J: Welcome to Slingshot25’s Shotcast, a series of bite-sized podcasts that will feel like an espresso shot to your brain. I’m Jackie.
C: And I’m Courtney.
J: Something we’ve been thinking about is, well, we’ve been thinking about how we develop leaders. And that maybe we’re doing it wrong and we’re experimenting with some things here at slingshot 25 that we think might be a little more natural and a little easier for leaders to really figure out how to show up as a leader.
C: It’s not going to be prescriptive. You can’t turn to the right page in the book. You’re just going to have to be in the moment with a person. And we have people saying, “Just tell me what to say. Where do I start?” and honestly, it makes total sense. Who wouldn’t want to be able just to be prescribed the answer? But the truth is, in leadership, when you’re dealing with human beings, you’re in a very complex environment. You’re going to respond to different situations, different people, and we have to lean into two verbs. And we’re going to talk about these in this episode: sense or notice and respond.
J: Yeah, I like that. It boils it down in a way that I think is really helpful. And there’s a lot to that. There’s a lot to sensing and a lot to responding. We’re not trying to oversimplify something that is actually really complex, but we’re also not trying to complicate something that takes just a sense of humility to recognize that there is no one answer. And just being okay with that.
C: I was actually coaching someone. She says, “I don’t know where to start”, and I’m like, “well, that’s a beautiful place to be”. Because admitting and realizing and recognizing that every single moment you start from there. Anybody who’s told you that you know where to start is kind of trying to build you up in a fake way. People who have processes and tools and tell you it’s going to go A, B, C, D every time and if you follow these steps it will be okay are kind of misleading people in a way I think. The truth is the first step is knowing you don’t know where to start. You got to figure out where you are, sense into it, notice. Just be curious. Where am I right now? And then figure out what to do about it.
J: Yeah, I love that. So there are two things that we think about when we build any leadership content here at Slingshot25 and, and that is we think about getting leaders to think about how they should show up as a leader. This is a self-awareness aspect. What does it mean to lead? To walk in the shoes of a leader. So we spend a lot of time just getting people to think about that. That is like you mentioned in the previous episode of this series of being really authentic, being able to anchor into something that is truly you and not just trying to constantly wear some process…
C: What you’re supposed to do, look like you’re supposed to look, say what you’re supposed to say.
J: Exactly. So, we spend some time just thinking about what does it mean to you to be a leader? The other thing we do is we teach people how to interact with others in any situation for any reason. We don’t really get too precious about breaking things down into “Are you building trust in this moment?” or “Are you giving feedback in this moment?” “Are you holding someone accountable in this moment?” “Are you trying to inspire or change their performance?” We don’t get too precious about that. I mean, obviously the context is absolutely going to matter, but we are trying to find the thing that’s in common about all of those things, which is those two verbs of sense, notice what’s going on. Think about what’s going on with the other person. Notice what’s going on for you. Do all of that sensing and then respond. Respond in a way that is appropriate to the moment that you’re in.
C: There’s so much we can impact, but one of the things that on the sensing side, like you said, we probably have opportunities on both of those on the sensing side, but one of the things we talk to leaders about is noticing their own judgment. When you sense and you put it through a filter of what you think is right or wrong, what you would have done, what someone else told you, whatever…As human beings, our super power is to be judgmental. So on the sensing side, one of the ways that we can do that in a way that makes us better leaders is to sense without judgment. Try to set aside your beliefs about right and wrong. I might as well be asking you to walk on your head the rest of the day. You can’t, it’s hard to do. But just to show up and gauge the situation around you without a bunch of judgment. Start there. It’s not easy, but start there.
J: I love that. So, you know, again, we’re trying to bring some sense of like the truth at the bottom of everything here, yet understanding that this is a complex space. We don’t want to oversimplify this. But on the response side, we also like to teach some fundamental skills because, as a trainer, I can’t know what you need to say. I can’t know what you should do in that moment, but what I can teach you is how to, I’m going to use the word channel, channel some fundamental skills in every moment to guide you. You’ve got to use your logic and reasoning on top of this, that’s driven by the context. But to channel these fundamental skills of humility and curiosity and empathy and believing in the other person. When you really get in touch with those sorts of skills and you practice those, you will understand that they are the drivers of all the response. Then you worry a little less about, “Am I building trust right now?” “Am I giving feedback right now?” “Is this a tough conversation?” “Is this about inspiring someone?” Yes! Yes to all of those. And by the way, all of those things can happen in the same conversation in about a 30 second time frame.
C: And I’m thinking about what you were saying. When we get out of our way and we respond from that place, we have to buy into the fact that it might not be right. It might be scary. It might be awkward. The whole thing works. I sense, I notice, I’m curious, I’m humble, I’m there and then I’m going to do or say something and it might not work. It might not be perfect. We have to give up our judgment on the response side, because it takes the courage. It takes a willingness to say, I’m going to meet this person where I think they are and I’m going to do the best thing I can from who I want to be as a leader and. That’s always going to be the right step if it’s an authentic to who I am. I think it’s helpful for me and it’s helpful for the person. Then whatever comes up next is the next best thing.
J: I like that. I think that’s absolutely true. And I do think that there is an element of courage in all of this. That we probably don’t have time to talk about on this episode, but perhaps on a future episode, we’ll talk about courage. So that’s all for this episode of our ShotCast, but we’ll always have much more to say about anything you want to bring up. So if you want more, drop us a line at slingshot25.com. Until next time.