What If Leadership Is Simply Helping People Connect with Barry Moline

Welcome And Why Confidence Matters

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Ready Set Collaborate with Wanda Pearson. This episode is proudly sponsored by WD Pearson Associates, where we educate, empower, and consult individuals, families, and entrepreneurs through coaching, business consulting, legal shield, ID Shield, and personal development services. WD Pearson Associates is committed to helping people rebuild their lives, protect their future, grow their confidence, and walk boldly in purpose, both personally and professionally.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

Welcome to the ReadySet Collaborate Podcast. I'm your host, Wanda Pearson, and today we're talking about something that affects every professional at some point in their career leadership confidence. Many talented people struggle with self-doubt, uncertainty, and fear of taking the next step. Yet the most successful leaders learn how to move beyond their limitations and sit to their full potential. Our guest today is Barry. With 29 years of experience as CEO, Barry has spent decades developing successful teams, mentoring emerging leaders and help building confidence, influence, and impact. Today, Barry was chair of his powerful four-part growth strategy that moved from uncertain and anxious to clear and confident by taking responsibility, practicing grit and persistence, developing and growth mindset, and taking charge of their careers. And we're going to talk more about their. Let's get ready for a practical leadership wisdom. You can apply immediately. Let's welcome Barry Moline. It's great to be with you.

SPEAKER_02 1:33

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 1:34

Yes, thank you. Say hello to the audience, Barry.

SPEAKER_02 1:37

Hey, listeners, that's great to be with you. And I look forward to an engaging conversation.

SPEAKER_01 1:42

Yes, yes, definitely. So it's my pleasure really to introduce you. So I'm going to talk about your bio a little bit. With 29 years of CEO, Barry has learned a lot about successful teamwork, leadership, and influence. He has worked in the private sector, government, and trade association, and is on the lookout for and new actions together. He wrote an award-winning book, which you can see behind him, Connect How to Quickly Collaborate. Yes, The Secrets to Developing and Engaging Teams. Barry has been featured on Fox Business News, the CBS Evening News, and NPR, the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and Forbes. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 2:20

Yes, I still do play hockey. I have a game on it.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

He continues today at the in his spare time, he plays hockey, which keep him fit, useful, and sometimes a little pushy.

SPEAKER_02 2:30

A lot of people say, Well, you play hockey. Your teeth look fine. No, these are not my original teeth.

SPEAKER_01 2:36

Well, they looked a great job. So let's dive into

Many Paths Into Leadership

SPEAKER_01 2:40

some questions, Barry. So tell us a little bit about your leadership journey and what led you to become a CEO.

SPEAKER_02 2:45

I never expected to land as a CEO. And what I've learned in my career is that there are many pathways into becoming a CEO. Sometimes in a technical organization, you have to know the technical stuff. But if you're in a nonprofit, you have to know, you don't have to know anything technical. You got to know how the nonprofit works. And it's based on where you are in your career and the type of organization you're in, there's a lot of different ways to move up into leadership. And I didn't know that. I thought when I was younger, you look at the at the subjects that you take in college and the majors that you can have, and there's a limited number. That's it. Those are the categories of life. And the reality is that no, everything is overlapping, and you never know what the ingredients are that are going to get you recognized and help you move up to the C-suite or to becoming a CEO. And success is not becoming the CEO. Success is doing the things that you do well and getting the chance to perform them and to help others. So you don't have to be the person in charge. As long as you're doing the thing that you like to do, that is success. So in my life, I always considered myself to be like a B student. I wasn't the smartest knife in the drawer, but I was really good at bringing people together. And I never lost that skill. I always had that skill. And it turns out that in the world of work, that is the number one skill. And that's probably the reason why I moved up in leadership, is because I was good at creating teams. I was good at bringing smart people together with people that had different skills in different places, and everybody contributed. I didn't know that was a leadership skill. It's just a thing that turned out. So if there's like one overarching umbrella to what I view as leadership, it's not being the smartest person in the room. It's being the one who brings people together to create something that is smarter than all of us, is better than all of us because we all contribute to it.

SPEAKER_01 5:12

Absolutely. And actually, me being in corporate for 36 years with IBM, the team leader and bringing our team together. And it was about getting their opinion on stuff because it's not just you. And that's the thing about being in corporate because a lot of the leaders at the top, bring it down to the bottom, but you got to know the people as well. So that was my personality with the video, being the team leader. They say, You want to be a manager? Nope. I want to be a manager. I'm good with this technically. So just having the experience of doing that. And I love what you say here. So what are some of the biggest lessons you learned during your 29 years as a CEO?

The Raise Your Hand Moment

SPEAKER_02 5:48

I would say that probably the number one lesson. I learned it by accident, but I learned it multiple times. It happened multiple times, and it got me to be the CEO. When I was 16 years old, I was 16. And I was a new hockey referee. I'd been playing hockey for many years. And then I, when I was 16, I signed up to be a referee and get paid to skating around in the ice. I was doing the thing that I love to do. And it was my rookie year. So I was learning how to be a referee. And in referee parlance, there's somebody in the middle who makes all the calls. And then there's referees or linesmen on the sidelines, and they hold a flag and they call the offsides and other sort of secondary calls. And I was one of those secondary officials. I was just learning how to do it all. And toward the end of my rookie year, I showed up for an important game. I was assigned a big game, and I was supposed to be a linesman. And I was comforted to know I can do this. It was a big, it was a college game. It was above my skill level, but I could drop the puck for them. I had that experience. So I showed up to the game, and in the referee's locker room were two other linesmen. And I was a linesman also. And one of you is the referee. And they said, Not me, not me. And I said, huh. I'll get dressed just for something to do. But you guys showed up before me. So I guess you'll be working the game. And time moved on. We got closer to game time. And then the official scorekeeper came in and looked at us and said, Which one of you is the referee? And I looked at the other two guys and they like, not me. And I said, I am. I raised my hand, I said, I am. And he said, Good. This is an important game. These two teams are battling for first place. And you got to call a tight game because they're going to want to mix it up and fight and do all kinds of stuff. So make sure you're on it. And I said, Absolutely. So I took out of them, I took out the referee armbands from my bag and I put them on. Those are the orange armbands. And the other two guys are like, thank you, thank you for doing this. And we got out there on the ice and I was wearing a helmet. And thank God, because nobody could see that I was just a 16-year-old. My helmet was hiding my youth. And I was refereeing 18 to 21-year-olds that were just like at the level just below professional. We started the game, but there's one thing that happened after two minutes, two minutes into the game, there was a face-off. And I took my position. I wasn't dropping the puck, but I took my position to watch everybody. And just before the linesman dropped the puck, he dropped the puck, but just before he dropped the puck, one of the players skated in to the circle. He was too close. He skated in and he swooped up the puck and he started skating down the ice on a breakaway. And I blew the whistle. And I said, number eight was in the face-off circle too early, redo the face-off. And there were 2,000 people in the arena. And a thousand of them were like, yay, he blew the whistle. And the other was saying, you dirty rotten, you blew the whistle. It was the right call. And I said, well, I went over to number eight and I said, if you do that again, I'm throwing you out. The rest of the game, there were no penalties. It was a and it was fantastic. And that experience, other officials in my world of refereeing heard that I stepped up to do that game. And the next year, they gave me more and more higher level games. They started mentoring me. And at 17, I was refereeing more high-level games. And at 18, more high-level games. And at the end of my 18th year, I got nominated to go to NHL referee training camp. Now, that doesn't mean I was, but I got nominated to go and I went. I went to Canada and I went to a training camp. And it was tough. I was there with all the NHL referees. I had a meeting and I was with them. Yeah. But I was, I kept up with them. I had my place and to the minor leagues. So I got in the minor leagues and I refereed for three years. I did five NHL games. But the process is it takes time to move up to the pros. And my family wasn't crazy about it. So they said they wanted me to go to college. And I was probably a better bet to go to college than staying in the minor leagues for a long time. I did for three years and I did a few NHL games, which are memorable, highly memorable. And but then I went to college. Okay, I went to college, I got a teaching degree, I got an engineering degree, I went to work. And one day I we had an all-hands meeting at my business in it was in Washington, D.C., the American Public Power Association. I was one of 80 people on staff. And the president of the company was going through all the things that were going on with the company, and just everybody was sharing, giving an update. And the last thing that we did, it was in September, the last thing that we did was my friend Arsynia, who was two doors down from me in our office, she was the HR director. She said she was giving an update on the holiday party. And she was in charge of planning the holiday party. And she wanted to have volunteers to help her on the committee. And so she asked for volunteers. And it was just silence in the room. And silence for a few seconds is just a long time. So there was five seconds of silence. And I felt really bad for Arsenia. So I raised my hand. And Arsenia said, okay, Barry's on the committee. Barry, who else? Who else? And then quickly, two other people jumped in because somebody always needs to start out, right? And then we we had our first meeting the next week. And the president of the company, his name was Larry. He came to the meeting. He was like, Oh, Larry's here. It's just the four of us. And Larry. And Larry said, I'm coming to all the meetings. I love the holiday party and I want to have a great experience. We just treated Larry as like he was anybody. We were all brainstorming. We all came up with lots of ideas. And we put on a great holiday party.

SPEAKER_01 12:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 12:16

So that was December. January rolls around. And one day in just in January, Larry just comes to my office and says, Barry, do you have a minute? And I was like, because he just never comes to your office with good news, right? He said, Can I sit down? He sat down and he said, You know, we have a big national conference, right? It's every June. We hire big-time speakers. At the time we had hired Colin Powell to be our keynote speaker. He said, We spend lots of money on these speakers, but it would spend $25,000. And at the time, today it would be $50,000. It would spend a ton of money on these big name speakers.

SPEAKER_01 12:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:57

And he said, but nobody asks the first question. He said, I saw you on the planning committee and you were very engaging and you really got the conversation going. Would you come to the conference and ask the first question of our big time speaker? And I was like, sure, absolutely. Yeah. Travel to because the meeting was in different cities. Wow. Not at the conference, but that was my big one. I would stand up before people and ask that first question. And then other people would come to the microphone and ask questions because you got to get that first question rolling. So that was great. I did that for five years. And then one day, and uh one day I got a call from Florida from We Association for a group of utilities, and somebody called from the state association of those utilities and said, We've seen you stand up and ask that question every year at the conference of those big-time speakers. We need somebody who's assertive to come and lead our association. Would you consider doing that? And I said, Let's talk. So I we engaged, I interviewed, and I got the job. And I got that job because I raised my hand. So I became a CEO because it started with when I was 16, and I raised my hand to referee that game. And then I raised my hand to be the work on the holiday party committee. And the lesson learned for me is that take initiative is it's okay to take initiative. A lot of people don't. They want, they'll just they're happy to be the wallflower, they're happy to sit back and let somebody else do it. But if you stand up, raise your hand, people notice and they appreciate it, and then stuff gets done.

SPEAKER_01 14:43

Absolutely. I love that. And that actually leads into what my question here now. When you look back at your career about leadership principle, has had the greatest impact on your success, right? Would you say that? Yeah, for me, that was taking initiative, taking responsibility.

SPEAKER_02 14:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:59

Exactly. So we want to talk about what inspired you to develop that four-part growth strategy.

Four-Part Strategy For Career Growth

SPEAKER_01 15:06

How'd you do that?

SPEAKER_02 15:08

As I reflected on the things that made me successful in leadership, there with taking responsibility and taking initiative, that was number one. But it's that makes it sound like it's all easy. All you got to do is raise your hand and it's just tunky door. But what I then found was that there's a lot of people that actually stand in your way. You actually have to work. You actually have to pitch ideas. And a lot of people will say no. No, not right now. I don't know. That that just doesn't make sense. Maybe in we'll do that in another time. So you've got to have a lot of grit. You got to have a lot of persistence to say, I think this is a good idea. How about if I work on it on the side? Or I'll do a pilot project and we'll see how it works. Whatever it is, you have to push your ideas forward, not in an aggressive way, but in a way where you recognize that there are speed bumps in your way and you just have to get over them. You have to, when God closes a door, he opens a window, right? So you have to find those windows and expect that they're going to exist. Hey, this is happening. I'm seeing some friction here. That's okay, because I'm prepared for that. And I'm going to think about a variety of other ways to move my project forward. Because maybe these just aren't the right people. Maybe I need to do it with other people. Whatever it is, you've got to move your idea in some way. Not bulldoze through, but just be creative in the way that you move forward because you don't get anywhere. So you've got to get over those speed bumps along the way.

SPEAKER_01 16:43

Absolutely. So let's quickly talk about the real fast, Derry. I'm about to have you back on again. So let's quickly talk about the four growth. You probably said some of the things about your four-part growth strap. Let's talk about some.

SPEAKER_02 16:55

So we talked about responsibility and initiative. We talked about the third one is having a growth mindset. And this is fascinating to me because a lot of people just think to themselves, oh, I know what's going on. I've been there. I know the answer. And they fail to pay attention to what's going on in the world. You need a growth mindset in that you need to keep growing, you need to keep learning and have an open mind. Today we're faced with AI. And clearly, AI is something that is everywhere. If we don't learn about AI, then we are definitely going to be left behind. So we so that's a perfect opportunity and a great example of what a gross mindset is. I'm going to dive into the deep end, I'm going to figure this out. I'm going to try some stuff. I'm going to talk to other people. What are you doing with AI? Can you explain that? If you're on a in a team with a group of other folks, get together and talk about, share ideas what people are doing with AI. Get together with a computer and let people show each other. How do you use that program? Or how does that command work? How does that prompt work? And just keep learning about, in this case, AI. But it's every topic. If you want to be better in leadership, you have to investigate further in leadership. You have to listen to this podcast, listen to you more, Wanda. I have a podcast too. It's called Leadership Career Accelerator. And listen to podcasts on topics that make sense to you. Not just all fun topics, but sometimes some things that will help you improve and moving you in a direction where you want to go. So having a growth mindset is key because it encompasses sort of everything. You get ideas from everywhere. When I go into Starbucks, I watch what they do very carefully because I figure that they've spent millions of dollars on customer service. Whatever they're doing, they have figured it out. So I watch what they do. They write my name on a cup. They they face me when they're doing their work, they smile. And all those things I take note of because that's how you do customer service, right? So and I get all that for free just by paying attention to them. Yeah, so look everywhere. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:23

Exactly. And that may that makes sense. And that's great. That's a great thing to do. So why do so much so many emerging leaders struggle with confidence today?

Confidence Comes From Getting Reps

SPEAKER_01 19:31

There's a lot of people that don't have confidence.

SPEAKER_02 19:34

And confidence to me is a function of getting reps. So getting taking chances and doing things. Once you've yeah, let's take making a presentation. And making a presentation is as simple as speaking up in a meeting and talking, giving an update on what your project is all about and what the status is to a formal presentation with a PowerPoint and a podium and a microphone and an audience and so on. And you can practice giving presentations, quote unquote presentations, in those small meetings. Think about those as a presentation, because when you get reps, when you do that over and over, you become more comfortable. Okay, yeah, this is before three people or five people, maybe just a small group, but it's still good practice. And then when you have that opportunity to speak to another group, it's preparation. So by doing those things, you get you get those reps in, and now you feel like, huh, it's okay to be nervous when it comes to giving a presentation, just channel that into your energy, your energy to be there and present. But you want to do a good job. And the point is when it comes to almost anything, let's say having a difficult conversation with somebody, it's about getting reps. You the first time you do it, and you may think, how do I do this? Maybe I'll look up on the internet what are the best ways to structure a difficult conversation. You get an outline of what somebody else suggests, and then you prepare your talking points to do that. And then you do it. And hopefully it turns out okay. You move from a place of difficulty to a place of where do we want to go? This is how we want the world to be. Here's how we want to change to be better. That's your difficult conversation. And once you do it, you think, okay, the next time you have to do a difficult conversation, you've done it before. So getting reps all along the way builds your confidence. And even when you get to a point where you've never done something before, if you say to your team, hey, I'm new at this, let help me figure this out. Let's make this happen together. Or maybe your team is brand new at it. Let's all figure it out. This out together, then everybody's building confidence together. But I really think confidence is tied to getting repetitions, getting experience, and starting small and then recognizing, hey, I did that. I can do it again and again.

SPEAKER_01 22:15

That's good. Yeah, that's good. And how can leaders inspire confidence in their teams during uncertain times with everything that's happening

Coaching Teams Through Uncertainty

SPEAKER_01 22:22

today? How can you get that?

SPEAKER_02 22:24

Well, I think the role of a leader is very similar to the role of a coach. And when things are uncertain, we don't know what the outcome is going to be. We know that we have the energy to work on it, but we don't know if we're going to succeed. Nevertheless, it's the job of the leader, it's the job of the coach to say, we're good. We're a really good team. We work well together. Let's do this together. I don't know how it's going to turn out, but I believe in you. Let's all work together to get this done. And so when people lean on each other, they're so that's how a house stands up. It's got all these pieces of wood that are all leaning on each other and creating a structure. So when everybody leans on each other as opposed to fighting each other, then they can accomplish something. And I think that a leader's responsibility is to say, I believe in us. We're good in a variety of areas. Let's go do this together.

SPEAKER_01 23:25

Yeah, I love that. Yeah. And then let me ask you, and actually, we're winding down. I got to have you on again, Barry. So if you can give one piece of leadership advice to your younger self, what would it be when you were younger?

SPEAKER_02 23:38

Yeah, that is a very good question. Making it, I'm not sure if that meant financially or from my place in the company kind of thing, being respected or having a title, that kind of thing. And I think I would tell my younger self, just to chill out, that it's okay. Just keep doing a good job where you are and working in the direction of things that you're interested in. And then things are going to work out. And I really believe that's true. It's okay to have a plan to say, here I am at this company, and I want to see another job that I'd like to have. I want to move to that job, or maybe there's a job in another company that you're interested in. Whatever it might be, it's good to have a plan where you're looking ahead and then to move in that direction of doing those things. But you never know. Life throws a lot of curveballs at you. Oh, yeah. And yeah, there's curveballs in all directions. We have family, we have our own selves, we have our health, we have the economy. We it's so messy that we always have to be prepared for something going wrong. And I think that the most important thing is to what you can control. And that is have that growth mindset. Just continue to improve yourself. Keep building your own skills. And don't worry. The you'll get recognized and and you'll do the things that you want to do. They may shift a little bit over time, but over time you will find your place. And I wish that my younger self would know that. I would have stressed out a little bit less.

SPEAKER_01 25:21

That's yeah, yeah. Exactly. And that's our younger stuff. We want to achieve and be a leader and do everything good. But you make mistakes, but you learn from your mistakes is really what it is. So learning from your mistakes, learning to be able to understand and really not to do that mistake again. That's how you grow. So, what's one action uh out of this is going to take away to begin becoming a stronger, more confident leader?

Self-Audit And Ask For Feedback

SPEAKER_02 25:48

One action to become a stronger, more confident leader. I would say that do a self-audit and analyze, be honest with yourself that you feel like you're not as good at right now, that would be better if you improved, and then focus on improving them. And you can do it in small steps, like we talked about. If it's making a presentation, you can get those reps by just giving a status update in a in a staff meeting. The point is when you think about maybe it's listening better. I'm quick to jump in and talk, but I don't listen reflectively. I need to focus more on what my conversation partner is talking about, whatever it might be, and then commit to getting a little bit better. You can even go the extra step of asking people, like, what kind of things do you think I need to work on? That's a little, you know, you've got to be vulnerable to do that. You'll get some great feedback. But still, I think picking one or a couple of things to learn and be better at is a great way to propel yourself forward.

SPEAKER_01 26:59

And that's good. And that's as far as taking constructive criticism, is really what it is. So tell us what is your future days and also tell us about how to

Connect Book And How To Reach Barry

SPEAKER_01 27:07

get in touch with people. And also that book, Connect. How can we get in touch with?

SPEAKER_02 27:10

So tell about what's what the So I'll give you the punchline of Connect. Connect, how to quickly collaborate for success in business and life. And I came into this writing this book, which is 15 case studies of individuals and businesses that were in difficult situations and got through them by building teams and help and working with the team to solve the problem. And I thought going into the book, I thought, I, Barry, am a great team leader. I know how to build teams and I lead teams. And that's why that's why I'm so good at that. And what I found in all the case studies, and I was, I couldn't believe what I learned from this, which was what I was doing was not the best way to build teams. The best way to build teams is to is for the leader to help people get to know each other. And when they get to know each other, they want to do a good job for each other. And that's the job of the leader. It's not to bring people together and make them work together, which is what I thought I needed to do. It's to bring people together and get them to know each other. And once they do that, then they'll accomplish so much. Stories in there just blew me away. They're incredible what people accomplish by learning more about each other. So you can get that book on Amazon. And it's a fun, quick read because it's got all these different case studies, and the cases and the stories are just all over the place. They're fascinating. But they all come generally to the same conclusion, which is people have to get to know each other. And you can contact me via email at berrymoline at gmail.com. And I've got a podcast. So you know, after you listen to your podcast, Wanda, you can turn tune into Leadership Career Accelerator, which is also a lot of fun. We do some interviews and a lot of solos about leadership skills.

SPEAKER_01 29:10

Okay. That's awesome. That's awesome. I love that. So yeah, so connect with Barry. Get his book on connect and what really the collaboration. So you got to connect and collaborate, right? Those two things here. So Barry.

Wrap-Up Thanks Sponsor Subscribe

SPEAKER_01 29:23

Exactly. Then I talk about. And that's how I started this podcast. Ready? Said collaborate, right? Yes. So, Barry, thank you for your incredible leadership wisdom with us today. And your four, which are the first one is taking responsibility. The second one is grid and persistence. And the third one is developing a growth mindset. And the fourth one is taking charge of your career. So remember that audience. Those are the four worlds of process. Actually, when Barry and I talked about, I said, I want to talk about that there. So that's great. But no, thank you so much. And that it provides a anyone looking to move uncertainty to confidence from potential to performance. And that is so important, so important from potential to performance to be able to grow, right? So I especially love you're reminded that no one cares more about your career than you do. Taking responsibility, practicing persistence, developing the growth mindset, and taking charge of your future are lessons that can transform both your mindset, your careers, and your lives. So to our listeners, be sure to connect with Barry Moling and learn more about his leadership insights and thanks again, Barry. And definitely I'm gonna have you back on my show again.

SPEAKER_02 30:35

Thank you, Wanda. It's been great talking with you.

SPEAKER_01 30:37

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 30:39

Make sure you all can follow and subscribe as well. Thank you. A special thank you to our sponsor, WD Pearson Associates, for supporting this episode. Through coaching, consulting, legal shield, ID Shield, and business empowerment services, WD Pearson Associates helps individuals and entrepreneurs rebuild, protect, and grow with confidence and purpose. To learn more, connect with Wanda Pearson and WD Pearson Associates online and continue your journey toward transformation and success. That wraps up another episode of Ready Set Collaborate with Wanda Pearson. I hope you found inspiration and valuable insights to help you build meaningful connections and successful collaborations. If you enjoyed today's conversation, be sure to subscribe, share, and stay tuned for more great discussions. Until next time, keep collaborating and making an impact.