[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:14] Speaker B: Welcome to Battle Ready. The show that builds is built for leaders who are carrying real responsibility, real pressure and real consequences. I'm your host, Ricky Chavez. Today we're joined by Carlos Martin, an executive coach and co founder of Continuum Leaders. Carlos works with entrepreneurs and senior leaders to help them reconnect to their purpose, strength, self awareness and lead with People first mindset. And that's pretty amazing. People first is always been on top of mind.
[00:00:41] Speaker A: Thank you, Ricky.
[00:00:42] Speaker B: He's also a podcast host dedicated to bringing humanity back into leadership and the workplace. In the first segment, we're going to talk about what happens when organizations grow, pressure increases and the mission starts to blur. Hey Carlos, welcome to Battle Ready.
[00:00:56] Speaker A: Thank you, Ricky. Happy to, happy to be here.
[00:00:59] Speaker B: Hey Carlos, tell me a little bit about how, how your journey came to put you in a coaching type role.
[00:01:10] Speaker A: Well, that's a full loaded load of questions. A lot of layers to that sandwich. You know, I was in, I was in corporate for a long time and I loved it. I just got burned out and I left corporate not knowing what I was going to do and I took a one year sabbatical and with that one year I realized that I come from a sales background. So my thing was to run sales teams, develop sales teams, train sales teams and so forth. And what I, what I loved about it is that I was able to connect with individuals on a one, on one level, right. On a human level.
And I'm like, how can I do more of that? Granted, when you are working in corporate, that's part of it, but that is just a very small percentage. Maybe like 10% of the time you're doing that. The rest of the time you're on, on the phone, emails, reports, zoom calls and so forth.
So at that time I decided, how can I do more of that?
And then my brother's also the co founder of Continuum Leaders, is also an executive coach.
He pushed me into doing this or encouraged me rather.
And from there it's like I just never look back. I, I loved it. So now I, I get to do something that I love. I get to make a difference in impact and find fulfillment. And again, I haven't, I haven't looked back as a, as an executive coach.
[00:02:34] Speaker B: When, when you're talking to individuals that are, you know, finding themselves kind of on the ledge, trying to understand what way they should best handle a situation, what are some of the things that you go over with them to kind of develop what you're going to end up talking to them about?
[00:02:57] Speaker A: Well, my, my philosophy is meet my client where they are, right? So every client, I mean I, I have clients all from know 28 year old all the way to 60s and 70s in the C suite. So from college all the way to C suite. And I do that on purpose and with purpose.
And I realized that we all have imposter syndrome. Whether you're 28 or in the C suite at 60, 70, 50, whatever that might be. We all have imposter syndrome. We all have different, it might look very different.
So my thing is meet them where they are and then from there really look at their mindset, their philosophy, their identity. There are so many things in how they see themselves and then from there we develop a plan and how do we move forward? How do we get them unstuck, how do we make them, you know, maybe believe in themselves?
There are so many things, right? So there is not a one recipe fix all. First of all, there's nothing to fix, right? So I really look and I go on full discovery mode, like literally two to three sessions on full discovery mode. Because when I first started coaching, you go into fix it mode even though you don't realize that. And that's to me that's not the best way. Again, it's, it's not about fixing, it's pat truly go into discovery mode. And like what is Ricky all about?
How does Ricky look at life? How does he see himself, how does he look at his stakeholders? And then from there we start to move the, the, the needle forward.
[00:04:29] Speaker B: You know, it's really interesting that you said that. So, you know, once upon a time in one of my past careers, I was a trainer for the, in the military, I, I was a recruiter trainer.
And I remember, you know, as soon as I left appointments, when I went out with people, I would start telling them, you know, how I would do things, you know, and then I realized that like you just said a minute ago, they don't need to be fixed. It's just, it's not the challenge or problem, it's an opportunity, right, to, to get better use self awareness. So when I learned about asking them questions, they became more open to, you know, my kind of conversation. And when you said a minute ago that you are very much into finding out what makes them tick, what is the most important thing about that to you?
[00:05:24] Speaker A: Well, it's many things is again how they see themselves, how they see life, that the words that they use, a lot of the times it's the words. I'm a big believer that we become our thoughts, we become Our words.
And sometimes, whether consciously or subconsciously, they might have a negative connotation to it.
So for me, I love to challenge my clients once I go on full discovery mode and really for them to feel seen and feel heard, because that's probably the number one thing in coaching, the power of them feel seen and heard. Like right now, you said it's not about what you think and what you want to do, but you start asking them questions, right? You go on full discovery mode, curiosity mode, and say, hey, Ricky, tell me more about you.
Because it's not about ourselves, right? Because it's easy. We kind of somewhat know ourselves. We know our business and. Right. Especially in the military, this is what you want to do and how you want to do it. And you might be right, but we're all different.
Right? So for me is to really go in and see how they see themselves and how they see life and their philosophy and again. But I think one of the big things to answer your question is that the words that they. That they use not only to speak for them to others, but also how they use to speak the words to speak for themselves to themselves.
[00:06:40] Speaker B: You know, I. I know. I recall when I finally get, you know, got a little bit more focused. My, my always. My first question was, how do you. How well do you think you did? You know, how did you feel that you did? What were some of the good things? What were some of your challenges? And here again, I don't want to say what did you do wrong? But more what, what do you felt was a challenge? You know, what are some of the things you want to work out?
And usually at that point they would come back, then they would ask for feedback. And I thought that helped me in my coaching when I was back, back in those days, because I realized people were scared for me to go out with them because they didn't want me to hammer them. And, you know, being in the military, we hammered them. So it was like definitely learning for myself. Do you also get the opportunity to coach coaches?
[00:07:25] Speaker A: Well, we do, and we have to in our practice. We have to coach coaches. Right. Part of it is when you want to get your hours, part of it is you start to develop. I mean, I know hundreds of. Of coaches and I. You have to coach coaches right at the beginning to see what your style is, finding your voice and also getting the hours. But even after that, we do on a regular basis coach other coaches. I get coached. It's almost like a therap, a therapist, not that, you know, obviously I'm not a therapist, but look, Ricky, we, we sometimes we talk about, like, dark stuff, like heavy things. Like, there's times that I start the. I, I stop the call, we're done. I turn off my zoom call and I start crying because there's times that are really heavy stuff. But I, you know, I have to maintain neutral. So those, those type of calls, I reach out to my, what I call my personal board of advisors within the coaching community. And, you know, I, you know, we talk about that because we also, because remember, we, we get a lot of the problems, right? We hear and listen to a lot of the problems, and that's what we're here for, and that's what I love to do and at the same time, reach out to other coaches to help us along. Or sometimes I'm talking to you, Ricky, and you know, you're my client and you might throw me a curveball that I'm not necessarily exactly sure. And I reach out to my coaches and maybe that's a different tool, a different approach to be able to. Like you said earlier before our call, I think it was like, you're the main entree, right? So are my clients are the main entrance. I'm just a side dish. So my thing is, how can I, what tools, how can I improve? Who can I talk to to better help my, my client?
[00:09:08] Speaker B: Well, I think the big thing is to try to get them to be open because they don't know what they don't know. Right. So sometimes while you're asking them the questions, I'm assuming you're gathering more information about them to help you design the journey that you guys are getting ready to go on to make some adjustments to assist them in their end results. Does that sound about right?
[00:09:30] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, it's all about. It's being open and see how they're being. Right. Because it's ultimately, you want the end results.
But, you know, what part of the, what part of the. Of the country are you in, Ricky?
[00:09:44] Speaker B: I'm in Houston.
[00:09:45] Speaker A: You're in Houston. I'm in Austin, Texas. It's like saying, well, I'm going to go from Austin to Houston on one way, on one freeway, but you take a different freeway, but the angle is the same. But just because you. Right. Just because you get to. From Austin to Houston a certain way doesn't mean that's the only way. I might take a different route. I might take the scenic route or whatever it be, you know, but it's all having that emotional intelligence, right. To that empathy to saying we eventually want to get to the same place, but it doesn't have to be so linear that you say this is the way that you have to get to. Right. It's just, let's get to the same place.
It might look different, you know, and.
[00:10:25] Speaker B: It'S funny you say that. And what I was thinking about when you were saying that is it's. It's not about the actual trip. It's about the journey on the trip and. And what things happen to you that may assist you in a positive outcome or a even better outcome.
Not that your outcome was going to be bad, but just something that will help you continue to move up. Right. Is that. Is that kind of what you're talking about?
[00:10:56] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, look, we all have different experiences. You know, when I look at my clients, I look in their totality.
Right. So for. I'll give you a good example. One of my early on in my coaching career, you know, there was this individual that was going through divorce, and he was being affected at work. And because I went through divorce many years ago, I thought I knew exactly what he was going through. Right. Big mistake. Lesson learned. I'm like, oh, I got you. I know what you're going through. Yada, yada, yada. No. Right. So even though we technically did both go through divorce, but it looked very different, Drastically different. So you could. I could empathize. But to truly think that I could know exactly what he's going through, that's, you know, that's. That it's a very different case. So when we're taking a different route from Austin to Houston. Right. It's.
Is how do we take that person in their totality and their experiences and to really see that person and how they are. Right. So. And so, for example, in this client, and while he was going through divorce, I really had to go into discovery mode and say, how is he being affected? Because I was affected, but in a very different way to really lean in with that curiosity that I keep saying, because otherwise we have this agenda in our mind because that's our experience, so we think that's what they need. In reality, it could be. It could probably be the same, but it could also be different. So instead of trying to make that mistake, just ask and what they need.
[00:12:28] Speaker B: You know, you said. You said a really good word earlier. Discovery.
[00:12:32] Speaker A: Right.
[00:12:32] Speaker B: It's all about the discovery and. And not assuming that it's a one. It's a. It's a one. Size fits.
[00:12:40] Speaker A: All. Right. Yeah. You know what they say about assuming. Right.
[00:12:42] Speaker B: So 100.
[00:12:44] Speaker A: 100%.
[00:12:45] Speaker B: And, and I, I know that a lot of times these kind of things, if we don't ask the right questions and discover really what's going on, it's hard for us to put something in play that will help them. Would you agree?
[00:13:00] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
[00:13:02] Speaker B: Well, you know what, we're getting ready to go into a quick break right now. We'll be right back with Mr. Martin and talk a little bit more about leadership.
[00:13:08] Speaker A: You got it. Thanks, foreign.
[00:13:21] Speaker B: Welcome back to Battle Ready. If you want more of what you're watching, stay connected to Battle Ready and every other NOW Media TV favorite, live or on demand. Anytime you like, you can Download the free Now Media TV app on Roku or iOS and unlock non stop bilingual programming in English and Spanish. If you're on the move, you can also catch the podcast version right from our website at now www.nowmediatv. from business and news to lifestyle, culture and beyond, Now Media TV is streaming and around the clock. We're here for you anytime. So now we're right back with Carlos Martin. You know, during the break, we kind of cheated a little bit. We talked kind of a game plan for this part and, and I really like it. So he's going to coach me through coaching. So as some of you guys know, I have a real estate business.
I have a team of five, we speak seven languages. And you know, having been in corporate America where people work for you and you can you coach one way. Now I'm coaching a bunch of entrepreneurs. We're going to talk a little bit about that. Carlos, what are your thoughts?
[00:14:24] Speaker A: I love it. I love it. It's like live coaching on the spot. Meusta.
Perfect.
[00:14:31] Speaker B: So, you know, I, I remember back when I was in the military, I could tell somebody would do somebody and hold them hostage, that I do what I had to tell them to do and, and now it's a little different.
So I'm a, you know, grading a grading thing that you do with my guys and it's a bunch of KPIs. And I learned probably a year in that I, I grade, it's pretty basic. A means day, doing great.
B means they're okay.
C means they need some help. And D means straight up doo doo. Okay, let's make it easy. Abcd, right?
[00:15:08] Speaker A: All right. I like it.
[00:15:09] Speaker B: Okay. So probably early on I was grading them, but after probably about six or seven months, I realized that wasn't working because I'd give them a grade and I think they were a D and they think they were An A. And didn't really matter what I said, they still thought they were named.
So it goes back to what you said on the earlier thing was the discovery questions.
I start, you know, I. So now I don't grade them at all. They grade themselves. We just talk through their gradings. Give me some. What are your. What's your feedback on that? That idea?
[00:15:50] Speaker A: I like that. That adjustment that you made. Right. I led teams for many, many years. And one thing that I, that I loved is again, having that discovery call and see how they see themselves.
Because. So I, I'm going to go back a little bit. I do a lot of 360 interviews, right? So, for example, let's say you're my client and I do interviews for you, and I do interviews for all your stakeholders. What does that mean? I do an interview for your boss, your peers, your significant others or people that you're leading. And now we're going into the word perception. How do you see yourself? That's a big one. Why? Because our perception becomes our reality. So your perception, your reality of seeing Bobby, right. As. As a D, but Bobby's reality, the way he sees himself, he sees as an A. And guess what? It's not about being right or wrong. It's about our perception and our reality.
So now you're dealing with two people that are kind of competing, opposed to you, Ricky, and saying, hey, Bobby, between A, B, C and D, where do you think you are now? You're making them really to think. And if they say an A, and then you could go and say, okay, tell me why you think you're an A.
Right? And then from there you start to get what I love to get the noodle going.
Otherwise it's just easy. You're an A, you're a D. And then you stop thinking and they start going into. For example, if you tell them they're. They're a D and they think they're an A, now they're going into, I'm not happy, I'm frustrated. Those are not really great emotions instead of really kind of going inward.
So. Yeah, so I love that you did that, that little pivot there.
[00:17:35] Speaker B: No, I found out that, you know, I'll give you one, you know, and haven't been in sales. You get this prospecting, right? You gotta prospect, right? You gotta go make your phone calls, talk to people.
[00:17:46] Speaker A: And.
[00:17:46] Speaker B: And usually I did it on a monthly basis and I'm like, so, you know, hey, John, what do you. Where do you see still falling, you know, on the prospecting Realm.
I'm a good B, probably close to an A. Okay, well, like you said, how do you find yourself there? What are the things you're doing? I'm making my phone calls. Well, how often do you mainly make your phone calls? Well, I mean, I make them like once a week.
[00:18:17] Speaker A: So.
[00:18:17] Speaker B: Once a week?
So four times a month? Yes.
Well, how many phone calls you think you're making? I'm calling at least two or three people.
And then.
So two or three people, is that every single time or a total?
[00:18:33] Speaker A: Every single.
[00:18:34] Speaker B: And you know, and I started asking him and then their, their mind started like you said, that noodle starts going, right?
And then they finally realize, well, oh man, maybe I'm not making enough phone calls.
[00:18:46] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And that's the trick, right? Like when they, like you said, they start using, they start thinking. Because I think as you know, especially me and I, I put myself and you know, when I was a new manager, we start to, it's very different. How do we come managers or how do we come to lead people is you're doing really well at what you do and all of a sudden it's like, okay, Ricky, we're going to have you manage a team.
Well, managing yourself and leading a team are completely different, right? So my thing is, look, you manage numbers and you lead people.
That is the thing that you start to learn with wisdom as you go on into really managing people. Why? Because when you're a solo, one man person is very different.
So now again, when you start going into discovery mode, it's actually, when you're leading people, it's actually much easier and lighter when you make them think, right? Because otherwise you're, you're making all the rules like you said.
So make them think. It's just a lot easier for them to process. Now if we start looking, like you said, if you start looking at the run rate, okay, how many calls have you done? X amount out of those? How many are they calling you back out of those? How many, how many are you closing? That's your run rate. So when you start doing your run rate and say, look, the reality is that you're calling, let's say two or three people a week, right? And X amount per month. But the reality is you're getting two callbacks and your closing rate is 50%, whatever it is. So that means maybe one prospect a month, is that going to pay the bills? Is that going to set the expectations? And they start to answer, right? So when you start putting numbers to process and then it starts making sense to them but they almost have to make sense to themselves first.
[00:20:31] Speaker B: Something you just said really reminds me, right. So I remember being a young soldier had done really well in recruiting with recruiting the year. Next thing I know I'm running an office.
And, and I'm, I'm, you know leading myself is easy. I know what I need to do. But when you talk about leading and I remember one valuable thing my manager told me because I was on the border of trying to. I just was not in a good place. I was, I couldn't understand why they didn't do what they needed to do. And he told me look, me, myself, Rick, you gotta remember they're not you.
[00:21:04] Speaker A: Yeah.
And that, and, and that's the, that's the big one. Right. But see the thing is nobody really teaches you that early on when you're a first time manager.
So don't get me started with all leading. Right. So for me the thing is we, we learn it on my, on our own or sometimes it does take a mentor or a boss to really say hey, they're not you.
Look, I think I was a decent salesperson.
I was a way better manager than I was a leader than I was a salesperson. Sometimes the best salespeople, people are not necessarily the best leaders. I mean look at, you know, it's, it looks like you're a sports fanatic. More of baseball. But think about Magic Johnson, think about Michael Jordan.
Amazing hall of Famers. But they're probably one of the worst coaches in the world. Why? Because they're expecting everybody to think and be like themselves. It's a very different ball game to really lead and manage individuals because they are not like you.
[00:22:03] Speaker B: 100 and that, that was kind of rough for me at the beginning. And we're talking about early 80s back then. So it's been a long time. But before we go into the next commercial tell us how can somebody, you know, follow up with you, get in touch with you or even talk to you?
[00:22:16] Speaker A: Yeah. Thank you for that. The biggest thing is you can email
[email protected] or you know, reach me at my LinkedIn Carlos Martin. You'll, you'll see me there. I'm a co founder at Continuum. And then just send me a DM or send me an email and that's probably the best way I, I'm on LinkedIn all the time. Quick DM, introduce yourself. I love. We talked about discovery calls. I like having discovery calls and see if it's a good fit not only to Have a coach, but also as a. From coach to client.
[00:22:48] Speaker B: Okay. Okay, guys, we'll be right back with Carlos Martin and his, his input on coaching right after this message.
[00:22:56] Speaker A: Thanks, Ricky.
[00:23:07] Speaker B: Welcome back to Battle Ready. As we continue, we're shifting to leadership continuity, but we're going to actually talk about self discovery because I think the one thing that Carlos has been talking about that really I've learned through my errors and errors and errors in leadership is helping people on the self discovery. Carlos, how do you do that?
[00:23:28] Speaker A: Well, it's.
Self discovery is, is not a switch. You know, it's not like you turn off the light, the switch, you know, off and on. It's. It's work.
It really is. Right. If you want to develop the, you know, the chest and the, in the, and the biceps, it's. It's an exercise that you really have to develop. So it comes from various things. You know, one thing that I love, when we start to look in, within, when people start to blame, I always, that's a big indicator. So what happens when you blame? You point the finger, but there's always three fingers pointing back at you. So when you blame at one. So for me, it's like before you start to blame and when I start to see that, it's like, what are you doing and what are you not doing?
So again, so we could start going internally. So that could be the words that we're using.
Our mindset, a mindset or identity again, the thoughts, the philosophy. I go into all that to really, to really see where they are because a lot of people live in a world of artwork because it's really easy. That is the logical place, right? We're looking at KPIs, we're looking at Rois, where you're only as good as your last quarter. To me, that's easy because we've been doing that for a long time. The hard part is to pause on purpose and with purpose, right? The same thing. When you're looking at KPIs, when you're looking at year over year, let's just say, for example, why are we looking at this?
We're looking at these to say, are we going in the right direction?
Are we going upward, downward, Are we trending? What are we doing? And if we're not, how do we modify and tweak the same thing, but for us, so now look at it, right? To be able to say, am I going in the right direction? So if you could stop once a quarter to say, does this philosophy, philosophy still apply this, this way of thinking still apply.
So when you start to look inward and then that starts to help you again to, to really grow as an individual and, and pivot possibly a different direction.
[00:25:33] Speaker B: So, you know, when do you think the, the, the most impact for a person, for themselves? Okay, so you're coaching me.
You think you're, you're talking me through these different scenarios and I'm telling you, well, I'm not sure that I agree based on my thought process, but when I, it's like a paradigm shift, right when I finally realized, wow, this is actually what's affected me the most.
Do you find at that point is when people make the, the best decisions?
[00:26:12] Speaker A: Well, one of my favorite quotes is by Wayne Dyer. If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. So having a different perception, having a different filter, having a different reality, or sometimes the same filter, but widen our aperture, so that's going to give you a different information. For example, you've gone up the corporate ladder where you're, when you're a single provider, you're only looking at this. And as you go an executive, you know, RVP C suite, you get more data. So you're making different decisions. It's kind of the same thing with us.
So my job with my clients is to say, is there a way, you know, instead of saying, no, Ricky, that's not the way to do it, that's probably not going to get me very far. But like, can I encourage you to maybe explore, you know, to look at it a different way? And once you start saying, you know, kind of give them an idea and how to look at it a different way, there's a little light bulb that says, oh, I never really saw it that way.
And then they get to choose. I don't tell them. But then having those different options of how if you change the way you look at things that things you look at change, all of a sudden it's like, oh, that seems a lot lighter and brighter. And you know, what's that whole saying, you get a lot more honey with bees, with vinegar or something like that. I might be screwing that up. Right? But it's just right. But it's just a little bit easier to do that. And again, you give them a different perception, a different way to look at things.
[00:27:41] Speaker B: You know, I think that it's true. So I, I also, and while I was in the military, I was part of a team building company. You know, I did that on site here in Houston and I can remember all the, all the VPs from around the world for HP came, flew in, and we had a ropes course, and I had a group of 12 in my group, 11 of them were VPs, and. And one of them was the VP's admin that, you know, she just was there for the day. And long story short, we had this task we were doing, and right at the beginning, I gave them the rules, I told them what to do, and then I said, you got one minute to discuss, then you got to implement to try to do this rule. It's called diminishing resources, right? And, you know, they talked about it, and the admin yelled out, hey, well, let's do this.
Nobody listened. So they tried it a bunch of different ways. An hour later, an hour later, they're still trying to accomplish this task.
And the admin again said, hey, let's just do this.
One of the VPs heard her, said, yeah, guys, let's do what? She said, let's do this. They did exactly what she said. They accomplished the task in, like, two seconds. And it was done. And during the ar, which is after Action Review, it was like, well, what happened? And everybody heard, said, well, when the VP so and so said this, we did this, and it was happening. Then I asked, well, when was it said the first time? Did anybody ever hear before nobody could answer that. And then I asked the admin, hey, did you. Did you say that? When did you say that? And then they. They realized you never know where the answer come from.
Right?
[00:29:28] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, I love that story for. For many reasons. So one thing that comes up for me is, you know, sometimes we're so rigid in our own ways, right? Because we're in the C suite, and here comes an admin. That means that admin is not going to know more than us.
That's not the reality, Russ. That's what we think.
But so for me, as we develop, how do we stay nimble?
How do we stay fluid? How do we stay open?
Because as we get older, as you know, you know, what are you, 28? I'm 27. Yeah, about, you know, that's. We're pretty close, right? We still become more rigid in our own ways.
Right? So how do we become more open even if we're the C suite, opposed to admin?
So that's when you start talking also about emotional intelligence, to go around the. Around the, you know, the table and say, all right, Ricky, what do you think? Okay, great. What about you, Bobby? Stephanie, you're new to the team. Tell us, what's your perspective? All of us out here we're kind of stuck. What do you think really to really give her the table instead of this is what you need to do. So again, it takes that emotional intelligence and that space for even in the C suite to take everybody in consideration. Because you're right, you don't know where that idea is going to come from because you live in your own world and you might be really good at what you do, but somebody, a different perspective could be different, could be better, whatever it is. So how do you stay open? You know, kind of like Bruce, Bruce Lee used to say, be water my friends. If you pour water into a teacup, become the teacup. Right. So it's just being open and fluid and let other people kind of join in and again go more for like instead of having that rigid mindset, go more into what I like to call an abundant mindset. It.
[00:31:19] Speaker B: So with that in mind, how do you feel corporate America does in. In training their young leaders to succeed them?
[00:31:30] Speaker A: Horrible job.
[00:31:32] Speaker B: So why do you say I?
[00:31:33] Speaker A: I really do. And that's my, in my experience. Right. And that's kind of an umbrella statement in my personal experience. And I work with a lot of, I work with a lot of companies now because I do leadership alignment.
And for the most part they don't really do well. Why? Because going back to the same thing we've been talking about, they don't go on to discovery mode. They give people the training, the roadmap on what they think they need.
But that could be very different. We talk about perception. So you know, I work with a lot of HR individuals, I work with a lot of leaders. But again, they give that training on what they think they do. So to answer your question, in my experience, I don't think, I think there's a lot of room for improvement to really sit down and get a, you know, a bunch of individuals and say what do you need? What is best? Is it training? Is a mentorship, Is it coaching? And the other thing is when you mentioned the word military, I think it works great in the military than that military approach. But in the, you know, I want to say the real world because that, that's also real civilian world. Yeah, it's a billion world. Thank you for that.
It works differently.
Right. So we might not need. So it having that, that umbrella style with everybody may not work and most of the time it doesn't work. So that's why I said we do horrible because we're also very reactive instead of being proactive.
[00:32:58] Speaker B: I think, you know, in the military we're mission oriented, gold oriented. Right. So everybody from the private to the general knows the mission. So if anything happens, that mission is accomplished. And I remember, you know, transitioning a thousand years ago to corporate America and I was so shocked at.
Everybody didn't have that same feeling. And a lot of times it was because of fear, fear of somebody taking their job.
And then I also saw and helped me. I want you to talk to this.
A lot of times where people were at a point where they could get promoted, but they never found somebody that, or helped coach anybody to do their job.
So a lot of times people lost promotions because nobody was willing to let them go within because they weren't, they didn't coach anybody to take their role.
[00:34:01] Speaker A: Interesting. Yeah, no, that, that does take me back to corporate.
You know, a lot of times I just feel like in corporate we have it backwards. Right. Because again, we live up here in the logical on the ROI and what's in it for us instead of looking at it as a community.
Yeah. It's not only looking for us, but also looking for. Right. So if I'm, if I'm going to get promoted, how do I train that person to be really good at their job? But most of the times, like, hey, if I'm not getting the proper training, that means I have to train myself and I have to put all my energy into being really great at that role, my new role. I don't have the bandwidth to really train someone. So I think we, you know, in corporate, I think we need to do a better job of creating that. You know, like I said earlier, how do we bring the humanity back into workplace?
Right. And to really work together as a team, as a community.
Because it's, it's both and I can't, it's not this or that, it's this and that. I need to be good at my new role and also be able to maybe have a mentoring program where I'm like, okay, I'm still going to go on the VP role, but I'm still going to be coaching this individual for the next three months.
So again, that's where empathy and proper training.
But I think I, we need to do a better job in corporate. Really?
Huh.
[00:35:21] Speaker B: Well guys, we're gonna be right back in a minute with the final segment with Carlos and all his leadership insight and I really appreciate you, everything you've been sharing with us, Carlos.
[00:35:30] Speaker A: Thank you, Ricky.
[00:35:41] Speaker B: Welcome back to Battery. Don't miss in a second of this show or any of your now media TV favorites. You can streamline them live on demand, wherever and whenever you want. You can grab the free Now Media TV app on Roku or iOS and enjoy instant access to our lineup of bilingual programs in both English and Spanish, if you prefer. If you prefer podcasts, listen to Battle Ready anytime on Now Media TV website at www.nowmediatv, covering business, breaking news, lifestyle cultures and more. Now Media TV is available 24 7, so the stories you care about are always within your reach. Welcome back to Battle Ready. And in our final segment, we've been just exploring all kinds of leadership, leadership, succession, coaching, the whole gamut with Carlos. Carlos, welcome back.
[00:36:28] Speaker A: Thank you.
[00:36:30] Speaker B: So we've talked about a lot of things, so let's talk about why are values the hardest to uphold during stressful moments?
[00:36:40] Speaker A: That's a tough one, right? Because we all have different values.
That's got to be very difficult. So your values may be different than mine, and it doesn't mean that one is better than the other.
So I think it's difficult because we don't really communicate our values.
And sometimes we might have the values of a company, which is great, but also our personal values come into play.
So how do we kind of, you know, for better, lack of, better word that synergy, how do we both mix in and say, I want to make sure the values of the company also kind of blend or align with my values. And a lot of times we just don't communicate that. And that's where we get into a little bit of trouble.
[00:37:23] Speaker B: And so how do we bring our team in, into the same idea on the values? How do we get them all on the same sheet?
[00:37:33] Speaker A: So one of the things that we do at Continuum Leaders is we have leadership alignment. And that's one of the things that we talk about, right. When we go and we're coaching the team as a team.
So, for example, when we do 360 interviews, we do that as an individual and then all that information, we have that as an aggregate information as a team, and the values come into play and you realize that sometimes the values again of the company are maybe very different of the individual.
And then the values of the individual may be drastically different within that team. Right. But just having that conversation and bringing that to surface, it starts to create a little of empathy and say, oh, wow, I never really saw Ricky. This is really meaningful for him. I want to make sure that I empathize that as I feel strong about this value system of mine. Right. So it's not that yours is better than mine. It's not about right or Wrong is just having the awareness and that communication to say, okay, I get you.
[00:38:34] Speaker B: So you know, in the last segment we talked about succession planning and I'm going to tie that in with the value. So you know, how often have you found where part of the team felt value in the succession planning and knowing that they're being set up for success?
[00:38:54] Speaker A: In my experience, I don't think we really do a good job about that. We really don't. Again, it comes to the training, having a roadmap and you know, to be able to say, okay Ricky, where do you see yourself in the next year or two? Okay, I see myself as a VP and pretty much at that point say, okay, great, but we're not really setting them up for success.
Right. So again, the proper training, the proper mentorship, the proper coaching, the proper sponsorship. So I don't think we're really doing a great job about that. And for me to try to give you a formula right now, it probably won't be justice. Right, Because I need to go and see what works for that team, for that company and what are their values and really create a program around that.
[00:39:47] Speaker B: So what are some of the steps you would do to do start that, help them.
[00:39:51] Speaker A: Okay, again, so go one on one discovery.
So for example, if you're going to be the person that's moving up, have a conversation with you have a conversation with your boss, have a conversation with the person that's, that's going to be up, up for the running and you start to see gaps, you start looking at perception, right? So for example, your boss might be, think that you're great at this, you might, but there might be something else that there is a blind spot that he or you may have. So how do you bridge that gap? So again for me is having those, that lens and that time to look at those gaps because we don't see those, we don't take the time to look at that. I really know what Ricky is good at.
But when you go from one road to the other, it may change drastically. You might go more from the sales to operations or more from managing to leading whatever it is. And I think not being, not being able to talk about those gaps or at least not know what the gaps are, just I think that's the number one thing. What are the gaps? I don't think we're taking the time to know what the gaps and once we know what the gaps are, we start work put putting a plan together around that.
[00:41:06] Speaker B: I know one of the things that I, I happen to See, a lot was your high producers, your high performers. You know, the. The leaders kind of overlooked everything else because they delivered. They were high performance, hard, but they didn't see the interaction between them and their subordinates or maybe them and an outside person. And, you know, yeah, they performed well, but at the cost of others.
And. And that became kind of a gap that. That sometimes. Yeah, I mean, that's never gonna work out.
[00:41:37] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a huge gap. Like I said earlier, you know, Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson there were great, you know, individual performers. Obviously, they were still in a team, but they're, you know, mainly individual performers. But once they go from players to coaches, that's a whole different ball game. So when you're talking about a top. Top performer as a salesperson, that might be great, but there is just. They're dealing with one. They're managing one person.
When you're managing a team, that's a whole different, you know, how do they communicate what drives them? Emotional emp. You know, intelligence comes into play is just more of a robust way of being that. I. So, you know, you asked, you know, are we doing a great job about bringing one person to the, you know, to a higher level? I think we're not, because we're not talking about that. And I think it's.
It's unfortunate and we're kind of. I wouldn't say setting them up to fail, but it's going to be, you know, a lot of work for a year, year and a half to just to figure it out on your own. And they don't. That thing is, they don't have to.
[00:42:40] Speaker B: You know, I think the other thing is. Is. Is one of the big words is courage. Right. So I remember being an HR part business partner for an R D lab and the different. That the different parts of the. Of the lab had different managers.
And we had one manager very high and delivered very high, but his staff did not feel very well about them. It was more of a fear factor versus, you know, team unity. And then the man, then his manager didn't do as well a job of, you know, coaching him on building the relationships at a lower level.
So there was a lot of drama that probably could have been better taken care of had the higher leader had the courage to bring that to their attention. What are your thoughts on that?
[00:43:33] Speaker A: Yeah, well, again, a lot of layers to that sandwich. So you brought up two great words, fear and courage. Brene Brown teaches that vulnerability is the most courageous thing that we can do. So there's the lack of Vulnerability that sometimes we don't have. And then the other thing is fear.
Fear is kind of like a, it's, it's a facade almost right. Of not knowing what to do. And it comes out as fear. But because it could be a lack of training, it could be a, a mindset, a philosophy.
So when I look at a team, I look at again in their totality, see what's going on again. Some people might be more courageous, there might be a lot more fear. But how do you put all that together?
And that comes in through training, to mentorship, through coaching. And I know I'm kind of giving you some high level things, but the thing is to really get to know the team and see what, like you said, what are the strengths and what are the weaknesses. And once you have that information and you work with them as an individual and then you start to bridge those gaps as a team and your organization.
[00:44:41] Speaker B: You guys sit down and deep dive with them on this, right?
[00:44:44] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. And that's what we do. And I just did one last week or two weeks ago. Go. And you know, the president of the company called me immediately after the call and he said, oh, my God, I don't know why we don't have these calls. That was amazing. And that was a one hour workshop that, that I have for them. Right. But because sometimes it's easier from an outsider to come in because when you're in the trenches, it's very difficult. I'm not going to listen to you. You're my boss. Or when you have somebody else and they're. For me, I ask very difficult questions, but I try to do it in a very soft way.
And then it's like, oh, wow. Like this came up where one of the individuals said, I feel burnt out. I feel like, yeah, I'm good at what I do, but you're putting a lot of pressure on me. And then his boss is like, oh, my God, I'm so sorry, I didn't realize. I just. Because I thought you were good. I thought you were good on your own. Like, well, I am, but I'm getting burned out. That right there is very valuable.
[00:45:40] Speaker B: You know, I think I started thinking of parenting when you were, when you were talking just now. You know, it's like I tell my son, hey, Tommy, don't touch that stove. It's hot. You're going to burn your hand. He burns his hand two or three times. And then Carlos comes in and says, oh, my God, that's hotness. Rocket science.
[00:45:56] Speaker A: That, that kind of the funny Thing is, that's exactly it. That's exactly it. I have a friend of mine that I coach his son because of that. And this guy is a coach, he's very successful coach, but it doesn't matter. But because it's internal, sometimes when you have someone that's external, that's why it's so important.
You know, I see a lot of internal coaches, a lot of internal training, which is fantastic. But once you bring an external team, it works very differently. Just like your, your son.
[00:46:25] Speaker B: So tell Carlos, how can somebody continue this conversation with you and follow up with you?
[00:46:29] Speaker A: Thank you, thank you for asking. Various ways. Again, send me an email@carlos continuumleaders.com right here. You can find that through my website.
Probably the best way is just go directly on LinkedIn, connect with me and send me a DM and you know, I'll send you a calendar invite for 30 minutes and we'll just go on discovery mode. You know, we go on to chat and see how we could work together through our services. That could be a one on one. That could be through workshops, that could be for 360 interviews. That could be for leadership, alignment, various things that we do for individuals and teams.
[00:47:07] Speaker B: Well, Carlos, thank you for bringing clarity, discipline, humanity into the conversation today. We talked about mission, execution, readiness and values. We talked about the coaching, just the self awareness and the discovery. The foundation of leaders who can remain steady under pressure. To everybody watching leadership today, it's forging the comfort. It's built through clarity, discipline and courage when it comes. Thanks so much for being here today, Carlos. We appreciate you.
[00:47:32] Speaker A: Yeah, you got it. Thank you, Ricky. And again, thank you for creating the space. Kind of like what I do with my clients, right? I think creating the space to be able to have these conversations, I think it's, it's more value than anything in the last. You know, I think I mentioned earlier the, one of my, my favorite quotes, if you change the way you look at things, that things you look at change, right? To really take the time to kind of process and see is there a different way that I could look at this? And then you, you'd be surprised how things began to change.
[00:48:01] Speaker B: Thanks again, Carlos, for being here. I'm Ricky Chavez and this is battle ready.
[00:48:06] Speaker A: Thanks Ricky.
