The Fabulous Learning Nerds

Scott (00:01.028)
Hey everybody, welcome to another nerdy episode of Your Fabulous Learning Nerds. I'm Scott, shooting your host, and with me, the man, the myth, the legend, Dan Coonrod's in the house, everybody.

Daniel (00:16.13)
feel like that's a lot of pressure. The big cheese. I learned a fact that Zeta told me and I think, I feel like I'm gonna butcher it, but that quesadilla actually means the little cheese. And I absolutely adore that fact. That is a fact that every time I think about it fills me full of mirth and joy.

Scott (00:16.25)
I almost called you the big cheese. You're the big cheese, sir. Yeah.

Scott (00:38.522)
That is awesome. Does it make you feel?

Daniel (00:44.98)
No, no. It's on the far side of fair and I'd say even dare I say pleased.

Scott (00:47.002)
Really?

Scott (00:56.826)
That is great. I did not know that either. Although I like a lot of cheese in my quesadilla.

Daniel (01:00.396)
Yeah, I know.

Daniel (01:04.278)
That's true. I'm a bit cheesy. Anybody who knows me would definitely attest to it.

Scott (01:08.954)
Okay, so, all right, here's a question. Are you ready? This is an important question. Question of the week, everybody. Is there such a thing as too much cheese?

Daniel (01:11.893)
Yeah, Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Daniel (01:17.418)
Man, okay, so I'm going to say yes. And I know that's maybe a controversial, controversial answer. But, but hear me out, hear me out, hear me out. As a guy who has sat down with a block of cheddar, and then like crackers seem like a waste, there is a point where you can have too much cheese. When you're like looking at something, you're like, man, like, listen, a good pizza, a good pizza, the ratio of cheese to toppings to sauce to crust.

Scott (01:19.77)
okay. All right. All right. All right.

Scott (01:40.365)
Mm-hmm.

Daniel (01:45.292)
It's gotta be right, because too much cheese, it's just, it's too much, it's too much. So there are places where you can have too much cheese.

Scott (01:53.632)
I wholeheartedly disagree. I think that you can't ever have too much cheese to be honest with you. And I love the big pie with so much cheese that the cardboard box they bring it to you in has just grease on the bottom, right? yeah, yeah. That is not healthy for you, but it is glorious.

Daniel (02:08.448)
Yeah? Yes? yeah? Okay, so we've never talked about this. No. I didn't order a pizza because I was watching my weight. But hey, okay, real quick. This is important, because I don't think we've ever talked about this. Are you a deep dish guy? Or regular crust or a thin crust guy for pizza? I know we're going off a tangent, but I feel like this is important.

Scott (02:21.378)
OK. All right.

Scott (02:33.242)
Okay, I know that this is a hot topic for everybody. yeah. I like all kinds of pizza, but, you know, normally I like thin crust. When I order pizza, I usually get thin crust. But New York style pizza is the way to go. New York, all the way? All the way. Sorry, UChicago pizza? That's a hot dish. It's not a pizza.

Daniel (02:37.336)
huh.

Daniel (02:49.887)
I'm with you. I'm with you. Now!

Daniel (02:54.784)
I mean, it's okay, it's okay. I grew up in a town that has its own pizza named after it. I was born just outside of it and I grew up, and for anybody who wants to look it up, look up Altoona Pizza and Altoona style pizza and I apologize in advance.

Scott (03:08.877)
Al tuna pizza.

Scott (03:13.474)
In advance. right. Wow. Well, we're going to continue this debate, both on pizza and cheese, with someone who's far more qualified to answer this answer. Next data, everybody.

Daniel (03:19.885)
Call.

Scott (03:32.655)
Zeta.

Zeta (03:34.126)
Scott, you got a question for me?

Scott (03:35.13)
Too much cheese or never too much cheese?

Zeta (03:41.11)
believe I am a human-shaped vessel for cheese consumption, so never too much cheese.

Daniel (03:46.68)
Ha ha ha!

Scott (03:48.376)
That's right. Can never ever have too much cheese. And then are you deep dish New York, thin sliced or just bring me the pizza.

Zeta (03:56.718)
Cool. I love all pizza. I love it all equally. Deep-Jest is great because it's got that stability to where you can add even more cheese, even more toppings. But I think the happy middle is hand-tossed New York style.

Scott (04:14.85)
hand-tossed New York style. Yeah, totally think that's a great idea. Totally, totally, totally, totally. That's awesome. You know, this debate is not over because we do have a very special guest. And so we're gonna learn all about her and her love of cheese or not in a little segment that we call, What's Your Deal?

Daniel (04:14.936)
Yep. Yep.

Zeta (04:21.814)
It's delicious anyway.

Scott (04:41.102)
Debbie!

Debbie Radish-Respess (04:42.824)
Hello. So, man, I love the topic of cheese on the cheese head. I'm originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Packer fan, Packer owner, go cheese heads. So that actually was a great topic today. I'm laughing because I'm like, this could have been a better topic.

Scott (04:44.354)
What's your deal, my friend?

Scott (04:49.518)
What the f*** is this?

Scott (04:56.209)
well, you-

Scott (05:02.266)
Yeah, absolutely. And you know, I'm from Minnesota and so unfortunately, yeah, but, but I will tell you this is something you know, that I that I know you will find humor in. just hope that they can carry my coffin when I die so they can let me down one more time. So you know, there it is. There it is. So you're a cheesehead. That's great. Favorite pizza.

Debbie Radish-Respess (05:20.22)
Nice. Nice.

Daniel (05:20.371)
Debbie Radish-Respess (05:27.574)
thin crust, I actually prefer calzones with extra cheese.

Scott (05:31.672)
Ooh, there you go. Changing it up, like changing the rules of the game, Daniel. I know. I love it. There was one time somebody asked me, I know, I'm in this big meeting and they're doing the going around the room thing. They go, what's your spirit animal? And everyone's like, you know, I want to be a dog and I want to be a cat. And I think I'm a lion. They go to Scott. Who's your spirit animal? And I said, Godzilla.

Debbie Radish-Respess (05:37.022)
It's how I do. It's how I roll.

Daniel (05:37.974)
I know, I know it was good, it good, it's good. Calzone's like the dark horse, came out of nowhere.

Zeta (05:39.637)
Love it.

Daniel (06:04.268)
Love it. Love it.

Scott (06:05.412)
the entire game. Debbie, I'm sorry, could you go ahead and let everybody know all about your journey, how you got to where you're at, what year do you lose, my friend?

Daniel (06:07.661)
Heh.

Debbie Radish-Respess (06:16.606)
Yeah, it's actually pretty easy. I am the CEO of Invisible Horizons Coaching and Consulting. I founded that back in 2018 after I left corporate America. I was tired of putting on the corporate armor, putting on the professional veneer, having to protect myself and hide who I really was. I was showing up polished and professional but hiding really who I was like the authentic me, I guess.

I knew how to wear the leader look. I was totally capable of hitting all the metrics, but man, I was not really leading from a place of truth, not just my truth, but truth. So when I launched my business in 2018, I wanted to change that. So now my business helps organizations unlock full potential by aligning their people and their purpose to drive results.

To help them be profitable sustainable and actually human centered. I think we lost a lot of humanity in business So our specialty is around leadership development executive coaching and strategy facilitation Really customized for real-world business. So, you know, you can talk about tariffs and everything else that's going on right now in the world You got to bring that into learning and development, right? And the heart of my approach is alignment

And the way that I look at that is you add authenticity, behaviors, and strategy to get impact. And that's really where we help leaders in their zone of genius, which is where they're naturally gifted. And then for them to be able to show up in their zone of impact, which is where they actually influence the outcomes, both internally and externally. And when that happens, teams thrive and results follow. It's amazing.

Scott (08:10.106)
Well, it sounds like a really great journey and you've kind of given us a little taste, a little bit of cheese, so to speak, on top of this dish. And I'm super excited about it. So folks, without further ado, let's go ahead and dive into our topic.

Scott (08:29.678)
Hey, this week, really easy. We're talking about leadership excellence with someone that knows all about that. That's Debbie. But Debbie, before we get started, I do have a simple question for you.

Scott (08:43.0)
Yeah, so what? Why are we talking about this? Why is this important? Leadership excellence.

Debbie Radish-Respess (08:49.342)
Because it needs to be redefined because we're not in the same place as we were 10, 15, 35 years ago when leadership training or management that used to be manager, right? We didn't even call them leaders. But, you know, to be honest with you, most leadership programs feel like that box to check, right? Everybody just kind of shows up and says, okay, we have to do this. So let's do it.

You get the slide decks, the hypothetical case studies, maybe a few inspirational quotes, and then nothing changes. My leadership excellence, the way that we actually define it and invisible horizons kind of flips that model. It's not about fixing broken leaders. It's actually about unlocking what's already there. Leaders who want to lead authentically, but haven't had the space, language or support to do so. And we actually start by asking, who are you really?

What are you naturally wired to do? What drains you and what drives you? And when we can connect to how that leader shows up at work with what the organization actually needs, putting the right people in the right seats on the right bus, man, that's when they move into their zone of genius. And that's where everything in work becomes meaningful. And I'm really big, when I talk about authenticity, it's all about there's no line between work.

and business and personal and family. I hate work-life balance. I think it's a work-life chemistry. When you can get people working in that zone of genius, they start kind of finding that zone of impact where they actually have some influence over the things that matter the most. And that's people first, the purpose of the organization, meeting the demands of the market. So that's kind of where...

My leadership excellence definition comes from, and as an executive coach, think definitions are super important so that everybody starts on the same page.

Daniel (10:47.896)
I love that. I love that. I for so long, when I was a young leader and like coming into my first leadership roles, my wife would tell me like, hey, you're using your manager voice. Like I'd be at home and like like trying to explain something or say something. And I would find myself like at work, like I gotta put on my manager mask, gotta put on my work face. And it was one of those things that like just...

Zeta (10:48.546)
Yeah.

Daniel (11:16.376)
hated doing, I hated doing. But I was like, all right, I've got to put on this mask so I can fit into this role, so I can do this thing that maybe I'm not 100 % in love with, but it pays the bills. And okay, cool. And as somebody who finally got tired of the corporate rat race enough to step out and go try to do their own thing, man, cannot tell you just how much, what you're talking about, just like.

Rings my bell, just resonates. I love this.

Zeta (11:48.066)
yeah, not only that, but a lot of people don't quit their jobs, they quit their leaders because that's the determining factor, whether they feel supported or not on the job.

Scott (11:51.918)
Mm-mm.

Daniel (11:54.421)
Mm-hmm.

Debbie Radish-Respess (11:59.484)
Yeah, yeah, I love that. That's why I talk about my corporate armor and professional veneer all the time, because it just resonates with people who've been in corporate. And a lot of people don't want to start their own businesses, so they don't want to move forward with that. But they do want to learn how to drop the protection and start showing up, freeing themselves, like actually being who they really are, because there's so much potential that

we don't allow to happen because we're supposed to fit in a perfect little box. And I just, want to flip that on its, on its nose.

Zeta (12:35.148)
I love that because you can't grow in a box, right? Yeah.

Debbie Radish-Respess (12:39.516)
Right, right. Yeah.

Scott (12:42.808)
No, no, I totally agree. You talk a lot about authenticity and I completely agree around that. And I think it's hugely missing, especially in corporate America. Could you expand on that a little bit more about the importance of authenticity and then how leaders can encourage others in a very safe way, psychologically safe way to be authentic at work?

Debbie Radish-Respess (13:09.31)
Yeah, so I'm going to actually start with

really learning what it means to be yourself. I think that we, because we hide ourselves so much that we don't know what that is. And that doesn't mean bringing out all your skeletons from the closet. It really means about what is my zone of genius? Where am I really great? Stop making me work on my weaknesses, quote unquote. How about we look at my strengths and let's really use those to do it. So that's kind of authenticity.

another word that I, I hate to use actually is accountability. we can hold ourselves accountable, but that word is so punitive that part of our leadership excellence and our definitions that we use is how do you help people not only unleash their own power and their own potential, but how do they step into ownership, owning what they do, owning the consequences, owning the results, owning the, the accolades, right?

So I don't talk about like accountability partners or whatnot. It's their impact partners. How do you impact each other? How do you influence? How do you hold each other up? Stop talking accountability because it's so punitive. It's like so what? So I'm going to get in trouble. Well, if I don't meet that deadline, I'm going to be held accountable and I'm going to get in trouble. well, right. As opposed to how do I help you step into that zone where you are absolutely going to thrive?

And you're going to want to own it. Like you're going to want to perform. You're going to want to hit the deadlines. You're going to want to hit the quality. You're going to want to serve the clients. And part of that is it's authentically driven. It's an internal desire to go, I do want to do my best. And I'm going to stop comparing myself to everybody else because my best is different than everybody else. It's neither good nor bad. It's just different. And how cool is that?

Daniel (15:09.398)
that. I love that. was talking with somebody I used to work with not too long ago. And we were talking about like, they're an instructional designer, and that's kind of like how we knew each other. And I was like, Hey, man, there's, there's so many instructional designers out there. And like, when you're looking for a new role, and you're looking for the new shape and style of like, what's next for you? Like, you need to think about like, what makes you you?

because they're gonna hire a good instructional designer. You've got that. That box is checked. But let's talk about what's you, what's the things that set you apart? And he kind of paused and he kind of listened for a second and he was like, yeah. And just had this moment of, it's recognition. And just being able to look at things and think, like you said, it's just, lost my train of thought.

Sorry. Can I do a pick up real quick? I crashed and burned. Yeah, I'm so sorry, Evy. Yeah, but it's I'm gonna just kick in right now. You ready?

Scott (16:12.462)
Yeah, that's right.

Debbie Radish-Respess (16:15.645)
Where is?

Daniel (16:22.936)
It's just like you're talking about like being authentic to yourself, like not worried about like the role and the thing you're trying to fit into, like being that person in first and then the person that does that role. Is that what you're saying? Am I picking that up right?

Debbie Radish-Respess (16:39.162)
Yeah, I, I, you know, 30 years of corporate America throws us into the same boxes. Every leader had to be the same and we have to do the same things. I mean, I have an HR background for 14 years. I was in operations and supply, excuse me, supply chain management. And I didn't want to be in that cookie cutter. My programs, my leadership excellence programs, they have nothing to do with being a cookie cutter.

because people aren't cookie cutter, organizations aren't cookie cutter. People are similar, but we're still different. all of my stuff is customizable because I want to meet not only the organization where they're at, but maybe each of the leaders where they're at or a team, a project team where they're at. to your point, Dan, we have to know where are we starting from and where we're going so that...

it's not about the destination, it's about that journey. Like that's the beautiful thing about it.

Scott (17:43.418)
I love the reframing and I think you're right. Especially for me, I find that, hey, it's a great idea to go get a mentor. I don't care what level you are in the organization, you should get a mentor. I think that's really important. But impact partners, or I used to call them accountability partners, but I like the impact partners are equally as important because I just feel like we all need to have those people that we can bounce stuff off of, create a real safe.

place to talk about the things that we don't normally talk about in the conference room and to really get alignment on, I'm thinking about this or hey, I'm struggling with this. What do you think? And have that partnership. I was reminded yet again today of the importance of two-person.

partnership in a room in any given meeting just so that you've got someone there that has your back. And I really feel like that those impact partnerships are a key role of that.

Debbie Radish-Respess (18:46.876)
Yeah. And if I can just, you made me kind of think that this isn't like just another leadership theory, if you would, like organizations, we have so many theories and models and everything else out there. The way that I like to describe this is this is actually a pathway that helps your people become more intentional, more self-aware, more effective in the context of the company's real challenges.

Daniel (18:58.071)
Hahaha.

Debbie Radish-Respess (19:13.5)
And that's what I love about being able to do what I do now is it's not out of the box. know, sure, I have foundational things, but like it's, this is a path and let's build your path and your journey. That's going to get the greatest return on the investment that you're making. And that, that investment is people that you have in your organization.

Scott (19:36.58)
So no two organizations are exactly alike, is that what you're trying to tell me?

Debbie Radish-Respess (19:40.318)
That is the fact That that is the fact do we have similar problems? Do we have similar challenges? Do we have similar complaints? Do we have similar successes? Absolutely But I think the beauty of having different people is what what makes us so different like that's the cool thing You know, you're not gonna have brain surgeons working

Daniel (19:41.496)
You

Debbie Radish-Respess (20:03.43)
I don't know, do an underwater basket weaving, right? You're going to have like really cool people who know how to do underwater basket weaving while you still have really cool people, but very different doing the brain surgery, right? I mean, it's, but we're different. You're not going to treat brain surgeons the same way that you're going to treat somebody else. It's just a different world.

Daniel (20:08.066)
Haha.

Scott (20:26.2)
Yeah, really, really important. And every challenge is unique as well, because every challenge is in a unique culture with unique people who bring unique things, unique gifts, unique skills, unique problems. so solving that by taking a standard personality test and applying it to everybody so they can talk about stuff probably doesn't help us really move the needle, it?

Debbie Radish-Respess (20:54.526)
I haven't seen it in years that I've been there. I mean, it might move it for a bit. You know, I think people do get some great aha moments, but then there's nothing actionable. And that's if, you know, I won't work with companies who aren't going to take action. Like you're going to walk away with an action plan in all of my programs.

And I think that is what moves the needle and they're small steps that self awareness, the understanding, where am I starting from and what does something in the future look like? yeah, I've been in too many, like learning and development programs. And even on, your past podcast, you hear a lot of that where it's, okay, we're going to have to do this workshop or we're going to have to do this topic.

Okay, and what am I doing with it? Well, that was a waste of time and everybody goes back and they grumble about the loss of the hour or four hours of that thing that didn't move anything. Now I'm just ticked because it took four hours of my day that now I'm going to have to work overtime or I'm going have to work late.

Scott (21:59.642)
But the person that put in place, they feel really good. It's feel good work, right? We're going to do this and feel really good about the work. And hey, we're doing something. And it becomes flavor of the month. And your employees, they can sniff that out faster than you can have your head spin. I mean, it's just like, here we go again. Flavor of the month. What are we going to talk about this time? And you're right, it doesn't move the needle. One thing that you brought up,

that I would love to spend a little bit of time on is this idea of zone of interest, right? And then you also have your, my goodness, zone of control, zone of, my goodness.

Debbie Radish-Respess (22:39.748)
No, zone of genius and zone of impact.

Scott (22:42.518)
Okay. All right. I'll do a pickup. Three, two. So you have your zone of genius and your zone of impact. Could you go a little bit more in depth on what those are and what the value is and how it affects the overall business as you look at it?

Debbie Radish-Respess (23:04.158)
Yeah, so I like to start with the zone of genius because it's leader focused, whether it's new leaders, executive leaders, whatever the case may be. We take a look at four areas actually. They're natural strengths, passions and motivations, skills and experience, and then their impact opportunities. So who are they touching? So what are the behavior superpowers? Kind of how are you wired to operate and lead at your best?

that passion and motivation and skills. This is kind of like where your heart is. That genius tends to follow where your heart is, right? This is why we talk about values all the time. When you look at your skills, experience, impact opportunities, this is kind of what you've mastered over time, whether they be certifications, leadership roles, big problem solving, strategy planning, whatever the case may be. And then when you have those impact opportunities,

Daniel (23:38.392)
you

Debbie Radish-Respess (24:00.744)
Combine with your natural strengths. That's where your contributions are most valued by others and that all of those together brings in the zone of genius. And then that goes into your zone of impact. So this is where you're actually having impact outside of yourself. It could be into the organization with the purpose, the mission, the vision, the values. It could be influencing the market and the work environment with kind of where you're working in.

It impacts organizational resources. So the people, the processes, the tools, the time, project management, et cetera. And all of that influences and continues to improve upon your own leadership capabilities. So I think that once you start with Zona Genius and you start working on the things that actually move the needle, that zone of impact just, it's like that drip of water.

you know, that little drip in water where you get that ripple effect and it's just, it's so beautiful to see.

Zeta (25:05.794)
That's awesome. As you're talking about working with people, building up to their strengths, using their zone of genius, their zone of impact, it reminds me of, this is gonna get nerdy, like a D &D group, where you have different characters, different party members, right? You have your cleric, you've got your thief, you've got your fighter, but you have different strengths with those characters. You're not gonna send, say, the fighter.

Daniel (25:23.324)
Ha!

Zeta (25:34.742)
And to the back, you're going to put the major in the back. That's how they're most effective. So I think you working with them, finding their strengths helps them kind of level up in a sense, right? It's awesome. And then they get to work together as a party. It's great. Yeah.

Daniel (25:51.458)
Love that. Nerd. That was awesome.

Debbie Radish-Respess (25:51.838)
I love nerds.

Zeta (25:53.006)
Sorry.

Scott (25:57.826)
Yeah, for sure. Nerd City. So.

Scott (26:04.506)
Sorry, had to put that in.

Zeta (26:09.494)
It's all good.

Daniel (26:11.03)
You

Scott (26:13.422)
Now, one of things I found really interesting is you do a lot of behavioral data. So you're taking a look at behavior. Could you talk a little bit about the importance of behavioral data and how it really helps you to transform your leadership development?

Debbie Radish-Respess (26:29.724)
Yeah, I think we focus a lot on what used to be called soft skills. Again, I use, I use impact, their impact skills, right? But we have to understand how people, what motivates them, what drives them. And you can see that in their behaviors. I have to like deviate for a second. Like I hate performance reviews because I don't want to talk about something that happened months ago.

Scott (26:50.18)
Mm-hmm.

Debbie Radish-Respess (26:56.134)
I want to talk about your behaviors and actions right here, right now, and how you're influencing and impacting the team, the clients, whatever the case may be. So when I look at behavior, I'm certified in predictive index. I can use just about any assessment, but when you really focus on the behaviors of someone, it's not as personal as saying you have a horrible personality.

Right. It's, can literally draw it back to, you're late on a Monday morning. Let's talk about what's happening over the weekend to be able to get you into work on time because you're so important to the team. Your work is so important to the client that you coming in late is it needs to be addressed. Right. But I can talk about behavior so much easier than, you know, you're always late and you stink and blah, blah, blah.

No, let me talk specifically about the example and what can we do about it because now I can take action on the behavior.

And I think it's a missing piece in leadership development programs. That's why I call it leadership excellence, because that's what we're striving for. And I think we don't self assess our behaviors as much as we think we do. We don't look at our tone of voice. We don't look at our body language. We don't, you know, get on video and we don't stay on video, right? Because we work remote. So we're just not going to be on video and I don't have to make eye contact with anybody and they don't have to see me in my t-shirt and shorts.

No, like that's you're you're missing out on great opportunities when that happens.

Daniel (28:36.024)
I love that. I couldn't agree more. Every time I'm talking with a business or I'm talking with somebody and I'm like, hey, when's the last time you got coaching? When's the last time somebody told you how you were doing? And then they go, I'm like, no, here it comes. But yeah, like it's.

That kind of like help has to be like in the moment to be the most impactful. You know, when, when I've led teams, like the weekly check-in was just like the start, the baseline, but like, you've got to like be like tapping shoulders or at least just reaching out on a daily. Hey, how you doing? How are things going? Hey, what's up? Hey, I heard this thing. What happened? Like, where are we at with this? What happened? Tell me about what's going on. If you're waiting till like that weekly check-in or God forbid that monthly check-in or even worse.

I've heard that quarterly check-in. Like, if you're giving me feedback on behaviors that happened more than a week ago, there's almost zero impact.

Scott (29:27.034)
Mm-hmm.

Debbie Radish-Respess (29:38.268)
Yeah. How much time and effort do you have to even change that now? Right? It's not like you don't like it's so far back that it's like, well, now what do I do with that? So now I'm going to sit and ponder what may or may not have happened as opposed to looking forward to go, what action can I take right here right now to change course?

Daniel (29:45.89)
Yeah.

Daniel (30:01.717)
No, 100%. 100%.

Scott (30:05.114)
Yeah, I know what they say too. You know, the longer you put off a hard conversation, the harder it gets. It just gets harder. All the time. So I do like to have a little bit of space, especially if I'm emotionally triggered, right? So unfortunately we live in a society where that space has become wicked small. People just get it triggered and then they, they kind of, you know, let things out. So, I think we talked about this before, gang. I like the 24 hour rule, unless it's really important.

Debbie Radish-Respess (30:13.054)
It's because of the stories.

Scott (30:34.35)
like electric fence issue, then you got to talk about it right away. But otherwise, I'm going to calm down a little bit and then I'm going to go ahead and talk to them. But I think you're right. I think that's super important. Talking a little bit about process for customization, because I think it's such an important value proposition for what you're doing and something everybody needs to do. Like you're walking into the business, you look at a business. What does that process look like? So you can deliver the right kind of value to leadership leaders in that business so that they can be the very best that they can be.

Debbie Radish-Respess (31:05.369)
It just starts with asking questions. First, typically it's what do you want to get out of this? What are you looking to solve? They're not looking to bring something in without believing they have a problem. I like to unpack that problem so that we can really make sure we're working on the right thing. And I'll give you a great example. I've got clients that'll tell me that they're

employees are completely unproductive, they're working from home, just the typical complaints about that. As we get into it, it's actually about talking about behaviors. These folks have never been taught to utilize a system to help schedule

what works the best for them. And some of them can work in 30 minute increments, and then they have to take a break and others can sit down for four hours at a time. So the problem isn't the productivity. The problem is the fact of what the leaders are requiring of these employees who are not going to fit that mold, right? And every company is in a different chapter of that growth. So you can't go in and say, well, here's my box, and here's what you're going to get out of it. It's

Scott (31:55.972)
Mm-hmm.

Debbie Radish-Respess (32:21.886)
You may have to talk about, you looking to scale fast? Are you looking to solidify culture? Are you in a transition? What's changing? Do you have a merger? Do you have leadership challenges? What is happening so that, and it's just asking the questions and listening. I'm an executive coach by certification. So I listen maybe a little differently. I ask sometimes hard questions. I'm very direct. I'm from the North. I live in the South.

I'm not afraid to ask the hard questions to go, well, wait, what are you really trying to get out of this? I've done executive coaching where the, the, the upper, the, the executive leader thought that this might've been a termination. Like this was like a performance improvement. And I said, I'm not doing performance improvement. You're not going to, you're not going to spend money on executive coaching. Well, it comes to find out that it wasn't really the employee's situation. It was really the relationship between that manager.

that leader and the executive leader. And I worked with them on a program for them to actually improve their relationship. And they're fricking rocking it now. So, you know, what started out as a performance improvement situation actually really was total miscommunication and aligning that. So Scott, to your point, it's really, it's asking the right questions.

And sometimes it's just starting small. I'm not going in to sell my biggest program. It's let's start small. Let's see how this impacts it. Let's see if your people are even ready for it. Because again, people are people and they may or may not want it. So the process is simple. Let me just have a conversation with you. Let's see where you're at. Let's see where you think you want to go and design it appropriately.

Scott (34:09.69)
That's amazing. I think it's really a great thing to be doing and really getting at the crux of what the opportunity really is so you can really solve some problems and make an impact. think that's awesome. We are getting to that point in time in the show where we're going to start to think about wrapping things up. Before I do, I wanted to give you an opportunity. Was there anything that you wanted to talk about today that we didn't get a chance to talk about? We want to talk about that. Or

Maybe it's a really great opportunity for you to go ahead and begin to kind of put a little bow on all these awesome ideas that you shared with us today. So go ahead and let us know about that,

Debbie Radish-Respess (34:49.448)
Yeah, I was thinking about how I want to finish up something like this. And I'm like, first off, remember that your zone of genius is your gift. It is a gift that you get to give to others. Why are we not sharing that? And that zone of impact is a responsibility. And that's really where that leadership excellence is what happens when you honor both of those. So that's tying up the leadership genius as the gift and leadership.

or the zone of genius as a gift and zone of impact as the responsibility. And you don't have to lead as like everyone else, right? You just have to lead in alignment with who you are and what your business needs. And that's just where the beauty of humans come out.

Daniel (35:35.628)
Love it.

Scott (35:36.686)
Love it. That is so awesome.

Scott (35:42.276)
Debbie, thanks so much for hanging with us today. Lots of really great stuff. You twist my arm talking about leadership. I just think it's so desperately needed. You're doing great stuff out there. Could you do me a favor? Could you let our audience know how they can get in touch with you?

Debbie Radish-Respess (35:58.086)
Yeah, LinkedIn, it's the, linkedin.com Debbie Radish respice long name, no hyphens or periods in that. They can email me at Debbie at invisible horizons coaching.com or go to invisible horizons coaching.com website. And I'm hoping to write a book soon. So be prepared.

Scott (36:16.09)
Ooh, that sounds great. Well, once again, thank you so much. You brought a lot of really amazing things to our audience. And I'm sure that a lot of those folks will be either reaching out or applying some of those things that we talked about real soon. So thank you so much. Daniel-san, could you do me a favor? Could you let everybody know how they could get in touch with us?

Debbie Radish-Respess (36:33.214)
Thank you.