Lead In 30 Podcast

Shift Your Team’s Mindset From Reactive To Proactive

• Russ Hill

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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_02:

How do you become a leader who's really good at innovation, at moving your team to be proactive rather than reactive? Like, what's the mindset? Like, how do you do that? How do you get good at it? Well, let's talk about it in this episode.

SPEAKER_01:

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

SPEAKER_00:

For coming to Atlanta, if you're an HR, L and D leader, or a leader of leaders, join us in November for our executive breakfast. Spend three hours with the experts at Lone Rock Leadership and learn how to build personal accountability, accelerate decision making, lead through change, and create clarity, alignment, and movement. Reserve your free spot before seats fill up at LoneRock.io.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, if you're listening to this in October or early November 2025, around the time that this comes out, then absolutely, if you're anywhere in any of those neighboring states, I promise you it's worth the investment of your time. We are not, we are not going to waste your time inviting you to a three-hour event. In fact, the last one of these we did, these executive um briefings, is what we call them, executive breakfast. We did it in Dallas maybe a month ago. I was there. Um it's the first one that I've gone to, and all of the feedback was we wish this was a full day. We wish this was two days. Nobody left going, oh my gosh, I wish I wouldn't have been here, or it was a waste of my time, or why do you do such a lame sales pitch? It's not, it wasn't a set, it's not a sales pitch at all. If anything, you're gonna leave kind of maybe with too much meat. So, LoneRock.io, if you want to find out more about the executive briefing in November in Atlanta. If you're in any neighboring state, it's worth the flight, get there, expense it. You're gonna be, I mean, it's gonna cost you what, a thousand dollars total to travel. If you're in Atlanta, it'll be way less than that. It's free to attend. Lone Rock.io. The seats are filling up. I think we're just north of downtown Atlanta, just in one of the suburbs at uh at one of the JW Marriottes there. So you could stay the night before if you want, or just drive over and uh you'll be out of there by noon. Okay, um, reactive versus oh, I got to do a little bit more setup before I get into the topic. Um, welcome in to the Lead in 30 podcast. In less than 30 minutes, we give you a framework, a model, a best practice, a story, an example, something for you to consider implementing in the way that you lead others. If you upgrade, if you continually upgrade your ability to lead, it has a profound effect on your ability to um affect your lifestyle, affect your outcomes and your organization, affect everything. Um, and so that's what we do here in the podcast. My name's Russ Hill. I'm gonna make my living coaching, consulting senior executive teams doing a bunch of things with a bunch of companies, and it's super fun. And LoneRock.io is where you can find out more about it. And we're so grateful for those of you that share this podcast, texting it to a friend, posting a link to an episode on LinkedIn, whatever it is, uh thanks for helping us grow. There's no advertising, no sales. We're just giving out free um, hopefully, wisdom in this podcast. Okay, so we hear this all the time. Uh it's it's organizations that are super reactive or leaders who feel like their teams, whether that's a team of five or five thousand, the the group or the team is super reactive. Like that's a part of our culture. It's our just kind of how we are. And and we and the more people you add to an organization, and literally like you, it doesn't take like 10,000 for this to happen. It happens after you add like 10 people into a very, very, very small company. The company moves much slower because we got to get everybody on board. We got systems and we got processes and we got different departments and we got different functions, and so we gotta like have conversations and meetings and discussions. Now, most of you, most of your organizations, you lean way too far into that. In our new book, Deliver, that's coming out um i any day now. It's coming out in the end of October uh 2025, at the time we're putting this out. In fact, we get our first physical copies like in the next few days. We're super excited about it. It's uh it's a super robust um book. We're we're just jacked about it. But it we in chapter one is called founder mode. Chapter two is called consensus mode. For those of you that have been through lead in 30, it's a first and second leader, right? And uh for those of you that haven't, it basically consensus mode is what a lot of your organizations or departments are in, where your your your culture is we just talk about stuff and talk about stuff and talk about stuff. It's like, oh my gosh, we use this example in chapter three of the book called Gate C24. It's an airport, gate C24. And what if gate C24, the gate agent, was in founder mode? Well, what would that look like? It's pretty funny. Um, in chapter three of the book. And then in chapter, in that same chapter, we talk about what if the gate, the airport gate, was run by somebody in consensus mode. And not to not to have a spoiler alert, but the plane would never take off. Like it'd be the most robust gate area, like the most diverse group of people, and they're having a total great conversation and it's meaningful. And it's actually a super fun um scenario. I I love I love I laugh out loud every time I read it. But consensus mode describes a lot of organizations. Now, we don't want you in founder mode where you're just like moving super fast without getting buy-in from anybody. And and and anyway, um, I could get my mind goes to the book because we were just, I just spent the last few months just getting it finished. And um, and so I'm thinking about chapter four, but I'm not gonna bore you with all the details. This isn't about the book. Um, the book, by the way, is Deliver, why some leaders get results and most don't. So if you want to start looking for that, it's not available at the time this is coming out, but it will be uh if you're listening to this in late October or after that in 2025. Deliver why some leaders get results and most don't. Um anyway, okay, so we we we want to get after you've had 10 people, and and many of you who are listening, you you don't have 10 people in your organization. You have 10,000, or you have a hundred thousand, or you have a thousand or five hundred, whatever it is, and that just slows us down, and so that pushes us as a team, as a culture, as a department, as an organization into reactive mode. So how do I get how do I get my team out of that? We're doing a uh I'm actually uh doing an hour for one of the one of the world's largest uh insurance companies, which is just having a phenomenal year, um, and and led this particular part of the organization that we're working with is led by a phenomenal leader. And uh she's scheduled this three-hour leadership forum. It's virtual with about 300 leaders. It's happening in a few weeks at the time I'm recording this, and that that's her whole theme. She's like, I gotta get and they're having they're having it, it reminds me a lot of Amazon and quite frankly, Walmart. Well, probably Walmart. It reminds me of being in um Bentonville. I've told the story, I I think we wrote about it in one of the books, I can't remember, but I remember being in Bentonville, Arkansas, um, gosh, how many years ago? 2015, maybe? And maybe 2012, I don't remember. And uh, and so we're we're speaking, and for a whole team of us from our firm, we're speaking uh to all the the regional managers, people that oversaw multiple Walmart super centers and Sam's clubs, like they would they would be the the the executive that oversees like let's call it like five or ten of those, right? All over all over the globe. And so Walmart's got them all in Bentonville, they flew them all in, and they're having this multi-day session, which is just, I mean, I you could write a whole book about this experience and uh and not violate the NDA, which is important. Um, but but the experience, again, multiple years ago, this is this is when Amazon was coming on, but not as big as they are now, and before Walmart had really started making their changes. But you all, Walmart's still solidly at number one in the Fortune 500 list, right, as far as measured by revenue. They've been in that spot, the number one spot, for a long time. Amazon's gonna dethrone them any moment now, probably in 2026 or 2027. Um, but the distance between number one and number two used to be Exxon Mobil that was number one or number two. But the distance between number one and number two as measured by revenue is was massive. It's been massive, except lately when Amazon, after Amazon launched AD AWS and whatever else. So Amazon's close. But so you're you're in the room 10, 15 years ago with Walmart solidly in the number one position, generating more revenue than any company on planet Earth by a long shot. And they're all focused on innovation. The word, the story that I've told before, it's been a long time, but the story I've told before is the executive, the most senior executive we had in the room who got up on stage, the word that she kept using over and over and over again that really stood out to me as I was standing in the back of the room before we took the stage was extinction. She's like, we're we're in danger of being going in extinction. And I'm sitting in the back of the room going, you're the number one company in the world, not by a little bit, by a long shot. And no one has accused Walmart of being the most innovative or coolest company or like whatever. Like they're not trendy. Like no one's walking around with like Walmart stickers on their, on their uh, what do you call those uh drink things? I'm going blank on it that all the women have. Um, oh gosh, what is it? I'm blanking on it. Stanley. You're not walking around with the sticker on your Stanley or your whatever of Walmart, right? Like that's not a trendy thing. But they're a giant, and they've gotten a lot more innovative in the last few years, thanks in part by this executive team pushing that into the culture. We were there, we were in the room. Like, we got to move from being proactive, getting our butts handed to us by Amazon, even though they're not touching us in revenue, but they're growing faster than our rate of growth. This is what they were talking about. So extinction is our concern. So, in other words, we got to be more proactive rather than reactive. So then you got this insurance company that, I mean, Chick-fil-A is great at this. Like Chick-fil-A is they're dominating. There's no one even close in their industry when it comes to per revenue or excuse me, revenue generated per location. McDonald's is number two, but if you look at the distance and the numbers, I don't have them right in front of me. But the trend line is crazy. Go type it into ChatGPT or whatever. What's the per revenue or the revenue per location in Chick-fil-A versus McDonald's? Go type that into ChatGPT. Not now, but after this episode. And and and so, and you're gonna be surprised by it, and then say, give me the five-year trend line or give me the 10-year trend line for each one of those two restaurant chains. You're gonna be shocked by what you see in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, the gap opening up between Chick-fil-A and McDonald's. And and and then you look, then if you were asked Chat GPT or whatever AI engine you use, you were saying, well, now give me the customer service or customer satisfaction scores from both chains. It's not even close. I mean, who's looking at McDonald's? I love McDonald's, don't get me wrong, but the and they're a monster, and they the story and you know, the the uh what were the name of the brothers? I forget the name of the brothers. It started out in California. I don't remember. Anyway, but uh just a phenomenal story. And um, but but no one's looking at McDonald's and go, oh, that's the example of customer service like that. No. Like they they do what they do well. Same thing with uh Walmart, right? Like you don't walk into Walmart and go, I'm about to have an incredible experience with these employees, like Circle K, right? No. It's different for QT, it's different for Chick-fil-A, it's different for Ritz Carlton, it's different for Delta Airlines, it's different. They're known for their culture anyway. But Chick-fil-A, that I mean, they're proactive. And what happened in the pandemic? In fact, I was talking to this senior executive at this uh at this insurance company, which you all would know the name of, that's having a phenomenal year when do this, we're doing this uh leadership forum, this virtual forum, and I was using the Chick-fil-A example with her, and uh, she wants me to share it, or she wants us to talk about that in the end of the leadership forum we're doing for them. But here she is. Here she is, an amazing year. Like I I personally did Teams calls with about 10 executives at the company. Well, not just executives, like mid-level managers too, a couple levels down on the org chart. And I was reporting back to this executive team. I'm like, your team is like jacked up, like they are fired up a phenomenal year, and here she is gathering them all virtually, which most of your organizations aren't doing. She's gathering them all virtually, or you know, in person would be even better, but virtually for three hours and and and designing this incredible session, and the whole theme is like we're not even touching the surface of what we could be doing. Where how many leaders, how many of you would be going, oh man, how many of us would be going, This is an incredible year? Like just we're high-fiving each other in Q4. Like, that's it. No, she's like so focused on 18 months from now, 36 months from now, the mindset and not getting complacent and not getting comfortable and not thinking that this is gonna last. Like, what are like that's on her mind. And so at the end of our call today, I said, we had like a minute left. I said, Will you just take the last 30 seconds and give me the business case? Give me the business case for why you're thinking about why you're so focused on innovation and being proactive right now. Why that's what why that's on your mind so much? She did a phenomenal job articulating it in just 30 seconds. She took like a minute, minute and a half, whatever. It was fantastic. I'm like, say that. Say that in the in the meeting with all the the uh 250 or 300 leaders, whatever it's gonna be. So um, but so I don't know what why you're motivated, you know, what your particular reason is for potentially wanting to be more innovative or more proactive rather than reactive, or to have your organization do that. Maybe it's because you're having a crappy year. Maybe it's because your numbers or your organization's struggling and you're trying to increase performance, and so that's the case. Or maybe it's like this insurance executive, or maybe it's like uh um Walmart in the day, or maybe, although they were being threatened, so they had a burning platform uh was their case for change, or maybe you're like Chick-fil-A, just like we want to innovate, we just want to grow. It's opportunity, right? That that's motivating you. Whatever the case is, um, and by the way, there's the organization case, and then there's you like the personal case for why you need to get better at this, being more proactive, more innovative, because it increases your market value significantly. It increases it significantly in the marketplace. Your value goes up if you can create that mindset, create a culture, a team, where that's the dynamic, where we're proactive, where we're innovative, where we're thinking ahead, where we're cutting edge rather than getting pro uh rather than being stuck in reactive mode. So let's break it down. How do you do that? Okay, so there are four things that I want you to be thinking about as it pertains to this. So this is kind of step by step. How do you become more innovative and more proactive rather than reactive as a leader and instill that in the people that you lead, whatever that size of group is. Number one is I I want you to fly at a higher altitude. I don't want you to be think of it this way. I don't want you to be a crop duster. I want you to be a jet. Right? So crop duster flying just above the surface, creating all kinds of dust, and it's got to spray that uh repellent or weed killer or whatever it is, pesticide or whatever they spray. Um if you've ever seen this, hopefully you've been on a road trip sometime and you've seen this out in the plains or someplace where a crop duster comes out. It's so cool to see. Um and and but they dip so low the small plane in order to spray that junk all over the plants, right? That we don't none of us want to eat the plants with it. But that's another topic in another podcast. So so um the crop duster's super low. So what can the pilot of the crop duster not see? The horizon. He or she can't see very far. Their field of vision's super limited because they're so low. Now the jet is up at 35,000, 50,000 feet. What can they see? Like forever. They can see the horizon, they can see the big picture. So when you're the crop duster, when you're flying really low, you can't be proactive. Like it's just the laws of nature, the laws of science. You you are you're you're it's required of you to be reactive because you're you're in the here and now this very moment. And so now some of you are going, but I'm in a position where I've got to be. Like I'm running the factory floor, or I'm out on the floor with my sales managers or with the salespeople, or I'm in the back of the house at a restaurant, or I'm or we've got these major fires that I'm putting out, or major current needs. I got it. Like I got it, okay? Either current needs, current crisis, current challenges, current demands require you to be the crop duster. You've got to be in the weeds fixing this out, fix, fixing whatever it is. All right. For a season. For a season. And there has to be an end date on that. And that's up to you. It's not up to the or don't don't blame it on the organization. Don't blame it on your boss. Don't blame it on anybody else. And if those aspects, if it is, if it's just a reality of your organization, it's a reality of your boss, they want you like you, you've got to constantly be in that mode, then you're working for the wrong leader. You're at the wrong organization to help you be proactive. Some organizations are stuck in that mindset. And I look at executives and and leaders at that organization, I'm like, how long are you going to stay here? Like, because you've been riding this out, and the organization, unless you feel like you can still have an impact on that, and I totally believe in choosing optimism and focusing on what you control and all that sort of stuff. I'm a huge advocate of that. But if you've been doing that and doing that and doing that and doing that, and it's not working, the organization's not shifting, then that's something for you to think about. And and and because you're not in that kind of a culture, and that's just a that's a challenge. So um now, if you're in a position, like that's the nature of the job, is to be the crop duster. All right. Well, that's there's some things you can do, like that's day-to-day, but you don't have to be in that mindset 24-7. You can be in that mindset for six hours a day, five hours a day, seven hours a day, whatever it is, most of your shift in air quotes, um, or maybe it's your entire time at the factory or at the plant or at the warehouse or at the office or wherever it is. But then outside of it, you can do steps two, three, and four. But I I need you cannot be a visionary, innovative, proactive leader when you're a crop duster. So either you gotta figure that stuff out for a season. I'm talking like the next four weeks. I'm talking like the next eight weeks, and then you're then you're gaining altitude. Like get what you need. And for me, when I was in the media business, what this looked like was building the leadership team. It was investing time to build up, upgrade the leadership team around me, and being absolutely committed to that. So there were some hard decisions. I, as I've told the story before, invited some people to leave, let go of some executives who were insanely good, but they did, they limited my ability to gain altitude. You got it? Because they flew at such a low altitude, and I needed them to move. I needed to be at 50,000 feet. I needed them at like 30,000 feet, and then the managers and supervisors, I needed to be the crop dusters at like 5,000 feet or whatever it is, right? Okay. So number one, gain altitude. Don't be a crop duster, be a jet. Number, and and there's lots we could talk about. That could be a whole episode, but you you you got enough to go on. You you I'm getting you thinking, you figure out what that looks like. Um, number two is get to the customer. You're gonna be reactive as long as you are stuck 100% of your time in internal meetings. You've got to be with the customer. And there's no way that's gonna happen unless you are proactive with your schedule and you're managing it, and it's not managing you. And that's a constant battle. That is not a checklist that, oh, I checked that box. I'm managing my schedule, I've accomplished that, I'm no longer having the schedule manage me. No, that's a daily battle. That's a weekly battle. Those of you that know what I'm talking about, right, right? Like if we were in a religious service, you'd be screaming, hey man, so wave your hand in the air or a lighter or something, I don't know, or a cell phone camera, or cell phone light, but yeah, so so you've got to get, you've got to be proactive and you've got to be intentional in getting with the customer. Why do I say that? Like, why is that, why is that a part of a discussion around being proactive and innovative? Because you know where the market's going. You're you're part of the radar, you're out there, you're listening to them, you're seeing what they really like about what services and products and things that your organization or your team does, and you see where you're not quite cutting it. And so you're you're you're right out on the cutting edge. The the leaders, executives, and organizations that are the most reactive are the ones who spend the least amount of time with the customers. Period. So you're out there. And there are lots of different ways to do that, right? Lots of different ways. Um focus groups, there are companies you can hire that are giving you that data, and I but I want to be in the room with them virtually, physically. I want I want to be talking to them, I want to be knee-to-knee. I want to be out doing market visits, I want to be looking at quantitative data, survey results, like all of that mix. Okay? And so I'm listening to them, I'm asking the right questions, yada, yada, yada. So number two was spend time with the customer. That will force you, and the leaders that report into you, if you're in that kind of a position, you want them doing that. That's just the way we operate. It's an expectation. If you do that, if you require that, if that's part of your ongoing mantra, like it's just in your DNA, you're preaching it, you're modeling it, you're going to naturally, organically pull the organization into a more proactive state. Number three, I need you to consume content, spend time with consultants, spend time with mentors, be part of networking or industry groups, be part of Braintree, go to breakfast with, socialize with people who think broadly outside of your industry or industry-wide, or just you want to be reading those books. You want to be listening to those podcasts. You want to be um I'm not a big fan of reading 14 million articles because I think it's you can become like and you're sending out articles to the team constantly and you're posting them or whatever, like you gotta like chill. You know what I mean? Like there's too much. You you can distract the organization doing that too much. I'm just talking about your mindset. You're consuming content from a more macro and a more global, a more big picture standpoint that's causing you to think. That's those are the voices in your head on the treadmill, in the Uber, with the driver, uh, on the plane, uh, whatever. You're just you're you're finding people to follow on X or Twitter or um LinkedIn or whatever, like that are making you think. And you've got to you've got to turn off the noise and just think about that. So you're listening about trends, about different things. You're not stuck in your bubble and and locked in the cage, right? So, number one, I need you to fly at a higher altitude, be a jet, not a crop duster. Number two, spend time, more time, intentional time with the customer. Number three, network, connect, consume content with people that think on a more macro level. Really think about it. Stop talking and listen to them. Be a cons uh uh uh consume the content. Don't filter it all out, like listen. Stuff that challenges your way of thinking. That's super, super important. And then the last item, number four, I want you to focus your schedule and to be super, the word I'm gonna use here is super important. Disciplined, I want you to be really disciplined in focusing your schedule and your team's schedule on high leverage activities. I've talked about this over the last few months and a few different episodes. HLAs, write it down, put it in your notes. HLA's, repeat it, repeat it, repeat it. It's part of your vernacular. HLA's high leverage activities. What are you getting rid of? L uh low le L A's, yeah, I forgot it for a second. LLA's low leverage activities. That's what reactive leaders are engaged in a ton of. Look at their calendar, look at the last month, look at the the email inbox, look at Zoom or Teams or excuse me, um, Slack or whatever. They're just total reactive. And they're they're consumed by low leverage activities. And I like this is a constant thing that I'm just measuring our firm on all the time, our leadership team on me, my business partners are like low-leverage activities are just obnoxious weeds. They just, you don't even have to water the soil and they're springing up everywhere. They just multiply, like, holy crap, reproductive systems of robe of uh of uh rabbits, right? Like, whoa, we had one, now we got 20. Like, where'd these come from? Low-leverage activities just multiply their weeds and they slow down your organization, they slow you down. And if you're not super intentional, constantly applying pressure to it, like thinking, is this a high leverage activity? What's the ROI on me spending time on this? What's the ROI on our team or our lead our our um department or our leadership team talking about this, focusing on it? You ask my business partners, I like I gotta manage myself on this because I have so much energy. When when my time is taken up, someone's elevating something to me about a low-leverage activity. Like, I like I don't mean it in any disrespectful way, but why am I spending time on this? Like, no, take care of that. And by the way, I think this deserves maybe 45 seconds of your time. But in organizations that are reactive, LLAs are everywhere. And we aren't fighting them. We're not spraying the insecticide or the weed killer. Man, in the desert, you're out constantly. When you own land, you're out constantly having to spray. Even when it hasn't rained for months, you're spraying that weed killer constantly because those suckers are relentless, and they are in your organization too. Number one, jet, not crop duster, increase your altitude. Number two, get with the customer, get your leaders with the customers. Number three, network, consume higher, um, put yourself around, consume content that's more macro, big picture. Number three, spray weed killer on those LLAs and focus intentionally, in a disciplined way on HLAs. That's how you become more innovative and more proactive. And it's what I wanted to talk about in this episode of the Lead in 30 podcast.

SPEAKER_01:

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 Russell.