Transcript of Discovering Your Compass Within with Robert Glazer

Integrity, honesty, teamwork, trustworthiness. Did I just figure out your business's core values? In this episode, I'm sitting down with the world renowned Robert Glazer, and we're going to go through how you should actually be defining the core values, not only for your business, but for you personally. We're going to take a stroll into his upcoming book, and we're going to unleash the things that you as a leader, can and should be doing so that your team is following the right path for you. Ladies and gentlemen, I present my good friend, Mr. Robert Glazer. Robert, how are you doing today, brother?

Thank you, Mick. I heard all sorts of new things about myself there. I didn't realize. So I like that.

No, it is all true. It is all true, man. You are someone who I've admired from afar. We've gotten to really know each other personally lately, and I can't thank you enough for just who you are because you actually pushed me to be a better leader for my team and a better leader for my community. So, bro, I just wanted to say thank you face to face, eye to eye.

Honestly, that means a lot coming from you and given what you do. So I appreciate that. Maybe we can talk about how to bring that magic to everyone who's listening.

Oh, let's do that. And I want to start with just that. What's your purpose, your mission behind why you do what you do and the lives that you touch and the companies that you change. And I call it your because, that thing that's deeper than your why. What's your purpose? What's your mission, Robert? What's your because, brother?

Yeah, so I look at my time. I spent 99% of my time trying to find better ways and share it. And it ties the value. I identified a few years ago that what lights me up the most is sharing ideas that help people and organizations grow.

I love it. I love it so much. Now, let's shake the room a little bit. Let's shake the viewers and listeners. You're the guy I go to, especially when I talk about all things culture. We can't talk culture without talking about core values. I'm pausing because companies are getting it wrong. Their core values are just words that are on a wall, and they usually stay on a wall. Talk to us about what core values truly mean. And one, how can companies really tie into developing real core value, not just words on it?

Yeah, so I think you and I share a similar viewpoint. And when I was going to write a book on core values in the reason why I ended up doing the parable is I just felt like a lot of people would tune out when they hear it because we see the same companies and the same wall art, and I didn't believe in any of this stuff years ago. And then I saw some truly extraordinary companies and cultures, and their core values didn't sound like respect and integrity and team. They weren't just on the wall. They were completely operationalized in the business. They were what the leaders talk about. They were what they rewarded. I realized that, yeah, it really is the ultimate foundation of culture. But if I had to guess, I'd say I see it in one or two % of companies. So it's not surprising. I have a personal definition of personal core values, and I'll switch it back. I think core values are the non-negotiable principles that guide your behaviors and decisions. So in an organization, they need to guide your employees' behaviors and decisions. For an individual, I think they're intrinsic, not aspirational.

They reflect who you are, not who you wish you were. In fact, when you figure them out, you look back and you see, I've always been that way. They're consistent across all aspects of life and work, relationship, personal decisions, and they're clarifying. Buying. They help you make better choices about who to spend time with, what work to do, where to live. We talk about the big three in the book. So that's for individuals. For companies, every company, and I think you and I share this, they have core values. They just may not be the things on the wall. We're training a puppy, right? And we have good girl and bad girl. And that's what happens. It's the behaviors that you reward are ultimately the core values and the culture. And so Sometimes those match what's on the wall. Most times they don't, but they exist because if you start asking people, all right, what's the type of behavior around here that gets rewarded or doesn't? You'll very quickly get answered. And that's why it was pretty funny when Enron was going out of business, pretty much, they had integrity and respect and those things when really the core value was probably like, act, don't ask, and be incredibly aggressive.

That's actually what got you a or got you a promotion at Enron.

For the viewer or listener right now that's like, Oh, Robert, that makes a ton of sense. I'm looking at my wall right now and I see integrity and trust and teamwork. How do they take integrity, trust, and teamwork and turn those into actionable core values?

When I've done consulting work with organizations on this, we end up talking to their employees, and we ask them a lot of behavioral-based questions to try to understand what are the behaviors that you value most in your peers. Then we look at the core values and we say, which one of these rings true to you and which one doesn't? We're trying to solve the say, do gap. There's some stuff that the company is saying that it's not doing. But then it's interesting. Employees can always identify a couple of things that they really love or they value in their peers or that's a prized behavior that's not being said. We can align those things and we can update the values, and we can move away from one word, and we can run them through the rubric of it's got to be action-oriented and decision, and it's got to be something you would say to someone, You're doing a good job at this, and you're not. But at the end of the day, if leadership isn't bought into that and doesn't hold that accountable from the top, it's really not going to matter. My favorite email I got this year was from a hospital system that we had worked with to refine their values, and someone who came into that from a different group that I had helped him before.

It was funny because we have these values, and they always love their acronyms. I won't tip off here, but there was a guy who really wanted heart as one of them. I'm like, Can you tell me one of the things under heart? Can you remember what it is or tell me how it's rewarded? We spent a lot of time looking at, particularly in a teaching hospital, and it was like, Elevate yourself with others. That was a core thing that needed to be in a teaching hospital that they wanted to do it. My favorite email I got was, I said, How's it going? It's been four months since we did this whole thing and rolled it out, and they said, Look, it's going great. Here's what it's going on. We just instituted behavioral-based interview questions that align to our core values. We actually have this newsletter where we're doing core values shoutouts. We got the HR team to incorporate these core values into the performance reviews and the conversations. We have the first value awards coming up next quarter. And so this is, to me, someone who's actually taking it seriously. Look, we're going to live by these, and these are going to be the things that people are judged by.

I love that, man. That truly does make it actionable. If we're going to have awards, if it's a part of performance, if it's a part of everyday dialog, then that truly is who you are. I've always wanted to ask you this question, and I'm going to ask it for the audience, but I'm I'm asking it for a couple of my friends in particular. How many core values/pillars are too many? Because like you, I think we like these acronyms, right? Like happiness.

Well, to me, that's far too many core values or pillars that you need to have, right? Well, you'll see some corporations. I remember a fancy hotel chain years ago, and they were an exemplar for their values. And the guy pulled out the card, and it was service, and he read the thing. I'm If you need a card, you're already losing. In our company, everyone knew own it, embrace relationships, and Excel and improve. If you were there for more than 30 days because you heard it all the time. And look, we had three in our company. I have five personally. I think three to four is that sweet spot. But even my personal values, right? Find a better way and share it, health and vitality, self-reliance, respectful authenticity, and long-term orientation. I remember them. It's important to remember them because when someone brings something in front of me, that's my litmus test. I like three to four. I'm sure you've seen in business goals and stuff, there's something magical about three. But four is not a bad sweet spot.

Yeah, I'm a four guy. To me, four makes sense with what I do, but I don't do any more than four. I tell, again, I'm not going to mention one of my really good friends' names, but he's all about having 10 to 15 so that it can spell a word. And I'm like, dude.

Company or personal? First company. Company. Yeah. At that point, you've lost the... Honestly, anytime you hear an acronym with a core value, ask, see if People can get more than one of the things in the underlying. They always remember the acronym. I was in this hospital, and again, I won't give it away. They had the badge with the acronym on it that they all wore every day with them on the back. And When I asked people to tell me what they were in the meeting, I couldn't get anyone who could like, recite them all off because it was on the badge, but no one ever mentioned them. If it was on your performance review yesterday, if someone had a shout out for you or a nomin... You're going to know what it is. I mean, that's the difference. Yeah.

Another one of the things that... Just so everybody listening and watching understand, Robert and I are here to help you today. We're going to break some old and redefine some of that.

We'll get into the one words, too. Yeah, that'll be- Right.

Robert, you know this about me. I'm not a believer in mission and vision statements. I'm a believer in because statements. Because I feel like, again, If you and your team and your clients don't understand your mission and vision, then you really just had a marketing company come do something that sounds cool. Our vision is to be the number one trusted fill in the in our space. Our mission is to fulfill our community with fill in the blank. Everybody sees that, everybody hears that, but no one really understands it that works with you, that works for you. My personal feelings though, Robert, I'd love to get your take on the traditional mission and vision statement.

Well, first of all, if you ask company, most people get them backwards. They think the visions... In theory, one's supposed to be a 10-year view and one's supposed to be a three-year view, like one would last forever. I similarly like the why, which is a version of the because. We looked around our team like, Okay, screw all the... Why do we get up every day? And we were like, Because we think we can make things better. We think we can make our clients' businesses better, and the community better, and our employees better, and just a much more direct thing. I don't hate, like most things, I don't hate them if they're actually well done. But again, they're usually marketing that people never see again. And if you can't recall it, and if someone can't, if you're not using that day to day, then it doesn't have a lot of teeth. So the problem is, as we talk about this, is the majority of the examples are the performative ones, not the people actually doing it well.

Another thing I love about you is we share some similar thoughts here. I want the audience to hear the thoughts from Robert Blazer himself. I believe that we've become addicted to hustle and the hustle culture. I have this saying, hustle without strategy is just burnout. How do you help people balance high performance from burnout.

Yeah, I have very similar views on this to you. I think this is where the notion of personal core values. Look, they are distinct but related to company core values. Companies have things that they value. The book I wrote is about understanding your personal value so you can see which of these situations to attach or to detach. And I think burnout comes from when you're doing stuff that really doesn't align with your value. It's not the amount of time. Because there's stuff that you and I could do that we would do it for eight hours and for free, and we're in a zone and it feels great, and it's energizing, and that's usually value-aligned. I think the other thing that high achievers really struggle with is just making everything about a destination. And then, unfortunately, the destination doesn't provide the view that one thought would make up for all the journey. And instead of sitting and contemplating on that, what do high achievers then do? They think, Oh, I just have to pick a new destination that's higher, and that will make it all worth it. And I think the anecdote to that is to focus on what are you doing?

Focus on the climb, not the destination. And doing the climb, it doesn't mean that it's easy, but think about just what work and what thing that you could do that would feel really good. That doesn't mean it's fun every day. You and I are both launching It is. As much as I love this book, it is the hardest, most exhausting thing I've ever done. But I'm willing to push through because I believe in the topic. So, yeah, I think that's where a lot a lot of people, they're getting bullied into a climb or a summit that isn't something that they really want to be doing.

I agree completely. You just opened the door for me to talk about you. You're my friend, so this is a little hard in a good way.

Yeah.

You are also one of the best authors that I know.

You got to read more books.

I read a lot. I read a lot. I read a lot. Here's why, because every book that you've written, from Elevate to Elevate Your Team, and I'll list them all in the show notes and descriptions with links. Because if you're a leader, you need these books. If you're a manager, you need these books. If you're an entrepreneur, you need these books. If you're a significant other, if you're a parent, if you're a community leader, you need these books. But what What I appreciate is that you give clear roadmaps. You're not just writing from thought. You're literally writing as if you are helping the person that's on the other side of that book. And so I wanted to give you kudos for that because you have genuinely, I mean, I said it in the opener, you've genuinely changed me as a leader, me as a community leader, because I can put the principles of the things that you talk in action or the things that you write in action. I want to start with Elevate before we go to the new one. So we've got Elevate- There's an interesting line of how that leads to this.

So that's interesting.

Yeah. So elevate and then elevate your team. Walk me through or walk the listeners and viewers through why you decided to write the book Elevate, obviously. Because there has to be a purpose It's nice to do it. You just don't wake up and say, Yeah, I'm going to write a book.

Because I tend to be pretty direct. I wrote the book Elevate because the book I wanted to write got rejected by everyone, which is actually a learning. I had this Friday forward newsletter, which you mentioned before, and I had all these people who love these stories. I was like, I'm going to write a synopsis. I'm going to take the 52 back stories once a week, and I'm going to pull them out. I'm going to create a I pitched it to a lot of agents, and everyone's like, Look, publishers don't like compilation books. Then one agent said to me, Look, I love your writing. I love these stories. Publishers don't like compilation books. However, I think there's something deeper in here. What is the story behind the stories? I would encourage you to think that. I spent 18 months writing and going through it and being like, Okay, I've been writing these stories. They've been resonating. Why am I doing it? What is it? And that whole soul searching came up with, this is about building capacity. And if I look at all of these stories, they fall across one of these four dimensions of building capacity, spiritual, intellectual, physical, and emotional.

And that became the framework for the book. And then rather than going and grabbing the individual stories, I actually did publish that book later on. But I went and took the thematic thing things and organized it around that principle. Elevate was how to build your personal capacity, because I think a lot of growth these days is a steroid, artificial growth. We grow from growing from within, not because we're dragged into a growth situation. How do you start with the spiritual piece, which is, again, your values and what you're good at. That led me to the problem of everyone saying, Hey, I'm with you on this core values thing. How do I do it? I'm like, Well, don't have an easy thing to send you. Intellectual capacity, which is how you learn, plan, execute, get better. Physical capacity, which is your mental and physical wellness, and emotional, which is how you relate to people in the locus of control and all the things outside of you. In Elevate, it was about how you apply it to yourself. Then in Elevate, your team, it was the same framework, but how do you apply this as a leader in an organization?

How do you build a team that builds a team?

Okay. You said, Now that I understand The purpose behind it, the compass within, ties it together for me. So new book.

The thing I got asked the most about Elevate was like, I'm in on your, I need to understand my values. At that point, I had just figured it out for myself, and I was starting to train our team on it, and I had built a program, and I was like, Look, I can send you some resources, but they're not good. I spent three months going all through them. I'm I'm teaching it to my team, but it's not super easy. I don't have a quick fix because it just wasn't out there for me, and so I went and built it. And so what happened was eventually, I turned it into a course, that curriculum into a course because I was like, this is really working. We're using it in leadership training. People are figuring out what they value. They're getting comfortable leading from that authentically. I love the outcome this is getting. I'll turn into a course. I shared it with a lot of people. Thousands of people have taken that course. They sent me notes all around the world. I quit my job. I did this. Like, awesome stuff. I was like, I need to get this to more people because too many people won't jump into a course.

I was like, I want to write a book. But I had this vision, Mick. I tell a story of literally being in Barns & Nobles and my book called On Values on the shelf and everyone walking by it and no one wanting to picking it up being like, I'm not going to pick a book on values. I just was like, it's going to be... I have this framework. I really believe It's different. It's going to be boring to read as a non-fiction book. Things happen in life, like getting rejected from the Friday Forward book. My daughter was joking me one day. I pushed my kids a lot to do things outside of her comfort zone. She's like, You're Mr. Nonfiction. You read non-conviction, you write non-conviction. You should write a fiction book. That would be hard for you. I was also finishing one of Patrick Lencioni's books, who I love, and I was like, Huh? I was I actually think this would work well if I could show it in a parable format. I have no idea how to do that, but I'm willing to give it a try. That's basically how the book was born.

Wow. And speaking of Patrick Lencioni, he gave you a great endorsement on the compass with me, saying that I'm going to read it so that I don't mess it up because it's Patrick. But it's a timeless parable that illuminates the power of living and leading in alignment with your core value. That's powerful. When Patrick Lencioni says that about your book, when you saw Or when he reached out or when you reached out and he wanted to do an endorsement for you, how did that make you feel?

Well, look, both Bob Berg, who wrote The Goalgiver, who I knew Patrick, I sent them draughts, and I was like, I felt a little a finger painter, sending something to Picasso. I was like, so what do you guys think of this? And they were both like, We really like it. And I asked Pat about the title. He's like, I'm very good at titles. He's like, The Compass with It. And some options. And it gave me the confidence, I think. And I had to convince a publisher that they don't love parables. But what's so interesting to me, Jamie is the protagonist in this story. You watch him go through struggling with what I call the big three, his community, his vocation, and his partner. The people who have read the book in the early book, they all say to me, I saw him. They just see themselves in James. They remember that conversation with their boss, that thing in their town. He just serves as a mirror. I think as I have discussions with people like you about this, it proves that Because people start with, and they might have started listening to this episode, they're like, Oh, core values.

This is so abstract, or whatever. Then we get down into the nitty-gritty of what does it look like and actionable in these decisions, and they see it in the book and they're like, Oh, I buy this. This is different. Look, we'll find out in a few weeks, but I think it's working. It seems to be resonating. I've gotten some really personal notes from people where I think it just reflected something in their own life for them.

Yeah, I dig it. Let's give the audience, the viewers and listeners, just a couple of parables that you have in here as it relates to those values.

Yeah, you mean a couple of the stories from it? Yeah. Yeah. So Jamie is a young, up and coming 20-year-old. He's engaged, and his boss, who he loves, leaves work, which gives him some opportunity, but also exposes him to the company and the culture in a way that he hasn't before. And so he has this opportunity, but he also has some things that feel a little bit off. At the same time, he and his wife, his fiancé, are getting married. They're trying to figure out where to live. They move to this young, up and coming town that they thought would be perfect. But there's some fissures in the culture of the town they identify. He's really struggling with all these things, and I won't give away too much, but he connects with the mentor, basically. The framework that I had built all these years on how to discover your core values, and that framework is given to you in the last chapter of the book, but you watched the mentor and Jamie go through it live and how that comes out and the stories. Look, my experience having done this work now with thousands of people is like, you and I have talked about this a little bit.

I've had some emotional conversations with podcast hosts as part of this where they're deep stuff. It's usually some childhood thing where we are running away from something that was a little painful for us, or we are trying to double down on something that was really important for us. For a lot of people, it's a little bit like when your core values are crossed, it's like the electric fence. But the goal is to not get electrocuted to know that you're the electric fence. It's to know I got to stay away from that fence and I got to stay in this lane. I think most of us, we know our values by feel, but if we could articulate them, if we could say, I am a person that needs to find a better way and share it, then I will be much smarter about not taking a job where it's clear that I'm going to have to do the same thing every day and know that I'm going to be miserable or that I have a core value that's self-reliance, and I'm going to marry someone who has a trust fund and their family is going to tell us how we are going to live our...

That, to me, is like, I talk about anti-core values, and we can play with this, Mick, that when you say the opposite, I can see it viscerally. I get uncomfortable when I say that because it goes so against my values of self-reliance. I would never want to be dependent on someone and have them telling me what I could do and what I couldn't do.

I love that, dude. I love that. For the viewer- listener that is a leader, What are they going to get out of the compass with it?

Yeah, so here's the thing. I think a lot of people think this concept is abstract, but let's say whether you're a leader of a team or even a CEO. Let me talk about what's each. One, as a leader of a team, you are going to lead from your core values, whether you realize it or not. Having done this work with thousands of people over 10 years, they're either driving the car or these things are driving for them, and it's a huge difference in how they show up as a leader. But some interesting stats. Almost half the employees in the US and the UK say they're considering leaving their company because it doesn't exemplify their personal values. That's pretty interesting. It's really important to them to connect their values to their work. Gallup said that employees who perceive a strong alignment between their values and their organization are 56% more engaged. Another study found that leaders who talk about their core values and live by them, that's a big and or it's probably the opposite, are trusted three times more. People who live in congruence with their values are about 35% happier, which is equivalent to some It's a drug.

If you want people on your team who are more connected to your company, who feel more confident in their decision, because really, and what the book is about the big three, it's really about decision. We all have to make a lot of decisions. I I don't know that most of them are empirically stealing or not stealing. They're not right or wrong. They're things that we have to decide on whether we're going to live with them or not and how we feel with them a day later, a week later, or a year later. Those people were able to identify their values and make decisions with them. I think the outcomes for them and their organizations are a lot better.

Robert, I could sit here and talk to you all day. You know that, right?

I got a few hours.

If you had to give just one framework or a daily practice to someone trying to lead better every day, what would be?

To me, it's a lot about focus. I like to commit to... First of all, I think if you could understand your values, it all builds from this. That's the Spiritual Capacity Foundation. I like the simple commit to three. Every morning, what are the three things I can do today by noon that are the most important things that I can do. And I'm a big alignment guy. So if those three things tie to my quarterly goals, and I do that for 90 days, then I've knocked off 270. It's like dominoes. I've knocked over 270 things towards my quarterly goal. That domino falls, then the second domino, quarter domino falls, and then I should hit my annual goal. So a lot of people talk about how they don't have enough time. I think that's just a huge lie. There's so many people that I could look at and say, I want to write a book. I was like, You could have had the first draft of your book if the 10 minutes you spent commenting on people's food on Facebook every day was spent towards words. I can do the math for you. So it's those small...

The people who seem to get more done apply the domino... They apply the time in the same direction towards those things every day, that 10 minutes in one direction starts knocking over the dominoes versus 10 minutes in a million different ways, then you're like, I don't even know where all the time went at the end of the week or the end of the quarter.

Absolutely. Robert, I know you've been gracious with your time. I know how busy you are. I got to get you out of here with my quick five, my top five rapid fire.

All right.

Ready?

I'm ready.

What's one book that's changed your life?

Mistakes Were Made, But Not By Me, which is the definitive book, first of all, great title on cognitive dissonance. I have to say, after really understanding cognitive dissonance, particularly in decision making, I just see it everywhere. The author's doing an amazing job of how do we stop ourselves from making mistakes because our ego is super powerful. I love that book and I love the title. It's very catchy.

Okay. What's your favorite morning routine?

I'd like to go... We redid our backyard a couple of years ago, and on perfect day, I would sit outside there. I'd have my journal, I'd have some moments of quiet. I'd figure out the top three before I opened anything electronic or connected myself to the outside world in any way. I think just starting your day on offense is a huge difference than rolling out of bed and getting emails and looking at the news about all the horrible things that happened in the world overnight.

Yeah, I totally agree. Totally agree. So you're out in the backyard. What's the beverage you're having out in the backyard?

Coffee. Love coffee. I just enjoy drinking coffee, so I'll have two cups of regular and then three cups of Degaf.

I already knew that in. You have an amazing podcast as well. Who's a dream podcast guest for you?

You I love Tim Farris early on and watching his evolution. Having listened to so many of his long-form podcasts early on and just some really formative stuff, that would be a treat for me to be able to be on the opposite side of that chair and ask him some questions.

Okay. All right. I'm going to get you out of here on this one. You lead an amazing team. What's one word your team would use to describe you and your style?

Probably frenetic. I hope they would say authentic. I am very flawed. There's some things I don't do well. There are some things I do well, but I don't ever pretend to be anything that I'm not. I think life would be so much easier if what we were thinking is what we were saying and what we were doing. Understanding that it's not for everyone. I'm not for everyone. Other people are like, we get to all decide which types of folks we connect with and share value with. It would probably be frenetic, but maybe I hope it would be authentic.

Okay. No, I dig it, man. I dig it. Again, brother, thank you so much for your time today. The Compass Within is available now. Make sure you're ordering it. I don't care if it's Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book 2 Million. Definitely go to your local bookstore if you can and support them. That's a great way to support authors is buying at your local bookstores. Robert, where can people find and follow you?

Yeah, and Mick, thank you for sharing that. Look, that course I told you about that we've been selling, we're just giving it away. If buy the hard cover this week. So at compass-within. Com, on the page, you just put in the order number, order from wherever you want, give us the order number, we'll send you the course. I'm trying to have a million people figure this out. So they can go to compass-within or they can go to robertglazer. Com. That's where Friday Forward is, and that's where podcast is, and all that stuff is right there. I'd love to hear from you.

We will make sure we have links to everything in the show notes and descriptions. Robert, love you, man. I appreciate your time. I appreciate what you do and mean to me personally. So just thank you for being the authentic frenetic person that you are.

Thank you, man.

All right. For all the viewers and listeners, remember, your because is your superpower. Go unleash it. You've been plugged into Mic Unplug. Don't just listen. Take action. Rate and subscribe. Follow me on social and get the full experience at michuntofficial. Com. Keep building, keep leading, and most importantly, keep dominating.