597 | Lead Like a Pro: Discover the Key Leader Edge – Part 2

Introduction (00:00:00)

On today's show, we continue to dive deep into the heart of leadership challenges with our special guest from our very own Key Leader Program and the new VP of our Leadership Development, Lyneé South.

So stay tuned for some amazing information that will help you to make decisions on how you lead. That is coming up next.

Welcome to the Chris LoCurto Show where we discuss leadership and life and discover that business is what you do, not who you are.

Welcome to the show, folks. I hope you're having a fabulous day wherever you are.

Once again, I am having a fabulous day because joining me in the studio is our very own VP of Leadership Development and my daughter, spectacular woman, amazing person, Lyneé South.

Lynné, welcome back to the show. Hello. Thanks again. So fun to be back so soon. We had you premiered and I was like, this is way too much good information.

We're actually going to have to make this a two parter. So we hit a ton. And, folks, I've got to tell you the things that we discussed in the last episode.

Recap (00:01:20)

If you did not listen to episode 596 (Chris says 598, but 596 is the right one), then go back and listen to that because we dove deep in the Leadership Crazy Cycle.

Delegation challenges, stress, tough conversations, culture issues, trust issues, and even prioritization and how important all these things are. And Lyneé just really dug into all of this.

But today we want to continue on with all of this information and really dig into even further in depth on some of these issues and some of these topics and kind of help you to understand how you can make better decisions, whether it's in your leadership or helping your key leaders as well.

So, Nay, since I shared that with the world last on the episode that, uh, you know, I call you Nay, um, you've been coaching, you've coached numerous leaders, um, you've helped them, um, to grow as individual leaders.

You've helped them to, uh, lead their leadership teams or their teams, whatever.

Personal Experiences (00:02:23)

What are, you know, on these topics that I just ran through, these things that we dove deep into last week on the, on the last episode, share some of your personal experiences as you've coached leaders who were struggling with any of those things.

Any of those issues. Yeah, so we talked. I actually had a group join me and we talked through delegation challenges.

We had the, the president of the company and several of her team members join in this 30 day challenge. And we talked through what, how they could work as a team to get delegation from the top down through the rest of the team.

And it doesn't just stop with the key leaders. It actually then can go down and permeate into the rest of the business. But once we learn the process processes to delegate and delegate, well, then we can find success.

And, but again, we talk about this all the time. It starts from the top, and then we have to be intentional with our leadership.

So when we can learn something, we talk about this in one of our other lessons, but when we learn something and then we immediately teach it, we have so much more success in actually seeing that through that new learned skill, right?

Oh, yeah. That's, that's why we have so many folks, you know, bring people to our retreats.

You know, they bring their teams to the Next-Level Leadership LIVE Event because it's, it's immediate, you know, that they, they get to participate.

But, yeah, when you go back, I love that this leader brought their team in because it's, this is kind of like what we talked about on the last show.

So it's not just one leader learning how to properly delegate down, but it's also bringing in other leaders or team members and teaching them how to lead up, you know, that reverse delegation.

Now that you're a part of this process and now that you're learning how, we're all learning how to delegate to somebody else, how does that help you to hold me as your leader accountable as I delegate to you?

You know, what does that look like and how much, gosh, a thousand times easier that conversation is with that team member when they understand the same concept.

And this is, you know, this is why we do our Key Leader Program is the whole concept is let us bring your leaders up to speed on the things you're learning so that you guys can, can really lead together instead of having to recreate the wheel.

But if you don't have that opportunity, then, like, you just shared a, the most important thing is once you've learned this, get it out, teach it, start working on it.

Don't hold on to it. Start working on it because it's fresh. You're going to get the greatest kind of success.

What other kind of experiences that have you had with folks, you know, leaders struggling in these situations?

Yeah. So going back to tough conversations, last time we talked about accountability, so much conflict and just stigma around having tough conversations is in regards to accountability, holding people accountable.

So I had a client that didn't have a KRA in place for their team member. KRA is Key Result Areas. And so what we talk about is it is, what is this role in this position focusing on?

And the idea behind it is that we come as the leader and the team member and we agree on what that looks like.

A lot of times we. Well, not a lot of times, we teach our clients to have the team member write their own KRA.

And at the same time you're writing the KRA, you guys bring those together so that you can see what is common, what is the expectations that we are going to agree upon and we can now hold you, each other or hold, be held accountable for.

How has the communication been? Have we communicated clearly? Yes. And so when we can set those expectations, we both come with our own ideas and we agree upon the common ground.

What do we decide and are able to then hold that person accountable? It's no longer that tough conversation.

So setting the expectations ahead of time is so crucial to the success of that one, that relationship, the team members buy in, because when you have that team, it's not just a dictation that they're receiving.

This is the job. I must complete the task. It's, I want to be a champion. I want to achieve these things. And so when you can give that level of responsibility and ownership to your team member, you're going to.

And there are caveats. There are things that happen. I can't. This is not boilerplate, because people are people. We're just going to do what we want anyways.

But if you're setting the foundation for a solid role expectation alignment, you're going to receive a lot more success than if you don't have it. Right? Totally.

And so if I'm now learning to use the term conversation, you want to set that stage where you can just have conversations instead of a tough conversation.

It doesn't have to be tough. There's still going to be conflict. There's still going to be those pieces.

Accountability and Tough Conversations (00:08:22)

But so back to the story with one of the persons that I was coaching. We walked through setting a KRA, and then they had their first meeting.

And we're celebrating through all of this because they're setting intentions, they are following through, and then they're like, oh, that wasn't that bad.

Because we talked about what this role does, and when they didn't hit those goals or whatever that was that we said it was. We just talked about it. So it's so funny how when people do what we say, it sometimes works. Well, welcome to my life.

I mean, this is, it's the tough thing of convincing. And we talked about this on the last episode. We're both High Ss. Oh, yeah. So we both hate conflict.

We're just good at it because we, we do the things we teach. You know, you and I have done this stuff forever. So it's interesting.

Like, as you talk about something like a KRA and an expectation, if you, if you tell somebody they need to have a tough conversation with somebody, it's already conflict.

Yeah. We've not even gotten into it yet. They're already having to build themselves, especially if they're a High S like us, they're already having to build themselves up.

There's all this, you know, expectations that they have that this tough conversation is going to be horrible, this person is going to flip things on them, you know, not, not furniture, hopefully, but like, you know, things that they're discussing and it's just going to be tough.

But the way you just laid that out, if you are conversing about these things, if you're having the conversations ahead of time, if you're putting a KRA in place and what are we saying a KRA is?

And again, it's, this is a super short explanation. We have a full lesson on how to do these things, but it's setting the expectation. This is the results we expect to see, not the tasks.

We got a job description for that. We got leading for that. We got all kinds of other stuff. But when you do these things we're teaching you to do, it's got to look like this at the end.

Then if you've had the conversation, that person is on board. And by the way, this is something that we teach, is that you need to have a carry monthly meeting until they are hitting all the KRAs at a high percentage.

And then you can start spreading that out over time, once a quarter. You know, I probably wouldn't do any less than twice a year.

But most people will put a KRA in place and then they have zero meetings, zero discussions, and then all of a sudden the person's not doing the thing that they're expected to do and you're having a conversation five months later and now it's a tough conversation.

Yep. Now it's something that's difficult.

Now it's conflict, as opposed to the way that you've been leading folks to do this, which is, hey, start the conversations, start pulling this stuff together, do it together, do it separately, come together, agree on it together, have these conversations, and then be having those meetings on a consistent basis.

Gosh, that removes just an insane amount of, of conflict. So I love it.

That is such good stuff. And yes, folks, it does work. It works if you do it. What are some of your, you've been coaching leaders and business owners for a long time.

Biggest Takeaways (00:11:54)

You've been coaching a lot of the Key Leaders as well. What are some of your best takeaways?

So for me it's communication, alignment.

You have to, as a Key Leader, being able to talk to your leader and leading up, we hit on this a bit in the last episode, leading up, communication, asking questions, making sure that you understand the goals, the vision.

And then you are also teaching that to the team members below you. So clarity from your leader. Right. We have to make sure that we're aligned with the leader above us and what they expect. Yeah.

Again, expectations, communication. We could just boil it down, do those things. You're good. Yeah. Well, that is exactly the next thing is when I meet with people, I have a lot of leaders that I meet with.

We talk, we talk about what next steps are and then they implement and then they come back, they're like, hey, that worked. What next?

And then they're hungry for more because then we're like, okay, these things. And we talk about.

So we talk a lot about leadership, we talk about processes, we talk about all that stuff, but we also talk about truth. We talk about lies, we talk about emotions that we have.

What are we bringing to the table? A lot of times it's, what are our Root System? I mean, these are your listeners. How much do they know about all this stuff?

I'm like, how far do we go into this? Because we go through these things on the coaching calls, we talk about what are we bringing to the table in this? When we bring an emotion and there's assumptions made.

So it's important for us to always look at what's our responsibility and what can we control. This is something, this is something that I deal with a lot is, it's not my business.

So I can't make any changes. My hands are tied and in a lot of places that could be truth. So I always talk about what can we control? What are our controllables and what are the expectations that our leader has on us.

And if you're not sure, ask the question. We talked about taking risks last time. If you're in a leadership position in your business, there's a reason.

And if you're not sure where your boundaries lie, I, you need to get a lot more clarity on that because that's where one, we could sit back as a leader and say, well, I don't know about that. I don't know what I can do.

My leader is toxic. This is what I'm dealing with. Well, you have choices, right? Are you going to sit there and allow these things to maybe happen or are you going to have conversations?

Are you going to, what are you, again going back to what are your controllables? And we dig into that.

So, yeah, I think so many people are afraid, thinking, you know, and you're saying it right now, I don't think I can ask my leader. I don't think I can press into my leader.

And the truth is, this is something, especially you, because you're focusing so much on Key Leaders.

But this is something that we're trying to help people understand is what does your CEO, your leader, what does the person above you expect of you if you don't have that in clarity?

You know, like you said, ask the question. Why are you not saying something?

Dig in, ask a question. Find out so that you can get you to a place of success.

Because the worst thing, and you mentioned this in the last show, is those assumptions.

Yep. When I start assuming that I can't do this or I start assuming that I know what this leader wants and then I find out that I'm wrong, or I start assuming that the leader doesn't want me to have information, that's another thing that I can't stand to hear as well.

You know, why would my leader want me to know that? It's like you should go ask.

Because what you're going to find out is that leader is going to say, oh, my gosh, if you understood this, then I can lead you better then I, you know, you can, you have more information for you to, to execute these things.

Right, whatever it is. And so just having those conversations and getting to that expectation is such a powerful, powerful piece.

You know, that's, for me, that's how I lead the rest of the leaders. Right. I don't lead our company. I lead our leaders. You know, I train you guys. You guys do a phenomenal job leading the rest of the company.

My job is to make you guys successful and you guys are to make the rest of the team successful. Right. Now, in the early days, before I had a leadership layer, then obviously I was leading everybody.

But I want you guys to know and understand me and understand my expectations. And, I mean, with us, it's so easy because it's just, it's just natural.

So what are some of the best benefits that, that you've seen in some of our clients after they go through these types of coaching processes?

So nine and a half times out of ten, we have a Mastermind member who is going to be the CEO, president, et cetera, that level.

And then we have the Key Leaders in the program at the same time. The way that this is so beneficial is we have the whole team rowing in the same direction.

Think about this. Have you ever been to, learned something new, been to a conference? You come back and you try to tell somebody what you've learned, but they weren't there.

They didn't experience it. They don't have that same eager inspiration to go and tackle something, tackle what you've taught them.

Now they're, or even understanding of the thing that you want. Correct. Or you take a picture of this amazing view and you're like, it doesn't do it dust justice. Right.

And so when they're learning the same content, your team, your leaders are learning the same content, they're experiencing the same thing. You guys are speaking the same language and you're able to make decisions based off of what you're learning.

And the coaching that we are able to give the Mastermind members and the Key Leaders, it's all the same. It's coming from the same place.

And so you're just compounding the efforts on the success of the organization implementing these things with the business. Right.

And so that is the biggest change that I've seen in businesses is when they get their Key Leaders involved in our program as well.

Yeah, because then the owner's not doing it alone. I mean, owner up here in the Crazy Cycle like we just talked about, but they learn, they're learning this information, but their team isn't because they don't have time to teach their team.

They don't have the resources to teach their team. They're just trying to keep this business, keep them above that red line. And so when they join our program, we get to partner with them and help them get further.

So, like I was saying earlier, when that business came in with multiple team members to this one program that we were doing, they were just catapulted.

They went after something and they went full force. And so that rowing analogy that we use is what happens if you have somebody that drops an oar or, or starts backpedaling.

You guys just, it's chaos. And things take so much longer and there's so much more friction getting to the destination.

And so for me, working with the Key Leaders has, I've heard from Mastermind members that once they enrolled their Key Member or Key Leader, they just saw their growth and then the team below them their growth.

And so, yeah, it is a great program that we have for these Key Leaders. Yeah, I think it's so powerful. I mean, again, our team already actively participates. This is what we do.

This is what we teach. We're constantly pouring this into our own team. We have a teaching environment, and I think that's the big difference between us and 99.9% of the businesses out there.

We consistently focus on teaching. If you have the opportunity to teach and you can grow somebody and you can get them to the next level, fantastic. Let's do it.

But like you were sharing, we have so many businesses where I.

They don't have the time, or they, even if they could make the time them teaching, it doesn't necessarily get their team up to speed and rowing in the same direction, and that's what makes that so powerful. So. Yeah, absolutely.

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So if I'm, let's say I'm a business owner who, I hear you talking about this one, we know how powerful Mastermind is.

We have so many business owners and leaders that are just loving it.

But this, this concept that you're talking about, this leader program of, you know, business growth and personal development, these team members, what in the world could I possibly, you know, what kind of results could I expect out of something like this?

Because I hear you talk about these companies, and it's been phenomenal for us to have so many companies that are like, well, let me put one person in there, all right, let me put five putting people in this.

I hear you say that, but what in the world does that mean to me as a leader out here who doesn't know what I could expect? What are some of the results that I could expect?

So, so many business owners come to us with getting into business on accident. It happens because they're great at one thing and then turns out they own a business, and they also don't want to be told what to do.

How many business owners say amen? Well, the thing is, you don't have to be a leader to own a business, but it sure does help when you start hiring people.

Oh, yeah. If you want to grow. And the thing is, is where is that taught? Right. You don't grow up learning to be a leader, especially if it's not natural for you.

Some people are natural born leaders, others aren't. And that's okay. But it is a learned thing. We can learn it. So the Mastermind program is for the business owners and also presidents, executive leaders, etcetera, like that.

And our Key Leader Program is for that middle level leader, your managers, your directors, your operation department leaders, those type of leaders.

And the thing is, our business owners don't have to train them how to lead. They learn it themselves. And then we teach them, their leaders, how to lead.

So there's one thing to actually learn to lead. There's another thing to teach it. And so that's where we come in.

We're able to partner with the Mastermind member, and now we're teaching their leaders exactly what they're learning.

Yeah. It's so funny because years ago, I'll say it 1400 times in these two shows, our goal, our heart is to serve.

And as we were, when we put the Key Leader Program in place, it was from so many leaders that were doing a phenomenal job. They're part of the Mastermind program.

You know, maybe they're a leader, maybe they're business owner, but they're killing it, and yet they're struggling with literally what was coming.

How can I advance my leaders to knowing what I know? And we're like, well, let us teach them.

Okay, great. And that's, you know, this process, the step that we took and put this thing in place where leaders could come in and learn the same stuff.

Right. That's, that's the phenomenal piece, but it's, it's this interesting thing of going well, wouldn't in a perfect world, those leaders just learn how to lead those other leaders and make all that.

Sure. Abso-stinkin-lutely. In a perfect world, yes. We don't have that. We have business owners, presidents, CEO's, executive leaders who are in busting it at the same time they're learning the stuff that we're teaching.

I just had a StratPlan in which it was fantastic. So a law firm, great clients of ours that came in. And one of the things I will say to them is I'm like, what?

You know, you guys were taught how to lead a law firm, how to run a law firm. You were not taught how to lead a business. And one of the lawyers on the team, just great guy.

He goes, I went to business school and I wasn't taught how to run a business. And it was like, that's, that's so true. That's exactly the truth. Right?

Yeah. And so, yes, in a perfect world, it would be great to just teach one leader. Hey, you teach everybody else, but really, we're trying to move at a pace that we can get everybody up to speed.

And I think that's what's been so powerful, so kind of describe, you know, talking about the Key Leader Program.

What are, what's the objective? I mean, I know we just ran into a bunch of stuff, but dig deeper on what the objective is.

So our Key Leader Program, remember, is directed toward our middle level leaders.

And the objective is to provide these leaders with the skills, the knowledge, and the leadership know how that we are teaching their leader, the Mastermind member.

They are getting the same information because the Mastermind member doesn't have the time to teach them themselves.

So that's where we partner with them, and we're able to come alongside and be that bridge that is between that gap of the training.

I mean, that's basically what we do, is we do a lot of training and we're able to pump them with all of the lessons that we teach. They get the same experiences as that Mastermind member.

And then when it comes to the coaching, I'm able to walk side by side a lot of these leaders, and we walk through the difficult conversations.

I even have some clients that I walk through processes with. It's just, it's really, those coaching calls become more tailored to what that specific team member is going through.

But we're always teaching the lesson through it as well. I always direct people back to the content that we teach because it is, it is so powerful. So kind of, since you're there, go ahead and just hit, like, some of those components.

What are, what are some of the components of the program that, like, if I'm a Key Leader, and by the way, you touched on this, you know, nine and a half out of ten times, this is somebody who has a leader or owner that's in Next-Level Mastermind.

However, we have had folks that are going well, I want to grow myself. My leader is not going to put me into this.

I'm working in a business right now. I want to own my own business someday or whatever, I want to grow my own leadership.

And we've had folks coming just by themselves into the Key Leader Program without having somebody in Mastermind, which I love, shout out to you folks because that's such a great proactive step, but kind of hit some of those components of the program.

Understanding the Key Leader Program (00:29:22)

Yeah. So our program, we actually meet twice a month in online small group learning.

One of the coaches, either myself or Aaron, are in those calls and we lead a learning discussion. So we take a topic and it's one of our lessons nine times out of ten. And so that people can go and dig further because we have a certain amount of time.

Right. So we do a teaching and then we have discussion with, like mind or not like minded, but like level, I guess, with other Key Leaders.

Yeah. Folks going through the same type of stuff. Right. Yeah. And I mean, the thing is to have a group where you can come, you can ask questions.

You're getting perspective from people that are. I mean, we can have some people in the pharmaceutical industry and we can have some people in the excavating industry.

And the thing is, they're bringing different lenses, but they're the same problems. We all have the same problems in business.

They just look different. And sometimes that other perspective just opens our mind to different things that we weren't, we weren't really processing before.

And again, we meet twice a month and we go through these conversations and these topics and have deep conversations. Then you can also ask questions during, like, I'm going through this right now.

What do you guys think? Have you experienced this before? Sometimes we also just need to be heard. Right. It definitely isn't a place to just come and complain, but we do feel validated sometimes.

Okay. There are we. Being a leader is a difficult position to be in and having a place to support each other, but not just stay there. We don't let people stay there.

Work through the problems. We ask questions and we find solutions. Well, I think it's so much like what you talked about on the leading up aspect.

Right. Some of the. Some of the struggles that a Key Leader coming into the program may be experiencing is, I don't know how to convince my, my leader of this.

I don't know how to communicate this. And those are some of the struggles that you hear. It's not like you said, it's nothing. We do not allow a complain session. Right. It's not a-

You're not going to come in here and be a victim. Right. But what you are looking to do is say, hey, what are you experiencing? Well, I don't know how to talk to my leader. Great.

What's the issue? What's the topic? What's the thing?

Let's run through this and help you, which I think that's the most powerful piece on that, is that they're getting a quality coach who's also coaching, you know, business owners and executive leaders as well, saying, hey, here's how you go have this conversation.

Here's what you say, here's what you do. So I love how powerful it is that a leader comes in and doesn't just go, well, it doesn't work with my boss. Here, try this.

Do this, tweak this, you know, touch on this. But at the same time, being able to, like you said, it is validating. And as business owners, we need to understand this.

We need to understand how difficult it is, the expectations that we put on a middle level leader if we've not trained them up to be successful.

Yeah. Because what we do, and we do it all the time, you know, I have helped so many folks that have done this, and I will say back in my early years, I did this as well.

You know, we will put somebody in, into a leadership position and it's, it's baptism by fire. You know, somebody told us, you know, they put it on their resume, they could do this job, and we're like, fantastic.

That's exactly what I need. We just assume, oh, sure, you're going to be able to do it. And then they get in and we realize nobody taught them how to do this.

Or maybe they did a little bit of this in the past, but really, you know, they don't know what they need to know. And we're now frustrated because we had an expectation that they were going to be phenomenal and they're just okay.

Right. Well, think about for that middle level leader, right. Who's in that role and they're not getting trained. What they are getting is the.

Did you get that done? Did you do that? Well, you didn't do that the right way. Hey, what's going on over here? What's this problem?

What's this, you know, and instead of having that, just the intentional teaching and leadership on how to lead, how to respond.

And so I just want to, you know, say that to all of the business owners and leaders, executive leaders that are listening, understand.

I know, I know, especially business owners, you want to be able to put somebody in a role and you want them to be able to just be perfect. I get it.

There is this thing with business owners, entrepreneurs, where it's like, well, I'm paying you a paycheck.

You should be able to do this job, too, you know, 100%. I get it. I understand. But at some point, you've got to make the decision, how much should I pour into them to make them great?

How much should I pour into my team to make them better leaders, to make them better at what they're doing, instead of just expecting and hoping, what if.

And again, we want you to be pouring out and teaching, but what if you could pour into them and, man, they elevate rapidly.

Well. And what that return is. Yeah, totally.

We talk about this in the culture lesson, but when you invest in your team in ways like this, their quality of life, their value, all of these things, they're going to feel like my boss, my man, he wants me to be a part of this.

She wants me to be a part of this. They're investing in me. Yeah. And so that's one of the things that I think is not talked about a lot, is what that does, even just to say, hey, I believe in you so much, I'm gonna put my money where my mouth is.

I'm gonna sign you up for this because I want us to speak the same language. I want us to be on the same page because we can do this together.

And when you use words like partner with me, you're. You're getting that team member to buy in and that you are. We're doubling down. We're gonna do this right. And now I'm going to give you the tools to do it because this.

This company has helped me, so now I really think it's gonna help you and go forward from there. Yeah. Right. Absolutely. So what are some other things that they get?

And you're talking about some of the coaching access. What does that look like? Yeah. So we have email access to all the coaches with the program. We do have optional add ons for one on one coaching with either Aaron or myself.

And then they also get access to all of our lessons. We have. I think we're upwards of 30 lessons now. I think it's like 34 or something. Yeah. And, I mean, and we're.

You just wrote another one. We're writing another one for January. So, I mean, we are constantly putting out new content.

And these, so, so many times in my coaching calls or on these KLP calls, I refer people right back to lessons because we can't get into everything that we.

So I'll do a lot of, hey, we'll talk about this this is next steps right now. Go listen to this lesson and then next call we're going to come back and we're going to dig in even more.

What questions did you have? And most of our material, we have workshops or worksheets to take them through another process because, I mean, there is just layers and layers that we can get into.

You can skim the surface of a lesson or you can really dig in. And so many times we're really working to get to that lower level, that depth because that's where the change happens.

Well, and, you know, I'll be honest, when I started my leadership career again 30+ years ago, or, gosh, longer than that, one of the things is, you know, I did as so many leaders still to this day do, hey, let's find a good book and we will go through this as a team.

It is just listen, if you're doing that right now, I love you, I appreciate you, but you will eventually learn as you get into your third meeting that nobody read it because they realized you're just going to touch everything anyways.

You're going to learn that that is a long, long, long process. And the amount of return, you know, the ROI on that. I wish it was better. If it was better, I would have just continued to do it myself.

But what I discovered early on is this isn't going to cut it. I need to, I need to create ways to grow my, my team at a much faster pace. That's the concept.

You know, that, that's the difference is, you know, if you're leading and teaching them through taking a leadership book and trying to discuss concepts, that's great. You know, I'm glad you're doing it. This is that on massive steroids, right?

This has taken them through heavy duty lessons, giving them those worksheets, giving them the, you know, the ability to work through implementing.

What does this look like? Having conversations with coaches, all that kind of stuff. And I think that's just, it's such a big difference.

And, you know, as you're talking through it, I just go back to my early days and I just laugh at myself because I remember so, you know, being in there with my leaders going, all right, so who read the chapter?

Nobody. A couple weeks ago because we literally had, I'm not naming names. One of our, one of our members was like, why didn't they read the book?

I don't understand why they didn't read the book. And I'm like, yeah, well, I get you. Let's, let's set some different expectations. And we just talked through it. But it is so funny. It's true. They're not going to read the book.

No. No, because they know you're going to do it. They know you're going to discuss it anyways and they're going to spend time on something else.

So how does this program differ from other leadership programs? I want you to jump on in that.

But one of the things I will say is there's a world of difference and telling somebody to go read a book and expecting them to learn from it and somebody actively participating in teaching and training.

So what would you say? How does this differ from other leadership programs? You know, I think the big thing is the group aspect.

When you have a cohort or a group that you're building relationship with and you're able to really dig into things beyond the Sunday school answer is what we call it.

You know, we ask a question and then it's like, yes, I think I should grow in this way.

You know, it's, it's, we, we get deeper than that. We get to, you know what, last week I did this and I wasn't sure.

You know, we help people process through things, and I think that that's something that's different from us is we look at Root Systems a lot and so we teach people about that and people can start to process through, why am I doing this?

And we can help them get to those levels where we're not just skimming past.

As a leader, you should do X, Y and Z to blah, blah, blah. Exactly. It's, we get deep and we actually foster that in our groups. So group members then learn to ask each other those types of beyond surface level questions.

They dig in. We share things and so we do that and we foster that in the groups that we're teaching. And then leaders learn to do that with their team.

It's not this like this, the taboo. We can't ask questions that, that are difficult and they become less and less difficult. The more consistent it is, the more we allow safe space for those types of conversations to happen.

So I think that that is a big difference with what we teach and maybe what others. It's, maybe it's more beyond just leadership. It's people skills and teaching how people are and how they respond and why they respond the way that they do.

I mean, there's, we teach DISC, we teach Values, we teach, I mean, so there's layers and layers and layers.

And I think when people start to understand these things, they're able to approach things from so many different angles, and they have a lot more perspective and awareness and pause.

I think there's so much time that we don't pause to think about what's really happening in this situation.

Well, again, you know, you pointed this out, and again, we don't want this to sound as though this is a place to come and dump because that is absolutely not what it is.

What it is. You get called out if you make it a, if you come in as a victim, but the ability to discuss, hey, I don't understand. My leader. Hey, I don't understand.

Now, you know, as a leader, you're like, well, why don't they just come to me? Think about that. Put yourself in their shoes. When you were in their shoes, did you just go to your leader and go, I really don't understand you.

Could you explain yourself to me? Having the ability to, you know, with like minded people going through, say, it's the same thing as the Mastermind program.

Why do business owners and executive leaders join that? Because they're actually able to go through this with other people who are experiencing what they're experiencing.

They're not going to, you know, they're not listening to their, you know, their, their brother Fred, who's never actually been in leadership at all, give all the advice that he has, or, you know, their friend who's, you know, never done anything but is telling them how they should run their business.

It's that same thing with the, the Key Leader is being able to be around other folks going, you know what? I have a leader with that personality style, too, and here's the things that I struggle with.

What are the, you know, here's some tools that I've learned, or here's some things that you can do, or here's how to lean in their direction. That, that personal approach, I think, is what's so crazy powerful.

Conclusion (00:44:42)

So what would you say to a leader who's kind of, like, considering, hey, I, this sounds good. I'd love to join this, this Key Leader Program, but I'm not really sure about the, the potential impact.

What would you say to them? The thing is we have people join this program and they just want to test it out. And the thing is, you can we invite you to come and test it out and see if it's a good fit?

Nine times out of ten, those people don't leave because we are a place where people feel comfortable. Everything that we talk about is relatable at some level or another.

And the big thing is we create community within our groups. And we're able to just, I talked about this earlier, being able to ask questions, tax collective intelligence.

And we grow together. We're learning and talking about topics that are applicable. Very, very applicable.

And if it's not happening to us now, it might be happening to us the next month.

And so being around people, like-minded people that are trying to grow and go in the same direction, it is invaluable access to a core group that is just, and a lot of times our members are champions, people that invest in themselves or that have leaders that invest in them.

They're champions. They're the ones that are going to make the difference. They're going to implement. And sometimes we don't, and some people don't stay with us.

But that's okay, too, because we want those growth minded members that are going to contribute and that, and we do actually, we do tell people, hey, this isn't a place where you just come and watch.

We do expect active participation. And I actually, a lot of times will go, okay, we're starting here and we're, everybody's going through passes.

That's just not the type of group we are. We want to contribute and, and that's what we teach people to do, especially for those that aren't the High Is or the natural born leaders.

We're giving them a safe place to practice those skills and to just, again, learn in that safe community with like minded individuals. And so what I tell you is, if you are a leader interested, call us.

Give me a call. Talk or email, probably we do email, but I'd love to just talk to you and find out if it is a good fit because it has been a good fit for so many people and has really helped businesses change.

And, yeah, so, yeah, again, I go back to what our, what our Mastermind clients have said and how blown away that they have been in.

Oh, my go, gosh, this just elevated. Our conversations are different now because we're able to talk about things at such a higher level. So, yes.

So, folks, as you're listening, if you are ready to transform your leadership, if you are ready to empower your Key Leaders to, you know, drive your business to new heights, then join our Key Leader Program.

Do it today. Experience the profound impact of expert coaching of tailored leadership development.

I promise it will blow you away. All you have to do is visit chrislocurto.com/keyleader. One word, key leader. To learn more and sign up for our next session.

Do not pass this up. Just gain more insight on it. It will blow you away. All right, Nay, so great having you on. I love this.

Obviously, again, I'm super proud of everything that you guys are doing. The team is doing a in guiding and directing these leaders to such greater expertise.

But thanks for coming on your debut on the show. We got to get two back to back shows out of it. That's fantastic. I am so glad. I hope I could come back because this was so much fun.

I know. It is a boss, my highest, I will be honest, was a little nervous, but we're just having conversations. I loved that. Yeah. Like you said, nine years in the making, it's finally here, so.

All right, folks. Well, we hope this has helped you today. Hopefully you have heard Lyneé's heart and all the amazing things that she is doing that Aaron is doing with our Key Leader Program.

We want to help you. That is our goal. We want to help you. So as always, take this information, change your leadership, change your business, change your life. Life. And join us on the next episode.