Change Your Brain Every Day - What Makes a Great Leader?

Episode Date: January 16, 2017

Whether it's in the family, in governments, or businesses, all these instutitions are in dire need of great leaders.  In this episode of Brain Warrior's Podcast, we'll talk to Dr. John Townsend about the secret sauce of raising great leaders.  Dr. Townsend works with leaders and organizations by providing team and executive coaching, corporate consulting, and by giving conference presentations.  He coaches families and family businesses.  John conducts the Townsend Leadership Program, developing leaders at sites nationwide.   He also formed the Townsend Leadership Coach Group, which trains leaders to run their own training teams.

Hi, I'm Donnie Osmond, and welcome to The Brain Warrior's Way, hosted by my friends Daniel and Tana Amon. Now, in this podcast, you're going to learn that the war for your health is one between your ears. That's right. If you're ready to be sharper and have better memory, mood, energy, and focus, well, then stay with us. Here are Daniel and Tana Amen.

Well, welcome back, everybody. We are with our good friend, Dr. John Townsend. And today we are going to talk about leadership. I know, John, this is something that's been interesting and important to you for a long time. It really has, Daniel. What we found out is that leaders are the same as anybody else, but they also have extra burdens. There's a hat. All three of us have leadership capacities. There's a hat you wear of responsibility. And so I've always been studying what is the internal makeup of what a good leader does does great at organizations any anything from corporate things to family-owned businesses and that sort of thing um i have an institute the towns institute of leadership and counseling which actually daniel you're um you're one of the fellows i often speak to our students um and there's also i have a program called towns of leadership program which is a franchise program around the country where

people get into teams who get once a month intensive work on leadership. So it's something I've spent a lot of time on figuring out what makes a leader who's really successful tick as opposed to a leader that's not so successful. What's the secret, Suspects? So, you know, I think all of us have had bad bosses. Many of us have had really great bosses. Parents clearly are leaders. And some of us have had really awesome parents and others not so awesome. When you think of a troubled leader, what comes to mind? The first thing that comes to mind is that somehow there's a disconnect in their head

between what they should be doing and what the organization needs. You know, we're all familiar with emotional intelligence, EQ and all that. And what we're finding out is that really good leaders have really good EQ. And that wasn't a big deal for a while. Back in the 25, 30, 40, 50 years ago, it was sort of like we just need somebody who can focus and get it done and knows the goal and all that. Well, if you don't read your people well, you lose culture, your teams fall apart, people go into silos, and the rock stars leave. So you've got four things happening right now.

I want good culture. I want great teams. And I don't want people in silos. I want people working well together. And I don't want people in silos. I want people working well together. And I don't want the rock stars to leave. You've got to be able to read people. One of the guys I studied when I was learning about leadership, Peter Drucker, he's kind of the Moses of management, a great statement that I use all the time. He said, culture will eat strategy for breakfast.

We can say it there. Relationships will eat strategy for breakfast. You can have the best product, the best service, the best plans, the best operations. And if your people aren't relating well, and it's your responsibility as a leader, all that stuff falls apart. So the first thing I look at when somebody says, a company calls me and says, can you look at us? Acme Staples, we're in the Midwest, can you take a look and see what we're doing? First thing I look at is how's the relationship going? So relationship is really critical. Where do you try to get people? So you go into a company or a family, because I know you've also

worked in family businesses. Once you sort of diagnose the issue, walk us through the process on how you help people change. Most of the time in an organization, whether it's family owned or corporate or 501c3 or NGA or nonprofit, there's going to be some problem in two buckets. The first bucket is the relationship. Why aren't people connecting? Is there a prima donna there or people just not communicating? Everybody's off in their cubby, not doing things, not talking to each other. But generally speaking, there's also what we call a structural problem, meaning people might not be clear about what's going on. They might not know what their roles are or they might not know how what they do leads to the big vision and mission because it hasn't been explained to them.

Or they're not resourced i was working with a with a company and very very successful company in the it world and i was talking to their sales manager he said um i said how's it going i said well my rock star is really not doing good my number one salesman i'm not doing good i said i went to the numbers i said yeah he's not doing good i said what are you doing to help him because numbers are important money's important. He said, well, I told him there's people in line waiting for your job. And I said, that's not the worst thing I've ever heard a boss tell me. I said, that might be managing, but that's not leading.

I said, do you know anything about him? He says, no, I just, I know he's supposed to be a rock star. Could you imagine if we were struggling and I said, well, you know, I've got three other women. Oh, yeah. I would say, like, you deserve them. I don't think that would go. No. Because, you know, you just reminded me of something. No, you reminded me of something.

One of the best jobs that I think I've ever had, and I always say that, you know, my manager was not a manager. He was a leader. And I've always said that because he was my manager, but he was such a great boss and we had a great team. And it was exactly what you said. So I remember feeling overwhelmed by this job and scared that I couldn't do it and nervous at first. And I'd call him for help and he would just laugh. And he goes, you know, I hired you because I know you can do this job. Do X, Y, and Z and call me back. But he had this very calm sense of, you know, and he would instill the sense of confidence in me. But it's exactly the opposite of what you just said. It was more rather than

there's someone waiting in line for your job. It was I hired you because I know you can do it. And it was it would make you I had this feeling like I didn't I no way was going to let him down. He was saying, I trust you. And that made me feel like there was no way I was going to let him down. He was saying, I trust you. And that made me feel like there was no way I was going to let him down. We know someone trust us. We'll go to the ends of the earth. So I thought, what I told this guy was, how's, you know, have you, have you been clear with him about his rules, about his responsibilities? I read it. Well, he just gave him a double territory over the last 90 days and none of these people, I said, he's overwhelmed. And besides that, you need to give him more admin help. And besides that, I had had dinner with these people. I said, he's overwhelmed. And besides that, you need to give

him more admin help. And besides that, I had had dinner with the guy and I said, you know, I came back to the boss and I said, you know, he's got a kid who's really sick and he's kind of checked out because of that. I said, you've got to get to the why of these things. And so he did, he fixed it. He made his role very clear. He he gave up he gave him more admin help he said how can i support you with our insurance you know stuff about the kit and things got better so you diagnose the problem it's generally relational plus structural organizational and then you put in what they need to change and then you've got to monitor because organizations are very complicated they've got a lot of plates spinning and if you just say here's our big vision here's our just

our great strategy okay see in a year I promise you it won't work. Somebody's got to be the champion. Who in the company do I have to assign that as a consultant? I say, I'm going to assign this person to champion the strategy, to champion the plan. Because if somebody internal doesn't do it, people just kind of get busy and they get kind of ADD. Who inside there does this matter to that I can talk to once a month that says we're doing well here or not here? Monitoring and accountability are just huge moments. Yeah, I was just thinking good leaders are often like good parents. And as we talked about love and bonding, so that's the first part. And clear rules, so it's clear expectations,

freedom, and consequences. It just seems like there's this similarities. Have you, you know, when I think of leadership, I think of the prefrontal cortex. So that front third of the brain, largest in humans than any other animal by far. And it's involved with leadership qualities, focus, forethought, judgment, impulse control, organization, planning, empathy, and learning from the mistakes that you make. That I wonder how many of the leaders we deal with, well, I get to scan them, don't have healthy frontal lobes because they're chronically stressed. They work so hard. They drink too much. They engage in high-risk activities. And teaching them to love and repair and take care of their brain is so important. Have you run across leaders that were really struggling with brain health?

That's a huge, huge issue. By the way, I like your analogy to the parenting guys, because a parent is a leader because a leader is anybody with a sphere of influence. Well, if you've got one kid, your influence is that kid. If you've got four kids, that's your influence. So whatever we're talking about applies 100% to parents. But on to your thought. One of the biggest challenges I have is teaching the leader to respect themselves and take care of themselves. Because when you start talking about time off and eating right and healthy

living and healthy relationships and not having codependent relationships, the first thing they think of is I don't have time for all this. You know, my business is on fire. I've got to be there. I've got to be the first one in and the last one out. And I'll say bad leaders say that. If I've got to be there first and it worked weekends and be the last one out, I'm teaching my, my people how to burn out. Good leaders go, I come first.

I love my business, but I've got to be healthy, take care of myself. And when I have that self-respect and that self-health, all of a sudden, my brain starts working well. As you guys well know, I begin having better concentration, energy, and creativity follow through. But it's so counterintuitive because they feel like they're being selfish. And I'll say, you're not being selfish. You're being self-responsible. Watch your business grow. You take care of yourself.

Wow. That's so important, especially if they have spent years and years. You know, I think for me that I actually had much better balance until I went to medical school. And then in medical school, you're working so hard. And then internship, you're working like a nut. Well, residency is toxic. Residency and then building a practice. And it just changed. And I had to purposefully take time off without thinking it was costing me money, that it was an investment. You know, if I would take time and, you know, one of my hobbies is writing. So I'm excited about that. Right. I don't play golf. That's why,

like you, I've written 30 books. But it's taking that day off to write, which was a hobby for me, was investing in my health, not stealing from my income. All right, let's use you as an example. This is a great example. You're the lab rat here, Daniel. After you finish writing for, I don't know, two hours, four hours, eight hours,

how do you feel? Well, if I got something accomplished, I feel awesome. I feel great. Same way, I feel awesome. I feel great. Same way. I feel great. I feel like, you know, I could do this again. And when I go back in the office, I've got all this energy and new ideas and I challenge

things and I'm very disruptive. So the things we do that bring us health also bring us a better leader to add to the group. Right. Do you have a story in closing? Who needs you? You know, either to get one of your leadership books or, you know, to join the Institute. Maybe tell us a story about someone who joined.

Where were they when they began? And how has the institute changed their life well we're kind of full service now we can we train coaches that can just come to a to a leader you know twice a month at a starbucks to get a good coaching on a holistic level personal plus professional all the way up to several billion dollar corporations that we kind of consult with them but one of my favorite recent stories is um a gal who was at the institute and um on graduation day she done her time and i said so how are you doing congratulations she's like i gotta tell you this i said what she does i um i put the principles of leadership which is about you've got to have the relationship partnership but you've got to be clear, too.

It's all about relationship and task and relationship and task. That's how the world works. I did these things with the people working under me. And my boss came to me and said, we've got a lot of wackos that have been really hard to get along with. And you've made them nice people. So I don't know what you're doing with the wackos, but it's really good. She said, well, I'm doing this principle at work. He said, I'm paying for your tuition. Oh, wow. Wrote a check

for her entire tuition because you've added so much more to our company because of that. So it's kind of cool that this stuff works. If the leaders learn to be healthy internally, as well as healthy strategically, relationship and tasks, everybody's more successful. So how can people find out about the Institute? Just my website, drtownsend.com, like dr, like doctor at townsend.com. drtownsend.com. John, thank you so much. What a joy to be with you. Thanks, guys. Thanks for listening to today's show, The Brain Warrior's Way. Why don't you head over to brainwarriorswaypodcast.com. That's brainwarriorswaypodcast.com, where Daniel and Tana have a gift for you just for subscribing to the show. And when you post your review on

iTunes, you'll be entered into a drawing where you can win a VIP visit to one of the Amen Clinics. I'm Donnie Osmond, and I invite you to step up your brain game by joining us in the next episode.