Know Yourself. Lead Yourself. Change Everything. With Dana Williams

[00:00:05] Welcome to The BOLT Podcast. I'm Todd Birch, entrepreneur, keynote speaker, and mental fitness coach. Whether you're a new listener or one of our loyal listeners, I'm glad you're here. See, I believe we're all a work in progress. No matter where you are in your journey, there's always another lesson, another challenge to overcome, and another opportunity to grow.

[00:00:29] And that's what this podcast is all about. With my guest, we'll have honest conversations about leadership and personal and professional growth. I'm excited for this next episode, so let's get to it. The theme for today's episode is Know Yourself, Lead Yourself, Change Yourself. Why self-awareness is the leadership advantage most people overlook. And to help me unpack this theme is the amazing Dana Williams.

[00:00:58] Dana is a leadership identity expert, Gallup-certified CliftonStrengths coach, author of The Internal Revolution, and creator of the Authentic Imprint Framework.

[00:01:11] And after more than 25 years of leadership experience at Southwest Airlines, Dana now helps executives and teams align who they are with how they lead, building authentic leadership from the inside out instead of from pressure, burnout, or performance. And what makes today's conversation especially unique is that before we hit record, Dana and I exchanged assessments.

[00:01:39] I completed CliftonStrengths and her authentic imprint assessment while she completed both my SPARP quotient assessment and the positive intelligence saboteur assessment. And rather than comparing frameworks, we're exploring what each one revealed about us and why knowing yourself may be the greatest leadership advantage of all. I am so excited about this episode. Dana, welcome to The Bolt Podcast, my friend.

[00:02:08] Well, Todd, I want to thank you. And I thank you for all the intentional time you spent of just us preparing a couple of weeks ago. And then all the emails back and forth have been so fun and just really thoughtfully thinking about today for your listeners. So I really appreciate that. Absolutely. And thank you for mentioning that. You know, I've been on many shows as a guest and I'm sure you have too. And I love, you know, all the podcasts that are out there.

[00:02:37] But if I'm going to take the time and I'm going to have someone else take the time out of their day, I want it to be a really meaningful conversation. That's why my episodes aren't 15 or 30 minutes long. Let's really dig into a subject with a thought leader and let's talk through it. So, yes, I am very intentional about everything that I do, sometimes to a fault. And I'm sure that's going to come out in the assessment. It'll come out in your strengths, yes. Right.

[00:03:07] So all good. It is good. So let's get started, Dana. All right. So before we dive into assessments, though, let's start with a bigger question. Why do you think so many leaders spend their careers trying to improve everyone else before taking the time to truly understand themselves? My answer is going to be a little long, but I'm going to start here.

[00:03:35] It is so much easier to try to think you can change somebody else and change yourself because when we go in your heart, your inside thing, since you've been a child of all the things that have happened, there's some dark places and there's some hard places. And I don't think until you've done that work, that internal work, can you really do you want to go there? Because you've been living an automatic pilot of who you think you should be.

[00:04:05] And one of my things from the book is always stop performing, start leading from who you actually are. And for some people, I know I can speak this for myself. It was I was 20 years into my leadership career before I really started figuring out some of this stuff. And I think I just didn't want to go there. It was easier for me to point to somebody else and say, I can fix that or I can help you or you can do this. Harder to go in and really do the internal work. Absolutely. It is.

[00:04:34] It's very hard. And Dana, I had the same experience. I think I was 50 years old. I'm 55 now. I think I was 50 years old during COVID. And honestly, COVID gave me that space, that time. We had so much time. And time is a blessing, but it can also be a curse, like too much time. Absolutely.

[00:04:58] But I used it to my advantage and I really started to dig deep and do that self-awareness. And that's where I discovered positive intelligence, which we'll talk about today. And that changed my entire life, the way I live, lead, run my business. Really, the whole trajectory of my career was by doing that really deep self-reflection and awareness. I love that.

[00:05:26] I think we have similar stories because mine came in 2008. 2008, and my husband had just been diagnosed with prostate cancer. His best friend and business partner had just died. And we were in the financial crisis of 2008. I'm so sorry. And on top of all that, our marriage was falling apart.

[00:05:49] So you always say whatever you go through is what you end up helping others with. So 11 years later, after restoring our marriage, he's fine now. His health is great. We started helping others and we started doing the work. And now we do that work every week with individuals and couples of how to know yourself and how to lead yourself and how to. Because I have an 80, almost 90-year-old mother.

[00:06:18] And she's really reinventing herself all the time. And she got her degree at 86. And what I've learned is that we're constantly working on ourselves. But had I not stopped and spent that 11 years doing that hard work, I don't think I would be able to really, when I'm working with corporate leaders right now and all of my clients, I wouldn't be able to see them as I see them now.

[00:06:43] And guide them and be their guide as they're navigating life and transformation, everything that's going on in the workplace. So it was a deep work, but it was strengths, Clifton strengths, that changed my life. And so you talked about the positive intelligence helped you. And I love, I don't really care what it is, but what was that tool that helped you find yourself and be that unique self every day? Yeah, yeah, I agree.

[00:07:12] Well, first, wow, what a story. That's a lot to take on for anybody at the same time. And then to hear the ending and how you came out of it. Wow, like kudos to you and your husband for working. Most people would have just left that to the side and moved on. But you guys really did the work and you're seeing, you know, the rewards of that work. And now you're giving back. You're passing that on. What a beautiful thing. Thank you. Thank you.

[00:07:43] It's our work. And I think as you have, if you have a partner, it's always good to have a work that you do together and then something. And that was one of the things we learned. We needed a daily connection time. And we didn't have that. We were both going in our careers. And so it took all of that deep work, each of us working on ourselves, not trying to change the other person. And it goes back to the theme you started with is why don't we work on ourselves?

[00:08:09] Well, and that is the question. And you just mentioned your mother, which is absolutely awesome, right? Like how many people continue on? And I always say, you know, growth is a choice, right? Every one of us are making that choice every single day. Do you choose growth or do you choose comfort? It's obviously much easier to choose comfort. That's the comfort zone. It's easy. It's complacent.

[00:08:38] Our brain is accustomed to that. Survival mode, all the things. But when you choose growth, like it really does change your whole life. And that's the self-awareness piece. But what I've struggled with is, and I was really on this journey, Dana, for a long time, which led me to ignite your spark, protect your spark. The spark quotient was how do we get people to change?

[00:09:04] How do we get people to even be open to the idea, let alone take an assessment, let alone actually take action to make some change? And that's really where I struggled. I struggled to find that silver bullet, the secret sauce. And I don't believe it's out there. And a lot of people just need to make that choice.

[00:09:28] And what I really came down to, and I think this will set us up a little bit, is it takes an interruption in life. And I think we both experienced the interruption, right? There are two types of interruptions. One, that life chooses for us. Could be divorce. Could be a death in a family. Could be a bad diagnosis, right? Traumatic event. And then we're in a position where, again, we still have to make a choice.

[00:09:53] But there was this very big milestone of an event that said, hmm, maybe I need to take a look in the mirror. This is too close to home. Or the other one is we choose, the other type of interruption. And the we choose could be insight, which could be a number of things. But we're going to talk about the insight, meaning assessments. Yes.

[00:10:16] That's what my research, my lived experience, my coaching experience, and that's my keynote is the interruption. The interruption of our life pattern. Because we're all just built. We're habitual human beings. Patterns and habits run our lives. And it's easy to get caught up in what I call Groundhog Day. The old Bill Murray. Absolutely. Remember the movie? You're just stuck in a loop. And that loop doesn't change unless you make a choice.

[00:10:46] And Bill didn't break that loop until he made a choice. And I think that's so interesting that you mentioned Groundhog. That's one of the things I do quarterly is I do a Groundhog on my business. And why are we doing this? And why are we repeating this if that's not bringing us to this next level? And so I had a coach one time encourage us to do that. And now I like to do that at the end of every quarter. And just for those of you listening out there, if you haven't ever done that, when you talked about Groundhog, yeah.

[00:11:15] What are you doing that you're still doing that's not moving the needle? And why are you doing it? And what are you seeing Groundhog Days on? And what of your strengths or your unique talents can you use to change that? I love it. I'm writing that down. I do a monthly review. I call it more of a journal. Uh-huh. Yeah. I primarily use it as a celebration tool because I think one of the challenges or one of the issues I see with many people is we're – and we're negative biased people, right?

[00:11:45] Sure. That's how our brains are wired. So we focus. We put a lot of weight on the negative and not necessarily on the positive. Right. Right. You've done a lot, like a month. That's a long time. I'm sure there are some moments there to celebrate. So let's take a moment to do that. And that's what I do with the journal. That's great.

[00:12:05] And the journal I sent you, which is the Strengths Journal, I saw, Todd, that working in corporate and managing myself, that we were all so busy, and especially in the airline business, we were just so busy about what's the next thing. Let's go. Let's go. And we weren't stopping to reflect. So I put in the journal really a weekly review, kind of how did you do last week? What were your highs?

[00:12:35] What were your lows? And even thinking about it at the end of the day, I have an amazing editor that helped me with my book, and her husband's Norwegian. And he said we were talking about how it's good to, at the end of the day, just say, how was your day? And she said her husband – I love this. Her husband always says, were you satisfied with today? Instead of how was your day, were you satisfied with today?

[00:13:03] And if you set an intention early in your day about what you're going to do and you apply, whether it be your spark quotient or your strengths, you are in control of your day. You're designing your day. You're not reacting to everything coming your way. And I was one of those people that got in the office and just, what's coming at me? Let's go hit it. Let's go. Now, in the last six years since I wrote the journal and Gallup licensed it, it's really about who am I today?

[00:13:33] What is my purpose? I did it this morning. What is my focus today? And why? That's my core values. What are the three things I've got to get done today and what strengths are going to use to get them done? At the end of the day, how am I measuring myself and my emotional well-being throughout the day? At the end of the day, am I satisfied with today? I love it. I'm going to integrate that. Yeah. So just asking yourself, it's a Norwegian question, but how wonderful.

[00:14:01] You know, it's like, oh, I said, how was your day? Are you satisfied? Did you set out to do what you were going to do today? I mean, we have things that happen all day long that we don't plan. Our technical thing, right? Right. But how did you, are you satisfied? Did you get what you want done today? I love it. Yeah. And that's a gratitude piece as well. Absolutely. Gratitude practice is extremely important. Absolutely.

[00:14:26] If you can bookend the day, even better, start with a little gratitude and with a little gratitude. Yes. It clears your mind. It allows you to sleep better. There's a lot of research backed into the gratitude practice, but yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Cool. All right. Well, I want to go back to something real quick because this phrase of yours is really interesting to me. You often say that leaders need to stop performing leadership and start leading from

[00:14:56] who they truly are. What do you, what do you mean by performing leadership? So this week I've, I've just finished. It's been a busy week, but I just finished three different workshops with three different senior leader groups and three different, totally different industries. I see the same issue. Comparison. Comparisonitis. Yeah. I, I need to be this. I'm the boss. So I need to be this, or I'm in.

[00:15:25] What I say is identity ends. I mean, your exhaustion ends when identity begins because what's happening is right now we know seven out of 10 people in the workplace are suffering. Their wellbeing is suffering is because they're trying to do so much. We know from the Gallup research now that most leaders not only are managing the people they've had, but because of layoffs and transitions, they're giving them more.

[00:15:53] There's a huge study that just came out from Gallup more. So, and I see this in all my clients. They used to have maybe six direct reports. Now they've got 12. They've got new leaders coming in and out and they're trying to perform instead of just really manage themselves from who they are authentically. And that is the passion here is who are you? And let's talk about that.

[00:16:19] And let's lead from that and don't, don't try to be somebody you're not because that's really hard work when you're being yourself. It's so easy. I think it's just the exhaustion that most leaders are feeling right now is from them trying to be too many different people that they're not. Yeah. And in this constant workplace of transformation and change, which is not going to go away. No. The best work they can do is the work on themselves that we're going to be talking about today. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:16:49] I totally agree, but they need to make that choice or the leadership or the company needs to make the choice for them. Somebody, right? Somebody needs to make the interruption that that's what I get hung up on because most people just are afraid to do the work. It look, it took us how many years. Yeah. So I don't want to get hung up on that, but it's been this puzzle, Dana, that has eluded

[00:17:19] me that I want to solve. So. Well, you have all the things in your strengths to solve it. When I look at your strengths and your empathy, empathy fills the room. You feel it. This is why you're so burdened. You feel it. It's number nine in your CliftonStrengths. And you probably always felt it.

[00:17:45] What I've learned is unless the leader's on board, it doesn't happen. Great question. Yeah. I just, I just had a walk. We call it a walk and talk with actually my coach, my positive intelligence coach. Every quarter we spent some time together and we, yesterday was a beautiful day in Northeast Ohio, 76 at sunny, beautiful. We took a walk and walk and talk on a trail to catch up, get some exercise, get some sun

[00:18:14] and a beautiful nature preserve. And she was talking about one of her recent experiences with a pretty good size company. And she really didn't know if she wanted to work because she knew so much about the leader at the top who wasn't, who was the problem, who did not create the safe space. And I feel like a broken record on every episode I've been on for the past two months, we end

[00:18:44] up back at kind of the same thing, which is psychological safety. And that was a through line at SHRM National in Orlando a couple months ago. And obviously it's pretty doggone important. If you don't have the safe space, then you really don't want to do the reflection because why would I do it if I can't even be my authentic true self anyhow? Because if I don't have the safety, then I'm going to be two different people.

[00:19:10] I'm going to be Todd at work, who's in a box. And then I'm going to be Todd at home, the cool Todd at home and really be my authentic self. I don't know. What do you think about that? So I'm glad you brought that up because I'm working with a team right now, large team, and they're going through transformation. And we do a webinar every month. And the webinar this month was how to wait. Are you waiting passively? Are you waiting actively?

[00:19:37] And I actually wrote an article on this, and it's really something my husband and I have been talking about just in our businesses. You know how you're waiting on things. You're waiting on people, waiting on stuff. And what the teaching moment here is, is that we're really, we shouldn't be passively waiting on somebody else, a leader or a situation. We should always be actively working on ourselves, no matter what the situation is, because there's a lot of work to do internally.

[00:20:08] I call it my hula hoop theory. I learned this from a counselor back when I was going through all my transformation. And he said, Dana, put the hula hoop on you and you can change everything inside the hula hoop. You cannot change anything outside of the hula hoop. And so I preach this a lot with my clients. You've got a leader that is not proactive. You've got another one that's being negative. You've got this going on. You've got this. Work on you.

[00:20:33] Put that energy on you, especially when you're waiting through change or transformation or waiting for a leader to give you that safe space. You create that safe space within yourself. Get that accountability partner. Get that coach like you're talking about. Be proactive and don't wait for somebody to come along and come on the white horse and say, OK, I'm here to save the day. And I'm going to give you all this because most leaders right now are so overwhelmed.

[00:21:03] They can't give all that space that they want to give unless they're just an extraordinary leader. So the best you can be is be yourself and work on yourself every day and just let your leader know how you're working on yourself. And when you find that that person that gives you that psychological safety, great. But don't wait to work on yourself until you get that because you might not get it. Yeah, that's an interesting point. I would also add maybe that's not the right company for you.

[00:21:34] I'm just absolutely. Absolutely. And because if it starts from the top and you don't see that person changing, it may never change. So are you going to wait or maybe you do? You take the initiative and you do it yourself. But I don't know. Still, I want to be in that safe space. I want to be. Yeah. Right. I want to be my true self all day long. So, yeah. In this situation, they're waiting for a new leader to come in.

[00:22:04] They're waiting for other leaders to change as one leader is going out. So they're kind of in a holding pattern. But in most cases, yeah. If you don't feel that these are your people, move on. Yeah. Spend that energy working on yourself and figuring out where you're going to be best served to serve others and where you can use your strengths the best. Yeah. I want to share this, this quote, Dana, and maybe you've heard it. I have a good friend, Scott J. Allen.

[00:22:33] He's, he's a leadership coach and a speaker was in education for a long time. And he always, this is one thing he always says, who you are is how you lead by Robert Hogan, organizational psychologist. Who you are is how you lead. And I, I remember that. I'm like, oh my gosh, that is absolutely perfect for this episode. Especially when you're talking about your book, the internal revolution, when you're talking

[00:23:01] about the authentic imprint, your identity, really who you are, that that's how you're going to lead. So if you're not being your true self, how are you leading? Honestly. Right. Absolutely. Absolutely. And that's why I like strength so much because it's over six decades of research and Gallup owns Dr. Clifton created Clifton streaks back in the fifties. And he said, let's study what people do right and help them do more of it.

[00:23:32] We've grown up our whole lives with people saying, oh, you're really good at this, but you need to work on this. And this is no, you're really good at this. So Todd, when I, when I see your top 10, I'm like, stay there. Don't go into the bottom. And I think so many people in the workplace are, they, they don't realize that they've got these unique talents. They just need to be unlocked and they need to find you probably, as you talk about people finding the right place to work.

[00:23:59] How many times a day do you hear people saying, I'm just trying to figure out who I am and where I want to go and where I want to be. That's kind of the culture right now. I hear it all the time and at different levels of leadership, different levels. So how about you? Is that? Yeah, I see the same things. Especially as you get older, it becomes more and more difficult because you've been in a comfort zone. You've been complacent for so long.

[00:24:26] You've been in Groundhog Day and to break that is difficult, but what's been encouraging Dana is the younger demographic. Yeah. They, they, they're not afraid to do that self discovery, self-awareness. They want more. They, they want the purpose. They want to be a part of something bigger than themselves. And that gives me hope for the future to work. Honestly, um, they're, they've pushed us into some disruption into change, but in a good

[00:24:56] way, I believe. Absolutely. Absolutely. I see your future, your futuristic coming through there. It is. Yeah. Yeah. So let's go there. I just, I, before we go into the, um, assessments though, I want to mention there was, there was one blurb in your book that I was like, Oh, I love this. And I just want to bring it up on the show. Um, so we talk about your book, the internal revolution here.

[00:25:24] And you said your stepfather Gus, who was extremely positive, had a gift for seeing the unique spark in each of us. And he helped you understand your authentic leadership. And I was just like, Hmm, that is goal. That is beautiful to have that, that person that can see that spark in us.

[00:25:49] And sometimes that's the interruption that we need someone else to either intervene or to remind us who we've always been. Absolutely. And it kind of brings tears to my eyes when you say that, because Gus is now in, um, memory care. And so he was the, he's always been the bright light and still is right now, even in memory

[00:26:13] care, but he really, um, he'd carry around a little note card in his pocket and he'd meet my friends. He'd meet, what's your name? And he'd write down their name. Oh my gosh. Something about that. And then when he'd see him again, he goes, how is Becky doing? How is, you know, Pat doing? And, but he just always listened. And I think that's one of the things that our society is in a fix it society where we think we have to fix everybody.

[00:26:43] And I've learned through the 11 years of work that I've done is, um, how can I just listen? How can I just be there to listen and not try to fix everything? Yeah, I agree. Because here's, here's my thought. People aren't broken. You're not broken. You are not broken. You just need to remember who you've always been. That's right. And CliftonStrengths. And that's why I love CliftonStrengths because it is a true reminder of who you've always

[00:27:12] been and leveraging those strengths. And when you know those strengths, those ignite something inside you. And maybe that's the spark you needed to really move forward or make a change. Absolutely. And whether you're nine, like my, I have a granddaughter that's nine and I have my mother that's 90. They're all using their strengths and they know their strengths and they know what they're good at and they're focused on that.

[00:27:38] And so it doesn't matter personally or professionally just to how you're using those, because it's amazing when you start using every day, you're just more energized and you're more productive and you're more confident because you're not trying to be somebody you're not. Right. Hey, it's Todd again. Look, our leaders are facing incredible challenges right now with burnout, disengagement, and stress among our teams. We see the data.

[00:28:05] Gallup shows us that 80% of employees and managers are disengaged. SHRM reports that burnout and stress are at the top of workplace challenges. And the Global Business Index reports a 180% increase in business disruption. Those are real problems. And that's why mental fitness matters more than ever. Mental fitness is your ability to respond to pressure and challenges with clarity, confidence, and laser focus.

[00:28:36] Instead of being derailed by negativity, self-doubt, or stress. It's about building that self-command, especially when it matters most. How do I know? Because I went through a mental fitness program called Positive Intelligence during COVID. Changed my life. Changed the way that I live, lead, and run my business. And through the Positive Intelligence program, I work with leaders and teams to help them reduce

[00:29:05] burnout, strengthen resilience, and create a culture where people feel supported and engaged, and capable of performing at their best, even under high pressure. It's a neuroscience-backed program. It's only eight weeks, and it works. So if you're interested in learning more about the program, visit my website, ToddBirch.com. Let's set up a call, and I'll walk you through a quick demo. Now back to the show. Let's go to assessments. Assessments.

[00:29:35] And I love how you say assessments are mirrors, not labels. That really resonated with me. Yeah. What do you mean by that? Well, I think when I first came, I was at Southwest on three tours of duty and different times each. I'd call them. I'd leave. We'd move, and then something would come in, and then I do, you know. That doesn't sound like a great experience. It was fun.

[00:30:03] I started with a company when the company was 10 years old, and so celebrated the 10th anniversary with the company. And then my husband and I moved to Nashville and came back. And so during those different times, at one point, I was in hiring and training and management. And then I moved into marketing most of my career. But each time when I got called outside of what I got called out to really be at home and work from, you know, be at home mom, I was like, I've worked my whole career.

[00:30:31] I'm going to, my daughter is 12. I'm going to stay home for these next few years. And I did. And I did some nonprofit stuff and did what I needed to do. And then I got called back to Southwest. Same office, same title, same everything, same building. Walked into that office, Todd. And I thought something's different. And I had done all that work on myself. And I realized I had been performing.

[00:30:58] And that's where strengths came in and really discovering my strengths journey. So we, when I came back to Southwest the third time, they were using Myers-Briggs and we had done disc, Myers-Briggs, all that stuff. And it was great. Right. Those are great assessments. Yeah. And then we came and then a girlfriend of mine that worked in marketing said, Hey, we're doing this strengths finder thing in our church. We should do that. We were acquired, we acquired Airtrain at the time.

[00:31:24] So we were thinking, how do we bring these people on board and within marketing and make them feel welcome and be a part of this culture? So anyway, we started using strengths. Our HR department wasn't ready for it yet, but they said, y'all can do it. So we started doing it and we saw the changes and then the whole company. And then the president said, I want to be a strengths-based organization. But what I would do is within the organization, when people came and they said, well, I know

[00:31:50] my Myers-Briggs and I know this, or I know, you know, I said, well, let's just put on one piece of paper. And it's always leads back to strengths. When you see, you see the strengths are kind of, think about strengths as the, think about Myers-Briggs, you're familiar with Myers-Briggs. That's like, that's like the neighborhood. Think of a neighborhood where everything's kind of all the same. That's the neighborhood. Strengths is how the house is decorated.

[00:32:21] So I always, if they're, I said, let's don't do fruit of the month club. Oh, we're going to do this activity or we're going to do this assessment. No, let's just, if you've already started with strength, let's start with strengths and then let's look at what the other things and how they work with that. So looking at your spark quotient is what it's called, correct? Spark quotient. And looking at strengths, you can see that strengths is kind of the, the starting point

[00:32:51] of who you are, how you process information, how you get things done. Does that make sense? Absolutely. And so within, when you look at, at like at your futurist, you've got futuristic, you've got belief, you've got achiever and individualization. I have those same ones, but you're one in 34 million. They're going to show up differently for you than they're showing up for me. Right. Based on the other strengths you have in your top 10.

[00:33:21] Now, what you're, what I see from what you provide is with your spark quotient is that it's like, are you the person that's lighting the fire? Can you explain that a little bit so we can talk about that? Because I think that would help people understand how these can work together. And I see them as three mirrors. So the Clifton strengths, the, um, your actually spark quotient, and then the saboteur, three different mirrors, how you see yourself.

[00:33:52] Right. Absolutely. Yeah. The spark quotient was created to answer one question. How lit is your spark? Because I believe that everything comes back to a spark. If your spark is dim, then you're, you're sending smoke signals. Your curiosity is shutting down. Your ownership is fading. Your relationships aren't as strong as they could be. You're being reactive instead of proactive.

[00:34:20] So you're, those are the smoke signals. And when you experience smoke signals, that leads us to the numbers we see in Gallup, disengagement, burnout, stress, self-doubt, all the things. Because if you think about the people in the organizations that you work with that are high performers, happy, positive, you know, really embracing the culture, people that other people gravitate towards, they have one thing in common.

[00:34:50] They are, they were, they are lit up by something. And sometimes maybe it's not at work. It's a side hustle, but they're lit up because that's the bleed, right? Yeah. Home, work, it's, it's all harmony and they all bleed back and forth. So I am in the belief that we all need to be lit up. We need a reason. What's that thing that lights you up, that gets you up in the morning?

[00:35:16] If you don't have that, you're going to be kind of in that comfort zone in the groundhog day. And that's what I love. The StrengthsFinder or CliftonStrengths, now they've, you've rebranded my apologies, but no, yes, fine. All the same, it's, it's understanding who you are. And so that measurement tool looks at three core dimensions, curiosity, mindset, and action.

[00:35:41] And based on all the behavioral research that we reviewed, that's what we determined for the three core drivers of a spark. And yes, so it's how lit up are you? And as you get into like you, an ember or fire starter, which only two people out of a couple hundred people that I've collected assessments for have reached, it determines how you're protecting, igniting, protecting, and multiplying that spark. So the more you can't, right? It's the whole thing.

[00:36:11] You can't pour into somebody if your cup is empty, right? Right. So that multiplication of a spark spreads like wildfire. And that's, that's the beauty of, and that's why I feel like a spark is so important. And, and then that's why I love the tie to StrengthsFinder, because you know, you're starting to learn who you are, what your strengths are, and then being able to lean into that. And that's, that's the mirror.

[00:36:37] And sometimes we just forget because you, you said it, we're so, I don't even like to use the word busy, but we have so much going on that we just get into autopilot and autopilot is very scary. That is a very scary place to be in, in life because next thing you know, weeks turn into months, months turn into years, and you're just living the same day over and over again. And you know, 10 years go by, your kids are going off to college. You're like, Oh crap, what happened?

[00:37:06] I have regret here. I'm not living the life that I am supposed to live, the person that I want to be, that I deserve to be. So anyhow, sorry, I went down a little rabbit hole, but yeah, so that's what the SQ is all about. So yeah, I agree. I think there are a lot of different assessments and we mentioned a few others, Myers and um, uh, disc, uh, disc, Pradco.

[00:37:36] I mean, there's a number of them out there. I think the lesson here, Dana, is that an assessment tool can be that mirror and you know, they're not all created equal. Most of them like your authentic imprint, a leadership assessment, which was great. Three to five minutes. I learned a lot and it was spot on scored a 97, but yeah. And it reminded me though, that I did the work and I'm continuing to do the work.

[00:38:06] So it was almost like a celebration going through that exercise. Um, and then you have, you know, the others that are personality traits, character strength traits, um, and then mine about your spark. So you can kind of pull all these together to learn a lot about who you are and how you lead.

[00:38:29] Um, and you know what I did is I pulled it all together and, um, really see like strengths are really how you're wired and your SQ is what's where your energy's coming from right now. And then your, um, saboteur is what hijacks you. Hmm. So when you think about strengths, there's a balcony and a basement, each strength. So I have ideation, right? You have, you have woo.

[00:38:58] I think you've got, um, your first one is positively your, your woo is winning others over. Woo is like going to, if we went to a cocktail party together and you have woo and I have relator, you're going to go meet everybody in the room and I'm going to go, go have deep conversations with some people over here. Not that you wouldn't want to, but you're going to get your energy from meeting all those people. See how you're lighting up right now. As I talk about that, that's what whose balcony is they can meet everybody to get energy. They don't afraid to meet new people.

[00:39:26] That's why speaking is so good for you doing the podcast, all those things. It goes in its basement or hindrance. When do you think it goes in there? What do you think is a saboteur for you with woo? Um, when do you go in your basement? When I am not having deep enough conversations, I'm looking for the next and that's, and so yeah, we could talk about saboteurs.

[00:39:54] The thing about saboteurs is that a lot of people, well, most people don't even know about positive intelligence. So we'll start there, but you know, saboteurs are, or those thoughts, emotions that the inner judge is in our head that essentially sabotages us. And there are 10 of these guys, these, we call them bandits, you know, uh, yours was restless and I, I had restless for a lot of years. I could not settle down.

[00:40:19] It, you know, it, it came from, I felt like I needed to be doing something every five minutes or I wasn't being productive. You know, I felt like I couldn't even watch a show, Netflix or TV or spend time with the family. And that hindered me. So I learned the awareness piece, right? Understanding that I do have this, but there's also some really great underlying strengths as well.

[00:40:46] Um, with restless, there's high energy, vitality, you're open and curious, spontaneous. So we just, we need to understand that there are strengths, but we can't let it sabotage us. Right. Yeah. Right. And I think what's so interesting is whatever you use as your assessment to manage yourself. Um, I just, I like strengths, but it, it helps me navigate.

[00:41:14] Oh, I need to put that ID, you know, my ideation. I should just turn that one off. So you think of them as a superhero, like knobs on a stove. These are my super talents for you. It's the positivity, futuristic input, woo, and belief. So your belief. So your belief is coming through so strong to me today with your values about why you're doing this work and why you've been called to do this work. And most people with high belief have those core values.

[00:41:44] Well, if they don't get to use those strengths every day. They're not lit up. They're not lit up. So you're, you know, a combination of looking at that, looking at your belief alongside your, your SQ quotient, you know, how does that look? But it tells you, that's why that live starting your day intentionally, which, what have I got to get done today? And what strengths am I going to use to get that done? And when am I going in my basement? I need to turn that one off.

[00:42:11] Like for you, people with high woo, don't put you in a room by yourself and go say, go figure this out by yourself. You need to be around people. You get your energy from around people. Right. But you also have high input, which is research. You could go research all day long and you mentioned research and you research and created the SQ from all that. So that's a gift. And it's such a gift to have, to use that. But combining these is really what brings the mirrors together into one kind of frame.

[00:42:41] And then as you're self-managing. Yes, absolutely. It's powerful. It is. And I love the Clifton strengths. It's a, I mean, these guys have been doing it for a long time. Let's be honest. You know, this is a 25 page report and it's extremely helpful. So I recommend anyone look into it. We'll have links to all these assessment tools in the show notes.

[00:43:12] Your authentic imprint, which is free, takes three minutes. My SQ assessment, which is free, takes five to seven minutes. And we'll link out to the saboteur assessment, which is free as well. And then Clifton, I believe there you have to read the book or there's a cost to that. But yeah, you can just take the assessment and you don't really have to read the book and then get a coach or somebody to help you read your report. Yeah. Right. Yep. So awesome. And there's the siren. Yeah. Awesome.

[00:43:40] That is the benefit of having a podcast studio right near downtown. There you go. I love it. How do you handle that when it comes by? Does it disrupt you or do you stay on point? Every show has a siren or two, depending on the type of emergency it is. Yeah. Awesome. Well, this has been amazing being with you today and hearing all about SQ. I didn't know anything about SQ until you sent me your assessment.

[00:44:09] So thank you for sharing that. It's fairly new. I haven't really put it out in the world yet. So I'll be doing a major push, trying to collect a thousand, at least a thousand submissions. And I put my book on hold so that I can have my own research to reflect on, as well as golf and SHRM and lots of other data points. But so, yeah, it's been fun. You scored Amber. How did you feel about that score?

[00:44:38] You know, can you tell me a little bit about that? And I know we're running on times here, too. So I want to make sure I'm giving you what you need. But on Amber, tell me a little bit about that. Yeah, Amber, that's a great score. So you have Smoke Signal, Flicker, Amber, and Firestarter. Most people score in the flicker to low Amber. And that tells me that there's an opportunity.

[00:45:08] Flicker is, I mean, we all have a spark. That spark is lit, but it's close to being dim. You're sending off some smoke signals. You need that interruption. Your leadership team, your leader to come in and intervene, maybe gather some insight. We don't want a traumatic event to be the interruption, but something needs to change there. Amber, you've got the spark. It's lit.

[00:45:32] You just need to continue to add some fuel to it to keep it going and protect it, you know, so that you can continue to build it and really extend that flame to light other people up. So that's kind of where the Amber's at. That is a great place. That is the eye. That's where I'm at. That's great. Only two people have ended up in Firestarter. And honestly, like, Firestarter to me is everybody needs to do some work.

[00:46:00] Like, I don't even, I don't think the goal is to be Firestarter. I would say the goal is to be Amber. Like, that's, we all need to continually work on ourselves. And I think if you're very honest with yourself, that nobody would really end up in Firestarter. But it's good to have a goal, right? Like, that's kind of neat. Absolutely. So, yeah. And every day is different. So to know if you're an Amber, are you letting your fire go out? And are you letting others let it go out?

[00:46:30] And what are your boundaries you're putting around yourself? And how are you using your strengths to manage your fire? And we always talk, I always love the analogy and the metaphor of we're setting a campfire with what we're talking today. And then there'll be little campfires all over people. And I always say, you want to work around with people that you want to be in the campfire with. Yeah. And so it's really igniting a lot of energy in the right places. Igniting the energy. So, yeah.

[00:47:00] Absolutely. Yeah. I love it. In fact, I think I'm going to, I want to talk to you about implementing Clifton strengths into my coaching practice because the more, and it's been, I think it's been 10 years since I took the assessment. It would be interesting to go back and see. And I know you had mentioned, you really don't change. Those are your strengths, but I am such a different person than 10 years ago. I mean, very different. So it would be interesting. I'm going to see if I can't find it. I'm sure I have it somewhere. But anyhow, I'm a big fan.

[00:47:29] Mind is they move around in the top 10. Like these have probably all been with you since you're a little boy, but they just move around a little bit. Yeah. Very cool. Well, I want to give you a moment, Dana, if you have some time. I want, I really want to talk about your book a little bit, The Internal Revolution. Yes. Great book. I haven't had a chance to go all the way through the book, but I love, I love the framework, the authentic imprint.

[00:47:56] So if you want to just give us a high level of the book and we'll include a link in the show notes as well. Sure. Tell us about the framework and why you created this book. Well, this was created because I had been working with strengths for over 12 years and I realized strengths is just half the story. And when I was working with leaders on understanding their core values, their strengths, and then we built a framework around how do they build their personal mission statement.

[00:48:23] Being in marketing, we always were working around mission statements and strategies. And so I lead with my thinking talents and I, I'm always thinking and strategizing. And so there was this missing framework I saw. And so when I wrote the book, it was around this framework I call the authentic imprint and its strengths plus core values, plus your mission statement times your emotional recognition.

[00:48:47] And what we've been talking about with your SQ is really the emotional recognition. And that's not only, you know, I'm not talking emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is really working on, it's the big toolbox. This is the beginning of, well, who am I and who are, what are my strengths? And then what, what do I need to lead today? And how do I lead with my core values?

[00:49:15] Cause the core values kind of come in and tell you the why. And when I talk about core values, you have belief, I have belief. Those are both, we lead with, we make decisions by our core values. Most leaders haven't identified those. So I help them identify, not only get their strengths, get their core values, then build their mission statement. I'm not talking about the company mission statement. I'm talking about their personal mission statement. So when they take the free authentic assessment, authentic imprint assessment, we'll ask some

[00:49:45] questions and then they'll see which areas of the book they need to go to. So if you scored really low in, uh, I know my personal mission statement, then we would have you go to those chapters. So it's a guidebook for people that really want to go deeper in building and developing themselves. And I developed an online course to go with it. I tested it out with, um, a live course and an online course.

[00:50:10] So we've been testing it the last, um, seven months and now we're launching in, in, um, September, we're launching the whole online class. So you can buy the book, get the journal and take the course and it's self-directed. And then I've been doing it with corporate leaders and corporate teams, um, for the last two, three years. And I've seen a big difference. The number one thing that corporate, um, employees need and leaders need everybody needs right now is clarity. What's expected of me.

[00:50:40] I don't know what's expected of me. And so when you get clarity about yourself and who you are, how you operate with your strengths, your core values, your mission, and then learning every day how to manage your emotional recognition in the strengths journal that I had created six years ago, I actually ask people to, how are you doing in the morning? Was I'm starting to stay? Am I, how's my emotions? What do I need to reset? And then midday, how are we doing? And then at the end of the day, satisfied with the day? How did I do?

[00:51:10] Where's my emotional recognition? So you're managing your emotional recognition. It's not the intelligence. It's just knowing where you are, what's going on in your world, what you need to do. So it's a simple guidebook that you can go to any chapter based on that free assessment and, or you can read the whole book, but it has little work sheets all the way through. So. Yeah, no, I love it. That's great. So I can't wait to get all the way through it.

[00:51:36] You know, it's great to have insight, but after insight is action. That's right. Don't let it stop there. Right. That's right. You can get all the insight in the world, but you have to take action. And the action piece is where most people fail. That's right. And the action that is the most difficult is creating the habit. That's right. Habits are so difficult. Obviously, James Clear in his book, Atomic Habits is a great way to start, start small,

[00:52:06] batch it onto something you already do. But like the journal, just getting into making this strengths journal, great journal, right? Lots of reflection, but making that a habit every day or the habit of starting your day with gratitude or ending your day with gratitude. Start with one small, simple practice and then build on top of it. You'll get that momentum, that snowball effect. And that's where a lot of people get hung up. And when I coach, it's all about just the smallest, simple thing.

[00:52:35] Just pause. Take a minute to pause every single day. And then we're going to build on that. But yeah, a lot of good stuff here. Right. So we hit the lightning bolt round. Just a couple of quick hits. One word answers. The lightning bolt round. The biggest leadership myth. That you can do it all. I love that. Most underrated leadership quality.

[00:53:07] Heart. Leading with heart. I agree. One daily habit. That every leader should build. Changing me changes everything. Leading from yourself. Awesome. All right. We're ending here. Dana, you have one final thing to say. One quote. One magical moment. What do you want to leave our listeners with?

[00:53:38] I think that don't be afraid to go inside. So you can transform your life. I think Todd's done the work. I've done the work. And when it's getting really hard, you're getting ready to do some really great work. So don't be afraid of the hard work. Don't be afraid of the hard work. But it does take work. It takes work. But man, when you come out on the other side, life is beautiful. That's right. You're lit up. That's right. You give it to you.

[00:54:07] And you're lighting others up. And that's how we change cultures, communities, one spark at a time. Well, Dana, this has been awesome. I'm so glad we met. I'm so glad I answered your associate's email. Oh, thank you. You know, you get these random emails because I didn't know you from Adam. Yeah. And it came through. I typically don't even follow up on those because I get so many of them. And there was something about your profile.

[00:54:36] And I was like, hmm, interesting. And here we made a really strong connection. I'm sure we're going to continue to collaborate and have conversations. So I'm blessed that we got to meet and spend some time with each other. Well, Todd, I'm excited about the work you're doing with Ignite Your Spark and all the spark quotient, all that you're doing. It's so exciting. I'm here for you. If you have any questions on strengths as you go through this journey and also just the work that you're doing out there in the world.

[00:55:06] Thank you. And thank you for making a big impact today with so many of your listeners. And so just appreciate it being part of it. Absolutely. We're just trying. Right. You're doing a great job. All we can do. Cool. Well, thank you, Dana. Thank you. Wow. Another great episode. Thanks for joining us on the Bolt Podcast. Look, if today's conversation sparked something for you, pass it along. Every share creates a ripple. And that ripple has the power to change somebody's life.

[00:55:36] If you want more information, more conversations, show notes, resources, or free tools, check out my website, ToddBurch.com. Look, leadership is pretty simple. It comes down to taking care of yourself and your people. Ignite that spark, protect that spark, and light the way for others. We'll see you next time, my friends. We'll see you next time, my friends.