[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to Underdog, to Unstoppable. I'm Nicole Anderson, and today we're proving that no matter the odds, resilience rewrites the story. You're watching now media Television.
Welcome to Underdog, to Unstoppable. I'm Nicole Anderson. This is where we tell the truth about the road, what it costs, what it breaks, and what it builds. Today, I'm sitting down with a leader who's lived the pressure, not just studied it. Chris Meredith has more than four decades of leadership experience, including military leadership. And today he serves as President, CEO of MCS Meredith Consulting Services and COO of CyrusWorks, working with executives, boards, and senior leaders to build strategy, leadership, and systems that actually last. Chris, welcome.
[00:00:49] Speaker B: It's great to be here, Nicole. Thanks for having me.
[00:00:52] Speaker A: In a world that celebrates hype, I want to start with the real story. The moments that formed you, the environments that tested you, and the decisions that turned survival into standards. Your work is rooted in systems thinking and values driven transformation, not quick fixes. So I want to map how that came to be.
So, again, welcome. So happy that you're here.
Let's start with how. How did, how. Where. Where did you grow up in the leadership world?
[00:01:25] Speaker B: So actually, it could go all the way back to my childhood because ultimately I was raised in a really rural area of Louisiana. So I apologize for the butchering of the English language, by the way.
So as a result of that, I had a grandfather who was very instrumental in leadership in my life. He was blind, refused welfare, decided to build his own company, and ran his own company until the day he died. So he was very influential on me. But my real taste of leadership came into play when I went into the military. And 10 months into the military, people were starting to see things in me that I didn't see in myself. And as a result of that, I was thrust into a leadership position. And to me, at that point, leadership was just about telling everybody what to do and hopefully doing most of the things yourself rather than empowering or teaching other people how to do it. And so through that experience of the military, and then later in the business world, which I'm sure we'll explore a little more in a moment. But into that world, I began to really understand what connectivity was, what leadership was, and what leadership actually wasn't. And so all of those things collectively, back to systems thinking, all of those things collectively connected to make me the leader that I am today.
[00:02:53] Speaker A: So what, at what point did you decide, like, I'm going to be a leader, right. And I Know, you said you were thrust into kind of thrust into leader, but I'm going to be a leader, but I'm going to be different.
Like, at what point did that happen?
[00:03:09] Speaker B: That that took a little while because I've always believed that if you were going to do something, do it to the best of your ability. And mentorship was not really a subject in those particular times in those days. So ultimately, early into my career, I didn't have the mentorship that I actually needed, but I knew that I was supposed to lead. I knew that I was supposed to help people. I've always had a heart for people. I've always wanted to see people be better at what they do and to grow and to develop and evolve. The real question was, was how? I really didn't understand how to do that. I just knew that I needed to grow, I needed to have depth, I needed to have knowledge, I needed to understand what I was leading and I needed to understand the people that I was leading. But I really didn't understand how to do that. And so it was through a series of events that really led me to the place of understanding what that meant over time. But initially it wasn't there. I just knew that I was supposed to lead.
[00:04:16] Speaker A: So now that you, you've had many years in, I guess, civilian leadership, what, what can you tell our viewers the difference between your military leadership style and your civilian leadership style?
[00:04:31] Speaker B: Very good question. So ultimately, in leadership style in the military and even in business as a whole, it's what I call a top down leadership. It's the leader carries most of the weight, the leader carries most of the pain, the leader carries most of the knowledge, the leader carries most of the responsibility for results. And of course, leaders are responsible for results, without a doubt, but it's always about the leader themselves and basically just directing people into the direction that they're supposed to go or the things they're supposed to do. I call it 10 points in a poem. In other words, do these 10 things and you'll be successful at what you do. And so as a result of that type of thinking, I tried to lead from top down and I had success.
I grew in my career, I grew in my responsibilities, but I still knew something was missing and I knew that I needed to find what that was. And a mentor who came into my life at one point is the one who actually began to teach me what I know today.
[00:05:43] Speaker A: So one of the things that I've helped people in the past with, especially a lot of veterans, is translating skills, skills from the military into a civilian workplace. Right. Like, some of them are infantrymen. Right. And they're like, well, I can't really translate sharpshooting into civilian life unless I'm going into a career that requires a gun. Right.
[00:06:13] Speaker B: And.
[00:06:14] Speaker A: And so one of the things I do is help them translate that. That skill. Like. Right. Detail, orientation, commitment. Right. Because if you're shooting something, you have to have a commitment to it and different things. Do you find that you struggled with that in that transition for you yourself, in moving on?
[00:06:36] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Because ultimately it goes back to that silo type thinking, linear type thinking. It goes back to, you're on an island by yourself, and so you master your trade in the military, but you really don't know how to connect that with all of the other events, all of the other career fields around you, all of the other people that are involved in the process. And so, like you said, you get into the civilian world and then you say, okay, I'm a master marksman as an example. And by the way, I was at one time until I started wearing glasses, and now I can't see anything. But with that being said, I.
I really had to learn how to. I still knew how to teach people, I knew how to direct people, but I still didn't really understand how to translate everything that I knew into the world that I was now coming into. And really, to go a step further, I didn't really understand how to make that work for other people and how to go from what I now call a silo way of thinking into a real connectivity way of thinking.
[00:07:55] Speaker A: And so at what point did you make the decision in your career that you were ready to begin consulting other. Other leaders? And what failure led to that?
[00:08:13] Speaker B: Well, maybe the better question, Nicole, is what failures led to that?
[00:08:19] Speaker A: I was giving you. I was giving you a break. You seem like you had no failures whatsoever. Like, it was completely perfect.
[00:08:27] Speaker B: It wasn't long ago. And I'll connect that question to this statement. I was speaking to a group of CEOs in Des Moines, Iowa, and I actually made the comment. I got up on stage and I said, guys, I'm just going to tell you this. I said, everything I'm about to say came from a lot more mistakes than it did successes. And I said, so don't look holy at me, because I know you guys have had the same experience in your life as well. And of course that resonated with them. But really the answer to that question was, was early in my career because I knew from my grandfather's experience all the way through the work ethic that my parents taught me and that existed within the world that I lived in. I knew to master what you did. I knew to be the best at what you could be at whatever you were doing. But what I learned from that experience was that led to the failures, was that I still did not know how to transfer responsibility and I didn't know how to empower people.
So it was as my career grew and it began to continue to grow, I began to be promoted into various senior level positions. And the story continues to go on, but I wasn't having the success that I really wanted to have. And it was with an employee that actually came to me one time and who's also a friend of mine. And he said, chris, you know what you're talking about. You know how to say it to people. But he said, what you're not seeing is that people are really not getting what you're saying. They're really not understanding how to apply that to their own life.
And when I wasn't seeing the results at a very high level, especially what was expected of me and more importantly, what I expected of myself, then I began to rethink the whole process. And that story can go on because it actually led me to going all the way back to my military years, going back to early mentors in my life and beginning to see how that connectivity needed to take place. And that's when I come into the realm of what I now call systems thinking.
[00:10:43] Speaker A: Yeah, I, I think like, even when I speak to groups of, of CEOs and leaders, my, I always start with my mistakes and I start with, with, you know, hey, this is what I could have done better.
One of my niches is startup entrepreneurs, right, that are new, new at being an entrepreneur. And, and I try to get to them faster because I'm like, hey, if you do this, it's going to be a lot easier than if you do it this way.
So. So I definitely agree with you in that aspect of teaching people your failures so that you can make them better. Right? Like, and you know, some people are like, I don't like the word failure. I like the word opportunities. I like, I was like, no, I failed. Like, there's just like, there's like no other way to say it. I failed.
Coming up next, let's go into your specialty, your systems thinking, not theory. The kind of clarity that keeps companies from repeating the same pain in new outfits.
Stay tuned. We'll be right back with more unstoppable stories. And strategies for turning obstacles into opportunities.
And we're back. I'm Nicole Anderson and you're watching Underdog to Unstoppable on NOW Media Television. Let's keep pushing past limits together. Welcome back to Underdog to Unstoppable. For more powerful conversations like this, watch Now Media TV live or on demand.
Grab the free Now Media TV app on Roku or iOS. Prefer audio? Listen to the podcast anytime at NowMedia TV.
Welcome back. I'm here with Chris Meredith, and in this segment I want to talk about the turning point for a lot of underdogs. The moment you realize hustle alone won't save you, systems will.
Chris, you work with boards and senior leaders to strengthen leadership strategy and organizational clarity using a systems thinking approach.
I want to translate that for the entrepreneur watching who feels like they're carrying everything and still losing ground.
So let's talk about that. What what is systems thinking?
[00:13:02] Speaker B: Well, systems thinking, let's talk about. I'll, I'll answer that in two ways, both what it is and what it isn't.
Because systems thinking isn't what a lot of people think it is. It's defined in many different ways. Academia defines it, science defines it in various ways, but I simply define it in the area of connectivity, like all of the others do in that sense. But I don't think all things connect in the sense that all things are not revelant to connect. And those that are relevant to connect also has disconnects in the system itself. So systems thinking is an empowerment. It's a looking at the people that are involved. It's looking at the processes that are involved.
It's looking at policies and rules that are involved. It's looking at accountability.
It's looking at how communication takes place. It looks at culture and values. It looks at outside influences that may exist that could affect the internal flow of the system.
It looks at ultimately what systems thinking is, is how all of those things flow naturally between each other so that the leader themselves is not having to actually do everything that they're that's supposed to be done, even though they're responsible for it and always will be responsible for it. Ultimately, what I teach leaders is that they're responsible for empowering and teaching and developing people within the system and the culture within that system, and they're responsible for overseeing how that system flows. And what I try to help leaders understand that you're limited, you're a single person, you're only going to accomplish so much by yourself. If you really learn to build trust within this system that I just mentioned, if you learn to build accountability within that system, and when I say accountability, I mean accountability to each other. The people within the system are accountable to each other. And if you learn to really build those things within the system itself and develop leaders and power leaders and learn to teach and to train and develop and really give ownership and cause people to see things from a very clear perspective, what actually happens at that particular point is that not only do greater results come, but you have a natural flow of those results, that you're not having to go back and repeat things over and over to try to make them happen or to try to push them forward. So in essence, systems thinking is how all of these things connect and how the energy and flow actually takes care of itself naturally to bring about the results that you're really wanting to see and by the way, in a greater way.
[00:16:00] Speaker A: So can this work for a new, like somebody just starting up and someone who's in a 150 to 200 person company now, does it work for all levels or is there a level that it doesn't work or that it won't work for?
[00:16:19] Speaker B: Very good question. It actually works not only at every level, but it's a lot easier to start when you are a startup. Because when you are a startup, even though, and I'll give you an example, let's just say you are the startup, you are the one.
Well, when you start learning to see things from a systems perspective, for instance, I'm coaching someone right now who is not in charge of a lot of people, but he works for a very large organization.
And so I had him begin to explain to me the all of the things that take place in a job site that they actually do. And when he began to explain it, he ended his conversation by saying, well, that's pretty linear. And I said, no, actually everything you just said is connectivity. And I said when you learn to have constructual curiosity, when you learn to ask questions, and when you learn to see how all of those entities connect to each other and how you connect to those, then you begin a process of systems thinking that allows you to build your organization properly from the beginning. The tough job is when you go into an organization with 100, 200, 300 employees and when you ask them what their system looks like. And I do that intentionally, without explaining it to any great depth to see how they respond. And it's usually a top down system which are good. You've got to have structure. I'm certainly not opposed to structure. And I Believe in helping companies build structure. But what I'm looking for is not the body of the work. I'm looking for the engine or that drives the actual work. And when you start helping them begin to see what systems thinking is really all about, what happens is that over time you begin to see a greater flow, greater results. But it's a greater challenge because you have a lot more people involved and you have a lot more philosophy, you have a lot more paradigms out there, you have a lot more assumptions out there. And those things you have begin to relook at yourself, change your narrative and then begin to lead with that. But to answer your question directly, yes, it works at every single level. It doesn't matter what the size of the company is.
[00:18:44] Speaker A: Yeah, I've been in a few companies that when I go in, they're like, oh yeah, we, we don't have an org chart or we don't have a top down leadership. We.
And I'm like, okay, so who makes the decisions?
And they're like, well, I make the decisions. I'm like, okay, so you have a leadership structure. Like, I understand the philosophy around, you want to work within your team and not work over your team. Like, I get that philosophy.
But you definitely have to have a structure to your leadership because people need to know who's in charge like, and who's making those decisions, who's holding people accountable, who's holding the work accountable.
And so I find that interesting that you, you brought that up, right? Like, okay, yeah, we can have a structure where the employees are more involved, but we have to have a system around it so that we can have connectivity and flow and all of that, that work when.
So a lot of this takes discipline, right? Like it takes discipline because it is hard, even from my experience as being a leader, that sometimes you just kind of let things go because you have so many other things that are important and then you don't deal with certain issues or certain functionality in your business because it's working at the moment, but it's not going to work at scale. And you know this, but you're just, you're, you're throwing your discipline out the window because you've got to focus on a thousand other things.
What is it about the framework that you created that helps solidify that discipline for a leader?
[00:20:31] Speaker B: Well, you have to show leaders what, what the short term decisions that you're talking about, what they, what they don't do. Because the short term decisions may bring about short term results. But I'm going to Go back to that system way of thinking for a moment and let's just use one of those things within that, which is your culture and your values. Because what happens over time if you're only making short term decisions and ultimately you are the person in charge of making all the decisions and really you don't have a living system within it. You're going to have results, but you're going to have results with a lot of frustration.
You're going to have results that cover a lot of what I call the little foxes, the little things that actually spoil the vines. You're going to have inconsistencies in there. You're going to have decisions that are not being made that should be being made and you're going to be, you're not carrying your core values forward in those decisions. You're actually just looking at short term results.
So I go back to the place when I'm working with a leader like that and I understand it, it's a, it's very tempting. In fact, I'll give you an example without naming the company. I was visiting with a senior officer, actually he was the president and CEO of a multi billion dollar corporation recently and we were discussing his strategic plan, or actually his lack of strategic plan, and he said to me, well, we just have so many things to focus on today.
And I said, well, that's true and you do have to make decisions for today.
But my question is, how are those decisions carrying your core values forward?
How are those decisions accomplishing the long term results that you want to accomplish?
And, and really are, are your people clear in the roles that they are in? Are they clear in the direction, are they clear in the priorities? Are they clear in who has ownership within those decisions? I said, because what's going to happen is you're going to get to a place where that's either going to exhaust itself or you're going to find yourself very exhausted because you're constantly only focusing on the short term. And in the military we would call that the difference between strategy and tactics. And tactics have to complement a strategy. And if they don't complement a strategy, then you're going to end up exhausting yourself. You're going to exhaust your people. There's going to be confusion and underlying issues that take place. And so the only way to solve that is to look to the long term, look at the decisions you're making and how they actually connect to the long term. And then how do you empower your people within that system to accomplish those things with little effort on your part other than oversight and direction.
[00:23:44] Speaker A: Excellent, excellent information and advice.
If someone watching wants to learn more about your leadership systems, where should I send them? Your website email, LinkedIn, what's your what kind of contact information?
[00:23:59] Speaker B: So you can find me on LinkedIn, but you can also go directly to my website, which is think mcs360.com that's think mcs360.com or you can email me directly at Chris think mcs360.com Perfection.
[00:24:22] Speaker A: Up next, we're going to talk leadership under pressure. What breaks first, what must be protected and how underdogs build teams that don't fall apart when it gets hard. Stay tuned. We'll be right back with more unstoppable stories and strategies for turning obstacles into opportunities.
And we're back. I'm Nicole Anderson and you're watching Underdog to unstoppable on NOW Media television. Let's get keep pushing past limits together. Welcome back. I'm still with Chris Meredith. Now I want to go where underdogs live. The pressure when the stakes are high and the confidence is low.
You've led across multiple sectors and built a reputation for coaching leaders through complexity with clarity and confidence.
This segment is about what actually holds when everything is shaky. Standards, language and leadership behaviors that don't depend on mood.
And this is an interesting topic, right? Is the pressure and when people fold and why not having things in place create that chaos.
So what is your idea of the first thing that breaks in an organization under stress?
[00:25:37] Speaker B: In my experience over the years, both in my own leadership and in coaching corporations and, and that has happened for a very long time now, there's no question in my mind before there is any other issue that I can name, it's a trust issue.
So when trust actually breaks within an organization, you have a lot of different things that take place. You have a lack of clarity.
You have a lack of commitment. You have a lack of consistency.
You have decisions that are being made that are with a lot of ambiguity.
And so when trust doesn't exist within an organization itself and not only with the leader, but the leader with the people that they're leading, but also within the individual teams that exist within an organization.
Because one of the things I've learned over the years is that the trust that should exist not only within individual teams needs to exist between teams within an organization as well. And that goes back to the overall systems thinking because while each individual department may be a system within itself, it's made up of a bigger system that exists within the company and all of those departments, all of those individuals actually connect. And whether it's trust that's broken by the leader themselves or whether it's trust that's broken within the individual system itself, it doesn't matter, because that's when indecisiveness takes place. That's when chaos begins to set in.
That's when a company may even experience growth. But they'll outgrow the depth of their leadership capabilities, they'll outgrow their capacity overall, and they'll definitely outgrow their people. And that's when you start seeing a lot of not only issues taking place, but even a lot of turnover within a company.
[00:27:46] Speaker A: Yeah. Because trust is a big deal. Right. Like, your employees have to trust that you're leading well. They have to trust that you're financially leading the company well. Right. So that they get their paychecks for the job that they're doing.
Because they didn't. They didn't start this business. You did the trust with your other leadership. Right. Like, they don't feel like you're leading the boat very well. So that's. That's a huge aspect of it.
[00:28:11] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:28:12] Speaker A: And when. When you.
We've all done it, we've all failed our leadership. I don't think that there's any person that can say that they have perfected leadership and perfected building their leadership.
When those failures happen and turn into chaos, what can a leader do to rebuild.
Rebuild that trust and turn that chaos into construction? Right.
[00:28:42] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, I totally understand.
The first thing I tell any leader to do, and I could repeat this statement to question after question is just to pause, just stop and take a break. And let's take a look at where the trust is broken. Let's take a look at where the chaos is setting in. Let's take a look. Because immediately, leaders quite often want to think there's a people problem. As an example, they want to naturally think that, well, it's Chris or it's Nicole who's creating those issues.
And while there may be some truth to that, there could be a lot of underlying reasons why that's happening. And so I go back to the system itself. I literally go to the whiteboard and I literally draw out how the system is supposed to look, how the flow is supposed to look.
And I stop again and say, okay, let's look at the priorities that what are we really trying to accomplish here?
Because a lot of times, even within leadership teams, you'll have dissension because there's different priorities. There's different, I mentioned it earlier, different assumptions, there's different goals that they're trying to achieve. And so I'll just stop and say, what are we really trying to accomplish? What decisions have to be made to get there?
And where is there a disconnect within the system itself itself. And when we begin to really look at that, even if it can drill down to an individual, we can also drill that down into what contributed to that. Was it a lack of clarity? Was it a broken trust that we did somehow? Because leaders, and I'll, I'll say this for all the leaders out there and all the leaders listening, leadership is not about perfection. Leadership is about the perceived pursuit of excellence or the pursuit of perfection. And one of the strongest indicators of leadership maturity is the speed of recovery. And so it, it takes us out of it and it looks at the system itself and it basically says that, okay, something is not right, let's find where it's at in the system. It's not about me, it's not about Nicole, it's not about you, who may be watching today. It's literally about what is breaking in the system itself. And how can we let the pattern reveal to us what is actually happening. And then we're looking at it from a different lens and not from a personal lens. We begin to reconstruct the patterns themselves. And then what happens is we recreate health within the system.
Because if we focus on growth and outcomes more than we do the system itself and the people within that system, we're going to have a crumbling at some point and chaos at some point. And I would rather focus on the long term than the short term. Even though we have to make short term decisions, I would still rather focus on the overall priority and what we're trying to accomplish because that helps us bring clarity to the system. And as we mature in leadership, we learn to actually slow down, make really good decisions, do it with clarity, make sure it's still based on our vision, our core values, our strategic plan. And if there needs to be a shaping of some of that, we certainly can. But ultimately it's taking a look at the clear picture of it. And that will reveal to us where the chaos actually exists and gives us an opportunity to look at it from a clarity standpoint and make really good decisions to move forward with it.
[00:32:34] Speaker A: Well, and I think leaders get caught up on the program that they subscribe to, right?
[00:32:44] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:32:45] Speaker A: They like for instance, you have the values driven leadership, you have the command and control, you have servant leadership, you have eos leadership. You have all of these programs that have been thrown at leaders, right? And, and it's thrown at them.
They find one that worked at the beginning, but it's no longer working because of your growth, because of your scale, because of the people you have brought on board. And they, they get so hung up on this program that I feel as though your, your movement to a system strategy takes it away from picking and choosing which program you're going to have. And it, it places in, in its place, it puts something that's sustainable for scale, for scale versus not scaling whatever you want to do with your organization.
And so I think that's powerful. Can you speak on that a little bit around the programs that people get so programmed to do and hung up on and it's not scaling their business?
[00:33:55] Speaker B: Oh, absolutely. And I'll just take one that you mentioned. You mentioned command and control.
And so command and control tends to do what I call narrow the room, and it begins to bring a focus down to individual things rather than the bigger lens as a whole. In fact, I was coaching a CEO the other day and I basically said, let's take this like a camera as an example and let's pull this lens backwards and let's spread this lens out a little bit. Because when command and control, as an example is in play, not only does it narrow the room, it really begins to create panic, it begins to create fear, and it begins to do all of those things in the name of a system or in the name of a structure. And that's why when I ask someone, what system do you use? And they tell me they use command and control, they use eos, they do all of these different things. And so that's fabulous. But where is the life within that system? Well, it's, you know, people are supposed to do what they're supposed to do, and actually that's what begins to narrow that focus and that lens and brings about the control or the fear that exists. And what Values Driven Leadership does and Values Driven Systems does, especially when you're staying true to your core values and you're staying true to your vision, it continues to see the bigger picture, and it also acknowledges the reality of where you may be. But instead of creating fear to try to force something to happen and try to make it happen through a structured system, what it actually does is bring life back to the inner system.
And that begins to fuel the system itself to be able to go toward the bigger picture, still moving those values forward and still accomplishing the things you really want to accomplish as a result of it. And what it also does is it makes a healthier environment.
It makes a more peaceful environment.
It makes it to where people actually feel like they're part of it and they have ownership within it and they have responsibility within it. And when you talk about disciplines within that type of system, the system actually disciplines itself.
People actually hold each other accountable because they are functioning together like a team to move it forward toward the ultimate goal. And they feel like they're a part of that rather than being pushed toward it.
[00:36:42] Speaker A: Well, this is fantastic conversation and I can't wait to continue.
Coming up in our final segment, let's get practical, how to rebuild after the setback and design a comeback that doesn't repeat the same patterns. And I, and I think also breaking, breaking that program mentality right like that, that we're set. So I'm looking forward to continuing the conversation in our final segment.
So we'll be right back. Stay tuned. We'll be right back with more unstoppable stories and strategies for turning obstacles into opportunities.
And we're back. I'm Nicole Anderson and you're watching Underdog to Unstoppable on NOW Media Television. Let's keep pushing past, past limits together. Welcome back to Underdog to Unstoppable. Don't miss episodes like this. Stream Now Media TV on Demand with the free Roku or iOS app and catch the podcast anytime at NowMedia TV.
Welcome back to our final segment, Chris. We've talked about your road, your systems thinking and leadership under pressure. Now I want to come back to the blueprint, what people can do. Starting this week.
You're respected for helping leaders sharpen vision, align people and structure and drive sustainable results.
So I want to land this with the tools that help underdogs stop reliving the same cycle, burnout, reaction, regret, and start building clean. So let's lead off of our conversation that we were previously having and we talked about programs and let's lean more into your systems thinking and how we can help entrepreneurs, our viewers, listen, understand and start building their revenue in their cycle.
[00:38:32] Speaker B: Well, the first thing is to stop, look at your priorities. What are those priorities that you're really trying to accomplish a lot of times throughout the process of growth and development?
So many leaders start out with a clear vision. They start out with a clear plan, or at least what they think is they really are trying to get to a place where they can see the results that they are seeing. And many times they do start seeing the results. But when you start seeing results you start seeing tensions as well. And what I learned a long time ago was that tensions actually reveal my leadership capacity. And it actually reveals the capacity of the teams that we have, you know, that are representing us within our companies as well. So whether you're a single person team or you have hundreds of people that you're responsible for, the key is to always and forever stop, pause, make sure that everything you're deciding lines up with your values, make sure it lines up with your direction that you're trying to go, make sure that you're taking a look and never leaving those.
A lot of you listening today may be surprised at what I'm about to say, but. And maybe not so many leaders actually come to a place where they know in their mind what those priorities are. They have the intuition about what they're doing, whether it's going in line with those or not, but because they're not keeping those clear and out front.
And what's happening is they begin to drift and decisions begin to be made that are not actually in line with that ultimate outcome that they're trying to accomplish. So I'm a big believer in doing not only weekly meetings. And when I say meetings, I want to be clear there too, Nicole, because so many times we have meetings, to have meetings, to have meetings and meetings before the meetings, to have meetings, that is, that's a lot of meetings we do. And my belief in a meeting is, are decisions really being made in a meeting?
Are we really making sure that the things that we're choosing are in line with where we're trying to go? Are we actually looking at that on a weekly basis, on a monthly basis, on a, on a quarterly basis, and just really throughout our day. Because my ultimate belief is that if we're looking at those rhythms on a normal day to day operation and we're seeing how those rhythms are connecting to that ultimate goal and what kind of things are taking place in that given day, then I know that they're either in line with the priorities or they're not in line with the priorities. And then if I take a look at those operational flows on a regular basis as well, whether you're doing them weekly or whether you're doing a monthly or whenever you're doing them, but making sure that ultimately those, those flows are taking place. And how are the people learning, how are they growing, facing and looking at what the tensions actually are and what decisions are we making through the tensions? And this goes back to systems thinking itself, right? But what is the system actually telling me? Because the systems themselves will actually reveal what you need to know. And when I'm coaching a team and I'm looking at it from that perspective and helping them see it from that perspective, what they're actually seeing is, is these tensions rise or chaos arising, whatever it may be. And my first question is, what is it telling us? What are we seeing through it? And how does this next decision that we're going to make stay in line with those core values and that vision and that strategic plan that we're trying to accomplish? So stop, relook at your system, relook at how the rhythms are flowing within the system and listen for the signals, Watch for the signals.
What is that system telling me as I walk through it? I know that sounds simple, but it actually takes a lot of work to do that. And it takes a lot of honesty, it takes a lot of truth, it takes a lot of transparency. But when that truth and transparency exist, instead of trying to cover some of that up or make decisions on the fly or for only the moment when that exists, you would not believe how it empowers the people within your system and the comfort they feel because they know that they're part of something that actually is willing to not only look forward to the future and base it on core values, base it on a strategic plan, base it on a vision, but they're also giving me ownership to have my responsibility within that system, and they can be clear in the decisions they make as well as you can.
[00:43:47] Speaker A: Yeah, and I think that, I think that entrepreneurs wait too long, right? They, they, those alarm bells, those metrics that are, that are showing misalignment early, like we, we kind of overstep those or overlook them because it's like we just have too much going on and we just have to move forward. I have pay, I have payroll to meet on Friday.
And those quote, unquote alarm bells. And so if you had one that you could name was an immediate indicator that there's trouble, what would it be?
[00:44:20] Speaker B: I think the first thing that I would look for is, is missed commitments.
Because when missed commitments begin to actually take place, there's, there's a lot of underlying problems. For, for instance, people think that because people seem to be losing interest as an example, or don't seem to have the passion that they once had, or maybe they're not doing the follow through that they once did at one particular point. Those mis commitments that are taking place tells me very clearly that there's an underlying problem somewhere that I need to find and I need to Find why it's there. It could be because of clarity and it could be because of other chaos that's taking place. It could simply be that, that that team or that person or those groups of people don't feel like that the leadership is leading with total clarity and total truth. But whatever that is, those miscommitments start telling me that there's a signal that I need to be going deeper into. And I'll add one more thing to that.
I think everybody watching would probably say that yes, there are root causes that exist, but I actually go a step further. I think there's not only a root cause, I think there are roots that exist out there. And I think it's look like if you look at a tree or you look at a plant, it's got multiple roots in there. And, and that goes back to surface level thinking. Our top down leadership, we try to dig down to that one root and now we think we've solved the problem and then the next thing you know, another root springs up somewhere. So it really tells me if I start seeing miscommitments, that there's a systems problem somewhere in there.
[00:46:15] Speaker A: So when we have underdogs that are, you know, they're, they're barely treading water, right? Like they're, they're trying to make it. They've already been counted out by most people. People, they've been told no a thousand times. They've been, you know, they're, they're really trying to make it and they are making bad decisions because of their panic, because of their chaos.
What is, what is something that they can do to protect the long game?
Like what, what could they do in those instances besides make a better decision?
[00:46:50] Speaker B: Well, making better decisions obviously would be the right thing to do, but, but if I actually said that to somebody, Nicole, by itself, that would probably tell them that I'm not a systems thinker, that I'm a top down thinker. You know, just make a better decision and you'll be all right.
[00:47:07] Speaker A: You know, totally flipping, totally flipping what you're trying to say.
[00:47:11] Speaker B: Yeah, I asked them to again, pause and in that pause, I asked them to actually reevaluate what their original plan was, what their original goal was. I helped them regain the belief in the vision itself, regain the confidence within themselves that, that they actually do have something that matters. And it goes back to. I want to, I guess I would define it this way. What is your actual purpose? Because your purpose actually exceeds whatever obstacles have come your way. Even if it were bad decisions on your part Your purpose still outweighs all of those things. And your purpose helps bring, when you're talking about discipline as an example, it actually doesn't bring empty discipline, it brings discipline with a purpose. It makes activity that you're doing or things that you're doing along the way have actually a life to a much more than mechanical as a result of that. So let's stop, let's re look at your purpose, let's put the value back on your purpose. And by putting the value back on your purpose, you bring a calm to yourself and that calm is what lets you bring make better decisions. In fact, I teach people all the time, sure I can advise you, I can help you, I can lead you, I can give you thoughts, but really you already have them because you had the purpose. I need to help you rediscover that purpose and rediscover the decisions you need to make to get to that purpose or that end goal.
[00:48:56] Speaker A: Well, Chris, this has been absolutely amazing and I can't wait for our underdogs to hear your explanation. Your things that they can do to switch those programs that they've been programmed with.
And so I want them to be able to contact you. So give us your contact information once again so that they know where they can locate you and get more of your great advice.
[00:49:21] Speaker B: You can actually email me directly at Chris thinkmcs360.com or you can go to my website, which is thinkmcs360.com and you can actually just put put your name and information into the contact form there and it will come directly to my email, but it will also let you see a little bit more of the things that I do and the way that I coach that, that's out there on that website. So think mcs360.com or
[email protected] and hopefully we'll end with a lot clearer picture and a lot clearer direction of where we really want to go.
[00:50:06] Speaker A: Agreed. Chris, thank you for coming on and keeping it real.
What I'm taking from today is this. Being an underdog isn't a disadvantage, it's a training ground. But the win doesn't come from hustle alone. It comes from standards, systems and leadership that can hold under pressure. And to everyone watching, you don't need a perfect start, you need a clear next step and the courage to build something that lasts. I'm Nicole Anderson and this is underdog to unstoppable. I'll see you next time.
