‘Rescuing The Corporate Exhausted Hero’ An Interview With Author And Leadership Coach Mark Heydt

The Destiny Awakening Interviews is a podcast with Andrew Wayfinder and his guests.

Every week (sometimes more) we have a short focused interview with an expert, author, speaker designed to bring you powerful insights, inspiration and ways to break free, live life by your vision and values, and make a difference in our changing and challenging world.

Listen to the podcast at: https://player.captivate.fm/episode/5cc7e61c-6a72-4d70-9eae-d22a0c1170a0

Andrew Hryniewicz
So hello, everybody and a very warm welcome to another edition of the Destiny Awakening Interviews. I’m Andrew Wayfinder. And I’m joined tonight by Mark Heydt, speaker, published author, trainer and leadership development expert. So, a very warm welcome to you, Mark. And where are you hanging out tonight?

Mark Heydt
Thanks for having me, Andrew, appreciate it. I’m from Denver, Colorado today.

Andrew Hryniewicz
Okay, and how are things there?

Mark Heydt
Things are great in Denver. It is. We love the winter, because we get snow one day and son the next day. So it’s great.

Andrew Hryniewicz
Okay, well, let’s get on to the subject of your work and your book. Because the reason I wanted to speak with you today is not just because you’re an expert in leadership development with 20 plus years, developing leaders at all levels in companies like Target and Sports Authority. But because of the book you’ve written about what I see is a very, very big problem, the exhausted corporate hero leader.

I’d just like to introduce your bio. Mark Heydt is the chief learning officer and founder of Gameplan Leader at GameplanLeader.com. He’s just published his first book with Advantage and Forbes Books called “Rescuing The Corporate Exhausted Hero.” And his passion and focus is helping to eliminate exhaustion from corporate America by elevating leader’s ability to create vision, influence, change, coach and delegate.

Prior to that, he had senior level positions leading with strategy and execution of talent development, management and acquisition and engagement in many companies, including Target, DCP, Midstream, Sports Authority, and Robin Gourmet Burgers. And our talk tonight is going to be “Rescuing the Corporate Exhausted Hero. And Mark is going to outline that by answering six questions.

Mark Heydt
Great. Can’t wait.

Andrew Hryniewicz
So the first question Mark, who is your ideal client? And what is the transformation you help them achieve?

Mark Heydt
I work with both individuals as well as organizations, individuals doing one on one coaching, but also work with organizations who want to help their leadership development get to the next level.

I’m really looking at individuals that really are feeling stuck, feeling exhausted, feeling like they’re trying to do it all and not doing anything well.

I want to help them get to the next level, really get from that individual contributor role into that leadership role. And with organizations, be able to help those leaders that are kind of the next up, that next generational leader. How do we get them to truly step into leadership roles and be ready to take over some really important roles in the coming years of their career?

Andrew Hryniewicz
Okay, great. So we’re a little over 30 seconds, you got seven to nine minutes. So. So we’re at the question number two, what’s the biggest challenge they’re facing?

Mark Heydt
I think the biggest challenge people are facing right now is they’re trying to be an individual contributor, a manager, and a leader all at the same time. And they really haven’t been taught how to be a leader. So a lot of the things that I do within my book Rescuing The Corporate Exhausted Hero is helping people step into that leadership role.

Andrew Hryniewicz
And what’s the heart of that exhaustion because I think this idea you have, that exhaustion is the prelude to burnout is a really, really important insight. And it’s something I see a lot of burnout in the people I work with.

Mark Heydt
So I see a lot of leaders get promoted from being great individual contributors. And they hold on to that: being a great individual contributor for a long time, before they truly step into the leadership role.

They’re still managing the day to day tasks, as opposed to getting ahead and looking at what are the roadblocks? What are the relationships? What is the change that I need to to to get the team ready for? Instead of doing all the work themselves by not doing that proactive work? Their team is now becoming exhausted with them.

Andrew Hryniewicz
Okay, great. So just just over two minutes, so we’re with question number three. What’s the number one insight you would share with people in that position to help them right now?

Mark Heydt
I think often about this metaphor. A fire chief gets to a fire and they set up a command post and they direct the firefighters to where they need to go to put out the fire, versus a firefighter who gets there and runs into the fire and puts it out.

So many of our middle management these days is just running into the fire themselves and trying to put it out. And nobody’s looking at how the fire is expanding, where it’s going next, how to put it out.

We need to teach our leaders how to lead by being the fire chief who stops, looks at the fire before it’s even happening. And figures out what the plan is, and then direct their firefighters to put it out.

That’s the big thing, the exhausted heroes running in and just trying to put out fires by being a strategic leader or a strategic manager, that can be that fire chief to put out the fire more effectively.

Andrew Hryniewicz
That makes a lot of sense, because I know that I’m the kind of person. A bunch of years ago, my family were renting a boat in the Caribbean to go sailing. And my brother and I could sail the boat by ourselves, because we were the experienced sailors and that would have been the way I would have done it.

He, however, had been to the Naval Academy. Oh, so he he just steered. And he explained everything. He said, “this is what we’re gonna do. We’re gonna do this… I’m going to say that… You’re going to do that… You’re going to do that… You’re going to do that…”

And I suddenly twigged, okay, this is what the government spent all this money on. It was teaching him how to take a bunch of 18 year olds, and run multimillion dollar equipment without breaking it.

Mark Heydt
And I’m finding that corporate America is doing less to train people like that of how to lead their teams. I kind of think about it often as, you know, when when somebody is approaching driving age, you don’t say, “Oh, well, they’ve been in the backseat for 15 years as a passenger, they know how to drive, just give them the keys.”

That’s what we’re doing our managers these days, and the only thing they know how to do is to be a passenger. We need to teach them just like Driver’s Ed, we need to put them through programs and teach them the new skills they need to truly manage and lead their team.

Because that’s the new role that they have. If we don’t teach them, they’re going to continue to try to be the major contributors. And that’s where the corporate exhausted hero comes into play.

Andrew Hryniewicz
Okay, great. So four and a half minutes. Question number four, what concept book program or talk has been most impactful in your experience?

Mark Heydt
Yeah, so many. You know, there’s a great book that came out in the early 1980s, by Ken Blanchard called the One Minute Manager Meets The Monkey. And it’s all about how you manage all of the different tasks and requests coming in to you as a manager, and how you delegate those to your team.

It’s something that way back in my 20s, I had to read at Target Corporation when I became a manager for the first time and they trained me to be a manager. And it’s amazing how many times over the last, you know, 20 years, I’ve given that book to somebody else.

That book is the starting point to really the influence of me writing my own book, really thinking about it’s not just about the delegation aspect. It’s also about how do you step in to create a vision for your team? So there’s clarity?

How do you influence change and be proactive with change and get people, get roadblocks out of the way? And how do you truly coach?

I did a lot of coaching with the Collective Training Institute that also has helped to have a big impact on where this model came from and, and how I can help these corporate exhausted heroes.

Andrew Hryniewicz
Okay, great. So just not quite six minutes we’re at question number five, what free resource would you like to share with the audience that would help them?

Mark Heydt
I put out a video every single Monday called the Monday Manager Gameplan. It’s on my LinkedIn, you can find me on linkedin.com/in/mark-heydt. It’s a one minute video, that’s a challenge for managers every week of how can they develop a skill to be a better manager and a leader. So it’s one minute, something to focus on this week. It’s a challenge. It’s a task to do this week, to make you a better manager for your team.

Andrew Hryniewicz
Okay, that’s excellent. So yeah, I’ll definitely put that in the show notes. Great, and not quite six minutes. 20. Last question number six, what should have I asked you that I didn’t ask you? You know,

Mark Heydt
I think one big thing is exhaustion. Where does it really come from? And I feel like over the last year, I don’t know about you with your coaching. But in my coaching, I’m hearing a lot of exhaustion.

And where that exhaustion is being blamed on is oh, you know, when the kids go back to school, things will be better or when the election is over, all the sudden things will be better or January, things will be better.

Well, it’s February, and now it’s not better. You’re still exhausted.

Change your diet, do you need to change your exercise? Maybe, but what I’m seeing most is it’s not an external thing.

It’s something internal that you have to change to truly make exhaustion change, to truly get over that hump. And that’s leadership.

How you do your job is not something that somebody else needs to tell you. It’s something you need to look at and really understand. What does that job really entail? And how do I need to step into the leadership role versus the individual contributor role that I’m now in?

I think the other thing that’s really important about that is, it’s worth a conversation. It’s amazing how many people that I coach are really scared to tell their boss that they’re exhausted, that they are looking for help to do the job in a different way.

It’s amazing how many times that somebody steps in and actually has a conversation with their boss, that they get the help, they need to truly get over the hump of being exhausted and truly stepping into leadership roles.

Your boss, in most cases, wants to help you succeed. And so it’s worth it to be able to step up and have a conversation with your boss about exhaustion and how to get over it.

Andrew Hryniewicz
That’s a great insight. Thanks very much. So Mark, thank you so much for your time. And we’re out. Thanks.

Thanks for listening to the destiny awakening interviews. If you have a friend who would benefit please share, and subscribe to the show on iTunes and leave a review. We really appreciate it. And remember, always use your power for good.