Communicating with Confidence: Why Behavior and Mindset are Essential for Leaders

Tim Newman [00:00:10]:
Welcome back to Speaking with Confidence, the podcast that helps you build the soft skills that lead to real results— communication, storytelling, public speaking, and showing up with confidence in every conversation that counts. I'm Tim Newman, a recovering college professor turned communication coach, and I'm thrilled to guide you on your journey to becoming a powerful communicator. Today's guest is Walter Dusseldorp. Walter is also known as the Dutch Mentor. In just 15 minutes per day, you too can be the leader you wish you had under the leader your team thrives under. Walter, welcome to the show. I'm, I'm excited to talk to you today.

Walter Dusseldorp [00:00:44]:
Good morning, Tim. Same here. It is, uh, always good to speak with a professional and a recovering professor.

Tim Newman [00:00:51]:
Yes, exactly. And it gets better every day. You've got a, a very interesting hobby. I mean, you're a pilot. Helicopter pilots are also pilots, but I, I look at them a little bit differently. How'd you get into that? Because to me it's just fascinating.

Walter Dusseldorp [00:01:07]:
Yeah, it's so interesting. So it is a hobby today that I'm trying to make into a profession as I enter into the later parts of my career, and we're going to talk about transitions later. But I really caught the bug living in Holland. Uh, every Tuesday and Thursday in Holland, living in my village, the dogfighting of the NATO forces would take place. I would hear these screaming F-16s overhead, and I always was like, you know, thrilled by that. I really was attracted to that, and it never left me. I always had that little bug. It wasn't until 2001, after 9/11 happened, to which I responded as a paramedic— it was a really a life-altering moment for me, saying, listen, you know, we don't know what's going to come next..

Walter Dusseldorp [00:01:48]:
And if we have a dream to live, we better live that today. So that's made me— I made the decision, listen, I cannot wait. I need to become a pilot, uh, because you never know when that comes. So that's when I started my journey as becoming a fixed-wing pilot. And then I actually did a stint as a flight paramedic where I really fell in love with helicopters. And the interesting part is that every single one of the flights— and I probably did about 500 missions— every single one of them, I felt like Man, there is a million parts spinning here and they're just waiting to fall apart. It's like you always— you're flying an airplane and helicopter is very different. But I was very interested.

Walter Dusseldorp [00:02:25]:
And then actually, because of circumstances and having kids and college tuitions, I could not fly for a while other than second seat. And it wasn't until, you know, 4 years ago when I really dove back into the deep end and I currently have my CFI for helicopter. And pursuing my CFI for a fixed-wing pilot, and we'll finish that up in March of next year. So I want to go forward as being— part of what I do now is life coaching, emerging, you know, leading, you know, teaching emerging leaders, but also teach the next generation of aviators so I could connect what I experienced in childhood and bring that same level of enthusiasm and insight to the next generation.

Tim Newman [00:03:04]:
It is really fascinating. Which do you like better, the fixed-wing or helicopter?

Walter Dusseldorp [00:03:09]:
Well, I— it— for me, it is easy to say. If I want to go distance, I take an airplane every day of the week. If I want to sightsee and I want to fly low, yeah, the helicopter cannot be beat. And I just said this, I flew over Hilton Head and all of the islands for about an hour last week. Listen to 360 view, being 200, 300 feet off the ground over the ocean, following the rivers and watching the people, the places, the things you cannot beat that. The helicopter is by far superior, you know, to the airplane itself. But if I have to sit in an aircraft for 2 hours, go from point A to point B, I'll take that airplane.

Tim Newman [00:03:46]:
Yeah, I'm sure, I'm sure. You know, I spent some time in the military as, you know, I was in the 82nd Airborne. I like being in the helicopter, but I got a little bit more nauseous in the helicopter than I did in the plane. Just, just some of the things that you can do And, uh, but it was again, like, like you said, some of the views and some of the things that you can actually do with helicopters, it really is amazing. Let's get into, into this because again, you know, you've, you've had a fascinating career and, uh, whether, whether it's from, you know, the, the healthcare leadership, uh, executive coaching, what have you, but, but what led you from, from the tech, more of the technical operational roles into mentoring and communication coaching?

Walter Dusseldorp [00:04:28]:
Yeah, so an interesting journey indeed. Um, I started off as being an aspirational physician. That was my childhood dream. Okay. But I got derailed because of my own behaviors, and, and, and then it transitioned, leaving Holland to go into, into, uh, and moved here to the United States, not quite sure what I want to do. I really, I needed to find myself first. And long story short, I, I met the right people and they helped me set up Initially owning a bakery, delicatessen, pizzeria by the time I was 19 years old. And then shortly after that, I fell in love with medicine, but in a different form, not as a doctor, but as a paramedic in a very small community in upstate New York.

Walter Dusseldorp [00:05:10]:
And that really kind of set me on a trajectory. So listen, I cannot be a doctor today, not because I wasn't smart enough, because I just didn't have the pathway and the support systems. I did not know how. And I have no regret— no regrets of that, of course. But I did pursue my paramedic degree. And from that, I sold the store, focused 100% on providing for my family as a paramedic. And over time, I saw so many people around me struggling through poor leadership. And I had this innate natural ability to rally the troops, to bring people together, and to be able to, you know, lead through context and not control.

Walter Dusseldorp [00:05:47]:
There were so many authoritarians and command and control type people. In the industry. And I said, listen, there's a better way of doing it. And I was lucky enough to have a really, you know, uh, great first mentor who gave me an opportunity to become a supervisor of a group of 10, 12 guys and girls. And that's how I got started. Now fast forward, as I continue to, you know, climb the career ladder, my passion shifted from wanting to be the senior executive in charge to really kind of like bring my vision alive. Recognizing that the middle manager, that emerging leader who goes from a technical skill into a leadership role, often gets stuck doing and not really leading. And that's what I call the valley of despair.

Walter Dusseldorp [00:06:30]:
And that's where, you know, I try to focus most of my time is helping people transition from doctor, nurse, technician, from like a high performer to becoming a really highly effective leader.. And a lot of it is, you know, is in behavior. And of course, communication is key part of that.

Tim Newman [00:06:50]:
Yeah. And it's, it's a completely different skill set, you know, especially from, you know, the perspective that you came from, you know, being a paramedic, you know, a lot of times, you know, you're, you're called to emergent situations and you have to act and there's protocol and you have to do it this way, this way, this way, because you're, you're, you're dealing a lot of times with life, life and death or life and limb or, or emergency situations. So, you know, at times that authoritarian attitude is what has to happen to get things done. But more from a leadership perspective, that's a completely different mindset shift, completely different skill set. And it just like, you know, in a bunch of, bunch of other, uh, careers, nobody's ever taught those things. It's just expected because you were good at this. Okay, so now we're moving you on. So how did you— you said you had some of that innate ability, which is, which is good.

Tim Newman [00:07:42]:
But how did you end up developing into the excellent skill set that you have now?

Walter Dusseldorp [00:07:50]:
Well, so, and growth mindset is the key to success in my mind. So meaning that you never really stop learning and developing. Even today, as a coach and mentor, you know, I don't run a large company anymore. But I still need to lead myself. And, and to do this effectively, I need to continue to grow. So early on, I did a lot of reading. Early on, I recognized I needed to go back to school and get my bachelor's and my master's and become a fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives, belong to professional associations, become a master at networking and building relationships, making sure that, you know, I had regular check-ins with the people around me. So I didn't get stuck in my reality, but really deeply understood how people looked at me, right? And that's really what matters on the end of the day.

Walter Dusseldorp [00:08:37]:
So it is the continuous working on self. And then the most important thing is by being vulnerable and asking others for help. And again, that's where I see the biggest shortfall today. And there's an interesting statistic. 95% of executive leaders understand the value of leadership development, development of people. Only 5% of those take meaningful action. So, and, and how do we know this? Well, simply go look in organizations, healthcare and unhealth— it doesn't need the difference. They all have an executive leadership development program where they enroll the top 10, 15, 20 people.

Walter Dusseldorp [00:09:16]:
But what about the other 1,000 middle managers, right, who lead thousands of frontline staff members? All they get is maybe a PowerPoint presentation a lecture twice a year, or be sent to a conference. But the problem is that nothing is really learned there. It's a good social work— but on the end of the day, by Monday morning, they have long forgotten everything. So circling back to that, each person needs to take responsibility for their own career and their own development. That's the key. You cannot wait for others to do it. Number 2, you have to be vulnerable and seek mentorship, either paid, like hiring a person like myself or yourself, or look at peers in the industry who are willing to spend the time with you. And I'm not talking about once every quarter for an hour.

Walter Dusseldorp [00:10:02]:
I'm talking about 30 minutes per week. Put yourself on an individual development plan and really set, with a growth mindset, key performance metrics and key milestones. And through action, you can take one step closer to your ultimate dream.

Tim Newman [00:10:19]:
You know, you, you said a couple things that really resonate with me. Number one is, is continuous learning. Um, that, that's something that, you know, if you, if you take a cross-section of successful people, that's something that they say they do every day. It's not something they do once a week or once a month. Like you said, it's an, it's an everyday thing. Um, and, you know, I harp on this a lot— you know, I call myself a recovering college professor, and I remember having conversations with students and trying— just trying to get them to read. Um, and they, and they say, well, what do you read? I said, well, I spend— whether you realize or not, I spend almost my entire day reading, whether it's reading your papers or this, that, or the other thing. But I also spend some other time reading, whether it's professional journals, whether it's, you know, leadership content, whether— whatever it is to, to get a little bit better.

Tim Newman [00:11:12]:
So if I only have 15 minutes on Thursday to read, I'm going to read 15 minutes, but at least I'm doing something. I'm taking those steps. And that's something, especially from my perspective, what younger generations and younger professionals struggle with to, to even to grasp and

Walter Dusseldorp [00:11:30]:
to start making it a habit. Yeah, I look at it this way. I have a simple equation for this. Performance equals the function of a technical skill multiplied by a behavioral capacity. That's self. Well, listen, everybody knows how to read. Everybody knows how to open up a newspaper or a magazine or join a professional association or go online or make a post or read a post or comment on a post. The thing is, it is our behavior that holds us back.

Walter Dusseldorp [00:11:56]:
And, and, and it's clear for me, right? I always say this: December 31st, I'm going to make this promise. I am going to go to the gym this year. I'm going to get in shape. I'm going to go out and buy that membership. You buy the membership, you go 3 times the first week, twice the second week, one time the third week, and you go back 4 more times for the rest of the year. It is, you know, and, and, you know, we are the worst as humans in making— following through on the things we say. Precisely the reason why 70 to 80% of the things we say we're going to do either are never done and rarely done to the fullest extent. The word sustainment of an improvement is, is really, really difficult.

Walter Dusseldorp [00:12:35]:
We'd rather lower our standards to say that we have met a goal than actually meeting a goal. And as long as we behave as such, we cannot reach the top of our professions or the— or our big dreams. Listen, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Warren Buffett, uh, you know, you go down the list, all of them are who they are today because they were relentless in their growth mindset. When they failed, they picked their stuff up and got back on the horse. Uh, you know, they were just committed and focused on what needed to be done. That's what each person needs. If you want to become the best version of yourself, if you want to reach your dreams, it takes true technical skills, but even more important, your behavior to carry you all the way to your Big dream. Yeah.

Tim Newman [00:13:27]:
You know, John Maxwell says that people tell him all the time that they want to do what he does, and then he says, but are you willing to do what I did? Yeah, that's right. That's, that's the key. Yeah, everybody, everybody wants to be here, but are you willing to do the things it takes to get there? And, and that's, that's where things really start to separate. Um, but again, it takes It takes commitment and action to get to that level. And the other really good thing that I like what you said was the growth mindset. And I, I use abundance and growth, you know, it's kind of the same thing. You know, if you don't have that, then it's, then it's always about me doing this. If, you know, if, if I let you do this or if I give you this, that means there's less for me.

Tim Newman [00:14:15]:
But if you look at it from a, from that different perspective, from that growth and abundance mindset, You know, there's plenty for everybody. You know, if, if I'm doing this, it, it, it builds, it builds, it builds, it builds for, you know, for everybody. And that's, that's really what leaders have to do.

Walter Dusseldorp [00:14:32]:
Yeah, leaders who are inward only will limit themselves, right? You run out of space at some point in time. Leaders who really are true self— truly self-aware of their strengths, their weaknesses, their differentiating, their, their level of EQ, the willingness to promote others who are outward in their, in their actions, uh, you know, the sky is the limit, right? But again, it requires focused attention, deep self-accountability, and a true commitment to get there. And it cannot be done, oh, I feel like it today, but I don't feel like it tomorrow. Yeah, yeah.

Tim Newman [00:15:07]:
And you got to feel like it every, every day. And again, go back to John Maxwell here for a second. One of the things he talks about that he does every day, he says, is he journals every day. And then somebody will say, what do you mean by every day? He means like every day. Like, I journal every day. And that's, that's the other thing. You've got to actually do those types of things. But, but let's talk about branding here a little bit.

Tim Newman [00:15:31]:
You're known as the Dutch Mentor. And when we first talked, I told you I love that, uh, that, that name and that brand. How did that identity come about? And what does it really represent for

Walter Dusseldorp [00:15:43]:
you personally and professionally? Sure. I mean, uh, and whenever you open up a business, you always have to come up with a slick name that people can remember. Yeah. And it's easy enough and not too many letters. So, well, listen, I am— I was born and raised in Holland, so I wanted to have a connection to, to Dutch people and Dutch culture and behavior. So we are well known worldwide for being engineers and very pragmatic, honest, and straightforward people, right? We Well, we are, you know, really preserving a work-life balance. We don't believe in working more than, you know, 32 to 40 hours a week. We are hyper-focused and accomplish a lot in a very growth, continuous improvement mindset.

Walter Dusseldorp [00:16:23]:
So I wanted to carry that forward. So the Dutch mentor, obviously my identity and cultural background as being Dutch, and then the word mentor is different from being a coach. So I have been coached, I have coached others, but that is more strategic. It's more in deep listening and providing some pointers and recommending a book or, or to help people, you know, uh, you know, plan for the next year. But mentoring is different. Mentoring is really speaking from deep personal experience. I've been there, done that. I failed many a times.

Walter Dusseldorp [00:17:00]:
I got up, I succeeded, and now I'm willing to share my story. To, a, maybe prevent you from having the same pitfalls, or at least understand you will— there will be pitfalls, but now you can recover from that if you use this particular structure, which I refer to as our Pure Leadership Power program. And that's the way I put the words together of the Dutch mentor.

Tim Newman [00:17:22]:
Again, you're, you're spot on with it, with those types of things. And, and again, I, I like how you tie things together and and it, it builds that brand so that it's personalized. It's, it's embodiment of everything that you're trying to, to do. You've compared personal branding, like, like what you're doing with like Nike or Baskin-Robbins, something that must be consistent, but it's also fragile because, you know, yes, once one small thing that is not on brand can tear everything down. So what's the biggest misconception that that

Walter Dusseldorp [00:17:56]:
people have about personal branding? Yeah, so I think that people don't understand how vulnerable your personal brand is. So when I go— one of the— so in my mobile app that will be coming on January 1st, um, called Smart Performance, uh, the S starts for self-care. And in self-care module, you're going to be learning about your why, about habit building, about visualizing, but also about how to build your personal brand. And you put— and I, in there, I explain that your personal brand is just like a balloon, right? It is, it is very fragile. Now it can be beautiful. It can be bright. It can be very speak for itself. It can be something that you're very proud of, but it takes a singular mistake to blow that up.

Walter Dusseldorp [00:18:41]:
So we have to be very mindful on how we represent our brand in every phase of life. So I'm here as a Dutch mentor today. That doesn't mean when I go to the grocery store, I cannot be the Dutchman, right? I need to be representing— when I'm online and making posts, I'm representing my brand, even if I'm acting as Walter Düsseldorf. And that's the thing that people need to remember. Now, even brands also evolve, right? We have to continue to grow with the times and making sure that we continue to reflect back upon it. Do I need to make an adjustment to my brand? And that is something that people need to understand. So for me, And when I talk to people is this: what is your true differentiating strength? Not— yeah, if you go to the resume, they will tell you right on the top quarter 15 things they're good at. I said, well, listen, I can blow you out of the water with 5 questions.

Walter Dusseldorp [00:19:32]:
Tell me what you're really good at. What is your true differentiating strength? Right, right. That's what you need to promote. You can be— if you're good at 15 things, you're good at nothing, right? You just look in generalist. So that is one. The second thing is that what are your personal values, right? For me, it's honesty, integrity, and pragmatism. I need to carry that through in everything that I do, right? I cannot sway from that. And then it is about who are you as a leader? How do you represent yourself? So I want to look at myself after deep reflection.

Walter Dusseldorp [00:20:05]:
I'm, I want to lead with confident humility, right?? Like a situational or a servant-type leader. Yes. And then what is the outward brand? What is something that represents me? And it— and there you can develop sort of a logo. And then of course, it comes down to the mission statement. How do I tie this together? So my tie together is that, listen, in just 15 minutes per day, you too can be the leader you always wanted to have or the leader that your team needs to thrive under. It ties it all together. Integrity, pragmatism, honesty, your servant leadership. It's working with the team.

Walter Dusseldorp [00:20:43]:
So getting people to bring that together and then learn to represent that in everything that they do will help them in their next interview. It will help them to lead with cause that can lead to a promotion.

Tim Newman [00:20:56]:
Yeah, and you're the embodiment of it, right? Because if, if this is your brand You live that brand. You— everything that you do is on brand with that, right? And, and again, it's so easy to, to, to see those types of things happening. Like, like you said, what one small thing can, can throw that off. And one of the things that, that kind of hits me, I kind of want to get your opinion on this. The, the idea that, you know, when we grew up, we understood certain things that, you know, you don't share certain things, you don't talk If you're in business, you don't talk politics in business because you alienate 50% of the people. And now what we see with social media, we have people that are posting things online and they can post wherever they want. I'm not saying that, but I think especially from the younger generation's perspective, I think they miss— they're missing out on that understanding of whatever you're posting out there, whatever message you're, you're saying, even if you're not posting as a business person, that still kind of carries over and it does roll into who you are and, and into who your personal brand is.

Walter Dusseldorp [00:22:05]:
So yes, and you have to be careful in everything you do. However, so, um, I don't promote outright stating what I believe in, yes or no, but I do believe that we all have a responsibility to ask good questions. Questions. And don't accept things just at the surface. But what this country is missing, what we are missing at work, is dialogue. And dialogue does not to be, you know, not have the same opinions around the table. We need to have discourse, civil discourse. That's where true innovation comes from.

Walter Dusseldorp [00:22:42]:
That's where true advancement comes from. That's where we— so I don't, When I say something on Facebook or Instagram or whatever else to somebody, it's not to tell them that they wrong. I'm, I'm challenging to, to think differently, to have a dialogue about a topic rather than just say the words that somebody else already has spoken. And that is something we need to do more of because that will make us collectively better. Listen, we need to have two sides of— prefer three or four sides of the story, right? Be represented. Especially in politics. So, but, but that's how we advance, right? So we cannot hide from that. So one of the things we see a lot now, especially with senior leaders, senior leaders have real opinions, but they have nowhere to go with it.

Walter Dusseldorp [00:23:26]:
Is it my— so I would recommend that every senior leader should have a person like myself that they hire, that they speak with on a weekly basis, and at least decompress to that person and says whatever needs to be said. In a very safe environment. So at least they get it off their chest. And it is another factor that if you don't do that, it leads to quicker burnout.

Tim Newman [00:23:48]:
Yeah, burnout. Yeah. Easy. Yeah. Because, because you, you internalize everything and, and like you said, there, there, there is no outlet. I think, you know, just to take that a step further for, you know, at least for me, you know, surround yourself with people who, who aren't yes people. That are going to, um, not, not necessarily give pushback for pushback's sake, but, but give pushback where pushback is, is needed and deserved. If, if you walk into a room with an idea and you've got 10 people in the room and you walk out with that exact same idea, that

Walter Dusseldorp [00:24:20]:
idea is probably not going to work, right? I mean, it is— your group thinking is dangerous, Tim. Yeah, yeah, very dangerous. I, I always bring up, look at the Challenger 1986 when it exploded. Yeah, first teacher on board. Listen, that was a preventable accident. If, you know, the group thinking set in, or any culture of excellence had failed because they did not allow everybody or made everybody feel comfortable enough to speak up— there were actually people in the room who knew that the O-ring that ended up failing was a vulnerability on that particular flight, and they did not feel comfortable to speak up. And, and, and because of that, you know, I think 6 or 7 people died.

Tim Newman [00:25:01]:
Right?

Walter Dusseldorp [00:25:01]:
And there will be a scene into our memories. It happened to be the day before my birthday when it happened in 1986. So, um, and we'll watch it live on television, right? We will never forget these things again. Group thinking brought down a Challenger. Group thinking brings down a lot of companies, right? Look at the— look at Blockbuster Video, right? It is people who sit around the— around the table agreeing with each other all day, every day, how how great they were, how many stores they had, how great their VCRs and, and CDs were. In the meantime, Netflix sat in the basement office or in the garage re-engineering the wheel and coming up with streaming services and, and direct delivery to the house. And before you knew it, Blockbuster was closing stores quick, and then Netflix could build new stores and new streaming pathways. Yeah, and all that happened is because a bunch of people sat around the table agreeing with each other rather than somebody said, hey, listen guys, we need to think differently.

Walter Dusseldorp [00:25:59]:
And that is a really important message for every single person in healthcare. For example, we would need desperately go from sick care— what we— the system we have today— to well care. But we need to stop talking about it and start doing something about it. Start doing it right. And, and yeah, and that, and that is problematic because, you know, the money is made on the sick side. But we can't bear the cost on the sick side. We have to prevent illness, right? We have to prevent it from the day people go to school. Physicals, dental care, pediatric care, you know, vitamins, uh, access to safe foods, uh, everything, right? Is it exercise, prevention of diabetes and hypertension and obesity and asthma, environmental diseases? All these things that happen in, in the in the adolescent years are triggers to sick care as they become young adults and adults.

Walter Dusseldorp [00:26:55]:
Exactly.

Tim Newman [00:26:55]:
And it sets high costs. You know, we, we could, we, we could go down that path and, and talk about that forever, you know, but, but the principle is still the same, right? You know, you, you've got to have, you've got to have, uh, get away from the group thinking and, and get new ideas. And this is I, I may be in the minority on this, but, you know, I, I think Gen Z, the— in the younger generations, and I talk about this a lot, for— to me, they're the smartest and most entrepreneurial generation that I've ever taught. And I, I think a lot of times the older generations just really kind of discounts some of those characteristics, um, and so sometimes for good reason because they can't communicate. But, but I, I think we need to reach out to them and, and listen to their ideas and listen to what they have because they— it could be some of those things that, that kind of change the way we go about doing things, change some of the processes. But their problem is they don't know how to communicate. And if you can't communicate, doesn't really matter how much you know, your ideas

Walter Dusseldorp [00:28:02]:
are, are never going to go anywhere. So I'm going to push back on that a little bit for you, Tim. So, sure, again, that statement is an old statement because we expect them to communicate the way we communicate. Yes. All right, what we need to do is stop doing that. We need to learn to communicate the way they communicate. So for example, right, I have a 19-year-old daughter. Actually, it's her birthday today.

Walter Dusseldorp [00:28:24]:
Happy my— happy birthday. It is. Um, if you look at their text, it's like code. It's a bunch of emojis and, and, and all kinds of different things that the language that you and I don't speak, but they say more than we would say in a whole paragraph or a short story. So, we need to adapt to the way they see the world. We need to adapt to the way they learn. We need to adapt to the way they communicate while still experience, you know, sharing our experiences with them and how they can, you know, take that into consideration as they develop their path forward into whatever it is that they need to and want to do. So for example, any person of a Gen X or maybe a little bit younger than that who is not every day using or trying to deeper— have a deeper understanding of AI will be left behind.

Walter Dusseldorp [00:29:21]:
Behind, yes. Period. And that's not a question, right? So it's happening right in front of us, right? And then people say, well, AI is new. So no, AI is not new. AI has been around for 30 years. We just didn't know how to use it and we didn't know how to connect it to computers. But the new generation, right, the, the Zs or the Ys or whatever it is, the millennials, they have figured it out how to put it all together and put it on steroids and make it. And just think about that.

Walter Dusseldorp [00:29:47]:
If that happened over the last 2 years, just imagine what that is going to look like in the next 2 years. Right. And that's the thing that we need to make sure that we are not left behind. And that we are part of the conversation. Therefore, we cannot expect them to speak our language. We need to learn

Tim Newman [00:30:05]:
to speak their language. Walter, I don't know if you do this or not, but, but my kids are a little bit older, and I do— I 100% agree with you. I, I am flying that flag. And a lot of times what I'll do is, is I'll look and see how they're talking, what's the language they're using, this, that, and the other thing. And my kids are, are older. I've got grandkids now, and And I'll talk to my, my kids in language like, you know, people younger than them talk, and they get upset. I said, well, you— number one, you better learn this. You better understand and you better adopt that mindset because number one, now you have kids and you're also in— they're also in the point in their careers where they're starting to become leaders themselves.

Tim Newman [00:30:46]:
And you're just trying to teach them that you have to do that. You have to be able to reach out to them. You can't expect— you as a leader cannot expect them to always reach out to you. You as a leader, your responsibility is to reach out to them and get them on board and bring them along and, and, and, and bring them up to speed. That,

Walter Dusseldorp [00:31:06]:
that, that's your responsibility. Yeah, listen, we are here to, to encourage, to, to, uh, to remove barriers, to give them perspective, but we should certainly not to stand in the way on, on their way of doing it and, and, and Again, the best experience is something that they have experienced the hard way and by falling down from time to time. Yeah.

Tim Newman [00:31:28]:
And, and, you know, that kind of leads, leads me into the— you know, we talked about a little bit already, but, but why? You know, understanding their why. And, and as a leader, you have— number one, you have to know what your why is, but you also have to understand what their why is and how we, you know, how we go about it and what our values are in terms of work and work-life balance and those types of things are very different. But we also have to understand what their why is so that we can, you know, really, really understand and help them. It's not that they don't want it, want it. We— they just want it a different way or they want it for different reasons, just like you and I may You know, we, we may have the same work ethic, but our why may be a little bit different. So that, that's also part of leadership. Um, so how do you help them to, uh, determine what their why is, or, or get to that, get to that point, get, get really get zeroed down and nailed down with that why,

Walter Dusseldorp [00:32:28]:
because that's so important.

Tim Newman [00:32:30]:
Yeah.

Walter Dusseldorp [00:32:30]:
So first of all, I ingrained into them right out of the gate that leading with the why is the key to success.

Tim Newman [00:32:37]:
Right?

Walter Dusseldorp [00:32:37]:
Is that if you can, if you really can articulate the why, it's so much easier for people to buy into it. Right? And, and if can people buy into it, it lowers the resistance of change and therefore success and performance will come much sooner. So how do I start? I always start with inward looking and ask them, so what is your why? Why do you do what you do? And I tell you that 98% of the people don't really understand either the question or certainly cannot articulate their why. In a cohesive and concise manner. So for example, if somebody says— you go to an interview and somebody says to you, so tell me a little bit about yourself, right? That's a why question. So people go on a 5-minute tirade that makes no sense whatsoever, is not connected, and certainly not memorable. What you just did made a really bad first impression. And by the way, uh, if you don't get invited back for your second or third interview, the that's the reason why, because you lost them in the first 5 minutes.

Walter Dusseldorp [00:33:33]:
Yeah, I try to impress upon them that they should have well-rehearsed, to the point that comes from your heart, not from your brain, on what your why is. And the why has 3 components. It needs to have a hook. You need to grab my attention within the first 8 to 9 seconds. There's a little part of our brain, sits right here on the side, that is our filter. If it is of interest to us We'll continue to listen. If we're not, we push it away, or we no longer really deeply listening, absorbing the information. Precisely the reason why videos that go viral on social media or advertisements on television, it's all about the first 8 seconds.

Walter Dusseldorp [00:34:11]:
Because if we don't watch the first 8 seconds and you grab the attention, we are lost. We, we just move on to the next, right? So that's where it starts. Then I need to have some part of the body. And I want you to close it. All right. So for example, if I say, what is my why? Listen, I can say, I was a 14-year-old, I was riding my bicycle in Holland and I saw this farmer get hit by a car. And I was, you know, I held him in my arm as he was dying, 8 seconds. Now most people say, hmm, interesting.

Walter Dusseldorp [00:34:38]:
Give me a little bit more of this. Like, what happened to this guy? He says, I said, right at that moment in the middle of the street, I had an epiphany that I will never be in a position again that I cannot help somebody. I knew right then and there that I needed to go into medicine. And every step I took from that point forward, as I left that accident scene and washed the blood off my hands and my clothing, I've taken to, to become a care provider. And as my career advanced, I learned that I could not only care for one-to-one, but as a leader, I could care for other leaders who take care of thousands of people and making a difference in patient and health outcomes. So now that is memorable, right? That is something that is connected. That's a story. That's 45 seconds or less.

Walter Dusseldorp [00:35:21]:
And that's the thing that I try to teach people is that you need to come up with something that is uniquely yours. Because the thing is that a differentiator is key, right? Why, you know, how am I going to be standing out against 20 people? If I go in there and tell them that I will be doing— I will be do that, I will be do— You sound like everybody else. So I, I'll give you one more example. So as a young person— but this really could be for anybody— as an entry-level person, you go into any shop. Let's say you go into Starbucks, you go to a local farm, you apply for a job, and the person says something to you and you say, I need you to know that I will be here 10 minutes early. You will never catch me on my telephone. I will work until the last minute of that shift. And I'll always ask you, uh, if there's something else that I can do.

Walter Dusseldorp [00:36:11]:
And if nobody wants to do it, I'll do it for you. Right? Again, it's a bit of a why of showing who I am as a person. How are you— how are you going to say no to that person? Exactly, exactly, right? I mean, that person at least deserves a shot at an entry-level job. It's almost— they carry through on the things that they say. That's very different than coming in and say, well, you know, You know, yeah, I'll be there. You know, I'm a good— I'm, you know, I'm a good reader. I'm a quick study. I'll do, I'll do precise work.

Walter Dusseldorp [00:36:40]:
I'll ask some questions, right? It is the differentiator that needs to pop up in your why statement. Now that's the why about you, but there's whys when you go into everything else you do, trying to sell, right? Is that leading with the why, explaining why it is important is critically important because people can buy into it. And people buy into this— as I said before, the resistance to change is

Tim Newman [00:37:08]:
lowered, therefore performance comes sooner. I love that explanation. And, and in that— and I hope the audience hears this, you know, as you tell the why, you're, you're actually telling an impactful, meaningful, heartfelt story. So you're— it's not It's not a 1 or 2 word answer, and it's telling something that's, that's very personal to you that, like you said, is impactful and is going to be memorable. You know, Walter's name is going to be at the top of the list, you know, when it comes time to make those, those hiring decisions. You know, so like we said, we may have interviewed 5 or 10 people over the last 2 weeks. And you know what? That second guy that came in, Walter, that, that story, it's been sticking with me. We need, we need to, to get him in here.

Tim Newman [00:37:56]:
His passion, his story, those types of things are, like you said, are the separators. And, and also, like you said, that's so important. It, it's not rehearsed. It's your story, but it's— but you have to, you have to practice it. You have to, to actually say it so that it becomes, even though it's your story, it becomes second nature so that it does become impactful.

Walter Dusseldorp [00:38:19]:
It's like you can't just make it up. What hurts— I don't feel like I'm reading off a sheet of paper, right?

Tim Newman [00:38:24]:
Because there's no empathy, there's no feeling, right?

Walter Dusseldorp [00:38:28]:
Right.

Tim Newman [00:38:28]:
And it's, it's so important. And again, I think that's, that's also, uh, well, really every generation, I, I think it needs to do that a little bit more, but especially the younger generations understand that the, the preparation that has to go into doing things and doing things well and making and which also develops habit, uh, which also develops, you know, lifelong skills. But practicing in that preparation is the key to get to, to that point. You can't just walk in the day of the interview or the day of the presentation or whatever it is that you're going into and expect that it's going to happen and it's going to

Walter Dusseldorp [00:39:03]:
happen at that high level that's going to separate yourself. Yep, absolutely. It is something you need to carry through in everything that you do.

Tim Newman [00:39:13]:
Period.

Walter Dusseldorp [00:39:13]:
Yeah.

Tim Newman [00:39:13]:
So tell me about your, your Pure Leadership Power program. You know, what, what's, what's at its core? What, you know, what are the steps? And, um, how do you see, you

Walter Dusseldorp [00:39:23]:
know, the communication fitting into each one? So again, I always say to, to, to my mentees that, listen, the three most likely— or the three likely reasons why we fail is the failure to communicate, failure to communicate, and failure to communicate. So communication is everything in everything that we do. So pure leadership power is, is 1, 2, 3. 1 is always about yourself, really deeply understanding who you are as a leader, all the things we just talked about. And then it is coupling to the, the responsibilities of a leader that's more outward. Love those you lead, lead through context and not control, making sure that you build and, and support a psychological, physical, safe Vijayamavik people can excel. We're learning to work with great focus, how to motivate with fierce resolve, how to build meaningful partnerships. And it's a combination of those factors together will set you up for success as long as you practice and measure that on a daily basis.

Walter Dusseldorp [00:40:20]:
And then it is about shifting the— to learning to be an adaptive learner, meaning that you need to learn to solve problems of root causes. So I teach Lean Six Sigma, I teach an A3 methodology, and getting the people to understand the value of taking the time to solve a problem at the root cause rather than putting another Band-Aid on it, which is the standard in most industries. But that happens, you— it's recurrent over and over, go back to the same thing. We don't want that, cost too much money, too much energy, lots of waste involved. And then the third part is about how can I now put it into a team format that that the team can thrive. So you have learned to be that leader that everybody wants, that your team can thrive under. Now you need to put— you know, it says every day, do I have the right people in the right roles? Are we truly unified in our actions? Are we— do we have measure— you know, meaningful measures? Is there a cadence of accountability? And are we taking actions? So that is the program that I work with people for a 6-month period of time, a 12-month period of time. On, on a personal level.

Walter Dusseldorp [00:41:26]:
To— there's an accelerator program that I just developed. It's called the Smart Performance mobile app, which we're coming out on the Apple Store and Google, uh, Store and come January 1st. Um, I have 20 people enrolled in the test program right now and getting, you know, great reviews. Again, this is set up for you to act— interact with for 15 minutes a day. They're personal measures that you can hold yourself accountable to. You can teach yourself how difficult that really is. And only once you get that, you can now speak about that. So this is a tool that you can use in order to be able to set yourself up for a successful interview, set yourself up for higher-level leadership capabilities, how to drive performance, how to build success, and take this on a journey wherever you are to wherever it is that you want to go.

Walter Dusseldorp [00:42:14]:
And the SMART stands for self-care, S, Um, it is about meaning, a mindful growth. It's about adaptive learning. It's about setting that rhythmic operation. That's the purity of power, 1, 2, 3. And then it's about developing this thriving community around performance. The performance has 6 elements to it. It's always about safety, quality, growth, cost, transformation, and continuous development, which— that growth mindset. The combination of those things, if you do them well, 15 minutes per day, build these, you know, atomical habits, you too can become that leader you want to be and certainly the leader that

Tim Newman [00:42:52]:
your team needs to thrive under. And, and the app comes— goes live, uh, January 1st.

Walter Dusseldorp [00:42:59]:
The app comes live on January, uh, uh, January 1st. Anybody listening to it today, if you're interested, you can just reach out to me at [email protected]. I'm happy to enroll some more founding members today at 50% Uh, you know, reduction in cost. Um, and it will come initially as the founding members get some one-to-one coaching with that in the regular program. This will be an add-on if people want to have mentorship with it. That's great. And I highly advise— well, but it is set up that people can do it as an independent study too, as long as they dedicate 15 minutes a day on the app, continue to build these blocks and take action, right? It is not something that Uh, you know, it's not, not a fad diet that if you follow this for, for 2 weeks, uh, you're gonna lose 40 pounds. This is a mentor in your pocket.

Walter Dusseldorp [00:43:47]:
You can have all these things at your, you know, you know, within one click. But the thing is, it's you taking action. So you learning to adjust your behaviors to do things on a daily basis. But then whenever, you know, uh, something happens, is where the differential comes in. That's amazing.

Tim Newman [00:44:06]:
And, and thank you for doing that. Where else can people connect with you to, to find out what you're doing

Walter Dusseldorp [00:44:10]:
and work with you? Yeah, I would— listen, anybody is more than welcome to join me on LinkedIn. I have about 16,000, 17,000 people on my LinkedIn account. Again, not for me, but it's a network that is there for all of you to be part of. I post 2 to 3 times a day, uh, outwardly. So these are not advertisements for my business, but talking about relevant topics. I love to talk about John— uh, John Maxwell, Gary Vee, Ron— Tony Robbins, uh, you know, Brené Brown, and people, other leaders in the industry. I share— we'll hold polls, we have discussions. And of course, you can find me on Instagram and YouTube channel where I post on a daily basis small 30-second to 1-minute leadership tips and insights.

Walter Dusseldorp [00:44:53]:
And of course, all my podcasts that I host on the Smart Performance Podcast, uh, can all be found there as well.

Tim Newman [00:45:01]:
Well, Walter, thank you so much for, for joining us today. You provided a ton of value to the listeners, and I can't tell you how much I appreciate that.

Walter Dusseldorp [00:45:08]:
So thank you so much, Jim. Thank you very much for the invitation. It was really a lot of fun. And again, people are always free to come and book a free strategy call with me at thedutchman.com. Be happy to chat and give some directional advice, and I enjoy having a good conversation. And again, I appreciate your time and,

Tim Newman [00:45:27]:
and inviting me today. No worries, bud. Take care.

Walter Dusseldorp [00:45:29]:
We'll talk to you soon.

Tim Newman [00:45:32]:
Thank you, sir. Be sure to visit speakingwithconfidencepodcast.com to get your free ebook, Top 21 Challenges for Public Speakers and How to Overcome Them. You can also register for the Forming for Public Speaking course. Always remember, your voice has the power to change the world. We'll talk to you next time. Take care.