In this inventive episode, HR Huntsman, Founder and President of Leader’s Edge, shares how he helps founders and leaders challenge their assumed constraints and achieve the next level of success!
You will discover:
– How to know if you have a great coach
– The only way to know if you have what it takes
– The two things you need to get out of the tyranny of the urgent
Episode Transcript
Scott Ritzheimer
Hello, hello and welcome. Welcome, once again to the secrets of the high demand coach podcast. And I am here with yet another high demand coach. It is the one and only HR Huntsman, who’s the founder of leaders edge. He’s also a business and leadership keynote speaker, organizational strategist, author, business executive coach and business leadership consultant. HR founded leaders edge to invest in leaders, especially young leaders. And his passion stems from his backstory, overcoming early childhood struggles and building successful and impactful organizations. He firmly believes that to succeed, one must begin with the mindset and then move to the principles and disciplines that create long term success for a company and for an individual. HR is an accomplished speaker giving roughly 4000 talks to approximately 400,000 people worldwide, and he’s here with us today. Well, HR, so excited to have you here. As I was researching the episode, I came across a statement that you made, and I want to kind of unpack it a little bit. Why is it that we as leaders should be falling, maybe even failing from time to time?
HR Huntsman
Scott, first of all, so absolute pleasure to be here. Thank you for inviting me on the show. So I think it’s fundamental that if you are not occasionally tripping or falling. You’re not playing big enough. It’s easy to rest on our past successes, laurels or a comfort zone. And if we’re not pushing the edges, if we’re not pushing those boundaries of what’s possible, if we’re not curious about what we’re capable of, we will never discover our true potential. So you have to risk falling. You have to risk the occasional scraped knee or bruised elbow or bloody nose as a leader, as a human, in my opinion, to even begin to scrape the idea of what you’re capable of.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, I love that. There’s, there’s this temptation. I know I have it. I think a lot of us do, but it will just run with I know I have it to want to graduate from that reality, right? We want to reach a level of success where maybe, you know, we don’t fall quite as much. What’s the problem with that type of mindset?
HR Huntsman
Well, everything that you’re seeking is outside of your zone of familiarity. Everything that, everything you want, is outside that comfort zone. And so to get to that new level requires us to push through. Now, I just celebrated our 15th birthday, and I can tell you, Scott, I am hungrier and more curious than I’ve ever been before. Now what you say about, you know, not wanting to trip and fall as much, hopefully we don’t trip and fall over the same things. That would just be stupid, right? That’s just, you’re just dumb at that point. But at every level, there’s there’s something more for you, and every one of those new levels requires discomfort and some pain and a learning curve and some bruises and sore muscles, otherwise we just get stagnant and we begin to just spade and get dull. And for me, and that kind of people I like to hang around, that’s not really an option for us.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah. I think one of the things that’s interesting a lot of folks in leadership, a lot of the founders that I work with will reach some kind of arbitrary point where they wonder, Do I really have what it takes to get to the next level? Can I really be a x million dollar company or this type of leader, or whatever it may be? And all too often, we go to this kind of fatalistic I’m either wired for that or not, right? I’m kind of like destined for mediocrity is what you’d really read into it. And what I’ve found is, while there are different skill sets for different people, 100% there’s different levels of intellect and everything like that, it’s almost never a determining factor in the equation. Instead, what I’ve seen is the biggest thing is kind of the interplay between a compelling vision for the future, right? Do they have a vision for their life that demands that they build those skills versus the comfort of the success that they’ve achieved so far? Would you agree?
HR Huntsman
I would absolutely agree, and let’s just be real to you and I and everyone listening, we all have doubts if we’re ready for the next level. Every one of us has those doubts, that imposter syndrome, you know, we climb to whatever Pinnacle or whatever peak, and we see the next one, and can I play at that level? I wonder that I don’t know, but I want to find out, right? And I always hearken back to a great conversation I had. I was at this conference in this she was the first female combat Marine pilot, and she had flown in Desert Storm, Desert Shield, and she talked about sort of combat experience, and she was becoming a coach, and the moderator asked her some questions about combat experience, yada yada yada. She gets off the stage and walks up and I see her, I go shake her Air Force veteran. So thank you for serving that. Ask one of my dumbest questions ever, when you flew into combat, like, Were you afraid? She says, h of course, I was afraid. In fact, sometimes I got so afraid I wet my pants, and we just laughed. And I said, Well, what’d you do then? And she said, I flew into combat with wet pants. I’ve never stopped thinking about that. So whatever that next level is, yeah, it can scare you, but you just freaking flying to calm down with what pants.
Scott Ritzheimer
Wow. What a great What a terrible and wonderful picture all at the same time. Yeah, it’s so it’s so true. So speaking of stories, many folks will have heard the kind of proverbial tale about the elephant that was wrote to a stake and then as a baby, and then couldn’t break out, and one of the things that that speaks to in the leadership world is our own propensity to to take constraints of the past, whether real or perceived, and then apply them to our present. And why is it that these kind of limiting beliefs, or assumed constraints, or whatever you want to call them in your experience? Why are they so powerful?
HR Huntsman
Sure it’s what we know. So I grew up in a alcoholic, abusive home. I grew up pretty poor. I was called white trash, trailer trash. Kids like you don’t go to college. You should be a ditch digger, join the military. So that’s that’s what I knew, that’s what I’d been told, that’s what I grew up around. That’s the culture I grew up in so now I didn’t necessarily completely buy into it. So I left home, joined the military, and I wanted bigger things. I began to meet people who thought bigger thoughts. And that captain, he retired, Colonel John Simmons, he taught me to think bigger. He said, h you can change the world. Take that pain, make something good at it. So one of the principles I found is if, if you hang out with five alcoholics, you’ll be the sits. If you fake hang out with five millionaires, you’ll be the sit. So one of the biggest things to do is put yourself around big thinkers, big people. Surround yourself with resources that will challenge your thinking, that will challenge those mindsets, those limiting beliefs. So you can see, oh, there is something more than what I was brought up under. And the more I hang around big thinkers and high achievers and big doers, like, oh, okay, if they can do it, I can do it.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah. And it goes back to your idea of those. Always exist outside of our comfort zone. I remember one of the times that hit me. International travel has always done that for me. The first time I go to a different place, it just makes my worlds much bigger. But from the business world, I remember the very first time I read Rich Dad, Poor Dad. Guy, Kiyosaki, can’t remember his last name, but and it talked about, it was a little line. It was a passing thing. Wasn’t even a point he was making, but he was just talking about the bank account balance for one of, you know, his the bank accounts, that it was just like the biggest number I’d ever heard of in my life, you know, as a young, maybe 20 something. And it did just that. It kind of broke that open to say, hey, like, why not? Now, one of the constraints that I feel like we we run into a lot is particularly for, you know, for young, kind of entrepreneurial organizations, it’s just there’s a wonderful and terrible messiness to all of it. But that messiness kind of translates to more and more time spent just kind of bouncing from fire to fire, right? And just, you know, some people call it the tyranny of the urgent, and you kind of end the day just exhausted and depleted and wonder, is this it like? Is this what leading is supposed to feel like, or is it the burden of a leader? What would you say to that?
HR Huntsman
Yeah, I mean, I’ve started my own companies. You know? What I do every day is how people start and build companies, and that tyranny of the urgent is is real, and it’s a trap for sure. To work yourself out of that trap requires two things, and requires scalable people and scalable processes. Otherwise, you are trapped in that tier of the urgent so working really hard in those early years when you’re building a company, yeah, you, you, it’s a grind. It’s an absolute. There is no joke, it’s a grind. If you get into entrepreneurship, thinking you’re going to have the Hawaiian vacations in the first couple years. I mean, you’re, you’re fooling yourself. It’s, it’s a grind. But if you will focus on scalable people, getting the right people in the right seats on the bus, scalable processes, you can then work your way into scalability where you’re not putting out fires, you are fire preventing rather than fire extinguishing.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, yeah, I love that, and it takes both I’ve found, and I’d love to get your your thoughts on this. I’ve found that most leaders kind of would know that that’s the right answer, but they have a tendency to bias pretty heavily toward one side or the other, right? You have some folks who are more comfortable with people, and it’s just like, it’s all people, and we all sing kubaya. Or you have other folks who are a little bit more it’s all having the right answer or the right structure, and you know that they don’t get in line, kind of a thing. Why? Why is it so rare to find someone who can master pulling both of those scalable people and scalable processes together?
HR Huntsman
Well, the deeper issue goes to the psychology leader, and usually they struggle with control. Usually there’s a control issue. They it’s their baby. We, who are entrepreneurs, it’s our baby. Have built this thing from scratch. I know everything about every facet of it. And so relinquishing control, either through systems or the Empower of people, can be scary, because maybe they only do it 90% 80% to what I could do it. So first we have to address the control issue. And I joke with all the CEOs I work with breaking their white knuckle grip off that thing, and then getting out of the weeds of the business enough to develop those people, to build those processes, because both of them take time, time that that CEO or that entrepreneur think they do not have, I don’t have the time to sit down and document those systems and train those people and increase that control. So taking the time, making the time to do those things is critically important after you fight the control battle.
Scott Ritzheimer
Right, right. HR, I want to shift gears a little bit, because, again, as those researching the episode, there are a couple things that really jumped out to me that were are kind of central to why this podcast exists. So one of the challenge just for our newer listeners and for you, one of the challenges that I faced as a leader was we went out and hired some really bad Coaches and Consultants. Not bad people, just bad coaches and consultants. And that was equal parts their problem and our problem, right? We didn’t hire very well, and they didn’t help very well. So there’s lots of lessons to learn there. But I thought that was kind of an isolated incident. I thought that we were really the only ones who struggled with that. And once I got into the industry, ironically, I started speaking around the country and noticed that lots of people have had really bad experiences with coaches and consultants. In fact, a vast, vast majority of the ones that I’ve bumped into, which was kind of scary for me. And so the heart behind the show is to bring folks like yourself who understand what great coaching is. So that one, we can share your wisdom, but two, help folks to see what great coaching looks like. So my question for you, kind of, in the context of all of that, is, what should great coaching focus on?
HR Huntsman
Gosh, that’s a great question. So okay, I’ll paint a picture using a client of ours in Nevada. So they come to me, and they reach out to me to hear about some of our work and and they begin to ask if I can come work with them, and they they paint a picture of they’ve had, like, half a dozen coaches over the last two or three years, and coaches and consultants. I said, Okay, hold on, why have all those failed? Like, what’s the what’s the deal with your culture, your team, whatever? And the last thing I want to be is the next guy on your coaching carousel who didn’t do a good job, and he said they all just come in and talk and fluff and blah, blah, blah and ideas, and don’t do anything. They don’t have any process or system to actually accomplish things. They just give us a bunch of ideas and then we’re supposed to figure it out. And H, what we see that you do differently is you have this methodology where you actually bring transformation, follow up with accountability, have deliverables. So all I can say, from my experiences, what bad coaches and consultants do, apparently, is talk and fluff and ideas and don’t bring around real organizational transformation. Yeah, what great coaches, then, on the flip side do is they bring about real transformation in their clients and teams that they work with through a either proven methodology or proven system or just the way they interact, that that person sees tangible results. Because these people are paying good money. They’re paying good money for us to come in. And every one of those dollars needs to be honored and respected, because it was hard won. Yeah, I’m a business owner. You’re a business owner. Those dollars are hard fought for blood, sweat and tears goes into that that needs to be honored. So making sure that all every one of those dollars comes back with a bunch of friends is is the goal of good coaching and good consulting?
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, that’s so true. It’s fascinating that you make that point, because I did a lot of research. When I stumbled on this problem, interviewed a ton of coaches, and the number one thing that separates kind of, what I would classify as kind of average coaches from great coaches, high demand coaches. Is that a structured process? Okay? 100% it’s 100% of those who are doing a great job have one, and almost 100% of those who don’t, don’t, right? Is the biggest single differentiator, and because it’s not easy, right? It’s not easy to have a. Process that can lead you know more than one company through, right? It takes depth. It takes knowledge and skill. Why do you think with the process that you bring, why was it so important for you to develop something like that?
HR Huntsman
I’m a process guy, so I think in terms of systems, it’s the way my brain works. I like being able to see a methodology where we’re going, what we’re doing, something I can hang it’s how I built my own companies. And so over the 30 years of building my company, I created this, what we now call the leaders at performance engine. It’s looking at six systems of business. And so any business that invites us in, we walk them through the six different systems of business that we’ve identified, and we work with their team on every one of those systems. And each system takes two to three months to go through some of the foundation and then team building and strategy, blah, blah, blah. And so walking people through so they can see exactly what we’re doing, what it’s going to do for them, the outcomes for them, what they’re responsible for, how it’s going to help them scale. They get a full, fleshed out binder. I mean, they get the whole deal now they have this scalable company they didn’t have before, so they can see these tangible results. That’s just the way I’m wired. And maybe not everyone’s wired that way. Maybe, maybe some business owners are like theory or just philosophy or ideas. I like concrete steps and methodology, and our clients do as well. So it was important for me and how we built my companies, and so I’ve just offered that to the companies that ask us to come help them.
Scott Ritzheimer
I love that. I love that. HR, there’s this question that I ask all my guests. I’m going to fire it your way here in a second. And the quieter one is, the question is, what would you say is the biggest secret you wish wasn’t a secret at all? What’s that one thing you wish everybody watching or listening today knew?
HR Huntsman
Oh, Scott, this is easy. It’s leveraging the power of what we call creative conflict, our secret sauce, by far as all these systems of things we talk about, they come to fruition in this context of creative conflict. Most companies don’t do this well, most companies avoid conflict, and they’re leaving they’re leaving dollars on the table. I believe the greatest waste in human history is the waste of human potential, and we’re not, we’re not mining for creativity and innovation, because we’re not bringing the bright people in the room and saying, okay, game, we have a problem. What are your ideas? And I disagree, and I think we should do it this way, and I don’t know that that will work. And what do you think? Let’s try this, and they don’t bring that heat and friction to bear, because most leaders don’t know how to handle it. They’re too insecure. They’ve been taught conflict is bad. And so there’s all these brilliant ideas in their company that they’re not going after because they don’t leverage the power of creative conflict. They don’t create the space for it, they don’t create the safety for it. And so they’re not innovating, they’re not creating, they’re not building dynamic ideas for the future.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, yeah, that bit there at the end is so powerful, because folks won’t just jump into creative conflict. Most of them won’t right, and a lot of that has nothing to do with you, right. A lot of that can just be from their experiences of the past. Most people you hire that or that work for you will have worked somewhere else and will have not been given that freedom, and so taking that big step back of not just saying, hey, go be creative, or go step into conflict, creating the environment for that to thrive.
HR Huntsman
Yeah, absolutely. I mean talking about taking a risk and going out that, outside that zone of familiarity, building that creative creative conflict takes time. It takes energy. You’re gonna fall a lot. There’s gonna be dead silence and crickets a lot, because exactly what you talk about people bring their baggage and fear into the room from past scar tissue and creating that takes a lot of time and risk and modeling for the leader to say, I don’t exactly know what to do here. I dropped the ball here. I failed here, I messed up here, gang, I need your help. That level of vulnerability and trust and safety, the leaders have to model it, invite people into it. It takes a lot of time. It can be scary, but the companies that do that, they see an ROI that’s crazy, because there are so many good ideas out there. We’re not going after them.
Scott Ritzheimer
So true, so true. Well. HR, this has been incredible. It was a ton of fun. I know there’s some folks listening, and it just every word’s resonating with them, and they, you know, they’ve had, you know, coaches that have talked at them, they’ve, they’ve done the whole thing, but they know that there’s got to be more, and they want to, they want someone to lead the way. How can they find more about you and the work that you do?
HR Huntsman
Sure, I’d love for them to reach out to me. Just go to our website, yourleadersedge.com or I love a personal connection [email protected] just send me an email. I’d love to connect.
Scott Ritzheimer
Fantastic. HR, thanks for being on the show. Just a privilege and honor having you here today, and for those of you watching and listening, you know your time and attention mean the world to. Us. I hope you got as much out of this conversation as I know I did, and I cannot wait to see you next time. Take care.
Contact HR Huntsman
HR Huntsman is the founder of Leader’s Edge. He is also a business and leadership keynote speaker, organizational strategist, author, business executive coach, and business leadership consultant. HR founded Leader’s Edge to invest in leaders, especially young leaders. His passion stems from his backstory of overcoming early childhood struggles and building successful and impactful organizations. He firmly believes that to succeed, one must begin with the mindset and then move on to principles and disciplines that create long-term success for a company or individual. HR is an accomplished speaker, giving roughly 4000 talks to approximately 400k people worldwide.
Want to learn more about HR Huntsman’s work at Leader’s Edge? Check out his website at https://yourleadersedge.com/
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