What distinguishes good leaders from transformational leaders is their capacity to bridge the gap between vision and execution, as well as between people and performance. In this episode, we engage in a profound dialogue with Chris March, an esteemed leadership coach whose extensive experience spans across three continents and numerous industries. Our discussion delves into the essential qualities of effective leadership, emphasizing clarity, confidence, and the ability to inspire others to act. We explore the challenges leaders face in fostering human connection amidst cultural confusion and the relentless noise of modern society. Join us as we uncover practical insights and strategies that can empower leaders to cultivate meaningful relationships and drive impactful change in their organizations.

Takeaways:

• The distinction between good leaders and transformational leaders lies in their capacity to bridge the gap between vision and execution.
• In today's world, the ability to communicate effectively is paramount for leaders striving to evoke action and influence their teams.
• Leaders must cultivate human connections, understanding the motivations of their team members to foster a productive work environment.
• Authenticity in leadership requires acknowledging one's own strengths and unique approach while being responsive to the needs of others.

Links referenced in this episode:

• chrismarchcoaching.com

What separates good leaders from transformational leaders?

Is it knowledge?

Experience?

Charisma?

Or is it their ability to bridge the gap between vision and execution, between people and performance?

Between where they are and where they want to be?

Today's guest has led teams across three continents, traveled more than 80 countries, advised founders, executives and helped leaders unlock their potential by developing clarity, confidence and influence.

If you've ever been stuck between knowing what needs to be done and actually leading others to do it, this conversation is for you.

Stay with us as we cover some amazing and incredible conversations today with Chris.

Season of cultural confusion, changing values and endless noise.

The world is broken into pieces, but where others see division forever, God is cultivating creators of connection.

Bridge Builders welcome to becoming bridge builders.

Reverend Dr. Keith Haney will be your host throughout this journey.

This podcast is for those who feel stirred to lead well with wisdom, courage and radical compassion.

We address culture's hardest conversations each week with biblical common sense and focused clarity.

Our goal isn't just to win debates.

Our goal is to stand in truth, offer radical grace, and actively build bridges of trust.

Wherever you are, it's time to stop watching from the sidelines.

Let's build together.

Grab your blueprints.

I AM your host, Dr. Keith Hayne and each week we sit down with leaders, authors, entrepreneurs and change makers who are building bridges in a divided world.

Today, I'm excited to welcome Chris March.

Chris is internationally recognized leadership coach, advisor and speaker who is who has led teams across Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia.

Drawing from leadership experience across industries and insights gained from traveling more than 80 countries, Chris helps directors, executives and entrepreneurs develop the clarity and influence necessary to lead at a higher level.

Named by Osberger Entrepreneur as one of the Leadership coaches making waves, Chris has been featured in Yahoo.

Digital Journal and Influencia as a senior advisor with the ENT entourage.

He has helped founders scale their business, grow profits, strengthen teams, and build sustainable cultures where innovation thrives.

Today we're going to explore one of my favorite topics, leadership, influence, communication and culture and what truly means to bridge leadership gaps in a rapidly changing world.

Chris, welcome to Becoming Bridge Builder.

Keith, thanks for having me.

Looking forward to this.

I love my friend from across the pond, so should be a fun conversation.

Thank you.

Thank you.

It's good to be back in Australia after being overseas for such a long period of time.

I would imagine.

So I'm going to ask you my favorite question because I believe often wisdom comes from the bridges we build as we navigate life.

What's the best piece of advice you've ever received.

To lead is to serve.

And when you serve, are you leading well?

And how can you lead better?

And how has that advice shaped the leader you've become?

I've been very fortunate throughout my career to have a lot of great mentors.

So I've modeled my own leadership style based on people who were further ahead in their own leadership journey, a little bit more successful than I was at that point.

And then I made it my own.

I think the thing about leadership is you can't have a one size shape or approach.

You have to be you.

That's the most important thing and that being you.

As a young leader, I remember trying to figure out who I was because there were a lot of, like you said, great mentors in my life.

And you gotta figure out in that development is where are your strengths?

Where are your unique talents and abilities?

I just had a friend just now ask a question about.

I'm thinking about starting a podcast.

Do you think there's an audience for my content?

And my response back was I can't answer that for you because your topic may be interesting, but it all comes down to your ability, your passion, your format, your sphere of influence.

I can't tell you whether it'll be successful just by the topic you gave me because all those factors contribute to what makes what you would do if we did the same topic unique compared to what I do.

Covering the exact same topic, kind of.

What are your thoughts about that as a leader?

Absolutely.

I think I've been listening to a lot of content where people who are elderly in life and one of the main things that regret and at the top is living life by terms that other people expected of them, not living by their their own.

There's a great message in that, is that the world needs more of you, not what the world thinks.

Right, Exactly.

I love that.

I think it's so unique that you have a unique perspective on leadership because you've led across different cultures, different organizations.

What leadership principles seem universal.

We all want to be seen and heard.

We're human beings at the end of the day.

And I've been fortunate to work in different cultures.

And I think the most important thing is human connection.

And what I mean by that in principle, before you break out your strategy deck and you prioritize the changes you're going to implement depending on the scale of the role that you're stepping into, what are you doing to understand the people that you're working with and what motivates them to come to work every single day?

If you can build that connection not only with the people that you report to and are going to be working with level below, and if you have another level below that as well, really understanding what motivates them to come to work.

And also that connection to the front line is so, so important for you to understand.

I love that.

I remember when I was a young leader, and I remember coming back from a church meeting, and it went horribly wrong.

And I remember talking to my wife going, this was terrible.

I was attacked.

I felt under siege.

I didn't know what to do.

And she said something to me because I just sat quietly and kind of let it happen without.

Without taking the lead and kind of guiding this church through this.

And it was a defining moment because she said something that always stuck with me.

She's like, well, by you not saying anything and letting this happen to you, how is it different than if you had said something and poured into the situation?

So I'm curious for you, is there a defining leadership moment in your life that fundamentally changes how you lead others?

Oh, that's a great question.

I think hearing you explain that story, it comes back to the principle, if you see something, say something.

Because leadership standard is held when you're not in the room.

So what does your presence do when you're not in the room?

And for me, I think the biggest moment or moments that I've had in my career.

I was working in the travel industry during the pandemic those last two years, and I was a senior leader, and we made a decision.

We had to let go 90% of our staff, and we had to call every single person and let them know.

We decided as an organization, that was the right thing to do.

We were people first.

That was part of our philosophies.

And some of those conversations that I had will stick with me to the very, very, very end.

Some of the most difficult conversations that I've ever had in my life.

Some range from 30 seconds to close to two hours.

People's identities, lives had been completely ripped away from them.

And going through that experience really shaped my leadership from that point forward.

Wow.

So in those difficult conversations, what did you learn about having those conversations and also about being authentic, Because I think those.

Those really matter when you have to have difficult conversations, but you're also being authentic and not just kind of, you know, blowing smoke.

Yeah.

To that point, Keith, I was working for a large organization, and we had a whole process mapped out from human resources team is your script.

What do you got to follow?

And I read through it this is not going to sound like me, Keith.

So I took a human approach and just wanted to connect back to my principles.

When I step into a role, typically and just say, look, this is going to be a very hard conversation and unfortunately we've reached a decision based on X, Y and Z.

This is how it affects you.

And just listen from that point forward, try and listen.

Help them understand how we came to this decision.

Offer any type of advice and guidance that I come in that point, just be human is what I really came back to.

And as you can appreciate, people were very abrupt and told me to get lost, got off the phone.

Some people begged and pleaded.

I stayed with them to the very end to walk them through this, offer any type of advice, guidance that I could.

So it was truly about being a panti.

Wow, that's.

That's meaningful.

So you've helped leaders develop clarity and influence.

Could you first of all define or distinguish between what those two things are?

We hear that term a lot, especially when it comes to leadership.

You know, clarity, it all sounds really good and businessy and influence.

But what are the, how do you define those two, those two terms?

Let's start with clarity firstly.

So I think in today's world, there's so much information.

So much information.

We live in a world where we're presented overwhelming amounts of information.

And for you, as a new leader or someone who's been a leader for a long period of time, your clarity or information or development can feel complex.

So clarity for you can depend on what your next project looks like or clarity making decisions.

One of the biggest things you as a leader need to make is a lot of decisions every day.

So clarity could be, I need to make decisions.

So what does that look like?

Do you, are you decisive in your decision making?

Do you outsource it?

I work with a lot of different leaders in organizations where leaders are not confident in making decisions.

So helping them understand how to be more confident in that decision making process.

And conversely to that, founders who make all the decisions and bottlenecks themselves because they are the decision rights and everything has to flow through them.

What are the systems and the decision rights and the structure that we put in place to support those decision rights being clear, that's good.

And then on an influence perspective, that comes back to what we mentioned earlier.

What do people say and do when you're not in the room?

How can you influence and shape people?

That's what influence it's about.

How do you communicate verbally and also how do you listen?

One of the Most underrated leaderships is listening.

What do you think is the most misunderstood aspect of influence?

Because I think when I think about influence, I go back to the Myers Briggs test where when I shifted from my role as senior pastor to my role as an executive, I didn't have.

I was a high D and went to, from being a high D to a high.

I.

Cause my role changed.

I couldn't just tell people, you know, here's what I want and help and go get it done.

Now I got, now I have to, now I have to try to coax them to do what I want them to do.

Yeah, it's machine.

It's a shift, right.

And I think what it comes down to is leadership is about evoking action.

You need to move people from point A to point B and help them understand the how, the why and their role that they play in that.

So for you as a leader, you need to be a great communicator to communicate that pathway or that vision or the mission that we're working on to get to that point.

So one of the most important skills in leadership, I believe, is communication.

I just got back from a leadership conference and it was one of the things we talked, one of the presenters talked about was if you don't paint a picture of the future with that individual in it, they'll paint a picture of themselves somewhere else.

And we just talked about influence and stuff.

What are you seeing as the biggest leadership gap in organizations today in terms of how they think about the people they work with and the people, the vision around them?

Exactly what you said, Keith.

Right.

It comes back to communication.

If you are not clearly communicating the path forward and updating where the business is at, where things are going well, where things are not going well, people will make up a story due to a lack of information.

So your role, if you're leading a team of five, 15, or the CEO of the organization, is to have transparent communication of the good, the bad, the different, where we need to improve the path forward because otherwise a lack of information, you're going to make things up.

I like that many leaders are promoted, I know in my experience because of technical expertise, not necessarily leadership ability.

How can, how can they successfully make that transition?

It's a common pattern that you see.

A high performing sales performer is put into a leadership role because they're a high performing salesperson.

Does that automatically mean they're an excellent salesperson?

Not always.

So the first question you want to ask yourself, do you want to be a leader?

Do you want to Focus on yourself and being responsible for your outcomes in your role.

If you just want to focus on yourself, that's completely fine.

I think there's a lot of push that you're a high performer.

You're expected to be a leader, but understanding yourself and understanding what you do well is your driver.

So focus on that.

And then if you do want to be a leader, give yourself the time and understand what you need to do to bridge those gaps to step into the role.

I'm curious, Chris, when you think about high performing leaders, what is the greatest misconception that you've discovered about high performing leaders?

That they have to be highly charismatic.

Mm, that's good to know.

You don't have to be the hot.

You don't have to be the most charismatic, outgoing person to be a high performer.

To be a high performer, you have to be consistent.

The average person won't be consistent.

So what can you do to be consistent?

That's good.

When a leader says to calls, picks up the email and emails Chris to say, look, I want to be better.

I want to get from point A to point B. Chris, get me there.

What does Chris do to get me from point A to point B?

First of all, tell me what better means to you.

That because better is, it's such a broad thing to say, Keith.

Right.

And for.

If I was to ask you, Keith, what.

What does better mean versus the next person could be two different things.

So I firstly would want to understand and we'd go through a lot of qualifying questions, diagnostic to understand what exactly that would that would be and see if I could actually help you with your biggest pain point.

And if I couldn't, I would give you some resources or I'd recommend you to someone within my network that could help depending on where you're at and what you need.

So I like to, I like stories.

So tell me one of your proudest success stories of somebody you've.

You've worked with.

There's many, but one of my most recent that I'm proud of.

So there's some recency bias appearing here.

I worked with a founder, maybe we started working about nine months ago and proudly said that he hadn't taken a day off in close to a year and a half.

And I said, do we not recognize that that's part of the problem of why we're starting to work together?

So potentially.

So I worked with him to get better structure within the organization.

He was also working 50, 60 weeks.

I think at that point we're going to look at Getting your hours down to 40 hours and within six, six months, I want you to plan to take a vacation.

You haven't taken a vacation in a year and a half.

That is not a badge of honor.

And we're going to structure the business where you can take a stress free vacation for two to three weeks and the business will run without happy to report, that trip happened, the business ran smoothly, phone was off, laptop was off, had the first carefree vacation in a number of years.

Wow, that's great.

So many of us don't know how to do that, how to take time off because.

And that kind of leads me to another question I wanted to kind of touch on with you.

I'm sure you've worked with people who are looking at succession or transitioning, but it's so hard to let go and put in place a succession plan.

Because I think I read somewhere that, you know, the biggest succession problem is our pride.

We think no one can do the job that we did, so we don't really plan succession.

Well.

As you work with people who are planning succession, what are some key things you would say are really critical for a successful succession plan?

This comes up all the time.

The first thing to recognize is the more valuable you are to your business as a leader, as a founder, the less valuable the business is.

So you need to understand, you need to create systems and structure that allow the business to grow above the ceiling that you've already set.

That requires putting your ego down and recognizing and trusting people to deliver the system that you've helped.

And there's certain mechanisms and meeting cadences that you can put in place to ensure that you have accountability and visibility on the key metrics of the health and the success of the business.

But that requires you to let go.

And that takes time.

And that's where working with me and other people in this space will help you put in the direction of confidence to allow you to have the freedom to step away from the business.

Because it's almost contradictive to the reason you get into business in the first place.

More freedom, more time, more profit to spend with your family.

Yet you're handicapped by a business that owns you and requires 60, 70 hours of your time each week.

I like that.

And you're right about it.

Your mind is, I'm starting this so I can have more freedom.

And then you just enslave yourself in a business.

I see it so often.

Wow.

I love working with teams too.

I'm curious, when we talk about team development, how do you work with a Team that's struggling with alignment.

And what should leaders do to kind of create better alignment in their teams?

Firstly, the conversation needs to happen with the leader, the most important person, and understand why do you believe there's misalignment with the team?

Understand from their perspective, are they actually aware that there is misalignment?

A lot of times they're not.

So mostly start with that.

Where?

What are we.

What are we working with here?

The first thing I'm going to look at as well is their meeting cadence.

Typically, a leader will say, oh, I'm communicating well.

Okay, show me how often you communicate.

Oh, we catch up every couple of months.

That's not communicating well.

All right.

Outside of the meeting structure, how long or how frequently are you meeting with your team members?

We just catch him every now and then.

I see them in the hallway.

Okay, so you're not investing in your people and their time yet we believe that there is alignment.

Do we see this as a problem?

Okay, let's start with what's the meeting cadence?

We believe that will bring alignment as a team towards our mission goals and our values.

And then we'll look at our reporting structure, how often we should be meeting down direct reports in the back of that as well, to ensure that that alignment aligns with our overall cadence.

Does that sound like a good place to start?

Let's start there.

I'm curious, Chris.

One of the things I remember hearing years ago is this idea of feedback, especially when it comes to employees.

But I've also heard that feedback is different depending upon cultures.

So, for example, feedback in America may be that you'll meet with somebody, you'll write down three things that you want to say, hey, you do this really well.

And then there's one or two things that they don't do well, and that's really what you want to focus on in America.

So you kind of go, that's nice and fluffy.

But it's really the one thing that he mentioned.

But I also heard that, like in France, for example, if you did the same kind of a feedback process because they don't typically hear positive comments, and you give them three positives and one negative because they won't hear the negative, but they'll focus only on the positive, and you miss the opportunity because they won't get.

So I'm curious.

My question really is, do you have to kind of work with people, different cultures, when you talk about how you interact, how you lead, and how was that different from the different places you've worked in terms of Communicating.

It comes back to that initial conversation.

When you step into a role is understanding how would you like to receive feedback and really allowing them the opportunity to say a big part of my role here is to help develop you and develop other people that I'm going to be working with directly.

A big part of the success of that is feedback and I really want to see feedback as fuel, not failure.

And I expect you to give me feedback as well.

So that way I'm showing that I'm also going to lead by example.

And I would always ask for feedback as well.

But initially setting that expectation and asking how would you like to receive feedback?

Is this a forum you'd feel comfortable with?

And most times they're going to say yes.

And then I would always ask feedback in, in my one on one we said a cadence.

Where am I performing well, what do you think I'd be doing more or less of?

And is there anything else you think be doing as an organization to help move the business forward?

That's good, I like that.

So Chris, there's a lot of people in the space that you're in.

Tell us what makes you different from everybody else?

Being.

Being me, I suppose.

Important thing.

I think I've been very fortunate to work in different cultures.

I've traveled extensively and that gives me a unique data point and entry to work with different people on understanding the nuances of people, culture, business.

I've worked with different industries.

I've worked with hundreds of coaches and organizations as well now.

So I bring a unique you with my own corporate leadership experience, my travel experience and my executive coaching experience.

I'm also business advisory and also do advisory board sharing as well.

So I really have a unique three point, unique selling proposition where I can coach the exec, the executive, I can advise the governance and I can also advise the business.

That's good, I like that.

Nice pitch.

I hire you.

Thank you.

Where do I stop?

That's right.

So Chris, I'm curious what leadership skill is most valuable, you think over the next decade.

It's a very interesting time, isn't it Kasey?

Because it's never been easier to create ideas.

AI can create content, write a book, give you a thousand different ideas and I think it's going to come back to the people who show humanity.

I think in a world that we're becoming more and more AI driven, the more you can lead into being yourself and leading with, with an AI edge, of course there, there's value to that.

Certain things that you can automate competitive weekly tasks yes, do that.

But have a look at those things that AI can't replace.

How you and I communicate, how you connect with people, how you influence people.

That's what's going to separate the good leaders from the great leaders.

And you're going to forward.

So how think about how you can interact on a daily basis with that lens and that will compound over time.

I believe that'll be a biggest difference for people who just are turning up and relying on AI to do their job.

So we've talked a lot about what leaders should do.

My question to you is what's one thing leaders should stop doing immediately?

Believing their own greatness.

Stop reading your plus yes.

To lead is to serve, to to come back to our start.

Right.

Leadership is an absolute privilege.

And a lot of people are put in that position.

They don't deserve it, they don't enjoy it, they overutilize it, use it for good.

We need more encouragement in the world.

One conversation can change someone's life and that's leadership.

So use it wisely, not for the wrong reasons.

So now I'm going to ask you some fun lightning round questions.

Chris, let's do it.

Coffee or tea?

Coffee.

Favorite country you visited?

Oh, don't make me choose one.

Spain.

Ooh, interesting.

Beach or mountains?

As an Australian, I have to say beach or any Australian listener will be disappointed in me.

So beach.

One leadership book everyone should read.

Seven habits of highly effective people.

Covey.

Stephen Covey.

Great one.

Morning routine or evening routine?

Morning routine.

Most underrated leadership skill?

Listening.

Your favorite place to think?

At the gym.

Interesting.

One word that defines great leadership?

Visionary.

One person who inspired you the most?

Kobe Bryant.

What's harder, Leading change or sustaining change?

Sustaining change.

No one likes change.

That's right.

Favorite?

Productivity Habit.

Going to the gym.

If you could give a TED talk on any topic tomorrow, what would it be?

Leadership is kindness.

Oh, I like that one phrase you find yourself repeating to clients.

Stop.

I like that.

Reminds me of Bob Newhart the Stopping Video.

Looking back on your career, what leadership lesson took you the longest to learn?

It's not about you.

Okay.

What accomplishment are you most proud of and wouldn't appear on a resume?

I've relocated to different parts of the world.

What is this my fourth or fifth time?

That's not easy to do.

No,.

To re establish yourself over and over again.

Yeah, that would have nice.

What gives you the most hope for the future of leadership?

That it will continue to be human led.

Because at the end of the day, regardless of AI tech, when you Strip leadership down.

It's people connecting with people, helping them toward.

So, Chris, every episode we close with the same question, because leadership is ultimately about the impact we leave behind.

What do you want your legacy to be?

The people knew that I cared about them deeply, and I became a better person in life.

I heard a quote the other day, and I think it came from Mike Tyson.

He was chatting with another celebrity, thinking about, what's the meaning of life?

And they've had all the success in the world, had all the money in the world.

What it really came down to in the simplest form was becoming a better person.

So I've been thinking a lot about that.

So if my legacy can be that I'm leaving the world as a better person, I'll be happy with that.

That's good.

So we have something new on the podcast, and that's a surprise question.

Pick a number between 1 and 10 for your surprise question.

Number 9 is my favorite number.

If you got stuck in an elevator and were forced to listen to one song, what song would you choose?

I'm a huge Kanye west fan.

The artist.

It'd have to be something by Kanye.

Probably all of the lights.

I like that.

So, Chris, where can listeners connect with you, learn more about your coaching, follow your content, and bring your leadership expertise to the organization.

So firstly, to follow my content, you can follow me on LinkedIn.

I post content talking about conversations I'm having in the field, sharing things that I see two to three times a week.

So check me out there.

And also you can check out my work and my [email protected] what a valuable conversation, Chris.

Chris reminds us that leadership isn't about having all the answers.

It's about creating clarity where there is confusion, building trust where there is uncertainty, and helping people reach places they couldn't get alone.

So here's my challenge for you this week.

Identify one leadership bridge that needs to be built in your life.

Maybe it's a difficult conversation you've been avoiding.

Maybe it's a team member you've overlooked.

Maybe it's a relationship that needs rebuilding.

Or maybe it's a gap between the leader you are today and the leader you're capable of becoming.

Take one intentional step toward building that bridge this week.

Because leadership isn't measured by titles.

It's measured by the connections we create, the people we develop, and the positive change we leave behind.

If today's episode challenged or inspired you, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with a friend, a colleague, a manager, an entrepreneur.

Or a leader who wants to make a greater impact.

Until next time, I am Dr. Keith Haney, reminding you that becoming a bridge builder starts with listening, grows through leadership, and leaves a legacy of transformation.

Thank you for joining us on the podcast.