Power for CEOs: Presence Before Performance

Power isn't louder, it's quieter

00:00Bill Gallagher: Have you ever had a week when you're completely slammed, but somehow nothing actually moved? Is this one of those weeks? That's not really a time problem. It's a busyness habit problem. My new book, Busy Is Broken: Do Less, Scale More, is all about growing by doing less, not more. Read or listen to a sample chapter over at busyisbroken.com. That's busyisbroken.com. It's also on Amazon and other booksellers.

00:28Bill Gallagher: Power isn't louder. Power is quieter. Presence is what comes first, then performance. Presence comes before performance. I want to talk to you right now about mindful power for CEOs. How do we bring mindful power into your world? Hey everybody, I'm Bill Gallagher, Scaling Coach, host of the Scaling Up Business Podcast. Our show comes to you every week with something to think about, to level up in your world of growing your business. And we're going to dive into this today. You'll find all our shows and more at scalingcoach.com.

A short practice in noticing yourself

01:01Bill Gallagher: So let's look right now. Right now, wherever you are, where you're listening, maybe you're driving, maybe you're in bed, maybe you're on an airplane, maybe you're working out, right? Where are you listening or watching this? What's going on? Think about what's happening all around you. What are you thinking about right now? What were you thinking about just before you started this? How do you feel? Like the sensations in your body and everything. I don't want you to change any of that. Just notice all that was going on, what's happening, what you're thinking, your feelings, the body sensations. Don't do anything with it at all. Just set it to the side. There it is.

01:47Bill Gallagher: Slow down. Take some breaths. Breathe in. Breathe out. You can try lots of different fancy breathings, but just bring some consciousness to your breathing for a minute. Breathe in. Breathe out.

02:10Bill Gallagher: Now take notice of your body. Notice your feet, the soles of the feet, the tops of the feet. Notice the ankles, the shins, the knees. Notice the feeling of your body against the chair, the bed, the whatever. Notice the contact between your body and the floor, the chair, the bed, whatever is connecting you. Whatever's like ground—where's gravity affecting you? Just notice it. Feel it. It feels good, it feels bad, it feels tense, it feels cold or hot. Maybe you have an itch. It's okay. Just notice it all and then breathe.

02:55Bill Gallagher: Notice your body. Now expand the awareness as well. Notice the room around you. Maybe there's light, maybe there's not a lot of light, maybe there's noises outside or nearby, people passing, things going on, roads, traffic, activity around you. Just notice it all. Take it in. Notice yourself back to the body. Take it in, breathe again. So we're just bringing awareness to everything. We're being mindful of, we're bringing to mind ourselves and the world around us. We have thoughts and feelings and stuff swimming around. And we set those things aside. We notice ourselves, we bring presence. Now we're getting more and more present. The more you can sort of be an observer of yourself, almost as if you're outside or next to yourself noticing it, or be in your own body, I don't really care, but become aware of yourself and then just allow it all to be.

What are you grateful for right now

04:00Bill Gallagher: Now let's level up a little bit. What are you grateful for? Obvious things come to mind. Think about family, friends, think about your home. Think about the quality of your life. Think about food. Think about the things you enjoy. Think about things that are beautiful to you, things that make you smile, that make you laugh, that excite you. Take it all in for a minute. Be grateful for it. What am I grateful for? I'm grateful for the house that I live in. I'm grateful for my home studio, my great home office. I'm grateful for the unbelievably great weather to live in the San Francisco area and the close access to me for the ocean, the mountains, the hills, the greenery, even mountains nearby where I could go skiing in the winter. I'm grateful for my family, the unbelievable partnership of a wife of almost thirty-one years now, two grown kids, a granddaughter of 2.5. I'm grateful for my extended family and how much we love and care for each other and how we stay connected mostly through all of it.

05:14Bill Gallagher: I'm grateful I get to do the kind of work. I'm grateful that people like you include me in your life in some way. Let me share something with you, teach you something, coach you in something. I'm grateful I get to do that kind of work with my the second part of my life. I get to help companies grow. I get to help them see what's missing and level up. I get to do that. What are you grateful for? Hopefully, as I've shared my things, you started to think about some of the things that you have. I'm grateful that I get to travel as much as I do. I get to go to interesting places most of the time. I get to travel at a pace that suits my temperament and is enjoyable but not too crazy. Busy enough, suits me, not for everyone for sure. But I get to do that. And then I get to come home and see my wife again and see my family and see the granddaughter like that.

06:15Bill Gallagher: Now we have presence and gratitude together. So you've gotten present in your body, in your environment. You've included all your thoughts and feelings. You've taken stock of it. You've become aware of it. You're not just reacting blindly, but you've settled yourself. And now you're also grateful. You've started to access mindful power. So we want to think about what's going on, our thinking, our feeling, and then set that all aside. We don't need to stop it or change it. It'll be there. I have things I'm worried about right now in my business, with my finances, with our clients. I have things I'm worried about in my family, things that I'm struggling with that I wish were different. You have that. What is it? It'll still be there for sure. I'm going to set all that aside. I'm going to slow down. I'm going to settle myself. I'm going to breathe, noticing all that, settling again, breathing. Then being grateful for things. Becoming aware of and grateful. Wow, the sun is out today. It's a beautiful day. I live in a beautiful place where people have gardeners come. I can hear gardeners in the neighbors' yards right now. I want to take note of everything and just feel it. Savoring all of it and taking it in, noticing what's there. Starts to give me access to something.

Setting intention after settling yourself

07:42Bill Gallagher: Now, I come from a place. I've settled myself. I'm grateful for things. I'm fully present. I have power. I'm making a show today. I'm connecting with people. Thousands of people will listen to it. I have no idea what they'll do with it or won't do with it. I trust something interesting will come. I hope you'll share some of it with me. Send me a private note or comment on wherever this is, that kind of thing. But do you already do any of this? How does that go for you? What do you get out of that? So if you could practice this on a regular basis, as I get ready to lead a session, begin a day, make a recording, be in studio, travel to a client, get on stage. All of these things. I'm going to practice a little bit of mindful presence. I'm going to get present. I'm going to think about what I'm grateful for. Then I'm going to start to get intentional. Then I want to think about what is my intention? What is my commitment? This is true even in family things. Think about putting on a Thanksgiving meal or holiday barbecue or whatever. Think about convening at a neighborhood meeting. If you could get present first.

09:04Bill Gallagher: And get fully present, and then bring up your gratitude. Notice, take stock of the things, feel what you feel, feel good about all that, then set your intention. Now I wouldn't be just reacting with a bunch of unconscious stuff running the show and calling the shots and making me sloppy and reactive to things. Now I'm much more powerful. I've gotten quieter. I brought presence first before I go to bring performance. I have a whole different capacity now to generate performance by doing that.

The three-step formula for mindful power

09:42Bill Gallagher: So that's your practice, right? Maybe you're doing some of it already. I invite you to put it all together. So the first thing is give yourself a moment. This can be done in a couple of minutes. It doesn't need to be a twenty-minute drawn-out thing. So notice your environment, take it all in, settle yourself, do some breathing. Now take stock of your body. Include your body, the environment, include your thoughts, your feelings that are already there. Set all that aside, allow that all to be, start to get present, start to get present and settled.

10:14Bill Gallagher: With all of that the case now, bring up the gratitude. That'll give you a place to operate from power and abundance, and just a totally good vibe. Think about those people. I think about my kids. I think about my wife. I think about where I live and all the things I love and the privilege of my life. Think about my granddaughter. I think about something great I ate, like all of it, just as much as you could possibly be grateful for. It's not a list of it. It's just really noticing it all and feeling abundant in all of it. Then I think about, okay, today, this is what there is to do. This is what I'm walking to—a meeting. I'm going to an event. I'm whatever. I'm opening a trade show. I'm kicking off our annual planning session. I'm helping one of our teams. I don't know. Now I have my intention and what I'm here for. Then I'm ready to bring real performance to bear.

11:15Bill Gallagher: So there's a little formula. There's a little pathway for you. I hope that's helpful for you. I hope you could practice it. I'd love to hear what you do with that. Please drop me a note. Send me a private message, whatever. Share it with somebody else. Pass it along. I trust this will create some good for you as it has done for me, and I wish you the very best. Until we talk again, keep scaling.

11:46Bill Gallagher: Thanks for listening today. One last thing. If anything in this episode hit home, my book digs into it further. Busy Is Broken: Do Less, Scale More. It's all about how to stop drowning in work and build a business and a team that scales without you. Available right now with content samples at busyisbroken.com. Go grab it. Be less busy.