Ep227 10X How to Lead Bigger
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[00:00:00] My name's Dex Randall, and this is the Burnout to Leadership podcast, where I teach professionals to recover from burnout and get back to passion and reward at work.

[00:00:13] Today we're going to talk about 10X: How to Lead Bigger. Because forget everything you know if it can't grow your career any further. A new take on work, one that opens the door to freedom and growth, is required to take you to the next level. Let me explain.

[00:00:32] If you're stuck in daily rounds of pain and frustration right now, feeling like better results are a bit out of your grasp, although that's not your fault.

[00:00:43] Maybe earlier in your career, crammed full of technical knowledge, you chomped through new and exciting roles to meet people, extract learnings, target your dreams, and life looked better then, didn't it? Full of promise. Because you're a natural high performer. You learn fast and work hard. They're my listeners.

[00:01:07] You're smart and a problem solver. You network your way into interesting situations just to build expertise. People say good things about you. Your confidence grows. You're having fun, being promoted, and privately it feels easier.

[00:01:24] That was then, right? At the beginning. And comparing that to now I think would be cruel. Times were different then, and you've been a great servant to your profession, but your meteoric rise did not last a lifetime. Now, either you're not a leading authority on anything much, or if you are, that's not thrilling you anymore. In amongst the stellar results, you've tasted a bit of the shame and disgrace of failure, but frustration at a system that's regulated your ass too hard is the real killer, isn't it?

[00:02:03] Your career slowed. Senior managers stopped glorifying you, and your boss is no longer a raving fan who mentors you. Your creative genius got squeezed into a box. You don't love boxes, huh? And the pressure. If only we could get rid of the pressure.

[00:02:23] Alternatively, a couple of you listening are still studying, and already the wind's knocked out of your sails.

[00:02:30] Maybe you crushed school, but higher education is kicking your butt. Job prospects are scarce. You feel anxious a lot, overworked. You're getting through tasks too slowly or sporadically, and grades are no longer top shelf every time. Well, the world did change. Success wears a different badge than it used to, and that applies to all of us, students, new professionals, mid-career execs, and those tapering into retirement .

[00:03:04] So if that's you, what are you going to do? Not cry into your beer, that's for sure, eh? But you don't know the answer, and that's unusual for you. Troubling.

[00:03:14] So here's where you get your edge back. You start playing smarter in some very specific ways that raise your profile and inoculate you from the horrors of performance dips and small-minded players.

[00:03:30] In these times, anyone relying on pre-AI era skills, will find work tougher. The pace of change will only increase, and you can't be left behind.

[00:03:45] Where you can get ahead though, is to approach work more thoughtfully, to outfox those who see the surface of what's happening, by looking deeper. You're smart. You can do that, but probably not while you're feeling beaten up or side-lined.

[00:04:02] You'll need to assume much greater power over your own destiny than that, maybe than you're used to. You need a stronger foundation to work from to feel confident, resilient, and balanced. And by the way, I'd be happy to be your guide. And these are the techniques that I use with my clients to help them achieve their goals faster.

[00:04:30] So here's your recipe for superior leadership results.

[00:04:34] I'm going to give it to you straight, in five action steps

[00:04:38] Action one, decide to take your future into your own hands, to set your own course and own your results. This is vital. You must commit to asserting yourself to achieve growth. You're naturally a very highly motivated person, even though you might not be feeling it too much right now.

[00:04:59] Growth isn't relaxing or comfortable. It involves changing some habits and beliefs, reaching into unfamiliar territory, being a beginner again, and relinquishing an identity you've outgrown. It's like a crab upsizing its shell. There will be uneasy moments during the transition, but you're intelligent and tough. You know how to get through that.

[00:05:23] You're capable of making this choice and making it stick where other people might balk and stagnate.

[00:05:30] You must commit to the change you will need to make. Be that person who succeeds at the next level. One hundred percent commitment is the biggest predictor of success. I've seen shaky commitment time after time with my clients, and if they can't commit 100% to their growth at the start, commitment itself is the first thing we work on together.

[00:05:54] So action number one, decide to take your future into your own hands. Don't leave it to someone else.

[00:06:02] By the way, these actions I recommend today are the ones that will return most power into your hands. That's why they're all about you, not your boss. Because don't rely on other people changing, for your career to get better. We know how that ends.

[00:06:19] Imagine how marvelous it would feel to free yourself to be more influential, more successful, more respected, more impactful, and more relaxed at work. If you could sit at your true level with much less hassle. That's what this recipe is all about.

[00:06:41] Notice too that all the actions I give you today are non-destructive.

[00:06:46] No one loses as you raise your professional edge. It's not zero-sum game. In fact, others are likely to respect you more, find you more approachable, and work more cooperatively with you as you start approaching problems at a higher level, more cleanly.

[00:07:04] So on with action number two, pick your goal. To match your commitment, you do need a goal that's both compelling and values-driven, because if you don't know where you're going, you're not going to get there.

[00:07:15] The goal, which is really just the direction of travel, is much more important than the how, how you will get there, which I can in any case teach you.

[00:07:26] So think about it. How do you want your situation to be? And why is it important to you? What's your goal? Not necessarily in quantifiable terms, because outward success, such as a job change, might leave you in the same pickle, just in a new environment.

[00:07:47] For example, if you're overworked now, what would prevent that happening in a new job? You, most likely! By setting firmer boundaries and saying no to requests that don't fit your highest contribution. So ask yourself, are you doing that now?

[00:08:04] When we're talking about a goal, if we're not thinking about a new job, instead, imagine your best day at work.

[00:08:11] Visualize it. Where are you? What are you doing? Who are you doing it with? What are you not doing? How do you look? How do you feel? What results are you creating? By the way, this can be at the job you're in now, just reimagined. But visualize it, engage with it, and see what changed. Once again, don't imagine other people changing, just your experience in the job.

[00:08:41] When you've seen that and you've defined a goal, ask yourself how important is that goal to me?

[00:08:46] I ask my clients to rate how important they are out of 10. Anything less than nine needs work, because commitment to growth and to your goal are what fuels the change. So make sure your goal matches your aspirations. If you're my client, I would help you frame your goal to ensure it actually creates the change that you desire.

[00:09:09] So action two, pick your goal. Choose wisely.

[00:09:13] Action three, stop worrying about what other people say or think about you. Now we come to it. How much energy are you losing right now to what others might think? Are you ruminating on it? Are you trying to future-proof yourself against criticism? Are you positioning yourself as safely as you can?

[00:09:35] Are you marshaling allies? 'Cause all that energy could instead be used to grow, couldn't it? I'm not kidding. When you're awake at night, what are you worrying about? Failure? How angry people will be with you? What they will say? Think about it. Think about how much time you spend on this worry. ' Cause really from here on in, you need to be your own inner compass, not rely on the capricious directions of other people, not waste your energy either on resentment, anxiety, frustration, irritation, and if-onlys.

[00:10:14] Because if you're doing that, no wonder you're tired. It has to stop. Again, as a client, I would teach you how. And when you learn that, actually, it's a life lesson that will stick with you for the rest of your life.

[00:10:27] What other people think about you is their business. You can't change it even if you want to. What you think about you, on the other hand, can change the trajectory of your life. It's where your full potential lies buried, and it affects the energy you bring to everything that you do. If your inner critic is on fire, that needs to change too.

[00:10:55] Not rocket science. All we're talking about here is habit change because that's how adults evolve, isn't it? So action number three, stop worrying about what other people say or think about you.

[00:11:08] Action number four, refine how you decide what to do at work. Here I'm going to recruit Dan Sullivan's 10X is easier than 2X principles.

[00:11:22] His core argument is that to grow, your brain needs more breathing room, and I agree. He says it's impossible to give of your best while you're stuck in the weeds of doing everything. Hence, he uses the 80/20 rule to eliminate the 80% of low-performing tasks in favor of the highest contribution 20% that is your unique value.

[00:11:47] The book, which I heartily recommend, is designed for entrepreneurs actually, but I help my leadership clients 10X their work even when they're employed in corporations. The freedom of time, purpose, money, and relationships are too good to pass up.

[00:12:06] 10X-ing what you do is about thinking exponentially bigger, not incrementally.

[00:12:12] Setting an outrageous goal, occupying space other people don't dare to aspire to. The commitment is clear, the path is disciplined, but competition is very low and the payoff is exceptional.

[00:12:26] To be this ruthless with your time, that you can cut the chaff and protect the kernel of your brilliance, can actually be accomplished using detailed techniques in Essentialism by Greg McKeown.

[00:12:40] It's a blueprint for crystallizing your contribution through disciplined decision-making. It's worth pointing out that using his methods, you would work much fewer hours than you currently do but get stronger results, and this will raise your profile as a leader and as an authority. Again, it's simply habit change.

[00:13:03] If the idea of culling 80% of what you do sounds radical or impossible- is it possible that right now you're agreeing to do too much? For many high achievers, saying a firm but gracious no is a skill that could be very much improved. We, the fixers, have often chosen a different path- to our detriment if we then feel overworked and undervalued.

[00:13:29] Yet if we're so highly skilled, doesn't it make sense to focus on our biggest contribution?

[00:13:35] Of course, I understand the pressures of work and the aggression with which others exert their need for control. But if that sways your decision-making, good luck.

[00:13:46] When you make space for your genius, it will reemerge, and won't that be fun?

[00:13:53] So action number four, refine how you decide what to do at work.

[00:13:57] Action number five, use only results-oriented communication. Here's the kicker. One of the most valuable leadership skills is to communicate fluently, calmly, and collaboratively around whatever needs present.

[00:14:17] I have seen claims that 70% of all problems are communication problems.

[00:14:23] It wouldn't surprise me if it was higher.

[00:14:26] Think about all the problems you have in your life. How many of them are people problems? Generally speaking, we're talking disagreements here.

[00:14:35] So let's go back for a second and look at how we learn to communicate. Each of us has a value system, a model for how all good humans should behave.

[00:14:46] It's inside our heads, and together the values form some of our strongest and most enduring beliefs in life, even though we inherited many of them in the first few years of life, which makes them rather arbitrary. Still, we treat them as facts.

[00:15:05] We conclude that there's only one way to be a good human and everybody should behave in that way.

[00:15:12] The trouble is, the other eight billion people on the planet disagree. They have their own template.

[00:15:19] Of course, we like being right. High achievers, I've found, especially like being right. Why is that? Well, often it's because they've been taught as youngsters that love and attention are earned through endeavor and success. But to be right, when we meet people with other beliefs, means we have to make them wrong, and that's where the fighting starts, isn't it?

[00:15:46] Think of any work disagreement. Let's just say your boss directs you to create a new product or service, but you think it's going to lose money. Both of you feel strongly, think the other is wrong, and feel threatened by disagreement.

[00:16:01] You want to correct your boss. He resists. The trick here is to realize that you can't change your boss, but whatever he says is defensive, not a personal attack on you, even if it sounds that way.

[00:16:16] He's actually simply signaling his distress. He feels probably unheard, misunderstood, disrespected, thwarted. Perhaps a bit like you?

[00:16:28] So what if you could set aside your anger and listen to him neutrally, as if emotions were not involved, as if there was nothing at stake? Then you'll be able to listen cleanly and discover the underlying need behind his demand, the invisible need.

[00:16:45] What problem is he really trying to solve? How can you help?

[00:16:50] Communication, I think, is a skill that's only truly effective in solving problems when both parties' nervous systems are calm. So be the professional who can create calm on demand -for yourself and others. Defuse the bomb of tension running through the conversation.

[00:17:12] When you can do this, collaboration becomes available again, no matter what else is at stake. Same-side collaboration is how you solve disputes and keep people on side, even strengthen relationships. It builds great trust and loyalty, and it's a skill that by itself will radically improve your work experience and outcomes.

[00:17:36] So that's action number five: only use results-oriented communication. Of course, it's a no-brainer, but in practice it's a skill very few people possess, and when you do, you'll stand out from the crowd.

[00:17:53] So that's my basic recipe for advancing leadership. In my experience, those five actions do the most to change the game in stagnating situations where passion has been lost.

[00:18:07] Own your future, commit to creating a new game, set your goal, make new decisions about what you will do, and communicate at a level that few achieve. That gives you maximum leverage in any situation. Don't worry what anyone else is doing. Make your own game, because right now you're leaving a lot of money on the table and not having enough fun or wins.

[00:18:35] You're inadvertently suppressing your own power. Now, I don't really care how long that's been building for you, except that I'm sad for your suffering. I don't care why it's happening for you or how grisly your job is, you can create change. Change is only hard 'cause our brains don't like it, but you have the intelligence and neuroplasticity is on your side. And change then comes quicker than you think.

[00:19:04] If you'd like expert guidance, this is the fast-track work I do with leaders, and success rates are high. Come and talk to me about your future, your dreams, and how this process might accelerate your results. See leadership.dexrandall.com. The link's in the show notes.

[00:19:25] Come and talk to me. We'll work it out for you.

[00:19:27] Thank you so much for listening today. I really appreciate you being here. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate or review the podcast. That really makes a big difference for us, and share it with anybody else who may benefit. Thanks again. Talk to you next week.