“At some level all of us in the positions we’re in have to really wrestle with that painful dark side [of leadership].”

Matt Procter is the President/CEO of Improve Group.  Improve Group is based in Albuquerque, NM and works across the United States and Europe helping organizations find ways to make time an ally, rather than an enemy, while revolutionizing their buildings. From the US Military to hospitals to large companies, Improve Group works with organizations of every form. Though Matt has seen Improve Group experience fast growth (mostly despite him), become employee-owned, and allow him to be named one of Albuquerque’s 40 under Forty, he’s most proud of figuring out how to get his awesome wife Ashley to marry him...which led to getting to raise 3 awesome boys.  Normally you’ll find him drawing a new idea on a white board or running on a trail.

Shownotes:

• Why leadership can be so hard, the difficult side of leadership.
• How to deal with, and lead through, fear and doubt as a leader.
• In the moment when you’re going through really challenging times, you can’t see the benefit. But it is the challenging times that lead us to beneficial change in the future.
• We all have to answer the question: what determines our identity?
• It is dangerous to put your identity in the thing that you are leading. Because every organization is inconsistent in different times. The times of high success are equally dangerous as the lowest of lows.
• How to navigate the attacks on your identity as a leader.
• Leadership can feel isolating when other leaders are projecting that times are always good and optimistic. It’s important to surround yourself with people who can tell the truth and sit in the hard times together.
• How to measure seemingly contradictory truths to make decisions.
• The power of generosity to change the atmosphere and shift reality. What does generosity say to fear?