AEC Professional Matters

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Transcript ( Thursday, January 27, 2022, unedited).

"It's time to start talking about trusted leadership. Well welcome back this is bradley waldrop and today we're going to talk about trusted leadership. And as as we talked about this might or might not resonate with you will have to see i do want to give a lot of credit back to i think it's stephen m r covey that introduced me to one of these concepts. Money concepts is the speed of trust there's a book out there called the speed of trust and the speed of trust. Is really an important concept is important interesting it sort of a bit of ideas and what are the reasons why for us it seems to be really important he is if you go back and you look at the profession of civil engineering chemical engineering electrical engineering sort of those those folks that are that are licensed to practice engineering. They are in an in an elite class of individuals who are trusted by the public to deliver something that is safe. Manny's practical unusable i say the practical unusable part 2 pretty quickly because not every project is. Dedicated to being practical and whatever project is is practically project fits the mold however you are a part of your responsibilities as a professional is. Public safety need your your. Start of a persona in the the sort of practice of civil engineering the practice of mechanical or any of the other discipline is the practice of that engineering is. To be able to follow code that's been provided help develop code that if you if you need to and you know all in all the when you stamp & sign something you're taking responsibility for the work and in taking responsibility for the work you're also taking responsibility for for adhering to the public safety guidelines and rules that are available to us. And. All of that to say you know if if. There are ways for us as a profession and you as an individual to sort of set yourself apart it is to sort of lean into the trust side of the business so really really successful let me go back and let's let's talk about maybe at the story a little bit. One morning i was walking into end of the engineering officer about seven 7:30 in the morning. And lo and behold there's a voicemail on my on my. Machine at the same time we're getting on the phone when i walked in and it was hey bradley this is so-and-so from someone so can you give me a call as soon as you get in and go okay what is only happening in 15 minutes prior. So i give him a call back and i said hey what's going on steve said i have this problem. Are there's a bridge that was cut in half. And i need some help. So i ran ran to the closet and made sure i had a hard hat and vest i had hard hat in my car grab a vest and everything else i need for pve run out to the job site which was about an hour and 15 minutes away from the office and so i was going as quickly as i could i got to the job site. And being at the job site they were there was traffic kind of everywhere it's all all you know backed up into different directions and there was a contractor with just looking at me like what what do we do now. Mark lyon steve was also saying what do we do now and what's interesting is no one had a contour died and have a contractor perform the work that i was being asked to do but i was being called because i was a trusted advisor i was on the speed dial for problems that happened in everyday life for steve steve viewed me as one of those guys that could come out to a job site. Quickly assess what was going on and helped him get through the tragedy of of what he was seeing writing in tragedy it is all relative right if your day has not a whole lot going on and someone cuts a bridge in half lengthwise. All of a sudden that becomes a tragedy right you got to you got to worry about getting people safely to and from you have to worry about how much it's going to cost you have to worry about who's responsible for it you got to worry about how to communicate with everybody else on the team there a lot of things going on and steve was relying on me to take care of. The immediate need of making sure that this thing was safe for folks to be able to travel on. So sad and talked to the contractor for maybe 10 or 15 minutes gave gave me the skinny so what was going on is if you guys can remember in the. Probably late 1990s early 2000's there was a huge push certainly in california i don't know if it was a huge pushing every other state of to put fiber optic in the ground and fiber-optic was so lucrative at the time. That what they would do in order to budget for the project is that they would find an alignment. They would count up all the utility crossings in the alignment make the assumption they were going to cut through every single one of them tried to figure out what it would cost to repair those and that was the fee in order to install fiber optic so when they didn't hit utility they made a truckload of money when they did hit a utility they were at least prepared with a contingency plan figured out how to make these repairs in in the field as they were going you know going along and. That's how fiber-optic was going into the ground in our area right i can't i can't say that that's how was being done everywhere in the nation well so this team was discussing it with me and they were they were telling me what it is that they were challenged with and and as they were cutting a trench by the trenches only dina 46in wide they were cutting the trench and as they were cutting the trench they continue to go through blades one after another after another and they couldn't figure out what's going on with sort of like you know really hard asphalt that they were trying to cut through in order to get this fiber-optic line put down. Well. After they've after they destroyed all these blades they they got this all cutting off we are the sod cutting machines off of the road and. They brought in a ripping tooth on the back of a backhoe and they would hit the the the piece that was in the middle to break up the asphalt and come through with either a shovel or skip loader and take the material off of the site now they have you know that now they're down to base or they're down to native material and then they use a normal trenching machine to cut through the regular soil and potentially all the other utilities that were in the white well they continued it to tell me i never imagined it would take this many saw blades in order to get only this far did was was really a small bridge it but but the bridge itself. Was it sold. T beam bridge and they they saw cut it lengthwise between the girders. And i didn't even know what they were doing but it cut all the rebar in concrete right so what had really happened is if you look at the roadway the roadway was asphalt it was an asphalt overlay on an existing bridge they didn't see the barrier rails the barrier rails we're sort of off of the the roadway nobody's really paying much attention to it. And the shoulders were we're not. The shoulders the shoulders you couldn't see the bridge section there was a slight amount of soil on the shoulders of for the for the bridge itself and so they and their own mind just imagined that it was a culvert underneath there and they were we know they were on their way so so what happened was they hit with a ripper tooth. And after the haircut at the hit was referred to the tooth and sure enough sections of the bridge deck went right down into the water and standing on the bridge deck gazing through a 6 inch wide slot cut lengthwise down the entire length of the bridge. And it was my job to figure out how to make sure that it was safe. And get traffic back and forth and then come up with a scheme for them to have to do to repair the bridge and then hold them accountable to do the work in the field so. We were able to do that we got it back open to traffic within only a few hours and then we successfully passed the bridge over the over the following few weeks and got everything taken care of but the point of that story is. If i wasn't their trusted advisor they would have never called me to try to you know have me come and help. We want to be in the driver seat within our own career we want to be the trusted advisor for our clients. We want to be the trusted advisor for the community in which we live. Because that's what we do right we help other people and we want to be in the ditch in a career in which we provide this really great service and we're respected and thank for the work that we provide. Now that trust doesn't just just doesn't happen by itself right you have to figure it all out and and sometimes trust occurs over time as you're sort of doing the dance together you're hearing very clearly from others whether or not you know you're making good on the promises you're delivering and how all of that sort of works together. But one of the other things that does occur in there is that they're so they're sort of the formula to help develop trust. Amongst your team amongst your peers amongst your supervisor in amongst your. Your clients and that formula is pretty basic but if you don't pay attention to it you're going to kind of get sideways. So here's the way it works in my own mind. If you if you go and there's really sort of three categories of of things that you need to deliver in order to be trusted and and have that trusted advisor status. So in order to provide trust you need three things those three things are you got to have the technical chops to get the work done you got to have really good, solid character and you have to have a process that people don't get schizophrenic about so let me kind of walk you through that and tell you why that's important so imagine for just a minute you're going to delegate some things to someone in this is a really good delegation kind of exercise to think about and it's one of the reasons why we don't delegate is people don't have the technical chops to get the work done right if if i look at my to do list and only do the things that i can do. And and i have a whole bunch of things that i'm trying to push off to someone else so that they can do it and make most effective use of my time make effective use of their time if they don't have the technical chops to get the work done i may not want to train them. Well i guess that means that i also don't have enough trust that they'll get it done maybe they don't have enough initiative to learn it on their own maybe they haven't demonstrated all of all of that and end their capabilities. So. I might be real hesitant to give it away well our clients are the same way our bosses are the same way our peers are the same way our teams are built the same way right if you're trying to ask someone to do things or you're trying to get them to help you out and they don't know how to do the work unless you're in training mode and you have this mentality that it's going to be okay. You're really really reluctant to give it to them along the way so. You got to have technical chops to get the work done alright and you're going to hear this over and over and over from me. When we're building teams. Rebuilding teams based on technical chops well some of those technical chops are real hard skills of math and science some of those heart or some of those skills are soft skills about talking to people about working through relationships about dealing with conflict and all this other stuff so it let don't don't think that technical chops just means that you got to be good at math and science all right it's how to get to work done you can execute well alright so that's the first thing. Imagine you're right so if you had if you had something to give away to someone or you ask them to help you and they didn't have a technical chops but they have really solid character and they have a really good process. All that all that means is if they're going to try to do the right thing but they may not have the skill to just even execute anything right and you'll be able to predict what's going on but that's that doesn't help you. All right so the second is. You have to have. A solid moral character. And what i mean by that is that as you're working with individuals you have to be trustworthy you have to be respectful you have to be you have to have a set of core values that the other person honors right so what doesn't matter what your upbringing is most of the sort of solid core moral characteristics are are displayed in some sort of judeo christian background we have a lot of it in the law that we have here in the united states and it is a set of rules by which we have all said we need to operate correctly right we need we don't need liars we don't need cheats don't need these we don't need murderers we need people to behave well. Well. That's easy to do. When the chips aren't down right when what everything is going swimmingly well it's easy for people to behave well but when things kind of get compressed and there's a big stressful event you're going to start to see the character of the individuals that you're working with. And if you haven't been able to demonstrate that character or people have not observed that kind of character they're reluctant to give you a task to do because if it does not go well they are afraid that it's going to turn into a disaster it's going to be people who were screaming and shouting it's going to be people being disrespectful and all this other stuff right so if you have the good technical chops to get it done. But your moral character is lacking there could be a wake of destruction as you're getting it done. Even though there's a solid process in place to get. Right so you got to have you got to have the three things those three things include. The the technical chops to get it done good moral character good moral character and then the third b is a a process that is understood that's predictable so that you take the schizophrenic behavior out of the other people that you're working for working with. Let me give you a kind of an interesting example so if if i were to take on a project and someone said hey bradley i need for you to design this bridge over here i might have the technical chops to do it and i'm a good i hope i have good moral character there been mistakes in the past but we can talk about those later. But. If if i am if i stand up and say hey like i'm here and i'm committed to do the right thing by you the entire time we're going to work together on this. Don't worry i'll get it done. And if someone is reluctant. To give it to me they might be reluctant to give it to me because they don't understand the process i'm going to use. I didn't know the flow of work who's responsible for what when they're going to be communicated with and how that whole thing kind of plays out however if i had time in and said alright i appreciate it you know you've seen my resume and and i am really good at these bridges let me tell you a few stories about how things didn't go right all the time. But how we behave and and how we are going to be no plan on getting through any of the challenges that we met might have here on this particular project for things that i'm not in control up. And and what i would expect everybody's behavior to be and and not allow it to get out of control. And let me walk you through the process i'm going to use in order to develop the design have you interact with the development team and then bring it out to construction. All of a sudden you're very very settled right because now you know what to expect. Well so these all three things have to happen at the same time you have to have the technical chops you have to have good moral character and you have to have a proven predictable process in order to get the work done for people to be trusting of you and. That's kind of where i was witness previous story was steve he called me because i was already working on bridge work for him so he understood my technical capabilities we had already walked through some sort of character challenges where we had had back and forth between us to negotiate we had back and forth between us to talk about staffing and things that he was happy with a not happy with and i was respectful and i honored him and then in the third bit he knew that as i was on the phone with him i was trying to collect data so that i could explain to him where we were headed in this and then as i was on the phone the phone on the road i was talking to him about the things that i needed for him to do so that we can work through this process together right initially we need to gather some data we need to figure out how to make sure everyone is safe. And then once we understand that we'll come up with a game plan on how to get those this bridge fixed and work with your contractor to assess whatever is necessary if they can do it all outstanding if they can't do it all then we're going to be responsible to go help you find somebody. And then after they do the work or as they're doing the work we're going to be there to inspect the work and make sure that it's done for code and and then let them in a proceed on their with their project and get your bridge back open and you get a chance to talk to everyone involved to make sure that you know your messaging to your boss and your talking to the public about how to be safe around the job site so on and so forth right so we're talking about the process they understand there is a process and i didn't just say trust me it's going to be okay. So the same is true in your own career as you are. Going through your day today start to think about what are the what are the ways that you can improve. What it is you do every single day what on the technical side what can you get better at that maybe it'll help you grow into the next role or provide new service or different service to your existing to your current clients or your new clients and maybe even what is it that you could do better now in the current role that you have with the current projects in the current the current clients to have so that they start to engender more trust right how can you become the local expert. For the technical bit that you're trying to produce the execution side of things right how do you improve your quality control how do you make sure that you are putting the best people on the project or if you are in training mode that you have someone looking over their shoulder so that they will have an ability to to learn but. The the work-product is going to follow the code of conduct that you guys have already established. And then. What is it in your own behavior that may need to be fixed are you a short-tempered human being do you tend to exaggerate in your conversations do you follow through and do the things you're supposed to do or do you. Do you earn your keep and keep your word in in the the work that you do right in and when things get tough how do you get through the tough times do you call in help that mia maybe will help calm you down and and provide some guidance do you take a break before you dive into the deep end or are you the kind of person that's kicking up dust all the time and imagine your you know i don't know about a third base coach and screaming and hollering and umpire something right it's this this type of behavior is not it's not helpful in the end of our environment we have to interface with our peers with the interface with contractors we have to interface with our clients we have to interface with all kinds of different people who come at life with a lot going on. So we need to be able to step back and be mature about it and stay calm but everything else is gone apoplectic. That's part of our job. And then finally think about what it is you do on a day-to-day basis what is it that you can create a process for even if the processing is an absolutely perfect yet but what is the process that that provides this sort of predictable behavior to everyone and then how do you communicate that process so you don't have people wondering what's the next step who's going to do this when is it going to be done in. And then start what happens is they start to fill in the holes with this negative stuff. So. If if i were you that's kind of what i would be doing i would look at the the three different big buckets what can you do different today so that you can be better off in the future and provide this really amazing thing to be someone's trusted advisor as soon as you're their trusted advisor you have a lot of latitude when it comes to what work you perform for them because they know that you're going to treat them fairly you have a lot of latitude of the types of projects you work on because they are comfortable with you taking on something new that maybe you're not quite proven in for them but they know who you are and they haven't had that positive experience. And i got to tell you if you're the trusted advisor your rate schedule. Welfare doesn't get to be the negotiation point right it's hey look i need help you're here to help me and then you kind of raise your hands say yeah i'm here to help this is about what i think it's going to take are we okay and on a handshake deal you just move through the process and you work out the details as you get going. That is an amazing relationship to be able to have in this industry you get a chance to be the the you know the local expert and everyone else looks at you and says oh my gosh if they're going to propose on this work i don't want to be in the room because i'm just going to get my fanny handed to me and these guys have this amazing relationship that you know they're calling him in the middle of night to say hey look i've got an emergency and you're my guy or you're my gal how do we do this together i want that for you so if you could do me a favor and and go to your email and send me a message to bradley at waldrop communications.com that's bradley bradley. At waldrop waldrop. Communications.com and let me know of those three things what are the hardest for you to work on what are you trying what have you tried before and what are the ways that we we might be able to help you. And until then take amazing care of you and take amazing care of your project because you're really only one team away from absolute axilla. Talk to you soon."

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Transcript ( Wednesday, January 26, 2022, raw unedited.)

"Well today we're going to go beyond talent. So hang on here we go. Welcome back this is bradley waldrop and we are talking about project leadership were talking about leadership were talking about initiative were talking about all kinds of things and over the last couple days i have been sort of struck by some of my own sort of my own personal experiences that that got me to where i am but also that have nothing to do with work and but but they actually relate directly to work and then you can kind of see how some of those stories weave their way into work. So. What i'd like to be able to do is just sort of i don't know go through a series of maybe struggles that you might see in your own career that i've seen in mind i really wish that you and i can have this conversation across the table and i can ask you a whole bunch of questions because you know i could come across is totally presumptuous like i know it all in it and i don't i don't know your story i don't know my neighbors story i would like to know them and i do what i can to ask questions when i'm available or when someone else is in the room. And i'm naturally curious but. Because you're listening to this that means it's like a one-way communication so if it comes across as pompous and and presumptuous. It might my heart my heartfelt apologies for that it's not my intention with my intention is to try to get to try to put myself into your shoes to try to put myself into into history where i have been and explain my own journey and maybe you guys get a chance to relate to it a little bit. So as we talked about this journey you may or may not have heard i was a i was a high-performing athlete in high school i got i got in my nice sort of. Athletic groove light in my own life i mean most of them most of my friends you know they were playing pop warner football when they were really young they were doing some sort of. Either b intercollegiate sport or or intramural sport in in middle school i ran track and i was slow and i i tried to play basketball i play basketball when i was in elementary school i really really really enjoyed it but if you've ever seen me i'm vertically challenged. I don't play i don't play basketball i used to play basketball a lot in the street and what have you and i really enjoy the sport but but everybody else got bigger than me i played i played football i play tag flag football in in middle school or junior high middle school because my kids are older my kids went through where we call it middle school when i was a kid was called junior high football and football. But that was that was really it wasn't great i am what i was on the varsity football team my junior and senior year i think i was on the varsity football team my junior year because lately just felt sorry for me during my senior year i had a few interceptions had qufu chi-chi tackles i enjoyed the playing the sport but i wasn't i wasn't super passionate about it wasn't it wasn't the that the kind of thing that i really really wanted to excel in and a couple different reasons which i felt like i was short on talent and. I wasn't physically you know that the same build as the other guys that i was playing with. I did happen to find sort of a groove when i was in high school. In wrestling and it's really kind of interesting because i i came into the high school and he did sort of walk you back a little bit i was in high school my freshman year i was 5 ft 205 lb. Iso 542 105 lb i was 105 lb woman wringing wet i mean i was. I wasn't i wasn't well-built and i was little pudgy i'd been always a little pudgy on my life i'm a lot more pudgy now than then i was then and i'm trying to do something about it but that's completely different story for a different day so in high school though i got a chance to be exposed to this sport of wrestling and for me wrestling was great because i got a chance to participate. From a. Team event right where we all do our best and then an individual event i tried swimming which is a very individual it's a very similar words right is very individual event but he also participate in the team the problem the problem was working for me is that i had my head under water all the time i could talk that was a challenge for me so i don't like it anymore as far as a sport i still love jumping in the pool and swimming but as a sport i couldn't handle the practice it was just too much silence didn't work for me and what what's really interesting to me in this sport of wrestling is that there is. There is raw talent but there's also practice and that practice makes you better and better and better and better and one of the things that that i found was was happening in my own of sort of wrestling career is that i got to a point where my personal coach couldn't do much better for me and and that was okay i wasn't i wasn't trying to go to college on a wrestling scholarship but i did want to be really really good i got a chance to go to a wrestling camp and that wrestling camp was a i think it was like a week-long from from a long it took forever but i learned a lot and i learned a few different things one positive mental attitude another. Is going above and beyond what everyone else is doing so if you are in in your own sort of world right in and you have a set of skills you have talent you have natural talent well given the same amount of effort everyone with very similar natural talent is going to sort of be at the same spot but in order to be really good. You have to have to give you extra 10% you have to give the extra 20%. Well. So what's. That that was that was very clear to me i came back from that wrestling camp thinking man what an amazing thing i wish i had had this. My freshman year i wish i had gone back and done something similar my sophomore year and then again in my junior year. By the time i was a senior i probably would have been sort of state champion you know level level wrestler i was sectional level wrestler not state. I could have been national because because of the training that comes from the sort of intensives. Well. The intensive part is is short right you get coached and then you do something with it and you put in the extra effort and in you sort of turn these lessons into habits and pretty soon these lessons inhabits become part of who you are and you start to perform at a much higher level. The same is true in our work. I can remember when i first started engineering i used to get in trouble i got in trouble in the very beginning of my career when i was doing oh i did overtime work because i had made mistakes and also look if you all can remember in your own career when you first started you thought me and i'm getting hourly paycheck somebody's going to pay me for every hour i'm here and i tell you what i got in a lot of trouble for that kind of attitude and i don't want anybody here getting in trouble for the same attitude i actually shifted my attitude after i had a sit-down with my boss there if you're listening thank you very much for the sit down. So. The sit-down was he i was working on some drafty i can't remember exactly what project was working on some drafting and at the same time i was working on some database development for some cost estimating at the database at the database component of it was something i was super interested in but no one really asked me to do it it was just me taking initiative kind of like what we were talking about before and i sort of screwed things up and i kept working on a working on it finally finally got it done this overtime. And i told him i said well i'm i'm super excited i'm trying to help i'm trying to trying to get this thing fixed but it's taking me a lot longer to get it fixed and what i thought was going to take me and so i put it on my timesheet and got elected me and he shook his head he goes no that's not the way it works around here. And so i learned a couple different lessons one is i'm i'm willing to put in the extra effort that the other is he should communicate better about about how to do that well but so here's here's what happened though that the here's the transformation is one i had when i was younger. A my career i thought i was entitled to the overtime and then i realized through the following couple years that i wasn't entitled to overtime but i if i wanted to say excel in my career i needed to put in the extra effort if i made a mistake during the day i had to stay late in the afternoon to get it done on my own time if i had was behind on my deadline because i give a promise that i get it done in 10 hours and i didn't get it done in 10 hours i was in on a weekend making up the time and getting it done and not putting it on my timesheet i was doing what i had to do to excel in the technical performance of my work and i wanted other people to recognize that i was committed to do this into do it well. Now what i can tell you is that there are other people who i've worked with in my own career and i am surrounded by them all the time that were either more advanced than i was when i started my career right they'd already had a few years in or. When i finally when i finally met up with them they they maybe we're better at it than i was well for the majority of the people i work with now i have advance my career farther and faster than them and i don't think it's because i'm any smarter than them i think it's because i took the time and took the energy to start working on things at home at the office late at night going in early and not clock in the end working on the weekends reading where i could finding other people that knew how to do it and starting after their questions and so what i'm trying to say is that there is at there is a way for us to perform very very well even if we're in a talent pool that is as hyatt eavers right so high achievers is great but high-achievers plus the extra effort. Means a lot more and you're going to find that that that is one of the things that is going to set you apart in your own career it's not about sitting in your desk asking your boss what to do and then not a not behaving with integrity integrity but with with initiative that we talked about a couple episodes ago but it's also about. Trying to figure out what it is you personally lack ask other people for feedback what is it that you're doing well what is it that you suck at what is it what is it that you feel uncomfortable with so that you can get more comfortable with it what do you have a passion for that maybe you're not being exposed to at work but you need to figure it out where are the gaps along the way find of course find a book find a coach find a mentor fill in those gaps so that you can take your career way past where everybody else is i got to tell you i am absolutely blessed and one of these days or one of these shows i will i will talk about how i advance from one position to the next and one job to the next but i can tell you that this is a fascinating career and it's a career that would have never been made if i had settled for mediocrity if i had just said hey luck i've got a pretty good talent in math and science i've got a pretty good talent with people skills and that's where i'm going to leave it you know what i could have i could have parked myself. Hadda in an office management to a team management or a project management role many many years ago had the same paycheck been just fine but that's not my personality and i don't think it's your personality either you wouldn't be listening to this particular show so here's my encouragement to you go and figure out what it is the gaps are that you have even if you have to take some gases start writing them down today i want to learn more about marketing today and want to learn more about conflict resolution today and want to learn more about negotiation today i want to learn more about human resources and how to build strong teams today i want to learn a little bit more about the difference between leadership and management today i want to learn about someone and so forthright and list all of those put some priorities to him and go do them. All right and then when you do them all of a sudden you're going to realize that over a. of time and it's a short. of time the difference between between you knowing a little bit and you being the expert at it or it's not that much more effort all right and so please put the time and energy in it if this was an encouragement to you please let me know i would love to hear in an email with what you are sort of trying to fill the some gaps for. And what you've decided to do in order to do that and i would love it if you would send that email to bradley at waldrop communications.com again bradley at waldrop communications.com in i mean really encouraged me by by hearing how i'm encouraged i want i want to know that you're doing something with the information that we're putting out here and i'm encouraged to know that. You can take your current career even if it is somewhat mediocre and create it to be absolutely excellent so. With all of that man i really really appreciate you sitting here listening and if i did take you off by being totally presumption presumptuous about be talking about my own experiences hit me up in the email and tell me that you're go pound sand i'm all right with that alright well until next time take care. Well there you have it there is another way for you to be able to take advantage of this going beyond talent and putting in the extra effort there are resources that we have available online i would love for you to jump in there but hit me up bradley at waldrop communications.com tell me what the challenges in front of you and how we can help you until then take good care of yourself and take good care of your team."

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Transcript (Wednesday, January 26, 2022. Raw unedited text.):

"Welcome back this is bradley waldrop in well we're going to record in my mobile recording studio was just nowhere nearly as good. Yeah it's at the recording studio i normally use but it is what it is and i. Just i just had an experience that reminded me of. Start of some of my pasta. Some of the reasons why i ended up so frustrated in my career and that most of it was my own doing and i'm hoping that maybe. We could get you past it so that it's not of your doing. For a long time. I thought that i was much much much more important to my company. I was working on the longer my to-do list was i had an unrealistic understanding of my own work. And i am really honestly thought if i do a lot and everybody sees i do a lot. Can i bring a lot of value every single day. There was a time. Where. I started using a. The franklin covey. Organizer and i use the franklin covey organizer off and on throughout my career don't use them on anymore. But one of the things that was real interesting about it if you remember those it's on the right hand side there was an action item list of things that you were going to do. And i got you a point where. I had multiple pages of that so i actually would print out. Any size piece of paper 8 half by 11 cut in half. With a to-do list and it was most pages rather than rewriting it everyday i would just move it over. The next day. If i remember correctly i was somewhere in southern california i think i was in a conference room it was pretty mediocre. Anyway. In that environment right there's a rumors 12 of us are all hoveround conference room conference room table. And. Doublehead said in all that they are like three or four things to do and i thought i was cool and so i said well i just counted mine up to the number and get them all done like 42 things on my to-do list. Everyone on the team they're collected me like i was crazy and i was but i was pounding my chest i thought that was free. I didn't realize was i was signaling to them that i didn't understand how to manage my own time out of say yes to the right thing to say no to the right thing. How to trust that other people will get stuff.. Well. Also. Jordan amadeus i was remembering that story cuz i kind of was going through a similar experience this week. Not with me but with somebody else that's a friend of mine. Can i realize that that. My friend is so busy that he can't do his own job and he can't do it well. When. Given the opportunity to escape that he's real hesitant to give up. To-do list. I can't drive dive into his. Mental attitude i can't. I'll be his psychiatrist and ask him at all if all those things are doulas because he feels insecure with its own job and insecure with his own abilities and insecure about his own set of values. Bring value to the team. But if i were a betting man at least 50% of that last has to do with him just wanted to feel important. If you really want to feel important. Adrian a leadership position now is the time to start. Training staff so they can grow in their career put them in positions. To take things off of your to-do list to stretch. In that stretch be available to help someone but don't you don't have to hold her hand. So here's the idea. You go through your to-do list you identify the stuff that's best for you. best for you you you identify things that the people around you could stretch into as a roll and then you start giving it away to them. Trusted to get it done but then you verify like crazy. Are you getting it done have the resources you need do you need additional training and when they start to gasp for air. Because. They are being overwhelmed. Then you could step in. And walk through what they've tried. How they've done it before what ways they like to do a different what's holding them back from doing it different. That's real leadership. Leadership is not holding onto all of the tasks. Every single day and just sort of spoon feeding them to your true. It is casting a vision for them it is giving them very clear understanding what the expectations are what the expected outcome is what the resources available to them are and allowing them to actually try it out but we need to make mistakes in order to grow in our own career if you remember back when you did homework in college. And you are being taught. What to get to where you are you had to make some mistakes some of those mistakes you felt bad for. But you learn problem and you moved on. Also some of those mistakes. You made. And you and you were sort of chastise for making them well that's an environment that's not real good for leadership right if you if you're in a highly controlled environment like their managers everywhere who are just pressing you down. Then you don't have the latitude to make mistakes and you start to cripple that environment cripples the the the growth. Or other people around you so he got to take a deep breath. You got to start dishing things off of your to-do list. And when you do dish things off your to-do list you will be applauded for allowing people to grow. You will be. Highly valuable because they you can train someone to do your job so you get a chance to do a different job. And your team will respect you for trusting them along the way. Taylor creek take away from today pick take away from this week. If you have a ton of things on your to-do list. You have to reassess. It's either because you don't trust it somebody else can do it as fast as you or someone is can do it as good as you or you're afraid to give it away because you don't want folks to feel. To see you with a short to-do list like you're expendable. That is not what the value is that you bring on a day-to-day basis. As a leader you bring a lot of value because you're providing an environment for people to grow you are coaching them into a new role at a new position you are guiding the team to get to the end. And there's a lot of value for that. To include. The value that you provide to your client for being a good leader. Value provided to your employees. Being a good leader. To your supervisors to your bosses to the folks that are running your organization and lucky if it's you running the organization you're doing yourself a huge favor for getting out in front. The momentum that's in the organization to. Start giving some things away and and do some testing and make sure that it works. Edit the folks that you're giving it to or set up for some success. All i want for you to do is drop me a line at bradley at waldrop communications.com that's bradley at walbro and let me know. What is holding you back from. Giving things away off of your to-do list or. Send me a note and tell me how great it is knowing that you don't have to be buried by all the things on your to-do list and you can really help the rest of the team bro i want to hear from you all right until the next time take care."

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Transcript: (Monday, January 24, 2022 - raw form, waiting for edits)

"Welcome back this is Bradley Waldrop and we are here to go deep into what life is like as a project leader, as a team leader, group leader, or as a regional leader. It doesn't really matter. Leadership is leadership is leadership but there are some very very critical things that have to happen in leadership. In order for you to sort of excel past everyone else there is a big difference between management and leadership. And you're going to hear me say this over and over and over again one of the reasons why I want to help leaders is i am sick and tired of everyone discussing the things that are used to manage and control and observe and watch things happen in the business and look at metrics that are in the rearview mirror i hate all of that that is not who i am i am a leader i am not a manager if i were a manager i did probably settled somewhere in my career and just started looking at that to the numbers along the way and try to adjust my team so that it did. Better fits all of the metrics in and that is just driving me absolutely bananas. So i want really want to be able to help out and i want to be able to teach i want to be able to share my experiences in leadership so that maybe you get a chance to grab golden nugget in here somewhere and apply it to your own life of your own career and make a huge difference for the team that you're on set yourself apart from everyone else and bring along good leaders with you right to this is not about just you this is about being the local influence and being the the one to get out of the masses and say hey we're going to go this direction in his we're going this direction let me help teach you how to do this let me understand you know who you are and what your skillset is and maybe point you in the right direction but learn the lessons along the way that i've learned in and you're all good right that's my hope for you so that. You get a chance to do that well as as i was thinking about today's episode i was struck by the memories that i had that tried to explain a little bit to one of my daughters over the weekend and it just a sort of a snippet of this. But i thought that maybe i would take you back to the summer of 1989 the summer of 1989 let me sort of profits this a little bit i graduated from high school little bit early and i worked my fanny off. In order to get a. An appointment to the united states naval academy i started that in my middle school or junior high exercise there and what you have to do in order to get into the naval academy's you have to get is some sort of appointment and that appointment comes from a congressman. And they're only a few of them right you have to fight for them but the naval academy like like the air force academy like the army they are are the sort of this exclusive club of people who had this really amazing opportunity to be able to be nominated by a governor or by be nominated by a congressman or someone in politics to be able to get them. It's who the the academy and that they would fulfill their leadership dream right so if you think about it that's why i'm going i'm going for this leadership dream and i have had up to this point the series of leadership positions in my own life that that got me here so through junior junior high school i was in boy scouts i was in i was in cub scouts i was in weave louis i was in boy scouts. I got a chance to earn my eagle scout at the age of 13 which is about as early as you could do it i was in competition with my dad and my brother to figure out how quickly i can get it done and then how many palms i can get afterwards and then i got distracted with a bunch of other stuff and leadership positions i had a role as a captain of our wrestling team i was locally active i did pretty good in school but i wasn't the best student on the planet i wasn't a straight-a student and i had all of these leadership skills. Panda. And it was my hope and dream it was part of part of my history so let me back up a little bit even more than that my grandfather retired as a lieutenant commander from the united states navy and my father served in vietnam and in the navy as an enlisted man he was he was a. I'll come i'll think about it later quarter quartermaster sorry and then i have an uncle who served in the air force. And it sort of military was part of our life it was what was was expected it was what was my almost required in the back of my mind but it was also. Because i was at i was a small kid riding in my grandparents car that got saluted at the at the security post with this beautiful uniform you know and and the respect that they were giving to my grandfather that were given to my grandmother they were given to anybody who rides in that car together that was the hope and dream that's what i really wanted i wanted to be able to lead in an environment in which there was a high level of skill that was excellent and this massive respect for one another. And. Went so-so imagine so now now imagine i jumped through all the hurdles to get to the point in which i actually get an appointment i will talk about that process a little bit later to other episode but i get this appointment i am 17 years old not quite eighteen i'll be eighteen in september i'm set i'm 17 years old it's the beginning of july. And i fly from sacramento all the way to maryland and as i'm as i'm headed to annapolis maryland i'm on a bus in a foreign country i have no idea where i'm at and never i've never visited the school in the past and i had very little information ahead of time about the campus itself i've seen pictures and i dyed red things but but you know there's nothing quite like being there. And you get there a couple days in advance and when you get there i'll some of us got there a couple days in advance cuz we're coming from a long way away and when you get there. there's not a whole lot of guidance when you first get there they're waiting for their waiting for the next part to start they just wished they sort of give you a direction here so you know here's where you're going to head you going to sleep over here and then ended up in the next day. I'm going to start processing you and in-processing you really mean standing in a lot of lines signing up for uniform signing up for medical exams and i examine all this other stuff understanding a little bit more about your education what kind of degree you want when you're there and signing up for all kinds of different things being able to express an interest in some sort of. Some sort of. Entrepreneurial venture i'm sorry not on the jump in my head some sort of intramural intramural adventure like some sort of sport right they want they want you involved in all kinds of things. So anyway you kind of get this briefing that this is what's going to happen yet one thing that's sitting on the desk all by itself so if you can imagine just real quick to get my dimensions around but the room about 15 by 15 33 beds. 22 banks in 11 not a bunk1 desk. And against the window and then and then sort of in that you one corner of the you is at a small closet where the apache or marching rifle another stuff hang uniform some common sort of uniform items and then you have. You have an armoire that you put all your clothes in and there's a small little bathroom that bathroom only has a shower and a sink the toilets are somewhere else they're not in your room so imagine you have the tile floor very sterile walls and a window or three thousand miles away from home you're not quite eighteen years old you don't know where your rear end is and the one thing sitting on the desk is a narrative about initiative and the request on the set of four of the forms that we had on the way in was to read about initiative that was more one assignment before the following day then i sat there and i read this story about initiative and how important initiative was and i was deferred because i'm wondering why is it that were talking about initiative now. When it took a whole lot of initiative to get here. It took initiative to find leadership positions along the way they took initiatives to that you took initiative to to go and get good grades it it took initiative to apply and all this other stuff and then one day it dawned on me more than about a weekend. I want to see anyone of our upperclassmen not seniors with one of our upperclassmen asked us of those who are here in this squad. How many of you are here because your your mom and dad or your bore your direct family have somebody else who's either graduated from the academy or he is in a military position of power. Put your hands up right so like half of the students put their hand up and then go okay keep your keeper keeper hands up noted constituents really midshipman right so you keep your hands up and then the next question is. Of those who are here. How many are here because they their family or is either in politics or they are related to or associated with someone else who is related to politics and all these names were up and not mine mine and maybe two other people in the group we didn't know anybody we didn't get there because somebody pulled a string and gave us a favor we earned our way there. And then all the sudden it's starting to read i started recognize this difference between or or why why initiative was so dang important. Initiative. Is not about sitting around and waiting for somebody to tell you what to do there is no one no one sitting there with a gun to your head and forcing you to get it done no one is sort of pulling the strings on their own and doing it for themselves initiative. Is this ability to be able to get off your fanny and go do something stop talking about it stop complaining about it. Go do something take some sort of action and do it now and he has long as as long as a set of core values that you operate by and strong enough initiative exist you're going to have an amazing career no matter whether you're in the military or you're you're in public service or you are a private person that owns their own business it doesn't matter it doesn't matter. But if you have if you have this drive a set of core values and initiative all of a sudden the world is your oyster. Now for just a moment. Let's let's take this hyperbolic idea this hyperbole of going to the military academies and talking about initiative in and let's extrapolate for the economy what initiative means and not just not just the academy but the fleet what does it mean to have leaders who have initiative it means that you're developing a workforce that can think on their own that can get that can assess that the issues in front of them can take calculated risks and can go toward the fire not away from it and not sitting around waiting for somebody else to act for them will they take good orders absolutely but can they give good orders for sure now there's a big difference even even in this world it is not not being in the military between people who take orders and who people who give orders. And i'm not saying bark at people and be a jerk what i'm saying is leaders provided direction for people they asked them to go in certain directions and they provide them an example of how that gets done. Managers sit in the background and watch it all happen and they pay attention to details and then they tell you how you did it wrong. Well look. You're you're never going to get anywhere if all you're going to do is just sit around and tell people where they got it wrong. You're going to get somewhere in this particular environment and as as a project leader as an engineer leader as a an operations leader as a business development leader as a owner of a business doesn't matter. In engineering leadership is really really really important and you can't have leadership if you don't have initiative so what does that mean start looking at your to-do list how many of those things on your to-do list or created by somebody else. Like if they were created by somebody else you're no longer the driver driver seat and you are not a leader you're a follower. There's nothing wrong with being a follower we all need them we also need leaders and leaders are good followers so there's some sort of given taking that to-do list if some of those folks on some of those things on your to-do list we're given to you by your leaders. Then that's great if everything on your list was given to you by somebody else you're in trouble. You need to start to take initiative of what to do when your own career what to do on this current project what to do on the next project what to do with your team what to do at your next job this is a time for you to take ownership. And responsibility for your own actions for you not to be able to to point at someone else and say willy told me to do it. You need to be able to have initiative and you need and it's so important in your own career so what things can you do today to make you. More of the leader what can you do to take my ownership of what it is you're trying to work through here is some of the things that i would ask that you do in order to understand what this initiative means for your own life. I would put down on a piece of paper what the biggest challenges are standing your way today or standing in your way or anticipated to be standing in your way over this next month. Of those things what do you have control over is it your own behavior is it your own reaction is it your own set of choices you have control over all of that stuff you don't have control over anything else so figure out what it is that you have control over we'll figure out what it is that you need to do different in order to solve those particular challenges and now now that it's written down go do it. Go do it whatever that it is go do it. If you don't. You sitting around waiting for somebody else to tell you to do it. Nobody wants a leader like that. Nick cuz it's really hot later. All you're doing is sitting around waiting to be told to do something. You need to take ownership of what it is you're doing so today is a great day to make things completely different. I don't care who else is in your life that is it at work or at home or anywhere else. That that i don't i don't care that they have their own set of initiatives and i mean we all are in that sort of situation right everywhere we go somebody else is coming in life with their own. Set of desires and wants and needs and you have your own and you also have an opportunity to be able to do something about it. So today is a good day to do something completely and totally different. Go back look at your to-do list and start carving out the stuff that was told to you to be done by by someone else if it's if it's only you they can do it then do it if it's you that can delegate it then go delegated and start to make holes in your to-do list for things that you need to do to start to realize the vision of your job realize the vision of the project that you're on realize the vision that your client has looked you need to take some charge of your life. And it is the one most important thing that you have the power to do and i am encouraged to know that you can do it. You don't have to sit no more sitting on your hands no more waiting for somebody else no no more sort of hanging out waiting for a set of decisions now the time to start making some mistakes going in the right direction with a set of core values look i'm telling you if you're in an organization right now and you take some initiative and you start to move and you go in a direction in which they're not happy about if if you followed the set of core values to get there and and you properly prepared your path to get there and they're still mad at you you don't belong there. I'll be bold enough to say it you don't belong there but there are places that would hold my goodness they would appreciate all the thank you very much steve thank you very much matt thank you very much kim thank you very much sally you did what you were supposed to do you saw a big challenge in front of you you mustard your troops you got a vision put together and you knew what are set of core values were and you knew what are what our vision and mission statement is here at the company or at the at the city or the county or it doesn't matter where you are and now all the sudden you're moving in the right direction way2go that's good. So. That's what i want to hear success stories of. Initiative. The one thing that was sitting on the desk. As i walked into this room 3000 miles away in which i knew no one and i knew of no place and i was scared to death there was one document that i had to read through and follow through and i got to say if that wasn't a brilliant moment. I don't know what is and i'm hoping that you get the same sense of how important initiative really is initiative is one of those things you have 100% control over and in having control over that you have the power to change your for directory and the trajectory of the team and the trajectory of the project did you work on. Hit me up at bradley at waldrop communications.com that's bradley at waldrop communications.com and let me know. How are you doing something different with initiative and what have you accomplished using the initiative in your newfound superpower i would love to know that would be amazing. That's right we are giving away a special package that does all kinds of really cool stuff for you and if you understand the idea of initiative than this particular toolkit is going to change the way you look at your job at your work that your projects at your team at the the human beings that are around you that help you excel every single day now this initiative i just want to buy would just want to warn you there's a lot of power and initiative and in that power comes a whole lot of responsibility and i want for you to have integrity i want for you to understand what your set of core values are and i want for you to be able to act that way so don't wield this idea of. Initiative in a way that steps on heads to get ahead all right you're all part of a team and and as a leader of an amazing team you get the honor to be able to participate and provide direction and watch everybody else work. In an amazing way toward an amazing goal and that is my hope for you have an amazing day and we'll catch you next time."

How to change your boss's perspective of the growth you've seen in your career - hopefully without having to change jobs.

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