Business Growth Architect Show

Ep #126: Secrets of Good Leaders: Scott Greenberg’s Advice on Managing People and Yourself

• Beate Chelette • Episode 126

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Unlock the secrets of effective self-leadership with Scott Greenberg! Discover how you can get your team to perform better and become an inspirational leader. Join the conversation.


In this episode, we connect with Scott Greenberg, an acclaimed speaker, author on leadership and performance and explore the intricate dynamics of managing teams and self-leadership. Throughout our conversation, Scott shares the critical elements that differentiate mediocre leaders from great ones, outlining on how  you can inspire genuine commitment and enthusiasm in your team.

Scott starts by breaking down what both the hard and soft needs of your team members are. He explains that while meeting hard needs—such as providing fair salaries and benefits—is essential, effective leaders go way beyond these basics. You also must cater to the soft needs: the emotional, psychological, and spiritual aspects that drive your team's engagement and loyalty. By addressing these deeper needs, your leadership will foster a work environment where your employees feel valued and motivated to contribute their best efforts.

You’ve heard about the concept of servant leadership and we are breaking it down in this episode. Scott challenges the traditional top-down leadership model by proposing that the most successful leaders are those who see their role as serving their team. This approach involves providing support, resources, and guidance needed for your team members to thrive. 

Scott also explores the importance of honest self-awareness and continual personal development. He shares that great leaders are always seeking ways to improve, regardless of their current level of success. 

For the spiritual component of the podcast we explore the role of vulnerability in leadership. Scott explains how being open about your fears, mistakes, and uncertainties can actually strengthen your connection with their team. Mindset is another cornerstone of Scott’s leadership philosophy. He talks about the importance of managing one’s own thoughts and emotions to stay calm and focused, even under pressure. Scott shares practical strategies for cultivating a resilient mindset, from journaling and reflective practices to simple acts of self-care, like enjoying a favorite treat - like ice cream! 

This episode will find yourself rethinking your approach to leadership and we hope you are inspired to implement these transformative strategies. After the conversation, be sure to explore more of Scott’s work by visiting his website, ScottGreenberg.com. There, you can find resources and information about his latest book, "Stop the Shift Show," which explores how to manage and motivate hourly workers effectively.


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Scott Greenberg:

Hi. I'm Scott Greenberg, author of Stop The

Shift Show:

Turn your Struggling Hourly Workers into a Top Performing Team. And on my episode of the Business Growth Architect Show, I'm going to talk to you about what you can do to be an effective leader, especially for hourly teams. It starts with self management, and then it's understanding what it takes to bring out the best in others. What is it they really want that you can provide that will recruit them, retain them, and make them perform at their best? This is an episode you do not want to miss. And

BEATE CHELETTE:

hello, fabulous person. Beate Chelette here I am the host of the Business Growth Architect Show, and I want to welcome you to today's episode where we discuss how to navigate strategy and spirituality to achieve time and financial freedom. Truly successful people have learned how to master both a clear intention and a strategy to execute that in a spiritual practice that will help them to stay in alignment and on purpose. Please enjoy the show and listen to what our guest today has to say about this very topic. Welcome back to the Business Growth Architect Show, Beate Chelette here today, I'm talking to Scott Greenberg, and we're going to have a fascinating conversation about self management and how to get people to do what you want them to do in the most ethical and persuasive way, Scott, I'm so excited that you're here on the show. Welcome. Scott Greenberg,

Scott Greenberg:

thanks. Good to be here.

BEATE CHELETTE:

So for somebody who's never heard about you or has never seen you, speak or read your book, tell us a little bit about who you are and what problems do you solve for your clients.

Scott Greenberg:

I help business leaders boost their performance and grow their organizations. So I do a lot of public speaking groups, bring me into Keynote to do workshops and facilitations. I write a lot of articles for various business publications, and I've written two books. My most recent one is all about how to manage hourly workers. It's called Stop The Shift Show: How to Turn your Struggling Hourly Workers into a Top Performing Team. So I'm generate content, and I give people tools to become better leaders and to have more positive influence on the teams that they lead.

BEATE CHELETTE:

One of the things that fascinates me about the work that you do is that you make a very clear distinction in your strategic approach to leadership. Will you explain what the difference in leadership is between getting someone's spy in and having somebody be, I guess, on board. Sure.

Scott Greenberg:

So if I am your leader, whether I am you know, your boss, your coach, your teacher, your parent, I'm trying to have influence on your behavior, but also on how you think. If I can influence what you think, if I can influence how you feel, well then I can influence the action that you take, and hopefully I, like you said, I will do this in an ethical way to help you live a better life, to help you do better work. But we have to understand what is it that gives us influence? And I think that too often in a work setting, people just focus on what the person gets. So whether you're offering a kid, you know, cookies or an allowance, or you're offering an employee a salary, a bonus, a gift card, a promotion, that's what they get, and that meets what I call their hard needs. For most employees, the hard need is a salary and benefits and perks. But human beings also have soft needs, emotional, psychological, spiritual needs, and more often than not. People are influenced more by how they feel than by what they get. So it's not that we don't want to offer those necessary compensations and prizes, but I think we can also focus on how we make them feel well, then we can have more influence on what we make them do. So at the end of the pandemic, when everyone was desperate to find employees, people are offering signing bonuses and hiring salaries. That's great, but that's not what's going to get you to keep them. What gets you to keep them, motivate them and influence them, is understanding what is it they want to feel, what are their psychological, emotional and spiritual needs, and leading them in a way that meets those needs. You do that, you'll find people and you'll retain them.

BEATE CHELETTE:

So how do I get myself into this mindset of self awareness and self management because, let's say so, I'm the CEO of my company. I've had an exit wherever I go. There is a certain kind of, let me just say, reverence for the lack of a better word, where there's like, Oh, she must know her stuff. She sold a business to Bill Gates. And it's very easy to take these traits on and say, Yeah, I really know my stuff. So how do I take myself as a leader out of this perception of myself grandeur, you know, if I put it this way, and how do I put myself in the minds of understanding what other people's needs are when I'm so used to that everything I say is being followed.

Scott Greenberg:

Well, first of all, asking the question in the first place, you're halfway there, because that implies the need for self awareness. And the problem is, when you are the CEO, when you are the boss, when you're the business owner, you're not getting the same level of feedback and encouragement and constructive criticism as, say, an employee. Employee or someone who's working for an organization. And what I found is truly the best leaders over the people who can lead and influence over a long period of time and build great organizations, are obsessed with also building themselves, of constantly getting better. So they are always looking the mirror, asking, How can I get even better? Even if I'm the best, how can I get even better? So they're constantly reading. They work with coaches and consultants. They solicit feedback, and the courageous ones are even willing to talk to their direct reports, their employees, and conduct surveys, sometimes blind surveys to get feedback from those they're leading, to find out what those people think, to solicit ideas for how they can get better, and that requires putting your ego aside. It requires a bit of humility, and not everyone is willing to do that. But I think Ego is the Enemy of service. And if you want to be a servant leader and serve your organization and ultimately grow, you need to have that self awareness to understand that you have biases, that what was true for you yesterday may not be true today in a changing climate, in a changing work environment, so we need that humility, so even if we were the best, so we can continue to be the best and get even better. For

BEATE CHELETTE:

our listeners that may never have heard the term of servant leader, I may have heard it, but haven't really heard a good description of that. Would you mind just spending a couple minutes on it and explaining what is a servant leader?

Scott Greenberg:

Sure, the traditional two dimensional view of a leader is the person who is on top of the pyramid, and there's various levels that each one reports to the level above them, and everyone serves at the pleasure of that person on top. The servant leader flips that upside down, and they say, my function in this organization is to be of service to everyone else, not subservient, but my job is to provide the support, the guidance, the information and the tools to those I lead, so that they can provide it all the way up to the frontline employees. So it means putting ego aside and saying My role is to bring out the best in my team. So I owned for more than 10 years, two retail businesses, and I was always concerned about being the boss who shows up and everyone gets nervous about what they think or about what I think. I wanted them to feel when I walked in the door, oh, good Scott is here because we need this help, because we have this problem and we need that kind of thing. I wanted them to see me as a resource who's there getting their back, instead of an authority who's getting on their back, and leading that way was really great for building loyalty, that sort of thing. So a servant leader is one who sees their role as to work in service of everyone else within the organization, to set them up for success.

BEATE CHELETTE:

I think it's such a powerful way to look at the reversal of the hierarchy in a company. So if, how do I know? How do I know if I'm a servant leader or not? Because I may think I'm a servant leader. I know a lot of people think that they're servant leaders and they're really not. Is there an exercise or a mindset or a question that I can ask myself that is almost like a litmus test so I can find out where am I really at? And I don't know if it is, it's a completely off the cuff question, but I thought you're the right guy to ask. Yeah,

Scott Greenberg:

there is a question, but I'm not sure that's just answering that question is enough. So the one question you can ask is, what is driving me today for the thing about to say, the action about to take? Am I doing it because it's in service of the person who I'm talking to, in service of the organization? Or am I trying to feed my ego? Am I making it about me, who's in service at who's being served by my input into this moment? So it's understanding what your drivers are, okay, and so you're cons. The idea is, what do I care about most? The action I'm taking, the thing that I'm saying, What will its effect be on those around me, if it's going to build them up and make them stronger and more capable of doing their job, well, then it's servant leadership. If it's about just getting them to fall in line, to get them do what you want, but it's not building them up, then I think it's an issue. But a much better way to know if you're really a servant leader is to ask those you're leading. And that takes again. It takes courage, whether you're having one on ones with them, whether you're conducting surveys, again, especially blind surveys, where they're really comfortable being able to share what they want to share without fear of repercussions from you. Didn't get a lot of data that way, but it takes some pretty thick skin. But if you're really the leader, you should be willing to do that. You're willing to give feedback. You should be willing to take feedback. If you really want to be great at what you are, and I don't care how good a leader you were yesterday. You can look in the rear view mirror at your awards and your money and your accomplishments, and I don't care about that at all. All that matters is what we see through the windshield, right? And the world, the environment, is constantly changing. We need to constantly get better, or we're gonna become irrelevant. And part of getting better is getting feedback from those around us, especially those who lead. I

BEATE CHELETTE:

think it's the it's the easiest set and the hardest done. I feel, even in my work, and when we were in the green room, I had shared with you that I had a challenging facilitation group today, and the whole agenda was out because there really had to be some cleaning of the air. And then you hear feedback, and some of the people are more delicate and more. Sensitive in the way they use their words, and other people are just like, right in your right in your face with their feedback. How, as a as a leader, am I taking this not personal? Because it feels so personal. Yeah.

Scott Greenberg:

Well, first of all, don't put the pressure on yourself not to take it personally. You are a person. You're going to take things personally, unlike an AI, unlike a robot, unlike a computer, that are without emotion, you are human, your emotional nature, you're going to react. And so I think that is okay, and it means that you care. But I think we do need, at some point to sort of separate out, okay, what is it that I'm feeling and what is it that I need to know emotions matter, but they can sometimes lead us to the wrong conclusions. One of my kids were younger, and they would scream. They'd say, I hate you. You know what they're really saying? It hurt to hear that, but if I can take a deep breath and really think about it and ask, what are they really saying? Well, in the only language they have, they're saying, I'm really frustrated right now, right? And so to understand, so if you have this facilitation, and you're really challenging people, and they're challenging each other, and it feels chaotic to them, because it's unpleasant. You're the facilitator, you're the easy scapegoat. So as they're questioning and they're giving you feedback, the challenge is to go ahead and feel your feelings, but to recognize that you're in that emotional head, but then to dig beneath that and say, what's really going on here? What's going on beneath the surface? So you kind of have to intuit it a little bit, and with time, you start to get some better perspective. But don't put pressure on yourself to not be human, because it's just it's going to happen. I I speak for a living. I get nervous before every single presentation, and after every single presentation, I beat myself up afterwards, the jokes that didn't work, the stories that I you know, we're talking too fast. I didn't explain that idea. Even when I have an audience that's giving me a standing ovation, sometimes I'm thinking, well, it's only because one person stood up and then everyone else felt like they had to. Like I go through all that during motivational presentations. Oh no. I've been talking to people about overcoming mental self talk, and the whole time I'm thinking, you sound like such an idiot while I'm talking to people about how to overcome mental self talk. And you know what? The two things can exist. I can be a human while trying also helping other people become better humans. I think those things can coexist. I

BEATE CHELETTE:

love this so much because I think that we have this, this perpetual I call it in my book, I call it the superhuman paradox. We have this idea of this perfection, and then, because it's not we can't achieve it. We are in this perpetual paradox of wanting this and not being able to do it, but then doing everything that we can to do it. It's just crazy making I love this idea of the vulnerability, and we will be talking about the vulnerability in a minute of allowing yourself to say, I am giving myself permission to feel what I feeling. I'm giving myself permission to understand what my subconscious mind, my programming, my old story, does when it pops up every single time you know the critical mom, the critical parent, the grandmother, the teacher, whatever that is. But I bring myself back. So before we go to the vulnerability, how do you bring yourself back? What do you do? Scott, when you are in this moment and your subconscious mind is volunteering all the thoughts you do not need at that moment, but they're coming in anyway, and here you are with the purpose of giving this motivational speech. Do you keep it under control. Do you ignore it? Have you done meditation? Like, what's the secret here? Ice cream? Best answer ever. Are you serious ice cream?

Scott Greenberg:

You know, I gave a TED Talk, a TEDx talk a while back. And one of my quotes, and I really mean, is, you know, some days we need Tony Robbins, most days we need Baskin Robbins, like just, oh my god, it's so good, something a little sweet, a little self indulgment, indulge it, to get us through, to bide some time, to get us through the moment. So then we can calm down, so we can disengage our amygdala, which is the fight or flight response of the brain, and re engage our prefrontal cortex, which is about logic and reason and problem solving. So whatever's soothing, I think that that is great until we get then we can get to the front part of the brain, the prefrontal cortex. And what I'll often do is I write down every thought that I'm having. The audience hated me. You messed up that joke. You're never going to work again. You know, whatever those thoughts are, sometimes that alone allows me to look at them more objectively. In my head, it's hard on paper, or if I'm talking to my wife, I can hear the silliness of it. That's how you're halfway there. Then for each one, I ask myself, Is this conclusion based on fact? Do I have data to back it up? Like Would anybody with the same information? Would they have to draw the same conclusion? The answer is yes, it's a fact. Okay, I have to deal with it. But if it's just a feeling and I can't say it with absolute certainty, well then I look at the facts and try to draw a conclusion, try to overcome my own subjectivity. Like, do I really know that that audience hated me? Do I really know like, and usually that, you know that's not the case. And by the way, I don't want you to be thinking that I'm constantly bombing. I've made a living for many years as a speaker. Something's going right, and that is. Fact. So first of all, I just get through the moment and give myself whatever treat that I need, and I scream sometimes, is it? And then I once I feel that I'm calm and I'm working with the clear head, then I just try to analyze it on paper. And then I try to draw my final conclusions based on the data, based on the facts, not based on a feeling, not even based on optimism, but just based on data,

BEATE CHELETTE:

I will say this. I want to add this to this part of the conversation. I have found that people who are very good at what they do are the ones who always want to be better, as you said yourself. So this looking at what you've said or how you said it, or how you delivered it, did they laugh at the right time or this time they didn't laugh at all that is part of somebody who is, in my in my world, a consummate professional. I remember when I was hired by an ad agency, and I was in Texas and I was in New York, and I must say, Colorado, and I gave the same talk three times. On one, there was awkward silence. On one I had a standing ovation. So it is also about where your audience is in that moment, which literally has absolutely nothing to do and which we have no influence over. We can just use our intuition, our skill set that we have as professionals, to guide them to different places. But I think that the more powerful or the better you are at something, the more you look at what you've done, because you're always on this quest to make things better. And with that, we're gonna take a quick break, and then we'll talk about how to be vulnerable. doubt questions is ice cream. And so for all of you listening, you heard it on the show first talk to me about what role vulnerability plays in your work with leaders and team building.

Scott Greenberg:

What's really important? Of course, you know Brene Brown and people like that have been discussing these things quite well for a while. I mentioned before that ego really messes us up, because there's inherent dishonesty in it, whereas vulnerability is complete honesty. And so for me, vulnerability is the absence of ego and the absence of trying to be strong, of trying to be perfect. It's about letting all that go and saying, You know what? This is me, ta da, for better, for worse. This is who I am, and I might be the worst in the room, but that's how I am Ta da, and just to be willing to go there and to open that up and to show people the ugliness, and usually that's what people find most beautiful, because it gives them permission to be vulnerable. This is where we start to have meaningful conversations. This is where we start to really get to the root of problems, and this is where we find opportunity, compared to being in a room where everyone's dressed up and looking great and all their best behavior and pretending like everything is wonderful, it's dishonest, it's not helpful. No one enjoys it, and it prevents us from connecting. When I first started, I'd had a bout with cancer, and I overcame that, and so I use that as a metaphor. And then we all have our cancers. It matters is how you react. And I would talk about my victories with cancer and how strong I was, even in my worst times, and I'd get a polite round of applies. But when I started telling the truth that I was scared and that I was nervous, that I didn't know if I could beat it, that I compared myself to the people, and I still do to this day, that's when people really started nodding their heads and coming up to me afterwards and wanting to talk more, because by me admitting to my humanity my vulnerability, it made others okay to be human and imperfect and vulnerable, and that created connection, and that connection is what we want more than anything. That's what builds teams. That's what creates influence. So we need to be willing to stop trying to look perfect, and willing to just be honest, for better or for worse, but just be ourselves, because it'll give other people permission to be themselves, and that's rebuilt human connection. How

BEATE CHELETTE:

did you figure this out? I think that a lot of our listeners are doing this because they have to portray this persona, especially in the age of social media. I mean, this has been discussed 10,000 times. It's like, how do I show up? How do I look making this look good, fake it till you make it. How do I how do I figure out how to measure my vulnerability in there? Because if I walk around and said, Well, I'm really not making any money, you know, things are really not good now, I'm vulnerable and honest as to what my perception is of what where I am right now. But it's not, I don't think that's a vulnerability you're talking about, is it?

Scott Greenberg:

No, you know, vulnerability, I think, is you're willing to show your full humanity. Look, I'm willing to be vulnerable and talk about my fears and my mistakes. But it doesn't mean I also don't have talents and strengths and things that are wonderful. It just means I'm willing to kind of show the whole picture. But I think it's when people are pretending to just be great, that's when they get into problems. And social media is funny, because we know that everyone's telling their best stories, and we know that that's not real, right? How perfect the vacation was, how great their kids are doing, everything's going well. We know it's not true, but sometimes there are people who are just vulnerable, and they're really putting it all out there on social media. And it's kind of cringy. It's kind of weird. I. I'm not a big fan of social media for that reason. I think that there's a balance that needs to be there, and so I think it depends on the setting. Obviously, we're all doing our marketing and we're doing our branding. When people see me and my social media, my marketing, I also I want them to see a person who is a thought leader and who can help them solve their problems and achieve their goals. So most of what I'm going to put out there is something that's positive and strong, but I'm not going to not gonna be over the top, and one on one, I'm gonna try to be human, and certainly on stage, I will try to give people the best ideas to help them, but I'm also willing to talk a little bit about my problems and my concerns and my fears to the extent that it helps them. So I'm not there talking about those things, because I need to, like, have my therapy on stage. I share my vulnerability, to build connection, to make the audience feel okay, being vulnerable, and then say what I've learned as a result of that. And here's how we can all move forward. So I think there's a balance that we have to go for, and it's really about authenticity more than anything.

BEATE CHELETTE:

Yeah, I you don't always want to carry your inside on the outside, I have had this this in my personal life, as I've shared on the show a couple times now, done my Ayahuasca journey, and I had to remember a lot of the trauma in my childhood that I really didn't want to remember and but I knew I needed to. And so it is a deliberate action to say, Am I ready to share certain things? And then if I'm ready to be vulnerable about certain things, what is my point of sharing this with my audience? That?

Scott Greenberg:

And I think a lot of times people their vulnerability, it's about self indulgence. Again, it's about and as I said before, you always ask, what drives you, right? If it's driving because it's about you, and you're going to be self indulgent. That's not helpful. But if you're sharing your vulnerability for the benefit of other people, that's something that's different. And so I think we need to question that. I think that you really put your finger on it there. Yes, Les Brown

BEATE CHELETTE:

says, Don't ever tell a story without making a point, and don't ever make a point without telling a story. So I think he's got it, he's got it dialed in. I do believe that vulnerability or sharing certain things about yourself that is very relatable to other people. I mean, who doesn't have trauma in their life, who doesn't have a parent, a teacher, or somebody who said something really mean. We had a training the other day, and it came up with one of my clients who said, Well, the reason I don't like going on the phone and selling is because when I was six years old, this kid in kindergarten told me I was annoying. And I said, So you're telling us that you have carried the story that you experienced as a six year old your entire life, and this is What's hindering you to make sales. What a powerful small thing. So I think everybody can relate to these kinds of kinds of stories, that is a measure of vulnerability in this context that you and I were talking about. That's a story you want to tell, because everybody's gonna go, Oh my God. Let me tell you what John did when I was in seventh grade. You will never believe it. So this, this, I think, is part of what you're talking about in leadership, that I can bring this in. But you had said, Let's Be warned, not everything that you say is going to be well received. So be careful with what you share and how you share it, and always make a point that there is, there is, am I? Am I wrapping this up correctly? Anything to add to that?

Scott Greenberg:

No, I think that that you said it beautifully. I think we sort of made the points there. Vulnerability is great, but we have to keep it in check, because, again, we can mess up our own vulnerability by being too self indulgent about it. So as long as it's helping build connection, gives other people permission to be themselves, and there's authenticity and altruism behind it, then I think it can be really helpful, and we can really solve problems and grow much faster. Excellent.

BEATE CHELETTE:

So I want to spend a little bit of time now talking about the book Stop The Shift Show. So we talked a little bit about, you know, one of the main points you're making about elevating team performance, where the really the focus is on myself and what I can do, the leadership, psychology of leadership, because we talk about spirituality a lot. Talk to me about mindset and mindset shifts that you talk about in your book, what is, what are some concepts we can give our audience? Well,

Scott Greenberg:

there's three things that affect our performance. And again, I do a lot of work in the business world, but there's three things. One is our circumstances. So in business, that's the economy, it's the competition, it's labor laws, things we don't control. The second thing is operations. That's how hard we work in our strategy. But there's a third factor, which is the focus of my work, and that's what I call the human factor, what each of us as human beings bring to the work that we do. So what? Certainly it's the way we manage our thoughts. You know, how resilient are we? How quickly can we bounce back? What is our commitment to continuous improvement, our level of self esteem. But it's not just our intrapersonal skills, it's also our interpersonal skills, so our ability to connect with others, to engage people who work for us, to build relationships and build culture, and then it's, of course, how we make others feel, particularly in terms of our customers. So we're not just engaging in transactions, but we're. Building connections and elevating their emotions. So if I go back to that first one though of self leadership, it really is about mindset. You know, it's about managing my own thoughts, my own emotions. So if I can be more effective in here, well, then I'm better positioned to lead and serve and be more effective outwardly. So in the work that I do, I am constantly talking to people's various levels of performance within an organization, and when I notice the top people have in common is not necessarily working harder or better strategy, but they're really great in terms of their mindset. They have that winning high performance mindset, and that gives them an edge over other people who are doing the same things in the same circumstances.

BEATE CHELETTE:

How do I keep my mindset in check? Is there any practice? Is it Do I have to do this every day? What's your spiritual practice? How do you do it? Okay,

Scott Greenberg:

there's a lot of questions there. I'm going to try to, I

BEATE CHELETTE:

know like, and you have, like, 60 seconds.

Scott Greenberg:

So what I'll tell you is this that, yes, it's something that we need to work on constantly. And so it gets back to what I was saying before. It's that self awareness asking, What mood Am I in today? What are the thoughts that I have today? And these emotions, these thoughts, are they helping me or are they holding me back? So it begins by us reflecting, whether we journal or we talk with someone else that we're aware of what's going on here. And we take those pit stops just like a car does. So we're stopping and evaluating and putting air in our tires and changing the oil, and, you know, whatever we have to do we make sure that we are okay. So it's stopping, pausing, doing whatever we have to do to get ourselves in the right mindset. And often, you know, for me and some of my practices. If I'm feeling really stressed out, that stress, I'm no longer using my prefrontal cortex, where we solve problems. It's the amygdala, it's the middle brain, which, you know, is great for survival, but it's not great for getting to the day. So I have to disengage that. So I do that by journaling, by going through a long walk, by taking time, and, yes, even having ice cream. So it's about getting myself in that right kind of state, and so constantly asking, what's going to do that and all the basic things you think about, like certain like exercise and breathing and meditation, I mean things we've heard for a long time. Some things work better than others, depending on who you are. I can't meditate. My brain just moves too fast, and I'm too aware that I'm not concentrating. But going for walks and exercising that is really good for me, or, you know, grabbing my guitar and strumming for a bit, it just snaps me out of the mode that I'm in when I don't, you know, when it's a mode that isn't useful for me. So it's a lot of self awareness, doing whatever works for you, to get yourself back to that calm brain where you make the best decisions. So that's what I do. That's what I advocate for others. And really great leaders, really effective people, are masters at doing that, and that's why there's a whole area, you know, called sports psychology. Has nothing to do with the athletics. It's all about the mental stuff we need so that externally we can perform better.

BEATE CHELETTE:

Oh my gosh, this is like, so powerful my husband, who's a mountain biker, and he had a conversation with a monk, and he said to the monk, I can't sit still to meditate. And then the monk said, What makes you think mountain biking is not a form of meditation, right?

Scott Greenberg:

Yeah, the idea of sitting there and putting all thoughts out of your head, it's a big ask. I know, for me, when I do something or I'm in a state of flow, right? Which is where you're absolutely 100% present and focused, and time is passing without you even wearing it, without even being aware of it. That's a form of meditation. It's where you're able to be in control of your thoughts and close out the rest of the world. And that's what some people able to do just by focusing on their breathing. My breathing isn't interesting enough for me, but sometimes, if I'm playing power chords on my guitar, or I'm outside and I'm walking in nature, things go on inside my brain that wouldn't happen otherwise. And so it's a personal thing. We often find out what works best for each of us. But yeah, I would say mountain biking is absolutely a form of meditation.

BEATE CHELETTE:

Yeah, I love that. The other, the other quote that came to mind, I was watching a Formula One, a documentary, and they said the mind is the athlete, the body is the vehicle. And I thought that that was such a powerful way to look at it. And what I'm hearing you say is the same thing that we have to it really starts here in the mind, and then the rest becomes the vehicle of delivery. That's where the strategy, the tactics and all these things come in. But it really starts. It's really starts up here.

Scott Greenberg:

Yeah, but, but it can't stay there. Like, there's a lot of people who really do just try to pray or meditate their way to success. It's like, No, you're trying to get yourself in the right state, so then you can do the necessary work. Like that athlete in the brain still better start doing some push ups and run some laps and right and watch some game tape. Like, you really need a combination of both. Like, I'm really big on that human factor, because it brings out the operational side. But both of those things, the hard skills and the soft skills, must go together to create greatness, one without the other. You're not going to get too far Wonderful.

BEATE CHELETTE:

So tell us where we can get the book and why. Should we get the book? And then how do we get in touch with you? If we anyone has heard you and wants to hire you now to speak or come in to help their team, you

Scott Greenberg:

should get the book, because in the fall, I will have two kids in college, so I knew the revenue. But if that's not enough, I'm super proud of this book. I spent a long time researching, reflecting my own experiences as someone who's led and managed hourly workers. But I also interview people who are great managers from all these high level hourly work environments, from retail to restaurants to hotel to manufacturing. What are they doing that others aren't, that they have much better attention, much better performance from their hourly workers. And so if you're part of an organization that manages hourly workers, and you want to understand how they're different from those on salary, and what you can do to bring out their best. That is what the book will show you how to do. It's available at Amazon or wherever books are sold. There is an ebook. There is an audio book that I narrated, so that's available wherever books are sold. And to get information on me and my speaking programs and all the ways in which I can help you, anybody can just go to scottgreenberg.com the ERG scottgreenberg.com and and you can find me on most social media platforms.

BEATE CHELETTE:

Thank you so much. This has been absolutely amazing. I loved our conversation about understanding myself and vulnerability, as well as the power of my mindset, my spiritual practice, and then that I still need to take action to be a good leader and make stuff happen.

Scott Greenberg:

I have no doubt you absolutely killed it in your facilitation today. You're one pint of ice cream from knowing that. So

BEATE CHELETTE:

when you said that, I was thinking, I'm gonna go and get myself a mocha. You know, I don't indulge in mochas very often. I do like my Soca soy cappuccinos, but this might just have tipped me over the edge, and I may just get myself a nice chocolatey mocha instead.

Scott Greenberg:

Pick your poison,

BEATE CHELETTE:

Scott, it's been amazing to have you on the show. Thank you so much, and for everybody listening, go get the book. Check out Scott Greenberg, and thank you so much for being here. Thanks, and that's it for us, for today, until next time and GOODBYE. So appreciate you being here. Thank you so much for listening to the entire episode. Please subscribe to the podcast, give us a five star review, a comment and share this episode with one more person so that you can help us, help more people. Thank you again, until next time, bye, bye. You.

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Beate Chelette

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