When the Weight of Leadership Gets Heavy

Leadership gets heavy when multiple priorities, people issues, and business pressures collide all at once. In this episode, Steve and Wayne discuss how growth exposes weaknesses, why strong leaders must bring clarity instead of chaos, and practical ways to navigate high-pressure seasons without losing focus. Learn how to simplify decisions, stabilize your team, and carry the weight of leadership without letting it change who you are.

🌍 Interested in getting one-on-one coaching from the 3PX team? Go to https://3pxcoaching.com

Follow us on Instagram:
Wayne Foreman: @wayne4man
Steve Kincanon: @Steve_kincanon

LISTEN TO THE SHOW
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1810132342
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6icTxp0wsvMPmnjZsGtybV

JOIN OUR COMMUNITY
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/3pxcoaching/
📖 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/61575312680020

Intro and outro music by Korshun
https://audiojungle.net/user/korshun

Produced by Quentin White | @quentinlwhite

🌍 Interested in getting one-on-one coaching from the 3PX team? Go to https://3pxcoaching.com

Follow us on Instagram:
Wayne Foreman: @wayne4man
Steve Kincanon: @Steve_kincanon

LISTEN TO THE SHOW
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1810132342
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6icTxp0wsvMPmnjZsGtybV

JOIN OUR COMMUNITY
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/3pxcoaching/
📖 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/61575312680020

Intro and outro music by Korshun
https://audiojungle.net/user/korshun

Produced by Quentin White | @quentinlwhite

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

When you're pursuing your dream, most of the time the grind and the pursuit of that dream is not fun.

SPEAKER_02 0:08

It's hard. That's something that, you know, as a leader, you have to be prepared for at any given time. You know, because not every day is going to be a great day.

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Danger isn't the pressure itself. The danger is how you as a leader respond to it. Everybody, chill out. We're going to talk about how you can navigate that. All right, everybody. Welcome back to the 3PX show episode six. And uh love that you're here. Thanks for joining us. And um, I don't think we don't have any fluff to talk about for like 10 minutes before we just dive in. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 0:44

Right? Uh is that well, I was gonna say that's almost two episodes in a row, but it really wasn't because you fluffed it up a little bit. That was a big big deal.

SPEAKER_00 0:52

Yes, it was, it it was. Yeah, so we appreciate that.

SPEAKER_02 0:54

Um now you're just creating fluff, so anyway.

SPEAKER_00 0:56

Yes, I'm not okay. There I will not create any um any any fluff.

SPEAKER_02 1:01

It's a fluff content.

SPEAKER_00 1:02

Anti-fluff. Oh, hey, dude, that we should have said that last episode.

SPEAKER_02 1:07

Right. Wayne. Wow, thanks, Steve. Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 1:10

Congratulations on this month, June, 15 years in business. Man, you know it all started on a cold and rainy night. It did on a cold and rainy night.

SPEAKER_02 1:24

15 years ago. Barefoot. Yeah, my wife was pregnant, had to walk to the grocery store uphill both ways.

SPEAKER_00 1:30

Was she really pregnant?

SPEAKER_02 1:31

No, she wasn't. Not 15 years ago. I don't have a Oh, that's right. Landy may have been pregnant 15 years ago. Actually, she was.

SPEAKER_00 1:36

She was pregnant 15 years ago.

SPEAKER_02 1:39

She was. No. It's still early. You know, it it's uh it's pretty surreal because uh 15 years has flown by just to see the the growth of the company and how things are uh done. And uh, you know, give a big shout out to Stephanie on that because she has uh been such an inspiration and been a power uh of it. You know, as I always said, she was the one that financed helped finance the company and but she's always been here part of that. So uh but um it's um it's it's just been a been a cool moment. It's been been really neat. Other day I I was able to come in and uh walk in the door and had this big 15-year sign, but we had what probably 50, 70 people up in the front. So that was uh that was really good. I I you know people said speech speech and all that kind of stuff. And I said about 10 words and I was like, I'm not gonna I can't say anymore because you already you already knew what that was gonna be.

SPEAKER_00 2:29

The emotion was starting to come out.

SPEAKER_02 2:30

The emotion was starting to come out.

SPEAKER_00 2:32

You don't like it, everybody else loves it.

SPEAKER_02 2:33

Yeah, but it it just is uh so yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_00 2:37

Well, for people who don't know, when you said Stephanie helped I mean we we make it a joke, you know, Stephanie financed Wayne's start startup, but it was she she's not like some multimillionaire, you know, rich family kind of thing, like she cashed in her 401k and handed you $5,000, like all the money she had in that. That was all the money. That's how you started.

SPEAKER_02 2:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:56

You know, but she's anything else. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:00

You're right. Uh it has to start somewhere, you know, and uh that's how it was. And and God has been so good uh to us over the years. And you know, it's it's it's uh uh whole testimony about faithfulness and and that kind of thing. Again, that could be an episode to itself, but it's uh definitely a blessing. Yeah. Thanks for saying that, Quentin. I I even forgot about that. But yeah, 15 years.

SPEAKER_00 3:19

Yeah, that that was terrible that I forgot about that. I did too, you know, but I think it just goes to show you the weight of leadership. Amen. We're already moving on. We're already right there. We're like, okay, 15 years. That was that was yesterday.

SPEAKER_02 3:31

That was yesterday's news. Move on. Yeah, let's go to we're in, we're going to towards year 16 now. That's terrible that we're like that.

unknown 3:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:38

You know, I told, here we go again, I'm creating fluff. I told Landy the other night, because she had her, you know, she I talked about in the last episode, she passed her first test, had a really good score. And I I called her and I was like, I was super super excited. And I said, Hey, have you done anything to actually like pause and really enjoy the moment? Like, and if not, like what can we do? And she's like, No, I've been studying, I'm working on, you know, other activities and homework. And I'm like, babe, okay, this is good for anybody right here. When you're pursuing your dream, most of the time the grind and the pursuit of that dream is not fun. Yeah, it's hard. When when Wayne was building his business to get to where he is now, now Wayne has a lot of fun days now, but I can promise you, for the first several years, growing and getting to that dream, it's most of the time it is not fun. So what you have to do is you have to find milestone moments that you can pause and celebrate and acknowledge. And for my wife, that was getting an 87 on her first test. I'm like, babe, right? You can't just suffer through every single day because it's gonna wear you down. So when you have something great happen, you gotta pause and acknowledge it because it refuels you, it re-energizes you.

SPEAKER_02 4:56

Celebrate the wins. You have to. If you don't, like you said, it just tears you down because you just you stay in that that that state. Um, and it's okay for a period of time. But over a period of time, you wanna you want to celebrate the wins, you want to step back and and actually take a breath, right? Take a and that's that's really what we're talking about here, the weight of leadership. Yes, you know, is you grow and you want to do because that's uh you have to take that step, you have to take that that moment to reflect a little bit. Uh, because it's important. Absolutely. For mental clarity, yeah, and health.

SPEAKER_00 5:27

Even just uh last night, you know, we kind of we we went out and then and just we got away from it all and we we we enjoyed company and had dinner and that that was good. It was very I almost uh text you last night, you know, and said, Hey man, I really appreciated that. That was that was well timed, you know, and um it it it it it was good. It was needed food for the soul kind of thing. It was, yeah. So all right, we just we just came out of a three-part series on culture, morale, and and accountability. And um and here and here's the truth. It's it's it's easier to talk about those things and to to work on that side of the business when when things are steady. But they get real when leadership is heavy, when tension is building, and and there's seasons, and we're in one right now. Okay, we're we're going through right now where it's not just one issue that you're dealing with, it's margin pressure, it's people pressure, it's system pressure, it's growth pressure, and everything is all hitting at the exact same time. And it's like you can't just duck and run, right? This is this is what you wanted to get into leadership for is to help the company help people navigate through these, these, these tough times. And that's what we're gonna talk about today is what leadership actually feels like when everything matters all at the same time.

SPEAKER_02 6:52

Wow. I mean, that's that's a lot, right?

SPEAKER_00 6:54

And we're live, we're living in a minute.

SPEAKER_02 6:57

Well, you know, we we've been in the perfect storm, right? Because no matter which way you you turn, you still have to face everything that you got to do. And you and you just gotta you gotta work through it. And that's when you really that's a test of your leadership. It's also a test of your team and how leadership uh uh displays itself. And so it's just uh that that's something that, you know, as a leader, you have to be prepared for at any given time, you know, because not every day is gonna be a great day. But you know, we've been living in that that that storm. We're on the I feel like we're on the other side of it now, uh, but we've had that we had to go through it. You do. I do, huh? Good for you. Good for me, right?

SPEAKER_00 7:32

Uh, you know, there's there's other storms. I don't want to do that.

SPEAKER_02 7:35

There's other storms. There's other storms that are coming and and that kind of thing. But there's other storms that you that that we deal with at times. But leadership is uh not as easy as everyone thinks, um, you know, when when it's all said and done.

SPEAKER_00 7:47

You know, you said you said something. I don't I don't know if you caught it. It was profo it was profound. That's why I was trying to write it down. But um, I'm gonna restate it the way I heard you say it. You what you said was when when you're in the storm, when you're in the middle of a storm, everywhere you turn, all you see is a storm. Yeah, you can't turn left and and get relief. You can't turn right. It's no matter where you turn, no matter which way you face, that that's what you're confronted with is the storm. And to a degree, we're still, we're still kind of um in in in that right now. And I think, you know, if if everybody else's Q1 was was like ours, then you know, we're all still kind of reeling, yeah, you know, uh from what's been going on with gas prices and war and uh divisive politics and and all this stuff. It's it doesn't just impact the country and what you see on the news. I mean, this it has profound impact on our businesses, how we lead, on our on our on our people. So so we're all feeling it. But this is this is what we want to talk about that leadership is heavier than most people think. And that's where people get surprised because leadership from the outside, like it sounds good, right? Sounds cool. I'm gonna get a raise. I get to be I get to be the boss, you know, uh kind of thing. But once you're in it, that's when you realize how much weight you actually are carrying on behalf of whatever the organization is, you know?

SPEAKER_02 9:11

Well, you know, uh a lot of people, and I've I've I've seen it, I've heard it, and uh a lot of people have uh, you know, when they look at a uh like at your position or they look at my position and they see maybe I I I leave early sometimes, a lot of times. But you know, but honestly, when I'm leaving, guess what I'm doing? I'm going somewhere else because I I got another little adventure going on right now and and I'm spending time with that, or I'm going home and I'm trying to play catch up on emails and things. They don't see the things that you go through. They just see, you know, and honestly, I get here pretty early. I get here as early as some of them uh do. Uh uh, I don't get here as as early as everybody does now. But a lot of people will look and they'll see, oh, look how easy that looks. But they don't understand the pressure that you carry and the things that you have to deal with on a daily basis. And um, you know, and and so that's leadership is just a whole different dynamic because not only are you having to take take care of your job, but if you're a really good leader, you have to take care of the jobs of 150 people out here. You have to take care of of the people that are around you if you want to do a good job because you have to, as a leader, leadership is working through others to get the job done. Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:19

And what you just mentioned made made me think about um uh leaders are constantly having to manage the difference between reality and perception.

SPEAKER_01 10:29

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 10:30

Our our reality is we're working on weekends and we're talking over the weekends and we're slacking and Teams messaging and emailing and we're, you know, keeping up, we're getting up early and clearing out. I'm even this is terrible to say, but when I when I wake up in the morning, even before I, you know, go to pray, I open my email, I clear out my my my focus box, like I I clear out the junk, I clear out all the stuff because I just I feel like I can't come to work um with that buried. So I'll take 15 or 20 minutes before I even get out of the bed and I'm like delete, delete, delete, move that to another folder, delete, delete, clear, you know, okay, so I'll reply to that later kind of thing. And then I'm like, all right, now I get up and I can have my quiet time and all that. But the perception is, oh, Steve left at three o'clock today. Yeah. You know, um, I don't, you know, maybe I got a chiropractor appointment or a doctor appointment or something like that. But you feel like the perception is they're cut they come in whenever they want, they leave whenever they want. That's not the reality, you know, more more often than not. But you're as a leader, you're constantly having to manage reality versus perception.

SPEAKER_02 11:38

Well, leadership is hard to turn off too. The higher you get into an organization and the more you do. A lot of times leadership can be very hard to turn off. And what I mean by that is we may leave at three o'clock, but that doesn't mean that we can, as soon as we walk out the door that we can turn things off, our mind is still thinking. Oh, I mean, when when we got 24-7. 24-7. When we get, I I'll wake up at three o'clock in the morning sometimes and I can't go back to sleep because my mind's already spinning and doing. Now, it drives me nuts sometimes, but that's the reality of what leadership can be. And it and it can be hard, you know. And if and if you and if it's easy and you can turn it off, well, you know, if you say I don't have that problem, well, you might have to check and and just see where you are in your leadership journey or where you're doing, because the higher you get in it, the more you have to make sure that you're on top of things and the more that you have to really um uh be involved and do. I mean, there's so many times. How many times do we text at nighttime, you know, while everybody else is watching TV or doing or text on the weekends or Saturday mornings? We're not working on those times, but guess what? Our minds are working.

SPEAKER_00 12:42

I can't, I don't want to be a liar here, but I actually can't think of a weekend where we weren't communicating about something. Yeah. And that's not bad. It's not that that's just because I know he's always thinking about it and I'm always thinking about it.

SPEAKER_02 12:59

And sometimes you gotta get it out and talk about it in the in in that moment or, you know, even Stephanie, you know, we were on vacation, we were in Montana uh a few weeks ago, and uh, you know, I wherever I go, I always take my laptop because you never know when you're gonna need to pull it out and do it. And um, but I've always got my phone with me. Well, my phone's got all my emails, it's got all the you know things going on, and so I can keep up to date with everything just by looking at my phone. I can look at the sales, I can see, you know, just kind of where we are, what kind of day we're having, what kind of week we're having, uh, those kind of things. And so, but you're you it's always going. And she's like, hey, you know, are you gonna enjoy your vacation? It's like, baby, this is just the state of life that we're in, and and you know where we are. And so, yes, I'm enjoying every bit of the vacation, a hundred percent. This is just who I am. You know, I it's it's hard for me to turn that part of it off.

SPEAKER_00 13:48

You know, we won't get into burnout. I'm I'm pretty sure we did an episode on burnout last year.

SPEAKER_02 13:53

I think we did, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:54

Um, so just go back and watch that episode. But the reason why I don't burn out, and the reason why Wayne doesn't burn out when we can always be thinking about the business, thinking about leadership, carrying this weight is because we love what we do. If you don't love what you do, that creates burnout. Or if you don't have the support around you to help you, you know, carry the weight and and you know, love what you do and do what you do, like like Stephanie's the same way. Landy 100% supports when we're on vacation, when we're on the cruise, if I'm checking on things, if I'm responding, she she's okay with that. She's not yelling at me about me, you know, get off the phone. Um, but then when I when I'm done, I'm attentive. Yeah. Again, if I didn't have that, that would create burnout and and friction and and and all that. So y'all go watch the episode on on burnout. And um, if I don't talk about all that stuff or we don't cover those topics, then let us know and we'll redo it.

SPEAKER_02 14:55

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 14:55

Um, all right. So what we're talking about here, leadership, it's not just a role, it's not just vision, but leadership is about carrying the tension. You as a leader, you are carrying the tension, and there's no one else you can pass that off to. Okay. It's not just about strategy, it's about weight. You're you are holding people, outcomes, clarity, and pace all at the same time. And the higher you go, this is kind of what Wayne was alluding to earlier, the higher you go up in leadership, the fewer people are around you that can absorb the pressure with you.

SPEAKER_02 15:37

Amen to that.

SPEAKER_00 15:39

Like, who do you have?

SPEAKER_02 15:41

I I was thinking that when you were saying that, I in my mind, I was that was I was about to say that, you know, because but when you start assembling, it's like that that's exactly my my thought process because the higher you go, it's like a pyramid. You know, when you as the higher you go on that pyramid, you know, it gets it gets as they you've ever heard where they say it gets lonely at the top. Yeah. It gets lonely at the top because there's not as many people that you can share some of the thoughts that you have and some of the things that are going on. You can't share it with everybody because they may not get the whole thing. Um, even when it comes to casting a vision, uh, you know, or implementing the vision and making sure that we're we're doing the right things, some things you have to still hold back because not everybody can handle what comes with that because they think of what's how's that's gonna impact them right then and today. Uh and so We heard that yesterday. We heard that yesterday. You have to have be a good enough leader to understand I can give you that, but can you, you may, and and whoever I give it to may be able to handle it, but when it gets out, can everybody else handle it? Because then they're it could be a vision that's five, ten years away that's not really gonna impact them, or it could be uh further down the road, but in their mind, it's impacting them today because of what they heard.

SPEAKER_00 16:54

When you taught when you mentioned the pyramid, that is such a great visual because a lot of leaders when when they think about that pyramid, they see themselves on top and everyone else underneath. And it and then that that kind of like the humanity, the human in you wants to feel kind of proud about that position or that level. But the other thing with that pyramid that Wayne's talking about is yeah, you may have a lot of people underneath you, quote unquote, in the organization, but you know what you don't have? You don't have anybody next to you.

SPEAKER_02 17:29

Yeah, not not at all.

SPEAKER_00 17:31

Zero. Where in the middle of the pyramid or at the bottom of the pyramid, you have peers and and teams around you to help carry the weight, you know, and all that. But at the top of the pyramid, there's nobody. That's why this lesson or this podcast is so important. It's recognizing that that leadership is about carrying that tension. And and a lot of times it's your responsibility to carry it alone.

SPEAKER_02 17:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:56

And that's difficult.

SPEAKER_02 17:57

It is.

SPEAKER_00 17:58

But we're gonna talk about hey, everybody chill out. We're gonna talk about how you can navigate that, you know, and and and and get through that. And a lot of this is because we're go we're going through it right now. So, but leadership gets heavy when when multiple right things need your attention all at the same time. So, you know, we say a lot, slow down to go faster, focus on less things so you can get more done. And that's great to talk about with your team. The reality of leadership is I don't have that luxury. The the last several, several months where just personally where I have been is I have a multitude of things that need my attention that I have to work on, and they are all the right things.

SPEAKER_02 18:51

And they need your attention right then.

SPEAKER_00 18:53

Right then, yes, every day.

SPEAKER_02 18:54

Every day. It doesn't, and it and it's not and the longer if you put these off and you're, hey, I'm just gonna focus on one thing at a time, and you focus on this one thing, everything else over here may be burning down. The house may be burning down, but you're focusing on the closet. Well, you know, you you gotta focus on the whole house and you gotta look at it. You gotta keep the fire at a at a you know, you gotta put the eliminate it, right? You got to get the smoke out, you gotta get all the things and make sure that everything's working properly. Uh but again, it's it's making sure that you're the right leader, making sure that you have the right group underneath you, and then that group has the right group underneath them and down all the way to the to the bottom, wherever it is. But it's a it's a heavy burden, honestly, because you know, if you only think about what you have to do, that's that's that can be easy to be honest with you. But when you have to think about others and you have to think about the rest of the group, I've always you know felt that weight in a sense of, man, we have 150 people that work here, and uh, that's a lot of mouths to feed. But it's not only 150 people that you're feeding uh at the end of the day when I look at it, that's 150 families, right? Because everybody's got a family or or or whatever and and a livelihood. And so that 150 could easily turn into 300 or or 400 or or more when you start have ad having kids because you know they're they're dependent upon us making a good choice, making wise decisions. And when you look at that, that's a big responsibility. So leadership, you know, comes with cost. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:21

And you you you have to embrace this.

SPEAKER_02 20:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:27

Because if you if you run from it, now we're gonna we're gonna talk about you know, so three things that leaders that leaders tend to do under pressure, but you you have to embrace these moments. This is why clarity, clarity breaks, having a having a personal coach, you know, or something like that is is is so important. But let me let me talk about what makes us even more real. Okay. Because in in the theme of where we have been the last several, several years, what makes us even more real is that growth exposes everything.

SPEAKER_01 20:56

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 20:57

Now, growth doesn't create problems. Let me be clear. Growth does not create problems. What growth does is growth reveals problems you already had but you didn't see.

SPEAKER_02 21:09

Yeah. Okay. Because it stretches.

SPEAKER_00 21:11

It it exposes weak communication, it exposes lack of role clarity, it exposes weak follow-through, it exposes systems that can't scale, and growth exposes, you're all gonna love this one. Growth exposes emotional immaturity in your leaders. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 21:32

I love it.

SPEAKER_00 21:34

Part two of this uh this podcast, we'll be ta talking about that. But you know, when when when when you're when you're a leader and you go from managing, you know, or leading two or three people who are your best friends, or you go to church with, or you know, one of them's, you know, your brother in law or something like that, it's okay. It can be okay. But then as you grow and now you're managing two supervisors and 16 people. The the the leadership issues that you had when you were smaller were always there, but they don't get exposed until the growth hits.

SPEAKER_02 22:08

Yeah, that's real talk right there. I mean, that's uh a hundred percent uh agree with you on that. It just uh it does. I mean, you when you grow, it exposes the gaps that you normally wouldn't see. So if you're a company and you're not experiencing much much growth, you're probably everything's fine-tuned, everything's running. And it and there's some organizations that, you know, it could be a a county hospital or it could be something that's just whatever it is, I don't know what it what it would be, but it could be a a business that doesn't have a lot of growth, but it's hey, you know what, it makes you good money, it does uh uh a lot of good things, but you know, year over year it's one or two percent growth, things like that. And so the pressure is not there uh on that part of it, and everything's fine-tuned, it's running really well. But all of a sudden, if you go from a one to two percent growth rate this year and then next year, you jump to a 25% growth rate, guess what? Cracks in the data. I mean cracks and all over it. It's just gonna, you're gonna like, what the heck happened? You know, because you're like, oh man, we grew 20%. We went from, you know, uh 10 million to uh 12 and a half million or or whatever it was, or 15 million, and and you're you're so happy and excited. Man, look at the growth. But you're also gonna be like, my goodness. I mean, it that's we where's the where's the duct tape?

SPEAKER_00 23:21

You know, where's the stuff that we can fix the uh turnover spikes, error error rate spikes, customer service complaint spikes, Google reviews take a nosedive, like all these things start happening. You're like, well, but we grew 20 percent, and the business is crumbling.

SPEAKER_02 23:33

Yeah. Yeah. And then, you know, like our business, you know, thank the Lord, you know, I'll look at, but you know, we we we happen to be a fast-paced business, and we've always been that way where we've seen 20 to 30 percent growth rate on a low end year over year for the past 15 years, basically. Even in COVID, we didn't really see a a drop in s in sales and revenue. We just flatlined maybe a five percent uh growth or loss. I can't remember which one it was. It was right in that basically a break-even as far as sales-wise. But right after that, the next year, we we jumped up and we've just been hitting steady after that. And so we've been used to that growth rate. It's just we've we've been in in the in the thickness of it the whole time. So, you know, we've been able to modify and accommodate a little bit better just because that's just who we are.

SPEAKER_00 24:19

You know, but what that also says is for the last 15 years for you and all in the last almost five years for me, we have been living in a constant state of we're always finding cracks. Yeah. We're constantly exposing our weaknesses because we're because we continue to grow.

SPEAKER_01 24:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:34

So um, all right. So growth starts exposing all that. And and that's when pressure really starts to show up. But the the danger isn't the pressure itself. The danger is how you as a leader respond to it. But at the end of the day, pressure is unavoidable, but your reaction to the pressure that is optional and that's what you can control. And leaders tend to do three things. When when pressure shows up and you've got multiple right things that you have to do at the same time that are hitting you, that you have to decision. Leaders show up it under pressure these three ways. Okay. I don't want to say, you know, leaders who are struggling. They this is how it shows up. Number one, you either start over controlling. Number two, you withdraw. Or number three, you're you emotionally spill over onto your team. So it's over control, withdraw, or emotionally spill over. And what I can tell you is in the last several months, I have done, I've done over control for sure. And I've emotionally spilled over onto the team at least one time that I can remember. I don't tend typically withdraw, but I do these things.

SPEAKER_02 25:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:45

You know, and um, so we are all guilty of this.

SPEAKER_02 25:48

Yeah, I think we all do that. Uh that's just something that uh just it happens, right? Because the the pressure's real, the pressure's there. Uh, the thing is we can't crack under pressure. It what it does is it exposes our weak spots. But, you know, it's um as you grow as a leader, you know, you you you want to get stretched. If you're not getting stretched, you're not growing, right? And and that's uh uh that's you know, my pastor used to always say, if you don't like uh, you know, me stepping on your toes, you gotta move them. You know, at the end of the day, you know, you just you just gotta you gotta get up and you gotta move. You gotta come out of your comfort zone. And um, if you're if you're going through some of this stuff, to me, I look at that as that's an opportunity for you to learn and how to fix situations, how to fix other uh and and how to just overcome some of these obstacles.

SPEAKER_00 26:35

Absolutely. So so so listen, teams can survive hard seasons. Okay, that's that's not the issue. But sh but they struggle to survive unstable leadership. And that's what we're talking about when pressure hits and it creates leadership, leadership instability, whether that's me, you, or or whether that's you, you listening. And this is a maturity test. This is not just a business test, it's not just a leadership test. This is this is a maturity test. And it takes extreme emotional maturity. What strong leaders do when it gets heavy, that is the separating line right there, because pressure hits everybody, all right? Period. But not everybody responds to it the same way. So the real question becomes: what do strong leaders actually do when the pressure hits and when time gets heavy? What do strong leaders do? And that's what we're gonna get into right now, and we're gonna talk about what great leaders do when pressure gets really heavy.

SPEAKER_02 27:34

And if you think about it over the years uh in our careers, and that's where you know sometimes you know, being in it for so long is is uh is helps. You know, it may can hurt sometimes too. But what's pressure and stress to some people right now, we look at that and think, well, that's that's an easy fix. Oh because we've we've been through it. We we've got the t-shirt, we've worn it several times, and maybe we can we still wear it every once in a while, but we you know, we we know how to overcome that because we we we've been stretched, we've been pulled, we've been through all of a lot of different storms. And so that experience matters and it counts.

SPEAKER_00 28:10

Absolutely. So the main the main idea here I want to I want to get across as we talk through some of these things is is strong leaders simplify, prioritize, communicate, and stabilize. Okay. And I'm gonna talk about some some specific things that you can do uh to to uh to to to accomplish that. Number one, you have to clarify what matters most right now. Even in the times where everything feels like it matters and you're getting hit with like what I said, multiple right things, you have to internally, you have to clarify what matters most right now.

SPEAKER_02 28:51

Are we we're almost talking about the uh same thing that would not really the same thing, but talking a lot about what we talked about in the last episode, where you know, you what are your processes? What are the things that you gotta really work on and focus on? Don't get too many things to focus on, because if you do, you're not gonna do any of them well. Focus on a few things and and really say, this is what I gotta, this is what I have to do and I've got to get done because this is gonna be what's best for the team. I was still on the team uh yesterday, you know, uh, as we were talking about how we're growing and how we're doing and what what's happening is, you know, sometimes you got to take a look inside and and and as me, especially being the CEO, I've got to look at it and say, hey, if it's if it causes more work for me, but it's better for the organization and the team, I just gotta, I gotta swallow it, I gotta eat it and say, oh, you know what, I I've got to do it because it's better for the overall good of the company and the team. Um, you know, but if I look at it and say, well, this is better for me, but it's not gonna be good for the team, then I'm very self-centered and and I'm that's just not who I am and how I do things. And um, but and that's not uh I think how you are either. Well, I'm not I'm not thinking I I know that's not how you are either. It's but that's part of of leadership that you really have to to look at that and figure out what's the best thing for the whole team.

SPEAKER_00 30:01

Yes, absolutely. And um number two is you have to stop treating everything like it they're all equally urgent. Right because they're not. Okay. Not everything is 911.

SPEAKER_02 30:19

Right.

SPEAKER_00 30:19

So you have to have enough clarity to determine which thing is more urgent than than than something else. And uh so stop treating everything like it's equally urgent. And then the the third thing I want to mention is you you have to call the real issue exactly what it is. Now, number one, you got to know what the real issue is. But when you're in the leadership level and a lot of times, and especially if you're at a higher level, like we talked about the pyramid, if you're kind of towards the top of that pyramid, you are seeing most of the time, you're seeing lagging indicators.

SPEAKER_01 30:52

Right.

SPEAKER_00 30:52

You're you're hearing about something that happened a month ago. It's just now getting to your desk. And you may not have the clarity on what the real issue is. You see the outcome or the problem or the issue that it that has been created, but you may be detached from what the real issue is. And that's where you really have to slow down, take the emotion out, and get to what is the real issue at at hand here. Otherwise, you're never gonna address it or solve the problem.

SPEAKER_02 31:22

Well, I mean, good case in point is uh I don't I can't remember what it was. Uh maybe a couple of weeks ago, I brought something to your attention that I saw, but it was a lagging indicator. And I said, hey, we you know, what about this, this, or or this? And well, you were already on top of it. You already knew. If I would have gone in and started pulling buttons or hitting switches and all that, and you never said anything, well, you'd already had the issue, hey, I've already done this, this, and this to fix this problem, right? And but it again, that comes back to that lagging indicator. I didn't see it until it was already, hey, here's here's what the paper says, here's what the PLs or the whatever it was that we were looking at, the KPI said, you were already making the the moves and the switches and said, hey, let's give it time to to to marinate to fix before we pull another switch. You can't pull if you pull too many switches and then something changes and it works or doesn't work, well, which one worked? Absolutely. Yes. You don't know.

SPEAKER_00 32:17

That's such a great lesson.

SPEAKER_02 32:18

Right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:20

The next thing is so number number four, you've got to build simple rhythms that stabilize your business. Yeah. Whatever that looks like for you, it could be it could be simple leading indicator reporting. It could be your weekly L10 structure and how your team raises issues in an open, honest, and transparent way. It could be the way that you have same page or one-on-one meetings, but you have to simplify the rhythm of how you operate your business so that these things materialize faster and you get an opportunity to address them before they come big problems. And it helps you to stabilize and keep the water smooth, as opposed to I haven't talked to you for a month. Now I see this report and I'm coming after it. Yeah. You know, kind of thing. That is a really fast way to destabilize. And like I mentioned yesterday, you know, I'm the one now throwing grenades, you know, at uh at people, but I'm I'm I'm falling victim to some of the things that that we're talking about today.

SPEAKER_02 33:21

But sometimes leadership, like we talked about yesterday as well, um, and you, you know, you can you're hard on yourself to a certain degree, but sometimes in in leadership, there's that those moments that you have to to dig in, and you know when those moments are. You know when it's, hey, it's it's it's time to get real, and it's time as a leader that we need to dig in and do. And so uh you you've done a good job at that. And now, you know, and again, I I keep saying we're on the other side, but we've made some hires, we've we've moved things around to where it'll take a tremendous amount of pressure off of you personally. Um, and then you can start focusing on things that, you know, that you know really, really well, but you've covered things that you really didn't know, but you've done a great job covering them. Now we got a person that came in that's coming in, and Jim, and he's now he owns, he's he's has ownership of a certain part, and you can start letting go of that part. And so that's that's again, that's a sign of leadership to be able to not to recognize it, but also to let go of it.

SPEAKER_00 34:17

Absolutely. And um, so num number five is and and I I wish I could make this point more dramatic, you know, some somehow, because this is important. You in these times, high pressure, lots of things happening, you need to provide clarity. Don't provide fake optimism. Okay. Your team around you wants to help. They want to do the right thing. The last thing they need is a fake, optimistic rah-rah session because you're feeling down or you're feeling pressure and you want to just try to make everybody else feel good around you. What your team needs is clarity. Where are we at? What are we facing? What are you seeing as a leader? And what are you facing? And how can we mobilize the team to pull together and get ours, get ourselves to the other side of this? That's what people need. Clarity, not fake optimism.

SPEAKER_02 35:17

I could not agree 100% more. I mean, that's uh it that's so true. Because uh, you know, everybody knows I'm the eternal optimist. You know, I don't like uh, you know, negativism or negativity, uh, but I I'm I'm I'm a very optimistic person. But if you're not give if you're not honest with your team, if you're not giving great clarity, everybody everybody can see through it. They already know where the whole situation is. So being a leader, if you're not being honest and giving the true answers, yeah, that they're they're gonna see right through you and under that. And then all of a sudden your perception of being a leader drops.

SPEAKER_00 35:55

Q1. Yeah. Clarity. Not not fake optimism.

SPEAKER_02 35:59

100%.

SPEAKER_00 36:00

Everybody told every single person, uh the the entire company, really, whether you all agree with that or not, um, exit right where we were, what what's happening, why it's happening, where the misses were, what we didn't see, what happened that we didn't see coming that were just misses on on my part or on the leadership team's uh part. But we talked about what we're doing today, how we're getting, how we're how we're gonna have a great Q2 and a great Q three and how we're setting the company up for future success. But we didn't just go in and tell everybody like, hey, things are fine, don't worry about it. We're gonna have a great summer. I mean, like, that's just fake optimism. Yeah. But but I feel like the clarity in sharing with the team where we were actually energized people to because they know what's happening and we set a clear path on how to work through this.

SPEAKER_02 36:49

Yeah. Uh, you know, and and one of the things that Steve is talking about that one of the that that we do to how we share this, and I know we've talked about it time and time again, but I'm gonna uh throw it out there as well. We do, we, we do a quarterly state of the company where we sit down, we have the whole entire company in one big room, and we talk about everything that's going on with business. We talk about how we give, we talk about our core values, we talk about, you know, the state of where we are today or how the bat past quarter happened and all the different things that went on. We do, I think we do a good job with that to where everybody knows. So it's not one of those where people are we're not telling our management team and then they're telling their team and then they're telling their team. They're hearing it straight from you and straight from me of how things are going right then, how they happened, what the last quarter was like and where we're going in the future.

SPEAKER_00 37:37

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 37:37

And that's important. If you're gonna if you're leading a team, it's important that that they hear directly from the top.

SPEAKER_00 37:43

Yes. I couldn't I couldn't agree more. And um, and then number six, the the last thing and and what we're talking about is what are the specific things that strong leaders do in these, in these, in these moments, these these heavy tension moments is you got to define what winning looks like.

SPEAKER_02 37:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:59

What winning looks like for us today as I sit here is different than what winning looked like for us in October or November of last year, Q4. It's different. It is. The expectation, quite frankly, has has changed. But because the environment that we're operating in has changed, so we've had to redefine what winning looks like and reset expectations. And that's a good thing.

SPEAKER_02 38:29

It is.

SPEAKER_00 38:30

Whether those expectations get reset and they go up a little bit, or those expectations get reset and they go down a little bit, that is a good thing. Define what winning looks like for this week in the situation that you're that you're dealing with and where you're at. The last thing I'm gonna say, like when we go through all this here before we, you know, before we kind of move on to the next thing and we got to get wrapping up here is complexity always, always, always increases pressure. Complexity never makes things easier. Complexity increases pressure. But when you can bring simplicity and clarity to whatever you're going through, that creates control. And as a leader, you want to feel like you're in control. Remove the complexity, bring clarity and simplicity to what you're doing. That will create control for you.

SPEAKER_02 39:21

That's building a plan that everybody understands and that they can get behind, and then you can have winning. I mean, that's basically what you just said. Oh, that's what I heard is because if if the people can't understand what you just said, that that that's complex that that creates the pressure because they're they're they they walk away not knowing and not feeling. And the the simplicity, when you create that plan and you lay it out in a way that they understand it, then that that just gives that simplicity to it. And they they can get behind and understand, okay, now know where we're going and what we're doing.

SPEAKER_00 39:55

Absolutely. So heavy seasons, they shape you as a leader. They don't just shape the business. Heavy seasons shape you as a leader, not just the business. And pressure, it either hardens you or it refines you. It reveals fear or it brings conviction. It exposes discipline versus emotion. And leadership growth is happening whether you realize it or not. But is it hardening you or refining you? Is it convicting you or bringing fear? Are you reacting with discipline or emotion? Um, so you're growing and and and changing. But just remember, the goal here as a leader is not to avoid the weight. The goal is for you to carry the weight without letting it change who you are as a leader or who you are as a person. And we've battled that a lot. You know, we talked about uh in one previous episode, we talked about growing without losing our soul and the times that core values start to kind of slip when the pressure of the business comes in. And sometimes the pressure we allow it to change who we are. And um, as a great leader, carry the weight and the tension without letting it change who you are as a leader.

SPEAKER_02 41:13

Yeah, you got to stay locked in of who you are as a leader. Uh if you let the situation change you, that's a crack in your armor. That's a crack in your leadership. And and that's where we got to really, that's where you gotta have that, that team, at least those, those two to three people that are around you that can help, help manage the the stress, help manage the pressure. I mean, what you talked about, you know, it reveals fear and conviction. It exposes discipline and emotion. Dude, that's so real. That's so true. It does.

SPEAKER_00 41:43

Absolutely. So, so listen, some closing points here. Heavy doesn't mean you're failing. Okay. Everybody goes through this. It likely means that you are carrying real leadership responsibility. And this is where clarity, discipline, and leadership really matter. Don't waste this pressure. This is an opportunity for you to grow and refine your ability to lead without allowing it to actually change who you are as a leader. And one question I want to I want to ask everyone who's who's listening or or watching right now, I want you to identify one thing that you're dealing with that is making your leadership feel heavy right now. One thing you're dealing with that's making your leadership feel heavy right now. And then I want you to ask yourself this question is this a people issue? Is it a priority issue? Is it a process issue, or is it a personal maturity issue? And then make one move this week, one move that creates clarity in whatever that issue is. And the last thing Steve's gonna leave you with is do not waste the pressure. Let the pressure make you better, not just busier. Don't waste the opportunity to grow and evolve as a leader, but embrace it.

SPEAKER_02 43:06

Wow. That's uh that's super strong right there. And and now that you just, my, my, my final thing is uh, because we just we said a lot about clarity right now to make sure that is uh one of the things that is super important that I still don't do as well as I need to, but it's having clarity breaks. Having those times where you can get into a room by yourself with a pen and paper, no distraction of your phone, no distraction of your computer, and to sit back and just write. Set back and take notes. Sit back and let your mind maybe think through an issue, maybe think through a future um uh opportunity, whatever it is, take that time, take an hour a week, whatever it is, uh block it out. If you have to leave your office, if you have to go to a coffee shop, wherever it is that you can get and just say, hey, you know what, I'm gonna get away from for from just a few minutes and just have that mental clarity break, you'll be surprised at what that can do for you.

SPEAKER_00 43:58

There's a lot of leadership breakthroughs that happen in those clarity breaks.

SPEAKER_02 44:02

Wow. I mean, the times that I do it, that's why I just kick myself sometimes when I think I need to do it more because when I do it, it just it it exposes a lot that you're going through, but it just helps you so much to think, think through it. Because if you're in the middle of it and you got people around you and things are happening fast and things are going, it it's just you got you got things going through your head all the time. And and being able to step back, it almost allows you to step back and look at the whole overall picture from a 30,000-foot view. And if you can do that, you can get a lot accomplished and a lot done over a period of time.

SPEAKER_00 44:33

Yes. All right, we got to get back to our day jobs. Yes. So, hey, thank if you made it this far, thank you for listening or thank you for watching. We appreciate you. We love you. Thank you for you know being part of the 3PX family. And, you know, if you enjoyed this episode, please like, share, subscribe, all the things. And you can find us on our socials. We would love to engage with you. Otherwise, we cannot wait to talk to you on the next episode. So thank you again for being a part of the 3PX show.

SPEAKER_02 44:59

See ya. See ya. Thanks.