One of my favourite parts of hosting Full Production is talking to people who inspire me to give it my all when I wake up in the morning. People who have something in their mind that completely prevents them from slacking and being mediocre.
My latest guest is one of these people, no question. Greg Layton is the founder and executive coach at Chief Maker, an organisation dedicated to helping middle and upper-level management excel. He’s run ultra-marathons in the Chinese desert and helped countless businesses succeed. He’s also a podcaster himself, hosting The Inner Chief Podcast.
Greg has a wealth of experience in the mining industry, working with miners across Australia and even helping a mining company in Tanzania turn bad practices into real profit. Our talk was incredibly fascinating, and I wanted to share a few key points that you all will find useful.
“Success is generally from what they don’t teach you in business school.”
I couldn’t agree with this more. I think you’d be hard-pressed to find anybody — especially in the mining industry — who has found success by simply emulating the things they saw in their uni business classes.
Don’t get me wrong, an education in business is invaluable. If you have the means to attend university, go do it. But realise that going to the best school does not automatically make you a warrior. It might open some doors and get you some great connections, but the trials and tribulations you go through as a business leader are going to do a lot more for you.
“Resilience is a process of just continuously pushing towards a fantastic outcome for everyone involved.”
I think this concept of resilience is what sets the top echelon of society apart from the rest. Most people are entirely comfortable in mediocrity. They get tired and immediately think of how they can get home to boot up Netflix or crack open a beer. They run away from uncomfortable feelings.
The truth is this: those uncomfortable feelings are where real success happens.
Think of someone you admire. Did they get to where they are by following the path of resistance? By giving up whenever something was uncomfortable or they encountered some sort of difficulty? I doubt it.
“This is where the courage is — to stay laser-focused on a small number of high-quality projects — it’s hard, mate.”
It may sound funny to say that it takes courage to focus on a small number of projects, but it’s true. As an executive, you might be tempted to take on a bunch of projects to boost numbers and make yourself look good. When one isn’t bringing immediate success, you have a bunch of others you can turn to.
What’s really impressive is when managers pick a few projects and go to town. They give it their all and risk failure and a lack of results. That takes courage.
Take a minute to look at the projects you’re working on. Are you really committed to providing the ultimate quality to your clients? Or are you just looking to rack up points?
Find the inner fire that drives you to succeed and stoke those flames until you can’t do anything but achieve what you set out to do.
Listen to the entire conversation with Greg here.
