92. The Overrated 30,000-foot View

Foreign. Hey, my friend, welcome back to Leadership in a Nutshell, where we're cracking the code of that driven mind that we've been blessed and cursed with. But I'm gonna go with blessed with. I'm your host, Kenny Chapman. Welcome to episode 92. And today we're going to talk about the overrated 30, 000 foot view. And you might be going, hang on, wait a minute, Kenny, I've heard you talk about the value of the 30,000foot view over the course of our career and our time together. And that's very true, my friend. And in a few upcoming episodes, I'm going to come into you about a little bit vulnerability. And the reality is that as we learn, our perspectives change. And today I really want to kind of spend a few minutes talking about perspective and getting you to challenge yours and think a little bit. But I want to really just kind of focus on this 30,000 foot view concept. And it's one of those cliches that gets thrown around, right? We have so many of them like, oh, the 800 pound gorilla. I don't know what that means. And if I ever saw one, it probably freaked me out, I guess. What else? Oh, think outside the box, right? You got to start thinking outside the box. Well, that's fine. And I've said all these and I get it. But where I'm at in my career, in my own consciousness and my own understanding, and what I really want to drive home for you through our time together on this podcast is to continue to take a step back and view what really works. And the question I want you to really think about today is what's the point? What's the point of a 30,000 foot view in business? Now, let me caveat here. So I titled this episode the overrated 30,000 Foot View. The reason that I'm saying it's overrated is because if you just take a 30,000 foot view of your business, nothing's going to change, or of your department or of your team or of your, you know, your process. It's fine. Okay, that's great. The challenge that I have with concepts and with teachers and mentors that throw around some of these cliches and like, oh, no, let's have a 30,000 foot view. Okay, cool. What is that going to do for me? What is that going to change in behavior? What behavior changes am I going to get that are then going to impact and improve my results? That's what it's about. So as a behavior change expert, I'm always Looking at what is the result that I'm looking to attain. And if there's a shortcut or a hack in today's world for that, that's great. But what we also know is most of the time, there's not a lot of shortcuts and a lot. Not a lot of hacks for doing the work. And there's no massive secrets out there, right? There's just fundamental truths and laws in the universe when it comes to leadership, communication, human performance, perspective, perception, all the things that drive results. And so while the 30,000 foot view is very, very, very valuable, I'm calling this episode that it's overrated simply because there's more to it than that. So what is the point of the 30,000 foot view? What is the actual goal of taking a different view in your business? Now, when I was a young entrepreneur and I was in it and I was in the trenches and I was trying to fig what's going on, I get it. I was. I was slammed. You might be there right now. You might have too many things being thrown at you. You might be having a hard time carving 10 or 15 minutes to jump on this podcast with me once a week. And that's great. And that's why I'm doing this. Because you are where you are, and where you are is perfect. Right now. You might be going, well, screw you, Kenny. It doesn't feel very perfect, I get that. But it's all perfect in the big picture of it's a necessary part of your development. Where you are right now is simply another step in your own consciousness being elevated as the leader that you are. And I just want you to be clear that when you elevate to a 30,000 foot level, it doesn't change your consciousness, it changes your view. Okay, now what's the goal? I said it before. What's the point? What's the goal? Here's the goal. It's a different perspective, right? So when we think about a 30,000 foot view, all I'm looking for is a different perspective. I'm looking to see a different reality than I normally see. So in. In my own businesses now I'm looking at, okay, what are my coaches dealing with on the front line that they're getting stuck in the weeds with a client? Where do we sometimes get a coach drug into the drama of a business? Different things like that. I know in my own coaching, in the work that I do at the higher level of things and not. Not that there's any lower levels that are bad. I just I spend my time on high level behavior changing things with driven leadership teams where I don't really do much technician training anymore. Certainly in, you know, in the portal of Blue Collar, you've got a lot of, of training videos. We just really, you know, released a bunch of new ones and all this different. Yes, I, I do training like that. But what I'm really looking for now, when I was doing ride alongs, I was looking at the perspective the technician has in the truck. Now I'm looking at the perspective the CEO might have or the president of the business might have and how that's impacting and then where are the service managers getting sucked into the weeds and where, so on and so forth. Right? So it's all about perspective and it's all about seeing a different reality because reality is reality and that's driven by perspective. So if I want a different reality or I want to understand a reality in perhaps a little bit of a different way, then I need to take on a different view. You know, we talk about different glasses, different views. Now, of course, everything's about the metaverse and different virtual reality. What does that mean? You just put on some goggles and you go into a different, quote, reality. Well, that's what the 30,000 foot view originally came from. I'm telling you today it's overrated because it's just looking for a different perspective. So what I would say is let's look for a different perspective of the business that we have. 30,000 foot, very valuable thousand, 5,000 foot, very valuable thousand foot, very valuable. 500 foot, very valuable boots on the ground, incredibly valuable. The lovely Christy and I got married on Maui in Hawaii and it was an incredible experience and I'm so grateful that we had that opportunity to do that together and, and share that experience. And I'm grateful that she invested the money in the great photography and the video that we got and all that type of stuff. And what the, the fascinating thing is when we were in, in Maui so many years ago doing that, we've been there many times since, but while we were there, we got the view of, you know, the airplane flying over the ocean and, and then approaching into the Hawaiian island. So there's, there's a certain view which, you know, okay, the, this whole 30,000 foot view came from having a view from an airplane and you can see all these different things. But then once we were there, what was cool is we did some hikes, we took a helicopter tour, different things. And the fascinating thing is when we hopped in the helicopter and we flew over to Kauai and we were flying over these waterfalls and through the jungles and dropping down. We had very different views when we were at 500 or 1,000ft. Then other parts of the trip we took some hikes and we, we got out and we actually hiked in the rainforest and hiked to these waterfalls and these different things. And so each one of these provides a different perspective and they all have their own value. And that's where I just want to break this cliche of get out of your business, work on it, not in it. And all the different. That's all necessary, right? That's, that's all I get. All that. What I'm talking about is doing things rather than thinking things or hearing things that don't really drive a massive behavior change. And so everything has great value. And so that's what I really wanted you to take away from today is just regardless of your view, sometimes we just need to change the view. One of the reasons I say the 30,000 foot view is overrated is because we watch owners and I've had some of this in my past. Years ago when I first created my first plumbing heating air company that, that became self managing, you know, I, I went to a 30,000foot view and I really didn't change my perspective from that view for long periods of time. So I fell out of touch a little bit and I, and I needed to, to see the business through the eyes of my GM and my ops manager at the time. But they had a different perspective from where they sat than I did. So I needed to come down out of the clouds and helicopter and see that. Then I needed to get boots on the ground and do some ride alongs to actually see that. So I'm asking you to look at these three things today. Number one, all views are necessary and valuable. Okay, so yeah, I kind of tricked you with, with the title of this episode. But the fact is all views have value and they are all necessary regardless of where you're viewing, your department, your business, your team, your training division, whatever that is. All views are necessary and they're valuable. Number two, you can have the same view as someone else and see very different things. So number one, all views are necessary and valuable. Number two, you can have the same view. You can have that 30,000 foot view or you can be in that helicopter looking or check this out. When the lovely Christy and I go on hikes together, we're on the same trail, but we're seeing different things because of the Reticular activating system, part of our brain. We're looking and actually taking in different views on the same freaking hike. The lovely Christy's a huge bird lover. Her dad got her into birds years and years ago, and she's a big fan of birds. And so, you know, we'll be on a hike. Let's take this Maui hike, for instance. And we would stop and look up, and she's like, oh, my gosh, look how beautiful. And I'm looking up the trailhead, and there's this just epic waterfall that is just dropping, you know, hundreds and hundreds of feet. Just like, oh, my gosh, baby, have you ever seen anything that gorgeous? And she's like, yeah, I wonder what kind it is. And I'm like, what do you mean, what kind? It's a freaking waterfall. That's the kind it is. It's water coming over the cliff. And then I realized, oh, she's looking at a bird that's in a tree between us and the freaking waterfall, right? So it's like, hang on, wait a minute. The same is true in your business. The same is true with your managers, with your leads, meters, with your front line. People have the exact same view, but they see different things. Just, I mean, we don't have to look any further than a. Than a sales call or answering the phone. Different people. You know, you have one technician's like, oh, there was no value there. That client didn't have any money, and somebody else goes and. And walks out of the house with 30 grand and is like, yeah, they were a great client. They just needed financing, whatever the case may be, right? So, one, all views are necessary, valuable. Number two, you can have the same view and see very different things. And number three, all views need the common goal that's shared. At the end of the day, we want to have a common goal that gets shared across everything. So we know, okay, Christy and I are going on this hike. The shared goal is that we want to just have an epic life experience together and take in all of this beauty. That might mean taking in birds. That might mean taking in waterfalls. That might mean taking in streams along the way, flowers, perhaps, different types of plants that we see. We want to take that in. What are you sharing with your team so you can help plant in their reticular activating system what you want them looking for, what you want them seeing. We've seen better over the last couple years than perhaps ever in our own life experience how different people see the same thing in very, very different ways. And that's what it's all about. Don't let the 30,000 foot view be overrated. Just simply change view. A change of view creates a change of perspective. A change of perspective creates a new reality. Thank you for being with me. Episode 92. Make sure you share this with somebody. Help us keep growing our viewership, or I guess our listenership. There's nothing of you here, but continue to grow our community as we share 5, 10, 15, 20 minutes together once a week. This has been episode 92. I'm Kenny Chapman, your host of Leadership in a Nutshell. Until we talk, make it a better than fantastic day. See you real soon.