Decoding AQ with Ross Thornley Feat. Rhett Power - CEO of Accountability Inc.

Speaker A: Hi and welcome to decodingaq. Helping you to learn the tools, mindsets and actions to thrive in an ever changing world.

Speaker B: Welcome to the next episode of Decoding AQ with M me today for a very special recording. This is our first live out of my studio, uh, recording here in Vegas. I have react power. Welcome to the show.

Speaker C: Russ. Great to be here man.

Speaker A: Thank you.

Speaker B: Well, Ria is from Washington, although when I said where's home? He said, well, Delta Lounge, or was it United lounge? Uh, spends 200 plus days a year traveling.

Speaker C: That's right.

Speaker B: Wow. Uh, not my happy place in terms of airports. So Riapa is a globally recognized executive coach. He's an author and entrepreneur, the CEO, uh, of Accountability Inc. We'll find out more about that later. And he's also a Forbes columnist and he helps startups and founders, uh, and leaderships gain strategic focus and high performance. Now I used a phrase yesterday when we met about, uh, make it up, make it real and make it reoccur from Dan Sullivan. And uh, that resonated particularly, particularly with a client that you're working with at the moment, how to make things reoccur. And he's also a member of the MG100, the Marshall Goldsmith 100, and a host of Bestseller TV on Apple TV. So I want to find out a bit more about that as well. What did I miss?

Speaker C: Well, you got it. You nailed it. And we're going to have to have you on Bestseller tv. I mean, this book is fantastic.

Speaker B: Sounds like a plan. We will do that. So, uh, we're at the Transform conference and somebody asked me yesterday, so what's your role and what's your soul? And I thought, ooh, yes, I like that. So we've heard a bit about your role, but tell me about your soul.

Speaker C: Well, wow, that is such a fantastic question. And nobody asks, nobody ever asks that question, do they?

Speaker B: Um, well, other than yesterday, Transform.

Speaker C: I've never heard it. I mean, I've never heard it at a conference. It's always, what do you do? Yeah, you know, why are you here? Like, who's your customer? Like, you know, it's the typical stuff. And I, I love that question. My soul is. I'm an entrepreneur. Mhm. I love the uh, creation phase. I remember distinctly sitting, uh, in a restaurant with my business partner and we were drawing out the concept for this toy, children's toy, you know. And 18 months later you see it on the shelf at Toys R Us. Um, it's creating a book and then seeing it on the shelf, getting people's feedback from when they've read it. And it's a light bulb has gone off in their mind. So in my heart, in my soul, I'm an entrepreneur, I'm a creator, uh, in a lot of ways, consider myself an artist. And I actually consider artists, you know, entrepreneurs as well. Yeah, right. Because you have to be brave to put your stuff out into the world. And as entrepreneurs and artists, we put our stuff out in the world. That's true, you know, for judgment. Uh, yeah, yeah, it's true.

Speaker B: And a lot of it, that process is a learning process. And I've said before on the show a few times, you know, art books, these things, they're never finished. They're just abandoned at some point.

Speaker C: I've abandoned a few.

Speaker B: Uh, I've just come from, um, Salim Ismail's, uh, meaning of life talk last week. And when this question came up of what's your soul? I instantly wrote bit of recency bias to his talk where he talks about the soul and soul expression, the light expression. And often what gets in the way is our subconscious bias, trauma parents, these things. And our, uh, consciousness, our conscious bias. And when those are, uh. The kaleidoscope turns and it shines through. That's our, uh, soul in creative flow. And that visualization and analogy really resonated with me of, uh, how we adapting. What are we adapting? Our soul has this expression, yearning to create, to uh, some form of artistry, expression, our value in the world, unconditional love. And we put all these things in the way. And when we can do the work to perhaps rotate that kaleidoscope and allow it to shine. It is such a moment, a moment of magic. If you had any experiences like that, you mentioned, you know, the joy from getting feedback with the market, whether it's products we create, books we create. But if you can you remember moments where you felt flow of my soul expression.

Speaker C: 100%. Uh, I mean, I. I love operating in that. In that zone, uh, in that space, in that flow. Right. Um, it's where. When I just finished a new book about our self talk or inner dialogue.

Speaker B: Okay.

Speaker C: And um, that book, you know, was one of the best things that I think I've ever done. The reason is, to your point, we often get in our own way.

Speaker B: Right.

Speaker C: And this sort of process that myself and two of the other authors went through, to understand our own inner. Inner dialogue, our own obstacles and the things that we're putting in our own way was really enlightening. And to be able to come up with tools just for myself. So that when I, when I realize that I'm limiting myself or I'm in my own way or I'm. I've got two voices. I've got one voice on this shoulder and one voice on this shoulder and I'm letting this one over here, the one that's based on fear. Yep. When I'm letting that one dominate the conversation, to be able to say timeout. Uh, let me, let me reframe, let me regroup here. Let me think about, um, what I'm saying to myself. Because it's getting in my way of doing good work and doing the work that really makes me who I am. So that book was one of those moments for me when we were able to close it and say it's done and send it off to the publisher. I was really happy that ah, we went through this process of self discovery. We, uh, spent five years working and researching this and talking to people and talking to leaders, talking to athletes, world class athletes, people who have accomplished, you know, world. Just unbelievable. Right? Push beyond their limits to understand how our brain works and understand how we can get in that flow state more often. Uh, but in order to do that, you've got to be able to get out of your own head.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker B: So do you have uh, in that discovery of learning that you went on, do you have some things that now have shifted, how you do things, uh, moving forwards? What are some of those that have shifted for you?

Speaker C: I mean it's, number one, it's starting the days off, uh, with a meditation and with reflection. It's ending a day with a meditation and reflection.

Speaker B: Right.

Speaker C: Um, and those things have. And sometimes in high stress times and times when there's a lot going on and things are moving, you know, we're here at this conference all, you know, this week. It's moving really fast. Yeah, moving really fast. Sometimes I need a, uh, break in the middle of the day. Even if it's 10 minutes just to ground, just take a time out and say breathe. You know, before we came on, we breathed, took a breath. Right. That's really important to sort of ground yourself and not spin and not, uh. And sometimes it requires journaling. If I catch a repeated thought that's stopping me or getting in my way or creating negativity, stopping, writing that down so that I can come back to that in my reflections, say what's that about? And understand where that's coming from. So it takes a lot of work, a lot of discipline, but it helps us, it helps me, uh, stay in that flow state and be able to operate in that space.

Speaker B: It's interesting. I'm fairly, uh, new to meditation, so I came to it through predominantly my wife's experience. I jokingly, uh, shared with people close to us that for a couple of years, uh, I shared a bed not only with my wife, but with Joe Dispenza, because every evening she'd put Jo on and, uh, so by the drip, drip, drip of Joe to. Then last year went on a retreat, uh, that he puts on and experienced meditation in a moment in my life. And I was able to see it differently. And one phrase I really liked is how he. He describes what meditation is and whether it's the real definition or what I'm sure. But, uh, to become familiar with. To become familiar with. And that removed almost this expectation of me to reach enlightenment, to, you know, have these, oh, I'm meditating. And, you know, it's called practice for a reason. Just to become familiar with. So when you talked about, okay, starting the day with it, ending the day with it, journaling to become familiar with, familiar with past self, current self, future self, what am I letting go of? What am I saying? Stop doing. What am I saying? Continue. What am I saying? Start. A lot of that is the adaptation journey, and it's the intentionality of it for those things. So in that book, when, uh, does it get released? What's the actual title? And before we go on, I am excited about another one that you've mentioned to me of a little bit better. But before we get on there, tell me a little bit more about title of the book and when, uh, it comes out.

Speaker C: So coming out September 30th.

Speaker B: Okay.

Speaker C: Uh, it's called Hedimentals. So it's. It's, you know, it's being in the right head. You got to have the right headspace to be able to lead. To be able to lead yourself, to be able to accomplish the things that you want to accomplish. It's all about starting in the right headspace.

Speaker B: Okay.

Speaker C: And so you got to have the right mental. Mental exercises, the right mental, um, work to be able to perform at a high level. Um, and so that's where the title came from. And again, it's. It's. We all have our inner dialogue. We all have our self talk. Ah. Um, being able to, uh, optimize it for your performance is really key. And one of the things that we talk about in the book that I didn't mention is when a leader. And this is the unique angle to this book. When a leader has negative self talk. What we know now is it impacts their teams and the people that they lead.

Speaker B: It makes sense, right?

Speaker C: It makes sense, totally impacts team uh, dynamics, team culture and team performance. And so particularly as a leader or a founder or somebody that's, that's managing teams, this is a great book for you because it's gonna give you some tools to keep yourself uh, in a

Speaker B: better place, in a better state so

Speaker C: that your team can be in a better state.

Speaker B: I've in various workshops used the analogy of uh, a boat going through the water leads a wake. And that wake can then affect other things in the water. So if you are ah, a leader, if you are a team, be conscious of your wake. Now you might think, oh, I'm a nimble speed, bowed away I go. Their perception of you is that you're large influence, you're responsible for maybe whether I get promoted, whatever might happen in my career, get the projects I want to work on, the tasks I want to work on, create that environment that is a massive wake for them of the influence. So it's the same sort of thing, that viral effect of how do I show up and how am I contributing in just my own energy level, you know, my speech path, my breathing, it's all of those ripples. Every, every part of us, of our energy, our body embodiment, all of those things are having uh, an impact with those ripples of that wake. And you know, when we think about this, it can then almost paralyze leaders.

Speaker C: Right?

Speaker B: You can come to a conference like this and leaders need this, they need this, they need this, they need adaptability, need to breathe, need this. Bloody hell. You know, I go, wow, a lot on a lot on a lot of responsibility. And uh, I just find it an eternal journey to figure out when is the right time to dial up or dial down certain parts of this, of new insights. If someone's going to invest the time in reading it, uh, what will they say thank you to you for as a result of reading it?

Speaker C: I think they're going to understand how their brain works a little bit better. I think they're going to understand and be able to. We have a method in there that's going to allow you to recognize that talk and how it's affecting you, be able to take a time out and give you some tools to be able to, we'll say manage is not the right word, but recognize it, short circuit that negative dialogue and then um, give you some tools to actually reframe or reframe things. Basically it's creating new habits. So creating new habits is hard. It's hard work. I'm not saying this book is easy. It's easy to read, it's easy to understand it, harder to do, harder to apply.

Speaker B: Isn't that true of everything in life?

Speaker C: Right?

Speaker B: And exercise, diet, sleep, hard to apply.

Speaker C: It's like exercise. It's like going to the gym for your brain. It takes a little, it takes some work, it takes some discipline. But at the end of the day, what they'll thank us for is my team is better, I'm better, we're performing better, and that's what they're going to thank us for. Now you got to do the work. It's not easy. It's like going to the gym because it requires you to take a pen and paper every day. Think about what you're doing, what you're saying to yourself, that's not easy.

Speaker B: Uh, so alongside spending five years on a book, and you've had many books, got another one that you're talking about, uh, to me and series of these things. You also are in the field doing stuff with people, uh, that often make up part of the books. But tell me about some projects that you're really excited about at the moment and what kind of adaptations they're going through and how are you supporting them, uh, around the whole theme of our journey and our store and our pod is navigating, you know, known unknown, planned unplanned change. So tell me about some projects you're working on that you're excited about, supporting their journeys.

Speaker C: I'm excited, uh, as an entrepreneur and not having to run a company anymore that's making a product and trying to go out to the world. Uh, so I'm excited about that. But uh, what we get really excited about is we work with founders and entrepreneurs, uh, who are building products and service companies and trying to make it so two examples right now, two clients I'm really excited about. One 25 year old company. The son took it over from the father about three years ago. He's grown it with our help from a $10 million company now to a $60 million company. Bought two, had two acquisitions in the middle there, getting ready for a third. Uh, next year I think I'd say in two years he'll go at 100, hit 100 million.

Speaker B: Wow. So a 10x shift. 10x shift period.

Speaker C: But you know, helping him put the processes in, put the systems in the right people, in the right place. Uh, this is a company that hadn't looked at a p And l. Ever, when we first started, you know, they looked at the money in the bank, the cash in the bank, and that

Speaker B: that was how their indicator was.

Speaker C: In their indicator.

Speaker B: I know many people's lives like that. You know, if I've got money in the bank, the day's good.

Speaker C: Right.

Speaker B: If I'm not. Right.

Speaker C: So now, you know, now they have a cfo, we've got a team and we've got the right management team. As they expand, we're working with their second level and third level high, uh, potentials to build a bench. Uh, as they grow and acquire, they're going to need people who know the system that they're operating in, know the company, know the company culture.

Speaker B: Right.

Speaker C: Uh, so that's really exciting. Just see them grow and give me

Speaker B: examples of that, of how much do you roll your sleeves up, um, how much of that is augmented with other team members. Give me an understanding of, you know, we can speak to a lot of people, a lot of consultants who say, yeah, this is what I work on, but with no idea underneath the hood of what that looks like, is that you're going in fractionally, you're rolling the sleeves up and you're sitting down to solve the projects, the challenges, you're writing stuff or what does it, what it really look like in doing that.

Speaker C: Great example. Uh, they are hiring a GM for one of their new locations that they acquired. Okay, okay. We wrote the, I just wrote, we just finished the transition plan or the onboarding plan for that.

Speaker B: Okay. So their first hundred day.

Speaker C: Six months actually. First six months.

Speaker B: Six months.

Speaker C: This is how you're going to help them come into the company as a new hire.

Speaker B: And was that a collaborative, Was that a. They just want you to do it. So that was a series of working with their team saying, you're the owner of this piece. I'm going to get all of these sources in and create this plan for the person to then get their feet under the table change. That was.

Speaker C: Yeah, it's so that we walk them through it. We mean it was a, it was a hand holding exercise. They're going to do it next time, right? They're going to, they're going to implement it. Yeah, they own the process of making sure that this work gets done, that this person is comfortable, that they know the paperwork, they know the processes, they know who is who in the organization. Um, because there's a lot of cross collaboration. That's a pretty complicated business. Um, but they've got to implement it. Right. We help them, give them a Framework for what an onboarding plan should look like for this program person so that they get up to speed as quick as they can. So but, but they own it. Okay. And they've got to make sure that it gets done and, but we've a collaborative effort so that they learn how to do it.

Speaker B: So it's getting stuck in, it's working collaboratively. Uh, it's whatever the project and biggest advantage is at hand, whether that's new role, recruitment coming in and onboarding, dealing with acquisition, you're in amongst that. And the other example, you said you've got two at the moment. What's the other one?

Speaker C: That's two that are really, really fascinating. One is a uh, digital influencer. Uh, she very uh, well known on Instagram, has built $120 million business in jewelry and the wedding space and is growing, uh, looking at expanding into retail, having a retail footprint now.

Speaker B: Right.

Speaker C: That's super exciting uh, to see that business go from um, an influencer type business to now having a physical. Yeah, having a uh, physical place, um, expanding their team, hiring people who can come in and look at the retail operation, the shipping operation, the manufacturing side of it. Right. And having um, having to pull together now a professional team of experienced people from the industry and ah, you know, from everything from marketing to, to you know, how what's the next, you know we were talking about this yesterday, making it sustainable. Yeah, yeah, right. Like what's the next phase of this business where you, you can't maybe be the personality, you can't be personal personality driven anymore. Now it's got to be brand driven. How do you make that shift and how do you.

Speaker B: So you.

Speaker C: Um, I think that's fascinating.

Speaker B: I find it fascinating that for many companies they're trying to do the reverse. Going from retail, traditional bricks and mortar and trying to unlock uh, how do we leverage this now in the digital space. They're going with now some good growth in the digital space. We want to now go to some of these other things. Seems really quite strange to me as uh, an example. But I guess that's the sign of our times, right?

Speaker C: With an upside down world.

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, right.

Speaker C: Uh, that's a good point. I've never thought about it in that context, but that's a really, really interesting way to frame it and think about it because it is the backwards from what people are for a lot of

Speaker B: organizations, people, brands, they don't go that way around.

Speaker C: They don't have magic, they don't have that magic that they, that she's Captured. Right. Yeah.

Speaker B: Interestingly, um, from a perspective of product licensing, the person and the brand at coachcon with Strategic Coach they had Kathy Ireland. They're talking very, very good example. I mean is it one of the top 20, uh, most valuable brands in the world? Started with. Was it socks? Started with socks. Um, just how do you create from initially that individual to it then being a well oiled entire supply chain operation of licensed product. Um in so many different industries and not many make it to that sort of level.

Speaker C: Right.

Speaker B: Um and it is a challenge of how do you port following. How do you portray a uh, niche into perhaps some other associated you know uh, verticals different areas before you become then so vanilla uh where like Harley Davidson perfume or you know all of these other things can be some interesting decisions during that journey. I guess for them.

Speaker C: Yeah, I think it was one. Another fascinating thing about and I'd say this actually for both of these entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs is how do you make that shift? Um, because at some point she's not going to want to be the CEO. Um. Right.

Speaker B: Does she, does she want to be it now?

Speaker C: Not really.

Speaker B: Probably there by proxy, not by desire.

Speaker C: Right? By proxy, exactly. Do you bring on somebody else to lead organizationally and do you focus on the product and the thing that you. That really got you there. Right. The service, the product, the image, the brand, the culture and is that a more important role? So I think there's some interesting questions around.

Speaker B: It's the Marshall what got you here won't get you there. What a great title, great thesis. Relevant any day, relevant anytime in eternity. You know of those things of you know we measure one of the components is around unlearning. You know, how do we intentionally let go of something that was true before that's no longer serving us. Um, and what has changed? Is it the environment? Is it me? Is it my desire? And how do I let go of that? Easy when it stops working. But if it works sometimes gives you a little hit every other time, you know, uh, oh, I won that point from the back of the court, uh one in ten. So maybe this is that one in ten versus no, you need to shift up your whole game now, whatever it may be. And so you know in your own career you've been through things so you bring that you obviously have a team m. Tell me a little bit more about accountable why the name and uh, what that plays in and around your role and what you bring as well. Tell me more about that.

Speaker C: One of the things that the reason for the name is accountability has Always played a role in my life.

Speaker A: Mhm.

Speaker C: And the times that I didn't hold myself accountable or didn't have an accountability partner or didn't, um, you know, didn't, uh, accountability wasn't playing a part. I was not successful.

Speaker B: Okay. So in your neural net you've got a link between success and accountability.

Speaker C: And they are, they are.

Speaker B: When they're not there, it doesn't compute.

Speaker C: It doesn't compute.

Speaker B: Yep.

Speaker C: So what I know, at least in my, in my view, is accountability. When you have accountability structures, accountability systems in the business, your leaders believe accountability, believe accountability, they hold each other accountable. Uh, then you can do anything.

Speaker B: Give us a couple of examples of accountability done well and accountability done badly in systems and companies that might help some of our listeners think about it. For us personally, we're dealing with that in our small team, small team of 10. How do we get accountability? Right. And um, we're struggling with it in certain areas. So give us some ideas of how's it done well and how's it done badly.

Speaker C: Uh, number one, I'll tell you, I'll go back down to my, my client, my person took over the family business. No KPIs, no deliverables. Nobody in the business had job description. Nobody, uh, said to Joe, hey, Joe, I need these 10 things done by the end of the week. There was no way to track it, no way to measure it.

Speaker B: It's amazing how some businesses exist and do well without all these things for so long.

Speaker C: I mean, it's like putting a team on the field without a game plan and yet and nobody knows what position they're going to play. Right. I mean that's, that's what it's like. It's like putting a football team out on the field and say, just go out and play. And nobody knows who's doing what and what, you know, and so lucky despite themselves. Yeah, yeah, right. Um, and that's a very drastic, ah, example. But the point of the matter is the business had no structure. It had no, uh, it had structure, but it didn't have. Nobody knew what they were supposed to deliver. Okay. They were just told, hey, go put that up, go do that. There was no consistency in what you had to deliver so that the company and the company didn't have any goals. Company didn't say, I want to have a revenue goal. We have a revenue goal of this every year. Right. And so to me, accountability in that sense means let's have an understanding of where we want to go. Let's have a roadmap to where we're gonna go and how we're gonna get there.

Speaker B: And don't need accountability if you've got no goals.

Speaker C: Right. You don't. And then the other part of that is what is your responsibility in getting us there? What is my responsibility in getting us there? So that we all know what we're supposed to deliver and when with a timeline and the tools to be able to do it. And then we're going to check in and see how you are doing on that progress. We're going to check in weekly and say, uh, how are you doing on the five things that you're supposed to be doing? You know, what are your roadblocks, what are your challenges, what's getting in the way, but how are you doing on that progress?

Speaker B: So putting some basics of business principles in place for accountability to have a home and have a role. And so um, in that process, obviously we could probably unpick that a lot in terms of. That's a very big cultural shift. Process shift. You're going to have some squeaky wheels and some things, you know, work and not work in that transition. But to come back to that example, there was a lot of fundamental principles not existing, putting them in place and that accountability check ins regularly. So it's about clarity, frequency of check in when it isn't showing progress or hitting the end result. Often there might be progress but it's in wrong direction and we're not linking it to the result. How do you deal with some of those things? Um, uh, accountability when it's tough, accountability when it's going well, everyone's happy, accountability when things aren't being hit. What's some of the best tips or kind of thought processes around that?

Speaker C: Well, number one, what I like about the system that we have, which we call the accountability management system, is those problems are more obvious earlier than you know. If you check in with your team every three months, every quarter and you know you realize you're three months behind on your, on your deliverables, uh then it's. Then you're in trouble. Yeah, right.

Speaker B: So catch things early by the system design.

Speaker C: It catches things weekly. You know, those problems start as you start to see a pattern after a couple of weeks. Then you can intervene as a leader or a manager and say what is going on here that is getting in our way of achieving our goals. Then you can do something about it. Whatever that action, whatever that action needs

Speaker B: to be shift training new people, whatever it may be. New system, software. Software process, any of the above to

Speaker C: help There's a breakdown somewhere, you can take action on it. Um, now this system is very transparent. So the other part of this, what I love about a system like we're talking about, and this by the way wasn't created just by us. This. Alan Mulally used this system at Ford and Boeing. And this is uh, a little more detailed, uh, version of what Alan did. But the reason it worked at Ford was everybody in their weekly meeting sat down and they were transparent about, they had to be transparent about how they were doing. And if they didn't want to participate, Alan said, nice, nice to have you but yeah it's. So this isn't, this is mandatory part of the culture. It's a mandatory, you have to say and buy into the concept of uh, I'm going to put, I'm going to be honest. If I didn't accomplish something, I'm going to say it. Um, there may be a tougher conversation. At the end of the day it's

Speaker B: incredibly revealing, isn't it, when you set that stall out to say we're going to be transparent. You can't hide and perhaps many people have been hiding for a long time. When that comes out it can be

Speaker C: quite,

Speaker B: you know, quite fearful of that situation to maybe hide. Fudge numbers. We've just rewatched ah, the Wire. I don't know if you ever watched the series 20 odd years ago and we went back to it and there was a, one of the seasons where it's focusing in from the uh, police side and sort of the um, political part of fudging the numbers, you know, the stats, because they want to see reduction in crime, they want to see this. So they'll just write the stats differently, you know, so that will categorize as this and it's not as bad as this. So oh yes, our stats have got better. So we can hide for a while around the data and the stats of what it is. But it's often that transition of uh, I'm now seen, I want to be seen but on my terms. I want to be seen when it's the right things. But uh, I don't want to be seen if it's not all there. And I think that's one of the real challenges many leaders and people are finding right now is we're trying to do things we haven't done before. We've got technology coming in that we don't have the answers for or how it's going to affect. And I'm now being seen for that, being judged for that being held accountable for that. And I don't understand it. Um, so I think there's a real challenge of accountability being placed, responsibility being placed without the competency to execute. And that's true of a lot of managers by proxy, CEO by proxy. Um, so what comes first? Or is it in tandem or those sorts of things between the capability and capacity to achieve before then there's accountability. Because otherwise, is it just set up for failure if you. I'm holding you accountable.

Speaker C: No, no.

Speaker B: But I know you've got no capability in it.

Speaker C: Yeah, I think there's got to be. There's got this. Gotta have some common sense here. Okay.

Speaker B: Right.

Speaker C: I, you know, in a couple of these examples, those companies I'm talking about, there's certainly a. They're capacity issues.

Speaker B: Okay? Right.

Speaker C: And what the system does is it makes those very obvious. So you have to have some grace and understanding as a CEO, founder, leader, where those holes are. And then this gives you a real pinpointed area of focus where you can develop talent and you can create that skill set. You can't hold somebody accountable. You can't hold somebody accountable if you don't give them the tools.

Speaker B: If you don't give them the tools, capability, period. Okay.

Speaker C: Right.

Speaker B: I think enough.

Speaker C: Right. And so that goes to setting the right goals and the right.

Speaker B: So that'd be a really good audit, wouldn't it be? In terms of. In organizations and within your role, how many people have you assumed accountability for accepted accountability for areas in which you do not have capability?

Speaker C: Right.

Speaker B: And, you know, I know in my role there's things I'm accountable for and I haven't got the capability yet.

Speaker C: But the part of your accountability is, if you know that, to recognize it and say help. Part of my accountability, part of what I have to deliver now requires this, is that capability. I've got this hole.

Speaker B: I need to fix it.

Speaker C: Uh, so now it's on me to focus on that intentionally. Focus on. Um. Because what you're talking about, I mean, what we're asking CEOs and founders and leaders and managers today is to see around corners that we can't have. No idea. Right. And so I think there's got to be some common sense on this, but it should give you, uh, an idea of where the holes are that you've got to fill.

Speaker B: And, uh, it links to another great concept that was coined through Dean Jackson, and Dan then wrote a book about it. Uh, who. Not how often, ah, we default to how we're given something.

Speaker C: How.

Speaker B: What's my Project plan, how to do

Speaker C: that all the time.

Speaker B: We default to how because we either have experience, we've got to do it by a certain time. Who, not how, changes that entire conversation, uh, that entire thought even of what is capable, what we can achieve. Uh, I want to keep, uh, these episodes tight. All of my episodes Normally go on 40, 50 minutes because you just get so.

Speaker C: Uh.

Speaker B: But I do have a question that I've asked more or less of every guest on the episode.

Speaker C: Okay.

Speaker B: And it harks back to our, uh, very first episode, uh, with a Lady Diane, Dr. Diane Hamilton, who focuses on curiosity. So she was our first guest. And in homage to her, it's a question around that and first. So the question is, when was the last time you did something for the first time, and what was it?

Speaker C: Wow, that's a great question.

Speaker B: Um,

Speaker C: that's a really, really good question. So about three months ago, I was in Bobby. And, um, I had never gone kite surfing. And so something I'd seen and been around and done it, but never done it. So took lessons, and it was an utter disaster. I fell on my face every time. Um, was sore as I could be the next day, using muscles I didn't know that I had. Um, but it was so much fun

Speaker B: as you become familiar with, as you meditate, as you journal, as you reflect on that. If you just took a moment of that experience, let me know what shows

Speaker C: up when you do it.

Speaker B: Just take a minute to reflect on

Speaker C: that experience and share what shows up. It reminded me that you have to start and that you never an expert. And I thought. I went into that thinking, okay, I'm a pretty good surfer. I'm a pretty good skier. I have good balance. This will be easy. I'll get up. Ah, I'll get up. No problem.

Speaker B: Yeah, I have, um, adjacent skill sets. How complicated could it be?

Speaker C: I said exactly that. The same thing. How complicated could it. How hard could it be? And it was hard. And it was hard.

Speaker B: The humbling go in with a beginner's mindset, even if you think you have some adjacent.

Speaker C: And I didn't. I did that time. I didn't. I went in with. I got this. No problem. And the guy. Guy said to me, My instructor said to me, this is gonna be hard. Harder than you think. And I dismissed it. I'm like, I got this. So, uh, losing a GoPro later, that fell off my. It got knocked off my wrist.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker C: Uh, later. And, like, not being able, being frustrated with it, but continuing to do it, coming back to taking a second to breathe and say, you know what this is, this is not easy. Um, I have to be willing to start somewhere. Mhm. I wasn't good at most things the first time that I did them.

Speaker B: Yep.

Speaker C: Right. Okay. Calm beginner's mindset. Yeah. It's gonna take practice.

Speaker B: So is there something in your next 90 days that you can create a pathway to that might leverage some of that insight? So there's something that exists in your next 90 day visibility that you could connect a pathway from that insight?

Speaker C: Funny you should ask. Uh, we do a group coaching with that first company we talked about. Mhm. With their high potentials and we talked about and starting to develop a series of one hour sessions for them, probably three on beginner's mindset and about managing people which they're starting to do. All of them are new at that. So they're going to have some bumps in the weather but they have to approach it with that beginner's mindset. Uh, and that curiosity that Diane talks about because that's gonna, that's, that's what's going to serve them well. And learning how to, learning how to

Speaker B: manage adjacency skill set, you know, gonna put that on to this and think well how hard could it be? Um, is to create space for that. Um, it's why we have safety nets

Speaker C: when we do the trapeze for the first time.

Speaker B: You know, it's why we have safety nets. How many of us are thinking about in our organizations, of ourselves, of our businesses, we're asking people to do things but we're not creating the environment for that to feel. I'm going to be using muscles I've not used before and I'm going to cause pain that I've not caused before. How do we make that a, uh, an area in which doesn't say I'm not bloody doing that again or I'm doing it again, but uh, I'm. Gritted teeth, I'm um, tense and therefore you fail. We need to be with Grace at ease when it's gonna hurt.

Speaker C: Yeah. No, look, I was a great question because out of that experience, uh, it made me think of and reminded me that we have to approach new things with that mindset. I won't say it's arrogance, but that overconfidence sometimes king can bite you as a new manager or a new leader.

Speaker B: And hey, it's the beautiful paradox of duality. Right. That it can serve us. You watch young kids go surfing or skiing first time they got, you know, the balls and confidence to just Go for it. And often that can also pay off. So it's having that duality of, um, you know, the naivety. Well, if I knew it was gonna be like I'd never do it in the first place, I'd never start to. I know it's gonna be bad, but I'll create some places and ways in which I can ease my way through that.

Speaker C: First principles and then power through when it's tough.

Speaker B: Yeah. So as we close out, two final pieces. How do people get in touch with you if they're inspired by what you've shared, if they want to find out a bit more, I don't know how much is owned, um, ip or whether you have any of these things matrix and resources available. How do they contact you? Let's do that one first.

Speaker C: Okay. Retpower.com they can go on the website retpower.com accountabilityinc. Uh, IO they can reach out, get in touch. We're very responsive. I'm also all over the Internet, so Forbes, LinkedIn, any of those ways, please reach out.

Speaker B: I'm going to give a final opportunity to. Is there anything you really wanted to share that you haven't had the opportunity to share that you'd like to?

Speaker C: Just a pleasure to be here, Ross. Uh, this is an honor. Good to be here with you in Las Vegas. Uh, I can't wait to come down to see the booth today and what you guys are doing. And you're just doing incredible work. I love. I, uh, was talking to somebody at dinner about it last night and, uh, about the assessment about, uh, what we were talking about. So just a real pleasure.

Speaker B: Beautiful, thank you.

Speaker A: Do you have the level of adaptability to survive and thrive the rapid changes ahead? Has your resilience got more comeback than a yo yo? Do you have the ability to unlearn in order to reskill, upskill and break through? Find out today and uncover your adaptability profile and score your AQ. Visit aqai IO to gain your personalised report across 15 scientifically validated dimensions of adaptability. For limited time, enter code podcast65 for a complimentary AQME assessment Transforming the way people, teams and organizations navigate change. Thank you for listening to this episode of Decoding aq. Please make sure you subscribe on your favorite podcast directory and we'd love to hear your feedback. Please do leave a review and be sure to tune in next time for more insights from our amazing guests.