Listen, Learn, Lead - Unlocking the Secret to High Performance Leadership with Joseph Polanin

Are you leading with the power of 'Listen, Learn, Lead' or are you missing the keys to unlocking your employees' true performance potential?

In this episode, we sit down with Joseph Polanin, CEO of Alaka'i
 Leadership Group and retired Navy Captain, reveals how the 'L3 Principle - Listen, Learn, Lead - can transform leadership and drive meaningful cultural change in any organization.

With 30+ years in the US Navy, specializing in explosive ordnance disposal, Joe brings a wealth of experience leading teams in high-stakes situations. He shares how these intense military experiences honed his understanding of team dynamics and leadership - which he now applies to help organizations achieve their strategic & financial goals.

You'll gain actionable insights into addressing significant challenges of organizational change - from aligning vision and strategy to inspiring your workforce.

Tune in for a compelling discussion that promises to equip you with the tools to foster a cohesive, motivated team and accelerate your organizational vision.

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Transcript

William Gladhart: 0:00

Welcome to the Leadership Lovers Podcast. I'm your host, will G, cmo at the Culture Think Tank. At the Culture Think Tank, we empower leaders with metrics that strengthen culture, drive performance and return. We're here today to learn about the actions leaders have taken to address organizational change. Our guest today is Joel Palanin, ceo of Alaka'i Leadership Group. Thanks for taking the time to join us.

Joseph Polanin: 0:29

Thanks so much, William, appreciate it. Thank you for having me.

William Gladhart: 0:32

Awesome. Well, I thought we'd start by having you share with our audience a bit about yourself, your background and also your organization.

Joseph Polanin: 0:39

Absolutely Glad to do that. So I served 30 years in the US Navy, from 1990 to 2020. My profession was explosive ordnance disposal this is the bomb squad. A lot of very sensitive operations in complex, sometimes challenging, high-risk environments. And how does one galvanize a team, whether it be a unit, an organization or an enterprise? How does one galvanize a team to succeed in that environment and complete that mission, no matter the obstacles that are faced? I've had the great privilege to serve with many organizations that have done just that. Probably 20 of the 30 years that I served were in positions of command or command responsibility analogous to being the CEO or COO, and from those experiences I learned the value of a team, and I learned the value of bringing together high performance teams of successful individuals to achieve an even greater cause movement, transformation, very often at an enterprise level.

Joseph Polanin: 1:42

When I transitioned out of the Navy in 2020, together with my daughters, we founded the Alakai Leadership Group, founded upon the principles of the best practices and the lessons learned that I brought forward from those leadership experiences in the military and now, William, these lessons are not unique to the defense sector or to the military.

Joseph Polanin: 2:01

I believe they are lessons for life and core values that apply well both in our personal and professional pursuits, and so we brought that forward into Alakai, where we provide three distinct yet unified lines of effort. The first one is customized consulting, where we work with senior leaders, presidents, partners, founders of organizations and build a customized plan for them based upon these best practices. How can we accelerate their vision and their strategic implementation for their organization? The second line of effort is fractional C-suite support. Sometimes we're brought in in fractional chief operating officer, chief strategy officer, and occasionally as a CEO. And then the third element is inspirational speaking, which we love to do, and bringing together units and teams of people for that purpose. So that's a little bit about me and Alakai, and what brought us to where we are now.

William Gladhart: 2:54

Awesome. Thanks so much for sharing that, Joe. When I was looking through your LinkedIn and other pieces of information about you and your business, it's what caught my attention was partnering that strategic, tactical, operational either operational, either high value, high pressure situations and turning that into results. So, to start our podcast officially, what do you see as the biggest challenge leaders face when addressing cultural change within an organization, or what specifically have you had to face?

Joseph Polanin: 3:22

I often have seen and I believe this is true today the lack of this is what I perceive as the biggest challenge the lack of the interrelationship and the interdependence between the pillars of the organization's vision, their plan or their strategy to achieve that vision and the extent to which they inspire people. So it could be a technological transformation which we hear a lot of inspire people. So it could be a technological transformation which we hear a lot of discussion about today. It could be an organizational restructuring, or it may not even be a change at all. It may just be a growth plan or a company is pivoting into a new direction, and we're all guilty of this. Very often, leaders focus on the implementation of what they perceive to be the task at hand, before stepping back and recognizing that we have to have the integration and the synchronization between the vision for the future, the plan to make sure that, a they recognize that as the most important thing to do first, and then, b how they foster that culture and then implement it, going to whatever their goals are.

William Gladhart: 4:33

Yeah, I think that's a great challenge you've identified. We frequently hear from the needs of staff to set clear goals and expectations, set clear priorities for us at the organization, tell us how the organization is doing from those leaders. So I think you very much nailed that, the connectivity that needs to happen between those pieces because, yes, sometimes as leaders get super focused on the tactical, the implementation, and forget to bring everyone else along on the bus with them. So, now that you've kind of shared a little bit more about that, how do you think leaders can address those challenges they are facing? Or what's something you found successful?

Joseph Polanin: 5:12

Well, there's an axiom that I have followed that has always worked for me, and I'll share it with the team today, and that's what I call the L3 principle listen, learn and lead. Number one it isn't possible to learn something new when you're speaking. That's Rocky Balboa. You have to listen first. You have to truly listen and understand and appreciate, and listen solely with the purpose of understanding the current environment and other people's points of view. Very often, as leaders, we're decisional in nature, we're strategic in nature. We make things happen. We want to make things happen faster, better, more efficiently, more effectively, and we're thinking about the response that we're going to make rather than focusing on listening solely to understand the situation at hand and other people's perspective and using that to help build a better solution for the challenges that we spoke about earlier.

Joseph Polanin: 6:13

I truly believe and I have witnessed and I have participated many times over the years that lessons that are learned are never truly learned unless they drive us to change our behavior. So we can observe something like oh, I made a mistake here, or the team stumbled over here, or the organization wasn't as successful as it should have been over here, and we think that we learned why and we think that we understand why. But until that changes our behavior and until we do something differently in the future than we did in the past, that really isn't a lesson learned. It's a situation observed. So lesson number one learn number two and then lead. So now, with the foundation of what we have learned from others, with the behaviors that we have changed and with the ardent, focused approach on listening solely to understand the situation and others' perspectives, now we can focus on how we are going to implement the vision and how we are going to inspire people together. We can't lead first without listening and understanding and learning beforehand.

William Gladhart: 7:29

Yeah, no, I think that's a great point you make, for leaders is listen, learn, lead, very simple to be able to step into, but I love that you identified also there's a very specific order in those steps Because, again, I think a lot of leaders and I myself have been guilty in the past of jumping into lead without thinking about what are all the other pieces? What do I need to continue doing? What do I need to stop doing? What might I need to start doing in terms of behavior to move the needle, to help others learn, understand the organizational objectives and move that forward? Joe, you've shared some really fantastic ideas. Is there anything else you'd like to share with other leaders?

Joseph Polanin: 8:13

Yes, thank you, William. I mentioned earlier about the interrelationship between vision, planning and people and I would like to share that. All too often, what I have observed and what I have collaborated with other organizations to improve is not only is there a disconnect between those three, is it prevalent and systemic, but why is that disconnect occurring? Very often, an organization will have a bold vision. This is where we want to be in five years. Wonderful, what's your plan of action to get there? What are you going to do this week? What are you going to do this month? What are you going to do this quarter? How's that going to add up to what you need to do this year? And how is that making measurable, actionable progress toward your vision for the five years, or three years or whatever your aperture is?

Joseph Polanin: 9:05

I was having this conversation with a founder of a company recently and they said well, I would like to increase my revenue a million dollars this year. I said, great, how are you doing on that? And they gave me a figure of where they were at and I said year. I said, great, how are you doing on that? And they gave me a figure of where they were at and I said okay. I said I was a history major, so I have to be really, really simple when it comes to math in public. But last time I checked a million dollars, additional revenue in a year is 250,000. Additional revenue in a quarter is a little over 80,000. A month is a little over 20,000. A week is a little over 80,000. A month is a little over 20,000. A week is a little over 3000 a day.

Joseph Polanin: 9:41

No matter what you do, how are you doing on that now? And they stopped and said well, wait a minute, that's not what we're doing. Nobody explained that to me before. You have to keep it simple and you have to keep it focused. And then, finally, inspiring people.

Joseph Polanin: 9:54

A vision and a plan that are wonderful and bold and clear and simple are meaningless without people who are inspired. Without people, I should say, when people know why what they do matters, they know how what they do contributes to the goal, they feel valued, they know they're respected and they know that their leaders will back them up, even if they make a well-intentioned mistake. People like that, who are inspired, will move mountains to achieve that vision, and people who aren't inspired will go somewhere else and find another place where they are inspired. So for me, what I would leave with the team today is foster that spark, foster that catalytic energy, foster that acceleration and that power that comes only from the intersection and the interdependence between the vision, the plan and well-inspired people. You do that in your organization. You've got something rare, you've got something exceptional and you've got a path to excellence here in the future.

William Gladhart: 10:57

Yeah, I love that you point that really important point out, Joe, because individuals, especially when they're connected with an organization when they understand the value, when they understand the vision and next steps, it doesn't matter if the organization messes up. They will be on board, they will be committed and continue to foster the development and growth of the organization. So I think that's a great point to leave leaders with Joe. Thank you so much for joining our Leadership Levers podcast. I really appreciate your insights.

Joseph Polanin: 11:31

William, thank you for having me. It's my honor and privilege. I appreciate it.

William Gladhart: 11:36

Thank you for joining us on the Leadership Levers Podcast. Find all our Leadership Levers episodes on the Culture Think Tank website at www. theculturethinktank. com or listen on your favorite streaming platform. We'd love to hear from you about the challenges you have faced as a leader. Tune in weekly as we invite leaders to share their experiences in strengthening culture and performance, one action at a time.