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How to Have High-Performance Conversations
59 Plays2 months ago
In this episode of The Visible Leader, I chat with Paul Teasdale about high-performance conversations and what leaders can learn from Formula One. Paul’s career spans from sausage-making to F1, and he shares how leaders can handle tough conversations, make better decisions, and build a culture of high performance.
Here’s what we covered:
- What makes a difficult conversation so hard, and how do you navigate it with grace?
- How can leaders apply an F1 mindset to performance conversations?
- What are the three key ingredients to high performance?
- How do you use data in decision-making without drowning in it?
- How can leaders communicate better without overwhelming their teams?
- What do you do when a high performer is also a challenge to manage?
Resources & Links:
Connect with Paul Teasdale on LinkedIn: Paul Teasdale
Or visit Paul’s website: www.paulteasdale.co.uk
Get your free copy of my Leader's Guide to Increasing Your Impact, Influence & Free Time at visibly-different.co.uk/increasing-your-impact
And if you enjoyed the Podcast please share with someone who might benefit and leave a rating and review.
Got a question for me? I'm just a message away on LinkedIn.
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Transcript
The Importance of Tough Conversations
00:00:00
Speaker
a
00:00:03
Speaker
What advice would you give leaders who are facing tough conversations? What tips would you give them? First and foremost, face it. Don't put it off. It needs to be addressed. But going with an open mind, going with that performance mindset. When we think about performance then, what is high performance from your perspective, seeing as you've had that background?
00:00:27
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, high performance is very contextual. Every business, every team, every individual has their own specific view on what high performance is in that moment.
Introduction to the Visible Leader Podcast
00:00:42
Speaker
Welcome to the show. I'm Corinne Hines and this is the Visible Leader podcast.
00:00:50
Speaker
I take a practical approach to leadership, unpacking the art and science of leading effectively. And together with my lovely guests, I explore topics like showing vulnerability without losing credibility and how to rethink performance by ditching those appraisals.
Applying Formula One's Performance Mindset to Business
00:01:13
Speaker
When I think of Formula One, I think of growing up, at home, Sunday afternoons, watching it with my dad, then later on watching it with my first boyfriend, and wondering, how is this entertaining? But being completely gripped, of course.
00:01:32
Speaker
Now I think differently. My head is behind the scenes. I'm thinking about the teams, coordination. How are they producing these off the scale performances? And it makes me wonder, how come we're not seeing more of this in the business world? And I think how much data do F1 teams have? They must have an awful lot. So do we need more data in business? I don't think we do.
00:02:01
Speaker
We are having back to back meetings, lots of reports, management information. I think what we struggle with is a lack of insight. And so I was super interested to sit down with Paul Teasdale because he's a performance expert.
00:02:18
Speaker
who worked with McLaren's F1 team, helping them turn data into real actionable decisions. So he has seen firsthand how the best teams cut through the noise, trust the right people, and stay ahead of the competition. And spoiler alert, it's not about speed. It's about precision.
00:02:40
Speaker
a
00:02:43
Speaker
Paul, welcome to the show. Thanks so much for having me, Karen. It's an absolute pleasure. Great.
Lessons from a Sausage Factory: Leadership Challenges
00:02:49
Speaker
First thing I would like to ask you is what's the most difficult conversation you've had to have in your career and how did it go? It might be a difficult conversation you've had or that you had to run.
00:03:05
Speaker
There's been a fair amount of them. The most difficult ones are the ones that you aren't prepared for. And one that comes directly to mind was fairly extreme in some ways in that as a young manager, when I was working in a sausage factory, one of the people in my team actually died on site during a shift. And this is a smallish factory, very tight knit.
00:03:27
Speaker
and therefore you know having to have the conversation with people about you know how do we get back to work you know off the back of all and the times that we' we'd had off, giving people time to grieve, etc. But there comes a time when you actually have to get people back into delivering the business that you're in. And I just simply wasn't prepared for that in terms of having a conversation which is trying to say that, you know, making today's batch of sausages is important so in relation to the fact that something so extreme just happened. So I think that comes to mind in terms of one of the most tough conversations that I've had to have with several people. You know, dealing with grief, I think is something that in its various formats.
00:04:09
Speaker
is very rarely prepped for. you know It's a conversation that not many managers and leaders have thought about, so but if you think about it, everyone's going to go through this at some point in their life. and Whether it's an elderly family member, whether it's a sudden accident or a colleague, then the odds are honest that it's going to affect people. That conversation, I think, is one that a lot of leaders are missing how to gracefully have those conversations and how to be human about it.
Grace and Humility in Leadership
00:04:40
Speaker
Gosh, like I didn't know that's what you were going to say. It must have been very, very challenging, especially as it was in your you know younger days and you were feeling a bit unprepared for it. But graceful and being human, what great qualities to bring to that conversation. Maybe you weren't able to do it like you wanted to do it back then. but Yeah, because I think on reflection, like most things, you know, the more you've thought about it and practiced and prepared for it. But in some cases, actually just being forced to have the conversation will bring out what needs to be said. And I think being humble and being kind has always been two key ya areas of my focus over the years. And I think that is a ah great start. But having difficult conversations, because invariably, no matter what they're about, you don't know all the story yet. You don't know the facts. Even if you know the facts, you don't know the driving forces behind the facts.
00:05:31
Speaker
what's affecting those individuals in their personal life at that time or what whatever's going on. So being open and being humble and being kind and, you know, inhuman about it, even if that leads to a disciplinary action or more difficult conversations business-wide off the back of that, start with a ah listening mode and assume the best in people to begin with. Assume good intent. Yeah.
00:05:55
Speaker
Lovely place
Understanding High Performance Across Industries
00:05:56
Speaker
to start. So you've got this varied background that we're going to draw on. We're going to draw on sausages. We're going to draw on Formula One. Love that. Jugs to position. Yes. There's not many of us. No, you might literally be the only one.
00:06:12
Speaker
and so Let's just think about the conversation we're having. The main part really was the Formula One side of it. but what I definitely want to integrate sausages in. and so Thinking about how to have a performance conversation like Formula One team is is the the vibe that we're going for in this conversation.
00:06:38
Speaker
So when we think about performance then, what is high performance from your perspective since you've had that background? Yeah, I mean, high performance is very contextual in terms of the businesses that you're in. As you said, you know, I've worked in sausage making in Fullmetal One, but I've also worked in banking, in shipping, all sorts of bits and pieces. And every business, every team, every individual has their own specific view on what high performance is in that moment. so But it's all about, you know, what's the best that you can deliver.
00:07:11
Speaker
ah How can we consistently use that as the benchmark and then push ourselves even further? That for me is the the high performance piece. It's not about delivering once really well. It's about once you have set that high performance benchmark, that's the lowest you're going to perform and you're only going to get better from there.
00:07:29
Speaker
and That's the sort of high performance mindset that comes in. and That can be about the production efficiencies you've had on site or and it might be about how well conversations have gone and a sales conversation or a service conversation. and That's your new level of high performance. and In the world of Formula 1, obviously, you've got the visible aspect, which is the car winning in the race.
00:07:52
Speaker
That's the result of that high performance. But a lot of the high performance that I was involved with all or saw and integrated in those stories to help others achieve was all about the high performance that sat behind that. How do you become prepared? How do you take a mindset and build it into the organization? And how do you lead in a high performance way such that you're doing the right things that are going to get you the results? High performance isn't the result. It's the things to get you the results. The result is the icing on the cake.
00:08:21
Speaker
So where can we start?
Tools for Achieving High Performance
00:08:23
Speaker
If we're thinking about Formula One, we want to bring that into our businesses and we've got to focus on having great conversations to underpin this. I'm listening to this, I'm running a business, I'm going, yay for Formula One, that that's it sounds like exactly we want to be up there. Where should I start?
00:08:45
Speaker
Well, I think with everything, there's this sort of three main things. I've talked about this recently in terms of a recipe for high performance. I think there's three key things that you actually have to have and have all of them together working in harmony. One of them is the right tools on praying works, the having the things that you can do, the ways of working, the ways of thinking, the ways of managing, et cetera. But then you've also got to have stories that sit around that.
00:09:12
Speaker
I think it's one of the key bits that a lot of organizations miss is if you're bringing in some external thinking, such as a fool with a one mindset into this organization, you can't just say we're doing that. You've got to have a story to tell so that it becomes relevant to people and people that are engaged in it. So storytelling for engagement is critical. And then the final one is the how do you put those tools and practices and those stories?
00:09:39
Speaker
into application and this is the sort of role of facilitation and sort of implementation which is another key skill and it's so right. I think with any one of those three things having the real strength in one of those three areas can help you but without those three together you're not really going to have that high performance and consistent high performance. So yeah it comes down to If you identified that Formula One or any other inspirational performance story or approach is going to be relevant to your business, what are the stories you're going to tell people? How are you going to present this within your organization so that people go
00:10:18
Speaker
Oh, why are you bringing in Formula One? yeah We make sausages, or you know we're not only a gas drilling company, or we're a coaching business, or we are an accountant. What the hell has Formula One got to do with us? You've got to have a story that engages people as to why that's relevant and why that's important.
00:10:34
Speaker
And then you've got to be able to put those things into practice. And quite often that's where external practitioners and facilitators come in to actually help implement that stuff so that it becomes relevant. I always talk about don't just copy and paste, adapt, then a adopt. If you've got a great framework or a great tool or or approach to things or a great story, adapt it to your business and your team and your situation before you look to adopt it.
Adopting F1 Strategies in Business
00:11:01
Speaker
Because if you look to copy paste, knock and stick.
00:11:04
Speaker
And so if I'm thinking of a leader that is wanting to look at performance within their teams and their people, I can see about making sure they've got these three components. Have you got any examples of where you've seen somebody move from bog standard when it comes to like looking at performance of their people, their teams to incorporating this Formula One type mindset in?
00:11:34
Speaker
Where has it worked and what did they do? I've had a few different scenarios, certainly the the ones that I've worked with and um everything from individuals. So and I know a great leader who has a small building operation. So it's a a builder's construction company and with a relatively small team and taking that different mindset and taking that approach of what's my role as a leader? What does high performance look and feel like in this organization? How do I communicate in a high performance way to my team?
00:12:05
Speaker
has just seen that person go from almost drowning in they ah in a business to seeing that business thrive. And as much as anything, they will step back and allow others to deliver.
00:12:17
Speaker
A very difficult time for a small and growing business is when you're in the weeds to be able to get to a stage where you as the leader of that organization who's always been in it, be able to step back, hand over some of that activity and take a different role within the organization from the deliverer to the manager to the leader. And I've seen some great examples and one individual comes to mind there.
00:12:40
Speaker
But also within larger organizations you know and specific contexts, I did a piece of work with a multinational organization that was looking at how they recruit and select across the globe and taking frameworks and things that have worked in terms of data-driven and data-supported decisions.
00:13:00
Speaker
Taking that as the tool, so if you think of those three areas, building some stories around why we need to be acting fast, why in and a speedy F1 kind of mindset way is relevant to our business in the recruitment sense, and what that can give us, why is that important to us, and having those stories built up, and then as a facilitator coming in and helping them to implement that into that particular context.
00:13:26
Speaker
seeing them going from really struggling with their recruitment and selection, with a number of people, positions open, and critical roles, and people not knowing where to look, where are the priorities. What's great in the world of Formula One is there's no data supported that you talk about, and we've talked about this in the past, this culture of responsibility that comes about from nowhere to hide because the data is so well known and well trusted.
00:13:54
Speaker
And therefore, if you can bring that into an organization, you can help them to understand, trust the data and make better decisions from it and see that organization go from really struggling through to really being on top of things and staying on top of it.
00:14:08
Speaker
You've picked on two things there that I see done so, ah to to say I was going to say done so badly, but that's a bit harsh. It's just so difficult to do it well, which is like being led by the data, actually having the right data. And that could be anything from, um well, the other thing is the high performance communication. Those two, they're quite chunky, aren't they? The data.
00:14:35
Speaker
the communication, so some listening to this, they're resonating strongly with the data doesn't guide my decisions because I don't trust it and communication, especially in some of the big corporates I'll i'll be part of working in.
00:14:53
Speaker
is really very difficult to get that right. So let's just have a look at both of those and talk about how to do it differently for from an F1 perspective. ah One of the biggest insights and revelations for me when I got into the world of F1 and working for McLaren for those years was being some data supported and data driven. They actually put data last.
00:15:18
Speaker
And that's one of the critical elements where if I see what a lot of businesses are struggling with and why they're struggling with data support and decisions, it's because a lot of it is what data have we got? Therefore, what decisions can we make up the back of it? Other examples in probably larger organizations where you've got an IT t team or someone like that saying, here's a new system that's going to provide you with all this new data. You can cut and paste it any way you want. Isn't this brilliant? It's going to revolutionize the business and nothing happens.
00:15:47
Speaker
And the reason that I see that happening is that the people who are making their decisions and trying to drive the performance aren't involved or aren't involved enough in terms of what data do we need. And what I developed off the back of my time, there's something I call rapid performance, which is a way of making sure that you've got the right data and therefore heading towards the right results. So rapid stands for results, actions, people, insights, and data.
00:16:16
Speaker
that you first and foremost get really concrete on what other results we're trying to drive. and in what context, you know what regulatory context, ah what are the things we can't do? What are the things that if we, yes, we can get a profit, but if we do it illegally, then we put the whole business at risk. Or if we do it outside of the framework of the regulators for our our body, then we're going to have to pay fines, we might lose the business,
The RAPID Framework for Decision-Making
00:16:40
Speaker
all that sort of thing. So you've got context for your results. Once you've got that really clear, yeah thinking about what are the actions, what are the levers that you have at your disposal that you can push and pull that drive those results.
00:16:52
Speaker
get really clear on those and understand what they are, and then go to the next level, which is who are the people involved in making those decisions and enacting? ah What motivates those people? Who are they? How are the teams constructed? How do you measure and manage them? That sort of thing. That's a lot in the people element in its own right. Where it becomes really interesting for me is the insights level, which is I distinguish data, information, and insights. So data is the what it's been.
00:17:21
Speaker
and figures the numbers. Information puts a bit more context around that. So it's maybe trended over time or comparative one data point against another. So my forecast was five million. I'm delivering four and a half million. The post of the data points are just four and a half million. But insights are things and data and information that presented back in such a way that it supports the decision.
00:17:47
Speaker
So this is like identifying where the priorities are, identifying if you took this action, it's likely to have an impact on these figures. You can start to present people with insights. And once you understand what insights people need, so what insights do buy people need, make the right decisions on the actions that drive the right results. And finally, come down to data.
00:18:09
Speaker
And it's actually what's the smallest data set that I need to drive the insights that my people need. And that, it's so freeing to a lot of organizations because it puts the control back on the people who are actually involved in making the decisions.
00:18:24
Speaker
It puts control back in people's minds because they're not going, I've got all this masses of data. What do I do with it? You've gone through a process that says, I need data X, Y, and Z. And by the way, it would really help me if you presented it in this way, because that's going to give you the insight to make it better to see. Going back to that example with the recruitment and selection, there's a case of how do I present back? Where are the priorities?
00:18:48
Speaker
Do I do this graphically? Do I do it in a world map with some heat maps within that? but There's actually, this is the red zone over here because I've got critical roles and lots of them that are open and have been open for ages. But actually over here in a different part of the world, yes, I see they have lots of open roles, but they're not critical and there's no time pressure to them. So actually put my resource that the insight says, put your resource to solve that problem in the critical areas.
00:19:16
Speaker
And if you haven't got that insight presented to people, it's difficult to make those decisions. And so that's the this sort of rapid performance to the the data from Biden. I think that's been one that's really been transformative for people in terms of how they think about data supported decisions. When we think about the era that I'm really interested in, which is Having great conversations, avoiding having difficult conversations, having performance conversation with development at the heart of it. How can we use that rapid framework in relation to that?
00:19:51
Speaker
So again, like any good coaching conversation, starting with what are the results you're trying to draft? What's success look and feel like to you? So that's the results piece. And then you can start to talk to people about what are the things that you can do or could do that are going to drive that in its way. Who are the people that might support you? Who are the people you need to engage? Do some stakeholder matting, some stakeholder management around those people who are going to help you improve your performance or your team improve their performance.
00:20:19
Speaker
and then challenging them in terms of what insights can you give your people or what insights do you need in order to help make those best decisions. Therefore, have you got all the right data? so You can help challenge them on that personal level or the team level or the organizational level. Like any good framework, I think it brings clarity of thinking back to there's a reason why I'm looking to pull this data together.
00:20:42
Speaker
because it helps me in this way. And I think if you've then got that across an organization, like any good tool and framework, it helps with the common language and the communication, which goes back to the second point here. It's like, how do you communicate what's important to you, what performance is, and how you can improve it? Well, let's look at your rapid approach.
00:21:04
Speaker
What does that mean to you? And you've already got a common piece of language that allows people to talk through not just, oh, I want to get better at this. You've actually got a very structured, detailed conversation that says, I've thought about these different areas, or I'm struggling with who are the people. I don't know who the people are. I don't know where to go. Do I go external? Do I go internal? Who's good at this here? So it helps you to identify where are the gaps in that tool that can help you with the performance you're trying to drop.
00:21:32
Speaker
I love the conversation that it could drive because sometimes if you say, what does success look like? How are you going to measure it? Again, there's all these other steps that are really important into that and bringing stakeholders in is such a great way of bringing insight into that conversation as well. So I love the fact that that's included in the the model. Okay. So we've got this model that we can use. We can use it individually. We can use it as a team.
00:22:00
Speaker
And the common language is such an important thread within that. So we've sorted that. We're all good. Communication. I see top-down communication and lots of repetition, lots of gaps and missing the mark and town halls that don't get attended, you know, but they big corporate ones.
00:22:28
Speaker
And when you come down to talk to people in teams, it feels at that level that it feels manageable, but they're actually assuming good intent again. People do want to engage. They do want to hear things, but it's so unwieldy and there doesn't seem to be a quick fix for this. So I'm super curious, Paul. Let's fix it.
00:22:49
Speaker
Yeah, first and foremost with communication, it's realising or establishing um or even challenging in the fact that communication is a critical game changer for your team and your organisation. If you don't feel that's the case, like most things, this is again, great insights from 4.1 prioritisation. If improving your communication isn't one of those levers at a high level in the business to go back to that rapid performance, if it isn't one of the actions that is going to have a big impact and shift in the dial on your results that you try to drive that don't put in the effort. Do you think that's ever the case? I very rarely seen it be the case, but it's just positioning the fact that communication can be one of the actions in the rapid framework. For instance, if you're looking at a larger organization, once you've realized, yes, that's critical to us, understanding what elements of communication are we struggling with or will give us better performance. Communication is a big beast.
00:23:48
Speaker
Is it about how we listen to each other? Is it about the conversations we have? Is it about the communication isn't clear and concise? All sorts of different elements where you could say, yeah this is what communication means.
00:24:02
Speaker
It's also a bit of a stick to poke people with, isn't it, a bit, I think. It's it's often a word that covers up a lot of other issues. And then people are like, oh, we'll do a comm strategy. And it's like, actually, ah they're saying the word communication, but what they mean is something completely different, really.
00:24:20
Speaker
Yeah, you've got to break it down in terms of what that means to you. Like anything, if you start with just, we're going to be better at communication. Well, what does that mean? Why is that important? What's the story behind that? And again, how are you going to get some supports to apply better tools and techniques? So I'll share a couple of things from the world of F1 that I think is relevant in this
Empowering Knowledgeable Decision-Makers
00:24:39
Speaker
space. One of them, there was a core principle that decisions should be made at the point of most knowledge.
00:24:47
Speaker
Take a moment for that to sink in a little bit because if you think about how decisions are mainly made in organisations, they're made at the point of most experience, point of most hierarchy, point of most person who shouts loudest, whatever that might be.
00:25:04
Speaker
because speed of communication was one of the key levers for McLaren in the world of F1. But once you realize actually speed is really important to us, then how do we shorten that timeframe for communication? Well, one of the things that's stopping us is that if there's a decision to be made, we go up through the hierarchy and we come back, we wait for a decision, they've got other priorities and we wait for the decision and they come back and there's Chinese whispers. Before you know it,
00:25:30
Speaker
Communication is unclear, it's wieldy, it takes too long, et cetera. And people don't know why the decisions being made, so they really struggle with it, I don't agree. Whereas once you put in this view of decisions need to be made at the point of most knowledge, firstly you put in the work to say who are the people with most knowledge in which situations. If you're under the car, and this is a real situation that happened, if you're under the car with two minutes to go before the race starts,
00:25:59
Speaker
and the car isn't started yet and you need to get it on the grid. There's no point in going back to your manager and saying, this is what's happened. Let me report on X, Y, and Z. And could you just take this up the hierarchy and get a decision from upper management and decide if I need to change this or that? Well, no, you've got all the right tools and techniques and the right skill set in order to make those decisions and empower them to make the decision.
00:26:23
Speaker
And as a leader, once you've decided that don't admonish people for making that decision or what is perceived as the wrong decision, understand what was their thinking. ah You made the decision here, other people might have made a different decision. What was driving you to that decision in that moment? But what can I do differently next time? So decisions at the point of most knowledge or whatever's relevant to you in your organization. And then who are you communicating to and what for?
00:26:52
Speaker
One of the bits that people, if you ever get to hear what's on the headsets about a race and or the the race strategy team and things like that, there's lots and lots of people talking back and forth and understand you're talking to each other and figuring out the latest days and coming up with, what if we tested this? What would the impact be there? But what you don't get to hear is typically is, if you ever listen directly just to the driver and the race strategist, the important part firstly, there's only one person that gets to speak to the driver.
00:27:22
Speaker
is the strategist. Now this in theory slows things down because you've got a bottleneck in place but it has the advantage of the driver isn't getting bothered by lots and lots of people. It's like they're focusing on delivering their job in that moment.
00:27:35
Speaker
And then when the driver does talk to the racetrack, if you listen to that throughout race, there's very little communication. Communication whilst somebody is trying to operate and trying to do the thing you've set them up to do, doesn't generally add a lot. You've already set them up. If you need to tell them to turn left here, because there's a corner coming up, you know, there's a problem. You haven't prepared for that track, you know you know. It's very clear, concise and deliberate communication and very little of it in that operational mode.
00:28:06
Speaker
But behind the scenes, in that preparation mode, before the race and things out, there's loads of communication that's coming on. It's always deliberate, clear, it's concise, and you put a lot of effort into making that happen as well. If that matters to you, what are you going to do as a leader to make sure it's happening? What are you doing to help your people communicate better? Have they got the tools and techniques? Have they got the stories to tell us or the ability to tell stories?
00:28:36
Speaker
And have they got somebody who can apply and help you apply those tools and techniques to your storytelling, to your hand holes, to your weekly meetings, whatever it might be. There's a lot to learn. It's very difficult to get right. Nobody ever gets it right. But there's a lot to learn about thinking about clear, concise communication and making sure the people who are making decisions are allowed to make those decisions.
Handling High Performers Who Disrupt Teams
00:29:01
Speaker
And what did an F1 scenario look like when it was a difficult conversation? I'll take two slightly different stories or angles here. One would be the difficult conversation of Let's call them the diva driver because you do get the high performers who believe that they are the ones who are doing everything. And it's my way of the highway and I want to do it this way. Therefore, no matter what the rest of the team say, this is what I'm going to do and this is the strategy I'm going to take, et cetera. And that needs to be addressed. Addressed being, am I willing to put up with that?
00:29:36
Speaker
Because it might well be that actually I'm okay with that and in terms of that gets us to the result that we're trying to drive. yeah know You've got those high performing individuals who are going to help your organization move on and that is a part of the price to pay for that benefit. But if you're not and you want to do something about it, you have to have that conversation and you've got to do something about maybe changing the drive to set up or having a conversation with that person about why that makes a difference.
00:30:04
Speaker
Are we saying that in this scenario, the brilliant jerk yeah yeah is pander to a bit if they are brilliant? Yeah. And I've seen it in, you know, I've worked in banking, for instance, where you've got high performing lenders and they bring a lot to the team, but the way in which they behave and the way in which they communicate with others isn't what you're looking for. But do you put up with it and allow that business or do you take your stance and say, actually, no, I'm not willing to put up with that because it's going to have an impact on the rest of my team?
00:30:36
Speaker
And it's going to be a a judgment call in terms of how you want to deal with that. But if you do want to deal with it, you have to deal with it. The other scenario I was going to say is around decisions such as strategy. Do I pick this the lap or not? For instance, very sort of in the moment decisions as a driver, I might not agree. I think there's more in the car or I might want to pick the car now. Whereas my strategy team are saying otherwise, I think there's a reason there. And this is where those difficult conversations of What is the data saying? Comes back to having trusted data and having somebody who knows their job is to make that decision in that moment and to communicate that decision and allow them to do that and say, right, the decision is this. That's what we're going to do. But we will follow up with it and talk about why you wanted to go that way, why the rest of the team wanted to go this way. What
Using F1 Stories to Inspire Change
00:31:29
Speaker
did you know that we didn't? What are we missing?
00:31:32
Speaker
What experience are you bringing? Joke a little bit about the most sensitive sensor in the car. Typically when I was there was Fernando Alonso's backside because ah all the data that you can get from how the car is performing from yeah the heat and the vibrations and the wear and all this data that's passing through, you've got this tensor of an individual. This is why it shouldn't be overlooked. High performing individual who goes, this doesn't feel right.
00:31:59
Speaker
You know, all the data says this, but actually in the moment on the track, you know, the situational awareness, you know, it says it's not raining, but actually there's some wet parts on the track that you can't see and I'm feeling it slip and I think we need to do something different to help us perform better. But knowing that everybody has a different situational awareness, but actually the difficult conversation is somebody has to make a decision, but we will reflect on that later so that we can perform better next time. We are coming to the end pool.
00:32:29
Speaker
What advice would you give leaders who are facing tough conversations, want to bring in F1 into their business? What tips would you give them?
00:32:44
Speaker
I think anyone who is facing a difficult conversation, first and foremost, face it. yeah Don't put it off. It needs to be addressed and go in with an open mind, go in with that performance mindset and the open mindsets to where people are coming from on there. I think if you're looking for inspiration from F1 or elsewhere, think about If that is the frameworks or the tools that you think are going to help you and your organization move forward, think about those stories in terms of how are you going to sell that internally in terms of why that is relevant? What's the relevant of bringing in this external body? Lots of organizations have motivational speakers and they'll ask, but you've got to be able to tie that back in. If you've got somebody who's climbed out Everest and you're an insurance company, how do you tell the story that says this person's done this and those challenges and this is our mindset?
00:33:35
Speaker
It really brings that back to people because people are interested in themselves and how it's relevant for them. And then finally, you know if you are interested in getting support in terms of how to implement these things and how to get better at storytelling, how to get better at choosing the right tools and techniques and applying them to your business, then get in some external support. And I'm always willing to have that conversation with people and bur and to help them out and and see if and how This is relevant to their organization because ultimately I want people to accelerate their performance. That's what I'm all about. Well, thank you. Love that conversation. I feel like we could have got sausages in a little bit more, but you know it didn't naturally happen. How can people find you, Paul? Where can they find you? and I'll put all this in the show notes too.
Engaging with Paul for Further Insights
00:34:22
Speaker
But the website to go to is www.paulteasdale.co.uk. So that's the E-A-U-L-T-E-A-S-D-A-L-E. One of the first things that comes up is book a free 30 minute chat with me and that literally just to see what, if anything, I can add value to or to answer some of your questions and see where we go from there. And the other place is LinkedIn, very active on LinkedIn. Perfect. Thank you very much and really appreciate conversation and it was good to speak.
00:34:53
Speaker
Thanks so much, Guy, and that was excellent.
00:35:07
Speaker
i'd love to hear what you think so please leave me a