Lead In 30 Podcast

Balancing Leadership and Life: Insights from a Fortune 20 Executive's Sabbatical

• Russ Hill

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#345: What happens when a top executive steps away from the helm for personal reasons? We're pulling back the curtain on an incredible story of a senior leader at a Fortune 20 company who took a sabbatical to address family matters and found her leadership skills enhanced in unexpected ways. This episode promises to challenge your views on balancing personal life with high-stakes professional roles. 

Discover the art of maintaining strategic presence. This episode provides keen insights into why leaders need to focus on future planning rather than getting bogged down in the minutiae of daily operations. Learn the critical importance of delegating present-focused tasks to your A players to ensure you're steering the ship towards long-term success.

Balancing future ambitions with everyday attention isn't just a cliché—it's a leadership necessity. Through a personal anecdote from a team off-site in Sundance, Utah, I reveal how being mindful of the present can enrich both your personal and professional lives. We discuss the power of surrounding yourself with visionary content and forward-thinking individuals to fuel your ability to see ahead and make your dreams a reality. Join us as we unpack these profound insights and provide practical advice to elevate your leadership game.

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About the podcast:
The Lead In 30 Podcast with Russ Hill is for leaders of teams who want to grow and accelerate their results. In each episode, Russ Hill shares what he's learned consulting executives. Subscribe to get two new episodes every week. To connect with Russ message him on LinkedIn!



Speaker 1:

She's on a sabbatical right now from her senior executive role because of something that's happening in her family, and talking to her reminded me of something that I haven't emphasized in a while. Let's talk about it.

Speaker 2:

This is the lead in 30 podcast with Russ Hill. You cannot be serious. Strengthen your ability to lead in less than 30 minutes. Serious Strengthen your ability to lead in less than 30 minutes.

Speaker 1:

Welcome in to the Lead in 30 podcast. In less than 30 minutes, we give you a model, a framework, an example, a story, a best practice, something to think about to help you more effectively lead others, so that you can scale your results, scale your engagement, loyalty, scale your career and scale your impact and scale your lifestyle. I'm Russ Hill. I am the host of this little corner of the internet and I make my living coaching, consulting senior executive teams at some amazing companies. You can find out more at LoneRockConsultingcom or LeadIn30.com. Leadin30, by the way, is the name of the podcast, but it's also the name of our 30-day leadership development training course. By the way, we just wrote a research paper. Wrote a research paper, in fact. No, I'm not going to put a link in the show notes, but if you aren't subscribed to our newsletter, we don't spam people, you all. This is not a sales newsletter. This is once a week. You'll get an email to your inbox that brings value and if it ever doesn't, you just click on subscribe. Right, but you can register for the newsletter that we send out to thousands and thousands of leaders. I think we send it out Wednesday or Thursday I'm not quite sure when the team gets it out, but we discuss the content, every single one of them, and you can register for it, subscribe to it. There's a link in the show notes, just swipe up or over or whatever. But we're going to put the research paper, a link to it, in one of the upcoming newsletters. There is some new research about the way that we develop leaders, and when I say we, I mean organizations. And it's stunning, you all. It's just crazy, it's absolutely crazy. So, whether you work in a large organization or a smaller one, we've got some work to do in the way that we register that way that we develop leaders.

Speaker 1:

Sorry, I'm totally distracted by this absolutely gorgeous Tesla. Oh, my gosh, I've never seen one in that color. It's like this brown, it's. I'm not going to be able to do it justice at all. It's like this brown, but, um, well, like what kind of brown? I don't even know? Like a desert brown, um, and then it's like a matte finish. Holy crap, that thing is gorgeous, wow, and I'm not a huge fan of Teslas, well, whatever. Anyway, sorry, I'm on the road. Can you tell Guess where I'm heading? Any idea Guess where I'm driving? Yep, the airport, because that is my life right now Tons and tons of stuff going on, which is awesome. I will never complain about that. Okay, so that's why the audio quality sounds like it is.

Speaker 1:

Anyway, new research about the way we're developing leaders. You got to read it. Basically, the way we're doing it's flawed, and made us feel really good about what we're doing in Leadin30. Leadin30.com. If you want more on that, all right.

Speaker 1:

Let's talk about sabbatical, not really, but I want to talk about something that I was reminded of in a Zoom call with a senior executive at a Fortune 20 company that we consult. And this senior executive somebody we worked with for years and she's remarkable, just remarkable as a human being, as a, as an executive, and her level of curiosity and her ability to move, listen to feedback and shift and the vision and direction that she provides to her organization, the buy-in that she gets the team, the way that her team feels about her, the results that she delivers, her ability to be strategic and yada, yada, yada, yada, like so much. She demonstrates what we call the third leader, right and just absolutely focused on clarity, alignment, movement in the way that she leads and she's just awesome. No leader's perfect. We're all working on things and and just her. Her ability to um, to seek feedback and be in discovery mode is huge and um, and so she's on sabbatical, cause all I'm going to say is there's stuff going on in her family and she wants to be present for and it's super important and uh, so she made what I think is a really wise decision to take some time, and her employer allows that, and so she's still somewhat present.

Speaker 1:

She's not completely off the grid, which I think is smart and a great strategic move by her, and there's a lot of movement going on in her organization. She wants to be present for that and aware of it and involved, but can't right now be showing up every day. So we're on this call, the Zoom check-in with her which we do every month, and so she wanted to make sure she's still doing that, even on sabbatical, which I'm so glad that she put that on her calendar because of all the movement that's happening in her organization. So we're on this call and I'm noticing something different about her and it is, if I had to describe it. I sent her a text yesterday and I said hey, by the way, just an observation if you're open to it I noticed that you are more present in the present than I've ever seen you and it reminded me watching her and hearing her and just the body language, everything about it. She was just totally present.

Speaker 1:

Does that make sense? Do you understand what I'm saying? Let me explain. So those of you that are like, what do you mean? Like I don't understand what I mean is that the more, the higher in an organization you go, the higher on the org chart, the more that you want to scale the organization that you lead, that you own that, whatever it is, the more you have to be flying at a high altitude. And when you're flying at a high altitude, it means that you're not totally present in the day-to-day because you can't be. You're paying other people to do that. You've got members of your team that are totally living in the present. You know in previous episodes it's been a long time, but I talk about past, present, future. Right, that continuum. If you draw that arrow, go in both ways, both directions, and you've got past, present and future.

Speaker 1:

And you think about where you spend most of your time thinking mentally, where are you? And even tactically, do you spend most of your time thinking mentally, where are you? And even tactically do you spend most of your time thinking about the past. Well, holy crud are you getting? You're just getting lapped by competitors, by peers, by all of those, and some of you are stuck there. The stories you tell are all about the past. You think about the past, you you're, you're just stuck there. You think about the past. You're just stuck there, and either because that's what got you where you're at or because something happened to you that was negative and so you can't get over it. You're still mourning it. So you're stuck in the past. Or you're not willing to innovate or be curious or whatever else. So you don't know the new way.

Speaker 1:

And, by the way, the world's in faster motion than it's ever been, definitely in our lifetimes, in your lifetime, but I would argue, even in. And what do I know? Because I've only lived. You know the years that I've lived. So I've been around for all of history. But I've got to believe that the world's in faster motion now than ever. I think that just accelerates, right. We could spend a lot of time thinking about that, debating that, but that's my theory, that's my belief. So the world's in faster motion.

Speaker 1:

So if you're stuck in the past, man, you are in bad shape, and some of you are, some of the people you work for and with are, and which is a really good thing to be aware of and then to think well, why am I here? Because that's probably holding you back, and this career of yours is not endless, and and so if you spend two, five years at an organization or working for a boss that leans into the past, you're losing opportunity to learn, grow and expand your impact. Okay, so some of you are stuck in the past. Some of you are in the present. Those are the people that manage the schedule, that are on the factory floor, that are looking at what's coming off of the line, that are in the retail establishment running the restaurant. They're making sure every table is getting the like they're. They're, whatever it might be.

Speaker 1:

We pay people to be in the present, and then the higher on the org chart you go, or the more you want to scale an organization, the more you have to be on that continuum toward future. And so this executive that I'm telling the story about in this episode, she's paid to be in the present. She is a very strategic thinker and her mind is. She's very smart, and so she. You're going too deep in there. You're now paying other people to do that. So don't go into the complexity of the moment. Let them solve that, give the strategic direction and then let them go right. And so she's done a good job of adjusting in that way over the last, I'd say, 18 months, and so when you interact with her, she's very much in the future.

Speaker 1:

I am too, many of you are too, and that's important you have to be. And yet there is this challenge that we face, especially in our personal lives as parents, or with friends or with family, whatever it looks like for you in your personal life. You have to be somewhat future focused there too, but you can miss out a lot by not being able to navigate and adjust in the moment to being present. Let me give you an example moment to being present. Let me give you an example. So we were just spent a few days up in Sundance, sundance Utah place that Robert Redford owns, and you know. You know the Sundance Film Festival and all that stuff, and so just those of you that aren't familiar with Sundance Utah and that's probably the majority of you you know, just picture pine trees, picture aspens, picture snow-capped mountains, picture beautiful, beautiful scenery and waterfalls and all of that, the stuff you see in just the most gorgeous areas of mountains.

Speaker 1:

And so we had an off-site with part of our team and with some outsiders that are, that are looking at the firm and that are working on some different projects for us, and and so we had a few days with different groups up in the Aspens, in the pines, at this beautiful home, this cabin in the pines, at this beautiful home, this cabin, and there were a couple of moments over those few days where I reminded myself be present right now, like the discussion today is all about the future, it's all about strategy, it's all about where we need to go, it's all about all of that, right. And so the vast majority of those days I'm in the future, strategically thinking, I'm not present in the present, if that makes sense, you with me. But then there are a few moments during the day where I thought, russ, are you fully present right now, like you're standing out on the balcony of this amazing cabin, in this amazing place, just for a moment and it might be five minutes, it might be two minutes, it might be an hour, it might be a couple of hours be fully present. Are you soaking this up, are you full of gratitude and just allowing yourself to be in this moment and realize where you are and how fortunate you are to be at this place in your career and in your life and to have the health you have at this moment and to be able to be cognitively present? All of that and just appreciate it Fully, fully present, not wishing for something to be different, not planning something to be different, not hoping it would be that way, not planning that, because that's what we do, especially if you're driven and successful, you're constantly thinking about what could be, what needs to be, and you're solving that puzzle and you're living that way, right. And so this call was a reminder, as I'm seeing this executive, who is fully present a few weeks into her sabbatical and she's telling these stories about her family and about some of things going on. And even when we're talking business, there's just a difference and it was just awesome. And so I hope that makes sense to you, I hope you understand what I'm saying.

Speaker 1:

This ability to be present and as I look back at decades of my life, you know, with four kids and a family and all that sort of thing, there are moments like what does it for me especially is swiping through photos, or the widget on my iPhone that has memories from the past. You have that on your iPhone or your phone, the little widget that pulls up images, and just every day pulls up different random images from your past. And you see that image like, oh my gosh, that's such a funny picture. Oh my goodness, I forgot about that experience. Or oh my goodness, I haven't thought about that. It's like my favorite thing about my phone. So that image comes up and I sometimes I see that and I go was I fully present for that? Like now I look at that image and I'm full of gratitude for that experience or that moment. That's now long past. And sometimes it pops up and I'm like, oh, I don't know that I was present enough. Are you tracking with me? And the same thing is true. This is you know you could tie this to the journey is the reward.

Speaker 1:

You know, in one of the days up in Sundance with our some of the folks that we've got leading different areas of our organization, some of the projects we're working on, some things we're building, you know we're we're just, we're all just addicted to growth, right? Just, we're all just addicted to growth right. So we're just, we want to be where we like. We want to be where we're going to be a year from now. We want to be there like two hours from now. We're just driven, absolutely driven. We've got like zero patients, we've got urgency, we've got tons of ideas. There's tons of enthusiasm. It is awesome.

Speaker 1:

And there was a moment with the team where I'm like you all, like as we, I don't have any doubt we're going to get to that thing that we're talking about, like we're headed there, but let's be careful and what I was saying was more directed at me, quite honestly, than anybody else. Let's just appreciate, like, the size of our team's going to be 10 X, five, xx, whatever it's going to be. Then we're gonna have so many people problems, we're gonna have so many additional pro, like so many more um, client challenges or things that we've got to solve, or this, that or the other, like it's gonna be beautiful, it's gonna be awesome, but can we just appreciate how fun this moment is, how amazing it is, how like, just like, we are so fortunate. So, even if it's for 30 seconds, just be present in this moment and and be grateful for it, soak it up, get everything out of it that we can. All right, you get the point. I'm just belaboring it Like Russ. I got it. Okay, thank you for the reminder.

Speaker 1:

Anyway, it was a good one with me on this call to see this executive present in a way that I had never seen her before, and so it doesn't mean we don't have to live in the future. It doesn't mean we shouldn't do any of that, because that's our strategic advantage as a leader. Some leaders socket that like they don't have that mode, that gear, that lens. So if you've got it and some of you struggle with it, you're too present, you're too much in the moment and you, you've got to be more in the future. Some of you, I actually need to be giving you the opposite coaching, like stop soaking up the moment, stop thinking about the problems of today, stop living in the here and now, like you've got to be further ahead. And what gives you the ability to do that? It's one thing, it's absolutely one thing and only one thing what gives you the ability to do it? There's one thing that gives you the ability, unlocks it for you, and there's another thing that helps you do it. So let me give you both real quick If you struggle with that, because it's a good reminder for all of us what gives you the ability, unlocks the lens to the future, is having enough of the right people.

Speaker 1:

Not C players, not B minus players, a players. These are A players and they oversee areas that they've got expertise and wisdom and experience in, not ability to figure it out. They know what they're doing. They've been here before in that particular space. You pay them to be in the present and solve that. If you don't have the right people, if you don't have enough of them, your leadership team isn't structured, large enough or strong enough, you cannot do what I'm talking about. You are chained to the present and you will be until you solve that period.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so doing that, building that team, getting those people in place and, by the way, for some of you, the size of your organization or the size of the area that you lead, that's one person, that's only one person. That's all we're talking about. Others of you were talking about it's a group of 10 or five. It's hardly more than that. I don't care if you're 20,000 people, it's hardly more that you're leading, it's hardly more than that at your level, reporting into you that you need. For a lot of you, it's just one person that you need. They can handle a lot of that and you go. Others of you it's three, four, five, maybe 10. And you got to have the right people in those spots. You're never going to bat a thousand. You're always going to be changing one out, moving one out, moving one in, because there are challenges and they've got opportunities, if they're really an A player. So you're constantly managing that. Okay. So that unlocks that ability.

Speaker 1:

Now, what accelerates or strengthens your ability to live in the future or think in the future? Consuming content and having conversations and being around people, customers, people who are visionary, consultants and coaches and experts and people in the industry. I went to lunch with somebody last week, totally valuable, to help me think in the future. They're not in our industry, they're just somebody that I know, an acquaintance. Having that conversation helped me think in the future Certain podcasts that I listen to, certain books, that I read certain research papers, that I read certain people, that I listen to certain books, that I read certain research papers, that I read certain people, that I network with certain people that I pay for access to. They help me think in the future, right, so it's both of those things.

Speaker 1:

One, having the right people unlocks gives you the freedom to do that, and two, it's what are you consuming? Remember, we talked about this concept of what you consume determines or impacts what you create. So I'm going to consume conversations, I'm going to consume content, I'm going to consume time with people who are visionary, who think different, who ideate, who are the customer, and I'm going to listen to the problems that they need solved. It's all of those things. And now, oh my gosh, you're getting filled with ideas. Oh, what if we did that? Or the market there's an opening in the market for that, or this is a thing, and that's beautiful. It is so freaking fun to be able to solve those problems.

Speaker 1:

Okay, lead in 30. I got to keep it under 30 minutes. Hope that's helpful. And I'm so grateful to be able to work with so many great executives who teach me, who teach me so much, and I'm grateful to work in an environment where I get to learn from this leader and share it in a podcast or post it on LinkedIn or write about it in a book or put it into course content like lead in 30. The course lead in 30 is the result of interacting with executives for 20 years 20 years for me and 20 years for each of our co-founders. You take all that together and then you put some people from different companies and different, that have different strengths. You put them together and then you throw in an instructional designer and a couple of different things and it's like whoa, that stinking wisdom that can help people, and so it's so fun. All right, hope you're all doing well. I'll talk to you in the next episode of the Lead in 30 podcast.

Speaker 2:

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