IAM915- Expert Helps Managers Become Influential Leaders

Brian Rollo is the leading expert on using the habits of influential leadership to build high-performing organizational cultures, unleash the potential of employees, and reduce executive stress. Brian has used his powerful frameworks and processes to help hundreds of managers become influential leaders. He is also the acclaimed author of The 10 Habits of Influential Leadership.

• CEO Hack: Step process
• CEO Nugget: Distinguish between the balcony and dance floor
• CEO Defined: Helping more people

Website: https://brianrollo.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianlrollo/
Book: The 10 Habits of Influential Leaders https://amzn.to/39vcw66

Full Interview:

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Transcription

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00:10 – Intro

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

00:38 – Gresham Harkless

Hello, Hello, Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today Brian Rolo of brianrolo.com. Brian, it's awesome to have you on the show.

00:47 – Brian Rollo

Gresh, I am so excited to be here. I've been looking forward to this for a while. So glad we finally got to talk.

00:53 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely, the day is finally here. I'm super excited to have you on. Before we jump in, I wanted to read a little bit more about Brian so you can hear about all the awesome things that he's doing. Brian is the leading expert on using the habits of influential leadership to build high-performing organizational cultures, unleash the potential of employees, and reduce executive stress. Brian has used his powerful frameworks and his process to help hundreds of managers become influential leaders. He is also the acclaimed author of the 10 Habits of Influential Leadership. Brian, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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01:26 – Brian Rollo

I am ready, thank you so much, let's go. Let's do it then.

01:28 – Gresham Harkless

So to kind of kick everything off, I wanted to hear how everything got started, could you take us through what I call your CEO story, and we'll let you get started with all the awesome work you have?

01:36 – Brian Rollo

Sure, so I'm gonna give you the shorter version of it. But the shortest version is, that I found myself in a comfortable position in corporate life, I was the training director for a mid-sized financial services organization responsible for all sorts of training for you know a lot of people, and over the course of several years I developed a leadership development program and was able to put hundreds of the company's managers through there and that became to me my passion like of all the things I did that was the part that really I gained fulfillment from. To see somebody go from struggling or maybe even too new, not to know that they were struggling, but they were.

To help them become influential leaders and to be able to create results from people became really the most fulfilling thing that I could do because I got to see not only how much I can make their lives better, because when you're a struggling leader, you don't sleep, right? When your team is not performing, and you know that's all on your shoulders, life is bad. You're looking over your shoulder, wondering if you're the next to go, you know, wondering why you're not meeting goals, is painful. And it's usually painful for the people around you.

So like when I could help people make that shift then I would notice a huge ripple effect because like their teams would become happier. Once they got better, it would expand to those teams. And then like when they went home, their families were happier because they were happier at work. There was almost no end to the ripple effects when I could make that change. So that came to be my passion. And after several years of doing that, I got to see what really works and what doesn't work. I decided to say goodbye to corporate life as much as I loved the company I worked for and loved the job I had. I felt like sort of a mission to go and take that to the rest of the world. So that's what I do. Nice.

03:31 – Gresham Harkless

I Absolutely love and appreciate that because I think so many times, you know, we of course get excitement from, you know, reaching goals ourselves, but I almost feel like as you said, like when you get the opportunity to maybe, I guess, empower somebody that maybe doesn't even maybe fill it within themselves. That's definitely 1 of the more exciting things that we get to do as leaders in our lives.

03:54 – Brian Rollo

Yeah, and you know, we've all had that bad boss, probably Gresh. If somebody can't relate to that, you're very lucky. Most of us can. And like I found nobody starts out wanting to be a bad boss Gresh Like they don't say I'm gonna come in and be as evil as I can Right? They just don't have the skills and they get caught up in doing things the wrong way maybe the way somebody else showed them and before they know it like their enemy number one the walls start to go up. And as I said, it's tough. So my job is like getting those people back on track or ideally stopping them before they even get to that point.

04:27 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, it's funny. I've heard phrases like that, Like, you know, no 1 wants to be the D student, no 1 wants to be the C student, you know, a lot of times you just may not have the environment or the tools in order to be, you know, successful and everybody wants to be successful. Everybody wants to quote-unquote win, so to speak. So I love that you, you know, you have that knowledge, obviously, but you also empower people to be able to do that. So I wanted to hear a little bit more about how you do that. Could you take us through a little bit more on the different ways that that happens and a little bit more about your podcast and your book as well?

04:57 – Brian Rollo

Oh yeah, sure. So I really do a couple of things in my business, Gresh. 2 main things. I'm an executive leadership coach. So I work with folks to help them build their leadership skills. A lot of times in executive positions, not entirely, but a lot of my clients are in executive positions. And I help them do the things we just talked about, right? I help them make work fun again and it's fun when you're generating results and your team is happy. Like that's what we want to get to. So if they're not there, we work to get them there. The second thing I do is more on an organizational level that's when we come and do a culture change. And that's when an organization just might sense this isn't working the way it is.

And we've tried a couple of things and that's not working either. We want to make this a better experience. We wanna be more productive. And that's where we come in and sort of take a holistic look at the organization. And we find out the truth about what it's really like to work there. Usually, when I come in, there is a disconnect between perceptions and reality, or I shouldn't say perception and reality, there's a disconnect between perceptions, between the leadership team and the people that work there. And like you wouldn't think you need an outsider to come in to bridge that gap, but Sometimes you do. My job comes in to bridge that gap get everybody talking and facilitate movement towards a better future. So those are really the 2 things that I do.

06:27 – Gresham Harkless

I absolutely love and appreciate that. And I think You're absolutely right. I feel like, and I don't know if you've experienced this when you speak with your clients that when you're sometimes too close to it or maybe don't even wanna accept that to some degree, sometimes the most painful thing you could do is hold up a mirror and look at it exactly for what it is. And I think a lot of times having somebody that has expertise but also has the, is not so close to it. It allows you the opportunity to do better and to improve and make those changes.

06:54 – Brian Rollo

Yeah, absolutely. 1 of the sayings I like to use with my clients is we're not sure who discovered water, but we're sure it wasn't a fish. Because when that is your world, it is really hard to be objective about it. And we could go into a whole other reason, a lot of reasons why that's really difficult to be objective. But I mean, we all have an ego, right? We all have a sense of pride in what we've done. Nobody wants to admit they've quote unquote failed or not created as healthy of a culture as they could have. So it's tough for anybody to be objective about that. So that's where I come in. And part of it is not only creating that conversation but presenting it in a way where it can be easily accepted by both sides.

07:37 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. And that's some of what you cover in your podcast and your book as well.

07:42 – Brian Rollo

That's right, yeah. And so my podcast is called Leave With Impact. You asked about that. That started off talking about leadership and I have been fortunate and blessed to have a number of great leaders on there but we talk about a bunch of other things too. It's a fun show.

07:54 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. Well, I definitely appreciate that, and trying to get the tools that help people be successful is so important And I think that as you said, it's kind of a balance beam, you know, with, you know, the ego, cause you want to make sure you have enough ego to think that you can take on the challenge and make things better. But at the same time, you kind of have to take a step back and also understand that maybe we don't know everything and we need to ask for help and we need to bring in experts to listen to podcasts and let's write books because that's going to allow us to be even better at what it is that we do.

08:23 – Brian Rollo

Well you know Gresh, ego and humility are not mutually exclusive.

08:26 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely.

08:28 – Brian Rollo

You can have a healthy ego and believe in yourself And if you're going to be the CEO of a company, you better have that, right? You better have a little self-confidence and a little bit of resolve because it will be tested as you and I know. I'm sure many guests have talked about this on this show, but you need a little humility too, Right? You need to be able to say, maybe I'm not the expert on everything.

08:49 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah.

08:49 – Brian Rollo

And maybe my view of the world isn't the same view that everybody else has.

08:54 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. And that's why we bring in people who know so much better than we do and have them in the rooms. And so I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. This could be for yourself personally, your business, or a combination of both. But what do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?

09:10 – Brian Rollo

Well, as far as my business, you know, a couple of things, I'll say. You know, if you want to like get into the business sense of it, you know, I specialize in financial services, companies. That's really comes naturally to me. That's like the environment. I was the fish in that environment, right? I was born in that environment professionally. So I understand how that world works. I understand some of the universal cultural challenges. I like working with tech. It's been sort of a new 1 for me, but a lot of leadership challenges in that industry. So those are 2, like, if you're gonna talk about how my business is different, 2 ways I focus. I have a model of influential leadership. Like again, not to bounce between ego and humility.

If people tell me how I'm different, I like to say, well, if you want to be an influential leader, like I literally wrote the book here it is, you know, you determine if this is good for you or not, but I'm the guy who wrote this and this is what I believe. And if your beliefs align, we might be a good fit. But then lastly, I'll say this and I'll do respect to that question. I know it's a typical business question, a valuable business question, but I find in my line of work, consulting, and coaching, not so beneficial for me to say I'm better than the next guy as it is to say, I can get you results, right? Maybe Gresh is great too, I don't know, right? But I know if you work with me, I can get you results. And I won't promise that unless I know I can do it. And so when there's a philosophical alignment, I think I'd become the perfect guy for people.

10:39 – Gresham Harkless

I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an Apple Book or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

10:50 – Brian Rollo

First, when I talk to the people I talk to, CEOs, I would also throw in business owners here, especially small business owners. Time is the thing, right? Everybody tells me, I want to do this, I want to do that, but it's time. That's real, everybody's busy. So 1 of the things I use with my clients is a step process. In other words, if you're deciding to do, choose between 2 things, and run it through the step process. In other words, If I have a choice between talking to a prospect or working on the logo, like for each of those things, how many steps are they away from success?

11:27 – Gresham Harkless

So I wanted to ask you for what I call now a CEO nugget. So this could be a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. It might be something you would tell a client or if you hopped into a time machine, you might tell your younger business.

11:38 – Brian Rollo

So yeah, you know, 1 that's been resonating with a lot of people lately, Grash is the distinction between what I call the balcony and the dance floor for leaders. I have to say, first of all, I did not come up with this. This was, I think Ron Heifetz of Harvard is the guy who first coined this phrase, but it's really helpful. I read about it in my book a little bit. And the balcony and the dance floor, basically for leaders is a way for them to think about what mindset they are in when they're leading. So the balcony, and this is not so different than what we talked about with time, the balcony is when you're super objective about things. Right, the balcony is the reserved observer.

Right, you're on the balcony, and there's a dance happening below you, but you are up high, you are able to observe who's dancing slow, who's dancing fast, who's happy, who's not, who's a little tipsy, who isn't, right? You're seeing it all from the balcony, very objectively. And as leaders, you need to do that, right? There's an amount of time when you need to separate yourself emotionally from what's going on. Try not to be the fish in the water, right? And stand back and say, objectively, what's happening here? When I remove my ego, when I remove my emotions, how are we doing? That's on the balcony, but there are times when a leader needs to be on the dance floor right where they need to say I'm not gonna be objective right now I'm not going to be distant I'm gonna get in there and mix it up, right?

I'm going there shoulder shoulder with my people. I'm going to find out what they're feeling. I want to find out what they're thinking like and find out what it's like dealing with our customers want to find out what processes are driving them nuts because they don't work, but we don't take them out of the manual, right? And getting down there and really mixing it up. So my tip would be for leaders to start thinking about that. And then day to day, like, are you spending time in both worlds? Because when leaders are struggling, and they come to me many times, there's a real imbalance there. They're either not taking enough time to be remote observers and being strategic or they're there all the time and they've put up a wall between themselves and their team and they become detached from reality that way.

13:49 – Gresham Harkless

I want to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping that different quote-unquote CEOs on the show. So Brian, what does being a CEO mean to you?

14:01 – Brian Rollo

You know, I'm going to give you an answer that may seem overly sentimental, so I hope not. I'm a businessman, right? I tell people in business that I believe in capitalism and business and all of that. But to me, it means you get to help more people. I mean, to be a CEO means, we talked about that ripple effect earlier. Like when you are a CEO, you have the ability to be an amazing ripple effect for everyone on your team, for all of your customers, and for their families. Like again, if you start much like going through the ripples, it goes a long way. And like the more you do that, to me, the more fulfilling this whole thing is.

14:42 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely, absolutely. And Brian, truly appreciate that definition. I appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do is pass you the mic, so to speak, to see if there's anything additional you can let our readers and listeners know, and of course, how best they can subscribe to your podcast and get a copy of your book.

14:57 – Brian Rollo

Nothing else other than to say if you're out there working hard, You're doing a good job, you know? This is not easy for anybody. If you're running a business, it is not easy for anybody. If you're looking for ways to get better, I would just encourage you to take a really objective look at your team, and their culture. Like, are people smiling all day? Are they achieving what they could be achieving or does it start to look like a grind? Your skills as a leader, you know, is there room for improvement?

If there are, I would submit that they, it can have a high return on investment to do that, whether it's with myself or somebody else, or just, you know, even diving into it yourself. There's a lot of, it can come from that. I can be found at Brian Condensed. You won't get all the meat and the extra stuff from the book. But if you just like want to know the 10 habits and the tips, that's for free on the front page of my website.

16:02 – Gresham Harkless

Nice, I definitely appreciate that Brian, no meat and potatoes, but still definitely a value. So I appreciate you providing that. And then as we learn more about that, you can definitely get your meat and potatoes with the book. So definitely appreciate that Brian. We will have the links and information in the show notes and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

16:20 – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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