34: From Warehouse To CEO in 12 Years | Ilias Simpson

Transcript

Introduction of Ilias Simpson: Introduction of IliasSimpson, a president and CEO of multibillion dollar companies who specializesin transformation and large-scale turnarounds.

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hello and welcome to the learn itall podcast uh today if youare interested

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in learning and Leadership then you want to stick around forthis podcast because

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today we have a president and CEO of multi-billion dollarcompanies with up to tens of thousands of people who

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specializes in transformation and large scale turnarounds inpart by leveraging

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the power of learning and Leadership we are Damon lamby uhCEO of learn it

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Darren Bridget Chief learning architect at learn it and weare joined today by Elias Simpson Elias thank you for being

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with us today absolutely thank you for having me veryexcited for the uh for the conversation with you both yeah well

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so that was a pretty quick little introduction could youmaybe give our listeners a little bit more background on on your story yeahabsolutely so

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Elias Simpson um most recently I was president of motivecare which is a fortune 1000 um company that specializes

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in healthc care services um the largest of which is istransportation um providing transportation for those who

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need it to healthc care appointments um supplementalbenefits um also in home care as well as remote patient

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monitoring so$ three billion doll business and I I ran aboutthe2 billion dollars of that as as president um prior

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to that I was CEO of Bost North America which is the BelgianPostal Service owns

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a bunch of businesses uh in the US in Australia the largestof which is a company called radial so I was CEO of

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that of that business reporting into into Belgium um but weworked with um

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large Brands like if you've ever ordered from Dick SportingGoods or Estee Lauder something like that um radio helps get

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those those products to you so yeah so I have a longbackground in um Logistics operations I actually started my career

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in in manufacturing uh post the military um so yeah so uhjust kind of worked my

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way up literally started out as a warehouse supervisor whenI was 24 years old and eventually work my way up to

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Leading plants and buildings and eventually regions to whereI was a

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global CEO so Elias well thank you so much for

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being here today now I'm not fantastic at math but doe inthe math it looks

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like from about 10 years after leaving the military you werein a a senior

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leadership role and about 12 years from leaving the militaryabout a dozen years

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you have accelerated to become a CEO and president how wereyou how were you able

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to move through that trajectory so fast yeah no that'sthat's a great question D

Rapid Career Advancement: Discussion on Ilias’s rapid careerprogression from military service to senior leadership within a decade.

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you know for me um you know part of it was just having umsome really good sponsors along the way and some folks

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who really showed me the way um so that that was definitelypart of it um you know and then also it was very

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intentional uh early in my career I fell in love withoperations and with with

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building teams you know I went to work for halberton and umthey introduced me to to lean and operational excellence

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and uh it was the first time of me kind of leading a largeteam I had about 37 Warehouse employees that reported to me

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and I just fell in love with it and um you know at thatpoint I thought you know what I I want to you know I had a

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great boss Nam Mary Beck at the time who was over all of oursupply chain and and procurement and um you know I was like

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you know what I want to be like Mary one day I want to leadsupply chain and um little did I know that that I would

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eventually not only you know get to that director level buteventually get to that VP level but every time I I made a

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step up I just was even more inspired to go further and thenum you know for me

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uh as I got a little bit closer to seeing that executivelevel and and experiencing it um you know I think

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primarily towards cintos when when I was working there butthey had a CO at the time named Philip Hollman um who really

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inspired me and I thought you know what I think I could bean executive someday so I started to kind of look into What

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it Took and um you know those examples and um just workedreally hard at it and

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had a lot of good people working with me and um to help meget there so yeah but it's been a it's been it's been quite a

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quite a journey I think I got my first CEO job at 36 or 37and that was over a

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billion dollar business as we discussed so that was prettyuh pretty exciting I

Overcoming Imposter Syndrome: Ilias talks about dealing withimposter syndrome as a young CEO and how he learned to see his age as astrength and source of pride.

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I want to take it back a little bit to your your beginningum with sports in the military but before I do so one of

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the things I I talk about quite a bit is impostor syndromeand when you took when

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you came in as a CEO at 36 did you deal with any imposter

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syndrome if I was a CEO at 36 I would have been an

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imposter no listen Dar DAV this is a true story when whenthey uh they called me up you know so first they called me

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to tell me that you know they're gonna make me CEO theboard's decided and all this stuff and they're planning all the press releasesand everything that need

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to be done and um our head of media relations calls me outof Belgium and he's like hey um we just want to make

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sure we have your that you're okay with the fact that wewant to put your age in the press release they're like was

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pretty common that when we announce a new CEO that we putthe person's age and I'm like oh man you know like I said

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again this is you know I think it was 36 37 and that they Iwas so self-conscious about it and I was just like you sure

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you have to do it and I'm like I think that's going to lookbad they're like it's going to look great and I'm like oh

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so so absolutely dealing with imposter syndrome here I amthis this young guy coming from young young black guy at

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that coming from where I come from I'm not supposed to behere so you know so absolutely I battled with that and um

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but it but it was it was really cool to see how others whatI saw as something

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to be insecure and self-conscious about others saw as thishuge accomplishment that I should be proud of and so um it

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it eventually helped me to recognize that um it's notsomething to be self-conscious about that I that I was a

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young CEO was actually something to be very very proud ofand um to take some

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some some pride in and and also that to to you know inspiredme to want to do a good job to show that it wasn't just age

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you know I think experience definitely matters but if youhave the right skill set and talent um you know sometimes you

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can uh outperform despite maybe being young I have toimagine that that's exactly

Leadership Inspiration Techniques: Importance of inspiringpeople individually by understanding their motivations and helping them connectwith their intrinsic inspiration.

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one of those kinds of things that you learned how to do as aleader for other people which is to help them see what a

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perceived weakness as a strength it's like how you how youshift people's focus is kind of is is so much of what

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it means to be a leader right yeah absolutely and I think uhyou know something I learned in my career in

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terms of you know how you inspire others is that everybodyfinds inspiration in different ways and I think where a lot

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of leaders go wrong is they think about what inspires themand they try to use that to inspire others but not

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everybody's inspired by the same thing so some people areinspired by achieving something that's never been achieved

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some people are inspired by helping others some people areinspired by money some people are inspired by you know um

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rewards and recognition and and it's really important thatyou understand what inspires people and you're able to

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connect to that and and and help them find their theirinspiration because that's the other thing is that the

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inspiration has to be primarily intrinsic right thatmotivation and and it's really just helping them find it um

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you can't really put it in them right you can just help themsee what it is that motivates them and inspires them

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and help help guide them in that direction and then um thenthey take off it's it's amazing what what you can

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accomplish um if you just believe right like belief is issuch a big deal

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absolutely and I a little bit of my research I heard youtalking about people agility and that's pretty much

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what you're speaking about right here is getting beingself-aware and also I guess being curious as far as what

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inspires people because everybody's different in in how thatworks yeah

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absolutely and that that's exactly right I think you knowthe beauty of what we've seen out of a lot of the the Dei

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movements and and and things is that we're learning what itmeans to treat everybody like an individual right and

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that that is definitely a key to leadership is everybody isunique right everybody's their own individual

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and what what makes them happy what makes them sad what whatwhat inspires them is different and so I think being

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able to you know good leaders can can recognize that andthey can figure out

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how to to inspire motivate people and I think when you'rereally talented at it

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you can figure out how to take five 10 individuals 10,000 inthe case of of

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some of my roles and get them all inspired in different waysbut to do the

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same thing right and it's it's you know if you think aboutyou know and Dam you know I'm going to go to sports right

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like if you think about sports that the the different guyson the team have different motivations some people want

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to win a championship some people want to make the All-Starteam some people want to make a ton of money but the best

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coaches can figure out how I'm gonna make sure everybody'sgetting what they want and inspired to what they want but

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for the same goal which is to you know be a successful teamand so for me you

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know being able to find the individual inspiration but thenmake it about a team and team goals is is when you

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really nail it as a as a leader there there's so much thereit's a it's hard to hard to stay on track but

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a little because there's so many things to talk about withyou the people agility the learning agility the

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inspiration um you you've written and spoken very eloquentlyabout diversity and the lack experience in particular

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and we want to get to all that stuff but to give ourlisteners some context let's start um kind of with some seminal

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experiences for you for example you've talked about moving alot when were a kid um division one football and the

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military um how did some of these things set you up to bethe kind of a leader

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that that you are yeah that's a that's a great questionthere and I think you know I've had to reflect on that a lot

Role of Military and Sports in Leadership Development: Iliasexplains how his experiences in the military and sports shaped his leadershipstyle.

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right because you know I try to think about what were thoseexperiences that that helped shape me good and bad you

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know different different things and I think you know I grewup a military kid um you know my my father had some issues

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when I my biological father had some issues when I was youngand my mom joined the military to take care of me and my brothers um so she wasa single

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mother and we traveled and I went to 16 different schools asa kid I only went to the same school two years in a row

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twice in my entire um childhood but I think for me what thatshowed me is that

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you know I would move from Georgia to Colorado for exampleand what was you

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know popular or cool in Georgia was not popular or cool inColorado and so you

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know very early on I I learned that people are all differentright people are all different and and and what you

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know what may get get you success in one place doesn'tnecessarily get you success in another place but that was good and bad for mebecause it made me

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adaptable but it also you know I didn't get stuck being oneway or thinking one

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way um because I was I was moving around and um you know Ithink it really helped me on the learning agility front even in

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sports right like in sports I had to learn a new playcalling system every

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year because I was playing for different coaches right theyall had different ideas of what was important what was

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good and so as an athlete I was constantly adjusting as welland and in turn what that made before was I was a

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really versatile athlete which which worked against me insome ways because they were always like what position should you play but butyou know as as

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you get to better coaches and you get to that that D1 levelas you mentioned they figure out a way to take a a good

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athlete and and make them make that person successful so umso for me that

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that adaptability and that versatility that I was requiredto have just based on the way I grew up really became an

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asset um in how in sports and how I was able to learn a newplay calling system

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and able to to to adjust how I was able to get along withdifferent teammates but then as I you know entered the

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professional World in terms of how I'm able to you know gofrom one company to the next and and and still get along

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with people or how I'm able to enter a new um relationshipwith a customer and immediately find something that we

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canect Con on and and some way to to to relate to thatperson definitely comes

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from doing that over and over again at a at an early age soyeah yeah I mean we

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share the same experience with uh playing division onesports when and I've heard you say before that it's it's

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kind of like a full-time job you know I around the clock andit's like a full-time job but one up that you have

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on me for sure is that not only did you play sports but youJ joined the Air Force Reserves after your freshman year

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in high school I mean college right yeah yeah um and wouldyou say that so you

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have between sports and Military what helped mold more your

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leadership yeah that's always yeah that that's always toughright because I think um I have so much of both of those

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um by the way Damon you were much more successful than I wasin in sports but that's a whole

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another but um yeah I think for me I'm always trying tounderstand am I more

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military am I more Sports I think um I think what I've doneis I've taken a lot of the positives from from both and and

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applied them and I've taken a lot of the areas that I see asopportunities in both as well um and I can give you some

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examples of that um you know I think the military is is verystructured right and

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and they they they because of how the military Works whetheryou go to a base

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in Kansas or a base in Texas things are going to be similarand so military does

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really well at scale is you know training and developmentlike you know

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they they send you know millions of soldiers throughtraining every year and all these soldiers are learning the same thingeverybody's buying into the same

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value system everybody's on the same page and they can dothis at scale and that can replicate things at scale um

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and and there's a lot of discipline and a lot ofaccountability in in the military and those things um are things

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that I take very uh very seriously as well as Integrityright like one of the things that uh you know if you look at

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the Air Force values it's service before self Integritythese are things that I carry with me from a business

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perspective um what I don't carry with me from the militaryis the military is

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very big on Chain of Command right like it's it's it's notokay to you know talk

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to somebody who's above your boss or it's not okay to gooutside um in terms

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of promotional opportunities and things like that it's notabout who performs the best it's about who's been there the

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longest who's who's you know different things like that sofor me there's a lot of positives that I take from the

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military but then I see those other aspects and I'm able tosay okay how can I take these positives but then maybe

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solve for some of the other things that could be frustratingin the business world or or or civilian world and then

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and then Sports the same thing right like one of the bigthings I learned about sports and believe it or not I didn't really learn ituntil I was on

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the executive team for the first time is that you know wegrew up playing sports

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folks folks like David and I grew up playing sports so wejust assume everybody knows what teamwork looks

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like and the reality of it is a lot of people have neverbeen a part of a team and then and then even those who maybe

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have been a part of a team they've maybe never been a partof a high performing team and so if you if you don't

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understand what it means to play a role on a team for thatso and to sacrifice for your teammates and for yourself so

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that your team can be successful um that that's that's notthat may be aate to me

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or seem aate to me and today and that's not aate toeverybody and so how do you in the business World apply some of

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those things that um are are are really important in thesport Sports World in

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terms of being a successful team and the other thing I takefrom the sports world is that and I tell people this all the

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time you know you take very direct and immediate feedback insports right like

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if you're at the plate Damon and you strike out youimmediately know you you you failed and and your coach is going to tell youimmediately what you did

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wrong and and it's up up to you to then course correct andget better so that you know Sports has very candid feedback

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um and very immediate feedback but that's what allows peopleto get better and so I think that oftentimes in

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business we don't think about the fact that when somethinggoes wrong we all need to immediately figure out what

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happened um and it's not about blame right like your coachis never saying to you Damon hey we lost this game because

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you struck out they're trying to help you get better for thenext time but it's not from a blame perspective it's

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from a let me help you perspective and then they expect youto help yourself in that and so I've been known to be you

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know very much about feedback and transparent feedback inboth ways right because Damon as you experienced when

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you get to that division one level the feedback goes bothways like sometimes you go to the coach and you say Hey you had me in the wrongspot like and I

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couldn't make the play because you told me to go here and Ineeded to be there right that may not fly in peeee but that

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you can do that when you're when you're playing division oneor definitely pro baseball so that's the other thing I

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apply to the to the business world is I expect my teamespecially my executive team to tell me if we're going the wrong

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direction or if I'm not helping them to be successful andI'm going to do the same thing and as a result we're GNA

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have a high level of accountability and we're gonna we'regoing to be a high performing team I love all you said right there one

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thing for me with sports you know I played for three Hall ofFame coaches and uh you learned this from military uh

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but my first baseball coach Andy Lopez at Pepperdine one ofhis two uh rules

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only two rules one was show up on time there's you know ifyou don't show up on time you're late number two was have

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integrity do the right thing and do the right thing all thetime and like well what does that mean you know what that

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means so it's important to have integrity but and I and I'msure you

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feel the same way I've learned a lot of great things fromsome of these great coach is but I've also learned what not

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to do as a coach as a leader I mean I had one coach I don'tever doesn't matter who it is is a big league manager

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right now though and kind of like you said when things wentwell Elias great

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everything's great he he put himself out in front whenthings didn't go well there were times like well how are we

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gonna win when our cleanup hitter is striking out which wasby Me by the way right and so that's one thing I always

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told myself was that as a leader I'm gonna own own themistakes and the

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failures and kind of be vulnerable out there and share withthe people hey I messed this up you know because then I think when you do thatpeople feel more

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comfortable to be able to give you direct feedback and andand and want to help instead of getting you know uh

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defensive about it so there's great things you can learnback and forth and one of the I guess moving into the learning agility topicwhen somebody

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asked me what learning agility is I say almost exactly whatyou said if I was up to bat and I struck out I need to

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immediately get some kind of feedback from my coaches but Ineeded to be able to learn and adapt for next time you

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know and and you have to do that in real time you don't haveyou don't you don't have the luxury of waiting you know you

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have an at bat coming up in 15 minutes or so um those areall great things how

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do you define learning agility no I think you're spot onwell I think first of all learning agility is one of my

Learning Agility: Definition and importance of learningagility—applying lessons from previous experiences to new situations—and how itcontributes to leadership success.

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favorite topics and and um I think it's probably one of themost underrated and

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over looked aspects of someone who's going to be successfulin leadership but also just in in in any role right and um

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for me um I think of um you know a lot of learning agilityis um you know

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knowing what to do when you don't know what to do um andit's it's being able to apply lessons that you've learned in

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a previous experience to a a new situation and so you know Ithink about

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um you know if I if I if I use a sports example um you knowa lot of athletes play multiple sports right and so you

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know maybe you've been uh so perfect example I was literallyI was on the golf course the other day and um we were

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talking about the golf swing and and you know my swing needssome some work right

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and um the uh you know one of the people I was playing withwas like well you didn't play grow up playing golf so the

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swing isn't isn't as natural to you and I was like yeah andthey're like did you ever play baseball and I was like yeah I played somebaseball and they were like

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well aim you know try to hit a ground or a second that's howyou hit this shot I was like oh okay so you know it's it's

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this ability to take a different situation and apply it tosomething new and for me in my career um you know I

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I've done that a lot right like I've done um you know like Imentioned earlier I got a lot of lean and

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operational excellence training early in my career um andthere was a lot around

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the Toyota production system and other things that I learnedand I was immediately able to start taking lessons

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around operational efficiency and apply them to other areasright and as I grew in my career and started to manage other

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parts of the business HR sales other areas I I would seethat things that may

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be worked on the manufacturing floor the same principlescould apply in in in the

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field for sales right and you know you have to be able tokind of adjust the situation and adjust the scenario for

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those involved but that ability to take what you've learnedin one situation and apply it to another is just so critical

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and and even you know even if I just think about going backto what we discussed earlier my background of going to multiple schools rightlike I I know

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how to meet new people right and and you know thatexperience of being um in a

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room full of new faces for the first time as a as aeight-year-old when I go

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into a executive meeting with the with a new customer forthe first time um I'm

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able to take all those times that I've done that in the pastand apply it to this new situation to say okay how do I

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immediately break the ice how do I immediately you knowbuild a relationship with these with these folks

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so um yeah so for me learning agility is is definitely justtaking what you've learned in a in a prior situation or

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scenario and being able to apply it to to new situations andscenarios for your benefit as soon as soon as you mentioned

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golf I immediately and I accidentally D drag called thedevil club which is like the three-wood which is supposed to be

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one of the hardest to hit I immediately want to talk to youabout golf because there's something about you because I would want to anyway

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but also because you um you you you bring a lot of curiosityI mean you know

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the experience that you had as a kid moving with 16different schools by the way quick shout out to your mom my mom

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was a single mom who put you know raised food stamps andstuff and like thank God for moms right abut but you you learn to

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trust yourself um in that environment I think a lot ofpeople don't right and

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you and you you learn to kind of trust yourself in newenvironments and you

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you're just you're bringing that trust and that Curiositywhich is what allows you to have that versatility and that

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agility um and I I I mean so to just be honest you know partof your success is

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a very hard thing to teach or quantify which is um Charismaand that's kind of how you get

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Charisma and I I'm gonna embarrass you right now but I don'tcare I'll go for it you're catic guy but I think because

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of those things it's that curious and that's TR and you'rewilling to come into new environment I mean what what

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allowed you to develop that kind of mindset instead of kindof going in the

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opposite direction and feel beat up by all those experiencesyeah you know it's it's funny my wife and I talk about it

Belief and Confidence: Discussion on how belief in oneselfand confidence can drive success, drawing from Ilias's personal experiences andmotivational factors.

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you know and I I I just have this um this belief in myselffor one you

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know I I think I think uh you know my favorite movie as akid was was Rocky four right and um you know I like Rocky

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3 and Rocky four and the Underdog Story you know I was lovethose movies right and um you

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know I think as a as a child I was very aware that mycircumstances weren't

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ideal um and I didn't look at that as a reason to give up Ilooked at that as a

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motivation to do better and and and help myself get out ofthat situation and and

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so every time you know I um failed at something I justthought to myself okay how could I do better but I

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also just had this really deep belief that I could figurethings out right and I had a really strong belief in myself

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um that was you know I would tell myself hey I'm gonna I'mgonna figure out how to do this you know even even in sports

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I was I was not uh believe it or not I was the not the mosttalented athlete growing up um but I but I was the

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hardest working kid in the in the in the weight room and Iwas putting in the extra hours and um you know so that the

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work ethic was definitely there and I think a lot of thatcame from seeing my mom do what she did to to make sure that

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we were taken care of um and just always believe that hey ifyou put in the work it'll pay off right and I was one of

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those people that just bought into this idea and I used to Iused to literally say tell it to people all the time hard

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work always pays off like that's that's something I believeI think that um if

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you you know again me and my wife were talking about theother day and I told her I was like listen you know there's not many peoplethere's probably not

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anybody in the NFL who doesn't love football right and whenyou love something you'll work hard at it and and

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that hard work will eventually pay off um and it pays off indifferent ways but I think I think oft times you know

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people think that's cliche or whatever and they'll say wellI worked hard at something and it didn't pay off and it's like you probablydidn't do the right

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work or you probably don't know what hard work really lookslike right and um

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you know when you see the guys who you know get up at 4:00a. on their own to to lift weights and go do hitting drills

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or you know footwork drills or whatever you realize thatthere's a different level of hard work and and I applied a

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lot of that to my to my business side as well because youknow while I was

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working I was doing other things like you mentioned David II joined the the Air Force while I was in college right

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and I was getting I was that was a lot of work like otherkids went home and had fun for the summer I went and did

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military drills right and then um you know went back and gotmy NBA while I

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was uh you know I had young kids and went to school at nightand I was a senior vice president traveling all over

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the world and I went to live classes at night to to get theNBA so I think there's an element of hard work that not

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everybody understands but if you're willing to put in thework it it will eventually pay off for

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you say very quickly Damon uh uh when Rocky first came outbecause I'm I got

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up in the morning and had the raw eggs and like tried to jumnot translate into

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the same kind of sports career as you guys so rightsometimes I think Talent is also a

27:38

little bit of part yeah absolutely yeah it helps that God Bme 64 so tal Talent helps but elas you know

27:45

you and I have young kids right we have young kids and andand I grew up with a work ethic because I just saw different

27:53

background of course you know I was very lucky um but I Ireally wanted to prove myself that I it wasn't just handed to

28:00

me from my from my parents right so and I think me mysiblings all roll up our sleeves and did that um but now here we

28:07

are we're all we're pretty successful uh it's a differentGenerations different

28:13

times I guess my question to you is how do we get how do welearn to install embed this work ethic in our kids coming

28:21

up you I mean because to me that that's the most you knowwhat I mean I mean I

28:26

just want them I want Wally and Lucy to don't worry aboutgetting perfect scores

28:31

but let's just freaking work hard yeah you know I thinkabout that all the time and I you know it's what you said is

28:37

spot on too though and I think it actually points to ourearlier conversation where you know even though

28:43

you and I had different backgrounds we were able to find ourmotiv our inspiration and our motivation right and

28:48

so um and and once you found that and you were like listen Iyou know I don't

28:53

want anybody to feel like things were handed to me then youyou put in the work because you now something to to

28:59

motivate you and inspire you and I think that's what it iswe have to find in our our children and you know the next

29:05

generation is okay how do we find what it is that inspiresyou and and and motivates you and um makes you want to

29:13

do something more different right um so it it's it's achallenge but I think

29:18

that I think the only way you can do it is to um just reallybe open-minded right like you have to just really be

29:24

open-minded you have to communicate um you know I I like toask a lot of like

29:29

really openend deep questions to people and questions thatmaybe maybe like

29:35

catch them off guard you know and um you know and then Ialso like I also believe

29:40

that um you know telling I I always tell

29:45

the kids how good they are at things even if they're they'renot really that good um and you know that might sound

29:53

counterintuitive in in some ways because it's like well howare you motivating if you tell them they're good at something they're not goingto work card at it and

29:59

the reality of it is is that um at that age you know allfour my kids are under

30:04

10 um at that age the recognition from Dad motivates themright and so um you

30:13

know they'll eventually figure out what it is they love butthey'll be motivated to try new things and and give their

30:19

best because they love that recognition from from datasaying oh you're so smart or oh you're so fast or oh you're so

30:26

strong right and that I'm building in belief and I you knowI I'll give a I don't want to get stuck on the topic but

30:32

I'll give an example of my son um who's uh who's six and youknow I always let him beat me in arm wrestling so he

30:39

thinks he's incredibly strong right and um but I tell mywife I'm like hey I'm

30:44

I'm only gonna let him beat me until he's seven and then I'mgonna show him that

30:49

he's not actually stronger than me and so like for me the mythought process in that is that I want him to be motivated

30:55

and to feel good about being strong and to care of about itand he's he now cares about it he now tells everybody

31:00

how strong he is he now always wants to do it and theneventually he's going to realize that wait I'm not really

31:06

stronger than Dad so if I want to be strong I have to workfor it right and and and and the hope there is that he's

31:13

he's found the passion for being strong and then he loves itand then now he'll put in the work to actually be strong as

31:21

a result in a in a big organization and

Inspiration at Scale: Exploring how Ilias inspires largeteams by being genuine, relatable, and showing care for the people he leads.

31:27

you've had you know tens thousand people uh before how doyou handle inspiration

31:32

I mean at that level you you want to be an inspiring leaderdo you prefer to do it more you know one onone on a big

31:39

stage what are the the tricks that you could or the tipsthat you could offer to folks when it comes to being a kind

31:45

an inspirational leader yeah yeah I like doing both I thinkum they're both very different though right and um you know

31:53

one thing that's common amongst both is that it has to begenuine you know for me I I try to be very genuine I try to

32:00

just be myself and I do that whether it's in front of youknow 10,000 people

32:05

or whether it's one-on-one with one of my direct reports I'mGNA be I'm GNA be myself and I'm G to be pretty

32:11

transparent um and I'm G to try to be relatable right Ithink that um it's

32:16

very hard to be inspired by someone you can't relate toright like you know if you if you if if the person who's you

32:24

know telling you hey here's what we got to do and let's goget it and you're looking at this person thinking like

32:30

yeah but you and I don't have anything in common or we don'tyou know we don't relate like why would I listen to you right and so I thinkbeing relatable is

32:38

is really important and I think the the the easiest way tobe relatable is to be

32:43

genuine and to show that you care um and to show that youcare about people right

32:49

and that you care about the people that you're um chargedwith you know leading or or working with and I think once

32:55

people see that you care um you know you guys know the oldsaying right nobody cares what you know until they know how

33:00

much you care um you know I think uh I prefer love precedesleadership right

33:06

like you I tell people all the time if you don't if youdon't genuinely like people leadership probably isn't where

33:14

you should be because um you know because for me leadershipis all about inspiring

33:20

directing and providing a vision for people and and you knowand taking care of those people right and um you know

33:27

you hear the term servant leadership all the time and reallywhat that means is that you know you want to serve others

33:33

and in that desire to serve others you end up leading themright and uh you know that's definitely the way I think

33:40

about it is I I love to see people be successful I love tosee people achieve

33:45

things that they didn't know that they could achieve um Ilove to see people come together as a team people do things

33:52

for the first time you know that that person that gets thatfirst promotion or um meets that new that metric for the

33:58

first time or gets that first hit on the baseball fieldright whatever it may be

34:04

um I love to see people you know achieve um whatever it isthey're trying to

34:10

achieve and again it's not about them achieving what I wantthem to achieve if that's if that's the approach that I

34:16

take then they're they're not going to be inspired becausethere needs to be some intrinsic motivation so it's about

34:22

helping them achieve what it is that they want to achieveand when people can see that in you they'll they'll they'll

34:28

follow yeah it's um there there's there's really strong

34:35

themes through everything that you're saying and I thinkunder underpinning a lot of that too is that belief in people

34:40

I love that you've even said you know like love you have togenuinely care about people and focus on people first I

34:45

think that genuine part is a big deal too but uh but you youcombine that because I think people get like they

34:52

hear that but then they struggle to make it real for themlike they struggle to execute on it and I think uh part of

34:59

that is is that accountability piece you had mentionedearlier about giving feedback um and that can that can be

35:06

difficult especially today you know in the US we we put areal big premium on self-esteem and people have even

35:13

invested a lot of energy and trying to be more aware ofother people and more empathic and it's almost shut them down

35:18

more so they're like afraid to be direct afraid to givedirect honest feedback and hold each other accountable how do

35:25

you how do you balance these two things yeah no I think umyou know there's uh

Self-Awareness in Leadership: Discussion on the necessity ofself-awareness for effective leadership and the ability to inspire confidenceand calm in teams.

35:31

there there's a lot to that but I think you actually umthere's a couple couple

35:36

famous saying around it and and come from different placesbusiness um there's some uh religious sayings around

35:43

it but really when you when you care about people again likeI said you're charged with taking care of them so I

35:49

tell my teams all the time that if I'm not willing to tellyou directly what it

35:55

is that you need to work on or how you need to get better doI really care about you right like you you you you

36:01

stop your kid from running in the street because you don'twant them to get hit by a car and sometimes you have to you

36:08

know yell because they start to run in the street and so youhave to yell and grab them now you don't yell at people at work don't that'snot what at all

36:14

what I'm what I'm saying but my point is that to your childthey may not always

36:19

understand why you don't want them on their phone past acertain time or why they can't just play video games all day

36:25

or why they need to go to school but but it's you knowyou're or why you're correcting a bad behavior right um but

36:32

the reality of it is is that as as their parent you'reresponsible for putting a

36:37

successful um individual out there into the world and to dothat you have to give them them feedback and so the same

36:44

thing applies in business that if if you're my You KnowChief sales officer

36:49

or you're my you know forklift driver and and you and youwant to do a good job so again it doesn't matter whether

36:55

you're an executive or whether you're you know front line umI have to tell you whether or not you're doing things

37:02

right and um if that's coming from a place of I care aboutyou and I want you

37:07

to be successful I think people can tell Darren now what Itell you is anytime

37:13

you give people criticism it hurts them initially rightthere's an ego element and a pride element that we all have

37:19

that when someone tells you you need to do somethingdifferent it it's an immediate shock um and I think being

37:25

aware of that in the moment and so being able to to balancethe conversation or

37:30

the feedback knowing that hey I'm probably going to saysomething that this person's not gonna love hearing so

37:37

I'm gonna immediately need to be able to explain why I'mtelling them this and why it's important and so that that why

37:44

behind it really matters and and the example I give all thetime is I had a I had a person who was working for me as

37:50

like a general manager director at the time and they werestruggling with some things and the client was giving me some

37:55

feedback and I could see that there was some issues with thefinancials and the reality of it is is that this person

38:01

needed some help with the p&l but really was math drivenlike they just weren't comfortable with some of the math and so

38:07

um you know here I am as as an adult talking to anotheradult saying hey you know what you should think about taking

38:13

some math classes you know at a local college or somethingbecause you really

38:18

need to get better at math and you know I remember tellingmy HR person I was going to have this conversation like you

38:23

can't tell somebody they need to get better at math like Idon't tell them they need to get better at math they're never going

38:29

to learn the financials and yeah you know fast forward andnow this person's a vice president they run a very large

38:35

p&l and you know they're having a huge career and theydid exactly what I what I suggested they went back and and and

38:41

got better at at some of the math elements of that that arerequired to to manage the finances of a business so um

38:48

you know wasn't an easy conversation but I made sure that heknew where it was coming from and that it was coming from

38:53

a place of I'm trying to help you be the best version ofwhat you want to be not

38:59

the best version of what I need you to be this is whatyou're telling me you want to do well I'm telling you that if

39:04

that's what you want to be here's the things that you'regoing to need to do to get there and um and I'm gonna

39:10

support you in any way I can along that process so and thateven falls into and

Handling Feedback and Accountability: Importance of givingconstructive feedback and maintaining accountability to help team members growand succeed.

39:17

and they're always really difficult conversations but thateven falls into sometimes when you have to let people go

39:23

absolutely because a lot of times people who get to thepoint where they need to

39:29

let go and they're miserable in their career and they'remiserable in their job and what I've told a lot of the leaders that are bothclients of ours

39:35

and internally at learn it you're actually doing them afavor if you do it the right way if you communicate to them

39:42

um why what what's going on and and get give them anopportunity to go find

39:47

something else you know something that's more of a strengthfor them you know something that they can do better at in the future um andthat kind of leads me

39:54

into a little bit you're a big strength finder guy right sois your approach to leadership and this is kind of way I

40:00

look at it for me I've always been about I think you get geta greater impact out

40:06

of working on people's strengths than on their weaknessesyeah I I agree 100 perc Damon I think um in first before I get

40:13

into that just to come back to your previous point also as aleader if someone's not happy or not performing

40:20

you owe it to the rest of the team to address so there'sthere's this you know going back to the accountability piece

40:26

Darren if if you don't see me holding Damon accountable thenhow do you expect

40:32

you know how do you respect me as a leader right and so Ithink there's that element in into it as well but but I'm

40:38

definitely a person who believes that you figure out whatpeople's strengths are and you allow them to focus on their

40:44

strengths um I'm not saying that you don't work onweaknesses I I I don't think that that's 100% accurate that you

40:51

just ignore weaknesses I think everybody should beconstantly working to get better um but the ity of it is is that

40:58

people do have strengths and weaknesses and there's nothere's no Superman or Superwoman out there and so for most

41:05

people they're going to be really comfortable and reallygood at certain things and going back to what I said about football you don'tmake it to the

41:12

NFL if you don't love football and so in business I'm not gto put somebody who hates numbers in

41:18

finance because they're just not g to do good they're notgoing to do well and if you love numbers I'm going to put you in

41:24

finance because you're going to work you're going to workharder yeah and be more intrinsically motivated doing

41:31

something you love than something you don't enjoy and as andif you've read the book strength finders I talk about

41:36

it all the time but if when you're doing things you're notgood at you typically don't enjoy it right and um you know

41:42

Darren going back to the golf example I tell people I wantto be good just good enough at golf that I can go play but

41:48

not so good that I care when I play that I need to reversemy trajectory to

41:54

get back to that I care too much play badly right right andso you know that's

42:00

true in business right like people need to have they need tobe able to find enough enjoyment in their role to to to

42:07

want to work at it and if they're not good at it they're notgoing to enjoy it so I'm definitely big on um strengths

42:15

versus weaknesses but I think you also um as you progress inyour career and if you do want to be an executive

42:22

you you you're not allowed to have as many glaringweaknesses right like that's just a reality of the situation

42:28

and so as you progress you do need to strengthen those areasof weakness a little more again you know certain

42:35

things are never going to be everybody's strength um yeahbut you do you do need to know where your weaknesses are and

42:40

either figure out how to supplement them or or work on thembut focus on your strengths and put yourself in a position

42:47

where your strengths um Can shine so along with along withstrengths I

42:53

want to make sure that we we get this in Dar and I talkalong with strengths is in a Workforce is the importance of

42:59

diversity so I wanted to talk a little bit about umdiversity and how that really can positively impact the work

43:06

environment yeah you've so eloquently about this before it'sreally and and I

Diversity in Teams: Benefits of diversity in teams,including varied perspectives and increased self-awareness, leading to higherperformance and innovation.

43:11

know you have some good recommendations about how to worktowards as you said working towards a more equal future

43:17

right yeah I think what are those keys to creating exposurefor people yeah I I

43:23

think that you know first of all the reason it's importantis that the diverse perspectives really help right

43:30

and it really you know two two people don't approach asituation in the same

43:35

way in a lot of cases right now um and the reason diversitybecomes important is because um oftentimes if you have too

43:42

many people of the same background with the same experiencesthey are going to approach that problem in a similar way

43:48

um and so you know again if you look at the three of us weall have different experiences we all have different backgrounds yes we havethings that we

43:55

have in common um you know and you know again Damon and Iare both athletes Etc but we but we do we approach things from

44:01

a different perspective and so um problems often can besolved in

44:06

different ways um but often times there's a best way tosolve a problem too and um you know if it sometimes my

44:14

way isn't going to be the best way and I'm gonna needDamon's way or I'm gonna need Darren's way sometimes it's good to

44:21

have somebody who's less competitive than Damon or I lookingat this problem because that competitive side of us

44:29

maybe focuses too much on winning and we need somebody who'smaybe more focused on the experience or who's more focused

44:36

on the people or whatever right so so having those diverseperspectives matters and I think um you know also

44:45

when you have diversity of background um it creates anenvironment where

44:50

people interact differently right and and there's adifferent there's a different you avoid the group think

44:57

right and um people have to be more aware and I think that'sa good thing

45:02

right like it's a good thing when you have to be aware ofhow your leadership

45:09

or how your presence even um and the way you go about thingsis impacting others

45:15

and I think that self-awareness um is heightened in asituation where you're around people who

45:21

are different from you because those differences stand outwhich make you more self-aware that self-awareness

45:28

helps you to be a better leader um because if you can justgo through life without being self-aware you're do

45:36

it's a disservice to yourself right like you you don'trealize the things that you don't know or the things that you

45:41

don't see or the things you're missing out on and sobringing that diversity together forces everybody in that

45:47

situation to be more self-aware which allows everybody tofocus more on their strengths and weaknesses and the areas

45:53

that they need to be doing better and need to be doingdifferent um then as a group you become self-aware of the group

46:00

dynamic and now we know as a team where our strengths andweaknesses are and who

46:05

and who should be stepping up to do this and and and Damonknows this right like you know on a baseball team if it's if

46:13

it's a pinch Runner situation who you're putting in there todo the pinch running it's the same in business right and and

46:19

you've got to have a feel for your team and know who's goodat what and be able to say you know what in this situation

46:26

we need our best listener in this situation we need our mostinspiring person in this

46:32

situation we need our numbers person and you know having adiverse team will

46:38

allow you to be able to leverage your team and put differentpeople at the Forefront in different scenarios so it's

46:46

it's to me and in the research shows it's you're alwaysgonna have a more productive High performing team when you

46:53

have a a diverse team it's interesting what you're sayingbecause that yeah it's that research right that a diverse

47:00

team has more potential than a team that's just all the samepeople right but that you have to kind of do the

47:05

things we've been you've been talking about and we've beentalking about in terms of um having that good communication that good sort ofgenuine

47:12

Connection in order to get to achieve your potential andthen you call that

47:17

another element which is because that idea is that thenyou're better than just the best person on your team collectively you're betterabsolutely

47:23

but you're saying it also makes you indiv ually betterbecause it brings more self-awareness and more exposure by

47:30

having diversity around you which is really cool I I um yeah

47:36

like when has being more self-aware ever been a bad thingyeah that's well if you think about your if you think about your

47:42

career whether it be again whether it be sports or businessor whatever like being self-aware is is is is typically a

47:49

good thing and and yeah again you become more self-aware inin certain environments and sometimes environments

47:55

that are uncomfortable can more it's funny you bring that upso so just quickly because as an actor this is

48:02

a big deal right because what you I always talk about it'salmost like like um mentioning like just how you use

48:08

words but being self-conscious um can shut you down butself-awareness means you're you're just

48:15

aware and you're kind of accepting and you're fluid andyou're in the flow but you know it is also possible to become

48:21

so sort of self-conscious especially when you're a leaderand you're up in the public eye that it starts to shut you down

48:27

yeah I don't think you can be I don't think you can be agreat leader if you're if you're if you don't have a

48:32

strong level of self-awareness I mean I think that'swhenever I'm out talking to our customers um or even the people I

48:38

Mentor I mean you have to and it's kind of incredible to meincredible to me some people who aren't um it really is

48:47

you know and so I I just think it's so important you knowthat that people are able to kind of reflect back and I think

48:52

that has to deal in with exactly what you're talking aboutabout people agility you have to have self-awareness

48:58

to be able to because I think you know I think one nicething people say about me is you could drop Damon in pretty much

49:04

any room and he can survive he can just adap and get alongbecause you can't

49:09

have the same types of conversations you can't go to thestraight route to every single person you're talking to you you

49:15

kind of want to adjust in that room whether it's with aclient a cooworker whatever to really how they communicate

49:22

and you know what's going to be interesting you know forthem and I always try to just

49:27

be a better listener and ask more questions you know it'sit's it's better when you're you're more Curious than the

49:32

one who's doing all the talking anyway yeah and and to yourpoint like that that is self-awareness right and and and

49:39

understanding how you come off to other people even rightand you know for me I've had to really think about that and

49:45

and understand that like okay you know being self-aware Iknow when I need to step up versus when I need to step back

49:51

I know when people need to see me being very confident Iknow when people need to see that I'm concern and so there

49:56

there's this element of you know when you're a CEO and apresident people are watching everything you do right so you

50:03

know being self-aware to say okay I know things like forexample thing things are

50:08

going you know something goes wrong everybody's gonna lookto see how I react and if I panic everybody else is g

50:14

to panic but if I'm if I show confidence and I show hey Yepthis happened it was

50:19

not good but here's why we're going to be okay oh everybodykind of relaxes and they're like oh okay and and and some

50:26

leaders aren't self-aware in that way and they'll you knowsomething goes wrong and they they lose it and they're

50:31

you know oh my gosh I can't believe this happened andthey're and then all that does is everybody else is now following

50:37

this person and being like Oh my goodness like it's you knowit's no different than if you know if if we all

50:43

turned on the news tonight and the president came on andsaid everybody run it's going down like we'd all be

50:50

we'd be freaking out right and so that that self-awarenessthat people are are watching you and that um you know your

50:57

voice matters especially as a CEO like that that was onething I learned as a CEO is how much the words you say matter

51:04

to the people within the organization um being self-aware isis is so critical and and it can be one of those things

51:10

that helps break barriers and terms of inspiration andrelatability yeah I've

51:15

seen some pretty large companies where the CEO uh maybe in amoment of uh upset

51:22

will send out just terrible emails you know Panic emails umplacing blame

51:29

emails and it really crushes the morale and and themotivation of the people in your organization plus it turns it

51:36

almost into sometimes like a yes organization where peopleyou know I mean this I'm thinking of one of you know couple thousand employeecompany

51:43

where people are afraid to be anything but a yes personbecause they don't they don't want you know like like you said

51:49

when you don't have diversity you can't get diversity rightbecause either going to be that person's High uh that person

51:56

way or or the highway for them you I think to Darren's pointright like when fear comes into play that's what can

52:02

lead that's what can change from self-aware toself-conscious right like if you people start to feel that fear um

52:10

that people will shut down right and it's hard to beconfident making decisions it's hard to be comfortable

52:16

being creative um if I'm in an organization where I feelfear I'm just going to try to do what I think you want

52:22

me to do not what I think I should do and if you think aboutit the last thing you really want yeah yeah like you know

52:29

the last thing you want as an individual is to just alwaysdo what somebody else wants you to do versus feeling like okay

52:35

I'm in this role and now I can do the things that I know Ishould do or you know I know my voice matters or my

52:41

Innovation matters that that creativity that that feeling ofownership over my over my role is is important so you know

52:49

fear sitations th those situations are so crazy because sooften the person that's

Balancing Strengths and Weaknesses: Emphasis on focusing onstrengths while addressing weaknesses to create a high-performing team.

52:55

in charge they don't really know because nobody's gonna tellyou know and and they and they're in their own bubble

53:01

just thinking everything's okay it's it's why I think it'sso important as a leader to really actively get that and

53:08

you can't just ask for it I've seen leaders like reallygenuinely I want feedback but if you know it's not safe

53:13

you you better not give them feedback so it's like it has tobe real it's just everything really has to be real

53:20

speaking of real I know we're getting close to time here sopeople have gotten to learn a lot of new things about you

53:27

uh throughout this this podcast and we like to ask thesignature question what is something that uh maybe people don't

53:34

know about you something a little surprising um something uhyeah just something a lot of people don't don't

53:40

know about you oh man yeah so I think the thing peopleprobably don't know is

53:46

that I'm and I'm I'm gonna say the one that my wife alwayssays is she's she's like people have no idea how like um

53:53

simple I am and and some of the things things that I'll doto like entertain

53:59

her or the kids you know like um you know I'll I'll put onthe sport coat and go to the office and lead a town hall

54:05

but then I'll get home and I'll you know wear matchingpajamas with the kids or or do do a cartwheel into the swimming

54:12

pool and love to cook um you know I read the

54:17

books and I do all the voices when I read them children'sbooks so I think that would be the thing that um people

54:23

would be surprised to see is that um you know I I I likeSimplicity and um yeah

54:30

and that I can I can really kind of be silly yeah and justgoofy things with my

54:37

family and friends so next time you're on the show we'll allwear pajamas yeah there you

54:44

go I love to put the kids in like matching pajamas it's it'sjust something that I find really uh yeah

54:51

really entertaining for whatever reason they do it they knowI like it

Personal Side of Leadership: Ilias shares personal anecdotesabout his family life and how he maintains simplicity and fun at home,balancing his professional and personal life.

54:56

yeah I think that that's super fun and fun to see Dad dothat coming home with the suit and then getting into pajamas

55:02

it makes you feel special as a yeah I never walk into aswimming pool that's the other thing that my wife will tell

55:08

you if if I'm getting in the pool I'm jumping in the poolmake us flash yeah yeah

55:16

always I mean that's what I love Elias she made me think ofmy dad who you know I lost 10 years 12 12 13 years ago to

55:23

cancer is I would see him up in front of all sharehold youknow in in large rooms

55:28

doing talks and speeches and in front of his team and a verypowerful Guy and um

55:33

you know very motivational but at home he was he was justlike a little kid you know I mean he was just like a little

55:40

kid and and so silly with us all the time you know and itwas just it just

55:45

made that's one of the things just made me so proud of himall the time was like yeah so thanks for sharing that a little

55:51

a little bit of humor in the workforce in the workplace canbe good too especially if it's coming from like a

55:56

generous place you got to bring yeah yeah you guys have seenthat before

56:02

where they talk about one of the most common traits amongstsuccessful CEOs amongst other bunch of things is is a

56:07

sense of humor right and I I definitely if we can't have funat work um we and

56:13

we're just taking ourselves super seriously all the timethat that is not the environment that I'm ever GNA be a

56:18

part of right like we want we want to work hard but we wantto have fun yeah

56:24

and having fun Elias this has been uh a fabulousconversation and the kind of

56:29

the big takeaways for me is um to take all that differentexperience in your life and turn it into something positive

56:36

by nurturing it to to develop that kind of curious versatileagile personality

56:43

and and be genuine with it you know because that that as aleader that's how you combine the best of everything and

56:49

how you actually can get accountability into the workforceand then start to Leverage The Power of diversity and

56:55

things like like that and I think you just embody thatalmost as much the

57:02

words that come out of your mouth it's just it's justembodying what does that feel like so so thank you for that I

57:07

appreciate that and so uh Elias as we wrap up um I

57:13

think more people need to learn about your leadership styleand everything where where can people connect with you

57:19

at yeah well definitely on definitely on LinkedIn um youknow I'm I'm pretty active there um and I like to connect

57:26

with people you know it's uh it's it's actually a bad habitof mine that if people reach out and they want to talk

57:31

or connect or try to learn something or if I want to if theyneed help um I'm always there to help so that's where I

57:37

would start is definitely trying to connect with me on onLinkedIn um I'm pretty actor there so um but yeah other

57:45

than that I'm sure I'll I'm sure I'll be leading anothercompany another large company here in the near future and

57:51

looking for uh for for new new faces to inspire and lead andI and I hope one of these days

57:59

I'm able to read your book because I'm sure it'll be a greatone yeah absolutely it's it's it's coming it's

58:05

coming I'm Gonna Keep you I'm Gonna Keep you accountable toit yeah I I have a few ideas on titles I'll run them

58:12

by well thank you I mean I this has been an incredibleconversation uh we could have sat here for another hour two hours

58:19

talking about leadership in different areas but uh it's beenwonderful for our audience and for our listeners out there

58:26

if you've enjoyed this episode please like it subscribe tothe learn it all podcast and as we like to say stay

58:33

curious and keep learning for now everybody that's it have agood day bye thank you both for having me thank you

58:39

so much you

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