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
Becoming Adept at Adapting: The Secret Sauce of Leadership - C.H.A.R.T. Ep 320
Text us. Share your thoughts. Ask Questions. We would love to hear from you.
Understanding adaptability and the brain's role in leadership provides critical insights for developing more flexible and responsive leadership approaches. Leadership effectiveness requires cognitive and emotional flexibility that stems from proper neural functioning.
• The four lobes of the brain (frontal, parietal, temporal, occipital) work together to process complex leadership scenarios
• Adaptability is defined as being "able to adjust to new conditions" and "able to be modified for a new use or purpose"
• Change is constant in today's fast-paced business environment, happening at unprecedented speeds
• Cognitive flexibility allows leaders to shift thinking, consider multiple perspectives, and adapt strategies quickly
• Emotional flexibility enables leaders to understand their emotions and empathize with team members during change
• Neuroplasticity - the brain's ability to reorganize itself - is essential for developing leadership adaptability
• Key brain structures like the thalamus, hippocampus and amygdala are critical for adaptable thinking
• Personality types (especially those with I or J in Myers-Briggs) may naturally resist change more than others
• Leaders can improve adaptability by cultivating a growth mindset and practicing rapid decision-making
• Finding trusted people who can challenge your thinking helps develop greater cognitive and emotional flexibility
To become more adaptable, cultivate a growth mindset, embrace change as inevitable, and practice problem-solving. Seek feedback, learn new skills, develop resilience through self-reflection, and be open to new experiences. Remember, in order to lead your team well, you must first lead you.
This is the boring side of leadership, but it's important. Do not discount what you're getting ready to hear on this podcast. As a leader, the four lobes of the brain are the frontal lobe, which is responsible for high-level cognition, voluntary movement and speech. The parietal lobe, which involves sensory processing, spatial awareness and language. The temporal lobe, which is associated with auditory processing, memory and language. And then the occipital lobe, which is primarily responsible for visual processing.
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. Now here is personal growth coach John Ballinger. Hello leaders and welcome to First Lead you. My name is John Ballinger and I am here with my trusted co-host, mr Douglas Ford Good afternoon John.
Douglas Ford:How are you doing today?
John Ballinger:I'm good. I'm good, douglas, I've got to apologize.
Douglas Ford:Why is that?
John Ballinger:Because last A I said was the toughest day.
Douglas Ford:Yeah.
John Ballinger:It wasn't, it wasn't.
Douglas Ford:No, well, it was the toughest when you developed to that point.
John Ballinger:Well, but I yes, that's true, yes, that's true, but as I started kind of reflecting on adaptable, which is the second A, and then all that it takes, because, again, I'm looking at what I've had to put myself through in order to create the chart, because there's nothing in the chart, and you know this, there's nothing in the chart that I've not put myself through Right, right, right so to to do that, I started reflecting back on my notes of, like, what I did and how I did it, and I, the more I got into, I'm like, oh, my gosh, this is a tough one. And I sent you a text message like, oh, this is a lot worse than the awareness A.
Douglas Ford:Yeah, it was multiple lines long.
John Ballinger:I knew then that you'd been busy all weekend. So this is tough and at this point. So we've been through the C's, the A's, H's and now we're into the A's and we'll have R and T. The awareness and the adaptable are probably the two most critical that feed in all the other letters. And we said awareness, but I'm going to have to add adaptable into that, because really to be aware, you have to become adaptable. Because that awareness like oh, I can't just do what I've always done, I've got to do something different, I've got to pivot, I've got to change, and those are, those are difficult things to do. So yeah, I apologize that I said that.
Douglas Ford:Well, I think we were doing this good. I mean, we've already said that the a is the toughest of all the letters, so I mean, we may continue to unpeel the onion, so to speak, and find more and more layers to all this. But yeah, I think I mean you're right, without you know, adaptability does not, or adaptable does not, occur without awareness, and if you have awareness, you have to adapt, or you actually don't have awareness. So it's like they kind of are opposite sides of the same coin.
John Ballinger:Yeah, so I want to read the definition of adaptable it's able to adjust to new conditions. And then the secondary is able to be modified for a new use or purpose. And if you think about that, if you just said, all right, so as a leader, I need to embrace adjusting to new conditions and be able to be modified for a new use or purpose. As a leader, that's a lot.
John Ballinger:Absolutely For a leader to truly embrace coming out of awareness into that. And one of my favorite quotes Tony Robbins actually said this is change happens when the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of change. And you really have to. If you say that, just sit back and reflect on it. A lot of people will take an enormous amount of pain before they change what's going on. The entire time they're resisting change. That's inevitably going to happen.
Douglas Ford:Well, a lot of change has already taken place, but they're doing a disservice to themselves or their team or whatever they're resisting. Yeah.
John Ballinger:So what I've seen going into organizations that resist change and will not become adaptable is there is such a tension it's almost like there's that balloon that you keep putting air in and you just want to bust at some point. That's what I, what I feel inside of companies, and the leader actually is responsible for taking the air out of that balloon that's getting ready to explode. To to where people like all right. So I get, I get why we're having the change. I get why we need to pivot, I get why we need to come at that, because if the leader is not willing to, what's going to happen to people under them?
Douglas Ford:They're going to resist too. Yeah, and what is it that Sam said? That he gave us some quote when he was on the podcast that some general used to say all the time, if you don't like change, you're going to hate irrelevancy. Yeah, and so I mean that's true. I mean you can only resist for so long, like it is going to happen, and so why go through the unnecessary part of the pain, right, like I mean there's a pain point of like oh, we need to change that. I mean recognizing that and there's a small amount of pain, versus like no, I'm not going to do anything, I'm just going to resist, and then the pain becomes much larger because the problem probably gets bigger, the consequences get much bigger. Those consequences could be personally, could be for the company, could be for your team or, like I said, customers or whoever. But there's a lot to be said for embracing change, being adaptable.
John Ballinger:But it is difficult, especially if you're in a fixed mindset, right, so one of the words that I started studying kind of an offshoot of adaptable is being adept. A-d-e-p-t is being adept A-D-E-P-T and as I'm reading, it says you must learn to be adept at adapting. Well, the definition of adept is very skilled or proficient at something. So what that's saying is you have to learn to be very skilled and proficient at being adaptable, which is developing change agent mentality. Now think about people that you know, that have led organizations or in leadership positions, and you walk in and they start having a meeting and they can eloquently talk to the team about here's how we're going to effectively change and move forward in these different directions, and everybody's like, oh, that's good. How many times have you seen that happen?
Douglas Ford:A few, but I have seen it a couple of times.
John Ballinger:But in your entire career. So a few times.
Douglas Ford:Yeah.
John Ballinger:When it should be. That's how leaders lead.
Douglas Ford:Right.
John Ballinger:Especially when change is taking place in 2025 much quicker than it did in 15 and 05 and 95. Think about how the speed of change and adaptability has to take place around that. Oh yeah, has to take place around.
Douglas Ford:Oh yeah, I was listening to a podcast, I think it was this morning, and they were talking about AI and how quickly it's changing. They were referencing something that was a common AI occurrence a year ago and they were like you know, that's almost the ancient days of AI. You know like it's progressed so far just in a year. It's advanced so much in terms of its ability to eliminate hallucinations and different things that were early on like, oh well, you can't trust it, does this, does this. And it's like now they've got it where you can go in and you can get it to question you, right as you get it to return prompts, like if you put in something, don't assume that what I've said is true or don't assume that I'm approaching it from the right direction, question me. So it's like you know, we're getting very, we're getting closer and closer to having true interactions with a machine, with a machine that is pushing back as we would in a normal, you know, in a conversation with anybody else.
John Ballinger:And that machine took information from where?
Douglas Ford:From humans, Like it was all created yeah.
John Ballinger:So I want you to think through that audience, as you're thinking about as a leader, the change that's taking place in society from a business standpoint is when I say light speed, it's light speed right now and your people are thinking different than they thought five years ago. So not being adaptable, especially being adept at being adaptable, is going to be very challenging if you don't embrace it as a leader. So to be able to do those things, I started to think so how do you tell a leader, teach a leader, expose a leader to the understanding of how to be adept at being adaptable? Well, that went back to me starting to study the brain again. Now, this is the boring side of leadership, but it's important. Do not discount what you're getting ready to hear on this podcast.
John Ballinger:As a leader, the four lobes of the brain are the frontal lobe, which is responsible for high-level cognition, voluntary movement and speech. The parietal lobe, which involves sensory processing, spatial awareness and we talked about spatial awareness last week in the podcast and language. The temporal lobe, which is associated with auditory processing, memory and language. And then the occipital lobe, which is primarily responsible for visual processing. I do these little tests where I have us move our fingers together and pat our feet and then move our heads around. Because you're using all of those at one time and there are a hundred billion billion with a B neurons that are firing through your brain for you to be able to move those different portions of your body at my command. Do this Next, do that Now, do this Now, do it all together. There's over 100 trillion synapse that are receiving that information to move it to all those low-stux.
John Ballinger:It's almost too, much Now under my head hurts, it's almost when you think about it it's like good gracious. It's it's almost when you think about, it's like good gracious, all that's going on in my brain. Yeah, now, when you have multiple people, multiple problems, circumstances, customers, employees, how many, how much of the neurons in your brains and synapse are you having to use at any given time? I mean it's hundreds of billions.
Douglas Ford:Yeah Well, and that brings up another good point. I mean that we don't talk as much about on this podcast. But you know, getting good rest, I mean that's a good reason. Just that example is a good reason to get. I mean, your brain is doing that all day long. It's got to have time to rest and recover and you can't just keep pushing, pushing, pushing, pushing you know, and so that's another part of adaptability is like knowing how to take care of yourself.
Douglas Ford:As you go through different times, different seasons of life in different circumstances, how do you take care of yourself in a way that allows you to be adaptable?
John Ballinger:right now. The reason I mentioned those lobes of the brain is because this first section, on how do you learn to become adaptable, is here's some of the ways that you do that. Through cognitive flexibility, leaders should be able to shift their thinking, consider multiple perspectives and adapt their strategies as needed during the day. This includes also questioning their own assumptions and being open to new ideas as they do that. So somebody's coming to them with a problem or they need help with something. They're actually taking in information from that person. So here's the issue You're also assessing what you're thinking, while also kind of troubleshooting what you're getting ready to say, because you have to think about the cause and effect throughout the company, not just that individual that you're talking to.
John Ballinger:So if you made the decision and I had to make a decision today that was probably around a $25,000 decision Well, what did I have to think about? I had to think about the budget. I had to think about accounting, because I got to go talk to accounting because it's a non-budget expense. Well, accounting is going to look at me and say where do you want me to get that at right? I've got the person that requests it saying we need to do this.
Douglas Ford:If we don't, this could happen, happen, that's probably gonna be more than twenty five thousand dollars.
John Ballinger:yeah so I gotta. But that entire time I've got to be thinking, taking in the information the person brought to me, thinking through it. Who do I need to? Who's this going to impact, what is it going to impact? And then be able to give a response to that person that brought it to me in a pretty quick, efficient manner, because they're not just coming to me. You know, this is not the barn's on fire, but it's something we've got to actually consider, especially as a non-budgeted expense item.
John Ballinger:I couldn't freeze her phone in that situation. I had to do something. I couldn't freeze her phone in that situation. I had to do something. So I used cognitive flexibility, which means I was able to adapt, consider multiple perspectives, listen, strategize, question my own assumptions and then come up with a solution. And I did it probably from start to finish, maybe five minutes. Something like that would paralyze most people in leadership positions. Most people I know in leadership positions would have just kind of set that aside for the day. I'll get to that at some point. Well, guess what? It's still going to be there tomorrow, the next day and the next day.
Douglas Ford:It could possibly be worse.
John Ballinger:Yeah, and it's going to start stacking up with the other things that are going on with it.
John Ballinger:The other thing and we talk about emotional intelligence the second thing besides cognitive flexibility is emotional flexibility. Leaders need to be aware of their own emotions and how they impact their interactions with others, especially during times of change, interactions with others, especially during times of change. They should also be able to empathize with others' emotions and adapt their approach accordingly. So the team comes in, they sit down their six-year leadership team and you tell them we're getting ready to change directions. We're going to be flexible with our cognitive flexibility and we're going to be emotionally flexible Team. This is what we're going to do. And here's the team Douglas, your legal counsel's there, your accounting department's there, your marketing and branding department's there, your operational team's there, your human resource person's there, and they're all sitting around the table with you. So there's six of you talking about. This is what we we need to do, and here's how we need to move forward how many different personalities to have at the table well, at least six yeah.
John Ballinger:So now I've got to be emotionally flexible and be able to explain to the team here's why we're doing what we're doing, so that everybody leaves comfortable in their department with what's going on and moving forward. Otherwise, if three of the five besides me, besides the leader, doesn't understand or is resistant to it, what's going to happen to the process.
Douglas Ford:It's going to slow down, it's going to take longer.
John Ballinger:How about this one?
Douglas Ford:It may not happen at all, depending on who's resisting.
John Ballinger:You go back after the meeting into your department and one of your supervisors says so what was that meeting about? You ain't going to believe what that idiot wants to do now. I've heard that before.
Douglas Ford:I'm sure it's not uncommon refrain in a lot of companies.
John Ballinger:Yeah, what did that leader that left the table just do to the leader?
Douglas Ford:Well, they undercut them, or they, you know, they stole their credibility.
John Ballinger:Yeah, they totally undermined them, right. What do you think that that supervisor then did with his team and said you're not going to believe what they want to do now. Yeah.
Douglas Ford:He was nice. He didn't use the word.
John Ballinger:So it's very important for the leader to be cognitively flexible as well as emotionally flexible.
Douglas Ford:And that I'm sorry Well.
John Ballinger:I was going to go ahead because I want to talk about this article I read in Forbes, yeah, but that, oh sorry, go ahead Because I want to talk about this article.
Douglas Ford:I read in Forbes, yeah but that you know that concept, those ideas bring up. Another word that we've used and we've had other people on the podcast who have used it is neuroplasticity. Right, when we had Michelle Hecker Davis on LearningRx on, I mean, she talked about that and how that's not a word, that when she got into doing brain training, that wasn't something that was thrown around a lot, it wasn't used, but it's becoming more and more prevalent in our vocabulary these days. But that's exactly. I mean that you gave a good definition of what that is. It's like being able to shift your thinking, your mindset, your brain, you know, stretching it so that you can be adaptable.
John Ballinger:Yeah, this Forbes magazine article Adaptability the Secret Sauce of Leadership, and there's an excerpt that I just kind of snapped out of that. It says coming to terms with the unknown. Can you imagine telling all the leaders you need to just come to terms with the unknown. A lot of people in leadership positions that are in those positions shouldn't be there because their minds can't flex. And we described this when a very large airline took the CFO and put him in the CEO's position. Took the CFO and put them in the CEO's position.
John Ballinger:You put a linear thinker who by nature, in their Myers-Briggs and I'm sure in their working genius and their emotional intelligence is not someone that's flexible and you put them in a seat that has to be not only flexible but almost slinky-like. Well, we know what the results of that. Now, it took a little bit for it to catch up, but when it did, it not only caught up but it cost a lot of money to fix because of the inflexibility in that position. So coming to terms with the unknown in this article, and I'm going to just quote to be adaptable is to be able to recognize, react and adjust to burgeoning trends, new innovations and industry shifts. Changes aren't usually predictable. It's important. Changes aren't usually predictable with ample time for pondering and planning, so being able to pivot seamlessly is essential to maintain momentum in the company. That's a mouthful, yeah.
Douglas Ford:And I think two key parts of that is you know that change doesn't typically come with ample time for pondering and planning right, because that's what most people want to do, and planning right, because that's what most people want to do. But to me, to kind of wrap that part up about that is kind of goes back to something that you say a good bit and that we've said quite a bit on this podcast is becoming comfortable, being uncomfortable because being adaptable feels uncomfortable a lot of times. You're stretching your brain, you're stretching your emotions in terms of where you've been, and the reason you don't want to change is because you're becoming uncomfortable.
John Ballinger:Yeah, and that's where the resistance comes from is when our bodies and minds that are not used to being challenged, especially with change. When we see that change coming, we'll shut down because it becomes very uncomfortable. And so I read through that and then it made me go back to the Myers-Briggs 16 personalities, which we encourage all leaders to truly understand the 16 personality types, especially in your leadership team, so you'll know how to communicate with them. And if you have the I or the J anywhere in your Myers-Briggs, so that's the introvert, or judging. Those people not only don't like change, they're resistors to change, so they're going to be the ones that really push back hard change. They're resistors to change, so they're going to be the ones that really push back hard.
John Ballinger:And we were on a conference call I think it was Friday and there was some discussion about how to move forward with something that was going to cause some flex of thinking, and you could tell that there was different personalities on the call and I'm sitting there listening. I didn't get to stay on the entire call and I'm sitting there listening. I didn't get to stay on the entire call, but I'm sitting there listening to the time that I was on the call, thinking all these people need to be at the table. They're different personalities. It's imperative they're at the table. What they've not learned is how to be respectful of the different personality types at the table. That's why it's important for the leaders to know their leadership is. They need to understand how those people think and react to information that's being given to them and information that you're receiving from them, and so think about that with your team when you're doing these assessments, to find out who you are as a leader and who they are as your leadership. Because while you want people to challenge what's being done because it's healthy, there's a big difference in somebody challenging something and just being completely resistant to it and going back and telling them you can't believe what that idiot wants to do now to it, and going back and telling them you can't believe what that idiot wants to do now. And this morning in a staff meeting, I had to put out some things that were probably kind of far out people's mind. I could tell when I was talking about it they're like what. But if I don't start talking about it now, douglas, and I wait until it starts happening, that's going to be a totally different reaction, but I can talk about it now and I can get their minds used to it, versus just springing it on them quotation springing them on them when it happens.
John Ballinger:As a leader, you don't have the luxury of resisting something that is constant, which is change. The definition of constant I knew you were going to say there's got to be a definition coming from it occurring continuously over time. So if that's constant is occurring continuously over time and change is constant, which is what we're saying, does the leader not learn? Does the leader not understand that they have to learn to be flexible cognitively and emotionally in order to communicate? Take in that change, to communicate to their team.
Douglas Ford:Yeah, and we've talked about it. I mean, it is going to happen one way or the other and to some degree you get to determine how painful that's going to be when it does occur.
John Ballinger:Right, so we get back. We're actually going to delve a little bit further into the brain, because we did the lobes. Now we've got sections of the lobes and parts of the brain that do some things. All this is for the leader to learn how to become more flexible in their decision-making as well as in their emotions, and we're going to delve a little bit deeper into that, mr Ford.
Douglas Ford:Hello First Legion 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 Thank you 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. First Lead you dot com. Number one S-T, the word lead and the letter U dot com. I hope you have a great day as you continue to learn to first lead you. Welcome back. Thank you for listening to First Lead you.
Douglas Ford:Today we are talking about being adaptable. It's the second A in our chart acrostic. Last week we talked about awareness and how awareness and adaptability are really two sides of the same coin. If you do not have awareness, you're not going to be adaptable and you can't be adaptable without having awareness. So they definitely work together and, as John mentioned earlier.
Douglas Ford:Both of these are very difficult concepts for leaders to grab onto and to include in their leadership journey and their development journey and their development journey. But it really comes down to a couple of key things, which is being flexible both cognitively and emotionally, which is part of having some good neuroplasticity when you're thinking about dealing with different people, different situations, circumstances, personalities. So it's great to maintain that flexibility, but it's also one of the most difficult things to do, because it is very challenging to go through change, which is constant. As we heard right before the break and John's got some more things to share with us about the brain, and, even though you said that it was not the most exciting part of the conversation, I do think the little phrase that you use to remember the parts of the brain, the lobes of the brain, that's kind of fun. Oh, you like that one, and it is what is it?
John Ballinger:Freud tore his pants off. Yeah, that's I mean that's.
Douglas Ford:You know, that's an interesting little fun mental visual to think about.
John Ballinger:That's the thing about Freud. So yeah, your frontal tore temporal Pants is bridal, off is occipital. So Freud tore his pants off.
Douglas Ford:There you go, so that could be fun. See, college did something? Yeah, absolutely so, but you've that's that.
John Ballinger:See, that can be fun. See, college did something yeah absolutely so.
Douglas Ford:So, but you've got some sub parts of the brain If you want to talk about that.
John Ballinger:And this is this is one of the things I started thinking about. If we injure a bone or a muscle, we go to the doctor and doctor puts us through a series of tests to or what pulled. And something very familiar in the world of sports is someone tears their ACL Like that's a very common injury, and whether it's surgery or rehabilitation and all the things that have to happen and I got to thinking so when our bodies have trauma related to it, it doesn't have to be necessarily just like traumatic trauma. It could just be something happened that our brain didn't embrace or didn't react to properly, which caused the neurons and things to block. Do we actually go to the doctor and say, how can I get better with this? It's not normally. It's not like going to the doctor with a broke bone or a torn muscle, when the reality is, the brain is such a powerful muscle that does so much that when it gets injured, we should want to repair it and have assistance in repairing it.
John Ballinger:So we're going to talk about how do we take our brains that have some damage to it, or some issues where all the neurons aren't firing and all the neurons and the snaps aren't meeting together. We're going to talk about. So how do you become emotionally flexible, how do you become cognitively flexible? And you do that through different parts of the brain, so the thalamus. A recent study highlighted that the thalamus' role in regulating the adaptability of the adult brain is it acts as a relay station for sensory and motor information, and its ability to modulate these signals is crucial for adapting to new stimuli and experience. That's the thalamus.
Douglas Ford:The thalamus, and what lobe is that in?
John Ballinger:well, it's if without, without the listener seeing. I've got a picture in front of me just so I could understand how to tell people where that's at. But it's, it's around the area of, in this area, which is around the parietal lobes and the temporal lobes.
Douglas Ford:So maybe that's a bridge between the two.
John Ballinger:Yeah, it's an area and if you think about the ability to use it the way it needs to be used, I mean it's kind of a relay station, so you're handing something off. But think about it it's crucial for adapting to new stimuli or experience. So what if it's not fully functional? What's going to happen?
Douglas Ford:You're not going to be able to adapt easily.
John Ballinger:You can't adapt and you can't, and so new experiences are going to do what to you?
Douglas Ford:Paralyze you a little bit.
John Ballinger:Yeah, that freezing and fawning. Then you've got the hippocampus and amygdala. These structures within the limbic system are essential for emotional regulation and memory formation, both of which are intertwined with adaptability. The hippocampus is particularly important for learning and memory, while the amygdala is involved in processing emotions, including fear and stress. So now, if you take the thalamus which is all right, you need to do this so it regulates adaptability Then you take the hippocampus and the amygdala, and they are intertwined particularly for learning and memory and processing emotions, including fear of stress. If you have any place where those are disjointed, as a leader when things are going on, you're not going to be adaptable or aware.
Douglas Ford:And if there was a hippo on campus, you would be fearful and stressed.
John Ballinger:You would be very fearful. Now here's what's crazy and you've mentioned this word a couple of times If those things are actually working properly, that's where neuroplasticity happens. The brain's ability to change and adapt is known as neuroplasticity. This involves the strengthening or weakening of synaptic connections between neurons, allowing the brain to reorganize itself in response to experience, learning or injury. So that's flexing. Think about, so I'm, I'm flexing my arm right now. You know, I'm flexing my other arm, right, my brain just told flex. I even I didn't say it, I just do this.
John Ballinger:Well, those different parts of the brains and those lobes have to connect with one another, hand off information in order to do what they do. Failure to do that means you're not going to be able to reorganize your brain to be able to adapt to what's going on. So, mr Ford, when you take the thalamus and the hippocampus and the amygdala, which are deep inside the cerebral cortex in their positioning in the brain, and you kind of intertwine those and start using them, and you got to think about all the pathways that have to go from your lobes to those different parts of the brain and the cerebral cortex to be able to make decisions, I mean it's really fascinating If you just sit back long enough to just kind of think, when I'm walking, talking, running, making decisions, doing all these things, how much is firing in our brains to do that? It's incredible to think about that, but when you do that, then your brain becomes more. I'll call it elastic. So it's neuroplasticity, which is the brain's ability to change and adapt, is what neuroplasticity is, and it involves the strengthening or weakening of the synaptic connections between the neurons, allowing the brain to reorganize itself in order to experience, learn or deal with any type of injury. And I've used the word synaptic before, but I want to read the definition of it because I think it's very important, because if we've got a hundred trillion of them, those are important. They're connections who specialize with structure, where neurons communicate with each other, so they're kind of a pass-off point. These connections are crucial for transmitting signals throughout the nervous system, enabling everything from basic flexes to complex thoughts or actions. And so I'm reading that and I'm thinking so how do I describe to the audience what that even is without you know? Something simple and what I thought about is just an electrical connection and that electrical connection and that electrical connection.
John Ballinger:So, audience, if you imagine a switch on the wall and you're walking in your house and you flip the switch but the light doesn't come on. One of two things have happened Either the electrical wire to the breaker box has been cut or a fuse has. A breaker fuse has been thrown, something's happened. You left and the light was on. When you came back, you flipped it, the light didn't come on, and so the breaker box is an issue or a wire splice.
John Ballinger:Our brains are the same way. If something happens to us and one day we're able to deal with it and the next day we aren't, because something caused a break in the neurons connecting with the synaptic pieces of it, we're not going to be able to function like we used to. It's causing a break, so much so that something can happen, and it may not be a complete break. But you walk in and you flip that switch, but the light is very dim, it's not fully on. You're like I wonder what's causing that? There could just be a minor hiccup in the electrical which one of the ground wires is just barely meeting, and it's causing the light not to come on completely. Our brains are full of those different electrical signals being fired on all the time and something stopping that from happening is the same as not turning lights on when you walk in the door.
Douglas Ford:Yeah, I actually experienced that not too long ago at my house. When you go in our bedroom, there's a three-way switch. I actually experienced that not too long ago at my house. I had to. When you go in our bedroom, there's a three-way switch and which means that you can flip it on in one place and you can walk over to another and you can flip another switch and it'll turn it off. And it doesn't matter which position the switches are in. If you do the opposite of whatever it currently is in, it'll change the light from whatever it currently is in. It'll change the light from on to off.
Douglas Ford:And I knew that there was probably something special I needed to do to make it all work properly. But I didn't really know what I was supposed to do, and so I went through multiple YouTube videos and multiple wire combinations of switching the, you know, switching them around and then testing, like switching the light on. Okay, so switching on and off over here, it works. Switch it on off over here, it works. Switch it on over here, it goes off. But switch it on over here, it doesn't come back on. So you know it's like, and so I had to go through that.
Douglas Ford:I probably went through about three or four different rounds of trying to identify like through, because some youtube videos, better than others, helped me figure it out, but eventually I found one. It's like here's what you need to be looking for these two wires coming out of this. Has they have to be on the same side or whatever it was? And. And so it's like once I got that little piece of information and I made all the right connections, bang, bang, bang. Everything works like it's supposed to, and so it's like it was. It was very frustrating and it's like that's going on in your brain.
John Ballinger:It's like sometimes it seems to work and sometimes it doesn't, then that can be very frustrating, confusing, cause you to not want to change, makes you less adaptable. Yeah, so those are called circuits in the electrical world. You're talking about Same thing with the brain, that those neurons and those synaptics. They're circuits and they could be off because of damage or whatever. And I think this is so important and I've not said this, but I'm getting ready to say, while we said find a mentor, find a coach, if you're having challenges with your ability to become aware and your ability to become adaptable because of things that may have not fully developed or things that happen to make those neurons and pathways not be fully open, get some help.
John Ballinger:And I'm not saying that you're crazy, that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying, as a leader, you owe it to yourself and your team and your family and anyone around you and a friend to get help, because most of the time when something is coming at us and we can't figure it out, we don't know why our brain's not reacting or why it reacts to it like it does, it gets frustrating and we can tend to either run and hide or run to something to try and solve or mask the pain or lose our temper and get angry and just lash out at people, and your people deserve better than that. So find some help in order to understand, like, where am I blocked at? And you know, we've had people on the podcast, dr Miller. We've had brain training experts on here with Michelle Hecker-Davis. Those are people that can actually help unlock places that are darkened or even shut off with the things that they do.
Douglas Ford:Absolutely darkened or even shut off with the things that they do Absolutely. And just another resource, one that actually I think Michelle Hecker-Davis mentioned when she was on the podcast and I've heard her referred to a couple different times. But there's a book called Mindset and it's basically talking about a fixed versus a growth mindset, which is certainly in the area of what we're talking about with adaptability, which is certainly in the area of what we're talking about with adaptability. If you have a growth mindset, you're much more adaptable and flexible versus a fixed mindset, where you're probably resistant to change. You want things to stay the same. But it's called Mindset and it's by Carol Dweck and if so, if you want to go like a next level, deeper, dive into that. It's a pretty easy read, but it does explain more about what you've been talking about this whole episode.
John Ballinger:Right. So I want to leave the leaders with this, because we always want to leave a challenge, and how do we, you know, dive a little bit deeper? And so my question here is how do we become more adaptable? And this is what I wrote after reading, researching and all To become more adaptable, you need to cultivate a growth mindset, embrace change as inevitable and practice problem solving.
John Ballinger:This involves actively seeking feedback, learning new skills and developing resilience through self-reflection and mindfulness. Building a strong support network and being open to new experiences are crucial. When you do that and this is the difficult part about being a leader you have to be vulnerable. Pick a team member or a couple of team members that you fully trust and have them challenge you with rapid fire situations that they know are going to go on in the organization every day and make it very unpredictable.
John Ballinger:One of the organizations we were in, we said, like what are the five things that could paralyze this organization? And we went through pretty like three five-minute situations with the teams and said, all right, this is what's going on, how would you fix it? And it was remarkable. I remember leaving that day thinking, man, that was good Now, it was with the team, it wasn't with the upper leadership, right, the upper leadership had some, I think, participation in the things that were concerning or that keep us up at night. But it was amazing how quick the team's minds work, because I don't think we gave more. Was it three to five minutes? Yeah?
Douglas Ford:it was a relatively short period of time and you had multiple people in there so they had to quickly assemble themselves, determine kind of who the quote-unquote leader was going to be of the group, and then start working a solution and be able to report that out in that short period of time.
John Ballinger:Right. So find people that you trust. It's okay to be vulnerable and say you know what I'm challenged with this and it could be the awareness or the adaptability, because they are interchangeable and start letting them work with you, because what it's also going to do is help them. They're actually going to be working their brains and their awareness and their adaptability as you work yours, going back and forth, and that's why it's going to be healthy. So find people around you that you trust, challenge them to rapid-fire situations, teach you, let them teach you how to be more adept, making decisions more quickly and pivoting more rapidly.
Douglas Ford:As you're saying that, this thought come to mind and this is going to date us. But you remember the old Pink Panther movies.
John Ballinger:Yeah, yeah, going to date us, but you remember the old Pink.
Douglas Ford:Panther movies. Yeah, and when Clouseau would come into his apartment he had this valet, we'll call it that. He had trained to attack him every time he came into his apartment, so he would always be ready and he couldn't stop. So anyway, you were saying that. It made me think that quite a few people just popped in your office and like here, he couldn't stop. So anyway, you were saying that it made me think that, like like what if people just popped in your office and like here's a question, go? Yeah, it's like the Pink Panther method.
John Ballinger:Imagine that. But you know what, on the battlefield, that's the way it is. Oh yeah, and I try to really correlate the battlefield and having to react quickly to the battlefield in the workplace because it's moving that fast to where the leader has got to be very multifunctional, multidisciplined. I said, well, that is in war. And I'm like, well, it is in the commercial marketplace or in the space that you're in. It's war Because if you don't learn how to flex and grow, somebody's going to come in and take your business away from you. Right, and that's a lot of times. What will happen is you'll see a business that could not become flexible and adaptable to the growing environment that's going on, and so they just they're out of business before they know it. So challenge you.
John Ballinger:This was a longer than normal podcast. I knew it was going to be based on the research that I did over the weekend and Douglas has so skillfully challenges me through this process and ask great questions so that you, the listener, can have a better understanding about what to do to grow in your chart acrostic that we're working on. But I can promise you, because I've sat in the seat myself and challenged myself with these things, the more that you embrace the change with chart, the better off you're going to be as a leader. And don't forget this leaders, in order to lead your team well, you must first lead you. Thanks, I'll see you next time.
