Leo And Randy On Leo's Workshops In The UK What Anyone Can Do Podcast 1024

Welcome to our new show, What Anyone Can Do Podcast with Leo Battari and me, Randy Cantrell. Our new show picks up where the last show, Year of the Peer, left off, highlighting the simple truth that who you surround yourself with matters, and that if we enlist the support of others, give back to those who give to us, and pay it forward for the next generation, we can do anything. Author and keynote speaker Leo Battari and I will interview a diverse group of thought leaders who will share stories and insights that will help you succeed in business, and in life. How? By doing the things anyone can do, but most of us never will. Welcome back to What Anyone Can Do Podcast. I am Randy Cantrell. Gentleman over there is Leo Buttari, and he is joining us today from Kenilworth in the Midlands. And, um, yeah, man, I'm anxious to hear about this. He has been over there for a couple of weeks. He's been doing some, some workshops that were really an outgrowth from a keynote, if I understand right, Leo. So Tell us how it's been.

Well, it's been really good. And as you said, it is kind of an outgrowth from a keynote. In other words, when The Power of Peers was launched in basically March of 2016, I started doing keynotes around the content of that. And over a period of time, I was asked, well, okay, it's great to have the keynote, yet people wanted to take a deeper dive into it. So they asked, is there a workshop? Yet that could be made available. And then I was also asked separately from that, is there like an assessment? And basically I just really put those two ideas together and created a self-assessment for groups that they can use. So let's say if you are in a mastermind group or a Vistage group or any other type of business peer group, what I'll do is I'll come in, we use this framework. I don't assess anything, I just walk you through the framework and help you self-assess in terms of understanding where you are, where you'd like to be, and what are the action steps that are going to be required for you to really maximize the investment of both time and money that you're making into your peer group. And, you know, the conversations are great. I've done over 90 of these sessions now, largely in the US, now 5 in the UK. I've got one more tomorrow. But, you know, and the key thing about it as well that I want to add is that part of what— you remember when we had Linda Darling-Hammond on the podcast, you know, during the whole Year of the Peer? And one of the things that she talked to us about was that when teachers collaborate, they are able to more easily create robust collaborative environments in their classrooms. I don't think it's any different for CEOs and business leaders. And when they learn how to do that and they learn how to do it well, they can bring it into their companies more easily. So what happens with this workshop is they effectively stick their hands in the clay on a process that allows their group to work better. And once they've experienced that, then they can say, huh, with a couple of minor modifications— and I provide a deck for them to do it, or of of course, I, I can do it as well. We can facilitate sessions with teams back in their companies that will help them be higher performing using the 5 factors that are from The Power of Peers, right? And just as a reminder, those 5 factors are having the right people in the room, having a safe and confidential environment, which in the workplace really translates into trust. You can hire great people, but how do you get them to trust one another? The third is for the group experience, it's about valuable interactions. It's about the quality of the issues and the discipline you have around talking about those issues to make sure that you're squeezing every ounce of value you can. You know, it's one thing to have emotional safety in terms of a safe environment. It's quite another to make sure that you're using that in a way that gives you tangible takeaways. In the workplace, that really translates into productivity. How productive are you all? Like, you may be great people and you really trust one another, but are you maximizing your level of productivity that you could be having as a team. You know, fourth is culture of accountability. And for the group, this is not accountability to the leader of the group. It's really accountability to one another. Accountable in a way that is more about their sense of personal responsibility, right? That they're going to show up. They're going to be prepared. They're going to be ready to play. They're going to bring their A games. And the more that everyone understands that those are the rules of engagement, and they have those expectations of one another, the stronger the group. It's no different with the team. You know, as you remember in the, um, in the, in What Anyone Can Do, I gave Mullen as an example of, um, you know, a group of people that were there, or a team I should say. And the reason they were at Mullen was because they wanted to be part, um, you know, of a group of people who's committed to producing the very best advertising in the world. And so there was that common goal which makes them a team in that regard. And when you were on that team, there was an aspect of when you went to meetings and when you participated in brainstorming sessions, you did all that, you always came prepared. You would never think otherwise of do that because you owed that to your colleagues. It wasn't about impressing your boss. It was like, this is what I'm— my contribution is valuable. It's really important. And I need to make sure I'm bringing my A-game. Because I know everyone else will. And then finally, on the group side and on the team side, we get into the issue of leadership, right? So we did find that the 5 factors that we have, that the 5th one does involve that the group will have some leadership. Now whether in some cases that's a member leader, or in the case of a Vistage group, it's a dedicated leader in terms of a Vistage chair. But some leadership which serves as student leadership, servant leadership for that group, where that leader is there to make the group better, you know, not for their own, you know, self-aggrandizement. But they're also there to be a steward of those other four factors. Their leadership role is designed to really make sure that the right people are always in the room and behaving in the right way, you know, exhibiting those behaviors that keep a group healthy, that the environment is safe and confidential, that they're really processing good issues and they're doing so and opportunities and all in doing so in a way that maximizes value, that they don't enforce group accountability, which would kind of be counterintuitive, but they do create a context so that members are accountable to one another, understanding that that's where the real power in any group or team lies. And then, you know, being able to ask the question, and we do it in these Vistage groups or any other peer group I might do this for, and I would suggest that any team lead would do the same thing, which is ask your team or ask your group, what can I be doing to help make you all more successful? Now, the interesting part of the way this exercise runs is we hit on all of these other issues first, and we address leadership last. What tends to happen as we talk about the first 4 factors is the group really unites and creates ownership around the fact that this is our group, and we have a huge role as individuals and as a group itself. To make us better. So by the time you get to talking about the leader, while they certainly have requests of the leader that can help make the group more successful, you watch a big shift take place when the conversation that may take place without the chair in the room, without the leader of the group in the room, tends to be about— like someone will make a suggestion, for example, of what the chair should be doing, and someone says, wait a second, no, no, we own that, like, that's, that's on us. And they tend to kind of take that. So you can imagine if you're a leader of your team and you give your people the time and the real estate and the freedom to really be able to speak their mind about how the leader can be really helpful, most often the result of this entire exercise is one where they're not going to be looking to the leader for all of their joy and happiness and productivity and everything else. They're going to see how much of that they own themselves, how much of it they own as a group or team. And it's a very powerful, very unifying exercise. I love, you know, watching the transformation that takes place from when we start at 9 o'clock and when we end about 12 or 12:15. And it's, it's Pretty great, pretty fun stuff. And it's been equally powerful here on this side of the pond as it's been in the US, which has been really great, great to see.

What are the major— in the participants from that beginning to the end, as you talk to these people and their epiphany along that way, what would be some of the major epiphanies that these people experience?

I think the big epiphany for many of them is that they realize in some cases, in a lot of cases, quite frankly, that they've gotten their eye off the ball a little bit. They know what the rules are, but they don't keep them ever-present in front of them. You know, they sometimes forget, first of all, how much they matter, right? How much their attendance matters at every single meeting, and that consistency is so critical to creating any level of excellence with regard to a group or team or anything like that. There's just no question about that. You know, and they realize that preparation, you know, their whole commitment to it is essential, right? You know, I think of it like when I was, you know, whether it's in the communications world or in corporate and you decide you want to sponsor the Olympics or the World Cup or something like that. Well, if you think that's paying the Olympic Committee or paying World Cup, whatever it costs you to have your logo slapped on everything, is all it is you ever have to do or spend in order to maximize that, you can forget it. You might as well just throw that money away. And I think in the case of these groups, if you're willing to invest yourself in that group, the rewards are enormous, but you've got to bring something to the table. And I think these things serve as a reminder to a lot of individual members that I could be I could be showing up more, I could be showing up better, and that if I did it and if all of my group members did the same thing, those things alone would drive up the performance of the group measurably. So I think people realize that I'm not asking anyone to do a whole lot of extra stuff. I'm not telling someone who's a member of a Vistage group or any other peer group that, all right, you got to spend another 10 hours a month to maximize this investment. I'm basically saying, I want you to spend the time you're already there, but I need a little bit more from you during that time.

Tell us a little bit about this, this, because you've been over there for a couple of weeks now. I mean, share with us whatever insights you can. I mean, from a global perspective, clearly a bulk of our audience is in the United States, but we've got listeners in Australia, in UK, in Ireland, and, uh, and all over the globe, anything stand out as differences? And probably more importantly, I would guess the commonality that we've all got.

Well, I think the commonality is for sure. I think the differences, interestingly enough, when we've, um, you know, when I've talked with the groups, for example, about if you were going to add new members, to the group, what would that look like? You know, who do you believe should be invited to enjoy the privilege of joining this group and helping add value to your experience, right? I think both the UK groups I've spoken with and the US groups I've spoken with treat both of these areas that I'm about to bring up fairly equally, but there's no question there's an emphasis on one in the US and an emphasis on others in the UK, or it seems that that's at least how the conversation has gone with these groups. So when you think about being part of a peer group, there are things— the reason it works, you know, as we've talked about, whether it's in The Power of Peers or What Anyone Can Do, you have to have some clarity about what you want and why you're there. So With that, that represents how everyone in the group is the same in some way, right? So in the case of managing directors in the UK or CEOs in the, in the US, they are the person that is sitting in that chair responsible for making decisions for an entire organization. That's what they share in common. The other thing they need to share in common is an understanding of what makes a group experience work really well. And among those things are to be a learner, not a judger. To be open, to be willing to listen, to be able to challenge others, but do so from a place of caring so that that advice is taken, or those ideas or experiences are taken in the spirit in which they're offered. And there's things culturally about participating in that type of an experience that are really important. Conversely, there are ways that you want people to be different. You want them to be able to bring different experiences, different sets of expertise, different industry experiences to the table that help provide overall value. The conversations in the UK have focused much more on values and experiences versus US, which might talk more about industry and practice areas. Okay. So in a US conversation, it may be Hey, we would love to have someone from the banking industry or the healthcare industry who brings a certain bent to the conversation that we have here. As you know, I'm in an open area here. Sometimes we'll have a little—

No, you're good.

You're good.

We can still understand it all. It's good ambiance.

Yeah. Yeah. So in the US, it might be around those kinds of things, and that's because when they have conversations on certain topics, they realize there's knowledge gaps in the group. So they oftentimes want to be able to fill those knowledge gaps. In the UK, there's been much more of a focus on we want people who can add value, but we believe first and foremost, before we start concerning ourselves with industry or practice areas, that values and leadership experiences that tend to be different, or where we tend to look for value first. And again, I don't know that I'm painting the picture unfairly in that way at all in terms of one actually caring more about one than the other. I do think though that the natural inclination of the conversation is different when asked the same question. So I think that's what has been probably the biggest thing of all. I do think also that these, um, the groups in the UK have been very— have really challenged me to make sure that while we are working on, you know, ideas in a workshop that is designed to help their group members, that I work extra hard at making sure I show them how this can be beneficial to them in their companies. So that for me has been a real good experience to be able to take that extra step I've modified, you know, some things at the end of this workshop really to meet that feedback that I've been getting here, which I think has been super helpful. You know, delivered one today, and I think it really nails it for everyone in terms of— it's like the light bulb goes off, like, ah, now I see. I know how it values— what value it provides me as a group. Now I see what I can do with this if I bring it into my organization, what I can learn from it, and how it can use you Unite our team.

We'll talk a little bit more about that because you and I have visited privately offline and a little bit online. And there's a lot of conversation that we've had and continue to have about the application, particularly here in the States, in corporate America, where there are lots of moving parts and lots of people and the right arm doesn't have a clue what the left arm is doing or much interest. And the application that companies could make with some of, for lack of a better word, I'll call it technology, this learning that you developed in The Power of the Peers.

Well, you know, we have a lot of communication tools, but that doesn't always make us better communicators. Right. Um, you and I've talked before about, um, an article that Harvard Business Review did a while back where they took a cross-functional work team and they had the marketing person and the finance person and the HR and all that. They've had them around the table and they say, all right, to the finance person, what do you think— to the marketing person, what do you think the finance person does all day? They have no idea. They'd laugh and they said, I don't have a clue. Like when that person comes in in the morning, I have no idea what their day looks like. And other than they say no to me all the time, right? Because every time I ask, you know, sales prevention department, you know, now they have no idea. So what happens is, um, they end up being upset with that person rather than really find out what some of the challenges and what some of the constraints and what some of the things are. We as humans are not particularly good when there's gaps in communication. We don't let them stay gaps very long. But instead of actually finding out what's going on, we fill them in with our own narrative that's usually wrong and usually creates up and down, more consternation than is necessary when we're dealing with it. So, you know, and then take that to the next level, whether we're group members trying to know one another's businesses or employees knowing one another's jobs and how we can really be helpful to one another. It's really getting to know each other as human beings and how important that is. You know, what's your favorite song? You know, do you have a dog? You know, what goofy things did you used to do as kids? You know, things like that, that remind us that we are all human, that we're all in this together, and we're all doing really the best we can. I think for the most part, I think that's really true, and that we have lives that tend to impact how we show up at work each and every day. And the more that we can be understanding and communicative and have each other's back when it comes to really operating as a team and doing so effectively, I don't think there's anything more important than that. So really getting people to communicate, which oftentimes we don't really give people either the forum or the permission to do that. And so this, that's where these workshops I think have been extremely beneficial, both for peer groups and with teams inside companies. It's just giving them the opportunity for a time. And by the way, the team workshop can be done in a 90-minute lunch and learn, quite frankly. So, but just giving them that opportunity and it's like, you know, we get to not just, you know, complain about things behind the scenes. We can actually say, you want to make a difference? All right, let's have at it and let's talk about that because we all want the same thing. And, uh, once you get everyone in that place where they all want the same thing and that you've got, whether it's employees or group members, seeing their leader as a part of the team instead of being apart from it, uh, I think it makes all the difference in the world.

Let me cycle back around to the difference in what you've experienced with the UK groups and the US groups as far as the the value. So they value leadership experience. So is, is that, did I understand that correct? I mean, is that, that's more their focus if they were to add a new member, that really is more what they're looking for first before industry.

I would say experience slash experiences. Okay. So for example, um, somebody who's a founder of a company, and the CEO regards their journey to that position as being different from a person who may have risen through the ranks to be named CEO or someone who is a hired gun CEO. Right. So you've got all three who share that same challenge of making decisions for an entire organization, but they got there in very different ways. And because of that, that tends to bring up issues and conversations and perspectives about things that, um, can be, you know, very rich in that regard.

So they're looking, so they're looking, they're looking for the diversity of those experiences. They're looking for people quite different from them in that regard, or not necessarily.

They're less concerned about whether you fill an industry hole and much more concerned about whether you can add value as a leader regardless of where you come from. Yeah.

It's an interesting difference.

And again, I don't, I don't want to make too much of it. Yeah.

Yeah.

Because I think a lot of US groups would say, hey, we care about that too.

Right.

What I'm just suggesting is that the natural course of the conversation seems to shift much more naturally in US groups to industry sector and practice expertise in terms of things that people consider adding in the group, where in UK groups it's more immediately gone to shared values and experiences that help round out the perspective. Yeah.

Well, we talked about some of the epiphanies that people have when you conduct these workshops. What epiphanies have you had since you've been over there?

Well, that was one of them. I can tell you what we've just talking about. Um, that's certainly been one of them.

Yeah, it is for me too.

I also think though that, um, you know, let's face it, it's much more about how we're the same than how we're different. You know, really when you get right down to it, uh, you know, we, we need one another. Um, you know, I walked them through a little exercise that I've done on keynotes every once in a while where I will, um, start the keynote presentation by, asking someone, you know, in the audience to tell me who their favorite sports team is, and they will tell me, and I'm saying— so they might say, all right, it's the Philadelphia Eagles, for example, as much as I hate to say that, but I go with it anyway, even being a Pitt fan. So anyway, so I talk about it in terms of the Philadelphia Eagles, and then I'll say, all right, I want you to imagine that they just won the Super Bowl. You're watching the game and the, and the, and the final, you know, clock winds down to zero. They've just won the Super Bowl. You're going to be leaping out of your chair, excited, cheering for them. I need you to do that right now in front of everyone in the group, in the audience, right? It could be several hundred people there, right? So of course they sheepishly, you know, kind of look around a little bit first, but then they do it and it's really a lot of fun and they'll make a big big chant and noise and everything else. And woohoo, you know, and they get it right. But then I ask everyone else to do the same thing, think about their favorite team and, but all do it together. So of course what happens is two things. First of all, the person who had to do it by themselves, you feel pretty self-conscious doing that, right? I mean, that's just one of them. And also only one person, I don't care how loud you are or what you can do, you will never create the amount of sound in that room as 200 people who take the roof off the place, right? So what I try to suggest to them is, as one person, you can never, ever, ever fill this room with sound the way all of us can do it. Yes, too often we believe we should act alone, that it's all up to us and that it's all on us, and we try to fill the room with sound all by ourselves all too many times. And if we did a better job, which is, as you know, why what anyone can do, you know, happen. If we did a better job of enlisting and engaging others and making them part of our lives and working with them to help us fill that room with sound, we're all going to do better because they're going to help me, we're going to help them, and we're going to take that journey together much more successfully. So I think that is very much something that is well shared. No matter where I go, which audience I talk to.

Very, very interesting. Very interesting. Well, any, any other thing that you want to share with your, your trip? So now you'll— you've got another workshop before you wrap it up and head back home, right?

I have one more workshop tomorrow. Then I'm going to go into London where I hope to be able to meet with Simon Alexander Ong, who, as you know, is a guest on this podcast and with the book. So fingers crossed that we're able to do that. Those things are oftentimes easier said than done when you're trying to coordinate those kinds of things. But if I get the chance to do that, I'll certainly, you know, mention that next week. And then one of those little bucket list things I always wanted to do was go to the theater in London. So I'm literally going to see a play that is titled A Comedy About a Bank Robbery. And so rather than see Phantom of the Opera or Les Mis or any of those things that you could see on Broadway. I wanted to see something that would be kind of uniquely British theater experience, you know. So I thought it would be great fun to just see kind of this slapstick comedy. And I'm, I literally am sitting in the sixth row too to make sure I could at least see people because I know so much of this is going to go right over my head tomorrow and I'm just going to do my best to follow along.

Yeah, you'll have to listen closely.

But I will tell you, it's been a— it's been like all these kinds of things. I mean, any group I visit, it's always an incredible learning experience. Any team that I talk to, always a wonderful learning experience. You know, I really, again, try to be as open as I can. In fact, again, I got some feedback, you know, along the way with regard to the workshops, too, that as much as they loved what we were doing, to make— put even greater emphasis on how we drive this home to teams and their organizations. And that's been, you know, a really great addition to things, which I'll be bringing back to the US as well, because I think it's clearly important to those audiences. But anyway, for now, I think that kind of wraps it up here from, from the Midlands. But yeah, I gotta tell you, it's been an amazing experience. I'm obviously very grateful. You know, Roxanne Elliott, who was with the Vistage UK, has helped plan this entire thing in such an unbelievably professional and amazing way. I'm just really grateful for her and what she's been doing. And it's just, you know, been a lot of fun and look forward to getting back so that you and I can get back in the weekly swing of things. It was kind of on me to miss last week. The schedule was just a little too crazy for us to try to get together with an 8-hour time difference at the time. I think we're back to 7 hours now that you're into—

yeah, yeah, with the time change. But anyway, no, it's all, it's all good. And anybody in, in our, in our listening audience, whether you are a CEO, whether you're director level, if you are interested in Leo's work and having, having help even with your teams, I would encourage you to visit the website. It's Leo Battari, L-E-O B-O-T-T-A-R-Y.com. Just use that contact form and you can communicate directly with Leo and find out more about the work that he's doing in these workshops. I think it's great. I think it's great. And, uh, just adds to the stories you can tell, right?

There you go. Absolutely. All right. Hey, you have a great, um, great rest of your morning there.

Yeah.

I will go get my afternoon and try to get as much sun advantage of much sunlight as possible.

So yeah, exactly, exactly. Thanks everybody for listening and watching too.

Thank you.

Bye. To learn For more about our show and what we do, to submit questions to us, and to subscribe to What Anyone Can Do Podcast, please visit our website, whatanyonecandodo.com. What Anyone Can Do Podcast is hosted by Leo Battaglia and me, Randy Cantrell. Music provided by Kevin MacLeod is Vibe Ace, licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 license. Thanks for watching or listening. We hope you'll share. Share the podcast.