Start With A Win - Creating a Succession Plan That Continues Your Legacy - Adam Contos

Episode Date: September 11, 2024

In this episode of Start With a Win, host Adam Contos joins Scott Albrecht and Scott Anderle on their podcast, The Credit Union Leadership.  We are entering into a new era in our movement. In the next five years we will see a record high in credit union CEO's retiring. The challenge is that most have not raised leaders to take our place as we move forward. In this episode we talk with Adam Contos - a Former SWAT Team Leader and Former CEO of RE/MAX Holdings, to talk about the importance of systems to live out the legacy leaders want to be known for.  We cover a set system in C-Suite succession planning, creating a weekly process to make yourself the most effective leader possible, and how to connect with others on the same path - Emerging Credit Union Leaders Group. 

Truly what we're doing is we're inspiring them to find that energy within themselves to get better. The hardest person to hold accountable, but the one that you need to do the most accountability with is yourself. We learn from our losses, then we move on from them, but they're not losses anymore. They're just education. Leaders learn and leaders teach. Our job as a leader is to build leaders. If you don't have a successor, you're screwed as a leader. Great leaders replace themselves before they run out of steam. You're listening to the Credit Union Leadership Podcast, a podcast that delivers value and offers up insight that'll help your credit union grow. ServiceStar has been consulting with credit unions for over 20 years, growing them in the areas of cultural development, leadership development,

and management training. To learn more about what Service Start can do for you or your credit union, check them out at servicestartconsulting.com. Welcome to the Credit Union Leadership Podcast. You've got Scott and you've got... Scott. We've got someone awesome in today. I'm going to read a little bit about his bio, or I like to call it the brag sheet. And then I've got a few questions of what should listeners be paying attention for. So Adam Contos is who we paying attention for so Adam Contos is who we've got today Adam Contos used to run a SWAT team in his previous life he's so what I mean is like he literally kicked down doors he blew things up and

he saved people recently he just retired from being a franchise system CEO where he worked with Remax and built systems for them. And he spearheaded innovations, motto franchising and tech firm. So did a lot of cool things, has done a lot of things of building systems for leaders to use to have a high performing team. He talks on leadership. and he talks to us, the Credit Union leaders, on how to grow in our careers and how to look backwards and try to fill our positions when we move on to that next role in our great movement here, the Credit Union industry. So super excited to have him on the podcast today. You're not gonna need to go

to a bunch of outside industries. We're bringing other industries into the Credit Union Leadership Podcast and bringing those insights and data points for you to strategize a better plan for your business. Get ready. Today's podcast with Adam Kantos is going to be electric. Welcome to the Credit Union Leadership Podcast. We've got a stellar guest. We've got Adam Contos with us, someone I'm very, very excited to talk with. I know the stuff that Adam's going

to be sharing from his experience and his knowledge and how we apply it to the credit union world is going to be so valuable. Adam, thank you so much for being here with us today. Hey, it's my pleasure. Thanks for having me. Well, I want to start off to let our listeners get to know you. So I want to ask these two questions in one. First, who was Adam Kantos? And then who is Adam Kantos becoming? Wow, I love that question. So Adam Kantos was somebody looking to find himself. And Adam Kantos now has figured out the aspects of leadership that brought him out. I was always looking for that build the habits that we work off of every day, I found that person because those things are what keep you in alignment and keep you moving forward. I can totally relate with my background in Chick-fil-A. You know, the goal is to create a connection with our members.

But something that Chick-fil-A does so well is they create these systems and processes and procedures for teammates to follow. And these systems and processes really are there to help us create a better connection with our members if we know what to do. So I'm hearing you on the importance of finding yourself through these systems. And this begs the question, all right, because I know that you went from the Army or the Marines to SWAT team to CEO of Remax. Now you're here helping build C-suite level leaders. So I want to ask this question. How did this journey of you finding yourself look? When was that moment that you knew you were doing

what you were supposed to be doing? Well, you know, when you wake up early in the morning and you're, you're not always there and you're kind of walking down the hall, bumping off the walls of the hallway, sometimes trying to find your way to the kitchen or something. That's kind of how I was for quite a while in life. I sought out systems and processes because I knew that I had potential, but I didn't know how to release it. So like the day after I graduated high school, I joined the Marines. All my friends were going off to party and go to college and things of that nature. I was standing on the yellow footprints getting yelled at by a drill instructor. And I started

learning systems and not just disciplines, but processes to get me to find my way to be what I wanted to be. And that what I wanted to be was to continue to increase the bar and build greater challenges for myself. Because the reality is humans are inherently lazy. We will always seek to find the lowest possible point we can in order to get by. And I think we know a lot of people in our lives and in our businesses that are that way. I didn't want to be that person. My dad raised me to give what I could and then find a little bit more.

And I really hadn't found that yet. So what I did was I started just kind of exploring life and continuing to bump off those walls in the hallway as I was walking down. I dropped out of college twice. I got a great job. I was a street cop, which is so much fun. It's just a lot of fun to work with people, help people, and there's a fair amount of adrenaline dump going on in the whole process. But I didn't really want to learn and get better until I found the SWAT team. And then I started getting better and better because it was about maximum opportunity instead of minimum necessary when it comes to being in an elite group. And that pushed me to try and find more and more. I got into being an entrepreneur. I started a couple businesses and then I got into the corporate space and left law enforcement as a full-time employee there. I still volunteer in law enforcement to help them. But ultimately, it came down to, okay, what am I looking for here? And what I'm looking for is not

what I saw yesterday. It's what I can be tomorrow. So you said something that I wanted to touch on, this idea of continuous learning. You wanted to join the Marines because you said people are naturally lazy and you wanted to help that and you found a lot of value in systems in your life. The thing that I think of when you say that is, what was your life before you joined the Marines? But then I think that really, the thing you said that really caught me off guard is that you said it wasn't the Marines. It was the SWAT team that really taught you the value in systems. Is that right?

I would say it was a combination of both. But ultimately, I was just, I was an average kid, you know, B student, C student, whatever it was. I got as good of grades as I wanted to try and get. But ultimately, again, you know, humans are inherently lazy. And I, like anybody else, was just doing what I needed to do. And then the Marine Corps shows you that you can do more than you think you can. And I learned that very well there. And took that, you know, I did take a lot of great values and systems from the military into the civilian world because it helps you get ahead.

Honestly, I mean, you know, when you're competing against the old Adam, who's now the Marine Adam, it's not that difficult to beat them. If you have that drive and systems and execution and, you know, you want to get up at four o'clock in the morning to go get a couple hours in work before the other person is, it really makes a difference. And I'm not telling everybody you have to get up at 4 a.m. to go do something. I don't get up at 4 a.m. anymore. I get up at 5.30 now in order to go to the gym. But ultimately, I'm up doing stuff before everybody else is, and I'm going to beat them doing it because I'm going to be better for myself, which means I can be better for other people. So it was just a transition, a continuous growth process instead of just a binary,

you know, door that I walk through and say, oh, okay, this worked. It's this continuous improvement, you know, Kaizen, incremental gain that helps you out, things of that nature, 1% better every day. Everybody's written books about it. Everybody's talked about it, but you really, truly have to live it in order to see the results. You were talking about how you wake up ridiculously early. Some of our listeners, they're either current or aspiring credit union leaders. They might be listening to this feeling a little overwhelmed, but I want, I really want them to hear what you have to say about this. When you joined the Marines and the SWAT, did you have this –

I hear this quote of motivation brings action and action brings motivation. It's a cyclical cycle. Where did you fit on that? Did you join the Marines and the SWAT team saying, I need to get motivated in this. So you took action and you were very conscious of what you were doing because you wanted to bring systems in your life. Or was it just through life circumstances, you fell into this and you started to learn the value of systems there. I think whatever your story is, I think there's going to be value there for our listeners

if they've fallen into the credit union world, or if they've been very intentional think whatever your story is, I think there's going to be value there for our listeners if they've fallen into the credit union world or if they've been very intentional about the decisions they've made that have led them here. That's an interesting question because first of all, I don't believe in motivation. I don't think motivation exists. Motivation is external. And, you know, we're trying to tell somebody to do something and give them the energy to do it when we're trying to motivate them. But ultimately, they're going to do what inspires themselves internally. So what we have to do is we have to model the inspiration and the outcomes that we want to see those around us execute on and follow,

which is why for the leaders on this podcast, those that watch this show and understanding what's going on, you can't walk up to somebody and try and make them excited about something. It just doesn't work. They have to make themselves excited about it. And they have to have that internal why to make themselves excited. So I think as leaders, we can think motivation all day long. I want them to be motivated. But truly what we're doing is we're inspiring them to find that energy within themselves to get better and go and execute

a little bit more instead of us trying to push them to do it. You know, really what we're doing at that point is we're just managing their behaviors is what we're trying to do by motivating them. And I do like the word, I love the word motivation because it does, you know, we would sing about motivation in the Marines as we're marching along or running or whatever it is, you know, highly motivated, highly dedicated, whatever it is. But ultimately you got to hold up the mirror folks and say, am I inspired to go do this? Because if I got to have like this, somebody yelling at me, following me around all day to motivate me, I'm going to give them the minimum that they're asking for. Instead of me

going, you know, again, what is the most that I can come up with? And I can tell you, we can always come up with about 40% more. And that's what the inspiration lever is when it comes to getting better and doing those things. Because the hardest person to hold accountable, but the one that you need to do the most accountability with is yourself. And that's how we get there. Man, that's gold right there. I love how you put motivation. And that's actually what we teach in our Vertex Leadership Development

program. We talk about this idea of internally motivated. This is typically are the people that become leaders. They do the right thing because it's the right thing. But a lot of people on our team, they're externally motivated, meaning they need to have an incentive. So in our whole course, we talk about how do you build an environment that breeds people to want to perform well. And I love how you put that. It was just brilliantly put. And I want to dive deeper into this idea of motivation. We say we can't motivate others, but you've built systems. You've created a track record for yourself to help you be the person you want to be, to be that 40% better. And I wanted to ask you the question, you've got the book,

Start With A Win. And you talk about altering your perspective, building systems in place so you can be a better leader, a leader that's contagious, that people want to be around. So my practical question is, how did you start today off with a win? What habits did you build to create this mentality? My day looks very similar, boringly similar to the last day and the day before and the day before when it comes to how I start. I do have my morning system. You know, we've all heard about morning routines and the miracle morning and all these other things. And the reality is if you have something that puts you on the tracks and gets you moving, then you're better off than those that don't because you're going to start taking action.

We have the best cognitive ability first thing in the morning. We have the best ability to go out and execute on our highest tasks first thing in the morning. And some people might disagree with that and go, I'm the best in the afternoon, but I'll challenge you to go out and try your mornings then. So how I started my day with a win this morning is I set my alarm for 530, like I told you, but ultimately it comes down to, okay, I'm going to beat my alarm. It's like setting the GPS in your car to get someplace. And you're like, I'm going to beat that darn thing. I'm going to get there before it tells me I can. That's how I look at my day. I got up before my alarm went off. So my body's like, get out of bed. And my German shepherd Seymour is sitting there looking at me going, dad, are we ready to go? And I'm like,

let's do it. So I get up, you know, put on my eyeballs, my contacts, go out into the kitchen, mix up my workout drink and a cup of coffee with some MCT oil and collagen and things like that in it, throw down a couple of supplements, and I head off to the gym. And I do at least 45 minutes of a good workout. Now, some days are better than others in the gym. Let's face it. Same thing for everybody. But I need to execute on a few certain things. If you put your minimums out there, and those minimums are better than most people's maximums, you're going to outperform. So for instance, doing 100 push-ups a day, 100 air squats a day, 100 jumping jacks a

day, and probably about 40 pull-ups, depending on how many I can manage for the day, crank out as many of those as I can. Also, the reality is I beat most people at that point. I get into the rest of my workout. I go home. I take a shower, but I finish it with that ice-cold shower to really stimulate the chemicals flowing in the body and putting your brain on go. So that's how I start my day with a win. And then I grab a

protein drink and I head to the office and hit the ground running. So it's fantastic. And by the way, my day is structured also. So I'm not kind of wondering what I need to do because as soon as you start wondering, you're going to lose track of that momentum and you're going to start looking for things. And that's when we start giving our minimum necessary again. So keep yourself on track by having your tasks for the day already laid out in front of you. And bam, next thing you know, it's the end of the day and you've accomplished a lot. So how would one do that? When do you lay out the track for your day? So I have my day laid out the Sundayay before the week okay so i have this little

desk calendar and i'll write out what i'm doing on each of those days and i look at my calendar i have an assistant she books things in the time blocks that i want things booked i have a couple of regular get-togethers that i deal with with the different companies but ultimately it comes down to okay what do i want to put in there that's going to change my week? So I love writing. I love the feeling of writing. So I have this beautiful Montblanc fountain pen that I will write down what I'm doing all week in each column, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. And I have a section for notes. If there's things I want to add in there, I'll put those down in the notes also.

But I plan it out on Sunday or on Saturday for the following week. And then I can make adjustments on the fly, but ultimately I know what my week looks like. I got my plan in front of me. I know what days I want to have nothing, which might include fishing or going shooting or four-wheeling or, you know, playing with the dogs or whatever it might be, but ultimately work stuff, bam, it's on there. And I'm going to follow that. It makes me think of Ed Ketmull, the founder of Pixar. He talks about creating a plan for your business, kind of like what you do for your week. And he says he's flexible and he's adaptable. And this idea, he thinks of it like a triangle.

So you look at the bottom and the foundation. There's so many possibilities of what places you could go. But as you put in these steps day by day, you reach the bottom and the foundation, there's so many possibilities of what places you could go. But as you put in these steps day by day, you reach the top of the triangle. It's very specific, but you got to be adaptable. Things happen. And you may have had the mindset of I'm going to reach the top of this triangle by the end of the week. But really that a goal, that dot, that's your goal that you're reaching at the top of the triangle moves and it's totally outside of the triangle, but it's still farther above where you started off. And we've just got to be flexible to course correct and move that triangle a little bit

or make it become a line. So what I'm hearing you say is that there's moments outside of your control, right? And you have to embrace adaptability and you've got to be able to transition your schedule. But because you have that schedule that gives you a sense of control and power. The question I have is when you have to make changes in your schedule, does that change everything about your day? Does that really irk and bug you? How do you, how do you adjust? I'll just start with, you can't allow things to irk and bug you. Here's the reality. I've been shot at, I've been cussed at, I've had to fight with people. Life is great.

None of that stuff's happening right now. So the reality is there's nothing that irks or bugs me. And I will look at it and go, okay, we just make adjustments. I don't live in the past. I don't live in emotion. I live't live in emotion i live in what needs to be accomplished and what do i want to do or do i want to do nothing and recharge my brain things like that and i have processes for that also but the reality is you can't dwell on anything you can't dwell on your past conversation your past meeting your past interruption or disagreement with somebody anything like that those that do all you're doing is you're giving energy to the wrong things and that's gonna distract you from being your very best you know if you look at

some of the best professional athletes out there when they have a really bad play they get into some sort of a zone and they erase that bad play and they they learn from it but they get rid of it and i i think it was coach k that would uh from duke i think it was that would say okay next play next play and they would move on to the next play even though the last place sucked and that's what keeps you winning instead of reflecting on your losses we learn from our losses then we move on from them but they're not losses anymore they're just education at that point, I mean, the reality is your day's going to change. It's okay. Get into things that you know you need to get in, such as nutrition, water, a couple of little

brain breaks here and there, and anything that you know is imperative, throw that in your schedule. And if somebody has to change in your schedule, it's okay to say no to them and say, I don't have time for that today. Here's when I have time for that. Do you want to do it then? And they'll be like, but it's an emergency. No, it's not my emergency. It's your emergency. So I'm willing to help you during that time block, but I'm not willing to change my structure and my productivity because of your problem.

People start learning pretty quick. You're right, Adam. The brain takes 2% of your body, but actually uses 20% of the body's energy. I love this idea of brain breaks. Inform the audience. What do you do for a brain break? So I'm a very big proponent of resetting the memory.

You know how when your phone starts screwing up and then you close all the apps and you turn it off and turn it back on? What if we did that to our brain every now and then? Because after you do that, everything seems to run properly. So I'm a fan of a couple of different meditation type apps and things of that nature, but probably one of the biggest things that I really like is what dr Huberman talks about which is non sleep deep rest So he has a couple of these protocols on you can pull them up on YouTube and listen to him or on Spotify or whatever But it's 20 minutes and he walks you through this 20 minute Deep relaxation period now some people are like,

this is like meditation. I'm like, what's your definition of meditation? Because mine is that you're focusing on different things. But, but this one is, is a complete deep relaxation of your body. And what it does is it completely clears out your brain. It's, it's like you just got out of deep sleep. So you have REM sleep where you're dreaming and things like that. And you have deep sleep where you're cleansing your brain of toxins and of that short-term memory that's clogging up your ability to do things. This takes you into that deep, deep area of your brain and it cleans you out in 20 minutes. You can do it sitting in a chair. You can do it laying on the ground or whatever it is or on the bed. You're probably going to doze off a couple of times or feel like you did.

But ultimately when you're done with that 20 minutes, you're going to be like, whoa, what happened? And we get stuck in these different things in life. We get out of a meeting where people are angry or pissy or it's a pain in the butt or your business has eaten some money for some reason or something like that. It's frustrating. It's not the way you want it. You got to clear that out,

put yourself in a good place to move forward and move forward. And that's how you continue to win. So try that. It, you know, one o'clock today, go do the non-sleep deep rest protocol from Dr. Huberman and see what happens. And you're going to go,

dang, that was the best thing I've done all day. I'm ready to have another work day in front of me. And it's, you know, only 120, you know, take a look at that, but that's a great way of doing it. Brain break. Let's give it just a second. Let's listen to this ad and we'll come right back to it. Credit unions typically provide about two weeks of training to a new teller. But did you know that the average manager goes 10 years without receiving management training? How much training is provided to your new managers. Service Star's Emerging Leaders program will take your new and emerging leaders and deepen the bench to move the movement forward. We're looking forward to seeing your emerging leaders

at our two-part series, one in the spring and one in the fall, where we talk about leadership hacks, building trust, coaching essentials, effective mentorship, change management, developing your brand, managing former peers, and work-life integration. All sessions are from two to four and they start soon. So go to a servicestar consulting.com and register your team today. Brain break over. Back to the episode. and bringing in pieces, insights, data points to be able to strategize and do things a little bit differently than you did them yesterday,

1% better every day. Advice from podcasts like the one you just mentioned is really what our industry needs to be able to move forward. And just having you on this podcast is another kind of outside industry bringing you in. You've had experience in the SWAT team. You've had experience as a CEO of many different organizations, some close to our industry and some are, you know, subway shops inside of airports. How can somebody that maybe

has that kind of experience apply the same methodology they learned from Swatter, that they learned from the military, to the CEO of a credit union? It's fascinating when you take a look at what are the skills needed in order to be a leader. Well, what do leaders do? Leaders learn and leaders teach. So learners lead, leaders learn. And the reality is our job as a leader is to build leaders. We want them to act as we would want ourselves to act. So you guys mentioned the soft skills of leadership, which is huge. I'm a huge fan of the soft skills of leadership.

We have tactical skills and we have soft skills. Tactical skills are do you know your space? So do you have competence in your space you know in the credit union space do you understand how how credit unions operate how lending operates all of the different parameters around the regulatory aspects of it things of that nature stuff that will get you in trouble because they're hard and fast rules and it's not human nature to understand those. Those are educated. But we have this soft skills piece. And when you take a look at what the most important skills are that leaders have, it's

not those tactical skills. Because those tactical skills, we hire a lot of people for a lot of times. And we can gain those as we study those. But the soft skills, we have to build within ourselves. And if you don't gain those soft skills, you're just going to be some, you know, hard nosed, jackass leader that nobody likes and are only working for you because, you know, they have no other job at the moment, but they're looking and they're doing what you're telling them to do because they have to do that in order to get

their paycheck. I want people who are like, wow, that person cares about me. They understand me. They're empathetic. They're trying to help me extract more outcomes than I possibly could myself. And we're winning together. They're creating an environment where I can be as successful as I want to be,

and I want to be more successful. So ultimately, those soft skills are really not taught anywhere. They're learned through experience a lot of times, and that experience is because of bad experiences that we have. That's the wisdom and knowledge of us screwing up a relationship or making a poor business decision or a poor relationship decision with a customer or something like that. So ultimately it comes down to what are we doing to learn the soft skills and what are we doing to transfer those soft skills to our successors? Something called succession planning. We see a lot of that in, you know, in the presidential race right now. We see a lot of that in society and different businesses. If you don't have a successor,

you're screwed as a leader. You're really screwed screwed as a leader so what do you do to build a successor you inspire them to be the best soft skills leader they possibly can as well as a tactical skills leader and uh you know ultimately it comes down to what can we do to fix those things i don't care where you get them go learn the soft skills of leadership. I never learned them in my MBA. I wish I had. I actually go back and teach them now to the MBA students because business schools don't teach this stuff. And this is what makes you a good leader.

How do you deepen the bench? You talked a little bit about finding that next CEO here in Credit Ian land. It's called succession planning. And you're kind of talking about what that would look like. What does it look like as a CEO of an organization like a credit union? What is the CEO's responsibility when it comes to deepening the bench? Your number one task as a leader is to deepen the bench. I mean, ultimately, that's what it comes down to.

Because if you're focused on building amazing leaders, those amazing leaders will carry the business forward as they're being built to amazing leaders. It's really something that people don't talk about much. They talk about it probably quarterly at board meetings and public companies. Or if you have a major board of directors, you'll have a committee that says, OK, what's our succession plan? And usually that succession plan is a list of names. Sometimes if you're really advanced, there'll be a matrix of their different skill sets, red, yellow, green, where they're at on becoming the next level of leader, things like that. And if you're really, really good, there will be probably about three levels of succession. So there'll be succession is, I think it's three by three. So each level,

three levels deep from where you are should have three different succession candidates that you're helping to grow. So you're, you know, you're looking at a larger organization when you're talking about that, but ultimately it comes down to, do you have three people that could battle it out or through their diversified talents be capable of replacing you as a leader? If the answer is no, you haven't built a good enough succession plan. So what three people are you training to take over for you?

And ultimately, what you should be trying to do is replace yourself with one of those three people. Great leaders replace themselves before they run out of steam. When we see a leader that becomes a lame duck and just sits there and is worthless, they did a horrible job of succession planning because one, they didn't create a replacement, or three, or two, they didn't realize it and nothing's happening here. So ultimately, you know, you're kind of screwed when it comes to your business's future if you haven't built a good succession plan. So I'm a huge fan of succession planning, Scott. And I'll tell you

that it's not looked at enough. If you haven't had that conversation, at least on a monthly basis with those three people and say, I'm, you're part of the succession plan. I'm trying to train you guys up. There are multiple of you. Here's the reality. We're all going to get better together and you're going to test those people because somebody is going to get selfish and ego, egotistical and try and push the others aside.

Get rid of that person. Yeah. Not about that person, that narcissist. It's about those that are givers into the company. Somebody else will fall into that, that succession seat pretty quick. I want to keep talking about this because I, I know Scott and I have traveled on site and we've talked to a lot of credit unions recently that are starting to think about succession plan because they're realizing their CEO or COO won't be here in the next five years. So that first level you

said it's three, three, three. The first level is find three potential candidates, not just one, because something could happen to them. Maybe it's their ego or skill set. You know, really what this is, this is delegation 2.0 at a higher C-suite level. We have a course on delegation for Vertex Live Nationwide, which is for leaders delegating tasks to their team. This seems like the next step in delegation. So at that higher C-suite level. So what's the next level? Because you said 333, right? So if you're the CEO, you should be looking for three people. And those three people are probably C-suite operators of some sort, CFO, COO, maybe chief revenue officer,

chief technology officer, something like that. Those people each need to have three that they're working on. And then of those three that say that COO is working with the head of HR, head of IT, head of sales, I don't know what it is. Those people each need to have three that they're working on. Because when leaders learn how to develop other leaders, they're making themselves better and they're making the company better. But ultimately what you're doing is you're spreading that culture of leadership throughout the organization and, you know, basically by the network effect. Because if you go three,3-3, I mean, you're impacting a great deal

of the organization when it comes to leadership development. You're going to push out the people who are just there for a paycheck in those roles. And those are all going to be roughly management, vice president, or above roles when it comes to starting at the top and going 3-3-3 down in, let's say, a company of 100 people, it's going to cause some cracks in some of the leadership. You're going to notice some narcissism that occurs, some egomaniacs that occur, get rid of those people. I mean, ultimately we all know somebody like that, that needs to be reintroduced to the workplace or we call it making them a customer. You know, the, the reality is that's not part of leadership, egomaniacs and narcissism or not have the conversation quick and, and stop

it. So, um, you know, but you, you want to build your leadership bench by pushing down through the network effect. And what that's going to do is it's going to push leadership upward. Man. So this networking effect goes right into our four quadrants that we talk about in coaching for performance, our book coaching for maximum performance, where if you find a potential successor as a good candidate, so one of those three, three, three, what you can do is you're expecting them to find three people that could potentially replace them. And you're looking and you're going to see, are they willing and able to invest in three people to take their spot that they're meeting with, uh, with weekly. And when you're talking to them, if they're not doing that, then you know that they're not willing and able to do that role. And that maybe they're not going

to be a good, successful, um, successor for you. I think you talk about this networking of a effect and it just trickles down. Man, beautifully put. There are three ways to really develop people. There's coaching, there's mentoring, and there's masterminds. Okay. And if you start building those three things into this, you know, the first question I always have of different leaders is, are you coachable? If the answer is no, if they're not coachable, I don't know that you're going to get very far with them. What does coaching mean? Coaching means you're willing to accept hard accountability and feedback, and you're willing to pay for it. So, you know,

coaching, generally you pay a coach, you pay them to hold you, it's the same as a personal trainer. You pay to hold them accountable and you're willing to do the things that they're holding you accountable for and you're willing to take your medicine and understand that they're exposing your weaknesses on a lot of a lot of different things and say thank you i mean that's really the best answer for any coaches thank you now you have mentors you've got mentors who share wisdom for free. The idea behind that is to get you to try things. So mentors share wisdom, wanting you to go try that wisdom and implement it. And then masterminds, of course, are pure accountability and talking amongst those that

you sit across the table from in order to help each other get better. You might have an accountability partner or something like that in a mastermind, but ultimately it's about sharing good ideas and just attacking those good ideas from different perspectives in order to make ourselves better, but it's on a peer basis. You've given us clear steps for someone who's doing succession planning. I found a potential candidate. You sit down with this candidate and you delegate to them. You say, I want you to take my place when I leave, or I want you to take my place as I move up. This is the thing you should be doing in succession planning. And what you're doing is, all right, now that I'm having you be my potential replacement,

you need to find your potential replacement and be meeting with them consistently and helping them, coaching them to be the best. And that's the first action. And I love how you talk about you need to surround yourself with a coach, with a mentor, and you need to surround yourself with like-minded people who want to get better. And actually there's a mastermind for people that aspire to be C-level one day or be high-level leadership. It's called the Emerging Credit Union Leaders Group. I'll put a link for that in the show notes and you can look into that as well. Am I following with you right here, Adam?

Yep. That's right, Scott. That's really cool. So there's a truth bomb in there that I just want to touch on. You had said it's your job to get out before you run out of steam. And I think that's an interesting thing that you said, because I think my take on the amount of zeal or zest you have in a thing, there's a timestamp on a position that somebody occupies. And I don't, I don't believe that that is everybody's kind of mindset. I think most people think when they're in a project or a passion of theirs, it's going to kind of last forever. But typically, steam does run out towards the

tail end of a thing. And anytime that something is true, and it's maybe counter to how we think, it's good to know that as a leader, that some people in a new role might think, I'm going to be in this role forever. You never really envision yourself running out of steam. And so I think it's a bit of a truth bomb. Uh, and I'd love to unpack that. So if I'm a CEO and I'm listening to this podcast, how do I know where my steam level is at? Where's my, where's my zeal kind of meter? And, and then how do I, how do I kind of do it? How do I know where the energy in the tank is at? And then how do I maybe take action on that zeal tank before the zeal or the energy or the steam, as you called it, runs out?

I think a good way of doing this is taking a look at your outcomes as a leader. So for instance, 360 evaluations are a great way of doing that. If you're willing to do a 360, you're vulnerable enough to do a 360, which if you're a leader, you freaking better be. But ultimately, pay attention to those things. Understand where your gaps are in your blind spots. And as those things start to widen, you have to give people the permission to tell you the truth about that. And you have to listen to that truth. When you listen to that truth and you understand, okay, I'm not able to give it 110% or 100% or whatever of what I was able to give it before. I'm not getting better. If I'm staying the same or I'm getting worse, we got a problem. And if this is

the first thing we're talking about in this succession planning process, we have a problem. Because if it's the last thing you're talking about in the succession planning process, you've already got people who are willing to expose those things to you and help you with those things. And they want to see you be graceful in your exit or whatever. And they're willing to help you make them better, but you have to be willing to know when they're better than you. So, I mean, that's this whole relationship issue that goes on. We're very protective of our environment and we never prepare ahead of time enough so ultimately you know what you take a look at a credit union what if the the head of that credit union has a heart attack gets hit by a bus whatever it might be and is gone tomorrow

what happens to that credit union people like we'll figure it out well no you should have already figured it out so I mean that, that's the way it goes. And that's how I should look at myself as a leader. And we used to do that on the SWAT team is, you know, if you're on the team and you're the team leader and you go down, you know, during an operation or an exercise. And the military does this all the time. They walk up to somebody and they tap them on the head and they say, you're dead. Lay down. How is everybody else going to perform? Well, what if we did that in our business? Have we prepared everybody for that

moment? Not for something tragic or whatever, but obviously tragedy does happen. You know, leaders are of the heart attack age, by the way. Okay. And a lot of them don't take care of themselves. So, you know, think about leaders. But ultimately, what age do people start having substantial medical issues? It's when they hit this executive leadership age, typically, and something bad happens. Or if you're younger, a lot of times you're a little more radical in your recreation and things like that. And you're jumping out of airplanes or other stuff that we've all that we've all, you know, crazy done in our younger years, but ultimately there is risk. So what happens if that risk gets the better of you? Are you, is your business prepared? So got to think about those things. And, um, you know, it's, it shouldn't be an afterthought.

It should be a forethought. I love that. I love that. So we got Adam Contos on the Credit Union Leadership Podcast here. He didn't really make it through college. And, you know, in the military, he got some success in the SWAT team. He got some more success. He's been very successful as a CEO, and now he's coaching other leaders. What's a final word that you have for the leaders of the credit union industry here on the credit union leadership podcast? I would say final word is never settle. That's, that makes it a lot to me when I, when I think about it, you know, behind me, I have stay hungry, stay humble, but what that is about, that's about never settling. That's never settling for what you've done yesterday or where you're at. You can always be better. So never settle folks. Awesome.

And where can people find you? You said adamcontos.com. Where else can they find you? You can find me adamcontos.com on my website or Adam Contos CEO on all those social platforms. I'm on LinkedIn also. Reach out and connect and happy to connect back with you. Yeah. And you've also got

an awesome podcast called start with a win. I encourage all of y'all. If you're looking for more leadership skills, things that could be, be maybe more than just a credit union niche. Listen, listen to start with a win. Adam's got some great stuff. Actually Albrecht, you were featured on there. So if you want to get maybe a part two to this conversation, go listen to Start With A Win where he interviews Albrecht on his new book. But Adam, thank you so much for being here. I think the idea of you talking about creating systems and specifically systems for succession planning, the rule of three, three, three, man, this is going to be a huge impact and really thought

provoking for our leaders. So thank you so much. Awesome. Thanks for having me on guys. Wow. Adam Contos dropping knowledge. Also what was really cool. Not only was he dropping knowledge and perspective, a lot of the stuff he teaches backs up exactly what we talk about in coaching for performance, employee motivation, strategic thinking, all these things. We do a deep dive in our Vertex Leadership Development Program through a nine-week or 11-week cohort that we do with a bunch of different classes where you network with other credit unions. So, man, if this whetted your appetite, we've got something for you. But Albrecht, I want to dive in to this, I guess, leadership principle. He talked about the idea of starting with a win and he gave some examples that were really cool.

But I think some of our listeners, if you're like me, feels a little daunting. He talked about waking up at four in the morning, working out, doing a hundred pushups, getting a protein shake, showing up to work before everyone else. How can this apply in the credit union space? Yeah, I think the credit union space already has early starts to their day, but you have control over two things in your life, your attitude and your effort. And so you're going to get into work and things are going to be flying at you. That's the best thing about the credit union.

No one day has seen another like it. Every day is its own day. And so that's why people stay in the credit union industry for so long. And so there's a lot of things that you won't have control over in your day. But what Adam brings to this table is controlling the controllables. It's what he learned in the military. It's what he learned as a SWAT team leader. And he structured and systemized a process that controls himself. It gives him the best chance to win in a world where things are flying and you don't, you don't know what's going to come at you next. At least you know how you're going to show up for those, those things every day, day in, day out. He said, he's so consistent that it's a bit boring. And that's what we teach in leadership class. Leadership's not about being the guy that's the van down by the river and,

you know, being a Tony Robbins, you know, trying to motivate everybody with good words and rhyming words and repetition words and, you know, you know, mind tricks. The best leaders are boring. The best leaders are consistent. The best leaders show up and you know what to expect. You might not like it, but you know what to expect. And I just, I really liked that. He talked about some other things that we don't really talk about a lot about on the podcast. We don't talk about, we talk about delegation, but we don't talk about looking for that next person for the CEO of the credit union. I thought that was a new thing credit union audiences could take away from this podcast. We also talked about the idea that, and the notion

that there's zeal and zest for a certain thing, project, task, plan, or even job like a CEO. And it's got a limited runway. It's got a limited band life. And so if we know just like our cell phone, eventually that battery is not going to work anymore. What are we doing to plan for that? If your CEO were to not be the CEO tomorrow, you should already know what your plan is. And so I thought that was really insightful. Two actionable steps for y'all listening to this podcast. We're going to have some links for you to go follow Adam Conto, some links for what we have at ServiceStar to do a deep dive. But the first thing you can do is build structure. Every Sunday night, create a tentative schedule for your weekends. I know what some of you are

thinking, Scott, every day looks different. We just talked about that. We know how the financial service industry is, but there's freedom in creating a system. So every Sunday, create your system of, hey, this is when I'm waking up. This is what I'm doing at work. This is what I'm doing after work. And things are going to happen outside of your control. And that's okay. Don't let it irk you. Just adjust. You already have a plan. You think what's the most important thing? Create that structure Sunday night before your work week starts. Try it out for one week and see how it goes. The second thing is if you're an aspiring leader, it could be CEO. But guys, I know a lot of you listening aren't CEOs as well.

So who are you developing to take your position right now so that you can move up to that next rung in leadership? That's the other step that you need to do is identify who that person is and start mentoring them. This is the Craig Union Leadership Podcast. So excited to have you here and we'll see you next time. Feeling inspired? Want to learn how to coach your department to be a high performing team? Vertex Live Nationwide is an 11 session live online group that meets bi-weekly. In this course,

Scott and I are going to talk about delegation, how to resolve conflict, effective decision-making practices, and of course, how to coach your team for performance. Go ahead, move the movement and sign up for Vertex Live Nationwide. Click the link in the show notes and we're excited to see you there.