Turning High Achievers into Effective Leaders

This episode highlights the journey from high achiever to effective leader, discussing the core strategies and mindsets required for successful leadership. Listeners will learn about the traits of effective leaders, the importance of empathy maps, and how to navigate the complexities of hybrid work environments. 

• Transitioning from individual success to team leadership 
• Key traits that successful leaders possess 
• The importance of empathy and individualized approaches 
• Strategies for fostering candid feedback within teams 
• Navigating hybrid work dynamics for effective collaboration 
• Insights on adapting leadership styles to changing environments 
• Overview of resources available in Mark’s new book, "The Rising Leader Handbook"

Chapters

• 0:01 From High Achievers to Effective Leaders
• 12:25 Effective Leadership
• 16:48 Navigating Leadership Dynamics and Relationships
• 26:55 Navigating Leadership in the Digital Age
• 36:08 Encouraging Feedback and Sharing Leadership

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to the Elevate Media podcast with your host, chris Anderson. In this show, chris and his guests will share their knowledge and experience on how to go from zero to successful entrepreneur. They have built their businesses from scratch and are now ready to give back to those who are just starting. Let's get ready to learn, grow and elevate our businesses. And now your host, chris Anderson.

Speaker 2: 0:25

Welcome back to another recording of the Elevate Media Podcast. I'm Chris Anderson, your host, and today we're going to be diving in how many of you listening can be effective leaders, because most of you listening out there are high achievers as well. And so how can we go from high achievers into effective leaders? And we brought in an expert to talk on this topic today. We'll save the bio for you to search on your own, because we want to dive right into it Mark Silverman. Welcome to the Elevate Media Podcast today.

Speaker 3: 0:52

Thank you, I feel like I'm already part of the show, since I did a little deep dive on your YouTube channel, which some of the great conversations you had.

Speaker 2: 1:00

I appreciate that. Yeah, we're excited to have you on and dive into this topic of you know how we can be more effective leaders If you're a high achiever. A lot of entrepreneurs or those building businesses are that. But you know, I'm curious and kind of just jump right into it. What got you into you know, wanting to help you know high achievers become better leaders. What led you to this path?

Speaker 3: 1:30

It was actually an evolution of my coaching practice. I originally became a coach specifically because I was watching my contemporaries, all of us who are striving to be in the 1% or in the 1% killing ourselves, destroying our marriages, destroying our health, destroying our relationships, uh and and our mental health. And for me, I crashed and burned from the pressure and I lost my marriage and I lost my health and all the pitfalls that you think you're too smart to fall into. I fell into and when I built myself back, I dedicated my life to making sure that other people didn't lose that way.

Speaker 3: 2:05

What happened was my practice was mostly CEOs of smaller companies, entrepreneurs, but the evolution started to happen where I kept getting referred into more bigger corporations, where they had folks who were rising through the ranks really quickly subject matter experts, rainmakers, just the people who were just super talented and now they're in positions of leadership and those skills that they had before are not the skills they need when they need to have success through others, when they need to lead on a team of other leaders, when they're working with the CEO and they need to be a trusted advisor.

Speaker 3: 2:43

So that bull in the China closet, that person who's used to running and gunning has to slow down and now work on relationships and more and more I just kept getting referred in to people who just needed their leadership skills elevated, and so now it's almost all of my practice. The thing that I see is there's a correlation between people who move up through organizations really fast and people who grow small businesses really fast, Because when you have a small business, when you're an entrepreneur, you're chief bottle washer, you clean up and you're the salesperson, and then, as you start to hire people, your skillset has to change. So in both places, that skillset of moving from doing to success through others is what I seem to be really good at.

Speaker 2: 3:26

That's awesome and it's such, such a true statement. Like you know, I've heard it said new levels, new devils, and it's the same thing with leadership, Like, as you're, you know, solopreneuring out there, you're the only one, it's just you know keeping yourself in line and and disciplined and taking action and then, as you're bringing people on it, changes and shifts. And you know, I've been learning that over the last couple of years with the team we've been building here at Elevate and it is. It's such an interesting growth trajectory and things you have to learn and things you didn't think about you have to learn. So I'm curious, you know, with your work, has there been any one big name that people would know that you'd be able to share about or anything like that? That was really fun, I guess a really cool person to work alongside and help.

Speaker 3: 4:14

Actually, so many of my clients are pretty powerful, pretty, pretty successful, and none of them are famous. I coach a lot in private equity and finance, uh, and they, they travel the world and jet set Uh, but they're, you know, they're behind, they're behind the scenes. Kind of kind of kind of people.

Speaker 2: 4:33

Do you, do you notice anything with those individuals who are at that level being successful, that they have certain traits, um, that most of them kind of maybe not everything obviously in common, but like maybe some bigger characteristics that they all have?

Speaker 3: 4:48

Yeah, some of the characteristics are they're self-starters, they're entrepreneurs inside of an organization. Nobody has to tell them what to go and do, ever. In fact, the problem is often, as they move up in the organization, that they now have to be a team player, when they're used to being uh, you know, kind of kind of a maverick and a star player than, rather than being a player on a team.

Speaker 3: 5:13

The other is that they, they have to learn. They, they have a. They don't. They're always surprised at how much time it takes to lead other people. They're always surprised that other people aren't as ambitious, aren't as hardworking, aren't as problem-solving focused as they are, and having them relate to other humans in that fashion is really a tough statement. You got where you are because you're something special. You're doing something that other people don't. That doesn't mean other people aren't as good as you and you have to get that chip off your shoulder. It just means they have different traits, different focuses, different talents and you have to bring them out in different ways and you have to go through that little resentment cycle. Why aren't people as good as me? Few people are as good as you, otherwise they'd be in your position.

Speaker 2: 6:05

True, and so, for context, these individuals you're working with obviously can't tell names here or businesses, but what was, what would be their range of you know revenue, or even profit, or because we're talking you know, upper escalon, top percenters, right, so that would be where, yeah, we're talking companies from 100 million to 20 20 billion yeah, okay, so some of them are billionaires and you know, and the interesting thing is like they have exactly the same problems.

Speaker 3: 6:30

They don't have to worry about child care or you know what car they're gonna buy yeah but other than that, they still have the same people troubles. They still have the same relationship troubles. They definitely have the same health troubles as everybody else.

Speaker 2: 6:45

I was going to say, because when you're talking, I'm like I know he's talking about this kind of that level, like that top 1%, or I'm like man, you know, at my level now I still am kind of seeing that a little bit as far as like bringing on people on the team and knowing who I am and no, I'm not a billion dollar billionaire or anything but it's like okay, cool, so this, it makes them seem a little more human to me, like okay, I kind of understand at a small micro level what they're dealing with on the on the leadership side of things. So, uh, it was interesting.

Speaker 3: 7:15

when you're saying, the first time I ran into that was when I became a sales manager okay and uh. So I would go, I was work, I was the top salesman in an organization and they made me sales manager and I was working one third of the time on a territory and two thirds of the time supervising the other salespeople and I was outselling all the other salespeople and I was like so frustrated, I'm like I don't understand and I would just lose my shit over it why aren't you doing what I'm doing?

Speaker 3: 7:44

I didn't know at that point that it was actually my job to motivate, to help them figure out what their talents were and how they could do that. I just thought I had to go on meetings and be the manager to close the sale. But it was a hard thing to learn that leadership is relationships.

Speaker 2: 8:07

Yeah, I was going to say that's a huge critical point where you have to realize that you're not just managing, you're leading, and that could look different. Obviously, in any level you're at we have three about to be four on the team here at Elevate and even at our level, such like micro business I'm in a small business I would say, um, it's still, for me, is is eye-opening because it's like okay, so these people are all different, uh, they're, they're wired different, they produce different, they execute different than me. So so how can I connect, how can I motivate, how can I share that same passion of where we're trying to go to get them to live in their natural reaction and action taking but still get the results I need for the business to grow? It's an interesting spot.

Speaker 3: 9:06

So you need to be a different person for each one of those people in order to reach them. So you have to. You have to widen your range of personality, traits, of ways of being, of energy when you're talking to different peoples. So, like I talk about my, my sons, uh, when my sons, when my sons were, were teenagers, uh, I went into their room. I went into my older son's room and I found this cash in his drawer and he had like $4,000 worth of cash. Nice, I'm like, dude, are you dealing drugs? What's going on? He goes dad, you know, I haven't spent any money since my fifth birthday. That's just all my birthday money and my bar mitzvah money and all that stuff. He's like I've never spent any money since my fifth birthday. That's just all my birthday money and my bar mitzvah money and all that stuff. He's like I've never spent any money.

Speaker 3: 9:51

And he's like the one who, like you, outgrew your baseball glove. I need to get you another glove. No, it's fine for another year. My other son I went into his, his drawer and it was lint and a paper, right, because he went to Chipotle every day. Uh, so, so, so I had to parent them differently, like one son I had. Like you can spend on yourself, we can. We can go and get you a new baseball glove the other one you know. A week after he got his glove he's like I want a different color glove. Right, I had a parent differently, you have to.

Speaker 2: 10:18

Yeah. So if we're, if we are the high achiever in our business and we have one, two, you know, people helping us on the team, how do we become more effective? How do we see those differences in our team members and approach it Like you're saying you know cause, you have to, you have to parent, you have to lead them different. How can we do that?

Speaker 3: 10:37

I love the way you explained it just earlier when you were talking about your own team. You actually took a. You, you thought about it. Now you have the benefit of having these conversations and learning your leadership real time with some really great people, by the way. So, taking a pause, and in the book I have people just write it down.

Speaker 3: 11:02

You write down a matrix of who each person is, what's their personality type and what do they need. Do they need training? Do they need coaching? Do you know? Do they need a mindset shift? Do they need support from like? Is something going on personally? And you know what are their talents and skills. And now you just you just put it out on a piece of paper. It takes 10 minutes. Now you can pinpoint oh, this is what they need. And then, when all else fails, you ask all right, so you're not hitting your goals. Help me understand. What do you need to do that? And then you figure out a way. A friend of mine early on once said he was talking about a really bad sales manager and he says what that guy doesn't know understand is that a sales manager is supposed to be like a Zamboni, right in front of the salespeople and just helping clear the ice for them whatever they need and let these racehorses run instead of micromanaging. So that kind of thing.

Speaker 2: 11:59

Yeah, I like that. I had something just similar to what you're kind of seeing. I had something just similar to what you're kind of seeing. I had a conversation of hey, we're not hitting the deadlines as often as we should be or as we were. What's the roadblock? Am I not clarifying something? Is the process not there? Help me understand better so we can maybe improve things. And we hashed it out, we figured it out and we changed that and fixed it, and so being able to ask a thing is huge.

Speaker 2: 12:25

Those words help me understand by the way, magic yeah, they're disarming, they're non-confrontational, they make you a team yeah, and it was, and you know I've been super blessed with the team members that I've had come in and be a part of elevate and most of them are still helping today and to see the mission, and so it's. It's also also where I've also understand like I want to take care of, because I'm brought up sports background team and I'm coaching some as well. So how can I improve each person? So if they were to stay, they're going to be the absolute best for Elevate. If they leave, at least they've left better than they came in at and I'm doing them a service by helping them.

Speaker 2: 13:05

So I always tell people on my team because we're super small again, if you see something that can benefit you, um, whether it be a conference, a book, a course that's going to help you get better, because I know this won't be your final stop, most likely, like you're going to go on to bigger, better things, and I hope so, but that can help you get to that point like let, let me know.

Speaker 2: 13:23

And if we, if within our, within our means, like let's do it, cause it helps everybody, and things like that I try to be open about and and assist where I can, because I think originally it was hard for me when I wasn't thinking that way because I was like this should be done sooner or this should be done different, because that's just what I expected myself. But having that conversation of what can improve, I like what you said, writing it down, having the matrix of the person and seeing them and actually taking time to see where there could be growth in there from your perspective or where they're really good at, and then work together to figure out how to best get them to the next level or support them to do their job the best they can sure, and then now there's always like the opposite.

Speaker 3: 14:14

So now that I have high achievers who get elevated, but they they're self-conscious about leading people they used to work with, or or they're just self-conscious about, uh, demanding things being being overbearing, uh, and and it would. The way it manifests is they don't hold people accountable yeah that's.

Speaker 3: 14:33

That's just just as hard as being, you know, a pain in the ass. Being too nice of a person um, I think kim scott calls you know ruinous empathy, and in radical candor. So so having them learn that not giving good feedback, not holding, never gave them the feedback that everybody on the leadership team hates him. Oh wow, he had no idea.

Speaker 2: 15:14

Jeez.

Speaker 3: 15:16

So having a conversation. When it finally came out, he's devastated. He didn't know and it's been three years that nobody's given him that feedback. How is he supposed to work on that?

Speaker 2: 15:26

how is he supposed to do anything to climb out of that hole and change his reputation until someone, until someone, actually gives him the benefit of the doubt and gives him the the information that he needs to to shift yeah, because in that time, like people are holding, you know, grudges or whatever because they hate him, because he's not changing, he doesn't know, because he's not being told, and it's like what I heard too recently was I'm not a nice person or I'm not trying to be a nice person. I'm trying to be a good person, because being good and doing the right thing, but holding people accountable, like you're saying some people could it could come off as not nice, saying some people could it could come off as not nice. Um, but being a good person always, you know, treating people the best way you can, but also holding them to higher standard, and uh, I think I thought that was, I thought it was interesting. Does that resonate with being a more effective?

Speaker 3: 16:16

leader. Do you think that's true? You go a hundred percent. The words I use is being kind versus nice.

Speaker 2: 16:19

Okay, yeah.

Speaker 3: 16:20

Always be kind.

Speaker 2: 16:21

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 16:21

You know you can fire someone and still be kind, so so absolutely yeah.

Speaker 2: 16:28

So what is you know? What is that? What does that do when we become more more effective leader within our, our teams? What does that kind of open up or what does that look like when you start to become more effective?

Speaker 3: 16:41

You get, you actually become more successful. Your team becomes more successful. You become a more successful part on the leadership team. One of the hardest things to do is lead on another, on a team of powerful leaders. So now you're on the leadership team and you have the head of other departments and you're all around the table in the boardroom with the CEO and it's all your job in the C-suite to support the company. One of the things is you have to shift that perspective because as you rise up through the organization, you're like it's us against them, it's us against the company. We need resources, we need this. And now you're in the boardroom. You're them. You now speak for the company when you walk out of that boardroom. If you're saying anything other than what you all agreed to talk about, you're no longer on your team. I'm not saying you don't protect the team that works for you. You don't look out for them, you're not responsible for them, you don't fight for resources, but you do that in the boardroom. You do that where it's appropriate and then, once you go back to your team, you speak with the voice of the company.

Speaker 3: 17:39

Now the other piece is how do you do that with the coopetition of being on the leadership team. Other people want their ideas heard. Other people want to shine. Other people want resources. Other people want those promotions. How do you do that without being cutthroat? One of the things I tell my people is do you want to be that person who climbs the ladder and everybody gripes and says you know he was a brown noser or he did this or whatever? Gil, like all, all, all style, no substance, that kind of thing. Or do you want people holding the ladder and going all right, I wanted that promotion but so-and-so got that promotion and I'll follow them anywhere. They've always been there to me, I'm with them. So you want to build that support as you go up the ladder.

Speaker 2: 18:20

Yeah, so building that support, how does, how does one do that, like what's the best way to effectively lead, to build that kind of support?

Speaker 3: 18:27

What I do is, again, I build these things called empathy maps in the book. I wrote a book called the Rising Leader Handbook and we build an empathy map for the CEO or your boss.

Speaker 3: 18:40

So we understand what is his or her triggers, what are their values, what do they look for, what are their blind spots, and just learn those things so that you know how to communicate and become a trusted advisor. You do the same thing for your teammates on the leadership team. You learn what all of their ambitions are, you learn about what their challenges are, you learn what all of their ambitions are, you learn about what their challenges are, you learn what their triggers are and all of a sudden you become a trusted advisor to the people on your leadership team. You're the one they all trust.

Speaker 3: 19:15

I'm working with one leader who the company is about to do a couple of mergers and acquisitions, so he wants a seat at the table. He wants, he wants an elevated position, but he's not in the boardroom. He's one level down from the C-suite, so he's not in those meetings. So he was going to go and demand what he wants for the next iteration. I'm like first of all, you're one of the most talented people in the entire organization. Everybody knows who you are. One of the most talented people in the entire organization. Everybody knows who you are. You're also super intimidating. So the question is how do you get yourself in that meeting without being in the meeting.

Speaker 1: 19:52

And.

Speaker 3: 19:53

I had him think about that for a little while and the answer was you go to each person who's in that meeting and you figure out what's important to them when these mergers and acquisitions happen. What are they looking to do? What positions are they trying to fill? What are their fears? Now you find out what they need and then you become their ally so that when they talk about you when you're not in the room, it's about you know, I want Joe in the meet, I want Joe in this position. I trust Joe. Joe's going to have my back and when they know you're going to have their back, they can trust you to bring you in. But if they think you're going to be competition, your name's not going to be mentioned in the meeting in any positive light. So your job is to make sure everybody knows that you are a team player and that if they elevate you, you're going to have their back.

Speaker 2: 20:40

That's a good point. Uh, thinking on that, like they see you as an asset to have in there, but not the competition. How do you walk that line when you're having the conversations with them, but still showing your potential and your power, but but not coming off as competition?

Speaker 3: 20:58

that's a that's a good point as best as you can, because you are competition, right again, that's why I call it coopetition. Yeah, it's like the. The truth is we're competing. The truth is we're all racehorses. The truth, right? Uh, so it's it's, we don't.

Speaker 3: 21:11

We don't want to sugarcoat any of this yeah it's still business right but we want to know, we want people to know, that just like on a, on a, you know on a soccer team like there's rules and regulations and fair playing. You know on a soccer team, like there's rules and regulations and fair play, you know good sportsmanship. So you just compete with good sportsmanship. You don't. You know you don't. You don't do dirty communications and go behind people's backs and tear them down. You know you do everything upfront so people can learn to trust you.

Speaker 2: 21:38

Okay, yeah, and that makes sense. Putting it in the sports terminology, I think, is good. Yeah, like just play fair and work your hardest and eventually that kind of it happens for you, kind of thing almost. But if we were to shrink this down on a small scale, for someone who has a few team members no C-suite levels, they're a CEO, they're it, and then they have their team doing tasks and things that they've delegated to how do they position themselves as an effective leader but still, like, we don't want to just be friends with our team members right, we have the delineation, but we still want to have that connection with them being so small of an organization. Cause you hear organizations say we're like family, things like that. You know I, I lean towards, you know we're a team um, more than the family wording. But yeah, how do we kind of walk that line, be an effective leader but still have that closeness? I guess is maybe the word I'm trying to think so.

Speaker 3: 22:48

I think I think the dynamics are very similar to the boardroom Like, so just because you don't have a.

Speaker 3: 22:51

C suite title. You know your sales manager, your your, you know operations manager, like you still have management and then the team. So there's still, there's still that dynamic. The most, the most important thing, again, is making sure that you take response. You can be a leader, no matter, you know, if you're a janitor. You can be a leader by taking responsibility for the things you see needing to be done, the things you see needing to be said. You know, and showing up in that fashion. The more you don't have to be told what to do, the more you bring suggestions and solutions into a meeting rather than complaints. Again, if you're going to bring, if you're going to bring a complaint into the meeting, have an, have an option for a solution, even if it's not the solution anybody goes for. Just know, like, like, I got a shovel, I'm ready to dig this ditch with you.

Speaker 2: 23:43

Yeah, yeah, I like that, and and yeah, I think it's good having that kind of delineation. But being able to be upfront, truthful, it's still personable, I think is important in remembering that. You know everyone's human, everyone has things going on, so having a little bit of empathy can go a long way.

Speaker 3: 24:05

In small, in small organizations, small organizations. Another pitfall, like and actually in all organizations, is friendships. We do make friendships and then one of us gets promoted yeah I advise, I advise my folks to have conversations. Sure, look, we have a personal relationship, we have a friendship. I now have a personal relationship. We have a friendship I now have a responsibility.

Speaker 3: 24:26

I now have a job. Yeah, when I have my leader hat on, I'm going to have to act like that leader and sometimes it's going to cause friction in our relationship. Yeah, can we agree to have conversations later about that and just set ground rules? And know it's going to be tricky sometimes and set ground rules on how things go? Too many times the person who gets elevated is the responsible person who's always been a leader, no matter what position, and the person who gets left behind is kind of a little less motivated.

Speaker 2: 25:00

Yeah, like the B player kind of is, and it causes friction.

Speaker 3: 25:04

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 25:04

Like the B player kind of is, and it causes friction. Yeah, cause they see themselves as maybe the A player and they don't see the, the where they're lacking, that the other person had. Cause they're. They're more kind of.

Speaker 3: 25:12

Right now their friend has to give them that feedback.

Speaker 2: 25:14

Yeah, yeah, so navigating those conversations is is definitely a can be a tricky one, um, and I think if you can build a you know transparency a little bit, because I think that's at least that's what's worked has worked well for me so far again super small business, just a handful of uh employees on team and I would say, even though we're like even managers right now we're starting to shift our structure and have managers over different things. But I digress like just having that transparency of like if I'm not like I'm ceo and founder, but like if I am not sticking to what I said I was going to do, or if you know there are places, gaps, that you see it from an external perspective, because we're, you know, so small and close like you can, you can tell me like like these are things that I I need to see. If I have a blinders on and I'm missing something, like maybe I said I'm gonna, you know, reach out to 10 corporations or something and I only hit nine and you see that like, so why don't you get 10? Like call me out on it? Like like let me know so I can be like yeah, you're right, no excuse, let me make that.

Speaker 2: 26:24

You know I try to to build that in right now, especially, um, because I want people and again, again, another reason I try to emphasize, like I want to help you get better, because I know this might not be your final destination, like because I want them to be here knowing they're going to be taken care of, knowing that they have the ability to be honest and open and that we're trying to help make them better for for this job or for the next. So I think it's just, it's been a lot to navigate, but it's been, it's been good so far you.

Speaker 3: 26:55

You just modeled such mature leadership. In order to be able to give good feedback, in order to give good you know effect, you know effective and and and useful criticism, you need to be able to take it. So when you say you have an open door policy, when you say, if you see something, say something to me and I can, you absolutely have to follow through with hearing the person, uh, considering it, communicating back whether or not you're going to make the change, or if they see things you know, cause they don't always have the whole picture. But make sure that you can take feedback. That's the surest way to to create a culture of candid feedback. Is the leadership being able to take that feedback.

Speaker 2: 27:38

Yeah, and something I've learned early on um, I'm 33 as this recording is going. Um, I've been blessed and have an opportunity to be on a couple different boards already in my life. I'm vice president of a not-for-profit here in our town for a ministry for marriages, things like that, boards, a church and things like that. I've learned to say when I've messed up or where I was wrong. That's been something that wasn't easy to do to start, but being able to implement like I was wrong, or I I messed up there, um, I hope you can forgive me, here's how I'm going to rectify it. Or you know, I missed the mark on that point Like, has really served me well. Um, being able to learn that fact and or that kind of saying because, and and remembering that when talking to other people like that we're all, we all fall short, we're all imperfect and we aren't going to show up a hundred percent gung ho every day, um, those things have really helped, I think, be able to build those little bit stronger, transparent relationships.

Speaker 3: 28:47

Sure. And then modeling, taking that feedback, that mess up and changing something in the future Like oh, I learned from that. Again, you set the culture.

Speaker 2: 28:59

Yeah, the implementation after learning for sure is important, because we can keep messing up, saying I'm sorry I did that, I'm sorry I did that or I messed that up, but we don't ever try to change something or take the steps to change it. Yeah, for sure, eventually someone will be like, okay, yeah, it's the same thing again. Broken record right. So you know, with leadership being effective, I want to hit on this real quick towards the end of this episode, which has been great, by the way. Thank you so much for being on and sharing all this AI, of course, I wanted to touch on a little bit on AI and leadership. How are we going to see effective leadership changing because of AI nowadays?

Speaker 3: 29:39

I think it changes in every single organization, every organization. I'm working on trying to figure out what applications are important that are going to be outsourced to AI. So I think, as we figure out where it's going in each organization, that's a case by case basis because it's different with every industry how it's going to work. That's a case-by-case basis because it's different with every industry how that's going to work. The remote thing was a little more prescient, a little more immediate. How do you lead remotely? How do you keep a team together? And we're finding that it's really hard to do that. I think people are really productive at home and working remotely, but you're missing the camaraderie, you're missing the apprenticeship, you're missing the you know, water cooler conversations, where where you know you dive into a conference room and you whiteboard something and you get something done because every meeting is now deliberate. So that's been, that's been a problem with AI. Uh, you know the answer for ai for almost everybody. Uh, if they're honest, is don't know, we'll see.

Speaker 3: 30:48

Uh, you know, I just I just watched a video from one of the founders saying it's already conscious, it's already lying to its creators to get uh things done. So we don't know, yeah, we don't know how it's going to affect.

Speaker 2: 31:03

It's interesting and you brought up a good point there that made me think. You know how hybrid. You know our team's hybrid. You know some are certain person, some are can be in person, some are not able to be in person. How do you navigate that as an effective leader? I do want to touch on that the hybrid model of work. How can we be more effective as leaders with a hybrid workforce?

Speaker 3: 31:24

Really good systems. Okay. So systems in place, whether they're systems of of how you give feedback systems, how you touch base systems, how you you give updates, systems on how and when you actually physically get together and see each other so it's gotta be consistency and and an understanding of and it's often the remote thing is, you know, there are people who, because of COVID and because of the necessity, there's people who absolutely have to be home, they are taking care of people at home or their childcare or something like that, and they're still productive. Where there's someone else who doesn't have to be at home and you're demanding they're in the office, it's really candid conversations.

Speaker 3: 32:10

Yeah, the culture here, with the new administration and the new kind of vibe in the world, is we're going back to work and we're going back to the office, which again, like, is it a good thing? Is a bad thing. I think people are super productive being remote, but we're watching. We're watching cities and towns dry up because commercial real estate isn't filled with people going out to lunch and buying things, right, and so taxes, where are the taxes going to come from If people aren't out in the in the community, buying things, if they're home all the time. So the answer is I don't know as far as what's best, but having case-by-case conversations and systems is the way to manage it.

Speaker 2: 32:50

Yeah, I really am a proponent for the hybrid. I love the ability for people to be flexible, work from home, because I have two young kids so I understand Especially if you're having kids and you can still do a job. I think having the flexibility is great Because you know, life is important. Family is like top for me. I tell my team I'm like if you have someone with family, do it Like, go support, go be there. All I ask is you know, get what needs to be done, done and other than that, do what you need to do. Um, but I like the community, I like having the people together and being able to share and and do that in person, because it's different and just building that. I guess because the sports background of just being together as a team. We can do so much more that way. So I really like the hybrid, even though it does make it a little bit more difficult in navigating those logistics. But yeah, it'll be be interesting to see how things change and shift going forward with everything.

Speaker 3: 33:50

So I'm a big fan of, you know, putting a norm, a system, something that everybody understands, and then sticking to it. Yeah, nothing, nothing that drives me crazier, more than when my folks set, you know, their their weekly or monthly meeting with someone and then they cancel it because they got busy. The message that sends is just demoralizing, just little by little over time, that you just don't matter.

Speaker 2: 34:15

Yeah, and yeah, that's true, and I always feel bad if I had to reschedule a podcast episode and I'm like, oh my gosh, no, like, sometimes, like technology, it's just not going to be good for anyone. Or like like, even if a kid gets sick, I'm still like, ah, because I know people's already blocked it out, and so trying to stay stay on that schedule is is important to me, but sometimes life just unfortunately takes you another direction on this. But always try to reschedule. But yeah, I think it's definitely interesting and you know, mark, this has been great. You know, we went a little bit longer based on those questions. I think it was good. I think people got to think about the future, too, with AI and hybrid not hybrid all that fun stuff we're going to have to deal with.

Speaker 3: 34:57

But the only constant is going to be change.

Speaker 2: 34:59

Yeah, yeah, just change. Yeah, yeah, just have to continue to adapt, innovate and keep moving forward. So, um been fantastic man. It's been, it's been awesome. Where can people connect with you? I know you mentioned your book. Where can I get the book? Or or just continue to learn from you, um, going forward.

Speaker 3: 35:13

So my my website is mark the letter J silvermancom. Mark J silvermancom. Everything is there. You can get a free copy of my first book. Only Tens Confront your To-Do List. Transform your Life. It's how I was an entrepreneur with ADD and how I got things done. This is a really successful book, and my newest book, the Rising Leader Handbook, is on Amazon. It's been on the charts for a year. I'm so excited, I feel like I'm getting.

Speaker 3: 35:37

Christmas, so you can get that wherever and yeah, that's where you can find me and I'm all over the socials.

Speaker 2: 35:45

Perfect. Well, yeah, everyone, make sure you check that out, you know, get a copy of the book if it resonated with you. Follow him, learn from him Just a lot of valuable information he's putting out there. And, yeah, make sure, make sure to get connected for sure. So again, mark, thank you so much for being on the Elevate Media podcast today.

Speaker 3: 36:02

It was a sheer pleasure.

Speaker 2: 36:04

Awesome. And, yeah, if you're listening to this, make sure you go, like, follow the show. If you're not already, leave us a review. We'd love the feedback. We can take it so we can improve, just like we talked about today. Leave us that review and then share this with someone. If you know someone who is in a leadership position, or should be, because they're a natural leader, send them this episode, share it with them, help them to improve, because we can do so much more together by sharing this out and again, we appreciate everyone tuning in and listening, but until next time, continue to go out there, elevate your life, elevate your brand, and we'll talk to you again soon.

Speaker 1: 36:38

Thank you for listening to the Elevate Media Podcast. Don't forget to subscribe and leave a review. See you in the next episode.