Change happens faster today than ever. Our skills and knowledge can become irrelevant almost overnight. Scott Scantlin shares how leaders can future-proof their organizations through the development of people’s potential
In this episode, you’ll learn:
- How to deal with the overwhelm we face
- Specific ways to adapt to unwelcome change
- How to identify and tap into people’s potential
- Why personal growth is the fuel of people’s success
Learn more about how to turn challenges into advantages.
The Transcript
Brad Wolff 00:03
Welcome to the “It Is About You Podcast” today. I’m to have as my guest, Scott Scantlin. Scott is a speaker, author
Scott Scantlin 00:19
Hey, Brad! I’m glad to be on man, excited looking forward
Brad Wolff 00:25
Absolutely! So tell me a little bit about yourself and what you do?
Scott Scantlin 00:30
Yeah! So you know, I am now 21 years in business with the same company that I’ve been with for the last 21 years. I’ve recently written a book called “The Relevance Gap” that just released a couple of weeks ago. And I work with companies, I work with entrepreneurs and direct sellers both individually or corporately and you know, work to identify hidden potential.
You know Brad, I find that potential is the greater motivator if we can work together to figure out what the potential of the organization or the potential of the individual is it will drive them. And so what that allows us to do is to get them from where they are to where they need to be, to stay relevant into their career and their business as they go forward in you know, a changing world that we’re, you know, that we’re existing in today.
So that’s what I do with my clients. I specialized in motivation sales and leadership training. And so those are the areas that I like to focus on and yeah! So 30 years background in business, 21 years with the same company developing and now building and growing with my new book release.
Brad Wolff 01:42
Awesome! So tell me a little bit about your journey that has brought you to where you are today, including writing this book.
Scott Scantlin 01:51
Yeah! So, you know it’s an interesting journey, you know, I started down the road of personal
Scott Scantlin 02:38
I want to be in this environment, I want to do this professionally. Whether that’s for companies or you know, again, as a good salt nor speaker or an author. And that all started for me down in living in my mother’s basement, you know, broke a
And so I’ve had the opportunity, my brother Wes is the lead singer, “A Puddle Of Mud”. So I worked in the music business for a little while developing his albums and producing his albums. And he went on to sign to a major record label and it sold over 10 million albums. He just released his brand new album, “Welcome to Galvani” and the first one in 10 years.
Scott Scantlin 03:24
And we’re excited about that and so I was a big part of that whole thing. I was involved in
Scott Scantlin 04:10
Another product that nobody owns. Everyone needs are everyone’s going to buy. Back then there
And so I’ve been a big part of that. I’ve served as a, you know, Regionalized President of the West coast of Florida. I’m the Network Vice President of State of Missouri, Kansas. And so I’ve served in various leadership roles with the company and I still work very closely at the top leadership in the company and driving that forward. And that’s been quite a journey because we get to work with individuals like Harlan Stonecipher you know, Jeff Olson who was amazing, who had studied and all that motivational speakers that we get the opportunity to work with.
Scott Scantlin 05:05
And that field has just been absolutely amazing. Every one
And so that’s just developed and built me blast that, you know, 20 to 30 years. And so I’m excited and I’m excited about my new book, “The Relevance Gap” which, you know, I’ve got a copy of it right here. And you know, it’s been a long time and so there’s, you know, there’s a lot of new things I’m finding in personal development that expanding in new areas that we’re growing into and a lot of cutting edge stuff you know, I’m right on the edge of that. I’m, I’m studying some new speakers that Joey Kline with conscious transformation, which is amazing. “The Inner Matrix” that’s a phenomenal book highly suggest that book to anybody out there that it’s reading and interpersonal development. But that’s been my journey, right? I’ve come this far and now we’re, you know, we’re ready. I see
Brad Wolff 06:19
Awesome! So let’s talk about some of the key elements in your book that really can help leaders practical things that can help leaders develop and become more effective. So what would you say are those key things? And maybe we can take them one at a time?
Scott Scantlin 06:39
Yeah! Absolutely! I mean, I think from a leadership perspective you know, we are really for the first time ever we have four generations working in the market at one time. That’s something to consider, right? When we talk about, you know, The Relevance Gap, what motivates to millennial or gen Z or how a gen X operates or how the wisdom of a baby boomer, you know, can operate, if we can get that work in together on leadership level it’s really critical. And I think what’s happened is, and I just kind of the best way to maybe frame this a little bit and kind of how the book talks about it is
Scott Scantlin 07:32
And you know, the gap between an average car and a luxury car, it’s like this. It’s like nothing. I mean, they’re all the same bell. I mean, there’s just a few little differences but not much I mean I was walking my dogs this morning and a girl, you know, it’s cold out. It’s 40 degrees and a girl walks out and I’m walking my dogs and, you know, she’s walking to her car and the car is already going, right. It’s just, she has
Scott Scantlin 08:11
So when you look at the world we live in today, it’s, you know, people are early driven by the extrinsic things are the internal or external things. They’re driven by internal or driven by the intrinsic motivation, Right? I mean everybody, if you think about it, everybody has a laptop, everybody has a cell phone. The most modern cell phone you can get.
Everybody’s got access to all the same information on the internet. You know, and right on mobile devices right in the Palm of our hand. And so we live in this sort of synthetic utopia. And so the gen Z’s and the millennials that they’re not driven excellent transit things
Scott Scantlin 09:13
Because here’s what I have found. I have found that individuals will literally take a pay cut if they can move from a company where they’re just a number and they don’t feel like their core values are heard. That where they can move to a company where their core values line up with the core values of the company that they’re working for, right? They want that. And they’ll take a pay cap for it because they want
Scott Scantlin 09:57
And the engage companies, it’s called the chapter’s called “A different kind of company”. And their big focus is human dignity. That’s their core, their base core values, human dignity. And what they really want to do is to identify not only that when they hire, right, they don’t hire for you know, for skill. They hire first for
Their values and then they can get behind that mission. But then they’ll also want to find out what the mission, find out what’s important to someone. And then attach that to what they’re producing, Okay! The outcomes called inspiration. And that’s how you inspire as a leader in the 21st century. And I think that’s what companies, and so again, it’s a Relevance Gap, right? We want to kind of, you know, move in that direction and that’s what leaders are looking to do. And that’s one of the things my book gets into.
Brad Wolff 10:59
So based on what you’re saying, Scott, it sounds like the baby boomer or generation X leaders are dealing with people that see the world differently. So it’s like all of a sudden they’re speaking a different language and the leaders from previous generations don’t understand that language because we tend to assume everyone speaks their own language. So there’s a real adjustment for the more older leaders to meet the needs of these new generations is what it sounds like.
Scott Scantlin 11:40
Yeah! I mean
Scott Scantlin 12:33
And that, that human dignity is extended not only to their employees because they want them to feel more of a person than when they walked through the door when they leave every single day, which I think is huge, but also for their customers, for their clients, for everyone around them. And because they’ve got their core values in alignment and they’re not just writing them down, they’re living them right there. They’re working in their walking that thing out. I think companies that are doing that are going to grow and I think companies that you know are not moving in that direction or they’re going to retract, they’re going to decline.
Brad Wolff 13:04
That makes a lot of sense. So that’s one aspect from your book that’s very applicable to leaders. What other areas of your book really can spark
Scott Scantlin 13:20
Yeah! So, you know, here’s the thing, the design behind the book is that, you know, whether it’s the employee you know, whether it’s the leader that, you know, people are really overwhelmed by the rapid amount of change that’s happened over the last five to 10 years. I experienced it personally five years ago, you know, I’m like, gosh! You know, we’ve got social media, we’ve got mobile apps, we’ve got phones. Nobody answers their phone in there and everybody wants to text and talk with. And so, you know, it’s a little overwhelming for people. And I think for me where I was at and where I struggled, and I think where I see people struggling in their career or their job or their position is that they just don’t have really, they’re kind of struggling with the change, right?
Scott Scantlin 14:06
They’re like, I don’t want, you know, I don’t want to do certain things right there. They’re battling with preferences over necessity, right? So, if you are you know, on my, well, my preferences are this and I don’t want to do this and I don’t want to do that. Well, what happens is the more you resist the change, the more irrelevant you become because change continues to go up, you know, up into the right. I mean, it’s going further and further and the more you resist that change, the more irrelevant you come back. There’s a great line by John Addison and John asked him, was the former CEO of Primerica he sits on the board at
Scott Scantlin 14:47
You have to be a part of it. No! And that, again, a mindset and that takes, you know, some, you know, changing of philosophy and, you know, how you think and how you embrace change. You need to embrace change and you embrace limitation because you can do these things. All of these things are doable, but I had to do the same thing. I had to kind of go back and reinvent myself a little bit.
And whether that’s done on an individual basis or whether that’s done on a corporate basis, when we go in and talk to companies, you know, employees and then maybe at the same job for the last 20 or 30 years, last 10 years, last five years you know, and you know, maybe then in marginalized by management, right? Like when you first get a job and you come into a company, you know, there’s the potential of the opportunity, the job, you know, the
Scott Scantlin 15:35
And they’re excited about it. And they kind of got an idea of what’s gonna happen. And then they get in there and they’re working and you know, three months later or six months later, you know, they get marked marginalized by management and all of a sudden, you know, they just, the potential sort of dies and the vision sorta dies. And you know, you don’t want that to happen. You know, you need a creative atmosphere where people can grow and make a contribution. People want to belong and they want to be a part of something. And so we come in and work with the companies that we work with or individuals and entrepreneurs, it we’re professional salespeople and we help them to embrace the limitations and say, Hey, you know what? This is necessary. I’m going to have to choose necessary preferences. And then a whole lot of things, I know why, but I know that they’re necessary.
Scott Scantlin 16:18
They have to be done right? I got to kind of put my preferences to the side and do what’s necessary to adjust to the market and move forward. Okay. and then and then what happens is, it doesn’t take, but you know, once I get past two or three things, it’s like anything you do, it’s easy, right? What’s the definition of easy? Something you can do? You know, you can do social media.
Okay. You can figure out mobile devices, you can talk with your thumbs, you can figure out how people are communicating. You can do it. And once you do it and get past it, now all of a sudden, once you knock something down, what presents itself a new potential. You know, every time he knocks up and down a new potential. And what we want to do is get people, you know, to just kind of bridge the gap.
Scott Scantlin 16:56
And once they get beyond the gap, the real gap should be the motivational gap, which is the potential gap, right? So every time you knock something down, there’s a new potential. Potential is the inherent driver drives everything that we do with the way we’re designed is to tackle new potential. And so that’s the world we live in a day. That’s how I’m working with companies on
Brad Wolff 17:31
And I want to highlight what you, what you just said there about that it’s an innate characteristic of human beings to want to develop. You don’t have to put that in there. It’s already there. So when people aren’t developing, there’s something getting in the way because we naturally want to do that. We don’t want to stay stuck. So I think that’s a really key thing. So you touched on dealing with overwhelm. Is there anything else you want to add? Do that because that’s something that in our
Scott Scantlin 18:17
Yeah! Absolutely! So, you know, one of the things we touched on in the book is, you know,
Scott Scantlin 19:04
That’s the 80 20 rule. And so, you know, we want to do is we want to list out another 15 or 20 things that that person does on a regular basis. And then we want to do is we just want to, you know section those things off, you know, ABC or D, you know, some things can be delegated some things have to be done by you that can be done at different times of the day, but we want to
Scott Scantlin 19:54
And then there’s a lot of things like where we waste a lot of time, you know, for example, we get our find ourselves caught up and you know, checking email, you know, first thing in the morning and you know, all of those types of things that come bog us down. You know, there’s methods and procedures and processes where, you know, some things need to be done at certain times and other things can be done on at other times of the day. So we just want to help people find out what the important two or three things are.
Scott Scantlin 20:35
You know, there’s always, if you ever heard of the term was always somebody behind you. That’s fat, ego, younger, smarter, faster. How about just willing, if somebody is willing to embrace this limitation and technology and social media and new forms of community vacation and working with multiple generations in the workforce and then, and they’re willing to go to join a trade association, it has to do with their particular job and learn those skills and go to those meetings and go to those events and read books and update their skills. Right? And they’re working on that.
That individual is going to use, going to out perform. It’s what we call, you know, the slight edge in the book. It’s called “The Aggregation of Marginal Gains”. There’s a chapter called “The Aggregation of Marginal Gains” and it’s about, you know, sir David Brailsford who you know, he is appointed the cycling coach for Britain who hasn’t won a gold medal.
Scott Scantlin 21:33
They won like one gold medal and like a hundred years. The laughingstock of Britain, you know,
They’re all looking for imperfections that they can improve. Like, you know, painting the floor certain colors that they could see dust that dust doesn’t get on the bike wheels or you know, making sure that they know how to wash their hands. Cause if you’re going to stand at the top of the podium, you can’t get sick, not even a little bit sick, right.
Scott Scantlin 22:19
They bring in a doctor and say here’s how you properly wash your hands so nobody gets sick. They bring their own pillows and their own beds to make sure they get a good night’s sleep and they take them with them. You know, the next thing you know, they’re winning all these metals. You know, that they ended up winning
Guess what? No performance, handsome drugs. What are you guys doing? Aggregation, Marginal Gains. Little 1% differences that seem to make no difference in the act of doing them. But over time that accumulates. And again, all
Scott Scantlin 22:58
One of them is reading books, listening to tapes, going to seminars, joins a trade association, treats their job
Brad Wolff 23:51
That’s a great point. And what I get out of that Scott is really prioritizing the persons individually, individuals, personal development. What I hear with all that is this person is doing the little things to keep developing, to keep getting a little bit better, especially in the areas where they need it the most because you can’t work on everything at one time. So they’re developing more as a human being, their effectiveness. And even if it seems like if you look at us one day and time, it seems like what they did was so marginally minuscule different. Over time those little things add up and there’s a synergy where each one boosts the other and it adds up to a huge difference. So I want to highlight that because I think people get discouraged sometimes because they want something that they’re going to do in a week and then they’re transformed.
Scott Scantlin 24:47
Yeah! It again, you know, it really is all the difference in the world. You
Brad Wolff 25:23
I would say that they probably died pretty quickly at that point, yeah!
Scott Scantlin 25:26
Yeah! So, you know, my
Brad Wolff 25:48
You know what she sounds like my mother who’s 91 and she said all of the friends from her peer group have died and she says, she learned years ago. You got to keep making younger friends. So that’s, my secretary is always guys, he’s always got friends because she purposefully selects younger,
Scott Scantlin 26:15
No, she’s my grandmother. It just, and this is the best, I glad you said that word. So I’m sitting next to my grandmother last night at my sister’s birthday, you know, at the Jojo’s, which is the little, you know, where they make the food right in front of him and the fire and everything. It’s crazy. And she sitting there and I’m explaining to my sister’s boyfriend about you know, I’ve
Scott Scantlin 27:01
Because when you look at their talent pool is so big, right? That it’s marginalizing their income potential now, right? Because all of a sudden it’s like, Oh wow, there’s thousands of these can do the exact same thing that can do the other person. So, you know, how do you compete at that level? And my grandmother’s sitting, miss. So I said, so they’re ready to make the adjustment and move forward. And, my grandmother sitting right next to me realizing this person has earned more money and she says, you know, it reminds me of my dad. You know, when we were little and he wasn’t making enough money to feed us, he had to make an adjustment. You know, way back in the day, you know, almost a hundred years ago, you know, we’re going, I’m going. You know, she’s just bringing it. It’s just all relevant isn’t it? You know, the more things change, the more they are roommates
Brad Wolff 27:50
Still the reality is things we’ve always had, human beings I’ve always had to adjust. It’s just we have to adjust a lot faster because the rate of change is increased, but the need to adjust to change has always been a requirement. It’s just become exponentially greater and the need to consciously choose to change has become greater because you’re faced with needing to change or become relevant quickly. You didn’t become irrelevant in a year back in your grandmother’s day. You became relevant over a decade or 25 years, but now a year you blink and you didn’t, you just stayed where you were and now you’re way behind and you can’t believe it. How could that be that a year could have that much impact?
Scott Scantlin 28:39
Yeah! And that’s
Scott Scantlin 29:27
And that’s why I say that I think for folks in positions, you know whether it’s a professional career or, you know, how do you add value at your job, you know, how do you bring value to
The company has to make the adjustment too because you know, people aren’t, you know, maybe somebody got marginalized a while ago and you’re trying to motivate people the way you motivated on 10, 15, 20 years ago. I mean we saw it happen in the sales divisions when the economy collapsed, right? And you know, everybody was struggling to kind of figure out how to see, how are we going to move the needle, right?
Scott Scantlin 30:13
Because there was like the middle needle is going down, we need to move needle back up and they, through promotions and incentives and vacations and everything and none of that drove the market. Okay. You don’t drive some market potential. That’s what drives people. And so companies got to understand how do I create potential for my employee, right in a week I’ve seen in companies where they are lacking succession planning and they didn’t have the succession plan put in place and now there’s this big void, right in the middle. They don’t have developed leaders because succession planning wasn’t there. And the reason that another factor that that bled into that was that there wasn’t in his company company’s particular company there wasn’t opportunity because people were getting in lifetime appointments.
You know, you’ve had a, you know, a regional manager who was, you know, it’s been appointed in and there was no opportunity for the guy down below to eventually become a regional manager. And so what they did was they, it, you know, employed or deployed you know, Hey, we’re not going to have, we’re going to have term limits here. You know, we’re going to, we’re going to have a one year commitment to these positions and then we’re going to go back and evaluate you. And by the way, this Gower here has the potential to be you. And without potential, there’s no motivator.
Brad Wolff 31:28
Right! People exempt discomfort in some tension to produce if comfort is the enemy of personal growth.
Scott Scantlin 31:35
Oh man! Absolutely! And I love the fact that you’re just keying on personal development. I think that is a choice people will make and will want to make as we move forward as they begin to understand, wait a minute, I don’t want to become irrelevant. I want to stay relevant in my career and my business and opportunity. I need to know what my potential is. But in order to be a part of that, you gotta make that conscious choice for
Brad Wolff 32:07
I want to highlight that before we close this out. That personal development becomes a skill that you become better and better at. And it’s the skill of personal development that allows you to keep adjusting because adjusting is personal development. It’s the ability to handle a greater capacity to handle whatever challenges life throws at you as the world changes. So that’s something that I really want to highlight is that if we look at that as a skill in and of itself, that is
Scott Scantlin 32:56
Yeah! So it’s called “The Relevance Gap”. So how to stay relevant and thrive in a
Brad Wolff 34:09
Absolutely! It’s a pleasure! You’re speaking, you’re speaking about things that really matter day to day and how the quality of life and effectiveness of people. So I really want to thank you for taking your time with that.
Scott Scantlin 34:21
Thank you! Brad. Appreciate it!
0 Comments