Lead In 30 Podcast

Leadership Lessons From the 2024 Election

• Russ Hill

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What if the emotional rollercoaster of a presidential election could teach us more about leadership than politics? In this episode we unpack the intense emotions surrounding the recent U.S. presidential election and dig into why both euphoria and despair might be misplaced. We draw a parallel to the pressures faced by a field goal kicker, discovering essential lessons in leadership and personal mindset. As someone who experienced the relentless tide of political ads firsthand, returning to the Lead in 30 podcast after a short hiatus feels like a breath of fresh air.

The heated rivalry between BYU and the University of Utah provides a unique lens through which we explore emotional control in high-pressure situations. Through the eyes of a BYU field goal kicker, we'll see how mastering one's emotions, rather than just physical skill, can lead to success. This notion seamlessly transitions into the political sphere, where figures like Elon Musk and other tech executives have quietly influenced the election. By examining their impact and the broader emotional landscape, we reveal the critical role of emotional resilience across different arenas.

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Speaker 1:

So the election in the US is over and some of you are feeling like, oh my gosh, it was the greatest thing ever. Others of you are thinking, I don't know if I can even continue on with life. You're both wrong. Let's talk about that. And lessons from a field goal kicker in this episode.

Speaker 2:

This is the Lead in 30 podcast with Russ Hill.

Speaker 1:

You cannot be serious.

Speaker 2:

Strengthen your ability to lead. In less than 30 minutes You're listening to Lead in 30.

Speaker 1:

It is so nice I live in one of the battleground states in the US and the amount of text messages that I got from both campaigns both presidential campaigns and the TV ads I don't watch much TV, but like football games and stuff like that. You know we're in that season, so you're watching some live TV the amount of political Aren't you glad that's all over? Like, oh my gosh, it got to the point where I was like I don't even care who wins, I just want this to go away. It's like a bad movie, like a really bad movie that you watch and you get to that point where, like, I actually don't care which character wins this battle or who dies, I just want the thing to be done so I can go to bed. Am I the only one that feels that way? I get to that point sometimes.

Speaker 1:

Welcome in to the Lead. In 30 podcast, we give you a best practice, a model, a framework, a story, an experience, something for you to think about in less than 30 minutes per episode. Something for you to think about applying in your own leadership of the teams that you are leading and in your effort to increase your impact, increase your results or strengthen them and strengthen your career. I'm Russ Sill. I make my living coaching and consulting senior executive teams at some of the world's most amazing companies. You can find out more about our organization at LoneRockConsultingcom and our 30-day leadership development training program. Thousands and thousands and thousands of leaders are going through. It's so awesome. We've got more leaders going through it right now than ever before. Lead in 30.com is where you can find out about that.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so just a quick note to those of you that listen to the podcast regularly. Well, none of you do recently, because I faded for like a month, which I haven't done in years. But the reality is this has been an unbelievable year for our family and in my personal life and all the things that are going on around us and in the business. And so if you listen regularly, you know that I'm a believer in that you have to dial some things down as you dial other things up, that not all of the volume knobs of your life. There's the family volume knob, if you will Right. There's the work. There's the church or community or whatever else. There's the fitness, there's the what. There's like a million different like well, not a million, but there's like five to 10 different knobs, if you will. Right that you've, that you're controlling and turning up or down, and you can't have them all at 10 all the way up, and so when you're turning one up and you're giving more time or effort or energy or mind share to this area, you have to turn another one down, Otherwise you melt down, right.

Speaker 1:

And so the podcast was one of the things that had to give, and I hate that, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it and uh, but it's just a reality, and so this is not the Avenue that I make my living off of, and, uh, we don't have any ads and I, I obviously don't charge or whatever. So it's, it's just something has to give, and so a few things gave in the last few months with all the things that were going on in our, in our lives and and um, so I apologize for those of you that listen um, we're in a place now I'm doing this episode because now I'm ready to turn the knob back up. Okay, so you can, uh, you can, rely on me for two episodes a week now, okay, so forgive me for that. I apologize for those of you. I've gotten your direct messages, I've gotten your reach outs to me, those of you that have, and we're back. Okay, so the election. Just a quick thought In this episode when I was making some notes about what do I want to say in this particular one, it's tied to emotion, and I'm actually going to start with the field goal kicker and an interview that I heard with him, and then I'm going to tie it to the election and then I'm going to tie all of that to how you're thinking, your mindset right now. At the time I'm recording this, at the end, the last couple of months of 2024 and coming out of the 2024 presidential election and everything else. Okay, so at the time, I'm recording that, that I'm recording this episode. That's what's going on, and and there are there are broader lessons and principles to be to be learned and to be implemented in our lives, based on all of that, and I'll share with that, with you, in just a moment.

Speaker 1:

So let's start with the football game. So I went to BYU that's the university I graduated from and so BYU is having one of their best football seasons in the history of the school. They've won one national championship back in the 80s, but in my adult lifetime they have not had a season as good as they're having right now. They've had a season as good um as they're having right now. They've had a record as good as they're. They're nine and oh. They haven't been beaten. At the time I'm recording this, nine and oh and but. But their schedule this year is is pretty intense. They've been nine and oh before in other seasons, but they had easier schedules and so it wasn't as meaningful anyway. So they're in the college football playoff running right now. That could all go away this week and it could all go away next week, but at the moment I'm recording this, they're having just an amazing season.

Speaker 1:

So they played their rival, their in-state rival, the University of Utah, last week, who's having a terrible season, and this rivalry game is always full of emotion, emotion which dramatically affects the player's performance. So you could have either team can always win, doesn't matter how good or bad their season is, because of the amount of emotion that's present in the players and in the stadiums and in all the smack talk that happens. And so it's really anybody's game. And the universe of utah has dominated this rivalry for the last let's call it 15 years, where before byu dominated anyway, um, the the. The point is, it got down to the wire and there were there was a, at least in the minds of the losing team, the fans on the losing team. There was a, a, a penalty that was called. That they thought was bogus. Some of them thought was bogus, and so they. They think the game was this penalty whatever, and it affected the outcome, which, in my mind, is a fan of the other team that won. I think it's totally bogus, but it's how they feel, right? They've got tons of emotion around it.

Speaker 1:

So the game is won at the last second, with three seconds left, with a field goal kick and the field goal kicker for BYU in the game. He's like the camera pans to him as he's getting ready to go out on the field to try to win the game. I mean, you cannot be in a more pressure-filled situation. They're playing at the opponent's stadium. The place has got more people in it than it's ever been the largest crowd in the stadium's history. They're out for blood. They hate the school that I graduated with, they despise it, right, it's their rival, and so. And they're winning, and so there's noise like you couldn't believe and the camera pans to the field goal kicker and he's like smiling and laughing on the sideline. He goes out, they, they, they hike the ball, he kicks it boom, right through the middle of the uprights and and BYUYU wins.

Speaker 1:

So they interview the field goal kicker afterwards and he talks about all of the effort he has spent, not just kicking field goals. That's what you'd expect him to say, right, all of this effort spent on kicking field goals, which he spent, like, how many hours of his life devoted to practicing that over and over and over and over again. But that's not what he talked about. What he talked about in the postgame interview was the amount of time he has spent practicing not feeling emotion, being as emotionless as possible in a pressurized situation. So he talks about meditation and all these sorts of things and how, what state of mind he gets into and and he talked about in this post-game interview. You know, what I practice is not getting too high and I practice not getting too low. And so I went into that game. I went in at that moment I had total confidence and then and he had also practiced like that the weeks before this game they knew how noisy it was going to be. So he said they just blared crowd noise at him like to where it was almost on. It was so loud in the practice so he would be used to just an incredibly noisy, terrible situation being calm in this moment, and that is what I want to talk about in this episode. I thought that was so powerful that he didn't go to. Oh yeah, I practiced this kick a million times or whatever. Yes, he had to do that. He had that skill developed, but what he attributed the success to more was his ability to manage the emotion of the moment not get too high, not get too low.

Speaker 1:

So now let's talk about the election. So some people in the interviews that I've watched, in the coverage that I've paid attention to and boy, one of the things I'm most thrilled about in this election is the power. In every election there are winners and losers, and most of the time it's not the candidates, it's other things. So, for instance, in the election we just had, one of the big winners was Elon Musk and tech executives. If you don't know what I'm talking about, research it. Elon Musk was an enormous winner in that election and you can find tons, and there's lots of reasons for why I say that. I'm very well read on that, on how much, not just the money invested, not just which side he was rooting for, not just that, but businesses he created and all of that. Whether you like him or not, whether you like the outcome of the presidential election or not. I'm asking you to not think about that for a moment, because I'm not. I'm not talking about the candidates, I'm talking about the exercise, that what happened. So Elon Musk is a big winner. Silicon Valley tech executives are big winners. If you don't know why, go do your homework on it. And another big winner is podcasting.

Speaker 1:

No one in the media held more sway or influence in this presidential election than Joe Rogan no one. That is insane. He works for himself, he doesn't broadcast on any major network, he's not on any cable channel, he's not on and over the nothing, he's just available for download on cell phones. And he held the most power and influence in the election Unbelievable. So one of the things I'm most happy about is how traditional media continues to die as time goes on, and I was part of traditional media, legacy media, for almost 20 years and I'm so grateful that that model is dying, for many different reasons. But anyway, as I tune into podcast or traditional media or Twitter X, whatever, which I think is Wow, did that come alive? And wow, did Elon Musk gamble pay off in that area too? Unbelievable.

Speaker 1:

Anyway, as I've been watching reaction to the US presidential election, there are two schools of thinking. There's two kind of emotional reactions those people and again, I'm not advocating anything, this is not a political episode. This is about leadership. So we're going to get back to emotion in a moment, because that's the point of the episode. You have one camp that was for Trump and obviously he won in record fashion and they are elated. They are, I mean, a lot of those people that voted for Trump. They're they're walking around and talking and they're posting things as, like, the world's problems have been solved, donald Trump has been put back in office, all of the wrongs are going to be righted and all of the like. The world could not be in better position. They have spent the last however many days since the election elated and I think they're not. I think, well, I'll get, I'll get to that in just a second. So you've got emotion on that side of elation and just oh, so, so excited and over the top, and some of them are just unbelievably happy like 10 out of 10 on the excitement meter On the other end of the spectrum, the hardcore Trump haters and people that really were in support of the Democrats.

Speaker 1:

You read some of their tweets or you watch some of their videos or you listen to interviews and it's as if they can't find a reason for living anymore, like everything that they thought was good in the world just ended. All of the things that they, they, thought were like the rules of society, their, their uh faith in democracy, their faith in humanity has just been challenged in a way that has them struggling to get out of bed. I listen to one podcast where the host they happen to be liberal. They don't do a political show, but they're huge Trump haters, and in an episode I was listening to last week they were talking about getting drunk the day after the wedding and the medication they've been taking and how they can't carry on and they're so depressed and whatever else. They are totally deflated. I think both of those camps are incredibly foolish.

Speaker 1:

If you're walking away from the election thinking there's diminished hope for humanity forgive me for saying it, you may never want to listen to me again I think you're totally mistaken. And if you're walking away from the election thinking all of the problems in the world have been solved and all of the wrongs are going to be righted and everything's going to be done that was promised and the world is just back in order, and it's going to be righted and everything's going to be done that was promised and the world is just back in order, and it's going to be amazing. I think you're messed up too. Let me give you one other example. So my point in that is, if you're driven by the emotion of the moment, you're going to be disappointed. I'm just convinced of it. I could be wrong, maybe.

Speaker 1:

Who won in the election is going to end up being the greatest thing that ever happened in your life. In the next six to 12 months, or 36 months, or the next four years are going to be remarkable. Everything's going to go right and you're going to have the most amazing career, family life, personal life. Everything's going to go right. I don't think that's going to happen, and you don't either. Right, so you're excited about it. It's good, whatever, but are you allowing? Go back to the field goal kicker. Are the highs too high? And for the? For those of you that are so disappointed, are you letting the lows be too low? My reality is that when Democrats have won the White House, I've made more money and my life's gone great. When Republicans have won the White House and they've been in control, I've made more money and my life's been great, right and anyway.

Speaker 1:

And so, and go back to the football example too, when my football team there was a a controversial call that I referenced in that football game between the in-state rivals of of my team that I cheer for, and um and the athletic director of the opposing school the school that lost lost his mind, and I won't go through the whole story, but he claimed that the game was stolen, he blamed the referees and he just lost his mind. He ended up getting fined by the league, reprimanded by them and he allowed. His behavior at the end of that game was totally dishonorable and in my view and that's subjective, right, other people will disagree and that's fine but so because he allowed the emotion of the moment to overcome him, it overpowered everything and some people the fans of his school might be cheering him on, thinking, yeah, that's what you needed to do, because they allowed the emotion of the moment to, in my opinion, cloud their judgment. So the reality is your team's going to win. I hope you thoroughly enjoy it, but you know what else is going to happen. Your team is going to lose and one of the teams that I cheer for is the San Antonio Spurs, my hometown of San Antonio.

Speaker 1:

The Spurs dominated. They dominated the NBA. They were repeat NBA champions year after year during a period of time, and you know what's happened in the like five to 10 years since they haven't even, like, made the playoffs. So there were three to five. There were like five to six years that were remarkable. For being a Spurs fan Cause, we were in the playoffs and we were winning NBA titles and all that sort of stuff. It was unbelievably good. And then you know what happened it went away and our team lost and there was nothing notable about it for years. Lost and there was nothing notable about it for years. Hence his life. That's how. That's how life is. I remember one more quick story, and then I'm going to um reinforce a point I'm trying to make in this episode and then wrap up.

Speaker 1:

I remember in the media business that there was a colleague of mine and he was telling the story some other people earlier today actually and he um hit the, the, the media property that he led. He made some decisions and he executed on a strategy that got the media property. He led to very high ratings, very high revenue generator. He was the hero one of the heroes in our national broadcasting company. When I went to corporate executive events where they invited the leadership to, this guy was on stage, he was celebrated, he was given bonuses and incentives and trophies and plaques and everything and his influence inside the organization expanded and he was viewed as and he had an office just down the hall from me and I watched this happen where he became a celebrity. He was the goat in our organization, right Until he wasn't within 12. Do you know what happened?

Speaker 1:

Within 12 months of that happening, he was fired. How did that happen? It was the most remarkable thing for me to watch. Here is this person that was elevated to be like a hero inside our organization Brilliant, unbelievable, the success he generated on just this guy has amazing ideas. And then, within 12 months, there were challenges and the ratings dipped down and the revenue wasn't as good and he was given all the blame and escorted out. Very good person, but it was such a powerful lesson for me in that yeah, some moments you're going to feel.

Speaker 1:

The emotion of the moment is we are dominating, we just won, we're the best ever. This happens in business, right? You close that deal, you get that promotion, the, the, your expanding market share, and you get caught up in that. And the emotion, if you allow it, will cause you to inflate your ego and to to be arrogant and to whatever. You get caught up in the emotion and what you can't see that's coming is defeat, setbacks, failure. I've read a tweet earlier today where I can't remember the exact language, but it said something like winning is a terrible loser, a terrible tutor or terrible, uh, it doesn't teach you much. And I thought, oh my gosh, that is so powerful the way it was word, I got to find it because it was worded powerfully and loser is actually the better teacher, isn't it? Failure is the better teacher. Right, we're winning.

Speaker 1:

If all we did was win, we wouldn't learn much because we'd be flexing the whole time, and so my point in this episode is just that takeaway from the field goal kicker. What are we doing to manage the emotion, to not let the highs be too high? Now, that doesn't mean you don't celebrate and party and live in the moment. Yeah, you can, but if you don't quickly adjust back and go back to the mindset of oh yeah, that was an awesome victory, that was an incredible deal we closed, or this is an awesome quarter we're having, or what a remarkable year, and I know it can go away in a heartbeat. And I know we're not as good as the market thinks we are. And if we don't keep up innovating, we're not going to be able to keep having success.

Speaker 1:

And if I, as a leader, don't keep a curious mindset, if I'm not demonstrating humility, if I'm not learning, if I'm not counting on other people and elevating them and giving them the, the, the accolades, I'm going to be in a bad situation. Yeah, I might be getting promoted right now. Yeah, I might. My career might be expanding, yeah, I might be able to deliver these results. And but if you start to think you're that good, or your experience entitles you to this, that or the other, or you're flexing through the decisions that you make, you're not leaning into others, you're not developing them, you're not making them feel part of the team, if you're not, if you're not doing, if you're not thinking gosh, this could go away, or maybe I don't have all the ideas, or maybe that decision isn't the best thing. If you're not, if you don't demonstrate humility and not let the high be too high, you're in for a really powerful lesson that's going to hurt.

Speaker 1:

And so, um, somebody was joking with me about this field. I'll end with the field goal kicker. Somebody was joking with me today. I was telling him about the field goal kicker and they go yeah, he went out on the shoulders of his teammates because he kicked the winning field goal last week. He said you know what's going to happen next week, don't you? He's going to be out there for the winning field goal and he's going to miss it. And I thought which you know, we're kind of joking probably won't happen next week, hopefully, but it will happen in some at some point. And so if he let the highs get too high, right, elevate him too much in that game.

Speaker 1:

So you just savor the moment. You savor it and then you put in the work and you have humility and you realize it's not as good as I think it's going to be and it's not all going to go the way I think it's going to go. And if you're, if you're down in the dumps like you have to realize it's actually not that bad. I think about some of my friends who've been fired from jobs or lost something and they just lose it's so. It's so hard not to lose all your self-esteem and just be totally deflated and that paralyzes you, becomes incredibly unhealthy because you let the low get too low. You actually believe that you were that bad. You're not that bad, it's not going to be that bad. So, either way, you get you with me, manage the emotion, manage emotion. Manage the emotion and you'll have much more success is my experience and you'll be happier, more fulfilled, because you'll realize we're going to win some. We're going to lose some. Anyway, that's what's on my mind in this episode of the Lead in 30 podcast.

Speaker 2:

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