The Peering Podcast

Episode 9 -
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[00:00:36] Mike Richardson: Hey everybody. Welcome back to another episode of The Peering Podcast. The best way to see the future is to peer into it together. I'm really excited today to have one of my longtime colleagues and friends, Simon Veta. Uh, we'll talk in a moment about how and where we met, I can barely remember, and what he does, uh, today amongst many other things, and in particular his central focus around leading with vision.

And so we're gonna talk about the challenges. We're gonna peer into the challenges of, uh, leading with vision for CEOs and executives. We were blessed to have Simon come and speak to my peer forums, uh, last year. They ate it up, and so I thought, you know what? Let's get Simon back and let's have a deeper conversation about this whole challenge of leading with Vision.

Simon, welcome to the podcast.

[00:01:33] Simon Vetter: Great to see you, Mike. Thank you for inviting me.

[00:01:35] Mike Richardson: Yeah, it's great to have you here already, everybody. Uh, you can tell that we've got some international accents on the podcast today. Obviously I've got some kind of mangled American English accent. And where's your accent from originally? Uh, Simon.

[00:01:52] Simon Vetter: Uh, I grew up in, uh, Switzerland, in the Swiss German park. Grew up in Verne. I lived in Zurich and then I came to San Diego in 1997 to improve my English and I fall in love with San Diego. And I got a job in, in sales for Dale Carnegie training. And

[00:02:09] Mike Richardson: And uh,

[00:02:10] Simon Vetter: uh, kind of made us meet, um, about 2000. It was around 2099.

Yeah.

[00:02:17] Mike Richardson: yeah. So keep going. Tell us. That was gonna be my first question. How on earth did you and I meet way back then?

[00:02:25] Simon Vetter: So I, uh, got a job in sales with Dale Carnegie training I became an instructor and I think, um, you were the CEO of this aerospace company and you send people to Dale Carnegie. So I had people in Europe, uh, from your company teaching, um, leadership skills, communication skills, speaking skills, and then you decided to take the Dale Carnegie course and I was so honored to be the teacher for you.

And so that's how we met.

[00:02:56] Mike Richardson: yeah, indeed. And uh uh, so much so everybody. I'd use Dale Carnegie all across my aerospace division globally. from before when I was still back in the uk and then when I came to America, I, I used Dale Carnegie again. And actually not only worked for the local, with the local Dale Carnegie franchisee, but I flew the British Dale Carnegie franchisee all over the world to, to, to work with the local person.

And, uh, so much so that, uh, as I got to know the, the, the team here in San Diego. And they suggested that I become an instructor myself. And so I went through Del Carnegie's world class Train the trainer program. It was amazing. And, uh, and started to, uh, teach some of the classes myself. And as a result, you got to know Simon, uh, even more.

And then Simon, you decided after a while, what year was it in which you decided to kind of go independent and launch yourself, uh, as a portfolio professional? When was that?

[00:03:59] Simon Vetter: It was 2001. I left start my own, uh, shop and, um, I, I started doing leadership development coaching. I met my mentor, um, Marshall Goldsmith and really learned a lot, um, around how do you. Positive lasting change in behavior. And through that network I got very early involved in large, uh, scale coaching programs at Dell and j and j and, and then I was a coach at Microsoft for over 10 years, and now at Qualcomm and AbbVie and big companies.

And it's one of my, uh, client portfolio, big companies where I really help leaders to, to be more effective and create changes for themselves personally, for their teams, and for their company.

[00:04:47] Mike Richardson: Yeah.

[00:04:48] Simon Vetter: And so I did a lot of coaching, a lot of team development, uh, working in companies globally, uh, in Europe, in the us and I have also local clients and, uh, really focused on behavioral change and um, which I love.

But then in 2016, um, my colleague Bonnie Hagerman and I decided to write a book. And the book is about leading with vision because, uh, some of the research we have done in over 500 companies is that leading with vision was one of the most important, most critical leadership competencies of next generation leaders. And, uh, so, uh, we said, Hey. If that's so important, um, who does it well, so we wrote a book, we did research, and we went out there looking for companies with a compelling vision. And we had a hard time finding those companies.

[00:05:48] Mike Richardson: Go figure.

[00:05:50] Simon Vetter: and what we also found is it's one of the most important skills, but also one of the least developed skills in organizations. And so, uh, I got on this path to really dive into it and say again, what is it about leading with vision? What does it take and, and how do you develop that skill? And so my, my key focus now is really going to companies and help leaders be more visionary.

Be, uh, and, and the key is really helping people answer the question, where are we going?

[00:06:23] Mike Richardson: yeah. Beautiful.

[00:06:24] Simon Vetter: are you going? And so where are you going with your career? Where are you going with your life? Where are you going with your team? Where are you going with your company? Because people wanna be part of an organization that has a compelling, aspiring, desirable future.

[00:06:40] Mike Richardson: Beautiful. So we'll come back to that. We'll dive into all of that everybody, but let's just, uh. Join up some dots here. So we hear some great brand names in, in Simon's journey here. We heard obviously Dale Carnegie, which is a global, um, you know, awesome, um, you know, leadership development organization.

And it, it traces its roots back to. Um, you know, Dale Carnegie himself, who wrote his first book something like 1936 or something, how

[00:07:09] Simon Vetter: In French, in French

[00:07:10] Mike Richardson: and Influence people. Uh, it's one of the classics and, uh. Um, you know, if you haven't read it, listeners, it is, it is worth a, a, a read and or a listen you know, Dale Carnegie himself was almost the original, self-help guru, wasn't he?

Right. From which so many others, you know, spun out.

[00:07:32] Simon Vetter: one of them with, Napoleon Hill. They're probably the ones who really started this whole personal development, self-help industry. And, and, and Dale Corning's second book, how To Stop Wearing And Start Living is still a, a bestseller and it's very relevant still today. So,

[00:07:50] Mike Richardson: And then we heard some, obviously some company brand names, you know, that, that Simon has worked with. And then we heard Marshall Goldsmith and uh, you know, I remember actually Simon, whereas I, as I was getting involved with Dale Carnegie, you know, globally and using them all over the world.

I got, uh, in, I won an award. I won the, the annual Dale Carnegie Global Leadership Award in 1999. Uh, and, uh, put forward, you know, nominated by that British, uh, Dale Carnegie franchisee. And I got to speak at the annual Dale Carnegie Convention, which in December 99 happened to be in Seattle and you know, I saw Marshall Goldsmith speak kind of before he was Marshall Goldsmith that everybody came to know. And, you know, then from 99 onwards he just exploded, didn't he? And he became, you know, one of the most prolific authors, speakers, coaches, um, famously he was the coach to Alan Mul, the, the former CEO of Ford and before that Boeing commercial airplane division.

And wow, you got to hang out with Marshall Goldsmith and be part of his kind of cadre of people and, and wow, that must have been a phenomenal experience,

[00:09:14] Simon Vetter: experience. Yes. When I, um, it's interesting, when I met him, I just, um, quit at Dale Carnegie and then my good friend. Johan Sill. He, he did some travel booking for Marshall Goldsmith. So he said, Simon, you should talk to Marshall. He's one of the top, uh, leaders and, and con uh, consultants in the world.

So I called his office and I talked to the assistant, say, Hey, I'd like to set up a meeting with Marshall, a coffee meeting, and we both live in San Diego. And to my surprise, she said, when. So. We set up a, a, a Monday morning coffee and, uh, right before she called me and said, oh, he cannot make it. But, uh, what about a phone call on Wednesday? So two o'clock he was in St. Louis. He called me, I said, Marshall, I saw you speak. Uh, we have mutual connections. What is division for your company? He said, that's a great question.

I just closed it down. I don't know where we're going, but tomorrow evening I have a party at my house, be my guest, and it was the, uh, survivor Africa. Uh. His daughter was on that show. And uh, so there were 200 people and I got to know Marshall and his friends and at the end I said, what a great party. I wanna be part of this group.

And he said, two more morning, nine o'clock Fairbanks Ranch. Be there. I show up Marshall and 30 other consultants and coaches, and that day we decided to create an Alliance, Alliance for Leadership Development. At the end, everybody put in their name. So did I. And that's how I joined this group of established executive coaches.

It's now called Alliance for uh, leadership Excellence called Alex Group. And uh, so that's how I. Kind of got into the coaching. Carter and I had amazing mentors around me and I just soaked up as much as I could learn.

[00:11:17] Mike Richardson: Yeah. So then I know you have a story that your, your own personal story about leading with vision when you were trying to become successful with Dale Carnegie. Just, just tell us that story.

[00:11:29] Simon Vetter: So I was in my, um, first year. And, um, I had a, a revenue target of 200,000. And then if you meet 200,000, you can go to the International Dale Carnegie Conference, which happened to be in Seattle in 99, where you were a speaker. And, uh. So the year ended in August and in April we had a three day sales program in Dallas.

So I was at the end of that sales program. We all had to get up in front of the colleagues and tell why we gonna succeed in sales. And they want to have us really be convinced is what is the winning formula for winning for, for. And then I got up and I said. I'll get 200,000 revenue so I can go to the Del Carne conference.

And I envisioned, It's gonna be at the Del Carne conference. I'm standing behind the curtain. My name is called. I walk on stage thousand people cheering me up. I get awarded by the president of Del Carne training with this sales award, and then as I walk down the stairs, I get.

Pictures taken and cheered by a thousand people. So I had this picture in my mind and I said, I'm I gonna make that happen. I'm I gonna make that image happen. The biggest challenge I had is end of April, I was at 55% of revenue. And I had three more months to go, so I had to bring in 90,000 in three months.

And so, and somehow I. Every day I got up and every morning I said, okay, good. Where do I get a revenue? Who can I call? Where can I get a, a contract? I was so focused because every morning I got up, I had this picture in my mind to be on stage getting awarded.

[00:13:28] Mike Richardson: Yep.

[00:13:29] Simon Vetter: End of August happens, and I somehow got a big contract and I brought in 205,000, and I got invited.

To the Dale Carney conference in December and that picture happened. I got awarded.

[00:13:43] Mike Richardson: And we were both there. 'cause I

was, I was, I was doing one of the keynote speeches. Oh.

[00:13:48] Simon Vetter: so what I learned is really the picture.

[00:13:51] Mike Richardson: Yeah.

[00:13:52] Simon Vetter: You can see it's that image, that ideal picture, that image is a driving force and makes people committed to do whatever it takes. So that's, one of the reasons why leading with vision is, is so powerful.

[00:14:08] Mike Richardson: Yeah. So let's go there now. So let's dive in a little bit. Um, tell us a little bit more about the, the book and some of the, you know, headline conclusions that the book came to. And then, and then we'll dive into, okay, so what are some of the, principles of, of leading with vision? Why are they so rare?

And, and Precious, and let's go there. But tell us about the book. Uh, first what are the, and what are the headline conclusions that you came to from the book?

[00:14:36] Simon Vetter: So some of the important aspects of vision is clarity. We gotta forge clarity. We can really be clear in our mind's eye and then having a clarity about where we are going. And it takes skills to develop clarity. Yeah. And especially when the uncertainty is there. It's uh, and, and one of the things I learned is sometimes we have to. Calm down the mind and distinguish what's an important signal and what's noise. There's so much noise around us and that's kind of makes us, makes us foggy. So we have to clear the fog and really look at what are the important signals and, and then develop clarity around that. It's like walking through fog.

If you drive through fog. We are reacting, we are slow, we are not taking risk. So we need to clear the fog so we can see clearly and, uh, accelerate and go fast. So clarity is important. Another important concept is courage to forge. Uh, to get into the future we have to have to courage to move to a path that we believe in.

And there's courage to be bold, but there's also courage to be vulnerable. And courage comes from the heart. Uh, in French is, it's the heart. And it's like, how do we bring our heart into it? And then we wanna create a culture that people can support. So we wanna create a culture that is supported and safe for people to, to shape that future.

So there are some of the concepts that, that are very critical.

[00:16:21] Mike Richardson: Why, why? You said earlier that um, you know, you went looking for companies that do a great job of leading with vision and they were very hard to find. Why is it that leading with vision doesn't seem to be that prevalent?

[00:16:36] Simon Vetter: There are a couple of things. One, a lot of the companies, they lead with goals.

[00:16:42] Mike Richardson: Mm-hmm.

[00:16:43] Simon Vetter: KPIs, revenue goals be number one. Goals are important, but goals drive accountability, performance, and it doesn't address the emotion side. So goals are very left brain. Digital, analytical, methodical, which is important. But to get people's heart, get people's commitment, we need to address the right side of the brain.

And that's the emotional side. That's the the pictures, that's the sensory rich side. And so we need both. We need goals and vision. Many leaders, they lead with goals. They're driving performance. They're meeting performance, and they get rewarded for it, but they're burning themselves and their people out,

so we need.

vision that engages people's inspiration and engagement and, and then by leading with vision, people are committed. And then we use goals to follow through, create accountability because I see people are willing to work hard when they're excited about it. But people, if they have too many things, too many priorities, too many projects.

They get burned out and they're missing a purpose.

[00:18:08] Mike Richardson: One of the reasons why, why Simon and I align so strongly around all of this, everybody is, you know, I've been in the field as Simon knows, for 20 years of agility, enterprise agility, business agility. Organizational agility, team agility, leadership agility, and, and that's a complex topic all of its own.

There are many moving parts to getting it right, you know, in a, in what we call an agility operating system. But behind the scenes of that, there are really three core concepts of agility. One of which. Speaks directly to what you've just said, and that is agility is an and proposition of being structured and unstructured all at the same time of being planful and emergent all at the same time, of being sort of tight and loose all at the same time.

And in other words, although it's a somewhat of a, a, an oversimplification being left-brained and right-brained all at the same time. Um, the left brain tends to be more logical, linear, analytical, the right brain tends to be more sensory, more, um, holistic, uh, more visual. And we need the combination of both.

It's not this or that. It's this and that. And so that's why I love Simon's work because it, it, it maps onto that so Well, and as you've just said, on the left brain side of the house, it's about leading with goals. On the right hand side of the house, it's about leading with vision as an and proposition.

We might say, you know, on the right hand side, leading with strategy. Envisioning a future and engaging energy and inspiration and emotion. On the left hand side, it's about execution, which is about performance and alignment and the cascade of budgets and forecasts and numbers and quotas and all of that kind of stuff.

And when you came and spoke to the groups, Simon, you did a beautiful job of kind of laying out that spectrum. Visually, not least of all, you know, on a few, a few slides and, and laying out the left hand side of, of leading with goals and laying out the right hand side of leading with vision. And I think the light bulb that came on for most people is, you know what?

He's right. I mostly lead with goals and I'm lucky if I scratch the surface of leading with vision. Tell us more about all of that.

[00:20:39] Simon Vetter: So I'll, I'll give you a very simple exercise. So I invite you to my favorite beach in San Diego. I'll give you two

[00:20:49] Mike Richardson: Plenty to choose from. Which one are we talking about? Simon.

[00:20:52] Simon Vetter: So, imagine. You come to San Diego. We go to Pacific Beach. It's noon. It's a beautiful sunny day. It's 80 degree. You're in your shorts, t-shirts. And as we walk on the sand barefoot, you can feel the sand between your toes.

You walk towards the ocean, you can hear the ocean waves. There is the sun in the blue sky. There are 25 pelicans flying in V-shape over the water. And you just feel that little bit of something on your, um, on your skin. And as you walk barefoot, you look back and you see your footprints in the sand. You feel alive and energized.

[00:21:38] Mike Richardson: Nice. I can, I can feel, I can feel the grains of sand between my toes and I can smell the salt.

[00:21:46] Simon Vetter: Yeah, so that's version one. Number one. Let me give you a second version. I invite you to my favorite beach. We meet at the end of Garnet by the pier, and then on the beach we walk for 1.3 miles. And then at Mission Bay we turn around, walk back 1.3 miles, total, 2.6 miles. We are gonna do zero elevation. And it'll take us one hour and 35 minutes. So I used measures, I used specifics in version two. Which of the versions is more inspiring? Of course, number one, because it's sensory rich, it's emotional. It adds to the senses, and that's why I address the taste, the seeing, the hearing, the and when as a leader. We want to add those elements to describe the future.

[00:22:45] Mike Richardson: Yeah. I love this. And, and so everybody, yes. The, the second version, you know, let's meet at this time in this place, 1.3 miles south and 1.3 miles north. That's like a specification, right? It's very logical. It's very mathematical. It's very definitive. Uh, and we're gonna, we're gonna leave at this time.

We're gonna be back. Our goal is to be back by this time here so that you can go onto your next thing as that's your leading with goals. And, and keep in mind what we're saying everybody, it's an and proposition. You need that. You absolutely need that. But no amount of that makes up for a lack of also leading with vision.

[00:23:25] Simon Vetter: So I have an example how that relates to business.

[00:23:28] Mike Richardson: Great. Go ahead.

[00:23:30] Simon Vetter: So I was, um, meeting with, uh, the owner. I got referred to Mary. She was the owner of, um, marketing agency in San Diego. 25 people, very successful. So I sit down and say, Mary, how you doing? And she said, Simon, to be honest. I'm overwhelmed. I come in early, I leave late.

I work on weekends. I don't have a life. And you could see she was carrying all that burden, that stress from work. She worked like 60, 70 hours and she said, you know what I really want is a two week vacation in Italy with my family. Unplug, no computer. Just relax and enjoy my family. And so she said, I don't see that happening.

I have to be here. I cannot leave for two weeks. And so she was willing to work with me, so I coached her and the first thing we started, we didn't start working on goals. I have her create that picture in her mind of a two week vacation.

[00:24:40] Mike Richardson: Yep.

[00:24:41] Simon Vetter: And that picture became the leading force of our working together.

No charts, no goals, no scorecards. It's just having her and I ask her, good imagine two years from now you are on that vacation and you relaxed what needs to happen at home, at work, that your team can do it without you.

[00:25:08] Mike Richardson: Yep.

[00:25:09] Simon Vetter: And so she started to delegate. She started to build her team. She started to tell, and so we also created a vision for her team.

She laid out in three pages what that ideal company looks like. Who are the clients, what's the office looking like? Open and pry colors and, and, and play room. And so she presented that vision to her team and they said, wow, great. Now I know where we are going. Her team got excited,

[00:25:42] Mike Richardson: Yeah.

[00:25:43] Simon Vetter: and so the team started to make changes and step up and take initiative.

Two years later, she booked a two week vacation in Italy. Unplugged, no computer and her team managed the business without her being there.

[00:26:01] Mike Richardson: Yeah. Yeah. And, and you know what I, what I love about this is it is that right brained aspect. Um, and we're bringing it, we're bringing it. Up to play at the same level as the left brain, right? We, we, we, we usually have all the goals and the numbers and the quotas and the specifications. You know, that's often what, especially in the corporate world, you know, of course we do, right?

That's the first thing that anybody's gonna ask us. It's all gonna be about percentage growth and percentage margin, and percentage ebitda and all this kind of stuff. And inventory turns. It can be, you know, very left brain mathematical, right? You know, on the right hand side of, of the brain, you know, we, we use phrases like A picture is worth a thousand words,

[00:26:49] Simon Vetter: Absolutely

[00:26:50] Mike Richardson: right?

And we know that at the end of the day, it's all about energy and inspiration, and engagement and all of those things. And what you are, what you are introducing is the ways in which to activate. Uh, our right side of our brain to in turn activate the right hand sides of our people's brains. I, I always, in my, in my agility work, you know, I, I have fun with the idea of, hey, we need to be whole brained, not half brained, right? Not half witted. Um, you know, let's, let's make sure that we've got our whole brain in the game. So that's what you're really talking about here. So, Simon, if there's anybody, if there's anybody out there, you know, already thinking to themselves, well, this sounds a bit fluffy to me. You know, my boss in my corporate world.

You know, wouldn't react well if they, you know, you know, just show me the numbers. Right. Just show me the numbers and what all this other stuff is just, you know, fluffy stuff. I don't need to know all of that. Just show me the numbers. What's your, what's been your experience of the power of doing this? The benefits of doing this, the how the probability factor needle moves.

In terms of the likelihood of you being successful, if you will work the other side of the brain into the equation, what's your experience of all of that?

[00:28:26] Simon Vetter: Yeah. I think one of the best ways is to tell stories or tell, give examples how companies have used this. I was working with a team of six executives. In the appliance business in the us very sharp. They had all great MBAs and, I was doing a team workshop. And, uh, I could feel that team was not yelling.

And, uh, um, when we did, uh, discussions, people, uh, some people were folding arms looking outside the window, not paying attention, and then we got into discussions and they started to arguing who has the best ideas. And then I engage them and I help them see. How effective they are. So I asked them a question one to 10, how well do we work together?

Everybody wrote down anonymously in one to 10. The average answer was a three. So they acknowledged we are dysfunctional team and they lost 20 million in revenue.

[00:29:31] Mike Richardson: Yep.

[00:29:32] Simon Vetter: And so by me telling them we need to do this and this and this. Engage people and let them understand how well they're doing. And so then that came.

The project is, okay, how do we as a team become a seven or an eight? And they had to learn to listen to each other. They had to learn to challenge each other in a positive way, had to learn to trust each other, hold each other accountable. And they start doing that by everybody stepping up and making changes themselves. And then after a year, they started to create a strategy, a plan for the future. They were competing against the. The Asian companies who are much lower in in, in pricing and they couldn't compete in the pricing in a retail. So they started creating a strategy to go into home building, and they looked at big projects where they could sell home appliances to whole new.

Towers and new buildings, and they started to differentiate themselves against a competitor. So they created a vision that was distinguished, that was unique, but it required them to work well as a team,

[00:30:52] Mike Richardson: Yep. It's.

[00:30:52] Simon Vetter: and then three years later. They went to 30 million plus and the team started to chill. So I think this just one story where also it shows for vision.

We also need a good, solid teamwork team spirit, and it's not an individual effort of someone's personal vision. It's a shared vision that we all believe what winning looks like.

[00:31:18] Mike Richardson: Yeah, you know, everybody. Um, obviously when we do strategic planning, you know, we've typically got some kind of, um, array of mission, vision, values, value proposition, key success measures. Core strategies, you know, KPIs, you, you name it, we've got all of it. So the word vision is in there, right? There's usually a box that we fill in called Vision, uh, except one of my favorite things to say to people, you know, when they show me all that stuff, if I'm facilitating them and their team is, I'll, I'll, I'll point at their vision statement. And I'll, most of the time I can say to them, uh, that's not a vision statement. That is just a different form of a mission statement. Um, uh, it doesn't paint a picture of the future. A vision should be a future state. You truly should be able to paint me a picture of it, and, and it should. It. It should require, when you're describing it, it should require you to use words and phrases like picture this.

Imagine when. And I, I'm a huge fan. I know you are too, of actually getting people to be visual, to create these visuals to at the very least, you know, create a, a pictorial business model. Uh, quite possibly. Have a vision board. I'm a huge fan above my screen here. I'm looking up at my vision board. That has served me so well for the 25 years that I've been an independent portfolio professional.

Pretty much the same time that you went independent. I did. I slightly after you. And, you know, I've got, I've got, uh, images and cuttings and collages of things that, that, that, that compound into. I can truly point at that and say, that is where I'm going. That is where I want to be.

[00:33:20] Simon Vetter: I got the same in front of me. I printed out my vision board. I have different parts of my life, my health, my relationships, my romance, then my business side, and I have pictures. I can see it right here. And as you said, it's visual.

[00:33:37] Mike Richardson: yeah,

[00:33:37] Simon Vetter: says future,

[00:33:39] Mike Richardson: yeah. So. So everybody, if you're, if you know listeners, if you notice yourself being a little bit skeptical right now, that's okay. That's fine. That's good. That's kind of why we do podcasts like this, because we want to just, uh, get you thinking and, and opening up a little bit. If they wanna read more, Simon, about the, the power of leading with vision.

Where can they find you? Where can they find your book, et cetera.

[00:34:04] Simon Vetter: I'm on LinkedIn, Simon Veder, uh, you'll find me happy to connect. Um, the book is called Leading with Vision.

[00:34:12] Mike Richardson: Yep.

Yep. And if you're watching the video, uh, version of this, uh, podcast episode, uh, Simon is holding that up, uh, on the screen right now. And, uh, what, what's your website? Uh, Simon.

[00:34:24] Simon Vetter: and my website. My name's Simon veter.com, V-E-T-T-E-R. Yep. It's like

better with a v. Like better, with better. And, um, yeah, I do more, um, postings. I have, uh, I talk, I talk more about, I have my podcast starting called Division Architect. Um, I'm gonna have you featured there. So yeah, look me up online. I love to connect and, uh, I'm.

Excited about this topic, but it's also, it's not an easy topic, and so we really have to make space for it. We have to make time for it, and it takes creativity, it takes courage. It takes also a way for deep thinking.

[00:35:09] Mike Richardson: Yeah,

[00:35:10] Simon Vetter: And deep thinking is often something that we are missing these days. We are running around so fast that we are not making time for.

Allowing, thinking about the important questions.

[00:35:25] Mike Richardson: yeah. You know, you know Simon well, because you came and spoke to my forums, you know, I've been doing peer forums now for. Uh, 23, 24 years and, uh, just did my peer forum earlier this week, uh, on Tuesday afternoon up here in Temecula with 17 CEOs in the room. And, uh, it was our first meeting, you know, since the holidays.

And in our December meeting I got them, um, you know, doing some work. I, I gave them some simple templates. I, we do it at a winery. So there's all kinds of places around the property where they can go and find a quiet space. I sent them away for an hour, uh, to just with, leave their phones here. Leave your phones here. Go away for an hour with these simple templates. Find yourself somewhere quiet and just reflect on this. Sense of direction and picture of the future, a vision for yourself of what do you want to have, what do you wanna do, who do you want to be in business professionally and personally, and how does all of that align with your sense of your passionate purpose and your why, and go away and scribble and, uh, you know, get messy. And, uh, and come back and, and share with the group on in terms of, well, what's, what's shaping up for you? What's clearing through the fog? What's, what, what instincts are you getting about, you know, where true North is for you in this next phase? So just getting them to connect. With that right side of their brain, as you said, a much more sensory exercise.

And then I, I sent them away for the holidays to be sort of percolating on all of that. And, and, and letting their right brain, you know, continue to, to turn over over the holidays. And, and then what I teed up, um, you know, after the holidays in the run up to the meeting we just had earlier this week is, okay, now that you've done that right brain work or you, it's not finished, it's not perfect, it's still a work in progress, but you've got your right brain spooled up. And you, you can almost see it. You can taste it. You can smell that future that you want. Then I had them come back and I had them do an exercise on Tuesday afternoon where in the context of all of that, they then crystallized three breakthrough goals for 2026. What is your breakthrough goal? For the business, what is your breakthrough goal for your professional development and personal growth?

And what is your breakthrough goal for life? And um, so that was the left brain part, right where it's okay, I've got this sort of divergent right brained. You know, somewhat cloudy and foggy, but crystallizing view of my future in the next phase. But now on, I've also got this left brain convergent sense of what goals do I want to achieve this year. As year one of that multi-year journey. And so for me, what I hear you speaking of Simon, is the marriage of those two things. The marriage of, of the, the left brain work and the right brain work. And everybody, what we gotta be so careful of is if we do the left brain work. Without having done enough of the right brain work, then we just put our lid.

We just put a lid on our future. We just put ourselves in a glass box. We just put ourselves, you know, under some constraints perhaps. In a groove, you know, in a corner that, that if only we'd done the right brain work, we, we might be able to still open that up and find another pathway forward.

What, what do you wanna say to our listeners about all of that, Simon?

And as, as we begin to land the plane here,

uh, on this episode, what do you

[00:39:27] Simon Vetter: your ex. I love your exercise for the CEOs, and I think what you allow them to do is you give them space to think beyond. What you see beyond the box and you give them space. And again, I love you. Give, go get them. Find a, a quiet spot in a winery in nature, and where you can also access your intuition.

[00:39:55] Mike Richardson: yeah.

[00:39:56] Simon Vetter: And one of the things we don't do enough imagination.

[00:40:01] Mike Richardson: Yep.

[00:40:01] Simon Vetter: Imagination is a powerful thing. The brain is so powerful. We need to nurture the brain to imagine what could be, not what's realistic, what could be, what are the opportunities, what are the possibilities, and. And having ideas that are beyond just what, what's ahead of me.

And that creates a sense of, of excitement, a sense of, of enthusiasm. And when we can get that spark enlightened in other people, we create a different type of culture. So I love that exercise. And again, it's about marrying, it's about marinating the left and the right. The structure to numeric with the, uh, emotional, sensory rich side.

And I think that combination is powerful and, and dynamo.

[00:40:56] Mike Richardson: Yeah, because it, it, the word dynamo or power, it empowers it, it turbocharges, it gets us running on all cylinders, right? Why, why are we just running on half of the cylinders, the left brain cylinders, when we've got these very powerful right brain cylinders that can run as well? Let's run this thing on all cylinders and, and drive, you know, onwards and upwards where we got want to go.

And of course, the more. The more, the more you know, picture this. Imagine when the more we can also, of course, most importantly, help people see themselves in that picture. Help people see themselves in that future. Help people understand that classic, you know. W-I-I-F-M, right? What's in it for me? And, and what, you know, as we, as we open up all these possibilities for the business, what becomes possible for me, my role, my career, my livelihood, my family, my future, and, and that's where we really start to light a fire in people.

That they will put their shoulder to the wheel like we cannot believe, and all of a sudden we've just empowered this whole future to be much more likely to happen. A few final thoughts, uh, Simon to leave with our listeners before we, uh, land the plane. What,

what, what

[00:42:17] Simon Vetter: know, one of the, the the test is, do you viscerally experiencing it? Do you feel it in your. Body, you feel it in your cells, and The body is a, a very powerful instrument, and when we feel it in our gut that sometimes we feel things in your gut, and when you're convinced, if someone believes in something, you, you just, you don't listen to the words.

You just feel their energy. And I think that's the power at the end. Vision is a belief. A belief about a future, about something We can accomplish, something that is possible and that belief can move mountains. And I think, um, to end up with, I think we need to nurture that visioning, that visionary thinking, that deep thinking to really imagine a place that is better for our business, for our life, and for humanity.

[00:43:18] Mike Richardson: yeah, yeah. And you know what, what just, you know, pops from me even more, of course, is well. You know, if we're not careful, everybody, um, and we're, we're leaning towards the left brain side, we're not really leading, we're managing, um, you know, that that is the left brain side, right? That's one way to express it.

You know, the left brain is managing, whereas the right brain is leading. We all love to be led. We all love to feel excited. You know, I, I like to talk about, in my agility work, I like to talk about leadership presence. You know, is it an agile leadership presence? Is it a fragile leadership presence? And in particular, when.

When a leader walks into the room, what aura walks in with them and what anticipation and expectation does that aura create in the room? Does it change the electricity in the room? Does it change the air in the room where people are excited? Something great's about to happen? We're about to have a holistic conversation here.

And yes, there's gonna be the heavy part of it. We're gonna have to talk about goals and numbers and quotas and, and milestones and deadlines and, and delivery. Yes. But there's gonna be this lighter side to it where we're gonna talk about, imagine when picture this, um, uh, place yourself in that picture.

Possibilities and all of that, and we, we, that's the lighter side. We feel a lift from that

because if we're not careful, everybody, you know, those, those kinds of meetings can feel very heavy and people can dread them and rather than feel lifted up, they're feeling, you know, just heavier and more

[00:45:00] Simon Vetter: And drained. And drained and

[00:45:02] Mike Richardson: weigh down. Now we need that. We need that. It's gotta be an and proposition with the right hand side as well, where we feel that lift and we feel that lightness and we feel that excitement about energy. Simon, it's been a blessing to have you here today. Uh, I knew we'd continue to have a great conversation about this, everybody, uh, to know more, uh, whether you are already sold and want to know more or you're still a little bit skeptical.

But you're open-minded enough to, to want to explore more. Uh, go, uh, go find Simon. I think you said Simon Simon vetter.com. Correct. Simon vetter.com. You'll find the book, you'll find the book there Leading with Vision. You can find Simon in LinkedIn as well, of course. And, uh, uh, go read the book or indeed listen to the, is the, is the book on audible as well?

[00:45:57] Simon Vetter: Yes, it is on Audible.

[00:45:58] Mike Richardson: You, everybody. I tend to listen to more books than I read these days. I love that when I'm doing my yard work or my, or my, uh, other tasks and chores around the house. So, uh, thanks for being with us, Simon. Thanks everybody for being here listening another episode of the Peering Podcast, and we look forward to catching you all next time.

[00:46:16] Simon Vetter: Thank you, Mike.