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Business Performance and Mindset: The Game You Must Win Now More Than Ever with Will Matthews

Jenn DeWall:

Hi, everyone. It’s Jenn DeWall, and on this week’s episode of The Leadership Habit podcast, I sat down with Will Matthews to talk about the game you must win now more than ever before. Will Matthews helps companies develop an outstanding emerging leader, and he is the author of the best-selling book, You’ve Got This! The Five Self-Coaching Keys You Need to Live Boldly and Accomplish Anything. Following 25 years of corporate experience and corporate leadership, Will now speaks internationally to companies and associations on the topics of self-leadership, developing emerging leaders and team excellence, Will’s presentations and training reveal insights that he has learned as an iron man athlete, business executive and professional development expert to help professionals breakthrough to the results and fulfillment that they want with warrior-like determination and skill. I hope you enjoy the conversation that will and I have. As we talk about the game, you must win now more than ever before. Enjoy.

Jenn DeWall:

Hi everyone. It’s Jenn DeWall, and I’m so excited to be sitting down with Will Matthews today to be talking about the game that you must win now more than ever. Will, what is this game? But before we go into it, I wanna know what the game is. Actually, no, we’re gonna, we’re gonna hold off for our listeners. Let’s just start off. Will, you have a great background that people have heard about. You’ve worked with so many different clients. Just tell us a little bit about yourself, how you came to be and how you even came to want to bring this message to the world.

Meet Will Matthews, Business Performance and Mindset Expert

Will Matthews:

Well, yeah, first off, thanks so much for having me on the podcast. I’m super excited to be with you. I’m a big fan of yours, and yeah, so I’ll give you a little bit on me because I really wanna spend our time on how we can help move the needle together for your listeners. But I had a really, really long, you can see the gray hair. I’ve been around a while, and I’ve had a, I had a really long corporate career leading teams and sales, marketing operations. And, and after a while, after many years, even though I loved it, I recognized that I just wanted to contribute in a different way. I mean, all the, I dunno if anybody and the listeners can relate to this, but you know, viewers but you know, all the highs that used to be there, like you’d win the big deal or you got the big promotion or whatever it was. You know, they seemed to flatten out. They weren’t as exciting anymore. And the low, the hard times, and I knew I’d figure out a way through ’em. So all the juice that came along with the highs and lows of that, of my corporate roles and energy and information technology, we’re just kind of flattening out. And I thought you know what? That’s not how I wanna spend my time. I love the corporate world. Not saying that’s for everybody, but for me, I recognized the calling to go contribute in a different way. So I started my company Matthews Performance Group to really help people get to where they want to go in leadership, in sales results, in managing, and just kind of becoming more of who they really are, what they can bring to the table.

Jenn DeWall:

I love that. Now you’re an Ironman athlete. Something that I will never understand. I have massive respect. I don’t think I’ll ever be adding that to my resume, but I know that that’s an important part of your business. How do you use that to inspire how you serve your clients?

Mindset + Skillset + Execution = Success

Will Matthews:

Yeah, absolutely. And, and the model that we’re gonna talk about just a little bit later is something I trademarked called Mindset plus Skillset plus Execution is what creates success in business. And mindset is number one, Jenn, for a reason. If you don’t have this dialed in the other two, it doesn’t matter. In fact, if you don’t have this dialed in, in my opinion, having worked with thousands, literally coached thousands of CEOs and business owners and sales professionals. If that’s not dialed in, I don’t even wanna talk about what your strategic plan is or, you know, your goals or whatever it is, because it’s not gonna matter until we kinda figure out where this is. What is your level of expectation that you can succeed? What’s your level of confidence, where’s your energy, your focus, your positive expectation, right? And focus on what you can control. All those things start here.

Jenn DeWall:

Well, I love that you’re talking about that because it is the place we, I think, especially if we are, if an organization or business leaders in pain, we wanna focus on the strategy to fix the pain, but we don’t realize that it’s, everything is an inside out approach that it all starts with us before we can go. And I think that’s so that you make that your primary step.

Will Matthews:

Yeah, no doubt. And you know so turns out in, in when you’re doing endurance sports like Ironman is one of those for sure. I’m doing my next one actually up in kind of your place of origin, kind of in the north. This is actually Wisconsin, but you know, close by for you, right. In Madison. So I’ll be doing that later this year, but

Jenn DeWall:

Wait, you’re doing the Ironman in Wisconsin?

Will Matthews:

Yeah. 20th Anniversary.

Jenn DeWall:

Oh my gosh. That’s so exciting. I used to, I, the part-time job that I had throughout college because I went to UW, Madison was on State Street. And so every year when they ran the Ironman, I could watch them. So I have seen a lot of Ironmans, and I will probably see Ironman, but that’s congratulations to you. Sorry to interrupt. But that was just fun. I mean, yeah. People, people listening to Wisconsin, you look for Will Matthews if he’s running that Ironman downtown or down State Street.

Will Matthews:

Yeah, absolutely. So it’s a really, it’s a big endurance sport. And if you don’t know about Ironman, you can look it up. I won’t take the time to describe it. It’s a long day and, you know, look, it’s, it is about training. I’m training this afternoon, you know, I’m tr I’ve been training six months before. It is about building body strength and, and all those things. But you know what, again, if, if you wake up and you don’t have a way to dial this in, it’s not gonna really give you the result you want. So huge mindset fan, it works in sports. You see it all the time. If you, if someone so on the side of a, of a says, we have a good international audience there, you know, football or a soccer game, when the teams come out, you know, they don’t just kinda walk out, you know, sit on the bench before the game and, you know, look around.

No, they come out, and they start. They’re like pumping each other up. Right. And they are getting people excited. Like, let’s go, we can do this. You know, my book, you’ve got this, it’s written that way for a reason like you’ve got, this is what we tell each other when we want to get people to rise up and bring their best to the table. So that’s how I look at it in terms of leadership development, and I work a lot, Jenn with emerging leaders, and the cool thing is, guess what? We’re always emerging. Yeah. So even though the target’s kinda that, that younger group coming in, maybe it’s their first, second, third leadership role. What’s cool is that the principles are applicable even if you’ve been leading for a long time.

Where do Leaders Get Business Performance Mindset Wrong?

Jenn DeWall:

Okay. Well, and so many leaders, even, they may have advanced to mid-level positions, even executive positions without a lot of access to that learning and development. And so, I love how you differentiate that because everyone is learning. If you’re not growing, you’re dying. So let’s get, let’s get into the formula, let’s break down what it means. And maybe let’s talk about it, so it’s mindset plus skillset plus execution equals success in business. And that is your trademark formula. So if you were gonna say where from your experience, you’ve coached thousands of people, where do people get this wrong? So is it specifically with the mindset? Like where do they get it wrong?

Will Matthews:

That’s a great question. And actually the challenge, right? Think of it as a survey. You know, where are you think about it in your own life or those watching and listening to Jenn for you too, you know, think about it. Where when your day in and day out, we’ll have our ups and downs. And you know, our biorhythms of which is the course, the level of mental sharpness, emotional strength and physical strength, those are kind of on these sliding curves. And because of that, if you will, we have some days where we’re on top of the world, you know, are these lined up, we’re feeling sharp. We’re we slept well, everything’s going well in our lives. And we feel physically strong. We have other days when all three are really, you know, in the valley there, and we’re like barely hanging on energy-wise.

And then, oh my gosh, you know, I have this huge emotional challenge from my personal life. Oh, by the way, I’m also not feeling great. Well, guess what? Unfortunately, the world doesn’t really care about that. We’d like to think it does, but it doesn’t. The world cares about results. So we wanna find a way, Jenn, to be able to bring your A-game, even on those days when you’ve got nothing in the tank. And that’s so, so if you think about the survey approach, where are you? So we know we have highs and lows, but in general, where are you in terms of one to 10, let’s say 10 is amazing. One being like hardly, hardly any skill at all, in terms of that mindset, what’s the mindset. I’m not asking you particularly to answer, but everybody, where are you typically in terms of mindset and mindset is strictly a way that you process and filter the world in a way so that you make sense of the world and decide how you show up and how you fit in or don’t fit in, in that world.

That’s what mindset is, right. When we feel strong, when we feel excited, when we feel like part of something, something, that’s why we like to work with, you know, groups where we could feel like we’re part of something bigger. You know, all parts of our brain are firing. We’re getting better ideas. We’re excited. We’re, we’re motivated. Our mindset is really, really hot. Oftentimes we could be on the other side. So the idea for the listeners and watchers are, where are we 1 to 10, in terms of mindset by that definition in general. Yeah. And then from there, right? The other

Jenn DeWall:

I’m so curious because the mindset is, I, you know, we were just, I had this conversation this morning with someone and, you know, they were just talking about a conflict of that they were having with someone else. And this person is kind of much more in their head. And we were just talking about how difficult it actually is to help someone see, like, Hey, do you understand how your actions, how your thoughts are actually impacting this? How do you help people build that mindset awareness? Because I think that, that sometimes people think, oh, I’ve got it better than what I do. I think there are people that are listening that are like. I absolutely can answer that question. I know exactly where I am there, maybe feelers like me. And then there are people that maybe are just not self-aware. So how do you help people build that self-awareness?

Will Matthews:

I believe that we are, and I love what you said just a minute ago, you know? I’ll paraphrase, but you know, the idea that—guess what—what we create, what we experience in our career and our life is, is truly a, is created first on the inside. Right? And, and then it appears on the outside, we have this ability to affect the results we have. And, and I believe that’s where mindset really comes in. So then, one of the reasons that I left my corporate job to start Matthews Performance Group was I wanted to do more of what I saw myself. I saw strength. And that was that I could see the warrior by the way my brand is, is right back in right here, the instant warrior emergency program. And what do I mean by an instant warrior? Well, I believe that you, and I’m not talking about the warrior. I say that like striking out against another person or those things. I’m talking about, the discipline, the precision, the dedication, the focus.

Jenn DeWall:

Resilience!

Develop Your Mindset with a Morning Ritual

Will Matthews:

Yes, exactly. Yes, exactly. So I recognize that I can see the warrior and I bet many of you can. I know you can, Jenn. I can see the warrior in somebody oftentimes before they can actually see it in themselves. And then what I love doing is helping them first identify with that, you know, the skills and then bring that to the surface on a more routine basis. Okay. So how do you develop a mindset? Where’s your question, you know, is I believe you work on it. I have a, and we’re gonna say it’s always here. Oh, I have a morning ritual. That is my incantation.

Jenn DeWall:

Yes, I was gonna ask you what you do in the morning, knowing that you have to be quite disciplined to train. I love that morning ritual. Okay.

Will Matthews:

Yeah. So that part of the morning ritual is, is my incantation. So that is something I read to myself. So let’s say somebody if you’re watching this right now and you’re in that slump, and you wanna figure out what, how can I bust that? How can I find a slump-buster so that I can bring it back? And as you said, Jenn, re be more resilient, bounce back up faster, then, you know, go back to the basics and like start at your day with a little bit of quiet time, whatever that is for you, whatever that is for you. And then get something where you just read or listen to you, something that really just fires you up. It’s, it’s inspiring, right? There’s so much of that available now with the, you know, YouTube and all these things. We have so much access to that. So for me, I read this every day. I’ll tell you, Hey, I’m human. I’m not always perfect at these things.

Jenn DeWall:

Right.

Will Matthews:

But I strive to get better and better. And when I’m in a place where, oh my gosh, I’m not feeling it. Usually, I’ve realized I haven’t been doing this morning ritual. I’ve been letting it go for some reason. So when I wanna get, if, if you out there having of slow time or a challenging time and listen, challenging times, come in all flavors. And, and as we record this, this podcast, you know, where there’s a lot of that in the world right now. And, and what, by the time you’re watching this, so probably still be a lot of different things going on. That’s part of the human experience, but our ability to get back to the basics and be able to bring ourselves up. So our mindset is helping us, not hindering us is very key to success.

How Does Skillset Affect Business Performance?

Jenn DeWall:

Yeah. And I know I jumped the gun. I, I jumped the gun because I didn’t even help our listeners understand your formula. So let’s, let’s take it back a little bit. We just talked about mindset, but the formula, your trademark formula- mindset plus skillset plus execution, equals success in business. Now we just talked a little bit about mindset. What do you mean about the skillset?

Will Matthews:

Great. Perfect. So, yeah, I hope, I hope everyone gets that these are very simple words and very simple concepts, but it is that combination in that equation that I’ve noticed again, having coached literally thousands of people at all levels and organizations that differentiate those who are having success routinely from those who are having frustration and disappointment and might even, you know, washout, right. Because some of you out there are gonna change your business. You’re gonna change your company. You’re gonna have a positive impact. You’re gonna make amazing changes in the world, even. And others, not on this call on, but other people will have the very same opportunity, but they will not have that same level of impact. Right. So that’s why the equation is so important. You gotta have all three in order to have the kind of results that I believe most of us really want. Right. So we can, when we can kinda simplify it and think about these three things, life gets easier. So we talked about mindset. Once you have this dialed in, by the way, that’s an ongoing project. It doesn’t end.

Jenn DeWall:

You can’t set and forget your mindset. You gotta keep working on it.

Will Matthews:

Exactly. I think, I think it was Zig Ziglar that said motivation is like, bathing. You really can’t just do it once. And for all right, You know, you gotta keep going.

Jenn DeWall:

Yes, I like that!

Will Matthews:

That. So, OK. So, but knowing how we got this, at least on a track. We’ve got, we have you thinking about what’s possible. We have you thinking, you know, you have yourself thinking about what you want to achieve, that it’s like, then you gotta know what to do. Right? You have to have some skills, whatever, whatever your profession, you gotta get the basics. I mean, whatever it is you do, you must do it well, right? In order to be one who’s considered to be at the top of your industry. So whatever those skills else are, if you were a doctor, right. Or a surgeon, let’s say specifically, you know, you, you can have a great mindset about every, about all the outcomes you want and you still have to know how to do a great, you know, Append- what’s that word- appendix… Why did I pick that one?

Jenn DeWall:

Appendectomy? I got one of those. So I think I can say that.

Will Matthews:

So you know how to do your work, if you’re in sales, you have to have the skills to be able to listen effectively, to be able to bring up the objections so that they’re not just hanging out there, you know, being able to call out the elephant room, you know, and I believe in one of the components of the skillset that I teach is what I call relationship science. Another trademark term, relationship science, no matter what your profession turns out, you’re gonna need the buy-in from other people.

Jenn DeWall:

Yes!! I said this quote this morning. It’s, and it’s a quote that I’m so glad. Like, I feel like my, you know, I have a lot of family members that have given me great one-liners, but you are never independent. We are always interdependent. Absolutely. Like your, your illusion of independence. Like that’s what she said to me during my formative years. Like you’re never going to be independent. So you can just stop thinking that. No, I love that relationship science. Continue on. Sorry. Yeah. Yeah.

Understanding Relationship Science

Will Matthews:

So relationship science is really the ability to understand number one. What makes you tick, right? How you are wired, so to speak or how you, you know, how you prefer to be communicated with, etcetera. And then, but most importantly, which that’s great. That’s been the, from a self-awareness perspective, as you shared earlier, you know, that really dials up self self-awareness, but where the real, the real benefit is, is in understanding then how to, how to accurately understand how someone else is wired, your boss, someone on your team, your customer. Someone else in the organization that you need them to partner with you, even though you have no direct, you know, authority to say, Hey, you have to do this. Right. You can only influence.

Jenn DeWall:

Yeah.

Will Matthews:

So, so those, so that’s part of the skillset that no matter what your profession, being good at relationship science is one of the things that’s gonna, is gonna elevate you, hopefully from wherever you are, one to 10 on your skillset to something that is getting you closer to 10.

How Does Execution Affect Business Performance?

Jenn DeWall:

Right? Right. You gotta, like, I love that. Starting with the mindset, where do you wanna go? I, I just, I love that image that you painted. What does it look like when players are coming out to perform their game? You know, like you’ve got this. Like, I, I feel like organizations would probably shake if everyone walked in being like, yes, I’m so empowered, but that’d be so awesome. But I think people would be like, what’s happening in the world, but yeah. You can have the right mindset. Like I wanna win. I want to do blank. And then all of a sudden, if you don’t think about other people or you don’t have the skillset, it doesn’t matter. And let’s go into execution. Like what does, so then like, let’s go into execution cuz you need the mindset, you need the skills to be able to then do it. And what’s execution mean.

Will Matthews:

Absolutely. Yeah. So there great, great summary. Yeah. So once you get this dialed in, you have a path to get better at what that is, whether it’s new education, new training, whatever happens, to be, to take you up a level in, in skillset. Again, you’re gonna have to continue, you know, we wanna continually evolve the question, so then execution. So he’s gonna have to say, if you, you can have this dialed in, you can know what to do, but if you go, if you don’t execute and what I mean by that is get the ball across the goal line or into the net or whatever happens to be. Then these other two don’t really matter. Right? So in back to interdependency, all three of these have to be, you know, dialed in, in order for people to have the kind of success that I believe they want.

Yeah. And I believe your listeners and viewer want viewers to want, so execution has the ability to actually get up and do whatever that is. Right. And in leadership and, and also a big focus for a lot of the folks listening in as, as a leader, how do you execute? You know, there are a lot of assessments out there, Jenn, that are all terrific. One of those that I use a lot is DISC has been around forever, super-powerful, but there are a lot of really great ones, and what the takeaway and the reason I bring that up quickly is, you know, there are different kinds of people out there. So it, so, you know, typically there are four quadrants. I dunno how that happened to be, but typically most, most assessments are in quadrants are four. Quadrants. So recognizing it, part of your leadership skills is that your leadership approach is not a one-size-fits-all. Right. The way that you want to be led is not gonna apply to many of the people who you might be leading—so executing means how do I delegate? Well, I find, and I bet you do too. I find that for new leaders, especially, but actually, people have been around a long time. Delegation is one of the most difficult things for people to be good at doing and executing on.

Jenn DeWall:

Yes. And I laugh. Cause when I teach that class for Crestcom, there’s ultimately always one person that’s like, I actually thought I was a much better delegator. And now I realize that I’m not a great delegator. Like I, it’s not as simple as just saying, will you please go do this?

Will Matthews:

Right. Yeah. I know it’s so funny. Right. And so, and the bottom line is if you are not delegating, you are not managing, and you’re, you’re not leading. If you’re not good at delegating right now for, for those, you know, tuning in right now, get good at it. Right. It sounds like Jenn’s got some good ways of helping you on that. And, and the bottom line is like, you’ve gotta get good at it. And there are so many reasons why people aren’t good at delegating. I think delegating is one of the keys to execution.

A Message From Crestcom:

Crestcom is a global organization dedicated to developing effective leaders companies all over the world have seen their managers transformed into leaders through our award-winning and accredited leadership development programs. Our signature BPM program provides interactive management training with a results-oriented curriculum and prime networking opportunities. If you’re interested in learning more about our flagship program and developing your managers into leaders, please visit our website to find a leadership trainer near you.

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Tips For Improving Business Performance Mindset

Jenn DeWall:

I wanna dive in, I know that we talked about tips l, because I just think that execution peeps and how you talked about the interdependency, that you can have the fanciest strategy, that if you don’t have the right mindset, that’s going to allow you to be resilient. Then you’re not gonna execute. Or like, I guess of the places that you might see people fail in terms of how they sustain this formula is that maybe when they don’t execute, then do you see them come back and then their mindset drops and then they kinda have to go through? Or what do you see when people are actually faced with those challenges, right? Like how do we? How do you recover and build your own resilience? If it didn’t work is what I thought it was going to be. Right. Right. And that outcome was different than what I had in my head. That’s delegation. Yeah,

Will Matthews:

Exactly. Yeah. And yeah, you’re right. It was a great way of describing the interdependency of those, of these three principles and, you know it, it turns out most people in my experience know what to do. Like within these three that we’re talking about here, most people know where they’re not at a 10. A 10 is a pretty lofty goal. So let’s say we’re between mindset, skillset, and execution, they’re gonna have some that are gonna be, it’ll look like a, like a trumpet key set, right? There are three keys on a trumpet. So, so it’ll be like this. And it’ll, it’ll change from time to time too. You’ll have a real high mindset, other days, not so high, but in general, people know where they need to dial it up, but it turns, you know, so, so why is that? Why, if you know what to do, how you need to, to show up more powerfully and then why don’t you? Well, distraction’s a huge part of that. Yeah. You might have your coffee or tea in the morning and you get to work whether it’s at home or at an office, and you’ve got you just, I’m gonna execute big time day. And if you walk in email lights up, your boss comes in, there’s all these things that are just like, take you out of that,

Jenn DeWall:

The – hey, got a minute, got a minute— Oh yeah

Will Matthews:

That’s right. And, and so we get distracted. And the other thing too, is that, you know, we might know that we’re not good at delegating, but it takes- as the example we’ve used today so far. But and we might know, know even that I could, if I tweaked it, I could get better, but it turns out that change is hard. Change is hard for people. And especially when you’ve tacked an identity to the way you’re doing things. I’m a compassionate leader. Beautiful. Right? I mean, I love that if compassionate leader to you knowingly or unknowingly means that you’re not gonna demand much of other people, right. That’s a possibility. That you’ve tacked your identity to being someone who’s not gonna demand much from other people. Therefore, are you gonna have an effective team? No. And frankly, it’s not actually compassionate leadership anymore. Because you’re not- the team’s not succeeding, but you can imagine. Or if you’re like bull-headed, a hard driver, you know, it’s like, I’m just gonna, you know, I’m not gonna change my way. I’m just gonna tell people what to do. Command and control the old school management leadership doesn’t work anymore.

Jenn DeWall:

Yeah. Okay. Can we talk about that? Because I, you know, even as a sidebar, I’m not sure what you’re seeing from your end is it just exploded over. Especially even I, that COVID and the pandemic really took its toll. Right. We’re all seeing the great resignation, but I feel like right now more and more articles are like, employees are expecting more and they’re gonna vocalize more. And I’m just curious, like what you’re seeing from your perspective on that, because the command in control, the, the different ways, if, if you’re listening to this and you’re still like, should I change? Right now there are so many people pushing back. So the accountability, I think, is that much higher. I’m not sure what you’re seeing on your end.

Ask Yourself— Are You Ready to Grow?

Will Matthews:

Absolutely. Jenn. That old model, which, you know, Hey, look, it’s like the industrial revolution was great when we needed an industrial revolution. Right. You know, back in the, in early 1900s, we don’t need that anymore. We’ve gone on to other things. So that’s that model doesn’t serve anymore. Same with leadership, right? It’s like command and control where you just, you know, your boss has told you what to do and sat up on maybe an elevated platform and pointed, and you just go do this. And you were not really paid to think you were paid to do even when you run in leadership roles yourself. So it’s over, it’s never gonna work. And it’s not just that the younger generation doesn’t want it, frankly. Nobody really wants that anymore. So if those who really love the command and control model, cuz they felt pretty good about their role. But it’s gone, it’s gone. It doesn’t work. It’s no longer there. So the question is not so much. As I mentioned earlier,  change is hard. There are people watching this right now who guarantee you who may have had experience in the command and control and they get intellectually, totally get it. This is not the way to do it anymore. It’s flawed or it’s no longer relevant, but changing that behavior can be really hard. So the question becomes, and I really encourage people to write this down. When it comes to change of any kind, maybe in the, one of the three components we talked about today, mindset, skillset, execution, when it comes to a change, if you frame it as change and you have a resistance to change, because some people do, that’s gonna be hard. But let me ask you this, the question better question is, are you ready to grow?

Jenn DeWall:

Right?

Will Matthews:

Are you ready to grow? Because when you think about growing, it feels, can you almost feel the energy difference between I’m ready to grow and I need to change?

Jenn DeWall:

Yeah. Well there’s the need I feel like is also just guilt-inducing. Like I need to do this. I’m so desperate. And it’s not food and water. And then I think it adds a heaviness to the change. Yeah. You know, just that, oh my gosh. I don’t have a choice. I don’t know if you see them, people go into that defensiveness. Like I, you know, like what do you see? Like I saw your eyes just light up. Yeah. The defend, like I’m not changing. This is working for me. Why would they change? Right.

Will Matthews:

Yeah. And pretty soon they get all their office belongings in a box and they’re out the door because they didn’t choose to. I like the word evolve. Yeah. And, and we’re all capable of it. So if it’s, if anyone’s freaking out just know, you can do this. That is really just a thing, a thought process. Do I, am I ready to grow and become the stronger leader that I know I can be? And so hopefully this model might be one tool you can use to, you know, to be able to focus your energy and, and make the kind of growth that you’d like to create.

Jenn DeWall:

Yeah. Are, are you ready to grow? I feel like this is a great call to action. No matter what day you’re listening to this, are you ready to grow today? Are you ready to rethink? And I love that you said it leadership. If you want to be an effective leader, it’s all about your own evolution. Like and what worked today or may not work tomorrow and vice versa. I love that. Like question of just reminding that change is iterative and you’re changing every single day. Whether you realize it or not, that’s true, but really like you, you want to embrace it because I mean, I’m sure you’ve probably seen with your clients, people, you know, holding on to old ideas, not wanting to change. And then you find out that, well now your competitor has evolved their product and they’re changing or I don’t wanna change my leadership style. And then all of a sudden you are the one that’s in the HR office being talked to about, you know, how you could show up differently. I mean, you know, change is scary, but like, I guess it’s like, how do you help people understand the consequence of staying the same or not changing?

Will Matthews:

Well, I think the consequences happen naturally. Maybe it’s a lower performance review. Maybe it’s just not even a, a metric, but just feeling disconnected. It’s not feeling the energy you used to have for your job as the leader. Maybe not, maybe not getting the opportunities to lead at a bigger at, at a bigger scale, if that’s a desire for, for someone to go up the corporate ladder, so to speak or to get involved in mergers and acquisitions of other companies. So it’s you know, I, I like to say that, that we usually know when it’s time to grow because we’ll start to feel an internal tuck and you know, there’s only one truth. You’re either leading well or you’re not. Yeah. You know, there’s a, this is bit of a spectrum, but you’re either where you wanna be as a leader right now, or a salesperson or a business development professional or whatever it happens to be that is your, your niche or niche.

But you’re either getting the results,  the personal reward, the, the, the emotional reward or you’re not. And if you’re not, great, I wonder what I could do. Oh, lemme think about these three things. Well, okay. Where is my mindset? What am I bringing to the table every day? As the leader, you know, you’re the tip of the spear. We know that you’re the tip of the spear as it goes, the leader goes to the team, always love this. When I work with teams, a lot of times it’s like the leader’s like I could, I could do great things if I only had a better team, you know? And the team’s like, we could be so great if we only better leader.

And so somewhere in that circle of pointing, you gotta point at yourself and say, look, I know I can, this is the part I can control. I can control my level of focus, positive expectations. I can focus on what I bring to the table, my work ethic, my attitude, my active listening, I think is so important. How much am I present with people versus just nodding my head and say, yeah, yeah, yeah. And you know, on your, there are a lot of leaders who I still work with, who they’ll say, you know, sometimes I’m in my calls on my one on one meetings, that I’m on my phone. I’m like, are you kidding me? I mean, what’s the message that you’re sending when you have a one-on-one someone’s time, your time. And yet you are rejecting your email at the same time. I, these little tweaks we might have, you know, we’re so close to it that we can’t always see those places where we’re goofing up, but there everyone else can see them very clearly.

Jenn DeWall:

My gosh. Yes. They, they feel it. I think of like the joke, and I think this reminds me of that, of, cause it, it did used to drive me bananas. Like if you wanna have a conversation with me, if you’ve asked me to come in, or even if I have a question and I’m sure that some people can relate with this, you come in and you want to ask them a question and they don’t even look up. Right. And so then you just feel like, well, A- maybe I’m stupid because I have this question or B- this person clearly doesn’t have time for me when sometimes all takes is turning around or like, but to get to that, my favorite thing because of that experience, and I saw this on a meme was, it’s this reaction you look like every time I see you, you remind me of a software update. And I say, not now, right? Like that is like the thing of like how I think it’s that attention of understanding where you could be goofing up. Because as much as you’re so focused on that, it’s these, I love that you say it’s the little things that are undermining your ability to create your success. It’s that skillset piece, that relationship science piece that you were talking about.

Will Matthews:

Exactly.

How to Boost Your Business Performance Mindset

Jenn DeWall:

Yeah. I wanna dive in and just talk about a few of your tips. Cause I know you kind of did this in a different flow, but mindset, you start your day, you have a ritual. I love that you read to yourself and what do you do? I’m curious, like, what tips would you have for someone that’s just like, okay, I’m at a four, I’m at a three. I’m not feeling great. Any tips for that person to broaden boost, like boost that mindset if they’re really feeling like I’m not there today?

Will Matthews:

Absolutely. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So I was I had the privilege of being a, a coach with with Tony Robbins company for, for several years. And for those who know Tony Robbins you know, you’ll you’ll know this, if you’re not familiar with Tony Robbins, he’s just the guy who really does great work in helping people bring their potential to the table. And so one of the things that I I took away with from that was was this idea. And he, he used something called neurolinguistic programming NLP. Again, you may have heard that and may not, but, but NLP is really a way of understanding how your mind works so that you can support bringing a better mindset. So I’m just gonna give you an idea of something that I’ve, I’ve later put together. And that is like, look, if you wanna change your state, your, your emotional, physical, mental state, you can change it in any one of the following three ways, number one, your body.

So like if I’m I’m standing up right now, cause I know that for me, that brings different energy for me. But if you’re in a slump yeah. But you know, check out your posture, you know, you know, imagine that you’re in a car, you’re driving a car and you’re 20 minutes late for the most important meeting in your, of the, maybe for the year, but at least the a month. And you’re late, not just traffic, you just left late. OK. So it’s all on you. You’re freaking out, traffic slowing down. What’s the, what’s the posture you’re gonna have in that car? What would that be? Jenn

Jenn DeWall:

Tense. I would just feel yeah. Down tense. I, I need to get there, get outta my way. I mean, that’s my mindset.

Will Matthews:

You’re hunched over, you’re you know, and you’re breathing, right? Your body part, this part of the body here is, you know, posture, gaze, keep your head up a little bit. Shoulder is back, right. Breathe for crying out loud! Like when you’re times like you’re are you breathing deeply and nourishing your body with oxygen or barely breathing enough to sustain life. Right? And so you realize when you wanna change your state, change your body! Stand up, walk around, pace, you know, get your posture where it needs to be. Number two is your, your mindset and mindset in this case is like, are you focusing on the times that you succeeded? Or are you focusing on the times when you failed? And our mind, our ego mind has a way of making sure we could always pull back the times that didn’t go our way. Yeah. Or we could always pull back the times that we screwed up.

I mean, there’s a list. It’s like a legal pattern of those things that sit in your head all the time and we’re kind of negative. We have this negativity bias. We can pull those out really quickly, but are you able to pull up a time that you crushed it? Are you able to pull up a time when you felt so proud or connected or pleased or delighted in the way that that sales call went or the way that that, that meeting went? Right? So we wanna make sure that you, so body is one way another is like, where are those times? What is my arsenal to help combat the negative self talk that we as human beings have? Okay. Yeah. So you have those, you know, what was the most exciting, you know, it could be when you were a kid, it could be yesterday, anywhere in between when you felt so good, you know, it went your way.

Maybe you hit the, you made the big, the final goal to win the soccer game, the football game, right? Whatever that is. So body first, then mindset getting arsenal placement, where you focus on your successes and have that arsenal. And then the third is your words. So our words are, it’s a whole other conversation, but this cliff note version, our short version is, look, our words, our words that we speak, go in and feed our conscious mind, which then in turn feeds our subconscious mind, which basically goes to work to create exactly what we tell ourselves is possible.

That’s why all these things are so important. If it’s like, if you believe you can, you can, I’m gonna read this it from you for this. I love this. If you think you’re beaten, you are, if you think you dare not, you don’t. If you’d like to win, but you think you can’t, it’s almost certain you won’t, if you think you’ll lose, you’ve lost. FOr out in this world, we find success begins with a person’s will. It’s all a state of mind

Jenn DeWall:

Love that. Love that

Will Matthews:

It’s by Walter Wintle, from one of my favorite poems called “Thinking” it’s longer, but I’ve taken this excerpt because I love it. Walter, W I N T L E Walter Wintle. But anyway, you know, that’s the juice, right? So our words, that’s why I have the, in that I start my day with. And I hope that everybody now on the, on this meeting thinks about what could they read? What could they write for themselves? It would give, give them that anchor back to their successes, to their highest level of contribution. So when you do walk into that next meeting, you’re firing with all the right parts of your brain,

Jenn DeWall:

Right? You get to choose that. That’s what I think is so powerful about mindset. How am I feeling right now? Well, how do you wanna feel? How do you want to feel, and what are you doing that’s contributing or distracting from what you want to feel. And I just love that. You’re saying that because there’s so much power, like in a world where we can often feel like we don’t have power, we always have power. And I love that. Bringing that back, like just to reflecting on you choose based on that mindset. And that’s why building self-awareness is important. And it’s something to understand. Are you hurting yourself or helping yourself? I just love that. Well, like I think those are great, like tips. So let’s go, let’s dive into the skillset. Like how do you, you know, the relationship-building piece you had talked about? Like how do we the relationship science piece, I should say the trade relationship science, what are your tips for skillset? Yeah.

NABA – Notice, Appreciate, Believe and Acknowledge

Will Matthews:

So I, when I think of skill set, one bucket, Jenn, is those things that are specific to your job. Okay. What does it take for you to be a top, a top player in whatever that is, doctor, lawyer, you know business development or accounting, whatever that basic set of skills, is there a certification you need to go get? So that’ll give you a higher level of performance over time. Okay. So that’s one bucket where I tend to work mostly with people though, is in that because we’re talking leadership, that’s about the interdependence right. Of people. So for me, it’s a few things like skillset, like number one. And I know it’s like an overused term these days, but number one, to what extent can you bring the skill of having a discipline of being grateful? Of expressing gratitude to those people around you? Not insincerely, everybody hates that. That’s not what we’re talking about, but sincerely identifying what’s something that you really, that you can notice, appreciate, believe and acknowledge- NABA.

Jenn DeWall:

Notice, appreciate, believe, and acknowledge somebody else. NABA. I love that.

Will Matthews:

So, so that you have, you know, when you’re in that mode, and you’re thinking about that, number one, you’re gonna see that warrior where they’re not seeing it. They’re, you’re gonna see the, the attributes they’re bringing, instead of just the things where you feel like they might have let you down. Because we’re gonna have both, but it gives you a, a pre a predisposition for focusing on the good of other people. So as a leader, number one, you know, being grateful, number two, get your disciplines in place. Your morning ritual, you know, be a warrior brave, full, courageous, right? Step in, give yourself permission to no longer tolerate, to no longer not say what needs to be said. Right. We always just love the people and a team who, and sometimes they’re like, oh my gosh, I can’t believe she said that. Or I can’t believe he said that! We so admire that somebody had it had the guts to say what needed to be said, that’s what leadership is.

Will Matthews:

And I love that. So it takes, it takes courage to do that. So that’s number two. Number three is to be an master of resiliency. To, you know, you talk a lot about resiliency and I love it. Yeah. But really, you know, resiliency, the way that I describe it is the, is the accelerator of happiness. And because you’re gonna typically, and I know people are going through devastating times right now and have over the last couple years. So I’m not saying you should just be able to take whatever hits you and just bounce back up right away. But to the extent that you’re looking at less critical, super terrifying things that might be. You might be experiencing the lesser things. We could get knocked off our game. Right. By very small things. Like maybe we didn’t get the raise. All right. How long are you going to.

Jenn DeWall:

Maybe you wore jeans to an event.

Be Willing to Reinvent Yourself

Will Matthews:

Imagine that! Right. Exactly. Or, you know, maybe, you know, maybe we didn’t get the deal, whatever you, you know, some people, it takes some, two months to get over that. Yeah. And they’re not, and they’re not bringing their best for those two months. Some people two weeks, some people, two days, some people, two hours, we know people like that. Right. Whereas some whatever hits them again, I’m carving out the really, you know, like true tragedies, but the other more common things that might knock us off they’re back like that. So master number three, mastering resiliency. Number four is learning to reinvent yourself again and again and again. Yeah. So that’s what I call deliberate evolution, especially for people in leadership knowing how you lead today. That’s great. But you can at any moment reinvent your leadership style and let go of the old identity.

Jenn DeWall:

Well, and just because like, I think this is a really important piece because you will continue. Every listener is going to continue to grow and get feedback from an organization at some point throughout their career. And I think sometimes things happen to us that could imprint that we take on. I mean, you know, I talk about authentic leadership where we personalize that, and we then judge ourselves as not enough I’m too this, I’m too that. And, you know, in terms of resiliency, like it’s being able to say like, it’s okay, that you may not love that about me. Like, I love this about me. And, but then all also deciding, okay, well I did get that feedback and what do I wanna do with it? Do I want to assign it to myself? Is it relevant? Is it coming from a place of love? Is it, or do I want to say, you know what? I don’t need it, but also always giving yourself permission just because you might have shown up one way, one day doesn’t mean that defines who you are and what you’ll be.

Gosh. Well, can we sing this around the rooftops to people? Because I think this is a big place that people get stuck. We just think that it’s like a definitive, like endpoint, instead of realizing that we’re always growing and that always goofing up. I mean, I’m just gonna do a plug here. If you haven’t read Adam Grant’s Think Again, his book that came out in 2021, all about relearning, all you’re doing is relearning. You’re just relearning. I just wish that people gave themselves the grace to be like, you’re human. So you’re gonna keep growing and you’re actually gonna make so many mistakes, but the more mistakes you make, Hey, the easier it is to be resilient. Like I goof up all the time. Yeah. But it’s hard. Like that’s, that’s the resilience piece is you have to do the work. Like, I guess that’s what I see is you, you have to do the work to be able to bounce back. You’ve gotta do the work!

Will Matthews:

Right. Yeah. And give, you know, and giving yourself. I love, I, I love what you say it. And actually, someone just gave me Adam’s Grant book. I haven’t read it yet. Sitting on my cabinet over here.

Jenn DeWall:

I, I see your second touch means you have to read it.

Will Matthews:

I’m super excited. But you know, and giving yourself permission, right. Is this giving yourself permission to reinvent yourself? There are people on this on this conversation, watching this, who have been leading for years. Right. Right. And, and, and it might be time, you know, it might be time for that next growth cycle. Maybe even growth sounds like too much energy. That’s okay. That you can just give yourself permission to adapt. The question is not, am I a good leader or am I not a good leader? The question is a way that I’m doing this. Is it working? Or is it not working? Yes. Working or not working, not good or bad or all those things. And if it’s, if you find it, what, the way it’s work way I’m doing it is not working. Then it’s okay. Take a breath, give yourself permission to explore. How can I bring in new ideas that will be useful and helpful to make me a more a leader who whose style is actually working at a higher level? That’s the fun part.

Jenn DeWall:

Yeah. Be kind, oh my gosh. I just, I hope that there are so many people that just felt like wrapped in a hug with those words of just like, it’s okay. Like I can figure this out, and it’s new, you know, take a breath. As you said, you are very calm, right? Like, and I’m such a big personality, but it is calm. It’s I love that you just held space. Hopefully, someone feels today that inspiration that I can change. I’m just glad that you shared that. We’re gonna go into our final point. I can’t believe we’re wrapping up this conversation. What are your tips for execution? Because you have to know that better than anyone with the amount of discipline you have, like what tips would you have to share with our audience for execution?

Get Clarity About Your Desired Outcome

Will Matthews:

Yeah. And that’s really where that, that goal setting, you know, everyone. Oh, oh my God. No more talking about goals. It’s been around for so long. And you know, I understand that I have a model that I love and created that it really helps people kind of have more fun with it. But the execution comes down to number one, getting super clear, probably wanna write this down, get super clear first and foremost about what is your outcome? That’s what, you know, it’s not like, what do I have to do. It’s not a to-do list. As I put my hand, literally on a to-do list, because you have to have one.

But when you’re in your execution mode first, it’s not about what you need to do. It’s about, it’s about your outcome. What about that? Where  my overarching desire. What do I want to be better? How do I want to achieve this in a different way? Right. So number one is outcome. Then the second very important piece is it’s still not what to do, but why. What’s my why for that? Why is it a must for me? Right. To deliver that proposal by Friday at one o’clock, if it’s not a must, then, then you’ve got a whole other situation because you’re probably doing work you shouldn’t do. But if it’s a must, if it’s mission critical, why is it a must? What’s it mean that’s where you want to tack your identity, tack your identity, to why that outcome is a must for you. And pretty soon you’re generating all kinds of energy and I believe more mental power to accomplishing that goal.

Jenn DeWall:

No, you can see it like then you’re like, yes, like I can do this. I can add that. I love that. That again, that iterative piece that we just talked about, it’s like, Hey, I want that like, yes. Now I can see this.

Will Matthews:

Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. And then finally, so once, you know, your outcome is super clear and, and that’s just a, that’s a mantra for me. And, and I believe that no matter what it is, even as we’ve prepared for our conversation today, I started right out with, and actually, you know, you, I think you worked the same way. Like what is my outcome? Right. That’s a great starting point. Even if you’re going grocery shopping. Right. what is your, what is your outcome? But in more of a leadership role, let’s say you’ve got a, what? Some leaders I could actually own this too. I, I really love the performance review process. You know, when you have a big team and you gotta really, and it takes a lot and it’s like, oh, if you’ve look, if I looked at it like, oh, I to write all these performance reviews, then that’s an energy drain. But if I thought, you know what, this is, if I got the outcome, I want this, I’m gonna do this anyway. You’re gonna do the thing anyway. Right? The performance reviews have to happen as a requirement. I’m gonna do it anyway. So I’m gonna change my focus and put it on an outcome that I want. And that outcome is up as an example, I wanna make sure that the comments I make are supportive of my team members and give them an opportunity to see ways that they can dial up their game.

Jenn DeWall:

Well, if I, every leader could do that, that would be, oh my gosh. I feel like people wouldn’t dread the performance process so much,

Will Matthews:

Exactly.

Jenn DeWall:

Yes, please.

Will Matthews:

And every leader can do that. That’s the good news. Right? So anyway, then, then you go, why? Well, what, what’s my why? Well, you know what as an example, our performance review, but you know what? I just want people to know how much I care. I want to dedicate my profession to helping them advance their career. And this is one of the great tools. Great. So now you got your why and is I love the idea of making it a must wherever you can. And then last, so now what do I need to do in order to accomplish that outcome? OK. I need to book time of my calendar to do those. I need to book the one OnOne meetings. I need to do these different things. Then it’s a different energy around that to do list than looking at it and going, oh wow. Why am I even in this profession? Right, right. Yeah. That’s a key execution outcome. Clear about why clear about your, why that you get making a must all the better, and then your plan comes into place.

How to Connect with Will Matthews

Jenn DeWall:

Oh my gosh. I love that. Will just shared all of the truth bombs as it relates to building success, whether that’s for your team, your organization. His formula that we talked about today, mindset plus skillset plus execution equals success! Will, how can people connect with you? You’re a keynote speaker. You train, I know you help in a variety of ways. How can people connect with you?

Will Matthews:

Great. Well, yeah, well, thanks for that. Number one. Yeah, so my, my website, which I’m imagine will be somehow posted-

Jenn DeWall:

It’ll be in the show notes!

Will Matthews:

But yeah, MatthewsPerformanceGroup.com Matthews with two Ts.  MatthewsPerformanceGroup.com is where you can go to learn about, you know, my keynote speaking opportunities. If I could come to support your team or an association that you’re involved in, I would love it. Have super fun with a couple of different keynote titles. One is- The Game You Must Win Now More Than Ever Before. Coincidentally the same title we have today. Another is Going From Oh No to Let’s Go! Yeah. You are so bringing that kind of energy. So that’s number one. That’s really probably there’s, that’s probably the key place to go. As I know, you know, the book is available on Amazon.

Jenn DeWall:

You’ve Got This!

Will Matthews:

You’ve Got This, The Five Self-Coaching Keys You Need to Live Boldly and Accomplish Anything. So maybe those would be the two best ways for people to reach me. Always anxious to talk to people personally, too. So Will Matthews Performance Group dot com. I’ll be happy to reply.

Jenn DeWall:

Oh my gosh. Send him an email. Maybe bring ’em your challenge will thank you so much for just sharing your expertise your time, but also most importantly, your passion! Your passion for why this matters and wanting success for all of the organizations’ teams and individuals around the world. Thank you so much for being here today.

Will Matthews:

My pleasure. So good to see you, Jenn! Thanks to everybody.

Jenn DeWall:

Thank you so much for listening to this week’s episode of The Leadership Habit podcast. I really enjoyed my conversation with Will! I’m so inspired, just thinking about who I want to be, what type of leader, what type of individual? Now, if you want to connect with will, you can head on over to MatthewsPerformanceGroup.com. There you can find information about his keynotes that I have seen him speak before. I would definitely recommend him for your next event. You can also connect with him on LinkedIn at WillMatthewsYes,  Will MatthewsYes. And of course, don’t forget to get a copy of your book available on Amazon. You’ve got this, the five self-coaching keys. You need to live boldly and accomplish anything. I hope you have a great day. I hope you leave this feeling inspired and I’ll see you next time.