Scott McCarthy [00:05:27]:
Skyler, sir, welcome to the show. It’s so good to have you here today.

Schuyler Williamson [00:00:03]:
Ma’am, it’s a pleasure to be here.

Scott McCarthy [00:00:05]:
We got a former army dude talking to a still serving army dude all about leadership. Absolutely, stoked about this. You know, out of the gate, first thing I noticed when I got a copy of your book, which, thanks, by the way. Appreciate that. It’s, like, we have such similar ideologies. Don’t you know? Don’t you think?

Schuyler Williamson [00:00:25]:
Oh, yeah. No. I I believe my assistant’s first words were uh-oh, and and then she sent me kind of your philosophy on on the three areas that you that you approach leadership with.

Scott McCarthy [00:00:37]:
So my lawyers will be reaching out to you after this show about copyright infringement and stuff.

Schuyler Williamson [00:00:43]:
Yeah. Well, I guess it’s a good thing there’s a a country border between the two of us.

Scott McCarthy [00:00:47]:
Yeah. Yeah. It’s all good.

Schuyler Williamson [00:00:50]:
Yeah. But, man, listen. You know, we we got some of the same training. Right? And so we’re we’re gonna approach things in a similar way. And and, yeah, I mean, I I believe that you have to lead yourself well to deserve the right to lead a team, and only when you lead a team well do you have the right to lead a company. I mean, that and to me, that just makes sense, and I guess it does to you too.

Scott McCarthy [00:06:37]:
Absolutely. So, you know, let’s dive even deeper into that. So let’s start off with leading yourself. And when you say you got to lead yourself well, what does well look like when when someone hears that from Skyler? Hey. When you say, hey. You gotta lead yourself well. Bring me.

Schuyler Williamson [00:01:26]:
Yeah. For me, I mean, I it it it really starts with vision, and purpose. Yeah. I think you need to know where you’re going so that you can actually get there. I mean, a lot of people, they just live their life, either by what other people tell them to do, or they just lead it aimlessly throughout everywhere they they go for the day. And and I I think the truly productive leaders out there, the ones that that actually gain ground every day and show up better today than they were yesterday. I mean, those people have a vision for their lives and and a purpose and, you know, they they move in a direction. And I think I think it starts with that and just being clear on on that for yourself.

Schuyler Williamson [00:02:05]:
And, you know, for those of us that are that are fathers, you know, you we’re doing that for our families. For those of us that are leading businesses, we’re doing that for our companies. Right? I mean, we’re we’re casting vision, and and, that gives direction. Beyond that, you know, I I think you gotta be ready, for the day. So there’s, you know, there’s things that I do to just be prepared, both with my energy, with my health, you know, with just kind of the the the task of the day. You know? So just getting yourself ready there. And then, ultimately, I I think that if you have a plan, that you’ve prepared well for yourself, the the plan keeps you on priority. You know? And it especially with my children, I talk about discipline.

Schuyler Williamson [00:02:48]:
And the simple, definition of discipline for me is just how well are you at saying no to the things that don’t matter. You are much more disciplined when you have a plan for yourself, because you can say no to everything that’s not on the plan. And, and even if someone has a great idea, I mean, you still will table it. It’s something to consider for the future, but you got you have a priority for today. You know, you have a big rock for today that you gotta get done in pursuit of fulfilling your vision. Right? And so I just think that those are the the core components of leading yourself that everybody knows those words. You know? Everybody hears that, but, like, very few actually intentionally executing on it.

Scott McCarthy [00:03:30]:
Oh, that’s awesome. You know, I I can relate to so much of that, obviously, because, obviously, we we have very similar ideologies and stuff. But I love hearing different perspectives aligned. Right? And I wanna kinda unpack a bit more on those different things that you talked about, you know, vision, writing, having a plan. You know, when we get to vision, how do you go about actually, you know, creating that vision for yourself? Do you get, like, a process you go through? Or is it Yeah. Kinda, you know, like, how do you go about that?

Schuyler Williamson [00:09:29]:
Yeah. I so first, just my definition of vision just so the your your group understands how I look at it is when it’s done right in the end, this is what it looks like. And in the military, we were taught, commander’s intent. Right? And so as as the the leader of the the unit, which, you know, I was an officer in the military, so I I I kind of, for one reason or another, was always leading a unit. You wanna give the commander’s intent such that the the soldiers really understand if the if the mission was completed, this is what it looks like in the end. So that even if you became disabled or you were a casualty, the soldiers could still accomplish the mission. Right? And so for me in business and and for my life, it’s what does it look like in the end when it’s done right? Now I I love the Tony Robbins kind of approach to things. You know, the better the questions you ask yourself, the better the answers.

Schuyler Williamson [00:04:58]:
Right? You know, I’ve heard him say that a million times. And and so to me, it’s like, well, if if I was gonna have the best five years of my life, and and we just broke that down into sections. Right? If I if I was gonna have the best five years of my life professionally, if I was gonna have the best five years of my life financially, with my relationships, spiritually, If if I ask myself, what does the best five years of my life look like in those areas? And then and then actually answer that question, what I’m really doing is I’m I’m creating the vision for that area of my life. Because we’re all we’re all after just what we you know, the best life that we can live. Right? And, and when you put parameters around it, when you say professionally, when you say physically, when you say financially, and you put those parameters, you actually start to define the vision that you have for your best life. And, and then it just becomes a gap process. Right? Like, well, I’m here today, and that’s what the best five years looks like. Okay.

Schuyler Williamson [00:05:57]:
Well, what do I need to do to make all of those things happen? Right? And that’s where you start building the plan. But to me, when I’m when I’m building a vision for myself, that that’s kind of the question that I’m asking. I said, what’s the best five years look like professionally? Such that if I accomplish these things, then I I’d have the best five years. And, and, you know, they gotta be believable, and they gotta be smart goals. Right? They gotta be measurable and specific and all of that. But that that’s how I go about it.

Scott McCarthy [00:06:25]:
No. No. It it makes a lot of sense for sure. And I like breaking big problems down into small problems because it’s always way more manageable. One thing I’m wondering, though, you know, how does values come into this when you’re, you know, when you’re creating your own vision for for Skyler? Do do you start with that? Is that included, or is that something you kinda avoid?

Schuyler Williamson [00:12:14]:
Yeah. I mean, I I so most people talk about culture. Right? And so we got a culture in our family. We got a culture, in our businesses. To me, culture is an accumulation of values. Right? And your values drive the way that you operate when no one’s around. Now where most leaders get in trouble is they have aspirational values. They have values that they aspire to have.

Schuyler Williamson [00:07:11]:
And that’s kinda that’s not how it works. You know? When when you’re dealing with adults, you inherit the values that they bring with you when you add them to your team. And so you just gotta be real clear about what someone’s values are. But but I would say when you when you sit down with yourself and say, you know, when no one’s looking, how do I act? Right? And you jot those things down, those are your values. Right? And and those and some some of these are are good things, and some some of these things are are things that you probably have to manage because they’re not super productive. Right? Like, you know, my, you know, my my wife, she genuinely loves to to be lazy on a Sunday. Right? Like, she really like, that’s an important thing for her that a Sunday afternoon, she gets to kick back, put her feet up, and, like, really recharge. I don’t have really the recharge gene in me.

Schuyler Williamson [00:08:05]:
And so I don’t have a huge value on just sitting around. And and, again, like, you know, when you when you, like, desire and crave, you know, having that laid back time, you gotta manage that because you you don’t get to do that all the time. And even though you might crave it or wanna do it, you don’t get to do it all the time. And so I just think that there’s some some values that aren’t bad, but you do have to manage them certainly, you know, as you’re you’re in different areas of your life, like professionally or physically or things like that. Right? But I think I think values are really important because they drive your organization when no one’s looking. And, and if you’re looking to build a team, you need to be real clear clear of those values because they they they make up your culture. And if you’re just managing yourself individually, you need to know what parts of me on the inside do I need to manage so that they don’t trip me up. You know? Because I am who I mean, I’m you know, God created me a a certain way.

Schuyler Williamson [00:09:09]:
I’ve I’ve gotta manage all the parts of me.

Scott McCarthy [00:09:12]:
You know, you you bring up something which I’ve never heard before, and that is the I don’t know if negative is the right way to put it, but, you know, not as good values that we that we have. And, you know, not many people even talk about that, so that’s super interesting. So do you think it’s possible for us to work through those? Like, one, acknowledge that they’re there, identify them, and then work through them, say, hey. You know what? Like, I got this value, and it’s really not that good. It isn’t serving me. You know, it’s time to change that. Is it possible to go from your perspective, go through that?

Schuyler Williamson [00:15:13]:
Yeah. I I think so. I think so. But you really need to be influenced. You need to have a really persuasive person or something that kind of just changes you on the inside. Right? Like, you need to truly buy into life that way as a whole lot better than the way that I’m living it today. And the hard thing is is, you know, 95% of who we are is shaped by the time we’re 30 years old. And so unless you’re, you know, unless you’re kind of raising your children or unless you hire some really young people, the folks on your team, their values are kind of set.

Schuyler Williamson [00:10:23]:
Like, they’ve lived life a certain way and by living it that way got them to where they are today. And those values are are pretty they’re pretty pretty concrete. Now they they’ve got that 5% where you can really just persuade them, but it’s gotta be it’s gotta be a big moment. And they’re like, oh, yes. I will change. Right? An example of that might be going to jail. Right? You know, if you if you, if you’ve got a value of living life full tilt and it and I don’t, you know, I don’t care about your rules, you know, it’s it’s my life and I’m 90 miles an hour or nothing, well, you know, you might find yourself in jail. And that’s such a drastic kind of consequence that you say, well, when you get out, you might say, well, I’m I’m not gonna live my life that way.

Schuyler Williamson [00:11:14]:
And I but I think it’s gotta be that big, certainly, if you’re working with someone that’s a little bit older.

Scott McCarthy [00:11:19]:
You know, it’s kinda like the, you use the example of someone in jail and coming out and, you know, changing their life as well. I often talk about the, unhealthy person who suddenly has a major health crisis, maybe a heart attack or something like this, and suddenly they become the fittest person you’ve ever seen in your life. Right? But I I get you know, the thing that always boggle my mind is, like, why does it take that level of of a of event to occur for us to change? You know?

Schuyler Williamson [00:11:48]:
Just Well, yeah. I mean, why? Why? I mean, but your your brain your brain’s always mapping. Right? And it’s always mapping itself. And it’s by the time you’re 30, it’s pretty efficient. You know? It it you you know, you’ve lived life for thirty years. And I think that’s why it’s gotta be so big because people people are stubborn. You know? Some of us are stubborn in a great way, and some of us are stubborn in a way that isn’t gonna serve us well. And, but that’s, you know, our brain is built to survive.

Schuyler Williamson [00:12:19]:
And, you know, after surviving thirty years, I mean, that those things are they’re principles or habits or, you know, values. You know, the way we’re talking about it now that, you know, just take I don’t I don’t know. I mean, this is a really tough topic to talk about, but I think I think for as a leader, right, and we’re we’re building teams that are are excelling at a really high level, we’ve got to be really clear about who we’re bringing on the team, because if we know it’s really hard to change a value and we know what our culture is and we see somebody that’s a performer, and they’ve got extreme talent and we know they can do the job really well, but their values don’t align with the company and we bring them in, your chances of changing their values to your values are very small. And even when they perform at a high level, it’s going to cause chaos in your organization because they don’t align. Their values don’t align with yours. And I just think it’s super important for leaders to just acknowledge that. Like, Hey, values are tough to change and, or maybe impossible, for most people. And so I I you know, it’s you gotta you really gotta know on the way in who you’re getting.

Scott McCarthy [00:13:33]:
No. It’s actually a really great point. You know, the best person isn’t necessarily always the best person per se. Yeah. You know what I mean? It’s about the person who’s gonna best fit into the team, and sometimes it’s not the, you know, the top performer, although always because as you pointed out. Love to change up a little bit. We talked a lot about vision right now and values, and it’s super important. And you said it’s a tough conversation, which I believe is, you know, those are the ones that are worth having.

Scott McCarthy [00:19:26]:
But there’s other things we gotta unpack, and and I’d love to talk about readiness. Readiness hits hits a bone with me because five years of my of my military career was spent at high rate of this. Forty eight hours, no one’s move, ready to go, back, back, % of the time. So every time I hear right, it’s like, yes. But, of course Yeah. We’re we’re talking about something different here, I assume. So I would love to hear about readiness from your perspective and leaving yourself, and maybe even tie into because I know you talk about it for your company and your team as well. So maybe just tie it all together.

Schuyler Williamson [00:14:29]:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It’s, so the definition of readiness, actually, you did a beautiful job. You get a mission, are you ready to move? To to to a military guy, that’s readiness. Right? And so as an individual, if I’m just talking about leading myself, readiness to me is health. Right? Are you healthy? Because you you need to be healthy in order to be a great leader. And so I I think of health in three ways, mental health, physical health, and spiritual health.

Schuyler Williamson [00:14:58]:
And so mental health, I don’t think of it in the way like the clinical way. I think of it as, you know, do you have a growth mindset? As a leader, it’s really important that to be ready to lead that you always have this growth mindset. You’re always hungry to be better. And, and when your team sees you with that same type of mindset, they will fall they will fall right behind you, and they will have that same kinda hungry, motivated approach to things. And, and you need to show them that you’re feeding that hunger. You know, you’re reading books. You’re listening to podcasts. You know, you’re doing the things that you have to do to to to to kinda raise the bar, for yourself.

Schuyler Williamson [00:15:37]:
Physical health is exactly what it sounds like. You know, are you telling your body what to do, or is it telling you what to do? And I love that, like, when you wake up in the morning, does your body say, hey, man. You had a late night last night. You’re tired. Why don’t you hit that snooze button? Or are you waking up in the morning and you say, hey. Get up. We gotta get a workout in. We gotta read a book.

Schuyler Williamson [00:15:56]:
We gotta get our our self ready to go and and and get our energy prepared for the day. Right? I mean, to the extent that you’re telling your body what to do, you’re physically healthy. You know, your your body needs to be an asset, not a liability. Right? And then the spiritual health is, you know, to the extent that when you wake up in the morning and you think about what you’re gonna do for others, that’s how healthy you are. Now, when you wake up in the morning and you think about what you’re gonna get, you’re not very spiritually healthy. And so I think that leaders have a responsibility in being spiritually healthy because then we’re gonna always go to serve. We’re always gonna serve others. And I you know, you don’t have to read through very many books to understand that in serving our team, it’s always gonna be a better leadership experience, not dictating.

Schuyler Williamson [00:22:18]:
Right? That’s not leadership. And so I think, you know, you you gotta be healthy in all three of those regards, in order to be combat ready. Now at the at the team level, I always think about, trained, equipped, and motivated. So in the in the military, if a soldier’s failing, the leader always looks at themselves first and they say, alright. Well, did I train this soldier well enough? Yes or no? If the answer is yes, then I go to the second. Well, did we did we equip that soldier well enough to succeed in the mission? And so yes or no. And then they go to the third one. Well, did I did I motivate them well enough? To the extent that you in your business, you’ve trained your people well enough, you’ve equipped them well enough, and you are motivating them, and they still don’t perform, either they’re not capable of doing the job or they don’t want the job.

Schuyler Williamson [00:17:40]:
Those are the only two outcomes. But it is your responsibility as the leader to have that individual trained and equipped and motivated. And if they are, they will be ready for whatever mission you give them. Right? And then when I talk about health at the company level, you know, it it really I mean, there are several things that can go into health at the company level, but the two that I think are most important is, are you communicating effectively at the company level? And then do you have an appropriate amount of cash in the bank to not only survive a setback, but also take advantage of an opportunity? You know, I think that there’s chaos in companies when they’re unhealthy from a cash balance standpoint because if if something breaks, they’re done. Also, if they have a huge opportunity that they’re ahead of everyone else, but they don’t have the cash to capitalize on that, then they’re they’re also in trouble. And so there’s just things that, you know, we call them KPIs or key key performance indicators. You know, you you got your dashboard at the company level that you’re looking at some things to determine the health. Right? And, and you want your company to be healthy so that we can do those.

Schuyler Williamson [00:18:49]:
We can survive setbacks, and we can take advantage of opportunities.

Scott McCarthy [00:18:53]:
A lot of great stuff in there. I’m interested, you know, to train, equip, and then motivate. You know, train a %, equip 100%. Motivate, though, you know, you know, you you you you said that your respond as the leader responsible to motivate someone, and and it’s like, yeah. I can see that, but, you know, there’s a limit. Right? Like, end of the day, you can’t motivate someone who doesn’t wanna be motivated.

Schuyler Williamson [00:24:47]:
Well, if only only if you’re asking them to be motivated by something that they don’t see for themselves that they win. Again, like, if we just go so much of success and leading a team is is putting together the right team. I mean, like Phil Jackson isn’t Phil Jackson without the Lakers. Right? Like, his team was extraordinary, and that’s why he became known as one of the greatest coaches in basketball. The guy had the greatest team. Right? He also had Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen at one point. I mean, like, yeah. I I would be a great basketball coach too if I had that team.

Schuyler Williamson [00:19:57]:
Like, just put them out there and let them run. But but we need when we’re when we’re hiring people, we need to understand at the individual level what motivates them. And we need to make sure that we’re real clear on that. And then when we when we think about are they a good fit for our company, really what we’re asking ourself is what they’re after in their life, does it line up with what we want for our lives? At least professionally. And then if if the answer is yes, what they want is a subset of what I want as the leader, then every day, all I gotta do is encourage them to go get what they want. Because if they get what they want, I’m gonna get what I want. Right? The easiest way to think about that is in sales. Right? If I’m running a sales team, look.

Schuyler Williamson [00:20:44]:
Salespeople are motivated by money, and you get paid lots of money when you close a transaction. Right? And so if I help that in that junior salesperson go close more deals so that they can get paid more money, well, as the sales team leader, I’m getting paid more money because my team is closing more deals. And so our motivations are completely aligned. Now but what what would happen if I went and hired a salesperson, who wasn’t motivated by money, and then I kept telling him, like, dude, this is what you do to make more money. Like, he ain’t gonna care. He he doesn’t wanna care. And that’s and that’s, you know, that’s where we find ourself in trouble is when we’re trying to tell somebody to go do something for an outcome that they don’t really care about. We have to as leaders, we need to make sure that our personal outcome is aligned with the person that we bring on our team so that when we help them get what they want, we get what we want.

Scott McCarthy [00:21:36]:
Sorry. I kept missing the, unmute button for some reason. Yo. Yeah. Got you. And I am 100% all about, you know, insured people are, basically thanked how they want to be thanked is what I’m hearing. Right? Like, you know, you know, the money, is the money example that he gave you for salespeople like that. If you’re not motivated, if you don’t like being thanked with money, don’t go in sales.

Scott McCarthy [00:22:02]:
Just don’t do it. Right? Because that that’s the number one thing. But it it’s definitely interesting because I’m I’m thinking I have a particular client in my mind. I’m helping coach her right now, and she’s got she’s got a guy and, like, and to the point where, like, you know, we we’ve gone through the whole owner extreme ownership venue of this of this scenario with this particular individual. Like, hey. You gotta make sure. Are you are you giving them clear direction? Are you ensuring that he understands how to do the task? Are you taking time with them? Everything kinda like, everything you’re saying. And he said, yes.

Scott McCarthy [00:22:36]:
Yes. Yes. But the most recent conversation, like, you know what? Now it’s time to lay the law down. Like, he just he’s just not doing the job. Like, you’ve done everything you can. So this is back to the crux of my question. Right? How do you motivate the unmotivatable? Because, like, I can’t control I can’t control someone’s motivation. Right? There’s nothing I I can try to influence it, but I can’t control it.

Schuyler Williamson [00:22:59]:
Yeah.

Scott McCarthy [00:22:59]:
Well So in this case, you know, we’re we’re we’re just at the point where we’re just, like, you know what? It it’s time to, like, go hammer. Time to drop hammer. Like

Schuyler Williamson [00:23:07]:
Yeah. The the last thing that I would do, in that scenario right there is I would make sure that there’s not something personal going on. Yeah. %. I yeah. I will say that when people have something happening personally in their lives that’s chaotic, it it’s hard to get motivated by a professional endeavor. Right? And so the personal side is always gonna take first place. And, and, you know, not all not all of us have built cultures where we’re super open with one another personally.

Schuyler Williamson [00:23:39]:
Right? You can certainly do that, but if it’s not a value of yours to share your personal life with your team, you know, it’s likely the rest of your team ain’t gonna share their personal lives. Lives. But that’s when as a leader, you actually have to make it a a a a standard or a, a standard operating procedure to ask that person about their personal life just to make sure, and may you know, maybe maybe he’s separated from his wife. Right? And and, and he and at work all day long, all he thinks about is, like, well, how can I fix this? How can I get back with my wife? Well, no wonder he’s not producing. And no wonder he’s not motivated to go build your business. The guy’s losing his whole personal life, and he’s thinking about that all day long. But I’ll but I’ll say, like, if there’s nothing personally going on and you’ve done all the things that you’re supposed to do as a leader and they still don’t perform, they don’t want that job. They don’t want it.

Schuyler Williamson [00:24:33]:
They’re doing it right now because it’s easy, and you’re and you’re paying them to not do anything, but they don’t want the job.

Scott McCarthy [00:24:40]:
No. I and I really liked how you touched on the personal thing. Like, we did go down that rabbit hole. But you’re 1000000% right. Like, you’re just like, yeah. That that example where you’re like, yeah. Splitting up. Like, I’ve seen it.

Scott McCarthy [00:24:53]:
I’ve seen it. I’ve dealt with with team members who are going through the big things, you know, whether it’s if I was leaving them, maybe a parent has died, maybe a kid is, like, super sick. Hell, I remember one time, we had a boss, whose kid got sick, and he’s like, I guys, I got that. Like and me and my my coworkers, like, we got you. We got you.

Schuyler Williamson [00:30:40]:
Go go

Scott McCarthy [00:30:40]:
take care of your family. We got you.

Schuyler Williamson [00:25:15]:
Yeah. Alright. I mean, you would hope that your team would do that for you. You know? Like, I mean, that’s that’s a real that’s a real kind of brotherhood that’s built right there like that. But you don’t blame the guy. Right? Like, if I only had a certain amount of time left with my children, you think I mean, I wouldn’t be here on this call. I mean, I love you. Alright.

Schuyler Williamson [00:25:32]:
Love you people. I’m I’m here to provide value, but but I’d be holding my babies. Right? Like, that’s what I’d be doing.

Scott McCarthy [00:25:40]:
Yeah. Absolutely. Alright. Let’s change gears one last time. Two military officers in the call. There’s one thing we love to do, and that’s plan. Yeah. Yeah.

Scott McCarthy [00:31:17]:
God, do we ever love to plan. So let’s talk about planning, from both your yourself perspective, your team perspective, and then finally your company’s perspective. I’d love to hear it.

Schuyler Williamson [00:25:59]:
So so planning to me is pretty standard for all three areas. Okay? And I, you know, I I I like a an operational, like, tight plan and that it’s there’s not a lot of fluff in it. You know, if you look at my plan, you know what the priority is and you know what the first step is. It’s actionable. Okay? But I but I do know that there’s one thing that the military taught us to do that most business people don’t do. And before you start to plan your operation in the military, we we do this thing called the situation analysis. So we consider the operating landscape. Right? Are we are we in the desert? Are we in the jungle? Are we in the mountains? Is it raining? Or is it hot? You know, like, we look we look at the landscape.

Schuyler Williamson [00:26:44]:
Right? And and in business, the landscape is, you know, geography, trends. It’s, economic trends. Right? I’m in Austin, Texas selling real estate. Well, the values got too high here. And so we have a huge gap between what people can afford and what people wanna sell their houses for. And that it’s a big deal. It’s it’s causing chaos in our real estate market. And that’s why the last two years, we’ve had a downward trend in prices is because, you know, it got out of hand.

Schuyler Williamson [00:27:16]:
Right? That that’s a that’s a situational competitive landscape or environment factor there. We always look at the competition and say, well, what assets do they have? What strengths do they have? You know, what resources do they have? Then we look at ourselves. You know, what assets do we have personally? What strengths do we have? What uniques do we have? And it’s only then, once we’ve, looked at the situation, do we start to plan the first step? Right? And so I think, you know, it is important as a leader when you’re gonna go plan a project or when you’re gonna go plan, for adding someone to your team or whatever it might be that you take a step and say, alright. Well, let me just consider this situation here. What’s the the landscape right now that we’re operating with? What’s my competition? What what does it look like for me? And then you start to ask us, well, what’s the most probable outcome here? Right? If I do these things, what’s the most probable outcome? And then you plan to that. And then you might ask yourself, well, what’s the most dangerous outcome that could happen? And then you plan for that. And so I I think that those are those are just a a couple of tidbits that the military gave us as gifts and how we kinda start the planning process that most people don’t do. Most people start saying, alright.

Schuyler Williamson [00:28:34]:
Well, to solve this problem, we gotta do this first. And that and that look. That that gets you moving. Right? And moving is better than sitting still. But what if you take the first step and the first thing you do is step on a landmine? I mean, like, come on, man. Let’s first make sure we’re not in a minefield before we start talking about taking the first step. And, and that I think I think you gotta do that in business. Right?

Scott McCarthy [00:28:56]:
The one thing I find, when it comes to planning, with, you know, people with lesser experience than ourselves is you immediately just jump to solutions. Oh, we gotta buy this or we gotta do that or we, you know, we gotta change this. Like, okay. Like you said, you call it situational awareness or analysis. We call it mission analysis, same tomato, tomato reality. Like, I was talking to my team the other day. You know, I haven’t talked to you much about it, but, you know, I still serve as I hinted at. I currently command the country’s largest supply depot.

Scott McCarthy [00:29:29]:
So I’m a logistics officer. Right? And we’re talking and I was like they’re like, oh, we need to do this. And, actually, it was today. And, like, we need to make this change. Like, okay. Stop. Like, got it. It was like that before, and now it’s this way.

Scott McCarthy [00:29:43]:
But I need to understand why we came from there to here and now before we start talking about going back.

Schuyler Williamson [00:29:51]:
Yep.

Scott McCarthy [00:29:52]:
Right? Like like, what’s and it’s just like then you see they just kinda went, oh, like, yeah. Like, I need to understand, guys, this. And then we need to start looking at, okay, what are the different options we have? Yeah. What are the advantages, disadvantages, and to those options? What are the risks associated?

Schuyler Williamson [00:30:10]:
Yeah.

Scott McCarthy [00:30:10]:
And, my unit is predominantly civilian employees, so they don’t they don’t get all this training that we we’ve gotten. Mhmm. Yeah. And and but, you know, I just see them clicking in after. I’m like, oh, you know, now we gotta Yeah.

Schuyler Williamson [00:30:24]:
But think about it. Like, what if what if all four of our forklifts go down? What are we gonna do, guys? Like, that that’s what the leader does is the leader says, alright. Well, we got this plan. But situationally, if these things change, what are we gonna do? That way in the moment, when that stuff does happen, rather than reacting, we’re responding because we’ve thought it through. Right? And and for us, that’s a part of the planning process is these what ifs that are are are smart to think through. Right? If assumptions change, what are we gonna do? And it and it’s a game of responding. Right? Like, that’s business growth is just how many good decisions, how many accurate decisions can you make in a row. And then, if you can speed that up, you’ll speed up your growth.

Schuyler Williamson [00:31:12]:
But, in order to make a bunch of right decisions in a row, you need to be one that responds, not reacts. Because you’re gonna you’re gonna get some things right when you react. Right? And that’s great. But there’s gonna be some things that you’re gonna do wrong too when you’re reacting. I mean, it’s a, you know, it’s a reaction. You you you’re not it’s not as thought out.

Scott McCarthy [00:31:30]:
No. Absolutely love it, man. And, you know, I’ve always said proactive versus reactive. That’s the way we need to be. Scholar, man, I think we could talk for hours. We probably could. I don’t know. I I think the audience would love it, but not at the same time.

Scott McCarthy [00:31:43]:
Before we start wrapping up, though, you know, is there anything that you feel like, you know, we we haven’t touched that that would just add, like, an immense bit of value to the audience right now that we should touch before we kinda hit the wind down?

Schuyler Williamson [00:37:23]:
Yeah. I mean, listen. I’ve I’ve I’ve championed this concept called the steady leader. And I think that innovation, I think that productivity, I think that, you know, a lot of the things that in business we really want out of our teams, all of that stuff goes through the roof when you as the leader come off as the steady leader. Right? When you’re predictable, you’re trusting, you’re loving, you’re thought out, and you communicate so well that people know where we’re going before we start moving in that direction. And to the extent that you can be a steady leader, I think you’re going to be a great leader. I mean, all these leadership books kind of give you the formula to be steady. And so I just think that, you know, I would challenge your leaders out there that are listening to the podcast to say, Well, what areas of my life am I not steady? And really dive into that and try to diagnose the reasons why and see if you can’t learn from that and and try to fix it.

Schuyler Williamson [00:32:56]:
You know, rebuild it.

Scott McCarthy [00:32:58]:
That’s a great way to summarize this entire show, man. Love it. Our final question on the show, how can people find you, follow you, be part of your journey? Shameless plug. Have at it, sir. It’s all about you.

Schuyler Williamson [00:38:35]:
Yeah, man. I yeah. I wrote a book, The Steady Leader. You can find it at thesteadyleader.com. You can also go to my website, skylerwilliamson.com and see all the things that we’re doing here in Austin, Texas. And, yeah. I would love to to to work with any of your folks, in any way that I can.

Scott McCarthy [00:33:25]:
And it’s easy for you to listen. As always, it’s in the show notes. If you go to leaddon’tboss.com forward slash the episode number in digits, you will find those show notes just like every episode. So, Alarmen, thanks for taking time out of your schedule. Come talk to us. Absolutely loved it.

Schuyler Williamson [00:33:41]:
You got it, man. It was fun.