#34: Inspiration Is Cheap: Why Most Leaders Never Transform (Until They Learn This)

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Eric:  Do it.

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Yes. The crash that comes right after the inspiration high. Every leader knows that rush of inspiration. You sit  in the workshop, you go to a masterclass, you hear something that hits you right between the eyes and you think that's exactly what we need. And then you walk out, fired up with quotes, ideas, and a fresh vision.

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And transformation doesn't happen when you feel inspired. It happens when you  act on that inspiration.

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Yeah. And I'm gonna be honest with our listeners we were all wired a little bit differently and we'll at some point need to dig deep into personality wiring and all, all that stuff, right? Because I think it's important to understand how we are naturally wired because some of us.  Naturally gravitate toward the future.

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So, so what, what can be done  about that? Let's, let's make sure we get our mindset straight here. I, I think a lot of leaders can confuse inspiration with progress. Hmm. We get that jolt of energy and it feels good. We feel energized, and that's a part of inspiration. But inspiration without strategy and execution is just an adrenaline rush.

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We're building skyscrapers, metaphorically. Speaking of inspiration, on a foundation of sand, it looks impressive in the moment, but there's nothing underneath it to hold the weight. And so these new ideas, they come, they go, they collapse, they  fall through the cracks, and then we go looking for the next one.

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We're constantly looking for that next high, the next book, the next podcast,  the next masterclass. Because for us, it feels productive and energizing to keep learning.

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They love inspiration. It's exciting. But over time it gets frustrating because all those aha moments, they don't ever translate into transformation, change the things that we're actually driving for that vision that that gets us out of out of bed in the morning. So I think  we've made the case that inspiration alone isn't enough.

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Yeah. Because there are millions. Yeah, there are millions and millions of apps on the app store that you can download for every possible thing that you want to do in any given day. And that's exciting. But here's the thing. If we all opened up our, our phone devices, for example, we would, we would realize that we have some similar apps and then we have a lot of different apps, right, based on what it is that we're trying to do in any given day.

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Right. They, the operating system also determines which apps can actually run on that device. Mm-hmm. Right? Do they, are they integrated? Do they make sense? Can they sync up with this device? Which is why we don't run multiple  operating systems on the same device. Right. It doesn't work. So. When we, now let's go back.

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A kind of leadership system that we're operating with that helps us  integrate these new ideas, know where they fit, know how to execute on them so that they help us move the, the needle in accordance with our vision, our values, and the things that we're trying to accomplish.

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But the, the apps are exciting. You're like, okay, this is taking a device that I use and it's personalizing it, it's allowing me to, use it in ways that are actually transformational in my life. Yeah. But like you said, without a foundation, without that underlying  operating system, all of those fun transformation potential opportunities, they're not gonna do anything for us because none of it would integrate into our device that we're using.

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It also allows us to apply them effectively, right? So how, how we all remember the days when apps used to crash  left and right, and sometimes they still do right if they're underdeveloped. But that's often what happens for us. We get these new ideas. We try to apply them, it crashes. We get frustrated and we move on to the next new idea.

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That's why people, people get vision fatigue or idea fatigue, right? Like, ah, our, our team leader, or our boss just  is making us read another book. They're making us go to another conference. They've got another great idea of how we're gonna, you know, do standup meetings and two and a half minute meetings, and four question meetings, and all these different ways of meeting, which again, none of those are.

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Because remember, the reason we use the metaphor of a leadership operating system is because leadership and, and, and culture and effectiveness, and even efficiency is the byproduct of. The prevailing attitudes and behaviors that determine how we operate day in and day out. Emails, texts, meetings, decisions, collaborative situations,  brainstorming ideas, you know, conflict resolution, all that stuff.

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Dawn: Say that one more time. That's really cool. I like that. Yeah. When we have a foundation, when we've built our leadership operating system, every new idea that we have, the books we read, the conferences we go to, the  podcast we listen to, they have the opportunity to add value instead of just creating.

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Eric: Yeah. I, I would even add to that, not just sustainable, but against, it begins to create a kind of. Predictable trajectory. Mm-hmm. That over time we can look back and say, oh yeah, we're continuing to grow, we're growing in the ways that we wanna grow, we're growing in the ways that are actually leading to our bottom line, whether that's profits or  productivity or whatever, you know, as our bottom line in that season it's it's really radically transformative.

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Learning new ideas, trying to integrate them into their, their operational reality. Mm-hmm. Only to find that the needle didn't really move that much. The promise of transformation it really ends in disillusionment. Yes. And people are frustrated. Yeah. And so when we show up,  I, I think a lot of the teams that we, we start working with are understandably fatigued and cynical.

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Because obviously at Empower Coaching we are fiercely pragmatic. Yes. We, we, we only wanna work with clients if what we're doing with them works and moves the needle. So we go in for this half day workshop and, at the end of, at the end of the day one of the executives pulls me aside and says Eric, we have benefited more in the last three or four hours than we have in the last three or four years with all of the other  coaches and consultants that we've worked with.

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Yep. And so all I can say to these clients is, I'm sorry. I'm sure they were, they were great people. But here, here's the thing, is. You didn't have a leadership operating system, right? And so whether you're bringing coaches, consultants, you go to conferences, you bring in the motivational speakers, you make your whole team read a new book, watch a series of videos on YouTube, whatever the  case is.

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More often than not, it's not  those new ideas that are the problem. The problem is our personal or communal. Operating system mm-hmm. Is, is, is not powerful enough, robust enough to help us integrate and make use of these great ideas. And so, so after a very short while of working with, you know, these new clients, you know, we get into month two or three and they're starting to download our Empower Leadership operating system.

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Dawn: It's, yeah, it's so true. And I, I recently have been working with a client who, is passionate about personal development. Mm-hmm. And, and I, and I  love, we love to see that in leaders. It's not necessarily a common thing. It's growing in becoming more common. But this leader is passionate about personal development.

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Eric: a, that's, hold on, let's just pause here.  That's, that's another great kind of analogy. We have all these great ideas.

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Right. That's, they have the vision and we think that all of these little pieces, these new bits of inspiration are gonna move us towards the vision. And when we start realizing that we're chasing our tails, it  creates that sense of deflation. Discouragement.

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But back then, what I was doing was like, like we've been talking about just taking all these  ideas and creating this kind of smorgasborg, right? It's, it's like, it's, it's no different than when we were kids. Remember we'd go to seven 11, we'd get that cup, fill it with ice, and then it was like we would hit every single soda option there was, and we just oil into the same cup.

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That's right. Right. So it goes, it goes from, those  ideas don't work, and then eventually it turns inward and we start, we start saying, okay, I'm broke. I can't figure this out. I'm never gonna be a better X, Y, or Z. And it, all those people that saw potential in me, they must have been wrong. Yes. They must have been wrong.

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Back then, what, what he was trying to help me understand was,  Eric, all these ideas are great, but you, you need to upgrade your fundamental internal operating system, right? The, the prevailing attitudes and behaviors that you operate with. Every area of your life. Every single day. Right. Because I mean, since we were little kids, we've been through our parents, through our household upbringing, through teachers, coaches, mentors, friendship groups, through all the different experiences in our life, we as human beings have all been, in many ways developing our own internal operating system.

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Mm-hmm. And I remember thinking, okay, I, I can do that. So I committed myself to that journey under  his mentorship. And that radically, radically transformed my view of myself, the world. It radically transformed the way I started showing up. It radically transformed the way that I was able to bring a better version of me, especially when, you know, there's a lot of pressure and things were getting a little bit hot in the kitchen kind of idea, like radically transformative.

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Metaphor to to, to help me make sense of this journey. I've been on all these apps that I was constantly downloading,  but really it was my operating system that needed the upgrading and and so obviously now we've spent years creating a leadership operating system that people can just download. We don't have to go out and find a new one.

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Well, first of all, let's remember. We love  inspiration. We love new ideas. We want to feel challenged. We want people to bend our brains and, and, and push us to think differently than we do today. That's, that's, that's part of the journey of growth and transformation. Mm-hmm. But to slow down, step back and recognize what we're, what we're all probably looking for.

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It doesn't matter. We just need a set of tracks that allows us to, to continually move forward in the way  we're talking about. And so that's why we built this leadership operating system and that's why we've just released our newest book called Upgrade Your Leadership, which is a simple introduction to this operating system so that people can read it and determine for themselves.

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Yeah. Does this tool paint a picture of the kind of culture and team and organization that I want to build or be a part of? And if the answer is yes, then you, you, you found your operating system. Yeah. And then the next stage is just to simply learn these tools. Download them, personalize them, right, so that they become a part of how we think and how  we operate.

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There must be something wrong with me if you, if you are thinking that. I'm so glad you found this episode. So as Eric said, the. First really light  lift. You can go get the book on Amazon. It'll be on your door, you know, probably by 2:00 PM depending on where you live. Um, thank you Amazon. Thank you. Amazon.

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Dawn: So the masterclasses are a great way to dive deeper. It's a great way. We love to get to see your faces. I get to look at somebody  besides Eric's face all the time on these podcasts to see who we're talking to. It's what,

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Dawn: And also we're super excited because we are. This month, November, launching our Empower Membership. And again, it is our effort to be collecting all of you people you like-minded high performing leaders that care about who they are becoming and, and how they  are leading to come together. We're going to be.

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Mm-hmm. And you know, we'd love to have a conversation with you. And so, you know, somebody stops, we chat for a little bit. That's what the podcast really is designed for. Right? And then the masterclass says, Hey, do you want to come in for a cup of coffee and sit in my front living room and we'll have a deeper chat  and get to know each other neighbor.

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Be a part of unlocking our team and our organization's potential. And then let's take it further, the potential of our marriage and our parenting and on, on, on and on and on.

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You don't need another conference, another quote, another motivational Monday though. Do like those, we do. You need an operating system that helps you take everything you've learned and to  integrate it and make it work for you.

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Until next  time.