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<v Speaker 1>Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of

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<v Speaker 1>performance through strong human relations, team building, and golajiving. This

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<v Speaker 1>is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host Paul

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<v Speaker 1>fella Aledo.

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<v Speaker 2>Hello everyone, and welcome to the Seven Minute Leadership Podcast.

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<v Speaker 2>It's episode four eighty nine. Picture this. You're standing on

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<v Speaker 2>a stage in front of a room full of CEOs.

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<v Speaker 2>Not just any CEOs, but men and women who look

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<v Speaker 2>just like you on paper. They've got the balance sheets,

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<v Speaker 2>the success stories, the scars from failures, the same battles

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<v Speaker 2>with boards, the same sleepless nights wondering if they made

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<v Speaker 2>the right call. These are not entry level managers or

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<v Speaker 2>up and comers. These are peers who have already climbed

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<v Speaker 2>the mountain. Now your name gets called and you walk

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<v Speaker 2>up to that podium, the question is what do you say?

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<v Speaker 2>Because numbers don't impress them. Revenue milestones, global expansions, acquisitions.

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<v Speaker 2>They've all got those slides in their back pocket too.

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<v Speaker 2>They know what it feels like to hit and to miss,

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<v Speaker 2>So if you're going to open your mouth in front

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<v Speaker 2>of them, it better not be with the same tired script.

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<v Speaker 2>The only thing left that cuts through the noise in

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<v Speaker 2>that room is honesty, radical honesty. You talk about the

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<v Speaker 2>night you almost lost it all because you bet too

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<v Speaker 2>heavy on an expansion. You share the moment when you

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<v Speaker 2>walked into your kid's game late again and saw the

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<v Speaker 2>disappointment in their face. You talk about the human cost

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<v Speaker 2>of the corner office, because here's the truth. CEOs are

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<v Speaker 2>rarely in rooms where they get to be human. They're

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<v Speaker 2>in rooms where they're expected to be bulletproof. So when

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<v Speaker 2>you stand at that podium, what you're really offering is

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<v Speaker 2>a mirror, not a resume, not a highlight reel, a mirror.

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<v Speaker 2>And here's what they'll lean into to hear that you

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<v Speaker 2>still question yourself, even now that you've made bets that

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<v Speaker 2>blew up and cost you not just money, but trust

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<v Speaker 2>that the hardest decision wasn't about cutting a division, but

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<v Speaker 2>about cutting someone you personally believed in, and that leadership

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<v Speaker 2>is lonelier at the top than anyone ever admits. You

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<v Speaker 2>see in that moment, you're not giving them strategies they

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<v Speaker 2>already have those. You're giving them something even rarer, permission,

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<v Speaker 2>permission to stop pretending that they're indestructible, permission to be

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<v Speaker 2>vulnerable in a way that they haven't been in years.

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<v Speaker 2>And then, once you've told your story with that level

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<v Speaker 2>of rawness, you pivot. You don't leave them in the valley.

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<v Speaker 2>You point them toward the summit. You tell them the

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<v Speaker 2>new frontier of leadership isn't about empire building anymore. It's

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<v Speaker 2>about legacy. And then the question you drop like a bomb,

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<v Speaker 2>is this, when your name fades off the office door,

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<v Speaker 2>what will your people say about you? Because not one

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<v Speaker 2>of them is taking their stock options or profit and

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<v Speaker 2>loss statements to the grave, but they will leave behind

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<v Speaker 2>a trail of people empowered or crushed, of cultures inspired

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<v Speaker 2>or poisoned, and of communities built or ignored. That's when

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<v Speaker 2>CEOs lean forward, because deep down, every one of them

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<v Speaker 2>knows that leadership is not a game of quarterly earnings.

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<v Speaker 2>It's a game of forever impact. So here's the answer

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<v Speaker 2>to the opening question. What do you say to a

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<v Speaker 2>room full of CEOs who all have the same story

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<v Speaker 2>as you. You tell them the truth about yourself. You

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<v Speaker 2>remind them of the one thing we're all trying to outrun.

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<v Speaker 2>That leadership isn't about how high you climb, It's about

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<v Speaker 2>how wide your shadows stretches. When you're gone. So that's

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<v Speaker 2>the only keynote worth delivering in that room. Not a

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<v Speaker 2>speech of conquest, but a confession of reality. And if

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<v Speaker 2>you do it right, you'll see it in their faces,

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<v Speaker 2>the realization that even at the top, they're not alone.

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<v Speaker 2>And that, my friends, is how you win a room

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<v Speaker 2>full of CEOs, not with slides, not with statistics, but

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<v Speaker 2>something far more powerful, humanity. This has been the seven

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<v Speaker 2>Minute Leadership Podcast, and I thank you for listening.

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<v Speaker 1>For more Paul fell of Alito podcasts, visit paulfelloalito dot

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<v Speaker 1>com