279: David Wood — Addressing the Mouse and the Elephant in the Room
Most of us are aware that when we have an elephant in the room, as leaders, we have to address it as quickly as possible, but we rarely address the small mice in the room; which can lead to bigger problems down the line. Are you running your business as efficiently as possible? How many hidden mice do you have? This week’s guest has some insights.
David Wood is a High-Performance Coach and the Founder of Focus.Ceo, the Number #1 spot on Google for Life Coaching. He has business owners double their revenue by focusing on less. Prior to building his coaching business, he was a consulting actuary to Fortune 100 companies.
It says something about our society that something needs to be as big as an elephant for you to address it. David has noticed that there are so many subtle things happening in a room that never get addressed at all, things that just get swept under the rug, and those are the little mice that we have to pay attention to.
We’re so quick to brush things off, perhaps it’s a society thing, or perhaps it’s due to being a man where it’s not okay to have sensitive emotions or to nitpick at the “small stuff.” It’s easier to talk about the weather than our feelings. David is intentionally focused on building good connections with himself and others. However, that means you have to take very emotional and vulnerable risks.
What do mice look like in “real life”? Have you ever attended a low-energy meeting and you’re not sure why everyone is operating at this pace? Have you spoken up and said anything? Do things just feel awkward? When you name what’s happening in a room, it’s actually a great leadership move because it now opens up a dialogue and it can help you clear the air, or at least get clarification on a story you may just be making up.
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Scaling Up is the best-selling book by Verne Harnish and our team for Gazelles Coaching, on how the fastest-growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher, host of the Scaling Up Business Podcast and a leading Gazelles Coach. Gazelles is the term we use for fast-growing companies.
We help leadership teams with 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Scaling Up for Gazelles companies is based on the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from Verne’s original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).
