In this episode, we discuss: finding your purpose at work; discovering how to create a mission and core values that really work; improving your communication skills; and leaning into continuous improvement.
Richard Newman is an award-winning expert in Leadership Communication and Speechwriting. He is the author of the book, "You Were Born to Speak" and has successfully led his communication training company, Body Talk, for 22 years.
Today, we explore:
- How to effectively lead your team through crisis (of course)
- How to find mission/purpose and values in a way that works for you
- Being a hero vs being a mentor
- Rebuilding the fundamentals and how that can often take you from good to GREAT
- What your team most needs to hear from you
Join us for the conversation! (And, maybe listen with a pen and paper or laptop handy – there are a bunch of questions you'll likely want to revisit later.)
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To learn more about Richard Newman and his company visit ukbodytalk.com. You can also find him on all of the social platforms by searching "ukbodytalk".
- [Celine] I'm Celine Williams, and welcome to the "Leading Through Crisis" podcast; a conversation series exploring resiliency and leadership in challenging times. My guest today is Richard Newman, who is the founder of "Body Talk". Over the past 21 years, his team have trained 100,000 business leaders around the world to improve their communication and impact, including one client who gained over 1 billion in new business in just one year using the strategies that Richard teaches. He is also an award-winning speechwriter, and author of the book, "You Were Born to Speak." Welcome, Richard.
Thanks so much; thanks for having me.
Absolutely; it's my pleasure. So, I start all the episodes the same way, and I ask the question, "When you hear 'Leading Through Crisis', the name of this podcast, what does that mean to you? What comes up for you?"
Yeah, great, so for me, "Leading Through Crisis" brings up a huge amount of thinking personally and professionally. So on a professional side, I've been leading my business, now, for 22 years. I've taken the business through the 2008 financial crisis. When running a company that is based on communication skills; the name of the company is Body Talk. It was quite funny at the time that my dad, who's in financial investments, he rang me up, and he was very early to understand what was about to happen. And he said, "Just so you know, your company's going to go out of business, because the thing is that there's this financial crisis coming. And when that happens, people stop doing training; and they particularly stop doing training that sounds fluffy, like something like "Body Talk". So just to make you aware." And I thought, "Okay, well, that's a nice pep talk, but actually, maybe I need to be aware of that." So I led the business through that piece, and also led it through a pandemic. Where, prior to the pandemic, 70% of our work involved getting on an airplane. And all of our work, 100% was face-to-face in an enclosed area, whether that was one person, 100, or 1000 people at a time; leading those situations. And I feel really, deeply grateful that my company has grown every single year, despite all of those things. And so if I think, you know, in recent times, "Leading Through Crisis", where my head was at, when we were facing the pandemic... My wife is a doctor, and she said, "This lockdown is coming, and it's going to last. And be prepared for that." And I think people in my team didn't clock that it was gonna be as long, potentially, as it was. And so, right at the beginning of that pandemic, I'm the leader of my family, if you like, the sort of the main breadwinner looking after them; leader of the team, wanting to make sure I can look after making sure people can pay their bills, that they can feed their families. And also then thinking, "Well, there's a lot of clients that rely on us to help them run their businesses successfully. So I'm in a position, here, where I've gotta make some decisions that will serve everybody." And initially, what came to mind for me right at the beginning of that pandemic, the National Health Service, in the UK, where I'm based, the NHS, they said that they wanted volunteers to put themselves forward to help out with the pandemic. And I remember watching the news, and saying to my wife, "I think I really wanna put myself forward for this." And she said, "You should think about this, because you've got a lot of people you already need to look after. The family, the company, and all the clients with over 10,000 people a year that we're serving. That probably needs to be where your focus is." And so, I think this has been a moment for testing us all leading through crisis. And the pieces that that stand out for me as being so important here, the one that's very much in my mind right now is authenticity where you are. You are communicating very clearly with people about exactly where things are, exactly where things're going, and showing with your feet, showing with your actions, that you absolutely believe that these're the things that must be done. And I say that's front of mind at the moment, because currently we have, the leader of the UK in Parliament being Boris Johnson, who there's a lot in the media about, at the moment moment saying that when he announced, "There must be a lockdown, do not leave your homes, don't go and see anybody'" it's coming outta the news, that he was having parties with too many people, with alcohol, and that there's a real question around his leadership right now. Because when the country was shut down, people in government were not. And so, I think it's always critical when that crisis point comes up, for a leader to settle into what is their core purpose right now? Who do they need to be looking after, and to set a future vision that is compelling and realistic, such that straightaway you think, "Where do we really want to be? And what is the path forwards that I believe in?" And the second part of that, that often I find is missing for people, that I feel grateful to have, is a mission board. I think a lot of people talk about a vision board, which is, "What do I want to get to?" And the nice pictures of places I'd like to be, and things we'd like to succeed in, or numbers you'd like to achieve in your business. But there will come a time, and a crisis will be one of those times where your brain says to you, "Why am I doing this? This is painful. I am hurting right now. People in the business are hurting right now. I don't want to get out of bed. I just don't feel like doing this anymore. I want to escape. I wanna leave the business." There's been lots of people over the last couple of years who have left their job, they've left where they're living, they have left their personal relationships, because the pain was such, the crisis was such, that little cracks left, turned into huge cracks and separation. And so, the key behind the mission board idea is when that little voice comes up saying, "Why am I doing this? It'd be easier if I wasn't; it'd be easier if I wasn't leading right now. It'd be easier if I could just sit on my sofa and have Netflix and chill." The mission board is something you come back to, which is, "Why did I start doing this in the first place?" And realizing that as a leader, it's a huge privilege to guide people through a difficult situation, where all eyes're on you saying, "What do we do now?" And so, for me, leading through crisis comes back to what're your core values? What is the mission? Why are you really doing this? And creating that path that people can believe in, and through strong communication, and strong teamwork, being able to get there together. That was, like, a 20-minute answer, but,
You're fine.
There's a lot to say.
So the thing that comes up for me immediately is, what about the people who, in a crisis, they question the mission entirely? Because now their mission that they thought they were, that they thought was the driving factor for them, or their business, or their team, or whatever the case may be, now it doesn't feel right. Now it seems insignificant. Now that might not be the mission.
Hmm.
How do you-
Yeah, great question.
You know, what about them? What about them?
Yeah, so if that's the case, if those questions are coming up, of, it seems silly to be doing this kind of business now, when actually it's not significant with what people need. Well, then, again, I would say, go back to the mission of, did you really have a mission to have this particular company selling this particular product? Is that really what you exist for? So, as an example, and I don't know the full details on this. I believe it's right that, say, Formula One racing teams who had brilliant engineers, thought, "Well, what do we need right now? We exist to serve others, to create something extraordinary with technology, and what the hospitals need right now is defibrillators. So we are going to figure out how to take our brilliant engineering, and turn it into something extraordinary that people need right now." And so, there can be a pivot around what have we got that will serve people? So there can be an option for people. But I think, certainly in my case, and this is what I've worked on with other leaders, is coming right the way back to what are your core values? Not the company's values, not the things that're up there on, you know, above the logo in the lobby of your building. But what do you really stand for? What're the principles that you always stay by? And so, for me, as I often share with the clients, my number-one core value is to be a good father. I have a different measure on that than any other father would have. Like, it's very individual. But for me, being a good father is core. Service is second. And third, oxygen is the third core one, which means that I exist to give oxygen to others, to make sure that other people feel lifted and elevated through my presence. And so, coming right the way back down to that, 'cause I was in a business then, in the live events business, where we couldn't travel; we couldn't actually be live with people. We create extraordinary face-to-face events with people, and we just weren't allowed to do it. So I came back to, "Okay, I need to be a great father, here," which goes beyond my two children. So I've got two boys, Max and Ted, aged 10 and 7 right now. I thought, I need to show up each day, and show them that life is okay, and life will go on. So I need to be in a place where I center myself each morning, and show them that even during challenging times, we love each other. We look forwards to where the future may be. We look after the people around us in any way that we can, and we get up like each day thinking, "How do I serve?" And so, that was there. But I also think of myself as the father of my company. There are families relying on what we do as a business. And so, for me, part of leading through crisis was as soon as I saw it coming, I thought, "I'm not going to earn a single penny for the work that I do. I will work every hour I can while making sure that my family is okay at the same time, until we get to a place where I know everybody's family that relies on this business is okay. And if we can get to that place, then I'll start paying myself again. But if I have to work 60, 80, or 100 hours a week until that moment, I'm going to do that because I exist be a good father, not just of my children. I exist to serve others. And I'm also here, lastly, for that oxygen, that sense of lift." And so I thought, "Well, if we can't do as a business what we used to do of going to see people face-to-face, and create chemistry, and team building, and those things, is there another way that we can still give people oxygen?" Because I thought, "Well, you know, there's less people having meetings right now." And we would coach people for those face-to-face meetings. But I thought, "Actually, right now, companies have huge challenges of people feeling disconnected, and feeling flat, and feeling like every day is Groundhog Day, and wanting to have that stronger sense of connection with each other, and with their clients, and working out how to do that virtually." So it was really clear to me to think, "We have to still give those clients oxygen, that sense of lifting them, making sure they feel elevated and empowered to do what they need to do, and feeling good about themselves, and connected with each other." And so, I think that that sense of, "What if I was doing in the past doesn't really matter?" You just come back to those core values, think, "What do I exist for? And how do I exist in that way in a way that's still going to serve the people around me, and help create a better future?" And so the core of it, the values and the mission stay the same, but perhaps the vision of where you're going to take it will then differ.
So, I think that the, I love the idea of core values. And I think we all have kind of a, you know, there will be people who do not like me saying this, but I'm gonna say it anyways. I think we all have a different idea of what core values mean. And I think the reason is that, you know, there're some people who are like, "You just need to, if you figure out your 10 core values, and you operate from them, that's great." I used to work with a coach that that was his thing. Get down to your 10. And then, once you have that list of 10 words that are your core values or statements, or however you're gonna phrase it, that's your operating system. And then you have the Brene Browns of the world, who say, in her program, it's, "You need to narrow it down to your two core values. Here's how they operate; here's how they show up. This is what it means. Those are core values." And everything in between.
And everyone has
Yeah.
a different way of saying, "This is what it means when you're operating from your core values. This is what..." Some people would say that, that would hear oxygen as a core value, and be, like, "Well, that's not a value." You know, people will judge it, and all of these different things. So from your lens, 'cause it's part of the work that you do with people, clearly, how do you define core values? How can people figure out what their core values are, in a way that works for them?
Yeah. It's such a great question. And you're right, there's so much out there about values. I've heard people talk about towards values, and away from values,
Ugh.
and, "The values I have now, and the values I had in the past," and all this sort of thing. For me, this system actually was something that I leaned into more strongly after, I was looking at an experiment that happened. This was in Germany back in 2015, I believe, where, so 30 people went for a job interview that they believed was a real job interview, their dream job. And the panel, before they went into the interview, were told to give them a really hard time. They weren't gonna say yes, they weren't gonna nod. They would sit back, shake their head, make them feel stressed out. And halfway through the interview, they'd say to everyone, "Stand up and give me a presentation right now about why you should get the job, and nobody else." And during the presentation, they would sorta shake their head, and mutter, and look disengaged. And then they'd say, "Right, now I've got some maths questions for you. Starting with the number, 3796 minus 47 from that number, out loud, as fast you can, until you hit zero; go." And so, they're aiming to do this with bad interview, tough presentation, maths questions, to really stress the people out. And half of them, when they left, they measured that their heart rate, adrenaline, and cortisol was all spiking. But for the other half of the interviewees, there was no change. And what had happened is that just before the interview, for half of them, they said, "Write down one page of your three core values that're principles that you have lived your life by, and write down moments where you've actually used it. Like, talk about when you had to make a decision about where your career was going to go, or where a relationship was going to go. Find those moments in your life, where you feel proud of that decision. What was the value that drove it? And write a paragraph about it." And so, what they found was this gave people intrinsic validation. So when they were going into the interview, they weren't looking for that extrinsic validation, the sense of, "Do these people like me? Do they want me to be here?" They were just driving from intrinsic validation. "I know who I am. I know my core values, I act from here. And if you wanna hire me, great. And if you don't wanna hire me, that's fine; because this is how I steer my life." And so, I took this onboard, and I've been teaching people to do those three pieces. Because as we know, human beings think, "1, 2, 3," lots. And that's how the human brain sort of processes, right? So if it's a million, or a billion, or a trillion, we sort of think, "Well, okay, that's a big number," so it's hard for us to process. But three, we can remember. So we love things in threes; like The Three Musketeers, and ready, steady go, and we jump in the swimming pool on the count of three. We like threes. But the piece that I go to slightly deeper with people is to say, "Now, don't go for a generic term; because a generic term of, like, 'Be a good father'," as I said earlier, "or 'Honesty,' or 'Authenticity', it means something different to other people." Just like you were saying about values means something different. And so, you need a word that means something special to you, that truly connects you to the moment where you know that that is your value. So this is where I used that term, oxygen, because it was really about, "I want to inspire and empower clients," and I thought, "That's kinda generic, I need something else." And then I came offstage when I was doing an event for, there was about 1000 people in the room. It went really well. I came off stage, and this guy walked up to me and he said, "Richard, do you know what you just did? You gave this group oxygen." And I thought, "That's it, that's the word. That's all I need." And I was in that moment of feeling the being on a high, coming off the stage, thinking, "I really served them. I can see I've inspired them; I know I've empowered them." He said the word oxygen and that was it. And so, now when I think of that word, it brings me into that validation of "This is who I am as a person." And so, that's why I encourage people, stick with three; because it allows that internal, intrinsic validation, but it also will keep your heart level steady, reduce the adrenaline, the cortisol, and it's good proof around that. And it's not so many you'll forget. You know, I know my three, I can put them on a post-it note right next to my webcam, next to my bed. You can put them on the home screen of your phone. So you look at them 20 times a day, and they allow you, then, to be the way that you steer the ship day after day.
I appreciate that explanation very much. I am also a proponent of the three values, personally. And I think one of the important things inside of what you said that I really wanna emphasize is that whatever your values are, whatever language you put around them, whatever words you use, however you define them, it has to resonate with you. It does not matter if anyone else is gonna hear oxygen and go, "That doesn't make any sense. That's not a value." Doesn't matter. Because it means something to you, and you can explain it in a way that brings it alive for you every single day. That's the most important thing. And I think we get really hung up on, "Well, this expert says to do it this way," or, "This expert says to do it that," and that was why I wanted to ask the question, because I think that it really just, listen, my bias in life is that I do not think there is one way to do anything on this planet. I think there are 1000 ways to do every single thing possible, and it's about finding what works for you. And so, the fact that inside of what you've just said is like, "This is what works for me," and, "This is how I align, and this is why it works." I think that is a really important lesson for people to not overthink, or get stuck in the, "It has to be this one way that someone else told me it should be."
Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think, make it work for you. And then, you know, you can adapt and adjust things that's gonna give you the end result. I think of it a little bit like, there's a guy in the music industry who I was coaching, and I said to him, "How do you get your energy first thing in the morning?" And he sent me this smoothie recipe that was just extraordinary list of ingredients. And I tried it out and I thought, "Okay, yeah, I feel pretty good." But then I adjusted a couple of ingredients; I added a couple, I took a couple away, I've played with it. And now I have my own sort of power smoothie in the morning that is exactly the ingredients that work for me, having really tried it out. And if I share that recipe with somebody else, it might give them inspiration; but they need to make it their own in order to think, "That's working for me daily, and I can see the results."
It's that it's a version of continuous improvement, right? Where you take something that someone else has done, and use it as inspiration, and can improve it for yourself, as opposed to an, I love entrepreneurs, and I love leaders, and we often tend to think, "Oh, that blueprint worked for someone else in some way. How I run my business, how I lead my team, how I design a strategy, how I do whatever. So I'm gonna do the exact thing that they did, 'cause if it worked for them, it's gotta make me successful." And it's so rarely the case. It is about that, you know, being inspired by, and then adapting.
Yeah, and, I think on that point, to come back to the theme of leading through crisis, that during that time, often what we'll do is to reach outside, and think, "I'm in a crisis. Let me see if somebody else knows how to fix this."
Yes, yeah.
And that may lead us to consultants, or coaches, and so on. And I've had some good experience there, and some bad experience. And I think that having a coach can be so valuable. Like, accountability, particularly for leaders who may not get as much feedback as they used to from the team around them can be valuable. But you know, I've had also advice from business coaches that was so, from a gut-instinct level was so clearly going to lead me in the wrong direction. And I have it in the past sort of blindly followed some advice that's led to poor outcomes. Because that person isn't actually in the business seeing and sensing every single thing that's happening right now. And so, when you do that sort of gut-check piece, it's important to really question, "Why am I feeling that this would be a bad idea? Is there something going on for me? Is there pain from the past? Am I sorta driving looking in the rearview mirror? Is there something there I should notice? Or is it actually that I can see something clearly in the business that only being within the business can you see that level of detail, and knowing that even though for 10 other businesses going, 'Turning right was a good decision.' Actually for me, turning left is going to be the one that we need right now, based on the mission I've got, the vision we've got, the people that we've got, and exactly where we are in our industry." So I think it's tremendous to learn from other people. And, you know, I like to read as many great books as I can, from people talking about what they've achieved in their lives, people in business, skills, the science that's there. And when you've got all that, it's great; it expands you, it gives you that sense of personal growth. You then have to come back to, "What is right for the issues in front of me right now, not necessarily just going, 'Well, that worked somewhere else, therefore let's try it.'"
Yeah, I love what you said about coaching, and not just taking what someone tells you is the truth, or taking advice. And, you know, one of the things that I do in my business is, I have a team, and we do executive and business coaching. And one of the things that we don't do is give anyone advice on, "This is the way you should do things." I'm very clear that for me, and for the people around me, is, and listen, coaching clients ask for my opinion all the time. And I will say, "Here's what I can see, here's a perspective shift, here're some options that I can see based on what you've told me, but I'm not there. Do any of them resonate?" And what almost always happens is they go, "Oh, I hadn't thought of that that way. If I think of this, then it takes me to this." And it's not what I've said. It sparked a change. And I think that is a really important difference that... And it's not to disparage other coaches; there's lots of wonderful coaches. But there are some coaches who just, they want to be the giver of advice. They want to be the expert and the authority. And it's not about helping you get to your best answer. It is about saying, "Well, here's what I would do; you should just do the thing that I would do." That's never helpful. And, especially when there is a crisis, a challenge, an issue, that is the... You know, the advice that I give to people when they're looking for coaches is, don't find a new coach when you're in crisis or when you think you're gonna be fired from your job, or when something, that's the worst time to find a coach or consultant. You find them when things are going... When things are going somewhat well, you're looking for growth, you're looking for, not when there's a big, 'cause then you're gonna buy anything. Anything they tell you we're gonna buy it. And I think that is... I think we don't talk about that enough, quite frankly.
Yeah, And I think there's an important dynamic to talk about there, which is key for leaders going through a crisis too, which is the hero, and the mentor, and the victim dynamic. So we talk to people a lot about storytelling, and how to use that day to day. But there's a dynamic that can happen with a coach. So, like you say, if you go to a coach when you are in serious crisis, and saying to them, "Please help me, I don't know what to do." You're essentially approaching them in victim mode, and asking them to step in as the hero. And sometimes I've noticed this with coaches where you might be saying, "Hey, I'm here to grow, help me get there. I know where I wanna be." Some coaches will step in and go, "This is how I would do it." And if that happens, it feels disempowering. Because they're aiming to take the hero position in your life. And every single one of us is the hero at the center of our own journey. We have challenges, we have goals, we've got a journey that we're going on. And if you take that position away from someone, then they can be left thinking like, "How am I supposed to act now? I feel like I'm, maybe I need that person just to do everything for me," or, "Actually, I don't want that relationship around because I feel disempowered." And then, when we're doing that, as we are leading through any situation, not just leading through crisis, but as leaders in businesses, it's critical to be in that position of being the mentor, rather than being the hero. If there's a crisis going on, and as a leader, you say, "I'm now going to do everything, because I can, because I have skills," then it leads other people feeling disempowered. And so, that's not what you want; you want everybody lifted. So we talk about this concept of lift that, you know, great leaders will lift people; where you go into each part of the business, if you need to, and discuss with them, "Okay, what're your challenges right now? What're your goals? What is the journey of getting there, and what is your first step?" Not, "What am I gonna do to try and fix it?" What is your first step? So everyone is left thinking, "Okay, I'm the hero in charge of marketing," "I'm the hero in charge of IT, and we're all on a collective journey together, but I feel empowered and lifted to be able to get there, rather than the person who's sort of pushing me out out of the way. I feel like I can." And therefore, by doing that, the tide then lifts all the boats, and you're in a better position; and you get through the crisis better and together.
So I'm really curious. You mentioned some of the work that you do, and you have your book, "You Were Born to Speak." So I'm curious about... I feel like you've kind of hinted at some of the work that you do, but what is the book about, and what do you kind of focus on with the folks when you're working with them? Because it sounds like you you do deal with people when they are going through crises and facing challenging times.
Yeah, exactly, yeah. So, I mean, the core of what we're doing is communication. It's very much, as we think of it, it's advanced communication skills that you can use in every situation. And usually working with people who are very senior, the leadership of a business; because people often get to where they are because they are brilliant at what they do. They're a brilliant engineer, or they're a brilliant analyst, and they gradually get promoted to a stage where you have to have great communication skills, because you're an ambassador now of the company. You are leading and inspiring hearts and minds of your team, and potentially outward-facing for clients. So you have to have those communication skills that will allow you to get a rollout of some sort of new idea or strategy. Which, you know, going back, say, 50 or 60 years ago in business, you could potentially say to people, "This is the way, show up on Monday morning, and keep doing it until it's done." But that doesn't work this way. And particularly with the mass exodus from businesses, the mass resignation that's happened, is people saying, "Actually, if I don't feel cared for, if I don't feel that there's a good, strong purpose behind what I'm doing, actually, maybe I don't wanna be here anymore." And so, you've got to make sure that you've got these communication skills. So we teach people how to use sort of the real strength and power of storytelling in day-to-day business for emails, meetings, phone calls, presentations; what they can do physically and vocally in terms of speaking to people virtually, or speaking to people in person. And we've developed our own research on this, going back a few years ago, that showed that as a leader, if you say the same words, and you wear the same clothes, but you slightly change your behavior, body language and tone of voice, you can increase how good a leader people think you are by 44%. Whether they are men or women; we got scores on that from across Asia, Europe and North America. Just slight changes from what people tend to do day to day; which can be distracting, or can diminish the message, to elevating the message. And then taking people through how to handle objections, questioning, and listening; the whole piece. So that if we're coaching people in conflict resolution, if we're coaching them on high-level negotiations, or getting them to speak at the company conference, they've got that advanced-level communication. Such that we often say to people, "Your idea doesn't speak for itself. It doesn't matter how good an idea is it, it doesn't speak for itself. You have to do it. And you have to have the skills in place; not just think, 'I'll show up on the day, and hope for the best.' You've got to have those skills to make sure that you get the results you really deserve."
So I have a question for you about this, because I... I'm gonna ask this, and hopefully this makes sense. I think there are, I think this is really important. And, I think there are people who have the success they have because they have advanced communication skills. And because that is their skillset. And when they are then put in more advanced positions, where they have to explain more complex ideas, or present in a different way, they have relied so long on the fact that they are good off-the-cuff, they can get an idea across fairly clearly, and they are natural on a stage, or in front of people, or whatever the case may be. And that got them to this level. But that next level is actually, now this is where, like, the preparation. And it's kinda the flip side for them. And I'm curious how you deal with people like that. Because I think that they are often the people who are like, "What're you talking about? My communication is great. You can be in any situation, and I'll be just fine."
Yeah, so, before we work with people, say, if we're working with a leadership team, we get them all to fill out a questionnaire before coming in; to rate themselves, say, "How good do you think in these various different areas? What're your challenges, what're your goals?" And we do that, also, just to slightly understand what is the dynamic of this group going to be. And a lot of people come in saying, "Look, I'm struggling with this; I can't do this. I've got a big meeting coming up, I'm challenged." And then, occasionally we get one where there's somebody who rates themselves 10 out of 10 on everything. And they say, "Look, I'm an amazing communicator, everybody says so. I've always been good at this. This course, this coaching that you're doing, this isn't really for me. I'm just here 'cause I happen to be on this team. So, I'll just be sitting there, but if you want me to help out, coach the others, then, lean on me because I'm there." So I think, "Okay, great that they've got that experience. But I've been teaching communication for 22 years. I would never rate myself 10 out of 10, because I want to have the growth mindset. I wanna be able to say, 'There's always more that I can be doing.'" And so, the way that I approach that is I talk to people about sports. I say, "Let, just take it away from communication for a moment. If you look at Tiger Woods, he was winning tournaments. And then he decided, 'I'm going to change my golf swing.' And people said, 'Well, you're crazy, you're winning; you're already winning.' And he said, 'No, no, but I know how good I want to be. And what I'm currently doing isn't going to get me there. I have to rebuild what I do with my golf swing.' And Serena Williams did the same thing, where she decided to change the way she played the game of tennis, which she'd been playing since she'd been born, practically. But thought, 'Okay, in order to get to where I want to be, of the greatest...' You know, some people say she's the greatest athlete in the sport of all time. Greatest athlete of many sports of all time, some people say. And so, to get there, to go from being good to being world-leading champion, often you have to rebuild the fundamentals of how you think about the game you're playing." And so, that's how we often would approach that; to say, "I see you've got experience. Let's try putting down that experience for a couple of days. Let's rebuild these fundamentals in a different way, and see if we can get you to the next level." And that's the moment where people look at each other and go, "All right, I'm in. What we gonna do? Take me there." So it takes off on putting down what you've been doing, in order to do the next piece.
Yeah, I love that, thank you for that example. Because I think that that is... I guarantee there's people who are listening to this, like, there are people out there in the world, who are like, "I got this communication thing all figured out, right?" It's real. That's a real thing. So I appreciate that example. You know, I often tell people that the most humbling thing in my life has been, doing the kind of work I do, where I am coaching, and consulting, and speaking, and meeting different people, and every single time I've thought, 'I got this, I'm really good at this.' I meet someone who is challenging in a whole different way; I'm like, 'Nope! Nope, don't ever forget that, don't ever." It's really easy to, if we're in a bubble, to fool ourselves into thinking that, "This is it, I've reached the pinnacle of what this is." Anytime it has happened to me, and I'm very mindful of it now; in the past, I have had a moment where I'm like, "Oh, this is a whole different type of person I've never had to deal with. This is a whole different mindset, situation, challenge, whatever." And I'm like, "Okay." Constantly learning; that's why continuous improvement's so big for me. I'm like, "It's what it's all about." I want feedback, I wanna learn and grow, I do never think that I have reached a pinnacle of anything. And I think it's, I think it's a real challenge for people.
Yeah, and I think, I certainly love the idea that we've never arrived. We've never got to that point where, "Okay, this is it. I've learned everything I can learn. I've grown, and now I'm just gonna cruise on in until the day that I meet my maker." Life sends us challenges. No question, and actually, I believe that the challenges that come towards us are slightly harder, or maybe sometimes a lot harder, than what we have been able to achieve in the past.
Yeah.
That there isn't that life of cruising on in on that comfort-zone setting. We have to keep growing. Otherwise life's gonna throw us challenges that make us grow. And so, it's worthwhile thinking, like, "How long have I been comfortable for? If I've been comfortable for a while, there are challenges coming my way. So get ready for them now." And like you say, the time to keep growing and focusing on that is not when the crisis is there, but actually before it. So you prepare yourself for the next level of challenge that will always come.
Yeah. I love that. Thank you for your perspective, for sharing all this information. Before we wrap up, is there anything that we didn't get to that you want to make sure you leave the listeners with, or that you wanna emphasize?
Yeah, I think a core piece that is really important to me in communication is just for everyone to recognize that the last couple of years have been really hard on people. And what I see people doing, particularly at work, is having a bit of a mask on how well they're really doing. And so, there has been a crisis; there may still be crisis in so many businesses, people listening to this. And sometimes you may be pushing your teams quite hard to get to the next level, and hit the next level of results. And sometimes you may be frustrated with members of your team, thinking, "Come on, we just have to keep going." I would say, when you're speaking to people as a leader, the fundamental piece you must do is see their greatness. Don't see the mistakes, don't sort of label them as, "You're the terrible person that can never do this stuff." See the inner greatness in them. Do that favor of them from one human being to another, because it's the right thing to do, as a human being, is what I would believe. But also. it makes you the kind of person that people want to be with, and they want to live up to that greatness that you see. So just like, people may have had a grandparent who just always believed in them. And we, always wanted to live up to their expectations of us. If you can see that greatness, and remind somebody that it's there, if you can do that for one person today, the ripple effect that can start to have on your team, in your organization, and for how you feel about your approach day to day, it can be tremendous. So I encourage people to find one person today you can lift, and remind them of their greatness.
I think that's brilliant advice. Thank you for that. Richard, where can people find you online? What's the best place for them to connect with you?
Best place to find me and my team is ukbodytalk.com, or you can find me on LinkedIn; it's Richard Newman. And on Instagram, it's @richardnewmanspeaks.
Perfect, and all of those links will be in the show notes, for people who are listening. Don't worry if you are driving and can't write it down; they'll all be there for you to find. Richard, thank you very much for chatting with me today, and taking the time. It's been a pleasure.
Thanks so much.
[Celine] Thanks for joining me today, on the "Leading Through Crisis" podcast. If you enjoyed this conversation, please take a minute to rate and review us on your podcast app. If you're interested in learning more about any of our guests, you can find us online at www.leadingthroughcrisis.ca.