] Luke: Everybody. Welcome back to the TPL Show. First off, I think wemaybe owe the listeners an apology.[00:10]Dave: Why is that?[00:11]Luke: Well, we haven't recorded them.[00:12]Dave: Well, that's true. We certainly got distracted by hot projects andthe holidays and all that stuff.[00:21]Luke: So 2023 New Year.[00:26]Dave: Happy New Year.[00:28]Luke: Happy New Year to all of our listeners. Yeah. So here we are.We're recording in our new recording studio.[00:36]Dave: Yes. We vacated the loft, and we now have studio space.[00:45]Luke: Studio space? Yeah.[00:46]Dave: In downtown Lebanon, Ohio.[00:48]Luke: It's very fancy.[00:49]Dave: Yeah, it's very fancy.[00:50]Luke: There are sound dead named panels on the wall in this room.[00:57]Dave: Yeah.[00:57]Luke: I don't know if that works, but it's there.[00:59]Dave: But there's no giant semicircular window that makes you feel likeyou're in Sam Spade’s detective office. I miss that.[01:08]Luke: And you're not going to hear fire trucks.[01:10]Dave: That's true.[01:10]Luke: Down the street.[01:11]Dave: Yeah.  Later. Eleven is nolonger a block away.[01:15]Luke: If you do hear a fire truck, it's probably something serious,because it's probably inside this building.[01:19]Dave: Yeah.[01:20]Luke: So just FYI.[01:21]Dave: Yeah.[01:22]Luke: Okay. All right, let's move on with today's episode. So today weare going to be talking about the little guy.[01:32]Dave: The little guy.[01:34]Luke: So, let's get into it.[01:35]Dave: Okay.[01:37]Luke: I'm Luke. [01:38]Dave: I'm Dave.[01:39]Luke: And this is the TPL Show.[01:49]Narrator: Welcome to The TPL Show, a podcast dedicated to the study anddiscussion of leadership. Join us as we share relevant, simple, and lastingmethods for improvement that can be used to lead from any level in anyorganization.[02:20]Luke: All right, the little guy. Dave, tell us, who is the little guy?[02:25]Dave: Okay, so the little guy is a version of yourself that lives inyour head. It's an inner voice that seeds doubt, fear, and self-hatred. Thelittle guy is a dark part of you that tears you down and pushes you to be pettyand negative. It's an inner voice that we must all overcome if we seek to livehappy, healthy lives.[02:57]Luke: So, everybody has a form of this.[03:00]Dave: Everybody has some form of this dark inner voice, which we atAvenulo call the little guy.[03:09]Luke: Is this a version of . . . would you call this a version of self-conscience?[03:15]Dave: Sure. So, in ancient times, people described what was going oninside our heads with stories, with characters, with themes. They couldcertainly observe these things, but they couldn't study them veryscientifically.[03:39]Dave: Right.[03:40]Dave: So, since ancient times, a common view of what's going on inside ahuman mind is that there are many voices inside of us. And these voices formkind of a chorus in the ancient Greek sense. Right. And they respond andcomment and so forth as you're moving through your day and life. And so there'sthis one negative voice in the chorus, which we call the little guy. So, that'swhat it is. So, we're talking about leadership. Right. And we're always talkingabout increasing ways to think, plan and lead – TPL.  So that you can be an effective leader. And the whole premise of the show is that no matter where you are on yourleadership journey if you study and practice the science and the art ofleadership, you'll become a way better leader than you are now. So, you canemploy this study of leadership and become a better and better leader. It's acontinuous improvement approach to your leadership capability. And so it's timeto talk about the little guy, because everybody has a little guy in their head,and leaders have to address this to become the best leaders they can be. So,that takes us to the ‘Why”.  We usuallydo this, what, why, how in our format. Right?[05:20]Luke: And today we're doing the who.[05:23]Dave: Yeah, today we're doing the who, why, how. Because it's the littleguy. So, we've talked about who. So, what. Why is it important to overcome thelittle guy for leaders?[05:34]Luke: Okay? It's important because to lead well, leaders need the fullcapacity of their minds. They must have time to think, and those thoughts haveto be very clear.[05:47]Dave: Sure.[05:48]Luke: This little guy robs leaders of valuable thinking time, and thatresults in less effective solutions, less inspirational interaction, and evenless time leading.[06:03]Dave: Sure, it does.  Yeah.[06:05]Dave: If you think of our brains as kind of like a computer, we onlyhave so much space available to process things. And if we clog it all up withthese unproductive, maybe even counterproductive thoughts of the little guy,we're reducing the capacity we have to think, plan, and lead.[06:28]Luke: For the good stuff.[06:29]Dave: Yeah.[06:30]Luke: Full of the bad.[06:32]Dave: For the good stuff.  Yeah.  Great way to say it. Okay, so that's at theheart of the matter. Is it's important because to be a better and betterleader, you have to learn how to overcome this little guy in your head becausethe little guy is destructive, distracting, and takes you off task.[06:54]Luke: Do you think most leaders are aware of the little guy?[06:57]Dave: I don't think so. As a matter of fact, when we train Sensei in ourorganization, which are the internal consultants of our clients, and we talkabout the little guys, we caution them quite carefully not to use this as awidely spread lesson plan or approach because some people can be very offendedby even the notion that there are voices in their head or that there arenegative thoughts dominating their thinking. So, it's something to know aboutfor sure. But I don't think many leaders think about this. And if you look atthe literature, not much is written or taught about this idea about how youhave to overcome this kind of negative aspect of self.[07:56]Luke: That's true. You see a lot of stuff out there about self-love andtrying to inspire positive thinking, but it doesn't really address thisspecific.[08:10]Dave: Yeah, it almost talks around it.[08:13]Luke: It's like, yeah, you can have negative thoughts, but it's notreally an ongoing thing that you have to battle.[08:22]Dave: Yeah.  And so, if you sitquietly with your thoughts and kind of become aware of your thoughts, you cankind of push yourself aside for a minute and just watch your thoughts. Right?  Many times we're saying things to ourselveslike, I'm stupid, I screwed that up. I'll never get that. Right. Nobody likesme. They don't recognize my authority. My boss doesn't support me. On and onand on, these kinds of thoughts race through our minds and just clog it up.[08:56]Luke: A lot of the times, that inner voice is not intentionally, but alot of the times, it's negative.[09:05]Dave: Yeah.[09:05]Luke: It's just the way we've been raised or the way we grew up, it justkind of always stemmed to a negative state.[09:14]Dave: Sure.[09:14]Luke: It doesn't always have to be that way. And of course, withpractice, as we're talking about, you can get into that positive mindset thatreduces the negative thought.[09:24]Dave: Yeah.  So when we talk aboutthe why, we've got this why about it just is unproductive because it limits thegood thinking that you need to do. But there's also this very kind of realisticaspect, which is if you're not doing that good thinking, then you're sub-optimizingthe results that you achieve. And if you are doing that good thinking, you'reoptimizing more and more the results you achieve. And people are studying thiswhen we have a positive inner voice and we apply that to leadership, we get abetter outcome.  We get better results.  And those results promote better results anda more positive view and a more positive outcome. And you get this cycle ofvery positive things when you minimize this negative voice in you.[10:26]Luke: Okay, how does somebody do this?[10:29]Dave: Yeah.[10:30]Luke: So how can somebody overcome this negative little guy in theirhead?[10:37]Dave: Sure. So, it's simple if we talk about the how to, it's simple inthe list. It's simple in talking about it. When you make the checklist of whatare the things you do, it's very simple. But it's actually more challengingthan it sounds. Right. So, we need to keep that in mind and not kind of be glibabout it. When we're talking about this is a process that can take some time.  [11:06]Luke: That makes sense.  It's notsomething it's not a switch that you just flip on and off.[11:09]Dave: Yeah. So, the first thing is to acknowledge that the little guydoes indeed occupy space in your head and commit to contain it.[11:20]Luke: There's the awareness.[11:20]Dave: There's the awareness.  Right.  So, yes, this little guy is rolling around inthere. He's taking up valuable time. He's sub-optimizing my ability to lead,which is then sub-optimizing the organization. It's causing people to bedisengaged. Whatever.[11:42]Luke: It's a trickle-down effect.[11:44]Dave: It's a trickle-down effect. Right. So, to acknowledge the littleguy is there and then set a commitment in your mind to put a stop to that orcontain it. So that's the first thing so the second thing is, then keep thatlittle guy contained.[12:04]Luke: Lock him up.[12:05]Dave: Lock him up. So, this is easier said than done, right? And so,every time the little guy starts talking in your mind, you have to startbuilding the habit of, hey, stop it. Be quiet, and quiet that negative innervoice. And just put it aside, right? Let it die, let it drift away, and soforth. And a very simple way to do that is to start when you're making bigdecisions. You've got important interactions throughout that process. Just toask yourself periodically, am I keeping the little guy out of this? Is thelittle guy showing up here? And this is a question you're asking inside yourown mind. And you're answering and then adjusting accordingly. So, the path fordoing this is just practicing it.  Thinkingabout it, and you build your own very specific how-to in terms of how to keepthe little guy contained. Some people sit for a minute quietly and refocus.Some people might exercise, some might rest, right? Some might go do a sport,get with a loved one, whatever it might be. You'll find your own way throughthis if you become aware that when that little guy surfaces, you quell that andthen work on keeping that little guy contained.[13:26]Luke: And I, of course, think that the more you practice this, thebetter your awareness becomes, obviously.[13:34]Dave: Yeah.  Right.[13:35]Luke: So once you're used to checking in and saying, okay, am I keepingthe little guy out of this? It becomes more natural and subconsciously. I thinkyou are already starting to do that by removing that negative thought.[13:52]Dave: Yeah.[13:52]Luke: Does that make sense?[13:53]Dave: It makes perfect sense. In an episode in the near future, we'll talkabout leadership kata. So kata is the thing that martial arts students andexperts use often. They're called forms. Kata is the thing they use tospecifically move in certain defensive or offensive postures to make that punchor kick, or to make that body throw. And you repeat these again and again andagain as you study a martial art until you become so proficient in them, youcan do them automatically.[14:29]Luke: Just train your body to make that movement.[14:31]Dave: Yeah.  And then that givesyou this advantage in the moment when you're having to defend yourself, etcetera.[14:36]Luke: It's a reaction versus . . . [14:41]Dave: So, the great leader and engineer Taichi Ono, of course,knew about this idea of kata. And he kind of transformed the way you can thinkabout management and saying, not only are there physical kata but there areleadership kata. So, there are things you can do, five questions in a row youcan ask, or three things you can do. And it forms a leadership kata. And thenyou can practice those over and over and over again until you become veryproficient at them. And it really increases your leadership. So, we'll talkabout those in some detail in another episode. But right now, I mentioned allthat just to say this.  This idea ofchecking in with yourself and keeping the little guy out of it. It's a uniqueand personal leadership kata that you build, but it's an inner kata. You're notasking the question outside with others. You're asking or going through thatprocess, whatever it might be for you, that kata to contain the little guy.You're developing a personal internal kata to contain the little guy.[15:46]Luke: Yeah.[15:47]Dave: So, that's keep the little guy contained. Another thing you can dois optimize your inner coach. Just like there's this little guy that'snegative. There's an inner coach that's an inner voice, but it's verydifferent, very different than the little guy.[16:04]Luke: This is the positive side?[16:05]Dave: It's the positive side. The little guy hates you and wants you tobe destroyed. Right. The inner coach loves you and wants you to prosper,succeed, and be happy. So you can give this inner coach more space in your mindand help this inner coach to develop and grow your ability to listen to thisinner coach.  Right?[16:36]Dave: There's many ways, but there are three nice ways to do that. Thefirst is to practice Hansei. Hansei is the art of self-reflection. So, youthink about your day or your week. You get a routine together where you sitdown and reflect. Maybe every day, maybe every week, whatever makes sense foryou. And...