Sarah Whitfield) — Tue, 21 Nov 2023 13:23:06 GMT

The rise of nihilism, the rejection of all moral principles, or the belief that life is meaningless can be challenging to discuss. However, if we are going to be Intentional Leaders, we must be willing to notice changes in the world around us. The good news is that once we see nihilism, we can use the principles of hope to bring about change in ourselves and our organizations.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Credits:

This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded online
Music by Evan Grim. Find his music on Apple Music

Magic in the Room #174: Building Hope with Guest Dr. Chan Hellman

sarah@sarahbrolsmawhitfield.com (Sarah Whitfield) — Tue, 14 Nov 2023 01:24:41 GMT

Today, we continue our series on hope by replaying one of our favorite episodes, which lays the foundation for much of our thinking. Hope may seem intangible, but leaders can intentionally nurture hope in the people around them. In this episode, Chris, Hannah, and special guest Dr. Chan Hellman discuss the three elements of hope: Goals, Pathways, and Willpower. Leaders can develop hope by ensuring these three elements are present.

Chan M. Hellman is a professor of social work at the University of Oklahoma and Director of The Hope Research Center. He has written over 100 scientific publications and presented at numerous national and international conferences worldwide. Chan's research is focused on hope as a psychological strength, helping children and adults overcome trauma and adversity. Chan's book "Hope Rising: How the Science of Hope Can Change Your Life" with his co-author Casey Gwinn is published by Morgan James.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Credits:

This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded at Story Catcher Studio in Tulsa, OK
Music by Evan Grim. Find his music on Apple Music

Citizen Potawatomi Nation Joins Forces with Purpose and Performance Group to Forge a Leadership Development Curriculum

sarah@sarahbrolsmawhitfield.com (Sarah Whitfield) — Wed, 08 Nov 2023 12:54:29 GMT

Citizen Potawatomi Nation (Shawnee, OK), a recognized leader in Native American community development and cultural preservation, is excited to announce its groundbreaking partnership with Purpose and Performance Group, LLC to design a transformative leadership development curriculum inspired by the teachings of the Seven Grandfathers. This initiative represents a pivotal step toward strengthening indigenous leadership and fostering sustainable growth within tribal communities.

Background

The Citizen Potawatomi Nation has long been committed to preserving and passing on the traditional wisdom of its ancestors. The Seven Grandfathers, revered figures in Native American culture, embody essential values such as wisdom, love, respect, bravery, honesty, humility, and truth. By integrating these timeless teachings into a contemporary leadership framework, this partnership aims to empower tribal members and team members who impact our tribal healthcare, education, government and enterprise.

The Partnership

This innovative curriculum will encompass a diverse range of leadership topics, including effective communication, conflict resolution, and community engagement. By merging indigenous wisdom with modern leadership principles, participants will gain a profound understanding of how to lead with integrity, compassion, and resilience.

Citizen Potawatomi Nation Vice Chairman, Linda Capps, expressed her enthusiasm for the project, stating, "Our collaboration with Purpose and Performance Group is a testament to our commitment to cultural preservation and community development. By drawing from the wisdom of the 7 Grandfathers, we hope to inspire and equip a new generation of leaders who will champion positive change within tribal communities and beyond."

Purpose and Performance Group, renowned for its expertise in leadership development, is honored to contribute to this visionary project. Their team will work closely with tribal leaders, elders, and subject matter experts to create a curriculum that is both culturally relevant and universally applicable.

Employee Engagement & Advocacy Program

Mrs. Capps also shared, “The Citizen Potawatomi Nation began the Employee Engagement and Advocacy program in the fall of 2022 under the direction of professional CPN staff member Kelley Francen . The program has given our employees a morale lift as Kelley’s program developed strategies to show appreciation and support to employees at all levels of employment -from senior management to entry level. I believe the program will attract widespread attention as CPN job satisfaction and retention surfaces to an all-time high within the community.”

As this partnership unfolds, Citizen Potawatomi Nation and Purpose and Performance Group are excited to embark on this journey toward transformative leadership, bridging the wisdom of the past with the aspirations of the future. Together, they envision a world where indigenous leadership values play a central role in building stronger, more vibrant communities.

For media inquiries, please contact:

Nicole M. Casey

Email: ncasey@purposeandperformancegroup.com

Phone: 702.354.5203

About the Organizations

About Citizen Potawatomi Nation : Citizen Potawatomi Nation is the 8 ^th largest federally recognized Native American tribe headquartered near Shawnee, Oklahoma and represents over 38,000 Tribal members. With over 38 enterprises, cultural and governmental departments, CPN is the largest employer in Pottawatomie County and has an economic impact of over $700 million. CPN’s businesses and Tribal programs further the success and prosperity of the Nation, its Tribal members, and the local community alike.

Citizen Potawatomi Nation embraces the teachings of the Noék Nmeshomesek (Seven Grandfathers) of Love, Respect, Wisdom, Bravery, Honesty, Humility and Truth, fanning the flames of the Seventh Fire for the next seven generations.

About Purpose and Performance Group : Purpose & Performance Group is a Native American-owned agency that helps leaders transform organizational performance by operationalizing purpose. We exist to ignite the power of purpose within people & systems to drive transformational performance. We tap into the science of the human condition to evolve individuals and the systems in which they work. Our team engages in a powerful, real, and deeply human way to initiate and support change. Our commitment to modeling new behaviors and mindsets encourages teams to embrace community and value themselves and others. Our solutions align people and systems with the purpose of the organization and include strategic planning, operational project support, leadership development, internal and external communications, marketing, and implementing progressive people processes.

Magic in the Room #173: Hope

sarah@sarahbrolsmawhitfield.com (Sarah Whitfield) — Tue, 07 Nov 2023 13:40:47 GMT

Today, we start the final series in our season on Intentional Leadership by diving into the topic of hope. Hope is not just wishful thinking; instead, hope is the belief that the future will be better and you have the power to make it so. This requires three things to be true: you must have goals, pathways, and agency. The good news is that you can develop hope for yourself and your team by intentionally building in those three areas.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Credits:

This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded online
Music by Evan Grim. Find his music on Apple Music

Magic in the Room #172: Practicing Wellbeing with Guest Nicole Casey

sarah@sarahbrolsmawhitfield.com (Sarah Whitfield) — Sun, 29 Oct 2023 15:44:16 GMT

Today we continue our conversation about wellbeing and self-care with Nicole Casey. In this episode, Luke, Hannah, and Nicole talk about why being intentional about our wellbeing matters and how to overcome some obstacles to taking care of ourselves.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

YouTube
Apple Podcasts
Spotify

Credits:

This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded remotely.
Music by Evan Grim. Find his music on Apple Music

Magic in the Room #171: Redefining Self-Care with Guest Nicole Casey

sarah@sarahbrolsmawhitfield.com (Sarah Whitfield) — Tue, 24 Oct 2023 11:31:32 GMT

Today's episode of Magic in the Room focuses on well being. Luke, Hannah, and guest Nicole Casey dive into the idea of self-care. We discuss the misconceptions around self-care and give some practical tips that anyone can use to be more connected to what they need.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

YouTube
Apple Podcasts
Spotify

Credits:

This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded remotely.
Music by Evan Grim. Find his music on Apple Music

Magic in the Room #170: Elevating the Heart of the Company with Guest Ben Scholl

sarah@sarahbrolsmawhitfield.com (Sarah Whitfield) — Sun, 15 Oct 2023 13:59:20 GMT

In today’s episode of Magic in the Room, Chris and guest Ben Scholl talk about how leaders can cultivate a vibrant and sustainable brand by helping team members thrive. Ben and Chris take on this topic through the lens of the hotel industry, but the three principles are the same in every context: create clear paths to growth, involve everyone in product design, and intentionally create human connection.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

YouTube
Apple Podcasts
Spotify

Find the article that goes with this episode at www.purposeandperformancegroup.com/elevating-housekeeping-roles-in-hotel-operations

Credits:

This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded onsite in Big Sky, Montana
Music by Evan Grim. Find his music on Apple Music

Magic in the Room #169: Using Flow State to Care for Your Team's Wellbeing

sarah@sarahbrolsmawhitfield.com (Sarah Whitfield) — Tue, 10 Oct 2023 11:42:49 GMT

In our ongoing series about wellbeing, we want to turn to how leaders can care for the wellbeing of their team while keeping performance high. In this replay episode of Magic in the Room, Luke, Hannah, and Chris discuss how Mihály Csíkszentmihályi's concept of Flow State allows leaders to match the level of challenge to the team's ability.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Research in this Episode:

THE COVID STATES PROJECT: A 50-STATE COVID-19 SURVEY REPORT #54: MENTAL HEALTH IN THE US - http://news.northeastern.edu/uploads/COVID-19_CONSORTIUM_REPORT_54_DEPRESSION-May2021.pdf
Flow State - https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Graph-of-Csikszentmihalyis-flow-state-when-a-persons-ability-to-execute-a-task_fig1_279226015
This could be why you're depressed or anxious - Johann Hari: https://www.ted.com/talks/johann_hari_this_could_be_why_you_re_depressed_or_anxious?language=en
Everything you think you know about addiction is wrong - Johann Hari: https://www.ted.com/talks/johann_hari_everything_you_think_you_know_about_addiction_is_wrong

Credits:

Music by Evan Grim. Find his music on Apple Music

Magic in the Room #168: Resilience and Wellbeing with Guest Lorca Smetana

sarah@sarahbrolsmawhitfield.com (Sarah Whitfield) — Tue, 03 Oct 2023 12:06:43 GMT

In this episode of Magic in the Room, Hannah and Luke visit Lorca Smetana’s Montana farm to discuss the connection between resilience and wellbeing. Lorca is an expert in building holistic resiliency skills, helping parents and professionals in high-stress or trauma work embrace radical self-care in recommitting to vibrant, sustainable, and creative lives. During the conversation, Lorca gives three steps you can take to build resilience. First, understand compassion. Second, ask yourself what your real need is. Third, redefine self-care to self-honoring.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Find Lorca at www.linkedin.com/in/lorca-smetana or www.lorcasmetana.com .

Links Mentioned:

Credits:

This episode was recorded at Lorca’s farm in Montana
Music by Evan Grim. Find his music on Apple Music

Magic in the Room #167: Practices for Wellbeing

sarah@sarahbrolsmawhitfield.com (Sarah Whitfield) — Wed, 27 Sep 2023 00:22:51 GMT

Every time we get on an airplane, we hear, “Put on your oxygen mask first.” This is good advice, even if we are not in an airplane emergency! In this Magic in the Room episode, Hannah, Luke, and Chris discuss wellbeing in the next part of our Intentional Leadership series. It is easy to deprioritize our wellbeing when we are busy or want to take care of others first. However, this is an instance where taking care of ourselves allows us to serve others more effectively. We have to put on our oxygen mask first.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Credits:

This episode was recorded remotely
Music by Evan Grim. Find his music on Apple Music

Magic in the Room #166: Your Unique Contribution: The Fundamentals of Service

sarah@sarahbrolsmawhitfield.com (Sarah Whitfield) — Tue, 19 Sep 2023 01:00:45 GMT

Today on Magic in the Room, we wrap up our series on discovering your unique contribution, which is the intersection of the needs of your community and your strengths, values, and experience. In many organizations, there is a need for some form of service, so understanding what great service is can help you figure out your unique contribution. In this replay episode of Magic in the Room, Luke, Hannah, and Chris discuss delivering outstanding customer service by developing high-trust relationships, being responsive, and providing quality. In many industries, focusing on the Big Six of Clean, Safe, Comfortable, Fun, Fast, and Friendly will ensure customer satisfaction.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

YouTube
Apple Podcasts
Spotify

Research in this Episode:

The bounds of service and the Service Profit Chain ( PDF )

Credits:

Music by Evan Grim. Find his music on Apple Music

Magic in the Room #165: Your Unique Contribution: Making HR More Human with Guest Kari Gras

sarah@sarahbrolsmawhitfield.com (Sarah Whitfield) — Mon, 11 Sep 2023 13:05:01 GMT

What does it take for HR functions to be more focused on supporting people than being the principal's office? In this episode of Magic in the Room, Hannah and Luke sit down with Kari Gras to talk about how she has learned to make HR more human. This is not an easy task. It starts with trust, especially with the rise of remote work, a willingness to have hard conversations, and most importantly a commitment to treating people well.

Kari began her career in Human Resources working with Denise Tuohy in 2005, while employed by the Yellowstone Club. She started working in the HR and Payroll Department, which was a fast-paced and evolving department. With seasonal employees keeping the constant flow of paperwork a necessity, she was challenged to find better ways to refine and streamline procedures. Kari began consulting with small businesses in August 2013, following her entrepreneurial dream and making it a reality!

Listen now on your favorite platform!

ind Kari on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/togethrconsulting or on her website togethrconsulting.com

Credits:

This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded in Big Sky, Montana
Music by Evan Grim. Find his music on Apple Music

Magic in the Room #164: Your Unique Contribution: Courageously Finding your Contribution with Guest Karen Lum

sarah@sarahbrolsmawhitfield.com (Sarah Whitfield) — Wed, 06 Sep 2023 14:33:07 GMT

In today’s episode of Magic in the Room, we continue our series on finding your unique contribution, which is the intersection of your strengths and values with the needs of your community. Karen Lum joins Hannah and Luke to discuss how leaders can discover their unique contribution using Karen’s leadership framework of self-awareness, situational awareness, caring, and courage.

As leaders understand themselves more fully, they can align their actions to what an organization needs, even when they are not fully supported and require courage. Self-awareness, situational awareness, caring, and courage can also help you evaluate when it is time to leave a company or other community.

Karen is the owner of K. Lum Consulting; an accomplished business coach, corporate trainer and curriculum designer in the areas of leadership, team building, management, sales and new systems implementation. Extensive experience in high-end service (customer experience) in a variety of industries, as well as team and project management.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Find Karen on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/klumconsulting or at www.klumconsulting.com

Credits:

This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded remotely.
Music by Evan Grim. Find his music on Apple Music

Magic in the Room #163: Your Unique Contribution - Understanding How to Apply Your Strengths and Values

sarah@sarahbrolsmawhitfield.com (Sarah Whitfield) — Tue, 29 Aug 2023 11:16:13 GMT

In the Magic in the Room episode, we continue our series on Intentional Leadership by asking: “How do I contribute to the organization I am part of in a way that is unique to who I am?” Luke, Hannah, and Chris discuss how to understand the business model of your organization and how to use your unique strengths and values to maximize your effectiveness within that model.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Credits:

This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded remotely.
Music by Evan Grim. Find his music on Apple Music

Magic in the Room #162: Love in the Workplace with Guest Renée Smith

sarah@sarahbrolsmawhitfield.com (Sarah Whitfield) — Tue, 22 Aug 2023 15:30:01 GMT

Renée Smith champions a more loving and human workplace. Love is not a word we often use when talking about work. However, Renée believes love is critical to creating workplaces that allow people to solve the biggest problems we face. In this episode of Magic in the Room, Hannah, Luke, and Renée discuss the need to replace fear with love in our organizations.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Renée is the Founder and CEO of A Human Workplace and served as the Director of Workplace Transformation in the Washington State Governor’s Office.

Find Renée on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/reneesmith-ahumanworkplace or at AHumanWorkplace.com .

Credits:

This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded on site in Chicago, IL.
Music by Evan Grim. Find his music on Apple Music

Magic in the Room #161: Survival Strategies: Survival Strategies: Four Steps for Handling Stress

sarah@sarahbrolsmawhitfield.com (Sarah Whitfield) — Tue, 15 Aug 2023 11:41:09 GMT

This week on Magic in the Room, we continue discussing managing stress. One approach to managing stress is to use the Four Cs: calm, contain, care, and cope. The Four Cs framework originates in trauma-informed care in the medical practice, but we apply it in this episode to dealing with our stress or leading a team through stress.

Each of the Four Cs emphasizes critical touchstones in the process of dealing with stress. Survival Strategies: Four Steps for Handling Stress.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Episodes and Resources mentioned in this episode:

The Four Cs are originally found in Trauma-Informed Healthcare Approaches

A Guide for Primary Care edited by Megan R. Gerber

Credits:

This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded remotely
Music by Evan Grim. Find his music on Apple Music

Elevating Housekeeping Roles in Hotel Operations

Wed, 09 Aug 2023 00:23:43 GMT

With housekeeping week on the horizon, hotels across the country will be hosting pizza parties and other staff activities to celebrate Guest Room Attendants. While these recognitions are fun and well intentioned, these team members also rely on their leadership for meaningful, engaging work design that allows individuals to flourish.

Is it possible to cultivate a vibrant and sustainable brand without thriving team members? Our “heart of the house” team members are responsible for mission-critical first impressions and represent our organizations in every guest interaction. In an era where recruiting candidates to these job roles has become increasingly challenging, is it appropriate to re-imagine how the heart of the house fits into our hotel operations ecosystem?

Clear Path to Growth

Hope is defined by a belief that tomorrow can be better AND we have the power to make it so. A leaders’ role in championing hope is identifying clear pathways that when traveled, transform the position of people, teams, and organizations. For hope to exist, there must exist two distinct conditions: a GOAL and a PATH.

A goal without a path is a wish, THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS FALSE HOPE. What is your assessment regarding the presence of hope when scanning the career paths for heart of house team members in your organization? Are these vibrant jobs in which you have full confidence in the team to create outstanding impressions, or are the positions cyclical in nature and a department that tends to be chronically short-staffed? If the latter, when should we invest the time and resource to redefine our approach to create a more meaningful employee life cycle? Perhaps the first step in all of this is not trying to create an entire paradigm shift, but seek small, incremental gains that mark significant achievement for team members.

An example of how incremental improvement can be achieved, and an action we are currently taking with multiple operators, is allowing housekeepers to earn self-inspection status. Instead of requiring inspectors to police the completion of specific cleaning tasks, we are leveraging certified inspectors to educate housekeeping team members about how to achieve the highest possible inspection scores. When housekeeping team members master this skill and consistently produce inspection scores at or above the property standard, a room attendant is eligible for promotion to a Self-Inspecting Attendant. This promotion includes a title and pay change, creating a pathway by which team members establish forward momentum while elevating their confidence and grit. As their career path continues to take shape; Self-Inspecting Attendants continue receiving weekly room inspections and with continued performance on weekly inspections at or above property standards, the attendant then becomes eligible for promotion to Advising Guest Room Attendant – a role in which they will receive additional compensation and the privilege to build the capability of fellow team members. As these roles become more difficult to recruit, our intention is for each of these steps to serve as a pathway that moves housekeeping team members forward in our organizations as they increase their capabilities and collaborate on the how to best go about their work.

Room Design as Product Design

Best-in-class organizations invite housekeeping staff to collaborate on matters of room design while those that do not miss an incredible opportunity. A condition we observe regularly are hotels that design room product with guest preferences top-of-mind and little thought or consideration provided to the fact room design is one of the most impactful features on the heart of house employee experience. Extending a seat at the table to the heart of house team during design has multiplying value, as simple changes can produce outsized impacts in this phase. Additionally, including heart of house people in the process levels-up their engagement and sense of ownership for the property.

Some very real examples of design phase conversation that we should all have – How many clocks are needed for each guest room? Keeping in mind there are two time changes each year, these items require regular attention and updates. Perhaps we can start by answering the question “What is the value of having clocks in our guest rooms?” Considering the proliferation of cell phones, where is the opportunity to create incremental guest satisfaction through time notifications? How should this opportunity, or lack thereof, inform our decision-making about microwave selection or whether to have nightstand clocks? What about terry PARs – do we really need a different set of towel rules for every room type? The overarching theme from operators is this; there is a strong willingness to add job complexity in the name of guest service. What then is our process for removing unnecessary complexity to improve the job design of heart of house employees?

Human Connection

Humans are social creatures that thrive when in the community with others; however, most heart of house work is currently accomplished in isolation. This isolation negatively impacts recruitment, job satisfaction, engagement, and retention. How much better can we be at connecting with and bringing guest room attendants into our workplace communities? What are the first steps an organization can take to implement this initiative? We observe many operations executing 1:1 development conversations for guest service agents and front desk, but far fewer doing the same for guest room attendants. Hotel leaders have the opportunity to create incredible energy by sitting with attendants for no other reason than to share – discuss what’s on their mind and inquire about the effectiveness of the tools they are currently using to do their job. What’s working…what’s not working. When we care enough to find out and have an authentic personal interest in their story, the energy is returned to our guest in multiples. The ideas we have witnessed from these sessions are amazing and serve to advance the position of the team and organization. What areas of growth are most important to the people on your team? What is each individual’s vision for personal and professional success? Making work about the job task and the paycheck is how we arrived where we are today – different outputs require different inputs.

Putting the heart of house job design top-of-mind allows these team members to feel seen, heard, understood and part of a larger community with a shared purpose.

As we celebrate our housekeepers this fall, let’s embrace hope and focus our intentions on creating clearer career paths, job design and moments of connection for our heart of house team members that gift us with their time so our hotel operations can thrive.

Onward and upward,

Chris Province & Ben Scholl

Magic in the Room #160: Survival Strategies: Belonging’s Critical Role in Transition from Military to Civilian Life with Guest Sara McNamara

sarah@sarahbrolsmawhitfield.com (Sarah Whitfield) — Sun, 06 Aug 2023 12:09:58 GMT

Today we continue our series on survival strategies and how we handle stress. Guest Sara McNamara works to help military men and women move from military to civilian life, which is very stressful. One key to making that transition successful is if there is a sense of belonging in the new home, work, and community life. Belonging is a fundamental human need and plays a crucial role in managing and coping with stressful situations for everyone, and there are many lessons we can learn from Sara’s experiences.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Find Sara on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/sarabmsod or on her website at www.sdbtransitionstrategies.com.

Credits:

This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded remotely
Music by Evan Grim. Find his music on Apple Music

Magic in the Room #159: Survival Strategies: How Do We Deal with Stress?

sarah@sarahbrolsmawhitfield.com (Sarah Whitfield) — Sun, 30 Jul 2023 14:42:09 GMT

This week we are kicking off our new series on survival strategies. Our brain works hard to keep us safe and get us the things we need. When we encounter a stressful situation, our first reaction is always to do something that we believe will keep us safe. Sometimes this response is helpful, and sometimes it is unhelpful. In this episode of Magic in the Room, Luke, Hannah, and Chris discuss how we intentionally choose our response to stress to get the best outcome possible.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Find Bob Schooley on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drbobschooley/

Credits:

This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded onsite in Big Sky, Montana.
Music by Evan Grim. Find his music on Apple Music

Magic in the Room #158: A Mindset Introduction with Special Guest Bob Schooley

sarah@sarahbrolsmawhitfield.com (Sarah Whitfield) — Sun, 23 Jul 2023 17:57:45 GMT

In this replay episode of Magic in the Room we revisit some our first thoughts on Mindset which have turned into a key part of all our work at Purpose and Performance Group.

What is mindset, and how does it show up? If our behaviors are informed or even driven by our mindset, it seems crucial to be intentional about the mindset with which we approach our lives. In this episode, Chris, Luke, and recurring guest, Dr. Bob Schooley, explore central questions about mindset and how it affects the way we show up in the world.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Find Bob Schooley on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drbobschooley/

Credits:

This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded remotely.
Music by Evan Grim. Find his music on Apple Music

Magic in the Room #157: Current Trends: Who Will Do These Jobs?

sarah@sarahbrolsmawhitfield.com (Sarah Whitfield) — Tue, 18 Jul 2023 13:08:18 GMT

Intentional Leaders notice something that could be better, choose how to change things for the better, and act to make the change. However, to notice things that could be better, we have to keep our eyes and ears open to take in information from all around us.

One important way of doing this is by keeping up with current trends in business, technology, culture, and the world around us. In this episode of Magic in the Room, Luke and Chris discuss several emerging trends, including companies providing housing for their employees, inflation, the rising power of employees, and the shortage of workers in some industries.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Credits:

This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded remotely.
Music by Evan Grim. Find his music on Apple Music

Magic in the Room #156: Mindset: The Four Archetypes of Mindset

sarah@sarahbrolsmawhitfield.com (Sarah Whitfield) — Sat, 08 Jul 2023 11:35:03 GMT

In this episode of Magic in the Room, we continue our conversation about mindset. Hannah and Luke discuss four archetypes of mindset. Knowing these archetypes will help you understand yourself better, and it will help you lead people who see the world in different ways.

To download the free guide that goes with this episode, subscribe right here:

Listen now on your favorite platform!

YouTube
Apple Podcasts
Spotify

Credits:

This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded onsite in Big Sky, Montana
Music by Evan Grim. Find his music on Apple Music

Magic in the Room #155: Mindset: Version One is Better Than Version None with Guest Neil Hughes

sarah@sarahbrolsmawhitfield.com (Sarah Whitfield) — Sat, 01 Jul 2023 11:35:59 GMT

This week on Magic in the Room, we are joined by Neil Hughes, who inspired us to start this podcast. Neil is a podcast host and writer whose journey epitomizes a growth mindset. Neil began his Tech Talks Daily Podcast by believing that “version one is better than version none” and just starting, even if his first attempts were imperfect. Today Tech Talks Daily has over 2,400 episodes and counts William Shatner, Guy Kawasaki, and Wendy Williams among past guests.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

YouTube
Apple Podcasts
Spotify

Find Neil on:

Credits:

This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded in Chicago, Illinois at the No Longer Virtual Conference.
Music by Evan Grim. Find his music on Apple Music

Magic in the Room #154: Mindset: Embrace Challenges While Helping Others

sarah@sarahbrolsmawhitfield.com (Sarah Whitfield) — Sun, 25 Jun 2023 16:20:22 GMT

This season of Magic in the Room is all about Intentional Leadership. This week we are starting a series on mindset. Mindset is our assumptions about the world that impact our first reaction to any situation. You can think of mindset as the “habits of the mind” that drive our behavior. Sometimes our mindset can be helpful, but sometimes it may hold us back or bring us to undesirable outcomes. The good news is that we can cultivate a healthy mindset with intentional work.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Credits:

Music by Evan Grim. Find his music on Apple Music

Magic in the Room #153: Are We Square Every Two Weeks?

sarah@sarahbrolsmawhitfield.com (Sarah Whitfield) — Tue, 20 Jun 2023 00:27:34 GMT

What are people really looking for from work? Do they want to get paid and be even every two weeks, or does work bring a more profound sense of meaning? In this episode of Magic in the Room, Chris and Luke dive into the intersection of values, purpose, business, and compensation. The things leaders value, and the ethical decisions they make, directly impact how a company structures compensation, culture, and the engagement level of employees. If leaders are not intentional and explicate about values, many vital outcomes are left to chance.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Find Luke on TikTok at tiktok.com/@luke_free_man

Credits:

This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded at Story Catcher Studio in Tulsa, OK
Music by Evan Grim. Find his music on Apple Music

Magic in the Room #152: Values: Ethics in Business with Guest Dr. Jeff Simmons

sarah@sarahbrolsmawhitfield.com (Sarah Whitfield) — Tue, 13 Jun 2023 12:15:03 GMT

Dr. Jeff Simmons is a professor of business at Oklahoma Christian University. In this episode of Magic in the Room, Jeff and Chris discuss ethics and values in the workplace.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Find Dr. Simmons at https://www.oc.edu/directory/dr-jeff-simmons

Credits:

This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded remotely
Music by Evan Grim. Find his music on Apple Music

Magic in the Room #151: Values: Becoming an Impactful River with Guest Wendy Togami

sarah@sarahbrolsmawhitfield.com (Sarah Whitfield) — Tue, 06 Jun 2023 10:59:19 GMT

In this episode of Magic in the Room, Luke and Chris sit down with guest Wendy Togami to talk about how individuals, families, and organizations can live their values. Wendy introduces us to a metaphor of values as river banks. The banks keep the water flowing with direction and momentum. Without values to guide our lives, we can end up more like a puddle, which is unfocused and does not have an impact.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Find Wendy on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/wendy-togami-34a810268

Credits:

This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded at goroguestudio.com
Music by Evan Grim. Find his music on Apple Music

Magic in the Room #150: Values: What Makes You Unique as an Intentional Leader?

sarah@sarahbrolsmawhitfield.com (Sarah Whitfield) — Sun, 28 May 2023 22:48:25 GMT

In this Magic in the Room episode, Luke, Chris Province, and Hannah explore values as a key aspect of Intentional Leadership. There are several types of values, from shared societal values to unique personal values. One key to intentional leadership is understanding the unique values that differentiate you from other people or organizations.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Apple Podcasts
Spotify
YouTube

Credits:

This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded onsite in Big Sky, Montana
Music by Evan Grim. Find his music on Apple Music

Magic in the Room Bonus Episode: Dillon Hargrave Interviews Chris about Purpose and Values

sarah@sarahbrolsmawhitfield.com (Sarah Whitfield) — Sun, 28 May 2023 22:26:53 GMT

We flip the script on today’s bonus episode of Magic in the Room, and Dillon Hargrave interviews Chris. Dillon is an entrepreneur and founder of Sauntermore, a peer advisory group empowering individuals with disabilities to excel in leadership roles. Today’s conversation focuses on two key foundations every leader needs to establish for themselves: their purpose and their values.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Contact Dillon on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/dillon-hargrave-ba358112/

Find out more about Sauntermore at sauntermore.us .

Credits:

This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded at Story Catcher Studio in Tulsa, OK
Music by Evan Grim. Find his music on Apple Music

Magic in the Room #149: Strengths: You Have Everything You Need with Guest Dillon Hargrave

sarah@sarahbrolsmawhitfield.com (Sarah Whitfield) — Sun, 21 May 2023 14:38:03 GMT

Today we wrap up our series on knowing and using our strengths with a hopeful message from Dillon Hargrave: we have everything we need. Dillon is an entrepreneur and founder of Sauntermore, a nonprofit dedicated to empowering individuals with disabilities to excel in leadership roles. Unfortunately, if you are hoping that Dillon would use Magic in the Room to announce the return of Baby D's Bee Sting hot sauce, you are going to be disappointed, but you should still listen to the episode!

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Contact Dillon on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/dillon-hargrave-ba358112/

Find out more about Sauntermore at sauntermore.us .

Credits:

This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded at Story Catcher Studio in Tulsa, OK
Music by Evan Grim. Find his music on Apple Music

Magic in the Room #148: At Our Best: A Practical Tool for Understanding People's Strengths

sarah@sarahbrolsmawhitfield.com (Sarah Whitfield) — Sun, 14 May 2023 11:58:49 GMT

Today on Magic in the Room, we continue our series on strengths. The first step to using our strengths effectively is to know them! In this replay episode, Luke, Hannah, and Chris use one of our favorite strength discovery tools, the At My Best cards, to model an easy way to learn about the strengths of people on your team. At My Best Cards: atmybest.com

Listen now on your favorite platform!

At My Best Cards: atmybest.com

Credits:

This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded at Story Catcher Studio in Tulsa, OK
Music by Evan Grim. Find his music on Apple Music

Magic in the Room #147: Using Your Strengths to Work with Others with Sarah Elkins

sarah@sarahbrolsmawhitfield.com (Sarah Whitfield) — Sat, 06 May 2023 21:18:17 GMT

In this episode of Magic in the Room, Hannah and Ben sit down with Sarah Elkins to continue our series about focusing on our strengths. Sarah, Hannah, and Ben discuss how people can understand their strengths to work together more effectively.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Apple Podcasts
Spotify
YouTube

Links mentioned in this episode:

Clifton Strengths: https://www.gallup.com/cliftonstrengths

Find Sarah on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/thesmileisfree or her website at elkinsconsulting.com

Credits:

This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded remotely
Music by Evan Grim. Find his music on Apple Music

Magic in the Room #146: Using Your Strengths to Lead Intentionally

sarah@sarahbrolsmawhitfield.com (Sarah Whitfield) — Tue, 02 May 2023 19:17:41 GMT

Is it better to focus on using your strengths or to try and fix your weaknesses? Intentional Leaders strive to be as effective as possible by using their strengths to perform at a high level. In this episode of Magic in the Room, Hannah, Chris, and Luke make the case that individuals need to focus on their strengths and that teams can be well-rounded by ensuring diverse strengths in the group.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Links mentioned in this episode:

Credits:

This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded onsite in Big Sky, Montana
Music by Evan Grim. Find his music on Apple Music

Magic in the Room #145: What We Are Reading

sarah@sarahbrolsmawhitfield.com (Sarah Whitfield) — Tue, 25 Apr 2023 15:54:47 GMT

Leaders must be intentional about the media to consume. In this episode of Magic in the Room, Hannah, Luke, and Chris share how they decide what books to read, videos to watch, and podcasts to listen to, and they share a couple of current resources.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

What Luke is listening to:

What Chris is reading:

What Hannah is reading:

Credits:

This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded remotely
Music by evangrimmusic.com

Magic in the Room #144: The Iceberg Model: Finding your direction with Guest Chris King

sarah@sarahbrolsmawhitfield.com (Sarah Whitfield) — Tue, 18 Apr 2023 00:10:08 GMT

In our final episode about the iceberg model, Chris and Luke sit down with Chris King to discuss the importance of being oriented to where you are and your direction. The iceberg model shows that there are many under-the-surface factors that influence us, such as our personality and experience. By understanding those factors, we can use them to move in the direction we want to go.

Chris is the owner operator of Chris King Counseling Services LLC, a private Counseling practice in the Tulsa OK area. After spending over 20 years helping people in areas of camp ministry, youth work, and experiential learning, Chris has been helping counseling clients move toward wholeness since 2011. He was the Director of Programs at New Life Ranch and Camp Orchard Hill, Youth Ministry Director at Liberty Church, and Lead Facilitator with Challenge Quest before entering into therapy work full time. He is a Licensed Professional Counselor in Oklahoma and a Nationally Certified Counselor who uses cognitive behavioral therapy, ACT, and reality therapy in a typically experiential context.

Find Chris and his practice at chriskingcounseling.com

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Links from this episode:

Credits:

This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded onsite at Chris King Counseling
Music by evangrimmusic.com

The Labors of Wellness: Becoming Antifragile

Tue, 11 Apr 2023 14:40:43 GMT

By: Chris Province

Coach Bobby Knight once said, “most people have the will to win, few have the will to prepare to win.” This is also how I think about well-being. To a person, everyone will claim a desire to experience joy and lead a fulfilling life - but only the people with the willingness to work are gifted that reward.

Well-being is a term that refers to the state of being healthy, happy, and content - both physically and mentally. The concept of well-being includes several dimensions, such as physical health, mental health, social support, financial security, and a sense of purpose and meaning in life. As it relates to a leaders ability to positively impact a family, teams, organization or community, I prefer to focus on four primary dimensions of well-being:

Physical well-being; refers to the overall health and wellness of our body, including factors such as nutrition, exercise, sleep and disease prevention.
Emotional well-being ; involves understanding our emotions, managing our stress and anxieties, growing through trauma and sharing positive, supportive relationships with others.
Intellectual well-being; refers to the extent to which we are able to engage in meaningful intellectual pursuits and feel a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment from these activities. These pursuits can include reading, learning new skills or languages, creating art or pursuing hobbies or other activities that challenge our mind.
Spiritual well-being; refers to a sense of connection with a higher sense of purpose. Our spirituality guides and affirms our values and morals - the basis on which others determine our worthiness to lead. Meditation, reflection, writing, prayer and mindfulness are all practices that can serve to develop our individual spirit.

When I exhibit low-performance behavior or experience cognitive dissonance (the uncomfortable and stressful feeling that results from me failing to show up as the person I know myself to be), the root cause is a lack of intention around one (or more) of these domains. When my energy is not directed, inconsistent outcomes are the result. Inconsistent work output, inconsistent investment in relationships, chaotic scheduling – all the hallmarks of a low-performance, low-joy and low-fulfillment existence. The only way for me to reestablish consistency is to properly assess the situation in which I I find myself and do the required work to level-up the domain and disciplines that have been neglected.

To provide direction to my energy, I like to practice “checking-in.” I do this exercise with myself, first, and usually recording the results in a journal. My approach to it is to ask; on a scale from 1-10, how am I doing in each of these areas – Physically? Emotionally? Intellectually? Spiritually?

After issuing an initial score for the domain, I will highlight behaviors that are 1) "KEEP" behaviors; choices I am actively making that advance my well-being 2) "STOP" behaviors; choices I am actively making or blind-spots I can now see that discount my well-being and 3) "START" behaviors; choices I can make or actions that I can take that while not currently present WILL activate and advance my well-being. Exercising this reflection helps direct my focus into the domains that require immediate attention and when actioned, move me closer to showing up as the best possible version of me. Once completed, I have a much clearer understanding of the type and intensity of labor I must complete.

By completing this check-in, the current and potential effectiveness of my personal labor is more clearly defined. My hope is to create a clear comparison between my current state and a more ideal future state – and closing the gap between the two with learning and doing goals. Labor refers to the physical or mental effort that people contribute to produce something of value. Labor is a critical factor in the production process and is commonly combined with capital (such as machinery and tools) and natural resources (such as land and raw materials) for purposes of value creation. The amount and quality of labor I apply to my personal productivity will greatly affect my individual growth and prosperity of my family, teams and organizations.

Labor is often divided into different categories, such as unskilled labor, semi-skilled labor, and skilled labor, depending on the level of training or education required for the job. What is more important for this conversation, though, is labor is also categorized by the type of work done, such as; physical labor, emotional labor, intellectual labor and spiritual labor.

Physical labor activates physical wellness. Physical labor involves tasks that require physical exertion and energy to complete, or decisions and actions I take throughout the day that directly influence the amount of energy I am required to extend. Our decisions about how we move, exercise, fuel, rest and rejuvenate our bodies represent our physical labors. Key questions: Am I preparing my body for my life’s next adversity or challenge? Do I have the physical horsepower and stamina to perform at a high level and exhibit resilience during times of enduring challenge?

Emotional labor activates emotional wellness. Emotional labor is the process of managing my own emotions AND the emotions of others to effectively perform a particular job or task. Emotional labor involves regulating emotions, displaying appropriate emotions and managing the emotions that emerge from an acute situation or operating environment. To do this effectively, it is important I continually develop my emotional intelligence, understanding the causes and consequences of emotions. My decisions about how to empathize with others, check-in for understanding, value minority perspectives, and seek honest advice is representative of my emotional labors. Key questions: Am I emotionally prepared for a crisis event or significant setback? Do I have the emotional strength to control not only my emotions, but model the way for other people in my family or on my team to follow so things don’t completely fall apart?

Intellectual labor activates intellectual wellness. Intellectual labor is all about mental effort, problem-solving, critical thinking and creativity. Just as our body requires nutrition, so does our mind. The more intentional I am about what my mind is fed, the more aligned my work outputs will become. Reading and writing is to intellectual wellness what nutrition is to physical wellness. When I organize, plan and manage these efforts, my leadership performance elevates. New ideas can only be sourced from learning and old ideas are only iterated through experimentation. I must move boldly to challenge the status quo and not be lulled by past success. Cultivating a growth mindset for myself and my work teams is non-negotiable. I am obligated to aggressively seek advice on how to become better or improve my work products. To be the best in my chosen field, I am required to stay up to date on the latest research and industry trends that inform my work. Relative to performance improvement, improved outputs are only possible with different inputs. Great leaders embrace this idea and are always willing to do the lifting required to achieve meaningful change – engaging passionately with intellectual pursuits that advance them towards the inspired vision of a better tomorrow. Key questions: Is my mind being appropriately nourished with new information, concepts and ideas? Am I casting and rallying people around my vision for a better tomorrow? Am I able to lay out the steps we can to get there? Do I have the intellectual horsepower and fitness to help my team overcome any obstacle?

Spiritual labor activates spiritual wellness. Spiritual labor is all about personal growth and development. Through spiritual labor, I evaluate my personal values and test what I believe. Through this, I emerge more crystallized morals and am better outfitted to align how I behave with what I believe. Through spiritual labor, I cultivate my personal purpose and become more fully committed to the greatest good I can possibly achieve. How do I orient every day towards the creation of the world I most want to be part of? Spiritual labor can look like mediation, prayer, coaching and actively engaging in acts of kindness and compassion. Living a spiritual existence is about the work we do in-service to others. To do this effectively, I have to prioritize self-reflection, journaling, engaging in conversations with others who share similar values (friends, colleagues, mentors or coaches). Spiritual well-being emerges directly from doing spiritual work and I am always offered an immediate return on this effort. Engaging in acts of kindness and compassion cultivates my connection and belonging while providing opportunities for personal growth and fulfillment. Seeking out opportunities to serve and give wholeheartedly to my community activates my purpose and forges me with an existence greater than myself. Key questions: Do my behaviors align with what I actually believe? How does what I believe show up in my day-to-day interactions with my family, my work team and within my community? Am I comfortable with how my attention, affection and affirmations are currently being distributed?

The moment I raised my hand to be a leader, I assumed accountability for the well-being of others. This is the work of leaders. Leaders stay fit and ready for the next challenge. Leaders train consistently within each of the domains of well-being in order to optimize their contributions to the families, team, organizations and communities we love.

My leadership effectiveness scales with personal well-being. Like all other competencies, I was born with some level of leadership talent. Not much, but SOME. What was required for me to build any skill around that talent was a willingness to put in the work to study and practice leading. To make the mistakes, bleeding, crying and connecting with people and our work in remarkable ways. It is this willingness to practice and do the work that ultimately separates good leaders from great ones. While leadership skills are sharpened by experiences and refined over time, this growth does not happen organically or by accident. We have to train with consistency, intention and amplitude to be prepared when called upon.

The harder we work, the luckier we get!

Let’s get lucky,

Chris

Magic in the Room #143:The Iceberg Model: Getting to Know Your Inner Caveperson with Guest Annette Taylor

sarah@sarahbrolsmawhitfield.com (Sarah Whitfield) — Mon, 10 Apr 2023 22:37:12 GMT

Learning to be an Intentional Leader means we must learn why we react the way we do in different situations. In this episode of Magic in the Room, Luke and Hannah are joined by guest Annette Taylor to discuss one source of influence: our inner caveperson. Knowing how our ancestors lived helps us understand ourselves in modern times.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Apple Podcasts
Spotify
YouTube

Find Annette:

on LinkedIn
Find her blog at www.cavedwellerclub.com

Two posts to start with are:

Meet Claire: www.cavedwellerclub.com/blog-3/blog-post-title-three-lnyan
Claire's Anatomy : /www.cavedwellerclub.com/blog-3/claires-anatomy

Links from this episode:

30 Days of Noticing by Alana Sheeren

Credits:

This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded online
Music by evangrimmusic.com

Magic in the Room #142: The Iceberg Model: Looking Under the Surface to be More Intentional

sarah@sarahbrolsmawhitfield.com (Sarah Whitfield) — Sun, 02 Apr 2023 14:13:13 GMT

Intentional Leadership requires awareness of the under-the-surface factors that impact the things we notice, our choices, and our actions. In this episode of Magic in the Room, Hannah, Chris, and Luke introduce the Iceberg Model. The part of the iceberg above the surface of the water represents the things we do that are visible to the people around us. Under the surface is all the factors that influence us, starting with our personality and the things we have experienced. When we know how our experiences and personality impact us and others, we can make more intentional choices about the outcomes of our actions.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Credits:

This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded onsite in Big Sky, Montana
Music by evangrimmusic.com

Magic in the Room #141: A Blueprint for High Performance with Guest Danny Langloss

sarah@sarahbrolsmawhitfield.com (Sarah Whitfield) — Sun, 26 Mar 2023 14:43:05 GMT

Danny Langloss has been a police officer and chief. He is currently a city manager. In this Magic in the Room episode, he joins Hannah and Luke to give a blueprint for high performance based on his experience leading through crisis and change. Listen for several key strategies, including inviting feedback, giving people ownership of the organization's vision, and increasing employee engagement.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Find Danny:

On LInkedIn at: www.linkedin.com/in/dannylangloss/
Or on his website at www.dannylangloss.com

Credits:

This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded onsite in Chicago during the NLV conference.
Music by evangrimmusic.com

Intentional Leadership

Wed, 22 Mar 2023 19:36:22 GMT

By: Luke Freeman
Principle, Leadership Design

“Leadership is influence—nothing more, nothing less. When you become a student of leaders, as I am, you recognize people's level of influence in everyday situations all around you.”   -John Maxwell

This well-known quote on leadership has become one of the most trusted and referenced definitions of leadership.  While I don’t necessarily disagree with Maxwell’s observation, It lacks the specificity needed to provide clarity for leaders in their day-to-day roles. If we only believe that “leadership is influence”, we’re not prepared to answer the next logical questions:  

How do I become intentional in my influence?  
How do I influence in a positive way instead of in a harmful direction?  
Am I influencing even when I’m not trying to lead?”

The blind spot of Maxwell’s “leadership is influence” statement is that, almost without exception, we influence everyone we encounter; either directly or indirectly.  We’re social creatures in complex webs of relationships, and we just can’t help spreading our influence around. Mutual influence is part of what it means to be human.  

For example, if I enter a room while looking at my phone, look no one in the eye, and stand in the corner I will influence the atmosphere of the room and the experience of everyone else in the room. People will shift where they’re standing to acknowledge me, even without verbal communication, and will eventually look to me for some sign of my emotional and physical status. This is an example of Unintentional Leadership. If we stop with Maxwell’s definition, we’re all leaders every day whether we know it or not because we’re always influencing the teams of which we’re a part.

The type of leadership we’re after is different, and it’s called Intentional Leadership. Intentional Leadership consists of three steps:

Notice . On a small scale, this could be as simple as noticing the emotional atmosphere when we enter a room. Are people engaged in conversation? Is it a large group conversation? Are people chatting in small groups? Is everyone on their phones? On a larger scale, noticing could be observing that people are being served differently in a restaurant because of their ethnicity, social class, or gender. You could notice that someone is singled out and bullied face to face or on social media. Noticing could be seeing that there are people with authority and resources who could correct a problem within your organization if someone brought them a clear plan and explained how they could help. During most of our childhoods we don’t notice how groups, culture, and society shape the identities and roles of those within organizations, even giving power to some people and withholding power from others. Noticing is a skill to be developed.  Some people arrive in adulthood without learning to notice.

Choose.   Choosing is making a value judgment; deciding that there is a wrong that should be addressed. Whether you’re aware of them or not, your values determine what wrongs you notice and which ones you choose as high priorities. For example, imagine a team that values “flexibility” and “competitive spirit”. For years the people in this team worked late nights to meet deadlines and then had the freedom to come in late the next day. As the company succeeded and grew into multiple locations the CEO noticed that some newer employees seemed to be taking advantage of the culture of flexibility without demonstrating the competitive nature that used to go along with the flexibility. He is now faced with making a choice about how to respond in a way that aligns with his values and the vision for the company. Since he has identified his values, he has the power to choose. You gain the same power when you know your values and consciously apply them to the issues that you notice. You think about what would be most helpful in realizing your ideals and choose the specifics of what you will say or do.

Act. While it’s hard to notice things we’ve been blind to for most of our lives and choosing wisely takes practice and can be intimidating and confusing, Acting can be the biggest hurdle. Unfortunately, many people notice something that could be better and choose how to address it, but then freeze or put off acting. Sometimes a failure to act is driven by fear. Sadly, sometimes it’s driven by something worse than fear: just a lack of caring enough to take the time. Noticing and choosing are of little worth without an act of leadership.

Notice, choose, act is a simple but powerful model for reframing our definition of leadership to be change-oriented and actionable. But even this view of intentional leadership leaves many questions unanswered:  

What values drive your leadership choices?  
Are your current values helping you become an effective leader?  If not, how do you change them?  
What communication, strategic, and operational skills do you need to enable you to become effective at intentionally influencing those around you?
How do we continue to have fresh eyes when we see the people and processes around us so that we notice more organizational issues that are ripe for change?

These may sound like overwhelming questions, but it’s surprisingly simple to make progress by being intentional and leading yourself first.

Magic in the Room #140: Applying Intentional Leadership

sarah@sarahbrolsmawhitfield.com (Sarah Whitfield) — Sat, 18 Mar 2023 13:55:14 GMT

Intentional Leadership is noticing something that could be better, choosing how to change things for the better, and acting to make the change. But how can we make sure we do those three steps? In this episode of Magic in the Room, Hannah and Chris are joined by Ben to reflect on how they apply Intentional Leadership in their lives. They wrap up the conversation by giving three things that listeners can start doing today to be more intentional.

To download the free guide that goes with this episode, subscribe now:

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Credits:

Music by evangrimmusic.com

Magic in the Room #139 Intentional Leadership: Being Brave with Guest Kimberly Davis

sarah@sarahbrolsmawhitfield.com (Sarah Whitfield) — Mon, 13 Mar 2023 13:23:39 GMT

In this episode of Magic in the Room, Kimberly Davis, the founder of Brave Leadership University, joins Hannah and Luke to continue our exploration of Intentional Leadership. Kimberly helps us understand that we can be brave by connecting to our “super objective,” which is the impact we want to have. She defines bravery as “being my best, most authentic and powerful self,” which is critical for Intentional Leadership.

To download the free guide that goes with this episode, subscribe now .

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Find Kimberly on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/kimberlydavisonstage/ or at braveleadershipuniversity.com

Brave Leadership University founder, Kimberly Davis is an expert on authentic leadership, and shares her inspirational message of personal power, responsibility and impact with organizations across the country and teaches leadership programs world-wide.

Kimberly teaches for SMU Cox School of Business' Executive Education Program and their Latino Leadership Initiative; as well as for the Bush Institute's WE Lead program (empowering female leaders from the middle east). Kimberly is a TEDx speaker and her award-winning book, Brave Leadership: Unleash Your Most Confident, Authentic, and Powerful Self to Get the Results You Need was named the #1 book to read on Inc. Magazine’s “The most impactful books to read in 2018.”

Credits:

This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded during the 2023 NLV conference in Chicago, Illinois
Music by evangrimmusic.com

Magic in the Room #138: An Introduction to Intentional Leadership

sarah@sarahbrolsmawhitfield.com (Sarah Whitfield) — Mon, 06 Mar 2023 11:45:00 GMT

We are kicking off a new season of Magic in the Room with a four-part series on Intentional Leadership. In this episode, Hannah, Luke, and Chris make the case that everyone is a leader, no matter their job title. Because we are all leaders, we can intentionally influence the people and situations we encounter.

We define Intentional Leadership as a three-step process:

We notice something that could be better
We choose how to change things for the better
We act to make the change

By cultivating our capacity to notice, ability to choose, and courage to act, everyone can have a more significant positive impact on the world around them.

To download the free guide that goes with this episode, subscribe now .

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Go Deeper:

Read our blog post Leadership is Everywhere and Nowhere All At Once

Credits:

This episode of Magic in the Room was recorded onsite in Big Sky, Montana
Music by evangrimmusic.com

Magic in the Room #137: Pushing the Envelope with David Dexter

Mon, 16 Jan 2023 12:49:41 GMT

On this episode of Magic in the Room, Luke and Hannah sit down with David Dexter, CEO of Cornerstone Management Services, a construction company based our of Big Sky, Montana. Together, they discuss his work with sustainable building envelopes, or the outer structure of a building that protects it from the elements. Sustainable building envelopes are key not only in the alpine climate of Big Sky, but also globally, as we look to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions efficiently as possible. Other topics include his lessons learned as a first-time CEO, visionary leadership, and how to be approachable.

Find David and Cornerstone Management Services at cmsbigsky.com

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Apple Podcasts
Spotify
YouTube

Magic in the Room listeners can get $100 off our Coaching Skills for Leaders class . Just use the promo code Magic100 when you sign up. More information is at www.purposeandperformancegroup.com/coaching-cohort

Music by evangrimmusic.com

Support from techblogwriter.co.uk

Magic in the Room #136: Purpose and Entrepreneurship in Big Sky with Guest Brad Niva

Tue, 10 Jan 2023 15:06:36 GMT

On this episode of Magic in the Room, Luke and Hannah sit down with special guest Brad Niva to discuss the importance of aligning your passions and personal purpose with career goals. Currently the CEO of Big Sky Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Niva details how his journey as a business owner, entrepreneur, and leader ultimately led him to his prominent position in the unique mountain community. Whether you are a recent graduate or deep into your career, this episode is a must-listen for anyone considering taking the leap into entrepreneurship.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Find Brad on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradniva/

Magic in the Room listeners can get $100 off our Coaching Skills for Leaders class. Just use the promo code Magic100 when you sign up. More information is at www.purposeandperformancegroup.com/coaching-cohort

Music by evangrimmusic.com

Support from techblogwriter.co.uk

Magic in the Room #135: Reflecting and Looking Forward for the New Year

Sun, 01 Jan 2023 22:44:39 GMT

In January, we take time on Magic in the Room to reflect on the past year and to look forward to the next. This type of reflection is critical to growing and learning as a leader. In this episode, Hannah, Luke, and Chris review 2022 and what they look forward to in 2023.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Apple Podcasts
Spotify
YouTube

Find Luke on TikTok @luke_free_man

Music by evangrimmusic.com

Support from techblogwriter.co.uk

Magic in the Room #134: We Contain Multitudes

Tue, 27 Dec 2022 19:28:33 GMT

We all have a hidden layer underneath our observable behavior called mental models. The majority of what drives our behavior is hidden in these mental models. In this episode of Magic in the Room, Luke reflects on how we can bring our hidden mental models to make intentional choices about how we act.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Research in this Episode

Spiral Dynamics by Don Edward Beck and Christopher C. Cowan

The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization by Peter M. Senge

Song of Myself by Walt Whitman

The past and present wilt—I have fill'd them, emptied them.
And proceed to fill my next fold of the future.

Listener up there! what have you to confide to me?
Look in my face while I snuff the sidle of evening,
(Talk honestly, no one else hears you, and I stay only a minute longer.)

Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)

I concentrate toward them that are nigh, I wait on the door-slab.

Who has done his day's work? who will soonest be through with his supper?

Who wishes to walk with me?

Will you speak before I am gone? will you prove already too late?

-------------------------------------------------

Music by evangrimmusic.com

Support from techblogwriter.co.uk

Magic in the Room Bonus Episode: Twas the Night Before the Office Holiday Party

Wed, 21 Dec 2022 17:12:22 GMT

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Apple Podcasts
Spotify
YouTube

Magic in the Room #133: Favorites: Social-ecological Systems with Dr. Brooke Lahneman

Mon, 19 Dec 2022 23:52:01 GMT

This week on Magic in the Room Hannah shares one of her favorite episodes, Social-ecological Systems with Dr. Brooke Lahneman.

We all live on a planet with finite resources. As leaders, it is our responsibility to consider how our organizations impact the entire system. In this episode of Magic in the Room, Hannah, Luke, and Dr. Brooke Lahneman discuss the idea of social-ecological systems. In this way of analyzing business, leaders consider the impact of their business on a comprehensive and long-term scale and work to maximize good over time

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Apple Podcasts
Spotify
YouTube

Find Brooke’s website at www.montana.edu/business/directory/2053270/brooke-lahneman , and on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/brooke-lahneman-4aa0316/

Music by evangrimmusic.com
This week’s episode of Magic in the Room was recorded at AUIDEO studio in Bozeman, MT. find them at www.auideo.com
Support from techblogwriter.co.uk

Magic in the Room #132: Intentional Leaders: Brian Gooden on Pursuing his Purpose to Win and Help Win

Mon, 12 Dec 2022 20:45:42 GMT

On this episode of Magic in the Room, Chris reconnects with Brian Gooden. Brian was on one of Chris’ favorite episodes, Win and Help Win in Tribal Enterprise with Brian Gooden, and we wanted to get an update. In the first episode with Brian, he introduced his desire to “win and help win.” In other words, Brian is committed to having a mindset of abundance. Brian has realized that to win and help win, he has to get out of his normal comforts and take risks to advance the cause of helping others win.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Find Brian Gooden on LinkedIn

Find Brian’s Etsy shop Sovernly at www.etsy.com/shop/Sovernly

Music by evangrimmusic.com

Support from techblogwriter.co.uk

Magic in the Room #131: Replay - Being Resilient with Lorca Smetana

Sun, 04 Dec 2022 23:44:51 GMT

This week we are replaying one of Luke’s favorite episodes. Luke picked this episode as a favorite because it challenged him to consider the connection between love and resilience. Lorca Smetana has spent her entire life understanding resilience. Born into a climbing community, she was a survivor of the Mt. Hood climbing tragedy that took the lives of nine students and teachers when she was sixteen. In this episode of Magic in the Room, Hannah, Luke, and Lorca discuss the idea that becoming resilient is not just a list of techniques to follow but a deep approach to life that requires practice and self-reflection.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Find Lorca Smetana at lorcasmetana.com

On LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/lorca-smetana/

On Facebook at www.facebook.com/lorca.smetana

Music by evangrimmusic.com

Support from techblogwriter.co.uk

This week’s episode of Magic in the Room was recorded at AUIDEO studio in Bozeman, MT. find them at www.auideo.com

Magic in the Room #130: Hannah on Energy and Leadership

Tue, 29 Nov 2022 16:56:32 GMT

Traditionally we think of time management as the key to getting things done. In this episode of Magic in the Room, Hannah reflects on how leaders can shift their thinking to manage energy rather than time to execute at the highest level.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Music by evangrimmusic.com

Support from techblogwriter.co.uk

Magic in the Room #129: Luke on Differentiated Leadership

Mon, 21 Nov 2022 13:04:00 GMT

In this Magic in the Room episode, Luke reflects on Edwin Friedman’s concept of a differentiated leader. A differentiated leader has done the work of self-definition and self-regulation. This leader knows who they are and their purpose so well that they are not swayed by the reactivity, herding, blaming, and short-term thinking of the anxious system around them. Instead, they have a strong vision and invite people to join them.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Music by evangrimmusic.com

Support from techblogwriter.co.uk

Leadership is Everywhere and Nowhere All At Once

Wed, 16 Nov 2022 12:55:43 GMT

By: Luke Freeman
Principle, Leadership Design

In one sense, we’re surrounded by leaders. From our first breath we experienced parents or guardians who were in positions of authority in our lives. Growing up we were influenced by teachers, coaches, religious and club leaders, and others who guided the activity of our lives. Today we’re connected to supervisors, executive leaders, local or tribal officials, and national leaders who direct our work. All those in positions of authority are what we call “positional leaders”. Whether we have a rebellious anti-authoritarian streak, or a need to please, we’ve been learning our whole lives about how others lead and building our own unconscious leadership philosophies from these positional leaders.

But if we stop and think about it, true leadership still seems scarce. Most of us have a story or two of a positional leader who did things differently. They may be a special family member who seemed to see us in a different light, that one special boss who encouraged our development when we were new to the world of work, or a coach who helped us become more without making us feel less. These few people stand out because of how different they are from most of the positional leaders around us.

I’m convinced that no one wants to be a boss who team members complain about to their spouse at night. If you want to be a leader worth following, or maybe even one of the few great leaders who leave behind a better world than they were given, I encourage you to reflect on three counterintuitive principles.

Leadership is for everyone.

Some people may be named a leader by receiving a promotion, but organizations who consider everyone a leader create cultures of ownership and continuous improvement. I believe that leadership isn’t defined by title, but is a teachable behavior consisting of three steps:

Notice something that could be better. This could be noticing a piece of trash on the ground, or noticing the emotional atmosphere when we enter a room (are people engaged in conversation? is everyone on their phones?). At enterprise scale, noticing could be observing that there are people with authority and resources who could correct a problem within your organization if someone brought them a clear plan and explained how they could help.
Choose . Choosing is making a value judgment; deciding that the thing you noticed is a wrong that should be righted. Whether you’re aware of them or not, your values determine what wrongs you notice and which ones you choose as priorities. You gain power when you know your values and consciously apply them to issues that you notice.
Act . Unfortunately, noticing and choosing are of little worth without an act of courageous leadership. In my work I always try to give emerging, high potential, and executive leaders practice acting to solve real issues. Practice is the only way to truly gain the habit of intentional leadership.

All leadership training is retraining.

In my work with tribal enterprises across the country I often hear “we’ve never done leadership training before”. But the truth is that everyone who is leading has learned their approach from somewhere. Lessons in leadership may have come from a parent, or a boss from their first job, but it’s hard to deny that there are always systems within the organization that have trained certain behaviors from leaders. Until we admit we’ve learned our current approach from somewhere, it will be very difficult for us to stop unhelpful leadership behaviors and practice new ones. The same goes for leaders we are developing: until we stop accidentally tolerating, or even rewarding, harmful leadership behaviors, it will be very difficult to train new approaches to leadership.

Never. Stop. Learning.

No matter the skills we’ve learned so far in our leadership journeys, there’s always another level of leadership intentionality to achieve. First we learn to lead ourselves. We then add skills to lead a team. Managers and directors must learn new approaches to lead and develop other leaders. Executive leaders must dive deep into their personal purpose and values to have any hope of providing meaningful vision for an enterprise. At each of these levels we must let go of old practices and refocus our time on new disciplines. The journey of intentional leadership only ends when we choose to stop learning.

Ram Charan says “this is an era in which the demand for leadership greatly exceeds the supply.” If we are to meet the demand we must view leadership as an ever-expanding discipline. My hope for you is that you aspire to differentiate your leadership approach from the over-abundance of leaders defined by position, and become a truly transformational force in the lives of those you influence every day.

Originally published in TribalHub Magazine - Fall 2022

Magic in the Room #128: Purpose Revisited

Tue, 15 Nov 2022 13:14:22 GMT

We have spent 127 episodes of Magic in the Room talking about the power of purpose. In this episode of Magic in the Room, Hannah, Luke, and Chris check in on how our thinking about purpose has changed over time. The bottom line is that purpose is as vital as ever and is critical to employee engagement, personal effectiveness, and organizational success.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Music by evangrimmusic.com

Support from techblogwriter.co.uk

Magic in the Room #127: Developing Team Based Learning Environments with Guest Brigitte Steinheider

Sun, 06 Nov 2022 18:06:12 GMT

In this episode of Magic in the Room Chris and Luke sit down with Brigitte Steinheider, who is an Associate Professor of Psychology in Master of Arts in Organizational Dynamics program at the University of Oklahoma – Tulsa. Brigitte developed the Organizational Dynamics Program which utilized team based learning to help people practice leadership skills while learning.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

You can connect with Brigitte on LinkedIn or at www.ou.edu/cas/psychology/people/faculty/brigitte-steinheider

Get a free Magic in the Room hat by posting a review and sending a screenshot to: info@purposeandperformancegroup.com

Music by evangrimmusic.com

Recorded on location

Support from techblogwriter.co.uk

Magic in the Room #126: Having a Friend at Work – The Key to a Happier Workplace with James Beal and Britaney Francis

Tue, 01 Nov 2022 15:33:44 GMT

What does it take for people to be engaged in the workplace? In this episode of Magic in the Room, Luke and Hannah sit down with guests James Beal and Britaney Francis to discuss one key factor: having a friend at work. Britaney and James are great friends who work together, and this has made their experience better. However, this is not just a personal story, as research increasingly shows that having a best friend at work is critical to engagement.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

You can find Britaney and James on LinkedIn:

James Beal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-a-beal-104/
Britaney Francis: https://www.linkedin.com/in/britaney-francis-thrp-36690942

James and Britaney used research from Gallup:

Get a free Magic in the Room hat by posting a review and sending a screenshot to: info@purposeandperformancegroup.com

Music by evangrimmusic.com

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Magic in the Room #125: Purpose Profile: Andrew Hofstetter – Fighting Human Trafficking

Tue, 25 Oct 2022 00:20:29 GMT

This week on Magic in the Room, Hannah and Luke sit down with Andrew Hofstetter for one of our most powerful conversations to date. Mr. Hofstetter provides Tribal Nations with education on: Active Shooter & Critical Incidents, Human Trafficking, Situational Awareness, Threat Assessments, and ICWA Policy Writing. Much of today’s discussion centers around human trafficking: how widespread it is, what the warning signs are, and what you as an individual can do to help.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

You can connect with Andrew on LinkedIn

Organizations & Resources mentioned in this episode:

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Magic in the Room #124: How Can Businesses Respond to the Affordable Housing Crisis?

Mon, 17 Oct 2022 22:15:07 GMT

Every business relies on people, and people need places to live. In this episode of Magic in the Room, Chris and Luke discuss the lack of affordable housing options in many markets and how companies can respond to the challenge. This episode is based on an article Chris wrote for the October 2022 issue of Indian Gaming magazine, available at www.indiangaming.com/magazine/

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Links mentioned in this episode:

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Magic in the Room #123: Spreading Financial Freedom with Sherrie Grabot

Tue, 11 Oct 2022 14:14:53 GMT

This week on Magic in the Room, Hannah and Luke sit down with Sherrie Grabot, CEO and Founder of both GuidedChoice and 3Nickels. Together they discuss her journey to financial advisement, how we need to change the way we think about money, and what leaders can do to foster financial literacy within their organization.

GuidedChoice is a digital retirement advisory firm whose mission is to bring financial freedom to everyone, whether you are saving for, nearing, or in retirement. 3Nickels is a free companion app and a financial tool individuals can use to reach their goals and achieve financial freedom.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Contact Sherrie on LinkedIn .

Find GuidedChoice at www.guidedchoice.com

Find 3Nickels at 3nickels.com

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Magic in the Room #122: Protecting Tribal Sovereignty with NNAHRA Board Members Judith Wright, Anthony Tillman, Azadeh Tavakoli, and Suzanne Clem

Mon, 03 Oct 2022 23:16:43 GMT

The National Native American Human Resources Association (NNAHRA) has grown from a small gathering of HR professionals into a national organization representing over 400 tribes nationwide with a membership in the thousands. On this episode of Magic in the Room, Chris sat down with NNAHRA board members Judith Wright, Anthony Tillman, Azadeh Tavakoli, and Susan Clem to discuss the importance of Tribal sovereignty, changes in Tribal enterprise, and the future of NNAHRA.

For more information about NNAHRA, visit NNAHRA.org , or connect on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/nnahra .

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Judith Wright- NNAHRA President

Judy Wright is an enrolled member of the San Pasqual Band of Mission Indians and began her career in human resources in 1981 at Hewlett-Packard Company located in San Diego, California. In 2001, she joined Valley View Casino & Hotel, an enterprise of San Pasqual where she serves as Vice President of Human Resources.

Anthony Tillman- NNAHRA Vice President

Anthony Tillman is of Mohawk, Otoe-Missouria, and Muscogee (Creek) descent and has served as NNAHRA’s Vice President since 2015. Anthony is currently working for the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe as their Cannabis Compliance Manager.

Azadeh Tavakoli- NNAHRA Treasurer

Azadeh Tavakoli is both Meskwaki (Sac & Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa) and Iranian. Human Resources is her passion, and she has worked with both Tribal and Medical employers since 2007. She is proud to have served on the NNAHRA Board on and off since 2015.

Susan Clem – NNAHRA Secretary

Suzanne Clem is the Human Resources Director at Wildhorse Resort and Casino (WRC), owned by the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. Suzanne joined NNAHRA as a speaker back in 2006, and was elected to the board in 2008.

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Magic in the Room #121: Being Connected is an Inside Job

Tue, 27 Sep 2022 17:18:57 GMT

Being connected is everyone’s responsibility, and we all have to do the work of choosing to be connected. In this episode of Magic in the Room, Chris and Luke introduce a new way of thinking about connection with three components. We must be connected to self, a community, and to the present moment in time. Our need for connection can be fulfilled when these three components are in place.

This Magic in the Room episode was originally a webinar at a TribalHub event. Subscribe to their podcast at www.tribalhub.com/introducing-the-tribalhub-podcast-series . Special thanks to TribalHub for allowing us to use this recording.

TribalHub is a community of hundreds of leaders driving their organizations, collaborating with other tribal industry leaders, staying current with the technology trends, being savvy about security, and embracing the value of a peer support network at their fingertips. TribalHub is a membership based organization whose members receive many valuable, direct benefits as well as support the mission to bring additional services, events and resources to tribes across the nation

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Magic in the Room #120: Hope Theory with Special Guest Dr. Chan Hellman

Tue, 20 Sep 2022 10:40:01 GMT

Hope may seem like an intangible idea, but leaders can intentionally nurture hope in the people around them. In this replay episode of Magic in the Room, Chris, Hannah, and special guest Dr. Chan Hellman discuss the three elements of hope: Goals, Pathways, and Willpower. Leaders can develop hope by ensuring these three elements are present.

Chan Joined the University of Oklahoma in 2002. Chan is a professor in the Anne & Henry Zarrow School of Social Work and Founding Director of The Hope Research Center. Chan holds Adjunct Professor appointments in the Department of Internal Medicine and Department of Pediatrics for the OU College of Medicine and the Department of Health Promotion Sciences for the OU College of Public Health.

Chan has numerous scholarly publications in scientific journals, technical reports, books and has presented his research at both national and international conferences. Chan’s research is focused on the application of hope theory to those impacted by trauma and adversity. He is also interested in the impact of prevention and intervention services on increasing and sustaining client hope.

Chan teaches master’s and doctoral level students primarily in the areas of positive psychology, research methods, and statistics. He also directs student research in the areas of hope and nonprofit organizations.

Chan is a lifelong Oklahoman, and lives in Tulsa Oklahoma with his wife Kendra. They enjoy spending time with their children and grandchildren, traveling, and reading.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Hope Rising: How the Science of HOPE Can Change Your Life
The Transformational Consumer: Fuel a Lifelong Love Affair with Your Customers by Helping Them Get Healthier, Wealthier, and Wiser

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Magic in the Room #119: Psychological Safety with Guest Melissa Hughes

Sun, 11 Sep 2022 13:17:09 GMT

Belonging and psychological safety are key requirements for community, so how do we implement those in our organizations? This week on Magic in the Room, Luke and Hannah sit down with keynote speaker, author, and self-proclaimed neuroscience geek, Melissa Hughes, to discuss best practices regarding neurological safety and more.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Find Melissa at www.melissahughes.rocks or on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/melissahughesphd .

You can check out Melissa Hughes’ latest e-book, “Psychological Safety in a Virtual World” .

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Magic in the Room #118: Caring Leadership with guest Heather Younger

Tue, 06 Sep 2022 15:32:26 GMT

Caring Leadership shows concern and kindness to those who look to you for guidance. In this episode of Magic in the Room, Hannah and Luke are joined by guest Heather Younger to discuss why we need to be intentional to show up in a caring way for those we lead and how we can ensure we show care in purposeful ways, not just through random acts of kindness.

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Magic in the Room #117: Purpose Profile: Symon Hajjar and Hot Toast Music Co.

Tue, 30 Aug 2022 11:14:46 GMT

Symon Hajjar is the founder and creative mind behind Hot Toast Music Company. In this episode of Magic in the Room, Symon sits down with Hannah and Ben to talk about how music, creativity, and learning can all be rooted in purpose. Symon’s music is focused on kids but is full of “opportunity for wide-eyed innovators of all ages to join in the fun of self-discovery and creativity.”

Hot Toast Music Co. is the product of dad, educator and musician Symon Hajjar who writes irresistible kids’ music, all with purpose. Hajjar, or Mr. Symon as his students call him, draws inspiration from the way children often find magic in the mundane parts of life that are hidden in plain sight. For Hajjar, Hot Toast is not just "kids music" but an opportunity for wide-eyed innovators of all ages to join in the fun of self-discovery and creativity. Hajjar's stellar songwriting skills bring an easiness to talking about difficult or serious topics with kids, as well as delighting in the pure joy children find in simply being silly. Songs are anchored with creative activities that combine the tactile with the message of each song, turning each song into an opportunity for discovery!

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Find Symon and Hot Toast Music Company all over the Internet:

Links mentioned in this episode:

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Magic in the Room #116: Building a Coaching Culture for Higher Performance with Stephanie Licata and Emma Holland

Fri, 19 Aug 2022 13:37:19 GMT

In this episode of Magic in the Room, Luke is joined by coaching experts and PPG team members, Stephanie Licata and Emma Holland to discuss the importance of coaching culture, it’s place in the work environment, and how it can drastically improve your organization. Coaching is an investment, and as Steph succinctly puts it, “When you invest in your workforce, they will work for you, and they will produce for you.”

Learn more about how to create a coaching culture in your organization by watching our recent webinar Creating a Coaching Culture in Tribal Organizations: A Case Study. Find it at this link: www.purposeandperformancegroup.com/coaching-culture

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Links mentioned in this episode:

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Magic in the Room #115: Work as a Community with Guest Greg Robinson

Mon, 15 Aug 2022 17:44:25 GMT

People often talk about the idea of community, but the word can have a different meaning for everyone. In this episode of Magic in the Room, Hannah and Luke talk with guest Greg Robinson about what community means and the challenges of creating organizations where people have a sense of belonging.

Dr. Greg Robinson is currently the Associate Professor of Outdoor Leadership Ministries at John Brown University. Previously, he was the Program Director for HoneyRock, the Outdoor Center for Leadership Development of Wheaton College, as well as President of Challenge Quest, LLC in Pryor, Oklahoma, the Managing Member of Adventure Quest Recreation, LLC.

Dr. Robinson has a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior and Leadership from The Union Institute and University in Cincinnati, Ohio. He also has a M.S. in Counseling from John Brown University.

Dr. Robinson's professional career has concentrated in the areas of experiential learning, team development, leadership development, facilitation and consulting with organizational change efforts. He is the author of A Leadership Paradox: Influencing Others by Defining Yourself; Teams for a New Generation: A Facilitator’s Field Guide; Adventure and the Way of Jesus, Lessons of the Way: Using experiential activities to explore the way of Jesus; and Leading from Where You Are: How Every Person Can Help or Hinder a Collaborative Culture.

His family includes his wife of 28 years Jeannie, his daughter Keely and her fiancée Nick LaTurner, his sons Kobe and Kyle, as well as two grandsons Lucas and Max.

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Links mentioned in this episode:

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Magic in the Room #114: Disruptive Compensation

Tue, 09 Aug 2022 00:13:41 GMT

In this episode of Magic in the Room, Chris, Hannah, and Luke make the case that the traditional compensation formula of "wage + cost of benefits + cost of recognition programs" is inadequate for organizations that want to provide meaningful employment. Leaders must be willing to think about compensation in disruptive ways to attract and retain employees by using a new formula, "wage + cost of benefits + recognizing your needs." Recognizing people's needs means listening and being creative in ensuring employees' well-being.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Links mentioned in this episode:

Compensation by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink

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Magic in the Room #113: Community Based Employment

Mon, 01 Aug 2022 22:48:50 GMT

Many people are looking for more than a transactional paycheck from work. Understanding how to build community within your organization is good for people and will become necessary for retaining employees. In this episode of Magic in the Room, Hannah, Luke, and Chris discuss the idea of Community Based Employment and what it means to invite people into a community of people working together.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Other Magic in the Room episodes mentioned in this episode:

Question of the Day: Read Luke’s article What Elon Musk Should Have Said

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Magic in the Room #112: What We Are Reading - July 2022

Sun, 24 Jul 2022 16:04:47 GMT

In this episode of Magic in the Room, Hannah, Luke, and Chris share what they have been reading recently. Each resource is very different, but all point to a common theme: we all need connection with each other, but we live in a big system that makes that difficult. To have vibrant communities, relationships, and organizations, we must be intentional in creating them.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

What we are reading and watching:

Hannah: Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman
Luke: Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence by Anna Lembke
Chris: What Really Matters | Dave Stone

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Magic in the Room #111: Leadership in IT with Guest Michael Day

Sun, 17 Jul 2022 14:44:18 GMT

In the past, IT departments have often had a hard time just getting a seat at the leadership table of an organization. Today, technology is so integrated into every aspect of life that it has become imperative that all leaders think of themselves as technologists who can integrate IT into every function of their organization. In this episode of Magic in the Room, Chris, Luke, and guest Michael Day discuss the intersection of technology and leadership, and why you don’t have to be able to code to lead a successful IT department.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Michael Day is the Founder and Executive Officer of TribalHub. He is also the chairperson for not-for-profit Tribal Share and the Tribal-ISAC. These organizations all focus on equipping Tribal enterprises with effective IT solutions.

Find Michael LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/michaelday3
For more information about TribalHub visit www.tribalhub.com and learn more about The Tribal Information Sharing and Analysis Center (Tribal-ISAC) at tribalisac.org

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Magic in the Room #110: Designing Effective Online Meetings with Rachel Hicks

Tue, 12 Jul 2022 11:18:42 GMT

The COVID-19 Pandemic changed many things about how we work, including the need for more online meetings. In this Magic in the Room episode, Hannah and Luke talk to Rachel Hicks about how she creates meaningful connections while conducting meetings and workshops through Zoom. If you have any role in online meetings, Rachel’s tips and tricks can help you be more effective in having productive conversations and building relationships despite the challenges of meeting in virtual spaces.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Connect with Rachel Hicks at www.rachelhicksdesign.com on Instagram @rachelhicksdesign or on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/rachel-hicks-b4462728 .

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Magic in the Room #109: Applied Positive Psychology With Jean Philip Svartdahl

Tue, 05 Jul 2022 11:27:09 GMT

The emerging field of positive psychology studies what makes life most worth living. In this episode of Magic in the Room, Hannah, Luke, and guest Jean Philip Svartdahl discuss how leaders can apply the principles of positive psychology to increase the well-being of everyone in an organization.

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Links mentioned in this episode:

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Magic in the Room #108: Starting a Movement With Sarah Elkins

Fri, 24 Jun 2022 12:38:24 GMT

Often a group of people comes together around a shared purpose, but they need someone to take intentional action to form a strong and lasting community. In this episode of Magic in the Room, Hannah and Luke talk to Sarah Elkins about how she built a community of deeply connected people through the No Longer Virtual conference.

Connect with Sarah Elkins on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/thesmileisfree or at elkinsconsulting.com .

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Resources in this episode:

ZAG: The #1 Strategy of High-Performance Brands

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Magic in the Room #107: What New Leaders Need With Bella Butler

Tue, 21 Jun 2022 12:30:00 GMT

Bella Butler is the Managing Editor at Outlaw Partners. In this episode of Magic in the Room, Hannah, Luke, and Bella discuss the need to equip new leaders with passion, buy-in, and confidence to fill their roles in today’s ever-changing work environment.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Guest information:

Find Bella on LinkedIn
Find the publications and companies Bella writes for at www.explorebigsky.com/ , https://www.mtoutlaw.com/ , https://outlaw.partners/

Links from this episode:

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What Elon Musk Should Have Said

Tue, 21 Jun 2022 00:53:14 GMT

On May 31st Elon Musk sent this note to Tesla employees, and a nearly-identical one to SpaceX employees.

From: Elon Musk

To: “Everybody”

Tue. 5/31/2022 [time stamp redacted]

Subj: To be super clear

Everyone at Tesla is required to spend a minimum of forty hours in the office per week. Moreover, the office must be where your actual colleagues are located, not some remote pseudo-office.

If you don’t show up, we will assume you have resigned.

The more senior you are, the more visible must be your presence. That is why I lived in the factory so much- so that those on the line could see me working alongside them. If I had not done that, Tesla would long ago have gone bankrupt.

There are of course companies that don’t require this, but when was the last time they shipped a great new product? It’s been a while.

Tesla has and will create and actually manufacture the most exciting and meaningful products of any company on Earth. This will not happen by phoning it in.

Thanks,

Elon

Like many who read this when it leaked, I had a mix of feelings. My stomach dropped thinking of the moral dilemma many Tesla and SpaceX employees were now facing, especially those who will be asked to enforce Elon’s mandate (read more about the emerging concept of moral injury here ). My heart hurt for the partners, children, and other close connections of Elon’s employees who have created new ways of navigating work and life over the past 2 years, many of which are more sustainable, and are being asked to either reset back to a traditional approach to managing their priorities, or to expend more energy to reinvent their approach again or make the gut-wrenching decision to find another job, even knowing that many job-switchers are realizing they’ve been fooled again , and the new boss is the same as the old boss .

And then there’s Elon. Of course he has the right as an owner to ask whatever he pleases of employees, but the fact that one is operating within their rights doesn’t a good decision make. In choosing to frame employment almost exclusively as a transaction (I pay you dollars and in exchange you complete tasks for a set amount of hours), he unintentionally makes it clear that employees are only expected to transact as well, and his chances of building an organization where people bring passion to the table, and expend discretionary effort (the energy we put into work above and beyond the minimum expected transaction), are diminished. And in today’s world, where technique and technology are more commoditized with each passing year, cultures that foster discretionary effort are one of the increasingly few “hard-to-copy” competitive advantages a company can build.

I get it. Taking a transformational approach (usually focused on shared purpose and values, developing mindset and core competencies that are durable over time, and based on mutual affinity) is harder than executing a transactional approach (usually focused on outcomes and techniques). In this framework Elon’s approach seems foolish and short-sighted, but mostly what I feel for Elon is compassion. There is, after all, building evidence that leaders like Elon might be suffering from literal brain damage . He’s so far into his echo chamber that his view of work as a transaction is not something he’s likely to question.

So I decided to do Elon a favor and rewrite his memo.

From: Elon Musk

To: “Everybody”

Tue. 5/31/2022 [time stamp redacted]

Subj: To be super clear

First off, thank you for your continued commitment to our shared purpose: to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy. The last 2 years have tested our commitment to this purpose, but you’ve risen above the challenges and here we all are - continuing to innovate new and better ways to live it out!

Many of you are asking about a “return to the office” policy. I won’t pretend to know what the next 2 years will hold, but I know many of us are trying to discern how much time to spend back in the office now that it’s a safer choice. I personally like the idea of spending more time in face to face collaboration, especially for leaders who should be available for their team members, but everyone’s situation is different. I trust leaders to act with positive intent and innovate, no matter the solution they land on for this season for their teams. Here’s my ask of you as individuals:

Participate in helping our leaders discern our next steps. If you have ideas on how to evolve our thinking, share them! I’ll personally review any ideas on new models of employment that are sent my way.

We are a fair community. If you see something that isn’t fair, or sparks questions related to equity for all team members, please raise the flag quickly so we can address and clarify ambiguity as best we can.

Remember our purpose. If you see ideas that allow us to minimize our environmental impact in how we design employment please share.

As all companies are coming to realize these days, employment at Tesla is a product, and should be treated as such. Other companies may be stuck in the past, but we should aim to “ship” the most exciting and meaningful work experience of any company on earth.

Being the best version of Tesla will not happen by “phoning it in”. No matter where you work and how you engage, you are invited to bring your whole self to your work at Tesla. My commitment to you is that the members of the senior leadership team and myself will do the same.

Thanks,

Elon

Now, isn’t that more productive ( literally )? I’m hoping there’s a version of Elon in another dimension of the multiverse who chooses this one instead.

Postscript: If you’re curious about the science of transformational leadership, check out this conversation I had with my teammate Ben West.

You can download an in-depth explainer of the Purpose-to-Profit Chain here . The PPC provides a practical path for leaders who want to focus on building sustainable cultures of performance. Elon’s memo is a great example of leaders who focus on the outcomes of a healthy business without giving adequate attention to the inputs required for sustainable performance. This has obviously worked for him for a time, but as we’ve seen, the market for employment as a product is changing rapidly.

Magic in the Room #106: Creating Connection with Kurt Williams, Debbie Hawkins, and Chas Robbins

Tue, 14 Jun 2022 15:22:09 GMT

After this year's Casino Cash Trac user conference, Hannah and Luke had the opportunity to sit down with CCT Co-Founder & CEO Kurt Williams, along with Debbie Hawkins from Hawkins Consulting Services and Chas Robbins, from RSM, to discuss the why every company needs to consider the way that people connect to each other in the workplace.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Guest information:

Casino Cash Trac - https://casinocashtrac.com /
Casino Cash Trac - https://www.linkedin.com/company/casino-cash-trac/
Casino Cash Trac - https://www.facebook.com/CasinoCashTrac/

Kurt Williams - https://www.linkedin.com/in/j-kurt-williams-cpa-85b68749/
Debbie Hawkins - https://www.linkedin.com/in/debbie-hawkins-71b60b4/
Chas Robbins - https://www.linkedin.com/in/chasrobbins/
RSM - https://rsmus.com/

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Magic in the Room #105: Sustainable Marketing with Guest Katie Smith

Tue, 07 Jun 2022 00:01:07 GMT

For any business to truly fulfill its purpose, every aspect of the organization must be aligned, including marketing. In this episode of Magic in the Room, Hannah and Luke talk to guest Katie Smith about how to ensure your marketing approach contributes to your purpose in an honest, authentic, and sustainable way.

Find Katie on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/katiesmithwildpath or her website at followthewildpath.com

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Magic in the Room #104: A conversation with Geoffrey Standing Bear, Principal Chief of the Osage Nation

Thu, 02 Jun 2022 12:16:52 GMT

In this special episode of Magic in the Room, Luke and Chris had the opportunity to sit down with the Osage Nation Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear. Chief Standing Bear is in his second term as the Osage Nation Principal Chief, having previously practiced law, where he focused on federal Indian law. In this episode, Chris, Luke, and Chief Standing Bear discuss the history of the Osage Nation, current political events, and the upcoming Martin Scorsese film Killers of the Flower Moon.

Due to the length of this conversation, we have divided the episode into three parts, which are all available now:

Episode 104 Part 1: Traumatic history of the Osage Nation with guest Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear
Episode 104 Part 2: Leading the Osage Nation with guest Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear
Episode 104 Part 3: Looking to the future of the Osage Nation with guest Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear

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Magic in the Room #103: Social-ecological Systems with Dr. Brooke Lahneman

Tue, 31 May 2022 01:03:59 GMT

Find Brooke’s website at www.montana.edu/business/directory/2053270/brooke-lahneman , and on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/brooke-lahneman-4aa0316/

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Magic in the Room #102: Being Resilient with Lorca Smetana

Wed, 25 May 2022 14:39:13 GMT

Lorca Smetana has spent her entire life understanding resilience. Born into a climbing community, she was a survivor of the Mt. Hood climbing tragedy that took the lives of nine students and teachers when she was sixteen. In this episode of Magic in the Room, Hannah, Luke, and Lorca discuss the idea that becoming resilient is not just a list of techniques to follow but a deep approach to life that requires practice and self-reflection.

Find Lorca Smetana at:

Website: lorcasmetana.com
On LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/lorca-smetana/
On Facebook at www.facebook.com/lorca.smetana

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Magic in the Room #101: Being the Best in the World with Eric Ladd

Tue, 17 May 2022 18:58:54 GMT

What does it take to be the best in the world? Eric Ladd and his company Outlaw Partners founded Big Sky PBR, which has been voted the Professional Bull Riding Event of the Year eight years in a row, so he knows something about being the best. In this episode of Magic in the Room, Hannah and Luke sit down with Eric to talk about running a successful business with passion and a focus on community that also delivers world-class results.

Find out more about Eric, Outlaw Partners and PBR Big Sky:

Outlaw Partners at outlaw.partners
Outlaw Partners on LinkedIn
Outlaw Partners on Facebook
Big Sky PBR at www.bigskypbr.com/
Big Sky PBR on Facebook

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Magic in the Room #100: What We Have Learned From 100 Episodes

Tue, 10 May 2022 18:59:14 GMT

We made it to 100 episodes of Magic in the Room! In this episode, Luke, Hannah, and Chris reflect on what we have all learned together by recording 100 intentional conversations. Everyone who has listened, contributed, commented, and supported us are part of this milestone, and we are grateful to you all! This episode was originally recorded and streamed live.

During this episode Luke, Hannah, and Chris each mention an episode that had a big impact on them. Here they are:

Luke: Magic in the Room #79: How to Develop Leaders with Greg Robinson

This conversation with Greg Robinson helped Luke understand that leadership is not defined solely by the science of best practices, behaviors, and competencies. Rather, leaders are also defined by their character, values, and conviction.

Hannah: Magic in the Room #65: The Hope Theory with Special Guest Dr. Chan Hellman

This conversation with Dr. Chan Hellman helped Hannah understand hope as a tangible idea that can be measured. People with hope have a vision, a pathway to accomplishing the vision, and the agency to execute that plan, which is in direct contrast to someone who dreams of a better future but has no hope of that dream ever becoming a reality

Chris: Magic in the Room #84: Win and Help Win in Tribal Enterprise with Brian Gooden

Episode 84 included a conversation with Brian Gooden about what it means to be a Warrior or an Elder, in particular in the context of Tribal Enterprises. Elders provide counsel, and Warriors take action to be responsible for people’s well-being, which does not necessarily mean bearing arms in battle.

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Magic in the Room #99: Purpose Profile with Brad O'Hara

Tue, 19 Apr 2022 22:59:28 GMT

People who live intentionally to fulfill their purpose are an inspiration to us. In this episode of Magic in the Room, Luke and Ben sit down with Brad O'Hara to discuss what it takes for someone to choose to live a life or purpose and some of the challenges we all face in making an intentional impact on the world. Brad and his family embody the idea of living a life that impacts others for good, and we can all learn from his story.

Brad O’Hara is the founder and owner of Story Catcher Studio in Tulsa, OK, where Magic in the Room is recorded. He and his wife Jeanette O'Hara founded Will’s House to help families caring for children and young adults with disabilities feel loved and supported.

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Magic in the Room #98: At Our Best

Tue, 19 Apr 2022 22:52:40 GMT

Understanding and sharing our best attributes in a group is a great way to be more aware of our strengths, and build trust and community within a team. In this episode of Magic in the Room, Luke, Hannah, and Chris use one of our favorite strength discovery tools, the At My Best cards, to model an easy way you can learn about the strengths of people on your team.

At My Best Cards: atmybest.com

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Magic in the Room #97: Transactional vs. Transformational Organizations

Tue, 12 Apr 2022 18:15:12 GMT

Transformational organizations create change in the people and teams so they can perform beyond their perceived abilities. In the episode of Magic in the Room, Luke and Ben contrast transformational and transactional organizations and discuss how to structure a business to call people to greatness.

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Magic in the Room #96: What Should I Do Now - Create Quick Wins

Tue, 05 Apr 2022 17:29:41 GMT

The uncertainty and stress of the last few years have left many leaders asking a big question: “What should I do now?” In this episode of Magic in the Room, we continue our series to help every leader answer that question. Join Luke, Hannah, and Chris as they discuss the importance of creating quick wins so that people can see progress and have hope that big goals can be accomplished.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Research in this episode:

Magic in the Room #65: The Hope Theory with Special Guest Dr. Chan Hellman
The Goal by Eliyahu Goldratt

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Magic in the Room #95: What Should I Do Now: Invest in Leaders

Tue, 29 Mar 2022 12:07:02 GMT

The uncertainty and stress of the last few years have left many leaders asking a big question: “What should I do now?” In this episode of Magic in the Room, we continue our series to help every leader answer that question. Join Luke, Hannah, and Chris as they discuss the importance of investing in leadership development now, so your organization has leaders who are ready when challenges come.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Research in this episode:

Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader by Herminia Ibarra

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Magic in the Room #94: What Should I Do Now: Reflect on Your Leadership Approach

Mon, 21 Mar 2022 23:35:10 GMT

The uncertainty and stress of the last few years have left many leaders asking a big question: “What should I do now?” In this episode of Magic in the Room, we continue our series to help every leader figure out how to lead through the changes brought by COVID, The Great Resignation, and relentless change. The second step leaders need to take is to reflect on how they want to lead and to adapt to a new situation. Join Luke and Ben as they use The Leadership Challenge as a framework for reflection on how leadership is changing.

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Research in this episode:

The Leadership Challenge by James M Kouzes, Barry Z Posner: www.leadershipchallenge.com

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Magic in the Room #93: What Should I Do Now: Learn the Truth

Thu, 17 Mar 2022 15:50:01 GMT

The uncertainty and stress of the last few years have left many leaders asking a big question: “What should I do now?” In this episode of Magic in the Room, we kick off a short series to help every leader figure out how to lead through the changes brought by COVID, The Great Resignation, and relentless change. The first step leaders need to take is to challenge their assumptions and learn the truth. Join Luke, Hannah, and Chris as they discuss ways to determine what people you lead need from you as a leader.

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Magic in the Room #92: Living Purpose - The Institute for Shelter Care with Jeanne Allert

Wed, 09 Mar 2022 12:32:42 GMT

When we listen to other people’s stories, we may realize there are challenges in the world that are bigger than ourselves. Sometimes we are compelled to take on these challenges and change the world around us. In this episode of Magic in the Room, Hannah and Chris are joined by guest Jeanne Allert, who tells her story of living a purpose-driven life by making sure victims of sex trafficking have access to qualified, compassionate care through The Samaritan Women Institute for Shelter Care.

Jeanne L. Allert, Ph.D. is the Founder and Executive Director of The Samaritan Women Institute for Shelter Care. In 2007 Jeanne was convicted to leave the trappings of a lucrative career as an Internet consultant to establish one of the first long-term restorative care programs in the Mid-Atlantic for victims of domestic sex trafficking. She immersed herself in learning—mostly from survivors themselves—and created TSW-ISC’s unique Care Model. Over the years TSW expanded its service and took on several national research projects. In 2018-2019 she led the organization through a major shift to create the Institute of Shelter Care, which leverages the expertise of TSW-ISC and industry peers across the country to train and mentor new shelter programs in the areas of greatest need.

Find out more about Jeanne and her work at thesamaritanwomen.org

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Magic in the Room #91: The Fundamentals of Service

Tue, 01 Mar 2022 20:55:11 GMT

Every industry requires service. In this episode of Magic in the Room, Luke, Hannah, and Chris discuss how to deliver outstanding customer service by developing high trust relationships, being responsive, and providing quality. Focusing on the Big Six of Clean, Safe, Comfortable, Fun, Fast, and Friendly in many industries will ensure customer satisfaction.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Research in this episode:

The bounds of service and the Service Profit Chain (PDF)

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Magic in the Room #90: Using Flow State to Care for Your Team's Wellbeing

Mon, 21 Feb 2022 16:24:10 GMT

The ongoing effects of the great resignation, changing job markets, and COVID have left leaders with the difficult task of guiding tired, overworked, and often traumatized teams. Leaders must care for the well-being of team members while keeping performance high. In this episode of Magic in the Room, Luke, Hannah, and Chris discuss how Mihály Csíkszentmihályi's concept of Flow State allows leaders to match the level of challenge to the team's ability.

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Research in this episode:

THE COVID STATES PROJECT: A 50-STATE COVID-19 SURVEY REPORT #54: MENTAL HEALTH IN THE US - http://news.northeastern.edu/uploads/COVID-19_CONSORTIUM_REPORT_54_DEPRESSION-May2021.pdf
Flow State - https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Graph-of-Csikszentmihalyis-flow-state-when-a-persons-ability-to-execute-a-task_fig1_279226015
This could be why you're depressed or anxious - Johann Hari: https://www.ted.com/talks/johann_hari_this_could_be_why_you_re_depressed_or_anxious?language=en
Everything you think you know about addiction is wrong - Johann Hari: https://www.ted.com/talks/johann_hari_everything_you_think_you_know_about_addiction_is_wrong

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The Power of Capitalism in Community

Wed, 16 Feb 2022 17:20:11 GMT

Capitalism is a good thing. It has lifted more people out of poverty and had a greater positive impact on populations around the world than any other system in human history. No other system has led to more innovation, more interconnectedness, and more value - literally transforming the planet and enriching daily existence for billions of people. But the reason for capitalism’s success is more complex than the mere pursuit of wealth. It’s the end result of the products of capitalism, the “why” behind what truly motivates people to take big risks and accomplish great things - and inspire others to join them - that has caused the free market to be so wildly successful.

Businesses exist to make money, but that’s not the end state. Wealth by itself is worthless. It’s static and not meaningful. It’s what we choose to do with our resources that gives wealth its power. How can we use wealth to increase our comfort level and enrich our lives? How can we share it with others to encourage further innovation and freedom for those around us? How can we invest it in our community to provide basic needs, increase prosperity, and encourage a sense of belonging for everyone in our ecosystem? If you can answer these questions when explaining the “why” of your business’ existence, if you understand the next-level result that your business’ wealth accomplishes, then you understand your true purpose, and financial success will come naturally.

In his book Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business , Whole Foods co-founder John Mackey discusses how four tenets - higher purpose, stakeholder integration, conscious leadership, and conscious culture and management - can build strong businesses that foster a better environment for everyone. Mackey uses the analogy of a caterpillar for individuals as well as businesses. We can choose to remain as a caterpillar, consuming all we can and giving back little, or we can transform into beings who help create value for others and make the world more beautiful. If we remain as caterpillars, focused solely on profit for profit’s sake, then sooner or later our resources will run out and our accomplishments will be forgotten. If, however, we focus on how we can use our resources to provide meaning for ourselves and those around us, then we will create long-lasting businesses that deliver real value on multiple levels for everyone they touch. This then creates a virtuous circle, where we create wealth in order to provide value, and the value we provide produces yet greater wealth.

In Magic in The Room Podcast Episode 75: Building Community with Your Business , Chris and Luke explore these concepts with John Stewart, President of Encompass Design, Develop, & Construct LLC, an architectural authority in the gaming and hospitality industry. Encompass has taken the bold step of investing 50% of company profits directly into the communities in which they live and work, directly empowering employees to decide when and how to share this investment. This practice allows Encompass’ employees to personally witness the effects of the value created by Encompass and create a real and tangible understanding of the true “why” of their business. In turn, as community members are directly impacted by the generosity of Encompass, they are more personally invested in the success of the company, creating value on multiple levels for everyone involved.

What is your why? How can you leverage a higher purpose, stakeholder integration, and conscious leadership and culture to make your community a better place while at the same time increasing the success of your business? Luke recommends three simple best practices:

Understand your “why”
Create a cadence that allows routine touch points with all stakeholders
Empower people to do things that matter.

Through these intentional actions, we can create a perpetual cycle of increasing multi-level value for ourselves and those around us. For the full discussion on the power of capitalism in the community, check out Magic in The Room Podcast Episode 75: Building Community with Your Business.

Magic in the Room #89: Creating an Innovative Environment with Kevin R. Strauss

Tue, 15 Feb 2022 12:03:00 GMT

Many companies strive to be innovative, but they don't create a culture and environment that encourages innovation. In this episode of Magic in the Room, Hannah and Ben join guest Kevin Strauss to discuss his new book, Innovate the 1%. Kevin makes the case that the real foundation of innovation is healthy, high trust, relationships.

Find Kevin and his book Innovate the 1% at kevinrstrauss.com or on LinkedIn .

Find Kevin’s company at UchiConnection.com

About Kevin Strauss

Kevin R. Strauss, M.E. loves solving problems. He has earned over 75 patents and published more than 10 peer-reviewed papers across multiple industries. He has earned two industry awards for innovation. Kevin’s ideas have helped save lives around the world and generate billions of dollars in revenue. Kevin believes everyone can innovate and he teaches the diverse array of people in organizations and schools how to strengthen the foundational areas.

Find Kevin’s book Innovate the 1% at kevinrstrauss.com/innovatethe1percent/

Listen now on your favorite platform!

Research in this episode:

Link Sarah Elkins No longer Virtual Conference: elkinsconsulting.com/nlv-parkcityut-2021
Michal Leberman’s TEDx talk The Social Brain And Its Superpowers: www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6L3UMlpn78

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Magic in the Room #88: Birthright Living Legacy with Marquess Dennis Sr.

Wed, 09 Feb 2022 02:41:23 GMT

Someone with an Ignitor Mindset is willing to take on any challenge and cares for the needs of others. In this episode of Magic in the Room, special guest Marquess Dennis Sr. tells his story of how working jobs that range from marketing to being a DJ, a stop in prison, and learning to commit to constant growth lead him to start Birthright Living Legacy, an organization that equips men to be part of their children’s lives. Marquess embodies Ignitor Mindset and is working to make the world better.

Find Marquess and the organizations he is part of here:

Marquess on LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/marquessdennis
Birthright Living Legacy - brlivinglegacy.com
Tulsa Dream Center - www.tulsadreamcenter.org

Research in this episode:

The Aladdin Factor: How to Ask for What You Want--And Get It by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, Ben Holden-Crowther

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We Can Choose Our Response to Stress

Wed, 02 Feb 2022 22:39:01 GMT

The last few years have had historic levels of stress that layer the challenges of COIVD on top of the stress of normal life.

The big question: When things get stressful, can we choose to stay connected with the people around us?

When we are under pressure our brain defaults to our highest level of habit. This is often, but not always, to turn more inward and be less connected. These habits may be positive or negative behaviors, such as turning inward, avoiding, or reaching out to friends for support.

Yes, but: By being aware of our mindset, habits, and assumptions we can intentionally choose how we will respond to stress.

Our thought bubble: Stress may be misunderstood. If we want to live a life of purpose we will encounter stress, but it can be good for you if you believe it is.

The bottom line: We get to choose how we will respond to stress, challenge, and setback. Our response can drive us to stay connected with people or turn inward and be isolated. To be resilient we have to choose to stay connected.

What's next: Here are three things you can do today to stay engaged when stress is high.

Face your challenges with other people. Dispel the fear of failure and rejection and walk with other people who are willing to support you and tell you the truth with love.
Work for a flow state where skill meets the level of challenge we face.
Reflect on your experiences so you can celebrate success and practice gratitude.

We want to know: What can you do today to stay connected despite the challenges you face?

For an in depth conversation about our response to stress check out Magic in the Room Episode #87: Stress Can be Helpful with Bob Schooley.

Magic in the Room #87: Stress Can be Helpful with Bob Schooley

Sun, 30 Jan 2022 15:36:22 GMT

The last few years have had historic levels of stress that layer the challenges of COVID on top of ordinary life. When stress mounts, we all turn to habitual behaviors to cope, which are often not healthy. In this episode of Magic in the Room, Hannah, Luke, and guest Bob Schooley discuss how we can stay connected to other people in difficult times and even change our perspective to see stress as a positive force in our lives.

Research in this episode comes from The Upside of Stress: Why Stress Is Good for You, and How to Get Good at It by Kelly McGonigal

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Magic in the Room #86: A Party Where Everyone Belongs with Toneille Bent

Sun, 23 Jan 2022 20:53:19 GMT

Toneille Bent’s family threw great parties where everyone was welcome and belonged. In this episode of Magic in the Room, Hannah, Luke, and special guest Toneille Bent talk about what it takes to build organizations where everyone belongs, just like those parties. Diversity, equity, and inclusion are characteristics of these organizations, but it takes intentionality, vulnerability, humanity, and courage to reach these ideals.

Find Toneille Bent on Instagram @essencetialtruths and LinkedIn

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Magic in the Room #85: Three Takeaways for 2022 from the State of the Global Workplace Survey with Bob Schooley

Tue, 18 Jan 2022 01:21:54 GMT

70% of an employee’s experience is tied to their relationship with their supervisor or manager and other facts you need to know from Gallup’s 2021 State of the Global Workplace survey.

Every year Gallup publishes a report about the workplace. 2021’s report gave us a lot to think about and some critical areas to focus on in 2022. In this episode of Magic in the Room, Chris, Luke, and guest Bob Schooley discuss three key takeaways from the State of the Global Workplace: 2021 Report by Gallup.

Research in this episode:

The research in this episode comes from the State of the Global Workplace: 2021 Report by Gallup

70% of an employee’s experience is tied to their relationship with their supervisor or manager
82% of the time companies fail to choose the candidate with the right talents to be an effective manager.
Only 31% of managers strongly agree that someone at work encourages their development.
Managers also report higher levels of stress, burnout and physical well being then the people they manage.

We referenced Magic in the Room #41: Purpose, Profit & the Role of Service

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Leadership Behaviors for the Stages of Group Development During the Great Resignation

Sun, 16 Jan 2022 22:02:32 GMT

Bruce Tuckeman’s stage of group development is an explanation of behavioral patterns people on a team go through as they learn to work together. There are several variations on the model, but most commonly the stage are defined as:

Forming - People are trying to figure out their roles and purpose in the group.
Storming - Conflict may arise as members of the team learn how each other work, hierarchy forms and individual differences emerge.
Norming - The team establishes behavior, role, and value standards.
Performing - The team performing at its highlights potential.
Adjourning - The team’s time together comes to an end.

In Magic in the Room #70: Stages of Team Development , Hannah, Luke, and Ben discussed specific strategies for helping teams stay effective when the group’s makeup and tasks are constantly changing. The changes we are seeing now in the way people work mean that teams are not necessarily stable. They change members and tasks often. During times of change leaders must be particularly aware of the stage their team is in, and what their team needs to perform at a high level.

Here is one simple thing you can do for each stage of team development to ensure high performance.

Forming - Be clear about the ground rules. Make sure everyone on the team knows what is ok and what is not. Many leaders fail at this stage because they don’t give enough direction. Leaders may desire to empower their team, or they fear micromanaging, but rather than giving good guidelines the leader is absent or silent when direction is needed.

Storming - Leaders need to be comfortable with healthy conflict. Leaders must recognize that conflict is needed for high performance and may even uncover conflict that exists but no one has acknowledged. However, leaders must be aware that relational conflict is not healthy. Conflict must focus on the task and how to accomplish it, but it cannot be about people's worth or character. Leaders must be comfortable with healthy conflict while building trust to minimize relational conflict.

Norming - Don’t get stuck in the norming stage. Leaders must constantly adjust the level of work so that performance stays high. On one hand, leaders can risk pushing a team too hard too fast and creating anxiety. On the other hand, not challenging the team enough can cause people to become bored and disengaged. You must be constantly aware of the team's current state and adjust tasks and work level as needed.

Performing - Celebrate! Leaders must celebrate what is going well, capture best practices and replicate them. Keep people engaged by giving meaningful recognition and feedback.

Adjourning - As a team disbands or changes membership, be sure and give people time to process the experience, celebrate what was accomplished, and learn new best practices for their next team. Conducting a retrospective or debrief is critical to ending well.

Leaders who are aware of these stages can respond effectively no matter what the team's situation is. Spend some time reflecting on the teams you lead. What stage are they in? How do you need to adjust your approach based on that stage?

For an in depth discussion of these stages listen to Magic in the Room #70: Stages of Team Development on your favorite podcast player, or below.

Use the Six Discoveries in 2022

Wed, 12 Jan 2022 19:51:23 GMT

The end of the year is a great time to reflect on 2021 and plan for 2022. Below you will find a guide for using The Six Discoveries to reflect on the past year.

Why it matters:   If we do not take time to reflect on our experiences we do not learn from them, and we do not adjust our course for the future. No matter the form, reflection helps us learn and grow.

Go deeper: The Six Discoveries are six areas of focus for anyone who wants to become their best. For a full explanation be sure and listen to Ep 71 of Magic in the Room .

What's next: Use the reflection questions below to evaluate the past year, and plan for the next. This is a valuable exercise anytime, not just the end of the year.

Ignitor Mindset: Cultivate a growth and outward mindset

In the last year, what are the challenges I embraced? How did I grow?
In the last year, how did I take other peoples needs and desires into account when I made decisions?
For the next year, what challenges or learning am I avoiding that I need to embrace?
For the Next year, who do I need to seek out and understand their needs before making decisions or taking action?

Role Clarity: Clearly identify your roles, and what it means to be successful at each

What role was I most effective at this year? Why?
In what areas must I work to define my role more clearly?
Is there a role I need to take on or stop doing?

Purpose Clarity: Declare an authentic purpose

What is my purpose? Does it need to be revised?
What did I do to live my purpose this year?
What areas do I need to focus on in the coming year to be even more effective?

Commitments: Take action on your daily commitments

What commitment did I keep this year? What was the result?
What commitments do I need to get rid of, change, or add for the next year to activate my purpose?

Execution: Do the projects and learn the skills needed to live your purpose.

What projects were finished this year that need to be celebrated?
What do you need to learn or plan for next year to execute more effectively?

Resilience: Recover quickly from disruption and sustain performance

How did I show resilience this year?
What assumptions kept me from being resilient this year?
What practices do I need to embrace to become an authentically resilient person?

The bottom line: Using these questions to get ready for the coming year will help you learn and grow in effectiveness. Let us know what you learn about yourself and your plans for the coming year.

Go deeper: To hear Hannah, Luke, and Chris answer some of these questions for themselves and model how this reflection can work check on Ep 83 of Magic in the Room.

Magic in the Room #84: Win and Help Win in Tribal Enterprise with Brian Gooden

Tue, 11 Jan 2022 19:21:11 GMT

A Casino General Manager has a unique responsibility to the community they work in.

Leaders in Tribal Enterprises have the unique responsibility to run their business well and provide leadership and resources to their wider community. In this episode of Magic in the Room, Chris, Luke, and guest Brian Gooden discuss his responsibility as a casino GM to provide opportunity, care, and protection to the people in the Tribe.

Find Brian Gooden on LinkedIn .

Find Brian’s Etsy shop Sovernly at www.etsy.com/shop/Sovernly and on Instagram at www.instagram.com/sovernlyshop.

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Magic in the Room #83: Reflecting on 2021 and Planning for 2022

Tue, 04 Jan 2022 14:10:40 GMT

Intentional reflection is a key to learning and growth.

Now is a great time to reflect on the last year and what you will focus on for 2022. In this episode of Magic in the Room, Hannah, Luke, and Chris use The Six Discoveries to model one way to reflect on the past year and plan for the next.

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Magic in the Room #81: Productivity Superpower - Self Development

Tue, 21 Dec 2021 17:47:51 GMT

We discuss the strengths and weaknesses of Self Development.

We are at our best when we lean into our strengths. Identifying your productivity superpower will ensure you work in the most effective areas. In this episode of Magic in the Room, Luke and Chris identify Hannah’s superpower, Self Development, or committing to continually improving themselves and knowing what strengths should apply in different situations.

Research in this episode:

The superpowers in this episode come from the book FYI: For Your Improvement from www.kornferry.com .

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Magic in the Room #80: Productivity Superpower - Strategic Mindset

Tue, 14 Dec 2021 20:30:55 GMT

We discuss the strengths and weaknesses of having a Strategic Mindset.

We are at our best when we lean into our strengths. Identifying your productivity superpower will ensure you work in the most effective areas. In this episode of Magic in the Room, Hannah and Chris identify Luke’s superpower, Strategic Mindset, or the ability to look into the future, see ahead, identify possibilities, and translate that possibility into strategy.

Research in this episode:

The superpowers in this episode come from the book FYI: For Your Improvement from www.kornferry.com .

Question of the Day: Question Card Resources

The card decks in the Question of the Day come from several sources including Conversation Creator Cards from biglifejournal.com, and question cards from poddecks.com .

Find our latest online learning courses at www.purposeandperformancegroup.com/online-learning

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Magic in the Room #79: How to Develop Leaders with Greg Robinson

Tue, 07 Dec 2021 12:57:31 GMT

Every organization says they want good leaders. But what does it take to develop them?

How do people become leaders? In this episode of Magic in the Room, Luke, Chris, and special guest Greg Robinson discuss what it takes to build leaders in today’s organizations. Greg believes that developing leaders is deceptively simple. You have to teach them to listen inwardly and challenge their assumptions, mindset, and emotion, so they become the kind of person who does the right thing naturally. However, this is not easy work and requires courage, perseverance, and wisdom.

Dr. Greg Robinson is the Associate Professor of Outdoor Leadership Ministries at John Brown University. His experience includes working as the Program Director for HoneyRock, the Outdoor Center for Leadership Development of Wheaton College, as well as President of Challenge Quest, LLC in Pryor, Oklahoma, the Managing Member of Adventure Quest Recreation, LLC.

Greg has a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior and Leadership from The Union Institute and University in Cincinnati, Ohio and an M.S. in Counseling from John Brown University.

Greg is the author of several books, including A Leadership Paradox: Influencing Others by Defining Yourself; Teams for a New Generation: A Facilitator’s Field Guide; Adventure and the Way of Jesus, Lessons of the Way: Using experiential activities to explore the way of Jesus; and Leading from Where You Are: How Every Person Can Help or Hinder a Collaborative Culture.

Research in this episode:

Find our latest online learning courses at www.purposeandperformancegroup.com/online-learning

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Magic in the Room #78: Creating a Better Way With Chandy O'Neal

Wed, 01 Dec 2021 13:15:09 GMT

The foodservice and hospitality industry can be a tough place to work. Chandy O'Neal is working toward a better way.

The foodservice and hospitality industry can be a hard place to work. The fast pace, high stress, and high turnover can combine to create unhealthy work environments. However, it does not have to be that way. In this episode of Magic in the Room, Hannah, Ben, and Chandy O'Neal talk about her desire to create a better way for an industry ready for change.

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Magic in the Room #77: Thanksgiving - Reflecting on Gratitude

Tue, 23 Nov 2021 12:59:41 GMT

Reflecting on what we are grateful for is critical for building resilience. Plus, we debate pumpkin pie.

As the year comes to a close, this is a great time to reflect on what you are grateful for. In this episode, Chris, Bob, and Ben discuss why gratitude is important and share some things they are thankful for from the last year. They also debate the merits of pumpkin pie and other Thanksgiving staples.

Research in this episode:

Thick Face, Black Heart: The Asian Path to Thriving
Winning & Succeeding by Chin-Ning Chu

Question of the Day Resources:

Find Thumballs at www.thumball.com
Find our online course Ignite Your Purpose at www.purposeandperformancegroup.com/online-learning

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Magic in the Room #76: The Six Discoveries - The Science of Getting S**t Done

Wed, 10 Nov 2021 13:40:15 GMT

Execution is the test of an entire system's ability to produce results.

Execution is getting stuff done. In this episode of Magic in the Room, Hannah, Chris, and Luke discuss how to know if you are successfully executing the most important tasks, and give practical tips for ensuring you maximize every day.

Find Nir Eyal’s work at: www.nirandfar.com

Question of the Day Resources:

Find Thumballs at www.thumball.com
Find our online course Ignite Your Purpose at www.purposeandperformancegroup.com/online-learning

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Overcoming Trauma With the Tribe

Wed, 10 Nov 2021 13:39:41 GMT

At some point in our lives, we all face trauma - difficult or unpleasant experiences that cause stress, injury, or other negative outcomes. Trauma can be physical, emotional, or both. It can be minor or devastating. Trauma can also be acute - resulting from a single incident; chronic - based on repeated and prolonged exposure; or complex - resulting from exposure to varied and multiple traumatic events. Trauma can also be experienced on individual, organizational, and community levels. But one thing is certain - we will all face trauma of one type or another at some point. Our ability to recognize, respond to, and move through that trauma will make the difference between successful or unsuccessful outcomes.

Almost everyone exposed to trauma has some kind of short-term reaction to it - an adrenaline rush, heightened vigilance, anger, depression, extreme mood swings, etc. Anthropologically, these reactions have evolved to help keep us alive, and are perfectly healthy responses to traumatic events. Vigilance enables us to detect threats, adrenaline helps us flee from them, anger prepares us to fight them, and even depression allows us to calm down and decompress afterwards. For a small percentage of those who experience trauma, however, these reactions can create long-term, unhealthy consequences over years or even a lifetime - such as an inability to adjust, poor decision-making, or crippling anxiety. So what can we do to take advantage of a traumatic experience and mitigate the long-term negative consequences while emerging more resilient than when we started?

In his bestselling book Tribe , Sebastian Junger explores why traumatic experiences can increase organizational loyalty, and why organizational belonging is so essential in overcoming traumatic events. Studying individuals and organizations as diverse as soldiers returning from war, Holocaust survivors, and communities recovering from natural disasters, Junger has found that hardship can turn out to be a great blessing, and that disasters are often remembered more fondly than exotic family vacations. The factor that makes the difference is “social resilience.” Adversity typically leads people to depend more on one another, and despite the individual stresses and dangers, there can be a net gain in social well-being. Individuals who are able to rely on each other and develop deep connections through shared experiences are much more likely to overcome and even thrive from traumatic events, in both the short- and long-term, than those who endure them in isolation. Contributing to the benefit of a larger community helps trauma survivors feel necessary and productive, greatly increasing resilience. Says Junger, “Humans don’t mind hardship...what they mind is not feeling necessary.”

As leaders, our organizations look to us to help guide them through traumatic events and get the team to a better place. We have the unique opportunity to either enhance the social resilience of our organization or to diminish it. It’s up to us to facilitate a sense of belonging, to offer everyone the opportunity to contribute, and to create an environment of inclusiveness. The good news is that these conditions are mutually supportive. Creating a supportive environment for the individual benefits the social resilience of the organization, and vice versa, helping the organization and individual alike overcome and thrive from trauma.

The way in which we perceive our experiences creates our reality. Said another way, it’s not only about what happens to us, but what we think about what happens to us. Because everyone perceives things differently, it’s not only possible, but probable, that a given event will create multiple perceptions of what caused that event and what needs to be done about it. Since no individual has all of the answers, collaboration is key. Collaboration allows an opportunity for all team members to contribute, provides a broader perspective of the environment, and places the traumatic event in the appropriate context. The critical first step to collaboration is listening. Listening leads to shared understanding, shared understanding builds trust, and increased trust, in turn, will ultimately increase social resilience, resulting in better decisions and outcomes.

This process can be painful. It’s never easy to hear about challenges - especially when, as leaders, we feel personally responsible (rightly or wrongly) for those challenges. But we have to be willing to accept the reality of the current situation. Before we can adopt behaviors to alleviate trauma, we have to understand the root cause or causes as perceived by our team members. When people tell you something’s not right, listen and take them seriously. Respect their opinion and try to find the validity in it even if you disagree. Being willing to accept various assessments of what went wrong and admit - or even embrace - the current reality is the necessary first step in developing an appropriate way ahead toward the desired end state. The more willing we are to embrace and share the pain of the current situation, the more likely we will be to arrive at a better result, and the more socially resilient our organization - and the individuals within - will become.

For an in-depth discussion on leadership in times of trauma, check out the Magic in the Room Podcast Episode 69: Leading When People Experience Trauma , with special guest Chris King, Licensed Professional Counselor, of Chris King Counseling, LLC.

The Six Discoveries of High Performance

Mon, 08 Nov 2021 02:40:26 GMT

“Life is hard, the sooner we accept this fact the easier it becomes. But life is also remarkable, if only we choose courage over comfort.” - Chris Province, P&PG Principal for Intentionality and Brand Alignment

Yes, life can be difficult, and being a leader can make it even more so, as others look to us to guide them through their difficulties. But successfully leading others through the challenges of life can make our own lives even more rewarding as we help those around us achieve success. In Magic in the Room Podcast Episode 71: The Six Discoveries of High Performance , Chris recently shared his reflections from decades of leadership experience. Throughout his growth journey as a leader, Chris has overcome numerous challenges, facing each one head-on as an opportunity to learn, grow, and emerge better than he began. Chris has distilled his insights into six distinct discoveries that we can apply in our daily business and personal lives as leaders. Through application of these discoveries, we can act with intentionality, focus our efforts, and harness the talents of ourselves and our teams to succeed no matter the odds.

Discovery #1: Ignitor Mindset . Ignitor Mindset, the combination of Growth & Outward Mindsets, is the recognition that success is an approach, not a result. Through Growth Mindset, we consistently strive to be our best selves every day, while realizing that tomorrow’s version of our best selves will be even better than today’s. Through Outward Mindset, we embrace an obligation to facilitate that same mindset in those around us and to assist and encourage them to be their best selves. By making deliberate decisions each day framed by these mindsets, we can make even far-reaching goals attainable. This creates a virtuous cycle. As we grow our skills, we become more valuable to our teams, and as we help our team members grow their own skills, they in turn become more valuable to us - the benefits are mutually supporting. Success begets greater success, teams become stronger, and the cycle continues. But without continuous intentional effort, all systems tend toward entropy and atrophy. Complacency is never an option.

Discovery #2: Role Clarity . Role clarity is the clear understanding and codification of the responsibilities and authorities - for ourselves and everyone we work with. High performance businesses have high role clarity, which enables both empowerment and accountability. With high role clarity, everyone’s actions become more predictable. We know what is expected of us, and we know what we can expect from others. Role clarity allows us to set standards, to ensure those standards align with our values, and to measure performance against those standards. It makes it easier to recognize when we are meeting or exceeding standards, and likewise to recognize when we are falling short in order to take appropriate corrective actions. Outside of the context of work, role clarity helps us define success in other parts of our lives, such as our roles as family members, community members, and citizens.

Discovery #3: Purpose Clarity . If we aim at nothing, we are sure to hit it. Purpose is a singular point of focus toward which all of our efforts can be directed. Purpose moves us toward achievement, not acceptance. It is the greatest good we can possibly achieve. When we are clear about our purpose, it is easier for ourselves and others to understand why we take the actions that we do, and the people we engage can choose whether or not to align with us. It takes work to discover your purpose, and even more work to actually live by it. The good news is that your purpose is already in your story, it just needs to be excavated, cultivated and actioned. If you would like help discovering your purpose, check out our online “Ignite Your Purpose” course at https://purposeandperformancegroup.teachable.com/p/ignite-your-purpose11/ .

Discovery #4: Daily Commitments . Daily commitments are the day-to-day actions required to live our values and advance our purpose. While they are actions that can be taken each day, they are not short-term or today-only concerns. Rooted in our profound beliefs, daily commitments close the gap between what we believe and what we hope to achieve. They help us make intentional decisions and take deliberate action to show up each day in a way that aligns with our values and advances our purpose. Individual behaviors that advance our higher level purpose, little by little, will accumulate to make a substantial impact on the world around us.

Discovery #5: Execution . Execution is the ultimate test of our ability to advance our purpose. It is results-oriented, focused on the doing as well as on the learning that happens in the process. Execution is the real-world laboratory in which we can test not only whether we are “doing things right,” but whether we are “doing the right things.” Are we expending the appropriate amount of resources toward the right priorities? Are we achieving the results we expect? If so, then how can we do it more efficiently? If not, then what can we change to get there? At the end of the day, execution provides us with evidence of whether our actions are aligned with our values, roles, and purpose, and hones our behaviors to achieve the best possible results.

Discovery #6: Resilience . Resilience is the capacity to recover from adversity, to spring back into shape - to adapt to and even welcome challenges or changes for the possibilities they offer. Resilience enables us to view minor setbacks against the larger context, to sustain the vision of what can be, and maintain hope when the going gets tough. If we do the other five discoveries right, this is the outcome. For leaders, meaningful recognition is a great way to increase the resilience of those around us. Recognition confirms the value of our efforts and reinforces our sense of self-worth as others take pride in our achievements. When we are recognized, it affirms that our mindset is effective, that our commitments are aligned to our purpose, and that we are valued by others. For more on the power of meaningful recognition, check out Magic in the Room Podcast Episode 48, “Meaningful Recognition,” with special guest Ashley Hurney of MTM Recognition.

For a more detailed discussion of Chris’ Six Discoveries of High Performance, and some fantastic stories of the experiences that led Chris to them, we encourage you to listen to Magic in the Room Podcast Episode 71: The Six Discoveries of High Performance . As you reflect on your own experiences, we look forward to hearing about your observations of these discoveries in your own life.

Magic in the Room #75: Building Community with your Business with John Stewart

Mon, 01 Nov 2021 14:51:20 GMT

John Stewart is building a business that builds community

Why does your company exist? What is its “why”? In this episode of Magic in the Room, Chris, Luke, and guest John Stewart discuss John’s company Encompass. The people and leadership of Encompass work hard to serve their clients with the purpose of investing in the communities where they work and live. Because the company exists to support communities, measuring success includes profit, but everyone is intentional to use that profit for the good of the community.

About John Stewart, President, Encompass Develop, Design & Construct, LLC

John has a lot of titles – company owner, registered architect, licensed contractor, recognized authority in the gaming and hospitality industry. But the title he prefers is “partner.” That’s how he built a $100+ million company that is the choice of major companies such as Yum! Brands, Ford Motor Company, Churchill Downs, Pinnacle, and Brown-Forman. John’s nearly three decades of work experience runs the gamut from gaming and hospitality to religion and retail.

He has built churches, casinos and corporate headquarters, but his greatest skill is building teams of dedicated, talented professionals. He’s a servant leader who devotes time to his family, community, and church, volunteering as a teacher for 3rd and 4th graders, a marriage mentor and an educator on Business and Work as a tool for missions.

Find Encompass at encompass-ddc.com

Question of the Day: Nonprofit organizations

John supports The Samaritan Women Institute for Shelter Care: thesamaritanwomen.org/

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Magic in the Room #74: Using Sensory Informed Design to Shape Experiences with John Stewart

Mon, 01 Nov 2021 14:10:39 GMT

We can use sight, taste, smell, hearing, and touch to shape people’s experiences.

Anything we experience is shaped by all of our senses and perceptions. Leaders trying to create high-quality experiences for their team and customers have to pay attention to how things look, feel, taste, sound, and smell. These are details that make a big difference! In this episode of Magic in the Room, Luke, Chris, and guest John Stewart discuss how leaders can apply the concepts of Sensory Informed Design.

About John Stewart, President, Encompass Develop, Design & Construct, LLC

Find Encompass at encompass-ddc.com

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Halloween Special: Scary Stories from Business

Tue, 26 Oct 2021 21:32:04 GMT

Finding the Good in Bad Examples

Everyone sets an example. Some are good, some are bad. The trick is to learn what you can from both in order to replicate the former and avoid repeating the latter. The biggest lessons and most valuable learning comes at a cost (financial, opportunity, pain, etc.). The more we can learn from others’ mistakes, the less personal cost we’ll pay along the road to wisdom. When we repeat mistakes made by others, it’s a missed opportunity. When we repeat our own mistakes, the cost can be extraordinary. Any mistake repeated more than once is no longer a mistake, it’s a decision. We’re not always going to hit homeruns, but we can all learn from the examples of others to avoid striking out as much as possible.

We can all think of examples from our professional lives when a boss, co-worker, or we ourselves, have made a mistake that has caused pain for us or others. What we do with those examples is up to us. We can get mad, we can ignore it, or we can take advantage of it as a learning opportunity to avoid repeating the same mistake. In Magic in the Room Podcast Episode 73: Halloween Special , Chris, Hannah, and Luke shared some memorable negative experiences from their professional careers so that we can learn from those examples to become better leaders.

Hannah’s story deals with the enormous responsibility and influence we as leaders have in advancing the well-being of those on our team. Early in her career, Hannah had just launched one of the biggest projects she had ever put together. After an intensive two-week launch, which was a big success, she got a call from her boss who wanted to meet with her. Expecting high praise and a big celebration, she was told matter of factly that she was off the project and a colleague would be taking over. You can imagine the devastation. Her emotions instantly went from enormous pride to crushing defeat. It turned out that the boss didn’t mean anything personal by the decision, but was relatively new to the organization and did not understand the full scope of the project. Despite that, Hannah’s relationship with that individual was never the same. She lost all trust in him as a leader and ultimately ended up moving to a different department. From this experience Hannah learned first hand the impact that once decision can have on building or tearing down trust.

Hannah’s lesson is critical. Leaders are responsible for stewarding the well-being of the people in their organization. This is a weighty responsibility. Our team members look to us to look out for their well-being, champion their success, and help them accomplish their goals. Meaningful recognition is one of the most important ways we can exercise that responsibility. We should make an intentional effort to take advantage of every opportunity to recognize and celebrate accomplishments, even those that seem minor or routine.

On the other hand, when accomplishments are minimized or dismissed, even unintentionally - which is almost always the case - trust is destroyed and engagement is crushed. This is an especially big risk for new leaders. When we step into a new leadership role, many of us are tempted to make impactful organizational changes or big management decisions early on. This can be dangerous, as our actions can have unintended consequences when we don’t fully understand the background and complexities behind a given situation. During this phase, it’s important to take the time to understand context and become familiar with the nuances of the situation before making meaningful management decisions. It’s okay to ask others for advice, to delay a decision, or simply to maintain the status quo until you have enough situational awareness to fully appreciate the second- and third-order effects of a decision. When we fail to do so, it’s at our own peril.

Trust and respect take time to build. Everyone carries a mental ledger, noting the deposits and withdrawals made by others, especially our leaders. Unintentional withdrawals are just as costly as intentional withdrawals, and while deposits take time to accumulate, one unfortunate withdrawal can quickly wipe out the entire balance. The good news is that you don’t need to make a mistake yourself to learn the cost of a withdrawal. When you witness a “horror story” of your own, rather than getting upset or frustrated by the behavior of others, take advantage of the opportunity to learn what you can, and be grateful for the leadership lesson that you didn’t have to pay for out of your own personal account.

To hear Hannah’s full story check out Magic in the Room Podcast Episode 73: Halloween Special in your favorite podcast player.

Three Ways to Take Control During the Great Resignation

Fri, 22 Oct 2021 16:09:46 GMT

The signs of a changing job market are everywhere. You have probably visited a restaurant with limited hours. Perhaps you are working extra shifts because of staff shortages, or you may be having trouble hiring someone to fill a critical role at your company. These are all indicators that the Great Resignation is real .

The Great Resignation is an idea coined by Texas A&M's Anthony Klotz to predict the coming mass voluntary exit from the workforce. The indications that the prediction is coming true are all around us, but the numbers may surprise you.

During the months of April, May, and June 2021, 11.5 million workers quit their jobs .
A survey of over 30,000 workers conducted by Microsoft found that 41 percent are considering leaving.
Gallup found that 48 percent of employees are actively searching for new opportunities .

Many smart people are trying to figure out why so many people are exiting the workforce, changing jobs, or opting for non-traditional work. The reasons are complicated , and in many cases, out of your control. But you are not powerless. Here are three things you can do today to start thriving during the Great Resignation.

Don't Run

Almost everyone has spent much time reflecting on their life priorities, purpose, goals, and direction during the last two years. You should be doing this (shameless self-promotion: Check out our online course called Ignite Your Purpose if you want to discover your life purpose)! If the things you have learned in the last year have caused you to question your current job, lifestyle, or priorities, embrace those questions and explore new possibilities. Now might be a great time to find a job more aligned with your values or embrace remote work to move closer to family.

However, you have to be realistic. You may be able to run away from the stress and hardship of your current situation, but consider what you are running into. Nearly every company is short-staffed and facing uncertainty. On a recent Magic in the Room episode, Hannah said, "Now is the time to make something new happen. When everyone wants to quit, there is an opportunity for those that want to stay." Embrace this opportunity! The knowledge, relationships, and effort you have accumulated in your current job are more valuable than ever, so don't leave them without careful consideration.

It may be time to embrace the opportunity for change, but if you run, make sure you are running to something better.

Be Aggressive in Proposing Solutions

The Great Resignation is just one of many factors that are forcing businesses to be innovative and flexible. Uncertainty creates enormous opportunities for people who dare to embrace the Leadership Challenge of challenging the process. If you have a big idea, an innovative solution, or a new way of doing things, now is a great time to bring them to the table.

When you bring your idea, be ready to do the work to make it happen. Make this fair by negotiating extra compensation or a shift in responsibilities. COVID, the Great Resignation, technology, and uncertainty have turned every company back into startups. Startups embrace constant improvement and can listen to ideas from anyone in the company. Now is the time to recognize and welcome the opportunity to have a startup mindset and lead by finding solutions to the problems everyone faces.

Learn the Truth

One of the most striking statistics from the Great Resignation is that HR and C-suite leaders believe only 8% of their employees will quit once Covid restrictions end, which is in stark contrast to the 40 - 90% of people many surveys indicate plan to change jobs.

If you are a leader and believe your team is stable, you must start honest conversations. Depending on your context, this may include employee surveys or one on one conversations. No matter the approach, learning if people are considering leaving and why will help you plan for the coming months. You may discover that you can make practical changes to improve people's experiences, making them more likely to stay. You may find deep and complex issues that must be addressed. Either way, you will have the information you need to start building a workplace that will attract and retain the team you need to be successful.

The Great Resignation is going to have an impact that goes beyond difficulty finding people to fill positions. It may represent a shift in how people work that will be played out for years to come. The ideas in this post are not a complete solution, but they will help you start adapting to the changing job landscape.

Spend a little bit of time this week in self-reflection. Here are a couple of questions to get you started:

Do I feel like running from my current situation? Why? Am I just trying to get away, or am I running to something better.
What is the big idea you have not shared with anybody? What is holding you back?
Do you know the state of your team? What do they need? What are their struggles? Are they planning to leave? What is keeping you from having honest conversations about their needs and plans?

We recently had an in-depth conversation about the Great Resignation on Magic in the Room. You can listen on our website here!

Magic in the Room #73: Halloween Special: Scary Stories from Business

Thu, 21 Oct 2021 15:48:16 GMT

The world can be a scary place, but you can slay the monsters this Halloween!

It’s Halloween! Love it or hate it (listen to the episode for our opinion) Halloween brings scary stories to mind. In this episode of Magic in the Room, Chris, Luke, and Hannah discuss three business horror stories they have experienced and what they learned. We hope you are never trapped in one of these spooky movies, but if you are, don’t lose hope, there is a way out!

G.U.E.S.T. Service Course

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Magic in the Room #72: Reflecting on the Six Discoveries of High Performance

Tue, 19 Oct 2021 13:25:31 GMT

The Six Discoveries are a powerful idea. We discuss how to apply them to daily life.

In this episode of Magic in the Room, Chris, Luke, and Hannah discuss applying the Six Discoveries of High Performance to daily life. If you have not listened to Episode 71: The Six Discoveries of High Performance, be sure and do that first.

Research in this episode: The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Gary Keller

Ignite Your Purpose Online Course

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Magic in the Room #71: The Six Discoveries of High Performance

Tue, 12 Oct 2021 00:01:43 GMT

Chris Province presents Six Discoveries he has made in his life that have helped him reach his full potential.

In this special episode of Magic in the Room, Chris Province presents The Six Discoveries of High Performance. The six discovered are Ignitor Mindset, Role Clarity, Purpose Clarity, Daily Commitments, Execution, and Resilience. By focusing on developing in these six areas, people can move from having great potential to performing at a high level.

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Magic in the Room #70: Stages of Team Development with Ben West

Sun, 03 Oct 2021 16:27:26 GMT

Understanding Bruce Tuckman’s Stages of Group Development can help leaders navigate disruption.

Every leader wants their team to work together and achieve at a high level, but conflict, poor relationships, or lack of clarity may be hindering performance. Leaders cannot press a magic button to turn on “teamwork.” However, teams do move through predictable stages of development that lead to high performance. In this episode of Magic in the Room, Hannah, Luke, and guest Ben West discuss tactics leaders can use in each stage to build a healthy team, despite the ever-changing work environment.

Research in this episode:

More information on Bruce Tuckman’s Stages of Group Development: www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_86.htm
Listen to our episode on Hope Theory with Dr. Chan Helman

Question of the Day Resources

Find the At My Best Cards at atmybest.com
Find our GUEST Service Course at https://www.purposeandperformancegroup.com/online-learning

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Magic in the Room #69: Leading When People Experience Trauma with Chris King

Tue, 28 Sep 2021 13:13:37 GMT

We must learn to be honest about the trauma people experience, and lead with care and compassion.

When we experience physical trauma, such as a skinned knee or a broken bone, we are well equipped to deal with it. We know when to put on a bandage or go to the doctor. However, when people experience mental or emotional trauma, leaders are often unsure how to care for them. In this episode of Magic in the Room, guest Chris King joins Luke and Hannah to discuss leading when people experience trauma.

Chris King is a licensed therapist in the state of Oklahoma (LPC) and operates a private practice with several therapists serving people in Oklahoma and Arkansas. Find more at chriskingcounseling.com .

Research in this episode:

Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl

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Magic in the Room #68: Tactics for Creating Meaningful Employment

Tue, 21 Sep 2021 14:58:10 GMT

People are seeking deeper meaning in their work. How can leaders create work that meets this need?

Employees are quitting or changing jobs at a record pace. One reason is that people want more meaning from their work. There are active steps that leaders can take to instill purpose and connection into a company, which will help attract and retain employees.

Research in this episode:

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink

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Magic in the Room #67: Our Take on the Great Resignation

Wed, 15 Sep 2021 18:00:08 GMT

People are changing jobs in record numbers. How will you attract and retain talent?

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, during April, May, and June 2021, a total of 11.5 million workers quit their jobs. The Great Resignation is real. As leaders, we must prepare for a rapidly changing work environment.

Research in this episode:

Question of the Day: Resources

From Luke: The Traction Accountability Chart
From Hannah: The Upside of Stress: Why Stress Is Good for You, and How to Get Good at It by Kelly McGonigal
From Chris: How America Fractured Into Four Parts by By George Packer

Get a free Magic in the Room hat by posting a review and sending a screenshot to info@purposeandperformancegroup.com

Music by evangrimmusic.com

Recorded at storycatcher.studio

Support from techblogwriter.co.uk

Three Ways to Take Control During the Great Resignation

Tue, 14 Sep 2021 18:51:12 GMT

During the months of April, May, and June 2021, 11.5 million workers quit their jobs .

A survey of over 30,000 workers conducted by Microsoft found that 41 percent are considering leaving.

Gallup found that 48 percent of employees are actively searching for new opportunities.

Don't Run

It may be time to embrace the opportunity for change, but if you run, make sure you are running to something better.

Be Aggressive in Proposing Solutions

Learn the Truth

Spend a little bit of time this week in self-reflection. Here are a couple of questions to get you started:

Do I feel like running from my current situation? Why? Am I just trying to get away, or am I running to something better.

What is the big idea you have not shared with anybody? What is holding you back?

Do you know the state of your team? What do they need? What are their struggles? Are they planning to leave? What is keeping you from having honest conversations about their needs and plans?

We would love to hear from you. What commitments are you making that will help you thrive in the coming months?

We recently had an in-depth conversation about the Great Resignation on Magic in the Room. You can listen to it on our website .

Magic in the Room #65: The Hope Theory with Special Guest Dr. Chan Hellman

Wed, 21 Jul 2021 13:41:45 GMT

Hope may seem like an intangible idea, but leaders can intentionally nurture hope in the people around them. In episode 65 of Magic in the Room, Chris, Hannah, and special guest Dr. Chan Hellman discuss the three elements of hope: Goals, Pathways, and Willpower. Leaders can develop hope by ensuring these three elements are present.

Chan M. Hellman is a professor of social work at the University of Oklahoma and Director of The Hope Research Center. He has written more than 100 scientific publications and has presented at numerous national and international conferences worldwide. Chan's research is focused on hope as a psychological strength helping children and adults overcome trauma and adversity. Chan just published a new book, " Hope Rising: How the Science of Hope Can Change Your Life, " with his co-author Casey Gwinn published by Morgan James.

In previous episodes of the Magic in the Room podcast, the hosts have talked about intentional leadership . These conversations often include building structures, cultivating a mindset, and embracing accountability so we can move from where we are to where we want to be. But, of course, without hope, this is not possible. So, if we're going to change conditions and our state, we have to have hope. But where do we find it?

Dr. Chan Hellman shares how one of the most common phrases that we have in society is, "where there is a will, there is a way." If you want something bad enough, you can get it. But, unfortunately, that's not always true. For example, what would you do with a middle school-age student who's laying their head down on the desk during class who is not engaged or participating? If hope is about goals, pathways, and willpower, we will approach this apathetic youth, and ask what are your goals? They would probably reply that they don't have any.

Chan shares why we have to lean into asking questions such as what are your goals this week? Start with small steps, followed by the pathway's component, which acts as a stepping process. For example, to achieve a goal this week, you might ask, what are the five things you need to accomplish? Next, you must guide individuals to help them identify their sub-goals or benchmarks.

First and foremost, hope begets hope. As you take your successful first step towards a goal, it demonstrates that the future is possible. That's so critical, especially in programs where people are coming out of adversity. They have to know that it's possible. Hope is a social gift. It is something that occurs in relationships. When it happens, it unlocks our ability to be connected to others, many need to have somebody authentically ready, willing, and able to walk that journey with them.

Hannah shares how one of the biggest takeaways from today's conversation is that hope can be learned. She also shares how hope is the belief that the future will be better than today and that we have the power to make it so. Hannah discusses how this will become part of the way they teach intentional leadership and how leadership can instill and teach hope. For Hannah, it's about recognizing how we break down hope in terms of goals, pathways, and agency or willpower.

What does hope mean to you and your organization? If you would like to start a conversation with Hannah, Luke, and Chris about any of the subjects we have discussed, please email your hosts at info@purposeandperformancegroup.com . Remember, you can also get a free Magic in the Room hat by going to www.magicintheroom.com .

Magic in the Room #64: What is Intentional Leadership?

Wed, 14 Jul 2021 00:26:18 GMT

Many people are in leadership positions. They might be a manager with direct reports, a parent, or the president of a civic organization. These people have influence. However, few people are intentional in how they lead. In this episode of Magic in the Room, Hannah, Chris, and Luke discuss the elements of Intentional Leadership. Intentional leaders understand the practice of leadership, themselves, and the needs of the people around them. They can draw out the best in everyone.

Throughout the Magic in the Room podcast, there has been an entire series dedicated to EQ. The team has discussed the importance of the awareness of our emotional states and how they impact the people around us. Today, Chris begins the episode by asking his co-hosts and listeners to share what intentional leadership means to them.

Hannah shares how she focuses on understanding how she shows up and the impact that she can have. She believes that we gain awareness of our behavior and emotions by starting with ourselves because emotion drives all human behavior. Everything we do, everything we don't do, is influenced by emotion. These are just a few of the many reasons why Hannah believes that intentional leaders need a high level of EQ. This allows them to understand others and how their behavior is formed, shaped, and changed.

Luke has observed that some people are intuitively really positive leaders, but they embrace their style. They also seem to instinctively know what their organization is calling for. If people understand the discipline of leadership, they know themselves enough to know where they're effective, how they can leverage their unique strengths, and they know the people around them.

For Luke, there is something beautiful in the art of pulling all these things together and making good leadership decisions. For some, this will occur intuitively, and for others, it will be the result of a thought-out and strategized plan. But when reflecting on these beautiful emerging leadership experiences, we all have interacted with an intentional leader that made a difference in our lives.

On the topic of influence, Chris shares how he has had many experiences with people who might have had influence over him, but he would never define them as a leader. They influence because they have power. They sit in a different spot on the hierarchy. But in no way would he compare them to a leader or that they were good leaders. Leadership is something else.

We all are aware that we have influence and power. We can make this world better and the lives of the people around us with that power. Those of us who are aware of it have a moral obligation to be intentional in how we lead. Chris wraps up by discussing how everything comes down to our personal decisions and what we commit in this arena and invites listeners to share what intentional leadership means to them.

If you would like to start a conversation with Hannah, Luke, and Chris about intentional leadership or any topics we have discussed, please email your hosts at info@purposeandperformancegroup.com . Remember, you can also get a free Magic in the Room hat by going to www.magicintheroom.com .

Magic in the Room #63: The Power of Stories with Special Guest David Hutchens

Wed, 07 Jul 2021 13:59:02 GMT

Stories are the connection between data and emotion, between knowing about something and taking action. In this episode of Magic in the Room, Chris and special Guest David Hutchens discuss how to use stories to be a more effective leader.

In this podcast, Chris has often discussed how we only attract people that believe what we believe. It’s exactly the same when attempting to attract customers in business. The power of storytelling is communicating your beliefs to the market and giving potential customers an opportunity to choose if they align with you.

The power of stories can also be observed when we communicate our beliefs and values to job candidates. Potential employees choose how, when and if they should engage with your organization. But if we can't tell the story about what we believe, it's tough to compete. These are just a few reasons why Chris is passionate about getting comfortable with the fact that they won't attract customers who don't believe what they believe.

David Hutchens shares how Steve Jobs mastered this concept. The result was Apple customers would camp out on the sidewalk for a weekend, waiting for the next iPhone. Jobs did this by telling stories that attracted people who believed in something. At that time, Microsoft ads were full of data about processing power and capabilities. By contrast, Steve Jobs showed a picture of John Lennon and said, so you want to change the world?

Chris also shares how he was inspired by the think differently campaign. He reminisces about how Apple used the imagery of Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, and John Lennon. The message was clear, do you want to be like these people who are heroes who thought differently? Do you want to be like them? Or do you want to be aligned with other ads that featured 14 bullet points of product specifications?

Apple's 1984 Super Bowl teaser commercial stated Apple Computer would introduce Macintosh, and you'll see why 1984 won't be like '1984.'Computers were not just for businesses. Apple was leading the way by targeting younger audiences, innovators, creatives, and entrepreneurs. It encouraged audiences to break free and think differently. It would change Superbowl Ads forever too.

David reflected when he worked with a technology consulting firm to help with a presentation to win a $250 million contract. The client was saying, show us who you are. They had the technical solution and knew how to implement it. But he spent the weekend finding stories that they could connect to those solutions, not just to show how long the implementation would take and how much it would cost.

The message they wanted to deliver was when you work with them; you will be getting creativity and the ability to exercise resilience. When they won the account, they shared how their stories were instrumental in creating that human connection their client was looking for. So, when David is asked, what's the return on investment for a story? He always replies I know one group that will say it's $250 million.

You can find out more information on today's guests by checking out his personal website and the Story Telling Leader . If you would like to start a conversation with Hannah, Luke, and Chris and learn how storytelling can move the effectiveness of your organization forward, email them at info@purposeandperformancegroup.com. Remember, you can also get a free Magic in the Room hat by going to www.magicintheroom.com.

Magic in the Room #62: The Coolest Things We Have Done

Wed, 30 Jun 2021 13:56:10 GMT

Telling stories is one way that teams connect, learn about each other, and build trust. In this episode of Magic in the Room, Luke, Chris, and Hannah talk about some of their best experiences. Before you listen, take a guess: who caught a fish with their hands? Who played professional poker? Who hauled a deer through the woods?

Have you ever thought about or shared the five coolest things you have done in your life? Your list will provide tremendous insight into who you really are as a person. In the workplace, this simple exercise will enable teams to learn more about one another and what motivates them in life. Chris challenges his fellow hosts to share their coolest moments and stories. Be prepared for a few surprises in today's episode.

Chris also asks Luke and Hannah to share the experience of putting their list together for the podcast recording. Luke initially put his list together very quickly with things that were top of his mind. But then he looked closer, he quickly learned that the list was full of extreme things. A theme emerged from the list and provided a fun moment of self-reflection when looking at his life through a different lens.

Hannah also had a gut feeling about the amazing things she had done. But her overanalyzing mind quickly took over, and she began to dig a little deeper. As Hannah reflected, it enabled her to identify an ongoing theme of adventure and how it manifests in the stories she shares with others. Moreover, she discovered that these experiences were a big part of her identity, which was incredibly cool too.

Why is it good for us to share our stories in an exercise? For Chris, when we share our experiences and stories, we bond differently. These conversations in the workplace can also help build the same bonds with your team, create environments of trust and a better workflow. Hannah discusses how when we engage with the people in our lives and show up as our fully present selves, we can shape our experiences and the experiences of those we lead.

Luke discusses how it's unrealistic for new leaders to lead people into meaningful experiences if they don't have any themself. Leaders need to be open for an organization to continue to evolve. If you are stuck in the grind all the time, it's going to be hard for you to lead your organization into a place where you are all living life to its fullest potential.

When you look around a room, someone must bring some fun and the spirit of connection. Chris warns around the dangers of passing that obligation to someone else. Ultimately, leading requires us to look at life through the lens of positive potential and how we connect with one another to get there.

Hannah, Luke, and Chris have shared their personal experiences, and cool things they have done with the listeners of the Magic in the Room Podcast. They invite you to share yours by emailing them at info@purposeandperformancegroup.com . Remember, you can also get a free Magic in the Room hat by simply going to www.magicintheroom.com .

Magic in the Room #61: Strategic Frameworks - Purpose and Commitments

Wed, 23 Jun 2021 13:54:13 GMT

A strategic framework is a model that defines why we exist, what's unique about us, what business we are in, and what we do every day. In this framework, everyone in the organization must commit to behaviors that operationalize the purpose. A classic example is Mission, Vision, Values, and Strategy. In this episode of Magic in the Room, Chris, Hannah, and Luke discuss Purpose and Commitments as an alternative framework.

Luke shares how he is currently reading Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman, and how the author discusses how we often unwittingly bring bias to our thinking. Together the hosts define what a strategic framework means to them. For many, it's when organizations start talking about their mission, vision, values, and strategy. When all that's packaged together, we label it a strategic framework, advises Luke.

Luke also discusses how awareness is key to behavior change. If we don't make people aware of how we behave and what we believe in, others won't choose if they're in or out. Organizational leaders have a responsibility to make it clear and help everyone know what they stand for and why they are here. Hannah expands on this by discussing how commitments are how we operationalize purpose, and how our commitments are our values in action.

Chris shares his clear boundaries. He values accountability, kindness, and generosity. He also values showing love having difficult conversations, exploration, and learning. Those are the things he values, and they help him connect with courageous leaders in a meaningful way. Only then can he help them advance their purpose, intention, and gratitude. Following these values also enables Chris to identify opportunities that might be uncomfortable or allow him to exhibit courage as a leader.

Ultimately, these clear priorities represent his framework. By contrast, a failure to align your behaviors will result in behaving in unintentional ways. Purpose and performance is simply the idea that once you're explicit about knowing where you're going and what you value, you can then make that commitment to alignment. Chris refers to this as the exercise of identifying a purpose and having the courage to say; I'm going to be that 1% that intentionally aligns my behaviors to that.

For Hannah, this has been an ongoing and evolving process. She has digested information from coaches, mentors, books, and people she has met. By pulling things from many different places and internalizing them, Hannah can make it real by putting everything she has learned into a framework that works for her. This process enables Hannah to be intentional and living her purpose and values each day.

The hosts share their interpersonal approach with teams and organizations. But also highlight why it's so important to level set frameworks within organizations and for yourself. Chris, Hannah, and Luke invite you to share your insights about building a strategic framework by emailing them at info@purposeandperformancegroup.com.

Remember, you can get a free Magic in the Room hat by simply going to www.magicintheroom.com. Listeners are also invited to join the conversation on the LinkedIn and Facebook community pages, where the hosts regularly engage with their audience.

Magic in the Room #60: The Power of Persuasion Part 2 - Persuading the Unpersuadable

Wed, 16 Jun 2021 19:12:38 GMT

Sometimes you have presented your arguments, told great stories, appealed to emotions, and explained your logic, but somebody is still unconvinced. Now what? In episode 60 of Magic in the Room, Luke, Hannah, and Chris discuss strategies for managing team members who are particularly stubborn. Asking them the right questions, framing, and giving people authority may convince the unpersuadable, but leaders also need to set boundaries or remove someone from the team if they are unwilling to change.

In the last episode, your hosts completed their unlocking EQ series by exploring the topic of persuasion. They discussed how to persuade people and help get them over that hump to believe things differently and change their behavior. But what they didn't talk about was the flip side of the coin: how do you persuade the unpersuaded? So, they sat back down to record today's bonus episode and revisit the subject of persuasion.

In an article for the Harvard Business Review, Adam Grant shared a case study about Steve Jobs called, Persuading the Unpersuadable. The renowned organizational development and organizational psychologist talked about the people around Jobs and his team. He explored how they persuaded someone who had a reputation for being an ego-driven visionary but not the easiest person to work with. These people were challenged with persuading Steve Jobs to do things that eventually led to the iPhone, Apple TV, and other things that weren't really on his roadmap.

Luke shares some of the key principles and takeaways from the article, which begins with letting the know it all in the room explain their way of doing things. When Luke encounters someone who is consistently resisting where the group's going. He tries to defuse the situation by simply asking them, "What's your alternative?" Sometimes, when you let people run with something, they discover the flaws in their ideas. In some cases, they even end up proving their incompetence or learn the problems with their own vision.

Chris shares his experiences and how persuadable people will often have a fixed inward mindset. They are usually very passionate and rely on their intuition. Chris believes that it's essential to give space to people and take the time to develop a sense of understanding around where they're coming from and how the person arrived at where they are.

By contrast, Hannah has had the opposite experience where some will shut down and say you are wrong. Some will only listen to logic and facts, which they have already manipulated in a certain way, and they can't be convinced otherwise because these are the facts. They will not listen or respond positively to intuition or emotion because they don't trust it.

Hannah shares how a common denominator to a certain level of stubbornness can come from a place of fear. They could think if they allow someone to persuade them, they will display signs of weakness or fear someone is taking advantage of them. Chris also talks about how sometimes, as a leader, you need to accept that tigers don't change their stripes.

We all have and persuadable people in our lives. If you have someone on your team that you want to talk about or explore what performance management looks like with someone like this, we would love to hear from you. Luke, Hannah, and Chris invite you to share your experiences by emailing them at info@purposeandperformancegroup.com. Remember, if you fill out the listener survey, you can also get a free Magic in the Room hat by simply going to www.magicintheroom.com.

Magic in the Room #59: The Power of Persuasion

Tue, 08 Jun 2021 12:01:00 GMT

Leaders must influence people to change behavior, follow a vision, or accept new beliefs. In the final episode of our EQ series Hannah, Chris, and Luke discuss the power of persuasion. Influencing people through persuasion requires leaders to use story, logic, and emotion to inspire people to take action.

In this episode, your hosts complete their unlocking EQ series by exploring the topic of persuasion. Hannah looks at it as a simple way to alter behavior and influence someone to change. It could be encouraging them to action or do something differently. Ultimately, it’s anything that involves some level of change or activity that is influenced by somebody else.

Luke shares the importance of trust when dealing with any form of persuasion. For example, suppose you are a team member who’s trying to convince a disagreeable leader to try something different or give an alternative strategy a shot. In that case, you must build a rapport and capture their attention by addressing key points that matter to them, like securing quick wins.

Chris discusses how if a leader does everything right, they can yield persuasion. If we do everything right in business, it will generate revenue. But we cannot just decide to be more persuasive. We must be self-aware and deploy the other 14 things that the hosts regularly discuss on the Magic in the Room podcast around unlocking our emotional intelligence.

Hannah often thinks of persuasion as a very specific and intentional form of influence. History has taught us that it can be used for good and, sadly, in nefarious ways too. We’ve all seen examples of leaders who persuade people to do deplorable things and communicating using scarcity is a technique often used in this way.

In the wrong hands, it can be used to convince many people to make choices that they wouldn’t have otherwise made, which is not in the best interest of humanity. For Chris, persuasion should be seen as the last measurement of leadership effectiveness. Although we often discuss what is right and what is wrong, a leader’s role is to be effective.

We can read an article and learn how to complete a different financial technique or learn how to market a business or outsource time-consuming tasks. But we can’t outsource our team’s emotional intelligence, and there is overwhelming evidence that emotional intelligence matters. It can affect everything from our bottom line to the retention of our best people and ability to fulfill the purpose of our organization.

Hannah, Chris, and Luke enjoy helping businesses and individuals to think through how they can increase emotional intelligence in a team. They also provide educational content and experiences for teams around what it means to be an effective leader, teammate, team and address the mindsets that drive transformational performance.

You can also contact the hosts at info@purposeandperformancegroup.com . Remember to fill out the listener survey and get a free Magic in the Room hat by going to www.magicintheroom.com .

The post Magic in the Room #59: The Power of Persuasion appeared first on Purpose and Performance Group .

Magic in the Room #58: Ignitor Mindset w/ Special Guest Dr. Bob Schooley

Wed, 02 Jun 2021 15:20:00 GMT

In the final episode of our Mindset series, Luke, Chris, Hannah, and special guest Bob Schooley discuss a new idea: Ignitor Mindset. People with an Ignitor Mindset combine a Growth Mindset and an Outward Mindset. Leaders with an Ignitor Mindset can inspire their teams to take on new challenges while also ensuring everyone succeeds. The good news is that you can develop an Ignitor Mindset with effort and hard work.

On this podcast, the hosts have already talked about what mindset is. They have also talked about growth versus fixed mindset and inward versus outward mindset. If you layer over those concepts, you get four different profiles. But what is an igniter mindset? For Bob Schooley, igniters also share a growth mindset where they see limitless possibilities and a sky is the limit outlook.

Bob has always been a glass-half-full kind of person who tries to see the greatness in everyone he meets. We can all contribute or bring something to the table. Bob also shares his passion for hearing people’s stories and how he can help them on their journey.

Inspired by Bob’s takeaways, Chris stressed the importance of perspective. An easy litmus test is asking the question, am I living my life for me? Or am I living my life for other people? If you were living your life for other people, would it look different?

How we connect with each other can flush out cynicism. Luke shares how an optimistic worldview is crucial to the igniter mindset. We all get to choose cynicism or to be an igniter. Luke purposely wakes up every day and tries to ignite some sort of change for the good of his people. It can bring more clarity around his purpose and help people become aware and be more intentional. If we can get more people to wake up and do the same thing, really cool things can happen.

Hannah shares how she considers igniters an inspiration to do the kind of work that she and her team do. It also helps Hannah fulfill her purpose. She shares how invaluable it is to connect to their partners, clients, and the people they work with to help spark fires, conversations, and new thoughts.

Chris shares his vision for a utopia organization where we screen for camaraderie, and we develop leaders to have an igniter mindset. Chris believes these businesses have a real opportunity to change the entire ecosystem and change the cynical conversations within our communities or what we see in public spaces. That’s where things come alive and where we look for really good things to happen.

How are you creating the light, fueling the fire, and enabling the best of everyone to emerge? Share your experiences by messaging Chris, Hannah, and Luke at info@purposeandperformancegroup.com. Also, remember to fill out our listener survey and get a free Magic in the Room hat by going to www.magicintheroom.com .

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Magic in the Room #57: Unlocking EQ – Valuing Differences

Tue, 25 May 2021 21:05:00 GMT

The most effective teams have diverse viewpoints and experiences. However, leaders must intentionally create an environment that values those differences, so minority viewpoints are heard. In this episode of Magic in the Room, Hannah, Chris, and Luke discuss the mindset and tactics needed to lead teams that value differences.

If we look at the world from our own perspective, it’s easy to assume that everybody will interpret the world the way we do. But someone with a different family upbringing will experience life in different ways. Their ethnic background, gender, sexual orientation, relationship dynamics, or any lenses we might want to look at in diversity will offer a unique perspective.

Imagine the opportunities that could arise from elevating the differences and the unique perspectives of all team members. Luke shares his belief that every team is smarter than the smartest person on the team. It’s why he enjoys working with teams and why he wants to work with organizations.

Chris reflects on the recent Mindfulness episode of the Magic in the Room podcast and how we often go through the process of inserting an intervention. Unlocking EQ is not about an immediate return. It’s about improving the relationships that you from. What makes life meaningful? And what makes us jump out of bed in the morning? These are just a few of many areas that particularly excite Chris when talking about EQ.

Hannah highlights how leaders need to be careful not to speak on behalf of a minority voice to win it. When we’re talking about boosting different perspectives and minority voices, it means allowing the space for that voice to be heard. Be actively curious and ask the person for their input and view, and then you can support and amplify it, rather than just speaking on behalf of the person.

Hannah always sets out to seek out the quiet people in the room and hear their thoughts and insights. She advises that if we don’t do this, we won’t uncover the perspective or a different way of looking at a problem. It starts with intentionality, and just being explicit about seeking out views that are different from yours, and asking the people that have a different background, ethnicity, or lived experience and how they would interpret something,

When we look at teams, how are we listening to perspective? What is the communications model? How clear is the purpose? Is it compelling? And are the leaders bound by it? If you feel like your team doesn’t have that rallying cry, that purpose that they all share and why they jump out of bed in the morning, it’s going to be tough to have these conversations. Without it, people will think it’s not worth the effort.

How do you ensure that you hear every voice in your team? After listening to the unlocking EQ series, Hannah, Chris, and Luke invite you to share your insights and experiences by sending the hosts a quick message at info@purposeandperformancegroup.com.

The post Magic in the Room #57: Unlocking EQ – Valuing Differences appeared first on Purpose and Performance Group .

Magic in the Room #56: Types of Power Part 2 – Capacitors or Transformers with Special Guest Ben West

Wed, 19 May 2021 16:23:00 GMT

If you have power, what should you do with it? In this episode, Luke, Chris, and Ben examine two possible choices; keeping power to yourself or giving control to other people so they can be more effective. The way leaders use power has implications for the effectiveness of teams and the health of individuals.

In the last episode, the hosts discussed why the source of your power matters and how to use the power you have for good. In part two of the conversation, Luke reflects on when he worked with different teams with a shared problem in common. Issues arose because of how the leader used power, how the employees related to power, and how they reacted when receiving it.

The experiences reminded Luke of electricity and the idea of a transformer versus a capacitor. When talking about the differences between the two, Chris immediately thinks about the primary utility of each device to store or distribute energy in a useful way.

Ben shares his belief that transformational power can also be about being willing to give up control. This can often happen in non-profits and the world of development. People want to do it, but they’re not willing to give up control. If you’re not ready to do that, you’re always going to hold it in, and you’re never going to put it back. This is one of the many obstacles to being a transformer.

Luke also shares insights around how some organizations say they will be more diverse, equitable, and inclusive. In principle, it is easy to do and makes perfect sense. But when an open position appears, things can quickly break down. Somebody will suggest a close friend they have worked with who will be a great fit. Suddenly, that will become more attractive than lining up five interviews.

Chris also shares how it’s not realistic to distribute “you’re great, I’m great, and we’re great all the time.” When we do that, we run the risk of glossing over the challenges and constraints they are experiencing. Sometimes, Chris likes to be a transformer within the rest of the system. He enjoys setting it up and distributing a message to ensure it has an optimal impact. By controlling the distribution, it becomes more meaningful and communicates value.

The hosts each share what the concept means to them and its relation to power in the workplace. Luke admits that he had a binary opinion of a capacitor is bad and a transformer is good in business. But after today’s conversation, he will be more intentional and not be afraid to lean on capacitor and ensure he is equipped to discharge it in a strategic way to maximize his impact with teams.

What were your key takeaways from today’s episode? If you would like to carry on the conversation started in the podcast, you can message Chris, Hannah, and Luke at info@purposeandperformancegroup.com.

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Magic in the Room #55: Types of Power

Wed, 12 May 2021 22:36:00 GMT

Not all power is the same. Some people have power due to their job title or position, while others have it because of expertise, relationships, or trust. In this episode of Magic in the Room, Chris, Luke, and Hannah discuss why the source of your power matters and how to use the power you have for good.

In a book called, What Keeps Leaders Up at Night by Nicole Lipkin, the author outlines seven different types of power. The first is called legitimate power. This is often referred to as positional power, typically based on your position in the hierarchy. In this episode, the hosts explore how in human systems, it comes from the fact that we are hierarchical creatures and built into our nature built into our brains.

If we look back to the first day of middle school, everyone goes into a new situation and tries to figure out the power dynamics. It’s innate, and it’s built into us now. But as adults, some are more attuned to power dynamics than others. Another example is coercive power which is when we try and convince someone to do something that they don’t want to do.

When we’re persuading people, we’re unwittingly using coercive power. Some people are good at it and others not so much. The hosts of Magic in the Room talk about these examples along with all the seven different types of power. They discuss how some power is acquired and shared. Chris, Hannah, and Luke also reveal their personal experiences and takeaways from the conversation.

Hannah discusses the juxtaposition of legitimate power and authority versus referent power. We all know those people that will say, “I have got to do what you say because of your position, and that’s the only reason I’m doing it.” By contrast, others might say, “I want to follow your direction because I trust you. I value that relationship, and I believe in what you’re doing.” Which leader do we want to be?

For Chris, it’s around ramping up intentionality around transforming informational power and advancing his effectiveness as a leader. Luke’s big takeaway from today’s episode is that power exists where hierarchy exists, which is everywhere. Where there are people, there will be some power dynamics at play too.

However, just like everything else in life, the more intentional we get about using the power dynamics for good to fulfil the purpose of the team, organization, or relationship, the more successful we will become as leaders and enrich the lives of the people around us.

Do you ever look across your organization or your team and find yourself thinking, how do we move from legitimate power or authorized power to an environment where we all share and establish direction and advance the purpose of this team or this business? We would love to talk to you about it. You can message Chris, Hannah, and Luke at info@purposeandperformancegroup.com.

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Leveraging Stand-Up Meetings to Create a Culture of Communication and Action

Thu, 06 May 2021 13:44:00 GMT

The most successful organizations are those that instill a culture of flat, fast, and agile communication and information sharing. The ability to share knowledge and leverage insights from across functional areas enables the organization to anticipate challenges and make proactive decisions. Rather than waiting for information to be funneled up to a central decision-maker to be consolidated and acted upon, routine cross-functional communication enables leaders at all levels to take informed action and provide decision-quality information to leaders.

One effective technique for achieving a culture of flat and fast information sharing is the implementation of routine, cross-functional “stand-up” meetings. By creating a regular venue for face-to-face communication, stand-up meetings provide a reliable opportunity for interaction among team members. When implemented appropriately, stand-up meetings increase trust, build a more informed workforce, and inevitably result in faster and better decisions and action. Stand-up meetings can vary in frequency, content, and participation depending on the needs of the organization, but effective stand-up meetings have several common attributes: they include a wide circle of attendance, they are short and to the point, and they are conducted consistently.

At a minimum, participation in stand-up meetings should include representation from all functional areas, as well as any supporting partners. A wide circle of attendance enables efficient communication across all stakeholders – resulting in more effective action. Comprehensive cross-functional participation allows the team to understand challenges from multiple perspectives, reduces blind spots, increases innovation, and eliminates information gaps that create barriers to action.

Keeping stand-up meetings short and to the point shows respect for everyone’s time and encourages participants to prioritize and share the most critical information. Most listeners will only retain 3-5 key points from a speaker, so participants should focus on only those items that are required to facilitate understanding and action. When considering topics to present at the stand-up meeting, think about the action you want others to take based on the information you provide. This will help refine discussion points and reduce the likelihood of losing the listeners’ attention and wasting time.

Stand-up meetings need to be frequent enough to enable timely action and decision-making, but not so frequent that they result in redundant communications or impede operations. Depending on the level and the organization, stand-up meetings can happen daily, every other day, or weekly – the important thing is to develop a rhythm that allows action at the speed of operational requirements.

On a final note, while stand-up meetings can facilitate decision-making and action at lower levels, they don’t eliminate the need for the leader to remain involved and informed. While the leader doesn’t need to (and probably shouldn’t) participate in every stand-up meeting, he or she needs to participate routinely enough to provide top-down guidance and intent while allowing freedom for bottom-up refinement and implementation of ideas.

When executed properly, stand-up meetings can significantly enhance horizontal and vertical information flow within an organization. By creating a routine venue for face-to-face collaboration, stand-up meetings improve communication, increase trust, and facilitate innovation. By considering the attributes above when organizing and implementing stand-up meetings, leaders can significantly enhance the culture of flat, fast, and agile information sharing and action within their organization.

Get our stand up meeting guide here.

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Magic in the Room #54: Coaching to Strengths w/ Special Guest Sarah Elkins

Wed, 05 May 2021 12:32:00 GMT

Should we focus on our strengths or try to fix our weaknesses? In this episode of Magic in the Room, Luke, Hannah, and Sarah discuss the benefits of discovering your strengths and leveraging them for maximum effectiveness. When everyone on a team uses their complementary strengths, each member is more effective, and the team is successful.

More than 25 million have completed the CliftonStrengths assessment . The results help people maximize their potential at work and everywhere else. In simple terms, it’s a tool that consists of 34 themes that helps uncover the intuitive, natural ways that people solve problems and communicate, build relationships.

Gallup Certified StrengthsFinder coach Sarah Elkins helps the hosts find their strengths through their stories. She also shares how this method can help anyone clearly and actively demonstrate their character, values, and vision.

Sarah challenges the audience to think about how they discipline their children. Typically, they will all respond differently and will require different approaches. If we can’t have a one size fits all approach to discipline and growth in our homes with our kids, who might all come from the same DNA, raised in the same environment, what makes leaders think they can do it in the workplace?

Luke shares his concern about how treating people differently with personalized approaches in the workplace could be perceived by some as being unfair. The hosts discuss how to manage conflicting strengths best in the office and things to avoid. But it’s when we support each other from opposite strengths that things quickly get exciting.

In an organization, recognizing, understanding, appreciating, and respecting each other’s strengths can dramatically transform performance. From a team-building perspective, we can create well-roundedness by surrounding ourselves with people with strengths that are complementary to our own.

Sarah also warns that when we think we must be good at everything, we don’t get great at anything. It stops us from acknowledging the beauty, strength, and diversity of the people around us. But when we recognize that we’re not good at everything, we naturally create solid and beautiful relationships and allow each other’s strengths to be complimentary.

StrengthsFinder can help unlock an opportunity to be well-rounded in a team in ways we never have as an individual. Sarah also shares details about her new book and podcast

“Your Stories Don’t Define You, How You Tell Them Will.” Sarah explains how she leads with a combination of strengths coaching and storytelling because you don’t want to tell people you are a strategic activator.

What are your top 5 strengths? Are you a leader of an organization wanting to look at the uniqueness of your teams or want to explore how you can leverage your strengths to get to the next level of performance engagement? That’s what we do. We would love to talk to you about it. You can message Chris, Hannah, and Luke at info@purposeandperformancegroup.com.

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Magic in the Room #53: Unlocking EQ – Showing Resilience

Tue, 27 Apr 2021 19:34:00 GMT

Resilience is the ability to withstand or recover quickly from difficult conditions. But what does it take to develop resilience? In this episode of Magic in the Room, Luke, Hannah, and Chris discuss the need for hope, purpose, grit, reflection, and self-care in developing resilience. People with resilience make a bigger impact on the world and attract people to their cause.

Chris begins the episode by asking his co-hosts, would you rather work for a leader who was a great visionary storyteller or a likable leader? Having worked with very nice people who were terrible leaders, Hannah would always choose someone that would show her the vision, tell the story, and capture her imagination. Chris is also someone who wants to embrace the power of positive potential and be inspired by a leader.

In our EQ series, the hosts have also explored the importance of being self-aware in different situations to overcome various challenges. But how does resilience help us thrive and improve rather than just survive? And what does resilience mean to you? For Luke, it’s about hope, and people who have hope will always continue to move forward.

Having a vision and a clear picture of what success looks like combined with a growth mindset will help drive you forward. But as someone who understands that challenge is a part of the journey, Luke advises it’s not so much that we choose an easy path or a hard path. It’s what type of hard path we want to take. Luke shares how resilience is all about hope and a mindset where the challenge can be positive.

For Chris, resilience can be the ability to build character or strength through times of discomfort. Hannah also shares how for her; resilience is the time that it takes you to recover from a setback. It’s the ability to keep going or get back up, no matter how many times it takes. It can be a willingness to embrace conflict and challenge and bumps in the road as they come.

Resilience can be the perseverance that transcends and helps you to keep doing your thing. But it requires high levels of commitment in many areas. For example, when performing at a very high level that demands a lot of your focus, attention, strength, and stamina, resilience can also be about being aware of what it takes to restore and rejuvenate your energy.

Resilient leaders build resilient teams and organizations. But it can be a complex topic to navigate around in the workplace. It’s important to remember that resilience will occur naturally when we are authentic but difficult when we are not. As the world begins to open back up, how are you ensuring that your organization will be more resilient?

If you want to start a conversation about this or any of the topics that we have explored in the EQ podcast episodes, please message Chris, Hannah, and Luke at info@purposeandperformancegroup.com.

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Magic in the Room #52: Mindset: Outward Mindset w/ Special Guest Bob Schooley

Tue, 20 Apr 2021 21:29:00 GMT

People with an Outward Mindset take the time to understand other people’s needs, desires, and objectives before acting. An outward mindset is critical to building high-performance organizations where everyone is engaged. In this episode of Magic in the Room, Hannah, Luke, Chris, and Bob discuss ways to develop on Outward Mindset.

In recent episodes, the hosts have discussed how our mindset affects how we show up in the world. They have also talked about the differences between a fixed versus a growth mindset. If we believe that we come into this world with the gifts needed to be successful or not, it’s easy to think that we can’t change. For example, a natural artist that struggles with math and a fixed mindset will assume they can never be good at math.

By contrast, someone with a growth mindset will tell their teams that they can improve their skills if they work hard, have a willingness to be challenged and grow. But what is an inward and outward mindset? Bob believes that someone with an outward mindset genuinely cares about the well-being of others.

Luke compares an inward mindset to our hierarchy of needs. Once he knows there’s food on the table, he can give away some of his excesses and be more outward. Luke further explains that if there’s a roof over his head, he can offer shelter to someone else. When he is warm, he can provide warmth. These are just a few of many examples that highlight the hierarchy at play when exploring the differences between an inward and outward mindset.

Sure, it’s not easy to move towards a growth mindset if we’re predisposed to have a fixed mindset. Equally, it’s not easy to have an outward mindset if we’re predisposed to having an inward mindset. But Bob also believes that the ability to change our mindsets is probably one of the most challenging things in life. But it’s one of the most important and rewarding things that we’ll ever do.

Hannah shares how filling our own cup until overflows will ensure we always have something to give. Ultimately, it’s about understanding how we work and how our nervous system operates. We can then optimize our performance, not just in our technical output but also in the kind of energy we show up with every day. We can then influence the people around us, which will lead to greater performance.

Maybe the real challenge is when we spend 80% of our time filling our cups and forget to share them with other people. At the beginning of this episode, Luke was thinking about how inward and outward mindsets affect leaders or team members. But he is walking away from today’s conversation with something must bigger to think about.

How does an outward organization compare with an organization focused on inward surviving? If you would like to start a conversation about the mindset within your organization, Luke, Hannah, and Chris invite you to connect and share your insights.

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Magic in the Room #51: Purpose & Performance Group Book Recommendations

Tue, 13 Apr 2021 22:41:00 GMT

The books, media, and news we consume have a profound impact on our mindset and creativity. In this episode, Luke, Chris, and Hannah discuss the books that changed their life outlooks.

We are all busy with work and juggling our responsibilities in life. It might feel like you are too busy to read, but is this preventing your personal growth? We all need more skills than we currently have if we want to reach the ascending levels of responsibility within an organization. To be an effective leader, we will need more ideas and skills to help build our view of leadership.

In today’s episode, the hosts share the books that were formative to them. For Luke, it was A Failure of Nerve: Leadership In the Age of the Quick Fix by Edwin Friedman. The book was written in the mid-nineties. Luke shares how the author was one of the first people to highlight how organizations, social groups, churches, and businesses are very similar to family systems.

Chris reveals why he has a library of horrible books. Any book he finds value in will be passed along to someone else. This means that all the books you see on his shelf are either unread or not deemed worthy enough to pass on. However, a small book called The Hidden Messages In Water by Masaru Emoto had a massive effect on him and has been passed to others many times.

This book can profoundly transform your worldview. The author reveals that crystals formed in frozen water reveal changes when specific, concentrated thoughts are directed toward them. He found that water from clear springs and water that has been exposed to loving words shows brilliant, complex, and colorful snowflake patterns.

In contrast, polluted water, or water exposed to negative thoughts, forms incomplete, asymmetrical patterns with dull colors. His research reveals how we can all positively impact the earth and our health. Chris also shares how Blink by Malcolm Gladwell also helped revolutionize the way he understood the world within. Reading both books in a month inspired Chris to consume more information and try to get better every day.

Hannah reveals that Chris once handed her, The People Project: Your Guide for Changing Behavior and Growing Your Influence as a Leader by Steve Laswell and how they spoke with the author on the podcast. The book changed how Hannah viewed coaching and what it really means to be a leader. More recently, Fierce Conversations: Achieving Success at Work and in Life One Conversation at a Time by Susan Scott was pivotal too.

The book changed how she thought about relationships. There’s a line in that book that says the conversation is the relationship. When the conversation stops, the relationship ceases to exist. Hannah reveals how this line hit her like a tonne of bricks and left her reflecting about all the people she thought she was in a relationship with, but she wasn’t talking to them.

When we dare to put our devices down and stop staring at a screen, books can have a huge impact on our lives and careers. The hosts of the Magic in the Room podcast have shared what resonated with them. But is there a book that has helped you shape your approach or informed pieces of your mindset? Luke, Chris, and Hannah invite you to share what books have inspired or impacted you.

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Magic in the Room #50: Unlocking EQ: Collaboration

Tue, 06 Apr 2021 22:39:00 GMT

50: Unlocking EQ: Collaboration

When we create an environment of trust and shared purpose, collaboration is possible, but it is not always easy. In this episode, Hannah, Chris, and Luke share tactics to ensure collaboration.

If we’re going to be transformational and not transactional leaders, being able to collaborate with our team will play a crucial role. But Chris asks Hannah and Luke, why is it important? Luke shares how as individuals, we are really constrained with the experiences we have in life up to that point. We’re also constrained with the strengths and weaknesses that we have as an individual.

However, in a group, we are much less constrained. For Luke, it’s essential for him as a leader to pull the knowledge and wisdom and experience out of the group. To be more successful in any given challenge or scenario takes collaboration. Creating a space where people can bring the best of themselves to attack a problem and collectively create a solution makes a huge difference.

As a facilitator of collaboration, Luke also thinks one of the hardest challenges is ensuring everyone has a place at the table and the opportunity to share their insights. We must include the person who is quieter or doesn’t turn their camera on in a virtual meeting and not allow the loudest person in the room to take over. Everyone needs to be a part of this strategic conversation.

As humans, we are a social species that heavily rely on cooperation to survive and thrive in all aspects of our lives. The bonds we form influence our performance. If we take a collaborative approach that respects and honors and acts as a glue to those connection points, it has a big impact. People are more loyal; satisfied and feel fulfilled with the solutions that we create when collaborating.

Hannah discusses how our brains will default to work out our relationships when we’re not thinking about something. Collaboration is a huge part of how we work together to achieve great things. Our brains are wired for connecting with others. For Hannah, relationships are at the heart of how well we collaborate.

Although it can feel easier to do it yourself because it’s faster, you will always need to collaborate if you want to do it better. If you want true innovation and collaboration to happen, somebody must take the leadership mantle and bring everyone together. Chris likens this to inviting everyone under a tent with him to hear all the voices and see all the group’s perspectives.

Inclusive communication models and collaborative sessions can also be a big win for leaders. Ultimately, it’s about showing support for the people around you, which is a significant contributor to high-performing teams and leadership effectiveness. These are just a handful of reasons why Chris encourages listeners to buy a big tent and invite everybody they can.

Finally, the hosts share their love of emerging from difficult conversations around performance and effectiveness. They also discuss how teams can move from where they are to where they want to be. If you or your organization wants to start a conversation about building highly inclusive and intentional communication models, please message Chris, Hannah, and Luke at info@purposeandperformancegroup.com.

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Magic in the Room #49: Growth Mindset with Dr. Bob Schooley

Tue, 30 Mar 2021 16:05:00 GMT

People with a growth mindset believe they can change and learn over time. In this episode, Hannah, Chris, Luke, and recurring guest, Dr. Bob Schooley, explore the characteristics of a growth mindset and how leaders can help people believe they can change.

Do you have a growth or a fixed mindset? And what is the difference between the two? If you are the type of person who believes that your skills and talents can be developed over time, you will have a growth mindset. If you think that you were born with strengths and weaknesses and accept that there will be some things that you will never be good at, no matter how much you practice, you have what is traditionally referred to as a fixed mindset.

The stories we tell and the things we believe about ourselves can prevent change from happening or enable new skills to thrive. But what is the link between our beliefs and our behaviors? Whether we have trouble sticking to our goals, creating positive habits, or achieving our objectives, our mindset will play a much bigger part in the outcome than you might think.

In today’s episode, your hosts challenge the perceptions that come with any mindset. Luke shares a theory that our mindset is essentially confirmation bias that leads us only to select data from our environment that confirms what we already. He questions that if we have more of a growth mindset and are interested in learning, we might naturally see more opportunities in our environment.

For example, if you have a growth mindset, you will want to learn and have adventures, you want to be challenged. You wouldn’t see, experience, touch, and smell things if your mindset didn’t drive you to that space. On the flip side, the team discusses how contempt can be one of the hallmarks of a fixed mindset. But how can we level up our growth mindset and move away from a limited outlook and start exploring growth territory?

Luke shared how having the courage to ask himself compelling and honest questions in the presence of other people from his team has been incredibly helpful. He reveals the insights he has unlocked by playing around with the idea of his value proposition. Chris also added how you show up with your team while questioning the value we bring to our own lives and the lives of others is only possible by getting to know ourselves better.

The hosts also discuss what percentage of people they think have a fixed mindset and how it could determine if you have an optimistic or pessimistic outlook in life. Hannah believes she has a growth mindset and that she is also an optimist. But she reflects on how she has moved from a fixed to a growth mindset in her life.

Finally, Chris discusses how we are all forced to change our mindset to adapt to our day and the challenges that we might encounter along the way. The ability to switch our perspective to approach a situation differently can be incredibly powerful.

If you would like to learn more about how modeling new behaviors and mindsets encourages teams to value the needs of others, Connect with us to start a conversation about how we can help you achieve its designed purpose.

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Magic in the Room #48: Meaningful Recognition w/ Special Guest Ashley Hurney

Tue, 23 Mar 2021 12:49:00 GMT

For people to feel genuinely appreciated, we must go beyond simply telling them they did a good job. Instead, we must give Meaningful Recognition, which is more intentional and thoughtful. In this episode, Luke, Chris, and Ashley Hurney of MTM Recognition discuss the science and tactics of giving meaningful recognition.

How memorable is your recognition strategy? Does it meet your objectives? What do you do to make your employees feel connected and engaged within your organization? At MTM recognition, they believe that excellence thrives where it is recognized. Can you remember a moment where others recognized your efforts? The hosts of Magic in the Room and MTM’s Ashley Hurney share their experiences and pivotal moments of recognition in their lives and explore the science behind it all.

Every business can have a service award program. The problem is that there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all approach. We weren’t built to checkboxes. As we progress, we should be blowing these tired concepts out of the water. Ashley shares her love of the book, The Five Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace , and how understanding these differences has helped MTM stand out in their culture with their employees and their customers.

Chris shares a meaningful recognition hack that can help listeners get past the behavior and the character of their employees. He advises it’s not just about showing up each day, but how you show up and communicate in a very human way. The real power of recognition is understanding how enabling people to be seen, heard, and understood can impact people’s lives. Ashley also shares how this ultimate hack is also taking recognition from transactional and elevating it to meaningful.

The hosts also discuss the concept of cash versus recognition. Luke questions if adding $100 to someone’s pay check as recognition will be remembered in 10 years from now. However, an experience such as a trip or tickets to a ballgame will be something that will stay with them forever. Ashley also shares that if you can peel back those layers and explore what will better contribute to your company culture, it’s never going to be cash. It will soon be forgotten, and it won’t help support and bolster your purpose.

When asked about the key takeaways from today’s episode, Chris shares how recognition is the evidence that provides meaning and belonging. It helps him recognize when he is seen, heard, and understood. For Ashley, the conversation was a reminder to always to take the time to do it, right. That’s when the fruits of your labor, your team, and your organization will all do better.

If you want to refresh your recognition strategy and explore the topic on a deeper level, the hosts invite you to explore how they can help your organization reinforce your purpose, values, and strategy. Equally, if you have any questions or want to share your insights, please message the team info@purposeandperformancegroup.com.

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Magic in the Room #47: Unlocking EQ – Decisions

Tue, 16 Mar 2021 13:36:00 GMT

One single decision can have enormous consequences for our lives. Every decision we make is influenced by many factors and can have ripple effects for us and the people we lead. In this episode, Luke, Chris, and Hannah discuss what happens in the brain when we make certain decisions and share tactics to make quality decisions.

We all have to make landmark decisions throughout our lives. It might begin with what school should I choose? And it will quickly progress to what job do I take? It won’t be too long until you try to determine the right time to change careers, buy a home or start a family. Being able to make high-quality decisions is pivotal in our success as leaders. In today’s episode, the hosts share their stories and how their decisions impacted their lives.

Just like the movie Sliding Doors, we all wonder what might have happened if we made a different decision in a pivotal moment in our lives. Hannah, Luke, and Chris explore the effect of our decision-making and our emotional intelligence spectrum. For example, Hannah shares how she was faced with living in Prague or Tulsa and chose to head to the US. But she often thinks about what an alternative story of her life would have looked like if she had decided to open door B and gone to Prague.

We all have two systems that are used to make decisions. One side is emotional, and the other is strategic. Do you know the kind of style decision maker that you are? Luke introduces the listeners to the Decision-Making Style Matrix and what happens when we apply a misaligned decision-making style in the wrong structure.

The matrix can help you understand if you are dealing with ambiguity and ambiguous tasks or ambiguous people challenges. Hannah shares how people want to feel that they are seen and heard, and valued. But she also explores how this unwittingly can affect our decision-making process too.

The hosts explore how we are all searching for how we can obtain a sense of significance and make an impact. But are we striving for success? Or are we striving for significance? Hannah believes that when we approach decisions from the perspective of what impact we can have and what being significant, it can act as a guideline for making better decisions.

Hannah encourages listeners to evaluate their decision-making process. After making a decision, take some time to revisit the impact of that decision, look at the progress and then collect some feedback over time. Chris also shares how monitoring those reactions can help us understand our own wiring. Together, these pointers can help leaders implement structures that facilitate better decision-making.

Here at the Purpose & Performance Group, Hannah, Luke, and Chris invite you to share your experiences, insights, and questions about how being objective helps clarify decision-making. We love to see other people succeed, and if you need any help clarifying decisions, we would love to hear from you at info@purposeandperformancegroup.com.

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Magic in the Room #46: Lifelong Learning w/ Special Guest John Stewart

Tue, 09 Mar 2021 00:55:00 GMT

What happens in the brain when we see something, touch something, hear or smell something? In this episode, Chris and Luke explore how memories are formed and the role of experimentation and hands-on learning with architect John Stewart.

John Stewart is an award-winning architect who focuses on sensory informed design. He is passionate about how neuroscience can inform design and memory formation through human experiences inside built environments. John shares his mission of creating memorable one-of-a-kind experiences that will keep guests coming back.

In today’s episode, John reveals that neuroscientists don’t study the brain. They study a piece of the brain because it’s so complex. But in his work, he attempts to pull it all together. His teams work with neuroscientists and architects to build memorable experiences. Chris shares his fascination with the different brand sounds that create these experiences without us even realizing it.

When on a journey of lifelong learning and awakening the senses, how do you strike a balance between predictability, security, knowing what’s coming, and experimentation with new ideas? The teams discuss their experiences and also their encounters with sensory informed design.

Chris asks the listeners to think about when they hear their hotel room door unlock. What’s the Hilton sound like? Is it different from what the Marriott or the Hard Rock sounds like? Every building we enter is filled with multiple touchpoints that can overload our senses or deliver familiarity.

John asks everyone listening to describe the door handle on the front of their office building. If you don’t know, he asks listeners to describe what a door handle will look like at a Hard Rock venue? Most people will successfully answer; it’s a guitar. This inexpensive and straightforward move is a perfect example of sensory informed design across a brand. It’s not about spending big but being diligent about designing those memorable things and understanding how the brain works to make a memory.

The hosts discuss the design components they have encountered in hospitality environments. Everything we touch, feel, hear and smell, will build memories and create experiences. Chris asks the listeners to think about how they can be more intentional with the touchpoints in the enterprise or across their brand and with the people that engage with it.

What do you sense each morning when you walk over the front threshold as a team member or an employee?

What do you experience? What do you eat? What do you smell? What do you touch? Like? What level of intentionality do you bring to this space? As a visual person, today’s conversation delivered a game-changer moment for Luke. He shares how he now has a whole new way of seeing everything. Luke also adds what we brands should use this ability to help people be intentional about their employee’s and their customer’s experiences to open up a new realm of possibilities.

As a team of lifelong learners, the hosts commit to leveraging this conversation to bring many more adventurous learning episodes into their own lives. Please share your experiences with sensory informed design and lifelong learning by messaging Chris, Hannah, and Luke at info@purposeandperformancegroup.com.

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Magic in the Room #45: Building Trust When Working From Home

Sat, 27 Feb 2021 13:40:00 GMT

What happens to trust in an organization when some “essential” workers are required to be onsite, while other “non-essential” workers work from home? In this episode, Luke, Chris, and Hannah discuss this question with recurring guest Dr. Bob Schooley and outline strategies for building trust in remote work environments.

Today’s conversation was inspired by an article in the Harvard Business Review entitled, work from home is corroding our trust in each other. It highlights how there’s an essential group of employees in many organizations that have to go in and be present at work. Others are considered non-essential and can work from home.

The authors share interesting data that suggests an erosion of trust between those who have to come into the office and those that aren’t. It centers around those that have to go into the office, believe that their WFH peers are not working as much or are as productive as they are. Have you experienced any of these trust issues on your team?

Chris shares how this is much less of an issue for him because he treats every interaction with the people he engages with as if it matters. Chris shows that he genuinely cares and respects his team and will always have their best interests at heart. This is why he believes it’s pivotal that we develop leaders that engage in that way and have the expectation within our organizations that in every transaction and how we show up. As a team, we are explicitly clear about the expectations of where we come from, our approaches, and how we represent our enterprise.

Luke reveals how one of the fundamentals of building trust is vulnerability. Suppose you demonstrate courage by putting yourself out there to show how you care enough to have a weird, awkward, virtual meeting and encourage healthy conflict. In that case, most people will automatically assume that you will probably be doing the necessary work when off-camera at home too.

Hannah shares how leaders now require a whole new level of intentionality. The things that people trust are typically the things they see. We trust what we see more than what we hear, which is why body language and facial expressions matter. We trust what we say, and our brains read that information and make a value judgment. Is this a positive situation or a negative situation? Is this going to help me? Or is this a threat to me in some way? And we read that much faster than our thinking brain can process that information.

These are just a few reasons why Hannah and her team encourage people to have their cameras on during Zoom calls. It helps us provide more information when we communicate. Being more intentional about how we bring people together can have a much more positive impact on teams. The podcasts hosts also explore strategies in how to overcome trust issues between remote workers.

Dr. Bob Schooley also discusses how if we want to earn someone’s trust, it should be seen in everything that we do for our team members. Chris shares his belief that if we want our organizations to be trusted, we need to implement trustworthy processes. Hannah also reminds the listeners that trust is never static. It’s dynamic and has to be intentionally managed and built.

Please share your trust issues with your fellow remote working employees. How have you overcome these challenges and successfully built trust? Let us know by messaging Chris, Hannah, and Luke at info@purposeandperformancegroup.com.

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Magic in the Room #44: Overcoming Imposter Syndrome

Sat, 20 Feb 2021 13:59:00 GMT

All humans experience a lack of confidence and the fear that they don’t belong from time to time. When these feelings and conditions occur together and persist, they can take the form of what we call “impostor syndrome.” Many people – maybe as many as 70% of the population – struggle with it at some point. In this episode, Luke and Hannah discuss what it means to belong, and share tools for overcoming impostor syndrome.

What is imposter syndrome? According to the Webster dictionary, it’s a psychological condition characterized by persistent doubt concerning one’s abilities or accomplishments accompanied by the fear of being exposed as a fraud despite evidence of one’s ongoing success. It’s an internal belief that you are not good enough and somebody will find out that you don’t belong here.

Many will have experienced self-doubt or had a crisis of confidence at some point. Most people reading this will have experienced imposter syndrome on some level and thought, I don’t fit in. I’m not smart enough. I’m not good enough. I don’t know enough. And yet, here I am doing these things.

Hannah and Luke share their experiences. One of the tools we can use to combat the dreaded imposter syndrome is confidence. But it’s seldom enough to remove feelings that you don’t really fit in or feel a sense of belonging. Overconfidence also brings more problems to the table.

Luke also shares a few examples of the Dunning-Kruger effect on the spectrum’s opposite side. It’s a form of cognitive bias where individuals believe that they are smarter and more capable than they really are. We all need to be more confident on occasions, but when we genuinely don’t know anything about something, we need to seek feedback and avoid falling victim to the Dunning Kruger effect.

To feel more connected, we need to connect more. Only by creating more connections for more people can we unlock the greater impact we are searching for. But being too self-conscious will run the risk of contributing to insecurity. The trick is to focus less on the self and more on others’ needs. For example, if you perform a presentation to an audience, you need to focus on that audience and what they need from you. This shifts your focus away from yourself to an outward focus.

On the Magic in the Room Podcast, the hosts often talk about the importance of mindset. An outward mindset involves focussing on having an impact outside of yourself. If you can help create a meaningful connection and create a bridge for someone who might look like they’re not feeling comfortable with the group and doesn’t feel like they’re part of what’s going on and help them feel included, you will create more belonging for yourself too.

Hannah shares three tips to help listeners overcome imposter syndrome. Firstly, make the decision. Even if you don’t have all the facts, if you have 70% of the information, make the decision. The next tip is to keep doing the thing and keep showing up. Finally, monitor your inner dialogue and or internal monologue. Pay attention to the messages you’re sending yourself through your thoughts, words, and actions.

Remember to focus externally on how you can impact others rather than how you feel inside. These are just a handful of simple tools that can enable you to help meet other people’s needs and help them be successful and short circuit some of that imposter syndrome thinking.

Please share your experiences with imposter syndrome or tales of unwittingly falling into the Dunning Kruger effect by messaging Chris, Hannah, and Luke at info@purposeandperformancegroup.com.

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Magic in the Room #43: Mindset: An Introduction w/ Special Guest Bob Schooley

Wed, 10 Feb 2021 15:10:00 GMT

What does mindset mean to you? It’s about our attitude that we bring with us every day, says Bob. When Luke thinks about mindset, he reflects on what we believe and how we navigate this world. Ultimately, it’s what we hold to be true and how we get from point A to B in life. For Chris, it’s about the approach he chooses to tackle any given situation in life.

Although the hosts in this episode have three different definitions, the bigger question is, where does that belief or that approach originate? In this episode, the team shares their own experiences while also discussing nature vs. nurture and the impacts that both can have on our mindset in our unique development journeys.

There are many differences between a growth mindset and a fixed one and inward versus outward. When comparing the high-performance mindsets for leaders, the specific approaches appear to be more successful than others depending on the individual.

On his developmental journey, Bob believes that the first step is awareness. Bob reminds himself that he would have a very inward mindset if he were left to his own devices. But as an eternal optimist, he feels very fortunate to be surrounded by focused people with outward mindsets that he admires. They act as his role models who help him evolve and expand his own mindsets.

Luke shares how he has observed people living life on autopilot in their career and an inward mindset. But they are now reexamining their mindset and seizing opportunities caused by a disruption to their belief system. Many are questioning why they had put off learning for the last five, 10, or even 20 years. A new growth mindset is encouraging people to invest in their personal development again.

Chris reveals a moment where he had a bad mindset and how it was only when he stopped worrying about himself and started focussing on other people that everything fell into place. The hosts are united in never underestimating the power of altering or cultivating a different mindset. It will require some difficult choices, messy work, and a willingness to do things differently. It’s hard work, but it can make an incredible difference to our leaders’ lives and the teams out there doing work every day.

If you would like to dig further into your mindset or explore developing your team’s mindset or your entire organization, please contact us. It’s what we do. You can reach Chris, Hannah, and Luke at info@purposeandperformancegroup.com.

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Magic in the Room #42: Managing Conflict

Tue, 02 Feb 2021 15:58:00 GMT

Whether you leverage it or avoid it, how you manage conflict will shape your leadership journey and influence your success. Because teams are made up of individuals who each have unique personalities, styles, or values, conflict is a human condition. We all face it. But not all conflict is bad. In this episode, Luke, Hannah, and Chris discuss tactics to foster healthy conflict that builds stronger relationships and better business outcomes.

This podcast is called The Magic in the Room because the team is passionate about getting people together in a room and putting issues on the table in a healthy way. Your hosts reflect on leaders they have encountered who have bravely tackled something that could have been contentious. They examine how these leaders managed conflict by creating an environment where issues could be worked through productively.

Hannah shares how she has seen Luke get clients into a room and enable them to voice difficult concerns that they are afraid of expressing. It’s often because they are concerned that they will come across as too emotional or fearful of how others will respond. Hannah has observed how Luke focuses on listening and empathizing with others’ viewpoints. In doing so, Hannah has observed Luke builds powerful bonds.

Luke shares his belief that It’s about helping people to create healthy and safe spaces for conflict. Chris talks about how many make the mistake of trying to be collaborative when they should be accommodating. Chris also warns that teams competing when they should be accommodating is an even bigger issue. Sometimes we need to show up for the other person by simply listening to them.

For Hannah, conflict can be taken back to basic human psychology. We don’t want to feel abandoned and that our opinions do not matter or that our voice goes unheard. When hurt, we need the other party to keep building trust so that we can tolerate and overcome conflict in relationships.

When in conflict, we are often uncooperative or highly cooperative. Equally, when attempting to resolve the dispute, we will be either assertive or unassertive. But the science of conflict will involve several possible outcomes. For example, you could be highly assertive but low in cooperativeness. High cooperativeness and low assertiveness could be seen and be more accommodating. But in the middle of both of them is a compromise.

If you are a little assertive and cooperative, compromise can be found. But if you are unassertive and uncooperative, you could end up purposely avoiding conflict altogether. There are many different conflict styles caused by competing, collaborating, compromising, and avoiding issues. Managing conflict can be made much easier by identifying what their techniques are and then talking through how we get intentional about using the right style at the right time.

We’d love to talk about how conflict influences teams and conflict processes. If you need help figuring out the journey, your teams embark on when in conflict, you can reach Chris, Hannah, and Luke at info@purposeandperformancegroup.com.

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Magic in the Room #41: Purpose, Profit & the Role of Service

Wed, 27 Jan 2021 01:38:00 GMT

Developed in the 1990s by James Heskett, the Service-Profit Chain is a business management model that links employee satisfaction to customer loyalty and profitability. It is a framework that shows the interrelationships of a business ecosystem, where revenue growth is an outcome of a chain of processes that begins with a clearly articulated shared purpose.

In this episode, Chris, Hannah, and Luke discuss how this model, when applied intentionally, leads to greater outcomes in today’s business environment.

Hannah discusses how we care about companies that we feel care about us. When employees show that they care about their customers, we also feel like the company cares. It’s crucial to recognize that how we treat the people in our organizations is precisely how employees will treat our customers.

For Hannah, it’s all about living by your purpose. We are often surrounded by a collection of highly talented individuals. The magic in the room occurs when a group of people has a primary mutual focus. Not because they have to, but because they want to and because it feels meaningful. Hannah reflects on the golden moments that she has witnessed the turnaround in their client’s organizations when they have successfully helped them make that transition.

Luke talks about the ROI in changing the employee experience and helping them feel and perceive that internal service quality in reaching those higher levels of employee engagement. But he warns there must be a clear narrative around it. These are just a few reasons why the hosts always walk people through their service-profit chain journey. What many leaders think they should be doing is often very different from the next project that should be on their roadmap.

The organizational participation piece is a critical component. When we see our leaders participate in the things they say they value, we believe in them. When we see our leaders say something is important and instruct everyone to attend a training session, but don’t attend themselves, it sends out the wrong message. It must be demonstrated by all leaders and supervisors at every layer in the organization for it to work.

The service-profit chain establishes relationships between profitability, customer loyalty, employee satisfaction, loyalty, and productivity. But it will always begin with a clearly articulated shared purpose. It’s easy to rush into solution mode and ask how long until I get results? You might see results within 60 or 90 days, but it can take up to 18 months to make a meaningful difference. Chris advises your journey’s speed will depend on the level of your intention and what goals you want to reach.

Cultivating a shared belief system and energizing mindset around how everyone acts in your business will take time. It’s a journey rather than a destination, and you will learn many lessons along the way. We invite you to share your stories, insights, and experiences with the service-profit chain by messaging Chris, Hannah, and Luke at info@purposeandperformancegroup.com.

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Magic in the Room Podcast #40: Unlocking EQ – Foundations of Emotional Intelligence

Tue, 19 Jan 2021 15:31:00 GMT

In Magic in the Room Episode #40, Luke, Chris, and Hannah explore the impact of emotion on our behavior and performance and why emotional intelligence matters for leaders.

Watch the full episode on YouTube!

Our next discovery along the EQ spectrum is emotional intelligence. What does emotional intelligence mean to you, and why is it essential for leaders today? For Luke, it’s about being intentional about how people perceive him. It’s also about the words he uses, how he shows up, and ensuring that his behavior aligns with his intent. Ultimately, it’s intentionality and purposefulness in how we connect with others.

There is also a strong link between emotion and learning. In the previous episode of this podcast, we talked about this notion of personal ownership. When change is thrust upon us, we can choose to get resentful. Or we can choose to take a learning attitude with a growth mindset approaching things with a growth mindset.

We are living in a team of continuous learning right now. Our health, safety, livelihoods are threatened. It has encouraged people to lean into learning in ways that maybe they hadn’t before. It’s now critical that leaders create an environment in which people can learn and grow and be their best selves. Hannah discusses why she believes this is one of the most critical reasons emotional intelligence matters in leadership.

Hannah also reflects on how intelligence was traditionally measured through IQ. But in more recent years, it’s becoming clear through the research that there are many types of intelligence. Some people have very high levels of emotional intelligence, and studies show how it impacts leadership and how far you go in an organization.

Your technical knowledge and expertise will get you so far. But it’s your level of emotional intelligence that will drive take your career to new heights. Leaders must have self-awareness regarding their emotional states and others around them. When we recognize what others are feeling, it enables us to support and provide a structure to help others manage their emotional states.

Chris discusses how the world has changed now that we no longer have hierarchical instruction. People question their CEOs, president, and governor in ways that they never did 70 years ago. By the same token, groups are allowed to exist today that could not have existed seven years ago, and we all accept this evolution is a big step forward in the name of progress.

However, it has created an onus on us as individuals to develop a purpose and put ourselves in shared belief systems and communities to contribute and support the people around us. The journey of emotional intelligence involves becoming aware of how you present to others and how people leave your presence, and what feeling they take away.

You can also explore other podcast interviews in the EQ spectrum . We also invite you to share what emotional intelligence means to you and your business. Share your experiences and insights by messaging Chris, Hannah, and Luke at info@purposeandperformancegroup.com.

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Magic in the Room Podcast #39: The Year Ahead – Predicting the Unpredictable

Tue, 12 Jan 2021 14:49:00 GMT

What will 2021 have in store for you? The impact of the year 2020 on a grand scale is unknowable and will likely continue to emerge for decades to come. In this episode, Luke, Chris, and Hannah discuss the potential trends in organizational culture, human networks, globalization, and other areas that might lie ahead in the new year and beyond.

Watch the full episode on YouTube

After many months of being confined to our homes and enduring limited freedom of movement, 2020 was notoriously tough. Here in 2021, things are beginning to look much more positive. Today’s podcast starts with the question, what are you most looking forward to when we’re not constrained?

Hannah shares how she will return to Norway and spend some time with her family. Sticking with the travel theme, Hannah also wants to find a beach somewhere and soak up some warmth and sunshine in her life. Although Luke is looking forward to adventures with his family in the mountains, he also missed the simple things in life, like walking into a client’s office for the first time.

Luke is looking forward to soaking up the culture of a client’s workspace and understanding its personality in a way that doesn’t come across in a video conferencing call. The sense of discovery and the opportunity to connect with people and help them is something that Luke has missed more than anything.

Chris agrees that one of the most exciting aspects of no longer being constrained is connecting differently again. He also shares how he is missing the shared experiences we all took for granted. Going on adventures with his kids, riding bikes and scooters, or waking up deciding to take his family to Disneyland.

However, this episode’s big focus is exploring your company vision for 2021 and how a leadership mindset will guide you forward. Hannah discusses how many people are discovering their areas of expertise no longer exist or are relevant in the world. She warns how this could quickly lead to resentment.

We have the power to choose our mindset. It’s easy to become angry if you have spent a great deal of time learning how to operate effectively within a system that changed forever. Alternatively, we can recognize the new reality and learn additional skills to build a better plan, and then learn how to thrive in a new system. All of this ties back to our previous episode of learning nimbly .

It is possible to change our mindset by choosing to look at every change as an opportunity to learn. As we move from entitlement to gratitude, we can all let go of resentment. Rather than building pre-pandemic solutions, we also have an opportunity to approach things with fresh eyes as we emerged from a period when we were feeling around in the dark.

How are you positioning yourself or your business to succeed in 2021 as we prepare to enter a new world? Share your experiences by messaging Chris, Hannah, and Luke at info@purposeandperformancegroup.com.

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Magic in the Room #38: Unlocking EQ – Learning Nimbly With Special Guest Ben West

Tue, 05 Jan 2021 14:45:00 GMT

The ability to be a nimble learner is a direct result of a growth mindset. In a world where the only constant is change, and the pace of that change continues to increase, being able to adapt, learn, and grow has become one of the most important keys to success. In this episode, Luke and Hannah explore how to learn quickly and nimbly with P&PG team member Ben West.

Watch the full episode on YouTube

Ben shares the importance of courage in the learning process. Many believe that they don’t have it within themselves to solve a problem in a group scenario, and others will lack the courage to speak up. These two things are often the cause of significant roadblocks within many organizations. Convincing every team member that they are encouraged to speak up and have the courage and tools to succeed is critical.

Sure, there’s an intellectual side to learning. But there’s also a belief side to learning too. Sometimes, teams simply need to collectively believe that they can overcome any obstacle or challenge if they work together. In this episode, the hosts share their experiences and observations from moments where they have witnessed a team or community begin to learn nimbly and the journey to unlocking a growth mindset.

We often think of situations as a win or a loss. Hannah shares her favorite quote from John C. Maxwell , “Sometimes you win. Sometimes you learn.” Hannah urges listeners always to have a learning mindset and reflect on what every situation is teaching them. Ask yourself, what did 2020 teach you? What have adversity, challenges, and failure taught you? When you have these answers, you can also explore bigger questions such as how to become a better person, teammate, and leader.

Without realizing it, many of us have multiple roles across many circles in life. Obvious examples are our families, group of friends, and as a team member in the workplace. Luke asks listeners to minimize the fear of failure and help everyone embrace the language of learning. By seizing opportunities and taking wise risks, the worst possible outcome is that we learn a lesson.

The fear of perfection is something that also prevents many from moving forward. Hannah reflects on how they launched the Magic in the Room podcast with only a little knowledge. In the first season, the team learned their craft and helped the show evolve in season two. Those learned lessons have helped improve the podcast, but they also know that the third season will be even better.

We can remove the fear of perfection by not setting the bar so high and focussing on becoming a little bit better each day. It’s okay if it’s not perfect yet and accepting that it’s a journey of continuous improvement rather than a destination will help you achieve your goals.

You can learn more about how being a nimble learner is a direct result of a growth mindset and also explore other aspects of the EQ Spectrum here. Chris, Hannah, and Luke also encourage you to share your experiences by sending an email to info@purposeandperformancegroup.com.

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Magic in the Room #37: A Year in Review

Tue, 29 Dec 2020 14:54:00 GMT

There exists a thin line between order and chaos. This year was a year of straddling that line and of getting comfortable with suffering. As the year 2020 wraps up, Chris, Hannah, and Luke take their personal inventories of the lessons learned from this upside-down year. Disruption of systems and perspectives toward change are prominent themes in this year-end review.

Watch the full episode on YouTube!

When you look back over 2020, what is the one thing you will be taking away? What story do you see yourself sharing with your grandchildren? This is the opening question that Luke asks his fellow hosts and listeners to the Magic in the Room podcast.

Hannah shares how, despite everything, she accomplished something that she never imagined. She ran her first half marathon in the middle of all the chaos. Hannah shares how the experience helped her manage some of the pain that the turbulent year brought to us all.

Chris shares how cliches such as, “if you’re halfway through hell, just don’t stop” resonated with him after exploring the thin line between order and chaos. After 12 months of living through chaos, Chris reveals how he has focussed on preparing himself to be more resilient. He shares the importance of continuing to build character in the face of adversity.

The story that Luke will be telling his grandkids many years from now is how, after months of back pain, he found himself completely immobile. He was then faced with facilitating an important half-day remote session for 60 top leaders in a large organization’s C-suite. But Luke dug deep and found a way to deliver the session.

Luke shares how he laid a green blanket out on the floor with a hidden pillow underneath that propped his head up. He then added a virtual background that made the audience think he was standing up and facilitating virtually. For Luke, this was also a metaphor for all the crazy things people have done in 2020.

Businesses have also been debilitated, and strategies have had the legs knocked out from under them. People have found themselves doing all of these crazy creative things to keep moving forward, delivering value, and making things happen. Luke encourages leaders to try new things, no matter how crazy they might initially sound, and move forward together.

One of the biggest lessons that Luke will be taking away from 2020 is that stability is an illusion. Maybe we have all learned to let go of the status quo and lean into what’s coming next. Looking towards 2021, Hannah accepts that we no longer know what’s going to happen. But we do know that we can control our actions and behaviors that will drive new outcomes.

Collectively, we all need to continue to build our resilience and focus on leading in the right way. For Chris, 2021 will be another year filled with courageous stories of purpose and performance. Once again, we will see great leaders weather any storms waiting on the horizon and will come out the other side in a very successful way.

What lessons did you learn from 2020? and how will they help you drive success in 2021? Share your experiences by messaging Chris, Hannah, and Luke at info@purposeandperformancegroup.com.

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Holiday Gratitude

Wed, 23 Dec 2020 17:05:00 GMT

If you had asked us in late 2019 to plan how we’d like 2020 to unfold, we’re sure you wouldn’t find many people whose goals and plans were executed as envisioned. Though 2020 has been marked by challenges, our team used the year time to reflect and experiment with new ways to connect with our community of clients and partners. We’re ending the year thankful for so many people and experiences who’ve been part of our stories this year.

Our holiday wish is you’ll find time to reflect on the things you’re grateful for.

Chris – I am grateful for a year full of terrifically rich stories, stories I will carry with me forever. I think about the courage of the front-line workers amid the pandemic, the families spending more time together while parents grow their relationships with one another, and their children. I will remember the courageous business leaders who completely reimagined multi-generational business models…and I will remember our troops who make the freedom to do all of these things possible. For all the suffering endured this year, remarkable achievements abound. Looking forward to sharing 2021 with an incredible team and all of our client-partners!

Luke – This year was full of challenges and heartbreak. I walked with clients and friends through layoffs, illnesses, and financial challenges. Through it all, I remain amazed at the strength and resilience present in each human being with whom I’m in community. As the year comes to a close, I’m humbled and grateful for the example of those who wake each day to face another fight, and who show the courage and vulnerability to experiment with new ways to forge ahead in the midst of chaos, letting go of the safe, familiar, and old ways of being.

Bob – I am extremely grateful for the people I work with and for. Like most people, we had to rethink how we serve and help our community. This reflection has led us to more efficient and effective ways to support courageous leaders who are dedicated to building and nurturing healthy organizations in which all people flourish. Looking forward to an astounding 2021!

Hannah – With pain comes growth. For all the challenges of 2020, the growth, the innovation, the appreciation for community, and the incredible pivots and achievements that have happened not in spite of, but because of the obstacles we overcame together and apart, is nothing short of remarkable. My appreciation for this team and what we’ve accomplished is immense. The ways in which we are each miles ahead of where we were a year ago despite and because of big setbacks is not only paradoxical, it is also inspiring when we stop to look back at how far we’ve come. 2021 here we go!

Steph – I am grateful for the fact that our team found a way to come together, develop new products and find new and innovative ways to serve our clients. Though what we do is important, so many people this year on the front lines of a global pandemic were doing life or death jobs. I am grateful to still have work as many go without. I am grateful to have been in powerful conversations with our clients as we supported them in facing the challenges of 2020. The entire P&PG team has showed me that there is absolutely nothing we cannot accomplish against any odds.

Doug – I am grateful for the opportunity to join the P&PG team and to partner with so many amazing clients as we work together to improve ourselves, our organizations, and our communities. Transitioning from the military, many – including me – struggle to find a new purpose, and I’m incredibly lucky to be surrounded by a new huge extended family focused on discovering purpose and driving transformational performance.

Ben – I have much to be grateful for in a year that has been difficult for so many people. I am thankful for the opportunity to join a company that has embraced the challenge of adapting to the uncertainty of the year, rather than maintaining the status quo.

Sarah – I am extremely grateful to be able to not only still be able to work, but with amazing people during this difficult time for businesses, teams, and individuals. It has been rewarding to be able to move through all the obstacles 2020 has brought our team and clients and come out stronger than ever, together.

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Magic in the Room #36: Doing What We Love with Special Guest Jake Keyes

Tue, 22 Dec 2020 17:33:00 GMT

What does it take to leave behind the relative security of employment and launch into the adventure of entrepreneurship, to do what we love? It all starts in the mind. In this episode, meet Jake Keyes, founder of Skydance Brewing Company , the first Native-owned craft brewery in Oklahoma City. Chris and Hannah explore the mindset shifts that lead to Jake’s success as a brewer and full-time entrepreneur.

Jake is also the host of the Brewed with Hustle podcast and proudly reveals that he is the person that likes to sit next to the oldest guy at the bar and talk to him because he loves hearing their stories. But when he spent time in a nursing home, he found himself surrounded by people at the end of their life and every single one of them shared their stories of regret. Jake admits he scared the life out of him.

There was a universal theme to the stories that the residents shared with him. For example, I wish I would have had a better relationship with my son, or I was going to start this business etc. But now they found themselves wrestling with the fact they were going to die with regret. That was the moment where something clicked in Jake’s head, and he promised himself, that would not be him.

The arrival of a global pandemic ensured that 2020 was a turbulent year for businesses. Many people have asked Jake, “Do you ever fear your brewery will fail?” Although he might worry, he always replies, “I fear regret way more than failure” Worrying about his business failing will always be there, but at least he’s given it his best shot and done it.

Jake did not want to be the guy in the nursing home who’s got a lot of regrets because they didn’t create the things they wanted to or ended up living somebody else’s life because that’s what they were told you do. Jake shares how he has many friends who are trying to start their own business but talk themselves out of it.

There is one friend who has got a long list of things he wants to do. He’s got the ability, the talent, but his wife is afraid of that. Removing the safety net of not having a regular job with the securities that come with it is holding them both back. But Jake argues that it’s much scarier to be dependent on somebody else to do well in business and keep paying you.

Chris also shares how that veil of security really isn’t secure. It’s, it’s just a system that we’ve placed a lot of value in. But he encourages entrepreneurs to pave the runway and prepare. Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as being employed by a company today and tomorrow going, independent. Much of the building can be done alongside your day job in your spare time.

Hannah and Chris were all inspired by Jake’s moving and inspiring stories. They would also love to hear from the listeners from their podcast community. If you are thinking about leaving the relative security of employment and be in charge of your own destiny or have already been on that journey, please share it with us.

Watch the full episode on YouTube!

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Magic in the Room #35 – Balancing Stakeholders

Tue, 15 Dec 2020 20:35:00 GMT

Who are our stakeholders? Why do they matter? In this episode, Luke, Chris, and Hannah explore these and other questions about facilitating change. Transformational change often requires a coalition of stakeholders that are united by a common good or shared purpose. Forming and sustaining an effective coalition requires a courageous leader capable of earning the trust and respect of a diverse group of stakeholders.

What is the first thing that comes to mind when asked who or what is the stakeholder? Luke immediately thinks of someone who has a stake in something that’s happening or impacted by a change. When leading a project, Luke focuses on making the lives of those affected by the changes he implements to be better, not worse. Thinking about unintended consequences and identifying the stakeholders who will be impacted is crucial to its success.

Behaving in an unintentional way will produce unintentional results. This is just one of many reasons why Chris is intentional with anyone that could be influenced by his behavior. Whether it be the environment, the business ecosystem, or somebody on his team, he would qualify anyone as a stakeholder if they are affected by his actions and behaviors.

When Hannah thinks about stakeholders, she focuses on the relationship with everybody interested in something. Hannah relates the success of the Magic In The Room podcast to a collective group of stakeholders. She classes each of the hosts as a stakeholder in the show. But Hannah also explains why all of the listeners are essential stakeholders.

On the subject of recognition and its role in balancing stakeholders, Hannah also reflects on Brené Brown’s book Dare to Lead , which features a quote from Teddy Roosevelt’s man in the arena speech.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.”

Hannah explores our relationship with power and asks how we balance profit shareholder value and creating meaning for the people in our teams? Ultimately, it’s about focusing on our purpose, which has to be something greater than creating shareholder value. Chris also speaks about the importance of learning how to have an inclusive relationship and engaging with stakeholders in a meaningful way.

Finally, Luke speaks of the importance of being inclusive and accepting different perspectives. Balancing stakeholders is just one area of the EQ spectrum that your hosts have explored. If you would like to learn more about earning the trust and respect of a diverse group of stakeholders or any of our recent conversations, send us a message and share your story with Hannah, Luke, and Chris.

Watch the full episode on YouTube!

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Magic in the Room #34 – G.U.E.S.T Service™️

Tue, 08 Dec 2020 15:16:00 GMT

We all want is to feel seen, heard, and understood. When we can help our clients and customers feel that way, their experience with our brand soars.

You should treat your customers and even your internal teams as if they were a guest. When someone walks into your home, how do you welcome them? How do you want them to feel? Maya Angelou famously said, “At the end of the day, people won’t remember what you said or did. They will remember how you made them feel.” This is true when we walk away from a place of business as well as any individual that we interact with.

We all want an experience with a brand. We want to be left with some form of positive feeling at every interaction. Yet, at the same time, when we’re intentional about looking for it, our brains are wired with a negative bias, which means we’re more likely to focus on the downsides.

Humans have incredible built-in threat detectors, and we’re always unconsciously scanning our environment for what could be a threat. We’re quick to notice anything that isn’t quite right or what could be threatening. And it takes a little bit more intentionality to look for the positive things.

We all need to develop the habit of seeing the good and then expressing gratitude for the great things in our lives. This also includes the people that we work with on our team, our customers, and our guests. Every brand has reasons to believe in the products and services they deliver. But we must take the time to tell the story and craft it for the people we’re engaging with.

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Magic in the Room #33 – Unlocking EQ: Navigating Ambiguity

Tue, 01 Dec 2020 15:12:00 GMT

Our brains desire certainty and are wired to anticipate what will happen next. When what happens next is unclear, we process the event as a threat. High-performing leaders are comfortable with the unknown and commit to processes that clarify objectives and the roles required to meet them. This develops patterns of predictability and rewarding outcomes. In this episode, Chris, Luke, and Hannah discuss strategies for navigating ambiguity and moving forward in the face of uncertainty.

The journey of every leader and their performance is ripe with ambiguity. We all have to deal with many situations where we don’t have all the answers and seldom have all the information we need. Developing our emotional intelligence while navigating ambiguity is ultimately about decision making and establishing direction.

What was the last good or wrong decision you made? When trying to find her way in a global pandemic, Hannah felt confused about many things in a new world of uncertainty. She shares how hiring a coach and aligning herself with someone in her corner was the best decision she could have made when attempting to navigate ambiguity.

Chris compares leadership options to the dilemmas that face us all when staring at a menu in a restaurant. What do you do when faced with a dish that you know you like versus the special or something you have always wanted to try? In leadership, we often choose between the status quo versus what’s possible. Both of these situations highlight the challenges that we face each day.

Without even realizing it, we automatically compare the risks associated with each potential outcome. High-performance leaders will seek clarity in areas aligned with their purpose, mission, and role to perform effectively in ambiguous situations.

The fog of ambiguity can lead to a confused and fatigued mind that will struggle to make the right decisions and produce clear outcomes. Aligning yourself with someone that helps you gain focus and clarity can help you understand precisely where you need to go and the required steps you will need to take to get there.

Getting comfortable being uncomfortable while obtaining as much clarity as we can is much easier than it sounds. But we need to remember that our purpose never changes. In 2020, the reason why our client partners exist has not changed. Only the environment in which we operate has.

The hosts reflect on how adapting to these new conditions has enabled them to move at the same speed as the problem.

Nobody wants to live in the fog of ambiguity. But we all can navigate with the visibility we do have. Our working methods, combined with the tools we have accumulated in our career and the support of others, will quickly provide the clarity that we need to move forward.

How are you and your teams navigating the fog of ambiguity?

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Magic in the Room #32- Leadership Challenge with Special Guest Bob Schooley

Tue, 24 Nov 2020 19:27:00 GMT

Recurring guest “Dr. Bob” shares with Hannah and Luke the five practices of exemplary leadership based on the research and book by James Kouzes and Barry Posner. Starting with his personal experience of meeting Kouzes and Posner as a young professor at San Diego State University, Dr. Bob describes each of the five practices and how we can apply them in our lives to become the best leaders we can be.

Are leaders born or made? Parents sometimes tell their kids that they are a born a leader, but is this helping them? By contrast, if you had a growth mindset, you would talk about the behavior that would give you the ability to become a great leader and the hard work and effort you put into it.

These are just a few reasons why Hannah looks at leadership from a growth mindset where everyone can learn the behaviors it takes to be an effective leader. Even if armed with raw talent, we don’t start as great leaders. But we can all hone our skills and learn to become better at leading our teams.

Many mistakenly believe that you need to belong to several stereotypes to be an effective leader. But it’s ridiculous to think that you must be of a specific gender or personality type to succeed. Dr. Bob advises that anyone can become an effective leader, and he has the research to prove it.

Dr. Bob also shares how he has many unforgettable memories of when he witnessed the actual moment people blossom in front of you when learning about leadership. Throughout Luke’s career, he has been interested in the subject too. From designing leadership programs and coaching folks to helping people become better leaders.

Everyone has an opinion on leadership, and these opinions seldom resonate with people. Luke would begin by asking, what are the behaviors that you would practice to help you become a leader? But follow up with, here’s an answer and it’s based on research.

In this episode, Luke also shares why he has always have cared about inclusivity, what’s on the horizon, and aligning everyone together on the journey forward. He also shares more about the importance of learning more about meaningful recognition and encouragement, calling out people’s character, and looking for opportunities to help them.

Finally, Dr. Bob warns listeners that you can’t think your way to leadership. Leadership is an affair of the heart. It truly is loving what you do and loving the people around you. If you want to be a successful leader, that’s a requirement. And if you can’t do that, then it’s probably time to look for something else.

Listen on Apple Podcasts

Listen on Spotify

Watch on YouTube

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Magic in the Room #31- Unlocking EQ: Driving Engagement

Tue, 17 Nov 2020 14:09:00 GMT

When people are engaged, they do their best work. They are more productive because they feel energized, focused, and aligned to the purpose of the organization. Team members stick around longer because they feel challenged yet supported, appreciated, and valued by their team. In this episode, Luke, Chris, and Hannah explore what it takes to create an environment that fosters engagement and high performance.

Luke, Chris, and Hannah return to the Magic in the Room podcast after securing a recording studio. Chris asks the audience to look back to a time in their life to a situation where they felt super engaged and was striving to be better. A time where all of your efforts from intellectual to emotional were focused on reaching a goal. What were the habits of the people that led you to that place?

The hosts share their experiences. But how do we win a game that has no end? In the Infinite Game, Simon Sinek talks about the importance of building forward momentum and creating value. If we genuinely believe that every business needs to be in the game of evolution, the only way to get there is to have a company culture that supports it.

If a company doesn’t have a culture that allows people to create value and default to action to do things that move the company forward, it cannot adapt to the changing landscape. General McChrystal famously talked about how the seal teams are a tight knit unit, but it wasn’t always like that in the larger military organization. They didn’t operate in the same way. And that’s what we see mirrored in corporate cultures too.

You can have a toxic corporate culture, and yet you can have healthy teams within that culture. It’s all based on the local leader and the culture they set and what they do to create unity and a sense of purpose. But you can have a healthy corporate culture, and a toxic team culture. It all rises and falls on the individual leader and the courage of that individual.

Hannah shares how Fierce Conversations by Susan Scott was a pivotal book in her life. In book helped her understand that the conversation is the relationship. If the conversation stops, the relationship ends. When it comes to keeping people engaged, whether as a leader or in a family in any human relationship, it happens in an ongoing conversation. Learning how to talk to each other authentically and genuinely allows us to feel seen.

For Luke, it’s all about ownership. If you’re a leader and people choose to spend time with you, you have to take ownership of their experience and improve it. The moment we find ourselves blaming others for the lack of engagement within our teams, it’s time to reflect on why we are blaming others when we have the power to change the outcome for the better.

Chris shares the importance of using our language correctly. If we misuse it, we remove our responsibility and become part of the problem instead of the solution. Ask yourself, what does it take to drive engagement and be active within your models? If you can answer that, you will unlock the path that will move you from where you are to where you need to be.

Listen on Apple Podcasts

Listen on Spotify

Watch on YouTube

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Magic in the Room #28: Responding to Change

Tue, 06 Oct 2020 13:59:00 GMT

Change is inevitable, and lately, it seems turbulent change has been the norm. As big and often unsettling changes have been thrust upon us as individuals, and on the organizations we lead, becoming aware of the stages of change, which take on a similar form to how we process grief and loss, is helpful.

In this episode, Luke, Chris, and Hannah walk through the Kubler-Ross Change Curve (also known as the 5 Stages of Grief) and explain what happens at each stage in the process of dealing with the emotional effects of change.

The hosts explore the cycles and the emotions that we experience and when responding to change. The team discusses the ‘change curve,’ which was derived from the work of Kubler-Ross. The model describes the internal emotional journey that we all embark on as individuals when dealing with change and transition.

Luke explains that when we are faced with disruption, we often begin with, how am I going to fix this? How am I going to take ownership? But eventually, whenever that becomes unsustainable, our energy level drops off. The model shows how we go through these stages and emotions as our intrinsic energy moves downward.

Hannah and Chris liken change to a grieving process that happens when we accept and acknowledge that our normal will never be the same again. We find ourselves trapped in an in-between stage where things aren’t what they used to be and unable to find a way forward. Without being armed with the knowledge of the grieving process, we often find ourselves caught in this process.

When we’re in denial and disbelief, we find ourselves struggling to comprehend what happened. It’s also natural to refuse to acknowledge your new reality and do everything you can to operate as usual. Many find themselves trying to pull the pieces together to create a sense of normalcy without knowing what will come next.

The COVID experience is a perfect example of how we collectively deal with an unprecedented level of change. In the beginning, we embarked on a journey through the Kübler-Ross Change Curve. It began with shock and denial before moving forward into frustration or even depression. But now we are experimenting with innovative methods and learning how to work in a post-pandemic world.

However, recognizing this narrative can help leaders make this cycle shorter for their team. Can we avoid as a leader experiencing it ourselves when there’s disruption? No. But if we’re aware and know these stages and increase awareness around this cycle, we can all move through these changes much faster.

When we know what to expect next, we also know how to get out of it and move faster to the next stage. But on a grander scale, we can also lead our teams, and our organizations respond to change is a much more positive way.

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Dr. Bob’s Reads: “The Dual-Purpose Playbook”

Fri, 04 Sep 2020 20:12:00 GMT

My purpose is to help people flourish by enhancing the health of organizations. As a part of this purpose, I am committed to sharing best practices regarding purpose-driven leaders, teams & organizations.

Today’s best practices come from an article entitled “ The Dual-Purpose Playbook ” by Battilana, Pache, Sengul & Kimsey. The article explores important, practical ideas for organizations who “are in pursuit of financial gain while paying closer attention to their impact on society.”

Key takeaways:

“A decade of “research reveals that successful dual-purpose (do well and do good) companies take an approach we call hybrid organizing, which involves four levers:

“No single playbook exists for setting social goals. But our studies point to two rules of thumb.

Bottom Line

At Purpose & Performance Group, we help courageous leaders navigate the rapidly approaching new normal of “doing good while doing well.” Our experience highly correlates with the authors’ research regarding:

We love the concept of having a “playbook” when it comes building an “dual-purpose” organization. Give us a yell & we will help you build & execute your game plan.

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Showing Resilience

Fri, 04 Sep 2020 17:48:00 GMT

Our next discovery along the EQ spectrum is showing resilience. Daniel Goleman, considered one of the pioneers of Emotional Intelligence, shared in an interview about the powerful connection between resilience and EQ.

What is Resilience?

The definition of resilience is the ability to withstand or recover quickly from difficult conditions or challenges. For the purpose of this installment in our EQ series, I will refer to resilience in the context of the workplace.

In more casual terms, resilience is a measure of our “bounce back” time. Resilience in the workplace can span how long it takes us to recover from a co-worker’s offhand comment to being able to powerfully face a big merger that brings about sweeping organizational changes.

Benefits of Resilience

Resilience can affect every area of how we approach life. Our ability to bounce back from adversity can directly affect our mood and our mindset. This will impact relationships and interactions both personally and professionally. When we look at the value of resilience in the workplace, it becomes the manifestation of leveraging emotional intelligence within circumstances. Each time we are faced with a challenge, we are invited to build resilience and strengthen it like a muscle. The more we practice building resilience within ourselves, the more we will be able to contribute to making a difference in our lives and at work.

The Bottom Line

Personal resilience can support a healthy relationship with our work, team members and our organization. As we successfully manage ourselves in the face of adversity, we are more available to learn, grow and lead.

Tactics for Building Resilience

Challenge Questions

Resources

For further reading, see the following resources:

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Magic in the Room #26 – Unlocking EQ: Defaulting to Action Part 2

Tue, 18 Aug 2020 12:46:00 GMT

In Part 1 of this conversation about action orientation, Luke, Chris, and Hannah each shared examples from their lives when they activated a specific initiative and its impact. In Part 2 of this discussion, your hosts share the benefits of being action-oriented, and specific tactics to ensure action default.

In this episode, the team discusses the benefits and tactics while exploring the universal concept that taking action puts us in situations to seize opportunities. It’s these motivational principles to get better that enable us all to create our own luck and avoid unnecessary suffering. By self-directing our activities, we can be a part of something greater than ourselves.

Great leaders can accurately assess risk. They set challenging goals for themselves, their teams, and their companies. Ultimately, they have the confidence to act. Action-oriented leaders typically enjoy working hard. But when you think about those benefits and principles or domains, where do you draw your performance?

Luke asks the question, is the action the reward, or the benefit? For example, when Luke defaults to action and sees the results, it creates more confidence to take more action. Psychologically, it’s fulfilling, and emotionally if he feels like he’s in a rut, remembering that getting something done and creating output will give him more confidence to keep doing that is a game changer.

Hannah shares that one of the most significant benefits of taking action is that it’s the only way to advance our purpose. Identifying your purpose in life, in your organization or project, and trying to achieve can help you take the right action. Without it, we run the risk of taking action for the sake of taking action. For these reasons alone, Hannah asks the listeners, what steps will meaningfully advance your purpose?

As Chris reflects on this topic, he has an epiphany that the Magic in the Room podcast only exists because Hannah said, Let’s take action, take an idea, and drive it forward. But he also speaks about the critical role that sometimes we need to be intentional about inaction to unlock the best ROI. To get that place, we also need to rejuvenate and recalibrate.

How we spend our energy often involves many intentional things that can help us be a high performer and live in a way that brings our commitments to life. Fulfilling our commitments can feel like a rollercoaster ride, and there will be days that we can count the ways we fail and others where we find our momentum. But if we recalibrate, we can put ourselves in a great position to fulfill whatever our vision of success might be.

In your experience, what are the benefits of being action-oriented? What are the specific tactics to ensure action default?

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Magic in the Room #25: Unlocking EQ: Defaulting to Action (Part 1)

Wed, 12 Aug 2020 01:02:00 GMT

In Part 1 of this conversation about action orientation, Luke, Chris, and Hannah each share examples from their lives when they activated a specific initiative and its impact.

Hannah reflected on her early career when she joined a sales team within a technical organization. But what she really wanted to do was make an impact and help bring out the best in people. After just a few months in her role, the company received a call to action from an executive leadership team at a huge company to start a college hire program. The mission was to help them expand their hiring policy and make a concerted effort to bring in new talent.

Hannah shares how this became a pivotal moment in her career. She had never done anything like this before, what the right steps to take were or how to design a training program for new college grads. But the intent was obvious. She knew exactly what needed to happen and had a vision for what this could look like. Hannah defaulted to action and volunteered. A compass, clear intention, and purpose enabled her to take action and make it a success.

However, Luke asks his hosts who are blessed with an internal bias for action, how they deal with challenges, barriers, and roadblocks that slow them down. What’s the answer? Do you refocus? And how do you choose how to take that energy and be productive? Chris shares how Zig Ziglar inspired him to see that it’s all about relationships.

The relationship we have with the institutions and people we’re connected with will play a crucial role in our success. When Chris is not happy with the relationship, he feels compelled to take the responsibility away from the other party. He then asks himself, what are the things that I have to do to improve this relationship or effectively change that condition?

For Chris, ensuring that he is doing everything that he can do to give him the paths, opportunities, and chances to get where he wants to be will also enable him to default to that action. But it’s also a delicate balancing act between taking a moment to pause and clarifying the right action versus just taking action because we feel like we need to do something.

How do your teams lean into taking a bias for action? How do you lean into the ownership of individuals on this team? Empowering employees with the courage and confidence to progress forward is possible in creating unique strategies for your organization. The hosts of Magic in The Room share the same passion for helping people in teams succeed and raising awareness that there’s no reason for anyone to do it alone.

Momentum is everything. But to have momentum, we have to have action.

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Magic in the Room #24: Storytelling for Leadership Impact w/ Special Guest Sarah Elkins

Tue, 04 Aug 2020 16:44:00 GMT

Storytelling coach, podcast host and author Sarah Elkins joins Luke and Hannah to discuss how the stories of our lives provide clues to finding purpose. A big takeaway is how the stories we tell ourselves and others impact the way we show up in the world, and how we lead ourselves and our teams.

What internal messages are holding you back? What stories are you sharing that confirm those messages, and impact the perceptions of the people around you? These are just a few areas that Sarah explores in her podcast and book; Your Stories Don’t Define You. How You Tell Them Will. Today, Sarah reflects on her observations that many still struggle with understanding their pivot points and which stories are impacting their internal messages.

How can a leader use storytelling to either fulfill their organizational purpose or increase performance? When writing a book, most authors begin by creating an outline. Typically, you will start with chapter headings, and they may change. But if you start with that basic structure, it helps you to think more granularly.

Sarah shares her belief that the worst question someone can ask you is, “Tell me about yourself?” If you don’t know what they’re asking about how can you answer? By contrast, if you know in advance that you want to communicate with an individual that you are a compassionate and trustworthy person with integrity, you can tell a story that demonstrates those values. So, if you start with an error, and then move into more granular stories of specific events, that’s a great, place to start.

Many of the personal stories in your life will be from pivotal moments such as when you were at your lowest or when you were most greatly satisfied. But when you dig deeper into the details, you can inspire others when you share them.

However, you can’t be a great storyteller if you’re not also a great listener. Not just listening with your ears, but through a depth of observation too. As a leader, when you share the right story with the people in front of you, and you can bring out their related stories because you’re sharing the right one. But you should be listening intently throughout the conversation for the cues that they’re giving you.

Every time we tell that story, we contribute to it, and so being able to redefine events and pivotal moments in our lives by telling the story differently. There is a reoccurring theme on this podcast that change is almost impossible without a period of reflection. We encourage you to do that work and gain more clarity.

When you are clear on your purpose and shared organizational goal, it will also enable you to make this world a better place for your team, customers, and other stakeholders.

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Learning Nimbly

Fri, 31 Jul 2020 22:09:00 GMT

Our next discovery along the EQ spectrum is Learning Nimbly. The ability to be a nimble learner is a direct result of a growth mindset. In a world where the only constant is change, and the pace of that change continues to increase, being able to adapt, learn and grow has become one of the most important keys to success. While most of us are pretty good at doing things we’ve done before, it takes a more rare set of skills to do something for the first time – to solve new problems, try new things, to learn quickly in new situations.

What do We Mean by Learning Nimbly?

To be “nimble” means to be quick, light and agile. When applied to learning, this means being able to adapt, pivot, adjust one’s approach, pick up on clues, think on one’s feet, experiment, take risks, and view every experience – success and failure – as a learning opportunity.

Hannah provides strategies for nimble learning.

Benefits of Nimble Learning

Individuals and organizations that learn nimbly have a competitive advantage. They enjoy many benefits as a result of their growth mindset.

The Bottom Line

Rather than seeing life and events in terms of successes or failures, ask yourself: “What did I learn during this experience?”

Tactics for Nimble Learning

Challenge Question

Resources

For further reading, see the following resources:

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Magic in the Room #23: Unlocking EQ: Showing Courage

Tue, 28 Jul 2020 20:05:00 GMT

Trust takes courage. Accountability takes courage. Leadership, by its very nature, is a courageous act. In this episode, Chris, Hannah, and Luke share personal examples of courageous moments, and discuss what it means to have the courage to step.

Can you remember a time in your life that required an enormous amount of courage? Or a moment where you needed to step beyond your comfort zone and into the growth zone. Your hosts explore the EQ spectrum and the importance of showing courage .

Hannah reflects on when she was 16 years old alone in a completely unknown town in the south of Sweden with her luggage and no passport. When her travel documents were shipped to her, she traveled to the Czech Republic via a ferry and several busses. When she eventually arrived back with her classmates, she was instantly nominated as a team leader.

Similarly, Luke found himself navigating Peru without being able to speak fluent Spanish. The Santa Cruz Trek took him you over a pass that was 15,600 feet high. Finding himself at the highest elevation he had ever been while trying to figure out transportation systems, secure food and accommodation required him to step out of his comfort zone too.

At 25, Chris shares how he delivered his first sales training keynote to 450 people at a large conference, and nerves forced him to lock up and freeze. But when you are on stage in the middle of a stadium, there’s nowhere to run, you have no choice but to show up and you’ve got to accept that. This is part of your growth, and the complexity of thought that can run through your mind in seconds can be exciting and daunting in equal measure.

These personal stories highlight how we are all required to find unexpected courage when we least expect it. The embracing of discomfort, not being in charge, knowing that you’re out of control is where the magic happens. Confronting fear, uncertainty, and doubt enables us to advance our purpose.

Here in 2020, Hannah is a self-confessed people pleaser who admits she often says yes, because she doesn’t want to disappoint. But recognizing that it’s only comfortable saying yes because that’s the path of least resistance is helping her find the courage to say no more often. If any of these stories sound familiar, remember that everyone has a courageous person inside them.

Ultimately, we must choose to step outside of our comfort zone to confront fear, uncertainty, and doubt. When we think about how organizations grow or change, it’s hard to think about examples that don’t start with a courageous choice. It’s very often someone willing to change their approach, ask questions, and innovate on some level without that assurance that it will work.

Showing courage can have a significant impact on you and your business. The right tactics will also help the leap out of your comfort zone a little easier. So, what courageous act will you take that will take you to move your purpose forward?

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Five Powerful Ways to Transform the Customer Experience

Thu, 23 Jul 2020 15:05:00 GMT

Treating Customers as Guests

When was the last time you felt that someone really noticed you?

I mean, not simply what you look like or something you did or didn’t do, but they saw you, they heard you, they “got” who you are and what you are about, they noticed you as a person, a human being…

Perhaps they saw the potential in you and they called it out. Which made you somehow want to live up to that potential. Maybe you went to college because of a teacher who saw something in you. Maybe you decided to learn something new or go deeper into an area you were already naturally good at because of a supervisor who recognized an area of strength in you, and encouraged you to step it up.

What we all want is to feel seen, heard, and understood. When we can help our clients and customers feel that way, their experience with our brand soars.

Our customers want to live up to their potential. When they see themselves as a healthier, wealthier or wiser version of themselves through the lens of our brand, and they see our brand as a vehicle for transformation into the kind of person they want to be, they not only become loyal followers, they become our advocates.

When we enter a store, eat in a restaurant, check in to a hotel, attend an event or buy something online, subconsciously, we are looking for a feeling . A feeling of connection, of being valued, of being accepted and appreciated. A feeling of belonging.

We may think we are looking for a specific item that we need in a retail shop, a place to lay our head down at the end of a day of travel or business meetings when we check in at the hotel, or that we are browsing the online store to make a transaction of some kind. Those are the rational reasons that may have brought us to that point.

But, once we get that far, what causes us to make a decision to buy something, or to come back and visit the restaurant or hotel again, is always related to how we feel about our experience.

It is a framework that puts purpose at the forefront. When successfully deployed, it will ignite transformation for our client guests, which in turn creates loyalty and transformational performance for our brand.

Greeting with Empathy

The way we greet someone creates an immediate and lasting first impression. Our brains are hardwired to detect threats, so when we meet a stranger, our brain subconsciously makes an immediate assessment of the situation: is this a threatening or a rewarding situation? Likewise, with people – the brain makes an instant judgment: friend or foe? The default for the brain is to assume every stranger is an enemy, until proven otherwise. The quickest way to disarm this response is to give someone a warm smile.

When we “read” someone’s emotional state by observing their body language, facial expressions, level of energy and urgency, we can match them and “mirror” what we see, which builds connection with the other person. This is empathy in action: to sense what someone else is experiencing, and to show that we understand.

Uncovering Needs

Really noticing people allows us to anticipate their needs, rather than waiting to be asked. Through the power of observation, we can match and mirror our guests’ emotional states. This helps them to feel seen, heard, and understood, while allowing us to “read their minds” to the extent that we can often anticipate what they want or need before they ask. By then asking good follow-up questions we can verify and confirm these observed needs, and meet them in a highly responsive manner that builds relational meaning and heightens the perception of quality for the customer.

Expressing Gratitude

Taking notice of the good around us – intentionally looking for what is good in people and in our lives, helps us to focus in a different way. We begin to see more of what we look for, and where our focus goes, our energy flows. Creating a practice of writing down what we are grateful for every day can literally change our brains and allow us to feel happier and more fulfilled. When we take that a step further and express our gratitude to those around us, those feelings grow. Expressing gratitude with every customer interaction spreads the feelings of joy and positivity, and positively impacts how the customer feels about the interaction.

Sharing Names

Using someone’s name tells them they are important enough for us to notice and remember them. Our name is an important part of our identity – it is a unique identifier for a specific human being, and the main word that when we hear it, immediately makes us pay attention and listen, almost regardless of the situation. Numerous studies have shown how important someone’s name is to the trajectory of their lives, and how we find ways to consciously or subconsciously live up to the promise of our name. Using someone’s name in a conversation is a subtle, yet powerful way to acknowledge their presence and elevate them from an unknown stranger to a known friend.

Teaching Benefits

Once this foundation is laid, we can confidently educate our customers about the value of our service, our special offers and the key benefits they should be sure to check out. When those things fit with their image of themselves, their identity and potential, and when they feel seen, heard, and understood by us, they are ready for transformation. They are likely to listen, spend time and money with us, and to return time and again. Our brand becomes a vehicle for them to transform themselves into a better version of themselves, someone who lives up to their potential, and they reward us with their loyalty.

Learn More

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Magic in the Room #22: Unlocking EQ – Ensuring Accountability

Tue, 21 Jul 2020 14:59:00 GMT

The second discovery along the EQ spectrum is ensuring accountability. To ensure the type of accountability needed to execute successfully, we should focus on how accountable we are and also invite accountability from others. In this episode, Luke, Chris, and Hannah explore what accountability is and how to achieve higher levels of accountability for ourselves and our teams.

To be accountable is to answer for specific actions or decisions. Accountability is assuming personal responsibility for ensuring the execution of a particular deliverable within a specific timeframe. But its foundations are built on purpose and understanding why we’re doing the things that we’re doing. If we are serious about advancing our mission and achieving our goals, we need to identify what we are responsible for? Not what do we have the right to avoid?

It’s the differentiated and courageous ones who accept the responsibility to achieve the highest possible good in their roles. The sooner we accept it, the easier it becomes. Life is hard. There’s no top performer out there, who sits around with his feet on the table while eating a Danish and having coffee. That’s not the way life works.

Hannah, Chris, and Luke reflect on their childhood chores and how they helped shape who they are today. Luke also shares how a recent interview with mindfulness and mental health expert Oksana Esberard taught him to focus his efforts on the things that are most important and not just around the things that our unconscious mind might think are most efficient at keeping us alive and fed and, and sheltered.

Ultimately, accountability is understanding what you need to do today to make the day matter. Chris shares how he wants to be more aggressive about delivering results around things that aren’t comfortable, or he enjoys. But it’s not just about what he wants to do; it’s the things that they can make happen collectively as a team and understand his role in that.

Luke thinks more about the people that he is accountable to. After 17 years of marriage, he admits that he can improve how he takes ownership of communicating better. This could be as simple as saying, here’s a plan of what I want to accomplish today. What do you feel about that? A simple improvement like this would help them move forward together.

Hannah shares why she wants to be accountable for identifying the impact of what will move things forward and make everything else easier. Finding the high impact thing that she can commit to, even if that’s just one thing today, it’s precisely what she will be proudly accountable for.

How will you work on purpose and getting clear about your rules and commitments in your own life? We would love to hear more about how you will be transforming mindsets to develop highly accountable leaders.

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Magic in the Room #21: The Bounds of Service

Tue, 14 Jul 2020 15:17:00 GMT

In this episode, Hannah, Chris and Luke explore the question “what is service?” and outline the three elements of an exceptional service experience. Stay tuned to the end for a special bonus: personal experiences with brands providing the best, and not-so-great service experiences!

Chris believes that there are three primary components to establishing excellent service that can be identified by asking the following questions:

It shouldn’t matter if you are making a transaction for an ice cream cone or buying a gigabyte of storage space in a data warehouse somewhere. Chris advises that what we’re transacting is immaterial. It is his experience throughout that transaction. Chris also shares how his business goal is the consumer, whoever we’re transacting with delivering a higher level of loyalty and affinity. This is due to the relational meaning that we’re providing them the how responsive we are in not just during the trade transaction but also post-transaction.

Beyond that, what impressions of quality are we leaving with them? Primarily, these three components determine how much affinity you develop for your brand too. Whether that is your personal brand, as a leader, or an enterprise that you lead, these are the three things that establish the loyalty towards that. But what else could you do this week to provide exceptional service in your B2B or B2C environment?

For Hannah, it will always be responsiveness. Although her strength is on the relational meaning and the perception, she admits that the responsiveness is where she often struggles. Having a large amount of stuff that requires a meaningful response can be incredibly time-consuming. But Hannah is exploring ways to simplify her work process and become more effective.

Luke is quick to recognize that the area he would like to improve is the relational connection piece. He admits that he can be slow to connect with people or at least come across that way. But, once he’s connected and built mutual trust, it goes deep. Luke shares his journey of understanding how he can express care for people, even if he has known them for five minutes.

When any consumer is looking for support, they typically ask themselves the following three questions. Do I trust this person? Can they help me? And do they care about me? Chris believes that if he can genuinely say yes to all three of these things, it will build a fundamental connection that solves a lot of service issues, or at the least, it lays the groundwork for service to exist.

What are you going to take away to provide exceptional service, time responsiveness, and a relational connection with your customers? What will you be doing differently to make people feel like you add value? How do you define CX and EX?

Please share your insights by commenting below.

The post MAGIC IN THE ROOM #21: THE BOUNDS OF SERVICE appeared first on Purpose and Performance Group .

Navigating Ambiguity

Mon, 13 Jul 2020 03:29:00 GMT

Our next discovery along the EQ spectrum is navigating ambiguity.

Communications of intent (plans, aims, objectives) are often inexact and require significant processing and inquiry to establish adequate clarity. Our brains desire certainty and are wired to anticipate what will happen next. When what happens next is unclear, we process the event as a threat. When what happens next is predictable, we process the event as a reward.

High-performing leaders are comfortable with the unknown and commit to processes that clarify objectives and the roles required to meet them. This develops patterns of predictability and rewarding outcomes.

What do We Mean by Navigating Ambiguity?

Ambiguity exists when intent or meaning can be interpreted more than one way. It can fuel uncertainty, doubt and instability. The presence of ambiguity also offers great opportunity to leaders willing to accept personal responsibility for the outcomes they achieve. Leaders who embrace accountability for their own outcomes develop the high-value skill of developing shared understanding. This ability to consistently lead teams to “stack hands” and “rally” around a singular objective strengthens interpersonal relationships and coalitions that sustain movements

Chris shares strategies for dealing with ambiguity.

According to studies, 90% of the challenges faced by middle managers and above are ambiguous. The problems and solutions are both unknown and the higher you go, the more ambiguous things become (perhaps this is what has created the need for consultants). Most people, if given 100% of the information and enough time can make accurate decisions. Exemplary leaders make more good decisions than bad with less than all of the information, in less time, with little or no precedent on how similar issues have been solved before.

Effectively navigating ambiguity requires us to accept the role of learner and educator. We must be curious about how the current state came to be and remain relentless about inspiring a shared vision of the future.

Benefits of Navigating Ambiguity

Leaders who are under-skilled with this discovery struggle to emerge clear solutions from incomplete information, move slower and less efficiently due to the need for certainty and are often too quick to close the matter at hand.

Leaders who can effectively deal with ambiguity are flexible and adaptable to a variety of challenges and situations. This creates enormous value for their teams and organizations because they:

The Bottom Line

Every journey is fraught with ambiguity. Our ability to clearly identify obstacles, accurately frame the challenges and plot the route to success eliminates unnecessary suffering for ourselves and the people we are charged to lead.

Tactics to Navigate Ambiguity

Challenge Question

Going forward, what are the actions you can take to reduce ambiguity within your roles, projects or understandings between yourself and another person?

Resources

For further reading, see the following resources:

The post Navigating Ambiguity appeared first on Purpose and Performance Group .

Magic in the Room #20: Mindfulness With Special Guest: Oksana Esberard

Mon, 06 Jul 2020 16:05:00 GMT

“Mindfulness” has become a buzzword in recent years, but what exactly is it, and how can it help us perform better as individuals and as leaders? In this episode, mindfulness & meditation coach, mental health practitioner, speaker, and best-selling author Oksana Esberard joins Hannah and Luke to discuss mindfulness as a high-performance practice, and the benefits of a holistic approach to mental health. You will learn specific mindfulness practices for individuals and teams to gain greater clarity and purpose.

Oksana leads corporate mindfulness programs and retreats for entrepreneurs, small businesses, and Inc. 500 companies around the world. In her book, Next Level You , she shares how she transformed her life through mindfulness and meditation. In today’s episode, the team discusses how her approach can help listeners navigate the turbulent, information-overloaded world and change their life from busy to balanced and energized.

Luke explores the intersection between an organization built on purpose and people who understand their emotional needs, emotional intelligence, and their daily fulfillment need. He also shares how he works with individuals to develop and do the reflection work necessary to clarify their purpose and what they want to be committed to as they move forward in life with intention.

Many are already searching for an organization where they can contribute while also helping them fulfill their personal purpose. Luke shares how these people are also helping organizations create an authentic purpose and clarify what their purpose is. Understanding your vows and commitments is incredibly useful in assisting businesses to get clear about the people in their team who understand themselves and their own motivation.

Luke and Oksana discuss their observations on the interplay between intentional purpose, goals, and clarity around what an organization or an individual wants to accomplish. They explore the interesting parallel that begins when we get out of bed in the morning while being guided by our emotional and mental health.

Oksana explains that when people are confused, it creates uncertainty, which quickly turns into fear of the unknown. But if an organization can create clarity and purpose within their teams, it also provides the stability that enables teams to be creative and out of the box thinkers. These contrasting experiences highlight the differences between a fulfilling job and a role in which an employee is fearful of doing something wrong.

Clarity creates stability, and instability establishes the ground for creativity. Ultimately leaders need to become more comfortable having these uncomfortable conversations and not be afraid to show vulnerability and create an environment where it’s safe to experiment. If you make teams feel safe to try new things, it will also give room for creativity and experimentation.

As someone who has been experimenting with mindfulness and incorporating into his own life, Luke shares how it has helped with is clarifying choice and giving him opportunities to do something on purpose, rather than default into a habit that he wasn’t aware of. The team also shares tools and techniques that have proved to be a game-changer in big meetings.

However, your hosts would like to hear more about the mindfulness practices that have enabled individuals and teams in your organization to gain greater clarity and purpose.

Please share your insights and experiences by commenting below.

The post MAGIC IN THE ROOM #20: Mindfulness With Special Guest: Oksana Esberard appeared first on Purpose and Performance Group .

Balancing Stakeholders

Fri, 03 Jul 2020 23:03:00 GMT

The next discovery in our Unlocking EQ process is balancing stakeholders. Transformational change often requires a coalition of stakeholders that are united by a common good or shared purpose. Forming and sustaining an effective coalition requires a courageous leader capable of earning the trust and respect of a diverse group of stakeholders.

What do We Mean by Balancing Stakeholders?

Balancing stakeholders is an ongoing, alliance-building process that includes understanding and respecting the aspirations of stakeholders within and outside of your team or organization.

Bob shares insights about forming stakeholder coalitions.

Benefits of Balancing Stakeholders

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote about achieving the “beloved community.” It is a term that he used to describe his core belief that increasing cooperation among allies and winning the friendship of opponents would make it possible to live and work together productively.

When we effectively balance stakeholder interests, we achieve the following benefits to our projects, teams and organizations:

The Bottom Line

“If you want to run fast, run by yourself. If you want to run far, run together.”

– African Proverb

Tactics to Balance Stakeholders

Challenge Question

Going forward, what are some actions you can take to build better relationships with your key stakeholders?

Resources

For further reading, see the following resources:

Listen to our podcast episode about Balancing Stakeholders

The post Balancing Stakeholders appeared first on Purpose and Performance Group .

Magic in the Room #19: Unlocking EQ - Instilling Trust

Mon, 29 Jun 2020 16:09:00 GMT

Trust is fundamental to every human relationship. It is our first discovery along the EQ spectrum because it is the most important element of high-performance teams and effective organizations. In this episode, Chris, Luke, and Hannah explore what trust is and how it shows up and provide specific tactics for how to instill trust with those we lead.

Chris asks, why do we often see trust as a challenge within our teams, colleagues, and from within? Luke believes that most leaders and peers on a team have good intent. They want to come to work and have good relationships with people while being effective and productive. However, he believes that the biggest issue is entitlement.

Many people want entitlement, but they assume that they’ve already earned it, that they’ve already got it. Once they assume, they’ve done the work and are entitled to everyone’s trust until they prove otherwise, the problems quickly surface. Luke uses the analogy of buying a car and trusting it to get him where he needs to go until it breaks down.

Luke explains how he defaults to trust that his car will take him somewhere unless he hears a noise or another indicator that there is a problem. But people don’t work that way. Trust takes constant care and feeding. Sadly, there’s just a lot of leaders that don’t understand that in the absence of proactive action to instill trust, it will erode on its own.

Hannah points out that needs to be earned. She explains that upon meeting someone for the first time, she doesn’t have the luxury of evidence that she can trust this person in specific ways that are important to her. Hannah will naturally assume positive intent, and the behavior of the person will build that trust over a period of time.

A common theme on the Magic in the Room podcast is the gap between intent and behavior and how it affects the people that we’re in a relationship with. Hannah also shares how earning trust means we show up in specific ways and take certain actions and behave in a way that continues to build trust. But we need to remember that other behaviors can also erode that trust.

Chris also warns that many courageous leaders will start by extending trust, and by extending compassion. But you can’t assume it, you have to earn it, and if we don’t nurture that trust, it will erode. By simply helping people get from A to B can help escalate trust. Our position increases, our ability to influence outcomes that change the world grows organically.

However, there is no avoiding the fact that trust is fundamental to every human interaction and leadership. It also plays a critical role in every effective organization and creating a high performing team. Securing the trust of others requires leaders to have the willingness to look for the good in others and to assume positive intent. Instilling trust requires leaders to show up and actively consider how we can build trust more effectively each day with every person that they interact with.

Here at the Purpose & Performance Group, we support courageous leaders . We don’t want people to do it alone. We want people to do it in a community. We believe there’s this magical thing that happens when you’re in a community of like-minded people, where all of a sudden, you feel less like the crazy person that has your values and more like yes, these are my values and everyone.

Please share your experiences around instilling trust in your organization by commenting below.

The post MAGIC IN THE ROOM EPISODE 19: Unlocking EQ: Instilling Trust appeared first on Purpose and Performance Group .

Driving Engagement

Sat, 27 Jun 2020 01:11:00 GMT

Our next discovery along the EQ spectrum is driving engagement. When we actively seek to build engagement, and we do so in a way that helps people connect to the shared purpose of the project, team and organization, we create a climate where people are motivated to do their best to help the organization advance its purpose.

What Is Engagement?

According to Gallup , people who are engaged are fully absorbed by and enthusiastic about their work, and they take positive action to further the organization’s reputation and interests.

Hannah shares perspectives on what it means to be engaged at work.

Benefits of Engagement

When people are engaged, they do their best work. They are more productive because they feel energized, focused and aligned to the purpose of the organization. Team members stick around longer because they feel challenged yet supported, appreciated and valued by their team.

Numerous studies show that increases in engagement result in the following benefits to the organization:

The Bottom Line

Actively engaged people willingly go the extra mile to take care of their customers and advance the shared purpose.

Tactics for Increasing Engagement

Challenge Question

Going forward, what are some actions you can take to foster higher engagement on your work team(s)?

Resources

For further reading, see the following resources:

NEXT: Balancing Stakeholders

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Magic in the Room #18: Building a Coaching Culture with Special Guest Stephanie Licata

Fri, 26 Jun 2020 16:36:00 GMT

In this engaging conversation, Stephanie Licata, International Coaching Federation (ICF) certified master coach and Purpose & Performance Group’s VP of Executive Coaching Practice, joins Luke and Hannah to talk about what coaching is, what it isn’t and when is a good time to consider hiring a professional coach for yourself or your team.

Stephanie shares her inspirational story that began in Seattle in 2001, where she had an epiphany that she wasn’t making a difference in the world and became a teacher for a decade. While teaching Service Learning and Leadership, she got the business bug. From there, she started studying coaching, and a part-time coaching business followed. But then that hunger grew and her hunger to learn grew she began studying organizational psychology.

In today’s episode, Stephanie explains that the best way to understand coaching is to recognize what it’s not. There are many differences between coaching, counseling, consulting, and mentoring. For example, a mentor helps solve the problem. But a coach helps create a problem solver.

Hannah shares how almost everything that involves people can feel incredibly complex. The topic was covered in the first episode of the Magic In The Room podcast. We’re not machines, but we need to remember that our brains are the most complex machines. We are naturally complex, unpredictable, and messy, making it challenging for others to understand how and why we show up.

Coaching is a tool that can help us recognize your purpose, strengths, and where we need to focus our energy. But also discover what we are not, why we avoid things, and what is holding us back. A good coach can be an invaluable resource that can unlock game-changing personal breakthrough moments. Stephanie also reminds listeners that wherever there are humans, there’s a problem. We need to remember that its industry agnostic.

The inner workings of our human dynamics do not change in an industry. Sure, the dynamics can be very specific and even unique, but they all come from your staff. Once again, the same human dynamics that operate everywhere create cultures and influence performance. It’s not about the industry or what you do, it’s how humans operate within the organization. But for many leaders, soft skills are the hardest to learn.

Luke shares how his belief that when we think about coaching, whether it’s with individuals, teams or helping an entire organization, it’s actually about creating conversations and spaces in a shared understanding. It’s also about unlocking the hidden talent, genius, and creativity that lives inside every employee. Collectively, all of these elements organically improve relationships and culture within an organization.

In this podcast, both the host and the listeners learn when you should engage with a coach. But also understand the implications for an individual in an organization and how it can be an engaging and coaching conversation. Do you have any insights to share on the differences between coaching and mentoring after listening to this conversation?

Please comment below and share your experiences.

The post MAGIC IN THE ROOM EPISODE 18: BUILDING A COACHING CULTURE WITH SPECIAL GUEST STEPHANIE LICATA appeared first on Purpose and Performance Group .

Magic in the Room #17: Unlocking EQ - Communicating Effectively

Tue, 23 Jun 2020 20:02:00 GMT

One critical discovery along the EQ spectrum is unlocking our ability to communicate effectively. In this episode, you will learn important communication strategies and three areas of mastery for effective communicators.

Can you remember a moment in your life where effective communication has significantly impacted you? Luke reflects on how he stayed up all night reading Jurassic Park, by Michael Creighton in sixth grade. He also shares the excitement of seeing the movie and the fantastic progression of technology that brought the CGI dinosaurs to life. The feeling of awe and wonder that sent shivers throughout his body has remained with him throughout his adult life

For Chris, is it was the movie Mr. Holland’s Opus, which showcased the power of cinematic communication. The story of an educator with big dreams for his family and himself that didn’t turn out how he envisioned is a universal theme that most can relate with. But the final anthem was created by the accumulation of moments in his life and not achieving his overarching grandiose vision of the life he wanted.

The movie taught Chris to find the beauty in every transaction, every engagement, and every connection that makes life meaningful. Stepping away from Hollywood, Hannah shared how she found herself drifting, without any apparent purpose ten years after leaving college, and asked, “Where am I?” But something her brother told her had an inspirational impact that would remain with Hannah for the rest of her life. “Hannah, you’re intellectually under stimulated.”

Although initially shocked, she quickly realized he was right. She had not been challenging herself or doing anything to develop as a person, both professionally and personally. The brief message reminded Hannah of her love of learning that she had set aside for so many years while going through the motions in life. After enrolling in an organizational psychology program, Hannah then met her fellow podcast hosts and continues to enjoy pursuing constant learning and using her mind.

These three personal stories highlight how effective communication can be delivered through many different channels. But communication doesn’t happen until the message that’s being transmitted has been picked up and interpreted and received by the other person. Mastering your message is actually all about perspective-taking. It’s also crucial to remember that we all have different ways of learning.

Most people are visual learners to some extent, and also, kinesthetic learners, meaning they are hands-on and have to practice something to learn it. But auditory learners are the smallest group of people and their primary learning method is listening. Understanding the differences of our audience with their culture, background, and their learning style impacts how we communicate to make sure that messages are received effectively.

Finally, Luke challenges everyone listening to enjoy meaningful communication that advances their purpose and has clear goals. Remember to ensure that it’s attuned to your audience’s needs and is sensory informed so that they are primed to hear your message. But don’t be afraid to ask for feedback so you can continue to improve.

What are moments from your own life where effective communication has significantly impacted you?

The post Magic in the Room Episode 17 -Unlocking EQ Communicating Effectively appeared first on Purpose and Performance Group .

Magic in the Room #16: Engagement with Special Guest Bob Schooley

Fri, 19 Jun 2020 00:45:00 GMT

In this episode, Luke and Chris are joined by Dr. Bob Schooley, SVP, Organizational Effectiveness Practice at Purpose & Performance Group to discuss the causes and effects of employee engagement, and what leaders can do to foster greater engagement by enhancing the employee experience.

Bob has spent his entire career helping organizations identify, attract, develop, and retain talent. He has also designed and implemented successful programs focused on orientation, onboarding, career planning, performance management, succession planning, and development programs for high-potential employees. In today’s episode, your hosts learn from his deep experience of the employee life cycle and much more.

Have you ever wondered what the secret sauce is between learning in a classroom and getting it to go live and gain traction within an organization? Obtain a greater understanding of who succeeds and who will struggle? Although Bob doesn’t claim to know the secret to that translation, he understands the merit in meeting people halfway. He explains that you’ve got to realize that when you’re working with someone or trying to help them get to it the next level, you have to be incredibly patient.

Bob reveals that leaders need to ask the right questions rather than pretending to know all of the answers to help people discover what they need to move forward. When someone is engaged, they will go beyond the call of duty. They’re going to do things without having to be asked. It also encourages people to accept personal responsibility and accountability for improving everything around them.

However, Bob warns it’s not all plain sailing, and there is a tipping point. For example, in most organizations today, there are more disengaged people than engaged; the average number you hear is a 60-40 split. So, if you have ten employees, the odds are that four of them will be engaged. They’re giving you that discretionary effort and coming up with great ideas. They’re doing all sorts of amazing things. But then you’ve got six that fall in this disengaged category.

The reality is that disengaged employees outgun you. It’s a numbers game, and you’ve got to be continually looking at the disengaged to find the tipping point. For anyone curious about employee engagement or committed to increasing the engagement of their team, Luke advises that it’s all about execution.

A quick Google search will improve your understanding and the science behind engagement within an hour. But what is difficult is taking action every day, asking the hard questions, and changing policy accordingly. It would help if you held the leaders in your organization accountable for providing a place where the highest performers can get what they need and are empowered to perform at their best level.

If you’re a frontline supervisor, you have a responsibility to be asking these questions. If you’re the CEO, you have a responsibility to create the organization that people can bring their discretionary effort. All the research clearly shows that if you do this, everyone wins, the employees win, and you’re going to succeed as a business owner or leader.

Chris encourages the listeners of this podcast episode to challenge their thinking around engagement. Who is that 25-year-old superstar in your organization, that you should double promote tomorrow? Find that person and celebrate it. In doing so, you are also showing other people what is possible.

These are just a few areas that your hosts cover in this episode. But please share your experiences and insights by commenting below.

The post MAGIC IN THE ROOM PODCAST #16 – ENGAGEMENT WITH SPECIAL GUEST BOB SCHOOLEY appeared first on Purpose and Performance Group .

Magic in the Room #15: Blind Spots

Tue, 16 Jun 2020 13:54:00 GMT

The gap between our intent and our behavior, or the way others consistently perceive our behavior, is a blind spot. In this episode, Chris, Luke, and Hannah share personal examples of blind spots and how they may show up for individuals, what impact they might have on an organization and how leaders can mitigate their own blind spots.

Your hosts reveal their personal blind spots. But with teams and organizations made up of people, they also explore organizational blind spots and how leaders can mitigate and gain more awareness of them. For Luke, it began with a group conversation about talking their team Myers Briggs assessment. The discussion enabled them to collectively understand their strengths and how they interact with others across the organization.

From these conversations, they were able to learn where they needed to add people to their team and identify who could help mitigate some of these weaknesses that were making them uncomfortable. It was also crucial for the team to recognize that if they continued with their current way of doing things, they would not be agile enough to adjust to the inevitable change on the horizon.

Hannah highlights how the weaknesses in our blind spots often come from a strength that is overused or how it is communicated. For example, a blind spot could be accidentally coming across as being arrogant because certain things are obvious to us as an individual. As a strength, it can enable you to see solutions, but the weakness could be not knowing how to communicate that solution and bring others into the process.

Chris reveals the vital role that feedback plays in identifying and removing blind spots and asks listeners to think about how many intentional feedback loops do you have? What are the feedback systems that exist? Is it check-ins? What is your performance development process? But also warns that as individuals, you must be equipped to handle and action that feedback.

For Luke, this reveals the critical role of courage and daring to be a courageous leader in success. Whether you are a CEO looking at your organization, a team leader looking at your team, or an individual that wants to grow, you need to be looking at your own leadership ability when trying to identify blind spots.

To open yourself up to actively look for blind spots is an act of courage by showing your willingness to explore your vulnerabilities as an individual. Ultimately, it’s something that you’re not great at. Having the courage to admit that you are not the best leader and recognizing that your actions are ineffective can be a big hurdle to overcome. But we need to have the courage to own it.

It can all start by not allowing the success that you’ve enjoyed in the past get in the way of your future success. The old approach and working methods that were once considered an asset can quickly become your biggest liability. Finally, Chris reminds listeners that your ego is not your amigo. Remembering this simple line can stop you from self-sabotaging your efforts and make us all more effective as leaders.

Please share how you are increasing awareness, impact, and mitigation of personal or professional blind spots by commenting below.

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Valuing Differences

Fri, 12 Jun 2020 18:27:00 GMT

Our next discovery along the EQ spectrum is valuing differences. This discovery is a differentiator for high-performing teams.

When we join a team, project, or relationship we bring our unique life experiences, culture, and thinking style into the room with us. Mature leaders recognize the fact that their perspective is shaped by these differences, and value the different perspectives, insights, and approaches brought by team members from different journeys. Great leaders identify and amplify differing perspectives to enable teams to discover the best path forward.

What Do We Mean by Valuing Differences?

When we recognize our personal cultural lens, believe other lenses offer insight, are curious enough to learn other perspectives, and amplify minority perspectives, we become more effective in purpose fulfillment and discovering next-level performance.

Benefits of Differences

When teams include different perspectives shaped by race & ethnicity, geography & culture, thinking styles, subject matter expertise, gender, and sexual identity, but are bound by clear shared values and purpose, they are primed for more objective decision making; in essence, inaccurate cultural lenses of individuals are “tested” against the perspectives of their teammates so the best approach can emerge through discussion and healthy conflict. These teams are also better at making innovative breakthroughs that are essentially “invisible” to teams to approach problems from just one cultural perspective.

Research shows diverse teams outperform teams of similar people in these areas:

The Bottom Line

The best leaders amplify diverse perspectives so teams become more insightful and creative than their individual members.

Tactics for Valuing Differences

Challenge Question

Going forward, what are some actions you can take to become more explicit about how you value the differences in others?

Resources

For further reading, see the following resources:

NEXT: Driving Engagement

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Magic in the Room #14: From Here to There w/ Special Guest: Steve Laswell

Tue, 09 Jun 2020 15:01:00 GMT

Reaching the next level – moving from point A to point B – requires leaving the comfort zone and entering the growth zone. Through reflecting on the truth in our story, we are constantly becoming who we were meant to be. In this engaging conversation, Executive Coach Steve Laswell joins Chris and Hannah to chart the journey of becoming.

Spend five minutes with Steve Laswell and you’ll discover why he went from rookie radios sales rep to general sales manager for Clear Channel’s top Oklahoma City station and later to station manager for Cox Radio’s cluster in Tulsa. Steve develops leaders. It oozes from his pores. It’s who he is and what he does. Since founding Next Level Executive Coaching, LLC in 2008, he’s published three books, mentored dozens of leaders, and developed team-based coaching.

Chris and Hannah talk about the impact that Laswell’s writing has had on their careers. In this podcast episode, the guest asks the hosts to think about a moment that nudged or nurtured them into creating a space to think a little bit differently about how they are showing up as a leader. Hannah revealed that her love of listening to audiobooks is helping her unlock fresh perspectives.

Hannah reveals that listening to Nine Lies About Work helped her challenge the assumptions that underlie contemporary managerial practices. For example, one of the lies is that we believe that people need feedback. But people need helpful and positive attention. Hannah calls this praise and believes that we can take it a step further and call it recognition. Ultimately, everybody needs to feel seen and to feel heard and to feel understood.

Instead of giving feedback, Hannah is focussing on recognizing strengths and paying attention to what people do well. The book delivered a big aha moment in terms of leadership. On the feedback versus attention debate, Chris believes even the words are a little harsh. But his mushroom cloud moment was when he was asked, isn’t it funny how we gauge ourselves based on our intent and everyone else based on their behavior?

Chris talks about the importance of focusing on the truths of our story. He explains that by taking the inventories of those truths and looking at where those truths are taking us, we can write the story that we want our legacy to be. But if we’re not, now is the time to disrupt and change and reimagine the next chapters of our, of our story.

When we come to the end of the journey, Chris talks about how we will look back on a life well-lived that was anchored to a purpose. He also explains how it helps us have a significant impact on our companies, communities, and our families, along with one another. And, Steve, thank you so much for just contributing to my life that way.

Finally, Hannah encourages everyone to check out The People Project and Leaders Create Space by Steve Laswell.

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MEASURE What Matters

Mon, 08 Jun 2020 06:14:00 GMT

Join me for a FREE webinar on this topic on Monday 6/15 at 12pm CST

Register HERE.

You’ve heard it said that sales is a numbers game. And in many respects, that’s true.

You can tie numbers to everything you do as a salesperson: the number of prospecting emails you send and outbound calls you make each day, the number of meetings and business conversations you have each week, the number of proposals you send out each month, and the number of deals you close. But, it is the big number at the end of the month, quarter or year, your sales target , that is the ultimate measure of sales success, and it is usually pretty black and white: either you made the number, or you didn’t.

Sales goal attainment doesn’t start with making your monthly goal, however. Revenue is a lagging indicator of the effort you put forth every month, every week, every day. In order to make goal attainment habitual, measuring your daily and weekly effort, the leading indicators that show the relative progress toward a goal are important measures of future success. When you know where you stand and what you need to do each day to close the gap between where you are and where you want to be, you can focus on developing daily habits to automate the behaviors that lead you closer to your goal.

But, it all starts with knowing what success looks like for you and your business.

In this article, you will get tips for how to:

You’ve probably heard that what gets measured, gets done. Or, that what gets measured gets managed, or some variation of this statement, falsely attributed to modern business management guru Peter Drucker.

The problem with this statement is that it doesn’t provide any guidance as to what should be measured.

Precisely because what we measure directs where our focus goes, and where focus goes, energy flows – we should be extremely careful about choosing what we measure. Measuring the wrong things results in directing energy toward the wrong outcomes, which can have disastrous consequences not only for business, but for life.

More often than not, what is important to our lives and to our business is difficult to measure. How do you measure purpose, for example? How do you measure happiness or fulfillment?

How do you measure the true impact of your life and work?

What we measure becomes important. Think about that for a moment.

Why is this statement significant?

In the chaos of each day, we often get so caught up in the day-to-day grind that we forget why we do what we do. We forget what caused us to initiate certain projects, take particular actions or spend time on specific activities in the first place. When work becomes about action or activity for its own sake, it loses its meaning.

What is easily measured is in theory easily done. What is truly meaningful can be very difficult to measure, so the challenge is to find meaningful measurements of the elements of our work that advance our purpose, increase our impact and lead to meaningful results.

Clarify Your Definition of Success

Goal attainment begins with knowing what success looks like for you and your business. When you know what success means, you can set meaningful, incremental goals toward that success, and measure your progress toward those goals.

So, what is success, exactly? And, how can you measure it?

To answer these questions, you must look inward. How you define success for yourself is likely different from how someone else defines success.

What images does the word “success” conjure up in your mind?

Do you focus on success in monetary terms, or in the type of lifestyle you envision for your future? How about relationship or family success? Job or team success? Success for a given project?

How you define your specific vision of success will direct your energy, how you spend your time, and what goals you achieve.

Remember WHY

Having a sense of purpose , in other words, being fully aware of the WHY behind what we do, is an important key to lasting fulfillment and joy in our work. This goes beyond financial incentives and even lifestyle. It has to do with knowing that our work matters, that we are significant in some way, and that our lives have meaning.

Beyond the numbers, your WHY is what motivates you to get out of bed and start your work each day. When you know your WHY, you can make a more significant impact, and selling becomes an authentic part of who you are.

Reflect on these questions. Make them part of your daily practice, ideally spend some time on this every morning before your workday begins.

Define What Good Looks Like

Putting numbers on things does make them easier to measure, which is maybe why sales focuses so much on numbers. And, sales goal attainment is one of those quantifiable domains that does have numbers tied to it, making it relatively easy to measure.

Let’s talk about YOUR numbers.

Know Your Numbers

In order to know if you are on track to make your numbers, it is important to be very clear on exactly what your numbers are. You should be able to recall at any moment what your annual, quarterly, and monthly target is, and know how you are tracking toward those metrics at a given time in the month, quarter, or year.

Setting Targets

Determine your annual target by multiplying your break-even with your profit margin percentage, and then break this target down into quarterly and monthly targets.

When you know what your break-even, or threshold number is, and you have identified your target based on your acceptable average profit margin, consider what a good stretch goal would be. If you are on track to meet your target, how can you stretch yourself further, and by how much would you like to exceed your target each month?

Having a way to know off the top of your head exactly where you track for the month, quarter, and year is critical to measuring success by the numbers.

So, let’s say you’ve established your numbers, but where exactly are these numbers going to come from?

Staring at a number and wishing it were real doesn’t make it so. To give you a starting point, break down your book of business into new and existing, and into maintenance and growth:

Think about how these numbers tie back to the WHY, and anchor them to your business purpose. It can also be helpful to think through what impact meeting your goals will have for your life, and how your life will be affected if you don’t meet your targets.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

In most sales organizations, success is measured by the extent to which one meets or exceeds sales targets. There are also many other values that are useful in describing how one is tracking toward those targets. These types of measurable values are often called key performance indicators (KPIs). This term is used and abused a lot, but at their best, KPIs suggest how well a business is meeting its objectives.

KPIs can be described as leading or lagging indicators. Let’s take a look at each in turn:

Leading Indicators (Input)

In the sales context, a leading indicator is something that leads up to a sale. So, not the sales numbers themselves, but the activity or effort put forth that lead to closing sales. By setting goals for leading indicator KPIs with clear measurements, you can get a good sense for how well you are tracking toward the overall sales goal.

Knowing how you are tracking on these leading indicators is an important tool to be able to predict or forecast your sales revenue at some incremental point in the future: this month, next month, 90 days from now, etc.

Examples of leading indicators could be:

You could think of leading indicators as the input needed to arrive at specific sales outcomes.

What are the measurable leading indicators that predict sales success in your business?

Lagging Indicators (Output)

A lagging indicator is something that is a result of this activity, such as a closed sale, monthly revenue or closing ratios. Lagging indicators could be, for example:

You could think of lagging indicators as the output you get as a result of your leading indicators.

What are measurable lagging indicators of sales success in your business?

Make Goal Attainment a Habit

In order to meet and exceed goals, it is important to recognize that the process for achieving them begins with clearly identifying and articulating goals and that this is not where the journey of goal pursuit ends .

Goal setting is not enough!

Goal Pursuit

Pursuing goals is a lot like a road trip [1] . Which means, there is first planning and preparation involved, then comes the stage when you are hitting the road and “getting out of dodge,” and finally, there’s the easy highway driving when you turn on the cruise control and coast. Thinking of it in this way helps us account for the emotional and social factors that drive and perpetuate action toward meeting and exceeding goals .

This road trip has three phases, and motivation is important at each phase throughout the goal pursuit process:

Because the integration or goal striving phase is cognitively costly and requires a lot of energy, it becomes important to automate actions as habits for them to stick. If we can automate behavioral self-control through habits, we are able to free up cognitive and emotional resources for focus in other important areas.

Anatomy of a Habit

What habits will you cultivate to automate success within your business?

Every habit consists of a trigger, a behavior loop, and a reward. Any habit can have many different triggers. For example, brushing your teeth may be triggered by feeling a film on your teeth, finishing breakfast, getting ready to leave the house, or getting into bed. The behavior of brushing your teeth typically follows a similar pattern, and the reward is a tingly, clean feeling in your mouth.

A habit is essentially a pattern: a specific cue triggers a behavior, which yields a reward.

Once a pattern or neuropathway is formed in the brain, it cannot be erased; it can only be overridden with new paths. We can’t always change the cues that trigger a particular behavior. What we have the most control over, are the rewards we assign to that behavior.

Implementation Intentions

How will you implement your new habits?

A great way to plan for HOW to develop new habits, or override old ones, is to set an implementation intention . This is an intention that is pre-planned and written out as an if/then statement. When breaking old habits, it can also be useful to include the default response and replace it with a new action:

Put simply, this means that in addition to writing down your goal, you also want to plan for specific circumstances that may arise where you might get off track, and how you will respond in order to implement your new behavior.

Motivation

Approach or Avoidance Motivation?

Recognizing that there are individual differences in how people are motivated, is important. Some individuals are strongly motivated by rewards or the “gain” (positive outcomes) of attaining a goal, while others are more motivated by punishment or the potential of “loss” (negative consequences) if a goal is not achieved. This can be measured via a brief assessment called the BIS-BAS scale .

Hierarchy of Goals

Goals exist in a hierarchy. The insight that goals exist in a hierarchy in the brain means that they operate on different systems, and implies that we are unable to access different levels in the hierarchy at the same time – because the brain can only perform one function effectively at a time . The WHY (motivation) for caring about goals reside higher in the hierarchy, and the HOW (instruction & action) for activating on goals is lower in the hierarchy. The WHY and the HOW use different brain systems, which means that you cannot hold both the WHY and the HOW in your mind simultaneously .

What might some implications of this insight be?

Often, we are just busy figuring out HOW to achieve our goals, we are on the ground in the middle of the action, which makes it difficult or impossible to simultaneously focus on the WHY, the motivation behind achieving those goals. Therefore, it is critical to continually point ourselves back to “why,” the motivation for caring about the goals in the first place.

This is a perfect opportunity to practice building a habit of starting each day anchoring to your WHY. Before you start each workday, before you get caught up in the fray and busyness of the day, with all the effort that goes into learning and doing the HOW – create some space to reflect on your purpose, your motivation for making progress toward your goals.

This practice will help you prioritize your energy while providing clarity and focus so you can measure what truly matters at the end of your day.

[1] Berkman & Rock, AIM: An Integrative Model of Goal Pursuit, NeuroLeadership Journal, 2014

Resources

Further Reading – if you would like to dig deeper, consider these books:

This article was originally published on 6/5/20 at https://multipliersale.com/blog/

Join me for a FREE webinar on this topic on Monday 6/15 at 12pm CST

Register HERE.

The post MEASURE What Matters appeared first on Purpose and Performance Group .

Defaulting to Action

Fri, 05 Jun 2020 20:29:00 GMT

Our next discovery along the EQ spectrum is defaulting to action. Being action oriented should be considered “table stakes” for courageous leaders. It’s the required habit of leaders who establish legitimacy for themselves by showing up every day to DO IT!

Initiating meaningful action requires courage, energy and passion. Sustaining momentum requires achievement and grit. Keep in mind, most everyone on earth is willing to take an average amount of initiative and complete an average amount of work. Courageous leaders understand what drives them and continually tap their purpose and beliefs to move forward.

Defining Action

Taking action is about “getting shit done”. It’s an exhibition of competency and ability that provides evidence of performance. Taking action is mission-critical to advancing our purpose.

The need for speed and agility in the marketplace means those individuals and organizations that hesitate to take meaningful, daily action that advances their purpose, will be overtaken by those who don’t. We embrace business as an infinite game fueled by purpose, leadership and effort. When our competitive spirit is ignited to continually adapt and compete in this game, inspiration fuels our willingness to extend the intellectual, physical and emotional effort required. We don’t simply participate, we bring everyone forward by leading the race.

Benefits of Action

When we are properly motivated and approach our day-to-day activities with vigor, our achievements inform our grit and build our resilience to life’s inevitable challenges.

We are all motivated to get better at the things we care most about, self-direct our activities and be part of something greater than ourselves. Being active within our families, communities and companies, we model the way for others and add value to the lives of those we serve.

Action Oriented individuals

The Bottom Line

Chance favors the prepared. By taking action, we chart our own path through life, “make our own luck” and avoid the unnecessary suffering that comes from letting life happen to us .

Tactics for Action

Challenge Question

What are your best practices to properly orient yourself and prepare for the demands of each day?

Resources

For further reading, see the following resources:

Next: Valuing Differences

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Dr. Bob’s Reads: “Chipotle: Driving the Mission”

Fri, 05 Jun 2020 01:56:00 GMT

Today’s best practices come from Joy Metcalf ’s article in CTDO Magazine entitled “ Driving the Mission .” Metcalf’s article details Chipotle’s “cultural transformation” which was started in 2018 and is led by Marissa Andrada (Chief People Officer). Andrada is focused on helping Chipotle enhance their food integrity and increase retention of hourly employees.

Key aspects of Chipotle’s cultural transformation:

As we move forward through COVID-19, Chipotle’s focus on authenticity and employee wellbeing will serve them well.

Bottom Line

Chipotle’s transformation of their culture began in 2018. During 2018, their stock went as low $255 per share. As of 5/28/20, their stock is trading at $1,004 per share. An important driver of these financial results is Chipotle’s focus on:

At Purpose & Performance Group, we help courageous leaders design and execute cultural transformations. We look forward to hearing your ideas and helping you with your journey.

The post Dr. Bob’s Reads: “Chipotle: Driving the Mission” appeared first on Purpose and Performance Group .

Magic in the Room #13: Strength Based Leadership

Tue, 02 Jun 2020 23:47:00 GMT

What do you consider to be your leadership superpower? When you get out of bed every morning, what do you try to leverage to help you accomplish something good? These are the opening questions that Chris Province asks his fellow hosts and listeners of this episode of the Magic In The Room podcast.

For Luke, it’s strategy. Being strategic helps him see the intersectionality between strengths and capabilities. If it’s a product or a service they want to provide, he explains how it then becomes more about aligning the team and helping them be as effective as possible. A strategic mindset also helps Luke see where there could be different role definition or where there is something missing from the team.

From an early age, Hannah has shown incredible adaptability. In her early twenties, she found herself living in different countries and adapting to new life situations. The ability to observe and learn while adjusting to her new surroundings quickly became a strength that she has used naturally throughout her life. The superpower enables her to maximize every job role, team, project, or phase in her life to be the best it can be.

When Chris is asked the same question, he advised that it’s his ability to focus on the heart in things. He hopes that his willingness to fight for what is right, combined with his generosity, makes people want him on their side when they go into battle. By leading with heart, grit, and courage, Chris enjoys making things possible that maybe don’t look possible at the time.

The hosts then take the opportunity to zoom out and understand that together, their superpowers of being highly strategic and adaptable with a big heart are responsible for them having an incredibly balanced team. It also enables them to understand what they can accomplish by leveraging their collective strengths and appreciate the value of knowing each other’s superpowers. But, how can you and your team identify your superpowers?

Hannah recommends the Strengthsfinder 2.0 assessment by Gallup to help listeners identify their top five themes which can become strengths when you leverage them intentionally. But Luke enjoys taking things beyond the Strengthsfinder results. He is motivated by reminders and weekly coaching tips that generate an ongoing conversation about your strengths to keep it top of mind.

However, one of the most important things to remember is that we are all unique when it comes to understanding our strengths. Some will have realizations through journaling or mental modelling such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) or Strengthsfinder. For others, it will be an aggregation. Ultimately, we need to keep an open mind to what those sources might be when attempting to understand how we are showing up and the strengths that allow us to be effective.

If effectively leveraging your strengths is something that you would like to explore individually or for your team, the hosts of the Magic in The Room podcast would like to invite you to join their new beta platform. So, reach out to Hannah, Luke, and Chris by emailing info@purposeandperformancegroup.com and ask to join their beta group.

The post MAGIC IN THE ROOM PODCAST #13 – STRENGTH BASED LEADERSHIP appeared first on Purpose and Performance Group .

Communicating Effectively

Fri, 29 May 2020 14:40:00 GMT

Our next discovery along the EQ spectrum is communicating effectively. Effective communicators use language and imagery to build shared consciousness with their audience. Whether in a one-on-one, team, or organization-wide setting, connecting to others through communication allows a leader to facilitate the adoption of new ideas or clarify shared values to enable extraordinary performance.

Defining (Effective) Communication

Effective communication is the ability to understand the perspective of the audience, and to introduce, conceptualize, or clarify ideas in ways that lead others to understand, believe, and act.

Benefits of Communicating Effectively

Communication is a skill we can practice. If we focus intention and effort on improving, we will continue to grow into master communicators.

The most critical communication opportunities, times we can really make a difference if we become effective communicators, are when we advocate for change or nurture the essential .

Advocating for change is inherently difficult. People tend to hesitate to let go of the status quo. Master communicators identify and engage the values of their audience to clarify why what exists doesn’t align with the highest possible good, and light the path toward a different and better future. If you are someone who wants to see change happen, mastering communication is critical to your journey as a leader.

Communication isn’t always a call to action. Communication can also work like the oil in an engine, keeping the most important parts working properly so the engine can effectively operate. When we use communication to nurture the essential , we reinforce values, decisions, or commitments that are central to the success of the relationship, team, or organization. For those who want to keep the most important things in life and business healthy, it is imperative we learn to address essential topics in fresh, clarifying ways.

The Bottom Line

Master communicators harness the power of language to advance their purpose for maximum impact.

Tactics to Ensure Effective Communication

Challenge Question

Going forward, what are some actions you can take to master presence, hone your message or own your setting to communicate more effectively?

Resources

Next: Defaulting to Action

The post Communicating Effectively appeared first on Purpose and Performance Group .

Showing Courage

Fri, 22 May 2020 21:26:00 GMT

The third discovery along the EQ spectrum is showing courage. Trust takes courage. Accountability takes courage. Leadership, by its very nature, is a courageous act . Courage is not the absence of fear, it is feeling the fear and doing it anyway. It is not being comfortable, it is stepping beyond the comfort zone and into the growth zone.

Defining Courage

Courage is the choice to confront fear, uncertainty and doubt, and the willingness to experience pain and discomfort in order to advance our purpose, to achieve the ultimate good for our work teams, families, and communities.

Benefits of Courage

Growth and development requires some level of discomfort. When we show up with courage, when we engage in life wholeheartedly, with passion and authenticity, we risk being hurt. But the rewards far outweigh the risks, both for us as individuals, and for our families, teams and organizations.

Learning is destabilizing and change is disruptive. Whether we intentionally disrupt ourselves is the choice of every leader. A fact of life is, disruption will happen regardless of whether we make the choice, or allow external factors to thrust disruption upon us. Only the most courageous individuals willingly disrupt comfortable systems to achieve next-level performance.

Courageous individuals

The Bottom Line

Business evolution begins with the courage of individuals.

Tactics to Show Courage

Challenge Question

Just for today, what courageous act will you take to lean into an area of discomfort, and move your purpose forward?

Resources

NEXT: Communicating Effectively

The post Showing Courage appeared first on Purpose and Performance Group .

Magic in the Room Podcast #11: The Shared Language of Stress

Thu, 21 May 2020 22:49:00 GMT

#11 The Shared Language of Stress

What happens in our brains and bodies when we experience unprecedented levels of stress? In a world where our day-to-day lives have been turned upside down in many and unforeseen ways, we are all at risk for the performance-limiting effects of high stress. This episode explores strategies for leading through stress.

Unprecedented and uncertainty are words that are often used to describe what everyone is going through both during and after the global pandemic. But the event has also created a lot of a lot of stress, anxiety, and challenges to live and work through. Hannah, Luke, and Chris discuss how they identify the early signs of stress.

The hosts explore how they know when it shows up at their door and how they monitor their stress levels. They quickly learn that stress manifests itself differently to all of us. For Hannah, her skin will break out in a rash, and she will eat less, which will cause her to lose weight. A feeling of being overwhelmed into this mode of inaction also makes it difficult to make decisions, causing inaction.

Luke shares how his first sign of stress is usually when his partner asks, “Are you okay?” She notices that his behaviors change before he notices them himself. Luke reveals that he quickly becomes more inward. He admits that he is much less present and available to the people around him because he is fixating on something in his head which results in him being a much less fun person to be around

When Chris feels stressed, he struggles to sleep, which makes him struggle to control his thoughts during waking hours. Although they all react differently, they agree that the effects result in limiting their performance. The key is learning to identify and manage stress appropriately.

Fight or flight is the typical stress response for everyone. But the more intentional we can be about creating a shared narrative and language about everything from stress, strategic initiatives, or purpose as an organization, the more shared understanding we can create about all of those things. Ultimately, the more unified, connected, and aligned our community will be too.

With a clear vision and communication, we can come through this together. We must remind each other that we can be creative and responsive and encourage everyone to bring their best ideas and solutions to the table. But we must avoid the temptation to blame our performance on the amount of resources that we have.

Identifying the shared language of stress and what we experience can help us all understand what we can do to ease stress levels in an organization and lives. The more shared understanding that we can create about all of these things, the more unified and connected and aligned our community is going to be.

Please share how you are managing stress individually, as a team and as an organization by commenting below.

The post Magic in the Room Podcast #11 – The Shared Language of Stress appeared first on Purpose and Performance Group .

Ensuring Accountability

Fri, 15 May 2020 21:47:00 GMT

The second discovery along the EQ spectrum is ensuring accountability. To ensure the type of accountability needed to execute successfully, we should focus both on how accountable we ourselves are, and on inviting accountability from others.

Defining Accountability

To be accountable is to answer for specific actions or decisions. Accountability is assuming personal responsibility for ensuring the execution of a specific deliverable within a specific timeframe.

The Oz Principle defines accountability as

Hannah & Dr. Bob discuss accountability

Benefits of Accountability

Embracing accountability allows us to unlock our highest self and informs our resilience. When we hold ourselves accountable first, and invite accountability from our coworkers, clients and leaders, we gain agency.

Agency, akin to psychological ownership, is what causes us to make independent choices and act on our own free will. It allows us to take control of our own actions.

Highly accountable people

The Bottom Line

Tactics to Ensure Accountability

Challenge Question

Resources

NEXT: Showing Courage

The post Ensuring Accountability appeared first on Purpose and Performance Group .

MANAGE Your Book of Business

Wed, 13 May 2020 00:47:00 GMT

So, you’ve closed a sale. Now, what?

Well, this is when the real work of managing the business begins. Whether you are an entrepreneur or you represent a company as a B2B sales rep, the reality is that every salesperson must think like a business owner. The reverse is true as well: every business owner must think like a salesperson. At the end of the day, you are responsible for a book of business, for sales and revenue targets that impact your company’s bottom line, your personal paycheck, and the livelihood of all employees of your company. That is a lot of responsibility.

In this article, you will get ideas for how to:

Managing the expectations, emotions, relationships, accounts – not to mention time – involved in sales and revenue growth can leave anyone feeling overwhelmed, stressed and anxious. This is where having a process, then following and trusting that process becomes vital.

Owning the process is critical to sales success.

In this article, we will talk about two processes that are critical to managing your business effectively: the buyer’s journey, and funnel management. We will also talk about the value of making sales a team sport. After all, we humans are social animals wired for collaboration and cooperation. When we hunt in packs, we eat better.

Own the Process

Once the deal is closed, the real work of managing the business begins. We get to start the sales cycle over again – prioritizing, connecting, engaging, solving, offering, and delivering value. Ongoing customer relationship building, service reviews, monitoring customer satisfaction, and the day-to-day account management are all part of the job, and all of it while continuing to prospect for new business, shepherding new clients through the sales funnel and keeping multiple balls in the air without dropping any of the fragile ones.

Every salesperson has to think like a business owner. Every business owner has to think like a salesperson.

Consider some of these areas from multiple perspectives (yourself, your customers, your boss, your coworkers):

In sales, there are a lot of dynamics to manage, and some of them you have more control over than others. Often, it can feel like so many things are coming at you all at once, it can be quite overwhelming. Recognizing and actively managing some of these processes will make a big impact on your overall results.

Sales is about more than just the short-term gain of closing a single deal. It is about strategically managing your business for long-term success.

How will you make a difference in the long term?

Mirror The Buyer’s Journey

“The buyer’s journey is the active research process a buyer goes through leading up to a purchase.” ( HubSpot )

Even though sales and marketing are distinctly different disciplines, they are closely related and should be well integrated in a company. For sales purposes, it is important to understand the marketing concept of “the buyer’s journey” and the three stages of awareness, consideration, and decision.

In order to sell effectively, it is critical that as a salesperson you understand how people buy and are able to put yourself into your buyer’s shoes. The selling process should mirror the buying process.

Selling should mirror buying!

Keeping this in mind, we can correlate the buyer’s journey with the sales funnel. The awareness stage of the buyer’s journey relates to the top of the sales funnel. The buyer’s consideration stage happens in the middle of the funnel, and the stage when a buyer makes a final decision is the bottom of the sales funnel.

To make sure your sales funnel is closely aligned with the buyer’s journey, ask yourself the following questions:

Stage 1: Awareness (Top of Funnel)

How do your buyers gain awareness of your business and the products or services you provide?

Stage 2 : Consideration (Middle of Funnel)

How can you help your buyer make an informed decision while considering their options?

Stage 3: Decision (Bottom of Funnel)

When and how do you ask your buyer for their business?

Manage Your Funnel

A sales funnel is essentially a visual representation of how a potential buyer moves through the stages of the sale. The wide top of the funnel indicates how the process starts by casting a wide net and narrows down the pool of leads as you prioritize the types of buyers you want to pursue, connect with decision makers, engage them, customize solutions to their problems, present a compelling offer, and deliver results.

Over the course of this series of articles , we have worked our way through each stage of the sales cycle, using The Multiplier Sale© framework. Putting this process into a funnel view, it would look something like this, as each of the first six stages in the framework roughly represents a stage in the sales cycle.

Put it Together

The Buyer’s Journey through the Sales Funnel

As we consider the buyer’s journey, and how each buyer moves through the stages of that journey, we can clearly see how our sales funnel mirrors this process:

As we prioritize and connect with our target audience, they gain awareness of our company, our brand, or our products and services. As we engage with them and help to solve their business challenges, they begin to consider us as a viable option. When we present an offer, they make a decision to buy, and the kind of service we deliver at that point, plays a big role in their decision to continue buying from us.

Treat Sales as a Team Sport

There is so much that goes into human decision-making. Salespeople who understand the human brain and how human interaction influences almost everything we do will have an advantage when it comes to managing all the interpersonal dynamics involved in sales. The “salesperson of the future” has to compete with AI for most of the simple transactional sales, leaving the more complex selling that is highly sensitive to human dynamics for the most skilled, well-trained, and handsomely compensated sales pros. Those who can master the complex sale are masters of their own destiny and coveted by companies – even in the digital economy.

Salespeople who understand the human brain have an advantage.

Recognizing how the human brain is “wired” for social connection is essential as we consider the importance of understanding other humans. In the sales context, this is especially significant when it comes to communicating with and persuading existing and potential customers, as well as peers and leaders within our organization.

The Social Brain

Most salespeople tend to be “people people,” and don’t need much encouragement to be social. But we may not be aware of just how much power the brain allocates to social information processing. Research shows that our “default mode” when the brain isn’t occupied with other tasks, is to process social information. A big part of the human brain volume is dedicated to this purpose – essentially, our brains were created for social interactions and evolved for collaboration.

Sales is often perceived as an individualistic pursuit. In most sales organizations, each person is responsible for meeting their own targets, whether on an individual or an organization-wide level. And yet, at the end of the month, individual sales goals all roll up to a team goal. Regardless of how many layers an organization has, each individual sales contributor plays a role in growing the company’s bottom line.

Externally, your company may compete with other companies for market share. Internally, however, there should be a clear sense of pulling together as a team to meet company revenue goals. The human brain has evolved for cooperation. Although some friendly competition internally can help boost sales in the short term, collaboration and cooperation between sales team members and other parts of the organization will help the company boost its revenues in the long term.

When we hunt in packs, we eat better.

Resources

Further Reading – if you would like to dig deeper, consider these books:

This article was originally published on 5/11/20 at https://multipliersale.com/blog/

The post MANAGE Your Book of Business appeared first on Purpose and Performance Group .

Instilling Trust

Fri, 08 May 2020 21:19:00 GMT

Our initial discovery along the spectrum of Emotional Intelligence for high-performance consultants is the ability to instill trust. Trust is fundamental to our human condition, as it serves as the foundation from which every relationship develops. Our ability to build and maintain trust is THE basic requirement that enables our participation and contributions to teams, communities and other social structures that construct our lives.

Defining Trust

Benefits of Instilling Trust

Some of the benefits of trust are:

Leaders who abuse trust, or assume it exists without earning it can come off as too direct. This has a tendency to catch people off guard, making them uncomfortable or anxious and limiting performance.

The ability to instill trust comes down to our basic approach to the needs of other people. Leaders who instill trust embrace the heart of a servant and hold the needs of other people in the same regard as their own. Trust is about embracing who we are and applying our skills for the benefit of others.

The bottom line

Tactics to Instill Trust

Challenge Question

Going forward, what are some actions you can take to lift the needs of others to the level of your own?

Next: Ensuring Accountability

The post Instilling Trust appeared first on Purpose and Performance Group .

Introducing Our Unlocking EQ Series

Thu, 07 May 2020 01:59:00 GMT

We are excited to release a series of weekly blogs and videos title Unlocking EQ (otherwise known as emotional quotient or emotional intelligence). We will be diving into the value of becoming more self-aware, and understanding the impact we have on others and on the world around us. Hear more from Chris Province, M.A.

Get started with our first topic: Instilling Trust

The post Introducing Our Unlocking EQ Series appeared first on Purpose and Performance Group .

Magic in the Room #12: Burnout

Mon, 27 Apr 2020 11:26:04 GMT

Early Warning Signs and What to Do About It

We find ourselves in unprecedented times where stress levels run high for most individuals and organizations. With unhealthy levels of stress for a long time, we risk burnout. Even highly engaged, high-performing teams and individuals are at risk. In this episode, Luke and Hannah explore the early warning signs and how we can lead ourselves and others to prevent burnout.

When We Say Purpose

Wed, 22 Apr 2020 01:11:00 GMT

The following guest blog is is published with permission from Mike Tracy & Laura Nespoli from Meshin Movement.

Marketing has seen the rise of “purpose” for a number of years. And it’s come to mean different things to different people.

For some, saying you are a purpose-oriented brand means your brand is focused on supporting a cause, a social issue or specific values that are important to consumers and the world at scale. This is probably the most pervasive trend and how we understand purpose to be infiltrating the brand world. For others it may be less about cause support and more so a statement of why a company exists and how it intends to make customers lives better. It’s in this latter definition that we focus our work in articulating purpose for organizations.

Over the course of our times as Meshin, we’ve helped a number of different clients and organizations articulate their purpose. They’ve ranged in industry and vertical. Some non-profits, supporting a community, cause or issue. Others have been for-profit brands who have long been a part of their industry and market but needed an overhaul of their narrative. We’ve articulated purpose and brand strategies for start-ups. We’ve even had the great opportunity to develop the brand strategy for the region we live in, built around a regional purpose.

Regardless of the vertical, industry or business model, we’ve found that unlike a traditional brand framework that sometimes gets trapped in the hands of a marketing department, a universal purpose is a powerful tool to guide decisions across an organization.

Purpose aligns teams and gives them focus to connect with their customers in meaningful ways.

We wouldn’t have come to our approach to purpose without two very important partners we’ve had the fortune of working with. Grounded World and Purpose & Performance Group.

In fact, the single page articulation of brand purpose that we use is borrowed–with permission–from the amazing team at Grounded World.

Phil White and Heidi Schoeneck, co-founders of Grounded World, use a “BPP” model that they developed for their brand and creative agency that supports non-profit and other brands of social good. It is a single page articulation that includes a single-minded deeply human belief about the world, a purpose that articulates why the organization exists and how it intends to change the world for the better, and three pursuits the organization commits to in order to achieve that purpose.

The idea that an entire company should operate from this page really resonates with us. It is a simple articulation that everyone in the organization can operate against. For Meshin, as a team that blends brand and business-minded problem solving for clients, this method of articulating purpose as the foundation of a brand strategy makes complete sense–for ALL clients and brands, including for-profit brands. All organizations need to rally their teams around a belief about their world and understand the purpose of the company within that world. The pursuits give all teams alignment and clear answers on how to fulfill their purpose every day. And it has an entire company understanding their “story” in simple terms so they can all represent that story in actions and behaviors.

Not a few months in to our time developing brand strategies through a clearly defined purpose, we were hired to develop the brand strategy, messaging and marketing strategy for Purpose & Performance Group–a performance development agency. In their terms, purpose is all about shared intention to drive performance.

These brilliant organizational developers know that in order to improve the operational output of a company, they must align the people through a singular purpose. Through a clear purpose people understand their roles with clarity and accountability.

In our partnership with Purpose & Performance Group, we’ve deepened our understanding of how significantly a brand purpose can impact the performance of an entire organization. By living the purpose everyday, employees are more engaged, creating stronger output for the company but also exhibiting unified behavior–which ultimately delivers a more uniform brand story and experience in and outside of the company.

We live in world where brand is the result of more than just what you communicate through marketing. Brand is a resulting all-encompassing feeling of every visual, verbal, behavioral and experiential cue people have with your organization. By articulating a brand strategy through purpose, your entire organization has a clearer understanding of how to live the “brand.” Every individual has clarity on why they’re all there, working together and what change they are creating in the world. Whether that’s the world of your category, your customers’ lives or the global community overall.

Thanks to Grounded World and Purpose & Performance Group, we’ve broadened our view of the power of purpose in shaping exceptional brand experiences.

The post When We Say Purpose appeared first on Purpose and Performance Group .

Magic in the Room #10: Business Evolution

Mon, 20 Apr 2020 16:21:00 GMT

In this evolving conversation about change during the COVID-19 pandemic, you will hear from Chris, Hannah, and Luke about what is required for business transformation. Businesses that focus on developing and perfecting their human systems will continue to evolve and find a better path forward.

The team talks about courage and the ability to be comfortable being uncomfortable when surrounded by chaos and uncertainty. Typically, that’s the one time where you see change emerge. But where do you begin to help evolve your business and turn challenges into opportunities? Luke believes it starts with a vision of where you want to be. But that must be different from where you are now.

The level of clarity around your vision should drive how intentional or how quickly you can get to the next phase in the organization’s evolution. Sure, you can evolve without a clear vision. But if you don’t want the market to disrupt you, and you want the change to be intentional, you have to have some idea about where you’re going. Or at least be willing to admit that you want to go somewhere that you’re not right now.

What if we raised the bar of passion and expectation so that the status quo no longer acceptable? If we continue to live with our current operating procedures, team dynamics, level of impact on the world, whatever that is, most would agree that that would be a painful existence. Luke asks listeners to think about this and using it to help facilitate positive change.

Luke reminds listeners that they cannot evolve or transform alone. And then the other pieces, like know that you have power. Chris also agreed and highlights that it all starts with one courageous leader, and just it’s not a brick wall between the leader and change. There’s not something big to breakthrough. We have to be okay with the conflict and the headwinds.

Hannah reminds us that it’s all about choice. The beauty of the human brain is that we have a large prefrontal cortex that can override any emotional impulses that we might experience. Everything is assigned a positive or negative threat before it even gets a chance to get processed in our thinking brain.

However, once it’s there, that’s when we have the choice, because now we have awareness. And now we’re aware that something has shifted, or there’s been some incoming stimulus we may have made an unconscious value decision about, that’s the moment that we can change can override it. We choose our response, our next action, and communication.

If business evolution begins with the courage of individuals, it takes a team focus on the human system, and the individual human parts of that system to really kickstart the business evolution. For these reasons alone, employment development and building a culture where creativity and growth can thrive is crucial to how a business evolves.

After listening to this podcast episode, we invite you to share your stories about leaders’ courage and how to improve the competitive quality as we move forward together

The post Magic in the Room #10: Business Evolution appeared first on Purpose and Performance Group .

Magic in the Room #9: Fight for the Heart of It

Mon, 13 Apr 2020 12:35:00 GMT

While working from home, Luke, Chris, and Hannah discuss disruption and how disrupting the status quo provides an opportunity to fight for what really matters – the heart of it – and to have the courage to have the difficult conversations that make room for productive conflict and growth.

As we face massive disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, we have a chance to reinvent ourselves and the what we do business. Learn what it means to fight for the heart of it and come out stronger on the other side. Your hosts also share their favorite part of social distancing.

Although it has been an incredibly challenging time, your podcast hosts try to take a few positives from the lockdown period. Hannah is enjoying being as introverted as wants without having to feel guilty about it. As a self-confessed people pleaser, Chris admits he is guilty if doing a lot of things that he doesn’t always want to, just because it’s what the other person needs and expects. But the physical constraints have also allowed him to enjoy being an introvert too.

Luke is enjoying breaking free from traditional boring meeting rooms and enjoying the multi-monitor setup that enables him to drift where his mind wants to take him. He shared a moment of serendipity where a simple typo of the phrase talent matrix kept him entertained for hours. But the main topic of this episode is understanding what we mean when we say fighting for the heart of it.

For Chris, the heart of the matter is a belief system that leaders possess, which enables them to follow up. They are committed to those beliefs of what makes a community thrive, and they stand up for everything that makes it work.

If he’s not advancing his purpose or moving forward, he’s discounting from it. So, when Chris is putting forth the effort, he’s either driving himself and his purpose forward or constraining himself and the purpose he’s looking to achieve. Chris believes, there is no middle ground, and the closer he can live to that binary existence, the better off he feels.

When Luke says fight for the heart of it or fight for the heart of the matter, that’s exactly what he’s talking about. But he also advises that it’s also about courage, vision, and clarity. Hannah also believes that having the courage to pursue your vision and having conversations in the midst of chaos or disruption is invaluable.

It’s also an opportunity to take stock of what is and what isn’t important. Whether it’s the status quo that is changing, changes are thrust upon us, or if we are the ones we’re initiating change, the approach should be the same.

When you’re facing change or disruption, it can quickly become chaotic, and it’s easy to lose sight of why you exist in the first place. But this moment could be seen as the perfect opportunity to remind ourselves of the original vision and its evolution. The big question is, how are we staying true to our purpose?

After listening to this episode, what lockdown stories and lessons you have learned?

The post Magic in the Room #9: Fight for the Heart of It appeared first on Purpose and Performance Group .

DELIVER Exceptional Service

Fri, 10 Apr 2020 21:42:00 GMT

You closed the deal, and it’s time to deliver. Hopefully, what you promised the client during the excitement of negotiating and closing is all within the realm of possibility, and the product or service will be delivered to specifications at the correct price and on time. Your client has high expectations, and so do you – your paycheck depends on this going well. As long as we meet expectations, all is well, right?

Well, maybe.

If your goal is to provide a memorable experience so you can build loyalty and win repeat business, simply meeting expectations is not enough. You must not only meet expectations, you must exceed them.

In this article, you will get tips for how to:

To move from a transactional association with customers to a transformational, long-term relationship, our focus must be on surpassing expectations. We do that by surprising and delighting customers and clients, by going above and beyond what they would reasonably expect from us.

This all begins with trust.

When you have high-trust relationships with customers, they are not only more loyal, they are also more forgiving when things go wrong. Contrary to popular belief, a mishap or even economic downturn can be the best time to build trust with a customer – it all depends on how you handle the situation.

A customer experience that contains a high level of trust in the brand promise, and is enhanced by magical moments of surprise and delight, will be rewarded by increased loyalty and as a by-product, increased revenues.

Provide Exceptional Service

Exceptional service does not meet expectations. Exceptional service exceeds expectations.

This means we must move beyond the transactional, and enter the realm of the transformational.

A met expectation is not memorable.

An experience that exceeds what we expected, we will remember. Positive, memorable experiences build loyalty. Loyalty builds repeat business, and repeat business grows revenue. When we focus on building trust, and back up the experience with moments of magical surprise and delight, we begin to transcend the transactional.

Exceptional service transcends the transactional.

When you “go above and beyond,” exceeding expectations to surprise and delight your clients, you create an emotional connection that goes beyond the business transaction. Emotional connections are what really create true brand loyalty.

We continue to buy from brands we feel a connection with – brands that align with our values, brands in which we have a high sense of trust that they will deliver what their brand promises to deliver, and most importantly, brands that help us meet our transformational goals: to become healthier , wealthier or wiser (see The Transformational Consumer by Tara-Nicholle Nelson).

“Emotion is energy in motion.”

– Robert Kiyosaki

As human beings, we are emotional creatures. We have a thinking brain and a feeling brain, but every impulse, every sensory stimulus or piece of information coming into our brain is processed emotionally before we are able to process it cognitively. This has implications for how we make decisions, and whether or not we change our behavior as a result of those stimuli.

In other words, whether someone chooses to buy from us in the first place, and then continues to buy from us over time, has everything to do with how they feel about us as a brand, the products and services we offer, how easy or enjoyable we are to do business with, and how we are able to help customers transform their lives in some way.

Start with Trust

Trust begins with commitment. As an individual, we commit to being a trustworthy person. Likewise, an organization or company can commit to being trustworthy as well. When we commit to a role, a relationship, an experience, we believe that we will fulfill our commitment. That belief, conviction or confidence provides the foundation for trust. First, we must trust ourselves and our ability to deliver on our commitment. Then, we must somehow instill that trust in our customers.

What comes to mind when you hear each of these words?

When we commit to a certain level of experience, consistently provide that experience, and then communicate frequently and responsively with our clients, they come to trust in the experience. They come to expect a certain level of service from us, based on what we committed to, what we consistently delivered, and what our communication reinforced.

When Things Go Wrong

Unfortunately, things don’t always go exactly according to plan. When screw-ups happen (and they will), it doesn’t matter whose “fault” it was. The customer doesn’t care. What matters is how you handle the situation; in other words, how you make it right. You are the person the customer knows, and you own the relationship – they will come to you if and when there is a problem.

In a high-trust customer relationship, customers are more forgiving when things go wrong. But, even with a brand-new client relationship, a mishap can be an opportunity for building trust. How you handle the screw-up will determine what kind of relationship you will have with that customer going forward.

Will you make excuses or will you own your mistake – or, even if it wasn’t your mistake, will you take ownership for the experience a customer had with your brand, and do everything in your power to make it right?

There are plenty of excuses available to use when things don’t go as expected. Some of them are legitimate, some of them simply a cop-out. Here are a few:

The excuses:

Have you ever used any of these?

Have you been tempted to?

A service mishap can turn into a perfect sales opportunity. It is quite possible to turn a disappointed client into your biggest fan. It is all about how you respond to the situation, and the actions you take immediately following the mishap.

When Things Go Right

In an ideal world, things go exactly according to plan all the time. However, even if they don’t, a customer can still walk away from an interaction surprised and delighted at the experience they just had. Those customers may even turn into raving fans. When we deliver exceptional service, we transcend the transactional and move toward the transformational.

Connecting in a transformational way with customers’ desire for health, wealth or wisdom can provide exactly the kind of emotional bond that builds true brand loyalty.

Discover the Customer Experience

Do you know what your customers’ experience with your brand is like?

If you are not 100% sure how to answer this question, you might want to go on a little scavenger hunt to discover the customer experience for your business.

Consider each element of Forrester’s definition of customer experience (CX) below:

“How customers perceive their interactions with your company.”

The operating word here is “perceive.” We have all heard the adage “perception is reality” – and this is no less true for customer experience. Think about the implications this has for your business and for you as a salesperson.

When customers navigate your Web site, call into your contact center, go into your retail location, talk to one of your employees, buy your products, use your products, respond to your emails — that’s when they’re making judgments about whether or not you meet their needs, are easy to do business with, and are enjoyable to do business with. That’s when they’re having an actual “customer experience.”

– Harley Manning, Forrester

Put yourself in a customer’s shoes or better, “secret shop” your own business by getting a friend or someone you trust to give you honest feedback, to pretend to be a customer and take a look at all the ways in which a customer might search for, or interact with you: on Google, your company website, via phone, email or even in-person meetings.

What is the verdict?

Pay close attention to consistency – is the brand represented in a consistent way across all channels? Do all channels look, sound and feel like your brand? Is the experience easy to navigate, and is it clear where to click, what number to call, or where to go to place an order? When first visiting your website or social media channels, is it clear what problem you help to solve, and what your specific product or service offerings are? Are there any confusing parts for someone visiting or reaching out for the first time, someone who isn’t already familiar with you and your brand?

Set Realistic Expectations – Then, Surpass Them

The secret to managing expectations lies in being realistic about them, and more importantly, being clear on what level of effort it takes to not only meet, but exceed expectations. This begins with setting clear expectations internally with yourself and your team, and externally with clients.

As salespeople, we like to say “yes.” We want to please our customers, and we often feel pressure (from our bosses, ourselves, or our customers) to say “yes, we can do that” to every request to avoid disappointing and possibly ruining the relationship.

However, when we promise something we can’t deliver (can we do this in 10 days, or will it realistically take 30 days?), we put the relationship at greater risk.

Often, we are very unrealistic about the level of effort required to achieve a desired outcome, both for ourselves, and for our clients. In “ The 10X Rule ” Grant Cardone recommends taking whatever level of effort you believe something is going to take, and then multiply it by ten.

Brain science tells us that lowering expectations can be a way to achieve a sense of mastery in our minds, sending us in an upward spiral of greater productivity and accomplishment. Rather than lowering expectations of outcomes, however, increasing expectations of effort can have a similar effect.

Create Magical Moments

It is interesting to note that both the word “emotion” and the word “motivation” are derived from the Latin root “movere,” which means to move. We feel moved, or motivated to move, when we experience an emotion. In other words, emotion causes movement.

The opposite is also true: movement causes emotion. Thus, motivation is a virtuous cycle. We make a move or take some action, which feels great and inspires our motivation to take further action.

If you want to influence and move your clients, you must appeal to their emotions.

“Create moments where people aren’t just thinking about their own challenges but get a chance to relax and think about something else.”

– Sangram Vajre, Terminus

When you surprise and delight your customers on the regular, you create positive emotion. You transcend the transactional and begin to create “magic.” This is the mystery, the meaning, the memorable experiences that will continue to draw and enchant your clients, turning them into raving fans.

Resources

Further Reading – if you would like to dig deeper, consider these books:

This article was originally published on 4/10/20 at https://multipliersale.com/blog/

The post DELIVER Exceptional Service appeared first on Purpose and Performance Group .

Magic in the Room #8: Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader

Mon, 06 Apr 2020 15:28:00 GMT

In this week’s episode, Luke, Hannah, and Chris explore the topic of acting like a leader versus thinking like a leader. They also ask the question, does leadership evolve from action or beliefs? For many, this will feel reminiscent of the chicken and egg brain teaser.

Do you think your way into being a leader? Do you have to have the right beliefs and the right thoughts? Is that what will prompt you to act like a leader? Or will you begin thinking more like a leader? If you start acting like a leader?

Chris Argyris , one of the pioneers in organizational psychology, had a concept called the ladder of inference. It’s an idea that describes the thinking process that we all go through without realizing it when we embark on a journey that takes us from fact to a decision or action. The team discusses how we are all surrounded by observable data. But choosing what is going to get our attention or focus, followed by the meaning that we add to that data will be based on our assumptions.

Chris Province explains his need for his team members to all feel seen, heard, and understood. But to the only way to unlock that ability is to ask the right questions. For Chris, the actions that benefit him the most is to seek feedback and recognize people’s character for contribution.

Luke shares his passionate belief in caring about the success of his partners more than his own. She also reveals that you can’t do that unless you understand the parts of their business that no one’s taking the time to understand. Too many consultants show up and start talking about principles or technical fixes without taking the time to learn about the business. Only by doing this can you reflect and ask the right questions to the customer.

There are leaders out there wondering what’s next for them and exploring how they can grow within their organization. Luke shares how having the same mindset, understanding more, and bringing that perspective to the table can help in thinking and acting like a leader.

Hannah describes herself as a thinker, and that has tendencies towards perfectionism. But her also her awareness around the importance of avoiding analysis paralysis and keep moving. For example, when launching a podcast wanted to learn as they went along as version one is better than version none. Hannah admits that if they had invested time figuring out the perfect format and way of doing this and become experts on this before they started it, the podcast wouldn’t be live today.

These are just a few reasons why Hannah is dedicated to bringing more movement and action into her life and one of the reasons why she a runner too. For Hannah, it’s about the actions that she takes every day and not getting stuck too long in the reflection mode, because she can get a little too comfortable there.

After listening to this podcast episode, we invite you to share your experiences of acting and thinking like a leader.

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Dr. Bob’s Reads: Abundance

Mon, 06 Apr 2020 14:08:00 GMT

My purpose is to help all people flourish by creating & supporting healthy organizations. As a part of this purpose, I am committed to finding & sharing best practices & resources regarding purpose-driven leaders, teams & organizations.

Today’s best practices come from Melanie A. Katzman’s book entitled “ Connect First .” The book is filled with important, practical ideas for enhancing employee experience & performance. This post will focus on the key takeaways from Chapter 26. “There’s Plenty for Everyone.”

Key takeaways:

Bottom Line

At Purpose & Performance Group, we help courageous leaders practice “purposeful wonderment” as they (1) wade through the unknown, (2) help stakeholders move from a scarcity mindset to an abundance mindset & (3) search for & build cultures that ignite the passion, innovation of all stakeholders. Not only do we believe that there is an abundance of pie out there, we are dedicated to making & giving away as much pie as possible. Grab your fork & give us a yell.

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Magic in the Room #7: Chris - On Purpose

Mon, 30 Mar 2020 02:08:00 GMT

In this episode, Chris shares his personal definition of purpose and the crucial moments that helped him become intentional about designing his life in a way that fulfills his purpose. He shares the way in which he articulated his purpose has evolved, and what difference it has made in his life and career.

Listen on Apple Podcasts

For Chris, it’s all about intention. He begins by asking himself, what is my intention for the day? His purpose outlines that for him and puts a lens on every behavior accordingly. As long as he has this overarching sort of strategy, it ensures everything he is doing is contributing to the achievement of that purpose. Chris believes that everything we do, every effort that we put forth, either contributes to or discounts from us achieving that purpose.

Michael Posner inspired Chris to explore big questions such as what do I want out of life? What does it have to look like? What should it not look like? What are the things you must have? And what are your absolute requirements for life? Ultimately, he became focussed on the story he wanted to write, instead of the story that’s happening to him. But he wasn’t always this way.

Chris admits that he fell into that camp of life where if something happens, he just put some efforts forth to see if he can get good outcomes. His philosophy was simple, do no harm and try not to suck. But for the first time, he started journaling. Crafting his own story of what was and what wasn’t important to him.

These simple tweaks enabled him to begin building strategies to achieve the things he had written down. Essentially, Chris got intentional about life and designing his perfect way of living. He had discovered his purpose. But what tied it all together in a corporate world, was working with Dr. Bob schooler was his professional coach.

Chris reveals the enormous value of that class. The final deliverable consisted of a personal strategic plan where he documented all the way to purpose and values to identify for what he wanted his life to look like in words. The document still lives with Chris today.

Luke, Hannah, and Chris also discuss the importance of constant reflection and envisioning. When was the last time you asked yourself, what did I learn from today? What are my takeaways? And what does tomorrow need to look like? If you can break that down day by day, week to week, month to month, year to year, you can make a big difference.

It all begins with connecting with others in a meaningful way. You will learn the necessary habits to deliver on your purpose, and how role clarity and energy generation are critical to perform and live a life with purpose. Chris advises that it’s about creating new habits that help you to keep improving. Today you’re the best version of yourself, but not as good as you will be.

After listening to this podcast episode, we invite you to share your experiences and insights on how you focus your time and attention on intentionality.

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Dr. Bob’s Reads: Connect First

Mon, 30 Mar 2020 00:45:00 GMT

Key takeaways:

Bottom Line

The research is compelling – a lot of goodness happens when we help all our stakeholders understand how their work contributes to their organization’s purpose and the greater good. At Purpose & Performance Group, we are focused on helping courageous leaders and organizations build “voluntary armies” that are well-informed, engaged, fulfilled and daily go beyond the “call of duty.”

The post Dr. Bob’s Reads: Connect First appeared first on Purpose and Performance Group .

Magic in the Room #6: Commitment & Effort

Tue, 24 Mar 2020 03:27:00 GMT

If your purpose is intent, commitment makes the purpose real. It’s what allows you to achieve your purpose. In this episode, we learn how commitments advance your purpose, and how directed effort makes all the difference in our performance and the results we achieve.

Listen on Apple Podcasts

Luke, Hannah, and Chris talk about getting stuff done and how this begins with commitment. But what does this mean? Getting things done is really about activating purpose while making it real and tangible in our lives, in our workplaces and the world. In a previous episode, Hannah talked about organizational and personal purpose, but today the team explore the next level of commitments.

Once you identify your purpose, there are things that you must commit to and advance that purpose. It will give you your aim, objective, and intent, but it’s not a roadmap. It’s also impossible to look at the purpose alone to get anything done. However, if you can dig deep and commit to these things, they will allow you to achieve your purpose. That’s why we call them commitments.

We extract our character from these commitments that allow us to achieve our purpose. Commitments are really about how that purpose shows up. Only then, can we get a little bit more specific around what is the role that we are committed to playing and understanding, what’s my identity around that? What kind of person am I? And then what kind of role am I committed to playing in, in making that a reality?

For Hannah, this stems from a belief that there’s potential for greatness in every human being. Her commitment is to look for that, along with the idea that the world needs more light in it. So, upon meeting someone for the first time, her responsibility is not to think about them in terms of is this person intelligent? Or does this person have potential? Instead, she thinks, in what way is this person smart? Her commitment is to not judge a book by its cover, but to always look for greatness.

For Chris, the evolution of his purpose goes from supporting other leaders. To do this, he must commit to connecting in meaningful ways and a path of continuous learning. His commitment to mastery of business challenges and leadership protects his decision-making process so that he can advance his purpose forward. In doing so, he can achieve his purpose of helping others identify and achieve theirs too.

We all face a series of difficult challenges ahead. But Luke advises if we choose them intentionally, over the challenges that we face on a day to day basis, eventually that effort is going to pay off. By contrast, fighting fires like is never going to make a long-term difference.

In this episode, you will also learn why this podcast is called “Magic in the Room.”

The post Magic in the Room #6: Commitment & Effort appeared first on Purpose and Performance Group .

Magic in the Room #5: Hannah - On Purpose

Fri, 20 Mar 2020 21:28:00 GMT

In this episode, we get a glimpse into Hannah’s personal evolution of purpose. She explores a few different ways to identify your unique individual purpose. Hannah also shares her journey of becoming more purposeful.

How do you define purpose? For Hannah, it is a reason to exist. She explains, “It’s why I’m alive, and it’s why I’m here.” At the core of it, whether it’s for individual personal purposes or an organization, we are all left with the burning question: Why do we exist?

For Hannah, the journey has been an evolution. She admits she used to be the snooze queen that would hit the snooze button on her alarm clock every morning and has always struggled to get up early. But something changed when she read a book called The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod . There was a line in the book advising that everyone must have a purpose, and if you don’t know it, you simply need to pick one. That line proved to be a gamechanger moment for Hannah.

Understanding that she just needed to choose her purpose completely removed the pressure of finding it. Hannah talks about the moment she realized that she could pick something today and in a year from now select something different. Your sense of purpose should not be a one-time deal. It should evolve with you throughout your life.

In the second half of the episode, Hannah also shares the crucial moment that set her on a new course. The listener learns how significant differences in outcomes and fulfillment as clarity around our life’s purpose grows, and we became more intentional about how we show up, and the impact we can have.

After meeting Kimberly Davis, author of Brave Leadership , Hannah learned about the relationship between purpose and a super-objective that’s higher than your job and life situation. It’s that actionable overarching objective that delivered transformative thoughts for Hannah in terms of how she chooses to live her life and show up every day.

Hannah was also inspired by the realization that to be a good partner or leader, you have to show up and be the best version of yourself. By contrast, if you’re not intentional about showing up as the best version of yourself every day, relationships start to deteriorate, whether that’s your primary relationship with your spouse or your partner, your children, or the people you lead in your organization.

After learning the hard way that ten years ago, she hadn’t been investing in herself, this meant she wasn’t showing up as her best version. Discovering audiobooks enabled Hannah to digest 30-40 books a year and intentionally change her habits. But taking time to reflect each day and documenting what she is grateful for sets an intention for that day of being in the space of appreciation and gratitude.

It’s much easier to change direction when you’re in motion. When you’re standing still, there is no movement, and you’re going nowhere. If you’re going somewhere, you can more easily go somewhere else. Finding your purpose is a journey, not a destination, so don’t be afraid to pivot as you go and adjust your course accordingly.

After listening to this episode, we invite you to share your leadership stories and experiences with us by commenting below.

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Dr. Bob’s Reads: Etsy’s “Keep Commerce Human”

Fri, 13 Mar 2020 01:45:00 GMT

My purpose is to help all people flourish by creating and supporting healthy organizations. As a part of this purpose, I am committed to finding and sharing best practices and resources regarding purpose-driven leaders, teams and organizations.

Today’s best practices come from the Etsy’s 2018 Annual Report . Etsy is a global, two-sided marketplace for unique and creative goods – they connect millions of buyers and sellers online from nearly every country.

Key takeaways:

Bottom Line

Etsy, by using their power to enhance the greater good, is an encouraging example of a courageous organization. By understanding and building a long-term strategy around the “impact / results virtuous cycle,” Etsy has advanced their operational excellence and financial performance while stepping up to their corporate citizen responsibilities.

At Purpose & Performance Group, we are focused on helping courageous leaders and organizations that seek to generate positive economic, social, and ecological value for their community and stakeholders in a way that advances and supports their long-term business strategy. Let us help you enhance the greater good by moving forward with intentionality, significance and excellence.

The post Dr. Bob’s Reads: Etsy’s “Keep Commerce Human” appeared first on Purpose and Performance Group .

Magic in The Room #4: Intentional Change Theory (ICT)

Fri, 13 Mar 2020 01:29:00 GMT

In this week’s episode, Luke, Hannah, and Chris talk about moving from A to B. They offer an exploration of Richard Boyatzis’ work on intentional change and Leon Festinger’s concept of cognitive dissonance.

How many times have you tried to change something about yourself or your life and quickly find yourself slipping back into old habits? Achieving manageable and meaningful change is never easy. For example, we have all asked ourselves at some stage, what do I need to change? Should I change the belief, or should I change my behavior?

It can then turn into further questions about what’s the belief and what’s the wish. For example, do I wish to be 200 lbs? Or do I believe that I have the power to be the person that can meet that goal? These deep-seated beliefs reveal a few things about our self-image that are and often what is lurking underneath.

The intentional change theory was developed by Richard Boyatzis, Ph.D., and outlined five common-sense steps to enable anyone to make a lasting change within one’s self. In today’s episode, we discuss this theory and try to understand how we move from A to B in the most intentional way.

We also explore Leon Festinger’s cognitive dissonance theory that suggests that we have an inner drive to hold our attitudes and behavior in harmony and avoid dissonance. But how should we tackle the inconsistency between our attitudes or behaviors? What must change to eliminate the dissonance?

We explore different ways of driving change and moving away from just letting life happen to you. We debate how taking incremental action through the practice of new skills can become a habit that reinforces a new belief around intentional change. But our success will always be correlated to our level of intent.

From a leadership point of view, Luke, Hannah, and Chris also discuss how you can reinforce and celebrate these positive behaviors when people are beginning to show them and creating a culture where it’s okay to experiment.

If you want to create this kind of environment where you’re able to go from point A to point B and have your entire team and an organization with you, it has to be okay to try new things and to have them not succeed the first time, right? Otherwise, how will we learn? The only way we learn is to try something different.

Most people would agree that you can only improve what you can measure. Introducing new ideas and improvements incrementally while monitoring along with the way will help leaders determine what worked well and what didn’t to make data-driven decisions.

After listening to this podcast episode, we invite you to share your experiences and insights on the intentional change theory (ICT) by commenting below.

The post Magic in The Room #4 – Intentional Change Theory (ICT) appeared first on Purpose and Performance Group .

OFFER to Make The Deal

Fri, 13 Mar 2020 01:15:00 GMT

Once you have identified the right solution for your client, one that will alleviate the pain they are experiencing by solving a real business or personal problem, you are ready to make the deal. “Making the deal” might consist of presenting a formal proposal with an offer, resolving objections, negotiating terms, and closing.

Many salespeople and business owners struggle with one or several of these components, and one of the main reasons why closing can be hard, is that we haven’t adequately identified what the customer values, whether or not our solution is aligned with their strategy, and whether or not we can solve real pain. If you’ve done all of these things, closing the deal should be nothing more than a formality.

In this article, you will learn more about:

When you create a strong bond with your customer through the way you handle their objections, and there is clear alignment between their business goals and your solution, closing should be as easy as simply asking for the business. And yet, too often, we don’t ask. Why is this?

Sometimes, we don’t ask because we make an assumption that the “ask” is implied and don’t recognize the need to make it explicit. Other times, we don’t ask out of fear. Fear of rejection is real, and if we don’t ask, we can’t be turned down, so we are subconsciously protecting ourselves from the assumed pain of rejection by not asking. Something in us would rather not win the business than run the risk of rejection.

In order to make the deal, you must present a compelling offer. The offer should show clear alignment with the customer’s strategic goals and the solution you will provide to a specific problem or pain point. There must be an explicit value proposition that reflects what the customer values, and how your offer is aligned with those values.

Consider the products or services you offer today:

Think about the last proposal you submitted to a client. What did you like about it? If you could make your current offering more attractive or compelling, what would it look like? In the end, a good offer always comes down to value. Give your client a reason to buy from you, beyond price.

If the only reason someone buys from you is your price, you are only as good as the next offer.

Bond over Objections

What exactly is an “objection” anyway?

We hear the term “overcoming objections” thrown around a lot in sales. It is usually with the implicit understanding that an objection is a barrier, something to be pushed through and conquered, and that we, the seller, must somehow prove the validity or superiority of our product by showing the customer their objection is unfounded, invalid, null, void.

Express Empathy

When a prospect gives you pushback, there are many reasons that could be behind the hesitation. These hesitations, what we tend to refer to as objections, may be based in some underlying fear, uncertainty or doubt, and can be a powerful way for you to connect on a genuine level and build a deeper bond with your client.

Every human being has an overarching need to feel seen, heard, and understood.

An objection is simply an opportunity to show your client that you see why they may be doubtful, you hear their underlying uncertainty, and you understand their fear. When you acknowledge where they are coming from, mirror their concern, and ask questions to further understand the issue, rather than invalidating their response, you validate it.

The key is to not jump to conclusions, nor to responses . Typical objections involve price, competitors, timing, fit, or they may simply be brush-offs. Recognize that there could be real concerns or fears that drive the objections and use this as an opportunity to express empathy by showing you care and are truly listening.

Show Some Love, a.k.a. AMAR

Rather than arguing your point and putting the client on edge, the Acknowledge, Mirror, Ask and Respond (AMAR) process is an effective way to handle hesitations in a way that builds a stronger bond.

AMAR is empathy in action. It is showing a prospective client you see, hear and understand their perspective, and it allows you to connect on a human level, rather than compete with them to win some argument.

A – acknowledge

M – mirror

A – ask

R – respond

Before even attempting a response, it is important to acknowledge, mirror and ask clarifying questions multiple times. Peel back the layers of the onion, go a step further. Genuinely listen. Acknowledge verbally that you truly heard the other person. Mirror their expression and the words they use. Explore the issue by asking follow-up questions. Then, listen to their response. Acknowledge it. Mirror again. Ask some more. Repeat.

Acknowledge, mirror and ask clarifying questions multiple times before responding.

Going through the A-M-A stages multiple times before you even attempt the R, your response, allows you to dig deeper into the issue to make sure you fully understand it before jumping to conclusions. This can feel very counterintuitive, because our human brains are problem-solving machines. We instinctively want to respond when we are asked a question or presented with a problem. We want to be helpful, and we feel that the faster we provide a response, the more helpful we are.

This isn’t necessarily true. What people often need more than anything else, is to feel that we truly listened. That we heard them. That we understood where they are coming from, and validated their concern. Slow down the response. Before jumping into “fix-it” mode, allow yourself to remain in listening and empathy mode for a while.

Explore more…

The temptation for most salespeople is to jump right to the response after listening to the concern. The ask step is the one most often ignored or glossed over in a sales conversation.

Only when you have fully explored the issue by mirroring and asking probing questions multiple times is it time to respond.

Negotiate the Terms

Think about a time you participated in or witnessed a negotiation (buying a car, salary negotiation, dealing with a difficult client or situation). What was positive about the experience? What do you wish would have happened differently?

Below are three important considerations when negotiating with a client:

Make it Win-Win

Create a win-win proposition. In a successful negotiation, both parties should walk away satisfied with the result.

What does win-win mean to you, and how do you achieve this?

Focus on Value

We are willing to pay the price when we perceive the value.

Know Your Concessions

Be clear on what you are willing to concede before meeting with the client.

In chess, one strategy is to use a “gambit” – an opening move that sacrifices a piece to gain an advantage or concession from the opponent. Consider non-price related gambits you can offer to gain an advantageous position in a contract negotiation.

What are gambits you can offer to create a favorable advantage or concession from your customer?

Always come to a negotiation prepared with knowing what you are willing and able to concede ahead of time rather than offering a discount or giving in to a demand on the spot.

Close It Up, Baby

“ Ask, and ye shall receive.”

– The Bible

Why is it so hard for many people to simply ask for the business?

As discussed in the introduction, fear of rejection is real. Rejection hurts. To the human brain, social pain like that of rejection, registers in the same way as physical pain. To the brain, all pain, both social and physical, is the same. All too often, we subconsciously protect ourselves from the anticipation of painful by not asking. When we don’t ask, we can’t be turned down, and we falsely believe if we don’t get officially turned down, we won’t feel pain.

Something in us would rather not win the business than run the risk of rejection. Simply being aware of this dynamic can help us be more mindful when we are in a position to close. Don’t sabotage a perfectly positioned deal by fumbling the ask.

Other times, we don’t ask simply because we assumed the “ask” was implied in the process. Don’t assume! Be explicit, and ask for the business.

Always ask – but consider the timing!

Don’t ask for the sale during the first encounter with a prospect. That’s a little bit like asking someone to marry you on the first date or worse, during a random encounter at a bar. However, when you have carefully followed the sales process – done your due diligence and discovery, learned what the client values, qualified the fit, engaged effectively, presented a powerful proposal, addressed all concerns or objections, and negotiated the terms – you MUST ASK for the business.

Resources

Further Reading – if you would like to dig deeper, consider these books:

This article was originally published on 3/2/20 at https://multipliersale.com/blog/

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Dr. Bob’s Reads: The Legacy of Wilma Mankiller

Fri, 13 Mar 2020 01:04:00 GMT

Principal Chief Wilma Mankiller was recently named by Time Magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential Women .

“In 1985, Wilma Mankiller paved the way for female leadership in America when she became the first woman to be Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, the largest tribe in the U.S., a role she held for a decade, ushering in an era of prosperity, cultural revitalization and self-governance for Cherokee people.”

Meeting Principal Chief Wilma Mankiller and hearing her speak are some of my favorite and most inspirational professional experiences. From my perspective, she was a humble, no-nonsense servant leader who dedicated her life to the betterment of her tribe – the Cherokee Nation.

Principal Chief Mankiller shared and lived the Cherokee concept of “Gadugi” which inspired people to work as a “collective community toward a common goal.” When she began working for the Cherokee Nation, one of her first jobs was to bring water to a small Oklahoma town (the Bell Water Project ). She successfully organized an entire community to complete the ambitious task themselves as a self-help project. She identified the money for the materials and then worked alongside them. Principal Chief Mankiller felt the success of the project was symbolic of the revitalization of the entire Cherokee Nation.

Mankiller died in 2010, leaving a legacy of cultural pride and success. “I want to be remembered as the person who helped us restore faith in ourselves,” she once said. Indeed, her policies on health care, education and self-governance for the Cherokee Nation provided a model that would be followed by other tribal nations, and the U.S.”

Thank you Time Magazine for recognizing Principal Chief Wilma Mankiller – one of the most courageous and transformational leaders I have ever met and try to model.

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Dr. Bob’s Reads: PepsiCo’s Performance with Purpose

Tue, 10 Mar 2020 21:31:00 GMT

Today’s best practices come from the article “ Becoming a Better Corporate Citizen ” written by Indra K. Nooyi (former CEO, PepsiCo) and Vijay Govindarajan (Professor, Tuck School of Business). Nooyi and Govindarajan share insights regarding the design and implementation of PepsiCo’s “Performance with Purpose” initiative which focused on “putting environmental goals and employee and customer well-being on par with financial goals.”

Key takeaways regarding PepsiCo’s Performance with Purpose (PwP):

PwP is based on four pillars:

”With “Performance with Purpose” as their north star, PepsiCo’s:

Bottom Line

Nooyi’s final quote in the article: “It’s now been 14 years since Performance with Purpose was birthed. I look back at PepsiCo and I am proud of the company that it is today and will be in the future. It has succeeded both commercially and ethically. It has learned to balance the short term and long term. A real sense of purpose is integrated into the company’s core operations.”

At Purpose & Performance Group (P&PG), we have helped clients discover and follow their purpose. These transformational journeys are often as challenging as they are rewarding. We are inspired by the courageous leaders who step up to the challenge of leading the purpose-driven, transformational journey required to create and sustain healthy organizations that benefit all stakeholders.

Let us know when you are ready.

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Magic In The Room Podcast #3: Luke - On Purpose

Mon, 02 Mar 2020 20:54:00 GMT

In this episode, we get a glimpse into Luke’s personal evolution of purpose. We learn two distinct ways of looking at purpose, and how he defines and interprets what it means to live life intentionally. Luke shares his journey along with the moments of insight and clarity that set him on a new course from career #1 to career #2.

In a world of digital distractions and being bombarded with notifications on our smartphones, are we ever truly present in the moment? In today’s conversation, the team talks about why being present is required to explore the positive potential power of every day and doing our best work today.

What does purpose mean to you? And how do you interpret it? For Luke, a purpose is something that somebody is made for. If you think of the purpose of a hammer, it’s different than the purpose of a screwdriver, unless you have to turn that screwdriver around and use the handle he explains.

Luke Freeman shares his journey into purposeful, intentional life and leadership. As he has matured, learned and grown, Luke also shares his journey towards intent and being as impactful and effective as he can be by bringing his strengths to the table.

We seldom stop to think about how our strengths can quickly become our weaknesses. For example, a driven person will work until they pass out and don’t have any energy left. But in today’s podcast, they discuss the importance of inhaling as much as exhaling and sometimes giving yourself permission to enjoy something just for you. Even if it’s a simple thing, like taking the dog for a walk, or going for a bike ride.

At Devil’s Den State Park, there is a 16-mile long hike which is a giant loop. It’s hard and your feet hurt at the end of it. It’s not an easy trail. There are lots of ups and downs. But Luke advises that when out there in the woods by yourself for 12 hours, you can feel your senses come alive. Sometimes, we need to put the tech away to recapture moments like this.

Luke also explains how the ability to be present and mindful can be a huge differentiator. The power of every day is unknown. What we can accomplish today is also unknown, because the potential of every human is unknown. Creating space and the ability to explore our beliefs and behaviors can help us live a life of purpose and improve our performance.

Learning to be present can help bring calm and peace to the middle of a stressful and chaotic week. But it’s not always easy to put into practice. Do you have any examples of how the competency of being present can be a game-changer?

After listening to this episode, we invite you to share your leadership stories and experiences with us by commenting below.

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Magic In The Room #2: On Purpose

Mon, 02 Mar 2020 20:36:00 GMT

What does it mean to lead “on purpose”? In this episode, Luke, Hannah, and Chris explore the concept of “agile purpose.” Starting with the things they can do now what they couldn’t do a year ago, they explore the benefits of having a clear purpose in their personal and professional lives. But also, the role that it plays in elevating their performance.

This episode is a call to courageous and soulful leaders who want to emerge with a clear purpose, and who are looking for ways to define and discover their personal purpose. As a listener, what are the things that you can do today that maybe you couldn’t do a year ago? And how are you leading with agile purpose?

If you’re not practicing something that will enable you to make a change, fear of something is most likely the root cause. Could it be fear of political repercussions and your organization? Is it fear of letting go of something that you’re going to have to let go of if you’re going to default to action? Or could it be fear of failure and not being perfect?

What is that thing that you’re afraid of? And how do you get that on the table so you can courageously address it in default to action and iterate yourself into an authentic purpose? Some of the challenges discussed in this episode are learning how to contribute more instead of just consuming. When searching for meaning and fulfillment, we also talk about how you cannot find it without a certain amount of reflection.

Finding your clear purpose in life requires reflection on your actions and experiences. The team discusses how you’ve got to start by taking action and gaining experience and finally reflecting on that. But you need to accept that you can’t reflect yourself to a purpose or leadership if you are caught in a vacuum.

In a nutshell, we all must have actions and specific experiences to reflect upon. Why? We don’t learn from experience; we learn from reflecting on those experiences. It’s when we reflect on our lives that we’re able to become clear on finding our purpose and then how to continue to live that purpose on an ongoing basis.

Why does execution eat strategy for breakfast? We all know people that talk a great game but struggle to take action. But identifying a reason to get out of bed and default to an action every day will help you put a lens on every decision that will become your differentiator. When competing against other businesses, organizations, and teams, having that lens sets you apart from your competitors.

Getting that lens on every behavior and approaching everything that we do in a way that allows us to fulfill that promise will also pave the way for success.

These are just a few reasons why Luke, Hannah, and Chris believe it’s essential to do a little digging about how to grow as leaders. But how will you develop your abilities as you work through the year and ensure you have something to look back on and reflect in 2021?

After listening to this episode, we invite you to share your leadership stories and experiences with us by commenting below.

The post Magic In The Room Podcast #2 – On Purpose appeared first on Purpose and Performance Group .

Magic in The Room #1: Why Is This So Hard?

Thu, 20 Feb 2020 00:39:00 GMT

Subscribe to Magic In The Room on Apple Podcasts , Spotify and all major podcasting platforms.

Magic is found in every room where people connect over a shared purpose. In this weekly podcast, Luke Freeman, Hannah Bratterud, and Chris Province explore the role of purpose, courage, mindset, and culture in every leader’s quest for transformational performance.

In the opening episode, we discuss why the “soft” stuff of leadership is the “hard” stuff: human dynamics are incredibly complex. Anytime we are in a role where we work with people in some capacity, it gets hard. This episode dives into the challenge and possible solutions to this leadership quandary.

Episode 1: Why Is This So Hard?

Most leaders we have spoken to have dared to ask the question, why is this so hard? We are all very unpredictable creatures ruled by so many unique variables. Everyone has different emotions and motivations that drive their behavior. So, maybe we shouldn’t be too surprised why leadership can feel so challenging.

Edwin Friedman often speaks about the need to be courageous when being a leader. In his book, Failure of Nerve, Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix , he states the tendency of organizations to adapt to immaturity and to sabotage strength is so often characteristic of chronically anxious systems.

When leaders try to pull any institution out of regression, they are often called cruel, autocratic, heartless, hard-hearted, unfeeling, uncooperative, selfish, and cold. But Friedman argues that when this happens, there’s a good chance you’re going in the right direction.

It’s encouraging to understand that sometimes, this is just how it works. We discuss how it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re on the wrong path when you’re facing that resistance. That’s just the way it is sometimes. Maybe it’s supposed to be hard because we have to go through the process to learn.

At a certain age, when we achieve a certain amount of experience and success, it’s easy to think you should arrive and deserve it. But that’s not reality. One of the reasons why we are excited about doing this podcast is we want people to know that leadership is a journey, not a destination.

We all find ourselves saying, why is this so hard? Maybe we should be asking, why shouldn’t leadership be hard. In this opening episode, we also talk about the underlying assumption that as leaders, we’re all evolving and driving towards the change that we want to facilitate.

Hannah shares how we don’t find the purpose in our “Why” until we can connect the dots. But we can’t connect those dots until we can look back at our experiences and hard and challenging times. Only then can we start to connect the dots of when we were the best version of our selves. These moments of clarity are what helps us do more of the same.

After listening to our first episode, we invite you to share your leadership stories and experiences with us by commenting below.

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Coaching Towards REAL Goals

Sun, 28 Apr 2019 21:52:00 GMT

Goal setting is one of the most important contributions that coaching can provide others. Seeking to develop team members requires a commitment to having extraordinary conversations. Conversations DISAPPEAR. Without tangible and actionable goals, how do you support someone to grow or develop? Check out my simple secret coaching tip to helping people set REAL goals they can accomplish.

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3 Effortless Ways Leaders Bring Value

Sun, 28 Apr 2019 21:50:00 GMT

I don’t really like boats. Well, I take that back. Big boats freak me out. I grew up in Oklahoma and the biggest boat that I was ever on growing up was a 20’ pontoon boat. Little Big Town’s song “Pontoon” was pretty much my experience growing up on lakes in Oklahoma. I loved going skiing and fishing as a kid. I have great memories of getting pulled around the lake on an innertube.

Moving out to California was a different story though.

I don’t know why, but the big boats scared me and in San Diego, you get to see some really big ones. My friend and I were having lunch in San Diego, and in the distance we could see the Disney Cruise ship in the harbor. It was huge, like a building on the water, which freaked me out a little. I could probably get on one and walk around on it if it were just sitting in the water, but out in the ocean on a cruise ship, or deep sea fishing? No way dude. I’m out.

One cool thing about big boats though, is the effect they have on all the other boats. When a big boat pulls into the harbor, it affects all the others. It raises them up, makes them sit a little higher on the dock.

That’s a lot like what good leaders do. They raise everyone else around them up a little bit.

Of course, I’m not just writing about boats, but as leaders, we can learn a thing or two from them. Have you ever thought about the effect you have on those around you, even when you aren’t looking or intending to? That’s a mark of a true leader. Leaders raise the level of everyone around them.

I woke up this morning with the word “value” on my mind. What’s my value? What’s your value? Not in the “worth” sense of the definition, but in the “extra” sense of the word. Like a good infomercial, you can watch the whole infomercial, but it doesn’t matter what that guy is pitching, he’s eventually going to get to the “but wait!” portion of the commercial. That’s what I’m talking about; what’s your “but wait”? What’s your “there’s more”? What’s the extra that you are giving for the price people pay for your services? What makes you a “deal” to have around?

I think there are three things we can do to increase our value to those around us as leaders.

There’s really only one way to know for sure if you are a leader, and that’s to simply look behind you and see if anyone’s following. If you look back and see a line forming behind you, then be intentional about being a value to your followers. These three things will make you incredibly valuable as a leader, and by putting these things in practice today, everyone around you will feel a little taller.

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3 Effortless Ways Leaders Bring Value

Sun, 28 Apr 2019 21:50:00 GMT

Moving out to California was a different story though.

That’s a lot like what good leaders do. They raise everyone else around them up a little bit.

I think there are three things we can do to increase our value to those around us as leaders.

The post 3 Effortless Ways Leaders Bring Value appeared first on Purpose and Performance Group .