The Science Of Execution – Part 1:
Alright. Welcome to the Seth Campbell podcast. This show is to equip you with real world tactics that improve your leadership skills, build your wealth and cause you to leave a multi generational impact on your world. So this week, again we are at a changing point, because I had the plan, I had an idea of what I was going to talk about for episode eight. And yet 30 of the 20 people I spoke to you’ll get that later, all had the same thing.
So here we go. I’m going to address it. And this week is going to be called The Science of Execution. And there are plenty of books out there. There’s plenty of topics on the science of execution, and certainly it’s one of those things like the word leadership in general that can have so many different facets to it.
And it does. I always think about these things, like a cooking ingredient where if we’re going to bake a cake, there’s all kinds of different cakes out there. Many of them have many different ingredients. And yet there’s a few core ingredients that we tend to see across all the cakes, and they are very important. It’s one of those things that we could write books on certain types of cakes or certain types of ingredients.
And we would be right. That’s why a lot of this stuff is really worth checking out. I’m a big fan of tons of different perspectives. So here we are today addressing execution, and it is a big word, a very important one in the world of business and in life, obviously. And I just say that because I want to make sure that you don’t ever take my perception or my paradigm as the gospel the only way, because I am just a student of life and an observer of business.
And having led many businesses and built many successful business with a lot of great people and had a lot of great mentors over the years, I have just learned to pattern watch and put things together and pull out some of the common sense. Now today I’m going to drill into something that again appears to be something that I’ve seen forever. Right. This is going to be something that we all deal with. We all exist.
We all are dealing with. And yet it’s one of those things where again, it appears like this is a very common struggle right now, a very common, almost trap. I almost would go as far as saying it’s a trap that a lot of people are stuck in right now, and it might very well have to do with this weird time that we’re facing the recording. This podcast is taking place end of July 2021. So we are at that point at the end of the pandemic ish and yet the other variant is spiking up.
Yet things are opening up. Maybe they’re not. So there’s a lot of uncertainty. And last episode, we talked a lot about this quarterly reset and take a moment to readdress where you are, what some of your long term goals are, what some of your roles are in life and how to reframe your rhythms and your week around those things. And today, it’s very much a continuation of that.
And I hope inside of this, you’ll take a lot of notes and you’ll find where you might be struggling in certain parts of execution that is very important to you. You’re struggling to execute, or your team is struggling to execute the people you lead, or you are personally. And let’s break down the science of execution. I’ve had so many incredible mentors and coaches, like I said, over the years, this one in particular, gives credit to an amazing person named Trish Torp. She was my coach for, I think, a little bit over a year, around a year, and she specializes in a lot of mindset, neurologist programming, science of the brain, energy, spiritual, all of that stuff, which I know weirds people out.
And I probably used to be in that category, too. And, yeah, I’m a fan of the intersection of science and human nature and who we are and how we are. So let’s dive into this. This is about your energy and not the airy fairy woozy kind of energy. So you don’t have to freak out about that.
It’s really about execution energy. So what I’ve learned is there are three kinds of energy. There are three phases of energy when it comes towards executing something, and each one of us has a natural one that we prefer. And in that preference, we tend to stay there too long, and it hinders our execution. And then of the three, we also have one that we like the least, and we attempt to even skip that.
We try to go over it, and that also hinders our execution. So in this awareness, my hope for you is that you’ll recognize this and you’ll recognize this at work. You’ll recognize this in all the areas of your personal life. You’ll recognize this in your team, and it will improve your leadership of yourself and of those around you by recognizing where your natural lean is of preference and where your natural lean is of avoidance, where theirs is and help you through some of the things, and we’ll break it down from there.
So here are the three names that I give these things.
Anyway, the first energy is called creation energy, and I want you to draw this. It’s a circular pattern. So right at the top is first energy. You can call it first energy. It’s creation energy.
And then it curves around like a circle straight into second energy. Middle energy, also known as I call it transformation energy. Now let me pause on that real quick. Why do we call transformation? Sometimes we think of transformation as a total change, and that’s true.
That’s what that word means in this context. It is if you think about how real if you broke down the science, the actual science of something happening, something being done. There is this moment of it going from the inside world to the outside world. When thought becomes deed, an idea becomes action. Even instinctively, I need to stand up whether I actually think that or I thought it in the nanosecond, it was on the inside or the brain triggers.
And then the action happened. So right at that moment of it going from an idea to action that technically is transformation. You transformed it from an idea to movement. So middle energy, transformation energy is a lot about movement. It is the moment things become action, that’s middle energy.
And then it loops around to the third and final energy, which is completion energy. So we have creation, transformation, completion. And it’s a circle. Creation, transformation, completion. The moment you complete something, you start something else or your brain is already focused on next, then you naturally move towards creation.
So there’s no gap in here. It’s always one of these three things, and you’re always in one of these three things on every single thing that exists. You’re in one of these and in the larger concepts of life, you might be stuck in one of them. And in the tiniest little task, you might be stuck in one of them. However, you’re in one of the three, you have to be in one of the three.
So let’s break them down a little bit deeper and let’s talk about how it can show up at work. I made a quick little chart for those who have the ability to see this either on our private Facebook group or what will be our YouTube channel. All right. Can you all see this type me a yes in the chat. So you should say yes and then chat if you see it.
All right. Thumbs up. Thank you. And then we will edit that part out. If you think about this is really good.
These are three words I would use, like in a w ork team concept, the visionary the operator the processor. It’s the first energy, middle energy, third energy. It is creation. It is transformation. It is completion.
N ow remember what I said is we tend to have a natural lean. We have a preference, one that we prefer that we are more comfortable with, that we’re more skilled with, and we like to stay there. And then one that we’re just okay with. And then the one that we like the least is when we actually try to skip, we don’t even try to avoid it. We literally try to skip it.
We don’t even try to stay there for a short period of time. And where this can work in the world of work or work teams or the workplace is align yourself with your strength is where you prefer to be. Maybe that’s what you can offer the company. But this is a good thing for anybody that’s been in the world of work. As soon as you see this, you’re like, okay, I know this.
I’m probably more that person. So the person who definitely prefers first energy creation or energy, we would call them a visionary. They like big picture. They can flow the 50 to 30,000 foot view. They speak concepts where if you go over to the person who tends to prefer middle energy, the operator is very action oriented individual.
They tend to. The visionary will speak big picture and they automatically start saying systems and how OK, here’s how that can happen. They can put the pieces together and then the person who prefers third energy or completion energy. I would label them as a processor. In the world of work, they automatically figure out how to deliver and the individual tasks of the big picture idea in the system of the operator.
And then when it gets to how they see things, you see the visionaries like at the 50,000 of you, they speak in concepts. The operator is really dynamic. Actually, the rarest individual for organizations is that they can meet the visionary about 30,000ft. Okay, I get that idea. I see what you’re saying.
I see the battle. I see the map, I see the plan and they can hear the concept and they’re multilingual. They translate all the way down to the processor. That’s why it’s vital to have them in the middle. They connect the dots in the world of work.
And this processor speaks details, not concepts operator can translate. They can go hang out with the visionary about 30,000ft. Get the idea, turn it into a system of how. Visionary usually can’t do that very well and go to a processor and meet them at the 1000 foot level and turn their system and how into a set of tasks and deliverable and give the details. They can translate concept into detail down to the process.
The processor takes it all the way to the ground. So you start to maybe identify with one of these as your preference. And you definitely will have to do all three. Right. If you just change the light bulb, you actually do all three of these.
It doesn’t matter what task you do, anything you execute, you must do all three. The visionary wants speed, the operator wants efficiency, processor and just think about that. That’s fast efficient, which is a version of fast and correct fast done well and then processor. And by the way, that also is aka for slow and it’s not slow, like they think slow. I will slow this down to make sure it’s right.
That’s my natural lean. I value correctness and accuracy and I don’t want speed to hinder that. So that’s where there can be a conflict. I just stop right now and imagine a visionary talking to a processor and you can see why there’s workplace conflicts sometimes between those individuals and they don’t have the person in the middle of translate visionary voids details. Operator creates the details.
A lot of people don’t realize that a strong operator actually creates details. They don’t always do them. They definitely could, but they invent them. That’s where details are made and a processor must have details. So right there, your work team might be stuck just in that one.
You may have a visionary who is avoiding details, trying to get a processor to create the details and the processor needs those wants those will do their best to create them. However, missing an operator creating it as a system, you’ll burn out that processor, so you’ll start to realize where your work group could be struggling in this, the visionary lacks empathy. It’s usually, by the way, not because they don’t care. It’s because of speed and concept, and they just assume everybody is fine.
The operator actually has the highest empathy of the group and the processor requires it. So it’s much like the details the operator creates empathy, creates details. The processor receives details, receives empathy. And that’s why, by the way, there are some people who lean middle energy. They are go, do, translate, translate, system, how, efficiency. And they lack empathy.
And those are the operators that struggle in a larger workplace. They struggle to keep jobs as soon as the organization gets over a certain number of people that they leave. So if you happen to be somebody who’s identifying with the operator in the world of work and you have burned people out and somebody would say behind you is a trail of dead bodies, there’s no criticism. I’m trying to help you narrow it down to just empathy.
If you just cranked up your empathy, probably everything else will fall in place. That actually is one that doesn’t always come natural to an operator. And I think the funny part is when I’ve witnessed that in the world, in my years of experience, those individuals actually do have massive empathy. Somewhere along the line, it was beaten out of them. The point approved.
I got passed up too many times. Things like that. They got treated as a processor when they’re an operator and stuff like that, their empathy kind of got abused so much that they shut it off. So when you give them permission, here’s a key word, vulnerability. They hate that word, by the way, vulnerability.
When they let go of that chip on the shoulder, they allow vulnerability to come out. The real empathy shows up, and once they get comfortable in their own skin and their real empathy comes out, they actually could be like COO of a billion dollar organization being powerful. All right. And then the last one is visionaries tend to lean towards charisma. Operators lean towards trust, very reliable.
And processors lean towards stability so that’s the world of work. And hopefully you’re starting to recognize in a workplace, probably it’s one of those three energies you probably identify one. Remember, it is a circle so you could be in between visionary and operator. That’s totally normal. You could be between operating processor, totally normal.
So it’s a continuum. It’s a whole circle and you just have a preference in there somewhere that you like to lean towards. And let’s talk about what it looks like, though, when it becomes a danger, because ultimately my goal is in the science of execution for you to identify. Now probably why you could be stuck in executing something or your team is stuck. Now let’s identify that a little deeper and then how you move through it.
So as you’re taking notes, let’s dive into diving into the first one. Let’s dive into creation energy. What does it look like for somebody that stays there too long? So remember, the danger is stay too long on my preference and skip on my least preferential. So stays too long.
What does it look like in the real world? When somebody is in creation energy too long, they will be ideas. New switch, switch. Sometimes we think that switching is middle energy. It’s not.
So when I say switching, it would be like another new job. Another new idea, another new concept, another new initiative at work. Like new idea. Those are usually people that are in creation energy too long. They tend to just be always in the new.
And remember, that’s a strength. When you stay there too long, you screw up execution. So catch yourself. If that’s you. What you want to do is just have an awareness.
And now the other part of awareness is which one am I trying to skip and probably are going to put some energy towards doing that. We’ll talk about how to fix this in a little bit. Now let’s talk about what the creation energy person, how you might identify this as your weakest. So it’s your strongest one is if you’re constantly doing new and switching around
This is probably your weakest one, If you tend not to have goals, tend not to have direction, to not to have long term future purpose. If I say, hey, what are your ten year goals? You go blank. If I say, what are your lifetime goals? You go blank.
You struggle with that. Now on any of these. If it’s the one you’re avoiding and skipping, it’s probably because you’re trying to jump to the one you like. So what does it look like? It tends to look like you’re overdoing one of the other ones.
So if you lack goals, lack direction, lack deeper future lack being able to explain your purpose. If you struggle with that, this is probably when you’re trying to skip. It’s probably the one you’re trying to skip. If I say tell me about your purpose, it’s just who I am. It’s just what I do answer.
That means you’re skipping energy one, and it’s time to deal with that. Now let’s talk about energy two. The middle energy transformation. How do you know, if you’re staying there too long, it looks like the hamster wheel. It is constant action.
This is the energy of action. You are constantly in motion. You’ve got a full schedule. You have enormous energy. You’re popping off the 3am emails, and yet your constant motion and energy does lack a long term measurement.
If we put it to the test, you forget your goal. You know exactly what you do. In fact, if I ask you what your goal is, you’re going to answer it with an action question. What’s your goal? Make this many phone calls do this.
It’ll be the activity on the way to a goal. It will be worked out six days a week. I’m like for what to work out. So your answer is the goal itself becomes mental energy. Just do.
Just go. And that, by definition, becomes hamster will. It literally is, I’m going to keep running in no particular direction because I’m supposed to run. So if you catch yourself being in, that what’s your goal. My goal is to do XYZ every single day, every single week.
And I say for what? And you’re like, what do you mean for what? Because I’m supposed to do that. Maybe you’re stuck in transformation energy. How do you know you’re skipping it?
It’s because you’re going to one of the other two. Either you are going to final energy and you’re just trying to check boxes a lot. So now you try to skip middle energy. If you like to check boxes on the easier tasks, like I make a to do list and I will go check out the really easy ones first. I’m not going to jump into activity on the very difficult or complex ones.
I’m going to skip thinking through systems. Remember that middle energy person and strength turns concepts into systems and the third person will just execute. So if I find myself just checking boxes on easier tasks instead of going to the bigger stuff, then I’m probably skipping phase two. I’m skipping middle energy. If I just keep wanting to go back and make a new goal or new idea, I might be skipping middle energy like I don’t ever get started is what that one will look like.
Either I don’t get started at all, or I go to complete something little. I’m probably skipping middle energy. What is third energy? Completion energy? Looks like if I’m the person staying there too long, I’m a box checker.
I suffer from analysis paralysis. People tell me that you overanalyze. You’re thinking too much. You’re processing too long. You’re overthinking this perfectionism.
If that is what you wear as a badge of honor or people throw it at you as a dagger. Yet the word perfectionism chases you around. You probably lean third energy too long and all perfectionism is extended finishing. By definition, it is man I like completion energy, so I’m going to make this last as long as possible. And the way we do that is we go for perfection, which doesn’t ever really happen. And all that is a false sense of trying to extend completion. It’s avoiding creation is what it is. So if you were there, if you’re extending finishing longer than you need to just get it out, it’s good enough.
Oh my gosh, that sounds terrible. Then probably you’re overusing third energy. It can be confused sometimes with vision, but it’s not very singular.
It’ll slow things down. Okay, let’s talk about how to work through some of this stuff.
I’m sorry I missed one. Forgive me if I am third energy completion energy and I skip it. What does that look like? What does it look like for somebody that skips third energy? Try to skip it.
This is mine. By the way, is I have unfinished projects on to the next. Sometimes my communication. If I skip third energy completion energy is I speak assumptive. It’s amazing.
Figurative speaker or skipping combos. It’s actually an avoidance of pain. Many times we think that there’s a lot of pain in that middle energy of doing. It’s not for a lot of people. Pain is in finishing. Pain is in, I need to finish this relationship, so I’ll send the hint or I’ll self destruct it or I’ll Act out instead of just going and telling the person I think we’re not a match anymore. That is skipping completion, and they might even add on a new relationship prior to actually finishing the last one. They skip pain. They hint around things that is somebody who struggles to and attempts to skip completion energy.
Third energy. So now take a moment and ID your strength. This is where we put this into practice by now you should know which one is your preference. Which one do you lean towards? And here’s what I want you to do with that.
And this will be your homework. How can I use this strength for my role, for my team better? And add skill to it. This is where I really want you to add skill, much like I said with the operator who struggles with empathy. If they added the skill of empathy, their results will skyrocket.
So my advice is never downplay your strengths. My advice is recognize where you overuse it. And most likely, by the way, your strength is the one you add the least skill too, because it was so strong. You got away with your natural strength and at some point in your career and your leadership journey, you will hit a ceiling. So in other words, here’s a quick example.
If my natural skill is numbers and math and I’m really just intuitive with that, I can get really far on my math skills. However, there is a skill of understanding evaluation of a business and mergers and acquisitions. There’s a formula I’ve got to go learn that now I could get away really far, long time being this number wizard. And at some point I might be in the boardroom that’s talking about emerging acquisition and not know the formula, and I could try to charisma my way through it.
At some point, I don’t work anymore.
My career has a new ceiling to find the skill that you need to add to your strength. So go back and look at the chart on the visionary. Do I need to understand concepts better? So I better start reading books on what’s happening out in the world and there’s different business valuation, business models. Where is do I need to increase my charisma skills?
Do I need to increase how I communicate? Big picture. Find where you can increase your actual tactical skills in the area that you lean into. Write that down as your homework second piece. Identify your weak one.
Identify the energy that you try to skip. If you want to go to Dr. Phil and figure out why that is from childhood or whatever, go ahead. I’m not going to tell you do that. What I’m going to tell you is creating awareness.
Set some triggers of a man, there I go again, I’m avoiding the conversation. That means I’m skipping middle third energy. There I go again.
I am not creating a system. I’m going right to action. So I’m skipping transformation. There I go again. I’m just going.
I forget what I’m really going for. I’m skipping creation energy. Find which one you skip. Set a trigger in your brain to catch it. What do you do that is demonstrated of you trying to skip it. And then I want you to figure out which area of your life. This is most important. Where is it showing up? That you can make the biggest movement.
It might be in your physical life. It might be in your spiritual life, your money life, your work life. Fine. Just pick one part of your life. That man I skip creation energy all the time. I’m going to tackle it right there. I’m not going to set goals for everything. I’m going to set goals for this thing. Just find one area of your life that you’re skipping completion energy or skipping transformation energy.
What’s driving you crazy? You’re stuck in execution. And I want you to figure out how I recognize through awareness. Force myself through that so you can do this. I told you, my weakest one is completion energy.
So I’ll pick a very important area of my life, and I’ll force myself like I will ride this through. And every time I want to give up and go to start something new, I’m going to force myself to stop. So you develop a little bit of muscle there. And then if it relates to a bigger project that involves multiple people as bonus points, I’d like you to identify the most important areas of life. Who can I hire/ partner with that lean natural to those strengths who’s missing on my team?
A lot of times we think it’s a duo. It’s actually a trio. Who’s missing? If it’s a big project, who’s missing? And remember now I say that with an asterisk. Don’t give yourself permission to only stay in your energy and be terrible at the other one and okay at the middle one.
Get more balance at all three. Definitely increase your strength by adding skill to it, not energy. You don’t need more energy, more skill in that one. And then in the one that you avoid. Force yourself to not avoid it.
Force yourself to not avoid it and watch your execution skyrocket. Watch your execution skyrocket. You most likely don’t have to be good at it.
You go through it and not have the illusion that you can possibly ever skip it. And then, as bonus points, think about your most important team who’s missing in your life. Do you know them already? How will you find them? How will you look for them?
So that’s the end of episode eight. The Science of Execution hopefully, I took a very big and scary concept called Execution and gave you some tidbits to break it down. That’s my goal. Give you the shortcut to success that can make a very big generational impact. Know your strengths.
Take them to the next level. Identify your weaknesses in this one and recognize how you can work through that to increase your impact on the world and those around you. With that. I love you. Thank you.
You and I will see you all on next week’s episode of The Seth Campbell Podcast. Thanks, everybody.
