Be an Agile Leader Featuring Chuck Mollor

Chuck Mollor: 00:00:00

The format first has to start with what are

Chuck Mollor: 00:00:01

you really passionate about?

Chuck Mollor: 00:00:03

Because look, if you're not passionate about this every day, if you don't

Chuck Mollor: 00:00:06

believe in yourself and believe in the solutions that you're offering,

Chuck Mollor: 00:00:10

my mindset's is very simple.

Chuck Mollor: 00:00:12

If I don't feel I have a world class offering in terms of expertise

Chuck Mollor: 00:00:15

and solutions and impact...

Chuck Mollor: 00:00:17

I'm not going to offer it.

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:00:26

Welcome to Smashing the Plateau.

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We help consultants, coaches, entrepreneurs, and small business

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owners build their businesses after long careers as employees.

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We believe you should be able to do what you love and get paid

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what you're worth, consistently.

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I'm your host, David Shriner-Cahn.

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Today on Smashing the Plateau, I'm speaking with the CEO of

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:00:48

MCG Partners, Chuck Mollor.

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In today's episode, you will learn how to be an agile leader and

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build a business that is modeled to serve your clients and you well.

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Stay with us to hear all the details.

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How do you feel about where your business is today?

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Come explore ours.

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through live events, a private communication platform, accountability

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partners, and lots more resources.

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Speak to me or one of our community members to learn more.

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You can schedule a quick conversation at smashingtheplateau.com/15.

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:01:31

That's smashingtheplateau.com/15, or go to our website at smashingtheplateau.com.

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:01:39

Now, let's welcome Chuck Mollor.

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:01:41

Chuck is Founder, CEO, Executive Coach, and advisor at MCG Partners,

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an organization that specializes in leadership and talent optimization,

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aligning business and people strategy for maximum results.

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:01:56

He is the author of his new and bestselling book, "The Rise of the

Agile Leader: 00:01:59

Can you make the shift?"

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and Amazon's number one bestselling book on management.

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As a recognized expert in leadership effectiveness, a former Harvard Business

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School executive coach and a member of the Forbes Coaches Council, Chuck specializes

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in coaching and advising senior global executives and leadership teams through

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times of rapid growth, M&A, and change.

Agile Leader: 00:02:23

Chuck, welcome to the show.

Chuck Mollor: 00:02:24

Thanks, David.

Chuck Mollor: 00:02:25

Thank you for having me here.

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:02:27

It's great to have you on.

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:02:28

Can you talk a little bit about your own career and personal

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journey to get us started?

Chuck Mollor: 00:02:33

Sure.

Chuck Mollor: 00:02:34

I'm definitely part of that very large group that, that was graduating college,

Chuck Mollor: 00:02:38

trying to figure out what I wanted to do.

Chuck Mollor: 00:02:40

But I always was, drawn to business and the dynamics of

Chuck Mollor: 00:02:43

business and organizations.

Chuck Mollor: 00:02:45

I've always liked being a problem solver.

Chuck Mollor: 00:02:47

I've always liked to learn.

Chuck Mollor: 00:02:49

Always been very curious and I get bored very easily, David.

Chuck Mollor: 00:02:52

Consulting was a really good career path for me and I spent most of my

Chuck Mollor: 00:02:56

career in management consulting, and, based upon that description, no

Chuck Mollor: 00:03:00

surprise, I actually bounced across a number of different practices.

Chuck Mollor: 00:03:04

Most people kind of stick to one practice or methodology.

Chuck Mollor: 00:03:07

Yeah, no, not me.

Chuck Mollor: 00:03:08

I started off doing business process reengineering for a year that

Chuck Mollor: 00:03:12

I got involved in some strategy consulting, and then I moved into

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the change management practice, which I did for a number of years.

Chuck Mollor: 00:03:20

And then probably about 25 years ago, I got into the leadership development,

Chuck Mollor: 00:03:24

talent management space and I never left.

Chuck Mollor: 00:03:26

I was fortunate where, I did consulting work, I managed projects, managed teams.

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And I got involved and I experimented, I liked the big consulting environment

Chuck Mollor: 00:03:34

in terms of early your career, providing some good mentorship and foundation

Chuck Mollor: 00:03:38

in terms of the best practices.

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And then I did a couple of boutiques, one boutique I should say in particular.

Chuck Mollor: 00:03:43

And then I did a global startup ,and I built a practice for a global firm.

Chuck Mollor: 00:03:47

So I I liked experimenting my career and I liked, getting exposure to those

Chuck Mollor: 00:03:51

different, practices and methodologies.

Chuck Mollor: 00:03:54

And then I, advanced my career to running a practice.

Chuck Mollor: 00:03:58

I ran business developments and then I also became the CEO.

Chuck Mollor: 00:04:01

I was a CEO of a global consulting firm for about four or five years, and

Chuck Mollor: 00:04:05

then we got acquired twice in one year.

Chuck Mollor: 00:04:07

And then I started my own firm 15 years ago.

Chuck Mollor: 00:04:09

So I'm a little unique in the sense that I am a coach, I'm an advisor, but

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I also own and run a consulting firm.

Chuck Mollor: 00:04:15

We got about 50 people.

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:04:17

Yeah.

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:04:17

I would say that is unique, that a very common path is someone who is

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:04:23

in the corporate world or an industry and rises up the career ladder gets

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:04:30

to a point where she or he would prefer to, the way I describe it is

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:04:36

take more control over their destiny.

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:04:39

And, sometimes they leave voluntarily and sometimes they get pushed out and they use

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:04:44

the transition as an opportunity to really kind of double down on what it is they

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love doing, what they're best at doing.

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And they do it in a coaching format.

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:04:54

Often it's solo, sometimes it's in a firm, but often it's solo.

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:04:58

And your career trajectory was a little different.

Chuck Mollor: 00:05:02

Yeah, I know it was, and, but I did design this role of my

Chuck Mollor: 00:05:05

business to suit what I was interested in.

Chuck Mollor: 00:05:07

I liked the idea of having a business and having a team and having a,

Chuck Mollor: 00:05:11

people that I could manage and develop and lead and scale on some level.

Chuck Mollor: 00:05:15

I decided I did not want to open up offices around the us, the or

Chuck Mollor: 00:05:18

globally, like I had done previously.

Chuck Mollor: 00:05:21

Cause I had, I, at the time, I had three out of my four young

Chuck Mollor: 00:05:24

children that I wanted to be involved in their quality of life.

Chuck Mollor: 00:05:27

Coach soccer and go to dance recitals and all those things you do as a parent.

Chuck Mollor: 00:05:32

So I kind of desi designed the job to fit both my personal lifestyle

Chuck Mollor: 00:05:36

needs and the least desires, but also a role that made sense for me.

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I came full circle.

Chuck Mollor: 00:05:41

I've been in the ivory tower for a number of years and I wanted to get back and

Chuck Mollor: 00:05:45

make a difference with the clients again.

Chuck Mollor: 00:05:46

And I'm still living in the business where I'm learning, I'm learning

Chuck Mollor: 00:05:49

about industries and companies and the challenges that people

Chuck Mollor: 00:05:52

are facing in the marketplace.

Chuck Mollor: 00:05:53

And I think if you have that, I hate to say classic consulting

Chuck Mollor: 00:05:56

mindset and interest, which is you're motivated by learning, you're

Chuck Mollor: 00:06:00

motivated by problem solving, you're motivated by making a difference.

Chuck Mollor: 00:06:03

It's really a nice fit for me personally, in addition to, running the firm.

Chuck Mollor: 00:06:07

So yeah, I have this hybrid job, but I enjoy that.

Chuck Mollor: 00:06:11

That's, it's satisfying for me personally.

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:06:14

And I gather, Chuck, that you also have, a wide

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:06:17

variety of interests both on the kind of work side and on the non-work side.

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:06:25

I see that, you were a cranberry grower?

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:06:28

Owner, right?

Chuck Mollor: 00:06:29

Yeah.

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:06:29

And also board member of several organizations.

Chuck Mollor: 00:06:33

No, I've been involved in a number of boards over the years,

Chuck Mollor: 00:06:35

both for profit as well as nonprofit.

Chuck Mollor: 00:06:38

I'm a big believer, I even talk about this in, in my book, about making sure

Chuck Mollor: 00:06:41

you have healthy time in each of our quadrants of life, which essentially is

Chuck Mollor: 00:06:46

yourself, your family, and friends, your community, and then of course, your work.

Chuck Mollor: 00:06:51

So I, I like to make sure that I'm spending enough time in each of those

Chuck Mollor: 00:06:54

quadrants, not just one or two..

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:06:55

Right.

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:06:56

It's really important to living an integrated life.

Chuck Mollor: 00:06:58

I agree.

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:06:59

Yeah.

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:07:00

Could you talk a little bit about how you came to really

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:07:04

double down on your specialty?

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:07:07

You do have a pretty broad background, yet you've now really specialized in one area.

Chuck Mollor: 00:07:14

Yeah, I, for me personally, yes, I specialize in what I do in

Chuck Mollor: 00:07:18

terms of the work I provide to clients.

Chuck Mollor: 00:07:20

As a firm, we're broader, we have essentially three practices.

Chuck Mollor: 00:07:23

We have a leadership development practice, which includes everything from executive

Chuck Mollor: 00:07:27

coaching to leadership development, to management training, to succession

Chuck Mollor: 00:07:31

planning, to leadership alignment.

Chuck Mollor: 00:07:35

So that's actually fairly broad.

Chuck Mollor: 00:07:37

our organizational practice is everything from work around

Chuck Mollor: 00:07:40

culture to work around change.

Chuck Mollor: 00:07:42

We have a DEI capability in there.

Chuck Mollor: 00:07:45

We also work around point engagements and we do a lot of work around

Chuck Mollor: 00:07:48

team effectiveness, team building, including hybrid and virtual workforce

Chuck Mollor: 00:07:53

effectiveness, which as you could expect the last two years has been huge.

Chuck Mollor: 00:07:56

We did a lot of work around that.

Chuck Mollor: 00:07:58

And then our talent practice essentially is assessments.

Chuck Mollor: 00:08:00

Where we do everything from behavioral assessments that we have a tool that we

Chuck Mollor: 00:08:04

use that we're we have a, long term sort of global certified partner relationship.

Chuck Mollor: 00:08:10

And then we also do a lot of 360 assessment, employee engagement surveys.

Chuck Mollor: 00:08:14

So that's what we call our telepractice.

Chuck Mollor: 00:08:15

So as our firm, we're actually pretty broad.

Chuck Mollor: 00:08:18

That allows us to really David, partner with our clients actually.

Chuck Mollor: 00:08:22

Smaller mid-size companies that really want a partner to help them throughout

Chuck Mollor: 00:08:26

the talent management life cycle.

Chuck Mollor: 00:08:28

We do a lot of work with Global and Fortune 500 firms as well,

Chuck Mollor: 00:08:32

where it's a bit more specialized either around leadership

Chuck Mollor: 00:08:35

development or executive coaching.

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:08:37

And how did you personally decide on your niche in the

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:08:41

service that you perform with clients?

Chuck Mollor: 00:08:43

Yeah.

Chuck Mollor: 00:08:43

I think, as I was starting my firm 15, over 15 years ago, I knew that I wanted to

Chuck Mollor: 00:08:48

be, was a self-funded, business startup.

Chuck Mollor: 00:08:50

So I was going to do it on my own and I wasn't looking to scale that quickly.

Chuck Mollor: 00:08:54

So I was experimenting early on my first year to say, okay, what

Chuck Mollor: 00:08:57

really role I wanted to have.

Chuck Mollor: 00:08:59

And in that I knew what my business model was going to be, as I already

Chuck Mollor: 00:09:02

described it, we really haven't changed that business model in 15+ years.

Chuck Mollor: 00:09:06

Maybe we've, we've obviously up, you know, modified and, upgraded in

Chuck Mollor: 00:09:09

terms of best practices and research, including what the book is based upon,

Chuck Mollor: 00:09:13

which is this new leadership model we design called The Agile Leader.

Chuck Mollor: 00:09:16

So we continue to make sure we're staying current with what the needs

Chuck Mollor: 00:09:20

are in the marketplace, but from my role, it really is a reflection about

Chuck Mollor: 00:09:24

my own experiences as a leader, david, I had, I was one of those leaders

Chuck Mollor: 00:09:27

that got tapped on the shoulder and said, Hey, we had a 360 assessment.

Chuck Mollor: 00:09:31

So my own personal experiences of leading and managing my own trials

Chuck Mollor: 00:09:35

and tribulations as a manager, in the moments where that were very

Chuck Mollor: 00:09:39

transformational for me to really figure out what leadership meant for

Chuck Mollor: 00:09:42

me, made a huge difference in my career.

Chuck Mollor: 00:09:45

So based upon those experiences, I thought becoming an executive

Chuck Mollor: 00:09:49

coach, would be a good fit for me.

Chuck Mollor: 00:09:51

And, it's really a combination of coaching and doing some advisory work

Chuck Mollor: 00:09:54

that's been a really good fit for me.

Chuck Mollor: 00:09:56

I've really had such amount of, I'm just so grateful to be able to do what

Chuck Mollor: 00:09:59

I've been doing the last 15+ years.

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:10:01

Yeah.

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:10:01

Congratulations on what you've built, this success you've

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:10:03

achieved, and also congratulations on the release of your new book.

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:10:07

What led you to write it?

Chuck Mollor: 00:10:10

Yeah, I asked the question actually right before Covid to my team.

Chuck Mollor: 00:10:13

I said, what do we think is the future of leadership?

Chuck Mollor: 00:10:15

And the leadership model has hadn't really changed that

Chuck Mollor: 00:10:18

dramatically the last 10+ years.

Chuck Mollor: 00:10:21

And yet the world had been changing rapidly, and this is before covid.

Chuck Mollor: 00:10:24

Cycles innovation are getting shorter and shorter of a pace.

Chuck Mollor: 00:10:27

The intensity of change, the digitalization of business, the

Chuck Mollor: 00:10:31

multiple generations in the workforce.

Chuck Mollor: 00:10:33

And then, obviously Covid just accelerated all that.

Chuck Mollor: 00:10:36

Including issues around diversity, equity, inclusion, the virtual

Chuck Mollor: 00:10:40

hybrid workforce became an issue.

Chuck Mollor: 00:10:42

So we have all these things going on, but what are leader, what do

Chuck Mollor: 00:10:45

leaders need to do to be effective?

Chuck Mollor: 00:10:47

So we interviewed CEOs, we interviewed clients, we looked at research.

Chuck Mollor: 00:10:51

We came up with this leadership model that we coined The Agile Leader.

Chuck Mollor: 00:10:54

So that became the impetus to the book, David.

Chuck Mollor: 00:10:57

In addition to that, I really wanted to provide a roadmap to help leaders

Chuck Mollor: 00:11:01

at any level get to the next.

Chuck Mollor: 00:11:02

So, you know, for some people, 95% of the roadmap is completely,

Chuck Mollor: 00:11:07

new and transformational.

Chuck Mollor: 00:11:09

For maybe a very seasoned leader, 10% or 20% of the book

Chuck Mollor: 00:11:13

is going to be very impactful.

Chuck Mollor: 00:11:14

But the point is, no matter who you are, your background or your

Chuck Mollor: 00:11:17

level, I want to have a roadmap that's going to be hopefully

Chuck Mollor: 00:11:20

helpful and a very practical level.

Chuck Mollor: 00:11:22

Tools and strategies, methodologies that a person can

Chuck Mollor: 00:11:25

incorporate in their day to day.

Chuck Mollor: 00:11:27

So that was really the what motivated me to write the book.

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:11:30

Chuck, what are some of the techniques that

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:11:32

you, that the book recommends for leaders who want to be agile?

Chuck Mollor: 00:11:37

Yeah, there, there's a number of things.

Chuck Mollor: 00:11:39

There's definitely this self-awareness component.

Chuck Mollor: 00:11:41

we've been talking about self-awareness for a lot of years.

Chuck Mollor: 00:11:43

That's not new.

Chuck Mollor: 00:11:45

But how do you really apply that in a very practical way?

Chuck Mollor: 00:11:48

And by the way, what techniques and tools, they're not necessarily new either, are

Chuck Mollor: 00:11:52

you doing in terms of how you ask for feedback and how you focus on what you're

Chuck Mollor: 00:11:56

developing and frankly, if you're now focusing on self development, You're

Chuck Mollor: 00:11:59

letting yourself down, including your organization, your team and I think one

Chuck Mollor: 00:12:03

of the challenges I've seen, especially the last few years, David, with a lot

Chuck Mollor: 00:12:06

of leaders, is they don't recognize that leadership and managing in itself

Chuck Mollor: 00:12:10

is a skill in itself, is a profession.

Chuck Mollor: 00:12:13

Okay.

Chuck Mollor: 00:12:14

A lot of people, because they're bright, they're highly

Chuck Mollor: 00:12:17

competent individual contributor.

Chuck Mollor: 00:12:18

They're incredibly successful as a performer.

Chuck Mollor: 00:12:21

They're thrust in the management very often and they're in it for a

Chuck Mollor: 00:12:23

lot of years in advance, quickly.

Chuck Mollor: 00:12:25

And next thing you know, they, they just take for granted that, management and

Chuck Mollor: 00:12:29

leadership is just part of their mindset or part of their personality in itself.

Chuck Mollor: 00:12:33

It's a skill, it's a profession.

Chuck Mollor: 00:12:34

and if you take that mindset of understanding that how do I continue to

Chuck Mollor: 00:12:38

get better as a manager, leader, as a skill, as a profession, that's how you're

Chuck Mollor: 00:12:42

going to continue to develop yourself.

Chuck Mollor: 00:12:43

The moment you think, Hey, I of reached the pinnacle of my expertise,

Chuck Mollor: 00:12:47

that's when you're let yourself down for potential failure because.

Chuck Mollor: 00:12:50

it's a constant, lifelong approach of learning and development.

Chuck Mollor: 00:12:54

So I think that's, to me, one of the most critical elements that

Chuck Mollor: 00:12:56

I talk about that in the book.

Chuck Mollor: 00:12:58

I cover really a lot of material in the book.

Chuck Mollor: 00:13:00

There's 20, I can't even remember how many chapters, like 26.

Chuck Mollor: 00:13:03

I cover a lot of different sections David.

Chuck Mollor: 00:13:05

One thing in particular I talk about is triggers.

Chuck Mollor: 00:13:08

I've done a lot of work.

Chuck Mollor: 00:13:09

I've come up with my own methodology and how people help them manage their

Chuck Mollor: 00:13:12

emotions and manage their triggers.

Chuck Mollor: 00:13:14

Now, whether you're very intense and very, sort of assertive personality, or you're

Chuck Mollor: 00:13:19

very low keyed, in laid back and calm.

Chuck Mollor: 00:13:22

We all have triggers, and it all impacts on how we interact,

Chuck Mollor: 00:13:25

respond, develop relationships, and address specific situations.

Chuck Mollor: 00:13:30

I talk about conflict.

Chuck Mollor: 00:13:32

I talk about managing, multiple generations and managing a hybrid

Chuck Mollor: 00:13:35

workforce, a virtual workforce.

Chuck Mollor: 00:13:37

So I really cover a lot of, managing change.

Chuck Mollor: 00:13:40

So I really cover.

Chuck Mollor: 00:13:41

To me, I try to cover really the critical aspects of managing,

Chuck Mollor: 00:13:45

leading in today's work environment.

Chuck Mollor: 00:13:47

And again, trying to give people some really practical tools

Chuck Mollor: 00:13:49

and techniques on how to be

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:13:51

effective.

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:13:52

Chuck, what are some examples of, some leaders that follow this kind of

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:13:56

methodology and have done really well?

Chuck Mollor: 00:13:58

That's a really great example.

Chuck Mollor: 00:13:59

I think a couple of things.

Chuck Mollor: 00:14:00

I think a leader that I know particular, and I use this metaphor in my book.

Chuck Mollor: 00:14:05

I, we, and I like to be visual, right?

Chuck Mollor: 00:14:07

And give people to close their eyes and visualize in a lot

Chuck Mollor: 00:14:09

of ways a leader is a surfer.

Chuck Mollor: 00:14:11

Right now, no, I may not resonate with a lot of people but let me, continue.

Chuck Mollor: 00:14:15

What I mean by that is, and I'm not a surfer, which is even funnier,

Chuck Mollor: 00:14:18

I'm using that as a metaphor.

Chuck Mollor: 00:14:19

But my point here is that when you're surfing, you have no idea what's going

Chuck Mollor: 00:14:24

to go on in the ocean at any given day, frankly, any given moment, whether

Chuck Mollor: 00:14:27

it's the conditions of the ocean you know the direction of the waves,

Chuck Mollor: 00:14:31

the choppiness or a storm brewing.

Chuck Mollor: 00:14:34

As a surfer, you're surfing in chaos, essentially.

Chuck Mollor: 00:14:37

The key is balance.

Chuck Mollor: 00:14:38

How do you find balance on that surfboard?

Chuck Mollor: 00:14:40

Well, guess what, in life it's similar, right?

Chuck Mollor: 00:14:42

As a leader, you're swimming really, often in an ocean in your organization.

Chuck Mollor: 00:14:47

You even know what direction your business is going in.

Chuck Mollor: 00:14:49

What's the business climate?

Chuck Mollor: 00:14:50

What's going on with your people?

Chuck Mollor: 00:14:52

The challenges that everyone's facing.

Chuck Mollor: 00:14:54

You've gotta create stability.

Chuck Mollor: 00:14:55

You've gotta find, create a stable environment for your people to

Chuck Mollor: 00:14:59

feel safe, for your people, to feel you're there to help support them.

Chuck Mollor: 00:15:04

That they're grounded in their environment even though there's chaos all around us.

Chuck Mollor: 00:15:08

So you try to use that as a visual, but also as is the methodology for leadership.

Chuck Mollor: 00:15:13

And that really ties into, and I already just said this kind of

Chuck Mollor: 00:15:17

creates safe work environment.

Chuck Mollor: 00:15:18

What does that really mean?

Chuck Mollor: 00:15:19

Safe work environment means that, people feel they can, challenge, they

Chuck Mollor: 00:15:24

can make mistakes, they can fail, they can challenge the status quo,

Chuck Mollor: 00:15:28

that they're not going to get shot down with their ideas and opinions.

Chuck Mollor: 00:15:32

They're not going to get thrown out or lose their job or slap them the wrist

Chuck Mollor: 00:15:36

if they make a mistake or failure.

Chuck Mollor: 00:15:38

And the challenge is, we all remember in our careers, we learn by failure.

Chuck Mollor: 00:15:42

When we look back at our careers and our profession, we recognize how we've

Chuck Mollor: 00:15:46

gotten better is how we've learned, overcome our failures and mistakes.

Chuck Mollor: 00:15:50

Yet when we get into management, whether it's the pressures of, the executive

Chuck Mollor: 00:15:53

team or if you are an executive team member and it's the board.

Chuck Mollor: 00:15:57

Or it's your investors or your shareholders.

Chuck Mollor: 00:16:00

We sometimes put so much pressure, we forget sometimes the formula for success

Chuck Mollor: 00:16:04

and the formula for success is creating an environment where people can thrive.

Chuck Mollor: 00:16:09

And take risk and fail and be innovative because without innovation, not just

Chuck Mollor: 00:16:14

in terms of products and services, but internally, you're risking the

Chuck Mollor: 00:16:18

organization that's going to get stale and that's not going to grow

Chuck Mollor: 00:16:20

and that's not going to thrive.

Chuck Mollor: 00:16:22

And that people are not going to give, beyond discretionary effort.

Chuck Mollor: 00:16:25

So that's one of the foundations that I I often talk about.

David Shriner-Cahn:

Speaker: 00:16:28

That's a huge challenge.

David Shriner-Cahn:

Speaker: 00:16:29

And I love the metaphor, the surfing metaphor about, trying to

David Shriner-Cahn:

Speaker: 00:16:33

achieve balance in a world of chaos.

David Shriner-Cahn:

Speaker: 00:16:35

It's so true.

David Shriner-Cahn:

Speaker: 00:16:37

No, thank you.

Chuck Mollor: 00:16:37

I'm not a surfer either.

Chuck Mollor: 00:16:38

We all can visualize it, right?

Chuck Mollor: 00:16:40

We all can visualize it.

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:16:41

We all can visualize it.

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:16:43

And, I grew up near the ocean, so I spent a lot of time at the beach, so I

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:16:45

know exactly what you're talking about.

Chuck Mollor: 00:16:47

Yeah, I think it's important we think about that because

Chuck Mollor: 00:16:49

again, if anything, the world continues to be, especially with the access to

Chuck Mollor: 00:16:54

media and digitalization, everything feels like it's in our backyard.

Chuck Mollor: 00:16:57

And so how do we create a mindset as well as a work environment and psychologically

Chuck Mollor: 00:17:02

where people, again, there's a lot of work around psychological safety and

Chuck Mollor: 00:17:05

a lot of that's what I'm referring.

Chuck Mollor: 00:17:07

About, how do we create environment where people feel they, they can

Chuck Mollor: 00:17:10

do all those things and we, and we have to remember the relationship

Chuck Mollor: 00:17:12

between innovation and failure.

Chuck Mollor: 00:17:14

and I talk about this a lot, David, which is, without

Chuck Mollor: 00:17:16

failure there is no innovation.

Chuck Mollor: 00:17:18

And we sometimes, especially when you get to senior manager and we forget

Chuck Mollor: 00:17:21

about that, we figure about the principles, what innovation's all about.

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:17:24

That's a really important point, Chuck.

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:17:26

I wondered if we could shift and talk a little bit about, for someone who

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:17:31

is in a consulting role, particularly for those folks that may be earlier

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:17:37

on in their consulting business, and they're not looking to grow a

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:17:41

team as large as yours, how do you choose the right business model?

Chuck Mollor: 00:17:46

Well, I mean, I think there's got, I'm going

Chuck Mollor: 00:17:47

to become a formula person.

Chuck Mollor: 00:17:48

I think the formula first has to start with what are you really passionate about?

Chuck Mollor: 00:17:52

Because look, if you're not passionate about this every day, if you don't

Chuck Mollor: 00:17:55

believe in yourself and believe in the solutions that you're offering,

Chuck Mollor: 00:17:59

my mindset's going is very simple.

Chuck Mollor: 00:18:01

If I can't, if I don't feel I have a world class offering in terms

Chuck Mollor: 00:18:04

of expertise and solutions and impact, I'm not going to offer it.

Chuck Mollor: 00:18:08

It's just too competitive world out there.

Chuck Mollor: 00:18:10

Doesn't mean that necessarily everyone's going to want to buy from us when it

Chuck Mollor: 00:18:13

comes to those capabilities, but to me, I feel we're going to be world

Chuck Mollor: 00:18:16

class and we're going to continue to, by the way, research and invest in.

Chuck Mollor: 00:18:20

And that's so critical of consulting.

Chuck Mollor: 00:18:22

You just cannot continue to lean on models and solutions that

Chuck Mollor: 00:18:26

you created five, 10 years ago.

Chuck Mollor: 00:18:28

You've got to constantly be out there and doing research and evaluating best

Chuck Mollor: 00:18:32

practices and looking at the future trends, what's needing out there.

Chuck Mollor: 00:18:36

So that's, that to me is number one.

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:18:38

So you got to be on top of your game.

Chuck Mollor: 00:18:39

Yeah, you got to, you've got to be passionate about it, and

Chuck Mollor: 00:18:42

you've got to invest in your expertise and your knowledge and think about

Chuck Mollor: 00:18:45

the future, not just about today.

Chuck Mollor: 00:18:47

Not overly rely on the methodology that you've been using for a number of years.

Chuck Mollor: 00:18:51

The other, second thing that's really critical, and I can give you an example of

Chuck Mollor: 00:18:54

this and I will, is where is the demand?

Chuck Mollor: 00:18:57

So I'll give you an example.

Chuck Mollor: 00:18:58

One of the things I first did when I created my business that

Chuck Mollor: 00:19:01

we still provide it, is I really thought that the future was going

Chuck Mollor: 00:19:05

to be about new leader onboarding.

Chuck Mollor: 00:19:07

Because, new leaders, especially hired externally, they still fail at a, like

Chuck Mollor: 00:19:12

a 45% failure rate after 18 months, which is astounding when you think

Chuck Mollor: 00:19:17

about the impact of productivity, performance, stability, culture, morale,

Chuck Mollor: 00:19:23

and then performance of your people.

Chuck Mollor: 00:19:24

There's a lot of instability, unrest when a new executive comes in from

Chuck Mollor: 00:19:28

the outside and fails after 18 months for a variety of reasons.

Chuck Mollor: 00:19:32

So to me the solution was a new leader onboarding coaching program and toolkit.

Chuck Mollor: 00:19:36

I thought it was going to be a home run.

Chuck Mollor: 00:19:38

And guess what?

Chuck Mollor: 00:19:39

Crickets.

Chuck Mollor: 00:19:40

You know why?

Chuck Mollor: 00:19:40

Because in the priority of what companies wanted to spend money on,

Chuck Mollor: 00:19:44

they all saw the value, but they didn't say, I'm going to spend money on it.

Chuck Mollor: 00:19:48

So the lesson learned there is, I might think I may see what the need is, and

Chuck Mollor: 00:19:53

I may try to convince as many prospects and clients that they need to use this.

Chuck Mollor: 00:19:58

But the of the day, if it's not a demand for them, It's not

Chuck Mollor: 00:20:01

going to be the right solution.

Chuck Mollor: 00:20:03

So, it sounds like a very simple, example, but trust me, I see too many people

Chuck Mollor: 00:20:08

trying to provide a solution that there's simply no demand in the market for.

Chuck Mollor: 00:20:12

So the demand in the marketplace is really critical.

Chuck Mollor: 00:20:15

And then third, the last thing I'll say, just to keep it simple,

Chuck Mollor: 00:20:18

is where do you spend your time?

Chuck Mollor: 00:20:20

Especially becuase you know, I think we can agree that the majority of consultants

Chuck Mollor: 00:20:24

or coaches out there are individuals.

Chuck Mollor: 00:20:26

So how are you?

Chuck Mollor: 00:20:27

And it's like the three or four legged stool, depending on how

Chuck Mollor: 00:20:30

many legs you want to talk about.

Chuck Mollor: 00:20:32

We already talked about one of them, which is, investing in your expertise,

Chuck Mollor: 00:20:36

investing in your best practices, and your solutions that you're offering.

Chuck Mollor: 00:20:40

The second, leg is obviously delivering work.

Chuck Mollor: 00:20:43

Having clients, they're working with you and you're providing

Chuck Mollor: 00:20:46

services and you're executing.

Chuck Mollor: 00:20:49

And remember of the cliche, and I use this with my team every time.

Chuck Mollor: 00:20:52

You're only as good as what you deliver today.

Chuck Mollor: 00:20:54

Doesn't make a difference what you did yesterday or five years

Chuck Mollor: 00:20:57

ago, 10 years ago, 20 years ago.

Chuck Mollor: 00:20:59

So make sure that when you're delivering, you're delivering what

Chuck Mollor: 00:21:01

you're there to deliver, and it's only as good as what you're doing today.

Chuck Mollor: 00:21:05

And the last stool, or leg, I should say, of that stool is external.

Chuck Mollor: 00:21:09

Building relationships, networking, doing business development, being

Chuck Mollor: 00:21:13

involved in the business community, finding partnerships and alliances,

Chuck Mollor: 00:21:17

investing in professional associations.

Chuck Mollor: 00:21:20

And again, I think what happens to a lot of individuals is they get

Chuck Mollor: 00:21:23

so busy delivering a project and they're trying to find balance in

Chuck Mollor: 00:21:26

their own personal life, they're not investing in those other two legs.

Chuck Mollor: 00:21:30

And that's honestly the biggest challenge for any individual versus being part

Chuck Mollor: 00:21:34

of an organization is how do I, Now there's a lot of really successful

Chuck Mollor: 00:21:38

people that can do that, but they're all, they've also disciplined themselves in

Chuck Mollor: 00:21:42

a way to be able to make sure they're focusing on each one of those stools

Chuck Mollor: 00:21:45

or each one of those legs, excuse me.

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:21:47

Yeah, no, the discipline is really critical to be

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:21:50

able to have the balance and then make sure that you're feeding what is

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:21:54

needed in each area of your business.

Chuck Mollor: 00:21:57

Agreed.

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:21:57

Chuck, is there anything that I haven't asked you that

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:21:59

you want to share before we close out?

Chuck Mollor: 00:22:02

No, I, I I think, look, there, there's always going

Chuck Mollor: 00:22:04

to be good days and bad days.

Chuck Mollor: 00:22:06

There's always going to be good experiences and bad experiences.

Chuck Mollor: 00:22:09

If there's any advice we give to anybody, don't be a lone wolf.

Chuck Mollor: 00:22:12

And what I mean by that is, yeah, surround yourself with friends and

Chuck Mollor: 00:22:15

mentors and associates, that are interested in you, they care about you.

Chuck Mollor: 00:22:19

It doesn't have to be a formal board.

Chuck Mollor: 00:22:21

It doesn't have to be even a formal advisory group or committee.

Chuck Mollor: 00:22:24

But, make sure you've got people you can talk to that can give you feedback.

Chuck Mollor: 00:22:28

That can be able to support you when you're having a bad day or a bad

Chuck Mollor: 00:22:31

week, or maybe even a bad month.

Chuck Mollor: 00:22:32

stay optimistic, stay positive, believe in yourself, because guess what?

Chuck Mollor: 00:22:36

Just like I talked about earlier, about leaders and innovation around failure.

Chuck Mollor: 00:22:40

Guess so you're going to make mistakes.

Chuck Mollor: 00:22:41

You're going to sometimes fail and forgive yourself.

Chuck Mollor: 00:22:44

Accept youself.

Chuck Mollor: 00:22:46

Learn from that and move on and grow and continue to be better.

Chuck Mollor: 00:22:49

So that's my last piece of advice.

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:22:52

And I have to say, I was reflecting as you were

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:22:54

describing, who you need to surround yourself with and why, which is, one

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:22:58

of my primary motivations for founding and leading the Smashing the Plateau

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:23:04

Community for consultants because it's designed to help consultants and coaches

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:23:09

that are primarily working alone.

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:23:12

And you do need to spend time with like-minded people who will give you

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:23:16

support, give you feedback, point out some solutions you may not have thought

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:23:20

about when you ha when you're facing a challenge, and really just be there to

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:23:24

help you achieve the kind of things you want to achieve and you can't do it alone.

Chuck Mollor: 00:23:28

Agree, completly.

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:23:30

Yeah.

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:23:30

Chuck, I want to thank you so much for joining us today.

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:23:33

If somebody wants to go deeper with anything we've discussed, get a copy

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:23:36

of your book or access any resources you have, get in touch with you,

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:23:39

where would be the best place to go?

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:23:41

Sure.

Chuck Mollor: 00:23:41

I would say connect with me on LinkedIn.

Chuck Mollor: 00:23:43

Again, it's Chuck Mollor, M O L L O R.

Chuck Mollor: 00:23:46

I have my own website, under my name, predominantly because of the

Chuck Mollor: 00:23:48

book, which is chuckmollor.com.

Chuck Mollor: 00:23:51

And then, of course, my business, which is mcgpartners.com.

Chuck Mollor: 00:23:55

So those are the three options in getting in touch with me.

David Shriner-Cahn:

Speaker: 00:23:57

Thank you again, Chuck.

David Shriner-Cahn:

Speaker: 00:23:58

My guest today has been the CEO of MCG Partners, Chuck Mollor.

David Shriner-Cahn:

Speaker: 00:24:02

Thank you, Chuck, for joining us.

Chuck Mollor: 00:24:03

Thanks David, its been a pleasure to be here with you today.

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:24:07

When you visit the Smashing The Plateau website at

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:24:10

smashingtheplateau.com, you'll find a summary of each episode along with

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:24:14

the links we mentioned on the show.

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:24:17

On today's episode with Chuck Mollor, we learned how to be an agile leader

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:24:21

and build a business that's modeled to serve your clients and you well.

David Shriner-Cahn: 00:24:25

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David Shriner-Cahn: 00:24:27

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David Shriner-Cahn: 00:25:02

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David Shriner-Cahn: 00:25:04

Thank you for taking the time to listen to our show, I'll