The Eric Schleien Podcast

May 6, 2022

#27: The Daily Inquiry with John King; Developer of Tribal Leadership

Eric Schleien, the founder of Transformational Leadership Associates, invites John King, the founder of Tribal Leadership, to share about the Daily Inquiry Practice in his classroom. This is an inside look at one of the Tribal Leadership seminars. About Eric Schleien Over the past decade, Eric Schleien has trained thousands of individuals, including board members of public companies and several Fortune 500 CEOs. Eric specializes in organizational culture and has become a leading authority on corporate culture in the investment industry. Eric Schleien has been investing for 15 years and has been using breakthrough coaching methodologies for over a decade. Eric had the insight to combine proven coaching methodologies with shareholder activism techniques to create an entirely new model for shareholder activism that was more reliable and created greater sustainable results in a short period. On average, Tribal Leadership produces a 3-5x increase in profits of culturally troubled companies within an average of 24 months or less. Eric currently resides in Philadelphia, PA. About John King John is in demand as a keynote speaker and is nationally recognized as a senior teacher, coach, and program leader. Clients of John's coaching practice have been featured on all major television networks and in The Wall Street Journal. John is part of the leadership development team at Sierra Health Foundation and is on faculty at Collier's University, CB Richard Ellis University, and The California Leadership Institute. John is also a frequent guest lecturer in the Marshall School of Business and the School of Public Policy, Planning, and Development at USC. Connect with Eric Schleien * Website * LinkedIn * Podbean * Facebook * Twitter * Instagram * YouTube * GSCM Transformational Leadership Associates This episode is sponsored by Transformational Leadership Associates (TLA) started by Eric Schleien. TLA is an ontological coaching firm that will help transform your culture of your organization within 2 days of training. Over the next 24 months, performance (whether it be profits or fundraising) go up on average of 3-5x. Of course, I am biased since I run the damn thing, but give me a call, and happy to see if I can help you and/or your organization. Transcript [00:00:00] John: You're always swimming in a cultural conversation. What is the highest and best that you can swim in? With the, in my case, I do something different every day of the week. I have a different idea or inquiry for every single day of the week. [00:00:17] John: And then I have a different scene. And then I have a different practice, which is a virtue and Wednesday, tomorrow the theme is going to be passion and the practice is going to be justice, but the question is going to be what is my highest aim. So what's going to be in the background all day long tomorrow for me is I wake up and I wake up into, what day is this Wednesday? [00:00:42] John: Oh, what is my highest state? And that today is about passion, passions of discovery. It's not something that the world owes me. It's something that I have to unfold. And and then the virtue that goes along with that is justice. [00:01:06] John: Yeah, rub it in your hair. [00:01:13] John: They done a, bait in the virtue bathe and the practice bathe and the theme babe, in the, whatever it is that you have designed that is your ecology for like today. Today is a day that's organized around relationship and the, and for me and did the and the virtue is one of temperance. [00:01:42] John: That goes with relationship because there's, while there's nothing more fulfilling, there's also nothing more annoying than ongoingly being in relationship and having to adjust and having to allow for and everything. So temperance is a very powerful thing. And then of course, the question of the day on Tuesdays and so where my partners, so it all goes together. [00:02:08] John: So have you basically crafted like the hierarchy of learning into almost a model for creating your week? Yeah. I call it my weekly. And every single day, seven days a week, I have a question or an inquiry that is in the background and then something that is a theme. That'd be the distinction actually. [00:02:32] John: And something that is a practice. That's the virtue. The idea being practice, the practice of virtue creates character and character on film unfolds destiny. So if I do this long enough and I do this consciously enough, over the period of a year, I will have done the same set of virtues 52 times the same set of practices, 52 times that same inquiry, 52 times, and I'll start getting better at, as I go along and it begins to in a very, it starts to adjust my my access to all that stuff. [00:03:22] John: That was points one and 0.2. The part about the college of your, the environment of what you're into, it just begins to. Have a huge influence on what that is now. Why is that important for a leader? Because generally speaking, we're living in a reactive world, things happen, we react to it. Things happen. [00:03:44] John: We react we live what is called a throne life. We, something happens, we're thrown in a certain way, but leadership is a particular design kind of conversation. It's a particular kind of conversation that is a life given by design. So if it's going to be a life given by design, at least it seems to me it's going to be a life that's given by design. [00:04:11] John: Then every single day, I should have some kind of inquiry that is empowering me being in the question of all day long, some sort of distinction that is in the background as of a practice of virtue like that. And over time that will, if I surrender myself to that, I don't try and improve it. [00:04:33] John: I don't try and fix it, but I just go this is useful for me. You do it, if you happen to be a Jewish and you're Orthodox, you take a look at what it is, what there is at the. And you practice, what you learned in the Torah. If you happen to be Christian, you've got the commandments, you've got the basic fundamentals of it. [00:04:57] John: If you happen to be a Muslim, there are all of those verses of the Koran that get up underneath you and help you and remind you to be who you are, and really are reminding you to be the best human being that you can be. So this is just another version of that, it's just another way of getting at it. [00:05:20] John: There's a lot of ways to get to happen. And I'm just making the case for that this particular leadership path. That's been one way. Yeah. My synopsis are just firing off as you're speaking. And I'm like, cause I love the way you frame it and I'm hearing from myself, some virtues for me are laughter and wonder beauty and I would say relationship, but gratitude from a space of gratitude. [00:05:46] John: And it's know some of those things are things that light me up and just move me to the wonder, like that's someone, Dylan, Bob, Dylan always brings me to. So like the other day I was really lost, not grounded. What what is the answer? What do I do? was talking to my triad, talking to Eric and like dealing with the breakdown and. [00:06:04] John: And it was like one looking for the answer. And then it was like always Dylan always bringing me back to the question. And so that's wonder for me. Yeah. That's remarkable and really smart or be thrown all day long and have no value. And okay, maybe tomorrow it'll be better and you wake up or you actually go to that, which sources you in your case, Dylan, that which sources you to be your highest and best. [00:06:35] John: Yeah. Just really great. We all have to find our own way. Yeah. Yeah. Dylan or Guthrie will just bring me right [00:06:43] Eric: back to [00:06:44] John: greater than me. Yeah. Yeah. They're up to something, that's really, what triads are about is the, up to something bigger than you. [00:06:54] John: Yeah. Somebody once said to me, they were describing me to an…

23 min