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Leadership really comes down to inviting people on a journey to discover the leader within

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themselves while they're following you.

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So question number one, where are you going?

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Number two, it allows you to really analyze what is the highest

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invest use of my time, my energy.

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And then finally, holding yourself accountable on your leadership journey invites others to look

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themselves in the mirror every single day and say, do I have the beliefs?

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Do I have the behaviors to really ensure that not only are we taking care of our customers,

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but we're taking care of each other as we are doing business together?

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So leading well invites leaders to think about, am I following a job, a career, or calling?

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And when I'm leading well, it's not about what I can get, but it's about what I can give.

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And do I focus on making others better, not just lining my pocket or my bank account stock options

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or selling a business, but really making it about others.

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So when you lead well, it's never about me.

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It's about we.

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Ragiline, to lead with impact in a messy world,

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then you absolutely need to hear who we have on the show today.

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Get ready to meet the incredible Simon T Bailey

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he's taken the magic he learned at Disney and turned it into a powerful 22 year mission

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to unlock your brilliance.

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Today Simon going to share his insights on how to spark resilience, finally ditch burnout,

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and lead in a way you never thought is possible.

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Because Simon is here to show you exactly how to, plus, never a minus, welcome Simon Bailey.

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Hello, so good to be with you.

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Your purpose is all about amplifying brilliance to lead well.

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Can you tell us what the phrase means to you and how it shaped your approach to leadership

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over the past 22 years?

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So leading well invites leaders to think about am I following a job, a career, or calling?

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And when I'm leading well, I'm leading from a place of calling.

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It's not about what I can get, but it's about what I can give.

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And do I focus on making others better, not just lining my pocket or my bank account, stock options,

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or selling a business, but really making it about others.

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So when you lead well, it's never about me, it's about wheat.

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And I give that to you just as a mental bumper sticker to just invite leaders to think about

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how am I really, really doing?

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Yeah, in your book, Shiner Brilliance and your speaking engagements, you talk about leadership,

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being an invitation, not about the power or position, but about guiding others to discover

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their own potential. Why do you think the idea resonates so deeply, no matter the

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industry or the people live in?

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Yeah, Melissa, can we start that again because the book is shift your brilliance instead of shy?

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Don't say shy. Oh my goodness.

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Yeah, that's okay. That's okay. It's a part of that.

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Yeah, yeah.

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Well, we get that, we get got it.

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In your book, shift your brilliance and your speaking engagements,

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you talk about leadership, being an invitation, not about the power or position,

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but about guiding others to discover their own potential.

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Why do you think this idea, why do you think this idea resonates so deeply, no matter the

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industry or era we live in?

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Because what we really began to understand, leadership really comes down to inviting people on a

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journey to discover the leader within themselves while they're following you.

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So question number one, where are you going?

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Because if you are looking through the windshield of where you're going, you're not stuck in the

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rearview mirror of where you've been, thus inviting others not to get stuck in the past, but to have a

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foot in the present and in the future by how they do what they do.

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Number two, it allows you to really analyze what is the highest

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best use of my time, my energy, and those that I am surrounding myself with.

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So if you're running and leading a company, one of my mentors, John Maxwell says,

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leadership is caught, leadership is taught.

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So what are people catching from you as they are unlocking the potential within themselves to add

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value and to make a difference? And then finally, number three, holding yourself accountable

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on your leadership journey invites others to look themselves in the mirror every single day and

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say, do I have the beliefs? Do I have the behaviors to really ensure that not only

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are we taking care of our customers, but we're taking care of each other as we are doing business together?

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I love that. So kind of give get. I think a lot of times we're so transactional. I got to sell this

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thing. I got to do this thing, giving and getting it's the right way to do business. I think it

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helps you keep and retain customers as well and doing good while you're serving. And so I love that.

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You say that true leaders engage in the whole person, meaning my hand, heart and soul,

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how can someone listening today learn from this and put it into their daily practice?

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Ready to lead smarter and invest wiser? On the executive connect podcast, we unpack executive strategies

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for wealth and influence. Hit the subscribe button now. Don't just watch acts.

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First thing is what is the learning style of individuals that you are looking to positively

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influence? And when I say learning style, are they visual, auditory, hands on? So how do you

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communicate to them in their self explanatory style? Thank you, Dr. Martin Sleggman from the University

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of Pennsylvania who explains everybody expresses themself using language. So how do you dial into that?

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That's number one. Number two, if you've read the book, the five love languages by Dr. Garry Chapman,

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phenomenal read, even though that book is centered specifically on how do you save a marital

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relationship? I believe Melissa, it has business implications because everyone has an appreciation

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language. So how does a person want to be recognized? Here's the research. One minute of recognition

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creates 100 minutes of initiative in the workplace. So how do we begin to appreciate people in the way

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they want to receive it? One of my greatest failures, Melissa is I get promoted to a leadership

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role at Disney. I'm thinking I'm hot stuff. The reality is I was a jerk of a boss. I was in my own

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way, insert, bless my little heart. And Disney was about to invite me to find my happiness elsewhere.

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So they sent me to Disney University, which is the internal training of the company. I'm a list of

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one thing I walked away with is that Disney being the seventh most recognized brand in the world.

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The unlock for potential and genius and brilliance and individuals was to understand what was

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important to them because I was so focused on vertical ascension instead of horizontal connection.

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And when I dial back, I'm like, wait a minute, how do I come alongside you and find out what's most

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important to you? And you really know that I'm not falling it in, but I mean it from my heart.

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And I think the third thing is, so we have often heard of performance reviews. And obviously,

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do check-ins with individuals. But how about we just start with a simple question because mental

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health is real. And the question is, how are you? And it doesn't have to be a formal meeting.

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Just how are you? And how can I best serve you? That is the alignment of head, heart, and hands.

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That's aligning and engaging mind-heartened spirits.

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That's great. I think we've kind of going back to what you were saying a bit is I remember day one

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of the pandemic. So many times I get on video calls and read like, we've got to get this done and this

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done and this done. And you know, not talking about how people are responding to the world out there.

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What's going on in their life? How can I serve them? How can I help them? And I took an opportunity

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just to do what you said. And it was amazing the response in so many people when how are you doing?

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How is your family doing? And being genuine, I think the one thing people appreciate is genuine

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interest. Not phony. I'm asking a question, how are you feeling? People don't finish their

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sense before you cut them off. People can sense if you're being genuine or just running a process because

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that's, you know, what did near another coaching program says, right? I think you have to really lead

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with your heart and your your hands like you were stating. And so I want to I know you really have

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your hands on the pulse of leadership right now. And I think right now there's so many trends

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on psychology, mental, mental healthness. And I know if your recent studies and your MBA at the

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Royal Docs School of Business and law, let's talk a little bit about what you think's going to

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happen with leaders in 2025, not just surviving, but thriving and the world of uncertainty and change.

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So one of the things that we've done, we've done some proprietary research, created a whole white

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paper called the State of Working America, thriving in resilience and brilliance. And here's what the

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research is telling us. And then I want to give you three things for us to think about as it relates

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to the future. One of the big stats is 55% of working Americans would take a lower paying job to

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work for a leader that inspires their brilliance. So if you went to dictionary.com, inspired me to

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breathe life into. We ask working Americans, how do they define brilliance? They define brilliance

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as confidence, competency and creativity. So one of the things leaders have to think about is we move

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into a future of uncertainty. Do I have individuals on my team who have the ability to give

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feedback early and often as to what people are doing right? Because that increases their confidence

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and what gets recognized gets repeated. So being an inspirational leader that can

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breathe life into people critically important. All right. The second thing is a leader who is

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willing to stand up, listen, say, here is the new frontier that we are moving to. It is not just

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about products. Products are important. Products generate money. But it is about posture. How do we

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posture ourselves in this moment and square our shoulders and in the spirit of Russell Crowe and

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Gladiator? As one, we come together and we posture ourselves to say here's the frontier, here's

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where we're going. And we are going to practice VUJADAY instead of DAJAVU. DAJAVU is been there,

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done that. VUJADAY is going there doing that. It is the salmon that swims upstream. It is when

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everybody is zicking WIZAC. The third thing I think the future leader has to really think about is how

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do I amplify individuals now more than ever before? If you went to dictionary.com, amplify means to

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enhance, enlarge, increase. So in other words, when I talk about amplify, here's the research from

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Dr. Maria Music University of Michigan. She says human beings need three things right now, Melissa.

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They need to be seen, valued, and understood. So companies in the future, here's the deal Melissa,

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companies don't have ideas. Hard-stop. People do. So when I'm seeing valued and understood, I am

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amplified. You are inviting me, wait for it, to take psychological ownership of the P&L,

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psychological ownership of customer satisfaction, psychological ownership of employee engagement,

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thus inviting everyone to become an intra-panor. So leaders of the future will understand the

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unlock is how do we help people be intra-panorial and how they approach what they do at work?

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Oh, I love that. That was so good. Hard-stop. That's so good. I love it. I'm hyped up from it.

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So I love how inspirational you are. You mean working at Disney, you've worked at Hyatt, you've

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even been named Success Magazines. Top 25 people to help people reach their goals. That's

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incredible first of all. Congratulations for that. I want to take a moment to kind of piggyback off

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what you were saying. Maybe a story about when somebody became your amplifier and maybe what you

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learned from that, how people were able to bring out your brilliance so you can serve so many people

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There are three people that come to mind. So years ago when I was trying to get hired by Disney,

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I was interviewed by a lady named Janice and Janice, amazing individual, over two years,

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10 interviews, a 10-page psychological analysis. She was my sponsor to get me into Disney. And

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after leaving an organization of just 100 people to now working in an organization, 64,000 people

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working within 47 square miles who are walking around singing it's a small world. After all,

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they had sniffed the pixie dust a bit too much. I was overwhelmed. Could get anything done. I'm like,

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what the heck? And she calls me day 80 and she says, how you doing? I said, Janice, when I hit the 90-day

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mark, I'm out. I can't get anything done. I don't know the culture and she says, hold on. I want to

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introduce you to two individuals. She introduces me to a guy named Tim Hill and a guy named Larry Lentch.

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Both of them at some level, Melissa gave me a hand, not a hand out. They are the ones who

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wore my brand t-shirt when I didn't have access to rooms of influence and decision-making within

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the mouse house. They were the ones who were hard on me, challenged me,

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ensured that I didn't subtle for the status quo. They invited me to realize that average was over.

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They could hire anybody, but they gave me a shot. And all I needed was somebody to give me an

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opportunity. So I am forever grateful because what I discovered in my journey at Disney is a paycheck

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is given to people who show up, but opportunities are given to people who think and work beyond

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what they're paid to do. So what would have only been 90 days turned into seven years because of these

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individuals who challenged me to totally make a difference at ad value every day?

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That's great. And I love it. It's one thing to be given the opportunity. It's a whole different

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thing to take it and go after it. And I think that takes courage and determination. I love that you

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share that you have this great line leading well means being a plus in a minus world. I love this line.

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What's one micro practice or maybe something small that our listeners can do today to embody this idea?

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Underpromise Overdeliver. So many individuals overpromise and never really step up. When you

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underpromise and overdeliver, you become that person they remember. You become that plus in a

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minus world. And so think about your customer. If her proposal is due to them say on Friday,

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what if you got it there on the Monday before the Friday, even though you manage their expectation

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that they would see receive it on Friday, that's being a plus set of minus world. It's those little

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things. If your business says that you are open at 9 a.m., what if you open at 8.50? That would surprise

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people if you have a physical location. But you'd be like, whoa, what just happened? If they call

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on the line, do you have happy people answering the phone? Not somebody that just took a tablespoon

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of molasses? No, hard stop. That dog will not hunt. So being that plus in a minus world is this living

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embodiment that whenever people connect with your business, they feel the love. If they don't feel

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the love, they are shopping elsewhere. So true. I know. I've experienced that going to get coffee or

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checking out people like next, next, and they're not really inspired to be there. They don't want to

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be there. They're showing up for their paychecks. So how do we inspire individuals who are not really

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motivated to live up to their potential or to get motivated? Do we manage them out? Do we work with

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them? Any kind of thoughts on that? I love this question. There are six principles that I could share.

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I'm going to give you two to three in this moment. The first thing is commit to coaching. And when I

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mean by commit to coaching, really identifying you hired the individual and you know, like any good

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relationship is cheaper to keep them than to lose them. So we might as well coach them. So at least

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they know the organization has done everything possibly to help that person evolve. You've heard the

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words upskilling, reskilling. So let's just kind of identify where they are in their journey. Number one,

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number two, attitude is key. In one of the books I've written, Releasing Leadership Alliance, we

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share some of the research of Dr. Russell Kualaue who surveyed 66,000 students. And what they found

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out is that students who had a teacher that believed in them performed eight times better.

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So if we want people to change their attitude, become more engaged at work, add value, become

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that entrepreneur, do they believe that we believe in them? Or are we just passing time waiting them,

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waiting to invite them to find their happiness elsewhere? So really that attitude is key. And then

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the third thing to think about is the next time they do something that advances a relationship or

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moves the business forward. Say thank you, acknowledge them. Mutual Scrocs is thonkashar. When you say thank

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you that little recognition, what might blow their wig off? All because you took the moment to

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identify they did something positive. That could be Melissa some of the ways to get that person

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just to shift shifts. They as for see how I fit tomorrow. They can just make that shift to become better.

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Yeah, I love that investing in your employees. I think a lot of times I've heard lately and you tell

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you tell me if I'm wrong here. I hear employees saying my company wants to invest in me, but not that

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much because they're afraid I might leave or get more certification or more experience. So I hear a lot

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with on this podcast from different leaders or in the communities I'm in that a lot of employees

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now feel like they get some training, but just enough that maybe they don't go. What are your thoughts

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on that? So in our research, one of the statistics is 74% of individuals would rather work for a leader

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that had no formal education than for a leader that had advanced degrees. So when we unpack that

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management is the glue to why people stay. You've heard it, you've probably said it, people don't

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leave companies. They leave the manager. So CEOs, leaders of leaders, you've got to look at how are

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we developing managers to ensure that they develop people and people feel that they are learning.

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They're not just a cog in the wheel. A McKinsey will assist on some research around the magnificent

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seven, the Uber's, the Amazons, the Airbnb, the apples. What is it that they do? Microsoft,

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Nvidia, what is it that they do? Here's the secret sauce. They shift from becoming a know-it-all culture

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to a learn-it-all culture. So what that means is when employees are learning every single day

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because of the manager, it's not just about the paycheck, it's not just about the feel good,

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they're like, wait a minute, I have job security because the company is developing me every single day,

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every single week. Yeah, that's great. I want to kind of piggyback another question on that. It makes

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me think about all the Nvidia's and a lot of these other companies that are out there. A lot of

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them seem to stay for a long time too, right? Like you were saying, they stay, but in the tech sector

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that I work in, it seems like a lot of time is we're seeing a lot of shift. People are working for a

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company for a year, going to another company, the company that that was left, they're promoting

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internally moving people up. Maybe it's a technical person that's moved up, has never managed people

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before. They're a do or now they're a manager. How do you see that working when people are just

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moving people up to plug a whole temporarily because people are leaving? Do you find it harder

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to train people from not managing employees to going into management while moving up is like an

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executive or director? Let's talk a little bit about that. It's very challenging, Melissa, because

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just because a person has tenure, they've been there and now they're elevated to leave people,

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doesn't mean it's a right fit role, doesn't mean it's a bad person. It was just a decision made in a

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knee jerk reaction to saying, "Oh my goodness, we got to promote this person before they leave and

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they've got to leave people." If you do that, is there a plan in place, a learning path to becoming

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a manager or a leader, not because you have a degree? There are some people that have more degrees

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than a thermostat and they get promoted into a leadership role, but like me, they are jerked of a

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boss and I'm making just a very broad statement because they have a lot of intellectual capital,

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they don't have a lot of EQ, a lot of how do we read the room, how do we dial in to where people

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are showing up? So one of the things, and this is what our research told us, if you're going to move

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individuals into a leadership role, there should be 90-day check-in points where that manager

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who's just been promoted is talking to another leader that is challenging them, giving them feedback,

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hearing their war stores, hearing their pain points, and then ensuring that they are, I'm going to

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classes, they have a coach, there is some development that's happening that they know how to lead people,

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how to do it purposefully and consistently because so many times they can start, but they stop

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because oh my goodness, the building is on fire, figuratively not literally, we got to do all these

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things, it's the end of the month, did we close contracts, on and on, and we get distracted,

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something that John Maxwell, my mentor says is that consistency compounds over time, so you want

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managers who understand we've got to give feedback consistently, we have to teach people how the

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company makes money consistently, but then we have to understand what's important to the individual,

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because the culture is not the vision or mission statement on the website, culture is how you do

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everything when no one is looking, and the person that transfer that culture into the head, the

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heart and hands of employees are managers, so we've got to double back and say okay, is this the right

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culture to create the right outcomes? That's so good, I love that you said that, I think it's super,

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super important, and I kind of going back, it made me think when you were, when you mentioned that,

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Disney, Apple, Amazon, the big companies, they have a rigorous interview process for a reason,

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because they understand hiring the wrong person can set their business back a year, two years,

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or more in some cases, so they have these kind of checks and balances in place for that purpose,

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and when they do hire someone, it's almost like they buddy, there's a buddy system,

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an internal mentor and checks and balances throughout their HR department, aid to make sure the

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employees doing the ask, and be to make sure the employee has what they need to do their job, I think,

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sometimes I hear, and I hear just in groups that I am part of, where employees start their first day

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of work, they haven't talked to their boss, they're trying to figure out how to work in a system,

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they don't have the right tools, so their onboarding experience becomes so difficult that it's hard

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to get back that employee's trust in the business, so when it comes to that, I'm also curious,

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like framing it a different way is, what can employees do for employees out of a gate to make sure

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they're all in on that culture you're talking about? Oh my goodness, Melissa, I love this question,

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I can spend an hour on this question, but I'll give you just some initial thoughts. We need to ditch

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the language onboarding, and we need to replace it with launching, because I'm being launched into

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a destiny, launched into an opportunity to add value and to become a better human being, so

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launch versus onboarding. Number two, how you start the day determines the day, how you start with

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the company determines your initial reaction to that company, so what would it be like to ensure day

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one, they have a buddy that is going to meet with them, take them, get a cup of coffee, show them

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where the restrooms are, if they're working virtually or remote, helping them just kind of on-board

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to understand how do you get things done around here? Like what's the rules of engagement?

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Because it's not written online or in the employee handbook, so having that buddy creates stickiness.

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Number three, every week at the end of the week, checking in with that person either their

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direct leader or someone else on the team to say, "How's the first week been? How are you doing?

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What do you see?" And at least doing that for 30 days, but at the 90-day mark, and this is something

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I learned when I did some work for the Ritz Carlton Learning Institute. Every 90 days,

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and specifically the first 90 days, Ritz Carlton takes a new hire, and they ask them,

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"Hey, you came from another organization, you've seen things differently." What do you see here?

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What are we missing? And because of that fresh perspective, that person can rattle off by the bang,

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by the bone, "Here's what it is." Now, Melissa, the bigger question is, just with the three that I

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mentioned, what does this do? This creates what I would call cognitive velcro. We're now the

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mental hooks of that individual hooks into the organization because they understand the who,

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the what, the how, the why, and how they fit their little piece of the puzzle fits, a mixing

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metaphors, intentionally, fits into the organization for where the organization is going. So that velcroing

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of their head, their heart, their hands, connects them more, but it started with a buddy who cared and

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showed intentional interest in how they are doing. That's great. That's really great. I love that idea,

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and just asking them at the end of the week because I think you mentioned a little bit at the beginning

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where sometimes the best ideas are people that haven't been at a company for a long time. So if

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they're fresh and new, they're an independent view without, you know, being influenced in their

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role or their position at the company. So I think that's such a good idea. Sorry, I want to get

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kind of any final thoughts or anything you want to share with our listeners that we may not have

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touched on. Every leader listening to us right now, I really want you to look yourself in the mirror

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and answer the question, how are you doing? Why do I ask this question two years ago, 19 CEOs

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died. Died. It was not in the news, but research bears out. And there are a number of executives

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who show up in business every single day and they're like, man, if the company had sold tomorrow

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or didn't, I would rather go do something else. And so leaders in executives, as you know,

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Melissa are always taught to cry up, never cry down. So I want you to do an assessment and a couple

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of areas. How are you doing spiritually? How are you doing health wise? How's your health? How are

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you doing family wise? How are you doing business? Notice business is number four, not number one.

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I was married for 25 years and my then mother of my children said to me, you give everybody the

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best of you, but you give us the rest of you. And I don't want the leftovers anymore. So Melissa,

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what I realized, I built a house, but lost the home. I was chasing money that had no meaning,

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and I was pursuing power, but had no purpose. And after 25 years of being married,

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there went the range rover, the 6,000 square foot house, private school,

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jetting, the family off to vacations in Hong Kong and Singapore. That went out the window. And as

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a father, all I was crying for is I could have did this better. So wherever you are, how much is

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enough? What's that number? And if you've hit the number, then think about your family.

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Who's going to be crying at your funeral? Here's the last thing I'll say towards this in Dr. Dennis

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Waitley, who is another mentor of mine in Southern California. He said something, Melissa, that just

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absolutely rocked my world. My children are 22, 26 and I promised them that they would be able to go

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to college, no student, loan debt, and that they both are on their second car. So we understand what

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has happened. And Dr. Waitley said, I ask him, how do I be a leader, but also a good parent? And he

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says, make sure you give your children roots and wings instead of looped and things.

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Oh, that's good. That's real good. I'm going to have to share that with my children because I

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often find we give things versus our time and really our children want our time and our mindful

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focus versus our phones and all the things that are happening in our life. And so I think that's

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such a good analogy. So I mean, you've left us so much to think about and such a fresh perspective.

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Now we're going to flip the script on you and ask you, how can we best serve you in your community?

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Oh my goodness, amplify somebody today. Find one person, send a text, an email. My children

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wrote me this past Father's Day. They gave me handwritten letters. What would it be like to write

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handwritten letters as someone that's important to you? Because it is equivalent to hugging them with

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your words. Who can you hug with your words today? That would be my ask.

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I love it. Simon, thank you for being here today and for amplifying our brilliance today.

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Connect with Simon at SimonTBaley.com. Check out his books, "Be the Spark" and "Shift Your Brilliant"

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and focus on connecting with him through leak did. Until next time, that's the Executive Connect podcast.