Lead In 30 Podcast

Choosing Growth Over Comfort: Did This Executive Surrender?

• Russ Hill

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#346 What drives a successful senior executive to abandon a high-stakes career for a quieter life? Is she surrendering? This episode of Lead in 30 uncovers the profound motivations and challenges behind such bold career decisions. We'll explore the fears and apprehensions that come with leaving behind a demanding role, and the broader implications for mental and physical health when opting for a slower pace.

Next, we delve into the delicate balance between maintaining a sustainable work pace and the desire to slow down. Is it possible to stay mentally sharp and physically active without the rush of a high-powered job? Learn about the common pitfalls of complacency and a sedentary lifestyle, and why staying engaged is crucial. We recount a memorable interaction with a Russian soldier, highlighting the global impact of our podcast, and share insights from a day spent with an executive team committed to growth and transparency.

Finally, we emphasize the importance of choosing the steeper growth curve for continued personal and professional development. Staying active and continuously challenging yourself is not just beneficial for you, but essential for those who depend on your leadership. We encourage embracing difficult problems and nurturing important relationships, particularly for the next generation. Keep growing, stay in motion, and remain present in your professional journey. Don’t forget to share this episode with your colleagues, team, or friends to spread these valuable insights.

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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 said it to me several hours ago. She made this comment. We had a brief conversation and the entire flight home tonight. I've been thinking about it and I'm wondering if she's surrendering, and if some of you are too. Let's talk about it in this episode.

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.

Speaker 1:

You're listening to Lead in 30. Had a phenomenal meeting today with the executive team of an amazing company. The things that they're delivering, the results, the story they're building and writing is just remarkable and I just loved it. It was such an energizing day. You know, when you get people that are just, they want to learn and they're willing to look at themselves in the mirror and they're willing to be honest with themselves and to acknowledge where there's progress and where they need to make adjustments and and and have a dialogue about like, ah, like. That's so amazing to me. I love it.

Speaker 1:

And yet, in the middle of that, I had a conversation with a member of the executive team who is making a change and she's not going to be. This happens all the time. Right, this story could apply to so many different organizations any week that we're working with. People are moving around from organization to organization. There's a marketplace for talent out there, and so it's happening all the time. And yet this conversation really struck me and I want you to think about it. Like this is like a therapy session in this episode, because, as I've been thinking about what this particular executive said to me, the decision that she has come to scares the crap out of me, like I don't ever want to make that decision. Well, sort of, let me walk you through it and see what you think and have you think about it.

Speaker 1:

Welcome in to the Lead in 30 podcast, in less than 30 minutes. We give you, in every episode, a model, a principle, a framework, a story. That's what I'm giving you today an experience, a best practice, something to think about as it pertains to your desire to grow, to succeed, to more effectively lead others. My name is Russ Hill. I make my living coaching, consulting senior executive teams at some of the world's most amazing companies, and I'm excited to have you in the audience In one of these upcoming episodes.

Speaker 1:

I'm going to share with you a conversation I had with a listener to the podcast in Russia. In Russia, and even more than that, he's a soldier, he's a member of the military in Russia and he listens to the podcast, and we had a chance to connect on Zoom for just a few minutes. I got to do an episode on that, okay, so anyway, I'm so grateful for, wherever you're at, whether there's so much that we could say about that. Right, I walked away from that conversation. You all like blown away, blown away and uh, just so. So, so many takeaways, so many things to think about, and that that would be true of a conversation with any of you. Um, what was the I can't remember the name of the country now where, a few years ago, we were looking at some of the statistics and it was like number four, some country I don't even think I'd heard about, and it was like the four we. It was the, the, the country where, um, like, if you look at the number of listeners in different countries the us, of course, by and far, by and far, uh, far and away the number, and then it goes into, you know, parts of Europe and whatever, canada. But this country surprised us, and so I had a chance, somebody I said something about that in an episode and somebody direct messaged me from that country and LinkedIn. They're like hey, yeah, well, this is day over and whatever. It was just so interesting that I could just be in Phoenix, arizona, on my way home from the airport and after having been in a total different part of the United States, and I'm recording this, we'll send it out in a week or two, and whatever the time frame is and all over the world. That's just amazing to me, so I'm glad to have you there.

Speaker 1:

If you want to learn more about Lead in 30, the course, the 30-day leadership course, go to leadin30.com. Okay, so here's what this executive said to me, and I'm going to keep it broad because that's what I always do in these stories. But this executive said you know. But this executive said you know, the pace here at this organization now is such that I'm not into it. I'm obviously paraphrasing right. This is how I interpreted the conversation. And so I'm going to leave, I'm going to leave the organization and I'm going to go do something different and slow down. I'm going to slow down.

Speaker 1:

This is not a 60-year-old, this is not a 70-year-old, this is not a 55-year-old and, by the way, I still have a problem with that at some of those ages. But maybe it's my personal problem. I'll get into why I fear this in a moment. And so and it's probably has a lot to do with where I'm at in life, the stage I'm at, the phase I'm at right, and so let me share more about that in a minute. So, anyway, so she's saying so yeah, we're just like. What we're trying to accomplish here is remarkable. And in my level on the senior executive team. The she's saying so yeah, we're just like. What we're trying to accomplish here is remarkable. And in my level on the senior executive team, the executive leadership team, there's just a commitment that I am not interested in making. And she's young, like I'm talking, I would I'm not sure, like I'm going to walk up to a senior executive as some female and say how old are you? Like yeah, okay, no, so I don't know exactly how old she is, um, but I, if I had to guess, I'd say 45 or 40 to 45. I, I, I'd probably put money on 45. Okay, extremely bright, Extremely capable, and she's walking away from the corporate world.

Speaker 1:

And again, there's a variation of this story that could be played out week to week Some guy, some gal, some, whomever, at a different company making this change or doing that, or what I'm describing for you. We have people that retire all the time, that are clients of ours or they're on an executive team and they decide to retire. They decide to. You know they're not gonna work at this gigantic corporation anymore, but they've got, or they wanna do something else now, or they wanna go into consulting, or they wanna work as a, whatever they wanna do. That Awesome Like. And there's this, there's this drive within them that you're like OK, well, you're on to the next challenge. This was different.

Speaker 1:

It was like I'm going to slow it down, I'm going to step back, I'm like you're in your mid 40s. Well, here's why. That's why that scares me and there's no judgment here. You are, I'm missing out on something that I'm going to do a podcast, like in 10 years, and I'm really like oh, I finally get it. Yeah, I get it. And uh, but right now I don't get it. And and here's the thing, um, being tired, being tired, and um, and saying I'm going to just slow it down or I'm going to walk away from this.

Speaker 1:

In my mind, it leads to deterioration, a flatter growth curve. I am convinced that your mind and your body know it and they adjust and the engine goes slower and the heart beats slower and the mind takes longer to compute. And I understand that we're not wired to like well, some people are, but they're the exception To like, give it their all and be moving at 150 miles an hour until the day that they, you know, die of old age, at 89 or 82 or 93 or whatever it might be in your gene pool or in your environment. I understand that. I understand that there's this phase of whatever and there are some people who, at 45 or 40, dream of retirement. You know the interesting thing, and I'm sure I'm the weird one I don't dream of retirement.

Speaker 1:

I fear it Is that totally weird, like I'm not working towards this thing of, hey, we're going to get that much money, we're going to put that much weight and then we're just going to end it and we're going to Do nothing. We're going to play golf and lose our fashion sense and think that it's strenuous to go do 18 holes of golf once a month. Or we're going to go garden and plant some tomatoes and that's going to kind of be the weekly activity. Now, you all, I'm not like if you're 75 or 80, and that's you like, I get it, okay. I get that your body is slower, I get that. Yeah, no, I'm not talking about that.

Speaker 1:

But at 45 or 35 or whatever it might be, no, because I want to be present, like we talked about in a recent episode, and to be present means this brain's got to be working man, this hard drive's got to be spinning, this thing's got to be moving and with age it just affects it. I'm old enough now to know that that affects it a little bit, but I think I have a lot of control over that. And it's by how much I'm stimulating that brain muscle, whether or not I'm putting in front of myself or choosing challenges that are hard to solve, right, right, whether I'm I'm putting pressure on myself to deliver and do these things and I'm making it tough for myself intellectually. Because I get to choose that and, by the way, so do you. You get to choose if, by what job you have, what career you have, what position you have, what you're doing, what you choose to deliver, how high you set the bar for the team or the organization that you work at and for yourself. You get to choose how hard it's going to be.

Speaker 1:

And our bodies and brains are wired to want to Like. We were born wanting to slow down. Could I just sit here on the couch, not even be in any clothes, just wear this diaper, not even be in any clothes, just wear this diaper. And will you bring me food every well, just whenever I cry, and then do whatever I want? Just bring it to me, right, like we're. We come out of the womb. That way the body is like yeah, I mean, we have some energy burst, like I'm gonna go throw this and run up that and then it's just okay, I don't want to do anything and I don't want to eat that, and I don't want to get up and do that and I don't want to do homework, and I like we're wired that way, and so the part of the wonderful lesson of life is to fight that and to kind of rewire. You can't ever get rid of that completely, but you rewire your way of thinking, you develop habits that are different than that. Oh, I'm going to wake up at this time. I'm going to do this thing, I'm going to work this hard, I'm going to go to the gym, I'm going to run those many miles, I'm going to hike that thing, I'm going to ride that bike. I'm going to like I'm going to do some things.

Speaker 1:

Who was it that I was talking to? That said recently that like oh, I don't know who it was that was talking about. They know what it takes to inflict pain on their body and like how much is too much and how hard it needs to be pushed to kind of really struggle their body physically, and so they pick a routine that they're very aware of how hard is hard enough, but not quite to the line of too hard, to where their body is going to shut down or it's going to cause injury. And when this person came to me, I was like that's really interesting and yeah, it's really to cause injury. And when this person came to me, I was like that's really interesting and yeah, it's really really interesting, and I've been thinking about that.

Speaker 1:

So, anyway, here's the punchline, here's the takeaway from it Are you giving in, are you giving in to the desire to surrender? And do you agree with me, are you aligned with my opinion that when you do that, that your brain's going to start working slower and your body's going to become weaker? Now let me I got to throw in a huge yeah, but here a disclaimer because, look, it's totally human and healthy to rest, sprint and rest, sprint and rest, sprint and rest. Right what Naval Ravikant teaches, who I quote a bunch. And so it's totally normal for you to experience a season, which might be a day, it might be a week season, which might be a day, it might be a week, it might be three months, it might even be a year, but you're like you know what I got to slow it down and there's extenuating circumstances that cause that. It might be health issues your body or your mind or mental health, or something in your family or something that's going on, or you've just overdone it and you're at a level of exhaustion because you, you didn't respect where that line is on how hard to push your body and how hard to push your mind, and you overstepped it and so your body just needs to be plugged into the wall for like three months and recharge and rebooted. Right, like that's normal. Right, like that's normal.

Speaker 1:

I'm talking about a permanent decision. So going and sitting on the couch or the beach or taking a leave of absence or slowing it down for a while, it's totally healthy. Like I'm not talking about that, that's good. Good. I'm talking about making this decision that, yeah, I'm not wired to move at this speed ever and it and it's not, and what the situation we're talking about in this example is not a crazy speed, it's not like startup insane that where you know there are people that, like work at the.

Speaker 1:

You see them, they work at the white house or in in certain levels of the government, or they work for an amazon or a massive corporation, an Apple or something like that, or in the startup environment, and they do five years or three years and they age tremendously because they're working 90 hours a week or 120, or they're working six days a week or seven days a week and, yeah, you got to step away from that permanently or at least for a long period of time. That's insanity. Like that I mean, there's huge wisdom and growth to unlock from that experience. But you can't sustain that over an extended period of time unless you're like the freak show, like the oddity, like the total outlier. So I'm not talking about that. That's not the environment that this executive works in liar. So I'm not talking about that. That's not the environment that this executive works in. This executive works in a 50 hour a week environment. That's intense but not crazy, totally sustainable. Just say no, not into that. And so I just I don't know.

Speaker 1:

I don't know if this episode is bringing value to I hope it is, because what I'm trying to get you to think about is because what I'm trying to get you to think about is are you given into the desire to slow down permanently, to flatten the growth curve? And if you are, what I think that does for you. I just think we need to have our eyes wide open, that when we decide that permanently, okay, I'm going to scale it back, I'm going to pick easier jobs or this is a really easy one, I've got mastery of the industry, I've got mastery of the department or the position or the problems that, like I'm, this is every. There aren't many days that I have a big surprise. I, this is kind of the space I know really well. I'm I'm 100 comfortable in it and I'm just going to stay here in this area, in this industry, in this department, in this specialty, at this level of the organization, in this size company. I'm just going to stay here now for a while. Okay, well, I just think you have to have your eyes wide open.

Speaker 1:

Which is your system is going to be affected by that, mentally, physically. The same thing is true physically, right? Okay, well, I'm just not like. I'm going to mostly come home and watch television. Do you know? The last time was that I watched a television, and I'm not advocating that, I mean, it's just the way.

Speaker 1:

I that you could say there's problems with with it, for me too, but, um, no, and why? Because I want to stay. I want to stay active up motion. I want my mind in motion, I want my body in motion. Why? Because I want to stay active up motion. I want my mind in motion, I want my body in motion. Why? Because it keeps that hard drive spinning. It keeps the gears moving Physically. It keeps me capable. I don't get tired as easily, I don't get out of breath as easily. You don't say to me hey, russ, do you want to walk up those four flights of stairs? And I go, oh my gosh, I don't think I can make it. And I see that all around me. All around me, because people that are just ah, that's kind of harder. So I don't want to be in that much motion. And again, if you're going in with your eyes wide open and you go, okay, well, I'm fine with that, I'm fine being out of breath, going to get, you know, an ice cream from the refrigerator.

Speaker 1:

It's different when you're 75 or 85, people, but when you're 45 or 35, now any of you who are 25, who are in that situation like you got to call me, like I'm going to give out my cell phone number. You got to call. Actually, I don't want your call because I can't fix you. You've got I can't help you. You got issues that are actually don't want to spend a lot of well. I mean and I'm not talking about a depression or going through a rough spell or whatever and you're not motivated right now, like that just makes you something called a human.

Speaker 1:

So if you're 25 and feeling that it just means you're going through a rough patch, means you're having some challenges. You'll get that energy back when you're in motion. As long as you're sitting around or you're not challenging yourself or pushing yourself, you're going to stay in that funk. So you get in motion, you get up and you get out and you go out into the world and then the energy that's out there because the world's in constant motion You're going to feel it and you're going to go. Wow, this is rubbing off on me. I got to be in motion, all right.

Speaker 1:

All right, I've said enough Lead in 30. I got to keep it under 30 minutes. It's a good thing we renamed the podcast because it reminds me that I got to keep it under. I hope you all are in motion. I hope you're choosing the steeper growth curve. I hope that you will wait as long as possible to surrender and slow down, because I want your mind sharp and strong and fast and I want your body capable, and because there are people around you who care about you and they want you present and your influence, your contribution to things that are hard to solve, your contribution, your involvement in relationships of the next generation are needed and we need you present. And in order to be present and sharp, you got to be in motion and the growth curve's got to be steep. So I hope you're opting for that and I'll talk to you in the next episode of the Lead in 30 podcast. Lead in 30.

Speaker 2:

Share this episode with a colleague, your team or a friend. Tap on the share button and text the link. Thanks for listening to the Lead in 30 podcast with Russ Hill.

Speaker 1:

You're.