148: The Future of Leadership - 3 Steps That Will Define Success in 2025 | John Gallagher

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i believe that my purpose ultimately is to become the leaderthat I was called to be discipline back to that word again

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here we go again you know it's doing what you need to dowhen you need to do it even when you don't feel like doing

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it what are you working on these days for me specificallymost leaders follow the

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rules hitting their targets meeting expectations andsettling into a rhythm but uncommon leaders refuse to stay

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comfortable leadership has very little to do with title orauthority instead it's about creating influence discipline

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and the willingness to step out of your comfort zone welcometo the Learn It All Podcast the show for today's leaders who

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want to get ahead and stay ahead because we believe greatleaders aren't born or made we're always in the making i'm your

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host Damon Ley two-time bestselling author and CEO of LearnIt a live learning platform that has helped

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upskill over 2 million people over the past three decades intoday's episode

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we're joined by John Gallagher an executive coachperformance consultant and trusted adviser to some of the most

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prestigious companies across the planet i'm going to beasking John to share with us why true leadership isn't about

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titles but about impact his three-step framework to inspirelasting change the one rule to maximize focus and

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productivity and the practical strategies to eliminatedistractions and reclaim your time most people you know

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they forget who won the Super Bowl MVP last year but theynever forget the five

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people who had the biggest impact on your life you know andyou call this the greatest story ever told why does that

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matter and how do we go about a way in life that helps usput our name on somebody else's list damon I love

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jumping right into this you know the greatest story evertold to me uh from a leader's perspective uh is really not

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about the success when it comes to uh results in the area ofsales or profit or margin while those things are

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important the greatest story ever told for me really becomesimpact you know the famous quote is people won't

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remember what you said they won't remember what you did butthey'll remember how you how you made them feel

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and in the case of the greatest story ever told there'sgoing to be times where individuals in your life are going to be asked aquestion by someone else

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that who's had a positive impact on your life and whensomeone writes your name

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on their list even though you may never know that to methat's the greatest story ever told as a leader and for that

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to happen you know the the key word that I think about whatleaders have to do is intentionality they've got to be very

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intentional at how they develop themselves as leaders tobecome the impactful leader that they want to be

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but also in developing others just recently I you know Ireally started to uh write a little bit about how to equip

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others and it's got to be that you've got to have a heart ofhumility to give and serve more than you do receive but

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again when I think about that challenge of having somebodywrite my name on their list uh it's very important and I

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can't make that happen if I'm not creating relationships ifI'm not investing in others to make that happen

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and what I often finish that with when I present or when Italk with others is who's going to write your name on their

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list and ultimately that's the that's the journey that we goon on lead as leaders is to have a positive impact on

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the lives of others so you and I first met I was on yourshow The Uncommon Leader my episode just came out recently

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so thank you John for having me i loved our conversation andfor our listeners go check out John's show and so when it

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comes to uncommon leadership you talk about it's not reallyabout a title it's

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about the impact like you just mentioned people have so howdoes that connect to your idea of uncommon leadership well

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let's look at it this way in terms of you know just juststories i mean I think some of the challenges that that

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leaders are facing today are the distractions that we havesome of the challenges that leaders face today are

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complacency in themselves frankly you know the pain ofchange uh is not greater than the the uh the pain that

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they're existing right now in the seat that they're in andonce once the people realize that complacency is holding them

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back from making the impact that they want to have that'swhen the uncommon starts to come into play it's very

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common for folks to feel successful in terms of results it'svery uncommon when they say "I have a healthy discontent

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for the status quo a healthy discontent for where I am rightnow." And I know that I've been called for more and so I

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I do realize that folks should celebrate when they havesuccesses and and recognize that but I believe they need

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to realize more that they have to continuously grow a littlebit about you know your organization to uh the learn

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it all podcast as we sit on here today that you know once wethink we know it all we really just begun and we got to

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get started again so if folks can realize that regardless oftheir age regardless of where they are on their

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leadership journey that they can continuously grow and havemore impact on others that's when we start to see

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uncommon results people will take that extra step that theyneed to they'll uh take that i often refer to it as taking

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the shock shopping cart back and putting it in the corralwhen somebody else leaves it there it'd be very easy just

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to leave it there and let somebody else deal with it lateron but are you taking that extra step uh to put it back in

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there to make a difference in somebody else's life who maybe coming down the road uh soon so what is the negative

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consequence John for individuals and leaders who think theyhave it all figured out and aren't open to growing

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and changing wow i mean when I think about this John Maxwellrefers to it often as the law of the lid a negative

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consequence specifically in the leadership space where theybelieve they have it all figured out is that those

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that they develop as leaders they can only rise as high asyou can rise in

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terms of leadership and when your team members have a senseof personal growth and always wanting to grow there's

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really two things that'll happen you'll turn them intocomplacency and they'll start to to get lazy or they'll continue

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to grow and they'll leave your organization and go do itsomewhere else it's a conundrum that we face how much

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do we train our team members uh with the risk that theymight leave the organization and what I often tell other

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leaders is well the other risk is not to train them andthey'll stay with you uh and stay where they are and so you know

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as a leader when you put an artificial lid on top of theleadership of your

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team then the structures and processes that you put in placeare going to be limited as well and ultimately the

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impact that you have whether that's profitability theresults uh they're not going to be sustainable they're going to

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eb and flow uh with the way you feel rather than the growththat you can uh

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have on a daily basis yeah and speaking of rise I reallylike what you talk about you know raising the average so

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what does that mean to you and why again is that soimportant yeah let's use a specific story here I'll never forget

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this is a story years ago i was listening to somebody talkabout and they ultimately said raise the average

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inside the room so Jim Ran would say you're the you are theaverage of the five people uh that you hang around with

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the most so raising the average has to do with the peoplethat you surround yourself with whether those are the

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individuals that you meet with on a regular basis or franklythose individuals that you read uh about as

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authors those individuals that you listen to on podcast justlike this one that if you're going to make a decision

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to grow then ultimately when you walk in a room like thatwith individuals you want to hope that you raise the average

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inside of that room and that folks look to you to make adifference if you're coming into a room and you're the

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smartest person in the room you're probably in the wrongroom no doubt about it but if you can walk into a room

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of leaders uh who may be a little bit higher than you andyou strive to be more like them you will raise the

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average uh in leadership and what that does not just in thatroom but that

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raises the impact that you have in your in your workplace inyour communities in your churches in your homes and

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ultimately uh leads us to a place where we need to be withregards to encouraging inspiring and equipping

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others to the greatness that they were called to be so ifI'm someone who let's say I am the smartest person in the room

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right and you you realize that how do you go about findingother mentors or

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coaches or whatever to help elevate your game and a lot oftimes John that means

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getting out of your comfort zone because it's easy to be thesmartest person in the room because you're not going to be

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challenged a lot but you need to get out of your comfortzone and find these other people how do you go about doing

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that david what a great question when I think about theteaching that I have and the the first step in the journey for me

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in terms of personal transformation uh and thattransformation to me is really that continuous growth journey that an

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individual goes on we have to choose again I talked aboutthis in terms of the pain of change but you know not to

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accept the displeasure if you will of remaining in the sameplace that we are

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okay and just being okay at what we do but accepting thediscomfort your your

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your point about getting outside your comfort zone of thechange itself for me to go into an area where uh I'm going to

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look for smarter people to be around it does require me todo something that I've never done before it does require

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me to seek out opportunities that I may not have tried yearsago you know I

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think back on a story uh and that you're talking about witha regret the pain of regret and the pain of discipline uh but

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ultimately uh a story when I was going through a leadershipuh let's call it uh

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um you know you do your uh your walk uh that you're workingwith others that are

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inspiring you and I had a chance to climb a rock wall and Iknew I was nervous uh I had doubt that was creeping

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into my mind and there was a line of about 12 people that Iwas dealing with and I said to myself you know if I delay

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long enough if I walk myself back in the line maybe they'llrun out of time before it gets to me and I won't have to

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try and do that outside of my comfort zone and sure enough Igot exactly what I wanted at that point in time the line

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uh got too long we didn't get enough and I didn't have tohave the opportunity to climb the wall and face that fear that I

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have so as leaders when we talk about stepping outside ofour comfort zone it's being okay with fear and overcoming

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that and taking action it's not the absence of fear insideof that space but it's actually recognizing that fear and

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then overcoming it so for me this year uh I've had a newjourney of something

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that's taken me right outside my comfort zone i signed upfor my first Spartan race and at my age I'm not exactly sure

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as I've started watching the videos if I've encounteredmaybe the panic zone a little bit but it is going to require me

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to get outside my comfort zone in some of my training andbecome stronger in areas that I'm just not reg ready for

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that but I'm going to put myself with other leaders uh thatare going to be ahead of me in the physical fitness

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journey and it's going to require me to get better what agreat thing for you to uh inspire to do so that that's awesome

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what can someone do to ensure that they are constantlyraising the average of

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the people around them as a leader well the actions theyneed to take absolutely once you've made the decision then it's

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a matter of moving in the journey so it's setting goals okayand it's setting stretch goals that exist and we can talk

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about goals i think that's really a basic thing but onceyou've set that goals it's actually then seeking out

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those individuals that can hold you accountable to achievethose things i think that's one of the most powerful

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things that exists the mentor relationship or theaccountability relationship for me we actually I

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actually have a group called Raise the Average a group offive men that we get together on a regular basis and we

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challenge ourselves in many different areas in our fitnessin our business and what we do as leaders in our faith and

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what we're doing as well in our relationship with ourspouses and that's how you raise the average is when you

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allow yourself the opportunity to be around individuals whoare going to challenge you but also they're going to

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introduce you to people you may have never been uhintroduced to before again if I go back 30 years on my journey one

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of the biggest problems that I ran into is I set a goal tomake a certain amount of money that I thought in my career

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would get me to where I wanted to be and I got there by age26 i'm like "Okay what do I do now?" And it wasn't until I

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was 28 years old when I had a a mentor give me a leadershipbook and talk about this personal development journey i'm

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like leadership development i didn't know how to spell spellleadership at that point in time but I recognized that

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that individual uh later on I recognized that he wasinvesting in me by investing

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time to go through a book and it was positioning me forsuccess inside of the future and as I look at where I am

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coaching today one of the statements that I think about isthat you are most powerfully positioned to help the person

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that you used to be and so one of the things that I can doto help raise the average is look back on some of those

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leaders and the challenges of complacency that they facedwhen they thought they were going to arrive someday and just stop andultimately

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challenge them that anytime they've got breath left in theirlungs they've got an opportunity to make an impact and

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grow so I think this whole theme of raising the average issomething that as

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leaders we've got to continuously challenge ourselves to goto the next level and that flag out there in terms

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of you know what the end is uh for me specifically it it hasa lot to do with my faith that I will hear eventually at

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some point in time well done good and faithful servant butultimately it's when we sit on our deathbed at some

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point in time say we've used it all up we haven't leftanything in the tank necessarily that we could have given to

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make that happen so don't leave it on the table use it upcontinue to grow and

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get better share with us something you know from behind thecurtains when you start to work with a new client who says

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that they want to change typically are they able to makethat change or is it

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more something they want to do but they have a hard timegetting across the goal line on with it yeah it's so funny i

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think first of all by the time I get introduced to themthat's a good thing that at least they've made the first step in saying I'minterested in making

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a change when I talk to them if they're really ready to makea change though uh I use something fun as a conversation

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with them i said look making this change is really a lotlike ham and eggs okay the chicken was interested in making the

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change when it comes to ham and eggs but the pig wascommitted to making the change there's no doubt about it and

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contributing to the to the win and so I'm asking theseleaders to be pigs and not chickens and they they get a chuckle

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out of that just like that but it really is and when youstep on this journey and allow me the opportunity as your coach

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or as your consultant to kind of poke you in the chest andsay you're capable of doing more and so I try to get that

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out on the on the front end that this is not a situationthat I'm here to uh

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comfort the afflicted as I had a teacher tell me one time hesaid I'm here to afflict the comforted and ultimately if

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they can have that mindset to allow me to afflict them withsome quote pain

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whatever that is and some of that pain uh sits in askingthem to reflect on how they've done as a leader and some of

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that pain might be on their fitness journey and learning toexercise more whatever that is making tough calls

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inside of an organization i really ask them to think aboutwhat those things might be uh that are going to require

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them to take that next level and have them make that choicenow they still may say that early on and I may get started

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with them on the journey and it may take longer to get therebut if I can be persistent and can continue to chop an

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axe down at the base of that tree you eventually I'll breakthat down and build them back up again and they'll

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start to win a specific example uh with a leader and I'llsay this it took it

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took them almost seven years on this journey uh anindividual in the health

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care space that I coached and coached and coached and keptkept chopping at that tree and I'm not saying that it

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should take anybody this long but I remember the phone callwhen she told me you know John you've been trying to tell

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me this that I need to change for seven years and I think Ifinally understand

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it came from a great book that I read the monk who sold hisFerrari that says when the student is ready the teacher

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will arrive and I think we run into that and sometimes ithappens for folks 30 days in the journey sometimes three

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months in the journey sometimes three years into the journeyi love the fact that they stuck with it for seven years

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that shows a little grit and determination right there yeaha great intermination on my part as

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well to uh I'd say so use the term tolerate but continue topush them through uh some of the changes they need

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to make and have it stick eventually and it finally getthere but you you must have seen something in them to to want

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to stick with them maybe there was incremental change or atleast they are putting forth the effort to do so i

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think there was a change and from a tactical standpoint Ioften refer to it as the difference in doing change and

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being change and there were steps that they were doing thechange they would do the homework assignments to get it done

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this is what I was working with an organization so it wasn'tjust an individual but I continued to work with

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this individual inside of an organization i was bothconsulting and coaching if id have been doing a

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one-on-one I don't know if I'd have hung out for seven yearsuh ultimately but it

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was some you know it took a breakthrough for them to see uhwhat was possible if

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they let go of some of their own uh you know internalchallenges they had uh or

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struggles that they had with making change again one of theone of the fun exercises to do and at those watching on video I just ask folksto fold their

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arms and recognize which arm is on top and then I ask themto refold their arms with the other arm on top and see how

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uncomfortable that is to make that happen and something assimple as that change and how uncomfortable it is you

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can imagine how simple it is trying to you know take someonefrom being a a manager uh to a coach uh in their

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leadership style it just takes it takes some time to getcomfortable there can you dive a little bit more into what is it what do youmean by being the change

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verse doing yeah i had an executive one time it was funnyyou talked about he said you know you can teach techniques i

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mean I've got a I've got a play card that I use forindividuals and you know they the plays that they have nick Sabin

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would say you practice it uh until you can't get it wrongoften people say practice until you get it right he would

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say practice until you until you can't get it wrong to methat's the difference practicing until you get it right is the

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doing side hey I finally recognized that this one practicingit until you can't

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get it wrong i had one CEO who said it becomes a reflex youjust bend your arm you don't think about bending your arm

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okay you just bend it properly you pick up your coffee cupand bring it up and you take a drink whatever that is but

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you don't have to think about it in the case of leadershipit's much like that at times many times they have to think

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in their head what do I need to do at this point in time butthe being side becomes that reflex just like bending

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your elbow and you don't even recognize it in the teachingspace they talk about going from unconscious incompetence all

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the way around to uh unconsciously competent and goingthrough those four phases and helping them to recognize how

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they get through each of the four phases from not knowingwhat they don't know to

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knowing what they know and being really good at it walk usthrough your three-step framework to to inspire

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change i love this and it was something I actually just umwrote about this morning again I talked about the

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decision that has to go forward and I love having littleframeworks i know you use frameworks as well you use uncommon

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leader podcast with one of the steps to overcome the uhimposttor syndrome which is really good but folks have so much

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challenge defining why they need to change and anytime wecan put a framework in place to help them uh

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simplify that I think it can be really good and for me thatframework really lies in these three steps so what now

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what and so that the so what is the step of recognize sowhat is the opportunity

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that I have before me or what is the challenge what is theproblem that I have before me and recognizing the now

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what is okay I need to change I need to improve I need totransform I need to

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become more disciplined it's the action they need to taketoo often folks stop

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right there though after those first two steps of thejourney I recognize I have an opportunity I need to change that's

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the definition of a New Year's resolution i know that I needto lose 20 pounds so I need to exercise more but we

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run away from that when the motivation of those two stepswears off it's that

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third step that so that okay is the why that they understandwhen I do these two

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things I will become the leader that I was called to be if Ido that on a fitness journey I will live a longer

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life and be able to play basketball with my grandchildren ifI live that so that

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as a leader I will have the impact on the individuals sothat the the long-term success of the organization is

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sustainable and when I'm not here it will continue to win sounderstanding that so that is so very important i read

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uh a verse in scripture today out of Exodus that thatfollowed this framework and I think the Bible and especially

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Paul inside the Bible has a great way of utilizing thisframework you know but it was in Exodus 2 24-25 that you know God

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said he hears his people that was the opportunity they werecrying out to him okay so he made a change he delivered

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them from Egypt he brought them out of Egypt uh into Israelin the promised land it wasn't perfect but the So that

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was really important to them it was freedom from theoppression that they had it was freedom freedom from slavery

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i hope that we don't have to write that type of uh frameworkfor ourselves in terms of the change that's required but

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it really does talk about the impact that is possible insideof that framework so so what now what so that

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three-step framework to helping you define why you need tochange and what's going to keep you going when the alarm

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goes off in the morning you want to hit that snooze buttonagain nope it's going to be turn that alarm off get your feet

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on the floor and get started because the so that is soimportant most leaders or I'd say just most people overall they

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don't struggle with knowing what to do they really strugglewith doing it consistently right so what really

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separates those who can sustain it and those who can sustainexcellence for a

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long period of time is it just is knowing the so that Ithink the so that is there that's what gets them out

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that's really that first step in the journey and then you'vegot to start walking through each time i I I refer to it in seven steps and Ithink the

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seventh step is the most important one second step is toreally develop a scorecard so you know what's my target

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and where am I today so can I keep score in terms of what'shappening that gives me the gap which is the third step then

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I design solutions which is step four and then ultimately Iimplement that solution with disciplines daily weekly

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and monthly disciplines to help me stay in place step fivestep six is reflect

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how am I going what's going well what isn't going well and Irace through those six steps and I'm love to chap

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dive into any one of those that you want to but to me it'sthat seventh step on the journey is do it again once you

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think you're done you've just begun and when you get to thepoint where you achieve those targets okay what's the

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next level of the so that that you can put in place andrecognize that you're not done okay so I think that's the most

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important step is that always having something to look outfor that true north that that is often defined in in

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terms of metric setting uh but again that uh to me thatvision statement that

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you have you can see it on top of the hill and you roll theball up the hill uh you can put the wedge in place on

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some of the new disciplines but it's recognizing that once Ihit that goal I'm not done for me it was losing 80

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pounds over the course of three years which was a big goalso the next step for me uh just this past year was how

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can I improve my uh health by improving my sleep and so it'ssomething I that

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something else I had to shoot for to make a difference thereyeah in in my research on you I was uh I love that

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sevenstep framework and um I also heard you say thatdiscipline was one of the

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most important steps so could we talk a little bit moreabout that sure absolutely step six discipline you know

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I would say I got it on a on a coffee cup we'd love to havethese things that are our our hats and our cups but I talk

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about we we often have good intentions and that's so thatstatement can identify what the good intentions are

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but good intentions without discipline leads to excuses okaygood discipline

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with good intention leads to excellence and that's whatwe're shooting for and that discipline and understanding what

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you must do on a daily weekly monthly quarterly annual basisto achieve that

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so that is so important the discipline and consistency rightis what's there

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for you when the motivation wears off when you start to feeluh like oh this

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is just too hard but it's the discipline and consistent youhave in place i'm so used to doing it back again it's become

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a reflex if I read every morning 10 pages as a disciplineand I miss that

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and I don't stack that habit I start the day off incorrectlyso it's recognizing what are those some of those

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foundational disciplines that get you started for the daythat make it a better day for you so I you know there's

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no easy answer for what that discipline means but having acoach you do this through Learn It All having a coach to

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help hold you accountable to help track those disciplinesfor you is very important trying to do it on your own

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but it doesn't happen uh on your own it's very difficult todo it i'm not saying that everybody has to pay for a

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coach but having someone that you can share that vision withand help hold you accountable to make that happen is very

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important absolutely you said that um one thing you'reworking on is sleep

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have you had any success or any tips you could share with uhwith us to improve

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sleep sure well specifically with sleep uh there are acouple things so I again much like I said reach out to someone so

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I read a book called The Power of Ownership so if you'rehaving trouble it's not a book on sleep it's a book on

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health overall health uh but it has a section that's focusedreally on on how sleep can help you to feel better for me

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I went back to that so that I was sick and tired of beingtired when I woke up in the mornings like I felt good when I

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exercised i lost weight but I still fel felt tired all thetime and so I went through that journey of of uh buying a a

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Whoop watch or a Fitbit to track my sleep and understandwhere I was create that dashboard but what I ultimately end

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up doing is some of the disciplines and there's there's afew disciplines that have become very important for me very

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simple one i was shocked i didn't think mouth tape uh hasbeen a lifesaver for

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me uh and you know I'm not trying to sell any mouth tape iwas nervous about it but I'm a snore i'm an open mouth

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sleeper and I'd wake myself up at night snoring so much andpeople say "You got to try mouth tape." So I tried the

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little slip over my lips one time which was really good i'mlike "Okay that was a start." But to go full mouth tape I

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got to admit I was nervous again back outside my comfortzone i was nervous how that was going to do for the last

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three months I've had that and I've had dramatic increasesin sleep so that's one that's one habit or discipline

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that's there but the things that have been uh reallyimpactful for me is this 321 methodology there you go another

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framework 3 hours before I go to sleep at night I try tohave my last meal so no more food uh 3 hours before I go to

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bed two hours before I go to sleep I try not to do any morework or make any big

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decisions you know challenging my my mind ultimately andtrying to get my mind to slow down just a little bit and

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then one hour before I go to sleep separating myself fromany screens that's probably the biggest challenge

28:03

for me because I love to sit around and and watch TV or youknow see what's going on on the sports world to make

28:09

that happen but if I can settle down you know at least thelast 30 minutes read a a book uh on a subject that I'm

28:16

interested in not a work subject but it might be on my faithor might be in prayer whatever that is uh to calm my

28:23

mind that that framework has been really important for meand then the last one is another discipline that I wouldn't

28:29

have thought ever for me as well is just a a cup of hotdecaffeinated tea about an hour before I go to sleep as well as

28:36

an impact i think those things uh have resulted in my sweepsleep quality improving in the neighborhood of 30 to

28:42

40% at least in terms of the score but ultimately waking upduring the day not feeling I need a nap uh during the day

28:50

and feeling refreshed when I wake up so I think that is soimportant i don't think some of us realize how critical

28:57

sleep is to success uh both personally and professionallyand with your health

29:03

i mean if you don't get enough sleep you could itcontributes to heart disease whatever you know so thank you for

29:09

sharing that back to this the whole framework is I wouldhave this thought

29:15

uh limiting belief in my mind that it's just what I had tolive with you know that was my genetics and that I was

29:22

going to be a poor sleeper and a snorer and I didn't youknow really research and study and understand uh where the

29:29

gaps were uh that were going to help me to improve so yourwife probably loves that i mean she was patient enough for

29:35

for the snoring right for 25 years absolutely good for herright

29:41

say you're working with a customer who has a hard timeprioritizing their

29:46

schedule you know they're they're always chasing the shinyobject instead of focusing on what they need to get done

29:52

what is some practical advice or what's like one of thefirst steps you take with them to get them really more laser

29:58

focused and disciplined on what they do sure absolutely imean once we go through the goal setting process and understand what theybelieve is

30:04

important to them you one of the first things I have them dois to review their calendar ultimately to write down those

30:10

things that they always do daily weekly and monthly look atthe past 30 days and really take a look and crossch checkck

30:17

those activities with those goals and try to determine whatpercentage of

30:22

those activities are truly impacting those goals in apositive way and I don't have any science behind it because

30:28

I you know I don't have the uh the data analytics that goesalong with it but I I would uh anecdotally say that they

30:35

would often find that 40 to 50% of their activities were notdirectly linked to their goals not to mention some of the

30:42

things that get in their way like not having focus time forworking on a project or focus time for working on

30:50

their vision of the business and trying to sneak that inamongst all of the visits so they didn't have time

30:56

scheduled in their calendar just to work on those thingsthat were important to them it was about what was important to

31:02

everybody else and here's what I know if you don't scheduleyour time somebody else will there's no doubt about it and

31:08

if you you've got to be intentional of making thoseappointments with yourself to make those happen and then the the

31:15

the last thing is really to talk to them about thedistractions that exist in their space and those distractions can

31:20

be as simple as these little devices that were supposed tomake us more productive this phone that I held up to

31:27

the camera uh the computer in our pocket so to speak andwhile they have made us productive in many ways they've

31:32

distracted us more than ever the text messages that popthrough the phone calls that pop up the social media uh

31:40

notifications that come through and let them know thatsomebody's just made a comment on their favorite sports team

31:45

and they have to check it out and it's in our email with theway in which we understand that I have to check that

31:51

email look if we don't find an opportunity to turn off thosedistractions including what might be the

31:58

most uh distracting uh that people are challenged with isthe knock on their

32:03

door if they work in an office environment say and somebodyasks you got a minute and their inability to say

32:09

no uh for the sake of relationship or being kind becausethat minute's never a

32:15

minute turns into 5 minutes 10 minutes 20 minutes and yourealize that you've just lost 50% of your hour um by talking

32:22

about what you did over the weekend scheduling thoseinteractions is so important as well but eliminating

32:29

distraction uh is so important diluted focus will lead todiluted results

32:35

there's no two ways about it and you've got to find a way uhto eliminate those distractions so first and foremost make

32:41

sure the activities that you have on your calendar areimpacting your goals second thing is once you have those

32:47

important things on your calendar when you need to work onthem eliminate the distractions multitasking is a myth it

32:53

doesn't exist the other part that I really really like andbuy into 100% is

32:58

time blocking you know and also I've seen this so many timesJohn over the

33:03

years with sales reps who are struggling maybe their uhpipeline is low and

33:10

they'll say "Well I don't know what it is i'm spendingall my time on business uh on sales related activities." And I'll say"Okay show us your calendar

33:16

show me your calendar." And then if you you add upthey're only spending 40 or 50% of their time on actual sales

33:23

related activities if that there everything else is eitherblank or spent on something that uh admin work you know

33:31

so just having the selfawareness and reflection to be ableto look on that is so important the other thing you said

33:37

which I think is is great is be intentional about schedulingtime for yourself but I want to take it one step

33:44

further not just schedule it but hold yourself accountableto it you know a

33:49

lot of time like if you're in a customer meeting and uhInstagram notice pops up

33:55

or somebody calls you you're not going to answer your phoneduring a customer meeting you need to keep that block of

34:01

time uh precious just like you would if you were in acustomer meeting right so

34:07

not just schedule that time but um you know keep itintentional and and execute

34:13

on it damon I call it the 47 most powerful minutes in aleader day and it's that time blocking uh terrible

34:18

there's nothing scientific about 47 other than here's what Iknow i did a 47-day transformation physical activity

34:25

uh and we underestimate what we can do in 47 days there's nodoubt about it we also underestimate what we can do in 47

34:33

minutes if we're focused so blocking off one hour of yourtime but setting a timer inside of that 1 hour for 47

34:41

minutes and just focus on activities turn your email offturn your phone on do not disturb close your door and put a

34:48

red dot on there and say "Do not knock on the doorunless the building is burning down so you can help me get out

34:53

and if you need to schedule time with me later I'll be doneleave me a note." Whatever that is but then focusing for

35:00

47 minutes until that timer goes off and the other side ofthat is once that timer goes off after 47 minutes stop

35:06

working take your break take that last 13 minutes of thathour to go ahead and check your emails or check those text

35:12

messages that came in or heaven forbid before the nextmeeting you actually go and take a bio break before you go into

35:19

the next meeting and allow yourself to be prepared for thatmentally as well look if as leaders especially if we are

35:26

not delegating if we are not developing our people if we arenot deferring activities where we can get 47 minutes

35:34

in a day that's not distracted and we feel we're soimportant that we need to be interrupted at any point in time then

35:40

we're not doing our job as leaders nobody is that importanti and you'll

35:45

find that in that 47 minutes if you can really do that iknow I find this if I own it if I focus for that 47 minutes I

35:53

get in such a zone that I want to keep going and theactivity really is to stop at that 47 minutes uh so that you know

36:01

how productive you can be in that time i think if folkscould just do that discipline at least once a week i

36:08

ideally I believe they do it once or twice a day but once aweek finding the opportunity to block 40 to block one

36:14

hour out just to focus on you and the task that you have toget done uh can be extremely powerful i want to switch

36:21

gears a little bit one of the analogies that I love that youtalk about I I want you to share is know your chickens

36:29

i'd love to I'd love to say we already talked about pigs andand chickens pigs and chickens already so and know your

36:35

chickens i mean yeah you'll notice that I have a lot of ismsmy clients would say many isms uh that they'll mention

36:41

one of them is know your chickens i'd love to say that's anoriginal my friend uh co-orker colleague uh Kim Cheney uh

36:49

was the one who taught me this know your chickens and whathe's really thinking about is that look especially if you

36:55

have a team you cannot treat every team member exactly thesame okay so there's

37:02

a big difference in being fair and being consistent okay idon't necessarily believe in fair but I can believe I can

37:10

believe in being consistent with how I treat individualsrecognize when they do good things coach them when they need to

37:16

be changed over and you have to have different motivationtechniques to get them going and so the idea behind

37:22

knowing your chickens is you got to know that each of themhave a different personality okay they have a different way in which theysucceed whether that's

37:28

through the dispersonality profile the MBTI you have tounderstand your people

37:33

so that when you go to try to motivate or inspire them youknow the correct way to do that you know um Gary Chapman

37:40

talks about the five love languages that exists in yourrelationships at home and at work as well know your chickens your

37:46

kids are different okay you wouldn't treat your kids exactlythe same and so but if you're consistently treating them

37:53

the way that they want to be treated to help them and youknow your chickens per

37:58

se I mean it comes ultimately that you know the farmers knewwhich chickens were most productive and which ones weren't which ones aretroublemakers and

38:05

they try to keep them separated and that's the same thingwith our kids and with our team members and I'm not trying

38:10

to downplay or overtrivialize that relationship i'm tryingto say that

38:15

people don't care how much you know until they know how muchyou care and when you know things like their child's

38:22

challenges that they're going through or the sports thattheir children play or the challenge they might be having with

38:28

a health uh issue with a spouse or family member they knowthat you care

38:33

that's knowing your chickens to a certain extent as a leaderthat helps them recognize that you care about them

38:39

what are some of the negative consequences let's say a newmanager who's just stepping into a leadership

38:44

role who tries to treat everybody the same because theythink "Oh I have to be fair." How can that negatively impact uh

38:51

an organization well wow i mean there's there's so manythings I I think about again probably fair is like a a podcast

38:59

in and of itself in terms of what that means between uhbeing fair and consistent life isn't going to be fair

39:04

for us life is going to happen to us some people have healthchallenges okay

39:10

and if you try to uh treat someone who's uh ultimately goingthrough cancer

39:16

treatments the same way you're treating someone who uh can'tget to work on time because they oversleep 3 days a week

39:22

it's not going to work for you and you ultimately are goingto have a situation that those individuals who are top

39:28

performers both from a result standpoint and from abehavioral standpoint are going to recognize that you often give

39:36

the attention and the recognition to those who haven'tearned it so to speak

39:42

i've had a a coach uh in the lean space talk to me about howyou treat

39:47

individuals and you know it's not fair that you gave this tosomebody else and you didn't give it to me and that's

39:52

absolutely right it's not fair but I'm being consistent andwhen you show me you're ready for an opportunity like

39:58

that then I will give you that same opportunity and here'sthe things you need to keep doing start doing and stop

40:04

doing to be prepared for that opportunity so if you have asystem a management system that you work with

40:09

individuals to give them regular feedback you ultimatelytake this fairness while it never goes away

40:15

completely because there's a human side to leadership that'swhy we can't replace leaders with AI in the future

40:21

while AI will be able to do many things to augment or helpthem do their jobs better it won't replace the empathetic

40:28

need of the leader to be the personal leader they need to beinside of that

40:33

space yeah I want to double down on that um I don't think AIis going to replace the leader but I'll tell you what it

40:40

will do is will enhance the leader um absolutely so I I I Ijust for everybody out there you know again please don't

40:47

stick your head in the sand learn AI and um I think it helpspeople

40:53

like you John and your business and at learn it where thisthe soft skills I don't like that term the human skills

40:59

creativity empathy communication collaboration those aregoing to be elevated and more important in the

41:06

future uh when it comes when it comes to uh leadership yeahI I love that because

41:11

again as you think about it you I use often instead ofartificial intelligence augmented intelligence or whatever that

41:16

means it's going to augment the leadership process it lookhealthcare it's going to augment the we just we've

41:23

heard this recently in some of the new things that going tobe uh coming through in the new administration with

41:28

regards to AI i worked for uh an organization that broughtuh AI for

41:33

health out 15 years ago i think they were a little early fortheir time in terms of how it was doing and being

41:39

accepted inside of that space but if I can take away some ofthose basic things

41:44

that need to be done how do I compile the structure of theemail that needs to

41:49

go out the structure of the note that goes out so that as aphysician or as a leader to your point I can focus on

41:55

those other skills or competencies like communication likeuh empathy uh like

42:03

um approachability that are going to allow you to be moresuccessful i I mean

42:09

you've you've again I I I appreciate how you say soft skillsare not the correct

42:15

word uh it even goes back to your question are leaders madeor lead leaders born and the answer is yes and I

42:21

love that answer and and the evolution of leaders with allthe stories they've

42:27

had with all the experiences that they've had the mistakesthey've made and the wins that they've had create the

42:34

value of the leader to grow others that's when knowledge AIknowledge turns

42:40

into wisdom stories experiences failures wins that we cantake folks through to

42:46

ultimately help them win uh at a faster pace faster pace howhas faith shaped

42:52

your leadership style and how do you balance leading withvalues without you

42:58

know necessarily preaching oh my goodness i mean I I when Ifigure this out completely I think I'm going to

43:04

really have something and I'm not necessarily saying I'mtrying to make that work ultimately I believe as leaders it's a

43:11

holistic approach to our leadership uh I talk about it insix domains and there's

43:16

the there's the workplace piece of that often I talk aboutsix Fs there's your future right that's the work where you

43:22

bear fruit you're paid for the work that you do vocationalfuture fruity t I

43:28

don't know i had to get an F in there somehow that was theonly one I struggled with but there's also your

43:33

finances your fitness your friendships what you do to havefun and I believe

43:38

faith regardless of where you are on your faith journey uhit might be spiritual it might be meditation

43:44

whatever that is but that faith is a very important part ofthat journey for me it impacts me in terms of who I am uh

43:52

I am I do uh I am a Christian uh and I've become moreunapologetic about that

43:59

in my conversations with others and one of the things Irecognize a story from a a few years ago uh because I don't bring

44:06

it out overtly uh with the work that I do but I try to livein a way that

44:11

models those values and I talked to someone I rememberwalking a shop floor

44:16

in a concrete facility and ultimately uh my answer was"Well my faith plays an

44:21

important part of how I answer that question." And hesaid to me he said "I

44:27

knew there was something different about you." And Iwas kind of taken back was I ready for that or not but it was

44:33

actually very favorable and it opened up a door from aconversation standpoint with me and that individual that allowed

44:40

me to share what the impact is so where's the balance uhthat exists inside of that space i'm actually still

44:46

learning what that balance is i mean again it's not a partof my coaching

44:53

structure if you will that uh for every point I have I'vegot a biblical verse

44:58

associated with it that you need to read uh but I will tellyou it's a very important part of my discipline to

45:04

personally grow in my faith every day so reading uh inscripture every day is a discipline that I have to uh

45:11

continuously um mold continuously um exercise just like Ihave to exercise

45:19

on a regular basis or eat less food i need to be in that uhword on a daily basis to grow in that space and and it

45:27

helps me or affords me the opportunity to mentor in the waythat I would want to whether that uh comes in the form of

45:34

uh Romans 12 and recognizing that I need to have my mindopen i need to be a good listener i need to have a positive

45:42

mindset toward others i need to think of things in apositive way or have a positive attitude none of those things

45:48

are faith-based uh in and of themselves but they are in theBible okay those

45:54

those uh teachings are in the Bible so they teach me how Ican behave on a

46:00

regular basis and often times it leads to me being able tohave a conversation with others about my faith and if it

46:06

leads to them ultimately having you know kingdom impact foreternity uh which is what I'm shooting for as an individual

46:13

then that's you know part of what I've been called to do uhas a leader again it's probably not an easy answer to say

46:21

I speak I open up every meeting in prayer i don't do that umsometimes I'll

46:26

work with organizations though that do uh if it's part oftheir values then we will do that on a regular basis but I'm

46:32

looking to open up conversations that I can have withindividuals uh and share that share that good book i use the term

46:39

greatest story ever told and as I've grown in my faithjourney I often want to change the name of it from the leadership perspectivebecause the to me

46:46

the Bible is the greatest story uh ever told uh and it's onethat you know for me talking about a discipline that is

46:52

something hard to do i'm working through it for the fourthtime the entire Bible this year that's not to say that for

46:58

pounding my chest or because I'm more uh holy than somebodyelse but it's a discipline that I've chosen to do to to

47:04

grow my faith and to be able to share with others so gettingback to greatest story ever told that was a question I

47:11

had for you how does that how does faith or your personalpurpose play a role in

47:16

helping shape your story well it has to be part of my storyright and when individuals see that and I've even for

47:22

me it's even become uh more overt on my social mediaprofiles and how I'm sharing with the writing that I that I

47:28

have i believe uh that my purpose is

47:34

bigger than just me uh I believe that my purpose ultimatelyuh is to become the

47:40

leader that I was called to be and again I don't have thisuh belief that I was told that I need to be a consultant or I

47:47

was told that I need to be a coach and God spoke to me andsaid that but what I believe is that those individuals that I

47:54

come in contact with including this conversation right herebecause of my faith because of my belief that you know

48:00

that God was uh a mediator to bring that uh to fruition ourconversation today uh

48:07

was something that he knew about a long time ago absolutelyand so when I get a chance to recognize that uh things like

48:16

excellence things like uh praiseworthy things like kindnessare all things that

48:23

come from the Bible yeah they can be read in other places aswell um but those show up I believe in the way that

48:28

I behave and I don't have to necessarily

48:34

um proclaim that in my coaching but I do track that i dotrack the number of times I have an interaction uh with

48:41

someone in terms of specifically spiritual faith on ajourney uh I do measure that because I believe that we

48:47

count those interactions because those interactions count uhI I believe that serving is very important as well so I

48:55

live that out through uh serving uh at church on Sundays asa leader of the

49:00

parking team and my wife and I are the leaders of a homegroup where we bring uh 15 to 20 people to our home every two

49:07

weeks and we go through a lesson uh on faith and how we canuh grow in our

49:12

journey so it's not just that that that's part of my workit's it's really a part of my life so if someone

49:17

listening wants to lead in a way that ensures that they geton somebody's list where should they start i think about

49:24

that as the decision the first step in that journey isalways that decision it's sitting down and using that

49:31

framework uh to make the choice ultimately that I'm sick andtired of

49:37

being sick and tired and that where they are today they knowis not where they're

49:43

supposed to be and that they want to grow so painting apicture of what it looks like in terms of that target of

49:50

who they want to be is very important i think writing thatdown is ultimately

49:55

very important but it it starts with a choice um I don'tknow any other way to

50:00

really say on on how you start once you get through thatpoint of the journey then you start to think about uh

50:06

identifying those areas those six Fs that I talked about andassessing where you are today in terms of what you want

50:13

if you want to be healthy in your fitness where are youtoday on a scale of 1 to 10 are you a four or are you a

50:18

five and where do you want to be it might not be a 10 i'mnot a um preacher

50:23

in the form of uh everything needs to be perfect uh I am achallenger in the form

50:29

of okay if you're today you're a four and you want to be aneight ultimately maybe in the next year what do we have

50:34

to do the disciplines okay daily weekly monthly uh to cutthat in half and go to

50:40

a six uh because it becomes a smart objective uh but itultimately identifies the things you need to do to

50:47

achieve what you want to achieve discipline back to thatword again here we go again you know it's doing what you

50:53

need to do when you need to do it even when you don't feellike doing it so that you can do what you want to do when

50:59

you want to do it with who you want to do it with it it isthat simple and it's

51:05

that difficult john you've been awesome what is next for youwhat are you

51:10

working on these days yeah thanks for asking and again Damonuh thanks for the opportunity uh certainly to share with

51:16

the listeners of your podcast i I hope that I've been ableto add value to them just a little bit today for me

51:22

specifically you know I've set my goals for 2025 as wellit's guesting on

51:27

podcasts like this is continuing to grow i also as youmentioned I host the uncommonle leader podcast and looking to

51:34

increase the influence and impact that that podcast has aswell so uh uncommonleerpodcast.com you can find it

51:41

and really start to follow there uh because my goal is toinspire encourage and equip uh the last thing that I'm

51:47

really looking for my mentor and I have really set a goal towrite a book in 2025 well you know we don't know exactly

51:54

what that means yet but we've dedicated the time and set thetime aside in uh Q3 and Q4 to start working on that that

52:01

ultimately outlines the journey uh of the Christian businessleader talking about developing themselves developing

52:08

their team what it takes to implement the structures andprocesses to do both those things ultimately leading to

52:16

consistent uh eternal impact of the work that you do uh andtelling that story as to how we've experienced it and that

52:22

we're not there yet uh per se but how we continue to growbut also how others can experience it as well well I'm sure the

52:29

book will come out in 2025 and I really hope you come backso we can share um

52:36

the book and and talk about it so John you've been awesomewe've talked about

52:42

quite a bit you know from the greatest story ever told howyou get on a list to raising the average you shared several

52:48

great frameworks we really honed in on discipline which Ithink is incredibly important and one key that also came out

52:54

of this was the 47 minutes of intentional time either dailyor a couple times a week i think that can

53:00

have a tremendous tremendous impact on our listeners uh andall of us and so

53:06

where can our audience connect with you at sure Damian loveto chat with them if they get a chance they can go to my website

53:12

coachgallagher.com uh if they had an opportunity they wantto chat with me there's a button on there where they can set up a a free callwhere we can chat

53:19

about what their goals are uh and how they might be movingforward and what you know conversations I might be able

53:24

to have you with you uh to to have an impact there uh andthere you can find the social media i'm active most on on

53:30

LinkedIn um but I also have a Instagram and a YouTubechannel uh that are starting to grow as well so be more than

53:37

happy to connect with individuals i want everybody to checkout John's show The Uncommon Leader hopefully my episode but

53:44

he's got a lot of other great episodes and I'd also like youto think about somebody or a couple people who could

53:50

benefit from this maybe somebody who's distracted or needsmore discipline or is working hard and they're just not

53:57

there yet share this episode with them i re would reallyappreciate it and until next time everybody stay curious keep

54:04

learning and have a great day that's I think the biggestthing is what is in your head and what do you what do you

54:10

already know what do you not know where can I help fill thegaps and where they matter to you

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