Simple Ways to Get 5+ Hours Back on Your Calendar Each Week - Adam Ward, Author, Speaker, & Innovator

Welcome back, Uncommon Leaders!

Join us in a conversation brimming with wisdom and impactful strategies, as I welcome Adam Ward - an executive coach with nearly 20 years of experience. Adam offers a fresh perspective on how to manage time, maximize productivity, and create genuine customer value. His insights about evading the pitfalls of overwork and neglecting other crucial aspects of life like health and family are particularly eye-opening.

Throughout this episode, we delve into the art of prioritizing tasks, managing calendars, and harnessing the power of automation and artificial intelligence to boost productivity.  For those craving to step up from mediocrity to excellence in business or personal life, this episode is a treasure trove of practical advice.

 So, buckle up for a ride packed with insights, tips, and strategies to turbocharge your personal and professional life.

Adam's Website

LinkedIn 

Thanks for listening in to the Uncommon Leader Podcast. Please take just a minute to share this podcast with that someone you know that you thought of when you heard this episode. One of the most valuable things you can do is to rate the podcast and leave a review. You can do that on Apple podcasts, or rate the podcast on Spotify or any other platform you listen.

Did you know that many of the things that I discuss on the Uncommon Leader Podcast are subjects that I coach other leaders and organizations ? If you would be interested in having me discuss 1:1 or group coaching with you, or know someone who is looking to move from Underperforming to Uncommon in their business or life, I would love to chat with you. Click this link to set up a FREE CALL to discuss how coaching might benefit you and your team)

Until next time, Go and Grow Champions!!

Connect with me

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey Uncommon Leaders, welcome back. This is the Uncommon Leader Podcast and I'm your host, john Gallagher. In this episode, I had the honor of interviewing my friend and former coworker, adam Ward. You might remember that Adam was a guest a couple years back and his journey since then is really inspiring. With almost two decades of experience as an executive coach specializing in corporate transformations, adam has helped many businesses and individuals tap into their untapped potential, leading to more fulfilling lives, both professionally and personally. Adam's expertise covers a wide range of topics, including how to create true customer value now and how to jumpstart your innovation today.

Speaker 1: 0:38

But in this episode, we'll be diving deep into a particular important one to you, the listener how to immediately add time back to your calendar. We all know how valuable time is, and Adam has some truly game-changing insights to share on the subject. During our conversation, adam will be sharing some practical tips and strategies that you can start implementing right away, including how he uses AI to gain back time. Let's get started. Hey, adam Ward, welcome back to the Uncommon Leader podcast. It's great to have you on. Look, I couldn't believe that it'd been two years since we almost to the day since we recorded the last podcast that we had together, but time was flying by. How are you doing, man?

Speaker 2: 1:21

I'm doing great, John. Thanks for having me back. I've been looking at all your episodes, the following you since then, and you've had some amazing people on here. So to let me back on, I feel privileged.

Speaker 1: 1:31

Oh, come on, man, Don't be humble. There'll be no time for being humble in the next 30 minutes or so. We're gonna get right through that. So you won't get a chance to talk about your childhood story, because I already did that, so that's only for my first time. Yes, but I did want to ask. When we think about the Uncommon Leader podcast and the goal really is to help leaders grow it's been two years since we've had you on what's new for you and what's been going on in your personal development journey?

Speaker 2: 1:54

Yeah, that's a wow. That's a great question. So the biggest thing is probably COVID killed one of my businesses and that was really tough kind of just saying hey, it's failed, you can't get employees, whatever the reason, and that's gone. And then I was also doing a significant amount of work of collaboration and the nonprofit space and everything that was related to 2021 and 2022, the desire to collaborate dropped off and so I pulled back a little bit and kind of said, okay, if I'm gonna focus on stuff, what am I gonna focus on? And I wanna focus on things that add the highest value to. So I've doubled down. Going back to the speaking circuit, consulting and then responding to pull when people need help Sounds busy.

Speaker 1: 2:47

Yeah, I hope so. It's kind of one of those things and we still are feeling the effects of that, no doubt about it in terms of COVID, and it's probably something we could spend a lot of time on, but probably not on this podcast. Maybe another episode we could discuss that, cause I don't think we'll see the end of that in our lifetime in terms of the impact that it's had ultimately in many different fronts.

Speaker 1: 3:09

But you are that's right back on the speaking circuit and I wanted to talk to you today about one of the specific topics that you end up talking about and how you might share with the listeners how to get going there. But I'm gonna read you a quote from an article that I read from you and just get your context on it. You said your job, family hobbies would each take up all 24 hours of your day, if you let them. That's a quote that I read from you. Can you elaborate on that quote and what that really means to you?

Speaker 2: 3:36

So let's go extreme here for a second. We can think about the typical 26 year old kid living at home in the basement who's on his Xbox all day long or his PS5, right, and you just think he just goes out, eats, maybe goes to bed, maybe doesn't, and just playing video games. That is his hobby and is consuming 24 hours. And then we know the work courses on the other end that put in 18 hours a day of work. They come home, they sleep, they're opening their email as soon as their eyes open in the morning. And then you've got families your spouse, your kids. In my case, I have a granddaughter, and it's just. Your family will take up all of those chunks of time too. So you have to be very judicious with how you split it if you want to be effective across all of them.

Speaker 1: 4:22

Well, 20, so you talk about that family again, you talk about your hobbies and, ultimately, the work side, and then that fourth component and you didn't really sit, because that's what I was adding with the 24 hours is oh, by the way, we'd like you to get some sleep in there. Yeah Right, I mean, and that's crazy, and I mean as leaders, we face that all the time. I mean a lot of type A's in terms of leadership positions. They have to work, they feel like they need to work, and they'll neglect some of those things. They'll neglect their health and what they need to do on their time. I'm a perfect example of that in terms of how I used to be and how I need to make a change there. They neglect family time and that's why the divorce rate in this country is as high as it is, unfortunately, in terms of neglecting and ultimately, all for the need to succeed in whatever success is designed as.

Speaker 1: 5:08

So you know, in your experience in working with the individuals that you've coached and that you've spoken with, you know why is it that we have that feeling? Why do we get sucked into that need for success in our business and neglect all those other things? What gets in the way?

Speaker 2: 5:22

Oh my gosh. So I mean, john, that's a really deep question there. I think what I find most repetitively is that there's a pattern they're trying to repeat that they see, and that pattern is the pattern that will lead to importance or significance. And in most cases you sacrifice one or two of those three on the altar of the other one. And I don't think a lot of people have someone to talk to about it. I don't think they feel, you know, comfortable talking to their significant other or their parents or another colleagues make them feel vulnerable or they just don't, they won't like the way they reprioritize it. So I think that that makes it really hard. And with the number of women in the work field too, and you know taking on, you know, additional responsibilities, then there was different just a handful of years ago. You know there's not a lot of quality mentoring there either.

Speaker 1: 6:24

But you think about it too. Even you mentioned COVID at the start, post COVID. So you and I are in significantly different roles than we were, you know, four years ago with a big company and the actual thought of discussing with our superior, you know, family balance and life, work balance and wanting to have more sleep, or, frankly, if I want to take a 15 minute nap in the middle of the day because science says is much more healthy for you than just keeping going over and over and over again, that's not something that's discussed in the workplace either. In terms of what really works.

Speaker 1: 6:59

I make up that. You know, our workplace does make that a little more difficult and I think, in the space of being an entrepreneur now and having some of that control, I didn't realize four or five years ago how I would feel, how I would feel that much better as a result of being able to do that and at the same time, not necessarily worry is not the right word, but I'll use that word concern maybe about the number of hours that I work, because it was in a space that I was really having fun, it's in a space that I enjoy. That's something I'm really good at, and a lot of folks are doing that nine to five and time that they hate, or tired. When they get done, they get home they still have to cook dinner, make it for the family, get their kids in bed or grandchildren in bed.

Speaker 1: 7:41

As we go forward in terms of some of that changes and it's hard, I mean it's really difficult and so you talk about your coaching. You talk about really that if we take a few simple steps, that we should be able to get back at least five hours a week without necessarily giving up anything. Now that's quite a change, that's quite a productivity improvement. In terms of getting that back without sacrificing anything, what are some of the methodologies that you discuss, then, or the ideas that you have that will help us do that?

Speaker 2: 8:15

Yeah, gosh, I mean five hours, john. I think a lot of people would say, hey, I'll take five hours and I'll reuse that. And if I go back to my corporate days and look, I'm not advocating for people to be entrepreneurs, it's a tough road. You've got ups and downs on it as well, but certainly this works in the corporate arena when you've got your head down. If you own your own business, I used it then.

Speaker 2: 8:36

So I think the very first thing I ask is what is important to you and prioritizing that short list of three to five things, and then how to actually divide your time, just being honest with yourself, to saying, hey, my job is most important, or my family is most important, or my hobbies are most important and under hobbies I would put anything that you spend free time on, so that could be exercise. You know, that could be just doing something fun. I could be hanging out, could be watching Netflix, but I've looked at too many people's calendars, audited too many times, to say, hey, we've got some, we've got some, we have some similar opportunity here to be able to help you out.

Speaker 1: 9:27

Did you know that many of the things that I discuss on the Uncommon Leader podcast are subjects that I coach other leaders and organizations on? If you would be interested in having me discuss one-on-one or group coaching with you, or know someone who is looking to move from underperforming to uncommon in their business or life, I would love to chat with you. Click the link in the show notes to set up a free call to discuss how coaching might benefit you and your team. Now back to the show. When you think about the most unique, maybe let's not talk about the biggest problem that you've observed on the calendar, but let's talk about a win with some of your coaching style. Maybe what's one of the success stories you've had with a client that shows some of the techniques that you use have been very helpful for them?

Speaker 2: 10:11

This first one is just so obvious and it's the elimination of meetings. I tell you, covid absolutely exploded the number of meetings that were required to attend. They did it virtual. We got back-to-back Zoom meetings or back-to-back Teams meetings. We don't even have bio breaks in between. We're running late from one to the other. There is no travel time. The travel time is just clicking on another link and we're still late and we're not present. We're alt-tabbing between Windows, we're responding to emails. A lot of these meetings don't require our decision-making to go on. One of the things that I like to challenge leaders the most, and this doesn't necessarily work if you're the front line, but if you have any type of leadership role, if there's a meeting that you're attending where you're not required to make a decision, if someone else, take it off, just get rid of it right off the bat. Some leaders are control freaks and they think that no one else is going to be able to handle it. If that's you, that's a whole separate podcast, exactly.

Speaker 1: 11:16

FOMO fear of missing out. Yeah, it is, they don't want to miss anything, right.

Speaker 2: 11:21

Right or miss that decision. I can't tell you how many times I look at a calendar and easily pulled hours and hours off because of meetings people were attending, especially post-COVID, that they just don't need to attend anymore. Some of the meetings are duplicate meetings. I'd say, hey, take a nice hard look at this. Maybe get a peer from another business say what is that meeting really doing? Is it really adding value? Is there someone that I can have attended in my place that can make the decision and escalate it to me if I need to? That seems too easy, but when you look at the double, triple, quadruple booked calendars that I see a lot of people have these days, you got to get them off and block them and don't let people fill them up.

Speaker 1: 12:07

I like that. In terms of time blocking, it's something that obviously I would teach out as well, and even blocking time for nothing, for nothing.

Speaker 2: 12:13

I block tons of time for nothing.

Speaker 1: 12:16

Now that nothing we end up putting the influence. There is never nothing, but it is reflection, it's an opportunity to rest, it's an opportunity to read, it's an opportunity to catch up on the emails. We never get that. The only time we get to do those emails you talked about the start we have those back-to-back double book meetings. Is it night or early in the morning? So when they collect those other things to catch up on emails that could have been done, I love that as an idea in terms of eliminating especially those duplicate meetings. You say this in your notes is to be ruthless. It's really a process of let's make sure that it adds value Meetings. We could spend 45 minutes talking about that. Do you start them on time? Why does it have to be 60 minutes? You're doing it 15 minutes. There are so many different ways to go through that. Eliminating meetings right off the bat.

Speaker 2: 13:04

John. For the really aggressive ones I would say wipe the calendar clean, Build a new one. I like that. Don't start from 100 and work it down. Start from zero and add the critical few, Then see which ones. Let a week go by and see which ones you're missing out on. That'd be a far more effective way to see which meetings are going forward. That's a ruthless way too.

Speaker 1: 13:23

No doubt about it. That's a dramatic breakthrough that you would see. Do I really need all these meetings that are there, that go forward? Let's talk about a couple of things. One of the things you said and again, while you say you're not advocating being an entrepreneur, you're also one of the tips you talk about is to get a job or role that maximizes your natural capabilities, your skills. Tell me a little bit about that.

Speaker 2: 13:44

Okay, I know there's a lot of debate online now about personality tests Enneagram don't force me into a box or Myers-Briggs, one of binary solutions that you think I am. Honestly, I think the biggest thing is people are afraid to know what they're actually good at and what they're bad at, because some of our roles if we were bad at that, they wouldn't want us in it. We're faking it and that effort is taking more effort to do our work than it is otherwise. If you take a personality test and I love them, I love them all. I take all of them, but I don't let that define me. I just let it guide me on where I'm going to spend my time. There's always examples of things in there that say, hey, these are different roles and these are why you would be good at them, and so I think in when you're doing something fun, it doesn't feel like work, and we've heard that if you love what you're doing, it's never work. I mean, it is work, it's still work, but it's much more enjoyable.

Speaker 2: 14:57

And I think that a lot of people they need to do a disc or a true colors or something and just say, just be honest and say, look, this is what I'm good at. I'm not good at administrative work, I'm not good at project management I'm not good at, but I'm great at creativity. I'm great at ideation. I think Patrick Lenshione's got a great thing with the working genius. If you're doing any type of developing with his widget model, I just say, hey, this is the part of projects that I should be a part of and not these other parts of it.

Speaker 1: 15:27

So many different tools that you can use. One of the things that I talk about is really three pieces. If you've got a passion for it, if you've got a strength in it and there's a market that you can be paid for it, you're really gonna be working to your point and not feel like you're working because you're passionate about it and again being paid Anytime. You end up with something that you might not be good at but you're passionate about. I mean, it could be a space that you wanna work in but you're just not good at it. You're gonna be frustrated all the time and it's gonna be in your head. It's gonna be something that's gonna be in your head.

Speaker 2: 15:54

And with this gig economy, john, we can find fillers for the stuff we're bad at, and that's another one of the points I have is that you can find a filler If you're not using a virtual assistant. It's almost silly right now because they're so cheap. I mean, you can get one in the US for $40 or $50 an hour. You can get it offshore for five or 10 bucks an hour. They'll do anything that you need them to do and maybe just need it for an itch. You're like I'm bad at scheduling, I'm bad at following up with customers. You know I'm bad at getting gifts I'm bad at. I hate doing my travel arrangements. You don't need it. You don't need a secretary, you don't need an admin. You can just go get a VA and that will cut your work down significantly and that's stuff that you hate doing.

Speaker 1: 16:39

I love that. Once you find out, too, what your kind of hourly rate is for the work that you do and you start to throw that five to 10 bucks an hour, even sometimes that 40 bucks an hour for a US-based VA, it pays for itself really quickly.

Speaker 2: 16:51

And you don't-.

Speaker 1: 16:52

If you can replace it with a revenue generating task, yeah exactly and you're not using them 40 hours a week.

Speaker 2: 16:57

I mean you can build up to that, but I mean most of them they'll start. You have five hours a week and if you can keep them busy, yeah, generating revenue. Some of them will do BD closing follow-ups and research for you. There's a lot of options out there.

Speaker 1: 17:11

I started to hear this as a new concept and I know it's not new. It's new to me in terms of hearing this is 1080, 10. Now you take care of the 10%. That's the most important. Set the scope, set the goals and then delegate to 80. Most of the work that's going on to the VA, this planning type activity that's going on, and then you finish the last 10%. That's 10%. That's important. Tweak, make those things changes and things like that. And I'll say that this is another one of your tips as well is AI is becoming something for you in terms of being able to use that as a resource. So that's one of my questions, the zinger question like to help you be more productive, adam. So you've had to live this to make some of this, to be able to teach it. What's the last thing you've used chat GPT for to help you be more productive?

Speaker 2: 17:56

So the irony is, years ago when I wrote my book, I used speech to text. I did the entire book speech to text. Now that's a really nascent AI type programming and but now you've got so many things chat GPT. I use Google Bard, which is very similar to chat GPT, but there's just so many things from composing emails to writing speeches, to blog posts, there's just a bunch of things. And that 108010 applies in AI as well. So you like back.

Speaker 2: 18:27

I remember back in 98, 99, when Google was first coming on the market, you had to learn how to search with Google to get the results you wanted. You couldn't just spit some nonsense in and give good results, so they did better than the ones that were out there. Just, AI is the same thing. You need to learn how to feed it and it will create something. And then, once it creates something, you can go in, modify it and tweak it and make it human again, Because there's still it's still really clunky that some of the stuff that it responds, but it gives you the great opportunity. I love that 108010. Yeah, you 10%. Set the AI up, let AI run and then tweak the 10%. I mean it'll do. There's new tools every single day apps that are downloading. Some of them are going out of business, some of them are coming up, but at least get chat, GPT or Google Bard or some of this stuff and just have it. Anything that you need written, just stick it in there.

Speaker 1: 19:22

That's crazy what it'll do for you. I mean, I've used it. Like you said, help me write emails or help me with my old English. That doesn't work very well either.

Speaker 2: 19:30

I'm sure I don't embarrass myself to make that happen, I will probably, john, write one of my very next speeches just on AI.

Speaker 1: 19:39

I would like to. I would like to again see the product and see you do that, because I think it's gonna be cool Again. Set aside the debate about whether it's bad or that's not what this is about. Any thing that exists has the potential to be bad or evil in terms of how it's used, but when you can use it effectively, it's a. I believe it's a phenomenal tool from a productivity standpoint, from a content development standpoint and from creating those types of so I give you a real practical example.

Speaker 2: 20:09

I wrote a couple of blogs and my SEO guy was like, hey, I need you to write I don't know, it's like five blogs. And so I wrote the first two and they took, I don't know, maybe 30 or 40 minutes each, 800 to 1200 words, somewhere in that range. And I was really putting my thought into it. I'm like I'm never gonna get through this, all of these blogs. So the next three, I did the 1080, 10 with Google Bard built each paragraph and I think I did those three and maybe 20 minutes. So you know, going from an hour and a half down to 20 minutes, that's, you know, you're getting a lot of time to check. That's huge.

Speaker 1: 20:45

That's huge. If you're trying to do again one or two or three blog posts a week, that's really big. That's a big number in terms of going through. And I've had to at least learn, because one of the goals I set with some of those activities again blog posts that's content. Development is very important, as you know leaders who care about developing other leaders we want to share the content, we want to share the skills and the resources that we have, but it takes time to do that. Yeah, we've got to get more efficient at that.

Speaker 1: 21:10

I set a goal this year to reduce my time by 50% to write a blog post. I'm not there yet, but I am using AEI to help me get better at it. So that's something I'm really doing Now. One of the other things and while AEI doesn't necessarily do that, it frees time up for other space that five plus hours you're talking about Inside of our 24 hours a day. Oftentimes we approach leaders and say when do you do your personal development? Do you read any leadership books? Do you read any? I don't have time to do that personal development stuff. So what's? I know you're focused on leadership development. What's a unique habit or discipline? You have to ensure that it fits into your 24 hours to get your personal development.

Speaker 2: 21:50

I don't read books anymore, ever. I don't never crack open a book. I've read hundreds and hundreds of them. I just don't do that anymore. If it's not an audio book, I'm not going to read it and I'll do the audio book at 2X. I'll listen to that. I do the base of my learning through podcasts Again at 1.5 or 2X and then if it's something interesting I'll go back. But and then if the podcast really goes on about a specific book, that I'll go get the audio book and I'll rifle through it. But yeah, if it's not audio I'm not sitting down.

Speaker 1: 22:27

So I love that. So I love that, both audio only. I like that 1.5 to 2X. I got two different paths I want to ask about. One is like when do you listen to the audio? Like when do you listen to your books?

Speaker 2: 22:38

Yeah, anytime that I can't interact with something else. So if I'm waiting in a line at an airport, if I'm in my car, if I'm riding my bike, you know times where my you know it's just not possible for me to be having a conversation or interacting with a device. I mean, sure you can use your phone in a car, but and you don't need a ton, I mean you can. You know, you can have your listen at 2X. You get, you know, an hour done in 30 minutes or you get 30 minutes done in 15. It's just very easy.

Speaker 1: 23:08

No, I love that. And then the actual stacking of the habits. James Clear, we'll talk about an atomic habit. He would say stacking those habits together. So your exercise and you're doing your personal development at the same time by listening to a podcast or driving, and you're not feeling like you're stacking it.

Speaker 2: 23:24

It's just your, it's less energy on it. You know, you. You don't have to focus on your pain, your body's in, when you're cycling or lifting weights or whatever, and then at the same time you're put, you know, fill in your mind with some good stuff to consider that night or the next day or whatever.

Speaker 1: 23:39

So you can see up here I'm a book guy, though I'm a hard like the touch. I like to write in like the highlight, like the dog. You're the pages. Part of that is to be able to go back and reference what I heard and what I'd like to go back to it. How do you do that in the audio space? How do you get a regulation or summary of what you want?

Speaker 2: 23:55

Yeah, so I mean that's tough. So usually what I do in an audio book is I'll throw a bookmark in there and it'll save all those bookmarks on the content. But more often than not I'll end up just looking up a PDF of that book summary and then you know it, just just enough to jog my memory on what that topic was, cause I, I mean, I've got highlighters, you know all in there. But with you know, with the search engine capability power now and some of the summary stuff, it's, you know if you can just bookmark it or I'll speak speech to text it in my in my phone.

Speaker 2: 24:28

You know that that does some things that I do.

Speaker 1: 24:31

Yeah, the print screens of the podcast are ones that I like to do at certain times, and I'll make a quick note on it. But I like the audio, the text note as well. That could be done there. That's pretty cool and I like that. That. You again, you don't necessarily have that specific time per se, You're doing that when you've got some other activity, when you have downtime and you can be able to do that on a regular basis.

Speaker 1: 24:52

Yep, adam, you got quite a methodology that goes through that in terms of understanding the tips that you need to do. Let me ask you this odd question in terms of about that process what have I not asked you that you want to make sure that the listeners hear about this process again in this time back and be more productive getting the time back?

Speaker 2: 25:10

For hardworking professionals, the most neglected is usually your family. No-transcript. We can want to do it and one of my favorite leaders, andy Stanley, wrote a book years ago about, you know, reprioritizing family over. I don't remember. I don't know what the latest title is, but it used to be called choosing the cheat, which it's not that anymore. But it's when work and family collide and you know, the family could take 24 hours to up your time if you give them.

Speaker 2: 25:44

But the thing that changed mine with my life, with my wife and my kids, was Gary Chapman's five love languages and just understanding what each of their love languages. And if it's not quality time, then quality time's not helping them. And you've got you know, if you've got five different ones to pick from, you've got access service and you've got gifts and you've got physical touch, and you know, you've got these five that you can say, hey, my wife is this with a side of this, my kid is this with a side of that. And then what I would do is I would set up time with them and then I would just invest in those love languages and their tank would be full and it wouldn't take hours and hours and hours.

Speaker 2: 26:24

Now one of my, my wife's, is quality time, so that makes it hard. So you know, I just I never put it, ever put a ton of overtime into my work. If the job requires it. I'm either not interested or you know they can find someone else. It's. I'm just not going to prioritize that. But doing the five love languages and it actually works for employers and employees too. But really at home you can make a significant advancement when how your family feels about you by employing those techniques.

Speaker 1: 26:57

Love that. Thanks for sharing that, and I do think I don't know why it is easiest to neglect the family side in terms of what we do it really is, I mean.

Speaker 2: 27:10

You supposedly love the most right.

Speaker 1: 27:12

Yeah, right, exactly. And so those are the ones. Since you love them most, they love you the most.

Speaker 2: 27:15

You feel, right or wrongly, that you can take that for granted, and yeah, well, I think there's so much pressure for us to perform at work. We most of us, you know gain our identity when they're like what do you do we that we describe our job first. You know we don't describe that. We're a husband or a wife or a mom, and a lot of people too, the big Adam, what do you mean? You didn't work overtime. It's like well, I decided years ago I'm not going to waste my time on overtime, but I'm going to manage my boss. And so if you're managing your boss and knowing exactly what he or she wants and some of those bosses can be really difficult and you can spend way less time working and getting stuff done and still looking good and getting promoted than and then just cranking out a bunch of hours.

Speaker 1: 28:01

How do you do that? How do you manage your boss? Well, your boss, right. I want to see what you used to do to me. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 28:07

Yeah, John was my boss for all. He just let me go and one of these rules is not going to apply because I absolutely made him look bad all the time.

Speaker 1: 28:15

But you know.

Speaker 2: 28:17

One of the things is your boss never wants to get yelled at right For something stupid that you did, so you need to at least tell him what you did dumb right, which I think John told you pretty much all the time when I did something that they weren't going to like and but if they're armed with the data, then they can side with you.

Speaker 2: 28:35

The second thing is bosses always want to look good, so if you can give them let them take full credit for everything you do then you're going to get so just, you're going to get advanced. It's just when promotion time comes they're going to push you and you be closer to your boss than all of your peers, cause if your peers are doing hallway smack talk and you haven't updated your boss, he's going to side with the person that's the closest. So those are a couple of like simple things that you can do, especially for introverts who aren't oozing cares. You know charisma. It's like if you can take these steps, you can cut your overtime. And trust me, I've done it, got promoted. It works, it's easy and you're still doing a great job. It's just you're not doing that. What they expected rate is.

Speaker 1: 29:19

Well, I think it's so important to understand. You say, manage your best is under under, certainly important to understand the results that they want and how they want them delivered. That makes it easy for them to again communicate it. You don't have to do any rework, so that can be really powerful. And you're right, we used to spend a good deal of time. I don't know how I used to, how I used to refer to it exactly, but I would try to. I mean, adam, you were the innovation guy and of all the folks in our organization that were there, because of Adam's innovation background, because of his creativity, because of the tools that he understood, and many of the employees and organizations did not understand that it was oftentimes his approach was questioned, and so it was my job to you know, in essence, make sure that, regardless of that, adam was still allowed to use the process that he had designed, and then it would work if we allowed him to do that. So that was really part of how we worked together, and I think we worked together pretty well.

Speaker 2: 30:16

We did, and we had tremendous success at clients as a result of that. It was just not the way some people liked it, which is fine.

Speaker 1: 30:25

Absolutely so, adam, here's kind of the finished question I appreciate you sharing about immediately adding time to your calendar. Really, two more questions. The first one is looking ahead on your journey. So we sit down again two years from now and we're going to be on another podcast talking about what Adam Ortt has going on. What is it that is going to be better for Adam Ortt in the next couple of years?

Speaker 2: 30:48

Yeah, I think the next two years are going to be a hyper focus of where I actually want to spend my time and being able to choose the companies that I work with, the people I work with, and being really picky about the ones that want to improve, the ones that want to get better and that will just perform, be curious, be humble, listen. That's probably one of the biggest things. The second thing say hey, watch out. Is that I don't know what two years from now is going to look like, but I guarantee that I'm going to put whatever I'm doing as a focus and I'll follow where that leads, and so whatever I'm good at, I'm going to push and then we'll see where the path goes. Very cool.

Speaker 1: 31:37

Well, Adam, I appreciate you sharing time with the listeners again of the Uncommon Leader podcast. How can folks get in touch with you if they want to hear more about this or the other things you have going on?

Speaker 2: 31:45

Oh yeah, well, they can go to adammwordcom. That's adamm, that's 2M wardcom, and you can contact me on that page. There's a contact form if they want to check that out. I'm on LinkedIn too, under Innovation, adam. Ok, I'll type that in. I'll pop in.

Speaker 1: 32:00

Pop up on the results Adammmwordcom. I'll put the link to that in your LinkedIn profile in the show notes. And once again, adam, it was great to invest some time with you, to share and learn from you, and I wish you the best in the future.

Speaker 2: 32:16

Man John, always a pleasure. Thank you so much.

Speaker 1: 32:26

Well, that's all for today's episode of the Uncommon Leader podcast. Thanks for listening in. Please take just a minute to share this podcast with that someone you know that you thought of when you heard this episode. One of the most valuable things you can do is to rate the podcast and leave a review. You can do that on Apple Podcasts or you can rate the podcast on Spotify or any other platform you listen. Until next time, go and grow champions.