The Enlightened Executive

You have a business plan. You have a marketing plan. But do you have a relationship plan? Most leaders would agree that success depends heavily on relationships — with team members, with suppliers, with partners, with clients and customers. Yet, many don't prioritize relationship-building in a meaningful, memorable way.

Instead, leaders may default to the "expected" ways of relationship building: giving standard gifts at birthdays, holidays or dinners out during the "wooing" period with a potential employee or client.

John Ruhlin, the founder of Giftology, a company that specializes in building loyalty through radical generosity, discusses how leaders can create a relationship plan each year. When business rises and falls on the strength of your relationships, any investment in people will have an incredible ROI.

To learn more from John, start by downloading the Giftology Business Gifting Playbook: https://giftologygroup.com/gp-podcast/

What's your current process for making a complex, high-stakes decision as a leader? Do you conduct extensive research? Rely on your intuition? Ask for advice from trusted parties?

Most decision-making models include some version of each of these components. But few actually guide you through a specific, logical research process — and fewer still include built-in cognitive bias challenges. That's what makes the AREA Method different.

In this week's episode of The Enlightened Executive, we are joined by Cheryl Strauss Einhorn, the developer of the AREA Method — a decision-making system for individuals, companies, and nonprofits to solve complex problems.

AREA is an acronym that stands for Absolute information, Relative sources, Exploration and Exploitation, and Analysis.

As a result of applying this process, leaders end up with a documented trail of ordered steps they took to arrive at their decision, including self-reflection. This trail not only makes them feel more confident in their final decision but also helps improve buy-in from team members who now have proof they did their due diligence.

Want to know the secret to becoming a better negotiator? It starts from within. Pay attention to people who annoy you or whom you wish you could be more like. They are mirrors for the parts of yourself you may have rejected.

This is the first step Erica Ariel Fox recommends leaders take to become better negotiators. Erica is the author of Winning From Within, which outlines a contemporary approach for getting more of what you want, improving relationships, and enjoying life's deeper rewards. She believes that better negotiation starts not with learning classic negotiating tactics, but with learning to negotiate better with yourself.

During the interview, Erica also shares…

• What being a 360-degree leader means
• How becoming more self-aware leads to better leadership outcomes
• How to embody and listen to more of your inner negotiators

Would you rather deliver a message on video or over email? Many leaders would choose the latter. It's natural to feel skittish about appearing on camera as a leader. Many people judge themselves about how they look in videos or feel a lack of confidence on screen.

But according to Todd Hartley, the CEO of WireBuzz, this is missing the point. Video works because it's the most human form of content. It replicates eye contact, shared emotions, and, yes, the imperfections of face-to-face interactions. The point is not to look perfect — it's to show up as yourself and deepen connections with prospects.

Todd discusses:

• 5 key places to integrate video communication in your organization
• How a mindset shift he made at the beginning of the pandemic led to the best year in WireBuzz's history, despite the shutdown
• How to read "digital body language" and use it to improve conversions
• The incredibly simple video marketing strategy you can start doing now to build your authority in your industry, attract high-end clients, and experience fast growth

Who would you be without your ambition to attain success? Is your ambition driven by the need to create financial stability or make your mark on the world? Many leaders would candidly cite those motivators as the reason for their success.

Patrick McKenna was no different. He had built his incredibly successful career as an investor and entrepreneur — motivated by a desire to leave his small hometown and prove to others he could make something of himself. And yet, as he looked deeper, he saw that behind that ambition was a fear of failure.

In this episode of The Enlightened Executive, Patrick also talks about…

• Why living in a "love motivation" is a good investment thesis
• How to use meditation to let go of fear-based ambition
• The daily practices that help leaders work toward enlightenment

John Rampton shares his strategies for staying "overly relaxed" at work, how he overcame a life-changing injury, and how leaders can develop a relaxed mindset in the workplace. He is a successful serial entrepreneur (currently running Calendar.com), motivational speaker, and expert blogger at Entrepreneur, Forbes, Inc., and more. John has proven that leaders can lead from a place of certainty that everything will turn out okay.

In this episode we also discuss…

• How riding a Jet Ski helps him stay more focused and present at work
• His #1 strategy for quickly dealing with negative emotions like fear
• How a messed-up childhood can actually be an asset to leaders

If you're being faced with overbearing amounts of stress or have been recently triggered by past trauma, this 10-minute Havening exercise will help you deal with your anxiety.

We are led through this exercise by Stephen Travers. Stephen is the Director of U.K. and International Havening and is passionate about teaching others how to use Havening in their lives.

"Havening helps us to be at our best, in terms of changing what's actually happening in our brains and bodies," Stephen explains.

Be sure to save this video to a playlist you visit frequently so you can participate in this exercise again whenever you need it to reduce stress or anxiety.

To see Stephen and Susan physically doing this exercise, watch it on YouTube: https://youtu.be/ZvzIKyGxX9o

To find out more about Havening, watch the full episode interview with Stephen Travers here: https://EnlightenedExec.com/ep006

According to Bill Adams, CEO of the Leadership Circle, a "high-control" leadership style incurs a high energetic cost for everyone. Leaders inevitably cast a long shadow on their organization, affecting far more than their direct reports. This shadow can either be healthy or unhealthy, and leaders are generally unaware of the shadow. But there's no denying that it exists.

Listen to our interview to learn…

• Why high-controlling leaders sabotage their organization's performance
• The story of a leader who went from always needing to be the "smartest person in the room" to entering the top quartile of leadership effectiveness and being promoted to CEO
• How your beliefs and assumptions guide your external behaviors and results

Joey Klein, the founder and CEO of Inner Matrix Systems: a personal mastery training system for high achievers, shares:

• How to accurately assess your emotional state
• How to become more sensitive to the emotional needs of your team
• An exercise to get into a state of "centered neutrality" (relaxed, clear, and calm)

Many leaders have wellness routines that include activities like going to a spin class, lifting weights, and eating well. And the truly gifted leaders are incorporating emotional and mental activities as a core part of their wellness routines, too.

Through his experience in competitive martial arts, Joey learned that he needed to train emotionally and mentally as much as he trained physically so that he could remain centered and even joyful during competitions. Leaders must also learn to improve their mental and emotional health in the workplace to achieve better results in intense environments.

Launching a company without a clear mission statement is a recipe for disaster. Yet, so many of us walk around as individuals without a clear "mission statement" for our lives… and then wonder why we don't feel fulfilled or motivated.

This lack of life purpose is what Rabbi Jacobson views as one of the biggest problems leaders face today, with consequences for both their professional capabilities and personal happiness.

Rabbi Jacobson, founder of The Meaningful Life Center (called a "Spiritual Starbucks" by the New York Times because it makes spirituality accessible for everyone), shares his incredible wisdom about:

• What type of crisis response from leaders fosters connection (and, on the flipside, which type of response leads to lower loyalty)
• Counterintuitive financial actions to instantly increase confidence among your team during a crisis
• Activities to bookend your day with to create meaning in life
• How to discover your life's purpose if you feel lost