Leadership really comes down to inviting people on a journey to discover the leader within
themselves while they're following you.
So question number one, where are you going?
Number two, it allows you to really analyze what is the highest
invest use of my time, my energy.
And then finally, holding yourself accountable on your leadership journey invites others to look
themselves in the mirror every single day and say, do I have the beliefs?
Do I have the behaviors to really ensure that not only are we taking care of our customers,
but we're taking care of each other as we are doing business together?
So leading well invites leaders to think about, am I following a job, a career, or calling?
And when I'm leading well, it's not about what I can get, but it's about what I can give.
And do I focus on making others better, not just lining my pocket or my bank account stock options
or selling a business, but really making it about others.
So when you lead well, it's never about me.
It's about we.
Ragiline, to lead with impact in a messy world,
then you absolutely need to hear who we have on the show today.
Get ready to meet the incredible Simon T Bailey
he's taken the magic he learned at Disney and turned it into a powerful 22 year mission
to unlock your brilliance.
Today Simon going to share his insights on how to spark resilience, finally ditch burnout,
and lead in a way you never thought is possible.
Because Simon is here to show you exactly how to, plus, never a minus, welcome Simon Bailey.
Hello, so good to be with you.
Your purpose is all about amplifying brilliance to lead well.
Can you tell us what the phrase means to you and how it shaped your approach to leadership
over the past 22 years?
So leading well invites leaders to think about am I following a job, a career, or calling?
And when I'm leading well, I'm leading from a place of calling.
It's not about what I can get, but it's about what I can give.
And do I focus on making others better, not just lining my pocket or my bank account, stock options,
or selling a business, but really making it about others.
So when you lead well, it's never about me, it's about wheat.
And I give that to you just as a mental bumper sticker to just invite leaders to think about
how am I really, really doing?
Yeah, in your book, Shiner Brilliance and your speaking engagements, you talk about leadership,
being an invitation, not about the power or position, but about guiding others to discover
their own potential. Why do you think the idea resonates so deeply, no matter the
industry or the people live in?
Yeah, Melissa, can we start that again because the book is shift your brilliance instead of shy?
Don't say shy. Oh my goodness.
Yeah, that's okay. That's okay. It's a part of that.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, we get that, we get got it.
In your book, shift your brilliance and your speaking engagements,
you talk about leadership, being an invitation, not about the power or position,
but about guiding others to discover their own potential.
Why do you think this idea, why do you think this idea resonates so deeply, no matter the
industry or era we live in?
Because what we really began to understand, leadership really comes down to inviting people on a
journey to discover the leader within themselves while they're following you.
So question number one, where are you going?
Because if you are looking through the windshield of where you're going, you're not stuck in the
rearview mirror of where you've been, thus inviting others not to get stuck in the past, but to have a
foot in the present and in the future by how they do what they do.
Number two, it allows you to really analyze what is the highest
best use of my time, my energy, and those that I am surrounding myself with.
So if you're running and leading a company, one of my mentors, John Maxwell says,
leadership is caught, leadership is taught.
So what are people catching from you as they are unlocking the potential within themselves to add
value and to make a difference? And then finally, number three, holding yourself accountable
on your leadership journey invites others to look themselves in the mirror every single day and
say, do I have the beliefs? Do I have the behaviors to really ensure that not only
are we taking care of our customers, but we're taking care of each other as we are doing business together?
I love that. So kind of give get. I think a lot of times we're so transactional. I got to sell this
thing. I got to do this thing, giving and getting it's the right way to do business. I think it
helps you keep and retain customers as well and doing good while you're serving. And so I love that.
You say that true leaders engage in the whole person, meaning my hand, heart and soul,
how can someone listening today learn from this and put it into their daily practice?
Ready to lead smarter and invest wiser? On the executive connect podcast, we unpack executive strategies
for wealth and influence. Hit the subscribe button now. Don't just watch acts.
First thing is what is the learning style of individuals that you are looking to positively
influence? And when I say learning style, are they visual, auditory, hands on? So how do you
communicate to them in their self explanatory style? Thank you, Dr. Martin Sleggman from the University
of Pennsylvania who explains everybody expresses themself using language. So how do you dial into that?
That's number one. Number two, if you've read the book, the five love languages by Dr. Garry Chapman,
phenomenal read, even though that book is centered specifically on how do you save a marital
relationship? I believe Melissa, it has business implications because everyone has an appreciation
language. So how does a person want to be recognized? Here's the research. One minute of recognition
creates 100 minutes of initiative in the workplace. So how do we begin to appreciate people in the way
they want to receive it? One of my greatest failures, Melissa is I get promoted to a leadership
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
way, insert, bless my little heart. And Disney was about to invite me to find my happiness elsewhere.
So they sent me to Disney University, which is the internal training of the company. I'm a list of
one thing I walked away with is that Disney being the seventh most recognized brand in the world.
The unlock for potential and genius and brilliance and individuals was to understand what was
important to them because I was so focused on vertical ascension instead of horizontal connection.
And when I dial back, I'm like, wait a minute, how do I come alongside you and find out what's most
important to you? And you really know that I'm not falling it in, but I mean it from my heart.
And I think the third thing is, so we have often heard of performance reviews. And obviously,
do check-ins with individuals. But how about we just start with a simple question because mental
health is real. And the question is, how are you? And it doesn't have to be a formal meeting.
Just how are you? And how can I best serve you? That is the alignment of head, heart, and hands.
That's aligning and engaging mind-heartened spirits.
That's great. I think we've kind of going back to what you were saying a bit is I remember day one
of the pandemic. So many times I get on video calls and read like, we've got to get this done and this
done and this done. And you know, not talking about how people are responding to the world out there.
What's going on in their life? How can I serve them? How can I help them? And I took an opportunity
just to do what you said. And it was amazing the response in so many people when how are you doing?
How is your family doing? And being genuine, I think the one thing people appreciate is genuine
interest. Not phony. I'm asking a question, how are you feeling? People don't finish their
sense before you cut them off. People can sense if you're being genuine or just running a process because
that's, you know, what did near another coaching program says, right? I think you have to really lead
with your heart and your your hands like you were stating. And so I want to I know you really have
your hands on the pulse of leadership right now. And I think right now there's so many trends
on psychology, mental, mental healthness. And I know if your recent studies and your MBA at the
Royal Docs School of Business and law, let's talk a little bit about what you think's going to
happen with leaders in 2025, not just surviving, but thriving and the world of uncertainty and change.
So one of the things that we've done, we've done some proprietary research, created a whole white
paper called the State of Working America, thriving in resilience and brilliance. And here's what the
research is telling us. And then I want to give you three things for us to think about as it relates
to the future. One of the big stats is 55% of working Americans would take a lower paying job to
work for a leader that inspires their brilliance. So if you went to dictionary.com, inspired me to
breathe life into. We ask working Americans, how do they define brilliance? They define brilliance
as confidence, competency and creativity. So one of the things leaders have to think about is we move
into a future of uncertainty. Do I have individuals on my team who have the ability to give
feedback early and often as to what people are doing right? Because that increases their confidence
and what gets recognized gets repeated. So being an inspirational leader that can
breathe life into people critically important. All right. The second thing is a leader who is
willing to stand up, listen, say, here is the new frontier that we are moving to. It is not just
about products. Products are important. Products generate money. But it is about posture. How do we
posture ourselves in this moment and square our shoulders and in the spirit of Russell Crowe and
Gladiator? As one, we come together and we posture ourselves to say here's the frontier, here's
where we're going. And we are going to practice VUJADAY instead of DAJAVU. DAJAVU is been there,
done that. VUJADAY is going there doing that. It is the salmon that swims upstream. It is when
everybody is zicking WIZAC. The third thing I think the future leader has to really think about is how
do I amplify individuals now more than ever before? If you went to dictionary.com, amplify means to
enhance, enlarge, increase. So in other words, when I talk about amplify, here's the research from
Dr. Maria Music University of Michigan. She says human beings need three things right now, Melissa.
They need to be seen, valued, and understood. So companies in the future, here's the deal Melissa,
companies don't have ideas. Hard-stop. People do. So when I'm seeing valued and understood, I am
amplified. You are inviting me, wait for it, to take psychological ownership of the P&L,
psychological ownership of customer satisfaction, psychological ownership of employee engagement,
thus inviting everyone to become an intra-panor. So leaders of the future will understand the
unlock is how do we help people be intra-panorial and how they approach what they do at work?
Oh, I love that. That was so good. Hard-stop. That's so good. I love it. I'm hyped up from it.
So I love how inspirational you are. You mean working at Disney, you've worked at Hyatt, you've
even been named Success Magazines. Top 25 people to help people reach their goals. That's
incredible first of all. Congratulations for that. I want to take a moment to kind of piggyback off
what you were saying. Maybe a story about when somebody became your amplifier and maybe what you
learned from that, how people were able to bring out your brilliance so you can serve so many people
that you now serve today. Are you a high-income professional, looking for smarter ways to protect
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There are three people that come to mind. So years ago when I was trying to get hired by Disney,
I was interviewed by a lady named Janice and Janice, amazing individual, over two years,
10 interviews, a 10-page psychological analysis. She was my sponsor to get me into Disney. And
after leaving an organization of just 100 people to now working in an organization, 64,000 people
working within 47 square miles who are walking around singing it's a small world. After all,
they had sniffed the pixie dust a bit too much. I was overwhelmed. Could get anything done. I'm like,
what the heck? And she calls me day 80 and she says, how you doing? I said, Janice, when I hit the 90-day
mark, I'm out. I can't get anything done. I don't know the culture and she says, hold on. I want to
introduce you to two individuals. She introduces me to a guy named Tim Hill and a guy named Larry Lentch.
Both of them at some level, Melissa gave me a hand, not a hand out. They are the ones who
wore my brand t-shirt when I didn't have access to rooms of influence and decision-making within
the mouse house. They were the ones who were hard on me, challenged me,
ensured that I didn't subtle for the status quo. They invited me to realize that average was over.
They could hire anybody, but they gave me a shot. And all I needed was somebody to give me an
opportunity. So I am forever grateful because what I discovered in my journey at Disney is a paycheck
is given to people who show up, but opportunities are given to people who think and work beyond
what they're paid to do. So what would have only been 90 days turned into seven years because of these
individuals who challenged me to totally make a difference at ad value every day?
That's great. And I love it. It's one thing to be given the opportunity. It's a whole different
thing to take it and go after it. And I think that takes courage and determination. I love that you
share that you have this great line leading well means being a plus in a minus world. I love this line.
What's one micro practice or maybe something small that our listeners can do today to embody this idea?
Underpromise Overdeliver. So many individuals overpromise and never really step up. When you
underpromise and overdeliver, you become that person they remember. You become that plus in a
minus world. And so think about your customer. If her proposal is due to them say on Friday,
what if you got it there on the Monday before the Friday, even though you manage their expectation
that they would see receive it on Friday, that's being a plus set of minus world. It's those little
things. If your business says that you are open at 9 a.m., what if you open at 8.50? That would surprise
people if you have a physical location. But you'd be like, whoa, what just happened? If they call
on the line, do you have happy people answering the phone? Not somebody that just took a tablespoon
of molasses? No, hard stop. That dog will not hunt. So being that plus in a minus world is this living
embodiment that whenever people connect with your business, they feel the love. If they don't feel
the love, they are shopping elsewhere. So true. I know. I've experienced that going to get coffee or
checking out people like next, next, and they're not really inspired to be there. They don't want to
be there. They're showing up for their paychecks. So how do we inspire individuals who are not really
motivated to live up to their potential or to get motivated? Do we manage them out? Do we work with
them? Any kind of thoughts on that? I love this question. There are six principles that I could share.
I'm going to give you two to three in this moment. The first thing is commit to coaching. And when I
mean by commit to coaching, really identifying you hired the individual and you know, like any good
relationship is cheaper to keep them than to lose them. So we might as well coach them. So at least
they know the organization has done everything possibly to help that person evolve. You've heard the
words upskilling, reskilling. So let's just kind of identify where they are in their journey. Number one,
number two, attitude is key. In one of the books I've written, Releasing Leadership Alliance, we
share some of the research of Dr. Russell Kualaue who surveyed 66,000 students. And what they found
out is that students who had a teacher that believed in them performed eight times better.
So if we want people to change their attitude, become more engaged at work, add value, become
that entrepreneur, do they believe that we believe in them? Or are we just passing time waiting them,
waiting to invite them to find their happiness elsewhere? So really that attitude is key. And then
the third thing to think about is the next time they do something that advances a relationship or
moves the business forward. Say thank you, acknowledge them. Mutual Scrocs is thonkashar. When you say thank
you that little recognition, what might blow their wig off? All because you took the moment to
identify they did something positive. That could be Melissa some of the ways to get that person
just to shift shifts. They as for see how I fit tomorrow. They can just make that shift to become better.
Yeah, I love that investing in your employees. I think a lot of times I've heard lately and you tell
you tell me if I'm wrong here. I hear employees saying my company wants to invest in me, but not that
much because they're afraid I might leave or get more certification or more experience. So I hear a lot
with on this podcast from different leaders or in the communities I'm in that a lot of employees
now feel like they get some training, but just enough that maybe they don't go. What are your thoughts
on that? So in our research, one of the statistics is 74% of individuals would rather work for a leader
that had no formal education than for a leader that had advanced degrees. So when we unpack that
management is the glue to why people stay. You've heard it, you've probably said it, people don't
leave companies. They leave the manager. So CEOs, leaders of leaders, you've got to look at how are
we developing managers to ensure that they develop people and people feel that they are learning.
They're not just a cog in the wheel. A McKinsey will assist on some research around the magnificent
seven, the Uber's, the Amazons, the Airbnb, the apples. What is it that they do? Microsoft,
Nvidia, what is it that they do? Here's the secret sauce. They shift from becoming a know-it-all culture
to a learn-it-all culture. So what that means is when employees are learning every single day
because of the manager, it's not just about the paycheck, it's not just about the feel good,
they're like, wait a minute, I have job security because the company is developing me every single day,
every single week. Yeah, that's great. I want to kind of piggyback another question on that. It makes
me think about all the Nvidia's and a lot of these other companies that are out there. A lot of
them seem to stay for a long time too, right? Like you were saying, they stay, but in the tech sector
that I work in, it seems like a lot of time is we're seeing a lot of shift. People are working for a
company for a year, going to another company, the company that that was left, they're promoting
internally moving people up. Maybe it's a technical person that's moved up, has never managed people
before. They're a do or now they're a manager. How do you see that working when people are just
moving people up to plug a whole temporarily because people are leaving? Do you find it harder
to train people from not managing employees to going into management while moving up is like an
executive or director? Let's talk a little bit about that. It's very challenging, Melissa, because
just because a person has tenure, they've been there and now they're elevated to leave people,
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
knee jerk reaction to saying, "Oh my goodness, we got to promote this person before they leave and
they've got to leave people." If you do that, is there a plan in place, a learning path to becoming
a manager or a leader, not because you have a degree? There are some people that have more degrees
than a thermostat and they get promoted into a leadership role, but like me, they are jerked of a
boss and I'm making just a very broad statement because they have a lot of intellectual capital,
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
are showing up? So one of the things, and this is what our research told us, if you're going to move
individuals into a leadership role, there should be 90-day check-in points where that manager
who's just been promoted is talking to another leader that is challenging them, giving them feedback,
hearing their war stores, hearing their pain points, and then ensuring that they are, I'm going to
classes, they have a coach, there is some development that's happening that they know how to lead people,
how to do it purposefully and consistently because so many times they can start, but they stop
because oh my goodness, the building is on fire, figuratively not literally, we got to do all these
things, it's the end of the month, did we close contracts, on and on, and we get distracted,
something that John Maxwell, my mentor says is that consistency compounds over time, so you want
managers who understand we've got to give feedback consistently, we have to teach people how the
company makes money consistently, but then we have to understand what's important to the individual,
because the culture is not the vision or mission statement on the website, culture is how you do
everything when no one is looking, and the person that transfer that culture into the head, the
heart and hands of employees are managers, so we've got to double back and say okay, is this the right
culture to create the right outcomes? That's so good, I love that you said that, I think it's super,
super important, and I kind of going back, it made me think when you were, when you mentioned that,
Disney, Apple, Amazon, the big companies, they have a rigorous interview process for a reason,
because they understand hiring the wrong person can set their business back a year, two years,
or more in some cases, so they have these kind of checks and balances in place for that purpose,
and when they do hire someone, it's almost like they buddy, there's a buddy system,
an internal mentor and checks and balances throughout their HR department, aid to make sure the
employees doing the ask, and be to make sure the employee has what they need to do their job, I think,
sometimes I hear, and I hear just in groups that I am part of, where employees start their first day
of work, they haven't talked to their boss, they're trying to figure out how to work in a system,
they don't have the right tools, so their onboarding experience becomes so difficult that it's hard
to get back that employee's trust in the business, so when it comes to that, I'm also curious,
like framing it a different way is, what can employees do for employees out of a gate to make sure
they're all in on that culture you're talking about? Oh my goodness, Melissa, I love this question,
I can spend an hour on this question, but I'll give you just some initial thoughts. We need to ditch
the language onboarding, and we need to replace it with launching, because I'm being launched into
a destiny, launched into an opportunity to add value and to become a better human being, so
launch versus onboarding. Number two, how you start the day determines the day, how you start with
the company determines your initial reaction to that company, so what would it be like to ensure day
one, they have a buddy that is going to meet with them, take them, get a cup of coffee, show them
where the restrooms are, if they're working virtually or remote, helping them just kind of on-board
to understand how do you get things done around here? Like what's the rules of engagement?
Because it's not written online or in the employee handbook, so having that buddy creates stickiness.
Number three, every week at the end of the week, checking in with that person either their
direct leader or someone else on the team to say, "How's the first week been? How are you doing?
What do you see?" And at least doing that for 30 days, but at the 90-day mark, and this is something
I learned when I did some work for the Ritz Carlton Learning Institute. Every 90 days,
and specifically the first 90 days, Ritz Carlton takes a new hire, and they ask them,
"Hey, you came from another organization, you've seen things differently." What do you see here?
What are we missing? And because of that fresh perspective, that person can rattle off by the bang,
by the bone, "Here's what it is." Now, Melissa, the bigger question is, just with the three that I
mentioned, what does this do? This creates what I would call cognitive velcro. We're now the
mental hooks of that individual hooks into the organization because they understand the who,
the what, the how, the why, and how they fit their little piece of the puzzle fits, a mixing
metaphors, intentionally, fits into the organization for where the organization is going. So that velcroing
of their head, their heart, their hands, connects them more, but it started with a buddy who cared and
showed intentional interest in how they are doing. That's great. That's really great. I love that idea,
and just asking them at the end of the week because I think you mentioned a little bit at the beginning
where sometimes the best ideas are people that haven't been at a company for a long time. So if
they're fresh and new, they're an independent view without, you know, being influenced in their
role or their position at the company. So I think that's such a good idea. Sorry, I want to get
kind of any final thoughts or anything you want to share with our listeners that we may not have
touched on. Every leader listening to us right now, I really want you to look yourself in the mirror
and answer the question, how are you doing? Why do I ask this question two years ago, 19 CEOs
died. Died. It was not in the news, but research bears out. And there are a number of executives
who show up in business every single day and they're like, man, if the company had sold tomorrow
or didn't, I would rather go do something else. And so leaders in executives, as you know,
Melissa are always taught to cry up, never cry down. So I want you to do an assessment and a couple
of areas. How are you doing spiritually? How are you doing health wise? How's your health? How are
you doing family wise? How are you doing business? Notice business is number four, not number one.
I was married for 25 years and my then mother of my children said to me, you give everybody the
best of you, but you give us the rest of you. And I don't want the leftovers anymore. So Melissa,
what I realized, I built a house, but lost the home. I was chasing money that had no meaning,
and I was pursuing power, but had no purpose. And after 25 years of being married,
there went the range rover, the 6,000 square foot house, private school,
jetting, the family off to vacations in Hong Kong and Singapore. That went out the window. And as
a father, all I was crying for is I could have did this better. So wherever you are, how much is
enough? What's that number? And if you've hit the number, then think about your family.
Who's going to be crying at your funeral? Here's the last thing I'll say towards this in Dr. Dennis
Waitley, who is another mentor of mine in Southern California. He said something, Melissa, that just
absolutely rocked my world. My children are 22, 26 and I promised them that they would be able to go
to college, no student, loan debt, and that they both are on their second car. So we understand what
has happened. And Dr. Waitley said, I ask him, how do I be a leader, but also a good parent? And he
says, make sure you give your children roots and wings instead of looped and things.
Oh, that's good. That's real good. I'm going to have to share that with my children because I
often find we give things versus our time and really our children want our time and our mindful
focus versus our phones and all the things that are happening in our life. And so I think that's
such a good analogy. So I mean, you've left us so much to think about and such a fresh perspective.
Now we're going to flip the script on you and ask you, how can we best serve you in your community?
Oh my goodness, amplify somebody today. Find one person, send a text, an email. My children
wrote me this past Father's Day. They gave me handwritten letters. What would it be like to write
handwritten letters as someone that's important to you? Because it is equivalent to hugging them with
your words. Who can you hug with your words today? That would be my ask.
I love it. Simon, thank you for being here today and for amplifying our brilliance today.
Connect with Simon at SimonTBaley.com. Check out his books, "Be the Spark" and "Shift Your Brilliant"
and focus on connecting with him through leak did. Until next time, that's the Executive Connect podcast.