148. Dangers of Positional Leadership

Hey my friend. Welcome back to Leadership in a Nutshell. Cracking the code of the Driven Mind. I'm your host, Kenny Chapman. I'm super excited, as I always am, to be here with you. And today we're talking about positional leadership. Episode 148 Dangers of Positional Leadership. This is near and dear to my heart and I've been teaching, training, coaching around positional leadership for a long time because I learned a lot about it when I have been and I have promoted positional based leaders. So when we think about, you know, positional leadership is a, is a construct of being promoted to a place of power and then an individual basically taking that power and thinking they're going to use force in order to move people. And you know, I think about David Hawkins wrote a phenomenal book called Power vs Force. And the concept is around consciousness and elevating consciousness. And he's got a consciousness scale built in there and how to measure consciousness and all these different types of things. But you know, I used to think that like, oh well, power and force are the same thing. Or I'm going to, going to exert my force and exert my power and get people to do what I want to do. And obviously as a military vet, there's a lot of power and force and leadership in the military. And as a young entrepreneur, I mean literally, I started my first company or bought my first company and started my entrepreneurial journey at 23. And I got out of the military when I was 22. So within a year of exiting the armed forces, I became a business owner, I became a product of a business that owned me. Perhaps might be, might be a better way of putting that. But I was, I was on my entrepreneurial journey. So as I began adding team members, I knew structure, I knew uniforms, I knew kind of rank and file and all these different things. And I'd say it, it's my way or the highway. I'm the sergeant, I'm, you know, I was enlisted. So you know, the higher ranking non commissioned officer I could get then the more power that I had perhaps while I was in the army and then when I got out I'm like, oh well, you know, this is the way to go. It's not the way to go. And power and force are very different things. And so force is the more destructive, like in your face, I'm going to win, I'm going to combat, I'm going to beat you. Or power comes from within. In power comes from connection. Power comes from knowing who you are. Power comes from humility. Power comes from setting your ego aside and being able to operate from your true source, from your soul energy, which I refer to and call it. So today I want you to take a look at your organization, starting with you, and unpack positional leadership a little bit. I got four things for you at the end of this to really kind of think about and work through. But the first thing I want you to realize is that there's a time and place that it can be effective, meaning that, you know, this forceful type of leadership. So if I'm trying to get somebody's attention or interrupt a behavior pattern when, you know, one of the things that I do in coaching is I change physiology. I interrupt behavior patterns. Sometimes I can get really animated, and I go pretty loud, and other times I'll slow down and go a little bit lower. And other times I want to get your attention, damn it. Listen to me right now. I want you to listen to me and you go, mike, whoa. Kenny's yelling at me now, and he's cursing at me. What the heck? Now, here's the. Here's the thing. I. I think about Tony Robbins that, you know, like, I don't agree with everything Tony does, but he's changed a lot of lives in his life, mine included. I've never been to one of his events, but the different books I've read and the different things that I've kind of followed from him, and I remember reading and hearing about him and the language that he uses at events, and he gets really colorful, and he drops f bombs and he does these different things. And people ask for money back every time he does an event. And when they asked for that, he said, you know, basically, as long as. Like, as long as I'm doing events, I'm going to give money back because I use cursing or languaging at a specific time in a specific way for a specific result. So he's not just up there, oh, F this and F that and this and that and calling people. He's using it to change behavior. He's using that to interrupt a pattern, to blow. Blow up an expectation. So there's times I'll do that from a specific, forceful situation. But more often than not, because I resonate love and peace and bliss and energy. Now, I come from surrounding. From a fulfillment place with clients and with my team and with leadership. And so what I want you to think about in your organization is where are there positions that are in leadership because they have a title, meaning just because you promote someone doesn't make them a leader. And so when we look at our organizations and the president of Blue Collar talks about this a lot. Chris Crew talks about this at our acceleration events and in our coaching groups where, you know, where the level of leadership is in your organization when you or a higher level manager takes a day off. So when, when, when I take a day off, let's say everybody in the organization steps up. And so, you know, and I think about this in our, in our own organization. I, I had a. Back during the holidays, my executive leaders were off at the same time and so we had a company wide team meeting, but they were, they were on vacation and so they weren't prepared, present. And so I could have run the meeting and said, okay, well we're having a team meeting and they're gone, so I'm going to run it. And, and there's a part of me that really wanted to because I don't operate in the day to day. And so to get to, you know, jump in and, and do that with my team, I, part of me was like, okay, I'll do it. But there was a bigger part of me that said, no, we, we go up and down and I'm not a big fan of vertical based, you know, organizational charts, but in the reality that's the easiest way to structure is to look at them. This, we went, okay, well they're gone. So we went to our head coach, our lead coach and said, hey, why don't you run the company meeting? Kind of next in line, next man up, next person up, next woman up, right? So when we think about it, how's that show up in your organization? If you have positional leadership, then you just have somebody in a role and everybody has to go down. If your service manager is gone for, you know, out for vacation, out because of illness, whatever it is, then does a general manager step down into that role or does a field supervisor step up into that role for the day? Big measurement for your organization. Challenge yourself on this. If the lead technician doesn't step up into the service manager role or do some of those tasks, I'm not saying they're going to do it all and do it well, do it effective, but that's how you start grooming that. That's where you get to see how much of my leadership in my organization is based on just title. And that's why I call this positional leadership, because we give a title and we think that then begs the position. And one of the dangers with organizational charts is when I give someone a title that now they think that they have all of that power, force, responsibility, whatever it is. So if I call somebody something, and I had an epiphany recently where we were working through some title work in our own organization of different people's titles as we rolled out the organizational chart to the entire company in early 23 of how we restructured in some different things. And, and I've always said, I don't know, I don't care about titles, I don't care about titles. But then I said, well, that's fascinating because my title is founder and CEO. And so I literally have probably the most coveted title in the business world on some level. And so I go, I don't care about title. But when I was an apprentice, which I never even became licensed because I just couldn't stay in the field long enough or do it, I knew what I was meant to do. Even I didn't understand it. I knew what my calling was, and it wasn't to stay in the truck for me. And so when I was an apprentice, I don't know, did that bother me? Did I want to be a journeyman? I'm sure I did. I'm sure I wanted the next level. I wanted those different things. And so don't kid yourself that titles don't matter. And let me share with you. Don't kid yourself that because you're a service manager, a general manager, an officer, owner, a lead technician, a field supervisor, and you start going, I don't care about title. Maybe you do and you don't realize it. That's what happened to me. Check your ego, see where you're really at. And understand this. The banking industry put this on the map. The banking industry realized better than anybody, like how many fricking assistant director managers are that. It's like you have a teller that's been there for a year and a half and they're the assistant to the assistant's bank banking. And they, you know, titles are more important than money to a lot of people. And so it's important that we realize that the challenge is if I give the title instead of the money, or if I give the title because they've been here for a minute, then there's an intrinsic understanding. Well, I have this. This is who I am. This is my title. And in today's world, now I go on Google, I go on indeed. And I start looking at, well, this is what this title makes, and this title has this thing. And it just goes into a comparison downward spiral. Where are you at with the Leadership in your own organization, is it based on position or is it based on influence? Is it based on impact? Is it based on the ability to move behavior, the ability to change results, the ability to improve statistics? That's where leadership really is. And what I will also remind you, and you know it right now, as I'm about to say, say this, you have massive important leaders in your organization that don't have leadership titles. And that's what I want you to take away. In my companies, I run leader based businesses, meaning everyone in my organization is a leader, Every single person, down to our newest coach that we've hired. At the time I'm recording, this happens to be a coach position. And that is there, that's who everybody in my organization. I don't care about title from that standpoint. The title only matters from what you know outside perception is or who to go to for what or who reports to who on the organizational chart from a structure standpoint. But the reality is we are all leaders and everybody's leading their specific tasks, their platform, their projects, the different things going on. And so everybody's leaders regardless of the title. So check yourself, check your own organization when it comes to this and let me have you something or have you kind of think about some things here. There's four things that I want you to take away today and bounce off yourself and maybe check, check yourself a little bit. Number one, don't promote because we're friends. As you know, that's incredibly dangerous. I've done it, I've done it with friends, I've done it with family, I've done it with the, you know, somebody that, oh, I just kind of feel good about this and whatever. Don't promote. You only promote based on impact, based on influence, based on getting it done, based on how executing core value shows up. That's where you promote from. So don't promote because we're friends. Number two, don't promote longevity. Incredibly dangerous place to be. Oh, well, you've been here, you know, man, I guess Tim's been here a long time. I guess maybe he ought to have the best look. Longevity is fantastic. And if you've been there, like I want people to be around a long time, but when it comes to moving the organization forward, when it comes to growing our influence, our impact, our mission, our core values showing up in the world, I've got to have the people that are the best fit for those things to get done. And so I want you to think about that. Sometimes the person who's been there the longest isn't the best to do the job, or they would have already evolved into that in the organization. So just be mindful of that. I'm not saying don't promote somebody because they've been with you a long time. I'm saying don't promote somebody just because they've been with you a long time. Number three, let's turn to ourselves. We can't be leaders just because we're in the position either. So never stop learning. For you as a top leader in your organization, you can't stop learning. You've got. The world is changing, it's evolving, it's shifting. All these different things are taking place. You've got to continue to educate yourself. You got to continue to uplevel your own education. So. So you continue to be the best fit person in your position. You don't get to have the leadership role you're in simply because you started the business. I can't be the CEO of Blue Collar Success Group simply because Christy and I founded the business 11 years ago. I've got to be the CEO because I'm the best person to be the CEO in the organization, period. And when that day changes, something else has to change. And I say that and believe that with every bit of my being. But I'm going to continue to grow myself. I'm going to continue to learn. I'm going to continue to be the best CEO I possibly can be because I want to lead this organization for the next 25 years. So that's the key there. Number four, remember this? You hear me say it a lot. It's one of my kind of mantras. What got you here won't get you there. And that's what I'm talking about with educating yourself. What. What, you know, the. The team that got you here won't necessarily get you there. I heard a quote recently. The. The same people that got you to Egypt won't get you to the promised land. And that freaks you out. When I say that, that's terrifying to think about. Like, but I love my team and I love the people around me. And I'm not saying, go hack your team and go fire everybody and go. That's not what I'm talking about. What I'm talking about is everybody in the organization has to want to grow their position as well. And. And you have to grow within your current position before you get to take the next position. And that's where we get it wrong in business. Well, I've been here a while. I should get the Next level. Well, I've done this for a minute. I ought to get another opportunity. When you grow through, when you start hitting yourself on what we call the leadership lid, the leadership lid holds you down. And so you pop the top on the lid. Almost like the, you know, popping out of a submarine or whatever on a boat. I don't know what the name of them are. I don't do a lot of submarine travel. I like getting on boats once in a while. But whatever that is, you pop, hey, look, I've got a moonroof on my car. How about that? Open the moon roof and stick my head out and go, oh, there's another world up here. But I've had to have grown to get to that point to go, I got to pop the top. Same is true with everybody in your organization. They've got to be growing within their organization with where most people think, well, I've been here for a while. The roof autumn, like, magically open and somebody ought to pull, you know, reach down in and pull me up. Because I've been here, not because I've earned it, not because I've shown that I've got the skill, not because I've got the ability. So check yourself in your entire organization. But it starts with you, remember, and those four key things. Don't promote because we're friends. Don't promote because I've been here a long time, never stop learning. And what got you here won't get you there. It's about continuing to evolve, elevate your consciousness. That's what I'm here for. That's why I'm so glad you join me every week as we just have a moment together to think about our thinking, to challenge our mindset, and to continue to evolve our consciousness into our greatest level. I'm here for you. Kennyennychapman.com if I can ever help you in any way. Until we talk, my friend, do me a favor. Kick this to somebody, share it with somebody, even go crazy and post it on a social network until we talk. Make it a better than fantastic week, and I'll see you next time. Thank you.