Lead In 30 Podcast

The Newest Leadership Innovation: Start Cutting!

• Russ Hill

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I hate cutters. But this is a different kind of cutting I'm advocating. It's not to save money. It's not to cut expense. It's to increase speed to market and to gain competitive advantage.

In this episode the cofounder of Lone Rock Leadership, Russ Hill, talks about the seismic shift that is happening in the marketplace. Leaders who innovate are discovering their organizations are bloated. They move too slow. They over message. They have too many layers of management. 

What Elon Musk and DOGE are doing in the US government is the same thing innovative executives are doing in the business world. They're creating the new, lean organization. 

In this episode of the Lead In 30 Podcast Russ Hill:

• Discusses the necessity for reducing layers of bureaucracy 
• Shares the importance of clarity and alignment for organizational success 
• Analyzes the impact of current political and economic shifts 
• Encourages leaders to respond objectively to external changes 
• Urges listeners to reassess operational strategies for efficiency 
• Highlights the rise of new voices advocating for organizational change 
• Concludes with a call to action for bold moves towards efficiency

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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:

The world has changed. Like you can absolutely feel that the ground has shifted and the rules for how to win in business, no question about it are changing right now as well.

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:

If you have not listened to the last episode, the one right before this, you probably want to go back and listen to that one, because I'm actually going to pick up where I left off on that one. I was ranting pretty good about the waste in organizations and how slow companies move and what we need to do about that how to accelerate movement. In this episode I want to pick up on that. It's not going to be my theme in every episode, but it's just a huge topic right now in the world around us and we've got to acknowledge it. And if you're not paying attention to it, if you're not shifting the way that you're thinking, if you're not spending some time pondering and strategizing and just kind of thinking about it, then you're going to get way behind the times. There's no question about it. Welcome into the Lead in 30 podcast. In less than 30 minutes, we give you a framework, a model, an experience, something to think about implementing in the way that you lead, because if you can become more effective, if you can strengthen your ability to lead others, it affects everything in your life. Well, my name is Russ Hill. I make my living coaching, consulting senior executive teams at some of the world's biggest companies. You can find out more about our team, our firm, what we do with organizations at lonerockio Lonerockio Lonerock Leadership is a name of our organization.

Speaker 1:

I was actually at the gym earlier today because of my schedule. I had to get in an earlier workout and I uh, I ran into a, a business owner that I know. He actually sold his company to private equity, um gosh, two years ago, maybe year and a half ago. Just an absolutely amazing story, so awesome. I was so happy for him, living the American dream. And we see each other at the gym quite, quite frequently and so well, probably not frequently, but on a regular basis, like it happens occasionally. And so we we chat for a few minutes in between sets and I.

Speaker 1:

He was asking me about what we do with organizations and I was talking to him about clarity, alignment, movement, now that's, you know, that's, that's. Those are hefty topics with the executive teams that we work with. If you think about clarity and I gave him the elevator speech, the 60-second version of that that there are a million priorities. But what we do is we really put a lot of pressure on executives or we poke and push on them a little bit to get that to just three, like what are the most important three things categories and metrics and if you do that, then it forces all these decisions about weight so that that isn't one of the top three. No, well, that affects what I'm prioritizing or what our department's gonna focus on over the next quarter, and those are the decisions, the discussions that you want happening in an organization. And then alignment.

Speaker 1:

We went into a 30 second, maybe a 90 second discussion about the difference between awareness and alignment, and then I was talking to him about movement and how those are really the first principles of an organization and that we'd limit an organization or a team or an executive to four. Like you got to prioritize four shifts. For instance, in our firm, two of the first principles are be scrappy and scale it, and we were talking about how those can contradict or they can seem different, and yet both are critical to the growth of our firm and the team that we've got working with us. Be scrappy what does that mean? What do we need people to do in order to grow our firm at the rate that we're trying to grow right now? Well, you got to be scrappy. What does that look like and then scale it. What does that mean and how do you do that? And so, anyway, we were talking about that and that really is what lead in 30, the 30 day leadership course that we teach. And then it's also the consulting work that we do with executives. How long do you think we have to spend with an executive team leading 5,000 people on clarity, just on getting clear on what's most important defining success in a way that that entire team of 10 or 15 executives at the most senior level are aligned around like that. There's a lot of discussion to be had around that and a lot of debate, and the outcome of that just really unifies that team when they get aligned and they rally around a set of a shared definition of success. That's incredibly powerful. Anyway, let's let's talk about how the ground has shifted.

Speaker 1:

So I'm picking up where I left off on the last episode. Whether I don't care if you're the most liberal Democrat in the world, I don't care if you are way out there on the. I don't care if you're the most hardcore right concern, you know, on the right conservative, it doesn't matter to me right. It doesn't matter in business. It doesn't like your political views personally, don't matter in the marketplace that we've got to win in, right, you can only affect so much change. I'm not saying don't be active, don't have opinions, that stuff, sure, Sure, you've got yours.

Speaker 1:

But how you view the world, who the candidate that I want to win, the political views I have, they aren't being like. Some of them are in play and some of them aren't in play right now, right. And so me getting all emotional about that doesn't matter. I just have to look at the world, the marketplace, the reality that's in front of me, and figure out how to win, not in a conniving, selfish way, but in a way that serves our customers and clients and and fulfills the purpose that I and those that I work with have right, that that that's what we've got to do.

Speaker 1:

So so just understand that as I talk about what I'm going to talk about in this episode, your view. You've got to put that to the side, you've got to remove the emotion of it and you've got to acknowledge reality, whether it's a reality that you like or you don't like, and my, my estimation, my guess, is that every single person listening to this, there's part of the reality in our world right now that you like, you're fully in support of, and there's part of the reality in the political, economic, social, all that aspects of life. There are parts of it that you disagree with. That you're very uncomfortable with that's true of everyone, most likely, okay. That you're very uncomfortable with, that's true of everyone, most likely, Okay. So let's just all be aligned on that and then, and then, with that as the foundation, have this discussion.

Speaker 1:

So forget about the election, forget about or forget about the candidates, forget about Trump, forget about right versus left, democrats, kamala, forget about all that. And I'm talking mostly about America, because America is the most, it's the biggest force in the world, not the only force, but it's the biggest force in the world, and so the world, the entire world's affected by it. So those of you that are in other countries that are part of the world, I acknowledge that not everything centers on America, but it does have an impact. So that's what I'm going to be talking about. So the world is shifted. It's shifting in dramatic ways, and one of the fundamental shifts that we're seeing is that the old guard, meaning the military industrial complex and a lot associated with that, have taken a blow. Now, whether that's a fatal blow, whether that's a change that is going to sustain itself over the next several decades or from this point forward or not is debatable, but at least in the short term, the ground has shifted and the world of technology and tech startups have, like they've, gained enormous power in, at least in the political debate and in governing and all of that. Right, we can acknowledge that good, bad or whatever doesn't matter. That's the reality.

Speaker 1:

So part and the another thing that has shifted is this and there's tons of podcasts and interviews and tweets and different things that you can read about this if you're not caught up to speed but the headline is this there are a lot of people who have been quiet over the last five to 10 years, who are no longer being quiet, people who have been watching shifts that have been taking place in the workplace and in society and and quietly being frustrated by it, not thinking that it's all good or right or productive, who are now speaking up. Now again, take your political leanings out of it, doesn't matter how you view about it. Some of you are celebrating this shift. You're like, oh my gosh, finally people are saying what I've been thinking and I haven't been able to say this for so long because you might get me fired or might get me to be sued or might be whatever. Some of you are thinking that. Others of you are thinking, oh my gosh, this is a terrible shift and I can't believe that. The it doesn't matter your view. What matters is the reality, at least in the moment. Whether or not this is going to be sustained over the next two, five, 15, 20 years is debatable. No one can answer that for sure. But the ground has shifted.

Speaker 1:

Part of that and we could like. There's so many elements of that that we could discuss. Right, I was in a meeting just a few days ago, virtual meeting with the CEO of a company that you all would recognize the brand of, virtual meeting with the CEO of a company that you all would recognize the brand of, and we were talking for the first 15 minutes of this virtual call about this topic. And this CEO has political leanings and we're all off the record. Right, we're friends and we've worked together for a long time. So they're sharing some of their views and really talking about some of the changes that they view as negative in their mind and their personal view, or negative, and then we're talking about well, this is the way that it is, whether or not we agree with that or don't agree with it, or whatever your views are or my views are, doesn't matter. Ok, so those and, by the way, those of you that are getting caught up in the debate and and arguing against the shifts that are taking place, or arguing for them, or whatever you're actually missing the point Like that could be fun and you can have some opinions on it, but you, you would be well served to just deal with the reality of the situation, remove your emotion from it and figure out how to win with the new rules that are changing by the day right now, at the time that I'm releasing this episode, which is late January 2025.

Speaker 1:

So let's talk about one of the shifts, and one of the shifts is obviously Elon Musk, and others are involved in this effort, and it was a big part of the campaign on the right the conservatives, the Republicans, donald Trump and his supporters to reduce the waste in government and government spending. In fact, I was reading an article earlier today that says let me pull it up because I want to get it right. That in this isn't the article. It's. It basically said that the I'm going to pull it up real quick because I've got to, I got to get these facts. These figures are just really, really interesting. Ok, here it is. So federal spending in the US eight years ago, federal spending in the in the US eight years ago, was around four trillion dollars. Eight years later, it's over $7 trillion. That's amazing, that's stunning that in the space of eight years, less than a decade, it's almost double. And again, you can argue good, bad, needed, unneeded, it doesn't matter what your view on it is, that's just a fact and a figure in and of itself. Stunning, amazing, really. And so there is this movement right or wrong, good or bad doesn't matter to reduce that. That there's. There's.

Speaker 1:

In the last episode we talked about infobesity, right, or data smog, about the amount of information. So there is this movement. There is this belief among some that we have gotten way too bloated, way too inefficient, way too many layers and bureaucracy and in federal government. And here's where I want to go next. This is what matters, like. That's a. That's an interesting debate and how that plays out. It's going to be interesting.

Speaker 1:

Elon Musk and those around him say they're going to cut that. We're waiting to see what they propose and some of you are going to love what they propose and some of you are going to think it's the greatest evil that is existed in your lifetime. It doesn't matter your view when it comes to business. Okay, that's my belief. You can argue with me on that, but the world's going to, it's going to play out how it's going to play out. You got to figure out how to win, succeed, have impact, fulfill your purpose, serve your customers in whatever the, whatever the new rules are, however much they shift. So my argument and my point in this episode is what's going on in the, in the political discussion, is coming to a company near you? Absolutely, it's coming to your industry. There's no way around it. That's my premise, that's my belief, that's my position in this episode. You could disagree, but my belief, my gut on this, is that those who are going to win, succeed, increase their value in the marketplace, are going to be ahead of the curve on this. In other words, how can you make your organization more efficient? How can you remove layers of structure and I know that's controversial, but it's not about like. That's our role as business leaders.

Speaker 1:

Now let me say this I have worked for. I call them cutters that's my term for people who are cutters, and the way I use that term and what I mean on it is people. I had a boss once who, I swear, had dreams at night, like when he laid his head down on the pillow and he went to sleep. What he dreamt about it wasn't sheep jumping over a fence, it was where he could cut the budget. I swear that's what he did, because it seemed like every morning he walked into the office and he would pull me and said, hey, russ, um, by the way, I was thinking about line item whatever in the budget, or I was thinking about this person or that manager or that department or whatever else. I'm just wondering. And I would just I could feel my body tense up. I'm like, oh my gosh.

Speaker 1:

And I found myself just defending, defending where we were allocating money, and my belief was you've got these people who are, who scale and people who cut, people who scale and people who cut. I know who I want to work for, I know who I want to be around, I know who generally wins in business. Now I'm talking about the extremes of the spectrum, but if I want to and you can't be at either extreme and when you can't be just on growth and never be about efficiencies or cut or restructure anything. There's no way you'll win in the marketplace. You can't be on that. I mean you can win for a while, but it can't go forever and you can't be at the other end Like this. I mean you can win for a while, but it can't go forever and you can't be at the other end, like this person was just cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, dream about it, and like that's not motivational. It's one of the reasons I left. I couldn't handle it. I'm like, oh my gosh, this is not fulfilling when I mean for a while or a period or occasionally, but all the time I mean, no, I want you to dream about growth, but opportunity, right. So when you think about the spectrum, you know if that's one straight line and those are the two extremes. You want to lean toward growth. You want to be on the growth side of that spectrum, but you also want to. You want to do what I'm talking about right now, which is you want to run efficient. And so now, now is a fantastic time for you to be looking at your organization and think how it goes back to the last episode. I'm going to pick up on what I was talking about. How do I reduce the number of meetings? How do I reduce the amount of discussion? How do I reduce the amount of discussion? How do I reduce the amount of messages going back and forth? And how do I get more of an emphasis on execution doing the work, meeting with the customer, building relationships, executing on things. How do I do that? Well, a big part of that is going to be efficiencies in the organization.

Speaker 1:

My belief I'm not talking about every organization and some of you your organizations are lean, as could be. There's no you like. You've operated well this way, but most of you haven't, most of us haven't. We've gotten too slow, and so, as the ground shifts, you're, I think we're going to see it in government. We'll see how that plays out again. Good or bad, right or wrong, happy or sad about it. That's what the discussion is, and organizations are going to be doing the same. You're seeing this in the tech industry. You're seeing it in other areas. My challenge to you, my thought for you, my thing, my what I would have you consider, and you can disagree with it. You could think that I it's not. This doesn't apply to you, but one of my thoughts right now.

Speaker 1:

One of my strong beliefs is that the executives, the leaders who are going to increase their value in the marketplace over the next at least year I would argue five years are those who will make bold moves to create efficiencies in their organization and think oh, we were in an era of bloated 4 trillion to 7 trillion Stunning. But the same might be true of your organization. There might be absolutely. In fact, if you Google it or you search or you do some research, you'll find articles, you'll find position papers, you'll find academic research that says that in large organizations, we've got this huge layer of mid-level managers that's become way too bloated and that is what's driving, in many cases, all of the meetings. We've got so many bodies. We've got so many bodies, so many individuals, so many positions involved in every discussion, and what we need is less discussion, which means from a structural. There are structural changes. There are cultural changes, there are process changes to increase efficiency.

Speaker 1:

All of those apply and my challenge to you, my thought for you, what I want you to think about, is are you ahead of the curve? Are you doing enough? You don't want to paralyze Now. There's no right or wrong answer on this. You don't want to cut so much that it. I mean, you're so lean that you can't like, you're anorexic. The organization can't move, it can't, ideate, it can't. So you've got to.

Speaker 1:

But my belief, working with lots of different organizations in lots of different industries, is that those organizations are the outliers right now and that most of us, as organizations have become too bloated. We're moving too slow and the marketplace one of the big themes. Trust me on this, I think I'm right. I think the noise that's out there is actually right. One of the big moves we're going to see in the marketplace over the next year or two is greater efficiencies and that we'll look back and say, oh, there was an era of massively expanding the manager class, bloating organizations and we became too slow, and so what are you going to do about it?

Speaker 1:

What thoughts does that generate in your mind? What ideas, what data do you need to review? What bold moves do you need to consider? You don't want to do any of this spontaneously. You want to think about it. You want to be smart about it, but be innovative, be a market leader, do it differently and and get your argument for the why down.

Speaker 1:

If you're going to lean into this and get your argument for the why down. If you're going to lean into this, what's the why? Okay, and the way to present it to the organization is you're positioning the organization for the future. Your job is to be a steward of this organization and position it to win over the longterm, and so that involves being innovative, and so we're focusing on execution, we're focusing on serving the customer, and we're going to do it in a way that's going to win in this marketplace. You'll know what to talk about. You'll know what to think about.

Speaker 1:

Anyway, I, just I, I, I view it as my duty, as somebody who works with executives, to stay ahead of this, to be aware of trends and shifts and ideas and discussion going on in the marketplace. And in the podcast, I talk about what I'm thinking about, I talk about what's on my mind, what, what, what, what I'm what I'm seeing, and so I have to share this with you and I think it's exciting. I think it's. I think it's exciting, I think it's actually a really good thing and I'm just yeah, I think it's a good good thing. And you can step back from it and go this actually makes a lot of sense. Yeah, if you were to look at the macro position of things, the macro view of things. We did slow down too much, and that period is over. That's what's on my mind in this episode of the Lead in 30 podcast.

Speaker 2:

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