"Leadership isn't just about making decisions and giving orders. It's about building resilience and mental strength and guiding your team through adversity.” In this episode of Executive Evolution, host Craig Anderson sits down with leadership speaker and author Scott Mautz to discuss the essentials of becoming a mentally strong leader. Join us as Scott shares invaluable insights from his extensive research and new book, The Mentally Strong Leader. You’ll learn how to stop chasing approval, start chasing authenticity, and develop the mental strength you need to lead effectively. Tune in to learn practical tools for building resilience, making smart decisions, and maintaining a positive presence.

After You Listen:

• Get your copy of Good to Great by Jim Collins
• Connect with Scott on LinkedIn
• Get Scott’s book, The Mentally Strong Leader
• Check out Scott’s website
• Connect with Craig on LinkedIn
• Check out Craig’s monthly free training on holding difficult conversations

Key Takeaways:

1. Quit chasing approval and embrace your authenticity and trust you were chosen for a reason
2. Build mental strength by regulating emotions, thoughts, and behaviors even in tough situations
3. Prepare for difficult conversations by imagining sitting next to the person, not across

Things to listen for:

• [02:40] Lightning round with Scott
• [06:55] The importance of mental strength in leadership
• [11:12] The balance between confidence and vulnerability
• [21:31] Advice Scott would give to his younger self
• [24:08] Craig's takeaways

Scott's Transcript:

[00:00:00] Craig P. Anderson: My heart started racing and I broke out in a cold sweat. Five salespeople had just quit in one day. Welcome to Executive Evolution. I have over 25 years of leadership experience in corporate America. I learned a lot of lessons the hard way, and I created this podcast so that you won't have to.

[00:00:23] The background is a long story, but the business I was running was torn between two large corporation. Everything that mattered was keeping the team together. And suddenly five of my best salespeople had quit due to the lucrative offers given to them by one of the two companies. I was still early on in my leadership career and panic was setting in.

[00:00:45] I did break out in a sweat. My heart was going a million miles a minute because I didn't see the way out. I didn't see a way to move forward. I didn't yet have the mental strength and resilience that I would develop over time and experience in my own executive evolution. And I tell that story because it is the story of leadership, those things that seem so intense in the moment because it's the first time they've ever happened to you really are something that over time you realize are things that happen and things that you will grow into.

[00:01:16] And it's not always the end of the world. You will build the resilience, you will build the mental strength, and you learn to be maybe not okay with it, but you will learn to handle it. And that's really important. And today we're going to be talking on executive evolution with Scott mautz. He's a leadership speaker and he has just written a book called the mentally strong leader.

[00:01:38] And in this episode, we talk about how developing that strong mental game is going to make you an effective leader. So let's jump right into today's interview.

[00:01:47] Scott Mautz: Scott, welcome to Executive Evolution. I'm so glad to have you on the show this week.

[00:01:56] Thanks for having me here, Craig. I appreciate what you do. We can all evolve together. I like it.

[00:02:02] Craig P. Anderson: you know, you've been around leaders a long time. You've been coaching and training and speaking to leadership. So I believe today we have a really great opportunity to leverage your knowledge of how you see leaders evolving out in the real world with people that you work with every day and really kind of add a lot of flavor to what we're talking about here to help our young leaders grow.

[00:02:19] Cause it is not the easiest thing in the world to be a new leader. They, you get thrown to the wolves in many cases. So anything we can do to help informationally is important.

[00:02:28] Scott Mautz: That's right. Oh, and on top of that, by the way, Craig, we have this thing called, remote leadership now, too, in a world where half our days are spent not next to the person we have to lead. it's not getting any easier.

[00:02:40] Craig P. Anderson: No, it is not. Yeah, you're right. It's everything just kind of layers at this point. So, well, Scott always here on executive evolution, before we jump into your story, we like to go through the lightning round. So are you ready to jump through our lightning round? It never quite goes lightning. Cause I get too involved in the answers, but we'll do our best to get through

[00:02:57] Scott Mautz: I'll do my best to answer quicker. Let's do it.

[00:03:00] Craig P. Anderson: all right. Well, setting aside the books you've written on leadership, what is the best leadership book you have ever read?

[00:03:06] Scott Mautz: Good to great. Jim Collins. Classic.

[00:03:09] Craig P. Anderson: that is like my go to book.

[00:03:11] Scott Mautz: Yes. It's so the concept of good to great is so applicable in so many ways. I asked like when you ask someone defined for me boss, what good leadership is versus great leadership. The answer can help you discern exactly what they expect from you. So I still use it as a model to this day.

[00:03:29] Craig P. Anderson: Yeah, there's so many principles in it. I used to do a different podcast and I swore about every third example I gave came from that book to the point where my podcast partner was like, have you ever read another book? I said, not many as good as that one for sure. All right. next question.

[00:03:44] Who is your leadership crush? Who do you really hold up out there as a great leader today?

[00:03:48] Scott Mautz: Colin Powell,

[00:03:49] Craig P. Anderson: Okay. Why so?

[00:03:50] Scott Mautz: discipline, emotionally intelligent, just the epitome of mental strength, which we'll talk more about later in this episode, but he's someone I've admired for a long time.

[00:04:02] Craig P. Anderson: Yeah, there's something to be said about that military leadership style and then evolving to that level of leadership in the military and having gone through those experiences, happen to have a relative who's a retired three star Air Force general, and it's,a different level of just focus and calm in many ways.

[00:04:21] Scott Mautz: And rigor as well. And just the decision making prowess. Yeah, I've been a fan for a long time.

[00:04:27] Craig P. Anderson: Great. All right. And 10 words or less, how do you define leadership?

[00:04:34] Scott Mautz: I would tie it to, my definition of mental strength, actually. Which is, in ten words or less, here we go, so we can count, the ability to regulate your emotions, thoughts, and behaviors productively.

[00:04:49] Craig P. Anderson: I like it. I actually have a person I work with who defines leadership is the ability to take on the weight of it better than other

[00:04:56] Scott Mautz: Oh, I like that too. Yeah.

[00:04:58] Craig P. Anderson: until you've sat in the chair. I don't think you really know what it's like to be a leader when you feel all that sitting on you.

[00:05:06] Scott Mautz: It's so true, and I feel like, tell me if you think this is true, Craig. I think the light turns on for new leaders when they realize It's not all about you when you become a leader. It's, about the ecosystem, not the ego system. Once you understand that, things change your leadership skills start to come to the surface.

[00:05:25] Craig P. Anderson: Yeah, I think so often when you're maybe looking up to that leader, you see it's what you think it is, right? You see that you think it's all, nobody tells me what to do. I get to make decisions. I create the pressure for people. I don't feel the pressure. And then you get into that role and you realize that everyone's looking to you to decide how to react to things, how to prioritize things.

[00:05:46] one of my big light, bulb moments sitting in that chair was realizing how even my smallest utterance now had incredible weight.

[00:05:54] Scott Mautz: People will do what you ask them to do, especially if they're type A. to your point, Craig, I always think about it as, leaders live life in a fishbowl. People are watching you from every angle. They're tapping on the glass to see how you'll react if you're alive in there.

[00:06:11] They're tracking your every move, going around in circles, or are you going someplace with purpose? so yeah, you're right. your words carry an incredible amount of volume and weight to them when you become a leader.

[00:06:22] Craig P. Anderson: Yeah. So that's a great definition. Thanks for sharing that. Well, Scott, we always like to talk about people early on in their leadership career, the lessons they learn there, and then how they apply them and what that does to their leadership style later in their career. And obviously your work is very important.

[00:06:38] And I love kind of that. the mindset piece that you focus so much on the mental strength. So maybe we could start as you've been in your experience in your own career, working with leaders. What are some of the big challenges that young leaders face as they get moved into these roles?

[00:06:55] Scott Mautz: Yeah, a lot of them have to do with, especially in today's work world, Craig, mental strength. And again, I define it as the ability to regulate your emotions, your thoughts, and your behaviors productively, even in adversity. It's said another way, Craig. it's managing internally so you can lead externally.

[00:07:12] And in today's world, to your question, I think we all intuitively know, Craig, that we need to do that. We need to regulate our emotions, thoughts, and behaviors to succeed. But this just in, here's a secret I want to share with you. That's really hard. It's really hard, especially as a new leader, to control, to regulate in a productive way, how you're thinking, how you're emoting, how you're acting and showing up to the organization.

[00:07:40] So I especially find, because mental strength equates to six mental muscles in particular, I find young leaders to differing degrees, struggle with flexing some of these mental muscles. Those mental muscles being fortitude, confidence, boldness, decision making, The ability to stay focused on your goals and the ability to mass message positively to the organization.

[00:08:05] Keep a positive veneer to the things you're saying and a quality to your presence, a level of engagement to your intent into your presence. So I find that for young leaders is really important. Particularly growing hard to stay mentally strong because there are so many stressors out there in the system, Craig, that can just cause us to doubt ourselves our resilience to crumble the work world today.

[00:08:29] I don't have to tell you. It's not getting any easier. There's all kinds of causes for self doubt. The more and more that we go to a remote world where we don't even know how people are reacting to the leadership that we're engaging in, it's getting harder and harder to show, your mentally strong side.

[00:08:46] Craig P. Anderson: So I think that's a big part of, what young leaders need to work on in today's podcasts just in those things you've identified. And when I think about that, the first thing that kind of came to my mind is, you talked about that prioritization and making some of those decisions and there's so much input coming into them today.

[00:09:06] how many reports come out of, whatever CRM I'm using, whatever the crisis of the day is, whatever this is, How do they start building that muscular strength, that mental muscle to prioritizing those things? Because it always feels like I must do the thing that's on fire first, but that's not always the right decision,

[00:09:22] Scott Mautz: Not always the right decision and prioritization is, of course, a key part of mental strength. As is understanding, Craig. How strong you are mentally in the different capacities. So you know where to prioritize and I'll give you an example. in a book I have coming out May 7th, the mentally strong leader, you could take a mental strength self assessment to determine your overall mental strength.

[00:09:43] And you can also get scores on each of the mental muscles. We were talking about fortitude, confidence, boldness, decision making, goal focus, and your messaging to the troops. Is it positive in its intent and its takeaway? And. When you take that assessment, you start to figure out which muscles to prioritize, which ones are going to require more work on strengthening, more habits to build than the other ones, and it allows you to build a customized mental strength.

[00:10:11] Because when you think about it, when you go to the gym, you don't go in with a mindset of, I'm going to go in and work on every muscle today for 10 hours straight, right? Wednesday is your back day, Thursday is your leg day. So by taking a mental strength self assessment, you could discern which muscles you have to flex through your own customized mental strength training program that's available to you in the Mentally Strong Leader.

[00:10:32] And then to your point, Craig, You can prioritize what you need to work on first, what comes as a natural strength that you don't even have to think about and you don't even have to prioritize per se because it comes so naturally versus the areas where you're going to really, really have to work, like confidence.

[00:10:49] We know for a fact that a lot of people are not as confident as they claim that they are that they need to be effective leaders.

[00:10:57] Craig P. Anderson: Yeah. That is so true you know, and how do you balance that out? When we talk a lot today about vulnerability and leadership, right? as we talked about, It's the vision you project. It's the confidence that you have, but we're also encouraging leaders today to be more vulnerable.

[00:11:10] Where does that balance into the system?

[00:11:12] Scott Mautz: it's, it's all about, making sure that you exude the proper, you know, executive presence while you're showing vulnerability. And, you know, I have a tool in the Mentally Strong Leader that helps you figure out how to create a level of executive presence. But most of it is, such a victory.

[00:11:28] When you start by understanding the power, Craig, of being vulnerable, I'll give you a perfect, example here. when you want to talk to someone and have a difficult conversation, and I talk about this in the Mellon Strong Leader, a tool about how to actually go about having a difficult conversation.

[00:11:47] A key part of that is, Being vulnerable, being able to admit up front. Hey, this is a tough discussion for me. I screwed up in these ways. When I didn't do this, youthis happened. when you can become more vulnerable, and by the way, you know, you're ready to be vulnerable in a conversation when you could picture and say, all right, I can imagine that when I have this discussion with a person, I'm going to imagine that I'm actually sitting next to them, not across the table from them, that I'm ready to put my problem.

[00:12:17] In front of us, not between us when you're ready to be vulnerable and you're ready to think about the discussion that way, like you're literally sitting next to the person, not across the table from them. That tells you the power of vulnerability because it says I'm ready to put my arm around you, tell you what I screwed up and imagine a difficult discussion.

[00:12:36] Craig, imagine the difference in the tone of, if you and I were gonna have a tough discussion and I sat literally sat next to you, Metaphorically, putting my arm around you, admitting my role in the toughness of the discussion. Imagine the tone and the power of that versus being cold and calculating, not vulnerable at all, sitting across the table from you and dictating the terms of here's what's tough about this discussion, here's what you need to improve, the two things are, couldn't be more different.

[00:13:03] the more that people can consider the power of what vulnerability does for you, in a relationship, the more I think they feel okay and they'll get the balance right. And bringing that to the table while also coming across confident.

[00:13:16] Craig P. Anderson: is, that's a great area to talk about for new leaders, because it's not a skill that they necessarily had to have. Before they were promoted into it. And I think also creates a lot of anxiety in either one. Will I do it right? Or it doesn't create anxiety because they don't know how important that conversation is going to be.

[00:13:32] And they just blunder into it. So really thinking through that is such a key part, because if you can do those, well, a lot of other problems under your leadership are going to disappear because you're able to have frank conversations with the people in front of you and with

[00:13:47] Scott Mautz: Yeah, that's, that's exactly right. And as long as you know how to prepare for difficult conversations and then have them and then actually conduct them. And oh, by the way, the key to preparing for difficult conversations to understand that the source of tension you expect in that difficult conversation dictates how you should actually prepare.

[00:14:06] For that conversation. So I'll give you an example. let's say, Craig, I report to you and we're going to have a difficult conversation, but I know going in the source of tension is the power structure, which it often is in a difficult discussion, meaning you're going to have 11 of three sources, either.

[00:14:23] The person you're going to talk to has more power than you, which means you're going to enter that with a sense of tension of like, I might be intimidated. I might shut down. I might not say all the things on my mind. The power structure might be different. You may have more power than the person you're having that discussion with.

[00:14:39] Which means you worry about crushing their spirit, coming on too strong, or you may have equal power to that person you're having the tough discussion with, like a peer, which you may be thinking, they might not listen to me because they don't have to, they don't report to me, this could get really frustrating and aggravating.

[00:14:54] So in the case of our example, let's say, report to you, Craig, and I want to sit down and give you some tough feedback. Let's have a tough conversation. I know. That's going to be tough because you have more power than me. And the way that you prepare for that is simply by committing to change your patterns.

[00:15:11] When the power structure is at question. I can't change the fact that you have more power than me, Craig. I can't change that. Never will be able to. What I can change is my patterns and showing up with you. Showing up in relationship to the fact that I know you got more power than me, but you know what this time I'm not going to cave like I usually do i'm going to speak my mind i'm going to be firm I'm, not just going to turn into a yes, man.

[00:15:34] You can control your patterns in that sense so it can be a big part of mental strength as long as you know how to prepare for and conduct those difficult conversations,

[00:15:44] Craig P. Anderson: Yeah. and for those new leaders who don't have a well developed set of these,skills, they haven't really focused on them. They probably didn't get a lot of training in how to be a leader. They were just given the leadership role and they haven't had a lot of mentoring maybe. So what happens to those leaders who don't develop those strengths?

[00:16:03] where do things start to unravel for them soonest?

[00:16:06] Scott Mautz: happens is when the leaders don't develop the habits Of good leadership And I'll give you an example we were talking before about, book, The Mentally Strong Leader. It's built on habit building science. Which says that, three core things. If you want to become a better leader, if you want to become mentally stronger, which as we opened up in the speed round, that's my definition of great leadership, being mentally strong, having the ability to regulate your emotions, thoughts, and behaviors.

[00:16:36] If you want to do that, you have to build the habits to do that. Habit building science teaches us. Some key things. First, you got to have repetitions. You want to create a habit, you got to repeat things. When great leaders don't develop the habits for great leadership, they don't repeat things and things begin to break down.

[00:16:53] So the first sign of breakdown is when they don't have systems and frameworks in place. For example, in the Mentally Strong Leader, there's over 50 different tools that you can use to build mental strength habits. and each tool shows up as a system in their framework to give you the repetitions.

[00:17:10] Second, Rule of habit building science is you got to take that first small step. And in the mentally strong leader, every tool, every habit has a section titled your first small step. So you know how to get started in building that habit. And then third, and you were talking about where do things break down?

[00:17:27] They break down in moments of weakness and in the mentally strong leader, every habit, all 50 plus of them have a section called in moments of weakness. So, you know exactly what to do when things go south. So for example when you can feel your confidence a key part

[00:17:49] Yep.

[00:18:05]

[00:18:09] Scott Mautz: It turns south for leaders when they don't have those systems and frameworks in place to help them habitualize the things that make them great leaders to begin with.

[00:18:17] Craig P. Anderson: Yeah, no, I think that's right. Is more you can start to have self awareness, which is to me is something I talked to leaders about is I think it lines into your mentally strong as you have to have self awareness to see where you're not doing things right. And to realize you're not perfect all the time and where you're having an impact.

[00:18:34] So that self awareness and then getting into some of the lessons you're teaching in the book, picking all those things up so I can start to build those strengths is the key. Once they've done that, now they've moved on and they're in a more experienced leader. does that start to show up for that kind of 20 year veteran leader who really displays this mental strength?

[00:18:53] What the impact that has on the organization when you have a mentally strong leader in place?

[00:18:59] Scott Mautz: I did, I've been doing research on the topic of mental strength for almost three decades. and one piece of research in particular I conducted was incredibly telling. And you know, you're talking about a guy who thinks about mental strength all the time. It's why I wrote the book. I was so eager to share what I learned.

[00:19:13] But one piece of research in particular stuck out. I asked over 3, 000 executives the following question. Thinking of the highest achieving organizations you've ever been a part of, that overcame the most obstacles along the way, what were the attributes of the key leader at that point in time? Check this out, Craig.

[00:19:31] Over 91 percent of over 3, 000 executives all said mental strength in some way, shape, or form. the respondents didn't know they were describing mental strength, and they didn't even necessarily always use the words. Mental strength, but they were describing the mental muscles of mental strength for leaders that had incredible fortitude and resilience that were supremely confident, that were bold and took smart risks, that stayed focused on the goals and kept the organization focused on the goals that were decisive and made good decisions.

[00:20:06] And that had a positive aura about them with their messaging that was motivating and inspirational. I really think to your question, what happens when you get A mentally strong leader. My data proves it out. You get achievement. Mental strength is what makes great leaders great in today's work world.

[00:20:24] It's what helps achievers achieve. And I have unending amount of data that proves the correlation.

[00:20:31] Craig P. Anderson: Yeah, and so they really do start to see kind of going back to good to great that starts driving into the great company because that great leader is keeping people focused, keeping things in perspective, helping people drive strength through adversity, right? Because every company is going to go through adversity and they become that, source of strength for the whole organization and it flows from them.

[00:20:53] Is that, am I

[00:20:54] Scott Mautz: Yeah. I think you have it right, Craig. And it's helpful to think about it in the opposite for just a second to, given where we are in today's work world, like you said, the amount of adversity, the amount of resilience we have to show every day, the amount of things out there that can cripple our self doubt or create self doubt like that, that can crush our confidence.

[00:21:10] Thinking about today's chaotic work world, imagine an organization where the leader was not. Mentally strong. Didn't have fortitude, the resilience, confidence, and boldness, decision making, goal focus. Imagine a leader who wasn't mentally strong. I can't picture a world where that works and the organization still achieves.

[00:21:31] Craig P. Anderson: Yeah, no, I, I agree. So Scott, you've got a lot of advice and a lot of these areas of mental strength and developing it. But for that new leader out there, listening to the podcast, who just wants that one thing, what is that one piece of advice that you would give that person who just.

[00:21:49] It's Monday morning. I just started out as a new leader. I've got the title. I got the office. Maybe I've just got the zoom room, but I'm here. What's the one piece of advice that will help them get on that path to mentally strong leadership?

[00:22:03] Scott Mautz: chasing approval. Start chasing authenticity. Remember that you've already been elected. You hold office. You are now a leader of others. Things change. People now look to you like you said your words ripple have a ripple effect. You have already been elected. You don't need to run for office anymore.

[00:22:22] You don't need to spend time seeking approval with your decisions. Am I doing the right thing? You were put in that role for a reason. Believe in yourself. Believe in your capabilities. Shut down the inner demon, the inner critic that we all have. I even have tools in the Mentally Strong Leader to help you do that to stop the negative inner chatter.

[00:22:41] And just remember. This is about chasing authenticity. Not approval. It's about focusing on giving love, not winning love.

[00:22:50] Craig P. Anderson: Fantastic. Fantastic. Scott, this was really helpful. And I know this is going to help a lot of the listeners out there if they want to know more about you, Scott, or follow you, where can they find

[00:23:00] Scott Mautz: You can find me at scottmautz. com And I put together a free gift for your listeners, if they go to scottmautz. com Mentally strong gift It's all one, collection of words. They can download a free 60 page PDF, which includes the mental strength self assessment so they can get their overall mental strength score and score by each mental muscle and then what to do about it.

[00:23:27] And they get prompts to get the most out of the book, the mentally strong leader as well. So if they want scottmouths. com slash mentally strong gift.

[00:23:35] Craig P. Anderson: Absolutely. That's fantastic. And we will drop links to that, into your LinkedIn and the show notes and your book comes out, the mentally strong leader on May 7th, 2024. Is

[00:23:44] that correct?

[00:23:45] Scott Mautz: That is correct. Very excited about it. getting a lot of accolades. Dan Pink has weighed in on it already calling it an indispensable guide and a whole bunch of CEOs. So I really do feel like it can provide genuine value to your listeners.

[00:23:57] Craig P. Anderson: Great. Well, thank you so much, Scott. Thanks for being on and sharing your wisdom and the story of how you see executives evolving into successful, mentally strong leaders. Thank you so

[00:24:06] much.

[00:24:07] Scott Mautz: Thank you, Craig.

[00:24:08] Craig P. Anderson:

[00:24:11] Thanks again, Scott, for that great interview. So many insights about how. Building a strong mental game will make you an effective leader. It's really such a crucial piece and the more you can start to realize that early on in your career, the better you will be. I'm not telling you it's easy, but you really want to be aware of it.

[00:24:30] As always, at the end of every episode, I like to break down the key takeaways Into the areas of confidence, confidence, and calm in this episode, the area of confidence, Scott talked about, I love this line that as a new leader, as a first time leader, quit seeking approval and strive for authenticity. You have this job because someone believed in you, you interviewed well, you performed well, you got the role.

[00:24:53] You've already been there. You're on the stage. Everybody has your back. It's time for you to move forward. That's the confidence you need in that first leadership role. In the area of competence, what we talked about is developing that mental strength. And a lot of that early on for you is going to be about having self awareness realizing when am I not communicating a good vision and message to my team?

[00:25:16] When am I second, guessing myself? When am I not doing the things that I need to do to be an effective leader? As Scott and I talked about, everybody's looking to you. You're in that fish tank that he talked about. And competence starts with building self awareness to say, These are the things that are coming to me.

[00:25:33] These are the risks that I face. This is how I'm presenting. Don't believe your own story. Really sit back and look at it objectively. And that's going to allow you to start to build the mental strengths that we talked about. And then finally, in the area of calm, it's that resilience. It's that idea that it's not really new.

[00:25:50] It's just new to you. Realize that a lot of these situations that you're facing that are giving you anxiety, that are stressing you out. That are the challenges that you face are things you're going to face again in your career and you're going to learn how to manage those things. So give yourself that perspective to develop that sense of calm that you need.

[00:26:09] So thanks again to Scott for a great story today about how executives can evolve into mentally strong leaders. Remember, you can go from being an accidental leader to the greatest of all time leaders. All it takes is developing your confidence, competence, and calm. See you next time on Executive Evolution.