HELP Others See their AWESOMENESS
Audio Transcript:
Asher Smith (Producer):
Hey, welcome back. My name is Asher Smith. I'm the producer for Flourishing with Alex Reneman.
This past week, Alex could not get to recording an episode, but on Wednesday, we did have an article interview with a Mike Huff, who writes for EE Workplace Solutions.
And he was interviewing Alex on the topic of leadership, just to get his insights and thoughts on some certain questions and topics.
And we thought, we didn't intend for that to be a podcast episode, but we thought there, there was a lot of good excerpts in that.
So we decided that we'll use that for a podcast this week, and then we might trickle those out in the coming weeks, if we can't get out a Wrinkler podcast. In this excerpt, Alex talks about high performers that might not think they are doing enough.
Alex discusses what the remedies might be for that, or what you could do to help that, and possibly how to encourage somebody like that. And he connects it back to his little imposter syndrome, Guy Frank.
So this was some references in the past episode.
But I thought this was a great, just a minute excerpt on how you yourself, if you're a high performer, might be self-conscious and might not think you do enough, and might lead the burnout or something like that.
But it's also good if you're a leader, and you have high performers who do great, but they might not think they do great. And they might not see that in themselves, so you can lift them up and encourage them. And I think Alex explains that very well.
So let's get right into it.
Michael Huff
Okay. What about, I think you did a little bit on imposter syndrome a while back. What about when that person doesn't necessarily see that in themselves, but like that value?
Alex Reneman
You have listened to the podcast, man.
I am, yeah, I'm actually impressed. I'm pleased. I'm honored.
I'm honored. I'm humbled. So, yeah, so that's a big one.
We've got, you line a bunch of Mount Leverage employees up, and I'm not telling on, but you line a bunch of Mount Leverage employees up, and you start separating them by who thinks they're better than they are, and who has the imposter syndrome and
thinks they're worse than they are. And you will be so lopsided that the seesaw will fly anybody on the other end, clear out to the next county, because I've got a ton of people who are awesome. They're absolutely killers.
They're amazing in the world. And they second guess themselves and question their abilities. And so we're trying to solve that in every way.
We've got a cool program we're about to put in here in another month or so, another attempt to help solve that. And so that's a lot of my discussions with folks, as you are. And I think I can tell them all day long, they're great.
And I think that's important. So as a leader, if I spend time focusing on the lowest common denominator, so let's say we have some folks that are failing and aren't getting it done.
If I'm spending my communication to the company, and a lot of CEOs do this, like, hey, we're down on our numbers. We got people not selling and whatever else.
Your killer salespeople or we're not developing fast enough or digging a ditch fast enough, whatever it is. Your killers are hearing that as well. So your A players are hearing that, and they're hearing we're not doing enough, we're not doing enough.
That's hard on them. And I'm not saying you sure could everything. There's a reality that sometimes there's challenges, you got to bring them up.
But I spend more time on the other side of talking about what we're doing well, and maybe what we need to improve, sure, but not focusing on the lowest common denominator, or the people who are just dragging along and maybe probably shouldn't be
here, or they're just struggling right now and they'll find a way through it. The more I spend that way when I'm talking corporately, the more I'm bringing everybody down, and the more I'm feeding that piece.
So again, fundamentally, I try to create an environment where we're focused on the best parts of ourselves and encouraging that and supporting that. But I think there's another piece of this that's really important.
When I'm in individual conversations, I can compliment them all they want. My goal, I'm trying to help them see. I'm trying to help them see what they're doing.
And so, I had somebody the other day ask me about, we were talking about something. They said, well, I'm just somewhat new here, and I'm not really, you guys have done this great thing. And I just gave her the analogy.
I think it was shared with the company last week, but I just gave her the analogy. I said, when you're building a puzzle, which piece is the most important? Is it the first one?
Is it the last one? Is it one in between? And she was like, well, that makes sense.
It helped to realize she's important to what we're doing. And just things like that, I guess. Again, I can tell you, oh, you're doing great, you're doing great.
They want to hear that, and that's important as long as it's real and not made up. But I've found what really sticks with them. That compliment lasts for a day or two a week, who knows, maybe a month, I don't know.
But helping them see their awesomeness in a way where I can be another voice in their mind and also help them be another voice in their mind and with their imposter syndrome, to balance it out.
I think that's, as a leader, that's a really important thing. That's not easy to navigate and everybody's different.
So I don't have a template to just hand somebody say, these are the seven things you want to say to your employees to have them sorted out. It's tough, but that's my responsibility as a leader. I think that's one of the big responsibilities I have.
Michael Huff
Yeah, I think you nailed it with the balance part of it because it's, you know, as a leader, it's like, it seems like you're, you should be giving the team all the credit.
And then when something messes up, you're taking all the blame. And I think there's that fine line. And I've worked with people that are like, they think they're the best.
And then, you know, I've struggled with imposter syndrome, you know, big time. That's probably of the books I've read, it's probably mostly on that type of thing.
Like, you know, John Acuff's soundtracks, one is one that sticks with me, you know, those soundtracks you play in your head. Those things that you say to yourself, would you say that to somebody else? I try to think about that.
But yeah, just kind of, you know, finding the good. That's another thing we focus on in the leadership training, is, you know, finding the good.
And, you know, we challenge leaders to talk about that and the impact it had on the team and the organization. And it's a struggle for them.
Like, tell me about something, you know, a specific behavior that was good, that recently happened, that had a big impact on your team and the organization. And I see them, you know, they're all kind of looking up and trying to figure out what it is.
But if you ask them to, like, what was the last time somebody let you down, or somebody failed, or you had, you know, unplanned downtime, you know, they're writing, you know, lists of that stuff.
So we're just trying to change that mindset of finding the good. And then when you find that good, recognizing that specific behavior, because you do that because you want it repeated, right?
Alex Reneman
Yep. I think it's interesting you bring that up.
One of the things I think about from myself, and I think this is applicable to this conversation and many others, when you talk about that soundtrack, we all have the soundtracks in our head, but we tell ourselves, and Mike weaponize that guy,
weaponize him, man, like we talked about in the podcast, weaponize him. He's an asset, or he or whoever in your head is an asset, ultimately, if you can weaponize him.
But how I see myself often in the company, and this goes back to the old movie, a wild movie, Clockwork Orange, I don't know what you say. Oh, yeah. I think that's what it's called, right?
And he phrases himself as the humble narrator, right? He's the humble narrator. And I really kind of consider myself that at Mountain Leverage, that I'm the humble narrator.
Yeah, I'm the founder and the CEO, right? Somebody has to fill that role. But I'm also the humble narrator.
And so when we have a year or we have a period that's maybe not been as successful as we wanted or something difficult happened or whatever else, I can narrate the story and remind us of some things that were amazing in the process.
Or even when I'm talking to an individual, I can remind them of things that were awesome to help be another storyline, another soundtrack in their mind that they can play themselves. And so I do think that's an important piece.
And you're right, I see myself as the humble narrator of Mountain Leverage often.
Michael Huff
What was yours, Frank? What was the name?
Alex Reneman
Frank, yeah, you're right. Man, you are dialed in, dude. Yeah, Frank is my guy, dude.
He's talking to me right now. When you asked me, look, seriously, when you asked me the opening question about leadership and being a leader, Frank's like, are you kidding me? You're not a leader, blah, blah, blah.
Right, you're hearing all that stuff. And then you heard me kind of psychologically work my way around it. There's a lot of effort.
I get it. And I went through all that. If you play this recording back, you'll see me.
I'm not talking to you. I'm talking to Frank. I'm talking to myself.
And I've tried tricks where I say, you know, you talk to yourself like Alex. Don't talk to Alex that way. Alex doesn't want this.
But the best thing for me has ultimately been to weaponize that guy and say, hey, I appreciate you, man. It's like my primal brain saying, you know, go eat that snacky cake. But my other my modern brain saying Frank is more my primal guy.
And that's OK. I can appreciate it. But not everybody's kind of navigated that for themselves and sorted it out.
So I just try to help be the narrator to help help be another voice and allow them to have another voice in their head. Because I got to tell you, man, they're probably I get I get it. There's turd employees out there everywhere.
But for us, in my experience, there are more people that want to be good, that want to do the good things, that want to be great. And if they had someone help them see how great they were, they would be great.
And then they would help other people be great. And now I'm getting Shangri-La and I know this where the hippie comes in. But but ultimately, that's how we work, right?
That's the that's the momentum we want in the world of more people being great and wanting others to be great, as opposed to I gotta be great to cut you down or I gotta cut myself down. And it just the whole thing's ugly.
Michael Huff
Yeah. Yeah, no, I get it.
I think it's a it's a great mentality to kind of like, you know, not to get biblical, but you're kind of spending that message and then they're sending the message.
And yeah, sure. You know.
Alex Reneman
Hey, good news is spread fast, man. And I know the negative news spreads to 10 and good news to two.
But but true good news, when it spread, it lands and it sticks. It doesn't just it doesn't wait for the next news cycle. Really good news sticks.
And I think the more of us are spreading that the better.
Asher Smith (Producer):
Thanks for popping in and taking a listen.
Next week, we will not have a set theme or challenge because Alex wasn't able to get to a regular formatted episode.
But maybe I guess I could encourage you guys to think about how you can be the person to encourage someone who does a lot and they might not recognize it in themselves.
So I've often at least seen people where they do a lot on a daily basis and they do a lot for me, they do a lot for others, and they constantly give, give, give.
But they never recognize that and they never recognize that, they do a lot and they always think they have to do more, and they always think they never do enough.
And just to be able to stand out and to be the person to encourage them and tell them that they do enough, even if they may still struggle to believe it, sometimes that can just make their day just a little bit better.
So it's not a very set challenge, but I guess I would just leave that as a word of encouragement just in regards to what Alex talked about in that excerpt. And with that, wherever you are, we hope you're flourishing.
Alex Reneman is the founder of Mountain Leverage and Unleash Tygart and host of Flourishing w/ Alex Reneman. For 20+ years he has worked as CEO of Mountain Leverage, honing the concept of flourishing and experimenting with it in the business. In July of 2024, he decided to begin to share this idea with others, which led to his podcast, social content, and the plans for other initiatives in the future.
