Most CEOs blame the market. Monte Wyatt says the ceiling is almost always the leadership team ~ and he knows how to fix it.
GROWTH PILLAR: Leadership & Ops
WHO THIS IS FOR: SMB owners / Solopreneurs scaling their first team / CEOs of mid-market companies / Leaders who suspect the bottleneck is internal
WHAT THEY'LL GAIN: A clear framework for diagnosing leadership misalignment, practical steps to build trust and execution discipline inside a growing team, and the one overlooked discipline that quietly drives retention, culture, and profitable growth.
Most growing companies assume the slowdown is external ~ the market, the economy, a bad quarter. Monte Wyatt has spent 30 years helping CEOs see the truth: the real ceiling is almost always the leadership team itself.
Monte Wyatt is an executive and leadership coach and CEO of AddingZEROS Executive Development, specializing in leadership alignment for mid-market companies that have hit a ceiling they can't explain. Most CEOs point to the market or the economy ~ Monte's 30 years of executive coaching experience says the real bottleneck is almost always the leadership team itself. Through his Five Disciplines of Exponential Growth ~ Strategy, Business Development, People, Execution, and Mission ~ he helps teams align around one shared objective: profitable growth. The discipline most overlooked? Mission. The culture that shapes how people behave with each other and with customers is the backbone of every business growth strategy ~ not a soft skill, a survival skill. This episode is for SMB owners and leaders serious about leadership development who know something is stuck but aren't sure where to look first.
Key topics covered:
Connect with Monte Wyatt:
Read the full write-up: Team Alignment ~ K4B S4E156
Browse all episodes: Browse the K4B archive
Shoutout: Thank you to Mark Hayward ~ Podcast Introduction Group (UK) ~ the connection that made this conversation happen.
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Next Steps
Bernie (00:18)
Question the audience. What are the things slowing your growth isn't your market? It's your leadership team.
That feeling when the strategy is clear but the execution keeps breaking down, it's more common than most leaders want to admit. guest has spent decades helping executive teams find that gap, close it, and build something that actually sticks.
Monte Wyatt is an executive and leadership coach based in the U.S. He's the CEO of Adding Zeros Executive Development,
Where he works directly with CEOs and their leadership teams to build the kind of alignment that actually moves the company forward. Monte helps mid-market organizations get clear on strategy, fix the decisions that keep getting stuck, and create an execution habits that deliver results that you can count on. He co-authored the Wall Street Journal bestseller, Pulling Profits Out of a Hat. And his work has been recognized globally for over two decades. He's also a proud girl dad of three grown kids.
And he loves who they've come. You can find Monte at ad zerosnow dot com. Monte, welcome. Absolute pleasure having you here today. Do you have your favorite quote or say?
Monte (01:23)
you know, it's it's about we lead people, we manage processes. That's one of my favorite quotes is we lead people and we manage processes and it it it's a new way of thinking. We gotta we gotta make sure we're guiding our team, but we also have to follow true ways of working.
Bernie (01:37)
So leadership coaching, you know, that's not something in high school or university going, you know, I think I'm gonna I wanna lead the charge here and help people lead the charge. What brought that forward?
Monte (01:46)
You know, it was it was almost 30 years ago that in in a previous life, I went through three different mergers within the organization that I was a part of. And after the last merger, the leadership team just wasn't what I had hoped for. The communication wasn't clear, the direction wasn't clear, there wasn't good culture, wasn't good trust, lack of follow through, no clear priorities. And that just made me want to help other organizations.
not go through what I went through and make sure that we we did have clear priorities and make sure that we did communicate clearly because that that lack of those things really changed the organization. We lost a lot of people, people changed, people left and came back and and didn't show up again. And you know, it just wasn't a good environment and and people weren't enjoying it. And people should enjoy what they do.
Yes, it's there's gonna be their challenges, but we've got to be great leaders. We've got to be great managers in how we do things every day.
Bernie (02:43)
Is that a size matters situation when that happens? because I'm in my in my backstory, the the province here in Ontario merged five hospitals into one. And so each have their own distinct culture and you know at the end of the day that's ten thousand people on payroll and another ten thousand people wrapped around the the institution, so like twenty to thirty thousand people floating around. Does size influence that or is it you know, even if it's like two two small businesses like you know
Five staff members here and another five over there and you merge into one business.
Monte (03:15)
You know, I I don't think size matters. It it's really about how the organization is aligned and how they're moving forward together. And without good leadership, you aren't going to be aligned. And so no matter if it's a large company, a small company, you've got to be clear on your communication. You've got to be clear on your direction. You've got to make sure that your team is trusting each other and following through on the right priorities.
Bernie (03:38)
So y you've discovered the leadership problems are kind of kind of the stem of all source of of problems for a business. wouldn't it be financial? Like, you know, recently we would have heard about tariffs. Doesn't matter which side of the border you're on, right? But tariffs rolling around, you know, other things can happen. You there could be a worldwide pandemic, right? the the that kind of throw a curve into things. Is it just those type of things, external factors, or is it
Leadership problems or a mix.
Monte (04:05)
You know, I I think it's it it's how we respond to things. And that becomes a leadership problem. And and I like to look at it as return on luck. Whether it's bad luck or good luck, what's our return on how we respond to what happens to us? And so that's what a great leader does is they look at what their situation is and they determine the right way to respond. Yep, we're always gonna make mistakes, we're never gonna be a hundred percent correct, but how we respond.
makes a difference. And that's what leadership does. They make decisions. They guide focus. They make applesauce out of apples. You know, it's it's it's making sure that you're taking the right approach no matter what your situation is. That's return on luck.
Bernie (04:45)
Very nice. So what does a gap in executive alignment actually look like for a company on a day to day basis then?
Monte (04:51)
You know, when you have multiple people involved, you got different responsibilities, you've got different roles, and people act on their own agendas. They act in their own silos. They make decisions for themselves instead of for the organization. And I think that's a a big thing is when you have conflicting priorities, you're not aligned. You're not focused on the same things. You're not focused on the outcome that you ultimately want for the organization. And that's what causes
ceilings for organizations, that's what causes conflict, that's what causes getting the lack of results that you're after is lack of consistent priorities. And so I I think that's a big thing is you've got to get out of the silos. You've got to get out of your own agendas. You've got to make sure that we're all focused on the right things for the organization's success and the team as an overall success.
Bernie (05:42)
You know, I I've heard of like sales and marketing. You know, they're they're two distinct spaces, yet they're competing for resources. And even in my past career, you'd hear someone in facilities going, It's really nice that you bought that piece of hardware. it takes a lot of power. who's paying for that? Right? So yeah, the everybody has the same goal, right, for the success, but sometimes the it's like having a recipe coming together and if you don't do it right, right?
Yeah, you don't add the eggs leader to the cake once it's been through the oven, right? It's somewhere somewhere prior to that. How do you sort through the you know, this is the best way to approach a thing and still keep everybody aimed the same direction without you know cutting the nose despite the face.
Monte (06:23)
You know, it it it first starts with the right goals. Are we are we looking at the right thing? So it's profitable growth that we are after. Not just hitting more sales, not just getting more leads. We've got to have profitable growth for the organization. And so un unless all departments are focused on profitable growth, we are going to be making d different decisions. So how do we convert these leads? That's what marketing is responsible for generating leads. Sales is responsible for converting those leads. So how are we doing that profitably?
And we have to be aligned. We may have different viewpoints of how we market or how we sell things, but ultimately we should be after the same objective. And that's that's where it all starts, is what's the right objective that we're working towards? That's where alignment begins, is what's the outcome that we're
Bernie (07:09)
after.
So what's the difference between leadership and management?
Monte (07:12)
You know, I I think the world has has put them into the same bucket. And I look at them as two different things. Leadership is a behavior, management is a role. Leadership is about creating passionate and focus. Passion and focus. Management is about creating competent and productive team members.
And I I do believe that both of them are needed more than ever today. And as you think about it, we we have to lead people and we manage processes. So we lead people with energy, we lead people with focus, we lead people with passion. We manage processes by ensuring our team is competent in doing their job and they're productive. They're getting the results for their job and their position. So
Leadership and management are two different things. And I I view them as leadership is a behavior and management is a role or a responsibility. And when I think of leadership, it's about creating passion and focus within your team. And management is about creating competent and productive team members.
Both are needed more than ever today. We have to lead people with energy, with with focus, with with excitement for the future. We've got to manage the business with making sure our our team is able to do their jobs to their highest ability, and that we are productive. We have the the the skills and the knowledge and the scores of numbers that get us to the results. So
Both are needed more than ever today, but they are two different things. Leadership is a behavior and every person in a business can and should be a leader by how they communicate, by how they share things, by how they interact with other people.
Bernie (08:49)
Kind of a if I take a high level view of this, when you you think of a company, usually there's a board of directors. Are they ultimately responsible for picking the upper management and the upper management and everything cascades down from there? Or is it something that comes from bottom up? And even if they select to, you know, the amalgamate, right? They might pick a new new chief and pick anything in there executive officer, CFO, CEO.
Yeah how do you how do you pick right? Because you know, depending on what you need to have happen, you need you need a fire starter versus the person that just keeps everything running smooth, you know, the engine's running smooth, it's purring, right? How how do you pick the right people for the roles? And how do you train them up too?
Monte (09:30)
You know, that's a that's a huge question that every business goes through every day. And I I think there's a couple things you have to look at. Number one are the the values that they possess. You you've got to look at the person's behaviors and values that they live by. That should be the number one thing. And the second thing is what are the minimum skills that we need this position to possess? And I say it as minimum skills because we're going to teach them how we want their their role to to succeed.
And what needs to be done to be successful. But if they don't have the characteristics of success that we need for this position, then they they might have the right skills, but if they don't have the right way of thinking, the right behaviors, they're not going to be successful long term. So you got to start with their characteristics or skills, then the minimum skill sets that they need to be successful. And then you can train them on what else do they need to know.
To make sure that they are competent and productive in their role.
Bernie (10:27)
So if everybody has great alignment, what what does a company look like? Yeah, what is the I'm running it perfectly well. Yeah, always yeah, always with the understanding that there might be a tweak happening, but what is a what does a smooth running company look like?
Monte (10:42)
You know, it it starts with trust. And when you trust the people that you work with that they're making decisions that are best for you, best for the organization, that's where a strong alignment starts. But strong alignment is also that we we make decisions and we follow through on those decisions. And we have the right priorities and we're all committed to the right priorities. That's what alignment looks like. And y you know, when you when you eliminate the silos, you eliminate the the personal agendas.
things get accomplished more effectively. But it's about a little humbleness in there as well, because none of us are perfect. None of us are able to make every best decision possible. We are are here to make the best decisions that we can with the knowledge that we have and the skills that we have. And so I I think that's where it starts with the alignment is is making sure that we have trust within each other and we're willing to work towards the best opportunities possible.
Bernie (11:36)
When you're talking about the trust and you have the micromanager, you know, type persona, and some people it's ego. So how do you how do you help someone shift? You know, this has always worked for me in the past. And yeah, not really. But how how do you how do you get them out of what they were doing to where they should be?
Monte (11:54)
You know, it's it's really stepping back and and identifying what success looks like in a relationship and in the role that you're in. And there's some roles where you you have to be guided, you have to be very direct, you have to be telling people what to do. And then there's other roles that your job is to ask more than you tell. And I think that's the big thing when you become become a high-level executive or a strong manager in an organization, your biggest skill is asking people.
the right questions to teach them how to think and how to behave differently. Just because of those questions that you're asking them, you're challenging the way that they're behaving or acting in a very cordial manner that gets results and gets creates change in an organization.
Bernie (12:38)
You have four pillars, awareness, education, implementation, and discipline. Now I I don't know whether that's discipline as in your own personal discipline or you've been a naughty lad and you know, someone's coming after you. Where do most tree where do most teams struggle with that?
Monte (12:54)
You know, I I think there's two areas that most organizations struggle, and it's implementation and discipline. When I think about implementation, it's following through, it's executing on our strategy. And that leads to that discipline. Discipline to me is about accountability, taking ownership for success, and having the the strength to follow through on what you commit to.
And there's always gonna be distractions, there's always gonna be new things that come up that we have to adjust and adapt to, but ultimately we have to have the discipline to stay focused and the discipline to implement what we've committed to. And that's that's where businesses struggle, is they they get out of discipline. And
Yep, you you need to make different decisions every day. There's gonna be challenges with competition, but you have to stay with discipline of who we are, how we're going to market, and how we're treating our customer. Those are great ways of discipline that we've got to stay focused on.
Bernie (13:48)
Have you ever had a conversation with someone going, listen, you're good, but this is the wrong fit for you.
Monte (13:54)
Absolutely. And that's that's not a fun conversation for anyone, no matter how how long you've been in business. But it's it is about fit for a position. Most companies, when they when they start to put people in positions, they think about the person first. They think about the skills that they have instead of what's needed out of that position. And oftentimes, like you said, you're not the right fit or this isn't a fit for you. It's because the needs of the position are more important than what the
the individual has as their their skill sets. And that's what's most important because you're thinking about the skills of the position to help the business become successful. And I I certainly don't want to come across as I don't don't care about people and don't care about where people are growing, but you do have to be growing as an individual to continue to build your skill sets every single day to be relevant for the future of your business. And and that's
That's something that everyone has to take ownership of is their own development for success of the future.
Bernie (14:53)
Interesting enough, usually if you're an apprentice, you're working with a master, you know, whether it's a blacksmith, electrician, plumber, whatever the case might be, you see that in the trades primarily. And you have that exposure to this is how to do the job. Is that something you would recommend to somebody? Or if somebody's in position and you know they have some good skill sets, they're good at a certain part of the job, but maybe the management skills are a bit you need you need some loving.
do you pair them up with somebody to kind of like, you know, remedy that that gap?
Monte (15:24)
You know, absolutely. It always starts, and I I believe that every individual should have a personal development plan. And personal development plan identifies the skills, the knowledge, the insight that you need to have to be successful. And if that means getting a mentor or a coach, absolutely. And because every person has growth. None of us have hit our full potential yet. And so when we when we have that that personal development plan, you need to identify not only the skill.
But how you're gonna gain it? You're gonna learn from online seminars, you're gonna get a mentor, you're gonna how how are you gonna grow those skills? That's a that's a tremendous skill set that I think every every executive needs to have is that personal development plan, but also every employee should have one. So they're growing to that next level in their business as well.
Bernie (16:10)
So CEO says here, come alongside. I need help. Or or their board of directors has you know said, you there's something, there's a gap here, right? And let's let's try this. Let's reach out to Monte. What's the first thing you look at when you're engaging a CEO?
Monte (16:25)
You know, the the first thing I look at is I I see if they are aligned. I always start with an interview process where I interview the executive team because there's always blind spots that people have. We all have them. And it's helping the individual see what actions or behaviors that they're doing that are impacting others' success and their own success. So I like to do an interview of the executive team to understand what's working.
what's not working, what they'd like to see different. And I ask those same questions of of my client, the CEO as well. So they understand their own behaviors. They see what's working and how it's impacting others. Because that's that's a big part of it is how are the behaviors that I'm doing every day impacting and influencing others, whether they're positive or negative. We all have an influence on someone else. And so I I want to understand how that influence is is causing success.
Or causing barriers to success.
Bernie (17:22)
So
Some companies, you know, they're just large, they've been there for a while. And other companies, they're they're they're they're scaling up. What are what are the you know, if you've gone from solopreneur to all of a sudden everybody wants your product? You know, there is massive love. You are the unicorn. What what are the things they need to keep mind be mindful of to avoid for future headaches? You know, all of a sudden the team's starting to grow.
Monte (17:45)
You know, I I think the the bottleneck that occurs is that the the CEO or executive team has to make all the decisions. And I think as you're growing fast, you have to empower your team to make the best decisions. And that's that's what great leadership does. It casts the vision, it casts the expectations, and holds them to discipline to doing those things, to account to doing those things. And we've got to make sure that we are
fulfilling them. But if we're the only one that can make those decisions, that's creating a bottleneck to s success. And so we've got to empower our teams to to make decisions. We've got to empower our teams to make the right actions to get the results that we're
Bernie (18:26)
You find that's also tied back to standard operating procedures, the manuals, like if you're ISO certified, you know, there's there's a there's a manual for everything from the fire alarm to, you know, logistics disruption process, et cetera, to hardware failure, right? Or how often to service your service vehicles. is having that a part of that whole picture too?
Monte (18:47)
You know, I I I think that's along the same lines. I look at it this way, eighty percent of what we do is repetition. Twenty percent are the exceptions. So how can we get the eighty percent to be consistent and and how we do things? But we've got to have flexibility for that remaining twenty percent in how we make decisions and how we respond to things. So we c we can't be too disciplined that we we never have flexibility, but you still have to have processes and tools that you you use to make your decisions to
to follow through on those decisions. So you have routines and eighty percent of what we do is a routine.
Bernie (19:19)
So if if the company goes, listen, I'm I'm gonna, you know, I'm expanding or you know, like like any any good successful business, you'll you'll have a period of where you have staff turnover, a normal attrition. How do you prepare the person stepping into the new role? Like what's the first ninety days looks what does the first ninety days look like?
Monte (19:39)
You I I think there's there's three questions that you have to be looking at in the first ninety days is what are we doing, why are we doing it, and what's already been done. And so you you've got to understand the past, the present, and the future of what is hap has happened in the organization or that department or that role, and make sure that we are recognizing how things have been done. We go through and and if we become that bull in a china shop right away.
We're gonna we're gonna make mistakes. We're gonna not have the trust that we need. So you've gotta ask the right questions. You've got to understand. You've got to build rapport before you can start to make any changes that you see might be needed.
Bernie (20:18)
So is there a kind of a low-hanging fruit that people like, you know, if if if someone's listening to this podcast, go, well, you know what? Hang on. What are what are some simple things they can start doing if they look around their around their workplace and they're in charge?
Monte (20:32)
You know, I I think the the first thing is to communicate your goals and vision for the future. Most employees don't understand where the organization is going because it hasn't been communicated clearly. And I think that's a powerful message to send is this is our direction. This is this is the objective that we have as an organization, and this is how you support in your role how to achieve that.
And that's that creates great alignment as well. So you you've got to make sure that you're communicating clearly our direction and what that means to that individual. And that without that clarity, it makes it tough for that individual to have buy-in and even have commitment to to ownership of success.
Bernie (21:14)
A couple qu a couple of things come to mind as as you as you've described this. what does the process look like? you know, I'm here now. I need to get there, you know, and and and change in my leadership style. Is it group hug? Is it you going, listen, you you're having a you know having a frank conversation going, good, but here drift? Or is is it going through not therapy, but like you know, you you have, you know.
weekly meetings, do you have a huddle? What gets you from where you were to where you should be?
Monte (21:44)
You know, I I think it's it it is a part of that that teamwork and vulnerability of recognizing your strengths and how you're gonna leverage those strengths, but also recognizing areas of weakness that you're either working on to build and develop, or how how you're going to maximize the team to overcome those gaps. And so it is having conversations. You know, it we we all have the skill sets of doing our job or or being successful in the company.
But the biggest thing that we do, and and often is it's just viewed as a as a soft skill, it's how we communicate, how we interact with other people. And so the more we interact, the more we we sh are are vulnerable to share what's working, what's not working, the stronger we actually get because we get that feedback of what's working and what's not working, and how I can adjust my communication style or how I can adjust my my directness, whatever it might be. We have to listen and be open.
to to hearing those things, whether it is one-on-one and a tough conversation, or it's as a group setting of really helping each other build those skill sets for the future.
Bernie (22:49)
It's a transition time. You know, someone starts the process, they're willing, not not resisting, right? Like, I mean, if if I if I touch like a stove and it's hot, you know, it's instant recognition. Take my hand away from there, otherwise, you know, you're gonna hear sizzling and that's not gonna be the good sound. How long does it take for a person, you know, usually to come around? Is it is it like a one week thing, is it a one month thing? Is it over a year, or is it depending on how much of a gap there is?
Monte (23:15)
It it really depends on how much of the gap there is and what impact that it's having. You know, the the more mistakes we have, we're gonna continue to make that mistake until we learn something. And so we have to see how long it takes them to not only learn it, but implement it and put it into practice. And that that's when I mentioned a few moments ago, implementation is one of the challenges. It is I can learn something, but how fast am I willing to put it into practice and really be conscious of that?
Some people can make a change right away and be very conscious of it and and implement it. Some people they have to be hit by a two by four many times before it happens. And get get those black eyes and and the the the the stripe along their face before it makes it makes an impact.
Bernie (23:57)
Wow, a good solid beating. Yeah, no, hopefully not. I just I just there. What is the what's the return on investment? Like when what have you seen from companies that go, listen, we have a gap, we realize it. E everybody's, you know, is willing to change, which is really important, or they or they know they need to change, they just don't know how. That's even more more relevant. But what type of return on investment, you know, what do they see as the outcome and you know, the the key
Performance indicators, you know, obviously yeah, there's profit going up. Or the attrition rate, your staff turnovers dropping, right? 'Cause high attrition rate means you're you're spending more money, you're you're you're bleeding out elsewhere, right? Regardling regardless of what you're making for money. Wha what is the RRI that you f see after a year to two years down downstream?
Monte (24:43)
You know, it's it's interesting. I have some clients that stay for six months and get what they need. I have clients that have been with me ten and twelve years because we continue to grow the organization in many fashions. And so my average client staying five to six years, so they're getting a return on investment, as you said, not just in profit and revenue, but they're getting an investment of they're they're upscaling their company, they're upscaling their individuals of the leadership team, they're upscaling the next level of management, they're they're hiring differently, they have a different
culture there there's so many ways that that changes occur that are hard to measure that you you can't put a financial dollar to but it's making an impact on the bottom line and that that culture one is a huge part of it what is our core values how are we living them how is how how how is everyone behaving with each other and with the customer that makes a difference on how we're growing our business or not and
Yep, we can say that sales did a great job this year, but it was also our culture of how we we challenged the team and how we got their buy-in. So I I I think the the return on investment is is huge as long as we're open-minded to seeing change and wanting to make change in every aspect of the business.
Bernie (25:53)
So if someone only hires you for six months, how often should they come back and revisit? Like almost like a tune up. Like, you know, you can you can buy a car and you know, the more modern cars, even if you bought an EV vehicle, right? It's less to tune up. But you know, every once in a while there are things that have to be tweaked. Is there a kind of a maintenance schedule that you would recommend for companies? just even to ensure that you're you're on target and or they're on target and everything's good.
Monte (26:20)
You know, the the rhythm that I like to recommend is every 90 days I come in and facilitate a 90-day planning day. And what we do there is we evaluate where we've come in the last 90 days, we plan our next 90 days, but we also learn and grow as a leadership team by by gaining some new skill sets. And so every 90 days, I I a normal process is every couple weeks that I'm interacting with my client for discipline and for accountability and focus and implementation. but at a minimum
I I like to help my clients with their 90-day plans to ensure that they have a focus. And as a facilitator, that allows the executive team to all be a part of the conversation instead of instead of the CEO trying to lead the conversation and give his input because most of the time that's when that CEO speaks, people listen. And so you want to make sure that the team is has good engagement and having an outside facilitator do that.
gets great involvement from every person in the room.
Bernie (27:16)
He wrote a book, pulling profits out of a hat. I'm waiting for the rabbit to come into the story, but you know, I I don't think that's that's the goal here. was that the core idea you and Brad Sugars wanted every business owner to walk away with, or what's what's the scoop behind that?
Monte (27:31)
You know
Bernie (27:31)
Not the rabbit part. Not the rabbit part.
Monte (27:33)
It it's really about discipline makes things look easy. And if if we think about the example of of looking back to when Steve Jobs would give a presentation on a new product for Apple, he would practice for hundreds of hours in his presentation and how he did things and how he presented that information. It's the same in everyday business. It takes discipline, it takes practice, it takes focus to get the results that we are after. And everybody
in in today's world we wanna we're in a microwave world. We want it right now. And instead of putting in the hard work, hard hard effort and the discipline that's needed, whether it's discipline in marketing, discipline in sales, discipline in our hiring processes, discipline in our people development processes, discipline in our culture. All of those things take time. None of them happen overnight. And that's that was the whole point of the the the book, Pulling Profits Out of a Hat, is it it looks like magic
But it's been it's a lot of work that you put into place to make it happen.
Bernie (28:33)
I I see a notation here. Five disciplines of exponential growth. And went, that's interesting. What's that all about? And what is the most underestimated by business leaders right now of of the five?
Monte (28:44)
So over the last 25 years in working with clients, I've really identified five areas of discipline that every organization needs to be successful. And those five areas are strategy, business development, people, execution, and mission. And every one of them has a number of different components and different behaviors and decisions to be made. But I think the one that's most overlooked is the mission discipline. The mission discipline is about who we are, what we believe.
How our behaviors impact others, and it's our culture. And it's it's viewed as soft skills, but it's it's really the backbone of every organization because people buy from people, people work for people, and you want to have the right environment and culture. And those companies that that don't put that as a priority, they may see a higher turnover rate of employees. They may see a higher turnover rate of customers. And I I think that's a that's a
Sad thing to see because they they made it about a a soft skill instead of a true strategy of how they're going to be successful.
Bernie (29:44)
You know, the one thing I've learned in the from talking to different other business guests, you know, you you can be you know, especially you see it in the solopreneur. I'm many I do many tasks. I'll do my books, etc. But at a certain point in time you go, you know, the accounting should be actually be done by an accountant. And I'm very thankful for accountants being out there because you know what? Here you go, here are the books, here are the tax returns, the usual things. Have you ever had a conversation with somebody going that, you know, you own the company.
you've been the CEO. I think it's now time for you to plug this type of person in here and you know step back and off to the side. Not out of the picture. Not, you know, not not, you know, hit the hit the eject button, but let someone else lead the company for that growth piece. Have you ever found that? And this kind of goes back to, you know, are you the right fit conversation? But it, you know, good to get there, but not good to go to the next level and scale up.
Monte (30:36)
You know, it's a it's a concept that I call return on time. Where is your time best invested?
To get the results that you're after. And if I'm spending my time on something that a $20 an hour person should be doing, that's not good return on my time. Or someone that's an expert in accounting, that's CPA, they should be doing that instead of myself. That's good return on time. And so finding that expert that can give us a better return on time than I'm able to do.
Then that's the tr that's the true measure of success, is that you're able to do the right things that are best for the company that gets you a return on your investment of your time.
Bernie (31:14)
Are there particular companies, verticals that you like working with or that are in need of a lot of loving to get them aligned that you find
Monte (31:21)
You know,
I I've I've had clients in in almost every industry out there and I've I've been surprised at the number of industries that are really there and things that people do, but it's more about the individual and the team than it is the industry. It's more about is the person willing to have an outsider help them think differently and behave differently, but it's also about am I willing to grow?
And I do I want my company to grow? Do I want my team to grow? And do I want myself to grow to new levels and new new aspirations? And so it's more about the individual than it is about the industry.
Bernie (31:54)
Is there one thing you would ask companies to look about and think about with leadership that, you know, if they changed right now, today, what would it be?
Monte (32:02)
You know, I I think the big thing that that I believe is that each person in an organization can and should be a leader. And
We we need to be teaching our employees that it's okay to speak up, give their opinions, share their style, share their their ways of thinking, because everybody has viewpoints and everybody can and should be a strong leader. That doesn't mean they're they have the position of a manager, but that means that they are willing to share what success looks like, they're willing to have the communication skills, they're willing to share their expertise. so it it's it's more about the the behavior.
than it is the title.
Bernie (32:38)
Find that sometimes, you know, looking at the two of us right now, if you can see us, you know we're not in our t early twenties, right? so you know, I'm I'm from the boomer age. I don't want to assume for you, Monte, but you know, if if I'm dealing with someone that's t age twenty, you know, the perspective might be different. How do you bridge that gap so that, you know
I'll have the experience and that person might have the guile or the knowledge on let's say tech, right? capitalizing on AI. You know, you things that are happening in in school, public school, or high school, it wasn't happening when we were there. How do you how do you bridge the gap between those two? Because those can be large divides. And even even closer generation gaps could be a divide. How do you how do you manage that or how do you address that?
Monte (33:21)
Well, number one, I think it it's about listening. Listening to all parties to what drives them, what motivates them. I think there are different generations that want to be part of something that that's bigger than them, that they want to have influence, they want to be successful. And then there's other generations that it's more about themselves than it is being a part of the bigger picture. So you have to understand what motivates individuals independently.
And and and there's there's different styles in every generation. But i if we start with the listening side, that helps understanding. And I I think that's the first part where where there might be a gap in the world that we're not willing to slow down and listen to that other other generation or that other individual to see what really motivates them and why they do what they do.
Bernie (34:07)
So what's an ideal collaboration look like for you? Like, you know, what kind of partner or client relationship where you you you know the this is gonna be successful.
Monte (34:15)
You know, I I I'm just starting a brand new client and one of the things that I I see in them is that they have a desire to grow their business and do things differently than they are today, but they also have a desire to grow their team and have higher expectations. But the third thing that they're they're wanting they're wanting to do is that it they want to grow their own skill sets. They've realized that they've hit a ceiling in their business and they want help to get to that next level. And if you if you don't want help,
then I certainly can't help you. you have to want want help to go to that next level, but you also have to be willing to grow and learn and to do different things than you've ever done in your past.
Bernie (34:53)
I know you're a dad of three grown kids and three young ladies. What has that taught you about leadership in in raising them and being around them that a boardroom wouldn't have taught you?
Monte (35:04)
You know, the the biggest thing is is you have to push through when you face challenges. And I've seen that through my children when they've broken bones, they've gotten concussions, they they've you know had frustrations with their teammates, whatever it might be, they have the wrong mindset. We have to push through when you face challenges. And that means you have to change the way you're thinking. That means you have to make different decisions, that means you have to follow through on commitments, whatever it might be.
And you know, when you sit in the boardroom, you're making lots of decisions and you have certain objectives that you're after, but sometimes you have to be flexible and you have to recognize that the world has changed and how are we changing with it?
Bernie (35:43)
Monte, really strong advice you've given here today. It's really appreciated, solid. And yes, I agree with you. Listening, that's that's half half the half the battle. I I also want to highlight to you folks listening in on this conversation. Monty's got a book that he co-authored, a Wall Street Journal bestseller called Pulling Profits Out of a Hat. It breaks down the five disciplines of exponential growth in a way that any business owner can actually use it.
And you can grab your copy of that book wherever books are sold. he also has Monte has a free executive alignment scorecard for the listeners. head to coachmony.com slash podcast to grab yours. And if what Monty's shared today is resonating with you and connected, then go find him at ad zerosnow.com. So the word ad A D D zeros Z-E-R-O-S.
now no w dot com and start a conversation with them and i also want to have a send out a big thank you to mark hayward from the podcast introduction group because that's how monty and i met and mark is over in the uk so you know and and monty is not if you can't tell by the accent on the voice all right monty solves problems that you know most growing companies don't want to name and you know might want to go we don't have a problem but you know what if you don't address it
it's like if your health isn't good and you ignore it, it'll find you. Right. And he builds that it's more than just motivational boost, it's a system. All right, it's it's a running system, a way to keep your team going and staying in the right direction, right? And actually follow through. And as you as you heard, Monte, it can be six months, it'd be several years. And then know the duration of the time is more about what you need to have done and and maintain it, okay.
And if you if you have a feeling that your team can do more, Monty's your man. Reach out to him. for us, Check our website at knack4business.com. That's knack k n a c k, the number 4 business.com to reach us. Use our chat bot to find other podcasts. You'll see a little question mark in the bottom right-hand corner. And you can also check out our blog.
dot knack4 business dot com and you can check episodes there.