[00:00:00] Speaker A: Success isn't given, it's earned. And earning it means becoming the person who deserves it. The bottom line is where we cut through the chaos to simplify success, uncovering the strategies, mindset, and resilience it takes to win. Real stories, expert insights, and practical tools. Because the only way to the top is by putting in the board. This is the bottom line.
Welcome to the Bottom Line. I'm Ryan Herpin, and this show, we like to cut through the chaos to simplify what does it take to really be successful? And today, I want to talk about a side of leadership that rarely gets discussed openly, and that's the loneliness side of what it's like being at the top. You know, from the outside, executive leadership can look a lot like authority, influence, success.
But behind that title, many leaders carry pressure they really can't share, you know, decisions they can't easily explain, and a level of isolation that affects how they think, lead, and show up for their people and even their families. The bottom line is, is this leadership is not just about making decisions.
It's about carrying responsibility without losing clarity, connection, and yourself in that process.
So my guest today is Carlos Martin, co founder of Continuum Leaders, a leadership development partner, a helping organizations develop effective leaders and thriving workplace cultures. He's also the host of Leadership Evolving, where he explores leadership, personal growth, and the future of work. Today, we're going inside the leadership experience, and that means the pressure, the private conversations, the expectations people don't see, and the human metrics that may matter more than we really realize. So, Carlos, welcome to the show.
[00:01:49] Speaker B: Awesome. Thanks, Ryan. Pleasure being here. I'm excited for our conversation.
[00:01:53] Speaker A: Oh, likewise. It sounds like you and I have a lot of experience in this area, and I'm excited to dig into that beautiful brain of yours and see what kind of value we can bring up to our audience. So as we begin, I do want everyone watching this to think about the leaders they admire or depend on and ask yourself, do I only see their decisions, or do I understand the weight that's actually behind those decisions? And if you are the leader in the room, how do you want you to ask yourself something even more personal?
Where am I caring too much? In silence? I want to start this conversation by kind of looking at the emotional and strategic, you know, isolation that can exist at the executive level. And I've been there myself. I have experienced it. I understand it well. And it is something that a lot of people in that playing field just don't really think about until it's made a little too obvious. Now, the C Suite can be a place of power, but it can also become a place where vulnerability feels extremely risky.
Honesty gets filtered, and leaders are expected to have answers even when they are still processing the question.
So ahead of us is some fun questions. Tune in for this, grab a pen and pad, because I think this is going to get pretty fun. Now I like to dive in deep and go kind of right off the top with something heavy and important.
So, Carlos, when you work with executives or senior leaders, how often do you see loneliness behind the title?
[00:03:22] Speaker B: Too often.
Really, really too often. You know, I, in my personal experience as a leader in, and also working with directors in C Suite, they're pretty lonely out there for several reasons. One is they're supposed to have all the answers, right? So as you go and evolve and go up the corporate ladder, so say you already made it, you're in the C Suite, you're supposed to know everything. And when you don't know something, do we have the right person in place? Right. So does that, is that vulnerability?
So it becomes a lonely world because they can't just talk to anybody about it because the perception could be, what is this person doing up there? If he or she is questioning if we should do this right, we have that and not necessarily imposter syndrome, right? But that doubt that comes in the fears of just being human. But when you're at that stage, it gets really, it gets really, really lonely for sure.
[00:04:25] Speaker A: You know, I, I, I see this common denominator, especially in social media nowadays where people represent this strong, stern, even stoic type figure as an executive or leader of a business where one thing my mentor taught me early on as, as I took over the role of chief operations officer in a big manufacturing company, he said, look, you don't have to be the expert of everything. He said, you just have to have a good relationship with the experts of each individual thing. He said when you have those relationships, your goal is to get them to work together. And when you don't have an answer, you bring them together as your expert consultants. Think of it that way and you find a solution together, he said, then they also own it. But you don't have to know everything. You just have to know who to ask and have a relationship where they're happy to answer. But you know what makes that C suite uniquely isolating even for leaders who are surrounded by people every day? Because we can have our teams and stuff, but what about that makes it just so uniquely different?
[00:05:25] Speaker B: Yeah, you said it's not the, you know, not how, but Who. And I think people get that it's not how, but who and how do you surround yourself with the right people?
And I, and I think a lot of individuals in the C suite do that to a certain extent.
But once the fear and the doubt starts to come in, that's when it's a little different.
Right? Because like, wait, I'm not sure if I'm leading my team correctly. Let's say I'm working with the CEO.
I'm not sure if this is the strategy I thought it was, but now I'm kind of second guessing myself.
A lot of individuals don't feel comfortable or confident to go to the stakeholders and say, hey, can we review this? Because something is just not sitting well for me. Like, what is it? I thought we were okay. And that's when it becomes a lonely world.
So when we think about strategy, I think they do a really good job. You know, my job is not to talk strategy with the C suite. My, my job is to stock, to talk personal, I guess strategy, if you will, personal narrative and identity. And if someone is struggling with that, that could show up as, as, as weakness. But yeah. So I, how do we identify? Is it. Do we have that how who mentality? Which is great. But then if we have that doubt, what happens then? Are they going to the stakeholders or not? And that is when you and I come in and be able to chat with them a little, what that looks like for them.
[00:06:54] Speaker A: Yeah. You know, something that I find kind of interesting is I feel like a lot of people, even myself when I was first in that type of level of leadership, I felt like I had to be that immovable force, that figure that always has the right answer. But it so doesn't have to be that way because, you know, so I'll ask you, actually, I'm curious your thoughts on this. Why do so many know executives feel pressure to appear like they're certain and, and have everything before they even had the space to really process everything.
[00:07:27] Speaker B: You know, I've thought about that a lot and my thing is we start to drink the, the Kool Aid of corporate. Right. It becomes that is, that's what we're supposed.
The higher we go, the more power, the more knowledge, the more control.
And that's great when we're talking about corporate, but then you know that the status quo is that, that we're supposed to know everything.
But from my job is when I work at them with these individuals is how do we change that narrative? How can we look at it differently? So to answer Your question? I really don't know, but I'm assuming it's just living in corporate, right? Being in corporate, we're supposed to have. But I think it also has to do with our ego. It has to do with society. There's so many things now I feel comfortable saying, you know, Ryan, I'm not sure, and that's okay. And I feel confident in who I am. So I think it's changing that shift in that narrative to say if I don't know, going back to not how. Like, yeah, I'm not sure. But let me talk to Bobby. He's the expert in this field. That's why I hired. Hired him. But you think.
You think it's natural, but in reality it's not because that's when we need to look inward a little bit, if you will.
[00:08:53] Speaker A: Now, I'm curious though, because this leads back to, like a support system. You know, if we want to break that chain of isolation, what does a healthy support system look like for, you know, leaders who can't simply unload everything on the people they lead?
[00:09:08] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, we hear this a lot. You know, you have your board of advisors.
You know, on corporate, I always encourage, do you have your personal board of advisors?
Because corporate is one thing. On the personal is one thing. Like, for example, you know, you have your. I have one of my really good friends that he's an attorney, he's in a cpa. You know, another person is in sales. Another person is a coach.
So when I'm having struggle at work, I go to them. I go to my personal board of advisors. I have that person that challenges me. I have the emotional ally that could be my executive coach.
So it's all of a sudden, it's like I'm looking at different perspective at different angles. Right. And that helps me process things. Because otherwise you feel like you're doing this alone. And because you are doing it alone because you need all the answers.
And so having that place. So, you know, as. As coaches, one of the most important thing is create that space where no judgment, where you could see and feel seen and feel heard. So if the C suite has that board of advisors where they could be judged. Okay, but what if we move that onto the personal board of advisors? Excuse me, where there is no judgment and saying, hey, Ryan, I love your approach, but have you thought of this? Like, I. I love what you're doing, but I think you're coming out a little abrasive, like, oh, wow, let me change that.
So now we have that space to Be ourselves and show that quote, unquote, vulnerability and quote unquote that weakness without being judged. And that we go back to the board of advisors, the, the corporate. And that tends to be a really good one two combo punch, if you will.
[00:10:50] Speaker A: I would think. Yeah, I mean that you made it really, really simple in a sense of it. It reframes kind of the approach there. It is a support system. And it's funny, earlier on in my career as I went from a welder to, you know, director of operations in a man manufacturing company, a lot of the people that I would, I would take these different strategies and thoughts and problems to different people all throughout the company, different levels because you never know what one person's perspective can really bring to the table. But you know, what stands out to me is that executive loneliness is not just this emotional issue. It becomes a leadership issue when silence starts shaping decisions.
So really, I would say a good bottom line here is that leaders need trusted spaces where they can think clearly, speak honestly and well, process pressure without performing, you know, certainty on every minute of the day.
[00:11:43] Speaker B: That's exhausting, isn't it?
[00:11:45] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:11:46] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:46] Speaker A: Truly exhausting to try to be that person all the time. So to our audience when we come back, we're going to dive into more fun conversations and grab some popcorn, stretch out, grab coffee, do whatever it is you got to do because we'll be right back on the Bottom Line.
Welcome back to the Bottom Line. Stay connected to this show and every NOW Media tv favorite live or on demand anytime you like. Download the free Now Media TV app on Roku or iOS and unlock non stop bilingual programming in English and Spanish on the move. Catch the podcast version at www.nowmedia tv. From business and news to lifestyle, culture and far beyond, now Media TV is streaming around the clock. Ready whenever you are now to dive right back in with more of Carlos Martin, co founder of Continuum Leaders. And now I want to go behind the scenes of leadership this. Well, there is the, the version of leadership people see in meetings, presentations, halls and strategy sessions. And then there is the private version, the doubts, the hard trade offs, team tensions, culture breakdowns, personal pressure and the emotional fatigue that leaders often really process kind of behind the closed doors. Right. So this segment, I want to dive right in, get right to the fun questions. Carlos, it's so fun to have you here. Thank you for being on the show.
[00:13:17] Speaker B: Yeah, thank you again. I appreciate it.
[00:13:20] Speaker A: Now to get right to the Bottom Line.
[00:13:22] Speaker B: Right.
[00:13:22] Speaker A: And we'll dive right back in with some big questions because I, I Know, this conversation has a lot of weight to it and I want the audience to really have a chance to kind of absorb that. So, you know, from your perspective as an executive coach and leadership development partner, what are leaders really facing behind closed doors right now? Especially with the changing world of AI and everything else? Has that landscape changed at all?
[00:13:45] Speaker B: It really has. What I've been noticing that they seem more exhausted than ever before.
There is so much change with AI.
There's a lot of pressure with new programs, a new generation that's coming in. They want to be led in a different way.
The pressure of poster syndrome, the, the, I mean, you name it, I, I, I, I've seen a lot more exhaustion lately and more doubt lately than I've ever I've ever seen before.
[00:14:23] Speaker A: You know, one of the things I see pretty frequently right now, and you mentioned imposter syndrome. That is such a real thing. And, and to our audience, everyone that's watching understand imposter syndrome is natural. People feel it no matter where they are, what they do, it is the reality. It is the hypocrisy of becoming.
And I'm actually writing a book and that's the title of it. It's all about that imposter syndrome. But another thing to really think about is from my understanding, what I'm seeing a lot with, with my clients and leaders that I'm working with is it's harder and harder to build momentum right now to stand out in this very ad heavy, AI heavy type world. You know, different industries struggle with different things, but to stand out amongst the crowd is getting harder and harder and it's taking a bigger and bigger toll that are trying to just be successful. But you know, what are the issues? Executives are admitting privately that they might not really feel so comfortable saying publicly inside their organizations right now.
[00:15:20] Speaker B: Yeah, you mentioned the imposter syndrome. I feel like the imposter syndrome has kind of grown or amplifying. It's always been like, it's always been there and it's always going to be there.
But again it's, it's a, it's a little different again with, with out and the exhaustion.
So with corporate, we feel like we're, we're supposed to be robotic. We have all the answers. We just go, go, go, go. And that's just, that's just not human. Right. That's where I, that's where I keep saying people are exhausted and, and I think this is the time for, it's always a great time, but now more than ever a great time. To slow down.
It's almost doing the. Which is a little, like, it doesn't make logical sense. Like, no, I have to go faster because I have to be on top of every AI tool, every LLM. A new. I feel like there's a new AI tool coming up every single day.
But I almost. I almost want to bring it back to analog, if you will. This is probably the time to slow down even more, because otherwise we get so caught up, and then we're just having all these squirrel moments, and that's exhaust. Exhausting. And I don't think it can lead well when we are, you know, maybe sleep deprived, exhausted. Right. We don't make the best decisions. So this is, I think, the time to go the other direction. When everybody's going fast and fast, it's like, wait a minute, let me slow down. What's going on? And we have better strategies. We could think a little different.
Again, we go the opposite direction. It doesn't mean we have to stay here, but I think we could cover more by slowing down.
[00:17:06] Speaker A: That's a really, really good point. And I think you're kind of actually highlighting something that I've been noticing a lot recently. And our culture has become very comfortable with doing more instead of getting more done.
It's easy to confuse busyness with progress, and that's been a big problem that I think is creating a little bit too much pressure right now. I think I see a lot of burnout because of pressure. You don't see people get burnout of playing video games or doing their favorite hobbies. No, because there's no pressure in those things. Right, but the pressure is coming from the stuff that we're trying to stand out in. We're trying to. Trying to lead other people, trying to represent ourself in a certain way, when in reality, we're humans, too.
Doesn't matter how big of a leader you are. I mean, you think Elon Musk doesn't get tired, doesn't get overwhelmed, doesn't feel pressure? Yeah, I'm sure he does. When he's.
[00:17:56] Speaker B: I don't know.
I think that my guy might be a droid or an alien or.
[00:18:01] Speaker A: I don't know. You might be right. You might be right, because he's definitely an interesting. The first.
[00:18:06] Speaker B: The first trillionaire. Yeah.
[00:18:08] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. But, you know, there's so many different ways that burnout really happens, but it's. It's pressure. I feel like if we could find a way to relieve ourselves from the. The psychological pressure of leading and having to Chase success. I think a lot of this could be the load could seriously be lightened. But, you know, how do you help a leader separate that surface problem from the deeper leadership pattern that's really underneath it?
[00:18:33] Speaker B: I'll tell you a quick little story.
Behind my house, there's a cool little nature walk. And I was really stressed out. I had a lot of calls, a lot of clients. I'm like, I need to get out.
And I was walking really fast, and in my head there was just, I have to do this, I have to do this, and I have to do that. My calendar's full, and at some point, I didn't realize what I did, but I hadn't really seen all the beautiful flowers. I'm in Austin, Texas, so right now there's a lot of rain and humidity.
So the flowers that we usually tend to see in April, they're still there. We're mid, mid June, which I love.
And at that point it's like, wait, all these beautiful flowers.
Why am I telling that story? Because I feel like we're just do, do, do instead of being.
We're human beings, not human doers. I know that sounds a little cheesy, but that's what it is. Like, how can we.
Because when we're human doers and doers and doers, that is not sustainable. And guess what? When you do something, you'll find something else to do.
The list, the to do list, or the honey do list, it's always going to be there.
So for me, and again, it doesn't make logical sense when we're so busy. I tell people, no, just slow down and just be like, well, what does that even mean? So again, being human. Do human beings, instead of being human
[00:19:59] Speaker A: doers, you know, someone that I. I look up to pretty heavily, very, very wise, seasoned individual that has. Has lived what seems like multiple lifetimes at this point. But he said something to me that I found quite profound. He said, too much of our population looks at what they don't have rather than appreciate what they do have.
And he alluded to the. The kind of. The concept you had there of we're just so focused on chasing what we don't have that we don't take time to appreciate and sit in the life we've created, the atmosphere we have. And it's something that even I was thinking about recently when I caught myself kind of in that grind mode of just go, go, go, go, go. This project, that project, this avenue of revenue.
My son kind of humbled me, as a matter of fact. He's like, well, dad, let's play some soccer. And I'm like, oh, buddy. I was like, wait a minute. I was just about to tell you no. And I have no reasonable reason why I wouldn't just do that with you right now. I got caught into this mode of I'm chasing things I don't have and not appreciating.
Once upon a time, the life I live right now was a goal, it was a dream, and now I'm there, but I don't take the time to truly enjoy it. And I think a lot of us do that. What are your thoughts on that? Do you kind of see that as well? Do you kind of see some of these leaders go from chasing to sitting in? What it is that we have?
[00:21:21] Speaker B: Oh, I. Every day, you know, it's cool. As. As coaches, we almost. I feel like we have a different insight because we really get to see the individual, how they are, how they show up and. And maybe in real life, or how they show up for themselves, for their significant other. Very different than how they show up at work. So it's really nice to. I feel privileged. I think that's a good word, that they. They open up and they show me their personal vulnerability, which I. Which I love and I appreciate you mentioned, you know, chasing.
And I. I think when we shift from coming from a place of lack in a place of abundance, what is the place of abundance is. What does that do to the psyche? Well, you have gratitude. Oh, like. Like you said, I'm in a good place.
Right.
For show, you know, we're successful in our way, whatever that means to us.
[00:22:20] Speaker A: Right.
[00:22:21] Speaker B: We have a good life, but somehow we just have to keep chasing. The thing is, that's the thing. We don't have to keep chasing. We choose to keep chasing.
But we could also choose to slow down. We could choose to say, you know, I have a pretty darn good life. This is what I wanted five years ago, and now I have that.
So if we keep chasing, guess what? That's never gonna. And. And that's okay. That's the beauty of life. But it's also. How do we slow down and sit in gratitude? And that became. That becomes. It starts to shift not only our mentality, but our energy or positive energy. When we slow down, we have gratitude. And there. There's. Again, that's why it's. It's called abundance. And all of a sudden things show up. Like for me and my walk, all of a sudden the flowers showed up. They were there, but we don't really take the time to slow down to see what's in front of us.
[00:23:15] Speaker A: You know, you said the word abundance and, and that word, I find I find myself thinking about that word more frequently now. Abundance to me is I have more than I need.
And I have to decide for myself what does that mean to me if I have more than I need. My goal is to give excess to those around me. I'm a simple man. I don't need much, but if I have everything I need and some I want to share that with others. But you know, this is kind of me. But you know, what I hear in this part of the conversation is that leadership behind the scenes determines leadership in public. The weight you carry behind closed doors really does show up everywhere else. So we're going to take a quick break and when we return, we'll talk about the kind of leader people actually want to follow today.
Foreign we are back on the bottom line again. I'm your host Ryan Herpin. And this show, we like to cut through the chaos to simplify what does it take to be successful? Whether it's life, finance, leadership, you name it, we like to try to dig into it. And today, you know, if, if you're leading a team, building a business, managing change, or trying to earn trust in a noisy environment, this is the part of the conversation to really lean into. People are not just evaluating what leaders say anymore. They're watching consistency, emotional control, transparency, humanity, and whether the leaders actions match the culture they claim to believe in. And I'm continuing this conversation with Carlos Martin. And now I want to shift from what leaders are carrying to what people are looking for in a leader today. So Carlos, thank you for joining me on the show. I want to dive right in.
[00:25:04] Speaker B: Let's do it.
[00:25:06] Speaker A: Well, to kind of really begin this segment, this is such a big topic because we understand that as years go on, as generations change, what we look for in a leader does shift a little bit. And I kind of want to start this by saying a little bit of a phrase that, that I heard somewhere. It stuck with me. Hard times create hard people. Hard people create soft times.
Soft times create soft people. Soft people create hard times again. And it's this cycle. So as things change, leaders that we need also change. But when you look at today's workplace, what kind of leader do people actually want to follow Now?
[00:25:48] Speaker B: I think it's a hybrid, hybrid of, you know, being that leader that we're confident that this he or she is going to take us in the right direction and not or and at the same time, someone that has softness, right? It's, it's like drinking a fine wine that has complexity. It's got punch, right?
It, it, it's got a beautiful palate. Sorry, I'm a low level sommelier, you know, that is, that has structure.
But when I pour it, I pour it in these beautiful white gloves, right? And it's kind of the same thing with our individuals. I think the olden days of Jack Welch, I think it was his name, president of ge, was just dealing with, you know, leading with fear or by fear, putting fear, instilling fear into the stakeholders. Now it's inspiring. How can you inspire, how can you really seek to understand and know your people that you're leading?
Right? But it also starts with knowing thyself, knowing your people, are you aligned? So you could truly inspire those individuals opposed to, let's go. And if you don't want to do it my way, you're fired.
People want a different. They, they want a different leader for sure.
[00:27:18] Speaker A: It's, it's kind of interesting because you, you actually alluded to something I've been looking at very close lately especially. And that's the difference between a boss and a leader.
And what I see pretty frequently is a boss is the type to stand in the back to tell people where to go, what to do.
But when a problem arises, their people get hit first. A leader, they're the one that leads the way. They take the steps first. They're not afraid to jump in. They're not afraid to be involved. They never expect to do their team, their team to do something they would never do. That includes, you know, all the expectations. But something that I find rather interesting as of late is integrity.
Right now, from my perspective, some of the clients, teams I've worked with, they want to follow somebody whose integrity is most important to them where it's. They stand up for their people and do what they say and say what they do with transparency. But integrity is so vital right now in, in the generations that are coming up. It's. I want to be able to trust the person that is responsible for my, well, my success, whatever that looks like. But I'm curious, from your perspective and your opinion, have you know, how have employees expectations of leadership changed over the last several years?
[00:28:36] Speaker B: You mentioned the word trust, and that is a, a simple but yet tricky one.
How do you trust people? How do you trust your friend? How do you trust your significant other is by getting to know them and asking questions right when you, when you're dating, excuse Me, what do you do? You're asking questions. You seek to understand what's your favorite color and all that.
So if we were to do the same approach unnecessarily, excuse me, in a romantic sense, well, what's your favorite color? But really seek to understand how they are.
That's the, that's the big thing is so bringing humanity back into the workplace, seeing that person as, as maybe as your friend, even if you are the leader. And I love that you said boss, right? I'm a big, you know, like the managers, Managers manage. You know, when you become manager, the way that I see it is you manage numbers and you lead people. That is how I see things. And you're right. As, as a boss, if I put my, if I go back several years when I was a first time leader, we are that manager, we are that boss. And it, and it, it takes time to really see how to motivate, you know, individuals to inspire. And like you said, you start to think about the pillars of what's important for you. And integrity is a huge pillar, right? Because now that becomes more important than the ego and that becomes more important to be at the front.
If you're going to get hit, you get hit first. Before, like you said before, your, your stakeholders. So there's a lot of stuff there that, that usually I see that as we're going up the corporate ladder, I see that a little bit more often.
[00:30:25] Speaker A: So you're kind of driving my curiosity as far as your perspective on some of this because you're putting this in such a simple way, whereas this could be so overcomplicated. And I've seen that happen time and time again. But you know, to dig into this a little bit further, you know, I'm curious, why is authority no longer enough to create that real commitment from a team? Because I remember once upon a time the people that were leading me were bosses and they let out of fear and that just. I didn't want to lose my job or I didn't, you know, whatever it was, fear used to be a thing. But as I continued my career, it changed and it's changing now. But again, why is authority no longer enough to get that commitment from a team?
[00:31:08] Speaker B: You know, I think it's called, excuse me, I think it's, it's called.
The way that I see it, it's almost evolution. We're changing society, we are changing. And it's not that becomes, it's. I don't think it's because we're, we're becoming softer Actually, I think it's the opposite. I think we're becoming more intelligent.
You know, now we're talking about emotional intelligence and leading people, truly leading people.
That is for me to, again, to, To. To slow down and getting to know ourselves. And I just.
With the new workforce that we have, they don't speak that language.
They don't speak fear.
And if you give them that type of leadership, you're not going to have them for long.
That now they know their worth.
Before, I was like you. If my boss said, we have to do this, like, oh, now I don't want to lose my job.
This new person now is like, yeah, I don't appreciate, you know, that kind of conversation. And I'm not saying they're whims, right? There's just a lot more emotional intelligence. Like, no, I have options.
Many years ago, a boss was having a very difficult conversation with me, and I didn't like the way that she was going, and she said something, and I'm kind of paraphrasing because it was a long time ago.
And so it was kind of alluding like, if you don't do this, I'm gonna fire you.
And I kid you not, the conversation or the, the rebuttal that I had, I'm like, no, that. That's fair.
The cool thing is I could fire you too.
And remember, she looked back and I'm like, we have the ability, the power that you think you do. Yeah, you can fire me, but we can fire you too. We, as the employee, can fire the employer as well. I know it sounds a bit like, oh, get over yourself, but it's about valuing yourself, your own personal integrity, like you mentioned earlier, to say, and I'm not saying for you to jump ship when someone has a, you know, a difficult conversation. That's not what I'm saying. Right, right. But also to know your words, to know your value, to know, like, yeah, that's not going to. To be okay with me, and I could fire you too, and I could go elsewhere.
[00:33:32] Speaker A: Value is so much more than just what you're being paid. It's the way you're treated, the way you're respected, the way that people communicate. And I remember back when I was a certified master welding technician, right.
I had such a level of skill and, and, and youth where I could go anywhere I wanted to. If you treat me poorly, it's no problem. There's 30, 40 other companies that are not very far away that will gladly pay me what I'm worth, but treat me with More respect.
And, and that was, it made, it gave me freedom, gave me a sense of freedom because I had the skills that made me valuable, yet I also had the self worth of I respect you, I expect to be respected as well. And, and you know, briefly, for our audience, if they want to find you, if they want to further this conversation, learn a little bit about this leadership and coaching from you, how can they find you? How can they, how can they reach you?
[00:34:22] Speaker B: Yeah, probably the best way is LinkedIn. I post a lot there and go ahead and send me, follow me and send me a DM and I promise I'll reply, maybe not right away, but give me at least 48 hours.
Also, my Carlos Martin, I think it's called Carlos Barton official on Instagram. I'm starting to put more clips out there because I realized I just want to be able to talk about these. And now everything is, you know, digested in very short form. So, yeah, LinkedIn and Instagram, thank you for that.
[00:34:53] Speaker A: I know this type of conversation can so easily be overlooked, but there's so much value in it if you just take the time to step back and look at the bigger picture. But what becomes clear is that people are not looking for perfect leaders. They're looking for grounded leaders. They want clarity, they want consistency. They want. And they want honesty. They want to know that the person leading them can handle pressure without losing perspective or humanity, for that matter. So again, let's get back to another bottom line with this. You know, I would say, you know, followership is earned.
And in today's workplace, people follow leaders who make them feel both challenged and respected all at the same time.
So we're going to take another short break and when we come back, we'll close this with the leadership metrics that rarely show up on dashboards but may reveal the true health of an organization. So once again, stretch out. Do what you got to do. We'll be right back on the bottom line.
Stay connected to the bottom line and every NOW Media tv, favorite live or on demand, anytime you like, Download the free Now Media TV app on Roku or iOS and unlock nonstop and bilingual programming in English and Spanish. You on the move. You can catch the podcast
[email protected] from business, news, lifestyle, culture, and so much more. Now Media TV is streaming around the clock. Ready whenever you are.
Now, we are back on the bottom line here, and I'm still joined with Carlos Martin. And we are at the close of the show, the final segment, and I want to talk about something that is a little bit Interesting, right. KPIs that we do not measure. So Carlos, thank you for being here. I'm glad you could join me today.
[00:36:47] Speaker B: Absolutely. I feel like we're at the, the final, final round. Round 12.
[00:36:51] Speaker A: Yeah. Right. You know, something that I kind of see here is that every organization tracks numbers. You know, revenue, productivity, turnover, profit growth, retention, engagement and performance.
You know, those metrics, they do matter, but sometimes the deeper indicators are harder to quantify. So great example. Trust, you know, philosophical safety, you know, courage, clarity, recovery, alignment and even emotional honesty. And you know it. These things are not so easily measured. And whether people are willing to tell the truth before a problem becomes a crisis, which is a major hot button for me, if a problem's going to occur or you make a mistake, just tell me. Don't let me find out when it's a bigger problem. Just tell me and we'll handle it together. But you know, in this final segment, you know, I really kind of want to bring the episode to the real, real thing that matters and that's leaders can't build thriving cultures if they only measure visible output and ignore the human conditions that really produce it. So to dive back into this, I'm curious, when you think about the KPIs we don't measure, what human indicator should leaders be paying more attention to?
[00:38:01] Speaker B: Oh, I love this question. I love the segment.
That's probably one of the hardest things of selling my services to corporations. Right. Because we want to look at those KPIs.
How is Ryan going to improve? Well, it's very difficult to say. Yeah, his emotional intelligence raised by 15%. Right. So we want to throw logic at it the same way we do corporate. It's kind of the same thing. Right. So you know, when we talked about what's an effective leader like we want to have someone that leads. It's logical but also that has softness.
[00:38:34] Speaker A: Right.
[00:38:35] Speaker B: We talked about that wine.
It's, it's the same thing.
How can we have the KPIs that are visible but also the other ones that may not be invisible but probably even more impactful.
Right. So the emotional intelligence and there's you could kind of somewhat quantify. There's some tools out there, but not accurate.
And so again, it's really hard to self with the company that's going to invest in leadership, leadership alignment or a coach that if they can't really measure it, but it is powerful. So I think one thing is to believe in it and the other thing is to really, you know, try it out. So if you're A corporation. Try it out and invest in your people to have leadership, alignment but also the non quantifiable, like you said, visible. So I try to throw skill at it. So I try to do a lot of surveys. Okay, so before I start working with you, for example, Ryan, okay, tell me a little bit where you are, you know, emotional intelligence or anything from 0 to 5. So that gives us a little bit of a contrast or something that we can measure but it's not going to be, you know, like sales measure numbers. But I think there is something that we trust a little bit more onto the invisible.
[00:39:53] Speaker A: You know, I think your perspective here is extremely powerful and I want to add to it at least a little bit of, a little bit more here to this that I think our viewers might also enjoy. When I think of the know the metrics and the KPIs versus kind of the human indicators, I think of we tend to try to put finite metrics on an infinite kind of mechanism. Right.
When it comes to logic and reason, it is pretty finite. When it comes to emotions and well being, it's more infinite as it's always changing. You can't pinpoint in comparison of growth and change to others because we're all different. But something that I find is a good way to kind of represent it is how does this person feel?
What is their level of satisfaction in life and in their pursuit of things? Where does that look now versus then? Because we all know we do better when we feel good, we do better when we're happy, we do better when we're at ease, we do better when we've handled traumas and XYZ things. So I always try to measure it at least for different leaders. Like look, if you want to understand this, the better your team feels, the more they understand themselves and the more they master themselves, the more output you automatically get. So our measurement is where are they now, how do they feel? And let's look at 90 days how they feel after that. But you know, with this being the topic, you know, what are the early warning signs that a culture is unhealthy even if the business metrics still look strong?
[00:41:25] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Now you're getting into, like I said, eq, where you're talking about feelings and how they they feel.
I think that that could show up in many, in many ways in, in many metrics within the KPIs that are measurable. But a lot of times we're not necessarily connecting the dots, right. Because we look at KPIs that are measurable, they know we have a Different, you know, we don't have the right strategy.
We're not have the right salespeople. We don't have the right whatever it is, marketing. But it could be alignment. It could be how is Bobby or Susie feeling about this new strategy, about this new boss? But, but again, we're not going into the feelings part of it. But that, that's because that's going to be a big driver how I feel. Like you said, if I don't feel seen, if I don't feel hurt, if I don't feel motivated, what happens when you wake up, you know, on Monday, you don't feel motivated. Are you, are you really going to do your best? No.
Not only right I personal but also at work I'm like, my boss is kind of being a jerk. I'm just going to do the bare minimum. That's why, you know, kind of like office space. Right. What do you do? Like, I don't really do anything. Right. I just do enough.
If that's the kind of stakeholders you want to have and you have to be real to yourself, like, how are, how are they feeling? How are they seeing themselves? How are they seeing me?
So I wanted to go back a little bit of quantifying.
I made a note.
Love.
How much do you, how much do you love Your significant other? Oh, 80, 70%.
[00:43:04] Speaker A: Right.
[00:43:04] Speaker B: We're trying to throw logic at feelings. How we see people a lot of times just because it's invisible.
Right.
That love, it's not quantifiable for you feel it like. Yeah, I love my significance.
[00:43:19] Speaker A: Another.
[00:43:20] Speaker B: Right. So it, it's is if we now we're talking about emotional intelligence, there is power in that. I know I'm, I'm, I'm kind of all over the place. I just wanted to go back to that because like you said, it's a continuum.
That's how it is of love is. But we, we, we, we live in the logical place. We can't throw logic at love. We can't throw logic at feelings. Now we could throw a little bit of logic at feelings. If we bring literacy to our feelings and, and our emotions and how we're feeling. We could do that. Because I think a lot of us don't really are quite literal or literate in regards to describing our emotions. Why? Because it's usually anger and fear and happiness and sadness.
What if it's disappointment, jealousy? And I think the better we could, you know, define or at least label it. Just for the time being. I think we could, you know, be better leaders because we are better individuals.
[00:44:19] Speaker A: You know, see, I'm glad you went back on that a little bit because there is so much value in what you just said and to our audience, I really hope you're tuning into this because this is extremely important information.
The landscape has changed. Not everybody has that old school grind, grind, grind mentality. Our emotions play a much bigger role in things now. Just know being valued and stuff. But with that being said at the same time, I'm curious, Carlos, how does trust, clarity and emotional safety, you know, eventually show up in those performance outcomes? What do you see as a, when people are, when they do trust their leaders, when they have clarity of mission and when they do feel emotionally safe, how much of an impact can that really make on those performance outcomes? It's huge.
[00:45:02] Speaker B: It's huge. I, I, I work with teams when they're aligned.
Right? Let's, let's remove the feelings and the emotions and, and the EQ out of it. Let's go straight logical and KPIs, it improves, I see it.
Retention rate.
Right. The people tend to stay because now they feel motivated. The numbers, the numbers go up in sales. Why? Because now I feel better about my boss, I feel better about my job. So my sales go, go up, all the numbers start to go up and they're directly impacted. But we don't see that either. We choose not to see it.
So almost every single metric that I work with individuals, it's not about me, right? It's not, I'm not making it about me, I'm making it about the stakeholders. The metrics start to go up when we invest in our people.
[00:45:52] Speaker A: And yeah, that's one of the things I, I, I like to say, or at least look at quite a bit, is when you've got people that are truly bought into their atmosphere to their business. This is the difference between a, a job and a career. A lot of it is the leadership that's involved and, and tying your reason why and your goals to the reason why and goals of the business. Right. But when you've got people that are truly bought in, they don't just do the bare minimum. They try to go above and beyond. It's the difference between survival and thrival.
[00:46:23] Speaker B: Right.
[00:46:23] Speaker A: When people feel like they are powerful at where they're at, they want to go in and go in as hard as they possibly can. So again, you know, Carlos, if our audience would like to learn more about you, where again can they find you? How can they reach out to you?
[00:46:37] Speaker B: Yeah, you could go ahead and email me@carlos continuumleaders.com you can find me on LinkedIn Carlos Martin as well or continuumleaders.com like I said on our website as well.
Seeing it up on the screen right now.
[00:46:58] Speaker A: So I know myself and on behalf of our audience, we want to thank you Carlos for joining us and sharing this insight on executive loneliness, behind the scenes leadership and the kind of leader people actually want to follow today, as well as the KPIs we don't always measure. These types of conversations are easily overlooked, but they have so much value. And to everyone watching, we invite you to remember this simple thing. Success is not only measured by what the business produces. It's also measured by the trust, clarity, courage and culture that makes performance sustainable. So if I had to bring this down to the bottom line is that leadership is earned every day in the decisions people see, the conversations they don't, and the human conditions leaders choose to protect.
So tune in next time on NOW Media TV and get some more of the bottom line.
