#42: What Got You Here Won't Get You There: The Shift Required for Your Next Level

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Eric:  Welcome to the Empower Podcast. I'm your host, Eric Pfeiffer, CEO of Empower. Coaching leadership isn't about titles or positions. It's actually about the influence and impact we have on our environments. This is where we get to learn how to operate well under pressure, lead with confidence and drive meaningful results.

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What got  you here won't get you there. We've heard that phrase. We're familiar with that phrase. We've gotta lock in and really understand where does the rubber hit the road as it relates to our leadership and the experience that we all have over and over and over and over again. That really amounts to this simple phrase, what got you here won't get you there.

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Responsibility, right? We work harder, we move faster, we tighten control, but eventually effort stops producing progress.  And this isn't failure, it's frustration. But we cannot read this as failure. It's actually an inflection point in opportunity. Yeah,

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What we're trying to create. And the frustrating thing that we experience as people who have built something wonderful, something successful is that we're like, but there is more. I see another hill that I wanna take. And for some  reason all those things I used to do that got me onto this, the top of this hill.

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Um, I have so much empathy. If that phrase is resonating with you today, you might be saying something like, I'm trying harder than ever, and it just isn't working. And the bruise that I'm gonna poke for just a minute is that what we're really struggling with, the fear beneath those questions that we're asking is, what happens if I can't figure this out?

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What if I can't figure this out? And I think that question creates kind of what you. Mentioned  earlier, it's what drives imposter syndrome. It's what drives insecurity and fear. And so I just wanna, I want to encourage our listeners with something that you and I have been talking a lot about lately as we're butting up against our own challenges, our own breakthroughs that we're, we're, we're fighting for Yeah.

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What if I can figure it out? That's right. What if I can get the breakthrough, what if  I can get to the next level? What if I can't? That's, that requires faith, right? From, from a spiritual perspective. You know, people often define faith as a confidence, a certainty, a hope of something I can't yet see.

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We are creatures that literally are fueled by faith.  And faith causes us to expand and to put our hope in the possibilities of what the future can look like. Even only two, what would you say? Even when we can't yet see it, even when we can't yet see it. And we're, so those are the only two options when we're face-to-face with this tension.

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Dawn: Yeah.  Because shrinking back is the, is an option. It's, it is always an option. And so what we have to ask ourselves is, which hard do I choose? Right. Oof. Yeah. Which hard do I choose? Yeah, they're both hard. They're both hard. Yep. They're both hard.

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What's wrong with our vendors? What's wrong with the market? What's wrong with the economy? What's wrong with politics? Right? And so it's  really important that we address this issue, this default mechanism that we all have, that when we're up against this challenge. And to, to kind of project responsibility anywhere else besides ourself

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I get to be in charge of the future and fighting for that future. And one puts us into a victim mentality and one gives us the chance to be the hero of the story that's right, of our own story. So oftentimes we get stuck thinking what worked before? And so then we go back to decisions  that we used to make instinctively in the past.

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So let's just pause and say like.  It makes sense that as leaders we try to do this, but what we're going to tell you is that it's a waste of time. And so if we can shortcut the process, it's much preferable.

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The landscape has evolved, right? The environment is different. And here's the part that most of us as leaders don't recognize until it's it until we're. We're in trouble. Yeah. That everything around us has changed, but there, here's the question. Are we changing? Are we evolving?  Are we becoming a new kind of leader to meet the new challenges of a new day?

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And I think oftentimes as leaders, our temptation is to see that as failure setback, we're going the wrong  direction, when in fact it's an opportunity to recognize there's something new for us. That's right. There's something for us to expand into or outta fear. We're gonna shrink back. That's right to what it used to be.

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And the leader said, burn the boats. Burn the boats. Yep. There's not, we're not going back. We have to figure out how to become the type of people that can succeed in this new landscape, in this new environment, in  this new reality. And because our realities are often not as dramatic as that, we land ourselves on a brand new shore.

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This is a, a new time, trying time to upgrade the skills. It's time to develop new habits, new strategies. But that's obviously not what happens. And so what, what we can pay attention to. When we sit, when we sense that the weight or the margin is shrinking, when we sense that we're doubling down on what used to work and it's not moving the needle anymore, when we sense that things inside of us are starting to tighten up because it feels uncertain, that's the  invitation to recognize that maybe we need to burn the ships.

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I'm gonna find something different. There's the greener grass. There's still being better out there. Mm-hmm. And we might need to burn the ships on the conversations about divorce and, and just saying, we're done. Sometimes we need to burn the ships as it relates to a, a, a. A job that we feel stuck in that's no longer working and we're just doubling down on our effort, hoping that we can make our relationship with our boss or this  toxic culture work for us because of our fear.

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We oftentimes do not engage change until the pain of staying the same. Yep. Is worse than the pain  of change. That's right. And so we can't guarantee, as coaches, with all the leaders and organizations that we have the pleasure of working with, we can't guarantee that letting go of a long time employee.

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To operate by faith. And we're  not talking blind faith, we're not talking, you know, irrational faith. We're not talking un uh, uh, unmerited faith. You know, we, we wanna know the data. We want to have all the information that we can, but at the end of the day, to chart to, to move into uncharted territory means we have to go to a space that we don't know.

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Dawn: um, of faith. I love that because what  it reminds us is we already know how to do this. We already know how to do this, and, and we've already survived having to do this in the past.

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Dawn: by an exercising the faith. That's right. And, and the trap that we can all get stuck in. I get stuck in the same trap. Is that. That was freaking hard and those things worked. They were the skills necessary to help me survive until this moment.  And the problem is if we aren't willing to

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We're in the midst of our  own, we're up against challenges. We're trying to build out new parts of our business. We spent this whole last 2025 essentially building out this suite of products to give more people access to our leadership operating system. Uh, which by the way is a framework that teaches us how to operate in this space of faith, as we're calling it.

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This is the  mission that we feel that we're, we're giving our lives to in this season. And I think that is the constant conversation that we have to learn how to do with ourselves as well.

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Yeah, I'm  literally becoming something new and

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Yeah. And to write that vision down, to plaster it on the walls, to wake up and remind yourself of that vision every single day, and that it's in any of our life, rather their health goals or  relational goals. Or financial goals. Yep. Or whatever goals we we have set for ourselves. We have to have that vision.

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That the, they are not a sign that we've reached the end. Um, they're a sign that our environment is changing and inviting us to change with it. Because the one  thing is for certain is that everything in the world is constantly evolving and changing. And the question is, will we keep pace with that change?

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But when this gap exists and we begin to recognize the indicators that we've been  talking about, that we're in this space, we've gotta resist the temptation to just effort our way out of it to double down on old strategies or tactics or methodologies, because we're gonna say it again. What got us here won't get us there.

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That's the temptation. I fall into it all the time. I'm sure you do as well, right? You can't muscle your way into the next level. You can't outwork the kind of leadership that this moment requires because what's being asked of us now isn't, is isn't just  a new strategy, it's a shift in who we are becoming as a human being and therefore, as a leader, our leadership development always lags behind the increasing responsibility and the pressures of what's next.

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Eric: that's right. Yeah. And it's just important to  recognize that this gap between who we are today and who we're becoming tomorrow is so uncomfortable. Yeah. Because it taps into our ego, our pride, our sense of identity. Self-worth begins to challenge all of those parts of how we view ourself.

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Eric: in some area of their life today. Some area for sure. Is to give ourselves permission instead of just going back to old habits, old tactics, and to to give ourselves permission to pause, to slow down long enough to ask some really helpful  questions.

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Um, and. And then the, the third question is, what does the next level require of me before we ask what does the next level require of my team or my business, or my, my spouse, or my  kids or my friendship group? What does this next level, this uncharted territory, what is it asking of me to grow and for me to change, for me, uh, to evolve?

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Between the  what has been and the what could be, and they are feeling that the, the strong pull of fear to shrink back.

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Yeah. And the reality is, like we said before, we're not gonna get this right every time. That's not the goal. The goal is to practice leading as this new kind of person, uh, to learn the new skills,  to learn, the new mindsets, the new strategies that are gonna allow us to evolve. Because here's the good news, whether you get the necessary breakthroughs, here's the one breakthrough, you will get your own growth.

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Dawn: Uh, I'll go ahead and start. Okay. So recently I've had a similar experience with, uh, several clients. And in fact, I had a call with another person, an interest call. That was all. They were also facing this same exact issue, which is this,  they as individuals.

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But what happened is that they continued to be successful, and so now they have teams of 40, 50, 60 people and they're feeling frustrated at this. They are stalling. They're stalling out. They're at this inflection point where it's like, man, I've had an incredible. Up into the right  experience over the last five, 10 years, and now it just feels like we're plateaued.

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Those skill sets that you  leaned heavily upon to earn your early success. That the high achieving, the fast moving, the gut level decision making, the comfort with risk. Right. That's really common we see with, um, entrepreneurs who are building successful businesses. But at some point it's like, I, you know, I had to have a conversation with one of our clients the other day and I said, um.

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To one, illuminate those blind spots and two, to invite them  in to burn the ships. It's like we, no, we, we can't keep, you can't keep doing, doing it the way you, you've done it. And because you have been trying to do that, you're experiencing turnover. You're experiencing a breach of trust on your team.

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And you know, you, if she takes the plant out and the roots and the dirt and, and lays it on the  ground, I'm like, you trying to kill the plant? She's like, no, silly. She's like, it needs to grow, but for it to grow. I have to repo it into a bigger pot so that the roots have more room to expand, right? Which then drives the growth of the plant on top of the soil.

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It's interesting too, as you're talking about hiring strategies, right? As the team gets larger, we can no longer just hire on gut and vibe and hey, you seem really cool and I like your resume and we had a great conversation. Let's do it. Also, you  know, speaking of the pod, right? What is the, what are the systems and structures of support and accountability

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Dawn: Mm-hmm.

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Got on a Zoom call with every single person in the business and said, Hey guys, the business is growing. We're  celebrating, and we're gonna introduce a new business system so that we can continue to grow. And this new business system, I promise, will make everybody's life easier. Whoa. Can make our communication more efficient.

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'cause it was still pre present on the computers because the new system was  not actually making their life easier. Right? Because they're in this, they're in this transition period was, I'm discussing this with the leader of the organization. I said, well, okay, tell me the story. What's going on? We've been processing this.

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How many different working parts in your business, how many skews, how many transactions today versus back then a day. Back then it was like eight, 10 a day. Now it's like hundreds every single day. That's it. Okay, let's just, let's just start there. Everything is  different. Everything is different. So defaulting to the way you introduced that system 15 years ago versus today, bro, you what got you here is not gonna get you there.

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People started having new courage to, to learn the new business system and to problem solve without  everybody freaking out. People were no longer throwing each other under the bus, right? People were starting to collaborate. Everybody was lending a helping hand where. They could. And now today though, that business system is still something that people are still having to wrestle with at times.

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Dawn: That's such a great example. And I think too, they had to go back to the vision, right? This is why we're doing this. Yes. It's hard. Yes, it's frustrating. And yet the, our old way of  operating is no longer serving us. So in order to continue to grow, we have to engage this transformation. We have to engage this change.

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Takeaway from this episode. We've talked about a lot. Every episode we cover so much information, so much content, so much good stuff. But for today, for this  moment, identify one takeaway that you can put in your pocket, something that you can leverage that's gonna help you continue to expand in your life and your leadership.

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Eric: Yep. All right, Don, take us into the  end.

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See you next  time.