Four Fails, Four Focuses
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Audio Transcript:
I got to tell you, I'm beginning to wonder if this podcast isn't a podcast to watch how Alex Brennaman fails. Because here we are again. I've made some missteps or some some have come up short, and I want to share my learnings on that for hopefully, might be of value to you in your walk.
Let's let's start with, with my situation where I failed, I, you know, need to go into all the details of it, but basically, I've fallen short as as a CEO. I mean, I fall short as a CEO, as a as a dad, as a as a husband and as a as a community member, as a son, a brother or whatever.
I, I, you know, that's that's just life, I get it. But in this case, I think I want to talk to you guys, for those of you that are that are leading teams or companies for that matter, any organization. You know, this is this is it's one on one stuff. It's crazy. But I've, I've found myself where I'm behind in areas and have not it's not dereliction of duty.
But but I certainly didn't didn't come through like I'd like to. And so I'm revisiting some some focus. And you know, it's funny, I normally, I guess naturally and maybe just historically and there's probably some I read somewhere or something, I don't know, I usually try to look at like the rule of three. So I've got three things, maybe five if it's longer.
You get seven, or if you get too many, it's like so you see three, five. I had a before here and I could not get anything off there. So we'll talk about that in a minute. But here we are. So right off the bat, the first thing that that I want to talk about, that I have fallen short on is, is this whole notion of pivot points in our organization and setting benchmarks, metrics.
Right. So it's not just overall metrics. How are we doing from a revenue or profitability or those things, but many of the initiatives that we start or that I'm a part of initiating or whatever, they they can sometimes hang in the air and, and keep going. Right. So you see this a companies all the time where there's this, oh.
We really think it's a great idea. Let's do this. And, you know, maybe it was a great idea for six months, maybe was a great idea for six years, but whatever. Like all of a sudden you might look around and go, oh my gosh, we're still doing that thing. Is it? What's the outcomes on it? And I think it's so easy, you know, when you start out of course, of course you have.
Of course you have metrics, performance metrics, all that. But as you get going and you maybe you get a you get a few wins and things kind of take care of themselves. And whatever you I, I at least can get lax on the follow up and the follow through. And it's not my forte to a certain degree. And so it'll happen, you get some wins and you just kind of keep throwing out new ideas and new initiatives, and they pile up sometimes and or they maybe aren't all that effective because there were tweaks that needed made.
Well, but there wasn't this periodic review set in. And so for me, what, you know, clear targets, clear timeframes and a clear signal to pivot if needed. Right. So that's really important. So for me it's like okay, we're going to do this thing. All right. Well what what can we expect by X date. And you know what I don't care if it's unrealistic.
The expectation by the day I really don't. And I know that's a loose way to run a business. And you all have your own, you know, your own methods. That's fine. But what I need is I need something, something we're measuring to end a date. And when we get to that date, not too far out, not too far out, but not too far close up.
But you can't see actual results coming. But it can even be the leading indicators, you know? So, What? Let's use a simple thing. It can be to use a weight loss kind of model. Right? You want to get in shape. Well, you could say, well, I think by by week three or week six or whatever, I'll lose x number of pounds.
Okay. That's fine. Or you could say by week six I want to make sure I've, you know, inches or even leading indicators that I've went to the gym X number of times or I've went walking or whatever it is. Right. Or I've had, I've had this many days of a certain calorie input, whatever you want. But but having those there.
So when you get there, you can be like, you know, I said, I want to, I want to lose 30 pounds in the next three weeks. Well, I get three weeks in and I'm 3 pounds down. It's like, oh, well, 30 was asinine. Shouldn't chose that. But but 3 pounds, that's that's good. And then you adjust or you get there and you've lost nothing.
It's okay. What what have I done differently? What what should I be doing differently. And it gives you the touch point to, to adjust a pivot point, if you will. So again, not I'm not I don't don't don't follow the weight stuff I'm doing there. I'm just of on and out there. All right. So so that's clear targets clear timeframes and a clear signal to pivot if needed.
That's important. So I'm on that. My second thing is is what I, I you know traditionally done a pretty good job at this. And that's communicating the why and the the priorities and what what are we doing. What are we about our strategy. And you know, my job isn't just to lead whatever that really means. Ultimately it's it's to align.
And that means, you know, there's there's there's touch points, there's there's clear vision sharing. And as we have scaled and I don't know any you've been in this situation as we've scaled. It's gotten tougher. When we were smaller was so much easier you know. And you just have a quick conversation and maybe you talk to the few folks you have and everybody gets it and you're rocking and rolling.
And the more you do that, the more everybody is kind of a line and you're rolling together as the company gets larger and there's more things going on, more disparate things different, different focus, different job roles, those kind of things. It's it's easier for folks to drift away from what is priority here? What is our goal? What is our vision.
And while I've spent a really good I think, I think culturally as an organization, we're super aligned. And we're we're doing great. Don't get me wrong, I'm beating on myself. But this is this is what leaders do, right? There's a there's a portion of that where you've got to self assess and I'm in that stage. But it is, is is getting harder to make sure I'm communicating the vision.
So I've got to upgrade my, my ability to communicate vision. And I don't know if you may be in that situation as well. So that that's the second one. And there's I don't have it solved exactly how I've had. I've had lots of fits and starts here and I've got some things I think that work. But I am going to, you know, I'm going to kind of double down there and make sure, prioritization is easy for folks when they look at it at a high level.
The third one, I think for, for me is is really important and an a one that I struggle with. I have high levels of trust. That's not my issue. I, I struggle with delegation. I try to empower folks and I trust them, but I don't I don't super I don't delegate super well. So it's not not letting go necessarily.
And again, it's not about a trust thing. It's it's about being in the trenches and having been there, especially when you've grown a company from the founder on through. You've done every job role right. Everything you think of that happens in the company today. I've done at one point or another. And so I, I maybe it's an ego thing.
I don't think it is. But I brought value at those times. But I've obviously I've hired folks to come in who are better, smarter, faster, whatever than me to do those roles. But I still stay attached to things that maybe I shouldn't. And even if I don't stay attached from a a work situation where I'm actually contributing, I stay mentally cognitively attached, emotionally attached.
And so that's where I think the other two that we just mentioned, the setting, the pivot points, the targets, as well as the, the, the the prioritization, that delegation can happen easier because, you know, you've you've communicated clearly the priorities and we're aligned. And then, you know, you've got a touchpoint coming up with metrics you can review. And so those two things I think helped support this for me.
And I'll become a better delegator. Hopefully it's not. Again, it's not been my strength in the past, but if I can nail this, I think that'd be really powerful because there are fantastic people on my team, probably on your team that that aren't fully realized because maybe you're filling air, you're filling gaps where, where they need to fill those gaps and they want to fill those gaps, but they're they may not overrule you because you're you're in a leadership role, and they might see you that way even as much as you try to might have your culture be different.
So again, I think it's it's it's it's target's and pivot points. It's it's the communicating of the priorities and the, the vision. And then ultimately delegating to others and not just delegating everything onto one, but delegating on to someone else that, that creates a system where they can delegate to others and delegation is probably even the wrong word, is more empowering through, but anyway, that's, that's, I think, important.
And the last one and I have talked about this on podcasts a good bit. And here we are again, is this whole notion of the time I spend. And this kind of ties him to delegation. They're all related. But but this is me deliberately looking at where should my focus be in my role today. And it changes and it ebbs and flows, and it's just one of those things where periodically it's it's a good it's a good time almost every time you ever think about it.
Maybe it's a good time to review this, but it's periodic. Maybe it's quarterly, maybe it's monthly, maybe it's every six months. I don't know, maybe it's yearly for you. I don't know, depending on the pace of your business. But how do I. Where do I spend my time? Where's where's the place to put my time? And I find that I'm spending my time in some cases in areas that aren't super valuable.
And so I look at it this way. If I were to show what every minute of my day that I use it at mountain Leverage to to our employees, to everybody at Mountain Leverage, and they look at it, would they say, hey, that's a good use of the CEO's time. That's what that's what he or she in this case, he he should be doing.
And if I can't answer that with a yes, then I gotta make some adjustments. And so right now I can answer that. Yes. I mean, I'm spending way too much time in my inbox that's asked. And I know, but nobody wants a CEO to be spending a ton of time in email. And I get it. We can talk about all the, the the easy tactics, how they get it.
It's hard because communication is an important piece of what we do. And just shifting like email into slack or something else. I mean, that's it's about the attention grabbing of those things. And I need to be deeper. I need to be able to be more thoughtful and not solitude and go on the hill and and pray and meditate and all that, which again, there's there's value in that.
But, I, I just need to, to kind of find those ways. That's just one example. So this, this flourishing at mountain River starts with me. And if I'm not flourishing, what's the deal? And it's not that I'm not flourishing, but in this regard, as a CEO, if, my time is being spent, it will always waste something.
I get. It will always be in places. Maybe it didn't. We thought. We thought a meeting needed us to be there. And you're sitting there, you're like, oh, this really is needed role man role not you don't have to be pretentious about it, but go, go do whatever else you need to do. At least that's I'm talking to myself, by the way.
So I need to recommit to the habits that that keep me grounded and keep me focused in the in the role where I need to be. And that that you could extrapolate that out to, you know, Alex, the father and husband, Alex, the community member. Alex to see, right. And so put in your name in there and throw it wherever you are in your roles.
If I'm going to lead us to what's next, I got to show up whole. I've got to be there. And that kind of plays into even the time I spend in my own health, which we've talked about on this podcast. I think that's important. So those are really the four areas that I'm that I'm focusing on. It's the it's the targeted pivot points.
It's communicating the vision and the prioritization. It's it's delegating really empowering empowering folks with trust. And it's it's where I'm spending my time, my focus. You know, it's funny though, I got to four and I kept fighting to get to three or to five, and ultimately I just really embraced it. Right? So there's there's the there's four elements, there's four cardinal directions, the four seasons, you know, even even in spiritual context across Buddhism, Christianity, indigenous wisdom there, there's, there's this kind of four completeness or the four truths.
There's all those things like that. So, hey, I'm all in on four today and four for a while. So four feels balanced, it feels complete. And that's how I want this, this next season of my life to be. And how long that season is, well, that'll be determined. But, at that point it's, it's four. So those are my four today.
Hopefully, again, another Alex Reneman fail is helpful to you.
So thanks everyone. I hope you're getting value out of what we're doing here. And if you are, please review us, give us a star, some comments, whatever.
And also maybe even more importantly, share this with someone who you think it might be helpful to. You know that they might enjoy it. This hillbilly talking about his scrapes and cuts and bruises and whatnot. Hopefully it's it's, you know, somebody out there could use this and, get some value, and, you know, as I said many times, I hope, wherever you are, whatever it is you're doing and whatever, reset or seasonal adjustment, you're looking at, for your life, I 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.
