Lead On with Greg & Mark (LOwGaM)
We invite you to join us as we talk about the world of leadership during times of complexity.
Lead On with Greg & Mark (LOwGaM)
S5 E13: Six Steps To Becoming A Superhero at Work
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Are you feeling the weight of workplace uncertainty? Join us, Greg and Mark, as we explore essential strategies to elevate your value and job security within your organization.
Discover how to enhance your workplace value in this engaging conversation about perseverance and becoming an indispensable asset to your organization.
Equipped with valuable insights and six actionable strategies, we explore the timeless principles that continue to resonate in today's unpredictable job landscape.
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Introduction and Overview
Speaker 1You're listening to Lead On with Greg and Mark, brought to you by the Pennsylvania Association of Intermediate Units. Join us this season as we engage in conversations on leading on through times of complexity. Now for your hosts, Greg and Mark.
Speaker 2Yeah, let's go hey, there dr mark hoffman dr gregory coons, so I'm gloating a little you know why? No, go ahead well let's let's, first of all let's take a a look at what the word gloating means with the definition here. What do you got From the Oxford Languages Dictionary?
Speaker 3Yeah, let's hear it.
Speaker 2So it's gloating, dwelling on one's own success or another's misfortune with smugness or malignant pleasure. I am totally gloating right now, just because. So, listeners, it took us a while to set up this equipment today I think an hour and a half. We were on with customer service from the beginning. I'm like what's different about your office mark, your table? This is all metal. So we were getting this nasty hum, yeah that we, you know we're, we're very uh, you know we, we look out for our listeners. We don't want to hurt your ears, you know. That's why. Why I toned down on the beatboxing. But Hoffman, the whole time, he's like no, it's not the table, it's not the table. I said that I think you did.
Speaker 1I think you did I'm pretty sure.
Speaker 2No. And then at one point he said, let's scrap it.
Speaker 1And I'm not Listen.
Speaker 3I'm persistent, I'm going revisionist history, I think. Who was swapping out the cables? Who brought up our tech support people.
Speaker 2We did everything, including the famous reboot. We did, we did a hard reset on the Rodecaster. So what's the lesson learned? Perseverance, perseverance, it gets get the job done right.
Speaker 3My grandfather used to say let me tell you about my friend Percy Perseverance. He really did, did he really? Yeah, he used to say when I asked him what college or whatever he went to by the way he dropped out of school in like ninth grade. He goes. I went to the school of hard knocks. I remember as a kid going what is that?
Speaker 2Let me rewind he dropped out. He was trying to teach about perseverance and he ends up dropping out. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Speaker 3He needed to drop out to generate revenue for his family. They needed money. Hey, listen, you got to do what you got to do. This is like you know, the World War II generation.
Speaker 2Right, this is a guy that served in World War II.
Speaker 3Yeah, it's a different generation you got to go back 20, some years from there. He's born in the 20s. Yeah, he left high school in ninth grade to get a job. Yeah, oh, very good. And he was very successful as an adult.
Speaker 2I figured you know, because it's that grit and I think part of that generation had that grit Perseverance, perseverance, it was a different kind of perseverance, though. Well, it was survival. It wasn't perseverance of schooling, it was perseverance of survival, survival yeah'll make providing for your family.
Speaker 3Yeah, it's good. It's good when you're like 15.
Speaker 2Yeah, look at you mocking my grandfather I'm actually mocking you I think you did a little bit of a deflection bringing your grandfather up.
Speaker 3I was actually mocking you, it wasn't a deflection.
Speaker 2It was an admiration of someone's.
Speaker 3That's a, that's a life lesson, uh, a piece of advice, something that that resonates.
Speaker 1He used to say that Percy.
Speaker 3Let me tell you about my friend Percy Percy Behrens.
Speaker 2Listeners, I just love this gloating that I'm doing right now.
Speaker 3It's a little Schadenfreude. You know Schadenfreude, the German word, yes, it means deriving pleasure from someone else's misery. That's correct, I'm not miserable.
Speaker 2You have a funny demeanor to you today. There's a funny affect going on. Maybe it's you, maybe it's me.
Speaker 3I have that influence. Maybe you were creating the moment.
Speaker 2Some people bless you by walking in the door, some by leaving there you go.
Speaker 3All right. A few episodes ago, we talked about a resource that I've had in my collection my toolkit for a while. We talked about a resource that I've had in my collection my toolkit for a while. Yes, from like blogs, I used to read when I was starting out in management, this one's from 2008. 2008. Yeah, it's from a blog called Brain Cram. This is I'm not even sure if this blog's still around. This is when I used to use Google Reader, which doesn't even exist anymore, to aggregate blog feeds.
Speaker 2You know, I don't even remember that.
Speaker 3Yeah, blog feeds. You know, I don't even remember that. Yeah, it was like an inbox for blogs. Yeah, yeah, this is called six ways to be more valued by your organization. Yeah, and the tagline is build value and build your security and your future potential. So you know it's.
Speaker 3It's interesting because this is 2008 yeah and the preamble reads like it was written today in this time of economic uncertainty, the need to be secure in your job is generating a high level of anxiety for many people, etc. So we're obviously, you know, dealing with the age of ai yes people being threatened, if you will, or a perceived threat or real threat.
Speaker 3I'm not sure which one it is that ai is going to replace you yes um, we have the threat of outsourcing, the threat of automation, the threat of folks going to school to get degrees that are expensive and then not being able to generate the revenue they need to pay the loans back. Because the job market is what it is Though, you know, it's sort of interesting, depending on who you hear and depending on when you listen to this the state of the job market is highly variable right, it definitely is.
Speaker 3Whether it leans towards the employer, whether it leans toward the employee. The point I'm trying to make is so this was written almost 20 years ago, about 15 years ago, 15, 20 years ago, and the preamble reads like it was written today. It sure does which tells me that this idea of economic uncertainty and job security is probably timeless and universal.
Speaker 2I would agree, Timeless is the word I was looking at as well, and I think you know technology plays a huge role in this.
Speaker 3All right. So this is the six ways. This is from the, like I said, the brain cram blog post in 2008,. Six ways to be more valued by your organization. A lot of these things are also timeless. They might be aggregated here by this resource, but they're definitely not original to this resource. I'll take number one Okay, great.
Speaker 3They always say that when financial times are tough, there's two ways to balance your budget. When financial times are tough, there's two ways to balance your budget. Right, you could increase revenue or you could decrease expenses, etc. So if you are in an organization and you're looking to demonstrate value that's really what we're talking about here You're at any level of an organization, anywhere in the hierarchy. One way to demonstrate your value to the organization is to increase revenue, so, okay. So this is the old analogy of like you know, they use the cliche of those that can bring home the bacon in tough times will be seen as invaluable, right, yes, so in an economy where your organization is struggling and they're thinking about making cuts, furloughs, et cetera, if you're the person that's generating revenue, or more revenue by proportion or by percentage than others probably unlikely that you're going to be the first to go, right.
Speaker 2Yes.
Speaker 3Right. It's probably unlikely that you're going to be the first to go right, yes, right. If you're looking for that promotion and all other factors are equal, the candidate that generates the most revenue for the organization probably.
Speaker 2They're bringing more value.
Speaker 3Yeah, you know, the irony could be that you're so good at bringing in revenue, they don't want to promote you into a non-revenue generating role.
Speaker 2That would be sort of ironic and probably has happened to lots of people, and I know we've talked in the past just to this, to your point. I know we've talked in the past about it's not always about generating money within a team. There are some of those people who just act like that glue that brings everybody together, helps motivate the others, provides the resources needed. All those, all those factors that help for a healthy organization right.
Speaker 3Sure. So this is just one example, right? So if you are in a position where you can generate revenue, increase the amount that you bring in, or if you're in a non-revenue creating position, like the one that you talked about?
Speaker 2Yes.
Speaker 3Well, differentiate yourself and bring more value by bringing in revenue. Find a partnership, that's it, all right, go ahead.
Speaker 2Number two Okay, all right, go ahead. Number two Okay, so next is increased profit. All right, so there's two ways to increase profit, one being that what Mark just talked about increasing revenue and the other is reducing costs.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 2And we see that all the time. I mean, all of you see it with your personal bank accounts I'm sure you're looking at okay, we have a lot of bills here. How do we, how do we cut down on some of these things? Um, I know many cases. I'm just going to give you an example here Streaming services.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 2Like how many streaming services do you have right now, Mark?
Speaker 3I wouldn't even know. My wife has a subscription to something that tells us what our recurring subscription costs are.
Speaker 2That's what I was wondering there is a solution for that I? I want to say that our family has about seven. Yeah, I believe it and it's, and it's. I think that's outrageous. But you look at the recurring expenses with that. So again, we're talking about reducing costs.
Speaker 3Yeah, so right. You either balance your budget by bringing in more money or spending less money.
Speaker 2Yes or both Right.
Speaker 3You got it. You got it All right. Number three so you can increase revenue, you can increase profit. Number three to your point earlier it's not always about money. So if you're looking to become invaluable to your organization, they suggest you communicate more. Well, that sounds simple, but it's probably very difficult. So they say, being better informed is likely to increase your personal brand and make you a quote go-to person for information and guidance. This is very similar and sort of a nice little coincidence. This idea of becoming a go-to person we talked about, like of all candidates being equal, the one that has the aura of being a good communicator, the one that's respected, the one that's recognized, the one that has presence, the one that has influence, is probably the one that's communicating more, and what I like about this is they're operating outside of their silo a little bit.
Speaker 2It talks about here about being better informed, so they're really looking outside of the organization, outside of the business. You know what, what are all the you know the hot trends, what's going on there, but then also communicating that across the different departments. Yeah, I think that doesn't always happen, mark, right?
Speaker 3No, I agree with you, and so if you're not in a position where you feel like you can make more money, if you're not in a position where you feel like you can increase the percentage of profit by decreasing expenses, Then I think you should ask yourself all right, if I want to make myself indispensable at work, how can I communicate more? Or I like this better? How can I communicate differently? How can I differentiate the way that I communicate in my organization that makes me so indispensable that, in the event of a challenging time, no one would ever think to get rid of me?
Speaker 2Yeah, that's it, and that can be invaluable as well.
Speaker 3Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 2So the next, the fourth, is provide creative ideas. So it says. When times are hard, innovation can often create breakthrough opportunities and hardship can also be a catalyst to creativity, and hardship can also be a catalyst to creativity. Now I had a mentor and I remember bringing ideas or even problems to this mentor, and do you know what he would say to me?
Speaker 3What'd he?
Speaker 2say I don't know and that ambiguity we've talked about it in the past on our podcast was the best thing that could have happened to me.
Speaker 3Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 2Because not only did he he might've known the answer or a great solution but he put that on me and he gave me the ability to figure it out myself. And I think that's where creativity comes in, because you, you know, as a unique leader, you bring that to the table. Okay, how can we problem solve here and how can we bring the best solution to?
Speaker 3the table, and I and I like this idea that we're talking about ways to make yourself indispensable in your organization. So you want to be known as the person that other people go to to develop and brainstorm creative ideas, right? Do you want to be the person that go God, let's not if there's a problem, right. Do you want to be the person, when someone else has a problem, that they come to you and ask you for advice? Or do you want to be the person that no one ever thinks that you have anything valuable to add? Right. It takes organizational safety and psychological safety and all the things that we know to be true about healthy cultures for someone to be willing to speak up in a meeting to offer something that's a little unorthodox or non-traditional or, you know, in quotes, creative.
Speaker 2Most definitely that's. That's an issue.
Speaker 3So your boss not only gave you license to be creative, but he also um gave you the space and the freedom he did.
Speaker 2He was wide open and that really helped me to be more creative with a solution, and it didn't mean that I just came up with a solution on my own. No, of course, but he gave me the, like you said, the psychological freedom Is that?
Speaker 3how you said it. I said safety, psychological safety, organizational safety.
Speaker 2Yeah, but it gave me that leeway to then work with other colleagues and come up with a great solution.
Speaker 3Yeah, I mean. The bottom line is I think you want to be known as the person that other people call when they have a problem they want to solve. You got it. So if you're not generating revenue and you're not increasing profit and you're not communicating, then what else can you do? You can be the person that other people call when they have a problem.
Speaker 2You got it.
Speaker 3And it doesn't always have have to be like these big transformational um organizational crises, greg, it could be something as simple as like you know how to use excel better than anybody right. You know how to use powerpoint better than anybody. You know how to fix a podcast mixing board better than anybody you know how to make yours truly. Uh, actually I think it might have been bradley.
Speaker 2uh, no, bradley was here to help, but listen, I said the table from the beginning. You said the table.
Speaker 3It's funny, you were on your computer the whole time, sitting at the end of the table sulking. That's what I remember. I was just well you gave up so quickly, that's what I gave up. All right, Listen.
Speaker 3I digress, I digress, all right so but it doesn't have to be profound creativity, right, right, right like. There's a person here who, when I need to know how to do something in excel, I'm okay with excel. Like I'm probably like a four out of ten with excel, five out of ten. This person's like an eight out of ten and I'm like there's got to be a smarter way to do this. I call this person. I'm like, will you help me? And they come over and help me. That person's not generating revenue in that role. They're not creating profit, they're not even really communicating more but they're great at solving those little problems.
Speaker 2Like that, person is indispensable when it comes to excel you got it and that is not their only job, of course right like this. This is a person that's very busy yeah, and everybody brings a unique skill set to the table. Yeah, you know, and you want to be. I love, love that about the value yeah, so what's the it's? The value is not always monetary Correct In this case. It can be skill set, it can be, and that's great. But you need those people too that are bringing that skill set to the table.
Speaker 3Right and if someone is terrible in the culture and they're bringing in revenue To hold folks accountable because they generate revenue even though they're toxic.
Speaker 3Yes, that's a whole podcast for another day. It sure is All right, I'm up. Number five assume more responsibility. So if you want to be valued by your organization, you can do the things we've described, and or you could assume more responsibility making you the go-to person, increasing the amount of information you have, increasing your responsibility, increasing the likelihood that you interact with decision makers in the organization that you otherwise wouldn't interact with. The more you're involved, the more indispensable you become to a large variety of stakeholders, and so it's easy to. It's a little more difficult let me rephrase it separate employment with someone who is, let's say, entangled or involved or working in lots of different silos. Right, the more you know about your organization, the more indispensable you become.
Speaker 2You really do. And the history, I mean it speaks for itself. I know with some of our veteran cabinet members. Their experience is priceless. Yeah, always.
Speaker 3My dad would often say you know, you got to always stay relevant. You got to reinvent yourself to stay relevant, Right.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 3You start as a programmer, that programming language goes out of style. What are you going to do instead? You can't just say, oh well, that's all I know. Yeah, that's it, that's it.
Speaker 2Number six All right, sixth and final from the six ways to be more valued by your organization is spend more time with your customers. Now, in our case, we work in educational leadership, so our customers are our school districts. In most cases we also work with vendors and partners that way. But in this case I'm thinking it from my role as executive director is superintendents. Mark and I've been trying to spend more time with the superintendents, seeing what are their needs. They are our customers and ultimately, obviously, it's the students who are our customers. But it's those superintendents that are the mechanism that you know they deliver those services for the students. So I would say that and I know in speaking with Mark in the past, I know that's a secret to success is to be able to, number one, know your customers and then, number two, meet with them on a regular basis, get their input, get their feedback.
Speaker 3Yeah, and be willing to accept the negative news and to hear the feedback about your organization that isn't working. Yes, and being willing to do something about it. I learned a long time ago. I used to go 20 years ago, whatever I would go to our school districts and I would say what should the IU be doing for you? And that question never really got me answers that I thought were helpful, because I don't think they're sitting in their districts thinking about what the IU can do for them. Right, yes, so I changed it and it became you know what's keeping you up at night. It became you know what's keeping you up at night, and inevitably the things that I would hear were the things that I would take back to the organization, whatever role I was in, and say hey, six or seven of the districts are all telling me that this issue is a problem for them. What can we do to help solve it? Yeah, and then you come up with the solution. Whether or not they thought of the IU as the source of the solution doesn't matter.
Speaker 2It doesn't.
Speaker 3You're getting still to the final product or the final solution, which is great. All right, gregory. So um podcast, uh, malfunctions aside, you've made yourself um in your own mind at least indispensable and invaluable with this podcast by I mean you should see it like I have my chest out. I'm like you're a proud peacock over there proud peacock.
Speaker 2See my feathers.
Speaker 3Yeah, I see them you were completely useless, though, while we were troubleshooting. I always love the person that swoops in at the end and says that they saw the book and it's look what.
Speaker 1I did. Oh, really, I did a cape, you did a cape, yeah.
Speaker 3I love it.
Speaker 1I'll tell you what to do with that cape.
Speaker 2Oh yeah, hey listen.
Speaker 3What do you say?
Speaker 2we wrap it up. Oh, let's wrap it up. So, listeners, we appreciate you. And here's a little outro. We've been trying new outros.
Speaker 3Usually they've been terrible.
Speaker 2This is a little food for thought. Don't mind the pun, but leadership is a lot like pizza. Everyone has an opinion, but at the end of the day, extra effort and maybe extra cheese makes it better, see you next time.
Speaker 3You like that or not, it's all right. What is your go-to topic on pizza?
Speaker 2I'm a big mushroom onion kind of guy. Mushroom onion Fun guy.
Speaker 3You're a fun guy. There's not mushroom on that pizza for anything else.
Speaker 2We like mushroom sausage.
Speaker 3One of my kids likes mushrooms, pineapples Nice, awesome.
Speaker 2All right, let's wrap it up here. Peace, bye.
