Our Favorite Episodes Revisited, part 1

*Note: The following text is the output of transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors.

Bill Berthel
Welcome to the Get Emergent podcast. The Get Emergent podcast guides leaders to creatively strengthen relationships and improve performance of their leadership and those that they lead. I’m Bill Berthel.

Ralph Simone
And I’m Ralph Simone.

Bill Berthel
And, Ralph, thank you, I know we’re both really excited today to do this quite differently than normal on our podcasts. We have a podcast about our podcasts today. Actually, it’s going to be one of two parts to celebrate our 20th anniversary of being in business as Emergent. We’re going to share ten featured podcasts in this first part and then another ten in a second podcast. So we’re 20 featured podcasts that we’re excited to bring back to our listeners’ attention.

Ralph Simone
Yes. And this will probably sound a little less than humble, but it was hard for me to select the 20 featured podcasts.

Bill Berthel
Yeah, it really was. Maybe like children were not supposed to have favorites, but we do.

Ralph Simone
There you go. There you go. So, I think one that was first or was near the top on both of our lists was Leading Up, and I think we want to talk about why selected and what we want our listeners to remember.

Bill Berthel
Yeah, exactly. So what’d you get with this one? I agree with you. This was a great…

Ralph Simone
I think the one takeaway for me on this one is we want leaders to have the most complete information to make the best decision possible. And we know that the higher up in an organization you go, the least amount of meaningful feedback you get. And so leading up is challenging for people.

Bill Berthel
I love it, Ralph. I think we were speaking both to folks that are being led and leaders to recognize that. Be open to being led if you’re in a formal leadership position. Right. Because no leader can know or see it all. We need perspective, others around us, and it’s not easy to lead our leaders all the time, you know? So I think to take the courage. Right. Have the courage to lead our leaders as well.

Ralph Simone
Nice. Now, the second one wasn’t even, one I participated in,

Bill Berthel
But it made your list?

Ralph Simone
Yes. And we were featuring it. And it was the one that you did with Newell Eaton on The Power of Not Knowing.

Bill Berthel
Yeah, it was really fun to do with Newell and reconnect with him. Just a quick call out to Newell. he was my coach. Can’t remember when, 8-10 years ago. He was really helpful for me personally in my leadership and my work. It was great to do that podcast with him. We wanted to bring the focus of the space of fallibility and or purposeful ignorance. Right. Ignorance is a strong word, like not knowing, not being smart or intelligent, but we can’t know it all. And there’s a beautiful power in that one. There’s the power to say, this is the space I can learn and grow in. Two, it’s the space we can ask for other people’s voices and other people’s contribution. And as, social creatures, what a great opportunity. Something we don’t know to invite someone else into.

Ralph Simone
Yeah. What I liked about relistening to it is be okay with what you know and be okay with what you don’t know. And it’s in the not knowing that the knowing emerges. Wonderful tip for leaders in all walks of life.

Bill Berthel
Yeah. So our third one, this is a term I’ve learned from you, Ralph. So What,  Now What? This drive to action is something I sometimes need to be reminded of. I can get lost in the conversation or the concepts or the creativity that’s shared and enjoyed, but it’s about driving it to action. It’s like, so now we’ve had this conversation. Now, what are we going to do?

Ralph Simone
Yeah. And I think it’s the part of here’s the concept now, how do we apply it? So I always think about asking people to push us towards application. What’s the application of the discussion, the concept, the thing we just reviewed? We need to know what it is and how we can apply it to improve performance.

Bill Berthel
So that podcast title was, So What, Now What? These can all be found on our website, and I’m really proud of the work Tiffany Patton did on our new website. She made an amazing search function. So you can find these, if any of these titles are kind of getting your, attention or your interest, you can find them just with those keywords. You can put them right in the search, and they’re going to pop up on our website for you. The fourth featured podcast we wanted to talk about was Judging Judgment. I love that title. I think if I write a book someday, that might be the title because I love space. I’m intrigued by the space of judgment and this meta-analysis of how we judge our judgment. Right. But having this, I’m going to call it hyper-awareness of our perspectives of our decision-making and how maybe we can improve on that. Not jumping to judgment or decision too quickly, but also not criminalizing judgment like some belief systems do because we need to be decisive.

Bill Berthel
Right. There’s a sweet spot, of leaving room for discernment and being decisive.

Ralph Simone
I think there’s a both and theme that goes through a lot of these podcasts, but this ability to rethink or to name drop a book title, to Think Again and to be able to make conscious choice about any behavior or decision that we make. And so it’s really the meta judgment. Taking a look at the things we’re doing and are they still resourceful? Are they continuing to work for us?

Bill Berthel
Yeah. Love it. So that one was Judging Judgment. Our fifth featured podcast,  the title is Unfounded Confidence.

Ralph Simone
I thought we named this one for me. But as it turns out, all leaders have to have confidence, or at least have a belief in themselves or the Team as they are in unchartered waters. People sense it, and they need to feel that even though we don’t have the answer, we’re capable of creating the space to create the answer or to discover it.

Bill Berthel
Absolutely. And I think this one can certainly sound like a high level of ego or even being a little arrogant. That’s not the intention. This is the space that we can step into to know if we show up, we do good work, those things that need to happen will unfold in front of us. And if we have the confidence, and I’m going to add courage to meet that, we get to harvest that.

Ralph Simone
And maybe even language it, that we can figure this out, we can get this done. Takes into consideration the strength of the Team.

Bill Berthel
Beautiful. Our 6th featured podcast is the title of a song. And actually I was, shortly before we recorded this podcast, I had heard the song, on the radio, whatever I was listening to. The Cult of Personality. I never recognized that this is actually a song about leadership. And in the lyrics, the artist purposely compares and contrasts different styles of leadership. So The Cult of Personality, from our description here, is really about knowing that we are creating a following with our leadership and that we must be really mindful of that value-centered leadership to start, and that to be ever respectful that people are following our lead. Now, the word cult, I know it can get a little weird here. So it’s not necessarily that we’re creating a cult, but culture begins with cult, doesn’t it? We’re creating a leadership culture in our organizations, and to be really mindful, intentional, and value-centered in that.

Ralph Simone
Our actions and our emotions are contagious. Leadership is an inside-out job. And I was intrigued that you said that the title was the name of a song because I was not familiar with the song. But then when we talked about the lyrics, I think it was fun. But this idea of just recognizing the impact that our behavior has on the personality and the DNA of the organization.

Bill Berthel
Absolutely. So I think we’re up to number seven. Lucky number seven. Toxic Independence.

Ralph Simone
I think that this topic was influenced by another podcast I listened to. And this idea that we do need a fair amount of independence in organizations, but it needs to be coupled with interdependence. And if we overemphasize this rugged individualism, we sometimes get very siloed in our thinking. We no longer look at how the system works in its entirety.

Bill Berthel
Yeah, beautiful. This made it to my personal list as number one, I think, because it’s so important, as we are polarized in much of what we do today in our organizations and in society, I think we really need to be watching this Toxic Independence. I know I can be guilty of it as well. Right? Muscle my way through. It’s that kind of John Wayne attitude if you will. Nothing against John Wayne. He was my mom’s favorite actor, right? Awesome guy. But it’s the reason we are leaders is because we cannot do it alone. We need a social connection, we need an emotional connection, we need a cognitive connection, and dare I say, we need a spiritual connection with those people around us. And that is by connecting. If we’re toxically independent, we’re not going to connect and be at our best.

Ralph Simone
And it requires us to think of some paradigms and some, belief systems, think, them over again, and rethink them because we have been programmed and recognized to be fiercely independent. And we have to be mindful of when that has diminishing returns. Is it 8th on our list of the first ten of 20 featured podcasts? Is Mapping What Matters Most.

Bill Berthel
Yes.

Ralph Simone
And I was reminded of the old triptychs when we were doing this podcast from AAA. You first pick a destination and then you get the map that shows you

Ralph Simone
either the most scenic or the most efficient route to get to your destination. And, I think too often people are not intentional around first identifying what matters most and then creating the roadmap to get to that destination.

Bill Berthel
Yeah. Beautiful. And today you can still do that on your AAA app, but it’s not like it used to be where you went into the AAA office and got the print out from the person. But it is creating that map of what matters most to you. Right? So there’s an intention and there’s a plan for that road trip. Love it.

Ralph Simone
We went back and forth on our first ten, and the 9th one is Leader as Coach And, you know, I think we wanted to be a little careful that we weren’t promoting. We have actually an offering called Leader as Coach but we felt that this was an important podcast to feature, because we think that’s one of the ways leaders can leverage and utilize and engage the people in their organization most effectively. We see this Leader as Coach as a tool in your toolkit that can help you move from expert to achiever to catalyst. Really being the catalyst for things happening by getting better at holding the space and asking empowering questions.

Bill Berthel
Absolutely. Being able to tap into the creativity of people around you, being able to, You know, I don’t like the term pulling the most out of your people. I like pulling your best. Right. Because I don’t think it’s about quantity, it’s about quality. And we know that coaches both direct and empower and support their people. So learning more of the skills as a coach,

Ralph Simone
I think the best feels transformational, the most feels transactional, and it almost feels like an inanimate object as opposed to a living being when you talk about people, so.

Bill Berthel
Absolutely. And our number ten in this part one of, featured podcasts, is also related to coaching. Maybe this is the bias of two coaches on this call, that, we believe so much in coaching, but the title is Consciousness in Coaching.

Ralph Simone
I think that’s being aware of ourselves, others, the situation, the context that we’re operating in. And, the more conscious we are, the more things we have at our disposal, the more connection we can create and the more energy we can generate to create outcomes that matter most.

Bill Berthel
And so really practicing that space of, if consciousness is too big of a word, awareness, I think, plugs in here, becoming more aware as a leader of self and others as we lead, and really be able to tap into that awareness so we can again, get the most potential, the best from ourselves and others in our teams and organizations.

Ralph Simone
Well, there’s an interdependence that exists between ourselves and others, the organization that we’re operating in. And to. The extent that we are aware of those interdependencies and how the entire system works, the better choices we’ll make in our leadership.

Bill Berthel
Beautiful. So there’s the first ten of the 20 that we will be sharing, the other ten in part two. So stay tuned for that. Of these featured podcasts. Folks, all of our podcasts, none of them go away. They’re all in our archive, so you can check them out really at any time. But these were the first ten we wanted to draw your attention to that, Ralph and I are suggesting might be worth a re listen. If you listened to them the first time, and if not a re listen, maybe the first time, you’ll tune into these. We hope you enjoyed this episode and you’re looking forward to the part two that’s coming. You can listen to a new podcast two times every month here at Get Emergent or wherever you listen to your podcasts and hopefully you pick something up from one or more of these podcasts that we shared that you give a listen to and you can always let us know. Reach out to supportetemergent.com or directly to myself or Ralph and thanks for listening. Thanks Ralph.

Ralph Simone
Thank you, Bill.