1st Lead U - Leadership Development
This podcast, now in Season 3, is dedicated to self-development, self-awareness, and learning to lead oneself so listeners can lead others well. If someone cannot lead themselves well, it will be difficult for them to be an effective leader of others. This podcast will help listeners understand what it means to 1st Lead U and build confidence in themselves and their leadership ability. Personal Growth Coach John Ballinger has spent 35 years developing the knowledge and material he shares with individuals, business owners, and leaders from a variety of areas.
1st Lead U - Leadership Development
It is Just Human Nature - C.H.A.R.T. - Ep 314
The human nature of those different generations are what a leader today must take into consideration as they're learning to lead their organization. Learn to listen to each generation and also learning how they need to be led.
Announcer:Welcome to First Lead you, a podcast dedicated to building leaders, expanding their capacity, improving their self-awareness through emotional intelligence and developing deeper understanding of selfless leadership.
John Ballinger:Hello America and welcome to First Lead U where we believe selfless leadership is essential. America is suffering a leadership crisis. Self-awareness and emotional intelligence is the key to developing selfless leaders.
Announcer:Now here is personal growth coach John Ballinger.
John Ballinger:Hello leaders, I'm John Ballinger. With First Lead you, I'm here with my trusted co-host, Mr Douglas Ford. Good afternoon.
Douglas Ford:John, how are you this week?
John Ballinger:Douglas, it's been a weekend and a week already.
John Ballinger:It has been it was a long weekend, it was a great weekend. It was a great weekend and I want to touch on it organization that wants to empower and come alongside pastors and their families because of the sheer pressure that they're under in today's society, and it was a mixture of planning and leadership, development and and just, uh, trying to build cohesiveness with the team. It was really, it was really fun to be able to be part of that this weekend. It was long, it was a lot, and then roll out of that with some of the things that have already happened so far this week. But it goes back. I keep telling myself I think people are going to get tired of hearing John saying this but we have a leadership problem in all levels of society and it's and it just keeps like bubbling up, you know, uh, with different things that happen, and you say it'll bubble up in there and you look at it and say, oh well, that's a leadership issue. Oh, that's a leadership issue.
Douglas Ford:And and I don't want people to just roll their eyes when I come walking. I'm like, oh my gosh, he's going to talk about leadership, but it's, it's a societal issue right now. Oh, absolutely, I mean I think that, uh, I mean we probably have a slight bias toward identifying leadership issues. Uh, but, uh, I mean there there's certainly a lot of good leadership going on, but that doesn't always manifest itself in ways that everybody else recognizes. A lot of times, I mean, if you're working for a company, that's a great company. They have good leadership probably don't hear about them.
John Ballinger:I don't hear about them, they're quiet.
Douglas Ford:You know it's just doing its thing. Everybody's happy, no reason to stir the pot. But if you have poor leadership, everybody's upset places in turmoil. Things are going wrong. Everybody else starts to pay attention.
John Ballinger:Yeah, it's those squeaky wheel, and it just seems like there's a lot of squeaky wheels right now and the ones that are doing it right, that are leading well and their culture's good, um, they're, they're going to rise to the top, I really think those, those companies that do that, whether it's small, middle market or large market, they keep doing that, keep focusing on culture, keep focusing on leadership, they will continue to rise to the top in the marketplace, absolutely. So we are still working on our acrostic. I said that right, didn't I? On our acrostic?
John Ballinger:I said that right didn't, I did the acrostic uh, we've done four c's and we're on our second h, uh, in the chart. And that second h is human nature. And I'm gonna read the definition of human nature the nature of human beings, especially the ways of thinking, acting and reacting that are common to most or all human beings or that are learned in social situations.
Douglas Ford:All right, one more time.
John Ballinger:The nature of human beings, especially in the ways of thinking, acting, reacting that are common to most or all human beings or that are learned in social situations. So what they said is you could be born with the way that you react with your human nature, or there could be things that you've learned societally that are causing you to react the way you do.
Douglas Ford:That's kind of the nature or nurture Nurture being kind of a generic term, but nature is how you're born. Nurture is the environment you grow up in. Right.
John Ballinger:Yeah, exactly, and so I thought it would be good because this seems to be very interesting, this topic that I'm getting ready to roll into. As far as human nature, when we start talking about this in organizations, we talk about the different generations and how they hear and how they react and how they need to be led, and we talk about that. I don't know if it surprises people or they've said well, I really haven't thought about it like that. So I thought, from a human nature standpoint, I would go through the major generations that we know in society and we've heard, you know, talked about.
John Ballinger:But there are, it's the greatest generation, and I put a blurb down under each one of those about what society said or whoever identified these great generations, what the greatest generation was. It's 1901 to 1927. And this generation's, uh, known for growing up during the great depression and world war two and developing values of hard work, sacrifice and patriotism. And I think, if you look back with people that I mean we're we're the age where we knew people that were from that generation, I think that's pretty accurate. Oh, absolutely yeah. Then you've got the silent generation, which is 1928 to 1945, and they witnessed the rise of civil rights movement and the beginning of the cold war but were born in the time of two world wars.
Douglas Ford:They were, I mean at immediate after effects and going through a world war.
John Ballinger:So then you roll out of that and you roll into, uh, baby boomers, and that is 1946 to 1964. This generation experienced significant social and economic change. I think if you look back at the baby boomers and what happened between 46 and 64, there was a large boom and it wasn't just social, it was manufacturing, it was, you know, military, there was a lot went on. Uh, this generation experienced significant social and economic change, including the Vietnam war and the rise of the counter culture movement.
Douglas Ford:Yeah, war and the rise of the counterculture movement yeah, so that would have been like the 70s.
John Ballinger:Yeah, that kind of came out well late, late 60s, but it started. It started the process, and then you're rolling into generation x. Raise my hand, yeah that's us that's where we're at, that's. This generation is often described as independent, resilient, adaptable, having grown up during a period of significant economic and social change.
Douglas Ford:So so that sounds like we're probably the best one yet.
John Ballinger:I think so. I think so. It says. I'm going to read the independent, resilient and adaptable.
Douglas Ford:There you go. What else do you want?
John Ballinger:I mean, that's part of chart, isn't it Exactly? Then we're rolling out of X and the generation X and the millennials 81 to 96, also known as Gen Y generation, why, this generation is characterized by its digital fluency and social activism, and I would say that is highly accurate. Uh, people in that they want. All right, I'm going to work for someone, but what do you, what do you stand for?
Douglas Ford:Yeah, yeah, they certainly have brought more social awareness to the marketplace.
John Ballinger:Yeah, yeah, roll out of Gen Y into Gen Z. So that's 97 to 2012. This generation is known for its diverse backgrounds, digital natives and entrepreneurial spirit, and their desire to travel and not be tied down. Yeah, very true, true, yep, yep. And then we go into the last. That's right. Now. It's 2013 to 2025. Now it's 2013 to 2025. This new generation is characterized by its early exposure to artificial intelligence, technology that's moving faster than it's ever moved, and various internet searching. That creates their ability to study and learn, not from books, and they're called generation alpha, gen alpha. So we left what was that? Gen Y, gen Z and enrolled into gen alpha, jenny, and I'm like that's, that's a lot. If you're so, if you've got somebody that was, you could easily have four of these generations working for you in a pretty decent sized company.
Douglas Ford:Which is probably some of the most diverse generations that we've ever experienced. I mean, you think about pretty much through the 1800s. Everybody kind of had the same experience. I mean, certainly there was progress, but the experience was very similar across years and years and multiple family generations, and they didn't always live as long either. So you would have people that they didn't span as many generations.
John Ballinger:No, I was. I was talking to someone the other day and they were at this company and they were an older let's say they were compared to some of the others in the organization, I would say they were some of the oldest population in the organization and this organization has four different generations in it. And the the older person said to me I don't know why these people just quit and go home when it's time to go home, when we've got 15 to 30 minutes left to finish a job, and in their mind, 15 to 30 minutes, that job is completed and I don't have to come in the morning and start that. You know, do that 15 to 30 minutes and then start my day because this is done. And and he was telling me he's like they just, they just leave, and it boggled, it boggled this guy's mind, he's like I don't get that. He said it makes no sense to me. And he said I'll just like.
John Ballinger:When they start moving around, I'm like, oh, it must be four, 30. Cause they're leaving. So, but that's the different mindset, cause the schedule says four, 30. Oh, the tools down or whatever's going on, you're out of there. 30, throw the tools down or whatever's going on, you're out of there. So the the human nature of those different generations are what a leader today must take into consideration as they're learning to lead their organization. Learn to listen to each generation and also learning how they need to be led, based on what I just read, because they're all different and so if you've got an older, mature leader in the organization that's not digitally savvy, it's going to be difficult to talk to that Gen Z or Gen Alpha group of people because the they're they're literally sitting there on their phones or tablets and they're ready to do business and much like probably me. I'm sitting there with a pad and a pen saying, all right, what are we going to do? And they're like where's your tablet at?
Douglas Ford:Yeah, certainly. I think the quote-unquote speed of business is different at different levels in terms of processing information, accessing information, being able to share that information with other people. So, yeah, things can change quite rapidly.
John Ballinger:There was one word that was consistent as I was researching this that they said is drastically different in each generation, and it was the word disposition. Different, uh, in each generation, and it was the word disposition. Each one of those, um, different generations have a different disposition than each other, and I'm going to read the definition so we'll understand this position. But it's the quality of character or habit and the preparation or state of readiness or the tendency to act a specific way. Basically, what they're saying is each generation has a different quality, a different state of readiness, a different way to prepare and a different tendency on which to act in a specified way and when one's acting one way, which is the way that their disposition is for their generation.
Douglas Ford:The other generation's looking at them like what are they doing?
John Ballinger:Yeah, it's a creates a natural friction point. Yeah, Uh, you were doing the what I look like a Rubik's cube.
Douglas Ford:The gears. I was doing gears, yeah.
John Ballinger:Well, I was thinking, each one of the Rubik's cube sides a different color, and it's like you're constantly trying to get the colors lined up so everybody can move forward with with the plan, and you're all looking at each other like, well, no, I'm a yellow, no, I'm a blue, no, I'm a green, you know, but that's what. When I go into companies, I see them look like what are they doing? Like, well, no, that that's how they think, that some uh, uh and and it goes further, I'm not going to belabor this, the the uh reports that I read but then there's this dispositional belief, so all of them believe their way is the way it's supposed to be done oh, yeah, absolutely, and they will argue about it.
John Ballinger:Like you know, I don't know why you did it like that, because this way is much better and the other person's over there looking at like how can you say that, yes, new math versus old math.
John Ballinger:Yeah, so this, this positional belief, um, that, yeah, that was that was really and, to go a little bit deeper, the mindset of each one of them. Like it doesn't make any sense to. Let's go generation uh, x, uh, talking to an alpha and the alpha saying you know, I have no interest in buying a house, I never want to buy a house, I never want to own a house, I'm fine living in an apartment or in a travel trailer in the woods or whatever. And you know, we grew up and that was part of the American dream was buying a house and, you know, having a white picket fence, and you've got a whole generation. It's like I don't really care about that at all.
John Ballinger:So it's just the dispositional belief or the mindset of the different generations and again, the leader has to understand all of them in a way they think and act, their dispositions and their character and their readiness and their tendencies, and their character and their readiness and their tendencies. So I think that is all interesting. But it goes into why H is in our acrostic, because human nature must be looked at as a way that you need to learn how to lead people. You can't, you can't discount it at all. No, absolutely not. So we're going to take a break and we're going to come back and we're going to talk about some, some favorite subjects of ours. Those will bring us out of the break, and then I'll go into a little bit further detail about human nature. We'll be back.
Douglas Ford:Hello First Lead Youth listeners, douglas Ford here. I want to take just a few seconds during this break to say thank you for spending a few moments with us as we discuss the challenges and opportunities of being a leader. We hope that in every episode, you find some bit of information that will help you on your own personal leadership journey. In order to reach more people and to improve our positioning on all the podcasting and social media platforms, it's important that you subscribe to our podcast on your favorite podcasting platform, like Apple, spotify or any other platform where you listen to First Lead you. We would really appreciate you clicking on the subscribe button to help us reach more people and expand the message of First Lead you. And please take time to visit the First Lead you website. That's the number one S-T, the word lead and the letter U dot com Firstleadyoucom. Number one S-T, the word lead and the letter Ucom. I hope you have a great day as you continue to learn to first lead you. Welcome back to First Lead you. Welcome back to First Lead U.
Douglas Ford:Today we are talking about the second H in our chart across it, which is human nature, and we've been talking a good bit about the different generations and how each generation has its own kind of point of view or worldview that it brings with it into the marketplace, and how leaders need to be considerate of all those different points of view and dispositions as they lead their organization. And one of the things that we do to help them further understand that when we go into organizations is we have a series of assessments we use. We've talked about these quite a bit. We often start with the Myers-Briggs type indicator, which is also known as 16 personalities. It's indicated by the four letters that tell you basically what your human nature is like, what your preference is in reaction to situations and where you get your energy, how you make decisions, what gets you excited and keeps you motivated. So that's one assessment that we use.
Douglas Ford:Then we also use the working genius, which basically helps you understand what you like to do in terms of areas of work, and so you've got the first is who am I? And then, or how am I wired? And the second one is what do I enjoy with Myers-Briggs and Working Genius? And finally, emotional intelligence, which then kind of helps you understand how do you actually interact with your surroundings, both internally and externally, with the people that you come in contact with and your awareness of their emotional state and what might be going on with them at any given time. So those are kind of three key assessments that we use to help leaders further understand their team and, potentially themselves, as they start thinking about their own leadership development. But, as we said earlier, this could be a pretty good rabbit hole to go down, but there are still some other things that we can talk about Even after we get past the assessments that you've got some information on, john.
John Ballinger:I do, but I want to talk about that team. This weekend it was one of the most balanced teams from a from looking at the chart of working genius that I've seen.
Douglas Ford:It was Yep.
John Ballinger:And and one of the things that I saw through the weekend. So we're we're together with this team a total of probably I'll be 30 hours total If you take even the meals and things like that. We were together a lot, but because it was balanced and everybody knew their strengths and weaknesses and they acquiesced to somebody's strength because they knew it wasn't theirs. I kept seeing the same thing day in and day out, and it was unselfish behavior. No one was trying to elbow in, nobody was trying to take charge. No one was trying to elbow in, nobody was trying to take charge. Everybody felt like they knew their place. Uh, there was eight or nine people present.
John Ballinger:Yeah, I think eight, eight, eight people present and and you could just tell that it was very respectful too. I mean, there was a lot of respect, a lot of encouragement, um, a lot of I don't know, that's probably yours and you could probably speak better to that than me kind of encouragement, um, a lot of I don't know, that's probably yours and you could probably speak better to that than me kind of conversations. And while it was a lot, there wasn't a lot of tension or aggravation or anything like that in it, because it was you had. You had taken the assessments, we had built a team, or they had taken the assessment, we had built the team. And look at the difference in building a team and selecting versus just hiring whatever Totally different.
Douglas Ford:Yeah, and we took time to talk about those assessments as well as a team, so that everybody kind of understood who their neighbor was, so to speak who their neighbor was, so to speak, and we shared a good bit about that and how each of those showed up in our lives and what it allowed us to do or what we preferred not to do. So I think it did put us all in a good position to have the conversations needed to be had for that organization as we continue to move forward, because, like you said, it was very cordial and it was probably one of the best group meetings I've been a part of in a long time.
John Ballinger:Yeah, and I left that meeting thinking why would companies not invest the time in doing that when it's going to make the company and the culture, the leader's job easier? Why wouldn't they invest that time and that's almost just like what I would call an annual retreat why wouldn't you do that if it was going to make life better for the company, the leadership and, most importantly, the team members in the organization? I believe that companies need to consider a weekend retreat with their leadership team in order to develop them, which will, in turn, help the company, the leadership and, most importantly, the team member. So I'm going to go into, uh, a little bit more. Not what do you call a rabbit hole wormhole about? So I thought this was interesting.
John Ballinger:This was a study from psychology. Today that 90% of the population are classified in four basic personality types. So think about the big population and they narrowed it down to the population has four. This is 90% of the population for predominant, yeah, and if you think about this, you start thinking about people. You know they're going to fall into these four traits. Okay, optimistic people. Start thinking about people. You know they're going to fall into these four traits. Okay, optimistic people, pessimistic people you know anybody like that. No, trusting people I've heard people say I trust a fault, I trust until somebody doesn't give me a reason to trust. You got that group and then envious people. So the four categories again optimistic, pessimistic, trusting and envious. And I thought as I started thinking through people that I knew I'm like gracious boy, you could put people that you are around you in those four buckets, so to speak. Those four buckets, so to speak, the 10%, because I referenced 90%. The 10% are people that have significant mental health issues, that need treatment. So they wouldn't be classified so much in any one of those buckets because they've got challenges greater than just the optimistic, pessimistic and trusting and envious, uh, character traits.
John Ballinger:So if you think about that from a team standpoint, if you use those four categories and say what does my team, which one of my team members, fall into those buckets and you understand like somebody that's a pessimist it's the old, I think they call it glass half full, glass half empty. And I I started probably, probably didn't sound good. But what somebody say, are you an optimist or a pessimist? Uh, is your glass half, four or half empty? And I'm like no, I just drink the water. I'm a problem solver and that would. I know it's that's kind of corny, but I'm like you know, sometimes the glass is half full and sometimes the glass has is half empty, but we're putting such significance on that to. Oh well, that's just how somebody is. Well, there are times where you know what I do look at and think that is not good and it's just what it is. Because there's also that the people that say well, I'm just a realist, you know, and so I just look at it like cause, I'm just a realist, I get that too. So but I want the leader, cause we're talking to leaders. Look at your team, look at those four buckets.
John Ballinger:Put your team members in general how you think they could fit in those four buckets, but learn why those four buckets exist in that person's life, because you never know why they're a pessimist. A lot of times it's because things that happened in their past and so they're always waiting on the other shoe to fall. And you can see that we were talking about someone the other day and I referenced. I said nah, that person is just like Eeyore. You know, they're just like you know, good gracious Eeyore just falling around One of the poos trying to make him happy. Eeyore is never going to be, never going to be happy. He's got that cloud around him. And there's people that that are like that and you don't want them to be like that. I will say I can't imagine being like that. I can't imagine living in that person's head all the time, but something's made them like that.
John Ballinger:Um, going a little bit deeper into that, there's uh, there's a certain group of the population, as you go down through those different buckets, how somebody that's just anti, you can tell them, you could show them, I mean, like here's black and white, this just happened. Or like, nah, I don't believe it. I don't believe it for a second. I'm like what do you want me to do to prove it to you? I'm just, I'm not going to believe it. Like well, what do I have to do? You can't do anything. You can't, you can't spend a lot of time with that person, because you're never going to make them believe anything that they do not want to believe. So just don't waste your time on doing it, because it's not going to happen.
John Ballinger:Um, there are some people that are very risk averse in that group. They're like I'm never going to do anything that's risky. So they're just so don't. Don't. Don't task them with something that they think is going to put them in peril or it might be just a little bit dangerous, because they're not going to do it and and if you do task them with it, they're not going to fall through with it well and get the results you want as a leader.
John Ballinger:So why are we talking about the assessments? Why are we talking about human nature? Why are we talking about these different personality traits that fall in these four buckets? Because, as a leader, if you don't realize what generation they're from, what their human nature is, what their personality traits are and their genius and all that, then you're going to be tasking someone that's probably not going to get the jobs done that you feel like ought to be done, even though they were selected for a specific position with a job description, because all you did was try to match a job description against a resume and you think that that person should be able to execute on all the tasks plus other subtasks, and it's just not reality. We've seen it. It doesn't work.
Douglas Ford:Yeah, and I know we're drawing to a close here, but it really has to do with something that we talked about a lot, actually, in Season 2, which is understanding that what happens from 8 to 5 is impacted by what happens from 5 to 8, meaning they bring in with them every day what they experienced the night before or previously, and so often we want to separate that when we're like, oh, when you come in the door, leave, leave those problems at home.
Douglas Ford:Well, that's, that's great, that's a great philosophy, that's a great.
Douglas Ford:You know if that could actually work, um, although I think there's a uh show on apple that that's trying to show people that that might be a reality, but, but, um, but it's, it's not going to happen.
Douglas Ford:Like, you are impacted by what happens every night when you go home from work and vice versa, you're impacted by what happens at work when you go home every day, and so you can't really separate those two things. And so the more the leader understands that the human nature is impacted by all these things and that they need to be aware of those to help maximize their team and to help their team work more effectively together, as first, as a working unit, but also just as a human unit of people that are going to be around each other a significant amount of time every day. It's important to understand all these different components and nobody can be an expert in all these things but the more you can start educating yourself about it, the more it's going to bleed into what you're doing and how you're interacting with people and going to help you be more effective.
John Ballinger:Well, as we wrap up, guess who doesn't have the luxury of letting what happened from the five to eight impact them when they go to work? Well, it should be the leader. It is, I mean, that's you. You, that's just the way it is. You've got to walk in the door because how you are, regardless of what just happened, how you are you walking, you set the tone and if you walk in the doors of the leader and something's happened that really unsettled you from the time you got off to the time you came in, it's going to impact the entire team that day and they're going to feel it. So that's why we stress emotional intelligence and leadership, because you have to learn how to differentiate, set aside and walk in the door and get the team moving forward. And then, if you need to go to your office and close the door and just kind of decompress because of what happened, that's fine, but you got to walk in solid. You absolutely have to.
John Ballinger:So, uh, that was our second H and we we have two more H's and um, I know this may be a little laborious as we go down through these, the chart, but we really are doing this because we've been asked how can I take like a single piece of paper that has all the things that I need to learn to do as a leader. And we made the decision, douglas and I made the decision to really go down each letter and talk about the significance and just start with the first C and start working on it. We're not asking you to go all the way through Leadership development is an ongoing process. So start with the C's and start working your way down through there and start developing yourself as a leader. And remember, in order to lead your team well, you must first lead. Thanks everyone, we'll see you next time.
