Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: You're listening to the Leader By Design podcast and on today's episode we are going to be talking about the final two habits, the last two habits of highly effective people. So if that is interesting to you, becoming more highly effective, then stay tuned. We also have an extra special guest here today which we'll introduce after our intro. So, highly effective people, the last two habits. Stay tuned if that's interesting to you.
G'day. I'm Brendan Rogers. I've built a thriving business creating confident leaders who achieve the results they always wanted along with the lifestyle they always dreamed of. How do you become a confident leader? By focusing on three key areas. Developing character building competence and creating connection. This is the Leader by Design podcast. Welcome to the show. I'm your host, Brendan Rogers and I have my co host here.
[00:00:55] Speaker B: Hello. Back again.
[00:00:57] Speaker A: Who's back again?
[00:00:58] Speaker B: Emmy's back.
[00:00:59] Speaker A: Emmy's back. And Emmy, we have somebody here. Would you like to introduce this extra special guest who we've got a very.
[00:01:05] Speaker B: Special guest with us, my advisor, Tim Walsh.
[00:01:08] Speaker C: My first ever podcast.
[00:01:10] Speaker A: First ever podcast, Tim. Awesome. And we, technically we, we might. The audio may not be as good as we normally are because we're having to share microphones. Unfortunately, I was ill prepared and I didn't grab another microphone, but. Tim, welcome to the Leaderbodies on podcast.
[00:01:28] Speaker C: Thank you. It's great to be here. I've heard a lot about it from Emmy.
Been listening along too, and the journey had a few shout outs along the way, so it's, it's great to be here, mate.
[00:01:38] Speaker A: Awesome to have you. It's been a, we've had a bit of a catch up out the back this morning, so poor Emmy's had to listen to us talk about all sorts of rubbish. But it is great to see you. And how about very quickly, let's do a quick catch up on our our week. Emmy, how's your week been?
[00:01:55] Speaker B: Had a very good week. Finalized exhibition slides and prepared for next week, which is awesome.
Finishing sport. We had swimming for sport yesterday which was lots of fun. Um, yeah, it's actually been a really good week. It has been, yeah.
[00:02:11] Speaker A: Fantastic. And yeah, this whole exhibition, everything we've been doing over sort of recent weeks, the last five or six weeks has been leading up to this exhibition, so exciting times. Next Tuesday, you're in the hot seat.
[00:02:23] Speaker B: Next Tuesday. Yep. Should be awesome.
[00:02:25] Speaker A: I can't wait to see. Can't wait to see. Tim, how about yourself? Tell us a bit about your last week. What's been in. What's been happening.
[00:02:33] Speaker C: It's been a busy week. It's obviously we're getting closer to the students exhibitions at school and we've come back from a week in the Blue Mountains. So we had a hike in Katoomba, six foot track, 40 kilometers.
So let's lots to unpack from that as a, as a group.
Lots of lessons learned from, from everyone. It was a challenging high. Especially the last 2km over that steep ascent.
Brought out some interesting characteristics in people, including myself.
[00:03:12] Speaker A: And I do hear that lucky you had inspire with Emmy right near you so that she could inspire you to finish and you know, get over your, your hurting bits and pieces and all that sort of stuff.
[00:03:24] Speaker C: Yeah, the last kilometer I had some, some encouragement, much needed encouragement from Amy going up that hill.
[00:03:33] Speaker A: That's fantastic. And as we spoke on the podcast earlier that or on a previous podcast, Amy was able to use her geniuses of galvanizing and enablement and really support the team to get excited and last kilometer, let's go. And it sounds like a particularly work for you, Tim.
[00:03:46] Speaker C: Yeah, it was much appreciated.
[00:03:48] Speaker A: Fantastic. My week, my week's been pretty interesting. Standard week from a client and working with people, all that sort of stuff has been great. But I said last week I had my very first skin cancer check which was weird because I'm 49 years of age, lived in Australia for quite a long time and unfortunately I had a skin cancer which had. Which I've got to get treated with cream now. So in a couple of spots, which was really my wife said to me, like, how does it feel that getting that sort of diagnosis. Well, actually it's weird because the doctor didn't seem it was too much of an issue. It was like really early stage type stuff. But anyway, for those listening, if you spend too much time with some, it's probably best you use sunscreen and do all the right things because yeah, if you can avoid these things, I guess it's better. Better avoided. So anyway, interesting, interesting where everything else is good, good with kids, not as much sleep as we'd like to have as normal. So meant I slept in this morning and I was a bit behind for everything that we're doing today. But anyway, we're finally here, so sounds like we've all had very good interesting weeks.
[00:04:50] Speaker C: We have.
[00:04:50] Speaker A: And Tim took his own children to mum and pop or grandma and grandpa's this morning and stuff. I had to travel a long commute next door.
Is that right?
[00:05:00] Speaker C: It is, yeah. Long commute, long walk between fences.
[00:05:04] Speaker A: You've always been a very efficient man. That's him. And that's taking it to extremes. So well done, buddy. All right, let's. Let's get into our topic today, which is the final two habits of highly effective people. And because Emmy is the most contentious and smartest person in the podcast today, she's going to tell us a little bit about the first, the fifth.
Sorry, the sixth habit. But the first one we're talking about today, what's that one?
[00:05:31] Speaker B: Synergize or synergy.
[00:05:33] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:05:33] Speaker B: So this one is all about working together to achieve more. So having two things that could be done great alone, you put them together and they're even better. Yeah.
[00:05:44] Speaker A: Teamwork type stuff.
[00:05:46] Speaker B: Teamwork, Yep. Open mindedness, cooperation, adventure of finding new solutions to old problems.
[00:05:53] Speaker A: So I know that there's been a couple of challenges. There's always challenges when new teams come together. Like your leadership team, student leadership team is a new team coming together. You know, there's always a bit of sort of understanding each other and how we work and things like that. But how do you see this synergize and this sixth habit working in your student leadership team moving forward?
[00:06:17] Speaker B: I think coming together as a group, we bring so many ideas to the table as well. And how can we put that forward for the school, for the school community by. There's an analogy which is instruments sound really good by themselves. You can play the drums, they sound awesome in the guitar and you put them together in a band and it creates a song and it creates a rhythm and they sound really good together. So I think with the whole school leadership team bringing the ideas bring people's different perspectives and opinions as well.
[00:06:47] Speaker A: Again, you come with such great analogies. So you know, if one of those instrument. Instrument. Instruments is not firing, then just the music that comes out isn't as good. Right. And that's the same with teams. If someone's a bit off their game, then you're not performing the best as a team. So how do you help people? How do you, how do you support someone to be better at that instrument or to be a better team member?
[00:07:09] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:07:10] Speaker A: Great analogy. Was Tim, you.
Well, I learned in the conversation we had pre recording that you are actually a master black belt in the 7 Habits of Highly effective people. Is that right? Is that what they say?
[00:07:27] Speaker C: I'm. Yeah. Facilitator of the seven habits. So that that translates to master black belt.
[00:07:31] Speaker A: Absolutely, absolutely. So you give us your. This synergized thing like tell us a bit more in your language or maybe as a, as an approved facilitator. What, what Is this. Why is it, why is it important?
[00:07:42] Speaker C: So the. So synergy is based on that. The sum of the parts is greater than the whole. So individually coming together, like Amy's analogy was perfect, really, is that the instruments, individual instruments, sound fantastic on their own, but when they're together, they create beautiful pieces of music. So that's the same with the team. So, Brendan, you may have a great idea and I might have a great idea, and we have two great ideas, but when we come together and discuss our ideas, we have the opportunity to create a third idea.
An idea that we wouldn't have come up on our own, but we had to come together and create a third alternative.
And that's, that's the power of synergy.
And the 7 habits is based on the maturity continuum. And when you're progressing through that maturity continuum, synergy is one of the final steps that you've come out of yourself. You've been proactive and you learn about yourself and then you're thinking, win, win, and you're working independently and then interdependent, from interdependence to independent. And then the synergy comes when you get through all those habits.
[00:09:08] Speaker A: I love that again. And it sounds like you actually listened in your sort of facilitate a class, is that right? So even, Even in this podcast. So if I, if I take away from what both you and Emmy have said, that Emmy and I have been doing this podcast together for a few weeks or a number of. A number of weeks now. And Emmy's been co hosting. Now that we've got this extra person here, you basically saying that this podcast episode will be even better than what we've done before.
[00:09:32] Speaker C: That's exactly right.
[00:09:34] Speaker A: You are the, you are the maker. Hey, first podcast and you've already made it way better. I love it.
[00:09:40] Speaker C: Couldn't have done it without you two, though.
[00:09:42] Speaker A: No, mate, No, I know. As we said, you are for when we put a few little video snippets on socials, you are the rose, the. Sorry, the thorn between two roses today, aren't you?
[00:09:51] Speaker C: I am very much.
[00:09:53] Speaker A: And branding too. Got the Central Coast Sports College top on.
[00:09:57] Speaker C: So on the clock today.
[00:09:59] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. Yes, you are. You are. So from my perspective, again, I guess I don't need to give my own definition. You guys have summed up really well. But one of the tools that I use in my own consultancy and when I'm working with teams and business leaders is called the five dysfunctions of a team. And it's a team assessment. So anybody who wants to look into that. A great book written by Patrick Lencioni won't go into all those in detail today, but it's basically a tool that you learn dysfunction in teams. So you learn basically what impacts on synergy and synergizing in teams. And if you can overcome, you can understand, become more aware about what the dysfunctions are and you identify those in teams and you can work together and you will better synergize, meaning you'll have better outcomes, you'll have better conversations, you'll challenge each other around different topics, different issues that you're having in your business. And you'd be willing to take insight from other people. People will be more willing to share insight into what their view is based on their experiences. So there's some of the. There's a really great tool that can help with this habit of highly effective people synergizing to really understand that and to put that on steroids, so to speak. Sound fair? Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. As far as, again, from a business owner perspective, like, this synergized thing has to be really important. Okay, I'll talk from Tim's perspective. You're not a business. Well, you are a business owner. But let's talk from the angle of your advisor, teacher and your role that you're doing, how important it is from a teaching group to have a level of synergy. So hopefully you're getting great outcomes as a collective, which leads to great outcomes for students.
[00:11:35] Speaker C: Yeah, it's super important. And obviously, the bigger the team, the more you have to navigate as a group. So it's easier to synergize, I guess, with three people, because we're only hearing a couple of different perspectives. But once we hear perspectives from 20 people, the power is obviously the potential to create solutions to the problems is greater. But getting there and navigating each person's idea and each person's perspective is a challenge. But the results are far better than you could ever imagine being doing it on your own or in a pair. So the bigger the team, the bigger impact you can have. But the more challenging it can be.
[00:12:34] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. The more personality you throw to that mix, it can be more challenging, can't it? Emme, let's put you back in the hot seat. So as far as your exhibition next week, there's been a fair bit of work that you've had to put in to get to that point, but nothing happens in isolation. How do you think sort of synergy and synergizing with others has been useful in what you're going to deliver as a Fantastic presentation next week using you.
[00:12:58] Speaker B: Brendan and Tim as my mentors as well. So like getting information and research and working together that's, that's then brought me information to help create a presentation. Having, doing the podcast we bounce different ideas off each other and that's teamwork again in itself.
Yeah, I think just working with different people to help create information and resources for my exhibition as well.
[00:13:24] Speaker A: Absolutely. And you didn't mention your mum. Your mum's been really helpful with her feedback as well, hasn't she?
[00:13:28] Speaker B: She has been. She's given lots of different feedback each week going in there. Let's try breathing, let's try listening to what's being said and then creating problems. So it's definitely. It makes you think about it. I think it's very good advice.
[00:13:41] Speaker A: Yeah, that's good. So mum's not appeared on this podcast yet but she's giving some insight into the background as far as how the team can continue to improve.
[00:13:49] Speaker B: Definitely, yeah.
[00:13:50] Speaker A: Love it. As I always say. Do we need to say anything else more? Would anybody like to say anything more about synergize this sixth habit of highly effective people before we move on to the 7th?
Our advisor Tim would love to say more.
[00:14:06] Speaker C: Always got something to say.
Another analogy that is gets a lot of conversations in when I was facilitating the seven habits is that if you have two people with the same opinion, one is useless.
So there's.
And that that can be quite confronting to. To people to hear.
It's not saying that it's a bad thing but it's just challenging your beliefs into if you have. You're not going to come up with new solutions if you have the same perspective. So there is benefit in hearing new perspectives and new ideas so that we can come up with solutions that we've never thought of. So. So I guess the idea is that open mindedness is key to synergy and being willing to be vulnerable enough to hear someone else's perspective and challenge your own beliefs as well.
[00:15:09] Speaker A: But you've already shown your value on this podcast. Absolutely. You're dropping some gold nuggets here. And back to the. I guess what I would say to that, back to the five dysfunctions of a team and it's the first function is what we call absence of trust and that leads to a fear of conflict. So just speaking to your point that if people don't feel safe in the environment then they'll question themselves about whether they'll raise their opinion. So and if that certainly if that opinion differs to what the group might be saying, but they've got this fantastic experience that the group's unaware of and they've really got some good insight. If they're not feeling safe, then they won't have that conflict. They'll. They'll avoid raising the issue or putting their two bobs forward, which means that you're not getting the best outcome. So the other side, I'd say, is you definitely don't want yes people in your team. You don't be leading a team that just sit there and nod, yes, sir. Yes, sir. Three bags full, sir. We want to get that diversity. We want to get that diversity of opinion.
[00:16:04] Speaker C: Exactly right.
[00:16:05] Speaker A: Yeah, spot on. You're advising me very well, mate. I'm really picking up on your knowledge. So thanks. Thanks for being here.
[00:16:12] Speaker C: Thanks for having me.
[00:16:13] Speaker A: I'm sure the listeners are loving it as well. Absolutely. And your fellow cohort at school, all these students and teachers that will be listening as well. So we always give a bit of a shout out. Emmy, is there a shout out you want to give today to anybody?
[00:16:25] Speaker B: Mum and her advice for you today? Listening to what you guys are saying and then giving. That was her bit of advice this morning for running out the door. So probably shout out to mom today. Yeah.
[00:16:38] Speaker A: Thanks, Janelle. We always appreciate the input.
[00:16:40] Speaker B: We do.
[00:16:40] Speaker A: Tim, who's your shout out for before we move on to the seventh habit?
[00:16:44] Speaker C: Shout out to the advisory. Advisory. The mud eaters back at school.
Been a big year and I think we're ending it well. So, yeah, shout out to those guys.
[00:16:56] Speaker A: Well, I have to do the right thing and shout out to my lovely wife as well, who, when we do podcasts, because the studio home office doesn't have a door on it, she. If we've got sort of chilled around, she takes them all out for a period of time and she generally always comes back when we're nearing the end and opens the door and all of a sudden we've got all this banging and clanging at the end of the episode. But big shout out to her for. Yeah, doing that stuff so we can do this stuff.
Awesome. Okay, our seventh habit. How about we start with Tim? He's the expert, apparently.
What's our seventh habit? Tim, what's this other habit? The last habit of highly effective people.
[00:17:32] Speaker C: So arguably one of the most important habits, it's sharpen the saw. So on the maturity continuum, it surrounds all the other habits. So without it, you cannot complete the rest of the six before. So it's interesting that you learn about it last. But without it, you will struggle to do the first.
So that is, yeah, like I said, the most important of the habits to really look after yourself.
And you learn about yourself through the seven habits, which will then allow you to identify what areas of your life you can sharpen the saw with. So along the way, you learn about what's the most important to you, what brings you the most joy, what you're trying to achieve, and what renews you. So again, along the way, you learn about daily renewal.
What can you do to win the day?
What are you achieving? What are you trying to do? And that allows you to be the best version of yourself.
[00:18:50] Speaker A: Love it. You're definitely good. Emmy, what's your. You've got some notes here as well. What's the. What's the student version of sharpening the saw?
[00:18:58] Speaker B: I was actually looking to this habit yesterday, trying to get a better understanding of it, and I came across another analogy, which this one's actually really good as well. So you think of a car that has four wheels. So there's four dimensions of sharpen the saw. So it's physical, spiritual, mental and emotional.
And if one of your tires are flat on a car, if you're not, like, prioritizing, say, exercise or sleeping well, then your car's wonky. So I think keeping those four dimensions, balance, like Tim said, to be the best version of yourself as well. And without four strong tires, you can't drive forward as well. So it's all about balance and, yeah, wanting to become the best version of yourself.
[00:19:49] Speaker A: Honestly, where do you come up with these analogies? They're so good.
[00:19:53] Speaker B: Love the Internet.
AI that's so handy.
[00:19:59] Speaker A: I mean, again, it just resonates with me. I had cost me a fortune with my car yesterday with a few things that needed to be sorted. One of them was a nail in the tire. So that wasn't operating at a best self, was it?
[00:20:09] Speaker B: No.
[00:20:09] Speaker A: Cost me about $1,600 to sharpen the saw.
[00:20:12] Speaker B: Oh, my God.
[00:20:12] Speaker A: Not just for the tire. Again, the people that do it are fantastic. It was a bit of work that needed to, but as cars get a bit older, there's always things to do, isn't there?
[00:20:19] Speaker B: That's for sure.
[00:20:20] Speaker A: Amy, your journey so far, I can be very confident that you've been sharp in this along the way. But what's your perspective on this? How have you know, whether it's podcasts, whether it's stuff we've been doing week to week, some of the stuff you have conversation with Tim, your advisor, about, like, how has this worked for you? What have you been doing that, I think sharpens your saw.
[00:20:40] Speaker B: I think we've spoken before about asking people for feedback. I think that's another like that helps you become better as well. Like understanding what others think of you, understanding what can I do better? If we speak about the captain's interview, going back and asking what could have I've done better or what were you looking for in that position? I think as well getting that feedback from others along, along the way.
[00:21:07] Speaker A: Yeah, that is, that is a fantastic insight. And you know, I'm going to say it again, I'm a bit biased, but you definitely should have been school captain with that sort of attitude. I mean, how, how important is feedback so important?
[00:21:19] Speaker B: It helps you grow. It's lessons, it's different opinions, different perspectives as well.
[00:21:24] Speaker C: It's the breakfast of champions, isn't it?
[00:21:28] Speaker A: That's what they say, honey. It's sometimes it's a tough breakfast to eat, but you've got to have that vulnerability. You've got that openness. And again, in the language we're talking today, if you're. You're willing to sharpen the saw, I improve yourself. There's no improvement without feedback.
Let's put Tim in this hot seat. Tim, tell us about some bit of feedback. And again, feedback can be. Is not just constructive, it's appreciation type feedback as well. So you choose, tell us about some feedback you've got that's either been appreciative like hey, you're awesome at this, keep doing it, or hey, here's an area that you could improve upon, therefore, ie, sharpen your saw.
[00:22:04] Speaker C: Yeah, I actually received some feedback last night from a student. It was a really, really thoughtful email that they took the time to write that had, that acknowledged some challenges that we'd had throughout the year that we'd navigated and overcome. And we're at a point now where we've seen the benefit of having difficult conversations and challenging discussions as hard as they are at the time. And we're not always perfect to deliver that feedback or receive that feedback, but I guess being mature enough to hear others, to take the feedback on, reflect on it, identify if it's actually something that resonates with you.
And this student had acknowledged that we just, we'd gotten, we'd gotten past some, some key, key issues that at the time were I guess maybe thought of as really hard to overcome or if even if we could overcome them and to personally reflect on where we're at at the moment and to show appreciation of honesty and trust.
So yeah, that Was that was a fresh, fresh bit of feedback that I, that I got, which was really nice to hear. And just, it's really inspiring to have teenagers that are willing to critically reflect and give feedback to adults. So as much as sometimes you don't want to hear the feedback or feedback can be challenging, I was inspired that I actually got feedback from. From a student because it just shows their growth.
Yeah.
[00:24:08] Speaker A: Once again, another great example. And I have to say, testament to yourself, you've obviously built a strong enough relationship. You were. You mentioned the word trust. There's trust that. Excuse me, there's trust there that you've developed over time and have these relationships with the students. I know you've got a fantastic relationship with Emmy, but, you know, being willing to. To have that tough conversation from time to time. But as I said, it's more always about the tough conversation. It's also like, Tim, I really love when you do this for me, it's so helpful. It's really given me some energy to do stuff. And I know, again, Emmy talks very, very fondly of you. I'm not going to ask her to say that on camera and recording because we don't want your head to get too big so she can share it with you privately. We don't want to record that sort of stuff, Emmy, do we? No, no. He'll just listen to that part of the podcast all the time.
But look, it's a fantastic point there. There's no improvement without feedback. So sharpen the saw in that whole context, if you can't learn to be good at asking, which is a really simple thing, but being open and vulnerable to whatever the response might be, then there is no improvement. And at the bottom of that triangle, in the five dysfunctions you mentioned, at that trust, you've got to have a layer of trust in order to take the. To be able to have the confidence to share the feedback, but also the person receiving it has to have the level of trust that the person has the right intent in giving that feedback. Because I've seen situations where even appreciative type feedback cannot be taken in a good light because the relationship has been strained. So it's sort of like, are you just, you know, taking the piss or you don't mean it? The intent's not there, so it can work two ways.
[00:25:43] Speaker C: Did you guys cover the emotional bank account along the way?
[00:25:47] Speaker A: Yes, Emmy did mention the emotional bank account. What would you like to say about the emotional bank account?
[00:25:53] Speaker C: Just with that feedback that you said that if the trust is not There, the feedback, even if it is positive, might not be well received. So always mindful of the relationship that you have and how many deposits have you made into that relationship or you've built that emotional banking couple account up so that if something does go wrong and you do make a withdrawal, that things still move forward.
And then if you, if you've got an empty bank account and you, you do try to make a deposit, sometimes it's not well received because you've. You've taken too many things out of that relationship.
[00:26:31] Speaker A: Yeah, great point.
The input from my side and relating back to business and, you know, I wouldn't have a business if I didn't know business owners that are willing to sharpen their saw. They wouldn't come to me and want to try and learn to improve about how they're leading their team, how they're growing their business, all that sort of stuff. And thankfully they're willing to pay a little bit of money for that every now and again too. So that helps me put some food on the table from time to time. Amy, is there anything else you'd like to say about sharpening the saw?
[00:26:59] Speaker B: I think lastly, just going into the different four dimensions that I mentioned earlier. So your first one's like physical. So sharpening that blade physically ensures your body has strength and vigor. I don't even know what that word says. Vigor needs to take on life. So it's all about exercising, getting enough sleep, eating the right food, and what.
[00:27:25] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:27:25] Speaker B: What can you do physically to make sure that yourself is okay? The next one being spiritual. Sense of purpose, who you are, why you do. Reconnecting with yourself, with nature, maybe going for a walk or something like that, just finding your purpose again as well.
Mental. So mind works. I thought this one was really interesting. If you ever find that your mind's really flat or you're just not interested, sometimes you need to challenge it or find something else to redo again. So refreshing it. It's all about refreshing it and keeping it. Sharpen the saw fresh as well and giving insights that can look back for success. So if you're trying different things, you might be thinking about stuff that could help loop back to what you're doing. So just trying different things in your mind and challenging it as well. And the last one being your social and emotional factor. So interacting with human people and all about relationships, going out with a friend, doing something with people, it's that social networking again and the connections that we make with people. I think just balancing it all out. And without one of those factors, it's very hard to drive forward like a car.
[00:28:40] Speaker C: Love it.
[00:28:41] Speaker A: Again, what's one thing that you've done, Emmy, today that has helped in one of those four areas?
[00:28:47] Speaker B: That's a great question. Had a good breakfast. So eating, eating a healthy breakfast.
[00:28:51] Speaker A: You always eat pretty clean, don't you?
[00:28:53] Speaker B: First the time. Yes.
[00:28:55] Speaker A: I'm sitting there. Have a coffee. Emmy's having her water.
[00:28:58] Speaker B: Lemon with water.
[00:29:00] Speaker A: Tim, what about you? What's one thing you've done today in one of those four?
[00:29:03] Speaker C: Um, I had a five minute cold shower this morning. Um, so that's. It's a bit of a mental challenge for me. So going at the moment doing 30 days of 5 minute cold showers. Um, and just with those dimensions that Emmy mentioned how important it is to hit all four. So it's super easy to. When we, we feel like we have some mental load or we're not feeling our greatest, we'll. We'll jump to the physical. So we'll jump to exercise, we'll jump to nutrition, which is fantastic and important. But you really can't neglect the other three dimensions to really feel your best and to get the most out of yourself so that those mental challenges, cold showers, ice baths, whatever, it kind of resonates with you when you're planning your week. Those big rocks.
[00:29:57] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:29:58] Speaker C: The seven for the sharpened saw is you need to put those big rocks in your calendar, making sure that you're addressing every dimension.
Because we. I'm guilty of it. We'll just focus on not the easy ones, but the ones that come come to us the easiest. But I guess making sure especially the spiritual one. So we get caught up with the spiritual one. Being religious. But spirituality isn't always attended and aligned with religion. If you are religious, then that's an easy one for you to achieve.
You do prayer or however you go about that with your religion. But, but spiritual can be meditation, yoga, connecting with nature, hikes.
So it's important to hit that. And it's probably for me, it's one of the hardest to hit.
But if I don't hit it, I still don't feel like I've fully sharpened the saw.
So it's a good reminder to get all four in.
[00:31:07] Speaker A: Yeah, spot on. And I guess two things. One of my this morning for me was actually sleeping in. My wife allowed me to sleep in. It had been a bit of a rough night with the young one, so it did put me behind in pretty much everything I was doing today. But I obviously needed the sleep. So that was a Bit of physical pep up that I needed with more sleep, so that was good. The other thing that I found really interesting over this time, and I have no scientific research to back this up, but historically, as I've seen leaders that I've either worked with or interacted with, that physical, to me has always been a really strong indicator of their quality of leadership. So self leadership, first and foremost. Absolutely. But then how that flows onto their business, their team, although. So this is where, again, I love your point that there's this whole interconnected atmosphere of those four elements. Um, but my experience says that physical is, I guess, is the most obvious one to see. Right. From a physically fit side of things. Mentally. Okay. Having some conversation, you can maybe identify some. Some things. But yeah, I've always found that when somebody is physically not sharpening the saw, let's say using today's language, that that always flows on into so many other aspects of their life. How they lead their business, how they lead their people, decisions they make, everything.
[00:32:26] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:32:27] Speaker A: What do you guys think about that? You guys are so physically fit. So I'm not making those judgment of you guys.
[00:32:32] Speaker B: Great point. Like, and you, you don't often see, like you see it, but being aware of it and the way you stated it there, it's very true. Like we see it at school and you probably see it as well in the business. So that was, that was a very good point. Yeah.
[00:32:47] Speaker A: Thank you, Emmy. See, I do say a few decent things on the podcast from time to time.
All right, so sharpen the saw. We've been talking for how long we gone. How long we've been going now? 33 minutes. What else would we like to say before we start to wrap up about sharpening the saw or even just closing around the seven habits in general on this sort of, you could say, miniseries that we've done with Tim being the special guest. There's always someone that comes into the end and sort of wants the glory, isn't there?
[00:33:16] Speaker B: I know, like what? He's done a great job.
[00:33:20] Speaker A: What takeaway would you like to leave our listeners, Tim, with? Just these. Either these last two habits that we spoke about or just the seven habits in general.
[00:33:32] Speaker C: Biggest thing is to hopefully along the way, you've personally reflected on what your passions and interests are and the connections. You've reflected on the important things in your life, and then you're beginning to acknowledge the importance of planning your week and making sure you are addressing those important big rocks in your life. Family, your career, your. Your pets, whatever is a key aspect of your life, making sure that they are in your calendar each week as a big rock that can't be moved.
And then by doing that, you are achieving sharpen the saw and you will be able to do all those rest of your tasks that are important in the week to the best of your ability by looking after yourself.
[00:34:30] Speaker A: Great takeaway, Emmy. What would you like to leave our list here?
[00:34:32] Speaker B: She thought that was great. I think he summed it up very well. I think. Left me speechless. That was very good. Yeah, very good sum up, it sounds like, anyway.
[00:34:42] Speaker A: Left you speechless.
[00:34:43] Speaker B: I know that was.
[00:34:44] Speaker A: It doesn't sound like you're very speechless now.
[00:34:47] Speaker B: Now I am.
[00:34:50] Speaker A: Have you got a final thought?
[00:34:53] Speaker B: I think even if you can understand a little bit of even one of the habits, it will help. It will give you a different open, like different aspects to what you do each day, to what you. How you balance yourself. I think just understanding what they are can help have an impact on you as well.
[00:35:17] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, flowing on from that, again, I would just say to people, the takeaway is that just start small, right? And maybe the easiest thing is to sharpen the saw. You know, it might mean that rather than sleeping in because you don't need it if you do take it. But yeah, maybe if you're even just starting your day 30 minutes earlier. And that means just reading a book for 10 of those 30 minutes, some educational thing that you're interested in or going for doing a little bit of exercise, you know, even just some, you know, up and down jumps or something like that, star jumps, if that's where you start from. But just something to start to improve yourself and then other things can start to flow from there. You know, we go back to, number one, being proactive or be proactive about making decisions on that. So like anything, any good change starts with the small change and then you can build momentum from there. So if this sort of stuff is interesting to people, and again, the majority of our audience generally are business owner type people, people in business leading teams. Although we've got this massive cohort now of student leaders out there that are listening to us off the back of these episodes. So just start small. You don't need to make significant changes straight away. Start small. Hopefully this episode and the two episodes before this, as we've spoken about the seven habits of follow up of highly effective people and broken that down, that we've given a bit of insight that actually just some. There's some really simple stuff that is relatable to these seven habits in Everyday life. I guess this is why it's such a powerful framework for business, for life, for, you know, a pathway for just how you operate generally, isn't it?
[00:36:49] Speaker B: Yep, I agree.
[00:36:51] Speaker A: All right, well, I think that's the all we need to say about this. I guess, given that this is Tim's very first podcast, we should just ask him about his experience of podcasting before we close out. Tim, have you felt on your very first podcast?
[00:37:07] Speaker C: Yeah, I've enjoyed it.
Definitely a new experience, hearing yourself through some earphones and hearing your voice back towards yourself, but really, really good conversation. I've. I've enjoyed the experience.
[00:37:23] Speaker A: Excellent, mate. Well, what we expect as part of the process of sharpening the saw is what I found in podcasting for several years now. There's nothing quite like listening back to an episode, particularly when it's unedited, when I'm listening to it, but just listening back and, oh, I really like how I said that. Or maybe I can improve myself there. So listening back to yourself or watching a bit of video, there's nothing more powerful. Getting that confronting feedback straight away. Like what you see is what you get.
[00:37:50] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:37:51] Speaker A: So I definitely encourage you to do it, buddy. I will, definitely. It's the only episode you can listen to, isn't it?
[00:37:57] Speaker C: I've listened to it. What are my three free in to the journey?
[00:38:02] Speaker A: Yeah, you're.
[00:38:03] Speaker C: You're behind.
[00:38:04] Speaker A: Look, you're. You're a great teacher. You're a true supporter of your students. So well done on what you're doing and well done on Central Coast Sports College for what they're doing with the, you know, the different sort of willing to push the boundaries of education, those sorts of things. So it's really powerful stuff. Love what they continue to do up there. Everyone, thank you very much for listening. If you again like what you're hearing, feel free to give us a like or a rate and review on your favorite podcast platform. As a friendly reminder, I am running again our master one on one meetings program. Become a black belt. A master black belt in running one on one meetings and having a complete system to get the best out of your team. So that starts again in OR. I launched that again in February 2025. So you can join the waitlist at LeaderByDesign AU forward slash waitlist, and you'll start to receive a bit more information about it. So again, thank you very much for listening. Emmy, thank you very much for co hosting Again, thank you for having me again. So awesome to have you, Tim. Thank you for co hosting.
[00:39:02] Speaker C: Thanks for having me.
[00:39:04] Speaker A: It's been a pleasure and an absolute honor that both Amy and I are your first everyone. Thanks for coming. Bye Bye.
[00:39:13] Speaker B: See you next week.
[00:39:15] Speaker C: Goodbye.
[00:39:16] Speaker A: In the hybrid working world, I've seen too many business owners and their businesses suffer because of poor performing employees leading to below average results. If you want to improve your employees performance to deliver consistent results for your business, you have to master one on one meetings. The doors to our Master one on one meetings training program are opening soon. I'll teach you how to improve employee performance and deliver consistent results using one on one meetings. To be one of the first people notified when the doors open, go to leaderbydesign AU waitlist. Don't wait. Sign up now.
