Leadership Development: Strategies for Sustaining Growth and Adaptability

In this episode of 'Bring Out the Talent,' we are joined by Phil Cicio, a seasoned TTA consultant and Leadership Development expert. Join us as we discuss our off-the-shelf comprehensive leadership development programs – ‘Strategies for Sustaining Growth and Adaptability.’ These leadership development programs are specifically designed to empower new and emerging leaders, and mid-level leaders.

 These impactful programs are founded on real-world success and experience in cultivating leaders across diverse industries and organizational sizes. They are aimed at enhancing leadership skills and unlocking the full potential of individuals who are poised to make a significant impact in their organizations. With a global reach, TTA's leadership development programs have been implemented in 47 countries, engaging over 1.74 million participants.

 Wherever you are in your leadership journey, this episode is sure to provide you with valuable insights to help you chart your path to leadership success.

Chapters

• 0:00 GMT20240529-150738_Recording
• 1:56 Marker
• 41:27 Marker

Transcript

SPEAKER_04: 0:00

bring out the talent bring out the talent

SPEAKER_01: 0:03

bring out the talent welcome to bring out the talent a podcast featuring learning and development experts discussing innovative approaches and industry insights tune in to hear our talent help develop yours now here are your hosts tta's ceo and president maria melfa and talent manager jocelyn allen

SPEAKER_03: 0:24

Hello, Jossie. Hello. Oh, your name doesn't work with that. I was going to Maria E. I like that. OK, see, I should never doubt myself in your presence because you always just you give me everything I need to feel confident and what my brain and my brain behaves on a daily basis. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04: 0:45

And we have. David E. and Philly. Okay, so it works for all. David E. and Philly, I can't.

SPEAKER_03: 0:54

Oh, it's going to be a good one today, folks. Can you tell? Yes, we're

SPEAKER_04: 0:59

a little rusty, so bear with us today. Feeling a little loopy. Talking about an extremely important topic that I believe touches upon everybody because we're talking about leadership. Leadership is not just for the person in the corner office anymore. It's for everyone, right? Sure is. And if

SPEAKER_03: 1:20

I do say so, I think this particular leadership episode has like a little bit of a certain special something to it because we're revisiting with our old pal Phil Ciccio, but we're here to talk about TTA and Phil Ciccio. the leadership program and our tactics for making sure that your people, because it's about people like Maria just said, are on the path of growth and sustainability. So we're thrilled to have Phil back and to talk to you today about some things that are going on. Can you share with us a brief overview of the programs that you've curated with us and what it means to you? What is the vision behind the two programs that we have, which is New and Emerging and Mid-Level Leaders?

SPEAKER_05: 2:12

Well, a couple of things that are really important. You said something in your opening, Jocelyn, that I think is important. Allowing or giving tools to leaders in order to be able to help them to develop their leaders and develop their organization. And these tools, right? You can give them to leaders, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're going to use them. Okay. And so most of the leadership development training that I've been to, that I've seen out there, it's good. And the tools are good, right? I don't want to say that they're not. However, even though you have the tools, doesn't mean that you as a leader are going to actually use those, right? There's no Knowing what to do and then actually doing what you know. And so that's because most of the leadership development training out there is kind of surface level, right? And it shares ideas and concepts and tools. but it doesn't really get to the part that's most important is getting inside that leader to get them to make a transformation, right? So development and transformation comes from the inside out, not the outside in. And this program and all the programs that we put together here within the program are all about that, right? Starting from sort of the inside out approach to leadership. rather than the surface level. And in today's world, people are looking for a different type of leader, right? Maybe a decade or two ago, you could come in and you could be a boss and a manager. And today, people aren't looking for that. They don't want to be told what to do. They want to be inspired to do things that are necessary to grow within the organization, to help the organization to grow. And it's changed quite a bit, right? I mean, most organizations back in the day when I first got my leadership position was about profitability, right? And although that's really important, that should be a byproduct of great people led by great leaders, right? So the difference is, can we inspire people or leaders to be better people and people leaders? And if we can do that, we're going to have great impact. And in all of the leadership development training that I've done, I rarely have gone into a group of people that I would actually say to them, say, hey, these people are leading from the inside out. They're typically managing people, right? Task-driven leadership. And it's not because they don't have the ability to do it. But more than likely, that's how they were taught, right? So they were led by a boss or a manager. So they became a boss or a manager. And maybe their title is that they're a leader, but they may not be really leading people, right? Because people may not be following them, okay? What I've found is that most of the leaders that I'm introduced to, their title is a leader, might be titled as a leader, but that doesn't mean that they're being followed. And you can go into any organization anywhere and you'll find people that aren't titled as leaders, but everybody's following them, right? What's the difference? Why are they following these people that don't even have a title of leader and they're not following the person who's titled? They're doing things for that person, right? They have to do things for them, but they're not following them, right? So there's a different component and different character traits necessary to be building within a person to make them a person that somebody would want to follow. If you walked into a room as a leader, and anybody listening to this, that might be a leader. If you walked into a room of your people and you just walked in the door, they're waiting for you in a meeting and you showed up and you opened the door and you said, hey, everybody follow me. And you walked out. Right? What would those people in that room be thinking as you just left? You said, follow me and walked out. Would they be thinking, oh no, here we go again? Would they be thinking, are we in trouble? What did we do wrong? Right? Are we thinking, oh, this person is going to take us off the edge of a cliff. What are we doing? Right? Or... Would they not even think? Would they just get up and follow you because they're inspired by you? They believe in you. They trust you. They don't know where they're going, but they know that you know where you're going, right? That is where leadership comes from. And to learn that, okay, isn't just having the tools, right, to be able to give feedback and motivate people. It's about connecting with them intrinsically, internally to motivate them to come to work for something other than money and benefits. Because most people today, I would say in most of the studies that I've seen, in excess of 80% of people are just going to work today to trade their time for money and benefits. And you'll get what they believe that the money and benefits are worth, right? The value of that. That's what you're going to get out of them, okay? You're not going to get more than that. And most people don't believe that what they're getting is enough, right? So you're not going to get enough out of them. If you want to get the most out of your people and leaders want to really get the most out of their people, they have to convince people or inspire them to come to work with something other than money and benefits, something more intrinsic, right? They're making a difference. There's a sense of purpose. There's meaning in their work. And today's employees, the people today, that's what they're looking for. They don't want to come to work just to trade their time for money and benefits. They're looking for something greater than that, want to go home and make sure that they're making a difference. And so this program is about starting from the inside out rather than the outside in, which most other programs are that approach, outside in versus inside out.

SPEAKER_04: 6:51

It's a great analogy of whether your people will follow you out the door. And it is true. People are looking for a lot more than just a paycheck right now. They want to fail a sense of belonging, fail that they're making a difference more than ever. And it's interesting because you used to think that maybe it was people that were more in their mid-career, but now you see younger people from the start. They want to be at a place where they feel that they can make a difference.

SPEAKER_05: 7:22

Yeah, the younger generation, especially. I'm seeing it more and more as I'm speaking to people. And I've spoke to thousands of people, young and old, okay? And the young people, right, they're not money-driven, right? They want to be inspired by somebody. And if you're not inspiring them as a leader, they're going to go find somebody else to follow, or they're going to become a leader, inspire others. And so it's really important to recognize this. The command and control approach does not work anymore, okay? Now, I know that there needs to be some of that in leadership, right? There's going to be a time where there's a crisis, a deadline, and we need to command and control people, okay? But that shouldn't be your MO, right? As a leader, it should be about motivating people internally, not externally, right? Because there's only so much money you can give people. There's only so many benefits and vacation time. There's only so much you can give people, right? And people need to come to work for something more than that. And if you can really inspire them towards that, you're going to get much more out of them. People have potential that's waiting to be expressed. And the only way they're going to express it is if they are inspired by something great And most people work really hard for something that's greater than themselves, right? Like, I'll do more for my family, for others than I'll ever do for myself, right? And so I need to know what that more is. What does it look like? I have to tell you, I've asked this question to tens of thousands of people at this point, okay? I'll go into a group of leaders. I was just with a Fortune 100 company, and I spent several months with this company. And I went through several leadership development programs with them. And throughout the course of all of these, we're bringing people in, so 30 to 50 at a time. And I would ask everybody the same question. Do you know what your mission statement is? The leaders of this organization, do you know what your mission statement is? Can you even paraphrase it? Raise your hand. And I can tell you, not one person out of thousands of people knew the mission statement, all right, or could paraphrase it. Now, a couple of them kind of spit something out, right, here and there, but we're talking a handful out of hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people. A handful of people even could paraphrase it. So the question is, then why are you coming to work? You're coming to work for money and benefits. And then if you're leading people, if you don't know what the mission statement is, I guarantee they don't. If I came into your organization, I met with your team, I said, what's the mission statement here? If you don't know what it is, they don't know what it is, right? And so why are they coming to work? They're trading their time for money and benefits. It has to be more than that because... When things go bad and things always go bad, when things are tough, when resources are short, when people don't show up, when things are bad, right? If all you can lean on is the money and making the benefits, you'll look at that and say, It's just not enough for this. I'm not going to do this for this money, right? But if there's something greater than that, right, the purpose, the meaning why we're coming here, then you can say, I know this really stinks, but it's worth it because that's what we're doing. That's where we're going. And this particular organization is doing some pretty amazing stuff. And people have lost sight of it because they get into the busyness of this stuff. And it's not these. So these were mid-level leaders. It's not their fault that they don't know the mission statement. It's just not being impressed upon them enough by the higher levels of leadership. It's not compelling enough. How can you be motivated to do exceptional work when you don't even know why you're coming to work in the first place or you've lost sight of it, right? And you're just coming in and hoping you can get some money and benefits out of it. Great leaders know that they have to push way beyond the external motivation and the external reasons why people come to work and they have to get inside them. You talk to any of the greatest leaders, any of them, they'll tell you that they're motivating people intrinsically, not extrinsically. And there's a difference maker. So tools are required. We need to know how to speak to people, motivate them, give them feed. We need to know all these things and have the tools. And that's part of the program for sure. Okay. But that's not it, right? That's surface level. And so we're going way beneath the surface in this particular program. That's what excites me, John, if that's what you're asking.

SPEAKER_03: 11:10

It was. Yes. No, absolutely. And you got me excited again, too, because I love I love the people centric aspect of leadership development in general. It really energizes me because that is where I thrive with human connection and building relationships. I just I love stories. And I think that that's what's really special about this program is that we are conducting these sessions. From start to finish, right? From the time that we meet the client and understand where they're coming from, from the inside out, we're telling stories from there. We don't get the information that we need in order to do this properly without you telling us a story. We can't convey this back to your people or create the common ground, understand the mission statement without telling stories. And that is always from the time that we were born to the time of now. What we respond to is a connection to a journey that we're being taken on. And I love that that is such a focus of what this program is all about, is telling stories and sharing. And from the learning to the needs assessment, it's all about storytelling. Can you walk us through some of the key areas of focus within these two programs that you feel are particularly impactful for the participants?

SPEAKER_05: 12:40

Yeah, so when we look at both programs, so one is for new and emerging leaders or even people that aren't leading yet, right? So that aspire to be leaders. And so there's some fundamentals of leadership. And this is really where we get into what's truly necessary to become a really great leader, right? So most people, they think of leadership as management. And there is some management involved here. Okay, again, especially if you're an entry-level leader, supervisor, or team leader, you don't need to be managing people. However, with this program, we're walking through a process of sort of this fundamental need to know to be effective as a leader and all the tools that are necessary there. Okay. Then we're kind of advancing them through the program. So there's three tiers for each program. And at each level, this leader starts to develop and transform into the type of leader that we want them to become so they can be effective. And so in each of these programs, we're kind of ramping them up through these three levels. And at the third level here, now we're talking about sort of leadership sort of at the intrinsic level, but really this strategizing and getting more of your people and pulling out their potential and understanding what drives behavior and how we can get more for out of our people to get more for our organization, right? Because I honestly believe, and this has been my philosophy since I started doing any leadership development and when I left the company that I was a leader at, I honestly believe that if you want to grow your business, you want to grow your organization, you first have to grow your people. And so this idea of moving people through a process of growth and development, right? You said this development name of the program is leadership development. So it's growth and development. So we're not just growing them in their management skills and their leadership skills, but as a person. Okay. I get so many testimonials. I can share a few of them with you that people have transformed like as humans through the process, right? Not just as leaders, but as people. Thank you so much. You can care about people without leading them, but you can never lead people if you don't care about them, right? So we need to make sure that you understand that the intrinsic value of caring and empathy and all the things that are necessary for leading people. Now, there are some people that might be listening to this saying, let's command and control, right? I gotta get things done. I got a fast-paced environment. And that will work short-term, right? You'll get things done short-term, but you'll have a lot of attrition possibly, right? You'll have people that are coming to work and not feeling a sense of what Maria said, belonging, right? So there are two things. So I'll just give you a little bit of sort of a feeling of what I mean by sort of having people, connecting with people. As you mentioned, Jocelyn, we really need to connect with people's storytelling. There are two things that are really needs that we all have instinctively as human beings. We go back to when we were primitive, right? One of them as maria mentioned was a sense of belonging okay and the other one is a sense of security As a leader, if your people don't feel like they're secure and they don't feel like they belong, they will not perform at their best. So let me just explain what I mean by this. So if we think about evolutionary terms, right, our brain is designed for one thing, survival, avoid danger, okay? And so if you know this as a leader, and some of the things that we talk about in this program is this, right? If you know this as a leader, how the mind works, how the brain works, it can be a really powerful tool to get more out of your people. Because if people don't feel a sense of security or a sense of belonging, then they're restricted. And no one performs well when they're restricted, right? Think about this. If the brain is always looking to keep you safe and it thinks that I'm not safe because my leader doesn't trust me. Let's just say you get a feeling that a leader doesn't trust you. The brain says, okay, your security is at stake. Now, the brain does not know that it's just your job. Your brain thinks it's your life, okay? And so it's trying to protect you and not lose this sense of security. So what does a person do when they feel like they're insecure in this situation? environment, right? With their leader or even in a relationship or a loving relationship or a social relationship or anything like that. If they don't feel like there's trust, now they're restricted. They're scared. They're tiptoeing around. They're not taking chances. They're not expressing themselves. They're not stepping out. They're not doing more. They're just trying to do whatever they can to protect their security. You'll never get the most out of your people if they're in protection mode, right? So they're restricted. We want people to be openly and freely working to perform at their best. If you want to get the most out of people, they have to be free to express themselves, free to ask questions, free to challenge their leader, free to do the things necessary to grow, okay? If their sense of security is at stake, the brain says, protect yourself, and now we're working in a restricted state. Also, sense of belonging. If my leader doesn't make me feel like I belong here because they're not engaging with me like they engage with others, they're not connecting with me like they connect with others, I feel like my sense of belonging is at stake. Well, if you think about when we're primitive, if you didn't belong and you were extricated from the tribe, you were dead. And so your brain thinks the same thing. It doesn't know that it's just you're off the team. It thinks you're dead. So it's trying to protect you from losing this sense of belonging. And so What do we do? We're restricted again. I don't want to lose the sense of belonging here, so I'm not going to take chances. I'm not going to speak up. I'm not going to challenge anybody. I'm not going to question anything. I'm going to just do what I need to do to stay protected. This is the command and control type of leader that creates that environment of restriction. Leaders need to create an environment where people feel free to express themselves, to explore, to challenge. That is where you get the most out of your people. And if a leader doesn't understand the power of this, the mind-body connection, how the brain actually works, then they're probably, without even knowing it, putting people in a restricted state. I don't know if either of you, Maria or Jocelyn, have ever been in a situation where you were micromanaged, right? When you're being micromanaged, essentially you think that this person doesn't trust you. So you're in a restricted state. You're gonna be tiptoeing around work, right? Making sure you don't make any mistakes and making sure you're doing everything absolutely right so that you don't lose your sense of security, your sense of belonging. You'll never express your full potential if that's the way you're working. That leader is not effective. I wouldn't even call that person a leader, okay? With a micromanager. A leader would not allow a person to feel that way, right? To look at this biological terms or the brain, just real simple, that a person to feel free has to, is open to do whatever they want to do, right? They're walking around feeling great about themselves and they're doing it with, and if they're restricted, they're going to be turning in. It's just like if you own a dog, right? If your dog trusts you, what does your dog do, right? Goes, rolls on his back and opens his belly to you. All his vital organs trusts you, right? To rub its belly. If the dog is afraid of you, doesn't trust you as the dog do, right? curls up in a ball protecting his vital organs, right? We as humans are the same thing. If I go out on the golf course and I'm restricted, right? I'm going to shank one into the woods. But if I'm playing freely because I trust in my swing, I'm going to be able to smash the ball. So it's the same thing with all human beings. We're the same. We're trying to avoid losing a sense of security or losing a sense of belonging. And who's in control of that? the leader. The leader has anybody on their team doesn't feel like they have a sense of security or a sense of belonging, that team can't perform. Just bottom line, it's just human nature.

SPEAKER_04: 20:01

Right on. And I can see everything that you've talked about and definitely have experienced it on both sides. I know with me, because I started the company with my father 30 years ago and being micromanaged by him was, and he was definitely old school command and control. So it was definitely coming at it from both directions. I mean, certainly had very good intentions, but it was just a whole different world out there. Very interesting. It's kind of incredible.

SPEAKER_05: 20:37

Yeah. Do you feel like you were restricted when you were under that type of management and leadership?

SPEAKER_04: 20:43

Oh, very much so.

SPEAKER_05: 20:44

Absolutely. You grew your company, didn't you?

SPEAKER_04: 20:47

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_05: 20:49

You're a perfect example of

SPEAKER_03: 20:52

what I just shared. It was 30 years ago. That's how every business was run. We didn't know anything differently. And then all of a sudden, people started experiencing weird things like stress and burnout. And what is possibly going on here? And then it started to evolve into, oh, when people come to work, they're actually still human beings, right? We forgot about that. And having working these skills and focusing on different ways of leading people to encourage their development versus requiring it, demanding it from them. So I think that it just makes this program all the more beneficial and all the more substantial to the leadership development space. Because not only are we talking about this combined experience from somebody who has seen a company operate for 30 years and go through these changes, but from somebody on the consulting side who has been in organizations who have also done the same thing. And you can see all of the different aspects. It's truly homegrown and adapting. I'm going all over the place, but I'm so excited about this. But another part of that program is it has the room for that adaptability so that in the next 30 years, when things change again, the program molds itself into what the next generation of leaders need for their development. And it's it's developed and it's aligned and it has a process but it is fluid at the same exact time and it's hard to put those two things together but that's exactly what people development is right

SPEAKER_05: 22:42

yeah and then this is what separates this program from all the other programs out there you said something interesting you said human beings leaders believe that they're leading human beings managers believe they're they're leading human doings okay there's a difference between human being and human doing we need these people to do things do things do things i want my people to be something right and and there's a big difference there and so if you can understand that and your people are inspired by that and your people know that as a leader you want me to be not just do everything changes right just it's It's so important to recognize this, right? Because I think that the culture in most environments today has to change, right? And this program is about culture change. And culture change is just changing people's beliefs of how we should operate, of what leadership really means, of what is capable here, what's possible for our people. If a manager looks at their team or a person on their team and says, this person doesn't have what it takes, they're right. But they're not really right. They just think they're right. And then they're not allowing that person to express their full potential, right? I mean, if you don't believe somebody can do something, then you're not going to help them to get better, right? So you're just going to give them what they need to do. I was with a group of people just recently, and one of the managers said, I don't believe in this one person, and therefore, I don't give them anything that's beyond what I believe they can do. How are they going to ever grow? How are they going to ever grow? But that's the manager's belief in the person. And the manager's belief is skewed because you have no idea what that person's capable of, right? I mean, you could have a person like Jocelyn or Maria or me on your team. early on when we didn't know what we were doing or we didn't seem to be effective. I know from my personal experience, most people didn't believe I had the capacity to do anything, right? And so I was limited by that belief that they had in me until finally a leader came into my life that believed in me more than I believed in myself. And they pulled something out of me that I didn't even know existed. I'm the same human being. I have the same skills, the same brain, the same everything. Under one set of managers, I wasn't performing very well. Under this other leader who saw something in me that I didn't see, now all of a sudden I'm performing much greater. I'm doing more and more. And as I move through these stages of new people in my life that were leaders that saw something in me that I didn't see in me, my life radically changed. I'm the same person genetically that I was when I was losing and now I'm winning, right? What's the difference? The people that came into my life that pulled out the potential that was in me that I didn't know existed. It was there, right? They didn't inject me with potential. They pulled it out of me. And that's what leaders do. Leaders are able to pull out of their people what the people don't even know that they have. But if a lead, I'm going to say a manager doesn't believe they have that potential, then they won't do anything to pull it out of them. It's a simple story of an athlete. You probably see this before or seen stories of this. There's plenty of them on Netflix and things where an athlete in college gets recruited onto an NFL team, let's just say, and they're at training camp and they get cut. They didn't perform. They get cut. Total failure for this particular individual. They get cut and another team picks up this player. And for some reason on the other team, within a year or so, that person, that same athlete is the MVP of the team, maybe of the league. On one team, they didn't perform. On the other team, they did. Same athlete, same physical ability, same skill set, same attitude. On one team fails, another team wins. What's the only variable leadership the environments it was the same player they performed greater here than here for one simple reason the leaders pulled it out of them it already existed and that's what we're talking about with this program is can you as a leader right believe in your people have to pull out their potential right did it well here's a good question i asked a lot of leaders Do your people not have the potential or are you not willing to extract that from them? Or do you not even understand that you're the one who could extract that from them? Because most leaders just look at their people and say, this is what I've got, right? I don't want to look at a person and say, this is what I've got because that's limiting them, right? I want to say, let me see what you've got. It's difference. And that's a different approach to leadership. And that's what I believe in this program separates us from all the other programs out there.

SPEAKER_04: 26:54

Well, I love to see your passion talking about this. And it obviously was that mentor that saw all of these wonderful traits in you that have led you to this amazing career.

SPEAKER_05: 27:06

A hundred percent. If it wasn't for the people in my life, especially the first person in my life, that mentor who believed in me before I believed in me, I think I'd still be losing. And the thing is, I already had it in me. I just didn't know I did until somebody came into my life. I usually open up a leadership development training, especially when we're talking about pulling out potential in people. I'll say there are two things that either keep people back, right? The reason why people don't express their full potential, there's two reasons. One, a lack of belief in themselves. And number two, and this is the reason why we're here in this leadership development training, is that they don't have somebody in their life that believes in them before they believe in themselves. And that's where you come in. And it's like this moment of, what? Well, I have to believe in them for them to do well. Yes, you do. You have to believe in them for them to do well. There's plenty of studies, even psychological studies that prove this, right? And so you can just see this. If a leader believes in their people, I mean, think about you have two people on your team. One you don't believe in and one you do, right? When you distribute work to them, when you approach them, when you communicate to them, you know it's different with one of them, right? You're helping them, encouraging them and helping them to do better, right? And you're doing whatever you can to make them better. The other one, you're just trying to get them through the day and hopefully they'll give you what you pay them for, right? Whose fault is that? It's not the human being's fault that you're dealing with. It's your fault, right? You should be treating this person just like you're treating that person to get more out of them. But if you don't believe in them, you won't because your belief drives your behavior. And if you believe the person doesn't have what it takes, you're going to prove that to yourself. And then you have a person like me who would have been still stuck because somebody didn't believe in me. You could have. So I don't want to share my whole story here, but I was losing and now I feel like I'm winning much greater than I ever was, okay? And it was because of the people that came into my life, these leaders, right? whoever's out there listening to this right now, you could have one of me on your team, right? I'm not saying that to pat myself on the back, but you could have somebody you're saying, that guy's a loser, right? He doesn't have what it takes. And guess what you're missing out on? This person is going to leave your organization, go to another organization where a leader believes in them, and they're going to turn into somebody that you would have loved to have on your team. But you won't even know it, right? So you've got to believe in your people. I know that you're probably thinking, well, I got somebody on my team who's just no good. I can prove to you that that's just not true. They have more. Now, unless there's dysfunction, right? I don't want to rule out a dysfunctional human being. I'm not a doctor or a psychologist, so I don't mean that in a medical term or anything like that. But there are some people that maybe there's some dysfunction there that we're not going to be able to get more out of. them, and that's fine. We need to put them on the right seat of the bus, okay? But for most people, that's an outlier. For most people, they've got more in them. They just need you to help them figure that out and pull it out of them. That's the difference maker. It

SPEAKER_03: 29:38

is. It's so true. And I think that you hear about things like this and the way that you're saying it and our listeners are like, yeah, this is a great idea. I absolutely can sit back and be more practical about my feelings and understand, is this person just not performing the way that my A person does and that's why I'm so frustrated with them? Or... Do I truly need to consider that the skills that I need for somebody to perform like an A person this person does not have and therefore maybe I can put them somewhere else kind of thing versus never going to happen. See you later. Good luck to you in the future. I love... that part of this program is you're not only enabling those people in the new and emerging to understand what the skills are that they need to become a leader, but you're teaching them how to be the mentor that they need and then allowing them a space by being in a group with other people to find a mentor that maybe they never had. Now, that being said is kind of where the point was that I was going, I swear, is that it sounds pretty daunting. To be kind of responsible for that in a way as a leader to be, wow, these are the things that I have to think about now. And then all of a sudden what you don't want to push on your direct reports by being like, I don't want you to think I don't believe in you. That's not what it is. I'm going to be practical about this. Now are feelings about yourself because it's too much. I'm overwhelmed. I don't think I have what it takes to do this. But again, going back to the program. It's enabling you to be able to do that. Don't be overwhelmed because we have this and it's going to help you do that. All those feelings of overwhelm. How do they start making the decisions with us to determine who's participating and where? If they haven't noticed that special something that says this person's got something, I just need to know how to pull it out. How are they then determining who's the right person to put where as far as being a participant in the program and learning.

SPEAKER_05: 31:47

Yeah. So anybody at any level of leadership or you don't even have to be in a leadership position to get value from this program. Okay. Because again, this is transformational. You go through this program at any level of leadership and you are going to find a ton of value in it. And what I mean by that is you're going to transform as a person and it's going to help you in your role, right? Remember this is, you're developing you to develop others, right? So we're developing people to use the tools so that They're using them. We don't have to use them anymore. And so trying to get to understand how we can get a human being that right now might be thinking, I don't know if I have what it takes to be a leader. I didn't know I needed to understand this much about a person. It's really just a step-by-step process. we simplify it, okay? I have to tell you that in many of the, when I'm going through the process of helping a person understand leadership from the mindset perspective, right? So the mind-body connection and leadership, I use such a simple tool that it's kind of jaw-dropping for people. They're like, I wish I'd seen this years ago. I want to bring this home to my children. Do you have a video, right? I wish I learned this in school. It's simple to even share with a child. So if you're worried about this is daunting or something like, it is not. It's simple and at the same time complex, okay? But in a way that we teach this in this program can be ultimately transformational in a very short period of time, okay? So the initial... training that we do. So basic fundamentals of leadership in either of the programs. Okay. And the initial, you're going to learn sort of the psychology of leadership at a very easy way to understand it. That'll move you to the next level of understanding you better when we understand us, because it's developing you, then developing others, then developing the organization. Okay. So the three tiers essentially feel like that. Developing me as a leader, developing others as leaders, or developing others, increasing their potential, and then developing our organization. Because obviously the whole point here is to grow our organization, help our organization to grow. but it's a simple process. I don't want to leave out the fact that it's a complex. Look, each program is three days, three days for each tier. So it's nine days for one. If you want to go through the entire program, okay, one of the programs, New and Emerging Leaders, it would be nine full days of training, okay? So quite comprehensive and complex, but broken down in a way that anybody at any level can understand it. And I'm telling you, people tell me they want to go home and share this with their children. So it's that simple to understand. The concepts are that simple to understand and apply because it's just human. It's the mind-body connection when it comes to intrinsic leadership, okay? Of course, the tools on giving feedback and things like that that you would experience in many leadership development trainings, all the tools are there, right? So we can use them. But like I said, when we open this up, just because you have the tools and you have a toolbox full of them doesn't mean you're ever going to open them, right? And it's just like being a leader that says, I have an open-door policy, but are people willing to walk in, right? Probably not. And so you have to ask yourself, okay, why would anyone want to be led by me? Why would anyone want to be led by me, right? So if you can't answer that question, this program will help you answer it in a way that be compelling enough for people to want to be led by you. You'll understand it. It's really that important to understand from that internal perspective.

SPEAKER_03: 35:02

Based on the seat time that you want your employees to have, based on how you want it broken apart, you could be experiencing this program, even though the content reflects nine full days, you could be experiencing this program and going back and putting it into practice over the course of several months, which is really, really great for enabling your people not to just learn something, but to go do it and then come back and be better for the following sessions because now you've got a foundation that allows you to be more participatory and more understanding of that growth trajectory that you're on. But again, in a way that is digestible, in a way that feels like I've put my people first through something that they're now walking out of a completely different person. It's a life-changing experience going through this.

SPEAKER_05: 35:54

For sure. And there's also the ability to pick and choose some of the topics that are more important to you, right? So we have these elective courses that make it even more customizable, which is great. Look, we talk about this is transformational, right? And we can say this all day long. I don't know if we have a couple of minutes here I can just share with you. So I recently worked with a Fortune 100 company. And I got a whole bunch of feedback back, like hundreds of them. So I've got like 24 pages on a spreadsheet, but I highlighted a few. So you're not hearing it from me, but you're hearing it from leaders that participated in this particular event training. So it was a portion of what we're talking about here, a portion of this event. I just highlighted a few. I'm just going to share so you can hear it from their perspective, not mine. And I'm just highlighting not all, just the ones that really And there's so many of them, okay? But just highlight the ones that more about this is different and it's transformed. So because the goal here is for, I'm hoping for the listeners to realize this is different, okay? This is going to be different and transformational and developmental. And so just hearing from others. So I'll just share. So there's a list of them, okay? So I highlighted a few of them. This one is really good. Wow, every leader at XYZ company, should be required to take this training, starting with our top leader, meaning the CEO. And then this person said, a complete paradigm shift to leadership. Okay, so what does that tell you? This is completely different. Now, these people have taken leadership development programs. This is a large Fortune 100 company. They're taking them all the time. This one was a paradigm shift. Here, this one says, really challenge you to look within yourself to become a better leader and a better person. I would love to have my managers and team leads take this course. Let me see what else here. Definitely an awesome class. Thought-provoking, left with real tools to apply with my team. Thought-provoking is a good thing to hear, right? Something different. It isn't the same old, same old, right? Wow. Oh, this is a good one. I love this one. Wow. There's like four exclamation points, but then it says, I have some work to do. This was an excellent class. I have great tools to use. This one here, preparing. This is a great class for me to prepare my members for success. Bravo to XYZ Company for finding this training and bringing this training to us. It flew by in a blink of an eye. I am definitely prepared to continue my leadership journey after taking this class. This was just a piece of this class. It wasn't the entire three days, okay? We're talking about one chunk of it because we do this in half-day increments, right? So we can do this in a half-day. This was a half-day class that I'm getting this information from. I mean, the session was helpful in getting me to understand that in order to change people, I have to change coming from a leader. I can go on and on.

SPEAKER_04: 38:34

I love hearing these. I do too. That's absolutely fantastic because we hear it all the time from our clients that use you, Phil. So that's why we're, again, so excited to have this program because we have countless testimonials about how incredible your work is, what an impact, what transformation. So this is really exciting. I was going to end the session asking you, what would you say the key benefits or return on investment that attendees could have? expect, but I don't even know if we need to say any more. Your testimonials ain't say at all, unless you want to have any final words.

SPEAKER_05: 39:12

Yeah. The only thing I can say is that if there's no change, there's no progress, right? And if leaders can grow as leaders, then the organization will grow. If you cannot grow your leaders, the organization cannot grow. And this program is exactly that. It doesn't just give them the tools to grow and help people grow, but it also helps leaders help people to use those tools as well, okay? And that's kind of the big, big, big difference. And again, they go back to the difference between this program and everything else. It's about changing mindsets, right? About changing the mindsets and behaviors and ultimately changing people. If you change your people, you'll change your organization, right? It's about making a cultural shift in leadership. And like I say here, it's a paradigm shift for this particular leader, okay? This leader actually recommends that their leader, the top leader, takes this, okay? And this is a Fortune 100 companies. That leader is probably incredibly effective and still should take this particular class. If you really want to have a transformational experience with your leaders, you need to send them here. You really do. It's the content. It's the content. It's different.

SPEAKER_03: 40:20

Drop the mic. No, but don't because we have one more thing to do. Effectually, yes. Let's drop the mic on that. And thank you. Before we get into the fun little thing that we do at the end here, thank you, Phil, for everything that you've done. Because for clients that are listening, this program will knock your socks off. Like I'm telling you, Phil's content is unbelievable. And as a consultant, he works with you to... figure out exactly what it is that you need for impact. And you can't ask for anything more than that. And not to mention, you will likely have a lifetime golf buddy for the rest of your life. Okay. I'm just saying on top of that, you've been an incredible partner. And I am thrilled that after years of discussion to make sure that we have something that feels like TTA that represents the amazing talent that we have in our network, such as yourself and embracing the partnership to a new level that we couldn't have asked for any Anything more than what this program has become. And we hold so much value in you being a part of that. Now on to our next portion of inspiration, Phil. Back for a third time, I think, Phil, the TTA 10, my friend, David.

SPEAKER_01: 41:40

It's the TTA 10, 10 final questions for our guest.

SPEAKER_03: 41:46

all right phil you know the deal

SPEAKER_05: 41:49

yeah every time i do this when we're done i'm like man i didn't answer that i can't sleep that night after i do this because

SPEAKER_03: 41:58

the fun oh my god don't tell me that because i have the worst anxiety on the planet and now i'm going to stay up at night knowing that i keep you up at night so no no second guessing the fun part is that you answer however whatever your brain is telling you to do the questions are fun there's no right or wrong. And I have 10 that I don't think that you have heard from me before. So all you need to do is be ready. So are you?

SPEAKER_05: 42:26

I'm as ready as I can be.

SPEAKER_03: 42:27

That's my guy. All right, David, can we get 90 seconds on the clock, please?

SPEAKER_01: 42:32

Yes, 90 seconds on the TTA 10 clock begins now. All

SPEAKER_03: 42:39

right, Phil, what's your favorite color? Green. If you could have dinner with any fictional character, who would you choose?

SPEAKER_05: 42:47

Fictional character?

SPEAKER_03: 42:50

That's a tough

SPEAKER_05: 42:50

one. I honestly have never thought of that. And I really, nothing comes to mind to be honest with you, Dawson, a fictional character.

SPEAKER_04: 42:59

Superman.

SPEAKER_05: 43:02

There you go. Maybe that's your kryptonite. My wife will kill me. What if I said Wonder Woman?

SPEAKER_03: 43:08

Jack and Jill went up the hill, but there's no water up there. So what are they fetching?

SPEAKER_05: 43:13

Are they fetching gold?

SPEAKER_03: 43:16

What is your favorite class from the leadership program? Unlocking your team's potential. If you could invent a new holiday what would it be tta day what's the most spontaneous thing you've ever done for fun

SPEAKER_05: 43:32

spontaneous thing i've ever done for fun geez i used to not be a very fun person so i always work work work i'm trying to think of something spontaneous and fun geez that's a tough one jocelyn My wife's going to kill me if she's listening to this because it had to be something with her.

SPEAKER_03: 43:52

Anything with your wife, we'll take it. What's the most useful skill that you ever learned? Most

SPEAKER_05: 43:58

useful skill? I don't know if you would call this a skill, but loyalty.

SPEAKER_03: 44:04

If you could have any animal as a pet, what would it be? I have one. It's a little dog. Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, but how did he get up there? I helped him up there. If you could time travel, would you go to the past or to the future? I would go to the past. Okay, that's 10. David, give us the lie. I'm

SPEAKER_01: 44:32

still recovering from a long Memorial Day weekend. I had the timer set to the metric system or something. Anyway, the bottom line is, Phil somehow wins. He won.

SPEAKER_04: 44:45

It felt like it took 10 minutes. Those are some tough ones, Jocelyn. Sorry.

SPEAKER_01: 44:54

Well, we do have something prepared for Phil. And when I think of Phil, I think of his charisma, his ability to captivate an audience, and his... italian heritage and all that says to me he reminds me of a young sinatra and so we have a salute in the style of old blue eyes let's take a listen

SPEAKER_02: 45:24

and business dreams Phil Ciccio is here lighting up the scenes from the luxury lines to the corporate heights he's the man who guides brings wisdom to life I love it Phil Phil with a heart so grand leading with passion I need

SPEAKER_05: 45:43

a copy

SPEAKER_02: 45:44

of this when the coffee's on approaching duty calls you better yell floor because this guy's got calls he gets a message in service and grace you better A lot of yelling for here, I'm saying. Wisdom that goes through the walls Naval ships and high-speed rails He's wicked

SPEAKER_00: 46:31

smart, so he never fails Emotional smarts and a mindset to serve He's got the

SPEAKER_02: 46:38

secrets

SPEAKER_00: 46:40

we

SPEAKER_02: 46:40

can all tell He can help your attitude a bunch He could teach Will Smith how to pull a bunch His soul is to fill with a toast so high guidance we reach the sky like a young sinatra

SPEAKER_01: 47:05

Yes, that's

SPEAKER_05: 47:08

it.

SPEAKER_02: 47:08

Fabulous.

SPEAKER_03: 47:10

My wife is going to hate you for that, David. Phil's going to walk around with an iPad and that's going to be his face the whole time, just facing

SPEAKER_05: 47:17

out. Make sure you send that to me. It's going to be for my wife. My wife's going to hear it playing in the background all day. He

SPEAKER_03: 47:24

walks around his house with his fingers. He's like, it's Phil Ciccio.

SPEAKER_04: 47:28

Absolutely. You can play it on the golf

SPEAKER_03: 47:31

course too, Phil. What's that song you're humming? Phil. Oh,

SPEAKER_02: 47:35

nothing.

SPEAKER_03: 47:36

Like I'm going to be singing it all the way. We are well done. Well done.

SPEAKER_04: 47:44

Appreciate it. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_03: 47:48

If you're interested in bringing your team members through our leadership program, leadership development strategies for sustaining growth and adaptability, visit us at the training associates.com. We'll see you later.