Ep. 022 - From Manager to Executive: Mastering the Leadership Transition

Welcome back Bridge Builders to Bread to Lead, the podcast transforming healthcare leadership. I'm your host Dr. Jake Taylor Jacobs and I'm thrilled that you're here. We're currently ranked as the 30th top business and leadership podcast nationwide and it's all thanks to listeners like you. Bridge Builders, if you haven't already, grab a copy of my book, Bread to Lead on Amazon. It's packed with strategies to elevate your leadership game. If you got questions or ideas for the show, visit us at Bread2lead.com. Now what are you waiting for? Let's dive. What's going on, Bridge Builders? Let's dive. And this is actually, if you are on LinkedIn or you are on YouTube right now, you will know that I am live. And I'm live for the first time in Bread to Lead history. Historically, when I did my podcast in the past, I always did live podcast. The biggest reason why I didn't start this podcast live was because I was playing with exactly how we wanted to build this podcast. Yes, I'm extremely excited that we are actually, and I showed this screen up right here, we are the number 34 business and leadership podcast in the country. If you look at the top, if you're looking at the live video, you will see our charts on podcast for Apple. So I'm excited about that. But most importantly, I'm excited that people are literally listening to this podcast, Bread to Lead, and they're getting better. They're sharing this information with their team, they're upline, they're challenging themselves to get better, they're challenging themselves to be better. Most importantly, this podcast was created to be like a class, not an entertainment podcast. I believe that we have enough entertainment podcasts out here in the world. But what I don't see are enough podcasts that are actually teaching us actionable steps. So every single week, I write up a training so that you can be able to take this information and actually apply. So if you are watching us live right now, this is the 22nd episode, and we're on YouTube and on LinkedIn. I don't know if this will be a concurrent thing. However, what I will tell you is that if the feedback is good and people love seeing the live interaction of the show, I will continue it. And if not, we'll go back to being unseen but just heard in the podcast land. So if you're new to this, you know that this is considered a pie class. And so with that being said, we have to also consider the fact that when you're taking notes, you're going to be taking notes on areas that I think are big points to make things for you to think about. But most importantly, what I want you to focus on is simply getting this information and not only listening to it, but putting it into action. You got me? Let's get it. So today, we're diving into a distinction that can make or break your leadership journey. And it's the difference between managing day-to-day operations and overseeing them. Now I know what you might be thinking, Dr. Jake, isn't that just semantics? Like isn't managing overseeing and overseeing managing? But I promise you, Bridge Builders, the distinction is everything. And before I even tap into this episode, I have to explain what a Bridge Builder is. When we think about leadership, right, we often only think about leadership from, in most cases, from the stage, right? And when we talk about leadership from the stage, we're talking about people that are great with the philosophies of books. They can speak from a stage. But when they're in their organizations, when they're doing the day-to-day, they don't act what they teach. Oh, I'm talking about. I am teaching today in the episode hasn't even started. When I say they don't implement what they teach, I'm simply saying they're not building bridges. When you think about leadership in your mind, I want you to ask yourself, as a leader, am I building a bridge that the person that's on the other side of this seat, that they're looking or communicating with me? Am I building a bridge where they feel like it's safe to cross and communicate with me and talk through hard issues with me? Or am I building something that creates a wall of, in a separation between me and my team? And oftentimes, the way that we communicate, the way that we act, the way that we behave, we're not building bridges with our organization and the people that are in our organization. We're actually being a deterrent. We're creating walls and obstacles that stop people from believing in us, that stop people from communicating with us, because most of us, we love the books and the theories of leadership, but not the bridge building hard, back aching work that it takes to truly be an effective and these are the things and the elements that we must break if we truly want to become bread to lead. It's extremely important that we understand that the key to leadership is building a bridge that people feel safe and comfortable with not only you leading them, but in communicating with you so that you can lead them to where they want to go. So that's why I call every single person that's a part of this podcast a bridge builder, because every single day you're either building a bridge or tearing one down. And if you're tearing down bridges of communication, you're tearing down bridges of trust, you're tearing down a bridges of confidentiality with your gossiping, you're tearing down bridges of connectivity, you're tearing down bridges of building people up. You're going to find yourself siloed in a space where not only are you not even leading yourself, you're absolutely not leading other people. So that's why I call you bridge builder. So if you hear me calling you a bridge builder, I'm speaking life into your ability to create bridges that last not burn bridges down when things don't go your way. Got it? So and I've seen countless talented managers hit a ceiling in their careers because they couldn't make the crucial shift from being an excellent manager day to day and becoming an executive. There's a shift that happens and the day to day manager is hard for them to make that shift into being an executive. And most of the time is because of the lack of leadership development. And oftentimes when I'm when I'm talking to clients, we're going to hospitals or I'm talking to other clients. The biggest thing that I always typically kind of see, especially amongst day to day managing operators, the very thing that they say when they're frustrated with their executives is simply I'm doing all the work. I'm doing all the work. They're not doing anything. I'm here day to day. I'm operating day to day. They're not doing anything. I can do their job. And this is where we're not building a bridge. We're burning one down. And I'm hearing this often between executives to managers, managers to executives, and this is where the bottlenecks happen. In a large part of this is because neither party understands the full role of the other. Once you transition to an executive role, it is not your job. It shouldn't be your job to do day to day managerial opera, um, uh, running day to day managerial operations. And as a manager, it is not your job to strategically think like an executive. Both have roles that are important. One is more hands on with the day to day operations. And the other talks about the strategic growth of the overall overarching organization. And we're going to talk about that today in the podcast. All right. So they don't understand the difference. And there's a struggle usually from managers up, not necessarily executives down, usually people that become a strong executive, understood what it took to be a manager. And there are levels to it. You have your, you have your, your technicians, you have your subject matter experts, you have your supervisors, your team leads, you have your, your project managers, you have your managers, then you have your senior managers. And then you have, you know, your middle managers, senior men, it goes all the way up, but we don't understand the confines of leadership in all of its capacity, which is why we battle back and forth. So I'm going to explain to you about how fundamentally the mind sets in the skill sets are different. What I did as a tactician, meaning what I did doing the role every day when I wasn't in a leadership role, I was a specialist at doing the thing. Then when I became a supervisor or a manager, I was managing people's tasks. But when I go up to an executive as a leader, I can no longer manage people's tasks. I can only manage how people are leading people that are doing the tasks. So the higher you grow up in your organization, whether you are running your company yourself, or you're running a business in a company, both are synonymous, both are the same. Here's why. And then I'll go into the story. Because when I first started off running my companies, okay, I did everything. It was a one man band. I was the specialist. As I built my team, I went from being a specialist to being a supervisor, meaning I did half my time. I was in the field working with my staff. The other half I was managing the work that they did. Then I went from a supervisor to a manager, meaning I began to oversee my supervisor that was a half hybrid, half doing the work, half overseeing, half overseeing, then my tactician, my specialist, my agents or my team, they were down there actually executing. And then the more our organization grew, the higher my promotional track became. So even if you're running your own company, climbing the corporate ladder is the same exact structure as climbing the corporate ladder within a company that's already existing. So when we're talking about this evolution or the elevation of going from tactician or specialist to an executive, there are different mindsets that are needed at every aspect. You cannot expect to do as an executive the same thing that you were doing as a tactician or as a technician or as a technician or a specialist at what you did and you cannot expect your leadership to do the same things that you are doing. This is when you typically start to see organizations begin to beef and fight when there is no clear understanding of roles and responsibilities as you're growing your organization. So I'm going to share with you a quick story that's going to illustrate this perfectly. I worked with the leader, let's call her Sarah, who was promoted from a successful management role to an executive position. She had been an exceptional manager known for her attention to detail and hands on approach. Her team consistently hit their targets and she could troubleshoot any problem that came up. But three months into her executive role, she was drowning. Remember, she went from manager to executive. And this is typically what happens. You'll get an amazing, amazingly talented manager that's great at day to day. They get the promotion to an executive role and there's a huge learning curve because the skill sets that are needed to be a senior level executive are not the skill sets that you that are needed to be a good manager. Two total different skill sets. And if I was being a manager and I was criticizing my executive leadership versus learning the skill sets needed by the time I promote it, I promote it into a position underdeveloped. And there are so many organizations, especially in healthcare, where being especially in healthcare, where because somebody was good at the thing, they think that they're going to be good at the promotion at the promoted thing. And the issue with getting promoted at the promoted thing is simply you're underdeveloped. So what Sarah was dealing with, she was great. She was a great manager with three months into her executive role. She was drowning. She was working longer hours than ever. Her stress levels were through the roof. And despite all her effort, things were starting to slip through the cracks. What was the problem? She was still trying to manage rather than oversee. This is a crucial distinction that we need to understand. We're going to break down the key differences between managing and overseeing day to day operations. Y'all ready? Take your notes down, get your pin out. If you're watching us live, please, please, please take out your notes in your pad. If you are enjoying what you are seeing, I want you to put into the chat, put into the chat, put into the chat, put into the chat that you can see me. You're enjoying the conversation. I'm seeing comments right here. I'm loving it. I'm loving it. I haven't been live in a minute, so I'm extremely excited about being back live. Um, here. So, so, so we're going to talk about this. Take the notes. The first thing to note is the difference in scope of responsibility and focus. Okay. When you're managing day to day operations, you're in the trenches. You're the person making sure every gear in the machine is turning smoothly. You're focused on the how and the what. How are we going to meet today's deadlines? What resources do we need to allocate? How do we fix this immediate problem? What does each team member need to succeed today? And the thing is when you are a manager, most cases, you cannot see past what you're managing. Oh, Dr. Jake, what are you talking about today? In most cases, it is hard for a manager to see the full scope of the entire organization. This is usually why when you're looking at an organization per se, right? Let's say you're looking to get budgets approved or you're looking for your upline to back you, or you're looking to get funding, whatever the case is, this is what you're looking for. In most cases, most managers cannot tell you, especially in healthcare where we're in, most managers cannot tell you the problems within the entire healthcare system that they're in. The hospital system. Most managers cannot tell you what's happening across the entire organization. So when you're looking to try to get things approved without taking into account what the entire organization is dealing with, that's why you're getting pushback. That's why it's not working. That's why it's hard for you to break through this ceiling. Because you're only concerned with your day shift or your night shift as a manager, and you're not concerned with the overarching effects that any one decision, any bad day, any mismanagement or resources, how it can affect the entire organization as it stands. Most of us are, it's hard for us to deal with that. And so when I'm looking at a manager who's complaining about an executive, complaining about not being heard, not being seen, not being felt, not being understood, and I hear how they communicate to the executive, that's usually where the problem is. Because the manager hasn't taken into account that the senior level executive is not just thinking about your department or your role or your feelings or your emotions, or your emotions. That senior level executive is thinking about multiple departments. In every single person, guess what? Their issues are the most important. Every single department, guess what? Thinks that their department is the most important of the entire organization. So as an executive, you have to ask yourself, what is the best use for these resources? And can I trust this manager with it? So when I'm growing, or I'm excelling, or I'm expanding past team lead to supervisor, from supervisor to manager, these are all things I must take into account as I'm growing and I'm developing. Then when you're transitioning from a manager, day-to-day manager, to overseeing operations, multiple departments, an entire department, not just a shift. See, there's a difference between being a shift manager and a director over the entire department, regardless of the shift. Your shift of your focus changes entirely. You're no longer in the trenches of the day-to-day. You're in the command center. You're focused on the why and the where. As a manager, you're focused on the how and the what. What needs to get done and how we're going to get it done? As an executive, you're focusing on the why is it important for it to get done? When should it get done? And where are we going to find the resources and the talent and the people to ensure that when we start this thing, we can finish this thing? These are the things that we must focus on. And as an executive, making that transition as an executive, matter of fact, I wrote a book from founder to CEO. It's actually entitled, You're Not a CEO Yet, and it's talking about the transition for those that are business owners of transitions from founder to an executive. And it's the same thing as manager to executive. As a founder, you focus on just the everyday things that are important to you. That's like a manager. But transitioning to an executive, you have to be forward thinking in every decision that you make, not just trying to get an issue done today. So for an example, if you're a manager, you're a leader, and you're talking to your upline and you want them to approve a budget, you're talking about how it's important for your organization to get this funding for whatever the technology advancement that you want. But you never took into consideration where is the hospital or where's the company going to get the resources to fulfill that need? And is that need of yours truly important? Or is it something that it's a, it's a, it's a, it's not a necessity, but it's a leisure item that you would love to have, but you don't really need it. This is the difference between a manager's mindset and an executive's mindset. So when we're thinking like an executive, you're not thinking about how we're going to meet today's deadline. You're thinking about why are we approaching operations this way? Where do we need to be six months from now? Why are we seeing reoccurring issues in certain areas? Where should we be investing our resources for long term success? As a manager, you weren't about day to day survival. As an executive, you weren't about tomorrow's survival. This is the difference as we're dealing with organizations that need to see developmental change within their, within their, within their, within their, within their businesses and within their organization. I tell anybody this, you may not own the company, but if you're running that department, it is your business. If you're running that department, it is your business. If you're a manager in a department, it is your business. And how you run your business will determine what your future will be. How you run your business will determine what your future will be. And a lot of you are so thirsty to want to start a company that you don't realize that you're working in a company that's paying, training you. They're paying you to learn skills that will allow for you one day if it is your passion to have enough money, to have enough resources, to have enough skills to successfully run a business or an organization. And I talk about this all the time. I talked about this in the last episode. A lot of us are so eager for a promotion. A lot of us are so eager for a promotion. We never match the skills needed for it. A lot of us are so eager for a promotion that we never match the skills that are needed for it. Never. You do just enough to get seen, to get promoted. If you don't get promoted, what do you do? You find a new company, you do the same thing, and then what happens? You leave and then before you know it, every two or three years, you're moving organizations chasing money, but never mastering a skill. Then when you feel like you're tapped out, you start your own company and you struggle there. But when you look at statistics, statistics show us that those who grow in an organization more than 10 years and grow organically, climb the ladder, that start an organization or a company of their own, have an 86% chance of succeeding more than people that do not. Then people that do not learn the skills themselves. Do you know how many people I know that have started companies before the pandemic, during the pandemic, after the pandemic that's struggling? Because they never learned how to actually run an organization, run a budget, run resources. You'll see managers kind of talking and saying, I know we get 10 million a year, why can't get $1,000? And not understanding business fundamentals. Just because the company made it doesn't mean the company has it. You have to keep money in a reserve for lawsuits. You have to keep money in a reserve for chargebacks. Or whatever. You got to keep money in the reserve for taxes. You got to keep money in a reserve for benefits. You got to keep money in a reserve for workers comp. You got to keep money in a reserve. There's so many reasons why your money, you have to pay staff. You have to pay cost of goods. You have to pay for travel. You have to pay for stay. You have to pay for hotels. You have to pay for insurance benefits, 401k matches. So yes, I know when you're looking, you're looking at a budget, you want to get paid more, you want to get these things without taking into account the cost. This is why managers that jump to executive, whether it's of your own company or within a company. This is why you struggle. Because we think that in business, it's linear. We receive the money. The money can be spent anyway. We should get paid more in our department. How are you going to get paid more in your department when your department's over budget $4 million every year? Where's the money coming from? Matter of fact, it's over budget so much that we have to take money from profitable departments just to sustain yours. But you're asking for more money because you have what, 10 year here? Because you've been here a long time, but you haven't mastered any skills. You deserve what? And we're going to dive deeper into this, more of this information. When we come back from break. But here's the thing I want you to take as we take this quick short break. I want you to think about how much further could you have gotten in your career? If you focused on mastery more than promotion. Everyone wants to be the boss, right? But who's learning how to be a CEO? You learn how to be a CEO by mastering every level in every step. You learn how to be a CEO by mastering every level of every step. That's why I wrote this book. You're not a CEO yet. That's why I wrote this book. Brand to lead. How can you run an entire organization when you can't think past yourself? And these are why there are so many small businesses right now that can't grow past where they are. There are so many small businesses right now. You're making six, seven figures a year and it looks appealing. With your stress, passion, or imagination, barely getting by because we're running businesses like managers, not like executives. This is the thing we have to think about. Let's cut to the break. Are you ready to transform your leadership journey? Get my book, Bread to Lead on Amazon now. In it, you'll discover the proven frameworks and strategies I've used to help leaders across industries master each phase of their leadership development. Don't just lead, be Bread to Lead. Get your copy today on Amazon. Go and get the copy of Bread to Lead on Amazon right now. If you can. This is the first step. This is the first step of becoming great. I hear Charlie said this in the comments. Hey, Charlie. Charlie said this in the comments. This country teaches us how to be employees. I beg to differ. I think this country does an amazing job actually teaching us. How to be great bosses. How to be great leaders. How to be great executives. Why? You can't lead if you've never been good at following. How can you be a great leader and you've never been good at following? How can you be a great number one? You have never been a great number two. How can you be grateful for a role if you never have to serve the role as a subordinate? This is the issue that we're dealing with. All across the country. Everyone wants to be the leader. And no one wants to be the learner. And we talk about the confines of schooling certifications in education. School is only for one purpose. One to teach you how to learn. Two to learn how to be a great leader. Two to teach you how to research. Three to teach you how to be resourceful. And four to teach you the basics of the game that you're getting it. That's the four reasons. There's four things that educators want to teach you. It is up to you to take what you've learned onto the job into a career and master these steps along the way. You know your deficiencies. Your job doesn't. And the perfect example I love to give is the example of King David in Scripture. King David was told at what? Between 8 and 11? When he was just David that he would be King one day. If you listen to this podcast you know I love this story. King David was told that he would be King one day at 8 and 11. Do you think that he was ready to be King at 8 and 11? The answer is no. He was a sheep herder and a harp player. See what David learned when other people made fun of him as a sheep herder. Well back in those times a sheep herder. Was the one managing the family's resources. Because cattle. Sheep. Was the primary source of currency. It was the primary source of currency. So that meant that David had to learn how to manage, protect and to provide for and grow, multiply his resources. Protecting the sheep. Feeding the sheep. Growing the sheep. Breeding the sheep. Learning how to allocate and protect your resources from risk. And the beauty about it being a sheep. Is that sheep are historically known to be the dumbest animals on planet earth. On planet earth. And they go anywhere else if not attended to. Well what was the lesson that needed to be learned? What you do not tend to, your resources will go to. Your resources goes where you're tending. If you're not paying them any mind your resources won't pay you any mind. Before you know you'll be over budgeted out without money anything. The second thing. So you have to learn resources why to be a great king. Being resourceful. Managing resources. Is a skill set needed. So I those saw David. As the lowest on the totem pole. What they did not take into account. Was how well. He had gotten. At managing important resources. The second job he got. Was being a heart player. He was asked to go and sit. In bed. As to go and sit. And play music for. The current king of the day. So not only did he get to sit. And play music for the current king of the day. He got to observe how the courts worked. He got to understand the anxiety and the pain that comes with running. A kingdom. From being a heart player. What do you mean Dr. Jake. He learned the importance of meditation and controlling his emotions. So when people like oh he's just the musician. No he was the observer of the kingdom before he sat in the seat. So the first thing he did was what. He learned how to manage and control his resources. With the sheep hurting. The second thing. He learned how to control his anxiety through music. What's the third thing he learned how to. Take what he's learned. By protecting his resources. And in turn turned that into protecting the kingdom. Jake what do you mean. He became the best. Warrior. That led. The Israel army. How can you be a king. If you don't know how to control your emotions. You don't know how to you don't know how to manage resources and protect them. And you don't know how to protect those that are. Easily led astray. And need protection. See the sheeps. The sheep was teaching him. How to protect those who cannot protect themselves. So then when by the time he became a king. He knew how to protect those. Who cannot protect themselves. Who every day go out there and do crazy things. And you as the leader have to create boundaries. To protect them from themselves. So yes as you're growing as a leader. Within your organization. Every single skill. Every single skill. Every single skill. Every responsibility. It is your job. No one else's. To master the needed skills. Versus just thinking about paying the bills. Because mastering the skills. Elevate you. Paying the bills keeps you stagnant. I want to master the skills. Why because when I'm master the skills. I'm inevitably going to make money. But if I'm only making decisions. Based on what pays me the most. At the time. You're going to find out that that short. Those short sighted moves. Are actually what keeps you stagnant. For the entirety of your career. This is what we're talking about on bread to leave. And I want to and I and I want to. And I want to for the sake of the podcast. I want to get back to the point. The first point that we made. We made scope of the. The scope of responsibility and focus. I got to understand the difference. Now we're talking about the problem solving approaches. The difference between managers and executives. As a manager. You're the primary problem solver. Your team comes with you with issues. You're expected to have answers. Your success is often measured. By how quickly and effectively you can resolve. Day to day fires and challenges. But as an executive. Overseeing operation. Your role in problem solving changes dramatically. Instead of solving problems directly. You should be creating systems that prevent problems. The manager. Deals with the problem daily. Reports the problem up to the executive. The executives creates parameters. To ensure that that problem doesn't happen again. But they don't deal with the daily. Do you know how many managers I hear and I talk to. That say oh the executive isn't down here solving these problems. I am I can do a better job than them. That's not the executive's job. Your job as a manager is to put out fires every day. My job as an executive is to ensure that that same fire. Doesn't happen again within policies procedures and systems. Number two. The difference in problems. Number two. The difference in problem solving. Developing your managers. Problem solving capabilities. See as a manager. Your job is to solve problems. As an executive. My job is to develop your ability to solve more problems. Expanding your ability. That's my job as an executive. Your job as a manager is to actually solve the problem. In many organizations. You see a lot of managers are upset because their executives aren't solving a problem. If you can't solve the problem you're the wrong manager for the position. The next thing. When it comes to problem solving. That's different from managers that executives do. The executive's job is to identify patterns. That indicate systemic issues. Not just in your organization. As a manager you only focus on your day to day. Operations running your department. As an executive I'm worried about day to day operations. Of all departments that I'm overseeing. And I have to ensure that they communicate. And work together. So if I see a pattern. Of you running your department saying I want to run my department my way. So you create policies and procedures. That do not flow. With the department that depends on communication from you. That creates a systemic issue. So I as an executive would tell you. You need to come to me to approve any changes first. You as a manager. If you only thinking like a manager. You would say every time I do something you're stifling me. No the executive saying. Every time you do something you're stifling the organization. Because you don't want to communicate with everybody. Because you want. The credit. And you don't want collaboration. That's the cause and effect of the organization. And the scariest thing is that. In healthcare. Oh that happens all the time. You get a hot shot that becomes a manager. That wants to change everything because of what their old organization did. Without communicating with any other departments. That need. That collaboration from unit to unit department to department. And because you're so caught up in your own. You change it. Say you make the department better. But the other departments. You change it. But the other departments. Are at the same pace. You hurt the entire organization now. Just to have your department stand out. In the moment the organization is hurt. Eventually your department will be hurt. That's why as a manager you must start thinking like an executive. Because the moment you start thinking like an executive. The moment you'll realize that every action has an opposite. Either positive or negative reaction. So I have to ensure that as I'm making changes. I'm including all stakeholders from departments that will be affected. To ensure that they can handle the changes that we're doing. That's strategic leadership. I hear a lot of leaders say it takes so long for my leadership to make a decision. It takes so long for me to make a decision. It takes so long for me to make a decision. It takes so long for my leadership team to make a decision. You want to know why? Because they have to consider more than just your department. They have to consider if they say yes to you what else does it affect. And it can the company actually handle. Those problems and issues. I'm going to share another story with you. I worked with an organization where the operations manager. Was exceptional at putting out fires. Anytime there was a crisis. He was there with a solution. The team loved him. Because they knew. They can count on him to fix. Any problem. But when he was promoted. To operations executive. This very strength became his greatest weakness. He was still trying to be the hero who solved every problem. And as a result. His managers. Weren't developing. Their own problem solving skills. He had no time to think strategically. The organization. Wasn't learning from his mistakes. Because he always fixed it. And systemic issues. Weren't being addressed. So what we did. We worked together. To alter his approach. Instead of jumping to solve everyone else's problems. He started asking his managers. What do you think we should do. What systems could prevent this from happening again. How can we turn this challenge into an opportunity. What resources do you think you need to handle. Similar situations in the future. Just with asking questions and getting managers to start thinking like executives. The transformation was remarkable. Within months. His managers were more confident. Problems were being solved at an appropriate level. And he finally had time to focus on strategic initiatives. You see the difference. He got into the executive role. Thinking like a new manager. When actually. By the time. You even make it to a promotion for an executive role. You should be thinking like an executive. In developing talent. As a portion of that. As an executive it is not your job to do. It's your job to guide, teach and coach others to do. As a manager it is your job to focus on the day to day operations. To ensure that your supervisor and team leads. Are ensuring that the tasks are getting done. And technicians and specialists is their job to actually do the work. And before you ask for a promotion you should already have about half of the skills needed for the next role. If you're a technician or a specialist. You should already have half of the skills needed for the next role. You should already have half of the skills needed for the next role. When you're a team leader you're on the field. I like to liken it to a captain that's still playing the game. Yes you still have to do everything that the technicians and the specialists have to do. However you're the coach in the field. Your job is to hold people accountable to doing their work every day in league by example. As a supervisor you're a player coach. Your job is to play it when people are short. And coach people up so you don't have to play it as much. As a manager you're just a coach. Your job is to coach people, motivate people, push them, hold them accountable, put out fires. To ensure productivity every day. And as an executive director leveling up. That's all you are. You're the advisor. You're the guide. You're the GM like in sports. You're finding the talent. Filling the talent. Getting people paid. Advocating for resources. These are the things that you're doing. When you're managing. This is what you're focusing on. Daily production numbers. Weekly targets. Monthly quotas. Immediate customer satisfaction scores. If you are a manager. And you want to start thinking like an executive. You must train your supervisors to think like you. Your supervisors must train their team leads to think like them. Your team leads must train your specialists to think like them. And your specialists should train your technicians to operate like them. And your technicians to take the newbies to become great technicians. Your entire organization should look like a full-time coach. For full training development. Organization. Then, tire away. But, when you're overseeing as an executive, you're paying attention to quarterly trends, not day to day ups and downs, annual growth patterns, long term market positioning, and future capability requirements. That's what you should be focusing on. And if you can't, we got work to do to help you get there. We'll be back after this commercial. Bridge Builders, developing transformational leaders is crucial for the future of healthcare. At Sims Healthcare Solutions, we offer comprehensive leadership development programs designed specifically for healthcare professionals. From executive coaching to immersive workshops, we can help you cultivate the transformational leadership skills your organization needs to thrive in today's complex healthcare landscape. Visit simpshealthcare.com to explore our leadership development offerings and take the first steps toward transforming your organization. And we're back. Number four, team development. Managers, your job is to provide hands-on training, give immediate feedback, coach through specific situations, set individual goals. You can't do those things if you're in a day-to-day every day. If you're the working manager, as an executive, you focus more on creating leadership development frameworks, not training every day. You're creating the framework. Here's something that I typically would do with them on organization. As an executive, I'll create the framework. I'll even set the tone on a new system or approach, and then I will put someone in place to actually run it all the way through. My job is to set the framework. It's the manager's and leader's job to operate it daily. If you're in an organization where the managers are more concerned with what the executives are doing than executing their job, guess what happens? Now you build an organization where the supervisor's going to be worried about the manager, and then the team leads going to be worried about the supervisor, and then the specialists are going to be worried about the team leads, and then the technicians are going to be worried about the specialists, and before you know it, you got an organization full of worry and nobody's doing their job effectively. As an executive, it's your job to mentor managers. Your meetings should be developing your managers, building succession plans, creating a culture of continuous development. And lastly, when it comes to this, let's talk about the difference between strategic flexibility. As a manager, you're working with end processes and systems. As an executive, you're creating the processes and the systems. Are your current processes serving long-term goals? Do we need to fundamentally change how we approach operations? What capabilities do we need to build the future of success? How do we need to evolve our operating model? Managers, when it comes to thinking about perspective on success and failure, managers, your perspective is did we hit our targets? Did we solve the problems? Did we satisfy the customer? Did we complete the project on time? Executives, think, are we building a sustainable competitive advantage? Are we developing the right capabilities? Are we positioned for future growth? And are we creating lasting value? This is what that transition looks like. And if you want to transition from manager to executive the right way, you must first shift your time allocation. Spend less time on immediate issues, allocate more time to strategically think, create space for developing others, invest in building relationships across the organization. Some of y'all don't even know the leaders of the other departments that you communicate with daily. Number two, you must develop your strategic muscle. Start thinking in terms of patterns rather than incidents. You get so concerned with the person making the mistake and you don't realize it's a mistake that's happening all across your department. What is causing that mistake to happen regularly? That's your focus, not the person. Look for connections between seemingly unrelated issues. Consider the long-term implications of decisions. Practicing the bigger picture, that's what you do as a number two. Number two, number three, start your question set instead of asking. Start asking questions. How do we fix this? What are your thoughts? Who's responsible? What's the immediate solution? Start asking what's the pattern here? How can we prevent this in the future? What capabilities do we need to build? How does this align with our strategy? Start building a leadership ecosystem. It is, it behooves me how many people go you promote up and end up working more. You're more stressed, you're a promotion. Why? Because many of us take to the manager's role the spirit of a technician. And we take to the executive role the spirit of a manager. That still has the spirit of a technician. When in fact, the higher you actually go in leadership, the less active time you spend actually actively doing a task, and the more time you spend strategically thinking about how to make the task more efficient. You got to start developing your leadership ecosystem. Stop being the leader that's so scared that somebody's going to take your place. I want to build a whole organization full of people that can take my place. Why? Because if I built 10 of me, how would the organization ever want me to leave? But when I think in scarcity, I'm not allowing myself to see opportunities. If I build 10 of me in an organization, how much day-to-day work am I actually doing? By the time you hit the executive role, you should really be in passive income mode. You're showing up, going to the meetings, going through the flow, people giving you reports, you got some ideas you're advising. It's an advisory role. The executive role is an advisory role, not a task role, unless you're rebuilding an organization from scratch. But even still, you start building levies. The moment I got something under control, I'm putting a manager and a leader in place, and I'm removing my hand, and I'm going to the next thing. Remember, Bridge Builders, this transition isn't just about changing what you do. It's about transforming how you think about what you do. It's about shifting from being the person who makes things happen to being the person who ensures the right things are happening in the right way. As we wrap up today's episode, I want to leave you with three key reflections. One, where are you in this journey? Are you still trying to manage what you should be overseeing? Number two, what's one shift you can make this week to start thinking more like an executive if you are a manager? Number three, how can you help your team understand and support this transition? Remember, Bridge Builders, the shift from managing to overseeing isn't just about your title or position. It's about your mindset and approach. Make this shift successfully, and you'll not only transform your own leadership, but create lasting impact in your organization. This is Dr. Jake Taylor Jacobs signing off. Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Bread to Lead. Until next time, keep leading, keep growing, keep breeding excellence in everything you do. Oh, and P.S., if you are a healthcare leader, if you are a healthcare leader, you can go to sipshealthcare.com forward slash summit. We're having a free leadership summit called the Executive Edge. In this free master class, you'll be learning how to unlock influence by understanding the business leadership skills to gain buy-in from senior leadership and beyond and make a lasting impact. So listen, this is going to be November 23rd, I believe. Let me look at my calendar. We don't have it up on the site. It'll be updated. Yes, November 23rd, this is a free four-hour training, a free four-hour training on how you can develop the right proper skills to truly be seen as an asset within your organization so you can get more things approved and create more lasting change. Go to sipshealthcare.com forward slash summit so that you can be able to participate in the training that will in fact change the way you see leadership across the board. This is Dr. Jake Taylor's Jacobs with Bread to Lead, the COO of SipsHealthcare Solutions, ranked number one provider for sterile processing and periodopoliservice solutions in the entire country by black book market research. I hope that you share this information. Please take the time to go and vote today. I don't care what you vote, go and vote. And after you finish voting, go to top of charts, Bread to Lead, and give us a review, letting us know how much you care about the information and share this out with somebody that needs it. And lastly, go and get the book, Bread to Lead. This podcast is an outward expression of what that book said inside. I love you. There's absolutely nothing you could do about it. And I pray that not only did you get this information, but it changes the way that you see life in general. Peace. Talk to you later. Thank you.