Episode 24

Eliminating Blindspots: How Leadership Drives Fast Growth

Three experts discuss the critical role leadership plays in accelerating small business growth, including the blindspots most leaders face, the benefits of good leadership, and practical solutions using psychometric assessments.

Transcript
Speaker:

. Dennis Collins: Hello, everyone.

Speaker:

Welcome to another episode of Connect and Convert, a podcast where we

Speaker:

share with small business owners insider secrets to grow your sales.

Speaker:

faster than ever.

Speaker:

I'm Dennis Collins.

Speaker:

And hi, I'm Leah Bumfrey.

Speaker:

Hi, Leah.

Speaker:

You you came back.

Speaker:

I was hoping you'd keep joining me.

Speaker:

I thought.

Speaker:

Oh, you

Leah Bumphry:

don't you don't you can't scare me away that easily,

Dennis Collins:

Dennis.

Dennis Collins:

Good.

Dennis Collins:

We're glad to have you.

Dennis Collins:

Hey, we have a special special guest today, Leah.

Dennis Collins:

Uh we're gonna take a deep dive into the brain of a subject matter expert.

Dennis Collins:

Okay, this guy has a lot of information, and he's got a very

Dennis Collins:

big title to go along with it.

Dennis Collins:

His name is Paul Boomer.

Dennis Collins:

His title is Employee Relationship, I'm sorry, Employee and Leadership

Dennis Collins:

Optimization, Company Culture Advisor, Wizard of Ads, Managing Partner.

Dennis Collins:

Wow.

Leah Bumphry:

That's not just fooling around,

Dennis Collins:

that's real stuff.

Dennis Collins:

That's real stuff.

Dennis Collins:

And believe me, uh, if you ever see his class, Paul Boomer

Dennis Collins:

come up on the wizardacademy.

Dennis Collins:

org site.

Dennis Collins:

Take it.

Dennis Collins:

It's a transformational class.

Dennis Collins:

You will never think about leadership and culture the same way again.

Dennis Collins:

It gets you right where it counts.

Dennis Collins:

So I highly recommend it.

Dennis Collins:

We thank Wizard of Ads, or I'm sorry, Wizard Academy, for being

Dennis Collins:

a sponsor of Connect and Convert.

Dennis Collins:

I know you think highly of it.

Dennis Collins:

There are so

Leah Bumphry:

many great Absolutely.

Leah Bumphry:

There's so many great instructors, and the fact that we get to interview

Leah Bumphry:

Paul, we've had a few on, this is just stupendous, and you and I both

Leah Bumphry:

are, well, the Academy's close to our hearts, but check out wizardacademy.

Leah Bumphry:

org.

Leah Bumphry:

There are so many courses, there's so much information.

Leah Bumphry:

Do it.

Leah Bumphry:

If you're a small business owner, it's worth your time.

Dennis Collins:

Totally.

Dennis Collins:

Uh, of all the things about Paul Boomer, though, the thing that's

Dennis Collins:

special to us is that he's a colleague.

Dennis Collins:

A fellow Wizard of Ads partner, okay?

Dennis Collins:

He's a friend.

Dennis Collins:

But most of all, he is the producer of Connect and Convert.

Dennis Collins:

Without Paul Boomer, you would not be seeing Leah or me, or hearing Leah or me.

Dennis Collins:

That's

Leah Bumphry:

literally, literally you would not be able to.

Leah Bumphry:

You and I are not the tech giants.

Leah Bumphry:

We're not even the tech midgets.

Leah Bumphry:

We need Boomer in our life.

Dennis Collins:

Technical bypass.

Dennis Collins:

Very successful technical bypass for me.

Dennis Collins:

So, So, today, what are we going to try to do with Paul?

Dennis Collins:

So, provide our small business owners with a framework to uncover the good,

Dennis Collins:

the bad, the ugly about leadership inside their company and cultural issues.

Dennis Collins:

Hey Paul, are you there?

Dennis Collins:

Paul M. Boomer: I am

Dennis Collins:

sir.

Dennis Collins:

With the big mic.

Dennis Collins:

There we go.

Dennis Collins:

Usually, usually behind the scenes, but today we are proud,

Dennis Collins:

honored to have him as our guest.

Dennis Collins:

So let's jump right in.

Dennis Collins:

Anything else you want to add to your resume?

Dennis Collins:

I mean, you know, I tried to think of the things that I think

Dennis Collins:

are most important, but do you have anything you'd like to add?

Dennis Collins:

Paul M. Boomer: I.

Dennis Collins:

No, I have plenty of things I could add, but I don't think we have enough

Dennis Collins:

time for everything we want to talk

Dennis Collins:

about.

Dennis Collins:

I know.

Dennis Collins:

I mean, it would take a long time because

Dennis Collins:

your resume is extensive.

Dennis Collins:

But the most important point we want to make today is you are the subject matter

Dennis Collins:

expert on all things leadership and culture, particularly in small businesses.

Dennis Collins:

That's the point we want to make today.

Dennis Collins:

So let me ask you just, you know, the basic question.

Dennis Collins:

How did you get into this?

Dennis Collins:

Why did you decide to go that direction?

Dennis Collins:

There's, you know, the Wizard of Oz partners do a lot of different things.

Dennis Collins:

Why did you choose this particular direction?

Dennis Collins:

Paul M. Boomer: Leadership to me is a key to really advancing humanity

Dennis Collins:

without it, without somebody, without people who truly want to help others.

Dennis Collins:

And make progress in everything other than just humanity, but uh, you know

Dennis Collins:

financially and resourcefully and such You have to have good leadership to understand

Dennis Collins:

How it all plays together and one of the key things that that brought me here was

Dennis Collins:

in high school, uh actually before that I was in special education and I very much

Dennis Collins:

doubted myself a lot of the time and for whatever reason, throughout my, my entire

Dennis Collins:

career in, as a student, I was put into leadership roles and I just kind of didn't

Dennis Collins:

understand why I'm like, why am I here?

Dennis Collins:

Why am I here?

Dennis Collins:

And I kind of lost that, but then something unfortunate happened, which

Dennis Collins:

is, well, lots of little unfortunate things happen for instance, my,

Dennis Collins:

my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer and metastatic breast cancer.

Dennis Collins:

And then my father, uh, he, he passed away suddenly and he worked for a company.

Dennis Collins:

For his one company for his entire life.

Dennis Collins:

And it was a rough time with that company at times.

Dennis Collins:

And it taught me a lot.

Dennis Collins:

And because of that, I've come back to, okay, how can I take what I have already

Dennis Collins:

experienced and help others help others?

Dennis Collins:

Because I can only, you know, help a few people, but if I can help

Dennis Collins:

leaders, they're already helping 20, 30, 50, 1500 people at once.

Dennis Collins:

Wow.

Dennis Collins:

That's, that's very.

Dennis Collins:

Very moving.

Dennis Collins:

I mean, very, uh, emotional, very, very an interesting why, Leah,

Dennis Collins:

that's, how did that strike you?

Dennis Collins:

Well, you know

Leah Bumphry:

what, anything that we do in this world, if someone

Leah Bumphry:

tells us to do it, eh, we'll do it.

Leah Bumphry:

But if it's from our heart?

Leah Bumphry:

We do it really well.

Leah Bumphry:

That's, that's why Paul does this so well.

Dennis Collins:

You know, you're right, and the man has a heart of gold.

Dennis Collins:

Uh, I sometimes tell him he doesn't know when to say no.

Dennis Collins:

Because he will just, yeah, he will just do it.

Dennis Collins:

That's who Paul Boomer is.

Dennis Collins:

So, thank you for sharing that very personal reflection.

Dennis Collins:

Um, on, on why you do this.

Dennis Collins:

So, so can we jump right in to the deep end of the pool?

Dennis Collins:

Come on.

Dennis Collins:

Absolutely.

Dennis Collins:

What do you, what do you see?

Dennis Collins:

What do you see today as you look around and talk to people and

Dennis Collins:

clients and would be clients, what are the biggest leadership problems

Dennis Collins:

that small businesses face today?

Dennis Collins:

Paul M. Boomer: That they're unwilling to actually look at themselves and the

Dennis Collins:

potential that they have to accelerate.

Dennis Collins:

Their own business and themselves and the people inside.

Dennis Collins:

So I like the word you use accelerate.

Dennis Collins:

Do you, obviously you have some idea that leadership accelerates business.

Dennis Collins:

Talk to me about that.

Dennis Collins:

Talk to us.

Dennis Collins:

Paul M. Boomer: Absolutely.

Dennis Collins:

Of course.

Dennis Collins:

You know, if let's just imagine somebody is in the position of let's talk about

Dennis Collins:

managers, let's say, and they're just kind of in, you know, The mode of autopilot

Dennis Collins:

taking care of, of their direct reports.

Dennis Collins:

And I'm not saying taking care of as in coddling, coddling them or not

Dennis Collins:

coddling them and being very strict and to the point and, and such, but

Dennis Collins:

they are understanding of personal establishments, personal behaviors, uh,

Dennis Collins:

psychology, uh, all these things along with work habits, along with the thing.

Dennis Collins:

That, that person is in that job to do, if they, if a manager understands that and

Dennis Collins:

can combine it, you now have an employee who will work harder because they want

Dennis Collins:

to, because they are there on purpose.

Dennis Collins:

And they might have some struggles sometimes here and there, but that's

Dennis Collins:

what a manager is there to do.

Dennis Collins:

It's not to tell them how to do the job.

Dennis Collins:

It's to tell them, here's my expectations based off of X, Y, and Z.

Dennis Collins:

How do you think you can do it better?

Dennis Collins:

And without that manager role, that, and that goes from anywhere

Dennis Collins:

from the very bottom of a tree, so to speak, uh, employee tree

Dennis Collins:

all the way up to the very top.

Dennis Collins:

So the person who owns the company, if you don't have that understanding,

Dennis Collins:

you're just kind of sailing in the wind, just kind of going in a wet

Dennis Collins:

direction, but you're not getting there with focus and it's slowing you down.

Dennis Collins:

Leah, does that, you know, you have been.

Dennis Collins:

You know, in the workplace for a while, a couple of years, any of that.

Dennis Collins:

Yeah.

Dennis Collins:

Two or three years, you know, no big deal, but you've probably formed some

Dennis Collins:

opinions about what Boomer just said.

Dennis Collins:

I'd love your take on that.

Dennis Collins:

Well,

Leah Bumphry:

yeah, it's again, it's that purpose of, of what, what you

Leah Bumphry:

need for people that you're choosing to follow or that you have to follow

Leah Bumphry:

nothing worse than having to follow someone who's not leading properly.

Leah Bumphry:

Or is leading half the flock.

Leah Bumphry:

That's tough, that is really tough to see someone who is able to, you know,

Leah Bumphry:

properly manage some, but not all of, of the people that they're, they're charged

Leah Bumphry:

with, with helping create success.

Leah Bumphry:

And sometimes people will make an excuse for that.

Leah Bumphry:

And I'd like your take on this, Paul, because, you know, they'll say, Oh,

Leah Bumphry:

well, it's easier to manage that person or that person is, is, is

Leah Bumphry:

just, there's a connection there.

Leah Bumphry:

Not so much a connection over here.

Leah Bumphry:

How, what's your response to that?

Leah Bumphry:

I'm

Leah Bumphry:

Paul M. Boomer: curious.

Leah Bumphry:

Yeah, I've, I've, I've seen that happen many, many times.

Leah Bumphry:

And when that happens, there's two, two sides of this.

Leah Bumphry:

When that happens, the person who's not getting, um, the attention that they,

Leah Bumphry:

they deserve, they are kind of the canary in the coal mine where they start going.

Leah Bumphry:

I don't know if I want to be here.

Leah Bumphry:

I, I, I'm not getting what I need now.

Leah Bumphry:

And their productivity goes down.

Leah Bumphry:

And they're very likely one of the best employees that you don't know you have

Leah Bumphry:

and they leave and that's a horrible thing to experience because you just

Leah Bumphry:

missed out on a great opportunity now for the manager from their perspective,

Leah Bumphry:

they must understand that yes, there may not be a deeper connection

Leah Bumphry:

with that individual, but it's your responsibility to figure out what and

Leah Bumphry:

how to have that deeper conversation or that deeper, deeper relationship.

Leah Bumphry:

That is the job of a manager,

Dennis Collins:

but Paul, that having been a manager most of my life,

Dennis Collins:

um, that's easier said than done.

Dennis Collins:

Paul M. Boomer: Oh, yeah.

Dennis Collins:

Oh, yeah.

Dennis Collins:

And why, why is that?

Dennis Collins:

What's, what's going on in the brain of the

Dennis Collins:

Paul M. Boomer: leader?

Dennis Collins:

Well, I mean, I'm going to, you know, kind of pull you out, uh, here and point

Dennis Collins:

the finger at you, Dennis, social styles.

Dennis Collins:

Social styles.

Dennis Collins:

I can take it.

Dennis Collins:

You know, I know.

Dennis Collins:

Oh, I know.

Dennis Collins:

But people are intrinsically different.

Dennis Collins:

I mean, we come on, there's no two people who are truly exactly alike.

Dennis Collins:

Now, the three of us.

Dennis Collins:

Yeah, exactly.

Dennis Collins:

Exactly.

Dennis Collins:

Now, I am a Myers Briggs type indicator, uh, uh, certified practitioner,

Dennis Collins:

which means if you've ever heard of ENFP, INFP, four letters and

Dennis Collins:

such, um, I can do that assessment.

Dennis Collins:

You, Dennis, you have the social styles.

Dennis Collins:

Those two are very closely related.

Dennis Collins:

But we know that if we understand each other in the language that you think,

Dennis Collins:

Dennis, in the language that you think, Leah, I can change the way I address you.

Dennis Collins:

So that I'm speaking your language.

Dennis Collins:

So it's, what we, uh, The Wizard of Oz says quite a lot is speak to

Dennis Collins:

the dog in the language of the dog.

Dennis Collins:

Speak to the person in the language of the person.

Dennis Collins:

And just by doing that, just by stretching to somewhere that may be a little

Dennis Collins:

uncomfortable for you, you're showing your employee that you care and you create,

Dennis Collins:

you start creating a deeper relationship.

Dennis Collins:

Now, there's things that need to be done after that and continuously,

Dennis Collins:

but that's a great place to start is just communication.

Dennis Collins:

Excellent point.

Dennis Collins:

I want to, I want to tag onto that in one second, but I also want

Dennis Collins:

to mention you brought up Myers Briggs and you are a certified.

Dennis Collins:

Practitioner of Myers Briggs, and you're also certified in

Dennis Collins:

the leadership circle, right?

Dennis Collins:

Yes.

Dennis Collins:

I don't know the full title.

Dennis Collins:

I think, but why don't you explain to our listeners what that

Dennis Collins:

Paul M. Boomer: is?

Dennis Collins:

Absolutely.

Dennis Collins:

So the leadership circle profile is one of the absolute best.

Dennis Collins:

I'm going to say a word that people go and go, no, it's at the very basic.

Dennis Collins:

It is a three 60 assessment, meaning.

Dennis Collins:

I evaluate myself, my boss evaluates me, my peers evaluate me, some of my

Dennis Collins:

friends might evaluate me, my direct reports evaluate me, and all these

Dennis Collins:

surveys kind of come into one thing and says, here you go, here's what,

Dennis Collins:

what, how you're seeing, uh, how you see yourself versus how others see you.

Dennis Collins:

Now, the reason why I say a lot of people just kind of screech it

Dennis Collins:

at 360 is because most of them are like, okay, here's the survey, uh,

Dennis Collins:

responses and here's your problems now.

Dennis Collins:

Go fix them.

Dennis Collins:

That's about it.

Dennis Collins:

That's where it leaves off.

Dennis Collins:

What

Dennis Collins:

Paul M. Boomer: I love about the, uh, leader, uh, the leadership circle is

Dennis Collins:

the fact that they spent over 25 years researching with the top people in all

Dennis Collins:

in psychology, in sociology, in social sociology, in adult learning process,

Dennis Collins:

uh, uh, adult learning and business, everything they took their time and they.

Dennis Collins:

Have decided, Hey, what got you here today as a leader is phenomenal.

Dennis Collins:

You're a leader because there's a reason let's celebrate that reason.

Dennis Collins:

However, here are some other things that are directly tied to business success and

Dennis Collins:

growth that you may not be great at, and they point those out and they show you

Dennis Collins:

where you've been and where you could go.

Dennis Collins:

Very successfully, if you have the right 360 or the right

Dennis Collins:

person to collaborate with.

Dennis Collins:

Oh.

Dennis Collins:

That's hard.

Dennis Collins:

You know, I have used that in social styles.

Dennis Collins:

They also have a 360 program.

Dennis Collins:

Paul M. Boomer: Can I actually add something?

Dennis Collins:

Sorry?

Dennis Collins:

Can I add something?

Dennis Collins:

Oh, of course.

Dennis Collins:

Let me put it in a slightly better It's your show.

Dennis Collins:

Easier Well, that is true.

Dennis Collins:

I do have the buttons

Dennis Collins:

here.

Dennis Collins:

You have control more than more than you know.

Dennis Collins:

All

Dennis Collins:

Paul M. Boomer: right.

Dennis Collins:

Well, good point.

Dennis Collins:

Good point.

Dennis Collins:

The um, other way that I explain it is it's like a 10 speed bicycle

Dennis Collins:

where you have it in the lowest gear and you're pedaling fast,

Dennis Collins:

fast, fast, fast, fast, fast.

Dennis Collins:

And you're just huffing and puffing and you, but you're

Dennis Collins:

going like two miles an hour.

Dennis Collins:

You're like, Oh my gosh, I'm not going to get there.

Dennis Collins:

And I'm going to just collapse.

Dennis Collins:

Right?

Dennis Collins:

Yeah.

Dennis Collins:

The other side is you have it on highest gear and you're pedaling.

Dennis Collins:

And you just, you're, oh my god, your legs are burning and everything.

Dennis Collins:

What the Leadership Circle profile is, the gear ratio saying, Okay, here's the

Dennis Collins:

great gear ratio that works best for you.

Dennis Collins:

So you can get up to speed as quickly as possible and then get even further.

Dennis Collins:

Wow.

Dennis Collins:

You have explained it to me several times and that was, I

Dennis Collins:

think, your best explanation.

Dennis Collins:

I, I, You help advance my knowledge on that.

Dennis Collins:

Let's say someone who's listening is saying, Damn, I'd like to do that.

Dennis Collins:

Okay, well, we'll talk certainly towards the end of this podcast

Dennis Collins:

episode, but how do they reach you?

Dennis Collins:

How can they find out more about this?

Dennis Collins:

The

Dennis Collins:

Paul M. Boomer: easiest thing to do is, is email me directly.

Dennis Collins:

It's PaulBoomer at WizardOfAds.

Dennis Collins:

com or you can go to WizardOfAds.

Dennis Collins:

com and find me in the partner list and you can reach me through that.

Dennis Collins:

Um,

Dennis Collins:

I hope a lot of our listeners will do

Dennis Collins:

that a couple of other quick,

Dennis Collins:

Paul M. Boomer: or you can just simply email us info, info at

Dennis Collins:

convert, uh, connecting convert.

Dennis Collins:

com and it comes to all three of us one way

Leah Bumphry:

or another, if someone needs you, there's no reason not to find you,

Leah Bumphry:

Paul M. Boomer: you're there, you know,

Dennis Collins:

a couple of quick questions now that's, that

Dennis Collins:

occurred to me, okay, let, let's get down to real life scenario.

Dennis Collins:

Okay.

Dennis Collins:

You've identified in your small business, a leadership problem.

Dennis Collins:

Now, what do

Dennis Collins:

Paul M. Boomer: I do?

Dennis Collins:

So I would always recommend starting with, uh, uh, the leadership circle

Dennis Collins:

profile, because that really opens up the floodgates of understanding

Dennis Collins:

who you are, how you act, why you, and having conversations around that,

Dennis Collins:

and also seeing how people see you because you're It's hard to read the

Dennis Collins:

label from, from inside the bottle.

Dennis Collins:

Right.

Dennis Collins:

So being able to understand that nuance is utterly important.

Dennis Collins:

So take a leadership circle profile and then have a conversation with a

Dennis Collins:

trusted mentor about, okay, here's why I might be, um, a micromanager,

Dennis Collins:

which is very common, very common, especially in, in, in the higher uh,

Dennis Collins:

leadership roles and what's amazing.

Dennis Collins:

Is they can, after conversations, they can pinpoint exactly why

Dennis Collins:

they might be micromanager.

Dennis Collins:

For instance, I have a client right now who, um, grew up,

Dennis Collins:

who's extremely micromanaging.

Dennis Collins:

He, he, he does not allow a penny to go out or in unless he knows about

Dennis Collins:

it, even though he has somebody who takes care of that, right?

Dennis Collins:

But he has control because he grew up in a family that had what, that their,

Dennis Collins:

his father was, um, was an alcoholic.

Dennis Collins:

He had to take control of his own life for him to survive.

Dennis Collins:

That's what I'm talking about.

Dennis Collins:

So if you understand that and you understand where you're going, have

Dennis Collins:

those conversations with a mentor and then have your leadership,

Dennis Collins:

excuse me, leadership team have that same conversations individually.

Dennis Collins:

And then as a group, Hey, Dennis, here's what I'm trying to stretch.

Dennis Collins:

I need your help.

Dennis Collins:

Can you do that?

Dennis Collins:

Are you willing to do that for me?

Dennis Collins:

How can I help you having those conversations immediately changes how

Dennis Collins:

the operations work, how leadership team works together and individually.

Dennis Collins:

So it comes down to recognition.

Dennis Collins:

And what's almost frightening is I can tell the success of a company by

Dennis Collins:

how much the leadership team reflects on themselves, because if they don't

Dennis Collins:

reflect, they're not going very far.

Dennis Collins:

They might just be an autopilot, but if they're more willing to reflect on

Dennis Collins:

themselves, they will put that wind in those sails and carry on pretty fast.

Dennis Collins:

So,

Dennis Collins:

uh, interesting.

Dennis Collins:

I mean, what I, what I hear, and that was a great explanation again

Dennis Collins:

of what do I do, but it sounds to me like your best course of action

Dennis Collins:

is to get outside help and opinions.

Dennis Collins:

It's very hard to do this.

Dennis Collins:

Inside the bottle, as you said, would

Dennis Collins:

Paul M. Boomer: that be accurate?

Dennis Collins:

No, absolutely.

Dennis Collins:

And, and I think, uh, you both of you know about Johari's window.

Dennis Collins:

It's kind of the same concept of, of, you know, being inside the bottle.

Dennis Collins:

You have the known self known by others, but not, not known myself and so on

Dennis Collins:

and so forth, and that's another time.

Dennis Collins:

But, um, there's a quadrant that's not known to self and not known by others.

Dennis Collins:

Yep.

Dennis Collins:

You're just never going to know these things unless you seek them out.

Dennis Collins:

It's that dark corner in the room.

Dennis Collins:

We all know about those dark corners.

Dennis Collins:

Paul M. Boomer: We all know about those dark corners and they affect us.

Dennis Collins:

They affect us in everything that we do every single day.

Dennis Collins:

See, and that's, that's the point.

Dennis Collins:

I don't think my, again, from what I've seen over all my 153 years doing this.

Dennis Collins:

Is that a lot of small business owners don't see this, this is a blind spot.

Dennis Collins:

It's a blind spot for them personally.

Dennis Collins:

And it's a blind spot about their leadership team.

Dennis Collins:

Yeah.

Dennis Collins:

It's virtually the only way to see it.

Dennis Collins:

It, how do you get rid of a blind spot?

Dennis Collins:

You know, I mean,

Dennis Collins:

Paul M. Boomer: look, you have

Dennis Collins:

another spot or you got to have another view, another outlook,

Dennis Collins:

Paul M. Boomer: right?

Dennis Collins:

Yeah, absolutely.

Dennis Collins:

And without them, you're It's without them, it's becomes extremely difficult.

Dennis Collins:

You can do it, but it is slow.

Leah Bumphry:

Okay.

Leah Bumphry:

So not to put you on the spot, Paul, but what happens if somebody is, uh,

Leah Bumphry:

let's say there's a team and somebody is elevated to the position of leader,

Leah Bumphry:

the position of manager outside the team, I've heard both arguments for and

Leah Bumphry:

against that, what you're saying, it kind of brought that into my head because

Leah Bumphry:

essentially, if you're working with a peer group, those peers, no, Know the stuff

Leah Bumphry:

that you're not good at better than the person you're supposedly working for.

Leah Bumphry:

So it's now all of a sudden they're working for you.

Leah Bumphry:

How does that end up?

Leah Bumphry:

Is it a good thing?

Leah Bumphry:

Can it

Leah Bumphry:

Paul M. Boomer: be a good thing?

Leah Bumphry:

It can absolutely be a good thing because what that forces an

Leah Bumphry:

organization to do, and there's, there's a process to go through this.

Leah Bumphry:

It always has to start from the very top before you can really do this.

Leah Bumphry:

And let me explain why that is.

Leah Bumphry:

In order to do this well, you have to have psychological safety.

Leah Bumphry:

Meaning if I'm going to converse with my boss about something that might

Leah Bumphry:

be a little touchy, I have to know that I'm not going to be canned.

Leah Bumphry:

I'm not going to have repercussions.

Leah Bumphry:

So you have to do this from the very top so that everybody else sees, okay, I see

Leah Bumphry:

that there's psychological safety here.

Leah Bumphry:

And then you start very slowly kind of going down, down the pipeline.

Leah Bumphry:

It's extremely useful.

Leah Bumphry:

Other thing that goes with that is both parties or all parties have to be

Leah Bumphry:

willing to keep their ears and eyes open.

Leah Bumphry:

And no, we're not here to, to, to make each other feel bad or anything.

Leah Bumphry:

No, we're here for a purpose.

Leah Bumphry:

Our purpose is this we're doing this thing over here, this three 60 or

Leah Bumphry:

whatever, to be better at the purpose at getting somewhere that we want to go.

Leah Bumphry:

You know, that, that's a very common thing because something

Leah Bumphry:

about self assessments is.

Leah Bumphry:

Well, I'm not going to write down my, I don't know if, I don't know if

Leah Bumphry:

they're going to know my name or not.

Leah Bumphry:

And, and so they're not going to be honest with their boss because they

Leah Bumphry:

don't know, because there are so many stories out there, unfortunately,

Leah Bumphry:

where names are shared, even though it was supposed to be anonymous.

Leah Bumphry:

Yep.

Leah Bumphry:

And then all of a sudden, a few weeks later, they're gone.

Leah Bumphry:

Well, here's the thing about this as well with this, uh, specific,

Leah Bumphry:

uh, tool that I have in my pocket.

Leah Bumphry:

I don't even know who said what.

Leah Bumphry:

, and I'm the one administering it.

Leah Bumphry:

Yeah.

Leah Bumphry:

So I don't even know if Leah, you say something about Dennis.

Leah Bumphry:

I, I don't know that she, she'd tell

Dennis Collins:

me to my, we,

Leah Bumphry:

we promised that we weren't gonna talk

Dennis Collins:

about that.

Dennis Collins:

No, Leah would tell me to my face.

Dennis Collins:

She would learn it right out.

Dennis Collins:

There's no doubt in my mind.

Dennis Collins:

Anyways, I know we're running short on time, but I want to, we've

Dennis Collins:

talked about some of the negatives.

Dennis Collins:

Let's close this out on a positive.

Dennis Collins:

Okay.

Dennis Collins:

What are the positive benefits of great leadership?

Dennis Collins:

When you have great leadership, what wonderful things happen

Dennis Collins:

to you and your business?

Dennis Collins:

Paul M. Boomer: I was going to say, I'm going to keep it to business.

Dennis Collins:

First and foremost, you become more profitable very quickly.

Dennis Collins:

Second, you become a, somewhere that some place that's people want to work.

Dennis Collins:

Recruiting becomes easier.

Dennis Collins:

Keeping people in the business becomes easier and you continue to make the

Dennis Collins:

difference that you want to make.

Dennis Collins:

However, whatever that is, it accelerates everything.

Dennis Collins:

You've used that word a couple of times.

Dennis Collins:

Accelerate.

Dennis Collins:

I love the word.

Dennis Collins:

That's a very active word, isn't it?

Dennis Collins:

It connotes forward movement, fast forward movement.

Dennis Collins:

Yes, that's what it's about.

Dennis Collins:

What, this is like a master class, Leah.

Dennis Collins:

It is.

Dennis Collins:

Here's the

Dennis Collins:

Paul M. Boomer: problem, guys.

Dennis Collins:

We don't have enough time to talk about this stuff.

Dennis Collins:

Because it is such a large topic.

Dennis Collins:

And there's so many gurus out there who only scratch the surface.

Dennis Collins:

And that's the problem.

Dennis Collins:

There's so, so much more below that, that you have to understand to really

Dennis Collins:

get it and really, uh, get your business to go where you want it to go.

Dennis Collins:

Well, I

Leah Bumphry:

think we have to pursue this another time, and, uh, there's

Leah Bumphry:

just too much that we should still be covering, so, I, we know where to

Leah Bumphry:

find you, everyone does, but let's make it easy and find you here.

Dennis Collins:

Will you join us again for another episode?

Dennis Collins:

Absolutely.

Dennis Collins:

Absolutely.

Dennis Collins:

Uh, this has been wonderful.

Dennis Collins:

I thank you not only for your excellent production skills,

Dennis Collins:

but your wealth of knowledge.

Dennis Collins:

Uh, you're definitely the subject matter expert in business leadership.

Dennis Collins:

And business culture.

Dennis Collins:

And our listeners got just a little taste of that today.

Dennis Collins:

Just a little bitty taste.

Dennis Collins:

So, we'll welcome you back, Paul Boomer, Wizard of Ads, partner,

Dennis Collins:

and Paul Boomer at WizardOfAds.

Dennis Collins:

com That's how you find this gentleman.

Dennis Collins:

He's worth finding.

Dennis Collins:

Right, Leah?

Dennis Collins:

Gotcha.

Dennis Collins:

Okay, guys.

Dennis Collins:

Thank you both.

Dennis Collins:

We're, we're signing off this edition of Connect and Convert.

Dennis Collins:

Stay tuned.

Dennis Collins:

We'll be back next time.

Next Episode All Episodes Previous Episode

About the Podcast

Show artwork for Connect & Convert: The Sales Accelerator Podcast
Connect & Convert: The Sales Accelerator Podcast
Insider Strategies for Small Business Sales Success

Listen for free

About your hosts

Profile picture for Dennis Collins

Dennis Collins

Profile picture for Paul Boomer

Paul Boomer

I help businesses grow up after they've grown their revenue. Think about that for a moment. You'll understand what I mean.